Steamed Silk Worms: Korean Adventure Day 1

I was the first to try them.  They were slightly crunchy and then grainy, and tasted like chicken. 

I'm kidding.  They didn't taste like chicken, but if you could get used to the texture and idea of eating silk worms, I can see how they would be a good snack.  We had them at the fish market.  I loved that place and didn't want to leave.  Not because of the fish, but because of the great video opportunities.  People slicing into fish, little octopi, red stuff being transferred into plastic containers . . .

We'd begun the day with a visit to the major Incheon newspaper.  We met the head honcho there, and all the senior staff members.  We asked questions and were given spiced tea with nuts floating at the top. 

No bias, but the interpreters were my favorite people.  The interpreter at City Hall was a trained professional and a joy to watch.  Uhm, the presentation really was fabulous, but I was all about the interpreter.  She recognized the name when I mentioned the Monterey Institute of International Studies, where I trained.

Other stops: a store.  Great fun.  And a "pleasure cruise."  I have to repack my suitcase and get some sleep, but I have to mention that the cruise was full of senior citizens, many wearing pink, that we purposefully invited seagulls to dive-bomb us, and that we had a great time.

There was also a formal dinner with many Korean Rotary notables.

The warm weclcome we have received here is simply overwhelming.  We don't have to prove ourselves, we don't have to do anything; we are accepted and, well, loved, just for showing up, by these lively, greatly generous people.

Wow.

More Vanity Plates

CBLSNGS - Sometimes it's easier and more fun, in a twisted way, to see the nasty stuff instead of seeing blessings.

XSTORQE - I don't know what torque is.  The car looked like something that could go really fast, and I think this vanity plate would look stupid (or funny?) on my little Honda.

WAYGOOD - I like this one!

4MYJUDE - Jude is a lucky person!

CSHCOW - Maybe I should've stopped this person and asked for a loan since they have a cash cow.

FYRKDS - Fire kids.  This was on a special, firefighter-themed license plate.

CHKM8TE - I know nothing about chess.

CROONER - I should've asked the driver to sing to me.

DOGSPIT - Gross.

12 Seconds

I'm so enamored with the concept of the 12 Seconds video-sharing site! Yowza!  It's as if YouTube and Twitter had a baby!

It's a video-sharing site, like YouTube, only videos must be 12 seconds long. I wade through a lot of videos I'm not interested in and then I find something that makes me smile or shows me a place on the other side of the planet.

My only gripe is that the videos look horrible if you choose to view them with the larger player. Okay, I lied; I have two gripes. The second is that the aspect ratio is 4:3 and I usually shoot in 16:9 and don't bother to correct, so there's often distortion; things look oddly tall and skinny.

There's a verb for creating and uploading a video to this site: to twelve. "I've just twelved." "My boss almost caught me twelving."

And you get rewarded for twelving for a certain number of consecutive days, reaching a certain total number of uploaded videos, or twelving about specific topics. The reward? A badge that appears on your account so other Twelvers are aware of your achievements.

I love it!

Here are my twelves so far:




videozee on 12seconds.tv

Zee: Community Video Journalist

Mind-Blowing - I love YouTube

I adore YouTube. How else could I see something so amazing, for free, as many times as I want, when I want---as opposed to waiting for it be on TV---created by someone on the other side of the planet? And be able to tell him that I love his work instantly. Also for free?

I wonder if anyone out there is considering naming a child "YouTube"? Uhm, I don't love YouTube that much!

Check out this video art. Short and sweet. I love it!

Vanity Plates

I keep a small notebook in my car and I jot down interesting vanity plates. A sampling follows.

IMMATUR - You have to get older, but you can stay immature forever.

UNBEAST - I got really angry and turned into a beast. I had to unbeast myself before I got home.

SLOW MVR - I think other drivers perceive me as slow because I drive the speed limit. I bet they wave their hands to show me half a peace sign quite often.

RAW FUUD - I like my food cooked most of the time.

HARD AWN - I thought sexual-innuendo vanity plates were illegal. Is it that my mind's in the gutter, or is that not a real law? This plate was on a small red truck.

More coming soon. So to speak.

Green Sex Toys

Sex and the Eco-City

Omigosh! Vegan condoms, erotic whips made from recycled inner tubes, and organic lubricants (that don't contain chemicals found in antifreeze). Click on the link above to read the article in Time magazine.

Contra Dancing

I tried it for the first time this past weekend. I had almost decided not to go because I didn't know anything about the dance and didn't feel like walking into an unknown social situation alone. That, and I'm not crazy about Scottish music.

