LucJenson

Nearby to you over in Korea. I'm also trying hard here to avoid American. I've wholly stopped drinking American whisky when I go out, which my local bartenders have noticed and are actually willing to share the issue with customers who ask, and a few others have joined up in support which is kind.

51st state. Trump wants Canada to be the 51st state.

A germy child that sneezes on its face. Teaching is a constant state of protecting yourself from biological warfare.

Gratitude journals are amazing. I started maybe twelve years ago now. It's helped me slow down and appreciate little things more often. I remember starting out my journal and looking for big events in my day.

I quickly learned that on bad days, I'd have to stretch to something like "I saw a cloud that looked like a puppy." and that was when I started to look for smaller joys throughout the day. I also stopped depending on other people for joy.

Yeah, it's amazing how few people remember just how terrible its performance tanked. The memory leaks were truly unbearable.

I was once truly in love with this gal. I was even prepared to move to a whole other continent to continue being with her. But my job couldn't transfer just yet. We talked about ideas of maybe in another year or so. I was all for it.

But then, she found out she couldn't bring her most beloved little dog with her. I wasn't a big fan of the dog, personally, because it was defensive-agressive.

She raised this issue with her parents insisting they keep the dog, they said they'd abandon it, and so it came down to me. I could save this dog. I tried to figure anything out thst I could. But ultimately my building wouldn't permit me to have the dog and my lease was too expensive to buy out of.

So she leaves. She goes to the other continent. And in the first three months, she buys a full sized husky for her apartment living situation.

Oh my god, I've never gone from love to absolute disdain faster in my life.

So for me, I suppose abandoning a living being was my absolute turn off.

Honestly, it may be mine, too. I teach history and love having that on my desk. It's a shame how few teachers got it. But I love the light bulb moment when my students identify who it is when we go through Roman history.

My favourite moment was a visiting kindie kid playing with the pens, really in awe at the whole idea of it being printed. They took a pen out and put it back in, and I made a squishing sound, and they looked at me and said, "That's pretty serious."

Fun fact! Because Hangul was created and didn't naturally evolve out of Hanja, it's one of the easiest and most logical alphabets to learn. I could teach you the whole alphabet in 20 minutes and have you sounding out whole sentences in an hour or two.

I taught myself how to read and write in a university lecture but, obviously, didn't know the vocabulary to actually understand it.

One of my biggest changes i made was if I'm not working or on call but spending time with another person, I'll fully turn off my phone. I realize in an emergency I need it, so I still bring it with me. But when I sit down with someone, my phone is off. And it will remain off.

It's helped me realize so quickly how often we reach for our phones to demonstrate something rather than describe it. Saw a funny video? Describe it. Can't describe it? Send a link later. It doesn't have to interrupt the flow of the conversation.

I was always someone who had a batch of online stuff to show when things got quiet. Now I let the quietness stand. It's much more enjoyable getting to see friends now.

I don't particularly want to be remembered for anything in my life. I don't need fame or standing. I dedicate my life to trying to improve people's lives as a teacher. I'd give my life if it meant everyone would live a significantly better life forever.

Poorly. They said they don't have patterns that big. I offered to source them. Still no. Fair enough, I suppose. I get the same treatment looking for a tall bicycle here.

Suoer! Thank you! I will do some digging this weekend :) I've got a group of fellow Canadians here who are interested, too, so I'll also pass it along to them.