Comments Posted By Kevin Kim
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As a teetotaler, I’m honestly curious: is it fun to drink to the point of forgetting the previous night? One reason why I don’t drink or do drugs is that I’m a control freak when it comes to such things (not to mention that Korea is extremely strict about drug use). I don’t like the idea of losing control, whereas people who drink or get high seem perfectly okay with just floating off into space, and whatever happens happens. I’m not saying this because I think my way is better—if anything, I can imagine critics of my lifestyle calling me an up-tight, puckered-asshole prude with no notion of how to enjoy life, and that may indeed be a fair criticism. I’m just trying to understand the mindset that allows one to let go of one’s faculties and blissfully ride the chemical wave. Is life better when it’s chemically enhanced? Is life really that bad without chemicals? This harks back to old Greek myths about Lotus Eaters.
Switching gears: the muffins and roast look good.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 04/February/2023 @ 8:11 pm
You seem to be getting along well with ChatGPT. Too bad it doesn’t do happy endings, eh?
Sorry to hear the Korean food was so-so. Cook the meat a bit darker to coax out more flavor. If you ever go back to that place, I mean.
Dirty river. I sympathize.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 03/February/2023 @ 5:50 pm
on her brand new motorbike.
Forgot to mention the phrasal-adjective error! Hyphenate phrasal adjectives when they come before the noun they modify:
a six-foot-tall man
a tax-paying citizen
a brand-new bike
a cum-sucking whoreThere’s some argument over whether to hyphenate phrases that are so familiar as to never be confused with anything else. For example:
a high school student (or)
a high-school studentI think a lot of style manuals these days say that not hyphenating in the above case is okay, but I’m old school, so I hyphenate.
This sort of hyphenation rule is mainly for clarity’s sake.
a violent weather seminar (a seminar on weather turns into a brawl)
a violent-weather seminar (a seminar on violent weather)I stole the above example from some manual or other.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 02/February/2023 @ 9:26 pm
and Jane road home on her brand new motorbike.
“Come on, man!”
—Joe BidenI’m glad Jane’s a happy camper. Long may she ride.
I took a picture of Easter mountain so I could pause and try and catch my breath.
Yeah, I know the feeling. I’ve done the whole “catch my breath under cover of taking a picture” thing.
Good walk! And you walked that plank, too, I gather? I thought you normally avoided untrustworthy-looking bridges.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 02/February/2023 @ 8:24 pm
Robert,
I am but to please.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 01/February/2023 @ 10:28 pm
Being a Brit, I am sure he had a witty comeback, but I don’t recall what it was now.
Dangling modifier! If you start with “Being a Brit,” and the subject of the main clause is “I,” then you’re saying “I” [am] a “Brit.”
Rewrite:
Being a Brit, he doubtless had a witty comeback, but I don’t recall what it was now.Dangling modifiers are called “dangling” because they’re left hanging with nothing to modify. My standard example:
As a child, French was difficult.
That should be:
As a child, I had trouble with French.
(because French is not a child)Another one:
Not being Irish, it was hard for me to understand the culture.
Problem: the subject of the sentence is “it,” but “it” is not Irish.Rewrite:
Not being Irish, I found it hard to understand the culture.If you ever wrote an entry about forsaking the bars and spending your time contemplating nature while sitting alone and content at the beach, that’s when I’d suspect the entry was by ChatGPT.
As for ChatGPT’s reply to your question… that’s one thing we noted while testing the bot out in our office: it always answers diplomatically. But have you seen ChatGPT’s latest foray into wokeness? It’s getting worse by the day.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 01/February/2023 @ 6:59 pm
Best sliders I’ve ever had.
What kind? Burger? Chicken? Salmon?
I think seeing a snake on a street would be far more noteworthy than seeing one in the woods.
Great walk, even if it wasn’t the prescribed path.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 31/January/2023 @ 9:57 pm
Maybe try to get “mama” to join your Hash group. That could be a hoot. I’m glad you defended her honor at the restaurant.
