나는, 외국인

You may follow the light now.

noreply@blogger.com (Otto Silver) — Thu, 17 May 2012 00:00:00 +0000

When I ride to school I go through one particularly busy intersection. Most mornings there will be two men who control the traffic. One stands at the control box for the traffic lights and one in the intersection itself. The man in the intersection blows a whistle to indicate that the other should push a button that will start the light change. It works fairly well and no reason to find it strange.

But wait! The one with the whistle is waving his arms. He is waving his arms to tell cars to “come”. But didn't I just say they changed they lights? Why, yes, yes I did.

All I can think is that he somehow things people actually care about his opinion after the lights have changed. When the lights are red we stop, partly because they are red (this is Korea) and partly because there is someone in uniform. When it is green we go. The fact that some nutter is waving his arms telling me what the lights are already telling me, is just, well, strange.

8/10

noreply@blogger.com (Otto Silver) — Fri, 11 May 2012 04:30:00 +0000

Speaking of fitness, my muscles of upper back hurt, oh so good, and I have two stomach muscles now, instead of just one. If I can get my diet right I might just be able to get rid of the Mid Padding and maybe have a shadow of a six-pack

After my work-out tonight it will have been eight weeks without missing a single session. Two more weeks to go and the ten week program will be done.

I will take a week off, but at one point I need to do a test to see if I can move up to a higher level of training. I have to be able to do:

5 unassisted pull-ups, holding 2 seconds at the top and 2 seconds at the bottom (Back and arm test)
24 alternating one leg squats (Leg test)
3 minutes static push up (Chest, arms and core test)
I know I can do the squats. My legs have never been a problem area.
I think I can do the static push-up, but I have never tried it.
I hope I can do the pull-ups. This has always been my weak area. I will just have to concentrate and work my arse off in the sessions where my back muscles are used.

Fitness Laziness

noreply@blogger.com (Otto Silver) — Fri, 11 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

The school has been working the students hard lately. I am not sure why, but this year they really want to get them fit, and I am happy to see that, especially with the girls.

Today some groups were doing Beep Tests. It is really sad to see how unfit some 12 year old boys are, but it is truly disgusting to see how unfit, and more to the point, lazy most girls are.
A beep test is a test of endurance and aerobic fitness. Two lines are drawn on the ground. Participants have to run between the lines, about 10m apart, continually. At regular intervals a “BEEP” well sound. This is the indication that you have to start the next 10m run. Trick is to start slow because you will be continually running, stopping and turning around and the time between beeps will slowly decrease, making the test progressively more difficult.

Some boys are pretty lazy, but boys keep going until they are told to step off the course. The girls… disgusting. They will run, and after the first 10 meter they start complaining. They will go for a few lengths, never actually falling behind the time, and then just suddenly stop, go sit on the side line and talk non-stop about how that was oh so difficult. Yes, you heard me right. Thy “decide” they are tired. They are SO tired that they cannot take another step. SO tired that they have to stop immediately and go rest while their slightly elevated pulse rate and breathing goes back to it’s sad normal state.

While this was going on other students were doing laps around the ground. Three girls in particular were talking for the whole 30 minutes that I was watching students. At one point they were even walking arm in arm, and at no point did they stop talking. If you are tired then you can’t talk. All you say is ”Water!” or “Rest!”, and the rest of the time you shut up and if you don’t believe me then just watch the other students running.

Is it any wonder I have so much respect for the few girls in this school, and when I was a student myself, who would run their little legs off because they would not be shown to be lazy cows like the other girls.

I’ma gonna rip your head off.

noreply@blogger.com (Otto Silver) — Mon, 07 May 2012 02:00:00 +0000

Someone posted a photo on Facebook that read:

2010: “Come at me bro.”
1800: “Advance towards me brethren.”

It is funny, but I dare say, stupid. The word brethren is used to mean you are a member of my in-group, specifically, my congregation or part of the protestant religion in general. Are you really going to tell a whole church to come at you? Instead I would like to put forth an alternative.

