Comments Posted By Kevin Kim
Displaying 2,881 To 2,910 Of 4,392 Comments
Jon Snow’s demise is in the novels. What happens after his demise, though, is not. Once you see enough of the aftermath, go online and look up the “Fuck Olly” meme. Don’t spoil it for yourself by looking it up prematurely. You need the context of the show for the meme to make sense. (Or do you already know about the meme?)
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 23/May/2020 @ 10:05 pm
A good, hard climb! That looked like a tough hill. I’m familiar with how photos don’t quite convey the steepness of a slope.
Great to find some kindness while on the trail. One thing you learn, when distance hiking, is to be thankful for every little instance of relief or mercy that comes your way—every cool puff of wind on a sweltering day, every thick tree shadow after hours under the sun, every helpful gesture from a random fellow human being.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 22/May/2020 @ 7:11 pm
That lasagna looks more like chicken-fried steak than actual lasagna. Your mention of a “pasta shell” was also disconcerting: a lasagna is a stacked bed of pasta with alternating layers of meat sauce and cheese (or Béchamel). There is no “shell,” so I have to believe that this particular lasagna was designed by someone from Alpha Centauri.
Too bad the store was missing the items you wanted, but perhaps that’ll change as normalcy (or whatever passes for normalcy) slowly returns to your corner of the planet.
“A wise man* once said, ‘he who has nothing to say should not say it.’ Like that’s ever stopped me!”
Recently, though, I have noticed a couple of skipped days.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 21/May/2020 @ 6:54 pm
Yeah, “c’est la vie” can be read as “such is life,” although it literally translates as “that’s life.” The French, like us, would never use “c’est la vie” in the wake of a terrible tragedy. That would be tacky. They do use the expression, though, and sometimes use it as part of a tricolon (linguistic “triplet” expression): “c’est la vie, c’est la guerre, c’est la mort”: that’s life, that’s war, that’s death.
Sorry to read about the brownout. Have you considered getting a generator?
“Well, That Didn’t Work could be the title of many of my own personal efforts, so I feel your pain.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 20/May/2020 @ 4:44 pm
If you’re in Season 4 of GoT, then you’re right at the point where the show is about to go off the rails because it’s finally caught up to George RR Martin’s novels. From about Season 5 onward, the showrunners were basically without a template. All they had were secret notes from Martin describing, in very general terms, how the rest of his novels (still unwritten) would go. By the time you finish Season 8, then, you’ll have at least a vague idea of the fates of Westeros and Essos, but I imagine the specific fates of particular characters will be very different in the novels from how they played out in the TV series. Well… happy viewing!
The Hash looks to have been a triumph. Good for you guys. I see there’s a low-key rebellion happening in the States as people have begun to take back their liberties from the tyrants. One US gym had a near-confrontation that ended in cheering when police officers came in, loudly announced everyone was in violation, told everyone to have a nice day, then left. Things are opening back up, slowly but surely. If we’re all in full swing again by summer’s end, the Dems are fucked in November. And people in the blue states will remember that life was generally better in the red states.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 19/May/2020 @ 6:32 pm
Ugh. Sorry to read about your floor/ceiling problem. That sure sucks, and toilet leaks are insidious.
Even from my introverted perspective, those empty beaches look kinda’ depressing. Here’s hoping the tourists return soon.
Good luck with the Quarantine Hash!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 17/May/2020 @ 10:46 pm
The rooftop life seems to suit you. Sorry to hear about your series of appliance-related tragedies. I hope you’re now free and clear of all such misfortune. Continued good luck as you deal with the slow, slow reopening of the country.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 15/May/2020 @ 8:17 pm
Reverend Spooner would’ve been proud.
Mike’s philosophical question seemed to be asking something fairly specific, so my answer involved some lawyerly hairsplitting. But as I was at pains to note, I’m a pragmatist, and I sure don’t think a person’s going to hell for doing charity work and “selfishly” feeling good about it. A little charity is better than no charity at all. Just ask the starfish community.
