Comments Posted By Kevin Kim
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Happy anniversary! Three years already! Feels as though you just got here yesterday, but you’re right: you’re established now. Will you be moving once every three years, or are you thinking this will be your permanent residence? Whatever happens, I’m sure it’ll be an adventure! Here’s to many more years in the Philippines!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 11/May/2021 @ 6:31 pm
Good luck to today’s Hashers.
Zen Buddhism has all sorts of stories about rude actions by monks. Click this link to my blog, then scroll down the post until you hit the boldface text. The story of Buddhist rudeness told there is legendary.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 10/May/2021 @ 4:01 pm
“In the judicial system here, it is always the foreigner’s fault.”
Yeah, that sounds familiar. “Our tribe” über alles.
I hope your “not the best of days” is over and done with.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 10/May/2021 @ 9:41 am
The bottom sign is awesome, but putting scare quotes around “free” inadvertently implies “not really free.” People need to stop using quotes in place of boldface, italics, large font, all-caps, and underlining when they’re trying to emphasize something. Aside from that quibble, I agree entirely.
Good luck with your upcoming landlord fight. You gonna lawyer up, or is it just not worth the trouble?
The new place looks pretty good. Congratulations on (1) making the firm decision to move, and (2) actually moving. I hope your dogs like the place as much as you do. And I hope you’re not “maintaining two places” for too long.
What’s a CR? A crap room?
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 09/May/2021 @ 8:55 pm
My buddy JW also claims to hate backtracking. What is with you guys? Why is backtracking such a horrible thing?
Anyway, I enjoyed the photos. Good luck finding a way to your destination next time! I expect a slew of Tibag-ing jokes next time.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 08/May/2021 @ 4:49 pm
“Joy, on the other hand, seems to sincerely think of me as a friend.”
Dude. Really? Well, I’ll be curious to see where this goes. Avowals of horniness just seem like a way to keep the fish on the hook. But hey, if it works for you…
Yeah, operating within a system of grammatical rules can feel oppressive. The paradox of freedom, though, is that mastery of rules can lead to great things. The three-year-old who fingerpaints doesn’t know any of the rules of art and therefore won’t produce any world-class masterpieces, but the disciplined artist can, godlike, create portals into glorious new universes.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 08/May/2021 @ 10:55 am
Ach! The comma saga continues! What error do these two sentences have in common?
1. It just seemed that my get up and go, got up and left.
2. All I know is that everything you know, is wrong.So here’s a new comma rule: don’t separate the subject from the predicate with a comma. Wanna kill a grasshopper? Take a spoon and shove it down between the insect’s head and the rest of its body. The resultant beheaded creature might live a while, but in the end, it’ll die. Using a comma to separate the two principal parts of your sentence kills the sentence. (Was that a dramatic enough image for you? Heh.)
People probably insert commas after the subject because they’re still blindly following the old “commas mark a pause” guideline. The problem is that there are pauses we make in spoken English that don’t merit commas in written English.
Imagine replacing “my get up and go” with “Jenny.”
Jenny, got up and left.
Oops. See?
You might think, “Well, ‘get up and go’ is a long expression, which is why I thought a comma was needed.” Nerp. “Get up and go” still serves as a subject in the singular, long or not.
As for “Everything you know, is wrong,” take out the adjective clause “you know” and see whether the sentence works with a comma.
Everything, is wrong.
Again: nein.
So that’s the rule: don’t behead your sentences by cleaving them in twain with unnecessary commas.
There is an exception, though: if you’re inserting an appositive (i.e., a descriptor or modifier, usually in phrasal form) that’s surrounded by TWO commas, then that’s okay. Examples:
Fred, who knows a thing or two about syphilis, regaled us with tales of his most recent irresponsible sexcapades.
Art, an avid marathoner, just had a heart attack.
Et voilà.
