Amazingly Vivid Cloud At Sunset

You'd almost believe it's North Korean missiles falling behind my apartment^

A Truly Weird Coincidence

It's the Fourth of July!  I was going out when I spotted this stinkbug next to the elevator.  I looked at it close, and realized it was missing most of its right antenna.

Which reminded me of this stag beetle from EXACTLY two years ago, July 4, 2023.  This guy was missing his right antenna.

And while looking up the post, I realized that EXACTLY one year later, on July 4, 2024, while touring JinGwanSa temple I came upon this beetle clinging to a lotus blossom.  And it was missing its right antenna, too!  Is the cosmos trying to send me some kind of message?  Spooky.

Related posts:  Stag Beetle;  Ambiguous Beetle; Blood Comes Back For A Visit; The Very Next Dream Log Entry

TRIPLE-STRENGTH TEA

Just now, I was making a cup of tea.  Usually I make a double dose, with two teabags per cup.  As I was getting ready, just for a moment I wondered what a triple-dose tea might taste like, but thought it would probably be too strong.  Anyway, I tore open the usual two paper pouches, took out the teabags and was about to throw away the pouches when I felt something in one of them.  I looked, and voila! there was an extra teabag in it.  So right now there are three teabags steeping in the cup - wild!

Duck Alarm Clock And... Maybe, Just Maybe... ESP?

Alternatively, this post could be titled "For Once, A Totally Useful(!) Case Of Serendipity".  If only this sort of thing would happen more often..! 

In 2008 I bought the South Korean movie 'Project Makeover' (Unniga ganda/언니가 간다) on DVD. It's a time travel comedy about a woman who gets a chance to go back and warn her younger self about a crucial, life-changing event, hoping thereby to improve her own present life.

Typically, time travel humor involves someone from the past being a fish out of water in the present and constantly amazed by modern developments -- but in this case, the opposite happens: once back in the Korea of her high-school days, the protagonist is constantly amused (with a wink to the audience) by the ubiquity of what to her are now nearly-forgotten relics, but to the people around her are the latest and trendiest innovations, such as pagers, dial-up modems and 'ancestral' *K-pop^^.


I liked the two lead actresses, Ko SoYoung and Jo An, who played older and younger versions, respectively, of the same woman; as well as the cute concept and the colorful, storybook-like visuals that fit the fantasy premise nicely. I even loved the theme song. I was surprised, therefore, to find out that the movie did not do so well in Korea. Shows you how much I know... oh well.

Anyway, at the beginning of the movie the heroine is awakened by the sound of a duck alarm clock going "Quack-quack".


It was so funny and cute I wanted one immediately, but since the movie was shot in South Korea I figured it was probably a local item, most likely not available here in Los Angeles.

Flash forward a year or so and my cousin Ben was about to graduate with a degree in pharmacology, so Mom and I needed to shop for a graduation present for the kid. We didn't know where to start because we hadn't decided what to get him, but while trying to decide that I suddenly had a 'feeling' involving the duck alarm clock and Kim's Home Center (김스 전기), a well-known store in Koreatown (founded by an old family friend, BTW). I therefore suggested we go and browse there, and Mom agreed that was as good a place to begin as any. I didn't tell her my real reason, though.

So we walk into Kim's Home Center, and what's the very first thing I see? -- a duck alarm clock, just like the one in the movie except the bow tie (which doubles as the alarm button) was more gray-blue than blue-gray, on a shelf behind the downstairs counter. I asked for one, and I was told there weren't any -- the one on display was the only one left in the store. So of course I asked them to sell it to me, which they did.

Coincidence? Don't know...  sure seems like something more was involved than mere coincidence, but I suppose anything's possible.



*K-pop: Korean pop music (including the dances that go with particular songs); part of South Korean popular entertainment in general, which is increasingly popular outside of Korea these days.

Synchronistic Event No. 15 -- Spooky!

A REALLY IMPRESSIVE ONE!

Today I folded 35 mini paper cranes at work (during breaks and lulls... mostly^). At first I used any scraps of colored paper I found lying around. Later, my co-worker Erica gave me a packet of origami paper, asking for just one crane in return, which I was glad to give her. It was a very nice and generous gesture on her part.

Here's a photo of the ones I made today (with the exception described below):


To think yesterday I was happy and proud to have made 14 more in four months^-- I hope before too long I'll feel about today's photo the way I feel today about yesterday's photo^.

Finally the workday came to an end and I went out by the front door, which was somewhat unusual, since my parking spot is closer to the back door. Anyway, on the way I spotted Erica talking with Yesenia, another colleague. I walked past them, then turned back to show them my bagful of colorful paper birds.

They were both suitably impressed and admiring, then Erica playfully said to Yesenia, "You can have one, too". O.K., I confess I was caught off-guard and a bit annoyed at first. By this time I had decided that I really was going to shoot for a thousand cranes, and I didn't want to give up a part of what was already an ongoing project; but then I felt what might be described as a Buddhist impulse -- I recognized that this was an opportunity to give away something I liked and wanted; so I reach into the plastic bag, grab a crane at random and hand it to Yesenia... and she exclaims -- "It's got my name on it!"


Well, both Erica and I craned (yes, it is) our necks to check it out, and sure enough, prominently visible on one wing was the name 'Yesenia'.

It really was a small miracle.  What are the odds? #1. I took the long way out today, instead of the usual direct route; #2. I walked past the girls, then quite deliberately turned back to show them the origami cranes; #3. Erica impulsively decided I should give one to Yesenia; #4. I grabbed a random bird out of a confused mass of nearly three dozen, the one that had Yesenia's name printed on it.

What makes it even more remarkable to my mind is the fact that Yesenia's crane was one of a pair made from opposite corners of a single piece of paper; they were mirror-twins of each other (the other twin appears at bottom center left of the group photo at the top), so one might well say that from the very beginning this one crane was an extra copy, one I didn't really 'need' and could afford to give away. It's as if it were destined to go to Yesenia. How 'bout that.

EDIT:  Some time after I wrote up the foregoing post Yesenia transferred out.  I wonder if she still has the crane.