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Padooker
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Name: Padooker
Gender: Male
Interests: Studying Theology, Teaching, Writing, Swimming, Padook, Juggling, Whistling, and Cleaning and Organizing.
Expertise: This web site exists to provide a means for my students to stay in touch with me throughout life, and thus better continue their acquisition of English. When leaving comments, please be sensitive in your diction and judiciously abstain from gratuitously violent or prurient language. For example, instead of, "I think this group is a bunch of lazy idiots." ... Let's show some respect, and say, I felt this comment, by this particular fellow was a bit shallow [uninformed, short-sighted, etc.] because..." This way we must make the effort to provide convincing, rational reasons to back our assertions. Too, it's better exercise in writing, to rely upon precise words more fitting to our intent, than the so easy, inflammatory words used for name-calling or even four-letter words, egads.
Occupation: Mission Work, Teaching English
Industry: Mission Work in Education
Message: message me
Website: visit my website
AIM:  www.lucidlanguagesociety.com
Member Since:
1/19/2007
 Lifetime
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| Dear Folks,
Trip:
My family took a trip Friday and Saturday, to an area near Mooresville, North Carolina, Home of the NC Racing Hall of Fame. An old juggling partner of mine invited us for a visit and offered to give my family some juggling equipment merely because I had asked his advice on which clubs would be better for my children. I was preparing to order some clubs.
He gave my children three unicycles and some other stuff, too, in addition to the juggling paraphernalia. He has two boys, 10, and 13, and they were very well-developed behaviorally, did not resemble the behavioral problems endemic to the population of the public school systems we have recently experienced.
My friend his wife have done a good job raising those boys. My friend spends a lot of time home with his children because he makes all his money by performing. They live on Lake Norman, which has over 550 miles of shoreline, as it were, per se. My friend is patient and hard-working. He taught my children to fish. They would catch a small fish and then use that as bait for a larger fish. One fish, which they have named "Gill," is a frequent biter on their lines, as they have caught him (her) five times. The boys got about ten or more strong bites, but could never reel in the larger fish with success. Still, they enjoyed the experience mightily, great glee and thus and such. My Dandelion (daughter) had no interest in fishing, and I did not force her to participate. Rather, I suggested that she go with the wife of my friend for a walk on the road beside the lake. They did, and I believe they enjoyed it, a chance to talk. My boys enjoyed fishing, but did not talk any more than necessary. (Oops! Our lines are crossed.) On Saturday, my two older boys enjoyed playing a game where they wore goggles and protective head covering and shot at each other in the woods, with pellet guns.
My thirteen-year-old son, My Flagship, got shot twice in his trial, without scoring a single hit on his counterpart, one of the boys of my friend, who incidentally knew the game and woods well. My Flagship was happy, didn't mind losing, would like to have played all afternoon had time permitted. It must be sobering, though, to realize that you may not be as good as you might have imagined, playing "army" with nothing but sticks all your life theretofore, sticks and the vocal sound effects which are de rigueur. And let's not forget the plethora of unsupportable claims of who shot whom first.
One good thing about our trip was that my wife must have enjoyed being alone for two days. She slept a lot and then cleaned the whole house!
Gender Neutrality Efforts in the Public Schools of Sweden: I have an article link for you, Dear Reader, regarding Sweden's misguided efforts to remove gender influence from the children's public school program . . . as if the children were not already clearly partitioned into two groups with respect to possession of a Y chromosome.
They had to get rid of toy cars for the boys (This may have been in pre-school.) because the boys placed a higher value on those toys and there was nothing they could do to keep them from choosing the cars to play with, disproportionately with respect to the choices of the little girls. I guess it is a tough job to have to desex children in their development. But, if you think for a second, it is a job nobody truly has to do, thankfully. Sincerely, Nathaniel | | |
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Yesterday, as soon as I got home, I peeled 6 peaches for my children to eat. They were rather large peaches, as it were, and I bought them in Cheon Men Dong, on the sidewalk from a man who had a truck full of fruit. I gave him 37,000 won, which included a 3000 won discount. He sold me a box of sweet grapes for 14,000 won, a bag of top quality apples for 9,000 won, and a box of superb, delectable peaches for 14,000 won.
In list form that would be:
About 17 Apples ---------------------- 9,000 원
One Box of Sweet Grapes -----------14,000 원
13 hefty peaches ---------------------14,000 원
Riding home by Cop River (갑천), the vibrations of the baby seat on my bicycle made some soft spots on at least five of the peaches, given that they were quite ripe already. This would be regrettable if you are one inordinately given to the divine, unassailable form of the perfect peach.
In order that they not rot on me, I peeled them right away upon arrival at my home and doled them out to my burgeoning brood, who gladly gobbled them up with relish and gusto.
Then, on the remainder of my way home, I stopped in at a weekly street market in the middle of Moo Jee Gae Apartments (무지개아파트), and paid 5,000 won for five packets of Sweet Rice Treats (Ddeok! 떡!) . I gave 2,000 won for some Pong Tweegie Delight(퐁튀기), and my children found it scrumptious, threatening to devour it all in a frenzy, but my prescient nubile wife stepped in and nipped that less civilized behavior in the bud, insisting that each child eat a normal supper(Cheon Yeok Shick Sah) first.
It helps to know that my children are descended from Ghenghis Khan, with the four boys having each the characteristic blue spot on their rumps from birth, lasting a year or so before disappearing into history. So, whenever they come home at the same time, say, from piano hagwon or swim hagwon, bursting in the door, they suddenly transform our tranquil, humble abode into a firestorm of mayhem, bedlam and your general pandemonium.
