What the ... reporting?!?!?

Fox News is the most popular, most watched news network in America? (Please keep in mind when using words like news and media while talking about Fox it is hard not to have a laughing fit. As with the Korea Times it is hard to consider Fox a true media outlet.) If that really is the source of a majority of American's news you have to wonder just how stupid they are.

Fox has a habit of distorting (or just ignoring) reality when it suits their needs. Which seems to be whenever they talk about someone who isn't following their extreme right wing narrative. They also have a habit of faking things when it suits them.

It isn't the news. It is infotainment. They play to their audience rather than report. Just look at Gretchen Carlson. Either she is one fucking mook of a woman or she is deliberately mooking herself down. Last year Gretch and her friends were "discussing" Hugo Chavez calling Obama an ignoramus. She blurted out that she didn't know what an ignoramus was so she googled it. Or as she put it:

"I just wanted to see how much of an insult it was to be called an ignoramus. Since I didn’t know what it meant, I just googled it.”

Now she knows it means ... an ignorant lawyer. What the hell? She lookeded it up on google and still got it wrong?!?!?

Maybe she should have done what most people do and used a dictionary. I find it hard to believe that someone who graduated from Stanford with Honours didn't know what an ignoramus is AND that she could still fuck it up after looking the word up. I guess she wants to forever be typecast as the ditzy blonde infotainer.

Now you have the latest Fox Faux Pas. They are going hot and heavy after the people who want to build a mosque near the site of the World Trade Center in NYC. They are tracking the money! What have they found? Well they claim the main backer of the Iman who wants to build the Mosque/community center.

They have identified the source of the money as the Kingdom Foundation. Yet they never EVER mention the name of the head of this foundation that they claim sponsors terror. The unmentionable guy in charge is Al-Waleed bin Talal. His other claim to fame is to be one of the biggest shareholders (2nd after Murdoch himself) of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp! The folks who own Fox News.

On the Daily Show John Stewart wonders whether the Fox news people are simply too stupid to realize this or if they are deliberately trying to hide the truth. Based on what I have seen of Fox it is easy to believe either but I find the latter the most believable.

How people can take Fox News seriously is beyond me. A friend and former co-worker once said that Fox News wasn't representative of the American people. (She used to work in the media industry in the US.) She said that you shouldn't watch it and think that all Americans believe it. If a majority of Americans seek it out as their source of news one can only surmise that they do drink the kool-aid Fox is serving. Which would mean they are pretty fucking stupid.

Mook of the Week

Yesterday my mother and I went to one of my Brother-in-law's cottage on a lake. It was a nice drive down Marine Drive except for one asshole on the way out.

Mom was driving. The road was empty ahead of us and at a glance it was behind too. Then I could hear a noise in the distance. I knew it was a car, it sounded like the guy needed a new exhaust. The speed limit was 70KPH and we were doing about 71-72 KPH.

The next thing we knew, on a DOUBLE SOLID yellow line, with a car coming in the opposite direction, some mook decides he had to pass.

Like I said we were doing 70ish. Mr. EPU 779 (Nova Scotia license plate) blew past us, must have been doing at least 100KPH. Driving his piece of shit noise maker with yellow rims.

At least he waited until he was well enough past us to get back in the proper lane. We were worried the moron was going to cut us off. Mind you I wouldn't have liked to be the go coming up in the other lane. He is close enough that the morons car is blocking the view of him.

A couple of minutes up the road (at 70 KPH) the speed limit dropped to 50 KPH. Mr. Mook was still blazing away through there. We caught a glimpse of him way ahead . Mind you I would rather have an asshole like that WAY ahead of me than nearby.

Mr. EPU 779 (Nova Scotia license plate) you are a menace to other drivers and a fucking stupid mook.

The more things change ...

... the more they stay the same.

Two Canadian fighter jets from Cold Lake, Alberta, had to intercept Russian TU-95 bombers that were close to infringing on Canadian air space. Are we back in the 70's?

Internet Heroes

What would a world be like without assholes? It could be a nice place. The internet abounds with assholes of all shapes and sizes. One of the most pathetic is the dreaded Internet Hero.

They sit, probably in their basement, wrapped in the safety of their anonymity. That way they can make comments that they would NEVER make in public. Or threaten people. They are never braver than when you don't know who they are and they think you can't fight back.

