::A Geek in Korea::

After declaring my intention to leave work almost two months ago, not long after having a child born into the family, I can finally confirm that I’ve found employment. Today I got hired to teach at a respected university as a freshmen instructor. I’m taking over mid-semester for someone that was leaving the school, and I start later this month. I got to meet the person I was replacing after I signed the contract officially today.

I love teaching children at my academy, and love the program, but the schedule and long term haul of teaching where there are no vacations or breaks slowly wore me down. The realization that I could garner no more benefits for long term employment there pushed me to move on. I’m still lucky that the academy I work at is held in high regard. It turns out that the job contact and close relationship I had with my director was partially responsible for helping me get my new job. Everyone knows everyone, and I got a good boost from listing my current academy on my resume since the directors of both programs are friends.

I was a nervous wreck all afternoon because I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me. The last university experience I had did not end well because of dishonesty on my employers part. I’ve been very shy about getting back in the game at a university because of this bad time. Besides, money in private academies is a very compelling reason to stay, even if the job is sometimes difficult to keep motivated doing.

I’ve got a lot of new responsibilities and coworkers to get acquainted with at the university. There are protocols and lots of official paperwork to sign. The sight of my schedule makes me have a knot in my stomach too. I’ll have multiple foreign coworkers, and will need lots of time to sort out who is who. I don’t know if I’ll be a good fit in the group. If I just do my own thing and try to survive I hope I can make it through this first semester. This university is much better regarded than my last, and I’ll really have to do my best to live up to the responsibilities of being employed there.

I’m proud of myself, but also very, very nervous, as if all this is temporary and could disappear if I don’t fit some sort of standard that I’m not aware of just yet. I am also sort of in shock about being the low person in the chain of command once again. People that have worked in Korea almost as long as I have? Doctors and Professors with degrees in relevant fields the same office? How did a kid from rural Ohio end up in the middle of all of this? Do I have the experience and wisdom to step up my game and handle this? Will this university experience end up in tragedy like the first? Will I break some sort of procedural or protocol rule on my first day and be disciplined for not knowing what the hell to do?

This is going to be a challenging job, no doubt. It is forcing me out of my comfort zone, and I’ve got to be ready for all sorts of new things on the horizon.

Word has started to spread around the school that I am leaving by the end of the month. The secretary asked me if I was leaving for “My home country”, and other people assumed that I had just given notice and was quiting a while from now. The fact that they’ve been in talks to bring another person over from the United States, and that I gave my notice months ago is an amazing secret to be able to keep in a school.

People want to know when my last day is, or when I plan on going. I don’t have any plans yet. The secretary said she thought that I should stay at the school, and wondered why I was leaving. I replied that I had been working there for such a long time, and all I wanted was a vacation for a short time, but we never get breaks or days off. She didn’t really understand my complaint. That’s just how English Academies are, and I know it’s true too.

Case in point, this weekend is the Korean Thanksgiving holiday, Chuseok. This is one of the biggest holidays in Korea, with three days being the standard minimum amount of time giving off for this holiday. If it falls on a Wednesday, some schools (never mine) give an entire week off. Of course, this year is the worst. It fell on a Saturday, which means only government official holiday when the school is open is on Friday.

This year is AWFUL for weekday holidays. We’ve had holidays falling on Saturdays and Sundays all year. We’ve had a total of four days off all year for holidays on weekdays total so far. Friday for Chuseok, and then Christmas will be all we get all year. Six days separated by MONTHS with no days off at all.  We haven’t had a vacation day since before summer vacation a few months back. That “vacation” was two days plus the weekend.  I’ve heard that the director is considering canceling the promised winter vacation days (all two of them) this year, which would be unsurprising given recent turn of events.

The Korean children get a four day weekend in their elementary school. Even the elementary schools are giving the kids a better vacation! Either Thursday or Monday is an extra day off elementary school. Students from different schools were telling me that I’d see them one of those days, but probably not both. That’s great to know so I can plan my activities around missing students, because regardless of their elementary schools being open or closed, the academy will remain open! I’ll probably need to find a video, or some sort of activity that will work with any number of students. That way when 50% of my students are missing it won’t matter much.

I know other schools are organized around occasionally letting the teachers get a break. My friends consistently have more days off than I do no matter where they work, or who their director is. Some schools work longer hours with fewer vacations. Math schools in particular are so cut throat that they study 365 days a year, no breaks ever. I’m tired of getting put in that sort of competitive environment. The idea of working with no chance to rest may appeal to someone only concerned with saving money. I do make more cash because I never get the chance to spend it going anywhere, and I never attempt to make plans anymore. I’m either too tired, or to busy. I’d take a pay cut to make time to enjoy the money I do have from time to time.

I’m looking to sign at a job that has a built in plan for paid vacation. I might need to work harder, and the job might be more difficult, but being able to work intensely and then rest to recharge my batteries is what I’m really looking for right now.

My Play by post group has continued to play through Keep on the Shadowfell on the web. My Orc Paladin, Ganash, is a strictly melee fighter. I’ve been hit by arrows, taunted by demons, and generally harassed throughout the game. The rogue in the party made off with a share of gold because I bestowed protection onto a creature we found, and rather than let him sell it into slavery. There has been lots of fun role playing to be had so far.The combat so far hasn’t been as fulfilling for me as I had hoped.

The first chance I had to act heroic was during a goblin attack. We fought them off, but I only killed one or two. The Warlord NPC turned the tide of the battle, healing us at a critical moment and routing the rest of the fighters before we were defeated. That’s okay, because where Paladins really shine is against the undead. The first scene where we had with some zombies coming towards us I didn’t roll a very high initiative and chose to let the zombies come to me rather than aggressively charge. The Deva Wizard torched nearly all of them before we even got into hand to hand combat. I only put one of the undead down in that combat too. It wasn’t bad tactics on my part, just simple kick ass rolling on the Wizards part.

Anyway, after being knocked around and forced to spend several healing surges, I ended up getting an action point and having a surprise round. An action point is an opportunity to do something bad ass twice per round because you took on a greater challenge without resting. It adds strategy to every move and builds drama during a big fight. A surprise round is basically a free round to do something before the other party moves. Not having the books in front of me for a reference point, I decided to make a mad charge for the undead that were summoning something evil into the world. I took a double move, then spent an action point to cross the board, charged, then took a hostile attack of opportunity to smack down the undead barbarian that was nearby. I was basically Lancelot charging across the entire map to smack down someone. I went ridiculously far (Nearly four or five times my normal movement rate through a combinations of mechanics for running and charging with my racial bonuses for being an aggresive Orc) and ran up and stabbed someone from across the map.

It looked fishy to me that even in perfect conditions I would have been able to cross so many squares that quickly, but I tried to do it with some flair. When I got home and checked the Player’s Handbook, it turns out that neither I, nor the DM had been ruling the surprise round correctly. No one else in the party had any idea of the proper ruling either, so no one was trying to get away with anything. It was just a rule that slipped everyone’s mind while trying to set up a good fight.

We had been playing as if a free round was like any other round of combat but only one side got to move. This allows for ridiculous actions like my charge all the way across the board. Even I could see that this couldn’t have been correct. Instead of a “Free round” of full actions, there was only supposed to be a single action that the opponents couldn’t react to before real combat began. No one knew that. The rules also expressly forbid that I spending an Action Point like I had. The rule is “only ONE action on a surprise round.”

Had I know that, I would have been much farther away and would need to spend another round reaching melee range. I could have made it where I was in another round, but not the surprise round, which changes things tactically. Once we were in proper combat I could spend the Action Point and move twice, but the Undead creatures would have had a round to fire arrows or blast me first. Basically everyone’s action during the entire round of combat was against the rules, and I only discovered it when I went to look it up for this post.

Does it matter if everyone was still having fun? The DM has yet to rule, but I posted the appropriate page now that I discovered my error. It’s up to him to make the call, as the DM’s word is law.

The best part of D&D in a friendly setting like this is that we can all just decide if we want to enforce the rule and start over the combat, or just fudge the round and give some sort of reason why this could happen. It was an honest mistake, but since the players are also the arbiters of the rules and nothing is competitive, we can just make it up now and see what happens.

Perhaps my character’s god gave him an extra boost to help him across the battlefield? Perhaps the undead were incredibly engrossed in the raising ceremony and just didn’t notice this time, with an understanding that we’d play the combat out following the rules better next time. Personally I would prefer just having fun rather than worrying we got every rule correct as long as no one was trying to exploit anything. It was pretty hilarious to run all the way across the board just to hit someone, either way.

Sunday is usually my day around the house. I don’t work, and I don’t have the opportunity to travel.  I get to sit around, catch up on sleep, or do whatever I need to get done before the week starts. Recently the routine has been walk the dog, then clean the house. Vacuum first, then steam clean. Once I’m finished with that, I set up a speaker and listen to some podcasts while I wash Yoshi. In total, that usually takes around two or three hours, depending on how far and how long I walk.

Today my routine was ruined by rain. We couldn’t walk. My whole routine was thrown off. I cleaned the house, washed the dog, then didn’t have anything else to do. My usual excuses for going out on a were all moot, and I had nothing big entertaining me.  I had  My television shows had been watched. My book, finished!

I eventually started watching Psych on our IPTV service. It’s a comedy/crime procedural/parody totally new to me. A guy pretends to solve crime by being a psychic, but is actually just very observant and clever. He’s not actually psychic, but has to pretend. That’s the gimmick of the show. They follow the Dexter model in the episodes I watch. There is always a flashback to the past, possibly to a lesson between a father who was a cop and a son in law enforcement about training the son has because he is special. The father wants to pass on his talents in crime solving to the son. Then an event in the current events of the show that directly ties into that long lost lesson.

I like how they treat superstitions as a silly thing and parody crime shows. I do not watch crime procedural shows, and this show has a very “case of the week” style plot that makes me weary. This one held my interest for two episodes. I fell asleep twice while watching, which is not something I do. I’m not sure if I’ll continue watching it simply because it is too episodic for my tastes. I might give it another chance if I have another lazy Sunday.

I have no idea what this is, but it is poorly named.

I am entrenched in the geek culture. Even I have my limits.

I was bored waiting for my afternoon podcasts to download. I had somehow burned through all my comedic and informative political stuff early, and I wanted something nerdy to listen to. I decided to check to see if the latest Dungeons and Dragons podcast featuring the guys from Penny Arcade was available. No luck. I was a few hours too early to download it. It’s the only actual “People play a D&D game recorded for a podcast” worth listening to for any amount of time.

Casting about on Twitter, I discovered a few other D&D podcasts. Some of them are reviews of books, or about the hobby of roleplaying themselves. Then I stumbled upon Radio Free Hommlet, which is a dedicated D&D 4e podcast. Since this is the game I play, I decided to give this a listen. Several people on Twitter referred to as “crunchy”, meaning it dealt with the mechanical and game playing parts of the game. I like some crunchy talk about D&D from time to time. The mechanics of running a good encounter, or building a good character can give me ideas for my own games. I thought I’d be able to handle it. I thought it was going to be about how to be a better player through roleplay and character ideas. I was wrong.

This podcast, at least the one I listened to, was astoundingly nerdy. Three people introduced themselves as “DM” followed by their hostname, as if it was a title you earned for completing a few years ad “Dungeon Master University” or something. I’ve never refered to myself as “DM Torgo”, and if I do, it means Mindflayers have eaten my brain and you should run for your lives. I knew I was in trouble right there, but I kept listening because I was washing dishes and didn’t feel like drying my hands and searching for something else to listen to.

The first section of the podcast was dedicated to a review of the characters presented in the Players Handbook 2. I know D&D, and I have access to the power selection through DDI builder (when it works. Current status: BORKED!). I know how to select powers for a build and try to make a kick ass characters. At least I thought I did.

These hosts went through and built a character, talked about the different powers, and got very, very “crunchy” about their different breakdowns of which was a better choice. They had catch phrases and injokes about different powers which just baffled me. It wasn’t funny, just like a catch phrase spewing character on a sitcom isn’t funny. They repeated them. Often. The different DM hosts would argue rule interpretations and talk about how one skill or another was so vital to whatever it was they were doing, or how they thought this power or another was so much better.

They had lots of opinions about very trivial things, which I guess some people might find helpful. If you were trying to decide if you needed to pick up a particular book to add to your collection, I could see how this level by level breakdown could be helpful. For people that have access to the information in the online builder, it seemed redundant. Anyone can read and make up their own opinions about the things they discussed. There is no “right” way to play the game, which is why D&D is great.

Later in the podcast they built offbeat characters for fun and then ran through a build for ten levels. This part I actually liked, except I think they approach the character creation process very differently than I do. They built mechanics first, story second. That’s fine, but I never come out with a coherent character that way. I guess if the end result is something fun to play it’s not bad to approach it that way, but I couldn’t do it when I tried in the past. Whenever I take apart a character and reduce it to a bunch of feats and powers without a story I tend to have a hard time playing it well.I think the episode I listened to, in particular, was a less serious sort of build than they normally attempt.

What I didn’t like was building a character that was mechanically sound, but had no background. It was just a bunch of numbers, but no story. Picking the bests feats and powers is only half the game, and it’s not the important half in my opinion either. I just don’t get the idea of being intensely “competitive” about D&D. It’s a communal storytelling game. If rolling high numbers on a d20 makes you happy, you don’t need a story to do that.

Either way, they leave their sample characters available for download, which is good. It lets others see how to make a well built character and the thought processes that formed it’s creation. It might not be a character you wanted to play, but at least you know what goes into making it after listening. While I didn’t like the rest of the podcast, this open creation process could be really helpful if I ever get in a building slump. People that take their hobby seriously are fine, but perhaps I had over estimated my love for “crunch” in a podcast.

My favorite comedy podcast, Stop Podcasting Yourself, has a new mini-segement about zingers. Those perfect jokes where someone said something and you gave a quick reply to complete a phrase. Basically, “That’s what she said” style jokes. I used to love these style jokes when I was a kid. I would memorize joke books obsessively and try to say the perfect one liner any any possible moment. Needless to say, as long as I was trying to memorize jokes to be funny, I didn’t “get” comedy.

As bad as I was at being funny as a child, I had the perfect one liner in class today. I was teaching a lesson about the planets of the solar system. After the students completed the activity they were working on a word search. One student in the class was asking where a particular planet was. “Teacher! Help me! Teacher! I can’t find a word! Teacher! Where is Uranus?!”

I replied, “…In my pants. Don’t ask me again,” and then chuckled louder than the rest of the class, who also thought this response was hilarious. I’m a grown man and I still laugh at jokes that immature and bad. Heh.

Want a mind blowing two dimensional puzzle game? Well, there is always Portal: The Flash Version. That’s pretty geeky. Converting a 3-D puzzle game into a flash based version of the game in 2-D? That’s good, but there was something missing to make me sit up and pay attention. Convert that now 2-D game into an ASCII game and let people create levels for it? Hell yeah, that’s what I’m talking about. ASCIIpOrtal is brilliant in it’s simplicity. Use two portals to transport around a level and solve puzzles. It is mind blowing in it’s complexity as those portals warp and change the level around relative to themselves. It strips out the third dimension, but leaves lots of mind bending puzzles to solve.

I’ve given it a whirl, and it’s really tough to see the consequences of a misplaced portal until it’s too late. I wish it ran a little more smoothly on my system. Currently the aiming interface for portals also is a little awkward, but it’s got a lot of promise. My hope is that it will run faster, or be ported to a web based game sometime. ASCII + Portal is awesome. The gameplay holds up, even without graphics. That’s the sign of a remarkable game.

Students know that I’m a video game fan. I don’t talk about video games in class anymore because I find the students that like talking about video games usually like to talk about Starcraft ALL the time. Students are very dedicated to that game. It’s been my experience that students that enjoy Starcraft a great deal tend to be the worst students for both grades and behavior in class. Usually they are violent and have poor study habits, probably because they play Starcraft most of the time. It’s always boys with poor attention spans talking about Starcraft, so why bother?

The only hint that I’m a video game fan has been my collection of Mario Phone Accessories that I’ve maintained for the past few years. When I have my phone in my box, or in my pocket, there is a chance that students might catch sight of it. Students usually either try to grab it the first time, which I discourage, or they just tell their friends. Now all the students have seen my different accessories, so I didn’t really need to warn them about it. They just came to expect me having one on my phone.

Getting out of a cab the other day, my second 1-Up accessory fell off. I needed to find another replacement. When I went back to the vending machine booth that sold the old Mario accessories, they had moved on to selling Mario minibanks. I’ve looked at convenience stores, game shops, and any other place that might sell them, but I haven’t found one yet.

Students saw that my phone was lacking an accessory earlier this week. “Teacher? Where is your mushroom?”

“Oh, it broke, and I can’t find one to replace it.”

“Teacher! You need to have a phone accessory! You always have one!”

I only have the light up Piranha Plant left now. I haven’t used that one before because it’s not soft, and it’s not as light as my other accessories. Plus, it lights up and was really cool on my desk. I decided to put it on my phone for now, but I’ll keep looking for a replacement so I can go back to my old style accessories. It’s working so far, but I’ll want to replace it. I was surprised it meant so much to the kids.

One of my classes told me that they love my class because I find topical videos for lots of my lessons, and that they like to see interesting stuff in class.In class today we watched a video for “Snuggies” when discussing useless or silly inventions. Students couldn’t handle the “Wearable Towel” commercials because it shows a woman, briefly, with a bra. It’s not like I was showing them the Snuggie Sutra or something.

They were so taken aback by the stupidity of both products that they didn’t seem to realize this was an actual product people buy and wear. I’ll have to search harder for more unbelievable products next time. The students will need to prepare their own infomercials for something they “invent” later in the month. My students have been extremely creative with all their presentations. If someone can top the Snuggie for ridiculousness, I’ll be overjoyed.

I can’t say that this video is particularly topical, but it was from South Korea, and is really cool. The Jeju school students cheer for their soccer team, which doesn’t seem nearly worth this amount of praise. I’d go just to see the students cheering. It’s very similar to some of the incredible North Korean Arirang games gymnastics presentations. It’s not the message, but the presentation that is so impressive.