Category: Uncategorized

Caveat: Tree #1558 “Magpie tree”

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This tree is a guest tree from my past. The tree has a magpie in it. I took the picture in May, 2013 (10 years ago) in the neighborhood near my place of work in Ilsan, South Korea.

picture

CaveatDumpTruck Logo[daily log: walking, 5km; retailing, 8hr]

Caveat: Conagher Rail Car Company

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[This is a cross-post from my other blog]

My low-effort brag post for the week is the Conagher Rail Car Company, in southwest Ohunkagan. Remember that the city of Ohunkagan, as currently mapped, is stuck sometime in the late 1910’s. So this is the height of the railroad industry and this rail car company plant is conceptually modeled on something like the old Pullman Rail Car company in south Chicago, maybe. I used old maps of the Pullman factory as a guide for laying out this factory.

Screenshot of the map window on the OpenGeofiction site, showing an area mapped of a factory called Conagher Rail Car Company, lots of detail

Here is a link to the slippy map on OpenGeofiction: https://opengeofiction.net/#map=17/-42.40661/145.99363&layers=B

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Caveat: Tree #1458 “A blur”

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This tree saw its view blurred by heavy rain.

picture

The rain was so heavy that the leak-catching bucket in my treehouse overflowed, even though I’d emptied it yesterday.

There was a small flood in my treehouse.

CaveatDumpTruck Logo[daily log: walking, 2km;]

Caveat: Tree #1371 “Strong winds”

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This tree is in neighbors Mike and Penny’s yard. It looked like it was about to be blown away by strong winds this morning.

picture

picture[daily log: walking, 2.5km; dogwalking, 2km]

Caveat: Tree #1362 “Rainy day”

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This tree was among others of its kind, across the street from where I was working in October, 2012, along Ilsan-no (Ilsan Road), in South Korea. This neighborhood was my “home” (where I worked) for 9 out of the 11 years I was in Korea.
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picture[daily log: walking, 5km; retailing, 8.5hr]

Caveat: Tree #1330 “Inversion”

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This tree was in the sea.
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Some customers came into the store today, as they will do. Trying to be friendly, and seeing they were likely out-of-towners, I asked, “So, are you up fishing? Hunting?”

This one customer was a smart-alec. He answered, smooth as can be, “No, actually. I’m up here to visit gift shops. I’ll do a little fishing on the side if I have time.”

picture[daily log: walking, 5km; retailing, 8.5hr]

Caveat: Tree #1310

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This tree saw the clouds part – but that was yesterday.
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More and more frequently, Art asks me for help with his computer problems. This is very hard for me. Art is and always has been a loyal Apple customer – his computers are all, always, only MacBooks. I hate Apple systems and OS design with a passion, and it’s always been challenging for me to even accept that he sees it differently. But even getting past that, I have to deal with the fact I really don’t know much about how they’re supposed to work. Add to that the fact that Arthur has his own idiosyncratic ways he thinks things should be done, and I really simply can never, ever please him at all.

Case in point: the other day he received in the mail from Amazon two large SSD external drives he’d ordered. He has a huge stockpile of saved stuff on his computers and hard drives, and he needed more storage (though arguably this is mostly because he doesn’t remember how to “clean house” on his computers anymore). Well he got these hard drives and couldn’t get either of them to work. I took a look at them. They were clearly labeled “for Windows.” Now it’s true that often these type of external drives are cross-functional, but I wondered how he’d managed to order them. You can’t really assume they’re cross-functional.

I told him I’d take a look at them on my computers. First I tried on my Linux machines, but no luck. So I booted up my rarely-used Windows partition, and pretty soon I had both of them working. I had to create partition tables – apparently they shipped without them, but expected Windows to attach to them and create the partition tables, or something like that. Once that was done, I could create partitions on each one and format them. I took them back downstairs and Arthur plugged them into his MacBook and sure enough, they were read fine, now.

Rather than thank me, Arthur complained that they drives weren’t displaying the way that he was used to, in his Mac OS finder tool. He considered this unacceptable – but it’s just a different display – the drives are not functionally different. I suspect they display differently because they’re still Windows formatted (NTFS), rather than generic (FAT32) or Mac format.

Why do I bother?
picture[daily log: walking, 5km; dogwalking, 3km]

Caveat: Poem #2028

UncategorizedOne Comment 
ㅁ
My uncle's not good company,
he's really getting old.
The room he's in is loud and hot,
because he's deaf and cold.

