So, I’ve come to this place where I am now reading Michael Breen’s The Koreans and Scott Burgeson’s Korea Bug, and nodding my head at their assertions that, after all, Korea’s okay. I don’t know why, but sometime after coming back from Canada, something changed in my mind, and I stopped seeing everything annoying that happens to me as some kind of bad portent or revealing hint to the puzzle that is this society. The unraveling of this puzzle is something that infects many an expat’s mind while living here. After all, as Bug puts it, Korea is weird. That …
Category: GENERAL
Valentine Blogging
You know you’re a good match when you meet up in downtown Seoul and go for Indian food, and flowers and chocolate and a little walk together, and you’re both still elated to see one another after almost 3 years. More on how we met soon… an anniversary post is in the works. But for now, I hope your Valentine’s Day was spent with someone as wonderful as mine was.
Almost But Didn’t So Instead
I was thinking of heading into town to take in a lecture on North Korean propaganda, but decided I really didn’t feel like it, so instead I went out for dinner, had some coffee, and read most of the remainder of the October/November 2006 issue of F&SF (I’m trying to catch up on my subscription, and have only the Ryman novella left to go), plus a story for my crit group. On the way home, I decided to stop by my office and print a couple of things out — another story for crit, and one of my own for …
ABC’s of me
ganked from Writing Under a Pseudonym A- Available or single? No. Sorry to disappoint. B- Best Friend? Lime. C- Cake or Pie? Definitely pie. D- Drink of Choice? Water, actually. E- Essential Item? I agree with Jade: my laptop. F- Favorite Color? Haven’t had one since elementary school. G- Gummi Bears or Worms? No thanks. I’ll have some peach licorice, though. H- Hometown? Saskatoon, Canada. I- Indulgence? Oh, I’m cutting back. Let’s say DVDs and soft cheeses. J- January or February? January, because February is the real cruelest month. K- Kids and names? I like those old native Korean names, …
Mac vs. Windows vs. The Other Guy: Think Prophylactics and Full Potential
So this mailing list I’m on is caught up in one of its repeating discussion-obsessions. The Mac fanatics are arguing the points of the Mac. The Windows users are responding, mostly in terms of how much better Windows is for gaming. I am reading it on my little Linux machine. Outside my window, I can hear one of those bloody trucks that drives around selling stuff. You don’t have these in most countries. I really wish someone would make it illegal to disturb the peace that way… driving around the back roads and side streets with a loudspeaker attached to …
Liquor Cabinet Blogging
This post starts out scary, but it won’t stay that way, I promise. Nothing graphic, just a little discussion of prostatitis diagnosis and treatment. Good news. Nothing too scary… Hell, I’m playing Milt Jackson in the background. Nobody can do anything very scary with vibraphone music playing in the background, can they? So I’ll announce the meme here, and then blather a bit, knowing you’ll stick around for the good stuff, right? The meme is: blog what’s in your liquor cabinet. Or cupboard.
Weirdness
Yeah, I know, there’s some weirdness on my site. I updated to WordPress 2.1 and some of my plugins are acting a little kooky. But it’ll take a day or two to get everything back to (ab)normal. Please bear with me till then. Thanks! UPDATE: Never mind, it was a plugin conflict and I fixed it up pretty quickly. But expect some changes in the look and feel of this blog, to reflect my commitment to posting less. And expect some more-accessible archives, to make wha I happen to write when I fail at that resolution more available to readers. …
John, Beer Pen, Pool, Expatriat(ism)e, Sleep, Shinchon Pianos, White Cranberry Chocolate, and Back Pain
Couldn’t think of a good title, so it’s kind of a summary of the post. Yesterday I met with my friend John, whom some might know as Ritu‘s husband. I’d just finished my course of antibiotics and was eager to test whether or not my prostate is back to normal, which was a good thing, as we went out for a few beers and caught up. For having a pint of Guinness on draft, I was rewarded with a Guinness pen! Hmm. It writes okay, too. It’s too bad I have no depth perception, or I’d have volunteered to have …
Good Korea Day
When I returned to Korea from Canada, I felt particularly frustrated in returning, which worried me. “Have I had enough?” I asked myself? “Should I live here longer? Am I burning out?” It’s not too surprising, mind you. The bus ride from the airport was like a mental trial. The bus driver refused to open the luggage compartments on the side of the bus, so we had to haul everything up into the bus, which was a lot of baggage. (Compare that to the bus drivers in Montreal, who actually helped carry our bags onto the bus for us.) The …
Dad’s Anniversary
I had a lot of things written, but didn’t want to post them until after I’d talked to my Mum, and then, in retrospect, I didn’t want to post them at all. That’s why this is posted on what is technically the 5th, a day late according to Korean time, but actually February 4th in Canadian time. My mother, by the way, is doing okay. When I called, she was talking about happy things, and she really seems fine. I am too. I realized that unconsciously knowing this date was coming was probably part of my inexplicably messed-up sleeping patterns, …