So I purchased a very nice Samsung Sens R55 a couple of years ago in Korea. This winter break, I decided to upgrade my laptop in order to get a couple more years out of it. Additionally, the cooling fan had started making some weird noises that I wanted to get checked out.

My plan was simple. First, I was going to open up the notebook, locate the fan, and clean out the dust (which I figured to be the cause of the fan making noise.) Second, I was going to upgrade the RAM to 3 gb (which is the max for this computer.) Third, I would get a larger hard drive, and put the current one in my ps3 (I have a launch 20 gb model.) Finally, I was going to wipe the hard drive and do a fresh install of the operating system using a disk that had been given to my by my work back in Korea.

Have no previous experience of actually opening a notebook before, I found a page on the internet with someone who had a similar model to mine. It wasn't the best explanation, but I managed to get the cover off successfully. There were, however, two problems. First, I couldn't get the cover off of the cooling fan. The screw were on so tight that I was starting to strip them (which would be bad.) Second, after reassembling the computer, my wireless stopped working properly. This was causing me to get angry.

I resigned that I was going to have to take my computer in to get looked at. But before I did that, I decided that I might as well wipe the hard drive with a fresh install of windows. Little did I know that after install windows, I got a message saying that my version of windows wasn't an authentic version of windows. No problem, I thought. I actually purchased an authentic version of windows on this computer. Granted, the stall in Yongsan where I bought it used a shady copy to install the English version operating system onto my computer, but I was able to insert the original software key to validate the system. This time, it wouldn't let me insert my validation key. 

At this point, I decided to upgrade to Vista. I'd been playing with the idea of upgrading for a while, and decided that now was as good a time as any. I got the cheap student version of Vista ultimate for $65 dollars, and upgraded. Hooray, I had Vista. Though, no cd. The cd was sent to my address in Virginia (for an extra $13 dollar.) Thanks to a memory stick and my mom's work laptop, I was able to transfer the necessary drivers from her computer to my computer (thankfully found on the Samsung UK site) and I had a working, legal computer again. Hooray.

I decided to take my computer to Fry's. After about a week and three visits, it was determined that A: Hardware wise, the diagnostic didn't detect any problems, B: The antenna cables to the wireless card had been removed when I opened my laptop, and the technician reconnected them for me, and C: Sounds like the fan needs to be replaced, but since this is a Samsung model, can't get the parts easily in the states. So, unless the computer really starts to overheat, don't worry about it for now. (All this for $80.)

So I took it home, ungraded the ram ($45 on new egg,) purchased Office 2007 Ultimate ($55 +$13 DVD) and received a new hard drive (320 GB) from my parents for Christmas. After doing some checking on the internet, I discovered that I needed to have an installation CD to install my new hard drive. Since I downloaded my copy of Vista from the internet, I would have to wait until I got back to Virginia to install the hard drive.

Today (4 weeks later!) I got the Vista DVD in the mail. I spent a couple of hours backing up my data, and switched out the hard drive, and inserted the Vista DVD. When prompted, I'm asked to insert my confirmation key. When I'm then told that I can only use this key if an existing copy of windows is installed to the hard drive. SMRKENJTENTOAMNEJRT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Having left my corrupt version of Windows back at my parents, I'm currently downloading an illicit copy of Windows XP, so that I can once again update to a legitimate copy of Windows Vista. 

Like I said, I hate windows. The worst part of this is I own two legitimate windows licenses, one for XP and one for Vista. I just have to jump through hoops and perform illegal tasks to get them to work properly.

 So for the last six months, I've been promising people that I'd give a long expansive update as to what I've been up to since I made it back to the States. Well boys and girls, here is that update.

So I'm about to start my second semester studying Security Studies at Georgetown University. No, I am not preparing for a job as a security guard, or in running TSA (as one of my friend's mom asked.) The program prepares people for jobs in national security. No surprise there.

Last semester I took four classes. First, I audited Japanese, which was incredibly dumb. Japanese is a hard language, and there really is no future in this language. Everyone and their mother can speak Japanese. Korean, on the other hand, is a critical need language. If I can improve my Korean ability, I was have a highly marketable asset that I could use to get jobs with.

Next, I took Theory and Policy in Security. Got a B+ in this class, mostly because I think I'd forgotten how to write, and form a coherent argument. In grad school, I have to use my brain in ways that I didn't in Korea. Which is good, but it means that I have to work again. This is similar to when I messed up the English section of my first GRE because "my brain got dumb." This class dealt with international relations theory, just war theory, and a ton of other theories about war. I really didn't like this class, and participated less than I should have, and I'm happy that I got the grade I got.

