Chilling at home...on my vacation aka lockdown...

Here I am at my pc I just walked 5 km and I feel great. I am going to spend some time making a recording (work-related) and check on my boys' work. Then it will be eve online for a few hours then I will go on another 4km walk. Eat dinner watch a movie chill, then go on another walk with Yogita. Usually, we go on two walks a day. Right after work, then 20-30 minutes after dinner. The total range is about 6 km, although sometimes we do more. Feels great to just walk (social distancing in mind). We choose a route that has no other people around. More wooded areas or agricultural areas. Also, those routes are easy for us to map out and get the right range. Every day of the week we do different things at home after work. So this means the time spent exercising changes as well. Now the boys are taking long walks to get some exercise as well. Of course, they take the dog with them which is actually a very good thing. Our dog needs to burn off a lot of energy. 

So here we go. The situation is not good in Iksan due to the city not really going into lockdown. While I was walking today the afternoon rush hour looked...normal. There was an outbreak at a daycare center. The City needs to shut down and they need to help everyone and I mean EVERYONE out with cash payments for a minimum of two weeks. They should have done this three weeks ago. However, they know that small and medium-sized businesses will get hit very hard and people will get really upset. 

It also annoys me that people are still traveling around. PC rooms were still in operation. Kids are not as careful as adults. One boy became a community spreader last week after he visited a pc room for hours!

Instead of locking down private academies (cram schools are another name that is used) went on "vacation", while schools are still running! So I am going to keep being careful. We are now living with this virus. 

/tata

Starting a new year...well in a week..

 This past year has been nuts. There is so much controversy surrounding this pandemic. On one hand, there is proof that this was a planned event. A way for world powers to exert more control over their respective population. There is another move to make a modern-day Babalon. Basically, a world order in which basically we are all controlled by one central power, using one basic currency. 

Then there is fact that this virus is killing people means that it does exist. My cousin like all of us around the world gets flu-like symptoms every fall or winter. Yet this year he dies? This flu is new to our immune systems. Due to this, there is a chance for able-bodied people to be killed by it. The answer lies in a number of factors that doctors have learned about this virus. 

Then there was a mask issue. Here is the thing with viruses, they are VERY small. Next to bacteria, the virus is like a dot. However, viral particles are suspended in droplets that stay suspended in the air. This is the main danger. Also, we humans love touching our faces. This virus survives for some hours on surfaces. So yes Masks do work. I have not gotten the seasonal cold this year. Last year I had mild flu-like symptoms yet this year...I have had none. 

Workwise this year was very strange as well. Wearing masks washing my hands twice during class. Spraying down the desks in between classes. I think we should keep up with these procedures as I have not gotten sick teaching this year. I think wearing masks during flu season or in the winter is important, and should be continued. 

I have a vacation (it is actually a shutdown but falls nicely into our normal vacation time). It is not really a vacation. I still must socially distance myself (along with my family). I miss meeting many of the new friends I have met here in Iksan but I have to stay safe. I know that if I am found to be the vector that brought the virus into the school that I teach in...I will be blamed. It is basic human nature. Blamed shamed and out of a job. I think there are better ways to end our stay in South Korea than that. 

So this new year will look about the same for the first several months. Especially as millions and millions get vaccinated. 

So goodbye 2020 and hello 2021.

Walking has been great this week. I should beat my previous record last week!

/tata

Parrots vs Real fluency.

 Being a teacher here in South Korea you see all kinds of methodology in the classroom. ALL KINDS. After working for a large academy in Gunsan for a few months Yogita and I had a long conversation about what we saw. 

Basically, we were producing parrots. They could memorize passages in a book, or text book. However, they could not form ideas or opinions based on that. When we used Story books the kids would first actually learn how to read the new book. They were able to identify new sounds by breaking them down phonetically. However, because of the parrot like nature of private schools here we kept the kids reading the same book for far too long. The actual knowledge was lost because they had to read the same book over and over again. 

