Ah-oooooo!

I saw "The Wolfman" remake on Saturday with Flint and Al. Surprisingly, I quite enjoyed it, finding it chock-full of pulpy-goodness. Anthony Hopkins was, of course, very good, and the actor who played Lawrence (Benio Del Toro) was very good in the role. He was very Byronic, fitting for a movie set in the Victorian era. The scene that ends the "Bedlam Asylum" portion was wonderful (although I thought the asylum was far more decrepit than it needed to be). Emily Blunt, who played the love interest, was quite flat and passionless, however, reminding me of a bored Mina Harker. I was quite envious of Hugo Weaving's wonderful Victorian beard; wish mine looked like that!

It had the right amount of gore (meaning enough to be realistic, but not overdone), was a little predictable (but that's okay for this kind of movie), and while a little slow to get going, once it did get going, it kept on going. All together a fun movie that was worth the admission price (and one can't say that about all movies these days) , but I won't buy the DVD.

Dad, if you're reading? You'd like this movie. Mom: you probably wouldn't.

B+

What the Kimchi...

Oh, and if you're interested in life in Korea, I recommend http://whatthekimchi.blogspot.com/. I know the blogger, and he always has interesting things to say.

Not in Kansas

Saw something kind of funny the other day... I was walking through the park on the way to the bus station, which I do everyday after work, and I heard some shouting. There was a line of about 15-20 boys facing another line of boys -- they looked about middle school age. Anyway, the one line was throwing eggs at the other line! They had whole cartons of them available, and they were just whizzing them in there. The boys just stood there, dodging as they could, but their uniforms were covered with egg splatters. Surrounding girls were laughing at them, and some older women were shaking their heads at the waste. I've seen them throwing flour at each other, but never eggs before.

Why? It's graduation time. We just finished the (extremely boring) ceremony at my school. Lunch is provided at least!

Quickie Meditation / Visualization for Calming and Slowing

(Created in the hospital during recovery from a hernia operation)

(First, visualizing a red or pink Buddha (either male or female) where your heart is)

a red buddha
on a red lotus
floating on a
warm salty sea

breathes slowly,
breathes softly,
breathes deeply.

Drinking Tea

Well, my head is cold, thanks to my new haircut, but that's okay, right? Short hair is so much easier when you don't have to comb it...

Unlike practically everybody else I know, I don't care for coffee, generally. Like alcohol, I find I don't really care for the taste. My drink of choice is tea. In particular, green tea, or nok-cha in Korean. (Literally, nok-cha means "green tea" strangely enough. Western black tea is generally called "hong-cha", which means red tea.)

In the USA, before I came to Korea, I was under the impression that everybody in Asia drinks tea. Wrong. Most people drink coffee here. Coffee shops abound, and so do coffee girls. What is a coffee girl? You call the local da-bong (tea-room) and order coffee or tea. A little while later, a shapely girl on a scooter brings you your coffee... and herself. Coffee, tea, or me? Or all of the above? Of course, I have no experience of coffee girls, but they're a pretty common sight, zipping around the city as they do.

Tea, of course, is closely attached to Buddhism. Myth has it that the Indian who brought Zen t0 China, Bodhidharma, was sleepy while he was meditating. Not wanting to sleep, he cut off his eyelids, and they fell into his hot water and became the first tea leaves.

Tea ceremonies are very famous, but all they are (it seems to me, and I could be wrong about this) is ritualized mindfulness while making / pouring / serving / drinking tea. You can do the the same thing when you make coffee for you friend. Mindfulness and attention is everything!

For me, there is a serenity, a holiness in tea. It is hard to drink it and not feel something ... special for lack of a better word.

Up in Seoul ...

Up to Seoul today, to have some Korean papers officially translated for the Embassy people -- no problem. I always enjoy going up to Seoul, which is a very dynamic and interesting city. I swear it looks different every time I go up there, though. Some of the things I like about it: it's safe! It's clean! It's beautiful. Not sure I'd want to live there, but... I'm lying. I'd love to live in Seoul. It's got like a gazillion people, but it's a wonderful city.

I stopped at one of my favorite places: " What The Book" used (English) bookstore, and purchased a book of stories by Gene Wolfe (famous SF writer), "Year's best SF #7" (a favorite annual anthology), and a Dragonlance book of short stories (I don't read or collect DL books (there's a million of them!), but I like the short stories. I also found a copy of "Brisingr" for $12 bucks (boy that's a massive book!) and the latest "Realms of Fantasy" mag (featuring a story by Harlen Ellison, if you can believe that! Yay!).

Also stopped at Cho-gay-sa temple, a famous and popular temple right downtown Seoul. Did a little meditating (very little, as the monk came in to start chanting, something I wasn't in the mood for at the moment) and stopped by the new museum (I wasn't impressed: it only focused on Soguk-am Temple, which is fine, but some diversity would be nice).

Ate lunch at Quiznos (sp?) (vegetarian sub) and took the bus home (hour and a half away).

Off to get a haircut in a while. Haircuts here are pretty cheap ($7-$10). I usually have my hair cut very short. I've had long hair (see picture), and while it looks nice (in my opinion), it's annoying (blows in wind, heavy after a shower, etc). These days, as the shop right in front of my house closed down, I got to a 24 hour place down the street. And no, it's not a "special" barber shop (i.e. place of prostitution, usually having two revolving signs in front) . My wife likes it because they give her an arm massage and paint her nails while they cut my hair.

And that's the news for today...

Lately...

I've not written anything like in forever, and I mean to rectify that immediately...

Hmmm... what have I been doing?

Well, I've been learning Esperanto. Why Esperanto? Why not? It's interesting and fun. Vere!

A lot of meditation. Doing green-card paperwork (off to Seoul tomorrow for translations of Korean documents...) Been on winter break, so been a little bored, I guess. And that's okay, I needed recovery time (see below). Been kind of lazing about, to be honest...

Had a hernia operation a few weeks ago (the second one in six years). Figured why not get it down here, where it's cheap? Spent just under a week in the hospital, which was while not fun, not horrible either. The first day was bad ... throwing up, etc, but after that, was just healing and recuperating. Being in the hospital is a little like being on retreat. It's just you and your body... no outside interference, and that's all you're worried about, you and your body.

Went to my Father-In-Law's birthday party last weekend...Trying to learn how to poach eggs (and failing) --

Read a wonderful book "Shadow Country" by Peter Matthiessen. It is a massive book, and I got though most of it in the hospital -- the last part, EJ Watson talking in the 1st person after his death, reminded me of Dante's Inferno, so I'm rereading the book now. I'm actually going to try to continue all the way through Purgatorio and Paradiso -- Usually I kind of stall in the middle of Purgatorio. This time, all the way to the top of Heaven's mountain!

Saw sone great movies: "Avatar", "500 days of Summer".

The weather has been nice... Almost springy, which I like! Roll on Spring! I miss you!