Love's Like Suicide

for you

2007-07-17T21:04:00.000-12:00

Gap fill gap fill gap fill.

he's a lemon

2007-02-08T17:12:00.000-12:00

So the first teacher I hire turns out to be... incompetent. Not the worst thing in the world that could happen. It's just a drag that the gap I thought was filled with quality is actualy filled with something else, which I must dig out and replace by March 5th. Finding and hiring a trustworthy teacher at short notice is not as stressful as I thought it would be. Fingers crossed.

Aaaanyway, tonight is rehearsal for our final salsa class and then I'm either going up to Foxy with Jas or to a PC room to watch some Prison Break. Tomorrow, the only thing on is gym in the morning, the salsa performance in the evening and whatever the rest of the time.

pukish

2007-02-05T23:14:00.000-12:00

Woke up today feeling totally wiped out and took an age to provoke myself out of bed thanks to a couple of sessions at the gym yesterday. Now the hell week's over I'll be getting in all I can. Nonesuch tonight though as there's salsa practice at 10:30 and I want to be pretty fresh for that.
Today I started observations of teachers. Last month I invited the national supervisor to come down and give our teachers a demonstration so he's asked me to provide him with some intel on the state of our human resources. It's my job anyway to make sure the guys are actually teaching and not just putting an foriegn face in a classroom for the students to practice english at. Should be an interesting week.

my saturday night

2007-02-03T02:21:00.000-12:00

So after work I grabbed some chicken on a stick and strolled up to salsa class. I found out my partner for next week's "recital" happens to be the old lady (well, she's probably only 40). nice one.
After class I grabbed some yakitori skewers from this place near the practice space, bought some new headphones and came up here to my favourite PC room (it's well lit and not smoky) to watch internet videos. I've been sitting here nearly 2 hours enjoying the likes of The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Wonder Showzen, Doug Stanhope and Joe Rogan. I was going to watch manufacturing consent but shit, that's boring and depressing. Oh and I found this neat little game where you can kill the whole planet. Go nuts.

blurrrr

2007-02-02T17:55:00.000-12:00

Saturday at 3 o'clock.
Last night after work I met up with Jason and his friend John. We went out for shellfish and samgyopsal (pork strips bar-b-qued at your table) and drank a lot. We wound up at horrible old Foxy and drank some cocktails. John was enamoured of the place, with its high ratio of girls to guys, and the very attractive nature of those girls. As he is married he very eagerly pushed me to approach some girls, any girls. I felt no urge to do so for what must be about only the second time in my life and it was blissful.
So now I'm sitting here all torpid in a quite pleasant hangover buzz. I'm at work to do some interviews, as if anyone's going to come in. I'll probably be able to take off at 5 and go to salsa class on time.
I think I'll have an early night tonight (which means of course, sitting at the computer playing Civ until 10. I am tired now, but who knows what will change once the rice porridge I ate for lunch has digested.

diary day 1 Friday 02/02/07 1705hrs

2007-02-01T20:05:00.000-12:00

Inspired by Henry Rollins, the hardest working guy I can think of, I'm gonna try and update this blog every day. Should be too hard seeing as I sit in front of this desk for at least 7 hours every day, so there's really no excuse. I expect I'll probably rip off his style to begin with. Never mind.

So today is the last day of Hell-week. Most of this week has been spent in my little glass monkey cage alternately interviewing student after student for level placement tests for the new session and making the teaching schedule for the month. On Wednesday I did my first ever fourteen hour shift. I kinda let the fatigue get on top of me and didn't make any effort to get to the gym, even this morning whenI woke upi at 5am I just allowed the luxury of warmth and comfort win out over hard work and reward. Too bad.
Today was just like the others this week. Interviews mostly, but I have made a strong start on a fresh list of questions that follow logically on from each other in both conversation and level assessment. I hope to have that done by at least next Tuesday, when Wonjang and I will be staging mock interviews for BK's Job Interview Preparation class.
Tonight I'm meeting JF and his university friend from Daegu for some soju and shellfish. It'll be nice to let off some steam from this stagnant week and meet some a new person in the bargain, but I want to be home at a reasonable hour because I want to do a lot of stuff tomorrow and can do without the hangover.

2007-01-27T21:27:00.000-12:00

Pearl Jam .- Rearview Mirror (Great live version)

There are so many reasons why this is a great song, even if this live version is a bit brutal. The driving main riff, the kickass chorus. This is and always has been my top Pearl Jam song. I wish I could be bothered going into details about why I think it's so great but I won't. It just is.

japan seems like a strange place

2006-12-29T23:06:00.000-12:00

Japan: http://www.ifilm.com/video/2809150?ns=1

the NY up[date

2006-12-29T22:35:00.000-12:00

Some a y'all know I went snowboardin over xmas. That was pretty fahn cool. Details? Why, sure!

So on Saturday morning I met up with YeonJi and her cousins in Gumi, then we all piled into cars and drove up to the condo. I spent a good amount of the drive reading "The Scarlet Pimpernal" (shit) and making a big snowboarding playlist on the iPod. The condo, it turns out, was a huge octagonal one-room-and-akitchen-and bathroom place. Freezing! We had some lunch and then the 14 of us settled down for a nap. Woke up around 5pm and got our gear sorted and finally hit the slopes around 7pm.
How can I describe the awesomeness of being high on a snowy mountain on a freezing black night with so many lights and so many people, with some wicked sounds in my ears as I flew down the mountain on my board time and again. Sure, I took a couple of tumbles and I think one guy knocked himself out for a second when he plowed into me but I finally managed to sort my balance and turns to the degree where by the end I was going from start to finish with no problems. I accidently had a crack at the experts' slope (a horrible, slow descent on icy hardpack) and when I came back to the easier area it seemed flat, like a wide plain of snow with people struggling along. So strong was my perception of flatness that I was afraid to slow down lest I lose momentum and come to a stop, so I breezed past dozens of learners. It was great.
Some of the songs that really hit at good moments were:
Cloud City - Concord Dawn
Banquet - Bloc Party
Final home - DJ Krush
King for a Day - Faith no more
Slow flame - Sequoia
Shakawkaw - Infected Mushrooms
Love is a Battlefield - Pat Benatar
Battle without honour or humanity - Tomoyasu Hotei
The opening refrain of each of these songs was a "FUCK, yeah!" moment. There were more but oh well.

So I had a good time.

Sad point was: except for the snowboarding, my weekend was basically an abortion. When we were hanging out at the condo barbequing oysters and beef, or doing anything in fact, I was flat-out ignored. I stood by rather awkwardly as they had conversations about what was happening next as they laid out the mattresses or got table ready for food. The only communication I had with anyone was, once the food was out, YeonJi would say things like "Glenn! Eat lots!".Grrr.
I tried speaking some Korean with miniimal success.
Anyway, when we got back from snowboarding I brought out the chocolate cake I had bought and the bottle of wine. they also grabbed theirs (did I mention there were about 15 people, all told (maybe 7 of them kids) and we had a sortof party before I got bored and slept.

Meh.

...some stars and planets in scale

2006-12-17T12:28:00.000-12:00


man, some stuff is pretty big. wow.

2006-12-14T18:50:00.000-12:00

Henry Rollins

My sentiments exactly

token update

2006-11-21T21:26:00.000-12:00

I don't really have anything to say. Heh. Maybe that should be the headline of this blog.
Some things that have grabbed my attention lately:

The scholarly theories of renowned American teacher John Taylor Gatto, more specifically, his essay on the 7 lessons all teachers teach their pupils, here.
I've been trying to get around to watching this online doco of the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Might be interesting. It's just another reason to get the crib interwebbed.
This game has me addicted, just cos it's such a basic concept: 3D pong with curve and swing ackshun.
Also, this one has me glued to the screen for many an hour. Transcendence is a top-down 2D 360 deg spaceship game with mutiple ship configs and really nice gameplay. Curse it for being so addictive (to me at least).
Aside from that, I still read Achewood, Overcompensating, and check popurls every day. And funny old Dr McNinja every so often as well.

And just as a one-off, here's a really sweet song with a lovely message by Tenacious D.

Well, that'll do for now

hero moment passes by

2006-11-06T11:31:00.000-12:00

On the skinny streets of Busan, as in every major Korean metropolis, there are food vendors selling fried chillies, dumplings, dakpokki (horrendous spicy rice cake and spagetti mix) and other assorted unhealthies. As I approached one on the walk home last night I noticed that the old man and woman running the thing (they are always old) were having some kind of drama. When I was past it I turned and noticed that there was some fire coming out from the side of their cart and the old guy was trying to pull this tank of what musta been LPG out from under there, fire all over the place. I had a half-second pause of "Woah," before alarm kicked in: "Hey... fire, plus gas tank? That equals boom! (At least in the movies)". So I stood there wondering what I could do. I certainly didn't want to go sticking my hands in there and I didn't have my phone. There were some people just standing around so I turned to one couple who were watching the show and yelled "Call someone! You moron!" and made the universal hand-waggle-near-the-ear telephone sign and he figured it out.
I kept walking figuring there was fuckall else I could do there. It was only later I realised I should have run into a restaurant or the 7-11 store and tried to get the fire extinguisher. I guess I lost it in the moment. Besides, I doubt I could have achieved anything.
So I kept walking and heard this soft "shoompfh" of the tank exploding. Not really exploding to y ears, sounded more like it was exploofing but there you go. Flames took hold of the cart's plastic covers and shot up the side, started attacking the building behind. It was quite pretty except for the fact that it was someone's livelihood going up in smoke. The guy had had the sense to move away when he realised that there was nothing he could do, just like me.
As I walked further, ambulances approached and I heard fire engines approaching.
It doesn't look as bad this morning, anywhere near like I expected it to be. I'll hopefully remember to bring my camera in this evening and get a picture.
So anyway, i'm not the quick thinking hero who saved the old couple's life. Guess I hafta wait for the next opportunity.

[Edit] Actually, it doesn't look all that bad. The fire was much more exciting than the damage turned out to be, as the whole cart was made of stainless steel and the musta put it all out pretty fast. Not worth a pic really.

bleh

2006-10-10T23:13:00.000-12:00

the 9-point plan to financial success, according to Scott Adams:

Make a will
Pay off your credit cards
Get term life insurance if you have a family to support
Fund your 401k to the maximum
Fund your IRA to the maximum
Buy a house if you want to live in a house and can afford it
Put six months worth of expenses in a money-market account
Take whatever money is left over and invest 70% in a stock index fund and 30% in a bond fund through any discount broker and never touch it until retirement
If any of this confuses you, or you have something special going on (retirement, college planning, tax issues), hire a fee-based financial planner, not one who charges a percentage of your portfolio

so anyway, i fell over

2006-10-09T18:43:00.000-12:00

I had a whoopsie daisy as I was sliding down the stair-rail at the subway station last week and landed on my ankle pretty bad. It was OK at the time but it has gradually gotten stinker and stinker to walk on until now I am all gestapo around the office an shid, so Supervisor/Big Sister Jen nagged me into seeing a doctor, which i would gladly have done sooner if only i knew how to find one and had my health insurance card ready.
Anyway, today the spheres were in alignment so after today's bike and weights session I hobbled away to find a "Hellss Sentoh". Three buildings and 5 different floors later I saw a doc who fondled my foot and informed me that is was sprained. But how would he treat it? Well, he injected the foot (it's my left one) in four places with muscle relaxant; he inserted two acupuncture needles in my ankley area; and, he attached me to a "Low Frequency Therapeutic Apparatus" with three vibrating/oscilating pads buzzing at 7Hz on my tender tootsie. Gotta go back Friday.
Yesterday I carted a spare monitor off to my hoose, so now I don't have to spend 12.5% of my life in dark PC rooms to let off steam. Also, I'm getting a TV. Wonderful. Just what my life needs. Lol. Ahem.

