That’s all she wrote

Posted on 18/July/2015 by John McCrarey

Here’s a book I could have written:

Wasting time getting wasted. The story of my life…

Speaking of wasted time, I learned my friend Jeremy Frye has been sentenced to four years in prison. I actually expected he’d get at least ten years, so I guess that’s a small blessing. The consequences of this fucked up mess are a sad thing to behold. One man is dead and the other is facing a bleak future. Certainly Jeremy can expect to be deported when he completes his sentence and with a criminal record I doubt he’ll find work back home or anywhere else teaching. Jeremy is a smart man who is paying a terrible price for his ill-fated attempt to be chivalrous. It’s all such a waste.

Thanks for the darts buddy. I guess those days are gone forever now.

A new outlook

Posted on 15/July/2015 by John McCrarey

Today I made it over the hump of week three of my life of re-employment. I also gained access to the outlook email network which should facilitate my boss assigning me tasks more efficiently and effectively.

My self-assessment is that I need to buckle down and spend my time more productively. I’ve put “avoid procrastination” at the top of my to-do list. I plan to start in on that tomorrow.

An intervention and my legacy

Posted on 14/July/2015 by John McCrarey

I’ve mentioned before about the interesting people I meet as I socialize in the bars of Itaewon. In fact, I actually enjoy the company of almost everyone I meet. But inevitably there’s always the exception to the rule.

Friday evening I was on the back deck of Shenanigans with a friend from work and these two 20-something guys came out and sat in our proximity. It was early, maybe 5:30 or so and they were already in a highly intoxicated state. One of them (his name is Mike as I recall) out of the blue asked me to tell a joke. The request struck me as somewhat odd, but I have accumulated a rather large repertoire of humorous (admittedly, that’s a matter of opinion) anecdotes over the years, so I let one fly. He laughed hardily, but then drunks are a pretty easy audience to please. He reciprocated with a “joke” so horrible that I immediately erased it from my consciousness. Suffice to say it was some sick and twisted thing involving infant pedophilia. My friend had the same reaction. We gave each a what the fuck look, and hustled back inside the bar wanting nothing more to do with our new found “friends”.

So Monday evening I’m sitting at the bar in Shenanigans and Mike comes into the bar. He fiddled around with his phone for a bit, asked someone how to spell “psychiatrist” and then to my chagrin he plopped himself down on the bar stool next to mine. He asked me if I remembered him and I reluctantly admitted that I did. He then said “do you mind if I tell you something?” I shrugged and said go ahead, thinking odds were high I’d regret it. And then he laid it on me.

“There’s something wrong with me. I mean inside my head.” Mike told me solemnly. “I need to see a psychiatrist and get on some meds or something.” Despite our brief acquaintance I found myself nodding in agreement. All those years of HR training kicked in I suppose because I felt an obligation to ask him if he was thinking of hurting himself. He told me yes, and said that he had beat himself up that morning. And then he showed me his arms covered in fresh bruises. So then I gave him the speech. “How old are you? I asked and he responded “27”. I said “Dude, you’ve got your whole life ahead of you, and whatever is going on with you right now, is going to pass. It may not feel that way now, but if you get some help you will get through this”. He told me he had quit his Hagwon job that morning (pretty scary to think of him around kids, right?) and that his parents would be so disappointed in him. I told him that if he did something stupid and irrevocable like suicide they’d be a lot more than disappointed. I asked him what his plans were, and he told me he was flying to Thailand on Wednesday. I’m not sure how good that plan is, but he said he has a friend there, and now that he is jobless in Korea he doesn’t have many options I suppose. So, I made him promise that he’d visit a shrink when he arrived and I advised him to stay away from ladyboys (I refrained from saying “and children” given the circumstances).

It was time for me to leave for darts and he thanked me for hearing him out. I took a piss and came back and asked him what his money situation was. “I’m dead broke” he told me. I gave him a W50,000 note, wished him luck, and left. And yeah, that was probably stupid on my part, but I felt better for having done it. The rest is up to him. I don’t expect or particularly want to ever see Mike again, but I also don’t want to read about another expat suicide. I’ve been in those dark places myself so I hope he finds his way out.

