The bridge to somewhere

The village Abai Maul* is perched on the tiny strip of land that separates the ocean from Lake Chungcho -if the strip of land weren't there, Chungcho would be a bay rather than a salt lake.

The lake is harbour for small and medium sized fishing boats and the like and is accessible by a canal pinched between Abai Maul and Sokcho proper. For some time, the canal could be crossed by foot traffic by a human powered ferry (갯배 in Korean). It is a locally famous tourist site.

Before I arrived in Sokcho, a beautiful red bridge was built terminating in Abai Maul. Strangely, one does not need the bridge as the land is continuous on that side. It is an unnecessary bridge that ends at the end of a penninsula - a bridge to nowhere.
Now, work is underway to extend the bridge over the canal. I am not sure why Sokcho needs a big bridge or multi-lane road there, but soon they will have one. The bridge will finally go somewhere. The original bridge to nowhere was not a crazy idea. Lake Chungcho, communicating with the ocean only through a small canal was filling up with pollution. Eventually, the plan is to dig a second canal under the bridge so that water could flow in through one canal and out the other, cleaning the lake (and further polluting the ocean and local beaches.)

In other construction news, for the four years I have lived in Sokcho, the building behind our apartment, 'Sporium', has been closed. It will soon re-open as Fantasia and will be a spa and health club and possibly a jimjilbang - a dry sauna and open sleeping area for budget travellers.

---___---
*Abai Maul may have an interesting history. After living in the area for a few years, a fellow English teacher from the West Coast told me that it was founded by displaced people from North Korea.

Cut off in traffic

The bike shop in Midland, Ontario really came through and delivered a crank with three gear rings to my mother, who then sent them here. The price wasn't much more than the local guy had listed for two gear rings. I know that having three gear rings is a relatively new phenomenon; I never saw any thirty years ago but I sure like the low-speed, high-power ring for hill-climbing. I use it much more than the big, high-speed ring. I am a slow-moving, fat, middle-aged man, after all.

Still, I was riding with traffic today; keeping up with the congestion and the traffic lights. I passed, and was passed by, one car about three times before the driver made a right turn in front of me.

And I couldn't get angry at him, either. That might be the most annoying part.

If he had been fifty metres ahead of me and made the turn and I caught up with and hit him, that would clearly be my fault. If he had passed me and immediately turned, that would just as clearly be his fault.

He was maybe ten metres ahead; just far enough that I don't know for sure that he was to blame.

I had time to hit the brakes, roar, twist and gently broadside his car behind the back door. We stopped together and both apologized. No harm done to either vehicle or person so we went on but I was gasping for several minutes afterwards.

They could've hosted the Olympics

Pyeongchang is reporting heavy snowfall today. I notice that Seorak's highest peak is still white as well.

Sleep in class, join the gallery

Teachers work hard, remember them this Teacher's Day

I know it's not for a few days but I don't actually have classes on Thursday (but, really, I work hard, really) so my students need the opportunity to show how much they respect me.

May 15th is Teacher's Day. Please give generously. (Korean says the same).

I may have mastered the goofy look.

Student assistant Mun demonstrates how its done.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Just to be certain I don't infuriate anyone, there is no bottom to the box. If a student was gullible enough to donate money, it would fall on his/her feet.

Does Buddhism get a free pass?

Hong-ryeon Am, part of Naksan Temple Complex

As an atheist, I am generally against religion but I would say I mostly condemn Christianity. I have stronger feelings about (and against) Islam but there are few Muslims around.

There are many Buddhists however.

In a recent blog post, Pharyngula's Paul Myers described listening to a Christian Radio Station discussing Atheism and one of the points brought up was Atheist's attacks on Christianity. Myers gave an appropriate response:

Aikman [on the radio] claims the atheists are bringing "pestilence", and claims that we only pick on Christians (what? What about Hitchens?) because Christians are so good and kind and generous and won't blow them up. We're already in stupid territory: the atheists criticize Christians because they are the dominant element in our culture.

Today, just naturally, I visited Naksan Temple and had a great time. We ate Bibim Rice and visited a few shrines where KwandongWife prayed (reason one for not attacking Buddhism - my wife is a small 'b' Buddhist).

I understand only the basics of Buddhism and approve of most of them. They don't exactly have a god (well, if you squint right). They believe in moderation, non-violence and the impermanence of things. So far I'm satisfied.

Buddhism has a thick outer shell of things I like, but it also has an small but integral core of, well, garbage. Reincarnation. You will be reborn and your actions in this life determine your starting point in the next life.

This might be a useful lie, encouraging good behaviour, but I wonder why I do not rail against it, as I have against the foolishness I have occasionally encountered from Christians?

Perhaps because most of the Buddhists I have met have been quiet about their religion; completely willing to discuss their faith but unwilling to volunteer. They answer questions happily but do not evangelize. Well, the ones I have met.

I wonder, am I being hypocritical by not inspecting the claims of Buddhists more closely?

Um, Happy Buddha's Birthday?

The things I do to entertain my son.

Who am I kidding; this was fun and I'd do it even without a child.

A different yellow dust

And not Phillip Pullman's dust, either.

The windows to our classrooms were left open (screened, but open) over the weekend and everything was coated in a yellow powder. I tried to tell me students it was hwangsa (황사), the Korean name for the dust coming from China's deserts and literally 'yellow dust', but htey were having none of it.

Who'da thunk there were that many trees in Korea?

Oh, and identity thieves, here is your chance; how many times can you find perfectly dusted fingerprints just waiting to be printed out and used...somehow?

My work and family life combining terribly!

This morning, my son saw a work videotape on the table and carried it to the VCR.

I guess I am happy that KwandongAlex is interested in my teaching materials. Still, I watch the same episode of Connect with English, nine times a week. I watched them last year and the year before that. I can quote long sections of dialogue and sometimes sing along in class, to the student's amusement and my own horror.

