A thread for pointless Friday ramblings.

Heard my first cicada when out hiking on Wednesday, and now the humidity hits you when you go outside.  It's started....

I hate how "The Legend" status makes our usernames red. It feels like I'm getting flagged for being angry.

The color should be dark pink, the true color of champions.

I hate how "The Legend" status makes our usernames red. It feels like I'm getting flagged for being angry.

The color should be dark pink, the true color of champions.

looks like i just hit 2000 posts, so now i'm a red name. i'm fine with dark pink

It's Friday night and my plans got nixed,... so... i'm gonna call it an early night and hit the road bright and early in the mornin', about 6ish, as early as i can, but i can't leave too early cuz my Korando needs diesel and gas stations don't operate all night in this town (heck after 830 or 9 i dunno any that are open - certainly the 3 places i frequent aren't.

So here i am, twiddling my thumbs on a friday night without even a good book to read, though the smartphone in my hand here affords me many options in terms of media entertainment (but that's usually a monday night thing for me, not the weekend!).

Sigh. I'm petting one of my two "persian" cats, i quote mark that because i'm convinced they are Angora cats, from Ankora, Turkey, not from Persia (Iran). The breeds are similar in many ways but different as well. My duo, especially the female of the siblings, looks like and demonstrates the behavior of angora cats. I've researched it online and it's a match.

I'd go into more detail if you want, but i'll segue now instead into the sophie's choice that brought them into my life: i told my director at my last hagwon (five years ago) that i love cats and a few weeks later she arrived at my door one thursday night with two young white long haired kittens, a male and female, and asked which one do i want? I was caught unexpected and just said i need time to decide and she said okay she will come back on monday. By then both kitties were curled up in my heart and i couldn't decide which one to subject to the risks and horrors of being a likely street cat someday given how often the locals let cats outside, how many openly detest them and kick them, kids throw rocks at them, young children are sometimesly deathly afraid of them, and dang, my first three years in korea i lived down the street from a shop with three shiny silver vats that made a cat soju tonic for old folks' bad backs. Ugh.

I always get a bit irritable and blue around this time of year.  Exams are all done but we still have two weeks left where the students have all switched off and are just tying up loose ends.  Two weeks of limping to the finish line of an exhausting semester only to be met with a two week camp as a prize.

It just annoys me 

Yeah, I agree. The camps are just pointless wastes of money, in most cases. They're doing them just to do them these days.

Decided to test the water a little bit.

As I said in my previous post, we have two weeks left but the students aren't doing anything.  Checked with my coteacher; she's just giving them their final scores and then they watch movies.  Brilliant.

So I gently made the suggestion...why don't we move the camp forward and start it now (or at least next week) so we can get it out of the way and we can all have a nice rest during the summer vacation.

No can do.  Apparently we can't call it a camp if it's held during regular class time.  I tried 

I always get a bit irritable and blue around this time of year.  Exams are all done but we still have two weeks left where the students have all switched off and are just tying up loose ends.  Two weeks of limping to the finish line of an exhausting semester only to be met with a two week camp as a prize.

It just annoys me 

''Yayyyy it's almost vacation!'' Said the Korean teacher. ''Only one week to go!''

''Not for me'' explained the exhausted, broken NET. ''I have to do summer camp, so 3 1/2 weeks left.''

''Oh... well do you get paid extra?''

''No''

''Oh... well can you go home early once you are finished??''

''Nope''

''Oh that's too bad. At least you can go home today, now the tests are over.''

''Noooope''

''...''

''...''

''Ok, bye!'' (Korean teacher exits, even after complaining to the NET all morning about how much work she has to do on the student reports)

Cities from scratch from around Asia and the Middle East.  Songdo in Incheon managed to make it in there...

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/ng-interactive/2019/jul/09/cities-from-scratch-100-and-counting-new-cities-rise-from-the-desert-jungle-and-sea

Been to Songdo a couple of times, but only to stay in hotels before an early flight.  Some interesting facts about it. 

Next semester, a middle school wants me to teach night classes on Thursdays from 6:40pm to 8pm.  I taught there last year doing the same thing and actually taught in that school for 5 years way back.  So last week, as they have an official procedure, I should 'apply' for the job.  Fine, I thought it's just a formality.  I did that last year.  Today, my co-t came to me and said that another Korean English teacher applied for the job so I should go for an interview on Monday.  Ah, please.  My co-t stressed to me, no one knows this other teacher and they really want me to work there so I should just do the interview, but I just cannot be arsed as it's the end of a long hard semester.  Also, I have my school's English festival on Monday so I'll be busy all day, especially as my students want me to do some K-pop style dancing with them to One Direction, which is fine.  And I go on holiday next Friday.  Cannot be arsed...

I love the smell of basmati rice.

That's all.

Finished all my Elementary classes for the semester. It's on to movies and relaxing for these last couple of weeks!

Finished all my Elementary classes for the semester. It's on to movies and relaxing for these last couple of weeks!

Same here! *virtual high five*

I love the smell of basmati rice.

That's all.

here here!!!!!!!!

