Chrissy Snowflakes™ vs The Toad Man

After reading Chrissy Snowflakes™ self-congratulatory "look where I appear" comments I felt sad and dejected. I felt unworthy. Someone like Chrissy Snowflakes™ can appear in a couple of places why don't I? Maybe Chrissy is right and he is just better than the rest of us.

Then I talked to my peeps and begged them, for the love of whatever God/Goddess they believe in, to pray and find out why a windbag could be so popular. Chrissy may well have a popular blog that reaches people's most basic need to sleep. (In the same way a politician droning on about nothing can help you get to sleep.) It has nothing credible to help people laugh at the bull shit they will encounter in their daily life in Korea. I can't believe he considers himself popular and hope he just drones himself into a coma.

Then I looked at the referrals for people coming to my site. Oh my god or goddess. I am great. My reach is far. Just look at the Google searches that brought people to my site. That is ... if i actually gave a shit about any of that or needed to reassure myself and make others aware of how great I am. I have better things to do than than that. People who go on about stuff like that tend to seem kind of pathetic to me. Self-important blow hards.

Seriously though Chrissy. Chris. You take yourself and more importantly An Idiot's Tale, too seriously. Lighten up and either enjoy what he writes or, and this could be hard to do, don't go to his site. Hell you shot yourself in the foot with your pathetic plea to others not to go to his site. Odds are you BOOSTED his readership. When told to ignore something most people tend to check it out.

The purpose of Blogs isn't just to do something credible to assist people. Maybe that is what Chris wants his blog to do. Just because that is what he wants doesn't mean everyone has to do the same thing. It is kind of pretentious of someone to think others must do it their way. A blog can be whatever anyone wants it to be. Whether a diary, a place for discussion, a myriad of things. It is nice that Chris hopes to do that with his Blog but Idiot's Tale never pretended to be like his blog. Ever.

For me, his blog fails to reach his goal. Mainly because it is hard to read his posts. He is just too verbose. It is nice to have pictures to show people things to see but seriously 5 sentences describing an empty field where something MIGHT be reconstructed? Zzzzzzzzzzz. That is me though. It might work for others. I hope it does.

I have been to Chris' site before his issues with Idiot's Tale started. I never book marked it or went back pretty much for the reasons I just stated. My problems with his "style" of blogging are not new. Unlike him when I don't like a blog I stay away and don't talk about it (at least until now). If others like it and talk about it more power to them. To denigrate them and try and get others to ignore them just because you don't like their style is kind of ... petty.

Clearing Snow

I finally went back to work today after the New Year's break. I did remember how to teach after the long time off.
One of the things I saw today that made me say "What the kimchi?" was a man cleaning the snow off of his front windshield by pouring hot, steaming water all over it.
Now, here in Korea, I do not have a brush like I would have back in Canada. I don't even have a scraper to get rid of the frost on my windshield. I have been going into my wallet and using whatever plastic card I don't have any other use for. I did have a point card for Kyobo Bookstore in Daegu that I splintered into three or four pieces, but now I am using my Dunkin Donuts "Happy Point" card. It's from a different store than the one I go to now, and apparently the points do NOT transfer over.
Pfffff.
Anyway, when I go to remove the snow from my car, I just sweep it off with my gloves, arms, and so forth. I did have a dire circumstance result from this.
When I drive, I like to listen to a book on my I-pod, and I was listening the last time I was brushing off the car. Somehow, ny arm got tangled in the I-pod's earphone cord and I dumped it into a snowbank.
AAAAHHHH!!!
I cleaned it off, let it dry, and it's been working OK, but... whew!
Just now, I'm listening to Paul Shaffer's book, "We'll Be Here For The Rest Of Our Lives." It transferred to my I-pod in a real strange-e fashion. Disk Two is in a chapter all by itself, while Disks One and Three to Seven are all mixed up in another channel. If I want to listen to Disk One, I have to constantly fast forward through Disks Three to Seven. It's really irritating, and the other drivers just don't understand when I drift into their lane (while searching) that it's really important, man!
After the guy finished pouring hot water all over his windshield he brought out a broom to try and sweep off the rest of the snow off of his truck. But it wasn't a broom like I was used to seeing. It was one of those long sticks with twigs tied onto one end. Don't these people have real brooms? Most of the ones I see are real short, so you have to bend over while sweeping. I used to think the old people in this country were all bent over and gnarly because that was how they'd spent their lives: bent over and gnarly.
I try to clean all the snow off of my car, not just the windows. I try to get the roof clear, as well. I hate it when people get in their car, switch on their wipers, and think they are finished cleaning the snow off. You can tell who they are, because they look like a miniature snowstorm as they drive down the street. Anyone behind them is lost, and they have to send out one of those St. Bernard's with the cocktails in a barrel.
Driving wasn't too bad today, but I did have to go around a few people that were either on 'luudes, or just being too cautious. There's being careful because of driving conditions, and there's being a wuss.
And then there's the ajummas walking down the ruts in the road when there's a perfectly icy sidewalk for them to break a hip on.
I guess it doesn't snow here often enough for Koreans to seriously get into snow removal equipment, but since when did common sense become so uncommon?
Oh, wait... what country am I in?

Winter Weather

Winter weather is finally here. Damn cold on a scooter when you forget your gloves. Damn damn cold.

Mind you I LOVE winter. I enjoy the cold weather and snow. Well, 1 out of 2 isn't bad. Korea doesn't get a lot of snow by my standards.

One of the benefits of the colder weather is that less people are mooking about outside. Maybe it is just my anti-social feelings talking but I like having less noise. Oh it is still noisy at times but not as bad as summer. Then I am happy to have the aircon on because the windows are closed and it is harder to here the people outside.

I remember the night I got home in June (went home for a month.) Made it in time to watch hockey. During the 2nd intermission I went out on the back deck. It was sooooo strange. It was ... quiet. I could hear a car in the distance. I could hear insects. There were no loud speaker trucks. It was eerily peaceful. Kind of creeped me out for a few minutes. ;)

Strangely enough I guess I did miss some of the background noise I have grown used to in Korea. Something just felt off for a little while because it wasn't there. Then I got over it and ejoyed the quiet.