Category: Found Online

Caveat: The Space Emperor’s Apotheosis

Found Online / Politics, Economics & Current Affairs

There’s an artist named Tim O’Brian. I recently ran across an illustration of his that struck me as symbolically correct. To those who feel that Obama is too far left, I can only say that I feel you are deeply, deeply mistaken. I’m among those who perceive Obama to be turning out to be one of the most conservative Democratic presidents in more than 100 years. That’s why this illustration makes sense to me. Plus it looks cool.

picture

I had made a decision to call Obama “The Future Space Emperor” way back when he first appeared to be winning the 2008 election, but I haven’t stuck with it. If you stick with that metaphor, though – BHO as Palpatine – does that mean that Reagan is the dark side of the Force? Darth Ronald. Nice. Continuing the metaphor, I like the sound of Darth Romney, too. …Rolls off the tongue. We could view the current election as just a minor squabble among the Sith Lords within the Coruscant Beltway.

As I’ve admitted before, I voted for him. And I still view the currently psychotic Republican party as an unacceptable alternative. But I’m less and less enamored of Obama, too, if I ever was.

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Caveat: Lumpenconsumerist

Banalities & Journaling / Found Online

pictureThere is apparently a Karl Marx themed Mastercard credit card issued by a bank in eastern Germany. Far out.

I saw it at the Marginal Revolution blog.

As one commenter points out: “For the materialist in you.”

It’s fun to think of all kinds of wacky advertising tag-lines. The best I’ve come up with in the last 5 minutes is: “Sometimes changing the means of production takes a litte extra. Let us help.”

[Daily log: walking 2 km; running, 2 km]

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Caveat: Rocket Man

Background Noise / Found Online

How could I have gone so far in life without knowing about this?

What I’m listening to right now.

pictureWilliam Shatner, “Rocket Man.” A “sci-fi,” sardonic interpretation of Bernie Taupin and Elton John’s classic. I almost like it better. The lyrics:

She packed my bags last night pre-flight
Zero hour nine a.m.
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

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

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Caveat: The Comic Sans Nation

Banalities & Journaling / Found Online / Teaching & Methodology

How can you hate a font? I've often been puzzled by the Comic Sans haters out there in the world. And finally, some guy has produced a professional and truly entertaining, if tongue-in-cheek rebuttal.

On a slightly more serious note, I use Comic Sans occasionally, on this blog, but in my teaching work, I use it quite a bit when making hand-outs for my lower-grade, lower-ability students. Why? Because there have been actual studies that show that Comic Sans (and related simple, "handwriting style" fonts) is easier for people unfamiliar with the Latin alphabet to read.

As an example, consider the shape of the letter "g" in a more "sophisicated" font:
g

I've had lower-level students point to a printed "g" of this style in their school books and ask me literally, "what's that?" Compare it to what they're taught to write:
g

Think about it. And stop the Comic Sans hating, people.

Today was a truly useless day, by the way. I didn't do any of the things I'd intended to do. My procrastination is on maximum.

[Daily log: hah]

actual

Caveat: Somebody’s Uncle

Banalities & Journaling / Found Online

There’s a guy in Oregon that turned an old jetliner into his home.

picture

This reminds me of the kind of thing my uncle would do – the uncle that lives in Alaska and travels the world as a helicopter pilot.

I don’t know why I feel so tired lately. Perhaps I’m getting sick, or maybe I’m letting myself get stressed out about work. But well… anyway. Life, it goes on.

[Daily log: walking, 4 km]

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Caveat: Finance

Banalities & Journaling / Found Online / Politics, Economics & Current Affairs / 한국말을 배움 (Failing to Learn Korean)

There is some guy in Russia who was previously convicted of operating a Ponzi scheme during the go-go post-communist 90's (his conviction was originally delayed because he managed to get elected to parliament, which gave him immunity). Now, he's operating a ponzi scheme again – but this time, he's announced that that's what he's doing, thereby perhaps avoiding illegality – seriously, is it illegal to bilk stupid people of their money, if you tell them that's what you're doing? He argues that that makes him no different than a major bank or a casino. See the article, here. It does rather raise ethical issues, and/or connect to what would be the various appropriate liberal/libertarian/conservative stances with regard to it.

