dodging a bullet

Well, I just did some AI research on the hagweon I might have ended up at. Here's what the AI god said (with the hagweon's name redacted):

Based on numerous online reports, Xxxxxxxxx Xxxxxxxxx in Korea is widely regarded as a bad or high-risk hagwon for foreign instructors. It is frequently listed on blacklists, with reports of a toxic work environment, excessive admin work, high turnover, poor management support, and a punitive training period where you may have to pay to leave if you "fail". [1, 2, 3]

Key Findings on Xxxxxxxxx Xxxxxxxxx:

• Reputation & Reviews: Negative reviews are common, specifically criticizing the Daechi and Seocho branches for poor management and a "cut-throat" atmosphere. [1, 2]
• Work Environment: The environment is often described as high-pressure, with reported micromanagement, high turnover rates, and minimal breaks, sometimes leading to 12-hour workdays. [1, 2]
• Working Conditions: Teachers frequently cite high workloads involving heavy administrative duties (report cards, photo uploads) in addition to teaching. Some reports indicate that management prioritizes profit over employee well-being. [1, 2]
• Contract & Training: The contract often includes a "training" period. Several reports indicate that if you do not pass this initial training, you may be sent back home at your own expense. [1, 2]
• Branch Variations: While all are considered to have high turnover, some reviews suggest the atmosphere can vary slightly by location (e.g., some reports of the Bundang branch being slightly better than Seocho). [1, 2, 3]

Note: While some branches may differ, the overall consensus in online teacher forums is to approach this institution with extreme caution or avoid it entirely. Always ask to speak with a current, non-management teacher before signing a contract.

Whoa. This sounds like an avoid at all costs kind of place. So I guess I'm back to applying to universities and looking for private-tutoring gigs. And I suppose I will be sending my fingerprints to the US FBI and sending my other documents to be apostilled. 

I have a few other documents I need to gather. I've asked two former associates to write me letters of recommendation, and I need to obtain certificates of employment from all of the universities where I've worked (Sookmyung, Daegu Catholic, Dongguk).

the risks people take to get clicks

spitballing Substack-title ideas

I'm focusing on having "grammar" explicitly in the new Substack title and alliterative if possible. I'm also tilting more toward notions of carping, complaining, grumbling, and growling to reflect the bitter old fart I am. That would fit the tone of the Bad Online English newsletters. The ones I like more than average are highlighted.

Grandpa’s Grammar Gripes (I really liked this at first)
Grammar Gramps (Grammar Cramps?)
Grammar—Graceful and Gruesome (captures the highs/lows of the language I employ)
Grandiloquent Grammar (too pretentious)
Grammar’s Gristle and Other Things (one of the few titles acknowledging I do other stuff)
Grammar Without Gravitas (hmmm...)
Grammar Grief (this captures my desolation)
Grammar Without Grief (optimistic spin, maybe too friendly)
Greed for Grammar (sounds almost too much like Blessed Rage for Order)
Greasy, Grimy Grammar Guts (a naked appeal to childhood)
grammar, ungridlocked (too weird... ungridlocked?)
Grammar Grievance (I like this one even better than Grief, above)
Grilled Grammar (grammar as a slab of protein to be cooked and eaten)
Fresh-grilled Grammar (variation... maybe Freshly Killed...?)
Grim Grammar (this appeals to my dark side)
Grimmer Grammar (I like this one—highly alliterative, consonant, and easy to remember)
The Grammar Grimace (I do grimace a lot, but would people think of a purple monster?)
Grinding Grammar (I'm no longer sure why I put this here)
Grinding Through Grammar (makes grammar into a horrible struggle)
Grammar Gripes (possibility; it captures my crotchetiness about grammar)
Grammar Gristle (similar to #5 above)
Grittier Grammar (but grittier than what?)
The Grammar Groin (satisfies MY sense of humor—welcome to my crotch)
Groovy Grammar (will people get the Army of Darkness reference?)
The Grammar Grope (deliberately pervy)
Grammar Grossness (possible? kinda' lame... Grammar Grotesquerie?)
Grotesque Grammar (this kinda represents my example sentences)
The Grammar Grotto (I expect an octopus hidden inside... or spiders, insects, etc.)
Grounded in Grammar (too damn academic)
Grouchy Grammar (or Grammar Grouch—a possibility?)
The Grammar Grouch (as above)
Grammar’s Grave (but I'm upholding grammar, not destroying it)
Grammar’s Grove (similar problem to Grotto)
The Grammar Growl (carping, complaining, possibly peristaltic, def. my attitude)

I started off leaning into the "grandpa" idea, but if I go with a grandpa-themed title, I'll have to change the alien illustration to something else (me as a grandpa?), and frankly, I like the alien and don't want to see him go. So "grandpa" was one of the first concepts to topple off the conveyor belt, however much it might fit me as an objectively old man. After all that discussion about my book cover, it's obvious people don't want to see me on the cover.

