Bus safety tools, old school

I saw this on a bus in Gangneung on Friday. There was one modern hammer; small, light, red with a tiny, specially designed, glass-shattering head. That was next to the bus driver. At the back of the bus were a pair of these blacksmithing tools.
Strangely, this may be the third photo of a hammer to be used in emergencies for breaking glass (Previously here and I think there was one from the same place a year earlier.) I should make it a label or something.

Exams tomorrow: that means 44 one-t0- one oral exams in a job interview format.

Fantastic weekend

Friday, I swam in the ocean at Kyeongpo Beach, Saturday I chased salmon and today I soaked and took the waters at Waterpia with my son.

The big news is that Waterpia now has two Local's days, the first and third Sunday of each month (not peak months - July and August).

The bad news is that the price for locals is now 9,000won. That's not so bad. That's a bit more than Seorak Pines charges for local evey day but Seorak Pines, while entirely satisfactory, is not as extensive at Waterpia.

Keeping up with Lao-ocean Girl, and shame

I have always burned with Envy at Lao-Ocean Girl and the El Camino Packer for the way they got onto the Salmon Fest sign.

Ha. Here I am, with only two hangers on -coworkers. And there's more.
Man, the sun really bothers my eyes. Lao-Ocean and her cronies certainly look better than I ever will.

Anyway, the 'more' part is that I got paid!
The photographer who took the shot recognized me and asked a tourism rep for Yangyang county to talk to me about my photo. She apologized for posting the pic without asking for permission and gave me 60,000won of Festival gift certificates in recompense.

Now the shame part. I have been to a few salmon fests and consider myself quite the salmon hunter, typically catching several and handing them off to less skillful collectors.

This year, I was skunked. Now, I had the little guy in one arm the whole time so was limited in how fast or far I could reach but still, I thought I was the salmon catching master.

To rub salt in the wounds, because I had already given my belated permission to use my photo, they wanted to shoot me again this year. They had to collect a salmon from the holding pen for me and when they gave it too me, I was gloveless and it slipped away so they had to get a second one for me. By this time, I had a glove so the photo was finally taken.

The water was fantastic and if I had both someone to watch the little guy and a dry change of clothes, I would have swam and played with the fish.

Oh, speaking of acknowledging photos and such, the El Camino Packer took the shot on my masthead of me swimming in the surf (Left side, top). Thanks. No 60,000won for you. Oh, thanks for the video in the post below.

Thanks, El camino packer

On Friday, I met the El Camino Packer and I tried out his stand up paddleboard. He arrived at the beach before I did and I walked to the water's edge seeing him paddling nonchalantly along.

I tried to be polite and listen to him as he explained how to use the board but I was mostly thinking, "Let go!"

Turns out, it isn't nearly as easy as he makes it look. Below should be a video (I can't see it while editing) of me trying to paddle his board while he narrates.

Salmon Fest

Its Saturday morning and I can see we will have great weather for the festival. Part of the fest - the best part- is wading in the river, catching salmon in your gloved hands. Last year, we practically wore winter clothes from the knees up and stumbled around on numb feet. This year we can stumble around in shorts!

Actually, I may not go in. We didn't buy a ticket but I just want to watch and show the little guy the fish.

I may still have salmon in the freezer from last year.

More, and more blogging in general, after the fest.

blogging and Blogger

Blogger has a new feature called 'Following'. If readers so choose, they can become 'followers' of this blog. Its an interesting idea and a reasonable extension of blogs as popularity contests. It may be similar to the number of friends you have on Facebook; publicly available knowledge of how popular you are - in this case, only if your readers use blogger (or have a blogger ID, I guess) which sure limits the number by a half or two thirds, I think. In my case, fifteen blogs that I read daily are on blogspot out of just over thirty. I can, but have not yet, add a widget to my blog listing my follower(s) -one for now, so it is not that exciting. I can also read the blogs in a reader on Blogger, whether or not they are on Blogspot.

Ironically, I use it now for the blogs that aren't updated frequently - Party Pooper, I'm talking about you - for the feed. I know that the Marmot will have new material up every day and even a few times a day, so I might as well go there and have access to comments as well as posts. This means I am mostly a follower of relatively static blogs. "Nothing much happens on your blog so I follow you" is the message I am really sending. Of course, if I pick up a few more followers then, I would add the widget and add others to my following list but, for now, its not that useful.

To be clear, I am not asking or urging others to 'follow' me, just commenting on the value or lack of value of the feature.
--__--

Something unexpected happened a few weeks ago in the comments on this blog. Three years ago, I discussed a newspaper review of Sokcho and picked up an unrelated comment about an adoptee whose family, unknown, is/was living in Sokcho.

It is an interesting comment, in that the adoptee got into serious legal trouble -apparently he killed a man -and is in jail and, I guess, looking into his background as a way to relieve the boredom. A friend of the man wrote the comment as the man injail cannot access the internet.

Anyway, a month ago, another person, anonymous, left a comment about the man; cheifly saying that he should be "six feet closer to hell for what he did...". I struggled with the issue of deleting or posting the comment and, today, have posted it. I am not clear in my mind why I posted it and am interested in comments what you would have done.

I do not have a policy, in my head, or posted, on comments and perhaps I should make one. I do not see it as a censorship issue as the anonymous poster could make his/her own blog, even while remaining anonymous, and post the comments. I sympathize with the man in jail a little, even though I know almost nothing about how or why he is there (presumably he murdered someone) but I am also a law and order type ( the son and grandson of policemen) and definitely sympathize with anyone who lost a friend or family member to violence.

