Comments Posted By Kevin Kim
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Bars of Barretto: Rock Lobster
What, no link to the “Rock Lobster” song (or to the various “Family Guy” versions of it)?
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 19/November/2021 @ 12:08 pm
Well, distance is distance, and your walks are all hillier.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 19/November/2021 @ 2:27 pm
Interesting. An acropolis that’s also a necropolis.
With a yearly total of close to 6.2 million steps, you’ve walked from Incheon to Busan along the Four Rivers path about six times. Good job. And the year’s not over yet!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 18/November/2021 @ 5:41 pm
Congrats on the win!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 17/November/2021 @ 6:06 pm
…it’s simply an erroneous modifier than contains a participle.
Whoops—”THAT contains”
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 18/November/2021 @ 10:28 pm
A dangling participle is pretty much the same animal; it’s simply an erroneous modifier than contains a participle. Here’s an example of a dangling participle:
Sitting obliviously on the branch, the dangers of the jungle were completely hidden from Ted.
“Sitting” is the present-participial form of “to sit.” It’s part of a modifier for the clause whose subject ought to be “Ted.”
Aside from present participles (which end in “-ing”), there are past participles, such as “driven” in the sentence “He has driven a long way to see you.” So those are your two types of participles: present and past.
If we were to rewrite the “Ted” sentence to remove the error, we might write something like:
The dangers of the jungle were completely hidden from Ted as he sat obliviously on the branch.
Or:
Sitting obliviously on the branch, Ted noticed none of the dangers of the jungle.
So, above, you have a participle that doesn’t dangle. Some dangling modifiers have no participles, though:
As a child, French was difficult.
This should be:
As a child, I found French difficult.
Or:
French was difficult for me when I was a child.
Other correct sentences are also possible.
I think I’ve dangled enough. Don’t want to scare Soju.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 18/November/2021 @ 12:53 am
Will try to avoid mention of “dangling” things in the future, Soju.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 17/November/2021 @ 6:07 pm
The error is called a “dangling modifier,” which sounds vaguely phallic. Specifically, if you start your sentence with the modifier “Having marked the trail on Sunday,” then the subject of the main clause needs to be the person doing the marking (see below, italics).
Having marked the trail on Sunday, we had nothing left to do except give last-minute instructions to the Hashers…
Since we did the marking, “we” needs to be the subject of the clause.
Dangling modifiers are tricky, and they usually come from a place of, “Well, I know what I meant when I wrote that.” Sometimes, the brain skips ahead of the fingers on the keyboard.
Your second correction is okay except for the comma error you introduce (comma after “Yesterday”). Your first correction shows you didn’t see the dangling modifier: “all” is still the subject of the clause.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 16/November/2021 @ 6:09 pm
Looks to have been a good walk. I’m glad the Hashers enjoyed the trail, and that no one got lost.
Spot the error:
Having marked the trail on Sunday, all that was left for us to do yesterday was to give the last-minute instructions to the Hashers and send them on their way, then wait for their return.
Hint: not a comma error.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 16/November/2021 @ 5:15 pm
Sorry to hear about the Quora asshole, and to hear that Quora keeps deleting your replies while leaving worse responses up.
Are you somehow contributing to the continued misery of Filipinos? It’s a complicated question, but the short answer is: I doubt it. I do know this, though: throwing money at a widespread endemic problem might salve the conscience, but it does nothing to solve the problem.
I used to work extensively with the homeless in the DC area, especially along the Route 1 corridor in northern Virginia. The homeless deal with all sorts of issues, chief among them being mental illness. Years later, I moved away, but one thing I know is that the homeless problem remains, despite the constant actions of hundreds, maybe thousands, of people who have tried (and still try) to help these folks. Poverty can be thought of as a bell-curve phenomenon: it affects real people, but statistically speaking, there will always be poor folks, and there will always be folks flush with money, and we normies occupy the fat part of the bell curve. For every person I might help, there are a hundred more needing help, and this will always be the case. “The poor you will always have with you,” Jesus famously said. It’s a line in the Bible that makes liberal Christians uncomfortable because they think, in Marxist terms, that we can eventually reach a point of egalitarian bliss (through revolution), and Jesus is specifically denying that possibility. Because he understood human nature.
That said, it’s possible that your presence in the Philippines feeds an ongoing dynamic, a post-colonial cycle of poverty. But people who think in this aggrieved way (“You owe me!”) are engaged in systems-thinking, not individuals-thinking. Any individual can, even with the odds stacked against him, rise above his station. It takes time, effort, focus, and force of character, but it’s possible. This is certainly the American ideal, not the idea that we are all trapped where we are (which is the leftist message of movies like “Parasite”—try as you might, you’ll never leave your socioeconomic stratum, not without violence).
Your nasty critic is obviously a systems-thinker who can’t see past post-colonialism to the idea that an individual Filipino/a might work hard and make something of him/herself. And your acquaintance Maris fits the schema I’m talking about as well, giving up too easily and too early. She obviously lacks the will, and the character, to truly succeed, and in her case, it’s doubly a shame because her little restaurant seemed to be on a positive track. I’d been rooting for her. Now, I have little sympathy.
And that’s why I made my “walking ATM” comment on your other post. You might think of yourself as helping the poor, and maybe you are, but the help is only momentary, and ultimately, those good folks need to help themselves. As for helping the one woman with surgery, I’d call that an unequivocally good deed: real help leading to real results. Her hospital sucked, for sure, but she got treated. Hopefully, she’s doing better.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 15/November/2021 @ 3:22 pm
Does the circularity of the bar change the ambiance in any way?