What this produced was a child that when asked to read a select book could produce the sounds. In other words they "sound" fluent. That is until you ask them question related to the story. Then you see the stuttering struggling to make a complete sentence. They do not have the ability to speak about certain topics. General topics are impossible for them to discuss. The main issue? Parents dominate this business. Owners of this private schools are not stupid. They know if they offer something that is too radical, or new they will lose business. 

Yogita and I started teaching our own "side" curriculum. We would take the kids out of class room to show them the parts of a plant. We would take them to an open market to show them anatomy of  fish. Basically, we made learning fun and engaging. Kids would look forward to coming to class. 

What I want to say is it frustrating to work in an industry that is killing itself. The older generation of Korean parents are not in academies anymore. The new generation is smarter, more aware. The old norms in South Korea are dying everyday. TV dramas show this. Parents today will just pull a kid out of a school and try another school. In the old days if a kid could "read" a book, and they sounded American boom job done! Today, parents are more aware of bullshit like this. I talk to them all of the time.

Last year I used my old style. It was met with negativity not from the parents, but from my boss. So I stopped. I became a parrot again. I hope the new year will bring some changes. I can not and will not teach in that way for another year. It is so boring and mind numbing. It pains me to have kids excited to learn about nothing. It pains me because they are not actually learning. They are just really good parrots, with an amazing memory. There is hope on the horizon. I think that someone knows about our style of teaching. They are watching and copying Yogita. I hope they continue to do so. They will make kids happy to learn English. 

I had a kid in my class yesterday say: "Ah I hate today, I have Math academy and English academy today". Then in the next moment he excitedly said "Well no I love Jemal teachers class! It is fun!" I felt bad for him. He was happy being a parrot.

I hope to walk about 6 kms today.

/tata 

Fiat currency...do not ignore cryto currency

Fiat money is a currency (a medium of exchange) established as money, often by government regulation, that does not have intrinsic value. Fiat money does not have use value (inherent utility, such as a cow or beaver pelt might have), and has value only because a government maintains its value, or because parties engaging in exchange agree on its value. This taken from Wikipedia. What this means is that money we use today has been agreed upon by powerful governments. 

What gives them this power? It is the people themselves. What happens when people no longer have faith in such systems? That currency loses value. A while ago I made a mistake with a post of mine. It was related to the first covid-19 stimulus package. Each American was to be given 1200 dollars. Unemployed people would be given a certain amount each week. Of course you unemployment would have to be a result of covid-19. It must suck to out of work months before this pandemic and still you are left out. 

Crypto currency can not be ignored as quirky or weird. It is set in a system what has a very real transparency. This is known as the ledger. This file is downloaded by everyone mining and using that crypto currency. This money in the form of digital coins is obtained by using computers to break complex algorithm. Once that is solved a coin is awarded. These are not something a single computer can do alone. People use many machines, or they join together in large groups to mine digital coins. Here is the issue though. Having your pc running 24/7 will increase you electricity bill. However, not to a crazy degree. A computer, or perhaps 2 or 4 pc's will not use as much energy as say one air conditioner. 

Wow ok so we can use fiat currency to "mine" digital coins. This is something we all need to do. Governments, and powerful individuals like this system. It uses a self checking, self recording system called a block chain, and ledger. Together they record EVERY financial transaction that has ever occurred. This is due to the fact that EVERYONE has this record. Today those records are on banks servers. They can be manipulated with out our knowledge. 

Even governments are working on developing block chain technology of their own. 

So yeah I will go back to mining bit coins, or some other widely used crypto currency. 

Walking this week is coming along really well I walked 7.5 kms yesterday!

/tata

Technology and kids

 Things were so different when I was a kid. Every ten years you could see HUGE advances in tech. When I was a kid of course I was into video games and all of the console systems that were out. I remember my mother finally caving and helping us buy our first system the 16bit super nintendo. It was awesome. Years later my brothers and I upgraded to the playstation 1. It was worlds batter! 

Fast forward to today we have small computers in our hands that would make pc's of ten years ago sweat bullets. With tiny gpus that can draw beautiful games on 5 to 7 inch screens. 

