F3 status finally!

It’s official! I received my family’s passports from immigration last Friday and I’m pleased to say that they indeed issued my family F3 visas in Korea, Could we have been lucky or have the rules changed allowing for a change of status in South Korea. Whatever it is… I’m glad we did get them here. Included with the passports were their Certificates of Alien Registration.

Just to recap, my family arrived on tourist visa’s and changed their status in country by filling out a visa application form with photos, marriage certificate, birth certificate (for children), a copy of work visa and alien registration card plus W110,000 for each applicant. Next stop, renewal of my wife’s driver’s license.

San Mig in Seoul

Not really a beer drinker but there’s something about seeing a brown bottle of San Miguel beer in a foreign supermarket that makes you think about home. It makes me think about how much potential for global marketing our other products have. We’ve got a lot of unique brands such as Selecta Ice Cream and Sarsi which is way better than any sarsaparilla I’ve tasted when I was working in New Zealand or Australia. But at 2600 Won (USD 2.60) ouch!!!

HD Jukebox

I needed an HD video jukebox to send to Manila, being an Apple fan the obvious choice for me would be an Apple TV right? Not really, most of my video files are dvix, xvid, avi and more recently mkv files. These codecs are not supported by the Apple TV which meant another extra step by converting them, something I wasn’t willing to do. 

After having a look at the dozens of jukeboxes out there I went for the TVIX 6510A, in hindsight I should have gone for the 6500 since I was going to eventually send this unit to the Philippines. The only difference between the two is that the 6510A includes an HDTV tuner and since there are no stations or CATV that broadcasts HD in the Philippines the option was an unnecessary expense. The unit does not include a hard drive so I had to purchase a 500GB hard drive separately. The hard drive is very easy to install but the sales associate was kind enough to install it for me.

Physical connections are fairly simple if you connect it via HDMI. HDMI or High Definition Multimedia Interface is a digital connection that carries both video and audio. The photo below shows the power, ethernet, and HDMI. The ethernet connection allows you to transfer video, audio, and photos to the unit. Other connections include component, composite, and S-Video. There are also USB ports to connect external hard drives and plug it into a PC for direct file transfers.

After setting up the network connection and video settings, I transferred a 1080p HD file ‘I am Legend’ from my laptop to test the playback. The photo below shows the unit temporarily connected to my home setup here in Seoul.

 What do I think about this unit? Video quality is top notch, especially when viewing 1080p or 720p HD files. Physically plugging the unit is fairly straight forward but setting up the network and video settings were a bit difficult even for a gadget freak like myself. The playback interface is fairly easy to use. Click here for the company’s website.

Share and share alike

One of  the things I first noticed in Korea is how common it is for people to share soda and food. I experienced this first hand when we first arrived in Korea. I was having lunch with my colleagues and when the soda that I ordered arrived it had two straws, then my colleague suddenly took a sip from my glass of soda. I first thought that she had ordered one but later learned that Koreans usually share one glass since most places here offer unlimited refills.

In the Philippines at least, most places don’t offer unlimited ‘bottomless’ refills, if they do have it you can be sure that it’s more expensive. It is also uncommon for Filipinos to share drinks as we normally order one drink for each person. I’m not saying that this is a bad thing, just an observation that I think is unique to Korea. Personally the only person I would share a glass with is my wife or kids.

While were talking about soda, I also noticed how small (250 ml) the soda cans here which might explain why Korean women are so slim.

Still here…

Sorry for the lack of updates, been busy with work and family who are here on a holiday. I have been taking notes for future topics so stay tuned. I will have some time to post next week when my work schedule tapers off a bit.