The sky is full of smoke
And fuckin' isotopes.
Do I sit back and toke
Because I haven't hope?
Now: so dope, so dope.
2014년 7월 28일 월요일
2014년 6월 1일 일요일
Novel Idea
They say that the Industrial Revolution began in the first mines. Today, all that could be mined is ours. But now all the mines are in our skies. The year is 2033. Technological advancements dealing with mineral extraction and the capture and resolidification of spent combustible fuels that began some 10 years or so ago coalesced early last year. Following the United Nations admonitions, each individual nation signed up for energy independence. Due to the beneficent 'G' Corporation, the first and last supra-national corporate entity, every country has received it's very own A.I.R. PP a.k.a. Atmospheric Impurity Re-uptake Processing Plant (or Air Purifying Plants as they are sold to the masses) and with that the guarantee that through hard work any dream can become reality.
2014년 4월 16일 수요일
Fuckwitedness
A day with dangerous levels of air pollution is like a tornado heading your way. While you can't really avoid it, you're better off staying indoors (in the basement or preferably a storm cellar in the event of a tornado) as opposed to walking outside into it.
2014년 3월 27일 목요일
Blinding Effluvium
Blind:
All this motherfucking pollution,
Effluvium:
All wants, desires; E Pluribus Unon.
All this motherfucking pollution,
Effluvium:
All wants, desires; E Pluribus Unon.
2014년 3월 17일 월요일
Landmine in the Present
This is not Fallujah. Nor is this anywhere in the Middle East or any other high-conflict, war-torn area. This is the epicenter of our future world, today. Of course I am speaking of Northeast Asia. Granted, tensions among these neighboring countries are not as low as they should be; but then again no one has knives at one anothers throats. Aside from the unsavory mix of memories regarding past war-time atrocities that tend to receive the most lip-service today, there is also the sloppy bowl of spaghetti politics that currently exist wherein conflicting ideologies and future objectives are disjointedly tied up amongst themselves and set at a low boil. Then there is the whole North Korean issue, but that is more of a red herring - in my honest opinion - than anything else at this particular moment. That said, what if there existed an invisible landmine, buried by no-one following WWII and forgotten by everyone?
Yesterday was a beautiful day; on paper. Blue skies with a high of 18 degrees, Spring finally peaked out from behind the changing room curtain, much to her chagrin. You see, the atmosphere was saturated with poison smog laden with ultra-fine and fine dust. However, that was not enough to stop people from breaking out of their winter caves to enjoy the nominally great weather enmasse. Only a few or so individuals could be seen wearing any mask let alone the very specific mask that I was wearing that prevents one from inhaling the fine and ultrafine particulate matter. Maybe this is because no one watches the news. Or because the news seems to downplay the deadly seriousness of this ish. Or maybe it has more to do with the fact that unless you live up on the 18th floor and can see the extent of the stagnant effluvium stretching out for kilometers and kilometers around, nothing really looks amiss from ground level other than the fact that things are a bit hazy when you look out into the distance.
Looking ahead...who does that anymore? Live in the moment, man. YOLO. The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave. And other pea brained, dimwitted, cowboy-ish American sentiment parroted around the world seem to explain why this is so. But let's think forward a bit, shall we? As all the Kurzweilian Village Technolidiots are apt to do, let's suppose the course we are on is unalterable. Populations will continue to grow, albeit at lower rates due to the lowered birth rate in this part of the world. Still the base population will be massive with several densely populated megalopitan areas. Consumption growth will follow at either an equal, slower or faster rate depending on the trajectory of per capita GDP. The crude, polluting factories of today that share much of the blame in terms of creating and accelerating the production of domestic and regional pollution will no doubt be substituted in favor of hi-tech factories that spew forth less pollution quantitatively, but will instead add a richer diversity of heavy metals to the atmosphere.