I feel that it is important to limit tech to kids. They should be gradually introduced to to it. Our boys have been gradually exposed to tech. There were hiccups along the way. However, limiting and monitoring access to the internet has saved us from some horror stories.

Today what we carry around in our pockets are so helpful but also very dangerous. 

Walking last week was nice we actually walked 4 kms on Sunday but the app will count it towards this week. In my mind I always start the week on Monday not Sunday. 

So about 7kms on average last week! Planning 6.5 kms today! (12/21/2020)

/tata

Parenting....

Some people believe that you are a real family if you have children. I disagree. On the subject of kids many parents today are taking the easy (yet very hard) way of raising thier kids. What I mean is teaching basic disapline at home. I do not mean beating the crap out of a baby. I mean setting rules and making sure the little one understands that they must follow those rules. 

With our boys it meant tantrums at home, or even in a supermarket. Our strategy was first above all we had to be on the same team. Recently my oldest son told my wife that he was surprised that "mom and dad" told each other things. A crying child is normal. As humans we all need to express our feelings. Some of those are not so nice. When our boys would throw a tantrum I picked them up and took them to the car. I let them cry and cry. When they calmed down I would restate that they can not have this toy or whatever it was that started the tantrum. Lets just say after a while we had very calm kids when we would go shopping. 

Eating. Kids hate certain textures, or flavors. With our oldest it was garlic. Lets just say he really enjoys it today, due to teaching him that food is to eaten, and even though it is wierd at first it is actually really nice. I have memories of teaching Jeyo to eat all of his food. Now the boy eats MORE THAN ME. We all try new foods from time to time and it is alot of fun. The teaching part isn't. Actually, it gets more fun as your child starts to want to copy what you do. There is that rough bit a first. Most important having a husband and wife work TOGETHER is the key. Well it is the key for us. 

Respect. This trumps everything I said before. Kids will see how you treat each other. If dad abuses mom, it creates a horrible atmosphere. The child will either hate the father, or resent and treat the mother badly. This goes both ways.When we argue today our sons are very relaxed. They know it is no big deal. 

Anyways it is time to start classes. A small city nearby just raised its social distancing alert level to 2.5. 

Ugh. 

Walking: Yesterday was awesome! We walked for over 9 kilometers. Of course we had some chores to do which resulted in the extra walking. So this week is off to a strong start.

/tata

An odd strange year

As we are in the last month of this year and with the holidays right around the corner 2020 will end. However, it will always live on in our memories and a very strange year. I feel odd if I do not have a mask on and I am in public. If I go to a restaurant that does not know me I feel on edge. Foreigners have gotten some negative treatment in Korea as spreaders of this virus, even though 99% of those spreading it are in fact Korean. 

I have not seen the lower half of many of my students' faces. This feels normal now. Walking on the street I get annoyed when I see others wearing their mask improperly, or coughing without doing it the proper way. When I go on walks with Yogita and look in restaurants and see them full of people I wonder why are they playing a game of Russian roulette. 

Not meeting my friends (we have made many new friends here in Iksan), is now a normal thing. Even though they make plans to meet each other we usually stay away. I recently had a nightmare in which I spread the virus to our boys and one of them died. UGH. 

Gaming...seeing larger than normal numbers of people online, then realizing that they are in lockdown. Temporary lockdowns are another odd normal we face. My smartphone beeping and beeping with warnings are tracing and tracking current coronavirus confirmed virus cases.

In the back of my mind especially when I am alone I have a great fear that I will lose a family member in the States to this deadly virus. That happened last week. Is this something that will be a horrible strange new normal? 

So today should be a good day for us. We will spend time together and get some walking in. Likely we will go to a park near our home and chill there for a bit. I am finding some new dramas for us to watch.

So I am happy to finish a week, and hope that our local caseload drops. 

/tata

Did very little walking yesterday so basically it was a rest day. 

2800 calories burned so far this week...

Some nice changes..

