I can safely say that I am a better person than some people. I think that Conservatives, at heart, are only out for themselves and genuinely doesn't care about the welfare of others. There's nothing wrong with demanding that your life be good and well, but getting that at the expense of others is unfathomable to me.
America is still in its medieval years. I think that there can be many comparisons between our self-destructive government and the various royal families that used to rule the world. Most Americans are serfs, happy with their guns and booze and no call to greater responsibility other than the military.
I'm not saying that we should murder our leaders recklessly like the French did, but I do think there was some sense in being able to forcibly impeach poor leaders.
I'm just really feeling that because I have actually heard people say that they don't want to read the news, or discuss politics, either because they don't want to complicate their lives, or because they don't care. How can you not care about something that directly affects you?
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
The plot thickens...
I was asked recently if I wanted to DJ again at JRock. Alright! I don't think I'll be getting paid just yet, but at least I've been asked back. I need to decide by tomorrow if I want to do it. I need to buy new headphones...and I need to buy an external audio mixer and get a DJ program that doesn't crash or stall. Virtual DJ is better if you have decks and the skills to operate it. It's not the best beginners program. I wish I had a mentor, but everyone I would like to learn from is too busy. It's lonely at the top, sure, but it's busy as hell at the bottom. I'm also very aware and nervous of failure, which has stopped me from doing so many things in the past. I won't let this destroy my passion, though. I'm riding my motorcycle, I'm DJing, I'm even writing in this blog! Baby steps...
Our new teacher, Tony, is a cool guy. He spent some time in Anchorage, AK so we both know how pretty it is.
Sorry, I just became distracted by a little prefrosh (that's what I've decided to call potential students) outside my door, singing a song to practice English. It's really like a constant overload of cute with these kids. Some of the little girls even try to flirt with me just like little girls flirt...either by giving me candy, or by physically assaulting me. A few girls slap the SHIT out of my side and arms. It hurts a lot, but I don't have the heart to tell them it hurts. Big strong American teacher can't be hurt by small Korean girls! Strong like bull! Really though, slaps hurt everyone. Even my girlfriend hits me. Or pretends to, which still causes me to flinch. She's feisty alright. You're a 수파수타 바이배
Tony just graded this gem:
Jony Techer and Mathew Techer went to the beach together.And they played soccer, basketball,and badminton.
It's funny because the original story is about a puppy that fell into a well. This girl is as cute as a fiery explosion of hearts and bananas.
I need to go now, grab some lunch and coffee, call my busy significant other, finalize dinner plans, look for used DJ equipment online, and clean my classroom. All in 30 minutes! Sometimes it's good to step back and really take stock of how productive you are in a day. I get so down on myself, when the fact is that this morning I woke up at 10:30 and cleaned my apartment a biut, took out the recycling, did a load of laundry, got new music, washed dishes and cooked, and did grading. Oh, and I DRANK SOME MO'FUCKIN' TEA.
It's snowing...?
Our new teacher, Tony, is a cool guy. He spent some time in Anchorage, AK so we both know how pretty it is.
Sorry, I just became distracted by a little prefrosh (that's what I've decided to call potential students) outside my door, singing a song to practice English. It's really like a constant overload of cute with these kids. Some of the little girls even try to flirt with me just like little girls flirt...either by giving me candy, or by physically assaulting me. A few girls slap the SHIT out of my side and arms. It hurts a lot, but I don't have the heart to tell them it hurts. Big strong American teacher can't be hurt by small Korean girls! Strong like bull! Really though, slaps hurt everyone. Even my girlfriend hits me. Or pretends to, which still causes me to flinch. She's feisty alright. You're a 수파수타 바이배
Tony just graded this gem:
Jony Techer and Mathew Techer went to the beach together.And they played soccer, basketball,and badminton.
It's funny because the original story is about a puppy that fell into a well. This girl is as cute as a fiery explosion of hearts and bananas.
I need to go now, grab some lunch and coffee, call my busy significant other, finalize dinner plans, look for used DJ equipment online, and clean my classroom. All in 30 minutes! Sometimes it's good to step back and really take stock of how productive you are in a day. I get so down on myself, when the fact is that this morning I woke up at 10:30 and cleaned my apartment a biut, took out the recycling, did a load of laundry, got new music, washed dishes and cooked, and did grading. Oh, and I DRANK SOME MO'FUCKIN' TEA.
It's snowing...?
