Comments Posted By Kevin Kim
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True, I am guilty of “loaning” money, but I have an ulterior motive. By calling it a loan instead of a gift, I can deny future requests by saying, “You still haven’t paid me back from last time.”
If that’s the rationalization, then OK, I guess. Just remember Rule #1.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 19/July/2025 @ 11:59 am
I requested that a new card be mailed to a friend’s FPO address (retired military personnel can use a US address via the embassy), but I’m not sure they’ll send it to a name other than mine.
They didn’t tell you when you talked to them?
And my namesake died five years younger.
If that’s a recent photo, he looks to be in his 30s.
I had the filet mignon (gravy on the side) again. Damn, it seems even smaller than last time. Still, it was cooked to perfection and satisfying.
It’s an obnoxious thing to do, but take a kitchen scale with you and note the numbers over time. This could be shrinkflation.
Swan also enjoyed her chicken cordon bleu dinner.
With those marks in/on the mashed potatoes, I’m reminded of cut mangoes.
(yeah, lesbians)
If they’re hot, it doesn’t matter.
I was mostly “kinda dumb.”
I see that “loaning money” is in the “danger” category, though. You’ve done that more than once. And “investments and businesses” is also up there in the “danger” category which, frankly, is more your speed. But I know you like to rationalize.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 18/July/2025 @ 4:13 pm
I’ll just have to psyche up for 30+K
Psych, no “e.” Psyche is pronounced “SIGH-kee” in US English.
I’m thinking 10K interludes with a rest break in between.
If the rest breaks are in between, then those are the interludes (hence “inter,” between… and for what it’s worth, the Latin ludus means “play”; think “ludicrous,” i.e., laughably ridiculous). So: 10K segments with resting/restful interludes.
Don’t grab that Jeepney! Commit! I kid. If I’m feeling pooped during what’s normally an easy walk, I tend to give up, too. It doesn’t happen often, but every once in a while (maybe 2 or 3 times thus far since 2017), I’ll have an off day.
I’ve always been an [eat-and-then-walk] kinda guy. Never been a problem for me.
In more ways than one, your biology makes no damn sense.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 18/July/2025 @ 3:44 pm
I had pancakes and Swan some Filipino delicacy. Both were good. Then we headed out for a morning walk.
You’ve been in Asia too long if you’re eating and then walking right afterward. I can’t do that. Gotta rest and digest first.
Strolling down the beach road.
She reminds me of my buddy JW, essentially strolling by herself. JW used to zoom ahead and walk alone, hesitating only when he got to intersections; it was enough to make me wonder why he even bothered to call me to go on a walk together. We never walked together.
The remnants of a dream.
When I did this a few months ago, it was 29K. Yesterday’s measurement was 32 kilometers. So, my future walk just got longer.
What changed the measurements? 32K is close to the 33K I do when walking from Yangpyeong to Yeoju. That’s mostly flat ground except for one big hill about an hour into the walk.
All these years later, I’ve been ghosted. Love is not always reciprocated.
I’m sure he still loves you, even if he won’t admit it, but maybe he’s turned off by the rampant, May-September perviness constantly going on in the Philippines. I still find it off-putting. But hey, I get it—if it’s a choice between chasing young pussy or rotting away in a piss-smelling old-folks’ home…
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 17/July/2025 @ 6:14 pm
Gary,
Is the first world even the first world? Parts of US cities (LA, San Fran, Seattle) are covered in human feces and drug needles; tent cities abound as if this were Somalia (parts of Minnesota are turning into Somalia! thank you, Ilhan Omar and her voters); hillbilly country has run-down buildings, busted vehicles, and pregnant teens; the inner cities are overflowing with crack babies and gang violence and uneducated idiots. Europe these days is growing arguably worse than the US: Paris and Stockholm have no-go zones where the police fear to tread. Stockholm has grenade and bomb attacks thanks to the importation of unassimilating minorities. So by current US/European standards, hey, Korea is the first world! It hasn’t been a backwater for decades, and its problems can be found in other “modern” countries, including “barbaric shouting.”
I mean, I get your point: I agree South Korea’s got a littering problem, and Seoul’s drains do still stink in the summer. Where I live, though (old, beaten-up Gangnam, not glassy, sparkling Gangnam), despite being in an old building, I’ve never had a problem with frozen pipes or undrinkable tap water. And I doubt my place is unique.
