Now that's a pretty big Pinocchio.

As I was coming to work on May 7th, I saw something unusual.

 Some guys were putting together a giant Pinochio.

 I stopped and talked with them a while, and took some pictures.  These guys were the fabricators, out of Oregon, I believe.  As soon as they email me the truth, I will correct my post!

It was a bit surreal, seeing the wooden boy who longs to be real, fully realized in bronze, and laid out like a prizefighter.

 I would have liked to talk more, but I had a class to teach.

I was very happy to come back the next week and see that P. was on his feet.

 I thought to myself, I need to get someone to take my picture as I'm being trod upon by this demonically animated marionette.

 I would have looked awesome under those stylish boots.

 I was also fortunate to meet the artist who designed this work.

 Being a total numbskull, I didn't write down his name.  I'll have to add it once the fabricators email me.

 This was how it looked as I went in to class.

 By the time I came out, the landscaping guys had started to unload.  No chance for my dream photo shoot.

 By the following week, the landscaping was complete, and the artists had returned to their country of origin.

 And we are left with this reminder...

 That once...

 The gods strode among us...

In Centum City.

Ride and Embarrassing Moment

Today I rode with Maxine to her school, came home, got my act together, then rode to my Tuesday class.  It's only a 15 minute ride to the Centum City campus.  My other classes are all across town, probably a 90 minute ride on six-lane streets with cars and smog and yech.

After class I rode up the river a bit, then went to Costco.  I've been needing real cheese for some time, but not enough to pay the high prices for imports elsewhere.  I got a block of sharp cheddar, monterey jack, and a bag of shredded Mexican cheese (yeah, I'm sure Mexico is proud of that one).  I also got a three pack of bacon, because a house without bacon is like... not good.

So I'm checking out with about 40,000 won (~$35) worth of food, and about 70,000 won  in my pocket.  Surprise!  I need to renew my membership!  Taking my total up to 74,260 won.  I have exactly 74,000 in my wallet, so I did through my backpack to find the coins needed to finish this transaction.  I don't usually spend much time wondering what other people think of me (as my friends well know), but this time I had extra time on my hands: I had to pull my pants out of my backpack and unroll them, then dig in the pockets for change, roll them back up, and pack pants, cheese and bacon into my bag.  I was imagining the thoughts going through the cashier's mind as she smiled at me and rebuffed my apologies:

"Wow, this crazy American has NO idea what he's doing, he barely has enough money, he's disorganized, he smells bad, and he's buying a bunch of bacon and cheese.  Stupid Americans."

My only consoling thought is that she might have assumed I was a Canadian.

The good news is that I saw a giant Pinochio...

With the arrogance born of high stature, he
stode the city, a giant among men.

 and a giant onion thing...

It would be so cool if we got some translucent plastic
and made a giant onion!

 with a disco ball inside.

We could light it up at night and have
dances inside!

Life is sweet, is it not?

Bicyclist in Training

On Wednesday May 22nd, 2013 Maxine and I rode our bikes to her school in the morning, then back home in the evening.  The distance for our route is about 4.5 km (2.8 miles), keeping to bike paths, wide sidewalks, and very occasionally riding on roads when there is no other choice.  It took us a bit over 40 minutes to get there.  Thursday we cut it down to 35 minutes.

Maxine's teacher told me that Maxine was not as active as usual in the morning, but seemed fine in the afternoon.  I'm guessing that if we do this regularly, she will become a monster, with just as much energy as before after taking 20 minutes to ride to school.  Now I have to slow myself down to keep down with her (is that a proper expression?).  She maxes out at about 20 kph (12 mph).

This makes me unbelievably happy.  I want her to enjoy biking like I do, so that we can bike together, and so far we are on target.

But Thursday night Maxine was wiped out.  She is normally somewhat moody, but that night she was just a mess.  In hindsight, we should have aimed to put her in bed by 8 or so, to give her body a chance to recover from all that bike-muscle building, but we didn't.  I had to go teach a class and didn't get home until 9, Horyon came home at her usual time, around 7, so the kids had dinner late and didn't get into bed until after 10.  Horyon was frustrated with Maxine's moodiness, and her own moodiness kicked in, and she handed down a ruling:  No biking to school two days in a row.  Probably a good idea, at least until she builds up some endurance.

