Monday, October 31, 2005
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Song of the South
Have finally made it to Krabi province after a long and nasty battle with Miss Thetis which still isn't quite finished. But seeing as how I was on the verge of losing it completely, I needed to get out of the city. So I am currently on Ko Phi Phi, which despite sounding like a young child's way of asking to use the toilet ("ko" is pronounced more like "go"), is one of the most beautiful places on this planet. This island was one of the places devastated by last December's tsunami. Half of the island is still covered with rubble or is just empty, and the sounds of hammers and power tools can be heard everywhere. They seem to be making lots of progress rebuilding things here, and things will likely be back to "normal," or as close to that as they can be, soon.
Went Kayaking today. It was so beautiful - I could see little yellow and white fish swimming beneath me. However, My arms are already sore. Not looking forward to tomorrow morning.
But they seem to be making progress on it.
I was walking around the island today. on a remote and rocky part of the beach, I ran into an Israeli couple who seemed to be interacting with a family of wild monkeys. It turns out that they were out there (the Israelis) doing some prayers and celebrating one of the Jewish holidays ( I forget what it's called.) While they were praying, the monkeys snuck up behind them and started taking things out of their bag. They ate their anti-biotics, and drank the kosher sacramental wine that they had for this holiday. Being on a remote island in the middle of the Andaman Sea, Kosher sacramental wine isn't easy to find. So I assured them that God probably will understand their predicament. I got a few pics of the monkeys that will be posted when I return to BKK later this week.
Other than that, just relaxing, enjoying, and hailing progress.
Went Kayaking today. It was so beautiful - I could see little yellow and white fish swimming beneath me. However, My arms are already sore. Not looking forward to tomorrow morning.
But they seem to be making progress on it.
I was walking around the island today. on a remote and rocky part of the beach, I ran into an Israeli couple who seemed to be interacting with a family of wild monkeys. It turns out that they were out there (the Israelis) doing some prayers and celebrating one of the Jewish holidays ( I forget what it's called.) While they were praying, the monkeys snuck up behind them and started taking things out of their bag. They ate their anti-biotics, and drank the kosher sacramental wine that they had for this holiday. Being on a remote island in the middle of the Andaman Sea, Kosher sacramental wine isn't easy to find. So I assured them that God probably will understand their predicament. I got a few pics of the monkeys that will be posted when I return to BKK later this week.
Other than that, just relaxing, enjoying, and hailing progress.
Sunday, October 23, 2005
Sunday, October 16, 2005
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
Seasons change
As I sit and write this posting, I have only eight more tests to correct. If my head wasn't shaven, I would've likely pulled all of my hair out by now. It's so maddening. I've gone into a fully nocturnal scedule for this correcting binge. Seems to be working well - I head to the convenience store, load up on dried fish, yogurt, canned coffee, and a few other snacks, flip on CNN to listen to the non-stop coverage of the localized apocolypse for this month (more on that below), and then dig in and bear down. Not looking forward to doing the same thing next semester, that's for sure...
My thoughts on the localized apocolypse for October(we've been averaging one major natural catastrophe a month now, doesn't it seem?), the massive quake in Kashmir. And with the events in Guatamala, it's actually two mini-apocolypses simultaneously, but Guatamala seems to have been forgotten with the massive nature of the Kashmir quake.
During my time living in Japan, I felt quite a few earthquakes, and nothing's scarier. The one thing we all take for granted is the ground beneath our feet - one thing we all trust, no matter what. When that comes into question, what a frightening time. And the sound that the buildings make is horrendous. The strongest I ever experienced was about a 5 on the Richter scale. Not terribly strong, as it only lasted a few seconds (I heard that the quake that caused the tsunami lasted nearly a minute,) but it was strong enough to stop some trains. I was in the shower when it hit, and I was certain I would have to go running naked out of the building. Thank God it stopped.
Recently, several of the natural disasters have hit areas with long-standing, bloody conflicts. It's been interesting to see how it has affected the conflicts. In Ache, the hardest-hit area in the tsunami, it was an impetus for a peace deal which recently saw Indonesian troops leaving that war-torn province, and the rebels turning in their weapons. In Sri Lanka, it deepened the conflict, as the government refused to allow any aid to go to rebel held parts of that island. It will be interesting to see what effect this has on Kashmir.
In other bad news of a much lighter nature, the Badgers lost for the first time this season. So it goes. Their national ranking has dropped from 14th to 23rd. But it's good to see Joe Pa and Penn State doing as well as they are. And the Yankees are done. This shows that there is some justice in the world...
