The Crooked Timber of Humanity

Immanuel Kant once said, "From the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing ever can be made." This past week, I've discovered this to be true in a very ugly way.

The New Year will be one of new beginnings for me. Miss Bee and I are finished, due to trust issues. It's been a very difficult few days for both of us, as you can imagine. I wish her well in life, and hope she finds health and happiness in the future.

I had planned on staying a third year here, but mostly for her sake. Since my main reason for staying is now out of the picture, I will be returning to the US, probably in March or May. I'll likely fly to Hong Kong for a few days, and then to San Francisco and crash on my brother's couch for a while, and possibly teach high school there.

I'm sad to be leaving, as I love it here, but this is probably for the best. If I had gone on to marry her, I would have had to pay a large dowry, and then there would have been issues with visas and the like, as well as her adjusting to life in the US. It's a sad way to end what has been a great relationship, however, and it has left me with a big empty feeling.

So, her and I will need your prayers, as this is a difficult time for both of us. But I am feeling excited about another new beginning in only six months time.

Hail progress!

Happy Trails, Brad Radke!

One of the gutsiest baseball players in recent memory, Brad Radke, announced his retirement on Tuesday. Radke, notorious for struggling in early innings, but becoming tougher as the game went on, will be missed dearly by the Minnesota Twins and all of his fans. He was one of the few bright spots for the Twins through the lean years of the late 1990's, but I will always remember him for his true grit displayed this year. See this link for details about what this man went through for the Twins on their playoff run.

Happy Trails, #22! We already miss you.

A new book

One of my Grad School counterparts at Wisconsin, Mr. Matt Liesch, has recently published his first book. Check it out here. If you want to see a review of it, look at the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinal's review here. Or you can look at the publisher's website here.

6 days in Singapura

This past Tuesday evening, I returned from a 6 day trip to Singapore, which is known as "Singapura" in Malay. I don't know why the Malay name isn't used - Singapura is a cool name - it would undoubtedly place the island city-state on the tip of the Malay Peninsula on the list of the coolest place names in the world, right up there with Mombasa, Mandalay, Krakatoa, Kota Kinabalu, Katmandu, and so on. Anyhow, my job in Singapura was to think up of activities for 26 Thai High School Students from Chiang Mai to do to force them to use English in real life situations (Singapura has four official languages, and English is one of them and the one most commonly used - more on this later.) The kids were excellent, and their English level is superior to that of most of my students. However, they are Thai, and so they walk in the Thai way. For those of you not familiar with Thai walkers, most Thai people it seems, for some reason or another, walk with no awareness whatsoever of what is going on around them. It's not uncommon to be on a busy pedestrian bridge in Bangkok, and all traffic stops when some woman or man in the middle of the steps answers her or his cell phone and stops dead in her or his tracks, oblivious to the people behind her or him trying to get by. Well, anyway, they don't do this in Singapore, so it was rather embarrasing at times, such as when a student stopped in her tracks, pointed at something, and nearly smacked a passerby right in the face on Orchard road, a rather busy street.

Singapura is a much-maligned city state, notorious for its harsh laws and even harsher penalties for breaking such laws. For example, the fine for chewing gum on the subway is S$500 (or about $300 in the US.) As a result, finding gum in Singapore is perhaps as difficult as it is to find marijuana (by the way, the penalty for posession of Marijuana is hanging. Yikes! Don't go there!) The fine for littering is S$1000. As a result, it's about the cleanest little city-state you'll ever see. The laws are kind of amusing, in a way - it's like their government had all sorts of different pet peeves, and decided to crack down on them with great prejuidice. As a result, Singapura doesn't really feel like Asia, despite the obvious Asian background of its citizens. It's more like visiting a city in Canada or something, if Canada had a city in the tropics. I've been told that in Thailand, many of the Thai people call Singaporeans "bananas" - yellow on the outside, but white on the inside. Many Westerners, and even some of the people there whom I spoke with, disparage Singapore as boring, especially when compared with places like Bangkok and Hong Kong.
However, it's hard to argue that this is not one of the best-run cities in the world. In the six days I was there, I found it a nice change of pace - order and cleanliness, a break from the chaos and grime of BKK. And we were fortunate enough to have our visit correspond with three festivals within the various ethnic communities of Singapore. It was a good time, and I wouldn't mind going back or even living there someday (even though I'd have to cross to Malaysia from time to time and smuggle in some gum!)
To the pictures!The street where we stayed...

