General Update #141

Look. You don't have to tell me. I get into this rant every month. I end the month strong, but I always particularly suck at opening it. I'm a closer (who else has noticed that closer is just one letter away from loser? Anyone?). What can I say?

Well, I guess I can say that I don't see this month being exceptionally full of blog posts. Sorry to get your Christmas dreams' hopes up. My desire to blog seems to have toppled under the pressure of the Siberian winds that flare up occasionally. Good thing I'm going to Seoul this weekend.

Hmm, maybe three or four things. First, I was provided this great lecture by my friend John in Incheon about North Korea called "The Cleanest Race." It's done by a guy teaching in Busan, and it does an excellent job of providing insight into why North Korea is acting the way it is. I'm going to warn you: it's an hour long. But! It's a really good hour if you are at all interested in history or the region. It puts both North and South Korea in perspective in ways you'd never think (i.e., beyond economic/military numbers, which is all that we hear about on the news because no one believes that actual people live in these places). I have been interested in North Korea for some time now, but this just enhances it. Here's the link.

I think I've touched on this before, but in many of my classes there is always one mentally handicapped child. They always sit in the same seat and are kind of ostricized from the class. It appears they learn little while there. Sometimes they are disruptive. Often they'll rip the handout into a million pieces and make a collage out of it. Sometimes they'll have a laughing fit that will disrupt other students. Other times, they'll turn their desks upside down. Once, one got into a fist fight and a throwing match with a girl classmate. Now, I'm not saying they are full out mentally retarded. Some of them have spoken to me in English or read English words and are very nice, pleasant students. I know they are capable. But, they are not in the right learning environment for what they need. There is a reason they are kept separate. To develop their ability to the fullest capacity, they need specialized attention. In Korea, it seems the acceptable substitute for this is to ignore it.

The explanation as to why something like this is often ignored or underplayed would take a little while to explain and since my desire to blog lately has eroded under various weather conditions, I'll spare you. Needless to say, both the parent and the child suffer for it. Not to mention the poor, poor Native English Teacher who has to put up with it for 80 minutes a week. Perhaps they suffer the most.

Topic number three. I bartended...kind of...not really. Well, perhaps in the most literal sense of the word. I tended a bar. But I was behind it and I did get people beers and easy things like gin and tonics. All out of the goodness of my heart (thus not violating contract, Mama Korea. Don't kick me out). I guess I've just about exhausted that subject...

Topic numero quattro: I have found a way to convert .MOV to .AVI. Fiiiiiiiiiiiinally. A special shout out goes to my cousin Jeff who was the only person to send me advice on how to make that happen. So, thank you Jeff and thanks for nothing everyone else. The method I have found deteriorates the quality of the video slightly, but I suppose the quality wasn't the greatest in the first place since I was doing it with a point and shoot camera. Anyway, hopefully I'll have something put together by the time I come home so that folks can see a glimpse of the Kow-rea I saw.


What else? I'm good for now. I don't want to empty my entire clip because that means less stuff to write about next time. So, for now...goodbye.