We are both environmentalists, although Mr Ruffin is more enthusiastic and more political than I am. We've had a few differences, more in quantity or degree than in the basic details.
He has an article in the Korea Times (I told you he was more enthusiastic - I confine my opinion to this poorly read blog) about the cost of fuel, the availability of oil and the use of bio-fuels.
It interesting the way coincidences stack up. I am reading The Return of the Omnivore by Pollan and he starts by describing how much energy goes into making corn (oil is the base for the fertilizer, is one example) and the irony of using corn to make a replacement for fuel.
The problem is that, as is the case of cigarettes, the price of fuel is wildly elastic. People are willing to pay enormous amounts to continue driving. From the article:
However, some people, in spite of high prices, still refuse to consume less. South Koreans are a perfect example. While in the United States people are consuming 5 percent less oil than a year ago due to rising fuel costs, in South Korea people are driving just as much as before.
A recent article in The Korea Times showed that bus companies are threatening to curtail their services because of high fuel costs. That's pretty strange.
These high petrol prices should be a boom to public transportation everywhere. Buses should be SRO (standing room only) because of the current high fuel prices.
The article also includes a photo of Pyeongchang government officials cycling to work because they spent all their money on wasted Olympic bids to encourage reducing fuel use -I don't know if Ruffin supplied the photo or the editors did, but it seems apropos.
Ruffin does quote Diamond's Collapse, which sits half-read on my bookshelf, describing a warning sign of cultures on the edge of collapse being food shortages. Diverting food corn to become fuel stock doesn't save fuel (at least the same amount is used in growing it) but does reduce available food for the world.
He also defers to WorldWatch founder Lester Brown on the need to reduce beef consumption as the food and area used to feed cattle could be used to feed 1.4 billion people. Again, based on Pallan's The Omnivores Strike Back, I have changed my eating habits slightly to cut beef almost completely out and get my protein from poultry and vegetable sources. On the same subject, Bizarro's Perraro advocates for vegetarianism with the catchphrase "If you think you're an environmentalist and you're eating meat, think again".
Ruffin finishes by telling President Lee to scrap the canal project. I thought it had been quietly shelved already but perhaps it does need to be formally removed from as an option.
Some people aren't drinking their G & Ts. The Joongang Ilbo has an article about Malaria making a comeback. I've forgotten a great deal of what I was taught about malaria but I recall there are a few different forms and they are described by the length of their cycle. The least deadly, but still exhausting form has a cycle of three or four days. The long cycle gives the victim some time to recover between bouts. The most deadly form, Plasmodium falciparum, has no established cycle and the fever and chills come almost constantly, allowing no time to recover.
In Korea, another deadly form, P vivax, or tertian malaria, can be found.
Tertian malaria is not the deadliest form of the disease, but it is recurring and is the most widespread. This year, 338 people have been afflicted.
After an epidemic in 1970 was stopped, there were fewer than 100 malaria patients by the early 1990s. In 2000, however, there were 4,142. The number briefly decreased to 864 in 2004; in the past two years it has climbed back to 2,000.
The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have classified 22 cities and districts in Gangwon, Gyeonggi and Incheon as “malaria danger zones,” with 10 out of 1 million people affected annually.
The stats seem funny to me. Is 10 out of a million averaged over ten years? Korea has fifty million people so 500 is 10 out of a million. Frequently the number of cases is greater than that, but more, if the disease is only in the northernmost cities, we are talking about a much smaller total population. They say reporters don't understand stats, but it could be a bad translation.
I'm amazed that I have been posting frequently enough that this post is justified. Well, maybe just barely enough - if somehow you could count this post as content, rather than meta. I'll try to add some content below.
Part of the benefits my university offers is a full medical physical. Its a little strange that I have to travel four hours across the country to get that physical but they did throw in a physical for Kwandongwife as well. I am not sure how we will take care of little guy while we're there, nor what actually is involved -we were informed the process will take three hours.
After the physical, I am off to camp. I have three days of orientation, a weekend at home, then four weeks teaching ecology to middle school students at camp.
I will bring my computer to the camp on Sunday but cannot be sure of access before the weekend.
The Herald has an article about Korean athletes getting ready for the Olympics. I'm excited and hope they do well. I always chuckle, though, at the sports Koreans do well in. Typically, if you could hurt someone, Koreans are good at that sport.
From the Herald:
Medals are expected to be won in wrestling, archery, taekwondo, judo, swimming, badminton, weightlifting, shooting and gymnastics. Korean athletes have led in these sports since the early 1980s.
[my bolding]
Alright, swimming, weightlifting, badminton and gymnastics may not have the same relevance to violence (although the latter sport is preparation for Gymkata!)
