Category: Found Online

Caveat: my technique is very necessary

Background Noise / Found Online

What I’m listening to right now.
[UPDATE 2020-04-25: Sadly, the video I posted here has disappeared from the internet. Presumably, due to copyright enforcement. It took footage from one of the Muppet Movies and matched it to NWA’s song “Express Yourself.” ]
MWA, “Express Yourself.” I like the car in the video. Reminds me of road trips with my dad.

[Dr. Dre:]
Yo, man… There’s a lot of brothers out there flakin’ and perpetratin
But scared to kick reality.
[Ice Cube:]
Man, you’ve been doing all this dope producing.
You had a chance to show ’em what time it is…
[Dr. Dre:]
So, what you want me to do?
Express Yourself…
[Dr. Dre:]
I’m expressin’ with my full capabilities,
And now I’m livin’ in correctional facilities,
Cause some don’t agree with how I do this.
I get straight, meditate like a Buddhist
I’m droppin’ flava, my behaviour is heriditery,
But my technique is very necessary.
Blame it on Ice Cube… Because he says it gets funky
When you got a subject and a predacit.
Add it on a dope beat
And that’ll make you think.
Some suckaz just tickle me pink
To my stomache. ‘Cause they don’t flow like this one.
You know what? I won’t hesitate to dis one
Or two before I’m through.
So don’t try to sing this!
Some drop science
While I’m droppin’ English.
Even if Yella
Makes it a-capella
I still express, yo, I don’t smoke weed or a sess.
Cause its known to give a brother brain damage.
And brain damage on the mic don’t manage
Nuthin’
But makin’ a sucker and you equal.
Don’t be another sequel…
Express Yourself…
Express Yourself…
Come on and do it…
Express Yourself…
Express Yourself…
Come on and do it…
Now, gettin’ back to the PG.
That’s program, and it’s easy.
Dre is back. Newjacks, I mean hollow,
Expressin’ ain’t their subject
Because they like to follow
The words, the style, the trend,
The records I spin.
Again and again and again
Yo, you on the other end.
Whatch a brother playin’ dope rhymes with no help.
There’s no fessin’ and guessin’
While I’m expressin myself.
It’s crazy to see people be
What society wants them to be. But not me!
Ruthless…
Is the way to go
They know.
Others say rhymes that fail
To be original.
Or they kill where the hiphop starts,
Forget about the ghetto
And rap for the pop charts.
Some musicians curse at home
But scared to use profanity
When up on the microphone.
Yeah, they want reality.
But you won’t hear none.
They rather exaggerate, a little fiction.
Some say no to drugs and take a stand,
But after the show they go lookin’ for the dopeman.
Or they ban my group from the radio.
Hear NWA and say “Hell no!”.
But you know it ain’t all about wealth.
As long as you make a note to…
Express Yourself…
Express Yourself…
Come on and do it…
Express Yourself…
Express Yourself…
Come on and do it…
Express Yourself…
From the heart.
Cause if you wanna start to move up the chart
Then expression is a big part of it.
You ain’t efficient when you flow
You ain’t swift, movin’ like a tortoise.
Full of rigor mortis.
There’s a little bit more to show
I got rhymes in my mind, embedded like an embryo.
Or a lesson – all of ’em expression
And if you start fessin’ –
I got a Smith and Wesson
For you.
I might ignore your record
Because it has no bottom.
I get loose in the summer. When in spring and autumn
It’s Dre on the mic, gettin’ physical.
Doin’ the job
NWA is the lynch mob!
Yes, I’m a cob?
But you know you need this.
And the knowledge is growin’
Just like a foetus, or a tumor.
But here’s the rumor:
Dre is in the neighborhood
And he’s up to no good.
When I start expressin’ myself,
Yella, slam it!
Cause If I stay funky like this I’m doin’ damage.
Or I’mma be too hyped,
And need a straight jacket.
I got knowledge and other suckaers lack it.
So, when you see Dre, a DJ on the mic,
Ask what it’s like.
It’s like we gettin’ hype tonight.
Cause if I strike
It ain’t for your good health.
But I won’t strike if you just…
Express Yourself…
Express Yourself…
Come on and do it…
Express Yourself…
Express Yourself…
Come on and do it…
Express Yourself…
Come on and do it…
Come on and do it…
Come on and do it…
Come on and do it… [music fades]

[daily log: walking, 6 km]

Caveat: Multipolarity

Background Noise / Found Online

What I'm listening to right now.