Good luck battening down the hatches as the typhoon approaches. July is monsoon season in Korea, but we’ll have our own typhoons to contend with until winter comes. “Ambo” is close in pronunciation to the Korean anbo (which, when pronounced, sounds like “ambo”). Anbo means “hug.” May you all enjoy Ambo/Vongfong’s tough-love embrace.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 14/May/2020 @ 8:20 pm
Four bottles of water in the space of a 10K walk. Wow. Then again, this was mountain walking and not merely bike-path walking, so we have to account for the extra effort of going uphill and downhill. Seems to have been quite an adventure, what with all the trailblazing.
Did you keep the Joker card?
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 13/May/2020 @ 8:09 pm
A new Fitbit! I guess that, when a man is brand-loyal, a man is brand-loyal. This is a warts-and-all kind of love, isn’t it: “Whatever your flaws, O Fitbit, we shall be together forever.” Good luck with this one! I hope it lasts a long, long time.
Glad to hear there’s been a slight loosening of restrictions. May the alcohol once again flow freely throughout the land, that the thirsty masses may drink their fill!
I’m gonna have to steal that “Roz al Ghul” tweet (her name is modeled after Batman villain Ra’s al Ghul, I take it). That’s right up there with Scott Adams’s “IQ test” tweet.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 12/May/2020 @ 5:40 pm
Rascal asks:
“Philversary?”
Not “Phil-versary,” but “Phil-i-versary,” as in “Phil-i-ppines anniversary.”
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 12/May/2020 @ 9:21 pm
Happy Philiversary!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 11/May/2020 @ 5:33 pm
I would if I could but I can’t so I won’t
Hats off re: all the good you’re doing for the mountain folk. And you’ve managed to keep on walking despite all the legal nonsense.
Here’s a May 10 comment I saw over at the blog ROK Drop from a commenter who goes by “TagumCityTim”:
Here in the Philippines, some of the restrictions initially put into place for the lockdown are coming off. My particular area has been on lockdown for 55 days now. This coming Friday, we’ll see if we get to go back to a more normal life. We’ll still have to wear masks when going around to do business[,] but at least the stores and other establishments will have a chance to reopen and get some [cash flow] back. The Philippines is already a poor nation. Suffering through almost 2 months of lockdown has forced many businesses to make drastic changes[;] some will never open again. Also, the lifeblood of the Philippine economy, the Overseas Foreign Workers (OFW)[, has] for the most part been called home. OFWs constitute a quarter of the nation’s GDP every year[,] so having them out of work is a big sting on the economic life of the Philippines.
Personally, I need a haircut[,] and I need to get out and feel the tropical sun on my skin without someone [asking to] see my quarantine pass (which the government provided only one per family so only one person at a time can be out). As the world starts to return to normal, let’s hope that we don’t see this type of thing ever again. Thank goodness some scientists have started to speak out on how lockdowns do little to stop the spread of the disease and [how keeping] healthy people isolated only increases the risk for more disease outbreaks by [weakening] the immune system. Also, keeping healthy people locked down creates new places for the virus to spread because a lot of the new cases of late have come not from people outside, but from within families who have been on lockdown. Precautions must be taken[,] but panic, as we have seen in the past two months, is NOT the answer.
Your thoughts?
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 10/May/2020 @ 11:06 pm
And how often do your Fitbits die? They seem to die pretty often!
Good luck with your wristwatch repair. I long ago converted, as if I were a Millennial, to using my cell phone as a surrogate wristwatch, but I catch myself, on rare occasions, flicking a glance at my left wrist as if to tell the time.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 08/May/2020 @ 6:57 pm
Shout “Tayo!” in Korean out the window of your car, and you’re telling someone to get in. (From the verb tada, to get in/on.)
