“Yippie-ki-yea”

Die Hard was great, wasn’t it? How can you not like a movie where the bad guy’s called Hans Gruber? A hat-tip to the Bond movies perhaps (before they too became for choice of a better word- shit)?

DH 2 wasn’t a patch on it (How many good movies feature snow? Even the Von Trapp’s refrained from using it). But they brought it back with a worthy attempt for the third installment (still can’t work out how they worked out the gallon jug conundrum – then again I’m somewhat arithmetically challenged), but by the time we see Brucie in his semmit for the predictably shittily-titled ” Live Free or Die Hard” (Jesus…) I’d long given up on it.

It was with some surprise ( combined with a certain element of “what the F***!”) that I read the other day they’re releasing a fifth episode of the franchise on Valentines Day 2013. Whether it’s called “A Good Die To Die Hard (be careful what you wish for) or the Die Hard 24/7 (whoever thought this was going to work is obviously lacking certain brain cells – i.e. 90% of them) isn’t really the issue. It’s more of a concern just how they’re going to get Grandad in a vest (and his boy) into some more contrived shenanigans, but this time in Russia. I can hear the shady stereotypes being written from here.

Now, just a couple of days after Valentine’s Day, we had Kim Jong il’s posthumous birthday, and in truly over-the-top style Our Friend’s In The North unveiled a bronze statue of him and his old man on horseback. It just reminded me of the Roy Rogers (albeit in a slightly tenuous way) conversation in the aforementioned original Die Hard.

North Korea marks late leader Kim Jong-il’s birthday

My favourite part of this clip (other than the inspection of toothbrushes that is) is when they talk about KJI’s “supposedly caring side”. Of course, the powers that be in North Korea want the image portrayed of their leaders (and the same goes for those of us not living under an oppressive regime to some extent) to be seen in a certain, more favourable light. And then there’s the Kimjongilia. The Kimjongilia is a flower named after ‘The Dear Leader’ and an eye-opening documentary that needs to be seen by more people to get a better perspective of the atrocities that have (and still are) going on in North Korea.

More recently, we’ve seen an influx of  articles pop up telling us just how awesome it is in (or is going to be in North Korea). First, North Korea, New Land of Opportunity? actually proposes that investing (or opening/operating a business) in the North is a viable option. Next, the BBC chip in with Made in North Korea: Business in a ‘communist monarchy’ where it documents the story of a Swedish entrepreneur (who eerily looks like the vampire kid from  ’Let The Right One In’ ) and how it all went tits up for him after setting up a clothing factory). Or my favourite is this complete muppet (he’s Spanish, and I don’t think the two muppery-related incidents are related?), who really believes that he’ll be at the top table for ever more.

       

 ”Yippie-ki-yea”, indeed…

   

The Hump

So it’s Wednesday, it’s freezing outside, the wind would cut right through you and I’ve set myself a time limit to see what I can get through in the next 10 minutes or so. Here goes…

Today, was one of those days when you wake up (albeit a wee bit later than normal), get your stuff done and head off to work. Weirdly, the rest of the day disappeared into the black hole that is grading. I spent about the best part of  4 1/2 hours putting all my grades into the computer system and all the jolly intricacies that entails. Well, I got it all done, had to skip lunch (never a good thing for me), had a few students stop by my office to plea their case for a higher grade (with mixed results – I am fair though), then I got home around 4pm.

Once the dog’s been fed and walked (briskly), it was Twitter time. Still sounds a bit rude, eh? I knew that today South Korea would be undertaking a huge civil defense exercise. If you’ve ever seen those public service announcement films from the 50′s where The Commies are going to blow us up, this is something akin to that, but with a better dress sense. On the dot of 2pm the sirens roared into action, and from my office on the 12th floor it was all hands on deck for the next 15  minutes (apparently that’s all it’ll take) as everything stopped.

I’m sure some people pulled over, others smoked outside their office, or like me you just looked out the window wondering if that rumbling noise you could hear was the F16 jets, or my stomach pining for it\’s lunch? You’ll be glad to know that it passed without a hitch, but if you’re ever at ground level when a drill like this takes place, take a step back and watch it all unfold before your eyes. It’s quite a sight.

Tonight we met for dinner, not far from our place, at my new favourite chicken hof,  ’Born To Be Chicken’. I’d have loved to have been there when they were in the high-level marketing and strategy meetings before they opened. It’s actually a nice, big, friendly place, not far from Sookmyung University, and the chicken’s good too. Maybe one day I’ll get to the bottom of just how it got its name? Another one to add to the pile.

Something closer to home I noticed was this classy bird, her questionable drinking habits, and even dodgier choice of tattos. I think what’s scarier is that it’s in the biggest selling newspaper in Scotland as NEWS. Good work fellas!

I’d like to leave with a nice piece of music, but I found this instead.  What I can only describe as Korean meets Argentine meets The Village People. Bonkers!

Vamos!