One of the things I haven’t mentioned much here, but which I suppose might be interesting, is the a fascination I have always had with the cheesy supernatural-conspiracy literature that has always (until I moved to Korea) been widely and cheaply available to me. I have never much been into things like those writings about The Illuminati, or the Masons, or the Rosicrucians; I’ve never cared much for anything in the style of JFK… but if you give me a Budd Hopkins book, or something by Whitley Strieber, or just about anything from Erich von Däniken — I know the …
Category: PERSONAL
Writing Your Own Reference Letter
I guess this is normal practice at a lot of Universities, here, or so I’ve hard from other teachers. You write your own reference letter and then email it, and it gets printed and stamped by the person who is or was your supervisor. I suppose it’s one way to make sure you get the reference letter you want, but it’s odd. Doesn’t this result in other people basically knowing you’ve written your own reference letters? Doesn’t it mean that people all read them knowing you’re writing about yourself? I find it kind of interesting, though, since, as a blogger, …
What Would You Be If You Were An RPG Character?
On seeing the static page If I Were An RPG Game Character, I’d Be…, Shawn commented that it’d be really cool if I did one up for each other person in the office. Well, the thing is, I have no time to do such a thing, nor do I have the inclination. But I do think that it’d be neat to see how others represent themselves as characters for various RPG games. There’s something about filling out a character sheet with your own statistics that is very… I don’t know, it involves some careful and honest thinking about yourself. So …
Charlie’s Still At It
Yes, Charlie has doggedly continued on his adventure around the edge of Australia. He’s currently working his way through searing hot desert, or so the email says. Look at this guy. This guy would cycle up a mountain if bikes were made to do that kind of work. He’d zoom past sherpas and mountain goats, pedaling like a madman just to say he’d crested the peak. You might think I’m exaggerating here, but I’m not. I’m really not. Charlie’s always been an exceptionally good friend to me, and now to see him succeeding in something that is, by any measurement, …
훌연 (Hul-yeon) 훈련 (Hun-ryeon)
It’s rare that I title a post with a word I’m not necessarily sure is right, but appropriate in this case. A couple of Fridays ago, as I was preparing to leave for a conference in Seoul, I noticed that there was a lot of strange activity going on all around me. More fighter jets than usual soaring around; traffic all over the city blocked for some incomprehensible reason. When I asked one security guard what was happening, the incomprehensibly mumbled string of words ended with a couple of repeated statements of what sounded like 훌여 or 훌연… (Update: which …
More Shawn Quotes
I’ve added more quotes (garnered during the recent trip to Seoul for the KOTESOL conference) to the collection that can be found here. I’ve even added on that I think Shawn is actually proud of. How nice of me.
Nearly False Alarm
I saw the dentist today and it turns out it was merely sensitivity caused by a slight infection. I have meds to take and sleep to get, but I will note that he took a drill to the tooth in question; I think he scaled it, and if that’s the case, then I’m not sure I wanna get that done on Friday. It kind of stung and freaked me out a little — it never quite hurt, but a lot of the time it felt like it was just about to start hurting. But, I haven’t had my teeth scaled …
Conversational Moments I Want To Remember
Gord: Wait, is this a multiple choice question? Lime: No, choose only one answer. I’ll be quite happy when I can make such an interpretive error in Korean. I mean, when you think about it, if it’s an unknown term, her understanding of “multiple choice” makes sense: you would choose multiple answers, rather than just one “correct” answer. Fascinating little turn of conversation, and just shows how potentially counterintuitive terminology (like idioms and other features of language) can actually be. Another example is pronunciation I was trying to get right earlier. I encountered the word “꼬마” and discovered it means …
Sordello
Okay, six pages in, I think I know why Robert Browning’s Sordello was such a massive, career-destroying failure, and why it was so important for Ezra Pound that he mentioned it in his second Canto.
If You See “Gord”
A bit later today, I’ll be heading off to Seoul for my first KOTESOL conference, which starts tomorrow and runs till Sunday. If you see a “Gord” walking around looking confused, amused, or starved for online access, it’s probably me. Walk up and say hi.