Thursday, September 28, 2006

More Animated Carnage

Hello,

For those of you who enjoyed the chickens...

I Bring You -
JOE CARTOON!

I'll warn you though - If you didn't think the chickens were funny, don't go to Joe.
(Sorry Myrna)

http://www.joecartoon.com/pages/noblood_anim

To see more check out the link to the right, just under the 'My Pics' link.

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Doo Doo doodoo doodoo Doo Doo Doo Doo

That's the sound of me sitting at my desk.

I was told this morning when I got to work that today is sports day rehersal (I'm not entirely sure what this sports day is or who they're rehearsing for) and I have no lessons to teach. So far I have spent the entire morning searching various websites for free animated clipart so that I can make interesting and entertaining PowerPoint presentations for my classes. It has not been entirely devoid of entainment value. Check out this chicken.

Disclaimer: No actual chickens were harmed in the creation of this posting. The editor of this blog accepts no responsibility for trauma, (physical, psychological, or otherwise) resulting from the use of the links contained herein.

Anyway, that's what I've been doing today. I have gone out and taken a look at the sports day rehersal a few times, but I don't really know what it's all about. There's lots of loud music, including "Baby Elephant Walk" (Doo Doo doodoo doodoo Doo Doo Doo Doo), and lot's of kids dancing around. I think I've heard a starter's pistol a few times from my desk, but have yet to actually see a race. Maybe they're just 'eliminating' the kids who can't get the dance steps right.

In fact, I haven't actually seen anything 'sporty' about sports day. Maybe something was lost in translation...

I love this, someone just came by my desk and told me that Friday is the actual sports day and I won't have any classes then either. At this rate I should be able to have a months worth of lesson plans built up by the end of the week. Oh what, oh what will I do with my extra time? Probably look for more chicken animations...


Things To Do...

Hey Everybody,

Just thought I'd put up a post and let you know about a few of the activities I have kind of got planned for the next little while. I still haven't planned for activities during my six days off during the Chusok holiday though (Korean Thanksgiving).

One of my new peeps, Tracy, told me about a free trip out to Damyang yesterday and it sounds totally cool so I signed up for that one. It's a trip out to a cultural music festival in some of the largest bamboo forests in Korea. Check out their description. http://www.seoulselection.com/notification_read.html?cid=3482

I've also found a pretty cool travel group called Adventure Korea and I'm signed up for a few of their trips too, if I can figure out how to transfer funds at an ATM anyway. So far, I'm planning on going paintballing, doing hikes in a National Park and going rock climbing. Check out the site if you want to see more information.
www.adventurekorea.com/

Hopefully, it's all as much fun as it sounds.

Monday, September 25, 2006

A Lyrical Favorite

Something has to change
Un-deniable dilemma
Boredom's not a burden
Anyone should bear

Constant
Over
Stimulation
Numbs me

But I would not want
You any other way

Cause
It's not enough
I need more
Nothing seems to satisfy

I said
I don't want it

I just need it
To breathe
To feel
To know I'm alive

-TOOL (MJK)

Saturday, September 23, 2006

A New Poem

Adam's Apple

Sometimes I feel it
as a lump
in my throat

This intangible guilt -
a punishment
for deeds done rashly

I am reminded of sins
as I choke on this fruit -
this catalyst of reason


-Clayton Dean

All You Can Eat and Drink - 22, 000 won

It was a beautiful thing...
About fifty of the SMOE teachers got together at a place called Carne Station in Seoul. For about $25.00 CAN we got to eat from a well stocked buffet and drink from a self serve bar. It was really cool because it was in the traditional Korean style, in that we cooked all the meat and stuff on a communal BBQ which was set into the middle of each of the tables. I ate so much beef that I think I might actually go veggie for a week or two. Oh, and I made a float. It was good.



Afterward, a bunch of us went bar-hopping and at the behest of Tim, the guy in the tightie whities from an earlier post, ended up at an 80s Prom-themed party with a couple of live bands. It was one of the oddest bar experiences that I've ever taken part in. We're in Korea, but the bar is full of westerners. It's 2006, but everyone is dressed as if it's 1986. The music was mostly the poppy fluff from that era, but all the guys in the band were dressed in punk clothes. Looking around at all the white folks you would have sworn you weren't in Korea, but the odd decor and ambiance reminded you otherwise. It was a good time.



There were other bars as well, but those were the only ones truly noteworthy.



Friday, September 22, 2006

Picpoem
























Hollow Fingers

I remember your cold wet fingers
and how my skin sang
with each touch.

I cannot forget
- though I have not tried -
that those members were hollow.

How much I longed
to warm their skins
and fill them with feeling.

Those insensate reconnoiters of flesh -
leading the assault against reason.

Photo and Poem by
Clayton Dean

Thursday, September 21, 2006

Reasons It's Nice To Have a Job

I got my first check today and I'm quite pleased with the result. There were, asdmittedly, a few surprises. Pension contributions for instance, about two hundred dollars a month (but you get it back at the end of the year). And housing deposit of like six-fifty (also returnable).

My favorite thing is that I'm paying for my lunches at school (all you can eat rice and kimchi with soup and elaborate sides). It runs about two bucks a day. If I was eating in a restaraunt they would easily be $8-10 meals, I just ate one and trust me, I'm full.

