Can you see me now?

A few weeks ago, I tried to visit my own site (yeah, yeah, unrestrained vanity and all that) and couldn't. All I got was a blue screen.

Lately, I have had no problems with seeing my blog but the Nomad commented that he could see none of the pictures.

If anyone has time to comment, can you see the pic in this post and also the pics in earlier posts? Thanks for your time.

Georgian Bay Islands National Park

I have just returned from the park and will probably keep this post short. With two friends, I kayaked around Beausoliel Island, the one island of the park open to visitors. Georgian Bay, a part of Lake Huron, has more than 30,000 islands; the park consists of about ten. With so many islands, the waterways sometimes look like rivers as in this photo.Here I am, posing for the camera. Of the three, I had the most experience with sea kayaking and had visited the island a few times previously (six years or more ago). I said I had the most experience, not that I had a lot of experience. We figured the vultures were waiting for us!
One side of the island is sheltered and the water calm. On the open water side, there is more than a hundred kilometres for the waves to build up. These swells wouldn't look out-of-place on the ocean. We reached this point and studied the waves for twenty minutes before deciding to push on. We had all been competitive swimmers and ironically would have felt safer crossing the open water stretch by swimming than by kayaking.
On the little island is Brebeuf lighthouse. Brebeuf was a Jesuit 'black robe' locally famous as part of Ontario's earliest white settlement, St. Marie Among the Hurons.
In a post below (I'll fiddle with the datestamps so it appears under this post) I'll write more.

a night on Beausoleil and more wierd stuff

Now, this bug is wierd. I've never seen antennae shaped liked brooms before. I took the picture of it on our picnic table at Christian Beach on the open water side of Beausoleil. The conditions we were in made it only a passing thought, though.
We had reached Christian Beach after six pm and were pretty tired. We set up tents and soaked in the lake for half an hour. That might have been a mistake...

We got out of the water as the sky filled with clouds and the wind picked up. You may remember that the wind was already strong. I set up the camp stove with two little coolers to block the wind. That wasn't enough. My friends, the Kaiser and Nine-toes, stood to block the wind. Still not enough. Finally, we moved the second picnic table on it's side and that helped.
Below are Nine-toes and the Kaiser trying to enjoy kraft dinner salted with wind-driven beach-grit.

Look again at that sunset!

It was a mighty storm with a lot of wind and lightning but not so much rain. I am really proud of my Eureka tent which didn't even shudder. The Kaiser's tent, similar in shape to mine, also did well. Nine-toes had a big tent with exceptional headroom but it was almost folded over in the wind.

How bad was the storm? Well, I've read that in Korea, the Han flooded even more than previous summers and a Gangwon highway was closed due to a mudslide so perhaps our storm wasn't quite that bad. Still, according to the Toronto Star:

The flash storm late Monday night swept through Greater Toronto and parts of southern Ontario, leaving destruction in its wake. In Callander and Mattawa, the storm was so destructive, the mayors declared states of emergency.
...
You think camping is a safe activity, but with all these freak storms coming up, you just never know ... ."
...
Ontario Provincial Police also blamed a tree felled by the storm for the death of Jeff Grey, 26, of Michigan, who had been in a tent in Algonquin Provincial Park, south of Kiosk, Ont.

Two others died in the storm.

On a lighter note, that Nine-toes is probably a better photographer with his own camera. Here is his picture of me with the Kaiser on my camera:

Yeah, my friends have funny names but what can you expect from a guy who goes by 'GeorgianBayBrian'? Nine-toes actually has a full complement of pedal appendages, if you care.

On Tuesday we rounded the northernmost point of the island and returned to sheltered waters. We saw huge carp frolicking (or something) in the shallows many hideously expensive yachts hiding from the previous night's weather.

The island is pretty cool and for those who don't kayak, it is full of hiking trails as well.

More beef than I'd eaten in all my time in Korea

Yesterday, I had dinner with some old, school friends. They are part of a farm family and when you eat there, expect to be filled. Here are the honkin' huge steak just before they hit the Barbeque. I was even able to get the history of the steak; Bob the cow was a friendly sort who met his end last fall.
Bob, thank you for your sacrifice, you were great!

