Happy Birthday, My Son.

Sean Patrick McStay.

Today you are 9 years old and I have no way to tell you "Happy Birthday".

Please know that I wish, how to make contact with you and your sister. I did mail you 2 a Christmas present, I have no idea if you 2 ever got it. I have no way of contacting your mother, the phone # I was given does not work and I have no idea if the address is valid or not.

I just wanted you to know, that, in future years, that you do try and find me, I love you and miss you and I want to see you both very much.

Love Dad.

Well, we finally went to Hooters and we had a great time.

Its in Apejeon (Orange Line) exit 4.

Well last Saturday Me, Dan and Greer. Went to the IMAX in Yongsan. We saw "300". I was really surprised that this was going to be the first film that they had sen in Imax. Man did I pick a first film for them to see.

We went to Yongsan by KTX via SeoDaejeon station. I so do like the KTX. We went to the electronics market and I got a new all region DVD player. We got dan some cables for his ps2 and we looked around for awhile.

Then it was 300 time.

They love the IMAX film and now they understand why I love the IMAX. We are talking about going back on May 12th for my birthday party. Chilli's first, then Imax or baseball game, then we close out the night at Hooters. I might stay the night at the country western bar in Itewon. My birthday is on a Monday, this year. So we will celebrate it on a weekend.

Then we went and had to look for Hooters, I was given the wrong directions, so it took us awhile.

Man it was so worth it.

It was a great place and the food was nice and they sold Coors light. WE TOOK ALLOT OF PICTURES. The music was 60's and 70's so I knew all of them, it was nice to hear some old songs that I had not heard in a while. It was a nice time to spend St. Pattys day with. I also spent New Years eve and Christmas Eve with my friends Dan and Greer. It was a nice time.

My Friend is a rock star.

Last week, my friend, Bryan, from Purdue University, came to Korea and spent a week with me.




Well as you can see from the above photo, he did like soju.

He ate at some of the Korea easting establishments, i took him to a few of the bars here in Daejeon.

One day he walked around the town, and he liked what he saw.

I took him to Osan AB and he got a custom fit Soccer shirt.

I took him to a few of my classes and the students just loved him. I told them that he is a senior and they could relate to him. It was a nice experience for my students and him both.

We also went a saw a Korea film, he liked it. At first they could not believe that we wanted to see a Korean film and they wanted to sell us tickets to "300".

We saw a Korean film called "Big Bang."

We both found it interesting that when we laughed the audience did not, when they laughed we didn't.

I also got him a few VCD's while he was here. They were on sale, cheap, and i bought him 8 vcd's with allot of Korean films.

He also tried Thai food, the Korea Outback, a small Korea dinner near Woosong.

He did like Korea and I am so glad that my friend got to spend a few days here in Korea.

Movie Review: 300


IMDB Link

Battle of Thermopylae

Opened in Korea 14 March

How I saw it. CGV IMAX and CGV Digital

Plot. In 480 BC, the Persian king Xerxes sends his massive army to conquer Greece. The Greek city of Sparta houses its finest warriors, and 300 of these soldiers are chosen to meet the Persians at Thermopylae, engaging the soldiers in a narrow canyon where they cannot take full advantage of their numbers. The battle is a suicide mission, meant to buy time for the rest of the Greek forces to prepare for the invasion. However, that doesn't stop the Spartans from throwing their hearts into the fray, determined to take as many Persians as possible with them.


TONIGHT WE DINE IN HELL!


HUGE SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There really is no way to do this review without any spoilers. If you want to see the film, then stop here on this review now an read it after you have seen the film.

Being a history major, I have studied this battle and had always been impressed with the Spartan tactics that were used during this battle. In my humble opinion, the film does justice to the 300 Spartans.

I went and saw the film, for the very first time, at the Yongsan CGV IMAX, with 2 of my friends, who had never seen an IMAX film before. It was hard, while going to the Yongsan Electronic market and having not to watch any shots from 300. The film was playing at most of the pirate DVD sellers in the market. I am happy to say that both of my friends now understand why I love seeing films in IMAX.

The film opens up with a Spartan narrator of the childhood story of Leonidas I, King of Sparta..480 B.C. You are shown how he became King and how this battle was started.

What kept me surprised was all of the visual effects that were in this film and with the films budget being at 60 Million.

One of the scenes from the film that the audience enjoyed was on the first day of the siege Xerxes demanded the Greeks surrender their arms. Leonidas replied Μολὼν Λαβέ ("Come and get them"). The crowd went wild after that quote.

What I liked was how they showed the traitor, Ephialtes. They took their time and showed why he felt was right for his reasons for treason. (Please read the above link for what happened to him after the battle)

Another thing that I liked about the film was the way that they showed Xerxes. They told that he believed that he was a God and acted like that in the film. Watch for the scene, near the end of the film, where the God myth is destroyed.

The last thing that I really lied about the film was the narrator, Dilios. His story was changed for this film and I thought that it helped the film. esp at the end of this film.

END SPOILER ALERTS...


Overall if you want to see a really great film, with a story and a plot to match, Then please see this film ASAP!

Grade A+

Go, tell the Spartans, stranger passing by,
That here, obedient to their laws, we lie.

well it was a long trip back to Korea.

It took 36 hours and I had to stay the night at the airport in Korea. Yuck.

I am now starting anew semester and I hope that it will all work out.

I still need to give the people I got gifts for, their gifts. Hopefully I can take care of this all by today.

on Saturday march 17 me, Dan and Greer will go to the Yongsan Imax to see "300". I will not do any previews nor movie downloading for this one. We might also go to the Korean Hooters for lunch. This could be quite an interesting day. I have also told D and G, that, If it can be worked out, I would love to go to New Zealand and see them get married.

My internal clock is till a little messed up, Ive been awake at 1 am or 2 am, hopefully one more good night awake will fix this.

minor changes have been no more drinking for awhile, but the cokes cost more than the beer, go figure.

Baseball season will start next month here in Korea and it looks like another year of me at the baseball games. my long day of work is Monday and they do not play games on Monday.

I have been following the Yankees Preseason and it looks good this year, but we will know the real story in October. I have also been following the Mavericks and I still can not believe what I have seen this season. Looks like allot of basketball playoff downloads.

Congrats to my Nephew, Steve on his wedding. I will email his parents and see if I can get a copy of the video.