Month: April 2011
Persistence Hunting the Speed Goat
Great article over at Outside: Fair Chase
If you aren’t familiar with persistence hunting, this is the clip to see: Human Mammal, Human Hunter – Attenborough – Life of Mammals – BBC
Easy YouTube Video Embedding for WordPress
If you paste a YouTube link on a line by itself in a WordPress post, WordPress embeds the video automatically.
That’s fuckin’ rad.
Sarte Wars
One time at a party, there was a guy who said he liked Jar Jar Binks. After the initial stomping and beer bottle volley, he finally admitted he was just saying that to be memorable. What a nerd.
The unbearable 1337n355 of being
I’m going to start incorporating this into my routine when someone asks for computer help: Hacker Typer
Tiger Joker 120S
Since my Crown is being worked on for another month or so, I really needed to find a cheap motorcycle. It took some looking (thx Yon) and trying (thx Matt) and bargaining (thx Nam), but I finally found the perfect ride for my needs, for which there is a serious lack of information on the net.
The ride I picked up was manufactured by Tiger Motor Company of Thailand (website is hosed as of writing this). The Model is the Joker 120S. I have no idea what the S stands for, or what the different grades were. It’s a 120cc carbureted 4-stroke, front disc – rear drum, four speed autoclutch, extremely ugly bike that I would have hated to buy new, but I picked it up for a good price used. The equivalent Honda or Yamaha would have cost three times as much (Honda is the only overvalued brand of both cars and motorcycles in Thailand; for cars it shares company with Toyota and Isuzu in this regard, and with motorcycles, Yamaha). Plus, I fell in love with its Mad Maxed muffler ( I call it a ghetto supertrapp) and getthefuckouttamyway exhaust pitch.
Of course, the trade off for not buying Japanese is that the electronics are Chinese-inspired level cheesy and most were probably broken beyond repair a couple months after it rolled out of the dealer. So I have to do without an electric starter and fuel indicator, which isn’t a big deal.
The big plus is that this bike has loads of torque, which I’m going to attempt to convert to power with an after-market rear sprocket. Anyway, here’s a few photos of this increasingly rare motorbike, which surely looks better slighty rusted and beat up than it did new:
Tilt-shift Thailand Vid
I’m so gonna do this at our giant catfish sanctuary and with a herd of water buffalo..
swept away
Funny how a story’s coverage by US media shrinks in direct relation to lack of bipolar celebrities.
Trance on Guitar
Man, it’s been ages since the last guitar vid.
Landscaping Our House – Before and After
We are on summer break and not lacking for things to do, but decided that it was time to put some effort into redoing our front yard.
BEFORE:
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AFTER:
We have since learned a few things regarding landscaping rocks:
- Rocks are low-maintenance when done right
- Rocks are expensive
- Babies inexplicably like throwing rocks at nearby cars
Of course, the muppets we got to do the work decided to use plastic netting instead of plastic sheets (stating that only a few weeds could possibly grow though thick cover and could be controlled in other ways), so a couple weeks later, there are already thick beds of weeds growing out of control. I will probably have to do it right myself (big surprise), and eventually found out that the magic “other ways” alluded to above was spraying Roundup (on rocks my babies play with every day? I think not.).
Note: Row of sansevieria (aka mother-in-law’s tongue, devil’s tongue, jinn’s tongue, Bow String Hemp, snake plant) inspired by a relative from Kyushu
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Our New Thai House entries:
Our New Thai House Part 1 – Picking a Plot
Our New Thai House Part 2 – Foundations
Our New Thai House Part 3 – Groundwork
Our New Thai House Part 4 – Roof and Walls
Our New Thai House Part 5 – The Blessing Way
Landscaping Our House – Before and After
potty time
We didn’t force toilet training on Max, and one day he just decided that he was tired of using diapers. From then on, we only put him in one at night and on long trips. Mina, the Ultimate Emulator, also sits on the training potty, usually just for fun and not actually depositing anything.
Mina is developing so fast, it’s scary. Whereas Max built up a vocabulary a few words at a time, Mina copies everything anyone says to her. She can’t make most of the sounds well, but the rhythm is there. And she can understand most anything you would say to a small kid. The other day, Nam told her to clean up a room when she and her brother and another kid were done playing, and she dutifully put away all the toys in sight (a lot).
One of the scary things she can do is get out of her car seat restraints – I saw this just last night, after she had been strapped down fairly securely.
Internet Radio Done Right
This is now my default background music source: Radio Collective
The first time I listened to one of the shows, it sounded like like a sword fight between banjos and sitars, with silvery wiccan pixies whispering in my ear. Needless to say, I was hooked.
Somchai Norris
Not my video; just one I found around the way.
Paddle Boat @ MSU
This photo is from a couple months ago, but Max insisted we do the same thing today in the afternoon heat… Can you tell how off-balance the keel is? (and yes, the water really is that green)
Note: This is a big man made pond in front of a newly-built conference hall at the new campus of Maha Sarakham University, where Nam teaches.
Off to Hua Hin
Tomorrow I’m off on a faculty trip to Suan Dusit University in Bangkok, then to Hua Hin the next day. I’ll be back on the 6th. Haven’t been to Hua Hin since our honeymoon, nor to the beach for far too long..