Hat Blog

Hey ya'll, just wanted to let you know I got a cool new hat. It is faux fur on parts of the inside and outside and it is so warm and awesome. I've wanted one ever since I wore Sean's at the tribute rage. That's about it. Tomorrow is New Years Eve, I'm going to be wearing my hat all night and I'm going to ring in the new year with drinks and general holiday cheer. Heads up 2010, I'm going to make you my bitch!

Monday Blog

It's monday, but not just any monday, it's the monday between Christmas and New Year. It is a time when people prepare for New Years while still reeling from Christmas. What will I be doing with my day? I think getting a phone with working buttons is first, finding if I have any work I can do at the warehouse, and then just try to keep existing with very close to no money. On the brighter side of things, my Buddy Jim's friend is planning an ice skating thing at Millennium Park. That would be cool because I've never been there and I don't think I've ever even ice skated outside. My no money situation has be in trouble there and even more because a trip to Giordano's follows. I would like to go, it would be a good time, but can I get myself together before tomorrow night? Tune in to find out.

Christmas Blog part two

The presents were open and the brunch was had, everyone had a good time. Is there really anything better than a breakfast you only get once a year? People have cleared out for the most part and the afternoon limbo begins. Currently I'm burning a copy of the It's always Sunny in Philadelphia christmas special. It is taking forever to burn though for some reason. I also got a coffee grinder that is much needed in my apartment and indeed the rest of my years. Finally I can get some fresh beans up in my place. I got a book on Japanese swords that has a picture of almost my exact sword which is really cool. I've almost decided to get more in to swords, hopefully that doesn't interfere with my personal life... anyway, things are good here and it is Christmas and everyone is really filled with cheer. Boy do I love Christmas! 

Christmas Blog part one

It is officially Christmas, yes. But I still have some sleeping to get done. I got the bamboo cutting board for my mom. She really wanted it and I was concerned about how much it would cost because due to the decisions I make with money, I didn't have as much for presents as I initially intended. I think everyone will be happy with what I gave them, though I think my sister Annie and my dad may feel slighted. Annie got just what she asked for, and for my dad, it's impossible so I got him a starbucks card. Whatever. Everyone's gift will be useful in some way, even laura's, Twilight Scene-It edition. 

On a different note, I've been getting software from Laura's boyfriend Eric and one thing I got that's really impressive is the Toast 10 Titanium, which can basically take any kind of video and make it burnable. Awesome. This way I can follow through on giving everyone Christmas 1990. Last year's edition was awful and poorly executed in a perfectly wrong way. I can finally make up for it. 'll be burning all night and a little tomorrow it's looking like.

I also took a picture from facebook of my immediate family posing. My dad looks crazy thin compared to the picture that's currently at my grandpas so I'm giving him a copy to replace it. I'll post it here because it is a darn impressively attractive photo of the family and that only happens like once every 10 years. I'm happy I have the initiative to do things like this, because nobody else seems to care to. Well, I should be going to sleep soon, after I start this DVD. I have 4 more to burn. Good night and have a wonderful Christmas everyone. 

From everyone at The Train of Thought Machine, happy holidays and have a prosperous new year, I plan on it!

Keeping It Up

Blogs are funny. I'll go months without using it and then it becomes really useful. I found out about a sword that my grandfather got in Korea. He gave to me and it's really amazing. But I posted some pictures here so that sword enthusiasts could determine what kind of sword it is and where it came from exactly. This is what I found out: Made sometime between 1906 and 1945, (probably closer to 45) it was a sword for a low ranking Japanese officer during the occupation of Korea. It is rare because of the efforts to destroy all the confiscated swords at the end of the occupation period. My grandpa got it and brought it back to America then and it's been sitting in his closet since then. I really love the thing and since i received it I became a member of swordforum.com. I'm not saying I'm going to start collecting swords, but if I was to, this would be a perfect start to a collection.

This has also been a special week because an old friend, Dan Puzzo, and I watched Houseguestw with Sinbad on DVD. You might ask yourself, 'Why would anyone want to do that?' Well, let me explain myself. We watched it a number of years ago around the time that it came out on VHS. We tried to keep it the same as last time, except this time we had Rolling Rocks, popcorn and Chex Mix. It we had been planning this for 3 years, trying to do it almost every summer break we had but we never got around to it until 3 days ago.  

Oh and getting back to the title and the point of the post. I haven't been faithful to my 2 followers and with the christmas season upon us, I figured this would be the best way to share in the giving spirit of Christmas. New pieces of business include working in a warehouse bending metal hooks to replace them with caribeeners, rockclimbing type clip. I went to a Blackhawks game and it was sweet. Had Kuma's Corner for the first time, and built 3 huge snowmen over the course of a week. 