There. Now you are up to date with the most important events in my life.

2006-10-05T20:00:00.000-12:00

Stephen Chow's God of Cookery (clip)

I saw this movie "God of Cookery" at the Incredibly Strange Film festival years ago and haven't fond it anywhere since. This scene really stands out. The lady really likes the BBQ Pork.

10 tracks of shuffle

2006-10-04T14:51:00.000-12:00

My iPod passed 3000 tracks today. Here is a sample of ten tracks on shuffle:

1: You think I Ain't Worth a Dollar But I Feel Like a Million Bucks
Queens of the Stone Age

This is a ballsy rocker that would make mummy cry. Not for bedtime, unless it's the naughty kind of bedtime. NOt cookie monster vocals, more like a metal bin full of bottles and stone being thrown down a flight of concrete stairs.

2: Why
Joe Satriani

Just about my favourite song of my favourite guitar virtuoso. Shay showed me the kick-ass scale at the end. Just beautiful.

3: The Widow
The Mars Volta

I've never actually heard this one. The Onion says they are a punk band, but i's too melodic to be called that. Anyway, this one is balladic. And quite beautiful too.

4: Everything Reminds Me of Her
Elliot Smith

This is a lovely little apologetic song, by the guy who wrote 'Needle in the Hay', the song that Luke Wilson slits his wrists to in 'The Royal Tenenbaums'. Awwww.....

5: Son of a Preacher man
Dusty Springfield

Ahh the old classic straight outta Pulp Fiction. What scene? I think this is the track that Vincent Vega plays when he arrives at Mia Wallace's house. But I can't be sure.

6: Windy
Incubus

The Incubus is sounding off about the way one can drift through life with no ideas about what you're doing. All right for him.

7: Sweet Ammonia
Meat Puppets

Jesus! All this rock music. Usually I can't find a rock song to save myself. Anyway, this one came off of 'No Joke' an ugly little album that sat in the $15 bargain bin outside of Sounz even after Kurt Cobain made them famous by inviting them to play with Nirvana at the MTV Uplugged thing they did. You know: Lake of Fire, Plateau?

8: The Day We Caught the Train
Ocean Colour Scene

Another classic. This was fresh when I was a 1st year at varsity (which is another way of saying '96). I didn't really understand it so much back then but now that I've done some of the things they talk about it makes a lot more sense to write a song about it.

9: Reference Check
Foreign Legion

Diversity! At last. I think I hooked this one up off of Eru and these guys are pretty damn good, although, as this track shows, they can't resist propping themselves up in the underground.

10: Wild America
Iggy Pop

Blah. This one came of the Trip 2 and I would always skip it back in the old days. It's kinda grown on me now, especially the kind of rant he does at the end. "They're so goddam spoilt... they're poisoned inside!,"

And that ends this month's little incursion to the sonic realms of my best friend in korea, Poddy. Not what I expected. I was kinda counting on some Tony Robbins and some funk showing up in there seeing as the bulk of my music these days seems to be soul and stuff. Funny how that happens.

2006-09-22T21:58:00.000-12:00

white and nerdy

Weird Al can still kick it. How does he do it?

individuality

2006-09-22T13:23:00.000-12:00

Singing in school all but stopped once I hit intermediate school, but until then the spectacle of thirty-odd kids sitting on a mat belting out "Bright Eyes" or "The Saints Go Marching In" was at least a weekly one. I can remember clearly ritual from my standard one days. The teachers would merge two classes together and chose one of the children to stand on a chair and hold up the song sheet, a big brown piece of paper with the songwords and occasionally the chords for the teacher's guitar on. Holding this sheet of paper was a coveted position, and not just because the child holding was released from singing duty for the duration of that song. I think even at that young age every kid among us wanted to make some statement to express their individuality and difference from the rest, if only for four minutes. It's funny to remember the spectable as a song would come to a close, suddenly the room would sit up straight, arms folded, hoping to picked for the noble duty of songsheet holding. Of course the teachers knew the power of this little ritual and awarded it to the good kids (as a reward for being good in general) and the naughty kids (a positive reinforcement for sitting up straight and being good this one time). As such, the times I was chosen were pretty few. In fact, I can remember only one. The thought-recording goes like this: "Ow my arms! Get it right you dicks my arms are getting sore. This is horrible, who wants to do this? Shit."
I was too lazy to stand out after that.

from there to here

2006-09-08T21:56:00.000-12:00

i decide to take the back entrance out of the building, avoiding the main street. i head left into the warm evening air. the back street is almost empty. far off to my right over the carparks and houses are the eastern hills. the girl in front of me spies her boyfriend across the intersection and as they embrace i walk past and spy a guy in his car watching soccer on a dash-mounted TV. as i reach the river i remember the golden string reaching from my crown to heaven and it lifts my neck and shoulders from their natural slouch. as i enter the downtown area, i realise that my feet are carrying me towards the baseball cages just as "Boys light up" comes on my iPod. I smack baseballs listening to it, checking out the hottie in the orange dress waiting in the street below. the streets are crowded and i move through like an invisible man to this PCroom. It is 7pm and i am not hungry. Later i will go to the club section of town and see if there are friends to be made. For now, goodnight

back in the ROK

2006-09-01T21:25:00.000-12:00

The flight from Auckland to Seoul was pretty empty, so my window seat companion elected to spread himself out across four seats in the centre aisle, leaving me enviously scrunched against the window. Still, having two seats to myself is certainly more than twice as good as having one, even if sleeping is still fraught with difficulties. The flight itself was quite pleasant and the views of the Pacific as I flew over were... good.
Anyway, now here I am in Busan. Yesterday I moved into my apartment in the centre of town. It still has the smell of new about it. I'll put up some pics later but here are some features:

the doorbell activates a camera that shows who's ringing to the person inside
it's got aircon yay!
9th floor of 14, facing north up a big main street. noise comes up but not much smell and no mosquitos!
14ft ceiling. the bedroom is a mezzanine (whatchucallit split-level?) with maybe 5ft of head space, so i have to duck up there
washer/dryer in the kitchenette which is discretely hidden by a pair of cupboard doors
shiny bathroom with an extractor fan (didn't have one last time)

I suppose I could say more, but as usual, all the stuff i want to say i thought on the plane or lying in bed and i can't remember it. This seems to be a pretty cool place nonetheless.

it all added up pretty good

2006-08-13T12:05:00.000-12:00

So I larged it up this weekend and had a lot more fun than I intended. First up on Friday was Vanita's going away party. She's off to England for a couple of weeks. She takes care of this little puppy and has cool friends. We met around 8 for dinner at Roti Chenai, then shifted affairs to the Matterhorn, where i met Greg the exciting guy from Petone and his interesting friend i nthe cheesecutter whose name escapes me.
Next night was Todd's surprise party which went off very well, but I had to dash to the costume party that Viv was having at her new flat. I...

i don't want to talk about that anymore. basically i am just writing it down like a diary so 's a i can remember this fun weekend i had once. it's a pretty common story - i wonder why i felt this one was worth writing about. oh well.
anyway, i'm gonna finish up here, have some lunch and catch a bus to wanganui. yay!

a day in the life

2006-08-10T16:55:00.000-12:00

7ish I wake up. it's dark and clearly too early to even consider getting out of bed. I ignore the quiet whine of my bladder and drift into snoozes. I manage to turn on the heater.
9ish Todd arrives and opens the curtains, turns on Radioactive and threatens to eat porridge. I put down my book and get dressed.
9:30ish I drink tea and put on a load of laundry (knickers and sockses). Then I head down to Arobake for a Kumara and Lamb pie. It is pretty good, but obviously I burn my tongue.
1015ish i hang my clothesand walk to Nikau cafe. Drink a coffee. Then I go to the library and read comics ("Walking Dead 3" "Punisher: Born") until
1230 todd sends a text offering a treatment at 2, so i slip up to katipo for a chicken focaccia. It is difficult to eat.
2:00 treatment.
4ish i get a costume from the Costume Place. I'm going as CHiPs or something.
Now I'm writing this. Later Im headingdown to Roti Chanai to have dinnerwith Vanita& Co so that should be nice.
The end.

2006-07-25T17:59:00.000-12:00

This is a pretty useful article, especially for lost souls like myself, which is exactly the reason I am linking to it here.
I should point out that as of this moment I have been sitting in this little internet room at the bottom of my guest house for nearly an hour. I don't have anything to do today, except maybe go and pick up those silk shirts I ordered and collect my suit fromthe tailor's. Or I could do that tomorrow. So maybe today I will simply sit and think about what I want to do with my life (like that hasn't been the driving question keeping me awake forever). ONe day I will find a way to melt all the guns and ammo into goo and have all those wonderful people who work in landmine factories go to Somalia and Indonesia to clear them out so that the people who live there can once again walk around and grow food in their area.
One day....

what's on the box?

