It was a blog about my life and adventures as an expat in Seoul, South Korea. I've been back in the USA for over ten years. However, I still get alerts. I'll respond to comments and deep-six spam comments as needed.
graphic lifted from my favorite Twitter page right now @the_swine_flu
Update: May 18, 2009
Okay, strike all of that. I'm watching AC360 and Dr. Gupta is on. It seems that ALL of the cases of death in the USA have victims with underlying chronic conditions. So, um, nevermind. __________________________________
Update: April 30 @ 11:37pm
Interesting. Time.com has a piece about the first known victim of the H1N1 virus. Although, some are saying those with compromised immune systems might get through this, the first victim had diabetes. Now since the first victim had diabetes, are blunt Amy and Dr. Gupta correct about fragile immune systems being less at risk or are our fragile immune systems poised to have the same strong reactions to this virus?
Now the writer doesn't say what type of diabetes she had. Honestly, I doubt the person who wrote this has enough knowledge to know that probably matters. I say that because I don't know how many times I say "I'm diabetic" and the person I'm speaking to doesn't know the difference between insulin dependent and non-insulin dependent diabetes. I don't expect your average person to know, but I'd like people writing articles on this to have a bit of a clue.
So I'm putting it out there. First, my condolences to her family, but variant of diabetes did this she have? That might matter (and might make me take this post down...and I've never done that before.)
Okay, the strike through code completely corrupts the rest of the page, so another way to keep this up as an act of contrition for posting something inaccurate is to just change the color. It's in white. If you want to read it, highlight it. But it's factually inaccurate. She totally put it in a blunt way in how she said it, but she said it and that got me on the research path to verify it.
The absolute last thing you want to do is strengthen your immune system. Does no one know anything about immunology on here before they start spouting? The 1918 flu (the closest thing we have to the current virus) induced a cytokine storm in mouse models. ie it is the immune response to the virus that will kill you, NOT THE VIRUS. This means that young healthy, fully immunocompetent people are the people who will experience the cytokine storm to it's full extent, and ultimately die. Younger people without a fully challenged immune system, people who are immunosupressed (yes, diabetics etc) are much more likely to survive. Not many older individuals will even show symptoms. This is going to be a young and healthy persons problem. Read up on things before you get the immunosupressed community having MI's please.
I verified it here. Dr. Sanjay Gupta from CNN basically says the same thing:
CNN: Sanjay, one question that we haven't gotten to ... most of the people who died from swine flu in Mexico were in the prime of their lives really, and this usually hits infants or the elderly. What does that say to you as a doctor?
Gupta: This is interesting. And the same thing happened in sort of a nonintuitive way when we were talking about SARS and when we were talking about avian flu.
Think about it like this: Typically, you think of someone who has a weakened immune system, who's going to be most adversely affected by an infection. Their immune system simply can't fight it.
But in these cases, it's the immune system itself that reacts robustly, and it's the immune system in that reaction to the virus that is causing death in these patients. So the virus starts that cascade, but all that fluid builds up in the lungs, and all those inflammatory cells throughout the body -- that's what's causing the problem. We saw the same thing with SARS and with avian flu as well.
Which is why exactly as you said ... [people in their] 20s and 30s and 40s, this hospital behind me, they say that's been the bulk of their patients with regard to swine flu.
She's right. I'm no longer paranoid and will be handing out N95 masks at my local airport.
This is a great blog post. I discovered it on Twitter. Thanks to Questlove from The Roots for posting the link.
I won't comment too much on it as it brings the point home all on its own.
However, the point of it is what a lot of people simply refuse to get and acknowledge. It's flat out obvious when you're judged based on your skin color. It happened to me in South Korea, but it wasn't as negative there for me for some reason. I can't articulate the difference, but, for me, there is one.
What's interesting is when it happens to me here in the States. I'm nice and law-abiding. I'm educated and moderately multilingual (acknowledging that I'm not fluent in anything but English but can get by in a few languages at this stage.) I've traveled pretty far and wide and, in general, I'm simply not a threat to anyone. However, I'll be on mass transit and people will choose to stand rather than sit next to me. Sometimes that's because they're only going one stop, but other times, you can't help but notice how quickly they sit down somewhere else on the bus when a seat opens up.
