Comments Posted By Kevin Kim
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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
Just 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
All will be well. See you on the other side.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 09/December/2023 @ 11:39 am
I do disagree with you about the money not helping these girls. Granted, it is not a ticket to escape the bar life, but those commissions buy food for the hungry kids at home. Many (not all) of these gals are good women doing the only work they can find to support their families. I respect that. I don’t think you are factoring in the extreme poverty that exists here in your assessment. Sometimes, a little bit makes a big difference.
If you take the long view, short-term help doesn’t amount to anything more than the perpetuation of an already-vicious cycle. It’s bitterly funny, in a way, because whether you personally participate in that cycle makes no difference: the dynamic existed long before you arrived in the PI, and it’ll exist long after we’re all gone.
Are these, in fact, “good” women? Maybe on some level, they’re nice, but nice doesn’t mean good. They all seem to make extremely poor, stupid life-choices and can’t seem to make the connection between, say pregnancy without means and continued poverty. I think your ineradicable soft spot for these girls eternally clouds your judgment. See a cute face, toss a few coins. Pragmatically, I think you can probably find much better ways to spend your money. And since you have a girlfriend, that’s all the companionship (not in quotes this time) that you need.
Anyway, by this point on Saturday, I hope you’re polyp-free, so with your clearer nasal passages, you can now more loudly huff and puff at the comments I’m leaving.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 09/December/2023 @ 7:30 pm
Brian,
My comment was a response to John’s having explicitly used the “charity” argument in a recent comment. I didn’t respond at the time.
I’d submit that it’s not a question of charity—it’s a question of participating in a rigged and dirty system. To me, the expectation of competent, civil service at a “normal” restaurant is not at all the same thing as an expectation of human “companionship.” And that’s why it’s always strange to me to see John disappointed when the “service,” which was BS to begin with, doesn’t seem to live up to whatever his expectations are. To me, the GRO just walking away is simply a “mask off” moment showing that it’s always this way. Nobody actually cares about you no matter how much you pay. The moment the well of money dries up, it’s time to move on to the next vict— uh, customer. Like a bloodsucker. I don’t see normal servers in this light at all.
But maybe I’m just being a prude.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 09/December/2023 @ 6:02 am
so she picked up her empty, wiped off the bar, and walked away without a word, not even a nice to meet you or a thank you.
Well, these are rent-a-friend types, after all. Business is business, even when it masquerades as “companionship.” I still don’t get the whole “cooperative self-delusion” aspect of the bargirl thing since it’s all bullshit as far as I can see, and both sides know it but engage in the delusion anyway. And please, none of that “charity” argument. Your money isn’t helping these girls. None of them is ratcheting upwards in society as far as I can tell (maybe Mary if she works hard and tries her damnedest to escape circumstances). It’s all just a self-perpetuating slog through slime.
On a happier note:
And I awoke to another beautiful morning in the neighborhood.
I assume that’s Easter Mountain in the distance. Gorgeous shot.
So this operation is definitely happening, eh? Well, you’ll come out of it a fraction of an ounce lighter. It’d be awesome if they snipped out your polyps, put them in little, formaldehyde-filled bottles, and gave them back to you, but I doubt that’s going to happen. If you’re feeling up to posting on Sunday, I hope to read the blow-by-blow then. Good Luck with Operation Nares.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 08/December/2023 @ 9:28 pm
And by golly, there is a Four Square Church.
In that photo, I saw an arrow pointing toward the church with the promise that the church was 150 meters farther down the road, so I was hoping for a photo of the church itself! Promises, promises.
This blog is all about me blowing my horn.
During my long walk, I saw plenty of “Sharp curve; slow down” signs. Seems to be a thing, probably because mountain roads have no choice but to follow the terrain, making them curvy.
Never seen one of those before. Hopefully, it eats snakes.
Nice pic!
Annex couldn’t provide the requested glass of red wine for Swan
“We haven’t had that spirit here since 1969.”
Seems plausible.
“And from what I hear, the Filipina wife nags him to death, too.”
I also figured out how to do a scheduled post, so I’ll need to get busy on my just-in-case obituary.
Congrats on figuring out the scheduled posting.
One thought did occur to me, though: what if you survive the operation but, for whatever reason, have to stay in the hospital beyond Monday morning? The “I’m dead” post comes out… but you’re still alive! Guess you’re also gonna have to learn how to blog from your phone! (Please be sure to take along recharging equipment for use during your hospital stay. When I was hospitalized for my stroke, I had to ask my boss to raid my apartment to get my charging cord.)
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 07/December/2023 @ 3:54 pm
I assume your blog has a “schedule post” function the way mine does. If you’re feeling morbid, then write a scheduled post along the lines of “If you’re reading this post, it means I’m dead.—etc., etc.” Final words, last bits of wisdom, “I bequeath $100,000 to my biggest commenter Kevin,” etc. Schedule the post to appear Monday morning. Have your operation Saturday morning, get released on Sunday, and you’ll have plenty of time to take the “I’m dead” post down before its scheduled appearance Monday morning. If you do die, well, there’ll be no one to stop the post from appearing and, as Bill says to Beatrix in Kill Bill: Volume 2, “That will be the story of you.”
Sorry to hear about the insomnia. I wonder whether the polypectomy will help with that: breathe freer, sleep easier.
The weekend approaches. Fingers and tentacles crossed!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 06/December/2023 @ 7:24 pm
Two of our oldest Hashers, Fucking Old Man on the left, and Roadwhore on the right, both in their 80s, were in attendance.
Did they walk the trail? And which trail did they do—long or short?
I enjoyed an after-hike taco for dinner.
Looks more like a tortilla bowl for a taco salad, ready to break apart.
I have some real news to share with y’all tomorrow.
Lemme guess: Lucky tasted surprisingly good.
Looks to have been a good hike even if it was the long-cut. Keep on recuperating.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 05/December/2023 @ 8:01 pm
That picture of the dogs near the end says a lot about your pets.
Sorry to hear about the poor quality of the hotel. I’ve never been in a motel with a missing shower head, but I’ve had plenty of experiences with no toilet paper. In my case, I generally just resort to the Kleenex boxes. In some motels, there are two such boxes: one by the bed and one at the vanity table. At other motels, there’s only one box. On rare occasions (it didn’t happen this time around), it’s necessary to go out and buy a roll of toilet paper (easier than tracking down the always-absent manager and requesting a roll). Just the reality of motels in Korea. That said, $45 strikes me as cheap, but I think in ROK/US terms.
Otherwise—quite an adventure. I guess this is a once-a-year thing. No camping for you, eh? Too bad. That might almost be a nicer experience unless it’s pissing down rain.
“Pond or lake” sounds like a philosophical conundrum akin to the heap problem. I’d venture that a pond is generally smaller than a lake, but when is a pond big enough to be labeled a lake?
I’ve heard that haggis sounds dramatic but tastes prosaic because the Scots use oats as a filler, giving the haggis a bit of an oat-y texture and tamping down the taste of the offal inside the sheep’s stomach. I’d like to try some.
Anyway, welcome back to normal life. This was a worthy side quest.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 04/December/2023 @ 4:14 pm
With well over 100 Hashers, the start was a tad crowded.
When I first read that, I thought it said “100 Hamsters.”
Nice pics from the trail, what with the carabao, the stone “bridge-let,” the food, etc. Looks to have been a great event.
Have a safe trip back home.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 03/December/2023 @ 6:45 pm
Let me rephrase that:
I thought the “Mc” made you Irish.
Ah, senility…
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 03/December/2023 @ 12:12 am
Oh, and I thought the “Mac” made you Irish. I realize “Mac” or “Mc” is also used by the Scots (Ewan McGregor = Scottish), but I was sure you’d talked about your Irish heritage before. Maybe I’m misremembering. I do that a lot these days.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 02/December/2023 @ 5:42 pm
Nice pics of yesterday’s events. Good luck with today’s trail! May there be just the right number of hills—no fewer and no more.
Scottish stew looks good. Was there any haggis, and if there was, did you eat any?
And forgive me, but I have to ask:
End of trail food and beverages
On the wall behind the guys who are sitting there (purple and blue tee shirts), two images are painted. One looks like a dragon’s tail. But the other looks like a giant, brown penis with a ribbon tied around the shaft. Please tell me I’m not seeing what I’m seeing.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 02/December/2023 @ 11:56 am
Ah, that’s right… you said you never post from your phone. There’s a New Year’s resolution for you: learn how to do that.
Aine and Swan together… and it’s not awkward! Nice.
You did also mention, some time ago, that Filipinos dry their rice directly on the road, with no tarp to separate the rice from the dirt. Maybe there’s a step in the rice-making process that involves a bit of heavy-duty dirt-washing. Or is it up to the end user to wash the rice? (In Korea, despite the use of tarps while drying, rice is still thoroughly washed before cooking because there could be random bits of grit and schmutz.)
Good luck in La Union.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 01/December/2023 @ 4:42 pm
That’s close enough for me.
I like how the sign has no closed quotation mark. Why there’s any quotation mark is beyond me.
The belly is always the last to go, it seems.
Well, it’s a beer belly, so it’s not going anywhere.
The beer-belly phenomenon was something I began noticing years ago when I was a kid. It’s different from the “food gut” that people like me have. A food gut is more than just the gut: you get arm flab, butt fat, love handles, etc. But what I saw, from my youth onward, was these guys, mostly ex-military and huge drinkers, who would be skinny everywhere except their gut. They’d have flat asses, no man-boobs—just the beer belly.
So my thinking is that the only way to lose that huge tumor hanging off the front of the body is to quit drinking beer. The cause of the belly is obvious, and so is the solution. If a person is unwilling to do that, then he’s pretty much stuck with his tumor. Might as well get used to it, give it a name, treat it like a lady, etc. The only other way to lose the belly is to add exercise to the point where there’s a huge caloric deficit—over 1,000 calories a day. That, or diet very strictly.
Swan had attended an afternoon Mass at the local Catholic church.
So she’s a practicing Catlick. I don’t think that was ever made clear before, or did I not pay attention?
He should have put an anchor on her heart.
Okay, that “drifted apart” pun was so fucking stupid that it made me laugh.
re: “Walk of Life”
Have you seen the YouTube video series that proves “Walk of Life” can be used as the end-credit music for any movie or TV show?
Welcome to the Walk of Life Project.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 30/November/2023 @ 4:27 pm
Asleep at 8:30, wide awake at 1:30.
Ah, so that explains the early time stamp for your comments on my blog this morning. Deep sleep really eludes you. The cure for that, when you’re ready, is mildly intense cardio for an extended period. Find a hilly-but-otherwise-easy path, then stay on it for hours, and deep sleep will be yours. Yes, that’ll probably cut into beer time, but do you want deep sleep or not?
my blogging chore
It’s a chore, is it?
The door is a nice reflection on me, don’t ya think?
Got enough mirrors in there?
It continues to hold my interest[,] which is no easy task with me.
A mind devoted to and distracted by the superficial. Do you think you’d have the patience and focus to read through the Lord of the Rings books now? If not, what do you suppose happened between then and now to give you what the Zen folks call “monkey mind,” i.e., a mind that flits and darts around restlessly, unable to settle or sit still? Is there a cure? Do you even want a cure?
The dusk of which I spoke as viewed from the floating bar.
Very nice shot.
And it has been a fine day so far.
Dawn as well! Must be nice to live in a spot where you can see both beautiful sunrises and beautiful sunsets.
Your final video, there, reminds me of the Indian nipple song.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 29/November/2023 @ 6:32 pm
Close encounters of the weird kind
«« Back To Stats PageOkay, I’ll concede it was a stupid joke, but for her to interpret that I have a girlfriend and was with her is ridiculous. The girlfriend I was talking about was Swan. Anyway, instead of getting all pissy, she could have just said who are you talking about? I guess what really bothered me most was for her to take that joke the wrong way, says that she sees me as the kind of guy who would have a girlfriend on the side.
I don’t know Swan well enough to say, but is it possible that it’s simply a lack of full mastery of English that made her miss the humor? Sure, you could reply that, even if her English is shaky, she still should have been self-secure enough not to get mad. It’s true that “default to the negative” is pretty standard among (Asian) women. Maybe it’s some sort of evolutionary reflex. I don’t know. Maybe get her used to the joke by occasionally trying variants on her. If she says, “Wanna do lunch?”, you say, “I’ll have to ask my girlfriend first.” Hopefully, she’ll start getting it and will develop a sense of humor about it. Lack of fluency on the woman’s part got me in trouble once, which is why I ask about Swan.
Here’s a grammar-Nazi thing:
I guess what really bothered me most was for her to take that joke the wrong way, says that she sees me as the kind of guy who would have a girlfriend on the side.
This sentence is a tangled mess of clauses. Remember: a clause has a subject and a verb/predicate.
Clause 1: I guess
Clause 2: what really bothered me mostClause 2 is a noun clause serving as the object of Clause 1 and the subject for Clause 3:
Clause 3: [Clause 2] was
Clause 4: (infinitive clause) for her to take that joke the wrong way, saysNow, here’s the snag: you don’t put a comma between a subject and a predicate unless you’re using a pair of commas.
RIGHT: Jen sat down.
RIGHT: Jen, my new fuck buddy, sat down. (pair of commas)
WRONG: Jen, sat down.So the Clause 4 construction of “for her to take that joke the wrong way, says” needs to lose its comma, but the result is still cumbersome.
Clause 5: that she sees me as the kind of guy
Clause 6: who would have a girlfriend on the side.Clause 6 is an adjective clause modifying Clause 5.
Can we streamline this sentence at all? I think you could break it up into two or more sentences, or you could stick a “which” in there somewhere.
Rewrite 1: I guess what really bothered me most was how she took that joke the wrong way, which says that she sees me as the kind of guy who would have a girlfriend on the side.
Rewrite 2 (terser): What bothered me most was how she took the joke the wrong way. She sees me as the kind of guy to have a girl on the side.
Other rewrites are possible.
Signed,
Adolf Stickler
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 28/November/2023 @ 7:39 pm