Comments Posted By Kevin Kim
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It was also a very hot day, which added to the suffering.
Isn’t pretty much every day a hot day there?
And another from [farther] up the ridgeline.
Interesting contrast between the beautiful scene that dominates the photo and that razor wire cutting across the pic’s bottom.
I wonder if any of my readers get the reference[.]
Shave that Beaver! Or leave it to me.
“Leave It to Beaver” was well into black-and-white reruns when I was a kid. I may have watched some episodes, but I don’t remember any of them.
Well, I’m glad you had a good and relatively safe walk.
Trivia: if you start a sentence with “I wonder,” you’re making a declaration about your mental state, not asking a question.
WRONG: I wonder where my beaver went?
RIGHT: I wonder where my beaver went.You’re basically announcing that you’re currently wondering about X. If you really, really want to use a question mark, you could write
I wonder—where did my beaver go? (or)
I wonder: where did my beaver go?Reference. So you know I’m not crazy.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 02/January/2024 @ 7:29 pm
You spelled “fireworks” correctly inside the post, so I assume the post title “Fire works” is some sort of pun that I’m not getting.
How do you motivate a fat, lazy bitch? Fire works!
Another nice set of pics, including the sunsets. Also good to see how Swan is now OK with being photographed. I assume her year of mourning is done.
So you normally sleep through the midnight celebration, eh? Interesting.
Good luck with the Kalaklan Ridge. Better that one than the KuKluxKlan Ridge.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 01/January/2024 @ 3:36 pm
This may be one of the more detailed looks at the My Bitch trail that I’ve seen. Do you always carry around goodies to give away randomly to kids you encounter?
Swan has been joining me for my nighttime activities as well, but advises she’ll be seeking employment in the new year so she is taking advantage of the opportunity to spend time together while she can.
I thought she was already employed by you as a kind of caretaker, no? Is she not satisfied with her income or something? Will she still be a paid caretaker after she finds other work, or are you releasing her? I’m all sorts of confused.
I may have had a beer or two over my limit and had a misunderstanding (alright, I was a dick) with Swan after we arrived home.
Booze: the cause of so much unnecessary conflict, violence, and general stupidity.
re: Star Trek meme
What struck me about that meme was the Millennium Falcon symbol visible in the lower-left panel—a Falcon with a Vulcan hand gesture inside it, implying a fusion of Star Trek and Star Wars. Interesting.
Let me take this opportunity to wish you a Happy New Year. Best of luck in 2024—an election year for the US that’s guaranteed to be crazy, so prepare yourself and batten down the hatches. There’s a shitstorm coming.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 31/December/2023 @ 9:08 pm
New project: make nuggets from scratch. Grind up the chicken meat, round up ingredients for breading, make an event of it.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 31/December/2023 @ 8:24 am
Great walk, good company, delicious food, and beautiful pics of the landscape and the sunset. But there’s one lingering mystery:
And after the hike Gary and Ed help me initiate my rooftop table with some beers and chicken nuggets.
Chicken nuggets from… where? Rumor has it that there’s a new McDonald’s. Did the nuggets come from the creepy clown?
Steak looks to be done to a perfect medium-rare. Nice.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 30/December/2023 @ 11:26 pm
Looks to have been a pleasant walk. I’m glad you’re steadily working on Swan, getting her out there with you. I wonder if she’ll finally give in and become the Hasher she was always meant to be.
Congrats on the new furniture.
My favorite picture from this batch—the one captioned:
“A Fiesta subdivision”
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 29/December/2023 @ 10:00 pm
That’s Grace on my left.
Okay, so to be clear, “my left” means “my left” from the perspective of the “you” inside the photo, and by that reckoning, Swan is on your left. The woman to Swan’s left is also technically on your left (black tee, jeans with holes in the knees)… so is that the woman you’re talking about? I suspect you’re really talking about the woman on your right, i.e., the one wearing sunglasses.
Talking about “left” and “right” in a photo is always dicey. If you want to name someone from the perspective of the person looking at the photo, you can say something like, “She’s the third person from the left.” But the moment you say “my left,” you’re talking from the perspective of the person in the picture.