I don't let it stress me, but I do notice it. It's not like it didn't happen when I lived here years ago. It's just that when it does happen, it's pretty obvious what's going on. I also think it's funny to see people reach for their bags when the fact is that I'm ore concerned about the contents of my bag being stolen than snatching someone's bag. I'm the one carrying the Blackberry, iPod and a laptop. It's interesting. Yes, the comic shows the judging comes from both sides. Neither side is 100% innocent in this.
I agree with Millsie, the person who posted it, that it's a goofy story. I'll add that is full of stereotypes. For example, Lois sounds white...um, okay. I know plenty of blacks that do too. However, the point remains.
There is progress, but it's nowhere near fast enough for my liking. Nowhere near.
BTW, it's best to click over to the Cartoons and Comic Books blog. Boo!
I had to reduce the size of the pictures significantly to get the full pages on my blog. So either you can click on each picture one by one or just click over and read them all. Plus, they deserve the traffic for this. Lois Lane - I Am Curious (Black)!
Posted by Millsie on November 21, 2008
Comic books sometimes try to be important and make a statement about some social issue of the day. This sort of thing was all the rage in the earlier 70s when you had some very good stories such as those in Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams’ Green Lantern/Green Arrow series. This story that I featured is from Lois Lane 109 and was written by Robert Kanigher. It is a well meaning but very goofy story if I may say so myself.
BTW, I have to say that Lois looks hawt as a sista.
Yes, if you look on the sidebar of my blog, I've been sending out tweets like gangbusters. It happens when you're trying to deny that you're no longer just transitioning but are officially unemployed ;) However, the big move east will happen soon, and in the spirit of "it's rarely let me down before" optimism, I blame my unemployment on that.
However, in the meantime between doing some part-time research for a reporter in NYC (yes, I'm doing something) and looking for something full-time, I get distracted by Twitter.
Earlier today, someone I'm connected to sent out a tweet about what she's not doing at her job. Well, speaking of work, I don't know if that's the wisest tweet to send out. Twitter feeds into the search engines almost immediately. In fact, if I want to find a tweet and can't remember who did it, I'll run a Google search and I almost always find it in the top few search results. (That's exactly how I found the link back to Kawasaki's tweet.)
Twitter places very high in searches people. It's only a matter of time before waves of "busted on Twitter" stories start happening just as the "busted on Facebook" stories, like this or this one, and other social media sites started making headlines.
Maybe it's the fallout of a talk show culture. My generation was around when talk shows were a dime a dozen on TV. Now the Internet provides a platform for people to do the same thing without having to get vetted by a talk show producer and, if selected, spilling your guts in front of a studio audience. Instead, with social media there is no vetting required. All you need is a computer and an Internet connection and then you can do the same. However, when you do, just remember that, just like with TV, anyone can see it.
Click over and check some of these out. This site just started a few days ago and already there are some where you just shake your head and wonder why someone has the need to share that much. I wonder how many are jokes and how many are serious?
These are just a few. Click over to the site for plenty more ;)
I was on a bus from NYC to Philly. The bus had wifi but wouldn't let me load the USstream.tv website. Odd. Anyway, here it is for those of us who didn't get to see it.
Ashton doing a ding dong ditch. Of course, he had to change it up because you can't just walk up to Ted Turner's front door ;)
If the video doesn't come up either just watch the YouTube one below or run a search for "Harry Potter" and it will come up in the cue.
Also, it's the Hulu.com version. If you're not in the States, it won't work. That completely sucks. I hated that before I moved back to the States, but that's how it is :(
I got the video link to this yesterday. Someone asked me if I knew about it. Outside of my first year in South Korea, I never got in the habit of watching Korean TV shows. Plus, when this was all getting stirred up I was getting ready to move and when she was on the show I was back in the States.
This is the background story. There is a San Francisco based singer songwriter who goes by the name of PumaShock. Her real name is Natalie White. She's also a black American. She started putting up videos of her singing some of her favorite Korean pop songs: Natalie's YouTube Channel. Koreans took notice. There was a scandal when Taeyeon from a group called Girls' Generation said something like Ms. White was pretty for a black girl. (video link) Oooops! I'm not even going to touch that because after years of living in it I will get angry if I dwell on it. Plus, it's hard to get into someone's head. Maybe it was an innocent faux pas or maybe she is a blockhead. Either way, Ms. White is the focus here.
