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The Benefits of Pissing People Off

I keep hearing this ideology around the blogosphere, and I keep agreeing with it, but man is it difficult to do. I have no trouble betting my income on my results; betting it against vindictive enemies is a different undertaking all together.

I imagine most people who practice this most effectively are those who work for themselves or as the head of what they do. Which comes first (the behavior or the position) I’ll leave you to ponder.

(vimeo) OK Go - WTF?

I still don’t know if I like OK Go’s music, but you have to hand it to them on the videos. Simply wow.

Space for kids in the home

How I wish people were thinking of this when I was a kid. What am I saying—can these be made in adult sizes?

Found here: http://mocoloco.com/fresh2/2009/11/27/childrens-rooms-indoor-climbing-and-sliding-spaces.php

Bits of Wisdom from Confucius' "The Analects"

• “If a man sets his heart on benevolence, he will be free from evil.”
• “In his errors, a man is true to type. Observe the errors and you will know the man.”
• “In his dealings with the world, the gentleman is not invariably for or against anything. He is on the side of what is moral.”
• “When you meet someone better than yourself, turn your thoughts to becoming his equal. When you meet someone not as good as you are, look within and examine your own self.”
• “It is rare for a man to miss the mark through holding on to essentials.”

I think more people should stop making Confucius Jokes and start actually reading Confucius.

(YouTube) Brett Domino: Hip-Hop Medley - Stylophone Beatbox

It’s cool when people have fun

Hope is Fading Fast

Wow. what a powerful image.

found here: http://www.mediaite.com/online/hope-is-fading-fast-devastating-take-on-iconic-obama-poster/

Foreign Policy: The President, the Professor, and the Wide Receiver

It’s really quite exciting to see the issue of race in Korea getting an international platform like FP. It’s really hard to explain to non-Koreans how bad it can be for bi-racial or foreign kids growing up in Korea—but it’s especially hard to explain to Koreans how this “pure race” mentality is completely and totally unacceptable outside their world. With the help of stories like these, perhaps things can change.

Vanity Fair: Confessions of an Opium-Seeker

Best writing I've read in a long time. What a sordid, amoral story though!

The Whatever Clock

found here: http://www.anamappe.com.br/blog/2009/11/16/whatever-clock/

The 12 Types of Med Students

Cute comic strip of med school stereotypes. I wonder how close to accurate it is? :)

Sneak Peek

For those of you who are subscribed to leftsider (and thus will see this message) you get a sneak peek at the new site: http://www.leftsider.com/leftsider.

Get in there, look around a bit, and join the fray! Now you can sign in using your Twitter, Google, LJ, Facebook, AIM IDs--along with a slew of others. Once you've signed in you can give yourself a buddy icon and follow other members. The site will keep a track of your comments as well as your comment's comments.

Finally, if you want other's to know the other places you participate on the web, edit your profile by adding "streams" from twitter, flickr, linkedin, or any site RSS feed. I hope you'll be a part of the leftsider transformation. Thanks for hanging around sofar!

The Japanese Aesthetic

I wish more people took time to appreciate Japanese aesthetic. 

According to Koren, wabi-sabi is the most conspicuous and characteristic feature of what we think of as traditional Japanese beauty and it "occupies roughly the same position in the Japanese pantheon of aesthetic values as do the Greek ideals of beauty and perfection in the West." Andrew Juniper claims, "if an object or expression can bring about, within us, a sense of serene melancholy and a spiritual longing, then that object could be said to be wabi-sabi." Richard R. Powell summarizes by saying "It (wabi-sabi) nurtures all that is authentic by acknowledging three simple realities: nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect."

Silly Love Song

Oh Mr Yoo... how you make the music I love. Yoo Hee Yeol, also known in the Korean music world as TOY, is definitely my favorite Korean artist. He's inching his way closer to my all time fav as well.

Dental Infidelity

• Leftsider tweeted, "just scheduled a dental appt w/ dental office in my apt building. Feel bad abt cheating on primary dentist, nervous about dentists in apts."

Is there a reference where I can know what to expect from a dental provider? I just realized I don't know anything about dentists whatsoever--everything I know and expect is based solely upon my experiences.

