Conor Meagher Fan Club

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I know I’ve never been the most punctual person in the world, but what I experienced in class last Thursday was quite remarkable. Last Wednesday night, I was up late doing my homework for the following class the next day. I was notified last minute that both of my Friday classes would be canceled because of guest lecturers at 10am the following morning. So that meant a 4 day weekend because I have no class on Monday every week, but Thursday would be early and long. Stumbling into school on Thursday morning, I went to a 2 hour lecture on Chinese Urban Development from 3 visiting professors from China. It was somewhat interesting, but being half asleep didn’t help. After eating lunch with my classmates, I had an hour to wait until my 1:30 class. I printed my homework in the computer lab trying not to fall asleep. After that, I headed to class with a few extra minutes to spare. The classroom was moved to another room last time because of technical issues, but for some reason I couldn’t remember which room it was. After checking every floor in the building, I finally got a text message from my classmate telling me where it was. Walking in 3 minutes late, I found that only half the class is there and no professor. After about 15 minutes, more students trickle in and no professor. 30 minutes later, no professor, but a phone call saying he will come in 30 minutes. 30 minutes later, no professor. 1 hour and 30 minutes after the class was suppose to begin, he shows up. This was so bad, it was almost comical. But the more annoying part is that the class is scheduled from 1:30-4:30 and that day it went from 3:00-5:30, an hour over the scheduled ending point. On top of that, we only got through half of the homework that I stayed up late the night before to finish. I love my professor, but that was a little uncool.

After two weeks at University, I’d say I’m pretty confortable with my school situation. All my teachers and classmates are great. It’s everything I could of asked for. But there’s something that was different when I came back to Korea and it was something I had to take care of. After 377 days with one of the greatest girls I’ve ever met, I decided to part ways with her. The hardest thing was that she did nothing wrong, but it was something I needed to do for myself. I could spend all going into to the details, but it’s just something I’ll leave alone. It’s been over a week now and the fact that it’s rained everyday since then has not helped. It’s because of Typhoon Nari hit the south part of Korea last weekend. Now there’s another one on the cost of China, Typhoon Genesis, headed for the north coast of Korea. You can check it’s path here:
http://web.kma.go.kr/eng/wis/typ_01.jsp

The first day of my graduate school career is in the books. Let me give a little summary on how the day went. It all started abruptly when an unexpected visitor came to my apartment door looking for the previous tenant’s ADSL modem. We could find the modem, but for some reason it didn’t have it’s power cord. Even after telling the man it’s not here in Korean, who was probably the tenant’s father, he continued to look. Finally, he gave up and went on his way. This was annoying, but I still had plenty of time until class. I wanted to be prepared, so I left 30 minutes early and went to the campus supplies shop to get some materials. You got to get new pens and pencils for a new semester. Unfortunately, I lose them after the first week, but I’m a graduate student now, so hopefully I will lose them after 2 weeks. Soon after, I grab a bite to eat while walking. My first class is not in my major, but just a Korean language course that I wanted to take for my own personal reasons and also that it is free. This an undergraduate elementary class and I probably should be in the graduate intermediate class, but there’s a couple logistical problems preventing me from doing that. So I just hope to try to get the most out of it and use it as my own catalysis when studying on my own free time. The class is a very interesting group of students. This was the first time I have ever seen any of the undergrad international students. Most of them where from other countries like France, England, The Netherlands, China, Japan, Austria, but some were from the States. I would say all of them are 7 years younger than me though. Except one student, Sasha, who is from the Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State. She has been my CSU buddy since last week. She also has the next class with me, Quantitative Analysis 1. Before going to this class, Sasha and I had tons of time to kill because on the first day most classes don’t teach anything. Well, all my classes are once a week for 3 hours. So we had more than an hour and a half to kill. During that time I did find a place that sells bubble tea, so it wasn’t that bad. If I could just find durian bubble tea, then I would be in heaven. So after a sitting outside for awhile, we decide to go to class “early”. Well, all the extra time we had was all wasted when we couldn’t find the classroom it was in. We were only saved by a student who knew what room we were talking about. We basically couldn’t find it because of a mistranslation to English. After arriving late, I could easily tell that it was going to be an interesting class. The class was a prerequisite and required for graduation for most post graduate degrees. But what made it the most unique, was that it is taught only in English. So Sasha and I are the only ones with a good understanding of the English language in the class and to go along with it, the class is taught by the head of the Public Administration Department. The makeup of the class is almost all Korean students, but the range of ages is quite big. From an undergrad senior taking a graduate class to a 50s something CEO are the end points of the spectrum. Actually, there are 3 old guys in the class and it’s really strange to see a Korean professor, who is at least 20 years younger, speak down to them in “only” English. Maybe it’s because I’ve been in Korea too long, but if you’re a 50 year old male CEO in Korea, then you have a lot ass-kissing around you. One other thing I forgot to mention was that during my Korean class, I got a text saying that all my major classes were cancel for this week, which are all the classes I have left this week. Instead, all the URP students are attending a special guest lecture on new development in Los Angeles and how it affects K-Town.

Sweet.

After arriving in Korea less than 3 days ago, I find myself up early writing this post. I think the jetlag is the worst when your on a plane with 12 hours of sunlight straight. Thankfully I have a week before school starts. Returning to the States was a month filled with family, friends, fatty food, painful weather, after lunch naps, promising baseball, crappy soccer, subpar movies, and stressful deadlines… I’d say “mission accomplished”. Everything that I needed to happen in my previous post, Cutting It Close, happened. Though, I wish I could of had more time to relax with other people who I didn’t get to see. I thank everyone who spent time with me and promise the others that I will see you down the road. I made a list of all the things I wanted to do and did.

