the bright moon is our heart
undivided and true.
flickr photos ● last.fm music
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[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]This track has had 10 playsI've Got My Music (Original Vocal Version of "Turn On Some Music") by Marvin Gaye
The weather’s getting better, so it’s time to groove.
(Editor’s Note: I insist that this song be listened to with headphones at least once.)
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I believe it.
I also have a theory that the conflict management score is 85% due to extensive use of rock, paper, scissors to settle disagreements.
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A different perspective on something so difficult to comprehend. Many thoughts devoted to Japan this week.
Also, I know people are posting links everywhere, but there can never be too many in this case. Paypal has a really easy way to donate, just click a button here: paypal donations. Otherwise, there are great links on Facebook and other pages. Here’s a bunch on Yahoo!
Listen to the Japan earthquakes.
According to Dangerous Minds, this is what they sounded like:
“Audio sonification of the incredible seismic activity off the coast of Honshu, Japan - Friday March 11th. Tectonic is a realtime seismic analysis and sound synthesis system. Sound is created in realtime by earthquakes as they occur across the globe. A tightly integrated system between Max/MSP, Google Earth and Symbolic Sound’s Kyma processes earthquake data that is translated into sound synthesis parameters.”
The harmonic, rhythmic shifts are especially haunting/scary at 1:20, 1:50, 3:00, and 5:20.
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i’ve locked myself in a cafe so that i can update this without interruption. not that i have roommates or large pets to interrupt me in my apartment. i didn’t post anything about the holidays and i realize now that there wasn’t much to post. i had a nice time with new friends and acquaintances, and seoul was very cute throughout. there’s still christmas decorations up now as i type this, actually.
here’s a photo album highlighting november/december’s shenanigans including a trip to a manmade island known as nami and some christmas festivities. also the all-important purchase of an amazing cell phone charm that i’ve named george michael. not pictured: attending one of the best concerts ever. that being flaming lips in seoul. wayne coyne remains a fantastic human being and the spectacle alone made it worth all the won.
lazy eyes, here:
a bridge in nami
george michael
the first of december was world aids day, and i spent it volunteering at an event called rubber seoul. it felt good to do some nonprofit work, and the event itself was a lot of fun, involving five bars with bands playing all night. it was mostly sponsored by little travellers, a great organization that supports the women of south africa through the sale of their handicrafts.
i also went ziplining in december. to clarify, ziplining is when you are harnessed to a hook that travels along something that looks much like a telephone wire. the actual facility website is here. it’s fun and exhilarating and FREEZING to do it in the wintertime. but it felt extra crisp to do it then, also. my camera died that day so i have no evidence that i did this, but i know someone who does.
now onto 2011…
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Hello, Tumblr and Tumblr readers. Good heavens, how times fly and change and swoop and dash and meander and wander. In any event.
Last week was meant to be my return to civilization but as the fates would allow, I came down with some sort of mystery sickness. As my actual voice (the one from my throat) was ruined, so were my hopes to type out anything worthwhile dashed. I just slept and laughed at my inability to hit certain notes. And snotted. A lot.
I’m on the better side of it now, though still feeling a bit of the fatigue. I had a vacation the last week of January and managed to update my photo albums on flickr, so go to those for a visual diary of what’s been going on. But my intention is to post an entry for each month that I’ve more or less missed. And then I’ll have to devote an entirely new one to my vacation destination: Hong Kong.
But before any of that happens. I’m typing this from my classroom at school, and so I feel like I should talk about my current feelings about my job. Next term is my last one (and I do mean last, just to squash all those rumors about me staying another year). One more term means that after next week, I’ve got 3 months until my contract is over.
I’m very ready to move on. I think my teaching style has been on auto-pilot this week, but the one thing that makes me sorry to go and happy to have these months left is the students. Everyday one of them finds some way to delight me, and I look at them from behind the eyes of someone who’s going to have to say goodbye to them before either of us is ready. For example, while teaching today, one of my students interrupted me to say “Teacher, your voice is very good!” because they were all very worried about me last week when I sounded so strange.
And lately, they’ve gotten into the habit of coming up to my desk to whisper secrets in my ear. They’re usually harmless things like their siblings’ birthdays or their test results. But it feels nice to be part of their world. There’s a bit of graffitti on the other side of my desk and my student drew my attention to it. I asked him what it said. “I love Sun-Teacher.” Even the vandals are showing me love!