I had a family dentist that I went to even after I left college. He was a nice old man who always told me, "your teeth are great. Besides braces I can't recommend anything." So I was happy.

When I was in high school, I chipped one of my bottom teeth. He said, "don't worry about it; it's small enough that it'll file down over time anyway." I trusted him. My teeth were great.

I was here in the MD/DC area and would drive 90 miles to go to this dentist who had serviced my teeth since I had them. One visit he looked at my mouth and made this "Psshh!" sound like he was looking at a total wreck not worth bothering over. And then I realized that this jerk was an old dentist just waiting for retirement and not wanting to bother with my teeth because it wouldn't matter to him anyway.

I stopped going to the dentist.

I moved to Korea and was unsure if dentistry there was something I wanted to try. So essentially about three years passed without even a cleaning. When I got back to the states (and my insurance kicked in) I asked a coworker and she recommended her dentist. I set an appointment.

Instead of getting her dentist, Dr. A, I was scheduled with his partner. Dr. K, who was awesome. Young, nice personality, good sense of humor; his dental assistant was also great. What I liked most, though, is that he took the time to explain things, then explain the process, then ask me what I wanted to do. It was always my choice, and he went to great lengths to identify all possible scenarios. Ultimately I felt he was being completely honest and I could rely on his judgment.

That lasted about three visits. The next time I came, he was out of town. The hygienist changed as well, and she was tearing the crap out of my gums. Then I come back and they say his wife had a kid so he wanted to work less (blah blah blah) basically he wasn't there anymore.

Dr. A wasn't bad, so I stuck around. But as time has progressed, I've become less confident in his work. Each visit I feel like there's less of a plan and more of a fix going on. To the point where I've been putting off fixing things that should be fixed.

So today I finally called the dental office that's located in my apartment building, of all places. We'll see how it goes. I feel bad slinking behind my dentist's back (and hygienist #4, who actually is pretty cool) but I have this sneaking suspicion I should expect more. I'm just not sure what I should be expecting. Should I be at one of these newfangled "dental spas"? Or is my lot to simply accept whatever mediocrity providence sends my way?

Something tells me there's more to dental service than just "grin and bear it."

Aviary: Lowering the Cost of Creativity?

I'm really intrigued by this: illustration, color and photo manipulation tools that are FREE, run in the browser window without download, and allow users to share and build off each other. If a generation of creative doodlers grows up on apps like this, what will it do to aesthetics on the web? What will it do to the cost of major players' professional suites, if anything?

The Asian Peepshow

Generally I wax poetically about how great Korea is, and yes I did have a fantastic time during my two-week vacation that I'm missing already. There was one thing, however, that I noticed almost immediately upon arrival in the land of the morning calm.

Legs. Legging-clad legs, to be precise. Apparently the fashion trend this season for women is black tights with either a really long shirt or a really short skirt or shorts. Because of my fondness for the innocent naivete of the culture, I looked with concern upon this new development.

Imagine, then, my initial reaction to This soju commercial:

The starlet's face looks a bit young to be peddling liquor, and her body is pumping a bit much to match her innocent face. Fru actually asked if it was the same girl when I showed her the commercial, while I ranted about irresponsible pop influences and trends embraced without deliberation upon long-term societal impressions.

But then I had several conversations where women of this society spoke candidly of a man's tendency toward these things. I'm not going to talk about the silent allowance of certain behaviors, yet the discussion of these topics did not dawdle in what was right and what was wrong. It exists--literally 있다, a verb so common in Korea--perhaps explaining the viewpoint. These women felt its existence was not influenced, it would seem, by calling it good or evil.

On the flight back we perused a Narita airport bookstore. Now Japan is a haven for skin mags, be it the hard stuff that can barely be called porn or the light publications of "gravure idols," bikini clad on a beach or in a maid outfit in a house somewhere. Still, I was shocked when (a totally startled) Fru showed me what looked to be few different teen magazines--which had, nestled in their center, a half-dozen or so pages of photo-fueled sex tips and other definitely not US-kosher unwrapped airport material.

How bad are Korea's sexy girls groups when Japan is showing sex to youth like fashion fads? If the entire society considers something ok, is it still wrong? Religion aside, of course; not everyone exists in the same religious society. Somthing to ponder as Asia is revealed to the world--and vice-versa.