My driver’s car had low ground clearance
You ride around in a Lambo?
Hoofing it down to the village
Are Aeta villages officially marked on any maps? I ask because the map you show doesn’t show the village. Does the village even have a name?
Just Troy, Gary, and me yesterday for the walk
Troy looks way too young to be retired. What does he do? Or did he retire young because he’s rich? My Kiwi buddy (also named John) has a big brother who retired at 33 after helping to wire the Hong Kong telecom system years ago. Money just rolled in. No idea what he does with his time. If Big Bro is as athletically inclined as my buddy, he probably travels the world looking for mountains to climb and cliffs off of which to go BASE jumping.
It’s not as pretty as a tree, but it’s still an impressive sight.
Impressive, indeed. I’m surprised not to see clothing, or even people, draped over parts of the tower. It’d make a great drying rack, and you’d think the kids would love climbing it even if they shouldn’t.
This is actually one of the jokes in my repertoire. I know I didn’t create the joke, but coming upon it in a visual rendition is really weird.
Just wait’ll you see the meme whose punchline is “I don’t know, and I don’t care.”
but I thought of it when Swan told me to “shut up and hug her” this afternoon.
Somehow, I’m reminded of how “Total Recall” ends with Rachel Ticotin’s character saying to Arnold, “Well, kiss me quick before you wake up.”
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 29/December/2023 @ 4:52 am
Damn. Let’s try that again, with boldface in the right place this time:
…but it didn’t go down so well.
So who’s the guilty party? Spill it! (No pun intended.)
No wonder poor girls have to find work in the bars.
Surely, there are programs to help the poor gain access to college. In fact, a bit of research shows a mixed situation: programs do exist, some of them government sponsored. But at the same time, the World Bank puts out the statistic that 9 out of 10 Filipino kids can’t read even simple text. I haven’t examined the problem in any depth, so from my superficial perspective, this could mean anything from a piss-poor educational system to a culture that simply doesn’t send its kids to school. It’s weird because Filipino expats are fairly respected in Korea for being hard workers who catch on to the Korean language a lot faster than the white folks do.
I tend to think education is the answer to a lot of problems, but in looking at Korea’s situation, I know that education also brings its own problems, e.g., a neurotic avoidance of marrying and making families because education sets you on a years-long path to achieve a distant goal that having a family would interrupt. I suspect that one reason for Korea’s current, scary demographic crisis is precisely that society here is overeducated and thus prone to overthinking everything. Overthinking leads to less breeding.
Somewhere between the extremes of the PI and the ROK, there has to be some sort of happy medium. In the meantime, I think this means Filipinos need to get educated—and well. Lack of education leads to poor life-choices based on the false perception that one has no options. It’s a self-inflicted wound.
There she is! This is a beach bar that I very rarely visit for some reason.
Young gringo guy on the extreme left, wearing a white cap and staring at you suspiciously for some reason. Maybe you represent competition.
A surprisingly large crowd of foreigners were hanging out on the beach seats.
Same gringo, hat off, now on the right of the picture and staring at his phone. Can’t help but notice his bald spot, like the beginnings of a monk’s tonsure.
…a bit of rainbow pointing to the pot of gold atop Kalaklan Ridge.
Nice shot, beautifully balanced by the distant dog’s asshole.
Well, pretty good at least.
I like the contrast between the “Great!” on the wall and the piles of bags. Is that garbage or something else? It’s looks too suspiciously neat to be garbage.
…but Swan says I was a little drunk. I don’t remember.
One of the bad things about getting drunk, aside from the heightened potential to make stupid decisions, is the not-remembering. How can you say you enjoyed yourself when you can’t even remember the event?
re: food festival
I’d be all over that for sure. But with a soda. Arguably just as bad for you.
Have fun with your… feeding. I still think “feeding” sounds a bit ghoulish, as if you’re nourishing vampires.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 27/December/2023 @ 8:14 pm
Candy is dandy and liquor is quicker
Looks to have been a successful candy run and grilled dinner. Santa knew to dress for the weather. Wise.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 26/December/2023 @ 9:32 pm
Merry Christmas. Good job re: spreading Christmas cheer with your candy runs and your various charities.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 25/December/2023 @ 2:00 pm
I enjoyed the walk pics. No breathing problems since the operation, I gather?
