Whenever you feel inferior...

...watch this and you'll suddenly feel a lot better about yourself.

Sometimes Vancouver incompetence is so amusing

If this doesn't end up on Failblog, I don't know what will.

Basically, a building demolition company is under investigation for something that happened in downtown Vancouver. They were taking down a concrete building, and they screwed up big-time.

And unfortunately for them, there were a lot of people who videotaped the screw-up and posted it on YouTube; some of the videos have already reached over 100,000 views and have made all the major news outlets in town (Vancouver Province, Vancouver Sun, News 1130, CBC).

And to boot, it happened during rush hour on a weekday evening on a street in the middle of downtown Vancouver.

As my friend Larry said, it's a lawsuit waiting to happen. (The car near the first collapse was actually driven by a lawyer.)

Oh... my... goodness...

It's been snowing for most of last night and half of today, and Seoul's streets are covered with snow and slush. The temperatures took a pretty big dive and it's been the coldest in a while.

So it came as a huge shock to me when I went to shop for groceries today near Seoul Station, and noticed something strange on the sidewalk. It looked like a person, and there was some sort of liquid coming out of him/her. Immediately I assumed that it was someone who drank too much soju and was throwing up; after all, Korea is known for people getting drunk.

And then I noticed that the head looked strange. It looked like TWO heads. And they both looked bald. And then I realized that those aren't heads. I was wondering what they were when the person stood up. Suddenly it became clear what I just saw.

It was a woman who pulled down her pants and was peeing on the sidewalk, with her butt exposed for everyone to view. The two "heads" were her butt cheeks. The "vomit" was actually urine. So she was urinating in public with her butt exposed to the snowy weather (and towards oncoming traffic!) in central Seoul.

I think I'm going to have a few nightmares tonight.

SMOE's teacher hiring chaos

A lot of native English teachers are already aware of the 100 people that were told by SMOE that they no longer had a job with them -- AFTER they signed the contract, AFTER they got their visas, and 24 HOURS before their (non-refundable) flight to Seoul.

Well, from the same author as that blog link comes the best editorial about the issue I've read so far; it appeared in the Korea Herald today. It's quite a good read, and hits the nail on the head. It really does make me feel lucky that I wasn't one of the 100 who lost their jobs at the last minute (although since I was officially with EPIK and not SMOE, it was possible that they could've just placed me elsewhere in the country if this actually happened to me).

But I really do feel for the 100 who did get dropped. I was actually already in contact with someone on the same boat as me (recruited by EPIK and transferred to SMOE) and we were talking about how we were finally going to meet each other in person -- and then SMOE informed him that they weren't hiring him after all.

Luckily, he wasn't one of the poor guys who were told 24 hours before the flight (he was told about a week before, I think), but the way it all unraveled is pretty scary. Because of that, I did not relax when I got my NOA. Nor did I relax when I stepped foot at Incheon International Airport. Nor did I relax when I was waiting for the shuttle bus to orientation. I relaxed a little at the orientation venue, but not completely. I didn't completely relax until I finally had some alone time in my new apartment (mostly due to the Dongdaemun Stadium co-op worries).

Welcome to Korea. Come for the job, stay for the mind games. Hopefully this is a one-time thing, but prepare yourself in case it isn't.

Gotta love map inaccuracies

Sometimes it's fine to be a little off with maps. It's inevitable -- most public-use maps out there are approximations. For example, just because a street map shows that a street is a straight line doesn't mean that it really is. (Richmond's No. 3 Road is a great example -- the maps show it as a straight road but the satellite photos show that it's actually quite a crooked line.)

But sometimes the inaccuracies are just so bad that they're laughable. The airline that I'm taking en route to Seoul has one of the worst airline route maps I've seen in recent memory.

Among the errors:

• Beijing is in the middle of Mongolia
• Seoul is in the northern part of North Korea (or even in Russia)
• Frankfurt is just around the corner from Paris
• Hong Kong is next to Vietnam
• Seattle is in the Pacific Ocean

Oh boy. Hopefully their planes' navigational equipment is more accurate.

When it rains, it pours, yada yada yada

I had the worst night of "sleep" ever. I drank a huge glass of cold milk tea during dinner, which kept me hyper and unable to sleep. So I decided to get a glass of milk to drink. I didn't notice that the milk had expired the day before, so that resulted in a stomach ache, which kept me awake even more. Finally got some shut-eye around 3:30am, but woke up at 5:30am and have been awake since.

So now I'm hyper, tired and enduring the tail end of a stomach ache. All that's left is someone to kick me in the balls and light my nostrils on fire.

Argh.

Is seeing through someone's clothes worth that much?

Article from The Korea Times:

Man Nabbed for Selling Fake 'X-Ray' Glasses

A 39-year-old man was arrested for selling fake "X-ray'' glasses through several Web sites, police said Monday.

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said it arrested the man, identified as Chung, on suspicions of selling fake made-in-China see-through glasses to 13 people and reaping nearly 6 million won ($4,700) in illegal gains. He was taken into custody, it said. He sold the glasses for 550,000 won apiece.

It also said he had 14 previous offenses on his criminal record.

Among the 15 Web sites promoting the glasses, six were under his control, police said.

Recently, spam mail and online ads touting X-ray glasses that see through clothes have drawn public attention. But police and scientists were skeptical of their efficacy.

The glasses are also being sold in China, according to Chinese media.

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I can get over the fact that some people are stupid or gullible enough to be taken in on this scam. But for that much money?

6 million won / 13 people = 461,538 won per person = $415 Canadian per person

Who the holy hell would pay $415 Canadian for a pair of see-through glasses? Is it worth THAT much? Geez.