Some days all your classes go bad, none of your students want to do even the least bit of work (not even for rather savoury candy), you veer close to telling the wrong person off, and your water heater works even less well than it has been all year. But there’s something to look forward to, at least. Maybe you happen upon a farmer’s stand where you can buy 모과 (papaya) dirt cheap, and they’re firm enough to need to be left till the weekend or so before you eat them. Or maybe you figure out a really good, fun, …

Tonight, my cab driver who took me to the girls’ school where I work twice a week was an interesting fellow. When he picked me up, unlike a lot of guys he knew exactly where I wanted to go, and started talking with me right away. When he asked where I was from and I replied I was from Canada, he observed what a lot of cab drivers observe when they ask me that question: that in Jeonju, a lot of hakwon teachers come from Canada. I asked him how many of them speak Korean with him, and he said …

Isn’t it one of the silliest ideas in the world, that old motto that tells us that “there are two sides to every story”? Most stories have many, many sides and to think that two sides will cover it is just too simplistic. There are not just two sides to any story; there are a whole range of possible viewpoints and understandings of different situations. Most situations are more complex than that, most situations and more challenging than that to resolve. When you recognize this, then nothing is more frustrating than hearing someone say, “Well, you know, every side has …

Lime and I went to a mountain Saturday morning, with tea and fruit in our bags. I also packed a nice woollen blanket for us, and we ended up climbing most of a rather big mountain, as well as crossing the scariest bridge I’ve seen so far in Korea. I also packed my leather jacket in case it got cold, which it didn’t; I regretted bringing the jacket, as it made my bag very heavy and I didn’t use it once! Oh, how it hurt my poor aching back! I have pictures, but they’ll have to wait. Tonight we saw …

Aside from the fact that my MT-Blacklist spamblocker is broken, someow prevent rebuilds to the page when it as turned on, I am finding that there are ridiculous amounts of spam now being posted to my page. (It was 600 posts in the two says I was away from the site.) The solution, I fear, is to install a human checker—you know, one of those things that displays an image and requests the user enter the word in the image, which is too distorted for a spambot to read properly. Expect something like that to appear on the page sometime …

I remember the days when, while first really studying Korean, I would take taxis with anticipation in my heart. You see, there is something that nobody tells you when you first arrive in Korea, about the act of learning Korean. Most people just want to learn survival Korean, as they don’t intend to stay long, so they have no idea. Others turn so bitter that they think the whole prospect is insane; or they are too lazy to make any headway; or they are, as I was for a while, burnt out in terms of studying Korean, and have forgotten …

That’s what Myoung Jae said on Friday night, after I talked to the guys. Short version: I’ve left the band. Not easy, but something I felt necessary for me. No bitterness, no big fight, like the stupid way people leave bands on TV and in movies… no drama like that; just a kind of slightly sad, “See you later,” and a lot of gratitude that’s probably too unspoken, as I nonetheless turn my energies to other things. Long version follows:On Friday night the band had a practice, and I played as best I could though, with some of the new …

Okay, well, I have been finding that MT-Blacklist has been having some problems. I’m waiting to hear back from tech support about that, and to make sure my database isn’t damaged. But I’m planning on installing this software by James Seng, which confirms it’s a real person entering the comment. MT-Blacklist is great for automated spam deletion and blocking, as long as it works, but this solution seems just as good, to me… at least till I get the MT-Blacklist problem fixed. So expect a new panel checking for a little more input if you’re commenting next week.

Due to some downright bizarre behaviour in handling comments, I have had to disable my blogspam filter, MT-Blacklist. So my comments section may be flooded with comments in the next few days, till I get it back in working order again. Apologies to all. And I’m thinking of updating to the new MT while I’m at it, so I can install the new MT-Blacklist which I’ve heard good things about. But since that’ll take some time, I am not digging into it right away. Later, maybe this weekend or next week. For now, I need to get a few groceries, …