Marmot’s Open Thread #19

Yep, it’s that time of week again. So have your say.

14 Comments

  1. Posted September 15, 2007 at 12:52 pm | Permalink

    http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/d_war/

    ^ this is 14% higher than I expected

  2. Posted September 15, 2007 at 1:49 pm | Permalink

    Thanks for linking that. Best laugh I’ve had all week.

  3. R. Elgin your flag
    Posted September 15, 2007 at 2:37 pm | Permalink

    Same here all though the tiny teacup chihuahua wearing a “Be the Reds” shirt last night was funnier, still.

  4. mjw your flag
    Posted September 15, 2007 at 2:42 pm | Permalink

    Absolutely. I loved this one: “It’s an Asian director trying to duplicate western nonsense, absent the crucial ego and glossy technical support afforded to the knuckleheads we have making movies here.”

    Nice.

  5. mjw your flag
    Posted September 15, 2007 at 2:44 pm | Permalink

    Robert, BTW, in response to your earlier query, I’m still experiencing some wonkiness in my IE6 browser with your new layout. I guess you’re still working out the bugs. Design is good, though.

  6. Posted September 15, 2007 at 2:48 pm | Permalink

    mjw — Did you try hitting control-F5?

  7. Posted September 16, 2007 at 11:58 am | Permalink

    The Joongang is advertising for a senior editor, in case anyone’s looking for a wall to bang their head against.

    “The JoongAng Daily is seeking applicants for a senior editing position. The successful candidate will be a native English speaker with significant experience as an editor and reporter on a daily newspaper, a background editing feature stories, strong headline writing skills and the ability to lead a bi-lingual team.
    Please send cover letter and resume to enational@joongang.co.kr.”

  8. Hugh your flag
    Posted September 17, 2007 at 9:43 am | Permalink

    The google ad that’s on the top of a lot of these pages:
    ———————
    Restaurant for foreigners
    Enjoy mexican food in Seoul ! Find delicious mexican food here.
    http://www.casaloca.co.kr
    ———————

    It’s around Chungdam sagari….I’m here to report very good Mexican food, from a trip I made last week after clicking throug the ad (There you go, the Marmots Hole is also helping the Seoul economy.)

    I have no connection to the place, just miss gringo-style Mexican food and thought I’d pass on the review to y’all. Nice interior, too, would be an appropriate place to take a wife or girlfriend.

  9. cmm your flag
    Posted September 18, 2007 at 6:49 pm | Permalink

    I’m working with H&R Block - Korea to get my taxes done, and after I got the price quote from the Korean agent, he asked for payment into his personal bank account. If he was freelancing, sure. But he’s working for H&R Block. Does this seem shady to anyone else?

  10. mins0306 your flag
    Posted September 18, 2007 at 8:54 pm | Permalink

    #9. cmm, that sounds very suspicious. If it was me I would ask the guy why he is asking you to deposit the money into his personal account and not in the company account.

  11. Posted September 18, 2007 at 8:56 pm | Permalink

    Does it really matter? If he’s going to do what you need at a price you think is reasonable, just do it.

  12. mins0306 your flag
    Posted September 18, 2007 at 9:06 pm | Permalink

    Linkd, true, but if the guy asked cmm to deposit the money into the company account, no problem there. However since the guy asked to deposit the money into his personal account one should wonder if the guy is planning to run away with the said money. I mean it’s the oldest trick in the book.

  13. Posted September 18, 2007 at 9:17 pm | Permalink

    However since the guy asked to deposit the money into his personal account one should wonder if the guy is planning to run away with the said money. I mean it’s the oldest trick in the book.

    Is this guy the owner or an employee? If an employee, he’s not planning to run away with the money. If he did that, you would contact H&R Block and complain about it, and he would lose his job and possibly get prosecuted — because what this guy is doing is skimming from the company.

    If it’s the owner, he’s still not going to run off. But he’s not stealing from you or the company. He’s stealing from the government, by not reporting your payment as income. No VAT slip, no traceable transaction. The government’s ability to trace accounts is so tightly circumscribed that most people feel completely safe in doing their tax evasion by funds transfer.

    As an employment lawyer I see a lot of fraud. This personal-account nonsense by an employee is an oldie but goodie.

  14. cmm your flag
    Posted September 19, 2007 at 1:08 pm | Permalink

    @ Mr. Carr
    I’m not concerned that he’s trying to pocket all the money I wire to him without preparing my return. I’m suspicious that he’s charging me more than the going rate and pocketing the difference. Or maybe he’s completely freelancing from behind his H&R Block desk. I’ve contacted H&R Block’s customer service back home and alerted them of how I’ve been asked to pay and they have responded that the “District Manager” (Korean district?) has been contacted and that a “senior manager” will contact me within 48 hours. I am really hoping that these people are all stateside. Maybe it will turn out that the senior manager who contacts me will be the same Mr. Han who asked me to wire him the money in the first place. Maybe I’m coming off as paranoid, but I’ve been in the country for 2.5 years and seen a lot, and this “payment process” registers as questionable to me.

    So, to try to establish a more transparent paper trail, I’ll insist on sending my money to and H&R Block account and demand an official H&R Block itemized receipt/VAT slip. Is there anything else that might be helpful?

    @ Linkd - It is the principle AND my money–perhaps the two best reasons to make an issue of anything.

    Not sure if the price is reasonable. The deal is: There aren’t many alternatives, so how do I know if it is the proper rate? His quote was substantially higher than what I should expect back in the states from H&R Block. H&R Block is the leader in the business. I expect a more transparent transaction from an industry-leading financial services company.

2 Trackbacks

  1. [...] So, far, D-War has earned a 14% at Rotten Tomatoes, which isn’t really so bad, considering it was 14% higher than commenter commenter ZZOOzzoo expected. [...]

  2. [...] So, far, D-War has earned a 14% at Rotten Tomatoes, which isn’t really so bad, considering it was 14% higher than commenter commenter ZZOOzzoo expected. [...]

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