Tag: weird

The Land of the Morning Neologism

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Yeah, I’m talking about Korea. John Brunner’s Stand on Zanzibar–one of the most neologism-heavy SF novels I’ve ever read–comes to mind quite often as I hear the new neologisms spinning out, month after month. If you’ve never read Brunner’s novel, then I suppose I’ll have to give you a few examples. 된장녀 (Dwenjang Nyeo) One, of course, was the 된장녀 (dwenjang nyeo), a truly nasty word that translates literally as “soybean paste girl.” Soybean paste, while the basis of a number of Korean dishes (like dwenjang jjigae), is basically a brown stinky fermented bean paste. It’s not all that complimentary, …

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Enphoned Once More…

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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.

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If Only I Were Part Robot…

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This entry is part 35 of 72 in the series SF in South Korea

I’d have time to post constantly. But since I’m not: Here’s some vintage Korean SF action… well, for a broad definition of SF: Apparently the show is now retro-hip enough for indie rockers Go Go Star to do a musical (and cosplay) tribute: Another version of the song, with better video: As for me, I’ll be off to Melbourne for the Utopias 4 conference hosted at Monash University and WorldCon — I’m presenting (different) papers at each. I’ll post my schedule as soon as it’s finalized, in case anyone wants to meet up.

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Two Three Annoying Things

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The two girls who politely excused their way to the head of the line at the taxi stand tonight — past a bunch of us who were waiting, and assumed they were just walking through the stand but not going to catch a taxi someone else had waited for the right to take, when… yeah, they turned and slowly got into a cab. Everyone was staring, but nobody said a word till I shouted, “What? What the f*ck?” Then a few people mumbled and so on — about the crazy girls, not me. The second girl didn’t mind, as she …

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The Trickiness of Explaining Pregnancy Denial and Infanticide

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UPDATE (5 Aug 2010): Hat tip to David Garnier, whose comment got gobbled up by the ether monsters, but who pointed me to the admission of the woman in the case described, who says it actually isn’t pregnancy denial. Nope, she just doesn’t like doctors. (And that’s why she committed infanticide a bunch of times? Crikey!) ORIGINAL POST: Robert Koehler twittered this article: The question is as horrifying as it is important to ask: Why are a rising number of French women killing their newborn babies? Finding the answer has become a matter of urgency following the discovery on Wednesday …

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Communication is So Important

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A friend was bringing me up-to-date on his life, and for reasons I won’t get into, this story came to mind. Parts of it are second-hand, but I’m going to just tell it the way I’d tell it verbally, that is, without differentiating the bits that I know are true and the bits that are hearsay. And of course, because I’m doing that, I’ll leave out the real names, and take some liberties. I think the couple of people might be able to guess who I’m talking about already know the story, so it’s not like I’m ruining someone’s reputation. …

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Eerie…

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Somehow, the almost completely nonfunctional lock on Torjan’s workchamber door was magically repaired over the weekend. It seems to work as good as new now. Er…? Torjan is somewhat perturbed at the moment, and wondering if his aetheric postings are either being examined by some High Administratae… or, more scarily, by some invisible beings that make his aetherically-posted demands come true? If so: this Hypagoran could use a couple of billion won. (It never hurts to ask.)

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Bluepill

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I get an email from my workplace, and what’s the first image in the content? Yup, it’s a scattering of blue pills. Of course, for someone who hasn’t seen or didn’t care for The Matrix, this has no real symbolic significance at all. It’s an appropriate image for the link to an article about the impending launch of a College of Pharmacy at our campus. But for someone who’s seen The Matrix, the Blue Pill has a rather ominous meaning, for Morpheus tells Neo that if you take the Blue Pill, “the story ends, you wake up in your bed …

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