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Money Matters and Ocean's 13
06/30/07
10:49:52 pm, by admin 
, 552 words 
Categories: ...and Takes On, Friends, Korea, Books and Music and Movies, Culture, Traditional, 사랑?
Money Matters and Ocean's 13
Last week I was told I count my money like a Westerner.
In Korea, money is folded in half and counted facing the counter's chest. Sort of like this. (I took several pictures, but it's still hard to see. However, I don't feel comfortable asking anyone else to count money for photos.) Imagine the money really folded in half and you've got a better idea.
They count money like this in Japan, too. After you count out what they want, you peel off the bills on the outside of the stack. Usually, you hand money to people using two hands, the left hand supporting the right hand, or the left hand under the right armpit, depending on the level of the person you're giving money too. Also, if it's money in the form of a bill or paycheck, you usually give the money in an envelope rather than just handing it to someone.
In the West (or America at least), we tend to hold a stack of bills in the left hand and count them out to the right hand.
And who does that shirt belong to? (It didn't seem this bright in person...) Why, Good Man, of course!
We met today and saw Ocean's 13 together. I haven't seen 11 or 12, but I enjoyed this flick. I know it's unrealistic (you're going to get a Chunnel boring machine—both of them actually—into Las Vegas without anyone noticing?) and over-the-top, but isn't that the point? I thought the ensemble worked well together and I was amused by the subtle humor. The way Clooney and Pitt interacted was great.
At one point one character asks another "Are you in yet?" while the character is trying to hack into a computer. The other answers, "I hate that question." I was the only foreigner in the theater and almost choked. Of course, nobody else got it.
Samsung had some handphone product placement and anytime Samsung was mentioned all of the Koreans in the theater started whispering. "Samsung! Samsung!" Yep. I'm in Korea.
After the movie, I grabbed a few groceries at Kim's Club and Good Man ended up carrying 2 kgs of potatoes around in his backpack for me. "You have potatoes in your backpack!" I'm not sure why this was so funny. Maybe I've been hanging around sixth graders too much.
Also talked about the death penalty, Bush's refusal to respect a subpoena, Michael Fay getting caned, Guantanamo Bay, and Cheney shooting someone in the face.
Somehow these things were all directly related to each other and I got really worked up.
"We have three branches for a reason! Checks and balances! Hello!" "I'm not going home until Bush is out of office at least. Look at him, rewriting the Constitution... 'Ooh, I don't like that part, scritch-scratch..."' "We whine about hitting a kid with a stick and how that's inhumane and yet we execute people?" "I've watched enough crime shows to know that if the police don't immediately investigate someone shot in the face then something weird is going on." "Oh, since it's Cuba—you know that awful country we're not allowed to travel to?—it's not US soil and we can do whatever we want? What sort of logic is that?"
It was nice to talk politics again...
Good Man Laughs At Me
11 comments
He's cute!
And I can't wait to see Ocean's 13...12 was okay, made me laugh, 11 I love. Total eye candy and some great one-liners, what's there not to like?
And there's no discussion on this blog. It's my blog. I'm the only one talking. ;) Hee hee.
And yeah, he is cute.
There is an flawed political process in the United States. To run for Congress, the Senate, or the Presidency, one must flush with cash, willing to sellout their principals for the highest dollar, and adept at talking doublespeak while accomplishing absolutely nothing. They must also be a lawyer, doctor, or a legacy (Bush). The average John and Jane American who range from the working poor to the middle class have no chance of being elected to a high office.
Dog catchers, welders, pre-school teachers, truck drivers, sales clerks, etc., only matter to the Democrats and Republicans come election time, while they, themselves, will never be able to be elected in the U.S. in what is no longer a true democracy. Look what these morons just did with immigration reform. Why can't they compromise? Hell, immigration reform benefits those who broke the law, but as a taxpayer, I can't even get these jokers fix the problems with the education and health care systems which affect "all" Americans.
My vote will go to a third party candidate like it did with Perot and Nader because I find the head honchos of the only two parties that matter to be utterly repugnant and without redemption. Don't get me started on special interest groups like Ted Kennedy who raised a fuss against clean wind energy when the turbines would interfere with the view from his million dollar summer mansion on Martha's Vineyard while the poor of Massachusetts had to accept cheap heating oil from scum like Chavez in Venezuela.
Americans are spoiled whiners accustomed to having their cake and eating it too. We want cheap gas, but with no new refineries built in our backyards. We don't want illegal immigrants, but we want cheap goods and services. Why are aren't Americans by the millions marching on capital hill and demanding to be heard? That we outlaw gas guzzling vehicles, that we get decent, affordable health care, that all people have access to affordable housing, that the immigration matter is dealt with fairly? It's because the majority of us are appeased by the bread and circuses of modern, convenient life. We have our satellite TV, our broadband internet, air conditioning, clean water, electricity, cheap gas, cheap food, etc.
I definitely don't have any answers, and wish that I wasn't along for this ride, but I'm trying to make the best of it. It's mighty tempting, but we can't curl up in a ball and wish for something better. It takes action. The sad fact is that the two party system favors inaction at all costs to preserve their dominance and the status quo.
Kidding aside, thanks for the thoughtful comment.
One of my comments yesterday was along the lines of, "I didn't leave my country because I hate it, I left because I can't bear to see the sheep destroy it."
The primary problem with voting third-party—heck, any party!—in the States is that stupid electoral college system. We need to get rid of that. NOW. Until that happens, we don't have one vote, one person, one count.
Heinlein believed that working for at least two years for a government (be it on the front lines, in social programs/projects, or even a desk jockey) would give our youth a better understanding of core values such as sacrifice and freedom and help them mature into a better educated populace, thus ensuring a well-thought out vote.
And, as much as I am against the evils of organized religion, too much individuality is also ghastly when people care about no one else but themselves (look at the genocides in areas of the world that don't contain oil). We sit back and say out loud that we are against it, but we do nothing to stop it. The great film "Sargeant York" directed by Howard Hawks illustrates the courage that it takes to stand up to such horrors of war and life. York a pacifist refuses to kill even those who want to kill him, until he realizes the magnatude of it all. Sometimes it is necessary to kill a relative few in order to save the majority. Or, as Captain Spock said in Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."
This has become a part of daily life when one flies on an airplane. If the airplane becomes a weapon, it will be destroyed in order to save lives and property on the ground. And, I used to only have to worry about crashing before.
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