Doesn't Happen Often, But

once in a long while, driving to work can be a beautiful experience.

Another Cosmic Disaster

Back on the 3rd of this month, the Moon was eaten by Chickenhead the bizarro monster. Who could have foreseen at the time that, terrifying and tragic as that event was, it was just a harbinger of much, much worse to come...

Today, less than four weeks later, the Sun was swallowed up by this amorphous creature of truly cosmic dimensions.


If you're freezing in the dark now, this would be the reason.

Artifice Iimitating Nature

Fair gams

or tan?

A Vanishing Building

Well, nearly. This is a building that's directly across from where I work, and I've noticed this natural camouflage at work time and again. I guess October is the wrong time of the year to really appreciate this phenomenon, because I have seen a much more pronounced version of this effect before, with the sun shining full on the wall -- and also the unevenness of the cloudy background here doesn't help, which is why I've cropped the photo down to the best area. Maybe I'll try again in the spring.

Speaking Of Jokes

We all would be healthier if we strove to be more like these characters.

3 Physics Jokes

Mrs. Schrödinger to Professor Schrödinger: "What in the world did you do to the cat? It looks half-dead!"

Man at a train station to Einstein: "Excuse me, Professor -- does New York come to this train?"

Atom #1: "I've lost an electron!"
Atom #2: "Really! Are you sure?"
Atom #1: "Yes, I'm positive!"

1.5 Generation vs. 2nd Generation

When my maternal grandfather, Dr. Paul Choy 최동, was alive, I was in awe of him. He had overcome so much adversity and accomplished so much in his life, that whenever I visited him I felt I was in the presence of a living legend.

As an eight-year old he was sent to Tokyo, Japan, all on his own to attend boarding school. Although he excelled academically, his overall record was not as good as it might have been; at that time Korea was a colony of Japan, and he got into fights with classmates who liked to taunt the Korean kid.

He went on to attend universities in Shanghai, Toronto and Los Angeles (at USC -- whch makes us partial alums!), got his M.D. back in Japan and came back to Korea to train whole generations of younger doctors, serve as *Korea's first western-trained medical examiner for the Seoul police, and also distinguish himself as a scholar and author on the ancient history of the Korean peninsula.

When I was little we had a big thick family medical encyclopedia to which Grandfather had contributed the section on forensic medicine. It was one of my favorite parts of the tome (the other being the chapter on mental illness, in which I happened to come across a description of obsessive-compulsive disorder and went "Aha! This is me! I'm not weird -- I'm just crazy").

Anyway, when I went to see Grandfather's memorial bust at Severance Medical College during my Seoul visit, I was still on my best behavior, decades after his death. I had my photo taken standing solemn and grave next to his image, as stiff and straight as the bronze sculpture -- I'm afraid the picture gives no indication at all of the sprightly and charming nature that is mine😀

Then last year, the year after my trip, my maternal uncle -- Grandfather's youngest son that is -- sent me some photos of his son, my cousin Benjamin, taken on his own trip to Seoul. How American-born Ben's attitude differs from mine may be seen in the photos below. There were others, but I trust these two will suffice.



*He was not the only one in the family to be the first Korean to do something. Some years ago, we found out from a newspaper article that Grandfather's own father -- my maternal great-grandfather that is -- Choy Jung-Ik 최정익, alias John Choy, onetime kunsu 군수(county governor) in Jeonju, South Jeolla Province, was the very first Korean person known to have set foot on Australian soil.

(Grandfather is the boy on the left)

Also:  Worm Rescue Update:

This morning I rescued a baby earthworm! I guess 'cute' really isn't the best word to use when describing worms, but really, it was kind of cute.

Number of worms saved: 14

Speaking Of Faces

Some more of my self-exorcisms.


My therapist once said of these faces that I seemed to have invented a new race of people. I kind of agreed.

Worm Rescue Update:

It was overcast and misty/sprinkly pretty much all day today. During my usual morning walk, though, I didn't see a single worm. It was kind of odd, but of course it would be a good thing for wormkind if no worms ever again foundered on the unforgiving sea of concrete.

So I was just ambling along, my eyes to the ground, idly wondering if it were possible the worms were getting smarter, when a few yards ahead I saw one literally jump out of the grass onto the sidewalk! I'd never seen anything like it -- I rather doubt many people have seen worms jump -- and it looked really weird, but now I know that that vigorous writhing move worms do can enable them to jump, like a coil spring. Maybe this one was surprised by an enemy while crawling along.

Anyway, I put it back in the soil, and then there was another worm just a few yards on, making a total of thirteen so far.

Alien-Faced Corner

I believe it's pretty much a certainty that there is life elsewhere in the universe. I also believe there must be some forms of alien life that are conscious, intelligent and technologically capable.

