I had never heard of Justin Dart, Jr

If you haven't either, go here and find out a little bit about him.

Double Damn

I have lost my ability to sleep in. I woke up at 7.30 and again at 9.30, despite not going to bed until 2.30. I wanna sleep!!!

Memoirs of a Geisha

I just finished this, having borrowed it from Amber only on Friday, in a 200 page reading spurt this morning.

I did like it. The writing is often beautiful and the plot kept me interested. But it is also a book that made me uncomfortable.

This article does a better job than I ever would at articulating some of that discomfort.

Damn

And now I've gone and shown my patriarcical upbringing (not by mom and dad per se, but by society) by writing about a god as if it had to be a man. Damn it, isn't it enough that I ruined what would have been a lovely tomato sandwich???

Why is it...

... that I'm so fond of dot-dot-dot?

But seriously, why is it that my pepper shaker, when I add pepper to something that I will be mixing, managed to slowly and evenly dispense my pepper, but when I add pepper to a toasted tomato sandwich, disgorges half of the contents onto one tiny bit of sandwich?

In spite of years of an unshakeable atheism, I do believe there is a pepper god. And somehow, some way, I have seriously pissed him off.

It's official...

Okay, so I'm losing my break at work. This isn't a particularly big deal - I'm more than efficient enough to not need it. However, it comes at a time when I have discovered that the tests that are supposed to exist for a textbook I am teaching have disappeared. And guess who gets to rewrite them? Yours truly, of course. You know, it isn't even the writing of the tests. I mean, I'm a perfectionist/control freak, I love the idea of getting to do things my way. However, it annoys me that the school is so ridiculously unorganized. Perhaps it is the result of having worked in the business world, and temped especially, but people, you need to label computer folders in a way that people after you will be able to understand! And having a computer network (that isn't even presently working) that contains pictures of the girlfriend of a teacher from years ago is silly.

And to top it all off, the computers are always fucked. Always. Right now, the network doesn't work and one printer doesn't either. Which means we couldn't access anything on that computer. Except that we could, as it has a new CD writer, which could be used to transfer all the files to a computer with a working printer. And that did get done, but only after I pretty much threw a hissy fit and insisted it be done RIGHT NOW because we do, in fact, really need access to it. Not my calmest or most professional of days, but it certainly got the job done. And the boss seems to like me as much as ever. Not sure why, cause I can be pretty aggressive in terms of getting shit done, which isn't supposed to go over well in Korea. I did manage to burn off a lot of steam by cleaning out some random cupboards and finding some rather useful resources. The whole damn place justs needs one big reoganisation/ clean. And you all know I'll do it before I leave, cause shit like that just annoys me. Well, maybe not the actual cleaning. Though I did once clean our fridge with some Windex.

After my last break for the next three months, of yelling and cleaning, I had a class where I teach this story about a boy named Leon. His dad is away in the army and he is lonely. He has a pretend friend (imaginary my students don't seem to get) named Bob and then he makes a real friend named Bob. Which lead to me singing to my students (to the tune of Barbara Ann by the Beach Boys):

Bob, Bob, Bob, Bob, Bob the friend,
Bob, Bob, Bob, Bob, Bob the friend,
Bob, Bob, Bob, Bob, Bob the friend,
Bob the frieeeeeeend, he's not preteeeeeeend, Bob the friennnnnnd...
He's got me happy in a new town, happy in new town,
Bob, Bob, Bob, Bob, Bob the friend.

Yep, it's official, folks. Teaching is making me weird.

It's not just the Americans and the Brits!!!

On a student's notebook:

"Are you afraid of learning English? Don't worry, just speak English as loudly as you can. Here we go - Hi~!"

It's Monday, so it must be time for...

... a post about my weekend!

I guess that this is a high turnover time for Korea or something, cause a lot of people are having goodbye parties. Henry is heading back to California, so we got to have fun with him, his bro, and the gang generally. Met Laura in Itaewon for dinner at Geckos and then went to the usual haunts in Hongdae: 66 and Halaboogies.

Sunday was the same kind of lazy day as last weekend, with the same great company. Though at the end of it all, I had to head to Itaewon to put money on my phone, buy a phone card, and browse in a bookstore. Okay, I didn't HAVE to do that last one... Picked up two new books and a magazine.

The best news, of course, is that camp is OVER!!! Woohoo! Friday was cool. Today, what with sleeping in until 11am, was cooler. I love being back to my normal schedule. Please, January, don't come too soon!

There were some good things about camp. For that first week, the new classes with the kids who are overly well behaved cause they are a bit scared of the new teacher are fun cause they are so good! That doesn't last long, sadly. I liked teaching one of my textbooks, called Thoughts & Notions. I had never heard of the Marie Celeste or the Roanoke Settlement. I had no idea that Monarch butterflies were so cool: they migrate from north eastern parts of North America to Mexico, but it takes four generations to complete one round trip. I wanna know what caused the Tunguska Explosion. And while teaching the origin of postage stamps and inflation wasn't quite as fun, it was still nice to teach something other than fiction.

