Burning oh wait...another rainy Friday!

So yeah another rainy cloudy day. Some updates are needed. 

George is ready to take his GED but now due to this virus heading up to Seoul just seems to risky. There are a number of imported cases. Why are flights from America and other heavily hit countries not being shut down? Also some people who had to go into quarantine actually escaped the hotel they were staying at James Bond style. They used the fire escape rope to run away. WHY????

So George is revising everyday, and honing up on his weaker areas while we wait for a calm in the storm. Jeyo has hit puberty like a storm. He sticks just like I did when I was a teenage. I remember when George entered the hellish years of teenage hood. Now our youngest is as well. 

Yogita and I are busier and busier which is always good. Actually, we are fortunate. Tonight we will have a date. I think she might want Chinese food. I think I will post about the food here in Iksan. It is quite nice. Living here has been quite a change from Gunsan.

Ok time for my last class....TEENAGERS.

/tata

Note 20 around the corner.

I love my note 10+. I love the large storage, the display, note cameras have always been nice. I am not an expert on cameras. I will say though the note 8 and 10+ take very nice pictures. Much better than my LG G pro 2. Videos are clear and crisp. The 12 gigs of ram means I just load up apps I want to use with out worry. On my Ipad pro 12.9 apps just do not load when the ram is maxed. It happens really fast when I am logging into to many games to get login rewards. 

Overall I love the phone. I major gripe is durability. A phone that cost this much should be far more durable. I dropped the phone...well I actually fell down...rolled down a small hill and it gave the phone a small crack in the upper right corner of the screen. I guess it is pretty durable, The phone was note in it's case. Battery life is great after one year. I am more mindful of not completely draining the battery. At times I do not let it charge to 100%, 95% works just fine. 

The Note 20 is really tempting. However, the leaked images, and specs seems to point to really minor upgrades, with more added stuff most people do not need. 

Ok time to get started!

/tata

Odd weather in Korea

Where did the summer heat go? Last year was a scorcher. I remember on my vacation which was this week last year, it was HOT. Sunny hot humid days, with a few rainy days here and there. This is the norm for Korea. It is funny how the last week of July and the first week of August is the main vacation season. It is also the hottest. This year? We have had rainy days like late summer. Jeyo and George got soaked walking Oscar on his late walk.

Usually, this time of year we have hot humid nights. The nights are humid, but as hot as usual due to the rains we have been having. I actually like even though my body is complaining. Usually, by mid July until late August we use the AC every night. This summer we have used the AC perhaps 6 or 7 times. Many people around me do not feel that this is a strange weather pattern. I think this will be a rainy summer. Since we returned in 2013 every summer was HOT. So I am going to enjoy this as long as I can.

Anyways time to get over the hump day! Actually, this day is important in our mmorpg that we play.

/tata

We do fully understand Americans issue with corona virus

I just had a conversation with my wife. Wow, what and intelligent woman. This was sparked by watching the movie "Joy". Basically, she pointed out that we need to understand that in America things are so different with regards to how financial aid is being distributed to citizens.

In South Korea, local governments gave each family member a certain amount of money. In our area, this was about 80 bucks per head in the household. The paperwork needed was very simple. Put your name id number, address, contact number on a form. Mail it in, and sometime later you got a special card with 100,000 won credited to it.

In America, people got a stimulus that requires you to file taxes. This is not such a big deal but from what I have been reading there are so many arguments as to who should get a stimulus check if there is a second one. In Korea is goes like this: You are Korean? Check. You live in this jurisdiction? Check. Have your id numbers and contact numbers on this form. Wait and you get some aid.

In America it depends on your income, and how you file for taxes. There is a limit as well. If you earned 75000 USD, or 150000 USD or less then you are ok. That means you need to file taxes. If you made more money in 2018, and you want to fudge the numbers so that you meet the cap in 2019...good luck (not worth the risk).

I think if you are a citizen of said nation. You have a social security card, and some other basic forms of identification you should be eligible. If you can show that you have lost working hours, or need unemployment these individuals ought to get more. Basically some form of basic income during shut down periods to keep people at home. Enough to keep mortgages, rents, car payments, and other basic necessities paid for. 

Ok, what I have learned, and forgotten about living in America is IF your medical insurance, rent, bills are high (like they are in the States), you want to keep on working. If you do not then you are screwed. There are likely going to be a record number of evictions, and foreclosures because of this. Americans CAN NOT SIT IDLE AT HOME. The US government can not and will not "print" more money to just give to citizens. It can not do this and remain a major player in the world, in which many other nation's economies are run in dollars, or are pegged to the dollar. It should be noted that the States have "printed" money to bail out big business. The little people Nah not us!

This is sad but it is a reality. It seems the media is focusing on the nut jobs (a very small number). Most Americans would rather take their chances of getting sick so that they can provide for their families. The US government does not want to lose it's standing in the world. In addition and likely to be the true cause the 1% doesn't want this either. So likely South Korea and other nations have the ability to "print" currency to aid its citizens. I am very sure that is an oversimplification of the issue. Korea likely is also  "involving the buying and selling of government bonds, which are like coupons with a promise of interest" to raise money for its people. 

America's people are in a bad situation that is only going to get worse. I was in lockdown for 3 weeks. My boss did some things he did not have to do. Those measures helped me out A LOT. If I had been in lockdown longer 70% of my wages would still come to me. 

