Thought or Rant of the day!!!

[kicking jay]

South Korea. There were about 470 people, 320-some highschool juniors and a few elementary school students, taking a class trip to the resort island of Jeju. That was about six days ago. Currently, there's only been 75 of the students rescued, and those were all in the first day. There was 310-some people trapped in the ferry, and probably none are alive. It was hoped there were air pocket, but by this time, they've surely dehydrated if anybody managed to find air inside the ship.

Confirmed dead count (as of writing) is 87, leaving 215 missing.
I wrote the following up a while ago, so it's slightly out-of-date with the parent's reaction.

Basically what's put this ship underwater is a calamity of many errors, that, had any one of them not happened, we'd still have 338 people alive. When the ship was bought by Sewol, they added an additional deck - it was safe and approved, but it surely helped. When the ferry was being loaded, more cargo and vehicles were loaded than there should have been for that many people - not a problem, if it wasn't that some of the cars hadn't tied down as securely as they should have been - not a problem, if it wasn't for the fact that there was the third mate temporarily at the helm, who wouldn't have been there if it wasn't for the captain, who, after steering the ferry through dense fog all night, was trying to catch a bit of sleep. And nothing would have happened if it wasn't for the ship being slightly off course due to that same fog, causing the third mate the try and correct for it.

Well, she steered it too hard, causing those loose cars to break free and knock all the other vehicles to one side, dragging the ship to the side. Still, everybody could have gotten out safely, except for the fact that the captain was actually a temporary captain, not able to deal with an evacuation situation, and there hadn't been an evacuation drill prior, since the trip was always within sight of land. Because of this, he waited for rescue craft from the land, and told people to stay on the ship, fearing that people would dive in the 10C water and die of hypothermia. They didn't have time; due to the extra weight, the ship capsized faster than anybody expected, and only 2 out of 44 lifeboats were able to be used, since they had been chained down to keep them from being stolen at the last port!

Who do you blame? Everybody, or nobody? The only person who did anything explicitly wrong was the captain, who abandoned ship before everybody else got off, and that didn't even contribute to the sinking - it was a reaction! Now, there's countless (75 out of 300+ have been rescued) high and elementary school students underwater - if they haven't drowned, somehow finding air down there, after six days, they've surely died of dehydration by now.

Rescue operations are taking painfully long, due to the strong currents, shifting ship, and horrible, horrible silt that is obscuring nearly everything. They're trying to pump oxygen inside, but it's leaking out again as the ship continues to sink into the mud. Oil is beginning to leak out from the engine, and despite all the work of hundreds of divers, only three dead degraded bodies, lifevests on, have been seen inside the ship. Cranes are waiting to salvage the ship, but they can't be used until it's confirmed all the kids are dead.

The vice-president of the highschool that many of the children were from, who had a large role in organizing the trip, has hanged himself after surviving the sinking. He was close to many of the students - he's left a note stating that he takes full responsibility for the accident and asking that his body is cremated, the ashes spread over the site of the ship, in hopes that "maybe he'll be the teacher to them now he wasn't".

It's heartbreaking, and with nobody to really blame, it's no wonder that the parents are turning against the Blue House - after the captain, the government's the easiest target for the resigned desperation in that gym.

Live updates of what's going on:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TjO ... RZ0I1M/pub

Twitters of independent reporters in SK right now (very reliable):
https://twitter.com/josungkim/
https://twitter.com/hohocho

[NostalgicMelody7]

On a lighter note... On the carpool home from community choir practice, the one lady's dog kept trying to hump my arm. I mean, the dog was absolutely adorable, but eaugh...

[Joshuamonkey]

and I turned off my CNN news alerts because I got sick and tired of getting an alert every time they found a candy wrapper floating in the Indian Ocean.

I must have misunderstood what you mean here. Candy wrapper?

As in, they report news on things that are insignificant. A candy wrapper in the ocean would be something insignificant. They could have a rant on water pollution but it doesn't change the fact that it's insignificant. I thought that was a funny exxageration actually.

I haven't posted here in a while, but I guess my thought of the day is that yesterday I had my last final, so I'm done for the semester, and I got straight A's for the first time so that was cool. And then next week classes start again since I'm doing spring and summer semester as well.
Yay education.
Oh and I've been studying PHP on my own, which is what Cantr's made of. Cantr made me a fan of PHP (It's a web/server programming language).

