I finally went to visit the “63 building” over the weekend, on Sunday. It’s the tallest skyscraper in Seoul. It has 60 floors. The name “63” is because it has three levels of basement, too, making a total of 63 levels. It’s a shiny coppery-colored building right on the Han River. Here is a picture I took looking straight north from the building toward the old part of the city, in the distance in the notch between the mountains. Yongsan is in the right center, and the Mapo area is in the left center. And in the foreground is the wide Hangang.
Day: June 9, 2009
Caveat: A chaotic scattering of thoughts
I keep a collection of "blog ideas" that I go to when I can't think of something to write. But the list has been growing unmanageable, and most of these ideas seem destined to never go anywhere. So I'll throw a few of them out here. Random quotes and observations, I guess.
1. "Juche is the opaque core of North Korean national solipsism."– Bruce Cumings quoted by Philip Gourevitch in the Guardian, 2003-11-2. "National solipsism" has a nice ring, even as applied to the comparatively cosmopolitan south.
2. I wonder about this weird convergence of history, such that for the first time in 2 generations, the U.S. has a government farther to the left than either of its two main neighbors, Canada and Mexico. Currently the PANistas are running Mexico and appear to be closing in on a new party monopoly to replace the 70 year-long reign of the vaguely leftist PRI (at least, the PRI was rhetorically and theoretically leftist, if not always in practice), and the PAN is arguably farther right than even the US's Republicans, at least in traditional measures of conservatism. And the Conservatives are running Canada, under Harper. See also… Ignatieff v Grant (his uncle, the red tory)
3. "omgomg! my fans rock! the movie is doing great you guys! omg AND its all cause of you!!!! I LOVE U ALL! IF YOU HAVENT SEEN IT YET CHECK IT!," — Miley Cyrus, on the success of her new movie Hannah Montana (via Twitter). I'm glad I'm still not on the Twitter bandwagon. But, who knows…
4. "Crazy moms make crazy kids." — me, on the sometimes fraught interactions teachers must have with parents.
5. Mixotricha paradoxa… In addition it has spherical bacteria inside the cell; these endosymbionts function as mitochondria, which Mixotricha lacks. I knew that current theory says that mitochondria and chloroplasts arose as endosymbionts… but for some reason, I found this "halfway" adaptation that I discovered surfing wikipedia randomly one night rather fascinating.
6. Quotes from the TV series "Dead Like Me": "He's as dumb as a bag of hammers." — the character Dolores; and "Death is the one thing that always happens right on time." — the character George
7. Another reason why Rush Limbaugh lacks credibility: "Feminism was established so as to allow unattractive women easier access to the mainstream of society" — Rush Limbaugh, Aug 12, 2005.
8. El Kabong was just a persona of Quick Draw McGraw's. I didn't know that!
9. "There's a buzz to failing and not dying" — Stephen Colbert. True.