Christmas is tomorrow and the spirit is all up in me to a ridiculous degree. (ie. the sweater) I have one more gift to buy, for my mom. hopefully bamboo cuttingboards are under $30...AND HERE'S A VIDEO I MADE FOR YOU!

MERRY CHRISTMAS,

MATT SPIRO 

S words

My grandpa gave me a sword today. He got it in korea and he's had it since 1945. Here are some pictures. I'm trying to find out exactly where it came from so if you're here from sword forum, you're in the right place.

Boo Ya!!! Yeah I know what you're thinking. Yes, that IS a TV-VCR combo. 

When you're walking home from your friend's apartment, after watching episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm, and the greatly under-appreciated Undeclared while having a few Rolling Rocks, you tend to have great ideas. Honestly, when I saw the TV table on my way over, I thought to myself, 'maybe Jer can drop me off with the table, if not, I don't want it that bad anyway. Screw it.' But if you look to your right or up, depending on what size that picture ends up being, I did get the table. I didn't leave until 1:30, a bit after any ride was available. So I carried it about half a mile to my apartment. It was still some how 80 degrees, and my fingers got tired, but what the hell? I have a new table. Imagine instead of that standard 20x20x4 in. box fan, there sits my TV and ps2. Glorious. The fan will stay for now seeing as I'm still sweating like a goddamn animal. 

First day at KBS

As all my loyal followers would know, I just started an internship at KBS. I'm a television production major studying abroad in Korea and when I found out I was going to be interning at the biggest media company in Korea I was more than excited, i was incredibly excited! Turns out they scheduled us for 2 weeks of following and observing radio production!? What the fuck? I'm going to explain to you exactly why I am as mad as I am. I've been staying in a dorm and going to school at a university that I haven't really learned much at. Some camera stuff here and there but for the most part I've just been hanging out. I thought going to KBS was going to be insightful and helpful but it turns out, at least so far, that all I'll be doing is watching people do radio broadcasts. I can't believe it. What a fucking waste of an internship. I could be observing downstairs in the video department but no, I'm spending my time in a sound booth or outside a sound booth watching people do something I have no interest in whatsoever and have no aspirations of doing for a living. It also rained all day and I got soaked walking back to the subway because one umbrella for 2 people doesn't cut it when it's not your umbrella. I have never been so destroyed in my life. I'm disgusted with my situation and there's almost nothing I can do about it without messing up what i do have here. Maybe I should... Nah, it's mother fucking KBS! I need to do something about this though.

I made it!!!

I submitted the pictures of my peep killings and Frying panned was chosen you can see it at:                             http://100waystokillapeep.blogspot.com/2009_04_01_archive.html

I was pleasantly surprised this morning after a night of drinking and eating roasted chicken. I didn't think if I was going to make the cut that it would happen so fast but apparently cooking a peep in a frying pan did the trick. I completely stunk up the kitchen with burned sugar smoke and later I guess the administration went in to see what was going on. (I live in a dormitory for those who don't know) Anyways I encourage all of you to kill some peeps today and take some pictures, go to the blog site and find the email address. It's nowhere near impossible to get a picture up there and it feels really good... to kill innocent marshmallow peeps!

submissions to 100 ways to kill a peep

Frying Panned

Gas Chambered

Microwaved

So I stumbled upon a blog called 100 ways to kill a peep and these are my adaptations. at the bottom i'll post a link to it and hopefully they liked mine enough to post them. I'm glad that people are taking the time out of their days to do such awesomely pointless things, and there are much cooler examples in the real blog but I'm hoping one of these will make it. Gas Chambered is just really cute, but I think either one of the other 2 have a better chance of making the cut. No matter what, take the time to follow the link at the bottom for a good laugh.

Until next time, be cruel to peeps!

http://100waystokillapeep.blogspot.com/2009_04_01_archive.html

Sake anyone?

Today like every Friday I had a conversation partner, a one on one chat with a teacher with the goal being improving their English skills. As a sign of his appreciation he gave me a small bottle of sake (pronounced saki). The bottle is not very big but it will be a new experience to drink it because I've never partaken in sake before. anyhow, I'm soon to be off to the downtown area to look around and get my suit from the cleaner so that I can make more videos in style. When I return I will drink my bottle of sake with my roommate Seong-Hoon. until next time. 

Thursday Blog

I have a quiz today, funny thing is that it is on the Korean alphabet. I know I'm going to ace it because I've been trying to read things everywhere I go and after a night of eating and drinking, I studied for almost 2 hours. This all coming from someone who couldn't learn spanish well, and had German almost kill him. Something about Korean interests me. I think it might be that it's a completely different style, not recognizable letters. For Spanish and German it's too similar and I tend to think I know what I'm doing when I don't. Korean will never offer me that luxury. At the bottom I've put a chart of everything I'm going to need to know in about 50 minutes. As a little game, if you read this post. Post on my twitter what score you think I got. Winner gets a souvenir from Korea, one time offer folks. Don't fuck up! 

yeahh...

