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So, on Thursday, I have to miss teaching my class because of a work-related mandatory meeting on the other side of the island. The meeting is to plan for a Language and Culture Festival next Saturday.
My coteacher is supposed to go to the meeting too, so she doesn't have to cover the class by herself (like she will do on Friday, when Jei, Tom, and myself fly to Seoul. She, however, won't be able to attend the language festival, so I said,
"You could just play hookey."
"Play hookey?" She asked.
"Do you know what playing hookey is? Oh man! Playing hookey has a long and illustrious career in American culture. It's what we do," I said. I started to write 'Play Hookey' on the board.
"Ah! Aah! Play Hookey! Yes, I know this!" Then a pause as the thought turned over in her mind. "You mean skip? I could skip?"
I shrugged. "Sure, why not? You can't go to the festival anyway."
What followed, I can only describe as a laugh of pure revelation and joy. It was more than a little goofy, and given the circumstances, adorable. It came out of her like, "Ahoohoohohaha!"
It is very strange to me, that skipping out on a meaningless activity could be seen as a novel idea. Even stranger that I think she sees it as a rebel activity. A harmless rebellion, like dying your hair purple at age 12 or listening to rap music in the 90s-- trivial in its risk, and yet bold and exciting.
It reminded me--indulge this nerdiness for a moment-- of when my parents and I had a theoretical discussion on the corruption of Hobbits by The One Ring (Yes, this post got that nerdy that fast-- you've met me before. You should have seen this coming).
"The One Ring could have corrupted any of the Hobbits, but they could only have been as powerful as their wisdom allowed them to be," my Dad said.
"Why? That doesn't make sense," I'd said.
"Look," my mom entered the conversation, strange in that she rarely indulges in arguments of this genre. "Sure, they would have been corrupted, but if all a Hobbit knows is Hobbiton, then he or she would think, 'You mean, with this ring, I can have unlimited power? You mean like... I can be Mayor? FOREVER?!'"
I know someone who got teargassed and peppersprayed when she charged a blockade in DC, during an anti-war protest. My coteacher gets excited over not attending a meeting that has no bearing on her.
Mayor forever indeed!
The following is simulcast on Livejournal and Blogger.
Brought to you by Copy and Paste.
Copy and Paste: Making Computers Cool since 1968.
Writing time today was cool. We hung out in the neato privately owned (being non-chain is a big deal here for cafes) coffee shop in my town. The music I don't dig so much, but the guy is Started a new project in a completely different style than I normally operate in, which is cool. Hoping to finish it tonight, actually.
Afterwards, Jei and I went to Mangdu Heaven. I got Bulgogi soup (which was awesome-- I will be experiencing it again upon our next visit to Mangdu heaven (mangdu being 'dumpling', though I'm not sure I'm transliterating it right). Jei just got massive amounts of mangdu, which was also a very good choice.
Hung out with Jei, waiting for the bus, then walked home.
On the way home, this happened:
Walking across the street where The Bar (a very chill expat hangout) and the PCBang where I lived for my first few weeks are, a 40 year old man (exact age) with a stark white shirt and glasses came running across the street, grinning with his hand held high.
"Hello! Hello!" he said, gripping my hand and shaking warmly, with a bow.
"Anyonghaseio," I said and bowed back.
Still shaking my hand, he gently held my forearm with his other hand, and guided me backwards to the edge of the street.
"Have you heard Jesus Christ? Heard, Jesus Christ?" He echoed his words, as if trying to if he'd pronounced them correctly.
"Yes. I've heard of Jesus Christ. He and I have the same birthday." Which, of course isn't true, but whatever. He was a weird guy on the street-- I don't think specifics of changed-calenders really matter to the conversation.
"Birthday?"
"Yes. December 25th? Christmas?"
"Christmas..? Ah! Christmas!"
"Yeah."
"Have you heard Jesus Christ?"
"Yes."
"You believe-- you believe-- go to heaven. You no believe-- no believe-- you go... You go to hell."