2010: Pulls shirt of and shouts “Come at me Bro!”
1800: Draws sword and declares “Advance towards me, Sir!”

I checked. They still had swords back then because flint lock rifles were not practical to carry around all day. Not so sure if they went about calling each other “Sir” but I am fairly confident they did.

Now I am thinking hooligans in Newcastle (film version) and someone shouting “I’ll fooking kill yah!” Geordies say that, don’t they?

Update:
Someone mentioned that the phrase “Come at me Bro” was uttered my Tybalt in Romeo and Juliette.I was slightly sceptical and thought I would look it up. All roads lead to Jersey Shore, and this:

I’m OK, yea.

noreply@blogger.com (Otto Silver) — Fri, 04 May 2012 02:30:00 +0000

When I go through the tedious lesson that covers “How are you?” in which I teach students alternative ways to ask and answer that question, I usually open the class with: “Morning! How are you?!” The near universal answer is the automated “I’m fine thank you and you?”

Boring, but interesting, because I then turn around and write on the board what they just said, i.e “I’m pain tenk you an new?”

I was a bit bored and was wondering how I can write this to be a more accurate version of what they actually say, and this is what I came up with. I present to you the accurate version of student speech…

Me: “How are you?”
Students: “I’m pine 10 Q N new?

I wonder if I can write a book like this?

Burn me baby one more time

noreply@blogger.com (Otto Silver) — Thu, 03 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

My chest and shoulders still hurt, I can now feel my hamstrings pretty well and I think my biceps are tightening up as well. Pain everywhere at once. This is gooooood.

We will see what tonight’s abdominal workout brings and how I deal with the apparent deceptive monster coming up on Friday.

On another subject, I am almost finished with lesson three of Seogang Koreans book 1B. I still miss a lot of words and even a few structures, but it is still moving. I will have to go back to everything soon and practice a bit, but at least I sometimes catch what people are babbling to me when they speak to me like a look Korean. =P

Moar Pain!

noreply@blogger.com (Otto Silver) — Tue, 01 May 2012 00:00:00 +0000

I am still going strong with my training program despite the week long interruption. I finished 6 week without missing a single one of my 4 weekly sessions (came close a few times) and added a strength week to make continuing after the break easier. That was 7 successful weeks. Yaah!

Yesterday I started the last 4 week stretch and it was a killer. The final reckoning was just over 60 Chinese Push-ups, about the same for normal push-ups and about 55 close grip push-ups. That was topped off with just over 60 dips.

While getting ready for school this morning I could feel the good pain in my chest muscles and triceps. I did not do everything perfectly, but I never gave up resulting in a great workout. By Friday ever muscle in my body will be sore L

Update:
Keeping my body straight while doing the push-ups seems to have hit my core rather hard. My abbs are starting to hurt now.

RSVP Jusaeyo

noreply@blogger.com (Otto Silver) — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 03:00:00 +0000

You’re invited to “English Kitchen”!

After the success of the first event, Sunny’s Kitchen invites you to our second “English Kitchen”, when we turn Sunny’s Kitchen in to an all English Language restaurant for the day.

Why English Kitchen? We see hundreds of children and adults learning English every day, but would like to help them. Sunny’s Kitchen the English teachers of Icheon, both Korean and non-Korean, are volunteering their time for the City of Icheon. Come take the chance to put what you learn in the classroom to work

People of all ages are welcome and children will be provided activities during the time of “English Kitchen”.

See you there *^.^*

Date: April 28^th 2012 Time: 11:00 am- 3:00 pm Place: Sunny‘s Kitchen
* Due to high volume of guests, this event will be reservation only.

“Sunny Kitchen”과 함께하는 “English Kitchen”체험 이벤트!

