A Non-Post

I had some ideas for a post, but then blogger acted like an asshole, and i got into a couple of conversations, and now i would rather have a cup of tea. I will leave you all, dear readers, to anticipate what i might say tomorrow.

(it will not be as fascinating as the anticipation may lead you to believe)

Tell Me About Me

My Johari Window. Go and tell me what you think about me, in the interests of helping me gaze at my navel more effectively.

Another Weekend Passes. Same Same but Different.

It's been a slightly odd weekend. I went to Ladies' Night on Thursday with YunJin at the Loft. It was a slightly crazy night, with tons of people there that I knew. Bumped into Kevin and Todd, Val and Amanda, Alejandra and Daniel. We watched the DJ playing pool undefeated for some time. Then as the evening progressed, I ended up chatting with some Germans and getting them to teach me random phrases in German.



I didn't get much sleep and Friday was a looooooong day. In spite of that, I ended up going out Friday night. YunJin, Jason, Jason (R2J2), and I went to Outback for food first and then headed to Itaewon. Geckos was dead, but Tommy joined us there. R2J2 had an interesting moment when he suddenly fell out of his chair while on the phone. It suddenly occured to us that it was Club Night, so we decided to head along to Hongdae, where we ended up at Bricxx, chatting till 5am.

Although I had only had two drinks, the lack of sleep did me in and I slept all day Saturday. It was disorienting to wake up and find it dark. I hadn't a clue what day it might have even been at first, but I had merely slept for 12 hours. So, I futzed about on the internet for a couple of hours, ate my leftover Outback pasta, and got ready to go out for Julie's last night. It was also Halloween, of course, though I didn't dress up. We went to Margaritas, Bricxx for a hookah, and 66 before Julie decided it was time to head home. Tommy, YunJin, John, Laura and I headed to Itaewon and went to the Loft to dance and say hi to Val and the gang. Had a great time, danced on tables, etc. We went up to Poly's for a kettle (where I stole a couple of flowers from a stranger to put behind my ears) and then ended up in a cab on the way to Hongdae again, where we had samgypsal for breakfast as by then it was very much morning.

A taxi ride home and it should have been very much time for bed. Bizarrely I turned on the computer and ended up reading a bit before sleeping, so Sunday has largely been a repeat of Saturday, but with bacon and eggs instead of pasta. Fun, fun! I am now sitting around with reality tv on in the background and pondering the need to laundry and clean my apartment...

Now that I know how, the question that remains is when...

Your Personal Day of Death is...
Monday, July 3, 2056
Seconds left to live...

1,567,706,173

The Countdown begins!

Find out your own day of death here.

I love this book!

What horrible Edward Gorey Death will you die?

You will be sucked dry by a leech. I'd stay away from swimming holes, and stick to good old cement. Even if it does hurt like hell when your toe scrapes the bottom.
Take this quiz!








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A Very Intellectual Discussion

b: heya whatcha doin?
me: nothing
me: you?
b: nuffin
me: i am gonna make me a salad, i think
b: i think i'm gonna sit on my ass some more
b: i think this why my ass so flat
me: hmmm
me: is my ass flat?
me: is a concerning thought
b: wot put in salad?
me: mozza and tomato
b: mmmmmmmmmmm good call
b: how healthy of u
b: are you sure you want salad?
b: julie and i going to don day.
me: what are you proposing?
b: DON DAY
b: DON DAY
me: donday?
b: MMMM
b: DONDAY
b: FUCK YEAH
me: is what?
b: DON DAY
b: IS GOOOOOOD
me: what is it?????
b: it's meat
b: meeeeeeat
me: hmmmm.
me: i could do meat
b: ok! let's do meat!
me: i could meet you for meat
b: okokokookokokk meeeeeeeeeeat donday

and boats still have rivers and green still has grasses

A Child's Song For Adults
by Nguyen Trong Tao (1992)

there are dead forest branches still green inside me
there are those still alive who seem to have passed

there are answers that turn to questions
there are affairs that turn to marriages

there are fathers there are mothers there are orphans
and not all old moons must be round like platters

there is all the world and nowhere to live
there is passing happinness and immeausurable sadness

and boats still have rivers and green still has grasses
and life is still drunk and the soul full of winds

there is loving there is longing there is crying there is laughing
there are bats of an eyelid that last a thousand years

Via Anais.