I remember back when I used to help run an internet game. Many people who would break the rules and get in trouble would start making threats. They thought they were safely hidden away and would make all kinds of treats to inflict bodily harm on me or my family. Or to kill me. Over a game. Kind of pathetic eh?

You see this type of person all over the internet nowadays. Whether it is in a forum like Dave's ESL, or the Kamikaze Kimchi Kommandoes, on YouTube, of even in chat rooms. They seem to take a perverse amount of pleasure acting out worse than children. Acting in a way they know would get their ass handed to them in reality or see them arrested. They will make the most outrageous claims and comments but only because they think no one can find out who they really are.

They are more than a little pathetic. The only way they seem to be able to make themselves feel good, or important, is to anonymously attack people. Then they scurry away back to their holes basking in the false sense of power they have. "I showed that person I called them an and said I would kill them. I am so awesome!"

On a popular Korean Ex-Pat Blog you have one anonymous asshole "calling out" the blogger. And when the blogger doesn't seem interested the asshole starts to gloat "me 1 you 0" or some such nonsense. Let's see, some anonymous Internet Hero challenges me to come and fight them. Oh yeah, I will rush right out and meet the potential psycho.

Seriously, to make an anonymous threat like that and then to gloat because someone doesn't accept your psycho challenge doesn't make you a great person. It makes you pathetic. But such is the hubris of the Internet hero that they believe their own hype.

Mook of the Week

I have to apologize for this Mook of the Week. I didn't have my camera with me but the mook in question is VERY deserving.

Today I ran into what would be considered a very common mook in South Korea. I am still surprised that it took me over 3 months before running into one here.

I had to go to the grocery store to get some stuff. As I turn down an aisle I find it blocked. Some stupid mook (ok that is redundant) is standing with his cart blocking one side of the aisle while his body blocks the other. Why did he stop? He was on his cell phone.

Of course it would have been too much for him to just block one side of the aisle while he was standing there. That would have taken an awareness that there are other people in the world who have the right to use the aisle.

As I approached he kept yammering on the phone. Dunno who he was talking to but the oh so important conversation was about someone at his workplace who is an inconsiderate asshole. How do I know? He was talking quite loudly. Yes, it did feel like I was back in South Korea except for one important factor. We all spoke English. :)

When I got up to him I said "Excuse me."

Now in polite society MOST people would have been embarrassed as they realized they were blocking the aisle. Most people would have at least moved out of the way if not adding a "Sorry."

So I got a little closer and said "Hey, you must be the owner of this store. I have a question?"

He got a strange look on his face and said "No I'm not, why would you think I am?"

I snarled "Because you are standing around blocking the aisle as if it were your fucking home."

At THAT point he got flustered and moved out of the way.

It was so nice to be able to deal with a mook like that in English. :)

Finding Shampoo

It was kind of funny today. I needed to pick up some shampoo. In South Korea the problem was a language barrier. Was it Shampoo or conditioner or body rinse or 2 in 1? It wasn't always easy to tell even when you could read the label.

All I wanted today was some shampoo. Well there was shampoo for dry hair, oily hair, long hair, and the list went on. Finally I found regular old 2 in 1 shampoo, although would have been happy with just shampoo. I had to go through several shelves until I found it.

It reminded me of Denis Leary's coffee skit. I can relate to his problem because I just want coffee flavoured coffee. There are just too many choices and flavours. Too many stupid one. Cappachino, frappachino, it is all CRAPachino to me.

I am not difficult to make happy. Really. Just give me coffee flavoured coffee and regular old shampoo. But not together. ;)

Ice Hockey Rules

CBC sports recently posed an interesting question on their website. What NHL rules would you change or tweak?

There is one rule I have thought was stupid for as long as I have been interested in hockey. When your team is penalized you are allowed to ice the puck.

For those who know little to nothing about hockey, icing is when you shoot the puck from your end of the ice down to the other end. If the other team touches it first it is icing and there is a face off back in your end.

Currently, when a team has a penalty, whether a 2 minute or 5 minute, they can ice with impunity. Play goes on. So, all a penalized team has to do is get possession of the puck and dump it into the other end. It gives them a chance to rest for a few seconds, make changes, and/or get their defense lined back up.

Isn't the whole purpose of a penalty to PUNISH the team for a member breaking a rule? Of course it is. So why punish them on one hand but give them a bonus on the other? If you ice the puck while killing a penalty it SHOULD be called and the face off should be back in your end.

Appointment with Friends

Does the title sound stupid? What would you think if a friend called you up and said "Ok let's make this day at this time the time we regularly meet?" Would you think that was ... strange?

A little background might help you understand where I am coming from. Most of my friends have moved away since I went to Korea. There are really only 3 left, plus family.

My best friend is married and I am godfather to his son. I rarely see them. He is usually busy on weekends with family stuff. Plus he works all week. I can understand, to a point, not hanging out.

Another friend I see usually every weekend. We get together Friday or Saturday's, usually with one of my brothers. Cigars, booze, and talking. It is nice.

The third friend I rarely see. Whether he is employed or not I rarely see him. now when I first got home from Korea this time I saw him quite a bit, and he was working. Then hanging out with him became infrequent to rare. He would cancel at the last minute. I talked with him the Sunday before my birthday never heard from him again until a week after my birthday.

When he called he wanted to set "a day" for us to meet. actually an evening. Every Tuesday evening we would get together after 6. I was a little gobsmacked. He wanted to make an appointment to meet regularly? He was serious. Fine.

It just struck me as incredibly weird. What the hell is wrong with someone if they have to set a weekly time to meet a friend? My time is usually pretty free. The only plans I have made in advance are Saturday nights at my brothers. Sometimes I go Friday.

It is raining now, and it is Tuesday. Since his idea is to come and sit outside and smoke cigars and talk I wonder if he will cancel. I wonder whose cigars he planned on smoking?

Having to make an appointment to see a friend? That just sounds fucked up to me. Am I wrong to think this is strange?

The Colony

Last year I watched a reality show called "The Colony". It was about a group of people simulating survival in a post-apocalyptic world. The premise was interesting.

For me it was the suspension of disbelief that I had problems with. No matter how "rough" it was they KNEW it was a simulation. or should have. The bulk of the people were some kind of mechanical, electrical, or construction genius. It was a little hard to swallow.

Not to be a horn dog but in a real survival situation where you are basically trying to rebuild society there are things that would happen that don't when you are in a controlled experiment. No couples paired off. With the attendant problems that can bring. Not a lot of lethal protection was used or made. Some was, but it was used in a non-lethal way. After all, how lethal can you make it when you know it isn't real?

There is now a second season going. The same sort of problems with belief are around.

Facebook again

I mentioned my friend in a previous post who had a temporary ban on making friends. (Let's call him John since it seems stupid to keep saying "my friend" over and over. Well he got it again. This time FB gave him a link to a page that stated the following:

Why didn't my friend request go through?

If your account is blocked from adding friends, it is because Facebook...

If your account is blocked from adding friends, it is because Facebook’s security system detected either that your friend requests were being ignored at a high rate or volume, or that you were sending friend requests too quickly. Unwanted contact with strangers is not allowed on Facebook because it makes other people feel unsafe.

• A temporary block will last anywhere from a few hours to a few days.
• We cannot lift this block for any reason, so please be patient and refrain from using this feature for a few days while waiting for this block to be removed.
• Attempting to send messages while you are blocked can extend the block.

Please review the guidelines below to prevent your personal account from being disabled in the future:

• Do not send unwanted messages or friend requests to people you don’t know in the real world.
• Do not use the site for dating or business purposes.
• Do not send messages or friend requests to strangers for the purpose of gaining an advantage in an application.

Unfortunately, Facebook cannot provide any specifics on the rate limits that are enforced. When you are allowed to send friend requests again, be sure that you slow down and send requests and only to people you know. Further misuse of site features may result in more blocks or your account being permanently disabled.

Two things about this had me laughing. (Which John did not appreciate.) I was laughing at the stupidity of FB though, not John. Really. :)

First was the "Do not send messages or friend requests to strangers blah blah blah application." Read application as games. My friend plays a LOT of games. Hell, I did the make friends for games on FB thing when I first joined FB.

The way the games are set up you HAVE to if you want to get ahead in the games. You ability to advance in most of the games depends on how many friends you have playing it with you. Look at Mafia Wars. If you don't have a lot of people in your gang, let alone the maximum of 500, you are just going to keep getting slaughtered by others. Some of the quests in games count on you requesting, and getting, new friends.