– a quatrain in ballad meter.
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Caveat: Tree #1107

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This tree was in the distance when a dog watched a duck.
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picture[daily log: walking, 4km; dogwalking, 3km]

Caveat: Tree #1073

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This tree waited while the dog waited at the top of the ramp to the dock.
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We had a Christmas that was so low-key that it really wasn’t very christmassy at all. I made fish curry for dinner.
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picture

picture[daily log: walking, 4km; dogwalking, 3.5km]

Caveat: For Advanced Conlangers

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“Conlanging” is the accepted name for the hobby of inventing new languages. I have been a conlanger since around age 7 – I remember inventing a language for my stuffed animals – specifically, a tribe of stuffed raccoons – at around that age, and though I don’t have my notes, I remember it being fairly sophisticated for something created at that age.

Like many conlangers, it’s only ever been a kind of side hobby, for me – though it dovetails nicely with another hobby I used to have as a child and that I resurrected in my post-cancer years and that has actually become a major avocation: geofiction. And of course, like many conlangers, I was, as a young adult, drawn to linguistics, where it eventually became one of my undergrad majors at the Univ of Minnesota. I don’t regret that, at all.

Anyway, this post is about conlanging, not geofiction. For some years now, there have existed some interesting websites and computer applications for inventing languages and storing the data. But I found a site yesterday that takes it to a new level. The site is called vulgarlang.com. I actually rather dislike the name, but I think it’s probably good marketing. Anyway, the site is created by people who clearly are quite knowledgeable on matters linguistic – to a level I’ve never seen before. I went ahead and paid the $25 “lifetime” access – we’ll see how that pans out, as I’ve seen many a website offering those terms that lasts 5-10 years before disappearing or radically altering its business model such that the guarantee doesn’t eventuate. But anyway, how could I resist. Let there be more conlanging, then – at a higher level of quality than ever before.

As an incidental, I haven’t posted much of my conlanging work online, at all, but a very incomplete exemplar can be found in this article about the Mahhalian language, which I created about 6 years ago originally.
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Caveat: Fishing Report #(n+23)

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We went fishing today. It was an inauspicious start: Arthur slept in and I found the motor wouldn’t start. The battery was dead. I suspect this is because the newly installed plug for the downrigger spent time submersed in standing water – there is no master turn-off switch for the downrigger wiring – this has always been true. We need to remember to make sure the wiring tails with the plug-in ends on them are raised up and unable to fall into water.

And it was raining.
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We charged up the battery using the battery charger and the long extension cord. We got the motor started at around 8, and by 8:30 we had finally departed the dock.

The inauspiciousness continued, as we trolled without result up and down (or rather, down and up) San Ignacio Island. We crossed over to just west of Tranquil Point. And within half an hour, we caught one. At least we were sticking to our established pattern. We trolled for another hour eastward, until just off Batan Point, northwest of Caldera Bay, we caught two at once – one on each downrigger.

So we spun around and trolled through the same spot again. And we caught two more. This was more auspicious. We trolled through the same spot 3 more times, and caught two more. It was raining fairly steadily and Arthur was feeling overwhelmed by all the cutting and packing ahead of him, so we decided 7 was enough, and headed home. We tied up at the dock at about 3:10.

Year-to-date totals:

  • Coho: 10
  • Kings: 0
  • Halibut: 0
  • Other: 1
  • Too-small fish sent home to mama: 12
  • Downrigger weights left on the bottom of the sea: 1

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Caveat: Some Random Blogposts

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I am experimenting with a new little feature on the right-hand column of this here blog thingy™: random posts from the whole set of past blogposts.
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Caveat: Tree #311

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The neighbor, whose house burned down in August, apparently got some insurance money, and is rebuilding. He’s hired someone to put in an improved driveway and a new house-pad, higher than the old house. I’m a bit skeptical in the way this new project has overflowed onto the tribal lands to his east – his new driveway cuts off from the road almost a 100 feet east of his property line. But the new driveway does afford a nice view of the charred but still-living tree down by the water-line where the old house was.
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Here is a view of the new house-pad down the old stairs, the lower part of which we had to destroy with the chain saw during the night of the fire, to prevent the fire from spreading up the stairs.
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picture[daily log: walking, 2.5km]

Caveat: Testing the leaflet widget on the blog

Databases, Smartphones & Computers / Geofiction / Uncategorized

[This is a cross-post from my other blog (see previous blog entry)]

Here’s a live leaflet of my own tileserver with my own planet (stripped of detail because I want my database small as I test things). Welcome to Rahet. UPDATE, OCTOBER 2019: Being a dynamic window on the map, rather than a snapshot, means that since the “planet” shown is much changed, this view is not the view that existed when this blog post was written.

Here’s a view of Tárrases over at OGF on standard layer.

Here’s a view of Tárrases over at OGF on Topo layer. [UPDATE 20210530: The OGF Topo layer is no longer functioning.] [UPDATE2 20230315: The OGF Topo layer is once again functioning, and has been for over a year.]

That’s pretty cool.

Music to map by: Cold, “Bleed.”

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Listening files links

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Listening files links!

HS2

HtMSftTOEFL Intermediate

Speaking

Writing

Listening

HS3

TEPS

Korean

말하기 쉬운 한국어 2

Other

Caveat: Author Profile

Uncategorized

Octopic

[UPDATE 2018-02-09: This page was created in 2013, and I have not updated it. I am putting it here because I have closed the site where it was originally hosted. Most of it is still broadly accurate.]

My name is Jared Way. I have created this website for interacting with my current students, as well as to present myself professionally. I also maintain a personal blog if you want to see more about me.

 

Brief Background

In 2007, I returned to teaching after working for many years in information technology (database programming and business systems analysis). I had worked as a high school teacher in the United States in the 1990’s.

I came to South Korea and I worked for several hagwon (after-school academies) in Ilsan (Goyang City), Gyeonggi, South Korea, from September, 2007, until August, 2009. In April of 2010, I started a one-year contract at Hongnong Elementary School in Hongnong, Yeonggwang County, Jeollanam, South Korea. This was a rural, public school. After that contract ended (April, 2011), I returned to Ilsan and have been another hagwon there since then until the present (January, 2013).

In most of my positions I have worked as speaking or listening skills teacher, with a focus on iBT (TOEFL) preparation or debate-based curricula. I find that debate, especially, is an excellent way to teach integrated languages skills to Korean students, regardless of level or age.

Personal Data

South Korea has a distinct culture and it is extremely common for people I barely know or have just met to ask me questions that would be considered rude or “too personal” in an American cultural context. I think just putting this information online for people to see is easiest.

  • Marital Status: Single (widowed – my wife passed away in 2000).
  • Children: 1 step-son, age 25. I have no current dependents.
  • Age: 47 by Western calendar (48 by Korean reckoning).
  • Height: 178 cm. Weight: 85 kg.

Why Korea?

At some point a some years ago, I became fascinated with Korean language and culture. I have a background in linguistics, and the Korean language is both fascinating to me but also intensely challenging. I have decided that I welcome this challenge, and although it may take a very long time, I hope to stay in Korea until I feel I have reached some degree of competency with the Korean Language. That is one of the reasons why I choose Korea instead of some other location to pursue my teaching career.

Nevertheless, for me the teaching work is more important than the language study, which is perhaps why, after five years in Korea, I’m continue to struggle with the language at a fairly low level – it is often hard to find time and opportunities to study and practice effectively.

I have grown very fond of Korea and Korean culture.

Additional Materials

Below is a list of other materials I have made available online [UPDATE 2018-02-09: all links are broken!].

Octopic

Songs that might be fun for the kids

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I needed a place to “stockpile” video links of songs I think have some teaching potential or entertainment value for my students.

They Might Be Giants, “Walking My Cat Named Dog.” Originally by Norma Tenaga, 1966.

Lyrics

I’m walkin all around the town
Singin all the people down
Talkin around, talkin around.
Me and my cat named Dog
Are walkin high against the fog
Singin the sun
Singin the sun

Happy, sad and crazy wonder
Chokin up my mind with perpetual dreamin…

I’m driftin up and down the street
Searchin for the sound of people
Swingin their feet, swingin their feet
Dog is a good old cat
People what you think of that?
That’s where I’m at, that’s where I’m at.

Happy, sad and crazy wonder
Chokin up my mind with perpetual dreamin…

Dog is a good old cat
People what you think of that?
That’s where I’m at, that’s where I’m at, that’s where I’m at.

They Might Be Giants, “Elephants.” 

Lyrics

they’re not the largest mammals
but they’re biggest on the land
so when I say “please step away”
I know you’ll understand

they’ve got two tusks up front for fighting
or digging in the dirt
so you can see how easily
you’d end up getting hurt

2x
get out of the way
get out of the way
the elephants are coming through your town today

they’re great communicators
with waves called infrasound
seismically clear – you’d barely hear
them travel through the ground

and while the cows all stick together
and congregate at home
the bulls go out and walk about
they’d rather be alone

2x
get out of the way
get out of the way
the elephants are coming through your house today

did you hear about the farmer… 

 

They Might Be Giants, “Omnicorn.”

