Sports Night

I'm the first to admit that I'm not a sports fan. Sure, I like to catch a hockey or baseball game, and I stayed up way past my bedtime watching the Red Sox defeat the Yankees and go on to win the World Series, but I never could get into tracking standings and statistics on a daily basis. So it comes as a complete surprise to me that I'm hooked on a late-90's TV series called Sports Night. Though it was cancelled by ABC after two seasons and never found an audience (as is the fate of far too many quality shows) many people may remember it as the TV show Robert Guillaume was filming when he suffered a stroke.

When it popped up on my Netflix recommendations list I remembered seeing a few episodes and liking it, but for some reason I just didn't keep up with it. That was the pre-TiVo era. After watching the first six episodes I can report that it has the same pacing as The West Wing (probably because both series were created by Aaron Sorkin) without being quite so patronizing and is an almost perfect blend of comedy and drama. Too bad that it suffered the same fate as Fawlty Towers and Twin Peaks (although I think the latter had in many respects jumped the shark).

Sample dialogue (that I know won't translate, but I liked it):

[The middle of a heated argument between two of the main characters over who Dana is dating]

Dana: You know what I do every time my life is starting to spin out of control? I buy a new lamp. Every time I'm starting to lose it just a little, I buy a lamp.

Casey: Well, you must have one well-lit apartment, 'cause lady, you turned a corner somewhere.

Dana: I'm not the one being hunted by an imaginary insect.

Casey: A fly isn't an insect.

Dana: Of course it's an insect.

Casey: Well, what is it that isn't an insect?

Dana: A spider.

Casey: That's right.

Why Google is the powerhouse it is

Web-based maps have been around for a long time (in Internet terms, anyway). There's been plenty of time for innovation, but aside from minor advances such as MapBlast's LineDrive, the state of online maps has languished. It took Google getting into the game to do something revolutionary-overylaying maps on imagery. It seems so simple, but it's never been implemented on this scale. Google Maps has been public for less than 5 months. Just imagine what it will be in a year.

The Ultimate Christmas Drink

It's been a while since I blogged about food. It's no longer a new experience so I rarely seek it out. I do keep searching for "badoa," which is as near as I can figure is the amazing ice cream sandwich I found last February. For some reason the market stopped selling them and I haven't been able to find them anywhere.




I stopped at Buy The Way this evening, hoping to find some of this goodness, but failed. I did peruse the beverages and picked up two. The "Demi Soda Apple" is one of my personal favorites. It's got a great apple-y flavor and only barely carbonated. They also have orange and lemon versions which aren't bad, but apple is my favorite.

The second beverage caught my eye an I just had to try it. "Pine Bud Drink." If tastes like…well…a pine bud drink. It smells like a pine tree, but more intense. Not like pine cleaner or a pine air freshener (which smell like pine in the way banana flavored Starburst tastes like bananas). This was like taking the needles from a pine tree and rubbing them between your hands, releasing the intense fragrance. The taste is much more mellow. Slightly sweet, non-carbonated. It would make an excellent mixer. Some sort of Maine Martini is just waiting to be born.



In other news, we had rain last weekend. Clouds were very low and moving quickly across the city. I caught a glimpse of Namsan Tower partially obscure an quickly took a photo.

Tragedy

Today we are all Londoners.

For the most up to date and always changing coverage via new media:
Wikipedia and Flickr

Pizza

Sure, the crust was a frozen Boboli shell, but it still tasted great.

Happy Independence Day

229 years ago the Continental Congress declared independence from the British. I celebrated this year by having a Samuel Adams (brewer, patriot) Boston Lager on the roof of my apartment building and watching the 8th United States Army's fireworks display:









Unfortunately, I have seen the Washington, DC fireworks display a few too many times to be at all impressed by the 7 minutes of explosions. It's better than nothing, though. The 4th of July would seem empty without fireworks.

I spent the daylight portion of the today getting a minor sunburn. What could be more traditional than that? Today was the first day in a week that there wasn't a drop of rain. I journeyed through the Seoul district of Jongno. This area has lots of art galleries, small restaurants and interesting shops. After wandering through the area for a while I entered the palace grounds of Genjeongjeon. I saw the changing of the guard and walked around the grounds for an hour or two. As July 4th isn't a Korean Holiday (surprise, surprise) there was almost nobody there. The palace is located in downtown Soul, but it was very peaceful. I could hear my footsteps in the gravel as I walked from building to building.

As I walked back to the subway I came across Insadong, which I visited in February. The atmosphere was similar, although warmer by about 70°F (40°C). I found more notecards with designs by Lee Chul-Soo. I found these cards the last time I was there and loved the simple woodcuts.

After a long, hot day, I grabbed a falafel (thanks M for making me appreciate what I have) and waited for the fireworks.

Keeping tabs on American Culture

There are times that I could completely forget I'm in a foreign country. Sunday mornings are some of those times. I've developed ritual of listening to radio programs on Sunday mornings. Sometimes I'll even make myself pancakes as I'm listening.

I became hooked on the Public Radio show This American Life a few years ago and I haven't missed an episode since. I likewise am a devoted listener of Car Talk, Wait, Wait…Don't Tell Me; and to a lesser degree, The Next Big Thing. Since only Car Talk is broadcast here I have harnessed the power of the Internet to make listening to these fine programs possible.

I was so devoted to This American Life that I had purchased an annual subscription through Audible.com. But for the other programs I've found another solution.

Audio Hijack is a great piece of software that essentially works as a TiVo for streaming audio. These shows are aired in the States on Saturday morning, which is late Saturday night or early Saturday morning here. Audio Hijack automatically opens an NPR stations audio stream, records it and dumps it into iTunes. When I wake up on Sunday morning there are a fresh batch of shows for my listening pleasure. This has worked so well that I've started to record All Things Considered in the mornings (afternoon in the States) and listen to it on my way to work or when I have a little spare time.

Television presents a little more of a problem, but BitTorrent has revolutionized this area in the past year or two…on the cusp of legality. I just hope that broadcasters will catch on to the fact that there are some of us that are willing to pay to watch quality entertainment. People pay to get HBO only to watch one series. Why not allow people to subscribe to Lost or The Amazing Race for $50/year?

Movies are easy…in more ways than one. First, almost every major Hollywood movies opens here a couple of weeks after it does in the States. They're also in English…just subtitled in Korean. Secondly, there's a burgeoning bootleg DVD business here. I was on my way to see Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith a few weeks ago and as I was walking toward the theatre I came across a bootleg DVD vendor that was showing the movie at his cart. Cost: 5,000 Won ($5). This is where Hollywood is losing money, not on illegal downloads.

And if all else fails…There's always Netflix.

More Cultural Observations (from an engineer's perspective)

Americans (and about 2/3 of the nations on Earth) drive on the right. The British (and about 1/3 of the nations on Earth) drive on the left. For the most part, and especially where it is marked, American walk on the right and the Brits walk on the left. I would think it would follow that when moving in two directions along the same path, whether that path is a roadway or a sidewalk, you always follow the same rule, be it keep left or keep right.

But no. Koreans (for the most part) drive on the left, but they walk on the right. There are arrows on crosswalks, on stairs in the subway and on escalators and people-movers. Even stranger, on the escalators and people-movers you stand to the right, walk to the left. That's the standard in LHW countries. I can't remember if it's the same in RHW countries, but the paradigm for driving is that (in both LHD and RHD countries) traffic speed increases as you approach the middle of the roadway. This is flipped in Korea for walking. Foot-traffic is slowest in the center and fastest on the outer edges. If you think about it, this system makes more sense…especially for driving. Thinking about it now, though, creating a highway with high speed traffic on the outside would be more costly as interchanges would need to accommodate exits in the center of the roadway or create the situation of merging into high speed traffic.

I still think it's weird they don't walk on the same side they drive.