Dad sends me drugs

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allez, debout!

Sometime during my "nap" from about 8:45 to 3:30PM, I developed a massive cramp in my left calf. That got my attention. I painfully slid myself along the floor and pressed my foot against the wall until the calf muscle had begun to stretch, and stayed in that position until everything had relaxed and the pain had subsided.

Then I went back to sleep.

Dad called twice-- once just before I went to sleep and once while I was sleeping. He updated me on the state of the home renovation project and told me about his upcoming car rental and flight arrangements. Unfortunately, he won't be able to drop the car in Boise: he'll have to drive it back to Walla Walla. Too bad: gas is expensive, and it's going to mean using most of a tank of gas for the return trip, then filling the tank back up just before dropping the car off. I guess, though, that this arrangement is still cheaper than driving out here from Virginia with his own minivan.

I'm up now; I need to do laundry for tomorrow's talk, and still have to finish the transcription. Am feeling fairly rested and focused again, unlike this morning when everything was turning into a blur. I did enjoy my breakfast at the Prentiss Dining Hall, though: all you can eat for seven bucks. That was my lone meal for the day; gotta cut back on food both for dietary reasons and because money is now tight. When you have a large, steady cashflow, as I had while working in Korea, you don't worry so much about the little purchases that nickel-and-dime you; but those nibbles can turn deadly after a while if you've got no income.

So I wrote my buddy Tom, who lives in Korea, about some possible proofreading work; he says he'll look out for me. It's the perfect work for a guy with a bum knee and a WiFi connection, after all: it's just a matter of finding a wall socket for the laptop's power cord and getting a decent signal for email. Here's hoping some work finds its way to me.

Right-- time to get a move on.


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breffus

I've got only another five or ten minutes' worth of dialogue to transcribe, but I can barely hold my head up, and I'm hungry. So-- it's almost 7AM, and that's when the nearby student dining hall opens up. I think I'll eat breakfast there, march back to Mechelle's house, put myself down for a few hours, then complete the transcript at her house. I have a tenuous Net connection from there, and transcription doesn't require any online activity, anyway, so I ought to be able to finish sometime today.


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call me crazy

This 'brary is open 24 hours, so I've decided to remain here and finish the Brother Luke transcription, if I can.

I feel kinda' bad for my host, Mechelle. We rarely see each other: she wakes up butt-early, around 5:30AM, and is out the door before I wake up at 6:45AM. By the time I get home from the library, after 10PM, she's already asleep. She's off work on Sunday and Monday; I didn't even see her on Sunday morning when I left for the campus, and now I'll be spending the night here at this study carrel, another day of not talking. Mechelle's a really nice person, very considerate, and her pets are adorable, so I'm feeling rather guilty.

But now is not the time for guilt: I've got to get this transcript finished.


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whew... halfway there

I spent my brother David's birthday typing and typing and typing some more, and I'm almost halfway through the Brother Luke dialogue-- about 38 or 39 minutes into it. I ought to have the transcript done by Monday evening; it'll be up and linked to on the blog's sidebar in time for my Tuesday talk at the campus Spirituali-Tea. If I don't finish it by tomorrow night, I'll certainly finish it by Tuesday morning, which still gives me plenty of time to prepare mentally for the Spirituali-Tea. Not that I'll need much prep: I'm looking forward to the chance to meet new folks, and since the session will be largely Q&A in format (I doubt I'll be asked to lecture), listeners won't have to remain listeners: they can actively participate in what I hope will be a fruitful and spirited discussion.

I also hope the talk will lead to more such talks among those who are truly interested in the topics with which this walk is concerned. And hey, if the students have advice on where to hike next and how to earn some extra dough in town, that'll be gravy.

Poor David. I'm sorry I didn't call you. Will call tomorrow.

UPDATE: For those who were following the shenanigans, SiteMeter's attempt at implementing its Version 2.0 was a massive failure. The SiteMeter geeks tried activating it this morning, ruining everyone's day, and the complaints were so loud, furious, and voluminous that they sheepishly changed back to the previous version, which had nothing wrong with it. The main complaint was that the new SiteMeter no longer allowed open stats; everyone had to sign in. Another complaint was that, once your old information was "transferred" to the new version of SiteMeter, you weren't able to log on through the new interface. I experienced the same problem. So when I saw the "we're putting the old version back" message, I had a good chuckle. The people have spoken!


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a birthday poem for my brother David

LITTLE BRO TURNS 32
by Kevin

I see you sleeping peacefully
your need for rest is plain
I place my ass upon your head
and fart into your brain

and when we're eating with our folks
--cuisine that makes us drool--
I slam your face into your food
then cackle like a fool

for these and many other sins
I really ought to pay
but when I do my worst to you
you laugh my guilt away

you've also played your share of pranks
you know my favorite feat:
you call, pretend that you're Chinese:
"You oh-dah not complete!"

the way the universe is built
it follows logically
I cannot be a "big" brother
without you there with me

Happy Birthday, David!