...and this is why the street has such a name. The Lutheran Church of Our Redeemer, which gives services in both English and Mandarin.

High rise apartment buildings. Such buildings seem to cover 70-80 percent of Singapore's built environment. If you look carefully, you can see numbers on the sides of these buildings - otherwise people wouldn't be able to tell them apart. 86% of the population lives in buildings like this. This may seem depressing to some, but Singapore is physically the same size as Madison, Wisconsin, but with 4 million souls crowded into it (Madison has about a quarter million.) It is far more sustainable than the silly urban-spawlopolis model favored in the US. There is lots of greenspace on the island, making it even more of a pleasant place. In fact, there is still some primary-growth rainforest in spots, I've been told.

Signs, signs, everywhere signs. Singpore has more public service announcement signs than any place I've seen. It also is the only country in the world with a national dating service, aimed at boosting the population of the country's post-industrial society with extremely low birth rates.

This sign shows the four languages of Singapore: English, Mandarin (Chinese,) Tamil (a language of Southern India, where most Indian-Singaporeans come from,) and Malay.

Orchard Road in Singapore. This is the major commercial area of the city-state. It kind of reminded me of Harajuku in Tokyo.

Old-school departures sign at Singapore's Changi Airport

The grand old Raffles Hotel, the place where the Singapore Sling was invented. Sadly, it costs S$16 (US $10 or so) to get one here. Needless to say, I stuck to Tiger Beer.

Okay, if you insist! Just don't cane me...

A polar bear in Singapore's Zoo. What the hell is a polar bear doing at 1 degree north lattitude? I really don't understand this - it seems cruel, but they do have an air-conditioned den and cooled water to swim in. That would be like having orangutans outside at the Antarctica Zoo, if there were such a thing. Yes, he does look miserable, doesn't he? Anyway, some of my students told me I look like a polar bear. I have always liked polar bears, so I've latched on to this thing. Singapore's Zoo, by the way, may be the best I've seen.

A mosque in the Malay section of the city. 7 or 8 percent of the population is Malay.

The skyline of Singapore, with the Merlion, Singapore's symbol, spitting water in the foreground. Singapura means "Lion City," and with it's proximity to the sea, they decided to put a fish's tail on the lion's head. The haze is from slash-and-burn farmers in Sumatra, across the straits of Malacca, and wildfires, as it is dry season in Indonesia.

A less-blurry Dipawalli picture.

A blurry picture of a street in Little India. It is decorated for Dipawalli, the Hindu festival of light. Something like 11 or 12 percent of Singapore's populace is Indian.

Hindu Temple in Little India. If we had been able to stay here until 1 am, we could have seen people walking over broken glass and hot coals to test their purity. Bummer.

Taken from exactly the same spot as the picture below, only looking to the right instead of straight ahead. I really like this picture.

On the street in the colonial district of Singapore. Singapore was a British colony until Malaysia gained independence in 1960, and then five years later, it gained independence from Malaysia.

A dragon in the Mid-Autumn Festival Parade

a drum in the Mid-Autumn Festival parade, one of the three festivals I mentioned earlier.

Red Chinese Lanterns in Chinatown. 77% of Singapore's population is Chinese.

Some of the cool Chinese lanterns on display in Chinatown for the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival

Some guy's foot

Suvarnabumi (pronounced "suu-WAAN-a-poom) Airport, Bangkok's brand-spankin' new (it opened Sept. 28) International Airport that just opened last week. Despite some seemingly needlessly long hallways, it is actually a pretty nice facility.

