The Wanderer

Canadian hyperbole

2010-09-05T12:04:00.003+09:00

Several times since I got back this summer, I was surprised at the use of English in Canada.

In Vancouver, High Occupancy Vehicle lanes continue to be developed.

"HIGH OCCUPANCY" = 2 people.

TWO PEOPLE???? Most cars have seats for at least four, so how does TWO equal high occupancy. Now admittedly, two people in a car that used to have only one is one less car off the road; however, two is NOT high occupancy.
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At my bank, I was encouraged to put money in a high interest e-savings account. The person encouraging me to do this really seemed excited. How much is HIGH interest you might ask? ONE PERCENT!!! 1%. One percent is certainly better than nothing, but I don't see how anyone can say that 1% is HIGH. When they charge you 4% to borrow, shouldn't that then be called an incredibly high interest rate? No, in fact, they are lending you the money at the low rate of 4%.

I think the word "high" should be banned from use until we come to our senses.

Counterfeit currency

2010-07-25T06:59:00.003+09:00

I've never been in any country before where EVERY bill is carefully scrutinized by EVERYONE. This leads me to believe that counterfeit currency is a big problem here. Everything from a RM20 (US$3) to a RM100 (US$15) is checked.

I've only changed money at two banks in China. Yesterday, a taxi driver refused to take a RM100 bill because he said it was fake. I didn't think too much of it. I gave him another bill and pocketed the rejected bill and forgot all about it. Then I went to The Bund Brewery and got the same bill returned. The bill is a little lighter in colour. I should have suspected something because there is a little smiley face stamped in the lower left corner. When I checked all of the bills that I got from the banks, I found a second bill with the same smiley face in the lower left corner, so I guess that makes two fakes. This is a little irritating because I find it hard to believe that the banks didn't catch this, but it's only US$30 so I'm not going to do anything but save them. At any rate, I'm not sure which bank gave them to me, so there isn't anything that I can do.
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Update: I was looking at all of the bills in my wallet (different denominations) and about half of them have a little smiley face (actually, on closer inspection, a smiley face with no eyes). So...I actually have no way of telling except by looking at the color, but, some of the older bills are so dirty and faded, I don't know how anyone can tell. The whole thing is quite perplexing. I'm going to keep the bill no one wants separate and hope that the second bill is fine. Hmmm.

Leaving on a jet plane

2010-07-24T21:02:00.000+09:00

I have left Wudang Mountain. After a 20-hour train ride in a soft-sleeper berth (an oxymoron if there ever was one - with crying babies, no one gets much sleep), I arrived in Shanghai, planning to change my plane ticket and head out to Canada in a day or two only to find that it is Saturday and the Air Canada office is closed until Monday morning. I'll be at their door at 8am when they open on Monday, hoping to get a flight out on Monday afternoon.

The trains that I have taken in China have been quite nice (except for the crying babies).

When I arrived at the Bund Hotel, I found a scale in the bathroom, and I lost 13 kilograms in the past two and a half months. I am down to 83 kilograms now. That's the lightest I've been in years. I'm not sure that I like it. I've lost a lot of upper body strength, and, even though my legs are kind of wiry and strong, they are kind of skinny. As a result, I had thought a trip to The Bund Brewery for a hamburger and a couple of beers were in order this evening.

I think I'll go to the Shanghai Museum tomorrow. I've read that it has a large, impressive collection - and it's free.

Film crews

2010-06-28T12:23:00.000+09:00

In the last few weeks, we have had a number of film crews filming at the temple. I suspect that there is a sudden interest in Wudang because of the movie, The Kung Fu Kid (The Karate Kid in North America). Yesterday, one crew had a somewhat hot American (Canadian???) woman talking about Taoism, but having a really hard time with the script because I don't think she really knew much about it, and there was one small crew that asked me for an interview, and I, being the reasonable sort that I am, said okay. I think that they were kind of disappointed. They really seemed to want me to be a voracious meat eater who was transformed by the power of Chinese taiji and Taoism. They weren't so happy that I have been a somewhat lazy lacto-ovo vegetarian for twenty years or so. They really wanted me to believe that becoming a vegan would help save the world from global warming, but I wasn't buying this as the most effective thing that I could do. I would place vegetarianism way down on my list of things that I could do - after stuff like driving a small car (or a hybrid), using public transit, riding a bike, turning off lights when I leave a room, not wasting water, buying less toys, wearing cotton.

It turned out the film crew was from Formosa (I hadn't even heard that name for Taiwan in 40 years or so). They were with Supreme Master TV. Oooookaaaay. I checked them out on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ching_Hai). Can you spell 'CULT'? I'm kind of hoping that they lose my footage.

I will become a more serious vegetarian and probably mostly vegan in the near future; however, I think that the ethical issues regarding eating meat are far better reasons for eschewing meat. Factory farming is quite repugnant. Wherever possible, I eat free-range chicken eggs. The dairy products are a more serious issue. I have been to a dairy farm and it practically brought me to tears, and I will NEVER eat veal. Unfortunately, I've never heard of free-range dairy cows. I already drink soy lattes at Starbucks, but soy cheese really sucks.

Temple happenings

2010-06-23T17:54:00.003+09:00

I have been at Wudang Mountain for 5 weeks now. I have learned the 18-form (which still needs a lot of polishing). I starting learning an older longer form called the 13-form. I like it a lot although it involves a lot of turning that is putting pressure on my knees.

I have been a little down. No matter what I do, the teacher never does anything but criticize and correct me (I know that this is the old way, but it's getting a bit tiring). When he does the form, he is smooth and powerful. I sometimes feel like a real klutz. - Then out the the blue, two Chinese students whom I am training with said that I have a real Taiji spirit and they like the way I move. I think that I've always been harder on myself that I need to be.

I stopped the one-hour morning kicking sessions because my knees were acting up. However, just so it doesn't look like I'm slacking off, I do horse stance for several minutes, then calf raises (sets of 40), and some hard stretching. Then I start the circuit again and try to keep it up for an hour. My legs are getting stronger and my knees are okay (which is all that I am asking for at this time).

I think I've also lost a bit of weight. I notice it in my face. That's okay. I'd like to keep my weight under 90kgs.

For the last two days, a group of young Taoists from the Wudang Taoist Kungfu Mission, which is a part of our organization, have been rehearsing and videotaping a performance that they will be doing 3 times a day for 3 months at the Shanghai Expo. The young people are quite amazing and I hope that they will be successful. They will be doing some sort of co-presentation with the Shaolin monks (who have had years of practice with this kind of show).

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/m/eduonline/2009-12/01/content_9095530.htm

I took a few pictures and a bit of video.

I can't seem to embed the video. However, there is a video of the Wudang women performing a fan form at the URL below.

http://s972.photobucket.com/albums/ae209/Restless_Wanderer/?action=view¤t=WudangFanForm.mp4

Purple Heaven Temple

2010-06-18T14:02:00.005+09:00

We usually train in the large open courtyard in the Purple Heaven Temple 4 picture. The temple is quite beautiful and the mountain at that back of the temple is incredibly beautiful. It also has a good "feel" if one believes in such things as the spiritual nature of mountains.

These pictures don't show the hordes of tourists that often descend on the temple. Saturdays and Sundays can be horrendous. I'll take my camera tomorrow to try to capture the "essence" of the temple on a weekend. Most of the tourists are okay. I'm sure that I've had my picture taken a thousand times. I don't mind that. I don't mind the stares. HOWEVER, some of the tourists, usually a group of kindred spirits, are totally thoughtless, clueless...and a lot of other things that I don't want to say in writing. They run right up beside us to have their pictures taken while we are doing a form or exercise. I have, on a number of occasions, turned to move in a certain direction only to find some dolt pretending to do a kungfu stance exactly where I want to step next. If it weren't for my Taoist spirit, I'd lash out and pummel the little buggers. Of course, I'd be recorded by a thousand cameras, and, I'm sure it would end up on the internet.

Wudang Taoist Kungfu Academy 2010

2010-06-18T08:49:00.001+09:00

Since this seems to be working for photos, I'll add some pictures of the accommodation. I'll add some pictures of the Purple Heaven Temple later today. I'm looking at online photo storage sites. I've used Flickr before but don't particularly like it. I'm looking at Photobucket and Fotki. Once I decide, I'll just upload everything there and put a link here.

At any rate, while the setting is pleasant and the room is adequate, this room isn't 3 stars (as advertised online) by any stretch of the imagination.

China's Great Firewall

2010-06-17T17:25:00.000+09:00

I can access my blog using Vtunnel (a proxy server) that isn't or can't be blocked, but I can't seem to use all of the features. For example, I can't edit the Slide show on the left side. I'm going to try to put some pictures that I took in the center column, but, when I look at my blog, it says the slideshow is empty. Is that true? If someone comments and says that they can see the pictures, I'll add some from the temple.

Shanghai 2010

2010-06-17T17:24:00.002+09:00

Summer in China

2010-06-17T14:31:00.000+09:00

May 17
As I get ready to leave Shanghai, this seems like a good time to take stock. I’m sitting at the top of a long set of stairs in the Shanghai Railway Station. It’s a lot like an airport. I entered and went through an x-ray scanner and then up a long escalator. There, at the top are a half dozen police officers, checking tickets and selecting a lot of people for detailed document scrutiny. I was really early for my train because I just can’t seem to figure out my tickets. At any rate, I couldn’t go through because my train’s boarding platform hadn’t been listed, so I waited at the top of the stairs and watched. It was interesting trying to guess who would be chosen for extra attention by the police. The “victims” seemed to fall into two groups: the dark skinned guys in ill-fitting clothes (migrant workers???) and the hip young people (guys with fringed hair – and who wouldn’t want to harass them – and girls in slinky outfits). No one seemed to get taken away, but their documents were given a good going over and all of their details were written down.

Unfortunately, Shanghai reminded me a lot of Seoul – and not in a good way. The air pollution is eye-stinging and throat-burning. I don’t think I could live there for long and I was really looking forward to getting into the mountains.

Most people in Shanghai seemed pleasant and helpful in dealing with me, but the vast majority of people on the street look dour and stressed – again reminding me of Seoul. The big difference here is that people don’t jostle you and they do seem to see you and step aside to avoid you. This was a pleasant surprise.

The city, like so many others, is an interesting mix of old and new buildings. Shanghai’s Bund has some very impressive and beautiful old buildings as well as some weird and quite beautiful new architecture. It actually blends together quite well. There are a number of neighborhoods that have been given heritage status and are being protected and fixed up. Bravo.

Unfortunately, there is one area in the Bund, one street off the main riverfront street that is clearly being gentrified – and I say that in the most negative way. A number of real-estate companies were showing homes to incredibly well-dressed westerners and Chinese. That was actually kind of depressing. I’m pretty sure that all of the original inhabitants were shifted out of the area and I’m pretty sure that none of them could afford to live in the new homes. This happens in every big city, including Vancouver, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.

Not surprisingly, there is no Facebook or Blogspot. It’s not a big deal. I’m not even sure I want to continue with Facebook anyway because of privacy issues.

May 18
I’m up after a restless night in a sleeper car. The night was constantly broken by noisy children. At any rate, I woke up to bright daylight at 6am. I had breakfast: a hard-boiled egg, a plain bun, some sour vegetable, a handful of peanuts, and a bowl of rice porridge (jook). I am pleasantly full.

It’s hard to get angry at children who cry and run around making a lot of noise, but it is tiring. The berth next to mine had two children who cried (sometimes together and sometimes solo) for 20 hours and the woman in the bunk below mine talked to her precocious child through most of the evening. I have nothing but sympathy for these parents. Some children don’t travel well (I’m pretty sure that my own mother would agree with that.), and I’m sure that most parents just don’t know what to do to quiet their children. However, every plane, train, and bus that I’ve taken in the last 20 years has had a number of noisy children. I’d be willing to pay a good deal extra for an adult-only train, plane, or bus.

May 19
The long train ride from Shanghai traveled on flat land for 15 hours and I was becoming concerned. I was supposed to be in the mountains. However, the train finally headed into the foothills and climbed to Wudang Station town for the next 6 hours. I was met at the station, as promised, by someone from the academy. Because the Wudang Special Administrative Region closes in the evening I had to stay overnight in a rather uninspiring 2-star hotel. The young woman, Coco, who met me with a driver from the hotel and they dropped me off and arranged to meet me the next morning and take me to the academy. We didn’t get very far by car because vehicle traffic was restricted during the visit of Deng Xiaoping’s daughter’s visit. We went by tourist bus to the Purple Heaven Temple, of which my school is a part. The dormitory is a short walk from the temple. The room is reasonably neat and comfortable. I have had reservations about being here, but I met a number of foreigners who were here studying, and they have inspired me.

The temple and academy are set in some beautiful mountains. This first evening, the overcast sky cleared and the moon and stars are dazzling. There are no lessons tomorrow, so I will probably go for a long walk.

May 20
I woke up early and walked about 3 and a half kms up the road from the academy to Nan Yan, a town at the end of the road. I walked around a number of temples and took a lot of pictures. Many of the sites were crowded with loud, silly tourists, but it was an enjoyable day and the morning weather was great. The afternoon clouded over and it started to drizzle.

