So about once a semester, I have one female student who asks to be excused from a class… it’s usually a very conscientious student, and she comes to me and says that she’s not feeling very well and would like to go home, if that’s okay. As a friendly sort of professor, I usually inquire as to the student’s illness, thinking I’m being nice, and finally, after a few moments of hemming and hawing, I realize that it’s that time of the month and she is dreadfully embarrassed and not willing to tell me. This time, she and her very …
Month: November 2006
Scary Story
So I heard this somewhat scary story in Jeonju, while visiting an old friend, Shawn, there. He told me the tale of a foreign hakwon teacher guy whose ex-girlfriend’s ex-husband had been, for some reason or other, “out to get” this guy. Let me make that clearer… there was a woman who was divorced, and dated this foreign guy after the divorce. The ex-husband, for some reason, didn’t like this, and decided to really screw up the foreign guy’s life. So what happened? Well, apparently, one day during class, a postal delivery guy showed up at the hakwon. “I have …
Die, Spammer, Die!!!
Spam. I know, it’s like shooting fish in a barrel, but… This letter may come to you as a surprise due to the fact that we have not yet met. No, I’m quite used to spam. I have to say that I have no intentions of causing you any pains so i decided to contact you through this medium. But now that I’ve received spam from you, I’ve decided that I have an intention of causing you pains. As you read this, I don’t want you to feel sorry for me, because, I believe everyone will die someday. That’s very …
Free Hug[s]?
The other day, Lime and I saw some young women in Seoul, near Hong Ik University, holding up a Free Hug sign. Lime told me it was a new big trend in Seoul. I see it’s not a native invention, however. That it’s not native isn’t a criticism, mind: I think anything that makes people more relaxed about public friendliness and displays of respectful affection are a good thing, in any society.
Sometimes I think of Olaf Stapledon…
You know, the guy who wrote Star Maker, that novel in which a man wondering if all intelligent species just destroy themselves is taken on a trip through spacetime to see that, indeed, they probably do. Sometimes the news puts me in mind of him, and I wonder what he’d say or write if he saw this: THE SPECTRE of a nuclear race in the Middle East was raised yesterday when six Arab states announced that they were embarking on programmes to master atomic technology. Then again, there’s always Martin Rees.