Are we too dependent on technology? Yes. I was doing my packing today, and this is what it was like. Ok, carry on bag. I need my net book, personal media player, mp3 player, Nintendo DS (x2), diving camera, regular camera, and last but not least, ebook reader. Oh, I also should put my passport, some cash, and reservation papers in there, if there is room. For my checked bag...eh, not so important. I spent hours organizing my gadgetry, making sure everything was fully updated and loaded with whatever they needed to be loaded with. Compare that to the five seconds I spent throwing my clothes and things in the other bag. Where are my priorities!?

On that note, I gotta start going to bed, my flight leaves at 9am. That means I should be on the bus near 6:00am to be on the safe side. Not a pleasant time of day, but the good point is that I am going to have a solid vacation afterward. I still don't know what the plan is, but the basic idea is a few days on Koh Phangan staying in Mai Pen Rai Bungalows at Than Sadet beach, which is a nice and quiet part of the island. From there, we are probably going to head to Sihanoukville Cambodia, but I haven't exactly figured that part out yet.

Finally, since I'm going to be traveling around for the next three weeks, updates here will be sparse, if not nonexistant. Don't worry, though, between the two cameras and my crazy drunken antics, I am sure to have a lot to say when I get back. Have a good February, and don't be too cold!

For some strange reason, we have a classes from Feb 1-5. Well, not exactly, we had classes Feb 1 & 2, then graduation ceremony practice today, the graduation ceremony tomorrow, and the level up ceremony for the 10th and 11th graders on Friday. The question is why. We haven't had regular class since December 24th, and we wont again have regular class until March 2nd. So, what is up with the week just hanging out in the middle of break?

Well, I asked a coworker, and she said that each school had to maintain a minimum number of school days to keep receiving government funding. That is reasonable, but why have them now? Actually it isn't reasonable. Last semester, my classes started between one and two weeks earlier than anyone else I know, and we all ended at the same time. So how is it possible that my school has to have this one week of classes now? I know that a bunch of other schools also have class during this time, but it just doesn't really make a lot of sense to me. Couldn't we have it the last week in December? Or couldn't we just put it on the beginning of March or end of February? Apparently not. My coworker said that January is the winter vacation, and then February is the spring break. I guess it is important to keep these times separate...what do I know?

It isn't really a big deal to me, since I have a ton of work to do anyway. I decided to change how I teach classes, and am going to center my entire learning experience around a book club. To do this, though, I had to come up with 26 lessons so it would take an entire year. I chose a book, Hoot, by Carl Hiaasen, and then got to work. Fortunately, the book is 22 chapters long, so I can teach 1 chapter per week. That accounts for 22 lessons. There is also a movie, which we can watch in class, and that will take 2 lessons. We are now at 24 lessons. Add in a review class before each semester's final test, and voila! Twenty six lessons. To make it all work, I decided that I wanted to make a workbook to hand out to the students at the beginning of the year. To do that, I spent the past week slaving over each chapter in the book in order to make worksheets for everything. At this moment in time, I am just about wrapped up, and it is looking pretty good.

In other news, my old old student Ed is finally graduating high school tomorrow. I started teaching Ed at W Academy, back before it went out of business, and actually before it was called W Academy. When I taught him it was called Ehwa Academy, and that was probably five years ago. Wow, time flies. Anyway, congratulations, Ed, you did good!

Finally, I am leaving for Bangkok on Saturday, which is only three days away. I haven't prepared a single thing for the trip, and am pretty busy finishing this workbook before I leave. Because of that, I might or might not have the chance to write anything here before I leave. If I don't, have a good three weeks, and I will have some nice pictures and stories when I get back. I doubt I will have much time to write while on the road, so just hang in there, and I will be back at the end of February.

I was idly bored today and started looking to see all the things that could be bought on the internet. This all started by an advertisement I saw on Facebook promising to buy 15kg of carbon offset credits for anyone who filled out a survey. That got me thinking about how much carbon offsets could possibly cost. At a whopping sixty US cents per ton, it isn't a lot.

