Yesterday marked the beginning of Grain in Ear season according to the traditional 24-term farmers’ calendar used in China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam. The season ends on the summer solstice, June 20, followed by the periods of Slight Heat and Great Heat.
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English Books on Korea... and More!
81 Comments
How can 전인화 and 황신혜 look the way they do well-into their fifth decades?
Is 한혜진 really a virgin as a 26-year old celebrity in one of the most notoriously corrupt entertainment industry in the world?
전인화 was born in 1965. 황신혜 was born in 1963. Like most Korean women, they have probably avoided excessive exposure to the sun and their natural skin would have only a few faint lines. Given their livelihood, they’ve likely had injections and laser treatment but no drastic makeovers like Demi Moore or Melanie Griffith. While googling to confirm their ages, I came across this photo tribute to lovely forty-something Korean actresses, who all look agelessly beautiful, save for the last woman, 박해미, born in 1964, whose deeply etched crows’ feet belie her taut smile.
#2,
A big part of it is genetics and healthy habits. My mother is 20 years older than these two women, she didn’t have injections or any other cosmetic surgery, and she’s just as good looking as them. She has healthy eating habits and has been practicing yoga for 40 years and Tai Chi for 20 years. She also swims laps at least once a week and goes for a walk every morning. She basically works out 3 hours a day…Not bad for a woman that’s almost 70 years old.
don’t you yearn for the good old days, when
Park Chung Hee slept with all of them and their daughters sometimes,
while the rest of the Koreans were caught inside their dwellings by “tong-geum” ?
Sonagi,
In their fifth decade means in their 40s, no? I know my English is bad, but I think I know how to count!
The inclusion of 박해미 was indeed bizarre. In fact, I’ve never heard of her until I saw her in “Money Wars” with 박신양 last year or so.
Hmm… isn’t she a big musical star? And what role did she play in Money Wars? Can’t remember for the life of me…
She was in the 2nd-part, after the actors all changed, except for 박신양. She was the head honcho loan shark who also was seeking to find her blind son–whom she couldn’t initially take care of because of her own disability (inability to walk).
You are correct. Please simplify your English when you write in fora like this one.
You are so right about that. I’m in my early forties with a faint line across the forehead that I hide under bangs and no crows’ feet or laugh lines yet. When I first arrived in Korea in my late twenties, I befriended two California natives approximately the same age. One already had deep crows’ feet and the other had cracks under her eyes. Neither smoked and both were fit. It was the years of relentless overexposure to the sun. Besides the face, another problem spot is the neck and upper chest, an area which becomes weather-beaten and blemished with age spots on older sun worshippers. When I know I’ll be out in the sun for awhile, I wear a crewneck shirt to avoid getting redneck. Fifteen to thirty minutes of sun to stimulate vitamin D production and after that I take cover. One thing I’ve always appreciated about Asia is that pale skin is considered attractive.
Imagine you are at City Hall Plaza in the middle of one of those silly demonstrations, and you are somehow free from the threat of personal injury. You are allowed to carry one sign with a maximum of 50 characters. What does yours read?
Mine is “Go Back to Science Class!”
There is no way of knowing for sure, unless of course you’re her gynecologist or her skin therapist. (Skin clinics in Korea also handle the organs that are ahem responsible for handling liquid waste)
But Han is known to be a very devout Christian to the point that she takes Sundays off to go to church even during shooting, so yeah she could be still a virgin. And not every celebrity manager in Korea is a sleazebag that forces his charge to sleep with some middle aged bigshot.
Mins306,
I am aware of her putative good works. Nonetheless, she’s also been sued twice for breach of contract by two different (former) representatives.
“And not every celebrity manager in Korea is a sleazebag that forces his charge to sleep with some middle aged bigshot.”
This is a rather bold claim, bro!
Well Won Joon, I don’t consider that a “bold claim”. Just because the industry is corrupt doesn’t mean everyone involved is.
As for the breaches of contract haven’t heard about that, but just because she had had some legal problems doesn’t neccesarily mean that her virginity is questionable.
Not that I’m defending her virginity of course.
#9,
What about Korean Beef?
…or
Let’s go to McDonald’s after the rally. It’s on me!
