Comments Posted By John McCrarey
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Kev, yes, I do seem to recall a lot of my teachers didn’t seem to enjoy having a student like me. Go figure. But what you call lazy, I see as being creative! Or maybe I’m just channeling Frank Sinatra.
» Posted By John McCrarey On 24/March/2025 @ 10:39 am
Kev, yes, she is a sweet woman with a nice sense of humor. I would have enjoyed getting to know her outside of work under different circumstances. Despite a lifetime of misbehavior, I never violated the HR Golden Rule about not dipping your pen in company ink. Hmm, now that I think about it, I did engage a couple of co-workers during my career, but none who worked under me, so to speak.
An end-of-the-world movie, for sure.
I wouldn’t make a special trip to Manila to walk with them, but would probably join in if I happened to be there. Even on flat ground, I tend to max out at around 12K.
» Posted By John McCrarey On 23/March/2025 @ 8:43 am
Kev, yeah, it was a shitty joke, for sure. When you are making up words it just seems to make sense for it to “sound” the way you intended. Hence, my crappy play on die arria.
» Posted By John McCrarey On 23/March/2025 @ 8:37 am
Brian, Probably. I usually only attend once a month or so. I’m not sure what’s going on with the bar biz these days, but with just a couple of exceptions, the bars are quiet. Of course, new venues keep opening and the expat community is not growing enough to support them all.
» Posted By John McCrarey On 23/March/2025 @ 8:34 am
Kev, I’d be scared to eat a chicken that looked like that!
Damn, I should have copyrighted that poem and got me some Star Wars royalties. And yes, I noticed that I didn’t know how to spell “sergeant” back then. Still don’t, but now I have a spellchecker!
Geez, so many obvious mistakes in that meme that even I can spot them. At first glance, drivers need apostrophes. Needs punctuation after down (semicolon?). Missing apostrophe in both “shes.” Needs a period after road. The last sentence should end with a question mark. That’s not how I’d spell “fuckin’,” but maybe that’s a Brit anomaly.
We’ll see how lucky I am. Hopefully, there’s a long way to go before I find out.
» Posted By John McCrarey On 22/March/2025 @ 9:53 am
Mike, The diet seems to working. And if I were going to eat pizza, it would be something good like Shakey’s.
» Posted By John McCrarey On 22/March/2025 @ 9:32 am
Terry, I’m not sure. Maybe it was because her Aunt Flo from Redlands was visiting.
» Posted By John McCrarey On 22/March/2025 @ 9:31 am
Brian, Wow. Talk about not wanting your business! There were places in Korea with signage saying “no foreigners” but to be treated rudely by the bartender like that is bizarre.
» Posted By John McCrarey On 23/March/2025 @ 8:35 am
I don’t know the app being used (GPS?) but these are just dirt paths in the middle of nowhere, I don’t think it provides the level of detail you’d need to see them.
The natives have all been friendly. So far.
» Posted By John McCrarey On 22/March/2025 @ 9:56 am
Brian, when I used to go to casinos, the gamblers love Ireland…they were always shouting “Dublin or nothin'”
I would love to hear the story about that “most unfriendly bar.”
» Posted By John McCrarey On 22/March/2025 @ 9:30 am
Brian, Ha! You picked up on that, eh? Yeah, in several posts I made during my first few months in Korea I talked about resisting the transition to the bar life. Obviously, I failed. It started with pool league, then darts, and the next thing I knew, bars became my go-to activity. I’ve certainly exceeded my father’s level of bar mania. I guess there is no escaping my Irish heritage.
» Posted By John McCrarey On 21/March/2025 @ 10:19 am
Kev, the typos are bad enough, but the fact that my so-called proofreading misses them is downright scary.
I don’t do the maps, but they are not detailed enough to show which is the right path to take. Our wrong turns were pretty much in the right direction; they just didn’t lead to where we were going. The correct trail was invisible unless you knew where it was. In this case, you have to hop a creek and turn left before you can see it. So, next time, we’ll be sure to go up the proverbial creek!
The Hash trails are all marked in advance, our group hikes are more of an exploration. We don’t like getting lost, but that’s part of the adventure, and we accept it when it happens. Nobody’s fault, just one of those days.
That’s one of my “jokes” about meeting a woman here in the PI: Me: Where have you been all my life? Her: Um, most of it not born.
The blood test results were good news! I’ll post about that today. I’m going to reduce my chelation schedule to every other month and see how that works out for me.
» Posted By John McCrarey On 21/March/2025 @ 10:15 am
Sorry, Koko. The name doesn’t ring a bell. Why don’t you remind me how we met.
» Posted By John McCrarey On 20/March/2025 @ 9:54 am
Kev, Yep, there are a lot of crazies out there these days. It is entertaining to see some of the shit they post.
