The Grand Narrative at Two

( Source: RaySoda )

It feels like much longer, and I genuinely can’t remember what I used to do with my time before I had it, but for what it’s worth, Thursday marked the second birthday of The Grand Narrative™. So, for those of you that are interested, here’s a meta post to let you know my plans for it and how I think it’s doing, and I’d really appreciate any feedback on what you think I’m doing right or wrong. If you’re not, and I can understand the navel-gazing element to it (the image above was meant to convey “two” by the way, but come to think of it…), then feel free to skip over it. And never fear, for the last such post was 6 months ago, and the next one will be at the end of December again.

Let’s start with the basics: based on the last 4 weeks, I get an average of about 1600-1700 visitors a day according to StatCounter, and according to WordPress.com that this blog is hosted at I get an average of 2300 hits. But, lest those figures sound high, they are essentially meaningless as gauges of the quality of my writing or ability to choose interesting topics, for a good 200-400 of those visitors are either looking for nude photos of 14 year-old girls or the definitive word on Lee Hyori’s breasts, and yet another 200 or so for images titled “fuck,” which apparently this blog ranks at #6 in the world for (yes, it took me by surprise too). While that 734,000 figure on my right as I type this certainly looks good then, I shouldn’t let it get to my head.

Unfortunately, I do, and especially when I haven’t written a post for a few days I’m prone to publish a post almost as soon as I’ve finished writing it, even though I know perfectly well that the next day I’ll find numerous editing mistakes, several irrelevant side-arguments, and/or my main point expressed so incoherently that even I have trouble understanding it. So I’ll go on to edit the post, perhaps even removing up to 800 words from something that was originally 2500, and if that sounds unbelievable coming from me…well, that’s precisely my point, for naturally enough over 90% of my readers would only ever read the inferior original. Not to imply that you’re foolish or misguided(!) for still liking my posts despite only ever seeing the first drafts of them, but seriously, considering how often I’m cringing at what I first wrote then sometimes I wonder how I have any readers at all…

( Source: Unknown )

Writing more frequently and about more topical news items isn’t helping either, but I will try to restrain myself in future. And like fellow blogger Brian said, your number of subscribers is probably the best indication of how good your blog is, so I’m happy to take comfort in my number at Google Reader, at least, doubling in the last 6 months (297 as I type this). Speaking of which, I still won’t be changing to a full RSS feed sorry, for with all my pictures and so on then my posts really look terrible on Google Reader.

Other than that, some other minor issues:

- First, for a blog ostensibly about gender, advertising and popular culture then posts on the latter are only noticeable for their absence. So, albeit admittedly not for the first time,  I’m hoping to start rectifying that by having a weekly film review starting next week, which dovetails well with some Korean study goals I have.

- Next, there are my increasingly nonsensical categories, for it’s a rare post that couldn’t conceivably have been included in 8 or more of the 20 I have up there. In my defense, they did make sense when I last rearranged them a year ago, and one problem with being hosted at WordPress.com is that changing them involves manually editing every post to do so…all 29o of them. Naturally, after I think of what I’m going to do with them exactly (suggestions?), it’s going to take me a little while then.

- Another time-consuming issue is comments, for with so many posts being on timeless issues so to speak, then although the most recent post may not be all that popular on any particular day I frequently wake up to a dozen or more on old ones, and my wife not unreasonably complains when I’m still replying to them 2 hours later without having actually written anything (this ties in to prioritizing my time too – see later). Naturally I’m not saying that I don’t want them, or that I’m going to stop replying…I’m just saying. Apologies for those of you that have emailed me recently too, and I am slowly getting back to you!

- As well as rushing to publish, another big problem of mine is moving on to new topics before finishing others, and as I type this I have at least four series of posts in limbo. Story of my life actually, for as an undergraduate student I always loved researching an essay topic and then making various realizations about it, but then disdained doing the hard work of actually writing the essay! Of course, that is probably the most important part of the process – as a high school teacher taught me, if you can’t explain something to someone else then you don’t really understand it yourself – and so again, I’m working on it.