Now, I'm not the sort of guy to blow off a good theology discussion, or run away because the guy's fundamentalism (who actually wasn't drunk, believe it or not) puts me off. I guess what I'm trying to say is: I'll play ball.
So I said, "Tell me. Are things good because God says they're good, or are things good, and God just follows the rules?"
I guess no one had ever brought the Euthyphro dilemma to a streetside preaching. Especially not in English.
"No. Earlier. Earlier, there was Adam and Eve. Adam sin? He sin. Then, the bad."
Doh. Philosophical dilemma, meet language barrier. Language barrier? Philosophical dilemma.
"That's not what I... Okay," I said.
"How old? How old are you?"
"I am 24."
"Ohhh! 24! American age?"
"No. Korean Age."
"Ah! I ammm... 40. I am 40. In America? 39."
"Nice."
It occurred to me, at this moment, that he had positioned me to be facing a rather specific direction. Not that I don't trust strange 40 year old men who accost me in the middle of the night, but... I pulled my bag round to the front of me, dropped my iPod (which is ancient and broken in 4 different ways, any one of which would have most people replace it) into a zippered compartment, zipped it shut, and put my hands in my pockets.
"So you? What is your name?"
"My name is Christian."
Hey, if he can't find the one white guy in Jungmun...
"You... Oh! Your name is Christian?"
"Yes."
"Okay! Okay! I believe in Jesus! And you believe in Jesus! And we go to heaven!"
"Um. Uh huh."
And with that, he shook my hand again, and tottered away.
So... THAT was weird.
(and no, I didn't have anything stolen. Which is cool too).
Brought to you by Copy and Paste.
Copy and Paste: Making Computers Cool since 1968.
Writing time today was cool. We hung out in the neato privately owned (being non-chain is a big deal here for cafes) coffee shop in my town. The music I don't dig so much, but the guy is Started a new project in a completely different style than I normally operate in, which is cool. Hoping to finish it tonight, actually.
Afterwards, Jei and I went to Mangdu Heaven. I got Bulgogi soup (which was awesome-- I will be experiencing it again upon our next visit to Mangdu heaven (mangdu being 'dumpling', though I'm not sure I'm transliterating it right). Jei just got massive amounts of mangdu, which was also a very good choice.
Hung out with Jei, waiting for the bus, then walked home.
On the way home, this happened:
Walking across the street where The Bar (a very chill expat hangout) and the PCBang where I lived for my first few weeks are, a 40 year old man (exact age) with a stark white shirt and glasses came running across the street, grinning with his hand held high.
"Hello! Hello!" he said, gripping my hand and shaking warmly, with a bow.
"Anyonghaseio," I said and bowed back.
Still shaking my hand, he gently held my forearm with his other hand, and guided me backwards to the edge of the street.
"Have you heard Jesus Christ? Heard, Jesus Christ?" He echoed his words, as if trying to if he'd pronounced them correctly.
"Yes. I've heard of Jesus Christ. He and I have the same birthday." Which, of course isn't true, but whatever. He was a weird guy on the street-- I don't think specifics of changed-calenders really matter to the conversation.
"Birthday?"
"Yes. December 25th? Christmas?"
"Christmas..? Ah! Christmas!"
"Yeah."
"Have you heard Jesus Christ?"
"Yes."
"You believe-- you believe-- go to heaven. You no believe-- no believe-- you go... You go to hell."
Now, I'm not the sort of guy to blow off a good theology discussion, or run away because the guy's fundamentalism (who actually wasn't drunk, believe it or not) puts me off. I guess what I'm trying to say is: I'll play ball.
So I said, "Tell me. Are things good because God says they're good, or are things good, and God just follows the rules?"
I guess no one had ever brought the Euthyphro dilemma to a streetside preaching. Especially not in English.
"No. Earlier. Earlier, there was Adam and Eve. Adam sin? He sin. Then, the bad."
Doh. Philosophical dilemma, meet language barrier. Language barrier? Philosophical dilemma.
"That's not what I... Okay," I said.
"How old? How old are you?"
"I am 24."