And I’m ok with that. When you get to be my age you realize that possibilities are no longer limitless. And that is sometimes depressing. Which to me makes wanting to kill yourself at 27 insane. As we used to say back in the day “keep on truckin'”.

Access denied

Posted on 12/July/2015 by John McCrarey

Bali balio

Posted on 11/July/2015 by John McCrarey

In celebration of ten years of blogging here at LTG, each week for the next 52 51 50 49 ~~48 47~~ 46 45 44 43 42 41 40 39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 3029 28 27 26 25 24 weeks I will delve deep into the ~~sewer~~ archives of past posts to bring you a tidbit of blog history. I had originally planned to call this series “The best of LTG”, but damn, there just wasn’t much “best” to be found. And mediocre is too hard to spell.)

Six years ago found me in paradise. Bali to be precise. It just may be the best place I’ve ever been. I wrote about the trip here, here, here, here, and here. Oh yeah, and also here and here. And finally here, although actually the links are in reverse order, so the finally is really the first day of the journey. And don’t worry, it’s almost all photographs. The beauty of Bali speaks for itself. Here are a few of my favorites:

The moon rises…

And the sun sets…

The food was amazing and incredibly cheap..

Beach side..

Pool side…

Mountain side…

Fire side…

Bats and balls…

Indonesian girls are beautiful…

…but dangerous when provoked…

Dressing like the locals, somehow it felt sarong.

Shrines abounded…

The natives were restless…

That was the spiciest dish I ever did eat. Two big bears to put out the fire in my mouth...

That was the spiciest dish I ever did eat. Two big beers to put out the fire in my mouth…

Moutain side lodging in a 1930s resort. It was like going back in time…

On the streets of Ubud…

The beer was cold and the weather was hot. Who can ask for anything more?

Tuesday sucks

Posted on 07/July/2015 by John McCrarey

And I blame it on Monday.

But back to Monday. As regular readers might recall I’ve been running the Dillinger’s dart tourney on Monday night. Which is no big deal since I’d be playing in it regardless. Last night we had a dart league meeting immediately preceding the tournament, and it ran over so we started about 45 minutes late. And as sometimes happens the matches seemed to all run long. So by the time the finals rolled around it was midnight. That 0530 alarm was ringing in my head and I was in danger of missing the last bus home. Having qualified for the finals, I suggested to the other team that we split the pot 50-50 and call it a night (the pot was W100,000; divided 60/40 for first and second place). One of the guys said let’s play the first game anyway. I responded that I didn’t care about the W10,000 so we’d just go ahead and give them the first place money outright. I was explaining this to my partner and the other guy started screaming “It’s not my problem you have to get up at 5:30 so stop being an asshole by trying to make me out to be a dick!”. Well, I figured he was doing a perfectly fine job of being a dick all on his own, so I just handed him his W60,000. And he declined to accept more than W50,000. So I still can’t figure out what his anger was all about, but it was a buzz killer.

I did in fact miss the last bus, and arrived home by cab shortly before 0100 in a foul mood. Was rude to the wife and went straight to bed. I woke up tired when the alarm rang and was tired all day long. Now I’ve apologized to the wife, had a nap, ate some baby back ribs along with corn-on-the-cob, and wrote this post. Starting to feel like I’m getting back to normal.

Wednesday will be a much finer day, I’m sure of it.

Shopping spree

Posted on 05/July/2015 by John McCrarey

Today Jee Yeun accompanied me to the commissary. I spent $297 on groceries. Not saying those two events are connected, but…

Well, we were ought of everything. So I loaded up on steaks and ground beef. And then Jee Yeun wanted a 25 pound sack of rice. No way we were going to carry that home on the bus, so I knew we were in for a taxi ride. At that point I just threw caution to the wind and purchased everything that caught my fancy.

I don’t think the on base taxi drivers like to haul people long distances, and I expect that Giruem-dong qualifies in that regard. I told the driver we’d tip well for whatever inconvenience the trip might cause, but I couldn’t tell if that was to his satisfaction or not. Well, fuck it, it’s his job so I wasn’t going to fret about it overmuch. The meter said W11,000 when we arrived and he did help us unload a trunk full of food. I gave him W22,000 and he seemed happy with that. As Jee Yeun noted, the savings on the rice alone more than paid for the cab. So there’s that.

