Sunrise, Swingset

I was considering marking this occasion with a transcription of song lyrics that I find pertinent and meaningful, but then I realized that I'd already had a contractual obligation to show you the best films to come out of Bummul's film festival. I'm not usually a man of my word but I'm currently being vetted for office so I'll have to follow through.  I will follow through in the form of a Top 10 semi arbitrary list of 13 movies that I want to show you over the next few days.

Dangerous Motions

The boys here do a great job of using a television to pad their film with contextual and unlicensed footage. The stunt work is a bit wooden but the boys' demonstrate a reoccurring theme with an awkward tagline that would make a great film title.

The Poor Boy

The sad tale of a boy who drives himself into poverty. If you don't have a tear in your eye during the poor boy scene at the end you don't have a heart. Of special note is the actor's dedication to the roll of 'bad apple'. Yi Seung Jong put on fifty pounds just for the final scene where we peer into the boys future. Incredible.

Mix Daum Pot

Quite simply the greatest fake smoking I have ever seen.

I have taught my last class an achieved office ornament status until the end of February. This is a great time for us to really solidify our relationship.

Render as a blog post

These days are fast.

Lately my last dreams of the night have been strange ones. I met President Obama and his old wrinkled white wife in the crowd while I waited for the parade that he was supposed to be in. He wanted to hang out. Last night I was a bee. I wake up when my cell phone plays jazz sax and I look at the same dark room I've been looking at for nearly two years now and think "again". The three minutes I take to stretch like an inflexible dog and roll out of bed to find my sweatpants are the three minutes that feel the longest. Maybe that's why everything seems to rush back to them.

This morning after I showered the first thing I put on were my socks. I don't know why, but it was a nice change. I followed through with this impromptu dressing freestyle by putting on a shirt, then a sweater, then underwear and pants. I'm aware that this is the least attractive way to get dressed, but this morning I didn't pretend there was a camera in the corner of the room to strut for. This morning was just for me.

There are a lot of things I've never, depending on your point of view, bothered to or been able to do in two years here. One of them is fabric softener. When I take my towel off the drying rack it holds it's bend and folds with an impressive rigor. The fabric is very rough when it's freshly washed, but this reminds me of some unspecific positive time in my childhood.

The past three weeks I have been cajoling the 9th graders into making movies, specifically public service announcements, for a film festival that has finally arrived. Next week all the movies will be shown to all the classes and they'll get to vote for their favourites. We were going to have a preliminary round this week to pick the best film from each class, but so few films were turned in that they'll all getting into the event. Lucky for you, we'll be deconstructing the films all together over the coming days I feel like it right here at no dog.

Have a taste.

I might get to go home early today, so don't you work too hard.

Rock Paper Scissors

The boys have a new game. That is to say, the boys have taken an old game and their increasing lack of concience and put them together. I call it: Rock, Paper, Scissors, Idiot.

Here are the rules.

Rock, Paper, Scissors! The kids like to play it four or seven or eight at a time, at an overdrive that is hard to follow. All begin, there is a flurry, and then there is a champion or an ultimate loser, dependent on if they are playing to determine who is the best or who is the worst. In Rock, Paper, Scissors, Idiot, what is being determined is 'who has the worst judgement skills.'  You might not think that rock, paper, scissors would ferret that kind of deep internal mechism out, but it seems to. If it doesn't, then all who participate are equally poorly equiped. But lets give them the benefit of the doubte.

I first learned about Rock, Paper, Scissors, Idiot when a boy was caught... wait.

The student's desks in my school are standard affairs, with the exception that over top of the wood there is a glass-like screen. This provides protection from the wood from wear and tear and graffity, as well as convieniently allowing things like the periodic table or pictures of attractive pop stars to be slid underneith like one's own personal display case. It can also be removed with far less trouble than is necessary to disuade a 15 year old boy. About a week and a half ago the loser of RPSI threw one out the window. The desk cover was obviously not actually glass, but a hard composite plastic that did not shatter after falling three stories to the pavement. It's durability only goes to show just how effectively it would have slaughtered anyone who might have perhapse been between it and the ground. They played one more time and managed to shatter the desk guard, no small victory in their minds I would assume, before they were caught and yelled at, and yelled at, and hit about the back with a wooden practice sword.

A week ago another group of boys played and the loser hit their Math teacher in the back of the head with a text book. Today there was a conference about that one.

Reporters are digging around Daegu for these kinds of stories of powerful misbehaviour. A Vice Principal was punched in the back of the head recently after admonishing a student and newspapers have been calling around. Schools like to keep these things under wraps, but our story appeared on a website, albet with the school's name kept anonymous. I dare say we know the VP's attacker's favourite new game.

Consider yourself on the cutting edge of fun. All the best trends get here first, at No Dog.