I think Pak Tae-hwan could do very well at the Olympics, but saying that Koreans have led in this sport since the '80s is crazy. He races on August 10.
I can find plenty of gin in the supermarkets but no tonic. With this shortage of quinine, I predict an epidemic of malaria by summer's end. If anyone can send tonic water here, you would be supporting a worthy cause.
UPDATED July 13: Crisis averted. E-mart has Tonic Water in stock again. All is right with the world.
By the way, the wikipedia article suggests that quinine may be effective against prions - Mad Cow Disease is caused by a prion so Korean should take careful note.
Firstly, thank you very much for sending me my order quickly. I am very excited about reading these books.
However, I would like to quote from two portions of an email I received from your company:
Sent: July 2, 2008 11:24:05 PM ... Shipped via Standard Int'l Shipping (estimated arrival date: 07-August-2008).
Although I am happy to have received my books nearly a month earlier than I expected, the difference in dates is so great that I am a little annoyed. Now, I have to do something with Masuro's stupid charity books; I had to pretend to be grateful for his loan of his books (and I was, with the expectation of having to wait more than a month for my order) and now what do I tell him? What if he asks me about the content of his books?
sincerely, Kwandongbrian
Masuro, Honestly, I am enjoying The Omnivore's Revenge. I am likely to use some of the content in my ecology class this summer so it is both interesting and useful. I haven't started the f&SF magazine yet, but you know I am a fan.
This morning, I took the little guy out to catch a few critters. A while ago, I bought a little plastic terrarium at E-Mart (typically for the big-ass bugs they sell) and we took it and my wife's pasta strainer (I had better clean it up well before she comes home!).
I thought it cool that we were able to find tadpoles with almost no legs, frogs with long tails and a tiny but tailless frog - three stages at the same time. I wonder if the eggs hatched at different times or if frogs develop at varying rates. We then went to a different pool and found salamanders. They were much better swimmers and it took me several tries to catch them. A month ago, they appeared as very streamlined tadpoles with a narrower head and slight protrusions where the legs would be - I couldn't catch them so I don't know if they did have legs at that time. The little guy studying our catch, dinosaurs in hand. We released the salamanders where we caught them. Here, KwandongAlex releases the frogs back into their pond. This pic is my "Loch Ness Monster" pic. Its blurry enough to be anything you want it to be. Before our little excursion, I coated my son with sunblock. So, no sunburn, but he did have a little trouble while scrambling over rocks. He scraped his knee and shed a little blood. Still, I think it makes him look healthier - all little guys should have bruised knees. If they don't, they are spending too much time indoors.
I haven't been the only Gangwon blogger having an interesting time at the beach. A co-worker has been playing, spending time with family and saving a non-swimmer.
Can an ocean beach be a 'swimming hole'? I've always thought of semi-secret bends of a river as swimming holes. Anyway...
Just north of the lighthouse in Sokcho are a group of submerged and half-submerged boulders that make an excellent diving platform and provide a substrate for a dynamic ecosystem.
As with any good swimming hole, getting there is a challenge - you have to scramble down the breakwater tetrahedrons to reach the narrow beach.
Last year, the beach wasn't nearly so narrow. Here, I have (crappily) photoshopped in the beach as it appeared in 2007. I am balancing on the two rocks in an area that was half this depth last year. More than a metre of sand has been swept away. Mussels of the intertidal zone. A group of conscript soldiers enjoying some time off.
A soldier took the above picture of me as well as this video of me swimming through an under water tunnel that, last year, was also underground.
While swimming, I found many schools of fish, a crab intermittently seen through the jungle of seaweed and a pair of nudibranches ( I think - they were as big as my head, black and dark brown and had a few snail- or slug-like tentacles). I also found a squirtgun and a pair of goggles.
Oh, last year, I found a pair of goggles with the adhesive covers still on the lenses - I guess someone bought them, tried them and could hardly see, didn't realize that the tape should be removed, and threw them away. This story has nothing to do with the swimming hole, I just think it's funny.
I've watched quite a few superhero movies lately; Iron Man, The Hulk, Wanted (well, it is based on a comic book - that's superhero-y, isn't it?) and Hancock. Now, I'm ready to assume the role of Lobsterman. I don't need much of a costume, except to hide my bulging belly - okay, a big costume, my skin is bright red and my superpower is, um, ....uh, supersensitive skin? As with the Hulk, my new persona is not one I'd take by choice and it was caused by an overdose of radiation. In contrast to the Hulk, my skin is red regardless of my mood.