So be it, there is not much I can do, other than remark to Wifey, "Here come the Mongrel Horde!" as they, my children are all clearly mixed blood, with all the vibrant characteristics, hale and hearty immune systems, and statistically higher I.Q.'s (from a lessening in the tendency of regression to the mean of the population) purported thereof. It is exciting, raising them all, but taxing to be sure.
For the record, I gave 5,800 won for a basket of 30 deluxe-sized eggs. Then, I got one rectangular brown patty of gelled Moo & Acorns, which purportedly is good for constipation. When they tell me in Korean, "This is good for constipation!" (similar to shampoo, "for dry hair") I can never be sure that they mean, "This will give you constipation, and stop up your butt if you have diarrhoea." or, the more likely, "If you have constipation, this will help rid you of the pressing inconvenience at your inveterate fundament, and allow you to focus your attention in light of the visceral relief upon more pleasant sublimations for a time, until naturally you feel the need to gorge yourself upon vast quantities of cheese once again, beckoning a repeat of this sordid cycle."
I continue studying Korean grammar and practice with sales ladies on the streets in order to bone up on my ability to communicate here with the natives in South Korea, Land of the Morning Calm. We have been here 14 years, and my South Korean wife has decided it is time to leave. I generally go with the adage, "If Mamma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy." So, it looks like we will break camp here next winter and strike out for the U.S. of A., Land of the Free, Home of the Brave, and whatnot.
Love, Padooker
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| Dear Folks,
Because many of my students have a phobia about marrying a person much shorter than average, this caught my attention. Now that we have gotten that out of the way, I would like to show you a few photos of my family at Goom Do Lee Land, an amusement park in Daejon, South Korea. We went there yesterday and had a blast. So, without further ado, here are some photos from our outing.
Love, Padooker
My youngest Son and I in the train.
Somebody found a statue tucked away.
Here, above, my third and fourth sons enjoy a ride in the small cars.
Third Son jumps with glee
Here, you see my foreign wife, enjoying watching our three older boys drive bumper cars.
This is the scene from the entrance. It is a small amusement park, which you can circumnavigate in a couple of minutes on foot.
Here, to the left, you see me with three of my sons.
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| Dear Folks,
 
It has been a long time since I posted here on Xanga Land. It is good to be back. However, I am living on borrowed time," as I should be studying my computer programming, to mollify Wifey. She wants me to learn programming in order to enhance my earning capability once we hit American Soil next spring, 2011. She has a point; it would not hurt my earning power, to be certified in programming. Too, it dovetails nicely with my heretofore capabilities/qualifications, having an MBA and 14 years of experience in running my own business here in South Korea, Land of the Morning Calm.
However, studying programming does not fit into my vision of who I am (other than a husband) and what I intend to become, in service to humanity before I expire. I my capacity as a husband, however, I feel bound to submit to the demands of my wife, to put on hold my theological studies and get one more course in computer programming behind me, towards that magical number of six (count'em 6!) courses from NCSU, North Carolina State University, which would give me the coveted certificate, suitable for framing, as is purported on their attractive website.
Love, Padooker | | |
| Dear Reader: 
Getting in the Christmas Spirit: My wife is now finished with another trimester of her schooling. She is doing an ESL master's degree at Shenandoah University in Virginia. I love the concept of her studying. I think scholarly activity a great complement to her personality. It surely does take up all of her time, save the thirty minutes she goes biking each night, rain or no. It is good for my wife to be busy, and scholarship seems to suit her best. 
I just found a good program for her to do some PhD work in ESL. I did not realize they had such programs, but now there are a few. However, I suspect she might like linguistics very much, too. We'll have to look into that later. Right now, she has enough on her plate, what with four more courses to go. At her rate of one per trimester, that should take fifteen months so things are covered for now. 
I took a walk last night with a couple of Kiwi friends of mine, Mark and Sandra. We took my children to see the Christmas decorations of Time World, a large ritzy department store near my home. There was no Christmas tree, but they had some lights up on the bushes outside. We went into a bakery called "Paris Baguette." 
A Room To One's Own: On the way home, we stopped in a small pet store and My Flagship bought five bucks worth of jelly for his bugs. My Dandelion told me she wants to have a fish bowl in her room in the U.S. of A. They talk more of America now, as our date of exodus is fast approaching. I have promised them each one room, something I think important for proper adolescent development. First, though, I will merely live in seminary housing in a small 1700 square foot place with four bedrooms, a study and a living room. Moving: Less is More I would like to move more furniture than my wife, thinking we will have to round up some stuff anyway, once we move there. The moving service charges only for bulk, not weight. Hence, it would seem to behoove me to ship not the glass enclosed fancy bookshelves, but rather to send the sturdy, solid wood shelves with books wrapped in tight plastic bag packages and stored inside the shelves, all laying flat on the container on the ship. Same thing for my large aquarium with file boxes beneath; just fill it up with packages of books. Wifey would rather take only our books, DVD's and clothes. Food, we'll pick up in the U.S. She does not realize that in the U.S. people are more thrifty than here, and we could scarcely expect to live off "the community teat" with such good pickin's at the trash sites as we have been so fortunate to do here. A scavenger indeed serves a community well. I feel fortunate to be allied with a spouse who has no truck with scavenging. Pretense is not one of her fortes. Kap Cheon Riverside Bike Paths: My Clever Lad, My Flagship and I took a bike ride yesterday afternoon, down by the riverside. The city government has invested fairly much of late in the further development of bike paths. I will try to find a few photos to upload and include here to that end. They are positively vivid and scintillating in the freshness of summer what with the flowers bedecking the grassy edges of the path. It is enough to make you warmly ooze inside with feelings of love for all the human race and beyond. | | |
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