Today I had a busy day despite the start of the test prep time – one of the other teachers was absent, and so I covered some extra classes. And I tried to study, some. And I saw Stephen Colbert

-Notes for Korean-
노래하는 분수대 [no-rae-ha-neun bun-su-dae] = the "Singing Fountain" at Ilsan's Lake Park
수위 [su-wi] = janitor
경비원 [gyeong-bi-won] = building watchman, doorman
바닥 [ba-dak] = floor, ground
마루 [ma-ru] = wooden floor
천장 [cheon-jang] = ceiling
칠판 [chil-pan] = blackboard, whiteboard, chalkboard
부엌 [bu-eok] = kitchen
거실 [geo-sil] = living room
전자레인지 [jeon-ja-re-in-ji] = microwave (electric-range)
가스레인지 [ga-seu-re-in-ji] = stovetop (gas-range)
오븐 [o-beun] = oven
커튼 [keo-teun] = curtain(s)
블라인드 [beul-la-in-deu] = blinds
유리장 [yu-ri-jang] = a pane of glass
시계 [si-gye] = clock, watch
벌 [beol] = punishment
체벌 [che-beol] = corporal punishment (observation on usage: Koreans seem to preferentially use this term for what I, personally, prefer to call "hazing" – it's punishment of the body not by hitting or hurting someone, but rather by compelling them to hold positions or engage in actions which cause discomfort to their own bodies, e.g. making students stand with their arms up in the air for extended periods of time, making them hold heavy objects, making them jog or do pushups or that kind of thing – it's basically boot-camp-style discipline; I don't think this really means corporal punishment the way Americans use that term, although the literal meaning is corporal punishment [body-punish])
교실 [gyo-sil] = classroom
식당 [sik-dang] = dining room [also restaurant]
침 [chim] = bed
침실 [chim-sil] = bedroom [bed-room]
의자 [ui-ja] = chair
창문 [chang-mun] = window
문짝 [mun-jjak] = door [one panel of a multi-part door]
문 [mun] = doorway, gate
책상 [chaek-sang] = desk
책장 [chaek-jang] = bookcase (or, the pages in a book)
식탁 [sik-tak] = table
소파 [so-pa] = sofa
(진공)청소기 [(jin-gong)cheong-so-gi] = vacuum [(vacuum) clean-machine)]
드라이기 [deu-ra-i-gi] = dryer (dry-machine)
기계 [gi-gye] = machine
냉장고 [naeng-jang-go] = refrigerator, cooler
식혜 [sik-hye] = Korean rice drink, cf. horchata
생강 [saeng-gang] = ginger
도토리 [do-to-ri] = acorn (powder, flour)
도토리묵 [do-to-ri-muk] = acorn jelly
염원하다 [yeom-won-ha-da] = to want strongly, to long for
호치키스 [ho-chi-ki-seu] = stapler (really, this is a brand name = ~Hotchkiss?)
절대 않다 [jeol-dae anh-da] = (I/you/he/she) never do/es that
절대 안했어요 [jeol-dae an-haess-eo-yo] = (I/you/he/she) never did that
절대 안할 거에요 [jeol-dae an-hal geo-e-yo] = (I/you/he/she) never will do that
뛰어넘다 [ttwi-eo-nam-da] = to hop
열대 [yeol-dae] = tropical (climate)
온대 [on-dae] = temperate (climate)
냉대 [naeng-dae] = arctic  (climate)
아열대 [a-yeol-dae] = subtropical (climate)
야단맛다 [ya-dan-mas-da] = to be scolded
야단치다 [ya-dan-chi-da] = to scold
사랑스러운 눈길로 [sa-rang-seu-reo-un nun-gil-lo] = with a loving gaze
X스럽다 [seu-reop-da] = to feel X about someone else
받아들이다 [bad-a-deur-i-da] = to receive, to get
수용하다 [su-yong-ha-da] = to accept, to receive
수염 [su-yeom] = whiskers
뉘우치다 [nwi-u-chi-da] = to repent a sin
한 [han] = regret (N) [this is one of many homonyms of 한]

[Daily log: walking, 4 km]

Caveat: History of the Universe

Background Noise / Banalities & Journaling / Found Online / Philosophy & Cultural Criticism / Quotable

pictureI felt some tweegret when I ran across this tweet, by someone named Dan K. Here’s what he said:

History of the universe: Hydrogen is a light, odorless gas, which, given enough time, turns into people and ends up thinking about itself.