The material is fine but, well, it doesn't fit the student's needs as well as I would like (to be fair, I don't have a better curriculum to put forward). It can be difficult to teach but mostly the result for me is like an adult trying to watch a children's movie and be interested in it. To make it understandable, the issues are skimmed over and not at all shaded.

Interestingly, the issues are serious and can be dark but the dialogue is corny and the whole thing is somewhere between a professional TV show and my own UCC (Konglish for homemade video).

And now my son wants to watch the videos at home....Is there no escape? The horror, the horror.

Another trip to Seoul...

...another student interview.

Many times, when I visit Seoul and go to a tourist site, a group of students will ask for an interview.

Kyobo Book Store seems infested with middle school students ready to ambush foreigners in the foreign book section. Well, it seemed that way a few years ago, things may have changed.

Yesterday, I was interviewed in Insadong by a group of Korea University students and they seemed to be doing real research so I did my best to talk about English Education in Korea.

Most times, however, the interview is a homework assignment given by a teacher who thinks getting the students to speak with different foreigners is a good idea. Ah, put like that, it probably is, but do these teachers realize how small the pool of interview subjects is?

A Korean English professor at my university gave similar homework to one or two hundred students and we 20 foreign staff were overwhelmed and finally hid - partially because the students waited until the last moment and tried to all interview us on the same day in a long line.

Anyone who thinks 'Interview the foreigner' is a good homework assignment, please consider the student/ available foreigner ratio before going ahead with it. I am fine with, I don't know, an interview a year, maybe two, but not ten in a day.

To put it bluntly, I get paid to teach English, don't think I am eager to teach your students for free on my time off!

A letter to pedestrians

If you want to use the sidewalk,...


...You can just go f--k yourself because I am so important that I don't have time to park my company vehicle in a parking space.

Signed,
Telecom Guy

Oh, and seconded by busy van-drivin' guy...



...and Truck Drivin' guy, because...
...I need room in front of my truck for, uh, something, or maybe I was in a hurry and didn't have time to think about others - hey, just like always!

It the first of May!

I suggest you all celebrate the First of May.
WOW version here.

That Coulton is a funny guy.

ADDED Later: Possibly NSFW (not safe for work)

Minjok in American News

The New York Times has an article about Korea’s most prestigious high school (and some other school, I don’t know).

Minjok, located in central Gangwondo (if you take the bus from Seoul to Gangneung, you will stop at a rest station next to the school – look for the traditional-style buildings next to the milk factory), sends many students to the US every year for university. I should say, to the best universities.

The article goes through the student’s grueling schedules and serious work ethic.

I know a little about the school from working at summer and winter camps for middle school students. Those camps have given me the chance to see the grounds, speak to some of the teachers and some of the students (current and alumni) who assist in running the camp.

The students, even the middle school students there for a camp, work terrifyingly hard; and pay dearly for the opportunity. In fact, paying tuition is new: the founder also ran the nearby milk factory and used its profits to fund the school. The school was free for its first few years. I think at that time the schedule was even tougher as the students and families couldn’t threaten to take their tuition elsewhere.

Unfortunately, the factory fell on hard times and had to be financially separated from the school. Tuition (I believe high tuition) was required and the camps began as a way to meet costs. In other words, although tuition is high, it is still not enough, the students are getting more than they pay for.

To learn more about the school, check the website of Alexander Ganse, who teaches history and more and posts students papers online. Their papers are the last link on this page. Minjok also has a wikipedia page.

The Marmot's hole commenters are also discussing the article.

I hope to be back there this summer.

Meta comments on exams

Here is a patchwork of photos of some student exams. I post them here partly for humour but I will also post them on my blogs for students for the next semester as a warning for them. Many students wrote, "sorry" (or "ssory" in one case). Well, many that I photographed; the students who did well typically did not feel the need to write directly to me in their exams (one who did, told me "[he] respects me" - the suck-up).

More interesting are the pictures and emoticons drawn by students who did not do well. The exam consisted of watching four 2-4 minute clips, answering questions about them and ten minutes was given at the end for another questions and to check and make changes to their exams. When did the students start drawing faces? In some cases, judging from the otherwise blank exams, they could have start upon receiving their exams.

I don't think any of these students cheated but a surprising number of other students did. As I have mentioned in the past, cheating usually doesn't help because the neighboring exams are no more likely to have correct answers.

Average student grades were around 14-18 out of 30. My police admin classes managed 22/30 on average and sports students were closer to 14/30. More importantly (for me), is that a fair range of grades were received so I can curve the scores as required.*

Anyway, click to enlarge
---___---

*The worst thing that could happen for me would be to have all students within five marks of each other - curving would be impossible. The students would probably prefer to all be between 25 and 30, but that would mean rewriting a tougher exam or increased value given to homework.

Malaria Day

It's still April 25 in North America so I guess I can still comment on it.

I recall a few things about malaria from my invertebrate zoology class. The Korean DMZ is a reservoir for one of the relatively benign forms; it's not that likely to kill you. I've had a few students who contracted malaria when doing their military service and they complained mostly of headaches.

The main site

Sleep in your exam, join the gallery

Because of the position of desks and students, I actually left the classroom through the front door and entered through the back door to shake him awake - after I took the pic, of course. He seemed pretty zonked - I gave him some candy and pointed him to the appropriate question - it was a listening test, so you really can't go back to missed questions.

Green

The flowers have been wonderful but in Sokcho, they are found in clumps. Today, I noticed the entire mountain has turned green and its great.

Bike Repairs - Help

I'm having trouble affording bike repairs and so am posting my KB bank account so you will be able to make donations to keep the Hans Island Rider carrying his all-important message that Hans Island belongs to Canada.
.
.
Alright, I can afford the repairs but want to get the parts I want not just the ones the repairman can get easily.
Here is a photo of the front set of gears for my bike. If you click and enlarge it you will see the teeth are worn down and irregular. I need to replace the full set.
The repairman can only find a two-speed replacement for the current three speed set. I think that's strange. Does anyone know, can I get a set of three gear rings? I honestly use the smaller two rings most of the time. Well, the middle ring most of the time, and the smallest ring for hills. I have used the largest ring only a few times.