"Ohhh! 24! American age?"
"No. Korean Age."
"Ah! I ammm... 40. I am 40. In America? 39."
"Nice."
It occurred to me, at this moment, that he had positioned me to be facing a rather specific direction. Not that I don't trust strange 40 year old men who accost me in the middle of the night, but... I pulled my bag round to the front of me, dropped my iPod (which is ancient and broken in 4 different ways, any one of which would have most people replace it) into a zippered compartment, zipped it shut, and put my hands in my pockets.
"So you? What is your name?"
"My name is Christian."
Hey, if he can't find the one white guy in Jungmun...
"You... Oh! Your name is Christian?"
"Yes."
"Okay! Okay! I believe in Jesus! And you believe in Jesus! And we go to heaven!"
"Um. Uh huh."
And with that, he shook my hand again, and tottered away.
So... THAT was weird.
(and no, I didn't have anything stolen. Which is cool too).
The problem with publishing
If you post something online, it is published.
Unfortunately, what this means is that one has to stratify their ideas-- is this concept craft-worth? Something I'll work on and refine, revise and turn into something artistic and meticulous?
Or, is it just a blog idea? Something to post, think about, and move on from?
Originally, my nonfic was going to be blog-material, and my fic was going to be career-material. It's a silly notion that relegates nonfiction to a second-tier artform, but at least it's not arbitrary, like any other line I draw seems to be.
How do you folks balance the two pulls? Do you only post about yourself and your day? Or have you drawn other lines?
Unfortunately, what this means is that one has to stratify their ideas-- is this concept craft-worth? Something I'll work on and refine, revise and turn into something artistic and meticulous?
Or, is it just a blog idea? Something to post, think about, and move on from?
Originally, my nonfic was going to be blog-material, and my fic was going to be career-material. It's a silly notion that relegates nonfiction to a second-tier artform, but at least it's not arbitrary, like any other line I draw seems to be.
How do you folks balance the two pulls? Do you only post about yourself and your day? Or have you drawn other lines?
Hairbrained Scheme
Was talking with Jei about Manga production companies... She was saying how everyone always complains about the low quality of the books, even though they print so many in a run that they will never really become collectors items. My idea, tired and hungry as I was (we were in a bookstore after failing to get to a yoga class) was for the manga companies to have 3 parts to their business. 1, the manga writing. Pretty straightforward. Then, they put them on the interwebz. 2, they sell crappy paper, binding materials, printers, and ink on the cheap. And 3, they sell really nice trade paperback (and, for their really successful titles, hard cover) books of manga. Seems like a pretty simple horizontal business model, though it would require a bit of investment capital right at the beginning (to kick-start the printing-material production aspect). We left the bookstore, changed conversations, ate some pizza, and then went home.
When I got back, I saw another reincarnation of the People Pay for Form, Not Content argument on boingboing.net. This particular entry on boingboing was in regard to an article ("Post-Medium Publishing") where Paul Graham argues that we've been paying for form all along. To super-duper paraphrase, "[A great paperback book is approximately the same price as a bad one. Same with hard covered books. But a brilliant paperback is still cheaper than a terrible hard cover.]"
Publishing is (and always has been) running on the bottled water model-- the water's free. But the bottle. That's $2.50.
Now this is interesting to think of, in terms of intellectual property rights, obviously. Ideologically, I support Creative Commons, and have been wrestling a lot with the notion that gaining recognition as a writer nowdays means operating, at least partially, inside old int. property rights models (which I really don't support).
That was when I developed my hairbrained scheme. Or. Well. My newest hairbrained scheme.
Keep doing the "sub to lit mags" thing. Then, every time a story gets published, just put it out under one of the creative commons licenses (provided I get my rights back.... I don't know if I would sign a contract where I regained and retained no rights, anyhow. Unless it were me writing romance novels, or Holywood scripts which I didn't care about, of course). Then, set up in the CC license for anyone using my work to direct people to my website, where I will set up a service to commission a hand-bound book of 1+ of my stories.
