Justin 2: The Departed

Day Seven Hundred and Thirty-Three: The End

2010-02-22T23:50:00.002+09:00

And so, SK comes to an end.

Follow along with my life on Informed Instigation. I may start up another personal site, but probably not. These work best when things are new or I was just angry.

But these days I'm happy. Put it this way, if you see me blogging on blogger again, bad things have occurred. I've come a long way since 12/06, and since 2/08 as well.

Thanks for reading all these years (Amy..), and if you ever come to NYC, let me know!

To finish it off, here's my thank you note to everyone:

I’d like to use my final post from South Korea to say thank you.

I’ll start by saying thank you to Korean food, for feeding me, filling me, for having snack aisles full of odd-tasting things that convinced me to stop buying snacks altogether and allowing me to thus stay in shape.

Thank you to Korean pop for giving me at least a half-dozen words or phrases I could pull out at any point in the classroom and watch forty teenagers morph into a very large a cappella group. These include: “I don’t care,” “Too much,” “Sorry,” “Nobody,” and of course, the letter “G,” (g, g, g…) which made it a whole lot of fun to spell my last name.

Thank you to the bartenders of this fair city and country for knowing that an establishment shouldn’t close until the sun is up, or at least until the very last customer has stumbled home. None of this “last call” bullshit.

Thank you everyone who’s been reading my lengthy posts and notes since I started my “Sundays” thing almost a year ago. I started it for my own fun, but it has become a fascinating and invigorating activity for me, and I have learned so much about you, and from you. Sure, I’m starting the conversations, but your input is the real reason I keep on writing.

Thank you to my friends and family at home for always making me feel like I was welcome to return whenever I felt I needed to, and for truly showing me how much I’m loved. And thanks to Skype and the interwebs for making all that possible too.

Thank you to anyone and everyone I’ve wronged in the last two years for not tossing me out like garbage and for forgiving me my errors. I’m aware every man, woman and child is entitled to a few mistakes, but there were some decisions I made that were over the line, and to anyone whose toes I’ve crushed, I thank you for seeing that I am better overall than I am when I’m at my worst.

Thank you to my colleagues, who aren’t reading this I guess, but it still needs to be said. Without their kindness and relative patience, a giant life change like this one wouldn’t have gone as smoothly as it did. I might have been one of those people on Dave’s ESL Café who really need some cheese with their whine, but instead, I was lucky enough to work for a school (and a program: gotta give it up to the flawed but supportive and informative EPIK) that made me feel welcome and celebrated. I’ve been informed that may school may lack a native teacher this coming semester, which just makes me sad, because it’s a grand place to work, and my students are, by and large, fantastic young people.

Speaking of which, I have to thank them as well, because, when it comes down to it, we’re teachers, and teaching is about the students. I thank them for helping me see what it was I want and need to do with my life, for not cracking under the ludicrous and dangerous pressure that is the South Korean educational system, for generally being bright and hilarious kids. Life’s a lot easier when you wake up excited to go to work.

Thank you to South Korea, Japan, China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Cambodia for welcoming me into their countries (even if I had to jump through some hoops for Vietnam and China… communists!). I’ve always traveled as much as I could afford to, but taking these fascinating journeys, mostly by myself, has educated me more than I could have imagined as a little kid memorizing country names in New York. I hope to return to some of these places one day, but even if I don’t, the memories and the pictures will be a part of me forever.

And, finally, I simply must thank all of you. I came here at age 21, semi-fresh out of college, with little direction, not a whole lot of ambition, and way too much anger. Through my time spent with you, I believe I have put myself on a path to greater and grander things I didn’t even know I could do.

I obviously like to be the center of attention. I like to host my trivias and be the captain (Blastin) of the bus. But it wouldn’t have been any fun if I didn’t have wonderful people like yourselves with whom to share my particularly brand of crazy.

If any of you ever find yourselves near New York, do not hesitate to drop me a line, for you will have a host, a guide, and most importantly, a friend.

Peace and love,
Justin Pierce Baldwin Gerald

Video!

2010-02-10T19:05:00.002+09:00

I never use this blog anymore. But if it works, I'll send you the link.

Day Six Hundred and Ninety-Two (T-40): Shut It Down!

2010-01-16T14:05:00.002+09:00

I realize there hasn't been much useful content here. I haven't had much to say.

So, to that end, I'm essentially shutting this down.

There will be two more posts after today.

After my vacations I will post about my trips to China, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia.

And then there will be a final goodbye post the day before I leave.

All right. Talk to you in February.

Day Six Hundred and Eighty-Six (T-46): I Will Spend Time With You! Just You Watch!

2010-01-10T13:56:00.002+09:00

So I posted this article earlier in the week. Wednesday I think. And some of you have read it, I’m sure.

Along with seeing “Up In The Air,” which you should check out if you have the chance, it really got me thinking about my relationships and my connections in life.

Basically, I was reminded by both of these things that we need to cherish the strong bonds we have and to accept new ones when they are presented to us. It sounds simple enough, but I do think people forget it sometimes. It’s not the Evil Internet’s fault, or the fault of relatively simple global travel, just something I’ve noticed when the most common activity I seem to share with people is drinking. When I was professionalizing my pictures on New Year’s Day, I was a little sad that the only bursts of excitement in my photo albums are shitty Konglish around town and my awesome little jaunts to foreign countries.

Not that much I can do about this with regards to S. Korea at this point, but, to that end, I’m certain that I’m going to make it a personal mission of mine to truly spend more time with people, and without a social lubricant. Whether it’s movies or meals or reading or writing, my life is going to include as much face to face time as a rogue like me can stand.

People in NYC, me and you are going to do stuff together!

Day Six Hundred and Eighty-Three (T-49): Under 50

2010-01-07T00:07:00.002+09:00

Exactly seven weeks from now I'll be getting ready to hop onto the bus to Incheon airport to leave Daegu behind for the last time.

These next two weeks are my two final relax weeks before everything becomes a crazy whirlwind. I'd better enjoy them.

Day Six Hundred and Fifty-One: Re: Snow

2010-01-05T21:23:00.001+09:00

Well, we got about 3 inches. And people were driving slooooow.

Makes me miss NY, where people burn it in the damn snow. Fuck safety! Hahaha.

Day Six Hundred and Eighty-One (T-53): Come on, Snow....

2010-01-03T16:52:00.002+09:00

It has snowed once in Daegu this winter. But it did not stick.

It is supposed to legitimately snow tomorrow. I'll believe it when I see it.

Also, I suppose there's no particular weather phenomenon I haven't seen, so I find it particularly strange when people haven't seen snow, or felt humidity or whatever. Maybe I've just traveled a lot but very little is particularly hard to handle.

That said, I haven't lived through a Middle Eastern sandstorm. I'm not sure I'd want to.

Also: Wow, 53 days!

Day Six Hundred and Seventy-Six (T-58): The Naughties

2009-12-29T14:54:00.001+09:00

Yes, that is what I’m calling the 2000s. Deal with it.

I’m also aware that there was no year zero and thus decades could be considered to start with the year ending in 1, just like millennia. To avoid that argument completely I’m saying that this is about the ten years beginning with 2000 and ending with 2009.

So I wanted to write up my last post of the Naughties (get used to hearing that), and in doing so, wanted to try and encompass the last ten years in some sort of list. Such a unique idea, it’s a wonder no one else has thought of it before.

I could do most important moments, but for a native New Yorker that’s probably going to start and end with a day in the fall of 2001.

I could do music, but my tastes changed so violently that trying to account for what I liked in 2000 would cause me whiplash.

I could just do something haphazard, but that’s no fun, and wouldn’t get the masses a-chatting.

It had to be something I’ve loved, one way or another, from January 1st, 2000, to the moment I’m writing this on December 29th, 2009, and presumably for the next two days as well.

And with these criteria, the only possible answer was: movies.

I was basically a little kid when the Naughties began. I didn’t know enough to find Michael Bay incredibly dull (which is a far greater sin of his than making dumb movies). The movie I was really looking forward to that summer was the first "X-Men." And I only happened to see the winner for Best Picture because it was an extremely popular movie (Gladiator).

These days, if it’s nominated, I will see it, because I want to be part of the conversation. Even if it looks horrid (like a particular musical that balances of the awesome of Daniel Day-Lewis with the awful of Kate Hudson and Fergie), I don’t feel I’m in a position to judge the state of the year’s cinema without at least watching it on my little laptop screen.

I see big movies and small movies, American movies, French movies, Korean movies, comedies, action flicks, dramas, and so-called chick flicks. Every movie has the potential to be a kick-ass experience, though the chances are somewhat lower if it’s a “message” movie written by Paul Haggis.

I’ve had dark times and good times in the Naughties, and through all of it, I was watching movies. Growing up two blocks from a big blockbuster theater and three blocks from an indie one, there was nothing I couldn’t see if I wanted to. And so I saw everything. And, aside from, you know, actual movie critics, I think I’m in a fairly good position to offer you a list of my favorite films of the Naughties.

But first! Some other awards.

By the way, these are all possibly spoiler-icious. So if you see me mention a film that you haven’t seen and wanted to see, skip to the next one. YOU’VE BEEN WARNED.

ONE MORE THING: If you would like to disagree with my choices, feel free, but you must also offer your own top ten for us to disagree with. Seems fair enough.

Best bad movie: The Wicker Man

Just watch this. All I have to say is, it is absolutely no less ridiculous in context.

How’d it get burned, indeed, Mr. Cage.

Worst bad movie: Dirty Love

Let’s see. Starring Jenny McCarthy. Written by Jenny McCarthy. Directed by Jenny McCarthy’s ex-husband, whom she divorced just after filming. (The DVD commentary between the two of them is hilariously bitter.) And, let’s keep going, it’s the most desperately unfunny comedy I’ve ever seen. It starts with her just fucking screaming on a city street. It devolves into her flailing around in her own menstrual blood at the supermarket. While that may sound “funny” to people who are into gross-out comedies, trust me, it’s not.

The difference between this and the Wicker Man is that the former thinks it’s hilarious, and the latter simply is.

Biggest letdown: Superman Returns

You could go with a lot of sequels here. But the Matrix 2 was pretty cool until they went nuts with that Architect shit, and thus the third one couldn’t have been expected to be that great. Pirates 2 was fun until they wouldn’t shut up. Spider-man 3 was a close runner-up for this spot (Emo Spidey? WTF?)

But I went with Supes.

Reasons I was excited for this film:
1. I had never been old enough to see a Superman film on the big screen. This could have been awesome.
2. Hey! Bryan Singer!
3. Kevin Spacey! Why not?

Then I saw it.

My thoughts went as follows.

