English Shirts From Korea

As promised, the shirts my fiancee brought back from Korea. I've mentioned Korean English shirts before. Sometimes they are filled with seemingly random English words or sentences. Sometimes not even English words, just English characters. Sometimes they are mostly correct, but with something off or just plain weird about them. Dictionary definitions of words or items seem also to be common.

This first one she didn't bring with her. One of her students was wearing it at an awards assembly and she snapped a photo.

"I brake for reindeer."

Now for the English shirts she brought over:
Note the completely nonsensical text under the photo: "Piu'spazio". Oh, and the back of this shirt, for those who are unsure of what a camera is:

Here's another, this one the word "freshness" and it's dictionary definitions:
I have no idea what this one means:

"Arse - He is stopped on the street by people who see him regularly on TV [European Mans]"

???

Good to know

Who indeed.

Stuff From Korea

My Fiancee recently returned from Korea for a couple of weeks in between school semesters (this partially explains my lack of posting). Well, she brought stuff with her. She came with a bunch of Korean English shirts (which I will photograph and post soon), but also these gems:
Little plastic signs! The first 2 from the right are no smoking signs (the first is a kid pissing on an ashtray). The last one is a washroom sign. I found them amusing.

Socks! The first is a penguin sock, and the second a mushroom with the ankle folding over to give the mushroom it's top.

Finally, knock-off Kit Kat bars. They're called Kic Ker, though "Tit Bit" is written on the bars. Awesome.

I just, you know, corrupted your data

Here is an email a few of us received from work today. I'm of course not going to explain the context, or situation, or anything, beyond: 1) there was a problem, 2) we found a work around, 3) it was given to someone in another department to implement.

"I have hard-coded the emails now.
In the process, I accidentally corrupted the database and restored a six day old one.
You would have to re-create your content if you made any changes lately, my apologies."

My one co-worker, blown away by this, commented on how casually the sender mentions the database corruption. The email was only 4 lines long! I shudder to think the responses I would receive if I sent out an email like this to anyone at work.

15 Cent Bell Twitter Cost

So months ago Twitter cut off it's text message updates within Canada citing the rising and erratic SMS costs here. This met with some harsh criticism, mostly not at Twitter, but at the various Canadian carriers.

Well, a week ago Twitter announced that they would be resuming two-way updates for Bell Mobility customers, today however the other shoe dropped with Bell saying that Twitter updates will cost 15 cents a message, even for those with an unlimited SMS plan!

"Because Twitter is a third-party service, the messages are considered premium and not covered by our plans" - Bell spokesperson

Now, I'm not going to comment on the merits of Twitter. I know many feel the site incredibly inane and useless. I know others love it and just find fun and useful.

I'm also not directly affected by this message cost as I don't own a cell phone and would never think of routing Twitter messages to my work-provided and paid for phone.

I do imagine however, that this will spin up another little internet storm and continue the debates from the last few months over the costs of text messages. Considering the debates in January over whether SMS use causes any network load at all as they are embedded in control messages that are sent anyway, this latest news is bound to ruffle a few more feathers.

UPDATE: Twitter posted a tweet on their feed last night:

There's some confusion about Bell Mobility pricing of Twitter SMS. We've been investigating this and will clear it up to tomorrow. Thx!

ANOTHER UPDATE: Twitter has added a new blog post just a little bit ago:

Twitter and Bell have agreed that Bell customers on the company's text messaging bundles will be able to receive unlimited incoming Twitter SMS messages at no extra charge.

So it looks like Twitter users will be happy enough and there is no longer really any point behind my own blog post on this.

Groundhog Day 2009

Results:

Balzac Billy - 6 more weeks of winter
General Beauregard Lee - Early Spring
Malverne Mel - Early Spring
Punxsutawney Phil - 6 more weeks of winter
Sir Walter Wally - 6 more weeks of winter
Staten Island Chuck - Early Spring
Wiarton Willie - 6 more weeks of winter

4 to 3 for 6 more weeks of winter. I believe it, though in Toronto we're looking at -14 degrees midweek and going up to +5 on Saturday.

My posting of last years results.

TTC Update Service

Last week (on the 14th), the TTC started an email notification service to let riders know when the subway lines were disrupted. (If you're interested, sign up here!)

I've signed up and found it somewhat useful. I have three main routes to get to and from work, and while all three share one section of the bloor-danforth subway line, they start going separate at Yonge and Bloor. So, any disruptions north or east of there I can avoid given some fore-knowledge. Hell, even if the bloor-danforth line is out, I can maybe work from home. So I find the updates handy.

The other thing about the updates is just mild interest in how the TTC is doing on any particular day. Today, the TTC was having an unpleasant afternoon as far as I can tell, with disruptions affecting all of my routes and likely causing some rush hour havoc.

A section of the Yonge-University-Spadina Subway service is currently shut down from Sheppard Station to Lawrence Station. Shuttle buses are in service.
Sent: 1/20/09 4:05 PM

I wasn't leaving till after 5pm but made a note to take a different route. After 5pm:

A section of the Bloor-Danforth Subway service is currently shut down from St. George Station to Yonge Station. Shuttle buses are in service.
Last updated Jan 20, 2009 5:14 PM

Which blocks all of my routes. And then:

A section of the Bloor-Danforth Subway service is currently shut down from Pape Station to Donlands Station. Shuttle buses are in service.
Last updated Jan 20, 2009 6:15 PM

A section of the Bloor-Danforth Subway service is currently shut down from Broadview Station to Woodbine Station. Shuttle buses are in service.
Last updated Jan 20, 2009 6:28 PM

With these, pretty much half the track in the east end of the city was at some point down for long enough to cause alternate bus service. All within an hour and a half of each other. I gotta feel for any TTC employees today, it must have been hectic. I luckily wasn't affected much due timing and a ride to an alternate station for a coworker. Thanks Dave!

Anyhow, point is, update service interesting and useful! Thanks TTC.