refocus

Wow, I want and need to stay on top of this blogging thing. I read several other blogs, pretty much everyday, and I know how I anticipate new stuff to read, so when I don't post new entries for 20 days, I realize how a potential regular reader (of which I doubt I have any at this point) might be put off or also be made to anticipate or grow impatient with me. If you do check my blog, sorry it's been awhile. I'd like to report that my life is terribly interesting, and I haven't had a spare moment to compose a post about my activities, but truly, my life is kinda dull at the mo, and though I've had spare time aplenty, what is lacking is subject matter.

As an exercise in focusing myself and my intentions for this blog, let me queue up some topics that I'd like to expand upon:
fresh and saltwater fish species of Korea,
ssirreum (shillim) aka traditional korean wrestling,
the intricacies of the F4 (korean heritage) visa,
perspective of a foreign-raised korean (gyopo) teaching in korea,
perspective of a hairy foreign-raised korean teaching in korea,
seriously, I'm pretty hairy and I wonder how people will react to that,
acquisition and learning how to play a haegum (traditional korean violin, similar to the chinese erhu),
calligraphy painting,
Infinity of Sound aka Infinite of Sound aka I.S. who play this:




well hopefully that embedded video works...

There's more I guess that I want to talk about, but I should get some school and IG (income generating) work done, so that's all for now....

2 lbs of lead and a 2nd degree burn later....

So I spent the last 2 hours casting 1 ounce egg sinkers out of lead that I reclaimed from the lead line of an old cast net. Even though they sell aluminum die 's that produce nicely rounded, perfect egg sinkers of various weights, the way I look at it, the whole point in casting my own sinkers is to save money, not shell out $40 on a fancy die, so I made a couple out of Fimo modeling clay.


The result is admittedly kinda crude, so instead of this:


I end up with these, which are not pretty, but serve the function of having mass and making my bait sink, admirably well:


If you're thinking about pursuing a similar venture in thriftiness (cheapness? stubbornness?) keep a few things in mind. First, lead is pretty toxic, so good ventilation is a great idea. Also, don't pick your nose, eat, smoke, or suck your thumb while dealing with lead, unless you enjoy trips to hospital or the accompanying possible side effect of crazy psychosis sometimes associated with lead toxicity. Second, molten lead is pretty hot (around 620 deg F hot) so heavy leather gloves and other precautions are probably a good idea as well. Third, mixing hot things with cold things does not turn out well, especially in the case of molten lead and slightly damp Fimo molds, which, in my personal experience, can result in an exciting display of molten lead flying and popping out of the mold, much like water thrown on an grease fire, resulting in this:

For a fairly stupid move on my part, I got out of it with relatively little damage, and now I know to heat my molds first, and make sure they're absolutely dry before pouring lead.