“Oh, so the whole movie is.. gray. And Lex’s big plan is… to create a continent where people will buy land even though it’s 100% jagged rocks. I see. And the climax is entirely Superman lifting shit in slow motion. Exciting! And Kate Bosworth? Fail.”

Can they please make a new Superman movie where he gets to fight someone? Jesus.

It wasn’t a baaaad movie. It was just so zzzzz…

Most pleasant surprise: The first “Pirates of the Caribbean.”

Oh, we all liked Johnny years ago. We assumed it would be at least worth watching. But it was based on a theme park ride, it was a Disney/Bruckheimer movie, and pirates hadn’t been cool since “Hook.” But then we all saw it, and it was funny, and charming. It was on TV the other day. It’s still funny.

(But then they kept making them…)

Okay, finally, we can move on to the top ten.

Mind you, these are my ten favorite. I may or may not consider them the ten best.

10. The 40 Year Old Virgin

Of all the ubiquitous “bro” comedies of the last half-decade or so (or maybe more, since I guess it started with “Old School”), this one remains the best. The sort-of-pro-abstinence message is annoying, but all the little things remain so funny.
No, Andy, they don’t feel like bags of sand.

9. The Lord of the Rings (yes, all three)

I suppose it’s cheating, but they were filmed at the same time, they take place more or less at the same time, and they’re all part and parcel of a massive cinematic experience. No, I really never ended up caring that much about Frodo’s quest, but they’re a film landmark and deserve to be honored as such.

Particularly Gollum.

8. The Wrestler

I wasn’t that upset when Sean Penn won last year. Mickey got his comeback, and he’ll be in Iron Man 2 next summer. He’ll be fine. And it sort of fits the (well-worn) story, where he never really gets quite back to the top, but keeps doing what he’s doing.

You really want him to succeed, don’t’cha?

7. Traffic

I bet some of you forgot about this movie.

I wish Catherine Zeta-Jones would reappear. She kicked some hardcore ass as the drug-dealing former housewife. And any movie that puts Don Cheadle and Luis Guzman together as partners knows what it’s doing.

Bonus: it made Benicio Del Toro an Oscar winner. Sweet.

Here’s the trailer.

6. Mystic River

I wasn’t as much of a fan of the rest of Eastwood’s output in the Naughties. “Million Dollar Baby” was fine, his WW2 double dip was pretty good but not transcendent, and “Gran Torino” totally didn’t earn that Jesus pose at the end (can movies stop with this?).

But “Mystic River” just made me very, very sad. And, considering it was back in 2003 that it came out, it was actually the very first movie I watched because it was up for awards. I had to hide my face when (spooooiler) we found out that Robbins was innocent, because you knew it just wasn’t going to end well.

Yikes.

5. Borat

I’m not writing out the subtitle.

Suffice it to say that this is the only movie funny enough for me to have seen it twice in the same day. And really, no one had seen a movie like it before or since (and “Bruno” wasn't like this).

As everyone has been saying since then, "Nice!"

4. The Dark Knight

Even if Ledger wasn’t dead, this movie would still have set the bar for all future summer movies. Its exclusion from the Best Picture race was expected, but pissed so many people off that they added five more movies to the category this year, just to make sure such a thing didn’t happen whenever the third movie comes out (can that please be tomorrow?).

This should have been the reason Michael Bay will no longer be directing movies. Good thing “Transformers 2” didn’t make enough money for another sequel. (Sigh...)

Yeah…

3. The Incredibles

There is simply no movie on Earth that makes me happier than this one. Not a single one. Even though there’s sadness in it, it is 100% joy.

Brad Bird, keep doing it.
Also: Edna fucking Mode.

2. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

It took me a few viewings to get my head all the way around this one. But once I did, holy shit! Michel Gondry! Charlie Kaufman! Kate Winslet! Even Kirsten Dunst isn't annoying! Has that every happened before?

And, hey, Jim Carrey can act! So stop making shit like “The Number 23!”

These are the first 8 minutes.

1. The Departed

You were expecting something else? I saw this movie in the theater 12 times. That’s my record and nothing else is even close to it.

And every single time, the crowd freaked the fuck out when this happened. And it was glorious.

And there’s my long-ass list.

Share yours with me, and have a fantastic new year!

Peace and love,
Justin PBG

Day Six Hundred and Seventy-Four (T-60): Oops

2009-12-27T12:37:00.002+09:00

So my friend visited, the night was all set to be huge... and I drank myself to sleep and then acted a fool.

Oops.

28 days to China.

37 days to big southeast trip.

60 days to home.

Day Six Hundred and Seventy-Two (T-62): Christmas

2009-12-25T10:43:00.002+09:00

Just called the family. My second cousin (I guess) who literally didn't exist when I came here is now more than one and my mom is carrying her around like a toy. I guess she'll be like this when I have a kid. Eeeek.

I've been here a long time.

Merry Christmas to all!

Day Six Hundred and Sixty-Nine (T-65): Some Lasts

2009-12-22T22:01:00.002+09:00

Tomorrow is my last "kids have a test, I thus go to school and do very little" day.

Tomorrow I will plan my very last lesson plans for Korea. They will suck because the woman running the English camp is apparently incompetent, and frequently contradicts herself within one sentence. I won't miss those, but maybe I will when they're replaced with grad school-ian research next fall (if all works out).

And last night I wrote the very end of my Silverfox novella (I guess that's what it is). I'll go back and fix it, but point is, clearly this is a time of legitimate transition. Hmm.

Day Six Hundred and Sixty-Seven (T-67): That's a weekend!

2009-12-20T12:18:00.002+09:00

Let's see: 2 helpings of Avatar, one helping of partying all night, one helping of being almost done with school, one helping of winning trivia for the last time, and it's all fucking good.

Saying goodbye to a lot of my kids this week. Only teaching three days too. And.. Christmas.

Day Six Hundred and Sixty-Four (T-70): Cracked

2009-12-17T21:00:00.001+09:00

You know, I thought it was a site full of lazy jokes and nothing much else, but it's actually well-researched and funny.

There's something to this "cracked" thing. So go and check it out, folks.

Day Six Hundred and Sixty-Two (T-72): Addition

2009-12-15T20:47:00.002+09:00

Looking at the numbers at the top here...

It will be a 734 day journey overall. Just a little bit more than two years.

Yeah, sort of a nothing post.

I will say that Precious deserves about 90% of the praise it's getting. Where did that performance come from with Mo'Nique?

Day Six Hundred and Sixty (T-74): Bridges

2009-12-13T13:11:00.002+09:00

I am a friendship-bridge-unburning dynamo.

It's weird. I can't think of anyone here who has issues with me.

Socially things are coming to a head in the right way. 2009 is my best year.

Day Six Hundred and Fifty-Seven (T-77): Favorites

2009-12-10T00:19:00.002+09:00

Because of a schedule quirk I wasn't aware of, today was my last full Wednesday.

My favorite boys, and my favorite girls, are on Wednesdays, so, randomly, this was our last day together. I'll see them around the school, and the neighborhood, but it feels very weird to know I won't be in that classroom again.

And when they all said "Come back!" and "Why?" I had to leave before I, um, got something in my eye.

I'm glad I have two months to fuck around after it's over, because this is gonna be a pretty emotional month.

Day Six Hundred and Fifty-Five (T-79): I love the Gym

2009-12-08T23:39:00.003+09:00

I went to the actual gym today for the first time in more than 3 months.

I realized, doing my own freestyle program, that I really love the gym, even though my annoying Korean friend Louis was there, bugging me, walking into the bathroom while I pee.

I can say all I want about enjoying my runs outside, and they were nice for what they were. But my god, I'm gonna really feel this workout tomorrow, and for the next several days. And that is pretty awesome.

I liked being really muscular. After a week with Andrea starting Thurs, I'm gonna hit that gym hard 3x week, and I'm gonna get back to looking and feeling the way I need to, instead of making excuses for getting a gut and gaining weight. I love those damn weights, and I missed them.

Oh, and, since this blog will end when I get home (I'll probably shift to just Twitter, Facebook, and Informed Instigation), I'm adding a countdown feature to the title.

Back in New York in 79 days.

Day Six Hundred and Fifty-Three: Marathons

2009-12-06T14:09:00.002+09:00

At home, TV-Show marathons occur on Holidays. Monday off? All Law and Order! And I love it.

Here, they do this every weekend. Cold Case was on allll day yesterday (and I watched the whole thing), and House is on all day so far today.

I say this not to complain, but merely to share.

Big week for me this week. Once I get to Wednesday everything will be awesome through, like, March.

So when I eat my dinner on Tuesday, I will be happy.

Day Six Hundred and Fifty (!): Petite Amie

2009-12-03T19:18:00.002+09:00

So, my couple of days in Singapore, I'm staying with my godfather's widow, who is Chinese by birth, grew up in Paris, lived in NY for several years until my godfather died, and then, apparently, moved to Singapore.

So, I told her when I was coming (2/6-2/8, it's a small fucking country/city), and she tells me I will have the whole run of the place throughout the month if I want it.

She suggests I use Singapore as a home base to see various places. I don't think I will, because airfare doesn't quite line up that way, but, she has said "you can even bring ta petite amie," which means girlfriend if ya don't know.

I told her I don't have one, but, heh, i kinda wanna get one and take them around Asia with me. Anyone up for the job?

Day Six Hundred and Forty-Eight: +

2009-12-01T17:47:00.002+09:00

So, basically, I've been writing that Silverfox story for about six months now. And writing a chapter every two weeks, I'm pleasantly on schedule.

For the longest time, even as I've been getting more and more sure of myself and confident about who I am, I've been certain that the story would end with mass death and complete bleakness.

But while I also don't much like completely happy endings, one without hope might send the wrong message. The way it was going to end, it would be such that the government kills everyone, including the heroes, and that's not really what I want to say with my writing. I don't really hate the government, something I've realized from knowing a few people who do.

So, while I haven't actually completed it yet (I give myself about six more weeks), it's going to have some optimism in there. Because that makes a lot more sense with who I am today.

Day Six Hundred and Forty-Six: Acting

2009-11-29T20:26:00.002+09:00

I did some improv for fun today. I've never been great at dramatic acting.

But, as directors have told me, I think maybe I'll get back into some kind of improv stuff when I get back home.

I'm reminded of how much more choice there is at home.

I can write, be an active feminist, etc. It's going to be really cool to do this traveling and then go home.

Day Six Hundred and Forty-Three: Travel Plans

2009-11-26T22:01:00.002+09:00

So, they're not entirely set, but here are my plans running around the world the next few months.

For those of you in Korea, my final trivia night ever will be January 15th (Amy you've missed all 5, come to this one!).

January 24-28: Beijing.

