Comments Posted By Kevin Kim
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Good luck finding regularity!
Glad that things seem to be going well. May you continue to prove me wrong. Maybe Pearl now understands that Dick was the wrong man for her. I hope her mother gets that, too.
Great pics of the hike.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 15/January/2022 @ 1:15 pm
Steady as she goes.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 13/January/2022 @ 3:12 pm
Our own vaccine-pass mandate kicks in as of tomorrow. Over a thousand Koreans are doing a class-action suit to take down the mandate on behalf of the unvaxxed, but I have a feeling the suit’s gonna fail. Good luck to you and your community.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 10/January/2022 @ 4:42 pm
Getting to the heart of the matter
Falling dick-first into 2022!
Well, I’d cheer you on, for what it’s worth, but until you understand what love really is (you talk about love enough, but always in a superficially romantic way), you’ll remain in the same samsaric cycle you’ve been in for years.
Be a fool, enjoy yourself, but don’t be surprised when you find yourself alone again. Maybe you’ve avoided the might-have-been with Pearl, but I suspect not. Good luck, for whatever that’s worth. And Here We Go Again.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 09/January/2022 @ 4:39 pm
“Scott took a tumble down a steep slope but was able to grab a banana tree to avert disaster.”
I was really hoping the next picture would show Scott all sprawled and broken at the bottom of the slope, but it alas—it was not to be. I assume there’s some hiker’s code of honor whereby no one takes pictures of others’ pratfalls.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 08/January/2022 @ 5:59 pm
Okay, standing by.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 07/January/2022 @ 12:39 pm
Theatrical “jealousy” among the bargirls, eh?
Well, it looks to have been a nice walk. Good luck as “Bill” tries to set you up with a girlfriend. May she not turn out to be the usual low-quality trash. And may you aim higher—way higher—in 2022!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 06/January/2022 @ 6:06 pm
A good trail to kick off 2022. Speaking of “2022,” which only just began, what does the “2022 total” column refer to? And is Almoranus’s name spelled correctly on that chart? You normally spell the last part “-anus” (his name becomes “All the More Anus” in my mind), but on the chart, it’s “-anas” like “bananas.” And I thought he was German; his real name sounds very French. Did I misunderstand something about him way back when, or is he simply a German who happens to have a French name?
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 04/January/2022 @ 6:31 pm
Welcome to the Hotel Central Park Reef
“There are men to gentle to live among wolves.”
Should be “too gentle.”
Both ways, eh? This book seems sloppily edited.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 03/January/2022 @ 3:03 pm
“Where are you hiding my love?”
No vocative comma, so I assume it’s the love itself that’s being hidden, and the poet wants to know where it is. Had there been a vocative comma (“Where are you hiding, my love?”), the poet would have been addressing his love and asking where she was hiding. Aside from that ambiguity (no comma = typo or not?), it’s a good poem. And You Know Who isn’t worthy of it. New year, new prospects.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 03/January/2022 @ 2:21 pm
The steaks look good.
As for noise… maybe this is what drives some people to live a simple life in the mountains. Go seek out a patch of land and “steak” your claim!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 02/January/2022 @ 4:17 pm
At least you got to ring in the new year among friends and friendly acquaintances. And that hike looked quite nice. You’ll have to ask Martin his secret as to how he manages to maintain a stable relationship with his gal (who seems way too hot for him, but this is the PI, I guess, so anything goes).
Happy 2022! You’ll do fine if you avoid the greedy, the selfish, the immature, the flaky, and the psychos. Shouldn’t be too hard, right?
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 01/January/2022 @ 10:53 pm
I hope it’s a good hike, and I wish you a Happy New Year! Thanks for a year of exciting ups and downs, and for continuing to educate us all about Filipino culture from an expat’s perspective. Onward to 2022!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 31/December/2021 @ 3:35 pm
Meant to say this a few posts ago, but I see that 18-kilo Ass lost his beard. No more Santa, I guess.
Julie looks cute, but proceed with caution. I hope “Julie” is a fake name.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 30/December/2021 @ 6:13 pm
Bars of Barretto: The Green Room (Updated September 8, 2022)
It was a good, educational tour through the various watering holes. Certainly gives me a better feel for where you live. I’m not a bar type, so I doubt I’d ever visit any of these places (unless they served food), but it’s been interesting to get a peek inside them and sample a bit of the ambiance. Thanks again.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 30/December/2021 @ 3:19 pm
“She messaged me last night with an apology saying her failure to show wasn’t about me but offering no real explanation as to what happened. Lesson learned, don’t try and take a bar “relationship” out of the bar. Still, it was quite disappointing.”
Yeah, if you can’t get past basic reliability issues, she’s not worth the effort. I’d give you my standard “seek a better quality of woman” spiel, but I get that this was supposed to be more of a lark than anything serious (right?). And Roan doesn’t seem like the actively malicious sort; she’s probably just a bit flaky, the way a lot of the local females seem to be. Slight disappointment, but no big loss.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 29/December/2021 @ 7:20 pm
Cloudy December day.
I heard via my boss that the Philippines endured a supertyphoon (Rai) that killed nearly 400 people some days ago. (CNN of course attributes the supertyphoon to climate change.) I assume it missed your part of the country since you haven’t written about it. All quiet where you are?
Nice pics of the hike. I hope the kids don’t become feral if you don’t give them candy.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 28/December/2021 @ 5:35 pm
Just a reminder that love is not servitude (“I want someone who will take care of me”) but is instead a partnership between equals who want to cultivate each other’s growth. Until that lesson gets hammered home, the cycle will continue. And as always, true love will not focus on money. Take money out of the equation with any of these women, and what do you have? Nada.
But if true love is not your goal, then yeah, just enjoy the ride, keeping in mind that what you’re doing is all empty. Fun, but empty.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 27/December/2021 @ 12:48 pm
Per the written song lyrics:
Mary Christmas and Happy New years!
If you’re already back to checking out the ladies’ asses and promising dinner to Aine, I think you’re well on your way to healing. “Prrrl” did indeed prove to be too girly and superficial, especially if she can’t see Dick for who he is. You’re better off without her, however magnificent she might be in the sack.
Anyway, a new year of excitement awaits, and you still have time to fuck the other half of the village. Looking forward to reading about more shenanigans in 2022.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 26/December/2021 @ 6:35 pm
Belated wishes for a Merry Christmas!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 25/December/2021 @ 11:35 pm
People in Korea perform similar theatrics in front of ATMs, always taking a million years to do God knows what. Koreans are funny, though: at times, they can be the most rushed people in the world, scrambling here and there in a desperate bid to go from A to B. At other times, they can be obnoxiously slow, not caring how they might be clogging up traffic behind them. The common denominator is that they only care about themselves, offering little to no consideration of those around them. ATMs are when Koreans become obnoxiously slow.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 24/December/2021 @ 6:29 pm
Another nice walk. Congrats on the darts win! 11-2 is a curb-stomping. And yeah, things’ll get better soon. They always do.
Remember the 22 Stages of Heartbreak?
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 23/December/2021 @ 8:47 pm
Life keeps moving forward whether we want it to or not. Meanwhile, Carol probably has a point. Have fun with hiking and darts!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 22/December/2021 @ 12:27 pm
People: source of both pain and joy. At least the local kiddies got something good. Meanwhile, I’m sure your sour mood will pass.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 21/December/2021 @ 2:42 pm
Sorry: TOO good to be true
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 20/December/2021 @ 12:37 pm
This whole thing has been one unpredictable roller coaster. Aspects of it seemed to good to be true, and based on the topsy-turvy nature of everything, I get the feeling this might not be done yet. Sit tight. She might end up texting you again after she’s had time to stew. Of course, it’s up to you to decide how much drama you’re willing to tolerate. For the moment, all I can say is, Sorry to hear things turned out as they did.
Was surprised to hear how aware she was, this whole time, of Dick’s amorous intentions, and yet she still persists in labeling him “friend.” The denial is strong in her. Or maybe she has had a thing for him this whole time: we all love it when someone pays attention to us, and Dick is pretty obsessive on that score (despite also being handsy with other women).
But it sounds as if Pearl is taking the typical “amputate, don’t negotiate” route of so many young Asian women. Easier to move on than to work the problems out. I think my early intuition that she’s young and immature—therefore flighty—was correct. But again, how much youthful zigzaggery are you willing to tolerate?
In many ways, she seemed like a better catch than all of the previous women. Seems sad to add her name to a growing roster, but as I said, it could well be the story’s not over. Not to give you false hope or anything, but if there’s one thing we’ve all learned on the subject of Pearl, it’s that she defies prediction.
Take your walk. Clear your head. Wait a bit.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 20/December/2021 @ 12:37 pm
For now, it sounds as if patience is the way to get through this. It stinks that Dick is nice to your face but obviously still working an angle through Pearl’s mom. Pearl’s claims of platonic friendship don’t square with Dick’s continued attempts to woo her, but I think, tentatively, that that’s more on him than on her. At the very least, Pearl is being honest when she says she considers Dick a friend, and she feels comfortable enough to vocalize concern for Dick’s welfare in front of you. I think it’s fair to say she’s really friends with Dick, but she also trusts you and, more, is intimate with you.
The problem is that Dick himself hasn’t totally given up on Pearl, but your previous posts have shown he’s a weepy, emotional bitch-child who also has trouble keeping his hands off other ladies, so his weird pursuit of Pearl doesn’t imply that he’d be exclusively committed to her even if he ever caught her.
My read of Dick is that there is some underlying deep denial of his situation and/or some kind of actual sickness. Actually, deep denial could itself be a sign of mental illness, which is, after all, about detachment from or rejection of reality to some degree. This would be the real reason to be cautious whenever Pearl claims to be friends with Dick: not that she’d ever succumb to his charms, but that Dick may be genuinely sick in the head and thus not the “friend” Pearl thinks he is. One thing your descriptions make screamingly clear is that Pearl, in her innocence, is thinking one thing, and Dick is obviously thinking another.
What to do, then? Don’t know. Proceed with caution, keep your eyes open, but continue to be patient and to appreciate Pearl’s openness and trust. I think she’s made plenty clear where she and Dick stand, so you can accept her word. But Dick is the one who needs watching. For now, he hasn’t done anything dangerous to Pearl, to Pearl’s mother, or to anyone else, but look for signs as to whether something might be building up inside his head and yearning for release.
My unprofessional assessment of Dick is that he’s constructed some sort of fantasy around himself, and the force of that fantasy is what convinces him to keep chasing Pearl. So he’s generally handsy with women in general on one hand, but he’s got a specific fixation on Pearl, too. Any of this make sense? In a sentence: Pearl’s not the one you should be careful or suspicious about. At this point, whatever her weird and cryptic emojis might be, she’s not the potentially toxic one, here.
Boy, Dick would make a great villain-character in a stage play about you PI expats. Your life is giving me ideas. Heh.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 19/December/2021 @ 6:28 pm
weepy + handsy = crazy
I think, yes, you can safely write Dick off as yet another headcase expat who’s too much of a loser to survive in his home country. I’d almost pity him if he weren’t such a… Dick.
This does put a lot of Pearl’s behavior in a more positive light. She may be like many folks who simply don’t know what to do when the crazies come around. I’ve seen folks get frazzled in front of homeless people in DC, not knowing how to respond to their shenanigans. Pearl just needs to learn to develop a thicker skin around such people.
Some folks with mental problems become benign like “mama”; others become toxic like Dick (imagine that pitiful fucker when he’s fifteen years older… Gawd).
From everything you’re describing, though, Dick is definitely sounding like a headcase. Maybe gently suggest to Pearl that she can easily cultivate other business than whatever Dick provides. She doesn’t need his money. Or his friends (who, at a guess, are probably also mental). She can afford to give him the cold shoulder.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 17/December/2021 @ 6:18 pm
Bars of Barretto: Cheap Charlies
“And don’t be like Sleepy Joe and call it Sit-n-Bowl.”
Have you seen the compilation video of Joe Biden constantly saying “expodentially” when he means “exponentially”? As the righties say: if Trump had gaffed like that, it’d be front-page news.
Cheap Charlies sounds like a keeper. Thanks for the tour. Alma is cuter than you give her credit for.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 17/December/2021 @ 5:22 pm
«« Back To Stats Page“you do understand that Pearl and I are thing, right?”
Should be:
“you do understand that Pearl and I are a thing, right?”
Gettin’ old.
Thirsty also has a legit take on the situation, although if a customer is saying he wants to have babies with you and bequeath you his stuff, that strikes me as more than “just business.” Still, Thirsty’s main point is to proceed with caution, which is advisable.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 16/December/2021 @ 6:06 pm