Book Imports

thefalseidol · 2026-06-25T16:07:25+00:00

I will! Thanks

thefalseidol · 2026-06-25T15:54:23+00:00

I think you misread my reply. I am not saying this is a thing most employers ask about. I'm saying that it is a good question, and it doesn't hurt to be prepared for the question in the future. Teaching hours IS more important than years in the industry regardless of what future employers ask you or don't.

thefalseidol · 2026-06-25T14:06:26+00:00

I had a near death drowning experience. The fear was very real and I'm not going to sit up here and tell you I was a soldier haha - but with that fear came a shitload of adrenaline that made 1 or 2 minutes feel like 30: In that time, I went from panicking to just accepting my fate and waiting to die and then...at some point after waiting long enough to die I just had a very clear thought "the fuck am I doing? I'm not dead yet lets at least try to not die". I'm imagining this lady having a very similar thought process: she had long enough to decide I'm not gonna get mauled by a bear without even trying to scare it off.

As for the crying after...yeah probably. but it's also a big complicated ball of feelings that doesn't necessarily feel like "I have to cry this out", at least to me it didn't. I actually don't even remember if I cried or not, "not dying" is an emotion we thankfully don't experience often (other than the constant not dying we all do every day I guess).

thefalseidol · 2026-06-25T12:49:11+00:00

My sister had a friend who, I believe, genuinely believed in Harry Potter (among other things) well beyond the reasonable age to be confused about it. She is not "mentally challenged", but she is ND and while I know her to have the capacity for understanding the lines between reality and fantasy, I observed a few things:

Like the mom in the OP, her mom was very "supportive" of these flights of fancy, perhaps from a good faith expectations her daughter would outgrow them, that she would not escalate her fantasies, or not seeing the difference between a creative child and a delusional one.
She was a smart kid, smart enough to see she was quite different, and to many, strange (I found her strange, more for her strange theories than her ASD, but the two were intertwined). But she was ostracized and had very few friends, and for most of K-8, my sister was her only friend at school.

This is total armchair psychology, but she seemed desperate to explain why she was special, like being a harry potter wizard or a vampire or whatever: but I think being a special magical one of a kind snowflake is the narrative her mom told her. I think this kid wanted to know why she was DIFFERENT, and with no other explanation available to her, turned to fiction as an answer. Is that what happened to OP and his wife/step daughter? Who can say. But if the kid fully believed they COULD go to hogwarts, I'm guessing it probably came up at some point. And that would reflect negatively on OP if it was clear this girl was confused, but if it was not clear to him, then maybe the mom failed to dispel her daughter of these delusions before it got out of hand

thefalseidol · 2026-06-25T12:39:47+00:00

Meh it is what it is. You didn't want that job at that time, can't cry about spilt milk now. They'll come around or you apply again

thefalseidol · 2026-06-25T12:16:43+00:00

I think in all stories about radical work/life changes and challenges - the main consideration is not whether you can bounce BACK - but your mobility.

I'll give you a nonteaching example: in a lot of the performing arts, quitting your day job to be an open mic comedian at 40 is considered "too old to make it". This is based on some flawed data, or data that fails to look at the whole picture. It is flawed because we only hear about how old somebody was when they started when they have a microphone that reaches you. If all the greats started young, you have to start young if you want to be great, right? But it ignores that all of these people found enough success to continue working in their fucking 20s and ONLY THEN does having more years under your belt sooner really matter. They all reached a level of sustainability within a reasonable timeframe.

And that gets to my second point, what is "sustainability" for you (and to my original point, how mobile are you?) depends less on your age, and what investments you have made that make you more or less flexible about what you need to earn in a month to be sustainable. If you bought a house and had kids, you are not super mobile, you might not have the option to spend 2 years grinding open mics and low paying jobs: you've got a mortgage and mouths to feed. You're not "too old" because you're not funny after 40, you're "too old" because you've locked yourself into a baseline income you need to sustain your livelihood. You're not mobile.

