Nine months to go

NINE MONTHS TO GO

I guess I can start thinking of Canada as an unwanted pregnancy. Nine months of anticipation and I'll finally get to see it, thus deciding whether or not I wanted it in the first place.

Wow, I'm horrible.

This was the first month I missed home at all. It was also the first month I got annoyed with the job.

It isn't that bad though. I think it had a lot to do with the two week stretch where I had one day off because of the Saturday-mandatory-company picnic-type-of-thing.

Now I can make up for it with this 5-day Korean thanksgiving. I still don't know what to do, but if I'd known it was 5-days long only a week earlier, I might have been on my way to Hong Kong.

Oh well. At this very moment, I'm trying to locate the Blue House (Korean White House) on my map, which isn't coming along very well.

Nothing else to say. I guess it's time for some pictures that don't have me in them...

IS THIS AWESOME OR SAD?

From the roof of where I work, I can always see these little bikes on the roof of the building behind us.

I can't figure out if it's awesome or sad that the little kids have to ride their bikes on a space about the size of a poor man's Canadian driveway.

It IS on the roof of a building with a kickass view of the city.


Also, my apartment has new neighbours now, with the completition of this group of towers... Unfortunately, as it fills up with people, I have to exercise more shame when walking around naked with the window completely open.

Stupid neighbours.

Steve Abra vs. Andrew ChanX: Four Years Later

Its been five years since 9/11, so naturally, the next civilizational milestone is the four-year anniversary of Steve Abra and Andrew ChanX's epic 2003 common-room argument about the best use of scientific funding:

This writer wasn't fortunate enough to be present at the initial argument, alas, like Plato re-telling the stories of Socrates, I hereby commit myself to a public record of this great event as it was best communicated by present parties.

CHANX vs. ABRA:
FOUR YEARS LATER

Time: February 2nd, 2003, a day after the explosion of NASA's Columbia space shuttle.

Scene: Margaret Addison Hall, fifth floor common-room, the University of Toronto.

The Argument:

Point (Steve Abra): Money for the poor and suffering, not the astronauts.

With the second massive space flight disaster in a decade-and-a-half of American space travel, which has produced little more than a water-run to Mars, isn't it time to give up on space travel and invest in more productive initiatives -- namely, aid and infrastructure investments for the massive amounts of world citizens still living in poverty?

Counter-Point (Andrew ChanX): Duhhhhh! We need to invest in scientific achievement, ie. the future, you dumbass.

What's the point of investing in poor people when we're all dead from an asteroid hitting the planet. Seriously, what if we don't invest in space and instead provide more bread and AIDS-medicine to the impoverished of Africa and India and God knows where else.

If we invest in scientific exploration and experimentation, human civilization is a hell of a lot more likely be around for a longer period of time.

As for the poor people, you know, I'm all down with helping them out, but let's be serious here, we can't give up on science (which gave us all this wealth in the first place!) to cry about the people left behind. And let's be serious again -- they're all going to catch up eventually, right? I voted for Ronald Reagan, and he said that all the wealth trickles down, you know, somehow, eventually.

The Context:

Andrew ChanX was/is an engineer while Steve Abra was/is a musician.

Translation: Andrew ChanX was a child of Albert Einstein (reason and science) while Steve Abra was a child of Naomi Klein (you know, hating the rich people and stuff).

They weren't the best of friends, and each was a self-righteous mule when it came to arguments of this sort, but still, the argument was powerful (and poignant) enough to reverberate for days in Margaret Addison Hall, and thus worth a tribute/renewal.

At least to me...

Personal Opinion:

While Jennifer Gurbin, the floor's wise elder, declared immediate victory for Andrew ChanX, despite her own sympathies with the Steve Abra/Naomi Klein-line of reasoning, it never seemed clear to me that there was a clear winner.

When I'm bored and lonely and looking for something to argue with myself about, ChanX vs. Abra is often the question I end up with.

