Beijing irony

Two ironic things about Beijing:

1. The air is actually clear today. We could actually see the city a good half hour before we landed.
2. I felt a sense of freedom when I entered the terminal. Not political freedom, but freedom from the crap shoot of working in Korea.

Oh, and China sucks at being communist. This country reeks of free market capitalism. ;)

International Pillow Fight Day 2010

Yesterday was the 2010 International Pillow Fight Day. Here in Seoul, it took place in front of Seoul City Hall. It was awesome beyond belief. It was a bit amusing because most of the participants were fellow foreigners, with only a few Koreans involved (and the Koreans who were involved could speak English pretty well).

Now THIS is how the Korean War should've been settled.

Here's a video clip of it from EatYourKimchi.com (I actually saw Martina from that site at the event, but didn't put a name to her face until I got home):



And here are some photos I took at the event.

My newest love-hate relationship with Miley Cyrus

Recently, I got an iPod dock that also has an alarm clock radio function. I took advantage of that, so now I wake up for work to the American Forces Network Korea (AFN Korea) radio station -- one of the two English stations in town.

As you can expect, they play a lot of rock music, similar to the music that I usually listen to back home in Vancouver (on 99.3 The Fox). So I thought to myself, "Cool." But AFN Korea keeps playing this really "bubble-gum style" pop song. And the thing is that it's such a catchy song! I found myself humming along to it, and started to wonder who the singer was.

And then I found out that it was Miley Cyrus. I was thinking, "So... I, a grown man, was singing along to a Miley Cyrus song? Wow... that's... awkward."

I guess as a fan of One Tree Hill and 90210 (not to mention Degrassi: The Next Generation, and experimenting with the new Melrose Place), I shouldn't be surprised that I fell into this trap. Why is it that I always end up being attracted to weird songs and shows that 12-year-old girls like? It's amazing how often that happens.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to a party in the USA...

Giant sewer blobs -- apparently, they exist

Those of us who grew up in the late 1990s may remember the Goosebumps book series by R.L. Stine. There was one title in the series in particular that seemed both amusing and disturbing at the same time -- The Blob That Ate Everyone. It seems laughable that a blob would be scary enough to do such a thing.

Well, here's something that will make you stop laughing.

In a place called Cameron in North Carolina, a camera was going through the sewers (probably to check for blockage or something like that) and discovered a huge blob that isn't only incredibly gross, but also seems to be pulsing and very much alive.

If you're eating spaghetti or noodles, be warned -- this may make you lose your appetite.



What the hell is it, you ask? Well, officially it's an "unknown" organism. All everyone knows for sure is that this organism is a huge blob found in a sewer and is alive.

One possible explanation comes from Dr. Timothy S. Wood from the International Bryozoology Association. He explains:

They are clumps of annelid worms, almost certainly tubificids (Naididae, probably genus Tubifex). Normally these occur in soil and sediment, especially at the bottom and edges of polluted streams. In the photo they have apparently entered a pipeline somehow, and in the absence of soil they are coiling around each other. The contractions you see are the result of a single worm contracting and then stimulating all the others to do the same almost simultaneously, so it looks like a single big muscle contracting.

In other words, they are the sewer version of these worms:



Nevertheless, this is really spine-tingling to look at. Apparently these things can enter households through drains and toilets as well. Here's some food for thought the next time you're taking a crap or a shower. Maybe that's the next big horror blockbuster movie. Who knows.