Sizzling Seoul

It's hot.

And by hot, I mean I feel like the Wicked Witch of the West melting in my own sweat. But I can't tell if it's sweat or condensation from the humidity that saturates the air. There are large drops of sweat rolling down my back in a slippery, obnoxious march and it makes it difficult to buy clothes because everything has to hide the little saltwater soldiers. Tears run from my eyes because sweat gets in them. My eyelashes are like the eaves of the Korean houses I walk by on my way to work with a micro monsoon sending sweat down to my cheeks. Makeup, needless to say, is a useless venture, although I don't own anything but foundation, eyeliner, mascara, and lip gloss that doubles as chap stick.

I'm Not in Singapore

For some reason, my work computer always sends me to the Singapore homepages for email, Blogger, Wordpress, etc. I keep up a blog about medical things for my customers, although I don't think they ever read it. I was hoping they would read the news articles carefully selected for neurologists and psychiatrists and discuss them with their colleagues as a way of improving their English. Korean doctors are keen on improving their English because they want to communicate more easily at overseas conferences and with foreign patients.

But, my home computer always sends me to the Korean sites. I wonder why this is?

I realized that I don't know anything about how the internet works except that it's a lot like a brain. Electrical signals are transmitted from computer (neuron) to computer (neuron) to receive and respond to stimuli. But where do these signals start? Where do they stop? Where are things actually stored? If we turned off (starved) every computer (neuron) in the world at the same time, would the data (memories) be lost or preserved?

Toastmasters CC#1 I'm a Person, Too!

This was my first Toastmasters speech, which is similar to some posts I made a long time ago saying that I wish people would stop staring, or that I was beautiful and smart and perfect and- wait that's what they're making me think! 
Icebreaker speech: "I'm a person, too!"

Good morning fellow toastmasters and welcome guests. Is anyone here a giraffe? A robot? A person? Aha! My name is Kristin and I'm a person, too. 

"Read More" on New Posts

Because there are a lot of posts on this blog, I'm going starting to put the "Read More" option on posts. That means that the post on the front page is not the full post; it's just the beginning. You can choose to read the whole post if something looks interesting. This way the front page will be cleaner and shorter.
-Kristin

Toastmasters CC#3 Anger Management

I have joined Toastmasters International. At first I went because my boyfriend is an active member, but now I've found it to be very good for my mental health and social skills, and having a place to give speeches that aren't presentations about how to give a presentation is nice. So I'll post my speeches here, not necessarily in order. CC means Competent Communicator, which is the first manual with 10 projects. The speech I'll write below was my 5th project, and I chose to make it an entertaining speech about anger management. I hope it's as effective in writing, or maybe more because I won't leave anything out.

  The escalator carries a mass of noisy people pushing and hitting each other slowly down the looooong slanted corridor as I take one step after another down the endless stairs.

  I've always been afraid of stairs, especially going down, because I imagine a different way to die with each step. But lately I'm more scared of the escalator. Of myself on the escalator. Of the way I want to push people down it because nobody in this city has any manners. 

  Can't they see that I'm fighting a rage hotter than a furnace that pushes against my chest and the backs of my eyeballs? Can't they see that if they push me on the subway one more time, I might finally break?

  I take another step down the endless stairs at Konkuk University Station and try to think of anything other than pushing that skinny girl in kill heels who looks like she forgot to wear pants today down the stairs.