Jan 30th: Goodbye dinner/party night etc.

Feb 3-6: Taipei
6-8: Singapore
8-13: Borneo
13-16: Kuala Lumpur
17-24: Arrange my shit, ship a box home, pack up my life in Korea.
25: Back to NY!
26 weekend: Presumably some return party stuff.
March 6-15: Rio!!!!

March 16-a long time: Real life.

Day Six Hundred and Forty-Two: Limbo

2009-11-25T00:00:00.002+09:00

Every morning when I wake up, I'm in limbo.

I'm dead tired. But I can't quite go back to sleep, or I'll be late to work.

I want to watch TV, but if I merely do that, I still go to sleep.

So I must, must, turn on the computer, and sit quietly and mess around for 40 minutes exactly until it's time to go in to the office.

I maintain this delicate balance every morning.

Also, I've finally seen Twilight. And it's as terrible as possible. And, sadly enough, just so dull.

Day Six Hundred and Thirty-Nine: Darwin

2009-11-22T22:42:00.002+09:00

All I have to say is... if you're still fighting against evolution, give up.

You lost.

End.

I have 4.5 weeks left at my school. That is some absolute craziness.

Day Six Hundred and Thirty-Seven: Excerpt.

2009-11-20T00:08:00.002+09:00

This is Copyright Justin Gerald, in case anyone wants to steal this random stuff.

Thought I'd post some fiction.

This is the beginning of the novel I'm 110 pages into.

Enjoy, Amy.

From what I’ve learned, I can tell you that Danilo was having a shitty morning, just like every other morning he spent in the bay. He’d been standing on the deck of his pathetic little ship, hoping the bangus would bite but knowing they wouldn’t, and on top of that, the rainy season had showed up, unpacked and begun to settle in for a few months of work. He was so thoroughly soaked that he wondered, as he often did, why the hell he even bothered to wear anything at all. Maybe if he was naked he’d find his situation a bit more hilarious than it was. Or, maybe he’d catch something and die a slow, painful death with lots of bloody mucus and coughing and I probably should have put coughing first if I wanted to escalate properly but now I’ve said it and you get the picture anyway. With his luck, he’d probably just slip off the edge and drown, and Sampaguita would laugh at the pitiful, naked man they plucked out of the water, skinny and smacked around by decades on the bay, and she’d contemplate how she ever allowed herself to believe she loved him.
I’m getting a. off-track and b. over-dramatic here, though. It was the rainy season, yes, and that would depress just about anyone with a job that required them to stand outside. The fish were clearly elsewhere, but when you’ve made it past sixty and you can still function reasonably well – even if your wife shakes her head when you pass and your friends thank you’re worthless and you can’t even succeed at the one thing you’ve ever known how to do on this Earth – then each day alive is a good thing, or at least that’s how Danilo liked to think of it. I figure if he thought of it any other way he’d have lost the will to live a long time ago. But there he was, chewing on a damp piece of pandesal and staring at his mostly empty net, ready to try and drum up interest back at the port after sunrise.
The bangus doesn’t have any teeth, so I probably shouldn’t have said “bite” before. They feed on algae and other amorphous, defenseless things, and they were a big deal in Dagupan, which is in The Philippines, which is where Danilo and Sampaguita lived, and had lived for the previous thirty-seven years. Danilo tried to make it in Manila before that, but I’m gonna have to knock his hustle because the man never had any. He’d always been a fundamentally nice man, and he was the type who deserved a change of luck. If karma’s a thing we can really believe in, Danilo should have been headed straight for the glory. And that morning, he found something that had the power to lead him there.
The solitary bangus he’d caught was more than half his size and took eleven gruesome blows to the head to stop flapping around on his deck. He’d ended several thousand lives this way, but even after all those years, he had never gotten used to the sound of death. If he could have, he would have found a way to make a life for himself and his wife without having to watch so many creatures gasping and struggling for the life he was denying them. But Danilo had long since passed the time when learning a new trade was any kind of possible, and so he watched the fish finally give up and was grateful, as always, that it was dark enough that he couldn’t really see into his eyes.
As he examined the defeated male, he noticed no obvious flaws, nothing that would stop a person from buying the fish at his little shack, which was barely big enough for his stool. Inside the fish’s mouth, however, was something Danilo had never seen before. A plant, no doubt, some sort of vegetation he just happened not to be familiar with. It was green, like most plants, and unremarkable in almost every way, but when he held it up in the rain it seemed to glow with a silver sheen, as if it had somehow been polished to perfection. It was only a few leaves, and his curiosity wasn’t going to outweigh his daily duties, so Danilo tossed it back overboard and turned back towards the shore and the city and his life as the rain kept up a fine pace and the bangus left its mouth hanging open like a grotesque Halloween mask.
After two hours of desperate haggling, the bangus was sold off to a squat little man with an ineffectual yellow umbrella, and Danilo packed himself up and trudged home in the mud that seemed even more miserable than he was. Dagupan was a fine town, one its citizens could be proud to call home, but Danilo lived away from the hotels and the commerce and the things you’d find in the brochure or the one-page entry in a Philippines travel book.
Whenever he walked home he felt like he was sinking, and the thwacking sound the mud made on his boots didn’t help. They lived just off of the street that led to the highway that led out of town, an escape from his life always seeming slightly possible but mostly not, and on that day, he came home to find his formerly-beloved sitting cross-legged on the floor and listening to the staticy music that was screeching its way out of the radio.
He made sure to take off his shoes – didn’t need another reason to be yelled at – and laid out the day’s money on the table in front of her before flopping onto the bed, wet and cold but happy he wouldn’t stay that way. At no point did Sampaguita look up or open her mouth except to say that she was going out for groceries half an hour later. Danilo was fast asleep, or was pretending to be, and she couldn’t have given a lethargic fuck whether or not he was actually still breathing.
And so their ballet continued from opposite sides of the dance floor. She bought what she figured she needed – plus a few things they could both share – and spent the afternoon hoping to hear something out of the radio’s fuzz. The very tip of a melody or a riff or even a jingle shilling a product she’d never buy. The only thing she got was half a word, maybe a syllable here and there, but nothing she could even try and understand. Yet she never the defective piece of junk away. Just kept sitting there and listening to it, day after week after month, and the day Danilo caught his last bangus was no cause for a change in her schedule or lackthereof.
I foretell that there will be no more bangus in his life because this isn’t a story about a man and his fish, fascinating though that might have been. The lives of Danilo and Sampaguita Masipag never changed at all. It was the the same mud, the same toothless fish, the same shit in an endless cycle that doesn’t even bother to rinse before it repeats. It was all the same for them, until it wasn’t.
The bangus weren’t doing anything for Danilo the following morning. His ship was groaning and bucking like a sick, demented horse. With the surf washing up over the deck, he really did feel like the water was rabid and ready to pull him under for good after so many years of treating him with at least a little bit of dignity. So when I tell you he was more nonplussed than ecstatic when a pile of the mystery plant splashed onto the front edge of his deck, you should understand why.
Instead the fish he needed to catch, he now had a deck full of leafy nonsense, and he had no reason to believe his luck was going to get any better in the next few hours. He stayed on the water like he knew he had to, but when the night’s rain finally abated and the sun tried to force its way out from between the clouds, he turned back towards the port, wondering what exactly he was supposed to sell when he didn’t have any fish at all.
Mostly as a joke, he set up his stall with the little bundle of plants laid out instead of his usual selection. He had himself a chuckle as one, two, then seven, twelve, eighteen people passed him by, confused and not curious at all. It was a pretty day, and even though he was a few hours closer to completely destitute, it was the best morning Danilo had seen in a long time. So good in fact that when he came home with no money and Sampaguita’s usual stony silence was contorted into a pillar of rage, he stood quietly, with his head down, until she ran out of words and out of the house, and he sat on the bed with his wet lump of green and grinned a grin he didn’t understand.
It was sort of like he knew he’d heard the wooden thunk at the bottom of the barrel, and was content to stay there without trying to claw his way out. It was no use to kill himself by refusing to accept his lot and so, until he figured out what else he could do to support his family, he was content to stay at home. Sampaguita was something other than content. Perturbed would be a good word for it, but maybe that’s just because “perturbed” is an excellent word. Say it a few times the next time you feel perturbed, and you’ll realize that perturbed is exactly what you are.
So, Sampaguita was perturbed. Confused as well, since Danilo had never been one to give up, not even when his first boat had been vandalized past the point of all usefulness or when the meat from the fish in his haul had gotten a tourist violently ill. Through all his occasional ups and frequent downs, Danilo had pushed himself forward and only complained late at night, to himself, when he assumed she was fast asleep. Or maybe he didn’t, and wanted her to hear. She told herself that he still needed her support, much as they treated each other like reluctant business partners on a deal that was destined to bring them both down.
For four days, they dipped into their tiny pile of savings to feed and clothe themselves, Sampaguita trying to convince Danilo to return to the water and give the bangus life one last real shot. But he stayed in bed, or sat in a plastic chair in front of the door and gazed at whatever passed by.
His little plant hadn’t shriveled or died. It looked no less alive than it had when it washed out of the sea, and as it dried, the edges grew more and more starkly silver, like the hair of a man who was aging dynamically. He decided to try and raise it in the dirt next to the door. With the frequent precipitation, if it was going to live at all, it would live there, and it would flourish in a way that nothing in Danilo’s life had flourished in so many months. He wasn’t expecting much – and idealist is not something you could call him with any sort of accuracy – but there was a tiny tug inside of him that let him know how happy it would make him to see this plant do anything besides shrivel and wither away into the muck.
To say that it didn’t shrivel would be true, but it would hardly paint a full picture of what the plant did. By the time Danilo woke up the next morning, it no longer looked like something that had been spat up out of the sea. It was firmer, and greener, and around the edge was the finest color silver you’ll ever see in the natural world. Without any roots or seeds, it had turned itself into a robust shrub, though it was on the petite side. Danilo was reminded of a porcupine he’d seen at the zoo once as a child, which wasn’t green, but seemed to him to be remarkably impenetrable and lacking any vulnerability whatsoever. It even looked silver when the sun danced off of the spikes on its back.
If he had to choose a word to describe both the porcupine and the plant, it would have been “napakaimportante,” which you can probably guess has something to do with “importance,” and in fact translates roughly to “vital.” It would be very difficult to come across this plant and dismiss it altogether. Danilo tried to explain this to his wife, but she was starting to believe he’d simply lost his mind. He refused to work, he barely left the house, and he tended to the plant like it was a small bird with a broken wing. The food in the house was dwindling, and with no real means of correcting this aside from getting him back in the water, Sampaguita was spending her days in a rageful haze. And the worst part for her was the fact that every time she yelled at him, he sat serenely and smiled, not reacting in the slightest way, except to nod and turn away when she finished speaking. Whatever this plant was, it had turned him into an insufferable being, and one she couldn’t see herself living with any longer.
Finally, on an unseasonably sweltering morning, she woke him up to remind him that there was food in the house at all, and asked him, quite plainly, if he wanted her to starve. He managed to avoid his little smile this time – and it was a good thing he did, because she might well have stabbed him – but when his eyes drifted to the front door, she slapped him, asking if he really believed that that stupid goddamn plant, as she had come to call it, really had all the answers. Was the plant going to give them nutrition? Was it going to fill their empty stomachs? Or was it just going to sit there and silver and pretty and utterly useless? After this, she walked out to leave him alone with his stupid goddamn plant, unaware that she had given him an idea.
Now you might think it perverse to eat something you’ve come to cherish, and in some ways it probably is, but when he crouched down next to it, he felt compelled to pluck off a leaf. He was perfectly confident that it would survive his sampling, and if he could benefit from the plant after having helped it grow to prominence, it would only be fair. Right? Right. Also, he was starving and trying to pretend he wasn’t desperate, though eating a plant you know nothing about is probably a few steps short of wise. Usually.
It had little flavor. And no odor at all. But it was something he could chew, and with the right seasoning would make up part of an okay little dish. If whatever toxins were in the plant hadn’t killed him by nightfall, he might have found himself one last bit of treasure from the sea, one he wouldn’t be selling at all.
Sampaguita didn’t return for a few days. Danilo was worried, and had no idea where she’d run off to, and he began to ask his few friends around town if they’d seen or heard from her. Joselito, who ran a bigger and nicer fish stall but never seemed happy about this, said she’d walked right past him the same morning Danilo had last seen her, but she hadn’t passed by him since. Aldin, who didn’t do much of anything and was perfectly satisfied with this, had heard she might have been walking west, or maybe south, he didn’t know. And that was about the extent of Danilo’s social circle. He asked a few strangers, but no luck there. He resolved to stay home and hope she decided to come back to him, for he had a surprise for her....