Anyway, the little guy and I had a great time at the beach yesterday and today. First, don't worry, I took excellent care of him and kept him with a good layer of sun block (although I forgot Sunday morning - thanks Jeannie for giving us some).
Last year, I tried to rush KwandongAlex into the water and he became very afraid. Even though we have spent time playing in the pool at Seorak Pines this Spring, he is not eager to be carried into deep water and I am letting him take his time. He is having a great time kicking through the surf.
Yesterday, I sat next to a Korean/German family and in-laws. I think they were there Friday evening, too.
Today, Kwandongwife was working so I took KwandongAlex to the beach early for the morning and was lucky enough to find a spot next to an American family. Jeannie, Aaron (?- sorry man, I've forgotten your name) and their daughter are visiting from Seoul. Jeannie made my day by making her first question to me, "Do you have a blog?" Anyway, we chatted and cooled off in the ocean for the morning. I hope they enjoy the rest of their vacation here.
We went home and the little guy went straight to sleep. We got up, I forced some mild curry rice into him (he claimed to not be hungry) and returned to the beach. To my delight, I saw the German family had also returned and sat with them. The father was lobster-red (a companion or rival to me, I now suppose) and I was a little amused, thinking how sore he would be later. They will be at the beach for the next three days -my kind of people; focusing their entire vacation around the beach - and perhaps we will catch up on Tuesday.
If you need super-assistance, set out your lobster light or else summon me with Aloe vera.
And I may have killed my wife and child. They were tired and went to bed early. I turned the fan on in the room, then, to keep the noise and light out, shut the main door and veranda door - they are in a sealed room with a fan on! And, the fan has no timer!! If you don't know what I'm talking about, have a look at my post on fan-death.
More seriously, suddenly we have great heat and humidity. At the end of each sentence here, I am wiping my face with a handkerchief. It may be time to look at air conditioners.
Its been a week or more since I last tried the ocean. It was cool in June. Now, its perfect.
I'm out of fresh reading material and of the books I have that I do reread, I have already done so. I have a new order coming in from Amazon - What the book was out-of-stock or something for a few of my choices - but they won't arrive for a few weeks.
What to do?
I do have some podcasts to catch up on but, while I enjoy them while exercising or commuting, I much prefer books when the option is available. When I have books, I get a backlog of pods to be listened to but when I don't have books, I am searching for new pods halfway through the week. That's where I am now.
Here's what I've read recently (purchase links are to What the Book):
Quantico, by Greg Bear. I chose this book on Tripp's lukewarm endorsement. I normally enjoy Bear's stuff so I thought I'd chance it. I liked it. The story is of a time slightly in our future and about two generations of FBI agents tracking down a domestic terrorist. A major part of the book is the infighting between various federal agencies, while some cool and horrible weapons are used. Purchase.
Finding your inner fish by Neil Shubin. My friend Patrick, who is concerned that there aren't enough transitional fossils, this is the book for you. A non-fiction book on evolution, it describes why we humans are the way we are. It even explains why men get inguinal hernias - of special note to my family. Purchase.
Various books by Neal Stevenson. I actually didn't care for his Baroque Cycle but clearly found something of value there seeing as I have since read Snow Crash (fantastic!), Cryptonomicon (very good), and Zodiac (very good). In the Baroque Cycle, a character would step through a doorway into a seventeenth century street and Stevenson would paint, with marvellously fine detail, what the character was experiencing. There was a remarkable texture to the descriptions. Unfortunately, and this is purely from my recollection, when Errol Flynn-style swashbuckling occurred, and it did quite often, the excitement seemed mired in the details. The future queen of England is being chased down a street and her lover leaps from one horse onto her pursuer's horse - thrilling but only afterwards because I was still processing the details of the street. Purchase (books by Stevenson)
Snow Crash had everything. It is funny and satirical, it smoothly meshed fantasy and science fiction, it had conspiracies, chase scenes and wild sword fights. I borrowed it from a friend and will probably buy it for myself to read again sometime.
Mao's Last Dancer by Li Cunxin. A biography and not my regular sort of reading material at all. I bought it because the guy was interviewed on CNN and thought my wife might be interested in it. She started it but became busy with other stuff. I read it because there was nothing else in the house. It makes me wonder; I think that Jenkins guy was a traitor to defect to North Korea but feel Li made the right decision. I guess that's an example of my prejudices and the propaganda I was exposed to. Purchase.
The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler. An attempt to read a classic. Well, I succeeded, so I guess it wasn't an attempt. I don't read a lot of crime fiction and this didn't move me to read more. I hope I will not be shunned for dismissing Chandler like this. Purchase.
