Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Mook Of The Week

Last week, I finished my TESOL course, courtesy of Juseong University in Cheongju.
We had our graduation ceremony on Friday, which is where I ran into this week's mook.
The hallmark of any mook, as I have said, is the complete inability to use common sense. Even the simplest of snags or snafus can completely buffalo mooks and derail their entire day. The problem is, they usually take someone with them.
While I and my fellow students were busy getting our certificates, and being congratulated for finishing the course, we had left our cameras with a couple of assistants, who were asked to please take photos of the group, and the ceremony, and the handing over of the certificates, etc.
By the way, the certificate I was given mispelled my name. The mook in charge of making sure all the names were properly spelt texted me a few days before to make sure he got it right. When I pointed out that he got it WRONG, he checked the text on his phone, which sure enough had the right spelling.
D'oh!
But he's not the mook this week. He's the bonus mook, I guess.
No, this week's mook was one of the assistants handling our cameras and taking photos.
Now, I have a digital camera, just like most people these days. One of the things I like to do is shut the screen off when I'm not going to immediately be using the camera, as it saves the battery. I should have re-activated the screen before handing it over, but I neglected to do so in all the excitement.
The mook in question was completely baffled by the absence of a picture on the screen when he picked up my camera. I could see him milling around in the back, holding it this way and that, trying to see if the picture would show up from a different angle. Meanwhile, group shots were being posed, and individuals were taking their place next to the instructors, and all the while this mook is trying to figure out how he can take a picture without any preview available on the screen.
You and I both know that all anybody has to do is look through the viewfinder, and voila, the picture is there, ready for framing.
Do mooks understand about viewfinders? Does anybody use the viewfinder anymore?
I like the viewfinder. It makes for a better shot, I think.
Anyway, judge for yourself.
Here is the group, students and instructors, all together.

Here are the instructors: Daniel, Nick, and Dr. Kim.

And this is a shot of myself with Daniel and Nick.

These are the best of the photos the mook took, so I'll let you imagine the rest of them.
Sometimes, people remark that a really intelligent person can "think outside the box."
Mooks are not only happy inside the box, they cannot conceive of an outside, let alone imagine navigating their way through such treacherous waters. I hope the mook who took these photos is happy inside the box that I left him in, because he's going to be there for a looonnnggg time.

5 comments:

  1. Damn that is a prize mook! And you got a bonus mook too!! Congratulations?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I had my name spelt wrong on my ARC. Kept it for a year, couldn't be arsed continually getting details fixed.
    As for Koreans not thinking outside the box, have you noticed how Koreans when they travel FUCKING PERSIST in calling everyone waegukin?

    ReplyDelete
  3. That drives me up the wall. One flight home a woman and her whelp were practicing their English. In the airport they kept going on about foreigner this and that. You are the fucking foreigner now. Get it through your head.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yep, my sister-in-law is staying with me and is doing it. I think her brain kinda starts to process that she's out of Korea....then she goes blank and goes "chu-oh" and then it's back to the usual.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Heh ... the ubiquitous Korean co-ah. I don't miss that. :)

    ReplyDelete