War in Seoul

My father, as a member of the Ontario Provincial Police, battled biker gangs in Wasaga Beach during the May 24 Weekend (A Canadian holiday - Queen Victoria's birthday, I think) several years in a row. I was too young to know about it but apparently he would come home bleeding on occasion.

I was intrigued, then, to hear that "Seoul Declares War Against Bikers". Turns out they aren't related. I don't think there are motorcycles gangs of the Hell's Angel sort here. There will soon be a crackdown on motorcyclists - mostly delivery-people - who drive on sidewalks and park illegally.

I am happy to hear about the former and suspicious about the latter. I haven't had much trouble here in Sokcho but occasionally did in Seoul and annoyingly frequently in Masan, with motorcyclists driving on the sidewalk. In Masan, they would even bump into my leg and honk the horn. I learned to not move out of the way of the jerk.

The crackdown on illegal parking is a good idea, but why pick on motorcycles and motorcyclists? Motorcycles don't take up much room; start the parking crackdown on cars. Get the f---ing cars off the sidewalks. Get them off the crosswalks. Then, worry about the parked motorcycles. Heck, do that concurrently, just be sure to include cars.

One commenter on the Korean Times article claims the crackdown will not work because police will not be able to catch fast moving motorcycles. I agree that the crackdown will not work - or will work for only a short time, but not for the reason the commenter gave. We aren't talking about open roads and racing, we're talking about parking (pretty much the opposite of racing) and driving on sidewalks, which is done because the roads are jammed with traffic. If the motorcycles had clear roads to drive quickly on, they wouldn't be on the sidewalk in the first place.

By the way, what's keeping my pizza?
Possibly related.

Recovering

The right side of my face, paralyzed for two weeks by Bell's Palsy, is becoming more mobile. My hideous left-side-only smile of a week ago is now a somewhat less hideous one with the right side at least stretching a little. In time it will be the hardly-hideous-at-all smile I always had.

I am blinking comfortably again and able to read and use the computer mostly painlessly.

I have a way to go yet, but I feel so much better. There were some dark days when I wondered what job I could pick up that didn't require me to speak much or to read or focus my vision. Not everyone can be a Korea Herald proofreader.

Chinese fishermen kill Korean Coast Guard Officer

This has been covered on other blogs and I have nothing new to say. I join the other bloggers in hoping the fisherman, illegally fishing in Korean waters, are sent to a Fuck-you-up-the-ass type of prison for a long, long time.

I'm glad my wife is on the quieter East Coast.

The Marmot
GI Korea
Korea Times

October festivals

I am sure the nightingale singers are wonderful. It is too bad they transposed the words "dept" and "nursing". I hope I have covered the name of the university sufficiently well but if you want to hear them sing, ask me for the university's name. They perform October 1 in Sokcho.

Snarkiness aside, there are three festivals that look interesting. I have only preliminary information now but I will try to post updates.

Sokcho Hotspring Festival. The website can be found here (Best on IE). Oct 10-16. Its a little strange that the festival ends on a Thursday. Sokcho seems to have many hot springs but don't expect a rustic pool on a mountain slope surrounded by pine - Korean hotsprings are universally piped into buildings to make Bathhouses-with-special-water. Case in point is the Chuksan Hotspring (척산온천장), which is entirely serviceable but is little more than a small bathhouse. There is another location with a similar name on Sokcho City bus 3 route that might be more extensive - I don't know because they didn't give me a discount coupon.
Also on bus route 3 are Seorak Pines and Waterpia, both of which offer hot spring water in a variety of settings and other pools. Seorak Pines has a 18 metre exercise pool, a full bathhouse (for naked use), and five outdoor pools and two saunas (co-ed, bathing suits required). I think it is 18,000 won for a day, locals half price.
Waterpia has everything. There is a full bathhouse (again, single gender), two wave pools, a children's pool, an exercise pool and several outdoor hottubs. It is expensive (around 30,000 won) but locals have a cheap day on the third Sunday of each non-peak(not summer) month.
Dae-myeong Condo has a Water park of some sort that I plan to visit soon so I can comment on it. From the window, it seems nice and costs around 22,000won - no discount for locals. I don't if it, or indeed any of the hotsprings I have mentioned have special deals for the festival - the offical website mostly described the Miss Hotspring contest - I hope it involves bikinis!

Immediately after the hotspring festival is a fantastic weekend of events. On Oct 18-19, Sokcho has a 'Culture Festival' - more details to follow but it includes a Gaet-bae race - At Expo Park, Chungcho Lake, two human-powered ferries are set up and I think that teams of five race them about fifty metres and back. I don't know about the rest of the fest, but that looks like a lot of fun and I hope I can find a team to enter.
At the same time is the Salmon Festival in Yangyang - twenty minutes away by bus. The highpoint of the festival is catching salmon in the river by hand. When you catch a salmon, you keep it. Actually, I just cuaght salmon and let them go until the time limit was almost up then caught one to take home. Ah, I let them go back into the netted part of the river so others could catch them- I have often fantasized about standing at the net and catching salmon and releasing them into the open river to be free but have never done so. (Gangwon Notes, Lao Ocean, official site).

I think this weekend should also be good for fall colours - one might have a busy weekend enjoying all on offer.

The next weekend, nothing will be happening here because KwandongBrian will be in Seoul for the KOTESOL conference. As the Geek will tell you, registering is a bother - you have to transfer money to an individual's account (David Shaffer - I believe he is on the board) which is common in Korea but seems a little hinky. He is also unexcited by the speakers - I am sure he means no disrespect to the giant Joe Seoul Man who will be presenting, ah, something. I plan to meet Joe for lunch on Saturday but hope also to see the Geek - and any readers of this blog.

my son, mocking the way I eat

I promise that the next post, whatever it is about, will not be about Bell's Palsy. After that, no guarantees.

