He aquí los pensamientos aleatorios de un epistemólogo andante.
I dream of a world where chickens can cross the road without having their motives questioned.
피할수 없는 고통이라면 차라리 즐겨라
As of June, 2013, I have assumed a new identity: I am a cancer survivor. "Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose."
"A blog, in the end, is really not so different from an inscription on a bone: I was here, it declares to no one in particular. Don't forget that." - Justin E. H. Smith
재미없으면 보상해드립니다!
"All things are enchained with one another, bound together by love." - Nietzsche (really!)
Leviticus 19:33-34
Donc, si Dieu existait, il n’y aurait pour lui qu’un seul moyen de servir la liberté humaine, ce serait de cesser d’exister. - Mikhail Bakunin
Solvitur ambulando.
"Sometimes I wonder why I even bother to soliloquize. Where was I?" - the villain Heinz Doofenshmirtz, in the cartoon Phineas and Ferb.
My name is Jared Way. I was born in rural Far Northern California, and became an "adoptive" Minnesotan. I have lived in many other places: Mexico City, Philadelphia, Valdivia (Chile), Los Angeles. And for 11 years, I was an expatriate living in South Korea. In the summer of 2018, I made another huge change, and relocated to Southeast Alaska, which is my uncle's home.
For many years I was a database programmer, with a background in Linguistics and Spanish Literature. In Korea, worked as an EFL teacher.
In June, 2013, while I was in Ilsan in South Korea, I was diagnosed with cancer, and underwent successful treatment. That changed my life pretty radically.
Currently, you could say I'm "between jobs," somewhat caretaking my uncle (to the extent he tolerates that) and getting adapted to life in rural Alaska after so many years as an urban dweller.
I started this blog before I even had the idea of going to Korea (first entry: Caveat: And lo...). So this is not meant to be a blog about Korea, by any stretch of the imagination. But life in Korea, and Korean language and culture, inevitably have come to play a central role in this blog's current incarnation.
Basically, this blog is a newsletter for the voices in my head. It keeps everyone on the same page: it has become a sort of aide-mémoire.
For a more detailed reflection on why I'm blogging, you can look at this old post: What this blog is, and isn't.
If you're curious about me, there is a great deal of me here. I believe in what I call "opaque transparency" - you can learn almost everything about me if you want, but it's not immediately easy to find.
A distillation of my personal philosophy (at least on good days):
I have made the realization that happiness is not a mental state. It is not something that is given to you, or that you find, or that you can lose, or that can be taken from you. Happiness is something that you do. And like most things that you do, it is volitional. You can choose to do happiness, or not. You have complete freedom with respect to the matter.
"Ethical joy is the correlate of speculative affirmation." - Gilles Deleuze (writing about Spinoza).
Like most people, I spend a lot of time online, although I try to limit it somewhat. Here is a somewhat-annotated list of the "places" where I spend
time online.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Knowledge and News
I spend about half of all my time online reading Wikipedia. It's why I know stuff.
I get most of my world news from Minnesota Public Radio which includes NPR, BBC and CBC, depending on when I listen.
I don't really "do" social media. I have a membership at Facebookland but I never log in
there. I don't like it.
I have a membership at The Youtubes but I mostly use it for work. I also listen to music on youtube, frequently - I prefer it to typical streaming services, for example.
Humor and Cat Videos
Cat videos and other internet novelties: Laughing Squid.
Geofiction - this has evolved into a significant "hobby" for me. I like to draw imaginary maps, and there is a website that has enabled this vice.
I worked as a volunteer administrator for the site OpenGeofiction on and off for a few years. I created (but no longer maintain) the site's main wiki page: OGF Wiki. I am not currently working as administrator but I remain active on the site.
The above work has required my becoming an expert in the Openstreetmap system. Openstreetmap is an attempt do for online maps what wikipedia has done for encyclopedias. I have considered becoming an openstreetmap contributor, but I feel that my current location in Korea hinders that, since I don't have a good grasp Korean cartographic naming conventions.
Starting in April, 2018, I decided somewhat capriciously to build my own "OGF stack" on my own server. This was not because I intended to abandon the OGF site, but rather because I wanted to better understand the whole architecture and all its parts. I built a wiki on the Mediawiki platform (the same as wikipedia). This wiki has no content. I built a map tileserver and geospatial database, which contains a very low resolution upload of an imaginary planet called Rahet. And I built a wordpress blog, which is a separate, low-frequency blog intended to focus on my geofictional pursuits rather than this more personalized, general purpose blog. All of these things can be found integrated together on my rent-a-server, here: geofictician.net
TEFL - my "profession," such as it is.
Online English Grammar reference Grammarist. Useful for settling disputes over grammar.
Since we start all new classes in January, I have had a series of "last classes" with various cohorts of students. As a kind of tradition, I typically buy them pizza and we have a little party. I had quite a number of these over the last several days. A few classes where they wanted to, we played some games, too. Anyway, I will be sad about the students I won't likely see again (because they're moving up to 9th grade, where I no longer teach).
The Pizza Days have ended. Monday is all-new classes. A lot of work, but for now, I will do nothing until next year.
It looked like a clump of small dusty nettles Growing wild at the gable of the house Beyond where we dropped our refuse and old bottles Unverdant ever, almost beneath notice.
But, to be fair, it also spelled promise And newness in the back yard of our life As if something callow yet tenacious Sauntered in green alleys and grew rife.
The snip of scissor blades, the light of Sunday Mornings when the mint was cut and loved: My last things will be first things slipping from me. Yet let all things go free that have survived.
Let the smells of mint go heady and defenceless Like inmates liberated in that yard. Like the disregarded ones we turned against Because we’d failed them by our disregard.
I consider myself an advocate of evidence-based medicine. Generally, I have little patience for people who advocate for unproven medical approaches (or worse, "alternative medicines" that have been specifically proven in repeated studies to be useless). I am a regular reader of science-based medicine blogs such as the excellent (if often monotonous and occasionally strident) sciencebasedmedicine.org.
In my role as cancer survivor, I would say I have been subjected to a greater number of these kinds of advocacies than the average person, too.
Nevertheless, any kind of advocacy - even the advocacy for evidence-based medicine - can be taken too far. The excessive push for the "gold-standard" - randomized controlled trials - in every type of health-focused intervention can certainly be carried too far. I ran across this excellent, short satire that appears, "played straight," at the British Medical Journal website. Here is a sampling.
Abstract
Objectives: To determine whether parachutes are effective in preventing major trauma related to gravitational challenge.
Design: Systematic review of randomised controlled trials.
Data sources: Medline, Web of Science, Embase, and the Cochrane Library databases; appropriate internet sites and citation lists.
Study selection: Studies showing the effects of using a parachute during free fall.
Main outcome measure: Death or major trauma, defined as an injury severity score > 15.
Results: We were unable to identify any randomised controlled trials of parachute intervention.
Conclusions: As with many interventions intended to prevent ill health, the effectiveness of parachutes has not been subjected to rigorous evaluation by using randomised controlled trials. Advocates of evidence based medicine have criticised the adoption of interventions evaluated by using only observational data. We think that everyone might benefit if the most radical protagonists of evidence based medicine organised and participated in a double blind, randomised, placebo controlled, crossover trial of the parachute.
I like the bit about "trauma related to gravitational challenge."
Addendum: Actually, before someone complains, I think I should clarify that I acknowledge at least a limited understanding that there is an important technical difference between the concepts of "science-based medicine" and "evidence-based medicine," and that, in fact, this satire is essentially a criticism of the latter from the perspective of the former.
This is normally not encouraged during class. It was 9:30 - halfway through the last hour of class.
"Can't this wait until after class ends?" I asked.
