The entire city of Luang Prabang (current population: about 80,000) in northern Laos was declared a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1995. The royal capital of the Kingdom of Laos until the communist takeover in 1975, Luang Prabang is noted for its dozens of Buddhist temples.

The following was written by Michael Buckley for Malaysia Airlines in 1998:

If you’re up at the crack of dawn, you can catch the town’s most extraordinary sight. Scores of saffron-robed monks file out of the monasteries and make their way barefoot through streets, bearing gold-topped wooden alms bowls. Along the route, locals wait to present sticky rice and other food to the monks–thereby earning merit by performing this good deed. Theravadan Buddhism dictates that women cannot stand higher than monks, so women kneel on bamboo mats to present food, while local men stand; as a mark of respect, women wear a traditional shawl, while men drape one shoulder with a white scarf. A long line of monks creates a swirl of orange, accentuated by the soft morning light; the scene is framed by russet monastery roofs, tall palm trees, and whitewashed colonial housing. Within an hour, the monks complete their rounds, and melt back into the monasteries-and the streets become quite ordinary again.

Although this ritual can be seen in numerous parts of Southeast Asia, it’s particularly striking in Luang Prabang because of the density of temples and the concentration of monks. Out of a population of 15,000 residents, there are over 500 monks in this former royal capital of Laos. The oldest part of the city is where royalty and nobility once resided–patrons of temple building in centuries past.

Click on the “Read More” link for gallery.

Congratulations President-elect Obama. Congratulations America.

Now let’s get to work.

p.s. - Good luck in your future gig with Fox News, Governor Palin.

Palin received a prank phone call from Montreal comedian Marc-Antoine Audette, who was pretending to be French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Palin, for her part, did a great impression of an Alaskan salmon as she took the bait hook, line, and sinker.

My favorite part:

“We have the equivalent of Joe the Plumber in France. It’s called Marcel, the guy with bread under his armpit.”

My second favorite part:

“You know we have a lot in common also, because … from my house I can see Belgium.”

Read about the prank here and listen to it here.

I read this news about Supersonics co-thief Aubrey McClendon and I have to admit it brought a smile to my face.

Wow! The man was worth more than $2 billion and still he leveraged his company stock.

Aubrey, you greedy fuck!

Oh, did I mention that he lost $1.86 billion in three days? Did I also mention that I have a smile on my face?

The South Korean won rose 1 percent against the dollar on Thursday, ending a four-session losing streak in its most volatile day for a decade as the central bank cut base rates and authorities were spotted selling dollars.

The local currency is expected to find further support on coordinated actions to ease a global credit crunch and on hightened [sic] caution over possible dollar-selling intervention by the country’s foreign exchange authorities, analysts said.

But the won is likely to remain weak on persistent worries about a global credit crisis and possible recession, they added.

‘The won may rebound further, probably to as much as to 1,200 (per dollar), as global authorities may announce further measures during the G7 meeting later this week,’ said Jeon Seung-ji, an analyst at Samsung Futures Inc.

‘Still, no measures can solve the current situation,’ she added.

Still, many market players doubt the interest rate cut could support the won long, with moves in global financial markets likely to decide the currency’s direction.

If U.S. stock markets fall further tonight, the won will head south again. Unless we see signs of stabilisation in global financial markets, the won’s direction will not change,’ said an analyst at a local futures firm.

(The Dow Jones fell more than 600 points last night/this morning.)

South Korea’s top policy makers kept warning against expectations for further falls in the currency.

Hold on to your hats. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.

…last year, for the first time, more babies here were adopted by South Koreans than foreigners, as the government announced recently with great fanfare: 1,388 local adoptions compared with 1,264 foreign ones. What is more, South Korea” which still is one of the top countries from which Americans adopt has set a goal of eliminating foreign adoptions altogether by 2012.

While it’s certainly good that progress is being made in changing Korean society’s perception of adoption, the country still has a long way to go…

A middle-aged couple now living in a suburb of Seoul learned long ago that the husband was sterile. But he was reluctant to consider adopting, unwilling to accept his condition and afraid of the lingering prejudice against adopted children. In a Confucian society that still values bloodlines, where many people keep detailed records of their ancestors, he was worried that adopted children might face difficulties in their careers or with marriage prospects.

So when the couple decided to adopt three years ago, they chose to fake a pregnancy, as many adoptive parents here do. The couple moved, and the husband, now 43 and a real estate agent, switched jobs.

The wife, an employee at a telecommunications company, began wearing maternity clothes over a special pillow, made by a company recommended by the couple’s adoption agency.

In light of this, it is irresponsible for the government to set a target of 2012 to eliminate all foreign adoptions.

The government’s goal has received much media attention and popular support here. But adoption agencies and some adoptive parents and experts say the government’s new policies are concerned less with the children’s welfare than with saving face. Increasing the age gap and allowing singles to adopt have lowered the standards for domestic adoptions in a way that could be detrimental to the children, they say, even as the government has created unnecessary obstacles to foreign ones.

Ah, yes. Kibun…”saving face”. We’ve got an image to look after, children be damned.

Palin defended the government’s $700 billion rescue plan. She defended the surge in Iraq, where her own son is now serving. She defended sending more troops to Afghanistan. And yet, at the same time, she declared that Americans who pay their fair share of taxes to support all those government-led endeavors should not be considered patriotic.

I only wish she had been asked: Governor Palin, if paying taxes is not considered patriotic in your neighborhood, who is going to pay for the body armor that will protect your son in Iraq? Who is going to pay for the bailout you endorsed? If it isn’t from tax revenues, there are only two ways to pay for those big projects: printing more money or borrowing more money. Do you think borrowing money from China is more patriotic than raising it in taxes from Americans? That is not putting America first. That is selling America first.

Not wanting to be left out, I threw together one of my own.

RIGHT: Naked man represents the Korean economy. The little splash you see below is the Korean won.

Government officials - while admitting that won’s fall threatens inflation - claim that this is not a repeat of the 1997 financial crisis, when the won briefly traded at levels of over 1900 to the dollar, but analysts insist the won is likely to slide further.

Read more about it here.

Take THAT, fan death conspiracists!

Good stuff! Shame the Dear Leader was sick and couldn’t make it.

Auditioning for KJI’s recovery party?

Jumping through hoops - literally - for his next meal perhaps?

You can see more interesting photos and videos of redjef25’s September trip to North Korea by clicking on the link at the end of the video.

Tomorrow (October 3) is Korea’s “National Foundation Day”, or “Tangun Day”. If you want to know more about it, click here.

R.I.P.

In a McCain presidency this woman will be one 72-YEAR-OLD man’s death from becoming the LEADER OF THE UNITED STATES ladies and gentlemen.

Here is Saturday Night Live’s spoof of the Palin interview. It would be funnier than it is except that it’s not much different from the original - which is f*ing scary.

…

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…

…

…

…

Shocker.

“South Korea hasn’t yet banned Chinese dairy products, and hasn’t found tainted milk products from China, the nation’s food ministry said on its Web site. The government is examining butter from the mainland and will test future imports, it said.”

Odd behavior from a country that went batshit crazy over infinitesimal odds of contracting mad cow disease from American beef. Are we concerned about the safety of food products or aren’t we?

Will the kissing of China’s ass ever cease?

UPDATE: Korea finally banned Chinese dairy products on September 25.

To those Americans who don’t belong to the 26.5 million-strong evangelical Christian voter demographic…

God help us.

(and vote Obama - Biden)

“That’s what happens. The guy (KJI) eats too much meat, drinks too much alcohol, and has too much sex. Meat. Alcohol. Sex. Too much of each will kill you. That’s why I don’t eat meat, drink alcohol, or have sex.”

Which promptly led to two thoughts of my own.

1) “Whoa, dude. Waaaayyyy too much information.”

and

2) A life without meat, alcohol, and sex…is it really worth living?

Meet Andrea Fonseka. Born August 29, 1984, Andrea went on to represent Malaysia at the 2004 Miss Universe pagaent. She was voted the World’s Sexiest Woman in 2007 and 2008 by FHM Singapore. Looking at her photos, it’s hard to dispute that.

The following is a conversation Limbaugh had with one of his callers.

