26 traits that Japanese girls want in a guy

I'm torn between saying (1) this is a hilariously entertaining peek into a foreign culture, and (2) this is an absolute fucking waste of your time. I haven't been part of the dating scene in years, so I'm the last person to consult when it comes to what Korean women see in men, but if Korean women are anything like what this video says about Japanese women, then I'm royally screwed, and I can't say I'd want to date any women who conform to the feminine image that this video paints. Watch at your own risk. I make no guarantees, but I can say I had a good chuckle—and more than once, too.

Sad Turd Day walk

I'm waking up at 6 a.m. to meet my Korean buddy JW at Yeouido Station. It's a 1-kilometer walk to the bike path from Exit 4. The plan is to walk five hours back to my place, then do lunch or something. I think much will depend on how tired we are. To prep for tomorrow's walk, I broke out my size 12 shoes to see, once again, how comfortable they are. Just like the last time I wore the shoes, everything fit perfectly and was perfectly comfortable. That's good because my size 11.5 shoes aren't helping the chronic ache in my feet.

The Saturday walk takes us past many of the trappings of civilization—restrooms, riverside convenience stores, etc.—so I'm not planning to take much along with me aside from two bandannas, a hat, my toshi, my walking stick, my phone, and maybe my portable power supply. I might or might not take along my contact-lens case; I rarely do that because I take my eyes and eyewear for granted, but you never know: Murphy's Law has a tendency to act up when you're not doing your normal thing, and in my case, walking with a partner is far from a normal thing. We'll see how it goes. JW is way more athletic than I am, so I doubt he'll experience much discomfort along the path... unless his feet start blistering.

JW, who works on Geoje Island four days a week and is tired from traveling, didn't want to meet at my proposed time of 6:30 a.m., which is why we're meeting at 8. I imagine we'll be done around 1 p.m., just in time for lunch. There may or may not be photos. Stay tuned.

a clever "Don't Judge Me" meme

Found here:

But too many lefties will find that final injunction impossible to follow.

Must... retain... double... standards...

memes and a toon via Bill

My high school's Latin motto is much cooler than Georgetown's: Esse non videri, i.e., "Being, not seeming." In other words: don't just seem good—actually be good. Don't just seem a hero—actually be a hero. It's a motto that separates the bullshitters from the authentic people.

Our country could use a dose of esse non videri right about now.

A quick fact-check on the above: Jim Jones actually used Flavor Aid. The "drank the Kool-Aid" idiom rests on (1) a misapprehension of what actually happened at Jonestown, and (2) the fact that Kool-Aid far outstripped Flavor Aid in popularity. Whoever heard of Flavor Aid? (I guess at least 919 people did. And they died for it.)

every Korean should watch and internalize this

It's not as though Koreans are uncreative or incapable of thinking outside the box. All you need to do is look at the field of robotics, where South Korea is a global innovator, to see just what Koreans are capable of. But the people in that field are, sad to say, the exception, not the rule: most Koreans go through an education system that encourages memorization over actual thinking, converging on one correct answer over understanding that different angles of approach can yield multiple correct answers. Life isn't a multiple-choice test, but that's the sort of existence that Korean education prepares Koreans for. Making higher-level cognition a value ought to be a national priority, but the problem is that such revalorization will require fundamental changes in the culture, and that's not happening any time soon.

PJW gives us the skinny on Greta Thunberg

a cavalcade of awesome (via Bill)

I've never seen a more hilarious stream of political memes (well, the first image isn't all that political, but the rest of 'em are). With thanks to Bill Keezer, who passed these along:

This next one made me laugh and laugh and laugh...

backpack weight: a hopeful conjecture

In 2008, when I had no experience whatsoever with true distance walking, I overpacked my backpack, just like Reese Witherspoon's Cheryl Strayed in "Wild." This is apparently what all rookies do, so I now chalk it up to a necessary, character-building phase: people who insist on learning by making their own mistakes—instead of listening attentively to their elders—have little choice but to fuck up rather often, and that's what I did. My pack weighed an agonizing 60 pounds (27.2 kg). At the start of that 600-mile walk, I weighed around 300 pounds. Over the course of the hike, I did shed a few unnecessary items, but I mostly lost weight—around 50 pounds. That still meant that my feet were supporting nearly 300 pounds even toward the end of that walk. I'm surprised I didn't end up with worse foot problems than I did.

Fast-forward to 2017, and I've now applied many lessons learned from 2008 to the trans-Korea walk. I still ended up with a nasty blister that stayed with me the entire length of the Four Rivers Trail, but my backpack, at its heaviest, weighed only about 18 kilos (39.7 pounds), and that was only when the 3-liter hydration bladder was full. That weight went steadily down as I ate my way through my food supply. By the end, my 2017 pack weighed around half of my 2008 pack. As the proverb says: pack what you need, then chuck half.