따뜻한 봄을 알리는 4월을 맞이하여 써니키친과 이천 원어민 선생님, 영어선생님들이 함께 참여하는 두번째 “English Kitchen”이벤트를 마련하였습니다. 4월28일 써니키친에 오시는 어린이들과 부모님이 함께 식사하며 재미있는 영어를 체험하시는 시간을 만들어 보았습니다. 외식도 하고 영어도 배우며 재미있는 시간을 보내고 싶으신 분들은 누구든 참여하세요^^ (단, 예약제로 운영됩니다)

일시: 2012년 4월 28일 토요일 장소: 써니키친

*** 식사 및 프로그램 운영시간 ***

1부 11:00~12:40 (11:00~11:40 식사/12:00~12:40 프로그램 참여 및 프리마켓 이용)
2부 13:00~14:40 (13:00~14:00 식사 / 14:00~14:40 프로그램 참여 및 프리마켓 이용)
*원활한 프로그램 운영을 위하여 사전예약하신 분에 한하여 1,2부 중

1회만 참여 가능하며 선착순 마감합니다. (예약필수!)

English Kitchen 이용하시는 방법

I. “English Kitchen” 입장료는 없습니다.

II. “Event Staff’가 오면 메뉴를 보시고 원하시는 식사 또는 음료를 주문합니다.
(영어로 대화를 하시면 ‘스탬프’를 찍어드립니다. 많이 모아보세요^^)

III. 가족과 함께 맛있는 식사를 합니다.

IV. 정해진 시간에 써니키친에서 마련한 영어프로그램에 참여하실 수 있습니다.

V. 체험 중 획득한 스탬프는 프리마켓에서 ‘이벤트 선물’로 교환하실 수 있습니다.

VI. 나가실 때에는 카운터에서 음식값을 계산하시면 된답니다.

예약문의: T.638-9838 장소: 써니키친 (이천시 갈산동 469번지 우성APT입구 옆)

Wash your hands, chirren

noreply@blogger.com (Otto Silver) — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 04:00:00 +0000

A while back I had people laugh at me, again, for being weird. I said that men should wash our hands BEFORE we whip it out to wet the bowl. I believe that if had a bath/shower in the last, let us say in the last 12 hours, and I washed everything thoroughly, then my penis would be clean, but that the same can not be said for my hands.

We generally get dressed in clean clothes, or at least clean underwear, shortly after a shower. This means that out sparkly genitals does not come in contact with anything dirty for quite some time. I can hear you thinking “Dick Cheese” as I type…

Smegma, which comes from the Greek word for soap, is a combination of dead skin cells, oils, moisture, and bacteria that accumulates under the foreskin and within the vulva… Smegma, a white emollient, provides moisture to the genitals, keeping them smooth and soft. Smegma can protect both the penis and vagina from dirt and infection because of its antibacterial and antiviral properties. It is quite beneficial to overall genital health.

Did you see all that? Anti-viral properties. Protect. Moisture. Our Sparklies stay rather clean unless we mess with them.

Our hands, on the other hand (get it) come in contact with dirty stuff almost from the moment we leave the bathroom, and often even in there as well. We pick up and touch all kinds of things that would be considered dirty.

The main pathogenic bacteria which are likely to be found on the hands are Staphylococcus, Corynebacteria, Streptococcus, E coli, Myobacteria, and Haemophilus, all in different concentrations. I will not mention all the shit we pick up from surfaces in public areas.

Do you hold on to the rail on the escalator? Ever wondered who did the same after wiping their butts without washing their hands afterwards? Ever read research of just how much faecal matter is on surfaces in public areas? Think about who put their hands on that table before you put your utensils there. The cloth used to wipe the table has more bacteria than pretty much anything else in the room, and we are talking disgusting amounts more.

So, with that in mind, is it really that farfetched for me to say that it makes sense to wash our disgusting bacteria covered hands before touching your still clean penis?

p.s.