One need look no further than Suwon City, home to massive Samsung Electronics semi-conductor plants to get an indication of our future. It's not so much the direct pollution from such factories that is such an issue, although to be sure it can be at times,¹ but the sum total of related externalities from the conglomeration of staff and workers required to run such operations and their own externalities such as energy consumption and transportation emissions, that when scaled up to meet the future trajectory of Chinese growth and global demand should give everyone reason for pause. To be sure the endemic energy shortages that South Korea experiences every summer and 30~40% of the toxic smog plaguing Seoul as of late have their origins in the insane cooling demands of the factories and citizenry as well as the clogged arteries of Seouls transport system and it's own factories dotting the eastern coastline respectively.
Like yesterday and the pardox of the deadly nice weather, the impact of the shitty smog isn't always readily apparent. It begins with the unseen inocuous self-limiting of behavior by a minority who are keen to the potential ramifications of staying outside too long and/or not wearing a mask. Slowly but surely awareness will grow and spread. People, most likely infants and young children, will develop respiratory or skin related diseases at higher rates than average or worse, be born with certain defects similar to those born to mothers who smoke through pregnency. Unfortunately many will need to be personally affected before they feel the need to take action. Maybe it will happen on one of those early, unseasonably hot stretches of spring or early summer. A week straight of dangerous levels of yellow sand tainted fine dust smog lingering past its usual early spring schedule will imprison the citizenry, bringing their collective anger to a boil. Then on the fifth or sixth day something will just snap and a hitherto unimaginable violence will be unleashed upon the Chinese embassy. In self-defense numerous Koreans will be shot dead and the anger will both intensify and be redirected inwards at the South Korean government due to their impotence in dealing with the problem for so long...
Possibly, but who is to say how things will unfold? That, however, is the nature of old forgotten landmines. No one knows that they lay here or there until it is too late. This, to be clear, is not owing to mans inability to predict the future nor is the essential unknown that is wrapped around the future and its impregnability to speculation to be blamed. No one wants to know because no one wants to admit to the possibilty that such a deadly future feature is already embedded in their collective present. Fuck the cowboys and their myopic concept of an unpredictable future that they in turn interpret to mean that they have full license to make a shit show out of the present. It's not about the future, it's about the right now and the landmine we are all blindly burying.
¹ http://m.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20130215000728
Yesterday was a beautiful day; on paper. Blue skies with a high of 18 degrees, Spring finally peaked out from behind the changing room curtain, much to her chagrin. You see, the atmosphere was saturated with poison smog laden with ultra-fine and fine dust. However, that was not enough to stop people from breaking out of their winter caves to enjoy the nominally great weather enmasse. Only a few or so individuals could be seen wearing any mask let alone the very specific mask that I was wearing that prevents one from inhaling the fine and ultrafine particulate matter. Maybe this is because no one watches the news. Or because the news seems to downplay the deadly seriousness of this ish. Or maybe it has more to do with the fact that unless you live up on the 18th floor and can see the extent of the stagnant effluvium stretching out for kilometers and kilometers around, nothing really looks amiss from ground level other than the fact that things are a bit hazy when you look out into the distance.
Looking ahead...who does that anymore? Live in the moment, man. YOLO. The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave. And other pea brained, dimwitted, cowboy-ish American sentiment parroted around the world seem to explain why this is so. But let's think forward a bit, shall we? As all the Kurzweilian Village Technolidiots are apt to do, let's suppose the course we are on is unalterable. Populations will continue to grow, albeit at lower rates due to the lowered birth rate in this part of the world. Still the base population will be massive with several densely populated megalopitan areas. Consumption growth will follow at either an equal, slower or faster rate depending on the trajectory of per capita GDP. The crude, polluting factories of today that share much of the blame in terms of creating and accelerating the production of domestic and regional pollution will no doubt be substituted in favor of hi-tech factories that spew forth less pollution quantitatively, but will instead add a richer diversity of heavy metals to the atmosphere.