Back in the States, I was giving a talk about Korea in a church, and one nice, old lady raised her hand and asked, “Does Korea have running water?” Ignorance abounds. Well, there might be some spots in Korea that lack running water, but there are probably some spots in Appalachia that are in the same boat.
That said, yeah, I find plenty to complain about. Even as Korea has modernized, it does still stubbornly retain something of an old-world, resentful, postcolonial mentality. First, there’s the lingering racism. I’ve also complained about how difficult it seems to be for Korean civil engineers and architects to build roads with proper drainage, smooth and even sidewalks, and stair steps that are all the same size. Korean driving doesn’t strike me as first-world; then again, if you’ve ever seen traffic in central Paris or downtown Rome, you’ve seen worse. So what counts as “first world”? No “first world” country is without its shithole spots. Paris has stank-ass drains, too. I’m not sure I could even come up with a list of countries that I’d call “second world.” As far as I know, that term was applied mostly to Soviet-bloc Eastern Europe back in the day.
Just my two cents.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 16/July/2025 @ 10:29 pm
That 29K route seems to be an inland path, away from watercourses or large bodies of water. Parts of the Four Rivers path are like that, especially the Saejae portion, but for me, the nicest walks are always alongside water. But maybe you don’t share my bias, and you prefer inland paths. What’s the terrain like along that plotted route? How hilly or flat is it? How hazardous is it in terms of traffic and carabao? Is the route drivable (so that you can get a preview of it before you hike it)?
Enjoy your time away from home while third-world realities intrude on your comfort. Those routine outages would drive me crazy. I am a creature of the first world.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 16/July/2025 @ 3:13 pm
The birthday boy kind of reminds me of my late friend Kent.
Looks to have been a nice welcome-back walk for you.
Sorry to hear about Tom the unfriend.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 15/July/2025 @ 10:57 pm
Welcome back.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 14/July/2025 @ 2:38 pm
Almost no one on that train and very little traffic on the roads… Hong Kong seemed a bit eerie. I hope you enjoyed being imprinted multiple times in the CCP database. And now—back to the familiar. Barretto awaits.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 14/July/2025 @ 12:58 am
purported to be the Bahn Mi capital of Vietnam
Banh mi: the “h” comes last. “Bahn” (road/path/route) is German, as in “Autobahn.”
Enjoy a final glimpse of Hong Kong before you head back to the PI. Try not to get involved in any kung-fu fighting.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 13/July/2025 @ 2:04 pm
Another place to check out if I ever make it back.
Your attraction to “wretched hives of scum and villainy” remains as strong as ever. One can at least admire your consistency.
The menu selections were mostly limited to steak items.
From what I see, it’s about 26,000 dong to the US dollar. What unit are those menu prices in? Thousands of dong?
I had my first Tiger beer on this trip.
And how was it? Would you have it again? Why or why not?
Man, it’s been a long time since I’ve enjoyed a lobster tail!
Looks to have been more than a tail.
Heading up river.
Spot the error!
Looks to have been a nice final night. Enjoy what I assume will be your last day, followed by your flight back to the PI.
All in all, maybe because of the Buddhism angle, this was one of your more interesting trips abroad. Da Nang looks like a place to keep exploring. Maybe next time, when you get a banh mi, go with Google AI’s suggestions so you don’t end up with an inferior product. Selecting a place randomly can be a crap shoot.
Safe trip home.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 13/July/2025 @ 3:17 am
That Argentinian steak looked good.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 12/July/2025 @ 1:04 am
Should I stay or should I go?
Did you recognize the twelve animals of the Chinese Zodiac there (stone “railing”)?
Going back down was even scarier than the climb.
Good job. I would’ve needed my trekking pole.
I can’t read what it says, and I’m too lazy to do a Google translate
On your phone, the Translate app has a “camera” button. Hit the button, point the camera at the text, and the translation will appear right over it. I just now copied the image and fed it through the “image” setting on my iMac desktop’s Google Translate, and the text says: “HERE IN AUGUST 1968, THE QUANG DA 44 FRONT COMMAND ESTABLISHED A FORWARD SURGERY STATION (FIELD STATION) TO SERVE THE 1ST BATTALION (R20) OF THE 3RD HOA VANG ARMY REGION AND THE 3RD DA NANG ARMY, CONTRIBUTING TO THE VICTORY OF THE AUTUMN 1968 CAMPAIGN (CODE NAME X2) ON THE QUANG DA BATTLEFIELD.”
