::A Geek in Korea::

Things have taken a turn for the cold and snowy here. We woke up to the first snow that covered the ground today. It wasn’t a significant accumulation, and it was gone by midday, but it’s been a very strange winter. Almost no snow whatsoever, and I welcome it. The best part is that while the temperature has been hovering around negative 6 to 10 Celsius for the past week, there has been no wind. It’s the bitter wind I hate in Korean winters more than the snow or the cold temperatures. The wind that leaves you breathless and feeling brittle after some time outside has been mercifully absent this year so far. I don’t look forward to the temperature dropping any more, but as long as the wind is absent I don’t think this winter has been too rough.

We had a nice lazy winter day today. My wife watched some movies and drama programs on television. She visited a friend later in the afternoon. I waited for the snow to melt off, then went on a long walk with Yoshi to the college area of town across the river. I picked up some Subway sandwiches for my wife and I to eat for lunch, and I got some coffee for the walk home. I listen to all of my weekend political podcasts while I walk my dog around each weekend, so despite the cold temperatures I was in no rush to get home. This is a habit that started while I was listening to all the election coverage last year, but has continued on as a weekend tradition I very much look forward to. I actually left the house late because I wanted to have all my podcasts lined up to listen to. The weekend walk is solitary time for me, my dog, and my podcasts. I don’t get a newspaper, so this is my reflective time to contemplate the week’s news. I like this ritual and plan on continuing it as long as possible.

When I was finished acting like an adult, I retreated to my bedroom for intensive Final Fantasy Tactics leveling and strategy. That game has it’s hooks in me. The leveling mechanic is really good, because you are always a few battles away from scoring that new class, weapon, or ability you want to try out. I’ve been playing on “hard” mode, and it hasn’t disappointed. Frequent restarts when battles don’t go my way are pretty much expected. I’m clearly playing above where the designers expected me to be for my class choices at the moment, because there are levels nearly impossible to beat without the right combination of classes and abilities.The classes that would make the battles simple aren’t open to me yet. I might have to actually advance the story again so that I can get missions I can actually complete from time to time if I don’t get more luck. Right now I’m enjoying the challenge.

Nice weekends like this are what make working hard at my job worthwhile.