::A Geek in Korea::

As mentioned previously, KT Telecom sucks at Linux support. My previous efforts at trying to get a new IP address had failed, and I had tried to call tech support to get them to help me with the problem. They advised me to “Install Windows” and “Call back”. Seriously. That was their solution. No thanks.

I’m finally 100% Windows free at home, so I went about finding my own way to fix the problem. This tread at the Ubuntu Forums provided many possible solutions. So, all I had to do was play around with a few commands in the console and eventually I’d get a new IP address? I started to play around.

Linux Geekery Follows
I had tried the solutions listed in the before with no success. I had done

ifdown eth0 && ifup eth0

in a previous attempt. There wasn’t any luck before. I found that

sudo dhclient -r

would “release” my IP address. The problem was that if I didn’t wait for someone else to take that IP address, it was given right back to me. What I ended up doing was disabling the network connection settings in my system tray. I released my IP address with

sudo dhclient -r

then went off the Internet completely by disabling my connection to the network.

Just to be sure, I went to /var/lib/dhcp3 and deleted all my leases for my broadband connection.

Then I went to work. The idea was that I was giving up my IP address and waiting for a new person to come onto the network. When they requested an IP address, they’d take mine, and I’d get a new one when I logged on later.

I had tried this before, but hadn’t waited long enough. My hope was someone would get my old IP, and I’d get an IP that hasn’t been put on a blocklist requiring me to go to a PC-room to post on my own blog.

Several hours later I returned home, turned on my computer, and found I had a brand new IP address. Awesome. Now I can post and not get false positive blocked by SPAM filters in Wordpress. Who needs Korean Tech support? Not me…this time, at least.

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree…unless it rolls down a hill or something. The very highest student in all of my classes is a girl that has a younger brother that I also teach. They couldn’t be more different.

The girl has been [tag]studying[/tag] English forever, and has always been the brightest student wherever she goes. She has a monstrous [tag]work ethic[/tag] that awes me. She would stay up for hours to register for a test online when seating was limited. She has the highest level speech for a student that hasn’t studied abroad for long periods of time that I’ve ever met. Her vocabulary is impressive, even more so considering she studies Chinese characters, English, Korean, and French in school.

She’d tell me that she’d do her vocabulary tests during the break period in a class because she wants more time to prepare and study, and didn’t want to waste my time on a test she couldn’t pass the first time. She’s always asking the director about ways to improve her vocabulary and testing ability. She’s basically the best student anyone could ever hope to get as a teacher.

Her brother is sloth incarnate. He’s never spent more than the minute it takes me to walk around a classroom on his homework, if he bothers to do it at all. His English is as poor as his sister’s is good. He’s been studying for a long time as well, but isn’t doing well.

He fails every single test he takes that I give him. He puts no effort in paying attention in class, and often disrupts class with the sorts of questions that make other slackers in the class look annoyed for wasting THEIR time. Last week, I snapped and yelled at him for his rude behavior when he kept turning around to annoy someone that was doing their work. He wanted to stop class to have a water gun fight. Now that I’ve tried disciplining him, he’s even worse.

Today, he intentionally tried to get every question wrong on a homework assignment I gave him, but accidentally got one correct. The students in the class were cheering him on as I went down the page, slashing at every answer. He grew more smug as things on his test got worse. I removed as many reward points as I saw fit, but he didn’t care. Of course, he had the admiration of his moronic classmates to buoy his self-esteem instead.

I brought in my director, who knows the family well. She had been teaching them both for a long time. I explained that the boy had missed nearly every question on the test on purpose. She was extremely shocked by his behavior. This got the boy to behave in class as she gave him a look of death, but doesn’t help the fact he wastes all my time with his poor attitude.

I’d probably say that his poor behavior is closely related to his sister’s overachieving behavior. He has no work ethic, and she gets all the praise for the grades. He gets negative attention and thrives on this instead. From now on, I’ll avoid grading papers and letting other students see results as I go. That way there won’t be the competition and “build” to see who can get more wrong in this particular class.

Both my wife and I had no plans to spend our Sunday any way other than being lazy around the house. Why be lazy around the house on a fabulous day when we could just as easily be lazy outdoors with my new Cambodian hammock. This was our first chance to go to the park and use it.

We went to a tree filled park where I walk Yoshi to hang the hammock and have a picnic. My wife wanted to get things ready, so I was sent to the store for supplies. She taught me the word “kan” to order the meat we needed. “Samkyeupsal han kan jusaeyo” (One “kan” of pork please.) This isn’t a unit of measurement you use for anything else I know, but I don’t deal with butchers much.

After cooking up the meat, it turns out one “kan” of pork means, “Enough pork for two people, plus just enough that neither person could possibly eat it without being sick and regretting trying to eat han kan, but totally not enough for three people.” It’s a handy unit of measure if you are planning a picnic as a couple. It’s like the hot dog/hot dog bun sort of unit of measurement. No one is upset by it, but it doesn’t make much sense.

I made a trip back to the apartment to drop off the uneaten meat, then returned to the picnic. I set up my hammock, tying it up between some shade trees. It was fantastic. I miss hanging off a hammock at my parent’s lake back in the United States relaxing in the shade on a warm day. Yoshi sat on my chest staring at people as I napped. Eventually he got used to the rocking, and started shifting the weight in his legs to propel us back and forth for a little while. Smart dog.

I was told I had to return to the apartment at least an hour after my wife left, as she wanted to clean the house. No problem there. I thumbed through some vacation planning books, then took down the hammock for the return home. I didn’t get it in the same rolled up shape as the Cambodian woman did when she packed it for us, but it still shrank well enough to be portable. Best $2 dollars spent on vacation ever. It was a perfect day for a [tag]picnic[/tag].

*Just to let readers of the blog in on how dedicated I am, it’s currently 1:00AM as I post this. I’ve been blocked, AGAIN, by over zealous SPAM blacklist sites from posting on my own blog in my apartment. I had to go to a PC room once again, but I didn’t lose any work this time. I still want to punch some anti-spammer in the face though.