Category: Banalities & Journaling

Caveat: 구렁이 담 넘어가듯 한다

Background Noise / Banalities & Journaling / Not My Poetry / 한국말을 배움 (Failing to Learn Korean) / 한국어 속담 (Aphorisms & Proverbs)

I learned this aphorism from my book of aphorisms.

구렁이 담 넘어가듯 한다
gu.reong.i dam neom.eo.ga.deut han.da
snake wall go-over-AS-IF do-PRES
[He/she/it] acts like a snake going over a wall.

I think this must be more or less the same as English’s “Like a snake in the grass”: sneaky behavior, creeping up on on a situation unnoticed.
This makes me think of Bob Dylan’s old song, “Man Gave Names To All The Animals,” which is my favorite song from Dylan’s “Christian period.”
I would like to include a youtube embed of Dylan’s song, but Dylan is one of those performing artists who is VERY aggressive in his takedowns of his work online. I personally consider this reprehensible, and combined with his assholery around his recent Nobel prize, that’s why he’s gone down substantially in my estimation as a human being, if remaining high in my estimation of him as an artist.
What I’m listening to right now.

Townes Van Zandt, covering “Man Gave Names To All The Animals,” by Bob Dylan. It’s perhaps a better rendition than the original, anyway. But regardless, Dylan is an amazing lyricist: the ending of the song is poetically brilliant.
Lyrics.

Man gave names to all the animals
In the beginning, in the beginning
Man gave names to all the animals
In the beginning, long time ago.

He saw an animal that liked to growl
Big furry paws and he liked to howl
Great big furry back and furry hair
“Ah, think I’ll call it a bear”.

Man gave names to all the animals
In the beginning, in the beginning
Man gave names to all the animals
In the beginning, long time ago.

He saw an animal up on a hill
Chewing up so much grass until she was filled
He saw milk coming out but he didn’t know how
“Ah, think I’ll call it a cow”.

Man gave names to all the animals
In the beginning, in the beginning
Man gave names to all the animals
In the beginning, long time ago.

He saw an animal that liked to snort
Horns on his head and they weren’t too short
It looked like there wasn’t nothing that he couldn’t pull
“Ah, I’ll think I’ll call it a bull”.

Man gave names to all the animals
In the beginning, in the beginning
Man gave names to all the animals
In the beginning, long time ago.

He saw an animal leaving a muddy trail
Real dirty face and a curly tail
He wasn’t too small and he wasn’t too big
“Ah, think I’ll call it a pig”.

Man gave names to all the animals
In the beginning, in the beginning
Man gave names to all the animals
In the beginning, long time ago.

Next animal that he did meet
Had wool on his back and hooves on his feet
Eating grass on a mountainside so steep
“Ah, think I’ll call it a sheep”.

Man gave names to all the animals
In the beginning, in the beginning
Man gave names to all the animals
In the beginning, long time ago.

He saw an animal as smooth as glass
Slithering his way through the grass
Saw him disappear by a tree near a lake ….

[daily log: walking, 7km]

Caveat: Clowning around

Background Noise / Banalities & Journaling / Media (Texts/Music/Movies etc) / 한국말을 배움 (Failing to Learn Korean)

I guess clowns need love too.

뭘 지금 듣고있어요.

박겨애, "곡예사의 첫 사랑." Is this song really about a love affair with a clown? It seems to be. What is it with Korean culture and clowns? I haven't quite figured that out. I wonder if this song proves beyond question that the 1970s were weird in Korea, too? The performance is from 1987, but this artist's release of the song was popular in 1978. 박겨애 is not the original composer – I found a reference to 정민섭, and that he wrote this particular song in 1966, and that maybe (depending on my ability to figure out the Korean) it is in fact a reference to a Korean folk tale – which makes more sense than it being about a western-style clown. I think maybe the terms for traditional bard/jester type characters in Korean culture (i.e. 곡예사 or 어릿광대) have been somewhat conflated with the western "clown."

가사.

줄을 타며 행복했지 춤을 추면 신이 났지
손풍금을 울리면서 사랑노래 불렀었지
공굴리며 좋아했지 노래하면 즐거웠지
흰분칠에 빨간코로 사랑 얘기 들려줬지
영원히 사랑하자 맹세했었지
죽어도 변치말자 언약했었지
울어봐도 소용없고 후회해도 소용없는
어릿광대의 서글픈 사랑
줄을 타며 행복했지 춤을 추면 신이 났지
손풍금을 울리면서 사랑노래 불렀었지

영원히 사랑하자 맹세했었지
죽어도 변치말자 언약했었지
울어봐도 소용없고 후회해도 소용없는
어릿광대의 서글픈 사랑
공굴리며 좋아했지 노래하면 즐거웠지
흰분칠에 빨간코로 사랑 얘기 들려줬지

[daily log: walking, 7km]

Caveat: Bartleby, et al

Banalities & Journaling / Media (Texts/Music/Movies etc) / Philosophy & Cultural Criticism

I have been re-reading some Melville short stories. In college, during that brief period when I thought I was an English Major, I had a seminar on Melville in which we read many of these stories. This is the first time I have returned to them.

"Bartleby the Scrivener" is, of course, a famous and compelling story. Actually, I see it as a kind of case study of major (catatonic) depression, written avant la lettre so to speak. It's quite brilliant, and anticipates Kafka and 20th century nihilism too.

I was more interested in reading the diptych, "The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids." Many have observed that it is a kind of allegory on the theme of the incipient capitalist mode of production – although 'allegory' seems a strong word, as it is really just a fictionalized description of the way things work. What I was struck by, however, is that it's not necessarily about early capitalism, per se. It's just about capitalism – the parallels between the situation in the two scenes – the dining scene in London and the factory in New England – and, say, capitalism as it exists in modern China, are striking. There is also, in these parallels, the notable gender-based division of labor, which is an aspect worth thinking about. Why are most of the workers in sweatshops, whether in 19th century New England or 21st century Asia, women? This question clearly preoccupied Melville profoundly. Another aspect that struck me but that critics don't seem to frequently mention: what's with the emphasis on the "paleness" of everything, at the factory? Is this some kind of oblique, inverted reference to the situation of slavery, and its relationship in turn to 19th century emergent capitalism? I feel there must be an awareness there – the decade is 1850s – abolition was in the air. 

[daily log: walking, 7km]

Caveat: Maybe Because I’m Really Very Anti-Social

Banalities & Journaling / 한국말을 배움 (Failing to Learn Korean)

I had a sort of vague mini-epiphany today, as I walked to work.

There aren't that many foreigners working in the Hugok neighborhood, where I work. I have seen the same 5 or 6 foreigners (i.e. Westerners) from time to time, on the street. I even have some idea which of the many hagwon in the neighborhood they each work at. 