Here are two of my giant friends. One thing I've had to get used to is not standing out in a crowd. I'm 175cm, which is middling tall in the general population in Korea (around average for the male university students), but possibly on the short side of average in Canada. These guys are both over 180cm and well over 110kg (sadly, I am not that far under 100kg - especially after this meal).

On the table are mashed potatoes, Brussels Sprouts (Those Belgians are lucky they make such great beer and chocolate; inflicting these tiny cabbages on the world needs a lot of forgiving!), bread and cheese sauce..and those giant steak!

I've had kalbi and bulgogi in Korea and in Jan 2005, I had a pretty good, and good-sized, steak, but these monsters...WOW! Once again, this is one of the things I was looking forward to for my trip home. If I bought this meat in Korea, it would likely top 200,000 won. Here, probably twelve dollars.

Another thing you don't see very often in Korea. Note the 'Beware of Dog' sign in the background.

Before I went to Bracebridge, mom and I had dinner on her deck. A beautiful bird visited.
We knew it wasn't local. Eventually, I just reached out, grabbed it and took in to the Humane Society.

Gar

I expect in the near future to take my own pictures of these cool fish, but here is what I've found online.
(Photo found at this site).

Briancoad's website describes them almost as a link between fish and amphibians:

The swimbladder has a rich blood supply enabling the
fish to breathe air through a connection to the gut. A school of gars will break the water surface to breathe air at the same time and reduce the chances of attack by predators. Vertebrae are peculiar in having an opisthocoelous shape ...- which is almost unique in fishes and more usually associated with amphibians and reptiles.

The thing that makes them most interesting to me is their habit of sunning themselves in shallow water - really shallow. At a local beach, I chased and almost caught one in less than a foot of water (30cm)- and this was a fish close to a metre in length.

I've been having trouble seeing my own site. The Seoul Hero suggests a bad link or imbed for a photo. If you can read this, please leave a message -ah, before July 12th, let's say. Thanks.

You poor bastards in Korea

I just finished a great, but very short, canoe ride and rushed to the computer to brag. My mom lives on the west shore of Georgian Bay and normally the wind makes nearly ocean-sized surf here; very unpleasant for canoeing. Today, the wind was mild.

The three of us, Mom, myself and GeorgianBayAlex, tried canoeing but the little guy really didn't like it. This afternoon, while he slept and mom kept an eye on him, I experimented with poling.

I am a fairly skilled canoeist although those skills are currently rusty. I'm pretty comfortable standing in the canoe and when the conditions are right, it's a great way to see further and deeper into the water. Here I am, posing near our beach.













Although I am comfortable standing, I still make mistakes.











After using the canoe, I have to put it away. Note the dent in the bow-seat. I did that years ago but may have deepened it today.



Before actually traveling in the canoe, I used it to remove several hundred kilos of rocks from the beach. Who's the guy, Sisyphus, that has to push a rock uphill forever? Removing the rocks creates the same feeling; there are always more just below the ones you cart away.

Anyway, I loaded the canoe and took it out a little to dump where we won't be walking. I had to shift all the stone to one side of the canoe and was terrified that in trying to tip it, I would just fill it with water and have it sink on an even keel. Then, I would have to lift every fricking stone again to raise the canoe. Luckily, it sank on one side and with massive effort, I was able to tip it enough to recover the canoe.

Then I went swimming to some nearby old dock-cribs. There, I saw some monster-bass (Naa, naa, Nomad!) and a frightened looking crayfish. I shot them with a disposable camera so you may see the photos someday.

Then, I went poling in the canoe. Observing from a five-foot-plus vantage is way better than the seated three foot vantage point. I saw a fox or milk snake. I used to know the difference but now only could confirm on sight that it wasn't a rattler, nor a watersnake. I chased it awhile and shot it with the camera a few times. I crossed the little bay and found several garpike.

I am new to this part of Georgian Bay; I am more familiar with the northern waters. Garpike are new and exotic. They are gold and pike shaped with long mouths. Pretty darn cool to see as they frequently sun themselves in shallow water and take off like torpedoes when approached.

On returning home, a mink ran across mom's beach. We later saw it eat a crayfish.

Although I haven't seen any really big mammals like bear or moose, today is what being in Canada is all about for me. It's already been a great trip.

North Korea launches a missile

You can see how upset GeorgianbayAlex is about the launch. He might be worried about his mommy as she is likely in for a long day at the Coast Guard office.

