Fun things from Korea

I should be working, but meh, I have 3 hours 'til deadline so it's time to dust off this blog again. I love shopping at the Korean market. Not just because I like Korean food and you can get the ingredients for a lot of Asian dishes much cheaper there than in a regular supermarket, but because the labels provide hilarity more often than not.

Now, these are really good, but doesn't that Panda look like he's on drugs? And why is the "ra-men" fresh? It looked the same as any other ramen when you opened the container. But it did have the extra bonus of being "less calory" which is cool, you know, if you're trying to lose weight. Although you probably shouldn't eat a lot of ramen 'cause it's pretty much junk food and isn't good for you. Now, the faces on Kancho are a little scary, aren't they? I don't know what it is with Korean candy/treats, but they tend to have critters making funny faces.

Don't trust your GPS

Morons. God must love them because he made so many. For the full story, go here: http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/northwest/v-lite/story/1015176.html.

Why do people trust their GPS instead of looking at a map OR just plain using common sense? How many times have we heard of these morons following their GPSs and getting stuck in the snow, almost always in the Cascades in Oregon? Does it not occur to them that the GPS has no way of knowing that these so-called "shortcuts" are covered in snow and the roads are impassable? Sure, you probably can use the forest service roads...IN THE SUMMER...but not in the dead of winter.

I've used a GPS numerous times, but generally in conjunction with a map. And if my eyes tell me one thing, i.e., the direction the GPS says to go will obviously be incorrect, and the GPS says another, then I trust my eyesight AND my instinct.

I don't have much sympathy for these idiots. For the baby involved in the story, of course. It's not responsible for the stupidity of its parents and shouldn't have to suffer because of that so I'm glad they finally got out. And maybe, just maybe they'll not repeat their error in the future.

I've had it with some knitwits

And just so you know, I meant to spell knitwit with a K.

Today, I am MAD. And I am done shopping at stores like Michael's or Joann Fabrics, etc. when it comes to my fiber arts needs. I'm talking knitting mostly. I have tried unsuccessfully several times to find the size double-point knitting needles that I need for a project. Recently, I have taken up knitting again and while I have lots and lots of single-point needles, I have almost zilch double-point ones.

This may not seem like a big deal, but it is when you want to make hats or socks and you want to do it without seams. My quest has been for size 5 double-points and I have been all over town looking for them. And I don't want any wooden ones, neither bamboo nor birch or pine or whatever. I happen to LIKE aluminum needles. They're virtually indestructible and will last long after I'm gone. Heck, I still have my first pair of knitting needles and they're right around 40 years old.

You go to the websites of these craft/sewing stores and they say, oh, indeed, they carry them. However, the truth of the matter is that the actual brick-and-mortar store may carry a couple of sizes, but they are perpetually out of the size you need. And the websites aren't set up as stores where you can purchase them online. Nope, they just direct you to your local retail outlet.

I've given up on them. Even the small, non-chain yarn stores don't carry what I want. From now on, I will buy my needles online from places that offer ALL sizes of needles.

And they wonder why people prefer to shop online rather than patronize the retail outlets.

Decorum and a sense of propiety

Some recent events in my life have spurred today's entry. I want to know what has happened to people having a sense of propiety and decorum? You know what I mean, politeness, knowing what is and is not appropriate to say or do in public.

This morning, I was out running errands and driving down the main street in our community, which also happens to be a state highway and has lots of traffic. I noticed the car in front of me had this decal message on its back window: "9 out of 10 voices in my head tell me I'd f**k that." Say what? What kind of crap is that to put out in public display? We used to say, do you talk that way in front of your mother? Sadly, they probably do.

My daughter works in child care and every day she comes home with stories about the profanity that comes out of the mouths of the children in her preschool class. These are three-and-four-year olds. I didn't know those words they're saying when I was that age and when my kids were that age and I happened to hear them saying something like that, I'd brush their teeth with soap. But apparently, the employees at the child care have had dealings with the mothers of these children and their language is no better. They talk like gutter trash. So you can see where they're learning it from.

My husband and I were in the grocery store a few days ago and right in the middle of the meat department is a woman having a heated argument on her cell phone. And I mean, it was LOUD. She was pretty much screaming into the phone, and it was, there again, "f**k this" and "f**k that" and you could hear her clear across the store. Mind you, this is a LARGE supermarket with high, warehouse-type ceilings.

Oh, and how about the habit people have of wearing their pajamas everywhere these days? Yeah, maybe pajamas aren't necessarily immodest, but they are tacky and it makes you wonder if these people actually wear pajamas to bed. One young woman was wearing her pj's and was also snuffling and coughing like she had a cold. Well, if she was that sick that she couldn't be bothered to get dressed, maybe she should have stayed home. I'm not OCD or a total germaphobe, but I did get out an antibacterial wipe and wipe the buttons on the pay thing because we were in the checkout behind her and I didn't want to touch them after her germ-laden fingers touched it.

Bill collectors

In this faltering economy, it's getting easier and easier to fall behind a little in payments to creditors. Not a good thing, but it happens. You lose your job or your hours or cut, in any case, your income is reduced. Unfortunately, your financial obligations are not. In fact, your creditors are now upping your minimum payments and interest rates. Hmm, and they really think that's going to help you pay them off faster?

Lately, we've started getting calls from a bill collector. Now, this was rather confusing to me as we aren't that far behind on payments. A little late, but the bills always do get paid. So why was this bill collector calling us? I have a habit of ignoring any phone calls that come up in the caller ID as "toll-free." But yesterday, they left a message on the voicemail to call IC Systems. Well, I looked up IC Systems to find out that they are one of those collection agencies that has a reputation for harassment and making mistakes.

Today they called again and I picked up the phone. I said hello about four times and no one answered. I hung up and dialed the number back. Asked them what they wanted and who they were looking for. Someone named Marvin Foutz, or at least it sounded that way, but since the person on the phone had a foreign accent, I wasn't sure. So I said the name back to them and yes, that's who they were looking for.

No one in this household is named Marvin Foutz. We don't KNOW anyone by that name. So why do they have this number? And they've also called my husband's work, but they were looking for someone else that time, some woman whose name my husband did not recognize.

IC Systems says they will take my number off their list, but we'll see what happens.

And Marvin Foutz, whoever you are, wherever you are, I hope you get this taken care of.

Traffic laws

Why do some fools feel that the speed limit is never fast enough? I will admit that I literally find a perverse joy in making sure my speedometer is right on the mark when I'm traveling around my community, expecially if it pisses off the person in back of me. These are the whiners who bitch and moan when the county is out in force doing emphasis patrols and catching these scofflaws right and left. "Oh, why aren't the police out catching the REAL criminals? We're not hurting anyone."

Yeah, right. Since I work in insurance, I see how often speed is involved in traffic accidents. Plenty of people are hurt...or killed because of speed. So that argument doesn't wash. Now, don't get me wrong, I have been known to exceed the speed limit at times on the freeway, especially in certain straight stretches of road (I-5 through the Central Valley in California comes to mind), but this is not my rule. On the arterials around here, the speed limit is generally 35. And these are county roads. Sometimes there isn't a lot of traffic, but that doesn't mean it's okay to do 40 to 50, or to ride my bumper because I choose to do the speed limit.

Michael Jackson's dead?

Wow. I went to pick up my son and had the radio on in the car and heard the news that Michael Jackson had died. Now they said cardiac arrest, but what does that even mean? Did he have a heart attack? Sure, if you find someone in cardiac arrest, they're obviously dead, because no matter what, when you die, you heart stops. Doesn't take a genius to figure that out. It will be interesting, to an extent, to see what the cause of the cardiac arrest was.

My first thought, though, was that, gee, he has kids. What will become of the kids? I imagine there was some contingency plan, but you never know.