 We started our evening walks on November 1st. Since then I feel much stronger. My legs feel charged.  I also get better sleep, and digestion is much improved. I also feel that my stress levels are MUCH lower. Even with the terrible losses of last week I am able to process and cope while walking. 

I have lost some wieght but more noteable is that swelling on my body has been reduced. I have seen this on Yogita as well. She has seen her edurance increase, reduced sweeling, and she has lost wieght. 

What I am aiming for is to have a regular routine that if we skip it we will feel like our day is not complete. Even if we join a fitness club our daily walks will not stop. So next year we will make sure that all of us will have good shoes for walking. In the summer I will bring a change of clothes to change into for my evening walk. So if I join a fitness club it will only be better for me, and Yogita.

walking 7.5 kms

/tata

Second hand stuff...

I love using second hand items. There is a sense of not wasting useful things. For me I usually buy pc compenents second hand (if I see properly priced item). Cars are another thing I'd rather buy second hand as they lose market value so fast it, yet the vehicle is still very enjoyable to drive. 

Pc parts if taken care of can last a long time. So many people go to pc repair shops with a pc that is actually NOT broken! They do not understand malware, or the difference between HDD and SSD. They do understand that most of thier issues stem from connectors that get dirty over time. I have "fixed" many gpus over and over again just by cleaning them and reseating them. The PC shop tells the customer your gpu is dead buy this one. They take that "broken" gpu clean it up test it then resell it. Usually at a higher price. 

In Korea it is so hard to find a second hand seller who sells items at the right price. They sell 7 or 10 year old systems or components for 10% less than new. You should be able to buy a decent 9th gen gpu with 3rd or 4th cpu based system for 200-300 bucks. A bit more for a monitor. That is with a good sized ssd, not those 128 gig drivevs you see in budget systems. 128 gigs of ssd storage is a joke. 

Cars are a bit more consistant just do not expect to get a good deal on reselling your car to a second hand dealer. It is best to junk it or sell to a friend. 

Yogita and I walk into a second hand pc shop. He has components EVERYWHERE! This is like a dream to me. I see a 10 year old monitor a 27 inch model, which is not a big name brand. Should be 50-70,000 won. The condition was good. If buying from a friend I would not pay more than 50,000 won. 

Anyways the man gives me that up and down look. He sees that we are well dressed carrying Galaxy Note smartphones. He then slowly says 170,000 won! LOL I broke into a grin and laughed. I told him thanks but no thanks and we left. Even at 70,000 it is a bit expensive but he needs to make some profit. However, for 170,000 you can get a new monitor. They do this for a range of compenents and complete systems. Sometimes they use a cheap case with rgb lighting to fool people in to thinking it is worth more than it is.

There are some excellent places in Gunsan and Seoul that I know of but....covid-19 means....I stay local.

I am going to give that guy another chance though. 

walking 7kms yesterday

/tata

Still running..

There was only one more case recorded today. So I am feeling optimistic that by January things will be back to "normal". Perhaps the social distance alert level will go down to 1.5 or even 1. Hopefully.

Having lost two family members (cousins) I find myself getting angry when I hear students joke about this pandemic. I keep my cool but I remind them that people are dying because of this. It is hard to understand sometimes how in the USA people are still pushing back against wearing a mask. Trumps own lawyer caught the virus and he was photographed on many occasions not wering a mask or practicing social distancing. I really hate that term. 

In Korea recently 3 or 4 people die everyday because of covid-19. It is a drop in the bucket. In the states 1500 died. Last week 2000 deaths was the daily average. 

I know this was an engineered event. It will allow for more government control over citizens. Now they can legally track us now. I wonder how much we will have to pay for this vaccine. I am pretty sure I will get some sort of document showing  negative test for coronavirus antibodies in order to travel abroad. 

However, as of today it looks like there will be no shutdowns this week. 

/tata

walking: yesterday was nice about 7 kms walked for me, Yogit did around 8!

Make sure you have a backup plan...

We are not exactly living in unprecedented times. This pandamic isn't the first to have ravaged humankind. It will not be last as we live too close to each other. 