We were watching CNN when we heard the news. I learned of an even greater crisis...

Call VANK: repeatedly, CNN described the missile as falling the Sea of Japan!

Oh, as a side note: I am satisfied with this post but expect others -including the one below discussing a ride-along with the OPP, to be more than usually cryptic, with some, possibly vital, information missing. Being a single parent is tough: I have had to stop writing mid-post and run off a few times to care for the little guy.
I told a friend earlier today that I have a blog and even over the phone I could hear his eyes roll. Most blogs are poorly edited, with little use of the spell-check provided and with key info missing. My blog, never considered to be the literary standard, is joining the great unwashed while I vacation.

A ride-along with an OPP boat patrol

Below is a not-completely-linear account of a ride-along my wife and I did with an Ontario Provincial Police boat patrol. You may recall that my wife is a member of the Korean Coast Guard or Maritime Police so we felt it would be interesting to see what and how things are done here. My father was an OPP officer so we have a few contacts and before we arrived, mom had arranged for us to do a ride-along.

Below is an excerpt from what I emailed my wife about our experiences. She wanted me to write an account to compare with hers. Eventually, something may be posted in the Korean Coast Guard monthly newsletter.

We signed a waiver agreeing not to sue if things went bad but there was no confidentiality request or anything. Still, one of the officers is a friend and general blogging ettiquette is to be cautious with names so I removed them and made some other slight changes... Nothing underhanded occurred but you will not see the boat-owners of the boats that were inspected, for example.
I also added a bit about locks as I think there are none in Korea (until Seoul Mayor and presidential candidate Lee Myoung-bak has his way and makes a rediculous canal connecting the Han and Nakdong).

We started at Couchiching Narrows, a narrow point between Lake Couchiching and Lake Simcoe, at 12 noon. We crossed Couchiching and entered the Severn waterway and travelled about two kilometres to Lock 42. Further information can be found here:

On the way to the Severn waterway, we stopped one boat. At the lock, Constable Dave handed out T-shirts to a boatload of children wearing their lifejackets. On the waterway we crossed under a very low (nine feet or just under 3metres) railway bridge.

Returning to Lake Couchiching, we stopped four boats for equipment inspections. The first held a family and was well-prepared for water travel. The second held a group of university students and they were missing batteries for their flashlight. The police were concerned they might have damaged the student's boat as it was mishandled approaching the police boat and caught under some metal part of the police boat stern (it may have a nautical name and I am a fairly nautical guy, but I don't know it- the student's boat was NOT under the police boat- naturally).

The third boat was also well prepared but the officers had expected to find problems as it was a pontoon boat or "party barge"- the sort of boat where alcohol is often found.
The fourth boat attracted their attention as it had a kid up front without a lifejacket. Upon inspection is was found to be missing several items. The fines would have totalled over three hundred dollars but the man was very cooperative so they reduced the fine to one hundred and twenty-five. He passed the all-important "attitude test".

The officers told us they had "zero tolerance for lifejacket and alcohol violations" but minor problems in other areas might get merely a warning.








Yesterday was a sad day for members of the Kwandong family. My wife and her second cousin (the girl on the right, below) went home to Korea, while the little guy and I will remain in paradise for most of July.

Photos from home (1)

I'll post more later but I'm worried that people will forget about me if I don't post here frequently enough.

I wrote earlier about the flies and mosquitoes here in their millions. In fact, my wifes-cousin's-daughter, who is traveling with us, stratched a mosquito bite on the sole of her foot and it became infected, requiring a trip to a walk-in clinic. I guess that gives her a chance to learn about Canada's health care system - good enough for residents but painfully slow for everyone.

There was a bloom of damselflies when I arrived and soon millions of them died and the wind pushed them into shore. Here they are, as deep as two inches and in a band about two feet thick (that's 5 cm and 60 cm for civilized folk) across our beach and much of the western shoreline.

Little GeorgianBayAlex likes the little pool we have in the backyard but doesn't really care for the lake. it's still a little cold.

Here's the best wife in the world, GeorgianBayYoungnam!

things I had forgotten about home

The last summer I was home was 2003, I think. Here are a few things that have surprised me or caught my attention.

The wonderfully clear horizons. Recently, I posted a picture of Ulsan Bowi, a cliff face seen from Sokcho. The mountain is clear and details are apparent. During the previous three months, the mountains were visible but obscured by a veil of haze.

Here, there is no haze and distance objects are clear. It's not a big deal, I guess, but the everyday sightlines here are matched only after the occassional overnight rain in Korea.

Bugs are everywhere. mosquitoes cut short a hike I had started this morning. I would have pushed on, but we were worried about our baby son and so turned back. Damselflies are practically coating some walls and exterior surfaces and the water has many insect corpses floating on it.

There's more, but it is a reasonable time to sleep so I will try. This afternooon, I slept for four hours and could have slept longer but for Alex waking me.

Bound for Canada

In a few hours I will leave Sokcho for a vacation with my family.

I'm looking forward to being in Canada but not really excited about getting there. KwandongAlex turns one year old today - he's walking and that's great, but I still can't explain to him why we need to stay in one seat for four hours on the first bus, an hour on the second bus and 13 hours on the plane.

Expect to find posts comparing Canadian culture with Korean, particularly about tourist culture as I live in tourist areas in Korea and my mother also does in Canada. I will credit these posts to "GeorgianBayBrian". I will also follow some Korean news through the online papers and may have comments on events here as well.

Have a great summer!

Falcon Chicks

In the previous post, I wrote about a falcon's nest in a neighboring apartment verandah. Today, I nervously went to the apartment and knocked on the door. The resident, a cheerful ajummah, welcomed me as soon as the word, "Seh" (bird) left my mouth. She guided me to the verandah and told me about the birds as I watched them and took pictures.

Don't worry the pictures below are much clearer and less obscured - I just put this one in as a teaser.
She said the birds were "hwang JoRongHe" and I am uncertain how to write that in Korean and find the english name. I may have the name wrong - I am sure of the first three syllables but I may be off with the 'he'. Babelfish tells me I just typed "hwang bird cage" and I hope that is not what the lady told me. There were six chicks and three flew off. I thought there were only two on the verandah...

...but then I looked around the planters and found a third (the left hand bird in both pictures is the same bird). The one on the verandah deck looks to be the youngest.

I was surprised to hear about six (or possible five- the smallest chick may not be in a good way) healthy offspring. Falcons, and most birds, typically have clutches perhaps as large as six but with the expectation that many will die, leaving one or two to reach adulthood.

From CBC's Quirks and Quarks (click the link to hear an interview on the subject):

Parents often produce too many young to raise and, as a result, the natural world is rife with infanticide. Mothers will ignore some offspring and prefer others.

On the other hand, if the stress of close human activity is not too much, a verandah is a great place to be. The birds are safe from predators and from falling off the 'cliff'. Also, the ajummah supplies some food to the chicks.

Human activity nearby is a serious problem for many birds so I probably will not return to the apartment to take more photos. I may upload a short video but my computer is reaching the end of it's useful lifespan and I am concerned about downloading the Videoegg software here. Perhaps I will do that on my office computer.

I don't know why the falcons chose that apartment to make a nest. Well, I do know that it is one of the few without an outer layer of glass doors so it is easily accessable but I don't know if the woman somehow encouraged the birds or what. As I wrote earlier, the chicks can be darn loud and not everyone would be pleased to have them so close.

Falcon

There is a falcon's nest in a neighboring apartment building's verandah. The young cry out loudly enough for me to hear them in my apartment so they must be really annoying for the residents of that apartment. Here are two terrible shots of a parent.

Perhaps I didn't need to circle the bird.


I have visited the apartment and knocked on the door but no one was inside. The young seem to be active and large and I am going away for the weekend; I am not sure if they will still be there on Monday. If I see them then, expect updates and (possibly better) photos.

A beautiful day -finally

Today, the mountains were so close and clear, they seemed to loom over the city. The sun was out and my classes finished yesterday. It was a great day in Sokcho!

In the afternoon I got some swimming in. The water was cold at first but I acclimated and tried to bodysurf. The waves were coming to shore at an angle and the surfing was almost impossible. The waves bouncing off shore met the incoming ones at nearly right angles and in the chaos of moving water, I was tossed around like a 2oo pound toothpick. This evening, I had no need for salt in my food.

I guess there's no special message in this post; I hope everyone had a good day, too.

Forums (mostly focusing on Korea)

This post can be reached (or has been reached) by the 'Forums' link on my sidebar. For information about this post, read below the links. I expect the links to be the reason people read this post so they are on top. I will comment on the links (and erase this sentence) at some future date.

Life in Korea

usfkforums

usfkclassifieds

Longly planet Thorntree Korea -northeast Asia forum

Dave's ESL

Galbijim

ESL/EFL

EFLgeek forums

EFLgeek wiki

English spectrum (just kidding - this is too hot for me)

Dave's ESL



The other day I recieved an email from a forum site asking me to link to it. I checked out the site and although I am uninterested in the US military in Korea (uninterested in their daily activities and recreation - damn happy they're here) it is a very slick and professional site with content for non-military folk.

Still, I've never asked to be linked to and it feels strange, like fishing for compliments, to ask for linkage. Wait, maybe I asked Melvin ("Pack the el Camino" on my blogroll) to link to me. He gave me a strange look -like I'd crossed an ettiquette line and that's what I feel here.

One of the reasons I began reading blogs was to learn about the Korea that is not covered in the Herald or the Times. That's a large subject area, by the way. That's part of the reason I began blogging myself; I think I have something to offer to others. For this reason, I feel listing local forums to be a worthy part of this site.

I have thought about increasing the number of links on the sidebar but I don't want a blogroll longer than my arm. As a consequence, on the sidebar should be a link titled simply, "forums" that will bring you to this post. This post will grow and change and I will try to comment on the forums themselves rather than simply listing them

My New Diploma

I'm so proud to be recognised by the Economist. I'm not sure what I did to merit such praise but I'm a sucker for flattery.



I'm so proud that I have no plans to ever take it out of the wrapping. I've put it on the wall of my office -I always wanted a "brag wall" full of commendations and accreditations and now it is started.
I wanted a goofy pose here and it is definitely goofy but not in the cool way the Hominid manages in his self-portraits. Does he spend a lot of time in front of the mirror practicing his facial expressions?

Congrats to the Korean Goldfish!

Melissa and Dong-jin (? -I mean to say Melissa and her husband - I'm not sure that this is his name - but I am sure he is the father!) just became parents.

They currently live in the wonderful town I met my wife in, Masan.

I admire Melissa for the vaguely Shakespearian description of her "Most perfectest baby".

Congrats and best wishes for the family!

A new one for me

Students have tried to sleep in class but never during an exam, before.
Sleep in class, get posted on the web.

Kwandong, don't go!

2006 is the last year the Yangyang campus of Kwandong University will offer classes. This is a transition year, with many classes already being held at the much-larger Gangneung campus. For me, personally, the closing of the Yangyang campus is annoying; we moved to Sokcho to be closer to my wife's workplace and that is even further from the Gangneung campus.

For the people of Yangyang, the economic effects are more significant. The loss of students and faculty is one thing but also the housing market bucket is about to get a hole in the bottom.
Below is a banner (click to enlarge) from Yangyang District office, asking the university to stay. Aside from exclamation points, I don't know if the district is offering anything in return.
I am not a good longterm planner myself but I have to shake my head when I recall that although the Gangneung campus is more than fifty years old, the Yangyang campus is only six or seven years old. Also, the foreign staff are housed in new apartments built by Myoungji Construction (Myoungji also funded the university) five years ago. Myoungji may now have trouble filling it's own apartments.

Well, I prefer the Gangneung campus myself and I hope the move will help the engineering students (Yangyang is the engineering campus) stop feeling like second class members of the university.

Yes, the closing of the campus is a big deal - yet I didn't hear or see anything about it in the last election. Did nobody care one week ago?

Oh, the last I heard, the campus may be converted to a 'silvertown' - silver as in 'hair'. It may become a home for senior citizens.

While I sympathize with Yangyang district, their choice of placement for the sign makes me think there is good reason to get out of town.

For those who don't see my objection (and they would comprise all the banner making and hanging organizations in Korea), it completely blocks the crosswalk. It's between the sidewalk and the crosswalk. Perhaps this best displays the value some Koreans hold for crosswalks.

Painting a watermelon is expensive!

I saw these watermelons at the local E-mart. The first says something like, "Keep the dream alive" and both refer to 2006 World Cup. Perhaps selling these watermelon is how the players get paid. If you click to enlarge, you will see that the price tag is for 59,800won or about $60.00!