"I need to call my mom," she explained.
"Um... why do you need to call your mom?"
Pause. "I have to tell to get a ride home."
"I see. Well, I guess that's important," I acquiesced.
A moment later, after fishing around her backpack, she said, "I can't find my phone. Can I use my iPad to send a text message?"
I shrugged. "One way, or another. But can you get it done? So we can continue with class?"
She fiddled with her iPad for a moment, then looked up. "Actually, uh... I just remembered, I rode my bike."
"So you don't need to call your mom?"
She nodded. It's worth noting that this girl, finishing up the 7th grade, is the absolute highest-scoring student at Karma, right now. And although she speaks with a noticeable Korean accent, in terms of grammar and vocabulary I'd give her the lead in a comparison with any US teenager. But she's a bit of an airhead.
I saw this image, left, written up at Language Log blog. The Arabic product name is "Chinese Astrology." Which just adds more dissonance. I think if you can figure out how all the pieces in this image fit together, you will have solved the mysteries of the 21st century.
Last Friday, my TQ phonics class merged with Grace's CS "post-phonics" class and had a caroling competition. These are 2nd and 3rd graders. Grace's class have been studying English for two years but the TQ kids (last group singing) have had less than a year of English, just a few hours a week. So I was proud of them.
This year, Christmas is on a Sunday. Since Christmas isn't a major holiday in Korea, that means that this year, there are no days off for Christmas. It's just a Sunday, and I get my typical 1.5 day weekend.
I made some syllabuses (-bi?) this past week, for the new year. So I was busy. I will rest in a fairly unchristmassy way, and return to work on Monday.
What I'm listening to right now.
Electric Light Orchestra, "Turn To Stone."
Lyrics.
The city streets are empty now THE LIGHTS DON'T SHINE NO MORE and so the songs are way down low TURNING TURNING TURNING A sound that flows into my mind THE ECHOES OF THE DAYLIGHT of everything that is alive IN MY BLUE WORLD
I turn to stone when you are gone, I turn to stone. Turn to stone when you comin' home, I can't go on.
The dying embers of the night A FIRE THAT SLOWLY FADES TILL DAWN still glow upon the wall so bright BURNING BURNING BURNING The tired streets that hide away FROM HERE TO EVERYWHERE THEY GO roll past my door into the day IN MY BLUE WORLD
I turn to stone when you are gone, I turn to stone. Turn to stone when you comin' home, I can't go on. Turn to stone when you are gone, I turn to stone.
Yes, I'm turnin' to stone 'cos you ain't comin' home. Why you ain't comin' home if I'm turnin' to stone? You've been gone for so long and I can't carry on, yes, I'm turnin', I'm turnin', I'm turnin' to stone.
The dancing shadows on the wall THE TWO-STEP IN THE HALL are all I see since you've been gone TURNING TURNING TURNING Through all I sit here and I wait I TURN TO STONE I TURN TO STONE You will return again some day TO MY BLUE WORLD
I turn to stone when you are gone, I turn to stone. Turn to stone when you comin' home, I can't go on. Turn to stone when you are gone, I turn to stone.
I turn to stone when you are gone, I turn to stone. Turn to stone when you comin' home, I can't go on. Turn to stone when you are gone, I turn to stone.
One of my coworkers was reduced to tears, yesterday, by the academic intransigence of one of her students, who is also a student I know well. He has appeared several times in the blog, though typically I don't always name my students here, or if I do, I name them inconsistently, which protects their identity.
I like this student, but I understand my coworker's frustration too. He is almost unteachable, at least in a conventional sense. Stubborn and unmotivated, and somehow both smart but incapable of remembering what seem like elementary bits of information. The other day he asked me how to spell "Karma" - the name of our academy and something you'd expect a 2-years-plus student to have mastered.