Beats me.
Definitely Buddhist-flavored, but the six-spoke wheel is odd. Normally, the symbol is an eight-spoked wheel, representing the Buddha’s Fourth Noble Truth, a.k.a. the Eightfold Path—the practice that leads you toward liberation/bliss/fulfillment/extinction (nirvana, “blowing out”—like a candle flame): right views, right intentions, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration. You’ll have to ask someone what the six-spoked wheel means. There’s also the huge lotus flowerpot, the wooden box for offerings/donations (you see a lot of those in Korea), and the dragons guarding the figure sitting in front of the spoked wheel. I don’t think that’s the Buddha, who is never depicted wearing headgear. Maybe a bodhisattva? Maybe some divinity (possibly non-Buddhist…?)? Anyway, he’s sitting on a lotus flower, too. The LED lighting on the wheel is tacky yet apropos for a tourist site.
Still impressive, even without a clue.
Those don’t look Buddhist at all. Celestial deities from Chinese religion…? Was this some kind of multipurpose, multi-religion space?
Okay, that’s a little creepy.
Reminds me of a Korean temple guardian—maybe one of the Four Heavenly Kings (사천왕/sa cheon wang). The statue looks as if it had held a weapon or staff or torch once. Who knows where that went? If the face looks demonic, that reinforces the idea that this is some kind of guardian or protector—a tutelary divinity.
What the hell?
Yes, indeed: these are visions of hell. In Buddhism, hell isn’t a permanent state, and neither is heaven. In hell, you burn off your bad karma and then perhaps are reborn into this earthly realm; in heaven, there’s a risk that you’ll enjoy the celestial delights so much that you’ll end up boomeranging down into hell to pay for your laziness. In Indian religions, the goal isn’t heaven: it’s to get off the wheel of samsara completely. Heaven and hell are just part of the wheel. Samsara is the painful wheel of existence: sure, it’s that “do-over life” you keep insisting on, but you don’t benefit from the accrued wisdom of previous lives. That said, the karma from previous lives determines what your status will be in the next life. And so it goes, over and over and over, and if you don’t make the effort to learn the lessons you ought to learn, it’s like stupidly banging your head against a stone wall. The only time you’re wasting is your own. That’s why you can’t wait passively for a do-over life: you have to work out your salvation with diligence in this life.
So people who say that Buddhism promotes a nothing-matters nihilism really don’t understand the Buddhist message. The Buddhist message isn’t, “If you fuck up this time, it’s OK because there’s always next time,” it’s more like Groundhog Day: “If you keep fucking up, you’re gonna remain trapped here until you fucking learn. And if you never learn, well, you’re here for all time, imprisoned by your own stupidity (avidya, blindness/ignorance).” There’s no angry God judging and punishing you: you’re punishing yourself. That’s one reason why Buddhism says the present moment is so precious. Now is the time to live life right and work toward salvation.
Okay, I’ve seen enough!
I wonder if that image is of the Four Passing Sights. The story goes that, when Siddhartha was a young prince, his father the king shielded him from the harsh truths of the world, but Siddhartha contrived to escape from the castle compound several times, and he saw four things: an old man, a sick man, a dead man (funeral cortege), and a serene Hindu monk. He came to understand that old age, sickness, and death are part of the human condition, but the monk’s serenity pointed him to the idea that maybe there was a way to face these harsh realities and still experience bliss, and this is what started Siddhartha on his path to bodhi (awakening), to becoming the Buddha (the Awakened One). He first fell in with some hardcore ascetics, practicing so hard that “I put my hand on my stomach and could feel my spine.” But he found no fulfillment in this extremity. He became a pleasure-seeking hedonist (but not fat like Podae!), yet he still found no fulfillment. He then sat down to meditate under what is now called “the bodhi tree” and kept at it until he reached enlightenment. The Devil (Mara) came to tempt, distract, and scare him (as did the Devil’s sexily satanic daughters), but Siddhartha remained focused. Upon his enlightenment, he touched the earth, calling it to witness his attainment, and the earth rumbled, scaring the Devil away.
