Author Archives: authorbengarrido
$8 Paintjob
Pretty much self explanatory. My car, it seems, is only two colors now. Thanks to Chris Marsh and Choi Chan-shik for the help. Thanks to Daejeon Ilbo for publishing pornographic cartoons in the business section of a major newspaper and making me laugh. Thanks to the police department for not noticing that half a day […]
The Completely Practical Value of Imagination
In addition to writing this blog, playing with distastefully modified cars and mystifying Koreans with my awesome hanguel skills, I am a graduate student in Paichai University‘s second language acquisition (TESOL) department. As part of my studies, I’ve been collaborating with one of my professors on a scientific paper investigating motivation in language learning. This […]
The Aliens Among Us
Six illegal immigrants sat inside, concealed behind a vaguely grandmotherly veil of lace curtains and potted plants. Naomi McNotHerRealName, 28 when I met her, lives in the two-bedroom house with a small green lawn in east Reno. It’s a throwback to the late ‘70s when the idea of a yellow house with green trim still […]
Excerpt from Brief Interviews With Hideous Men by David Foster Wallace
‘Alls I’m – or think about the Holocaust. Was the Holocaust a good thing? No way. Does anybody think it was good it happened: no way. But did you ever read Victor Frankl? Victor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning? It’s a great, great book. Frankl was in a camp in the Holocaust and the book comes out […]
Highly Questionable Modifications Made to the Car I Depend on for Transportation
Because I’m creative (really cheap), I have decided to pursue my racing ambitions through the twin approaches of aerodynamic efficiency and superior suspension geometry. These things, in addition to their inherent spiritual, aesthetic and moral superiority, have the minor benefits of being free or nearly free. The previous two weekends, as such, have been spent […]
The Upside of Western Decline
I view the US and its western allies as very positive forces in international politics. US nation building policies during the 40s and 50s constructed much of the modern first world. The US civil rights movement, the anti-colonization movement running parallel to it in Britain, France, and other Western nations, democracy promotion efforts and trade […]
Condensed Friendship
One of my professors at Paichai University is an enormous tech-guy and he was very excited the other day because, it seems, Korea is on the verge of replacing its paper books with e-book enabled iPads (or their Samsung/LG made equivalents). My first reaction was, typical of my largely tech-indifferent self, to shrug and go […]
Dez Bryant and The Sins of The Father
You shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them. For I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the sons to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me. – Deuteronomy Chapter Five, Verse Nine Most of you probably don’t know much about […]
The Best Way to Make An Impression on Readers
The Best Way To Make An Impression? by Todd Borg It’s likely – but not certain – that the answer is to write a really good book. In fact, everything I say after this sentence is predicated on the assumption that you have written a really good book and that your book also has a really good professional cover and really good editing. […]
The Art of Ghetto Engineering
I drive a Daewoo. This is sufficiently humiliating on its own, but I add to this by racing said Daewoo in large, public exhibitions of my poor taste and minimal refinement. Alas, even these deprecations are not sufficient and I so go even farther by embracing the ancient art of ghetto-fabrication. This story begins with […]
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