Turtle: Origins

Okay, why did I get into blogs and blogging? It's kind of a disturbing story actually. When I first started researching teaching abroad, the first blog I came across about this subject matter was the Korea Life Blog by this guy named Shawn. I started reading it, and liked his writing style and food picture-heavy posts, so I went ahead and read his archives spanning back to prior his arrival in Korea. For close to 7 hours I was sitting in front of the comp, reading his blog from inception. As I got closer to current, I saw he was having issues with his girlfriend, and that he eventually left his position in Korea to move to China, where he started the China Life Blog. At this point, a week or so had passed from when I originally found Shawn's blog, and I was reading some comments on the Korea Life Blog, that hinted that Shawn's readers were upset and stating condolences and comments of that nature. I come to find out that a week or so after I had found KLB, and after reading a year's worth of posts, and basically getting to know and like this random english teacher in Korea/China, that Shawn, in a fit of depression, jumped off of his apartment building roof in China and killed himself.

I guess that's definitely kind of disturbing that this sparked my interest in blogs, because at that point, I realized the connection one can make with a generally anonymous and faceless audience, and sought out more blogs to read. Because as unfortunate any death is, a person I've never met before's death on the other side of the planet generally would have little to no effect on me, I mean people are dying every second, and I have no reaction to that knowledge, but through this medium, connections are forged and there is something to that I guess.

Wow, this post is kind of a drag, huh? Let's see.... in honor of Shawn, who was kind to stray cats in korea, is a picture to lighten the mood...