Right, the time well and truly has come for me to figure out how to synch my iPod with Ubuntu (and yeah, I have links and stuff, I know, I know) because (a) I am not really up for installing a dual boot of Windows and Ubuntu on my netbook, and (b) Windows just had one of those regular little spectacular implosions on my “desktop” machine, which is a dual boot. (The desktop machine is in fact a laptop, but it lives on and stays on my desk.) The recovery process? Ain’t workin’ for me. No at all, at all. …
Category: PERSONAL
Korean Headache
Well, I’ve spoken and studied more Korean in the last few weeks than I have in several years. Basically, I got myself a tutor, a wonderful student from past semesters named Young Ah someone suggested to me would be a good tutor for me. One of my favorite phrases from among the ones she’s taught me, in the “free talk” part of our lessons, is “머리에 쥐나다” which translates as “to get a cramp in the head.” Such as, “I studied so hard my head cramped up.” The thing about studying it and using it with my tutor is that …
Everything is Fake
I forgot to blog this, in the press of personal events, goodbye parties for a coworker/friend, and the madness of grading, but I wanted to mention that I went to an art gallery opening last week, and the art was pretty cool. If you’re interested in a show of art by a young Korean artist who is decidedly experimental and interested in womens’ issues but also in taboo-shattering, check out Everything Is Fake. (Here’s the map.) The show runs till this Sunday…
Life in Orbit (meta4ickle)
Sometimes, you’re grateful just to catch the skyhooks as they scream past. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/iJpJL4ccHSo” width=”425″ height=”344″ allowfullscreen=”true” fvars=”fs=1″ /] You’re pushing the limits of your reactor engines, but you need to catch this ride. It’s the only one that will pull you out of this fucking sinkhole of a gravity well, where everything weighs too much, where the world is pulling at you all the time. The skyhook is coming now, howling through the upper air, and the shiver passes through your body, the chilling sensation of hope riding along on brilliant, insanely ancient machineries and your own brutally perfect …
I Even Remember My Teacher’s Name…
To those of you who are teaching here, and given to shooting your mouth off, let this be a lesson… Something funny happened this semester in one of my classes. A student was complaining about one of her first foreign teachers, who taught her English while she was in middle or high school. (I can’t remember which.) This foreign teacher said some things that, at least as the student recounted them, were pretty ignorant and obviously not wise things for a Western adult to say to a Korean kid. The funny thing that that the student ended her rant with, …
On Engineered Obsolescence in Music Today
This afternoon, a music professor from my university took a few of us out for lunch. I was invited along because I’d edited the biographical info for her new CD’s liner notes; the other two professors had translated the lyrics of some English-language songs on the CD to Korean for the liner notes, and coordinated the whole process. Anyway, she took us out for lunch at this amazing little place in Bucheon, the name of which I will have to get. The food was all made with special herbs and leaves and plants grown in places like Kangwon Province and …
Without Beautiful, Perfect | Wings Upon their Backs
[kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/sWpERZAIy3E” width=”425″ height=”344″ allowfullscreen=”true” fvars=”fs=1″ /] I wrote this today: Why is it that our kind are our kind born without beautiful, perfect wings upon our backs? Yes, you know something is up when Gord starts writing verse again, though of course that is only one stanza. But only one poem today. Poetry is hard work. Have my final class this afternoon — just getting together with some students to look at a few projects that need to get class approval, and to wish them luck on their finals. Then I will finish preparing for my Korean lesson — …
Party Last Night
I am not going to talk about the party I was at last night, except that it was nice to see Sanghoon and Rira again, and good to meet several new people including Dr. Kim Kyu-hyun, and a few others. I wish I’d known they were likely to leave early-ish, so I could have talked to them more… especially since I have a funny vague feeling I was intended to talk to someone I didn’t (much). One of the “few others” I met was a guy I recognized, but couldn’t place where I recognized him from until someone mentioned Youtube. …
Guest Blog on Global SF & Translation @ Apex
I was invited to write a guest blog post for Apex a little while ago, and it’s now up. It’s about global SF, culture, and translation, with some attention to Korean SF and horror in the cinema, and it’s titled “On the Translation of Dreams.”
Back in the [Korean Study] Saddle Again
Let’s see, in my notebook there are the following new vocabulary terms: 신상 정보: personal ID information 생물측 정보: biometric information 심리학: psychology 작업 멘트: pickup line 몸이 좋[지않]다: to [not] have a good body 핸드폰 번호 따다: to get [someone’s] phone number 세계 구역기구: The WTO 합병하다: to take over [something], for example, the WTO taking over the UN. 세상: universe (to be used in the context of discussing baby universes) 사고 | 나다: accident | occur (occur being the verb for accident) 화학전쟁: biowar[fare?] 증거: evidence These words, of course, are all related to the two stories I’ve …