Tag: travel

Marching through Triple-A Baseball: Buffalo

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

The first stop on a multi-day minor league baseball trip was Buffalo, New York.  Buffalo’s actually a city that I’d been to a few times in my past, as I used to have family out there, as well as used it as a cheap hub in order to get to and from Toronto.

But anyway, as terms of a place to watch baseball, Buffalo kind of misses the point.  Either they were trying to prove to Major League Baseball that the state of New York actually needs more baseball teams, or they simply don’t really get that minor league baseball is kind of supposed to be small potatoes, in order for the players to grow and develop, but then again the way Triple-A baseball is nowadays, that’s kind of out the window now that I think about it.

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Impending brog hiatus

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I feel the need to write something before I embark on a four-day weekend a week before the craziest four-day weekend of the year.  Needless to say, between the events of this weekend, and the events of next weekend, there really isn’t going to be much time for me to actually makes posts to my beloved brog, unless it is of the mobile and fluffy variety.  I take pride in my ability to maintain commitment to my brog, and refusal to let it become one of the millions of blogs out there that have gathered dust and been abandoned by disillusioned posers from all walks of life.

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There are times when I resent being Korean

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Sometimes I wish my parents would go back to Korea, just so they could stop using their inability to have learned competent basic English as an excuse to be irresponsible and push the burden of their woes onto my sister and I. It sounds terrible, but I sometimes believe that if the monumental, albeit imaginary, language and cultural barrier didn’t stand in front of them, my parents might be able to take care of their own bullshit as opposed to heaping the responsibilities onto their children.

I understand the value of family and that we’re all supposed to be there for one another unconditionally, but in order for things to genuinely have any remote shot at success, all lines of communication must be open, and there has to be a mutual respect and acceptance that exists from all parties involved. I have no problem with helping my family or other people in general, because I like to imagine myself as a fairly decent person at the core, but it gets to a point where people that people who don’t help themselves are beyond any external help. That’s how I feel about my family sometimes, and it makes me feel genuinely lousy.

The story goes like this: Second-generation Koreans emigrate to the United States to do some sort of blue-collar work, whether it’s something agricultural or something more mundane like dry cleaning or operating a liquor store. I can’t say that I necessarily understand the rationale behind it, but often times the justification is “for the kids,” and often times “to have a better life.” The third generation of Koreans are essentially raised as Americans with as much Korean ideals as they are forcibly engrained with. In the perfect ending to this story, they become successful and make a boatload of money to where they can support their aging parents through the remainder of their lives as well as sustaining themselves and produce the next generation and sustain them too, with hopes that they will repeat the cycle, however theoretically from a higher starting point.

But the world ain’t perfect, and we live in reality. There aren’t nearly enough happy endings.

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A first time for everything

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Last week, I had a general idea of a schedule in which I wanted to write what I wanted to write about SDCC, and when I wanted to have my Comic-Con photos all sorted, processed and ultimately uploaded.  Basically, I told myself that I wanted to have everything done in a week.  Because, I was going out of town during the weekend to gather another bobblehead as well as see a new baseball park, and then I would have more photos to sort and share, and something else to write about next week.

I made my trip out of town over the weekend, but apparently the rains that have plagued Georgia over the last fucking year two months decided to come along with me, and proceed to ruin the one thing I really wanted to accomplish.  Needless to say, it rained just enough for the Danville Braves to cancel the one game I had planned on going to see.  Naturally, the announcement came LITRALLY minutes before my brother and I pulled into the parking lot, not to mention that it had actually stopped raining when we entered Danville itself.  But all the prior rain had sufficiently soaked the outfield to unsafe playing conditions and for the D-Braves to call the game.

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SDCC: Parting Thoughts

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To me, posting all of the photos from Comic-Con is what officially makes Comic-Con a thing of the past now. Memories and faces, old and new are all viewable to all eight of my regular visitors and the rest of the would-be inquiring internet. I’ve shared most of my thoughts about the experience as a whole, and people I’ve photographed may or may not be pleased with the pictures of them that I took.

But before I shift my focus towards back to what lies ahead, I had a few more sporadic thoughts, opinions and words I’d like to get out before I officially close the book on the whole SDCC Experience and try to get back to somewhat of a regular schedule.

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SDCC: Friday and Saturday photos

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Hopefully, it was worth the wait, but here’s the second batch of my Comic-Con photos, which encompasses most every picture I snapped on the Friday and Saturday of the convention.

After feeling like I wasn’t getting a whole lot of costume pictures due to the fact that either the quality wasn’t up to my expectations, or I simply couldn’t find any I wanted to photograph, I pretty much spent most of Friday and Saturday seeking out costumers, amidst trying to be creative and taking funny pictures of friends as well.

Admittedly, I felt a little weird putting watermarks on the photos of my friend Cliff in his Sterling Archer costume, as frankly I’ve never taken picture taking that seriously, nor do I think I’m particularly good at it to really warrant it. But I do believe in the ideas and the direction we went with the photos, and I figure if these shots gain any sort of notoriety, may as well try to segue them into credit nobody else can claim.

Anyway, the pictures from the rest of my Comic-Con trip, after the jump. 

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SDCC: The 2013 Review

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As the months turned into weeks, and the weeks narrowed down to days leading up to my first Comic-Con, I didn’t really know what to expect. Typically, I don’t go to any conventions with a whole lot of expectations because I am pretty boring like that, and I tend to prefer to let things happen as they come, and to simply roll with the punches. The only sentiment that I was really forewarned about was to prepare for lines, and lots and lots of lines.

To cut to the chase, I can say that I had a pretty good time out in San Diego, and Comic-Con itself was pretty worth it. I’ll admit that there was a moment in which I grew exasperated with the incessantly endless crowds and I thought that I wouldn’t want to come back, but as the convention went on and I figured out how to cope with, and avoid them, that sentiment dwindled. I’d consider going back again if the opportunity presented itself.

The thing is, this is not going to be a review where I gush about how Comic-Con was the greatest experience of my life and how that it was the best convention evar. In the grand spectrum of things, I had a good trip, but I don’t feel the need to sugar coat or not mention the things about it that are worth mentioning, good or bad. Which is kind of another way of saying that I did have some gripes, but I’m going to try and be as eloquent as I can when addressing them. But really, there was a lot to like about the event as well.

This is pretty much going to be a verbose post with a whole lot of words, so if you’re waiting for the rest of my photos, I’m still working on them, and they’re going to take a little bit more time.

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