Merry Christmas!

Refusing to be foot-soldiers in the socialist war on Christmas, Yvonne (currently sleeping on the couch) and I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!


Yes, that is our lovely xmas tree with all the presents.^^ We miss all of you who are overseas and look forward to seeing you this summer.

For now, there are little pockets of snow on windowsills and in streetcorners and we are safely in our warm apartment with the a deceptively friendly sun shining on the trees and rooftops.

If I only had some eggnog.^^

LOL.. my student facebooking and referring to my class

Something else not on Google...

"You look wasted. Look how still I am"

It sounds like poetry and came from one of my students...

now it IS on Google!

Isn't that sweet - deranged^^ student wants me as PhD advisor

No way the university will let a foreign devil (well, actually a non-tenure track lecturer) do such a thing, but I'm happy that my name comes up in that kind of discussion among students..

All you pieces of sh*t

who never told me about the Dropkick Murphys can choke on your Guinness!

Jesus, some of you fairies probably don't even drink.

Seasons Change and So Do I (mainly? I get older^^)

Had a lovely birthday a few days ago. The lovely wife took me to the local where one of the bartenders had created this lovely piece of art(?) in recognition.



Today.. the last day of formal instruction.. it finally began to snow, but so lightly it was more like fairy dust than snow. Here is the complete damage:



Next week, as soon as finals are over - Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Some updates..

My Yonhap feature on Chi-young Kim (a truly great translator) is published: http://bit.ly/uXm20p

And today I got an award from LTI Korea for an essay I wrote about Kang Yong-sook's "Brown Tears." They gave me an Ipod Touch which I immediately donated to the lovely wife....

And vacation starts soon.....

After the Fallout, Fallen, I Fall for you...

I have a $500 job for Daesan Foundation (screening some translated fiction) that I need to finish. so it was quickly up to the Hyatt to spend 40 bucks on a green tea, coffee, and apple-crumble and then a walk over the hill to work. There is still a substantial amount of Fall in the air, and I had to stop and take a picture when I spotted an ajjumah who had dressed to accoutre the trees.



Then, as "Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding" came into the earbugs, I turned the corner on the Dongguk Tomb (of the unknown student?), where I stopped for a melancholy meditation on mortality.



But it got a bit cold, so I moved on (LOL - the earth is, as Sydney Smith once said, a coarse enough place).

Now, with Elton John (flashback!) pumping on the speakers, I'm trying to do some work.

Sort of failing.^^

Fall has Fallen - Shots from Namsan...

R I Famous Y3t?

LOL - just won 2nd or 3rd place (depending on whether or not the list is in alphabetical order) in the LTI Korea "Korean Literature English Essay Contest." The essay was on Kang Yong-sook's Brown Tears (despite what the page says), a really great story. LTI Korea doesn't allow deep linking, but the page looks like this: