Conor Meagher Fan Club

I just can’t get enough of my Flickr account. I’m always playing around with it and tagging my 1327+ pictures, but Flickr dropped the ball recently and released geotagging (read more…). It allows you to tag any picture to a geographical location on an interactive map. I’ve been playing around with this feature all day. I’ve got all my US based pictures tagged, but my Korea pictures will be a little bit of a challenge since the map only provide satellite images of the country. You can find my Flickr Map at the following url:

http://flickr.com/photos/conormeagher/map/

The National Football League is the largest grossing sports market in North America, if not the world. The average franchise is worth $898 million and makes an operating profit of $30.8 million in 2006. Other professional sports leagues and media outlets such as the MLB, NBA, and ESPN, have provided live video of their respected games for the last 2+ years. Not until now, has the NFL decided to partner with Yahoo! Sports and provide the NFL Game Pass. As of now it’s only for international users, but I’m happy even though it’s has a heavy price tag.

Yahoo to webcast NFL outside N. America
Fri Sep 8, 5:39 PM ET

By ANICK JESDANUN, AP Internet Writer

NFL fans outside North America, who can view few games on television, will be able to watch most of the league’s games live over the Internet under a subscription package announced Friday.

The NFL Game Pass service will be available through Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO - news) for $25 a week or $250 for the 17-week regular season.

Yahoo will block access to the games from computers in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Bahamas, Bermuda and Antigua because the service would conflict with existing broadcast rights. Individual games will also be blocked from certain countries when a broadcaster has rights there, said Brian Rolapp, the league’s vice president for media strategy. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

In the United States, the NFL has long-term contracts with CBS Corp.; NBC, which is a division of General Electric Co.; Fox, which is owned by News Corp.; and ESPN, a division of Walt Disney Co. It also has a deal to show out-of-market games with satellite television operator The DirecTV Group Inc.

The NFL has made live games available before as part of pilots, but this is the first time the league will offer an entire season. Other professional leagues, notably Major League Baseball, also offer live games over the Internet with similar blackout technologies to preserve lucrative television deals. College sports are also making their way online.

The NFL games will be available on demand for up to 24 hours after their conclusion. Highlights are available for free in the United States and elsewhere at NFL.com.

It’s not entirely clear what the demand for NFL games will be outside North America. Football’s international following isn’t as strong as soccer’s or basketball’s, for example.

Tomorrow is my last day of working 11 hour shifts (9:50am-8:50pm). Next Monday will be back to a normal day like the rest of the teachers. I can actually sleep in! But to my surprise, it hasn’t been that bad. After my lunch break I fight some sleepy waves, but if I get to about 6pm, I get a second wind and just cruise to 850pm. Also there’s lots of work to do, so I’m busy all day. It makes things go by fast and you don’t even think about being tired. So it was a good experience and my next pay check is going to phat! I’m thinking of buying myself a little present. Ok, not little, but my local cable company has digital HD service available. So I’m thinking about purchasing a 32″ Widescreen HDTV that has a slim fit. There’s a bunch of good deals on high def TV’s because they produced to many for the 2006 World Cup. Now their marked down. I just have to do some rearranging though, so it can fit nicely in my cozy studio or “one room” if you speak Konglish.

If your interested about my school, they have a fairly active website. It’s mostly in Korean, but they update pictures and other interesting things. I’m on the front page now, because a couple of our “student of the month”-s were in my class even though Jessie, the previous teacher voted for them. I will warn you though that you will experience some pretty lame sesame street music in the background. Browse with caution….

http://seodaemun.slp.ac.kr/

I’ve been taking a lot of pictures lately and that’s what happens when you have a sweet digital camera with a pretty girlfriend. Though my camera can take photos at 7.1 megapixels, I’ve noticed that the originals are small in size. Last Tuesday I was out with Jeong-in and her friends for drinks. That night I discovered that my camera setting was set on low quality and it was after I took most of the pictures. Yesterday I put my camera to the test and took it to The History Museum of Korea. Set the image quality to high and shot a bunch of pictures. It was a wonderful day and the museum collection just moved into a beautiful new location in Yongsan.

