Archives: Tweets

@JustinHowe @GeekinKorea @tweetsbymoi My sister got her a cell phone thinking she’d be easier to reach with a portable phone. On the bright side, when I do occasionally catch her, Facetime is instantly on. (We still have to tell her to move the phone from her ear, though.)

@JustinHowe @GeekinKorea @tweetsbymoi Good luck! I wish I could get my mom to carry her cell phone with her, so she could answer it when we (or other people, really) try to call.

@GeekinKorea Ha, would you like a passage from Mao’s biography about the time Mao knew one of his wives and their children were a few blocks from where he was, and that they’d be captured and tortured/killed by anti-communist forces if he did nothing, but he did nothing anyway? 🙂 @GeekinKorea (Not to encourage trolling, but… yeah, that’s nuts. And not so surprising. And the more nationalist-minded students I’ve had from China all seemed to have a very, very positive view of Mao, so…. but yeah, bad idea.)

@DragonStabber Who, me? (looks over shoulder)

Sounds way better than the violent jock gym teacher who was our first sex ed teacher. Who pretty much focused on, “Size doesn’t matter… but, heh, heh, really it does.”

Also explained sex using a warped version of the Goldilocks story that I can’t, for the life of me, remember.

@chaiwalla5 Well, some people will be happy to hear that!

Hey, I helped playtest this! It’s bizarre and wild and cool and recommended!

kickstarter.com/projects/drago…, via Kickstarter

Which by the way is the main point in that article I mentioned reading:

https://t.co/2IuODRn7SZ

Not an endorsement of Current Affairs—which I can’t remember much about, though I’ve read it a few times. But it’s a good, apt trashing of the Economist. Also: I’m not dismissing the labor or commitment of health care workers in Sweden, who I’m sure are doing their best with a really rough situation. This is about deeply questionable policy being loudly and publicly praised.

Now, I’m open to detailed comparisons by people who know more (math? facts?) than I do.

I’ll admit Korea didn’t take as many precautions about data privacy as it could (easily) have done.

Maybe the fact more elderly people live with adult kids made a difference here. I dunno. But even so, The Economist promoting articles praising Sweden’s handling of COVID to people in Korea looks embarrassingly dumb to me, in the way committed ideologues who ignore reality always look.

Korea’s total elderly population is like 3/4 of the TOTAL population of Sweden; Sweden’s is less than a third of Korea’s elderly population. If elderly people being disproportionately vulnerable was the whole story, Korea would have had way more deaths in absolute terms, right? All this leaves one curious (not really) why Sweden is the country they choose to praise. Especially when multiple East Asian countries have done better in relative and absolute terms.

On 4 November alone, there were 4497 confirmed cases in Sweden. That’s a little less than a fifth of the CUMULATIVE TOTAL number of confirmed cases in Korea. And everyone knows they’ve been testing more people here than most places, so… *shrug* “But the deaths were in old folks homes…”

Does that make it better? (?)

Elderly population (65+):
South Korea: 15% of total population (7.6 million)
Sweden: 20% of total population (~2million)

Sweden does have relatively more elderly people than Korea—relatively. But…

You saw that right. Sweden has 1/5th the population of South Korea…

… but 5x the number of confirmed COVID cases, and 12.5x the number of reported COVID deaths.

That’s the ABSOLUTE numbers. I’m no mathematician, but… that’s pretty shocking. Even more so if you adjust for relative population size: if S. Korea had handled things as “well” as Sweden we’d have had ~30,100-odd deaths and ~690,000 cases.

A moment or two comparing the numbers of dead in Korea and Sweden—and the numbers of elderly, and the sizes of the population, is pretty worthwhile. As of a day or two ago: S. Korea: Total Population: ~50 million people Cases so far: 27,553 Deaths: 480 https://t.co/yFkfGS4Ik1 Sweden: Total population: ~10 million people Cases so far: 146,461 Deaths: 6,022

Yeah, no more of this. (Not sure why—whether it’s just all the people in Korea who read the Economist for their English, or because I read an article (rightly) railing at The Economist for being garbage, but I’ve been targeted by Economist tweets for a week and I’m done.) Especially since, you know, a lot of their promoted tweets are garbage praising Sweden’s handling of COVID as exemplary. Screw off, The Economist: I live in South Korea, I know what exemplary handling of COVID *actually* looks like.