I turned right on the neighborhood walk like I usually do. Oddly enough, I decided I’d go the left route next time, and that was BEFORE I read your comment. I guess that’s cat-like reflexes, eh?
As hard as it may be to believe, I write this blog when sober. Of course, my brain damage makes it difficult to tell the difference.
There is nothing else to come from the eye doctor; I just need to schedule the cataract surgery. I’m going to have my blood work done this morning to see how I’m doing these days.
» Posted By John McCrarey On 20/March/2025 @ 9:50 am
Kev, I remember taking a shady refuge under the bridges back in my Han River walking days. The infrastructure here makes bridges like that few and far between.
Nope, no glamping allowed! I was surprised to see that visitors are supposed to exit no later than 6 p.m. Our Hash circle wasn’t over until six-thirty, but no one bothered us.
Yeah, I was thinking that joke was overly familiar, but had forgotten about you pointing out the fallacy of its premise. Forgive my trespasses! I blame my diminished brain capacity.
Well, I’ve often thought when people say, “This tastes like shit,” how they know what shit tastes like. Maybe tasting for cleanliness is the answer.
Yeah, I was thinking that joke was overly familiar, but had forgotten about you pointing out the fallacy of its premise. Forgive my trespasses! I blame my diminished brain capacity.
» Posted By John McCrarey On 19/March/2025 @ 3:50 pm
Brian, I think that nails it: people who come here and try and live on the bare minimum are unable to adjust to any increase in expenses, even common occurrences like inflation or unfavorable exchange rates. Glad I’m not one of them!
I think the reason I don’t see much of the financial crisis types is that Barretto is moderately more expensive to begin with, so those with low incomes tend to live in cheaper province communities. I’ve seen more people die here than bail. People do leave occasionally for health issues and others just get tired of the lifestyle. Me, I never want to go back to that old life.
My US health insurance (Blue Cross) isn’t accepted by providers here, so I’m in that pay now, get reimbursed later group. I have a credit care good for $15,000 in case of emergency. I hope I’m never in a situation like colleague where I have to use it.
I’ve not personally known anyone doing the fundraiser thing, but I’ve seen on the forums I frequent mostly contempt from other expats too those who need to go that route.
» Posted By John McCrarey On 19/March/2025 @ 3:38 pm
Weird. I had no indication that was happening. Sorry! It might be my spam filter overreacting. I’ll see if there is a way I an adjust it.
UPDATE: Okay, I just found your comment from yesterday in the spam box. I rescued it and it is no visable. I’ll respond soon.
» Posted By John McCrarey On 19/March/2025 @ 2:08 pm
Damn, that muscle-bound Jesus looks heavenly!
It doesn’t snow here, but in rainy season the algae grows on hard surfaces and makes them as slippery as ice.
Okay, I had to look up Cerberus. That’s definitely the hound from mailman hell!
The guy on the mountaintop with me also worked for 8th Army. I don’t recall his name now.
If the water in Mimir’s well was beer, I’d be the wisest man alive!
» Posted By John McCrarey On 18/March/2025 @ 10:10 am
Kev, I read a link with the same info AI gave you. I need to see my way clear to cataract removal surgery!
I used “infamous” in the context of Balibago’s famed “entertainment.” That’s another name for prostitution and whore bars.
Yes, we were supposed to clean our plates because “people in China were starving.” We weren’t allowed to leave the table with unfinished food on our plates. I could handle that unless my mom served liver and onions. I still cringe just thinking about the taste of cow liver. We were poor, and it was cheap, so it was a frequent meal. I learned to sneak the meat to our dog when no one was looking.
No, I missed the eclipse the night before. I hadn’t heard about it beforehand.
Damn, I was spelling bad even before my brain turned into a potato.
Yes, I will likely have the surgery at Baypointe Hospital in Olongapo; that’s where I had the right eye done.
» Posted By John McCrarey On 17/March/2025 @ 9:25 am
Brian, I had the cataract in my right eye removed a couple of years ago in Olongapo without issue. When I decide to pull the trigger, I’ll likely do it there again. My left eye is useless now, so even a fuck up won’t make it much worse. Unless I don’t wake up.
» Posted By John McCrarey On 17/March/2025 @ 9:13 am
No, Corona is not hostile. Even Subic calls us shortcutters names like wimps and cripples. Corona takes pride in laying hard and, in my opinion, dangerous trails, and that’s fine since that’s what they are all about. I just choose not to participate. I’m here this year because our Subic Outstation Run on Monday is relatively nearby in Floridablanca, I had an ophthalmologist appointment here yesterday, and I’ll join in the Angeles Hash this afternoon. I’m sure I’ll be back to AC a couple of times a year in the future for the Angeles Hash events.
