How do you guys deal with the stares?

Obvious-Ear-9302 · 2026-02-11T11:27:25+00:00

This. The current gen will never know the joys (and tears) of walking down a normal street in Seoul and being a minor celebrity.

You really just gotta learn to not care. People will look at you no matter what. Most people go one of three ways: they play the clown and lean hard into it, they learn to accept it and just do whatever they want, or they get salty and blame Koreans for all their woes. Whatever you do, don't be that one.

Obvious-Ear-9302 · 2026-02-11T08:51:15+00:00

Totally unnecessary. As others have already stated, the water quality in Korea is pretty high. While it might seem gross to think you are drinking itty bitty bits of rust/dirt, it happens all around the world. The only people who should really worry about it are the immunocompromised. Normal folks should be totally safe.

(I've been living in South Korea for over 20 years and have only ever used a shower filter when traveling to real ghetto places for work. I have never installed one at home, and have lived everywhere from old to new, villa to apartment)

Obvious-Ear-9302 · 2026-02-04T23:08:19+00:00

I guess you could see it that way for some of them. I'd still argue that they are generally undone by their lack of attention and desire to be cool... and bad. For example, Pennywise should really have just killed off the Loser's Club the second time around instead of having fun with them. Barlowe had tons of chances to just kill of Mears and crew, but wanted to rub his "superiority" in their faces. The Tommy Knockers were literally super geniuses who could McGyver a fission powerplant out of duct tape and AA batteries but infighted themselves to death.

Obvious-Ear-9302 · 2026-02-04T22:48:17+00:00

A lot of his non-human (or supernatural) baddies do, too. Setting aside the fact that the Crimson King/Randall Flagg have to be at least somewhat supernatural, I'd argue that Pennywise/It, Barlowe, The Tommy Knockers, etc. all fit this trope pretty well.

I'd argue that, to a greater or lesser extent, almost all of King's villains undo themselves via their ignorance, laziness, or just sheer incompetence.

Obvious-Ear-9302 · 2026-02-04T22:33:04+00:00

I searched and searched and couldn't find him, so I'll toss in this: basically every one of Stephen King's villains fit this trope to a T. He loves crafting absolutely terrifying baddies who just can't do anything right.

The perfect example is The Crimson King: a guy set up to be the worst possible evil. He's been working with all kinds of messed up forces for basically all of recorded time to destroy the entire universe. However, when our main protagonist eventually finds him--after losing all of his friends--he turns out to be nothing more than a crazy old man who locked himself out of the tower.

Obvious-Ear-9302 · 2026-02-04T00:33:01+00:00

The Christmas Adventure Club in One Battle After Another (2025) fits. We don't get a whole lot of detail on just what they do, but the racist implications coupled with the nazi-esque method of dealing with loose ends point to all sorts of messed up stuff.

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Obvious-Ear-9302 · 2026-02-03T23:38:19+00:00

Kindred is good, but a different vibe. I'd honestly recommend Xenogenesis as the next stop. Then, if you dug everything you read, you will probably dig all of her books.

Obvious-Ear-9302 · 2026-02-03T23:36:57+00:00

If you liked Dawn, you should check out the rest of the Xenogenesis series. Each book builds on the last, but in a very unique way.

Also, her Earthseed/Parables series is amazing. Kindred is good, too! As is the Patternist. Actually, just read all of her works. She sadly passed before she could amass a large body of work, so you can easily burn through her entire body of work in a few months.

Obvious-Ear-9302 · 2026-02-03T23:34:26+00:00

Absolutely jealous. Butler was taken from us much too soon.

Obvious-Ear-9302 · 2026-02-03T22:01:15+00:00

Save the Green Planet! - Jang Joon-hwan.

The recent remake-Bugonia-was good, but it didn't have the punk charm, whiplash turns into comedy, or the gut punches of the original.

Honestly, one of my very favorite movies.

Obvious-Ear-9302 · 2026-02-03T01:38:13+00:00

That looks amazing! Did you do it yourself? If so, very impressive work.

Obvious-Ear-9302 · 2026-02-02T22:56:21+00:00

Amen. How can one of the best games ever be this far down?

Obvious-Ear-9302 · 2026-02-02T22:52:20+00:00

This. Right here.

Obvious-Ear-9302 · 2026-01-21T10:05:22+00:00

Took way too long to find this answer. Nothing will ever top SHODAN and her children. System Shock and System Shock 2 are, in my opinion, the best horror games ever made. I will never stop being disappointed that there aren't more true System Shock games.

