CMS Sufferers Unite!!!

Thanks to the timely intervention of my friend Woody, my latest bout with the dreaded CMS (Computer Moron Syndrome) was cut mercifully short before any serious damage occured to my brain or my computer.

This latest round of CMS was brought by the purchase of a digital camera. Thinking to myself, "I'm a smart guy. I can figure out how to publish photos on the blogsite, no problem," I took some goofy pics and downloaded the photo publishing software. I then proceeded to fruitlessly read the instructions, click various windows and buttons, grumble, fume, and click and read some more. All to no avail. Finally, I asked Woody if he could come over and help me figure it out. He came over, read the software info, told me to click this and do that, and PRESTO, pics on the blog! What had taken me a week of hopeless befuddlement, took about three minutes. Doh!

I'm going to start another blog: CMS Anonymous!

????? - Soon du bu jiggae (spicy tofu soup). This stuff ROCKS if you have a cold. Korean delivery food is cheap and delicious. It'll fill you up for $3.

This is me in all my glory! 

AAH-AAH-AAAHHHHHHH-CHHOO!!!!!!

Springtime!!! A time of renewal, rebirth, courtship, yellow dust, and Eric's bi-annual, head-busting, lung shredding, eye-watering cold. I hate spring. I will have to say though, I'm nothing if not consistent. You could set your clock by my colds. I get one in April and one in October. Never fails. It's the same cold each time as well. Lungs full of broken glass and head full of extra large cottonballs. I'm a goddamned medical miracle. The irony of this is that it's mid-term week at my university, and I had set it up so that I have a three day weeked, which I had planned to enjoy by sitting outside enjoying the weather and having a fine afternoon drunk. Alas. Of course, modern medicine hasn't helped my condition, so I might have to follow the age old proverb: Feed a fever, Drown a cold, and try to kill this thing with alcohol. Hell, It's work in the past, lol.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Yellow Dust phenomenon, it is basically a sand storm that starts in the Gobi Desert in Western China. The dust cloud rises into the atmosphere, glides slowly throught the heart of industrial China picking up all sorts of healthy toxic residue, and settles on Korea in an ultra-fine layer of, you guessed it, yellow dust. This annual springtime event varies in its severity from year to year. This year is pretty bad, but it's nothing compared to a couple of years ago where the cloud was so thick that you couldn't see more than a city block in any direction. You have to feel a bit sorry for Koreans. They have been stomped on, invaded, ignored, and basically treated like the red-headed stepchild of Asia for five thousand years (China being one of the chief protagonists), and now this. Poor bastards can't catch a break.

Anyway, whiile I sit here dutifully ignoring the 50 mid-terms that I have to grade, I present you with the Friday morning song list brought to you by DayQuill.

1. Carlos Santana & John Mclaughlin - The Life Divine
2. Enigma - The Prism of Life
3. King Sunny Ade - Eje Nlo Gba Ara Mi
4. The Articles - Dragonfly
5. Enya - Celtic Rain
6. Tommy Dorsey & Frank Sinatra - Blue Skies
7. Papa Wemba - Sakana
8. Beastie Boys - Ricky's Theme
9. New York Ska Jazz Ensemble - Buttah
10. Charlie Parker - Bluebird
11. Miles Davis - Deception
12. Glenn Miller Orchestra - Tuxedo Junction
13. Milt Jackson & Oscar Peterson - Heartstrings
14. Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong - Autumn in New York
15. Billie Holiday - Georgia on My Mind
16. The Modern Jazz Quartet - Echoes
17. Ravi Shankar - Fire Night
18. Charlie Parker - Cool Blues
19. Duke Ellington - Night Train
20. Miles Davis & Thelonius Monk - Blue Monk

Hell is full of Cherry Blossoms!

Ah yes, spring is here. Warm (well sort of warm anyway) weather, short skirts, and the ubiquitous cherry blossom. The trees turn snow white, adding a brilliant splash of color to the new greenery. "Wow," you might say, "sounds wonderful."

Every year about this time, Chungnam opens it's gates to the public so that people can come and view the dozens of blooming cherry trees scattered around the campus. Families, campus couples, and groups of school kids wander under the trees taking pictures and enjoying the sights. Street vendors are allowed on campus to sell their wares to the multitudes. University msic clubs erect stages, so their members can serenade the strollers with acoustic ballads and church music. "Awww, sounds sweet," you might say.

Here's the rub. The most popular spot for cherry blossom worship is along the road that runs in front of the foreign teacher apartments on campus. These blossom gazing tourists seem to believe that our apartment building is a public bathroom. It's hard to be either gracious or sympathetic when someone bangs on your door AT 8:00 IN THE GODDAMNED MORNING to ask if their kid can pee. Then the What-The-Hell-Was-I-Thnking Gospel Singers erect their stage IN THE MIDDLE OF THE GODDAMNED DRIVEWAY so that it's impossible for any one who lives in the apartments can get their cars in or out. To add insult to injury, the Too-Precious-To-Live Tabernacle Choir plug their equipment into our building to use electricity that WE HAVE TO GODDAMNED WELL PAY FOR!! Spring is a time to reflect how lucky Korea is that there are no readily available firearms.

The one consolation is tat it's mid-term exam time here at the university. While my students are not to blame for Cherry Blossom Hell, someone has to pay. Think of it as collateral damAge. BWAH HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAA!!!!!

Music to soothe the savage hangover

Due to unforeseen operator errors on the last post, I feel obligated to post another music list. For those of you who could give a shit, here's Sunday's top 20.

1. Soundgarden - Jesus Christ Pose
2. Agent Orange - Seek and Destroy
3. Led Zeppelin - How Many More Times
4. James Brown - Grits
5. The Hellecasters - Deiter's Lounge
6. The Vandals - Oi to the World
7. New York Ska Jazz Ensemble - Blow Wind Blow
8. Los Fabulosos Cadillacs - Mal Bicho
9. Galaxie 500 - Leave the Planet
10. Stevie Ray Vaughn - Empty Arms
11. John Mellencamp - I Ain't Even Satisfied
12. The Kinks - Good Day
13. Led Zeppelin - D'yer Maker
14. Northern Pikes - Dream Away
15. The Hellecasters - Riddler's Journey
16. Bob Dylan - Meet Me in the Morning
17. Cro-Mags - Hard Times
18. Fishbone - Jamaican Ska
19. Frank Zappa - Dead Girls of London
20. The Misfits - Ghouls Night Out

Music & Cold Coffee...Life is Good!

Due to a couple of requests for a music list, and my willingness to procrastinate when I should be doing work, here's today's top whatever! (Playlists on "shuffle"! Gotta love it...hee hee)

1. Reverend Horton Heat- Five-O Ford
2. Rush - Heresy
3. Skavoovie & the Epitones - Fat Soul
4. The Country Gentlemen - Crying Holy
5. Metallica - The Struggle Within
6. The Kinks - You Really Got Me (Live)
7. Boston - Foreplay/Long Time
8. John Mellencamp - Chance Meeting at the Tarantula
9. Horrorpops - Misstake
10. Soul Asylum - Growing into You