Untitled post

Posted on 05/July/2015 by John McCrarey

This past week I flowed into DEERS, got my CAC, registered in DBIDS and submitted my SAAR. Now I have full access to all the amenities on the Army post, although I’m still awaiting approval to utilize the NIPRNet. Perhaps tomorrow.

I was also successful in getting Jee Yeun base access. The first thing she did when she got her ID card was to go to the PX. The second thing she did was ask for an increase in her allowance. I told my boss I might not be able to afford working again.

It was a short week given that Friday was a holiday (my first paid holiday in over four years). And without network access there was much “real” work I could accomplish. I’ve gotten most of the in-processing stuff out of the way though. Still need to attend a security briefing and register at the base hospital.

I was granted a rather spacious cubicle…

In other news, Dolce Vita has thrown in the towel on their long running Friday night dart tourneys. Competition in other places pretty much did them in. I remained loyal until the end with DV, but this week I found myself in the belly of the beast at Sin Bin Sports Pub. My partner and I made it to the finals undefeated but that took until after midnight. We were both tired and ready to call it a night so we agreed to not play the finals and split the winnings for 1st and 2nd place 50-50. Heh, a win-win if you will.

Last night found me out with some friends from the UK to celebrate a birthday. Not America’s, a guy from Wales. Still, I reminded him that he wasn’t the only one with a birthday! Actually had a grand time. Did some drinking at Shenanigans, then galbi at a place I had tried before (tasty enough, but the portions seemed small), and then we finished the festivities at Dolce Vita. A nice night.

My Brit friends were very gracious in their Independence Day comments. Turns out, they even have a July 4 in the UK. Who knew?

Now I’m fixing to head out to the commissary to restock the cabinets and fridge which have been severely depleted during my working hiatus. This time Jee Yeun will be able to accompany me which should reduce the pain-in-the-ass factor by half.

And that’s my story.

The Blue and the Gray

Posted on 01/July/2015 by John McCrarey

I’ve been doing some of my “best” blogging in the comments section over at Kevin Kim’s blog. We’re having a discussion on the issues surrounding the Confederate battle flag that have been so much in the news and on the internet of late. We both agree that given how that flag has been appropriated by haters and racists it is not appropriate for it to be given any sanctioning by being displayed on government property.

But I draw the line at disrespecting the memory of the soldiers who fought and died for their state, irrespective of the wrongness of the cause for which they were called to fight.

This old poem pretty much captures my feelings in that regard:

The Blue And The Gray
Francis Miles Finch (1827-1907)

By the flow of the inland river,
Whence the fleets of iron have fled,
Where the blades of the grave-grass quiver,
Asleep are the ranks of the dead:
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgment-day;
Under the one, the Blue,
Under the other, the Gray

These in the robings of glory,
Those in the gloom of defeat,
All with the battle-blood gory,
In the dusk of eternity meet:
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgement-day
Under the laurel, the Blue,
Under the willow, the Gray.

From the silence of sorrowful hours
The desolate mourners go,
Lovingly laden with flowers
Alike for the friend and the foe;
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgement-day;
Under the roses, the Blue,
Under the lilies, the Gray.

So with an equal splendor,
The morning sun-rays fall,
With a touch impartially tender,
On the blossoms blooming for all:
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgment-day;
Broidered with gold, the Blue,
Mellowed with gold, the Gray.

So, when the summer calleth,
On forest and field of grain,
With an equal murmur falleth
The cooling drip of the rain:
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgment -day,
Wet with the rain, the Blue
Wet with the rain, the Gray.

Sadly, but not with upbraiding,
The generous deed was done,
In the storm of the years that are fading
No braver battle was won:
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgment-day;
Under the blossoms, the Blue,
Under the garlands, the Gray

No more shall the war cry sever,
Or the winding rivers be red;
They banish our anger forever
When they laurel the graves of our dead!
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgment-day,
Love and tears for the Blue,
Tears and love for the Gray.

Yankee Doodle Dandy

Posted on 01/July/2015 by John McCrarey

In celebration of ten years of blogging here at LTG, each week for the next 52 51 50 49 ~~48 47~~ 46 45 44 43 42 41 40 39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30 29 28 27 26 25 weeks I will delve deep into the ~~sewer~~ archives of past posts to bring you a tidbit of blog history. I had originally planned to call this series “The best of LTG”, but damn, there just wasn’t much “best” to be found. And mediocre is too hard to spell.)

Ten years ago I celebrated ~~the anniversary of telling the British Empire to go fuck themselves~~ Independence Day with my first ever social event in Korea. I wrote about it in a post called “Party time”. Had some Army buddies over along with some Korean friends and we had us a grand old time. Lots of pictures from those days of innocence at the link. Food porn as Kevin Kim would call it.

Orient nation

Posted on 30/June/2015 by John McCrarey

Oh boy. Here’s how my week has gone so far.

I tried to go to bed early on Sunday night so I’d be bright tailed and bushy eyed for my first day at work. Instead I was treated to the incessant rat-a-tat-tat of a jack hammer coming from the street construction nineteen floors beneath me. The worked stopped (or I fell asleep) at around 2:00 a.m.

My otherwise worthless phone did manage to wake me at the appointed time. The crappy phone is dumber than my old flip phone. Wireless won’t open and the data network moves at such an excruciatingly slow pace as to render it unusable. Second time I’ve had this problem. Jee Yeun is down at the Samsung store as I write trying to get a replacement phone. Failing that, I’ll have to buy a new one and eat the penalty on the contract we signed when I bought the Edsel of handphones. UPDATE: Jee Yeun came home with a new and nicer phone, and only paid a W50,000 penalty. She’s quite the negotiator!

I still had a darts tournament to run in Itaewon. I elected to take a cab into town because I had somehow managed to develop an embarrassing (and painful) diaper rash and the top of my thighs. Ballsy of me, I know. Heat and friction, a tortuous combination for sure.

Finished second in the tourney, hightailed it out of there and caught the 110B bus home, arriving a little after midnight. Put on some diaper rash ointment and hit the sack. Only to wake up tired four and a half hours later.

I’m still tired. Too tired to write about day 2. Suffice to say it involved a lot less walking.

Jobs

Posted on 28/June/2015 by John McCrarey

And I’m not talking about Steve.

Vacation is just about over. The alarm will ring at 0530 tomorrow morning and I will begin my new old life as a worker bee after a lengthy hiatus as a retiree. Do I still have what it takes? I admit it is of some concern since I’ve been out of the game so long. But I’ll take comfort in the warm embrace of cliches–fish to water, riding a bike, etc.

My impending re-employment has also led me to think about all the other jobs I’ve done in my lifetime. If memory serves there’s been 25 occupations all told. Here’s a brief rundown:

1. Paper Boy, Westminster, CA (1967) Hell of a lot of responsibility for a 12 year old. It was an afternoon paper (plus Sunday mornings), the now long defunct Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, which I delivered from my bicycle 7 days a week. Had to collect from my customers each month and I was expected to knock on doors to gain new subscriptions as well. I recall it being a major pain in the ass.

I quit long before the paper did…

2. Car wash, Huntington Beach, CA (1971). A summer job in high school and probably the hardest physical labor I ever performed. I think the pay was $1.35 an hour. This song came out around the same time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwuP7ILX32E

3. Flagman, Huntington Beach, CA (1971). This was at a motorcycle race track. When there was a crash I’d wave my flag like a madman to warn other riders. It was hot, noisy, and dirty work. I lasted maybe three weeks.

4. Ray-o-Lite, Huntington Beach, CA (1972). You know those reflective lane markers on the highway? Well, someone has to make them. I did one summer. What I remember was falling hard for one of my co-workers who, alas, had a boyfriend. I finally got her to go out out with me to a CSNY concert. She was into the music but not into me. Years later I found myself delivering mail to her house in Anaheim which made me a little sad.

Doing my part to keep America’s highways safe. Because when I was making these I wasn’t out driving.

5. Blinky’s Pizza, Westminster, CA (1972). The closest I ever got to the fast food industry, but this was a full fledged pizza restaurant. The job had it’s perks–I’d always take a pie home at the end of my shift and sometimes we’d sneak some beer out too. Whenever I eat out I try very hard to not remember some of the stuff that went on in the kitchen, which even after all these years is still too gross to recount.