How about something more self-deprecating like

The Grammar Twit
The Grammar Twat

?

Select from the above or generate your own better ideas.

two bits of news

1. First bit of news: I went to the Seoul Gangnam Police Station today—a much larger branch than the station that's practically next door to my apartment. I noticed the angry sky overhead and idly wondered whether I should go back inside and get an umbrella. One Fuck it later, and I was in a cab and on my way, umbrella-less. 

When I got to the police station, I did a horrible, nasty, lazy thing: I didn't use any Korean. I merely showed a printed, translated sign saying I needed to get my fingerprints on an FD-258 fingerprint card to send to the the FBI to get my criminal background check. The staff was all ladies, and they were a wee bit flustered at having to use English and find a form that probably isn't requested much in their daily work. Several ladies ended up helping me in tag-team fashion, and I was told how to add my own fingerprints to the form (which they found, with relieved cries of "Here it is!"). They said that if I did the fingerprinting wrong, there was a chance the form could be rejected by the FBI. Forms, actually—plural. I had to do this three times: one fingerprint from each hand for the small squares, then a set of four fingerprints from each hand, plus a thumbprint from each hand. Like this:

Not my prints, and my forms were black-and-white photocopies.

I had to do the above three times, which took a while and involved a lot of fingertip-cleaning with wet wipes (what Koreans call "water tissue"). I'm worried that I didn't do all of the prints quite right, but I'm close to sending all three forms to the FBI, so something had better work. I'm also worried that the police station's forms, which were already photocopied in nature, might not be accepted by the FBI, which might prefer the blue-colored standard you see above (and which I remember from previous fingerprinting).

In the States—where, yes, I have been fingerprinted—the police normally have an officer very personally guide you through the fingerprinting process. He manually rolls your finger on the ink pad, then rolls it again on the paper, then re-inks you for that final four-finger press plus the thumbprints.

As I left Seoul Gangnam Police Station with my three fingerprinted pages (cost: nothing), the rain started to fall hard. Fuck. I rolled the fingerprint forms up, stuck them in a pocket under my untucked shirt, caught another cab back to my place (wrinkling the forms in the process), and rode back to my studio. I do feel like a shit for not speaking any Korean to anyone, but maybe it made the ladies feel good to help the hapless foreigner.

I'm still not sure whether they even entered my fingerprints into their records. I do know that, years ago, I got fingerprinted in South Korea as part of some annoying immigration procedure (visa? can't remember). So I know I'm on record somewhere.

2. Second bit of news: I got a reply to my email expressing interest in that R&D job. Craigslist is no good for me when I want to post my own "EFL tutor available" ads, but it's not bad when I look for possible openings. I found one over the weekend and sent in the requested photo and resume. Boom—this afternoon, I got an email. Now, the catch is that the job ad hid the fact that the advertisers are a recruiting agency, which I think means they charge the hiring company a chunk of my first year's salary as their fee. Vultures.

I'm in dialogue with the recruiter right now via email; she explained the job (R&D work similar to what I'd been doing for ten years—textbook content creation, proofreading, editing). I don't know whether I'm going to end up with this job; the company's bosses might take one look at my old, gray self and run screaming from the room. The advertised pay is around half of what I'd been making at my previous place of work, but aside from some revolving debt and a chunk of credit-card debt, I'm not financially weighed down by anything, so in truth, I'm fine with a lower salary. I've never been one to aspire to fame and fortune.

And if I take this job, I won't have to worry about spending $285 to send my two diplomas and my FBI background check to the States to get apostilled (the FBI check would have had to be sent separately anyway since I don't have it yet, having only just gotten the fingerprint forms). This will mean I got my fingerprints today for nothing, but since today's trip cost me only two cab rides, I'm not going to complain. And speaking of complaining: I can't seriously see myself at this (still hypothetical) new job for more than a year, so I need to coordinate what I plan to do. The job's contract will end on a certain date; the rental contract will end next year on a different date; in the meantime, I plan to keep my head down, do whatever work they ask me to do, not ask questions or make loud complaints, nor even write about the job—even obliquely—on this blog. I'm just going to stay quiet and brunt my way through it all for a year. This is my eating bitter. And I've learned a lot of lessons about what complaining gets you.

