I Really See You Upside Down

We have arrived!

2008-08-25T15:45:00.001-04:00

Hi all.

I just figured out that I get the internet in the apt. However, I can't plug in my computer to anything so it will probably die soon. Anyways, we are here. We got in at about 5:00 pm (korea time, 4:00 AM your time). My sweet brother met us at the airport and gave us some korean money and subway passes, and bought us coffee and made sure we got to the correct meet up place.
They told us that we will be going to orientation next week (Aug 31st - Sept 4th ?). They took us on a large bus to go meet our co-teachers at our school and then to our apartment. Our apt is AWESOME! Its really big...and it has an oven! I will send pictures of it later but just to give you an idea of how cool it is, there is a closet that takes up an entire wall in our bedroom, ceiling to floor. I know at least the girls can appreciate that. It has one bedroom, a big living room w/ kitchen a good sized bathroom and a big office. Plus we have a GREAT deck off the back (we are on the 4th floor). We are living in what is considered the international district in Iteawon (sp?), a province of Seoul. My school is in this same province and about a 10 - 15 minute walk from the house. Toby's school is in another district. He has to take the subway to school and we aren't sure how long it will take him to get there yet. He has to be at his school at 9:30 today for a meeting!! My teacher is picking me up at my house at 10:30 to go to school. I'm not sure what I will be doing today and neither is toby, but our co-teachers seemed really nice.

2008-06-29T21:29:00.001-04:00

Pinch me now b/c I think I have died and gone to heaven.

I can't wait to go to the land of 'lil koreans!!!

2008-06-13T16:35:00.002-04:00

off to the land of little koreans

2008-05-07T22:51:00.002-04:00

Toby and I got accepted to go teach in Korea this August. We are both really excited...and a little bit nervous. However, after I watched this video I think a great teaching tool: BACKSTREET BOYS!

2008-04-23T14:52:00.002-04:00

"Maybe it will tastes better this time. nooope. la-di-da, oooo, yum, what's that?"

WTF??

2008-04-22T21:39:00.004-04:00

In 2007, the 'artist' Guillermo Vargas Habacuc, took a dog from the street, tied him to a rope in an art gallery and began starving him to death.

For several days, the 'artist' and the visitors of the exhibition watched, emotionless, the shameful 'masterpiece' based on the dog's agony, until eventually he died.

Does THIS sound like art to you?

But this is not all... the prestigious Visual Arts Biennial of Central America decided that the 'installation' WAS actually art, so Guillermo Vargas Habacuc has been invited to repeat his cruel action for the Biennial of 2008.

STOP HIM!!!!!
Sign the petition:
http://www.petitiononline.com/ea6gk/petition.html

Here is another petition that is 2 million signatures strong. Please feel free to sign it as well:
http://www.petitiononline.com/13031953/petition.html

Please do it. It's free of charge, there is no need to register, and it will only take 1 minute to save the life of an innocent creature.

If you want to double check all the above information you can google the name of the 'artist' to read all about this terrible 'masterpiece'.

**News articles regarding this issue:
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Artist-Leaves-Dog-To-Die-on-Exhibition-Display-82091.shtml
http://luckybunnynyc.blogspot.com/2007/10/starved-dog-as-art-update.html
http://www.euroweeklynews.com/news/6831.html

here is a direct quote FROM THE 'ARTIST' himself!:
"I knew the dog died on the following day from lack of food. During the inauguration, I knew that the dog was persecuted in the evening between the houses of aluminum and cardboard in a district of Managua. 5 children who helped to capture the dog received 10 bonds of córdobas for their assistance. The name of the dog was Natividad, and I let him die of hunger in the sight of everyone, as if the death of a poor dog was a shameless media show in which nobody does anything but to applaud or to watch disturbed. In the place that the dog was exposed remain a metal cable and a cord. The dog was extremely ill and did not want to eat, so in natural surroundings it would have died anyway; thus they are all poor stray dogs: sooner or later they die or are killed."

Will's Famous

2008-04-14T00:50:00.000-04:00

knoxville blog : the sunsphere is not a wigshop: on fame and fortune

2008-04-04T14:55:00.000-04:00

So, if you know me at all then you know that I am madly and obsessively in love with Ben Folds. I love everything about him (except maybe that he has been divorced 3x and married 4 - but that means I still have a shot with him, right? I kid, I kid). If he produced an album where he just mumbled incoherently the whole time I would buy it and love it. Needless to say that I try to go see his concerts whenever he is around the southeast. I've even traveled as far as OH with Kate just to see this wonderful man.