@tweetsbymoi @GeekinKorea @JustinHowe We haven’t had any over here. (We’ve got an airbase over near Cheongju, so I know what you mean about inter-Korean tensions and noisier air traffic… but it hasn’t been a thing in our area lately.)

So… who do you think is trying to hack COVID-19 vaccine research centers?

koreabiomed.com/news/articleVi…

@tweetsbymoi @chaiwalla5 @daandydan These are numbers that were standard back when I first got to Korea, too. (My first job here started at 1.8, IIRC. First Uni job started at 2.3, I’m pretty sure, and rose to 2.5 and that was it.) @tweetsbymoi @chaiwalla5 @daandydan (Could say a *lot* more about this but there’s not much point: it’s not like you can convince people who see nothing wrong with double-standards that double-standards are actually wrong. At least not till they’re on the receiving end.)

? Hank Mobley’s Soul Station (with Art Blakey, Wynton Kelly, and Paul Chambers)  tmblr.co/ZwA1ltZDEwpKGu…

@isasv Yep. I am curious to understand the thought process. I ask. Have never really gotten a clear answer beyond, “It’s my mistake,” or “I’m sorry.” (Which I read as, “Well, I’ve operated like this forever, and just assumed it’d work this time too?” but I still ask.)

I know I used to eat cucumbers without 쌈장. (I just don’t know how.) Probably the Korean home food habit I’ll stick with forever. That and instant pot 김치만두.

Well, & also, the occasional student who really, really isn’t tech savvy and floods your email with pleas for help in the hours before the deadline, or the student who messes up and forgets to screen share and ends up with a 2hr vid of their face & has to do the exam again. ? Well, the other downside is seeing people read instructions and choose to ignore them. Though it’s an upside too: at least I can grade them on the “following instructions” portion of the rubric without hesitating. I am sure some just are burned out—many left my exam till last.?

Of course, since I’m, bound by the grading curve, I suppose I should be grateful for those who shoot themselves in the foot. But it’s always a bit frustrating to see people who could do better who somehow just choose not to. The upside of having them Screenrecord while Desktop sharing alone in Zoom: proof of what they did, in what order, and that they didn’t plagiarize.

The downside? Every possible .zoom file conversion error that could happen did, and many expect me to provide tech support. 🙁

Like, I teach them a process weeks before the exam. It helps them derive useful material from sample texts, then reconstruct their own versions of analogous texts with natural-sounding rhetorical moves and sentence structures, among other things. Then they use this process in multiple assignments before the exam, to ensure it’s familiar. People who use the system consistently produce much better work, more easily, and more quickly.

But some people just refuse to use the process, ignore the instructions, etc.

I know the world is celebrating, but I’m spending my Sunday grading English writing exams, so a brief observation before I go back into the TEFL mines: You would be amazed just how many students don’t bother to read the steps, do them (unhelpfully) out of order, read them and then skip the steps anyway, and so on. It’s like, “Wait, you don’t *want* to do better? You don’t *want* a better grade? Really?”

@marc_laidlaw @jeremiahtolbert I mean I could go to Emart and have my choice of maybe 40 decent foreign beers. Maybe even sone new local ones? But I have been to Emart since February. They deliver everything… except alcohol. :/ @marc_laidlaw @jeremiahtolbert The govt changed the rules so you technically can order and pick up, but you still have to walk into the building. But I dunno if it’s been implemented.

@NMamatas Thank you so much, I haven’t laughed that hard in a while!

@marc_laidlaw @jeremiahtolbert Does it turn your tongue purple?

PS: I’d drink that.

PPS: still envious of you both. I’ve been making do with Costco “craft” beer (ahem)all pandemic long. It’s enough to drive me to homebrew again, really it is.

@marc_laidlaw @jeremiahtolbert Yeah, the IPA has overgrown and it’s time for brewers to branch out a little more!

@jeremiahtolbert What did you get? I’m sure I’m envious!

Whew. Now we can go back to… no, no we can’t. We mustn’t. But we can be relieved for today, at least.

? I mean, if you’re going to mash up two totally different works, might as well be Stravinsky’s The Firebird and Mahavishnu Orchestra’s Birds of Fire!  tmblr.co/ZwA1ltZCwyXNOe…

? ”The Troll”—Eli Degibri Quartet tmblr.co/ZwA1ltZCajl_ae…

They figured we’re all so distracted with events next door we wouldn’t notice? (Or, more likely, they’re just confident nobody cares about FN kids’ well-being.) t.co/3tFEwXoxpJ

@jeremiahtolbert No kidding, that’s where I buy things for Jihyun; she’s a fan of several specific Etsy creators.

