I’m posting the Miéville List — the fifty-book list that I am planning to slowly work my way through over the next couple of years — mostly to note that some of these books are going to be pretty damned hard to get my hands on in Korea, seeing that they’re either out of print and the kind of thing you mostly only find in used book stores. Yes, this is a kind of appeal to the kindness of strangers, but not a loud one. After all, with the degree of traveling I’ve been doing, in some ways I have …
Month: February 2006
Sadly Realistic
Despite the overstatement, I think Will Farrell really does capture the essence of the Bush Administration’s response to Global Warming (and all kinds of other problems). See here. (via, er, someone I’m subbed to on Bloglines, but I can’t recall who… sorry!)
Those technical problems I mentioned…
I mentioned some technical problems with my work visa situation at the present. Those not interested in stupid loophole situations that will probably never happen to them, you may wish to skip over it and just know that I’m dealing with a pain in the ass. For those curious, though, I’ll get right into it and describe all the idiocies to you in vivid detail. Here’s the deal… I went to the office yesterday to box up my things and go home to continue packing, and what do you know but Brian came in and told me that there was …
In Bucheon
My new employer has a wireless LAN and that’s how I’m posting this. I’m just waiting for the secretaries’ lunch break to be over so that I can maybe get a look at my new apartment and my new office — they’re in buildings right beside one another, which is fine by me. I got to Korea late Monday night, and when I checked my email, the next morning, I discovered there was a general Faculty Meeting here in Bucheon today, 10:30am Wednesday. So I busted my butt to get here and arrived only ten minutes late. I was introduced, …
Poem and Eulogy for my Father
At my father’s memorial ceremony my sisters and brothers-in-law read a poem written by my mother, and I read a poem written by me, and a eulogy mostly “written” by me but actually “composed” by family council in one very long meeting the night before his memorial. The poem is not really a Ghazal in the strict sense of the form, but as so many anglophones have done before, I neglected the rhyme-scheme, use of refrain, and many other things. As Erin Thomas explains in this essay/collection of Ghazal, such irreverent use of imported forms is all too common among …
Strange Fact and Update
I’m not criticizing, but I do find it weird that running the obituary posted below for a few days in the local newspaper is more expensive than the cremation that my father requested. That’s just plain weird. Thank you to all who have express condolences, concerns, emailed me personally, or donated money to the Red Cross in my father’s name. It is all appreciated, even if I haven’t yet emailed you my thanks. My family is doing well, considering, and I’m going to be on a plane on Monday morning, heading back to Korea for my last few nights in …
I mentioned a baby…
Obituary
Thank you to everyone leaving supportive comments. I thought I would share my father’s obituary here. SELLAR, GORDON KINLAY The family of Gordon K. Sellar, age 66 years of Saskatoon, sadly announces his unexpected passing on Saturday, February 4th, 2006. Gordon will always be loved and remembered by his wife of 33 years, Ghislaine; by his children, Gord of Seoul, South Korea, Marie and husband Troy, of Saskatoon, and Isabella and husband Martin of Winnipeg; and his grandson, Nathaniel, as well as his eagerly awaited second grandchild. Gordon was born on September 12th, 1939, in Zomba, Nyasaland (Malawi), and throughout …
Mourning
My father has passed away. I am on my way to Saskatoon now. It was sudden and unexpected, a result of a surgery he told me he might have but which he said wouldn’t be serious. It was serious, and a couple of days after it, he slipped away in the night. He did not suffer, which is a help to know. I wish I’d gone home for my holida; not doing so was a decision I think I will regret forever, though I am trying not to feel guilty about it. We could have seen one another one more …
Lunar New Year List, Adieu
Last year I did my readings so as to ensure that I would read 50 books within the span of a single Lunar New Year, a kind of interesting challenge for the first time, pushing myself to read more and in a certain way. Of course, I found that the fact I was doing a Lunar New Year list affected how I was reading. Not all of my choices were affected by this, of course — if I’d been maniacal about it, I wouldn’t have joined the Ezra Pound Reading Group at the Uni, because reading Pound is slow and …