Now that it’s June, I don’t feel different than I did yesterday. That is a pointless observation. But it’s just hydrogen, right?

What I’m listening to right now.

Woven Hand, “Dirty Blue.” Interesting video, too.

Lyrics.

This fear is only the beginning
All for the loving hand
Yes I smile and I agree
It is a good night to shiver
A good tongue might make it right
All I’ve said above a whisper

There is a sorrow to be desired
To be sorrow’s desire
There is a sorrow to be desired
To be sorrow’s desire

What they say is true
It is a dirty blue
This color around you
You’re curled up warm
In your own little corner of Sodom
Did you agree to believe
This fall has no bottom

There is a sorrow to be desired
To be sorrow’s desire
There is a sorrow to be desired
To be sorrow’s desire

All we move by the book of numbers
I’m held together by string
I hear not the voices of others
The bells of Leuven ring
Fear not the faces of brothers
And I, I’ve come apart it seems

I see not the faces are covered
And I, I’m in your amber ring
Your amber ring…

What they say is true
It is a dirty blue
This color around you

There is a sorrow to be desired
To be sorrow’s desire
There is a sorrow to be desired
To be sorrow’s desire

 

[Daily log: walking, 4 km; running, 3 km]

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Caveat: Slinking Along

Found Online

This youtube video had me mesmerized. One wants to impute to the slinky all kinds of feelings and ambitions, feelings of impending victory or defeat…

I suppose the soundtrack contributes, too.

pictureGo slinky, go.

[Daily log: walking, 5 km; running, 4 km]

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Caveat: Lego Movies

Banalities & Journaling / Found Online / Media (Texts/Music/Movies etc) / Teaching & Methodology

pictureMy friend Bob sent me a link to a Lego movie on the Lego website. He has son who is fascinated by these things, which is why he sent me the link. I watched Lego movies – I’d embed one here, but they don’t let you embed their movies (which is poor marketing, in my opinion). But here’s the link.

I like the episode where the prisoners escape by jumping into the prison toilet with scuba gear on. The prison administrators try to get the prisoners back using a toilet plunger. See screenshots.

picture

I think these videos would be extremely useful in an elementary language classroom, because there’s something salient about them – they’re produced without any dialogue whatsoever. Thus they could be used as prompts for story-writing, similarly to wordless comic-strips.

[Daily log: walking, 1 km]

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Caveat: Math

Banalities & Journaling / Found Online / The Wonders of Work

I was talking on the phone – “phone teaching” – with a 4th grader named Jiyun.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“I’m studying.”

“What are you studying?”

“Math,” she answered, laconically.

“Do you like math?” I asked, trying to draw her out.

“Nooo. No. I don’t like math.” She paused. “It’s’s a big problem. My mother is a math teacher,” she explained. Perfect English. Especially for a 4th grade elementary student. She’d made me laugh. I was impressed.

Speaking of math:

picture

[Daily log: walking, 5 km; running, 2 km]

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Caveat: Enough about Stella, Already!

Banalities & Journaling / Found Online / Language & Linguistics

I went to an accent-study survey (referenced from Language Log) in which many different speakers of English (mostly non native but with a few native speakers thrown in) read a passage – something about Stella shopping for peas and blue cheese and a toy frog. It gets kind of repetitive, and I concluded that the survey was badly designed. Here's the comment I posted at Language Log regarding my experience trying the survey.

I went through the survey fairly confidently, even naively, before reading these comments. And then I read Sarah Taub's: "I think my problem is that I wanted to interpret the study as asking how much the speakers sounded like native English speakers. I wish I had had more guidance from the experimenter as to how important the "native vs. non-native" and "US English vs. foreign" dimensions were. Perhaps those two dimensions should not have been combined in one experimental set."
Now I'm second-guessing myself. I really had no idea how to balance these two aspects, and I agree with her comment that they should have provided more guidance on separating the two dimensions: native vs non-native and American vs non-American. What I ended up doing was essentially rating them on strictly the native vs non-native dimension (because I've spent too much of my life outside the US, perhaps, to actually CARE about the US vs non-US dimension?). So I gave a lot of scores in the 4 to 6 range (as an ESL teacher I am perhaps too generous – if I can understand them then they don't sound THAT foreign – "foreign" is when you really actually can't even make out what they are talking about!). And then, if someone was a 6, I awarded a 7 to those who were unambiguously American-sounding to me – which was exactly two.