I am listening to the letter W on iTunes. There are a lot of songs called Wait!

Where the hell is matt?

I have a new life goal. I wanna dance like an idiot all over the world just like this guy!

Why I love living alone...

I am listening to Wake Me Up Before You GoGo and eating a plate of caulliflower smoothered in cheese whiz at ten minutes past midnight. And it fuckin' rocks!

I.AM.RADIOHEAD

Which British Band Are You?

I am Radiohead, in spite of the fact that I was too stupid to take the opportunity to see them playing in Thessaloniki, which would have been bloody amazing.

Amazon weirdness

So, basically, once I recalled Blueberry Pie, I wanted to see if I could find the album on CD. I would love to own it cause as a child I LOVED that song. This lead me to Amazon and I happened to look and see what I've got on my Wishlist. I do it every once in awhile to see if I've bought anything on it since or whatever. And bizarrely, I had listed Ecotopia by Ernest Callenbach, which I bought at Abbey's Bookstore in Itaewon a couple of months ago. When I bought it I would have sworn that I had never heard of it before, the title just caught my eye. But, apparently not!

Ten Songs Meme, from Frog

Ten songs starting with "B" - no Googling or iPod scrolling allowed. Include artist as well as title.

Wanna play? Comment and I'll give you a letter.

Banana Pancakes, Jack Johnson
Bridge Over Troubled Water, Simon and Garfunkel
Build Me Up Buttercup, The Foundations
Building a Mystery, Sarah McLaughlin
Blueberry Pie, Sesame Street record from my childhood
Bad Moon Rising, CCR
Better Together, Jack Johnson
Billie Jean, Michael Jackson
Blackbird, The Beatles
Baby Got Back, Sir Lancelot

For those with a sense of humour and a feminist bent

I found this a very amusing response to the stupid Forbes article on career women.

I've Been Tagged!

And it's the first time it's ever happened! And by someone really cool - Blue at the Gimp Parade.

Why do you blog?

I started off blogging because I had one friend whose blog I loved reading and I was working a temp job where I had nothing to do. I was so bored and figuring out how to set everything up gave me something to do. Also, since I live a long plane ride away from my family all the time, it seemed a nice way for them to keep up with my life. Which it is, but then they never email me with their news! Now, I blog just because I do. I am constantly thinking of things to blog about, as weird little things happen to me throughout the day. And partly, it replaces my travel journals - I still write in an actual journal sometimes, but not as prolifically as I used too.

How long have you been blogging?

April 7, 2004 was my first real post. I have older posts because I took old emails and turned them into posts from previous trips I took.

Self-portrait.

Taken with my webcam and conclusively proving I haven't the faintest clue about how to take pics with my webcam.





Why do readers read your blog?

Most of my readers (i think) are friends and family. And I'm guessing they read mostly because I'm such a lazy emailer! I wish I could say it was for my witty and intellectual banter, but I am the sort of person who blogs about socks and gum and stuff like that.

What was the last search phrase someone used to get to your site?

"pics" "new glasses" -male site:blogspot.com
calientes club itaewon
jjim
"temp agency" "series of tests"

(okay, so that wasn't just the last. but it made me curious about what sort of searches lead to me!)

Which of your entries unjustly gets too little attention?

The one about socks. Definitely. Cause those really were the most rockin' socks ever.

Your current favorite blog:

I love reading my friends' blogs to keep up with them and probably the most prolific are Greg and Sam. Aside from that, I've been keeping up with Avast!, The Gimp Parade, Frog Blog and The Ditsy Chronicles. I am slowly adding more blogs to my daily reading, but it takes me awhile.

What blog did you read most recently?

Ditsy. Cause it's damn funny.

Which feeds do you subscribe to?

I have just started trying out Bloglines. I am not sure what I think yet.

What four blogs are you tagging with this meme, and why?

Gregorian Rants, This is my Brain on Graduate School, Buntie, and Doctor in the Larval Stage. Because they were the first four people who came to mind.

Feel the English

Yoda-yoda-yay, yoda-yoda-yay, yoda-yoda-yoda-yoda-yay.

I have no idea if that is some Korean song my student Tom sings or what, but I have now become the Yoda teacher.

I'm gonna pick the kids up and spin their chairs around with the force the next time they misbehave.

Crack

Lotte Pink Peach gum is like crack. I am addicted. I chewed a whole pack last night, cause like all Korean gum, the flavour doesn't last long. Laura is just like a pusher, dammit!!!

I. AM. CANADIAN

I missed this one the first time round. My parents mailed me a newspaper clipping with the rant though, as I was living in Scotland. I must say that I do like it. And I love that my country's patriotism is largely based around beer ;)

Fragile

THIS WAY UP á

Amanda has fragile contents which may break!

Username:

From Go-Quiz.com

So true. I am sure life would be better if everyone kept this in mind when interacting with most people. That said, I am ridiculously easily hurt. I emotionally react to every little thing. Most of the time, I will never admit to these hurts, cause I am fully aware of how silly I would sound.

Bwhahahahahaha!

Snubster!!!