Tom Kim

So I joined Colin’s diet support effort. I guess I can tack this onto my summer resolutions.

Today’s the initial weigh-in. This morning I was a relatively svelte 170.5 lbs. But that was naked, after a shower and a dump. And now, having gorged on three 9-inch pizza slices with everything on top, I just weighed in at 173.5 lbs. This is not a good start.

diet, food, health

I went to my local Apple store only to have found it has been flushed clean of the Macbook I want. The guy there helpfully suggested that a new Apple Store in Freehold, NJ is having their grand opening tomorrow at 10 am. Cha-ching!

It’s a big change, but I’m ready to switch. I’ve had enough of the hacking and coaxing I’ve had to do with PCs all my life. It was fun while it lasted but I’m ready to scale back to something simple and elegant. Something I’ll feel less tempted to tweak and fuss with all the time. Funny, it feels a lot like my switch to wordpress.com.

[Note from the Opening: The store was due to open at 10 am. I knew Mac fanatics were going to camp out, so I headed down to the car as soon as I was conscious. I got there at 8:10, and there were 20 people ahead of me. At 9:00 there were at least another 30 behind me. By the time the store opened, I would guess that the line was 200 deep. BTW, I was customer #1.]

So here’s the plan:

Buy Now

• Macbook: 2.0 GHz, 60 gig version — I can finally have my own computer at school.
• iWork: Keynote and Pages have given me enough reason to stay Microsoft-free for a while.
• Filemaker Pro: I missed the memo a while back that Filemaker had matched MS Access in power and surpassed it in ease of use. Time to give databases another go.
• FileFinder: Catalog all the stuff I’ve accumulated on CDs and DVDs.
• Speed Download: A better download manager
• Super Duper: Back that thang up (free for basic backups, pay and register for scheduling and other advanced features)
• VoodooPad: Organize all my info in a wiki

Necessary Free Downloads

• iStumbler and Kismac: Sniff out wifi networks
• Firefox: Better browsing.
• Skype: Free phone calls.
• Pukka: Post to del.icio.us
• 1001: Upload photos to Flickr.
• Google Earth: Explore the world
• Smart Board software: Prepare whiteboard lessons
• Quicksilver: Launch a thousand apps
• Growl: Let apps send you notifications
• Sidenote: Desktop stickies
• Cocoa Booklet: Make PDF booklets
• VLC: To go where Quicktime won’t.
• Handbrake: Rip DVDs to MP4s
• Audacity: Edit sound files.
• Imagewell: Quick image touch-ups
• Seashore: More involved image manipulation. Bypass Photoshop and get GIMP for Macs.
• Quinn: A Tetris clone. Aw c’mon; it’s better than being on WoWarcrack.
• Text Wrangler: Better than Text Edit. Thanks Scott!
• Transmission: Bit Torrent client
• Gmail notifier: So that I can make Gmail my default e-mail client
• Adium: A pretty darn near universal IM client
• Colloquy or Chatzilla: Easy IRC
• Frotz: Play old school interactive fiction on this z-machine emulator
• Writeroom: Type without distractions
• Sketchup: Model 3D objects
• FFView: Read comic books
• Apple’s Quicktime AppleScript Pack: Useful scripts for Quicktime
• Stuffit Expander: Decompress sitx files
• Adobe Lightroom: A little more than iPhoto, a little less than Aperture. And free.
• FreeMind: Open-source java mind map creator
• Chicken of the VNC: Open-source VNC viewer
• Fugu: A Mac OS X SFTP, SCP and SSH frontend

Widgets

• Oblique: Creativity prompts.
• Sudoku: Aw c’mon; it’s better than Tetris.
• iSpeak: When you can’t stand to stare at a screen anymore.
• SMS: Send a free cell phone text message.
• Sing that iTune! (until Pear Lyrics): Find lyrics to songs.
• Google Widgets: Widgets for gmail and personalized searches
• Capture: Take pictures of my screen
• bpmWidget: Figure out the beats-per-minute of songs

Consider Buying Later

• Transmit: FTP
• NetNewsWire: Feed reader
• Endo: Another feed reader
• Ecto: Better blogging.
• Snapz Pro X: Screen capture
• Audio Hijack Pro: Record and enhance sound
• Mellel: A word processor that emphasizes the writing
• Endnote: For when I go to grad school — bibliographies made easy
• Studio Artist: More pixel pushing
• Voice Candy: Fun sound effects and filters
• Podcast Maker: Um, make podcasts
• App Zapper: Uninstall unwanted software

Any other suggestions/recommendations?

apple, mac, macbook

I lose my focus pretty easily. Resolutions for a whole year? Not going to make it. It’s nice then that my job divides the year up into pretty convenient chunks of a few months at a time.