You see a lot of statues showing the Buddha with one hand touching the earth, symbolizing the moment of his enlightenment (example).
That’s more than you wanted to know, but if you internalize this comment and the previous one, you’ll have learned a lot more about Buddhism than many Westerners.
Along the way, Tom wanted us to see a place called the Coconut Forest.
I think the English name for that kind of round boat is “coracle.”
It turns out that Hoi An is famous for its Banh Mi sandwiches. We weren’t hungry yet, though.
Excuses, excuses.
So, she won either an Apple iPhone, seven nights’ accommodation at a Karma hotel, or six million dong ($250).
Well, what self-respecting woman wouldn’t want six million dong? (It’s probably pronounced more like “nong.”)
I smelled a rat and said, Never mind. We’ll go. The rep apologized and gave us a 500,000 dong voucher ($19) for a local Da Nang restaurant.
Well, you know, you’re tourists. Therefore suckers in their eyes. Same everywhere.
Missteak (another weird name for an eatery)
They really need to work on their branding strategy if they’re aiming for Westerners. Dirty Fingers? Poison Coffee? Missteak?
I’d never seen plants growing on the side of a high rise before.
That looks pretty awesome.
I hope the rest of the day has turned out well. I’m glad you had a banh mi, but I think this is my first time hearing that you’d had one before in Saigon. Did I miss your first banh mi experience? Was it something I glossed over in my senility? Something I’d forgotten? Ah—a blog search reveals you had your banh mi in 2019. Back then, you were spelling it “BAHN-mi,” not “BANH-mi.” The “H” comes last. And yes: I saw, in that post, the Vietnamese sign that also misspelled the term as “bahn.” That don’t make it right, hoss.
Well, happy vacationing. Already Day 5!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 11/July/2025 @ 4:21 pm
Who knows where the time goes?
Well, as long as Swan understood you were being facetious, there’s no problem. Otherwise… it’s a good thing she doesn’t read your blog. But that could change at any moment.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 10/July/2025 @ 11:16 pm
I wrote:
Damn—blossoms that late in year, eh?
I see I didn’t correct everything. Nuts.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 10/July/2025 @ 5:33 am
[Attempt #2 after correcting a typo. Dammit.]
A huge buffett
So that’s “buffett” as in “Jimmy Buffett” and not “buffet” as in, well, buffet.
From our perch, I put the camera on zoom mode and grabbed a shot of Lady Buddha.
While most of Southeast Asia practices Theravada Buddhism (the older form), Vietnam is largely Mahayana (such as is found in China, Korea, and Japan). I’m guessing that “Lady Buddha” may be a local version of what Koreans would call “관세음보살/Gwanseum-bosal,” or the bodhisattva of compassion.
[Ah—my guess is right. Google AI says the Lady Buddha is, in fact, Quan Âm, the Buddhist bodhisattva of compassion.]
Shortened to “Gwaneum” in Korea, “Kwanyin” in China, and “Kannon” in Japan, this bodhisattva underwent an evolution from the male Avalokiteshvara in India (“-ishvara” means “lord” in Sanskrit) to the female Kwanyin in China. Kwanyin was already a preexistent Chinese goddess of compassion who got appropriated by the Buddhists when they came to China from India; Avalokiteshvara got mapped onto Kwanyin, thus becoming female while Kwanyin herself transitioned from being a Chinese goddess of compassion to being a Buddhist bodhisattva of compassion, thus switching cosmologies. As an old religion prof of mine used to say, “It’s all syncretism”—something to remember when you hear the huffy PC crowd getting upset over “cultural appropriation.” Cultural appropriation has been happening since forever. It’s very human.
As we neared the temple, we saw these critters monkeying around.
Did any of the monkeys run over and steal food, jewelry, or other items?
I know next to nothing about the Buddhist religion, but I could appreciate the artwork involved.
That looks like a famous monk, or a Buddhist saint (bodhisattva), holding a vajra (thunderbolt/enlightenment) staff, standing on a lotus-leaf pedestal, with cosmic dragons swimming through the air/water/ether beneath him.
Buddhism can be approached from many angles. Some people become very familiar with the religion’s philosophy and metaphysical principles and concepts; some come to appreciate the variegated cosmology (with its heavens, hells, apsaras, nagas, dragons, demons, etc.); some focus more on Buddhist art; some focus on ritual and ceremony; others study Buddhism as it relates to politics and history. I’m probably most comfortable with philosophy and metaphysics. I know some of the major symbols and motifs in Mahayana Buddhism, but I don’t know much about things like ritual/ceremony, art, or history/politics. I can take an educated guess about one thing, though: for Vietnam to be mostly Mahayana, the country must’ve had a huge Chinese influence (the rest of SE Asia is Theravada, much more Indian-inflected)—and, in fact, the Vietnamese language, like Korean and Japanese, contains a lot of words with Chinese roots. So there’s a possible history-linguistics-religion connection.
You could ask Google AI or ChatGPT to give you easily digestible, 200-word summaries of Buddhism in Vietnam: history, culture, art, symbols, rituals, tenets, Chinese influence, etc. Read one summary per day. That’s just 30 seconds of work per day. I’m pretty sure you won’t do that, though: you’d rather hang out in bars and belch the day away. Only a nerd like me would thrill at the idea of reading 200-word summaries about one aspect of local existence to gain a slightly deeper understanding of where I am.
Many structures like this one were scattered throughout the massive temple grounds.
You can see the “curlicued” nature of the temple’s roof’s corners—much more of a SE Asian motif than East Asian. That building appears to be some kind of dharma hall. If you see one like that next time, and you have a guide with you, ask whether a space like that is more for monks or laypeople or both.
Buddha brings the faithful to their knees.
Great photo. And wow, that’s a very different temple interior than what you’d see in Korea or Japan: the tiled floor, the strange rows of tall tables (I bet they’re laden with plates of food during ceremonies), etc. You see, at the front, that there’s the large, seated Buddha and a much smaller, reclining Buddha. The reclining pose is a standard Buddha pose representing the moment of the Buddha’s death from food poisoning. He was 80 when he died. Supposedly, his last words were, “Work out your salvation with diligence!” In other words, don’t wait for a do-over life. The next life will be shit if this life was shit.
Out of respect, Swan was asked to wear this wraparound skirt to cover her legs while inside the temple.
The fat “Buddha” is called 포대스님/Podae-sunim in Korean (I think it’s “Butai” in Chinese, “”Phật Di Lặc”” or “Buda” in Vietnamese). An American friend of mine has always called him Happy Charlie. Happy Charlie is not the earthly Buddha himself, but a saint representing good fortune, prosperity, etc.; the original Siddhartha Gautama Şakyamuni spent five years as an extreme ascetic before attaining enlightenment, and he was skinny his entire life (see the sculptures of the Starving Buddha). So all that nonsense about “rubbing the Buddha’s belly” applies to Podae, not to Şakyamuni. Podae might be considered a “buddha” (lower-case “B”) in Mahayana thinking (as we all are), but he’s not the Buddha.
Yet another fancy building.
That almost looks like the main dharma hall. Based on your earlier photos, I’m guessing this place was the Linh Ung Pagoda, site of the biggest Buddhist temple in Da Nang. Definitely impressive.
It seems God was keeping an eye on things.
Very nice of the Judeo-Christian God to watch over the Buddhists. But I guess he’s the God of all people, although Jesus famously noted that he’s God of the living, not the dead (Matt. 22:32, Mk. 12:27, Lk. 20:38).
The portal awaits
That’s an ambitious-looking structure. Korean temples usually have what’s called an “ilju-mun/일주문” (one-pillar gate) out front. You see a lot of them on my various walk blogs. Korean ilju-mun look a lot like a top-heavy version of a Japanese Shinto torii. This gate in your photo looks very SE Asian. I’m freaked out by the Roman letters of the Vietnamese alphabet on there. Seeing Latin on cathedrals in France is one thing; seeing Roman letters on Buddhist structures is another. Weird. David Lynchian.
Da Nang in the distance.
I’m thinking of Robin Williams singing, “Da Nang me… Da Nang me… went out to get a rope and hang meeeee…”
Who is that looking at my ass?
The bodhisattva of compassion (see above), staring with sympathy.