You might think that I am a germ phobic, but I am not. The human body can protect itself pretty well, and by allowing small amount of bacteria in to your body you are probably just making the body stronger rather than sick. Don’t go licking the escalator handles though.

Constantly washing your hands with anti-bacterial soap is likely the worse things you can do. Hospitals have super bacteria because they use anti-bacterial all the time, Germs that are not killed by this end up coming back stronger and with friends. Your best bet is to just wash your hands regularly with normal soap, or at least before you stick your fingers in your mouth.

Your class is waiting, mam.

noreply@blogger.com (Otto Silver) — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 03:10:00 +0000

Sitting at the lunch table, a students sneaks up to the teacher sitting across from me. I hear: “Sonsengnim,…” and other Korean that I did not recognise.

She gives a embarrassed smile and there are a few muted giggles from the teachers around her. She gets up with her lunch tray, go get another to cover that one and leaves the lunch room.

I’m guessing there was a schedule change that she forgot about. Why do we have so many changes?

Weather and stuff

noreply@blogger.com (Otto Silver) — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 03:00:00 +0000

An online friend made the comment that Durban was oh so cold now. It is not even winter yet, and in my experience, even then is not cold in there. I think it is mostly because of the hot ocean current that passes by. I made the point that Pretoria is not as hot as Durban, and even that is not particularly cold in winter. This, however is not the point of this post, but all this lead me to think of how Koreans think that I am unable to handle cold because Africa is such a hot place.

Well, true, Africa is hot, but I don’t live in Africa. I live in (the Republic of) South Africa. Africa is a big place, you know? Koreans live in Korea, not Asia. Asia is kind of big as well. India and Korea do not exactly have the same weather, does it? For heaven’s sake, Busan and Seoul does not even have the same weather and we are talking less than 350km apart.

I went a digging and found a weather chart of monthly temperatures:

	Pretoria	Seoul
*Summer*	16°C - 28°C 17°C - 29°C 17°C - 29°C	18°C - 27°C 22°C - 29°C 23°C - 30°C
Autumn	16°C - 28°C 13°C - 23°C 8°C - 22°C	16°C - 26°C 9°C – 20°C 3°C - 11°
Winter	4°C - 21°C 3°C - 20°C 8°C - 23°C	-3°C – 4°C -5°C – 1°C -4°C - 4°C
Spring	10°C - 26°C 14°C - 28°C 15°C - 28°C	C0°C - 10°C 8°C - 18°C 12°C - 22°C

(I would like to dispute the winter highs. When I was in school that was more like 15°C, however, that might have changed.)

You have to keep in mind that my home town of Pretoria is not humid like Korea, so 30°C there is much easier to handle than 30 here in Korea. 30°C there and it is great for a Braai (BBQ) outside. Here in Korea you would be sweating like a pig within 5 minutes. Point is, I am no more used to heat than any Korean is. The cold can get to us Saffers, but that is because most of our country does not reach those low temperatures. Note that I said “most”. Some places do get seriously cold (and in summer seriously hot). Also, many of us prefer colder days, like I do. 5°C in the morning up to 20°C and I am as happy as a, and again with the pig, but this time in Palestine.

“Why is (the Republic of) South Africa so much cooler than the rest of Africa?” you might as. Well, dear reader, there is this things, actually two of them, called the Tropic Lines. Countries between these lines tend to be very hot. Them there countries are where coffee is grown precisely because it is nice and hot. Most of South Africa fall underneath the Southern Tropic Line, the Tropic of Capricorn. This makes for a nice temperate, almost European like country, perfect for growing just about anything and having fun outside like it is no body’s business.

As a p.s. note thing, did you know there are places in Australia where is snows, quite a lot? Yea! It snows in Australia. It is so easy to forget that that country is actually a whole continent, with quite diverse climates. I know I forget just that all the time.