2006-07-25T17:05:00.000-12:00

Ever have a song pop into your head soemtimes and it won't go away?
For days I have been singing this to myself (or trying to, on account of my testicles dropped already). And I can remember years ago, for some reason, this little gem would float into my head. These are not songs I really "like" (they would never make it onto any CD I compile for repeat play) and yet they are on circulation in my head, popping into my consciousness at random moments. How does this work? Still, at least it ain't this

that sinking feeling

2006-07-23T21:32:00.000-12:00

I was tooling along the canal on my little nifty today, just coming back from up the Wat and the thought occurred to me that more than a few drunken fools must find themselves driving into that ring of water that surrounds central Chiang Mai. IMany times while playing GTA3 I have misjudged a bend or jump and splashed down into a river or lake, drowning my violent little criminal. He could swim fine on his own, but he could never seem to escape from his car under the water. This got me to thinking: well, is it a given fact that a person necessarily will die if their car takes an unforeseen plunge into some local body of water and if survival is possible, how so? Obviously opening the doors is out of the question - water pressure will keep that from happening. You're going out the window if you're going anywhere at all. Anyone who wants to be prepared to be the hero of their submerged car disaster, here is a good link to follow. It contains interesting facts that I didn't know.

chaing mai is cool

2006-07-19T20:24:00.000-12:00

Had a nice night with Lee then caught the flight to Chiang Mai and slept most of the day.
Next day I got me a biCycle and rode around town, essentially i was looking for this particular wat to go on a meditation course at. When i got there i changed my mind. I just decided i don't really want another introduction to silly old buddhism, even if i do get to lern some meditation techniques. I guess maybe my old ego got stuck in and pulled it's ass out of the fire again. Self improvemt seeyalater.
So i rode around all day and it didn't take long for my ass to regret the decision, even if i enjoyed stretching my legs and doing something more physical than carnal excercise. Checked out the Insect Museum and an Art Museum. Had a nice roadside dinner. It was pretty cool - all plastic equipment. I did the Tony Bourdain and just pointed to the guy next to me, said: "Same same" and the lady brought me the same same as him. Tasty!
yesterday I did a little trek. Jumped in a bus with a pommie couple, 2 irish lasses, 2 swiss couples and 2 german girls and off we were driven to somewhere far away. Walked through some rainy jungle, crossing rivers and slipping in mud. The jungle (and the road there, actually) reminded me a lot of New Zealand (Thai people also drive on the left). Got back to the Place and had some lunch. Veryone except me rode elephants for an hour. I decided i'd rather hang back and play that volleyball football game with the little cane ball with the rafting instructors and tour operators. I don't really dig on riding elephants, unless i'm actually going somewhere. Seems kinda childish otherwise.
So anyway, after that we all did the whitewater rafting and a little bamboo rafting too, in the rain and rabpids all. Fun factor 8
Last night i went out with this dutch guy i met, and a french couple he had met down south and we had a pretty good time. Today we all had lunch together and it looks like we'll be doing a cookery course together on saturdy. And tomorrow i'm going mountain biking with the dutch guy. Even though my body is aching like rocks. I gotta go get massaged again.
Also, i think someone filched through my wallet so i have lost more money. Fuck it who cares.
Bye now!

today i am very sad

2006-07-13T18:04:00.000-12:00

I took my ipod down to the internet place today to charge it up, but imagine my shock and dismay upon discovering a rainbow bordered black hole on the screen. It won't turn. Basically my iPod is now fucked, so that's about $1000 down the tubes. And I lost the receipt too.
So here is its eulogy:
My iPod was my best friend. I first bought my iPod only after months of deliberation as to th whether it would be worth it to spend all that cash on something that could so easily become nothing more that a lump of metal and fizzled circuitry, or worse, become a space where it used to be. In the end, I was swayed by my desire to carry all my music and interviews, meditations and so on around with me everywhere i go.
For months, my ipod has bee n my companion through journeys and naps, guiding me through meditations and workouts, and generally keeping me company with my favourite sounds.
But all that ended recently, I suspect during the sudden downpour that saturated me and all my stuff as I rode pillion from the small village in Ko Tao to the AC resort.
As usual, I'm not as upset as I feel I should be; I'm just disappointed that once again, my prediction, predilection for misfortune, and the universe have once again worked together to deprive me of a sanity-saving device. The concept of a 13 hour plane trip to NZ without my iPod is appalling. I don't even want to think about it, but I must do something. O! Despair!

....and so forth

2006-07-11T15:33:00.000-12:00

I feel different no that I'm on Ko Tao. The coin says that I only stay here for 2 nights (last night being one of them) and then move on back tothe mainland. Matt suggested a meditation retreat which sounds lke a plan, but I'm also considering a massage course too. Except for the expense it sounds lke a good plan, especially as I just don't feel like meeting people and making friends. NOt that I ever regret it when I do, it's just... I don't know.
Anyway, today I'm going for a dive (finally) and taking my wee camera down with me. The sky is blue and so is the sea. Ko Tao is the best diving in Thailand they say, and it's a little quieter on the island right now because people have flocked down to Ko Pha Ngan for the monthly full moon party. The whole 'big rave' thing doesn't appeal to me in the slightest anymore.

Hmm.. well, that's all not very interesting is it? How about what happened on ko Samui?
Well, I did a bit of trekking around; rode an elephant, saw a tiny waterfall (after a big hike) and checked out a butterfly house. Mostly though I jsut felt ill and slept. I met some people; some english, some americans who pretended to be mexican to avoid the negative US stereotype.
I went dancing on the night of the world cup final becuase the big screens set up in every bar made it possible to dance and watch at the same time. The music is pretty good there, for what it is - a bit house-y with liberal doses of pop and the same songs every night as you'd expect. Damn I'm getting stomach cramps again, I better sign off. More again after my dive.

thailand!

2006-07-05T18:05:00.000-12:00

sawadee!
So i've been here for the better part of a week. Landed in Bangkok late Friday night/early Saturday morning and went straight to my hotel. There i met a pair of boisterous Irish boys enjoying some beers, the Argentina-Italy game, and the company of some delightfully sexy Thai girls. They filled me in on some details of living right where we are and in spite of my insistence that i wasn't interested in smoking anything, I found a foil package in my hand when C shook it goodbye. I assiduously and rather ungraciously flushed it down the loo becuase I just don't wanna deal with that. Glad I did too cos I got walloped with a massive dose of the sads about my second or third day. reverse culture shock maybe? An unwillingness to step forth and be a social man? Anyway, thanks to a new friend I have worked around that issue, mostly.
So here I am, finally out of the steamy city; now in Koh Samui staying ina bungalow near the beach called Hat Chaweng. There a plenty of half naked white people wandering around, and while I've barely been to the beach so far, the view down there is gorgeous wnough to warrant my plan to spend the entire day there with no adventures of any kind.
plans for the future: maybe some scuba diving (my back is pretty fucked and I Bangkok belly just couahgt up with me. my colon is clenching as I write this. not a good prognosis for diving). The are some jetskis so I can see myself riding one of those puppies all day tomorrow. what would relaly rock my world would be some frisbee or soccer or cricket, or even some chess. I suppose I will have to make that happen myself, as that's the way the world seems to work these days. Today, however, I am resting myself from the necessity to make contact. I will lie on a chair under an umbrella sipping beer and reading sci-fi like a good geek should. Tonight may be a diffrent story.

this

2006-06-28T20:30:00.000-12:00

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

2006-06-20T21:54:00.000-12:00

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

2006-06-19T21:44:00.000-12:00

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

aftermath

2006-06-13T15:24:00.000-12:00

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

2006-06-12T21:57:00.000-12:00

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

2006-06-12T20:36:00.000-12:00

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

2006-06-04T19:32:00.000-12:00

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"

dorodango

2006-05-30T19:17:00.000-12:00

Hikaru dorodango is a recent craze in Japanese school yards. Apparently it's an absorbing task, one that anyone can pick up. There are even competing, previously undisclosed techniques.

(I stole this post from metafilter. just thought it was cool for kids.

grubmle

2006-05-20T21:13:00.000-12:00

hey ya
long time since i posted so here's the LD:
- went to a play last night. my mate rick was in it. actually, it's not really a play. It's called Speak Truth To Power. Bit of a horrorshow really. It's based on the book about the people around the world who have risked life and limb to stand up for truth and human rights, so as you can probably imagine, the stories were pretty intense.
The play took place in the Daegu Artist's Collective, a space purchased by some longterm expats for jamming and partying and whatnot. The palce was pretty hot, but it was clean and the toilets didn't stink (a very rare thing here).
Also, I bought an iPod. hey big spender. IT does this wonderful thing where you plug it into your computer and it automatically updates its music library from your iTunes library on the comp. problem is, it automatically deletes song too. I can't figure out how to get it to only add. Silly apple is being too helpful and automating too much stuff. Fuck em! My mission right now is figruing out how to get the songs of this little zippy drive and onto my iPod without wiping all the songs that are already there. I am grumpy about this. Also I am a little hungover and I don't know what to have for dinner and it is hot and blah blah blah.

Anyway, back to effort

what do i have to say

2006-05-08T18:30:00.000-12:00

Nothing much right now. I'm just downloading some music trying to figure out how I can upgrade my PC to Windows XP. You see, it turns out that the Apple iPod is not compatible with Win98, so my ggigabytes of information are kinda trapped inside a dinosaur in tarpit. Pity really, cos there's some good stuff I'd like to take with.
'Ahhh,' you say, ' But Glenn, aren't you getting caught up in possessions?'
Yes, of course. Piss off :)

thunderstorms

2006-05-06T00:05:00.000-12:00

damn it sounds like a logging truck is on the roof! i love korean thunderstorms.

time for some linkages

2006-05-01T21:09:00.000-12:00

Firstly, here is a neat thing I saw on Metafilter - it's a 1minute video of a bullet passing through some things in very slow motion. Turns out it's a Korean Ad
Also, some neato games: Warning Forever, which is a spaceship shoot 'em up against a repeatedly regenerating boss who learns how you killed him and adds parts to compensate for next time. Neato! And then there's Zen Bondage where you hve to tie a rope around some blocks. Actually I didn't enjoy it so much, I'm just putting it here so I can check it again later. Then there's SWARM. Pick up people and drop them on the ground. Great stress relief.
Anyway, I don't really have time to arse around so I'm gonna do some work.

shameless self-congratulation

2006-04-29T22:34:00.000-12:00

Well, today turned into a better day than I had hoped, and while much of it comes down to choosing the right sounds for each leg of the journey the bulk of the accolade goes to the act of simply getting out and doing something.
I had to pike on my squash game wih David due to some massive headache which I blame on the lack of painkillers given me by the dentist after the extraction on Friday. So, crawling into bed at 5pm with the intention of getting out at 10 to go downtown was the plan but it failed as I only felt worse. Sweated up a storm in the night and washed everything this morning, but felt a lot better by 1 so I decided to carry out thhe plan I laid out to YeonJi earlier in the week and dragged my carcass out to Daegok to check out the arboretum. Most of the journey I listened to 'Mingus Ah Um' (the best jazz album ever made in the goddam world) but switched to Rhian Sheehan halfway there cos that works quite well on the subway.
When I got there I sat back looking at the trees on the hills and enjoyed an icecream and some gatorade. The heat was just perfect. Warm enough to sweat if you exert yourself, but otherwise totally comfortable. I wandered around snapping mad photos of the cacti and bonsai for Todd, listening all the while to Trinity Roots, Portishead, Concord Dawn and DJ Shadow. On the subway home I got to enjoy Windowlicker (which is going into my "almost perfect" song collection) for the ride home, followed by Reckless, by Aussie Crawl. Totally mint.
Anyway, I feel better now.

