My Top Ten Pet Peeves

Well, it's been a while since my last top ten list, so I thought now would be a good time to put out a new one!  All of us have pet peeves, little insignificant (or sometimes significant) things that just get under our skin and irritate us.  Sometimes they are funny and other times downright annoying, but we can all relate to each other on this level in that everybody has a few pet peeves.  Here are my top ten:

1. When people use apostrophes wrong.  An apostrophe only forms a contraction or shows possession.  It is never used to make something plural!  This applies to acronyms and numbers, too.  For example:

• DVD's = WRONG!  (unless something belongs to the DVD)
• 100's = WRONG! (unless something belongs to the number one hundred)
• 1950's = WRONG! (unless something belongs to this decade)

Can you read the heat in my words?  I really get irked when I see the apostrophe thrown haphazardly into words.  The ' and the "s" are not married!

2. When people pronounce the "t" in "often."  I can still remember my third grade teacher telling us how this letter is an anomaly in the English language and that we never, never, never pronounce this "t."  The word is pronounced "OFF-en," not "OFF-ten."  I guess her lesson really hit home with me, as ever since that day I am rankled whenever someone pronounces this word incorrectly!

3. Loud music.  Volume just doesn't make anything sound better, it makes it sound louder, that's all!  If you like the song on the radio, that's great, but turning the volume up to 11 won't make you (or me) like it any more.

4. Please, don't run red lights.  It holds up traffic and puts lives in danger.  You'll get there soon enough!

5. Realtors.  I just don't like them.  Sorry if your mom is a realtor, but she is really annoying.  I don't like how they act as if selling houses is the most important, glamorous job in the world; it isn't.  It's not any better than selling used cars.  Or candy bars.  I don't like how they put their pictures on business cards.  That looks sleazy and lame.  I don't like how they claim they sell homes  They don't; they sell houses.  I will decide if a house is a home, not you.

6. When people call Asian car brands "rice burners."  Wow, can you be more racist than that?  I'm glad you know that Asians eat rice, do you know anything else about Asian culture?  By the way, did you notice how none of their companies seem to produce crappy cars, either?

7. People who don't clean up after their dogs.  Poop stinks!  Talk about nasty.  If you are not responsible enough to clean up after the animal, you are not responsible enough to have one in the first place.

8. While we're on the subject of dogs, I don't like pugs.  To me, they are the ugliest-looking dogs on the face of the earth.  They're useless, good only for entertainment, and bad entertainment at that.  I don't see why this breed is allowed to exist, since these dogs are unintelligent and they look terrible.  Even worse, now they are included in "designer breeds," such as a "puggle" (pug and beagle mix).  Why would you ever want to destroy a beautiful breed like the beagle with a worhtless smash-faced degenerate pug?  Let's let this breed go extinct.

9. Tantruming.  Well, let me clarify that.  I understand that young kids get upset and they can't control their emotions; that doesn't bother me.  My pet peeve is parents who allow their kids to tantrum in public and either don't address the issue or deal with it poorly.  Having a toddler at home, I know how difficult it can be out in public.  But, at the first sign of trouble we are out the door- I don't want the whole store to listen to a screaming kid!  Parents, please plan ahead and save the world the horror of your tantruming brat.

10. The fact that prices never include taxes or fees.  If an item's advertised price is $0.99, the final price might be $1.07, but you wouldn't know that until you got to the checkstand.  Why don't we include taxes and fees in the price so we know exactly how much something costs?  That would make sense, and that's what they do in Korea.

14. Pace yourself.

13. Diet pop is nasty.

A Winter in Korea with No Heat

For the last year or so, I have been following Marshallogue, the daily blog of Marshall Jones, Jr.  Marshall is an American teaching English in South Korea and he is quite a character.  I find his posts amusing, intellectual, and exciting; I’ve subscribed to his blog and I receive his posts via e-mail so I can follow his adventures teaching abroad.  He is sometimes philosophical, way out there, downright funny, and always interesting.

Take, for example, his no heat experiment.  Marshall is continually running experiments, just to see what happens, and his topics range all over the place, but my favorite to-date is the no heat experiment.  For this, he turned off his heater for the entire winter in Seoul!  Check out the summary here:

http://marshalljonesjr.com/no-heater-experiment/

With as hot as it has been here in the US lately, I sure wish I was in Korea in the middle of winter with no heat!

12. There is not much to gain in winning an argument.

Green Coffee?!

