Korean Job Discussion Forums

[cosmic charlie]

I am curious, I know people collect many things for hobbies like stamps, or baseball cards. My question what is the strangest or most unusual things that that you have heard about people collecting? I had a friend who collected flashlights. He had hundreds of dollars worth of them. He even called himself a flashaholic So what are your stories?

[interestedinhanguk]

As a kid, I had a walking stick collection.

[Dazed and Confused]

I know several people that collect things including, old glass bottles, marionettes/puppets, MacDonald's commemortative glasses. I guess none of those is strange. However, I have a cousin that collects Hulk Hogan memoribillia. I do find her strange.

[Steelrails]

Not really strange or uncool but I had a friend who collected beer bottles, all different, and had a MASSIVE collection that lined the top of the walls of his house. Everytime someone came to the house for the first time they'd spend 45 minutes plus just staring up at them.

[NovaKart]

My grandmother has stacks of national enquirer magazines and tv guides. I don't know if she necessarily means to collect them or if it's more of a hoarding issue.

[InDaGu]

Prior to coming to Korea, I was a big collector of antique maps. I have over 100 of them in storage back home, some dating back as much as 200 years. I especially like maps that show previous geography (Ottoman Empire, USSR, etc). To me they're art. I even have 3 wall maps (though not antique) in my apartment here in Korea.

[Kaypea]

[debinoxford]

I collect nutcrackers, though the uptake has been slow with the years of moving around. Plus it doesn't help that Korea is not the place to purchase traditional nutcrackers. I also collect fabric, but that's more of an obsessive habit I can't break since I'm a seamstress. I have collections of fabric in New Zealand, South Korea and the US. It's becoming a problem.

[CrikeyKorea]

I collect soju,... I have about 30 bottles of different soju...

[Died By Bear]

My dad said that a lot more people than you'd think started collecting ears in Vietnam during 68-70 when he was there.

[madoka]

I own my share of odd collections, so I shouldn't be throwing stones. . . but . . . one of the weirdest forums out there was a vacuum cleaner one. Those guys would really tear into each other about suction power, different brand fanbois, dealers who would give biased reviews, etc. Seemed like much ado about nothing, but I'm sure many could say the same about Dave's.

These guys aren't collectors, per say, but they are really into what they do and make for an interesting and funny read:

http://www.ratkill.com/test.html

Here's a sample ratkill report:

I started stalking this "king rat," baiting the station every night and waiting by the bedroom window to take my shot. The first few nights, the possum who we named "Henry" sauntered down the tree trunk and made off with whatever I had left out there, making me wonder if I had imagined the huge rat. But on the third night, my suspicions were confirmed as the guest of honor showed. As he made his way down the tree trunk warily, I marveled at his size. He was round and fat, like an overstuffed dufflebag, and beady eyed, like a Beverly Hills chihuahua. I started to cock my rifle. The dogs, knowing there was action on it's way, began barking. The rat spooked and ran back up the tree. He disappeared into the upper canopy, a missed opportunity.

I cursed my luck and began obsessively plotting the shot. I went on line and researched the cost of having a rat mounted by a taxidermist. Amidst protests from my girlfriend, I set up a sniper camp in our bedroom, waiting for his return. Two nights later I got my chance.

[Mikejelai]

Maybe this should be posted on the freakiest waygookin thread, but here goes. She was my coworker here in the mid 1990's; with a background in fine arts from somewhere in the UK.

She had a rather large artistic portfolio collection of what she called her "ramyeon flowers" (those multi colored vomit puddles you see all too often here in Korea) - oil paintings, acrylics, charcoal sketches, black and white photos, color photos, folk art versions, etc. She had arranged them all in separate photo albums and used them as coffee table books in her apartment.

She was the same teacher who used decoupage (sp?) as the basis for all her ESL lessons. "Okay students today we are going to make......." Students loved her quirkiness, I might add.

One of her habits was sleeping with taxi drivers (down by the river). She was a rather large woman of mixed Jamacian and British ancestry and seemed to have difficulty attracting foreign suitors here. But there seemed to be no shortage of taxi drivers. She even kept a log book listing all the details and would put a notch on the wooden end table in her living room whenever she came in from her latest "conquest." I hope they discounted her fare.

Her really only annoying habit was turning over tables (including food/drinks) during our weekly Wednesday Night Drinking Club sessions. It seemed that she really hated to see her male colleagues hooking up/dating the lithe Asian ladies. Flip over the tables and storm out of the place cursing wildly, that was her modus operandi (I learned to sit at the bar).

Anyway, I thought her collections were pretty unusual.

[dongjak]

When I was in elementary/middle school I use to collect newspapers that I thought had newsworthy information I would like to share with my grandkids. I looked through them a couple years ago and they were mostly about the OJ Simpson trial and the Packers winning the Super Bowl.

[PRagic]

High end cigar accessories. Cutters, ashtrays, cases, lighters, and even a few humidors. Have to cut back now as the collection has grown large enough to garner the angst of the better half.

[machoman]

this is gonna sound gross but i started collecting my boogers this year in a yogurt jar.