i wouldn't call it interesting

2006-04-24T14:13:00.000-12:00

... even if it was slightly out of the ordinary.
Got the call from YeonJi on Friday night about 7. She had won tickets to 'Grease' on the radio. Luckily I had to work, and arranged to meet at 8pm the next day.
After work I spent pretty much the whole day in the PC room downloading and watching episodes of 'Band of Brothers' and yj called me just as I was heading down to the substation. She was a little cut on account of she'd been with her co-workers all day on some kind of workshop up Mount Palgong and thhey'd been doing some drinking.
Following the usually kafuffle talking with a drunken girl in broken english, we found each other near the cinema and she took me to the restaurant all her people were at. I saw and marvelled.
Drunken korean office workers are not a pretty sight.
About 20 people of mostly 30+ sat around a long table covered with bowls of spicy salad and plates some kind of warm, soft ham. Evidence of beer spillage was apparent, and so was their joy at seeing me. There were shouted "hello"s made in that tone you come to recognise as indicating the bare minimum of English ability. No problem there, I'm just a passenger anyway. However, it was a little annoying when one drunken old dude stood me up for a linked arm one-shot. I drank half and pulled out my pills to show that I shouldn't be drinking, and that slowed down the desire of everyboody to have me catch up, thank goodness. Then the real fun began. There was a speech or two, and then it was time to stand on the table and sing and dance. Eggs were dropped, drinks were spilled. One nice gentleman tried to grab me for a dance as I returned from the counter with a glass of water which resulted in one poor lady getting a soaking and me needing a refill.
Then it was off to the singing room where the hilarity continued. Songs were sung, and someone cued up 'My Way' for me and I did a pretty good job, I think. While I was singing, the boss wrapped me in toilet paper and gave me a TP bandana. There was other equally stupid stuff going on, but i took off to go get some food. I guess these guys like to have a good time, but I really wasn't into it. It was nice to be there and see some uptight K-peeps getting loose on it, but it simply reaffirms my mantra: "Moderation is key"

a list of the dullness

2006-04-16T14:16:00.000-12:00

Bit of a bookworm, me. Here is a list of the books I have read since I landed in this dull-ass city (in the order that I thought of them while my students were playing a game):

The Lymond Chronicles (consisting of 6 densely literate novels about a Scottish rogue);
In Conquest Born (a diabolical novel of war and hate);
Guns, Germs & Steel (or "Why the white man rules the earth");
The Red Queen (evolution in action; why people cheat);
Siddhartha (Herman Hesse discusses Buddha-nature. I enjoyed it);
Kittigrew and the Incorrigibles (a piece of swashbuckling airport shite)
Catch-22 (for old time's sake);
Momo (Gorgeous! By the guy that wrote the Neverending Story. Read this one!);
The Little Prince (Cute!);
Mother Night (Vonnegut is always good and easy);
VALIS (Philip K Dick's religious experience);
The Life of Pi( wothwhile and a piece of cake);
Poker without Cards (disturbing dialogue a la Bucky Fuller);
The Game - infiltrating the secret society of pickup artists;
Finding God through Sex (Kooky, and difficult to accomplish on your own);
The Way of the Superior Man (it's good!);
The Fire from Within (essential Castaneda)
Think and Grow Rich (annoying, but practical-ish);
Dune (again, for old time's sake);
Wuthering Heights (don't);
Cyrano de Bergerac;
Through the Looking Glass (both just so I'd know. Also, they were thin);
Our Twisted Hero (by a Korean author Lee Munyol- pretty good!)
not to mention the entire Asterix, including the ones Uderzo tried to write by himself; and a whole swathe of other comics (Batman; Sin City; Lucifer; Top Ten; Promethea; The Watchmen). Big ups to Rick for the hook-up.
And From Hell, and almost every episode of Akira

.... and that's about all I can think of. Why get out more when stuff is more interesting in my head? (and other people's)

big siren

2006-04-13T17:04:00.000-12:00

there is a big siren going outside. huge! it has been going for 3 minutes. oh.
it just stoppd
anyway, i went to see wayne (my boss) about it to find out if there was some kind of imminent disaster approaching. No-one else seemed to be paying too much attention to it, but you never know when it might be time to don the gas masks or take to the shelters. Not that Iknow where they are here. Maybe I'm just an over-cautious kind of guy, but I think that if .... oh, now i can hear jets! .... anyway, I think that if you hear a big loud stable siren, it's probably going for some kind of, i dunno, purpose, and sure it might not actually involve you personally but still, isn't it better to be safe than re-educated or shot as a spy or tool of ameican imperialism or drowned under some catastrophic tsunami?
Yes. Yes I think so.
OK, back to work

goddammit now i have a cold

2006-04-12T11:59:00.000-12:00

Shit I am fed up with this damn illness keeps keeping me from my life. Still, it's a good cold, as colds go. Fuck the doctor this time. No shots or crappy pills (never see to make ANY difference and can't say I'm much surprised). This time it's just gonna be a 'rest' cure.Once again It's work 6:30-11am, lunch, sleep til 6, dinner, work 8-10pm, sleep again. What an existence! Can't go to dance class, can't go to the gym! Oh well, at least I don't have to eat bark to stay alive.

alll good

2006-04-09T22:34:00.000-12:00

I am well again, hooray! It is nice to be able to eat solids. And poo them!

In other news, I have been mad crazy downloading Ken Wilber videos from www.integralnaked.com. If you want any sort of idea of what's in my head and where I want my life to go you should check that out. Unfortunately if you want to listen to their enormous archive of stuff you gots to pay $US10 monthly or something. Too bad. Ask me nicely and I'll send you a file or something. Or just read Ken's books. Or David Deida's. He's another guy I've been investigating lately he has a similarly siritual outlook but he deals motly with relationships and what exactly is the problem with men and women these days (mostly men are either all spine and no heart, or al heart and no guts. or something like that. mostly).
Also, I just got the Ideagasms chakra cleansing meditations mp3 download. Hooray. What a load of rubbish but you gotta try it out somtime. So yeah, I'm al hppy with my little 2GB zip drive going nuts every time I hit the PCroom just straight suckin that data down from the ether. God bless the internet!

springtime

2006-04-05T23:03:00.000-12:00

...is quite pretty. Right now the trees lining the sides of the streets (at least the streets I frequent) are positively laden with blossoms. The cars kick the fallen petals up off the road as if they were dust. Blossoms not on trees is actually quite untidy. Here is a pic of a blossomy tree. They look a little better riht now, in the grey light of morning, and when you can see a whole bunch of them. I wonder if I should ge into fotography. Probably not. Heh.

Right now I have a kind of ache in my back so I'm gonna go home and consider eating something. I had a rather big lunch of chicken rice porridge soup. Nicer than I expected.

it is still not safe to fart

2006-04-05T11:39:00.000-12:00

fuck it. you know what i mean :(

feeling better

2006-04-03T22:02:00.000-12:00

Yesterday I bunked out (kinda) on one of my classes so I could go see my grumpy christian doctor who speaks barely any english. Fortunately he understood the word "Diarrhoea" and gave me a rather uncomfortable examination. This consisted of my lying on my back while he pressed down in various places on my stomach with his fingers and stethoscope. He asked me to relax but I was trying to hold back a dangerous pressure, so I felt a little awkward. Anyway, he gave me a jab and a scrip for some pills. I went home for a long nap. Got up at 4 to have some udon soup (liquid diet!) and went to work from 8-10. Felt like scabs the whole time. Sweaty night's sleep. Bizarre dreams. Something to do with constructing a giant 'magic number square' that was actually the design for a Babylonian tower. Trippy. Woke up feeling like arse - the discomfort had somehow moved into my head - heavy and sluggish. Fortunately I had only 3 classes this morning which I dragged myself through then shuffled off home for minestrone and another long nap.
Have you ever had one of those dreams where you can see something out the corner of your left eye and you know it's going to kill you? It's not an evil thing -it just happens that killing you is in the nature of the beast. If you turn towards it, it kills you from the front; if you turn your head slightly away so it is behind you, it kills you from there.
So anyway, now I'm at work 'doing interviews'* and prepping for tomorrow.
Um. That's all. Thanks.

*waiting for new students, pretty much=nothing

i've got the damn runs

2006-04-02T21:19:00.000-12:00

...and not in the hapy cricketing sense neither.

WARNING: Obviously this post will be fairly gross and graphic in detail as a way of my dealing with my own nausea and grumpiness. Those of weak constitutions (or simply possessing good taste) should perhaps look at these lovely pictures of Missouri.

Because MyeongIl had to go to Pusan at short notice on Saturday, I was left with a gap in my dinner schedule, so I invited Rick over for spaghetti. The spaghetti was quite delicious, if I say so myself, but the problem lay not therein, but in te treacherous dessert.
Rick invited me to his friend Murray's house for a little party, so I decided to mix up a cocktail using the strawberries I bought of the truck outside my house. Rick helped me to pick out the leafy bits at the top and i dropped them straight into the blender with some vodka, icecream and triple sec and thatwas my folly. If you buy fruit from street vendors you seriously gotta wash it.
So this morning at around 3 I was up damaging the Daelim, one squirt every 20 minutes or so. I say squirt because it was certainly the most watery expulsion to ever depart my body from that particular orifice. That, coupled with the damn mosquito kept from any semblance of sleep. You know how sometimes you wake up and think "Haha! Time for work," but instead of being your normal get-up time, it turns out to be 1am? Strangey. I guess my stomach was thinking along the lines of some Starcraft peon-unit "The toilet needs more shitty water!".
Having the runs is no fun. I hope Rick didn't get stung too. Oh well, it won't last.

i didn't go to busan

2006-03-13T01:59:00.000-12:00

I had 4 days off this weekend so i was going to go to Busan with Rick, but he came down with bronchitis and i didn't really want to go on my own. Also, I just didn't really feel the urge. So, it was off to Commune's again for me - the dingy downstairs ex-pat bar with occasional live music. I saw some of the guys I went to China with last year, and one of them was organising a texas hold 'em tournament next weekend so I fell over myself getting my name down for that one. He came around right as I had finished saying something like "Yeah, noone ever seems to do anything fun around here". So that was good.
Last night I went there to watch "Genghis Blues", the movie about the blind american blues guy who goes to Tulla Tuva, just north of Mongolia to be in a throat singing tournament. Met some cool people and wound up playing pool at Itaewon til three. Nice one.
Just got back from dinner and drinks with YeonJi and some of her friends. We had a pretty cool time and the language barrier wasn't too huge. Not that I could contribute much to the comversation but. I wish I knew what that girl wants.

the yellow sand cometh

2006-03-11T01:14:00.000-12:00

You can tell that it's spring in Korea because of the yellow sand in the air.
Every year at around this time, an Easterly wind blows off the Gobi and Takla Makan. The hot and dry spring weather in China carries sand on the northeastern atmospheric current, making the sky here hazy, eyes and lungs itchy, and the air a little colder.
Last year there were 24 days of haze, throughout spring and , just like every meteorological occurence I've experienced here so far, "this year will be/has been the worst on record". Seems like a red-letter year for weather.