As for the “business, not kindness” image in your post, I agree with it. But you knew I would. Sex for favors, items, or money is still prostitution, so why not just call it bangin’ hos? Because you’re violating those women’s dignity? They’ve already done that to themselves by stooping (ahem) to such work. And hey, I’m not judging—what you do is your own business, and I’m never going to tell you to stop doing it. Boom-boom away, mi amigo! I certainly don’t think you’re going to hell, and besides, what does it matter what my opinion is, anyway? But please be honest with yourself about what’s really going on instead of trying to pretty it up in your own mind. It’s a gritty reality, not a pretty reality.
In other news… the trail pics are as awesome as always, and the ribs look damn good. I might have to go to the local Costco and buy a huge rack of ribs. I also have a second slow cooker now, thanks to my boss, so maybe it’s time to cook something huge—something with “pulled” in the name.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 07/May/2021 @ 11:19 pm
Heh. I wrote, “both side of the pond.” Thus is it ever goes for the language scold.
In my defense, I had an English coworker, years ago, who spoke with a strong northern accent, and who would say things like, “I saw ‘im two, tree month ago”—with no “s” on “months” (and with “three” sounding like “tree”). So, hell, if he can drop an “s,” then by God, so can I!
[/silliness]
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 07/May/2021 @ 9:13 pm
Daeguowl,
“Perfectly acceptable” is not the same as “perfectly grammatical,” of course, but I agree with the notion that certain locutions may be more or less acceptable in the US or UK context. I’m pretty sure that, technically speaking, my above explanation of linking verbs applies equally on both side of the pond. That said, it’s also a commonplace that people speak and write ungrammatically all the time, and this is acceptable. For example, Americans say, “There’s a lotta people in this room” instead of “There are…”—and no one bats an eye.
To answer your question more directly: Americans don’t normally say “I’m feeling poorly,” although maybe some—like ol’ John, here—do. Perhaps John can vouch for whether that’s some sort of regionalism. Certain American regionalisms do, in fact, come from Britain, so there may be a connection.
I knew a woman who used to misuse the word “anymore” because of where she came from. She’d say something like, “Gas prices are going up anymore,” with “anymore” being her surrogate for “these days.” Normally, “anymore” is used with negatives and interrogatives: “Is he there anymore? We don’t see him anymore.” So from the perspective of “proper” English, the lady’s idiosyncratic use is incorrect, but it’s also only natural because of where she’s from.
Scroll down and read Dictionary.com’s usage note for “anymore” here.
Now that I’ve beaten the issue to death, as I usually do, I’ll sign off here, and you won’t see me in this particular comment thread anymore.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 07/May/2021 @ 8:57 pm
And this is the comment in which I offer my sympathies re: the state of your health. Sorry to read that lethargy has struck again. Keep an eye on that; if you see a pattern (and blogging these instances will allow you to check for a pattern later on), maybe it’s time to seek medical attention.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 06/May/2021 @ 8:15 pm
Let’s skip comma issues (of which there are many!) and focus on this:
“Truth is, I’m feeling poorly today.”
The verb “feel” is what we call a linking verb. It links some noun or modifier in the predicate back to the subject. The most common linking verb is the verb “to be.” It introduces the predicate and takes a predicate nominative (a noun in the predicate) or a predicate adjective. Examples:
1. John is an American. (pred. nom. = American)
2. John is horny. (pred. adj. = horny)Most of the other major linking verbs are associated with sense/perception. These linking verbs would be: seem, appear, look, sound, taste, smell, and feel. Linking verbs DO NOT take adverbs, which is why you should never say, “I feel badly.”*
Examples of proper usage:
1. That seems easy.
2. He appears drunk.
3. You look confused.
4. That sounds lovely. (lovely = adj., not adv.)
5. Your son’s skin feels reptilian.
6. This tastes shitty.
7. Your fart smells nasty.Try using adverbs with some linking verbs, and you’ll see it doesn’t work:
1. That seems easily.
2. He appears drunkenly.
3. You look confusedly.
4. That sounds lovelily. (“lovelily” does exist!)
5. Your son’s skin feels reptilianly. (not a word)
6. This tastes shittily.
7. Your fart smells deliciously.So that’s how you know not to use an adverb after a linking verb. By the way, a horny guy like you will be happy to know that a linking verb also goes by the technical name of copula. Who knew grammar could be so conjugal?