Naturally, I wanted to buy some. Not only could I spent six dollars on ten tons of carbon offsets, they would also send me a certificate saying what a good job I did saving the environment. Of course I'm not sure how legitimate this all is, but I consider it ridiculous. But, to get a certificate and a feeling of smugness for under 10$ isn't a bad deal, considering the tens of thousands of dollars a Prius costs. As for the superiority complex and rudeness, I already have had them for years.

The next step from there was naming a star after myself. Sadly this isn't an officially sanctioned behavior, but it is still fairly affordable at several webpages. The thing is, I wasn't ready to spend any money on this stuff quite yet, so I decided to wait on the star naming for a while. Instead I checked out the cost and legitimacy of buying property on the moon. Incredibly cheap, and completely illegitimate, it is right up my alley. Unfortunately, I still wasn't ready to spend any money, so gave it a pass, looking for something a little more free.

That was when my friend Max and I got to talking. Our conversation wandered along to talking about becoming a reverend, because it would be cool on business cards. My entire goal is to become a licensed private investigator, because having a business card that reads "Rev. Lasher, P.I." is probably cooler than anything aside from possible astronaut/stunt man. Because of that, I started looking up ways to become a minister. I remember that my friend Chrissy became an ordained minister in order to officiate another Chrissy's wedding, so I knew it was possible, and she had mentioned it was cheap. I started to look into it, and found the Universal Life Church offers free ordination. BINGO! That is exactly what I was looking for.

Since it was what I wanted, I immediately signed up and worked my way through the ordination process. After a long and grueling process, I was given this:



And now I am officially an ordained minister. That online certificate isn't the best for me, but I am going to wait until after my vacation to order the official documents and identification cards. Since you have to pay for them, I figure that I should wait a couple weeks to decide if it is worth it. Besides, they take a couple weeks to ship, and I don't want to have my credentials arrive while I am on vacation.

Being that this is such a momentous occasion, I decided to do something special for myself. After all, throughout my school days, no one ever believed that I would amount to anything, and here I am, an ordained minister! The thing is, I still didn't want to spend any money, so I decided to dig for something special and free. That was when I found it! The perfect thing for a newly ordained minister, I found a website that will name an entire galaxy after you, for free!



So, on the great day of January 31, 2010, not only did I become ordained, but I also had a galaxy named for me (by me). Big things, Literaryhero, big things. In fact, I think I need to lie down.

My ebook reader is probably the greatest thing that has ever happened to me. I am usually quite an avid reader (nothing without orcs or aliens, please, with a possible exception for zombies), but the ebook reader has really caused me to kick my reading into high gear. One of the biggest problems with becoming a voracious reader is finding books that are worthwhile and interesting to me. I wouldn't say that I am a picky reader, but there are just certain types of books I like more than others.

I personally try not to ever read anything that is even the tiniest bit based on fact. I spend my entire life in the real world, and use reading as escapism. That being the case, I only like to read books about dragons or aliens with the occasional zombie tale thrown in, as I mentioned before. To be honest, my tastes are a bit more far reaching than that, but not my much. For example, in the past week or so, I have read The Dain Curse and The Adventures of Sam Spade by Dashiell Hammett, as well as A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson and Hoot by Carl Hiaason. Ok, I know that Bryson doesn't write fiction, but his somewhat factual tales are definitely liberally sprinkled with hyperbole and exaggeration, so I can tolerate them.

As you can see, in the past ten days or so, I have read four books. That is quite a clip, and it makes it difficult for me to find other books to read. Fortunately, my favorite library themed webcomic (possibly the only library themed webcomic), Unshelved, has started a new weekly book review section. Each Friday, they have short reviews of books that they and their readers had written. Each week there are about five new books from all different genres, and it has been a great place for me to find new reading material. Granted, it is only about four weeks old, but I would still advise checking it out if you want to find new books to read. Unfortunately, since their website is recently remodeled, there doesn't seem to be any direct link to these reviews, but you can check out each individual week by clicking one of these words.