Yeongdeungpo with friends:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/conormeagher/sets/72157594239379524/

History Museum of Korea:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/conormeagher/sets/72157594243087193/

Yesterday was a big day for me. Jeong-in took me to Edae (Ewha Women’s University) area which is known for it’s many hair salons because I was going on a month without a haircut. It was getting out of control. I really didn’t care what style to cut it, but every barber wants to thin my hair with those thinning scissors. I know my hair is thick, but after about an hour of thinning my hair, I had a poofy little boys haircut. I thought maybe I could give it a little more style with pomade, but that just made it worse and then I had a small afro. One positive thing I did get out of it was a killer hair wash. Oh my god, I never knew I had so many pressure points on my head until I got my hair washed.

Also, yesterday I met with Jeong-in’s friend Eun-kyeong. Her best friend since high school who wanted her to go to New Zealand. We spent the whole afternoon chatting and hanging out. But I could also tell she was checking me out to make sure I passed the test. We got along well and I think I passed the test, but I felt bad just because of how Jeong-in basically chose me over her best friend. I don’t know what the future holds, but everyday it’s looking better and better.

This Tuesday is a Korean holiday which means no work. The girlfriend has setup another get together with her friends, but this time it will be like 2 or 3 couples. I’m excited to meet all her friends.

As a Royals fan on the other side of the world (Korea), I get a good view of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) and the Korean Baseball Organization (KBO) leagues. The depth is nothing like the MLB, but there’s still a good amount of players. One being left-handed hitting Lee Seung-yeop. Just hit his 400th career homerun in asia before turning 30. He also has the record for most homeruns in a season, 56. A Korean born player who currently plays for the Yomiuri Giants in Japan. I’m not going to go into all this stats and history. You can read that here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seung-Yeop_Lee
He makes 210M Yen (~$1.8M) in Japan and is a free agent at the end of this year. He’s a great fit for the Royals. He can play a corner outfield or a left-handed glove first base. He’s shown consistent power and he’s clutch. If you watched the World Baseball Classic, he was the one with multiple key at bats. Plus he led the Classic with the most homeruns. Overall he’s got a great eye with a sweet swing.

I don’t think there would be a problem for him to face major league pitching. The real question is does a team want to go overseas and pay the money for him. BUT I SAY YES! Sometimes you have to take risks, but this isn’t even a risk. He’s got the tools to play in the majors. Also the country loves him here in Korea, so Royals merchandise would probably quadruple in sales. If I see the Yankees sign him as a pinch hitter or for some crazy amount of money, then I will be PO’d!

Last night was the last day of pure happiness. Paid vacation, sweet girlfriend, and many things to do. Now I’m back on the summer intensive schedule of working 10 hours a day. Is it Friday day yet?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/conormeagher/sets/72157594226843423/

Last night Jeong-in gave me a letter on our 3rd date. She said she wanted me to open it when I got home. After reading it last night, I can safely say that she wants to be with me in Korea and cancel or delay her New Zealand trip. The letter is the cutest thing. She wrote two pages on flowered paper at 1:30am and her hand writing is much better then mine. I wish I could show it, but I need to keep some parts of my life private since everything else is viewable by anybody with an internet connection and lots of time on their hands.

After a countless amount of first dates and short relationships, I went out with my friend Jeong-in on Sunday who is also an English teacher at another school. She is Korean, but teaches English at a school like mine. To me it was just a harmless lunch with friendly intentions, but to my surprise, she would express how much she liked me. After that we just clicked and now we are really into each other. But… there’s one problem that still has not been resolved. For a long time her best friend has wanted her to go to New Zealand and study English for a year with her. So before we met on Sunday she had good intentions to go to New Zealand in September or October. Now she wants to stay in Korea to be with me, but it’s still not clear on what will happen. She still needs to talk to her parents and her best friend about it. After that I think I will have a better feeling on what is going on. Other then that, everything is wonderful. She loves speaking English to me and I love speaking Korean to her. I told her that she would learn more English dating me, then if she went to New Zealand… haha. We’ll see what happens.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/conormeagher/sets/72157594217048246/

Dear Diehard Fans,

If you get this post in your inbox then I have solved the problems with the automatic emails to your inbox function.