» Posted By John McCrarey On 16/March/2025 @ 11:43 am
Kev, yeah, that’s one of the reasons I wouldn’t want to try and buy a house here–you can’t own the land it sits on. Some folks go the “fifty-year leasehold” route. Others put the land in the name of a Filipino (wife or girlfriend usually), but that can come back and bite you hard as well. For a business, you can incorporate, but a Filipino has to control 51% of the company.
I did indeed mess up the writing on the wall. A lot of my mistakes are just sloppiness, but ignorance played a part in this one. I guess “are” sounded right in my head, so I went with it and didn’t look back. I’ll try to avoid that mistake in the future. Thanks for the lesson, it all makes sense.
I would rather have tried the Banoffee pie than indulge in the wasted calories in a banana split. Oh well, another day, another time.
Yep, that Mexican platter was carb-tastically delicious! I have no regrets about that; who knows when I’ll be back to Tequila Reef!
I don’t intentionally undercount calories and sometimes wonder if I’ve overcounted. My calorie tracker has a search function to look up foods. As you might expect, the calorie counts are all over the map. I usually take the middle ground. Portion size is also a factor, but again, I strive to get that right. That dinner platter came out like this: taco: 140 cals, enchilada: 198 cals, refried beans 0.5 cup (I didn’t eat them all): 110 cals, Spanish rice 0.5 cup: 240 cals. The banana split was 340 calories.
And So BEGINS the task: a typo and more sloppy proofreading.
Not really sure why, but the Subic Hashers don’t tend to travel like other groups do. There is a large contingent of La Union Hashers here for example. Part of it may be the Subic guys are mostly old like me, and Corona has made it clear that our unwillingness to risk life and limb makes us unwelcome.
» Posted By John McCrarey On 16/March/2025 @ 8:51 am
Kev, Swan is already in her old age…I mean, seriously, she turned 40 last year!
Walter Lee McCrarey and Kevin Lee McCrarey. I’m the John Mark in the group.
» Posted By John McCrarey On 15/March/2025 @ 8:40 am
The beer part sounds good. I’ll take you up on that. Care to join me on the Kokomo’s floating bar?
» Posted By John McCrarey On 18/March/2025 @ 4:20 pm
A temporary injunction is not the same as a finding of fact. Maybe you shouldn’t be so quick with your calling me ignorant. Just sayin’.
» Posted By John McCrarey On 18/March/2025 @ 1:21 pm
Except Trump has been proven to have done anything blatantly illegal, so by your reasoning, that makes me right. I knew it!
» Posted By John McCrarey On 18/March/2025 @ 10:11 am
Sorry to be such a disappointment to you, Drain. The simple fact of the matter is that I am not a Trump lover, but I like him better than the alternative choices I’ve been presented. In 2016, I had to choose between a crook and a clown. I took the clown. In 2020, it was Trump or a senile old man. Easy choice for me, and you saw what Biden did to the country. This go round, we had the ignorant idiot Kamala or Trump, again, a no-brainer.
The American people overwhelming chose Trump. Recent polls have his approval at 54%, so that puts you in the minority. But I’m the stupid one. That’s okay, Trump has done nothing so far that I don’t support wholeheartedly. You don’t have to agree with me, but that doesn’t make me wrong.
» Posted By John McCrarey On 17/March/2025 @ 9:35 am
DS, Ah, that’s right. It’s okay when your side does it. How did I forget that? Anyway, the American people have spoken and have the leader they wanted. If he oversteps, the courts will rein him in. I suspect the lower court judgment you are so excited about will not withstand the inevitable appeal. I am confident the Supreme Court will uphold the Executive Branch Constitutional standing to run the government bureaucracy as it sees fit.
» Posted By John McCrarey On 16/March/2025 @ 8:56 am
Brian, ah, first I’d heard of Roosevelt National Park. Good to know! I guess Capitol kind of qualifies based on all the National Monuments and landmarks in Washington, DC.
» Posted By John McCrarey On 15/March/2025 @ 8:59 am
«« Back To Stats PageDS, there is no point in arguing about this with you, because if you can’t see the lawfare that was used against MAGA folk, nothing is going to change your mind. ANTIFA and BLM burn down cities, that’s a mostly peaceful protest. Trespass at the the Capitol, your are an insurrectionist.
I’m not concerned with what an Obama-appointed District Court judge has to say. We’ll see what happens on appeal. Probationary employees are by definition probationary and can be terminated with or without cause. Career employees have appeal rights and removal must be based on “just cause.” I had my share of success firing the incompetents and thieves during my federal HR career. What’s your experience?
We agree on Duterte.
» Posted By John McCrarey On 15/March/2025 @ 8:56 am