CALLER: Would you tend to think that a family in this position,
though, wouldn’t you think that there would be a more watchful eye as
a parent to be watching over these kids so this* doesn’t happen to
them**?

*teenage pregnancy
**teenagers (ie. Bristol Palin)

RUSH: I would certainly hope so, but it’s long past time for this to
happen. The parents*** here are the culprits! (emphasis mine)

***parents (ie. Sarah and Todd Palin)

How about that? Rush lays the blame on Sarah Palin for her daughter’s pregnancy.

Wait a second…this just in…

Ah, it turns out that Limbaugh was talking about the parents of Jamie Lynn Spears…not Bristol Palin. In Bristol’s case he describes it as simply a classic “average American” mistake, endearing her to born-again Christians. No stainin’ the (Sarah) Palin.

Never mind.

I guess it’s time I get off my ass…no, wait…sit on my ass and type a few words.

Whew! Married life is somethin’, I tell ya. Lots of adjustments. Nearly all of them positive.  But perhaps the biggest one for me is the sense of guilt I feel when I sit down for too long in front of the computer to surf the Internet. I’m that addicted. It’s pathetic.

Mrs. Iceberg is currently back in Viet Nam.  Her sister is getting married this weekend. She’ll be back next week (Mrs. Iceberg, not her sister).

She has been adjusting to Korea pretty well. Thank god for Skype. Being able to keep in touch with home on a regular basis (FOR FREE!) has helped ease her transition. The only real difficulties she has had have been finding Vietnamese ingredients and her inability to speak Korean. Regarding the former, we found a few stores around Ansan Station that carry a scattering of Vietnamese products which means we’ll be eating less “fusion” food (Vietnamese dishes cooked with Korean substitute ingredients). As far as the latter goes, well, before she came to Korea she was asking, “Why would I want to learn Korean?” but a few days after she arrived she changed her tune. I’m going to start teaching her some Korean when she gets back.

The wedding went off without a hitch. There were a lot more people there than I expected. I’d guess around 200. It was an outdoor wedding. There were two enormous tents - one set up outside of her brother’s house and the other at his neighbor’s house. I really couldn’t tell you if it was a traditional Vietnamese wedding or not, but it was cool. Mrs. Iceberg and I walked around to each table before the wedding to exchange pleasantries and toasts with all the guests. We’re talking about 30 tables, at about one-quarter of which I downed a small glass of beer and another one-quarter of which I did a shot of Vietnamese “whiskey” (or, as they like to call it: whitkey). I guess I should amend the first sentence of this paragraph to, “As far as I can remember, the wedding went off without a hitch.”

The honeymoon was also nice, though the weather was EXTREMELY hot. We went to a place near the city of Phan Thiet called Mui Ne.  After flying from Hanoi to Saigon (Mrs. Iceberg calls it Saigon, so that’s good enough for me), we rented a private car - complete with driver - and rode about four and a half hours to the resort. The ride was just a liiiiiitle too long. But once we got there, it was fantastic. We stayed in a bungalow on the honeymoon package at the Pandanus Resort. Very, very nice place. If you want to escape from it all, I highly recommend it. I’d rate it 4 1/2 stars and - at about $110 a night - a great bargain.

I guess now would be as good a time as any to throw a few photos at you.

These photos were taken with Mrs. Iceberg’s camera. When we left for Korea, I foolishly left my camera (and my favorite pair of tennis shoes) at her brother’s house.

There are many things to see and do around Mui Ne.  At least that’s what I read on the Internet.  Red sand dunes…white sand dunes…kite flying…a “mini Grand Canyon”.  But it was so hot that the missus and I ventured outside of the resort only once.

So now here I am (and here Mrs. Iceberg soon will be again), slaving away at school and otherwise not doing much else.

Wait!!! That’s not true. It’s fantasy football season again! The IKKFL had its draft last Saturday and it’s looking like the Anyang Andres will reign for the second consecutive year. I kept Tony Romo, Adrian Peterson, and Andre Johnson (who was a tough call over Torry Holt). Then I drafted Anquan Boldan, Antonio Gates (welcome back, Antonio), Marvin Harrison, Kevin Smith, David Garrard, Chester Taylor, the Vikings’ D, Marcedes Lewis, Bobby Engram, Robbie Gould (who was my one mistake…I meant to draft Phil Dawson of Cleveland but clicked on the wrong name…oops), and, with the last pick of the draft, the Browns’ D.

