So while I was in Itaewon picking up shirts — short-sleeved shirts, I’m low on them, really, and it’s still warm enough for me to want some for work — I ended up dropping by the Halal food shop, actually one of them, because there are a few, and picked up some Bollywood DVDs. One of them, “Death Walks At Midnight/Aatma”, is totally worthless: it’s two CD-Rs with about 30 minutes of video on each. Krrish/Na Tum Jaano Na Hum are both cinema-rips and when I tried to play them in Totem, the subtitles were wonky — they started at the middle …
Tag: odd
Wiffiti…
Some crazy tech application going on here. Text messages from your phone to screen displays in a bunch of places across the States. Can’t message from Korea, though. Digitally, and telephonically, still somewhat of a Hermit Kingdom. I remember while in India seeing my friend Ritu getting txt messages on her phone from senders abroad, and being quite envious. (Via MissIzzy)
이지로보틱스
If ever there was a good example of what my students’ writing looked like at ym old University, it’s here: 이지로보틱스 Repeat after me: Machine translation doesn’t work. Machine translation doesn’t work. I’ll let you know when it does work. Till then, keep repeating that phrase to yourselves. (via Culture list)
I don’t want to know what “lingerie piercing” is.
Honest. I wanted to respond to a long and thoughtful comment today, but instead, I ended up redrafting an article for the campus English magazine. The kids, their hearts are in the right place, and they do have some interesting things to say, but… well, there’s a lot of rewriting involved. I know more about cosmetic surgery, foot-binding, gender-reassignment surgery, scarification, branding, and all kinds of other forms of body-modification, much, much more than I ever wanted to know. Including a horrifying newfound familiarity with the term “lingerie piercing”. I’m almost scared to google that. No, wait, I googled it …
The Slave Register?!?!?
So, I go online searching for any information at all about where to ge a kneeling chair or kneeling stool (like this one) within Korea. I haven’t a clue, and most of the furniture places I’ve been only carry standard chairs. So anyway, what do I happen across? A post (I’m not even going to link to it) at The Slave Register. What’s that, you ask? Why, it’s a bulletin board for people who are WILLING SLAVES. You know, like the awful Goreans (as in “fans of Gor”, not “Koreans” misspelled) that I posted about long ago? Idiots. Really, really, …
Eugene Mirman Rocks
If you haven’t yet, it’s time to experienceEugene Mirman. And what’s up with MC Hawking’s site? Is it dead? His Wikipedia entry doesn’t say so. I hope not. Nerdcore amuses me.
Logic, AI, and Instinct
Originally this post was going to be a lot longer, but I forgot where I was going to go with it, and it’s mouldered in teh Drafts box for many, many moons, so I’ve tied up the knots and I’m dumping it out on the porch for the neighbours to giggle at. I’ve met a few Dr. Spocks in my time, and this whole thing about being purely logical, it’s just an exaggeration. Nobody’s purely logical. Logic cannot function without intuition, which is the whole lesson of syllogistic logic: Every man is mortal. I am a man. Therefore I am …
Another Story Idea, Perhaps?
So, YouTube’s Lonelygirl15 was a fake. Well, I can’t say, “I told you so,” because though I did view a clip and shake my head about how this was not a 16-year-old or a regular blogger, I didn’t post about it. (I don’t remember doing so, anyway.) But you know, the news that it’s fake (here too!) includes all kinds of speculations about whether the makers of this sham project are going to quit or not. After all, if it were me, I’d be turning the project on its head, making a film about this girl who’s hired to make …
Get Outta Here, Beanpole
A listmate from a discussion list for the magazine I write a column for, Cahoots, posted a link to an interesting article: Reuters carried a story titled Ban on skinny models shocks fashion world. The logic is not simply that teenagers emulate what they see on the runway, and go bulimic or anorexic as a result… but rather, it’s just that they want to portray “healthy body images” at the government-sponsored Madrid fashion week. You know, you have to sit back and think about just how dysfunctional your civilization is when the demand that its iconic representatives of womanhood (which …
Mad Sh*tters and Donut Shoe Porno Freaks
c(h)ristine (hypothetically) has a “mad shitter” at her workplace, apparently. And yes, it is sad that there is a category of weird people who defecate in workplaces. Well, I can’t say I’ve ever had a comparable experience to that one, but once, way back around the turn of the century (haha, I can say that now!), I was working at a now-defunct company that made computer-usage tutorials for the blind. I lived pretty far from work; it ended up being something like 20 minutes by bus, then 45 minutes by subway, or else 20 minutes by train and then 25 …