In my earlier years, when I was actually more sympathetic to the pop-socialism of Steve Abra, I usually stuck up for scientific exploration. I honestly believed our civilization would conquer space, and therefore, it was ridiculous to give up in order to feed a few skinny people.

After the argument, when I actually became more of a Naomi Klein-hating libertarian jerk, my sympathies lay more and more with Steve Abra. Maybe it's futile to try and conquer the heavens, so while we're here on earth, let's take care of the most people possible, no?

AND THE DEBATE CONTINUES....

Me and the American military

Today, with the help of a group of women I'll now call "my Filipino friends," I went to a birthday party at the American military base.

Yeah, that's right... I even got a card that says I'm a 'D' level threat to the American military... whatever that means.


This traffic sign woman below has a hole in her head that looks like a bullet... I almost gasped at the horrible irony of it all, but then I remembered that I'm a 'D' level threat, so I kept the gasping to a minimum.


Next week, with the blessing of God, I'll be able to visit the miltary base that has a TACO BELL!!!!

That's right, TACO BELL!!!!!


TACO BELL!!!!!!!
TACO BELL!!!!!!!
TACO BELL!!!!!!!

And the rockets red glarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeee.....
The bombs bursting in airrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.....

God Bless America.

This product will prevent suicides

The best part: I think the new Tickle Me Elmo says "shit" in there somewhere.

I've cracked the Google formula!!!

I'm the #2 Google page when people search for the following set of words:


survivor blacks and chicken


I couldn't possibly be prouder of myself. I think the website is about to get millions and millions of visitors.

This Week in Pictures

OK, this is only two pictures for the whole week, but I'm tired and I want to go to bed.

First, another accident photo that turned out a hundred times better than anything I try to set up...


And a bonus. My pick for "Best Drawing by a Six-Year-Old Ever" contest.


The kids were suppossed to write someone a letter about a place they'd been to... William wrote about America, which he described as "a very bad country," including this picture on the back.

Does this mean I'm famous?

You're reading the website of POLY Newsletter's "Teacher of the Month."

Or, at least that's what I'm going to put on my resume. Hehe.

Appropriate clothing for a pre-school teacher?

You be the judge.

Corporate spirit

Today I was lucky enough to work through my first Saturday since 2002 at Lear Ajax... Yeah, I'm counting.

All the Poly schools got together for a "workshop" that was actually quite interesting. I got to see my friend Daniella and I got a towel that says "Korea Poly School" on it. And you can't go wrong with a towel.

The best part of the day was when a presenter said, "Once I was doing an assignment where the kids had to write about the roll of media violence in school shootings... Unfortunately, you can't buy guns in Korea and they don't have any school shootings like that."

Yes, she said UNFORTUNATELY, and yes, it was easily the best part of the day.


--------------OOPS, UPDATE----------------
Oh, and it suddenly occured to me that I worked through a few Saturdays while at Western. However, that wasn't for a job - it was for school, which I was paying for, which is quite worse, but somehow slipped my mind.

--------------MEMO-------------------------
I haven't taken any pictures in the last week because I'm too lazy to re-charge my camera.

Best hip hop records of all-time... (Place Holder)

This is going to be in progress for a while... I'll figit until it seems right and then do it up nicely when it's done.

Alright, free speech isn't so bad...

A short video called "What We Are."

Monkeys, namely.

Free Speech is over-rated...

In 1981, this was the announcement of North Korea's Nodong Sinmun that Seoul had been chosen to host the 1988 Summer Olympics.

"Recently, South Korean military fascists have been mobilizing high-ranking officials and related staff of the puppet government as well as pro-government trumpeters to raise a ridiculous hullaballoo every day about the Olympics, which are said to be going to be held in Seoul in 1988. Now the puppets of South Korea are approaching socialist nations and non-alighed countries in the hope of establishing diplomatic and official relations in order to have their 'state' recognized as a legitimate one."

Oh, this announcement was made two months after it actually happened.