Okay, off the top of the globe, things I resolve to do over the summer:

• School
  • Big Blog Rollout project
  • Vocabulary for the 7th Grade
  • Robotics Club curriculum
  • Prep Watership Down for the 6th Grade
  • Literary Magazine web site
  • Learn to make a Filemaker database for my classes
  • Prep for next school year
• Personal
  • Daily devotions
  • Write poetry
  • Exercise: Bicycle commute
  • Learn to cook
  • Learn Korean
• Things I Know I Won’t Do But Want To
  • Learn Ruby on Rails

to do, summer projects

So last week, I met my doppelganger at the Korean Language Meetup in Philly.

I found out about this meetup when I signed up for the Philly WordPress and Blogger Meetups. The Meetup web site conveniently suggests upon signup other meetups in the area that might be of interest to you.

Now about my Korean-ness. I confess that I am what is sometimes termed (sometimes playfully, sometimes derogatorily) “banana.” That is, yellow on the outside, but white on the inside.

The nomenclature’s somewhat misleading because most bananas are more aligned with the Asian-American subculture than the White American hegemony.

Nevertheless, I can’t deny that I have a very, very poor understanding of my home country’s history, language, and traditions. I feel very guilty about this. I feel awful that I can’t have a decent conversation with my own parents, that I have to skulk around my in-laws to avoid speaking with them, that I’m constantly making faux pas that complicate my family’s fragile dynamic. One of my summer goals is to remedy this somewhat.

Hence the Korean Language Meetup. Turns out it’s organized by Tom Kim. Not me. Another Tom Kim. In fact, the Tom Kim that owns thomaskim.com.

Turns out he’s a nice guy, a relatively new transplant to Philadelphia, a resident of South Philly, a husband to a lovely Paula, and the owner of a cute rat terrier named Ofie. Hard to hate him, though he did take thomaskim.com.

I had quite a good time at the meetup. I met some lovely folks — Jen, Paul, Carolyn — and practiced a little of what little I know. It was charmingly casual and discursive.

I’m now going to have to get the textbook: Survival Korean. I might also order some lower-grade-level reading in Korean for self-study.

Korean, korean language meetup, philly

Or: An Exercise in Verb Tense:

I started off feverishly reading through like 20 blogs so that I don’t seem like a cad at the monthly WordPress and Philly Blogger meetups.

Ate breakfast at the computer. Cereal. Soy milk was fine. No spillage.

I noticed I received… mother of miracles! A comment! From someone I know! Bless you, Leah, check is in the mail. But what was this? Doubt about the Bianchi Volpe? I sat in silence, disturbed.

On my walk over to the train station on Spring Garden, I stopped by Rite-Aid. A friend had recently pointed out that I have flat feet, and so I bought a pair of Dr. Scholl’s shoe inserts (three-point comfort blah blah blah). I was pleased to see that they actually made walking and standing more comfortable. I felt ready to walk the hell out of the city.

Took Septa to the southwest corner of Center City. Got confused by the trolley transfer and had to pay another token. Missed the 22nd Street stop, and so I had to backtrack on the trolley again from 30th Street.

I walked over to Bicycle Therapy, where I found John. He eyeballed me, asked my height, and suggested I try out a 55″ bike, which I couldn’t do because they didn’t have one fully assembled. So John put in a build order for the 55 and set me up to test ride the 52 in the meantime. It was awkward. It was apparent I hadn’t ridden in quite a while, and I didn’t exactly handle my test ride with panache. After I wobbled around a bit, though, I started to get the hang of it, and started to really enjoy the bike. It felt slick and light but sturdy and reliable. I liked it, but now that I’m waiting for the higher build, I might wait a bit more and try out some other bikes and shops.