Lyrics 

omnicorn. like no other creature ever born
on its head is every manner of horn
the omnicorn’s the one
the one

omnicorn
omnicorn
omnicorn. hiding over by the edge of the pines
now it’s running past the hunting lodge sign
no one will see it go

I’ve been to museums
I’ve seen the no-see-ums
I know what I’m talking about

omnicorn. even rarer than a unicorn
it’s got every single kind of horn
omnicorn’s the one
the one

omnicorn
omnicorn
omnicorn. leaping over someone’s mobius strip
left behind from a vacationing trip
that’s something to talk about
omnicorn go
omnicorn go
omnicorn go
omnicorn go

 

Lyrics.

 

Color Song

 

What color is the sky?

It’s blue.

It’s blue.

It’s blue.

The sky is blue.

The sky is blue.

 

What color is the sun?

It’s yellow.

It’s yellow.

It’s yellow.

The sun is yellow.

The sky is blue.

 

What color is the grass?

It’s green.

It’s green.

It’s green.

The grass is green.

The sun is yellow.

The sky is blue.

 

What color is an apple?

It’s red.

It’s red.

It’s red.

An apple is red.

The grass is green.

The sun is yellow.

 

The sky is blue.
The sky is blue.

 

xx

xx

xx

Phonomimes, Phenomimes and Psychomimes

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This is a list of Korean phonomimes, phenomimes and psychomimes. In Korean, phonomimes are called 의성어, while phenomimes and psychomimes (without distinction) are called 의태어.

Most are reduplicative, but not all, cf. 날씬. Most are adverbial, but not all, cf. 똑똑하다 which is only allowed with the verbal suffix -하다 (there exists an adverbial 똑똑 but the semantics are completely different, as it seems be simply a phonomime “knock knock”). Many of them show variants with an alternation of vowels (mostly within the old Korean vowel harmonies). Most of them appear to derive from “native Korean” (pre-Chinese substrate) but a few have hanja (i.e. are borrowed from Chinese, e.g. 당당하다) – these might not belong, strictly speaking, to the same category but I have included them anyway because the semanto-phonotactics are the same.

There are quite a few, and I have posted [broken link! FIXME] several [broken link! FIXME] blog [broken link! FIXME] entries about them in the past, but I have decided to maintain a simple consolidated list as a separate page, as I have never found one online that exactly presents them in just this way, as a simple list.

The distinction between them is quite vague and unclear. When does a phonomime become a phenomime? When does a phenomime shade into a psychomime? I don’t know that such distinctions are even useful – one can use a phonomime metaphorically to pass into the other semantic categories. What’s interesting to me is their existence as a broad and seemingly fairly active semantic category, collectively.

Actually, the relation in wikipedia between the articles on “ideophone” and on “sound symbolism” (which includes discussion of phenomimes and psychomimes) overlaps substantially, without either article seeming to be aware of the other. In fact, there is other work in other places,  too, that doesn’t tie this together very well. In general, the “internet’s” understanding of this phenomenon seems quite fragmented and poor. This is another motivation for posting this updatable “page” on my blog space.

Personally, I’m not sure what to call these, collectively. “‘Mimes”? “Reduplicative adverbials”? “Sound symbolic sememes”? I’ve seen the term “mimetic words.”  I think I like “ideophone.”

So here is a list, in 한글순서 (Korean “alphabetical” order) – roughly, I haven’t worked too hard to make sure the vowels under each consonant are in correct order.