One need look no further than Suwon City, home to massive Samsung Electronics semi-conductor plants to get an indication of our future. It's not so much the direct pollution from such factories that is such an issue, although to be sure it can be at times,¹ but the sum total of related externalities from the conglomeration of staff and workers required to run such operations and their own externalities such as energy consumption and transportation emissions, that when scaled up to meet the future trajectory of Chinese growth and global demand should give everyone reason for pause. To be sure the endemic energy shortages that South Korea experiences every summer and 30~40% of the toxic smog plaguing Seoul as of late have their origins in the insane cooling demands of the factories and citizenry as well as the clogged arteries of Seouls transport system and it's own factories dotting the eastern coastline respectively.
Like yesterday and the pardox of the deadly nice weather, the impact of the shitty smog isn't always readily apparent. It begins with the unseen inocuous self-limiting of behavior by a minority who are keen to the potential ramifications of staying outside too long and/or not wearing a mask. Slowly but surely awareness will grow and spread. People, most likely infants and young children, will develop respiratory or skin related diseases at higher rates than average or worse, be born with certain defects similar to those born to mothers who smoke through pregnency. Unfortunately many will need to be personally affected before they feel the need to take action. Maybe it will happen on one of those early, unseasonably hot stretches of spring or early summer. A week straight of dangerous levels of yellow sand tainted fine dust smog lingering past its usual early spring schedule will imprison the citizenry, bringing their collective anger to a boil. Then on the fifth or sixth day something will just snap and a hitherto unimaginable violence will be unleashed upon the Chinese embassy. In self-defense numerous Koreans will be shot dead and the anger will both intensify and be redirected inwards at the South Korean government due to their impotence in dealing with the problem for so long...
Possibly, but who is to say how things will unfold? That, however, is the nature of old forgotten landmines. No one knows that they lay here or there until it is too late. This, to be clear, is not owing to mans inability to predict the future nor is the essential unknown that is wrapped around the future and its impregnability to speculation to be blamed. No one wants to know because no one wants to admit to the possibilty that such a deadly future feature is already embedded in their collective present. Fuck the cowboys and their myopic concept of an unpredictable future that they in turn interpret to mean that they have full license to make a shit show out of the present. It's not about the future, it's about the right now and the landmine we are all blindly burying.
¹ http://m.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20130215000728
2014년 2월 23일 일요일
Pyeongchang 2018 Covered in Toxic Sino Ejaculate?
So today in a Bloomberg Opinion piece Adam Minter raised his criticism against China for pursuing its bid for the 2022 Olympic Winter Games to be held in Zhangjiakou city.¹ For those of you who don't know, that city happens to be located in Hebei Province, the most polluted province in all of China.
Ok. That is bad, but what about the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics that will be held in Gangwon Province, South Korea? Seoul and Gangwon Province to be sure are right smack dab in the middle latitudes of Hebei and are separated only by the West Sea. So for example on a day like February 24th 2014, when winds from the northwest - and more importantly all the shitty ultra-fine and fine dust floating in the atmosphere around mainland China's polluted eastern coast (e.g. Hebei Province) - ride the high pressure system over the West Sea and mix with all the pollution already conveniently on top of the Korean Peninsula, the result is toxic air for Korea. To be precise the recorded high so far today (13:00) from Gangwon Province and Seoul in terms of fine dust is 203㎍/㎥ and 218㎍/㎥ with averages at around 111㎍/㎥ and 146㎍/㎥ respectively.² The recorded highs are both "very bad" according to the scale of fine dust levels that ranges from 0~201+㎍/㎥ with both averages falling in the "kinda bad" category of 81~120㎍/㎥.
