Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Life is Random

Since Ian and I had completely average days (except that I was fed a sandwich [Koreans must really like mayo, as it was mainly comprised of the stuff] today at work, which was nice), I thought I would post a few random pictures I have from earlier this week.



Ian found small adapters when we were showing Ben and Amy around this weekend.  They work well, but they let too much power through, so it's good we have a surge protector.  It's nice not to have to  jury rig it.  Here's a reminder of the old set up:





We were stoked because the new converter allowed us to have our laptops and the Christmas lights plugged it.


They were shining really brightly.  Then half of them blew out.  Darn.  So, we're back to only having them on occasionally.  At least we'll have them for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.


It's been really cold in the morning for the past few days.  I've had to up the amount of clothing I wear on our runs:



For those keeping score at home that's: underclothes, a sports top, a t-shirt, a running zip up, a sweatshirt, men's long underwear, running pants, gloves, a hat, and a face mask (which never lasts very long).  I fear that in January I'll have to run in my Westbeach jacket.  Ian's running wardrobe is getting heavier, too, it includes layering shorts over leggings, two shirts, gloves a sweatshirt and a hat.


Ian's been trying out a few creative outlets lately.  He's started drawing again and he's done a couple of paper projects. His most recent is greatly amusing:



Rawr!



Kitchen monster!


My immune system hasn't been all that great since I got here and there's one particularly inconvenient symptom of that.  Plantar warts.  I've always been susceptible, but I have the largest one I've ever had on my left foot (admittedly, it's been there since July or so) and three new and quickly growing ones on my right foot.  I'm nervous to go to the hospital, so I'm trying duct tape therapy first.  Fingers crossed.  In case you didn't know, plantar warts are a symptom of an HPV infection on the toe or sole of your foot.  A canker sore (mouth ulcer) is a symptom of an isolated oral infection. Duct tape suffocates the area and the oxygen deprivation speeds up the death or the wart.  It might not work, though, since this method is not exactly fool proof.



Ugly feet!


I made lentils and jasmine rice for dinner tonight. We also had some naan that we bought from the foreign food market in Seoul  It was great, though I didn't cook the lentils perfectly.  I'm going to start cooking a few of times a week to give Ian a break.  Plus, two minds will give us more variety and I miss cooking.


Happy Wednesday!  Good night!

6 comments:

  1. Uh, your old AC adapter may have been better -- seems like the voltage needs to be stepped down. Any idea what voltage Korea uses? Your laptops won't care, since their power supplies are usually designed to use any voltage from 100 to 240 without trouble. But, if you got those xmas lights there, why should the power there burn them out?

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  2. Answer to my question, after a 3 second google search: Korea uses 220V. So, if you plug in US stuff that uses 120V or say Japanese stuff that uses 100V, it will burn out in short order unless designed to also accept 220V (like, as I said, laptops invariably are). (In fact if you plug in something like say a US hotplate, you might start a fire when it burns up.)

    The adapter you have as far as I can see, just converts from one type of plug to another, but doesn't convert the voltage. The older bigger one looks like it had a transformer in it which did exactly that.

    The surge protector, btw, will do nothing. That only limits spikes, like you get from lightning or some huge electric motor suddenly turning off (like e.g. a crappy washing machine with a clutch).

    BTW, 220V is a bad choice for household current, since the shocks it gives are much worse than 120V. But, it does allow for thinner wires in the house, thus saving money to build stuff (at the cost of thicker wire insulation, but plastic is cheaper than copper).

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  3. Oh, I should have mentioned: look at the ratings info on the power supplies for your laptops, and make sure it says something like "100-240V". If so, you can plug them in just using the little adapter. Other stuff: big adapter with transformer.

    Yeah, unsolicited advice that maybe you knew all about already. So?

    BTW, have you heard about 220V therapy for plantar warts?

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  4. Nice duct tape job. Do you want me to send you some of the otc freeze for warts. If you think they have not gone beyond that.

    Please use your other converter for your electical things. You don't want to start a fire.
    Thanks Peter for the leg work, or finger work as it were.

    And don't get shocked for pitty sakes!!!

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  5. Hi Peter, yeah, we knew most of that coming in. Our large converter is too heavy to hang all the wall, so it must be propped up. We aren't using the small plug converters for anything other than our laptops (except the xmas lights that one time). I'm glad you said that the surge protector won't do anything. I guess I thought of it as more of a mediator, but you're right, it's just for keeping spikes from hurting anything. I just didn't really think about it.

    Mom- The otc nitrogen never works for me. I'd need salicylic acid. Hopefully, I can kill them with the duct tape. We won't get shocked, don't worry. We don't even touch plugs all that often.

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  6. LOL love your Chrismtas lights! I'm sooo getting some this weekend now that we have won! And Ian's paper kitchen monster love it! I made a paper chain the other day counting down until Christmas and NYE hahahaha so that let me know i'm not too crazy. I'm excited to have you guys over too, more people will warm this place up brrr its freeeezing today!

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