Pass me the phone book stat...

... cause I need to call Jerry Springer. I swear to god, my life would now fit on his show.

But, the great thing is, none of it bothers me. I'm happy as a clam. I want the best for everyone involved. I hope they work things out. I hope we all end up insanely happy. I'll even go on Jerry and say so!

Je me sens bien dans ma peau!

FUUUUUUUUCK

One mosquito bit on the eyelid + an allergy to mosquito bites = no ability to open my eye for three hours!

Basically I woke up at 6am because my eye was throbbing and itching like crazy. Took 3 allergy pills at the same time (I know, I know, maybe not a great thing to overdose on them, but really, I had to do something!) and waited. Three hours later and many attempts to bathe my eye and I finally managed to open it.

The bonus of the whole experience? I was absolutely covered in itchy bites, they are just everywhere, and now none of them itch or are swollen. I guess that's what 3 pills worth of antihistamines will do for you. Yay for pharmacology.

Sushi Gangster Family and Other Weekend Adventures

I have three mosquito bites on my arse. I gotta keep it under the covers, obviously!

On Thursday I got a call from Grace, who invited Laura and I out for some good sushi just down the road, called Sushi Family. It was yummy and super fresh and cheap. We drank something a little like sake and shared with the chef. He kindly gave us tons of free sushi. A Korean guy at the end of the counter chatted with us, with Grace as our translator. He showed us his muscles and told us he was a gangster and that Bushie is a monkey and that he and the chef were family. So now Laura and I have joined a sushi gangster family. Bring it!

Friday night was a blast. Went to Hongdae, had drinks at TinPans and 66 while waiting for the whole gang to arrive (YunJin, Julie, Hanna, Laura, the Julie Brothers) and then we ate at the Sexy Pig. I don't know how I normally stand to eat all that unsexy meat... lol. Then we headed to TinPans 2, where we got to see some interesting wall dancing, and I hung out with an Australian in Insadong.

Saturday I ended up in Itaewon around 4. My original plans fell through, but I bumped into Val and we went for coffee. Then we bumped into some people she knew on the street and I ended up going out to dinner with them for someone's birthday at Thai Orchard. I saw Annie's roommate in his underwear within seconds of meeting him. I met two girls who knew YunJin's transexual, adoptee, belgian pal. I laughed a great deal. I ate good food. Then I met up with YunJin and had a couple of mojitos at Geckos, bumped into Lynne, headed to The Loft, detoured to Polly's Kettle, back to the Loft, danced enough to make the ankle sore, met a random guy who looks exactly like Steve from Sex in the City and just generally had a random but wonderful evening.

Sunday I headed to the Bookclub in Gangnam. We didn't talk too much about the books themselves, but then, I didn't have anything too insightful to say about either of them. I liked A Long Way Down and it was an easy read, but aside from being relieved that there wasn't a saccharine sweet ending and not finding the character of Maureen terribly convincing, I didn't get too much out of it. Nice read, not a keeper though. Haunted scared the shit out of me. It was like a horror movie in book form. It reminded me of the dynamics of reality tv. I became numb to all the chopping off of digits. I am glad to have read it and stuck with it to the end, but I didn't like it and again, no real deep thoughts as a result of reading it.