But I don't believe they would look anything like people. And I don't believe they would particularly want to have anything to do with us. I certainly don't believe in 'saucer people' bearing messages of peace or warnings of environmental disasters; and especially not in the so-called 'grays', with their Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind skinny little limbs and big black wraparound eyes, and that like to kidnap humans for porno-style experiments.

But I believe if the grays did exist, and they came to sight-see downtown Los Angeles, they probably would feel strangely at home at this corner.

THIS IMAGE COURTESY OF THE INTERNET

Double Cheese Please...

I was organizing my old photos from the Seoul vacation when I came across this cute scene, shot on the grounds of Gyeongbokgung 경복궁 Palace.


I'm sure if I told people this was a scene from some Korean TV drama they'll believe me.

And I bet this couple do this at home, too. Naked.


Worm Rescue Update:

Yesterday I repatriated 2 worms. This is the first of the two:


This one was so exhausted that it could hardly move. I was worried that it wouldn't survive.

So during lunch I went back to the spot to check, and voila! it was gone-- which, I assumed, meant it had eventually recovered enough to burrow its way back into the earth.


As I was walking away though, I saw three crows in the parking lot nearby and became worried again. What if a sharp-eyed crow or some other bird had seen the worm and snapped it up? That made me sad.

But then I remembered that before I left earlier I sprinkled soil on top of the worm, because it was so weak I was afraid it would just lie there until it died of exposure, so there's no way any bird could have seen it. That made me feel better.

Number of worms rescued so far: 11

I Tought I Thaw A Thuperhero

Don't know who that was, but I sure wish it coulda been me.

O.K., I accept I'll -- probably -- never be able to do that( like I noted before, the Flying Ointment is probably too old now to have any juice left in it, and I long ago lost the Witch's phone number)... but still, I AM a hero -- to a grateful bunch of earthworms (not that I'm in it for the fame and adulation).


Worm Rescue Update:

This morning I repatriated three more worms! One had been cut in half -- perhaps by a gardener's Weed Whacker -- and ants were already swarming over the rear half. The front half was lucky to have the strength to crawl away...

Number of worms rescued since I started keeping count: 9


Weirdly Inconsequential(But Funny) Synchronistic Event Update (#5):

Note: On L.A. County Library's book spine labels, YA preceding a Dewey decimal number indicates 'Young Adult' reading level -- like 'YA 741.5 GALLAGHER' on a graphic novel, for example.

Some time in the early afternoon today, I was absently perusing some books while on the other side of the office partition co-workers X and Y were yakking away. I could hear their words quite clearly, although I wasn't really paying attention.

I happened to spot a book whose call number was misprinted as YA YA something or other. I found it amusing and mumbled it to myself, "Ya ya...", and immediately, I heard X say to Y, "Yah, blah blah blah..."

Ya Ya Ya.., anyone?

The Secret Language Of The Earth (Pt. 3)

Yesterday, while taking a stroll through the neighborhood, I happened to notice a lovely, sinuous stain on the ground. I had to photograph it in sections because I couldn't get far enough away for a full view. After I downloaded the photos, all I wanted at first was just to mosaic them together into a single image. But then, I started fiddling with it as I am wont to do, blending the edges here and there, adding a couple of doodles here and there -- and I love what resulted! Click on the image for a larger view.

But Then Again...

Once I was invited to donate a piece of work to an exhibition whose purpose was to auction off everything in order to raise money for AIDS research. This is the piece I made specifically for the show and titled 'The 4:30 Therapy Group'(I was seeing a therapist at the time -- surprise).

Now that I look at it, it's not exactly great advertising for group therapy. Looks more like a class photo of one of the lighter hells.

On A Few Rare Occasions

I have actually made faces that are just happy, without a sinister secret agenda.

And Another Strange Thing In The Sky That Kind Of Looks Related To The Last Post

Jigsaw clouds -- what could be causing them? Notice how clean and sharp the edges are, at the lowest point of the dip.

Can a 'river' of air become trapped between two clouds approaching each other, acting like a buffer between them? Or is one cloud somehow pushing a layer of air ahead of it as it moves, thereby creating a negative mold of its shape in the other cloud?

Was there a bolus or eddy of high-pressure air moving through a flat cloud, like a ball lightning? It certainly looks as if something formed in that pocket on the lower right and meandered a little before exiting the cloud at the upper left.

Was there an invisible object moving through the cloud?

Edit: It occurs to me that it probably happened in the reverse direction -- that is, whatever it was entered the cloud at the upper left and came to a rest in that pocket; that would explain the increasing sharpness of the trail toward the right. Also, since, leaving a trail of emptiness means the thing was continuously repelling the water vapor around it, it makes sense that there is a larger pocket around the spot where it apparently stopped, stayed a bit, then disappeared (since there is no exit trail). It further looks like once the thing was gone, the cloud was beginning to 'heal' itself -- that is, filling in the empty pocket.