As I pondered this, I noticed that somebody left several items out on their front steps. One of the items looks like a rice cooker, which made me do a double-take because didn’t I just talk to some folks who wanted a rice cooker? Wasn’t it Jonny and Laura? The rice cooker turned out actually to be a breadmaker, and it had a note attached screaming, “FREE! Take me, please!”

I walked down to the end of the block and stopped. Do we already have a breadmaker? If not, would Dana want a used breadmaker? Why would someone give away their breadmaker? Would it work? Would it make poisonous bread? If it doesn’t work, why leave it out front with a note urging someone to take it? Why not just leave it out on the curb for trash pick-up sans note?

I walked back to the house. I looked around me, feeling self-conscious. I sighed and picked up the breadmaker. Why not?

With breadmaker in tow, I trudged from South Street to Rittenhouse Square. Funny thing about me: while I’m normally extraordinarily self-conscious, once I’ve resigned myself to look like a fool, I’m pretty resigned to it. So I ignored all the stares and strode into Barnes & Noble to browse some books and buy three copies of Annie Lamott’s Bird by Bird as a gift to the students who were elected to receive this year’s Middle School Writing Awards. On my way back to South Street, I passed by a sixth grader from my school, who looked mortified to have recognized me, or perhaps, to have herself been recognized by me.

2:00. I slogged into the Meetup with a discarded breadmaker like a crazed bag lady. I stayed for the duration of the Meetup, though, and had a good time:

• Snooble was, as per last week, there early. She proudly showed us that she and her Harry Potter Meetup group got a nice write-up in the City Paper
• Blankbaby made us all uncomfortable by insisting that he film us all for his videoblog. But all was forgiven when he brought me up to speed on the Macbook. Jobs, I am ready to give you my money now.
• Asymptomatic gave me some advice on MU and the use of WordPress as a CMS. He even shared some of the inside frustration with the current development of WordPress.
• Mofro led an impassioned rant on corporate benightedness regarding intellectual property..
• Even Prospero came by to chat with me on some issues about the Big Blog Rollout.

TalkJunkie generously gave me a ride home. Thanks, Dave, and I hope your long trek home was safe and filled with eventful talk radio moments.

Drove to the Apple Store in Marlton to restore my iPod — and lust after the new Macbooks.

Caught up on Top Chef and Iron Chef.

Five fingers, five toes intact. I’m still without a bike but now one breadmaker and functional iPod richer. Pretty good day.

wordpress meetup

Okay, sorry, for that long hiatus. It’s the home stretch of school, and I’ve been going through a little stress-funk. I’m not sure it’s over, but I’m praying to pull myself together.

Anyhoo, busy, busy day today. I’m starting off this morning, feverishly reading through like 20 blogs so that I don’t seem like a cad at today’s monthly WordPress and Philly Blogger meetups.

Type in some notes for some future blog entries (I have like 25 drafts lined up by now). Which is ridiculous. Maybe I’ll just flush out a bunch in the next few days. Whatta ya think? Is it gonna be too much to be hit by five or six entries per day for this weekend? You think it might be better to leak them out slowly in a strict reader-friendly schedule? I’m kind of going through a semi-manic phase right now, and I wonder if I should just take advantage of it before I head to the dark side of the moon.

Eat breakfast. Cereal. Worried that soy milk might go bad sometime soon. In fact, let me go get some now. Hmmm. Maybe not a good idea to balance cereal bowl while clicking and typing. What the hell.

Take Septa to the southwest corner of Center City. Won’t be able to drive because I intend on biking back, and Dana went to Jersey last night to see her nieces.

Yes, I said biking back. My big birthday present this year: a brand-new Bianchi Volpe. An integral part of the Summer Resolutions of 2006 (more on this later). In case I don’t get to this later, I should say that if you’re looking for your own set of wheels, I highly recommend talking to John at Bicycle Therapy. Dude’s great.

