K-Pop, Part Hana

My expectation is that this will be the first of at least two posts about K-pop (Korean pop music). The video linked below is one that I watched numerous times last winter at the gym. The song was hugely popular although Jewelry has not been as successful as the Wonder Girls (you'll learn about them soon enough). Note the hand motion of moving the two index fingers towards each other in the synchronized dance. A few months ago I witnessed a child mocking one of my former students by dancing around him in a circle, using his middle finger in the same fashion and yelling "I do fuck you."

I have lived a life largely removed from all but the most prevalent of popular songs here but, recently, I am drawn in. My favorite quote about age is an entire paragraph in Snow Crash wherein Stephens discusses the fact that until the age of 25 a man still thinks he can be truly badass. Something about pop music reminds me that I am no longer young. As much as I enjoy the empty but entertaining lyrics I can't help but watch these videos and think, "Ah, yes, here comes the urban one. Oh, and there's the innocent one and the girl with 'spunk' and the classy one." You can play along at home!

Every Day In Every Way...

I have only a few addictions. One of them is acquiring books. I have a terrible habit of buying three books for every one book that I read. Knowing that I could not afford to build up a library here I have generally resisted the temptation to buy books and instead opted to expand my awareness of "classics". Our library at school hosts a large collection of Penguin Classics. Unlike other books at the library these ones are not for use by the students. We only have a few students capable of fully digesting Jane Austen and the only reason the copy of War and Peace is tattered is because the kids pull it off the shelf and marvel that something so big might actually be read by someone or brandish it as a weapon.
The last two novels I've read are by Henry James (The American and The Portrait of a Lady). I don't think I'll read any more James because the pattern thus far is that an American goes to Europe and gets screwed over by love. One has to wonder about his personal experience given that he was an American who moved to England and became a citizen. The editors of Penguin Classics like to point out that James met Flaubert and Eliot, as though this lends value. At any rate, James' character descriptions and so forth are good but reading The Portrait of a Lady, or at least finishing it, was only mildly rewarding.

Too Much Stuff

I've been posting boxes of stuff back to the states. I don't want to drag around multiple suitcases and bags in Singapore so I'm attempting to send all but what I'll need in my last few weeks back. Somehow, I've doubled the amount of stuff (crap) I possess. Now, when I walk into the post office one of the women slides an overseas package form across the counter before I even reach her.

The Star of the Show

Yours truly, giver of Study Hall, alien hell-beast, stuff of nightmares, has been featured in homework again:

Your Skill in Tae Kwan Do has Increased by Yellow

There are those who believe I am incapable of being diplomatic. It is not that I am incapable of it, but rather that each of us is supplied with finite amounts of diplomacy and by the time I got to Tae Kwan Do I had already used up all my Diplomacy Points not tearing a new orifice in a coworker. So, when I was under the impression that I had failed the test because our club leader left it a mystery, as though it was an episode of American Idol, I may have indicated that the person giving the test was perhaps a "fat bastard". Threats to call said test-giver and report my opinion of his weight relative to cultural expectations were made. Quite possibly, I even pantomimed phoning up the evaluator and shouting while alternately demanding his phone number. These things might have happened but what matters is that I have a yellow TKD belt with my name on it in Korean and something small, yet tangible, has been achieved.

Observation

Dealing with government job applications is like playing MYST. MYST without a reasonable underlying assumption of logic.

Palin Debate Flowchart

I love flow charts!


Thanks to Sunkist for the flowchart.