Toby and I got an opportunity to see him at Berry College this past weekend. It was only open to students and alumni, but some friends of ours know a guy so we got tickets. The show, minus the lame audience, was awesome. Ben does a cover of a Dr. Dre (a rapper) song called "Bitches Ain't Shit." The song is gross and completely degrading to women - as is the majority of rap songs. Ben's cover, in my opinion, is meant to be completely ironic. The original version is a fast paced rap song while Ben's is slowed down and, if you didn't pay attention to the words, a really beautiful melody. He slows the song down and brings to focus what the song is actually saying and, in my opinion, poking fun at the rap industry. So, Berry college didn't want him to play the song because they obviously didn't get the irony that Ben is attempting. Supposedly he signed a contract with the college saying that if he played the song then he would forfeit $40,000 that he was to be paid. So, there we are rocking our faces off at his show and Ben starts talking about how he doesn't understand that anyone would take the next song he was about to play seriously and that it is meant to be ironic. Then he goes into his rendition of Dr. Dre's song. It was awesome. A big you-know-what to the man, if you will. Oh, how I do love Ben Folds.

Stop and smell the flowers

2008-04-02T14:24:00.001-04:00

We played darts on my birthday

You can also check out other random pictures I've taken with my NEW camera here.

2008-02-12T18:04:00.000-05:00

This is a pretty cool website. I got a 33% on the Faulker quiz. Ha, and I call myself an English major.

Hi. My name's Cara.

2008-02-11T19:06:00.000-05:00

I wish that I could meet me for the first time. I'm so used to thinking about me and about what I'm doing and I'm sick of it. I wish I could meet myself and take in everything objectively. I want to see all the strange mannerisms I do and see if I make people uncomfortable or if I am friendly. I want to know what I am really like. Everyone says it doesn't matter what other people think of you and that's true to a certain extant. But at the same time, how can you really love people if you don't know how they are perceiving you and the situation. I want to get out of my mind for a while and be in other peoples. I want to see how people see me and what my shortcomings are so that I can truly love people. I don't necessarily want to love people in the way that they want to be loved, but in the way they should and need to be. Maybe this isn't making any sense at all. I don't want to be a puppet for other people's needs, but to love them like Christ loves us - with all our worthless attributes and our myriad shortcomings and faults. This probably isn't completely possible, but I want to get as close to it as I can.

Ouch, Charlie

2008-02-08T14:27:00.000-05:00

If Toby and I talked in British accents around our kids all the time, do you think they would have one? We might have to experiment with that.

I love the way the little boy's face changes. You need to watch this more then once.

Becoming an obsession

2008-01-31T16:18:00.000-05:00

I found these cool bird photographers from Tiawan. Their shots are absolutely amazing. I think I would really like doing that. I want to learn more about birds. I think it would be really cool to be able to see a bird and know what it is and, also, to be able to know what it is by its song. I have been entering this Nikon camera contest (it ended today), and if I win the camera (completely doubtful), I want to start doing this. Here are a few pictures from that flickr sight.

Birds, Knives, and Cocoa Puffs

2008-01-29T19:22:00.000-05:00

Sorry about the lag in posting reader. I will try to do better in the future.

Toby and I (well, mostly Toby working and me directing...hey, I had homework) finally put some stuff up around the house to make it feel more homey. One of the things we put up was a shelf in our bedroom and I love it. It really transforms our bedroom from a "college student" room to "married couple" room. I took a few pictures to let you in all the shelffy glory:

and

It was pretty exciting to finally put up some home accents. We also put up some more pictures, a coat rack, AND curtains. All thanks to Toby really.

I am really into birds right now. I got a duvet cover for our wedding with birds on it:

and a friend of ours got us those cool bird bookends. They are pretty awesome as well.

To the knives. My brother keeps bugging me about getting my cats on this website . But if they are laying down sleeping and I come up to them they try and get in my lap. It's actually rather adorable, but not so good for trying to put stuff on them. However, for Christmas I got my dad the Winchester® Bowie Knife he asked for. It came on the day we were leaving to visit and as I was unpacking it I got a bit of a candid shot of Annyong

She did have her arm around it which was better, but by the time I found my camera the photo-op was practically over.

I think it was probably better left in her paws then in this mans:

or this ones:

I love Baltimore

2008-01-03T15:23:00.000-05:00

For Christmas Will got Toby and me the first season of "The Wire" TV series which is awesome. We got it last Saturday and I stayed in my pajamas until about 7:30 watching the episodes. When we finished the first season, we went out and bought the second one and we are slowly (trying to make them last) working our way through those. If you haven't seen the show, you should rent them, but watch out, they are addictive! (the show takes place in Baltimore)

Here is another reason I like Baltimore:

is she not hilarious and cute?? She's from Baltimore too!

Hilarious, and so true.

2007-12-07T15:20:00.000-05:00

For Will

2007-12-02T20:29:00.000-05:00

From this:

To this:

ANYONE WANT ONE OF THESE CUTE CRITTERS?! (seriously)

I have hit a nerve

2007-11-29T15:39:00.000-05:00

Excerpt from an email from my dad:

"I was wondering if it is possible ,if it is do-able, to substitue a more descriptive adjective(?) for the phrase 'HOLY CRAP' that may be more articulate to reflect the skill and knowledege [sic] an english major may have acquired after years of study and effort, to express the more sensitve and perceptive nuances of life to bring that acumen of awareness to such obtuse folks as myself?"

