EFL Geek posted relatively recently (a few months back) about English Nicknames in Korea. Me, I despise them. I basically ignore any English name offered to me by someone who wasn’t born with it. I have managed to create French- and Korean-language identities for myself just fine without a new, fake name that isn’t really mine. I also think that the self-imposition of an English name is silly, since it reinforces the notion that Koreanness is incompatible with English-speaking, a ridiculous notion. I understand some people do it for fun, and sometimes in class I make an effort to acknowledge …
Category: PERSONAL
The Only Blog He Reads Is Mine
So says the author of In a wobble, a Portuguese fellow who goes (online) by “beorn”. No, really, go see his blogroll. And check the chatbox in the right sidebar if you wanna know why: I’ve asked and am hoping for an answer that entertains. And anyway, I like his blog.
To My Readers in Korea…
Two questions for my readers in Korea: Do you know where I can get DAT tapes copied to CD? I have several Digital Audio Tapes which I was told could be converted at my University’s Audio/Visual services division, and I got excited about the prospect of hearing some of my old compositions from my undergrad days. It’s especially interesting to me since I’ve discovered the manuscripts were all lost in the post to my parents’ home. These are the only extant traces of my musical history, and I’d like the content copied to audio CD as soon as possible… but …
And then went down to the ship…
That’s right, we got us an Ezra Pound study group going. It’s Chullsung, Jason, and me on Monday afternoons spelunking (and then trying to dig out way out of) his Bible-sized book of poems — or, you could say, his pagan-Biblical poem — The Cantos, starting 1:15pm weekly. Next week is Cantos 1-3, including earlier drafts if we can get our hands on ’em. I’m excited. (I think I’ll bring the relevant bit from The Odyssey as well, if I can find it among my books… but I think I left The Odyssey in Canada, and only have The Iliad …
Neighborhood Unknown
This week’s Friday Five question is once again mine: Tell us about five local places (in your neighborhood, town, or city, or region) that you have never visited, but would like to go to sometime… if you ever get around to it? I think, considering how many other people have quit doing them, that I may also give in to that lurking urge to give up on this Friday Fives series. I have plenty to post about without it, and while I used to enjoy the challenge of new questions, most of the ones in the rotation machine are mine, …
Another Earthquake…
Another major earthquake, rocking Pakistan this time, and you know, it gives me this weird, creepy feeling like someone or something out there in the universe is finally beginning to have had enough of us. Not that I actually believe in anything out there to get tired of us and start doing this sort of thing. I don’t imagine any Cthulhu or Yahweh or Demiurge out there watching us and responding to our actions. It’s just, you know, I can totally understand the root impulse for the feeling of suspicion that this might be the case, because I feel the …
A Riff on Woody Allen Groucho Marx as Quoted By Woody Allen
Didn’t Woody Allen say something to the effect that he had severe misgivings about joining any club that would have him for a member? Well, I’ve got a different take on that. Frankly, I look around and I have misgivings about joining any club that would take certain other people as members. And yes, I know, that’s judgmental. Sorry, but everyone’s judgmental in certain departments. Everyone judges a convicted rapist, for example, or a guy who deals crack to teenagers and gets busted for it. Everyone acknowledges that there are criteria which, within a given culture, such as Western culture, …
CahootsMagazine.com Is Live
For a few weeks I’ve been working pretty close to constantly on this website I’m building for a couple of friends in Saskatoon who’ll be launching an alternative womens’ magazine called Cahoots. Well, after much painstaking work, backtracking, studying up on php, and even begging for help from a Canadian woman named Mary, the CahootsMagazine.com website is finally live. The site is powered by WordPress, and is using the Wuhan theme (which, yes, I know means that we have to contribute money to WordPress; it’s on the editor’s list of stuff to do). And it’s almost completely done, by gob. …
What’s Left To Do This Weekend?
Cook this defrosted chicken. Finish building that magazine website. Re-edit my column for that same magazine. Write a 1300-word piece on the music festival I attended last week for translation and inclusion in a Korean magazine. Clean up, take out my recyclables, and mop my floor. Clean off my hard disk by burning several (maybe a dozen) DVD-ROMs. Call that guy in Seoul who owes me W1,500,000 for the plane ticket I canceled during the summer. And that’s not even mentioning all the stuff I need to do for me, like, you know, read a book, and work on my …
After a Long Evening at the Keyboard
… I have only a few minor updates to mention. One is that I definitely must get my hands on those Bluiett Baritone Nation CDs that are all easily ordered, but never in stock anywhere I go. Second, I’m almost finished building a website, and I’ll probably link to it this weekend. Third, I heard from Charlie, and it’s all good. He’s off to the Great Sandy Desert tomorrow, which is just nuts, but cool. And he knows way too much for his own good about old, bad Canadian TV. Speaking of which, I’ll give a cookie to the first …