The bookclub members were interesting. I liked three of them very much. One 45 year old American expat was weird. He could win a freaky foreigner contest. He lectured me about going home now and starting a career, cause at my age I should be building for the future. It interested me that that's what he thought, though it was obvious that what he meant was that he shouldn't have spent the last ten years teaching in Asia. He is married to a Korean woman, though perhaps not for long, it sounds like, and is planning on returning to being a merchant seaman, and writes books apparently. After the meeting in the coffee shop, we went for dinner and then down to Kyobo to pick up the next book. I already own The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency and have already read it, so unless I can pick it up second hand I might just go with my memory of it. I did pick up two books (Blink, Freakonomics) cause really, is it possible for me to not buy a book in an English bookstore? Of course it isn't!

I didn't get back until 10ish and it was sheeting down rain, so I took a cab from Dangsan. Went over to see YunJin and ended up trying to learn the BoA Valencia dance... I wanna be able to do it in the clubs. It's hot, I tell you. Hot.

Today Mr. Joo had some sort of guests, which inspired the first cleaning of any kind at the school. It wasn't much cleaning though. I had to spend the whole day forcing the kids to quiet down, quite a pain.

I was thinking recently about how many ideas we accept from people we trust/admire without question. For example, my father says that he can't wear flip flops because he finds it uncomfortable to have things between his toes. I had always assumed I wouldn't like flip flops either and now I am deeply saddened that it is too cold for me to be able to wear them every day anymore. It's funny that I just accepted his opinion as my own and never once thought to challenge it. People say you get more closed minded as you get older, your values more set in stone. I find that weird, as in terms of my life, everything just keeps getting opened wider. I meet new people, learn new things, try new foods, see new mind-blowing sights, hear new music, read new ideas, hold new fascinating conversations... Life is fucking amazing. There is just so much out there. I want to see and do it all.

If you do, Mr. President, Please Aim Well...

lol

Laugh out loud at cats.

Indexed!

Who knew Index Cards could be so funny? Thanks to Lisa for the link.

Boribap and Colbert

It is yummy. I am not sure in the slightest if that is the right spelling or even the right word. But whatever. I had some rice and beans, some random veg, some tofu in yummy sauce. WooHoo!

And how come I had no idea that Stephen Colbert was so funny? I am out of the loop!

As for individual solutions...

Today's fun with a personal trainer was fine. It was a guy, it turns out, and not a lot was said due to our language barrier. Basically, my body fat percentage is too high (not a surprise) and is located in... Well, that was ackward for both of us-he said tummy but was staring at my boobs the whole time ;) I need to lose about 7-10 kilos, which is probably fair enough.

And then we got to the portion where he advised me on my workout. Now, in all fairness, there was no way for him to gauge my present fitness level or whatnot, as we couldn't chat about my sedintary lifestyle over the last 7-8 months. But I do believe that starting with an hour of cardio, 160 crunches, and a half hour of stretching might be a bit much in my first week back to the gym in ages, no? However, it is a lovely goal to work towards. I am actually all about doing an hour of cardio (on the elliptical only, hate treadmills like the devil) a day, as I only start getting runner's high at about 40 mins or so and I like to have time to enjoy the buzz. However, since I am not sure my stomach even has muscles, 160 crunches from day one might be a bit ambitious! I was also advised on how many calories I should be aiming for, which amused me. I came to a gym, so I must be dieting, right? I don't think so! I don't actually eat a whole lot, esp as I don't have time to at work, but I like food and I am not going to cut out things I like to eat. To hell with their calorie count! I don't mind trying to eat more fruit and veg, but I have no intention of cutting out things like full fat cheese. I like dairy and carbs, so fuck ditching them!

I got in a short workout after the session was over, only 15 mins and 40 crunches, before having to shower and go to work. Always fun to reintroduce myself to the joys of communal showers. Actually, it was fine, as no one was too blatant with the staring.

Work was work. New fun and excitement is that all kids with scores lower than 70% have to rewrite the tests. Can't have the parents see bad marks now, can we? More work for me, as I run around photocopying extra tests and giving them to Mr. Joo. Hopefully the threat of retests will convince the little bra... i mean, darlings, to study in the first place.