Here, KwandongAlex is teasing me for the way I pinch the right side of my lips together to avoid drooling and spilling the food. His mimicry is spot on, although I am not so cheerful about it.

Han ui won

Despite my misgivings, I think the Oriental doctor performed a valuable service. I don't know the theories behind Oriental medicine, but most of the treatment seemed focused on stimulating the unresponsive muscles and, well, the whole right side of my face.

I am reminded that in university, perhaps in Vertebrate zoology, the professor told us that even though there were no good cures for damage to the spine, sometimes making an incision near the spine causes healing to the spine. It is as if the body, while healing the cut, healing elements are focused on the area and work on nearby problems as well.

I told him, among other things, that talking in class gave me a literal pain in the neck. He poked around and found a tender spot.

Part of the treatment requires that I massage the right side of my face, pushing upward with strength, 100 times and doing that ten to twenty times a day.

Then, it was time for needles and suction cups.


I should look in the mirror and see if I have a hickey now.

Here, electricity is pulsed through the needles, jerking my cheek and face muscles around.

There was also a needle in the web of my left hand - I don't know why.

The doctor told me to avoid cold water -for bathing, not necessarily for drinking. I am not sure why and I am unlikely to follow this restriction.

Bew's Fawsy

I can't blink my right eye normally. When I start concentrating on something, I forget to blink. I need to stop what I am doing and take a few seconds -and sometimes to actually use my fingers - to close my right eye. I don't plan to type for long and I will let small errors go - this is my excuse for errors in this post and is there anyway I can make this retroactive for four years to cover all my many previous errors?

Four days, fourteen hours of classes and 48 steroid pills (and many others) after being diagnosed with Bell's Palsy, i have had my second, follow-up visit to the doctor.

First, about the four days and classes. I began each class by explaining my illness and assuring them it was not contagious. Trying to talk clearly was very tiring an dgave me pains in the right side of where the spine meets the skull. I guess I was tightening muscles there to try to give that side of my face some kind of rigidity. Luckily, I had games planned for some of the classes and didn't have a lot of talking to do. I also used students to call out the roll to save my voice. Still, there were a few classes where I wanted to dopronunciation drills. The students usually couldn't hear a difference in my speaking but I really could -hence the title of this post - that is what "Bell's Palsy" sounds like to me when I say it.

Students were understanding but I am a little disappointed that only students from three classes wished me well.

It has been annoying to be unable to read for any length of time, or use the computer or even watch TV. The MP3 player has been my friend.

I have taken to eating in private to hide the way I need to push on my cheek if food falls between my teeth and right-side cheek . Also, I need to hold my right lower lip against the cup or can when I drink.

My wife and some good friends have suggested that I go to a Han-oi-won or traditional hospital for acupuncture to complement the western treatments. I am quite a sceptic, but will go this afternoon (explanations to follow).

At the doctor's office today in Asan Hospital, I heard a new set of percentages regarding recovery rates. I had been told, and had read from various sources, that 85% or so with Bell's Palsy recovery completely but today I was told thenumbers were more like 30% fully recover, 30% partially recover and 30% don't recover responsiveness in their faces. I don't think there is a missing 10%; I think he meant thirds. Anyway, this is much more terrifying! I will be looking further into this. The doctor also very clearly told me that acupuncture would not help me.

I agree with his opinion on acupuncture and felt the same way before I asked him about it despite this article from an acupuncturist in Toronto*. Still, I am willing to grasp at straws a little and getting the treatment will be easier than arguing with my wife about why I shouldn't get it.

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*The Asan Hospital doctor had said that there were no studies confirming the effectiveness of acupuncture in Bell's Palsy cases and the Toronto acupuncturist's account was of a single anecdote. This reminds me of the efficiousy of headache medicines. My understanding is that most headaches fade after twenty minutes or so, regardless of treatment. For one person, having his/her headache disappear after twenty minutes proves nothing. If I get acupuncture and my symptoms fade, there is no way of knowing why or how they faded. I need to also accept the corollary - Western medical treatments are known to be unable to cure viral diseases - if the symptoms fade or remain, I cannot apply too much blame or credit to the medicine I was prescribed.

Bell's Palsy

In a previous post I wrote that I had suffered another allergy attack, making my face swell and causing me to drool when I drank. It turns out that this is not due to allergies but to Bell's Palsy. The right side of my face is drooping and unresponsive. I cannot easily blink my right eye and must hold my right lower lip tight against a glass with my hand when I drink. I am having trouble focusing my right eye so I am using the larger font size.

In the upper pic I am trying to smile evenly. Below, I am trying to forcefully close my eyes.
Bell's Palsy is of unknown origin and tests typically rule out other possible causes for the unresponsiveness. It is likely of viral origin and my blood test confirms that; I have a high white blood cell count, particularly of E-Lymphocytes, which fight viral infections. The doctor told me that another type of white blood cell, which primarily fights bacterial infections was low but I didn't keep track of the name, I think it was the E- neutro(cyte).

I have been given a whole lot of pills - 12 steroid pills to be taken each morning as well as three other pills to take three times a day and eye drops to lubricate my eye as I often have to use my finger to close it completely.

It is amusing that I am now on steroids as I have just started the 100 pushups workout plan suggested by the EFL Geek - I hope he doesn't think I am cheating - look out Barry Bonds!
In researching Bell's Palsy, I have learned that former Prime Minister of Canada Jean Chretien had Bell's Palsy as a child and apparently suffered permanent damage as he was easily caricatured as speaking from one side of his face. A friend of mine, Rowdy Roddy Swimmer also seemed to speak from one side - I will have to ask if he had Bell's Palsy. Anyway, it is typically temporary and I should be fine in a few weeks. In the meantime, I will be working hard to speak clearly for my students -my 'P's are now a Korean style 'F' - "I like to eat affles!"