Your defending IKKFL Champion Anyang Andres, ladies and gentlemen.

More to come later…maybe.

I discovered this video while reading this story in the IHT.  The video stars a worldwide cast of thousands - and a guy named Matt Harding, whom you can learn more about at www.wherethehellismatt.com.

In the meantime, watch the video and spend at least a few minutes of your day thinking positive and pleasant thoughts.

Ok, there is one downer to the video.  There is one shot of Matt dancing in front of Namdaemun (the South Gate) in Seoul, which those of us who live here all know has since burned to ashes.

Did you also know that the acronym for the exchange is “HOSE”?

I think they might want to reconsider the name, for there are two ways to perceive this. The first being, “If you invest here and end up getting hosed, don’t say we didn’t warn you.”

And the second being, “Get yourself some dong and try your luck with the HOSE…”

Childish. I know.

Upon further reflection I realized there could be some confusion here…the dong and hose reference is meant to be a (stupid) joke on the double-phallic reference.

Whew!

I hate bureaucracy.

Monday: First stop, the U.S. embassy.  Found out that I didn’t need a couple of papers that I had prepared.  No probs.  I was reminded of the quote, “It’s better to have a gun and not need it than to need a gun and not have it.” (No, I’m not an advocate of the NRA.)  Basically I just had to make a couple of affidavits - “I’m single and I want to marry the future Mrs. Iceberg because I love her.”  Total time at the U.S. embassy - about 45 minutes.  Easy enough.

Second stop, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Hanoi to have the documents authenticated.  The MOFA man asked me what documents I needed authenticated.  “I don’t know.  You tell me.  Whatever is necessary to marry a Vietnamese citizen,” I told him (very politely, of course).  He asked me which documents the U.S. embassy told me to have authorized.  I said that they didn’t tell me anything, but they did give me a piece of paper that basically said, “You may need to take any affidavits created at the U.S. embassy to the following address…” so he asked for the two affidavits.  “Is that it?  You don’t need these other documents?” I asked him, showing him my birth certificate and health examination report.  He said no.  He gave me a slip of paper that said to come back at 10 a.m. on Wednesday to pick up the authenticated documents.  Total time at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs: about an hour.

Tuesday: Had our wedding photographs taken.  We were originally going to do it on Friday, but decided to move it up since we had a day to kill.  Economizing our time and all.  Total time at the photo studio: about four hours.

Wednesday: Back to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  Naturally, the pick-up window opened at about 10:30.  We showed them the slip of paper and they found the documents, then told us to take the slip of paper to the cashier to pay before they gave us the documents.  Seems we could have done that from the start, but what do I know?  (I should point out that on Monday the man specifically said to come directly to the pick-up window on Wednesday.)  Total time at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs: about two hours.

Authenticated documents in tow, it was off to Bac Giang - the future Mrs. Iceberg’s hometown - which is about 50 kilometers from Hanoi.

Second stop, the Ministry of Justice.  We presented all of our documents to the only man working that afternoon.  The one man who, of the four regular employees, didn’t know which (of my) documents were necessary for submission.  “The other three employees are at a meeting in Hanoi,” he told us, “so you should come back tomorrow morning.  Oh, and you should have these (the future Mrs. Iceberg’s) authenticated documents authenticated at the Bac Giang office as well.  Oh, and this copy of Mr. Iceberg’s passport (that I can compare side-by-side with the actual passport right here in person) won’t do.  You need to take his passport to the Bac Giang office, have a photocopy made there, and have them authenticate it.”  For a fee, of course.  Total time at Ministry of Justice: about 30 minutes.

Third stop: the Bac Giang Office of Something or Another.  Took the future Mrs. Iceberg’s authenticated documents to have them authenticated again.  Took my passport as well.  Fortunately, there was a cafe located about a five-minute walk from the office where we waited while they authenticated to their heart’s desire.  Total time: about an hour.

