I'm sure by now, most of you are aware of the tension that is building in the D.M.Z on the North Korea and South Korea border.  Some shells were fired, some innocent people died and (if you believe everything that you hear on Fox News) the Pacific Rim is just about on the brink of World War 3.

A colleague of mine, spent the greater part of this period in Osan, South Korea.  Osan is a town about 30 mintues south of Seoul, and about 3 hours south of the border.  He returned home this past weekend with some terrible news; the job was not done.  In fact the job had expanded and will require up to 8 workers to stay for up to one month...starting on New Years Day.

As a disclaimer, I'm not bound to go, neither contractually or financially.  The incentive is certainly there, 6 ten hour shifts, each week with 15% extra tacked on to my already inflated hourly wage.  Add on to that, the fact that I will get paid for the 30-50 some odd hours of travel and a potential bonus check, and it's suddenly become a very lucrative opportunity.  If I turn it down, I'm sure I'll be working bottom of the barrel projects for awhile and it will at best look troublesome come bonus season.  And goddamnit, I've worked hard schmoozing and brown nosing my bosses for 5 and half years.

At the end of the day, I grabbed a bite to eat, sat down to think and made a little list.

Pros:

Cons:

I stopped for a second, collected my thoughts, and determined that there is no way I'm going to miss the first Husky Bowl game in my adult life.  So I e-mailed my (Coug Grad) boss and offered a deal.

"Bill, how about an Apple Cup bet?"

"Terms?"

"Dawgs win, I spend my holidays in San Diego...Cougs pull it out and I spend them in Seoul."

"We'll talk"

In boss speak, "we'll talk" could mean anything from "you're fired, get the F*** out!" to "good work, here's a big bag of money".  I find out this morning, but I suspect he might take me up on it. 

So to you Sark, I say this.  Please beat the damn Cougs, because a Holiday Bowl Ticket is a terrible thing to waste.