at the office: another 7-day week

I'm trying to finish up one of my two major projects, so I've come into the office for a full day today and a full day of work tomorrow. Joy. It's quiet right now; only two other teams seem to have people in their offices—ah, and one team just packed up and left. All the other teams either skedaddled before I got here or never showed up, which is unusual: Saturday is normally a work day for many employees at my company.

The highlight of today: someone, probably a stupid and/or sick kid, set fire to paper towels in the men's room, presumably with a lighter. I think the kid was still in the men's room, hiding in a cubicle when I came in to do my business—avoiding responsibility, as is often the Korean way. (It's ten minutes later, and I just checked: he's still in there, crouching like a criminal with the cubicle door slightly cracked... which is how I could see him crouching.)

Seoul is a big city, so it's an attractor, and a petri dish, for all manner of sick and twisted individuals. I'm going to check the bathroom every half-hour for the next little while, just to make sure no wisps of smoke are coming out of the restroom. I don't relish the thought of burning to death at my place of work.

UPDATE: the little firebug left the bathroom sometime between 5:30 and 6:30 p.m. My buddy Tom, who called me while I was in the office, recommended calling the non-emergency hotline to get the police over here. I had other plans, like solving the situation myself, but I admit I hadn't thought through every contingency, e.g., if the kid proved to be armed and/or truly crazy. But the kid disappeared on his own; I guess he felt he had hidden enough.