Despite my frustration with the survey, I have a nearly inexhaustible patience with and fascination for these types of things. I really should go back to graduate school, shouldn't I? In linguistics, I mean…

Caveat: Kuerajpiri

Banalities & Journaling / Español Aleatorio (Random Spanish) / Found Online / Media (Texts/Music/Movies etc) / Philosophy & Cultural Criticism

pictureSurfeaba un sitio de cultura y lengua p´urhépecha (idioma y pueblo de la región del estado de Michoacán en México, donde pasaba un medio año muy importante y formativo de mi juventud), y encontré esta leyenda sobre la creación del mundo.

De la primera gran explosión emergieron cuatro grandes rayos de luz, que se extendieron en cuatro direcciones distintas, en cuatro caminos con horizontes luminosos, dando lugar a los cuatro puntos cardinales. Nació así Tata-cuate y Nana-cuate principio dual, también llamado o llamada Kuerajpiri y le dio forma con sus manos de lumbre a un gran astro de luz y de calor; lo colocó en el centro de nuestro espacio y le dio la misión de alumbrar el universo. Le puso por nombre Tata-Juriata (Señor Sol) también llamado Kuri-kaueri.

Kuerajpiri (principio dual creador y destructor) decidió entonces darle una esposa a Tata-Juriata para que no estuviera tan solo, para que no se quedara fijo en el cielo, sobre un día eterno, sin contrastes ni movimiento. Le dio nacimiento a Nana-kutzi (Señora Luna). Pero él sólo aparecía de día y ella sólo de noche, de manera que estaban separados por el tiempo. De manera que decidieron verse alternativamente, una vez a la luz de él, otra vez a la luz brillante y redonda de ella. Y fue así como surgieron los eclipses de sol y de luna.

De esta unión nació Kuerahuaperi, también llamada Nana-Kuerari (nuestra madre tierra) que con el paso del tiempo se convirtió en una hermosa doncella. K’uri-kaueri se enamoró de ella. Le mandó cuatro rayos, que se posaron respectivamente en la frente, en el vientre, en la mano derecha y en la mano izquierda.

La doncella se convirtió en Nana-kuerari (la madre creadora), quien, en medio de una tempestad furiosa, dio a luz a las cosas naturales: la tierra seca, los montes, los ríos, los árboles, las flores, los lagos, los llanos, los vientos.

Tuvo luego un segundo parto, del cual nacieron todos los seres en movimiento, pero sin razón, sin emociones, sólo con instinto: los animales. Fue hasta el tercer parto que salieron a la luz los hombres y las mujeres, a los que dotó del saber, de manera que pudieran distinguir las cosas buenas de las malas. Se les dio el sonido y el habla para que se comunicaran entre sí.

Pero los hombres andaban errantes; no sabían medir el tiempo; no construían nada y peleaban entre sí. Nana-kuerari invocó a K’uri-kaueri y le pidió ayuda. El gran dios le entregó una caja de madera tallada. Le dijo que adentro estaban todas las cosas bellas que el hombre podía apreciar, y estaban también todos los oficios que podían aprender, y las líneas y los límites para organizar y medir el tiempo y el espacio. Pero también, le dijo, estaban los castigos, las maldades y la negrura del sufrimiento eterno. Debían usarla con sabiduría y sensatez.

De la caja también brotaron las estaciones del año. Los hombres aprendieron a construir casas, a cultivar la tierra, a transmitir conocimientos a las siguientes generaciones, a crear cultura y enriquecerla con el tiempo.

El sitio incluso tiene un streaming de una radiodifusora p´urhépecha. La escuchaba durante varias horas.

[Daily log: walking, 4 km]

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Caveat: Où est la plume de ma tante?

Found Online / Quotable

Eddie Izzard is so funny. If you are of a certain age, you remember those reel-to-reel players in the "language lab."