However, we need plans in case something goes wrong. If you are an expat like we are that means having your travel papers ready. It also means knowing what you will do to make money when you land on the ground where are you going. Housing, work, and transportation. Also internet connection options and getting your smartphone set up on a new network. Education for kids and even jobs. 

We have 3 back up plans. One of them I really do not like but the other two are pretty nice. I am in the process of developing a fourth. Now this does not mean that I will "protected" shit can still hit the fan and fly everywhere. But while that is going on we might have more of an idea as to what we will do. 

Our plans are not just ideas, we do research, and keep as up to date information as we can. Prices, viable locations, these can change on a monthly basis. Prices of cars, or how to get a driving license. Lucknow now has a metroline. So that means maybe a car will not be needed at first. 

This year has been crazy, but with some forward thinking we can get through this. We weather this storm. 

walking: started this week off strong 8kms yesterday.

/tata

Terrible news...

 It was a strange week. First we have a lot of local cases in Iksan (covid of course). So there was some tension due to that. 

After one of our walks last week I got the news that two family members have past away. Thomas Webb, and Marc Webb lost thier lives last week. One Marc as a result of covid-19, while Thomas it is known what killed him. 

So many people just do not take this thing seriously. My cousin Marcus pleaded on facebook for people to take it seriously. It is hitting so many families across the USA. I feel that right now most American families have someone who has died from this pandemic. 

So, one family lost a husband and father. My Aunt has lost two of her three children in just a matter of days. Marc was in his 30's, while Thomas was in his early 40's. 

I think Yogita and I were right to stay away from crowded areas. Many of our friends spent time in crowded areas last week. Yogita and I stayed at home, or walked in our nieghborhood (wearing a mask) for excercise. 

During the two days we were out of work we walked ALOT. We found a new route as well. 

Thomas, and Marc I hope to see you both soon. Sleep in peace. 

/tata

Shutdown ... too late though

 Well it is happening. City hall officials visited a number of resturants including the academy I work at. The next day I learned (basically over hearing conversations) that we will shut down for 2 days. I know other private schools have been shut down for this full week. In retrospect I think we should have done the same. Kids who live in other areas of city were absent from classes. 

The city will upgrade the social distancing alert to level 2.5 which is one step from level 3 which is a total shutdown. 

It sucks because I knew this would happen. When the outbreak started it went from 2 or 3 people to over 20 in three days. We should have shut down for one week at that time. Instead city officials just send mildly worded text messages encouraging people to self distance. Then the number of infected individuals jumped to 50 then 60. Yet the city remained open. We are now at 107 infected. The drive thru testing areas have added 2 more hours for testing people. 

I know that there are more than 107 at this point. I just hope the others follow the quarintine guidelines. 

I will be going on a walk twice a day to keep fit. So I am hoping to average 8-9 kms a day until next Monday. 

Ok I have to go. Middle segment is about to begin. 

walking: only 3.2kms yesterday.

/tata

When will we shut down?

 So welcome to December last month of the year I am wondering about when we will be shutdown. People are still going to resturants. Yogita and I saw this yesterday night. A couple of watering holes had an infected person visit them. Of  those two one was empty, and closed early. The other one is closed until the 10th of this month. 

At this time we are still seeing most of our students. This area has not been "hit" yet. But, once one or cases occur in an academy or school...we will see. 

I think a shutdown for one or two weeks is needed. It will not happen though. It sucks because it means that likely we will end up getting sick. There is a greater chance the more we are not social distancing. Even though I am wearing a mask and washing my hands and surfaces there is still a risk.

I think I kmow one reason why we shut down for 3 weeks earlier this year. I think it was due to my contract being up. So for 2 weeks I did not get paid as I was not under contract. Legal but kinda of puts a bad taste in your mouth. 

If we shut down now I will get 70% of wages paid. I wonder where that money comes from. If it is from my employer...well lets just say I will be on a plane. It is just too expensive. 

/tata

walked about 6.5km yesterday split it into 2 sessions. It was nicer more like a short warm up then a nice brisk walk.