There and Back

A journey. A return. Probably tired.

Month: December 2025

  • KPop Marriage Hunters

    There I was wandering the isle at the grocery store on new years eve 2025. It’s the busiest I’ve ever seen it. But I’m surprised by the agility and manoeuvrability of the people there, no bumping no banging into each other no frustration that I saw. Dare I say I had a stupid smile on my face. But the smile wasn’t from seeing my fellow human not lose their mind because they’re frustrated and tired of the holiday bullshit, no. I had a smile because I was humming the 2025 banger titled GOLDEN by KPop Demon Hunters that was playing over the store speakers. And it reminded me. My wife and I have bonded over her love of everything Korean/Asian (even her love for the Asian ladies but we don’t talk about that). T&T grocery store , Kpop, Manga, Manhwa, Anime, etc. I haven’t gone full Manga or Manhwa. For Christmas I bought my wife one of her favourite Manga/Manhwa (not sure which one it is) about two gay guys that are gay. She was excited, I’m not the target audience. But Kpop. I gotta be honest many of the songs she has shown me over the last eight years have been a blast. I obviously don’t know what the lyrics are or what they are saying unless they throw in the odd English word. But man Kpop producers churn out these bands and artists so often they have this down to a science. Here is a list of my current 2026 Spotify playlist: Way Back Home by SHAUN, 무제 (Untitled, 2014) by G-DRAGON, 200% by AKMU, Psycho by Red Velvet, BBIBBI by IU, COME BACK HOME by 2NE1, and Eyes, Nose, Lips by TAEYANG.

    This past year we saw a band called CN blue. It was actually really good. I might have been one of seven white guys there. That’s cool with me.

  • Shutting Down the File Server

    I thought I was going to be fired. No job. Embarrassed. Just left one job and can’t keep another. I turned forty recently. Not a good look. Luckily my boss was cool about it. Told me to just breath, clam down. It happens. Shutting down the company file server and putting over two hundred people out of work temporarily just happens. Good to know. I feel like such a newb at my new job. A helpdesk role where I unlock accounts, disable/re-enable accounts, reset passwords, uninstall/reinstall software, onboard new staff, fill in termination forms, replace mouses and keyboards, jiggle monitor cables until they work again, convert pdfs from an email attachment and then resend them to the appropriate receiver. You know, helping. It’s not better or worse than my older job, just different. This new job has benefits, never had those before. The old job was a cooking gig. Years and years of burns, cuts, booze, and drugs. It was fun until it wasn’t. This new one is sitting in front of a computer and waiting until a ticket comes in that is assigned to me. Sometimes I get to go to the production floor with all the hourly workers, you know, blue collar jobs like welder, electrician, painters, other roles I have no idea about. When I go to the production floor I feel like one of them. Dusty irritated sweaty hungry. The working man. Insert Tim Allen grunt. Still trying to figure out my boss. He’s sort of an asshole but a nice person. An odd mix of helping and making fun of people. So far I don’t mind it. He’s shared provocative stories from his bachelor days and he sounds like he had tons of fun. He would have made a good PUA blogger.


    Shutting down the file server at work was a good lesson in what it is like to work in a live production environment where people rely on services and resources to be available ninety nine percent of the time. Hope I don’t do it again.