World Order (Genki Sudo), "Multipolarity." These guys do really interesting robotic dance routines, which is why I first found their music. The music is kind of pop-generic but I don't mind it, either. Mostly it's for the videos, though. 

I don't have the lyrics. I searched by my ability to search in Japanese is stunningly poor. 

[daily log: walking, 6 km]

Caveat: Infinite Spiralling Trains

Found Online

I remember as child being really into model trains. My uncle enjoyed enabling this obsession.

There is a guy who made an infinite spiral train set.

[daily log: walking, 6 km]

Caveat: Hello? Your Goat Is Blocking My Driveway

Found Online / Politics, Economics & Current Affairs

In Korea, it's common for people to put their cellphone numbers on small placards or stickers facing outward in the windshields of their cars. The reason for this is that then they can park blocking entrances and driveways, and if someone needs to get in or out, they can simply call to have the person move the car. It's quite logical, if a little bit chaotic, and clearly subject to abuse, but because the Korean social contract is mostly civil, it seems to work out. 

Recently I read about a new thing emerging in Somalia, wherein people put their cellphone numbers on their goats. This seems similar, although obviously it's not, in fact, about goats blocking driveways so much as it is about goats getting lost or damaging someone else's property. But it's very fascinating to me that such a trend should emerge in a country like Somalia, which is supposedly a country utterly lacking in a civil social contract. Maybe that's not, in fact, the case? 

Goats2

[daily log: walking, 6 km]

Caveat: a more fulfilled and self-actualized indoor kitty existence

Found Online / Science & SciFi

I have fallen victim to a cat video.

This one has a gadgeteer angle to it, however. 

This guy built a food dispenser for his cat that is activated by plastic toys that the cat has to find in a kind of hide-and-seek game. 

He writes on his blog: "So what if my cat, while out on patrol, actually found its prey? Surely this would bring him one step closer towards a more fulfilled and self-actualized indoor kitty existence."

He wanted his indoor cat to have the experience of the hunt, so he created an artificial hunt. This takes "playing with your cat" to a whole new level. Maybe, in the future, our pets will enjoy time in the holodeck, too? 

 [daily log: walking, sorta]

Caveat: The Joseon Dynasty’s Online Mapping Utility

Banalities & Journaling / Found Online / Internet & Blogging

JoseonmapThere is a very cool online zoomable map of Korea, pieced together from images from an atlas made in 1861. I put an image of the overview of the area covered by this old atlas, at right.

The detail and accuracy of this map is quite amazing, considering it was made not just pre-satellite but essentially pre-Westernization, although I suspect it was made in response to Western contact, if that makes any sense.

Matching place names to modern place names is rather difficult, because the names are in handwritten hanja (Chinese characters). Nevertheless, I managed to locate the town of Juyeop-ri (주엽리, hanja 注葉里), which is an area I walk through every day on the way to work. There is now a subway station there.

I zoomed in and did a screencap of from the map, and then put a red star on it, below. On the scale of the map, for my daily commute to work, I walk from the lower right of the red circle I made to near the top of the red circle I made.

Juyeop

I have a few days off from work, for the provincially mandated summer break. Per my usual custom, these days, I'm doing very little with my free time, except thinking of it in terms of undoing my incipient burnout.

[daily log: 1 km]

Caveat: Lock the Taskbar

Background Noise / Found Online

What I'm listening to right now.

The Clash, "Lock the Taskbar."

OK… just kidding.

In fact… 

The Clash, "Rock the Casbah."

Lyrics.

Now the king told the boogie men
You have to let that raga drop
The oil down the desert way
Has been shakin' to the top
The Sheik he drove his Cadillac
He went a' cruisin' down the ville
The muezzin was a' standing
On the radiator grille

[Chorus:]
The Shareef don't like it
Rock the Casbah
Rock the Casbah
The Shareef don't like it
Rock the Casbah
Rock the Casbah

By order of the prophet
We ban that boogie sound
Degenerate the faithful
With that craazy Casbah sound
But the Bedouin they brought out
The electric camel drum
The local guitar picker
Got his guitar picking thumb
As soon as the Shareef
Had cleared the square
They began to wail

[Chorus:]

Now over at the temple
Oh! They really pack 'em in
The in crowd say it's cool
To dig this chanting thing
But as the wind changed direction
The temple band took five
The crowd caught a wiff
Of that crazy Casbah jive

[Chorus:]

The king called up his jet fighters
He said you better earn your pay
Drop your bombs between the minarets
Down the Casbah way

As soon as the Shareef was
Chauffeured outta there
The jet pilots tuned to
The cockpit radio blare

As soon as the Shareef was
Outta their hair
The jet pilots wailed

[Chorus:]

He thinks it's not kosher
Fundamentally he can't take it.
You know he really hates it.
Really really hates it!