- Before I forget, let me draw your attention to the fact that I’m on Twitter, with my updates available on the right. If you’re not into it, then I understand, and I don’t follow anyone who thinks I’d be interested in what they’re having for breakfast or every inane thought that goes through their head either. But I’ve come to learn it’s value as a networking tool and a source of information, and in the latter vein most of my “tweets” are links to interesting things gender, sexuality and/or Korea-related and so on that I’ve come across but that I can’t write about, either because they’re too off-topic or (more likely) because I don’t have the time.

- Finally, not so minor are changes I’ll be making to my “Korean Feminist Reader” posts. As they’re always either late or skipped entirely, then I’ll be doing them in the same minimalist format that they’re done at Feministing from which I took my inspiration for them from now on (a nod to The ROK Drop’s “Weekly Linkets” also though). Sorry if you liked them how they were – they are usually quite popular – but they took an inordinate amount of time and work in the style they were in, and when it became apparent that writing them dependably each week would mean there’s only 3 or even 2 posts in between each one…then that format isn’t really appropriate for a blog like this one. But now I’ll be able to write  both more news-related posts and add much more of my own commentary to them too.

(Update: I later changed the name of all of those “Korean Feminist Reader” posts to “Korean Gender Reader“ ones instead)

Expanding on that last point, one additional problem with the old format was that the posts primarily consisted of me linking to other people’s stuff. Now of course, I do want my blog to be helpful as possible for understanding Korean gender and sociological issues and so forth, and if others have written on subjects that I haven’t then it’s not like I’m going to pretend that they don’t exist(!) but still, I should always err on the side of providing my own original content.

Why? Well, naturally enough, I do love researching and writing for the sake of it – seriously, I get very frustrated if there’s a day I don’t do the latter especially – but: when I have four people to look after on one income; no savings whatsoever; seem jinxed when it comes to getting university jobs (I failed an interview last week primarily because of the incompetence of the secretary that arranged it) and so find myself usually being a clown for Korean kids just to put food on the table; and literally have no time for any other hobbies, then far from being cynical or calculating, concentrating my writing efforts on those things which promote myself ultimately make me a much more responsible husband and father!

( Source: ez3kiel )

With that in mind, and winding this post up, after a lot of thinking and discussion with friends and other bloggers, writers and academics this spring (and some who are all four!),  I’ve made the decision to try and become a full-time freelance writer within the next 3 years. Bad timing I know, but I’ve done my research, and it is possible, even with my burdens literally staring me in the face every time I want to write (my 3 year-old has jumped on my lap and is playing with my nose as I type this {again}, and my now mobile 8 month-old is standing by holding my leg and is doing her darnedest to climb up and join her sister). Having said that, it will be a lot of work, and even decent non-paying magazines and internet sites and so on require a big portfolio before they’ll consider looking at your submissions! So, I have made some quite detailed writing plans to allow me to submit pieces to minor ones at the rate of about 1 a month from now on (given all the above, and blogging, then any more would be a pipedream, yes?), with the aim of writing a piece or even being a columnist for this site by the end of the year, after which I don’t think I’ll have any problem getting paying editors to look at my work.

On a final note, and thanks for bearing with me (hey, I warned you!), I’d really appreciate any help with finding either a university job, part-time work teaching adults, and/or something out of ESL altogether. Unfortunately though, given the precarious state of my family’s finances and all the positives of living in Busan (for my children, let alone myself), then it would have to be an exceptionally interesting and/or well-paying job to convince us to move.

How to Get Ahead in Korea…

While I wouldn’t go so far as to include it in my “Creative Korean Advertising” series, this advertisement certainly did get my attention when it was in the form of the entire back page of today’s Korea Times, and not just because I have a shaved head myself! Click on it for a full-size image, and you’ll soon see what I mean.

