A Terrible Stressful Day

What a day. Unfortunately, the weekend will continue the terrible-ness, to a certain extent. For now, I'm going out with friends and staying out as late as possible. I won't even think about what has to get done before Monday. Party now, take care of things later.

Teacher, you're strange!

Now that I've finished writing about the bad day today, I'll skip back to yesterday and the mostly good day. I had some caffeine before work, which led to me being a little hyper. I think I heard from every single class today something along the lines of, "You're crazy," or "Teacher, you're strange!" or "Are you OK?" or rolled eyes or laughter.

In one class we were doing a conversation exercise where they were to ask their partner, "What did you do yesterday?" and practice the past tense when answering. Vio responded to his younger partner's question with, "Shutthefuckfuckerfuck." Now I'm sure he didn't understand entirely what he was saying, but he had some idea what it meant. If adults want to use profanity, whatever, but I'd prefer them to not use it around me. But for the students--do their parents want them using that kind of language?! From my perspective, that kind of language does not belong in the classroom and a kid who says that in my classroom is being disrespectful. The kids also need to learn that while profanity seems to be everywhere in Korea, in English speaking countries it seems to be more situational. There are some times that you don't use profanity. So I responded very strongly to show him that what he said was not at all appropriate. I sent him outside for about 20 minutes, and then before letting him back in I told him how those words are very bad words in English and that he can't say them in my classroom. Maybe that means he'll try them out more outside of class, but as long as I don't hear them, fine.

Also in that class there was a rap chant and as I walked around the classroom making sure everyone was participating, I couldn't help but walk to the beat of the chant. Some of the kids noticed and thought the teacher's dance was the funniest thing in the world.

In the next class the middle school students had all kinds of excuses as to why they hadn't done their homework. First they were busy with their school vacation homework, and then they had started school again. They promised that they'd do it before the next class. Luby noticed my purple toenails and told me that purple is worn by crazy people or artists. I responded, "and.......what do you mean by that?" Luby didn't immediately understand, but Sally did. "She's saying you're crazy, teacher!"

In Miro's 7 PM class the last workbook page was writing a postcard to a friend or family member. Daniel wrote to his mother, "I'm in English class. The teacher is student hit. I'm sad." He made a special point of showing it to me. I acted shocked and before I knew it he had added, "The teacher is crazy." I pretended to punch him, and again his letter changed. This time it said, "The teacher is student kill." Oh? Does anyone have a knife? Anyone? I pretended to pull a knife out of my pocket to stab Blake with. Of course, a dramatic death from him. I doubt any of that would go over well in a Western school, but here it's no problem!

I am Superman

The rest of the day wasn't much better than the morning. The first two afternoon classes were OK, but then the next class wouldn't answer any questions or speak any English at all. The next class was average. The last two classes of the day--terrible. I put Tom in the corner and before I knew it he was writing bad things about another classmate on the board! I kept him after class to write my signature phrase, "I cannot learn if I do not try" (in Korean too). Some of the other boys were entirely too rambunctious, so I kept the entire class 3~4 minutes after the bell. My last class of the day was also bad, but I was way harsh with them to start with, so we managed to get everything done and have time for the word search (which I almost never do) to review words from a previous unit.

One of the activities in the current Impact chapter is to write down four "secrets" about yourself--1 true and 3 false. Billy's wasn't too hard to figure out:

1. I can fly.
2. I can't fight a tiger and win.
3. I am Superman.
4. I am a human.

My "secrets," which I gave the kids as examples--see if you can guess which is true! Perhaps 30% of the kids got it right.

1. I love kimchi.
2. I have two brothers.
3. I like cats.
4. I've visited 20 countries.

You're Late!

I am so aggravated right now.

I got on the bus at about the normal time, but there was some road construction so it took a little longer than normal. It should have been no problem because I walked into school with 3 minutes to grab my book and marker before the bell rang. However, Grace and Jennifer were standing at the secretary's desk (I guess paying for the next month) and Grace had her too annoyingly perky sing-song "Good morning!" Yeah, yeah, hello. Then as I walked into the teachers' room she called out after me, "You're late!" No I'm not, class hasn't started yet. And you're late 70% of the time; maybe I need to start pointing that out to you!

I got my book, pen, marker, CD player, and filled up my water bottle, took some deep breaths as I told myself that I can't kill my students, and walked into class.

