Writers

Featured Blog: The Truffle Shuffle Weakly

This month’s featured blog is an expose of one man’s life and worldview.  The Truffle Shuffle Weakly belongs to my good friend and Seoulmate, Bob, a.k.a. Tortmaster.  He’s sarcastic and extremely sharp witted, but he has a heart as big as Texas and is a very good natured guy.  He told me today that he’s planning to write about me (laced with sarcastic overtones, no doubt), so I thought I would beat him to the punch and appease him with soothing, kind words.  I hope that the conciliatory and laudatory tone of this blog entry will entice Bob to write something nice about me on his blog.  Will he?  Oh, probably not.  Considering that he just came over to our house tonight, and I served him homemade BBQ that he consumed vociferously as if he hadn’t eaten in days, I’m waiting and wondering whether the shoe will drop.  Nevertheless, I find it humorous even when his writing is merciless.  It’s just Bob. 
 
Bob has been living in Korea for about a year and will be here long after we’ve moved on to Paraguay.  (Yes, Bob, I’m aware that Paraguay is the only "guay" in the World Cup tournament, but I have a feeling that the Americans will also be making a quick exit tonight after Italy beats them.  The U.S. can’t even say it’s the only "United States" in the tournament.  After all, the United Mexican States, a.k.a. Mexico, advanced to the World Cup quarterfinals.)  Bob lives in Seoul, Korea with his wife Mzia and two beautiful children, Marian and Givi.  Bob and Mzia met when Bob worked in the Republic of Georgia, a former Soviet republic.  Mzia is from Tbilisi, Georgia, and she makes absolutely wonderful Georgian food.  Bob makes mean Tex-Mex food and offers a great respite from Taco Bell.  Meals at their home feature some of the best we’ve eaten in Korea (they also provide a much needed break from Korean food). 
 
Bob recently had an unexpected illness that put him in the hospital for a few days, but fortunately he recovered and is doing well now.  He looked good when I saw him tonight.  You can read more about it on his blog.  Now that he’s well rested, he’s starting to dive into some deep political issues in his blog that go far beyond anything I write about here.  For example, I have never blogged about assertions that eating kimchi combats SARS and avian flu.  Bob’s blogging is not for the political feint of heart.  He asks challenging questions and offers keen observations, seasoned with a complexity and aggressiveness derived from a successful legal background.  Stop by, have a read, and post a comment.  Bob’s dying to have someone other than me post comments on his blog.  Ask him what "The Truffle Shuffle Weakly" means–he’ll be glad you did.  Post-script:  The U.S. tied Italy 1-1 in the World Cup.  So, congratulations Team USA!  You scored your first point in European against a European major.  Please beat Ghana 3-0 so you can advance to the quarterfinals and hope the Italians beat or tie the Czechs.

Featured Blog: Angel’s Line

This month’s featured blog is Angel’s Line.  The blog’s author, Angeline Tay, is one of the nicest people I’ve never met.  Although I haven’t met her in person, I know a lot about her through her writing, and she knows about me by reading this blog.  She has a heart as big as this world and is one of the most positive people I know.  Her blog, Angel’s Line, is inspirational and leaves one pondering the spiritual side of life.  From time to time I stop on by to read her posts, messages, thoughts, musings, stories, and her testimony.  In many ways Angeline is like a little angel sitting on my shoulder, whispering insights with a soft tap, tap, tap of her keyboard.  She has faithfully read World Adventurers for over a year, which she lets me know from time to time when she posts a comment.
Angeline lives in Singapore with her husband and children.  I hope that one day I will have a chance to meet her and her family and introduce them to mine.  I don’t know whether the opportunity will present itself anytime soon.  Once we leave Korea in 2007, we may not be back in Asia until after we leave Paraguay in 2009.  If we do make it to Singapore, we definitely plan to meet her.  One of the joys of blogging is meeting new friends from around the world.  I’m not sure our paths would have crossed were it not for MSN Spaces.   
Yesterday Angeline asked me what I thought of “The Da Vinci Code.”  I read the book and plan to see the movie.  I also read a couple of books refuting the central theme of Dan Brown’s bestseller, that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and fathered a child who became the bloodline of French royalty.  I’ll watch the movie and write my thoughts next week.
Blog Note:  Barry Bonds hit his 715th home run on Sunday, passing Babe Ruth on Major League Baseball’s all-time list.  There’s a Korean angle to this story–Korean Colorado Rockies Pitcher Byung-Hyun Kim.  Will Koreans be proud that one of their own gave up the home run to Bonds?

Featured Blog: Doodlespace

Dear Reader, tonight I kick off a new monthly feature called “Featured Blogs.”  A good blog spreads the joy of blogging by networking with other blogs.  World Adventurers is no exception.  Each month I will feature the blogs of others who frequently visit World Adventurers as a way to thank them for stopping by and posting comments since I started posting online in late 2004.
Tonight I start with Doodlespace, a blog written by my prolific cousin.  I have to give the first nod to family, because although friends are sometimes passing acquaintances, family is forever–unless you estrange them by doing foolish things like not featuring them on your blog.  Plus, my cousin posts the longest comments of anyone who reads World Adventurers.  He is affiliated with the “Evil Empire” affectionately known as Microsoft, host of this wonderful MSN Spaces blog site.  He typically posts his sharpest comments whenever I praise Google for developing technologies and services that directly compete with Microsoft.  He has an insane ability to bring you back to earth by reminding you that you’re only human.
What I admire most about my cousin is his masterful ability to take on new hobbies and master them.  At various times he has studied piano, refurbished an old Volkswagen Beetle (1967 if I recall–I’m sure he’ll correct me if I’m wrong), and bought a heavy, oversized telescope that magnifies Saturn to the size of a coin, carting it out in freezing weather to watch the stars on a soccer field.  He recently embarked on his greatest adventure yet–learning to fly.  Judging by the titles of his last three blog entries, I would say that he has run into some turbulence.  Nevertheless, I have no doubt that he will earn his pilot’s license and will log hundreds of flying hours.  Whether I fly with him remains to be seen.  He has some fascinating stories to tell.  Check out Doodlespace at http://spaces.msn.com/wadehas/.