Actually I prefer Burger King or if I want to indulge Kraze Burger.
Which reminds me wonder how long it will be before they start targeting Freshness Burger considering that it is a Japanese chain?
pawikirogi: Socrates said that true wisdom starts with self knowledge. I’m no Dephic Oracle but I think it is time for you to face the fact that the source of your anti-US angst is your inability to score with white women. True, you have paid white woman to have sex with you but that have only reinforced your low self-esteem.
Look, from one overseas Korean male to another, I will let you in a little secret: pussy is pussy. Having been with women of all races, even blacks, latinos and south asian (have a soft spot for Indian women), I can tell you this with all earnesty. But I know that you won’t believe me until you have experienced it yourself.
Like most FOB males living in a Western country such as the US, you are blaming racisim for your predicament with the white ladies. It’s really not that, my Korean brother. It’s that you are short. Women in general don’t like short guys. Short guys need to work harder at getting women. And think about it. If you were a white woman and faced with dating a short white dude with a good sense of humor or a short Korean dude who seems angry all the time, who would you pick? Now, chances are that you may have gotten one white girl to sleep with you(hopefully, you did not use a date rape drug). But when she became sober, she surely must have laughed at your 3-inch pecker to your everlasting shame. But there is a cure for this: http://www.beverlyhillssurgical.com/. I have recommended many FOBs to this place and they are now all very satisfied customers.
As for your height, try this place:http://www.increasingshoes.com/?source=Adwords&gclid=CJGirvSU4ZMCFQEbewodYRxFoA. You’re about 5′7″ or 8″; wearing these shoes will get you to 5′10″ or 11″ (that will get you to the average American male height level).
Even with a bigger penis and an increase vertical, you need to work on your anger. And for that I recommend: http://www.family-counseling.c...../anger.htm.
Only after you’ve been able to fulfill your dream of having sex with many white women will you able to exocise your anti-American demons. Good luck my friend on this journey. The Marmot’s Hole will always be here when you are ready to return to our community.
Mins0306,
I was being half-facetious with the “bold” comment!
But I do when someone cheats not once but twice on a contract, it’s not unreasonable to assume that she’s a liar as well–esp. when her claims are hard to believe from a commonsense perspective.
But of course, I agree with you that we will likely never know; and I brought it up mainly to inject some levity into these rather tense, often acrimonious, discussions about beef the last few days.
“But I do THINK when,” not “But I do when.”
#16,
Lotteria is essentially Japanese too…But most of their burgers don’t have beef in them.
Has anybody ever figured out what the hell that girl on the “Seoul of Asia” commericals on Discovery and CNN says?
Horrible commercial btw.. we have Viking and bumper cars.. you should come here? Jesus..
Well, who said there wasn’t a way? One of my wife’s friends is a manager at a skin care center which has a lot of female celebs as clients. I believe the female celeb that you mentioned is one of them.
No, rather they force their charge into getting plastic surgery, even if they look fine. I have a friend who is well-known and after she signed a contract with these bums, her look did change! I was greatly disapointed since she is quite young and looked fine before. Now her jaw line looks almost Japanese. I worry about her too.
Another singer I know had plastic and she was looking good before that. WTF!?
#19.
Yes, but it is owned by a Korean Japanese so to Koreans it is considered more Korean than Japanese.
Don’t ask me why, that’s the way it is.
Mins0306,
Regarding your #21, was that a reply to me? If so, how would skin care manager know whether Miss Han’s or anyone’s sexual habits? Or are the celebrities as loose when it comes to their tongues as well?
Yes it was and I believe I mentioned the answer to your second question in comment #10.
“Horrible commercial btw.. we have Viking and bumper cars.. you should come here? Jesus..”
And b-boys. Come to Korea for hip hop and breakdancing! Why go to NYC when you can see it done right in Apkujeong? Anybody remember the old KNTO booklets from the 90s trying to promote Vegas-style shows as a reason for coming to Korea? Korea has some pretty great - and, very often, distinctly Korean - attractions, so I don’t understand the excessive attention given to mediocre malls, amusement parks, and dance clubs in tourist ads.