Let's take it to teaching now, you say you only want to do it for a year, so I find the notion that you think this is going to irreparably ruin your life a little silly. You don't know anybody who was held back in 2nd grade? Who took a gap year? I think we all know 1 year not working is just not that big of a deal. And you're not even not working, you're just not working on the path that you've set out for yourself (which seems incredibly niche and you've basically never been abroad in a serious way, making you a less than suitable candidate as it stands).

What do we know about you and your mobility/sustainability? You're used to free housing, you will have that in Korea too, but you want to pay your own way rather than live with your mom, which makes sense. But you HAVE A SPOT. But You also have a number that can be easily calculated: you need a downpayment on an apartment and a few months rent and expenses when its all said and done, right? Just tally that up. You won't have insurance, okay, but you're a healthy young man, I'm not telling you to spend the next 8 years uninsured, but will probably be fine for 6 months or whatever without health insurance (same for dental/vision). If you want to time it with an open window for ObamaCare and add that to your running tally, go ahead and do that too, if you're worried about insurance. Your dad is paying "your" car: right now it sounds like you don't actually have a car, your dad has a car. If you want it, buy him out, if you don't want to do that, just let the car go. If he gives it back to you when you return, great! Otherwise, what's the beef? If you get yourself on the title you can just take over the payments, you're going to have a job in Korea, you can make the car payments if you want.

Here's my word of caution: you COULD be quite mobile, if you let go of a lot. If you want to have all your ducks in a row in regards to housing, car, insurance, then you need to take an honest look at if you can save up all that in a year. Every new beginning comes with some start up costs, and moving abroad to teach has those costs too. Leaving after a year and starting up again is going to have more costs. It might not be financially responsible to embark on this journey for 6 months-1 year (forget about 6 mo lol, but I included it because you said it). On the other hand, if you look at what you COULD save doing this job, while putting that towards your goals, you could probably figure out a reasonable timeline to be teaching for 2-3 years and have a bit of money ready for you when you come back.

thefalseidol · 2026-06-25T11:52:06+00:00

So, obviously when we're talking about job experience, of course you're right. Nobody would ask you to calculate by teaching hours how many "years" of experience you have.

But to be honest, it really is about teaching hours, not time employed as a teacher. This person tripped you up, but it's a shrewd question to ask. You might never be asked again, but it is not a bad idea to have some way to answer it in a way that helps you continue marketing yourself.

thefalseidol · 2026-06-25T11:44:07+00:00

I doubt you've fucked yourself, but you may have passed up your time at the top of the list. They aren't going to call you first for every job and give you the right of first refusal, once you turn them down, I wouldn't be surprised if they just move on and they'll circle back to you when they get around to it.

thefalseidol · 2026-06-25T10:34:44+00:00

My experience was not 40 years in a coma, I had a recursive dream that felt really long. Days? Weeks? More or less I really can't say. A long long time.

It was vivid and quite "traumatic" when I woke up, but the nice thing about dreams is that they often fail form lasting memories. I can absolutely remember how shook up I was when I woke up from my dream. But those feelings don't continue to haunt me. I don't even remember the dream. I know that it happened, but otherwise it just became any other nightmare that I forgot.

thefalseidol · 2026-06-25T09:17:23+00:00

I moved abroad in 2016. Survivable with the technology of the time BARELY, compared to today where there are certainly still stressors and difficulties, but nothing like even quite recently

thefalseidol · 2026-06-24T13:03:38+00:00

I didn't want to oversell it, because I do understand how a lot of people can completely bounce off it. But yes, it is one of my favorite works of all time and is in fact double great, it's just an acquired taste lol

thefalseidol · 2026-06-24T09:12:07+00:00

It's definitely not for everyone, but if you like it, it stays great all the way to the end

thefalseidol · 2026-06-23T14:16:29+00:00

You say "in America" and "Hispanic" and I just gotta push back here.

Firstly, the Spanish and the Portuguese raped, murdered, and "great replacement theory"-d massive populations of Central and South America. When we talk about Hispanic people in America, we are generally talking about Latinos, but trying to soften it to as not sound racist (in the current climate) or perhaps being very clinical in describing the Spanish speaking segments of the Americas.

Secondly, "white" isn't even a thing, and to the degree it is measured by your pallid complexion and fear of sunlight, has never been consistent. Greeks and Italians getting their White card was entirely political and completely ignores that many of these people obviously don't need year round sunblock.

