I have resolved not to whine and bitch without mentioning something positive. Sometimes this means telling two stories, but I think today’s example fits both. Man, delivery guys… I know their jobs are not so fun or easy, but sometimes, they just drive me crazy. The guy dropping off my box of Emart groceries called me so many times during class that although my phone was on silent mode, I finally had to pull out the battery. When I called him after my class ended, to confirm that he’d delivered the box where it was supposed to go, he yelled …
Tag: KOREA
Had a “Expat Bad Day”
One of those days, you know. Probably the kind everyone who’s lived abroad can remember having felt, when everything one dislikes about the place one is staying decides to up and slap one in the face. Everything. We’ll just say that the bus driver didn’t break my foot, that the name of the building I live in is finally going to be changed — finally, after I asked twice, so that ordering groceries online won’t involve a dozen phone calls explaining that, yes, some morons decided to give no formal Korean name to the new building and it ended up …
The Law of the Handicap of a Head Start
Flipping through Shine, I ran across an interesting mention (in the introduction to Lavie Tidhar’s contribution) of Jan Romein’s notion of Wet van de remmende voorsprong, or, in English, the “Law of the Handicap of a Head Start.” It struck me that the Korean internet (a subject about which I recently posted) is a wonderful demonstration of both sides of this notion: the benefit of a late start, and the handicaps that a head start can introduce into a system. The link above details several of the handicaps: the dependency on Windows, ActiveX, and even Internet Explorer 6.0, as well …
The Hub of… Outmoded Software Shackles?
In one of her essays, Ursula K. Le Guin described a Native American culture (I think it was) in which the metaphor for moving in the future was of people walking backwards — looking into the past, which can at least be seen, if not always so clearly, and walking blindly into the unforeseeable future. This metaphor came to mind today as I logged onto my Gmail account on one of the computers at my department office. At the top of the screen was a note informing anyone using the PC that Google was discontinuing support for the browser I …
The Cleanest Race by B.R. Myers
I include the title of this book here for record-keeping only. I am writing a review of the book for The Kyoto Journal, so I will not be posting a review here. I will, however, note that it is quite an interesting book, and despite its shortcomings, I do think it’s worth your while to read it if you would like to know more about the mythic components of the North Korean ideology. Once it sees print, I’ll announce it here.
Loud Coffee?
I posted it on Facebook, but I’m wondering enough to ask it here. I’m in a Starbucks by a bookshop that Miss Jiwaku decided we should go to, because she knows how I am with bookshops, and because we needed coffee, and the cinemas nearby are showing crap. (Incidentally, as with a number of places in Asia, the movie cinema industry is not quite a monopoly, butit’s heavily dominated by a few big companies, meaning your selection is often quite limited. Given a choice between the new Travolta film and the new Mel Gibson, we decided to give moviegoing a …
Fever, What to Expect When You’re Expecting a Trip to the Local Immigration Office, and a Final Positive Turn
I’ve been quite ill this week — not quite just food poisoning, but something a little more vindictive and involved, though not in a sentient sense. The same intestinal upset as last time, but with an added element: a burning fever on Thursday night, and fever (slightly less severe, but much sweatier) again on Friday evening. It was the kind of fever where you say things you don’t recall saying the next day, and dream of Japanese Solutionatronic devices shaped like giant wok lids except that they aren’t physical objects but rather abstract mathematical structures which, given any question, can …
Wonmisan: Not Quite Lost
Back in September, I wrote about how the municipal government was ruining my favorite mountain in Korea. That is, my local mountain.I figured I’d give a (mostly happy) update about that.
The Asia Pages
Remember The Asia Pages, that blog that Jodi used to run down in wherever-it-was near Busan? Now that was a blog. A good Korea-blog. I miss that blog. Jodi, I hope you’re doing well out there, wherever you are!
Pearls Before Swine, Or, The Time Has Come to Saw off the Brakes
You know. You know better. You know most people would rather eat what they always eat, think what they’ve always thought, drink what they’ve always drunk, read what they’ve always read. You know that so many people have no idea how interesting a world of diversity and difference is. They say “Everyone does it this way,” whether explicitly or implicitly, because they wish everyone was just as boring as they are. So many people — is it wrong to say most? I’m not sure it is — couldn’t be bothered. They’d rather just stay in their rut. It’s comfortable, it’s …