Thu  6 May 18:18:00 KST 2021

Christina's Five Questons for May 2021:

gemini://gemini.circumlunar.space/~christina/

1. What's on your bedside table?

   It's a bedside chair.

   A cup of coffee, a vape device, a little remote-control thingy
   for turning off the lights, a kindle (currently reading The Dark
   Forest by Liu Cixin)

2. Five items you "can't" live without.

   Nothing that I'm proud of - the vape device, some kind of
   container with coffee, my computer (not this computer
   specifically, but just access to some kind of computing device),
   my glasses, some form of money. I'm sorry, I couldn't really
   think of 'personal' forth or fifth items. When I was young and
   had to go travelling somewhere, my mother always had a minimal
   check-list: passport, money. Anything else that we forgot could
   always be purchased with the money. This is especially true
   where I'm currently living - South Korea. You barely have to
   walk half a kilometre to find any other 'essential' items in
   some kind of store. I realise now that this is quite sad. I have
   no 'unique' or personal items that I'm attached to, I've fully
   (and unconsciously) embraced capitalist/consumerist culture
   where everything is substitutable. The upside of this is that
   less attachments to things makes it easier to travel.

3. What are some words or phrases specific to where you live?

   I don't speak the language much (Korean). And I've had to work
   to change language I do speak (English) quite a bit, since
   everyone teaches "American" English here. So, I now say
   "elevator" instead of "lift" and "apartment" instead of "flat"
   (the first example that came to mind, since there are so many
   lifts and flats around here).

   In terms of Korean words, there is a specific word for "spacing
   out"/just sitting doing nothing. It's 멍 때리다. It's a popular
   activity here (people work a lot). During a class on 'free-time
   activities' a middle school student even said that it was his
   favourite hobby. They even have spacing-out competitions where a
   bunch of people just sit in a park. If you check your phone or
   fall asleep you're disqualified.

   There are hundreds of unique words/phrases from where I grew up
   (Donegal, Ireland). Again, I've had to suppress most of them.
   The two that sometimes slip through are "grand" and "good luck".
   We say "grand" all the time to mean 'fine/good' when someone
   asks "How are you?" or "How was it?", and we say "good luck"
   instead of "good bye".

4. What are your healthiest habits?

   Another embarrassing one for me, I don't have many. I go cycling
   whenever I can, but not in a 'habitual'/routine way. I just go
   because its fun, not as exercise. I usually go on really long
   cycling trips at the weekends. If I wanted to be healthier about
   it I would go on shorter, more intense, trips daily I suppose.
   I've been thinking about doing that, but I'm always so tired
   from work in the evenings.

   I'm always able to get a lot of sleep. I can fall asleep easily.
   I have to get up early for work, but I still manage around 8
   hours a night.

5. What are the rewarding aspects of your job? (if you have a job
quashing your will to live, I provide a bonus sixth question for
you)

   I don't really have a good opinion about 'work' in capitalist
   societies, I've seen too many friends destroyed -
   mentally/spiritually - by awful bosses and working conditions.
   Having said that, I've been mostly lucky in that regard. It
   helps that a lot of my 'work' so far in life was as a grad
   student. Currently, I work teaching kids. I know it is a cliche,
   but teaching kids really is so rewarding. Maybe just because
   they're a little bit more 'chaotic/unpredictable' than adults.
   Just when you think you have them figured out, they surprise
   you. I think surprise/novelty in an important ingredient in work
   (and most other things). They are endlessly kind and endlessly
   funny.