I had a great time! It took most of my concentration to figure out where to go and what to do, so I didn't have time to think or listen to the music. There was also the fact that I was dizzy for the first 20 minutes. You have a partner but you end up dancing with "neighbors," too, so a variety of people within the same song, and there's a caller with a microphone who tells you what to do next, but after a while the caller assumes you know what to do . . . Uh-oh!

The people were super-friendly, and there was no alcohol! Fabulous.

What a lovely surprise on a Saturday night!

This is not a video I made---but I *will* make one!

Life-Changing Books

I was in a toy store with a friend and my eye fell on the book that changed my life: Juggling for the Complete Klutz. You think I'm kidding? I hesitated before buying it---whoa! almost 20 years ago---but I was hooked from the start. It took me about a week to be able to keep a simple 3-ball pattern stable for any length of time, partly because I couldn't catch. Yup, I'd been one of those kids who'd always be chosen last on the team.

When I was studying in Paris for my junior year in college, I took a community-circus juggling class and hung out with the jugglers at Les Halles, an, erm, colorful corner of the City of Light, every weekend.

Juggling taught me that(almost) anything can be learned. I turn green/purple/red with irritation when people say "I could *never* learn to do that."

Juggling is a great way to meet people---they come to you, they take your photo, they ask you to marry their learning-disabled sons (I'm not kidding!).

Apparently, it's good for your brain and overall health in different ways, but mostly, is just addictive and fun!

Desecrating the Bunny Altar

Whoa! I was asked to leave the immediate area today. What a milestone; my first time being kicked out while performing my journalistic duties for the Monterey County Herald. I felt like a rebel. Cool. I was also greatly embarrassed.

I was shooting footage of a man examining and evaluating . . . rabbits. He was checking to see if the 4-H kids were properly caring for the bunnies. He was fast and efficient and it looked so cool as he pulled them out of cages checked their ears and fur, whipped 'em onto their backs and checked their, uhm, let's not think about that . . .

But I was in a space where only judges were allowed, I guess. Had I approached this judge from any other direction, I would've seen the yellow tape marking the perimeter. You'd think I'd done the equivalent of burning the American flag or spitting on an altar.

Matchmaking Horus

A guy stopped me at the mall, saying he was a HUGE Star Wars fan and LOVED my Yoda backpack. I'd had it slung over one shoulder, so I put it on properly so he could get the full effect.

"I like your earrings, too!" he said, and he reached under his shirt, fumbling around his belt, and pulled out . . . his keychain, which had an Eye of Horus charm on it that matched my earrings.

The Eye of Horus is a very rich symbol of protection and knowledge. But nevermind that--- he was cute. He smiled at me. Then I realized that, unfortunately, he was a minor. He high-fived me. *sigh*

It was actually a very lovely moment of connection with another human being and I'm grateful. I'd be even more grateful if Horus and his Eye could send me date-able material, though. What d'you think?

Texas Catheter

When asked to hang out with friend who knew people going paragliding, I dropped everything to dash out to the dunes with my camcorder. I got sand in aforementioned camcorder, but that's just how dedicated I am, right? It was very windy and hard to keep the camera still, but I promise there's only one section that's really bad. I included it because it shows how far the wind pulled the paraglider.

What a learning experience! I got to see the equipment used to monitor speed and altitude, and I learned that flights can last for hours; you take food and adult diapers. Or you use a "Texas catheter," a condom attached to a tube. I've found the term on medical sites, so it's not just a pretty slang term!

Chair with a Message

At the Youth Arts Collective, a mentored after-school program in Monterey for high school and college artists, a common project is to get a chair from the dump and paint it. This is one that made me laugh. What immediately came to mind was "Kiss my ass!" Hahahahaha! Conceptually brilliant.

ComicCon Envy

I'm experiencing ComicCon envy, so I'm posting some of my WonderCon experiences.

I had just switched from PC to Mac and discovered the joys of iPhoto and iMovie. I squealed in a most undignified way when I discovered music and sound effects in iMovie and then went crazy with the slideshow below.

Watchmen, the movie, was about to be released, and it was definitely THE big thing at WonderCon 2009, so I have some of that, then lots of costumes. I also wanted to capture how large the convention was, and noisy and disorienting, and of course there's a soft spot in my heart for Star Wars. After I'd taken his photo, the black Star Trek officer said, "Tell them I was your date," and disappeared into the crowd.

WonderCon 2009

I had been to large conferences, but never anything with thousands and thousands of attendees. I braved rain and a scary highway, driving about 2.5 hours (I got lost) to get to San Francisco to attend. I loved WonderCon. There was a sense of geeky, committed joy that was great after hearing people complaining about the economy. Besides, at a conference, it’s like everyone has escaped from the same asylum. I enjoyed that, even though that was only the beginning of my comics immersion.

Zillions of comics and comics-related merchandise for sale, artists’ and publisher’s booths, video-game booths, all in one enormous space. There were actors who had had single lines in famous movies, like the man who said, “These are not the droids we’re looking for,” in Star Wars IV or actors who had been guests in the original Star Trek series from the 1960s. There was even a band that played comics- and gaming-inspired music (www.kirbykracklemusic.com). It was interesting, too, to see a Christian comics booth with a mostly-nude female superhero on one side and something scary and violent on the other. I saw the actors from one of my favorite TV shows, “Chuck,” as well as Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill (Princess Leia and Luke SkyWalker) from the original Star Wars.

I saw some amazingly skilled and talented artists just casually sketching during various talks, people who were in art school. I hope they are programmers as well because programmers for video games are in high demand---there are games with individual target markets ranging from housewives to geeks, games meant to be played for hours at a time, and games intended for waiting lines at Starbucks.

There were people in costume everywhere and they were very hard-core. Two men standing behind me in line to attend a lecture called “The Anthropology of Star Trek” talked about their next costumes for a solid 30 minutes. They were dressed as Agent Smith from “The Matrix.” The short Hispanic one didn’t look as convincing.

Yoda Backpack

When I wear my Yoda backpack, believe it or not, a lot of people don't notice it!

When they do notice, they often giggle and smile. Others say, "Oh my God, I thought that was your baby!" To which I respond, "Yes, his father is really handsome!" A friend of mine suggested that I say, "Yeah, I drank too much during my pregnancy." Heehee.

If they say, "You've got Yoda on your back!" I reply with "Observant you are."

I love personality tests!

I love tests! I took one a while ago that was based on the Kabbalah. It said I was an emotional giant and an intellectual midget. Another said my IQ was below average. Hahahahaha!

I couldn't sleep last night and found myself on OkCupid.com taking tests. Are you ready?

Your result for The Intellectual Sexiness Test...

Hot Tamale

You have an intellectual sexiness factor of 73!

You're hot! You've read a lot. You've done a lot, and there's a lot you'd like to try in the future. You've got a sharp, sexy mind, and few inhibitions to restrain you from exploring all the pleasure you can get. You have few hang-ups, and there's not much you don't know about sex. You're open-minded and able to enjoy things that would make a lesser person squeamish.

You're an exceptional treat as a lover, appreciated greatly by those who know the differnce. You were probably bored with a few of the people you've been with in your past, feeling like you had to drag them along with you in the sexual adventures you want to have, and probably dumping them for the same reason. It takes a lot to stimulate you; you realize it's not just about bumping uglies. In the end there's gotta be a lot more to it.

Still, there is always room for improvement. Before you can graduate into a true sexual genius, there are a few things you've got to learn, to explore, to think through, talk through, and f*** through. A good place to start is in taking a look at the few things you're still a little hesitant to try. Break down you're last few barriers and discover the outer sexual frontiers, and you'll become a master.

Take The Intellectual Sexiness Test at HelloQuizzy

Marks for Adults

Shock, surprise, delight. I loved the first minute or so of this. Very clever. The music got on my nerves, though, and after awhile, I actually found myself tiring of the concept. P'rhaps if we'd seen the person's face or heard his/her voice . . . Still a fun video, though.

I'm embarrassed to say I used Babel Fish to translate the title of the video, which I've used for the title of this post. Forgive me, oh Translation Gods! "Adult Drawings" isn't quite right, either. I would've gone with something with the idea of "dirty mind," like my post called "Optical Illusions."

Entrollment

I'm translating a high-school student's transcript and trying to type "enrollment." Unfortunately, sometimes my fingers have a mind of their own as they fly across the keyboard. This time I typed "entrollment." Nifty, eh? You'd better be nice to me, or I'll entroll you, and you wouldn't look good as a troll because pointy ears don't work well with the shape of your face.

Optical Illusions

Can you read the tiny text? It says, "It's just a lamp. What did you think it was?"

Whoa! I found this on MySpace and it's an eye-opener, isn't it?! If your mind can be tricked so easily, what else in life, big or small, have you misunderstood? I don't know how to give credit for this other than to say that, although you can click here to find the source as far back as I traced it, the rest of my blog is way more interesting than what you'll find on that page!