Comments Posted By Kevin Kim
Displaying 3,061 To 3,090 Of 4,403 Comments
Onward to the Roaring Twenties! Happy New Year, man.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 31/December/2019 @ 5:55 pm
Forgot to mention that you can probably thicken up your sour cream by lining a mesh strainer with cheesecloth, then dumping your sour cream into it and letting it drip for maybe two hours. With all the water leaving the sour cream, the solids that remain ought to be a lot thicker and less watery. This trick works for people who want Greek yogurt but only have regular yogurt on hand (Greek yogurt is much thicker).
You could also buy some xanthan gum from iHerb and use an exceedingly tiny amount of it to thicken your sour cream…
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 30/December/2019 @ 5:53 pm
And a Happy Rizal Day to you! Now, at last, I understand the significance of the name “Rizal Extension.”
That has to be the most detailed, loving description of the making of a fruit salad that I’ve ever seen. I’m impressed. It’s obvious this salad means a lot to you.
If you need to use dried coconut, you can take your fresh coconut, shred it, then pile it into a cheesecloth, bundle the cloth up, twist it at the top, and keep twisting until you squeeze the living hell out of the coconut within. Or, if you’re willing to waste a lot of paper towels, you can use those to drain/dry your shredded coconut. Or, if you’re patient, you can lay your shredded coconut out on a baking sheet and warm it in the oven until it’s dry—350° F (about 175° C) for about 15 minutes. Drying any fruit concentrates its sweetness by removing water content and making the remaining fruit denser.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 30/December/2019 @ 4:06 pm
Well, John, you already know my thoughts on learning the local language, so I won’t bother you with that nonsense. Let me register some concern, though, regarding your lungs. I hope you can get that problem looked at ASAP. Very little in life is scarier than suddenly being unable to breathe properly. Please get yourself checked out and let us know how that goes.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 30/December/2019 @ 1:52 am
Good luck with the stye. You might have to rip your eyelids off, like Bodhidharma did (according to the legend, he didn’t want to fall asleep while meditating, which is why his eyes are huge in those brush paintings: he’s lidless).
I somehow missed the fact that you’re still on a tourist visa. Any chance of gaining permanent-resident status? Seems odd for a man of your years and social position to be reduced to doing visa runs like a twenty-something working semi-legally at a Korean hagweon.
Lola. L-O-L-A, Lola. Lo-lo-lo-lo-Loooola.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 27/December/2019 @ 7:17 pm
Ah, the ethics of charitable giving. Can’t say I envy you.
Turkey and other food pics all look great! Thanks for the visual treat. And, yes: using indirect heat is a common strategy for people like YouTube’s BBQ Pit Boys.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 26/December/2019 @ 5:22 pm
A holly, jolly Christmas to you and yours, in the PI or Stateside. I’ll be wanting to see a shot of that turkey. Or, at least, a loving description of it in your next entry!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 25/December/2019 @ 3:28 pm
I love how Santa’s elves all have sexually charged names.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 24/December/2019 @ 1:55 pm
Well, however tough the thatch grass might be, I wish you good luck as you get to know your new friend.
Rolled tatami mats, by the way, are traditionally used in Japanese swordsmanship because it’s believed they have roughly the consistency of human flesh. Certainly cheaper than buying ballistics gel and making humanoid molds to practice on!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 24/December/2019 @ 11:54 am
So! The foreigner does get a weapon of his own! Keep it well honed. May it taste the flesh of any intruder who dares to violate the sanctity of your abode!
Can you order tatami mats and a stand for use as cutting practice? (See here for what I’m talking about.) These shouldn’t be too expensive, and they’re a good way for you to learn how to swing a blade with sufficient force. Learning the “feel” of the blade, particularly when it comes to edge alignment, is important: you don’t want to swing at an opponent and just have the machete either glance off or not bite that deeply. You might also want to make the acquaintance of any local bladesmiths in your town to see about sharpening your implement if/when it gets notched during practice.
Using the machete for its intended purpose is also a good idea: try walking through some of that tall thatch grass and figure out a cutting rhythm such that you can walk at normal speed while also cutting. Good workout for your arms, assuming you switch hands to promote ambidextrous handling of the blade.
Anyway, congrats on all the gifts, have fun distributing candy (hope it doesn’t all melt in the heat!), and happy slicing, you madman!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 23/December/2019 @ 5:04 pm
Great tree photo. You have an eye for beauty. (When it comes to trees, anyway. Heh.)
I’ll have to try lechon at some point. I’ve seen YouTube videos about it. Looks amazing.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 22/December/2019 @ 5:57 pm
Brownies look great. Congrats on the win, and on being teamed up with the guy who’s normally your rival. Must be nice to feel like an unstoppable force.
The big, golden Chinese character on the red envelope is pronounced “bok” in Korean. It can mean either happiness or good fortune. When Koreans say, “Saehae bok mani badeuseyo” on New Year’s Day, that’s the same “bok”: may you receive much happiness in the new year. I’m sure that, thanks to your gifts, many of the girls will indeed receive much happiness.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 21/December/2019 @ 6:40 pm
Oh, yeah: a Scottie is a terrier, but Scotty is the engineer of the starship Enterprise.