May 21
This was the first day that there was supposed to be training, but, because it was raining, nothing really started until 8:30 am. We had a lecture on Taoism that was disjointed and hard to follow. After lunch, the tables in the cafeteria were pushed to one side and I got my first introduction to taiji. I spent two hours doing taiji walking and holding a leg forward as though in a kick. It seems pretty simple but it was a good introduction and I’m sure my legs are going to hurt tomorrow – and probably for the next month.

It’s still raining hard and the forecast is for rain for a couple of days. There was a lot of grumbling about the fact that there was no place to practice. Fortunately, they decided to use the cafeteria and the walkways around the courtyard for people to practice, the mood has improved.

I’ve lost track of the days. So, this will just be a jumble of stuff as I think of it. The room that I was put in when I first arrived was under a staircase, facing the rock wall of the mountain which was about a meter away – not much of a view. Because it was raining, water was running down the rock wall. That might have added to the fact that after two days in the room, the entire floor was not just damp – it was wet. The internet in the room didn’t work, so I was glad to be shifted to another room. I am much more comfortable now than before.

The school used to have an indoor training area (it still says so on their website), but a few weeks before I arrived, the government/local authorities confiscated the building and forced the school to move so that a hotel could be put up on the original location. The student housing area we are in does not have an indoor training area, although we move the tables to the side in the cafeteria and use the meditation room upstairs as well as the walkways around the courtyard of the student housing area. Although not ideal, it is better than nothing.

Tomorrow, I will have been here for four and a half weeks. We train five and a half days per week. Most mornings we start off at 8:30am with an hour of kicking, which I rather enjoyed until the kicks that created a turning motion on my knee started to cause me knee problems which then interfered with my taiji lessons. Now I just stretch and review the form I am learning (the straight kicks don’t seem to be a problem so I may just do some kicking on my own). The form that I have “learned” is the Wudang Taiji 18-form. It took about two and a half weeks to learn all of the moves. When I do it fairly slowly from beginning to end, it takes about 4 minutes. It really seems like it should take longer. I know the basic moves fairly well now, but it will take a long time before all of the moves feel natural. I have little hitches from one move to the next and my rhythm is sometimes uneven. If I keep on doing it every day, I hope that I will be okay in a year or two.

There are 10 to 15 foreign students and an equal number of Chinese students studying here at any given time. The foreign students are from Norway, Italy, France, Germany, Russia, and a few other places. There is a core group that has been here for quite a few months. They still remember when there was snow on the ground and the rooms were like iceboxes (no heaters).

Originally, when I decided to come here, I was expecting to have some serious Taoism lessons and some Chinese classes. Those have ranged from sporadic to non-existent. Fortunately, a lot of the guys here have books, DVDs, and other material that is shared around. We do a lot of independent study. I have the Fluenz Mandarin software to work on my Mandarin, and I have some stuff I am working on for work next fall. I also have a lot of audio material from John Kabat-Zinn (mindfulness meditation) and Eckhart Tolled to work on my meditation and adjust my attitude. So, while some things are not as advertised, I have enough material to work on and enough free time to work on it.

Life here is kind of like summer camp. We have a fairly regimented routine and we tend to be pretty scruffy – unshaven and using the smell test to see whether we can get another day or two out our clothes. I’m already a little tired of washing my clothes in my bathroom sink. The food is plentiful and fairly good. I’ve also gotten into the habit of going down the mountain into town on Wednesday afternoons to buy yoghurt, nuts, and fruit just to make sure my diet is reasonably complete.

I’m learning a whole new way of moving. The circular motions of the taiji are beginning to feel a little more comfortable. The hour of taiji walking that we do in the afternoon is starting to feel relaxing – although that’s still going to take a lot of walking.

The one thing that I would like is better explanations of what to be thinking as I do movements or what I should be focusing on when I am doing standing meditation. The instructors don’t speak much English, so I can see the physical part but I’m missing out on a very important part of taiji by not understanding the flow of energy and how to develop it. The foreign guys I practice with are quite helpful, but I would like to hear it from the top guys.

I have 6 more weeks to go starting tomorrow. I know that the 18-form that I have been learning is not perfect, but I’m really hoping that the master will let me learn a new form. If I don’t start it tomorrow, I don’t think I’ll have enough time to learn another one before I leave. I’m really hoping that I can start on an old form called the 13-form. I’ll have to see. I don’t feel comfortable demanding that I move on to another form.

The complexities of life

2010-05-14T03:15:00.003+09:00

Because I live on campus and don't go into town much, my social life is quite limited. There is an advantage to being able to walk to work in ten minutes and not suffer through traffic. However, it means that the people I work with are all around all the time.

As you know from previous rants, there are a number of colleagues I find it difficult to work with. However, outside of work, I rather like them. I went out for a school year-end dinner a few days ago, and I rather enjoyed myself. Many of these colleagues that I find unpleasant to work with are actually pleasant and rather charming -- outside of work. They are interesting and funny.

Unfortunately, the largest part of my interaction with them is at work. I wish that I didn't have to work with them; their professional behaviour (or misbehaviour) wouldn't bother me. But, I find it hard to separate my work and social relationships because of my living conditions.

I think I need to get out and meet more people in Dubai more often. I'll mark that down as a goal for next September.

Greener pastures

2010-05-09T22:40:00.005+09:00

I've been teaching ESL or EFL pretty much full-time since 1983 (except for a few years when I was getting my Masters degree in TESOL - I worked part-time then) - 27 years in total. Wow. It seems like a long time when I write it down. I've taught at middle school and high school, in university credit and non-credit courses, and at language institutes. I've taught in 4 countries: Canada, Korea, Brunei, and the UAE.

In all that time, I can honestly say that I've never ever worked with a lazier, nastier, less professional group than I've been working with for the last two years - not everyone of course - just the six or so senior teachers who have been here the longest and who seem to dominate every meeting. It has not been very pleasant. I really haven't had a good time.

Some of the teachers in the department have been really enjoyable to know and to work with, but I'm moving on.

I've applied for and been accepted in the Department of Writing Studies - same university but a different department. For 27 years, I've been teaching English as a second or foreign language. And, while I will continue to teach non-native speakers of English, I will be teaching "serious" writing - not English as a language (at least in theory). It will be interesting. I've been teaching writing for years, but this will feel different. As the new guy, I'm sure that I will get a fair number of the lowest level writing classes, but I may actually get some classes where the focus is really on content not form. Woohoo!

I feel sad that I've been forced out of a field that I am comfortable in, and I feel like I'm abandoning several of my really nice colleagues - leaving them with less strength to fight a number of teachers who should have been kicked to the curb years ago. But, I have to do what is best for me in the long run. I hope that I will be able to leave a ton of negative emotion on the floor when I head off for a couple of months in a Taoist martial arts academy. If all goes according to plan, I will spend 10 weeks meditating and getting my chi flowing smoothly.

I'm not sure if I'll be able to keep up the blog. I know that Facebook is blocked in China and my sense from a number of forums is that China intermittently blocks Blogger as well. It might be good for me to unplug for a couple of months.

I'll be in Shanghai on the 15th, so, if I don't post anything for a while, it may be because I'm becoming a hermit...or just being blocked by the Chinese government.

The Burj Khalifa

2010-04-20T02:29:00.006+09:00

I went up the Burj ~~Dubai~~ Khalifa last Friday morning. I have pictures of the outside of the building in earlier posts. For Dh100, it was worthwhile. I can't imagine paying Dh400 for it though. You enter through Dubai Mall (near the More restaurant). The elevator was amazing. I've been in speedy elevators before that make you dip your knees because of the acceleration. However, we got on two floors underground and zoomed to the 124th floor in about 30 seconds with absolutely no sensation of moving. Some engineer did an amazing job figuring that out.

When you get near the building, you can look up through a "sight" at the observation deck. I didn't quite get centered when I took my picture. I'll have to try again some time.

I have, on occasion, had a touch of vertigo. However, I felt no nervousness on the 124th floor of the Burj Khalifa. You get high enough in the building that you can walk 360 degrees about the building looking out over the entire expanse of Dubai. The day that I went up, the sky was quite clear.

The Burj Khalifa has a lot of information about the construction and the whole project at the ground level. It was nicely done and well worth a casual stroll through looking at the various exhibits.

This picture was taken to the south - toward the Burj Al Arab (the sail hotel).

This picture shows Dubai Mall on the left and The Address at the top of the picture.

The next picture shows The World project. There was no construction going on and I hope that it because they have decided to give it time to settle (something that I heard was a problem on The Palm).

I got a good shot of the Burj shadow beside the Dubai Metro station.

This shot is Sheikh Zayed Road looking northeast towards downtown Dubai.

And, of course, a gratuitous picture of me.

Amazon

2010-04-20T00:22:00.003+09:00

Okay, I'm getting really upset. A friend lent me her Kindle and now I want one for myself. I'm hooked. UNFORTUNATELY, you can't get one in the UAE. GRRR!!!!! So I'm thinking I'll get one in Canada when I go back for the summer. Right! I can do that. But I can't buy books with a UAE credit card. If I get a Canadian credit card, I can use that (even though it will screw up my non-residency). Then I'll have to transfer money to the account to cover that card. This stinks. When I'm in the UAE, I could buy a gift certificate and give it to myself and then I can use that gift certificate to buy books. Really? Maybe!

I can't tell you how much I want a Kindle DX. I have the money. I have emailed Amazon and explained the situation and begged them to suggest something. No response. I tried Amazon Canada. No response. I would love to be able to travel with lots of books on my Kindle. Rumors that the UAE will be getting Kindle have been around for years. I want a Kindle, but I'm almost at the point of buying a Sony Reader Daily Edition or an iPad.

I'm perfectly willing to patronize Amazon. Amazon - please sell me a Kindle DX; however, my feeling is that the iPad is going to kill Amazon if they don't come out with a color screen and expandable memory. I don't need most of the stuff that the iPad does. I have a MacBook Air. I'd use that but I can't download the Kindle for Mac software in the UAE. Most of the books I read are fine in black and white, but the color screen on the iPad is cool. I don't need all the internet features that the iPad has. I just want to read books. If Amazon doesn't get their sh** in order by August, when I get back to Canada, I am going to go with the iPad. I've patronized Amazon for years. I've ordered thousands of dollars of books and DVDs from Amazon. I'd like to stay with them, but I'm really getting pissed. What happened to globalization? Whatever happened to trying to be competitive and offering what the customers want?

Dubai Mall

2010-04-06T22:48:00.003+09:00

It has taken me awhile to figure out the video feature on my camera (and as you can tell, I still need to learn a little more). It didn't help that the software that came with the camera can't find the video on my camera, but iMovie on my Mac did.

The hockey video was taken a couple of weeks ago and I posted some still shots below. They were taken on the same day that I watched the hockey tournament. I stop by the aquarium at Dubai Mall almost every week for a little while just to watch the fish. It's close to my favorite coffee shop - Caribou Coffee.

Foggy morning

2010-03-27T03:34:00.002+09:00

Thursday morning was a beautiful, cool foggy morning. I like the fog a lot. However, in the UAE, many people just turn on their hazard lights and drive as fast as they normally do. I prefer not to be on the road when it is foggy.

Hockey Night in Dubai

2010-03-27T02:38:00.010+09:00

I went down to my favorite mall this morning for a good western-style breakfast at the Dome. When I walked into the mall at 8:30am, there was a hockey championship game going on complete with an announcer. I watched the game while I had breakfast, and I was surprised at how well the skaters played. I'm not sure about the age of the kids but I think they were middle school aged. The teams had well-dressed coaches and well-behaved parents.

Of the hundreds of malls in Dubai, the Dubai Mall is my favorite. There's always something going on. It's bright and airy. It has a bookstore that I could quite happily live in. The Caribou Coffee Shop is my favorite in Dubai, and the Noodle Factory makes the best noodles in town. It also has a beautiful aquarium.

Testosterone spill in Aisle 5

2010-03-25T22:13:00.005+09:00

I was over at the Rotten Tomatoes website looking for a movie review when I felt a major shift in cosmic energy. Way down at the bottom was a reference to a movie in production that brings pretty much all of Hollywood's manly men together in what promises to be a major smack down.

Imagine Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Randy Couture (of MMA fame), Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Steve Austin (of WWF fame) all in one film (OK, so this movie's been done before - who cares.). Woo hoo!!! I'm thinking a lot of punching, kicking, shooting, and blowin stuff up. (Okay, my nonviolent Taoist side is troubled, but I'm sure that there won't be any gratuitous violence. I'm sure that everyone who get smacked will deserve it.)

How do they even get all those manly men to work together in one place at one time? I'm going to be waiting with baited breath for this movie to hit the big screen at the end of August.

About the only notables missing are Jean-Claude Van Damme (who reportedly turned down the role because there was no substance to the character - and we all know that substance is a must for all his roles) and Steven Seagal (who reportedly doesn't get along with the producer. How could he let petty personal differences rob us of his acting?).

The Urbanization of Dubai

2010-03-22T02:52:00.008+09:00

This page from NASA's Earth Observatory is very cool. If you go to the "The Ubanization of Dubai" you can click through the dates at the bottom of the picture and see how Dubai has changed. It's worth clicking on the 'play', 'show all', and 'view large' buttons at the lower right corner of the picture.

Purple Sunbird

2010-03-21T21:40:00.007+09:00

In the last week and a half, I've noticed hundreds of butterflies and beetles. The temperatures have risen to about 30C and, if I remember correctly, as the seasons change, a lot of migratory birds and insects pass through in the spring and fall.

Although the purple sunbird is not migratory, I had not seen one although a number of colleagues have. Then, last Friday, I was looking at all the butterflies and I saw two purple sunbirds. They are a little shy and I will need to go out looking for them again this week in the morning. Their color is beautiful.

Burj Khalifa

2010-03-21T21:17:00.005+09:00

This is a really awesome building. I try not to be too impressed by these ostentatious displays, but the Petrona Towers in Kuala Lumpur were breathtaking, and the Burj Khalifa is even more so. I can't wait until they open up the public viewing platform again. I know that it's an optical illusion, but when you stand close to it and look straight up, it seems to extend right over top of you. It really truly is big. And, when you think of all the steel and glass and other stuff that went into building it, it is amazing.

Bird life

2010-03-13T23:11:00.010+09:00

I was driving from Sharjah to Dubai and saw a large open space that is usually an impromptu cricket pitch but it was flooded and had become a bit of a bird sanctuary. There are a couple of Grey Herons and a number of other birds that I think are Armenian Gulls, Yellow-Legged Gulls, Great Black-headed Gulls, and a few Black-winged Stilts. They are all wintering here because the weather is just so great - about 30C during the day.

I took these with my new camera, and only later realized that I had a digital zoom that would have been incredibly useful but not so much when I was sitting in Dubai Mall having a cup of coffee and reading the camera manual.

Tony Parsons

2010-03-05T21:02:00.003+09:00

I just finished My Favorite Wife by Tony Parsons, and I highly recommend it. I've liked his previous work (Man and Boy, Man and Wife). His characters are always basically good people who screw up (usually by screwing someone that they shouldn't have) and end up hurting themselves and their loved ones. They often manage to stumble through to a somewhat uplifting ending. I generally read his books with alternating feelings of anger and sadness. I almost always get a little teary (although no tears actually fell). I think the fact that I feel strong emotions when I read his books says a lot about how realistic and well-written his books are.

I was checking out his other books at Amazon and found out that he has written a book with an English teacher as the main character. I'll have to pick that one up for my next read.

Rain, rain, go away, come again another day...

2010-03-03T23:08:00.009+09:00

Actually, I like the rain and I wish it would rain during the day so I could enjoy it rather than all night when I'm trying to sleep.
There are some interesting pictures at The National, The Gulf News, the Khaleej Times.

We've had a couple of days of heavy rain, lightning, and thunder - always a strange pleasure in the desert.

It's very strange. Rain days here are like snow days in Vancouver. Nobody knows how to drive. Some drivers, mostly in big SUVs with dark tinted window (read 'local') drive as though nothing has changed. They will drive at 100km per hour through knee-deep water, sending up a 'bow wave' that washes like a tsunami over slower cars or pedestrians, swerving in and out of traffic with total oblivion. Others drive with trepidation through a thin skiff of water that no Vancouverite would even slow down for. Overall, a somewhat unnerving experience.

Today it was beautiful and sunny and about 25C. I went for a drive to Ras Al Khaimah and there were no large puddles anywhere. The traffic was light and the drive pleasant. It was a beautiful day - and getting out of the office on a 'road trip' was excellent.

Quilting

2010-02-20T00:41:00.003+09:00

Today a friend suggested that we check out a quilting exhibit. It was interesting, but I'm sure that I was not able to appreciate the art because I don't really understand all the hard work that undoubtedly went into each piece.

For me, quilting was always just about using pieces of scrap to make blankets. I had a quilt that my grandmother made that I used until it wore out. I loved that quilt. The quilts that were on exhibit were really impressive but they were a little too high class for my taste. I can't imagine using them on my bed.

University Club Day

2010-02-20T00:37:00.002+09:00

Our university had a Club Day. Oddly enough, the clubs were mostly ethnic (i.e. Palestinian Club, Saudi Club, Somali Club). Still most of the students seemed to have a good time and a little cross-cultural mixing is always good.

Makkoli

2010-02-20T00:30:00.002+09:00

A couple of weeks ago, I went to the Barracuda to pick up some alcohol. By chance, I came across a little Korean alcohol. I've always liked makkoli, especially the rough homemade variety, so I thought I would give it a try. At Dh25 or about Won 7,800, it was a little expensive. It was okay but a little too refined.

Dubai

2010-02-12T04:06:00.019+09:00

Last week, I went to a musical in Dubai at the Madinat Jumeirah. I'm not sure what I expected, perhaps a lot of laughter, some singing, and dancing. Well...Blood Brothers was interesting and I'm glad that I saw it, but it was very sad. At the end, both I and my friend thought, "Oh." The actors (I'm not sure if that's the correct term) had incredibly beautiful voices. They were awesome. It's always nice to dress up a little and sit with somewhat cultured people, but perhaps something a little more uplifting next time.

The Madinat Jumeirah was a place that I had never been, but it was very pleasant to sit outside in cool but pleasant temperatures and eat a nice Italian dinner, drink a glass of Italian wine, and watch abras (well, touristy abras) putt by. The wind towers and the traditional setting was worth the visit. The whole complex is nicely done.

The next day, I was at the Dubai Mall, and I always regret not taking a proper camera. One weekend, they had a young man trying to break the Guinness Book of Records for keeping a football in the air (I don't know how that ended.). Another time they had foosball tables set up for some kind of tournament. Last weekend, they had a judo tournament in one area, and, in another area, they had the most opulent car display (Ferrari, Mercedes, BMW) I've ever seen - including a car I've dreamed about for years. I had mixed feelings. The cars were awesome. I would have loved to sit in one, or, better yet, take one for a spin. Yet...to spend so much money on what is essentially just a car seems unconscionable when the world is full of people who are suffering. By strange coincidence, after drooling over the cars for a bit, I went up to the 3rd floor and sat in Caribou Coffee, had a soy latte, and read a book called Insight Meditation: The Practice of Freedom by Joseph Goldstein. One of the first lines I came across was "If a practice does not cool the fires of greed, aversion, and ignorance, it is worthless." I could have cried. This is such a strange place.

Evening walks

2010-02-04T02:39:00.005+09:00

My Garmin 405 Forerunner has been a cool addition to my walks. It is inspirational to keep track. I go for my walks and then I just sit down by my computer and the data uploads automatically.

Tonight I hit 100.9 kilometers in my evening walks (about 6 kms X 18 - I added an extra turn around the roundabout when I realized the I was only doing 5.8kms door to door). I had a plan at the end of November to walk 100 kilometers every month. Well, this first hundred took me a little over two months. I'm not very good at math, but I should have been able to figure out that I would have to go out 17 times a month to do that. That's just about every second day!!! I may try to do that through February, but I might also just add another 15 minutes to my walks from time to time. However, if I don't go out that often, I may just change my goal.

Still...it has been quite enjoyable most of the time. Tonight I was listening to Eckhart Tolle's The Power of Now. I think that will keep me company for a couple of weeks. I'll have to listen to it several times I think.

New camera

2010-01-29T12:27:00.004+09:00

I picked up a new camera to replace my old Canon Powershot S2 IS with its 12X zoom lens (after four or five years, the zoom was a little wonky and the focus occasionally acted up). My new camera is a Panasonic Fz35. It has an 18X zoom lens. I agonized for months over whether to go with another Canon Powershot or the Panasonic. The deciding factor was probably the fact that the Panasonic is about 5 oz lighter. For traveling (or even walking around all day with a bunch of stuff in my backpack), that is an important factor. Of course, the new cameras have so many features that I really need to study the manual.

Yesterday, I got home and noticed a cool little praying mantis near my front door, so I grabbed the new camera and tried to get a shot. The fact that no picture is posted is a testament to the fact that I haven't gotten to the part in the manual where I can turn off the "smart" focus. The camera focused on various parts of the floor and the wall and just about everything else except the little insect about a meter away that was dead center in my shot. I will figure this out, but the manual is 300 pages long and probably doesn't explain everything.

I will learn how to use this camera. That is my pledge to myself.

A night on the town

2010-01-24T02:59:00.008+09:00

I had a night out on the town on Friday night. I went to the Mall of the Emirates and had a really great dinner at Salmontini. The restaurant has a relaxed, pleasant atmosphere and a view of the ski slope. My friend and I both had salmon on mixed shredded vegetables and wild rice. The salmon steak was huge, juicy, and very tender. The meal was perfectly cooked. Topped off with a nice glass of Italian Pinor Gris it was a great way to start the evening.

After dinner we went to a Sharq Orchestra concert (Essence of Arabia) at the Dubai Community Theatre. It was really wonderful - Mohamad Hamami leading a full western style orchestra playing Middle Eastern themed music. A friend was playing the saxophone and flute so that was an added bonus.

I haven't been getting out much for cultural events but now I see what I have been missing, so I'm going to keep an eye out for other interesting events. There's a lot going on in Dubai.

2010-01-17T23:02:00.005+09:00

I think I might start blogging again. Work has become a strange place to be.

So...I'm starting my Mandarin lessons. I'm going to use Fluenz Mandarin for the oral/aural part and Arch Chinese for the writing part. I had a New Years resolution to do one hour a night. That didn't happen, but I'm starting again. Tonight, I start again.

To distract me from work, I'll do the Mandarin for an hour or two each night and I'll continue my walks (4-5 times per week / 5.8 kilometers each time) around the outside of the university.

I've been listening to Jon Kabat-Zinn CDs as I walk. It takes me about one hour to walk and each CD is about one hour.

Makes me sad

2009-05-20T00:41:00.003+09:00

The semester has come to an end. I have one exam to give tomorrow. I had a couple of really nice classes this semester, but I had one class that may be the worst class I've ever taught.

One particularly irritating student made snide comments in Arabic followed by mocking laughter every time I turned to the board to write something. Twice I caught him cheating on quizzes. He never even bothered to do the last two major assignments I gave. He NEVER did homework. He came late to class every day until I threatened to kick him out of class permanently - and then he came to the final exam 15 minutes late. This student is repeating the class because he failed it last semester. He had a D going into the final exam.

So...I get this email today.

I know I was not the best student this semester and i was not up to your hopes of me as a good student especially the last two weeks, and I do not know what is my exact stand in the course but I know that i was trying to do my best and i could not. I had a lot of family problems back in my country at the end of this semester so i could not concentrate plus I had a lot of projects and finals the week before the finals week. the reading assignment and the reflective essay are the only major assignment that i did not do for this whole semester.

I do not know what could be my grade for the course but If I did not pass it, I will get out of the university and I will lose 60 credits and three years I spent finishing them.

I know that this has nothing to do with you or with my grade, but I think that I did good in the final today and I hope that you may understand my situation.

sorry for bothering you and taking out of your time, and it was great for me being taught by you.

Thanks in advance.

Well, he didn't do well in the final. I don't believe his excuses.

Another student, who was a borderline B+/A- student sent me this.

As you know I really worked hard for this course and honestly I enjoyed every assignement we had to do. My GPA is low and I need to raise it in order to get a financial aid. Therefore if you see that I deserve to get an A in the course please sir help me and I would be really thankful if you took my situation ino consideration. And I would really like to thank you for this great semester.......

Is it any wonder that degrees here are looked at askance? I was considering adjusting his grade up a little because he did work hard in class, but now I don't think so. The fact that these two students thought that this would work seems to me to be an indication that it works on some professors.

I am really going to enjoy my summer vacation, which starts in a couple of days.

New driver's license

2009-05-12T00:09:00.003+09:00

When I first moved to Dubai more than ten years ago, I got a Dubai driver's license. It was good for ten years. When I came back to the UAE last August, I rented a car for 6 months; then I bought a car. The rental agency had a copy of my driver's license. The car dealer had a copy of my driver's license when I bought the car a couple of months ago. The insurance agent had a copy of my driver's license. No one noticed that my license expired last year in September. For almost 6 months, I've been driving with an expired driver's license. Part of the problem was that the Dubai Traffic Authority had an old address, so they couldn't contact me to let me know. The other problem is that I, like most people, don't look at the expiry date on my driver's license very often. Fortunately, I didn't have any accidents, but every day that I drive in the UAE, I think I could easily have one.

At any rate, the university has a traffic police officer who comes to the campus every day or two. Today, he was 45 minutes late. Then he told me that I could go to ANY Regional Transit Authority outlet in Dubai to transfer my file to Sharjah, then get Sharjah to renew it. The RTA website has dozens of outlets listed, so I chose one that was listed as being in Festival City Mall in Dubai. I thought that would be great because I could get everything done and then go for dinner. I got to the mall and was told that the RTA outlet was a couple of kilometers away, so I flagged down a taxi and went there only to be told that they could not do it there. I had to go to City Center Mall. After hiking along a deserted road for a kilometer or two, a taxi came by and took me to City Center. At City Center, I got an eye check up (5 minutes) and then went to the RTA outlet at the mall and walked away with a brand new license 5 minutes later. I didn't need to change anything to Sharjah. I can drive in the UAE with a Dubai license. It was frustrating getting to the right location, but, once I was there, it was quick and easy - and, yes, it looks like any other driver's license photo - nothing to write home about.