6. Pacific Coast Publishing, Garden Grove, CA (1973). I got to use the skills I developed as the editor of my high school paper putting together church directories for area Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) congregations. I seduced one of my SDA co-workers out of her virginity which was probably the highlight of my tenure (oh hell, it was definitely the highlight!). The owner of the business was apparently embezzling money from the church and he killed himself (and my job) when he was exposed.

7. Newspaper delivery, Orange County (1973). So, I got back in the newspaper business, but this time I was feeding those vending racks you see in front of the store. It meant getting up at 0400 or so seven days a week. My car at the time was a piece of shit clunker and when it quit so did I.

8. Stop-n-Go Market, Cypress, CA (1973). Ah, who doesn’t aspire to be a convenience store clerk at least once in their life? I worked the graveyard shift (11-7) until the night I got robbed at knife point. Decided then that my life was worth more than a couple bucks an hour.

9. Teledyne Cast Products, Pomona, CA (1973). This was a foundry that made cast aluminum parts for jet aircraft engines. My job was to monitor the temperature of the molten aluminum so it was just right for pouring. As you might imagine things got more than a little hot and I was always paranoid that some stoner would spill some on me. Never happened though. I actually didn’t mind the job, but the foreman wanted to hire his nephew so he fired me.

I wonder if some of the jet engines fan blades are still in service. I hope not.

I wonder if some of the jet engine fan blades are still in service. I hope not.

10. Adco Plastics, Santa Ana, CA (1974). Leaving my life in aluminum behind, I entered the realm of vinyl plastic fabrication. Our main product was the Boat Bath, a device in which rich folk would park their boats so as not to have to clean off algae and other maritime growths (the boat bath would be filled with chlorine or something similar) . I still have a nasty scar on my finger from an unfortunate accident with one of those razor blade knives. The memory still makes me cringe.

A Boat Bath. Park your boat, add some chemicals, and voila!

11. Modern Messenger, Orange County (1975). In this job I provided the vehicle (my 1974 Datsun pickup) and the company provided the two way radio. I’d be dispatched to banks, law offices and the like to pick up important documents and deliver them to their intended recipients. Sorta like being a mailman without the pay and benefits.

12. Brown’s Distributing, Anaheim, CA (1975). With the birth of my daughter I was looking for some stable work and I found it in route sales. My company made a product called “Picnic Sandwiches”. My job was to keep the convenience stores on my route stocked with fresh sandwiches. There were also incentives for getting new customers, and I proved to be a pretty good salesman. Go figure.

13. Letter Carrier, United States Postal Service, Anaheim, CA; Prescott, AZ; Fort Smith, AR (1976-1985). Ah, the sweet memories I have of my days as a mailman. Hiking around outdoors, meeting lonely women, and being a union agitator. Good stuff.

14. Softball Umpire, Prescott, AZ (1981-1983). I used to be big into softball. Even founded an organization called “The Mile-High Softball Club” (an intentional double entendre–the elevation of Prescott is 5400 feet). We sponsored an annual Cinco de Mayo tournament which was a pretty big deal. The Parks and Recreation Department asked me to join the umpire cadre, it was a paying gig and so I did. A pretty thankless job, no matter what call you made someone was unhappy. I remember one player after unsuccessfully arguing that he was safe telling me “ah well, you are still the second best umpire in town”. I said “oh yeah, who’s best?” He responded “everyone else is tied for first”.

15. Safety Specialist, United States Postal Service, Fort Smith, AR (1985). The only real problem with carrying mail was it eventually got mind-numbingly boring after a while. Also, them Arkansas winters were brutal. I had met a woman on my mail route who was smart and well-connected and she saw in me some potential I really didn’t see in myself. Anyway, she provided the motivation for me to apply for a management job. I knew nothing about safety, but the HR Director knew me from our labor-management meetings and I guess she wanted me on her side. Twelve weeks of training at the USPS Management Academy in Potomac, MD and I actually learned how to do the job.

The training was much more fun than the actual job…

16. Labor Relations Representative, United States Postal Service, Columbia, SC (1986-1993). Once I had made the jump into management I got the urge to use the skills I had acquired as a union steward and branch president. I figured it was the same collective bargaining agreement, I’d just be approaching it from a different perspective. So I started applying for every vacancy around. I finally got interviewed for a job in Charleston, SC. After that interview, one of the panelists said he had a vacancy in Columbia he wanted to talk to me about. He asked me some technical questions and the only answer I had was “I don’t know, I’ve never done that”. I figured that was that, but when I got back to my office in Fort Smith there was a message waiting for me that I’d been selected for Columbia. When I asked my boss later why he’d picked me he said “because you didn’t know anything, you wouldn’t have to unlearn any bad habits.” True story.

17. Acting Director, Human Resources, USPS, Roanoke, VA (1988). I guess I was doing pretty well at my job in Columbia because one day I got a call from the big boss asking me to go to Roanoke, VA and clean up a mess. The HR Director there had been fired for sexually harassing a member of his staff. When I arrived on the scene I found the staff in complete disarray–half supporting the former director and half supporting the victim. By the end of my assignment I had everyone pulling in the same direction again and the big boss said “well done”. It was a good experience and I loved Roanoke.

That’s me in Roanoke getting some recognition…

18. Labor Relations Specialist, Mid-Atlantic Area, USPS (1993). The Postal Service had a major reorganization in 1993, going from five Regional Offices to ten Area Offices. I scored a labor relations spot on the Mid-Atlantic Area staff. It was probably the sweetest gig I ever had in my career. I remained domiciled in Columbia, but I had responsibility for the entire Mid-Atlantic (offices in Philadelphia and Arlington, VA and the states of Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, West Virginia, and the Carolinas). So, I was generally on the road three weeks a month (racked up a kazillion air miles with US Air). And I was basically a hired gun–I’d blow into town and kick the union’s ass in arbitration, then get out of Dodge. Sweet!

19. Manager, Labor Relations, Mid-Atlantic Area, USPS (1996-2000). My boss got promoted into a Postal Executive position and he wanted me to fill his old job. I told him no thanks, I’m loving the job I have now (see above). One day he called and said “John, I need you to do me a favor”, which was his way of saying he wasn’t asking this time. So, I got promoted and moved to Northern Virginia. It was a helluva lot of responsibility–six people working for me, three major unions whinging and agitating for the 80,000 employees within my sphere of influence. Long hours and a long commute, but I never got bored. I was also selected for the Advanced Leadership Program, which was designed to develop future Postal Executives. Lots more classroom time at the Management Academy and a Masters program at Marymount University. Hell, I’m tired just remembering how tired I was during this period.

20. Acting Human Resources Director, Little Rock, AR USPS (2000). My boss retired and I thought I was in the running for his Postal Executive position. However, I was deemed “not ready”. Now, I suspect this was because I had pissed off all the right people at Postal Headquarters (including the guy who eventually became Postmaster General) by not appropriately kowtowing to their superior wisdom and calling bullshit when they dished out bullshit. Anyway, I realized that I had gone as far as I was gonna go with the USPS, so I started applying for jobs in the federal sector (which paid substantially more than the postal service does). In the meantime I took an assignment as far away from L’Enfant Plaza as I could find, which happened to be Little Rock. I actually enjoyed going back to Arkansas where my management career had begun. I even considered staying permanently. And then one day I got a phone call.

21. Labor Relations Specialist, U.S. Department of Education, Washington, DC (2001-2005). I got offered a job as the number two labor guy with ED, an agency with a total of 5000 employees. It was a GS-14 with maybe a third of my previous responsibility and a $25,000 per year increase. It was an easy decision to make, and even my commute got better because I could take the train to work rather than spending hours in the nightmare traffic of I-95. Oh, but the boredom I experienced! The few issues I dealt with were all so silly and there weren’t that many of them. The politics were marginally interesting. The political appointees (Bush Republicans) liked my hard-ass style and my boss was a go along to get along kind of guy. So, I’d get the call to attend meetings on the 10th floor which understandably pissed off the guy I worked for. We managed it, but by my fourth year I was on the verge of going insane.

Everyday on the train ride home I realized just how off the rails my life had gone.