“Yes, ma’am. Whatever you say, ma’am. No offense intended.”
Given how much you love beer, I’m surprised you didn’t remark on the bottle she’s holding. Ambrosia, or the nectar of everlasting life. Definitely Mahayana, evolving away from core/original Buddhist notions of impermanence.
Whaddya mean[,] he looks like me?
Maybe your new nickname should be “Podae John,” and people should rub your belly. Actually, “Podae John” sounds like a good name for a new type of sandwich. It should be a big, fat, expensive one. And for the Buddhists, there should be a vegetarian version… although I bet Vietnamese Buddhists, like most Korean lay Buddhists, eat meat without worry. Of course, violators of religious precepts are nothing new: plenty of Jews eat pepperoni pizza; plenty of Muslims (e.g., in Qatar) are heavy drinkers who like bacon, etc.
Are you a cherry girl?
Damn—blossoms that late in year, eh?
I guess even statues get tired.
Well, now you know that that’s representing the Buddha’s death.
That’s a bridge too far, Swan, come back!
And that path leads to the Vietnamese version of a shwimteo. Nice.
I’d visited several temples in Korea with my Buddhist wife, but they didn’t resonate with me the way this one did.
Call me biased, but I prefer the Korean temples.
This really is my kind of place. I’m sure I’d hang out here and drink beer regularly if I was a resident.
Yup—it’s the bubble of Americana. And once sucked in, you’d never look at another temple ever again. Well, to each his own, I guess.
While we waited for the food, the owner of Dirty Fingers came by our table to introduce himself. Scott is an American who hails from Louisiana originally.
What are the rules about owning businesses in Vietnam? Can expats truly own them, or do they need a Vietnamese partner?
As we finished our meal, Steve complimented my “Drunken Grownups” t-shirt, saying it had taken him a while to catch the Dunkin’ Donuts reference.
He sounds immersed in Viet culture. How much Vietnamese does Steve speak?
Well, so far, this is looking to be a nice trip, even if it is to an authoritarian regime. Have fun in Hoi An. I look forward to the photos. You don’t feel spied on, do you?
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 09/July/2025 @ 11:14 pm
Oh, yeah—on the food front: be sure to get yourself a proper banh mi while you’re in Da Nang. Google AI has this to say:
For a “real” banh mi experience in Da Nang, focus on places that use traditional ingredients and techniques. Some highly recommended spots include Banh Mi Ba Lan, known for its traditional flavors, and Banh Mi Phuong, which has gained fame for its crispy baguette and generous fillings. Banh Mi Co Tien is also praised for its crispy mini baguette and delicious fillings. Other options with unique twists include Banh Mi Sala with mackerel scad and Banh Mi Chi Lanh with roasted pork.
Happy eating! Not just banh mi, either: there’s also pho, and quite a few dishes that look like variations of Filipino food—noodles, spring rolls, etc.
(Remember back to my attempt at a banh mi?)
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 08/July/2025 @ 8:01 pm
How much research did you do about Da Nang before you went there? On one hand, it’s cool to go somewhere with little to no plan and make a lot of new discoveries; on the other hand, you don’t want to end up on the butt end of an unwelcome (and preventable) surprise.
Just for the record, I will sample the local delicacies soon.
Fingers crossed that you won’t be the American who goes to foreign locales only to hunt down the American stuff. That’s what Koreans do when they travel: head right to the local Koreatown. What’s the point of international travel if you only want to surround yourself with a bubble of your own culture? I remember flying to France for the first time in ’86 with a planeful of other American exchange students, most of whom were drowning out the world with their damn Walkman headphones.
re: those Vietnamese beaches
They looked crowded, yes, but paradoxically cleaner than in the PI. Then again, these were just first-impression photos, so we might see some litter later on.
The pulled-pork sandwich did look good, though. Better than that meager burger: I could barely see any meat! Foreign food’s expensive, I assume. Or is it?
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 08/July/2025 @ 6:16 pm
Having a fun while you’re abroad! Just make sure you’re a guy when you come back.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 07/July/2025 @ 8:40 pm
Oh, no! I’m an anti-AI racist!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 30/June/2025 @ 1:23 am
We headed home from there, and Swan was looking forward to a helping of leftover beer stew when we got there.
