On Thoughtlessness

"Who decides what's immature? Is there a manual that says, "Other people can act abysmally, but the Mature Person will suffer their thoughtlessness and insensitivity without complaint"?" - Carolyn Hax

From Colorado Highlights

Robert Strange McNamara 1916-2009

Until recently, I hadn't heard that Robert Strange McNamara had passed away this last year. An interesting biography on this "Strange" and often contradictory figure in American foreign policy.

McNamara gained fame and acclaim originally as defense secretary for John F Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson and his notable accomplishments included engineering the war in Vietnam, and developing US defense doctrine for nuclear war that exist to this day. He was known for ruthlessly applying the cold, calculating precision of mathematical statistics to decision making.

Despite being the architect for America's invasion and conflict in South-West Asia, he later became a tireless advocate against war and America's militaristic and agressive foreign policies. In his later years, he became a tireless activist for nuclear disarmament and the ever present danger that nuclear weapons pose.

Ironically, McNamara later became an outspoken critic of his own war, saying,

"None of our allies supported us. Not Japan, not Germany, not Britain or France. If we can't persuade nations with comparable values of the merit of our cause, we'd better reexamine our reasoning."

Death of the Whiz Kid: Robert Strange McNamara 1916-2009

On Poverty

"Poverty is not created by the poor but by the institutions and policies that we, the better off, have established. We can solve the problem not by means of the old concepts but by adopting radically new ones." ~ Muhammad Yunus, Founder of Grameen Bank for Micro-credit

Grameen Bank

People With Super Memory

Here's a guy who lost his cell phone. I'd be panicking because I would never be able to remember all the numbers. This guy didn't because he'd already memorized all of them. He also remembers the scores of every Pittsburgh Steelers game he ever saw. And the final scores. Since he was 7. Researchers can show freeze frame pictures to him from the games, and he can name the game, date, and score of that game.

According to researchers, he has a rare condition that gives him a super powerful memory, known to researchers as super-autobiographical memory. And there are only four people known to have the condition. Their minds, likened to video cameras that never stop running or a computer hard drive that downloads every web page visited, can recall trivia and minutiae from everyday life that some of them find unbearably stifling.

According to the article, the condition is closely linked to obsessive compulsive disorder, and researchers suspect it may be more common and undiagnosed.

Either way, I personally think it would be wonderful to have a super powerful memory that could be accessed like a Google server. Imagine an enormous memory with no limits to what you can recall? I'd be able to learn every Korean word after hearing it only once? How cool would that be? Heck, I could learn every Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, Latin, Greek, and French as well!

4 People with Super Memory, by David K. Israel

Mental Floss: Where Knowledge Junkies Get Their Fix

Carolyn Hax on Train Wrecks

From South Korea Highlights 2009 ~

"Any voyeur will tell you, the best view of a train wreck is from the high road." -- Carolyn Hax

Ulleung Island / 울릉도

I woke up in the strange bed and house to look outside to clear blue skies and puffy white clouds. Having arrived here the night before, from Pohang, I was eager to get started and explore what promised to be a wild frontier-like wonderland of natural beauty off Korea's East Coast.

From South Korea Highlights 2009 ~

Ulleung Island, which lies a few hundred kilometers off of Korea's East Coast, is a remote outpost for squid farmers who nestle into the coves and outlets where the rocky, rugged volcanic topography allows practical human settlement. Ulleung is slowly growing into a tourist attraction for hikers, fishermen, and photographers eager to enjoy its pristine natural beauty and remote wilderness experience (which is of course slowly disappearing as more tourists arrive).

From South Korea Highlights 2009 ~

After some trouble finding the trailhead, I eventually found the proper path leading to the summit of the tiny volcanic island. Ulleungdo didn't disappoint, and while these pictures don't nearly do it justice (clouds obscured all the views for most of the hike), I found the entire place splendidly wonderful. Here is me at the summit of the island and mountain, also known as Sanginbong (성인봉). I think the rest of the pictures speak for themselves.

From South Korea Highlights 2009 ~

한글을공부합니다

As I have the afternoons off for the following two weeks (I think), I've decided to get cracking on learning Korean, a task that has been relegated to the back burner since I arrived for a variety of reasons. I've hired a woman that goes by the name of Nain to help me learn and study the language. She teaches at the Changwon Korean class I attend, runs a similar class in the nearby town of Masan, and tutors privately in English and Korean. She is arguably one of the best Korean teachers at the Changwon Korean class, and I've made more progress with her in one evening than I do in 3 classes with other teachers.

One reason I've been putting this off is that I want to develop good habits early on, conjugating verbs correctly, spelling, listening and pronouncing all the new vowels and consonants still difficult for me. I've finally found someone who can help me do this properly, and is capable of answering all my questions.

So, for the next two weeks (at least), I'll be in Masan City, meeting with Nain, and conjugating verbs. Wish me luck! :P

Daebang MS English Camp 대방중

This week I've been teaching the half day Daebang MS "English Camp," an intensive English conversation course at one of my schools. The informal, laid back format appeals to me, as I'm given a wide latitude to present my own ESL and English conversational materials.

The kids are all super friendly, and we look to be having a good time, most of the time anyways.

BEST PART: We finish work at 12:30! So I can now go do my own intensive language course. Only instead of teaching English, I'll be studying Korean.

Thomas Jefferson on Arguing

From Japan Highlights

"It is as useless to argue with those who have renounced the use of reason as to administer medication to the dead." ~ Thomas Jefferson.

A Nugget from Dr. Seuss

From Colorado Trail

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not.” ~ Dr. Seuss

More Monday Morning Thunderstorms

It was a dark and stormy... morning? An ominous forboding of things to come this week? Perhaps, but either way, the ferocity of the rain this morning woke me early.

It's nice to see the rain. Even a newcomer to Changwon like myself can tell there is a bit of a dryspell in what is supposed to be the region's "rainy season." It will keep things cool for most of the day as well, so I won't have to worry about sweating too much at work.

Unfortunately, I can also say that this level of rain isn't sustainable and not the best type. At this level of intensity, the rain will wash right off the mountains, contribute to erosion, and generally not be absorbed into the local aquifer. This rain will run off into the sea, testing the capacity of Changwon's storm systems more than recharging trees and plants with life.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

I've wound up seeing a lot more movies here in Korea than I ever really thought I would. Two reasons for this: the group of friends I've fallen in with really enjoy films, and going to the movies is a very cheap activity here (around 5 USD to see new releases in the evening and even cheaper in the mornings and afternoons).

So, with Roger, Carlos, and Lily's family and new friend 'Claire Erica' Lee, we saw the new Transformers movie. I wasn't expecting much, but I actually really liked it. I was disappointed that during the final sequence though, action took place at several different locations across Egypt and Jordan. One moment they're on the pyramids, then next minute they're 3 countries away in Jordan, wandering through the Lost City of Petra. Then they're running through Karnak Temple in Luxor (hundreds of kilometers South of both locales)! But the Egyptians and the Jordanians must be laughing their heads off at the nonsense in this one!

Despite the best efforts of geography teachers like myself, I'd almost be willing to forgive this due to the rabble's completely hopeless lack of understanding about geography (almost), but it gets much worse. Anther scene has the characters walking through the front door of the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC. Then they walk out the back door of the museum... into an Air Force bone yard obviously in Tuscon Arizona! Come on!

These are just a few of the eye-roll inducing plot discrepancies in the movie. It might actually be fun to see it again and see how many more ridiculous things I didn't notice.

Seriously, how stupid do they think movie audiences are? Then again, for folks willing to shell out money to watch a sequel to a movie based on a TV series produced to sell a line of plastic toys in the 1980's, I don't imagine the producers had high minded viewers in mind. This movie is a great ride, but be sure to leave your brain at home, lest critical thinking ruin it for you.

Flakiness & Lethargy

I'm so often busy during the week that during my downtime, I often don't have the capacity or the will to get anything productive done. Whether this is due to exhaustion or lethargy I can't be certain, but it's affecting me.

Just this last weekend, my friend Krista invited me to join her on a weekend whitewater rafting excursion. I was excited and pumped to go, but when it came time to book the trip, I couldn't find the time, or I often "spaced" it out. Now she's undoubtedly having the time of her life, while I'm having a lazy weekend again in Changwon.

What's wrong with me? I'm not sure. There are tons of things I'd like to get done, from the important (sending home a package of goodies for my parents, wiring money home to invest, booking a vacation, etc.) to the mundane (arranging furniture for more room, spending my REI dividend check, studying Korean).

Now that the consequences of my inaction have hit (I'm not rafting or bungee jumping this weekend). I'm reviewing once again the principles behind simplifying your life:

1. Identify what's important to you. 2. Eliminate everything else.

What might I be able to eliminate from my life, and make it more manageable? Will this help me become the weekend warrior? Or the Saturday sloth?

Simple Living Manifesto: 72 Ideas to Simplify Your Life

George S. Patton on Thinking

From Australia

"If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking." ~ George S. Patton.

Another Politician's Infidelity

Of all the things going on in the world today, what with genocide in Darfur the Iranian crackdown on vote protesters, and Kim Jong Il's wild threats, you would wonder why I'd choose to talk about Mark Sanford's sleazy infidelity.

Why? Because like this article says, his confession is so fundamentally different from those politicians before him that it is unexpected and unique. An aberration. Unlike the genocide in Darfur or the Iranian voting scandal (whose outcomes are tragic and unfortunate, yet sadly predictable), Mark Sanford is perhaps showing genuine remorse for his actions and laying out everything. His confession amounts to political suicide and perhaps marital suicide.

As the editorials below mention, most politicians caught in an infidelity engage in a typical pattern of minimizing it as a short lived lapse or personal failure, showing remorse, and then trying to convince people you still love your dear wife and God has forgiven you. You avoid accountability until it becomes politically imperative to do otherwise, explain it away as a short mistake, and then go on the offensive when your adversaries or the press exploit it. I won't rehash how Clinton and Edwards tried to pull off this script. (To say nothing of GOP Senator Larry Craig's laughable "wide stance" whopper when the vice squad got him in the bathroom).

While his political opponents are right to point out his hypocrisy (he voted to impeach Clinton on what he described as moral grounds and moralizes about the sanctity of marriage in his position on same-sex marriage), I also kind of think many have been too quick to judge and condemn. Perhaps there is a time and place to consider his behavior and the discrepancy between what he says and does.

But based on his confession, here's a guy who is obviously broken and torn up about the whole thing. He obviously senses the ramifications of his actions not only to South Carolina and his family, but to his colleagues and even his mistress. Unlike Craig or Clinton, who immediately launchrd into a cynical, calculated damage control to salvage their careers, could Sanford actually be taking it all in and figuring out how to do the right thing?

Heartless: The Disturbing Glee at Mark Sanford's Downfall, by John Dickerson

Something Real: Did Mark Sanford Admit to a Sin Worse than Sex? by William Saletan

Andrew Sullivan at the Atlantic on Mark Sanford

Thought for Wednesday

"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you. But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." ~ Don Marquis.

From Thailand & Cambodia

Another Thought For Tuesday

"There is no passion to be found in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living." ~ Nelson Mandela

From Colorado Trail

Kodak Kodachrome Film Retired at 74

It wasn't so long ago that people waited two days to a week before they saw their vacation photographs. If you wanted to take more than 30 shots, you carried extra rolls of film. If you wanted to send them to friends, you kept the negatives and ordered copies (or made them yourself if you had access to a darkroom). My toddler nephew will no doubt be flabbergasted to learn people actually went to the supermarket to develop pictures into prints or that we even bothered doing so.

Before the days of digital photography, when people still stored their photographs in big heavy albums on bookshelves instead of servers and hard drives, Eastman-Kodak was an enormous company, even considered a 'tech' company at one time. The relentless onslaught of digital photography technologies have slowy pecked away at the company, which is now a hollow shell of its former self after a reorganization, and struggles to survive in the digital age.

First, companies stopped developing new 35mm cameras around the turn of the century. Now they hardly manufacture them anymore, as most everyone buys a digital camera. With the exception of a few 35 mm SLR and medium format size cameras that still have tiny niche markets, one might be hard pressed to find a simple point and shoot.

Now, Kodak has retired what was once their flagship product responsible for building their brand name. Kodachrome film, once the bread and butter of Eastman-Kodak, has slowly declined over time, and as of this year, the company will no longer manufacture the product.

I took a black and white photography class in university, and learned to develop black and white film in the dark-room. Although I only shot on black and white film, and usually used Ilford B&W film instead of Kodak (I found it often easier to work with and more forgiving of my beginner mistakes), I know many professional and amateur photographers will sorely miss using Kodachrome, as they've no doubt grown accustomed to using it over time.

Many famous images from around the world were shot on Kodachrome film, including photographer Steve McCurry's haunting 1985 National Geographic cover of an Afghani refugee girl. So for the sake of sentimentality and nostalgia, I'm linking up this slideshow of famous Kodachrome images. How many of them can you recognize? How many of the locations can you identify? How many have you visited?

KodaChrome Slideshow

Tribute to Kodachrome: A Photography Icon

National Geographic

Kodak.com

Ilford Photo

Image © Steve McCurry

Mafia Wars on Facebook

I've spent the evening skipping the gym and I'm doing something I'm not particularly proud of: playing Mafia Wars on Facebook. A new friend of mine, Jean Bradberry suggested it.

I haven't been playing long, but I'm already noticing some things about it: It uses simple psychology to reinforce your behaviors. It does this primarily by using game-play to improve your game character and earning money. The catch though, is you have to keep returning to the game for more later on. Your character can also acquire different items to assist in you (which in turn require more money and more gameplay).

The whole premise reminds me very much of Blizzard software games, primarily Diablo 2, and World of Warcraft, where developing your characters becomes an obsession over time. Needless to say, one can easily purchase items in gameplay with your credit card (which I assume is how Facebook and/or the Mafia Wars Game developers make money).

Anyways, I've bought a bunch of abandoned lots for income, and I expect to be selling them soon enough for some commercial lots where I'll build some apartment complexes. My character is still a low level "street thug" where I'm busy mastering the "mugger" skill and the "corner store hold-up" skill (I've already mastered "collect on a loan"). If I build 34 apartments I can earn the "slumlord" title. But I'm still only level 6 (I can expand to Cuba at level 35).

My friend Jean claims its an interesting and intelligent game worth giving a try at. He says it teaches you a lot about psychology and interpersonal relationships. So I'll see where it goes.

Monday Morning Quote

Back at work today, grinding away for the pay. Big thunderstorms woke me up at 5 AM, followed by pounding rain that's no doubt testing the limits of Changwon City's storm sewers and drainage systems.

Even as early as my student teaching experience, I could recall the weather's slight, yet noticeable effect on student temperament, behavior and performance. I suspect a thunderstorm of this magnitude is unsustainable though, and that by the time I'm in class it'll be difficult to notice, as rain will slow to a trickle. And besides, the kids in Changwon are fairly docile anyways. So I'll leave you all with the obligatory bit of wisdom below, (this time from Albert Einstein) and a sunset over Colorado's Tenmile Range.

From Colorado Trail

"Teaching should be such that what is offered is perceived as a valuable gift, and not as a hard duty." ~ Albert Einstein.