Images from the coup in Thailand, courtesy of 2bangkok.com

These pics, taken from the 2bangkok.com, should give you an idea of just how "dangerous" life in Bangkok is right now with all of the political intrigue going on. Let's hope it stays this way, and nothing ugly happens, and that democratic rule is restored post-haste!

Coup d'etat

Just to let everyone know, everything is okay here, at least for now. The TV is off, Tanks are surrounding the government buildings, and there will probably be a curfew in place for the next week or so. But other than that, shouldn't interrupt things out here in Eastern Bangkok too much.

Hail Progress!

Crocodile Hunter, dead at 44

RIP, Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200609/s1732835.htm

It could happen to you...

Interesting phenomenon in Korea...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_death

A sign not to be missed!

No caption needed. A special thanks to the guy on the Lonely Planet Thorn Tree Bulletin Board named Curt, or "Stupid American," for posting this - I've been meaning to take a picture of this sign for over a year, but keep forgetting my camera. I have heard that the massages here are so relaxing that you'll feel nauseated!

random pic

I love this image - it's the perfect image to represent the state (as in government)- the beautiful neo-classical architechture representing its noblest intentions, yet the concertina wire embodying the ugliness of what the state all to often has become. Or it could represent how the government is truly off limits to the powerless. This is the Richland County Courthouse in Wahpeton, ND.

Pics from Kala's wedding and the groom's dinner

The Ushers. Last picture that was taken before my camera's battery died. Mahalo!

Pinto, the Flound, and Angry Jonny

Grandma and the lovely bride

Jonny getting pinned by Renata, cousin Jeremy's fiance, next in the family wedding plans

The bride, practicing for motherhood

The Groom

Momma and Carol, on the way to the wedding.

Flounder, reciting Shakespear.

Your's truly

Flounder, getting what he deserves

Uncle Dan, in a candid moment

Pinto, flashing gang signs

Parents of the happy couple

Grandma, hamming it up for the camera

On Deck in the Luebke family wedding sequence: Jon and Amber

My Momma, with a new friend

Yellow Shirts

Here in Thailand, we just finished celebrating the King's Diamond Jubilee, marking his 60th year on the throne. The king's official color is yellow, so in the past few weeks, people all over thailand have been wearing yellow shirts to show their support for the King. However, this has caused some problems: there has been a shortage of yellow shirts, and some merchants who have had yellow shirts have been inflating their prices. So the government has taken measures to ensure that their are enough yellow shirts for everyone. Follow this link for more information: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2006/06/17/business/business_30006632.php.

If you want to know more about the importance of the king in Thailand, follow this link:
http://www.irrawaddy.org/aviewer.asp?a=5825&z=144

Hail Progress!

Mid-Air musings

(Author's Note: This was writen yesterday while in the air between Tokyo and Bangkok. As I describe in this posting, I was quite groggy and not really with it at the time I typed it, so please excuse lapses in coherence or spelling or that kind of thing - Dude.)

This past Saturday, my lovely cousin Kala, one of the most faithful readers of this here weblog, got married to her longtime boyfriend/fiancé, Darren Larsen. Congrats to them! The ceremony was beautiful, and the party afterward was raucous and fun – the first wedding on the Luebke side of the family since one heady day back in ’82 when my Aunt Carol and Uncle Dan took their vows, and I was 5 years old. Got to see lots of relatives, including my recently engaged younger brother, Angry Johnny (jrluebke.blogspot.com) and his fiancé, Amber, who flew in from the Bay Area just for the wedding and subsequent party. So it was a great time for all.

