A slightly smarter scammer..

Bernie Madoff's wife would like me to help!

Greetings,

My name is Ruth Madoff, as you can aware that my husband has been sent to 150 years imprisonment, please I want you to assist me and claim this funds out of this bank now before it too late.

I know you can do it for me, this is not a matter that we need to discuss over and over at all, bellow is the account details and you can check this account online.

Bank Website:
http://www.europefintrust.com/es/home/
Account username : Bmadoff
Account password : bernie

Customer Account Log out

Welcome Bmadoff!

Online Statement of Accounts
Account Number: EPF/UK/ONL/06524677
Account Holder: BERNARD L. MADOFF
Holder's Address: 2100 McKinney Ave, Suite 800, Dallas, TX,USA
Holders's Phone Number : 206-338-6347
SID Serial: 2435-5757-9898
Currency: UNITED STATES DOLLARS
Account Type: Transit Account
Account Balance: 59,700,000.00
Click here to view full account details Click here to make Funds Transfer

Please contact the account officer on this email urgently.

A Review Pours In!

As you may recall (both readers), last week I wrote an epic poem (albeit a short and insignificant one on a minor theme) and posted it here.

I am happy to say that Mr. Joe Orton of the Hawley Smoot Post and Tariff, has emailed me his review of my work. I post it here, without comment, which is more or less what it deserves.

The central theme/muse/symbol in all Montgomery’s major works is beer. This is Beer the Creator of modern man and beer the inspiration (e.g. in the Epic of Gilgamesh, the 'wild man' Enkidu is given beer to drink. "...he ate until he was full, drank seven pitchers of beer, his heart grew light, his face glowed and he sang out with joy."). Montgomery often relates Mankind’s creative process with the work of a creator, a brewer, an artist. In the natural world it is man’s artistic vision that brings creation to its zenith -- by revealing the world as it is, by sharpening perception, by giving form to ideas, by creating order out of chaos. Beer, of course, is in “the Mogi,” as any serious critic of Montgomery’s work would guess. But in “The Mogi” Montgomery steps outside of man’s creative role, to examine the creative and destructive role of the universe that surrounds us.

One of the beauties of Montgomery’s work is its (extreme) simplicity and you do not need to understand Montgomery’s divine-visionary-drunken beliefs to appreciate "The Mogi." Even a teetotaler can enjoy this work, for at its core the poem reprises the questions that many of us asked when we first heard the claim that God was a benevolent creator. "If that is so, why is there bloodshed and pain and horror? Why death? Why disease? Why the Lakers?" Most answers to these kinds of questions seem rote, incomplete or dishonest. "The Mogi" recounts, in a mythic context, the experience of not getting satisfactory answers to this key question of faith.

Montgomery does not stop here (he is not prone, actually, to stopping at all). "The Mogi" also describes that precipitous moment in which reason is overwhelmed by the antipodal but linked beauty and horror we find in the natural world. "When the stars threw down their spears / And watered heaven with their tears" is perhaps is the densest and most thematically rich section of "The Mogi." In the creation story in "Job", the stars sing for joy at creation, and it is to this that Montgomery refers. This key moment of creation is, of course, immediately definitively linked to Montgomery’s own “star tears,” the beer in the hand of the Creator. Unusually, Montgomery suggests that this might not be an altogether good thing.

In “The Mogi,’ stars represent reason and objectivity. Although Montgomery is generally a rationalist, and fully appreciates the understanding that science can bring to the world, he is also enough of transcendentalist to know that there is an experience to hearing the buzz of a Mogi at night that can't be communicated in entomology class: Our sense of annoyance and fear defies reason. As the Mogi’s buzz gets closer to our ears we have all had the experience of flailing frantically at that noise in the vain hope of destroying nature’s littlest assassin. It is not too much of a stretch, in fact, to argue that the Mogi can be read here as a symbol of death as well as of nature’s implacable might. The two are certainly linked

Regardless of whether the Mogi is taken as a symbol of death or of the power of nature lurking beneath and beyond our concrete ramparts, Montgomery makes the point that contemporary rationalists (of all political stripes) who hope to control the world by thought and application of power must eventually face the reality of the Mogi. As the lines “Who the devil? What dread grasp / Makes you want to sting my ass?” make clear, Montgomery believes that if we do not face the reality of the Mogi, the Mogi will come back to bite us on the ass.