Gotta love him.

Completely Lacking but Deliciously Filled

2007-11-27T15:04:00.000-05:00

I stayed up practically all night (and morning) to finish a paper today. Thankfully I have motivation to get these papers done because after Monday are exams and then freedom (at least for a few weeks). For some reason whenever I don't get enough sleep -- enough meaning 3+ hours-- I crave McDonalds. I know, I know that McDonalds is an evil corporation with biohormones and all that jazz, but when I'm sleep deprived, I. DON'T. CARE. It is wonderfully delicious and just what I am craving. I stopped today and got a #1 (big mac meal) and I finished it before I even got home, ahhh contentment. What do you, my one faithful reader, crave when sleep deprived (besides coffee)?

Now I am off to sleep for a while before I have to get up to write more papers.

HOLY CRAP!

2007-11-22T12:27:00.000-05:00

one of my favorite artists, Sufjan, covering one of my other favorite artists, Innocence Mission = AWESOME

Be Smart

2007-11-14T00:34:00.000-05:00

The Fall and the Break

2007-11-08T10:57:00.000-05:00

This was the dance move I was doing. I typed in "old school dance moves" into the youtube search and I knew as soon as I saw the only one with a white guy in it that it would be the one.

(it is the second dance he does, and yes, he probably does it better than me which doesn't say much)

Told You So

2007-11-04T17:12:00.001-05:00

Like I said, life has been strange around here.

I broke my foot on Friday doing an AWESOME dance move (I'll try to find a youtube clip of the exact move). I am on crutches now with a huge cast on my leg. I'll try to post some pictures later.

Feeling Foul

2007-11-01T13:52:00.000-04:00

For some reason I am in a bad mood today...maybe lack of sleep. Toby and I have had a weird week so far. Including yesterdays adventures, Toby almost had his head blown off with a shotgun last night (okay, I am maybe exaggerating a little). He was in the garage working on an armoire and he walked outside thankfully turning left and heard a gunshot. He turned around and saw puffs of hair floating down. Apparently our neighbor shot a possum on the fence. Had Toby of turned right instead of left, it would have been his face.
The day before yesterday Toby came home to find a feral cat on our porch. He didn't know what was wrong with it and scooted around to come inside to find that our power had been turned off. He tried to call the electric company but they wouldn't give him any information because the account is in my name. When I got home, the feral cat was still on our porch and making strange noises. It looked like it might have gotten run over because it was having trouble walking but neither of us wanted to touch it because it was acting strange and for all we knew it had rabies. There is a cat lady 2 houses up that has about 15 cats that are constantly roaming around the neighborhood impregnating or being impregnated so we figured it was one of hers. I walked up the street to see if she was home and on discovering that she wasn't, asked the neighbor if she knew how to get ahold of her. We called her and she came and picked up her "precious kiki."
And apparently the electric co. had been sending our bill to a different address and had shut off our service.

All that to say, life has been a bit strange around here.

Happy Crap-O-Ween

2007-10-31T17:57:00.000-04:00

Today has been eventful to say the least. I woke up late this morning and rushed off to school to barely make it in time. Thankfully I got out of work early today (although that means working on Friday instead) to go home and start on a paper that's due tomorrow. I got home and began reading when Toby called and said his car had broken down. So off I went to go get him. When I got there, there were three people helping him: one guy her works with and two older men. On my way home from school, work, or whatever, there are always the same men sitting in lawn chairs on the side of the road in Alton Park. They just sit there all day (perfectly capable, handy men) drinking and smoking. It really makes me wonder where my tax dollars are going and who they are going too. Anyways...Toby broke down right in front of where the men always sit. One guy walks up to him and asks him if he has any money, insinuating that he would only help if Toby gave him cash...apparently you can't make money on kindness. So then a guy from work pulled up (who fortunately for us works on cars), he started helping and then the other guy began to "help," and when I say help, I mean he called over some other guy to come help while he stood there watching. When it was all said and done (and fixed) the guy looks over and asks us for 10 bucks!! Neither of us had any cash so we offered to by them a beer and a pack of smokes. Then he asks me why I can't just get cash at gas station! I mean come on!
So we finally get home and a few trick-or-treaters come and then our freaking cat runs up a tree. This is the second time in a week that she has gotten stuck in a tree. Last week she got stuck up the tree about 25 feet high and fell out just barely missing the drive way(by the way, cats don't always land on their feet, it's a myth). When we got home today after the car debacle, Annyong runs up the tree and won't come down. When we try to climb up a little and get her down she only climbs farther until she is about 35 feet up in the tree. Toby and I try to figure out what to do to get her down and toby comes up with this:

This is when Toby finally got up there and she wouldn't even come to him.

SUCCESS!

Our neighbor came out and started laughing and said she had never seen anyone rescue a cat from a tree before. I knew I married Toby for a reason.