Emirate ID Authority

2009-04-28T01:00:00.006+09:00

I went out to the Emirate ID Authority today to apply for my national ID card. The whole process was quick and painless. I've lived in both Brunei and Korea, where everyone was fingerprinted as part of the issuance of ID cards, so it was nothing really special. However, here they scanned all eight fingers, both thumbs, my palms, and the sides of both hands. The only thing they didn't scan was my retina, and it looked like they had a connecton for a retinal scanner but it was nowhere to be seen.

Life in the UAE

2009-04-28T00:50:00.004+09:00

I teach at a co-ed university that is really remarkable. Most universities in the UAE are single-sex. When I walk across campus at lunch, I sometimes forget where I am. The students wear a wide variety of outfits. Many of the guys, especially now that it is getting hotter, wander around in shorts, sandals, and T-shirts. Small groups of male and female students sit and chat comfortably. Students in traditional dress mix easily with those in casual western dress.

So...today, when I was sitting in the cafeteria having lunch, I thought nothing of it when two young female students sat at the table beside me. One of the girls was wearing a zip-up sweat shirt. She unzipped it and took it off because the cafeteria was a little warm. She was wearing a sleeveless tanktop which was NOT revealing or shocking. In less than a minute, the female "security" guard came over and told her to put the sweat shirt back on - and she did.

I've often wondered what the female "security" guards did. Now I know.

I'm not sure what the actual law is now in Sharjah, which is a more conservative emirate than Dubai. At one time, it was illegal for women anywhere in Sharjah to wear sleeveless tops or skirts that were above the knee. I had heard that the law was quietly dropped at the urging of the federal government which is based in Abu Dhabi.

The Last Lecture

2009-04-28T00:37:00.002+09:00

I read this book in two sittings. It was nothing new, but it was a pleasant, easy read. It is simply an autobiographical story told by a thoughtful, interesting young (middle-aged man) who was dying of cancer. His attitude towards living fully to the end was quite remarkable. I do recommend it.

All a twitter

2009-04-20T21:03:00.005+09:00

This is the latest update on my pigeons. The little critters are growing pretty quickly. They still don't have real feathers, but they are getting there.

This post seems apropos. We just got an email today telling us that AUS is on Twitter at AUSharjah and on YouTube at wwwausedu. My first reaction was a scornful "hmff" but its fairly well done. Clap. Clap.

Twitter seems like such an odd concept (waste of time), but I'm thinking that my friends might really want to find out what I had for dinner, if my workout was good, or if I'm wearing my brown loafers or my brown dress-shoes (Koff! Koff!). I wonder if I can catch Ashton Kutcher. He only has a million fans. I think I need a gimmick.

Twitter - HA! It's like blogging for the incredibly lazy.

Sharjah wild life

2009-04-16T01:46:00.003+09:00

And this ladies and gentlemen is as wild as it gets on campus. Mom hatched two little chicks. I was pretty sure that there were three, but I can only see two now. The mother pigeon was regurgitating something for the chicks. I'll bet that was tasty. I guess she partially digests her catch and then gives it to the babies when it is mush.

At home in the classroom

2009-04-09T02:47:00.003+09:00

This is one of my classrooms. The window has a little area that has been the home of a pigeon for the last couple of weeks. I'm assuming that we will soon see some little baby pigeons.

Dubai Dragon Boat Festival

2009-04-09T02:28:00.010+09:00

Last weekend at Festival City on Dubai Creek, they held the 1st Annual Dubai Dragon Boat Festival. The venue has potential; however, the whole thing was a little tepid. There were several thousand people, but, if you took away the paddlers, there weren't very many people there. It's too bad, but maybe it will catch on and next year's will be better.

Hail! Hail!

2009-03-26T01:07:00.001+09:00

Tonight it poured rain. Then it started to hail. Pretty big chunks of ice fell for a couple of minutes. It was quite amazing - especially because it has been getting warmer and warmer here. The daytime temperatures are around 30C.

Harry Belafonte

2009-03-22T00:04:00.003+09:00

I was watching a great interview between Riz Khan and Harry Belafonte on Al Jazeera this evening. I've always admired Harry Belafonte, but I hadn't realized what a huge influence he had on the political and the music scene in the U.S.

Then, I wandered off to a video with Harry Belafonte and Nat King Cole.

And, then wandered off again to just Nat King Cole. Nat King Cole is so cool. I love this version of Unforgettable.

Wadi Hayl

2009-03-12T11:42:00.004+09:00

With a couple of colleagues, I went to Wadi Hayl near Fujairah last weekend. It was the first road trip in my new car. It's a smooth ride in the nicest, safest car I've ever owned.

The wadi had quite a bit of farming going on. It's in some really harsh, rocky mountains, but there's obviously water.

At the wadi, there is an old fort/house ("palace") that belonged to Sheikh Abdullah Bin Hamdan. It was built in 1932. When I went there 8 years ago, little had been done to it. It was quite rundown. However, the main building and the watch tower have been restored. For much of the year, it must have been quite comfortable. There were a number of rooms and roof tops that would have been nice covered in carpets and cushions. It was easy to imagine a bunch of guys lounging around, drinking coffee and smoking.

After our trip to the wadi, we drove in to Fujairah and had lunch at the Hilton. Although the service was less than four star, we sat outside, looking out over a nice beach on the Gulf of Oman. That was really enjoyable. The weather was nice and a cool fresh breeze blew while we were there.

Update

2009-03-03T01:20:00.004+09:00

It has been a tiring semester. I have three writing classes. There seems to be endless amounts of marking, preparation, and student meetings.

In addition, I was on a committee that met a lot. We finally finished our report and sent it out to the faculty. Just as I was taking a deep breath, I was asked to serve on another committee - one that will be powerful and involve a lot of work and meetings - sigh!

We have only three more days until our spring break (one week). I am so looking forward to it. Unfortunately, I have a lot of work to do. I need to try to get quizzes and material ready for the last half of the semester so that I can get all the marking done. I'll be working a lot, but it will be more relaxing not having the students around. I'll probably sit in the Caribou Coffee shop at Festival Center most of the time.

Lately, the office has been kind of nutty. There's been a lot of backstabbing and fighting. I've tried to keep out of it, but I've had a lot of people on both sides asking for support - yuck. I has made me a little sad. My normally open office door has been closed.

Because I wasn't really busy enough, I am now a university senator. I was really hoping to be able to wear a toga, but, after our first meeting, I realized that I'd be out of place. Drat!

I've been renting a car for the last six months, but I decided that I needed a car of my own. Initially, I was just going to buy some old clunker (anyone who knows me knows that that's not going to happen). There are lots of stories of thousands of cars being abandoned at the airport in Dubai. When I drove out to the Dubai Used Car area, I saw a sea of cars. Tens of thousands of cars parked everywhere. It was hard to find a spot to park. The used car dealers had full lots and cars parked on the street. The days that I was there, there were very few buyers. The only people out and about were the guys with hoses, washing the dust off the cars. I was looking for a Honda CRV. ALL of the car dealers were selling two year-old cars for about DH80,000 - oddly enough exactly what they sold for two years ago brand new. Not one car dealer would budge on the price. When I finally asked one guy why they weren't slashing prices to clear their stock, he said that they had bought the cars when they were worth more and they couldn't sell them at a loss - even though no one was buying. Those cars are just going to sit there losing value, and they won't price them to sell. I finally bought a brand new 2009 Honda CRV for Dh105,000 (they threw in 13 months of insurance for free, three year unlimited mileage warranty, 3 years roadside assistance, rustproofing, registration fee of Dh500, Honda mats, two fire extinguishers, a first aid kit, and a better financing rate than the used car dealers). I told the used car dealers what was on offer at the new car dealers, and they just shrugged. This is sometimes a bizarre place. I was a little hesitant to buy a new car, but I plan to stay here until they throw me out. My plan is to do ten years and retire. That makes the car a reasonable value at about $3,000 a year.

The picture is not MY car, but it is the same model and the same color. I plan to go out for a drive next week to Wadi Hayl when we have our break. I'll update it with pictures soon.

English School

2009-02-04T01:31:00.004+09:00

You'll have to excuse the blurry photos. I can't remember if I was laughing too hard to hold my phone steady or crying. Somehow it just seems wrong for an English school to allow signs like this to be posted for weeks in our hallways. I'm praying that these were not my students. Level 5 is our highest level. Students at this level are close to entry to freshman university courses. The fact that these books are being offered for sale at the beginning of the semester seems to indicate that, at least the Level 5, has a high enough TOEFL score to begin studying in major classes and no longer needs to be in English preperatory classes. Koff, koff.

Saturday Morning Treat

2009-01-17T20:48:00.005+09:00

My Body for Life program allows one falling-of-the-wagon meal per week. I've decided that Saturday morning breakfast at the Mugg and Bean at Festival City is going to be it. I've always enjoyed a long, slow breakfast on the weekend. I enjoy sitting over a full meal and reading a newspaper or book for an hour or two. The Mugg and Bean restaurant has a few tables that look out over a large courtyard. There's glass roof, so there's nice natural light. There are numerous "waterfalls" so there's also the pleasant sound of running water.

Ras Al Khor Wildlife Sanctuary

2009-01-17T20:14:00.004+09:00

I and a colleague went to the Ras Al Khor Wildlife Sanctuary yesterday (Friday) because I had checked one website that said the hides were open every day from dawn to dusk. Ha! They're actually closed on Friday. Fortunately, we were able to walk along the fence. There were a lot of cool birds. It made me wish that I had a better camera with a long telephoto lense. In spite of the fact that we couldn't get into the hide, we spent a pleasant hour and a half there. Now that I know where it is (there's no big sign), I'll go on a Saturday morning at 9am.

It's really strange to be looking out over a lagoon full of flamingoes and seeing the Burj Dubai in the background.

Rain

2009-01-15T12:41:00.002+09:00

Last night, it poured rain. There was thunder and lightning. This morning, it was 12C. I'm wearing a sweatshirt and wool socks. I actually kind of like it. It feels like an autumn day in Vancouver. I'm going in to town later this morning. I hope the traffic isn't affected too much by the rain. There are no drains anywhere, so the water pools until it evaporates.

Body for Life

2009-01-14T00:36:00.004+09:00

Today was the my first day of a 12-week fitness/diet program. I have a feeling that this is something that I will have to slowly get used to and I may have to adapt parts of it. I've been doing basically the same workouts for 20 years and I think a change may be exactly what I need. I liked the focus that it brought to my workout today (Upper Body). Alternate days are aerobic days. I will be trying to get up at 5 or 6AM for a ride on my bike. I used to get up at 5AM every day, so I'm not expecting it to be a big problem. I figure I'll ride to the front gate of University City. I'll have to check it with my car, but I think it's about 15 km. I can usually manage to ride hard all the way to the front gate, and then ride back at a slightly slower pace. I've been wanting to do this ever since I bought my new bike. I think this program will provide a little more structure and incentive to do it. I've report back in 12 weeks.

Outsourced

2009-01-06T04:41:00.002+09:00

I really enjoyed this movie. Both Josh Hamilton and Ayesha Dharker were wonderful. As an English teacher, I enjoyed the occassional language struggles and, as an expat, the cultural bits were great. The movie also dealt with the topic of outsourcing in an interesting way.

The movie was funny and thoughtful.

Xmas dinner

2008-12-29T04:02:00.004+09:00

I had dinner at the Al Bustan Rotana with several colleagues on Christmas Eve. The food was great. The turkey was juicy. The company was pleasant. And I didn't have to do dishes or clean up after.

Xmas present

2008-12-29T03:52:00.003+09:00

I must have been even better than I thought this year. Santa upgraded my bike. I got a Scott Aspect 20 plus a cool helmet and some other gear (much better than the Giant I was looking at before). I've really missed biking, so I'm going to be out most morning before the sun comes up riding around the university.

Christmas Presents

2008-12-11T23:08:00.005+09:00

I've been pretty good this year (The fact that I live on campus in the middle of a desert in a dry emirate that has no bars is completely beside the point.). I'm so sure that Santa is going to bring me exactly what I want (and deserve) that I stopped by one of his out-sourced workshops at the Dubai Festival City mall. I'd love to get a new road bike, but I really don't want to ride on my own on the hard shoulders of any of the roads in the Emirates. So...I'm looking at an offroad bike. I'll be able to ride on the roads around the University City and there are a lot of sand lots I can cycle in. I have a friend in Dubai who does some really serious looking mountain biking, so I may give him a call when I'm in better shape.

At any rate, I love this bike.

Of course, this being the UAE, I said, "I'll take it with me right now (so you don't have to deliver it on Christmas day). I need some shoes, too. I need a size 10 or 10 and a half. I'll also take a helmet and a bunch of other stuff"

The elf said, "Sorry, we have only size 12. If you wear heavy socks, it should be okay."

"Gee, I don't think so. I'm going to spend US$1,000 on a bike and you don't have the shoes to go with it."

I'm hoping that, by Christmas, they will have what I need.

2008-12-08T03:50:00.004+09:00

A friend told me about this website last week. It's cool. Some of the vocabulary is really hard, but it's a good way to learn vocabulary. I like it because it has links to the sound files as well, so you can learn how to say it as well. If you use it, you can feed needy people.

