8.04.2009, Tue
When I go to places I never thought I’d be, I’ve found myself taking fewer pictures. Maybe I’m finally enjoying life more.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Be a lover, not a hater.
4.22.2009, Wed
It’s 1:30am, I’m dead tired, and I have a book to read before I call it a night so I’ll make this one short. It probably won’t even make any sense.
Some of the kids I teach are really smart and actually care about learning English. Others aren’t so smart but still try. While the rest really don’t care and just want to play around. That’s probably the same with kids anywhere. But lately I’ve been thinking about how certain kids will turn out as an adult.
As I meet more Korean people that are around my age, I’ve started to wonder what they were like as a kid. Were they one of the kids in class that wanted to go to the bathroom every 5 minutes? Were they the kids that constantly yelled out “GAME TIME” while the teacher was trying to teach? Were they the one that learned an English curse word and used it to try to make the teacher mad? Or were they one of the kids that actually cared about learning English and every other subject they were forced to take.
There’s no way I could ever know for sure unless I kept in contact with a kid until they were older and saw how they turned out. But that would probably affect the outcome. And it would be really creepy. I guess I could just ask someone what type of student they were.
Joe Rogan wrote about something similar to this in one of his blog posts. When I write more about this, I’ll link to the exact post.
But anyway, here’s two random pictures. One is from when my sister came to visit me in Korea and the other is from a strawberry festival.
Popularity: 10% [?]
2.06.2009, Fri
Facebook.com has this new thing out where members of their site post 25 extremely personal things about themselves to their profile. Then they have the option to tag 25 of their closest friends who are then supposed to write 25 extremely personal things about themselves and post it to facebook.
I have a HUGE problem with that.
What most people don’t realize is that Facebook simply a big ploy for advertisers to get information on you.
I’m sure it started out as a few college kids writing a web application to keep in touch with their friends that they went to college with. But over time, it blossomed into this ridiculous marketing tool where you put as much personal information on your page as you can fit.
You put your favorite everythings on there. You tell facebook all of your friends. You tell facebook all of the people you would barely call friends. You tell facebook all of the people that you would only speak to if you saw in a random country where you knew no one else. You tell them your favorite movies, songs, books, activites, hobbies, quotes, your birthdate, schools, political views, websites, blogs, phone number, all your jobs, and way more if you want to.
They store all this information somewhere and use it to advertise to you. They let people buy space on their site to advertise to you for things you may want but most likely have no use for.
On top of all that, you tell them 25 more things that don’t fit into any other category. 25 completely random things that maybe you never told anyone about yourself. 25 things that if this was 10 years ago, only your closest of closest friends would ever know. And you give it away willingly because someone clicked on your picture when they were telling 25 of their completely random but extremely personal things.
In case you didn’t know, everything that you ever put on facebook is forever. If one day you decide that facebook isn’t the place for you and you want to get rid of your information, you can’t!
You can only disable your account. This means facebook still has all of your information stored somewhere and they can still do whatever they want with it one day.
All of your most personal 25 things that you think are safely hidden from human eyes may be up for sale one day to the highest or suavest bidder. And there’s NOTHING YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT.
So please… PLEASE stop giving away your personal life to a website. Whether it be facebook.com, myspace.com, or whatever else there is that asks you for more information than anyone on the planet ever needs to know about you.
Thanks?
Popularity: 12% [?]
2.05.2009, Thu
It’s 8:30am on the east coast of America.
A lot of my friends are awake.
They’re preparing to head to a job that they’d rather not go to.
If they had the option, they would sleep for an extra hour.
Or an extra day.
It’s 10:30pm where I am.
I just had a full day minus 6 hours of doing whatever I want.
And the 6 hours are full of fun.
I teach kids how to do what I could do since as far back as I can remember.
Speak English.
What a job.
When I wake up at 9am KST, I won’t be thinking about getting an extra hour of sleep.
Not even an extra minute.
I’ll smile.
Then I’ll think about how I don’t have to be to work until 1pm.
I’ll think about how great it is to be here.
Then I’ll think about the arboretum that I’m going to take pictures at before work.
I’ll take a hot shower in water that’s unsafe to drink.
I’ll go to a Korean restaurant around the corner.
I’ll order my favorite breakfast dish – omorisay.
It’s an omellete filled with rice.
Or maybe I’ll get dool-sok-bee-bim-pop.
It’s seaweed, sprouts, a fried eggs, and a ton of other stuff in a hot bowl.
Hmmmmm…
Maybe I’ll try something new with an equally weird name.
I’ll decide when I get there.
Then I’ll head to the arboretum.
I’ll take the amazing pictures of what I find inside.
I’ll walk back home with a huge smile on my face.
The Korean people who cross my path will stare at me like they always do.
I’ll imagine they’re staring because I’m famous.
Or because I’m ridiculously handsome.
At least one of these is true.
I’ll get back home.
I’ll put my pictures on my computer.
I’ll smile as I see each one appear on the screen.
I’ll laugh at the one of the little Korean kid posing for me.
They seem to really like cameras.
I’ll sit back.
I’ll relax.
I’ll marvel at the fact that I’m actually living in Korea.
I’ll take a deep breath.
I’ll let it out slowly.
Out of nowhere, I’ll remember the two girls I met during lunch the other day.
I’ll put a reminder in my phone to call both of them around 3pm to meet up tonight.
I’ll giggle.
Then I’ll remember that I have to go to “work”.
I’ll giggle again.
It’s not even noon.
Popularity: 8% [?]
1.16.2009, Fri
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