General update.

I had a parent observation day this week. It went awful. My bosses weren’t upset, and I keep telling myself that I was trying to shorten a lesson plan by almost 1/4, teaching kindergarteners in an environment they were not accustomed to, and under about the most intense observation possible; Korean parents who are insane enough to send their children to an expensive cram school at age 6.

Korean classes are difficult, I am starting to pay off my student loans, and getting into something vageuly resembling a routine.
In closing, here is a picture I hadn’t seen yet. This is from Cincinnati. Not here. (duh)

I have a stockpile of photographs.

So, this will replace a real post. Enjoy.

More work follies

Okay, I started taking my reputedly very good company’s Korean as a second language classes this weekend.

Some drama at work, but nothing major. I still generally enjoy the work, and it’s not hard.

There’s one girl in one of my classes who is not getting over the novelty of self-stimulation. I still haven’t gotten a conclusive answer on how to treat it. I’m glad she’s enjoying herself. It’s hard to not laugh a lot, though.

I wish I could masturbate all day.

Bored.

Yep. I think that’s it.

Holy people I don’t know read my blog, Batman!

Well, I stepped on some toes.

I apologize for the post immediately below. All comments are getting approved, even trolls, because I was doing the same damn thing.

I didn’t return the book yet, and I’m not sure how to tell him his book is crap. I’d like to talk politics with him (I think) but it’s hard to take this, and by extension, his ideas (apparently very close to these) seriously.

A little reflection and responding to the comments gave me the following clearer picture of why the content of the book thus far bothers me:

——-

The development of this book, assuming this is a good table of contents, takes the claim ‘America and Western Europe have ideologically opposed political structures’ as an axiom.

That is a very popular view. However, it is also a very dangerous view, and one that doesn’t hold up to even casual scrutiny.

——-

There, my attempts to leave politics out of this and just write about living in South Korea have failed. Let the shitstorm and trolling continue.

Steyn is still a minor example of a larger mindset, and as such isn’t worth the read. Limbaugh, O’Reilly and Savage, etc. do the “I say unpopular things yay me!”/”I’m a social conservative” thing better , and Allan Bloom does the doomsday “death of western culture” thing much better. Bloom at least bothers to make me think. So, I will continue to ask people to save trees, and for the first time in a very long while, encourage people to not read a book, because it is boring in content, contains no citations, and is simply bad.

I will now direct all of you to http://www.nytimes.com so you can return to your regularly-scheduled dose of mildly-opposed-to-your-own-viewpoint tripe.

A brief review of Mark Steyn’s America Alone

A note left in a book loaned to me by the previously mentioned weird Canadian guy:

Brad,

There are hundreds of books written by similar right-wing peons with delusions of grandeur published annually. They are all fascist, egomaniacal, basically nonideological, and useful only as a pat on the back to those who are in perfect agreement.

If you take this book seriously, much less put it in high esteem, I am very close to finished taking you seriously. This isn’t just a book I disagree with. It is a book I would feel disgraced to admit I read beyond the prologue. So, I didn’t.

Greg

*Edit*

I’ve just discovered I’m on the front of Steyn’s page.

A) That’s pretty pathetic

B) Read the newer post above. I didn’t think anyone gave a fuck about my blog. Does he/his people google him for this kind of shit from someone with no real qualifications (“me”)?