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So it's been a pretty exciting week here in Seoul, with the olympic spirit in full swing, Koreans are practically glued to their television sets. At the top of the list might be Korean swimmer Tae-Hwan Park who nabbed Korea's first ever Olympic gold in swimming.
Next you've got the crazy soccer games (two of which I've caught). It seems like every discussion I've had with my debate students ends up a conversation about the olympics.

For those of you who can't keep your faces glued to the tube, here are a couple of medal count links you might find helpful:

This first one is courtesy of the infamous Yahoo, whose board of directors is still in tact btw. It ranks based on total number of medals.

This one is the official count by the Beijing Olympic Website and ranks based on number of gold medals.

Finally, I just wanted to throw down an excerpt of a pretty interesting article I read on ESPN.com

No way met no quit.

"I changed," he said. "I thought, 'That's ridiculous. I'm at the Olympic Games, I'm here for the United States of America. I don't care how bad it hurts, I'm going after it.'

"I just got a super charge."

What transpired during the final 50 meters was the stuff of Disney movies. It was the kind of thing that should land Lezak a co-starring role with Phelps on cereal boxes and network morning shows. And if Phelps does complete the great eight and pocket a $1 million Speedo bonus, he should cut a check for one-eighth of that total to the guy who kept the quest alive: Jason Lezak.

It's a great piece to give you a jolt of patriotism... ESPN ARTICLE

And last but not least... I'm going to be kick'n it with Scholar Jon and Big EZ this weekend. Should make for a good time.. I'll also get the new camera I ordered.. so hopefully I'll have some very amateur pictures to throw up on my newly created flickr account... See you soon!

So I was studying the logic of sampling today and I ran across an intersting bit of information that made me think back to a converastion rockstar and I had about the infinitude of God.  Regarding sampling, statisticians assume that the population being sampled is  inifinitly large and therefore "every sample is 0% of the  of the whole.  This might be a stretch and It could just simply mean I need to take a break from listiening to this lecture, but I wonder if it has any implications for our conception of God? Consider that God by definition must be an infinite. While J.P. Moreland goes into great lengths to discuss the concept of an actual infinite which I will not go into (primarily because rockstar and I already discussed it until our heads hurt).
If God is an infinite being then all that we can ever know about Him is equal to 0% of Him.
If God is love, than all that we can ever know about Love is equal to 0%.
If God is mercy and grace, compassion, humility, faithfulness, we can only ever know... 0%.

I forget where I read/heard this, (maybe driscoll?) but I remember someone saying that the gap between God and man is infinitely great. And so whether you're Billy Graham or the serial murderer who repented moments before execution, we might as well be in the same place. My original thought on the aforementioned comparison was to use Billy Graham and Satan or Ted Bundy, except, according to much of theology, salvation through acceptance of Christ allows us to bridge that infinite gap between us and God. Upon writing that, my first thought is: "If the gap is infinite, how is it bridged?" Perhaps because Christ, being God is also infinite? Maybe this post is just an excuse for me to take a break... and proof that my mind is melting... or maybe I just needed to write it down so I could come back to it later?

btw: My good friend scholar jon arrived in Korea a couple of weeks ago... He's been throwing up some pretty interesting posts. I encourage you to drop him a visit and check out the mind of someone experiencing Korea and all it has to offer for the very first time! Jon's Emmaus Road Blog

Okay, So here goes. Long time no blog ;) It’s been a pretty crazy time since I’ve returned to Korea. To be honest, I still haven’t worked my way down the list of people I was supposed to contact, so what have I been doing? Reading... a lot. Going to 20 hours a week of intensive Korean and occasionally doing homework for the class. I spoke to Tall Kate today, so that was good. I’ve had the chance to touch base with rockstar, the kids, mr. firefighter, big love and even the rents on a couple of occasions. Well I’m sitting here at Caribu Coffee, my almost favorite hang out, except I can’t get my wifi working for the life of me, heck my MacBook Pro can’t even see the network! Ahhh, so I’m surfing the internet on my iPhone while I’m writing this blog, which, means I won’t be able to upload it until I get home later tonight. And at the same time, I’ve decided that because I can’t get online, I definitely can’t do any homework while I’m here. So... Since people are going through withdrawals at my sudden absence from the blogosphere, I’ll point you in a couple of directions: First there’s the list of friends: joe, elliott, jon, kt, sam, vaka, and missy. Then there are the power house Marks: Batterson and Driscoll. Batterson, pastor of NCC in Washington, DC is a dynamic speaker, whose “boy-next door” charm and humor makes him an easy listen along with his almost daily updated blog make him a keeper. Then there Driscoll: pastor of the one of the fastest growing churches in the country, the largest church in Seattle, a published author, theologian, and all American “white guy” make him a great place to start if you’re into fire breathing, dry wit, and layers of sarcasm. Not only has he read literally thousands of books, but his ability to decipher biblical texts almost unparalleled. So there’s a couple of places you can go if you ever find yourself in need of a good blog or two. Keep in mind that I’ll keep the blog roll - rolling as time goes on. Also if you're interested in checking out some rad pictures, a good friend of mine here in Korea is sort of a photographer extraordinaire. Her name's NaeKyoung and she actually just published a travel guide to London, (written in Korean of course) but anyways, she's definitely an up and coming so you can check out her pics and buy her book too!

Until next time


The cover of NaeKyoung's new book.. it's full of photographs she took...

So I was recently told that I haven't put much up here about Korea and that some of you are feeling neglected.  My fault, I suppose I was thinking I needed to make the blogs meaningful and impactful.. but hey, like I wrote in my title, what's the alternative to my blog? crappy reality tv.  Nuff said.  So big cultural experience this week was going to Seoul World Cup Stadium to watch the U-17 World Cup Final, Spain v. Nigeria.  (For those of you unfamiliar with FIFA terminology U-17 is the under 18 division, it is likely that most of these young players will be in future World Cups).  It was quite an experience, the stadium is massive and seat almost 70,000 people.  When we got there the riot police made their presence very known.  Just a guesstimate, but I'd say somewhere around 1000 or so? All with their shields and helmets out.  There was some crazy food too!  Fried worms?! You'd better believe it!  and Joe was right, these people have 오징어 (oh-jing-uh, dried squid) at every event! Needless to say didn't try any grubs that night, but hey, who's to say I won't in the future?  Overall it was a good game, Nigeria won 3-0 in overtime shootout.  

I had breakfast with a good friend of mine today, Scholar Jon. He asked if I planned on keeping a blog about my experiences while in Korea and over the next year. While I already have a website for more of my “scholarly” activities (which I do not fully open up on, as it is on my bus. cards) I think I’ll use this blog more as my personal online journal.
I leave for Korea this Saturday... haven’t really thought much about it as law school applications have consumed the majority of my time. I’m glad that much of the prep work is finally over and come September 1st, the application process should be over. (at least my part of it).