[daily log: walking, 6 km]

 

Caveat: Little Rabbit Foo Foo, I Don’t Like Your Attitude

Banalities & Journaling / Found Online / Media (Texts/Music/Movies etc) / 아동 도서 (Children's Books)

When I was a child, there was a kind of an earworm song called "Little Rabbit Fru Fru" which my sister and I sang with great enthusiasm, partly because it seemed to annoy our mother so much.

I thought of that song for some reason, recently – I think one of the songs in one of the role play texts I was teaching featured a similar melody.

I found an infinite number versions online, with variants like "Little Bunny Foo Foo" and others. Most of them are just as earwormy as I recall, but there were some unusual renditions too. I particularly enjoyed one slightly postmodern version, rendered on the basis of a children's book which retells the story of Fru Fru AKA Foo Foo, with excellent Scottish enunciation.

[daily log: walking, 6 km]

Caveat: Buy an Electric Car, Save the Environment!

Found Online / Politics, Economics & Current Affairs / Science & SciFi

Actually, no. Let's think this through. Where does electricity come from? Solar or hydro? Great, buy a Nissan Leaf. But most electricity comes from coal. So, in that case… burning gasoline is better for the environment. 

Here's the article that led me to think about this.

[UPDATE (a few hours later): I had written "Prius" but it occurred to me that this is ambiguous, since a Prius is technically a hybrid, not an electric car, and thus is just a new model for burning gasoline. I have altered the title and post to reflect this – but there's no majorly iconic electric vehicle, yet. I chose the Nissan Leaf because it's one I happened to have seen recently here in Korea.]

[daily log: walking, 6 km]

Caveat: Cervantes’ Bones

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

pictureThey’ve gone and found his bones, finally. He was known to be buried in the Convento de las Monjas Trinitarias Descalzas, but the precise gravesite had been lost to time.
A short editorial in the New Yorker observes that this business of finding the old satirist’s remains is tied in with a creeping commercialization, i.e. the emergence of a “Cervantes tourism industry.” I’m not inclined to condemn this out of hand – it strikes me that Cervantes wouldn’t have been offended by someone making a buck off his remains – indeed, it’s the sort of scheme he’d have been on board with.
I suppose I have a special relationship with Cervantes – his work is, after all, the topic of my never-quite-written PhD dissertation. If I ever make it to Madrid, I’ll feel compelled to visit this newly-created bit of history, I reckon.
Meanwhile, just last weekend I read 5 pages of [broken link! FIXME] a certain book that, in theory, supports that never-quite-written dissertation. Not that I’m going to write it, but sometimes I think about it.
picture[daily log: walking, 6 km]

Caveat: holographic principle

Banalities & Journaling / Found Online / Science & SciFi

"The holographic principle states that the entropy of ordinary mass (not just black holes) is also proportional to surface area and not volume; that volume itself is illusory and the universe is really a hologram which is isomorphic to the information "inscribed" on the surface of its boundary." – from wikipedia.

This blew my mind – my layman's brain can't understand all the mathematics or physics, but I sort of understand the principles involved, and this is really amazing to think about. 

My stepmother Wendy and sister Brenda with her two kids James and Sarah have come out to Ilsan today. I'll post about it tomorrow.

[daily log: walking, 5 km]

 

Caveat: Singing About Meatloaf

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

What I’m listening to right now.

Tiny Cowboy (AKA Oasis), “Meatloaf.”
This song is embedded in an episode of the the almost Cervantine cartoon Phineas and Ferb. The group “Tiny Cowboy” seems to be a fictionalization of the real brit alt rock group Oasis.
The sophisticated and multi-layered writing on this Disney children’s cartoon, which [broken link! FIXME] I mentioned before, continues to amaze me as I occasionally sample episodes during my free time. Either that, or my senility is advancing too rapidly, and I’m perfectly content to just sit and watch cartoons.
A deconstruction of Star Wars:

[daily log: walking, 6 km]

Caveat: Spongewalter Whitepants

Banalities & Journaling / Found Online / Media (Texts/Music/Movies etc) / The Wonders of Work

OK, I don't even particularly like that TV show, "Breaking Bad." 