Right away the "Good morning!" came again. STOP IT. I haven't been awake that long and anyone who talks to me with that tone of voice in the morning usually gets their head bitten off (ask my Dad). I am not a morning person. I have no tolerance of people who are. THEN she comments on my choice of clothes: "Are they training pants?" If you mean "exercise pants," then sure. They're comfortable, they're not hot, can't I dress down from time to time?! They're certainly not "training pants."

Then Grace felt the need to comment on my being "late" again. I tried to restrain myself as I answered in a tone of voice that would be considered rude in the West, "No, I'm not late. I'm right on time" (as I point to my watch). She continued. "But usual is you are early in the school, isn't that right?" Well, since you're never early, you wouldn't know, now would you? "I was here very late last night getting ready for the test so I'm tired." Grace: "Test? What test?" SESSION TEST FOR THE NORMAL STUDENTS, DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT.

We did the very minimum of small talk and then I steered them into the book. A new student came in a couple of minutes late. Her pronunciation is nearly perfect--she was an English literature major and her husband used to teach high school English. Grace and Jennifer were being silly: "I'm nervous," "Oh no, I'm scared." Are you adults or children? Oh wait, I can answer that question for you, forget I asked. Grace, as she does with every new student, had to make a big deal of pointing out that she was the oldest student in the class.

At the end of class I gave them homework to find a news article about cloning in Korea. The two old students complained that it was too difficult, and I was changing the class because of the new student. Uh, no! Yes this chapter is more difficult than some of the others, but I've given them this assignment before, always on a Thursday so they have time to work on it until Monday. I was glad when class was finished.

Annoying Blogs

I like the new bar on the top of the blogger pages--ad-free, can search within my site, and check out random blogger sites. However, some of the random sites are complete trash! Everyone has their own thing they find interesting or want to write about--fine. However, the ones who have the strange-colored backgrounds so that it's impossible to read the blog--what's that all about? Or the ones that play L O U D music--deafen me, why don't you? The worst has to be when the popups come up saying you have to download a popup-blocker in order to continue on to their site. You click no, but it continues popping up until you're quick enough to hit the x in between it popping up. I don't want to download the self-proclaimed popup-blocker that could be a virus or spyware or anything!

The other thing that annoys me is the people who don't think they need to use standard English. Abbreviations, OK. But if there are no capital letters or punctuation, it's not worth me reading it. WoRsE iS WHen THEy dO thIS beCAusE iT's pRActicALly iMPosSiBle tO rEaD. What's the point?

A good number of the random blogs are ones with only 1 entry--someone started them because they were bored and then did nothing further with them. They shouldn't show up as a random blog until they have at least a few entries.

The last thing that annoys me about some blogs that are decent that I usually read is when they say something along the lines of, "You have to read this!" I thought the point of blogs was to provide links, but also to comment on them. I'd like to know what the link is before I click on it!

Students' Crime Stories

I entered the 6 PM class today to hear cries of "Game! Game!" They told me that while I assumed they finished their book this week, they don't finish until the end of September. That's fantastic! We have 5 pages of the book left, and that's supposed to last 5 weeks?? The thing is, that book usually takes 3 months, but because they used the higher level book last session (and didn't do well), then they need for this lower-level book to take 4 months to keep them on the right schedule. Nice of the Korean teacher to tell me that, huh?

With that particular class it's not a huge deal, though. There's only 7 of them and their behavior is decent and they're at a high enough level that I can be a little creative and teach them something that's not straight out of a textbook. I'm actually looking forward to being something other than a tape player drone who makes conversation from time to time.

I'm an expert at thinking on my feet now, so I told them that yes, we would play a game, but not for all of class. I had them write a police story, drama-style (such that they can act it out later). First we brainstormed characters together. Police officer, robber, victim, witness, news reporter. Then the 3 girls worked together and 2 boys worked together and the other 2 boys mostly just sat there and did nothing. They did a lot better than I expected. They spent a full 20 minutes on it, and would have continued if I hadn't promised them a 15-minute game at the end of class. (Hacking test took up some time, talking some more.)

I had Stephanie come into the class to look at John's very pink eye that he was rubbing, then touching the desk and his classmates. She said it was no problem, but told John to wash his hands and then not touch his eye again. She instructed the rest of the students to wash their hands after class. If John does indeed have pink eye, he should not be in class!! Public school resumes in one week--just enough time for the disease to spread among our 400 students, then it can get started with the 3000 in the elementary school.

We finished class by playing what I call tic-tac-toe. It's like tic-tac-toe in that you try to get three in a row, but each square has a category and a number in it. It's usually girls vs. boys. They have to choose a category and then name the certain number of things from that category. I usually try to do roughly half things they know well, some that they've recently studied or need to review, and one or two that they might not know but should be able to figure it out or guess what it is. Zoo animals, family relationships, school supplies (that took several rounds of guessing!), countries, capitals (a little difficult because the cities sometimes have slightly different names in English than in Korean), furniture, jewelry, etc. It's a fun way to review vocabulary and learn new category names. It works well with most level classes that I try it with, I just adjust the categories.

So here are the students' stories. I'm thinking that I'll correct the mistakes and return them next week. Then maybe I'll have them add a little more to the stories and practice before acting them out for the other group.

Boys:

News Reporter: Now police officer catching a robber.

Victim: Please catch a robber.

Police Officer: Don't worry. We will catch a robber.

After second day police officer asked to witness.

Police Officer: What does he look like?

Witness: He is thin and tall and he has red curly hair.

Police Officer: Thank you! very much.

After 1 week police officer went to the robber's house but robber is run.

Police Officer: Hey, stop there.

Robber: No I can't.

So police officer shot the gun but gun is miss.

Robber: My speed is faster than your gun.

So, police officer is shot the gun again and robber is hurt.

Robber: Ouch!

and police officer catch him the next day

News Reporter: Police officer catch the robber.

-F I N I S H -

Girls (short because they were trying to get every word perfect):

News Reporter: Today was a robber steal a much money in the sidewalk victim's bag!

Police Officer: Suddenly a man was steal a victim bag and run away. This robber will 1 year in prison because before this robber kill some people.

Robber: I don't know when I was stold money....

News Reporter: Now is Kim Ha Nul report....

Spoonfeeding

I've figured out why I have so many problems in the 2 PM class. We were talking about jobs, and 3 of the kids want to be a "gag man" when they grow up (comedian). Fine and good, kids, but for now, tone down the crazy jokes and giggling in class!

Matt and Tanya didn't really understand how the listening test works, so I had to help them tweak their tests. Nothing huge, just the format of them so the kids are listening to everything--the questions and the possible answers.

Glen was moved UP from 1st Impact to High Impact because that's the only time he can come to our academy. He was already doing extremely poorly in the old class. I told Stephanie this, but she insisted that his grammar was good (yeah, right--his journals are atrocious --grammar, spelling, punctuation, capitalization--all horrible or missing) and his speaking ability is zero and his listening comprehension is in the below zero category. But I guess he fits in perfectly with that class--I have to spoonfeed them everything. I could probably go into class, sit down, and have a staring contest with them and they wouldn't say a single word during the entire 50 minute class. I am not exaggerating.

In the hall Tom and Sally/Steven were close to fighting--defensive poses, nasty tone of voices. I told them to stop and asked why they were arguing--no response. Later I asked Tom, and he explained that yesterday Steven (5th grade) pushed him (possibly intentionally) and Tom (6th grade) told him to not push. Steven replied with "profanity" (where did Tom learn that word?!) so Tom hit him or tried to hit him. Today Sally (7th grade and Steven's older sister) got involved and threatened Tom.

Cleo had a high opinion of today's vocab quiz--"It's a disgusting test." Zach had studied well, so said "Bravo!" as he handed his perfect paper to me. The idiom review game was lots of fun, although Cleo got his feelings hurt (not a surprise) and quit halfway through.

In the 7 PM class we did some exercises that the Korean teacher had skipped. Some writing that I guess she thought was too hard for them (I explained it easily enough to them, why couldn't she?) but also some drawing exercises. They were supposed to complete the pictures using the sentences. It was supposed to be a bus, and that's what they drew, but some of the boys made an alligator out of their bus--really cute.

Green Thumbs

I woke up feeling miserable and considered calling in sick, but had a lot to cover in my classes before Friday's tests, so dragged myself out of bed. I was feeling a little better by time to go to work, besides a headache. Yes, the same headache that's been basically non-stop for weeks now. Is it my filthy school or my eyes? One of the first things I'm doing when I get home is going to the eye doctor--my vision doesn't seem as crisp as it used to be.

After the adult class I had finished preparing for afternoon classes but no computers were free, so I cleaned a ton of old papers out of my desk. It's amazing how much stuff you accumulate in 2 years! (And that's just my desk--what will happen when I start going through my apartment?!) I also sorted the school policy type papers that will stay at my desk for Tanya to refer to and the worksheets or quizzes that I've made for my classes. I suppose taking at least a sampling of the things I've made here home with me would be good.

The kids were mostly good, yet I still succeeded in making one kid cry--all right! I'm a successful teacher! I warned the class to speak only English or go outside, yet the boy (5th or 6th grade) intentionally spoke Korean, so I sent him outside and then forgot about him so he was out there for around 20 minutes. When I let him back in I gave him a short lecture using simple words. He started tearing up. On second thought, he was in the hall next to one of the scarier Korean teacher's classrooms--maybe she had already yelled at him before I did. The whole day I struck the appropriate balance between being in charge and not being overbearing.

Both my students and Tanya might have a problem when she takes over my classes when I leave. Especially with the 2nd grade class, we use a lot of Korean to aid in communication. It might be quite an adjustment.

In Jenny's and Ally's class they got a little crazy but Jenny did a great job of speaking English. She showed me her newly-painted nails and then begged me to let her paint my thumb. Am I crazy, or what? I ended up with two neon green thumbs all day!

The headache was made worse on the way home by the bus driver who thought that since I was the only one left on the bus that he could light the foulest smelling cigar ever without even bothering to open a window!

Enough complaining. I received a couple of nice long newsy emails today. Those are always nice!

Fahrenheit 9/11

I finally got around to watching Fahrenheit 9/11. Granted before I watched it I had heard and read all kinds of criticism about it, but even just watching it a lot of questions were raised in my mind about things Moore was leaving out or distorting.

The part about the ties between Bush Senior, all the big Saudi Arabian people, Cheney and whoever, the younger Bush and his people, etc. wasn't that valid in my mind. Rich and powerful people tend to at least know each other, if not move in the same circles. That's true in most walks of life--if you're in the same occupation as someone or in the same geographical location as them, it's probable that you'll be involved in more than one thing with them.

Alleging that Jeb Bush being governor of Florida and Katherine Harris being secretary of state caused Bush to win the state--come on, this is a democratic system with checks and balances to prevent corrupt things from happening! Lots of people from both parties were watching things very carefully.

On at least two occasions in the movie when Moore was interviewing people and they gave a number or percent estimate, he took the number that benefited his idea and went with it. Did he look into the real number on his own, or just accept his interviewee's estimate as fact? The times I noticed this were when someone estimated how much of the U.S. economy Saudi Arabians were invested in (6-7%) and when someone in Flint, Michigan estimated the unemployment rate.

Check out Fifty-nine Deceits in Fahrenheit 9/11 for the full story.

And for a hilarious parody on Moore's work, see: I Am Not An Asshole, the Michael Moore Story.

Goodbye, Hello

Today at Shinbok we studied a particularly difficult verse. I wondered if John had messed up the typing or if the NIV version was that bad, but I actually had to use my NKJV to make sure who "him" was referring to. Later I looked online, and John had typed it correctly. In both versions the "who" was particularly difficult because who is never used that way in Korean. I wonder if the Greek is as confusing as the English?!

John 1:18
NIV--No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known.

NKJV--No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.

As we studied the verse I had to struggle to understand it well enough to explain it to them. At the end Octavia asked me for my comment (which they translate into Korean so the kids understand it completely). She doesn't always ask for a comment from me, but I suspect she does when we either need to fill up some more time or she doesn't understand the verse. This was one time I really didn't want to make a comment! But suddenly something popped into my head that made sense and was fairly applicable and easy enough to understand. Something along the lines of, "No one has seen God, but God shows Jesus to us in different ways. Since we can't see God, we must have faith that He is there."

Today the middle-aged guy who always says hello to me joined our study, so it was him, Octavia, John, me, and 4 elementary school boys. A good adult/child ratio! The guy might be one of the assistant pastors, I'm really not sure. His English was at about the same level as the boys'. He was concerned about me going home soon and who would take over. Octavia asked me, as I suspected she might, if I could introduce a new teacher to them. Most of the people I know have already gone home or are going home soon--sorry!

It was Alex and Bridget's last day at Simin today. They'll be around next Sunday, but will be moving out of their apartment to stay with Kendall and Shelly for a few days, so won't be able to make it to church. Their goodbye speeches made me realize how much I'm going to miss things here, but especially that church and the people there. It truly feels like my home, with brothers and sisters and for a while there mothers and fathers (the older people from out at the factories).

David (M.) was back--Professor Cho got him a job at Chungwon National University--nice! It's nearly 2 hours away, though, so he won't be able to make it to Ulsan too often, at least not until he makes some money to buy a motorcycle. It was good to see him again. He said that while he was home he went to 4 different churches but none of them felt right to him--he was glad to be back at Simin.

Should I be leaving a place that I feel such regret about leaving? Or, as Bill said today, is Korea a stepping stone, a training place, for future things? I've certainly learned a lot here, matured, become independent and more assertive, many lessons that should prove valuable regardless of where I end up. I've seen the best and worst of humanity, lost a good bit (but perhaps not all) of my naiveness, learned about negotiating a contract, dealing with difficult bosses and co-workers (in the past I was blessed with excellent bosses and at least tolerable co-workers), and learned how to determine what a person's goal is by largely ignoring what they say and instead paying attention to how they say it, their body language, and the way the situation feels. (For that last one, I mostly learned from interacting with people who wanted to be "friends" solely so they could practice speaking English.)

I had another strange dream Friday morning. Nothing too important, though. I dreamed I was in a tall building for some kind of business meeting. As I was waiting in the lobby for the meeting, I glanced toward the elevators. People were getting on but I recognized one of the people already on the elevator. We had never met, but knew each other from online things (how crazy is that!). I ran to the elevator and got on just before the doors closed. We exchanged pleasantries, mostly along the "Oh, it's nice to meet you in person" type, and then were silent. That was it to the dream. Why did I abandon my (apparently important) meeting to catch the elevator? Why did the elevator take so long to go down? Why weren't the other people making any noise? I must establish some kind of regular sleep schedule!

Student Diaries

The latest sampling of my students' diaries follow. Most of them are getting pretty decent, although some of them still don't feel the need to use punctuation. Some are better than others, but at least I can read about something other than the latest video game all the time!

Mary (4th grade, really quiet in class but excellent with written work):

I went to an outside swimming for my summer vacation. I had tons of fun. It was great! I ate some snacks and went swimming with my brother and dad. My mom just stayed outside the pool. Too bad we didn''t have any tube or balls but it was still a bunch of fun. I got a bit tan... My family forgot to bring sun lotion.
My family and I was about to go eat some meat after swimming, but the traffic was so, so heavy we were a bit late to got to the meat restaurant. So we ate Korean food called Sul-lung-tang. It wasn''t that bad because Sul-lang-tang is one of my favorite food but I was looking forward to eating meat. Oh, well I''m sure my dad will buy me some next time. Today was such a happy day. It was a bit tiring but I''m wishing if we could go there again! I thank my parents a lot for taking me out to an outside pool! Even my brother who never wants to go outside had enjoyed a lot! I think he enjoyed more than me!

Blake (5th grade, genius, clown, very talkative, great pronunciation):

My class is always happy! My friends together Work.We are happy! sometimes we are fight but happy! therefore,we ary always happy! I love My classroom,and I love My friends. T-8 class room is always nice and happy. and good student many
many. It''s very good classroom I like it !!!~ my classroom is very G O O D!

Kevin (5th grade, generally good, too opinionated, needs to give the other students a chance to answer):

Tuseday,August 17th,2004 Unide State of America Today, I read some books. One of them Mun Nara Le Ut Nara is very funny and interesting. "Oh! It''s story interesting!" I want buy this book very very long time ago. This book''s writer name is ''Yi - Won - Bock'' His jobs is Universty teacher. I read this book. Then I know Unide State America is very interesting country. I want go Unide State America. Then I want see a Statue of Liberty and I want see Grand Canion. I want go,please..

Rooky (4th grade and too talkative for his own good--both the Korean teacher and I are on the verge of strangling him all the time):

Today Hurricane come to Ulsan. Hyundai carfactory is move the car. Ulsan airport is stop the airport. This Hurricane is fifteen hurricane Megi. This Hurricane is 1012hps. It''s very horrorand scary. I want broke hause and hong soo pihaza is small.