Day Six Hundred and Thirty-Four: 1st Grade

2009-11-17T17:35:00.002+09:00

Which is what they call the first grade here.

I only see them once every other week. Classes are frequently canceled.

Some of them are great at English, some terrible. But fact is, I see them so rarely (and their classes change so often), that they still cheer when I arrive. It's also structured such that, unlike my 2nd/11th grade classes, where an extra period is created for me, I'm basically interrupting their regular lesson to do mine. It feels a bit like I'm imposing, which is odd enough.

This was the case with the 11th graders last year, who are now seniors I rarely encounter, as I never even go to their floor of the building.

Not really complaining. It's all just vaguely odd. I wish I got to know them better, but it is what it is.

Day Six Hundred and Thirty-Two: Gratitude

2009-11-15T12:51:00.003+09:00

My friend Marilyn asked for a post on gratitude. I sent this to her with pics, and she will post it on her site on Thursday.

But I will post it here.

This will be short and very sweet.
What am I grateful for in Korea? Education.
I’m grateful for the chance to try and be a great educator for me 800 students, who still see me as something of an ambassador, a role I’ve done my best to fulfill adequately.
I’m grateful to see them grow and change, not only as students of English, but young adults of the world.
I’m grateful for the chance to educate myself. My job allows me a lot of free time, and while I certainly have my fun, I spend a lot of it reading and writing, and, as some know, trying to stir up discussion among interested parties. During my vacations, I’ve tried to stay away from purely party locales – which isn’t to say I was completely sober in, say, Saigon – and done my best to come away from my trips with a greater understand of the world I am a part of.
I’m grateful to be living in a country that, for all its flaws (and every country has them), tends to treat me with the respect I feel I deserve.
I’m grateful to have had the chance to educate myself through the extremely varied people I’ve met over the last 21 months, people who speak every language and live in every corner of the globe. New York is diverse, but the grab bag of foreigners here is something I’ve been glad to dive into.
I’m grateful to have learned a sliver of a new language, even though I could have studied harder. And I’m glad I’ve used my time here productively, so I can return home truly saying I grew up just a little bit.
Before I left New York, I told myself that, no matter what happened, my time in Korea was going to be used to kickstart adulthood. The half-year or so before I came here I was a bum. I was broke, living on my dad’s couch, buying DVDs and watching them alone, eating and drinking and gaining weight, and being rightfully scolded for doing so. As I prepare to return home in February – after a few short trips abroad – I am grateful that I’ve done all the wallowing I’ll ever do, and from this day forward, it’s merely onward and upward.
And I’m grateful that I can say that at the age of 23, because most people aren’t lucky enough to have that chance at any point.

:)

Day Six Hundred and Twenty-Nine: 2012

2009-11-12T20:05:00.002+09:00

Perfect for what it needed to be.

Stupid, hilarious, expensive-looking, brutal (lots of people die very visibly), predictable (they killed exactly who you thought they would kill, they tried to give us suspense on whether or not Cusack would survive, etc), and destroyed the world better than anyone ever has.

The next disaster movie has to actually kill everyone (spoiler: they survive on giant boats, but... most of the world dies).

But, one thing... the final line of the movie is "No more pull-ups." This, this is the worst ending line ever, and we cracked the fuck up in the theater. Oh my god, awesome/terrible.

Day Six Hundred and Twenty-Seven: Ew.

2009-11-10T22:08:00.002+09:00

It's disturbing all right. But most importantly, this movie merely looks terrible.

Take a gander, Amy:

Here.

Will be having my next discussion about that on informed instigation.

Day Six Hundred and Twenty-Five: Patchwork and India

2009-11-08T21:15:00.002+09:00

Patched up two friendships I thought were botched for good. That's nice.

About friends: as I've said, lots of folks have cohesive groups. I've never been a fan of this, but that might just be because I've never been a part of one, except for the glorious months from March to Oct 06. It didn't last long, but it was glorious.

So when I think about trying to go to India, I see my friend Sheila is there with her buddies having a great time, and my friend Megan is going there to vibe spiritually over December/Jan.

As it stands, with scheduling and such, and without a "group," I don't actually have anyone to go with. I would really like to go. But it's more convenient, if I'm gonna be running around a lot, to have someone there. Don't have to ask anyone to take pics, just... gets done. The US also advises citizens not to travel there alone, and while I feel I could do it, I also don't neeed to give my parents a heart attack.

I even bought the lonely planet India book, and gave the bookstore a bunch of grief for not ordering it quickly.

If I don't go, I gotta go somewhere. There's a lot to see in Asia, but I'd like to hit a new country. Maybe Malaysia? Head to the jungle? Hm...

Day Six Hundred and Twenty-Two: Yankees and the Internet

2009-11-05T23:24:00.002+09:00

So we won. And it's awesome.

But more awesome is the fact that, first of all, being in SK means I couldn't watch it all on TV, which sucks in a way, but also has forced me to be really active on the internet.

I first joined a yankee website back in 2004, when I joined nyyfans.com to follow the yankees' acquistion of a-rod (jesus that was a long time ago).

But over the years I've read more and more, learned more and more about advanced stats, and have used various sites to follow the playoff push.

The Hardball Times, Baseball Think Factory, River Avenue Blues, the Lohud blog, bases on nbc... I was cycling through all of these throughout the season and especially in the postseason.

And when it was all over, I went to these sites and was able to read analysis of all of it.

Fact is, it was awesome when I was 14. But it's really cool now to understand the game so much better as an adult and read said articles, especially since none of these sites existed at the time.

And watching the videos was definitely something not possible in 2000. Awesome.

Day Six Hundred and Twenty: Taken

2009-11-03T23:22:00.002+09:00

It's so dumb, but I kinda really like this movie.

Liam Neeson is awesome. He also has Irritable Bowel Syndrome. That really has to suck.

Sorry I've slacked on this. I'm working on my other site, and my current life is mostly rhe same.

But if the Yanks win on Thursday morning my time, then my next post will actually be extensive for the two of you who still care.

Most of my fellow Korea bloggers gave up anyway (Amy...)

Day Six Hundred and Eighteen: Ass

2009-11-01T12:36:00.002+09:00

After my outfit last night, I can safely say I have the most-grabbed ass in Daegu.

That is all.

Day Six Hundred and Fifteen: Well..

2009-10-29T21:51:00.003+09:00

..that didn't last long.

Here's hoping next post, Sunday night, has me happier about it.

Happy 65th, Dad.

And fuck off, middle-aged men who mistakenly think people don't really II because comments aren't up.

You've got a petty streak, Mr. White.

Day Six Hundred and Thirteen: The Bask

2009-10-27T23:54:00.002+09:00

We have won the ALCS for the first time since I was a pathetic little Princeton freshman who couldn't bear to watch the dramatic 8th inning comeback in the Grady Little game.

And the next game begins tomorrow night NY time, Thursday morning my time.

Meaning this is the last full day I can bask in positivity without worry until more than a week from now, when it will be over, and I will either be ecstatic or have to endure the taunts of ugly, ugly Philadelphians. I would really hate to lose to that awful city I've spent far too much time in.

But for now, I bask.

The good thing about the games being on in the morning is that the post-game celebratory stuff goes up during the afternoon and I can read it happily (if we win), and think about it during my afternoon run. Today's run was my last before the series.

My last run, my last II post, my last post here.

Ahhh it's so nerve-wracking, playoff baseball.

But it's a lot better than not having the chance to win it all.

I think we take it in six, since Hamels has been sucky, and CC can match Lee. But you never know...

Day Six Hundred and Eleven: Sporcle!

2009-10-25T23:52:00.002+09:00

SPORCLESPORCLESPORCLESPORCLESPORCLESPORCLESPORCLESPORCLESPORCLESPROCLESPORCLESPORCLE.

Seriously, Sporcle. Now.

Day Six Hundred and Nine: The "GRE"

2009-10-23T09:56:00.003+09:00

I'm supposed to be taking it right now.

Here's my story.

In August, I got all excited and committed to making my website, and then going to grad school. I didn't know much about the GRE but I assumed I had to take it.

So I found out it's only offered twice a year in SK, and in Seoul at that. Fine.

The first day after that was today, so I told my school I needed a day off, and used a vacation day (whatever, in the winter I go wherever I want).

I then found out I needed to take some separate paper part of the test a month earlier, and that was only a week after the day I found out. This is only the case in SK, China and Taiwan. I thought this was dumb, and I didn't want to rush it. And then I researched the programs I am applying to and found out that most of them don't require the GRE.

So here I am sitting at home with a day off. So long as I don't go outside and get seen before late afternoon, I should be okay.