After all the deductions (tax, Med. Ins, more tax), I'm making almost as much as I did working at the lumber mill eight years ago. But most days I love my job and unless I'm severely negligent I'll never lose a finger in a piece of industrial equipment. Life is good (especially when you don't have to pay rent).

I am happy to be paying student loans. Going back to school was one of my best decisions ever.

Zhang Zae Moat

I went for a walk with one of my homeroom teachers this evening. She took me out to the Zhang Zae Moat (probably spelled wrong) and we took a circuit walk that last about forty-five minutes.

It's the first touristy thing I've really done and was impressed by the beauty of the faux natural scenery along the way. It was a little difficult to get really good pics, but I managed to get a few.

I've got a holiday stretch of about six days coming up for Chusok (Korean Thanksgiving(probably spelled wrong)) and I think I might head out and do a few day hikes in the mountains around Seoul. Some of my new friends have gone out and the pics they've brought back are pretty breathtaking. I can't wait!

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

A Debate

“It’s a shame when things don’t work out the way that you had envisioned them. When you can look at your life and everything that you see there is unintended. Perhaps you got distracted at some point and failed to realize that all those things that you had been working toward were slipping farther and farther away. Possibly, some bright new prospect caught your eye. And, although you knew that to pursue this attraction would mean losing ground on your true journey, you went toward it. It doesn’t really matter how you got here. Here you are.”

“It’s a grand thing when life furnishes you with surprises. When you look at your life and everything that you see there is unintended. When you can hold in your mind the malleability to adapt and take advantage of each situation that you encounter. When you can exhibit the courage to take hold of bright new prospects and pursue them, heedless of the losses you are sure to incur. You know that the journey is truth itself. It doesn’t matter where you go. Only how you get there.”

Sunday, September 17, 2006

Korean Poetry

I bought a book of Korean Poetry on the first day I was in my new apartment. It has both the original Korean and the translated English on facing pages, much like the copy of Beowulf I borrowed from Davyd and read a few years ago. The author is a Nun in the Christian Church, Sr. Claudia Hae In Lee. Translation from Koren by Jinsup Kim.

Many of the poems in the book, entitled, Snow Flower Songs: Lyrics of Nature, have moved me greatly and helped me reflect on my life in some meaningful way. This is just one such example. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.

A Trumpet Vine's Love Song

Missing you
On a day like today,
My heart quivers.

Although rude to neighboring trees,
I unconciously climb higher and higher
As my yearning tendrils reach out
Ceaselessly.

I believe
You will fortify me enough
To control myself.

Rather than words of praise from others,
It is your silently burning eyes
That inspire my prayers,
And it is love
Whereon my entire life hangs.
-Sr. Claudia In Hae Lee

Saturday, September 16, 2006

A Quote From Fyodor Dostoevsky

I started reading Notes From the Underground by Dostoevsky early in the week. So far it's pretty good. Strange in numerous ways, but good.

"Destroy my desires, eradicate my ideals, show me something better, and I will follow you. You may say I'm not worth bothering with; in that case, I can say exactly the same to you. We are talking seriously. And if you do not deign to give me your attention, I will not bow before you. I have my underground." - Anonymous Narrator

An Old Poem

Looking through your eyes
I see the world in shades of grey
There's nothing left to catch the eye-
All beauty's gone astray

A rose is nothing but a plant
A peacock but a bird
And through your ears
It seems I hear
That love is but a word
-Clayton Dean

Friday, September 15, 2006

"Ramayana" Relief in Wood

Some Excerpts From Individual Emails

"When I was sitting in my Renaissance Drama class, or writing a paper on the Biblical allusions in the Post-moderns fairy tales of Robert Coover it never once crossed my mind that I'd one day be in Seoul, South Korea drawing and coloring flash cards to teach a group of elementary students to sing "Alice the Camel". You know how hard it is to get the proportions right on a camel with five humps? Do you?!"

"Yesterday I got to sing, dance and do sign language for three hours while learning childrens songs like long legge'd sailor and the lion king theme song it was fun."

"My apartment is awesome."

"Grades 3-4 are kind of surreal actually. I feel like a really lame gameshow host or something."

"...And then I woke up on a couch in an apartment that, although it looked eerily like my own, was not my own. The couch was white instead of brown and there was a fat, hairy, middle-aged man in tighty-whities sprawled less than magestically on the floor."

"They did the ceremony and then we ate the cakes (dry and ricey) and drank a couple bottles of Macarai (rice whiskey, yes, it's every bit as good as it sounds). It's kind of like if you watered down real whiskey with the water that you boiled rice in,or put whiskey into rice pudding maybe."

"Oh, you want some humour? I couldn't read the instructions on my clothes iron and ended up leaving it on all day and melting it and the stand it sits on. I'm sure I just about burned down my apartment. He he. Whoops!"

"Remember how much of a pain in the ass it was to divy up a grocery receipt? Try doing it when the receipt is in Korean and the smallest price on the thing is 6,500. Michael and I did just that when we went to Costco the other day. Wheeeee!"

"I'll just end by saying that, so far, my job is pretty easy, living is cheap and fun is plentiful."

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Hello Everyone

I have just created this site so that I can keep you posted on my experiences. You will no doubt find pictures, poems, perhaps even short stories and the like as this page develops. But, right now it's 12:11am and I've got to go to school tomorrow and teach fourth grade so, "bye!"