I haven't done a dry run for this upcoming walk yet, but I'm hoping my pack will be even lighter, now that I know what I won't need to be carrying—namely, food. Taking MREs last time was a huge mistake: each MRE pack weighs in at a horrific 750 grams (1.7 pounds) or so because nothing is dehydrated. Even the dried food weighed a few ounces per pack, and the sack of Soylent that I carried with me—and never used—was a full pound (453 grams). So despite the wisdom I'd gained in 2008, my 2017 walk had its share of logistical mistakes.

This time, though, I'm going to be walking the exact same path. My feet are chronically achy these days, but they're tougher, and I think that, once I strip the pack down to the bare minimum, the weight ought to be no more than 12 kilos, even with the hydration bladder topped off. That's about the weight of a two-year-old—quite a step down from carrying an adult female Labrador retriever in 2008. There will be some extra material in the pack this time around, mainly clothing for cold weather, but that should only be a matter of ounces. And what are mere ounces compared to the pounds of supplies I won't be carrying with me?

So that's my conjecture: my pack will weigh 12 kilos or under when I finally do a dry run. I've got my brother's hand-held baggage scale with me this time, so I can take a pretty accurate reading of my encumbrance. And with my new, invulnerable leather belt in place, I'll be able to tighten the hip-belt assembly so that the pack's entire weight is resting on my sizable hips.

Did I mention how excited I am to be doing this again?

random, funny Churchill memes

Saw these online just now:

Hee.

Tim Pool and the Never-Trumper who might vote for Trump

It's quite a paradox when a loud and proud Never Trumper looks at the Democrat field and says, "You know... given all the craziness on the Dem side, I may just vote for Donald Trump." It's been a repeated refrain over at Instapundit for a while, now: "All the Democrats have to do is not act crazy, and they can't even manage that."

Here's the article, by a Never Trumper, that Pool is referring to.

Here's Pool's video exploring the wacky issue:

Pool correctly notes that the article's author includes the lie that Trump never condemned neo-Nazi and white-nationalist rhetoric at places like Charlottesville, Virginia, when in fact Trump did—and very clearly. Good on Pool for being honest and balanced.

the spiders are out earlier than I expected

Seen on the way back home from a longish walk out to the Han River and back:

Sorry for the poor quality; this was a nighttime shot, and you've read my previous rants about cell-phone cameras and lighting.

I normally see these critters out in force around the end of September or early October. I didn't know they came out as early as August (if not before).

take that, sea turtles!

Plastic straws are alive and well in South Korea, which hasn't yet completely succumbed to the PC enviro-nonsense. Here's a pic from the office next door to mine, which functions as a sit-down lunch space and storeroom (and, yes: those straws are individually wrapped—ha ha!):

slicing arrows in midair

Dan and Gav of The Slow Mo Guys are at it again, this time with Dan using a legitimately sharp katana—an actual live blade—to try and slice plastic-tipped arrows as they whoosh past him. Dan—who has repeatedly shown he is no martial-arts expert—proves surprisingly successful at cutting each arrow. Meanwhile, Gav—who is both operating the slo-mo cameras and shooting the arrows—accidentally hits the monitor on one of the cameras, which prompts the making of a second, behind-the-scenes video that also happens to involve the Corridor Crew, about whom I've blogged before. Didn't know these guys all knew each other.

Firing and slicing arrows:

Dealing with a busted monitor, with Gav trying to pass off some blame onto poor Dan:

route map

Here's an updated map that shows the route I'll be taking (same as in 2017), as well as the now-completed east-coast route that I hope one day to walk. That route's official name is the Donghaean Jajeongeo-gil (동해안 자전거길, i.e., the East Sea Coastal Bike Path, found here).

To review: my path will begin in Incheon (인천), pass through Seoul (서울), turn south to follow the South Han River (남한강), continue south along the Saejae Trail (새재길), then go for 300-some kilometers along the Nakdong River Path (낙동강길). If you look closely at the map, you'll see that the Nakdong River portion is labeled as 389 km long, but you can also see that it begins somewhat away from the Saejae Path, i.e., I don't pick up the Nakdong trail at its starting point. This is why I say "300-some kilometers."

ADDENDUM: Paul Carver (Daeguowl) writes in to tell me the above map is out of date, but for my purposes, it shows the completed east-coast trail (finished in 2017, the year of my previous trans-Korea walk), which is what matters. Paul emailed me a slew of PDF maps of all sorts of biking/walking routes, so I now have possible routes coming out of my ears—plenty to occupy me for the rest of my life in Korea, however long that might be.

problem solved!

I finally had enough. Even after cleaning my washing machine as thoroughly as possible, I still had stinky clothing at the end of every wash. Frustrating. Infuriating. At a guess, the problem was the skanky water that flowed into the machine. The time had come to go vigilante, which meant taking some risks.