At this point, I'd say there's a 90% chance I'll say yes to this work. The opportunity kind of came out of nowhere. I'd say there's also a 90% chance the job is going to suck balls, but you never know. Maybe I'll find myself in a room full of beautiful, young women who are actually nice. At some point, I might offer my services as a cook to host office parties, maybe once every two months or so. Of course, I know nothing about how big this new R&D team will be, so I'll need to get a feel for the new (hypothetical) workplace before I open my mouth.

You never know what the future will bring.

What's really sad is the ass-kicking that awaits me from Murphy's Law. I'm absolutely sure that a peach of a university job will appear after I've been hired by this place, and I'll spend my year quietly chafing over missed opportunities.

I'll say it again

While I think this guy is doing the Lord's work, I'm annoyed that he uses a blower to blow lawn debris all over the neighbors' property. Ideally, he should have a nice, powerful lawn vac so as not to bother the neighbors. All the debris should be collected.

math humor from the farm

If this isn't math humor, I don't know what is.

like that Tom Arnold scene in True Lies

how to make a pun

 

what happens when you search out grammar writers on Substack?

It's pretty bleak on Substack for grammar writers.

Many grammar writers don't even seem to write about grammar; they write instead about staged readings and other performances, or they make personal announcements, or they write so infrequently (despite having what looks to me like an enviable number of followers) that I can see why their Substacks look so, bleak, empty, and moribund. Writing about grammar isn't for the timid, it seems. Here are some examples from a cursory search.

Filth & Grammar (sounds right up my alley, but alas...)

Subscriber numbers: 574
Last four posts: 11/26/24, 10/3/23, 5/30/22, 10/6/20
Recent article titles: "F & G Morphs," "Get Class in October!", "Finding Filth & Grammar," "Solitary Refinement for the Comics Enthusiast"

The Angry Grammarian (we are an angry bunch: people piss on the language)

Subscriber numbers: 1.3K+
Last four posts: 3/7/25, 11/25/24, 10/30/24, 10/16/24
Recent article titles: "New Works from the AG Fam," "An AG Guide to Not Bungling Your Holiday Cards," "The Punctuation Heard—or Imagined—'Round the World," "Could the Election Be Swung by the Passive Voice?"

Grammar Teacher (this better be good)

Subscriber numbers: 371
Last four posts: 2/22/22, 1/11/22, 12/15/21, 11/19/21
Recent article titles: "Coming Soon," "Aircraft Technical English," "Back at Last," "Free Job Vocabulary Book"

The Bad Grammar Bulletin (see the mistake in the title?)

Subscriber numbers: 967
Last four posts: 5/10/26, 5/4/26, 4/27/26, 4/20/26
Recent article titles: "The BGB for May 10th," "The BGB for May 4th," "The BGB for April 26th," "The BGB for April 19th"

At least that last Substack seems to be up to date and still productive. Let's see what its most recent article has to say:

The child woke up at two o’clock in the morning screaming his head off and demanding his grandfather, who lives fifty miles away and comes to visit twice a week, never at two o’clock in the morning. Lot of caffeine in my future for today. I wonder what the little guy was dreaming about.

Wow, that's disappointing. Not a thing about grammar—just a narrative followed by a brief, personal update under a picture, like in a blog. On the upside, the tone seems friendly enough, but I don't know whether that friendliness works for or against the stereotypical image of the perpetually angry/exasperated grammar Nazi disgusted with the mentally sloppy canaille that surrounds him. I'd vote against. We should be a bitter bunch.

So, based on this very superficial exploration of the grammar-scold side of Substack (there are, admittedly, many, many more "grammar" channels to look through, but who has the time?), it seems I'm one of the few people actually on task and doing focused work explicitly on grammar. Most of the so-called "grammar" Substacks are about things other than grammar, and quite a few seem to have been abandoned. So that's reassuring for me: I think I'm providing quality content for those who subscribe for free and for those who bother to get a paying subscription.

But after all that I've gone through regarding the title of my new ebook, I'm sensitive to the fact that my main Substack's name is BigHominid's Many Flavors (vague at best, and promising, but is it tempting enough to draw folks in?), and Bad Online English is only a subsection of a section I've labeled The Superficial (because it's free content and not that deep, i.e., it's not a curriculum and doesn't have any tests/quizzes). So I may have to set about renaming my supercategories, categories, and subcategories with better, punchier titles. Luckily, changing the banner (yet again!) ought to be easy enough since I have the original, layered Photoshop document. Only one layer to change.