[Majix]

Thanks for explaining, Joshuamonkey.

I'm happy my interpretion was wrong.

[SekoETC]

I wish I could be less cynical. For example when people play music in Cantr, I usually find that annoying because I can rarely imagine what it sounds like, so it's just a distraction.

[NostalgicMelody7]

I wish I could be less cynical. For example when people play music in Cantr, I usually find that annoying because I can rarely imagine what it sounds like, so it's just a distraction.

Agreed. Even if they put just a little bit of effort into describing the sound, it makes me enjoy it a lot more.

[Snickie]

Yeah, but doing that would give away all the musicians.

[NostalgicMelody7]

Yeah, but doing that would give away all the musicians.

I suppose you're right. They must never find out!

[Snickie]

NEVURRRRR!!!!!!
This is why over half of my living characters are musically inept. :3

You wanna know what I really hate? That indent I have in my bottom lip from playing clarinet and probably biting too hard. IT HURTS. And I can't do anything about it because I have to practice clarinet anyway because JURIES ARE NEXT WEEK JURIES ARE NEXT WEEK ASDFGHJKL.

[Joshuamonkey]

NEVURRRRR!!!!!!
This is why over half of my living characters are musically inept. :3

Well you don't have to be a musician to write *plays a soft melody* or *moves the bow gracefully and swiftly across the strings*. As long as the character's musically able, the rp can be too, although I wouldn't get overly detailed.
It's likely that those characters who are very musical are more likely to be played by someone musical, but that's just fine, really (I admit that I have a character who likes playing the cello..). It just adds to the rp..

[NostalgicMelody7]

JURIES ARE NEXT WEEK JURIES ARE NEXT WEEK ASDFGHJKL.

Oh goodness >_< The thing that I'm least excited about for college. Good luck!!

[Vega]

Things are escalating so fast that they get almost scary, and the end date doesn't help... Grumblegrumble...

[Doug R.]

Thanks for explaining, Joshuamonkey.

I'm happy my interpretion was wrong.

Joshuamonkey was right about the insignificance part, but I was specifically referring to getting multiple news alerts a day 4 weeks after the Malaysian airlines crash every time they found some piece of floating crap in the water that turned out to be random rubbish. Total inbox spam. I could go on a very long rant about the degeneration of the news services, but I won't.

[Addicted]

I have had the crappiest day and really need to rant:

I know I'm an idiot at times, but I really didn't need the bus driver to tell me I was and yell at me, loudly, while gesticulating madly, call me a number of names, demean me and all in front of a full bus. Being me, I burst into tears and tried to get off the bus as she shut the door, which made her yell at me more, she then drove off so I lost my balance, and she proceeded to yell at me for that. When the bus stopped again, I went to get off and she yelled at an oncoming passenger for not hailing the bus with an extended arm and another for taking too long to tag off. At this point I asked for her name ( I did manage to read it off her badge), told her her behaviour was unacceptable and that I was making a complaint. She yelled at me that she had kept a log of my behaviour on file and that i was an idiot and IT WAS ON FILE! (she was still repeating this as I got off the bus and walked away) I made the complaint against her and was told she was obviously behaving badly.

What did I do to trigger this? The bus terminal in Perth is called The Esplanade Bus Port. Yes, the Bus Port in on the river beside the long stretch we call the Perth Esplanade. Her bus destination was on the front of the bus as Esplanade via Great Eastern Hwy. I asked if she stopped at the Bus Port. This makes me a moron, stupid, unable to read and an idiot.

I have a sore arm where I had a discoloured patch of skin tested for cancer. ( I had a biopsy taken in three places but only one is sore)

I was supposed to get the official letter for redundancy on Monday, but as my group managers are fighting to keep on some qualified staff for an incoming project that is in the process of being signed, I need to wait until they sort it out. The anxiety of not knowing what's happening is gnawing at my gut. Just serve me the paper and get it over with please!

I am on a training course in the city (why I am catching buses) and it is utterly depressing. You need a piece of paper for everything now and tasks I have been doing for two or three decades need evidence based competency attached.

On a positive note I got really good concert tickets to see Rick Springfield when he comes to Perth in October. Sadly this is also a little depressing that I am so excited to see a sixty four year old rock singer in tight leather pants.

Tomorrow night will be cheese, chocolate and red wine, all welcome to join me!

[Doug R.]

Wow, what a bitch. Sorry to hear this. Some people are just complete assholes.