If it weren’t for them, the only heart I’d be leaving in Korea would be the one I’ve shared with the friends I’ve made. But now I’ve got hundreds of little strings tied to me and I am dreading the day I’ve got to cut them all loose.
The bell is about to ring, so that’ll be where this thought ends. Just an update of my current internal state of affairs. And then tangible things soon soon soon!
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It’s been snowing at night off and on for the past week. Korea’s lovely in the winter time. It also was in the fall. The summer, not so much.
Anyway, this song is basically what my brain sounds like as I walk through snowy Suji.
More major updates are coming soon. One of my vows for 2011 is to be better on top of all forms of communication. Here’s where it starts!
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Kimchi39’s Marriage proposal story from New York and Seoul
Heavy times in Korea, but love thrives! This story is the bestbestbest.
While he was on a 100 day road trip in the US, he decided to creatively ask his girlfriend to marry him by asking 100 random people to write messages urging his girlfriend to accept his proposal.
courtesy of Seoul Eats.
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So today is Pepero Day in Korea, a secondary Valentine’s Day. You buy 빼빼로 for the one you love. It is entirely a commercial holiday, and yet it works regardless. I can’t hate on it too much because those things are delicious.
That said, there’s a much realer holiday today and I just wanted to post acknowledging that. The lives we know now are greatly indebted to veterans, and my life would not be the same without the ones I know personally. So thanks for everything you’ve done and everything you continue to do.
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[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]This track has had 10 playsThe Art Teacher [Live] by Rufus Wainwright
On 10-10-10, I went and saw Rufus Wainwright in concert for the first time ever.
This is extremely significant because Rufus Wainwright is my favorite solo artist working today. (I own every single album he’s ever done. Not that there are that many, but still. )In any event, this was his first time playing in Seoul and he was delightful. His current tour setlist is split in two. The first half is a performance art piece of his latest album and then the second is a revue of songs from every album. Both were equally magnificent, though I wasn’t in love with the first half’s visuals.
But he sounded better than I could’ve imagined. There weren’t pictures allowed, so instead here’s a live recording from the album Want Two. (And he did perform this song and it did soar just like it does here.)
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I find it quite regrettable that the last entry posted here was the one about Crazy dying. Sorry, tumblr. I didn’t mean to do that. In any event.
September zoomed by due to a number of things. Excessive sleeping due to an ill feeling, dodgy internet connections, impulse shopping. I am behind on my photo uploads in Flickr, but hopefully I’ll remedy that soon.
I’ve always loved the word macabre. Something I’ve recently realized that I love is Halloween. It’s not trick or treating or even the costumes. It’s the pumpkins and the combination of orange and black. Furthermore I love Frankenstein, and I love the monster. Plus Halloween always comes during my favorite season - autumn. Which is pretty glorious here in Korea, but I believe I am forever spoiled by having lived in upstate New York for four years.
How are things? Good. One major failing - in September I had to move from the apartment that I loved back into the cramped one that I stayed in for a few days. The details are frustrating, as is the new living situation, but I’m trying to stay positive about it.
Aside from this, I’ve been out and about on my weekends with some new friends whom I like very much.
Work is about the same it’s ever been (which I’ve never addressed in this blog and I am starting to believe I am never going to.) As of September 1st, our classes and students changed. I’ve got a good mix, pretty much 50/50, of students I’ve had before and students I haven’t. Nothing so difficult as the one class of jerky jerks I had last term. This term’s material is also easier to teach just because it’s based on fiction. However, I miss feeling like I was really imparting useful knowledge on the students. Not that I don’t get that feeling now, but it is always more satisfying to amaze someone with something true.
I’m frustrated by my clothing because all of my pants are looking baggy in the bad way now. I have every intention of continuing to slim down while I’m here if I can, so I guess it’s just something I’ll have to get used to.
The other things I can think to mention are all geeky, so I won’t mention them. I’ll take pictures of my cramped new space some time. My boss said that he’s amazed at how homey I managed to make it so quickly. (This was the day after I moved in.) He also was the solution to my Crazy issue. I buried him in a box, and my boss took him to his apartment’s custodian for disposal. The original plan was a burial and appropriately enough, it was raining. But instead the boss went for the less time-intensive option.
I feel the need to post a song, so I’ll do that next. Here’s to updates and 5 months in Korea (!!!).