Then you have the second thing, which kind of goes along with the first. If you look on the right hand side of your screen you will see "People You May Know". This is Facebook's way of RECOMMENDING friends to you. They take people that you and those already your friend know and advise you of their friends that you may know. I have seen people pop up on mine that don't even list a friend of mine as knowing them.

What pisses John off is that even though he can't make any new friends for a period of time, that FB can't seem to tell him, these friend suggestions keep popping up. If they don't want you contacting people you don't, or may not know, stop making suggestions.

I agree with him that Facebook is sending out mixed messages and punishing people for following them. It is never fun to be punished for something the punisher seems to be encouraging you to do. Nor is it fun to be told you are being punished but we can't tell you for how long. Mind you I don't expect much else from FB. They really need to start cleaning their act up. People do have other options and if they keep pissing people off they may find them exercising those options.

I enjoy playing computer games and FB has some fun ones. However, I always find that I stop playing most of them because they are dependent on having friends playing.

Facebook ... I have something to say ... in the immortal words ... of John Stewart ... either stop sending mixed messages .... or ... GO FUCK YOURSELVES.

So, right there FB is setting you up for a getting in trouble.

Full of themselves.

I like watching some reality TV shows. There seems to be a trait that is common in most contestants. They are full of themselves.

Take Hell's Kitchen for example. You have Ben. all through the season Ben was going on about how great he is as a cook. He will win the competition. Now Ben didn't win very many challenges. Chefs he talked down about and to won more than him. Yet, he would whine about how he should have won. He is the better cook. Better skills, palette, training, etc. Wah wah wah.

So it comes down to the last show. he was kicked out the previous episode. He left prattling on about how great he was. What does he do on the finale, whine about how it should be him.

Dude, one of the greatest chefs in the world judged you and found you wanting. It is extremely arrogant to keep going on that you are the best. Reality showed you weren't.

I forget the guys name or the season but one guy was a complete tool in the kitchen. He was a chef. He got tossed in the middle of the season after a pretty crappy showing overall. As he left he was going on about how great he is and one day he will have a restaurant beside Ramsay and put Gordon out of business. Oh yeah, some dumb fuck who can't do basic kitchen duties is going to do that. He just looked like a whinging putz.

I suppose people that self absorbed make for interesting TV because of the controversy factor. Sometimes it is fun to hate them. :)

Mook of the Week

Mooks ... they are universal. They just don't seem to pay attention to what is going on around them .. or seem to care about how their actions can affect others.

While I haven't seen as many mooks since i have been home I have seen some, and that is too many. Keep in mind the larger the population the more mooks you will encounter. Cheongju had a population of over 600,000 people. The "super city" I live in has a population of 300,000 spread out over a HUGE area. Not concentrated like in Korea. So the odds are I will encounter less mooks. But 1 is too many. :)

On my birthday I hooked up with my brother David. We were going to get some rum and then off to his place for a good cigar. He had to stop and get some gas. This is around 3 PM on Thursday. It isn't that busy.

Then a mook whips into the parking lot and screeches to a halt. The parking lot is empty and this asshat STILL manages to park like a ... mook.

Who hasn't parked and been a little off? Especially when the lot is full. This idiot couldn't park straight in an empty lot. The SIDE of the truck sticking right out into the area marked "no parking".

When my brother got in from pumping the gas I pointed the mook out to him. He chuckled and said "But they are driving a hybrid so they are special." Heh ... mooks certainly are "special".

Birthday Apathy

It is kind of strange but if my Sister-in-law hadn't asked me about the exact day of my birthday last Friday I would have forgot about it. I haven't actually been home for a birthday since 2001. In South Korea I always looked forward to it, which struck the Koreans as strange. Here I find myself fighting apathy. In some ways it just doesn't seem real.

South Korea is a great place for a birthday if you want to party. It is affordable and fun. unlike here where going out can be very unaffordable on a good day. It is why we tend to have pre-drinks at friends houses or just have parties at home.It makes me miss my friends back in Korea a lot more. Especially Stig.

One birthday memory that has always stayed strong is the birthday song. No, not friends and family badly belting out a tune. The Beatles birthday song. From about Grade 5 until his last year with us Dad would always play it. By playing it I mean sneak into my room, usually moving speakers to strategic locations, and then cranking the volume up to 11. :) I always woke up with a start on my birthday back then. Luckily it never tarnished the Beatles for me. ;)