The best thing about these reviews is how short they are. They are broken down into four sections which are wrapped up in just a sentence or two. First is a short synopsis, followed by why they chose it, whey they finished it, and who they would recommend it to. All in all, a nice concise book review. For example, here is one that I saw last week that totally grabbed my attention:

Boneshaker by Cherie Priest. Tor, 2010. 9780765318411. Reviewed by Flemtastic.

Steampunk in Seattle! Briar's late husband built the machine that tunneled under Seattle, loosing a gas that poisons the air and turns people into zombie "rotters." Downtown Seattle is surrounded by a 200-foot tall wall to contain the Blight. Briar's son enters the toxic city, determined to prove his father's innocence. To rescue him, she hitches a ride on an airship and enters the doomed city, only to find that a man who may be her husband is among those living there.

Why I picked it up: The Scott Westerfeld blurb on the cover didn't hurt, but the airship reflected in the old fashioned goggles really caught my attention. Then I turned it over and saw that it was set in my hometown, Seattle, so I put it on the pile next to my bed.

Why I finished it: I loved the scarred survivors living in the bowels of a ruined Seattle. They run from rotters while wearing primitive gas masks that allow them to breathe despite the toxic gas emanating from the ground. Airship pilots risk crashing into buildings to skim the poisonous atmosphere so that it can be distilled it into a drug. But the Chinese community working the bellows to bring in fresh air through tubes above the city is the kind of unexpected detail that sets this book apart.

I'd give it to: Out of towners who enjoy Seattle's underground tour. Jim, who'd buy a pair of handmade brass goggles if he had the money.

Pretty cool, huh?

EDIT: I emailed the guys at Unshelved to ask about the future of these book reviews, and got a reply saying that in the future they would all be collected in one area of the site and become searchable. That is good news if you like them!

I am not a big fan of Korean music. That being said, I live in Korea, and hear it everywhere I go. I can generally tune the stuff out, but occasionally a song comes along with a hook so ridiculously terrible that it gets trapped in my mind for months. Since I am such a jerk, I would like to share the worst of the worst with you.

The first time I heard 'Ring Ding Dong' by Shinee, I thought that it was the worst song ever made. The chorus makes me want to choke someone, and what is 'elastic, fantastic' anyway? No one knows, but this song is heard at least ten times a day by me. Take a look at the video, and make sure to watch it all. No cheating!



After a couple months of being tortured by that ridiculous song, another one soon hit the airwaves. This song is so terribly bad that it made me wish that I could listen to Ring Ding Dong again. The song I am talking about is 'Oh Yeah' by MBLAQ. You won't possibly be able to believe how bad this song is until you listen to it. Seriously, give it a try. Don't just stop it part of the way through, you gotta get to the chorus where they say 'oh yeah oh yeah oh yeah, Im feeling good, oh yeah, yeah, yeah'. If it doesn't make you cry out in horror, then you have no soul.



Don't worry, though, all is not bad in the K-Pop music scene. There are still some artists holding it down and keeping it real. Ok, who am I kidding? There are at least some songs that seem to be deliberately good natured and silly. Then again, I think that they might be serious and I just can't handle that so my brain rationalizes it away. For example, MC Mong. Is he a funny guy, or is he just severely brain damaged? Take a look at the Horror Show video below to see what I mean. If this song is serious, then he really needs to be in a home under supervision. However, if he is just being funny, well then...he probably might still be better off in protective custody. Take a look.



And on that note, Im going to lie down and try to get these songs out of my head.

It is very difficult for me to mention bad things about food, but I had a bad experience at a restaurant yesterday. Since neither Jisun nor I worked, we decided to have lunch at a tuna restaurant. We weren't getting the unlimited raw tuna for lunch, but were going to try some of their lunch menu. The restaurant we chose was right by my apartment, and we walk buy it regularly, so finally decided to give it a try.

