Saturday

Thoughts & Sayings (July 2012)

Here are some thoughts and sayings I posted on Twitter and/or Facebook in June. To my knowledge, I made these up (for better or for worse). Sit back, relax, and enjoy the write!

Encouraging Words

1. Whenever life seems to have no purpose, I lecture it about getting motivated.

2. Happy Monday! I don’t know why I’m happy to start a work week, but I wish it would stop.

3. Being flawed is a prerequisite to being appreciated for something you’ve done well.

4. The word “momentum” begins with a flash and ends with a pause.

5. If only life had a breaker panel where you could flip a switch when you’re overloaded and ready to short circuit.

6. Friends come and go. Sometimes I wish they would sit and stay for a while.

Twisted Words

7. Why does the word “Saturday” begin with “sat” when most people are out and about enjoying the weekend?

8. The world doesn’t owe you a scent. You have to excrete it yourself.

9. A round dog with a tough exterior but a soft demeanor is a melon collie.

10. I don’t know what on Earth is going on. Thank heavens I’m well-grounded because I’m feeling spacy.

Holidays & Events

11. May annoys June because she always finishes first and is much too flowery.

12. It’s ironic that Father’s Day falls on a Sonday.

13. The financial markets are bloated because they digested too much Greece.

14. Rumor has it that the sequel to the movie Prometheus will be called “Icarus” and will feature a group of scientists searching for the origin of mankind that discovers that humanity was actually created by a violent, warlike group of human beings. Word has it that the film will be set on Earth.

Random Musings

15. A week is an artificial construct. Thank goodness someone invented weekends.

16. At this moment, millions of people are spending quality time with their tech gadgets.

17. The drawback to multitasking is that you can only finish one task at a time.

18. It’s been so long since statesmen ran our country that no one’s bothered to make the word gender neutral.

19. I drive faster in America because I use kilometers.

20. One of the most difficult travel decisions is deciding whether to consume or throw out perishable food before leaving on a trip.

21. Do Slovaks write Czechs?

Click here to read the previous batch of Thoughts and Sayings.

M.G. Edwards is a writer of books and stories in the mystery, thriller and science fiction-fantasy genres. He also writes travel adventures. He is author of Kilimanjaro: One Man’s Quest to Go Over the Hill, a non-fiction account of his attempt to summit Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest mountain and a collection of short stories called Real Dreams: Thirty Years of Short Stories. His books are available as an e-book and in print on Amazon.com and other booksellers. He lives in Bangkok, Thailand with his wife Jing and son Alex.

For more books or stories by M.G. Edwards, visit his web site at www.mgedwards.com or his blog, World Adventurers. Contact him at me@mgedwards.com, on Facebook, on Google+, or @m_g_edwards on Twitter.

Pre-China Trip Clutter

Much as I try, life always seems too cluttered. I sit here tonight typing amidst a pile of things to do to prepare for our trip to Shanghai, China on Saturday. Every time life seems to cool down, it suddenly shifts into high gear and becomes too hectic. One of these days I would really like to jump off this crazy merry-go-round. My new mantra is “Vive el Paraguay!” I’ve heard that Paraguay, my next assigned location, offers a much slower pace of life than Korea does. As my predecessor told me by e-mail (we’ve been in contact), “bring lots of reading material [to Paraguay].” Somehow I wish that were true. I’ll believe it when it happens, after I’ve made it through four books in four weeks. I’m sure I will somehow find a way to make myself too busy to chill out–even in Paraguay. It’s in my nature to do more than I have time to do.

I am really looking forward my first trip outside Korea since I arrived early last year. First I have to wade through annoying trip planning. Perhaps the worst part of any trip is the advance planning and preparation. It’s more than suitcase packing. It’s the little things like making sure your medical insurance covers you in exotic locations and putting together a photo album for the family back home. It’s the plane tickets, passports, visas, bill paying, activity planning, transportation arrangements, electricity conversion, emergency planning, cash reserves build up, closure at work, fridge emptying–you name it. Anyone who’s planned a multi-week trip away from home can relate to the grind of pre-trip planning and preparation.

China isn’t actually going to be a vacation for me. I will work in Shanghai for about two weeks while my family is on vacation. Fortunately, I can take time out on the weekends to have some fun. On Sunday I will visit Thames Town, a new, unbelievable development reminiscent of Merry Ol’ England located in the suburbs of Shanghai. The following weekend my wife, son, and I will take a short trip to Xi’an, home to the famous terracotta warriors. As we have spent most of our time in the eastern half of China, I’m looking forward to seeing the Chinese Interior for the first time. I don’t know how much time I will have to write during my journey in China, but I will post as frequently as I can. Photos will follow when I return to Korea.

Power Outage

A freakish storm came through here last night, knocking out power in our area. It also dropped the temperature down to about 14 degrees F. The wind was harsh, and the windows in our apartment are ill-fitted to stop the cold from seeping in. The power went off temporarily at about 10 p.m. and then came back on for about an hour before going off again for another 10 hours. Before the power went off I found a battery-powered clock my sister had given me for my birthday, and I set it up so that it would wake me up just in case the power failed again (which it did). I didn’t know whether the power would fail again, but sure enough this morning we had no power. The apartment hall lights and elevators were working, backed up by a backup power generator. However, the rest of the building was dark and cold.

I still went to work today. I decided to leave our car with my wife in case she needed to evacuate the family to a warmer place–like a nearby mall. Thus I had to use mass transportation to get to work. I caught the apartment shuttle to the Metro station, then took the Metro to another shuttle that then took me to work. Easy enough, but unfortunately a train had stalled on the Blue/Yellow line, causing significant delays. I was absolutely freezing waiting on the platform for the train to arrive. 14 degrees isn’t extremely cold, but after Saturday’s balmy weather it was a shock to my system. Everyone waited in huddled masses for the train, and once it arrived we crammed into it Tokyo-style. I’ve never been on such a crowded Metro train before. I held my breath and finally made it to my destination, catching the shuttle to work. After that I was fine until the power went off at work. I thought, “Oh no, here we go again!” Fortunately, the power came back on about an hour later.

My wife picked me up after work, and we ran Christmas errands. I missed that car! We shopped for presents, delivered a Christmas gift to someone, and waited an hour at the post office to mail our Christmas presents to loved ones. Christmas is the one time of the year when everyone waits at the post office in pressure-cooker fashion and yet manages to be polite and cordial to one another. Waiting at the post office to mail packages made me wonder whether e-tailing would really do away with in-store shopping. I talked to a store clerk last weekend who mentioned that Christmas sales were down because more people were shopping online. I still saw a lot of people shopping for Christmas the old fashioned way. As for me, I bought one gift online this Christmas, but for the most part I went the traditional route and went to the mall and factory outlet stores. I limited my gift card purchases to two. It just hasn’t been a good year this year for me to exercise creativity (too busy).

D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams and Council Chair Linda Cropp met today to discuss stadium financing options for the Washington National baseball club. It sounds promising; hopefully they can broker a deal before Christmas that will bring the club to Washington, D.C. The next time I return to D.C. I hope to watch baseball in their new ballpark.