This parody, however, is pure genius. Maybe it's just that I do happen to like Spongebob. I'm weird, right?

I had a another really difficult day yesterday. The capper: I broke my video camera – which, if you watch my work blog, you know I use a great deal in my classroom, on a daily basis. I have to buy a new camera. I guess maybe this weekend. 

I will go into Seoul today, to meet my stepmother who happens to be in Korea currently – she's been staying at Yongsan. 

[daily log: walking, 6 km]

 

Caveat: he’s my nemesis. I have to show him everything

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

Yesterday, my students in my T2 middle-school class told me I needed to watch the cartoon called Phineas and Ferb, because of Perry the Platypus. “Teacher, you need to see that,” they said. “It’s important.”
In need of something mindless and escapist, I duly did so, and found it it pretty entertaining – it is pretty well-written for a children’s cartoon.
Perry the Platypus is a kind of James Bondesque superhero. There is an entertaining, vaguely central-European villain named Heinz Doofenshmirtz.
In one episode (season 1, episode 18), one of the evil villain’s colleagues asks, with respect to Perry the Platypus, “Does he have to come along?”
Doofenshmirtz answers, “Yes, of course, he’s my nemesis. I have to show him everything.”

I am feeling overwhelmed, even though it’s Sunday, because next week – instead of being the “calm after the storm” of our talent show last week – is going to be a hellish week with a doubled teaching schedule.
picture[daily log: 10 episodes]

Caveat: Morbid Piles of Links

Background Noise / Banalities & Journaling / Cancer / Found Online

I have a morbid habit, which I sometimes indulge. I read the blogs of people with cancer.

These abound on the internet. More often than not, I come across pointers to such blogs in other places, in other contexts, but I will take a moment to add the pointer to a little pile (file) of links I have of "cancer blogs." Then, sometimes, when the mood strikes or I'm feeling mortal or hypochondriac or unlucky, I will read one. 

Many people seem to take the decision to start blog, upon learning they have cancer. 

I was different only in that I long ago started my blog as a coping mechanism to deal with different, unrelated issues (stepping away from my hermetic life and trying to document my efforts to jump-start my career). 

Perhaps I'm a bit different too, in that, since I was blogging before the cancer, now that I'm basically past it successfully (fingers crossed and knock on wood and all that), I continue blogging reliably – many "cancer" blogs "die" not just when their authors die, but also when their authors fail to die, but  instead just get on with life. 

Recently a blog I've visited a few times (a linguist and thus someone whose non-cancer writings also had at least some appeal for me) announced the death of its author after a fairly short (6 month) battle. 

There, now I'm not feeling unlucky anymore.

What I'm listening to right now.

Andy Williams, "House of Bamboo."

Lyrics.

Number fifty-four,
The house with the bamboo door,
Bamboo roof and bamboo walls,
They've even got a bamboo floor!

You must get to know – Soho Joe,
He runs an Expresso,
Called the House of Bamboo.

It's a made of sticks.
Sticks and bricks,
But you can get your kicks
In the house of bamboo.

In this casino, you can drink a chino,
And it's gotcha swingin' to the cha cha
Dance the bolero in a sombrero.
Shake – like a snake!

You wanna drop in when the cats are hoppin'.
Let your two feet move a to the big beat;
Pick yourself a kitten and listen to a platter
That rocks – the juke-box!

I'm a telling you, when you're blue,
Well there's a lot to do
In the House Of Bamboo.

You must get to know – Soho Joe,
He runs an Expresso,
Called the House of Bamboo.

In this casino, you can drink a chino,
Let your two feet move-a to the big beat;
Pick yourself a kitten and listen to a platter
That rocks

I'm a telling you, when you're blue,
Well there's a lot to do
In the House Of Bamboo.

Number fifty-four,
The house with the bamboo door,
Bamboo roof and bamboo walls,
They've even got a bamboo floor!

In the House Of Bamboo.

[daily log: walking, 6 km]

Caveat: Extreme Trolleyology

Banalities & Journaling / Found Online / Philosophy & Cultural Criticism

I have covered trolleyology before. Twice.

I ran across this excellent satirical extension on the trolleyology theme, here.