I was trying to reassure my coworker, who was suffering quite a bit of embarrassment about her overly emotional response. Finally, somewhat unintentionally, I stumbled on a bit a feedback that I'm willing to stand by: I told her that the fact that she was reduced to tears is not an embarrassment but rather a sign that she is a teacher to be respected, as it indicates she genuinely cares about what she is trying to do. I added that there has been more than one teacher who has passed through Karma who would never have reacted to a student in such a way, but that perhaps that only signifies that they were less interested in the results they are able to achieve.
I suppose this anecdote doesn't have much of a deeper purpose, except just to share that I think teachers should be emotionally invested in their students, even if that makes for rough going sometimes. I have argued with Curt and others about this - sometimes I feel like he only wants robots teaching. I understand that view point - as a manager of an education business, he wants replicable and scalable results, not emotional individuals. Nevertheless, I think there can be ways to allow both.
Speaking of (avian) misery, I thought I had gotten past the horrible flu that everyone was stricken with, but there seems to have been a second half. I'm sleeping a lot. Extra.
Lately I've been struggling with motivation on personal projects of all kinds.
So this blog is boringer than usual, I'm sure. I'll share this thing I ran across the other day. This Russian guy plays the Star Wars Imperial March using only a plastic coffee stirring stick.
The rhythms of hagwon life are pretty well understood by me, now. December is a tough month - it's the de facto end of the hagwon school year (the Korean school year officially ends at the end of February, but the hagwon business, getting a jump on things, seems to be driven to move the kids up a grade a few months in advance).
So we have a kind of "open house," called 설명회, every year around this time. That means coming to work early, and for a foreigner peon such as myself (and don't get me wrong, I am a peon entirely by choice, at this point), it mostly means standing around trying to look competent while others make their presentations.
So that's what happened, this morning.
There's a lot of unsurprising end-of-year work to get done: new curricula being laid out (such as they are); level testing for the kids (such as it goes). Nevertheless, in the Korean way, which I find so amenable to my personal inclinations, I shall procrastinate.
Therefore, just now I have some time to kill at work. Not enough time to go home and come back later for class, so just sitting here. I wish my mind was feeling more dynamic, these days, but it's not. Still coming off the nasty flu thing I had.
It's a frigid day outside. I guess it's about -5° C - but bright and sunny.
More useful work is being done on the internet, just in time for Christmas! Someone has helpfully translated Rudolf The Red-Nosed Reindeer into Anglo-Saxon.
Incipit gestis Rudolphi rangifer tarandus
Hwæt, Hrodulf readnosa hrandeor – Næfde þæt nieten unsciende næsðyrlas! Glitenode and gladode godlice nosgrisele. Ða hofberendas mid huscwordum hine gehefigodon; Nolden þa geneatas Hrodulf næftig To gomene hraniscum geador ætsomne. Þa in Cristesmæsseæfne stormigum clommum, Halga Claus þæt gemunde to him maðelode: “Neahfreond nihteage nosubeorhtende! Min hroden hrædwæn gelæd ðu, Hrodulf!” Ða gelufodon hira laddeor þa lyftflogan – Wæs glædnes and gliwdream; hornede sum gegieddode “Hwæt, Hrodulf readnosa hrandeor, Brad springð þin blæd: breme eart þu!”
... in modern English:
Here begins the deeds of Rudolph, Tundra-Wanderer
Lo, Hrodulf the red-nosed reindeer – That beast didn’t have unshiny nostrils! The goodly nose-cartilage glittered and glowed. The hoof-bearers taunted him with proud words; The comrades wouldn’t allow wretched Hrodulf To join the reindeer games. Then, on Christmas Eve bound in storms Santa Claus remembered that, spoke formally to him: “Dear night-sighted friend, nose-bright one! You, Hrodulf, shall lead my adorned rapid-wagon!” Then the sky-flyers praised their lead-deer – There was gladness and music; one of the horned ones sang “Lo, Hrodulf the red-nosed reindeer, Your fame spreads broadly, you are renowned!”