A Freudian slip if ever there was one.
Today’s YouTube video is from a vlogger I’ve never watched previously. She does a great job laying out the reasons the Philippines remains a poor country.
I wonder if she’s an AI construct. Watch the video at 2X or 2.5X speed, and you’ll notice some strangeness: a bland, mild tone; an AI-like, constant rhythm of speech; an interesting choice of words (“moral turpitude”); a spooky ability to remain in the same posture for the entire video; no real change in expression when the video concludes. All of these things point to AI. I went to YouTube and checked out “her” “replies” to commenters, and those turned out to be equally bland. I don’t know… she might be human, but I’m leaning more toward AI. (I just watched another of “her” videos about Jeepneys. She’s/It’s in the same neutral posture, with the same background. Color me suspicious.)
A short-order cook?
Standing blowjob.
Keep on keepin’ on.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 29/June/2025 @ 5:30 pm
Well, YouTube has a brace of videos for people in your “old dog” situation. The central lesson of each video is: don’t give up, and don’t think old age equals decline. If you continue on the path of marinating your brain cells in alcohol and never do anything new or original, you might make it to 85, but ironically, you’ll never know it because you’ll have smoothed out your brain through drink and inactivity. My French Papa is closing in on 90, and despite being legally blind, he’s still puttering around his property, doing handyman work. He told me once that he didn’t feel he’d started to slow down until he reached 70. I remember him when I met him in 1986, almost forty years earlier: he was impulsive, hot-tempered (never to me, but he often got mad about job-related matters), driven (he was a clothing-company CEO along with his wife), a lover of history, and always on the move. Habits and behaviors like that are partially a function of personality and partially a function of self-discipline, but it’s never too late to start! Or so I’ve heard. We all give ourselves excuses to justify whatever rut we’re in. I’m as guilty as the next man of doing that. But there’s nothing inevitable about whatever situation we’re in—not until the very end.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 29/June/2025 @ 3:34 pm
Cheers! Got you this time, Chris.
I see you in the pic, so who actually took it? Or was it on a timer?
You can keep your mind sharp through learning music (piano, guitar), which is a whole-brain activity, and by engaging in all sorts of puzzles and puzzle-like activities, e.g., crosswords, math problems, etc.—things that require memory, attentive focus, and logical thinking. Incuriosity, short attention span, and constant routine are the quick route to rotting the brain. Look for new experiences—even something as simple as eating duck—and maybe get back into creative writing. Because “the mind is a terrible thing, and it must be stopped in our lifetime before it kills somebody.” (Watch to the end. This was a classic back in the day. Couldn’t be done today.)
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 28/June/2025 @ 6:09 pm
Kalaklan virgin Jeff and his wife, Davina
You know, you seem to be surrounded by happily married guys in stable relationships. You’ve got a great thing going with Swan, about whom you never complain, so why not pull the trigger, divorce your Korean wife, and marry Swan? Do you think marriage would ruin what you already have with her (shades of Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn, who’ve been a committed couple for decades without marrying because, in their view, marriage would “ruin” their relationship… damn hippies)? Is there something else going on?
Nice views of the hike.
but I feel safer in most aspects of my life here than I would living in the good ol’ USA.
I imagine that that depends on where in the USA you are.
All I know is that everything you know is wrong.
“You know nothing, Jon Snow.” The beginning of wisdom: the lady’s always right. Unless she’s a superficial airhead who’s made a series of bad life choices and is still superficial and airheaded.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 27/June/2025 @ 4:23 pm
And you ain’t never takin’ yer dawgs on one of these walks? I bet they could do 7K easily.
That’s a Malibu chicken burger topped with ham and bacon.
I see the lettuce, tomatoes, and onions for the sandwich. Did you also pile on the slaw? That would’ve rocked. Drippy, messy goodness.
Looking forward to your next AI visit.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 27/June/2025 @ 1:10 am
What are the stores that reliably stock the items you want, preferably for a fair price? I used to have to go all over the place to find various non-Korean items since none of the local stores consistently stock everything I want; these days, though, I consolidate my shopping by using the Coupang delivery service, and I rarely shop anywhere other than my building’s basement grocery or, possibly, the Shinsegae Food Market three subway stops down. I rarely go to Costco these days because the taxi fare isn’t worth it… which reminds me, I need to renew my rarely used Costco membership this month. It expires at the end of June. (I’ve renewed after June before: they simply tell me the validity period that I’m renewing for remains the same, i.e., from June to June.)
Quality cheese slices from Kraft have newly arrived. I’m no cheap Charlie, but damn, even if I can afford it, I’m not paying almost a dollar per slice.
Yeah, I just Googled the average price of 16 slices of Kraft America Singles in the States, and it’s anywhere from $2.50 to a bit over $5. 8 ounces of shredded cheese is in the $3-4 range. Yikes. The moral lesson: local food is undoubtedly cheaper.
What the duck? I don’t even eat that bird, but if I did, I’d have to be daffy to pay fifty dollars for one.
I checked prices for duck, too, and in the States, whole duck varies wildly depending on quality, from a little over $5 per whole duck to $80 for a whole halal duck. Median price seems to be around $30.
Smoked duck is a great substitute for bacon; in Korea, it’s also fairly cheap and sold in pre-sliced packages, making prep easy. I’ve made tons of duck “B”LTs. It’s a lovely fatty meat; duck breast, when cooked right, is to die for. But you live in the land of lechon, so I imagine that pork products are cheaper and more readily available.
…before moving on to Nipsey’s. I raved about this place during our previous visit, but those great vibes we enjoyed then were not evident last night. For one thing, they didn’t have red wine available for Swan. And the music being played wasn’t to my liking either. Needless to say, we didn’t stay long.
So you learned something about Nipsey’s consistency. Sorry to hear that things had gone downhill. The truest things prove to be true only over time, whether we’re talking about a person’s character or a bar-restaurant’s quality.
A bowl of vanilla ice cream with crumbled Orea cookie topping was a sweet ending to the day.
I think this is the second time I’ve seen “Orea.” Sounds like a bodily byproduct.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 25/June/2025 @ 7:43 pm
It is, however, available on Apple TV (where I got it) and on Amazon Prime, where it’s “free” (if you have a Prime membership).
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 26/June/2025 @ 5:08 pm
Good God, Paul… so you’ve disagreed with every single one of my reviews up to now????
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 26/June/2025 @ 4:19 am
Psych is another one of those USA Network series straddling the 2000s and early 2010s, like White Collar and Burn Notice, that successfully ran for eight seasons. It was a comedy series very loosely based on the idea of Sherlock Holmes, with the main character being a talented-but-flaky genius, trained in observation and deduction by a strict policeman dad, who pretends to be psychic to help the Santa Barbara Police Department solve difficult cases. James Roday, the star, basically channels his inner Jim Carrey most of the time, and every episode of the show usually has me busting a gut at least once. It’s a reliably funny show. Dulé Hill, probably just as well known for his minor-character role on The West Wing, is front and center in the Watson role as the forever-unappreciated best friend Gus. Hill went from playing a serious character in a White House drama to playing a hilariously comic character who has to go toe-to-toe with James Roday’s manic energy—and he pulls it off, proving he’s got range and talent.
Anyway, I recall watching random episodes of Psych years ago, so I’m catching up on the entire series now. I’ll be writing a review once I’m done, but it’s a long- running show, so it’ll be a while before I finish the binge. Recommended.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 25/June/2025 @ 7:13 pm
«« Back To Stats PageI hope Swan enjoyed her birthday cake.
Got home and took off my wet shoes and socks. What’s up with this?
A preview of what you’d look like as a drowning victim.
Yeah, I got scammed a few times on those sites back when I lived in Korea. Probably the worst was sending a gal I’d been chatting with for almost a year $500 so she could buy a plane ticket to visit me in Seoul and never hearing from her again. Yeah, I was that stupid. But after that, my rule was never sending money to someone I’d not met in person, and any unmet gold digger begging for a “loan” was immediately blocked. Which is not to say I didn’t get scammed by Filipinas I met after moving here, but that’s another story.
Why does it take some guys so long to learn these basics? Inability to switch off the dick?
Smiling she replied, “That’s me before the operation.”
I’m binge-watching the hilarious USA Network series Psych. I was surprised at the amount of un-PC trans humor.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 24/June/2025 @ 9:14 pm