Upshot: no “I feel poorly” or “I feel badly.” People use “badly” because they think they’re being more grammatically correct. It somehow sounds more literate to the uneducated mind. Donald Trump made the mistake of trying to correct a woman who had said “I feel bad” by interjecting a terse “Badly.” He simply made himself look dumb, and he followed that up with a four-year storm of tweets that confirmed his lack of mastery of English. To be clear, I’m a supporter of most of Trump’s policies, but even his supporters have to admit the man was and is a linguistic retard.
__________
*This is where all the smartasses chime in and say, “But what if I’m trying to say that my tactile faculties are dysfunctional, resulting in my ‘feeling badly’?” Oh, fuck off. In such a situation, you’re more likely to say “Ah cain’t feel nuthin’,” or “Ah’m numb,” or something like that.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 06/May/2021 @ 7:49 pm
Burrito-folding with Sam the Cooking Guy: here.
I can’t remember whether I asked this long ago… but is “Gracyn” pronounced “Grace-in” or “Grass-in”?
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 05/May/2021 @ 9:00 pm
Many happy returns to Gracyn!
That burrito looks more like a taco, but it’s all in how you fold the tortilla. You need to show us a video of your tortilla-folding skills! We must see the burrito in its final form!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 05/May/2021 @ 5:35 pm
Haven’t seen any Jollibees here, but then again, I haven’t been actively checking. Let’s do a quick Google search for “Jollibee Seoul”…
I’m getting mixed messages. There are some videos out there that seem to promote the Jollibee-Korea idea, while other websites seemingly try to answer the question of why there’s no Jollibee in Korea. Yet more sites seem to contend that the well-established Lotteria is, in fact, Korea’s Jollibee. Wikipedia has what appears to be a definitive entry on overseas Jollibee establishments, and it says there’s no Jollibee in Korea. Japan, meanwhile, is making plans to have one or more Jollibee branches soon.
So at a guess, Jollibee hasn’t graced Korean shores yet. But if the company is expanding as aggressively as it seems, I’ll likely see a Jollibee soon.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 05/May/2021 @ 12:36 pm
Do you have a whole collection of “post” pictures at the ready, or do you take a post picture that is exclusively meant for the blog post where it appears?
15th image down: that Pubic Head’s a naughty one, isn’t he…
The Champ Burger looks pretty good. The fearful, cowardly side of me must ask, though: did it have onions? If yes, can you order one without onions?
Looks to have been a good trail. Good luck with the upcoming Hare-ing. May you lay out much white powder, O King of Cocaine.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 04/May/2021 @ 4:59 pm
Good rewrite, but tuck your period in for the final “there.”
Yeah, by “unnecessary,” I literally meant “not needed,” the implication being that the extra commas’ presence was incorrect.
A British criticism of US-style punctuation is that it’s less logical. In British thinking, quotation marks are there to convey content, while punctuation conveys tone. Tucking a period or question mark inside the quotes forces the quotes to conflate content and tone. To be honest, I actually agree with the Brits on this count: UK punctuation is more logical. But given the independent evolution of US and UK English, the rules are the rules. If you’re a Yank, and you’re not trying for a pretentious, over-affected, Anglophile delivery, stick to writing like a Yank and don’t be a linguistic Benedict Arnold.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 04/May/2021 @ 7:32 am
You just don’t wanna read my comma series deeply, do you?
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 03/May/2021 @ 11:54 pm
That full-moon photo shows what I like to call a “unibutt”—a single grand, shapeless buttock hidden under Asian women’s clothing. Unibutts exist in droves here in Seoul, where only the very bravest are motivated to wear tight, crack-revealing clothing. Well-defined butts are hard to find. Not that I’m in any position to critique other people’s asses, of course; I have the greatest, blobbiest unibutt of them all.
