Where the F--- is the EPA?

Water is a necessary element for all life on Earth.  According to various "scientists" and environmental watchdog organizations and groups, Green-House-Gasses are the bane of earthlings.  Water vapor makes up the majority of Green-House-Gasses.  Right now it's 83% relative humidity which is some magic ratio between the relative and absolute humidity for any given temperature.  This dogshit weather sucks.  Where is the EPA telling the water vapor to cut it out?  They went as far as to blame cow farts and hordes of wheezing asthmatics that their puffers were damaging the environment, why not crusade against water vapor?  Most importantly, why not crusade against water vapor anywhere I happen to be?  I have been trying to this myself, but alas, I need big brother to reach down and help me.

Actually, the only one at fault is (besides the horseshit location of South Korea) my wonderful air-conditioner.  It works fine for all of 5 minutes before the condenser shuts off and stops blowing cold air.  The air blowing anytime is musky/smelly as if the internal workings are dirty and moldy.  I took off the front grate to discover this awesome non-removable foam filter thing that smelled like a urine receptacle.  Le fook.  I was thinking maybe there was a dehumdifier option, but its all in Korean.  I looked up the model number online to find that my model does not indeed exist.  Why does it seem whenever you have an issue with something, it truly does not exist anywhere else in space-time?  The evidence that the "fabric" of space time is inconsistent is all around us.  Such as having the only item in existence or where the missing sock goes in the dryer.  There must be some location where all of these things either come from or are sent to.  From my experiences traveling abroad, electric dryers outside of of North America are rare.  I envision a mass exodus of socks from the space-time of North America.  This assumes of course, that space-time changes or is different based on where you are and I am pretty sure that is incorrect.  Science, what say you?

I am currently around half way done with Common Sense.  I am very surprised by its length.  Whenever the word pamphlet comes to mind I think of something short.  Something one to two pages in length.  Common Sense is surprisingly lengthy.  It is a good read.  If nothing else the jabs at the English or French are refreshing.  It makes me wonder whatever happened to Thomas Paine.  You generally hear of Common Sense and then Mr. Paine drops off the map.  I do not believe he was at the 1788 convention to write our current constitution nor do I believe he had any hand in its predecessor, the Articles of Confederation.

Aha!  The bastard went to France.  He played around in the French Revolution and made a mess of things over there.  He continued to write, was somehow elected to the National Convention, despite not being able to speak French.  If only the Frenchman's logic was a strong as his smell.  (I look forward to your comments!)
He wrote the Rights of Man and the Age of Reason and spent some time in prison.  He basically was a trouble maker in France until Jefferson asked him to come back.  He did so then promptly died.  Or so the Wiki tells me.  Further research is required.

He was ostracized in the U.S. due to his criticisms of Christianity which I find interesting.  It is interesting that he used the Bible as a source to dispute the right of Kings, most notably the notion of the divine right of Kings when he wrote Common Sense.  He also does not seem to have any real love of the French nor Europe for that matter.  So what drove him to go to Europe?  As well as he offers and interesting view into 18th century Christianity.  Like many of his time, it appears the Bible was a historical text as much as it was one of scripture.  Paine promoted deism which may be why he mostly quotes the Old Testament.  Many of our founding fathers were men of God, but whenever they had an issue with religion they voiced it.  It seems in the thinkers and doers of the 18th century viewed God and religion almost as if they are separate entities that often crossed each other's paths.

From my brief look into Paine, I can conclude, that maybe the man was just a rebel without a cause.  If there was trouble to stir he hopped on that stirrin' spoon like a black matron in the kitchen.  Once again I look forward to your comments...

The Devil's Work

Edit 2:  Nvm, I can't read.  I'll leave the previous edit in for emphasis and this.  When you kow tow to a king, you kow tow to Sataaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan...
Edit:  I forgot to mention the reason for today's blog title.  I believe I had it in here somewhere but must I have taken it out or something.  Paine argues the institution of Kings is the Devil's greatest work.  That Devil, he's a tricky one!

Common Sense by Thomas Paine is free on Amazon Kindle.  Pick it up.  It would be interesting to look into the history of how and when Mr. Paine's name became attached to the pamphlet.  It was originally published anonymously.  Mr Paine, a prudent man, gave value to the dividends his head paid when firmly attached to his body.  Arguing the legitimacy of a monarch is best done anonymously, especially when the most powerful monarch in the world in 1775 is in question...

Anyway just a heads up.  Lots of good stuff  in here.  Paine points out the creation of Kings is the devil's greatest work.  The Bible warns of big government in any form the with idea, of course, you forsake your true king, when you worship an earthly one.  Kings, they are bad news.  Paine also describes the folly of governments created around checks and balances.  At the time the only government in the world that did this was the English limited monarchy/parliamentary system.  Basically, he said it's a farce.  Lets take a look, shall we.

He says, it assumes in a system of checks and balances that any one entity cannot be trusted without the others keeping an eye on it.  This also assumes the ones keeping an eye on one entity are better suited for that purpose.  So you get in this cyclical motion of the checks always need to be better suited than what they are checking when they are checking what is also checking them.  So basically, in human history the best form of government we've been able to produce requires it to be larger than necessary to keep tyranny at bay.  At anytime when more power is granted to one section, those new powers must be checked by another entity.  Thus growing government.  Reform, reform, reform...it all means the more you fuck with it the worse it gets.

It may sound like the proposition is a doomed one.  In that as humans advance the perceived needs of people grows, thus we need more government.  This proposes an entirely different question of why does it need to be government.  Anyway, we may discuss this later, I'm on my way home now.  I'll finish Common Sense as should everyone else and we will discuss later.

blehhhhhhhhhhhh

Listening to the pitter patter of rain outside makes me want to sleep.  Actually, it makes me want to leave the office, go home, crack my bedroom window, and fall asleep until ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh February.  Yeah, waking up in February is good.  Lets do it.  I think sleeping  for eight months is possible it's just a simple matter of cardiac arrest.  Or cryogenics.  But who wants to be freezer burned?

I need to come up with something fun to do for Thursday and Friday.  At least I hope it's only for Thursday and Friday.  I'm sitting here a bit worried I'll need something prepared for my second period.  I went on reconnaissance mission to the bathroom and spied some tangos chicken scratching on what appears to be tests.  Well this sort of abates the fear for now.  But I still have no ideas.  I'm stuck sort of at a crossroads here.  I can try to get into and learn something about all of these boring things kids in Korea do these days.  Such as, sports, k-pop, and all things pop culture.  But that's a huge bin of garbage to sift through.  It's a daunting task to do that for American sports, pop music, and pop culture and I'm American.  That and I would just be regurgitating anything they already know if I somehow manage to pick the cool stuff.  Picking American versions of these things is a bit difficult too.  Most is vulgar and not appropriate for the classroom.  If i was going to pick something with explicit lyrics or something I would choose something in the realm of music I actually like.  Which means the students probably wouldn't care for it.

So I went to the old standby.  What happened yesteryear?  Lots of neat things happened of course.  If I talk about history on a rainy day like today there will be a record amount of sudden cases of narcolepsy and blunt force trauma to the brain as their heads smack into the desks.  At least in a history class I can get away with history.  In English comprehension I can um...I can um...blehhhh it's all boring.

Monday Monday

AWESOME, its Monday!

No matter how faux excited I get it doesn't change the fact I'm slightly hungover and have nothing to do all day.  With that said lets forget Monday and talk about yesterday.  I find its best to forget Mondays and either stay on Sunday or skip ahead to Tuesday.  According to science, the past is one of eight total directions.  And apparently nothing moves faster in the universe than stationary objects.  Or objects that are not trying to go faster.  I don't know what this all means, I just read an article that tried to make the concept of why faster than the speed of light is not possible, simple.  It was marginally successful.  Oh yeah, Sunday.

Yesterday, Stevie invited me out for steak at VIPS or the highest rated Korean steak house south of the 38th.  They have a kick ass salad bar/buffet thing that you can either get by itself or included in your otherwise, overpriced steak.  The steak was okay, but more Asiany in the sense it has a heavy marble to it.  Tasty, but I definitely think it would be too fatty for many Americans.  You can get everything from rice to ribs on the salad bar/buffet thing.  They had this spicy fried rice dish sort of like jumbalaya and it was delicious.  Your meal also comes with taters, mushrooms, or some vegetable.  Not too bad for 34,000krw, but still pricey.

Probably the best part of the experience at VIPS was the ice cream machine.  Apparently, the ice cream machine had just woken up and I was the first to use it.  So I pull down on the lever.  The machine shudders and comes to life.  Well I thought it was coming to life.  It continues to shudder and nothing is coming out.  Just as I begin to think this thing is constipated some green ice cream starts to slowly ooze out.  Then it stops and just hangs there.  What the hell.  SO I lay in on the lever some more and the machine shudders and groans and slowly resumes pooping my ice cream out.  So I keep working the lever and the machine continues to strain and right before the machine has an aneurysm the floodgates open and it begins pooping out ice cream at an incredible speed.  My cone is overflowing!  Just when I think all is lost the machine empties its bowels and sits silent.  A job well done, and I'm sure the machine is reflecting on the physical hardships it went through to give me my green tea flavored ice cream.  I'm glad we could work through this together, ice cream machine!  This ordeal lasted no longer than maybe 5 minutes.

After this exciting adventure in ice cream defecation we went to this multi-floored shopping center.  This was pretty cool.  You can take your shopping cart on the escalators which don't have steps but is a long incline.  The shopping carts are pretty cool once you get them on the escalator magnets in the wheels clamp the cart to the escalator so it doesn't slide around and withdraw human life.  The place was packed full of people.  They had some good prices, I should try to go back there.  I have an idea of where it's at, but its quite a walk from the bus stop.  And you get to go through a tunnel!  Exciting times!

Anyway, that was my Sunday.  Now Monday, please hurry and finish up!

June 24, 1374

History sometimes waltzes in when you least expect it.