Systems

I commented on a bulletin board recently about an article talking about improving health by saying that even though we have systemic problems with achieving healthy living, most of the time we are only offered individual solutions. This article is a nice example of people finally looking for systemic solutions too.

In Cities, Healthful Living Through Fresher Shopping

By Amy Goldstein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 15, 2006

PHILADELPHIA -- When Larry Lawrence drops into ShopRite, he steers his shopping cart to the towering mounds of produce. "It is like I am being drawn," he said, "by the peaches and the plums and the bananas."

Lawrence, 57, has been eating more fruits and vegetables, and fresh fish, too, since the sprawling store opened five blocks from his house in Eastwick, an industrial swath of southwest Philadelphia that was chosen in the 1950s as the nation's largest urban renewal project. Now, Eastwick is one of the first sites of a new strategy for social change: a government campaign to bring supermarkets stocked with healthful food into neglected inner-city neighborhoods to improve public health.

The Pennsylvania Fresh Food Financing Initiative, leveraging $30 million in state money with $90 million in private funds, is the most ambitious of a spate of state and local projects around the country. They represent a different model for public nutrition programs, which have relied since the 1960s on federal subsidies, such as food stamps and WIC.

Healthful food is scarce in many inner-city neighborhoods, where much of the food comes from corner markets and greasy takeout places. Instead of subsidizing shoppers, the projects shift the emphasis to the private sector, offering coaching and financial inducements for grocers to go into areas they shunned for decades.

These initiatives grow out of new research exploring the relationship among proximity to fresh food, the nation's obesity epidemic and diseases such as diabetes that are affected by diet. "We tried to make the connection between grocery stores and public health," said R. Duane Perry, executive director of the Food Trust, a nonprofit group that, in a pioneering 2002 study, produced maps showing that low-income neighborhoods of Philadelphia with few or no supermarkets had high death rates from diet-related diseases.

A study in Chicago, released three months ago, measured the distance from every city block to the nearest grocery store and fast-food restaurant. It found that people in what it called Chicago's "food deserts" died early in greater numbers and had more diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure.

Such public health discoveries -- combined with an older view of supermarkets as tools of economic development -- have been spurring new policies around the country.

In the District, a mayor's commission on nutrition in July issued a study by a nonprofit group, D.C. Hunger Solutions, showing that obesity is highest in the city's two wards east of the Anacostia River, where poverty is greatest and access to grocery stores is worst. The D.C. government has worked to attract a Giant supermarket that opened last year in Columbia Heights and one being built in Congress Heights, but those efforts began years ago more out of a desire to revitalize the neighborhoods than to improve residents' eating habits.

Baltimore created a Supermarket Initiative in 2002 that has used city economic development funds to attract 19 stores so far. The California legislature passed a bill in August designed to give low-income residents discounts to buy fruits and vegetables -- and help mom-and-pop stores carry more fresh food.

Chicago's planning department held a "grocers' expo" in February for executives from supermarket chains across the Midwest, who were handed a book touting 50 spots in Chicago where stores are needed, plus financial incentives the city could offer. And the National Conference of State Legislators just brought lawmakers to Philadelphia from Louisiana, New Mexico and Michigan to learn how they might replicate the food-financing initiative.

Here in Philadelphia, the initiative's first two years have yielded a central lesson: Despite the fervor of politicians, civic groups, bankers and several grocers, creating successful supermarkets in poor city neighborhoods is hard. It is daunting to train workers, maintain security -- even to acquire enough land.

"The money, to be honest with you, was the easy part," said state Rep. Dwight Evans (D), the initiative's main political patron. "The toughest part is to make this work."

The Rev. Leon Sullivan, the renowned civil rights leader, developed Progress Plaza in North Philadelphia nearly 40 years ago as an example of black empowerment. For its first three decades, the shopping center was anchored by a series of grocery stores. The last one closed eight years ago, and now the only food available is Popeyes fried chicken. Nearby drugstores have added shelves of canned food and chips, but not produce.