More info at WebMD or at Wikipedia - and thanks to my mom, a retired nurse who explained some of the details to me. Great thanks to my wife who came with me to the hospital and took care of the little guy after working a 24 hour shift at the Coast Guard.

Oh, some words I may need for classes:
not contagious
전염성이 있지 않음

Bell's Palsy
Bell's 마비

Chuseok weekend: jellyfish and allergies

KwandongWife is working (a lot) so we aren't travelling this weekend.

KwandongAlex and I went to the beach on Friday afternoon and had a great time -it's a shame that he is getting comfortable in the water at the end of the season. We swam again on Saturday, spending several hours there.

The strange thing was the beach was full of moon-jellies on Friday, but they were entirely absent on Saturday.Photo from Chemistry and Biology.

On Saturday night, I drank some water and tried to swish it around in my mouth and ended up spilling some on my shirt. Today, Sunday, my face is partially swollen and tight feeling. My left eyelid feels heavy and closes easily. My right eyelid, in contrast feels tight and takes effort to close - it stings much of the time and I sometimes hold the eyelid down with my finger. I don't think I am slurring my words but my lips feel the same way; the left side is heavy and the left side is tight. Oh, don't panic, loyal reader; I have a few allergies and blame them for the swelling and such - I don't think I have had a stroke or anything to affect one side of my face.

I went to the hospital and got two needles - Ketaricin and Dexa - and a few pills, but have noticed no change in my condition.

KwandongAlex was as understanding as a three year old can be and we spent most of the day at home and at a nearby playground.

Church of England apologizes to Charles Darwin

The Daily Mail uses the word ludicrous in the title of its article. The Vatican apologized to Galileo some time ago so it may be ludicrous but not unique. I might use the word ludicrous when describing the actions of religious groups but this is at least a step in the right direction.

Dr Brown writes: ‘People, and institutions, make mistakes and Christian people and Churches are no exception. When a big new idea emerges that changes the way people look at the world, it’s easy to feel that every old idea, every certainty, is under attack and then to do battle against the new insights.

‘The Church made that mistake with Galileo’s astronomy and has since realised its error. Some Church people did it again in the 1860s with Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection.

'So it is important to think again about Darwin’s impact on religious thinking, then and now.’

Dr Brown argues that there is nothing incompatible between the scientific theories adopted by Darwin and Christian teaching.

In using "the Church" to describe the offender with regards to Galileo and Darwin, does the Church of England trace RC history as it's own until they split?

In reading the article, I think the goal of the apology was not to make Mathhew Chapman or the other descendents of Darwin feel better (although the Church would not be displeased with that outcome) but to show opposition to creationist Christians. Possibly after being an upstart youngster, the Anglicans want to be an elder statesmen to the modern anti-science upstarts.

Sokcho Beaches in August

Found this at a hometown friend's site. I think he found it here.

Book Review: "Next" by Michael Crighton

I read a few dozen books a year; it's strange that I feel compelled to review Crichton's work and not many of the others.

I should review more books as they keep this blog in the public eye somewhat. My most popular post, with a steady five or six hits a week is the review I did of Guns, Germs and Steel.

Anyway, I have been a fan of Crichton since Jurassic Park. After that book, I went back and read many of his previous books, although not Andromeda Strain for some reason. I enjoyed them all, although State of Fear least of all.

In my review of State of Fear, I stated that Crichton's book are both adventure stories and careful discussions of current issues in science. Typically, both are interesting but even if you don't care for the lecture, the story is thrilling on its own.

This is not true with Next (I couldn't get a link in Firefox and had to use Explorer to do so). In this book, the issues of owning cell lines and genes is examined. There are two transgenic animals - one is a terrifyingly strong chimp-boy who comes to the rescue with monotonous regularity, and a man whose cells are owned by a Californian University along patent disputes, genetic cures and organ smuggling.

There are probably more situations brought up - there are, in fact, too many. In the middle of the book, in two places, a doctor who sold his sperm to a sperm bank is sued by his genetic daughter because he had a gene that increased te likelihood of addictive behavior. His lawyer advises him to settle and this thread in the story is never revisited.

Elsewhere in the story, the daughter of a main character, sixteen years old, is selling her eggs to a clinic to make money for "breast implants". This vignette ends with the parents being angry.

Yet, elsewhere, a coroner is selling body parts without permission.

These three stories are interesting indeed, but disconnected with the main plot line. Doctors from UCLA saved the life of a cancer patient simultaneously using new research and performing new research. They do save his life but his genes are patented - the university owns them, he does not. He becomes involved in corporate espionage and researchers from the university hunt down his family because they carry genes owned by the university. This story is exciting and well done, but it is somewhat hidden as Crichton tries to show all the other confusing and dangerous aspects of genetic research.

Another target of Crichton's concern is the poor job journalists are doing in explaining and researching the issues. Almost as a running gag, he includes clips form newspapers discussing whether blonds will go extinct through the book.

As a further explanation of why I am posting a review, there are two mentions of the infamous Dr Hwang Woo-seok, the cloning researcher who falsified research. See, the book mentions Korea so it is acceptable grist for this mill.