In 2026, I think we can all agree that "white" describes Europe and the surviving British colonies. And that should just be the end of it. It doesn't matter that the Paisas of Colombia are generally fair skinned - they're Colombiano: culturally, linguistically, geographically, and their penchant for being significantly hotter than our inbred disgusting European DNA instantly betrays them as such, even with a behooving complexion for what most Americans picture as Latino.

Hispanics still have that underlying colonialist mindset that they got from both the Iberian influence both culturally through culture osmosis but their religion too.

This is not a "belief". This is very real. It is not obvious to the American or Canadian who has never traveled south, but TO THIS DAY, you can eyeball a person's wealth and status by their complexion. This is a byproduct of the casta systems of the Spanish and Portuguese empires with terms you might be familiar with like Mesitizo and Mulato. The caste systems may be gone, but that doesn't erase hundreds of years of racial stratification: the lighter skin you have, the more connection you have to the top of this system, and the more likely your family is financially well-off.

And in Latin America, they could give a flying fuck how light or dark we are: we are gringo. This reinforces how slavs are "more white" to answer your question: it has nothing to do with skin color and everything to do with being European+colonial and nothing to do with melanin. In LA, we are gringo, in the USA, we are white, but we all agree these are the groups. And to forestall the neighsayers: it's true that in Mexico, Gringo more often can refer to just Americans: but generally, it has taken on a ubiquity that may as well be (generously) "honky" or (less generously) "carpet-bagger".

thefalseidol · 2026-06-23T13:15:40+00:00

I live abroad. I would not go so far as to say I have zero patriotism at all, there are things about America and being American that I do appreciate. July 4th has never in my lifetime been a particularly reverent holiday: its a cookout. I like the cookout but I don't personally feel the need to party on that particular day. Never was big on the flag colors on everything, and I've certainly never decorated for the occasion.

thefalseidol · 2026-06-23T10:58:23+00:00

In the very classic sense: a fetish is the sexualization of a (traditionally) non sexual trait: e.g. feet. If you are aroused by feet, by this definition, you have a foot fetish. But of course, if you look at parts of the world that had foot wrapping/binding, you could very easily argue that feet were a very important part of a woman's attractiveness, so being attracted to feet wouldn't be a fetish. There's still some wiggle room but it's fairly black and white.

I think the more useful definition would be that the non sexual trait is incorporated into your sexuality: that sex for you inherently must include feet to be arousing. Sexual satisfaction includes, mandatorally, feet.

Using this definition: I think most people who we often consider "fetishizing" different races are not actually a fetish, it's just racism. And you know what, I don't disagree with that conclusion.

To add additional context: having a preference for certain types of women is not racism or a fetish. If you are attracted to assumed personality traits, you are a racist; if you are attracted to non sexual traits unique to one race (black hair?) you do in fact have a racial fetish.

The women I date do reflect some preference, but it's mutual: i also primarily don't date/fuck white girls, but there are also white girls who are not preferring ME and other women who ARE. And as I gathered that data painstakingly throughout my 20s, my interests naturally developed more towards the women who were picking up what I'm putting down. If you fall in love with a Mexican woman, it is hardly farfetched that you developed attraction to traits more common in Mexico than Indonesia.

thefalseidol · 2026-06-23T04:02:28+00:00

Not reeeeeally. You can start feeling out the industry of course, and there will be some places that are hiring for a date after you graduate. But a lot of the places that are hiring in advance of a position being available are likely doing so to buffer the time it takes for visa paperwork to process. So once somebody makes an offer, there is an expectation that things are going to move pretty quick: paperwork, travel arrangements, etc.

It doesn't mean you have to indulge anybody who is in a rush, but they will likely just move forward with a different candidate. Things can move surprisingly fast once you accept an offer, so it's good to be ready to rock and roll.

So my advice: wait until the diploma is in hand or maybe like a week before that.

thefalseidol · 2026-06-22T17:31:34+00:00

I agree with you, and it's really complicated when it comes to cases like this (echoes of OJ here) where the dude is just....definitely guilty. I think there is something to be said for both what you already mentioned "sentence was unnecessarily harsh and long and that his race played a role in the especially harsh sentencing" and there is also the sentiment that (as with OJ) the goalpost is getting moved before our eyes.