The Drawing of the Dark, by Tim Powers. Its a sort of Arthurian retelling set in Vienna in the 16th century. I first read it in high school and have reread it many times. This is one of the few Powers books where the hero ends the tale still retaining all his extremities - I think the hero of Forsake the Sky ends up being a multiple amputee and to lose a few fingers is to get off lightly. He, the hero that is, does take quite a beating, none the less. Purchase.
To help me out, send your used books to KwandongBrian at Kwandong University.
I read and enjoy Gord Sellar's blog and am impressed and happy to see an acquaintance get recognition. He is mentioned in this week's Podcastle. Congrats!
What I'm guessing is how happy you lot are. I am sick with something; every twenty minutes or so, I ache all over, feel hot and sorta feel like throwing up. A few minutes later, I feel okay but tired until the next bout.
Perhaps the title Child Soldier is a little too serious and its meaning too disturbing for this post; I am admittedly using it ironically.
However, my problem is still disturbing enough, in its smaller-scale way.
My son runs around with his hand in the shape of a gun yelling, "Bang, bang".
A friend bought the little guy a toy machine gun a year or so ago. I was unhappy with the gift but it was already in my son's hands so I didn't take it away. We also have a pistol-shaped bubble maker but it doesn't make noises or seem threatening. For the most part, when my son played with the machine gun, he was more interested in the flashing lights and noises it made.
I watch CSI, Law and Order and the like and often my son is in the room but not necessarily paying attention. In fact, if I see him paying attention, I will change the channel or turn the TV off.
I had all sorts of toy guns, of greater and lesser realism, and am nowadays a pacifist so I guess I shouldn't worry too much.
Asan Hospital in Gangneung even looks like a hotel. Its a beautiful setting and if it were closer to the ocean, I am sure some people would ask for a room for the night.
Still, the room was cramped, the staff seemed too busy all the time, no pool; I would rather vacation anywhere else.
The little guy had his surgery to correct an inguinal hernia today. Just about everything went well but I will nitpick a little.
First, we were going to have the procedure done at a clinic in Sokcho. Back-alley butcher would be a strong phrase but Asan is the real deal.
We arrived the day before the operation so the little guy would be ready for the 8:30 operation. First nitpick: we arrived at 3:00pm and I asked what we needed to do. The nurse said dinner would be served between six and seven so we went outside to look around. The doctor seemed a little upset after she arrived at our room, couldn't find us and had to call my wife to relay a message. Would it be so hard for the nurse to tell us the full schedule? Anyway, we played outside.
The next morning, early, they gave the little guy children's pyjamas three sizes too large. A nurse came to take KwandongAlex to surgery and we walked together. Nitpick 2: After we entered a pre-op room and the little guy was out of reach, I was told I couldn't go any further.
I am sure the nurse ferries several patients a day and has for years. Hernia surgery is the most common surgery for children. It isn't a big deal for him.
Its a huge deal for me and I was furious to be unable to give the little guy a hug goodbye.
My wife was sent away before the anaesthetist got to work. The little guy cried and fought so hard he pulled out his IV. Nitpick 2.5: They should have kept one of us until he was under.
He is now fine and sleeping at home. He was discharged without medication and he seems comfortable.
I recommend the hospital for medical work but not for a relaxing stay.
In March, I commented about how a few Korean universities are going to post their Professor evaluations online for the public to view. In that post, I promised to post my evaluations. Dang it all! I'm actually not that proud of them - I have some work to do.
I’m trying to look at these results in stages.I’ve seen the numbers, and sadly, my average is a little below the university’s average for professors.I’m concerned about that.However, the criteria for the numbers is written in Korean.I have the translations but I haven’t analyzed the results yet.
I have also looked at the comments but, again, have not translated them.I can read a few easily, and those are the positive ones: “good class”, “interesting class” and the like.
Now, I'm looking at the translations.
Okay, the criteria:
First, these are beyond my control:
1) The number of students in the class was appropriate.
12) The 15-week lesson plan was kept exactly and it met the initial expectation.
7) The textbook and supportive materials were well selected and used effectively.
The semester averaged about 13 classes, with Tuesdays having the most classes and Mondays and Fridays the least.We foreign teachers don’t learn of the cancelled classes until the week of, quite frequently.
I do choose supporting materials but not the main text.I cannot comment here on the textbooks as a coworker wrote one of them.
These two criteria I need to heed the results:
9) The instructor draws students' participation voluntarily by using various methods.
10) Types of homework and evaluation helped us study.
Not many students volunteer and I usually randomly pick them from the attendance list.