Thursday: Back to the Ministry of Justice.  A brief interview with some representative there.  A sample of the questions asked:

“Do you want to marry her?”

“Why?”

“Do you think she is a good person?”

And vice-versa to her, but also this one:

“Why are you able to speak English?”

To which the future Mrs. Iceberg replied that she had learned some English in college.  Which led to the following bombshell:

“You went to college?  Why didn’t you submit a document representing that fact?  You need to get that document and - after having it authenticated - present it to the ministry.”

To which I thought:

“You

have

got

to

be

fucking

kidding

me.”

The future Mrs. Iceberg got on the phone to her cousin in Hanoi and asked her to pick up a copy of her college registration and bring it to Bac Giang.  She got right on it and arrived about two hours later.  Lovely family the future Mrs. Iceberg has.  Lovely family indeed.

The representative at the ministry also informed us that I should have had my health examination document (which was obtained in Korea) authenticated at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (thanks for the heads-up, Mr. MOFA guy), so therefore it was useless.

Ah, but he was wrong.  He underestimated the cleverness of the future Mrs. Iceberg.  We bolted to the local hospital where - for a fee - we persuaded a doctor to write up a quick evaluation on-the-spot based on the information in the original health evaluation.  Since this new document was made in Viet Nam, it wasn’t necessary to travel back to Hanoi and wait two days for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to authenticate it.  We only had to go to the Bac Giang Office of Something or Another and wait an hour - at the nearby cafe.  Oh yeah, we also had to have her college registration document authenticated.

Total time at the Ministry of Justice, the hospital, and the Office of Something or Another: most of the morning and afternoon.

Meanwhile, I was thinking, “How exactly is her cousin working for the local police department helping us in all of this?”

After our final trip to the Ministry of Justice in the late afternoon to submit ALL of the required documents (finally!), I learned the answer.  Apparently, the government does an thorough check of all information provided.  Thorough meaning - in this case - getting around to it whenever they feel like it.  Thanks to her cousin, that process will be streamlined.  Or so I hope.

Long story short less long: The footwork has all been done and now it is time to wait.  Barring any surprises, the wedding will be held in July.

Yeah, I know that the name of the phone is “The Miniskirt”, which is meant to target the young-females-who-purchase-new-phones-every-six-months market, but the ad sure seems to be suggesting something else entirely. A sort visual “double entendre”, if you will.

You know, it is not easy pulling together the paperwork necessary for getting married in Viet Nam - or any other foreign country, I would imagine - especially when one lives neither there nor in his/her home country.

All I can say is, thank god for the Internet. I can’t imagine what someone in my situation would have done in the pre-Internet age.

Having said that, the Internet is not a perfect beast. There is information out there to get you started, but the imperfect manner in which it is presented requires a lot of trial-and-error to get things right. I have spent hours visiting and re-visiting embassy websites, other government websites, and even blogs trying to make sense of the process and requirements for marrying the soon-to-be Mrs. Iceberg. One website will say one thing, and another will say another thing. I’d get contact numbers, but on the phone one person would say one thing, and another person would say another.

The quest began with a Google search, “marriage to a Vietnamese citizen”. I was led to the American consulate in Ho Chi Minh City and the Vietnamese embassy in Washington, D.C. websites. Each provided a list of required documents. “Alright, easy enough,” I thought. Boy, was I naive.

For example, one required document is a certificate of “No Marriage Record” from your state of residence (in my case - Washington state). Basically, the “No Marriage Record” certificate is obtained after the state searches your records starting from legal age (18) to the present and finds - naturally - no record of marriage.

I looked over the website for the Washington State Department of Health (which handles vital records), but could find no information about such a certificate. The next day (time differences, you know) I called the department and the representative on the phone said they didn’t have anything like that. I explained to him that the Government of Viet Nam requires such a document and, if my home state doesn’t provide it, what did he suggest I do? He told me to contact the U.S. embassy in Korea.

So I did. They told me that oftentimes, in lieu of a certificate of “No Marriage Record”, the Vietnamese government will accept an “affidavit of eligibility to marry” notarized by the embassy. “Cool,” I thought, but to be sure I sent an email to the Vietnamese embassy in Korea asking if that was true. The reply was, “yes”.

