For Inner Circle Members, only! So, let’s see: One of our department assistants suddenly quit without notifying any members of our department, yesterday afternoon at 4pm. Though I was one of the people who defended her and helped keep her in her position this semester, she decided to stick me with the crappiest class assignment possible — Monday and Friday night, as late as possible. That’s been fixed, as there was no way in hell, but it’s all a mystery. (She also stuck someone in the other English department in an unfeasible course assignment, too.) That someone else is a …
Category: GENERAL
Haeinsa Security, and the Chinese Earthquake
Haeinsa is the temple where the Tripitaka Koreana, carved meticulously on wooden plates, is stored. It’s a major site in Korea as far as heritage goes. I wish I’d photographed the info plate in front of the woodblock storage area, because it was more than a little amusing. It explained how the Buddhist scriptures were carved into wood in order to concentrate the power and force of Buddhism and guard Korea against Mongol invasion. So then, when the Mongols invaded and left the carvings as ashes, they went ahead and carved it all again. Well, we ended up wandering past …
Drunken Suit + KTX = Not Fun
I’m on the KTX from Busan to Seoul now. The train actually offers an Internet connection for a flat rate of W1000 (a little less than a dollar US)… if you’re a Korean citizen running Internet Explorer on Windows, that is. Foreigners running Linux will have to have a dual boot and a Korean girlfriend to log them in. Yay for the Hub of Asia, I’m sure the whole Pacific Rim is just waiting eagerly to be denied basic access to most things! Not to mention drunken guys in suits on trains. Now, it’s one thing when you encounter a …
Stuff Going On
Been busy like mad, and traveling for the next few days, but briefly: I’m getting my students to release stuff (or let me release their stuff) online. The first in a series of projects is now up at YouTube: my Korean students considered popular stereotypes believed in Korea about foreign countries (like France, America, South and Southest Asia, China, and Japan) and then went out and asked people from those countries what they think and feel about those stereotypes. That’s how you turn a somewhat disturbing class discussion into a learning experience. More to come: remixes/creative work from my Media …
Just… Wow.
Ellen Datlow linked this at Matthew Good’s site: Wow.
Subscribe to Comments
This is one of those little things I meant to install ages ago, but never got around to it. You can now subscribe to the comments section of a post when commenting, to receive notification when others comment or reply to you.
Lest My Rage Seem Misspent
UPDATE: There’s no more reason to be cautious now, so I’ll just come out with it, and hope Google gets used in the hiring process in Korea soon. The seemingly-alcoholic, clearly racist, sexist, and scummy foreign English teacher I discuss in the post below is named Patrick Stewart, who worked in South Korea at the Catholic University of Korea during 2008. (I think from 2007-2009, or maybe from 2006-2008?) I know personally of at least three cases in which he sexually harassed female instructors at our university, the Catholic University of Korea, including very late at night at their apartment …
Good Grief!
Thanks to Boing-Boing, I know that: Jimi Hendrix made a Sex Tape. And now someone else is releasing it. Psychopaths are great correspondents. (Among others.) Canadian copyright is about to go nuts. (Hardly a surprise: the USA is exported n even-more-draconian form of copyright law to Korea, and Canada’s much more of a USA-wannabe.) As someone commented — who needs The Onion? Reality is weirder!
It Worked
If you’re a Boing-Boing reader, no point in trying — you know what’s in this video and it won’t work. But if you aren’t, then watch this video once, paying careful attention to how many times the balls are passed between people. Count ’em up. Make sure you get the exact number of passes. Here’s the video. Then click and see what to do next. DON’T read this until you’ve counted up the exact number of passes.
허브
That title is Korean for “Herbs.” Predictably, it’s pronounced “Huh-beu.” Almost like the word “hub”, with an “eugh” added to the b at the end, to make it two syllables. (Have I ever mentioned that “crazy,” when pronounced with a Korean accent, has four syllables?) After a few years of my fruitlessly trying to score basil leaves and fresh oregano or lemongrass or any number of other things, I began begging Lime to get online and see if these things can be gotten in Korea. Online, because even years ago, I’d figured out that all kinds of stuff is available …