Oh, no! You're favorite radio station changed formats!

Hey sports fans.

I've decided to make an official format change here. Normally there would be a change in font, background, and picture, but I'm honestly quite happy with what I give got here, so the change will not be ascetically different. I'm done autobio-blogging. This is now my weekly(roughly) column. I'm going to write about whatever I want, and you're going to read. I don't mean to say I'll be writing about politics or some sort of op-ed piece. It's just not going to be "what I did this weekend" anymore. If a great little story happens I'll tell it, but it's not the main goal. Granted, that's not all that different than what'd been going on the past couple of weeks, but now it's official.

For those that don't know though, Matt came to visit last week. It was a lot of fun, though tiring, but it was also a really good week for me in a sense of clarity. Having an old friend in my new environment created a sort of contrast that made for a lot of clarity. And after all that clarity we managed to get him on the plane Sunday morning after a night of dancing Filipinos and Vomiting Wolves. The whole trip was an accomplishment, but another story far too long to tell.

I 've managed to get back into gambling on football. Don't worry immediate relatives, I only gamble between $10 and $20 a week(or more if I won anything the past week). I love it. It's stimulating, it's never racking. It's something teaching is not for me. For as much as I enjoy the children, and have a lot of fun at work, it's also not exactly the most difficult work I've ever done. I go to the school I look at the teachers book, I do what it says. It's a simple system. An optimist would call it an easy job, a pessimist would say it wasn't stimulating. I'd say it's somewhere inbetween. I've been getting the thrill of stress from my gambling though, just pretend my $10 bet is a $10k bet. For those of you who don't gamble on sports, I suggest it. This week I also suggest taking New England and giving the points. It's a lock.

I've felt recently, and I suppose it's what I've been wrestling with and why I haven't been spending a lot of time around here, that I've reached a point in my life where I can't explain myself. Like, my story is just too big, too involved, and too complicated. In the past things were fairly simple I guess-or perhaps I was just too young to have any difficult back story, but these days I don't even bother. It would take far too long, and is far too useless to tell "my story" in any sort of micro-way. I haven't settled on that being a good thing or a bad thing. I guess it's called being an adult-but I'm not sure that you can call me that. Last night I was having a discussion about how cool it'd be to get a 5 minute shopping spree in a video game/electronics store.

Also, I spent at least 30 minutes at Gyongbuk palace last week discussing how awesome it'd be to rent it out to play paintball there. We decided, assuming it was a global heritage site, it'd probably cost at least $3 billion.

I sent some more money home this week. God has the price of the dollar fallen. I've read about it and all, but when I send the money home I get to see it personally. I've gained something like 3 cents on the dollar.(Which is a lot when multiplied by thousands of dollars) I fear for America. I really do. November 2008 can't come fast enough, and it's probably too little too late.

But enough doom and gloom, and typical 'my country is going to hell' crap. I'm not sure what adventures I'll have to inspire me for the next 5 months. Alex is leaving BCM to go to another school on the far side of town. Everyone at work assumes I'm leaving too now. I'm not. I'm sticking it out. It's going to suck though, I don't have any other friends on this half of town. I think I may go into a winter of deep introspection and heavy drinking. Those are always good times. I'll come out the side even less sure of what I think. Only more positive of what I don't know. That seems to be the path of life.

Ok, so I'm in a heavy mood tonight I guess. I didn't think I was, but that seems to be what's coming out.

This weeks quick 'My students say the darndest things' update: Last week we were playing a game and I asked if they wanted to play boys vs. girls or just team 1 team 2. One boy says "Teacher we have to play 1 vs 2!" I ask why. He says "Because the girls are easy!". I tell him they're far too young to be easy, that girls don't start getting easy until at least the 9th grade. He was confused, but agreed to play boys vs. girls anyway.

Well, the older gentleman that runs the store across the street is drunk and yelling again, so I think I'll watch him for awhile out my window.

Keep in touch. Mahalo.

-Next week: The story of Korean foundation: How god married a garlic eating bear, or Why Jack Bauer has ruined my perception of International Politics. (Both true stories)