Monday, March 15, 2010
Rock and Roll!
Posted two new pictures on Facebook. I'm dancing like a crazy man. Score!
The weather here is getting nicer. I've got two free periods on Tuesday now, although I have the feeling that they won't last very long :-( I'm getting better on my motorcycle, and I'm already considering upgrading to a 250 or 300. The only problem is that you can't take motorcycles on toll roads here, and those are the roads used to get all over Korea quickly. So I had better either learn to speak Korean much better, or get a GPS.
I'm competing in another dart competition in two weeks, this time it's Jim and I. We played last night and did quite well, nice! We played the two best players at the bar, I think. We won 1 out of 3, and ALMOST won the third, but I was kinda drunk and wasn't shooting my best. I won't make that mistake again.
Learning Korean is slow but steady work, and I'm trying to save money at the same time. Life is fun and difficult.
Time to go.
The weather here is getting nicer. I've got two free periods on Tuesday now, although I have the feeling that they won't last very long :-( I'm getting better on my motorcycle, and I'm already considering upgrading to a 250 or 300. The only problem is that you can't take motorcycles on toll roads here, and those are the roads used to get all over Korea quickly. So I had better either learn to speak Korean much better, or get a GPS.
I'm competing in another dart competition in two weeks, this time it's Jim and I. We played last night and did quite well, nice! We played the two best players at the bar, I think. We won 1 out of 3, and ALMOST won the third, but I was kinda drunk and wasn't shooting my best. I won't make that mistake again.
Learning Korean is slow but steady work, and I'm trying to save money at the same time. Life is fun and difficult.
Time to go.
Friday, February 26, 2010
First DJing gig completed
Last night was fun! The place was pretty full of people which, is a new thing for JRock. Many of my friends came, which made me very happy, and Tonya showed up, which made me very happy. I am not surprised that they showed up for me - I was surprised because JRock is quite far away from Dunsansong, where we normally spend our Friday and Saturday nights. But many people came, some people danced, and I got a few free beers. Woohoo!
There was a real downside, though: I had not taken into account my lack of musical eclecticism. I as playing songs that I thought were the bees knees, but most people did not seem to agree. My main dancers were four middle-aged Russian ladies, two of whom were apparently on television for having married Korean men (yes, I am aware how strange this sounds). Two looked Korean, but I suppose were some pseudo-RussoMongolian blend? Eh. Anyway, this one short blond Russky asked me twice for some Lady Gaga song, which I did not have, mostly because I don't fucking like Lady Gaga. I DID, however, have FOUR rather excellent remixes of Bad Romance, two of which I played, one by Chew Fu and one by Skrillex. This did not satisfy her. She asked me three times for some other song that I can't remember, and once she even asked me for a Limp Biskit song. I was so surprised I made her repeat it three times just to be sure she was saying "Limp Biskit." I also took a small and twisted pleasure in forcing this Russian lady to spit out "Limp Biskit," three times. Ask a Russian friend to say it some time, it sounds pretty funny.
Besides her, this Japanese-Hawaiian man asked for a Hawaiian song. I said I didn't have it. He was literally taken aback. Let me clarify: he looked VERY SURPRISED and STEPPED BACKWARDS ONCE. I almost laughed. In his face. Because I did not that people actually did that. And he left about 30 seconds after I said that I couldn't play his song. Toughest fucking crowd member ever.
Overall I think the night was a success. I made one MASSIVE mistake, which was letting silence fall upon the dance floor. I had the next song ready to mix, but then a friend came to chat about the songs and I became distracted. In the span of FIVE SECONDS, two people shouted "DJ!" and I was very red in the face. Good thing it was dark and smoky in there.
I don't think people liked my music :-( At least not the JRock crowd. I need to go to clubs that habitually play electronic. I also need to be able to monitor tracks before I play them. Yes, if you are reading this, and if you saw me last night, the headphones I was wearing were entirely for show. Everything you could hear, I could hear louder and closer, but at the same time. Those few weird tweaks? That was me not being sure when to fade. Although I didn't get any weird looks, and apparently people were complacent enough to stay and buy drinks, so I suppose it worked out. I guess they liked my music, just not enough to dance to it. Also, I guess they weren't drunk enough. I stopped playing at 2:15 when Jack, the co-owner, went on to play the normal hip-hop stuff. But when people were drunk and dancing, he put on some housey-tunes, and people were getting down. IF ONLY MY CUSTOMERS HAD BEEN DRUNKER, SOONER.
