Haven’t done much writing lately, though a trip to the doctor’s office did afford me some time to read mor eof the book I’m mainly into right now, which is Adam Roberts’ Stone. I’ll have more to say about that later. Those who want to know which hospital it was can trawl through my archives for posts about recent hospital visits, but since my experiences have been mostly positive, and I’m not out to trash the hoint, I’ll just say that I went to a well-known hospital in Seoul. I was supposed to have a test that would help explain …
Category: PERSONAL
Anyone Order Me a Book Lately?
I received a few things in the mail today. A disappointingly limited selection of my own compositions — lots of things from my third year compositions, but absolutely nothing from my second year, which means that when my box of audio tapes were turfed last year, the recordings of my earliest compositions were utterly lost — as well as the last issue of InterZone (but not the new one) and finally, a very dated issue of Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet along with Ray Vukcevich’s Meet Me in the Moon Room from Small Beer Press. It’s not as weird as it …
Jeonju Trip
Met Lime’s dad and brother today for the first time, as well as seeing her mom again. The family was quite welcoming and nice, and my trepidation about meeting her dad was all for nothing. He seemed quite pleased to meet me and was very warm toward me, even grabbing my hand and holding it to communicate as much as he could with me despite the obvious fact that my Korean language ability sucks. And besides the fact that the family is very sweet and welcoming to me, the other take-home message for me was that my Korean ability is …
Humungoid Wardrobe Blues
Though they seemed a great boon at the time when we acquired them, I’m starting to think the humungoid 3-piece wardrobe set Lime and I got for free is a bit of a millstone around our necks at the moment. I managed to move the small one into the new place alone, but the big ones are hard to move. I certainly cannot get the one inside my apartment out alone. A neighbour from down the hall helped me try to move the big one from the public lounge into the new place, and we couldn’t even get it in …
Things I Love: M
Jade Park continued this meme, where you blog ten things starting with the same letter, and was handing out letters a while back. She gave me the letter M. Mom. The letter M presupposes that I am going to mention Mom — I have to do it. If I don’t, I’m a bad person. Well, anyway, my mother and I have our disagreements, though they’ve been more sympathetic and less forceful in the recent past, but I still love her. We happen to live in completely different universes, but I love her just the same. Maewoon eumshik. Okay, it starts …
Post Slowdown and Happy Seollal
I’m reworking my site, by the way… a new design is on the way to accomodate a slowdown in posting, as well. Writing my “real” writing is taking priority, and that’s a good thing. The way to remind myself of that is to redesign my site to reflect that priority, so when the new format kicks in, it’s going to reinforce that slowdown. So expect a slower posting rate to be sustained, and expect a new format as well. All coming in the next few days. Oh, and since I haven’t mentioned it… happy Lunar New Year!
Anniversary
Today was an anniversary, of sorts… of the sort we choose to celebrate. It’s been almost three years since I met Lime, and the story of how we met is worth telling, so that’s going to be my post for today. In winter 2004, I spent a couple of months in India, and about half that time, Ritu and her family generously hosted me. So anyway, the time finally came, on February 17th, for me to fly back to Korea. I rushed about Delhi on my last day, picked up a tanpura, and that evening, they took me to the …
On Expat Whining, A Change of Heart, and Retooling
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 …
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 …