It’d be nice to hear some long-ago voices again. If you’re just cruising in, feel free to leave me a voice message. It’s like voicemail, online. Very kewl, etc. Because one of the things about living abroad is, you don’t hear many of your friends’ voices for extended periods of time. Which sux.
Month: February 2006
Those Mohammed Cartoons
I was traveling when the whole thing about the cartoons of Mohammed his the world media. My first reaction was to think, “Jeez, guys, chill out. It’s just cartoons by infidels! It’s not as if your media doesn’t make nasty cartoons too, you know. Now, I know that it’s considered wrong to depict Mohammed, and that in Islam that’s rooted in a more deep and lasting taboo on pictorial depictions of Allah. Okay, fine, that’s their religion. But the thing is, nobody has any right to force others to obey their religion. For example, Muslim extremists would probably also like …
Not Making That Tom Waits Joke
…because it’s not true, it’s just that the rooms are so small here in Japan that I feel really big. Everything on TV twenty minutes ago was deeply weird, but it seems to have normalized now. Free internet in my room, the Sun Life Hotel in Fukuoka. If I had readers in Japan, I’d put out an offer to meet anyone who felt like it and have dinner and a beer, but I don’t think I know anyone in Fukuoka. Ah well. Maybe the foreign guys I met at the airport and went to the embassy with will call, and …
Cory’s Podcasts
Are any of my readers doing like me, and enjoying the absolutely wonderful podcasts that Cory Doctorow has made of his short (and longish) stories — some of them in progress, others previously published? I’m really enjoying them, so much so that I’m even considering doing something like this myself with stories in progress, or stories at the beta stage — you know, things finished but needing a rewrite or some fine editing. Reading aloud helps with this, and why not let others enjoy the reading aloud bit. Would any readers be interested in me podcasting older stories of mine? …
On My Way, Part 2
Well, I was planning to post, “I’m Here,” as the follow-up to the last post, but now I find myself on my way again. I was in my apartment by 5:00pm and Lime dropped by with coffee, the angel, and after that we went around Bucheon for a while. At first I thought I wasn’t tired, but after we had a nice dinner, I found myself absolutely exhausted, so we got us some sleep. This morning, when I woke up, I couldn’t bear to start unpacking. I had the yogourt I’d bought last night, and some orange juice, and just …
I’m On My Way
Well, almost. The mover is booked to be here at 11:00am, and then I’ll find out whether all this stuff will fit onto his truck. I am sure hoping very ardently that it will. I have some vague idea where the few boxes of breakables are, but most of them are books and therefore heavy enough that they’ll probably not get blown off the truck. Anyway, I should probably just check my email, finish my awful breakfast, and get my sweater on, because it’s a damned chilly day. I’ll next post from my new place in Bucheon. More about that …
To the Next Tenant
Living in an apartment for more than two years is really unusual for me. I’ve spent two and a half years in the one I’ve lived in since I came to Jeonju, and over that time, I have learned a ot about how to make this place work, be comfortable, be livable. It seems to me that to lose all that accumulated knowledge would be a waste, so I’ve written up some of it for the next tenant who moves into this place. It’s almost like passing along one’s dog, or something — I want her to know it a …
The Narrative of Gordon Sellar Who Emigrated to Canada in 1825 by Gordon Sellar
Well, now, I suppose I really ought to read this: The Narrative of Gordon Sellar Who Emigrated to Canada in 1825 by, yes, Gordon Sellar.
The Discards of Spring
Saskatoon was freezing cold when I was there, at one point at night, -20 celcius plus nasty winds; but here in Korea, today felt just like spring. It was warm outside in the sun, warm enough anyway to feel nice with the sun on me, and not really wintry at all. Today I did a lot of packing. I haven’t readjusted to Korean time, so I’m still waking at 4am, 4:30am, times like that. I’ve had lunch breaks and some breaks online — I find such things necessary to reduce the stress that the commenter on my previous post mentioned …
Moving Blues
I hate moving. I hate moving. I hate moving. I hate moving. I hate moving. That should tell you how I’m doing today. I have done a lot of the packing, but have a couple of important things I need to do, like cancel internet service, and call the water guy to pick up the water cooler tomorrow morning (and to pay him for the weeks during which I didn’t order water), and of course there’s always just a couple of more boxes to get done. But this time, it really is something like just six or seven more boxes …