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Well I saw that a new version of WordPress came out so I decided to upgrade and thus all my previous designs have been reset. (Mind you I did back-up of course). But for now the new default theme that comes with WordPress isn’t as hideous as its predecessor so I will leave it be for now. This new version apparently has a new way of customizing the theme of one’s site so I will have to do a little research into it before I start meddling with the site design again.

Update well it wasn’t much more than a day after I update that WordPress makes the news by getting itself banned from Google. They were hiding links to some alledged 168,000 sites thus making their Google rank go up. Sadly that appears to be the result of offering software for free and then depending on ads for revenue, the ad makers will try to get you to do any dirty trick that’s possible. Sigh. Nevertheless I will continue to use it because it’s good stuff. No harm done to me so no foul.

After returning home from Korea, I was greeted the following morning with a cold water pipe in the shower that wouldn’t produce. No cold water despite the fact that I had done all the closing of water valves necessary to prevent freezing pipes before heading to Korea. Needless to say that wasn’t a good morning. In fact every morning since then has been the same: wake up extra early, get dressed, grab my onsen kit, and get to the onsen as close to the 6 am opening time as I can. (Onsen are the public baths by the way) I had begun to accept the fact of morning onsen-age before work.

So today, just as I was grabbing my onsen kit and heading for the door, I decided to check the pipe again and it worked! This is especially awesome because I have an extra early work day today. It’s good to have my shower back.

I just dumped a load of my Korea photos into the Gallery, which is handily linked now on the side of the page. I think these photos prove that my photography skills are generally lacking but I’ll just blame it on the fact I was sick and just didn’t want to bother taking photos correctly. Eh well. It’s also obvious that I didn’t spend much time screening the photos before posting either.

Well I got a lovely surprise when I started my first day of work since Korea: a lovely bill for all the lunches I’ve been getting at school for the past 7 or so months. Now, I’m sure other JETs in the area, or Japan wide, might not have any sympathy as they’ve probably been paying all this time themselves. But the last thing I wanted to see on my desk, after spending a good bit for all my travel and lodging, was a 15,600 yen (~$156) bill for 7 months worth of meals. It’s quite possible that I was told a long time ago and conveniently forgot, but why in blue blazes am I not being billed for this on a more regular time-table!? Yay communication!

An aside note: the speed skating track is closed for the winter. So my best record stands at 1′ 10″ , down from the 1′ 45″ that I started with at the beginning of the trials. I’m looking forward to next year’s season but in the mean-time I have to find something active to keep the kilos from coming back.