Another One Of "Those" Pics

Taken at the National Museum of Korea in Seoul a few years back.  Everything was closed for covid, but there was this one lone staffer continuing to do his job, whatever it was.

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Another "Brain Fart"

Just now I was reading about the history of the neighborhood in London called Whitefriars.  It seems the area had once been the object of a dispute involving jurisdiction.  For a time it was officially exempt from the city's jurisdiction due to its having been the site of a monastery which provided sanctuary to criminals fleeing the law.  As a result it tended to actively attract criminals and eventually became known for its general lawlessness.  And the term "fence cully" came into being, to describe those who dealt in stolen goods there.  I guess this became shortened to simply "fence" in modern parlance but kept its original meaning.  This reminded me of the somewhat similar-sounding word "ponce", which in British slang means a person who arranges "dates" for prostitutes and lives off their earnings.  Naturally it reminded me of the Korean counterpart, 포주 (pronounced "poju").  Then I tried to remember the American equivalent, but for the life of me I couldn't remember what it was.  After a mental struggle I was about to look it up online, but then my mind's eye conjured up an image of a typical "hooker manager" in movies -- a man outfitted in an absurdly fancy suit, complete with hat and cane, a fur coat draped around his shoulders, posing in front of a big flashy sedan -- and suddenly the word "pimpmobile" came to me and I had it: "pimp".

Interesting how in all three languages the name of the profession starts with the "P" sound.

I guess I shouldn't forget "pander(er)" and "procurer" either.

Today's Iridescence

A rainbow wing!  Shed by an angel, no doubt -- how beautiful.

"V" For Victory

 

Came across this on one of my walks.  A somewhat ironically defeated-looking victory sign if you ask me, but still.

Another One From The Archives

I hadn't meant to do anything about anything, social commentary was the farthest thing from my mind at that instant.  I just happened to come by this scene in Hollywood and it was just striking, that's all.

But I'm glad I did.

"When The Moon Shall Outshine The Sun"

Another card from the mysterious deck of unknown origin... 

Cloud Watch II

It's moonsoon season, but there's been very little rain here in the northern part of the country, at least thus far.  I understand some parts of the south have been inundated, but for whatever reason the rainclouds refuse to move north.  Every day the weather forecast predicts rain, but then later it gets pushed back a day.  It's like the punishment the Greek gods subjected Tantalus to, the torment of having relief just within your grasp, only to see it withdrawn at the last moment.

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Errant Rose

Or, if I might wax poetic for a moment -- at the risk of sounding like *William McGonagall..,

"O The Fate of Innocent Beauty -- due in no part to her own fault, she is initially praised and extolled, then as time takes its sad toll she eventually is abandoned, then briefly trampled upon and at last forgotten..."

*Fairly or unfairly, William McGonagall has come to be known as the very spirit of Bad Poetry.

On the other hand, it occurs to me that this image might well find sincere fans in Japan, where the concept of the Tragic/Pitiable Transient Beauty is actually an aesthetic ideal^

"Sugar Glider"

Doing what sugar gliders do.

Floating, that is.

*Courtesy of the internet

That Should Be Demodex Mite(s)

Very often, when I lie in bed at night waiting for sleep, I'll feel a sudden tickle or itch, mostly on my face.  I'll try to ignore it for a while, but eventually I just can't stand it any more and scratch madly, waking myself and re-setting the 'pre-sleep mode'.  I've often wondered why this happens, and last night it occurred to me to ask AI.  I proposed three possible reasons and asked which is the likeliest:

#1. Motes of dust falling on my face;

#2. Just random firing of nerve endings;

#3. Skin mites

Well, AI rejected both #1 and #3 and chose #2 as the explanation.  While dust particles are landing on us continuously, and we live with skin mites all our lives, they both are far too small and light to be detected by our mechanoreceptors.  And although random nerve firings are also occurring all the time, they cause only low-level sensations and during the hours of activity there are too many distractions occupying our attention for us to notice them, for the most part.  It's only when things are quiescent and most external stimuli are absent that we finally notice them.

Even though I've always known all humans carry microscopic mites ("mite motes"?) living in their hair follicles (daily showers will not get rid of them;  they are as much a part of us as are intestinal bacteria), nevertheless I was relieved to know that my nocturnal itching was not caused by tiny bugs crawling around on my face.

Subsequently I looked up "skin mites" and found this lovely meme:

Dramatic Clouds

 

From The Archives

 

What, you've never seen a random red flag standing in the air before?

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In My Bedroom

Somebody once asked me "How can you sleep with all those faces staring at you?"

After The Rain II

 

Clutching

 

Cloud Watch

I was just walking along when I saw this:

I had a "feeling", so I kept a watch on it, and I was not disappointed.

I don't know, a Triangular Ghost of something.  Just one of those "odd" ones without any attempt to explain anything.  Not that anyone has to... 

The Moment I Laid Eyes On This Cloud

my mind went to this ancestral fish from the Devonian period:

What better proof that even though they may be gone physically, their ghostly echos are still swimming our skies.  Nothing that ever once existed is truly gone -- nature preserves the memory.

[Reconstruction photos by our friend The Internets]

Got It Right This Time

Just now I was watching a video update about a man who was arrested for being "suspicious" while reading a book in his parked car as he waited for a thunderstorm to abate.  The beginning portion was just a replay of the earlier video about his original arrest, so I randomly skipped ahead a little while saying "to wait out the storm" -- and as the video resumed a guy appeared and said "to wait out the storm".

Maybe that near miss two days ago wasn't quite good enough so the universe tried again, for a perfect match this time.

Sort Of Zen-ish

 

"Onychopteryx goyangensis"

Or in plain English, "Clawed Wing of Goyang".

I named it after my neck of the woods.

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Announcement

I just recently found out that, somehow I had accidentally disabled comments on the blog.  It's been fixed. 

Mosquito Bite

It wouldn't be summer without mosquitos...

For whatever reason, mosquitos in Korea seem to have acquired a particularly spiteful reputation among the American ex-pats in Korea.  I do remember, however, from back when I was a child still living in Korea, visiting my paternal grandmother in Daegu, an inland city infamous for high summer temps, and sleeping inside a mosquito net, which I had never seen before and have never needed since.  And this year I was halfway convinced I was going to get through the summer without too much damage, but no...

I knew better than to scratch, but after a while I just couldn't stand it any more..., and it spread out and now it's huge.

A Faux-Watercolor

 

A Near Miss?

An hour or so ago I was listening to Ace of Base singing "I Saw the Sign".  I was simultaneously scrolling through my Facebook history and reminiscing about my church choir days, and just as my eyes alighted on the sentence "I saw the light", AoB sang "I saw the sign".  Does that count as coincidence?

Figatzi? Zigatza?

This morning I woke up directly from a dream in which a dignified older man was showing me the interior of a room that was well-appointed with impressive taste, except for two holes several inches in diameter, bored awkwardly through an angled wooden frame high above the mantle, maybe a foot and a half apart.  They looked somewhat like this:

He pointed to them contemptuously and said something that sounded like "Figatzi" or Zigatza".  It seemed a previous occupant of the residence had them done in order to have a light fixture installed.  It was admittedly completely out of place and kitschy-looking (personally I find high, naked light sources to be harsh, much preferring intimate lighting).  As it's unusual to remember words seen or heard in dreams, I tried looking it up using different permutations of the spelling.  After a few unsuccessful tries, I came across "fugazi", which apparently means counterfeit/bogus, or more broadly, messed up or ruined.  I guess that fits pretty well.  And leaves me wondering.