Ignoramus

One of the reasons I've been so happy in Korea is, I think, the increasing distance I put between myself and current events. When I first got here, I used to read the Washington Post online, Salon.com, occasionally the New York Times, and even browse my way over to Slate.com once in a while. Yeah, I may have headed straight for the Style/Entertainment/Mothers Who Think/Sex sections, but I'd at least get a glimpse of the headlines for the serious sections, and sometimes even read an article or two from the straight news.

When I started working three days a week, my overall time in front of the computer decreased. At the same time, my work-per-hour ratio went up, so even when I was in front of the computer, I often didn't have time to aimlessly web-surf.

Add to that a desire to fling myself into studying Korean and the feeling that I was already spending too much time as it was communicating in English, and the result is this: I'm the least informed about current events since my college days.

I can "understand" the Korean news on TV in very, very broad terms (to give you an example, if you had Peter Jennings talking about the irony of Republicans supporting the biggest budget for the Department of Education in history, I'd understand that money and schools were involved), but I'm at least a year or two away from being able to read and understand wonky commentary of the type I used to read online. (Most of the time they were more fun to read than the straight news.)

I do feel guilty about not being more informed, but I don't miss being caught up on current events. Ignorance is bliss, baby! Okay, to be totally honest, I probably do have somewhat of a handle on the big events going on in both Korea and the U.S., but I don't miss the day-to-day coverage and self-involved personal commentary on politics and the like.

In a half-hearted attempt to get myself current again, though, I logged on to Salon today and read that
these dolls are in vogue. I find them scary. Save me from self-conscious irony and hipness!