Helen Love, 86, a widow and retired inspector for an electronics plant, is one of many original residents in the nearby townhouses of Yorktown, the model neighborhood for black residents that went up in the 1960s. Now, she and a friend, Marvella Lattimore, take turns every other week driving each other to a supermarket half an hour away. Love parks in a handicapped spot and is so tired when she gets home that, she said, "that's usually it for the day."

Across the street, Israel Edward, 74, who has stopped driving because of poor eyesight, takes the bus to Reading Terminal Market in Center City. "I only bring what my two arms can carry," he said. Next door, Doris Turner, 85, gets to a large grocery store about every two months, when a grandson in the National Guard can take her.

Evans, the legislator, lived near Yorktown as a young boy and remembers shopping at Best Market with his aunt Rosie. He remembers the race riots of 1964 along the street the supermarket was on, with nickels all over the ground from parking meters the looters had broken. And he remembers, in the few years after the violence, the disinvestment by white merchants.

So when the Food Trust's director brought him the maps of grocery stores and death rates, he understood their importance. As minority chairman of the Pennsylvania House Appropriations Committee, he has put $10 million in the state budget for the food initiative each of the past three years, requiring three times as much in private financing. The Food Trust helps with applications. The Reinvestment Fund, a nonprofit financing institution, has secured money from banks, screens applicants and awards the grants. The money can be used for marketing studies, land acquisition, environmental cleanup, city permits, construction, and help with worker training and store security.

So far, the fund has given grants for nine stores in Philadelphia and five elsewhere in the state. Most are for large, new supermarkets, but a few are helping corner stores expand or buy refrigeration equipment to carry more fresh food.

Not all succeed. A Shop 'N Bag opened in West Philadelphia in late 2004 and closed a year later -- a casualty of an inexperienced owner and delays in housing redevelopment that was to have generated customers, according to Evans and the Food Trust's Perry. And there have been snags. Fresh Grocer, which is to return a supermarket, at last, to Progress Plaza, was to have its opening this fall, but that will be delayed at least until late in 2007 -- the result of complications with permits and with renovations of the rest of the shopping center.

In an industry with typical profit margins of 1 to 2 percent, inner-city neighborhoods are "a far more complicated place to build your business," with higher costs and less demand for profitable luxury foods, said Jeffrey Brown, president of Brown's Super Stores, which owns the ShopRite in Eastwick. The store, near the Philadelphia airport, opened two years ago with help from a $5 million tax refund for capital investment and a $250,000 grant to train workers.

Brown's strategy here has been to align the business more closely with the neighbors than he does at his suburban stores. Before opening, he invited civic and religious leaders to lunch to talk over what they expected from the store. Working from scratch, his employees make sweet-potato pies and cakes, down-home potato salad, seafood cakes, and 100 other recipes catering to local tastes that he could not buy wholesale.

Brown conferred with the imams at local mosques about what foods meet Muslim residents' halal requirements. He has brought in a Western Union outlet for the neighborhood's Caribbean immigrants to wire remittances.

A community job bank has funneled 90 percent of the store's workers, many from families where steady jobs are unfamiliar, Brown said. He invited Maggie Powell, longtime president of the Eastwick Project Area Committee, to help teach new hires how to comport themselves at work. And when Powell's 39-year-old son was fatally shot in June, store managers took food trays to her house at no charge for three days.

In turn, Powell and local politicians helped to lobby the local utility company, Peco, after Brown was told the power could not be turned on in time for the store's grand opening. It was. Other problems prove harder to solve. When a manager catches a shoplifter, Brown said, the police say they are too busy with violent crime to come.

The store lost money in its first year, Brown said, but had a profit of close to 1 percent in its second.

The effect ShopRite and the other stores are having on nutrition is less well understood. Recent research, for example, that included rural, suburban and urban areas of a few states showed that black residents -- but not white ones -- had somewhat more healthful diets if they could buy fresh food nearby. A few months ago, Stephen Matthews, a sociologist at Pennsylvania State University, began a rigorous study in Philadelphia on whether the arrival of a supermarket changes the amount of fruits and vegetables people eat.

On a recent afternoon, Larry Lawrence, stopping in on his way home from work as a counselor for troubled boys, said: "I'm glad they moved in. There are two or three guys, all day long, putting out fresh stuff. Bananas. Strawberries."

Not all shoppers are attracted by the produce. "It's the sweet-potato cake. They don't have that at any other store," said Toinette Alexander.

Still, Brown, said, "we are doing $40,000, $50,000, $60,000 a week in fruits and vegetables. That is more fruits and vegetables than was happening before."

Urville: An Imaginary City & Weird Al

Video thanks to a link sent by Jenn.

And on a much less serious note, some Weird Al: You're Pitiful. Silly song thanks to Laura.

Loud Noise

Thunder? North Korean nuclear attack? Who knows?

I totally forgot to post about seeing B-boys in Dongdaemun on Sunday. They are soooooo cool. And hawt! How come I never see Korean boys like that in the clubs? Is there a secret B-boys club I don't know about? There was even a girl B-boy! I wanna be a B-boy too!

A Pandora's Box of Bullshit

Matt's extremely apt description of our new weekly staff meetings. Otherwise known as "killing time I don't have time to kill!"

Not much else happened today. Another 30 mins on the elliptical (my god I got out of shape in the last 7 months!) and another strawberry-blueberry smoothie. Tomorrow is the gym induction, where a skinny Korean girl will measure my body fat percentage (horrors!) and show me how to use scary machines. Fun!

I have got to finish Haunted soon. Have never been so freaked out and disturbed by a book in my life!

Another weekend post

I find I have very boring Saturdays...

Friday night Amber and I headed to Julie's to have some drinks and watch reality TV. Matt was there too. A good time. I went to go to bed at 3 and ended up talking to a friend in Iceland. Good fun, but left me sleeping in something fierce! All I got around to on Saturday was lots of reading (book club is under a week away and I've got 300 pages of the second book to read) and some cleaning. I really enjoyed A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby. Very amusing. I liked the lack of a happy ending, it would have been too sickly sweet.

Saturday night I was out with Julie and Amber, but didn't stay out late. Sunday was a blast. Went to lunch and then for some shopping with YunJin. I bought (surprise, surprise) some earrings and a rather expensive necklass. We had some coffee and ended up deciding to go to Dongdaemun to continue the shopping. I ended up with a shirt, but there wasn't really too much going on with the big sizes. I am saddened that Doota failed me! Not that I really need much in the way of clothes.

Then we went to HomePlus and finally signed up for the gym. I got a six month membership, as it makes it cheapish. It is pretty damn nice for a Korean gym, with free classes even. Though I'll probably end up doing a lot of elliptical as always! We went for the first time this morning and I took it easy, as it is 7 months since I was last at the gym. Just a half hour of elliptical and then a smoothie for breakfast. Yum.

However, I am now very, very tired. It isn't all the fault of the gym... See, the other bookclub book is Haunted by Chuck Palahnuik. It is like watching a horror movie for me, gave me nightmares! I tend to read before falling asleep, but I'll have to avoid that with this one! So, I didn't sleep terribly well and then got up early. YunJin is at my gym for the next 6 weeks, which is good. Hopefully by then I'll be so accustomed to going out of habit that I won't need a gym buddy to force me to get up in the mornings!

Not much went on at school. Got those damn homework lists finished, though it meant no time for prep. Boss wasn't around much, which makes life easier. We have another meeting tomorrow, once a week nowadays. Which is unfortunate, cause the meetings tend to put me in a bad mood.