I have long realized I have strange tendency to avoid interacting with foreigners in Korea. Partly, in my own personal experience, I find many of them to be annoying people. Expat English teachers such as one runs into on the streets in Ilsan tend to either be wannabe hipsters suffering from incipient alcoholism and with a tendency to complain about everything, or else sufficiently "gone native" that they instead arouse feelings of jealousy in me that make it unpleasant for me to be around them. There aren't very many who fall in the gray area I have occupied for so long. 

Today as I walked to work I noticed one of these "Hugok foreigners" and found myself actually crossing the street to avoid meeting him on the sidewalk. He is definitely in the wannabe hipster category, and I have interacted with him once or twice – he strikes me as one of those people who refuses to make any concessions whatsoever to being a supposed professional in a foreign and relatively conservative culture: a half-dozen piercings, visible tattoos, a mop of oddly cut hair and ragged clothing. Yet he's clearly accepted at the hagwon where he works – I guess he must be doing something right, as he's been around for a few years. I don't begrudge him his success, but I don't really approve of his style.

Anyway, this is not the first time that I have intentionally avoided meeting a foreigner on the street, but I always just wrote it off to my general anti-social tendencies. Nevertheless, I had a sort of realization today. It's not just that I'm anti-social or that I don't like foreigners, despite being one myself. It's that I actually genuinely like living in a country where there is a large and permanent barrier preventing easy communication. I'm just simply that anti-social.

This thought, in turn, lead me to my mini-epiphany: perhaps I deliberately sabotage my Korean-learning efforts for precisely this same reason. If I became truly competent at speaking Korean, I'd have no excuse not to interact with the vast majority of the people I see each day.

That's a pretty damning insight. Do I need to go live on a mountainside somewhere?

[daily log: walking, 7.5km]

Caveat: Smashie O’Smasherson Jr is possibly the most powerful goldfish in all of history

Banalities & Journaling / Found Online / Science & SciFi

A conceptual artist named Neil Mendoza has created a combination of gadgetry and software that allows his pet goldfish, named Smashie O'Smasherson Jr, to interact with his surroundings with a robotic hammer. I'm not sure the fish is really in on the joke, but some stuff definitely gets smashed. Here is a link. I've embedded the video below.

Perhaps if several generations of goldfish were allowed to grow up in this environment, they'd evolve some interesting behaviors – I could imagine fish going on smashing rampages when hungry, for example.

Surely with technology like this, our future is bright.

[daily log: walking, 7km]

Caveat: 끌 수 없어

Background Noise / Banalities & Journaling / Found Online / Language & Linguistics / Media (Texts/Music/Movies etc) / 한국말을 배움 (Failing to Learn Korean)

A few days ago, I mentioned the popularity of “dance covers” in Korea. Then yesterday I ran across a very interesting case of cultural diffusion: apparently dance covers of Korean pop music videos are a popular thing in Latin America, especially Mexico. The idea of South Korea exercising cultural “soft power” in Mexico intrigues me, in part due to my longstanding interest in both countries, but also because it’s just so strange, from a broader historical perspective.
Here is a group of Mexican women from the city of Monterrey, doing an almost professional-level dance cover of the Korean group Blackpink’s song “Playing With Fire.” Note that they are even lipsyncing the half Korean half English lyrics. This seems remarkable to me.

Blackpink, “Playing With Fire,” dance cover by Joking Crew.
The original…. What I’m listening to right now.

블랙핑크, “불장난.”
가사.

우리 엄만 매일 내게 말했어
언제나 남자 조심하라고
사랑은 마치 불장난 같아서 다치니까 Eh
엄마 말이 꼭 맞을지도 몰라
널 보면 내 맘이 뜨겁게 달아올라
두려움보단 널 향한 끌림이 더 크니까 Eh
멈출 수 없는 이 떨림은
On and on and on
내 전부를 너란 세상에
다 던지고 싶어
Look at me look at me now
이렇게 넌 날 애태우고 있잖아
끌 수 없어
우리 사랑은 불장난
My love is on fire
Now burn baby burn
불장난
My love is on fire
So don’t play with me boy
불장난
Oh no 난 이미 멀리 와버렸는걸
어느새 이 모든 게 장난이 아닌 걸
사랑이란 빨간 불씨
불어라 바람 더 커져가는 불길
이게 약인지 독인지 우리 엄마도 몰라
내 맘 도둑인데 왜 경찰도 몰라
불 붙은 내 심장에 더 부어라 너란 기름
kiss him will I diss him I
don’t know but I miss him
중독을 넘어선 이 사랑은 crack
내 심장의 색깔은 black
멈출 수 없는 이 떨림은
On and on and on
내 전부를 너란 불길 속으로
던지고 싶어
Look at me look at me now
이렇게 넌 날 애태우고 있잖아
끌 수 없어
우리 사랑은 불장난
My love is on fire
Now burn baby burn
불장난
My love is on fire
So don’t play with me boy
불장난
걷잡을 수가 없는 걸
너무나 빨리 퍼져 가는 이 불길
이런 날 멈추지 마
이 사랑이 오늘 밤을 태워버리게
whooo

[daily log: walking, 7km]

Caveat: Swooning

Background Noise / Banalities & Journaling / Kids / Media (Texts/Music/Movies etc) / Teaching & Methodology / The Wonders of Work

My middle school HS1T cohort happens to be populated by only girls. Sometimes these coincidences arise – there is another middle school cohort, that I don't teach, that is all boys.

Last night they were all giggly and distracted, talking about Idols, I guess – "Idols" means kpop music stars of various types. I got grumpy and serious. I yelled loudly and made them quiet down and we worked very productively and with great focus on some TOEFL-style speaking questions. I was pleased enough that during the last 15 minutes of class, I asked them what they wanted to do. Normally they ask to play a game – card games are currently popular.

This time, however, they wanted to watch music videos. I am somewhat hesitant to turn over control of the internet to my students – it ends up being hard to find anything pedagogically redeeming. So I said if we watched videos they had to be in English. One girl said she knew just the one. I guess there is an "American Idol" style competition show where these boys are competing to become a typical kpop "boy band." They danced and lip-synced to several songs in English.

The girls didn't really listen to the music – I'm not sure they're even interested in the music. They were focused on swooning over their various favorites of the boys in the video, discussing fine points of their appearance and personalities. One girl said about her particular favorite, "I don't actually like him, but he's too handsome."

The boys are just lip-syncing – the show seems to be more a dance and beauty competition than a singing competition. That's in line with what these typical over-produced kpop groups do. They very rarely are involved in making the actual music involved – they're just a performance medium. So in the cases the girls were looking at, these are American pop songs.

In general, "dance covers" are a HUGE thing in Korean youth culture. They're all over the internet, and I have more than once come across kids literally dancing in the halls (both boys and girls), very clearly practicing moves related to one or another of these types of covers.

What I'm listening to right now.

프로듀스 101 시즌2, "Shape Of You." I think this song is originally by Ed Sheehan.