Off I went to the embassy.

I took a number at the embassy (only about 37 people in front of me) and, while waiting, looked over the different forms available. I saw it. “Affidavit of Eligibility to Marry”. I took the form and filled it out and, when my number was called, I went to the counter.

“Is the person you’re going to marry Korean?” the woman at the counter asked.

“No, she’s Vietnamese,” I responded.

“Uh, this form is only for someone who is going to marry a Korean citizen,” she informed me.

“I see. Then what form should I fill out?” I asked.

“What exactly are you trying to do?”

I explained to her about the certificate of “No Marriage Record” and how I was told by both the U.S. and Vietnamese embassies that an “Affidavit of Eligibility to Marry” received from the embassy would serve in place of the certificate, so I was there to create that affidavit. She told me again that the form was only for Americans marrying Korean citizens. Frustrated and perplexed, I asked her if there was some general affidavit form that I could fill out and have notarized. She handed me the standard affidavit form and told me to write what I wanted to attest to and bring it back to her.

I sat down, wrote “I am eligible to marry” and handed the form to her along with my passport. A few minutes later another woman called my name. I went to the counter and she asked me,

“What exactly are you trying to do here?”

Again, I explained my situation.

“I don’t think this is likely to suffice, but I’ll stamp it for you,” she told me - an expression of doubt on her face.

Fast forward about three weeks to when I finally had some time to venture back into Seoul (at least when I had time to go during regular business hours). Feeling uneasy, I decided that I’d better pay a visit to the Vietnamese embassy to check if this affidavit was sufficient (as well as confirm that all of the other documents I had gathered were correct). I was pointed toward a woman working there and I proceeded to show her my documents and explain to her my unique situation.

“How did it play out?” you ask?

“I don’t know exactly what forms you need, because every province in Vietnam is different. Why don’t you go to the American embassy in Hanoi?” she suggested, appearing a bit annoyed that I was presenting her with an “outside-of-the-box” scenario.

“If I could go to the embassy in Hanoi, I gladly would,” I told her, “but I live and work in Korea and to this point it’s been impossible to visit Hanoi during the week. I already know which forms are required. I would just like you to tell me if everything is right.” I specifically pointed to the goofy affidavit and proceeded to explain again my trouble.

“I don’t know. You have to go to the embassy in Hanoi,” she said again, “and you need to get these other documents stamped.”

Thoroughly aggravated, I left the Vietnamese embassy and took a taxi to the U.S. embassy to get the documents stamped - as well as to see if someone there might be able to ease my mind. Again, I took a number and waited. This time, about 42 people in front of me.

At the window, I presented the documents and said that I needed to have them notarized.

“Are you marrying a Korean citizen?” the woman asked me.

“No, a Vietnamese citizen,” I replied.

“Oh, I see. Please sit down and wait.”

About fifteen minutes later, a woman called my name and I went into a room to talk with her. It turns out that she had worked for some time in the American embassy in Ho Chi Minh City and had more knowledge of the situation than anyone else.

“Are you here with your fiancee?” she asked me.

“No, she’s in Hanoi,” I said.

“Then we cannot stamp these documents,” she informed me.

“Why not?” I asked.

“Because her name is on the documents, so she needs to be present.”

I went on to explain that, while her name was on the documents, it was not in any part of the document where a sworn statement occurred, so I couldn’t understand why it was relevant - but to no avail. I gave up and was preparing to leave when the woman told me,

“Also, you are probably going to need a certificate of ‘No Marriage Record’ from your state of residence.”

I’d come full circle.

Fully exasperated, I resigned myself to the thought that we would have to push the date of marriage back a bit. I have a week off at the beginning of June and that is when we planned to submit all of the documents to the Ministry of Justice in Viet Nam, who then proceed to take weeks to decide if they will grant a certificate for marriage*. Now, we’d simply have to use that time to visit the embassy in Hanoi and see if we could sort through the confusion once and for all.

Then, on a whim, last Monday (night) I decided to contact the Washington State Department of Health again. This time the person on the phone told me that they could indeed provide a certificate for “No Marriage Record” and explained the process for having it rushed to me. I faxed all of the relevant information to the department, paid for it by credit card, and have been checking non-stop the UPS tracking number for its status. At this very moment it is in transit - currently located in a small city near my home. There could be a knock at my door any moment now.