Terry Fox Run cancelled for 2008 in Korea

From the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Korea website:

The CCCK has been the organizer of the Terry Fox Run for the past 15 years. While the amount of funds raised for cancer research in Korea and the total number of participants has continuously been growing, organizing the event has become increasingly more difficult. As some of you may know, The Terry Fox Foundation has implemented stricter guidelines on local organizers in recent years. Regulations about sponsorships and commercial exposure combined with requirements for liability insurance are some of the factors that limit our ability to hold the event successfully. Finally, with 300 volunteers and numerous suppliers and partners to manage, the Terry Fox Run is an extremely resource-intensive event for our small organization to hold.

They plan to skip 2008 and run an excellent one in 2009. There is no word on whether the run will take place every other year or if this is a one-time thing.

They have good reasons but I wish they had mentioned this earlier. Internationally, the run will take place next week - did they really wait this long before making their decision?

I know I should be running for personal reasons but preparation for this run was a major motivator for me. I need to find another event now.

Let's look forward to an excellent run next year and if anyone wants to volunteer for it, be sure to contact them.

Crash # 3

Firstly, I'm fine. The car accident happened in an intersection below my window; the third one in a month.

I am not sure how or why these crashes are occurring. They all sound the same and occur in the late evening (this one occurred around 8:40). I am in my apartment and I hear a brief wail of brakes and a solid bump. No one appears badly injured.

I haven't seen the actual impact, only looked out the window a few seconds afterwards. I am unable to figure out what happened. Clearly, one car has broadsided another but was the T-boned car crossing the intersection from the side street or did the driver attempt a wide U-turn across four lanes?

What I can comment on with some authority is the unprofessional-ness of most people afterwards. There are no hazard light flashing on any vehicle although the tow-trucks all have their roof lights on and turning. Happily, there have been no fights or loud arguments, just people working to solve the problem - although in the last two cases, the person stepping out of the, uh, broadsiding car has been on the phone. I hope they have just called for assistance.

Have a look; the two pics are the same image, the second one labelled and a little smaller.


The police drive everywhere with their roof-lights on but turn them off at the scene of an accident?

There are three tow-trucks and a car carrier (I don't know what to call it - the car is driven onto the bed of the truck) in the pic and all have their lights on. However, at the bottom-left of the photo is a tow truck blocking the side street. Only the carrier was used and in leaving, one tow truck ran a redlight with a little toot of its siren.

Accident vehicle #2 is black and has its lights turned off. Even if it has suffered a complete electrical failure (it hasn't; it drove off when the police were through), someone should use a flare or fluorescent marker or something.

Left hand: What is the right hand doing?

There is an interesting pair of articles in the Korea Times. On the 2nd, there is a brief report that the Canal project may be revived (background on the canal here, here, here,...) Two days later, reports of a North Korean dam affecting water flow in the Han River are described.

Boy, there's an angle I hadn't even considered; the canal is clearly a bad idea for financial, environmental and agricultural reasons - but it is also susceptible to sabotage by the Norks?

Chrome

I am a big fan of Firefox and my computer is getting on in years so I am unwilling to download new browser software but Google's new browser seems interesting (I'm also a big fan of Google). I had to chuckle, however, at the self-importance of this headline, "MS Dominance Thwarts Google Browser’s Foray." Korea isn't really the centre of the world, guys.

The article is a little more evenhanded, describing the troubles Chrome has in Korea. The article then goes on to describe upcoming trouble Korean web designers will face; the possible phasing out of Active-X. I don't know much about ActiveX, except that it can be a path for viruses and other problems.

Eco-friendly driving – probably an oxymoron

Sarah Stefanson writes for driversense.com and an article of hers was featured on the homepage for Yahoo Canada on September 1. As it was about driving and the environment, I gave it a read (I click on about one in fifty of the featured articles, I guess).

She does give some good tips for conserving gas while driving but I really see no honest effort to be eco-friendly.

She seems to be missing an important point about how vehicle-use consumes energy, looking at the problem in the most simplistic and car-friendly way possible. That point is, the energy it takes to drive any car anywhere is more than matched by the energy needed to produce that car and probably not far off the energy needed to make and maintain the roads and infrastructure necessary for driving.

One suggestion is too keep the trunk clear and not carry too much extra weight. She should follow that thought through and consider the absurdity of using a one tonne vehicle to transport a ninety kilo person (that’s me, by the way, not her).

When I return to Canada, I will likely have to buy a car. Things are pretty spread out there, unlike my situation in Korea.

To be honest, I will likely even drive frivolously on occasion, so maybe a few of her suggestions have merit. However, her attitude is more irritating than than her supposed eco-friendliness.

“I love my car. I love it on days when I drive past pedestrians walking through rain, sleet and snow. I love it because it lets me sleep in an extra half hour every morning since I don't have to catch a bus.”

What a jerk. Those poor bastards, doing their part to protect the environment or too poor to own a car; I love driving past them and laughing.

My hometown and the GOP convention

Via the Friendly Atheist, I have learned that if you visit the 2008 GOP convention website and try to click on a video, you get a symbol and photo for the Simcoe Muskoka Catholic Virtual Learning Centre.

This photo is also from his site, but I went the convention webpage and found the same thing.


Hey, that's where I'm from and its a fair distance from anywhere in the US. I join the Friendly Atheist in wondering what's happening.

Worn out

I so proudly mentioned about ten days back that I had run 100km in a month and that I would attempt 50 km in the next ten days.

Today is the eighth day.

I am going to finish and maybe even beat my goal a little but I sure don't think I'll be finishing in style.

five km a day doesn't seem like that much - and it really isn't. Still, there have been a few missed days and catching up has been tough.

I made 8km the first day and missed the second day due to rain. I made another 8km on the third day and missed the fourth to family commitments. The fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth days have been 9km, 5km, 8km, and 5km respectively with the last three runs progressively slower.