So what is worthy of note about June 24, 1374?  I'm glad you asked.  On this day, a long ass time ago, in Aechen, Germany the first major outbreak of St. John's Dance was recorded.  If visions of a bunch grubby Germans doing the Macarena during the Dark Ages popped into your head, you are not far from the mark.  St. John's Dance is also known as the Dancing Plague and was an epidemic of feverish, uncontrollable dancing.  It was thought to be a curse by St. John the Baptiste himself.  How cool is that?  Anyone can curse someone to an untimely death but this seemingly groove master St. John cursed people to dance until they collapsed from exhaustion.  Contemporary sources often picture women partaking in St. John's Dance, because you know, if there is something a bit odd and bearing the suspicion of devilry, it's best to show women doing it.  However, further investigations show that it men were the primary dancers.  So think 14th century Men at Work or the Village People.  Actually, I'm not positive if Men at Work danced or not, I'm assuming so due to that famous song of theirs where they request that everyone look at their pants.  The Dancing Plague was popular for around 200 years and seemed to die down by about mid 16th century.  It is thought to be one of the first forms of mass hysteria or even maybe a social movement of some sort and not actually a disease.

Anyway, I had never heard of this before.  It's pretty cool.

Update Time?

Edit again - Okay I think the pics are up.
Y u no show pics?!  Okay I'll fix this later when I am not being derped.

While you wait, feel free to check this out.  A lil something I stumbled on why listening to the new Pelican album I have shamefully not purchased on Youtube.  I'm pretty sure the kool peeps that frequent this roaring blog will not love my taste in music.  Be adventurous!  After all...God is an astronaut.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34C41eEpM48

Hello again,
I have not updated due to lack of energy to do so.  Its Wednesday night.  I have no classes tomorrow, but I still have to show up and look busy.  Hooray!  Next week the students have tests!  As far as I know, I don't do anything for them.  So most of a week of looking busy. . .

Not really much to report, besides I'm pretty bored here.  I suppose I could talk about two particular things.  These are things most foreigners to Korea probably complain about and probably to some extent, our service personnel here in Korea.  First things first.  Mold.  Seriously Korea, dry the hell out!  We haven't even got to the rainy season yet!  Up here in Haseong it doesn't rain often, but and the Humidity is around 40% on average.  Things just mold.  Sad face.  I had a loaf a bread that was two days old.  Now its moldy.  BLEH.

The second thing on my mind are bugs.  These little gnat bastards go right through the screens, swarm your face and then collect on the walls and ceiling to judge you.  Eventually they all decide to take a pilgrimage to the sun and have a mass exodus to the light.  Then their righteously charred little bodies pepper my bed...  I was able to cut down their numbers by identifying the window they come in from.  And it's of course, the window I always sit by and need open for cool air.  So it gets closed around 7:30 to prevent my bed from looking like Antietam.  There are these awesomely retarded beetles here too.  They are huge, loud, and do not posses a brain.  Sometimes they fly into something and fall to the ground on their backs and then just hang out on the floor with their legs flailing about in the air.  You can fly bros!  Most of the time I pick them up and toss them out the window other times I torture them with a slipper.  I've come to enjoy the time I spend with the beetles. . .

As requested here are some photos of the house.

This is the view of the schools from my path.

The tweeted weiner

Hang with me as I remember how to post pics. . .

Yeah. . .I don't know I was listening to the Steiner standing in for Rush and he said that as I was writing this entry.  So now you know!

Sunday June 5, 2011
Today was pretty fun.  Stevie came by and said lets go to Gimpo.  Well OKAY!  We went to JANGNEUNG (Gimpo): The Royal Tomb of Posthumous King Wonjong and Queen Inheon.  Um thats what my brochure says.  It's a pretty nice park, I'll upload some pics I took later.  We walked around and looked at the tomb from about 100 yards off.  You can't get very close to it.  Then we had arts and crafts time in the old house/city/thing.  We made fans.  Mine turned out pretty well, imo.

Then we went back into Gimpo and ate at Pizza Hut.  Best pizza in Korea so far.  Then we got ice cream and donuts.

Okay now lets see here I uploaded some of my pics.  Not all of them, I should find a service to upload them as a whole.  Suggestions welcome!

This is the sidewalk in Haseong going out to the family park.  Sidewalks are nice, and this one should be noted as one of the few actual sidewalks in Podunk-Haseong.

One pic from the park.  I don't think this is the pic I meant to upload but here it is.  Walking path in the park.

Gazebo in park.

Limited street view of downtown Gimpo.

Park pond in Gimpo.

And to sum up this photo dump fried bread wrapped in nice crispy bacon!

Okay I'll be back with more stuff uploaded, stay tuned!

Webernets Saturday Morning

ARC arrived today and they will come install the internet Saturday morning.  I will not get too excited for this event until I have packets flowing to my computer.  Then I'll setup the VPN and all should be glorious.  The only thing to make this Saturday better would be large quantities of Dew Juice and juicy sirloin hardly cooked.

I am also going to setup a bank account this afternoon so yay money.  Hopefully.