I have to agree with Sonagi’s assessment of the women in the photo tribute. Minus Park Hae-mi, I think they look great.
Oddly enough, I like Park Hae-mi. As a musical actress, she’s got a great set of lungs, too.
And while we’re on the topic of hot ajummahs, there’s always Hong Jin-hee (NSFW):
http://blog.naver.com/cyo019/20024279608
I’ve heard from someone a while back that the b-boys used in that particular ad campaign were KorAms and not Koreans. Don’t know if it’s true or not.
Korea did have the best b-boys, hong10 etc, but i think the ex-gymnast Russians have surpassed them. So I could believe it was them.
#20, 26
Isn’t it obvious that some of those commercials target South Koreans?
…or Chinese kids who really want to go to New York but can’t get a visa?
Damn they look good, a lot of natural beauty.
…or believe that New York is the crime infested whorehouse that American movies and Chinese propaganda make it to be?
I’m am so watching this TV show.
http://www.eonline.com/uberblo.....kdown.html
Thanks for the AILF fix, Robert!
Korea has some of the best B-boy dancers in the world I would say…but to have that aspect be part of a tourism add is a touch misguided.
recently, i started watching the show called ‘dexter’. i rented the 1st season on dvd. after i watched it, i kind of felt sad that i’d have to wait till the second season dvd box set came out but then, i decided to look if it was online somewhere and sure enough, it is. now, here’s my question, the site has almost all of the episodes from the second season even thoguh it hasn’t been put out yet on dvd. the site is the first site that pops on google so they ain’t hiding. they also have a lot of other shows for free. i’ve found a korean site where it’s the same way. for instance, they already have ‘yi san’ with subs.
what’s going on here? ain’t it all that illegal? the site with dexter even has ads from tbs.
Good as they are, I would not base a tourism plan around “come to Korea and see our B boys”. There’s many other things they could promote rather than bumper cars, viking, b boys and whatever the hell the chick is trying to say.
Pawi, their server is on some island that isn’t within the ubrella of international anti-piracy laws or agreements. The US anti-piracy swat team can’t repel through their window one day and make arrests although it can come after you. I don’t know how seriously I would take the threat. I don’t live in the US.
“In their fifth decade means in their 40s, no?
You are correct. Please simplify your English when you write in fora like this one”
Sonagi, get real,
get real a) how much simpler does it need to be for you to understand “in their fifth decade”
get real, b) “in fora like this one”, hmmm like this one a forum for koreans and english and others interested in koreana, and accordingly are not all native speakers of english…
PS please simplify your english, how many people in the real world say “fora like this one”
미국 소보다 한국 촛불시위 잠석자들이 더 미친다.
Correction:
미국 소보다 한국 촛불시위 참석자들이 더 미친다.
Ampontan has written a fairly interesting article:
“When Japan and Korea were one”
#40 -
Arghaeri, chill. There’s some gentle joshing going on between Won Joon Choe and Sonagi. Sonagi’s crack about “fora like this one” is referencing Mr. Choe’s earlier use of “fora.”
Before you barge into a bilateral exchange, it helps to know the background.
‘Ampontan has written a fairly interesting article.’
his post is garbage unfit for a garbage can. he simply regurgitates the same bile you see folks like bevers and occi chuck up.
i really liked the part where he promoted the idea that koreans wouldn’t have modernized without the japanese forcing them to modernize. absolutely racist.
also, the guy tells us that korea and japan were just one country prior to choson. anybody have any information on that? i’ve never heard that before.
use caution when reading this apologist for the japanese. most of what he writes is unfit for human consumption.
nothing more.
ps thanks maddlew! i was wondering how showtime would derive any money from sites such as the one i describe. come after me? i’m not downloading anything since the site is like youtube. i just click a button. anyway, thanks for the info.
ps i wonder how many of you know the guy in the picture. he died too young but he’s not forgotten.
#45,
I wouldn’t worry about the videos. As you said, you aren’t downloading anything…better yet, you aren’t uploading anything either.
There are tons of these sites nowadays.