Yea, Stormers home crowd.

noreply@blogger.com (Otto Silver) — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 02:00:00 +0000

While getting ready for work today I had this past weekend’s Stormers vs Bulls game on. The Bulls were playing away in in their new pink strip. Yes, pink. Let’s move on.

Being from Pretoria I naturally don’t like Capetonians as a group and I know that, at least where sport is involved, they feel the same way about us. Today, however, I lost all respect for the home crowd.

Right of the bat, as the visiting team took the field, they started with what I, and I am not alone here, consider disgusting supporter behaviour. The Boo-ed and jeered the Bulls on to the field. During the 1 minute silence for the 10 rugby players who lost their lives recently they were chanting and whistling. During the match they cheered whenever they got a penalty in their favour, which is fine, but actually boo-ed the referee when one was awarded against the Stormers. Their player was blown for playing dirty and they boo the ref?

Is this the image you want to send the world of yourself? An image of ill-mannered fanatics who don’t even understand the game and who get their pleasure from taunting others on the “playground”?

Football has been fighting this for many years. Rugby has always been proud of having a more civilised crowd, despite the nature of the game. Do were really need to start grouping some of our own supporters with “those people”?

(I am all for being hostile to the visiting team. It is our way of helping. However, no sportsmanship is not on)
p.s.
My “favourite” player was his normal innocent self again. He gets, in his mind, slighted, jumps up and rushed the player to start a fight but gets bobbed back as if he is a child. Spends the next 5 minutes shaking his head and looking back as if it was the worst thing that has ever happened, the worse decision ever and it all was directed at him personally. Didn’t like it when he was doing it up north and like it even less now.

Reruns

noreply@blogger.com (Otto Silver) — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 07:20:00 +0000

Maak my tiets spiere lam!

Pointing at the first 6 numbers of my VISA Number
“Francois, is this your day of birth?” “Yes, it is.”

Pointing to the same thing
“This is your birth day?” “Yes”

Rewriting the xxxxxx- as xx.xx.xx
“Is this your birth day?” “Yes”
And in a thought bubble “No matter how many times you ask me, it will not stop being what it is”

That is a really good question. Next?

noreply@blogger.com (Otto Silver) — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 07:20:00 +0000

A week ago I posted on the Lotus Lantern Festival Facebook page:

“I would like to ask well in advance. How do I become one of the photographers who walk along with the parade?”

Today I got a response. The “person” liked my post. Likes as in, they clicked the little like link.

Really? REALLY? I bloody ask you a question, and all you do is “like” it? Would an answer have been so much to ask for?

Do I know you?

noreply@blogger.com (Otto Silver) — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 07:20:00 +0000

Student:
Me:
Student:
Me:
Student:
Me:
Student:
Me:
Student:
Me:
Student:
Me:
Student:
Me:
Student:

“I love you.”
”Thanks you.”
”“Do you love me?”
“No!”
“Why?”
“I hate everyone.”
“Do you know me?”
“No? Who are you?”
“I’m your student.”
“Oooooh”
“I think you every day. I’m your phen (fan)”
“That is nice.”
“Do you think me?”
“Who are you again?”
Walks away…

Ee Jong-Seoun’s classroom is right opposite mine and this will happen once or twice a day every day. You would think he would get tired, but it hasn’t happened yet.

Gum be illegal in these here parts,cause I says so.

noreply@blogger.com (Otto Silver) — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 07:30:00 +0000

I have never had a problem with students’ chewing gum, or even eating in my class. I do have a problem with them doing it and trying to hide it, because that is when they stick it under the tables and stuff the papers into holes. I have seen many students chew gum in class and politely asked them to throw in the bin when they leave. For whatever reason, they respond well to these requests.