I'm a bit sore, after two days in a row.  After dropping Maxine off, I did some riding of my own on both days.  Wednesday I rode Igi-dae, my old warm-up ground.  I consider it a baseline of sorts: if I can make it all the way around the car road without having to stop and push .  I did it.  Minor woop.  So on Thursday when I got up to the walking trail (that is mostly paved, and has some seriously steep slopes), I decided to give it a go.

I had to get off the bike three times to push it up hills that were calling me a sissy boy and stealing my lunch money.

So now I've got two goals to work towards:

1)  I will get back my hill-climbing biking body, legs, lungs and head.
2)  I will get Maxine on her bike as much as she can take, and give her the life-long love of it that I had forgotten for so long.

And my other goal, of putting random pictures with every blog post, is coming along nicely, thank you.

Maxine and her posse be workin' the wild strawberries, yo.

Horyon takes the best pictures of the kids.
They just look extra cute for her.

Maxine is quick to lead the way up the trees.

And Quinten is following in Maxine's footsteps
as far as climbing goes.

Memorizing the book of James

 I'm not sure how much time I spent on this, but this is just James 1 verses 1-3, over and over again.

I think I've got it down, but it's not tight yet.  I've since moved on to include v. 4, and plan to add v. 5 today or tomorrow.  Ideally, I will be adding one verse per day until I have the entire book memorized.

My good friend Elaine (over there at the Bear) started this process a few months ago, I believe with the same book of the Bible.  She has claimed that it has rocked her spiritual world like nothing else, and challenged our small group to try it.  One verse per day was her recommendation.  I'm falling a little short, but I'm a beginner at this, so I'm not discouraged.

In fact, I've already had cause to quote this bit of the Bible that has been bound to my forehead, so to speak.  This morning Horyon told me that when the kids get sick she tries to think that at least we aren't fighting the sinus infections that we suffered through in 2011.  I started in on James 1:2-3  "My brothers and sisters, count it nothing but joy when you fall into all sorts of trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance."

Now maybe I am the guy with the hammer who sees every problem as a nail, but I don't think so.  I think that God is sending me a message:  that God's Word is worth the investment of time and effort.  It bears fruit, and helps to make sense of the world.

That said, I don't expect to start memorizing big chunks of Numbers any time soon, but I want to make memorizing big chunks of scripture a regular part of my time with God.  And I think that God approves.  Has anyone else out there tried this?  I'd love to hear how it has gone for you.

Maxine's Menu

The other day Maxine showed me a menu she had made.  She wanted to keep the source secret, but I eventually found out.  It's from a book about a pig family going to a Mexican restaurant.

The Menu

She wanted to play restaurant, but Horyon and I were both busy, and Quinten is a lousy customer, though a decent short order-cook.  (See what I did there with the hyphen?)

The Menu pictured with the inspiration for it

There was disappointment and another bedtime with a damp pillow.  Sorry, Maxine.

The next day I played along.  Had me some nachos.  Mmmmm.... nachos.

Kids.  Always getting hung-up on something.

KIT, places and students

The place is just beautiful in the spring.  Plenty of cherry blossoms, and a nice campus.

The water has been on a couple of times.  Gives the place a lively yet relaxed feel.

I have a couple of classes in this building.

Some of my students in the foreground, protesting being in the picture.
Another building in which I teach in the background.

Two of my friendly students.  It's hard to hold
the camera straight standing on a slope like this.

A portion of my night class, more than 50 enrolled!

Another large class, almost 50 in this one.  Don't ask me their names.

Coffee machine and other stuff.

Lots of steps at KIT

This plaza is a popular hangout.

Funny, it doesn't look that steep...

A nice resting place close to the bottom edge of the campus.  Great for reading.

Yeah, that looks as steep as it feels.

That building houses the office of the foreign teachers.  23 men, one room.  Recipe for comedy.

They like curvy glass.

It's good to have a color assigned to the campus.

One of my smallest classes, about 34 students.

The Centum City campus building.

Computer majors at the Centum Campus.

The main entrance to the Centum Campus.

Please not in 3's!

In the past week I've killed two gadgets in our home. The first was a DVD player which we inherited from the previous occupant of our previous apartment. I paused a movie the kids were watching, then left it on pause overnight, and well into the next day. When I came back to it, it did the electronic equivalent of staggering around until it fell on its face in the gutter and didn't get back up again: "Loading... loading... loading... No disc." You just can't argue with persistence like that. It was a freebie, so I'm not too upset.

The kids are dying, or at least doing a good impression of dying. When we moved here, we decided to not hook up the cable box, so we can't watch tv.  (The cable TV is still part of our TV/Internet/Phone package, but it turns out to be cheaper to leave it in than to cancel it.  Go figure.)  Horyon and I were relying way too much on it to keep the kids occupied, so now it is practically not there. We did let them watch some of their DVDs, but it was kind of like...

Hmmm, let me think.  What's a good addiction metaphor that doesn't make my kids sound like junkies and my wife and I sound like pushers? Can't think of one. Never mind.

 So the tv hasn't been on for the past few days. Doesn't really bother me. Sometimes the whining from the kids bothers me a little, and Maxine wants to get on the computer for a fix of PBSKidsGo.org. Sorry, I meant "a little quality time on PBSKidsGo.org." But they are adjusting to the new reality. And I, while writing this piece, have decided not to get myself the birthday present I had previously wanted to get. Which may solve my problem of 3's.

You see, the second gadget to go is much more sharply missed by me: I dropped my Kindle Touch. Put it down on a high place wrong, it fell off, and now it just doesn't work.

non-functioning KTouch with screwdrivers purchased to access its innards

Some time ago my friend Elaine stepped on hers, killing it dead.  (By the way, completely off topic, she has an excellent blog which you will undoubtedly enjoy more than mine, or at least enjoy more often than mine.)  She gave the body to me, and I found that I am unable to Frankenstein it without a $60 replacement screen, and no guarantee that that will fix the problem.

Elaine's Deceased Kindle

The deceased, autopsy in progress, tools shown.
Prognosis: coffee stains likely non-fatal.

You can buy a regular, non-keyboard Kindle for $69, and a new Keyboard Kindle 3G for $139, so it's a tough call: fix or replace?  (Her KK is not 3G, only wireless, so the replacement is a more expensive model.)  However, my Kindle touch replacement screen is only $30. Again, no guarantee that it will work, and I've got to get it here from America. Ironically, I can have my parents send it along with the case for my Kindle Touch that I asked them to hold on to for me until I got together some other stuff to send with it. Dangit. I mean, sure, this will save them money on shipping, but not as much as it would have saved me if I hadn't had to buy a new Kindle. Oh, the irony.

 Since disasters seem to come in 3's, I've been wondering what my 3rd gadget death will be. The computer is just a few months old, so I really don't want it to die. The TV is a freebie, but we don't watch it enough to even know whether or not it is dead. Horyon and I both have Samsung Galaxy Note phones, the most expensive gadgets in the house at around $1000 apiece (paid for in monthly installments over three years). I would really rather not have one of them die. So maybe it's time to sacrifice the birthday present.

You see, I've had my mind on a used DVD player with a built in amplified Dolby 5.1 surround system, speakers included.  Only $100.  Haven't tried it out, but if it works, it's a real bargain.  The thing is, if I buy it, we'll use it to watch DVDs.  More precisely, my kids will watch DVDs.  Maybe we're better off without it?  And if I don't buy it, that's practically the same as buying it then having it break down completely, so I have to throw it away, right?  So not buying it solves three problems:  1) Less tv time for the kids, 2) money saved can help replace dearly departed Kindle, and 3) 3rd bullet dodged.  And hey, I'll probably enjoy the surround sound more in my imagination than I would in real life, right?

Thanks for tuning in.  Coming soon, a review of my new job so far.