As I indicated above, the host province of the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics sits uncomfortably in the line of fire of these periodic Sino-ejaculations of toxic smog that seem to flare up in the Winter months for reasons I have mentioned in a previous post.³ While the argument will surely be made that the air levels are better in the mountain areas where the competitions will take place, even if levels are in the "normal" range of 31~80㎍/㎥, I can tell you from first hand experience from running outdoors during "normal" 76㎍/㎥ - on the side of a mother fucking mountain mind you - for a duration of no longer than 18 minutes at a speed of approximately 13km per hour, blows hard. From the yellow/greenish snotty discharge in the hours immediately following the run to the wheezing that lingers into the next day (full disclosure: I have had asthma since I was a child, but had not experienced symptoms as an adult, until now) it is no for those of us who are sensitive to toxic smog.
In conclusion I just want to take my hat off to Mr. Minter for raising awareness on the issue of China's toxic smog. At the same time, more attention should be paid to those nations that are affected by it as well, like by those same nations themselves! It kills me how Viktor Ahn (a.k.a. 안현수 선수) can become a top national agenda pursued by the President herself,⁴ but toxic smog receives mere lip-service from apathetic talking heads during the news discussed like some necessary evil that we should learn to live with (or more likely die from).
¹ http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-23/goodbye-sochi-slush-hello-china-smog-.html
² http://search.naver.com/search.naver?where=nexearch&query=%EB%AF%B8%EC%84%B8%EB%A8%BC%EC%A7%80%EB%86%8D%EB%8F%84%ED%99%95%EC%9D%B8&sm=top_hty&fbm=1&acr=2&acq=%EB%AF%B8%EC%84%B8&qdt=0&ie=utf8
³ http://kayageetheworld.blogspot.kr/2014/01/air-pussy_4.html
⁴ http://news.sbs.co.kr/section_news/news_read.jsp?news_id=N1002238284
Ok. That is bad, but what about the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics that will be held in Gangwon Province, South Korea? Seoul and Gangwon Province to be sure are right smack dab in the middle latitudes of Hebei and are separated only by the West Sea. So for example on a day like February 24th 2014, when winds from the northwest - and more importantly all the shitty ultra-fine and fine dust floating in the atmosphere around mainland China's polluted eastern coast (e.g. Hebei Province) - ride the high pressure system over the West Sea and mix with all the pollution already conveniently on top of the Korean Peninsula, the result is toxic air for Korea. To be precise the recorded high so far today (13:00) from Gangwon Province and Seoul in terms of fine dust is 203㎍/㎥ and 218㎍/㎥ with averages at around 111㎍/㎥ and 146㎍/㎥ respectively.² The recorded highs are both "very bad" according to the scale of fine dust levels that ranges from 0~201+㎍/㎥ with both averages falling in the "kinda bad" category of 81~120㎍/㎥.
As I indicated above, the host province of the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics sits uncomfortably in the line of fire of these periodic Sino-ejaculations of toxic smog that seem to flare up in the Winter months for reasons I have mentioned in a previous post.³ While the argument will surely be made that the air levels are better in the mountain areas where the competitions will take place, even if levels are in the "normal" range of 31~80㎍/㎥, I can tell you from first hand experience from running outdoors during "normal" 76㎍/㎥ - on the side of a mother fucking mountain mind you - for a duration of no longer than 18 minutes at a speed of approximately 13km per hour, blows hard. From the yellow/greenish snotty discharge in the hours immediately following the run to the wheezing that lingers into the next day (full disclosure: I have had asthma since I was a child, but had not experienced symptoms as an adult, until now) it is no for those of us who are sensitive to toxic smog.
In conclusion I just want to take my hat off to Mr. Minter for raising awareness on the issue of China's toxic smog. At the same time, more attention should be paid to those nations that are affected by it as well, like by those same nations themselves! It kills me how Viktor Ahn (a.k.a. 안현수 선수) can become a top national agenda pursued by the President herself,⁴ but toxic smog receives mere lip-service from apathetic talking heads during the news discussed like some necessary evil that we should learn to live with (or more likely die from).
