Laura asked this week: Remind me, what are the five things that make it worthwhile to get up in the morning and go to work, no matter what the weather? (Aside from getting paid, of course.) Now, this is a question that usually hits me when I am in that worst class of the semester. You know, every semester there is at least one class in which no effort of mine, no encouragement and no discipline in terms of grades ever motivates more than one or two students beyond the pathetic sitting there, not speaking unless prompted with a script …
Month: January 2005
Sarong Party Girl on The Race Thing
Often risqué, ever-thoughtful, Sarong Party Girl writes a very worthwhile entry about, well, all kinds of things, but especially “the race thing”, meaning her practice of dating men of another race (mainly foreigners, I would say from what I’ve read) in the highly-race-conscious society of Singapore. A quote that grabbed me: And someone actually made me think about this the other day, and I’ve come to the conclusion that one of the reasons why I like dating expats is the fact that they help me escape. I’m getting out of here soon, but in the meanwhile I have to make …
Over, Over, Over and Out
Well, there it is, folks. Last night, the camp party was hilarious—I was the “Official Photographer” and mainly just snapped shots of kids posing with one another, their teachers, and their class TAs. But the highlight of the evening was a dance competition. Now, getting kids to dance was hard, so Myoung Jae—the host of the dance-off—did his best to be really hyper on stage, and sell the idea of dancing as fun and cool. Most of the kids were reluctant, so Myoung decided to show them that dancing could be a good time. The TAs were called onto the …
Last Night of Camp
Tonight’s the last night of camp. It’s a good thing, too, because I am exhausted. I was late marking the kids’ last journal entries from Wednesday, so arrived late at the cafeteria to discover crap on the menu, and so I ended up walking down to the front for food, missing out on coffee, and lifting a few chairs only to discover that my little bit of back pain has been expanding to a lot of back pain. It hurts when I stand. It hurts when I sit. I’m going to try lying down for a little while and see …
On Comfort Women
I ran across a post on a Korean film discussion website which says a lot of what I’ve been thinking about the much-manipulated issue of Korean Comfort Women under Japan. Here’s a taste: To Adrien, Umm… without really going into details… Comfort Women issue requires a lot more level-headed reexamination. Just saying something against the prevalent Japanese-soldiers-as-devils view risks being branded as a “traitor,” since I am ethnically Korean myself, too, but Comfort Women issue has been, IMHO (and I am already stepping into dangerous waters here), abused by all sides: by Japanese right-wingers, by Korean nationalists, by North Koreans, …