If you were counting, that should be 43 km. I'll finish on Saturday (with two 5km runs between now and then) and pace myself differently in September.

I hope to follow a three day cycle of 8km, 5km and 0km. I will also add some calisthenics and hopefully swimming, although scheduling swimming is a challenge. Mostly though, I will be looking at running faster, not further, for a while. I have managed a best this year of 8km in 41:07 although my most recent 8km was 44:00. I want to run 8km in under 40 minutes by the end of Sept.

Oh, I also hope to do Seoul's Terry Fox Run this fall. In Canada, it is scheduled for Chuseok Sunday (Sept 14) but might have a different date here to avoid Chuseok. The Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Korea (CCCK) has not set a date yet. I hope they don't throw the whole thing together with a week's notice. Anyway, information should be here ...sometime.

Maybe, just maybe, they have a point

Today, the beaches were again closed to swimming. I went to Sokcho Beach and rode my bike onto the walkway and rode to the far end, Oeongchi Beach. The lifeguards were all at the other end -more than a kilometre away - so I swam with some university students.

The bottom there is rocky, with the bottom ranging from pebbles to rocks larger than my fists. The waves were big enough to bash me into them a few times and I have some blood on my knee and I banged my head somehow. I also had a great time.

I think they should control swimming at that end and open up the Sokcho end, with the soft sand bottom. I would be more comfortable now if I had landed on sand. Still, if I get tossed around, I can see why they want to be cautious.

four days: no swimming allowed

Really, this is a photo of the 'No Swimming' sign, not the girl in the bikini at the bottom of the pic.

In my opinion, the surf has eased a little but swimming is still forbidden at all beaches in Sokcho.

Man, I want to swim in the surf - flat water is boring. I would normally say that people can judge the conditions for themselves and decide if they should swim or not. However, I have pulled several people in tubes to shore after they found themselves unable to return under their own power.
Oh, the flag says, "Su-young Bool-ga" which means 'No swimming'.

Not much fun: Aug 21

I am proud that I managed 8km running today and at around the same time as I did on the track that one in the plus column for today.

However, I went to my favourite swimmin' hole, which normally looks like this:
...but today, looked like this.
I love to play in the surf but not so much when there are giant rocks just under the surface. Did I mention previously that I saw a small school of thumb sized squid here yesterday? Anyway, I was eager to snorkel further and try to find them again but obviously saw it was not going to happen.

In the evening, the little guy wanted to go to the beach (Sokcho Beach, not the above death trap). We hopped in a cab and the driver watched the Olympics while driving us. Interestingly, I had just read this post at Boingboing earlier in the day.


On the cab home, A different sport but the same thing.
Should I have stopped the cab and gotten another one? I figured they would turn the sports off once we started moving.

Brian in Jeollanam-do: White people still exotic, still all look same.

A Brian from the other side of South Korea has a video of a British swimmer in Beijing being mistaken for Michael Phelps. I wonder if he would just stop saying "Phelps", if that would help.

Anyway, I clicked on the 'create a link' button on his post and appear to be writing to my own blog; no idea what the format will look like.

Brian in Jeollanam-do: White people still exotic, still all look same.

The real winners of the wildlife game

Four students were stung during the game. Some of them deserved it - I specifically pointed out the hive and told students not to use the door (they are building the hive on a door). Ten minutes into one game, I see a student run through the door and slam it shut behind him. I kinda hope he was one of the stung.
Actually, the victims took it better than I would have. I am a real wimp regarding bee and wasp stings. In my youth, I stepped on a wasp hive and was stung seven times. I ran to my mother and she patted me on the head comfortingly- two flew out of my hair and stung me. Yeah, bees bother me a little but I have real issues with my mother!

Wildlife game

After teaching about how ecosystems work for three and a half weeks, I have the students role-play an ecosystem in a game whose name I have forgotten. perhaps a reader could help me out.

Anyway, in the game more than half the students are small herbivores (rabbits and squirrels). A few are foxes and a very few are wolves. I play the part of man and if I had more players there might be disease or other natural events.

All the animals need to find 2 "water" and the rabbits and squirrels need to find 2 "Food". Foxes and wolves need to catch rabbits and squirrels, while man does as he pleases.



I would prefer to play in a forest but that can be problematic for scheduling and other reasons. At the school, there was a large area devoted to tennis, volleyball and basketball courts. Each court had a fence and a few doors. There was also a breezeway and other places to hide and maneuver. Below is a picture of the most easily found envelope of 'food'.
A big problem is identifying the foxes and wolves. Well, as a nature enthusiast, I knew that foxes don't like the rain so they would naturally carry umbrellas.
Wolves love a bargain and so, quite reasonably, they carry bags for impromptu purchases.

The games lasted about 30 minutes and were enjoyed by most. Oh, to keep students in the game, the animals carried 6 (rabbits and squirrels), 3 (foxes), or 2 (wolves) "lives". The lives looked like food or water but had "rabbit" or the like typed on them.

Humiliation (2) (and pride)

In the past month, I have ran 103 km. I am excited enough to now attempt 50km in the next ten days. I know that's really not that much, but its more than I have done in any two months in the past fifteen years.

That's the pride part.

In the photo below, you might think my nipples are sticking out a little, but really those are Vaseline stains on my shirt. I mentioned a few years ago that my nipples chaffed and burned during a long run and that Vaseline was a good preventative. I didn't know then that the dang stuff would stain my shirt. I might as well sew on a scarlet letter (not an 'A', though. Well, maybe, but for different reasons) as everyone will see my shame.