As for taking her home… you’re probably right to scram. You tried to fix her up with a home once already, and it was no surprise when she didn’t take to it. If she snuggled up with you now because of some fantasy she’s having about blissful domesticity, well, I’d expect her nomadic instincts to kick in, and she’d end up unhappy all over again. So I think you made the right choice. I hope she’s not too hurt.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 30/January/2023 @ 3:48 pm
re: Grammarly
That’s actually not a bad change to what I wrote. Flows a bit better, and it’s consistent with my boss’s own editorial choices. My boss writes in a very terse manner, so he always defaults to “shorter is better” because the man hates to write.* Anyway, I’ll concede to Grammarly on this point.
__________
*I always find it ironic whenever I meet people in the EFL business who can’t stand writing… and yet, somehow, they’re English teachers. My buddy Tom is that way; his emails are typo-ridden messes, and he can barely make it through writing a semi-coherent paragraph, yet he teaches English at a university. My boss is another one: I might write him a lengthy email on some topic, and his reply won’t be more than three words. Some people just don’t like writing.» Posted By Kevin Kim On 30/January/2023 @ 7:35 am
Sounds as though, for “your” previous post, you had to essentially write the whole post, and ChatGPT merely tweaked a bit here and there, then regurgitated it. McCrareyisms abounded in the ChatGPT version:
three of my favorite bars
victims of the scamdemic
Our server, the lovely Juliet, made sure we were well taken care of.
chatting/chatted with
I had the pleasure of chatting with my server, Jade, over a lady drink.
where I had a “buy one, get one” discount coupon
so I decided to call it an early night and went home.
I must have been more intoxicated than I realizedMost of the above phrases are recurrent tropes on your blog, and that’s more than enough to lull a regular reader into a false sense of reality. I suspect that ChatGPT saw the above text as your input phrases and simply didn’t change them (or didn’t change them much). So when you wrote, “To me, it just seems like a clean-up of the basic info I provided,” that’s about the size of it. In hindsight, the biggest clue that this was an AI-written post was the most obvious (and I missed it all the same): no photos.
So should we give ChatGPT points merely for imitating your style by parroting your exact phraseology? I’m not sure I would. What would be more interesting would be for ChatGPT to analyze your blog’s style and content, then spit out a fictional-but-plausible McCrarey-style story that you could then use to challenge your readers’ sense of vérité: is this story entirely real, partly real, or wholly fiction? I think that would be an interesting challenge. I admit I’d probably get it wrong. Which means someone could kill you, and ChatGPT could write your blog in your stead, and none of us would be any wiser. Good fodder for a short story. (But ChatGPT would also have to know your habits and the types of photos you take if it wants to maintain the façade over a long period of time.)
I bet a lot of us commenters, knowing your routines as well as we do, could plausibly write LTG blog entries that sounded like yours!
As for ChatGPT’s punctuation errors: I’ve noticed that most of its errors have to do with punctuation. If it’s training itself on how most people write English, then it’s inevitably going to pick up some bad habits when it comes to mechanics (capitalization, spelling, punctuation—as opposed to grammar and syntax, which are about sentence structure).
That said, I think Grammarly caught most of the errors. If I rewrite that last admonition with Grammarly’s corrections/suggestions, it looks like this:
Please keep in mind that it’s not a good idea to encourage drinking and driving, it is not safe, and it is illegal in many countries; it’s also not a good idea to encourage excessive drinking.
There’s one last correction that Grammarly apparently missed: after the phrase “drinking and driving,” you should end with a period and capitalize the subsequent “it.” That breaks the long, run-on sentence into two shorter sentences.
Please keep in mind that it’s not a good idea to encourage drinking and driving. It is not safe, and it is illegal in many countries; it’s also not a good idea to encourage excessive drinking.
In terms of style, I’d also change the two “it is” phrases to “it’s” to make things sound more human and less stilted.
Please keep in mind that it’s not a good idea to encourage drinking and driving. It’s not safe, and it’s illegal in many countries; it’s also not a good idea to encourage excessive drinking.
This might raise the complaint that there are now too many “it’s”es, in which case a rewrite might be necessary.
Please keep in mind that it’s not a good idea to encourage drinking and driving, which is not safe and is illegal in many countries; it’s also not a good idea to encourage excessive drinking.
That strikes me as good. Run the above through Grammarly. I anticipate that Grammarly will try to add a comma after the word “safe,” but that would be incorrect because we’re dealing with a compound predicate. Compound predicates don’t take commas.