Third class that I took was Grand Strategy and Military Operations. In this class, we looked at various conflicts such as World War I, World War II, the French in Algeria, Afghanistan, etc. and looked at the campaigns waged, and what worked and what didn't. We were suppost to look at it from a strategic, operational and tactical level, but in the end, I didn't learn enough to do that well. I ended with a B in the class, which is what more than 50% of the class received.

Final class was Security Issues in East Asia. I actually wasn't a fan of this class, because I felt like I wasn't learning very much in this class, plus I had to write four different papers (three 5 page, and a 20 page.) But thanks to my awesome paper where I discussed the lessons of the closing of the US bases in the Philippines and related them to the bases in South Korea, I received an A-. Go me.

This semester, I plan on taking five classes. They are, in no particular order, Theory and Policy in Asia, Theory and Practice of Intelligence, International Security Issues, International Negotiation, and Korean. This semester will suck, especially around midterms and finals.

This summer, I should be interning at the US State Department, following a background check. Though there is a small possibility that I'll head back to Korean to do two months of intensive Korean training. If that goes down, the I'll be sure to contact my Korean friends and hang out.

Christmas was spent in Texas. Next year I have decided to only spend one week in Texas, and spend the rest of the time visiting people, or simply chilling in DC. I had a very successful Christmas, though I wasn't able to meet up with Kyla, despite a plethora of messages. Oh well, there's always next year.

Random side story. This past week I was in NY, met up with Ash, Tiff, Erica, Craig, Mark, Shyam, and Craig's girlfriend for some dinner, drinks, and karaoke. It was quite a good night, and I had a raging hangover the next day to prove it. However, I did spent the karaoke session arm and arm around my ex, Erica. Now, nothing happened, since we were in a small room full of friends, and there's now way we were going to start making out in amongst everyone, but it very easily could have happened. Man, I have to send her an e-mail, especially since I apparently I broke her heart at the end of freshman year by not contacting her. Yes, I know I was/am an immature jerk, it's something I'm working on, and hopefully the next time I'm in NY we can meet and work this out.

So, I'm here in Texas. My computer unfortunately being examined at Fry's, since the fan is on the fritz. (I'm very scared abut this, but I didn't really have a choice. I couldn't open up the cover to the fan on my own, and there is no way and hell I'm taking it to Best Buy.) Though on the plus side, I was able to buy a wii for my mom, just by walking into one store (today, no less), finding it on the shelf, and buying it. Damn it, I am mighty lucky.

I'm using my sister's computer at the moment. So I'll have to stop this now. More to come.

Just busy as hell. There is lot's I want to talk about, which I will eventually. But, now is not the time.

Last week, South Korea was hit by a small typhoon (or 태풍, if you will.) This storm mostly missed the peninsula, but did dump a ton of water on Cheongju. (I wasn't here; I was busy in Jeonju visiting a cool traditional hanok town. I highly recommend going to. In fact, I may take my sister there when she visits.) Cheongju was hit pretty hard and the local stream, Mushincheon (무신천) flooded. Here are some pictures taken from here:





This stream is only a seven minute walk to my house. On Thursday, when I was taking the bus to meet my friend Ciara to go to Daejeon and then Jeonju together, we passed by the stream. Usually, there is a road that travels next to the stream. But even at 10 in the morning, I could see that the stream was completely flooded.

Cheongju was also in the news surrounding the recent flareup of the ongoing Liancourt Rocks controversy. Long story short - South Korea calls them Dokdo and claims them for their own. Japan calls it Takeshima and claims it for their own. Now, I mentioned on this blog long ago how I don't want to deal with this issue here. It's something that is simply too sensitive, and can get people fired for taking an unpopular position in Korea. But what the hell, I'm leaving in less than a month, let's role the dice!

My beef from this issue stems from this article that I found at at Japan Probe (which was also picked up by Brian in Jeollanamdo.) From the original AP article:

"The city of Tottori said Wednesday it has been notified by the South Korean city of Chongju that the annual exchange program among their junior high school students should be cancelled indefinitely due to the territorial dispute over two disputed islets.

The education board chief of Chongju said in a faxed message Tuesday that the decision was made in consideration to national sentiments in South Korea following the Japanese government's move to mention the islets, known as Takeshima in Japan and Dokdo in South Korea, for the first time in a teaching guideline for junior high schools.

"It is regrettable that a political and diplomatic matter like Takeshima disrupts a friendly event between the two countries' middle school students," said Toshitaka Nakagawa, head of Tottori's education board.