A Charlie Brown Christmas tree

2008-12-06T17:44:00.004+09:00

I put up my Christmas tree this morning. I'm sure Christmas will pass quietly this year. I'd like to say that I've been good this year, but that's not true. I'm expecting a lump of coal in my stocking.

I will certainly miss my family's company this year - my older brother in particular has often provided me with memorable Christmas dinners in recent years. I expect that the closest I will come to a Christmas dinner this year will be a Chicken Whopper at Burger King.

Perhaps I should look at roasting a couple of Cornish game hens and having a few colleagues over for dinner.

Hatta "Water" Pools

2008-12-05T22:13:00.015+09:00

I've been to the Hatta Water Pools several times in the past and there was often a fairly large pool and lots of running water. I thought that my friends would find it interesting.

Unfortunately, the pool was almost dry and there were only a few tiny streams. They didn't believe me when I said that there were often a lot of fish in the pool. Fortunately, the falaj running along the road had plenty of small fish in it.

Dubai Creek Dinner Cruise

2008-12-05T22:01:00.007+09:00

A couple of days ago, I went on a dinner cruise celebrating a colleague's birthday. Getting from Sharjah to Deira in Dubai took one and a half hours. However, the cruise was really pleasant. The weather was perfect - cool but not cold - and the food was quite good. It was nice to get out with friends for a cruise that lasted about 3 hours.

Security???

2008-11-23T05:32:00.002+09:00

I have no desire to do this, but, if you like jumping off tall things, this must be a thrill.

Musical Interlude

2008-11-22T00:55:00.007+09:00

One of my favorite musicians is Jim Brickman. I've always loved his piano playing, and I've never understood why the "purists" complain about his collaborations. He does beautiful work with Martina McBride (Valentine), Collin Raye and Susan Ashton (The Gift), Michelle Wright (Your Love), and All-4-One (It Must Be You). I've always been a little soft pop and a little country. This one is just right. It brings a tear to my eyes.

Aaaarrrgghhh! 2

2008-11-17T03:15:00.003+09:00

I gave one of my classes a grammar quiz today. One of the questions mentioned Jordan and Israel. In the middle of the quiz, one student put up his hand and asked if I thought that Israel was a country. I, of course, said, "Yes." He and two other guys in the class said that they were refusing to answer the question because Israel is NOT a country.

I haven't marked the quiz yet, so I'll have to see if they stood by their belief.

I intend to ask them who Egypt and Jordan signed peace treaties with and who Mahmoud Abbas and Yasser Arafat negotiated with if not with a country named Israel. (According to Wikipedia: Prior to signing the accords, Arafat — as Chairman of the PLO and its official representative — signed two letters renouncing violence and officially recognizing Israel.) I would like to see all the settlements removed and a more equitable division of the land - perhaps a 50/50 split, but that doesn't mean that I don't recognize the country of Israel.

I have a lot of Palestinian students in my class. My students seem quite privileged and far removed from the millions of Palestinians living in substandard conditions in the Gaza Strip or in refugee camps, so I'm a little less inclined to put up with too much crap from them, but I don't really know their situations. I'm assuming that every Palestinian knows someone who has suffered. I don't have the energy to struggle with this. I hope we can deal with this in an educated way and then it will just go away.

If there was every an argument that marijuana should be legalized, the last few years have convinced me. Everyone would be a lot more laid back if they smoked a joint from time to time. Perhaps George B, Donald R, and Dick C would still just be pondering an invasion of Iraq.

Can you imagine a bunch of suicide bombers sitting around a bong - "Oh, man. Let's do this another day"?

I don't think I've ever met an aggressive stoner.

Rain and other things

2008-11-17T00:15:00.009+09:00

Yes, those are puddles. It rained fairly hard last night. There was even lightning and thunder.

Then, on the way to school, I saw this very beautiful Indian Roller sitting on a street light.

My favorite birds, of course, are the Eurasian Hoopoe. The two are regularly sitting in the window of someone's office.

2008-11-01T03:22:00.004+09:00

I went down to the Emirates Towers today for lunch at the Noodle House (I had a serious craving for char kway teo.)

Around the outside of the building they had ant sculptures. They were odd, but kind of cool.

Aaaarrrgghhh!

2008-10-29T03:56:00.002+09:00

Every once in awhile, I say something in class that I immediately regret. Several years ago, I had a student who rarely did any homework and, after I assigned the class a little homework, I said to the student, "Will you do the homework this time?"

The response was the typical, "Inshallah." This sort of means "God willing," but not really. For most people in the UAE, it's just a natural response to just about anything.

I said, "Are you really putting the responsibility for your homework on Allah? If you don't do it, will it be Allah's fault?" Well, I was lucky I didn't get kicked out of the country. It took a long, long time for the students to get over that.

Today, one of the students asked what 'myth' meant, and I foolishly said that they are stories we tell to explain mysteries but that they are real - like the 'jinn' in the Middle East. And, I kind of mocked jinn and ghosts. In my defense, Wikipedia says,

Genie is the mythical English translation of the Arabic term jinn.

Well, one student said that jinn were real because the Quran mentions them. Most of the other students agreed. It took them an hour to stop sulking.

From Wikipedia - Jinns: Similar to humanity, jinns have free will allowing them to follow any religion they choose to, such as Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, etc. The only difference is that they are made of smokeless fire and therefore are not visible to humans. There are more jinns than humans, in terms of population. Jinns have the power to fly and fit in to any space so they live in remote areas, mountains, seas, trees, and in the air, in their own communities. Similar to the humans, Jinns will also be judged on The Day of Judgement and will be sent to Jannat (heaven) or Nar (hell) according to the life they lead.
Every person is assigned a special jinn to them, also called a qareen, the jinns that whisper into your soul and tell you to give into your evil desires. The Prophet Muhammad's jinn turned into a Muslim jinn, on the recitation of the Qur'an, as the jinn found it most beautiful.

I know I should be more careful, but I just wish everyone would lighten up.

My Saturday Morning Walk About Campus

2008-10-25T17:38:00.008+09:00

The weather has become quite pleasant. This morning, the temperature was around 28C, so I took my camera and walked the route I take every morning to school. It's about a 10 minute walk. Most days, I see only a dozen people on my way in to the office (I usually go in around 7:30am, so the campus is quiet.). I NEVER get bumped or jostled. I NEVER end up in my office furious at all the rude people around me (see my posts on Seoul). My office and classrooms are in the big domed building on campus (the Main Building).

I saw a number of birds (see the photos on the sidebar). I was thrilled to see my favorite bird - the Hoopoe. I got a number of shots, but I need to try to get it with its crest spread out. I saw a couple of Indian Rollers, but they are skittish and I didn't get any pictures yet. There were also a number of terns (also very skittish).

Living on a campus in the middle of the desert has its drawbacks. However, it is quiet and relaxing. I spend most weekdays in my office or in the classrooms. In the evenings, I go to the gym or watch TV or read. On the weekends, I go into Dubai and have a pleasant meal at the Lime Tree, More, or some other trendy cafe. Then I do my grocery shopping at Spinneys or the Organic Store and return home. If the traffic is good (it usually is when I go), it takes 30-40 minutes to get into Dubai.

I've added a video below. There's no action - just the sound of birds. If I open my windows, this is what I hear. I'm always amazed at the number and variety of birds here.

'ecological disaster'

2008-10-12T02:10:00.003+09:00

Mayne warns Dubai set for ‘ecological disaster’

Another in a long string of similar stories.

I was in Dubai today for lunch at the More and to buy a loaf of bread (The Organic Foods and Cafe has the best Spelt bread in the country). Dubai has some really nice restaurants and some really interesting buildings. There are some great, green parks. However, the obsession with having the biggest, best, most...yadda, yadda, yadda, seems to be a recipe for disaster. Perhaps it's just my Canadian-ness, but being okay is, well, okay. You don't need to be the greatest to be pretty darn good.

When science and culture bump heads

2008-10-12T01:42:00.003+09:00

Genetic disorders afflict Arab world

Below are some excerpts from an article in The National (a UAE newspaper). It's interesting that they are actually talking openly about this issue. In countries such as those in the Gulf, it is very difficult for men and women to meet, socialize, fall in love, and marry strangers. It's forbidden by their religion; there are also cultural prohibitions. As a result, people marry those that they or their families know - their relatives. This intermarriage custom is causing problems - problems which will affect the long-term survival of their countries. They can continue to live as they have, but it is going to increase the scope of the problem. The scientific evidence seems irrefutable. It will be interesting to see how they deal with this problem.

The Centre for Arab Genomic Studies (CAGS) yesterday said Arab countries were showing greater prevalence of many hereditary disorders caused both by environmental and social dynamics....

Disorders such as Down’s syndrome, sickle cell disease, and thalassaemia are far more common in the region than elsewhere. Many genetic conditions that are considered rare are found more frequently in the region.

According to CAGS, 21.4 babies per 100,000 are born with Down’s in the UAE, about double the average global rate.

About one in 10 people in the UAE is a carrier [of thalassaemia], CAGS said.

Saudi Arabia has the highest rate of birth defects in the Gulf, with around 80 babies out of every 1,000 born with a disorder.

In the UAE, Kuwait and Oman, 70 to 79 children in every 1,000 are born with a birth defect.

Birth defects have been closely linked to marriages between cousins and relatives, a common practice throughout the region and estimated to account for 35 to 50 per cent of all weddings.

Up to half of all Emirati marriages are between relatives, with 54 per cent of married couples in Al Ain being relatives, compared to 32 per cent in Abu Dhabi and 40 per cent in Dubai.

Saudi Arabia, has perhaps the highest rate of intermarriage, with up to two thirds of all marriages occurring between relatives.

A Canadian Thanksgiving Dinner

2008-10-11T12:25:00.006+09:00

I got together with a dozen fellow Canadians (and a few American cousins) for a really fine Thanksgiving dinner last night. We sang our national anthem (Yes, the new words), ate (the turkey was great - and, oddly enough, cooked by a vegetarian couple), and socialized. A good time was had by all.

Changes

2008-10-10T21:17:00.001+09:00

I changed the layout of my blog ----- just because.

I like the fact that this one is wider.

Umm Al Quwain Aero Club

2008-10-10T16:57:00.010+09:00

I went out to the Barracuda this morning with a friend to pick up some libations. He's a flying enthusiast so we stopped at the Umm Al Quwain Aero Club, which is right beside the Barracuda. I have passed the plane dozens of times but I'd never gone inside. It's kind of cool. You can walk right inside it. Everything has been stripped out of it, but it's still kind of cool to walk into the cockpit.

While we were there, there was a real functioning airplane of a similar type preparing to leave from the airport. There must have been 100 men dressed in coveralls walking up the back ramp to go inside. I'm assuming that the men were being shuttled to some construction sight or oil facility in the UAE or possibly a neighboring country. It must be a tough way to go. I imagine that a lot of the guys lie or sit on the metal floor for the duration of the flight.

When you can't keep a dog...

2008-10-10T16:54:00.004+09:00

Most evenings, he/she is on my living room ceiling. I don't know what it eats. There don't seem to be any insects. Perhaps that's why it's so skinny.

Food for thought

2008-10-06T00:27:00.002+09:00

An interesting article about Dubai at The Observer - the dark side.

Holiday tasks

2008-09-28T21:43:00.004+09:00

Since I'm on holiday now, I have time to start scanning all of my old slides and film negatives. I want to get them into digital form since slide projectors have gone the way of the 8-track. I started taking pictures seriously in 1976 and I have a huge box of slide and negatives. I also plan, at some point, perhaps after I buy my iMac, to put the pictures into slide shows with music. I have some pictures that I took in Bali 20 years ago that I think will go well with a tape I have of gamalon music.

The whole process is quite slow and a bit tedious, so, while I'm waiting for each set of slides to scan, I've started reading books that I've had on my shelves for a few years and haven't opened. My first choice is Chang-Rae Lee's novel, Native Speaker. So far, I'm impressed.

A new toy

2008-09-28T00:03:00.003+09:00

I don't know how I've lived so long without one - a GPS that is. It's so cool. I bought a Garmin GPS today. While sitting in my car, I turned it on and it immediately found my location (easily then designated at Home). I typed in Barracuda, and it quickly found the Barracuda Beach Resort in Umm Al Quwain. I took the GPS for a test drive (unfortunately, the Barracuda really is closed until the first day of Eid). It's so cool to have the GPS tell you, "After 600 meters, turn right." Even when I turned too soon (and got lost), it just said, "Recalculating" and then it gave me new directions. Okay, the "Recalculating" voice did sound a tad condescending, but perhaps it was just my imagination. I know that it won't be perfect because of all the recent road changes, but it will help a lot. I think it will also enhance my safe driving ability because I will be able to focus on traffic while my GPS tells me where to go. I'm looking forward to taking it for a test drive in Dubai soon.

Sex on the beach trial highlights Dubai cultural divide

2008-09-26T14:00:00.006+09:00

DUBAI -- Sex on the beach or drunken trysts may not raise eyebrows in many cities, but a recent case in Dubai has exposed a growing cultural divide between native Muslims and Western residents seeking fun in the sun.