The rainy season seems to be over here. Umbrellas are being used still, but now to block the sun rather than blocking the rain. We're entering the most comfortable few months of the year, where the temperatures are relatively cool (even getting near freezing some nights in the more mountainous north) and rain storms are few and far between. Should be nice.
Looking forward to getting out of town soon. Other than that, I've been putting off a large rant about Turkey and the EU, so I'll try to do that in the next posting. Hail progress!
My thoughts on the localized apocolypse for October(we've been averaging one major natural catastrophe a month now, doesn't it seem?), the massive quake in Kashmir. And with the events in Guatamala, it's actually two mini-apocolypses simultaneously, but Guatamala seems to have been forgotten with the massive nature of the Kashmir quake.
During my time living in Japan, I felt quite a few earthquakes, and nothing's scarier. The one thing we all take for granted is the ground beneath our feet - one thing we all trust, no matter what. When that comes into question, what a frightening time. And the sound that the buildings make is horrendous. The strongest I ever experienced was about a 5 on the Richter scale. Not terribly strong, as it only lasted a few seconds (I heard that the quake that caused the tsunami lasted nearly a minute,) but it was strong enough to stop some trains. I was in the shower when it hit, and I was certain I would have to go running naked out of the building. Thank God it stopped.
Recently, several of the natural disasters have hit areas with long-standing, bloody conflicts. It's been interesting to see how it has affected the conflicts. In Ache, the hardest-hit area in the tsunami, it was an impetus for a peace deal which recently saw Indonesian troops leaving that war-torn province, and the rebels turning in their weapons. In Sri Lanka, it deepened the conflict, as the government refused to allow any aid to go to rebel held parts of that island. It will be interesting to see what effect this has on Kashmir.
In other bad news of a much lighter nature, the Badgers lost for the first time this season. So it goes. Their national ranking has dropped from 14th to 23rd. But it's good to see Joe Pa and Penn State doing as well as they are. And the Yankees are done. This shows that there is some justice in the world...
The rainy season seems to be over here. Umbrellas are being used still, but now to block the sun rather than blocking the rain. We're entering the most comfortable few months of the year, where the temperatures are relatively cool (even getting near freezing some nights in the more mountainous north) and rain storms are few and far between. Should be nice.
Looking forward to getting out of town soon. Other than that, I've been putting off a large rant about Turkey and the EU, so I'll try to do that in the next posting. Hail progress!
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
My biggest photographic accomplishment to date - I've captured lightning! A big storm rolled through the Big Mango last night, knocking out power in my building for about four hours and causing flooding all over the city. I stood by my window with my camera and snapped one picture after another for about five straight minutes until I managed to get lucky and capture this one. If you click on the photo, you can see a bigger and more detailed version of it. It's worth it!
Monday, October 03, 2005
Loosenin' my grip...
You said you didn’t give a f--- about hockey,
I never saw someone say that before
You held my hand and we walked home the long way,
Loosenin’ my grip on Bobby Orr.
These are lyrics from the song called “Fireworks” by the Tragically Hip. As I sit writing this on this sunny Monday morning in Bangkok, nearly 24 hours removed from slumber, I’m beginning to understand how Gord Downie or whichever one of The Hip who wrote this song was feeling.
Made a big mistake last night. Some of my colleagues and I had talked about watching a bit of football (Americano style, pigskin, gridiron, whatever words you prefer.) As BKK is exactly 12 hours ahead of Central Daylight Time, this means that games which kick off at noon on Sunday kick off at midnight here. Staying up until 3 am is no big deal for us, especially since we had neither classes nor proctoring the next day. So we went down to the teacher’s lounge, which has a variety of satellite channels on which one can watch all sorts of sports ranging from Scottish soccer to Australian Rugby to Indian Cricket.
The early game was the St. Louis Scrams (formerly known as the Disney Lambs) at the New York (Football) Giants. The late game? The hated Atlanta Falcons taking on my beloved but inept Minnesota Vikings. This meant that I was going to be spending all night watching football. A bigger waste of time could not have been had – hence the title of this posting.
I quit watching at 5 am, when Atlanta was up 24-0. The Vikings could get no offense going whatsoever, which appeared to my untrained eye to be a product of an offensive line that is about as effective and coherent as FEMA under the Bush administration and a “revamped” defense that was as inept at stopping the scrambling of Matt Schaub as it was that of Michael Vick. It was just ugly. Perhaps I picked a good year to go abroad. My grip on Daunte Culpepper is loosening, much like Mr. Downie’s grip on Bobby Orr.
