Monster Island (actually a peninsula)*

Pearls of witticism from 'Bo the Blogger: Kushibo's Korea blog... Kushibo-e Kibun... Now with Less kimchi, more nunchi. Random thoughts and commentary (and indiscernibly opaque humor) about selected social, political, economic, and health-related issues of the day affecting "foreans," Koreans, Korea and East Asia, along with the US, especially Hawaii, Orange County and the rest of California, plus anything else that is deemed worthy of discussion. Forza Corea!

Monday, May 18, 2009

News links for May 17-18, 2009

1. North Korean trade in 2008 jumps 29.7% to a record high of $3.8 billion (Asian News Net)

2. Seoul to set up $16.2 billion fund to buy bad loans from financial institutions and assets from cash-strapped countries (Forbes)

3. Oh Jiyoung wins second LPGA title (Korea Times)

4. Unification Minister rules out shutdown of Kaesong Industrial Complex (Yonhap)

5. South Korea hits record trade surplus of $5.79 billion in April (Yonhap)

6. South Korea says its close to signing FTA with European Union (Guardian)

7. Government to make e-government cites accessible from Firefox, Safari, and other browsers by 2011 (Korea Times)

8. Comedian Jay Leno promises Tonight Show finalé will be "90 minutes of dog-eating Korean jokes" (Hollywood Reporter)

4 comments:

reijeneTuesday, May 19, 2009 2:05:00 AM
thanks! that made my search today a lot easier... ^_^
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SUPER EAGLETuesday, May 19, 2009 5:58:00 AM
i'm hoping they will make my old high school's homepage work on firefox soon because i'm tired of telling stories, going to load it up and getting cut off at the pass by 'Warning: eregi(): REG_EPAREN in /home/k2web/public_html/contents/statistics/lib/getOS.php on line 130'
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kushiboTuesday, May 19, 2009 6:26:00 AM
reijene, I'm glad you like it. I'm trying to make it a regular feature now that school's out. Just as long as people realize the last story is not to be taken seriously.

Shinbone, I totally hear you about that. As a Mac user, I've always found it annoying, and I'm encouraged that the powers-that-be have finally realized there's a problem.

Even with an English-language XP operating system, I've had trouble with Korean sites.

And for Mac, they don't even make Internet Explorer anymore. It's gone the way of Netscape Navigator.
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SUPER EAGLEWednesday, May 20, 2009 5:37:00 AM
yeah, man. and whenever i want to upload videos to cyworld, i either have to borrow someone's computer or... not upload videos.

forget that noise. there isn't even a good korean-english dictionary for mac. [that i know of]
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Ask Kushibo.

My Google/Blogspot data shows that a lot of the 2 million people who have landed on my site (yes, that's the real number) are looking for cultural information on Korea (e.g., “When did Syngman Rhee die?” “What did the Indians bring to the first Chusŏk?’ etc., etc.), as well as practical or historical stuff.

That got me thinking that, hey, I have a master’s degree in Korean studies and a minor in Japanese studies, I’ve lived in Seoul far longer than most foreans my age (whether they're kyopo or non-kyopo), I teach introductory courses on Korea and its cultural trappings and history, so why not offer a free service where I attempt to answer people’s questions, point them in the direction of where they can get them answered, and/or offer my regulars (that’s you!) a chance to take a stab at some of this stuff, too.

So if there’s something you’d like to know from a “contrarian scourge,” click on ASK KUSHIBO and just ask a succinct question in the comments section below.

Oh, and play nice. Please don’t make me regret this.

九十五大怪獣란? 쿠시보의 몬스터 아일랜드란?

Pearls of witticism from 'Bo the Blogger: Kushibo's Korea blog... Kushibo-e Kibun...
Now with Less kimchi, more nunchi. Random thoughts and commentary (and indiscernibly opaque humor) about selected social, political, economic, and health-related issues of the day affecting "foreans" ("foreigners" in Korea be they kyopo or non-kyopo), Koreans, Korea and East Asia, along with the US, especially Hawaii, Orange County, and the rest of California, plus anything else that is deemed worthy of discussion. Forza Corea!

* Monster Island (actually a peninsula)

The name of this blog comes from a line in "Lisa on Ice," a beloved episode of The Simpsons, perhaps my all-time favorite television show (even though for several seasons there, it really did suck). Lisa is imagining being sworn in as president, but at the last minute, it is discovered that she failed P.E. (physical education) and she is thus "sentenced to a lifetime of horror" on Monster Island. "Don't worry," the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court confides in her, "It's just a name."

Fast forward to Lisa and other prisoners running in panic through a tropical jungle, chased by Godzilla-like creatures, including a monster turtle and a monster firefly.

"He said it was just a name!" Lisa screams to the man next to her. While he, too, runs for his life, the unidentified man calmly says, "What he meant is that Monster Island is actually a peninsula."

Anyway, I thought in some ways that punchline summed up modern-day Korea in a nutshell. For many people—foreigners and Koreans—the ups and downs and everyday travails of the Republic of Korea make it as precarious as a Monster Island would be (and with the DMZ being the only land border, it really is like an island). But it actually is a peninsula. Okay, it made sense in my head.

So as you can see, despite the hits I get from people looking for Japanese tentacle porn, it has nothing to do with anything salacious as that.