In other news, shit. Don't ask me why.

long long time

2006-03-05T22:08:00.000-12:00

Well, it's been a while so it'll be bullets today, on everything i can remember that's happenend since, what? Jan 14th? Huh.

met YeonJi, the daughter of the couple I met when I went to the JimJilbang with Jessica and Joy. We have had some fun together (details below)
worked at Dongsangro office all through Feb. They are a younger crowd there and the whole set-up is ... more sterile. Definitely a more pleasant working environment, except for the crappy green board markers which spread greasy white spots all over your clothes. It was nice to be downtown to take advantage of the various luncherias. Had lunch with James and Levi most days - cool pair of guys both on the way to marrying k-girls
went snowboarding! YeonJi mentioned she was going with some friends so I tagged myself along and had a supremely awesome time. This is the main reason I want to come back to New Zealand. I should really get my shit together and send off a CV or 6 so I can maybe get a job when I come back.
finally took advantage of (student) Brian's offer to visit his academy out in GyeongJu. He is professor at this cutting-edge hydro-therapy dealy. I took YJ along to soothe our bodies of the pain of snowboarding. It was nice to be able to pay back the goodtime. Which reminds me, I really need to send Brian something. Oh well.
Had some shit nights on the town. It's all good until midnight usually when I start to get depressed that I can't seem to form any kind of connection with anyone in the room except for who I arrived with (invariably Rick these days). The gurus suggest clinking around the room but man, ain't no-one interested in even eye contact so WTF? I guess I'm still a misanthropist at heart and once you start just not liking the people here it's really hard to turn things around and see them as anything other than shallow boring twats (which is precisely what they are).
got an awesome schedule this month 6:30-12:00! Time for the Gym again - trying the Sisco workout (massive weights 1-2 sets of 8 reps or so) about twice a week. I'm also hitting the running machines cos my fitness level has got to improve. I get puffed after the 3 flights of stairs at the sub station.
levi showed me how to switch blogger into English so I can change shit around. Hooray. I'll probably be more inclined to put stuff up here in future.

So that's it for now. Chur.

what i'm reading these days

2005-10-14T15:30:00.000-12:00

Now that I've done the DYD thing, I'm looking to improve some other aspects of my life before really applying to full the degree the principles I learned there. First off I'm reading 'Think and Grow Rich'; by Napolean Hill, a book I would recommend to anyone except for its dopey title and somewhat archaic language (early 20th).
This book, like every other 'self help-y' title I have read promote the necessity of a "definite major purpose", and more than ever now I'm inclined towards discovering the exact nature of what mine is. How can I align my resources towards achieving my potential without an exact, well defined target? Thus far I've been content to drift and trust my destiny to bring me closer to whatever it is by some form of mystical spiritual magnetism but the longer I spend here (0on this planet) the more it becomes apparent that I require a direct goal to focus on to achieve it. Now, I could make little goals (kinda the way I;'ve been doing - go to korea, fix teeth, meet girls, work out, alter perspective) but thatis too limited and short-sighted and somewhat backwards in approach. A major goald should be made first, then subsequent goals made to approach that target.
So i need me a definite major purpose. By the 1st of December, for better or worse I will have a plan to take me on the next twenty or so years of my life.

Looking at tha it looks like just words to me - doesn't seem true. Maybe I'll give myself until January and use some NLP and Autosuggestion to soak the idea into my consciousness. A note on the bathrom mirror oughta do the trick. And then some.....

back-iddy back

2005-09-27T14:03:00.000-12:00

All right. The Beijing tour was "worthwhile", except it turns out I lost my greenstone neckace thingy which is a bit of a bummer. I was quite attached to it. But yeah, on the whole it was easily worth the money and the time (And the cost of a spiritual token). It was made up entirely of teachers my age, around about 40 of us in all. Some of them were quite clicky on account of having been here a while and also hanging around in the same local community. A lot of making friends here seems to be about where you're physically located. This hit home to me on Sunday when I failed to get to Migliore by bus (again) and I realised that it took me 1/2 and hour to not get to where i wanted to go. Discouraged, I caught a taxi home and spent the rest of the arvo in a PCbang.
Bt the trip: right, here's the itinerary:
Landed Beijing at 1pm (beautiful sunshine 27degs) went to see the Temple of Heaven (a bit disappointing) and had our first taste of hawkers - pretty freaky. It's bizarre how insistent and persistent these cats are - you'd think that if i didn't want a t-shirt from that guy, I'm not gonna want one from you but they do not think that way at all, no sir. Anyway, after the TOH we went to dinner at this cool restaurant which had dancers all up around the tables and shit and 60c beers, all lazy susan foods - was a real cool scene. From there onto the Shaolin-Monks "Story of Kung-Fu". Better show than when I saw it Welly (sorry Todd) bt still non-plussed by their "breaking stuff over the head" routine.
Next days was Tiananmen Square where I was too scared to get a photo of me in front of a cop car; then the Forbidden Palace, to which i had to find my own way after being deserted by the group while looking for someone else. FP was a pretty cool: gate, courtyard, gate, courtyard, gate etc..... and then you're out. Chinese people have this fascination with big tall gates everywhere, TOH was ful of em. From FP to the Summer Palace. It was nice and we rode a boat across a lake.
I think I might have forgotten something and I don't feel like writing here anymore. Maybe put the rest in later. Bye!

blah blah

2005-09-15T14:29:00.000-12:00

Nothing mych exciting happening here. Oh, I'm off to beijing for the weekend this weekend with a happy tour group so hopefully tha will generate some action.
Life is pretty much: work, gym, lunch, nap, work, sleep x5 then get up, go shoppping, hang out at home, go out drinking stay around home all sunday. It's kinda lame and it's getting me down. I really need to make some real friends but i'm so damn picky. And there really isn't that much to do! It's bizarre. Koreans have no life.
Now that i'm over the initial feelings of dislocation, I feel just the same mood as when i was in wellington. The only thing that keeps me here is the same thig that kept me there - sticky feet and the knowledge that things are the same everywhere. YAWN.
What a depressing thought. I think i'm hitting my 3-month "hate-everything" phase that so many people have warned me about. What i really need it to get laid, i think. Oh well.

an excavation of values

2005-09-01T00:34:00.000-12:00

So why am I here, in Korea? I came specifically to get out of my stagnant mindset and expose mySelf to a different frame. Success so far has been partial; I am in a different physical and cultural environment. The altered linguistic environment has almost no practical bearing on me due to my inability to communicate effectively in Korean at this stage. however, the necessity of using simple speech limits conversation - and therefore expression of self - to and unpredicted degree. But that's by the by.
I came here because i felt trapped and sluggish. Mired. My expreicence of life was, and remains, muddy. This excursion to Korea was essential an attempt to swirl and rinse this mud from my perceptions. Now I know and can express that what I want is a more intense experience of theworld without resorting to the pathetic pedantic emotional dramas that keep the majority of people entertained. That became not-an-option years ago; what I needed and still seek is an alternative.
Buddhism and the Tao preach on one- and nothing-ness. I question the value of emptiness and divine self-knowledge in this form. I recant my adherence to "the Way".
Once again, shamanism springs to the fore; the pursuit of knowledge through the aggressive clearing of all bonds and ties; the pursuit of freedom with Fear and Death as close companions for most of the ride; Love coming only at the end.
It's time for a new experience. A fuller experience. Time to be a fool again and step off the edge of reason and mysticsm and into mystery. Time to leave the herd behind and be the first lemming off the cliff.
I don't know what shape this is going to take. Oh well. Wish me luck.

independence day

2005-08-14T20:43:00.000-12:00

It's a day off today, Monday 15 August is Korean Independence day, the day they celebrated getting free of the Japs back in 48. Of course, Truman and Stalin had already carved the country into bits to fight over in various levels of warfare for the next half-decade. So anyway, holiday today.
Had a great sleep last night and a good sleep-in this morning (2 weeks of 5:30 wake-ups turns 8:45 into a sleep-in). I spent the moring reading, eating and playing chess on the computer. What a geek!
Now I'm in the e-cafe across the road playing with photos and such. It was quite a nice day when I came in here but now it is pissing down. Should be quite a cool walk home, if I leave soon which i probably won't. Its only $1.20 an hour so I might just play games for a while.

How interesting.

tourist-type thing

2005-08-13T23:35:00.000-12:00

Sorry I've not been putting photos up. Still too lazy to figure out this whole shit. I think it will never happen while I'm in korea and don't have my own computer. Hopefully next month, then I will plug more photos up here than is sensible.

Today Jenny-from-Nelson invited me out on a big tourist-y type tour in the "Daegu Vicinity".

What did we do? Well, we caught the bus with about 20 natives and a couple of english-speaking thais and visited some quite random places in the "Daegu Vicinity", the first of which was the film set for KBC's historical drama series. Its basically this whole town contructed to look like your typical Goryu dynasty-era town. It was pretty cool. And I had some ice cream.
We also cycled along a railway track in the stinking hot sun, which seemed like a pretty bizarre choice of activity, adn went to the Coal Museum to learn a little about the region's fossilised past. To be honest, that part was pretty stink due to all the exhibits being in korean. Bad enough that it was a museum about the old coal industry. Jeez, being a coal miner must absolutely suck. Fuck that.

Anyway, i just wanted to write this shit down so I could at least sort of reminisce about it later. I'm not erribly interested in fleshing out hte details and turning it into an interesting story at this point cos I'm kinda tired and scratchy and my mouth is sore from the tooth thing. Can't wait for next week.
Oh and I can't drink cos it seems like i am on 4 different kinda drug for this (Korean doctors etc loooove to push drugs). that is stink.
right. g'night

the dentist

2005-08-13T23:29:00.000-12:00

Yesterday morning, I visited a dentist recommended to me by a student of mine; a friend of her optometrist husband. Long story short, he extracted my lower left wisdom tooth and charged me the hardly extravagant sum of $20. That is not a typo. Twenty dollars was all it cost to have my wisdom tooth out. I am going back next week to have my upper left molar removed too, on account of its having grown sideways for the last however-many years, in spite of Dr whatsisname's recommendations that I "press against it, because youcan influence its growth" which I took to be a load of shit back in the day anyway.
It took him ust under ten minutes. I was glad that I argued before he started that the anaethetic wasn't working, and forced him to give me another dose. An unpleasant experience could have been a lot more unpleasant had I not thought something was wrong when I could feel him gouging away at the back of my mouth.
Anyway, it's out now and I am happy about that I guess. Oh, shit! I should have asked to keep the tooth! Well, I'll remember next week for sure.