In other news, the baseball season is now finished. The Twins finished the year one game above .500 and in third place in the American League Central Division and fourth in the Wild Card race. Many would attribute this mediocre result to injuries of key people in key positions. I disagree with this, again, from my relatively uniformed position. In a 162 game season, a team should expect injuries in key positions – it’s part of the game that needs to be expected. The past three years when they won the division, they had similar injury numbers and in similar spots. I think the rest of the division finally caught up with them, and that the Twins three division titles were more of a reflection of the remainder of the division’s inability than of the Twins greatness. But this is just my opinion. Hopefully, the Twins can catch up and surpass them all next year.
The only really good news overall is that the Badgers are 5-0 after a win over the Big Ten’s Football version of the Arizona Cardinals, The University of Indiana Hoosiers, by a score of 44-21. They were ranked 17 in the nation last week, we’ll see if they climb any higher after this win.
In non-sporting news, I’ll be spending the next few days doing not much other than correcting tests. Once that is finished, will be revisiting the old girl, Miss Thetis, after a bit of an absence. Have done a bit of tinkering with it, but I need to get a draft out before too long, so I must do that before heading for Krabi. Also, this will give the rainy season a bit more time to run its course. I’m really looking forward to getting out of the city a bit, but first things first, right?
Also, I bought a comic book. I’m hoping this will help me bolster my Thai language ability. I just need a dictionary now…
God help the poor Balinese. Two bombings in three years cripple an already hobbled tourism industry. May have to head to Bali this March, as I’d like to do my part to help them recover a bit.
Not too much else to report. Hail progress!
I never saw someone say that before
You held my hand and we walked home the long way,
Loosenin’ my grip on Bobby Orr.
These are lyrics from the song called “Fireworks” by the Tragically Hip. As I sit writing this on this sunny Monday morning in Bangkok, nearly 24 hours removed from slumber, I’m beginning to understand how Gord Downie or whichever one of The Hip who wrote this song was feeling.
Made a big mistake last night. Some of my colleagues and I had talked about watching a bit of football (Americano style, pigskin, gridiron, whatever words you prefer.) As BKK is exactly 12 hours ahead of Central Daylight Time, this means that games which kick off at noon on Sunday kick off at midnight here. Staying up until 3 am is no big deal for us, especially since we had neither classes nor proctoring the next day. So we went down to the teacher’s lounge, which has a variety of satellite channels on which one can watch all sorts of sports ranging from Scottish soccer to Australian Rugby to Indian Cricket.
The early game was the St. Louis Scrams (formerly known as the Disney Lambs) at the New York (Football) Giants. The late game? The hated Atlanta Falcons taking on my beloved but inept Minnesota Vikings. This meant that I was going to be spending all night watching football. A bigger waste of time could not have been had – hence the title of this posting.
I quit watching at 5 am, when Atlanta was up 24-0. The Vikings could get no offense going whatsoever, which appeared to my untrained eye to be a product of an offensive line that is about as effective and coherent as FEMA under the Bush administration and a “revamped” defense that was as inept at stopping the scrambling of Matt Schaub as it was that of Michael Vick. It was just ugly. Perhaps I picked a good year to go abroad. My grip on Daunte Culpepper is loosening, much like Mr. Downie’s grip on Bobby Orr.
In other news, the baseball season is now finished. The Twins finished the year one game above .500 and in third place in the American League Central Division and fourth in the Wild Card race. Many would attribute this mediocre result to injuries of key people in key positions. I disagree with this, again, from my relatively uniformed position. In a 162 game season, a team should expect injuries in key positions – it’s part of the game that needs to be expected. The past three years when they won the division, they had similar injury numbers and in similar spots. I think the rest of the division finally caught up with them, and that the Twins three division titles were more of a reflection of the remainder of the division’s inability than of the Twins greatness. But this is just my opinion. Hopefully, the Twins can catch up and surpass them all next year.
The only really good news overall is that the Badgers are 5-0 after a win over the Big Ten’s Football version of the Arizona Cardinals, The University of Indiana Hoosiers, by a score of 44-21. They were ranked 17 in the nation last week, we’ll see if they climb any higher after this win.
In non-sporting news, I’ll be spending the next few days doing not much other than correcting tests. Once that is finished, will be revisiting the old girl, Miss Thetis, after a bit of an absence. Have done a bit of tinkering with it, but I need to get a draft out before too long, so I must do that before heading for Krabi. Also, this will give the rainy season a bit more time to run its course. I’m really looking forward to getting out of the city a bit, but first things first, right?
Also, I bought a comic book. I’m hoping this will help me bolster my Thai language ability. I just need a dictionary now…
God help the poor Balinese. Two bombings in three years cripple an already hobbled tourism industry. May have to head to Bali this March, as I’d like to do my part to help them recover a bit.
Not too much else to report. Hail progress!
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