The restaurant is named Dongwon Chamchi (동원 참치). Chamchi means tuna for those of you who aren't familiar with Korean at all. It is a raw tuna restaurant, and they advertise some pretty cheap items on the lunch menu. Their regular menu, however, was on the expensive side. I didn't look at it all that closely, but it ranged from about 50,000w all the way up to 150,000w for various meals. Good thing that we hadn't chosen to go there for dinner, because I can't afford prices like that! Fortunately the lunch menu had things in the 5,000-7,000w range, which is more my budget.

The restaurant itself is in the basement of an old building, which is kind of a turn off, but not that big of a deal. On top of it, the furnishings were old and fairly decrepit, which isn't a big deal if you are ordering a 5,000w meal. However, if you go there paying the 150,000w for the VIP menu, being in a run down old restaurant probably isn't ideal. We ended up sitting in one of the small private rooms on the side and noticed that the walls were completely covered in stains. Not only was everything old, it was also dirty. The walls were stained, and there were cigarette burns all over the floor. Not too classy.

The definitely saw us come in and said '어서 오세요!' (eoseo o-seyo! which means come in directly), but for some reason they didn't bring us a menu for ten minutes. We got the menu, which was when I saw how high priced the place was. This made me decide that I should definitely stick to the lunch menu, so we ordered one chamchi hweh deopbap (참치회덮밥) and one albap (알밥). the Chamchi hweh deopbap is a type of bibimbap (rice mixed with vegetables) that is topped with chunks of raw tuna. Albap is arice that is served in a hot stone bowl with fish eggs (Al means egg) and some other items that get mixed together. Both of these were advertised at 5,000w a piece.

The lady took our orders and then left for another ten minutes. She then returned and asked if we wanted cold water or warm water. By this point, in case you aren't good at math, we had been there twenty minutes and hadn't even gotten water yet. Don't forget, we got there at 1:30pm, so it wasn't even crowded from lunch. We were possibly the only people in there! Finally we get our water and our food, and by this point the waitress is acting like we really put her out with our demands, even though we hadn't demanded anything. Oh, that is untrue, we did ask for utensils, since they weren't brought with the food, and that seemed to be too much of a hassle for her. I guess she just wanted us to eat with our hands. Judging by how dirty and run down the place was, I guess she was not only too lazy to provide good service, but was also too lazy to do any cleaning.

Another problem we had was in the temperature of the room. Since we were sitting on the floor, the ondol (온돌 - a type of floor heating system) was supposed to keep us warm. However, for whatever reason, the side that Jisun was sitting on was cool to the touch, while my side of the table was boiling. I'm not kidding here, I had to sit on four pillows in order to keep my rear end from burning. It was seriously that hot. While this may seem like a petty thing to complain about, coupled with the dirtiness of the restaurant and the poor service, it is worth mentioning.

Now, to be fair, the food was good. There was a decent amount of banchan (반찬 - side dishes), and the chamchi deopbap had quite a large amount of chamchi in it for 5,000w. The albap was also delicious, so those were positive points. Unfortunately, there is delicious food all over this city, and most of them will offer good service with the food, so I would say to avoid Dongwon Chamchi at all costs. Sure, I might have caught them on a bad day, which could explain the poor service, but it doesn't explain the dirty decrepitness of the interior or the scorching floor. It also doesn't explain the last straw which made me write this article.

Since our service was so slow, we ended up getting our food at around 2:00 and finishing at about 2:30. Both of our dishes were supposed to be 5,000w, according to the lunch set. However, when we went to pay, the lady said that the albap was 8,000w, and showed us the price in the menu. So I told her that the menu that is advertising outside says the lunch menu price for albap is 5,000w. She then said that it was 2:30pm and the lunch menu was over. Of course I countered by saying that we had arrived at 1:30, which is typically considered lunch hour (in my experience/opinion, lunch deals tend to be from 11:00-2:00), but she just looked at me and said that no, in fact it was 8,000w.

I did pay, and didn't say anything directly to the lady, but swore I would take my revenge! Unfortunately, the place isn't advertised on Naver, or else I would have bombed it. Instead I have to just write about it on my blog, where the chance that anyone would actually go to that particular restaurant anyway is quite slim.