“Ferme ta bouche” is literally “close your mouth,” and not a very strong expression, but a true “Shaddap!” in French is “Ta gueule!” This is short for “Ferme ta gueule,” which is literally also “shut your mouth,” but a gueule is the mouth of an animal, not of a human, so there’s an implied denigration of the person. You can also use standard imperative grammar to say “Ferme-la!”—which is literally “Shut it!” Get a bit slangier, put the object before the verb, and you get “La ferme!” (“It-shut!”), which also coincidentally sounds like the noun phrase “the farm” (la ferme). Yeah, French is weird.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 08/May/2020 @ 6:09 pm
re: Starbucks cup
That’s from Season 8. If you try to catch it on any type of home video, you won’t find it: my understanding is that they used CGI to erase the cup in the home-video editions. However, there’s another mistake that’s been pointed out by sharper eyes than mine, and this mistake wasn’t erased (I saw it myself in my Amazon Prime Video version): in the series finale, look for a plastic water bottle that’s been poorly hidden behind the leg of a chair. This occurs in a “council” scene, and I’ll say no more than that. (I don’t want to reveal which characters are in that scene because that would clue you in on who survives to the end. Part of the fun of “Game of Thrones” is guessing who survives.)
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 07/May/2020 @ 5:55 pm
Also meant to say the pic of the “little old lady” (the caption of the pic I’m referring to actually has the words “little old lady,” so you know I’m not talking about the “matriarch” with the Oreos) was deeply evocative. You don’t happen to have a high-resolution version of that shot, do you? That image is, dare I say it, haunting—but more in the sense of resonance and ambient sadness, not in the sense of spookiness. Her face and her posture tell a story for sure. You just wanna give the old grandma a hug and not let go.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 06/May/2020 @ 9:25 pm
A most excellent hike.
And I see that, slowly but surely, you’re becoming a Pragerite.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 06/May/2020 @ 8:42 pm
I’ve got some lower-back pain going on myself. Sympathies. Hope your day has been healthy and relatively active!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 05/May/2020 @ 7:17 pm
I gotta tell you, John, I had to restart the first of Martin’s novels several times before I finally got beyond the first chapter. I found that chapter boring as hell. It was a horrible way to start the world-building. However, once I got over that hump, I found the ASOIAF books (A Song of Ice and Fire, the name of the entire series) utterly compelling reading.
I came upon Martin way too late in life for his books to occupy a central place in my heart when it comes to fantasy novels (the eternal occupant of that throne is Stephen R. Donaldson), but I’ve come to see him as an amazing storyteller who had somehow topped JK Rowling when it comes to weaving intricate narratives composed of multiple subplots. So, like Frank, I can’t call Martin my favorite, but he’s up there, and he has my respect. I just wish he would stop getting distracted by all his damn side projects.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 05/May/2020 @ 8:36 pm
Pot roast looks awesome!
I’ll be morbidly curious to read your opinion of Season 8. For myself, all I can say is that I consider the TV series to be an interesting interlude while I wait for the next book to come out. At this rate, I’ll be dead before the final novel gets finished.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 04/May/2020 @ 5:56 pm
The best of all possible worlds
The federal government says one thing, but the local governments say different? Is this some weird kind of Filipino federalism?
Interesting. The Captcha code is “3NAD.” A man can dream, I guess….
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 03/May/2020 @ 12:59 am
It sucks that your lockdown has been extended, but this turn of events seems to have become fodder for new adventures. So there’s a perverse sort of silver lining, I guess….
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 30/April/2020 @ 10:44 pm
Thanks for the well-wishes! Once I’m back, I plan to start “Everesting” inside my apartment building, so pretty soon, I’ll be a master of the stairs—a veritable StairMaster!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 28/April/2020 @ 5:33 pm
Carabao carcass, falling-off-the-bone pork ribs… this truly was a “memento mori” kind of day.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 28/April/2020 @ 1:23 am
Nothing like a little quantum mechanics to spice up your day, eh? Yeah, as you can see, “Schrödinger’s fat” is a play on the famous “Schrödinger’s cat” thought experiment. A probabilistic wave function keeps certain possibilities in suspension, and it’s only when the wave function “collapses” that all the possible options suddenly coalesce into one single, definite outcome. But before that collapse happens, everything is up in the air, hence the cat that is both alive and dead until you open the box and thereby collapse the wave function.