I did see that one of the above-named grammar sites had an interesting short essay from 2024 about the advent of the 18th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style (a.k.a. CMOS), and how the writer is more of an AP guy (referring to the Associated Press Stylebook). It was an interesting little quickie of a piece but about as rib-sticking as a marshmallow.

Upshot: I don't think I'm doing anything wrong in terms of content generation. Compared to these jokers, I'm a fucking machine when it comes to churning out content. There's room in the market for someone like me, for my particular voice. I don't see any significant contributions coming from any of the above publications. But I do need to work on my marketing, which is something I've always been shit at. Whoring yourself ain't easy.

I was prompted to look these sites up because I watched a video about increasing engagement on Substack, and the guy (who was apparently giving an interactive webinar at the time) said that leaving short comments on various pages is as valuable for getting engagement as publishing your own longer-form content is. Something clicked in my head, so I started searching out like-minded Substacks. Alas, the above publications are what I found, and if most of them are now inactive, then why bother commenting on them?

Well... the good fight goes on. Language deserves its defenders. I'm not a perfect defender and make my share of mistakes, but fewer and fewer of us defenders—however flawed—are left to hold the glaive of Law against the Earth.

fun with the twin brother

The only flaw in the story is: shave in the bedroom?

the annoyance of country selection

When I fill out a form at an American website for the first time in order to have something physical shipped to me, and I have to select "South Korea" as my destination country, I normally have to be on the alert for where, in the long list of countries, South Korea might appear. For all I know, the list might show South Korea as:

Korea, Republic of
Korea, South
Republic of Korea
South Korea

—so South Korea's position on the list is affected by how people designate the country. Very annoying, but the experience teaches you not to give up hope as you're scrolling down that list of country names.

the detailing challenge

from just after the US Civil War

Think you can do this? This all looks like Algebra 1 to me. Shouldn't be hard.

down to one

The postdoctoral job ad has finally dropped out of Dave's ESL Cafe, so the only ad left is for Cheongju University. Since I don't have an FBI criminal background check, there's no point in turning in an application package that's only going to be automatically rejected anyway. But incredibly, there are still no other uni ads. I guess later in May is when universities start to look at whatever open slots they have, so I might not see any more ads until after the 15th.

Meanwhile, I've got my doctor's appointment to look forward to this coming Friday, which also happens to be the 15th. It's going to be a shit-show, I think. My weight and BP remain stable (and even fairly good for BP), but my A1c (average blood sugar) is way too high at around 7.9. It shot up after the previous doctor visit and never came back down. Strange.

Instapundit crowd's reaction to the newest cover design

Basically, the reactions to my new cover design range from "Um, no" (the grumpy, unimaginative crowd) to "I like it!" (the more open-minded crowd).

I've come to the conclusion that you can't please everyone, so while there might be some minor tweaks, I think I'll be sticking with the current design.

As much as I think some of the naysayers are just congenital assholes looking for something to grouch at, I'm in truth thankful to have even this level of guidance (if guidance is the word) from the masses in their wisdom or unwisdom. The feedback, even the negative bits, did help me to focus more on what's important in a design. The how-to videos helped, too.

Still to go:

• table of contents
• front matter
• preface/foreword
• bio/acknowledgments/afterword

This coming week (the week of my doctor's appointment), then, the ebook ought to be ready to go. Less than a month after that, the dead-tree book will be out.

barn or cellar?

no "only on Thursdays" button?

I guess life can't be all bad

As long as well-intentioned people are doing good things for others, there's hope. As an aside, though—these "I can hear!" videos are practically their own subgenre on YouTube, X, TikTok, etc. And they all give you the warm fuzzies. Put this subgenre alongside other feel-good subgenres like "dog greets military dad/mom after months/years away" and "girl wakes up from anesthesia to see her boyfriend, whom she doesn't remember," etc.

Ryder Boen, 12, was born with hearing loss in both ears. In February, Hearts for Hearing gave him the world's only smart cochlear implant system. When they turned it on, he heard sound in a whole new way. pic.twitter.com/JScHTsZfe8

— David Begnaud (@DavidBegnaud) April 14, 2026

fuck Craigslist

My two Craigslist posts have been flagged for removal. They survived through Saturday, not even 48 hours, but I guess they won't be seeing Sunday. So what got them removed? It couldn't have been bulleted lists this time; I took those out. I did see that some ads get removed for post length, but come on—the ads were only a few hundred words each.

Anyway, Craigslist strikes me as useless for putting up my own ads. It still retains some use as a way to find other jobs. There's a different site/app called Soomgo/숨고, which is where all of the ambitious housewives meet and find tutors for their kids. I've heard, though, that Soomgo is a place of high competition, so I might be a bit too old for that racket. I might have to do the old-school thing and leave ads up in the lobby bulletin boards of local apartments. Assuming those ads don't get immediately taken down.

No matter which way I turn...

flowers from Saturday's walk

If I'm not going to do the long walk quite yet, I can at least do the 9.5K walk out to the river and back. So I did the walk on Saturday. Here are some flowers next to the ramp by the footbridge I have to cross at the end of my neighborhood.

roses

Rosa Celsiana

Bill Keezer used to say he'd always download my flower pics. Miss you, Bill.

another attempt at the ebook cover

The above solves several problems:

• There's no more AI nonsense.
• Better title. No more misleading suggestions of horror stories.
• My face is no longer part of the cover.
• I pass the "thumbnail fail" test and the "squint" test.
• There's no longer anything creepy going on (unless there are tenderfooted wimps who're also easily creeped out by aliens/monsters).
• I'd say there's no "composition chaos" as was, frankly, also true of the other designs (they might've been misleading, but they were focused without being busy).
• Fonts: It's all the same font, just different sizes and weights. I stuck with all-caps for the title and subtitle and did initial-caps for the author name.
• The dark-blue film reel is larger to signify that the book is mostly movie/TV reviews (about 95%), with very few book reviews (about 5%).
• If people don't like the notion of an alien who is cheerful at the prospect of reviewing things, I don't know what to say. At least the alien isn't AI: It's drawn by me.
• Most importantly, the cover is now more directly relevant to the book's content. The alien is a recurring character of mine and so is a symbol of me, and if people can't relate to that, or if they get too literal-minded and start wondering what an alien is doing reviewing movies and books, well, that's their problem, their Spock complex. Just think symbolically: an alien might represent a person's feeling of detachment or separateness from the regular human crowd, as if the reviews were coming from a different or remote perspective. It doesn't have to be any deeper than that.

From what I can see on Google and Amazon, there is no English-language book with the specific title Sights, Sounds, Words. (There is a WordPress blog with that name.) I also think the title works for what will be a multi-volume series.

As always, grunt and squeeze out your insights in the comments. Please read the comments policy (just above the comment window, where it says, "READ THIS BEFORE COMMENTING!"—which plenty of idiots never do.

core strength

l'art de dégainer le sabre

I don't see the character for "sword" (劍, 검, geom) anywhere in the video's title. I do, however, see the character for "blade/knife" (刀, 도, dō) and the character for art/technique (術), pronounced sul in Korean and jutsu in Japan.

one application sent

I just sent a selfie photo and a resume out for an R&D job located in Bundang. The company (no idea of the name; the company is listed on Craigslist, where many parties prefer to remain anonymous until people get to know each other) says it wants a "gyopo," i.e., someone ethnically Korean who has lived overseas a long time, but I'm not sure whether that means they want someone who's Korean-fluent. If so, then this job is already a bust. The ad itself was time-stamped "30 minutes ago" when I first opened it, so I'm hoping my paperwork will be among the first of the resumes they see. I told them I'm available to interview next week, so we'll see what they have to say, if anything. I didn't include a cover letter, but I did write a sincere email to which I attached the photo and resume. We'll see what the reaction is, if anything. Fingers and tentacles crossed.

shoot carefully

happy birthday

2 million light years away

Enjoy this ancient view of ancient stars. I can only imagine that tons of alien civilizations have popped up in the interim, but we won't know about them for at least 2 million years. Assuming we've survived one or more Great Filters.

IMPORTANT🚨: THIS IS NOT MILKY WAY GALAXY!

You’re staring at billions of stars in the Andromeda galaxy, captured by the Hubble Space Telescope—and almost every one likely has planets.

Let that just sink in. pic.twitter.com/5NhNsN1SBJ

— All day Astronomy (@forallcurious) April 15, 2026

distributed intelligence

I bet the only words they know are all rotten.

ultimate introvert

I could learn a lot from this man: John Bentinck, 5th Duke of Portland. He built fifteen miles of way-underground tunnels wide enough for carriages to pass each other and including a ballroom plus beautiful artwork... yet he never used any of it. Sounds a lot like me and my utterly useless Substack empire.

upgrade this cheap thang

Craigslist aftermath

So I did some reading around about Craigslist and how it "enforces" things, and it turns out that it's a fairly self-monitored place with some automated monitoring thrown in. And one of the things that the "community" doesn't like is bulleted lists, which my first-draft ad had in plenty. Last night, after seeing my first ad get flagged and, I guess, removed, I did my research, then immediately re-drafted the ad, but without bulleted lists this time. And as of this morning, the new ad is still up, so thank Cthulhu for small favors.

Meanwhile, over at Dave's ESL Cafe, there are no new job ads as of a few minutes ago. I'm currently drafting another Craigslist ad, this time for proofreading services.

le sigh, as they (used to) say

per the stereotype

if you're gonna make AI slop...

...at least make it funny like this:

The first one of these I’ve actually liked. Stephen Hawking is hilarious. “Ha ha ha ha ha ha” https://t.co/oiKM0oumdh

— Carl (@HistoryBoomer) April 15, 2026

change of plan

I can't go to sleep. Something is keeping me up, and it's going to bother me for the next little while. Here's the problem:

I just re-signed my rental contract for another year. This contract doesn't start until June 25 (6/25 is "Korean War Day" here, commemorating the start of the Korean War), so I guess I could back out of it before then. If, however, I let time go by, and the contract kicks in, then I get a job that requires me to leave Seoul, here's what happens:

1. I have to inform the real-estate office three months in advance (which probably means I also suffer penalties if I try to back out of the contract now, a month in advance).
2. I believe I'm also responsible for finding a new tenant, but I could be wrong.
3. For as long as no new tenant moves in during the remainder of my rental-contract period, I have to keep paying rent on the place.
4. If/when I move out, I have to restore the place to its original condition. This isn't a big deal and is only the right thing to do, really. But in my case, this means I need to repair the wallpaper damage on two walls: the small wall under my A/C where there's water damage (to the wallpaper only), and the larger wall at the head of my bed where, apparently, the motion of my head and my pillows has produced a deep discoloration in the paper. So I need to talk to my rental office about how I can effect those repairs. There's a shop on the first floor that seems to be devoted to housing-related items, so I'll visit that shop as well and see whether they have someone who can take the old wallpaper down and put the new wallpaper up. I could try to do it, but I've never done it before, so I could easily botch the job.
5. I won't get my own rental deposit back until there's a new tenant, and that tenant has paid his own deposit. Only after he/she pays will I see my money.
6. The contract seems to have stipulations saying my deposit (that's a whole W10,000,000) can be forfeit for this or that reason.

Upshot: Unless I secure work in Seoul, such that I can commute to my job every day, I'm kind of fucked. I need to visit the real-estate office and talk about all of the possible contingencies. I also need to fast-track my job search by putting out feelers now for whatever work I can do immediately, keeping in mind that I have a July trip to France coming up, which will interrupt whatever work I find now.

Moving back to America is still a possibility, but if I'm going to move, I should probably go before my new rental contract kicks in. That feels rather sudden, and I'm not sure how plausible that strategy is. So my two best bets for work are (1) returning to KMA, which is kind of a long shot if they require even F-4 visa holders to have a "main" job (I don't think they make allowances for freelancers); and (2) finding loads of private work to tide me over until I get a university job.

All of which means I'm either going to delay my upcoming walk (which was technically to start today, i.e., Friday, Seoul time) or just wait to walk in the fall. It occurs to me that I'm now feeling the stress that I should have started feeling months ago. It's bad to be in poor health and to have no real income.

UPDATE: I've just put up a tutoring ad on Seoul Craigslist, so I feel a little bit better now, a little less stressed. I might put up other ads advertising proofreading/editing services as well. I need to figure out what the average rates are for such work in Seoul.

UPDATE 2: Craigslist must be populated by the same assholes who infest Wikipedia. My pst, which was perfectly innocent, has already been flagged for removal. What the fuck, man? I was just in the middle of writing a second post advertising my proofreading services when I saw the flag. Now, I'm not sure whether I should even bother with Craigslist.

meal prep, just a few months late

I've got a months-long backlog of scheduled posts. Sorry.

learning as I go

This video deals with the rookie errors on cover designs that can kill sales:

Basically:

1. Don't design for no one (which is what happens when you generically design a bland cover aimed at everyone). I don't think I'm guilty of that. But...
2. The "thumbnail fail": On Amazon, only a thumbnail of your book's cover will be shown before the potential buyer conjures up the desire to zoom in. What happens to your cover's text when everything is scrunched down to thumbnail size? If important elements like the title, subtitle, author, etc. aren't visible, you've got a problem. I might be guilty of this, but that's why I originally chose a heavier font.
3. "Counterfeit clones": This is when one cover design apes another. That's not me. Anyway, design your cover to stand out, not to be a copyright infringement.
4. Typography: Think about hierarchy (what takes highest priority on the page), contrast, kerning, tone, font choice (which I've been getting dinged on). Limit yourself to at most 2 high-quality fonts; match fonts to the tone of your work; prioritize hierarchy and readability; make sure the title dominates.
5. "Composition chaos": textual clutter, misalignment; hierarchy not obvious; busy backgrounds that obscure the text, etc. Do "the squint test": squint, and what are you seeing first? Also, check for balance (centering, appropriate text size, etc.). I think I pass the squint test.
6. In sum: Do a thumbnail test; squint test; do a test print; check for all the faux pas mentioned above.

The presenter says your book on Amazon gets about three seconds of consideration before people decide to move on or to read further and maybe purchase. I wish she had spent more time on the criticisms that I've been receiving re: Do your cover and title convey your content? She also didn't deal with the issue of AI-designed covers, but she did say she has a different video about that. Meanwhile, here's another video on cover design:

I remember reading a section of Stephen R. Donaldson's "gradual interview" (where he took on a slew of reader questions), and at one point, Donaldson remarked that he much preferred some of the later cover designers who stuck to simple, abstract covers instead of the overly specific, almost realistic artwork of famous cover artists like Darrell K. Sweet, who did the early versions of Donaldson's first two Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever among other sci-fi/fantasy books. Compare these two very different cover designs:

Darrell K. Sweet—detailed, fairly realistic

a more abstract design (not sure of the designer's name; this was probably for a British edition)

The second image is what Donaldson says he favors, not Sweet's work. Personally, I grew up with and love Sweet's covers, but maybe I simply lack design sense.

ADDENDUM: I did finally get a specific complaint about the title, and frankly, the more I think about it, the less I like it (the title, I mean, not the complaint). But the titles that are now burbling up in my head—like Text, Image, Criticism—sound too coldly abstract, like Jacques Derrida's Structure, Sign, and Play.

another try at the cover

This time around:

1. I've taken myself out of the picture.
2. I've unified all the fonts into one font, with different sizes.
3. I've switched to an all-caps style for added seriousness.

No one complained about the title, but some complaints were about the dark and gloomy look. I can safely ignore those complaints since that's merely a matter of preference.

That said, here's another try:

AI improved the pic; I had uploaded a basic, clunky, and very rough Photoshopped image showing the AI what I wanted. The AI kept making the reflected/projected light from the screen too unrealistically narrow. After several bad drafts, I told the AI that it should make the same pic, but without the light from the screen, and I would add that in myself.

I just got an interesting comment about the previous design that might apply to this one:

The pic is creepy and it makes me interested in the book. But I’d expect a book of creepy stories rather than book and movie reviews.

That's a really good point in terms of marketing. The cover creates an expectation in most people's minds. Maybe I should drop the "sinister" angle. That might mean changing the title since I've been trying to be visually faithful to the text, which says "Skull."

So—no Skull in the text, and a less creepy/sinister look?

I call this one Just Before the Dragon Struck

"You'll shoot yer eye out!"

that's a Ryan George graphic

taxes through the years

This comedian perfectly summed up the history of taxes in America.

We’re being robbed. pic.twitter.com/2ARDMloLfK

— An0maly (@LegendaryEnergy) April 16, 2026

bad taste

your chance to critique

Part original photo, part AI design, part Photoshop, this is my first attempt at a cover and title for my volume of movie and book reviews. So go ahead and critique it.

• Is it too AI-looking?
• Is it too egotistical to put my own face so prominently on the cover?
• Does the image creep you out and make you not want to buy the book?
• Should the fonts be different in size, style, etc.?
• Do the graphics overly stress movies without considering books (I review both)?
• Is ...in the Skull too reminiscent of Water from a Skull?
• Does the title capture both books and movies?
• Do you have better suggestions for the book's title?

About that last issue: Finding a totally original title is damn hard. I had originally wanted to go with The Power of Story, but that's taken, and so are many similar variants. I think Skull kind of works given that I've got a movie screen embedded in my head.

Anyway, lemme know what you think, including any thoughts you have that aren't covered by the questions posed above. I'll take your thoughts into consideration. Can't guarantee I'll use a specific thought, but I'll definitely take your insights seriously. If you are, in fact, serious.

table ASMR

This isn't a video, it's mind control... The more I watch, the more comfortable and therapeutic it becomes 😍 pic.twitter.com/gnKRvfyX99

— Crazy Moments (@Crazymoments01) April 15, 2026

Wednesday's walk

After visiting the local police station again Wednesday afternoon, I went out for a 9.5K walk to the river and back. Seen along the way:

Jamshil in the distance

the vetch on display

fish in the muddy creek (Yangjae-cheon)

the newly paved resting spot by the Tan-cheon

another clump or cluster of vetch

closer look

same bridge as before, but on the way back to my place

Lotte World Tower in the distance

final footbridge 1 (note the ramps on the far side)

final footbridge 2

The upshot of my second visit to the police station is that (1) I need to get my fingerprints done elsewhere, probably a bigger police station like the Gangnam one, and (2) I can't get a single local criminal background check that can be copied to multiple universities, i.e., every time I apply to a university that requires that document, I have to make a separate request. Jesus Christ.

So I'll be visiting the Gangnam District Police Station soon to get myself fingerprinted. I need to tell them to print out my fingerprints on an FD-258 form, which I hope they have. That form must then be mailed to the US FBI or to what's called a "channeler" for faster processing (e.g., Accurate Biometrics or Monument Visa). This is so I can get an FBI criminal background check. Somewhere in there, I can apparently request that the FBI criminal background check be apostilled and then sent to me. That means I have to send my diplomas to be apostilled separately. I'd been hoping to send all three documents together: my undergrad diploma, my grad-school diploma, and my FBI background check. But that's not going to happen.

Processing time for the FBI background check is around 3-8 weeks. How many university-job opportunities will I be missing during that time? This whole thing is starting to feel like a very cumbersome process. It might be easier to just gather up a bunch of private students or try to get a job with KMA again if that's even possible.

More news later.

AI can so easily go wrong

And AI's danger doesn't even have to do with malice.

Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind.
—Orange Catholic Bible, before the Butlerian Jihad

ah, the peaceful mountains

handling the trolls by trolling back

I may have to subscribe to this guy. In this video, @thataintbad handles his comment trolls, who all have bad advice on stance and tactics.

He still sounds like Mr. Anderson, though. Or Hank Hill. Same voice.

it's both sad and entertaining when they never learn

final agenda for the ebook ms

Left to do:

1. final proofreading/editing/formatting
2. figure out a dang title
3. write a preface/foreword
4. bang out the front matter, including the table of contents
5. write a bio/acknowledgments/afterword
6. design a cover
7. convert all to Kindle format

—and all will be done!

As it is, the main ms is around 450 pages long. Because each chapter is a movie or book review, though, the book can be read out of order, so consider this "bathroom reading," although some chapters may be long enough to require several terlit sessions depending on how fast you read. (I'm on the slow side.)

And as I've told others: Because this is a Kindle ebook, you can purchase it, and if you find errors in the ms, feel free to notify me via email, and I will make changes, then re-upload the ms. What happens then is that the Kindle ebook you've purchased will also re-update with the new, better content. No need to re-purchase. Win-win!

I'll start working on the above remaining seven to-do items today (after I visit the police station again), but I'm going to take time out, starting this Friday, to do a walk from Incheon to Yeoju City (150-some km). I'll return to the Geumgang path (which I tried and failed at earlier this year) later this fall, schedule permitting.

And once the ebook is totally done, I'll turn my attention to the dead-tree version, which will, alas, be substantially more expensive due to printing costs, etc. At 450-some pages for the final product (6" x 9" format, perfect-bound paperback), I'm guessing there'll be around a $5-$10 base cost for a paperback of this size and page length. Since I need to make $3-$5 off each book (a guy's gotta eat, pay rent, and generally survive in this rat-race environment), the markup will make the final cost around $8-$13 or so.

The Kindle ebook, meanwhile, will be priced as low as possible since it's all just weightless 1s and 0s anyway. I think the absolute minimum I can charge for the ebook is $2.99, and the promise I make all my customers is that I will never charge more than that for an ebook unless Amazon raises the minimum price. So my suggestion is to buy the ebook unless you don't have either a Kindle or a Kindle app for your phone. Much cheaper than the paperback.

Okay, all for now. 

I'll be off to the police station around 2 p.m. to make sure I'm past their lunch hour. (If it's anything like the Immigration Office, the police-station staff will all take lunch at the same time. Bureaucracies. Gotta love 'em.)