Jedi Mind Tricks and Google Voice will bring Change

When Obama was elected, everyone believed the world would instantly change. Well, I have always believed that if Google was elected president then the world WOULD change.

Getting to the point, there have been two new technology releases that make this blogger think that change is finally coming!
The first thing that caught my attention and really excites me is the Uncle Milton's "Star Wars" themed- FORCE TRAINER! It's a new toy that "harnesses the same technology doctors use to monitor brain waves." Basically, the toy gives you the ability to control the rise and fall of a pingpong ball in a clear tube by sensing a change in the user's brain-wave patterns. (I'm hoping that eventually they are able to make a device that actually let's you move other objects with your mind. Then again, wouldn't that make people similar to "Sylar" from Heroes or some other superhero?)
The next BIG release is Google Voice which I had been told about off the record about two years ago in London. At that time I thought that it was only going to be a way for people to make calls and send text messages. When I received an e-mail this morning from Google inviting me to open a Google Voice account, I was taken back by what they were really offering. As the e-mail said: "a service that makes using your current phones much better! Here's what it offers:

• A personal phone number that rings all of your existing phones when people call
• All of your voicemail in one inbox with unlimited online storage and free voicemail transcripts sent to your phone and email
• Low-priced international calling to over 200 countries and free SMS
• Other powerful features like the first phone spam filter to protect you from unwanted callers, the ability to ListenInTM on your voicemail messages while they are being left, conference calling and more

Please note that Google Voice is only available for sign up in the US."

Basically it's like turning your phone into an e-mail inbox. The only bad thing at the moment is that it is only offered in the U.S.. When I initially tried to register, it would not let me because of my IP address. I had to mask my IP so that I could register. (I was afraid all the good number would be taken if I didn't register now. Just like when facebook offered user names and I waited and then wasn't able to get a better name.) I've now tested it out about and am very excited to start integrating into my business. The only thing that I like about Skype versus Google voice is that everything is integrated in Skype. Maybe Google Voice will eventually add Google chat on the side and then we would be business! I'm just waiting for the Google Voice Ipod App.

So I hope you are all ready for the world to change. What do you think will be next due to these inventions? Do you think we could elect Google for president?

Livestation for the New Generation

What the hell am I talking about?!?! Where the heck has my technology blog posts been?

Guess what!?! They are coming back! The first thing I have to share with everyone is something that I was just introduced to today. A friend of mine suggested I check this out, LiveStation. I have a feeling this new software will change my life while living abroad. No longer will I feel so distant from American television. (Yes, I missed American television. Where I could waste hours on end finding reruns to watch). Now, I don't have to wait a day before I can watch my favorite sitcoms to be uploaded online! I can watch new episodes live online at the same time everyone is watching them at home. The best part..(drumroll)... It's free!
Who needs to pay for cable anymore. When you can have everything on your computer. I hate to say it but, Wall-E is coming true. We just have to remember to shut down the trusty computer and take a stroll outside. Speak to people in the here and now world. I'm starting to diverge from the topic.

Back to Livestation! You can watch MTV, FOX, CNN, and other major television networks from all over the world. People can add stations and rate the stations. The nice thing is that it streams clearly. (I'm starting to wonder why I have cable and what the purpose of having cable is). I think the only reason to not cut off cable television is because they don't have all of the channels I watch. (Especially Korean stations now that I am adapting to the society.) Once they have more channels, I think I will say goodbye to my cable and hello to computer television source.
This world is changing fast and I think I'm ready for it. I'll start by using Livestation and then wait for someone to invent a way for my computer to dispense food and beverages at a click of a button.

My Posts on Korea are Moving!

I am moving my blog posts about Korea to another blog: www.carolyninkorea.blogspot.com

I will be writing entries there and keeping this blog for posts about technology. That way the blog keeps true to what is was started for.

I look forward to writing entries on technology again in the future. I apologize if the posts are not frequent enough and if I absent for awhile.