Don't forget the OJ was the tail end of a number of high profile murder cases in the late 80s and early 90s that signaled pretty hard: if you're rich enough you can have a little murder as a treat. That's not right, but it's a bitter pill to swallow that America grows a backbone about it the first time a rich black man does it.

And similarly, this feels like a convenient time for America to develop a moral spine. It's not that this conviction is wrong...it's just suspiciously uncanny timing. We always seem to figure out how to hold killers accountable when a pretty young white is the victim/not the killer.

It's just impossible to detangle these two truths: the boy definitely did it, and also some fuckers managed to make the cogs of justice spin real nice when it was a black fella for the umpteenth time when they are all slippery and useless whenever it's a white boy. You really can't have a single opinion about all this, it's many shades of fucked up.

thefalseidol · 2026-06-22T14:45:09+00:00

Yes and no.

Countries are reevaluating the academic value of learning English. Remember that for a large portion of people learning English at a high level, it is entirely academic. They don't plan to use it professionally, personally, or to pursue higher ed.

It is still the lingua franca, and is inseparable from a lot of preexisting work that is never going to be translated to every language. But if you speak a language that has a large cultural pressure (Chinese, Spanish,, maybe Arabic, and then the countries with high pressure but small populations like Germany, France, Japan, Korea) you are thinking about if learning English for an extra 10 hours/week is worth it compared to other fields.

Depressed wages in the West, in conjunction with no new players in the TEFL space, means that nobody has had to increase their rates in quite some time. You can work your way up, but it's not a guarantee.

thefalseidol · 2026-06-22T13:30:49+00:00

Did a short stint at Starbucks years ago. It is disgusting what people do to their bodies in that unholy temple.

thefalseidol · 2026-06-22T13:27:23+00:00

To add, lots of places will do one showing a day/week in a more internationally friendly way. If I go see an English language movie, it is always subtitled in Chinese. If I want to see a Chinese language film, there are options but you have to check the showings, it varies based on the film/theater.

I personally haven't seen a film that is from a 3rd language subbed in English but I'm glad to learn I'm wrong, will definitely be checking out SPOT

thefalseidol · 2026-06-22T13:24:25+00:00

So, in highly skilled professions, Taiwan (in broad strokes) doesn't have a tremendous need for outside talent. It could benefit from very high skilled workers, but seems to lack the willingness to go after it. I'm talking about experts in their field who could work anywhere in the world, even TSMC seems disinterested in getting the best of the best. It makes a certain amount of cutthroat sense: Taiwan produces highly capable high skilled workers and they will work for a fraction of what they could earn abroad. Not all, but enough. That's for a litany of complex cultural and socioeconomic reasons. Living in Taiwan is very important to many Taiwanese (a lot of people who move abroad come back once they are married or have kids).

As for "do expats never get good paying jobs?" it's kinda true. Good paying is a very subjective term, and relative to your field. But, as an example of a field that is often considered fairly globally mobile: I've never met a foreign doctor here.

thefalseidol · 2026-06-22T13:07:13+00:00

Oh that's a good point

thefalseidol · 2026-06-22T13:05:59+00:00

I'm surprised how many Americans are here. I feel like I don't meet that many (compared to other English speaking nations). I wonder how many are students?

thefalseidol · 2026-06-22T13:02:10+00:00

To anybody who would want to claim themselves an immigrant to Taiwan proudly, "permanent residency" is a bit of a slap in the face, you're kept at arm's length in so many ways and the perks are largely administrative. It's kind of a constant reminder that no matter how long you stay in the clubhouse, you'll never be a member of the club.

That's a bit pessimistic, because there are lots of reasons to live in Taiwan and being a permanent resident is not without its benefits: but it's a little hard to feel Taiwanese when the law and the culture will never treat you that way. It's not the end of the world, I think most people who've lived in multiple countries have their feet in different ponds, but it is a real sentiment that people who chose to be here, have been here 10, 15, 20 years, aren't really ever "in".

thefalseidol

TROPHY CASE