Another Intriguing Cloud Formation

Interesting weather having finally returned, I've been taking a lot of photographs of clouds lately. And last week, I noticed this strangely well-delineated polygon in the clouds. The first photograph is the original, followed by enhancements.

Weird.

EDIT:  Wow!  I just now noticed (January 25, 2012) that there are what almost look like runes or pictographs on the upper part of the polygon!  I see an I, a possible A (or a 4?), an E lying on its side, an L, an M, and a possible H (or K), a C and another L!  How strange that I only now noticed it, after 15 months!

EDIT 2:  What the hell was I smoking?  I'm checking out this post again on June 12, 2025 -- and I don't see any of that alphabetical business.  Well, maybe a couple of L's there, just possibly, but as for the rest, I have no idea what it is I saw back then.

Synchronistic Event (#4)

Just now I was over at my cousin Tami's blog, reading her account of how her young daughter and her school friend had found a stray kitten and the three of them had taken it to a vet. I was listening to music as usual as I posted the comment that the kitten in the photos was so adorable that I wished I could adopt it. Just as I typed the syllable *싶 (her blog is in Korean) Soyeon of the girl group T-ara sang **싶 in my ear.

*From 내가 기르고 싶어 -- Wish I could raise (the kitten)
**From 다시 시작해 말하고 싶지만 -- "Let's start over, though I want to say (to you)" from the memorable song 'Time to Love' (recorded with members of the male group 초신성 / Supernova)

P.S.: A light, misty drizzle had come down earlier this morning; I expected many worms would be tragically misled by the wetness, and I was right -- I was able to repatriate 3 worms from the sidewalk back to the soil in the course of a single short walk!


After the triple dose of worms, all sorts of curvy things on the wet ground started to look like worms.



[From now on I'm going to post worm rescues as co-features rather than as separate headings, because there would be too many of them and I don't want this to turn into a worm blog. And the synchronicities, too, probably]

Giant Monster Swallows The Moon

닭대가리, 새우와 용, 세마리 요괴들이 달을 잡아삼키다

So it's true -- eclipses really are caused by a giant monster swallowing the Sun/Moon!

Three weird monsters are caught in this photo -- a chickenhead-looking one, a shrimp-looking one, and one that's possibly from that tribe of Asiatic dragons that's made So Cal its home (as referenced back on August 22) -- racing pell-mell to snatch up the Moon (just look at the motion blur, they're so eager).

Shrimpy and Dragon might as well just give up... Chickenhead has clearly won this race.

Worm Rescue Update

Rescued another worm today! The very one shown below. In the same area and at the same time of the morning as the last (double) worm rescue.


This makes me think I should never, ever skip that morning walk -- who knows how many more worms I may be able to save in the future?

Location, Location, Location

I was driving home yesterevening in some pretty unusual weather -- hot yet cloudy through most of the day, partly dry and partly humid -- when I noticed, some distance ahead, what looked like extremely localized pockets of rain. The sinking sun was selectively lighting up the clouds in the northwestern sky and making the precipitation stand out. The rest of the sky was mostly clear, though. Odd.

When rain fell from a clear sky I understand people in parts of the western world used to say the Devil was beating his wife, and the rain was her tears.

I recently learned that in Korea, people used to say of the same phenomenon that somewhere a magical creature, the fabled nine-tailed fox of folklore, must be crying. How do I know? I've been watching the K-drama, 'My Girlfriend, the Nine-Tailed Fox' 내여자친구는 구미호-- a fantasy about a likable slacker dude who acquires a beautiful girlfriend, unaware that she is in reality a 500-year old magic fox. With nine tails. Which she keeps hidden when in human form.

On the show, whenever she feels sad and cries (mostly due to the guy's thoughtless behavior -- it seems that, despite being so old and powerful, she's an amateur when it comes to the emotional complexities of life as a human), it begins to rain, no matter that the sky was perfectly clear a moment before.

Anyway, as I neared the glowing columns, some drops of rain did hit the windshield, so I guess I was right about the localized rain. But as I continued driving along the 101 freeway and neared the Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral (which occupies a commanding position overlooking the freeway), I noticed something which quite stood out, and made me stare:

O.K., I didn't exactly break out in a cold sweat, but really, with its elongate shape it was pretty striking -- it almost looked like a soaring lick of flame in the sky. And not only that, with a little imagination you can see a standing female figure there, clad in a robe/veil(/burqa?^), above (perhaps standing /riding on) whatever the other thing is (which looks to me like a dove!). There is even a faint hint of a nimbus behind 'her' head. And considering the proximity of the cathedral, I daresay there are people who would not hesitate to say that, that column of floating waters/fox tears/mystical flame, was actually the sign of a 'presence' hovering over the cathedral. I love it!