I can handle that.

Day Six Hundred and Seven: Equal Writes

2009-10-21T00:01:00.002+09:00

Equal Writes is a blog written by Princeton students about feminist issues etc, and my god these men and women are kickass.

1. Why wasn't Princeton this cool when I was there? WTF?

2. Would I have been cool enough to read and be engaged? I wonder. I was much less cool then.

3. Makes me proud. Also, they're like 20 and I'm old.

Also: 20 months in Korea. Daaaamn.

Day Six Hundred and Five: Fireworks!

2009-10-19T00:22:00.004+09:00

I tend to find fireworks a silly waste of money. Why spend all that?

That said, summer of 03, they designed the Statue of Liberty over the Hudson with green fireworks and even a little orange one for the torch. Best ever.

Summer of 02, Bastille Day, Paris. The fireworks were good, but I was with everyone I liked on that trip, and we were on a bridge over the Seine next to the Eiffel Tower and that was awesome. Second best.

And third-best was last night, in Busan.

The following was the finale. Keep in mind that Koreans like to ooh and ahhh eeeeverything.

Day Six Hundred and Two: Yankee Baseball

2009-10-16T00:07:00.002+09:00

I hesitate to voice this out loud, but I really think we have a good shot this year.

I think we beat the Angels in 6, and the Dodgers in 5.

I haven't been through the playoffs away from home, and let me tell you, it's hard. The games all come on in the morning, and I have to just hope all hell hasn't broken loose every time I run off and teach.

And I have to hope we win each time because I love reading sports websites, and I am unable to do so when we lose a playoff game. I know I'm a baby, but I don't care.

But, it would be nice to win again. Beat the Angels, so we don't have any demons left.

Back to real posts about my life here soon.

Busan this wknd!

Day Six Hundred!

2009-10-14T00:07:00.002+09:00

Whoa.

So, about six days ago, the Yankees won game one. I've been here 100X that long.

About 60 days ago, I was on my way to Cambodia. I've been here 10X that long.

About 100 days ago, it was July 4th. I've been here 6X that long.

About 200 days ago, it was the end of March, and I was wishing my friend Sharon goodbye. I've been here 3X that long.

About 300 days ago, it was just after New Year's, and I was reading The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. I've been here 2X that long.

And 600 days ago, I got off the plane at 530 am, scared, confused and in a mostly empty airport, on Asian soil for the first time, and unsure of how my life would change, though I knew it definitely would.

Cool.

Day Five Hundred and Ninety-Seven: Teachable Moment

2009-10-11T23:49:00.001+09:00

On Friday, four of my kids wrote the sentence, about the fictional country I have them creating: "We would import pretty women because our country is in Africa and we have only black women." Instead of yelling at kids who clearly had no clue what they were implying, I took them aside and tried to explain why they probably didn't want to make such statements. They responded that they hadn't intended to be offensive, and I believed them, but reminded them that someone listening to them might not know that, so I advised them to watch their words and actions, and thus did more useful "teaching" than I'd done all week.

Also, this is my 500th post on this site, which is crazy.

600 days in Korea soon...

Day Five Hundred and Ninety-Five: Hope

2009-10-09T00:05:00.002+09:00

So, I've found a ton of old contacts on Facebook, like lots of folks have.

High school friends, pre-school friends, camp friends, you name it.

One person I never expected to find me (and use the website well) was my first babysitter, Hope.

I've seen Hope once since I was 7, at her wedding in 2003. It was so long ago that she took care of me that she has an 18 year old son, and he wasn't even born when she stopped working for my family.

Anyway. Talking to her makes me feel old.

But also makes me realize that, if everyone from that time is proud of me legitimately, and always willing to express it, I've been very lucky to have fully appreciative people around me for so many years, and won't be passing on bad lessons to my offspring. Yay.

Day Five Hundred and Ninety-Two: Various Social Networking Sites

2009-10-06T23:45:00.002+09:00

I used myspace for a while. Honestly, when an attractive woman tells you (as one did to me), "Yeah, there are just so many people willing to sleep with you," and you're, you know, 18, you listen, and join, and you meet some randos, a few ex-gfs, and a couple friends.

But, god, you click on a profile, and the fucking muuuusic plays. And in Korea it's just entirely soldiers. Lots of articles popping up about segregation between the sites, and I can see that, as I left myspace behind a while back (though I still technically have an account). But fact is, my friends are on facebook, and it's built for the social, not for bands.

I actually joined facebook back when I was 17 (eek). A friend sent me the link to www.thefacebook.com, and we already had a facebook at princeton, which was a literal book with faces in it. I thought this was an extension of that, but then, you know, look what happened, and it's a top-ten site in the world or some craziness.

So, I use it to promote things, talk to people, keep in touch, get in touch etc.

And then there's Twitter.

I barely used it at the start, and still not that often. But it's good for shrinking links. And once I get home, I'll be able to use it from my phone like a normal person.

For now, my handful of followers can use it to read my site. Twitter will be a big part of Informed Instigation.

Day Five Hundred and Ninety: Dizziness

2009-10-04T17:24:00.004+09:00

Since late August, I've been dizzy. Every day, once or twice, the room (or road) etc, would spin. Because I don't drive, none of this really mattered, and while it was annoying, being an American who naturally avoids the hospital, I just hoped it would go away.

So, like House, I thought about what had changed.

Diet the same. Actually sleeping more, not less.

But then I realized, it started right after my vacation. Well, what changed?

I stopped going to the gym. It isn't that I've stopped working out, but now I lift behind the school and then run around the neighborhood. The difference being that at the gym, I ran, lifted, etc, and drank water throughout the work out.

Now, I lift, stretch, run, and then stop at the supermarket to buy a drink. But I'm stupid, so I would usually get something tasty rather than water. And because of the liquid in my system, I'd pee clear, and assume I was hydrated.

So it's been a month of basically barely drinking water.

So now, each time, I buy a giant thing of water (for 90 cents) and drink it with my tv shows and food. The dizziness isn't gone, but it's slowly abating.

Something as simple as drinking water. I'm dumb.

Day Five Hundred and Eighty-Seven: Weird Smell

2009-10-01T00:08:00.002+09:00

My bathroom smells weird. Has for a while. But only when I shower.

It's not the toilet or anything I've put in it. It's not the floor. Either of these things would smell when I wasn't showering.

It's not me. I'm a clean person.

It's not my towel, though I could change those more often.

No, I've realized, it must be the water itself.

Yes, my water smells weird. My water smells like it's decaying.

I've heard there's a bunch of metal in the water. But metal doesn't smell rotten.

I don't really have a choice. I could not shower, I guess. But that's not gonna happen.

So I truly have no clue what is best to be done about all this.

But I thought you should know.

Day Five Hundred and Eighty-Three: Weekend

2009-09-27T09:56:00.002+09:00

Hung out with someone new and cool, drank too much Friday, smoked some hookah, fun party last night, soon to buy my Lonely Planet book for India and a sexy new Ipod touch, and the Yankees are kicking the Red Sox and Angels' asses all over the country this week.

Day Five Hundred and Eighty: Glad

2009-09-24T23:06:00.002+09:00

I'm glad for a few things.

I'm glad I had parents/a family/a school/friends who always encouraged me to keep talking and thinking and never stifled me.

I'm glad I had people, specifically a father, who drove honesty and integrity into my core.

I'm glad, by chance, I finally opened up about college to my mom in August 2007 and she told me to get over it. I thought it was mean, but instead found a way to take my malaise and make it positive.

I'm glad I'm no longer the bum (up, run, TV, TV, lift, eat, yankees, TV, sleep)that I was for eight months after college.

I'm glad I started writing and kept writing while I was a bum.

I'm glad I'm not so fucking mad anymore.

I'm glad to be able to appreciate my life and try to make the world better.

Day Five Hundred and Seventy-Nine: Things Said In Class

2009-09-23T00:18:00.002+09:00

Doing a big geography project.

Funny things they have said.

Question asked:

What is the largest city in the world that begins with a B?

"Boston!"
"Bancuber!"

...... with a T?

"Taiwan!"

What is the third most spoken language in the world after Mandarin and English?

"Korean!" Ha.

What is the third largest country in the world?

"Africa!" Sigh...

Day Five Hundred and Seventy-Seven: Current Discussions

2009-09-20T22:56:00.002+09:00

Hiked a steep-ass mountain today. Ate fish soup at the top. How do they get that food up there, I wonder.

This is my most recent post on facebook/informed instigation. Might as well use it on all three of my outlets.

Check it, folks.

Day Five Hundred and Seventy-Four: Life Goals

2009-09-17T09:01:00.003+09:00

Here are some things I want to do before I die.

1. Visit all 6 inhabited continents before I'm thirty. (Doing number 5 in March, so it will just be Australia after that and I'll have 6 years.)

2. Get some longform fiction of mine published before 35.

3. Run a kick ass school by 35 and mold some minds.

4. Raise some intelligent, engaged, hilarious children. Probably two or three, depending on circumstances.

Can't think of any more definite ones. I'll add more later.

Day Five Hundred and Seventy-Three: Fringe

2009-09-16T00:26:00.002+09:00

Never seen the show before tonight, but I think it's pretty cool.

But, why is Korea putting it on a full year after it premiered? Weird, but, fine, at least it's on.

But then, why is it also premiering Knight Rider? And still showing Lipstick Jungle?

And why did I get into Women's Murder Club knowing it was going to be canceled?

Korean TV, you crazy.

Day Five Hundred and Seventy: Pieces of Me

2009-09-13T23:56:00.002+09:00

Friday, an old part of me (the possessive platonic male friend of females I don't know very well) came back out for some reason.

I could have sworn it was dead and gone. My anger is almost gone. I don't sulk for hours on end anymore. Or days.

Why can't the gaping flaws vanish when they need to? I know I'll always be imperfect, and that's fine.

But the parts of me that push people away need to go.

I need to build and strengthen relationships. And leave the destructive (and annoying, and embarrassing) behavior behind.

Day Five Hundred and Sixty-Eight: Eight Years

2009-09-11T00:02:00.003+09:00

Eight years ago on this day, it started out sunny and it stayed that way.

It was the first time the subway was actually shut down. But even on that day it was open again by mid-afternoon.

It was the first time I personally picked my sister up from school.

A CD store was inexplicably open that afternoon. I bought Jay-Z's "Blueprint" and skipped straight to "Renagade." I sat in my room for a few hours and just listened to Em and Jay trade verses.

At the time I was still religious, and was deeply offended when someone suggested praying might not have been the right move.

I began to finally question religion and my not-very-solid faith that day.

School was closed the next day.

So I stayed up late.

I remember being morbidly fascinated with the video of the destruction.