After lunch I often chew gum because I’m talking to students face to face. My co-teacher politely asked me to spit it out. As per norm I don’t really mind doing something when there is a reason, so naturally I curious as to why she thought I should do it. Something seemed odd. The conversation went something like this with me paraphrasing the English:

Her: “Would you mind not chewing gum in class?”
Me: “Sure, but why?”
Her: “Because I tell my students they are not allowed to eat it, and I spit it out before I go to class.”
(Reasonable, but I too have a reason for chewing it at this particular moment, but thinking that her habits have no place as part of a reason and…)
Me: “Oh, and why do you tell them that?”
Her: “Because it is a school rule.”
Me: “And why is that a rule?”
Her: “Because if you don’t do it you will get a penalty”
(Cards that get recorded on a computerised system.)
Me: “But why is it worth a penalty?”
(Resisting the urge to go in circles she is now completely lost for words she just looks as me.)

Me: “When students are finished with the gum they stick it under the tables or just spit it on the floor.“
Her, wide eyed: “No! That is RUDE!”
(To quote Mohammad: “No Shit, Sherlock.”)
Me: “Yes, I know. Those black spot students scrape of the floor every week are pieces of gum, not small mounds of blood. You are free to check under the tables if you want.”
(How did she not know this?)

Students are rude, and their parents are often no better. In the 5 minutes it takes me to walk down walking street in town I will see at least one girl gwel on the ground and no telling how many boys and men, and I will hear at least two people “clear their throats” to spit up whatever they suck up from all the way down at their anuses.

Rules have reasons. They always do. Those reasons might be stupid, or out-dated, but they are reasons none the less. In this case it has to do with “rude” students.

Setting myself up for pain and agony

noreply@blogger.com (Otto Silver) — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 07:20:00 +0000

I took a huge step in my Korean studies today…

In January I started the Seogang University Korean Language course. I am not attending classes, but instead I bought the books and study on my own while attending Language Exchange on Wednesdays.

What I do is I study a section in the lesson book, referring to the notes provided with it as often as I need to, and then I finish the corresponding section in the work book. This is the part that is gold. Not only do you get a lot of extra vocabulary here, but you also get to practice what you learned, a lot. When I’m done with this I give it to some at the language exchange and ask them to check it for me.

Book 1A is pretty pedestrian, but needed as a foundation. For the most part it doesn’t teach you much in terms of usable language. Book 1B is where the magic starts happening. You suddenly start jumping in to future tense, and that is what people often want to talk about. “What are you going to do…?”

I went ahead and photo copied part of the lesson as well as my finished exercise and handed it to two teachers here. One is always on me, in a friendly way, to learn Korean. Her English is pretty good. The other sits next to me and has, shall I say, not so good English. On handing over the papers I informed them that from tomorrow onwards they are allowed to use that with me any time they want. If I embarrass myself then too bad for me, so I will have to learn fast and learn hard.

Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa's Rest

noreply@blogger.com (Otto Silver) — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 03:00:00 +0000

Yesterday I started telling you about gear for my virtual character. Exiting stuff, I’m sure you would agree. 10 million people cant be wrong.

As I mentioned, I was healing during the Firelands Raid, but my team was kind enough to let me do a quest and let me have the stuff that I needed to get what is called a Legendary Weapon. These things are amazing. With one of those on your character you can do some serious damage, as in up to 20% more. Trust me, that is a lot. The weapon is called “Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa's Rest”. But, you are a healer, you are saying. they said it was a thank you for being shoves in and out of roles, and I was not going to complain about it.

If I can get my hands on this weapoin a lot of my being behind in gear will be offset by its amazing ability to make me kill stuff faster. I might be able to finish the quest now, but my main problem is that I will be doing it at a time when most of my guild will not be online to help me, so I’m thinking now that I want to get some more gear so that I kind of have more than I need, then go make a run at quest to get the staff.

I am currently stuck at the most difficult part because I was never in a real position to get it. As I said, I was a healer, and my gear was for healing, not for fighting my way through giant monsters keeping me from an awesome staff. So, over the next couple of weeks I will get a few more pieces of gear and I will take a Saturday off to head back in to that dungeon to get my digital Gnome hands on that staff.

