Comments Posted By Kevin Kim
Displaying 451 To 480 Of 4,392 Comments
Not a Nutella fan.
We can never be friends.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 02/June/2025 @ 4:43 pm
Unsurprisingly, there were not as many kids out and about as usual.
Damn, the ones who did show up were really dedicated. To sweets.
What’s a party without a batch of my brownies?
“My” brownies. There are things you can do to make the brownies uniquely yours—ingredients you can add to the batter to change flavor and consistency (chocolate chips, a little more butter, another egg, some condensed milk), things you can add to the top (frosting, sprinkles), etc. I see you’ve got the M&Ms going. That’s a start.
Oops, I didn’t get the message. They pulled the floating bar out of the bay that morning because of the waves and heavy rain.
Why didn’t you get the message? Out of the loop?
Anyway, it’s too bad you didn’t get one last floating-bar experience. But it’ll be back, so be of good cheer.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 01/June/2025 @ 7:54 pm
I hadn’t noticed that Costner look alike until you mentioned it. That’s Chris from the UK playing the part of that other Kevin.
That may just have been the angle.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 01/June/2025 @ 3:35 pm
It rained off and on all day yesterday and into this morning. Having something other than the heat to complain about for a change will be nice.
Is this the beginning of the monsoon season?
It was good to have Scott back with us for a portion of the journey.
Good to see Scott. Guy on the left (white tee shirt) looks like an old Kevin Costner. These days, Kevin Costner looks like an old Kevin Costner.
The unique beauty of the Matain River.
I have days where I want to go out and do nothing but pick up litter, place it in huge garbage bags, then let the garbage people take care of it.
When the hike was over, we were standing in front of the McDonald’s in Barretto. Swan and I agreed it was a good opportunity for a “cheat day,” so we went inside. They didn’t serve the lunch items until 10:30, and my watch said it was 10:28, so we waited. And right at 10:30, the menus on the ordering kiosk (yeah, you gotta do it that way) switched to the burger items, and I proceeded to punch in my selections. Then one of the employees approached and advised that we’d have to wait another fifteen minutes to order. Fuck that, your food ain’t THAT good, so we departed.
Yup—must be Asia. Nothing is ever straight from A to B. Then again, waiting fifteen minutes doesn’t seem that horrible to me.
I’m not the regular at CCs I used to be, but during my last visit just over a week ago, I bought the staff dinner from Foodies downstairs and plied them with the usual cookies and lollipops. Why would you call a customer like me stupid? Hmm, maybe I just answered my own question. Needless to say, I won’t be back. Who needs Cheap Charlies?
Ten to one you’ll be back. Alcohol forgives all. Aside: who knew that Swan’s rather particular tastes would result in so much inconvenience? Is it just that bars tend to focus on beers, not wine, so they don’t keep track of their wine stock? Or is it like in certain snooty Korean shops and restos, where it’s more important to be rude to the customer than to make money? To be fair, I don’t encounter such rudeness often; I’d say most of my experiences with eating out are just fine. But once in a while, there’ll be that one place that pisses me off, usually by placing snottiness above customer service.
And today’s YouTube video is about those damn foreigners who constantly complain about the Philippines. Yeah, I bitch here about the things I dislike the most, like litter, noise, and insane drivers. But what I don’t do is harangue the locals about it. If I did, they’d be right to tell me to go back to my own country if I don’t like it here.
I agree. I complain on my blog about a million little problems, but (1) I also never make a scene in public when things don’t go my way (although I’ve come close to shouting at some idiot taxi drivers… but that’s not exactly a public situation), and (2) I know that I’d be bitching and moaning about America if I lived there. There’s no country without flaws, no expat existence without its share of problems and bullshit. I do take time on my own blog to note that, in Korea, the good generally outweighs the bad, which is why I’ve been here as long as I have.
Good luck at the floating bar.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 31/May/2025 @ 9:19 pm
I’d never seen the tide this high before.
Action of the moon?
…if they ever did a sequel to “The Shining.”
It was called “Doctor Sleep,” both the 2020 movie and the novel.
March 2009, I answered the challenge to list ten things I liked about Korea. I still miss that life.
And you got a comment from leftie Roboseyo! Congrats.
Today’s YouTube video features a vlogger I’ve watched before talking about his purchase of an abandoned house in a Filipino neighborhood.
Where’s the video? Did I miss it somewhere?
Looks to have been a nice, if occasionally flooded, stroll. Congrats on the calorie burn.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 30/May/2025 @ 8:25 pm
Getting high at a topless place
We came to this fork in the road and took it. All the way to Naugsol.
Evoking Yogi Berra?
…Smart Girl Philippines, and she explains in her unique fashion why Filipinas reject feminism. Hard to argue with her logic.
“With just a little bit of jealousy thrown in.” I love how she’s underselling Filipina insanity. Everything else she says is gloriously un-PC. Nice.
Yeah, I posted that shit on Facebook back in the day.
I can imagine the agitated, bovine reactions from all of the 300-pound, tattooed, nose-ringed, purple-haired Western women.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 29/May/2025 @ 9:39 pm
Oho, nice try, but no. Replace “everyday” with “ordinary.”
I drink Zero! Ordinary.
Does that work? It does not. You’d have to say “Ordinarily,” which is an adverb, and of the two expressions, every day and everyday, “every day” is the adverbial expression, not “everyday.”
True, I can see an actor changing his line delivery to make the above work, but that’s really pushing it, and “ordinary” would no longer be faithful to your intended meaning.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 29/May/2025 @ 7:58 pm
everyday (one word) = normal, ordinary, average
every day (two words) = daily“Everyday” is an adjective: an everyday ritual, an everyday occurrence
“Every day” is an adverb of frequency: I brush my teeth every day. She does her morning workout every day.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 29/May/2025 @ 3:03 pm
re: the fall of DaKudos
I’ve never understood or liked that name but whatever. Sorry to hear about the pork chops. And about the drop in quality of everything else.
Tuesday’s report card: 13,533 steps, 10.41 kilometers, 3,345 calories burned.
Well, congratulations.
Oh well, maybe in the do-over I’m hoping for.
The do-over’s only worth it if you can keep the wisdom you’ve acquired in this life. Otherwise, it’s little different from Hindu reincarnation, where you can’t see and benefit from your past lives until you achieve enlightenment, which requires releasing yourself from your attachments and seeing the world truly. Metaphysics aside, if you could distill your life-wisdom into ten commandments, what would those commandments be? And whom would you pass them down to?
Eleven years ago, I shared a link to this post on Facebook (something I no longer do).
Is Facebook really worth the time? I haven’t been on since 2010, when Mom died.
The past is history, the future a mystery, and today is a gift. That’s why it’s called the present.
A famous saying that got codified in Kung Fu Panda.
re: Reekay video
The man speaks truth. So what person are you going to learn from?
I drink Zero! Everyday.
D’oh! So close to the end! Spot the error! And why is it an error?
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 28/May/2025 @ 9:09 pm
The amazing transformation of Joy in only three years!
Poorly, no doubt.
Strangely, I saw only one error. There might be more, but only one caught my eye.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 27/May/2025 @ 5:47 pm
That seemed like a different sort of walk, especially with the big bridge at the end. Sorry to read that the slopes got as steep as they did. Mexican food looked good.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 26/May/2025 @ 3:55 pm
I suppose we do, Paul. Like moths to a flame.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 26/May/2025 @ 9:45 pm
John,
Thanks for the comment. Alas, “heart-rendering” sounds like a model heart being rendered via a 3D printer. The verb to rend, however, means to rip or tear, so: “heart-rending.”
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 26/May/2025 @ 5:00 pm
Brian, I see what you’re saying, but if the transactional nature of the relationship is the focus (“What’s in it for me?”), this is little different from all of those ethical arguments that claim that all of our acts are ultimately selfish—a claim that gives all acts the same ultimate value, making it impossible to distinguish one act from another. That there are benefits arising from a good relationship is undeniable, but true solidity comes from the selfless giving that is necessary for the best relationships.
Personal example, which I trotted out when I gave a speech about love at my brother’s wedding (I officiated): when our mom was pretty far along with her brain cancer, I often wished for the Jesus-like ability to take her cancer into myself so that she could heal, and I could die instead of her. Had I somehow been able to acquire that ability, I would have gladly and unhesitatingly taken her place. A loving relationship has at its core an understanding of sacrificial commitment that mere transactional selfishness is inadequate to explain. Simply claiming that I derive benefits from the relationship fails to justify what makes it loving. If love is merely and fundamentally a trade, it’s not love. There has to be a sense that the two of you represent something bigger than either one of you alone.
The “everything is [quality X]” argument (e.g., “Everything is art”) fails because it makes makes quality X ultimately meaningless. Things are things only in contradistinction to other things. If everything is art and nothing is not-art, then the term “art” has no value as a descriptor. If a loving relationship is, at its base, no different from any other form of human relationship, wherein lies its value?
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 26/May/2025 @ 8:52 am
I got a laugh at the different names for restrooms on the door to the toilet at this bar (Garfield’s Last Stand)
I’m surprised they didn’t have a good, British Isles expression like “the bog.”
Damn, so this must be the last bar on the hop. Now what? I checked the Angeles Hash Facebook page, and nothing was posted about the Beach Run. To hell with it, we ordered a beer and decided to do our own bar hop and finish here when the Hash arrived.
What did the Hashers tell you when they finally arrived? How were you supposed to read those directions/instructions? What’s with the sloppy “T-Backs” versus “TBACS”? How were you supposed to know what time to meet people after the walk? Where was the clear indication of the route’s starting point and endpoint (“Start at T-Backs” makes “T-Backs” the starting point, so what’s the endpoint, and how do you know? was the trail a loop?)? This is why it’s important not to be sloppy with language. Never let an illiterate idiot write your instructions.
Oh, and when we ran into the Angeles Hashers later, I learned that they had started at Jollibee’s and did a 5K hike before beginning the barhop. Thanks for letting us know. (To be fair, the Hash webpage was updated, even if Facebook wasn’t. I just didn’t know about the web address. Now I do.)
Wow, this must be Asia: rushed, last-minute changes (you said “updated”) that are poorly communicated. We get that all the fucking time in Korea. The sloppiness of a random, nonlinear life. The inefficiency that such sloppiness creates means you have to develop a “flow with it” mindset, but it’s still frustrating, even after twenty-some years.
I was in the local Costco on Saturday, and the place was a madhouse—worse than ever before. I remembered why I normally visit Costco on Tuesdays, a low-traffic day. Koreans mill around, stop suddenly and randomly, do 180s for no apparent reason, block aisles with no consideration for others, and generally act like selfish barbarians when they’re in crowds. Koreans one-on-one can be wonderful. In groups, well… that’s how you end up with stupidity-induced disasters like the horrific Itaewon crush a couple years ago (2022).
At least the sloppiness you encountered didn’t lead to 159 deaths.
Saturday’s report: 6041 steps. 4.64 kilometers. 3043 calories burned.
To clarify: that has to be 3043 calories burned for the day, not during such a short walk. I’d burn 3000 calories during a 25K-30K walk. But that calorie number seems high even if it factors in the entire day. A short walk plus a day’s worth of sitting? Is your Fitbit sucking again?
re: Jim’s “People who can’t find love buy it” (that video)
I saw this comment exchange on Instapundit between two older people:
WOMAN: My spouse of 29 years and I are discussing this evening what makes a relationship work by process of elimination. We agree what doesn’t work is a transactional relationship (IOW, “you do something for me[,] and I will do something for you in return”).
What does work is a relationship where each experiences joy from the very act of attending to the needs and pleasure of their beloved. Mrs. T experienced joy throughout her life through the opportunities you provided to her…and likewise the opportunities she provided to you.