So no more post calling Americans stupid and others around the world. I think if you are at work in the states you are risking your health because most people do not have a choice in the matter. Even if the government moves to say save people from losing their homes the bill will be passed way too late. The political process in America is ... slow. Really sucks when they go on vacation with pay while others are held in limbo. This system of things is fail!

/tata

Updates....

It seems Korea has decided foreign visitors who are arriving infected with the corona virus will have to pay for their own care. Part of this decision is that Koreans overseas are having to foot the bill for their care. This sucks in so many ways. Everyone should not have to worry about paying for care for something that is a worldwide. If we do this we will end up with more people hiding their condition. Who wants to end up with an estimated 7,000 dollar hospital bill! In the States people have to pay for testing. Actually, I need to check on that. Things might have changed. If it differs by state, then I know many Americans will suffer quietly hoping they suffer only mild effects. Many live paycheck to paycheck. I am happy say I do not. However, that could change in a heart beat. Suddenly savings get chewed through in record time. Paying for coronavirus testing, and care per family member. That can easily reach 30-40,000 dollars minimum. Lost work, plus hospital fees (even in Korea they will push certain procedures you do not need). Yogita had a mild case of cystitis. They wanted to put in a catheter. She was fully mobile... That would have ended up with her being in hospital minimum overnight. It also looked like the student doctors wanted the practice.

I think we are ok for now. Gotta keep our heads down!

/tata

Working from home...

I think one thing we can all agree on. We are not prepared are another outbreak of some pathogen to which we have no immunity. Heck some illnesses such as malaria still is a big killer today. We did not learn from SARS, or MERS. They were relatively small outbreaks. It caused panic, people did implement some measures. However, we did not envision what could happen if it spread like it did over 100 years ago. We did not learn from that experience.

As a teacher we are not able to properly social distance. I actually hate that term. We need to have a system where can we use the internet to do our jobs. Of course this means the overall bandwidth needs major upgrading everywhere. Even in Korea there were major lag issues when millions of students tried to access online study materials.

Working from home removes a layer of stress. The getting to the work place. Finding a parking place. What about the weather? These are just my musings. I think we need this. I mean look at America...4 million cases. Of course many have recovered, but even among them there are lasting effects from covid-19.

ok time to start the hump day!

/tata

Indian dinner tonight!

Having little things to look forward during the week is such a nice thing. Our boys look forward to Monday because they bake with mom. I look forward to dinner on Monday. Tuesday, and Thursday I really enjoy my work schedule and even though I stay back a little late it is relaxing. Our boys really look forward to Fridays and of course the weekend. I think the reasons are obvious. For me Wednesday is a lot of fun as there is a pvp event in one game that we play. It is interesting listening to Europeans argue about how to defend our castle.

Sundays are a very laid back day. Evenings are full of documentaries, and discussions. At times our boys ask me LOADS of questions. Actually this occurs randomly during the week. Literally everyday there is something small, or major to look forward to.

When I get back to weekend drives that will change Fridays / Saturdays. Due to the pandemic I think it is best to keep things simple and close to home. Actually, Mondays are my favorite day of the week. Getting things started again feels good to me. We actually do not play PC games as much on the weekends anymore. Just some basic things to keep our um processes going. If you play Archeage you will understand what I mean.


Ok time to get classes started!

/tata

Summer heat is late this year....

Usually right after the first rainy season we get the typical hot humid weather that gets more intense. It lasts for about 6-7 weeks. (it feels longer though). After this we get the second heavier rainy season. However, while it is a bit warm it is not the typical HEAT. This week we are going to look into getting a screen door. Being able to nicely air out our apartment, and have a nice cross wind is so nice.

Ok I have to run need get some coffee!

/tata

MMORPGS making a comeback....thanks pandemic

Nowadays my wife and my boys we game more than before on the weekends. Why not? Going out side can be very risky. My boys and their friends play together actually they play moba style games. The main point is gone are hey lets go for a long drive to say Busan for the weekend. Heck I want to visit Seoul but chilling at home on a Saturday afternoon instead of driving up, or taking the bullet train to Seoul is better. Recently there have been small outbreaks in cities near us.

Ok more on the games. We have noticed that in our games there are more people online than before. Most people around the world are on lockdown. Actually, some people have gone back to work in Europe. However, they are still logging into EVE ONLINE, and Archeage. So this is pretty cool to see. In Archeage we have seen some old faces return.

Americans stay home and game! Eve online is now free to play, so is Archeage. Make some new online friends and enjoy video socializing. It is more enjoyable than you might think. So stay home and game on.

Time for Tuesday to start.

/tata

Travel these days...big changes in store for us

Ok first I really hope this does not happen as there is a possibility this fall or next year we might have to leave South Korea. Who knows?

Some ideas are that airlines will have reduce passenger loads to 50%. So just think every other seat on the plane will be empty with plastic shields separating passengers. Also masks would need to be worn on board. Along with more cleaning methods. Seriously the last time I flew they did not sanitize the plane. Just vacuumed, and replaced pillows and blankets. Hotel prices will also rise as well due to lower numbers traveling. One expert said ticket prices could rise by 50%. A huge increase. That alone will likely keep people traveling locally rather than flying.

I wonder if governments will step in with some form of support for airlines.

Well it was July 4th American independence day and you would be able to tell there is a major pandemic that killed over 135,000 people. Of course that number is likely to be higher. Many people did not get tested and died in their homes. These numbers were not counted and to be frank most States do not want those numbers counted.

ok gotta go

/tata