They Chose China

After this post yesterday, I realized that I almost nothing about North Korea except for jokes about "Dear Leader" and things that I had heard on The Bugle...

So, I scoured the internets, looking at Wikipedia and following up on the places that they linked to.

I kept coming back to James Joseph Dresnok. I find his story to be fascinating in a way that is disturbing as well as being so foreign (it is okay if you need to groan right now, I understand, and it isn't a pun) to my thinking.

His story (including the part about him being a film star in North Korea) led me to the story of the twenty two UN soldiers who did not repatriate after the Korean War. I never thought about this, but of course some people would stay.

As often happens, this led me to watching a documentary called "They Chose China" which left me feeling uncomfortable but...I understood why some would want to stay. It was 1954 and if you are of African heritage and thinking about returning to Memphis, would you think about staying in some place that claims equality for all as a basis of their social experiment?

Or You Could Be North Korean

...(U)pon their return from the World Cup, the team was summoned the Working People's Cultural Palace and berated for their performance.

More than 400 people, including athletes, students and apparatchiks watched a sports commentator single out each player in turn, and point out their mistakes. They were forced to criticize their coach, Kim Jong-Hun.

Kim could be in worse trouble. He was accused of "betraying the Young Gen. Kim Jong Un," North Korea's heir apparent. According to rumors, he's been sent to perform forced labor.


Via Deadspin

Twilight Men

Yesterday I saw one of the worst documentaries that I have ever seen but it did provide me with something that was hilarious.

According to the film, in the mid to late Sixties, gay men were referred to as Twilight Men as they had to live in the shadows, et cetera.

It may be inappropriate for me to find this funny but...

It does help put Stephanie Meyer in context, doesn't it?

This is the application that you need

Just think, who could be a zombie?

Could your friends be zombies?

You know, like the protagonist of I, Zombie?

Well, this is the app that you need!

Another Thing About Movies

Why 'Back to the Future' Is Secretly Horrifying -- powered by Cracked.com

And this is going through my head

And She's Dead

So...

Last week, my netbook died.

Now I am looking for a replacement.

Does anyone have any recommendations for something cheap and good?

Let me know.

I knew a girl once named Pandora

I have most of the music that is playing on Pandora's The Decemberists channel, but I have never listened to it in quite this order.

Check it out.

My Favorite Poem

DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rage at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.