this

this is must read material for all y'all who dig anything about comics.

And by the way, I'm going to Thailand tomorrow. Fuckin a

stuff that must be saved

once again, my blog acts as a "favourites" folder cos I'm at a computer and there's a page I don't want to be without. Do I miss the internet in my house? Whatever.
100 AWESOME MUSIC VIDEOS

we're all doomed

This is what I'm talking about. Verrry nasty.

aftermath

a relationship is aplace you go to give; not a place you go to get
With that in mind, it's not rocket science to figure out why attempting to really get into the soccer last night was doomed for failure. If you just ain't that interested in the game, or people's emotions about it, it's not really possible to enjoy it on the anything approaching the same level that they do.
That's not to say that I wasn't awed by the spectacle of the massive crowd of red tshirts and chanting; roman candles and flashing red horns; just the sheer amount of person! It was pretty full on.
I was quite lucky that after my little nap yesterday I ran into Jade, one of the office girls, and her friend. Together we tried to find a suitable position to watch the game from, but there was no room on the road, and no way to even scope a space. We were trapped on tree covered traffic island for 10 minutes before Jade suggested we climb the stairs at school and join some of the bosses up there.
While the view of the screen was pretty scrawny (it's that white square in the middle of the photo), the view of the people was pretty fantastic!
It sure would have been nice if the boss had invited us teachers there to see the game, but we were told that the building would be closed from 7pm (and with good reason - people would probably wander into any place in the building with a vantage point.) The invitation would have ben especially welcome, due to the cancellation of classes this evening effectively ruining the vacation day scheduled for Friday 30 June. No problem for me, as I'll be in a jet plane. Of course, Wayne wants me to try and arrange some other time to teach the class, but I confess to being a little beligerent about that idea. If YBM wants to cancel a day of classes, they had better first TELL the teachers (most of us found out when our students told us). Even better would be to ask!
blah blah blah

sleep

so i haven't been sleeping so good lately. in fact, i've been sleeping like a goddam native, waking at 5:45 for class at 6:30 and not getting to real sleep again until 12, maybe 1 in the morning. Don't know how it is i get so wound up that i can't head down until after 3 hours of lying awake in a fantasy world of revised history and drama. It's pretty trippy and the reason I'm writing it here is I'm actually kind of proud of it - that I can sleep 4 or 5 hours a night and still function pretty well (well enough to be cogent and lucid here, for example). Also on the up side I'm pretty buzzy for those first 2 hours post-waking, but once 9am rolls around thhe bags under my eyes become more obvious and my students catch me in frequent covert yawns, and sympathise. You'd think that afternoon naps would be the answer, given that I have something like a 7-hour lunchbreak, but that just makes the whole thing worse, even if I do manage to grab 2 sweaty hours. Waking up is the one of the shittiest things to do in the day besides taking a shit and I prefer to do neither twice if I can avoid it.

More thoughts on the World Cup:
I've been sitting here for (too many) hours now, and there have been many painted dudes and all wearing some form of flag or t-shirt to support the team. I was going to say something like:
"It's interesting the things that people will do in their search for meaning, such as yel land shout about a football match that will make no tangible difference to their lives."
(Of course, they will be devestated if they lose, the way I was appalled when, as a young boy, New Zealand lost a cricket match that I spent all afternoon watching. What a fucking waste of time that was.)
Buuuuut, these people don't really get a lot of free time, and they usually spend it drinking or in a singing room. Not much different from my life really, except they don't have any weed.
And i thought, maybe they jsut do it because it's there to be done. If the city and the country didn't put on this big extravaganza entertainment, people wouldn't notice it wasn't there, just like most of them don't notice the absence of 8 hour workdays or the personal freedom to indulge in recreational drugs. It's something to do!

Damn, Daegu is a boring town. Thank fuck for the world cup. Tonight's gonna be a blast.

kick-off

it's 5:33 on Tuesday 12th June. Today is the first day of the world cup and the koreans are already going kinda nuts because: Australia nailed Japan 3-1 last night and; the Czechs beat the USA 3-0. Tonight Korea plays Togo.
Tonight the 5 lane each way, 4 road intersection outside my work is shutting down. The screen that play ads all day long are being repurposed to show the match live, beamed down onto the street come 10pm. Vendors of chicken-on-a-stick, beer and souvenirs have been setting up along the streets since before 3pm, and the sound system is being tested periodically. Speakers have been hoisted up on cranes and all kindsa shit (see photos, once I post 'em). More big screens have been brought and set up at intervals down the road.
As for me, I'll roll along and check the fuss, tqke some pics and let y'all know. It looks BIG.

ennui

ennui ( P ) Pronunciation Key (n-w, nw)n.
Listlessness and dissatisfaction resulting from lack of interest; boredom: “The servants relieved their ennui with gambling and gossip about their masters” (John Barth).

thanks dictionary.com!

my next blog/email address will be something real clever like "glennui"