Sunday Half-Marathon

Last Sunday I ran the Kobe Valentines Love Run Half Marathon for the second time. It was supposed to rain on Sunday, but ended up being a beautiful sunny day. I bested last years' effort by several minutes. I ran the half in 1 hour 45 minutes and 39 seconds. I'm feeling pretty confident leading up to the Tokyo Marathon. The only thing that makes me a little worried is that I haven't had the chance to put in some serious long runs. I have only had a few of 25 kilometers or more.


The shirt was given for participating in the run. This year it was a technical fabric shirt which is cool because I can use it for running, but I suppose I really won't feel very masculine while doing so!



I've been following the story about director Kevin Smith being kicked off a Southwest Airlines flight for "being too fat" for the last few days. I'm a huge Smith fan and love listening to his SModcast podcast. Yesterday in an "emergency" SModcast, he railed about the whole situation. Very entertaining to say the least. I hope Kevin Smith gets a few heads rolling within their organization!

Director Kevin Smith told he was 'too big' to fly
Clerks director Kevin Smith has revealed he was asked to get off a plane in the US because he was too big for the seats.
The 39-year-old claimed a pilot ejected him from the Southwest Airlines flight from Oakland to Burbank, California, saying he did not fit in a single seat.

Smith complained about the incident on his Twitter account saying: "I'm way fat, but I'm not there just yet."
Southwest issued an apology to the director via Twitter and its website.

In a statement titled Not So Silent Bob - a jovial jab at the Silent Bob character Smith plays in several of his films - the airline said: "We would like to echo our tweets and again offer our heartfelt apologies to you."

The statement continued: "Our pilots are responsible for the safety and comfort of all customers on the aircraft and therefore, made the determination that Mr Smith needed more than one seat to complete his flight." Read more at BBC

Snapshots and Drunk Men

I was flipping through the hundred of pictures I've taken over the last year and a half on my cell phones and was inspired to make a short video showing some of the more interesting ones.

Here it is:


Things have been really warming up in this neck of the woods. Today saw some temperatures around 10C and tomorrow is supposed to be 15C. I'm sure things will get a little cold in the near future though. I'm also sure it will be much colder in Tokyo at the end of the month when I head up there.

Here is a little something to give you a laugh. I actually read this story a few days ago, but wanted to share the joy.

Man arrested after applying for driver's license renewal while drunk
KANAGAWA - A 45-year-old man was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol on Thursday after he went to a police station to renew his driver’s license while drunk, police said Friday.

Susumu Moriya, an unemployed resident of Sagamihara City, went into Sagamihara Kita police station just before 9.30 a.m. Thursday to renew his license but could not understand the instructions given to him by an officer on how print out a form via the touch screen computers. The officer noticed the man’s breath smelled of alcohol and asked him how he came to the station. Moriya said he walked.

Another officer then tried to help but Moriya became out of control and threw his license on the ground. The officer asked him to go home, and saw Moriya get into a car in a parking lot outside and drive away. He was arrested for drunk driving about 200 meters from the station.

Moriya told police he had been drinking since about 6 a.m. and had consumed two cans of beer and several glasses of shochu. A breath test revealed he had 0.45 milligrams of alcohol in his breath per liter exhaled. Source, JapanToday

The 2010 Fiesta Movement

Check out my friend John (Phampants on You Tube) as he attempts to win the The 2010 Fiesta Movement contest. Watch this vid to give your support! It would be even better if you rated it and left a comment on the video!

Things Get a Little Worse

I suposse I still keep a little up on the ins and outs of the ESL industry in South Korea simply because so many people make inquiries about it over on my You Tube channel. I was just reading Brian in Jeollanam-do's site and it looks like things have just gotten a little or maybe a lot worse for folks thinking of moving to Korea to teach.

II'm sure many of you have heard that if you get a job in Korea teaching you will make good money and be really taken care of? Well, if you decide to take a job with the government's EPIK program, you're about to get a rather shitty deal!

EPIK says "fuck you," requires teachers to front costs of their own orientation with two weeks' warning
Jacob of ROK Sojourn passes along some emails concerning English Program in Korea [EPIK], the government program that places native speaker English teachers in Korean public schools. This one is from a recruiter, and in short it says that EPIK will no longer be providing transportation from Incheon to the orientation site, and that teachers will have to front the entire cost of their week-long orientation.
Read More on Brian's page...