Maybe the evidence is anecdotal, but I've lived in Korea for 20 years, and there's always a huge new, self-contained apartment complex going up nearby. If anything, they've ramped up production in that time. While older population centers are left to decline. Maybe not in Seoul which is shoulder-to-shoulder apartment complexes already, but the smaller cities are full of decaying apartment complexes since they put them up, then completely fail to maintain them as they know their market is full of people who will move into the next complex since "gotta have the latest and greatest" is a problem here.

30 here

Get back to me when you're creeping up on fifty.

Truthfully, I have mixed results when it comes to drinking these days. Sometimes, it's fine. I drink a few beer, get a nice buzz and wake up totally fine. It's really only once or twice I had the situation I mentioned above where I hardly drank anything and woke up hungover anyway. In those cases, I didn't chug a bunch of water because I assumed since I wasn't feeling the effects at all, I'd be fine. If I am buzzed or verging on drunk, then I will chug a liter or something. Though for me, it's 50/50 on whether that prevents a hangover. I don't like those odds. It just seems more and more like the short buzz and euphoria it brings more and more often isn't worth the chance of ruining the next day. Especially given how much shittier your system gets at handling this stuff as you get older.

I am not out of shape either.

Back in the good old days, video games (like all other media) was an art form

Remember arcades? I love video games, but there's always been a scummy element pumping out games designed to make cash foremost alongside the actual works of art. There are also still plenty (mostly indie now) of developers making games for the sake of gaming, but the schlock peddlers have gotten very good at their jobs, too.

Right before the show really took off, too. Oopsy!

I could reliably get through this level by switching out turtles when they got low on health. My problem was that then I was in the next level with a bunch of nearly-dead turtles. I never did beat the whole game until years later when I could use an emulator and save states.

Good thing we're also filling the sea with plastic. Maybe by the time the polar ice caps are gone, we can replace coastal land with large plastic flotillas.

Whatever. Rivers and co haven't written a great song since the Blue Album anyway.

Near where I grew up there are these caves on a cliff side on the ocean. At the right time of day, the tide is such that the water rushes in and creates these amazing subsonic booms. You can't hear them, but if you go down one of the walkways into the side of a cave, you can feel it. It's crazy. Probably a similar thing.

Have to or not, Koreans definitely favor apartments. There are western style houses here, and they're just not as popular as apartments. Which is great. I'm living in a house that's quite a bit bigger than a similarly priced apartment.

I beat the shit out of Godskin Noble today. Took me about ten tries. At least three of those, he had a sliver of life left and cheesed me in a corner with his roll attack. I was livid. Like, the angriest I've ever been at a video game. Damn Elden Ring has some cheesy bosses.

The time I beat him, I was so calm. Just slowly chipping him down to nothing. BLAM. Dead. It felt so good. Nothing beats beating a hard boss in a Soulsbournekiro game.

abstract sound art

I suppose that would get straight to the eye-rolling and skip the confusion.

He wasn't a scammer. He fell on hard times. I bought a few things before that from him without issue.

It sucked for me, yes, but I'm a foreigner in Korea who has hardly mastered the language. Taking him to court would have been a huge hassle for me and probably involve hired translators. I'm not even entirely sure it's possible given the legal system here isn't exactly friendly towards non-natives. The apology was more than I expected.