I have seen this same story recently in a number of online news sites. It makes me wonder if I'm the last conservative on the planet. "Sex on the beach or drunken trysts may not raise eyebrows in many cities"??? I would sure as heck raise my eyebrows. I'm not some radical Christian. I think that what goes on between two (perhaps 3) consenting adults in the privacy of their own homes is their business. And I will admit to fooling around on a deserted beach late at night in Vancouver (but that's another story). But, for a long time, I've been bothered by the lack of separation between what is considered acceptable private and public behavior in Canada and many other western countries.

I think that a kiss on greeting or parting is fine, but, if a couple want to play serious tonsil-hockey, that should not be public. Whatever happened to polite behavior? Whatever happened to self-control? If you really feel the urge, can't you wait a little.

So, I have two problems with this story. One is that I think the basic behavior is inappropriate at any time in any place - including Canada. I'm not advocating years in the slammer, but I do think a few days - maybe a week - is fine. (The sentence hasn't been handed down yet, so we don't know if it will be excessive or not.). The second problem is with the idea that we can go to another country and act any way we want. That just seems impolite. Admittedly, Dubai is like the Wild West in many ways, and it sometimes seems like anything goes, but this couple should get a little jail time and they should be expelled from the country. The story that I got was that this was took place during the day, and they were given a warning by a police officer. It wasn't an unsuspecting couple holding hands and walking down the street (which, by the way, is perfectly acceptable in Dubai).

This story has also been accompanied quite frequently by this picture as though this fully-veiled woman represents the average Emirati. "Oh, yes. Look at how different they are." What a pile of c**p. The majority of Emirati women wear long black dresses with long sleeves, and they wear head-scarves. Very few Emiratis wear veils.

The picture below is much more common.

This whole story smacks of a nasty intolerance and racism that I find disturbing.

Yuck!

2008-09-05T03:21:00.002+09:00

Since I arrived three weeks ago, the daytime temperatures have been 35-38C. Generally, it's hot but not unbearable. Today, humidity was 80-90%. I just got back from the gym (a 15 minute walk from my apartment to the fitness center). The temperature is 30C but the humidity is 80%. By the time I got home, I was sweating like crazy. It was really uncomfortable.

TGIT

2008-09-04T23:51:00.003+09:00

Thank God It's Thursday - It's Thursday afternoon and I'm really looking forward to a couple of days off. The weekend in the UAE is Friday and Saturday. It used to be Thursday and Friday, but they changed it to make it easier for businesses around the world to work with the UAE. I had a pretty good week, but I need to gather myself, reassess my classes, and plan for the next few weeks.

Today, someone asked me where I was going on the holiday. I had completely forgotten that we get a week off at the end of Ramadan - actually 2 weekends and 1 workweek - a total of 9 days. I've just arrived here, so I don't think I'll go anywhere. I have some computer related things I want to work on. I may set up my own website and run my own English resource center for my students. I may also set up Moodle there. Oddly enough, the university seems really resistant to the best option - a site on the university system. They've also dumped Moodle and are using Blackboard - an online course delivery system. I've been to numerous Blackboard sessions, and I'm trying to like the program, but it is unnecessarily complicated for teachers who just want to provide things online for their students.

Movies I've watched recently

2008-09-04T23:33:00.009+09:00

In the past week, I watched two movies that I saw years ago and have always remembered fondly:

The Sand Pebbles - I think it is one of Steve McQueen's best.

The Princess Bride - A great cast and a great story.

Both really are marvelous movies.

This afternoon I watched 10 Questions for the Dalai Lama. It was gentle and very moving. At the end, I was left with a tear in my eye. It seemed appropriate somehow to watch this film at this time. I know the Dalai Lama was just recently released from the hospital. He is quite elderly (73 years old). He seems a little frail. It is odd to think of the world without the Dalai Lama.

He could conceivably last another 30 years. I hope so. It would be nice if he could go home.

Google's new browser

2008-09-04T03:57:00.001+09:00

It's cool.

Google Chrome

It has a nice clean interface. It may just replace Firefox as my main browser (although I have some privacy concerns with Google).

Back in the UAE

2008-09-04T03:21:00.003+09:00

Three weeks ago, after a pleasant on-time flight from Kamloops to Vancouver on Air Canada, I went to check in at for my British Airline flight to Heathrow. I was four hours early but BA was checking in bags, so I went to the first available person who told me to go back and use the kiosk to speed up the process. I looked around and didn’t see any kiosks. When I said, “What kiosk?” a bemused check-in person took me a bunch of computers on stands. There is no way that those were kiosks. At any rate, I was supposed to scan my passport, but, since it was issued in Dubai four years ago when the Canadian government didn’t issue any machine readable passports outside of Canada, that wouldn’t work. Well then we just needed a number, which should have been on the e-ticket I printed out, but wasn’t; I went back to the line where I started and did everything the old fashioned way.

The BA flight was half an hour late, my seat was broken, the in-flight movies and the reading light didn’t work until an hour out of Heathrow. Fortunately, I usually sleep a lot on flights, so that’s what I did.

BA is the only airline that I’ve ever been on where the flight attendants (two) were actually rude to passengers. The seats in economy class were narrow and close together. I don’t think I’ve had such uncomfortable seating in years. When the person in front of me put his seat back, I had to extend my legs straight out for the whole flight. The person sitting beside me was not fat, but his elbows were in my space for the entire trip. Well done, BA.

When we got to London, we had to circle the airport for half an hour. When we landed, we were out on the tarmac, where we waited for half an hour for the stair driver to show up. Then it took another half an hour for buses to shuttle us to Terminal 5 where I had to walk for half an hour along often unmarked passages to get to a bus to take me to Terminal 4. At one point, I was told rather brusquely to go down a corridor and turn left. “You mean the corridor with the signs for other airlines, but not BA?” (which was what I was looking for). “Yes.”

At Terminal 4, I had to go through a security check, taking my shoes off and emptying my pockets. They were telling me to hurry up, so I forgot that I had my iPod hanging around my neck. I have never had anyone at an airport speak to me so rudely as the young women on the other side of the metal detector who yelled, “Go back. This is a metal detector you know.” No “Please, go back.” No “Would you mind removing that iPod?” The security checkpoint also had a big sign, saying that it was no longer necessary for laptop computers to be taken out of bags because of the advances in x-ray technology – well that didn’t happen. I had to take my laptop and everything else out of my computer bag so that my computer, mouse, external hard drive, and electric razor could be wiped with a little sniffer device. Then everything was run through the x-ray again. Clearly the advanced technology hadn’t arrived with the sign.

Heathrow is perhaps the ugliest airport I’ve been in in the developed world. I think the designer was an old Soviet era architect. It is also the only major airport that I’ve been in – ever – that didn’t have small baggage carts for people who had carry-on baggage. In the seven hours that I was at Heathrow, not one person working in a shop or restaurant smiled or said please or thank you. If this is typical of jolly old England, I think I’ll give England a miss, and BA is not going to be my first, second, or even third choice of airlines. Overall, this was a disappointing experience. Give me Singapore Airlines any time.

Dubai was a pleasant end to my trip. They scarcely glanced at my passport and didn’t need to check my bags.

I am now safely ensconced in a small but comfortable apartment on campus. The weather is hot – about 35-38C – not not incredibly uncomfortable. I remember temperatures of 48C ten years ago when I first arrived in Dubai.

The campus is quite green and the bird life is amazing. When the weather cools a little bit more, I’ll take my camera out and get some pictures. I have seen an Indian roller with vibrant blue feathers, a whole bunch of hoopoe, lots of doves and pigeons, and flocks of green parkeets.

I’ve been really jetlagged. This is coming on to the end of my third week, and, this week, I’ve finally been feeling better. For the first two weeks, I ran out of energy around 11am every day (11pm Vancouver time). Getting moved into my apartment has been tiring. The moving company made a real mess of everything. The container had gotten wet and had been dropped. Three Ikea bookshelves and two CD/DVD racks had been soaked and then dropped, so they were no good. The glass tv stand that should have held my tv was shattered. A folding Korean dining table was broken. I’ve had damp books piled on the floor and in corners. It has been difficult to get everything set up. All of the broken stuff was not insured. My big screen tv and one of my stereos were damaged (those are insured). I’m still waiting to see how long it takes to get that resolved. Needless to say, this has made settling in more tiring than necessary.

My classes are okay. The students are pretty good. The university is interesting because we have students from more than 80 different countries. The student dress ranges from shorts and T-shirts to traditional kandura and abaya. The students are pretty relaxed.

It’s now Ramadan and there are restrictions on eating and drinking in public. But, there are dining rooms and places for non-Muslims to have lunch.

Before Ramadan, the gym was almost deserted in the evening, but, now that most of the students can’t eat during the day, the gym gets packed from about 8:30 on. Our university seems to win a lot of sports competitions – both men and women’s.

As I sit here, a tiny gecko is running across my wall. I don’t recall seeing them before, but I have at least three small geckos in my apartment.

I will start taking pictures soon. The campus is quite green and the buildings are beautiful. University City is huge.

Canadian, eh?

2008-07-24T05:18:00.004+09:00

I was shocked and more than a little disappointed when I saw the new B.C. license plates - "The Best Place on Earth". While B.C. may in reality be the best place on earth, it just feels wrong to be running around telling people that we're better than them. This license plate seems so arrogant. It just doesn't feel Canadian to be tooting our own horn (we may think it, but to say it...?). Besides, the U.N. (for the second year running) has Norway as the best place to live. Canada is only number 3 (admittedly, the west coast may be the nicest part of Canada

Cruel and unusual punishment

2008-07-18T11:21:00.002+09:00

Car-keying suspect out on $25,000 bail

As a Canadian, I've always thought that people should be punished for the wrongs they commit, but that the punishment should not be cruel and unusual. Having had my car keyed a couple of times in Vancouver, I don't have too much sympathy for people who do such mean-spirited, seemingly pointless things (and this guy has been caught 3 times) . . . however, this punishment surely is cruel...

Kim, who works at a restaurant on Kingsway in Burnaby, was ordered to live with his parents in their Coquitlam home and not to change his residence, except with prior permission of the court.

The man is 31 and it was probably his parents who had to post the $25,000 bail. I suspect that his parents are going to make his life pretty miserable for the next little while.

No free lunch

2008-07-10T01:10:00.013+09:00

I always forget that my brother always has something he is working on around his house. Last year, I was tearing siding off his house and doing footings for a new deck. This year, we painted his shed. I keep waiting for him to downsize and move into a townhouse or a condo.

I can't really complain. I get a nice room, good food, and laundry service.

Every time I come back to Canada I notice that ALL of my middle-aged friends are obsessed with retirement. It's a little depressing since I can't imagine retiring EVER (my feeling is that my students will one day find me slumped dead on my desk, dying with my boots on so to speak - I just hope it happens BEFORE I mark those 20 essays). What's even more depressing is that all of my friends say things like, "I only have $200,000 in this investment, $200,000 in RRSPs, $500,00 in my house, and 20 years of a pension. I don't know how I'm going to manage." Considering that ALL of my friends have 10 times more than I do, I'm a little concerned and a little disheartened. Everyone here lives so big. They all have big houses, big yards, big cars (often more than one). I think that they all expect their lives to be exactly the same after they retire as they are now. I am working on living in the moment, so I hope I can stop worrying about this.

I've been up at the TRU gym a couple of times this week. For the last few years, I've kind of been the king of the gym in Korea. A few guys have been stronger and fitter, but not many and NO women have been even close to my strength and fitness level. Here in Canada, I'm average, and quite a few woman have been stronger. It's a little intimidating when some woman takes a machine after I've used it and throws on a couple more plates. Yikes! If I stayed here, I'd really have to step up my workouts.

The gym shower culture here is also quite different. Today, I noticed how much quieter our showers are because we don't have people vigorously clearing their sinuses on the shower floor or hawking up a lung for 10 minutes and spitting big globs of phlegm on the shower floor. Mirrors here also get just a cursory look. Most guys just quickly run their fingers through their hair and then they're done. In Korea, the guys could easily spend ten minutes preening in front of the mirror before they go to workout and another 10 or 15 minutes when they finish.

Kamloops

2008-07-03T23:44:00.011+09:00

I've been in Kamloops for the last couple of days, visiting my older brother. It has been a little hot (33C) but dry. This area is semi-desert.

This will be home for the next three weeks. My days will be spent exercising, reading, and trying to really get a grasp on CSS (a daunting tasks).

Yesterday, I went to the Technogym at Thompson River University. The equipment was quite amazing as can be seen in these before and after pictures.

My older brother, the Bionic Man, having just had a knee replacement, felt the need to go for a 60 minute walk through the hills to check out some bird boxes he had put out. One box had baby bluebirds in it and another had baby swallows.

Vancouver

2008-06-28T13:30:00.002+09:00

I have just had my first full day in Vancouver. The weather is beautiful. The sky is incredibly blue. It was sunny all day and about 25C. I walked a lot, got a mobile phone set up, and rented a car.

It feels really strange to have strangers smile, say hello and chat a bit while waiting for a crossing signal. I find it strange that any time I step to the curb, cars stop. It's a little embarrassing. A few times, I was just standing at the corner, admiring my surroundings. I felt compelled to cross the road since they had stopped.

Everything feels really relaxed here.