You might say, “What’s the dang difference? Doggy, doggie, Scottie, Scotty—it’s all the same!” Star Trek actually answered this question—the issue of respecting people’s names—years ago.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 20/December/2019 @ 11:16 pm
Good luck finding someone who’s actually worthwhile.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 20/December/2019 @ 5:31 pm
Progress, indeed.
On to a more substantive comment about the essay:
Definitely written by someone who has learned to write prose through journalism. The prose is tight and spare, and the imagery is evocative through the conservative use of well-chosen words. It’s got a nice flow to it, and the man’s sense of humor and his self-deprecation both shine through. Very artful. One thing the guy says can easily apply to me and my blogging life:
“Educating yourself in public is painful, but the lessons stick.”
The blog is where I let the world see what happens as I learn new things and repeatedly fuck up. Educating yourself in public is indeed painful. Every time I post pics of a culinary failure, for example, I feel this wisdom deeply. Words to live by.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 19/December/2019 @ 10:50 pm
From the article:
“Susan Sontag observed that when you have a disease people identify you with it.”
So, I see the guy has the same hatred of commas that you do. And the editors of The New Yorker were asleep at the wheel as well!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 19/December/2019 @ 10:00 pm
“Almaranus” sounds like the scientific name for the pain you experience when you fall on your bottom. A real pain in the ass.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 18/December/2019 @ 7:26 pm
The thing not reported in this post is the condition of your eye, so I’m assuming the condition is much improved. That’s usually how it goes when I apply my drops and ointment: everything clears up almost completely by the following day.
Looks to have been a good trail. Too bad about the rice-paddy thing, but you can’t shoot angry farmers. (Or can you…?)
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 18/December/2019 @ 4:54 pm
May the gods delight in your recovery, Mr. Egg Man. (Didn’t you use to go by “Walrus” because of your mustache? You’re running backwards through the gamut of that surreal Beatles song, aren’t you…)
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 17/December/2019 @ 10:10 pm
Roast beef lookin’ good! Your eye… not so much. With all those little blisters, I wonder whether it’s some kind of infection. Gentle washing with soap and water about once every 2 hours will do you some good, and swabbing the skin (not the eye itself!) with rubbing alcohol might also be helpful.
I get occasional eye infections, and I suspect they’re from not washing my pillowcases often enough, so I’ve started washing them much more often (twice a month as opposed to, oh, once a year!), along with my bed linens.
If there’s a chance that this is an infection, and that it might’ve come from your dogs’ tongues, you might want to explore that angle, too. Dogs mean well, but they’re sometimes carriers of pathogens that are harmless for canines but bad news for humans.
Whatever happens, the best solution will be whatever meds the docs prescribe you. Hang in there! Thanks to my previous eye infections, I have a dropper of antibiotics as well as a medical ointment that I can apply painlessly to my eye. They work like a charm.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 16/December/2019 @ 3:39 pm
Just trolled your archives for Sohee references. She’s the one married to Matt, yes? Morbid question: was she still married when she took her own life?
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 15/December/2019 @ 6:01 pm
My condolences, both to you and to Sohee’s friends and family.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 15/December/2019 @ 5:21 pm
You’re a follower of Instapundit, so you know that Yglesias gets a non-stop ribbing there, where he is mockingly referred to as a “notorious robophobe” and is otherwise not taken seriously.
Good luck with the changes to your house. Question: if you were to get burgled a third time, would you…
• consider moving, say, to a gated community?
• finally tell your landlord that the security guards suck?
• buy a bigger, more aggressive dog?
• just consider this the “new normal”?
• leave the PI for greener, more peaceful pastures?Have you done any research on crime stats in the PI, specifically in your region? I’ve gotten so curious about this question that I might engage in such research!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 14/December/2019 @ 6:16 pm
Sounds as if you have a pub-crawl route similar to The Golden Mile from “The World’s End.”
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 13/December/2019 @ 8:19 pm
Here’s to many more years of stellar blogging! Happy 15th!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 12/December/2019 @ 3:57 pm
Here’s hoping for a sealed fate.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 12/December/2019 @ 1:28 pm
Yeah, I was wondering, last time, why the CCTV system was being installed inside and not outside the domicile.
You’ve got motion-sensor floodlights for the outside, right?
Were the dogs barking?
Anyway, sorry to hear this happened again. I’d be pissed enough to tell the landlord, anyway. Why retain poor security?
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 12/December/2019 @ 12:30 pm
Sittin’ on the dock of the bay
“Well, it wasn’t a dock but it was docked. The Arizona floating bar that is. Made my first visit of the season last night and it was a pleasant experience.”
Plug in the three missing commas!
Great-looking pork chops. Hope they were as tasty as they looked.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 11/December/2019 @ 5:41 pm
The needle and the damage done…
Impressive photos, as always. Looks to have been a good walk! Sorry to hear about the injection regime, but ya’ gotta do what ya’ gotta do.
Maybe instead of threatening to kill the dog, just carry a huge can of bear spray to blast the fucker next time. Bear spray has capsaicin in it.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 10/December/2019 @ 6:49 pm
«« Back To Stats PageSorry—I meant “tell the man” and “HIS dog.”
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 09/December/2019 @ 6:51 pm