So finally, after weeks of being busy with other things, I’ve finished reading Bruce Sterling’s most recent collection of short fiction, titled Visionary in Residence (after the position he served at a Design College during the year when he wrote some of the more recent of these stories, not, as one of his critics at Amazon implies, after his sense of his own genius). If you read the reviews at Amazon, you see that they’re kind of mixed. As for my opinion, I’ll say this: I have been busy, but I also put the book down a couple of times …
Month: November 2006
My Sole Trick-or-Treaters
So one of my neighbours, Jason, and his wife have a couple of little boys, and they were done up as Spiderman for Hallowe’en, and I gave them a little candy. It was pretty cute, their dad urging them to say, “Trick or Treat”, and them all reluctant to do so, until finally, they kinda got the words out (they’re very young), and we clapped and cheered and I gave them some candy. And then I ran off to class. I mention this because I haven’t given candy to children for Hallowe’en in years — it’s not celebrated in Korea, …
No, I Am Not This Guy
Every once in awhile, someone asks me whether I am the same guy who runs Acts of Gord. After all, Canadian ESL teacher in Korea with a background in RPGs, named Gord… how many can there be? At least 2, is the answer. I am not that guy. Though, eerily, we both visited Sokcho this summer.
Chuck Norris: The IQ of a Bowl of Broccoli Soup.
Or clam chowder, maybe. Today, I was explaining to my students that considering the authoritativeness of a source can be useful. There’s no reason to quote a magician on science, or a priest on biochemistry, because usually they don’t have authority in these areas. And then, via A pair of ragged claws scuttling across the floors of silent seas, I discover that among the sary, sad, freakish twits of American TV and film who’ve Found the Lord and Taken Up Ministry, we can find not only that annoying guy who played the brother on Growing Pains, but also… yes… Chuck …
The Third Chimpanzee, by Jared Diamond, & The Ostensibly Weak Identity of Teenagers
I just finished this book this evening. Fascinating stuff… so much so that I put off starting grading just so I could finally actually finish it. Granted, there wasn’t a lot in the book that I didn’t sort of know, or suspect, and there are sections that are very clearly his later (and equally fascinating, though somewhat more flawed at the beginning and end) book Guns, Germs, and Steel in embryonic form, but still, it was an excellent read. I really quite enjoyed it. One of the funny side effects of reading this book of Diamond’s is that I’m always …