Day: July 15, 2011

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Netflix: How I got Screwed

Netflix had it for me. I could watch practically humongous selections of TV shows and movies online be it on my laptop, at home, or on my Android phone. And if one wasn’t on that streaming list, I could just have the DVD/Blu-Ray sent home. No late fees and life was great. But as the pic above shows for me, they just changed the plan.

Instead of $12/mo. for 1 DVD/Blu-Ray plus unlimited streaming, they were gonna split it up at $8 each, which meant that it was now going to be $16/mo.+$2 extra if I wanted Blu-Ray option. I get it. I understand that it’s expensive to ship all those DVDs and that they underestimated how popular discs are still and how expensive it is to ship them and process them, but for someone like me who borrowed DVDs that Netflix just didn’t carry for streaming, I rarely rented the discs. Now I am forever penalized?!

You know what, Netflix?! We used to have a great relationship… now you screwed it up for me. So you know what I’m gonna do?! I thought about just sucking it up and getting the (now) $18/mo. plan (which will be about $20 after tax and such). However, I said I’m gonna let Netflix know how I feel…

How do I do that?! By poking where it hurts. My spending that $8/mo. on Hulu Plus.  You see, one weakness… actually TWO weaknesses, of Netflix are these: 1) stream selection still has a LONG way to go… there are hardly less than 20 Korean movies and 2) the latest/current seasons of TV shows take forever to become available.  Hulu Plus solves that!

So you know what, Netflix?!  Go shoot yourself in the foot, ’cause that’s what you are doing now! Keep it up and I might just have to quit you!

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How to Travel to Cheju Island 101

So as most of you know by now, my family got a chance to take a long vacation together. This time, I had saved up enough vacation to go to Korea for a month. I could’ve stayed longer but there were no return flights left for me (without increasing the price signficantly) in July.

It was fun and crazy month, let me tell ya… but it was also our tenth (yes, 10th!) anniversary! We had taken lots of sacrifices to get to where we are today and we hadn’t spent many of our anniversaries together, let alone do stuff together. So I was more than determined to do something special… something memorable.

I had never been to the Cheju Island in the south… the Korean Hawaii, if you will, as it is also a dead volcano. We had sufficient Korean Air miles saved to buy two tickets, two nights of stay at KAL Hotel, and 3 days of car rental. That was awesome and it was Soojin that made all the stuff happen. By the way, renting cars in Korea is friggin’ expensive!! It’s not like here where it’s more reasonable at $30/day or so… In Korea, it was more like $100/day! Yikes!

Anyhow, we get to Cheju Island and take the shuttle ride to the Hanjin Car Rental only to find out that… you need an International Driver’s license to rent or drive a car! After much panic and trying to think our way through it, Soojin asked if we could hire a “driver” (기사). By God’s grace, we were sent a man who seemed to be in his late 40’s to early 50’s. His name was 김두환. No I am not kidding! Just take a look at him!

Let me just say, do NOT judge a man by his cover! While he may seem like a hybrid between a thug and 70’s pop singer, he was definitely a worthy tour guide. Get this. His rate was $50. Per day! No kidding! He was not only kind but was very thorough and made a plan for us but was flexible to what we had wanted to do (and not do)! And of course, he knew some of the best places to eat! One of the best dishes ever was ê¿© 수제비 (pheasant dumpling soup)!

If you are ever in Cheju Island and need a great tour guide (but you’d need to be able to at least understand Korean as he doesn’t speak any English!), give him a call! He’s my man! 김두환 기사 010-7709-0823 and tell him that the couple from Texas sent you! 😛