Pawi doesn’t like it? What better recommendation could there be?
for sperwer:
‘Unfortunately for Hideyoshi’s dreams of true ascendancy, the Korean expedition bogged down after initially impressive gains. In May Seoul had been occupied, and on 16 June Konishi Yukinaga marched into Pyongyang. At the same time, Kato Kiyomasa was driving hard up the eastern half of the peninsula and would even cross briefly into Manchuria. Within four months, then, Japanese forces had cleared a road into China. Three factors would combine to slam that door shut: Koran guerillas, the arrival of large numbers of Chinese troops around Pyongyang, and the Korean Navy, which under Admiral Yi Sun Shin proved almost invincible. Admiral Yi inflicted a series of naval defeats on the Japanese that cut deeply into Hideyoshi’s logistical organization. Korean guerillas further harassed supply lines while tying down significant numbers of Japanese warriors behind the lines attempting to ferret them out. The Chinese, while not militarily the equal of the Japanese, outnumbered Konishi’s command and forced him to retreat from Pyongyang in February to avoid being isolated. Kato had no choice but to retreat as well, and by July the operation was clearly stalemated and in danger of ultimately developing into a complete disaster. Hideyoshi found it wise to negotiate, and stated that he would agree to a peace if, among other things, a daughter of the Ming Emperor was given to the Emperor of Japan. The Chinese, while probably amazed at the audacity of that demand (which, needless to say, was never fulfilled), agreed to a ceasefire. Hideyoshi, whose forces still controlled some territory in Korea’s southern-most province (Kyongsang), could boast to Luis Frois later that year that “he had already conquered the kingdom of Korea.” and that the Chinese “had sent him their submission”.4 He further demanded that Luzon show him obedience, threatening to invade if this was not done.’ samurai-archives dot com.
#44 UT, perfectly chilled thank you, had no idea “get real” was a freaked out response. Also had no idea this forum was a bilateral exchange, particularly since there is no reference to such an earlier exchange between them in this post until yours.
PS I’d be delighted to know how you consider this forum can continue to thrive if no one is allowed to “barge in”, on an open forum no less (otherwise known in most fora like this as “commenting”), unless they checked through every back-post to make sure they’ve got the “background”. How far back do you suggest we go one, day, one week, one year?
2MB is going to call bushie today and ask for help about this beef stuff:
thats gonna be one interesting phone call and likely the shortest between 2 heads of state
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters.....a-usa.html
PPS Kindly stop barging into private tri-lateral exchanges.(Joshing…)
Oh, I am soooo glad that I am not the only one who cannot understand the “Seoul of Asia” girl! I can die happy now! Seriously, though, that entire commercial is simply vomit-worthy.
Personally, I love smile lines on women of any age… much rather a slightly smiley and wrinkley good looking looking AILF (nice) than a taut and botoxed looking one.
#49 -
Check out comments 17, 65, and 69 on the “Politicians Pissed at Ambassador Vershbow for ‘Science’ Comment.” Your giving Sonagi grief for using “fora” is particularly ironic in light of those earlier comments.
And that’s all I’ve got to say about that.
@Arghaeri:
Next time I’ll mark inside jokes with a smiley emoticon to help you out.
Barge in anytime, but have the wisdom to back down when you’ve clearly misinterpreted a comment.
I see now that you have to click the ‘comments’ to find out who authored each post.
I can still remember back on Usenet, when people recommended newbies spend 3-6 months just lurking quietly before commenting… to get a feel for the place and not make those kinds of mistakes.
@#45/47
The problem I have with the approach the book in question (which supposedly is towards a better relations between Korea and Japan) was taking is that essentially the book is reiterating (and has admitted to it) the justification for annexation offered by the Imperial Japan prior to the Occupation. Regardless of the actual harms/benefit analysis done by God knows how many people, the problem comes down to these points.
1. Given an either/or choice between economic prosperity and self-determination, which would a typical modern citizen in a modern democracy choose? The typical answer would actually question why such choices were forced on a society in the first place.
2. The argument leads to the conclusion that the intention of the annexation was altruistic rather than (at least) self-serving. I truly wonder how many respected historians would sit there and tell people that the intentions behind the Occupation was altruistic, unless one was to take an extremely consequentialist approach to history (which is scary in itself). This aspect also becomes uncomfortable at least in my western-educated mind because it leads to justification of quite a number of imperialist actions taken by other countries in the era.
