I've gotten some messages from people I know, in the vein of "Are you OK?" recently, because of all the wacky threatening and counter-threatening that's been going on here in the Korean peninsula. A lot of people in North America or other distant places don't really understand just how "same as usual" this type of thing is. So just to reiterate: I'm fine.
I live exactly 10 miles, as a crow flies, from North Korea. I checked it out on google maps. But if I didn't look at the news, I'd never know there was a problem. It literally seems to have zero impact on my day-to-day life. If push comes to shove and things go crazy, they will probably go crazy really fast. But if that happens, I'll figure it's about the same as an earthquake or tornado or some other natural disaster. Most Koreans I know look at it that way: it's not something they can control, and it's just a hazard of living here. Just in exactly the same way that living in San Francisco means you have in the back of your mind that there might be a giant earthquake someday, or living in Oklahoma means you have to imagine there might be a tornado at some point.
I know I've written about this before. Probably exactly in the same way – This Here Blog Thingy™ is getting a bit long in tooth – in the blogular timescale of things – and so repetition may become inevitable. But anyway, don't worry. Unless you like to worry about earthquakes and tornados, too.
What I'm listening to right now.
Sixto Rodriguez, "Cause."