Korea is very rude to Mozilla. And I like me some Firefox. It's come along way from the red-headed stepchild of Netscape Navigator (R.I.P.) but Korea still hasn't caught the wave. A reported 98.66% of the internet is viewed through the eyes of Internet Explorer in Korea. In fact to even view and print government or utility files online one must use I.E. due to the proprietary extension ActiveX. Oh, and by the way, me and ActiveX got some history. We're not cool. He stays away from me and I stay away from him. But ActiveX is an integral part of typical South Korean web design. In fact, it's mandatory by law for purchasing practically anything online. For the longest time, individual Cyworld pages couldn't even be viewed on... Show more

 Teaching English as a Second Language in Korea. UPDATE (3/2009) added a few new links If you choose to make Korea your home for the next year as an English teacher, you will have to jump through a series of hoops to get in the system. It isn't as easy as it used to be (prior to March 2008). First and foremost, one would generally need an E-2 visa. A common exception to this rule is holders of F-4 visas. Those who qualify for an F-4 are of Korean heritage. Otherwise, this post is geared for prospective E-2 holders from America. To be considered for any teaching position in Korea, you must first qualify under these terms: Hold at least a Bachelor's degree in any discipline Hold a valid passport from either Australia,... Show more

Visa regulations. Ever changing and always with controversy it seems. I should point out that to apply for a visa to go to Korea, one must go through their local Korean consulate. The three most common reasons to visit Korea are for traveling (tourist), teaching (English), and business (international). For this blog entry, we will focus on the first one. Next week will focus on the E-2 teaching visa. Visa application information changes somewhat frequently so it's important to check with official online resources prior to making plans. This post is intended to provide an overview from a strikingly handsome American citizen's point of view. Below is a breakdown of the tourist (C-3 90-day) visa. Information was pulled from the... Show more

By now, we should all know that the Korean culture emphasizes the group over the individual. One of the ways we can see this is in the occurrence of MT: Membership Training. Don't let the name fool you, there really isn't any "training" involved. Let me explain... Often, groups of people will go somewhere together overnight or for a weekend to get to know each other better. Usually this involves lots of games, food, alcohol, and bonding time, but lacks in sleep. ^^ This phenomenon is called MT (for whatever reason), and many groups of people will go: work groups, students, people who are going to be together for any length of time.. I am by no means an expert on this subject, but I have had the opportunity to attend two of these... Show more

Not music related, but today I wanted to talk about somethng else: MapleStory! MapleStory is a MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) created by South Korean gaming company Wizet back in 2003. Free to download and totally free to play (though you can spend real-life cash to get special items to alter your appearance and to enhance gameplay), MapleStory soon expanded, creating versions for players of other countries - typically, IP address forces you to play a specific version of MapleStory, although it seems the only restriction on KoreaMS is having a KSSN. So if you live in Japan you can't play GlobalMS, and if you live in America you can't play EuropeMS, etc. Each version has certain things that are exclusive to it, be... Show more