That's it for me. On my way to Seoul tonight to belatedly celebrate a friends Bday. It should be fun.
There was a real downside, though: I had not taken into account my lack of musical eclecticism. I as playing songs that I thought were the bees knees, but most people did not seem to agree. My main dancers were four middle-aged Russian ladies, two of whom were apparently on television for having married Korean men (yes, I am aware how strange this sounds). Two looked Korean, but I suppose were some pseudo-RussoMongolian blend? Eh. Anyway, this one short blond Russky asked me twice for some Lady Gaga song, which I did not have, mostly because I don't fucking like Lady Gaga. I DID, however, have FOUR rather excellent remixes of Bad Romance, two of which I played, one by Chew Fu and one by Skrillex. This did not satisfy her. She asked me three times for some other song that I can't remember, and once she even asked me for a Limp Biskit song. I was so surprised I made her repeat it three times just to be sure she was saying "Limp Biskit." I also took a small and twisted pleasure in forcing this Russian lady to spit out "Limp Biskit," three times. Ask a Russian friend to say it some time, it sounds pretty funny.
Besides her, this Japanese-Hawaiian man asked for a Hawaiian song. I said I didn't have it. He was literally taken aback. Let me clarify: he looked VERY SURPRISED and STEPPED BACKWARDS ONCE. I almost laughed. In his face. Because I did not that people actually did that. And he left about 30 seconds after I said that I couldn't play his song. Toughest fucking crowd member ever.
Overall I think the night was a success. I made one MASSIVE mistake, which was letting silence fall upon the dance floor. I had the next song ready to mix, but then a friend came to chat about the songs and I became distracted. In the span of FIVE SECONDS, two people shouted "DJ!" and I was very red in the face. Good thing it was dark and smoky in there.
I don't think people liked my music :-( At least not the JRock crowd. I need to go to clubs that habitually play electronic. I also need to be able to monitor tracks before I play them. Yes, if you are reading this, and if you saw me last night, the headphones I was wearing were entirely for show. Everything you could hear, I could hear louder and closer, but at the same time. Those few weird tweaks? That was me not being sure when to fade. Although I didn't get any weird looks, and apparently people were complacent enough to stay and buy drinks, so I suppose it worked out. I guess they liked my music, just not enough to dance to it. Also, I guess they weren't drunk enough. I stopped playing at 2:15 when Jack, the co-owner, went on to play the normal hip-hop stuff. But when people were drunk and dancing, he put on some housey-tunes, and people were getting down. IF ONLY MY CUSTOMERS HAD BEEN DRUNKER, SOONER.
That's it for me. On my way to Seoul tonight to belatedly celebrate a friends Bday. It should be fun.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
It's 2 am and I should go to bed
I apologize for ending that last post so abruptly - I forgot that we had workshop on Thursdays. They always cut it so close to class time.
I just sound-tested my laptop at JRock with Traktor Scratch Pro, and the fucking thing crashed twice. I've been trolling the forums for a while now, searching for answers, but all that comes up is conspiracy-theory jargon about plots to make it crash so people keep getting upgrades. That, and people just saying how inexperienced others are. GET OFF YOUR IVORY TOWER, GUY. I'm a noob. Not-so-coincidentally, Noob is a pretty decent DJ from somewhere, but his sound is too hard and minimal for me.
I immediately acquired Virtual DJ, and am mixing with it now. While my skills are still so limited, this set tomorrow will be my foot in the door. I just hope people show up.
Wish me luck.
I am trying hard to do something I care about for the first time in a long time. Well, being true to my emotions about Tonya was pretty hard too, but that's pretty damn awesome right now. I hope DJing turns out to be just as rewarding. PLEASE DON'T LET ME JINX MYSELF WITH THIS POST.
I just sound-tested my laptop at JRock with Traktor Scratch Pro, and the fucking thing crashed twice. I've been trolling the forums for a while now, searching for answers, but all that comes up is conspiracy-theory jargon about plots to make it crash so people keep getting upgrades. That, and people just saying how inexperienced others are. GET OFF YOUR IVORY TOWER, GUY. I'm a noob. Not-so-coincidentally, Noob is a pretty decent DJ from somewhere, but his sound is too hard and minimal for me.
I immediately acquired Virtual DJ, and am mixing with it now. While my skills are still so limited, this set tomorrow will be my foot in the door. I just hope people show up.