I think I need to improve the homework I give.Due to the uncertain schedule, I know that some classes did not receive much homework (I had 5 assignments ready for 1st year, but had to cancel some so as not to conflict with the exams).
I like these three criteria and hope I scored well:
13) The students' participation in the class was quite high.
14) I am satisfied with the class overall.
15) I'd like to recommend the instructor to other students.
It seems that I cannot format a table without a lot of work -easier to do it in Word, print it and take a picture of it.
First, I suppose I could make excuses for my score with the engineering class.Math Education, and all education classes, are usually very enthusiastic.Police Admin students also work hard.Engineering, less so.Still, that doesn’t mean its my privilege to phone it in.Also, Sports students are usually not that excited about English but I did a good enough job there.No, clearly I need to concentrate on weaker classes and maintain my own level of enthusiasm even when the students normally do not.
The first three factors I felt I had little control over but the scores are similar and acceptable.
I feared #9 and 10 were weak areas and I certainly see a lot of variation there.
Prepare meaningful homework, Kwandongbrian!
The final three categories seem to relate to my comments about enthusiasm.Maybe they rub my nose in the importance of enthusiasm.
Huh, a big difference regarding following the 15 week plan – and yet these three classes had an almost identical number of classes.
# 10
Prepare meaningful homework, Kwandongbrian!
# 14: overall satisfaction.I sometimes wonder if this is a sort of checksum, you know, to see if they really understood the questions. The sports class gave me a higher overall score but than tourism but were less satisfied overall.Huh.
The takeaway for me is to work on better homework: creation, grading and commentary.I have tried to mark the homework in class to avoid carrying it home: this isn’t quite as self-serving as it sounds – if students miss later classes, I end up with a lot of unclaimed homework at the end of the semester.I need to take my time marking and commenting on the homework to make it more useful overall.
Added later: I wrote this last night but waited until today to photograph the tables. I've had time to think. I still plan to, want to and maybe, need to improve the way I treat homework but I know that most students do it in class, in the ten minute break between classes. I frequently receive homework written on an end-paper from the textbook (because the same students that are late with homework don't bring notebooks to class). Copying is rampant although I punish all I am certain of.
The university has an E-paper site where I can publish homework for students to download (saving the school the cost of paper and making the student pay directly). I think I will post homework for a period of three days two days after the class. For a Monday class, students could download the homework Thursday, Friday or Saturday. They might not look at the printout until the day its due but they must think about it beforehand.
I may post my comments about the student comments but I will leave that for now.
UPDATE: An Hyeok-il Sunsaengnim, Thank you very much! Motorola does indeed have a service centre - or it shares support with SKY. Mr An quickly and professionally popped my phone open, tightened the relevant screws and put my phone back together. I'm still annoyed that it happened, but am completely satisfied with the service.
I'm not sure how long I've had my phone - around six months I guess. Today, it separated into two halves, joined by a ribbon of wires.
I will be able to visit an AS shop on Monday and I hope it only needs some screws on the slide mechanism replaced or tightened. I'll update this post then.
KwandongAlex will go under the knife tomorrow to treat an inguinal hernia.
The doctor assured me that the problem wasn't serious but must be treated. The hospital will keep the little guy overnight and possibly for two nights to let him recover from the anaesthesia and watch for infection.
Happy Birthday, little guy (June 22)!
UPDATE: The little guy has some congestion in his lungs so they cannot operate. Don't worry: the hernia has been there for a month and the little guy has no adverse symptoms - the operation is to prevent future problems so waiting another weekend isn't a problem.
We will soon rent a car and visit some beaches and the Hwajinpo Aquarium!
Below is an article that I wrote for my university's English magazine but was unable to submit. I think I can submit it next semester but I can also publish it here. This is a photo-heavy post; please click to enlarge photos.
Streets are more than utility spaces, good only for transportation and storage.They are community spaces where people should be comfortable interacting.
The subject area is too big to be covered here in detail so I will leave out how street design can affect crime rates and various international attempts to improve the sense of community in city streets and try to focus on engineering and how sidewalks specifically should be more than an afterthought when the ‘real work’– streets and spaces for automobiles – is completed.
I am mostly going to be describing obstructions to foot traffic, so let me start with a counter-example: something that slows pedestrians but that I approve of.The point of the following picture is to show that my criteria are admittedly subjective and contradictory.
Street markets are a sign of life, of the sidewalk being actively used in positive ways.On occasion, I have had to struggle to push my stroller down the street but I do not begrudge the vegetable sellers their space.
In the city of Sokcho, the sidewalks are generously sized, but all too often, obstructions like this are to be seen:
Here, we have a transformer and a light standard squeezing the street’s width.Can a stroller fit?Maybe.
Would drivers accept this on the road, not stopping their passage but slowing them down and forcing careful maneuvering?Almost definitely not.
So, why are pedestrians expected to?Not everyone is a driver, but everyone is a pedestrian.Everyone has to walk at least a little.
Here are some more light standards and communication poles:
These are two shots of the same site.Wow, three poles, all exactly in the middle of the sidewalk.People can get used to anything, but this just has to be considered annoying.
Or, perhaps it should be considered bad planning. What city planner okayed these obstructions? Next are a few photos of bad planning in Gangneung.
Which one is the crosswalk?The lines on the left appear to be for a speed-bump, while those on the right look correct for a crosswalk.But the left side has an inclined curb.Who planned this? By the way, the other side of the street has no inclined curb, for either set of lines.You could roll your wheelchair off the sidewalk, cross the street, but then have to ask for help to mount the curb on the other side.
Inset crosswalks are another sign of pedestrian’s needs being second class.Below are two photos taken in Sokcho: we are looking across an intersection but where is the crosswalk?See the illegally parked white van on the left side of the picture?That’s where the crosswalk is.
Although the crosswalk is dangerously hidden from view by cars parked on both sides of the road on both sides of the crosswalk, I am more concerned about the value, or lack, given to speed and direct travel for pedestrians.To cross this street, pedestrians are expected to go far out of their way.
Let’s have a look at the five way intersection below Gangeung’s city hall.
First, note that there is no way to cross the major road, but pedestrians can only walk alongside it.There was a crosswalk on the right side but it has been removed – the inclined curb remains, although it is unnoticeable in this photo.
The crosswalk at the bottom left is a good example of how planning for foot traffic is an afterthought.The street at the bottom left is the exit from the highway and so is one-way.There is only a brief period when those cars can enter the intersection but a longer period for vehicles to leave City Hall, then vehicles to cross in one, then both directions in front of City Hall.Only for a small portion of that time can pedestrians legally cross the highway exit lanes, even though it is safe to do so for the entire time.
In Canada, people typically live in single family houses and are spread out.For good financial reasons, public transit is uncommon and infrequent. I could not imagine living without a car in most places.I lived in a town of 15,000 people: there were two pharmacies and almost everybody had to drive to visit them.We actually drove to the closest convenience store (about 4-5 km).
Koreans typically live in apartments and so are more densely packed.Personally, I would like more open space but I do like being able to walk to most of the stores and services I need.
Let me finish with a request or a charge to Kwandong’s civil engineering students.Please, care about the pedestrian.Again, everyone is a pedestrian at some point so they should be considered first, not second, in designing streets.Make us comfortable and happy walkers.
I arrived really early - embarrassingly early. Well, some foreigners competing at the triathlon told me that the English page of the website was wrong - the race didn't start at 6:30 am but at 8:00am. A bit of a shame because it was as warm or warmer at 6:30 as at 8:00.
Anyway, I had left my sleeping wife and child at home and couldn't stay all day so I watch the prep and the swim leg of the race. This isn't part of the triathlon although many triathletes are on the ferry. I did not see the athlete with a disability ( adapted from the competitive swimming designation) in the swim leg but I did see him ride. You might say I wouldn't know the difference between a disabled swimmer and an able bodied one (and, as a later pic will show, you might be right) but the course was two laps of the swimming course with a 10 metre run on shore between laps so I think I would have noticed something. I helped a little with the cleanup of the water bottles. When they were ready to go, a worker offered me a bottle in gratitude. Gee, thanks for the free water. I kept an eye on the lifeguarding crew and was surprised to see scuba tanks. A wise precaution, I guess. As soon as these guys hit the water, they were on the bouyline. As far as I could tell, they did the whole course arm-over-arm on the bouyline. I can understand hanging on after getting a foot in the face or some such thing but these people seemed to be in a triathlon and completely unable to swim.
I saw a little of the cycling and was impressed but the course was not so impressive. At several point athletes had to make 180 degree turns and even more 90 degree turns. There weren't many places to get into a long steady rhythm.
I remember a conversation I had with my mother and sister more than twenty years ago.Conversation doesn't describe the heat; argument is a better term.My sister, AlaskaMarci was attacking historic government actions removing native American children from their families, while my mother and I took, not an opposing view exactly, but a counter view.
I felt that the government had done the wrong thing but simply wanted my sister to accept that they were not deliberately being evil.
In hearing the recent apology, I have to change my view.Some (I hope it was only some) authorities wanted to completely end the Native American way of life, culture and religion, creating, I guess, a nation with some variation in color but none in language or supposedly common history (alright, there would be two languages).