As you move into the realm of the subatomically small, phenomena become less discrete and more “fuzzy.” Heisenberg’s “uncertainty principle” dealt with this by stating that, the more we know a particle’s position, the less we know about its momentum, and vice versa. Simple things like “cause” and “effect,” not to mention the very flow of time, cease to be obvious at the quantum level. Freaky stuff.
Your charity work in the community is doubtless appreciated by those who receive the help. “There are treasures stored up for you in heaven…”
I’ve got no problem with pineapples alongside baby-back ribs. My only quibble, last time, was with putting acidic pineapples in with a creamy, savory sauce. But since you reported that that combination seemed to work out okay, I guess I’m the one who needs to open his mind.
Your lower-than-normal body temperature indicates that you’ve contracted the zombie virus and are on your way to becoming as cold as a corpse. Pretty soon, you’ll be less attracted to the ladies for their bodies and more attracted to them for their brains. Mmmm… juicy, juicy brains.
Couldn’t help noticing that, in the picture where you’re doing the “Captain Morgan” pose, Lucky is politely looking away from your crotch.
Aussie steaks look good! If you get bored, slice them thinly, fan them out on a plate, and drizzle them with chimichurri sauce. Chimichurri is an Argentinian steak sauce; I’ve written about it a few times on my blog (see here).
Here’s hoping you get good news about the quarantine/lockdown.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 26/April/2020 @ 11:55 pm
I hope that works for you!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 26/April/2020 @ 12:38 pm
If you’ve got Apple iTunes, you can buy “Burn Notice: The Complete Series” (hi-def quality) for $70. The series ran for seven seasons, with a different number of episodes per season. If you do the math one way, $70 for 7 seasons means only $10 per season. If you do a per-episode calculation, then $70 for 111 episodes comes out to 63 cents per episode, which is not bad at all. $25 per season, by contrast, means you’re paying around $2 per episode, which is quite a difference. I’d buy the complete series. I don’t know whether that package is available on Amazon Prime Video, though; Prime seems to offer only season-sized chunks, which is too bad. Go for iTunes if you can.
Or not. If shelling out $70 for video entertainment isn’t your thing, that’s understandable. Simply going out for a walk can be a hell of a lot more entertaining than any TV show.
I just finished Season 4 and will start watching Season 5 later tonight. Some of these are episodes I remember watching, but a lot of this has been new to me. I guess I must not have been a consistent watcher of the series back when it was on TV. I have to say that the quality of the writing, thus far, has been consistently good. Of course, it’s easy to maintain consistently good quality when each episode follows roughly the same formula. (Then again, the writers did break away from that formula in the final three episodes of Season 4.)
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 25/April/2020 @ 3:42 pm
I’ll be stealing that final image. Thanks in advance.
Yeah, I never saw “Contagion.” I’m so behind on most movies, and there are just too many movies in existence for me ever to hope to catch up on all of them.
The geographic restrictions on Amazon Prime Video don’t apply if you purchase your videos, so if you’re willing to shell out for “Burn Notice: The Complete Series,” then you’re set. But if you’re gonna be a stingy Scotsman, then I guess that means no “Burn Notice” for you. (Or you could try to snag videos through a VPN. My ancient VPN sucks; Amazon picks up on the fact that I’m using one.)
You got off easy, paying less than $50 for all that meat. Got off easy by Korean standards, I mean. I’m no longer in touch with meat prices in the States. Anyway, that looks like a decent haul. You’ve got enough protein to last you a while.
Good luck as you hang tough until the end of the month. May your silly, misguided lockdown end soon.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 24/April/2020 @ 6:24 pm
«« Back To Stats PageWell, you can’t knock baby-back ribs. Happy hunkering!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 23/April/2020 @ 9:53 pm