Lyrics (abbreviated as performed on Produce 101).

The club isn't the best place to find a lover
So the bar is where i go
Me and my friends at the table doing shots
Drinking fast and then we talk slow
And you come over and start up a conversation
With Just me and trust me
I'll give it a chance
Now take my hand stop
Put van the man on the jukebox
And then we start to dance
And now I'm singing like
Girl you know I want your love
Your love was handmade for somebody like me
Come on now follow my lead
I may be crazy
Don't mind me
Say boy let's not
talk too much
Grab on my waist and put that body on me
Come on now follow my lead
Come on come on now follow my lead
I'm in love with your body
(Shape of you)
Every day discovering something brand new
I'm in love with the shape of you
(Shape of you)
Every day discovering something brand new
I'm in love with the shape of you
Come on be my baby come on

프로듀스 101 시즌2, "Get Ugly." This song is originally by Jason Derulo

Lyrics (full lyrics, I think they're performing only a part of these on Produce 101)

Girl, ladies, let your hurr down
Let your hurr down
We's about to get down

Oh my, oh my, oh my god
This girl straight and this girl not
Tipsy off that peach Ciroc
Like la la la
Ching-a-lang-lang, ching-a-ling-a-lang-lang
Jeans so tight I could see loose change
Do your thang, thang, girl
Do that thang like la la la

Tell them pretty faced girls tryna grabs each other
And them undercover freaks who ain't nun' but trouble
Baby, I'mma tell you some' only 'cause I love ya
People all around the world sexy motherfuckers

Get ugly
Yeah, get ugly, baby
Get ugly
You're too sexy to me
Sexy to me
You're too sexy to me
Sexy to me
So sexy
Damn, that's ugly

Bruh, I can't, I can't even lie
I'm about to be that guy
Someone else gon' have to try me
La la la
Bang-a-rang-rang, bang-a-ring-a-rang-rang
Bass in the trunk, vibrate that thang
Do your thang, thang, girl
Do that thang like la la la

Tell them pretty faced girls tryna grabs each other
And them undercover freaks who ain't nun' but trouble
Baby, I'mma tell you some' only 'cause I love ya
People all around the world sexy motherfuckers

Get ugly
Get ugly, baby, woo hoo
And everybody say la la la
Get ugly
You're too sexy to me
Sexy to me
You're too sexy to me
Sexy to me
So sexy
Damn, that's ugly

Ay, Ricky
This beat give me that ugly face, man
Everybody lose control
Let's get ugly, dysfunctional
Everybody lose control
Let's get ugly, dysfunctional

Tell them pretty faced girls tryna grabs each other
And them undercover freaks who ain't nun' but trouble
Baby, I'mma tell you some' only 'cause I love ya
People all around the world sexy motherfuckers

Light them up then pass that, pass that
La la la
Everybody lose control
Let's get ugly, dysfunctional
Get ugly
You know what I'm talking about
You're too sexy to me
Sexy to me
You're too sexy to me
Sexy to me
So sexy
Damn, that's ugly

[daily log: walking, 7km]

Caveat: Hierarchy of Needs

Banalities & Journaling / Kids / Teaching & Methodology / The Wonders of Work

Here is another incident in the seemingly growing category of “7th graders making unnecessary random announcements.”
It was a few days ago.
I think we were talking about parables and allegories. Completely out of the blue, Sally’s hand shot up, and, before I could even acknowledge her desire to speak, she said, “Teacher! I don’t need a boyfriend.”
“Well… good,” I responded, cautiously. Then I asked, “Why are you telling me now?”
If there had been some boy in the class, just then, pestering her in some way, I could almost have seen it as a kind of oblique comment intended to discourage that kind of thing, but in the event, there were only 3 girls in the classroom just then.
Sally shrugged. “It’s important information.”
Another girl, Michelle, nodded knowingly. I suspect this was just the conclusion to some discussion between the two girls that had been proceeding in Korean some time earlier.
In fact, the more I think about it, the more I think that many of these inexplicable “announcements” made by students are most likely much more explicable to their peers, who are in a different, broader social context – the kids have their ongoing, not-during-class interactions, mostly in Korean, with each other. I should feel that it represents a kind of success in language teaching, that they choose to “code switch” into English to express these off-topic thoughts.
Regardless, as the clueless adult in the room, they are often mildly entertaining.
picture[daily log: walking, 7km]

Caveat: Unexpected Memorial

Banalities & Journaling

Yesterday, as I was leaving work, I said somewhat in passing that there was a certain thing I would work on tomorrow. A coworker expressed surprise that I would be working, and I, in turn, was surprised at her surprise. 

The outcome is that today is a holiday, and somehow this had completely escaped my notice. I knew that it was what they call a "red day" in Korean – because these types of official government-sanctioned holidays are always marked red on calendars. But I had been under the impression that there had been some kind of compensation such that a day off at some other point was being counterbalanced by a plan to open the hagwon today. I had been mistaken. 

I suppose I was quite close to missing the information completely, and going in to work. That happened to me once. 

Anyway, it didn't happen this time, and so I'm enjoying the unexpected holiday. What is the holiday? Korean "Memorial Day" – which is possibly the Korean holiday most similar to its US counterpart, in how it's celebrated (somber ceremonies at cemeteries, many flags, but mostly picnics and hanging out).

[daily log: walking, 1.5km]

Caveat: Exploring the Sky of Stone

Banalities & Journaling / Science & SciFi

Sometimes some strange new germ of a story idea occurs to me, and I feel fairly certain I won't actually write that story. In such events, I think maybe the best thing to do is to publish the idea on this here blog thingy and maybe someday, someone else might decide it's an interesting idea.

I was thinking about the interior of the Earth. The Earth's core has a solid inner part, and liquid outer part. The boundary is a kind of surface of crystallization, expanding gradually outward at a rate of a millimeter a year or some such tiny amount, as the Earth's core cools. Not that it's cool, in there. The liquid is mostly iron and nickel, with dissolved lighter elements: sulfur, calcium, oxygen. The idea that oxygen is included got me to wondering: could some type of chemo/thermophilic lifeform emerge in such an environment?

It wouldn't be carbon-based, or even silicon-based. Iron-based, maybe? Is that chemically plausible? I don't know enough about it. But I also thought back to a book, Dragon's Egg, by physicist Robert L. Forward. It's science fiction, but it's quite "hard" science fiction, in that he's worked out the physics of the emergence of intelligent life on the surface of neutron star. It's a rather interesting book.

Anyway, couldn't a similar treatment be applied to some core-dwelling lifeform, evolving intelligence over a billion years or so down there in the deeps, in a soup of liquid metal. And maybe their main sensory systems are based on magnetism (which makes sense in an iron-based environment, maybe). And these creatures start exploring upwards… building rivers of "breathable" molten iron upwards through their sky of stone. Until they arrive on our surface and meet us – dwellers of the outermost atmosphere, frozen beings made of puffs of something less than air, from their perspective.