Odor comes primarily from bacteria; the washer has been failing to perform its one and only duty, which is to clean my clothes. If the clothes are coming out stinky, then they're not clean. When I heat up and sweat in my now-dry-but-still-unclean clothes, I amplify that stink and become a nuisance to my coworkers. The bacteria must die, which is something that can be accomplished through the blistering heat of a clothes dryer, a crucial piece of equipment that I don't have, and haven't used in years, mainly because most Koreans believe in hang-drying their clothing, an action that utterly fails to prevent odors.

If you can't do autoclave sterilization, you go chemical. So I decided to risk dumping a tiny bit of bleach into the wash: a small capful of bleach diluted in about 900 cc of water, poured into the machine during the rinse cycle.

Result: problem mostly solved. There was no fading or loss of color, which was the very thing I was trying to avoid when I elected to dilute the bleach. But when I pulled the clothes out of the washer and handled them, I noticed that my fingertips no longer acquired that vaguely musty stench, even after I had handled the entire load. Well, to be honest, there was the tiniest whiff of wrongness, but it was hard to detect. I might try 1.5 capfuls of bleach next time. Just like nuking a site from orbit, it's the only way to be sure.

mischief managed

For my upcoming hike, I've bought two new cell-phone batteries that I must now break in. I also have a small camp brush to help with cleaning up my bivy sac after a night of camping, and I've got a cheap trowel for digging cat holes (for when I need to poop at a campsite; I prefer to cover my mess up).

Regarding the question of eating nothing while camping: I've decided that it would indeed be crazy to starve myself while burning 5000-6000 calories per day, so I've once again ordered those weird little Survival Tabs so that I'll have at least some food-based energy to metabolize while I'm walking the long miles.

The weather from late September to late October is, according to Weather.com, going to go from cool to downright cold at night. At the beginning of my walk, temps will be a daytime high/nighttime low of 70s/50s Fahrenheit (20s/teens Celsius); by the end of the walk, those numbers will have gone down to the 60s/40s Fahrenheit (roughly 18-ish/7-ish Celsius). Since three of my four camping days will be toward the end of my walk, I'll need to be extra careful about keeping myself warm at night—especially my feet. My sleeping bag does a good job of keeping my body warm, but there seems to be very little insulation for my feet. I used to own a pair of knitted "booties" (for lack of a better term) that provided plenty of warmth; I don't have them anymore (or they're in my self-storage unit in Virginia), so I might have to buy insulating footwear here, either at a store or via GMarket.

And that's really about it in terms of equipment and prep. I've got a revised version of my checklist; it's all ready to go. For the moment, the only real prep is my conditioning: I've begun walking the staircase route along the Yangjae Creek again; for the moment, I'm doing only five tall staircases, but I'll soon expand back out to my old routine of fourteen stairs, with the occasional super-long route comprising thirty-three staircases. In 2017, I started my walk at 126 kilograms, which is roughly where I am right now; if I can peel off a few kilos before the upcoming trek, I think that'll make life much, much easier on my back, knees, and feet.

A Korean friend of mine says he's itching to try some distance walking, so we're going out this weekend to do a five-hour trek from Yeouido to my place, then maybe we'll do a longer walk two weeks after that—possibly a segment hike somewhere along the Four Rivers path, or possibly a new-to-me segment (8-9 hours) along the Gangneung-to-Busan Gukto Jongju. Any excuse to get out and walk long.

seen on Gab

This was paired with the caption, "What's Wrong With This Picture?"

via Bill Keezer re: London's murder rate

London's murder rate has now outstripped New York City's—despite the lack of guns.

A commenter to the above-linked post says that the problem in London is the same as the problem in the US: people are blaming the tools and not the tools' users. As I said elsewhere: you can't fix stupid. Hopefully, though, you can vote it out.

Michael Yon on Hong Kong

Seen on Instapundit—Michael Yon writes from Hong Kong:

Yesterday’s protest was massive. I have not even slept yet. Estimated 1.7m people. Crowds are notoriously difficult to estimate, but I will confirm it was absolutely massive, stretching for miles in pouring rain.

Hong Kong is China’s brain tumor. Do nothing... tumor grows. Operate... the procedure could kill the communist party.

This is very serious, Gentlemen. Do not underestimate what is happening here.

While I wince at the use of "brain tumor" as a metaphor, I admit it may be an apt one. At the same time, it could be that Yon is being overly dramatic: could these protests, however massive they might eventually become, really derail Beijing's communists? I seriously doubt that. If there's one resource China has in abundance, it's manpower, and once the troops come pouring into the streets of Hong Kong, as I'm sure they eventually will, it'll only be a matter of two decades before we're hearing, "What protests in Hong Kong?"—with everything happening now only a fading memory. It'll be Tiananmen all over again, with China's citizens either none the wiser or willfully ignorant.

PJW on Los Angeles

"L.A. is a shithole," says Paul Joseph Watson:

Yet another city showing the failure of leftist policies.

While we're in a PJW frame of mind, I'd like to point you back to this 2017 video that Watson made about rich pedophiles and human trafficking. It feels like prophecy now: