I miss my Computer.
My baby broke about a month ago and I’ve been without a computer ever since. Well, one of my own. I can use this one, I can use my housemate’s, I can use the one at the University  library and a number of different ones so I have my daily shot of internet, but I am incomplete.

Once I leave this place I am without internet, without computer, without my games, without my comics, without a quick search, without my movies, without my series, without my music and even without the reassuring hum of my laptop fan.

Initially it wasn’t so bad. Let’s face it, cleaning that kitchen was well overdue and I had needed to fix that bike for a long long time. But after a week I’d run out of chores, I just don’t keep that sloppy a house. So . . . . TV? Replace one addiction with an old one?
Nah, TV can’t hold me like it used to. There’s still some interesting things on it, but the concept of having to accommodate other people’s schedule for it is quite annoying. Seriously, there’s two and a half men on together with the Simpsons and then half an hour later there’s usually a dry spell. Also, it was an unpleasant reminder that I’m growing up, most of the time I’ve logged is on Discovery/National Geographic and other things which could be considered educational. I used to be more of an Itchy and Scratchy watcher.
Books. I have a lot of them, but not a lot I’ve not read yet. I have 2 at the moment, and I bought 1 of that last Saturday (I bought 2, but the other one is done already(420 pages)). And I don’t really want to buy new ones as I’m already full on books I will probably end up abandoning due to expatriation anyway.

All of that are just other time wasters though. I could start doing something useful . . .  But that’s just not something I want to do at night. I might look into a hobby, but after spending most of my day doing useful stuff at the university I’m not really in the mood to be “productive” after dinner.

So . . .  hobbies. I have climbing. That should keep me off the street for 2 nights a week. There’s the D&D group, but that’s really only once every fortnight.

Being social then, I had pushed my social obligations to the back burner while I finished all the schoolwork I had to, but that’s over now. . . My social life has picked up, but it seems some friends just picked up their lives and kept living it while I was shut up like that. How dare they.

Long walks outside? It’s March. In Holland. It rains. A lot.

Besides . . . I don’t really want to be actually busy full time anyway. Being productive after dinner isn’t desirable, but neither is being all active and social 7 days a week.

My computer covers things nicely I’d say. It always there when you need it/something falls through, doesn’t mind if you leave for something more pressing, provides light entertainment that isn’t too taxing and plays exactly the music/tv-show/movie you want to watch when you want to watch/listen to it.

So . . . . I have an addiction, but a socially acceptable one (seeing how in the western world it is hard to go without for a great many people) and I want it back. I don’t really want to stop, I miss my baby. Lets face it, the other options aren’t that much more attractive and they sure as hell require more energy. Besides, how will I plan my social rendezvous without google calendar.

No, I will get my computer back and lose myself to its sweet highs, drown myself in its intoxicating virtual waters, float in the ether and plug back into this addiction.

Though I’m gonna cut down on my WoW a bit I think.

=====================================================================

If you are going through hell, keep going

- Winston Churchill

I am pleased to report that should I for some reason be overcome by my revulsion of the stuff, if I can no longer stand it on the breath of everyone I interact with, if the woman I love’s kiss becomes shear terror through the consumption of the stuff there is now a way out.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8530836.stm

South Korea has opened what officials say is the world’s first purpose-built prison for foreign convicts.

The prison offers Western food and satellite TV programmes in English, Chinese, Russian and Arabic.
The number of foreigners in South Korean jails has more than doubled in the past four years to about 1,500.

The prison’s director said the inmates would still be able to pursue the “Korean dream” that had led them to the country in the first place.

The prison is about 100km (62 miles) south of the capital, Seoul, in Cheonan.
Inmates are given classes in Korean culture but can also view satellite TV from around the world and eat non-Korean meals.

Sweet, sweet release will never be outside of my reach.

==============================================================

Row! You incomprehensible, horizontal-eyed, Western trouser-wearers! Eurgh! You all look the same to me! How I despise your lack of subtlety and your joined-up writing! You, who have never committed ritual suicide in your lives! SILENCE! Unceremonious rice-pudding eaters! How I abominate your milk-drinking and your lack of ancestor-worship and your failure to eat your lunch out of little boxes!

- Tsutomu Sekine

So, what will I worry about.

THE FOOD.

Korea’s most notable contribution to world cuisine is Kimchi. Health Magazine has named it one of the world’s most healthy foods because it is loaded with vitamins A, B, and C, but its biggest benefit may be in its “healthy bacteria” called lactobacilli, found in fermented foods like kimchi and yogurt. This good bacteria helps with digestion, plus it seems to help stop and even prevent yeast infections. Best news of all though: Some studies show fermented cabbage has compounds that may prevent the growth of cancer.
Now, call me a skeptic, but I like to review my sources. Currently, I fill my days checking sources and whatever for my final thesis so the first thing I did was try and track down some of these sources.
Thin. Very thin.

What I did find was this: Kimchi and soybean pastes are risk factors of gastric cancer, by Hong-Mei Nan et.al.

Hell, if you google Kimchi cancer you will get a lot of links to either side of the arguement. Some of them indicate it being the cabbage that is responsible to the anti-cancer properties, others the pickling. And then others indicate the pickling is directly related to gastric cancer.
All in all it’s a hotly debated topic it seems and whichever side of the arguement I believe it’s not likely to affect me for years of regular use anyway.

But, here’s my stance on Kimchi.
To introduce and conclude: Kimchi, is a pickled dish made of cabbage, some other vegetables and various seasonings.

It’s pickled cabbage.

PICKLED CABBAGE.

I like neither pickled foods nor cabbage. Case closed. It could give me superpowers and I’ll politely pick at it during official functions and ignore the hell out of it during the rest of my stay there. But considering it’s served with every bloody meal and aelle seems to actually like it (I knew I should’ve questioned her tastes when she fell for me) I’m sure I’ll have enough exposure to it and so: Worry about it, I shall.

==================================================================

Being a parent is wanting to hug and strangle your kid at the same time

- Bill Watterson

Now I’ve been back in Europe for over a year and a half and this just hasn’t been too much fun to read. Let’s face it, posts like this, this and this just haven’t been as funny as this, as amusing a read as this and as interesting a read as this. And I haven’t said much at all about Japanese Cultural stuff in a long while.

Well . . . that’s about to change(Well, not the Japanese bit, but KOREA!). With all my coursework handed in(though not passed yet, who knows what headaches that will bring yet) I can now focus on my final thesis. And my final thesis will include moving to South Korea. So I can now seriously start prepping for it. Starting to read up on what life is like there at different places in the blogosphere (I read scientific papers full-time now, I’m not going to actually read something like that about the South Korea sociological-somethingorother, dear lord, are you kidding?) and getting my first glimps of Cultural oddities.

It’s odd that because Korea actually is a lot like Japan in a lot of aspects not everything strikes me as odd as it would some of my readers.

BUT

Let me start you off with . . . .

Dun

Dun

DUUUUUUUUUUUUN

FAN OF  DEATH

============================================================

“Pffft, English. Who needs that? I’m never going to England.”

- Homer Simpson

I find myself remembering the last time I was here quite vividly. As a matter of fact it seems mere weeks ago that I was here.
How is that possible, it has been over 3 months since I last set foot here.

Thinking about it I can think of a couple of things that have happened since I last came here. I got my BSc, I went to Vienna . . .  but most of all I have been at school. Lots of school. Apart from a couple of sections of day where the network of school was out and some weekends absolutely necessary to maintain sanity I have been at school every day for that last 3 months and more. Not just limited to weekdays either. I have spent a fair number of Saturdays and Sundays there aswell. It started as regular 9 – 5 work but has since then grown into 8:30 to often past 19:00. And it is starting to frighten me. I am not done with schoolwork yet and have months to go yet on my thesis even after my final assignments have been handed in. I am feeling the strain and I can see where the cracks are appearing.

I have mentioned the weekends absolutely necessary to maintain sanity. They have been filled with anything to take my mind of the unfinished workload I have sitting at school. No watching TV, because it leaves too much time to think. I engage 2 or 3 different forms of entertainment simultaneously in order to relax. A book will have to be very well written indeed not to let my mind wander to my work these days. What I want to do is come home and switch off my brain to coast, but I need to keep myself busy in order not to regress to my MATLAB code. And despite all of that I find myself doing lit research more often after 21:00 than I care to admit.

A lot has happened in since I last was here, but I can’t feel it. It’s been one long haul, and while I have tried to relax I have to conclude I can’t. I need to finish this, need to finish school. I need to get this over and done with so I can dial back the pace of my life. After school there’s a career, which is obviously not the best time to dial back. What the hell am I supposed to do about this crap? Screwed if I do, screwed if I don’t.

Besides the Vienna thing and closing off the BSc another thing has happened in these last few months. I seem to have lost a good friend. Though I don’t know why, he hasn’t told me. One day he didn’t come to my birthday and I haven’t heard from him since. I think that was significant. I need more social interaction than I am getting, and Raph can’t fill that hole due to the whole Long-Distance thing. I am trying to hold on to my other dear friend, but I am not giving myself the time to do it properly. I will need to change before I tear myself apart.

But for now I will try to truly relax. I have tried this before so I have my doubts about it working, but I will try. So far I am too obsessed with trying to get the verification for my new version of MATLAB done though. For some reason it won’t verify which means I can’t do my work here. And I definitely can’t voluntarily not do the work if it isn’t even possible to do the work if I wanted to. That doesn’t mean I’m relaxing, that means I’m forced to do nothing. Which is something completely different.

Now I know it’s been a long time since I was here because last time I was here I got a sunburn while surfing. A notable difference with the frozen wasteland I just behind. Clear indicator of time past. It is, however, not the only indicator. People are celebrating Christmas all around me, indeed I have my first gifts in my possession already. But I can’t help but not feel the actual Christmas spirit. I am stuck in Emotional October. It can’t nearly be December yet. When I pulled out of my studies long enough to take stock last week I found it was already far too late to plan anything efficiently. Thanks to my girlfriend I am here though, someone around me is rooted in the correct time-frame that can steer me a little bit.

Hell, it is now even possible to see my mental pre-occupation now. Due to 6 days of not getting around to shaving I now sport a beard. I could just shave it, but that requires time and I’m not prepared to use time for that.

Now, it is not to say that I am here wholly lost and overworked. I would not be myself if I couldn’t draw back from my current predicament to know I am in a pretty good state. School is drawing to an end, I have the love of a beautiful woman and I’m not nuts/sick/schizophrenic/etc.

But right now I’m just so tired. And I can’t go to sleep till I say so.

So while I don’t really fully comprehend what is happening around me I will leave you with a “Merry Christmas”/”Happy Chanukah”/”Happy Solstice”/”Happy Isaac Newton Day”/”God Jul”/”Happy Holidays” and an alcohol soaked new year to you all.

Wally

===============================================================

Quote of the day:

Too fucking busy, and vice versa

- Dorothy Parker