2:00. I roll in style to the Meetups at the Ten Stone. I come prepared to chin-wag:

• Only Partially Insane has also bought a new bike. She’s also bought the most awesome coffee mug ever.
• Blankbaby has visited the new Apple Store. Seeing as how my iPod goes on the fritz every other month, I need details.
• Zornek has seen the Nintendo Wii. I love cool interfaces.
• Apartment 2024 has moved onto WordPress and her own domain.
• As has Tao of Jordon, who is now the Sam and Becky Boo Show.
• I’m finding coComment very annoying and not yet useful yet. I wonder if others feel the same.

Bike home. Pant, putter, pout. Take a shower. Realize I need my better half.

Drive to Jersey to watch TV. Or grade.

At least that’s the plan. Watch me end up in a hospital somewhere.

wordpress meetup

Sorry for the slow output these days. This week and next will be only in drips and dribbles. Things are getting real hectic up in he-ah.

“Tim, look over here. I have something that will make you stop bothering Mr. Kim.”

“What is that?”

“A detention slip.”

“Hssss!”

“It’s your kryptonite.”

“It burns usssss!”

Thank you, Mimi. I owe you one, partner.

classroom management, behavior, humor

So I’ve started Shakespeare units with both my 6th and 7th graders. The 6th graders do a production of Midsummer Night’s Dream every year, and the 7th graders do Romeo and Juliet. I gave a fairly lengthy lecture yesterday on “Tips on Understanding Shakespeare,” which included pointers like:

• Go see a theatrical production (doesn’t have to be the same play)
• Read out loud (funny voices and accents also helps)
• Read multiple times
• Don’t get hung up on trying to understand everything. Go with the flow
• Pay attention in class.

Driving home from work today, I had an epiphany. I was listening to Apathy’s hot hot hot remix of the White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army” (which could be found here), and it suddenly occurred to me that when I was getting into rap and hip-hop that I underwent a learning curve very similar to what I experienced in adjusting to Shakespearean language.

For someone just getting inculcated in the dark arts of rap, the effort takes faith, patience, and persistence. You have to listen both broadly and deeply, at times insouciantly, at times with concentrated effort. You have to immerse yourself in repeated exposures, getting used to the cadence and parlance. And as you live and breathe the songs, their culture, and their history, you learn to start unpacking the idioms, the techniques, the systems of allusions.

Something that starts out being so dense and alien that it seems nearly incomprehensible slowly becomes intricate and awesome, full of wit and power. And suddenly, man, you see what all the fuss is about.

Hey, any other suggestions out there on how neophytes can get into Shakespeare? What helped to make the plays make sense for you?

shakespeare, rap, hip-hop

Recently, Dana and I spent the Easter weekend at my folks’ place in Potomac, MD. These things are always tricky: Dana and I don’t have the best relationship with my folks (particularly my Mom), there’s leftover drama from family history, and there’s usually something going on with my brother, as well. And this particular weekend promised to have some extra turns in the screw over some things I really shouldn’t go into here, but enough that I anticipated a big bad blowout to happen at some point or another.

It was tense even on the ride down. There were some misunderstandings; Dana was snippy, I was sullen, and then vice versa. It was then that I remembered the Lai’s, one of the couples in our Bible study. Before they went on their annual trip to Chun’s family, they asked us to pray on their behalf in anticipation of the spiritual difficulties they would face. I was impressed that they saw these trips as a kind of short-term mission — an opportunity to be ambassadors of God to their family.

Taking a cue from them, Dana and I prayed for our trip in the car. Immediately, the atmosphere lightened. I felt renewed in purpose and bolstered in the knowledge that we weren’t going into this alone, but as representatives of God’s purpose. Dana and I made up to each other and we reflected a bit on all we’ve learned these past few weeks in Bible study.

The weekend was nothing short of miraculous. My mom seemed unusually chipper, almost as if she had forgotten all the stuff that had been bothering her before. The weekend not only went quickly, but pleasantly. We went to McLean Bible Church on Sunday (that could be the subject of another post), and had a nice lunch as a family in Far East.

Big deal, right? It’s not like I raised the dead or anything. Any unbeliever reading this post have probably already rolled their eyes and went, “Pshaw.” As we left, my brother attributed the good fortune of the weekend to our cunning: “Good strategy in coming late on Saturday. Can’t do it all the time, but it certainly worked out all right for you this time.”

But I know better. That weekend made me genuinely praise God and the power of His resurrection.

prayer, spiritual warfare, family, easter