¹ http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-23/goodbye-sochi-slush-hello-china-smog-.html
² http://search.naver.com/search.naver?where=nexearch&query=%EB%AF%B8%EC%84%B8%EB%A8%BC%EC%A7%80%EB%86%8D%EB%8F%84%ED%99%95%EC%9D%B8&sm=top_hty&fbm=1&acr=2&acq=%EB%AF%B8%EC%84%B8&qdt=0&ie=utf8
³ http://kayageetheworld.blogspot.kr/2014/01/air-pussy_4.html
⁴ http://news.sbs.co.kr/section_news/news_read.jsp?news_id=N1002238284
2014년 1월 18일 토요일
Yesterday 2014
Yesterday was Saturday, January 18th 2014.
By all accounts a seemingly ordinary day - an ordinary day, mind you, that was free of the acrid effluvium that has tended to drift yonder from the "factories of death" that mainland China kindly incubates at the behest of the Devil him/herself (itself?); which is to say it was a good day. I woke up twice. The first time at about 6:20. Two things happened : First, I blindly stumbled over to my kitchen island to find my 'scrip of pills to combat my aching belly (the result of minor food poisoning from a Wednesday luncheon with the CEO smh) and Secondly, just as I was about to lay back down the vibration from my year 2019 LG smart phone drew my attention to one of those weekend ruining text messages - the "you have to come into work on your Sunday for no apparent reason other than the fact that your boss has to come into work" kind of message. Shaking my head again I collapsed under my covers.
In an anxiety induced early-morning dreamscape, I literally demo'd the future most tits version of all video games. It went like this: I awoke in a realm that was identical to my childhood neighborhood save for the fact that instead of being an oval it was in the form of a square, perhaps because the scale was about the size of a single floor in an average, generic corporate office building. This magnified scale essentially meant that each house was a little bigger than a normal bedroom and instead of a grassy front yard there was for some reason (cover perhaps?) the equivalent of a counter-top. Also, some apparently seedy elements appeared to have taken over the upper half of the neighborhood while leaving my lower side intact (there was a visceral feeling of sunshine and happiness on the lower side while the upper side was wrapped in fear and a dark, foreboding cloud).
Of course I decided to take a stroll around my neighborhood and upon entering the limits of the upper side I saw I was about to be summarily jumped so I proceeded to sprint all the way back to my house while being pelted with threats like "we're gonna kill ya" and "our connections run deep" and so on ad nauseam. I actually felt scared when I arrived at my home because I knew someone was following me, but all of a sudden I had this revelation that I alone would have to take on the upper crust scum and fight for my life - so with a kitchen knife in my left hand and a pointed pair of scissors in the right, I squeezed both hands tight. When some goon entered I started off with some verbal sparring leaving him dazed, but still cognizant enough to let me know that if I were to put up any more of a fight I would face swift and severe retribution.
After said Nobel Prize winning speech concluded I proceeded to stab him in the face with the kitchen knife, and then the chest with the scissors partly opened. This later action sent him to the floor whereupon I dislodged the scissors with a *THWACK* only to slam them in his throat and after a little *SNIP SNIP* his trachea was in two. Knowing then that I would have to preempt any other visitor that made their way to me, I ducked under my front yard, err desk, and somehow without even thinking positioned the dream-cam(?) across from me where I could see what was coming my way from either side of my position. I saw one woman menacingly advancing towards my position from the left carrying a knife in one hand. Two things were certain: First, her name was Natasha and Two, I would jump up at the right time and simultaneously restrain the arm in which she held her knife and stab her in the face. It was then that I awoke for the second time.
Needless to say I took the rest of the remaining time in the world by the balls. I watched Heat (1995) for the first time, ran two and a half kilometers in the park across from my house - located on the side of a mother fucking mountain - and before I met my girl to go grab some Cuttlefish Mari (rice, soaked in octopus ink, spread across a square leaf of seaweed laver with 1~2 long, chewy slices of cuttlefish placed in the middle before all being wrapped up into a long roll) I casually read a bit of 孫子's 兵法.
That was my yesterday, how was yours?
By all accounts a seemingly ordinary day - an ordinary day, mind you, that was free of the acrid effluvium that has tended to drift yonder from the "factories of death" that mainland China kindly incubates at the behest of the Devil him/herself (itself?); which is to say it was a good day. I woke up twice. The first time at about 6:20. Two things happened : First, I blindly stumbled over to my kitchen island to find my 'scrip of pills to combat my aching belly (the result of minor food poisoning from a Wednesday luncheon with the CEO smh) and Secondly, just as I was about to lay back down the vibration from my year 2019 LG smart phone drew my attention to one of those weekend ruining text messages - the "you have to come into work on your Sunday for no apparent reason other than the fact that your boss has to come into work" kind of message. Shaking my head again I collapsed under my covers.
In an anxiety induced early-morning dreamscape, I literally demo'd the future most tits version of all video games. It went like this: I awoke in a realm that was identical to my childhood neighborhood save for the fact that instead of being an oval it was in the form of a square, perhaps because the scale was about the size of a single floor in an average, generic corporate office building. This magnified scale essentially meant that each house was a little bigger than a normal bedroom and instead of a grassy front yard there was for some reason (cover perhaps?) the equivalent of a counter-top. Also, some apparently seedy elements appeared to have taken over the upper half of the neighborhood while leaving my lower side intact (there was a visceral feeling of sunshine and happiness on the lower side while the upper side was wrapped in fear and a dark, foreboding cloud).
Of course I decided to take a stroll around my neighborhood and upon entering the limits of the upper side I saw I was about to be summarily jumped so I proceeded to sprint all the way back to my house while being pelted with threats like "we're gonna kill ya" and "our connections run deep" and so on ad nauseam. I actually felt scared when I arrived at my home because I knew someone was following me, but all of a sudden I had this revelation that I alone would have to take on the upper crust scum and fight for my life - so with a kitchen knife in my left hand and a pointed pair of scissors in the right, I squeezed both hands tight. When some goon entered I started off with some verbal sparring leaving him dazed, but still cognizant enough to let me know that if I were to put up any more of a fight I would face swift and severe retribution.
After said Nobel Prize winning speech concluded I proceeded to stab him in the face with the kitchen knife, and then the chest with the scissors partly opened. This later action sent him to the floor whereupon I dislodged the scissors with a *THWACK* only to slam them in his throat and after a little *SNIP SNIP* his trachea was in two. Knowing then that I would have to preempt any other visitor that made their way to me, I ducked under my front yard, err desk, and somehow without even thinking positioned the dream-cam(?) across from me where I could see what was coming my way from either side of my position. I saw one woman menacingly advancing towards my position from the left carrying a knife in one hand. Two things were certain: First, her name was Natasha and Two, I would jump up at the right time and simultaneously restrain the arm in which she held her knife and stab her in the face. It was then that I awoke for the second time.
Needless to say I took the rest of the remaining time in the world by the balls. I watched Heat (1995) for the first time, ran two and a half kilometers in the park across from my house - located on the side of a mother fucking mountain - and before I met my girl to go grab some Cuttlefish Mari (rice, soaked in octopus ink, spread across a square leaf of seaweed laver with 1~2 long, chewy slices of cuttlefish placed in the middle before all being wrapped up into a long roll) I casually read a bit of 孫子's 兵法.
That was my yesterday, how was yours?
2014년 1월 4일 토요일
Air & Pussy
I would like to speak with you for a moment, if you would kindly allow me, about this subject we both hold so dear to our lives; this air we breath.
It is getting richer. Not richer in the sense of those individuals or nations who, in pursuing ever increasing margins by either flouting more costly "advanced" methods or utilizng the cheapest (read : dirtiest) materials, are stacking massive reserves of foreign currency; but rather richer in the sense that stacks of cancer causing caustic particles are proliferating and spreading throughout the atmosphere. While the cross-border movement of capital is viewed as a positive, the later is decidedly less so.
Winter in Seoul has always been harsh. But, this harshness has always been tempered by the beauty of the high, open blue skies and spirit-warming communal engagement found within various market-places. No longer. Now we are on the receiving end of flagellation from not only Mother Nature but from our own hand; well only 30% of "our own" as in "Korea's fault" in terms of the carbon-dioxide emitted from the vastly overpopulated pool of automobiles that seem rather to prefer remaining stationary in the middle of freeways, perhaps due to their own misinterpretation of the meaning of the name of the road they roam that they apparently take to mean "free to stay in the way." Of course, the remaining 70% of the pollution that enjoys lingering in the winter skies of Korea being the bastard offspring of China, conceived somewhere along the course of that nations re-ascent to dominance and thrown away out of sight without even a second thought.
Lovely. Now we are the ones who are left gulping down the putrid, coal-blackened effluvium. And yet, it seems that no one is throwing up their hands at China demanding something be done to rectify this situation. Why is this? Of course there are numerous rational explanations that seek to provide some semblance of an answer - an answer, mind you, that provides no hint of a possible solution - but this is the rambling of an obscure blogger, so I will opt instead for an explanation of a controversial and comical nature. While politicians are often caricatured as being a bunch of Dicks - some more so (and less so) owing to their own, un-coerced disclosures - the current leader of Korea is a Pussy. Literally.
While Dicks may rear their heads in places they are not welcome, it cannot be said that they lack fortitude (unless they do, in which case they lose the title of Dick and fall into the category of Penis (of the flaccid variety)). Pussies on the other hand, well, they are known to just 'take it.' They take it standing up, sitting down, in the shower, and, whether they are conscious of it or not, when they are sleeping. Not to seem unfair or god forbid sexist, I want to make it clear that everyone in Korea at this moment is a Pussy. We are, in a sense, engaging in perpetual gokkun (look it up) with the pollution that China has ejaculated all over us; is still showering on us. Also, the 'pussy metaphor' need not necessarily conjure up merely negative associations; in our lives there are times we too must take it. For example, when we seek to console another in their grief or suffering, by virtue of the process that is sympathizing and empathizing, we very literally not only take the other's upset condition, but we take it upon ourselves. You see, 'taking it' is both a passive and active act, it can imply heroic virtuosity and effeminate feebleness; it is essentially both masculine and feminine. Interesting, huh?
For our case however, we are Pussies of the effeminate, feeble, passive kind. You know we are because everyday we are told how to deal with the micro-dust. We need to wear a mask. Right, just like pussies apply pads to themselves to deal with the monthly flows of menstruation. However, this proscription not only clearly illustrates the sarcastic point being made, it unfogivably misses the seriousness of the problem at hand. Save for newly constructed buildings that intalled energy-saving double paned, gas filled windows and top-end air filtration systems, which is to say no building in Korea, no one is immune to the infiltration of the micro-dust. Since the micro-dust is ever present in our houses, we are constantly sucking it down. On top of that, the dust lingers, if not in the air then on the surface of everything for days after serious bouts of micro-dust phenomena. Wind and other activities will continue to stir up the micro-dust until the natural air purifier that is rain occurs.
So, this is the state of things. Again to reiterate, I too am a Pussy. I lack not only fortitude but the authority to affect any kind of change to the circumstances we all find ourselves within. That being said, bearing in mind the fact that Pussies can take on Dick characteristics, we must not forget that if we all come together and 'take on' one another's burden, which is to say our own burden, we will become engorged in the masculine virtuosity capable of toppling empires. To rephrase John Dickinson's (pun intended) famous quote from 'The Liberty Song' I shall end this post thusly: United we can be Dicks! Divided we are only Pussies!
It is getting richer. Not richer in the sense of those individuals or nations who, in pursuing ever increasing margins by either flouting more costly "advanced" methods or utilizng the cheapest (read : dirtiest) materials, are stacking massive reserves of foreign currency; but rather richer in the sense that stacks of cancer causing caustic particles are proliferating and spreading throughout the atmosphere. While the cross-border movement of capital is viewed as a positive, the later is decidedly less so.
Winter in Seoul has always been harsh. But, this harshness has always been tempered by the beauty of the high, open blue skies and spirit-warming communal engagement found within various market-places. No longer. Now we are on the receiving end of flagellation from not only Mother Nature but from our own hand; well only 30% of "our own" as in "Korea's fault" in terms of the carbon-dioxide emitted from the vastly overpopulated pool of automobiles that seem rather to prefer remaining stationary in the middle of freeways, perhaps due to their own misinterpretation of the meaning of the name of the road they roam that they apparently take to mean "free to stay in the way." Of course, the remaining 70% of the pollution that enjoys lingering in the winter skies of Korea being the bastard offspring of China, conceived somewhere along the course of that nations re-ascent to dominance and thrown away out of sight without even a second thought.
Lovely. Now we are the ones who are left gulping down the putrid, coal-blackened effluvium. And yet, it seems that no one is throwing up their hands at China demanding something be done to rectify this situation. Why is this? Of course there are numerous rational explanations that seek to provide some semblance of an answer - an answer, mind you, that provides no hint of a possible solution - but this is the rambling of an obscure blogger, so I will opt instead for an explanation of a controversial and comical nature. While politicians are often caricatured as being a bunch of Dicks - some more so (and less so) owing to their own, un-coerced disclosures - the current leader of Korea is a Pussy. Literally.
While Dicks may rear their heads in places they are not welcome, it cannot be said that they lack fortitude (unless they do, in which case they lose the title of Dick and fall into the category of Penis (of the flaccid variety)). Pussies on the other hand, well, they are known to just 'take it.' They take it standing up, sitting down, in the shower, and, whether they are conscious of it or not, when they are sleeping. Not to seem unfair or god forbid sexist, I want to make it clear that everyone in Korea at this moment is a Pussy. We are, in a sense, engaging in perpetual gokkun (look it up) with the pollution that China has ejaculated all over us; is still showering on us. Also, the 'pussy metaphor' need not necessarily conjure up merely negative associations; in our lives there are times we too must take it. For example, when we seek to console another in their grief or suffering, by virtue of the process that is sympathizing and empathizing, we very literally not only take the other's upset condition, but we take it upon ourselves. You see, 'taking it' is both a passive and active act, it can imply heroic virtuosity and effeminate feebleness; it is essentially both masculine and feminine. Interesting, huh?
For our case however, we are Pussies of the effeminate, feeble, passive kind. You know we are because everyday we are told how to deal with the micro-dust. We need to wear a mask. Right, just like pussies apply pads to themselves to deal with the monthly flows of menstruation. However, this proscription not only clearly illustrates the sarcastic point being made, it unfogivably misses the seriousness of the problem at hand. Save for newly constructed buildings that intalled energy-saving double paned, gas filled windows and top-end air filtration systems, which is to say no building in Korea, no one is immune to the infiltration of the micro-dust. Since the micro-dust is ever present in our houses, we are constantly sucking it down. On top of that, the dust lingers, if not in the air then on the surface of everything for days after serious bouts of micro-dust phenomena. Wind and other activities will continue to stir up the micro-dust until the natural air purifier that is rain occurs.
So, this is the state of things. Again to reiterate, I too am a Pussy. I lack not only fortitude but the authority to affect any kind of change to the circumstances we all find ourselves within. That being said, bearing in mind the fact that Pussies can take on Dick characteristics, we must not forget that if we all come together and 'take on' one another's burden, which is to say our own burden, we will become engorged in the masculine virtuosity capable of toppling empires. To rephrase John Dickinson's (pun intended) famous quote from 'The Liberty Song' I shall end this post thusly: United we can be Dicks! Divided we are only Pussies!
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