22. Human Resources Specialist, 8th U.S. Army, Seoul, Korea (2005-2007). Things were so bad that I started applying for every vacancy I could find, including Iraq. The then-wife was certain I had lost my mind, and she was probably right. Well, Iraq didn’t want me, but Korea did. I had absolutely no clue about what I was getting into, but I was certain it had to be better than what I was getting out of. And obviously, I made the right call. I had two big adjustments to make, learning about Korea and learning the ways of the Army. Hell, I’d come out of meetings with a list of acronyms to look up. The Army language was as foreign to me as Korean. But the work was good and exciting and different. The Koreans I worked with were outstanding, even the union leaders. And this job is where I’ll be going back to the future tomorrow.

23. Deputy Director, Human Resources Management, 8th Army/USFK, Seoul (2007-2008). My supervisor got cancer and died, and the Director asked me to fill his shoes.Being a Deputy is basically just making sure the staff gives the Director what she wants, when she wants it. As easy as that may sound there was a learning curve. A couple of times I had not understood precisely what she required and I’d get blasted with “this is not what I asked for”. Before too long we got in sync and I came to really enjoy working with her.

My new family in Korea, circa 2007. About half of them will be there to greet me upon my return tomorrow.

24. Director, Human Resources Management, 8th Army/USFK, Seoul. When it came time for my boss to return to the USA she encouraged me to apply for the job. I was a little ambivalent given that I expected to retire in less than two years myself. Still, I figured I’d rather be the boss than work for a bad one, and I wound up getting the job. I actually enjoyed my time as Director. Given that I knew I was going to retire I had a certain freedom to “speak truth to power” and somewhat surprisingly, the brass seemed to appreciate my honesty. Most of the time anyway. Anyway, it was a great way to finish what I assumed was going to be the end of my career. Obviously, things change.

Everybody’s so different, I haven’t changed…

25. Admin support, MES, Seoul, Korea. When I retired on December 31, 2010 I figured my working life was over. The plan was to spend six months in the USA and six months in Korea. After doing that for 4 years, Jee Yeun balked at returning to the states. I decided I’d rather be with her here than without her back home. To facilitate my return I started beating the bushes for a job. It’s easier to have a SOFA visa and base access than it is to be without it. So, I briefly became a Wal-Mart greeter of sorts at the K-16 Airbase Multi-use Learning Facility. The job was as boring as it sounds and the pay wouldn’t cover my month bar tab. But it got me back here, and for that I am grateful.

The misspelling of my name was emblematic of my “career” with MES.

And now the circle is complete.

Who gives a shirt?

Posted on 25/June/2015 by John McCrarey

Actually, I do. Five of them in fact.

I love custom made shirts. Store bought shirts just can’t accommodate my protruding belly. I’ve had success with the Houston shirt shop in Itaewon, so that’s where I went to outfit myself with some new work attire.

All dressed up and come Monday I’ll have somewhere to go.

I’m also in the process of having two sport coats tailor-made. Had the final fitting last night and I’ll pick them up tomorrow.

All I need now is a haircut and some soul stranglers (neckties).

Sent in the final documentation to the CPAC this morning and come Monday I’ll be reporting for orientation at 0830. Bring it on!

Deja vu all over again

Posted on 23/June/2015 by John McCrarey

The owners of Dillinger’s Bar asked me to play host for their Monday night dart tournament. It’s easy enough to do, I still get to play, and they comp me some beers for my trouble. So it’s not a bad deal.

During last night’s event my partner and I went undefeated through the winner’s bracket. And when it came time for the finals I once again had to face off against my arch rival and nemesis Vidal, the same guy who beat me in the finals of the Saturday night tournament. Sure enough, he and his partner beat us twice to take first place money. I guess I motivate him, but damn, why does he have to enjoy beating my ass so much?

That would be the notorious Vidal on the left. Curse you!

Second sucks, but it’s still better than third.

Had a good time and was even able to catch the last 110B bus home. That qualifies as a good night in my world…

It was an honor to be there

Posted on 22/June/2015 by John McCrarey

In celebration of ten years of blogging here at LTG, each week for the next 52 51 50 49 ~~48 47~~ 46 45 44 43 42 41 40 39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30 29 28 27 26 weeks I will delve deep into the ~~sewer~~ archives of past posts to bring you a tidbit of blog history. I had originally planned to call this series “The best of LTG”, but damn, there just wasn’t much “best” to be found. And mediocre is too hard to spell.)