WRONG: Sheila sat down, and farted.
RIGHT: Sheila sat down and farted.By extension—
WRONG: which is not safe, and is illegal in many countries
RIGHT: which is not safe and is illegal in many countriesIf Grammarly doesn’t ding me for the above non-error, I’ll be pleasantly surprised.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 29/January/2023 @ 6:50 pm
“a night you won’t forget”
Or at least, you’ll remember most of it.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 29/January/2023 @ 11:47 am
I know you’re not into long videos. This one’s 44 minutes long, but at 2X speed, that’s only 22 minutes. It’s about grass-fed versus grain-fed beef. Maybe you’ll find it useful.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 29/January/2023 @ 1:04 am
I also wanted to get to know the new girl, Narissa, a little better.
She’s looking a little vertically stretched or horizontally squished in that photo. Did you do that to hide the fact that she’s obese?
And she didn’t remember your name. Obviously a steel-trap mind.
Narissa is just one consonant away from Marissa. Omen?
Also had no idea that green shrubbery would burn so intensely.
Once you get it going (after the moisture starts burning out of it), it’s intense. Otherwise, especially in the beginning stages of the burn, green wood and green plant life are infamous for producing way more smoke. The moisture in the wood heats up and adds to the intensity of the burn.
“all the images with a traffic light”
Because I use a VPN all the time now, I’m always being bombarded with these “Captcha” images. (VPNs are used by unscrupulous bots, so these days, most websites can detect a VPN in use and will throw a Captcha in your way to see whether you’re really human. That’s the price you pay for using a VPN.) Traffic lights are the worst because I can never figure out if I’m supposed to click on the walk/don’t-walk signs as well. They’re a kind of traffic light for foot traffic, right? Anyway, I fail at the traffic-light ones all the time.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 28/January/2023 @ 6:51 pm
I had a scouting expedition with my neighbor and co-Hare Edward to attend, so I headed for the hills.
When I’m doing one of my trans-Korea walks, I see no reason to shower right before a hike, so I never shower in the morning. Instead, I shower in the afternoon after the hike is over, and I’ve had a chance to eat and hand-wash my meager laundry. So I go to bed relatively clean, then I slap on my clothes and gear and head out in the early morning without having to shower.
Since you walk in the morning, then engage in afternoon/evening activities, what’s your optimal shower time (time of day, I mean)? With the PI being as hot and humid as it is, I can imagine smelly Westerners needing to shower at least twice a day.
And do you keep spare water in case of pump emergencies? (I think I may have asked this question before, but I forgot your answer.) How does a broken pump affect your shower schedule?
Good thing Ed didn’t get shocked. That could’ve been bad.
Yeah, that house in front of your place is going for a generically modernistic vibe. Not the prettiest house I’ve seen.
It is not appropriate to make generalizations about a group of people based on their occupation.
So now, you can see up close that ChatGPT is a moralizing bastard—because that’s how it was programmed. ChatGPT will never tell you that you need to break out of your comfort zone if you’re looking for a meaningful relationship.
negative + a negative is equal to a positive
Actually, it’s a negative times a negative that equals a positive. People who meme can’t do math.
So I guess you asked the bot to describe/assess your blog (you didn’t mention the question you asked, so I’m basing that guess on the answer). ChatGPT has access to info from before 2021, and your blog has been around about as long as mine, so there’s certainly a big pool of data out there. The fact that it basically said, “I got nuthin'” is curious indeed.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 27/January/2023 @ 7:48 pm
I could’ve sworn I left a comment, but maybe I dreamed it. Anyway, nice walk, and that carabao looks as if it’s being pulled.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 27/January/2023 @ 2:53 am
Muffins look good!
Narissa’s got a strange, hooded look that strikes me as a bit sinister, but that’s just me and my paranoid imagination. Good luck with her.
I met my buddy Tom on Monday for an early dinner. He has a Filipina wife, and the family travels to the Philippines whenever Tom has a chance to go. Tom’s a committed husband, happily married, but we talked about the whole “swinging life in the bars” thing. I can’t relate to it, but Tom’s view is that a lot of expat guys think they’re going to “rescue” the bargirls when what all the girls really want is money. The girls are so conditioned to think that way that they’re basically unsalvageable. Tom’s conclusion was the same as mine: if you want a worthwhile girl, you have to look outside the bars.