There's this cookie leftover from lunch that I keep trying to eat between classes, but people aren't letting me. ;__;

Normally wouldn't matter, but its fallen cookie brothers were ****** delicious, and I really, really need to finish this last one off.

I don't quite get it with the Chemistry teacher at my school.  I've complained about him before about being the least 'sciency' person ever.  He's the guy who does morning walking around the school grounds with no mask when the pollution is bad and then complains a week later that he has a sore throat.  Also, the same guy that switches off the air cleaner in the teacher's room, and then I turn it on, and then he turns it off.  Today, in my city the Aqicn level is over 150 in the very bad stakes and I come to school, turn on the air cleaner and dehumidifier in the teacher's room, and then he comes to school after me and turns them both off and then opens all the windows.  'pujangnim, on neul mi se meonji nappeum'.  He just laughed.     Seriously, a fukcing idiot.

I don't quite get it with the Chemistry teacher at my school.  I've complained about him before about being the least 'sciency' person ever.  He's the guy who does morning walking around the school grounds with no mask when the pollution is bad and then complains a week later that he has a sore throat.  Also, the same guy that switches off the air cleaner in the teacher's room, and then I turn it on, and then he turns it off.  Today, in my city the Aqicn level is over 150 in the very bad stakes and I come to school, turn on the air cleaner and dehumidifier in the teacher's room, and then he comes to school after me and turns them both off and then opens all the windows.  'pujangnim, on neul mi se meonji nappeum'.  He just laughed.     Seriously, a fukcing idiot.

I mean, I once had a science teacher try to tell me that phrenology was a legit science, lol, and another one who said that the moon walk was fake. There are even nurses who buy into the antivax bullshit, too (although this fact absolutely horrifies most nurses, given the amount of experience that they have dealing with the consequences). There are times when I want to know what the scope of education for people with a supposed background in science and medicine is because sometimes what some of them spit out is just so counterintuitive to the fact.

But sometimes education just isn't enough because there are psychological variables and pathology at play that interfere with that process.

That teacher is probably just super set in his ways, didn't grow up learning about pollution so doesn't really have much of an awareness of it, and probably doesn't understand its impact on the human body. They're still telling folks it's not a big deal here. And to be fair, teachers are also told to open windows in the morning by health officials because there are actual benefits for doing it, although I doubt that most of them really know what those benefits are.

I want to watch the new "Lion King" movie but I haven't been a fan of any of the Disney live-action remakes so far, so I'm kind of on the fence about it.

Word is that it's kind of gross and boring, and I know that's supposed to be a bad thing, but at the same time I have this morbid curiosity about just how bad it is.

I want to watch the new "Lion King" movie but I haven't been a fan of any of the Disney live-action remakes so far, so I'm kind of on the fence about it.

I've heard that the emotional reactions in the original are exaggerated and big, so it's easy to see the "acting" of the emotions in the characters.

Because they look so much like "real" animals now, they behave and look very much like real animals with moving mouths.

But they don't furrow their brows, or gasp in surprise now, so they look really flat and uninteresting.

I won't go see these remakes on principal, because I've read that each one that gets released is basically like a ;mod for the original 90s one. It's an upgrade. No thanks, appears to be a MASSIVE cash grab with no soul.

And it's a shame because they've had some truly respectable directors come on; Favreau and Ritchie, but I gather that the studio has their hands ALL OVER THEM and they can't truly do what they'd like (although, that's speculation, I must admit, I couldn't possibly KNOW that, but it is Disney and these are their intellectual property for a wide audience, so that would shock NO ONE if it were true.)

I've heard that the emotional reactions in the original are exaggerated and big, so it's easy to see the "acting" of the emotions in the characters.

Because they look so much like "real" animals now, they behave and look very much like real animals with moving mouths.

But they don't furrow their brows, or gasp in surprise now, so they look really flat and uninteresting.

I won't go see these remakes on principal, because I've read that each one that gets released is basically like a ;mod for the original 90s one. It's an upgrade. No thanks, appears to be a MASSIVE cash grab with no soul.

And it's a shame because they've had some truly respectable directors come on; Favreau and Ritchie, but I gather that the studio has their hands ALL OVER THEM and they can't truly do what they'd like (although, that's speculation, I must admit, I couldn't possibly KNOW that, but it is Disney and these are their intellectual property for a wide audience, so that would shock NO ONE if it were true.)

Yeah, I've had one person tell me they felt like they were watching a documentary that had been dubbed over like how you see some youtubers do.

I don't mind the idea of the remakes in and of themselves, but like you've said all of the remakes I've seen so far have lacked the charm of the originals and fallen flat. Disney didn't make the necessary modifications for that type of transition, and instead chose to stick as closely to the same formula as possible. Like there are some things you can do with animations that you just can't get away with in non-animated films, and you have to adapt for that. But people will still flock and pay to see these films as they are, and I'm almost over the whole business. I keep hoping that Disney will learn from the mediocre reviews, but so far nothing's changed.

I wouldn't be shocked at all if the directors did have their hands tied behind their backs. When movies fall this flat, despite the powerhouse names involved in them, it's normally because there were too many cooks in the kitchen reaching into the chef's pot and micromanaging it into mediocrity.