The board will decide how to respond to the matter by next Monday, he said. Under the program, 33 students from Tottori city were supposed to visit Chongju from July 29 for five days to stay with South Korean host families."
*Note that in this article Cheongju is spelled Chongju. This is from the McCune-Reischauer system of transcribing Korean into English, an older system that is much more difficult to read than the system currently in use by the Korean government.*

This just makes me sad. I can't believe that my Office of Education would do something like this over some guidlines in a text about a topic that the vast majority of Japanese know nothing about. Every time the Japanese governement says something relating to these rocks, which they have continued to claim since at least 1954, Koreans freak out. They overreact to the point the it is simply scary. People have cut off their fingers in protest (I've seen pictures online, but I simply can't find them at the moment.) Other planned student exchanges have been cancelled. Why punish the children for something a government is doing? And it's not like they are doing anything new. And it's not like they are calling to "get even" with another country or imagining a war for two small islets that no one in Japan cares about. The rocks can't even sustain life on their own. They are completely worthless other than fishing rights (which both countries are supposed to share due to an older agreement) and the possibility of some natural gas deposits. Japan will never attack South Korea over these rocks. And now the South wants to send in a permanent base of marines there? Thank god some people are still level headed about this.

I suggest that everyone read this article asking Seoul to make a choice - for greater economic cooperation between South Korea and Japan, or to shoot themselves in the foot everytime this issue comes up. Also from Anpontan, in a later post he leaves us with this wonderful passage:

"One I read this morning in today’s edition of the Nishinippon Shimbun.

Their account of the story was curious. They mentioned that Mr. Kwon called Japan an island country—which they said was a subtle Korean insult—but left out the part about the inherent Japanese desire to invade the continent.

Surely they knew about it and snipped it on purpose. Why? To prevent a heated reaction from their readers and avoid creating a bad impression of Koreans, obviously.

Remember that the next time you read a rant from a Western journalist, or a disaffected foreigner writing in the English-language press in Japan, or some blog, that would have you believe the press in this country often whips the insular, narrow-minded populace into a nationalist fervor.

Baloney. It just doesn’t happen, and anyone who spends any amount of time here and is intellectually honest knows that."

 

 

* For the record, I do believe that the islets belong to South Korea, due to the simple fact that they claimed them by force and currently occupy them. I don't buy any of these historical arguments that claim that the rocks have always belonged to Korea, because based on what I've seen and read, it's really unclear if people knew if the rocks existed at all, and even if they did, no one is sure exactly who claimed what when. Land ownership changes over time, and history is never cut and dry. However, I do believe that now, Korea controls the rocks, and posession is 9/10ths of the law and all that jazz. I just wish it wasn't a life or death struggle everytime somebody in Japan mentions these rocks. The nationalistic fevor of this country is out of control sometimes. Focus your energy into more meaning endeavors, like trying to get all the obducted citizens back from North Korea.*

I've once again been lax about posting. I have some really interesting ideas that I want to flesh out into posts, but for the time being, I'll just list some things that I've been preoccupied with.

- Many people told me that they didn't file their taxes while living and working in South Korea, since due to the foreign income exclusion process, many felt that they didn't need to. I always told them that they should, especially since it would be beneficial in the long run. Well, imagine my delight when my $300 economic stimulus check arrived in the mail last week. In the eternal words of some random Crash Bandicoot commercial, "Booyah Grandma."

First, for those of you interested on the impact of the trip to Kaesong, North Korea and its potential positive effects towards North Korea, take a gander at this article by Andrei Lankov, a Russian scholar who specializes in Korea. He is one of the most insightful writers I've read on both North and South Korea. In his younger days, he attended Kim Il-sung University in the North, and also bore witness to the collapse of the Soviet Union, so he has some useful insight on these tours.

Now, I was reading this article on Neojaponisme (a very cool sight by the way, which is now added to my link bar on the right.) In short, if you are curious to watch the new ABC show, "I survived a Japanese game show," don't; It is a mockery of an outdated image of a Japanese game show. But after reading this article, I read this one, "Dave Berry Did Japan." Basically, it's a travel book by comedian Dave Berry from 1992, a time when Japan wasn't yet considered "cool" by masses. Sure, by this time, anime, manga, Japanese video games and to a lesser extent J-pop had developed their own sub-cultures in the United States, but people who were into these sorts of things were considered nerds. (By nerds, I don't mean the hipster-nerd that is currently the fashion. I mean old-school nerd that were social outcasts and looked down by other people. There is a great discussion in the comments of the post about this. It's one of the few times in a long time where I feel smarter for actually reading all the comments, unlike some places.)

Finally, my two posts about the North Korean trip, with all of the pictures and links (but probably still full of errors.) Check again to see new pictures, or simply skip to the end of part two and go directly to the links for the pictures that my friends and I took.

Part One

Part Two

For those of you who care, part one has been updated with tons of new pictures, taken by other people who were on the trip with me. Take a look if you haven't seen them yet.