Justin Howe's Blog, page 51

That Avengers Film

The Avengers opened up here in Korea last week. Apparently this makes me the King of Spoilers now, because it hasn’t opened yet in the States. I liked it. I went in expecting Loud, Stupid, and Obnoxious — I should say I haven’t liked a lot of recent superhero movies — and was pleasantly surprised that it was only Loud.

First, say what you will about Joss Whedon he does do team stories well and this is a team picture, so it never feels like Iron Man or Captain America and these other people.

Sec...

I’m So Happy. *COUGH*COUGH*

Another portrait by one of my students. Dig the Maynard G. Krebs beard.

Still coughing and limping. I went back to the doctor’s for a check-up. I have another six days in my cast, but he says my ankle’s healing quite well.

From the Ray Bradbury Paris Review interview: “I type my first draft quickly, impulsively even. A few days later I retype the whole thing and my subconscious, as I retype, gives me new words. Maybe it’ll take retyping it many times until it is done. Sometimes it takes very li...

Stuff

Some firsts:

- Had laryngitis. It was exciting and I wished I could stay sounding like the Cookie Monster forever.

- Last week I hurt my foot, but being the American I am I figured going to the doctor would be frivolous and I’d just wait for it to get better and bandage it up and all that. Yeah. That was working well until today and I was expected to play volleyball in my school’s league and I was like, “No, sir. My foot is still yellow and purple from last week. There will be no volleyball for...

What the Sleestak Saw

Dennis (AKA Thidrek the Sleestak) has done a writeup of the last adventure over at What a Horrible Night to Have a Curse. And for a full expose of Thidrek in all his greenness checkout this picture by Jeremy/Oxide (AKA Ripper). Good stuff. Now I need to think of something for them to do this weekend when they once more head into the ruins.

From Kingdoms of Elfin

“Monks, prisoners, conscripts, have the support of rule: they live as they are ordered to. The exile has nothing but himself to depend on. If he chooses to lie on the ground and yell, he may be a nuisance but he is not an offender. If he he tries to be a model exile, he makes a rope of sand. His conformity is of no account, and is based on guesswork, anyway. Accident may tell him he has guessed wrong, experiment on experiment may lead him to guess right. But that, too, is by accident. He play...

Fields of It

Passed this on my walk this evening. Imagine if they all had been left-handed gloves.

OK, Player. You Now Have Four Live Chickens in a Sack inside Your Pack.

So last night, there was an impromptu session of the Mao Tse Tiger wing of the Kanga Rat Murder Society, mostly ‘cause one player’s leaving Korea soon and wanted to level before he goes.

The Setup

A bug priest showed up at Fort Low, hoping to find the “great heroes” who defeated the stone devil a few weeks before. Since all but one of those guys died last adventure, the priest had to make do with Thidrek the Sleestak and his new companions, an Orc named Ripper and a mystic named Attius.

The prie...

A Doctor Visit

So I have this laryngitis-cold-thing and sound like Tom Waits. It's cool. I hope it never ends, though if it didn't I'd probably lose my job. Can't teach English if you sound like the Cookie Monster. I went to the doctor's this morning. Some details: they do stuff like take your blood pressure and temperature in the waiting room. So folks are all around you waiting while a nurse takes your blood pressure and looks in your ears and whatever. Then they have you go back to sitting down, while...

Yes.

Wanderer, your footsteps are

the road, and nothing more;

wanderer, there is no road,

the road is made by walking.

By walking one makes the road,

and upon glancing back

one sees the path

that never will be trod again.

Wanderer, there is no road–

Only wakes upon the sea.

- Antonio Machado

Various Redacted Tweets and Updates From Last Week

- Time to let all the blarg dribble out.

- I don't begrudge anyone their desire to earn a dollar even when it is my dollar (and not called a dollar) — I just don't like it when they become so aggressive about their desire that they resemble parasites on the expat community.

- We're not disagreeing so much as exploring the contours of our agreement.

- Hey Annoying 4th Grade Girl, you are soooooooo annoying, but have embraced being that kid no one likes with such defiance that I have to salute...