My newest love-hate relationship with Miley Cyrus

Recently, I got an iPod dock that also has an alarm clock radio function. I took advantage of that, so now I wake up for work to the American Forces Network Korea (AFN Korea) radio station -- one of the two English stations in town.

As you can expect, they play a lot of rock music, similar to the music that I usually listen to back home in Vancouver (on 99.3 The Fox). So I thought to myself, "Cool." But AFN Korea keeps playing this really "bubble-gum style" pop song. And the thing is that it's such a catchy song! I found myself humming along to it, and started to wonder who the singer was.

And then I found out that it was Miley Cyrus. I was thinking, "So... I, a grown man, was singing along to a Miley Cyrus song? Wow... that's... awkward."

I guess as a fan of One Tree Hill and 90210 (not to mention Degrassi: The Next Generation, and experimenting with the new Melrose Place), I shouldn't be surprised that I fell into this trap. Why is it that I always end up being attracted to weird songs and shows that 12-year-old girls like? It's amazing how often that happens.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to a party in the USA...

Lest we forget

Above: The poppy I placed on the Canadian plaque for soldiers killed in action during the Korean War, at the War Memorial of Korea.

South Korea: the land of technological shortfalls?

It's no secret that South Korea is known as one of the premier technology hubs in the world. Its high-speed internet network is the envy of the world, and the country is also among the front-runners of robotics and genetic research. However, beneath this rosy image is a major contradiction of what one would normally expect -- specifically in terms of internet technology.

South Korea is known as the world's most wired country, with over 90% of the country equipped with broadband connections. However, while the hardware and speed are incredible, the software has a lot of catching up to do. When I say that this country's software usage is decades old, I mean it almost literally.

An article in the Korea Times today outlined the shortcomings of this country's technology. While the internet speeds here are tops in the world, 99% of the population still uses Internet Explorer as their web browser of choice. Not only that, but they're not using the current version (IE version 8) -- they are still using IE version 6, which was released around 2001. Yes, 2001. That's 8 years ago.

Why are they still using this outdated technology? It's because of ActiveX, a component that came in IE 6. As with the case so often with Internet Explorer, it turned out that ActiveX had some major security vulnerabilities. Despite this, many South Korean websites, such as banking websites, not only decided to continue to base their websites on ActiveX controls, but actually increased its usage over the years. The security problems got so bad that even Microsoft is trying to abandon ActiveX; when the mother of a software wants to abandon it so soon, you know that there are major problems with it.

There is also a dependency on Windows operating systems due to this issue -- the websites based on ActiveX also depend on Windows. That means those buying Apple products are at a serious disadvantage, which leads to Apple's failure to hold any significant market share in South Korea (along with high import fees, which are likely in this country -- just look at the automotive market). In addition, Windows Vista reduced support for ActiveX, leading many people in South Korea to continue using Windows XP.When I first arrived in this country and saw the technology, I was so surprised to see that most people were still using Windows XP. As much as I have an issue with Windows Vista, it was a shock to me that a country this technologically advanced is still using ancient software.

Above: An abandoned computer monitor back home at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, with the prophetic message next to it, reading, "Evolve for the future, today."

ActiveX is so overused that it's preventing users from upgrading their browsers and operating systems. As a Mozilla Firefox user and fan of Apple products, I really hope the South Korean companies wake up and realize that if they want to catch up to the current online technology (such as CSS), they need to ditch ActiveX and allow for more browser and operating system diversity.

This reminds me of a situation at my school. I was having some connectivity issues with my computer, and a Korean teacher was looking at my computer trying to figure out if there was a program messing up something. He almost uninstalled Mozilla Firefox because he thought it was a virus! He was so surprised when I informed him that it was an internet browser, because he was not aware of another way to go on the internet besides Internet Explorer.

Another situation involves the computer in the English classroom. The computer was attacked by some nasty spyware and worms lately, and it appears to have originated from a security vulnerability caused by Internet Explorer usage. Yet, what happened when the computer was finally fixed? Yep, they continued to insist on relying on Internet Explorer and refusing to use Mozilla Firefox or other browsers. They don't seem to learn from their mistakes. The good news is that I've convinced the head English teacher to try to get school funding to get a Mac computer in the future for that classroom (primarily due to multimedia purposes).

Until the situation changes, I'll probably be one of the 10 Firefox-using people in South Korea within a 1-mile radius.

For once, I have school and don't want it to be canceled

(Warning: this post contains "Wikipedism.")

"Snow day." "Teachers' strike." "School shooting threat." Every kid dreams to hear these words. (Okay, maybe not the last one, but it did happen to me once back in Canada.) Why? Because that means one thing -- school is canceled!

My brand-new alarm clock radio (which also has an iPod dock... I love it!) awoke me yesterday. It was tuned to TBS eFM, one of the two English-language radio stations here in Seoul, and the morning news was on. The newscaster informed me that the South Korean government officials were meeting this week to discuss whether to raise the H1N1 alert level to "red" -- the highest possible level.

Sure. Okay. Even though I was a bit concerned, I didn't think too much of it. And then this morning, they repeated this information but said that the meeting has been pushed up to THIS MORNING (as opposed to tomorrow, as originally planned). If they decided to raise the level, it could mean nation-wide school closures. Okay, now this was serious business, even though I knew that students were scheduled to get vaccinated on November 20.

Apparently this country has been nearing 10,000 H1N1 infections per day, which led to this sudden urgency. As it turned out, the alert level was indeed raised to "red," which means schools and other public institutions and places may close. While I don't know if anything will happen at this point, it feels like school closures are imminent. For example, since September, my school had been checking everyone's temperatures before entering the school. Today, that didn't happen for some reason. It was as if they were expecting something to happen soon.

While students are probably praying for a "swine flu holiday," I really hope we don't get one. For the holidays, I have a vacation planned and I think if school was canceled, we might have to sacrifice some of the winter holidays to make up for the canceled classes. (The vacation is very important because it also doubles as an "ID card run" -- I need to apply in person for an ID card in that vacation spot because I was born there. This is the first real chance I've had to apply for it.) Also, the senior grades' final exams are next week, which complicates things.

But as I said, it feels like a closure is imminent. After work today, I stocked up on essentials such as extremely nutritious food. My monthly grocery budget has gone down the drain, but if the H1N1 danger is really getting worse this rapidly in this country, I might as well prepare myself to stay inside as much as possible until this thing blows over.

On the plus side, if this swine flu thing doesn't materialize but Kim Jong Il decides to invade instead, I now have decent survival materials.

Oh, Korea. Sometimes you're just silly.

Yesterday, I posted a rant about how we English speakers tend to take English for granted. I also said:

In a way, it isn't for lack of trying, because many places and chains here have English names and no Korean names. But simply naming places with English doesn't always result in language proficiency. Sure, many businesses (both Korean-owned and Western-owned) have English names, but once you see their marketing slogans -- when they're forced to string English words together rather than using them autonomously from one another -- you suddenly realize that South Korea has a long way to go because the slogan is often non-sensical or grammatically incorrect. You know your standards for Koreans using correct English have lowered when you don't wince at Lotteria's Borat-like "Happy Time!" slogan anymore.

So, naturally, I had to come across this gem near my apartment and adjacent to Sookmyung Women's University:

Above: "Timeless Time The of Coffee Tree." Whoa, dude. Deeeeeeep...

Oh, Korea.

Korea, Korea, Korea...