Week 48 & 49 Roundup

Vintage Krampus

The end of the year is approaching fast. The weather has grown cold, but between the Korean interpretation of the holiday season and the strange things expats do, winter is still an exciting time on the peninsula.

Case in point: last night, while out watching live music, about 150 foreigners walked into the bar, all dressed in full Santa Claus regalia. They drank all the beer in the bar, handed out candy to baffled Koreans, and quickly as they arrived, away they flew, like the down of a thistle.

This week’s links are only marginally related to that story. You can draw your own connections 🙂

Readability. This browser bookmarklet transforms webpages into clean and crisp pages. Next best thing to an ebook reader. Works beautifully in Chrome.

A Day in the Life of an Expat in Gunpo City, South Korea. I send articles to Matador, and they keep publishing them. This is my latest attempt to describe living in Korea in less than 800 words.

Austria’s Krampus Parades (6 December 09) In old Alpine mythology, Krampus were Santa’s devilish enforcers. If a child ended up on the ‘naughty’ list, they could expect a visit from one of these horned monsters. Today, the Krampus festivals include beer, scary masks, and flagellation.

Overseas and Overwhelmed is a photoessay on living in another culture. Here’s a nice quote from the intro: “most of us end up somewhere between amazed and exhausted.”

Staying Focused on Tasks That Matter It’s easy to get distracted and focus on insignificant things. This article has strategies for figuring out the important stuff and, well, staying  focused on it.

How to Conduct Your Own Annual Review Great article from a guy whose plan is to visit every country in the world. He lays out detailed instructions for looking back at what you have done and looking forward to what you will do. Great for making those New Year’s resolutions happen.

How to Make Yourself Lucky This article has some good insight into why some people ‘have all the  luck. Tips include expecting luck, using your intuition, and (I like this one) maximizing chance opportunities.

Coming up this week at Happenchance: I’m planning an article on mind maps and another on removing barriers to making stuff. Stay tuned!

Comments on this entry are closed.

  • Ali Hale December 14, 2009, 5:02 am

    Just wanted to drop by and say thanks for the link to my post on “Staying Focused on Tasks that Matter”. Much appreciated!

  • Caleb December 14, 2009, 6:22 am

    Fantastic!

    Great blog post. Thank you!

  • Seth December 19, 2009, 6:59 pm

    No problem, thanks for writing.