Some critic would have you believe the Mogi represents evil. These critics are stupid. They eat steak don’t they? It is certainly not "evil" for a real Mogi to dine on humanity, but is part-and-parcel of our world. Yet it still inspires a certain horror and a sense of awe, that we are in the presence of the transcendent mystery at the very heart of creation -- and a certain terrible beauty. If Montgomery’s lyric has brought this to our attention, it has been successful.

Now I'm going to go and get a nice frosty one!

Bad News!

For all of you who have been waiting to send me last year's Xmas gifts.

You must now rule out the Sigma APO DG 70-300 lens as a potential gift. I bought this bad-girl from a, well bad-girl I suppose for about $133.00, which is a real bargain in Korea.

It's a nice lens too, although I'm still figuring it out. The first thing I did, of course, was take it out to take picture of bugs, stinking bugs.

The first bug was a fly on a wall (a bit cliche, even for a walking, talking cliche such as myself!) as I walked across Namsan Mountain and took a bit of refuge from the sun in a redwood-ish pagoda on the side of the hill.

The fly was obliging and hung out til I could figure out how to engage the macro. So I got two or three shots of which the one on the right is best by far.

Also, I learned that a picture of a fly on a wall is not only pretty uncompelling, but it also doesn't seem to reflect much about Korea.

Lesson learned, lesson learned

Then, when Yvonne and I went to see the Egyptian Exhibit, we also hung out at the little pond in front of the Museum and, lo and behold, a dragonfly came by and alit on the one sad leaf of pond-grass that stuck up out of the algae-ridden pond.

So I got me another pic.

Now, of course, we come to tragedy. We arrived home and there was a cockroach in the bathtub. Yvonne went in to shower - which she does Korean style, standing on the bathroom floor with the drain open. This means she didn't have to actually get in there with George, as we had named him. But it did mean she splashed enough water on little George that he expired soggily.

I didn't want to pick him up in his waterlogged state, so waited until the tub had dried out and..

It must have been CockaRoach Easter, cause George was back to life!

Or, those cockroaches are as tough as they say.

So, with George dry and alive, I got an empty yogurt cup, some cardboard, and trapped George and let him go outside.

Here is a picture of George, valiantly trundling away.

With that it was bed time and so I went to bed.

When I looked out my window.. Woe betide! Alas!

Poor George had not got very far.

This truly sh*tty pic is of George, on his back, six little legs to the sky, communing with the Great Insect What Lives in the Heavens.

And Yvonne can chalk up another kill!

Muse, National, Eum, and all that..

Today was a trip to the Seoul National Museum. Yvonne and I had been here once before, with BKF on our first trip to Seoul several years ago. This time, however, we were in search of Egyptian culture. The museum is hosting an exhibition, and since it is beginning to heat up in Seoul (I think it hit 28-29) we are trying to do more indoor things. We walked to the tube-station and had one of the excellent street-pastries they sell in Korea. Something like donuts in the US, but the “dough” part is a bit closer to bread, and there are no sticky glazes. The sweetness comes from the dusting of sugar, most of which I try to brush off. Then it was to Noksapyeong Station for coffee and down to the museum.

It is farking vast, as that picture above is intended to demonstrate (Which you are going to have to click on, since Blogger won't size it right). Someone had also tarted it out a bit.. the columns were covered in Egyptian hieroglyphs and art, and the bank of stairs at the middle of the museum had been painted with the Sphinx. It was a cool combination of the existing architecture and an application of Egyptian motifs. As usual it left me wondering how it is that when Koreans get near getting something right they so often hit it head on, but if they get too far away from getting something right it slides all the way to dead wrong.

My guess?

Every culture is like this, it just so happens that crabby old me is here. ;-)

The exhibit was grand, one of the few themed museum exhibits I’ve been on in which the exhibit gave out before my interest did. There were several cool things, including a semi-panoramic movie, a Terry Gilliam-esque thing in which someone at the British museum had taken old Egyptian frescoes and art, and animated them. It sounds totally cheesy, but it was quite grand. There were also some cool holographs. But really, the main thing was the exhibit, which was well thought out and presented. There was also the typical lack of queuing and too many kids running around unwatched, but as we got there early, it wasn’t too bad. Sunday afternoon would have been an entirely different story!