I just set up shop in a Starbucks to get a little work done and I was offered a sample of Starbucks Refreshers, a new product that they have rolled out today!  Refreshers are made from green coffee extract.  Green coffee?  What in the world is this?!

Apparently, black coffee takes on its flavor from the roasting process.  As the raw, green beans are toasted to varying degrees of darkness, the signature flavor and aroma develops.  Starbucks has taken an extract from the green coffee bean and uses this as the basis for this new drink.  It still has caffeine from the unroasted bean but none of the flavor of coffee.  I tried both of the flavors, Very Berry Hibiscus and Cool Lime (I liked the latter better).  It tastes just like a fruit drink and I couldn't detect any bitterness from the caffeine.  Refreshers come in cans, Via packets, and, iced drinks made right in the cafe.  I was given a coupon for half-off a pack of Vias.  This Friday only, they are offering a free Refresher.  Check it out!

http://www.starbucks.com/refreshers/en-us

11. It's okay to sing while you are driving.

뽀로로 - Pororo

I wanted to take a few minutes and write a quick post about my favorite cartoon in Korea, 뽀로로 (Pororo, the Little Penguin).  The show recounts the adventures of Pororo and his friends in a frozen village somewhere. 

Most of the antics of the characters are pretty harmless, with the exception of Crong, the crocodile, who never seems to be very far from any trouble.  Now that I think about it, none of the characters are ever more than an arm's length away from trouble, but Crong seems to be the big instigator in the bunch.  There's also Loopy, a friendly beaver who acts like a princess, Eddy the fox, who seems to be the smartest one in the group, Pettie, another penguin, and Poby, my favorite character, who is a huge Polar Bear.

Poby couldn't harm a flea if he wanted to!  He seems to be the most easy-going in the group and never gets upset.  We could all be a little more like Poby, I suppose.

10. Prior proper planning prevents piss poor performance.

9. At least once per year, watch the sunrise in springtime.  At least once per year, watch the sunset in autumn.

Thoughts VIII

I'm still daydreaming about teaching English abroad and finding more and more of my mind wandering overseas.  Recently, I've taken on a few young students here in the good ol' US of A and have been teaching some private music lessons.  My heart tells me that teaching is my calling in life, but my mind keeps asking, "How?"

Originally, I went to college to become a music teacher and I was disillusioned by the tough years of schooling (in order to graduate in four years you need to go to summer school for three years so you can free up the final semester for student teaching), tough laws on teachers (too many lawsuits in recent years), tough odds (jobs getting cut left and right), and tough salary (I make more now than a first-year college professor!).  Even though I was never interested in the money, it seemed like the amount of time needed to get into a field that is losing its respect and admiration while slowly being removed from schools year after year.  Maybe I allowed myself to be too easily convinced that this was not for me, and maybe my professors lacked enthusiasm for the field for the same reasons.

If I could turn back the clock and talk to myself again at age 20, I would say, "Stop!  Don't go to the Administration Office and change your major; stay with it, trust me, and finish your degree in music ed."  But regrets are like water passing under the bridge- when you look back, you can't change the flow of the river of your life.  I am proud of where I am today, but I wish I had chosen to stay in education for the children, not for myself.  I love teaching, I love kids, and I have no greater joy than when I see a child succeed, see that lightbulb come on, and watch him or her achieve.

It's not too late to start again, but if I do that, I want to do it in Korea.  There would be a couple of things I need to take care of before embarking on that journey first, though.  From what I have read and in thinking long-term, I would need to prepare myself for a career, not just a one- or two-year gig.  Here are a few adjustments I think would benefit me in the long-term:

1. Learn to speak Korean better.  I can get by, but one can't just get by as a foreigner for an entire life.  If I can speak like a native, or even close to a native speaker, I can fully immerse myself in the culture and in the country.

2. Earn some sort of certification.  Whether it is a TEFL certificate, a teaching license, or some other sort of documentation, I think that this would be pretty helpful in making myself more marketable as a teacher, in addition to my experience.

3. Forget about turkey.  Turkey is my favorite food.  I could eat a turkey sandwich for lunch and a Thanksgiving feast for dinner and never grow tired of it, but turkey is hard to find in Korea, so I should prepare myself to live without it.

4. Dress better.  Men in Seoul dress impeccably!  My wife always guffaws at my outfits and asks me, "You're wearing that?!"  I like the way Koreans dress, but I usually choose my clothes for comfort, not fashion.  I would definitely need to dress better!

8. Read the bible every day.