Love,

Kevin


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sad news

The lady at the convenience store is married. I met her husband (also Korean) this morning when I walked over to Whitman campus. We talked about my trans-American walk. He said he thought he'd seen me in the news somewhere-- something about a walker who'd lost a lot of weight-- but I doubted that the piece was about me: I've appeared in only two news articles, both in local, county-wide papers (see sidebar: "The Walk in the News"). Fame eludes me. I think I'm going to have to kill and eat somebody before this walk is over if I really want news coverage. At that point, though, it'll be Kevin's Flight, not Kevin's Walk. Can a white Bronco be far behind?

If I do end up running from the police, who will be man enough to chase me down?

Only one person.

(Ha ha-- you thought I was going to link to Bear Grylls, didn't you!)


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already??

I didn't realize it was already Chuseok!

Well... Happy Chuseok!

For those not in the know, Chuseok is the Korean harvest festival and a huge national holiday. Lots of food gets eaten; relatives gather and renew their family ties; old and young sit side by side, their chatter bridging past and future.

Well, that's the romantic view, anyway, and something like the above vision still holds true in many families; I know because while I was an English instructor in Korea, it was routine for us to talk about holiday plans, and I saw firsthand that quite a high percentage of young people do sincerely look forward to hanging with family.

But Chuseok isn't all hunky-dory: families leaving Seoul often face 15-hour commutes along routes that would normally take 3-5 hours. During the holiday, the job of food prep for such a massive family gathering is given almost exclusively to the women (this is changing, as you might imagine, but only slowly). These days, many family members don't often hang with each other long into the evening during the holiday; like many Americans in the same age group, the teens and preteens are eager to break away from the old fogeys and go out on the town, perhaps to play video games in PC cafes or to do something a bit less innocent.

The older generation views this fragmentation with a not-unjustified rue: yet another treasured aspect of Korean life seems to be slipping away.

But Koreans are renowned for two paradoxical impulses: an almost childlike eagerness to embrace the new (especially in fashion, food, and technology), and a more ancient impulse to preserve or recover the past. It's amazing to think of all the aspects of ancient Korea that modern Korea has managed to preserve, whether it's tangible items like pottery or brasswork, or intangibles like the mask dance, or older forms of speech.

Chuseok might evolve, but it won't disappear; I trust that Koreans will find ways to preserve it.


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failure

Refunding Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 is going to be a pain in the ass. The store where I bought it, Staples, says they can't accept the product back once the packaging's been opened. Why? Because according to them, there's no way to know whether I downloaded the product and then brought the CD back, falsely claiming the installation didn't work. The manager I spoke with said I'd need to visit the Adobe website and follow their return procedure. So I went there today, and this is what it says (please note the paragraph in red):

Return an Adobe product purchased from a retail store

To return an Adobe product or support contract that you purchased from a retail store, you must first try to return the product to the store. [I did this.]

If the retail store won't accept the return, Adobe will refund the purchase of the product under the following circumstances:

You contact Adobe to request the return within 30 days of the purchase

You purchased the product from a store in North America

The store refused to accept the return

Note: Adobe doesn't refund shipping charges for products purchased from a retail store.

Return a product for a refund

To return a product purchased from a retail store, please do the following steps:

1. Contact Adobe Customer Service with the following information:

The order number

Your name

The product being returned

The serial number, if applicable

The reason for the return

The name and location of the retail store

The reason the store provided for refusing to accept the return

A copy of the store receipt showing proof of purchase

2. The Customer Service representative will request that you do one of the following:

If the purchase price of the product before tax is less than US$800 don't return the product to Adobe. Instead, print and complete a Letter of Software Destruction, and return it to the address or fax number listed on the letter. (Be sure to tell Customer Service if you prefer to receive a copy of the letter by mail or e-mail.)

If the purchase price of the product before tax is greater than US$800, Customer Service will provide you with a Return Merchandise Authorization (RMA) number so that you may return the product to Adobe.

Note: You have 30 days from the date that Adobe issues the RMA to return the product to the Adobe warehouse. RMAs remaining in Adobe's system past the 30-day limit are cancelled.

If you think I'm hallucinating all this, here's the page. It appears I have to download and complete a letter, send the letter back by snail-mail or email, receive the refund (when??), and in the meantime I have to remove the software from my computer's system (that happened right away; the thing simply never finished downloading), and destroy the CD myself. Adobe, meanwhile, will take it on faith that I've done all this.

Companies deliberately make it difficult to get refunds-- I realize that. But Dad just told me that his copy of Photoshop Elements is version 4, which I'm sure will work on this computer. I may as well give him version 6 as a gift so he and my brother David (the family computer guru) can make the proper updates.

Yeesh.


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aha-- an ad for the upcoming Spirituali-Tea this Tuesday

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found!

I went over to a convenience store close to campus to buy some lunch, and lo and behold-- at the cash register was another Korean lady! (cue tympani) We spoke in Korean about what I was doing; there wasn't time to ask her about her story, alas: there were too many customers, including one ancient lady who had spilled out the entire contents of her coupon bag onto the counter to look for, well, something. As the old lady fumbled and muttered, the cashier beckoned me forward.