Meanwhile, apologies for the lack of posts recently, but my father-in-law literally fell off a cliff last weekend, and had to be taken by helicopter to the closest hospital. He’s okay (ish), but he’ll be in hospital for a long time, and with my wife going back and forth to her hometown to see him, my looking after the children while she does, and all my other work and paid writing commitments, then my blogging plans for this week have lost out to my getting a whole 5 hours of sleep a night I’m afraid(!). But blogging-wise at least, things should be back to normal within a couple of days.

Korea is a Conservative Country: Redux

Sorry for the delay, but my article for the Korea Times – my big news – is finally in today’s paper. The subject is loosely how Korea’s reputation as a conservative country is very outdated, that advertisements are a good reflection of its rapidly changing sexual mores, and that…well, there wasn’t too much else to say that could be fit into the 800 word limit (but which naturally I slightly overdid)! Nothing new in there for regular readers then, but the editor has hinted that the better the response it gets, the more likely I will get my own regular column, so *cough* please do go on to read it regardless.

One minor complaint with the KT’s editing is having all my italics replaced by quotation marks in it – they’re not quite the same – and I don’t find the choice of title particularly eye-catching either. But on the other hand, not a word was changed from the original, which is probably quite rare, and I’m rather enjoying being paid to write for a change.

Seriously though, I won’t put my foot in my mouth again by giving a specific date for future articles, but naturally I’ll let you all know as soon as they’re up.

The poster, by the way (source), is for the 2004 Movie S-Diary (에스다이어리), which was considered pretty raunchy when it came it out, but would be very tame by today’s standards. Just like I mention in the article, things change very quickly in Korea, and at the risk of sounding like I’m merely ingratiating myself with new Korean readers, that is one of the fascinating things about the place. It’s good to remind oneself every now and then.

Update 1: Before I forget, I should give full credit to Sonagi for my point in the second last paragraph of the article, about revealing images of women being sexist by virtue of the sheer weight of them, and the same tired women-sexually submissive/men-dominant roles portrayed in most of them. I didn’t fully appreciate it at the time, but she had a point.

Update 2: Actually, I’ve just noticed that in the very first line(!) of my article the word “that” was removed from “…that such an impression can easily be forgiven”, ruining that sentence and hardly giving a great first impression of the remainder of the article either. Sigh. I don’t think I’ll read it again, lest I find any more editing mistakes…

Apologies and a Request

First up, my apologies for falling behind with responding to emails and comments and this week’s Korean Gender Reader (which I’ll post tomorrow and backdate to Monday), but the job which I planned to begin in two weeks has fallen through, leaving me in a desperate mad rush to find something else before the month ends.

Which brings me to my request: if readers know of any jobs teaching adults, editing, and/or out of the ESL field altogether, I’d be extremely grateful if you could pass on the details (contact me here). I can’t afford to be too picky, although for anything non-advancing and/or short-term I should really stay in Busan, and please bear in mind that I’ll have my wife and two daughters to provide for on my future income too. On the plus-side though, I doubt that any premature babies will scupper my employment plans this time round, unlike last August!

Yes, technically that’s not actually me in the picture sorry, but then I don’t want to scare off potential employers until the very last moment. And, I confess, the more I look at it the more I admire it, for you couldn’t really ask for a picture that better captures a sense of iron resolution and a mind and body entirely devoted to achieving its set goal. Apologies again then, if this sounds a little cliched, but here’s hoping that I can achieve a little of the same, for it’s definitely time to move on from this deadbeat job I’ve been doing for the last three years!

Update next day: And naturally having written that post, then my internet stopped working this morning! Just a quick note here from work to say thanks for all the help in your comments and emails then, but not being able to write it this morning then I’m going to have to flag that belated Korean Feminist Reader sorry. I’ll try to make up for it with a more in-depth one than normal next week.

( Image Source: Kitty Rouge )