MAN (who lost Mrs. T, mentioned above): Ultimately, our secret was simple though it takes two to tango. Each of us considered the happiness of the other to be more important than our own. So, rather than making demands of each other (transactions!) we each simply worked at making the other happy. We didn’t pull it off 100% of the time, but we weren’t too far off.
Isn’t it nice not to fall in with toxic people? Loving relationships that last aren’t based on transactions, which is why I’ve been down on transactions all these years. If one selfishly thinks only in terms of benefits, one really doesn’t understand love.
Today’s YouTube video deems Angeles foreigners to be “lowlifes.” Not everyone here is a [whoremonger—one word], and even those that adopted that lifestyle have their reasons. Why judge?
Judging, in itself, isn’t a sin—it’s an indication that someone has principles and morals by which to navigate life. And a mere judgment doesn’t put any pressure on anyone else to change. All it is is mental (or outwardly expressed) disapproval. People who feel pressure from someone who judges probably feel at least a little guilty about how they’re living: the last remnants of their conscience. They’re not “being made” to feel guilty. If they really had no conscience, they wouldn’t feel a single twinge of guilt.
I liked Jim’s video, what he had to say. I could learn something from his example.
I know where it starts, we’ll see how it ends.
Wow, you really don’t know what a comma splice is. I didn’t think the error would reoccur in the very next post, but you’ve exceeded my expectations! Let’s celebrate the loss of brain cells with a few more beers!
Nightmarish thought: What if you successfully live to 85 but lose all awareness by 80, having melted your brain to slag through drinking? From Swan’s point of view, that’s a long time to linger as a drooling, pants-wetting, bed-shitting dependent. I really hope her love for you is unselfish. Non-toxic.
Have fun at the Hash (preferably better defined this time), Mr. Fly.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 25/May/2025 @ 3:17 pm
I guess an “and” would have worked, too.
Not just an “and,” but a “comma-and.”
(a) The enemy appeared all around us; I was the only one to survive.
(b) The enemy appeared all around us, and I was the only one to survive.So now the question is: Will you keep committing this error? I guess we’ll see. One thing I notice about flies is that they have no long-term memory. If they go to a sunlit window, you can try to smack them, but they simply fly away and come back five seconds later, all memories of danger forgotten. “Learning” a lesson means retaining it. Did you learn, or did you just parrot? I see in your answer, for example, terminology that you never use: comma splice, compound sentence. Do you know what these terms mean?
As I’ve said many times, over 90% of your errors are addressed in my “Commas” series, Parts 1 and 2. If you were to reread those and practice them, you’d really internalize the relevant concepts. But that means work and effort.
My blog has a search window at the top. Every time there’s a comma-related question, instead of using Grammarly—which can often be wrong—visit the blog, go to the search window, type “commas” in it, and scroll down the search results to the relevant post. Oh, no! Too much work!
Without looking at Grammarly or any other references, can you tell me what makes a compound sentence a compound sentence? How do you know it’s not a complex sentence?
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 25/May/2025 @ 1:49 pm
Thank you, Grammarly!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 25/May/2025 @ 12:58 pm
The river is as dry as it gets, but come next month, it will be raging.
Are you looking forward to the rains? Monsoon season in Korea is most of July and about half of August, with rains still happening but becoming infrequent through September and October.
Taking the road less travelled through a [banana-tree] forest.
I’d want to collect some tarantulas from the banana trees, but I have no idea how I’d get them into Korea.
I only pass this way a couple of times a year, but the kids remember and come running for cookies.
“Yay, it’s SATAN! I mean, SANTA!”
free drinks from 6-8 p.m.
Ooh, spot the error!
Friday’s report card: 22,055 steps. 16.96 kilometers. 3937 calories burned.
A good report card. 17K is a step toward doing your big, 29K walk (San Narciso?).
I wrote about trying to write an essay after smoking a joint before class.
(a) I wrote about [trying to write an essay] after smoking a joint before class.
(b) I wrote about [trying to write an essay after smoking a joint before class].You’re saying you smoked a joint, then wrote an essay about trying to write an essay? Or that you wrote an essay about the topic of “trying essay-writing after smoking a joint before class”? Either way, actually high or not, that’s pretty meta.