Olympics (2)

In the previous post, I mentioned that I had judged debates at the camp. One of the possible topics for debate was, "The Olympics do more harm than good" and the students discussed the pros and cons of the event. As a Canadian, memories of the '76 Olympics in Montreal still rankle. Canada is still paying for the stadium, we were the first host country to fail to win a gold and... well, some other first for a negative thing. I love the idea of the Olympics but I understand that others might not.

When I was of an age to really follow the Olympics, Canada was a swimming powerhouse. To allow myself a bit of namedropping, I met Alex Baumann at a few meets and was briefly courted by his coach, the amazing Dr. Tihanyi. At Camp Chikopi, I met Sandy Goss and Mark Tewksbury, both Olympic medalists. I never met Victor Davis, but idolized him as my best stroke was breaststroke. Baumann, Davis and Tewksbury won gold at the Olympics in the same decade and it is hard to recall that Canada hadn't won a gold in swimming since 1912, when Hodgson dominated distance freestyle in a similar way that Phelps is dominating everything now.

I am happy that Canada has finally managed to pick up a few medals; four in a day. If they keep this up, maybe Canadians won't feel so humiliated.

I am so amazed with Phelps' record of 8 gold. The way I see it, competitors in a relatively new sport can manage to dominate the field. That is, swimming is not quite as venerable a sport as track is, but has a longer history than competitive canoeing and kayaking. One would expect track athletes to be tightly focused on one event only and swimmers on two or three and the canoeing events to be a free-for-all.

Canada has a 41 year old kayaker at the Olympics - I don't think you'll find anyone near his age in track events. It is simply too old to be competitive.

I am impressed but not that surprised that Spitz won seven gold while swimming as a sport was maturing. I am knocked-on-the-floor shocked that someone could beat that record thirty years later.

I have to suspect that my knowledge of swimming is becoming obselete - I watched Bak Tae-hwan's 400m Free several times (it was the only thing on) and many of the swimmers seemed to glide on one arm while they breathed. To me, with my background, that looks like bad technique. If Olympic gold medalists are doing it, I can admit that it is me that is out of touch.

Done

I am typing this while waiting for a coworker to pick me up and drive to Gangneung so the post could end suddenly.

This was my seventh time working the GLPS camp at Minjok Sagwan High School but still I learned a great deal while also teaching a great deal.

Not related to academics, I am proud to announce that I managed to run 89 km in the past month on the track here. I still have a little time to try for 100 km in a single month.

This is the first time I was involved with the debate program. I am not sure if I want to be more involved but it was interesting for a short time. I judged teh group with the lowest level of English. The manager did a great job of introducing debate in a foreign language but the student's low level meant that there wasn't a lot of variety. I listened to three debates yesterday and three today, all on the same two subjects and employing the same six arguments each. I'm a lttle tired.

This has been the rainiest camp ever.

More later.

Don't be LEFT out tomorrow!

Yes, tomorrow is Left Hander's Day. Here is how I am preparing.

Have I gone a little overboard here? Closeup of sign below.


I just looked at my 2007 post for this day and found almost the exact same thing. No Left handed moth, so far.

Olympics (1)

I am interested in the Olympics and some of my heros are Olympians but I've been travelling and had internet connection problems at the camp so I've only been able to see fragments here and there.

I watched the phenomenal opening ceremonies for two hours on Friday night. I felt a wonderful thrill when Canada's huge team entered the stadium- and chuckled at the one woman on the Canadian team with one hand at the side of her face and the other plugging an ear - clearly on a cell phone.

I was less touched to see "Chinese Taipei" and confused to see a "Hong Kong" team - isn't that a part of China in an even less controversial way than Chinese Taipei?

On Sunday afternoon, riding the bus to camp, I saw sports highlights on the TV. I was in the back seat of the bus so I couldn't read the screen or hear anything but I did see Pak Tae-hwan. I hope he did well in the 400 free but have been concerned about his coach hopping.
Added Monday: He won the 400. Congrats to him. I see he trained in Australia, possibly the world's swimming powerhouse.

On the bus, I also saw a bit of diving. Again, I was far from the screen - were they showing the women in the shower? What's up with that?

"PA" office

Now to ruin the joke by explaining it: This is the door to the Program Assistant's Office or PA Office. The Korean word for onion is 'yangpa', which is what the final picture says. There is also a hunk of yangpa on the bottom-right hand side of the sign.

Humiliation

It is so hot and I sweat so much that I actually sweat through the knees of my pants.

"Thrive"

Among other things, for me, camp means running laps.

Competitive swimming gave me a predilection for several things I guess, but two of them were repetition and a clear breakdown of split times in a long bout of exercise. Sure, at camp the roads are quiet and I could be travelling through a variety of backdrops and vistas but then I wouldn't know how long any individual leg of the run should take.

Here is the track I run on, encircling one of the few grass soccer fields in Korea. Sorry for the amateur stitching of photos.
I am on pace for twenty-five km a week and hugely proud of myself.

Near the end of my runs ...wait, at the beginning of my runs, there is nothing to be proud of. As an old man, the first two km are ludicrously stumbling and flailing until my legs stretch out enough to run like a human being. Anyway, at the end of my runs, I have frequently misjudged how much energy I have to spare. This makes the final laps a struggle.

I used to tell myself to hang on. I decided that wouldn't do for this camp. I don't want to struggle to the finish, I want to be tall and strong through the final kilometre. to this end, I now tell myself to thrive. It may seem corny - as I write this, it really seems corny, but if it gets me through a few runs, it is worth it -saying it, that is, maybe it will never be worth it for posting it online.

Anyway, it's 8:40 and I have to get to bed soon to hit the track at 6:00 tomorrow. Time to finish letters to parents.

A surprising source of humor

My friends know how powerful and frequent my sneezes are. I do NOT sneeze on people, but when there is no one in front of me, I don't hold back. I have been known to open a door into another, hopefully empty, room and rattling windows.

I did this at the camp: I stepped away from the white board, opened the door and shook the hallway walls. At the other end of the hall was the camp manager, who was meeting with another teacher.

Our manager does have his very own sense of humour but he very German. He is German, but he also manifests most of the positive stereotypes of the people. When there is work to be done, jokes are an obvious waste of time.

At camp, there is always work to be done.

Well, ten minutes after my sneeze, he was back outside my door, putting up a sign.
He was so proud of it, that he sent other teachers up to check my door.

To borrow an Aussie-ism, good on 'im; he is human after all.

Stung

A coworker was stung last weekend (July 25-ish) by a jellyfish, but I still envy her.

Due to some miscommunication or lack of communication between another coworker and I, I was stuck at camp on the weekend. Me being stuck here, by the way, was entirely my fault. Anyway, while I was here doing not much, my coworkers were swimming at Kyeongpo Beach in Gangneung. The water was murky because of recent rain they did not notice the jellyfish until one was stung.

I do not know if they used vinegar or urine or what to relieve the sting.

Elgin, at the Marmot's Hole, has found that global warming and overfishing are causing larger blooms of jellyfish around the world.

From his post:

...filefish — a natural predator of jellyfish — have been over-fished around Korea to the point where jellyfish have flourished...

and from the New York Times article he links to:

The warmer seas and drier climate caused by global warming work to the jellyfish’s advantage, since nearly all jellyfish breed better and faster in warmer waters, according to Dr. Jennifer Purcell, a jellyfish expert at the Shannon Point Marine Center of Western Washington University.

Okay, now global warming is getting serious. If it interferes with my swimming, its got to be fixed.

My coworker is fine, now.

Fire safety

I am back at camp, starting week three of four.

During the week, we have regular classes (I am teaching ecology) but every Saturday is different. Two days ago, we had survival English. Two of the classes were first aid (Which I taught) and fire safety. I am amused to see fire safety offered as there could be a bit of hypocrisy in it. Those who teach the subject are sincere, but the school management are more interested in climate control and preventing theft and possible misdeeds by students who cannot be tracked.

My classroom is in a corner so there is a door leading to an emergency exit.

Try to open that door. Do you carry an emergency door knob for such occasions?
If you could get through the door, or if you walked to the centre of the building and back through another hallway, you end up at this door, leading out. You can see the effort on my face as I desperately try to turn the knob. Locked.
I went outside and around the building and up the stairs to the other side of the door. No knob and a large sign saying "don't use. Use other door." the smaller sign, above, says, "be aware of heating, keep door closed".

There is another door on my floor that does open. Its on the other side of the building. I guess I am not really upset that the door is locked, more I wonder why did they think they needed it? Is it a legal requirement and after the building passed the local version of the building code, they felt they could lock it?
On the first floor of the building are the main entrance and two smaller entrances. One is padlocked closed and the other, above, is closed with caulking. I suppose a strong or motivated person could push hard enough to rip out the caulking, but still, it is strange. I also suspect that they could manage better climate control by teaching the students to close the main entrance doors after walking through them. Koreans, away from their homes, don't feel a need to close a door after opening it.

A few years ago, I posted a similar story about the school and how the students are locked up at night. Since that time, this big-ass mallet now sits near the main doors - the smaller fire exits are still chained and locked. I guess students could now smash the glass doors out if they need to leave in a hurry.

At camp

Week one with the students is now finished. They are a good enough bunch of kids, although I have some challenges ahead.

Each student must give a five minute speech to the class (fifteen students) and the best two will enter a camp wide competition (twenty four classes but each division is only six classes). The students can write in English more or less well enough and their pronunciation is excellent so that is no problem. The challenge is getting them to speechify.

The main goal of a recent class was to make an exciting or captivating introduction. Students were told to write a maximum of four sentences to also to plan their body language and delivery.

Most students went for the 'more is better' approach and just started putting their long, boring speeches into writing. "My name is *** and I am in class 7. I am going to talk about ****..."

I have worked hard to demonstrate an interesting introduction and a boring one but the students just aren't getting it. I am not sure how to explain it better. I can only hope that one or two students understand and, in giving their speeches, show their classmates how it is done for future reference.

Next week, I must also give a speech to the assembled camp on something in the field of biology (I teach ecology at the camp). In appearance, I am an overweight, middled aged guy but in personality I am a reckless teen with a short attention span so I think I can relate to my audience. I will discuss coral reefs and occasions where I have come into contact with sharks. I plan to avoid a "I'm a cool, macho guy because I have swam with sharks" sort of speech but do hope that angle will help keep the speech interesting. I will post the speech here after I give it.

We've seen a lot of rain here and it has kept me inside but at least it's been cool. I haven't used the fan in my apartment yet but have used the blanket. The next few days look like rain but also 34 Celsius so I expect short thunderstorms and hot days.

The Korean version of this mag would be good for me

Someone named Esplanade posted this entry at Something Awful's contest for reverse magazines.

climate conditioning

The Donga has an article describing how Korea and Japan have policies for temperature regulation in government offices including a set-point for air conditioners, a not-that-cool 28 degrees. This is another article relating energy saving measures to the high price of fuel.

The point is a good one, but Korea could make maintain cool rooms (and warm ones in the winter) while making great energy savings with a ridiculously simple procedure: close the freakin' doors and windows! My head spins when I see an active air conditioner next to an open window or cold classrooms in the winter with every exterior door wide open.

I do think using air conditioners to moderately cool and dry the air is a good idea, too.

Previously at Gangwon Notes.