Then there’s this:
I have to do a mental checklist whenever I leave the house–phone, vapes, wallet, darts–or else I’ll invariably get halfway down the street and have an, “Oh, shit”, moment. I’m notorious for bad grammar and punctuation, but these days, even shit I know, I get wrong. I’m thinking, “their”, but my brain tells my fingers to type “there”.
Gettin’ British with the punctuation again! Also: there’re a few unnecessary commas in the above snippet (three or four).
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 03/May/2021 @ 3:38 pm
Masterful analysis by Brian.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 03/May/2021 @ 10:13 am
Oh, by the way:
“.Me: Oh yeah? Well, your grandpa’s no better either”
You managed four punctuation errors in that little space. This is how I know you’re just trolling.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 02/May/2021 @ 9:22 pm
Good to know that you know the people living above you. If you do any grilling, you could always be neighborly and invite them down to have some chow with you.
Things I’d like to try from John Kim’s menu:
1. lapu lapu fish & chips
2. chicken parm
3. loaded-meat pizza
4. lamb burger
5. peppercorn-roasted beef tenderloin (lg.)
6. chilitos burritos
7. birria tacos
8. lamb tacos
9. mini bacon-wrap chicken
10. bulgogi with rice
11. ribeye brisket burger
12. Philly cheesesteak
13. French dip
14. chicken Caesar salad
15. Thai beef saladMight take a few days to eat my way through those menu selections. They all sound good, though.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 02/May/2021 @ 6:22 pm
Rock on.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 04/May/2021 @ 9:27 pm
Reactions to rewrites:
1. Yes, indeed: if you’re British, then the period should be outside the quotation mark. If you’re a damn Yankee, though, you need to tuck the period inside.
2. Correct! That was too much of a hint. Problem is… I’m not sure you understand the why behind the punctuation. You’ll need to go back and reread post #1 in my comma series. Or just read on: I’ll explain further below.
3. This was actually a cluster of three sentences, and each sentence had one or more problems. For the first sentence, you wrote:
Sometimes, it’s a personality conflict, and other times I find the lack of situational awareness frustrating.
The comma before the “and” was the crucial addition. The comma after “Sometimes” was more a stylistic matter than a matter of strict grammatical rigor. Normally, the guideline is: put a comma at the end of an introductory phrase (This past September, I got my first pubic hair.). So many people are ignoring this guideline, though, that it’s safe to say it’s falling out of favor. Old-schoolers like me still do it, but every once in a while, even I will neglect the comma.
The problem, though, is that if you decide to follow the comma-after-intro-phrase rule, you have to be consistent about it. That sentence contains a second intro phrase: “and [at] other times.” If you put a comma after “Sometimes,” then you have to put a comma after “other times,” which introduces a second independent clause.
But again, you put in the crucial comma before the “and,” and that matters most.
To spell it out: when you’re separating two independent clauses, you have to use a comma-conjunction to do so. By “conjunction,” I mean a coordinating conjunction like for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so, i.e., the so-called FANBOYS. Instead of the comma-conjunction, it’s also possible to use a semicolon. Using a comma when you actually need a semicolon is called a comma splice. For example: It’s raining out, you’ll need an umbrella. Corrected: It’s raining out; you’ll need an umbrella. Or: It’s raining out, so you’ll need an umbrella.
For your second and third sentences in that snippet, you did indeed put the commas where they needed to be. Woo-hoo!
In many cases, correct comma usage comes down to the ability to define what clauses are, to know a clause when you see one, and to know what type of clause you’re looking at. Again, post #1 of my comma series goes into all that.