However, due to having to fly my second-least favorite airline (United – Northwest, or as I like to call it, Northworst, beats “The Friendly Skies” (the most brazenly false advertising in history perhaps) by a cockpit) out of Fargo ($300 cheaper than the next best price,) all did not end so well. The reasonable 10:30 am flight I was originally on was cancelled, and I was forced to take the 6 am instead. Keep in mind this is 6 am following a night at the wedding reception, where there were many people I hadn’t seen in a long time and the first wedding on this side of the family since the first term of the Reagan Administration. So I had to cut myself off early to avoid being booted from the plane for sobriety issues. On top of that, my ever-loving parents (God bless ‘em) had to drive me to Fargo, and we had to leave at 3:30 a.m., as it’s a one hour drive from my Grandma’s house. Not much sleep for anyone that night. Wasn’t too happy about that.

As I type this, I’m about 34,000 Feet in the air and somewhere over the East China Sea, on my way from Tokyo’s Narita Airport to Bangkok’s Don Muang Airport. This flight is never pleasant, especially the O’Hare-Narita stretch. It was especially unpleasant today as I was a.) without sleep (come to think of it, I’ve been without sleep every time I’ve done this flight) and b.) unable to get an emergency exit seat, where I can actually have sufficient legroom. Even when I do have an emergency exit sleep, I cannot get comfortable on a plane, except for those rare times when I have a whole row to myself (only happened once thus far). The seats are only about two inches wider than my butt, making comfort harder to come by than good sushi in North Dakota. In addition to that, since I was sitting in an aisle seat, I had the added annoyance of having people’s butts brush against my head when I was actually managing to doze off (guess I shouldn’t have let my head sag to the right in my semi-conscious state.) Furthermore, every time anyone in the row behind mine got up to use the Loo or whatever (which was frequent,) they grabbed the top of my seat to help themselves up, further making sleep an impossibility.

When one does manage to put together a peaceful enough stretch to actually slip into a state of sleep, it doesn’t get too much better. At times, I’ve managed to lose consciousness completely for one or two hours. However, I always end up waking up because of a butt-brush or chair grab or something. When this happens, the first thing I do is to look at my watch, hoping that I’ve slept a while, and that there are only one or two hours left. But that’s never the case – there are always between seven and nine hours remaining, it seems. It’s as disappointing as checking Twins scores has been this season thus far, especially when they’re on the road.

This agonizing 22 hours that I am in hour 18 of right now in the above-described conditions begs an important question – why do I keep doing this to myself? Every time I do it, I promise myself I will never do it again. However, that is always short lived – just a few minutes in Bangkok, Tokyo, or any other places in Asia are a bold reminder of why it’s worth it. It’s often been said that “it’s not the destination, it’s the journey.” Well, when it comes to making a trans-Pacific flight to Asia, the opposite of that is true. The end justifies the means. Although I’ve never experienced it (and never will, for that matter,) it’s akin to childbirth with an extra-long period of being in labor. Not a pleasant process, but one well worth the trouble.

That’s why I do it, and that’s why you all should make the flight and see it for yourselves, too. When you're going to Asia, it’s not the journey, it’s the destination. Hail progress!

Exodus

Well, here I am, with only 24 hours or so left in the BIS. Then, it's off to cousin Kala's wedding, and then back to The Big Mango - 30 hours in planes and airports, beginning only hours after the wedding party. That's gonna suck, but such is a hazard of the job. When I return, all of Thailand will be celebrating the 60th anniversary of the King's coronation. So it'll be nice to have a couple of days off right away and be able to recover a bit from the flight, and I hope to catch some of the ceremony surrounding the anniversary, at least on TV if nothing else.
Looking forward to the wedding and the party. Enjoy the pictures. Hail progress!

Various shots from the voyage home

My High School

My church

Tipi

Sakakawea

The House where I grew up.

Our North Dakota State Capitol Building, where I worked for two summers.

The Big Boy in Bismarck

My lovely auntie Carol
Where are the Captain and Tenille? Muskrat lookin' for lovin...
People fishing on a nice afternoon in Madison
Miss Elizabeth, daughter of my old friends, Jan and Brady Storhaug. She was born in March, but was due in June. She's been a good fighter, and just went home from the hospital for the first time. I got to meet her on my way through the Twin Cities.