In honor of the blue sky, I rented a nifty little Toyota Prius (a hybrid car). I had never driven one before and it feels a little strange because the "gear shift" is about 5cm long and is located on the dash board. It has only Drive, Reverse, Neutral, and Park. I've driven a hundred different kinds of vehicles, so I expected to have no trouble. There is no key. What looks like a small garage door opener fits in a slot on the dashboard. When I finally parked, I couldn't get the "key" out of the dashboard and had to call the rental agency. I thought that all the power was off, but, after pushing the Power switch one more time, everything was okay. I was more than a little embarrassed.

In Vancouver, I expect that an environmentally friendly hybrid call will be a chick magnet. In fact, I'm sure I got a couple of good long looks. I've changed a lot since I used to drive a red Camaro.

A farewell to Korea

2008-06-24T17:59:00.002+09:00

As I get ready to leave Korea for the fourth time, I feel compelled to reflect a little on my last few days. I know I will miss many of my colleagues and students a lot. Many of my colleagues have left me with kind, supportive messages. I am touched.

I’m not going to miss Seoul at all. My rants about Seoul have been long and far too frequent, so I won’t repeat them here.

After struggling with so many things lately, the end went very smoothly. Apple Tours at the Yongsan USO got me the flight home that I wanted at a great price. The moving company came early (almost unheard of in Seoul) and were in and out in 2 and a half hours. The final cost of shipping was a million won LESS than the original estimate – something that I hadn’t expected – a very pleasant surprise. The movers were really professional. I would definitely recommend Asian Tigers (www.asiantigers-korea.com) to anyone. I got all of my key money back EARLY and my landlord has let me stay in the apartment until I leave. At the bank, there was absolutely no fuss. I managed to get all of my money transferred home and my account closed with no problem. The staff at the Shinhan Bank in Itaewon were great. That took just half an hour. It’s nice to have so many positive things happen at the end.

It was all so good that I thought I would treat myself at the new Hard Rock Café under yhe Hamilton Hotel. The Hard Rock has been under construction for ages, and, after my visit, I can understand why. It’s huge. Inspite of the fact that it’s part of a large commercial chain, I liked it. It’s quite well-layed out. It has several distinctly different dining areas that are all nice, and it has a large, very cool bar. I went in for lunch and it was pretty quiet. I don’t know what it’s like at night. The food is a little pricy but not outrageous when compared to TGIF or the Outback. After my meal, I thought I would buy a Hard Rock T-shirt. Last February, I bought a really cool one for a friend in Abu Dhabi. It had a map of Korea with a huge dragon and tiger superimposed on top of it. Of course, there were none on the shelves. I asked the salespeople if they had any in the back and I was informed that they were so popular that they sold out quickly. “Would you be getting anymore in?” “No.” Hmm. Really popular design. Not going to get anymore. Hmm. At any rate, the rather mundane shirts they had were not attractive, so I didn’t buy any.

This will be my last blog from the land of the Morning Calm – the country I would love to love but just can’t. I should say up front to my family and friends who might be concerned – I will be okay. It was a very difficult year ( I really should have left last year). But, this will pass. At this point in my life I’m reminded of a story that I read in a book by Jon Kabat-Zinn about two Buddhist monks – one young and one old. They arrived at a river to find a young woman who needed to cross but couldn’t swim. The older monk put her on his back and swam across the river. When the young monk crossed, the two monks continued on their way. After several hours the young monk, who had clearly been upset for some time, turned to the old monk and said, “How could you carry the woman across like that? Monks aren’t supposed to touch women.” The old monk said, “Are you still carrying her? I left her at the side of the river hours ago.” As someone who regularly carries baggage that should have been left long ago, I resolve to move forward unburdened. It feels to me as though I’ve been carrying the weight of my dislike for our administrator on my back for a long time. When I leave here, I promise myself that I will not carry that weight anymore.

I got into teaching 25 years ago because I wanted to change the world. I’m a lot less idealistic now, but I still think of teaching as a calling, and I find it galling when people look at it just as a job – a way to make a little cash – or as a way to get ahead. My work-week has always been between 50 and 70 hours. I don’t expect everyone to spend so much time working, but teachers get long, long vacations, and I don’t think that it’s too much to ask that we devote our lives to teaching when we are actually at work. When I look out at a group of students, I see people who have come to me because I have put myself forward as a person who can educate them – as someone who will help them be all that they can be. We, as a group of trained professionals, need to assess their abilities, look carefully at where they would like to end up, and show them the way. When we assess those students, there should be no surprises. The students should truly believe that they are being assessed fairly so that they can say that they have arrived at their goal or they can assess their efforts, make changes, and continue on to success.

So…working in a program that has not been developed through the collaboration of professional language educators, that seems to totally ignore the level of the students, and that aims to teach discrete high level often trivial skills has made me very unhappy. I am torn because I think that a school should have a curriculum – one that has been developed by educators to meet the needs of the particular student body. I don’t think that we should be able to ignore the curriculum, so I try to do what is asked, yet the teachers who ignored the program and taught what they wanted were probably happier and surely did the right thing for their students. Having to go into the classroom every day to sell a program that I didn’t believe in was beyond me, and I feel sorry for my students. I’m pretty sure that I won’t be getting any “Best Teacher” awards for this semester.

My ego has been pretty fragile the past few years, and it really didn’t help to have all of my suggestions and ideas about teaching (developed over 5 years of study for a B.Ed in English and 4 years for an M.Ed in TESOL plus 25 years of teaching in North America, Southeast Asia, East Asia, and the Middle East) dismissed as out-of-date, irrelevant, or downright wrong. My baby, the online resource center, was deemed to be not useful (in reality, it didn’t support the new program because I don’t know how to create online material for the new program). I had worked on a program that supported the teachers and students so I guess it isn’t surprising that it doesn’t support language teaching theories that haven’t been current since I began teaching 25 years ago.

The result of this has been a slow, steady downward spiral for me. It couldn’t have been a pretty thing watching me crash and burn. I know that my western colleagues, who bore the brunt of my unhappiness, couldn’t have enjoyed spending time with me, and I apologize to them. I really should have gone last year.

It is unforgivable that the university allowed some immature wanktard who was fired from his last job for conflicts with colleagues and complaints from students to take control of what had, for many years, been a pretty good program and replace it with a program that I think is one of the worst I have ever worked with. Unforgivable? Absolutely! We take money and, even more important, the lives of our students (50 hours) and we promise to make them better. We failed this past year. It really does matter what teachers do.

Having said that, I resolve to leave this now and move on. It has taken enough of my life. I hope that my colleagues somehow survive this and that the students somehow get what they need and deserve, but this is no longer my concern. I will finish my grades on Wednesday and my time at this university will be over.

Soon, I will be back in Canada. I’ll have a pleasant relaxing month and a half to hang out with my older brother and to visit with friends and family. Then it will be off to the Middle East. I hope that this will be my last move until I retire (another ten years perhaps) but one never knows. Inshallah seems an appropriate thing to say now.

Kids' Speech Contest

2007-11-13T14:42:00.000+09:00

I helped judge a kids' speech contest on the weekend. This was the third time that I have been involved. I've always enjoyed it. My daily life brings me into contact with children very rarely, and I find it fun and inspiring to see so many precocious little Korean kids standing in front of an audience speaking English. It almost makes me want to have kids of my own.

Sometimes the contest reminded of that old Bill Cosby show Kids Say The Darnedest Things. One little girl, in response to a question about how she felt when she had had difficulty doing something, replied that she was scared. It turned out that she was scared because her mother hit her. This, of course, had everyone in the audience looking around for the guilty mother. Another kid said that he respected his parents most because they never fought - even when his father drank so much that he couldn't get up. His mother just asked him not to drink so much. This, too, had everyone looking around the for the drunken bum and his understanding wife.

In general, though, the kids were just impressive. From pre-school to middle school, their English was quite amazing. They must have worked really hard.

A Beautiful Scent

2007-07-22T16:07:00.001+09:00

This is a sign over the urinals in the gym that I go to. I've been looking at it for three years and I still don't understand the intent.

A better translation is below (thanks to a colleague):

"A person with a beautiful heart leaves a good fragrance even in places he only stays for a short time."

Since this sign is in the toilet, I'm thinking that perhaps they are suggesting that, if your heart is good, your crap doesn't smell. From personal experience, I'd have to say that it's not true. I've been known to leave a smell that has people running for the exits....

Hey, wait a minute. Say it ain't so?

Hmmm

2007-06-23T18:25:00.000+09:00

I recently got this email from a student who is going to take my 5-week summer session class. I can't really understand what this student is thinking to make such a request.

I will participate in Special summer english class, i'd like to take the class with my friend. But, my friend is not belong to ******** Univ. Can i take the class with my friend?

I already have 30 students registered in the class. It's a class with an essay writing focus. Gee, let me think...do I want another student in my class? It has been my experience EVERY TIME with auditing students that they NEVER stay to the end of the class and they NEVER do all of the homework.

There are language school classes for students to take if they want to study English. I don't really feel like being someone's free private tutor. I figure I'm already going to have to work on this student's use of capital letters and question forms.

Singin' In The Rain

2007-06-22T12:02:00.000+09:00

Actually, no. It was more like cursing in the mist.

It was a beautiful sunny day and I felt like walking a little, so I walked along the road between the Yongsan North Post and South Post this morning on my way to the USO to pick up a plane ticket. That road is lined with 10-15 meter tall trees. On my side of the road, there was a big yellow tanker truck stopped and a man with a hose and nozzle standing on the sidewalk. I had barely passed him when I was suddenly enveloped in a really heavy mist. I looked back and the guy with the hose was spraying the tops of the trees. The mist was coming down on anyone on the sidewalk and all of the cars driving by - many with their windows open. I got soaked.

Now I don't know for sure what he was spraying, but he was spraying the leaves at the top of the trees. If he had been watering the trees or putting fertilizer on them, he would have been putting it at the base of the trees on the roots. It had also rained yesterday, so the trees didn't really need water. I think he was spraying either pesticide or herbicide. If it was a pesticide, at the very least, it was mildly poisonous.

At any rate, I picked up my ticket at the USO and went into the office. Instead of staying and working in the office, I gathered up some essays to mark, came home, showered, and changed my clothes. If it was a pesticide, it was probably designed to be absorbed fairly quickly through contact, so the shower was probably too late, but I feel cleaner now.

I'm not totally against the use of herbicides and pesticides, but they could have closed the sidewalk and a couple of lanes of traffic while they sprayed, and they could have done it late at night when the traffic is light and there are few people out.

The end of a semester

2007-06-17T10:53:00.000+09:00

The last day of classes was last Friday. I still have exams and grading to do next week, but the semester is effectively at an end.

I started teaching full-time in 1983. I have been teaching now for 24 years - that seems like forever. Recently, when I look at letters of reference that I have received over the years - like the one below - it brings tears to my eyes.

...Although the overall pedagogical goal, improving students’ abilities to communicate in spoken English was clear enough, the teachers were given a great deal of independence regarding methods and means. For some teachers, this was a frustration, but for Mark, it was clearly a challenge he welcomed. Not only did he develop a wide range of innovative, creative, and student-responsive teaching strategies; he also put a great deal of energy into preparing new teaching materials for his classes. Most impressive, though, was the willingness with which Mark shared those materials with other teachers. Because Mark was so consistently generous in sharing the fruits of his own creativity and labor his contribution to the program went far beyond what he was doing in his own classroom.

Moreover, his cooperative, team-spirited attitude extended beyond his relations with his fellow English teachers to include the Korean staff, both administrative and academic, with whom he worked. In my long career in Korean universities, I’ve noticed all too many problems between native-speaking English teachers and their Korean co-workers, problems stemming from misunderstanding, cultural insensitivity, and at times even arrogance. Mark maintained consistently excellent relations with his Korean co-workers. He put real thought and energy into those relationships, and approached them with patience, tact, and cultural openness.

Indeed, it is in the attentiveness and sensitivity of his interpersonal relationships that Mark really excelled, and this was the key to his success in the classroom. Because we often organized communications activities that combined both of our classes, I had many opportunities to observe Mark’s classroom style and the way he related to his students. By far the most outstanding qualities were patience and respect. Even with students whose English communicative skills were at the lowest level, he never appeared frustrated or short-tempered. He managed to maintain a supportive, encouraging manner in situations where most teachers lose patience. Mark conveyed to his students that he respected them both as learners and as human beings, that despite differences in culture and limitations in communicative power, he was interested in what they had to say and valued their individuality. Indeed, regarding differences of culture, Mark’s attitude clearly went beyond just respect: he had a genuine curiosity about the things that make Koreans distinct, encouraging his students to articulate varied aspects of their Koreanness. Walking into one of Mark’s classes, I could immediately sense the atmosphere of mutual respect and trust. His students obviously acknowledged and respected his authority, but felt relaxed and confident, knowing that they could rely on his patience and encouragement.

You may ask why it bring tears to my eyes. Well, I have trudged through this past four months grudgingly and with no joy. This has been to the detriment of my students.

I think that teachers really can make a difference. Teachers can be trained to do their jobs better, but, in the end, the teacher needs to provide a pleasant happy and supportive atmosphere, and that is a personality thing. It does make a difference. I fear that I have been crabby and short-tempered this semester. My classroom energy level has been low.