On the way out I took a picture in the gift shop, of the pyramid of chocolate you see to the right and was immediately stopped by an ajumma who told me “no pictures, no pictures!” I was a bit surprised, because behind me was a flock of couples and families snapping pictures. I pointed over my shoulder to where at least 10 of were taking pictures with flashes flaring (I observe a polite “no flash” when in public indoor spaces approach) and said, “no pictures?” Ajumma said, “no pictures.”

Seeing me put my camera down she walked away content, the barbarian insurrection quelled!

The flashing behind me continued unabated.

Oh well. Next time I’ll wear my Korean makeup. ;-)

I tried to sneak back to the tube-station before any more culture could be inflicted upon me. Unfortunately, Yvonne remembered that the Korean National General exhibits were free and thus we had to go check them out. This time, however, we got the little 3k won tour-guide PDA and that was completely worth it even though the information was set up as a woman lecturing and a retarded man answering randomly (sample quote when faced with the complexities of the Paleolithic Era: “Are you kidding me? There was a technique for chipping stones?”).

After all this we were a bit peckish and stopped in at the Korean Restaurant and Yvonne had some kind of sogogi dish and I had hae-mul pajeon. Then it was out into the heat for me to take some pictures and for Yvonne to wander far, then near, and then fall asleep. So when I was done with my pictures I wandered far to find her while, near, she could not find me and got on the subway home. ;-)

We finally met up there and headed up the hill to have a delicious noodle dinner and watch the first episode of Michael Palin’s Sahara (on the wall, from the computer through my projector).

As the B-man says, “another average day in paradise.”

Oh yeah...

that picture over there on the right?

Like any visit to a Korean museum could be complete without some kind of pictorial representation of the Korean museum's bizarre fixation with roof tiles.

Yep, that's a roof tile.

Excellent!

Normally I don't take much note of English Errors

And not that much glee in Konglish.. but shouldn't the National Theater of Korea know better?

With apologies to Mr. Blake

Upon the occasion of having been bitten.....

The Mogi

Mogi, Mogi, aloft alight
Waiting for a time to bite,
What immoral hand or eye
Gave stings and wings to a housefly?

From what distant drapes, on my fat thighs
Do you sit and peer and set your eyes?
On what silent wings, do you aspire
To leave a sting that burns like fire?

What nimble fingers, & what art
Made you long for fluid from my heart?
And when thy heart began to beat
Did that creator sense his own defeat?

What the thimble? what the stick?
That built you with your cruel prick
Who the devil? With lack of grasp
Made you want to sting my ass?

When the stars threw down their spears
Did the creator have a couple beers,
Did he smile, his work to see?
Did the creator of man, make Mogi?

Mogi, Mogi, aloft alight
Waiting for a time to bite
What immoral hand or eye
Gave stings and wings to a housefly?

Of course, you stupid idiots..

1959

I swear, it really is the year everything changed.

read more about why my birth will eventually require some kind of crucifixion, right here..

And get your shit right with dat reality..

word!

Marking final assignments and the actual final... Siiiigh..

Now the lamb lies with the lion
He's just a little savage



I can't wait for next week, when I will only have a convo class to deal with.. and that all planned out.

Really.. of course it's sticky-hot, but I'm not compaining

My convo students ambushed me in the hall and gave me a coffee cake.

Well, a Korean version.. so it was coated in saccharined-spackle and close approximations of graveyard scenery.

Still, I took it home.. scraped off all the gunk and had two slices of pretty good spice-cake underneath.

Then I cut it up and put it in the eum shik mul bag as I haven't been in the gym in months, and this is not healthy food. ;-)

Been grading ever since.

It is really the only "chore" to instruction and it is a chore pretty much proportional to the skills of students... as my kids are skilled, I have to sort through their arguments and splay them on the return table. Taxing.



I should say, for my friend Pucay, that retards might also be as taxing, since you'd have no idea where to begin ("Er, excuse me dear student in the United States, did you hit your head on the pier when you landed?"), but Pucay's hatred of the simple.. well.. it bothers me while it pays her.


hopefully that bit of true evil will get her off of Charles' yacht and back to posting. ;-)

Anyway.. so infra dig.... but grading continues... and will be done by Friday, I hope!

That Hot Chick from Bulgogi Blog Found These Pics of Daejeon

Wow


Yvonne, the rare blogger at bulgogi (and, of course, my fiancee) found a slide-show of pictures of Daejeon in 1951, after the Civil War had left town. They are farking amazing pictures if you have ever been to modern Daejeon.



Boggling..



I'm not sure war left Dresden this flat?