She's out... Lonelygirl15 is a hoax after all.

I feel like this is worth mentioning since two-thirds of all hits to this website have come through the small post I wrote about her.

Read about it here if you actually care.

Canada is Ugly

I spent a long long long time looking at this billboard.

My guess-translation was right, too. It's something about Korea being the centre of the world in the future.

But who cares. It's a map UPSIDE DOWN!!! What could be cooler than this.

Oh, and Canada is extremely ugly when flipped upside down.

9/11 rant starts here...

Just kidding.

The best part about working today was asking the children if they recognized what day it was.

"Gym day?"

I also used the anniversary -- Yuck! Did I just say that? -- as an excuse to listen to Spingsteen's kickass 9/11 album, The Rising.

It seems some genius (hack?) at the CBC website was listening to it too, and he completely missed the best part!

The best line is when Springsteen says in the first song, "You better ask questions before you shoot," thereby dissapointing every American who was looking for some quick blood and revenge from the Boss.

The only Springtsteen album I can stand, and possibly the only piece of 9/11 "art" that didn't make us all cringe. Way to go, Mr. Steen!


(Sad Admission: I actually listen to The Rising every single day here, along with Let it Bleed and the first Nas album. It could be inspired by the history of New Zealand and I'd still love it.)

Five years ago today....

I was still sleeping in.

Hey JP... Can you get me a job when I come home?

This week in (I FINALLY FOUND HER!!!) Pictures

It took two months, but I finally found the one Korean person I've ever been friends with...


That's her in the middle - Hyerim, and her boyfriend, who looks suspiciously like a Korean gangster in this picture, but is actually quite nice.

It turns out she's been hiding in Seoul for over a year now, taking a year off school.

We spent a fair amount of time at T.G.I. Fridays where we teared up with nostalgia about Tim Horton's, JP Larocque, Taco Bell, and of course, watching TV in the common room in the middle of the night. You know, the best parts of University.


ANOTHER DISCOVERY:


Gord and I stumbled across the roof of our school's building today.

It has a fantastic view and it's a good way to get away from screaming children who can't keep quiet during a vocabulary test to save their life.... I swear to God, you wouldn't believe how many X's I put beside names today.


There are these children though, at the school down the street. It's depressing to know they have a dirt field for recess.

On another note, Mr. David Beckham...


Apparently t-shirt vendors manufacture fake shirts that Beckham has worn and display the picture of him in it as an advertisement... I hope he gets a cut.

No comment:

My website is boring / I'm sorry

As with every other "personal webpage" on the internet, mine was bound to run out of energy.

My hitcounter is sinking and I'm struggling to come up with new picture ideas... (Maybe I should take pictures of myself pretending to be passed out!... Oh wait, I've done that three times already.)

I'm sorry, loyal fans, I mean Mom.

Until I come up with something supremely hilarious or mind-numbingly stupid to put on here, this picture of Tom Cruise's new baby will have to do:


Oh, and I'm totally jealous that I can't watch CBS News here... I heard they have Rush Limbaugh as a commentator now!

A True Gangster (1962 - 2006)

It's amazing it took this long, but the news finally broke - STEVE "THE CROCODILE HUNTER" IRWIN IS DEAD!

What a guy. And as nuts as he was, at least he didn't kill any innocent civilians.

(Thank God that his little boy survived that brush in 2004 with an alligator, or it all would have been different.)

One of many tributes to come:

Olympic Bridge is falling down

I knew this bridge looked familiar!

This is Olympic Bridge, the infamous bridge with the infamous monument on top that caused this super exciting awesome crash!!!!

It all comes down to height

According to this article, there are studies that clearly document how tall people make more money than short people.

Of course, it doesn't work out on a case by case basis, but on average, tall people earn 2% more for every extra inch.

At 6'1-3/4, I guess this means that I'm set to make above average pay, but statistically, I'll never be getting rich.

Thanks stupid study.