The good life | Kamiel Choi

New Year’s Resolutions

[series-miru] Dear Miru, Three days ago, you turned one year old. We had a great time in Luxemburg, together with our couchsurfing hosts and their wonderful children, who gave you a cake with one candle. From there, we traveled to the Morvan in France, where your parents are doing helpx for the first time. It's ...

Sharing

Let me come on with an attitude and say I'll debunk a myth today. Inspired once again by our baby daughter Miru, I started questioning the common belief that babies don't share. A quick look-up on the BrinPage machine (i.e. Google) confirmed that this is indeed what our experts think. Why? Because "So basically what ...

Bed time

[series-miru] Miru normally falls asleep when her mother lies next to her and hums soft and soothing melodies into her pillow while tapping her gently until her cries turn into sobs and then silence. I admire my wife's skills and patience. And I envy it: Isn't it something unique between mothers and their children, a ...

Habits addendum

A few weeks ago, I wrote an article here about our fundamental quality as creatures of habit. In a short addendum, I'd like to mention my own experience with regards to changing habits. Just a month or so ago, I watched a short video about squatting, but not the kind you would typically do in ...

Applause

[series-miru] Miru is now clapping her hands. At almost nine months, she is a very happy baby, and the occasional bouts of crying are interspersed with laughter and endless joy - for her as well as for her parents. She's a perfect baby, and if you a) don't believe me and b) read Korean, my ...

Modesty

“A great man is always willing to be little.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson “A modest little person, with much to be modest about.” ― Winston Churchill I want to stretch out my tentacles to tackle the idea of modesty. Sound the clarions, hoist the flags, this self-proclaimed writer marches in to lecture about a virtue ...

Kiekeboe

[series-miru] The last episode of this series that I'm writing for my daughter appeared many months ago. This is not because there was nothing interesting in between, but because I couldn't find the time and motivation to write. We have been traveling, and had some bureaucratic issues to take care of regarding our simultaneous "legal" ...

Boredom

Dear companion, would you like to write about boredom with me? Would you mind if we leave out scientific studies involving cortisol levels, inhibitors, synapses, our neocortices and neurotransmitters. Would you mind it not containing literary quotes by the likes of Schopenhauer, Ciorán, or Sartre? If it becomes a mere piece of reflection, an invitation ...

Never Buy Into Commercials

A little economics for dummies. When I see a televised commercial or a full-page advertisement for a product, I think to myself "They have a big budget for marketing." A marketing budget should of course be a percentage of expected profit (we assume total agent rationality on the part of the producer, not the consumer). ...