To wrap it all up, I wouldn't recommend anyone go to Dongwon Chamchi restaurant. The food was good, but the service and decor were all subpar. They also screwed me up on the price I had to pay, which is uncalled for. So, if you are in the Seouldae area and want some good tuna, try someplace else, there are at least five zillion other restaurants nearby. In fact, when I get time later, I will enumerate them for you. Until then, here are the pertinent details of the place to avoid. Dongwon Chamchi is located near Seouldae station. If you go out exit 3 and walk straight for about two hundred meters, you will see the place. It is in the same building as Hulala (Hoolala?) Chicken and right next to an Alpha Stationary store. I won't put a map because I don't want you to go there, so just keep in mind that this is a place to avoid in the Seouldae area.

EDIT: Ok, I might be wrong about the lunch menu times. I just went to a nice Italian place (more on that later) with some coworkers and their lunch menu was from 11:30-1:30. Still, even if the price was right, the place wasn't worthwhile.

I leave for vacation in less than two weeks, and it is needed. I know that most of you think that I can't complain because my job is easy and I barely work at all as is. However, I am experiencing what I like to refer to as expat fatigue. Yes, my job is easy, and yes, life is good, but living in a foreign country can get tiring. Even though I have been here for over five years now, there are still aspects of Korea that really irritate me. It isn't anything that bad, obviously, but a break every six months really helps me relieve that feeling of annoyance. Don't get me wrong, Korea is awesome, and I am happier here than I would be in the US, but from time to time I need a break.

To that end, Jisun and I are leaving out of Incheon International Airport and flying to Bangkok (I can't spell the airport name and am too lazy to look it up) for a three week trip of fun, sun and more fun. The thing is that I am not planning out anything in advance. Jisun has never left Korea before, aside from two trips to the Philippines, so she knows nothing about it. I have been there several times, and am just not that worried about setting anything up in advance. I like the idea of landing in Bangkok without a plan, a place to stay, or any idea of what I will do.

I do have a tentative plan to meet up with Nick and Stan in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, but we haven't actually set a date, so that is more or less up in the air. I also want to spend some time in southern Laos in the 4,000 islands area. A third place I want to visit is Koh Kong, Cambodia. There are some very short passages alluding to the fact that Koh Kong Island has some of the best beaches in Southeast Asia, but no one seems to have any real information about the place. Sounds like something that I want to check out. Other than these very tentative plans, though, I have no real idea what I am going to do.

Either way, I am sure that it is going to be a great trip and that I will arrive back in Seoul fully rested and ready to teach my new first grade students. Until then, however, I am basically in shut down mode. This past weekend I did nothing but read books, play computer games, and work on a jigsaw puzzle. Nothing to write home about. So, for the next two weeks or so, there will probably be very little of interest here.

Ok, not exactly Speed. Imagine Speed if there was no Sandra Bullock or Keanu Reeves. Oh, or a bomb. My story takes place on a bus, ok!? This evening I dropped Jisun off at her place. Normally I just send her off on the bus, but today it was early and I figured I would be a nice guy. That and the Homeplus near her home has a good peanut butter selection, of which I was in dire need.

So we got peanut butter, some fruit and meat from her local market (for some reason it is much cheaper than mine!), and then got on the bus to head back home. Riding the bus isn't the most exciting thing in the world, but today there was a big fight! About two stops from Jisun's home we were pulling away from the stop when some old guy started banging on the side of the bus really loudly. Normally the bus drivers ignore these things, but for some reason, today he opened the door.

This older ajossi guy climbs into the bus and just starts screaming at the bus driver. He is complaining about how he wasn't let on the bus properly in the first place and blah blah blah. The bus driver tells him that he had every opportunity to get on the bus and it isn't his fault that the older ajossi couldn't manage to get on the bus at the right time. This goes on and on for like five minutes while we are parked on the side of the road, which starts to heat up the other passengers.