So for me, the frustration is this: when I point out, specifically, that there’s an error in a given sentence, you’re often pretty good about making the correction. This makes me wonder why, if you’re aware of what the correct way to write something is, you keep making these mistakes. I know you’ve said that you write according to what sounds good, but to me, that sounds like you haven’t bothered to read my posts on commas at all—or you’ve read them and decided to ignore them. Going by what “sounds good” or “sounds natural” or “seems to flow” is never a good way to approach writing. There are almost always grammatical and mechanical rules to help you figure out how to write a certain locution correctly. Once you learn those rules, it all becomes a matter of habit, and you’re able to listen to a properly authoritative voice in your head that tells you what’s legitimately right or wrong.
Anyway, thanks for being a good sport about all this. Not many folks have a tolerance for the grammatically preachy.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 02/May/2021 @ 6:01 pm
Guess I should’ve said “problematic locutions” rather than “problematic sentences,” given that selection #3 is actually two sentences. Ah, senility.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 02/May/2021 @ 2:52 am
Congrats on the unlikely win!
But now, Mr. I’m Working on My Punctuation, it’s time to face the music! I’ll show you three problematic sentences and offer you a hint for solving each problem:
1. When I’m throwing poorly, rather than think about my mechanics, I tell myself to “focus”.
Hint: you’re not British. If you were, this wouldn’t be a problem because it’s perfectly legitimate in British English.
2. Everyone has a chance to draw a good partner, sometimes you do, sometimes you don’t.
Hint: look up “comma splice” on my blog. The way I’d solve this, stylistically, is by replacing one comma with a semicolon and adding a conjunction after the other comma. That’s too much of a hint, frankly.
3. Sometimes it’s a personality conflict, other times I find their lack of situational awareness frustrating. Again, my reaction is on me and I don’t fault my partner overtly, it just messes with my head sometimes and throws me off my game.
Hint: three errors in the above, maybe five. The “maybe fourth” error comes right at the beginning; the “maybe fifth” error comes later in the same sentence. These “maybe” errors are more a matter of style than of grammatical rigor.
And I have to ask: was that “I find their lack of situational awareness frustrating” a nod to Darth Vader’s “I find your lack of faith disturbing”?
I could go on, as there are many such errors in this post, but three examples will suffice, methinks. Continue your Jedi training!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 01/May/2021 @ 8:44 pm
Congrats on the two-dog provision. I wonder if that landlady wants your money more than she cares about the number of pooches. Should desperation be a warning sign? Examine your prospective new place for cracks, drainage problems, tiny insects in dark corners, grit and cobwebs, moldy/funky wallpaper or paint, weird smells emanating from pipes and drains, and the potentially-noisy-neighbor situation.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 30/April/2021 @ 10:23 pm
“I know you have three openings. There are, however, a few more openings than those, but I can’t fit myself into them. So we’ll have to make do with the three you mentioned.”
I’m not seeing any masks in the final Dick’s photo (does Dick have anything to do with those three openings?). That’s a good sign to me.
What a Freudian post, eh? Dick, three openings, and faceless virgins.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 29/April/2021 @ 7:39 pm
Big decision, and yeah, your landlord is stupid. If you’ve been overpaying this entire time, then he’s probably already got the $2000 he needs to make his repairs. He can’t claim empty pockets after fleecing someone for years.
Have you thought about switching from renting to buying (through a Filipino acquaintance, I imagine)?
Good luck with the move, and with the new neighbors. I hope to see pics of the interior once you’ve settled in and gotten the new place the way you like it.
As for the Namsan pic of me… yeah, keep gloating. Revenge will be mine one day. I’ll pull a Biden and challenge you to a pushup contest.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 28/April/2021 @ 9:37 pm
Lovely pics as per usual. And the ladies seemed overall cuter than usual, too. I noticed you did the gentlemanly thing and didn’t go for a “bite down on the wiener” joke for that one photo.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 27/April/2021 @ 6:13 pm
«« Back To Stats PageGlad to know the meat worked out. Even if the rub floated off the beef, it was still in the water during the slow cook, so it would have added some flavor, anyway.
You still on good terms with “mama”?
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 26/April/2021 @ 5:47 pm