What Happens in Two Weeks is a Mystery

The reasons for delay in posting was due to illness and some recent events. I have recently encountered a few opportunities from meeting people here and am working on the following:

1. I am helping promote and re-do a bar
2. I am going to be in a Moroccan TV show or movie that is being taped here about two Moroccan guys living in South Korea. I may help in the production of the show as well as being on the show. This is still being worked out but it is a great opportunity none the less.
3. I am looking into starting a tea company here. I can not provide to much information until we have moved further along with it. We will see what happens but that has been keeping me busy as well.
4. Learning Korean so I can speak and understand it
5. Trying to EXPERIENCE Korea

THE RUN DOWN

Wednesday, Jan 28, 2009: I was teaching at my main campus and discovered that the kids LOVE watching video chats. I would bring my Mac (which many people do not own here) to school and would connect to the Internet to call friends and family from home. All of a sudden, the children are swarming around me to see who is talking on my computer. Many of the kids are shy but they still like to see foreigners across the world.

Monday, Feb 2, 2009: This was an interesting day. The director of Bangduk Campus was not there. I usually teach 25 minutes of one class then 25 minutes of another class. This time the director's mother (who I found out runs the campus) wanted me to stay and actually teach some of the classes for 50 minutes which meant the other classes didn't know what to do. It was a confusing day.

Tuesday, Feb 3, 2009: I came to campus and found out that I was going to be evaluated through out the day. The person evaluating me was named Rori (the name from Gilmore Girls). She speaks English very well because she lived in New Zealand for seven years. She can speak Korean but she doesn't know many complicated Korean terms. She had to follow me around and sit in on all my classes. I felt very awkward but I explained to her how this campus was very different than the other campuses.

As we chatted through out the day we discovered that we had a lot in common and she may be teaching at one of my campuses soon. She works in the main GnB office at the moment but is being trained to work as a teacher as well. She ran into some of the same problems that I had when having to do the e-training. We decided to make plans to have dinner the next night.

Wednesday, Feb 4th, 2009: Since Jenny was gone, I had to teach some extra classes. It was back to being thrown into classrooms and not knowing what to go over. Luckily, I can usually ad-lib and teach the lesson without have any preparation. I made it through the day and then met with Rori downtown for some Korean barbecue. She is going to try and introduce me to her Canadian friend who used to work for GnB. He married a Korean woman and is very Christian (this is how she explained him to me). Rori and I are the same age and we live near each other. I'm looking forward to spending a lot of time hanging out with her.

Thursday, Feb 5th, 2009: I received a message from some of the people that were involved in the Japan fiasco. There was some drama but I am hoping that things get resolved. I am currently dealing with trying to dispute the charge of $230 for the ferry. I guess some lessons in life can be expensive...

Anyway, I found out I was going to go hiking with some of the GnB managers and staff on Saturday morning! Then that night I had a business meeting with my co-president and financial adviser on what steps we need to start taking with the tea business. It's beginning to look like I am going to be having a busy couple of months. Then I studied my Korean late into the night to prepare for my test on Friday from Violet.

Friday, Feb 6th, 2009: I forgot that Violet was not going to be at work today so looks like I have more time to study my Korean. I made it to the gym and then went to work. I got a shorter schedule today! Apparently my schedule is going to be changing at the Bolli campus. It was an interesting day and I got to see Gael ( the high school girl that is the daughter of the director of the Bolli campus). When I was done teaching, I didn't have much time because I needed to go downtown to help run a bar event with Brandi. I had a quick dinner downstairs from the school with Gael and then was given a ride home. Gael, her mother and her sister invited me to go bowling on Sunday and I happily accepted. I am starting to feel very popular.

Saturday & Sunday: I went hiking at Aspan mountain with my boss's family, the guy I interviewed for GnB (Eddie), Rori, Krissy (she didn't have an English name so I helped her pick out this name) and some other people. (During the hike I discovered I was in really good shape.) I kept trying to encourage Rori during the entire hike. It took us about an hour an a half to get to the top of the mountain and another hour to get back down. Supposedly the whole mountain takes about seven to eight hours. I think the best part was me continually screaming, "Aja!" which means fighting.

After we finished hiking, we went out for some traditional Korean food. Rori helped me understand what people were talking about and everyone kept trying to teach me new Korean words. Supposedly, if you can drink well then you are a whale.
Next day, I went bowling! The bowling alley's are much smaller than what I'm used to. I felt like their bowling alley was a little bit outdated. It didn't matter in the end because at least they seemed to work correctly. What I didn't know was that Gael's family didn't know how to bowl! I actually thought it was a lot more fun that they had never bowled.

