This is how it’s done: This morning I learned that Pentagon officials have said that force levels in Iraq would not be cut “anytime soon,” apparently because of a “recent surge in violence” sweeping Iraq. But what struck me most about that news was votesomemore’s response in this thread claiming that, “There is ALWAYS a ‘recent surge in violence.’” That got me thinking. Is there always a “recent surge in violence” in Iraq? I Googled the phrase, and discovered that the answer to the question is, well, yes. There are a few notable periods where violence is not reported as …
Month: March 2006
Handy Latin
Wanna sound smart(er)? Check out these My World and Welcome… Funny Pages: Handy Latin Phrases: Sic faciunt omnes.Everyone is doing it. Courtesy of A Violently Executed Blog.
TIP!!
The other day, Lime was helping me look around the Korean online markets to see how prices for tank-topped water-coolers compare to offline prices. In my old place, in Jeonju, the water tank company let subscribers have the cooler for free if they bought a certain minimum number of bottles a month, and let me tell you, in a country where the taps don’t gush drinking water, a cooler is a wonderful convenience: it’s not only nice cold water on call, but also hot water on call, hot enough to make a cup of tea immediately, if you like. Well, …
On V
First off, a little occupatio, in which one starts blathering about the thing which he said he was not going to describe(*): I’m not talking about V the miniseries. V was immensely popular in Korea, so much so that only a couple of years ago, during a discussion over dinner with some old Korean friends, when the show came up, some of my tablemates were spouting out the names of major characters in the show, details I couldn’t for the life of me remember. Lime and I talked about the show recently and she said that it had a major …
‘Nother Modest Proposal
Over at Epiphany in C, there’s A Modest Proposal for the Military Industrial Complex posted by speed of Dave. The scary bit is that he’s hit the nail on the head in terms of the kinds of logic used to justify war abroad. Worth a read. Here’s a taste: To all of you who are in the business of blowing things up (people, buildings, etc), I want you to know that I understand that you need to make large sums of money in order to do so. Being that this is the case, and that I would hate to rob …
Ubuntu in Korea, with Ramblings on Piracy, Free Culture, Bollywood, and The Long Tail
I’m just geeking out about Ubuntu Linux here, which branch out to piracy, free culture, Bollywood, and alternative distribution systems using the Internet. I already didn’t know much about what I was going on about at the point of Linux, so this al might be a load of bull puckey. Or there might be some gems mixed in with the bull turds, you never know. But if you demand people only to write about things they know really well, go read something else. If, on the other hand, you want to help disabuse me of my mistaken notions and help …
Wasting Away… Not Quite
Kat recently commented that she’s lost weight. Well, oddly enough, so have I. Lime commented on it the other day when she saw me wearing my very gaudy Ganesha t-shirt that I bought in Bangkok almost two months ago. She said, “When you tried that shirt on in the shop, it was a little to tight, but now it fits you pretty well.” It’s true. My suit jackets are a little looser, my belts are getting buckled one hole tighter, and my pants are still unwilling to stay at full mast — no longer is there the pinioning effect of …
Gaaaaaaaaaah, more horrid amusements
Four Asian-American guys training up to do a rap on MacBeth for extra credit. It’s a hilarious send-up of life in a home where, even if you got A or A+ in everything else, a B+ in English just won’t do. They embrace the stereotypes, and the geekery is TOTALLY hilarious. Especially brilliant is Earl, the Filipino who is, uh “all ghetto” and stuff. And from the comment section of the post where I got the above, this one is sorta funny too. I can’t speak for dating culture in North America, but most of the interiracial couples in Korea …
It’s when you can’t call him anymore
I got home from class this morning and I felt like calling my dad just to chat, something I did occasionally though, unfortunately, not often enough over the years. Anyway, very much felt like calling him, but you know, I can’t. He’s not there. There’s no phone I can use to call him now. This is the thing I have to say about death at this point: it’s the strangest thing that’s ever happened in my life. You want to contact someone, to resume relations in the way that they were before, but it’s not just that you can’t, in …
Not the Purpose of the Sender Line
A surprisingly large number of students I have dealt with in Korea apparently do not understand the purpose of the “Sender” line in an email. Thus they don’t enter their names in the email system, but rather input all kinds of other things: brief quotes in Korean from books they like, or random English words like “nicelips”, or “misty”, or “lovely”, or “nicegirl”. Okay, a majority of them also have the good graces to begin their email with, “Hi teacher, this is ________,” at this point, inserting some randomly-determined romanized form of their names. But still, I imagine it would …