What kind of close encounter might that be? 

[daily log: walking, 7.5km]

Caveat: Snow-water

Banalities & Journaling / The Wonders of Work

In the wake of last week's talent show, we had some "market day / game day" events with the elementary students this week. Yesterday, I was with our relatively small and not terribly talented Tuesday/Thursday cohort, and we were playing a "picture game" that is popular with the kids – it's a bit like charades, but instead of acting, you draw a picture on the whiteboard, they have to guess the word. The vocabulary involved can be as simple or complex as necessary for the given group. This group can handle "dog" and "television" but not "parachute" or "tears."

It was this last word that led to a kind of entertaining result. A student drew a face with tears on the board, with a little arrow to a tear drop. It was a respectable representation. I knew the kids knew what it should be, because they were saying it in Korean. But they lacked the word in English. The word "tears" was simply not part of their vocabulary.

One kid got innovative, though. The Korean for tears is "눈물" [nun.mul, literally "eye-water"]. But the first element, "눈" [nun "eye"], is a homonym in Korean: "눈" [nun] also means "snow." So when I rejected "eye water" as unacceptable as a possible word meaning "tears," he tried "snow water," grinning triumphantly at his cleverness. Unfortunately, puns don't translate.

For some reason, this seemed quite funny and poetic at the same time.

I'm sure this pun has been quite productive over the years in Korean symbolism and poetry.

Crying our snow water… 

[daily log: walking, 7km]

Caveat: Unarmed

Banalities & Journaling / Kids / The Wonders of Work

A few days ago, my oldest surviving Minneapolitan Rainbow Monkey underwent a traumatic experience. Two kids were fighting over the monkey. He fell on the floor. I stepped in (literally), by placing my foot on the monkey, and told them, stop fighting over the monkey. The kids were adamant, however. One boy, Jack, tugged on one of the monkey's arms. I pressed harder with my foot. A diminutive girl named Amy tugged on another of the monkey's arms.

Suddenly, the arm ripped off. She staggered back, and held up the arm, looking stunned. I think she thought I would be angry. I was a bit annoyed, but this seemed like an inevitable consequence the monkey had long managed to avoid through sheer luck.

"Oh my god," I said, in surprise. "My monkey! You broke my monkey."

"I didn't do it," she protested, with a disarming grin.

"You both did it," I asserted. "I helped, too, I guess," I added, stooping to retrieve the remainder of the monkey from under my shoe.

I took the arm, and used an alligator clip (a "binder clip") to attach the arm, ad hoc, to the monkey's shoulder area. I held him up for the class. "Look! Still smiling! What a crazy monkey."

picture

The kids laughed, probably relieved that I wasn't angry.

When I told the teachers in the staff room, later, they were angry. "How can you let kids behave like that?"

"They're just kids," I said. "The monkey seems to be OK."

At right: a picture of my monkey, awaiting surgery (aka needle and thread). He's almost 5 years old – I think he's held up pretty well.

[daily log: walking, 7km]

Caveat: and, but no

Banalities & Journaling / Found Online / Internet & Blogging / Language & Linguistics / Quotable

This made me laugh, quite a bit.

First they came for the verbs, and I said nothing, because verbing weirds language
Then they arrival for the nouns, and I speech nothing, because no verbs
Then they for the descriptive, and I silent because verbless and nounless
Then they for me, and, but no

This very humorous bit of linguistics-based humor has been circulating on the internets. Attribution is vague – the best I could find with google is an attribution of the first two lines to Peter Ellis (whoever that is). I first ran across it mentioned the All Things Linguistic blog, and that links to another tumblr page (tumblr is a kind of social media "lite" blogging host – in fact, the All Things Linguistic blog is in that medium, but I guess its settings are more blog-like and less social-media-like). Finding attribution on tumblr is like jumping down a rabbit hole, and without an active tumblr account mostly I get bombarded with requests to sign up, and I'm not interested in going there. So if whoever actually made this up finds this here without attribution, please don't get upset – I did my best.

[daily log: walking, 7km]

Caveat: A Normal Person

Banalities & Journaling / Kids / The Wonders of Work

Justin, a seventh-grader, made a rather random, unmotivated announcement today in class. He raised his hand.

Justin: I'm a normal person.

Teacher: Really?

Justin: Yes, I am.

Teacher: Why do you say that?

Justin: I have ten fingers, two hands, two feet, one head. 

Teacher: That's good.

Justin just grinned.

Annie, sitting in the front of the class, looked back at Justin, and back at me, and shook her head, rolling her eyes – but she refrained from commenting. I had no idea why he felt the need for this conversation, but you take what you can get, right?

[daily log: walking, 7km]

Caveat: Glorious Days of the Internet, Episode 235,654,534

Banalities & Journaling / Internet & Blogging / The Wonders of Work

The scene and the problem:

We are doing last-minute prep for our talent show. Grace is doing some stage practicing with a group of her students, and she tells me, "I really need a fart sound for this play."

The play she's doing, the "Farting Lady," is a Korean classic tale adapted to grade-school EF, with songs, too. I may have mentioned it before on this blog – it's a perennial favorite of Korean students, because they know the story already, and because elementary children have fundamentally scatalogical senses of humor.

I can't use my laptop, because it's been repurposed as the main computer for all the projections, sound and powerpoint slides for the show. 

The solution:

So I take my little USB memory stick and I go to one of the computers in the computer lab. I go to google, and I type in "free download fart sounds." I have a plethora of choices. First choice, try out some sounds, and download a half dozen.

I save them onto my USB, and return to the seminar room where Grace is practicing. I hand her the USB. "The internet is a great thing," I say.

"It is," she agrees, as she tries out the files, to the entertained giggles of 15 or so elementary kids.

[daily log: walking, 7km]

Caveat: Mars ain’t the kind of place to raise your kids

Background Noise / Banalities & Journaling / Media (Texts/Music/Movies etc) / Not My Poetry / The Wonders of Work

Today is our big day, the annual Karma English Academy talent show. As is typical, I feel utterly unprepared. But thus it goes – that's life in the Karmic Korean Kingdom of Chaotic Quasi-Confucian Contingency.

Meanwhile, what I'm listening to right now.

Elton John, "Rocket Man." The video is brand new, but has been declared "official." I found the video, by Iranian refugee Majid Adin, quite stunningly beautiful and sad, and it manages to take a melancholic, classic song almost half a century old, now, like John's "Rocket Man," and imbue it with intense new meaning vis-a-vis the contemporary, never-ending global refugee crisis.

Lyrics.

