Here are a few random pics I found over the last few days that I found amusing/interesting for one reason or another.

First of all, from today’s Joongang Ilbo and a story about payphones in Korea, the top 10 payphone locations around Seoul:


I have no great insights on these locations. Although I was amused to see a “correctional facility” make the ranking. Otherwise, I see no obvious patterns to these locations.

And to go with that, a chart of payphone usage in Korea since 1997.


I personally find this chart fascinating because I first arrived in Korea in 1996, in the middle of the pager era. Some of my most vivid memories back then are of the huge lineups everywhere, for pretty much any and every payphone in the country. Talking on the payphone in some loud bar, trying to explain to your friends how to get their. Or listening to someone at that same loud bar have a fight with his/her boyfriend/girlfriend (er… not that I never did anything so ridiculous, of course). Good times.

Anyhow, I find it amazing that there are still over 150,000 payphones in Korea. Although, according to the story, 20 percent of payphones have not been used in the past year. Yikes.

And then, just the other day, I checked out Korea’s Web Standards website at www.webstandards.or.kr and found this:

“Cannot establish a connection” indeed. Fortunately, the link is working again, but at the time, it struck me as funny. (Actually, it is one of the many sites associated with the Korean web pioneer Channy Yun, a very nice guy).

Finally, here is a pic of Bong Joon-ho from the San Sebastian Film Festival last week, where he was on the jury.


That is him in the middle, looking toward the camera with a funny look on his face. I do not know why, but his expression seemed pretty amusing.