Happy Humpday Haiku #33/Views Ed. 7

October 09, 2014

Happy Humpday Haiku #33/Views Ed. 7

Deadlines

Whether imagined,

Real, or arbitrary,

They're no fun to miss.

So a bit of an apology is necessary, along with an explanation as to why this post is now just under 23 hours late. Many schools in Korea received the day off for the national holiday, Hangul Nal. The day commemorates King Sejong's establishing the Korean alphabet in 1446AD. Aside from people having the day off, nothing special happens except for the stray parade or cultural events in public places. But I'm all for promoting literacy, so I celebrated according to my own dictum of debauchery seeing as how I had no reason to be up early the following day. And that is why this is coming to you late.

I started this as a promise to produce one haiku per week reflecting on my daily life here. More basic than that, I started it just to started producing again. It had been a long time since I had written anything since graduating, and so I thought this would allow me the opportunity to be as continuous with my writing as I had been while taking classes. Missing this arbitrary and self-imposed deadline is mildly annoying; not at the time restriction itself, but rather towards me, for not having been able to fulfill such an arbitrary and simple thing in the first place. There's a sense of low-level disappointment and doubt of self-worth when you can't keep unimposing promises to yourself.

And now, I'm starting to realize perhaps that's exactly why one puts restrictions on oneself, why we (I) make an effort to keep ourselves under scrutiny for not doing as well as we would have liked (or for not doing anything at all); because no one wants the shame and embarrassment involved with being unable to fulfill your commitments ( I don't think).

And on that note, here are some pictures that I've managed to snap off since my last edition of views. The involve a weekend trip to Jinju and Namhae, where I saw some Korean style bullfighting, a lantern festival, and an Oktoberfest. Also some random pictures from school birthdays or school related events. Enjoy: