samsung galaxy s2

I still have been too busy at work these days. And changing over to my new laptop as well. Here are some miscellaneous photos I haven't had time to post from the past few weeks.

There's a "Mister Tofu" near my new home. This day my eyes were bigger than my stomach. Here you can see I made the mistake of ordering not only a bowl of tofu stew, but an extra side dish of an egg (it's basically a vegetable / cheese omlette). Boy, was this omlette huge - MUCH bigger than I expected. There was enough food here for two people, and I hated to leave half of my food (but I did).



Here is a small bucket/bowl a got over a month ago to go with the small air conditioner we installed in the office. This is a semi-portable unit, and requires you to empty a water resevoir periodically. We were told it would last for several days before needing to be drained, and when it needed draining, an indicator lamp would come on. To our surprise, the light has never come on. I even unplugged the pipe one day to check for water (maybe the lamp is broken), but no water. This new bowl is as dry as the day I bought it.

"From ???ing garden gather fragrance ??? of the vanished flower of a hundred years before"

"Little Flower -- but if I could understand What you are, root and all, and all in all, I should know what God and man is".

Hmmm, okay. And here is the aircon, er, air conditioner that this bowl is meant to service:



Need to do some Kolon shopping?



Years ago, when my eyesight was better, I used to carry around my pocket computer, the HP200LX. I still have it, and from time to time I turn it on to see that it still works. Back in those days, there was a very active international "club" of active users, and we still maintain a very inactive mailing list. Recently one of the members in Germany located what he believes might be the perfect HP200LX replacement, and turns out it is made right here in Korea. That would be the MBOOK by the UMID company.

Another member in Portugal wanted to get one of these new computers, and arranged for me to buy and ship it for him. But before boxing it up to go overseas, I took a photo comparing the old and the new. It's a nice design, but I didn't power it up. While I make jokes about my failing eyesight, I seriously wonder if I could even be comfortable working on this small of a screen. Anyway, I'll look forward to Alberto's report from Portugal in the months ahead.



By the way, my ruler is NOT crooked - the camera distored the image.

I was at the factory outside of Seoul for about 10 days straight since moving, and didn't get a chance to go report my new address to the Immigration Office. I almost forgot, until last night I suddenly remembered. First thing this morning, on the last day (you get 14 days to change without penalty), I went down to get it changed. It really wasn't any big deal, but when she handed me my card back, she showed me the new address, and it wasn't anything like the address I had given on the form! I didn't want to question it (don't rock the boat with Immigration, is my motto). On returning to the office, I asked CH about this, and he said that this was a new form of address that the government was adopting, although it wasn't widespread.

Well, for all these years in Seoul, I had finally gotten used to the address system. Now they're changing it? Did a little research online, and found this post from 2004 (!) describing the new address system, which is like we have in the USA. Street names, street numbers with odd and even numbers on opposite sides of the street. Wow, this has been around since 2004? Here is the official website, you can translate an "old" style into the "new" style, and also see a map showing street names and house/building numbers. But wow, at least 6 years going and it's still not popular?

...does it take to sell apartments in one building?



There are FIVE real estate agencies all next door to each other in my building! And there's at least one more around the back - there could be more. Amazing...

After reading my friend Tuttle's post on signs, inspired by his friend Jo-Anna's post on signs, I couldn't help but share these two bathroom signs I saw last week at lunch. Don't quite know what point they are trying to make - are you supposed to climb over the stalls? Or hang like a spider from the ceiling?

Click to enlarge:


Click to enlarge:


Found some free Microsoft software that makes panoramic images. I played around with the view from my new home. You give it a series of images (which of course have to have been taken ina panoramic sequence), and the program automatically "stitches" them together. Pretty cool.

That's the name of my new apartment building. Here are some photos of the new place. Still organizing, but I'm basically comfortable and it's liveable and cozy.

Well, let me try to catch up on the past to weeks. The first excitement was my move. I've known for a couple months now that I would be moving, but there were some issues setting the exact move date. I had located two possible new places, and I coudn't decide which one. Suddenly I found an online advertisement for an apartment that turned out to be perfect. It is just a 10 minute walk from the office, and located right at Sindorim subway station. At this station, there is a huge "Technomart" building, which includes numerous shops, restaurants, a movie theater, and yes, technical shopping, too. I claimed the apartment, and began he process of moving.

The first order of business was to downsize. The new place is a large studio apartment. Not exactly a one-room, but almost. This downsizing required me to sell my treadmill and my refrigerator. That took up an interesting half day, helping the truck driver wrestle these down to the truck:



Moving day went smoothly, despite the constant rain. I think the two moving guys had under-estimated the job. They worked extra hard, and we still didn't finish until 7pm or so. I couldn't believe how many boxes I had.







Some things I'll miss from my old apartment, the doggie-decorated hooks:



the four-burner stove (the new place just has two):



And as a testament to my poor housekeeping skills, this hairpin was in the floor of my closet when I moved in back in Feb 2008. Two and one half years later, it is still exactly where it was, plus a little extra dust:



Goodbye Room 1404