Not Good

“South Korean Confesses to Killing Seven Women”

Bye Bye Giraffes!

No tears, but then again I don’t think my kids quite understood that today’s “Goodbye” was a permanent one.

Tears In My Soju

It’s the last day for my hagwon and the boss wants to take us out for dinner this evening.

On the one hand this is a nice gesture.  On the other, I kind of want to go home and watch Slumdog Millionaire and avoid what could possibly be the most awkward dinner ever.

Update: Korean food does wonders for one’s outlook on life.  And at the end of the day, it seems as if it was an unfortunate situation all around.

I had altang for the second time (fish egg and innard soup, which is better than it sounds).  I could eat everything but the ovaries, so I passed those to my Korean co-worker.

Rachael Ray Is The New Hardcore

So maybe a band like The Hold Steady writes songs that aren’t so much punk as they are what it was like to be a punk, but you gotta give Rachael Ray some credit for booking them for her second soiree at SXSW.  She probably deserves some credit alone just for being at SXSW.

She remains the most annoying woman I’ve had a crush on, evar.

Welcome to Korea

I just found out our school is closing at the end of January, i.e., tomorrow.

I’ve tried to muster as much empathy for my boss as possible (the shame he probably feels at his hagwon shutting down, the daily discussions with parents and vendors, trying to figure out what he’s going to do for a job next) but I was pretty much ready to scream at him yesterday.  I can understand the financial straits he’s in, but I’ll never be able to understand why he couldn’t communicate this information to me and my co-workers sooner.  Surely many of the parents decided to pull their kids weeks ago to get them started in other programs.  So why were we, literally, the last to know?  (We’d been assuming we’d be teaching here through February.)

Wishful Thinking

As a life-long fan of both delusion and mediocrity, I’m gonna go out on a limb here:

Cards 38, Steelers 17.

Hendrick Hamel II

Noblemen often go to a monastery to enjoy themselves with whores and other company, because the monasteries are very beautifully situated in the mountains amidst woods.  They are counted as the best houses in the country, but they look more like brothels and taverns than temples.  One should know that in the ordinary monasteries the monks are much inclined to drinking.

–From Hamel’s Journal and a Description of the Kingdom of Korea, 1666

“The American Flag Currently Defiling The Moon”

“Kim Jong Il Announces Plan To Bring Moon To North Korea”

It’s from The Onion, so it must be true.

Sugoi

AP: “Japanese Learn English Using Obama Speeches”

Same Old Story

Well whaddaya know, after devastating the infrastructure of Gaza and killing hundreds of civilians, Hamas is still going strong.

Israel is in a nearly impossible situation with regards to Hamas (who, lest we forget, were democratically elected at the behest of the United States) but anyone who thought their recent operation would go much better than it did in Lebanon ca. 2006 was fooling themselves.