Thank god for the Internet.

*The future Mrs. Iceberg has a cousin who works for the police department in her hometown who is pulling some strings to cut down on the process time for the “certificate for marriage”. We originally thought this would mean the document would be ready the first week of June, but now it is looking like it will be about twenty days (rather than about five or six weeks). Not sure about that though. Could end up being only a day or two. Depends entirely on whose desk the application winds up on and what kind of mood they’re in.

UPDATE - Not more than fifteen minutes after I posted this, the UPS delivery guy showed up at my door. Everything seems to be set. Cross your fingers.

New additions to the Groove Session are “DJ Fin”, “Kid-B”, and “3rd Coast”.

The drugs - said to be the largest haul ever seized (in Viet Nam, presumably) - were found in a shipment of blue jeans from Pakistan and believed headed for Canada.

Call me naive, but I had no idea that Canada was an importer of cannabis. Unless, of course, you count Canadian ESL teachers working in Korea.

While DWIs should never be taken lightly, Tatupu is normally a stand-up guy and has been contrite since his arrest, so I’m willing to write this off as a one-time blunder.

The real reason that I wanted to write about this was to provide this quote from the Seattle P-I article:

Tatupu’s 2006 Hyundai Accent first blazed past the officer just after 2 a.m., about 10 blocks from where he pulled over on Northeast 85th Street.

That gave me a chuckle.

Check it out.

Also added “GI Korea, One Free Korea, and Roboseyo”.

If you’ve ever been there and were sufficiently impressed, you can vote for Ha Long Bay as one the “new seven wonders of nature”.

It was some time around the turn of the 21st century and it involved two co-workers of mine. To avoid confusion, I’ll refer to the co-workers as “Mr. A” and “Mr. B”.

Mr. A had been dating a woman for about three weeks. One weekend he asked me if I’d like to go on a double date with the two of them and his girlfriend’s best friend. For reasons that now escape me I was unable to join them, so Mr. A instead invited Mr. B.

It seems that the night of the double date Mr. B and the best friend hit it off quite nicely. The four of them went back to Mr. A’s place for drinks and an hour or so later the best friend and Mr. B scurried off to his place.

As guys who have not reached full maturity (which in my case no longer applies, thank you very much) are prone to do, Mr. A and Mr. B shared with each other what occurred in each other’s rooms that night. Suffice to say, both couples had done the deed.

Fast forward a few days. Mr. A and Mr. B came over to my place for some beers. I’ll now paraphrase what they said were conversations that took place between the respective couples.

CONVERSATION ONE

Mr. A’s Girlfriend (AG) - I feel so guilty.
Mr. A - Why?
AG - Because you and I had sex, but my friend and your friend only went back to his room and talked that night.
Mr. A - Why do you think that? Maybe she’s not being truthful with you.
AG - Of course she is. She’s my best friend. She would never lie to me.
Mr. A - Did you tell her that we had sex?
AG - Of course not! She would think that I’m easy.

CONVERSATION TWO

Mr. B’s Date (BD) - I feel so guilty.
Mr. B - Why?
BD - Because you and I had sex, but my friend and your friend only stayed in his room and talked.
Mr. B - Why do you think that? Maybe she’s not being truthful with you.
BD - Of course she is. She’s my best friend. She would never lie to me.
Mr. B - Did you tell her that we had sex?
BD - Of course not! She would think that I’m easy.

There was a time when I used to shake my head and roll my eyes in disbelief at such stories - and there were many of a similar vein. Not because I didn’t believe the story, mind you, but because I was dumbfounded that such an environment really existed. But now I no longer care. After all, it’s not my psychosis. This issue is now the sole possession of people like baduk and wjk. And to anyone who is confronted with their sort of prattle my advice would be to nod your head, say “Uh huh,” and move on.

Nokia leads the way in the cell phone market, though that could change down the road as Samsung has unveiled plans to build its first mobile phone plant in Viet Nam - with an estimated investment of $670 million.

(Yes, this is the first of what will likely be many Viet Nam-related posts.)