If anyone can help or give advice, thanks!

Wonderful Warm Weather Weekend

On Saturday, Kwandongwife worked, so KwandongAlex and I went to Sokcho Beach. The sun was warm but occasionally a cool wind chill us. We got our feet wet but mostly played in the sand and chased and fed pigeons. A few people were playing in the water where the waves broke and seemed to be having fun but no one was swimming.Today (Sunday the 20th) was cheap day at Waterpia for Sokcho residents so the little guy and I spent several hours there. It was nice to use the outdoor pools without worrying about the cold. I think you won't notice in the photo (although you are welcome to try - click to enlarge) but the mountain behind us is still snow capped.
I can't remember which morning I took this picture but with such a busy schedule it's important to start with a good breakfast. I just wish he didn't look like a monk praying before a shrine!

dyed hair, gray hair and giving up a bus seat

I am not a particularly vain person; I've never worried overmuch about my hair or how I compared to current fashions. I've always tried to be clean and neat but, well, I want a belt that holds up my pants, I don't really care if it matches my shoes or my eyes or whatever.

My future? (BBC photo)

I know I have a few grey hairs. Recently though, every time I look in a mirror I see more silver up there. In horror, the other day I found a looong grey hair sticking straight out from one of my ears. In relating the story to coworkers, they pointed out the other ear also sported a single long grey hair. I plucked those. The rest of my hair can continue to grey normally (although I really don't like the process).

While riding the bus from Sokcho to Yangyang a few days ago, a group of women boarded. Their faces held intricate wrinkles of long experience.

I pride myself in giving up my seat to just about anyone who needs it. People carrying children, pregnant women, disabled people and the elderly.

These women who boarded the bus had jet black hair. I kept my seat.

I feel that if you go to the effort to dye your hair, you are doing so to look younger. If you want to look younger, you have to expect to be treated as a young person. It might even be flattering to have to stand.

K- Blogger Gord Sellar on PodCastle

UPDATE: Robbed! Gord's story has been bumped. Escape Pod is very well organized but Podcastle, only in it's third week, may still be working out the kinks and bugs. Here's hoping we see Gord's story in the next few weeks. Giant looks like a good story, too.

I have listened to Escape Pod, a weekly podcast of audio fiction for around two years now. I say audio fiction because it started with both Science Fiction and Fantasy stories but now focuses exclusively on science fiction because a sister podcast now offers fantasy.

That sister podcast, Podcastle, starting offering stories on April 1 (no joke and thanks for nothing for not commenting on my attempts at April fool's Day jokes, jerks!). Anyway, its too early to say much about the quality but I've enjoyed the stories so far and they make my commute a little easier. I expect good quality as Escape Pod has been excellent.

Tomorrow (Friday, April 18 - but probably late in the day for those of us 12 hours ahead of most of the US here in Korea), a 'miniature', a short fantasy story, will be released and the story, Pahwahke, is by K-blogger Gord Sellar. Congratulations to him and I'll be going out of my way to listen as soon as I can.

Podcastle schedule:

EPISODE 1 - April 1: “Come Lady Death” by Peter Beagle
Bonus Flash - April 4: “Stone Born” by Loreen Heneghan
EPISODE 2 - April 8: “For Fear of Dragons” by Carrie Vaughn
EPISODE 3 - April 15: “Run of the Fiery Horse” by Hilary Moon Murphy
Bonus Flash - April 18: “Pahwahke” by Gord Sellar
EPISODE 4 - April 22: “Goosegirl” by Margaret Ronald
EPISODE 5 - April 29: “The Girl with the Sun in Her Head” by Jeremiah Tolbert
Bonus Flash - May 2: “Giant” by Stephanie Burgis
EPISODE 6 - May 6: “The Dead Girl’s Wedding March” by Cat Rambo


Gord is currently on a tear about the Wonder Girls and the sexualization of Korean youth. If there is no such word as 'sexualization', then read his post. There may still be no such word, but you will have learned something.

Sleep in class, join the gallery

Is an overly-insistent claim of averageness pretentious?

I haven't written much in the last few days so I thought I would write about an idea for a book I had involving myself and a friend.

My friend is very much into photography. I feel a little strange saying that because I was into photography, not quite to the same extent, but still enthusiastic and willing to put extra time and money into taking the perfect shot. It must be said that I thought the perfect shot could be taken simply by taking many photos of the same object. I remember using a roll of 36 to shoot three or four things and how disappointing it was, weeks later, to open the pack of developed photos and see the same tree or bird ten times in a row, slightly different, all good, but nothing exciting.

Anyway, I know more about photography now but don't pursue it in the same way anymore.

My friend, married but childless has a set of relatively high-end cameras. I said he was childless, but really he has adopted the cameras and treats them much as I treat my little guy.

He is also taking a photography class and studying the work of famous photographers (and more than just the nudy photos!)

His work has taken him to look for interesting contrasts in light and texture and, well, I'm not sure what.

And that is the idea for my book.

Last year, around this time, we went to a temple in Sokcho and took many pictures. One thing that stands out for me, though, was the way he turned his back on the white-capped mountain, with its bits of green and new purple flowers, and ignored the riot of colours of the temple and instead shot a twisted bit of rusty wire.*

This is what our book would be about. We would go to beautiful places and I would shoot, in a generic style but clearly and mostly competently the backgrounds, while he would shoot the light under a door pushing away shadow, or, um, something. I would also shoot him at work, although most of those shots would be of him behind his camera pointing at something not caught in the quality of my photo.

The whole book would display his artiness and my lack of comprehension. To put us both in a negative light, his pretentiousness and my wilful ignorance. The auteur and the layman, the specialist and the generalist.

In the course of the book there might even be a character arc. Would I become more knowledgeable and begin to understand what the heck my friend was thinking or would he, uh, whatever the lessening of his character of photos would be?

My suggestion for this book to him didn't go well. He's not interested. Oh, well.

If any publishing execs are reading this and interested in the concept, offer me money and I will try again to win my friend over to the idea.