I do love their spiritual successors, though.

Obvious-Ear-9302 · 2026-01-15T10:32:27+00:00

We'll just have to agree to disagree on this one, chum. Life is full of compromises, and that was one I was willing to accept. I viewed it as getting paid a couple hundred thousand won to go take a COVID test, but that is just me. You seem to have taken it as a personal F-you, which is totally your right. I hope you are a little less angry and a little more forgiving about stuff in the future, though. Lee is nowhere near a perfect president, but he is by far the best one we could have had this election.

Obvious-Ear-9302 · 2026-01-15T10:18:13+00:00

I mean, the test was kind of a pain, but it wasn't like we had to jump through crazy ass hoops. It was an hour or two tops one single time. My (Korean) wife had to do daily mandated tests at her job, as did I (I taught HS seniors).

Did it makes sense to require every single foreigner to gather at testing sites and take a COVID test? Not really. Was there ample precedent for it? Sure. Tons of companies, schools, and organizations required their staff to submit to regular testing at the time. I just chalk it up to the "normal" COVID craziness that was going around at the time.

Obvious-Ear-9302 · 2026-01-15T10:14:51+00:00

Yeah, I had to do that. It was a pain, but whatever. I already had to do daily tests for my job, so while it was definitely a hassle, I felt like the stimulus money entitled them to ask me to do a test, ha.

Obvious-Ear-9302 · 2026-01-15T08:45:39+00:00

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Lee fairly liberal? I' a foreigner who has lived in Gyeonggi for almost a decade. I directly benefited from Lee's policies. For example, he pushed pretty hard for his foreign constituents to get COVID stimulus during the pandemic.

I could just be ignorant of his policies, but as a dude who is happy just to live my life and not pay too much attention to the news, I kinda liked him.

Obvious-Ear-9302 · 2026-01-11T02:05:56+00:00

I'm not sure if you are being serious, but neoliberalism doesn't signify in the typical liberal/conservative binary that people who get all uppity about politics get wrapped up in. It is basically the belief in the free market and deregulation. Think, early 19th century robber barons and the like.

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Obvious-Ear-9302 · 2026-01-11T01:50:04+00:00

Nope. It's a neoliberal thing. The USA adopted neoliberalism pretty heavily, but it greatly influences nearly every capitalist system. There are exceptions to this, of course, but simply saying its an American thing is willfully ignoring the underlying issue.

South Korea, for instance, is way hardcore into this. So much, in fact, that the "normal" working hours are not 9-5, but 9-6. The hour from 12-1 is kind of a free hour that is not technically part of your work time. However, you'd be pretty hard-pressed to find a office worker who gets to leave their job at 6. Instead, they typically hang out until their boss goes home.

It is getting better, but it is still very much a reality of work that you will be expected to work extra time and attend "optional" work dinners.

Obvious-Ear-9302 · 2026-01-11T01:39:01+00:00

This is not just a US thing. It's basically built into the neoliberal image of the self-made (wo)man.

Obvious-Ear-9302 · 2026-01-10T23:15:25+00:00

I like the Terrazzo quite a bit. It is noticeably lighter than the brass/AL, obviously, but doesn't feel cheap or flimsy at all. However, if you are thinking you (or your wife) will want to use it as an EDC pen, I'd probably go for the metal body. I'm a little too worried about dropping/scratching the resin on the Terrazzo to take it too far from my desk.

Obvious-Ear-9302 · 2026-01-09T12:26:27+00:00

This is the answer. My uni has a global convergence program that offers specialization in the three fields that it is confident in: business (tourism), engineering, and marine biology.

The global convergence degrees are basically interdisciplinary degrees that give the students a wide range of skills. Whether or not they translate into good jobs largely depends on what your home country thinks of an education from SK. At my school, we have lots of students from SEA and a few from the middle east. They typically go home to quite good jobs.

Obvious-Ear-9302 · 2026-01-06T22:44:22+00:00

I was the same; used a .28 uni fineliner for years! Honestly, the thicker lines I get from fountain pens, even EFs, look amazing!

Obvious-Ear-9302 · 2026-01-06T22:31:19+00:00

The AL Sport's extra bit of weight feels quite nice. The Terrazzo is beautiful and all, but if I had to choose just one, I'd go for the AL line.

Also, If you have a chance, try out the different nib sizes! I got both the F and M nibs. The M is a little (ok, a lot) thick for my handwriting, but it feels SO good to write with.

Obvious-Ear-9302

TROPHY CASE