In the metaphysical sense, I am, anyway: Everyone knows, you shouldn’t just a book by its cover… but sometimes I think you can judge a city by its cabbies.
Tag: KOREA
Link Buffet
I’ve got some stuff to do today, but I figured I’d clear out some of the links in my “To Blog” bookmark folder, so here’s some interesting stuff I’ve run across. Some are old links, but I found them all interesting. Niebelungenlied: after reading this review, I want this book. I have a boxed DVD set of the operas sitting here, waiting for me to watch them. I’m thinking this winter, I will do it, but I’d like to read this translation as well. And while, yes, the Nazis misused Wagner, and Wagner was a gross individual, that doesn’t make the …
“Is Internet Censorship Compatible with Democracy?”
It’s quiet in Seoul. Nobody seems to know whether we should be heading for the hills, or going back to work as usual. One thing Miss Jiwaku commented to me is that the quiet itself is scary. After all, when the media has been quiet in the past, it wasn’t always because there was no news. Probably every expat in Korea has heard stories of how news was controlled by the government back in the bad old days, and probably everyone who reads my blog knows that the status of censorship and control of online exchanges in Korea is, well, …
An Indefinable Mood
Those who are watching the world news are likely discomfited by the action North Korea took today, or, rather, as it is now 24 Nov., yesterday afternoon on Korean time. I’m finding it harder right now to get a bead on the mood here than at any point during the last eight years. During my evening class, essentially nothing class-related got done: we got together, talked about the situation, and students got calls from their mothers and friends who were trying to hash out plans for the night. Since a number of my students are from Incheon (the coastal city …
To the Guy Who Presented Before Me at the Conference Yesterday
The thing about your presentation is that, well, it depressed me. It depressed me mainly because nobody seemed to realize it was a salesman’s pitch, peppered with little bits of personal experience. No, I don’t believe you actually made that gorgeous powerpoint. No, I don’t believe you’re a serious academic. No, I didn’t hear one revolutionary idea about teaching in your talk. I heard lots of interesting things, and indeed, the technology you’re trying to sell probably has some use. But it was obvious from the outset that you were out to sell something. As soon as you posed your …
Mosquito Change?
By the way, the fact that there are still mosquitos flying around is what it is, but I’m wondering: has anyone noticed how different the mosquitoes of October are looking? They’re paler, and they have more prominent striping on their abdomens. I’m wondering if this is just a feature of Korean mosquitoes I never noticed before, or whether they’re young mosquitoes (though they’re kinda big, really), or perhaps this is some other species that’s spread North. And, of course, should the latter be the case, I’m curious about the different pathogenic profile of this new type of mosquito. Not to …
Enphoned Once More…
Well, I once more have a phone. It took until this afternoon, and the phone isn’t fixed, but someone realized that, hey, maybe we don’t need to keep the phone till the replacement arrives. Maybe the guy should take it back and use it till we get the replacement? Yes, maybe. So I have a phone. But I’ve been warned that if I drop it, or scratch it, or make it look not perfect in any way, I’ll have to pay for the replacement. Which is, well… weird, but at least I have a phone once more.
I Don’t Get It Yet? Pal…
Just before Chuseok I met this guy on the subway; I was in a bad mood, because I’d wasted a bunch of time (because not one but two institutions were completely and utterly disorganized and inconsiderate). I was on the way home from that, and this guy introduced himself to me on the train. I did not want to talk to him at first, but he was nice, so I explained my situation. Which was a rant I won’t inflict on you now, but involved the usual disorganization and short-sighted stupidity one comes to expect from the Kafkaesque bureaucracies so common …
Chuseok Rain
Well, it rained like the flood was a-comin’ yesterday. Took me two hours to get somewhere not-that-far away, but along the way I saw some things that convinced me some people out there–especially those who live in basements–will not be having a very good Chuseok. (And I didn’t even think of the people traveling to their hometowns, either, which this article mentions.) In Yeokgok, I don’t think there’s a lot of that. Still, I think Yeokgok was far from the worst-hit area. I mean, look at the photo in this report! (Or even worse here on Twitpic.) We were not wading …
Happy Chuseok, or, “If I Were White, Would You Beat and Abuse Me?”
While the holiday still registers on my own radar as little more than some time off work, I know some people out there might excited about Chuseok tomorrow, and I hope people do enjoy it as much as possible. (Though in my experience, Chuseok is viewed with dread by women of all ages, and young men, as the time when family tortures one another; when women are stuck doing insanely intensive kitchen duty, and where young people are constantly grilled about when they will get plastic surgery, get more plastic surgery, finish school, get a job, get a better job, …