Living Out a Metaphor

Speeding up the south side of the Han River after crossing the Olympic Bridge.  I began charging this computer what felt like an hour before I left but I had an energy hungry iPhone also recharging off the computer.  It seems to have not only drawn all the charge that might have helped the computer but sucked juice from the computer itself.  I flipped open this computer to see that I had only eleven percent power.  I quickly dimmed the light and turned off the WiFi so as to conserve power.  In the time it’s taken me to write this I’ve used up one of my precious energy points. 

I am living out a metaphor:  the early morning Korean cab ride to the airport, after a late night of drinking.  Woozy, but reasonable, I wouldn’t have even mentioned it five minutes back, but it is exacerbated by the way in which this lovely gentleman, who is young and friendly, drives his vehicle.  He hits it hard.  They almost always seem to in Korea.  He accelerates hard up on whoever is in front of him and veers over with impunity.   Rarely if ever, do we get going this fast in an automobile in Beijing.  But this guy is driving with Chinese abandon at Autobahn speeds.   When the highway opens up he is going something like eighty, ninety miles per hour.  But people still change lanes as if it were the highway from Beijing to Tianjin. The guy in front has his brake lights flashing but we are still accelerating towards him to switch lanes.  I’ll be glad when we arrive. 

I had a useless loop in my head from the Radiohead song: “Subterranean Homesick Alien,” which came on at the gym . The line, “aliens hover” won’t leave my mind.  It strikes me as an annoying cliché, one of many presumably penned by Thom Yorke. The title itself is also a limp lifting of someone else’s brilliance.  Ironically, I love the song, and I tend to like the band quite a bit.  But lyrically I remain or indeed wax, underwhelmed. 

A few of my friends here spoke about how poorly the economy was doing in South Korea.  Indeed I had a dinner with both Korean and Finish friends.  The Finish economy, is still finding its way in the aftermath of Nokia’s fall.  “Remember, it was only ever two percent of the Finish economy.”  Still in the aftermath how many people who were part of their enormous eco-systemic wake, were affected?  Is that the fate for South Korea if Samsung were to similarly slip?  Obviously there is far more diversification here and a much larger population occupying a notably more dynamic neighborhood, and yet, much of the ‘Cool phone manufacturer as embodiment of national pride’ theme rings true for both Finland and here.

My fall coat from last year, has a vaguely pilsner smell to it.  Back behind the palate roof toothpaste smell, I recall all the garlic and beef of the night before.  The cab is a bit warm and I am thinking once again about taking off my coat.  All of these sensations are amplified to pin pricks of annoyance, driving east on the south side of the Han River, a full five-points of my life-support of battery power have been consumed now.  The light has turned red.   It’s warning me now, that it’s all about to end.