So, here I am in a PC Bang… Korea’s full-on blippy bleepy gamers’ version of an Internet salon. It’s amazing, how connected Korea is, and I keep commenting on it because it does amaze me. It’s like out of an SF novel or something, really. Sometimes, computers are amazing machines: I can say this without hesitation when I think about the friendships I’ve formed across many kilometers and even on the far side of the world; when I think of how much I’ve learned; and when I consider how powerful they can be, these machines. That’s probably true. But I …
Month: August 2003
Neil Stephenson, Christianity, Informational Hygiene
This is the weirdest writing I have ever seen on computers and knowledge. The idea of memes is basically one of the materialist’s most powerful arguments against Christianity, after all – for memes claim religion is an idea-complex virus just like fashion and art and anything else. How can one use memes to defend religious ideas? I don’t get it. I hope this person got some medication or psychotherapy or something.
Back from Seoul
I am back from Seoul and having a hard time getting my computer to behave. It’s semi-stable, but there are little functions that are not working, to my great consternation. Anyway, I’ll get it working. Gotta de-frag the drive and I am thinking about getting a new, bigger hard drive. But I’ll need to make some specifications before buying it, since my PC doesn’t have a floppy disc drive (so I will need BIOS installed on it, or on a CD-ROM anyway… which might be possible, I don’t know, to install BIOS from a CD-ROM. I shall have to ask …
Games, Simulation, and Learning
The Adrenaline Vault | The Developers Corner This little blurb made me think of my sister’s job, teaching kids about what it means to be a refugee basicallyh by inflicting on them a slightly padded experience of being a refugee. It’s her comments about that which make me wonder about how effective electronic simulations can be for many many types of learning. After all, in games one can learn to shoot people to pieces, but I am not sure it’s so easy in real life. The visceral part is missing, and sometimes (often?) that is the most cruciual thing. Still, …
Nice Things From This Week
Here are some nice things that happened this week: – I ate Tang Su Yuk (“Chinese fried pork”, Koreans claim this is) without getting ill. It was what gave me food poisoning three (3!) times last year but I worked up the courage to try it again when the school put some out after teacher training finished. I did NOT get sick. I am pleased. – I managed to get this computer working again (I think), which is nice despite the fact I lost months and months of email archives. – My friend Young Ja helped me not only to …
Teacher Training One-Liners
For now I have no photos to share, and I may not for a while (since they were taken on film and I need to get Trisha her scanner very soon), but yesterday we marked the final exam for the teacher training workshop we gave at Wonkwang University. The test consisted of a role play in which teachers were supposed to use a number of spoken-English elements from previous classes. Some amazing things happened, including a skit where one of the other teachers was lampooned with loving respect, and where I (for whatever reason) was played as a gangster killer …
Letters to Bushie
UPDATE (much later): Yeah, I never got around to scanning them, and it seems like the rest of the world figured out what these little kids knew at the time. So, whatever… ORIGINAL POST: During the recent Gulf War, I think a number of teachers had their students write letters in English to George Bush. I did, partly because kids brought it up in class, and because we were doing a section of their textbook on letter-writing, but also because I was curious to see what they would say. I still have the letters my kids wrote on my desk, …
Dead Computer Update
Actually, I spoke too soon when I claimed I’d succeeded in resurrecting my computer. It started dying on me 5 minutes after reboot, and at one point even complaining of checksum errors. All very scary. It may or may not remain as stable as it has been in the 20 minutes since I finished the last install. I need to try a few more things to find out. If not, I’ll be going to Seoul with it to get it repaired later on today. (If it is okay, I’ll still go to Seoul, but on a somewhat different mission.) Oh …
Why I need you to email me…
Everyone! I need you to email me because my computer died a couple of nights ago. I managed to resurrect it, and I do have some email addresses in backup, but a lot of archives and some new sender addresses were lost, especially those new to my computer in the last 6 months. Granted, there are some fairly unhappy emails in that archive that was lost, so unhappy that I can actually say perhaps I am happier that they were lost… but still, the addresses are something I *didn’t* want to lose. So please do email me again soon. Thanks!
좋은 음악이!
좋은 친구는 다음 카페 있어서 음악을 우플로드 했어요. 그런데 내 서버에서 호스팅 해서 여기도 포스트 해요… 메 노래 mp3 이다… 이것은 미시시피에 쥐수의 노래 입니다. Branford Marsalis 친구랑 연주 했어요… . Mississippi Fred McDowell의 Goodmornin’ Little Schoolgirl 와 Shake ‘Em On Down Mississippi Delta Blues 입니다… 이 노래가 프랑스 말에 노래 했고 검열 같은 이야기 말해요. George Brassens’ Le Pornographe 와 Les Amoureux des Bancs Publics. 프랑스 음악이 떠: Satie’s 잘 알고있는 Gymnopedie #1. Satie의 작곡들이 너무너무 좋아하고 나는 은악 공부 했을테서 Satie의 작곡 같은 작곡을 작곡 했어요. 구리고, 다른 좋아했는 작곡사: Steve Reich 내 재일 좋은 미국 작곡자 이다. …