The bloob cheesecake looks good!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 24/December/2023 @ 3:50 pm
Just another town along the road
I watched the Bob Saget clip. Funny. But is “Ming Hang” a typically Pinay name? Most of the women in your neighborhood seem to have either normal-sounding Western names or bizarrely twisted Western names. Or are those just nicknames?
re: fish-market lady’s knowing you
I guess word gets around in a small town.
You can’t ask for much more than a nice walk and good company.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 23/December/2023 @ 7:02 pm
And I didn’t forget your Star Wars pun
Didn’t see no Star Wars.
So, beers were drank
And songs were… sang?
(After the “were,” it should be a participle, not the simple past.)
Apparently, Aine had asked to “borrow” some money, and Swan had consented to accommodate some, but not all, of the request. What Swan does with her money is none of my business, but we both know it is unlikely ever to be repaid.
If Swan wants an “I’m Not Your Goddamn ATM” tee, she can buy one in her size at my tee store.
End-to-end on the green line is 14K. I’ve walked probably 8K of that trail.
With your revitalized nose/lungs, maybe it’s time to take a day to walk the whole trail! Bring a lot of fluids with you.
Thomas Vandal looked too young to pass away so early.
re: Adam/Eve meme
More teeny-peenie information here.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 22/December/2023 @ 6:21 pm
I enjoyed the tree shots, and congrats on winning the darts match 11-2. Are you going to start practicing at home again? And will home practice be with or without aiming fluid?
Your box of banana-marshmallow choco pies has Arabic on it. Careful, or the ladies might eat them and turn into ululating jihadis.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 21/December/2023 @ 6:41 pm
So, I guess “research” just means going out and doing the hike to see what’s there. No contour maps or cell-phone apps. Intellesting.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 21/December/2023 @ 1:52 pm
Speaking of which, I visited the BPI bank branch where the ATM didn’t dispense any money, but my US bank account had the funds withdrawn. I assumed it would be an easy fix (just show me the money), but it doesn’t work that way. There was “complaint form” paperwork to complete and an investigation to be conducted, and if my complaint is validated, the money will be returned to my account “in two weeks.” Ironically, I had an uncle who was a bank robber. Never expected the bank to rob me, though.
Hence my earlier trepidation upon hearing the initial news. When a bank tells you you’ve withdrawn money, but you have no money in your hand, that’s always a bad thing—pretty close to a nightmare scenario for me.
That would be us.
Yay! No puffy/pursed lips! Just a sincere smile.
That’s Kalaklan Ridge in the background. Now that I can breathe again, I’ll need to climb that sucker one day soon.
Do you know whether that entire ridge is walkable? And how does one research that sort of question?
The drunks got this gal drunk before they departed, and she wound up dancing on the bar. I’m glad she didn’t fall off.
Not sure I’d want to rest my arms on a foot-trodden bar. Yeesh.
You can only piss in the CR on the floating bar. I shit you not.
So if it’s an emergency, and you’ve got to do Number 2, you… what? Hop over the side and do it directly in the ocean in honor of the sea gods? Come to think of it, if you were worried about pushing out “floaters,” you could probably swim directly under the bar, and no one would be the wiser.
Maybe I’ll have time to find a better joke for tomorrow…
A “Star Trek III” joke, no less… except Chekov is infamous for not being able to pronounce his “V”s. This never made sense, of course, since Russians have names like Viktor and Vladimir (and the name “Chekov” itself ends with a “V” sound); they can pronounce the “V” sound just fine. But actor Walter Koenig, who played Chekov, said he modeled his pronunciation after that of a Lithuanian relative. Curiouser and curiouser.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 20/December/2023 @ 7:48 pm
I think you’re becoming a master of sunset shots.
Happy Birthday to Scott! He’s been a recurrent character on your blog since forever. His ankle is still holding up, I gather?
