You would think that it would be hard to get hurt on such a small slide. You would be wrong (blooper reel to follow).
Month: December 2011
Biggest load
Yes, please use the whole goddamn highway (@ Rayong outskirts).
Side trip to Elephant Island
We came to visit students on a side trip. Much fun was had. We’re on the ferry back now to rendezvous with the university van back in Pattaya.
Walking Street, Pattaya
Last night we were rolling with five-0. More on this later.
Yesterday’s lunch
This is a highway rest stop outside of Bangkok we always stop at when headed to Rayong, Pattaya, Hua Hin, etc. It used to have just Thai food shops and a KFC, but it seems to be getting a lot more international now. I saw a Muslim restaurant and an “Indian fast food” place among others.
Highway eyesore
Buses painted like these are a common sight at highway rest stops in Thailand, but this just might be the worst I’ve ever seen.
Favorite topping
Breakfast of champions: Char siu and crispy pork combo plate with two cloves of industrial strength stankbreath on top.
Christmas Day 2011
I got around to pulling photos from the camera today, so here’s what we did for Christmas this year:
Yes, the fish sanctuary/Buddhist temple. This is one of Max’s favorite places to visit now.
Isan X-mas 2011
I haven’t been home for Christmas for so many years now, I only miss it in theory. Living in Japan and Thailand, I work on western holidays if it falls on work days, and often forget about many of them. Christmas is celebrated (read: utilized for marketing purposes, just like in the west) just enough here that I’ve never forgotten about it, but we don’t celebrate it really. At most, we go out as a family, as we did today… which is of course the most important part of the holidays, anyway.
I’ll be going on a trip to Chonburi and Pattaya from 5 AM tomorrow for a few days, to visit students interning at hotels and resorts, tourist police stations and Tourism of Thailand offices. I might even have time to moblog, which is such a rare occasion for me that even the word itself has almost disappeared.
More dead flash
It seems my flash memory karma went to hell. After having to trash the new fake Kingston USB drive I bought, the 8GB Samsung Micro SD card in my HTC decided to crap out, taking with it a bunch of cool photos I wanted to post… Lost perhaps forever, until I have access to a NAND reader in the future.
Wouldn’t you know it, I was thinking about backing up the photos just the day before it went bad… Dammit.
Produced Forthwith
Yesterday, out of nowhere, Mina came to my desk and said, “Here, daddy.”
She then handed me my passport.
As in, arguably the single most important document I possess living overseas.
I do not know where she got it; I’m just glad she didn’t throw it away or color in all the pages…
Bug Macros
Here are some photos of Max’s playmates from the other day.
Meanwhile, Nam is supervising graduation rehearsals at her university all weekend, so I’m watching the kids.
…your plan against the ghetto backfired.
The title of this post is from the best song on the best rap album ever made.
Max’s play doh sculpting
He’s in the zone!
Fake Kingston Flash Drive
I went to the annual Chinese festival in downtown Maha Sarakham last month; this is one where they host Chinese opera at the business association meeting hall (I uploaded crappy vids of the opera this year here and here). Aside from the performance, which I generously bear for up to three whole minutes every time I go (once every couple years), I also like walking the wide area of stalls filled mostly with unimpressive yet numerous food vendors.
At the end of one row of stalls was a memory card/USB thumb drive vendor selling at very low prices. I picked up this 8GB Kingston stick for a couple hundred baht with the intention of filling it with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Yo Gabba Gabba episodes for the kids, which they can use with our DVD players at home and in the car.
Unfortunately, the plastic case of the flash drive separated into halves within a week of unpackaging, and most of the files stored on it were corrupted or lost even after low level formatting. I had noticed that the packaging looked a bit suspect just after buying it, but had used fake name brand USB sticks before and hadn’t had any problems… I took a closer look at the packaging:
Lesson: If you buy fake crap, sometimes you will be burned.
Like bugs
Nam took the babies to see their old nanny. Her new house is almost complete, but is out in the sticks. At night, the house is apparently crawling with all sorts of bugs, frogs, and who knows what else. Max brought back a couple to play with at home.
Why are we not equal?
Living overseas, you might be surprised how many websites and web services (in the US and Japan especially) are closed to the rest of the world. Of course, there are easy ways around this, but if your personal blog is denying me access because I’m visiting from another country? You, sir, are a dumbass, plain and simple.
Happy Painter
Bob Ross was like jack bauer – he assassinated a syrian diplomat with a Dragunov sniper rifle.
(apologies to all, I needed a Google result)