Of course, we are still living in crazy times, I just don’t have any drugs to ease the pain these days.
Spot the error! And why is it an error? I expect you’ll quietly ignore the “why” part. Which is why you’ll keep making this mistake.
Enjoy Angeles City.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 24/May/2025 @ 7:29 pm
this was the time frame during which I met Jee Yeun, who was destined to become my final wife.
Luckily, she still is!
re: lack of drama
Yeah, I can see how peace and quiet might be a turn-off to some, but to me, I appreciate the tranquility and stability after all of that stupidity. That said, there’s still plenty of potential for drama. As noted above, you’re still married to Jee Yeun (she romanizes her name strangely: it should be Jee Yeon, rhyming with “she fun” or “we won”), which could be something were you ever to bestir yourself and go through with a divorce instead of passively leaving it up to her. And with everyone getting older, you’ve got more and more people having strokes and/or dying outright, so that’s all sorts of fun. Maybe start a dead pool (here). Some deaths are guaranteed to come out of left field.
Have a good weekend trip with your (technical) side chick! I’m glad she’s cool with the situation.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 24/May/2025 @ 3:03 am
This tree looks thirsty…
Meaning you’re gonna piss on it? Open wide, tree.
I can’t help but notice the Groundhog Day quality of my life.
It’s that “spiral time” I was talking about. Repeating, but never exactly.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 22/May/2025 @ 5:16 pm
It’s the right time of the day…
Rebecca seems to be okay. They did a bunch of scans and tests, and it turns out to have been dehydration, which messed with her blood pressure. Fluctuating BP caused her stroke-like symptoms (dizziness, cognitive impairment, etc.).
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 22/May/2025 @ 11:51 am
A nice but somewhat hazardous walk, what with little to no shoulder along the National Highway. Reminds me of my walk along the South Korean east coast. Lots of traffic, and lots of potential to be love-tapped by passing cars.
The new road down to the Bantay Bayan village is now open.
The road itself looks nice. Too bad no one thought to put in a walking path alongside.
I found it mildly amusing that my hike from Royal to Sit-n-Bull was exactly five kilometers.
5 km with a time of about 1.167 hours = a pace of about 4.3 kph. That’s about my pace, these days, when I’m starting on a long walk. By the end of 25-35 km, my pace slows significantly to under 4 kph, sometimes as low as 3.2.
u would appear, at bottom, to be just another narcissistic dude with a fairly serious drinking problem, seems pretty sure.
As a blogging Zen-teacher acquaintance of mine says, blogging requires a bit of narcissism, and I see the diagnosis of “a fairly serious drinking problem” hasn’t changed over the years, however much you might want to deny/rationalize it. But hey—if you think your liver and kidneys can handle the constant abuse, and you’re okay with the visceral fat twisting its way around your guts (not that I have any moral high ground on that score), then keep right on a-drinking. Only Mother Nature can teach any lessons, and if she’s chosen not to teach you anything, I hope you make it to 85 problem-free. My own experience, though, tells me that no one stays invincible forever, not even people who are still 30 in their own minds.
I wonder what he would say now that I blog every day?
Spot the error!
A Tolkien of my appreciation.
That was a minefield of bad puns.
Still no word from my buddy in Fredericksburg about his wife. He may just be waking up. I expect he’ll write to me once he’s at his office.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 21/May/2025 @ 9:11 pm
Mike’s wife isn’t fat and doesn’t drink, either, so what gives? I have no idea.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 21/May/2025 @ 8:46 am
My computer had a hiccup, and I don’t know whether my first attempt at a comment went through. Assuming it didn’t…
Sorry to read about Stewed Rat’s TIA. Good luck to him as he gets meds and therapy and maybe a prescription for a new life-path, preferably one without alcohol (does he even drink?).
My best buddy in the States (Mike in Fredericksburg) got back yesterday from a lovely trip to England, but his wife just had her own stroke-like episode, so they’re in the hospital, getting her tested. Possible TIA as well. It’s as if there’s something in the water.