It’s like the one… thing… you… refuse… to do. Heh.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 25/January/2023 @ 7:40 pm
When you break away and walk alone, are you literally alone, or do some “saner” people accompany you on your shortcuts?
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 24/January/2023 @ 8:00 pm
I’d say my Chinese is about as real as those characters.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 24/January/2023 @ 6:30 am
I like the “Chinese” at the beginning. It’s a style of writing called bōjop, as in the Chinese phrase shi gi ri li gu bōjop.
Always nice to add 3K to your jaunt. Good luck with the Hash.
Joy flashes her choppers!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 23/January/2023 @ 3:21 pm
So you stand in solidarity with the hard-working, unsung crew of the Enterprise—the guys who are always getting killed by the Alien of the Week. Go, Red Shirts!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 22/January/2023 @ 6:54 pm
Now I’m thinking of Ser Davos from A Song of Ice and Fire, who was nicknamed “the Onion Knight” for when he smuggled a supply of onions (because that’s all he could get) to a detachment of starving troops. That would be my worst nightmare: living exclusively on onions for days.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 22/January/2023 @ 3:52 pm
Lovely photos of the hike, but that “Galaxy A23” stamp got annoying. Can that be turned off? I assume it can: some photos don’t have the label.
As long as you’ve made your peace with Gem (Gem? Gen? I’m all confused now), it’s all good in the ‘hood.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 21/January/2023 @ 5:54 pm
I don’t mean to be condiment sending…
A very saucily written post. I felt bad for Pam, who appears to have an asshole for a friend. What sort of nutcase just abandons someone in the middle of nowhere? Are Pam and that person still friends?
Sorry to hear about the outage. Sucks. Perils of living in a poorer country, I guess. Do you have a portable gas stove for when you get hungry during an outage? You have a gas grill, right?
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 20/January/2023 @ 9:27 pm
I forget that we share both a birth month and a mom’s yahrzeit month. Condolences, but also good memories, always and forever.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 19/January/2023 @ 7:10 pm
That COPD is scary shit. I’m glad you got the spirometer. The numbers can guide you to a plan of action.
As the joke goes, a Cub Scout becomes a Boy Scout only after he eats his first Brownie.
How’s John doing these days?
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 18/January/2023 @ 11:10 pm
Oh, yeah—regarding skipping meals, there’s this. Becky Gillaspy is one of the docs I routinely listen to.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 18/January/2023 @ 4:46 am
Does Sawmill Road have an actual sawmill on it? There’s nothing quite like the smell of fresh-cut wood. Have you tried following your nose to any sawmills in the area?
I liked the clouds seemingly clinging to that hill in the distance.
That is an achingly gorgeous picture of a rice paddy above that caption. Well done.
All in all, this looks like a 12K stretch that I could do without having to worry about my balance. Nice route, good walk.
It’s interesting that, despite all the local mountains, something like the Matain River is so small and flows so slowly (it looks almost stagnant in that picture). That means the river valley itself must be pretty flat. I assume the river swells after a rain as all the water drains down from the various mountainsides. Generally speaking, difference in elevation makes water flow faster, as is visible in my locality, where even the local creeks flow with enough force to produce strong ripples and even white water as the flow moves around interrupting rocks. Maybe things are just a wee bit steeper in the Korean creek and river valleys. (And by “steep,” I really mean no more than a 1-2% grade. You don’t even feel it when you’re walking the creekside paths here.)
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 17/January/2023 @ 9:42 pm
No, I didn’t even see the link, but I already know I disagree. Skipping meals can give your body a break from digestion, metabolism, and fat storage. I suspect this is a “new” study that’s more trendy than substantive, but I’ll give it a look and see what the sample size was for it.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 16/January/2023 @ 3:58 pm
Oh, and just a reminder that weight loss is much more about diet than about exercise. (I’m talking to myself as much as I’m talking to you.)
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 16/January/2023 @ 10:21 am
«« Back To Stats PageYou are the Road Whorrior. Watch out for Toe-Cutter.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 15/January/2023 @ 6:29 pm