You might think it stops with the gear. No, sir, and madam, it does not. I will be spending my hard earned gold to buy potions, a lot of potions, on the Auction House. I will also be spending gold on making the gear that I have perfect, and I will have to redo my Talents to help me not die. This, again, will cost me more gold. once I am done with that I will fly to where I need to be, sit down with a coffee while watching some TV, and when I am ready I will place myself in front of the computer and bang my head against that quest for two to three hours.

(Despite my gear shortage I think I will have a go at it this Saturday evening,. Kind of like practice.)

New life, real and not so real.

noreply@blogger.com (Otto Silver) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 02:22:00 +0000

Yes, I have been away for a long time, but let’s face it, very few people cared.

I have been working hard at getting my life back together in various way. I’m exercising more, learning Korean big time, reading books, taking more photographs again (I’m planning posts on that) and playing less World of Warcraft.

Having said that, I am still playing quite a bit of said game. See, I am in a small raiding guild and I am on the raiding team. Sure, it is extremely geeky and many people even think sad, but is it really any different from the guy who play some sport every day? My sport just happens to be online, where I do interact with my team members, all be in through the means of a virtual world. We talk. We joke. We have fun together.

I’m sure I mentioned before that I play a Priest. Priest have two ways of healing, Discipline and Holy. Throughout the Firelands Raid I was healing as a Discipline Priest, a change from healing as a Holy Priest while leveling. I did most of my raiding in the first raiding tier as a Shadow Priest. Shadow Priests do not heal, they kill. I started out raiding as a healer though, but changed when I showed my ability to do damage. For Firelands we were in need of a healer and I had done it before, so there I was, saving lives again. It was fun because it was although the healing was still new in a sense, I was a veteran raider now. Then came Dragon Soul, the last raid of this expansion.

The way this latest raid has worked out recently is that we usually only need two healers in stead of three, and I was asked if I would be willing to go back to killing again. Since changing to Discipline I have fallen in love with healing again, but I figured that I already have a lot of gear and will be able to step right back up for the fights where we need three healers, or on the days when one of the other healers can not make it. My numbers have show that I’m well up for it. In fact, since my “personal fight” to get my healing numbers not just competitive, but good enough to to post the best healing number on our team, I was a little surprised that they asked me and not another healer.

Us three healer came together in Ventrillo, a voice chat program we use while playing, and it basically came down to this. Each player can create two Specs for their class. Most healers use the second one for damage, because outside of raids you often need that. Our Druid has no damage spec created. The other healer has a damage spec, but like me she prefers to heal. Apparently the general feeling (them two and the raid leader) was that once geared up I would be the better damage dealer among us. I suppose this was largely based on my previous experience.

I just like playing for the most part, so despite having a favourite play style, I will do what the team needs or I will get out. If the team does not get it done then I don’t it done either, So here I am, still trying to gear up. Unfortunately most of my gear that I need now comes from things I need to kill, and you only get it once said stuff dies, then it is about luck to see if they give you what you need. This catching up thing is going to take some time. Did I mention we have another Shadow Priest who will be fighting for the same gear I am looking for?

That is it for this post. More on the gear appropriation in tomorrow’s post. After that I am thinking want to make posts that shows that weeks photos for my Photo a Day project. More on that another time.

Mad rush time again.

noreply@blogger.com (Otto Silver) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 03:00:00 +0000

It is the week before Christmas and as can you would imagine things are getting crazy. NOT.

Life is going on as usual. The shops are no busier than they normally are. Here are no more people in the streets than there would be every day. I suspect that on Saturday evening the only reason Icheon will be busy will be because it is Saturday and people will be out doing what they always do on a Saturday evening. No mad rush to buy presents. No stressed workers trying to help frantic shoppers while keeping the isles clear of the rubbish everyone throws down the moment they realize that this it is not what they are looking for.

