From the Land of the Morning Inconvenience: May 2006

What's REALLY at the end of the rainbow!

There's really no better way to spend an evening.

A bunch of us went to Hanbat Stadium last night to watch the Hanwha Eagles (Deajeon's home team) take on the Lotte Giants (from Busan, I think). The stadium was as full as I've ever seen it, and the hometown crowd was at its boisterous best. It was a little colder than anyone expected - it is May after all - but it was a good night for some baseball.

I'm a huge baseball fan, and there's not much I like better than walking through the tunnel of a stadium and seeing the green of the grass, and hearing the noise of the crowd and the crack of the bat. All these sights and sounds have an aesthetic quality that I find invigorating and soothing at the same time.

A few years ago Jamey and I spent a lot of time at the ballpark here in Daejeon as well as taking the occasional roadtrip to watch the Eagles play in other cities. Going to the game last night made me wonder why I had stopped going to games. Part of it is that Jamey's gone back to Canada (this picture is to make you jealous bro. :-D), the other part has to do with lack of time or initiative. However, after last night, I think I'll be spending a lot more time this year at the ballpark.

There is also the added appeal that Hanwha is fielding a good team this year and seem poised to make a bid at the finals. Last night the Eagles won 7-3 with Jay Davis, their long time center fielder going 2-3 with to doubles, a strike out, and 4 RBIs. Also, for the first time in a while, Hanwha's pitching staff seems to be holding its own. We could be in for a fun season.

AAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIGGHHH!!!!!!

I swear to God the Nationals are gonna be the death of me.

I watched today's game against Cincinnati. It was a pitcher's duel with the Reds taking a one run lead into the ninth inning. In the top of the ninth, the Nats manage to tie the game and then tack on 3 more runs in the top of the eleventh. I'm watching and thinking, "Ah this is in the bag. The nats will come away with a series win. The bottom of the eleventh comes, and suddenly it's 4-2 Nats, the Reds have men on first and second, Ken Griffey Jr. is coming to the plate, and the Nats bring in Joey Eischen. To add insult to injury, this is all happening ten minutes before my next class, so I had to go to class and miss the next at bat. What happens? Griffey, on his first day back after a month on the DL, crushes an 1-0 pitch for a three run, walk-off homer.

Sigh.

I guess, if it's any consolation, at least it was Griffey. The man has taken more undeserved shit from the media and the fans because of his injuries over the past few years. Griffey is a class act, and his play today was a hearty in your face to his critics, but....

HOW THE FUCK DID THE NATS LOSE THAT GAME?!?!?!?

Blessed are the Thursdays

For most people, Thursdays are jsut another day of the week bouyed slightly by the knowledge that the weekend is just around the corner. For me, however, Thursdays have taken on an almost mystical quality. Thursday has become a day that I look forward to as much, if not more than, the weekend. The reason is that, even though my first class of the day is at 6:50 am, my day is finished at 10:00 am. It's a beautiful thing. It's basically a day off in the middle of the week.

Today is a typical Thursday. I finished my last class, and now I'm sitting at home watching the Nationals play the Reds on the computer. Having just finished eating breakfast, I am content as content may be. Now my only task is to figure out what I want to do with myself after the game is over. I have no urgent errands to run. Do I play World of Warcraft or Kart Rider all day? Do I curl up on the sofa with a book, or do I work on my newest hobby which is uploading music torrents to share on www.komodoisland.net? Decisions. Decisions. Hell, I could go down to Santa's around one for lunch and put on a good afternoon drunk, hee hee.

Here's the Thursday Shuffle:

1. Steve Morse Band: Wolf Song
2. Garbage: Metal heart
3. Soul Asylum: Veil Of Tears
4. Crying Nut: Broadway
5. Art Blakey: Free For All
6. Steve Earle: Good Ol' Boy (Gettin' Tough)
7. Bill Monroe: The Dead March (Instrumental)
8. Thelonius Monk: Blue Monk
9. Slayer: Silent Scream
10. Danzig: Evil Thing
11. Roomful Of Blues:Gator's Groove / Welcome To Lupo's
12. Frank Zappa: The Gumbo Variations
13. Little Feat: Lafayette Railroad
14. Pearl Jam: You Are
15. Megadeth: She-Wolf
16. The Dubliners: The Lifeboat Mona
17. Bill Monroe & His Bluegrass Boys: In The Pines
18. Peter Gabriel: Make Tomorrow
19. Jack Johnson: Taylor
20. Blue Oyster Cult: Godzilla
21. Indigo Girls: Power Of Two
22. Hanoi Rocks: Underwater World
23. Steve Earle: If You Need A Fool
24. Journey: Escape
25. Toad The Wet Sprocket: Pale Blue
26. ZZ Top: (Somebody Else Been) Shaking Your Tree
27. Modern Jazz Quartet: Sacha's March
28. Alice Cooper: Freedom
29. Bowling For Soup: I Melt With You
30. Living Colour & Run DMC: Me, Myself, & My Microphone

Things Goin' On (Groupies Go To Jeju)

It's a rainy Saturday afternoon, and perfect day to putter around the house doin' nothing more strenuous than picking up a book or playing around on the computer (hell, I might even get around to taking a shower). I was going to go to Seoul for the day but decided that staying here is just the thing.

This past week was both rough and wonderful. The rough part came on Monday following a weekend ultimate tourney in Jeju-do. Three days of ultimate and heavy drinkin' plus getting back to Daejeon sometime around 1:30 in the morning and having to teach at 7:00 am, conspired to make Monday down right hellish. However, the knowledge that it was going to be a short week because of Friday being Children's Day helped ease the blow.

The trip to Jeju was a blast. Good people, good fun, and some great disc made for a splendid time (To those of you who helped organize the tourney, thank you for the great time). Everyone arrived in Jeju on Friday night, and the party commenced. Friday night ended with Kiwi Glenn and I staggering into a kalbi house and chowing down on dweji-kalbi and, God knows why, drinking quite a bit of apple soju.

Although I could only play a couple of games due to bad knees (I went to the doctor after I got back sure that something was really wrong. Y'know what the guy says? There's no problem with your knees, you're just getting old! Sheesh. Thanks a lot!), I did my part in cheering the team on and keeping the wheels greased. There was a lot of great disc played in spite of the 40 mph winds which made throwing the disc damn near impossible. The Shanghai team impressed nearly everyone with their ability to score upwind points. No easy feat by any means. I have to say that the Groupies had the best post-match games. The sodapop baseball was a scream.

The party on Saturday night was amazing. The night's highlight was the bus driver getting too drunk to drive people back to the hotel. There was also drunken Jenga, a killer Flippy-cups competition, (we'll get you next time Craig!!!) and naked Twister, which, considering Terry won, I'm not too upset I missed.

Sunday's games were easy considering all I had to do was yell my fool head off and hoist beers. There was also some great disc. Cheers to Jeju for winning the Spirit award (you guys were great) and to Shanghai for winning the whole enchilada.

I hope to see y'all in Daejeon.