Good luck putting all of your trees together into a walking path. Make it a good walk!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 21/May/2025 @ 4:37 am
I would never relinquish my American birthright, even though I have no intention ever to return there to live.
Are you loyal to the actual country, or more loyal to an idea of the country given the country’s perceived reality?
re: “Ferme ta bouche”
Literally, “Shut your mouth.” Kind of bland. I’ve commented several times, but you keep forgetting, that the more natural way to say “Shut up” in French would be more like, “Ta gueule!” or “Ferme-la!” or “La ferme!” Of the three, stick with “Ta gueule!” A “gueule” is an animal’s mouth. A “bouche” is a human’s mouth. In French, when you want to be more cuttingly insulting, you refer to a human’s body parts as if they were an animal’s body parts.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 19/May/2025 @ 2:34 pm
The technical definition of a drunken blackout is having gaps in the memory caused by intoxication. Of course if you remember coughing and collapsing, that’s probably not a blackout. Gaps in the memory.
See here.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 19/May/2025 @ 2:19 pm
I seem to recall you writing, after some of your recent episodes, that you didn’t recall what had happened the night before. Sounds like a blackout to me.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 19/May/2025 @ 12:26 pm
We enjoyed all kinds of grilled meats, including burgers, dogs, chicken, and pork.
I didn’t see any burgers, dogs, chicken, or pork in that photo. Just fish and some sort of mystery meat(?).
I was relieved to read that driving in the pool is not allowed.
From that hilarious sign: “All children in the pool are must have adult supervisions, babies must wear diapers.” And that comma should really be a…?
I could spend all day proofreading the rest of that sign. Jesus. Incredibly, even with the Filipinglish, the intention of each instruction is understandable.
The guy’s table.
I’d fit right in with all of the man-boobs, double chins, and hanging guts.
What he said.
The “hath” was used correctly in that meme, but “mine” is generally used before a vowel sound or after a noun, e.g., “Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord” or “Enemy Mine” (movie title). In the A Song of Ice and Fire book series, one character often refers to her uncle as “my nuncle,” derived from the archaic “mine uncle.”
Yep, another blackout incident, another fall to the floor, and a cut on the head.
Nice to know that things haven’t changed that much!
From the linked blog entry:
Sorry to say, when the doc started probing around I screamed like a banjee.
I’ve heard of a banshee (see my review) before, but never a banjee. And where does the other comma go?
Also, I noticed this:
(1) …hit the floor, and now have stiches in my head…
(2) The also stiched up my head which comparitively speaking…Notice anything? One error in (1), and four errors in (2). You must’ve still been drunk. Or too hung over to have your regular IQ back.
Boy, you really hated commas back then. Just like nowadays.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 19/May/2025 @ 3:28 am
At least that “rickety” bridge had a railing. As long as I have something to grip, I’m okay with most heights. And that bridge didn’t really look rickety; it looked rather solid. If this were a primitive, violently swaying suspension bridge over a perpetually windy canyon and a half-mile plunge, I’d be freaking out.
re: Reekay video
He made the right decision: the mother would have been selfish to abandon her kids. Better for her to be with them than with him.
the phenomenon of mothers without children
This is a contradictory phrase: by definition, a mom is a mom because she has kids (or is that a bigoted thing to suggest these days?). The kids might not be physically by her side, but they still exist. “Mothers without children” sounds like “triangles without angles”—an impossibility.
That said, I can’t think of a short, neat phrase to replace the problematic phrase. “Mothers who’ve abandoned their kids”? “Mothers separated from their kids”? I don’t know.
I hope today went well/is going well. Get your damn laptop fixed. Or buy a new one, you stingy bastard.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 17/May/2025 @ 3:55 pm
«« Back To Stats PageBy that girl’s standards, I’d be as successful in the PI as I am here in Korea. And despite her attempts at rationalizing, she does sound a bit slutty and self-justifying.
Looks to have been a nice (if steep) walk. Very nice views at the top, as always.
Ever thought of adopting a goat? Or having pets other than your dogs?
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 16/May/2025 @ 7:08 pm