I think that a big part of my problem is that I have no one to talk about my daily life with and I can be my own worst enemy at times. It would do me good to complain out loud because it would make me realize what an ass I'm being. Most of the things I complain about are pretty trivial.

The semester started badly because the university changed the class schedules. For the past two and a half years, I had three 50-minute classes with most of my students (Mon, Wed, Fri) and two 75-minute classes with a few other classes (Tues, Thurs). I never liked the longer classes on Tues and Thurs because you really need to do at least two activities. In the middle of the class, you have to bring one activity to an end, review what was done, and deal with any problems; then you needed to introduce a new activity, run it, and debrief it. As well, if there is a holiday in there, you often see the students only once a week. Because developing language skill requires a lot of regular practice, I haven't felt that this schedule was good for the students. So, what happened? The university changed all of the classes to twice-weekly 75-minute classes - the classes length that I didn't like. Why did the university change to this schedule - one that most of my students don't like? I suspect that the push came from the tenured professors who teach 9 hours per week. With the new schedule, many of the professors only need to teach 2 days a week.

At any rate, I should have been able to deal with this better. I let it bother me a lot more than it should have.

As a result of the new schedule, we were told that all of the English language teachers, who teach 15 hours per week, would teach only 4 days per week. Then, because of scheduling difficulties, I was asked to teach 5 days a week. This was not a real problem since I probably would have gone in to the office 5 days a week anyway. But, I was told that all of my classes would be morning classes (which I prefer). Then I was asked to change my schedule and take some afternoon classes. My schedule stretched out for two days a week. Again, I said that this was okay, but the reality was that it bothered me that my Korean colleagues, who have had really nice scheduled since long before I started working there, continued to have 4-day schedules with the hours they wanted. So, I was a bit put out. It just felt as though I was being asked to make more sacrifices than anyone else. Now the reality is that I only teach 15 hours per week. Three days a week, I am finished teaching by noon. I still get long paid vacations in the summer and winter (5 months if I want it).

I really need a slap on the head sometimes. I have a pretty easy job.

For some reason (although I suspect that it was my fault), I've had worse attendance and lateness problems than I've ever had. I suspect that the students just haven't wanted to come to class. I have been so far behind in my grading all semester that the students haven't really gotten the feedback that they needed to help them improve.

With my colleagues, I've become less willing to compromise. I'm kind of whiny. I say things in meetings that are far less diplomatic than they should be.

So, when I look at what I was like and see that I'm not like that now, I feel a great sadness at how far I seem to have fallen. I used to love teaching. I used to love learning. I used to love working with my colleagues. Now, I just feel tired.

Summer session begins on the 25th. I really want to do better.

Everything in my life is, of course, related. And, my life outside of school affects my work. I'm not really able to compartmentalize. I haven't been blogging much lately. You might ask why. I've kind of withdrawn from everything. My "sidewalk rage" has grown to the point that I often don't go out. I spend my time at work, at the gym, and at home. Since I don't seem to be doing anything interesting, I don't have much to blog about, and I don't always want to be picking on the negative stuff in Korea.

Korea has a lot of good stuff. I still like the food. The pottery is amazing. I drink a lot of green tea, which I think it the best in the world. Outside of the city, it is peaceful and relaxing. However, the constant self-aggrandizement that is so much a part of life in Korea is so irritating that I don't enjoy what I should. The other day, I was watching a Korean saxophone player on television, and I found myself thinking - his playing and style are just a rip-off of some western saxophonist. Then I realized that he was actually pretty darn good. My first reaction always seems to be to negative.

Then, just when it didn't seem that it could get any worse, I went to the hospital to get my cholesterol checked. I've been on a statin for years to keep my cholesterol down. It was nice to hear that my cholesterol levels were good. However, I don't like to hear the doctor say, "However..." I was told that I didn't really need to worry but I was pre-diabetic. What!!! How can they say the words "diabetes" in the same sentence as my name and then say I don't need to worry too much. My blood sugar level is 116 mg/dL. A range or 100-125 is considered pre-diabetes. Now I'm supposed to lose weight and exercise more - based on a BMI calculation. I have always been considered overweight using the BMI. When I was working out a lot, my BMI had me in the obese range although, at 185 cm and 95 kg, I'm only overweight now. I already go to the gym 4 or 5 times a week.

If you have the stomach for it, you can look at this picture that I took this morning. While I would like to get my weight down from 95 kg to 90 kg. That may not be realistic. If I go to the gym more, I get stronger and start lifting heavier weights, so I lose fat but gain muscle. At 53 years old, I think I'm fairly fit. I don't really think that I'm overweight. If you look really closely, you can see the hint of a six-pack. I probably could have been a body double for some of the actors in the film "300".

At any rate, I'll try to watch my diet a bit more, although I haven't cooked meat at home in years. I've cut way back on the alcohol. I've even stopped going to the 3 Alley Pub once a week for a cheese burger and a tall glass of Eirdinger.

Sometimes I think ignorance may be bliss. Although I acknowledge that knowing about the pre-diabetes now gives me a chance to control it without drugs, I'm now more worried than I was. Just once I would like to go to the doctor and be told that everything is fine.

Two Thumbs Down

2007-05-12T19:40:00.000+09:00

If you're going to taunt people, especially the police, you really should be good at hiding.

Drama critic sent to prison for bomb threat

“You [KBS] won’t catch me as I am very good at camouflage,” he said during the threatening call. “Catch me if you can.”

Six months in prison should give him time to come up with a better plan. People like this should be sent to a prison for the very stupid. Perhaps part of his punishment should involve prison guards regularly taunting him through the bars, "Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah - you can't escape!"

And, by the way, if you don't like the show, Mr. Kim, just change the channel.

Children

2007-05-05T10:42:00.000+09:00

In the days when I was more "philosophical", the writings of Kahlil Gribran moved me deeply. His book, The Prophet, is one that I have read a hundred times. I've had half a dozen copies over the years because I lend them to others or lose them, but always replace them. I was reminded of this section on children by an article in the Korea Times: 70% of Child Athletes Suffer Violence.

Children
And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, "Speak to us of Children."
And he said:

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts.
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as he loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.

I get so angry at parents who abuse their children under the guise of ensuring that they have a better future. The individual stats in this article are shocking, but the attitude of coaches and parents is the what really disgusts me.

"Coaches, parents and even students are obsessed with getting good results. They think a beating enhances a student's fighting spirit and thus brings about a good result,'' an official of the commission said.

He said they do not recognize children's human rights. "When students desert the training camp after being beaten, parents send them back, as they believe the children will have great success when they become famous athletes in the future,'' the official said.

Maybe we need to look at our society and ask why children should have to compete so aggressively. Perhaps it would be better if didn't allow anyone under the age of adulthood (19-21 years) to play competetive sports.

There have been stories of abusive tennis parents in the news for years. In Canada, hockey parents are sometimes banned from arenas because they are so bad.

What the hell is wrong with us when we push kids to do what we couldn't? This is a problem everywhere; however, the hypercompetitive nature of Korean society and the acceptance of casually administered violence as a way to make people do what you want can make children's lives hell.

TIME had this article, and, again, it is young people who are being abused.
Breaking the Ice

Intelligent training in sports is not just a matter of doing something harder or more. Muscles strain and bruise; ligaments tear. And, sometimes, there just isn't anymore fuel in the tank. When someone is running on empty, beating them won't make any difference.

I know that a career in modern professional sports can be incredibly lucrative, but, if the only reason people play sports is to go to professional leagues, it takes a lot of the fun out of "playing" sports. Why can't we all just lighten up?

Seasonal Affective Disorder

2007-04-29T20:03:00.000+09:00

Although this past winter has not been bitterly cold, it has seemed to drag on forever. With the exception of a couple of nice days at the beginning of March, it has been cold for what seems like forever - until last Thursday. We have now had four really nice warm days - days with temperatures around 20C.

I feel a lot better now. I wonder if I have just had a bad case of SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder).

The Well-dressed Man

2007-04-24T22:47:00.000+09:00

Once again, I find myself lagging behind when it comes to fashion.

I mean, really, I didn't know that "The future will be a Y-shaped dystopia". I didn't even know what a dystopia was, although I kind of guessed it was a dysfunctional utopia. Dictionary.com says it is, "a society characterized by human misery, as squalor, oppression, disease, and overcrowding". Umm, okay. Now that I know, I'm not sure I want to know.

Those whom I work with will undoubtedly agree with that my fashion sense lies somewhere between conservative and sloppy (perhaps a sloppy, conservative). I'm going to change. I'm still trying to decide which style would best suit a university professor.

The Conservative Look (although I think it would make my legs look really skinny and my ass big).

I kind of like the meter long tie and the cape. The arm warmers and leather gloves are perhaps a bit much, but I could pull it off - I think.

There are times when I think, "What the hell! I'm just gonna do it!" I've never had a scarf with buttons before. I might have to pass on the eye shadow, but, overall, I could live with that style.

But, seriously, who wears these fashions.

Koreans Aren't to Blame

2007-04-21T19:14:00.000+09:00

Koreans Aren't to Blame

This article by Adrian Hong in the Washington Post is thoughtful and interesting in light of the self-flaggelation that many Koreans seem to be enjoying. Why are they all apologizing? Just feeling really sorry that the event occurred is enough, I think.

Korean car culture

2007-04-20T22:31:00.000+09:00

I was talking to my students today about cars, air pollution, traffic conjestion, and social responsibility, and I was surprised (although I really don't know why) at how much of their behavior is controlled by concern for their social standing.

The general concensus in the class was that there were too many cars on the road and that the engines were far larger than needed for Seoul or Korea driving; however, one student said that his father was the head of a company and he had no choice but to buy a large fully-loaded Hyundai Grandeur (with black windows and leather seats of course), spending far more money than he wanted to for a car he didn't really need or want. The reason - his employees would want to buy nicer cars than their neighbors (thus showing how much better their jobs were), but none of the employees would have dared to buy a nicer car than the boss. So, he cleared the way for them to buy expensive cars by buying a really expensive car himself. The rest of the class acknowledged that this was pretty standard.

As a Canadian guy, I admit that, if I were living anywhere but Seoul, I would want the coolest car I could get and that it would probably be far bigger than I needed, but my biggest concern would have been whether I could afford it, not whether my car was nicer than the boss's or my neighbors'.

I'm sometimes surprised at the power of the junior/senior relationship here.

Conflict of Interest

2007-04-20T15:27:00.000+09:00

This is the entrance to the Rock n Roll bar. Look closely at the notice taped under the 'Rock n Roll' sign. It's for a shop in the same building as the bar.

On second thought, perhaps it's just smart marketing.

Makes me want to cry

2007-04-16T08:49:00.000+09:00

I was looking for websites that would help my students with their essays; however, this is not what I had in mind.

"THE ART OF RELIEVING STUDENTS' PAIN" - What about causing teachers pain?

Order writing of fully referenced original custom paper on any topic, any type of assignment, in a required discipline and within 8 hour deadline.

All papers are WRITTEN FROM SCRATCH by the graduate writers according to your instructions and there is NO DANGER OF PLAGIARISM. We have a large staff of writers, which means we can group them by different disciplines and subject specializations. The papers written are never reused, nor sold as pre-written essays, as we are not affiliated with any pre-written essay database site, unlike some of the competitors in the market.

"[T]here is no danger of plagiarism" - How about the danger of becoming an unscrupulous, lying asshole?

They even have "operating principles" - isn't that a tad bizarre for a website that helps people cheat?

And, if you are worried that your essay might be too good. Not to fear - they even have people who can make the same types of mistakes as you.

Some customers require that the writer possessed a particular type of the language. Each customer may choose, if possible, out of:

Native speaking American English writer
Native speaking British English writer
Non-native speaking writer (to resemble the language of a non-native speaking customer).

The number of grammar mistakes that I see on this website makes me think that most of their work is done by non-native speakers.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Update:
Clearly there were tears in my eyes when I first looked at this site. On scrolling down later, I found this:

There are strong reasons WHY your cooperation with CustomWritings cannot be labeled as cheating:

you DON'T STEAL anything from us

you pay a FAIR PRICE for our services

our writers get both financial and spiritual REWARD for their work

you simply DELEGATE your tasks and focus only on those things that REALLY MATTER IN YOUR LIFE

It is absolutely LEGAL in the US and Europe, as there are no laws prohibiting this

At CustomWritings.com we believe IT'S ETHICAL to get an outside help and delegate your writing assignments to professional writers same as if you would get your watches fixed or car repaired by third party experts.

Gee, "...we believe IT'S ETHICAL to get an outside help [sic]...", I guess it must be okay then. "...[T]he same as you would get your watches fixed or car repaired by third party experts." For crying out loud, you don't get a grade for the work that your mechanic did. Nobody thinks you fixed your own car. It's not the same thing. This, of course, brings to thought that wonderful quotation in Joseph Conrad's The Heart of Darkness, "The horror! The horror!" Let me say this about that: It's cheating. You can't just make up your own definition. It's cheating. And, if you use this service, you're a cheater.

Defensive walking in Seoul

2007-04-15T19:40:00.000+09:00

Everyone seems to have this one on their blog, so I thought I should put up just in case you missed it. It is, sadly, very true.