By the way, it hurts.

the awful truth about women and jerks

2005-08-10T22:12:00.000-12:00

Women: what's the best method?
Some say just be honest and say what you feel. Sadly, simply because I am the wonderful sensitive guy I am, this invariably comes across as supremely wussy. I've been reading stuff lately which tells me this and it feels pretty true. There's a whole culture of dudes out there who feel similar to me: all heart and no spine. Emasculated by "niceness" and "consideration". I think Bill Hicks said it best:
"I don't pretend to understand women's little quirks;
" Just one thing I know for sure is Chicks Dig Jerks, aw!"
I have known since I was ten that this is the case, but since then I have been fighting against the awful truth that, if you wanna get laid you'd best not be tellin that girl exactly how beautiful she is and how much you want to please her. Nuh uh! It's taken me 17 years. 17! That's a lot of conditioning to undo, but I think I'm up to it.
First step is to lean back and let myself be attractive, rather than try and project it. This has seriously been fucking me up. I mean shit, I've always known that I'm fine the way I am but that never stopped a guy from still seeking approval and wanting people to like me.
(I guess I should have paid more attention to that Dale Carnegie fellah back when I was 12).
Don Juan said as much to Carlos about letting go of his attachment to other peoples' opinions.

The scary thing for me is: look how long I've been reading about and steeping myselg in this shit before I finally let it sink in. It took David D'Angelo's letters to really kick it home (look him up, he ain't all that special). And now it's all happening at once. The synchronicity is astounding.

OK. OK. Coherency Glenn. Sort it out. Get a grip.

OK, so the basic problem is still the same. I'm still the same guy and I still have the same low strike rate and high cling/wuss factor, no doubt (given, I've not put anything to the test yet.) Which way do I swing? PUA, or do I continue with an even stronger and likely more intimidating version of my truth?

whatever. more beer please

long hours

2005-08-08T21:49:00.000-12:00

I am happy because this month i have lots of work, and this weekend there is a holiday. I am hoping Julz and James can come in for a saturday night rinse out followed by a sunday swim up in the ka-chung!
And I have just logged on to active and they are playing "She Speeds". This is a good day.

beomeo park

2005-08-05T13:26:00.000-12:00

So I went or a walk in Beomeo park the other night. It's a lot like walking through central park in Wellington, same kind of just-bare-paths and no vsibility or 20m in front of you. t seemed to be on a major incline and I figured the best policy for walking through such a park (given that I know its dimensions from the streetmap at the bustop) would be to climb to the highest point and see what sort of views were available. Well, t is only at the top of Beomeo park that you will find any flat ground at all. They have scaped the whole place with that kind of gritty clay. All around are sit-up benches and stretching posts (that is, a 4' pole stuck in the ground with 3 rungs poking out either side). Also there are free badminton courts with nets and all, which I am all in favour of. There's even a benchpress with weights and all but it's def not the kind o thing you'd use alone.
So I wandered round watching the joggers and the badmintoners and a lady came and gave me some kumera which was nice, although I had just eaten and was not hungry. I also found a spot outside of an "indoor" badminton court (again, that scratchy clay surface) where there are these little stools and a sign with a cross-legged stick figure on it. A meditation zone for athletes! Go figure.
I enjoyed my walk through Beomeo park.

letter to the folks

2005-08-01T11:47:00.000-12:00

Hey hey!Gt your parcel yesterday. Thanks heaps! Had a lovely meal of weetbix for brekky and now I'm munchin on a muesli bar for second breakfast. I had to laugh at the two minute noodles tho. Don't you know that those noodles are the staple dish here (just slightly after rice)? Heehee! They're probably even cheaper here than they are there. But still good to have the kiwi flavours. It's surprising the questions people ask you about food: "Do you have x over in NZ?". Now at least I can show a class what kiwi "Ra-myeon" (or ramen noodles I guess) is like.
The start of a new month and I'm cramming to get as many classes pre-planned as possible. This will make the rest of the month fly much more smoothly. Fortunately I have only 3 different classes, one of which is a "Screen English" class, which consists of watching "Friends" and any movie of my choice with them. I think I'm also supposed to find a script and delete some t and have them write in the missing parts as listening test. These guys aren't into talking, just listening, so it will make a nice change and a quiet end to the day. Also, as its an evening class and I'm working Saturdays this month, Saturdays are now worth $45/hr or so, so yay for that!
For my final class on Friday night we went out for Sam Gyop Sal, which is korean bbq, where there is a cavity your table for charcoal over which they lay your 4"x16" pork strips. The table is fair covered with condiments and vege/pickle bits. you just grab a sesame or lettuce leaf, pop a (cut) piece of meat in and add whatever else you like. Divine! Afterwards we went to a noraebang for some singing. I had a go at "we are the champions" which was harder than I expected and I pulled out a pretty decent version of "the boys are back in town". The guys I was with mostly sang love ballads and mostly in korean but it was a good time nonetheless. Finished off the night with mighty strong cocktails and a sober drive home.
that's all for today. luv and stuff, G

it's all the same only different

2005-07-16T19:57:00.000-12:00

I'll probably say this a few times in my tenure here, but "same shit, different country"

I went out with Julz and James, the kiwi boys from Go-Chung (just outside Daegu) last night. Just hung around mine drinking and shooting shit til 11 when we spruced up and headed out for dancing. Started at the Gypsey Rock, where I learned that Julz was telling the truth about how fondle-y korean girls can be on the dancefloor. They are certainly not shy about where they put their hands and also not shy about where I put mine. Had I been less drunk I might not have bothered to find out, chivalrous gent that I am, but I was that drunk. It was kinda interesting, but I despair of the communication factor. Anyway, we stayed there dancing til about 1 and headed off to Bubble, which was having a special deal on covers with the Frog.
It has to be said: I am easily the best dancer I saw all night. OK, so maybe I could tone it down a bit but noone on the floor could carve it up like me.
But
Long experience has taught me that being a solitary guy dancing can get to be a pretty fuckin lonely thing (smiles and high-5s aside). I always wind up asking myself: "Who's the show for, Glenn?" as in, what am I trying to prove? Historically, it's been for the ladies and any guy who appreciates what it is to move in time to the beat, but it happens to be an ineffectual pulling tool. Julz has the knack, fuck him and I am jealous. How a guy can pull a girl and not even speak her language is beyond me. Then he has the audicty to complain(!) that Korean girls are starfishes in bed. But anyway, my dancing has resulted in at best smiles. I guess I must have expected things to be different here far from home but no. No matter where you go, there you are - always the same.

I stated that my intention in getting away from New Zealand was to bring about a big change in myself. Break those barriers and inhibitions, you know? It did occur to me to ask "How exactly will another country accomplish that?" but I never managed to answer. The answer so far is: it can't. Same shit, different place.
Oh well, I'll keep on trying I guess.

"i'm-fine-thank-you-and-you?"

2005-07-15T17:07:00.000-12:00

OK, my Current Events (CE) class, is probably the coolest class I have at the moment. y task: I am supposed to grab some news, edit it to make it readable and propose some conversation/thought-provoking questions to a group of 23-30yo graduate students and slackers. It's my favourite because their ages are very similar and also because we don't have to work to "the book". God bless. So it's basically just me hanging out in a classroom with these dudes (one girl), interviewing them about their opinions on various shit - marriage, study, superheroes, cell-phones for developing countries, sino-korean relations, nude beaches and the pamplona bull run. Some topics provide diverse responses but I've had a couple of efforts where there's nothing controversial to say about the story and I only realise once I've read it in class with them. It's like "So... thoughts?......." pin drop "Ohhhhh-kaaaay, next story? Yeah....". Bummer is, the class is from 8-10pm so sometimes dudes don't feel like talking. In fact, some guys will only talk if I stare directly at them for like 10 seconds or something. Then maybe someone else will pik up on what this guy says and ra-de-ra. It's supreme when I can get them talking to each other rather than me as the facilitator, but ten I get afraid that I've lost control. Oh well, fuck 'em. They're payin for it and they can take what they want out of the class. Also, they're all grown ups - it's not like I have to hold their hands and guide them through the jungle of "conversation with peers". Evidence suggests that the quiet ones are so due to lack of English proficiency, but they are all able to express opinions (the major difference between level 3 and 4).
I think tomorrow I'll write down a list of nice controversial topics, find stories to match and go with that.
cu

shizer

2005-07-15T16:52:00.000-12:00

This damn korean thing! I want to change all the settings on this blog to make it more easy to read but all the script for instructions and shit is in korean. it was driving me nuts but I have just this second got over it.

Vasana offered me saturdays next month and I'm going to take them. If you work Sats it puts paid to the splits which suits me fine. And once I get paid I'll be able to join "Health Camp", the gym just up the road from here. So my week will be Mon-Fri 6:30am-12:00pm, Sat 3:00-7:00. Sweet. If I take a night class or two I also get mad overtime. Tempting, but I'd prefer not to split my sleeping too much. then again,. I am here to make money and I don't have a life. What's a po' nigga to do? I'll decide after a fortnight of it I guess.

My korean is coming along sorta. Not really enough to be able to read much shit enough to make any sense of it but I can order the food I want, by the items I want and get taxi drivers to take me places.

Funny how when you finally sit down at the blogspot everything you had in your head just flies out the window.
Oh well.

today's highlights

2005-07-02T00:06:00.000-12:00

Today I was a driven young man. I woke at a reasonable hour and after a nana smoothie waltzed down to the school and proceeded to revise my "Teach Yourself" Korean textbook.
I did all the exercises in chapter one and then went to lunch down at my new favourite place where the old ajumas are recognising me now. I imagine I'll get mad props when I can say more than "hi, noodles please, thanks". On my way back to school I popped in at Family Fresh F-something, Daegu's equivalent of a starmart or citystop. Here I had a nice mango jiuce in a can while i read all about PS2 piracy and SinCity in the Korea Times.
Then I went back upstairs and did the next 2 chapters from the book. Result: now I can say (theoretically) "I want to x" and "I can't y", as well as the obvious "I am currently z-ing"*
Something else too, but I can't remember.
Sill doesn't help me order dinner., though. I walked past at least a half-dozen places because I was too embarrassed to spend ages staring at a menu I couldn't understand and then wincing as they bring out some amazing weird thing. I like to pretend that they're all talking about me in words I can't understand, while I just stare ignorantly out the window.

I would very much like to go out and get drunk but I have only 20000 to last me until Monday, when I collect my advance. I've decided to not use Mr Credit Card except for big purchases. Vasana said next week he would help me sort out a cellphone. If I study hard I might be able to beat him, but I doubt it. I will probably just get rolled again.
But anyway, drunkeness. This means going home and getting some gears on suitable for nightlife (it's 9:20pm or so - thank god the guy next to me has stopped smoking) and then catching a bu into downtown. It's not so much that I can be bothered it's more that I am sick of sitting around my room. I feel a little sorry for Gary as his room has even less stuff than mine. I'd go drinking with him only I don't know where he lives and he doesn't drink. Sad.
------------------------------------------

The guy next to me is playing some neat game where he is doing electrical spells on what look to be muddy ogres out in the desert. Yawn.

