one last batch of photos before...

... I retool this blog.

I'm planning on a temporary paradigm shift, partly to make productive use of my vacation, partly to clear out the rust currently clogging the pipes of my creativity. I've been wanting to write a children's story for some time. The elements are all in my head, but they need to come out where I can see them and tweak them endlessly, like George Lucas does with his films. The blog seems as good a place as any to try and tell this story, which might take a while to tell. Once I'm finished with the story, I'll go back to my normal (some of you would call it abnormal) blogging. In the meantime, expect a lot of illustrations, no slices of personal life, no shit humor (almost none, anyway) or anything else that can't be said loudly in church; no sermons of an interreligious nature, and definitely no fanged aliens. At the same time, what you'll see won't be a radical departure from what's gone before. Be aware that I might not be blogging daily: I'm planning to illustrate this story, and I want the text and pictures to be published at the same time, each time I blog. That can take a while. The Muse is fickle, and I want these things to be exactly right.

Here, then, is a "last hurrah" of sorts before I make the changeover.

The following is a series of photos taken on Monday from the fifth floor of my building. I was up there to do laundry when I happened to look out an open doorway that led to a balcony. I stood on the balcony for a while, then went back to my room, got the digicam, and came up to take some shots. Here's what I saw:


Above: a clear view all the way to Seoul Station. Notice the KTX trains?




Above: one way to know you're in Korea. Pottery on the roof. I can't imagine what's fermenting inside. At a guess, something pungent like gochu-jang or dwen-jang...? (Write in with corrections.)




It's always a relief to see greenery (above). This is right below where I was standing-- looking down and across the street.



And now-- the real reason I'm showing you these pics from the balcony:


I'd promised a photoblog of my new hiking route to Namsan, and it's all right here. No need to show it to you step by step! My route starts at my dorm's front door; I take a road that plunges downhill (off camera and to the right); I walk past that huge golf practice area (the green-meshed, fenced-in structure), hit some backroads that head straight for the mountain, pass the Hilton Hotel (not visible here; it's way off to the left), then curve upward to the Namsan Public Library, the botanical garden, and the dreaded stairs that lead upward, ever upward, to Seoul Tower.

Forty-one minutes is still the record. I told a friend of mine that, by this time next year, I hope to be able to run up those stairs. We'll see. It's not an impossible goal.


_