Anyway, it worked out for Ms. White that she got on Star King and seems to be on a marvelous PR junket in Seoul. She's meeting people in entertainment and, since that's what she wants to do, I say good on her. Here are the videos of her appearance on Star King.
Okay, I'm back in San Francisco. After flying down to L.A. to attend the One Splendid Evening concert and sail off on the the Mayercraft Carrier the next day and then staying behind after the cruise to spend some time in my hometown, I think I only managed to loose one thing. I have a glucose meter that is MIA, but 1) I'm pretty sure I know where I left it and 2) I've got two back-up meters.
In terms of the people, one of my roommates from last year roomed with me again. That was fun. I also ran into tons of people that I clicked with last year and ignored the ones that I didn't ;)
I think the best moment for me was waking up in Cabo San Lucas, opening the window and looking straight out on the arches of Land's End. I know, I'm supposed to say something like "being on a cruise with John Mayer!!!" Yes, that was great, but the view that morning was priceless. I'm sure even Mr. Mayer won't be mad at me for ranking a great view as the best part. However, it was a weekend of many great moments.
I only had one truly negative moment. On Tuesday after the cruise, I was on the shuttle heading back to LAX to pick up a rental car. I'd put at least two bags of stuff I'd bought in Cabo San Lucas in the overhead bin along with a box of stuff from the OSE concert. What that meant was it was going to take me a few moments pulling, twisting and tugging to get situated and get off of that bus. I turned to the woman waiting behind me and told her she could go past me if she liked. Don't you know I heard her say as she got off the bus something about how that lady was trying to "rush" her off the bus.
Um, no, you silly cow.
I was saying she could just go around me because I didn't want to hold her up. I was offended because my intention was to be nice. But when people expect to get shit from you, it usually doesn't matter what your intention is, they're going to get shit.
I did think it was funny to be in Mexico and to see things like the Hard Rock Cafe and little cantenas blasting rock n' roll. This isn't a criticism. It was my first time there. Of course, since I loved Van Halen way back when (still do), I knew about Cabo Wabo too. I didn't bother to go in though.
I understand the sort of tourist they're catering to, and that's the reason for Cabo's success. It's about traveling to a resort town and lounging in the sun. "Authentic" would not be the feeling I got from being in Cabo. But sometimes authentic 1) is overrated and 2) isn't want you want. Sometimes people just want to relax somewhere with the creature comforts that they're used to.
Cabo seems the perfect place for that. In fact, that's exactly what I did. I got off the ship, shopped a bit, hired a pedi-taxi take me along the main drag for more shopping and a beer (thanks Gregorio!) and that was it. Then it was back to the ship because, as usual, I was up way late and was exhausted. I slept through the afternoon until the roar of the ship's engines woke me up.
It was lots of fun, lots of music, lots of dancing and, if I can manage it, I'll be back for next year's cruise. I'll be posting all the other blogs I find on it over on The Mayercraft Chronicles. The first post courtesy of the TryJM site is up and more shall follow. However, now I want lunch.
(Just like last year, I'm making no claims to originality; I'm just compiling all the blogs I find in one spot. The goal: I'm trying to help make info easy to find.)
I'm an L.A. native who lived in the Land of the Morning Calm, South Korea, for a bit too long. I had a great time while I was there. I have a B.A. and law degree, but I earned a master's in international studies at Ewha Womans University. It was then I discovered that I love writing, thanks to this blog, and the things that grew out of writing it. For those who need to know where Korea is located. Korea is a peninsula that is split into two countries (North Korea and South Korea). It's located in NE Asia between Japan and Taiwan. It's below the eastern coast of China and Russia.
I moved back from NYC in 2011. It was exciting but definitely challenging. I "made" it in NYC and well, as the song says.
I'm back in the SF Bay area now. I have led the charge organizing SFTech4Good Meetup since 2011 and working in the tech industry specializing in community management and customer advocacy.
Leave a comment to contact me. Remember you have to include your email for a reply. (I screen my comments, so I won't publish it to the world, don't worry.)