Devil's in Disguise

Alright, I*m opening this post up for discussion on how I should discipline my little hooligans. Yesterday was brutal... I started yelling in my army tone while throwing their tests on the ground. The Korean's hit them with a stick... I'm sure we can find alternatives...

-Comatose

p.s. It*s not really my classes that are the problem, it is the switch classes... where I am kind of like a substitute teacher - my apologies to every substitute teacher I ever had... you have my utmost respect now

The End of Suburbia

Watched a docudrama by the title above last night. It was exactly the right amount of doom, gloom and optimism I love in a documentary. Essentially, energy resources on our planet have hit peak production, now we are headed back down the bell-curve. Mother Earth lacks the energy resources to support our suburban way of life (which by the way is one of the most inefficient ways of life on the planet, having only the negatives of both farm and city life). It was the kind of documentary that leaves you pondering about which country you want to start a small organic, self-sustaining farm on. Remember to take into account there will likely be wars over energy in places where it is readily available. I figured a country that already has nothing would cope best when the blackouts begin.

But don*t loose hope... as a result of having to drastically change the way we live community living will reemerge and be vital to our survival. We will need to produce our own energy, foods and goods, and rely on each other for support. Retail will take a while to relearn due Wall-Mart and all of its relatives having destroyed small businesses.

Living in Gumi Korea, I have a good glimpse at what a post Big Box Store community looks like. My groceries are as cheap, if not cheaper at the corner store than they are at E-Mart, which is twenty minutes away. There are over fifteen market stands lining the short path to my school. Across from E-Mart, all of the storefronts are closed. Here you actually interact at stores. I look forward to the old, fat Korean woman who screams *HEEEELLL-OOOO* and gives me the peace sign every night from her shanty noodle stand.

I*m going to Google *basic survival courses* now. I*m going to need some more applicable skills in the future. Making music on my computer and Dj*ing are great fun, but I want something I can enjoy without having to plug it in. These ideas of a drastic life overhaul will be left for future musings however.

-Comatose

-I encourage everyone to see this excellent documentary. Visit the link below for more information (No idea why links don*t work here... Copy and paste I guess!).

• endofsuburbia.com

Kill'n Time

It took a little trial and error, navigating through a Korean replica of this still unfamiliar site. It*s 4am, I*m sitting in a *PC Bong* in Busan (Korea*s second largest city), killing time with my friend and fellow teacher Christa while waiting to catch the subway to the port and then the ferry to Fokuoka Japan! Initially, I was going to spend the time playing Warcraft 3, however, a lot has changed since War Craft 1 came out 10 or so years ago. Computer games used to be relatively simply and thus intuitive... these days are gone. The mere fact I was unable to understand my mission, let alone figure out the controls, was enough reason for me to give up.

Korea has made me realize all electronics tend to speak roughly the same language. For example, bank machines seem consistent wherever you are. I was a little reluctant to use the trail and error method with something as dear to me as finances, but as long as you remember Red = Cancel, Green = Ok and Yellow = Correction then the characters are irrelevant. In the rare event none of the above work then press the top right hand corner button to proceed.

Anyway, I actually had a story to share:

Today in class I was scribbling on my chalkboard as usual when the entire class erupted into laughter. When this happens I usually get nervous. Baffled, I peered around the room in the hopes someone else was the source of their laughter. But of course they were all staring at me and speaking rapid Korean while gasping for air. Wearing a puzzled look on my face I shrugged my shoulders and asked *What?* When she finally recovered, Ginnie, an typical short, sweet and occasionally obnoxious 10 year old Korean girl pointed at where my t-shirt met my pants. I checked my fly, it was in the fully upright position – what else could it be?

I remembered my sweaty armpits had amused them in earlier classes and as reached for the sealing to look the bright orange and white checks on my boxer shorts came into full view. Girls were turning their head in nervous embarrassment, boys were pointing and laughing, everyone was in hysterics. But then the class quickly fell silent... something wasn*t right... my boss, Ms Hong, had been staring through the window. From what little I could decipher after the incident, she was there for most of the show.

Interestingly, Ms Hong never even mentioned the incident. It*s not that I was worried about my boxers being seen but rather I didn*t want her to think I was intentionally showing my boxers to a bunch of nine-year-old boys and girls.

So I*m off to Japan, this won*t be posted until I can either figure out how *Publish Post* is spelt in Korean/Japanese or am back on my own computer. In the mean time I*m going to look for some Japan-ime boxers.

-Comatose

Testing

Does this work... it better