my Saturday

I had only one meal on Saturday: diced, sauteed chicken breastuses. My dipping sauce rocked: it was a combination of two kinds of sriracha sauce plus mayonnaise and a dollop of Korean red pepper flakes. Quite tasty.

And that plus a salad was it-- unless you count two bottles of Coke Zero. The scandal here in Korea is that the "small" bottles of Coke used to be 600ml; those are being phased out in favor of 500ml bottles, for which we are paying the same price (in my neighborhood, the cost varies from W1000 to W1300).

I spent several hours at the office working on exam prep, and for once I got it all done. I'll be going back to the office, however, because I discovered that "Mission: Impossible III" is available through TV Links. TV Links has been somewhat disappointing: there are too many dead movie links on the site. I dutifully go through the "mark this link as dead" procedure, but have no idea whether this is working. Dead links remain dead; no one seems to be uploading new movies to replace the unavailable ones. (Of course, these are illegal uploads to begin with, so I have no right to complain.)

On my way to the office earlier today, I met three old students from a Freshman English course I taught last year. They're sophomores now; they were part of my advanced class last time, and their English remains superb (all three had lived abroad for years). One girl told me she's all set to get married when she graduates: she claims to have made a promise (pact, more like) with a guy she has known since they were both in high school; he's graduating this year, and they're to be married soon after. I wish the guy luck; my student's a great girl, but she's also a bundle of hangups-- one of those "I button my shirts all the way to the top button" types. I'm glad she has such a clear vision of her future, and I wish her happiness, but I hope she proceeds with some caution. Life often turns on a dime. Sae ong ji ma.

While at the office, I took a break and surfed over to the Retarded Animal Babies site, and was delighted to see that two new episodes have been created since my last, long-ago visit! Hooray! RAB is not for the squeamish: one new episode is about Halloween (I guess it has been a while since I visited); in it, Puppy punches eye and nose holes into his jack-o-lantern with his dick. The mouth hole is a much larger affair, so Puppy ponders how he's going to make that hole. His solution is... consistent with his randy character.

I still need to plan out how I'm going to handle this week's upcoming six jjong-parties, and I have to draw up a shopping list-- things to buy for folks in the States. My social calendar in the States is filling rapidly; several people have already joked that I'll need a vacation after my vacation. Not likely: once I'm back in Korea on the 26th, I have to plan for the upcoming summer intensive semester.

And while I've got your ear, I should note something that I've so far mentioned to only one person, my buddy Mike: I've got a yen to walk across America. As I noted to Mike, this is something I want to do before I'm 40, but as I think about what it means, I realize that it's going to be a huge project. I also realize it's something of a cliche: at this point, plenty of people have made the trek, including, quite famously, one dude whose efforts I respect (I blogged about him before; he's got a documentary coming out soon).

The main problem, of course, will be figuring out how to pay bills during the year-long trek. If I can't figure a way to do this, I'm screwed. Are sponsorships possible? Would Sallie Mae consider halving my debt if I wore a Sallie Mae ad the entire walk? I have a lot to think about, not least of which is the prospect of leaving the sweet job I currently have. I've enjoyed living in Korea and working at Smoo; this life isn't something I'd abandon lightly. But 40, man... 40's coming. And I do want to see more of my own country than I've seen before. I think a walk across the United States would be a hoot.

Big thoughts, big dreams. But first things first: laundry, lightsaber Photoshopping, "Mission: Impossible III," and another walk up Namsan await.


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