---___---

* While at the temple, he did take a few landscape photos and some shots of me. Naturally, for the sake of the book's concept, we would focus (pun intended) on our differing styles. Naturally too, the photos of me were well done - a challenge with my features and terrible poses in front of any camera, but expected with his skills.

---___---

Oh, if my unnamed friend wants his name here, please leave a comment or an email ( although I am worried the hypothetical publishing execs might try to cut me out of the deal if they know who you are and can deal with you directly).

Early April, the season of temple fires

Luckily, it is not in Gangwondo this time. Ah, luckily is probably not the right word. Fortunately for Gangwondo, it is not a local fire. Yeah, that's better.

A fire in Jeollanamdo threatens the Buddhist temple, Unju-sa.


Photo from Naver News -story found through Koreabeat.

To read about a local temple fire, see here for my coverage of the Naksan temple fire, the day after and a year after.

The man, the myth...

Maybe even the (blogging) legend, The Big Hominid is moving. As always, I will probably keep him on my blogroll for another month before fixing the link.

He will be preparing for a wonderful sounding walk across the US in support of inter-religious dialogue and news on the subject can be found here.

I guess that people who set off on endurance trips don't compare themselves to others - the motivation comes from inside, not from outdoing another traveller's accomplishment. I hope that's the case, because I enjoy endurance travel with the huge opportunity for personal reflection and my bicycle trip across Canada (78th time I've been able to work that into a post!) is far overmatched by the scale of his trip.

In the linked post, he states that his walk may whittle him down to a less freakish size. Perhaps he has been in Korea too long; I think that once he arrives in America, he will be average sized and average shaped. I should say North America (or even Northern North America) because Canadians are no smaller.

If he imagined marching through the woods with other hikers making claims of seeing Bigfoot, well, he should have stayed here. Besides, as a half-Korean, I doubt his feet are beyond size 10 and he can probably buy shoes anywhere (sorry, the complaints of this large-footed author are not relevant here).

I'll be following his march as closely as I can and wish him the best.

Talk about niche markets

Does nobody care about trichonosis?

I don't eat a lot of red meat. I even make my spaghetti with diced chicken rather than beef meatballs.

A few months ago, I bought some American chuck roll and made some great steak sandwiches.

I decided to try ham. I don't know why, I just never was into it before.

At E-mart, I checked out the "cooked ham" and all the meat I saw was pink! That's cooked? I don't need it to be well-done, but pigs carry some nasty parasites. Can I at least have it done medium?

So much for that experiment.

Be careful out there.

Canadian Coast Guard in the news...

...and it's not good news.

After rescuing a hunting boat in Maritime Canada, an accident occurred while towing it to shore causing three deaths. I wish the families of the departed the best in this terrible time.
I do wish, though, that the editor or writer at the Korea Times had finished this sentence (click to enlarge).
I was unable to find the article online.

What are they hiding?

I should be careful with my language here, but I have to say I often feel Koreans accept things that seem ridiculous to visitors to the country. Starting with an admittedly trivial subject, they lap up horrible stereotypes about Native speaker ESL teachers. More seriously, their opinions regarding the American military presence are easily swayed and they do not appear to want to test the things the media tells them. As a final example, did anyone question Dr Hwang Woo-suk's results?

I cannot say this is the reason, the cause, but it must be related in some way: dictionaries in Korea are missing some useful vocabulary.
Consider these pictures (The first is from Co-build, from the Bank of England):



Now a Korean-English dictionary.


All are missing 'gullible'. Even the Korean term ,"속다" is missing (and that word was dang hard to find to see if it was missing). I have started a petition on Facebook and, for those not so interested in Facebook, here is another petition site. Remember, we cannot teach critical thinking to Koreans until they understand what it means to be gullible.

Do I, or should I, admire Larry Niven?

I certainly do admire many of his books. Ringworld and Footfall are two of my favourites and could be used as supplements to high school or first year university physics classes.

In Footfall, a novel about the invasion of Earth by elephantoid (not exactly elephantine - not giant, but elephant shaped) aliens, the US government gathers a group of Science fiction writers to provide outside-the-box ideas and suggestions on how to fight the aliens.

Such a group -the sci-fi writers, not the aliens - does exist. Their acronym is SIGMA and it means something important, I'm sure. At a recent Sigma meeting (the link took me to the article i wanted, a quarter of the way down the page), Niven told Homeland Security that to keep hospitals financially viable, they should create rumours in Spanish that the hospitals are killing patients and harvesting organs. That would drive away illegal aliens (of the human sort) who typically don't pay for medical services and keep the hospitals available for legal citizens.

I learned of this from Boing Boing -do I need to hat-tip a blog that in one day will have more visitors than I ever will?

Kevin has been ahead of the curve in questioning Niven's current relevance.

The Baen free library has a recent book by Niven, Fallen Angels. The book is passable but the library is great. It offers the first or first few books in various Science Fiction or Fantasy series' for free. There are also a few freestanding books by prolific authors to get you interested in their work.

Self Image

When I was working part time as a swim coach while at university, I trained many novice swimmers. They came in all sizes and shapes and at that age, fitness and skill typically meant less than body position in the water. It's a technical point but basically if the swimmers could keep their hips and legs on or near surface, they would be faster than those who did not.

Skills and concepts such as moving your hand sideways through the water as you pull to increase power in accordance with Bernoulli's principle came much later. Even swimmers who were physically fit and strong could not overcome the slowing effects of drag if they had bad body position in the water.

Again, novice swimming is very egalitarian or democratic. Actual physical prowess helps but is not decisive with the younger swimmers.

One day, a few weeks into the season, a twelve year old girl who was nearly as tall as I was joined my group. She swam well enough, nothing special, but I could see remarkable potential in her size and shape.*

I became interested in where this girl could end up and I would be her first coach! I described her to other coaches and made special note that she was only twelve and already five- eight. Remember, her height meant very little in how she would do for the first few months or more.