The cashier was cute-- which makes me want to shop there again-- but I got something of an ajumma vibe from her. I suspect she's married, even though I didn't see a ring.* Alas. Look but don't touch. Story of my life. (Of course, having written this, I can never tell her about this blog.)

But I'll be back. Oh, yes, Precious... I'll be returning to that store!

So now I've met three of the five Koreans supposedly living in Walla Walla. I'm beginning to suspect there are more than five** in the area; Walla Walla's downtown might be small, but the residential zone sprawls lazily in all directions. Koreans in the DC-Metro area tend to live in the suburbs around the nation's capital; why should it be any different here? Still, I imagine there can't be that many Koreans here; the lady from the terikaki-jip was probably right about that. By the time I leave Walla Walla, I'll have gathered all the census data there is about the local Korean populace.

---

*Koreans in Korea sometimes go without their wedding rings. It's usually the men who do this, but sometimes the women do, too; reasons may vary from innocent to oh-so-naughty. Korean culture doesn't place the same emphasis on wedding rings as Western culture generally does, which is only natural; the use of a wedding ring is, from the Korean perspective, a Western convention-- an imported idea.

**You'll recall that we're not counting Korean college students; for all intents and purposes, they're part of the transient population.


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lunch spot (Whitman College)

Kinda looks like a spine gushing spinal fluid, doesn't it?

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Pioneer Park's edge (Alder St.)

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apostles

Sometime during the night, I acquired my twelfth blog "follower." Scroll way down the sidebar and take a look.

So, my Twelve: are you up for some itinerant preaching, healing, and exorcism? My next stop is Milton-Freewater; will you join me?

But more important: which one among you will betray me?

(Curtis: what you must do, go and do quickly.)


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one thing that sucks

It sucks to wake up and discover you've spent the night drooling onto your pillow. It sucks worse, though, when your pillow is a nonabsorbent, rolled-up foam pad full of ridges that hold the drool in place like tiny troughs.

Troughs for minuscule, winged cow-demons to drink from in the dark.


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it is accomplished

I've updated the blogroll with old friends and new; I've added categories like "The Walk in the News" and "Followers" (two more followers and I'll have my twelve disciples! ROCK AND ROLL!); I've uploaded all the YouTube vids I have, a process that took an eon; I've acknowledged two out of three September birthdays (my brother David's birthday is the 14th)...

... and it seems we're now ready to start a-transcribin' in earnest.

You can expect more blog posts, of course; I won't be spending my time only on transcription. But the current diarrhetic output will slow to a warm trickle. Let's hope that, within a week, I'll have a whole mess of transcripts up here for you.

Oh, yes--in the next few minutes I'll add a link to the "Interactions" category: the partially transcripted conversation with Mr. Satpal Sidhu of the Guru Nanak Gursikh Gurdwara in Lynden, Washington.

And away we go.


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the blogroll lengthens

I've added a long list of "old haunts" from a previous life to the sidebar using a new "blog list" function, another gadget offered by Blogger. The blogs at the top of the list are the ones most recently updated. Infrequently updated blogs will generally fall lower on the list. Where a blog appears on the list has, of course, no relation to its quality. In fact, when it comes to blogging, quantity and quality are usually inversely proportional to each other. Logorrhea doesn't always translate into Shakespearean eloquence.

The list consists of Koreablogs, Japanblogs, Chinablogs, and other blogs reflecting all manner of interests and persuasions (religious, political, etc.). Go give them all a visit and get to know some fascinating people.

NB: Some blogs on the list aren't equipped with feeds, which means you'll never know they've been updated. Because the blogroll is organized according to the "most recently updated" criterion, it's possible they'll fall to the bottom. Be sure to check those blogs periodically; their position at the bottom of the list doesn't mean they haven't been updated.

One more list on the way-- blogs of people I've met on this Walk. After that, I can start to focus on transcription.


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in the news

I've created a "The Walk in the News" category for the sidebar, and have added the links to the Daily Chronicle article by my friend Steve Honeywell, and the Hood River News article by Sue Ryan. If you haven't read those articles, go to it! Also, if you feel like a-donatin', please do. Money's tight.


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"How to Check the Back of Your Head" or "You'd Better Hope You Never Encounter THIS Fleshy Thing in a Dark Alley"

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shorn

As you saw in the previous photo, I've taken the plunge and have gotten my first haircut since Vancouver, WA, way back when. My thanks to Rachel (pictured earlier), who did a sterling job, and from whom I learned two things:

1. The unsightly line that demarcates the boundary between what the electric razor has done and what the scissors have done is called, in salon parlance, a shelf. Rachel did a great job of minimizing this.

2. An interreligious insight, and something I really haven't focused on: people of a given religious tradition often say things without thinking about how it might affect people of other traditions. This heedlessness, perhaps a function of incestuous amplification, is worth a post or two.

Anyway, my scalp is happy to be less shaggy. I'm on my way to Whitman College. More in a bit.


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