Caveat: One Month Cancer-Free

Today is the one-month "anniversary" of my massive surgery, which was on July 4th. The tumor was removed, and so far no metastasis.

That means by the logic of our gregorian calendar, this day Sunday, August 4th, is the mensiversary (a real word) of my cancer-freedom. I have always had a strange fascination for the calendrical recyclings of dates and numbers, and I suspect this monthiversary (another real word, but much more etymologically abominable) will henceforth hold a deep meaning for me.

To celebrate, I woke up, ate nurungji and a large, fat Korean plum and coffee for breakfast, and stared at the internet for half an hour.

Caveat: What If Garfield Was Just a Figment of Jon’s Imagination?

Somebody’s already worked out the answer to that question, through the publication of “garfield minus garfield” – a re-rendition of Garfield comics with the cat removed.

I will not be the first to say that this seems brilliant.

Remember me when I am gone

Will anyone remember me when I’m gone?

The answer for the fictional Jon, at least, is an unqualified “yes.”

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Caveat: Los Güeyes Gangnam Stylin

I took my brother to Gangnam today. Somos los hermanos Güeyes (Ways, because of our family name, get it?), y fuimos gangnam stylin.

We ate tacos at a pretty good taco joint, called Dos Tacos, that I like to visit. I ordered fish tacos. Milestone: I ate spicy food for lunch. First time in 4 months.

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Amazingly, when I sat down, a poster from my hometown (more-or-less) was facing me.

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We went to the bookstore which caused me to spend money. Then we walked between raindrops in an afternoon rainstorm.

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We had some coffee at a very crowded cafe, and I showed Andrew the Korean Language hagwon where I studied Korean full-time back in 2010. Then he said, “I’d be open to going to a museum.”

Using my smartphone, I found the closest museum to where we were, and we went there. It was the “South Branch” (“남” = nam) of the Seoul Museum of Art. It was kind of small but the price was right (“free”) and it was not that amazing, but it had some interesting decorative art / interior design stuff. Pictures weren’t allowed inside.

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Here is a chair sculpture I saw outside, though.

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And I was looking through the columns of the lovely old pre-Japanese building (it was once the Belgian Embassy to Joseon Korea around 1900) at the sun.

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At home for dinner I had kimchi with some rice among other things. I’m almost back to my pre-horrible-symptoms (i.e. at least 4 months ago) eating capacity and range. This is pleasing.

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Caveat: Dichotomia; i.e. 이분법(二分法)에 대한 경계(警戒)

I don’t know why I feel the urge to try to understand such difficult things in Korean when I can still barely communicate my needs in a restaurant. I guess it’s just more interesting to me.

I was somewhat randomly poking around in my Korean-English Dictionary of Buddhist Terms and ran across this phrase:

이분법(二分法)에 대한 경계(警戒)
dichotomy-LOC face-PASTPART caution
I would translate this, roughly, as:

Beware of Dichotomies

Which is awesome, as it could be caveat dichotomia in Latin.

The context was an entry on 시비구불선 (是非俱不禪) on p. 645 of my dictionary – the mistake of meditating on right and wrong, more or less.

Here’s what the rest of the Korean says:
시비는 참선과 거리가 멀며,
right/wrong-TOPIC meditation-WITH distance be-far-WHILE
시비가 있는 곳엔
right/wrong-SUBJ have-PRESPART place-AT-TOPIC

진리가 있을 수 없다.
truth-SUBJ have-POSSIBLE-NOT
The English on the same entry isn’t really a translation – it’s its own thing:

Meditation has nothing to do with arguments: Where there is an argument about right or wrong, this and that, there is no wisdom or truth.

The gist is the same, but the detailed meaning seems widely variant.


Here is a random picture: the luminous November sky in Hongnong, 2010.

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