KC Royals v. NY Yankees (confirmed)
KC Royals v. Texas Rangers (confirmed)
KC Royals v. Toronto Blue Jays (confirmed)
KC Wizards v. Chivas USA (confirmed)
Simpsons Movie (confirmed)
Jack’s Stack (confirmed)
Chipotle (confirmed)
Lotawana Lakehouse (confirmed)
Chicago, St. Louis, & Memphis Road Trip (confirmed)

A year ago today, I met a girl who was days away from buying a ticket to New Zealand to study English for a year. I even wrote about it, The Worst Luck. I knew that she would be happy if she went, but she took a risk and stayed because of me. 365 days later, it looks like it was the right choice.

사랑해 자기야!!!

My LG desktop computer is starting to show signs of it’s age. It’s almost two years old, so I’ve decided to purchase a Dell XPS M1210 Notebook (Certified Refurbished). This will put less stress on my desktop and allow both computers to have a longer lifetime. Also, the factor of traveling overseas, going back to school, and under estimating my saving by $2,000 were other reasons. Now The Conor Meagher Fan Club is mobile!

XPS M1210
http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/xpsnb_m1210?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

XPS M1210 Notebook: Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T7200 (2GHz/667MHz/4MB)
Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium

——————————————————————————–
Operating System
Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium
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Memory
2 GB DDR2 SDRAM 677MHz (2 DIMMs)
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Hard Disk Drive
80 GB EIDE SATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
——————————————————————————–
Video
Intel Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator 950
——————————————————————————–
Software Upgrade
Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007
——————————————————————————–
Certified Refurbished
Certified Refurbished
——————————————————————————–
Base
XPS M1210 Notebook: Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T7200 (2GHz/667MHz/4MB)
——————————————————————————–
Media Bay
8X DVD +/- RW w/dbl layer write capability
——————————————————————————–
Network Interface Card
Dell 1505 Wireless-N
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NoteBook Screen
12.1 inch WXGA Notebook Screen
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Hardware Upgrade
6 Cell Primary Battery
Auto/Air Adapter
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Bluetooth
Dell Wireless 350 Bluetooth Module (2.0+EDR)

With only 15 days to go in my contract, I find myself making a todo list of things before I leave. It’s amazing how a fulltime job can change you. At the top of the list is something I think about everyday. “Get CAU Acceptance Letter”. This is the only unique item I need when applying for my student visa. Now getting that letter takes a simple email to the CAU advisor who would print one up and mail it to me without a problem. But… before he can do that, CSU has to admit me and before they can do that, CSU has to receive my GRE scores. It’s like I’m playing Jenga, one missing piece makes everything else fall down. To make things more interesting, I leave Korea on the 22nd and my GRE scores are suppose to be available to CSU no earlier than July 9th, but no later than the 23rd. This makes everything more unpredictable. The worst thing for me is that it’s something totally out of my control which means I have to wait it out. I can still remember when I was a kid the time I ordered my custom made DW 4×14 snare drum and waited for it to be delivered to Explorers. It felt like an eternity, but it was only 6 weeks. I think in those 6 weeks, I spent almost all of my time making a plan on how I could pick it up when it arrived because when your 14 and you can’t drive you need to plan those things out. Anyway, I think “4 to 6 weeks” has got to be the worst phrase in the English language and if I don’t get my letter before I leave Korean, then my time is magnified even more because I have to wait for it to be mailed to the US. Which gives me almost no cushion to receive my student visa before I return to Korea. Fun Fun…

One month from today, I’ll be eating Gates BBQ while drinking a Boulevard Wheat at a Royals game at the K. Here’s my travel itinerary for coming home this summer before I go back for graduate school.

Departing: Seoul(ICN - Incheon Intl) on Sun, 22 Jul 2007, 17:50
Arriving: San Francisco(SFO - San Francisco Intl) on Sun, 22 Jul 2007, 12:40
Flight: SQ16 (B777-300) Economy Class

Departing: San Francisco(SFO - San Francisco Intl) on Sun, 22 Jul 2007, 17:50
Arriving: Kansas City(MCI - Kansas City Intl) on Sun, 22 Jul 2007, 23:50
Flight: YX706 (717 Signature) Economy Class

–

Departing: Kansas City(MCI - Kansas City Intl) on Fri, 24 Aug 2007, 09:50
Arriving: San Francisco(SFO - San Francisco Intl) on Fri, 24 Aug 2007, 11:30
Flight: YX918 (MD82 Saver) Economy Class

Departing: San Francisco(SFO - San Francisco Intl) on Fri, 24 Aug 2007, 14:15
Arriving: Seoul(ICN - Incheon Intl) on Sat, 25 Aug 2007, 18:45
Flight: SQ15 (B777-300) Economy Class

I’m not big on UN-like acronyms, but I didn’t want a 30 letter post title, so you end up with something like BVNDLHP. Which equals the infamous Blue Valley North Drum Line Home Page. After years of not remembering the site and registered email password, I found a way to request it and a day later it was emailed to me. Why is this important? No reason really, but to change the out of date contact information. But it made me look back at the monster I created 10 years and reflect on all the countless hours working on this website. It was enjoyable and painful to see the cheesy profiles, numerous scanned pictures, sad tribute to Yale Thompson, and finding my old pager number. Oh baby, those alpha-numeric pagers were the coolest. Also, it made me think about the great experiences I had with the BVN Drum Line and Band. Good times…

Anybody that wants to share their own experiences with the Drum Line or Band, is welcome to do it at the following address:
http://yes.iloveconor.com/index.php?showtopic=89