Sad to see that photo with all the trash. I wonder what the secret is to motivate people to pick up after themselves. As with most things, I imagine it’s money: invent a Mr. Fusion device that converts matter directly into energy, then pay people for feeding the machine their trash. I bet you’d see dirty places and clogged rivers get cleared up in the blink of an eye.
Grounded at the abandoned M&M Resort.
Another Stephen King horror story waiting to happen.
Sixty pesos to put a smile on a face is a bargain!
She’s a little cutie. Please don’t grow up to become an impoverished, uneducated mother of four working in a damn bar.
As always, a great walk with a good variety of sights and terrain.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 19/December/2023 @ 8:20 pm
4000 steps: a rare moment of light traffic on the highway
That’s a narrow shoulder on the left. I’m sure that, like most Americans, you learned to always walk on the left side, facing traffic, but in this case, with the opposite shoulder being so much wider, wouldn’t it be safer on the right?
7000 steps: feeling grave
Look at all the litter. I’d be tempted to come back with a huge garbage bag and pick all of that up. Show the dead some respect. I know: the litter would just be back the next day.
It seems BPI withdrew my funds and then didn’t dispense any money to me. Hopefully, they will self-correct the error; otherwise, I’ll visit the branch tomorrow.
I’d call that a serious problem, but you don’t seem too stressed. Does this happen a lot?
Welcome aboard!
Nice sunset pic.
Great walk, all in all.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 18/December/2023 @ 4:08 pm
John,
re: Eagles video
The message I’m seeing says:
Video unavailable
This video contains content from UMPG Publishing, who has blocked it in your country on copyright grounds.So I suppose it’s a Korea thing.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 18/December/2023 @ 9:41 am
Whoops.
I’m guessing it was The Eagles.
Me and my Fetterman fingers.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 17/December/2023 @ 3:47 pm
Good luck on your quest for cash. I guess it’d be nice to have more ATMs in your area. ATMs that function, I mean.
Pulled-pork sandwich and chicken look good! How’s John’s health these days?
Congrats on getting your walking speed back up to 5 kph. That speed is just a pleasant memory for me.
Your music video appears to be unavailable. I’m guess it was The Eagles.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 17/December/2023 @ 3:46 pm
Oh, yeah: for “Jungle Love,” I was sure you were going to slap up some Morris Day and the Time.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 16/December/2023 @ 7:38 pm
Looks to have been a great hike despite the foliage-related difficulties. You and your oxygenated lungs are back to tackling hills, and all is right with the world. Most excellent.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 16/December/2023 @ 5:59 pm
re: Star Trek joke
The title “Jollyco” is a reference to Captain Edward Jellico, who temporarily assumed command of the Enterprise in the Next Generation 2-parter episode “Chain of Command,” the one where Picard is captured and tortured. Jellico was played by famous actor Ronny Cox (pictured), who has a long filmography that includes everything from Deliverance (he was one half of the “dueling banjos” scene) to Beverly Hills Cop to Total Recall to Star Trek: The Next Generation. I think the fictional captain’s surname “Jellico” is a reference to a real-life historical figure, but I haven’t figured out who that might be.
Congrats on feeling better. Ten beers… that equals how many trips to the restroom? Even with the low alcohol content of the beers, your liver must have packed up and gone back to Pattaya (for the temples, not the bars) by now. Do you ever talk with your docs about fatty-liver disease?
the new McDonald’s on the corner
I went through a bit of a McDonald’s-fiend phase. Now, though, I haven’t ordered anything from a McDonald’s in a long time. Good luck as you face this new temptation.
Oh, and Lucky has found a new love.
So, he’s definitely staying. Uh, congratulations?
You’re obviously breathing better, and with your pulse-ox up, it’s now easier to tackle those hills. Good to know. Keep on a-huffin’ and a-puffin’.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 15/December/2023 @ 6:21 pm
“Tampo” sounded, at first, like Philippinglish for “temper.”
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 16/December/2023 @ 1:09 am
I hope Swan was telling the truth, and not hiding her own issues, when she said she thought you were mad.
