Miscellanei

There's this box of 'tissues' (using the brand name Kleenex has not carried over here) in our classroom. They honestly smell like feces. I don't know about you, but if I were to make a short list of things that I wouldn't want smelling like fecal matter, Kleenexes would probably make that list. I mean, really, you wipe them against you nose.

So I see that Minnesota is the healthiest state again. Nice going! I guess it's been number 1 or 2 for the last 10 years or so. Kind of surprising. I think a big part of it was that Minnesota is #1 on number of people with health insurance. Wisconsin is the 13th healthiest state.

Someone should seriously do a study to determine if cords are sentient. No, not umbilical cords...I mean electrical cords. Seriously, they have an uncanny ability to become completely entangled either with itself or with other cords. No matter how carefully you think you're storing it. For example: headphones. No matter how I put them away, when I take them out they are tangled up in knots. Creepy. Speaking of creepy, Gremlins 2 was on tv here the other day. That is creepy on many levels.

I will now link to an article that you may be interested in reading. It's about Anti-American protests in Pyeongtaek. Don't worry about me. I may live here, but I had no idea this protest even took place until I saw the article. I guess they realize it's not me personally who is going to take away their rice fields. Protests in Pyeongtaek

In other Korean news: Korean Air pilots went on strike. The government broke the strike. They may go on strike again later. I will not be buying tickets through Korean Air in the near future. Oh wait, I might have to go through them if I go somewhere over my break...hmmm...

In more Korean news: The Korean stem cell research guy...now, I haven't read up on this fully, but I don't really see what's so unethical about using eggs donated by people on your research team. I guess they're worried about coersion, but I wouldn't think they'd have a problem finding people to donate so why would they need to coerce anyone? I have no idea if coerce and coersion are spelled with a c or an s...which is why I used both. Yes, I guess I am too lazy to look it up. Even though I am online already.

In not so important Korean news: I saw this picture on the google news site and had to laugh. It's a bunch of Korean Santa's going on a ride at Everland. I saw a Korean Santa over a month ago handing out coupons outside a subway station.


In AFN PSA news: Ok, here's a commerical that I find very funny. It shows a military guy sitting at his computer typing an email to someone. First off, he's incredible unskilled at typing. And you can see he's typing something about M16s and getting up at 0400. So then we get a voice over saying (and I quote), "You might think it's a great way to make new friends. The websites say there are thousands of people out there wanting to meet someone just like you. But remember: when you send an email to someone you've never met, they just might be a terrorist. Terrorists want to make new friends, too, especially ones who are in the military. And when you post a picture of yourself and your biggest weapon on that web, you just gave our enemies their biggest weapon. That weapon just became you. Think before you post." Then the phrase, "Practice good OPSEC" is flashed on the screen (operational security). Man, these commercials crack me up.

Another thing about AFN: They play these short spots of people back in the good 'ol US of A standing in front of landmarks like Mount Rushmore and the Statue of Liberty. They're all giving little heartfelt speeches about how appreciative they are of the men and women serving in the armed forces. But what makes is kind of sad is that you can tell they're all directing their statements to the people serving in Iraq, not Korea. It would kind of annoy me if I were a troop stationed here. Speaking of troops and annoyances, how annoying is it that a troop is one person? This is true, right? I feel like it's not only one guy, but then you read articles where they state that "3 US troops were killed." In that sense, you kind of have to be referring to a troop as one person, right? Can anyone clear this up for me? I feel like a troop should be a group of people. If there's a one man theater production, is he considered a troupe? Yeah, enough for now...