I'm glad I did a little investigation of the so called NASC because apparently it doesn't exist. Well it does, but only in the respect that it takes people's hard earned money and gives them membership to an "organization" that has absolutely no credibility whatsoever. I feel like an idiot for going along with that for so long, considering I never saw contact information, or anything regarding the actual benefits of being in this thing. Basically the fact that they sold merchandise was the only proof they needed to almost get $68 out of me. I sent along the link to my parents, saying pretty much, "Look at me Ma! I'm a goddamn scholar, and they're sellin' T-SHIRTS!" I cannot believe they almost got me. I'm glad too that I'm a fairly level headed person. The people behind this scam probably don't care, but they're fucking people up with this. If anyone ever put this on a resume, first of all the jobs they were going for would say, well, this applicant is a great candidate, but has to be a complete moron for listing an organization that's only been in existence since dec, 2008. That i honestly didn't see because I was so charmed by the possibility that someone might think I was a good fit for any kind of honor society. And I was embarrassed and mad for having filled out a bum application, but there's people out there that would really put a lot of their faith in this, mediocre students maybe, with emotional problems. These folks are going to hurt themselves and the NASC is sitting in their undisclosed headquarters, counting their 68 dollar bills and laughing they're way straight to hell. Well, thought I'd update that part of my existence, wouldn't want anyone thinking i'm some kind of scholar...

Part of the Honor Society

About a week and a half ago I was invited by email to apply to the NASC Honor Society. I thought this was pretty funny considering I am not the normal outstanding student that I know they usually invite. I filled out the application and sent it in. Including of course the 3 or 4 community leadership positions i've held. And damned it, they accepted me on a provisional basis that I raise my gpa. Easy. Now just a $68 check stands between me and a lifetime membership to the NASC. I'm not sure how honored to feel, or if this is a credible institution so I'm going to check a few things out before forwarding this to mommy and daddy, because I know they would be glad to foot this one! NASC is supposedly one of the more respected resume affiliations so I'm glad they chose me, because I need all the help I can get. I'm real proud sitting here in my underwear, eating cereal and drinking coffee! Now lets forward that email to the breadwinners of my family!!!!

bored

I guess the thing about blogs is that even when you have nothing to report, you still spill the contents of your time spent. so here it is. Woke up at about 10am, early night for my Chicagoans, and had a bowl of corn flight. Apparently, though tony the tiger does exist in Korea, Flion the Lion can get me a way better deal on sugar frosted flakes of corn. You know I have to go with Flion on this one! So on a scarier note, I was sitting at my computer about an hour ago and I saw something scurry across my floor and I jumped up exclaiming, "What the fuck is that! What in the fuck is THAT!!!" despite me usual laziness, I rousted the thing from under my bed and it was a beetle about the size of a nickel but fatter and juicier. Killed that fucker with my flip-flop and called it a day. It was very similar to a lady bug but the thing was obviously not scared of anything. Had me backing away when I finally killed it out of utter fear. I swear every time i raised my flip-flop, he pulled his wings out and was like, "What the fuck are you going to do about it?" I bested that son of a bitch and now everyone who reads my blog is going to know about it. So far it's just me but I'm still pretty pumped. Anyway, I went to see I Love You, Man completely legitimately and legally and can say, I think anyone who is into Jason Segal, and good comedy, you should check it out. That's about it. 

First Blog, Ever..

So today I finally decided through the advice of an old friend that I should learn more about twitter and get a blog and such. So, as a result, here I am. I know he would only suggest this if he thought I was an interesting person, so here goes. I'm a US citizen living in Korea for 4 months studying television production at Dong-Ah Institute of Media and Arts. (DIMA) I've been here about a month and so far things have been really good to me here. The people are friendly and the equipment I'm using dominates the equipment formerly available to me at Illinois State University. To tell the truth, I'm not excited to go back from full HD everything, to the few decent camera's from the early 2000's. Not going to be fun but I feel I'm getting experience here that will poise me to get a worthwhile job when I'm done with this whole college thing. I guess I have been behind the mark on this new revolution of spilling my truths to essentially strangers but hell, I've got nothing to hide, and the personal journal I kept in microsoft word for 3 days was never going to see the light of day. So I be here. Twittering and blogging for the remainder of my trip and maybe for the foreseen future. I need some friends though so, if you've checked this out, please return and see what I'm up to, I've got plenty of stories to tell and realy cool things happen to me all the time so you gotta stay up to date. Unitl next time, blog strong and keep it real.