I realize that this would never ever make any money. But it would be really fun, and crafty, and I have a feeling I would learn a lot doing it. AND, of course, it would be very much in-tune with both the pragmatic realities of the publishing biz (you pay for materials, not for words), and with my ideals.
So. Whaddaya think?
That's great.
I'm going for it. Anyone know HOW I can learn to bind books?
When I got back, I saw another reincarnation of the People Pay for Form, Not Content argument on boingboing.net. This particular entry on boingboing was in regard to an article ("Post-Medium Publishing") where Paul Graham argues that we've been paying for form all along. To super-duper paraphrase, "[A great paperback book is approximately the same price as a bad one. Same with hard covered books. But a brilliant paperback is still cheaper than a terrible hard cover.]"
Publishing is (and always has been) running on the bottled water model-- the water's free. But the bottle. That's $2.50.
Now this is interesting to think of, in terms of intellectual property rights, obviously. Ideologically, I support Creative Commons, and have been wrestling a lot with the notion that gaining recognition as a writer nowdays means operating, at least partially, inside old int. property rights models (which I really don't support).
That was when I developed my hairbrained scheme. Or. Well. My newest hairbrained scheme.
Keep doing the "sub to lit mags" thing. Then, every time a story gets published, just put it out under one of the creative commons licenses (provided I get my rights back.... I don't know if I would sign a contract where I regained and retained no rights, anyhow. Unless it were me writing romance novels, or Holywood scripts which I didn't care about, of course). Then, set up in the CC license for anyone using my work to direct people to my website, where I will set up a service to commission a hand-bound book of 1+ of my stories.
I realize that this would never ever make any money. But it would be really fun, and crafty, and I have a feeling I would learn a lot doing it. AND, of course, it would be very much in-tune with both the pragmatic realities of the publishing biz (you pay for materials, not for words), and with my ideals.
So. Whaddaya think?
That's great.
I'm going for it. Anyone know HOW I can learn to bind books?
Crazy Man + News Outlet = ... Reservoir Dogs?
Hey everybody!
I got a blog post about my experiences that I've been meaning to write for a good long while. That's probably what y'all would rather hear about anyhow, but if I hadn't been youtubing, I probably would have put-off posting anything for another few days at least, so think of this as a bonus.
Like I said, I was watching youtube clips-- crazy people on the news-- er... "news"-- you know how it is. And then I saw this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRDEM2X4UZU
I know it's from like 6 months ago, and that you've probably already seen it (I be behind the times) but if I can say just one thing. Just one thing...
THERE'S A GUY ON A "NEWS" CHANNEL REENACTING RESERVOIR DOGS, AND HE IS MR. BLONDE. HE IS POURING GASOLINE ON AN INTERN. HE IS TELLING US THAT MR. BLONDE IS THE GOVERNMENT AND THAT THE INTERN IS (good, hard working, honest american) PEOPLE.
I know this is all old news, like I said, but I just thought it was worth mentioning... HE IS REENACTING RESERVOIR DOGS. Just thought people might like a reminder.
I got a blog post about my experiences that I've been meaning to write for a good long while. That's probably what y'all would rather hear about anyhow, but if I hadn't been youtubing, I probably would have put-off posting anything for another few days at least, so think of this as a bonus.
Like I said, I was watching youtube clips-- crazy people on the news-- er... "news"-- you know how it is. And then I saw this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRDEM2X4UZU
I know it's from like 6 months ago, and that you've probably already seen it (I be behind the times) but if I can say just one thing. Just one thing...
THERE'S A GUY ON A "NEWS" CHANNEL REENACTING RESERVOIR DOGS, AND HE IS MR. BLONDE. HE IS POURING GASOLINE ON AN INTERN. HE IS TELLING US THAT MR. BLONDE IS THE GOVERNMENT AND THAT THE INTERN IS (good, hard working, honest american) PEOPLE.
I know this is all old news, like I said, but I just thought it was worth mentioning... HE IS REENACTING RESERVOIR DOGS. Just thought people might like a reminder.