3. The argument also leads to the uncomfortable conclusion that, as long as the quality of life or infrastructure of a given to-be-annexed country is improved in a fashion, military-based takeover of a country is justified or at least ‘beneficial’.
4. Because of the correlation between the rhetorics of the Imperial Japan and the argument presented, it loses its appeal and effectiveness to ‘better the relationship between Korea and Japan’ (a noble goal, to say the least). Even if one was to subscribe to the idea that Japanese occupation of Korea had net benefit effect, one cannot reasonably conclude that such approach would work in any degrees in the current climate between the two societies.
5. The idea that the Occupation was ‘beneficial’ or ‘good’ implies quantification of ideas and concepts like ’self-determination’ and ‘independence’, a disturbing aspect as quantification of intangible values logically leads to the degradation of the said values. The idea of ‘when you consider all the facts, Occupation was beneficial for Korea’ essentially can be summarized by the following:
a. Intangible values are quantified and categorized as ‘harms’
b. Tangible benefits (economy, infrastructure) are compared to the quantified intangible values.
c. The intangible values are found wanting, as harms are outweighed by benefits in the argument.
This equalization of concepts that typically exists as justification of existence of most nations around the world (self-determination/independence) to RELATIVELY trivial factors like economy and infrastructure leads to disturbing conclusions.
Actually, strictly speaking, watching a video on a youtube-like site creates a copy of that video - however temporary (usually just in memory and in disk cache) - on your computer. So yeah, if you really want to get technical, that’s ‘copying’ the program. If the copyright owners and/or the FBI really wanted to come after you for that, they could.
They won’t though… b/c they’ll have to arrest and charge about couple million college students…
Besides, most TV shows (past/present) are legitimately online anyways… Msn has Arrested Development, NBC has most of its popular shows (30 Rock, Scrubs, Heroes, Office) online, etc. etc…
I rely on Netflix and its Instant Watch program for such needs.
bum, the best way to handle folks like amPONTAn is to let them keep talking. they’re more of a benefit to koreans than they realize.
and no, bum , there was no benefit from the japanese occupation. all they did was try to erase our culture from the face of this earth. of course, they failed.
twice.
I think there was a NET harm, but there were definite benefits… For example, if I punch you in the face, burn your house down, spit on you, and kick you in the balls, but give you a dollar, I still committed an act that benefited you ($)… just not in the whole picture.
3 cheers for Lee Myung Bak and George W. Bush.
Cheers for the Korean football team, winning over Jordan.
Looks like we’re going to have a new Triple Crown winner.
wang gon, i now i am not you’re favorite but you are the k history expert. is there any truth to the idea that korea and japan were actually one country prior to choson? i’ve never hear such an acertion in all my years. have any info?
‘I rely on Netflix and its Instant Watch program for such needs.’ bum
any recommendations from the instant watch? me? so far, the only thing i can recommend is ‘30 rock’ which is hilarious. the instant watch section seems to have stuff that’s dated.
and maddlew was right on target, i watched a ‘dex’ episode last night and right at the tail end, i saw the beginnings of showtimes’s ‘what’s next’ announcement. in other words, somebody had recorded it and then uploaded it to that site.
coming after me would be a mistake since i actually buy dvd box sets. for instance, i will be buying all four volumes of ‘yi san’ from kbs even though i can see it all online for free on one of those sites we’ve been talking about. btw, is there some kind name for these kinds of sites?
one last thing, i have the first season box set of ‘the wire’ which has actually been sitting in my closet collecting dust. is this show worth the time? i treated ‘battlestar gallactica’ the same way and was sorry i did since it’s just so good.
anyway you guys have a nice day. .
#64 -
Spoke a little too soon… Big Brown finished dead last. Desormeaux said the horse wasn’t fit and he had to ease him up.
Let the recriminations against the trash-talking trainer begin.
A friend of mine got jumped by some drunk college students two nights ago. He was walking home late at night with his Korean wife. He knows enough Korean to have caught the words “Migook michin so gogi” as they attacked.
There were four of them, and my friend had one arm in a sling. Who does that?