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 15/November/2021 @ 1:03 pm
Am only now beginning to realize just how many of these bars are in your area. That’s a long list, and I assume it’s only gonna get longer.
What, in your opinion, makes for the perfect bar? (Or should I just reread your entry re: It Doesn’t Matter?)
Will you be reviewing any local bars that you’ve never been to before, or have you visited them all at this point?
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 14/November/2021 @ 10:29 am
“Grass without Dan” cracked me up.
Congrats on the darts win.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 13/November/2021 @ 8:11 pm
re: “literally”
One of the few times when I’d agree a comma is marking a pause, and that that pause alters the meaning of the sentence.
re: giving
I think a lot of ladies are happy to have a walking ATM to help them out, but if you’re happy, too, then it’s all good.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 12/November/2021 @ 6:22 pm
187 floors = up only, or up and down, total? If it’s up only, that’s pretty impressive. At 14 feet per floor (source), that’s a change in elevation of 2618 feet.
As to that house in the middle of nowhere—how do you suppose they deal with garbage? Does a garbage crew come around, or must they tote their trash down the mountain to a dumping point?
Wings look good.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 11/November/2021 @ 5:29 pm
Here’s hoping the bar’s future continues to look bright. Good luck with that kitchen!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 11/November/2021 @ 2:59 pm
You okay with the level of health care they provide in the Philippines? For yourself, I mean? Korean health care still leaves me leery, despite a week in a hospital (or maybe because of that week), and I can’t help thinking the quality of care would be better in the States, even if it’s not stellar.
On a totally different topic: what makes a Salisbury steak different from a hamburger patty? The presence of gravy and mushrooms?
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 10/November/2021 @ 12:27 pm
Really felt those ups and downs in this set of photos. How do you make different-colored routes on that map at the beginning?
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 09/November/2021 @ 6:38 pm
You could, arguably, put a comma in front of “either,” but it’s not really necessary, as the style on that point has been changing. Sort of like “Me too” versus “Me, too.” When comma-related styles change, it’s usually to the detriment of the comma. Here as elsewhere, the Brits lead the Americans. They really hate commas over there.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 08/November/2021 @ 6:41 pm
She doesn’t dress in the traditional manner, but she is true to the faith in other ways, like no pork and no alcohol.
I’m sure you’re aware that non-halal Muslims abound, just as there are plenty of Jews who don’t think twice about eating pepperoni pizza (which violates kosher several ways: pepperoni is pork, the pig is cloven-hoofed but not a ruminant, and you’re not supposed to eat meat along with milk).
Of course, I’m not a religious man and don’t abide by the tenants of any faith, but I also wouldn’t convert from my agnostic lifestyle either, even for the sake of love.
Spot the vocabulary error.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 08/November/2021 @ 3:28 pm
Bars of Barretto: It Doesn’t Matter
Have you thought about getting a retirement visa? Sounds as if that would save you some hassle every 90 or so days.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 08/November/2021 @ 6:44 pm
Again with the foreign ownership that shouldn’t be possible. Creative paperwork behind the scenes, I gather. These guys never get any hassles from immigration?
Anyway, It Doesn’t Matter looks to be a nice hangout.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 08/November/2021 @ 3:16 pm
Mighty fine-looking ribeye. I just bought a mess of steaks to practice on. Didn’t get a ribeye or anything fancy, but baby steps, right?
That ATM situation sounds crazy. I didn’t realize the townies (and you) could be so particular about their ATMs.
Interesting that you’d turn down bulgogi and rice but be willing to consider a French dip, which has bread, or Mexican, which also has rice.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 07/November/2021 @ 10:19 pm
Who needs love[,] anyway?
Robin Williams put the choice between “Miss Right” and “Miss Right Now.”
Nice views of the trail and mountains. I saw that view down to Alta Vista and wondered how wistful you might be after having moved. How happy have you been with your new place? Liking it so far, or do you have ambitions to move elsewhere?
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 06/November/2021 @ 6:26 pm
Guess you can’t mess with a sentimental favorite. I feel a bit sorry for Dynamite Dick’s, though, because it keeps sinking in the rankings.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 06/November/2021 @ 12:09 pm
I look forward to the hike pictures.
Wings look good.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 05/November/2021 @ 4:50 pm
Bars of Barretto: Blue Butterfly
Looks to be a tidy and cozy place. The girls look cute, too, but I guess much depends on which girls are in rotation.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 05/November/2021 @ 12:44 pm
I forgot you had dogs.
That’s a lot of barbed wire for one trail. For Hash purposes, do you tie cautionary ribbons onto the barbed wire or leave some sort of warning sign? Will this trail even be used for the Hash if it’s that dangerous, or would this not be considered dangerous at all?
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 04/November/2021 @ 5:47 pm
I’ve never heard the “It’s okay to leave out apostrophes” rule before. Sounds lazy and idiotic. Evolution, my ass.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 03/November/2021 @ 11:00 am
«« Back To Stats PageThe French adjective “pénible” (annoying, bothersome) came to mind as I read your description of this trail. But, hey, it was an experience.
I’m confused: is it “Hunter’s Jo” or “Hunter Jo’s”?
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 02/November/2021 @ 3:11 pm