You have to have a certain philosophical bent to enjoy these, probably. Definitely, if you start to read them and don’t understand what’s going on, you need to first make sure you understand the background trolleyological tradition. But I definitely laughed at them.

[daily log: walking, 6 km]

CaveatDumpTruck Logo

Caveat: Barking? No, the other end

Background Noise / Found Online / Politics, Economics & Current Affairs / Science & SciFi

Ha. The "surveillance state" is going to the dogs, now. 

The well-named municipality of Barking and Dagenham, in the UK, is going to be genetically testing dog poo and requiring pet owners to register their pets' DNA – this will allow unambiguous attribution of guilt to owners who don't clean up after their pets.

How far we've come. This seems like one of those fake news snippets from a 1960s-era Heinlein novel.

Really, though… could George Orwell have foreseen this?

What I'm listening to right now.

Informatik, "My True Love." The lyrics are stunningly banal – not what I would hope for from goth-rock. But whatever… I guess I like the sound of it. 

Lyrics.

My true love – the only one for me
And the other there will never be
My true love – always there for me
When I'm feeling so lonely
My true love calls my name
That's when I go running
My true love will never let me down
Please don't let me down

The more that I see you
The more that I need you
This feeling just won't go away

I can't live without you
I won't ever doubt you
I'm begging you – don't go away

My true love whispers to me
Tells me all the things that I want to hear
My true love takes over me
Will never let me go, never set me free
My true love is my everything
Everything I am, all I'll ever be
My true love will never let me down
Please don't let me down

The more that I see you
The more that I need you
This feeling just won't go away
(Won't go, won't go away)

I can't live without you
I won't ever doubt you
I'm begging you – don't go away
(Don't go, don't go away)

You have left your mark on me
I will never be the same
Even if I walk away

Your heavenly embrace
Not so easy to erase
Will I ever have the strength
To say goodbye to you

The more that I see you
The more that I need you
This feeling just won't go away

I can't live without you
I won't ever doubt you
I'm begging you – don't go away

[daily log: walking, ]

 

Caveat: Ha! Ha!

Found Online

Mostly my interest in travel has waned since my illness. I don't quite understand it, but I don't even fantasize about traveling in the way that I used to almost constantly. 

Anyway, nevertheless I ran across a place I feel I must visit – only because of the name.

There is the town, in Quebec, called Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha!

How could one not want to visit such a town?

[daily log: walking, 6.5 km]

Caveat: The Semiotics of the Lego Movie

Found Online / Media (Texts/Music/Movies etc) / Philosophy & Cultural Criticism

I had actually had some thoughts, in this vein, before running across this. But Mike Rugnetta says it eloquently and in depth. So I'll let him say it.

You see, the copyright-litigious LegoCorp has made a movie that is symbolically anti-copyright-regime. 

As Rugnetta points out, the "piece-de-resistance" is cash.

Anyway, hattip to Laughing Squid, where I ran across this video.

[daily log: walking, 6.5 km]

Caveat: Plexiglass Pontiac

Banalities & Journaling / Found Online

"Plexiglass Pontiac" sounds like the name of an alternative rock band from Michigan, but in fact it's a real thing that was made in 1939 to show off the new material called Plexiglass (clear plastic). They called it the "ghost car." 

I saw a mention of it on the mymodernmet website. It reminded me of my childhood, indirectly – the exposed innards of pre-WWII cars were a fixture of my childhood, due to my father's hobby (and for a time, profession) of old car collector.

Transparentplexiglascar12

[daily log: walking, 6 km]

Caveat: no one can tell when she cries

Background Noise / Found Online

What I'm listening to right now.

They Might Be Giants, "Underwater Woman."

Lyrics.

underwater woman
underwater lady
no one on the shore will ever know what’s in her heart

fiercely alive, will to survive
able to thrive on her own
self contained, properly trained
hydroponically grown

underwater woman
breathing underwater
brushing her hair, eating a pear
no one can tell when she cries
away away away

she scans the ocean floor
with ultrasonic blips
nothing but rocks and sand
and the broken wrecks of ships

underwater woman
underwater lady
no one on the shore will ever know what’s in her heart

laughing uncontrollably, who is she talking to?
holding up a shell like it’s a telephone
frantically digging through a pile of old papers
intently staring at a photograph

underwater woman
breathing underwater
brushing her hair, eating a pear
no one can tell when she cries
away away away

[daily log: walking, 6km]

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