Just some thoughts.

That day changed everyone's lives.

Still affects mine today.

Day Five Hundred and Sixty-Six: What Do I Want?

2009-09-09T00:13:00.002+09:00

What do I want informed instigation to do?

The simple answer: get people talking. Get them engaged. It will start, of course, wit the type of folks who are engaged in this sort of thing all the time. And hopefully others will join in.

I suspect I'll post the most, but as time goes on I want to move into more of an openthread starter role.

An occasional "good news/bad news" thing, some fiery stuff when I get fired up, but I will try to limit that to positivity, because angry negativity is just destructive.

I don't want to make people mad for the sake of doing so, as I might have, say, junior year.

I do want to challenge people a bit. Present them with interesting facts and issues to tackle.

And, maybe, by the time I'm back in New York, I'll have a real community going.

Cool.

Day Five Hundred and Sixty-Three: Register!!!!

2009-09-06T23:22:00.002+09:00

Go to my site. Register. Comments working in a few days. Go join!

Informed instigation!!!!

GET INFORMED.

Day Five Hundred and Fifty-Nine: Coming Together

2009-09-02T00:06:00.003+09:00

Informed Instigation is a few days from launch.

Trivia is three days away. (Amy, this is Tuesday night. It's Friday. Heh.)

Grad school ideas are bubbling up.

Planning (randomly) to hit both of the world's most populous countries in January and February. Which will mean, after I hit Brazil in March, I will have been to number one (China), two (India), three (US), four (Indonesia), five (Brazil), ten (Japan), eleven (Mexico), thirteen (Vietnam) and twenty (France). Cool.

Even though today was tiring, I for some reason don't have the utter fatigue of school I've had in my other semesters. But then, it's been less than two weeks.

I'm still looking forward to the three straight weeks with at least one day off that start in two weeks. But I no longer crave it.

Lessons are much easier to plan when you have a goal in mind. And my goal is to expand their world. And if it works on one kid, then damn it, I'm succeeding.

Day Five Hundred and Fifty-Seven: Wrapping

2009-08-31T00:09:00.002+09:00

So Briana was telling me how she likes wrapping presents and giving them to people lovingly and nicely.

Now I don't do this. I hate wrapping. I think it's silly. People rip the shit open and then they don't pay any attention to it. I'm also bad at it.

But I was thinking.

I do wrap some things I care about. I wrap my social events. I plan my trivias, and my parties, so that as many people as possible will have a good time. I plan my classes, as best I can, such that even the laziest kids will laugh and enjoy English in some way.

I do wonder if there's a natural, or societal reason, I choose these things to "wrap."

But I do know I wrap.

Day Five Hundred and Fifty-Four: Basterds

2009-08-28T00:02:00.002+09:00

Man, I'm glad I speak French.

It would be nice if this bootleg had subtitles. Or, English ones.

German really does sound a lot like English in certain ways.

Anyway, this is soooo Tarantino, but it's getting better as it goes along.

Day Five Hundred and Fifty-Three: Sorry for the Dereliction

2009-08-27T00:22:00.003+09:00

Sorry i've been busy. You haven't minded anyway.

Just been focusing on informed instigation, working on my latest trivia.

Writing less fiction than I want, but reading enough.

Essentially, once my site gets up, I'll be posting here with every post on the other site.

But my life here is about the same each day. I'm really kicking ass in the classroom, not being a silly teacher, and really glad to make these students get a break from their lives.

The partying is dull, but work is awesome.

Day Five Hundred and Forty-Seven: Final Semester

2009-08-21T00:12:00.002+09:00

I'm gonna be serious this semester.

All my lazy trappings, I hope, I will remove. And my lessons will build on each other.

I will be responsible and energetic and do my best to try and reach the kids as much as I can. I'm a known quantity to them, and I want to be an unknown quantity.

And I want to kick some ass.

It starts in 8 hours. Sweet.

Day Five Hundred and Forty-Five: Life Changed

2009-08-19T00:00:00.002+09:00

I wanted my mind blown by this trip and it succeeded.

I saw the highs of immense natural beauty, the lowest of lows of brutal slaughter, the agony of extreme poverty. I can't say I've personally experienced the last two, of course, but for the first time, I really was able to see how the latter can really fuck a person (or a group of people) over.

We forget this, most of us. We watch TV and shake our heads. We send some money (which is certainly good).

But I think we all need to just keep these things in mind when we have a bad day at work.

At least we can eat. At least we can bathe. At least we're not banging on a bus in 100 degree weather trying to get 50 cents out of the people inside.

At the very least, we can choose how we want to live. And that choice makes all the difference.

So the question is, from this point on, what will I do with my choices? I'm not entirely sure. But I'm never going to forget the fact that I have them.

See you folks soon.

Day Five Hundred and Forty-Two: Phnom Penh is Hot

2009-08-16T22:33:00.001+09:00

Deathly hot.

And Briana and I have three fun days since the last message,which was petty.

Angkor Wat is amazing.

Day Five Hundred and Forty: Cambodia

2009-08-14T19:27:00.002+09:00

Off there in an hour.

Working hard on the other site, which may become my major focus now.

Also: People don't make me jealous, but Briana finally succeeded in doing so, since every night she spends with other people she's happy and partying and people are awesome.

And with me she refuses to dance, and sits around scowling and being weird.

I know you're reading this: stop.

Still Day Five Hundred and Thirty-Six: Informed Instigation.

2009-08-10T18:10:00.002+09:00

That will be the name of the website that will change the world.

Informed Instigation.

It's just a picture of me right now.

Soon it will have my videos and a bio.

And then I will begin to post, and stir the pot. And light some fires. Shake it up.

I'll update you folks as it comes together.

And don't worry, I'll keep my personal blog going so you now what's up in my life. :)

Day Five Hundred and Thirty-Six: Loud

2009-08-10T00:19:00.002+09:00

In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.

-MLK

This will be scattered.

I said the following in an instant message exchange. Hence the grammar.

"our mindsets. all this decadence. nothing wrong with having a party (even the poorest people in the world party). but life cant revolve around it

we have to work

for the positive

if we have the ability and most of us do

there is bad, and evil, but its only powerful if we let it be

as martin said

In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.

we gotta be loud, man."

Now, what am I referring to? I'm talking about Agent Orange (which is no secret, of course). I'm talking about famine. Poverty. As they said in Hotel Rwanda, people know about it, and some good folks toss money at it, but no one really takes the time to think about it and work on it.

I haven't either. But I also don't think I'd be a good refugee camp worker.

The most I do is talk. And write facebook notes. And this site.

I've decided I will actually go to graduate school. And then after that...? Maybe teach, write. I want to start a school maybe. Or a program.

I want to kick this world in the ass.

Day Five Hundred and Thirty-One: Vietnam

2009-08-05T00:08:00.002+09:00

In 14 hours, I touch down in Saigon.

There's lots I want to do on the trip.

But more than anything else, I want to EAT.

Seafood! Veggies! Curry! A legitimate and varied cuisine!

And no whiiiiiining. Hopefully.

I'll have my computer. I'll talk to you folks a bit from there.

Day Five Hundred and Thirty: Best New Artists

2009-08-04T09:15:00.002+09:00

They're not all new, but I spent a lot of time yesterday on youtube/limewire/itunes checking out some music for my epic traveling playlist, clicking on songs and "related" videos, etc.

So now, I already knew and liked Bloc Party (but had no clue the lead singer was black).

If you don't know them, check out "Helicopter," "Banquet."

I liked that one Ting Tings song already, but I got some more.

Check out, "That's Not My Name!" and "Shut Up and Let Me Go."

My unbelievably sexy friend Shawna (who walks around with giant headphones but is far less annoying than Natalie Portman in Garden State) had told me about Metric a few weeks ago. And I'm a bit of a sucker for dance-y bands with sexy female vocalists.

So there's "Gimme Sympathy" and "Sick Muse."

Those Dancing Days is all female, and generally goofy looking, but I feel like I'd enjoy them if I met them. Heh.

They have a self-titled song and a very sweet song called "Home Sweet Home."

Then I figured I needed some rap. There are still some good artists in there right?

I knew a bit of Atmosphere, so I got some of that. ("People Under The Stairs" and "Guarantees" are top notch, but he falls back on the "MY LYRICZ IS SO GOOD I DON'T NEED A BEAT BECAUSE MY FLOW IS DA BEST" nonsense that some underground rappers do, which bothers me to no end; if the beat doesn't matter to you, write a fucking poem.)

And Immortal Technique impressed me with "Dance With the Devil," and I thought he'd be full of really harrowing stories with amazing lyrics. He's got a few of those, but he falls back on homophobia in the midst of his social consciousness. Why? Fucking lazy.

These artists have some songs that aren't my style (if a song is gonna be slow, it better be really good; if it's slow I tend to favor classic rock, or else it better be a truly transcendent ANTHEM like Arcade Fire's "Wake Up," which speeds up as it goes anyway). But mostly, they're songs that make you want to dance around and kiss people.

Least that's what they do for me.

I'd've put all the videos in, but I'm lazy. Go to Youtube.

(In 24 hours I'll be on a plane to Saigon....)

Day Five Hundred and Twenty-Nine: Spoke Too Soon

2009-08-03T09:22:00.003+09:00

Well, now the Sox are on a roll, and the Yanks just lost three of four.

So, let me not brag.

I will now shut up, and let the rest of the season play out without comment until the playoffs are settled.

48 hours to the trip!

Day Five Hundred and Twenty-Six: Yanks Win Again

2009-07-31T09:59:00.002+09:00

Hahahaha.

David Ortiz positive for steroids in 2003. And sucks this year.

Most importantly, gone is Boston's imagined moral high ground, the most insufferable thing about their glorification of being ugly unwashed fools.

Looking nice isn't a bad thing, idiots.

Suck it, Boston. Your city fails.

(Off to Busan today. Will return for three days of posting before my vacation Weds.)

Day Five Hundred and Twenty-Five: Yanks Win

2009-07-30T11:32:00.001+09:00

Hungover, but, um, by the way, the Yanks are kicking ass right now.

Up 3.5 on Boston and 7.5 on Tampa.

Angels always scare (not even the same team as the 90s and they've always beaten us), but, we gonna rock it out this year.

Day Five Hundred and Twenty-Four: My Daily Life

2009-07-29T09:45:00.002+09:00

I'm sure you're all aware that the reason I comment less and less on my daily life is because, after a year and a half, it's less surprising.

During semesters, I go to work, gym, cook dinner, write some fiction and then post.

Or, I go out.

Occasionally, something funny happens, and I tell you.

I do write my Sunday notes. Those are fun.

