Comments Posted By Kevin Kim
Displaying 2,611 To 2,640 Of 4,392 Comments
Looks to have been rough but worthwhile. Thanks as always for the lovely pics!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 07/January/2021 @ 6:32 pm
Ouch. Damn. Shouldn’t you see a doctor about your back? That sounds worrisome. Even if the pain does go away, you’ll still be left to wonder about the original cause. Not knowing the cause, you have no way of knowing how to prevent a recurrence.
Your friend wrote:
“Though, before any of that happens, you have to decide if you’re going to buy a ticket. Sure, you’re going to have a lot of losing tickets, but when you hit the jackpot, it’ll all have been worth it. I mean, that’s what my Dad tells me about [t]he lottery, anyway, but I [don’t] think those are his views on love after fifty years of marriage, especially when considering my mom.”
Is he saying his mom’s a bitch? I’m not clear on this, and your friend sounds mighty ambivalent about love as a result.
As for this:
“I’ve heard that advice about changing the company I keep somewhere before.”
Yes. Yes, you have, at least with regard to the quality of woman you seem(ed) to be looking for. I’m convinced, though, that what you’re really looking for is closer to servitude than to love: someone pleasant who laughs at the jokes, someone who nods in agreement and doesn’t argue, needle, or nag—someone warm and pink and wet on the inside for when the urges strike, and who operates on your schedule. Not an equal, not a true companion or partner, but more like a paid fuck-valet. Heh. If you’re truly after love, then you have to accept all the nagging, needling, and arguing: a woman’s got her own mind, and in a healthy relationship, you two are equal partners, co-adventuring through life, nurturing each other, helping each other grow, and deepening your commitment. I haven’t seen any evidence you’re really willing to lay yourself out for that sort of mutuality or reciprocity. If you were, your focus wouldn’t constantly be on young, tight asses. The inherent inequality that comes with a massive age gap seems to be your comfort zone. Prove me wrong by finding someone saggy-titted but awesome, and who’s over fifty.
“It’s my nature to never be satisfied with what I have until it’s gone.”
For what it’s worth, I think that’s just the human condition. It’s why a religion like Buddhism exists.
You’re not an asshole as far as I’m concerned, but different ladies are obviously going to have different opinions of you. Anyway, please get your back checked by a professional. You don’t want that shit happening again. However much we might view your relationship-related struggles as a series of train wrecks caused by a stubborn refusal to learn from mistakes and an over-attachment to your horny-adolescent past, we do care about you, and we want to see you happy and healthy. In a sense, you’re already there: I can see how much you love being in the PI, and how much the surrounding community means to you, even when the folks drive you crazy.
Anyway, good luck with the back pain, asshole!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 06/January/2021 @ 10:21 pm
Oh, yeah: I assume your blog post’s title is meant to be pronounced “Foe, you!” since faux—in both English and French— is pronounced the French way, i.e., “foh.” (Not the same as the Vietnamese “pho” which, as you know, is pronounced “fuh,” as if you were partway through a particularly pungent swear word.)
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 05/January/2021 @ 7:14 pm
Still can’t get over those hilarious Hash names. Looks to have been a good time for everyone, including the Hash virgins.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 05/January/2021 @ 6:40 pm
I guess Mary went out with a bang, eh?
Happy alt-Hashing.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 04/January/2021 @ 3:03 pm
Good way to start 2021! Congrats on the victories. Pork chop looks good, too, but the plate it’s on looks chipped.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 04/January/2021 @ 12:07 am
I keep marveling at the difference in climate between the PI and the ROK. We’re at sub-freezing temperatures here in Seoul. The Han hasn’t frozen over yet, but it won’t be long now. Seeing the pic of that guy lazing about on the ground (“At least I’m not this guy…”) simply reinforced the point about how warm it is where you are. Unreal.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 03/January/2021 @ 12:56 am
So many brace-faced smiles! Most of those ladies look too old for braces, too. Is that a thing in the Philippines? Braces?
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 01/January/2021 @ 5:58 pm
A Ray-O-Lite on Mount Santa Rita
I’m never gonna live that Namsan hike down, am I?
“After marching up the road a kilometer or so, we had to get signed in at a military checkpoint.”
“Bataan Death March” jokes aside, that’s how you use the word “checkpoint”!
Didn’t see any 20% grades, so you know how it goes: if there are no photos, it didn’t happen!
Not sure I’ve ever attempted such a grade, either. The steepest of the steep hills I did along the Four Rivers trail were no more than 12% to maybe 18%. Big maybe.
Anyway, Happy New Year, and fondest hopes that 2021 is a much better 12-month stretch than the shitty one we just slogged through. The whole year was one onerous Hash planned by Guenter.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 31/December/2020 @ 7:51 pm
I’d go nuts if I were constantly beset by women begging for money. Ugh. All the sob stories would start to sound similar and blend together in my head.
Hopefully, the prospect of a new year will cheer you up. The glass-half-full crowd is saying “It can’t get any worse than 2020,” but the glass-half-empty crowd is warning that this is only the beginning. If perception can affect reality, as seems to happen with the stock market, maybe positivity is the answer. Who knows?
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 30/December/2020 @ 7:00 pm
Yeah, as intra-Hash jargon, the term means whatever you want it to mean. Sigh…
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 30/December/2020 @ 2:38 pm
Checkpoints do sound useless. They also sound like an abuse of the English language! Normally, a checkpoint on a trail is where you check in to officially confirm your progress along a path. It’s the opposite of an obstacle.
Meanwhile, I hope you’re enjoying your new status as the resident Chilimeister! You should set up a little restaurant called Chili Relations.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 29/December/2020 @ 5:00 pm
There is more to life than beer
Happy Hashing!
To remember to remember, you must first forget to forget.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 28/December/2020 @ 1:56 pm
There are cultures that elevate sex work to something like an art form, e.g., in old Japan. But if you’re a SE Asian lady turning tricks for Whitey, and you’re looking for understanding and respect, well… good fooking luck. You might be lucky enough to snare a man who simply wants to bask in the illusion that you like or even love him, but most guys who pay for sex aren’t that nice, and the proof comes when they eventually toss you aside for someone younger, trimmer, and better-looking. I sense a certain romanticized feminism permeating that article.
I also had to wonder how one can reconcile these two claims:
1. “There were definitely active decisions being made to participate in this work and in this lifestyle.”
2. “Bar work is a viable means of labor and employment for some of them—that they choose—and what they are calling for is recognition and respect for those decisions, made within the environments that they are in and among the limited options that they have.”There seems to be a contradiction, or at least a tension, between “active decisions” and “limited options.” If you’re capable of exercising your free will, and you’re not being oppressed by nasty bosses, then what exactly is limiting your options to sex work? Note, too, that the author herself, by using the phrase “limited options,” seems to be tacitly acknowledging that sex work is what one turns to when one’s options are limited, i.e., it’s far from ideal as work options go. This acknowledgement is hard to square with the author’s attempt to layer a patina of feminist dignity over the sex trade. As with many feminist-fueled arguments, the author is trying to have it both ways: women are empowered, but they’re also poor, helpless victims doing the best they can. A truly empowered woman will do what she can to steer clear of a trade where she runs all sorts of avoidable risks, from catching a disease to being physically abused.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 28/December/2020 @ 1:21 am
Looks to have been an awesome meal. So they made it all themselves, eh? People after my own heart.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 28/December/2020 @ 12:53 am
Nothing like waking up to the lovely aroma of your own puke. Merry Christmas!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 25/December/2020 @ 5:47 pm
‘Twas the day before Christmas
Sorry. Rewrite:
“Were there no pandemic, I suppose you COULD travel to the US and be with your family if that’s your thing.”
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 24/December/2020 @ 7:56 pm
Were there no pandemic, I suppose you should travel to the US and be with your family if that’s your thing. Not all Americans are that family-oriented, of course… many actually dread meeting relatives during the holidays. I suppose it also depends on what is meant by “family.” For me, a “family” gathering would have meant my immediate family—not uncles, aunts, and cousins. I’ve never been much for gatherings involving extended family: I never see those folks during the year, and we have nothing to talk about whenever we do gather, once in a blue moon. In terms of immediate family, it’s now just me and my brothers. Mom’s dead, Dad’s part of another family (and we don’t talk to him, anyway), and that’s about it. Alas, my brother David is in northern Virginia, and Sean’s now in Chicago. Getting together requires more than just the alignment of the planets these days.
That said, a joyous Yuletide to you. Enjoy tomorrow’s party.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 24/December/2020 @ 7:46 pm
Good luck with your singles-league match, and condolences to Danny.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 23/December/2020 @ 5:24 pm
Well, Merry Christmas to you all as well! Smiles all around.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 22/December/2020 @ 7:48 pm
Quite an adventure! Glad you came out of that alive. Are you looking forward to doing another like that? Is there any way to know, in advance, what sort of trail you’re going to embark upon, or are these sorts of walks always a crap shoot?
So what kind of tree is that huge one? I was tempted to say “banyan,” but of the many banyan-tree photos I looked at, only one or two seemed to have the distinctive curtain-shaped roots seen in your pictures. The rest of the banyans looked more like twisted oaks on LSD, but with root-like systems dangling off their branches and plunging into the ground. Spooky. (See here.)
Could it be a Dao tree? Wikipedia calls the roots “buttress”-shaped. That makes sense.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 22/December/2020 @ 12:23 am
I hope the Hash goes well for everyone. This is the candy run, yes? Then I hope much candy gets distributed to a bunch of happy kids.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 20/December/2020 @ 11:05 pm
Living, learning, looking back
Interesting meditation on the counterfactuals. Indeed, the longer you’re alive, the narrower your horizon of possibilities becomes. A wide, non-specific future ultimately narrows to one possible outcome. I think about that fact in terms of my own eventual demise: in the end, I’m going to die a certain way, from certain causes, in a certain place, and at a certain time. All of that is nebulous right now, but as time marches on, the future slowly resolves itself into clarity. It’s like the collapsing wave function with Schrödinger’s cat: at first, the cat is both alive and dead, but when you peek into the box, the cloud of possibilities suddenly crystallizes into one specific outcome. Enjoy the nebulousness of your future while you can! As for living without regrets, well… I think the best I can manage is to live with a minimum of regrets. My suspicion is that people who say “I regret nothing” are lying.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 20/December/2020 @ 9:20 am
What an awesome new format you’ve found for blogging! I thoroughly enjoyed this 10K-step-chunk tour! Keep ’em coming!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 17/December/2020 @ 6:48 pm
See? My memory is indeed draining away. Cosby’s actual quote:
“Don’t worry about senility. When it hits you, you won’t know it.”
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 16/December/2020 @ 11:54 pm
Good thing you’ve got a blog to store a lot of those memories for you. I feel similarly, especially re: distance walking. I’m glad I blogged those trips, taking pictures and writing notes, because I inevitably forget the little details, and those blogs help spark forgotten recollections. The blogs aren’t so much for posterity as they are an investment against my inevitable senility. Of course, one day, we’ll all be too senile to remember even our own names. But as the now-infamous Bill Cosby used to say: “Don’t worry about senility. When it happens, you won’t know.”
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 16/December/2020 @ 9:51 pm
Is Black and Dick Her part black? The nappy hair and facial bone structure would seem to say yes. What’s the history of people of African (or aboriginal) stock in the Philippines? How do such people normally fare in Filipino society?
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 15/December/2020 @ 6:17 pm
In that photo of the cakes, what are those rainbow-colored puff balls way off to the left? And how do Filipino cakes compare to American ones? As you know, Korean cakes tend to lack sugar, eggs, and butter, making them dry and tasteless.
With your income, you could easily be living as large as this guy. Why not upgrade to a much bigger domicile? Would the upkeep be more trouble than it’s worth?
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 14/December/2020 @ 12:52 pm
Good luck at the birthday party!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 13/December/2020 @ 3:47 pm
«« Back To Stats PageThat looks to have been quite arduous.
Take care o’ them lungs!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 12/December/2020 @ 5:13 pm