Thursday, March 15, 2012

This week in a capsule...

It's been about a week since I last posted, and friends, it's been a week of contrasts.



and this


(Play this video 80 times in a row to experience my Tuesday night)

offset by arguing on the internet about making wild unqualified generalizations, laughing at the Indefatiguable Dragon Slayer's back-and-forth with well-known K-blog troll David T (also known as Archaeologist)

and offset again by "Does Modernization Breed Revolution" (not on its own), does identification with a nation-state, or ientification with marginalized communities within a nation-state, lead to political action? (more or less, but less than one would think), what are the sources of rebellion in Western societies? (perceived lack of legitimacy, history of protest, and past successful protests, among other things), and does poverty lead to terror? (nope)

Also... confucianism isn't enough to explain Korea's rapid development on its own... but probably figures in somewhere. It's just really hard to figure out exactly where, and how, and it's hard to come up with ways to measure "culture" as a variable in a social phenomenon, because culture is such a slippery word.

It's been interesting.


Oh... also... Babyseyo's first day trip happened a few sundays ago, when we took him to a convent where Wifeoseyo and I like to visit, and he nearly caused a riot.


The nuns there had prepared a song for us, which is at the end of this video. Absolutely lovely.

5 comments:

Andrew Barbour said...

Here's obnoxious "old hand at fathering" Andrew coming to spout some suggestions in the infinitesimally small chance you ain't already heard all the advice there is to give on the subject:
1. Swing him around a lot more vigorously. Like big 180-degree arcs left to right; not so much that it's like the kid's stuck in a centrifuge, but more than just a gentle bounce.
2. Give him a soothing, consistent noise. I've heard that the frequency of slurping liquids from a glass is just the right thing to calm a baby's nerves (and depending on what you have in the glass, yours too). Holding him to your chest and speaking softly in a deep voice can work too.
3. Wrap him up. He's still pretty little, he might appreciate being a little more snug.
4. Hold him horizontally.
5. Stroller time, rolling over a slightly rough surface. We found that rhythmically rolling over the door threshold ("문턱") worked too.
6. Then there's always adoption. I'm not picky, I'll take a secondhand kid.

Andrew Barbour said...

Also, that is a fantastically cute kid. Looks nothing like you. :)

burndoggy said...

You'd better mean laughing WITH the Indefatigable Dragon-Slayer! 

Andy TeBay said...

I recommend the book, "Culture Matters".
Not just one author but many. Reading it now myself.

shotgunadventures said...

Wow, that nun video is the cutest thing I've seen in a long time.   Your son handled all the attention like a champ.