Chad (7th grade, decent student):

Today was rainy and cloudy. Today was Independence Day of Korea. I studied a holiday task(Math)of school. It was very easy and very hard. I studied homework of academy. The homework content was classroom English. It was very very easy. It was a paper in English book. I played the harmonica. It was a holiday task. I learnt harmonica. My teather was my sister. she had bad character. It was hate. I played harmonica not well. I could play harmonica very well. Today was a very nice day.

Justin (7th grade, cutest kid, hard to be angry at him because of that smile, a bit mischievious):

I hate Mosquito.The mosquito is people bite and injure.Probably i bit a 9 last night.but come to fall. Why mosquito bite a people?? I really difficult to understand.Today I never bite a mosquito. aja aja justin~! the end~!

Harry (6th grade, good at getting his point across, but weak at writing); using the dictionary is bad--Today Korea got a bad SCORE!

Today in the Greece opening the Olympic game. I like Olympic. because the world is very very peace. so I like olympic. Today Korea is bad sexual. The player is lose the maney games. But a nation isn''t disappointment. tomorrow player will good.

Laura (6th grade, good all-round student, very helpful in class):

We usually drew a picture in art class. But today, we played with clays. Every one could make what they wanted. I made a duck and a teacup. I made a teacup first. I made a bowl and put the handle. It was perfect. I decorated it and made a duck. It was very fun! I made a duck shape and decorated all over the duck. My duck looks like a jewel. I made a rabbit too. But it broke easily. So I didn''t take to my home. I love making with clays.

Lily (8th grade, pretty quiet but good when she does speak, always ready to study); I'm not entirely sure what she's talking about.

I go to my cousin''s restaurant. The restaurant''s name is Hong cho bul darck. Hong cho bul darck sell beer,really spicy chicken. Hong cho bul darck mean Hong cho is name, bul darck is fire chicken. Why call fire chicken? If You eat fire chicken and you know~ very very spicy!!! Korean people eat chicken and they shed tears. I eat little chicken , in my mouth It feels fire breaks out . And I shed tears~ ㅠㅠㅠ.... But, It was delicious. I asked my dad, "Why people eat this chicken what taste? Dad said , "People eat spicy taste" In the restaurant, many young people. they eat beer and fire chicken ~ My cousin is very busy. I want to be a Hong cho bul darck''s president. And I am going to rich!!

Steven (5th grade, strange Sally's younger brother, very strong all-round in English):

Today is on the vacation. But I went to the school. Because I have a computer lesson. So I went to the school in early mornig. So I was hungry. I hate my computer lesson. My computer teacher likes girl. So boys hate my teacher. But girl like my teacher. I afraid the girl. Why is my teacher like girl? I don''t konw forever!!

Annie (5th grade, one of the toughest girls I know--she looks sweet, but she doesn't take any nonsense from the boys!):

Today, I have a cleaning the school. I felt very angry because, the typhoon is came yesterday. So, the school is very dirty. The trash is very many in the school. So, We are the cleaning the scool very hard. And, a schoolmaster is make our clening very hard. So, I felt very angry to schoolmaster. I remorse about I go to the school yesterday. My friends angry, too. Today is very angry day.

Glen (7th grade, in a class that's WAY too difficult for him, but he can't study at any other time); a new student came to class with the same English nickname, which totally confused me.

today my friend is Glen my name is Glen, too my friend is Glen is fun my friend Glen is meet schoos every day my friend meet school he is very very fun my friend with l play soccer soccre is very fun

Tom (8th grade, Luby's twin brother, pretty good when he wants to be, same class as the two Glens); "It's that Glen too"--I realize what he's talking about--I was joking around about "this Glen" (the one who sits closer to me) and "that Glen" (the one who sits in the back) and apparently he picked up on that!

I think Charlie is very bad student. Because he bored heis hitting me and that glen. But Charlie is same age. He born in january. I born on May. So we are same age. I hate charlie very much. It''s that Glen too. So we are don''t like charlie very much.

Must-See Video

Take a look at the newest site I've found that I can't access from Korea without going through a proxy server: Kerry on Iraq. It's a timeline in video form of Kerry's speeches and votes on the Iraq issue over the last 10 years or so, concentrating on the last 3 years. Very interesting. Thanks to The Foggiest Idea.

This Swift Boat thing is getting pretty interesting now that the mainstream media is starting to cover it. They sure are distorting things, though. The Straight Face Test and The Mudville Gazette are pointing out some of the distortions.