I am sure she heard me making this point. Whatever, she swam for a week and never returned.

I was reminded of this by the title of an article in Wednesday's Korea Times. The article is about a high school basketball sensation and the title is "Monster Teenager".

This boy is 191cm, which I think puts him around 6 foot 4 inches. This is tall, but not overwhelmingly so and hardly monstrous.

Commenter Jejujames, at the bottom of the article, agrees, calling the title "a little offencive"

Focusing on a single attribute of anyone, even if the attribute relates to the sport, is a way of devaluing any other attribute the person has. I hope this kid gets to be respected as more than a monster.

--__--
* Size seems to be more and more important in competitive swimming, at least at the highest levels. Most Olympian freestylists are well over six feet tall. At five foot ten inches I still had potential that was never realized but even if I had, my height imposed a real limit.

Toll Rate changes

I was surprised to see, while watching Arirang news, that highway tolls will be reduced during peak travel times or rush hours. The brief online remark did not say when but the news anchor stated rush hour.

I think this is counter productive.

Rush hour rates should go up, while off-peak hour rates should plummet. I think every one can see some value in that. Sure, you pay more but can travel faster due to reduced traffic numbers.
Even better, from an environmentalist's point of view, would be to reduce the rate for buses (both the toll and the ticket price for riders). This might further reduce traffic, again improving traffic flow.

Or perhaps toll rates are like cigarette prices: there may be a high tolerance for rate changes and so the number of users will not change. Increasing the taxes on cigarettes does not cut down on the number of smokers and increased toll rates may not change the number of drivers. If this is the case, then I suppose then, reducing the rate would be a kindness, at least.

Should athletes be muzzled?

I am still sick and so awake at four am. On CNN I watched part of Chasing the Dream, a report about preparing for the Beijing Olympics. I only saw the last few minutes but the report questioned whether the athletes might use the opportunity to make political statements or the like concerning human rights in China.

Although not the caliber of athlete to attend the Olympics, I (and everyone, really) is of the caliber to imagine, to think about being part of the Olympics. I, and most my age, clearly remember the boycott of the 1980 Olympics. An acquaintance, Kevyn Stafford, qualified for Moscow in the 200 Butterfly (a swimming event) but was unable to go when Canada boycotted those games. Remarkably, she did attend the '92 Olympics in Barcelona for Kayaking.

As a young athlete, I felt outrage that politics would interfere with the hopes and dreams of these athletes who very often have only one shot at competing in the Olympics. I seem to recall that the average age for female swimmers at the Olympics was around 20 while the age for men was a little higher and the range was a little wider. Stafford was an exception; for most, there is no second chance.

Of course, even if countries attend, the athletes could still inject political commentary of their own. I do not remember but have read how some black American athletes gave the Black Power salute on the medals podium. Chasing the Dream gave some other examples that I can not recall.

Many nations are considering requiring their athletes to not speak out at the Olympics. I think that's a little upsetting but even more were the remarks of the world's most famous Olympic swimmer, Mark Spitz. He said, and I only saw a few minutes of the show so I don't know how he feels about the subject, that most athletes would keep their mouths shut for commercial contract reasons. According to Spitz, most American athletes of Olympic caliber have contracts with various businesses and the contracts usually include clauses covering public speaking.

I presume the same is true for Canadian athletes and those of other countries as well.

I have great sympathy for these young people, signing their first contract (or having their parents sign on their behalf?) and having their ability to make idealistic statements limited thereby.

As a high school student, I was upset by the politics in the Olympics. Now that I am older, and feel that I actually know less than I thought I did back then, I can see the reasoning and leverage the Olympics offers.

Sleep in class, join the gallery

Here is the first sleeper I managed to shoot this semester. A previous class that day had a few sleepy students but they managed to jolt awake before I could hit the shutter.

Arthur C Clarke has gone to the geo-stationary satellite in the sky

(Masuro, that's how you use a metaphor)

Its strange. I am a big fan of science fiction and have the scientific background to appreciate hard S-F but have not read one of Clarke's books and have read only one of his short stories*.

I will read another one soon. Trip has a link to one available online (also here).

Here is a funny story about me that very slightly relates to ACC. Nearly twenty years ago, I travelled around the world with a long stay in India. I remember (and I know how ridiculously naive (or worse) this sounds) that I wondered about travelling to Sri Lanka and knocking on ACCs door. I reasoned that few foreigners go to Sri Lanka, and even fewer of them would be Science Fiction fans, that he would welcome my visit and invite me into his home. Imagine if I had gone to that much trouble and met the man and had him ask, "Which book do you like best?"
---___---
* The story I read involved a character, also named Arthur Clarke, living in Sri Lanka and the story involved the Russians putting satellites above the US and beaming high quality TV, including pornography (I think) to defeat the Americans...somehow.

I'm disappointed in Pack the El-camino

Apparently, the reports of Pol Pot's death were exaggerated and he is alive and well... and a British citizen.

He is coming to Korea and Pack the El-camino is happy about it.

It's back!

(Click to enlarge)

I don't know what attracts me to Ulsan Bowi. I do know that I find it beautiful and I miss it when it's gone.

This (Friday the 14th) morning was the first time I could see the rock formation since the weekend. The rain last night has done wonders clearing up the air.

Don't trust reason

I intend to focus more closely on issues relating to Gangwondo and Korea in the future, but this collage greatly amused me. Thanks to the catshark.

Grey

For a week now, the skies have been grey. Visibility has seemed like a kilometre or so. Nobody and nothing casts a shadow. In the evening, you can see the headlight beams of cars. I have had a sore throat since Tuesday.

Today, I saw some shadows!

I'm feeling better today, but I've been a little grey as well. I didn't have cold symptoms exactly, but on Wednesday, I was exhausted, and had joint pain. I slept a lot and feel good this evening.

I hope I didn't annoy my coworkers too much on Wednesday. They would individually ask, "How are you?" as everyone does and I surprised them by going into great deal with a lot of whining. I guess now I will have to listen to them when they get sick. Dang, payback is a bugger.

It'd be nice to see the sun, too.

KwandongAlex's first trip to the dentist

Marathon Man is one of my favourite movies but I have my own reasons to be uncomfortable at a dental clinic. I knew taking the little guy would be a challenge, although probably more so on his second visit.

Sokcho does not have a children's dentist (I am not sure how to spell pede**** and would hate to choose the foot doctor from spellcheck) so we had to go to Gangneung. My classes last week were simply introductions and handing out class info: the syllabus, what text we would use, and so on. I felt it would be possible to do both activities on one day. It was, but it made for an exhausting day.

We took a bus to Gangneung and the driver, as about 50% of them do, thought he was driving a sports car and raced and weaved through traffic. KAlex quickly threw up, even after being dosed with Gravol before the trip. After emptying his belly, he slept the rest of the way. As an experienced traveller, I had seen this coming and our clothes remained clean, although KAlex did smell a little like fish -from breakfast, for the day.

At the Gangneung terminal, in the time it took to cross the terminal, he was back in high spirits, dancing to music from a coffee shop as we left.

The dentists did not ask, "Iz it safe?". They were friendly and took good care of the little guy. Still, the chair had restraints and I was instructed to hold KAlex's knees through the ordeal while the dentist and three assistants did their work. After filling two cavities, we were free to go and the little guy even mustered enough energy to wave goodbye as we left.

He fell asleep in the taxi to work and I deposited him in the staff office on a table in the care of the secretaries while I bought some lunch. When I had returned, the secretaries had not moved - they were still studying the little guy, who had not moved either -not one muscle. I actually put my hand on his chest to feel for motion. Man, that was one tired little guy.

I gave him forty minutes to rest before waking him. He was quiet and unhappy for an hour. During that time, we went to a class and I told them what to expect and KAlex was coed over. He did not respond much, just played with his dinosaurs in a corner next to the whiteboard.

After the class, we had some time and he recovered. He could eat no food because of the freezing he was given for the dental work but he sucked down some yogurt drink and seemed satisfied.

Soon he was running, playing and smiling. At this point, as noted in an earlier post, he began romancing the women on campus.

After two more classes, where he was roundly admired, we were ready to go home. The taxi ride to the terminal seemed fine but the little guy was sick again soon after we got out of the taxi.

Again, he recovered quickly. He ate some pastries and fed some to the pigeons -making him happy but probably not the terminal staff.

He fell asleep before we left Gangneung and slept all the way to Sokcho, which was nice. He was awake but wanted to be carried all the way from the bus stop to home, which was not so nice.

Now, he has another cold. I think we really wore down his energy on Friday, leaving him susceptible to illness. I think I'll be brushing his teeth on the hour, every hour from now on. That sounds less annoying than making another trip like that!

Fire Prevention

The big blogs have been covering the Bill Kapoun story so I felt I had nothing special to offer on the subject. For my mother and those few others who hadn't heard, Bill, a 26 year old teacher in Seoul, was burned when his apartment caught fire. He didn't have insurance because he was only working part-time and the site linked to above is for fundraising.

UPDATE: Terrible news, Bill Kapoun has passed away. The Korea Times (via The Marmot's Hole and Brian in Jeollanamdo) has the story. Donations are still requested as medical bills to date are enormous.

I still don't have a special or a new viewpoint on the tragedy but I do have selfish questions. Or one question: What are these things?

1...........................2........................3

'1' is above the stove, just over where a person using the stove would stand. I guess that it is an emergency shower, full of water or other fire-smothering material. I have not touched it in three years, nor seen any documentation on usage. What is it, how do I use it, how do I maintain it?
'2' is on my kitchen ceiling. It looks like a smoke detector and I see that it is connected to wires in the ceiling so it doesn't need batteries. It appears to have an LED but the bulb is dark.

'3' is in my livingroom (and similar others in the bedrooms). Again, the LED is dark.

This commenter at the Marmot's Hole bought many smoke detectors and is selling them (at cost) with the proceeds going to Bill Kapoun. My hat goes off to this wonderful person. I, by contrast, am going to look at a smoke detector or two for our apartment.

I am not completely selfish. I will also make a donation to Bill:

Help Bill Fund
P.O. Box 283
Bloomington, IN 47402

IF IN KOREA - direct transfer into this account
KB Bank
794002 04 03 1635
Warren Franklin-William Fund

Already working on being a heartbreaker

The little one came to work with me today for reason worth their own post -and that post will explain why I am too tired to get into it now -and was quickly working some magic with the ladies.

The first woman he kissed was a complete stranger (way to go, son!); a student who walked by with friends, cooed over him, then asked for a kiss. Alex readily complied. I pulled my coworker away from making a request of his own - he's a married man, for crying out loud.

Then a staff member, hearing the story, asked for her own kiss - and was wonderfully kind enough to wipe the runny nose she became aware of during that kiss.

Intelligence vs Wisdom

Someone didn't get the message: Intelligence is knowing the tomato is a fruit, wisdom is not putting it in fruit salad.

MP, don't cry.

I really shouldn't be flippant about this.

Gary Gygax, the creator of Dungeons and Dragons, died recently.

My coworker, MP, plays D&D online. I usually feel superior to him because I gave up that silly, childish game when I finished high school. That silly, childish, wonderful game...

I am sure I still have a stack of D&D books at my mother's house and doubtless a few bags of dice of ridiculous sizes as well. To remember how fun, imaginative and foolish D&D gamers can be, visit this site dissecting the thought processes involved in making monsters.

I remember, as well, some controversy that arose in a supposed correlation between playing D&D and Satan Worship. Author Michael Stackpole tested that claim and found no evidence for it.

A poem to the passing of Gygax can be found here.

Although I played the game frequently and enthusiastically, I seem to recall at some early point in gaming, I began to dislike Gygax for some reason. I hate to speak unkindly of the deceased and I don't remember the details anyway, but I think it was about commercialization of the game. That was more of a big deal to a teen than it might be now.

Whatever the case, hearing his name brings to mind an adolescent boy (me) with my adolescent friends (exclusively boys) discussing going into pubs, drinking and bragging, discussing how a Permanent Light spell cast on a frisbee would be great for investigating long tunnels and outrageously flirting with (imaginary) women, human or otherwise.

My best wishes to his family in a difficult time.

Enforce Research Ethnics!

I try to not comment on every English error I find, but sometimes I just have to share (and need to post about something). This photo is from the Korea Times (Mar 5, 2008) and they corrected the online version.

I remember a few years ago when everyone was chuckling over George Bush's "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, ..., ..., won't be fooled again" remark. Someone commented at the time that Bush probably couldn't imagine feeling shame himself so got confused with the proverb. I imagine, with plagiarism rampant, that Koreans may have similar trouble thinking about ethics. Or maybe, they are trying to blame Warda, the Egyptian researcher who collaborated with Han Jin (more in the former link above).

Evaluations of Professors May Be Made Public

According to the Herald, Dongguk University publicized the evaluation scores of over 1000 professors. This act upset the teaching staff. (EFL Geek- I think my link works but I was unable to follow your instructions - right-clicking gave me no options regarding frames).

Songang U is considering following suit (publicizing evaluations, not getting upset - well, maybe getting upset, but that likely isn't planned).

Graduate business schools are also likely to make evaluations public.

I am a little torn on the idea. My evaluations have been uniformly good (Nothing like the Big Hominid's, but I don't bribe the students, either) but I have seen some strange comments from time to time. One student added a comment that I should have spoken more Korean in class- I can speak a little, but I am expected to stick to English in class. My classes start and finish on time (one of the criteria on our eval list) but sometimes my co-teachers do not. Do the students understand to score us differently?

Of course, my only job is to teach. I don't do research, nor am expected to. I make no publications in peer-reviewed journals. I was hired for my teaching ability and don't mind being evaluated on it.

North American university professors are expected to do research and, in some cases, the students are expected to be grateful to be near such a knowledgeable professor that they make the effort to learn the material themselves if the lessons are not clear. I am not sure if I was clear. If the animal behaviour professor, hired for his journal articles on the subject, isn't a great lecturer, the student should be motivated to do further study on his/her own.

My animal behaviour professor, by the way, was a great lecturer - the above was only an example.

I am not as brave as the Big Hominid and my classes are different and I have different limitations placed on me by my school. Still, I will post one class's evaluation of me per year (first year, second year and third year) and the average evaluation scores come June.

Endangered animals taste delicious!

I am late to the party but is what I want to write about at Gangwon Notes.

I learned from the Idiot's Collective, via the Marmot's Hole that the Joongang Daily newspaper has been reporting about endangered animals and at the end of the article, giving details about where to eat those animals. "Grey Whales haven't been seen in the East Sea for twenty years... Here are restaurants where you can try Grey Whale."

From the Joongang:

...The Whale Research Center at the National Fisheries Research and Development Institute recently announced that it is offering a 10 million won ($10,670) reward for any sighting of a gray whale, dead or alive, in the area. The gray whale was last seen in the East Sea in 1964.
The same institute is also offering 5 million won to anyone with a photograph or videotape of a live gray whale in the sea. ...

Eating
For whale meat, check out Wonjo Gorae Matjip (052-261-5060), or The Original Whale Deli, which charges 30,000 won ($32). The better known whale meat restaurant is Gorae Halmaejip (052-265-9558), or Whale Grannie¡¯s House. The menu includes whale stew.
A cheaper option is to buy whale meat in Joongang Market in central Ulsan, but be ready to compromise on sanitation.

Oh boy, "compromise on sanitation". I remember telling my mom that my university roommate and I had "different tolerances for cleanliness" than she did. She thought that was pretty funny, too.

March 1 Marathon

Man, I love being able to say I just ran a marathon.

Maybe Koreans don't share the history of an ancient Greek hero running 26.**miles to warn Athens about the Persians (I know, we don't have the history either: 26 miles was what fit inside London when they held the Games). Anyway, any long run is called a marathon here.

At my current fitness level 7 kilometres sure felt like a long run, although I would have completed it then looked for more athletic stuff to do twenty years ago.

I'm happy with my performance. Around Christmas, I started going to a health club a few times a week and steadily increased my treadmill running distance. Before that, I hiked up the local mountain several times a week. Still, it was only three days ago that I ran 7km inside at the health club, and that was not easy.

Running outside felt great. Today's wonderful weather didn't hurt at all. I ran faster and enjoyed it more today than I have running indoors. I found I could measure my performance by looking around - I could see a few hundred metres down the course which is much better than watching the treadmill's odometer.

I was running at nearly my maximum speed for the entire race. I was at the point where I felt fine when I inhaled thinking, "One, two" and exhaled thinking, "Three, four". The count corresponded to my pacing. Interestingly, my mind wandered and I found myself singing silently. Um those points aren't that interesting, this is: when I was singing, even though I wasn't enunciating the words, my breathing changed to match and I began to cramp up. I had to return to thinking about other things or counting.

My time was within a minute of last year's time so I'm happy about that - again, it was much faster than I expected to go.

Film the gasping foreigner!

I made KwandongAlex his own entry number and we posed after the run.

More remarkable Korean research in the international news

An American Evolution blog has made the news here for its fisking of Hwangian Research concerning mitchondria by a Korean scientist (and an apparently Egyptian colleague - this link is to a screen shot of the Korean article. The words are a little blurred but I think it says Warda, the second author, is from Egypt). The newspaper is not named at Pharyngula.

UPDATED: Here is the Korean newspaper page, the Hangyoreh.

Pharyngula (the Evolution blog) author Myers generally accepted the research until these few sentences caught his eye:

This might be true, but we still need to know the secret behind this disciplined organized wisdom. We realize so far that mitochondria could be the link between the body and this preserved wisdom of the soul devoted to guaranteeing life.

Mitochondria are remarkable organelles but one seldom finds research or reference to souls in biological reports (or chemistry reports or Physics reports...)