I love Christmas in Korea

For Heavens Sake! Will…

noreply@blogger.com (Otto Silver) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 03:00:00 +0000

…someone please kick someone! =D

…someone please show me how to do that?

Dosirak

noreply@blogger.com (Otto Silver) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 03:00:00 +0000

This morning on the way to school I was listening to the BBC News Podcast and one of the segments was about lunch boxes in Japan. Unlike Korea, Japan is very serious about making the food look precise and beautiful. In Korea the presentation is very lose at the best of times. At the worst of times everything is just thrown in to the same pot, literally.

As luck would have it I watched an Eat Your Kimchi clip today about making a Korean lunch box. In the clip the mention that the lunchbox is called Dosirak. My experience with Dosirak is a stupid service which I had to use to get a ringtone on my old LG phone on KT. Not a pleasant memory. Turns out I actually have better experiences of this.

My actual real first experience, without knowing that it was called, was when we went to a restaurant and the people who ordered the item that ZenKimchi describes in this post. They also told me it was their school lunches and how they would take their metal tins and put it on the heaters in the class rooms to heat up their food (if they actually managed to not eat it already). I must say I am currently considering making my own dosirak rather than eat school lunches.

I have also had less pleasant but acceptable experience with the kind that you buy in large numbers to feed a group. The kind that FatManSeoul describes here is pretty close to what I learned to associate with Dosirak.

What I would love to have though is the kind shown in the main photo. For more amazing lunch boxes that I am sure would make even the Japanese envious, have a look at the images on this Google search.

The funny and norty

noreply@blogger.com (Otto Silver) — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 03:00:00 +0000

I had my finger down and was taking a burst. Within a couple of seconds the photos went from her looking directly at me, seeing something, opening her mouth as of to say “Aaah!” and going in to the pout. No idea what was going on, but it made for a nice photo.

The artist was talking to her friend, I think, and the model was just sitting like this to make it easier to paint. But, with burst mode again, I managed to get a few shots that on their own did not really tell the whole story. I leave it up to you to create your own story for this shot.

Love the people in the background.

The model was looking around for something and with my oh so trustworthy burst mode I managed to get this shot of her looking bewildered in my direction. the photo makes it seem like she is thinking: “Hey! What the f*** are you doing?!”

This photo was just to good to resist. Everyone was staring or at least swinging their heads back.

The girls does not have a bad butt at all, but what made this photo for me was the towel that seems to be covering … nothing

Every man there wanted THAT job. Well, all the men like me who like butts. This particular model had rather large breasts, as you can see. The Korean photographers were crowding to get photos of the big breasted foreign women =D

Yes, these two are total perv photos. Like I said in an earlier post, anyone who thinks hat body painting is all art and no erotica is kidding themselves.

That is it for the photos from the Daegu International Body Painting Festival. More in my Flickr set.

Holy Model Painting

noreply@blogger.com (Otto Silver) — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 03:00:00 +0000

This might be my favourite image of the whole event. At this early point in the process the model still looked like she was getting a bit of an Hindu/Buddhist design. The fan in the background was positioned in such a way that every so often, if the artist was out of the way, it would turn and make it look like the model had halo. Took me about 10 minutes of waiting to get this shot.

Consumes be done.

noreply@blogger.com (Otto Silver) — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 03:00:00 +0000

The consume section was finished long before the body painting section. (I did not stay for he body painting results, because I was sun burned and wanted to make sure I would get on a bus back home).

The model in the main photo was done long before any other model, and the way she was positioned made it generally easy to get nice photos of her. This is not my favourite photo of her, but it is one that shows a lot of her costume.

The second photo is the Japanese entry. Looks good, bit not very imaginative, I’d say. The third entry was my favourite. Not very risky, but I still liked it. Here the model was being led to the stage for the public presentation. The last entry was a bit weird, in a good way. The make-up on her eyes forms another set of large open eyes when the model closes hers. More photos on my Flickr set of the event.