bike trip

I love the joys of the mountains,
wandering completely free,
feeding a crippled body another day,
thinking thoughts that go nowhere.
Sometimes I open an old sutra,
more often I climb a stone tower
and peer down a thousand-foot cliff
or up where clouds curl around
where the windblown winter moon
looks like a lone-flying crane.

- Hanshan (Cold Mountain 寒山)




Ready to start!



I ended up joining the army!



At Hwasun Beach where we spent our first night, with a great view of Sanbangsan.


I met some squid on the coast!



This is how much money I had when I was finished. I made it!

Fear is the mindkiller.

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.

Anyone else a Dune fan? I'm reading Heretics of Dune right now, it's blowing me away.

weekends

It's Spring! And weekends lately have been memorable.



A few weeks ago I played frisbee with the Jeju C team. It was so good to run around in the sun with other good people from the island - plus all over Korea, China, and Taiwan.





We had a sports day for the little kids who take afternoon classes at the university.



Don't let their cuteness fool you! These kids are vicious tug-of-war monsters ...



Oh! And went shopping the other day and found this new summer fashion must-have:



I'm now taking shipping requests for bizzare Konglish shirts. ;)

real fight clubs

1999 was a great year for movies - American Beauty, The Matrix, and of course Fight Club. As some of you know, my senior thesis partly on Buddhist themes in Fight Club, so I was really excited to watch this:



Aren't sports supposed to be substitutions for the old hunting/male dominance instincts? Sports aren't enough? I dunno though, beating each other with keyboards looks pretty sweet.