Responding...

As I continue to work on wrapping up the Korea 2006 portion of my blog, I'd like to respond to some of the comments that I haven't addressed yet:

JAM wrote:
The one thing I know about South Korea is what our German friend, Marius, told us. It's the only country (or was) to have professional gamers who make a living from playing computer games and getting endorsements. He was very jealous.
At some point (maybe during the Korean Wave lecture) we saw a TV story that mentioned such gamers. I'd be a little surprised if by now there aren't other nations in which such "careers" exist, but who knows -- maybe Korea has the lock on 'em.

Daniel wrote:
Pictures, cool! I wonder what they use those huge TV screens for? Advertising? Were you able to tell?
Yup -- advertising. And huge indeed -- we calculated that some of them must measure at least 20' x 20'. And they're all over Seoul. Time Square has such screens, yes?

Brian C emailed:

I think your mood change might be related to your ability to
be open to the culture and the significance of the Buddhist
Temple.
Maybe.  But (as usual) I think you are giving me too much
credit. I think it would be hard not to be impacted by the
Buddhist Temples (and likewise for other religions' ancient
sacred places).

JAM wrote:
So what did you sing? :) I've always thought there must be
something about karaoke that I just don't get.
HA!  I sang nothing -- it's almost impossible for me to imagine
my inhibitions so relaxed that I would do karaoke in public.
But as I said, the first 30 minutes was fun to watch.


Daniel wrote (in response to my diatribe against Samsung):
Probably all true, but should "happiness" really be the ultimateall,increagoal?
After all, ignorance and lower IQ's have both been
shown to correlate with increased levels of happiness. I would
be the first to say I prefer knowledge and intelligence over
happiness. Of course, material possessions is another case.
I'm not sure I'd say that happiness is my ultimate goal; for
me that's probably Truth-with-a-capital-T. But I have questions
as to whether one can know such Truth with absolute certainty
this side of Death's Yawning Chasm.  In lieu of reaching that
goal, happiness suffices for me. I should say that I'm not
arguing in favor of hedonism as understood in modernity.
For those interested, Here's a link to several articles in
Time magazine by Daniel Gilbert, researcher and writer
extraordinaire on the topic.

One final point, as you note in your last sentence, the formula
on which I was commenting wasn't "which is better as a life
goal -- knowledge or happiness," but instead I was expressing
my irritation with a company that (like most companies) suggested
that its products permanently enhance one's life.  Perhaps that's
so, but I think the evidence often says otherwise.


There are probably other comments that warrant response, but as
is so often the case the tyranny of the clock prevents me from
doing so.  I hope to throw a few select photos
up on the blog and then I'll be ready to pack it up.