Month: October 2007

First Glimpses of Posterity

Here is little Fetus swimming about like a tadpole at six weeks:

And here’s another shot, as well as a closeup at 8 weeks:

The doctor couldn’t get the right angle for the latter shots and at first thought Fetus was actually a pair… TWINS!!! What a scary thought! The world is not ready for Yoshida twins! (The doctor was wrong, though.)
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If Fetus grows up and is freaked out by reading this blogpost, please remember Daddy did this with you in mind. This whole blog, in fact, is a record of who made you. It is only natural that you become the centerpiece.

D&D

Meet thine foe:

The Giant Centipede

These things just look evil, and Nam insisted I dispatch it when we found it in her university’s parking lot. “Dangerous for students walking around,” she said. I tried to kill it with a rock, but it wouldn’t die, so I pried a brick loose from a nearby footpath and ground its head into the hard-packed dirt. The whole time, my skin was crawling.
This was probably the biggest one I’ve ever seen (around 8 inches long, and fatter than your finger), much bigger than the ones in Japan.
Fucking nasty creatures.

Book Recommendation for Thailand

I just finished reading Narrative of a Residence in Siam, a book written by a chap named Fred Arthur Neale in the 1850s. It was, in a word, excellent. The author voices many opinions about Thailand that I can relate to 150 years later, and was a skilled writer.
Actually, the full name of the book is Narrative of a Residence at the Capital of the Kingdom of Siam; With a Description of The Manners, Customs, and Laws of the Modern Siamese by Fred Arthur Neale, Formerly in the Service of his Siamese Majesty; Author of “Eight Years in Syria, Palestine, and Asia Minor.”
It was originally published in 1852 and the version I found at Nam’s university library is the second reprint, which was retypeset as well. For a paperback, this book is gorgeous:


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One of the many passages that struck a chord (although these are not the author’s own words, he is quoting another):
SIAMESE LOVE OF GAMBLING
The Siamese love gaming to such an excess as to ruin themselves and lose their liberty, or that of their children; for, in this country, whoever has not wherewith to satisfy his creditor, sells his children to discharge his debt; and if this is insufficient, he himself becomes a slave.
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I can’t recommend this book to people interested in the history and culture of Thailand enough; if you want a taste, it seems that Cornell has a complete scan of the book online although their servers are a bit slow at the moment.