Conor Meagher Fan Club

Tuesday, November 7th is your chance to change the direction of America. Get out and vote!

Halloween was celebrated at my school on two different days, because kids come on MWF or TT. Now, I never want to hear the phrase “trick or treat” again. Just image taking your kids out two nights in a row to go trick or treating for 6 hours. But Jesse and I had some laughs when we scared the students while they tried to study. I don’t think one student learned anything over Halloween. Good times good times.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/conormeagher/sets/72157594354802336/

Since I have a limited amount of time off, especially days grouped together, I planned ahead and bought KTX tickets for Busan this week because of the 4 day vacation. No special reason though, I just wanted to ride the KTX high-speed train and travel outside of Seoul in the company of the girl. It was a memorable trip. The train was so smooth as it peaked at speeds of 300km/hr (~186mph) without you knowing it. The weather was beautiful along with the beach. We saw some interesting fish at the Busan Aquarium and some weird art at the Busan Museum of Modern Art. Everything was great and I have the pictures to prove it.

Day 1: http://www.flickr.com/photos/conormeagher/sets/72157594313660443/
Day 2: http://www.flickr.com/photos/conormeagher/sets/72157594313876284/

It was almost a year ago when I got my first Korean cell phone. It was simple, but slick. It had all the functions I needed and then some. Never had a problem, until last week. The navigational and other key buttons decided not to work anymore. Everything else was fine, except I couldn’t scroll or send text messages. Also the internal mic went out. Not having a cell phone in Korea, is like not having hot water in the U.S. Ok maybe not that bad, but it was concerning for me and for Jeong-in. So last weekend we did our research and went shopping. Korean phones have a new technology that broadcast high speed television to your phone. My new phone has that and the service is free! Also a 2.0 megapixel camera and mp3 player. The phone is huge too, because of the camera, but not like a PDA. I’m just worried I’m going to knock somebody out with. Here’s what it looks like:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/conormeagher/sets/72157594306783294/

As I’m writing this, I’m watching the Royals/Angels game on MLB.tv and the LAA TV annoucers are the most annoying people ever. They keep calling Francisco Rodriguez, “Frankie” and Orlando Cabrera, “OC”. That’s almost as bad as when Bob Davis refers to left-handers as “southpaws”.

Recent happenings in my life:

1. I got approved for a Korean credit card after almost a year of trying.
2. Jeong-in enjoys cleaning my apartment and washing my clothes.
3. Monday will be the begining of my 10 week session of Korean classes at Yonsei University.
4. Last night I jammed with some Korean musicians and they want to start a band, maybe.
5. Last week I got asked to contribute my pictures and stories about living in Korea to a book based on foreigners living in Korea.

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.