She packed my bags last night pre-flight
Zero hour nine AM
And I'm gonna be high as a kite by then
I miss the earth so much I miss my wife
It's lonely out in space
On such a timeless flight

And I think it's gonna be a long long time
'Till touch down brings me round again to find
I'm not the man they think I am at home
Oh no no no I'm a rocket man
Rocket man burning out his fuse up here alone

And I think it's gonna be a long long time
'Till touch down brings me round again to find
I'm not the man they think I am at home
Oh no no no I'm a rocket man
Rocket man burning out his fuse up here alone

Mars ain't the kind of place to raise your kids
In fact it's cold as hell
And there's no one there to raise them if you did
And all this science I don't understand
It's just my job five days a week
A rocket man, a rocket man

And I think it's gonna be a long long time
'Till touch down brings me round again to find
I'm not the man they think I am at home
Oh no no no I'm a rocket man
Rocket man burning out his fuse up here alone

And I think it's gonna be a long long time
'Till touch down brings me round again to find
I'm not the man they think I am at home
Oh no no no I'm a rocket man
Rocket man burning out his fuse up here alone

And I think it's gonna be a long long time
And I think it's gonna be a long long time
And I think it's gonna be a long long time
And I think it's gonna be a long long time
And I think it's gonna be a long long time
And I think it's gonna be a long long time
And I think it's gonna be a long long time
And I think it's gonna be a long long time

[daily log: walking, 7.5km]

Caveat: Quatrains #109-111

A Daily Poem / Ballad / Banalities & Journaling / Book 1 / Kids / My Poetry & Fiction / The Wonders of Work

(Poem #297 on new numbering scheme)

Three simple songs were sung among
the faces going by.
I knew these songs in passing, then,
though all the years did fly.
A song of patient worrying
came first, a princess true.
The second song had deep kindness,
but understandings, few.
The third song had the boldest heart,
but passions rather wild.
These songs departed. But today,
a song returned... and smiled.

– three quatrains in ballad meter. This poem is not just a hallucination or metaphor, unlike as is the normal case with most of my poetry. Rather, it has a fairly important and specific subtext, which will make the meaning quite clear.

Caveat: The Karma Professor Explains the Mpemba Effect

Banalities & Journaling / Science & SciFi / Teaching & Methodology / The Wonders of Work

I had a class last night with my highest-level students, the TOEFL 8th graders, that was close to an ideal type of class, in my opinion.

Nominally, we were working on the TOEFL speaking questions. But before class, one of the students, Sumin, had asked me if I knew anything about the "Mpemba Effect" (see wikipedia – I'll not try to replicate the explanation found there). She had to make a speech about it, in Korean, for her Korean-language class. In researching it online, she'd found more materials in English than Korean, and, being an ambitious and motivated English student, she decided these were legitimate sources for putting together her speech. She was checking with me mostly to make sure she understood some of the technical aspects and the fairly specialized vocabulary of chemistry and physics involved. 

So we carried on our conversation about it into the start of class. The other students overheard and were curious, and so I started explaining. And then I said, "Actually, this is exactly the kind of topic that they put into a Type 6 TOEFL speaking question." You listen to some complicated lecture on a difficult topic, and then you have to summarize.

Somewhat jokingly, I asked them if they wanted to do a speaking question practice on the Mpemba Effect. To my surprise, they were enthusiastic about this idea. So I pulled up the wikipedia article, scanned through it to make sure I understood it, and then proceeded to give a 10 minute lecture, more or less, on the Mpemba Effect. This included digressions to explain concepts such as convection, insulation, dissolved gases, crystallization and "seeding" crystals (i.e. catalysts), and several other things that occurred to me. Then their job was to give a one minute summary, in the TOEFL style, of my lecture.

In his summary, David even included the expression, "The Karma professor explains…," a joking reference to my sometimes being identified by both students and coworkers as a "professor." It's a moniker that seems to follow me regardless of career. 

The class was ideal. We covered what we needed to cover – which is to say, we did TOEFL speaking practice on a particular instance of what are always essentially random topics. Yet the students themselves selected the topic, out of interest, and they more or less led the class in terms of what was expected of them. I was just a kind of resource, an on-call "professor" that they could hit "play" on for various aspects of the topic in question.

[daily log: walking, 7km]

Caveat: wasting something

Background Noise / Banalities & Journaling / Philosophy & Cultural Criticism

Sometimes I think about economics and philosophy, but I don't make much progress.

I have some thoughts about what you might term a "marxian analysis" of the modern post-manufacturing economy, and about what, exactly, the tech behemoths like google, facebook, etc., are doing, in the "modes of production" sense. These companies seem to traffic in the commodification not of products but rather the commodification of wants and needs for other commodities. This is a kind of "meta-commodification," where instead of exploiting consumer desires in order to generate surpluses, instead they operate entirely within the streams of surpluses, manufacturing consumer desires which they can sell to others to exploit. It's really a logical step in the succession of the economic modes of production, when viewed this way, just as credit is a logical extension of money, which is in turn a logical extension of exchange. But it seems to be something genuinely different from what came before, and certainly it is not classically marxian.

Having said all that, these thoughts seem to be merely a kind of epiphanic brainstorm, and thus I have nothing of substance to report.

So then I just have to post some song or something, instead, which likely is only related to the preceding if you're really good at apophenia.

What I'm listening to right now.

Cassadee Pope, "Wasting All These Tears."

Lyrics

I tried to find you at the bottom of a bottle
Laying down on the bathroom floor
My loneliness was a rattle in the windows
You said you don't want me anymore

And you left me
Standing on a corner crying,
Feeling like a fool for trying
I don't even remember
Why I'm wasting all these tears on you
I wish I could erase our memory
Cause you didn't give a damn about me
Oh, finally I'm through
Wasting all these tears on you
These tears on you

You ain't worth another sleepless night
And I'll do everything I gotta do to get you off my mind
Cause what you wanted I couldn't get
What you did, boy I'll never forget

And you left me
Standing on a corner crying
Feeling like a fool for trying
I don't even remember
Why I'm wasting all these tears on you
I wish I could erase our memory
Cause you didn't give a damn about me
Oh, finally I'm through
Wasting all these tears on you
These tears on you

And you left me
Standing on a corner crying
Feeling like a fool for trying
I don't even remember
Why I'm wasting all these tears on you
I wish I could erase our memory
Cause you didn't give a damn about me
Oh finally I'm through
Wasting all these tears on you
Oh these tears on you

I tried to find you at the bottom of a bottle
Laying down on the bathroom floor

[daily log: walking, 7km]

Caveat: oh, the nerves I’ve lost

Banalities & Journaling / Cancer

These days, I can sometimes go for several days almost forgetting my massive cancer trauma. Yesterday was not such a day, however. I had two reminders of the changes that that experience wrought on my body.

At work, with my youngest cohort (1st – 3rd grade elementary), we were crafting robot heads with cardboard and colored paper, and thus I was wrangling cardboard with scissors. As some of you might know, I have some missing sensory nerves in my right hand – when they took out the pieces of my wrist and forearm to use for my tongue reconstruction, that included the loss of some nerves. I have full motor functionality – the motor nerves weren't touched – but I have numb spots running down my right arm to the tip of the outside of my thumb: zero sensation.