But mostly, I write on here six times a week, and whatever pops into my head lands on the screen.

When I get home, I'll start a third blog, which I won't post on every day. And might be slightly more anonymous? No, fuck that, I can't be anonymous.

But it will be called "The Adventures of Captain Blastin."

You can be on that.

Also: Backstreet's Back!

Just thought you should know!

Day Five Hundred and Twenty-Three: What a Surprise!

2009-07-28T09:16:00.002+09:00

So I went to high school with a bunch of proto-hipsters. They were too young to actually be like that, and hadn't yet turned into it, but I loved them, and wish I was still in contact with more of them.

These days, I frequent the Onion's pop culture site, The AV Club (link on the right.)

There was a discussion going on about an episode of Entourage which featured Alexis Dziena, a very short and frequently naked actress who graduated from my high school two years before me.

I mentioned that she went to my school, on this forum, and made a joke about how short she was (and sort of alien-looking), and someone immediately commented humorously that I'd broken the Saint Ann's circle of trust.

Here I am in South Korea, and as soon as comment on the board of semi-hipster snark, there's a classmate sitting right there.

What a surprise!

Day Five Hundred and Twenty-Two; Time Off

2009-07-27T09:48:00.002+09:00

I'm going on a big cool vacation starting next week. Vietnam, Cambodia. Meeting the family, running around, etc.

But this week, while I do have errands to run, I'm mostly not doing... anything.

For the first time since my eight months of nothing after college, when I was broke and miserable (except for my two weeks of employment), I'm neither working or traveling this week.

Ah. Free time. I'm going to love my trip, I'm sure, but I have so little free time that I may enjoy this week just as much.

Day Five Hundred and Twenty: Sarah Palin

2009-07-25T12:00:00.002+09:00

So I met a girl who looks a lot like Sarah Palin, glasses, hair color, all of it.

She does not have 5 kids or an inexplicable midwestern accent though.

So there's that.

I've told her she must, must, dress as such for Halloween.

She told me that, in Canada, she's compared to someone called Naomi Dixon?

Who is this person? I shall find out.

Day Five Hundred and Nineteen: How Much of a Dork I Am

2009-07-24T11:16:00.002+09:00

I play this baseball simulation game.

I often create fake players and guide them to statistical glory.

It gives me unimaginable pleasure to confirm that Priscilla Ruin (yes, a female) has a .25 era, 7 perfect games, and is on pace for nearly 500 strikeouts in the year 2047.

This is awesome to me.

Just a window to how much of a dork I am.

Day Five Hundred and Eighteen: Cabs

2009-07-23T10:37:00.002+09:00

It's always cheaper to take the subway home. But the subway is closed from 1130 to 530, or thereabouts (depending on what station you're at).

So, obviously, the vast majority of my nights out end with me in a taxi saying "Daegong Yawk" (Daegok subway station, which is a block from my house... they change "k" into "ng" when it is followed by a vowel sound, and "y" is a vowel sound).

But, considering I was out till sunup on July 4th, then didnt go out the following Weds or Fri, and then it was Mudfest, and then the following weds I didn't go to my own place, and then last Friday I was in Seoul, and Saturday I was out till the subway again, last night was the first time I took a cab to my house at a reasonable time in ages.

Funny.

Anyway, I'll add I'm getting a lot better at Korean. I still can't speak fluently or anything. But I've been able to put a few more sentences together to impress the kids at camp, and around town I've been using a few more things to communicate, and I'm really making progress.

I also had a dream/nightmare where my father was accused of some horribly crime which was never revealed in the dream/nightmare. And the whole dream people yelled at him.

That shit was intense.

Ok, random thoughts over.

Also: today begins 30 days until I go back to work. Sweet.

Day Five Hundred and Seventeen: Moments in Pop Culture

2009-07-22T00:01:00.002+09:00

Two things I've noticed recently, that make me smile about the passage of time in pop culture.

1. Watching "Behind The Laughter," the Simpsons Episode, there's a moment where they make an easy joke about Ozzie Osbourne biting the head off of a Grammy (um, yeah). He has gray hair, and the whole joke is the head-biting.

This is, of course, two years before they exploded onto the scene with The Osbournes, and everyone knew a. he couldn't speak and b. he still had long black hair.

Funny.

2. I just read a book by Nick Hornby called "How to Be Good," which means I've now read every novel he's ever written (except "About a Boy," but I saw that movie).

Anyway, it was written in 2000, so they're discussing who the next American president will be, and I briefly thought they were talking about this election.

But then there were jokes about keeping it in his pants etc etc. And I forgot how horribly repetitive the Clinton jokes were.

So, any joke I make in my current writing will probably be dated. But it's interesting to look at this stuff with a few years' perspective.

Day Five Hundred and Sixteen: More Camp News

2009-07-21T00:04:00.003+09:00

So I had camp today. All the way across the city.

I knew very little about it. I made lesson plans, but we had no meeting, and they haven't discussed payment, and it was far as shit from my house.

But, while all of those things are true: 1. kids were fun. 2. 40 minute classes are always easy.

It's really only two days of teaching, since the third day is a "song" (they love songs at the damn camps). So I've got one day left of teaching before zero classes for 4.5 weeks.

On the flipside, my back won't fix itself. I'm gonna have to do to the doctor. If my rib was broken it would hurt a lot more wouldnt it?

Day Five Hundred and Fifteen: Sundays with Captain Blastin - Episode XX: Marriage

2009-07-20T00:02:00.001+09:00

Marriage. A big decision for anyone.

A big business as well with wedding planners and so many other jobs tied up in it.

Weddings are very different, of course, from location to location and from couple to couple.

Not to mention the fact that, as discussed in this space a few months back, many loving couples around the world can't marry their beloved for reasons I strongly and vehemently disagree with.

Anyway.

I see the whole thing as potentially beneficial, and potentially ruinous.

I have some friends on here who are my age and getting married soon (Hi Ollie), and some who are already married (Hi Chris). And then I have much older friends who haven't ever been married and don't plan to be.

As for myself, I really don't know whether I want to be married or not. I enjoy commitment and monogamy for the most part. I haven't been in very many longterm relationships, but I see the value there and, if I came across the right person (but what would that entail for me? I have no clue), I might want to stay with them forever.

I would like to be a father at some point. I'd like that responsibility and that Herculean task. I think I would be good at it.

But, um, not for a looooong time.

I have some more scattered thoughts on marriage:

- Man, it's moot for me, but, folks, test drive the car before you buy it. It could be no one's fault, you might just be into different things, but if you don't find this out until the honeymoon, well... enjoy your bitterness.

-I'm not in love with a lot of the institutions of (western/american) marriage. It makes me uncomfortable that me and whomever my wife is would be referred to, at the end of some ceremonies, as Mr. and Mrs. me. My wife will definitely be her own woman. She won't be my property or below me in a hierarchy. So, if I do get married, that won't be happening.

-I hate the "giving away" nonsense. Unless both of her parents do so, the "you are being handed over from this man to this man" is bullshit.

-I might not even wear a tux, or do it in a church. It won't be like most weddings, that's for sure. Haha, I'm excited about my theoretical unorthodox wedding, but I dunno about marriage.

-The name change sort of bothers me too. I understand that you are becoming the same family, and might want to have the same last name. But, it's always her that changes it, and, i dunno, my name is long enough already, but I'd rather have us keep our names than imply "you're a Gerald now."

-In my fictional story I'm working on, it's the future, all spouses keep their names, and expectant parents choose their kids' names based on a mashup of their last names. I like this idea. But that's just me.

-I'm definitely not letting the race/income level/etc of my partner influence whether or not I marry them.

-And I'm not getting married until everyone in my state can do so, regardless of orientation. Yeah the country will be ideal, but, well, America's a slow kid on a lot of things. I could deal with just New York acting right.

-Let's stop calling it "maiden" name, people. They're not "fair maidens." "Unmarried" or "single" works fine.

All right. That's enough.

Questions:

For the currently single (ie not-married):

1. Do you think you'll ever get married? Why or why not?

2. What are some things you particularly like about weddings/marriage? And what are some things you don't?

3. Give us an example of a married couple you think are doing the job right. I guess most people will say their parents. Oh well. But elaborate.

4. If you get married, will you do anything differently from your parents? (If they were married. Mine weren't. Substitute "step-parents" if necessary.) If so, what?

Married (or divorced) folk, the few of you who might read this:

1. Just tell us something amazing about your spouse that will make me think it ain't so bad :)

Twenty times! Woo!

Day Five Hundred and Fourteen: High School

2009-07-19T11:27:00.002+09:00

Life here is usually, in my mind, like college.

But, just like college, it can also be like high school. Cliques, back-biting. Stuff that is a waste of everyone's time.

People spread rumors. People snipe.

Last night, some folks were saying I wasn't trustworthy, and my new friend here chose to believe that. It should go without saying that my uber-honesty (to a fault) is one of my most important features, so this made me very upset.

But, my statement about myself is, as follows.

I don't appreciate the attacks on my character from people who don't really know him very well. All I have to say is, I believe I am a good, respectable, and trustworthy young man who is always striving to become better. And if people want to try to tear me down, I know I have lots of folks who will stand up for me.

And that's all.

Day Five Hundred and Twelve: Music News

2009-07-17T10:02:00.002+09:00

From The Onion's AV Club:

According to SOHH.com , the always controversial, always provocative, invariably annoying 50 Cent has taken on a new challenge by releasing his forthcoming, eagerly non-anticipated new album on September 11th, the same day as Jay-Z's third entry in The Blueprint saga.

Who will win? Jay-Z. In a landslide. He may not be at the peak of his game but he hasn't alienated the world and disappointed his fans/apologists like 50. 50 tried this same stunt with Kanye West and got his ass handed to him, sales-wise. He looks to be the loser in this bout as well.

50... you are so rich from Vitamin Water. Just stop. Or, alternatively, make a funny record lie "How To Rob."

In other news, GirlTalk is awesome.

Have a happy Friday!

Day Five Hundred and Eleven: Attack of the Swine

2009-07-16T14:12:00.002+09:00

Apparently someone on one of our buses got the Swine, aka the flu that isn't really serious.

Here is the info sent to us:

He began developing symptoms on Sunday. He checked in to the hospital on Monday. He says that his symptoms involved of extremely high fever, coughing, and diarrhea. He said that his fever was causing him to sweat so much that his sweat glands could not produce any more sweat. They gave him a series of tests (which later was confirmed by Seoul as being positive for swine flu) and was given Tamiflu (http://www.tamiflu.com/). He has been scheduled to go up to Seoul for a week-long quarantine, but is still at his house. His symptoms have subsided since yesterday, which he attributes to likely a combination of Tamiflu and the virus running its course with his natural immune system. He still has to go to Seoul for quarantine, regardless if his symptoms have passed.