A partial transcript / translation:

Oú est la plume de ma tante?
[Where is my aunt's pen?]
La plume de ma tante est pret de la chaise de ma tante.
[My aunt's pen is beside my aunt's chair.]
Oui, la plume de ma tante est pret de la chaise de ma tante.
[Yes, my aunt's pen is beside my aunt's chair.]
Oú est la plume de mon oncle?
[Where is my uncles's pen?]
La plume de mon oncle est bingie bongie boogie bongie.
[My uncle's pen is bingie bingie boogie bongie.]
Non! Pas du tout! Je ne me connais pas "bingie bongie boogie bongie." Qu'est-ce que vous dites? Vous êtes un putain!
[No! Not at all! I don't know "bingie bongie boogie bongie". What are you saying? You are a whore!]

And to close, a memorable quote from a different part of his routine: "Poetry is very similar to music only less notes and more words." – Eddie Izzard.

Caveat: I Think I’ve Been Doing It Wrong

Banalities & Journaling / Found Online / Quotable

Most of my friends and acquaintances know that I have these various “novels-in-progress.” Except that progress feels like a very strong word to apply to them – perhaps more accurately, they should be described as “novels-in-waiting.” I’m too good at procrastination.

A recent video I came across by Antoine Wilson (whose oeuvre I am utterly unfamiliar with) has caused me to question my methods. Here:

pictureIf you weren’t sure, I guess it’s a joke. I laughed really hard at this video, for quite a while. Relatedly, scrolling down on his blog/website a little, I find the following, in what appears to be a self-interview:

What is your motto?

Seize the daybed.

What self-respecting procrastinator couldn’t relate to that?

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Caveat: gol-dagged new-fangled gadgets

Found Online / Science & SciFi

This was quite entertaining.

[UPDATE: Linkrot took this video away for all of us. Sad because I didn’t even write down what the video was about or anything, so I cannot search for a replacement. Yay internet!]

That hightech stuff always freaks me out. Below – a rotary-dial iphone:

picture

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Caveat: Coneix l’ala la tristesa dels núvols de seda

Español Aleatorio (Random Spanish) / Found Online / Language & Linguistics / Media (Texts/Music/Movies etc)

LA CIUTAT DE LA TARDOR

    Et vull
    color de rosa en la tardor
    – Betül Tariman

Coneix l’ala la tristesa dels núvols de seda,
les fulles dels ocells que niuen a les moreres
de l’avinguda del dolor.
Sap de la tempesta i el devessall de les aigües
l’aiguavessant de l’espill bombejat per la febre de l’alba,
l’argent viu de tots els desvaris del termòmetre
dels amors vells.
La tristesa: “en la cara de la mort tot es veu”
Els meus ulls s’han rentat en els teus
La meua sang s’ha mudat al teu cor,
però mai no m’arribarà la llum a la boira.

– Pere Bessó, de "Aigües turques", 2010

Poesía en catalán. Encontrado aquí (con traducción al español). Al azar, encontré una red de sitios algo prolífica que exploraba durante varias horas. Valdrá la pena volver.

Con la excepción de esas horas perdidas, pasaba mi domingo fuera del internet. A pesar de la primavera, he sentido un ligero cansansio. Pues no hice nada.

[Daily log: walking, 1 km]

Caveat: Larva on the Bus

Banalities & Journaling / Found Online

That’s not really what it sounds like.

pictureI was riding the bus yesterday morning to go meet one of my Korean tutors.

On the bus they have these TVs that display route information, advertising, weather, and occasional “features.” The feature I saw was a silly cartoon about some larvae that live in a storm drain. When I got home I decided to try to find these larvae on the internet. I did.

I couldn’t find the specific episode I saw, which involved a man dropping a ring into the storm drain and reaching down to retrieve it, and the subsequent epic battle between the disembodied hand and the larvae who live there. But I found the episode below, which involves a massive amount of prehensile snot.

라바 [raba = larva], “콧물” [kongmul = snot].