Our mother, who grew up in a small northern Ontario town with a reservation (or several) nearby and had many native American classmates, felt the government was wrong to remove children but there might have been a few defendable reasons for doing so. She noted that few Native Americans in her town completed high school (in town) and that even at public school (on the reservations) students had frequent absences for various hunting and fishing seasons.They did not put as much time into class as the other students in the community.
She told me that even a few Parry Sound (Ontario) Native children were sent to residential schools.We were both surprised; she hadn’t heard about it when it was occurring.
When we had this argument, I was naive and less political than I am now.Now, I wonder how the 1950's government could imagine removing children from their parents could possibly have good long-term results.
I am late on commenting on this story but I am glad that the government has apologized:
…aboriginal people packed Parliament to hear the prime minister say it for all Canadians: "We are sorry."
Stephen Harper made the historic apology Wednesday in the House of Commons for generations of racist policy meant to "kill the Indian in the child."
…
The apology is part of a massive compensation and healing package expected to top $4 billion.
Cory Doctorow, a sort-of Canadian*, is a big defender of civil liberties and maintaining public rights. On his blog Boing-boing, he frequently publicizes the run-ins everyday citizens have with law enforcement infrigning on their legal rights. I would say his most common posts are on people being on public property and being told they cannot take photographs. There is an interesting post on his blog about a man interviewing a manager at New York's Union Station where she tells the interviewer that photos are legal even as a security man arrives to tell them they can't take photos. His other bugaboo is copyright and he is currently agitating about Canada's upcoming copyright bill.
The Big Hominid has had some interesting run-ins with the police lately. One often hears of officers stopping, I don't know, vagrants or hobos, as they try to enter a town and directing them away or driving them through the town out the other side. I can see why they would do this as a convenience to themselves but people should have a right to walk where they want to go.
Isn't this how Rambo started out? When will people learn?
Both situations were handled very politely. The first appeared to be a sort of neighbourhood watch:
It turns out that the gent in the pickup was an off-duty policeman who called in the fact that a backpacker was strolling into town, which I suppose is why Officer Chuck checked me out.
A commenter at the above post wrote about getting permission to walk on publicly-owned roads. That sounds a little hinky to me:
One of the things I learned from Steve Vaught's Fat Man Walking blog is that, at least in some states, you can get permission from the state highway department to walk along roads where pedestrians are ordinarily prohibited. Something we'll need to look into.
On the second occasion, an officer helped the Hominid across a dangerous section of bridge; it had no shoulder or sidewalk and he had to walk sideways with his luckily-much-smaller gut hanging in traffic before the officer helped him out. He got in an interesting discussion with the officer about the legalities of walking on the side of the road.
I'm not sure I understood (or even correctly recall) the answer. If I'm not mistaken, Officer Boisen's basic point was that, even though it was technically legal to walk 522, the road wasn't "intended for" (his words) pedestrian traffic. The legal implications of "intended for" are lost to me; I'm curious to look up the actual law relevant to what happened today-- not because I dispute Officer Boisen's interpretation of it, but because I want to be clear about it in future, so as not to cause any trouble.
I want the Hominid to be safe and take no unnecessary risks but, at this rate, he may start sympathizing with the Radical-Right, Compound-Living, gubment-hating, religious fanatics. Hey, what an interesting way to start a dialogue, an inter-religious dialogue based on common concerns -way-ta-go, hypothetical-future Hominid!
My own viewpoint is that pedestrians or any users of alternative transportation should not be looked at as second-class citizens.
---___--- I think Doctorow went to school in Canada but he is really a citizen of the world. I think he currently lives in England.
Yesterday, I had the choice of seeing Incredible Hulk or The Happening. Its hard to say why I chose The Happening, but I know now that I made a horrible mistake.
Years ago, I read CS Lewis' The Screwtape Letters, a book describing correspondence between a senior demon and his nephew. Uncle Screwtape gives some advice on how to turn a man from Christianity; he tells his nephew to get the man to accept local spirits and mysterious forces rather than the work of one God.
Lewis would have hated Star Wars and 'the Force' which seems the embodiment of his earlier argument.
As Star Wars is to religion, The Happening is to science.
The difference being, Star Wars was a fantastic movie. Thrilling and imaginative. I am still willing to watch it again (well, the original three of the series).
The Happening is bad or incomprehensible science and a weak plot but little character development.
