Author: Justin

My Own Private Loch

This is my favorite path to take on my daily sunset walks. It’s a concrete footpath bordering the canal that winds through my university’s campus. The water levels of the canals and holding ponds they feed to fluctuate quite a bit, as the norm for these times of climate change mean that long periods of drought are immediately followed by heavy and persistent rains. When the level is right, though, I can say hi to Nessie.

It’s been raining almost every day since Max settled in here for his summer vacation, but I took him here last week. He saw Nessie. I consider this to be the coolest thing to see in the whole province, and the fact that it’s hidden and impermanent makes it even better.

425,000

Is the approx. number of media files I have stored locally on my main hard drive backup. The digital photos go back to 1998 or so. I have them mostly arranged by date in the file names so I can look up people and events chronologically. The 3TB HD in question is old and unhealthy, so it’s currently being synced to a new external 12TB one I picked up on amazon for a hundred bucks!

The US remains the low price king for certain consumer goods, PC components being one of them. The same drive in Thailand would cost many times more, but partially because only a few big brands and questionable knockoffs are sold here- there is no reliable middle ground for many items (large capacity external HDs being one of them).

Here’s to hoping this sync completes trouble-free!

Botanical Printing at Columbo Craft Village

At the end of 2022, we took some overseas students to the Columbo Craft Village in Khon Kaen and learned to make botanical prints at a workshop. In this clip, Nam has chosen local plant leaves to incorporate on a shawl, and is being taught the wrapping process to imprint the plant tannins on the cloth. The whole process took an hour or two. It was really great to experience the local knowledge and processes used! #handmade #culture #thailand