Mixed Birthday Presents...

1) The Beloved Wife took me to Danyang to go spelunking. +1

2) The City of Seoul gave me a FREE wake-up call, courtesy of early morning construction. -2

3) The EIT Department gave me a class cancellation to go see a poetry symposium. +.5 (I mean, a poetry symposium? How come this is never a scholarly introduction to the role of the tramp-stamp in post-modern pornography?)

4) The Uni just shut down heat in our building, despite the fact it is currenly 6 degrees. -3

Things are going to have to pick up around here!

LOL.. that island is practically surrounded by NK...

Here's a map:

LOL at the S Korean left (semi-live blogging the war)

some dude tweets: 천안함 때에도,,,,오늘도,,,,대통령은 지하벙커에 꼭꼭 숨어라??

Which seems to be a rhetorical question blaming LMB for getting into the bunker under the Blue House....

Really? That's the best you've got?

I'd be in a bunker if I could. ^^

Life in Wartime?

A certain surreality pervades Seoul. I'm sitting in my office, as shells are falling on Yeongpyeong Island. Outside my window, students and faculty continue to walk around as though nothing were out of the ordinary. About three kilometers away, Yi Myeong-Bak is in a bunker under the Blue House wondering among other things, if the press reports here are accurate, if they should send a protest letter to the UN (wtf?). The ROK has scrambled bombers and fighters and while Lee says to "avoid escalation" I'm not sure that NK will see the planes as non-escalatory? I'm hoping the angels aren't ready to wear my red shoes. ^^

Me? There are two places I should go to in case of evacuation, but I'm certainly assuming it won't come to that. In fact, I think home is probably safest as, paradoxically, it is close to the US army base and if NK ever went for that things would be fully on, and Seoul would be the threatened "sea of fire" that NK blathers on about from time to time. LOL - and since those locations are listed on the US embassy website, they might make charming and known targets if NK wants to go all in

The news came in first on twitter - oh brave new world that has such things in it - and twitter is blowing up over here. Everyone is chiming in, though it is frequently the same posts being passed around again and again. The Honolulu Times is sending out tweets at an astounding pace, many of which are repeats and many of which are random and illiterate.

On expat Korean blogs things are only beginning to heat up..

the apologists are begining to come in:

I understand that people are hurt, but it’s not worth escalation. A strongly worded message is all they deserve.

And soon we will have the folks who blame this on S. Korea. There is a predictable trajectory (if I may be allowed that word when writing about artillery fire related trauma) to the political goings-on around here.

For now, my office is warm, outside is cool, and there is at least one corpse on Yeonpyeong with shells supposedly still falling.

I think I'll stop by the pub tonight and have a pint or two.

Stanford beats Cal - great quote that could ONLY come from Pac-10

Stanfoo QB Andrew Luck knocked a Bear safety on his ass. After the game Luck's quote was"

On his long run, he said, "I didn't see (Cattouse) coming to hit me, but physics and inertia took over. Guys did a good job of blocking downfield. The O-line hustled their butts off. It was a good play to get things rolling."

LOL.. physics and inertia... you'd have to search the entire SEC (and I'm talking about their entire colleges, not their football teams) to find anyone who would put those two words together while describing football.

I need some backup singers...

Watching Cee-lo's brilliant "Fuck You" (I mean, the title alone, yeah?). It's a beautiful flashback to the Detroit sound or the Philadelphia sound. Being white, I get confused about these things.

The music is great and the video reasonably cute. But what it really makes me want, is some back up singers.... Anytime I said something I thought clever (which is very often, too often, probably), I could just gesture and they'd pop up and sing it as a chorus.

How cool would that be?

I would be the envy of all Korea.....

Now off to download the entire album.

(This post was completed in the time it takes to listen to the song once)

Looking Back, Bad Back, Baekchu

On Saturday we had a conference here at Buddhist U., and I was one of the lovely presenters. Did my new spiel about successes and failures of translation and it went over very well. I felt it was a bit scattered, as the room did not have a clock and I was trying to cut a few minutes off it (the previous presenter had gone a bit long). I met people from Ewha and HUFS, and they should be good contacts down the road.

Also. Seoul Magazine turned up an article short this month and put out a last-minute call for an author, which I jumped on as quickly as I could. 1,500 words on.. yes ... kimchi. Not exactly my expertise (other than eating the stuff), but exposure in the magazine is the best a foreigner can get in local mags, so it will be good in that way..

My back also started to tweak - symptoms like I had in my early 30's (5 years ago, I insist!). Taking no chances I immediately went to a 4-times a day stretching regime. Also, Yvonne has given me a gym membership for my birthday (a subtle hint^^) and running on the treadmill always loosens my back up. 25 minutes last night seem to have done the trick. I hope so, cause that last go-round was horrible and lasted months.

This weekend, I judge a speech competition and the division has another one of its lovely parties. Last year I won the "pop the balloon then drink the beer" contest, and I know all the young bucks are looking to dethrone me.

Won't happen!

Snapshots from Busan

A couple of weekends ago Yvonne and I went down to Busan. She went on Friday, and I went on Saturday (did a lot of grading on the train!). It was beautiful and we met with Yvonne's friend Katie:




That picture is of a place called 태홍대 (If I'm remembering the Hangul correctly). It's a bit outside Busan, but beautiful and we walked all around it, taking in a jazz concert along the way. Also, Korean kids were doing the wacky things that Korean kids always do.


As we came around the back part of the island, we saw off the port of Busan, which had a lot of moored ships.



Then it was back to Busan and a dinner with Katie and her parents, who were wildly friendly and entertaining. It's a pretty town.

Dear Plagiarizer...

While it undoubtedly seems clever to plagiarize from the University's PR materials in a paper about why to come here? You might want to plaziarize from, and re-write, the Korean version.

Because given that I do ALL the editing of English promotional materials around here?

I'm likely to recognize that perfect English you're using as the result of my superior editing skillZZ!

And, you know.. plagiarism gets you an F.

LOL.. Literature leads in to....

Last night I did another of my bi-weekly radio appearances on TBS eFM. We talked a little bit about problems with current Korean approaches to translation and publication. You can find that lovely bit of palaver here. It'll be the first sound file on the top of the page and you can drink (if ears can drink) your fill of my scratchy yet high voice.

What made me laugh was the song used as our outro. I'd never heard of it before:

MAXIMILLIAN HECKER / THE DAYS ARE LONG AND FILLED WITH PAIN

Niiiiiiiice!