Roaring Overhead

The fighter jets of yesterday have been replaced by a massive helicopter carrying a giant vat of water, I think. Stupid thing has flown over every fifteen minutes or so since just before six this morning. Maybe it's replenishing it's haul of water and flying off to fight some fire, and if so, that's good. (There's no proof they're not just flying around trying to tick me off, though.) Their roaring, combined with the symphony of morning jackhammers where they're tearing up the street over yonder makes me wish I had a nice pair of earplugs. But then, how would I hear my alarm? Land of the morning NOISE!

Bomb

North Korea conducted another nuclear test today. I'm not sure if it's related, but fighter jets have been roaring overhead here for about an hour.

Bloody Mondays. Ugh.

And We're Back!

I love my fixed computer. I cannot believe how patient I'd been with its brokedown former version that, seriously, crashed every five or ten minutes or so. I put up with that shit for A LONG TIME and never once sent the machine careening off the balcony to the parking lot below. As the weather got warmer, the crashes got worse and I finally insisted my Computer Man take it in and either fix it or kill it and we would Speak No More About It.

A week later it returned, motherboard and disc drive replaced. It's so much quieter. It's so much more agreeable. I can watch videos or open 20 windows if I want and it hasn't once restarted. I love it.

Meanwhile, I'm sort of shopping for a new system and was almost going to buy a desktop PC until I realized that a notebook is a far better suited option. My boss is offering to sell me his phat couple months old Toshiba for about 650,000 (100,000 less than he paid for it at the beginning of March.) I'm sure it would be a relief for him to deduct that out of my one month's salary "completion bonus" that's due in about three weeks. We'll see. It's a spiffy looking machine, which is all I can say about it really - because I know jack about computers.

So posting shall resume with a fury. Or a trickle. We shall see. Meanwhile, please enjoy this picture of Wall Cat, who lives on the wall on the way to work.



Wall Cat changes into Run-Away-From-Me Street Cat every time I pass by. I'm ususally quite able to befriend the neighborhood dogs, but cats? Fuggedabout it. They're as skittish as,...a chicken at KFC? Yech. I've got to work on my similes.

Piper Down

Sorry, folks. My computer is in the hospital. Posting will resume once my Google Machine returns. Kisses.

Ha ha ha!

I'm funny, hey?

If You Don't Post About It, You Ain't Cool

Les Flu d'Cochon. Swine flu.

I was teaching one of my middle school classes last week while thinking about the possible perhaps pandemic and I realized that were the virus to come here then I am deady dead dead. Six of my seven students were sick and zero of any of them raised their hand to cover their mouths as they coughed, and they coughed incessantly. My class was a cough-fest. This is coupled with the FACT that no one in Korea except me, (and perhaps you if you're reading this,...but NO ONE ELSE) washes their hands EVER. I'll say it again. Swine flu come here? We're scu-rewed.

Sad thing, too - even though you can't catch the pig flu from eating pig, it seems people aren't taking any chances. I stopped by my local last week and my friend, the bartender/owner told me how dangerous it was to eat pork. "No," I told her, "It's fine. You cannot become infected from eating pork." Just then a news report came on the bar's big screen and we watched it together. As it concluded she said, "No. Deji gogi NO." Apparently the news wasn't quelling anyones's fear. My friend's restaurant is suffering. Sucks.

But they've changed the name "swine flu" (known here as S.I.) to H1N1. So now they're considering banning H's and N's, just to keep everyone safe. I'm correcting homework like " the hospital is next to the hotel.

I jest.

Each month or so I have each of my classes practice some reading. I hope none of the parents will complain that I picked a prophetic poem for two of my lower level classes well before anyone had ever heard of H1N1 -

I think, ACHOO!, I have the flu.
I'm sneezing, and ACHOO! ACHOO!
I'm not sure what, ACHOO!, to do.
You say, ACHOO!, don't sneeze on you?
ACHOO! Whoops. Now you've got it too.

I think this concludes my thoughts on swine flu, except to reiterate that if it comes here - like, in my stupid sleepy little town - I'm screwed. Otherwise, carry on - and wash your hands.

M I Ok?

My buddy John kindly sent me an E-mail today with the subject line "R U Ok?" He was asking because I have been Lameity McLame-o when it comes to life blogging. I know.

I've been contending with a triple smack down 'round here. First, I was sick for some time and I think it makes for a fairly boring blog if allz I do is detail the symptoms of my misery. For about three weeks all I did was come home from work and crawl into bed. Sleep good. I was dutiful about my recovery, though - what with the snoring and taking handfuls of pills. I'm feeling much better.

Secondly, my computer has become such a whiny pouting bitch. With every site I open, I cringe a little, wondering if that's going to be the click which causes my PC to suddenly restart. I get a black screen followed by a beep and then a blue screen announcing the computer is checking itself. (Checking whether or not its an asshole, oh YEP! CHECK!) That whole process takes about five minutes and repeats itself fifteen minutes later. I'm going to finally take it in, but I fear this Jooyongtech hunk of crap might be ready for the scrap pile.

Finally, I've been suffering from writer's block. That is like this. Well,...the picture is accurate, but the term "block" isn't exactly the truth. I've been writing. I've got lost of stuff saved to draft. I can't bear to hit publish because I hate it all. I guess that's what a withering case of self-loathing will do. John commented on something I recently published here, graciously saying "Your post about being pulled off the ice was both fascinating and cryptic. That you apparently deleted it shortly after posting is a little disconcerting though." I didnt actually delete it. I buried it in April. That was sort of accidental - I hit a wrong button when I was editing it, but then I decided I felt better not having it staring at me when I opened my blog so I let it hide out in the previous month and replaced it with the picture of an octopus. There's a solid chance that I may hide this entry once I wake up and decide I hate it. Perhaps I'll replace it with another picture of an octopus. Maybe I'll sort through many of my recent posts, hiding them in the past and replacing them with octopedes.

It's probably time to get crazy 'round here anyhow. Shake things up. Make some changes. Yes? Perhaps yes.

Oh, and for the record - I M OK. Pretty much.

Here's a preview of tomorrow's post.


I'm going to kiss my computer now because it managed to crash zero times while I wrote this.

Yum