::A Geek in Korea::

April Fools is the one holiday I can’t stand on the Internet. Every year, people do lame tricks or have some sort of elaborate surprise announced on that day. It’s particularly annoying with game sites.

For example, at WiiNintendo, a site on my RSS feed list, there were a series of pranks. Oh, and the first one started on March 31st! They can’t even keep it on the right day now, because all the other game sites up the ante and try to get people to fall for THEIR stuff. It’s not life or death stuff, but many is it annoying to sort through. Keep in contained to a single day, and hopefully a single post if you MUST do an April Fools prank.

I check news sites for NEWS. Don’t waste my time. If I think I’m being lied to, why would I want to go back to that place as a reliable source of news? The broadcast nightly news programs certainly doesn’t do “April Fools” jokes, because people trust them for information, and when they lie their credibility is (theoretically) damaged.

Even if there is ONE day were people say it is “OKAY” to lie, the more elaborate the lie, the more it convinces me you make up stuff on other days. Why else would you bother?

If April Fool’s was presented as a “Don’t believe everything you read on the Internet, check your facts” sort of holiday, I’d be a lot better with it. Instead, it’s a bunch of stupid links and dumb lies. Just a heads up, RickRolling is the lamest thing on the Internet. Ever. Even lamer than this guy.

Sorry to rant, but it’s the same ever year.

If I was going to recommend any game to students to help them increase their word power and make the world a better place at the same time, the only thing I would tell them to play would be Freerice.com.

The concept behind Freerice.com is simple. Use the banner ads of players to pay for 20 grains of rice for every correct answer to a vocabulary game. For every third answer you get correct, you increase your level and difficulty. For every word you get wrong, you decrease your level. The entire time you play, you are slowly building up your bowl of rice. Altruism that is benefited by self-improvement. That’s brilliant!

The useful part of this game is the scaling of difficulty. While my coworkers and I can struggle to break into the forty level range, if you do poorly on the first batch of words, you get easier vocabulary to study. This means that it benefits students as well as teachers. This slowly increases as you go up levels. This is like the student’s vocabulary tests on steroids, but it helps people for every correct answer. That’s certainly a wonderful incentive to try to get a correct answer.

The pronunciation of the word is even given in addition to the correct answer after every guess. There is no timer, so they can go as slowly as they need to find the answer. Students can learn a new word, learn how to say it, then have to choose the correct answer. They can use word roots, use dictionaries, translate, or anything they need to get the correct answer. All I care about is the results. Higher level vocabulary scores, and lots of donated rice.

I gave students homework. They have to play the game and achieve a certain level. Then they have to print out a screen shot proving they got to at least the right level. I might even make it a class wide, or even school wide competition to see who can donate the most rice as well as who can get to the highest level.

The students were really enthusiastic about the game because they knew that by playing the game they were helping someone else get food. 20 grains of rice per correct answer isn’t very much, but when I showed them the world wide totals for everyone playing the game, they were blown away by the amount of food that had been donated by people learning English at the same time.

What parent would kick their student off the computer if they knew they could learn English and help poor people at the same time? Only a heartless person would say no to that!

Well, more specifically, the Cinematic Titanic crew ( Joel, Tv’s Frank, and Josh who nows goes by J. Elvis) got interviewed by Jesse Thorn from The Sound of Young America. It talks about Joel’s early career, how MST3k got started, as well as the creative process they go through riffing a movie. They also mention Rifftrax and the fans reaction to both projects.

The Sound of Young America (which is AWESOME), and Ex-MST3k guys on a podcast? I literally hooted in glee when I saw that in the queue. Custom niche entertainment for the win!

I’ve been called to duty to answer the question: What part of the “White People Stereotype” do I live up to? I’ve been reading the blog “Stuff White People Like” for a few weeks, so it’s funny that I got meme-tagged for it by a friend. I had actually considered blogging about it without even being asked to.

It’s SCARY accurate how “White” I am according to their website. Let me go through the list:

#71 Being the only white person around

Yes. I live in Asia, and I totally do this way more than I should.

#64 Recycling

I went home to visit my parents and got into a discussion with relatives about recycling accounting for about 95% of my waste disposal in Korea. (We recycle food, plastics, glass, paper, and cardboard here.) A few of my relatives told me they have the option to recycle, but didn’t out of laziness. I held back from releasing my almighty wrath of whiteness on them.

#63 Expensive Sandwiches

I can go for a sub from time to time, but really expensive sandwiches? No, not very much these days. I’m starting to get past sandwiches as meals.

#62 Knowing what’s best for poor people

If I’m guilty of this, I’d very, very sorry.

#61 Bicycles

I love riding bikes, but I can’t do it very often. I have a cheap bike, and I would never, ever brag about it.

#59 Natural Medicine

I’ve never taken natural medicine before arriving in Korea. My wife has an encyclopedic knowledge of every know food based remedy for a disease. I’ve taken Chinese medicine. It works about 50% of the time. I would probably try a herbal cure, but if it didn’t work, I’d be off to the hospital.

#58 Japan

I’ve been to Japan. I went to geek-central Tokyo as a sort of “Video game Hadj”. I have a non-romanticized view of a big city that has a lot of weird stuff in it. (Shrug) I like Korea better.

#55 Apologies

My wife told me to stop apologizing for everything I did when we first got married. Sorry about that.

Top Ten Hip Hop Songs White People Love

I like almost every song on this list. Seriously. These are awesome in an ironic way. (see #50)

#53 Dogs

Yes, I love my dog very much. It’s totally a “child proxy” to an alarming degree.

#51 Living by the water

I’ve LOVE to live near the water. I’d absolutely LOVE to.

#50 Irony

Irony? Yeah, I GUESS that’s cool. Sure, whatever.

#46 The Sunday New York Times

If I had access to the Sunday New York times, I’d basically be entertained for a week, not just Sunday. Plus, I listen to podcasts of just the HEADLINES of this newspaper daily.

#45 Asian Fusion Food

Actually, I’ve got enough of a spine to like the REAL stuff. Fusion stuff is for pansies.

#44 Public Radio

I don’t have an mp3 player for music. NPR owns my ears 50% of the time I’m walking alone outside the house any day of the week. Public radio gives me the much needed exposure to American culture I lack since I don’t watch television.

#38 Arrested Development

I LOVE this show. Seriously. SO much. MAN. If loving this show makes me white, I’m the whitest dude on Earth, because this is a fantastic thing in every meaning of the word.

#37 Renovations

My family always was working on our house. Part of my childhood.

#35 The Daily Show/Colbert Report

I watch every episode of both of these shows whenever possible. I quote it at work too.

#28 Not Having a TV

I HAVE a TV, only for Wii, and my wife’s shows. Other than MegaTV or gaming, I don’t turn it on. It sorta counts.

#25 David Sedaris

The quote about listing David Sedaris as a favorite author is EXACTLY what I have done in the past. I laughed for five minutes after I read that post. This is me.

#21 Writer’s Workshops

I secretly would love to be a writer.

#20 Being an expert on YOUR culture

I write about Korea all the time, but I never claim to know about it definitively. I’ve probably come across this way a few times to people I’ve met.

#19 Traveling

Have I been to Europe? Check. TWICE in fact. Have I gone to Africa and remote Asian countries to one-up people? Hell yes. My brother can’t say he’s been to Cambodia yet. I’ve got countries yet to see that I want to add to my list to bring our travels into parity. Yes, I travel just for stories and bragging rights.

#14 Having Black Friends

Anyone is welcome in the group of foreigners I hang out with. I hang out with people all over the world. I don’t consider skin color when making friends, white, black, or whatever.

#13 Tea

Teas I drink whenever: Earl Grey (Picard HO!), Green tea from Bosung which is my favorite, Green tea OTHER regions in Korea, Chinese Dragon tea, Jasmine tea, Onul Cha, Corn tea, Barley tea, and about a dozen others made from various roots, herbs, and flowers, and trees in Korea. I love tea.

#11 Asian Girls

I’m married to one. Not for any of the reasons listed on the site however.

#10 Wes Anderson movies

Only partially. I liked Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums. The rest I haven’t seen, or thought were average on the whole.

#8 Barack Obama

Totally.

#7 Diversity

This too. But not the superficial “Oh, look how easy it is to get different food” sort of way. Living in a homogeneous culture has made me aware of how a difference of opinion is sometimes a good thing.

#5 Farmers Markets

We shop at the farmer market that rolls into our apartment for fresh fruit. I don’t holier than thou about it though. Cheap fruit I don’t have to lug from the supermarket is just easier.

#2 Religions that their parents don’t belong to

I guess. (Shrug) Not out of spite.

In summary: Most of these are dead on. I’m not even ashamed of it. I don’t actively try to perpetuate stereotypes, and I don’t consider race in making decisions as far as I know. If I’m some sort of walking bag of white guy stereotypes, so be it. I’m just doing what I like, and if the things I enjoy lump me in a group of similar people, I don’t give a damn WHAT basis I’ve been categorized.

The title of this blog itself “A Geek in Korea” is a way of poking a hole in a stereotype while still owning and addressing it. I’m just me.

1) Find the nearest book to you with at least 123 pages.
2) Turn to page 123.
3) Find the 5th sentence.
4) Type the next 3 sentences after the 5th sentence.
5) Tag 5 people

Nearest book: Reading Comprehension D, Developing Fiction, Nonfiction skills: Student Edition

“What is the tallest mountain in the world?”

“Do mountains grow?”

Use the text and pictures from “Top of the world” to answer the questions below.

Lame. My nearest book was a text book.

Which Character From The Office Are You?

Created by BuddyTV

Which Character on The Simpsons Are You?

Created by BuddyTV

I listened to Starship Sofa’s podcast while sitting around during the Lunar New Year holiday. Right now I’m listening to my second episode, and while I like that this has some Hugo Award winning and nominated authors, I don’t know if I like this podcast yet.

The host has a thick Scottish accent, but thankfully doesn’t do the readings of the short fiction. In fact, I don’t know why there is even a host on the podcast at all. A plug for feedback and a drop of a name or two seems to be his only function. I don’t listen to their “round table talk out SF” episodes, only the stories, so maybe he is more involved than I know. It’s also a bi-weekly podcast, and that’s slow. I’ll keep it in queue, but it better deliver quality if it’s that infrequent.

One of the reasons I LOVE Escape Pod is that they have a lot of variety in their story choices and get a lot of new authors too. It’s weekly, but still brings consistent quality. I also like the commentary of Steve Eley about the way they choose stories. There is the annoyance of hearing them ask for donations, but they release their podcasts with a Creative Commons license. That’s pure awesome. Escape Pod is also better polished and seems to have a philosophy of general coolness I can get behind. It’s one of my highlights of the week when I get a chance to listen to it.

Anyway, it’s not like listening to one podcast means that I’m not allowed to listen to the other. The more the merrier when it comes to good Science Fiction short literature is what I’ll say.

Random Album Cover Meme rules:

Instructions:

You will create an album cover for a fictitious band, using a
fictitious album name and an image from Flickr. Follow these
steps below.

1. The first article title on the Wikipedia Random Articles page
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random) is the name of
your band.

2. The last four words of the very last quotation on the Random
Quotations page (http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3)
is the title of your album.

3. The third picture in Flickr’s Interesting Photos From The Last
7 Days (http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/) will
be your album cover.

Credits: (Flickr) (Quote)(Wiki)

(Meme from: Penny Arcade Forums, Instructions stolen from Typophile)

A deranged madman (myself) tried to upgrade Wordpress only to fail spectacularly. Only through the patience of a complete tech guru were we able to save the website. Sorry for that unplanned little outage. The forum should also be up and operational.

The process of getting the website reconstructed and running is an ongoing one, but in the future it should be easier to prevent such outages. If anything is completely broken, send an email or add it to the comments.

If I’m really lucky, nothing else breaks. For now.

I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and gosh darn it, people like me. Turns out I’m one of the top 47 (?) most popular English language Korean blogs around.

I’m still sticking to my claims I’m the first, if not the longest lasting blog in one URL, too. Anyone with a pre-Autumn 2001 English language Korean blog still in operation, call me out if I’m wrong. I’ll add a link if I’m wrong too.