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Caveat: Raw Rats

Background Noise / Banalities & Journaling / Found Online / Media (Texts/Music/Movies etc) / Quotable


Wow, sagas!
Solo’s deed, civic deed.
Eye dewed, a doom-mood.
A pop …
Sis sees redder rotator.
Radar eye sees racecar X.
Dad did rotor gig.
Level sees reviver!
Solo’s deified!
Solo’s reviver sees level …
Gig rotor did dad!
X, racecar, sees eye.
Radar rotator, redder, sees sis …
Pop a doom-mood!
A dewed eye.
Deed, civic deed.
Solo’s sagas: wow.

"The text is a palindrome by Nick Montfort that briefly retells 'Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope,' making Han Solo central. The palindrome is a revised version of the one Montfort wrote in 75 minutes for the First World Palindrome Championship, held in Brooklyn on March 16, 2012." – Posted at a site called Machine Libertine.

I love palindromes.

What I'm listening to right now.

Japanese Pop Stars, "Let go." The video is pretty cool. I had some tricolor penne with pesto and broccoli for dinner. I'm feeling tired – this new (old) exercise habit I'm trying to re-start is kind of … tiring.

[Daily log: walking, 4 km; running, 4 km]

Caveat: Recordings in Akkadian

Background Noise / Banalities & Journaling / Found Online / Language & Linguistics

pictureIt turns out that some professors of ancient, extinct languages such as Babylonian, Assyrian and Akkadian (which are all related to each other and to modern Arabic and Hebrew) have decided to make voice recordings of Mesopotamian literature (including Gilgamesh!). These recordings are hosted at the University of Cambridge, here. I’m weird: I like this. I listen to them… without understanding them.

Meanwhile, I’ve been regretting the fact that I kind of dropped the ball on my efforts to develop an exercise routine, last fall. So starting today, I’m going to post a “daily log” as a footnote to my evening blog-post. Such as it were. I walked around part of the lake at the park, this evening, after work.

[Daily log: walking, 7 km; running, 1 km]

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Caveat: Kamyk

Found Online / Language & Linguistics / Media (Texts/Music/Movies etc) / Quotable

    Kamyk
    – Zbigniew Herbert

kamyk jest stworzeniem
doskonałym

równy samemu sobie
pilnujący swych granic

wypełniony dokładnie
kamiennym sensem

o zapachu który niczego nie przypomina
niczego nie płoszy nie budzi pożądania

jego zapał i chłód
są słuszne i pełne godności

czuję ciężki wyrzut
kiedy go trzymam w dłoni
i ciało jego szlachetne
przenika fałszywe ciepło

—Kamyki nie dają się oswoić
do końca będą na nas patrzeć
okiem spokojnym bardzo jasnym

The poem is in Polish. Several translations are circulating – following, here’s one from from a website called Pacze Moj (it’s quite unclear to me if Pacze Moj is also a person, or if it’s a pseudonym, or if it’s just a blog title – my Polish is quite bad to the point of nonexistent).

    Pebble
    by Zbigniew Herbert

The pebble is a creature,
ideal,

a self equal to itself,
guarding its own borders,

filled precisely,
with stone pebblessence,

with a smell reminiscent of nothing,
It frightens nothing, arouses no desires,

its fervour and its cold,
are righteous and dignified,

I feel a heavy remorse,
when I hold it in my hand,
and its noble body
is permeated by false warmth,

—Pebbles will not be tamed,
till the end they will gaze upon us,
through quiet eye so clear.

I like Polish. Maybe someday…

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Caveat: 콩깍지

Background Noise / Found Online / Media (Texts/Music/Movies etc)

picture“콩깍지” is a peapod, according to my dictionary. Possibly, it has other, more slangy meanings that are beyond me. But I found this hiphop song with this title. I have no idea what it means. I can’t even figure out the meaning of the hiphop group’s name. In fact, I can’t understand anything at all, except a few isolated words. But it’s a fun song, I guess. I hope it doesn’t turn to be too crude or bizarre.

What I’m listening to right now.

배치기 [baechigi], “콩깍지 [kongkkakji].” 가사:

B.A.E.C.H.I.G.I 이제 나왔으니
모두 친구들에게 전하기
하던 일들 전부 stop 모두 집중 여기 spot
들어볼까 기묘한 그 이야기

뭉탁!

탁>
그 꼬라지로 나와 너네가 얼마나 버티겠냐고
그냥 하던 대로 가라고
가만히 서서 중간이라도 가는 게
두말하면 입 아프다라고 말하는데
배치기 배엔 기름이 꼈네
믿음 따윈 져버리고 지네끼리 건배
그리고 나선 도망가네 조만간에 절망감이란
포만감으로 휩싸여야 정신 차리겠네

무웅>
어떤 인간들은 내게 말하겠지
너 얼마나 잘되나 두고 보자고
완전히 Reset 된 배치기
이제 누가 아냐고 물어보라고
그나마 누렸던 인기의 맛만
본걸로 만족해 알잖아 만만
치 않은 이곳에 이미 한물간
니들이 발 붙일 곳 없을 거라고

무웅>
이거 정말 난리나 버렸지
아무런 생각 없이 전부 내쳐 버렸지
모든 게 다 뒤바뀌어 버렸지
배치기 인생살이 제 눈에 낀 콩깍지

무웅>
뜻대로 되지만은 않을 거다
그러다가 망한 애들 여럿 봤다
새로운 변화에 신이 났겠지만
장담하건대 넌 예전이 낫다
제풀에 꺽일 네 모습이 선해
반전은 기대마 알잖아 뻔해
더 신 나게 떠들어라 웃고는 있지만
초조함 숨기려 내 맘은 탄다

탁>
겁을 먹었냐고 천만의 말씀
거품 빼고 우리만의 길을 가고픈 것뿐
당차게 박차고 나와서
난 바로 이 네 박자에 몸을 실었음
내 길에 내기를 걸어봐라
내 미래엔 배짱부리며 배 내미네 째봐라 그래
내가 쓰러지나 봐라 부러지나 봐라
날이 지나 봐라 끝내 누가 남았나

이거 정말 난리나 버렸지
아무런 생각 없이 전부 내쳐 버렸지
모든 게 다 뒤바뀌어 버렸지
배치기 인생살이 제 눈에 낀 콩깍지

B.A.E.C.H.I.G.I 이제 나왔으니
모두 친구들에게 전하기
하던 일들 전부 stop 모두 집중 여기 spot
들어볼까 기묘한 그 이야기

탁>
서로 머리 맞대면서 많은 날을 고민했지
배부르면 봄날이냐고
까놓고 말해보자 우리들의 전성기는
언제부터 언제였냐고
몇 번의 박수로 우쭐거리며
살아나간 지난날의 우릴 반성하자고
죽이 되든 밥이 되든 피래미 시절
기억하며 아둥바둥 살아보자고

이거 정말 난리나 버렸지
아무런 생각 없이 전부 내쳐 버렸지
모든 게 다 뒤바뀌어 버렸지
배치기 인생살이 제 눈에 낀 콩깍지 예

B.A.E.C.H.I.G.I
B.A.E.C.H.I.G.I 예

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Caveat: Giganta et al

Banalities & Journaling / Found Online / Internet & Blogging

Giganta

“I never knew that a playground could look like a fun-loving giant robot and a prison for hardened criminals at the same time.” – Thus writes someone at Komboh blog. How could I disagree? – this is fabulous. Plus, I really like the guy’s blog website design. It’s really awesome.

I have been addicted to graphic design websites since before they existed. Um… how is this possible? Well I don’t really mean websites, do I? When I worked for the University of Minnesota Libraries, in the late 1980’s, I discovered a magazine called Graphis (the magazine still exists). It was a glossy collection of the best of graphic design and advertising design. I would spend hours paging slowly through back issues. It was almost a kind of meditation. It was also a way to kind of stay in touch with my creative side, and to get a feel for the world. So now, all these years later, I still page idly through graphic design and arts magazines – I just do it online, now. I visit My Modern Met blogs almost daily, for example. And I regularly discover new sites like Komboh, referenced above.

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Caveat: Ripping Out Concrete

Found Online / Philosophy & Cultural Criticism / Teaching & Methodology

I read an article in the LA Times about a school, that drew correlations between the fact that it had recently ripped out its concrete playground and planted a biodiverse garden, and improved test scores. It was an uplifting, positive article on education, such as are all too rare in the US media, these days, and the correlations drawn seem plausible, at least anecdotally. I'm sceptical, however… who is to say there weren't other causes for the improved test scores? There could have been demographic shifts in the school's neighborhood, there could have been curricular or staff changes, etc.

I love the story of it – the narrative – but I'm frustrated by it at the same time, because it's preceisely the type of muddle-headed thinking education is supposed to be ameliorating. Sigh. How to react? It's great to see schools tearing out ugly concrete playgrounds. It's wonderful that any inner-city school can improve student performance dramatically. But how about some actual science behind this alleged improvement in science scores?

Caveat: there is a social side to defensive vomiting

Found Online / Science & SciFi

pictureThis article is so bizarre, not because I doubt its scientific authenticity, but just because of the material it covers. Really, it’s just caterpillars. I think the title to the article would make a good title for a pseudo-autobiographical novel: Caterpillars are more likely to vomit alone. I will begin an outline immediately.

Extended quote:

This new study shows that there is a social side to defensive vomiting. The researchers found that whether a caterpillar is willing to regurgitate — and to what extent — depends on the size of its social group.

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Caveat: Schemanarrative

Background Noise / Found Online / Media (Texts/Music/Movies etc) / Philosophy & Cultural Criticism / Science & SciFi

pictureSchematic? Narrative?

Regardless, it gave me a sort of a chill, watching this video: a sort of schematic narration of the overwhelming complexity of our world, its interdependencies, the way we exist embedded in multifold schemas that we don’t understand and are barely aware of. And in a very short story-line, there’s also an actual character created, which seems to possess the rudiments of personality and internal life – perhaps a la Sims. For some reason, I was thinking of Joyce’s Ulysses as I watched this. That might seem strange, but I believe some might see that there’s a sort of logic to it. “A day in the life…” and all that.

What I’m listening to right now.

[UPDATE 2018-02-03: Video replaced due to having noticed link-rot (old video taken down?).]

Röyksopp, “Remind Me.”

Plus, I like Röyksopp.

Now, tangentially – or perhaps in the mode of a constructive, philosophical supplement (and please don’t be alarmed if you don’t see the connection to the above, as I’m writing here largely for my own future’s perusal, because my reading happened to coincide with my discovery of the “schemanarrative”) – I will offer an extended quote from Fredric Jameson’s Valences of the Dialectic, on the topic of his “utopian hermeneutic” (the chapter is entitled “Utopia as Replication”; the “genealogy” he’s referencing is Nietzsche’s):

There is so far no term as useful for the construction of the future as “genealogy” is for such a construction of the past; it is certainly not to be called “futurology,” while “utopology” will never mean much, I fear. The operation itself, however, consists in a prodigious effort to change the valances on phenomena which so far exist only in our present; and experimentally to declare positive things which are clearly negative in our own world, to affirm that dystopia is in reality Utopia if examined more closely, to isolate specific features in our empirical present so as to read them as components of a different system. This is in fact what we have seen Virno doing when he borrows an enumeration of what in Heidegger are clearly enough meant to be negative and highly critical features of modern society or modern actuality, staging each of these alleged symptoms of degradation as an occasion for celebration and as a promise of what he does not – but what we may – call an alternate Utopian future. [p. 434]

I would only add that perhaps we have to remember that dystopias and utopias, both, are reliant on narratives that are essentially the same, and which may or may not be historical, just like Nietzsche’s genealogies (or even marxian dialectics of various flavors). Not historical, and not ahistorical – maybe a good word would be “pseudohistorical” – but why not just call it “narrative”?

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Caveat: Karma’s a Bitch

Found Online / Quotable

No… I don’t mean my place of employment. I’m referring to this funny meme-image I recently ran across.

Dear Icebergs, Sorry to hear about the global warming. Karma's a bitch. Sincerely, The Titanic

Er, um. Hahaha. [Dear Icebergs, Sorry to hear about the global warming. Karma’s a bitch. Sincerely, The Titanic]

I don’t really give a damn about the Titanic. But I have some passing concern about global warming, and karma is always worth contemplating.

(Hattip, sullyblog).

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Caveat: Atomic Graffiti

Found Online

Some artist snuck into Chernobyl and painted grafitti. Check out the picture he did:

picture

The Simpsons having a picnic in front of the nuclear power plant.

Ah… shades of Yeonggwang.

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