I'm back from my trip.

I just got back to Incheon to my trip and guess where I'm at?  That's right, the fucking PC bang because I'm a really cool guy.  It's not the first place where I went after getting here.  That honor goes to Burger King.  Anyway, I'll tell you more about my trip a little later because right now, Diablo II is calling.

Lee Soo Yeon is one of my heroes.

So, she's a professional table tennis player born in Korea.  She has a pretty long list of accomplishments and she's currently coaching in the United States.  I like the way she plays and her matches are fairly exciting, but the best part about her is that she's also a fashion model.  Here's a video where she's playing ping pong in a mini-skirt and heels.  She's definitely one badass bitch.

Sooyeon from SPiN New York on Vimeo.

Check this out.

Read this article by my buddy Andrew Leonard for the California Beat.  It's on the Yongsan Electronics Market here in Seoul.  Most importantly, check out the last paragraph.

Ping-pong lessons start today.

I'm so fucking excited.  In about 8 hours, I will be on my way to becoming a professional table tennis player.  I didn't ask him last time, but I'm hoping that he has gear that I can buy at the place.  I would like to buy my own paddle.  Maybe I'll even get a uniform.  That would be fucking sweet.

Tae Kwon Do!? Fuck that shit…

I'm going to take lessons in something useful instead, like ping-pong.

I just signed up for lessons.  The gym [or dojo as I am going to call it] is about a 15 minute walk from my house.  The only reason I decided to do this is because I want to leave Korea with one awesome skill.  My buddy, Ian, used to take lessons at the place I'm going to and he said it's pretty legit.  The guy speaks English to some extent, although when I walked in with Ian today he asked us if we wanted to "ping-pong duel" each other.  It should be okay since I should be able to get by with my minimal Korean.  I was able to discuss when I wanted to go and all that.  I'll be going three days a week.  Each lesson will be an hour.  The lessons are later than I wanted, 10PM on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, but it'll be fine.  If anything, it'll keep me away from the weekday drinking.  I also have lessons on Sundays at 3PM, so I'll be getting some exercise instead of just bumming around and eating pizza like I usually do.

I'm regretting that I decided to do this so late in my contract, since I can really only take lessons for the month of July because I'll be on vacation for half of August.  I'm still looking forward to it though.  It's the most active sport that I'm going to get into since I quit baseball in high school.  You know, since I really enjoy bowling, darts, and competitive videogaming, which make up the trifecta of pseudo-sports.

How the 12-hour PC bang marathon went:

 

The times aren't exact, but they're close enough.

• 5:00PM – This was two hours before the marathon started.  I got home from work and took a nap, not because I knew it was going to be a long night ahead of me, but because it's just what I do on the regular.
• 6:25PM – I woke up from my nap and the decided to take a shower.  I had to make myself clean for the most monumental moment in my life.  I also decide to wear just shorts and a t-shirt for maximum comfort.
• 7:15PM – I met up with Carmine and Evan at Burger King.  Carmine had originally wanted to eat at the kimbap place to get something healthy, but Evan and I out-voted him.
• 8:00PM – We checked our phones exactly at the moment we turned on the computers, and it was eight, so the most daunting task of our lives was made with a cigarette in my had and my belly full of bacon double cheeseburger.
• 8:10PM – The first thing I did was install Google Chrome.  There was no way I was going to put up with Internet Explorer for the whole night.  I quickly got to checking my e-mail, blogging, and deciding my character build for Borderlands.
• 8:30PM – We got started playing Borderlands.  If you know nothing about the game, you should check it out.  It's a first-person shooter with MMORPG elements.
• 9:15PM – I bought a cherry soda.
• 12:00AM – Originally we had planned to take a break at midnight to get something to eat downstairs and meet up with some friends really quick.  That never happened.  We played straight through it.
• 2:00AM – This was the halfway point.  None of us seemed tired, but Plans to meet up with anyone have gone out the window.
• 3:00AM – I started to actually start to get bored of the game, but since there's nothing else I really felt like playing there, I keep on.  It's around this time that I notice that there aren't as many people in the PC bang as I'm used to.
• 4:00AM – Someone in the PC bang had been playing shitty music the entire night.  The bands on the playlist included Nickleback, Lee Hyori, and Hoobastank [go figure].  It was at this point that the music started to get annoying.
• 5:30AM – This is where it starts getting hard to stay awake.  I bought another cherry cola to help me stay awake.  Despite being so tired and how comfortable the chairs are at Tera PC, it's getting hard to stay sitting down.
• 6:30AM – It was at this point I realized that the girl behind us has been sitting there the entire time and has been on cyworld for most of it.  It was getting harder and harder to stay awake.
• 8:00AM – We were all glad to see eight come around.  The sad part was when we stepped outside and the sun was out.
• 8:10AM – I was in McDonald's buying a bacon egg mcmuffin.

Completing the marathon was a success and I probably won't be going back to a PC bang for a while.  To be honest, I could probably do it again and it's not like I'm boasting about it.  The hardest part was just staying awake.  If it went from noon to midnight, it wouldn't have even been a problem.  You might ask why I did this, but even I don't really know why I set arbitrary goals and then feel accomplished when I complete them.

I forgot to update.

We're now in our last hour and the fatigue is setting in a little bit, but it's not going to be hard.  McDonald's breakfast awaits us.

Now approaching the halfway mark.

Just completed the Jacob's Cove.  I'm now at level 17 a great time.

Now in hour 3.

We're still playing Borderlands, but we're taking a short break from the game right now so I can blog.  There's no sort of fatigue yet, but we may take a break to go drinking, which is probably a bad idea, but it's going to get done.

Jakob's Cove

Our party now journeys to Jakob's Cove, to assist with their zombie problems.  The Psyren is holding strong, but I worry about Brick's sanity.

[Carmine is Brick]