Ongoing Letter - Allan's Place

Friday August 3, 2001

We saw a movie last night.  Cats and Dog.  It’s a mix of real and animated effects.  Talking dogs & cats fighting; cats wanting to take over the world and rid it of dogs, and dogs wanting to defend all humans against cats and take their rightful place as “man’s best friend”.  Funny, good movie, a little childish, a little lacking if you pay attention to details.  But it was fun.  Good chance to laugh.

It’s still blazingly hot outside.  It didn’t seem to cool down much overnight.  But a couple days ago we had a rain storm that created more little flash floods here and there.  Take a look outside the balcony.

rain storm - during 001.wmv

rain strom - after 001.wmv

Thursday August 2, 2001

Boy, was it hot today.  Hanmee & i were going to head out for a bike ride today, but after pumping up the tyres and getting ready to go, i decided it was too damn hot.  Heat stroke was beginning to take it’s effect.  Anyway, i’m sitting in the comfort of air conditioning now.

Hanmee’s parents were over last night.  They bought a condo for their son, Hanyoung (my brother-in-law), who just came back from training in Florida, US.  But as of yet it’s lacking furniture, a bed & bedding, screens on the windows (hence a mosquito problem), and general homeyness.  So they bunked here last night.  For the first time, her dad had something nice to say about me, us, our lifestyle, the cats, our plants, food, etc.  He’d been a real sourpuss on previous visits, but after Hanmee’s reaming out for it a month ago or so, things have been a little different.

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Saturday July 28, 2001

Headache today.  Don’t talk to me.

Friday July 27, 2001

There seems to be a sink-hole under our apartment, probably due to the heavy rains.  Some guys came over today to fill it all in again, but who knows just how long it’ll last that way.  Maybe this sort of thing has happened in the past, and filling it in with more dirt is all they can do.  Not sure.  If i go offline and never come back, you’ll know that my apartment has sunk into the earth and i’m buried in a pile of concrete.

Today’s quote:  “I know i am not seeing things as they are.  I am seeing things as i am.” – unknown

Wednesday July 25, 2001

I’ve finished my cat toilet training page, if anyone wants to take a look.

I gave Jen, a friend of mine, some Starbucks Meridian coffee that i get from Dongdaemoon market ’cause she was in such dire need of good beans, but i told her to watch out for a bit of a bitter, metallic taste in it.  Sure enough, she said there was.  Proves my point that we really don’t know what chemicals go into coffee beans as they’re grown.  She said it was good, and she liked the price – 7000 won for a 2 pound bag – but agreed with me on this weird taste.

Another hot, humid day.  Slow day today too.  Lucky for me because i woke up with a sore throat today.

Hey, i think that shark cartilage is working.  After taking it for 3 months, my hip isn’t as sore as it was.  I just started noticing the difference about a month ago, and now, middle of July, i can definitely feel an improvement.  I’ll get my mom to send me more through the post.  It’s called Glucosamine & Chondroitin Sulfate.

Sunday July 22, 2001

My last entry was kind of useless, wasn’t it?

Sunday morning.  Dark, cloudy, hot, sticky, humid, and generally subtropical outside today.  Cicadas are buzzing away outside in their familiar pattern – zzzeeezzzeeezzzeeezzzeee-eeeeeeeee.  I’m having my morning coffee, Hanmee is still sleeping.

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Friday July 20, 2001

You just stopped by to see what condition my condition was in, didn’t you?  Hey, man.  I’m not heavy – i’m your brother.  Groovy.  Far out.  Outta sight.  Right on, mama.

This retro-experience has been brought to you by your friends at

OCCULT

the Organization for Continuing Conservation of Unnecessary Literal Trauma.

Wednesday July 18, 2001

Sunny day.  Hot outside.  Cicadas are buzzing away outside creating a lot of racket.  I went down for a nap this afternoon.

Tuesday July 17, 2001

Day off today.  Only two hours to put in, then the rest to play with.

later

I understand now why people smoke, drink beer and such, and watch TV.  All these things are addictive.  Why?  People just don’t have enough time to develop what they really enjoy – drawing, swimming, gardening, going to singing rooms, having barbecues, doing jigsaw puzzles, doing water sports, dancing, going to the cinema, even keeping a diary.  It’s easier, drawing from Hanmee’s habits, to lay down on the couch for a rest than to pull the kitchen table up to the window and start sketching something.  She really enjoys it and has oodles of talent, but she just doesn’t because she’s tired from work.  Not all people are like that here, i think, but most are.  Most people in my culture set aside some time at least to do their thing, whatever their thing may be.  Mine were cycling, morning coffees with friends, and movies.  I have morning coffee now and cycle every now and then, but that’s about it.

So i wonder what today will bring.

Hanmee spent the night on the couch last night.  She listed off some reasons – wanted to brush her teeth but couldn’t wake up, depressed, couldn’t sleep in the bed – but the long and short of it is that she’s not too crazy about the setup here.

Jen, a Canadian friend of mine whom i met here in Seoul, like Starbucks coffee as much as i do.  Or rather, real coffee (rather than instant coffee, Korean style flavoured coffees, or cheap brands like Rogers & Nabob).  

Saturday July 14, 2001

Hold on whilst i go get my morning coffee.

Okay.  Now i’m ready.  It’s Saturday today, and therefor a good time to head out to the Han river park for a throw of the frisbie.  Hanmee wants to take the cats out there to see just what they’d do and to show them that there’s a world out there they’re missing.  Good or bad?  I dunno.  Probably more good than bad.

I just got the “Solar Times” from Real Goods, the environmentalist retail store.  They send out this newsletter every month.  Just reading about the US president Bush’s refusal to sign this Kyoto greenhouse gas thing.  What a nerd.  Russian roulette with future lives.  What strikes me as odd is that the Kyoto Protocol only plans to lower greenhouse causing gas by 5.2% in 22 years.  Doesn’t seem very substantial to me.  And Bush can’t even commit to that!  Then he says that, after faulting the Kyoto thing for excluding developing nations from its requirements, he wants to cut US aid for helping third world countries fight their global warming problem.

On the home front; nothing new, really.  I moved a lot of plants from the living room into the balcony to get a bit of humidity.  The living room is kind of dry now with the balcony windows shut and the air conditioning on.

On the computer scene; I’ve got my little tiny network happening with the P3 as the server & every day use machine (kind of like a client), and the P1 hooked up to the scanner.  They’re connected with a cute little tiny 4-port hub i picked up at Youngsan market.  It works well.

Something up with the coffee.  I drink Seattle’s Best, good.  I drink Starbucks, i get a stuffy nose.  Anybody out there know what kind of chemicals they put in coffee?  Or what they spray coffee plantations with?  Just curious.