Please Fasten Your Seatbelt…

…we are expecting some mild turbulence ahead.

Been awhile since my last real update, so here we go.

Suddenly, job security has become iffy around these parts. In addition to moving to a new school, we’re losing at least 100 students (out of about 600). I also got some “insider” information that the school’s open house to recruit new students “went really bad.” This info came about from a rather intoxicated co-worker who was there that day. Naturally, the preceding statement was, “I’m not supposed to tell you this, but…” Two of my coworkers, both near the end of their respective contracts, had their hours and pay cut back to the tune of about $700 a month, in an attempt to save some money.

Well, I’m planning on being here for at least two years, so I’m not going to let my life goals be sidetracked or temporarily derailed by circumstances beyond my control. Inasmuch as I can help it, that is. I figure as long as North Korea keeps their troops and weaponry on the other side of the DMZ (or NLL, Northern Limitation Line), I should be OK, but I have to get out ahead of this and do what’s best for me. As the days roll on, I’m doing my best just to work hard and keep up with each and every deadline that I come across, stay off the radar, survive and advance.

In other news, it’s December in Korea and even on the other side of the world, I can’t escape Christmas. I have at least three good reasons for my general “Bah humbug” philosophy to the holiday:

  1. I believe my birthday to be infinitely more important than Jesus’s.
  2. Natural jealously from being born Jewish. Christmas is pretty much way better than any Jewish holiday, and you are even allowed to eat ham at the meal.
  3. I worked in retail for 7 years.
  4. And finally, the holiday has gotten out of control. It’s a good thing there is a “War on Christmas” because pretty soon Santa will be backing his fat ass back into Labor Day.

Hmm, one more reason and I’ll have a nifty little “Top 5” list. I’m sure I can think of another reason. That said, I’ll be attending Santacon 2011, which is a bar crawl in Seoul, to be completed dressed as, you guessed it, Santa. I figure that getting tanked while dressed as Santa is probably subversive enough to offset my hatred of the big guy.

For any and all interested, I’ve also begun a new blog: Dooley-isms. It’s a good way to continue my Vol-obsession without devoting a whole lot of time to it. For those of you who are unaware, Tennessee’s new football coach, Derek Dooley, is more or less a genius. He’s good for an average of one or two comedic gems every single time he sits down for a press conference or interview, and this is my attempt to catalog the best of the best. Since starting this blog, several other blogs, and my former college employer, The Daily Beacon, have issued their own versions of Dooley-isms. The interwebs work fast, and while I have no way of knowing whether they were inspired by me directly, it does seem mighty coincidental.