Our survivors are mere pawns, required to do no more than stop, yammer, then simply push on, trying to vainly outrun a threat they barely comprehend. The cast tries heroically to infuse meaning into vague, unfocused lines, and there is a last act appearance by a psychotic recluse (played by Betty Buckley) that changes the entire tone into something akin to a backwoods exploitation effort. Link
I think Shymalan was trying to update On The Beach, but that was a thoughtful exploration of how people would cope with their mortality over the course of months, while this story takes place over about 26 hours and mostly involves a lot of running.
The people are running from rustling trees. I know that innocuous objects can be made terrifying (windchimes and empty, swaying swings from Nightmare on Elm Street still focus my attention), but wind and rustling trees are not all that scary.
Shymalan was interviewed on Science Friday. One interesting thing he said was that he was known for plot twists but he only made one movie like that. I would have counted two: Sixth Sense (of course) and The Village. True, in the Village, the twist is not at the end but it is close to the end.
Please, go see Incredible Hulk.
If you do watch the movie, help me out. Reviewers online describe Wahlberg as starting in Philadelphia, but I thought he started in New York and was fleeing to Phily. Am I so wrong? Did the reviewers see an early version of the movie that was changed for the commercial release?
Finally, if it were a better movie, it would be cool that we got to see it more than a day before it opens in the US.
The title, in Korean, is Mexican Chicken. So, why is there a cow drinking beer? Elsewhere, on the store front, is chicken (not particularly Mexican looking - it is wearing a chef's hat, not a sombrero) and, quite disturbingly, it is holding a drumstick, skewered on a fork, in a wing.
Ugh, animal mascots for food products make me feel queasy - well, maybe not cows on milk cartons, but most others. Oh, right, beer drinking cows advertising chicken are okay, I guess.
I found a whiteboard with a hole in it. Not from one of my classrooms but from one of Masuro's rooms. He may have driven one of his students to violence - perhaps they looked like the normally handsome guy in this pic (man, what a pencil-neck!)
I walked past the new jimjilbang today and was waved in; the grand open(ing) isn't until Friday but people can visit now. It's a nice place but a little cramped. It is roomy enough but the unrelieved white does make it seem closer. The weight room is fine for a visit but I wouldn't get a membership for it. There are two restaurants and a snack concession. Here, you see tables for the western (fast food) restaurant. There are sleeping areas on this, the main floor, but many more above in a sort of crawl space. KwandongAlex gives you a sense of proportion. Well not at all private, they do offer a feeling of personal space. They still need to work on a few things (maybe it is the weight-loss sauna). They are closing early before the Grand Opening, so I was able to take a picture of the baths. The pools pictured here were all of the same temperature but that might change later. There is a cold pool off to the right. Again, Fantasia is next to the apartment so I expect the family will be visiting frequently.
A busy weekend here - not for me, exactly, but for Sokcho and, I guess, tourists.
On June 13th, Fantasia opens - it's a new jimjilbang, health club and such . The building is right outside my apartment window and I have watched construction and renovations. The exterior looks good. I wouldn't come to Sokcho for Fantasia, but if you are here on Friday, it might be interesting (more for locals) to check out. Oh, a jimjilbang is described as a sauna and I am sure Fantasia has some but normally they are cheap places to sleep for budget travellers. As everyone sleeps in one big room, it may be sanctioned by parents for young couples, I don't know.
On Saturday and Sunday is the 4th International Walking Festival. -Gee, now that I think about it, it may be best for locals and especially for locals with children, like myself. Anyway, KwadongAlex and I will do the 5km walk. The 10 and 20km would be too exhausting for me to carry the little guy and be tortuously boring for him. The courses are all in Seorak National Park, starting at Seorak Dong - the terminus for local bus number 7 or 7-1.
On Saturday should be the local monthly KOTESOL meeting although I haven't heard anything about it yet.
On Sunday morning is a triathlon. I think it is a 1.5km swim, 50km bike and 10km run. The advertising says something like 'enjoy mountainous Sokcho' but the course is pool-table flat, entirely within the confines of Expo Park. That may make it more interesting to spectators - its hard to make triathlons less interesting to spectators - but more than a little repetitive for competitors. I guess they don't look around that much anyway. links: 1, 2 (PDF map),
Also on Sunday, and for locals only, is cheap day at Waterpia. Waterpia is a fair to good water theme park with a variety of pools, water-slides and excellent hot-springs but it is overpriced to my mind at around 30,000won. On the third Sunday of the month, Sokcho and Goseong residents can swim for 6,000 won. The little guy and I haven't missed a day all winter. It'll be great to use the outside facilities in comfort.
Finally on Sunday is a "Sokcho Beach Nude" . Whatever it is, it costs 20,000won, starts at 9:00am and involves nude photos. If others can translate the sign better, please do so in the comments.
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