So, basically, he's fine. But, today, all our schools are freaking out, and telling us to stay home.

I'm off work anyway, so, whatever.

But, America has its faults, but we definitely can't legally just treat foreigners this way. "Oh, you're Mexican, better stay home."

Bull shit. I'm going to Seoul tomorrow, to hang out with a girl who actually had swine flu.

Again, I remind you, they shit themselves over this, but not over Kim Jong-Il.

Oh, Korea.

Day Five Hundred and Ten: Bastille Day Fun

2009-07-15T00:10:00.002+09:00

Tonight I dined on some not-entirely-French food, drank some very French drinks, and listened to some awesome French folks talk about their ongoing 4 year journey across the world on their bikes. Yes, you have to have money and time to be able to do this, but, still, their goal of seeing the world, exposing different groups to themselves (indeed by being different they were something memorable), and not polluting (all on bikes remember) was both admirable and fun to witness through pictures.

I would like to see Chengdu, a city in China with very little pollution as most folks ride electronic vehicles.

And it has proven to me, as I've said to some others (BRIANA), there is no such thing as a cool country or an uncool country, and every country can be beautiful, ugly, amazing, memorable, unremarkable. This world, developed, urban, developing, suburban, rural, whatever, is huge, and amazing. And it's all we have.

So, those of you who can afford it, go out and see what you can. And if you can't fly to Nepal, just take a train to the backwoods of Virginia or Montana or Oregon and see what there is to see.

There's always something to see wherever you are.

So that's what I was reminded of on Bastille Day.

Day Five Hundred and Nine: Trip Settled

2009-07-14T11:30:00.001+09:00

After more than two months of planning on and off, I've finally settled all my travel details for my trip to Vietnam and Cambodia.

I have yet to get my visa, but I'll do that in a few days.

Ah, feels nice.

Day Five Hundred and Eight: Mudfest Review

2009-07-13T00:22:00.002+09:00

I can lay on my left side or my right shoulder.

I saw almost everyone I love in Korea.

Drank for 19 hours.

Took incriminating pics.

Aaaand wasn't hungover at all.

I deem mudfest 2009 a success.

Check my facebook album for pics.

Day Five Hundred and Six: Mudfest Preview

2009-07-11T00:03:00.002+09:00

Tomorrow, at about 7:30 am, I will stand in the aisle at the front of a chartered bus and say the following:

"You know at rides in water parks... when they say "if you sit in these rows, you will get wet."

Well Captain Blastin says, "If you want to sleep or stay sober, go as far back as possible. If you sit anywhere else, YOU WLL GET HAMMERED."

Then I will give info about a rest stop and such and what we will do upon arrival.

Then I will give a roll call of my ranks, and have a toast to mudfest.

And then we'll be off!

I'll report back Monday.

Day Five Hundred and Five: Really?/New Video!!

2009-07-10T00:05:00.001+09:00

Really?

Also, I can't believe how many people actually believe Armageddon is a thing that is going to happen according to Revelations. People are fucking dumb.

Oh: New class video!

I love teaching sometimes!

Day Five Hundred and Four: Paris

2009-07-09T00:01:00.002+09:00

Well, I don't cry a lot, but little Paris broke me down when I saw the clip this morning.

Even if you want to be horribly cynical and say they forced her, that was genuine grief. Can't deny something like that.

Day Five Hundred and Three: Ranks

2009-07-08T00:00:00.003+09:00

Look at this link. It's not hilarious, but it informs what I'm saying.

Here.

I particularly love that there's something called a "Powder Monkey."

Powder Monkey: This term was first used in the British Navy for the very young men who made up most gun crews in the 17th century. In contrast to a pirate officer who was elected, these poor souls were forced to perform what was some of the most dangerous work on the ship. They were harshly treated and rarely paid, and if they avoided being mortally wounded in their service, desertion was probably as attractive as having very little hope of being promoted in the pirate crew.

So, anyway, I'm really, really enjoying most of my role as Captain (though the organizing part is getting annoying). And handing out all those ranks to friends is awesomeness.

I may have to make a facebook group. Yep, yep, I might.

Day Five Hundred and Two: Captain Blastin

2009-07-07T00:37:00.004+09:00

I have a friend named Scott McLaughlin. He runs a lot of things here in town.

So he decided, weirdly, that he would be Scott Fusion.

Okay.

And people refer to him as such.

Recently it became "Fuzion." This, this is bizarre.

But if he can do it... I can do it.

So now, as I reach the pinnacle of my social prowess, running a bus to mudfest, organizing events, etc, in my last seven months here, I am going to be..

Captain Blastin.

Embrace it. Love it.

Captain Blastin.

Day Five Hundred and One: Long Time

2009-07-06T00:00:00.003+09:00

As you can see from the title, I arrived in Korea 500 days ago.

So many people I've met and since stopped speaking too.

Women, parties, growing internally... that's a five day work week 100 times over.

So much has changed in me and the world.

I'm looking forward to (almost) every day here, and to my return.

Life is good. Mostly.

Day Four Hundred and Ninety-Nine: Hahaahahaha

2009-07-04T11:41:00.001+09:00

Hahahahahaha

I really hope she gets the nomination.

Pleasepleaseplease.

Day Four Hundred and Ninety-Eight: Liveblog!

2009-07-03T09:25:00.007+09:00

Haven't done this in a while.

Exams at school. I shall post intermittently.

<9:37>: As time passes, the teachers are asking me more and more specific and complex questions about English. I guess this means I'm helping and they're getting better, but I couldn't explain the first thing about postpositions. WTF are those?

My trip, by the way, is pretty much set.

8/5: Fly into Ho Chi Minh.

Hang there (with Danielle, Briana, my dad, eventually my mom and sister) until 8/8.

8/8: I'll be adventurous and take the 7 hour train up to Nha Trang. I'm sure my parents will fly.

Hang there, on and around the beach, until 8/11. Dad leaves during this time.

8/11: Hop a one hour flight up to Hue, land of ancient palaces.

Hang there till 8/14.

8/14: ugh. Fly one hour flight back to Ho Chi Minh, then fly from HCM to Kuala Lumpur, to Siam Riep, or something like that, ending up in Siam Riep, Cambodia.

8/15: Angkor Wat.

8/16: Bus down to Phnom Penh.

8/17: The killing fields will be a joyful way to end the trip.

8/18: Early bus back to Ho Chi Minh, flight back to Busan after midnight, bus back to Daegu early on the 19th. Good stuff.

11:03: Ex-girlfriends can be a pain.

But, after the initial annoyance, you stop reacting to everything they do, and they do the same, and, hopefully, you settle into a nice rhythm as people who shared something cool.

Hopefully.

11:58: Here comes that time of day during finals when I have no clue whether or not I can go home.

I end up waiting longer to go eat lunch because I don't want to come back and have the school be locked, completely.

But it's not like they're actually going to come tell me if I can leave.

Also: explaining the peculiarities of English to a teacher when making a final is hard. Explaining the same peculiarities on the question I helped the teacher make to a student after taking the final is harder.

...Apparently everyone went home. Me too.

2:01: Some of my friends have to teach nine classes today. I never teach more than five.

Man, ending up with a super-rough hagwan schedule, especially those that work saturdays (who love to rationalize the shit out of their jobs), is exactly why you do research before coming here.

But, my friend Aseem got a job in Chicago. No 09 grads I know will be coming. Ah well...

4:01: My god trying to cancel something on the internet in a country that barely uses it is really fucking difficult.

Get connected, Vietnam!

Day Four Hundred and Ninety-Seven: Top Answers

2009-07-02T03:29:00.001+09:00

Top answers to this week’s lesson

This week’s lesson is opinion questions. In groups they are answering questions with their opinions.

Some scattered answers:

1. What makes someone beautiful/ugly on the inside?
A lot of kids said smoking for this. Props on that. Honesty, lying, etc. Pretty mundane here.
2. What superpower would you choose, and why?
Best by far: “I would be superwoman who can control anus because some, like Jinsoo, suffer from constipation.”
3. If you were the president, what laws would you change, and why?
Almost everyone put something about education policy making them miserable. Why don’t adult Koreans every pay attention to their miserable youth? A few people also mentioned mandatory military. And a few, both men and women, wanted polygamy to be legal so they could have several wives or husband.
4. Choice: would you rather be beautiful and stupid or smart and ugly?
Most often you got the latter, because they assumed they could get good jobs and make money and then get plastic surgery. Hmm… sadly one of my favorite girls said the former because “that’s what men like.” Sigh.
5. If you could go back in history and change one thing, what would it be?
A lot of them said variations on wanting a larger and more powerful country, and/or Japan dying. Man, if we thought American nationalism was bad… basically Americans are more unhinged but it’s a smaller percentage of us with blind faith.

Interesting to watch, I guess.

Day Four Hundred and Ninety-Six: Some Pithy Thoughts

2009-07-01T00:17:00.002+09:00

Sometimes we all misjudge people. First impressions are never the whole story, even if they contain all the cover art.

Also: 496 days. Jesus.

Also: I have finished the intro to my Silverfox story, and I can finally move on to the fun part I've really been wanting to write since I started it.

My god, the fun part of writing it is here. I can't wait to write more on Thursday!

Day Four Hundred and Ninety-Five: I refuse...

2009-06-30T00:02:00.001+09:00

..to be used.

I might be being used right now.

Ain't gonna stand for it.

Day Four Hundred and Ninety-Four: Hahaha

2009-06-29T00:04:00.000+09:00

Amazingly accurate.

Click it. New site on the roster.

Day Four Hundred and Ninety-Two: Michael.

2009-06-27T11:38:00.003+09:00

I've been talking about it on facebook all day.

And with friends.

And downtown.

So all I'll say here is... my theory is about net positives. I sincerely doubt he was actually an evil predator, though of course if those kids were scarred that is not good.

I do think, however, he managed to have a net positive effect on this world, for all his flaws.

And for that, he will be greatly missed, not just by those of us who skipped in circles on the rug when they were five for hours at a time, but by any of us who value the importance, and the pure joy, that good music can create.

He was clearly a very sad man. But when he sang his songs, my god did his smiles make you want to smile right along with him.

Celebrities don't really matter to me, usually.

But this was Michael. MICHAEL. The common denominator. White, black, old, young, his music brought us all together.

And even though he's gone, what an exuberant legacy of art he leaves behind.

We will never forget you, Michael.

Day Four Hundred and Ninety-One: Current KPop Stuff

2009-06-26T00:13:00.002+09:00

This is more or less what's on the radio and in the club here in Korea.

With English subtitles.

Haha.