Category South Korea

An Open Letter to Mohsin Hamid

Dear Mr. Hamid, I would like to start by saying that you are my favorite living author and that, since Carlos Fuentes’ death in 2012, you are facing very little competition. Indeed, your novels, short stories and essays are some of the biggest influences on my own writing. I sometimes quasi-seriously feel that, when my own books […]

Racing Videos

Hey all, here are the videos I made about racing the Daewoo. I’ve decided to post them oldest to newest. Hopefully there will be many more in 2014.

A Gallery of Ghetto Modifications

When to Politely Tell Your Superiors to Go Get Bent

Unless you’re born really rich, you will probably spend the majority of your life trying attain more status and more power. Neither of these goals are bad, regardless of how much the high status and powerful people of the world morally disapprove when you attempt to overtake them. Indeed, you literally cannot matter without power. […]

토마 연설

토마 연설 여기서 저의 토마 스피치 있습니다. 즐겨 많이 드세요. 문법 많이 틀어서 최송합니다. 이런 각본은 원래 상태로 보여주실 거예요. 영어로 쓴 각본은 좀 달아요. 차이 점은 저의 초급 한국어는 때문입니다. “안녕하시기 바랍니다. 제 말씀을 잘 들어주시면 감사하겠습니다. 스피치 시작하기 전에, 아주 중요한 질문을 하고 싶습니다 – 너의 정체는 뭐에요? 다른 방법으로 물어보면, 누구세요? 깊게 […]

The Speech Contest

  I had been avoiding giving speeches at the Mokwon University chapter of Toastmasters, mostly because the speeches are in English, the members are almost entirely Korean and the entire thought of competing with them just struck me as incredibly unfair. There was also the part about me not wanting to write or memorize a […]

$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 […]

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 […]

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 […]