Well I was looking back through my blogs and I noticed that around midterms and finals there was a spike in my blogging.. Hmmm.. Why stop now right?The article goes on to mention Korean web giants Naver.com (by far Korea's top search engine) and Cyworld (by far Korea's top social networking sight).  I've tried to use cyworld in the past, as a matter of fact cyworld did a US launch and as far as I can tell aren't having the success they hoped for.  For me cyworld was a little bit too involved.  Let me explain: You have to build a character, decorate your room, hang posters, buy clothes, add a tv, update your furnature... All sorts of "nonsense" that mimic daily life.  I don't know about you, but when I log onto facebook it's to get away from daily life.  Next, I use google.com as my primary search engine.  Why?  Because it's no frills search.  I love more the fact that the google search bar is built into my browser because then I don't have to look at anything.  I can just type my search terms in the little box and BOOM there are my results.  Today, for the first time, I decided to use Naver.com.  And instantly, I can tell you why these web giants are struggling.    The chosun.com article states that...

Experts say the foreign challengers have failed to understand the peculiarities of the South Korean market. Their quality suffers in comparison to local offerings in terms of Korean-language features, site design and sophistication of services, South Korean experts argue.

After using Naver.com for just 2 search terms, I immediately began to wonder if anyone from Google ever did research on Korea before launching google.kr?  Let me use a couple of photo examples.


References: 

So I just got back from a week long trip to China.  You know visited The Great Wall, Forbidden City, and Tieneman Square.  (I took over 500 pictures!)  But that's not what I'm going to blog about right now, at this very moment, while I'm trying to fight off a cold, I'm going to blog about my experience with GoDaddy.com .  

So I came across this story on Breitbart.com headline: "Women 'tricked into suicide blasts" the follow up headline:"Mentally Retarded Women Used in Bombings." So first of all, it's disgusting and leaves me almost speechless. I wish I could put to words the range of emotions that I'm feeling right now. My heart goes out to the families of these women. Let me give you a snippet from the articles:

Two women suicide bombers who have killed nearly 80 people in Baghdad were Down's Syndrome victims exploited by al Qaida.
The explosives were detonated by remote control in a co-ordinated attack after the women walked into separate crowded markets, said the chief Iraqi military spokesman in Baghdad General Qassim al-Moussawi.

Police said the woman wearing the bomb sold cream in the mornings at the market and was known to locals as "the crazy lady."

... the use of the handicapped in suicide bombings is not unprecedented in Iraq. In January 2005, Iraq's interior minister said insurgents used a disabled child in a suicide attack on election day. Police at the scene of the bombing said the child appeared to have Down syndrome.

Yes, I'm upset and angry at the terrorists who engage in such atrocious acts, but for some reason, at this very moment, I can't stop thinking about the idiots who try to compare "us" to the terrorists. The people who call the terrorists "freedom fighters" just like those in the American revolution. You tell me the last time you ran across a story in a history book about American revolutionaries using mentally retarded people to blow themselves up... Damn it!

Don't take this too personal, I mean unless it applies to you, then take it how you will. Let me start by saying that I'm not writing this from any position of authority or a pulpit from which to glare down and point my finger... I simply wanted to climb on my little soap box today and yell for a minute so here goes...

What are friends for? I mean, what is the true definition of a friend? While I haven't committed to a full meaning of the idea of friendship, I feel like I'm well on my way. Jesus said that there are such friends that stick closer than family. I think that there are two parts to friendship and as the theme of Married with Children states.. "you can't have one without the other" First, there's the part that makes you feel all giddy inside, you know, the part that people most often dream about when they think of best friends. This is the "marshmallowlly goodness" of friendships. It's the having common interests, having someone there to talk after a death in the family or a glowing first date. It's having someone who plans your surprise birthday parties or writes you a farewell card that you leave on your desk and read when you need to be inspired. It's having someone there to smoke a cigar with just because you didn't want to be at home, or having someone to laugh at you and give you nicknames like "baby huey." Then there's the "burnt outer crust" of friendships. These are the parts that most people don't enjoy, as a matter of fact they avoid them all together. This is the part when it hurts to be a friend; the part of true self sacrifice, the part where unlike most of our daily routine, we take a moment and put aside our goals and priorities and make the friend our only priority.

I've never been good at the "burnt outer crust" but rockstar always has. I was talking with him today about a particular situation that brought me heartache. While often I think that he and I are so different occasionally something simple yet profound happens and it reminds we why we've been friends for well over a decade.

It's true that we're more and more becoming a world of I's My's and Me's, and that hurts me. Why do we expect to find anything, especially in the dealings with another broken human being, with no burnt outer crust? It amazes me. I wish that on occasion we would forget about the importance of ourselves and our feelings and for that moment give to a friend. As I was telling rockstar today, if I'm struggling through something and he's my friend, he'll do whatever is within his power to help me, even if it hurts him at the same time. Too often, we call ourselves friends and yet are not willing to hurt with the other person, instead, we simply tell the other person to continue to hurt for our sake.

On a high note, I just got a phone call... ;)

"Are not all lifelong friendships born at the moment when at last you meet another human being who has some inkling... of that something which you were born desiring, and which, beneath the flux of other desires and in all the momentary silences between the louder passions, night and day, year by year, from childhood to old age, you are looking for, watching for, listening for? - c.s. lewis.