One by one, the older ladies (we call 'em ajummas) start yelling at the guy to just sit down so the bus driver can drive. The ajossi now starts to yell at them on top of it all. He is yelling at the bus driver, who is yelling back at him, and he is also yelling at the ajummas, who are also yelling back at him. Soon enough, everyone is yelling at this guy, and things are getting heated. Sensing that he has lost, the ajossi leaves the front of the bus to find a seat in the back.

Take a wild guess where he sat. If you guessed in the seat next to me, you are correct. In over five years of living in Seoul, no one has ever sat next to me on the bus or on the subway. I swear, the bus could be packed with people standing on top of each other, and the seat next to me will be empty. I don't consider myself that scary of a guy, but that is just the way it is. Today, though, was different, this guy chose the seat directly next to me. Normally I would be grateful that someone sat next to me on the bus, it would give me a feeling of fitting in. However, this time I didn't feel that way at all, I just felt uncomfortable.

The ladies were still yelling at this guy, and he was angry and speaking rudely to them. It was very, very uncomfortable. The ajossi was talking about filing a complaint and suing the bus company and saying all these crazy things, which apparently upset the bus driver. Because of this, at the next stop, the bus driver asked to collect the ajummas phone numbers so he could use them as witnesses against the crazy guy (who was sitting right next to me). Once this happened, the tides seemed to turn.

I guess the crazy guy finally realized that everyone was against him. He started speaking in the polite form and lowered his voice. After a few more minutes, he ended up apologizing to the old ladies and then walking up to apologize to the bus driver. Fortunately he didn't come back and sit down next to me again, choosing instead to get off the bus. I guess he was ashamed by his actions and wanted a new start on a different bus. Who knows what he was thinking.

There are a couple strange points about this situation. The first is that he didn't seem to be drunk. I have seen drunk guys act like total jerks on the bus before, and am no stranger to that. This guy seemed to be stone sober, though. Also, he didn't actually appear to be crazy. His clothes were of decent quality and seemed clean enough. His hair was brushed and his eyes seemed able to focus, which all lead me to believe that he was just angry for some reason. On top of that, in this situation, who would actually apologize? Personally I would have just gotten off the bus and pretended like nothing had happened. Weird all around, but it did give me a fairly exciting ride home.

Allow me to get all Jerry Seinfeld on you here. I swear that there is not a woman on God's green earth that has any idea of what her clothing size is. To be truthful, I don't really know what my size is, but I have a good idea of what I can fit into. In the US, I wear a size 34-36 x 34 pair of pants, depending on what kind of physical shape I am in. Right now I am at about a 34, but it varies, so I go either way. As for shirts, I can go with an L or an XL depending on the cut. The thing is, in Korea, they use a totally different numbering system. I am somewhere between size 105 and 110 for both shirts and pants. I can wear either depending on how I feel, the 105 is a bit tight if I want to go that style, and the 110 is a bit more roomy, it just depends on the look I am going for. As for letter sizes, I am somewhere between XXXXXXL and XXXXXXXL.

With that knowledge, I know that I could never fit into a size 100 or smaller. It just isn't physically possible for me. Because of that, if I see something I like that is only available in sizes up to 100, I think 'Oh, too bad' and move on. Women, however, have a totally different idea. Every woman I have ever met in my life sees this smaller size as some kind of challenge. Not only is it a challenge, but it is also proof that women have no idea what size clothes they actually fit into. Let's say a woman finds an article of clothing that she really likes and it isn't available in a size that will fit her reasonably. Rather than give it a pass, the first thing that happens is she automatically feels like she can 'squeeze into it'. Ok, normally I wear a size 90, but it is only available in an 80...I can squeeze into it. Hey, I squeeze into the size 90 that I usually wear, so why can't I squeeze into an 80? Oh, all you have is 65? I can squeeze into it. No problem.

The next step is the admission that the clothes are too tight. This is a very sensitive time, and a man should always keep his mouth shut. Even though it is perfectly reasonable to explain that she was insane to think that she could fit into a shirt designed for middle school girls, she will automatically assume that you are calling her fat. Once she realizes this, she will start thinking about how she can diet to make the clothes fit. During this time, I normally think about how the diet won't work, since she is already so thin. It would actually take some restructuring of her skeletal mass, which I don't think is possible. I don't say this, though, because I don't want to get yelled at, so I just keep it to myself.