  • -ㄱ-
    • 갈갈 [gal.gal] = greedily, ravenously, avidly
  • -ㄲ-
    • 꽹구랑 꽹꽹깽 [kkwaeng.gu.rang kkwaeng.kkwaeng.kkaeng] = gongingly
    • 깡충깡충 [kkang.chung.kkang.chung] = bouncily, “hoppingly” 
    • 깡총깡총[kkang.chong.kkang.chong] = bouncily, “hoppingly”
  • -ㄴ-
    • 날씬 [nal.ssin] = slimly, slenderly
    • 늘씬[neul.ssin] = slimly, slenderly
  • -ㄷ-
    • 당당하다 [dang.dang-hada] = to be stately, to be imposing, to be dignified, to be fair
    • 드르르 [deu.reu.reu] excellently, smoothly
  • -ㄸ-
    • 똑똑 [ttok.ttok] = “knock, knock”, “drip, drip”
    • 똑똑하다 [ttok.ttok-hada] = to be smart, to be clever, to be bright, be be explicit, to be distinct
    • 띵가띵가놀다 [tting.ka.tting.ka-nol.da] = to play around, to goof off, to dink around
  • -ㄹ-
  • -ㅁ-
    • 말똥말똥 [mal.ttong.mal.ttong] = wide-eyed staringly
    • 멀뚱멀뚱 [meol.ttung.meol.ttung] = wide-eyed staringly
    • 말랑 몰랑 물렁 [mal.lang mol.lang mul.leong] = softly / tenderly (as a texture of food)
    • 말캉 몰캉 물캉 [mal.kang mol.kang mul.kang] = softly / tenderly (as a texture of food)
    • 말랑말랑하다 [mal.lang.mal.lang-hada] = to be soft, to be tender, to be spongy
  • -ㅂ-
    • 보글보글 [bo-geul-bo-geul] = boilingly, bubblingly
    • 바글바글 [ba.geul.ba.geul] = boilingly, bubblingly
    • 부글부글 [bu.geul.bu.geul] = boilingly, bubblingly
    • 바삭바삭(-하다) [ba.sak.ba.sak] = to be crispy
    • 방긋방긋 [bang.geut.bang.geut] = broadly [as in a smile]
    • 반짝 [ban.jjak] = sparklingly, twinklingly
    • 번쩍 [beon.jjeok] = sparklingly, twinklingly
    • 반짝반짝 [ban.jjak.ban.jjak] = sparklingly
    • 비슬비슬 [bi.seul.bi.seul] = reelingly, totteringly, in a staggering or faltering manner
  • -ㅃ-
    • 뽀글뽀글 [ppo.geul.ppo.geul] = boilingly, bubblingly
    • 빠글빠글 [ppa.geul.ppa.geul] = boilingly, bubblingly
    • 뿌글뿌글 [ppu.geul.ppu.geul] = boilingly, bubblingly
    • 빡빡 [ppak.ppak] = crustily, tightly, narrow-mindedly
    • 뼉뼉 [ppeok.ppeok] = crustily, tightly, narrow-mindedly
    • 빤짝 [ppan.jjak] = sparklingly, twinklingly
    • 뻔쩍 [ppeon.jjeok] = sparklingly, twinklingly
    • 부둑부둑 [bu.dok.bu.dok] = damply-drily, a bit damply mostly drily
  • -ㅅ-
    • 섭섭(-하다) [seop.seop] = disappointedly, sadly
    • 살짝 [sal-jjak] / 설쩍 [seol.jjeok] = stealthily
    • 싱글벙글 [sing.geul.beong.geul] = smilingly
    • 살살 [sal.sal] = gently, softly
    • 설설 [seol.seol] = gently, softly
    • 솔솔 [sol.sol] = gently, softly
    • 술술 [sul.sul] = gently, softly
    • 슬슬 [seul-seul] = gently, softely
    • 살금살금 [sal.geum.sal.geum] = sneakily
    • 새콤달콤하다 [sae.kom.dal.kom-hada] = to be sweet and sour
  • -ㅆ-
    • 싹독 [ssak.dok] = choppingly, snippingly
    • 썩둑 [sseok.duk] = choppingly, snippingly
  • -ㅇ-
    • 아삭아사(-하다) [asakasak] = to be crunchy
    • 옹기종기 [ong.gi.jong.gi] closely together
  • -ㅈ-
    • 정정당당하다 [jeong.jeong.dang.dang-hada] = to be fair and sqaure
    • 주렁주렁 [ju.reong.ju.reong] = richly, with fullness
  • -ㅉ-
    • 쫄깃쫄깃(-하다) [jjol.git.jjol.git] = to be chewy
  • -ㅊ-
    • 추룩 추루룩 추루룩 [chu.ruk chu.ru.ruk chu.ru.ruk] = downpouringly
    • 찰랑찰랑 [chal.lang.chal.lang] = lappingly, sloppingly
    • 출렁출렁 [chul.leong.chul.leong] = lappingly, sloppingly
  • -ㅋ-
    • 콜콜 [kol.kol] = gurglingly, deeply
    • 쿨쿨 [kul.kul] = gurglingly, with snores, [sleeping] soundly
  • -ㅌ-
    • 통통(-하다)  [tong.tong] = plumply
    • 퉁퉁(-하다)  [tung.tung] = plumply
  • -ㅍ-
    • 퍽퍽 [peok.peok] = thrustingly, with repeated thrusts
    • 팍팍 [pak.pak] = thrustingly, with repeated thrusts
  • -ㅎ –
    • 흔들흔들 [heun.deul.heun.deul] shakily

 [last updated 2015-10-09]

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