Five years ago found me attending an honor guard ceremony to commemorate the unveiling of a statue of Lieutenant General Walton H. Walker, the 8th Army Commanding General who died during the Korean War. I wrote about the event in a post entitled “Honoring Walton H. Walker”.

I always enjoyed the pomp and circumstance associated with these ceremonies and in the post linked above I have quite a few photographs that somewhat capture the pageantry. Honor Guard events are uniquely military and they serve to remind us that when you work for the Army you have a responsibility to maintain the traditions and to respect and honor the sacrifices of those who have served. I certainly never had seen anything similar in my years with the U.S. Department of Education and the USPS.

And next week I’ll be back for more!

It was a hard day’s night…

Posted on 21/June/2015 by John McCrarey

and I was working like a dog.

Last night we did the Seoul International Dart League end of season banquet/tournament. I left the house at 1330 and returned home at 0330. I was as exhausted as I can ever recall being. Along the way my team, “Team Walrus” as we called ourselves, went undefeated in the winner’s bracket, only to be beaten twice by a team coming up from the loser’s bracket. They were hard fought matches, both going 5 legs, but in the end we had to settle for second place money.

The results

Not to make excuses, but I was dead on my feet. I had the winning shot in both of the finals matches but couldn’t get it done. So it was pretty frustrating letting my teammates down like that. In a tournament of this nature it really comes down to an endurance contest and as much as I may be in denial about getting older, I was feeling my age last night.

Second place money was W175,000 for each player, so by my reckoning I made around W15,000 per hour for my efforts. Hey, that’s better than my last job paid!

Often Performing Mediocrely

Posted on 19/June/2015 by John McCrarey

Why, yes. Yes I am exceptional. Thanks for asking.

All good things come to those who wait

Posted on 18/June/2015 by John McCrarey

Today I finally received the long awaited firm job offer. Effective 28 June 2015 (may as well get used to using the Army way of writing dates again) I will once again be a Human Resources Specialist, GS-0201-13 with HHB, Eighth Army Directorate of Human Resources Management, duty location Seoul, Republic of Korea.

It’s better to be lucky than good

Posted on 17/June/2015 by John McCrarey

My older brother posted the picture below on Facebook today. I actually recall that day. I was four and couldn’t swim. Call the raft rickety is an insult to the word rickety. I was scared shitless.

I also routinely rode in the back of open pickup trucks, played outside all day long without adult supervision, rode my bke without a helmet, etc. etc. And yet I live.

Genesis

Posted on 16/June/2015 by John McCrarey

In celebration of ten years of blogging here at LTG, each week for the next 52 51 50 49 ~~48 47~~ 46 45 44 43 42 41 40 39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30 29 28 27 weeks I will delve deep into the ~~sewer~~ archives of past posts to bring you a tidbit of blog history. I had originally planned to call this series “The best of LTG”, but damn, there just wasn’t much “best” to be found. And mediocre is too hard to spell.)

Ten years ago I did one of my notorious “everything that’s been happening since the last time I posted” post in a post called “Time for a post”.

It was one of the rare times I wrote about some work related stuff, comparing the U.S. civilian union unfavorably to the Korean Employee’s Union. I’ll be dealing with both again as the primary responsibility of my new old job. Which I have it on good authority is going to happen in just under two weeks. Stay tuned.

But what I really found of interest in that long ago post was this:

Last night my Air Force buddy Jeff called and interrupted a game of CIV so we could meet a Caroline’s for a couple of beers. We wound up playing darts. I can’t remember the last time I’ve tried to hit a dart board, but it has probably been over 20 years ago. I assumed my darts would be worse than my pool, but surprisingly I played pretty well. Not well enough to win (Jeff is really good), but most of the time it came down to who got the last bullseye first. I really enjoyed myself and I’m thinking with some practice I might actually be a decent player.

Jeff and Sweet Caroline’s are both a long time gone, but I’m still chucking the spears. And that’s the day it all started. In the beginning as it were.