After winning two out of three, we went to a restaurant where Gael's family often eat at. It was at this time that Gael asked me if I could fill out a letter of recommendation for her student exchange program application. I really hope that she gets to go to America. She wants to live with a host family in either California, Florida, or Virginia (I recommended that she look into going here). Anyone interested in hosting a smart Korean high school student? I wish I could but I don't think they would allow me...

I tried out one of the DVD rooms! You pay 13,000 won for a room and can watch as many movies as you want. It's so nice!

I think that's mostly everything... I will be moving my blog posts about my adventures in Korea to another location. This blog will return to posts about technology and hopefully I will be able to blog about the interesting technology that Korea has to offer. Like their TV/GPS that is in almost every car. It scares me...

The Pace is picking up!

Sorry for not posting for a week... It was a crazy week. I can't say that anything really exciting happened last week.

Things did get interesting on Thursday and Friday when I tried to finalize my plans to go to Japan with Will, Tim, Jill and Karen! Everyday last week, I tried to get a hold of them to find out where we would be staying and what the plans were for Japan. I finally heard from them on Friday afternoon through Facebook. Will and Tim made the excuse that they wanted to do a boys trip and had thought I was going with Jill and Karen. (I found this interesting since I booked a ferry to Japan online a week ago while I was on the phone with Will. My ferry was the same time as his!) Karen responded saying that her and Jill couldn't go because their visa would not allow them to go. (This later changed at the last minute because their boss gave them a tourist visa in which they could visit other countries.) In other words, I was frantically trying to figure out a way to either book accommodations to go alone or cancel my ferry.

There was a lot of confusion and what I ended up doing was calling my bank and telling them to let me know if I get charged for anything that has to do with Japan. Then, I decided to make other plans for my weekend. (I decided not to go to Japan because I did not want to be stressed out trying to make plans last minute. I would rather have things planned out and feel secure about going by myself)Instead, I went out Friday and met up with my British friends. That night I met a woman named Brandi who is also from Virginia and has been here for five months. She works at a hagwon (private school) but is also a bartender at Club That and Itaewon Crew. She is currently remodeling and updating the club. After chatting for a bit, we became friends and worked out a deal for me to help her re-do the place. (Nice thing to add to the resume). After meeting more people, I made plans to go to Seoul with the Brits the next day.
Sunday: I woke up late and packed all my things and headed to the train station. I was luckily able to buy a ticket at the last minute for the 1 pm train to Seoul. The trip took less than two hours and we were in Seoul! We checked into a hostel called "Inn Dae Won Guesthouse" which cost 15,000 won per night. (VERY CHEAP)

I'm not sure if I can relay all the events that occurred or how much of a character Kirk, Dom and Matt were. Let's just say that; Dom is like Mr.Bean, Matt is like Patrick from Coupling and Kirk is just kooky. Add all three together with me and you get an unforgettable weekend filled with bad english, KFC crime and old Korean women attacking you about toast.

Tuesday: We got back in the evening and prepared for the work week.

The Past Week...

My blog will be moving soon to another name because this blog is supposed to be about technology but as you know the last posts have been about my times here in Korea.

Monday & Tuesday: It has come to my attention that my Monday and Tuesday campus wants me to use learning activities or games for the students. I teach a few classes and the other classes I come in and play games. I feel like a clown coming into the party to just entertain the kiddies for awhile and give the parents a rest. I'm starting not to mind though. It's nice being the one that the kids love. I come in and bring fun! I had new games that went well with the little kiddies. This means that I am doing a good job... Tuesday my director wasn't there and they had me teaching some of her classes alone. I just tried to go with the flow and survived.

Wednesday & Thursday: The main campus has really become a lot more enjoyable. Both days I was almost late to my own class. I am finding new ways of teaching the class and am trying to make things more interesting. On Thursday, I got my cell phone! It has taken me awhile to figure out how to use the phone. I have it in English but not everything is in English and I don't have bluetooth! I thought in Korea every phone would have the coolest stuff. Apparently, it's not that different from the U.S. Except I did get headphones with my phone and it did have an MP3 player and such. I have also discovered a new favorite food at all the little marts.

FRIDAY: Here is a video about my weekend and Friday. Let me just say I am starting to really like Korea because of Fridays.