I managed to stab myself with the scissors on one of those numb areas on the back of my thumb, and simply didn't notice. One of the students noticed, when I dripped blood on her project. It was quite alarming, at least for the kids, for a moment, until I got some tissues and a band-aid.

It wasn't really a terrible gash, but it was a bit disconcerting. There was no sensation of pain at all – it's like the area is under permanent local anaesthetic. This is one of the fairly minor risks or side effects of the nerve loss, and I think, except for some small nicks while shaving (from the similar numb area on the left side of my face), it's the first time I've had that issue. Then I had it again.

Last night when I came home, I was eating and I managed to bite the inside of my mouth (also entirely numb in some parts on the left side), and drew blood, but only noticed when I tasted the salt. I suppose it's good that of all the tastes I've lost from my tongue, salt is the one I retained.

So it was a day when I deeply missed the nerves I've lost.

Which isn't to say I lost my nerve.

[daily log: walking, 6.5km]

Caveat: Swinging Through Dreams

Banalities & Journaling / Life is a Dream

I have been sleeping badly, in recent days. 

On Sunday, I woke up too early but then took a mid-morning nap. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't. When it works, I often have very strange dreams.

I was on an amusement park ride, a kind of swinging thing, where you swing in parabolic patterns, I guess. Moments of freefall at the ends of the swing arcs. And it was indoors, and I was on the ride alone – no one else was there. But there was no sense that I was trapped, exactly. It's just what I was doing. And somebody was reading some bit of philosophy-type text, over a low-quality loudspeaker. I was having a hard time understanding it, as I swung down… up, to the top of an arc, feeling the pit of my stomach drop… and down… whoosh, and up again. Like that.

Not much of a plot – but that was the dream. Quite vivid, anyway.

Work is really feeling demanding, lately. We have our annual hagwon talent show coming up, which involves extra prep. 

[daily log: walking, 6.5km]

Caveat: Subway Odysseys, Subway Ajeossis

Banalities & Journaling / Hiking & Travel

I took a very long subway journey, on Saturday.

I left work, at about one pm, and walked to Ilsan Station, which I rarely visit although it's close by, and took the Gyeongui Line (the old commuter line, upgraded to subway system) into Seoul. I have vivid memories of this same "Ilsan Station" when it was just a wooden shack selling tickets next to a pair of railroad tracks, in 1991. I think I waited there for one of the old style commuter trains (diesel locomotives with wooden passenger cars) several times, when on a day leave from my Army installation a few kilometers north at Camp Edwards.

I took this picture of the new station against the slate gray sky. The political banner in the lower right is a "Thank you note" from the winning candidate in the recent presidential election. Do US politicians put out thank you notes? I don't remember. It seems like a very Korean thing.

picture

I had promised to meet my friend Seungbae, who currently lives in San Diego, California (for his work), but who is back in Seoul for one of his periodic visits home, when he gets to see his wife (who doesn't travel with him, because she has her own job).  His apartment in Seoul is on the eastern edge of the metropolis, beyond the last, easternmost station on the subway's Line 5 (Sangildong). I live in the far northwest of the metropolis, not far from the westernmost station on Line 3. The Gyeongui line (un-numbered) stretches even farther northwest, basically right to the DMZ and the North Korean border. 

Since I was going to meet Seungbae at 5 pm, I transferred to Line 5 but got off downtown, at Gwanghwamun, to stop at the bookstore, because I only needed about 2 hours for the subway journey, so I had an extra 2 hours. I took this picture of Admiral Yi's statue and Bukhansan, the mountains that lurk just north of downtown Seoul. The slate gray sky had turned darker, and just after I took this picture it began pouring rain with an almost monsoonal quality – it's too early for the monsoon, so this was a bit unseasonal.

picture

After my time at the bookstore, I got back on line 5 and went the rest of the way to Sangildong, and met my friend. We took a walk in a rain-soaked park with a small hill in it, very similar in atmosphere to Jeongbalsan, near my home. His neighborhood there is under extensive redevelopment. We went into a mall food court for dinner, and I took a picture of the cluster of cranes visible beyond. Cranes and construction were everywhere, but since this is not greenfield development, the maze-like network of old city streets persist amid the construction. It's disorienting walking around his neighborhood. 

picture

We saw his new apartment and his old one, which is slated to be torn down soon for the redevelopment. We talked some more, and then he drove some extra distance to drop me off on the easternmost station on Line 3 (Ogeum Station). We met his wife there (she was coming from some work meeting, I think), so I got to see her too. My trip home was thus a "straight shot" on Line 3 – its full length minus only the two last stations on the western end. So I passed through 42 of 44 stations, and since the total length of Line 3 is 57 kilometers, I must have traversed about 54 km. Sitting on the same train for 2 hours, I watched the many people getting on and off. There were many ajeossis (a term basically meaning middle-aged man), getting off work (since Saturday is most typically a work day for Koreans).

It was a subway odyssey with subway ajeossis. It was a very long day.

[daily log: walking, 7km]

Caveat: Fruits of Teaching

Banalities & Journaling / Teaching & Methodology / The Wonders of Work

Jack said, "Teacher! Finish!" 

By this, he meant he was finished. Jack is not a high level student. He's a low-level student, even in the context of a low-level class. I think he's a fifth grader. I looked down at Jack's quiz. He'd answered maybe 6 of the 20 questions. So his maximum possible score was 6/20 – if there were no mistakes, which I couldn't be confident of.

I said, "This is terrible."

Jack said, fairly quickly, "I am terrible because you teach me that way."

He was grinning up at me as he said it. I knew immediately that he meant it as a joke.

And it blew me away. Not because it was effectively an insult. I have a pretty casual class, anyway, and in the spirit of communicativeness, the kids know I overlook what Korean teachers would not tolerate. No, I was blown away because it was probably the first fully formed, coherent English sentence I'd ever heard Jack articulate.

In fact, I felt quite pleased, because it vindicated exactly that open spirit of communication I tried to foster. Once he had something he wanted to say, he decided to say it.

I laughed. "I see. We'll have to work on that." 