The article has also been criticized for plagiarism (BTW, check out Joe Seoul Man on the subject).

The Korean author is Han Jin of FIRST Mitochondrial Resarch Group, Inje University, Busan

The article has been removed from the journal's website.

Dr. Han has responded directly to Pharyngula but did not particularly clear things up.

Someone on the internet is wrong!

I've been involved in a fairly cordial discussion of creationism vs evolution - it plays out in the comments of my Darwin Day of Feb 12.

How engrossing or fascinating has it been (for me anyway- you are likely to find it boring)? I think this comic perfectly describes the situation.

OnTV now

I am watching well-dressed men and women be honoured for great work done last year. There are winners but also, not in plain sight, are losers.

Am I watching Lee Myoung Bak's inauguration ceremony or the Oscars?

In fact, I am channel -hopping between the two but shall soon turn the TV off.

What would it take?

Everyone has opinions (Mr Eastwood, in a performance the Oscar Committee should have favored, compared them to a$$holes in that regard). what would it take for you to change yours?

I invite readers to discuss these opinions or to suggest other opinions they strongly hold- what would it take to change your mind on those subjects? I might not respond to those who attack my opinions without stating what it would take for them to change there counter opinions.

I am going to start by discussing evolution - if you aren't interested, skip down a few paragraphs and look for the bolded Fan-death. Areas more related to like in Korea are mentioned there.

I think the theory of evolution is the best explanation for the living world around us. I also think many other inter-related or inter-supported theories are correct: the Bing Bang Theory, and plate tectonics are two examples. I also think that the evidence for evolution is so great that I can't imagine giving it up. In the first few years after Darwin wrote "Origin of the Species", I could easily see people arguing against the theory. One thing it has going for it is it has both evidence and mechanism. There are fossils and other evidence and we know DNA is subject to occasional bad copies. Gravity, on the other hand, only has evidence of it's existence - no one know the mechanism. Not even the germ theory of disease is as well supported -germs, I suppose bacteria and viruses are germs, cause most, but by no means all disease -cancer is a counter example, as are prions and heavy-metal poisoning.

Lets see, to overturn my acceptance of evolution would probably require several incremental elements rather than one big piece of new research. I cannot clearly say what it would take. The fragments of viral DNA that infected far distant ancestors and which we carry as do the great apes seems so unlikely to happen by chance. Discoveries like Tiktaalik, in the right place at the right time would be hard to explain as accident.

I recall one person at the Talkorigins usenet group saying that it would easier to fake the Holocaust than the evidence for evolution because the evidence for the former is man made might possibly be forgible. Neither he, nor I, think the Holocaust was faked - just wanted to be clear on that.

I am afraid it would take some clear news of a deceptive god, some powerful being that created and hid fossils and other evidence just to trick us.

Wait, if Voyager ran into a crystal barrier or otherwise showed that light might be slowed in space - well, that would help but still wouldn't explain the evidence on Earth.

Other opinions:

I love the idea of Fan-death. My blog gets around the majority of its hits from wikipedia visitors following a link here.

I think the concept is garbage, though. I have to slip into a smaller font here - I am whispering: -I even think the Dean of my university's medical department, who is quoted on the wikipedia page, is wrong. I don't think fans can cause hypothermia except under very extreme conditions. Okay, I'm back. I think that animal research is the way to go, but at the same time, I don't think this is important enough to mistreat animals. I suppose that if the results were positive for Fan-death, they would justify the experiment. If the results were negative, well, why did you hurt those poor little animals?

I, for one, would be willing to be a lab rat for this experiment. I think other foreigners would be as well. I have to warn you, though; the Dean of our Medical Department feels other factors are involved. I don't mind a drink or two, but how much would I have to imbibe before laying motionless in front of a fan?

Meta comment: Should I have said
'laying' or 'lieing' there?
What is the P. Continuous of 'lie'?

I'm having trouble thinking of opinions I am for; there are many things I don't believe - acupuncture, ghosts, the existence of traffic regulations in this country, etc - but that makes a pretty negative list.

Dokdo is Korean, Kimchi is Korean
I believe these point to be so, but I can't claim to care all that much. Probably, I would not change my mind because I am not interested to look into the history of each claim. Evolution was a viewpoint that is not likely to change because I understand it well. The Koreanness of Dokdo is unlikely to change because I don't understand the issue well.

Aid to North Korea
I am generally against it. To make me pro-aid, I would need to see where it was going.

President Lee's Canal
I think it is a bad idea. If I could see where the water to fill the canal would come from, that would go part way to helping me change my mind.

Outside of Korea
WMDs in Iraq
GI Korea stated, some time ago, that WMDs had in fact been found. Later, Rumsfeld was on TV saying that they had no WMDs had been found. I would like to believe my friend, but I can't see why Rumsfeld would deny it.

Hans Island is Canadian
I will never deny this! Obviously Hans Island is Canadian! Crazy Danes! More exclamation points!

What have I missed?

Checking in

Not much going on, here. The little guy and I both have colds and he doesn't know how to use tissue, hankerchiefs, or to sniffle - I've been keeping up, trying to avoid a slime trail through the apartment.

Two friends got married yesterday at the Sokcho museum in a traditional ceremony. I'm sure they have their own comments about the wedding but the high point for me was when they tossed the rooster and hen into the air at the end of the ceremony and the hen made a good run for the door. Apparently, she was a little heavy, so she dropped some ballast on the way. I don't know who got hit.

Next week is the last week of NURI camp (I have no idea what the initials are for but they fund ESL study for tourism majors at my university). The work's been good but it is heavily focused on TOEIC. The students have a TOEIC test this Friday. TOEIC is an annoying and difficult thing to teach -the point of the test is for students to be prepared for any possible answer.
"Are you going to class, tomorrow?" could be answered by "yes" or "no', but also by alternative plans or excuses. Some stuff can be taught but there really isn't a clear subject through any one class.

Anonymous, although I have other things going on, I plan to respond to your comments - I will post here, on the main page, when I do.