Met Sangchul

Last night at the Hongik Univ. area.
Then went to Itaewon (JJ Marian)
Talked much and drank much.

He was carrying with him a book named "High Fidelity" written by Nick Hornby.

These kinds of men, this kind of man, these kind of men

• fusty=musty=hackneyed
• square A with B: harmonize A with B
• follow from = come from=be caused by
• benchmark=indicator

a degree is not necessarily the benchmark of a good education

• There has been some progress over the last ten years, but nowhere near as much as could have been achieved. =but the progress is nowhere near as much as (the progress that) could have been achieved.
• The economic losses of educational underperformance are significantly higher than the costs of the financial crisis.
• Simply spending more on education doesn't yield better results.
• The huge resources now being spent to create elite schools would be better used for expanding and improving engineering programs at unflashy polytechnics.
• Largest returns on investment come not from funneling more money toward top or even average performers, but toward those who have been left behind.
• Lower crime rates, fewer welfare payments,as well as better integration of minorities and immigrants.
• ghettoize: round stg up into a ghetto
• based on folk wisdom
• The event served as a wake-up call to space planners.
• keep count=continue counting
• opprobrium=smudge=negative image
• engineers are noodling the idea of building lasers... = producing
• China, a place once synonymous with concubines and bound feet...
• work on an equal footing with men= on equal terms with
• massage parlors
• resistance to hiring women of childbearing age has become widespread
• Signs of patriarchal attitudes abound
• these kind of men (old style)= men of this kind. ★Modern style: this kind of man or these kinds of men

bending themselves into pretzels trying to ...

• put up a good fight: 선전하다.
• deign /dein/ to V = condescend to V
• pony up = pay money
• Why not charge people to use these sites?

• bend oneself into a pretzel, bend themselves into pretzels (trying to V)

=try very hard to do something but end up being in a ridiculous (pitiful) situation.

Why not charge people to use these sites? If the service is so useful, surely people would pay. Nevertheless, the prevailing wisdom in Silicon Valley today is that everything on the Internet must be free. Enslaved by this dogma, tech companies keep bending themselves into pretzels trying to invent ways to "monetize their traffic," as they say in Valley-speak. Maybe they'll charge companies that monitor Facebook and Twitter to see what customers are saying about them.

• pillory=ridicule
• with one foot out the door=almost out
• a bevy of=a group of
• tableau=dramatic scene
• unwieldy=difficult to handle
• weatherize=make stg. (a house) dull to weather changes
• dust-bowl=dry
• Declaring the stimulus a failure five months after its passage is a little like calling the results of a marathon at the second-mile marker.
• unadulterated=pure, complete

the New Deal was an unadulterated failure

Forget the Great In Britain

http://www.newsweek.com/id/209953

-bills come due on Britain's role in last year's financial meltdown

-the sun that once never set on the British Empire

-History has been closing in on Britain for some time.
--> The good time is coming to an end

-Britain's geopolitical default setting would no longer be to automatically follow America's lead.
-->the basic principle (no-brainer strategy)

-at its apogee
-->at its climax (from which it will decline)

-feels like an anchor.
-->feels like an anchor around its neck (something that is causing the problem)

The global recession has hit virtually every country, but Britain more than most. The great engine room of British prosperity, the financial sector, now feels like an anchor. Britain has slipped into deflation—a decline in general price levels—for the first time in 50 years.

Visiting Jikji Culture Park

As the name Jikji tells, this park sits adjacent to Jikji Temple in Gimcheon. The play facilities for children were great. The artificial multi-stage waterfalls and fountains, along with the gigantic wooden totem poles, "The Great General Under Heaven" (天下大將軍) and "The Female General Under Ground" (地下女將軍), make for the richness of the park. Most of all, the area is isolated well away from cities' pollution.

On leaving, I saw a "temple stay" banner put up at the entrance of the temple. These days, "temple stay" appears on TV quite often, whether in the form of advertisement or as part of stories, exclusively featuring foreigners to Korea. But on the banner I saw, which is also a sort of advertisement, no word was observed indicating that it was targeting foreigners. So, I wish to join a temple stay at Jikji Temple to find my "true self amongst the harmony of nature."

Blogger + Mobile color mail

I can leave messages with attachments of photos or videos directly from my mobile. In case of an emergency or when there's something too important to forget, that would be very useful.

This was sent via email

Testing this.


Regards, Jongho Kim

up to scratch

up to scratch
at an acceptable standard or quality We're giving him a week to bring the team up to scratch.

Usage notes: often used in the form not up to scratch: I'm afraid your last essay wasn't up to scratch.

Related vocabulary: on a par with somebody/something