RT @AOC: Incredibly powerful, must-watch moment. Thank you, @esglaude.

RT @dusttodigital: A dombra performance by Marzhan Kapsamat of Nursultan, Kazakhstan. The 23-year-old musician is playing in Lake Köbeituz,…

@pintsizehorror Ha, maybe. Or, rather, contract them to do it and then no pay the agreed upon amount. @pintsizehorror The check’s in the mail! It’s yuge! Like my hands!

@ahimsakerp I think ours was different, but basically similar in quality. We had no (actionable) recommendations of where to go.

Most frustrating thing is, this COULD have been useful and full of good materials. Instead, it’s a hoop jump exercise. @ahimsakerp Seriously, no actionable advice on how to handle being sexually harassed at work, or how to deal with a student spouting misogynistic hatred or homophobic rage in class. I’ve had all of these things happen to me, so it’s not theoretical: resources would actually be useful.

Next is Kingdom, the Joseon-era zombie horror series, which I really loved. (But I’ve been too busy to dive into Season 2, so this discusses only Season 1.)

hallofadventures.com/kingdom/

A couple more “Appendix K” posts went live over the past week—capsule reviews of Korean media and resources for RPG groups interested in Korean inspiration.

I’ve been mired in grading and stuff, but I was meaning to share them, so I might as well do it now! The first up is Feng Shui, a magical conspiracy fantasy film about geomancy being used to manipulate the fate of noble families in Joseon Korea.

hallofadventures.com/feng-shui/

@pintsizehorror I mean, unless they were in a hotel bed once slept on by Obama… 😉

@ahimsakerp Yeah, nothing says “bullshit hoop jump” more. Infuriated me since why not actually do a good training session? The answer is that it’s done badly on purpose, b/c the people who made it actively resent having to do so.

I should add that I mostly don’t blame students for this. It’s evident (and many have said) that they have never been taught this—in English or in Korean—so of course they don’t know how to do it. I have a handout that outlines this. I just usually teach it at semester’s end. —because some semesters, most student email comes in during the grade correction period, and it helps if it’s fresh in their minds that they need to politely identify themselves and clearly explain what they’re writing about.

(Tried to attach my handout but Twitter hates PDFs!)

Oh, and: I am thinking about moving my “How to email a professor” lesson to the beginning of semester. A few too many emails this week from WHO IS THIS? AND WHAT CLASS ARE THEY IN? AND WHAT ARE THEY ASKING ME FOR? Real example:

“SUBJECT: Professor, I’m in a hurry.

This is [redacted], a student who loves your class. If you give me time by Thursday, I’ll spend it then.would it be okay?”

I have several students with the same name. What this person is asking for: exam extension? A meeting?

Yeah, I have grading to get done today, and I’m not sure I could handle the doomscroll so, good luck America, good luck planet earth, tap me on the shoulder when we’ve exited the nightmare.

Well, the Instant Pot is pretty much the best way to steam 만두 at home, let me tell you.

? Bob Minzter really kills it in this Jaco Pastorius gig in Montreal. Strange I’d never heard of Minzter till undergrad, and even than mainly for his big band compositions.  (Also, man the world lost Jaco too young. The whole story is… tmblr.co/ZwA1ltZBIsCySi…

@GeekinKorea (Except the sentence template stuff. That I added around 2008, maybe.) @GeekinKorea (Anyway, feel free to pick my brain sometime if this writing class thing looks like it’s going to be a recurring thing and any of this interests you.)

@GeekinKorea 1. Brainstorm (free writing, mind map, very rough outline)
2. Analyze a sample paragraph and extract useful sentence templates
3. Draft a paragraph
4. Edit
5. Proofread and format.

One can’t plagiarize all that. (Trying to fake it would take longer than just doing it!) @GeekinKorea I mean, I still had them screenrecord themselves doing it on Zoom (screenshare, video overlay) for added security, but… plagiarizing a whole process isn’t really possible. I’ve been doing this in some form since… wow, since 2004.

@GeekinKorea (Also, if you have 1/3rd students who’re writing decent, organized work, you’re lucky! I get one or two of those per semester total, and maybe a 60/40 split between the other two categories.) @GeekinKorea Oh, and: teaching process and insisting they complete the process for writing assignments makes it WAY harder to plagiarize, AND results in better writing. It’s kinda 2 birds with one stone. On my midterm, writing students had to: