Living Life Frame by Frame

Photo of the Day: Front Wheel

Driftingfocus — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:46:52 +0000

Smutyanka's front wheel. October 2009.

Photo of the Day: Junge Soldat

Driftingfocus — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:12:39 +0000

A young WWII reenactor in a German uniform holds a panzerfaust, the predecessor to the rocket launcher, at a living history event in Manassas, Virginia. October 2009.

Photo of the Day: Grain Silo

Driftingfocus — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 20:57:17 +0000

A grain silo in Willow Street, Pennsylvania. October 2009.

Photo of the Day: Kalishnikov T-34/85 Tank

Driftingfocus — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 16:44:02 +0000

Marc and other reenactors riding around on a Kalishnikov-model Soviet T-34/85 tank at a reenactment at the Virginia Museum of Military Vehicles. October 2009.

Google-Based Posts

Driftingfocus — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 16:31:48 +0000

I’ve been feeling a bit uninspired in my posting lately, so I’m going to do something I’ve seen some other bloggers do: write posts based on the search engine queries that have lead folks to this site. Small topics will get portions of a post, larger topics will get a post all to themselves, and I’ll be responding to the general query, rather than specific search strings. I’m hoping this will help me get back into the swing of quality blogging. Without further ado, here are some of the smaller ones:

1. Korean Sleep Habits

It has been proven in several different studies that Koreans sleep significantly less than folks in any other OECD country, and Korean students get particularly heinously low amounts of sleep. Though I’ve written about it in passing several times, my own post on the subject is here: Korean Sleep Habits. Koreans have a saying: “Sleep 5 hours, get into an average university. Sleep 4 hours, and get into S.K.Y. ( the top 3 univesities in Korea).” Only, it’s not just a saying – they actually believe it. I taught at rural middle schools in Korea, where you would think there might be slightly less emphasis on working themselves to death in order to get to a good school. Nope. When I asked my middle school students during testing season what time they were going to bed (because many were falling asleep in class), answers ranged anywhere from midnight to 4am, with 2am being particularly common. This really is a cultural trend that needs to stop. It’s damaging to the students physical and mental well-being, and does not create a healthy model for structuring one’s life later on. Kimchi Ice Cream has a great post about the side effects of this “sleep debt” on Korean culture over here: Korean Children Don’t Get Enough Sleep

2. Seorae Village

Seorae Village is a French enclave in Seoul, South Korea. I wrote about it when I visited back in April, and my photos of the area are now being used by the Korea Tourism Organization (Korea’s tourism board). Seorae Village was a bit of a disappointment for me. There were a couple pastry shops that sold French pastries, and a couple restaurants that looked worth a visit, but in general, the biggest value of Seorae Village to me was the fact that it lacks the “generic Korean neighborhood” feel that is almost universal in Korea. It didn’t necessarily feel French, but it didn’t feel Korean either, so it was a breath of fresh air. In my opinion, Seorae Village is worth a visit if you live in Seoul or the greater Gyeonggi-do area, but don’t go there expecting to find beret-bedecked groups of children running around speaking French. Ironically, the only folks I heard speaking French appeared to be ethnically Korean!

3. Accent Lesson Plans

One of the lessons I created that I was the most proud of was my lesson plan on the various accents found within the English language, with a focus on US accents. It was a success in the classroom, and I’ve gotten several emails from folks who are now using it at their own schools. I think it is important that Korean students be exposed to some of the non-standard accents that occur within English. Even though they don’t have the cultural context to go with it, Koreans have already started to adopt some of the American attitudes toward certain accents, like the New York/New Jersey accent and the southern accent, often even turning down teacher applicants who have these accents. If a teacher can not only expose their students to the wide variety of accents within English (not just US, and not just the US/UK comparison, but also things like Aussie, Irish, etc), but also educate them a little bit about the cultures the accents spawn from, maybe it can help prevent these fledgling biases from spreading further.

Okay folks, that’s enough for now. It’s a beautiful day today, and I think it’s time for a walk!

Random shots from our most recent Soviet reenactment:

Driftingfocus — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:56:30 +0000

I haven’t posted many of the photos from the living history event at the Virginia Museum of Military Vehicles because I’m actually still in the process of, well, processing them. But, here are a few miscellaneous shots:

This, right here, is why I reenact. Camaraderie.

Soviet legs.

Hanging around.

Joking around.

Mischa, Druschka, and Vasily.

Eating lunch (kasha with sausage and cheese) out of our cookpots.

Marc/Vasily next to the T-34/85.

Jacobi sleeping under the T-34/85 to escape the rain. He slept there all night.

Jacobi with his PPSH, riding on the T-34/85.

Marc/Vasily laughing at something.

Nikita being his usual oddball self.

Marc/Vasily passed out in our tent. This was taken around 7am.

Vasily making fun of Jacobi for something. Probably calling him a bad communist.

Me, cooking lunch for the rest of the unit.

Me & the Sidecar

Driftingfocus — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:08:11 +0000

Most of the photos I have of someone on or around Smutyanka are of Marc because, well, I’m the photographer. But, while Marc was running back to our apartment to get another section of hose for yesterday’s air intake hose project, I set the camera on the bike seat and took a couple of me resting in the sidecar. When I got back, Marc took this shot of me:

I can almost completely lie down. I can stretch my legs all the way out, and if I had about 3 more inches where the seat back is, I could lay down completely. The sidecar is really far, far roomier than it looks, believe me. It also is surprisingly secure. When we first started riding around, I used to hold onto the “oh shit bar” on the sidecar for dear life. Now I don’t hold onto anything, and usually sit with my hands in my lap. If we weren’t driving around busy streets, I’d definitely feel comfortable reading, or even sleeping, in there. Here are the original shots I took:

By the way, in case you’re wondering, here’s what the view looks like from the sidecar:

Not much going on…

Driftingfocus — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 08:28:42 +0000

Not a lot went on this week. Marc has been working a lot, so we haven’t had a lot of time to get stuff done together. I’ve had a goodly amount of alone-time in which to get some writing done, so I have some posts that are almost finished, Marc helped me write cover letters to send off to office jobs, and we cut out the lining for my Mongolian deel, but other than that, most of what we’ve been doing has been working on Smutyanka.

If you’re interested in what we’ve been spending our time doing with the bike, you can check out our sidecar motorcycle’s blog over here: Travels with Smutyanka

Kitten VS the TV

Driftingfocus — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:11:57 +0000

Our foster kittens have been something of a never-ending source of amusement. I’ve started taking videos of their antics, and here’s the first: Mal trying to dig through our TV:

A Couple Shots

Driftingfocus — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:23:11 +0000

On Halloween, Marc and I had no plans, so we ended up driving Smutyanka around the Clarendon area and got a ton of attention from the folks waiting in line outside clubs, etc. We even got some waves from the police and firefighters who were out on patrol! She’s an attention-grabber, that’s for sure.

We stopped and had dinner at Faccialuna, where I had some fantastic mussels. The lighting inside the restaurant was very cinematic and 1940s. Marc was wearing a vest, and he was sitting in a pose that caught my eye due to the lighting. I got some nice shots, and here are a couple. Let me know which you think is best (and yes, he’s meant to look pensive):