[daily log: walking, 6.5km]

Caveat: Baekje Rising

Banalities & Journaling / Life in Korea / Politics, Economics & Current Affairs

moonKorea voted for president yesterday. I was quite confident already that the left-leaning candidate, Moon Jae-in (문재인), was sliding to victory. The right has been in disarray since the scandals broke around Park Geun-hye last year, and her impeachment and removal from office a few months ago, leading to this accelerated presidential election schedule, somewhat guaranteed that the electorate would swing leftward.
The main right-leaning candidate for the new Liberty Party (the previous Saenuri Party, trying to rebrand itself in the wake of the scandals), Hong Jun-pyo, didn’t help matters by having Trumpesque crude sexist language come to light in his own past, including bragging about a date rape while in college. I had one coworker tell me that she would normally vote Saenuri (i.e. conservative, and probably, I speculate, because of her evangelical religious affiliation), but she couldn’t vote for Hong because he was “repugnant and disgusting.” I can only wish that US evangelicals could have been more morally upstanding vis-a-vis Trump.
So the conservatives shot themselves repeatedly in both feet, and the normally minority liberals wafted into the presidency, despite almost everyone disliking Moon almost as much as Americans seem to have disliked Hillary Clinton.
If one thinks in terms of policy and ideology, I also suspect Moon’s position was strengthed precisely because of Trump’s victory in the US. The Koreans deeply distrust Trump because of his being on the record to reevaluate the US “protection” of South Korea. Thus Moon’s stated intention to reexamine the relationship with the US probably resonated as well. How all this plays out vis-a-vis North Korea, I can’t really say. My instinct is that, to the extent the US and South Korea are NOT getting along, the North Koreans will be pleased and therefore LESS likely to do anything dangerous. So in fact my personal feeling, which is perhaps misplaced optimism, is that Moon’s election will be good for lowering tensions with the North.
husamguksidaeHaving said all that, I want to return to something I looked at during the last election cycle: the ghosts in the electoral map.
Moon’s victory map seems to parallel the 900AD “Late 3 Kingdoms Era” (후삼국시대 [husamguk sidae]) in Korea. Look at the two maps: the conservative “rump” in the southeast is later Silla, long past its glory days, while new Baekjae and the ascendant Goryeo dominate the peninsula – see the maps along the right.
I was thinking about this “ghosts in the map” idea because I also ran across someone who mentioned that Macron’s support in the recent French presidential election eerily paralleled the Plantagenet lands (i.e. English control) in 12th century France – see the maps below.
macronplantagenet
picture[daily log: walking, 6.5 km]

Caveat: Borges Takes the TOEFL

Banalities & Journaling / Language & Linguistics / Teaching & Methodology / The Wonders of Work

My student was tasked with a typical "Type 1" TOEFL speaking question which prompted (roughly), "What is the most remarkable book you have read?"

He spoke coherently and in detail, for the allotted 45 seconds about a book entitled "The Diaries of Mr X." 

Apparently, this book is about a student who makes many mistakes. It sounded a bit picaresque, as he described it. It has a tragic ending (suicide), but it is also uplifting because it presents things humorously. My student said he learned a lot from the book about what sorts of mistakes a middle school student should avoid, during the difficult years of puberty.

The thing is, this "book" was invented by the student on the spot.

In fact, I have many times told my students that on an "opinion question" on the TOEFL Speaking section, it is probably quite okay to lie, if it is the easiest thing to do in the moment, as long as the lie is plausible. Clearly one shouldn't lie on the summary of facts presented in other types of questions – that would cost points – but when it's a matter of opinion, one should definitely take the path of least resistance.

Indeed, in discussing this issue, I have often given the example of the quite similar prompt, "What is is your favorite book?" I try to expalin that if I were taking the test, I would never answer my true favorite book (Persiles by Cervantes), because that book is not commonly known, it's not in English anyhow, and it would be hard to explain anything about it in 45 seconds allowed. Instead I would speak broadly and generically about some anodyne prototype that would be familiar to just about anyone, such as Harry Potter. But with respect to the issue of lying specifically, I say that if one is "stumped" in the moment, don't be afraid to fudge the facts of your beliefs and preferences. Fluency counts for more than "truth," anyway. There is no way a test evaluator can know if the book being spoken about is real or not – it's not as if that person is going to go search the internet and try to verify the book's existence or compare its plot to the one presented by the test taker. They are doing a job of evaluating your spoken English, and probably are on a tight schedule (I have heard less than 2 minutes allowed per question response scored).

My advanced students have always understood the point I'm trying to make, but most of them are uncomfortable with that kind of creative improvisation.

Until last night. Certainly, I never had a student use this strategy quite so skillfully. It was downright Borgesian, in a kind of stumbling, accented, Korean-middle-school way.

[daily log: walking, 6.5km]

Caveat: But the moment never came

Background Noise / Banalities & Journaling

I posted this song a few years ago, but I didn’t include the lyrics. So here it is again.
What I’m listening to right now.

The Flaming Lips, “Ego Tripping At The Gates Of Hell.”
Lyrics.

I was waiting on the moment
But the moment never came
All the billion other moments
Were just slipping all away

(I must have been drifting) we’re just slipping all away
(Just ego-tripping)

I was wanting you to love me
But your love it never came
All the other love around me
Was just wasting all away

(I must have been tripping) was just wasting all away
(Just ego-tripping) was just wasting all away
(Must have been tripping)

I was waiting on the moment
But the moment never came
(Must have been dreaming) but the moment never came
(Just ego-tripping) but the moment never came
(Must have been tripping) but the moment never came
(Just ego-tripping) but the moment never came
(Must have been dreaming) but the moment never came

But the moment never came

picture[daily log: walking, 2km]

Caveat: a sufficiently obfuscated version of the UBI

Banalities & Journaling / Found Online / Politics, Economics & Current Affairs / Quotable

I have long thought that the direction we should be going, in terms of social welfare policy, is what is called a "Universal Basic Income." Switzerland recently flirted with the idea, via its referendum process – my recollection is that it didn't pass (but I'm to lazy to find out if I'm wrong about this).

This strikes me as something we need to talk more about, in the context of cultural sustainability and US politics. I saw this on the marginalrevolution blog a while back (great blog, but for your sanity, don't read the comments). The quote that drew my attention:

[Patrick] COLLISON: Do we just need a sufficiently obfuscated version of the UBI [Universal Basic Income] and then we’re fine?

[Tyler] COWEN: We call it "disability insurance."

In fact, this thought had occurred to me, almost exactly as Cowen phrases it, many years ago when I was still living in the US. It is flattering to have a world-class economist validate my idea – not that I would try to take credit – I only have my own memory of thinking this.

[daily log: walking, 7km]

Caveat: With illicit help from your friends

Background Noise / Banalities & Journaling / Not My Poetry

I am enjoying my Buddhamas holiday by finding humor on the internet. It's not letting me down.

What I'm listening to right now.

Palette-Swap Ninja, "Princess Leia's Stolen Death Star Plans / With Illicit Help From Your Friends." Palette-Swap Ninja consists of Dan Amrich and Jude Kelley. This is in the finest tradition established by Weird Al Yankovich, but I believe these lyrics surpass any of his. There is zero awkwardness in the tight adaptation of the Beatles' scansion to the Star Wars plot. Brilliant.

Lyrics (my own transcription from the on screen subtitles, with one minor correction).

* Track 1 *

It was many years ago today
In a galaxy so far away
It's a period of civil war
They don't want the Empire any more
The Rebels made a daring move
They've got some data in their hands
Princess Leia's stolen Death Star plans…

They're Princess Leia's stolen Death Star plans
She's got them and it's time to go
Princess Leia's stolen Death Star plans
The Empire doesn't even know
Princess Leia's stolen…
Princess Leia's stolen…
Princess Leia's stolen Death Star plans
We're running from the Empire
It's us they want to kill
A Star Destroyer's chasing us
We've got to get away from them
We've got to make it home

"This is madness!" mutters Threepio
But we're caught, there's nowhere else to go
If we put the plans inside Artoo
Then there's nothing more that I can do
He's gotta go find Obi-Wan
He's carrying the contraband
Princess Leia's stolen Death Star plans

* Track 2 *

Vader's here
What would you think if I boarded your ship
would you give those transmissions to me?
How can this be a real consular ship?
No ambassador that I can see
Oh, you're all spies with
illicit help from your friends
Hey, but nice try with
illicit help from your friends
You're gonna die along with all of your friends

What did you do with those plans you were sent?
I'm a diplomat from Alderaan
You're not on a merciful mission this time
But I'm hoping you'll believe I am
No, 'cause you lie with
illicit help from your friends
You're a spy with
illicit help from your friends
You're gonna die along with all of your friends

Do you need something Vader?
I want those plans in my glove
Can you see she's a traitor?
I need those plans in my glove

One pod was jettisoned during the fight
I believe you'll find the plans inside
We'll bring the passenges, all that we find
And you know that I want them alive
Oh, you're a spy with
illicit help from your friends
Mmm, and you lie with
illicit help from your friends
Oh, You're gonna die along with all of your friends

Do you need something Vader?
I want those plans in my glove
Can you see she's a traitor?
I need those plans in my glove

Oh, you're a spy with
illicit help from your friends
And they lie with
illicit help from your friends
Mmm, gonna die along with all of your friends

Yes, they're all spies with
illicit help from your friends
With illicit help from your friends
With illicit help from your friends

[daily log: walking, 1km]

Caveat: Traditional Korean Culture

Banalities & Journaling / The Wonders of Work

I have a 7th grade student who goes by Lisa. She's pretty smart but she's a bit of a space cadet, and she will often seem to forget she's in class, and do odd things: burst into song, stand up out of the blue, that kind of thing. 

At one point, she'd grabbed my collection of board markers from the tray on the whiteboard, and began arranging them in order by color, in a row on her desk. I didn't comment.

But then she was hitting some index card she held in her hand against the edge of her desk. Thwack, thwack. A seemingly pointless exercise, and bit annoying.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

For no clear reason whatsoever, she remarked, barely missing a beat: "Traditional Korean Culture." 

This was a kind of joke, I suppose. The other kids found it amusing. And then it became a running gag in the class. Every time a student did something strange or annoying, I would say, "What are you doing?" and they would answer, "Traditional Korean Culture." 

Justin leaned back in his chair, balancing on the back two legs, precariously. A very common activity among students of that age. "What are you doing?" "Traditional Korean Culture."

Julie lay her head on the desk, because she was suffering one of her fits of giggles. "What are you doing?" "Traditional Korean Culture."

Like that.

[daily log: walking, 7km]

Caveat: The Mysterious Case of Flight XYZ

Banalities & Journaling / Life is a Dream

I had a very strange dream in the pre-dawn hour. 

I was traveling by airplane. Maybe LAX to MSP or something like that. 

It was strange, because all the passengers looked like they'd been drawn directly from my facebook feed – all relatives and friends and long-lost acquaintances. And everyone was staring at their smartphones. 

Then the captain announced that we had a problem. We would have to make an emergency landing. Oddly, everyone was pretty calm. The airplane spiraled down in a wide loop, and I saw snow-covered mountains – the Rockies? We landed almost as smoothly as at an airport, but on a blustery, snow-covered alpine meadow. People got off the plane, but it didn't seem like anything was wrong with it. And everyone had cellphone reception, so people were announcing the landing on facebook and other sites, and people were watching news of our own emergency landing. 

But there was some delay in getting us rescued. There was only one helicopter arriving, to ferry out the 100s of passengers. So it would come and go, taking out only a half dozen at a time. A lot of us would have to stay the night. We camped out in the airplane, but it was quite cold. I felt sooo cold.

On the news in the middle of the night, that everyone was looking at on their cellphones, a scandal was erupting. It turned out the same pilot had made an almost identical emergency landing, in the same location, some years ago. How could that be? Especially since there was nothing obviously wrong with the plane. All the passengers and crew realized the pilot and copilot had disappeared. That was just too weird. On the next helicopter ferry arrival, some police arrived, with police dogs, who began looking for the pilot and copilot. 

I was just too cold. I didn't care about the pilot and copilot, I wanted to get out of there.

I woke up, and I had kicked my covers off. I sleep with the window open, and the building's heat had been turned off April 1 – the room was cold, it was chilly outside. So at least that's where the cold came from. The rest is just plain weird. The dream was far too coherent, in some ways. Almost like a movie or novel. It could be one.

I don't know where all the material came from – I haven't been watching any TV lately, so there's no airplane thriller movies enrolled in my dream-queue. I haven't looked at facebook in months, so I don't know how that happened either. It was just strange. What does it mean?

[daily log: walking, 7km]

Caveat: magnificently meaningless

Background Noise / Banalities & Journaling / Not My Poetry

Time keeps doing that time thing.

What I'm listening to right now.

The Magnetic Fields, "Meaningless."

Lyrics.

Meaningless?
You mean it's all been meaningless?
Every whisper and caress?
Yes, yes, yes, it was totally meaningless

Meaningless
Like when two fireflies fluoresce
Just like everything I guess
Less less yes, it was utterly meaningless

Even less a little glimpse of nothingness
Sucking meaning from the rest of this mess
Yes, yes, yes, it was thoroughly meaningless

And if some dim bulb should say
We were in love in some way
Kick all his teeth in for me and if you feel
Like keeping on kicking, feel free

Meaningless
Who dare say it wasn't meaningless?
Shout from the rooftops and address the press
Ha ha ha, it was totally meaningless

Meaningless
Meaning less than a game of chess
Just like your mother said and mother knows best
I knew it all the time but now I confess

Yes, yes, yes, how deliciously meaningless
Yes, yes, yes, effervescently meaningless
Yes, yes, yes, it was beautifully meaningless
Yes, yes, yes, it was profoundly meaningless

Yes, yes, yes, definitively meaningless
Yes, yes, yes, comprehensively meaningless
Yes, yes, yes, magnificently meaningless
Yes, yes, yes, how incredibly meaningless?

Yes, yes, yes, unprecedentedly meaningless
Yes, yes, yes, how mind-blowingly meaningless?
Yes, yes, yes, how unbelievably meaningless?
Yes, yes, yes, how infinitely meaningless?

[daily log: walking, 7km]

Back to Top