Wish me luck.
I am trying hard to do something I care about for the first time in a long time. Well, being true to my emotions about Tonya was pretty hard too, but that's pretty damn awesome right now. I hope DJing turns out to be just as rewarding. PLEASE DON'T LET ME JINX MYSELF WITH THIS POST.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
It's been another month or two, and I am still not interested in blogging all that much. I just can't be bothered. But I feel bad about keeping people in the dark, so if you want to learn about what I've been doing, then here you are:
The weather in Daejeon is confusing. It's like Spring now, which I'm told is both usual and unusual...hence the confusion. I've been riding my motorcycle around quite a bit even though I still don't have my license, which is very illegal and could get me deported. But the police don't seem to bother anyone for anything other than sobriety checks, so I'm not too concerned. Before anyone goes apeshit, I am planning on getting my license this weekend or next, and until then, I just ride it to and from school (a very short drive).
The weather in Daejeon is confusing. It's like Spring now, which I'm told is both usual and unusual...hence the confusion. I've been riding my motorcycle around quite a bit even though I still don't have my license, which is very illegal and could get me deported. But the police don't seem to bother anyone for anything other than sobriety checks, so I'm not too concerned. Before anyone goes apeshit, I am planning on getting my license this weekend or next, and until then, I just ride it to and from school (a very short drive).
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
One month later
I have absolutely no complaints in life. I have a beautiful girlfriend named Tonya (remember Tonya?), I love my job more than ever, I just sent money home (yay savings account), and I'm going snowboarding this Saturday.
Tonya and I have been together for about two months now, and she's the first girl I've dated that isn't needy and dependent. She doesn't like talking on the phone unless it's planning something, she doesn't mind at all when I go out with the boys (and she DOESN'T awkwardly ask to come with us, score), and while I compliment her on her shopping purchases, she is really warming to my spontaneity and bizarre whims. She is amazing and I hadn't planned on being in a relationship while I was here, but she was honestly just too fun and sweet and doesn't mind how weird I am that I had to snatch her up.
I believe that I was becoming a bit jaded with a few of my students. My attitude was getting really sour, and I could see that some of them were having less fun. I had been really trying to crack the whip and make them study as relentlessly as possible, and most people would just call that "paying attention for 10 minutes." But I was forgetting that these kids are 10 years old, and trying to focus on a foreign language solidly for 10 minutes is impossible. So now I try and pick out the ones that have the hardest time and work with them solo for a few minutes. It's hit or miss, but when they come through and say that whole line without faltering, it feels fantastic. And the best part is that I know they feel good, too.
Sending $425 home feels awesome. Next month, another round! After I buy my motorcycle, that is...Oh yes...it's on its way.
No real amazing stories. I refuse to see Avatar because I think it's the thinnest veil I've ever seen Cameron place over a real-life situation. He just made the people blue...it's still a pathetic metaphor for the Iraq War. Please don't say James Cameron is turning into the Action movie-version of Michael Moore.
Tonya and I have been together for about two months now, and she's the first girl I've dated that isn't needy and dependent. She doesn't like talking on the phone unless it's planning something, she doesn't mind at all when I go out with the boys (and she DOESN'T awkwardly ask to come with us, score), and while I compliment her on her shopping purchases, she is really warming to my spontaneity and bizarre whims. She is amazing and I hadn't planned on being in a relationship while I was here, but she was honestly just too fun and sweet and doesn't mind how weird I am that I had to snatch her up.
I believe that I was becoming a bit jaded with a few of my students. My attitude was getting really sour, and I could see that some of them were having less fun. I had been really trying to crack the whip and make them study as relentlessly as possible, and most people would just call that "paying attention for 10 minutes." But I was forgetting that these kids are 10 years old, and trying to focus on a foreign language solidly for 10 minutes is impossible. So now I try and pick out the ones that have the hardest time and work with them solo for a few minutes. It's hit or miss, but when they come through and say that whole line without faltering, it feels fantastic. And the best part is that I know they feel good, too.
Sending $425 home feels awesome. Next month, another round! After I buy my motorcycle, that is...Oh yes...it's on its way.
No real amazing stories. I refuse to see Avatar because I think it's the thinnest veil I've ever seen Cameron place over a real-life situation. He just made the people blue...it's still a pathetic metaphor for the Iraq War. Please don't say James Cameron is turning into the Action movie-version of Michael Moore.
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