He can lift his head quite high, and he can propel himself forward with great force, but he can’t yet do both at the same time. He has a lot of fun acting like a human bulldozer, though.
/////////////////
We are greatly enjoying these days of limited mobility – he can move to one side on of his crib while sleeping and even roll over occasionally, but he basically stays put. Also, he can cry and sigh and burp and laugh and coo, but he can’t tell us, “no.” All in all, newborn to five months is a pretty great age.
Month: September 2008
Pimp Ghost Riding (Sky on Fire)
The other day we went to nanny’s village to see the flooded rice fields. The Chi River has overflowed into the fields, and huge invading catfish are happy to feast on drowned field mice and other flood detritus. Unwilling to take Mr. Max out on a flimsy boat, we watched the villagers go spearfishing for dinner.
It sure is a good thing we took the trusty old Crown out on the muddy roads instead of our pretty car.
Where is Max?
Coming soon, I promise.
I’m putting together another PC monstrosity. It shall live, and it shall help me gain access to Max’s photo vaults again – soon!
Save Pandora
Go see what you can do to help save internet radio, or hold your peace when DJ Dickhead in the mornings plays the top 40 for you every day: PANDORA NEEDS YOU
Don’t forget, Pandora is already mostly inaccessible from outside the US anyway (without using a proxy anyway, hint hint).
Thai immigration in Mukdahan
Our university sent us foreign teachers to Mukdahan yesterday for our annual visa renewals. Until now, we had been using th immigration office in Nong Khai, but the last time we visited for 90-day notice, they told us that the Mukdahan office was becoming the top office for the Isan region and that we should go there from now on. So the seven or eight of us rode out on a bus accompanied by 26 Chinese exchange students who are studying Thai in China at various universities and are on a program here for a year. 30+ visa applicants are enough to crowd any immigration office, and it was shocking to see how understaffed the Muk office was. Everything took a long, long time. It’s unreasonable to blame the people (the underlings at least) working there because they’re as trapped by the system as we are… It was hard watching other applicants* come and wonder where to queue up because the waiting room side of the counter looked like the escape scene from The Killing Fields.
////////////////////////////////////
What saved the day was my colleague finding a well-run expat cafe (expat customer, not proprietor) a couple doors down from immigration -the name of the place was Good Mook. Good coffee, pate on crispy French bread, and bottles of Beer Lao… It was a great place to relax and wait for all the students to get processed, until the tiny little immigration office closed at 4:30.
We got back to our university at around 9:00 PM. By the time I had a bowl of noodles with another colleague and went home, both wife and baby were sound asleep.
////////////////////////////////////
* Some of the other applicants included one of Nam’s Japanese teachers, and my next door neighbor (who also works at Nam’s school, MSU – Mahasarakham University.)
Taro Aso is the man with the gauge
…and a gauge is what you would need to shake up Japanese politics. The Japanese are justifiably apathetic about their leaders… Take a 12 gauge to the world stage, that’s what PM Taro needs to do!
(via)
Neal Stephenson on Anathem
“Author Neal Stephenson visits Google’s Headquarters in Mountain View, Ca, to discuss his book “Anathem”. This event took place September 12, 2008, as part of the Authors@google series. “
Strange Leaf Insect
Found outside of my office back in March. It was one of the coolest bugs I’ve ever seen.
I’m still catching up with all the photos downloaded off my phone.
truth in xkcd
This is so, so true.
Everybody always knows it’s my phone ringing. I used to use ringtones but reverted to ringing. A ringing sound is very easy to hear and recognize even in noisy environments.
[/rantish musing]