I’ve ranted about this before, but Asian people have an annoying tendency not to share the most important things, and this dovetails with the equally annoying Asian tendency to presume to do your thinking for you. I didn’t learn about my Korean uncle’s terminal liver cancer until he was at the end stage. Another more distant relative, something like a great aunt, developed stomach cancer when she was at a grandmotherly age (this was back in 1986), and the doc told the relatives, but not her, about her condition. Then the relatives chose not to say anything to my great aunt, who eventually died in agony without knowing why. More mundane examples of this sort of non-communicativeness about important matters abound (sometimes, even the simple utterance of “I love you” is impossible). It’s frustrating as hell and the unnecessary cause of so much strife and conflict.
In fact, this unwillingness or inability to convey the important stuff reminds me of that rule for moviemaking: never write a story in which the problems can be solved by a cell phone, i.e., if the characters in the story can solve a problem simply by communicating, the story’s probably no good (there are exceptions to this rule, of course). That’s how powerful and essential communication is. Communication is key for all relationships no matter the culture, but Asians apparently didn’t get the memo.
What makes this even more bitterly hilarious is that this weird Asian tendency toward indirection is utterly contradicted by how loudly rude and direct Asians can be with each other (and with foreigners). It’s almost as if an entire continent of people figured out the best psychological strategies for interacting harmoniously, then consciously decided to do exactly the opposite thing. Why? Just to fuck with each other. It’s like what Agent Smith tells Morpheus in The Matrix: humans actually crave conflict, difficulty, and misery. When the machines tried to create a utopia to occupy the humans’ minds, the humans went crazy because they could see how fake it was.
Upshot: drama is part and parcel of relationships, like it or not. Just be sure the relationship doesn’t curdle into what Dane Cook calls a “relationshit.”
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 14/December/2023 @ 6:24 pm
Good to know you’re not blowing out any clotted blood boogers. I wonder whether sinus tissue heals fast on average when compared to, say, the skin on your arms.
I hope the dogs enjoyed the longer walk. Frankly, I’m surprised you still take Lucky walking. Or do you leave him behind now?
Food photos all look good.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 13/December/2023 @ 5:02 pm
Bloody good photos, old chap!
This is the first time I realized how much your dad looked like Santa or Papa Hemingway. Why did you lose the beard?
The doctor says I must take it easy for the next three days and refrain from eating or drinking anything hot.
Breakfast: cereal, yogurt, fresh fruit, cold milk, juices (I’m not worrying about carbs here—just temperature), cottage cheese.
Lunch/Dinner: salads loaded with proteins (chicken, fish, etc.), club sandwich, charcuterie (deli meats) plus cheese and crackers, cold wraps (chicken, etc.).
Other really good ideas here. The chicken-orzo salad looks good.
Nice to know your pulse-ox is back up to 97. That blockage really must’ve been bad. What a difference.
Continued good luck with convalescence!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 12/December/2023 @ 7:34 pm
Welcome back to the land of the living!
—skeleton warrior pulling another undead warrior out of a grave in Army of Darknesstransported me to the third floor, wear my hospital room awaited.
We love phonetic spelling!
I went a little crazy and started screaming
Good God, what demons do you have locked up inside that head of yours?! I guess years of dealing with HR bullshit could drive any man crazy.
to let me out of her
For me, the crucial question is: how did you get into her?
My post-op appearance.
Ah, those Brezhnev brows!
I imagine that, by now, the bleeding has at least slowed down.
Happy convalescing. I’ll be writing my rude comments throughout the coming week, but I’ll be especially interested in how the nostrils are next Sunday. Things ought to be significantly better by then, and even better in the weeks that follow. In the meantime, you’re fortunate to have your caretakers. Try not to inhale too much pollen and truck exhaust whenever you’re out and about.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 10/December/2023 @ 7:09 pm
«« Back To Stats PageJust a quick not
still hav some light bleeding
I think they plucked a few “e”s out of your nose, too.
Congrats on surviving! I’ll be interested to hear how the nose is a week after surgery.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 09/December/2023 @ 8:32 pm