My buddy is OK. He’s ex-law enforcement, and he knows how to make aggressive drunks rethink their situation.
I wish I was making this up. I’ve found the whole mad cow thing to be hilarious, right up until my friend’s life was in danger because of it. Now it’s not so funny.
Just venting.
The Office may be one of the funniest show I have seen in my relatively short life (both versions, though I like U.S. version better because of Steve Carell and Jenna Fischer). Heroes is pretty good, as is a relatively obscure British comedy known as ‘Red Dwarf’.
Damn, even I get nationalistic watching this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....re=related
thanks, bum. i’ll check out that obscure brit show you mentioned.
and thank God for Yi Sun Shin. he trully deserves his place as on the world’s greatest military strategists of all time.
sorry, sperwer.
#2 What a class act!
“Next time I’ll mark inside jokes with a smiley emoticon to help you out.”
Thanks, I’m sure I’m not the only one who didn’t know the background to your comment.
Shame, you ruin it by following up with this fallacious comment, “Barge in anytime, but have the wisdom to back down when you’ve clearly misinterpreted a comment.” My comments are clearly in response to UT Vidreams unrealistic inference that I should read all the back posts and be aware of the “background” of your comments and thereby realise that your comments were intended in jest. In the circumstances my initial response was not unreasonable, since not knowing said background I had not in fact CLEARY misinterpreted the comment. Having been made aware, I have not repeated or reasserted said initial response, but have as noted responded to UT Vidreams unrealistic inferences as stated above.
Albeit considering your obvious generally very intelligent remarks on all manner of topics, I’m not quite sure why he felt you were unable to defend yourself. Perhaps, there are Gentleman still in the world!!
UT Videam #54,
“Check out comments 17, 65, and 69 on the “Politicians Pissed at Ambassador Vershbow for ‘Science’ Comment.”
Excellent diversionary response to my question; or is this a sideways way of answering that I should go back through 3-4 days of old posts to see if there is any background between commenters before commenting myself!!!!
Albeit, indeed ironic, I concede happily that had I known of this exchange I would have realised Sonagi’s comment was in jest and would not have responded as I did.
Did you alos notice the irony, of Sonagi repeating the use of a plural form that she claimed to never wish to see again.
Perhaps you also noticed the irony of the quote you referred to in defence of Sonagi being what some may actiually consider a lie by her, since if YOU knew the background of their “bi-lateral” exchanges you would know that it is not in fact in the first time Sonagi has seen the term “fora” used, it is not even the first time she has seen it used by Won Joon Choe.
UT Videam #54,
Your response is also somewhat fallacious, given your expectations of context in responses;
“Your giving Sonagi grief for using “fora” is particularly ironic in light of those earlier comments.”
It is clear from the context of my initial response that my objection was to the “apparent” grief being given by Sonagi to simplify the english in a statement that was already a very simple and perfectly understandable.
My “giving grief” on the use of fora was clearly a PS, and as such I’d of thought, particularly in the context of the preceding comments, a clear inidcation that it was itself intended as an ironic comment. I in fact have no objection whatsoever to the use of the term “fora” since it is perfectly correct albeit slightly obscure english. My use was to highlight the apparent irony, of exhorting someone to simplify their use of english and in the same sentence using the obscure term “public fora”.
not this year-and that’s a wonderful thing. i really would’ve hated to have seen the race go to a bunch of losers like dutrow et al. as one reporter noted, the management team for big brown “was turning the triple crown into something with all the crassness of a nascar event.”
Is it just me, or are blog postings here getting progressively longer and longer?
Well, I’m somewhat guilty of it I guess. However, I do appreciate the Reader’s Digest version also.
i hope you guys don’t mind me changing my avatar so much. it’s just i want to promote famous asians to other asians. that’s why i always use chinese characters. of course, not all are asian but most will be.
of course, the sphere and it’s color and size, and the way it’s proportioned says much about my views about the subject of any given avatar.
please enjoy my art.
What makes you think anyone give a damn?
well, the fact that someone would write to me asking who i think gives a damn about my avatars is a good place to start. lol!
so you the lady in the av? i bet you can’t even read the characters.