Finally, after a long drawn out fit of depression, the truth settles in. There is no way to fit into that article of clothing and it should be returned. Normally at this point, the depression lifts and everything is happy again, with just a hint of sorrow at not being able to wear the most stylish outfit ever. After all of this, we can settle down to a nice dinner, with both of us completely clueless as to what size clothing she actually wears.

Just for your information, this post isn't directly related to my girlfriend. This is something that happens to every girl that I have ever known, and the only reason I wrote about it today was that I was thinking about my own size in order to purchase a speedo for my upcoming vacation. There is this ridiculous Bruce Lee speedo that I wanted to buy more than anything on earth. Take a look and tell me I wouldn't look good in this:



I knew right away that it had to be mine. It even says available up to size 105 right on the image, so I knew it would fit me. However, when I went to order it, the largest size available was a 100. I knew that this would never work out, and had to relinquish my dream of being the guy with the Bruce Lee speedo. While thinking along those lines, it got me to thinking about women's sizes, and how if any girl I ever knew had this problem, she would have bought it with no qualms, assuming that a crash diet and a squeeze would make it fit. I, on the other hand, am more pragmatic, and had to give it a pass.

For today's street scene, I have yet another crazy tale about a crazy person. At least I hope he was crazy, because if not...well...just read on to see. Just about ten minutes ago I was walking Jisun to the bus stop so she could go home. It is a bit drizzly today, but not bad enough to use an umbrella, just to set the mood. The rain has done a good job melting the remaining snow, however, so it is one giant mess outside. To make matters slightly more irritating, the bus stop was completely packed with people. I'm not sure why, but I had never seen it that crowded, and I go there daily.

Because so many people were at the bus stop, Jisun and I were standing a bit away from the crowd kind of towards the back of the sidewalk. Right where this bus stop is, there is a small kind of garden thing there in front of a building entrance that is recessed back a little bit. So, there we are, standing in the mucky drizzle, when out of the corner of my eye I see this weird movement. I know that the motion is coming from the garden, which is why I find it odd, so I turn around to see what is happening.

All of a sudden, right before my very eyes, a guy climbs out of the bushes. This might not seem that exciting, but you have to realize that this garden is a grand total of like five feet deep and ten feet long. On top of that, it is built into a box, so it is about two feet off the ground. So it is pretty strange to see a guy climbing out of there, to say the least.

To make matters even more strange, he was clothed rather strangely. When I say that he was clothed strangely, I mean that he was, in fact, wearing exactly these items: one waterlogged jacket. That is it. No shoes. No socks. No pants. No underwear. Just a blue jacket that was soaked all the way through. Ok, to give him the benefit of the doubt, he may have been wearing a shirt under the jacket, I couldn't really tell.

Out this guy walks, seemingly oblivious to the fact that he is nude from the waist down. I got a full frontal view of him, which is how I knew he didn't have any underwear on. There he is, business swinging in the (cold) breeze, without a care in the world. At this point I nudge Jisun to get her safely out of this guy's path, but it turns out it wasn't necessary. He just walked right past us and down the (very busy) street. The worst thing I noticed was that his backside and legs were completely covered in an unidentified brown substance that I am hoping was dirt. He was after all coming out of the bushes.

The guy walks down to the end of the block very casually, which was how I deduced that he had to be crazy. Any sane guy would have had some shame and hot footed it along in order to try to retain some dignity. Not this guy, though, he walked to the end of the block, looked around, turned back, and promptly lay down in the entrance of a building. Because of this, I surreptitiously took a picture of him with my camera phone, but unfortunately it is too blurry to see anything. Well, actually, it is probably quite fortunate for you, being as I would have posted it here, and an old crazy man's junk is nothing you want to see.

Any ideas of what the story is behind this guy? I'd like to hear some random speculation.