*Note that the same sentence in Korea can also mean "We are z-ing", "I z-ed" and about a dozen other things depending on the context

so much for that

2005-06-30T18:24:00.000-12:00

Well games are hard to play if you can't log on and you can't log on if you can't read korean, it seems. So I didn't manage to play any fun games at all yesterday. What I did manage to do was order a meal and have a relaxing afternoon nap. I also cooked noodles and went for an evening walk to Beomeo park, which would have proably been more exciting had it not been so frikkn dark. Looks like I'm still making great decisions here.
Anyway, I managed to get those shoes changed today so now I have a pair of loafers I can slip off when entering someone's home. I hope they are comfortable. The cost about 50000won which pretty much equates to $70NZ. I figured out the exchange thing is basically just divide by 700. It turns out that many things I have bought are not as cheap as previously thought. I will need be more cautious in future, as it's quite seductive to just do the american thing and divide by 1000 to find a dollar value. No more I say! Fortunately something, like I-cafes for instance, are remarkably cheap. This right here is just 500won/hour which is pretty much 75c. Sweet!
Also, DVDs. DVDs get as low as 4000w, but more usually 9900 (divide by 700 that's about... um.... $12 or so at the top end. Why are they so cheap here? You can figure it out)

So, it's 3:30, what am I going to do with the rest of my day? Well, I'm going to eat some food and go see if I can't prepare a lesson plan for the rest of my week. My scehdule is pretty interesting. I start at 10am and teach til 12, then there's a massive split until 7pm when I begin teaching again until 10. I think I'm going to be pretty wiped out. maybe I will start sleep[ing twice a day. Then again, maybe I can't even sleep at all, did you ever think of that? I had that thing last night where i my desire to sleep kept me from sleeping. Sad.

had dinner at harvey and yung-un's last night. pizza. they told me about DVD rooms. They're these places you can go and watch a dvd on a pretty big screen with some friends or a date. They have a "reputation". If you invite a korean girl to a dvd room there is a large chance that she will say no. Particularly in Daegu. I think when I get back to NZ I will take this idea and try and hook up with maybe Arovid so people can come and rent a DVD and sit and watch the thing with silver service, liquor and the works.. Won't that be nice.
OK. That will do

ok it works

2005-06-29T15:47:00.000-12:00

in that case, here we are at day 5 in korea.
it is hot. surprise! and I am sporting a hangover from last night's session with the teachers.
a word on korean liquor: do not drink it. the beer is sweet and while it may look just like piss... it is.
OK i was going to write something cool but there are mad cool games here and I want to play. Constructive stuff can come later

trying again

2005-06-29T15:29:00.000-12:00

I wrote a big missive earlier this week for my blog here bt unfortunately a;; the buttons on the editing page are in korean and I can't figure out how to post.

whoever gets my desk will have MAD stationery

2005-06-16T16:04:00.000-12:00

Damn straight, sucka! I be leavin my desk all pimped out fo sho'. It's got hole punch, stapler (green) and 2 removers, sticky-tape dispenser, perm markers and nice writing pens; it's got highliters and pencils, mechanical and regular; twink pen and soft erasers; even a candle, dawg! Not to mention all the labels in the drawer, day plan pad, Who called while you were out? pad, paper clips like you wouldn't believe, and enough other little clippies to handle any job comes along that's too big fo the stapler. Not to labour the point but there's also post-its of various sizes, other little post-it taggies and sign-here taggies, a good pair of sharp (i cut myself at least twice this year on em) pair of orange-handled scissors, a calc, a doc holder and a calendar holder.

Now tell me that the person at my desk will EVER have to go to the stationery room for anything but paper! You can't can you?

It's my last day and I can be as eccentric as I want. Not to the degree of photocopying my nuts, perhaps but there's an undeniable element of license given to a guy with nothing to lose. Still, I'd rather not be a pariah, so I gotta keep the tone tight. Still, there's bubbles and other wines coming up at the drinks and there'll be speeches and props and all that. Hope I can handle that shiznit. I don't think I've ever really had any kind of leaving do before cos I tend to slip quietly out the back door kinda stylie. A new experience, whahey!

So after this it's into town for a sneaky little meal just to keep the guts satisfied, maybe a couple plates at Catch, before sliding up to Vanita's with a couple bottles of nice beer. Then down to the Bodge for a mad phat boogie and a mean as hangover tomorrow. Won't be getting nothin done that day. But then again.....

Anyway.... off we go! Probably won't be putting anything into this for a while as Pete takes his box off tomorrow and I'll be flying out for Korea next Saturday and don't know when I'll be near a computer again with the urge to drivel. Good thing about this place is it's always here.

G-out!

my big weekend away

2005-06-08T12:25:00.000-12:00

So this Queen’s birthday weekend was a big road-trip kind of weekend. A couple weeks ago Todd tested the waters of my interest for going up to spin firepoi at a rugby game up in Rotorua and I said yes. This weekend (queen’s birthday) was the weekend so off we went with Griff from Cosmic Corner and Griff’s girlfriend Jess.
I took Thursday and Friday off so we could have a nice long trip and a bit of relaxing and prep time before the actual event. Thursday was a gorgeous sunny day and T popped the top straight away by chuffin on the greens and was joined by G and J. I can’t drive high anymore since all the kerfuffle I had a couple years’ back with the pigs and now I get all paranoid when I’m in a car. I don’t know how they managed it this weekend, but whenever someone looked like sparking up, sure and you now it a cop car would from out of nowhere be right behind/beside/in font of us. Enough to make a nigga maranoid, I tells ya!
But anyway we got up to the Mount nice a safe as houses about 8pm or so and got to meet our poi friends, Huia and Tim. They have this nice house right on the beach and Tim runs a surf school so that’s pretty cool. Anyway, Tim was quite curious to find out which of us twirled staff and who blew fire. This pout us out somewhat as all any of us (me G and T, that is) can do is twirl poi. G and T both refused to have anything to do with staff, let alone breathing so I stepped up and threw down that I would be the other breather. Huia relented and agreed to staff. So the next couple days was spent alternately reading, smoking, drinking, and spraying salt water over these guys’ lawn in practice for the big night. I used salt water so as to practice not swallowing after a blow.
I expected to be quite worried about the whole thing, but it really only concerned me when I was stoned and dwelling on it too much. Straight I had the attitude like it was just this thing to do and it was going to happen and I was going to do it and nothing bad could ever happen to me because nothing bad ever does.
Turns out, everything wsa fine. Saturday night we all went out there with the AK Samba crew and some latino dancers in front of 32000 rugby fans. They twirled while me and Tim blew fire in the middle of the field, then we went off the field, grabbed some beers and found a place to watch the game.
The others all wanted to go to this AK Samba party at Lake Rotoiti after but I was well over the brass monkey chills by then and caught a ride back to the Mount with Rocky, Tim and Huia’s flatmate, who was a safety dude for us at the gig. So while the guys were out doing whatever (meeting people and having fun I suspect) I stayed up playing Halo2 and drinking coke. They eventually stumbled in at around 3ish all high as kites from the goodies that G hooked up from Cosmic – some Bliss and some Jump.
Of course, they were all drug-fucked the next day so I was the driver for the big trip back to Welly. I wouldn’t have let any of them drive anyway. We didn’t leave the Mount until after lunch and with half the journey in darkness….. no way was I letting anyone else behind the wheel. Control freak, maybe, but … hey it was fun.
So at the end of it all, I had a pretty decent weekend and did some stuff I’d never even normally consider and met some pretty cool cats in the process.

on love and attachment

2005-05-27T23:17:00.000-12:00

To love something too much can bring madness. What about the love and attachment to non-attachement?

dave is here

2005-05-27T17:58:00.000-12:00

And in spite of this I'm using this time to make an entry on this blog just because I feel like it.

Updates, then:

Wisdom Teeth
This whole week I have had wisdom tooth trouble. I wonder if it's related to the full moon. So I've been eating solely on the right side of my mouth and trying to avoid the kinds of food that can get stuck down behind an inflamed gum and require a probing finger to excavate. It's an easy thing to forget unfortunately, and the Apriocot and Macadamia bar I ate on Thursday certainly gave me cause to curse my non-attentiveness. How interesting Glenn, please tell us more.
Well, it was interesting when I was thinking about it the other day. Luck y I can type so fast or I'd get too bored to type anything at all.

My first dream of Korea
One month until I leave for Korea. Now it is starting to seem real, although until the ticket is booked and my bags are packed I still won't belive it. But anyway, this dream:
I am in a flat, the feeling is of a sunny suburban sort of environment. I'm being shown to my room which I share with some guy who appears to be hungover and in bed. It seems to be about noon on a Saturday. there is a big pair of bright yellow shades on the dresser. I drop my stuff and something hits the guys in the nuts and he whimpers.
I go outside onto the front lawn with the guy who is showing me around and settle down to drink some beer. On the lawn is a hospo-template character acting like a hospo worker emjoying beer in the sun on a day off. He is being a little loutish, calling over to a friend walking past. The mood is warm and friendly. I go around behind the house and soon I can hear an angry middle-aged korean man arresting people and sending the home for behaving irresponsibly. When I walk around to the front door he looks harried as though he doesn't really want to expel us but his responsibility dictates that he must. So he kicks me out of the country and I wake up with a slightly pounding heart.

Going to Korea certainly seems to becoming a real thing to my subconscious, at least.

I drank too much
Gawd, too much beer. I've got to stick to gin and vodka I think. Felt shitty for a serious portion of the morning and only after a cup of tea around 11 and getting my ass to the gym at 12 really made me feel better. I worked quite hard, although I still think my weights are too little. Actually, judging by the pain in my shoulders as I type this perhaps things are OK.
More pain: Todd gave me a dead leg last night. What a dick. I suppose I could have avoided it but I'm too lazy for that. I guess I like being hit sometimes.

open for business

2005-05-15T22:18:00.000-12:00

So howdy howdy. I opened my big mouth this weekend and intimated to my dear friend Vanita (hello, V!) that I have a blog. She was dutifully mortified that I had kept this secret from her so I have dutifully supplied her with the link.
Of course, now I've changed it again because I'm afraid to commit. It's a big decision, choosing your url, not to be taken lightly. Time will tell if this one will keep. I doubt it.
There's a conflict (isn't there always?) between choosing a name that has some deep, true meaning and maintaining a more, I don't know, lofty aloofness? That'll do. So, yeah.

Side: frikkin clone wars is on and it's distracting me through the door. The dialogue and story injure me. I am flayed with a candy sheepskin by the schmaltzy emotional simplicity of this shit.
Boo hoo.

Anyway, I don't think I'm really ready to be tossing this link out like it's a weekly newsletter just yet. I think my idea was more to be dispatches from Mars. I've only been "working" on it to get practice writing and twiddle with the HTML a bit to make it look a little more like Suraya's page, which I like. Maybe it's ready for the consumption of others, maybe it isn't.

i got freaked out

2005-05-15T14:36:00.000-12:00

Never happens! Getting a surprise is a surprise in itself. The story:
On Friday before this big reggae thing at the Bodega I strolled over to V’s and sampled with her and D her delightful grassy supplies. A new strain is always a bit of a mind-fuck and this one was no different. Normally when I get blazed the whole complex burns down but this time I was burning up and felt riding high in the saddle and proclaiming and all ra-de-ra, if you take my gibberal meaning. Confidence is what is was, I guess as opposed to the old turning-inside and debating/doubting the meaning of every piece of data I receive.
So it was a bit of a shock to step out of the cab on Ghuznee and be ambushed by such a diabolical introduction as to render me completely speechless, awestruck and even a little terrified. While D and V made hello-noises to some other cats, this woman, I forget her name, made some very purposeful eye-contact at me and then pounced with such an onslaught of fantastical erotically charged badinage (on the nature of being a whip-cracking fine-collecting librarian or some such ~~quiver~~) that I could feel myself shrinking before what was at once my fantasy and nightmare. The problem was context and the fact that she was with a work colleague who had some shared concept of what she was on about. Too much going for me to competently put a word in for fear that I’d say something that doesn’t belong in that context and so, discretion being the better part of valour, I demurred and bolted with some weak-ass excuse. I considered just fleeing as soon as her attention was engaged elsewhere but that would have been still worse. On the whole though, the experience was enjoyable, even though I feel that I let myself down a bit. Oh well.
It’s all well and good to have guts, but part of using them is knowing what it is you want to use them for. I get so confused!

wash your hands vigorously after cooking with chillies

2005-04-25T19:05:00.000-12:00

I just rubbed some in my eye. It's still a bit sting-y, and it certainly was not funny, smart or cool. Do not make the same mistake as me. Wash your hands when you're finished with the chillies. You will not regret doing this. Trust me.
The days roll by....
Oh! Don't see "The Clearing". YOU know when you're watching a thriller that's kinda tense and you're waiting for the twist? Well, the twist with this movie is: there is no twist. In the last five minutes the kidnapper kills the guy and then a couple of days later they catch him. I'm still shaking my head.

feeling pretty blurrrh

2005-04-24T22:06:00.000-12:00

So this head cold has seriously gotten into my head. Todd came over today with needles to acupuncture me to heaven and we got some serious qi action. Real dense pressure coming out of my upper calves and "big mound" (that muscle that forms at the back base of your thumb when you press it against the index finger). Just massive. I suppose I feel better, but gawd! It's kinda like that nasty sinus infection I had last year that kept my head on this crazy level where I couldn't tilt or bend without all the brain fluid sloshing and banging. That's not real good descriptive writing but I'm tired and sick. I've always got some excuse.
Anyhoo, I figured I'd better update this thing with the events of the weekend regardless just to keep in practise and such.

Havana
I went to Havana on Saturday night to hear Diva Mahal and Holly Smith sing their big hearts out to a crowd of dozens. First though, I sat at the bar for at least an hour, pretty much keeping myself to myself. This might not seem such a big thing, but for me it was a massive exercise in patience. Not that I was waiting for something or someone ( iwasn't, but you never know) but patience with myself withstanding the feeling of just being there alone. I'd like to say I learned something big and important out of it, but I really can't say that. I guess it was an improvement on going home in that I was actually out and maintained my outness until quite early in the morning whereas had I gone home I would have stayed put.
So after enough sitting around I got my chicken ass up and strolled around in case there was someone there that I knew (as it was clear Hellen and Nivee were never going to get there early) and stumbled across Gretchen and met her friend Wendy, so I imposed on their space until the next person I knew arrived and yadda yadda $$$ drink drink dance dance talk talk go home sleep.

i have a cold

2005-04-18T21:15:00.000-12:00

Felt it setting in on Saturday night what with the scratchy throat and all. Wasn't certain until waking up on Monday morning (thank you, lord!) . I quite like the endorphin-rush (that's not what it is, but tit'll do for a description) from a nice cold, and this is a nice cold. Seen some flicks, read some comics - all in all a good couple of days loafing.
The drawback of course is that I'm slightly irritable, particularly now after 9pm, and particularly now after trying (unsuccessfully you might note) to get a picture up here on this blog.
I'd lke to add a few more features to the index bar on the right side but, fuggit all, I just don't have the patience., so I've settled for just making another post instead.

Jess and I tried to watch this movie "Confidence" tonight. What a piece of nuts-flexing macho bullshit. You can tell it's a bad movie when every character has an inflated sense of the weight of events and their of own dramatic existence. Jess walked out in disappointment once Dustin Hoffman appeared as a sleazy strip-club owner, and I gave up soon after that when the main character whatsisname did that chase the (gorgeous) pickpocket girl outside the club and "Nice lift, but I saw you take this wallet from across the bar"-thing. [[Shudder]]

Back to work tomorrow. Yay. I reckon two months; a quick jaunt around the island to places of note (Giz, NP) and then on to AKL for the flight to Daegu. Starting to feel a bit more real about it now to the extent that I will be truly fuckin gutted if it doesn't go ahead for whatever reason. Seriously.
G'night!

2005-04-18T21:14:00.000-12:00

the image of a clean-cut young man

decision made

2005-04-12T22:43:00.000-12:00

Or made for me as it turns out.

The Hess organisation of Taiwan (much like the JET organisation of Japan) has judged and found me wanting. I asked exactly what it was but I guess it's possible that there's some truth in the calim that "...outstanding applicants," beat me to the punch. So be it! I shall take my degree and frustrated ennui to a country that doesn't care who teaches it's citizens English! Fie and a pox on all who confirm my essential mediocrity!

Self-effacing enough for ya? I thought so.

Anyhoo, looks like I'll be going to Daegu http://english.daegu.go.kr/ which seems like a pretty nice place. I mean, how bad can it be? I won't be learning Mandarin this year like I hoped, but at least I won't have to face another Wellington winter. At least unil 2006 at the earliest. Although I'm not actually going until June 25 which at this stage is still, what? - ahhh fuckin weeks away anyway. Heaps of time.
So what that means is I might actually have time to train Elena in all my work shit and perhaps even my replacement will have some vague knowledge of the job before I start.
Man, just training Elena makes me feel like such a better person than Erin. There've been a couple of occasions where I've just felt so smug that I'm doing a much more patient and thorough job of it than that stiff little robot ever did for me. Oh well, takes all sorts I suppose.

So now that I'm going I guess I have lots of shit to take care of. Visas and that. Packing. Ugh!
And research! I suppose I should learn at least some rudimentary Korean. I hope the grammer is simple. I've no hope of learning much vocab in a month. Still, one should try. And of course one will.

Ha!

I am blowing all my money on silly shit again

2005-04-06T19:14:00.000-12:00

Well, I'm at it again, sucked into the consumer wheel as I walked past Jess' work on the Quay. "DVD's from $10!" No crime in looking and I figured there might be something worth grabbing and, lo and behold, I grabbed some fairly decent scores I think:
Human Nature for $10 was probably the most decent score. I've seen it once and thought it was pretty cool. MIght watch it again and pass it on to somone who hasn't.
Led Zep - the song remains the same. I thought it would be tough decision, but it turned out to be a no-brainer. Led Zep always makes me think of Todd these days, so there was also the obligatory PInk Floyd's The Wall there on the other side of the coin and The Wall came down. Heigh ho. Pretty sure that was $15.
There was another $15 one - Human Traffic. Always a happy charming and fun one for a cold winter weekend night. Feelgood Classic.
What was the $20 one. Oh yeah - Nature's Best. Double set of about 60 kiwi music vids. Was thinking about overseas when I picked this up. I only scanned the back, but there's sure to some good stuff to iron to or something.
What else? Well it looks like being a goey-outy weekend. No rest for the wicked I suppose. Will try to get by on as little as possible but my power of denial waned with the moon. Oh well, we'll see how it goes.
I'm sure there's other stuff like presents for all my mothers and cards and probably lots of food and some liquor.
There, that's where all my money goes. Saying it doesn't make me feel better and this isn't a therapy session.
Ahem.
Glenn out.

don't ask me

2005-03-31T23:33:00.000-12:00

'Cause I certainly DO NOT KNOW. For sure, and when peeps are all up on me callin' "Yo G, why this why that?" all's I can come out with is "Fuck I know" or even worse some sad ass lyin bullshit just for my own entstertainments. So I categorically can state that I just don't don't know.
For instance, I don't know why the fuck I should want to go out tonight. I am seriously not feelling. There is like nothing drawing me out since I got over sex in general and spending money on liquour and talking to people in particular. NOthing whatsoever. I realise now (oh, how I realise) that it was all about the pussy. Always was. Tragic. But now that I've taken that carrot away, the only thing I've got to make me party is the old stick "You're going to get old and have had no fun if you don't......". Fuck that stick man, I ain't need none of that shit to make me have fun. Who's coming out with all this pressure anyway?
So anyway, here I am writing stuff in my blog and downloading shitty amatuer porn for kicks while my flatmates watch "The English Patient". Roar.
I got called up for all my slackness today at work which was a nice change, and I got to drop the bomb on Karl (My manager) that I'm trying to get my shit together to get on up outta there and off to Taiwan or Korea or some shit. But anyway, my excessive internet usage and.... a fuck just my general slackness around the office has not gone unnoticed.
Woah geez, this stuff is FULLY amatuer. What fun! Certainly more entertaining than the fuckin English Patient.
Right so I cgot the old call into thte office for a sit-down and chat which I handled very professionally, apparently. Well of course I did. The only interesting part was trying to guess what crimes I'd be accused of that I hadn't purposefully committed. As it turns out, most of it I was pretty awake to and I was actually quite proud that it had been noticed. Now I can upgrade my efforts and be rewarded with praise or whatever. Ho hum.

You know what? Next time I write in this I'm not going to be drunk when I do it.

back-asswards down south

2005-03-23T12:07:00.000-12:00

Living in a southern temperate zone makes it kind of OK to be celebrating easter just as we're heading into autmun, but it still makes my eyes roll, that we celebrate holidays completed divorced from their origin. Easter in the northern hemisphere (NH) is a celebration of the spring equinox as the days switch from being shorter to being longer than the nights (leading to growth and new life, hence all the fertility symbols of eggs and rabbit and such). In Wellington, the autumn equinox is usually the beginning of more rain. Same thing with Hallowe'en (sadly not a work holiday) - a celebration of death and harvesting right as we enter into the longest days of the year (admittedly in Wellington the sun is usually behind shitty rainclouds and bollocks wind, but the days do lengthen).
And of course, Christmas in the NH happens just as the shortest day passes and the "new star rises in the East", whereas here in the south, the opposite is the case.

Commercialisation of holidays is no big deal; I'd just like to see our celebrations and symbols match up with their referents.

Yeah, right. And maybe we'll shift to a lunar calendar too.
Dreamer.

kick-off!

2005-03-21T19:23:00.000-12:00

It's about time I fixed myself up with one of these. Now all the shite I rant on about to my poor e-colleagues can be here for anyone to see. Splendid.