Archive for April, 2007
April 16, 2007 at 4:53 pm · Filed under Lifestyle
I get ideas. They come abrupt and roll in like a storm. We all remember when I committed myself to eating numerous bars of chocolate for a few t-shirts. There’s the “Down Comforter Incident.” In college, I made the last minute decision to transfer schools. For the most part, these decisions felt instinctive and made sense for my circumstances.
Over the last few months, I’ve been following a Canadian blogger. She’s living in Suwan, Korea and blogging about the culture and her experiences. She’s an ESL teacher, which means English as a Second Language, and teaching at a hagwon. A hagwon is a private educational school for children.
I started as a casual reader just taking in the front posts. But then I got to thinking about the earlier posts. “What were her first impressions upon arriving in Korea? Why did she decide to teach in a foreign country? How difficult was it to sign up for this?” So, I went to the beginning posts.
After reading those posts, my curiosity began to snowball. I sought out other bloggers who were teaching in Korea to get their perspectives. All of it seemed so wonderful. Finally, after reading a few different blogs, a fully formed Frosty the Snowman was tapping me on the shoulder and clearing his throat. “Hrrrmmm Hrrrrmmf!” Why read these blogs when I could experience them firsthand?!
Brilliant! I’ll go to Korea!…but how?
The one site that all these blogs seem to link back to is Dave’s ESL Cafe. (The colors hurt my eyes!) It’s like a classifieds website for ESL teachers and employers. It has a jobs board, but I didn’t find the website particularly informative. A second site was Galbijim, a wiki built around “enough English information on living, working, and traveling in Korea to better serve English-speakers.” This site actually had some good articles on what to expect. I read through all of the posts on ‘Teaching in Korea‘, but I still didn’t know where to find a an employer.
I went back to the ESL jobs board and sifted through some of the listings. I found a job with a particularly well written description and package deal. I followed a link back to the company’s website and it looked promising. But of course, I’m a skeptical person. I have my concerns about this being a legitimate company just like anyone else would (or should have). So, I went back to the Canadian blogger. I sent her an email about how she went about finding her job. She referred me back to the same company which I had found, and she highly recommended them. Seemed good enough.
April 14, 2007 at 7:15 pm · Filed under Games, Lifestyle, Music
I’ve been sitting on my duff, these past few days. It really isn’t that different from any other weekend. This is how they usually go. However, I’m waiting for some individual to email me. (More on this later…maybe.)
In the mean time, I’ve been playing Zelda: the Minish Cap all day. It’s got that retro RPG gameplay that I love. It’s basically Zelda: A Link to the Past, but with a new story and a few new twists. It’s simple and fun.
The new Nine Inch Nails album comes out this week. I’ve been listening to it since it was first made available streaming on the NIN website. I probably like the progressive marketing that has been surrounding it’s release more than the album. First, a viral marketing team created a few websites to reinforce the underlying theme of the album, and they leaked a few songs. The album includes an ANTI-RIAA anti-piracy warning. The CD, also, supposedly has a heat sensitive face, which changes color when hot and cold. While I was following all this hype about Year Zero, it got me thinking about another concept album and band.
A concept album is one which is unified by a central theme. Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon is probably one of the most notable concept albums. It explores the nature of the human experience with themes such as birth, time, greed, conflict, travel, mental illness, and death. But, the group I’m thinking of is The Mars Volta.
In 2003, The Mars Volta released their first album De-Loused in the Comatorium. The album is an hour-long tale of Cerpin Taxt, a man who tries to kill himself by overdosing on morphine. The attempt lands him in a week-long coma during which he experiences visions of humanity and his own psyche. Upon waking, he is dissatisfied with the real world and jumps to his death. The story of Cerpin Taxt is based on the death of one of the musicians’ friends.
Back in the day, I had this album and only listened to Televators (This is the song in which Cerpin Taxt commits suicide. Listen Here.) But now, I really have to hear the album from beginning to end. It’s perfect for the commute to and from work. If you’re a lyrics person, this band really isn’t for you. They make little sense and are difficult to decipher. Albeit, the music is monumental. The Mars Volta have two follow-up albums, which are equally great but not as epic as De-Loused in the Comatorium. Give it a listen, if you can.
Now, please excuse me while I check my email.
April 12, 2007 at 8:08 am · Filed under Books, News Events
Kurt Vonnegut, whose dark comic talent and urgent moral vision in novels like “Slaughterhouse-Five,” “Cat’s Cradle” and “God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater” caught the temper of his times and the imagination of a generation, died Wednesday night in Manhattan. He was 84 and had homes in Manhattan and in Sagaponack on Long Island.
Mr. Vonnegut wrote plays, essays and short fiction. But it was his novels that became classics of the American counterculture, making him a literary idol, particularly to students in the 1960s and ’70s. Dog-eared paperback copies of his books could be found in the back pockets of blue jeans and in dorm rooms on campuses throughout the United States.
~NY Times
~Chicagoist
April 10, 2007 at 8:19 pm · Filed under Food, Take a Lap
This morning I get into the office, and this girl had brought in cookies for everyone. From a distance, I spotted them and locked in on their color and appearance. They looked white, buttery, and delicious. But, I did not indulge right away.
After 15 minutes, the girl came around, and she was handing out the cookies. She was trying to gain peoples’ opinions, and they were coming in negative. I thought maybe she had added too much butter or vanilla? Eventually, it was my turn to become test subject. I took a bite, and my taste buds confirmed that there IS NO GOD! It was horrible,…and yet…familiar.
The nastiness didn’t stem from a miscalculated ingredient, but it came from the flavor itself. What was it? I couldn’t put my finger on it, and it led me to continue eating the cookie. It tasted so reminiscent, and yet so taste wrenching. Bite after bite, I thought I could solve the mystery of the flavor on my own. Finally, I had to ask. What’s in this?
…”black licorice”, she says.
Seriously? Black licorice. Who would do such a thing to a harmless cookie? Who thinks that black licorice honestly tastes good? I don’t know! It reminded me of this candy that clear had brought from Italy. It was small and looked like something you’d keep in your pocket as a breath mint, but instead you want to punish everyone around you for slowly pulling off your eyelids. Black licorice should never have been conceived or forced into a delicious looking cookie.
April 8, 2007 at 11:21 am · Filed under potato
Here’s the start of my bonsai potato. Albert has been hibernating in the cabinet, above the sink, for the last week. He just arrived from a long trip from Idaho. He woke up, today, for some yoga and this photo-op. It looks like the dark side is trying to convert him too.
References: greatscott, potato gallery
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