Author: Justin

Pink Water Buffalo Photos!!

A few weeks ago, Nam wanted to buy some more maternity clothes so we got in the car and headed off to Non Kuan Chang (sp?), a nearby village with the best silk shop in the region. The shop is run by my coworker’s mother-in-law, with several looms and weaving machines on an elevated bamboo work area outside and an extension of their big house used to hold/display finished products. I took photos there the first time I visited Sarakham seven or eight years ago and need to do so again; today I’m not writing about silk though.
Max had fallen asleep in the car on the way, and since it was a cool day I just opened the car windows and parked right in front of the shop so I could hear if he woke up. I walked around looking at this and that for a while (after trying a couple traditional Thai silk shirts over the years, it’s clear that they are simply too hot for me), but eventually got sleepy. I decided to take a nap on the shiny hardwood bench on the porch while Nam and the shopkeeper did their thing. I’m not too ashamed to admit that I woke myself up by snoring and also slightly drooled on a nice shiny silk pillow. I hope it wasn’t for sale.
After Nam chose a really cool piece of mommy clothes, Max woke up and got clingy on daddy so it was decided that mommy would drive home while big sleepyhead entertained little sleepyhead in the back seat. On our way home, on the narrow village road running between the silk shop and the highway, I spotted an apparition straight out of my dreams:
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He was a young male being kept by a family under their house-on-stilts. A young boy was feeding him and ran away when Nam stopped the car and I jumped out. His mother came out to see what had happened and I asked if I could take some photos. Unfortunately, I only had my phone.
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The coolest thing? He was so friendly! Even though I’m pretty good with animals, I hesitate to approach ones that are big enough to hurt me and not even feel it. This big guy was really calm, though.
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I’d been itching to get photos ever since the last time I saw a pink buffalo, so I was very happy. Very, very happy.
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Tasty Media Links for 9/1

Ursula K. Le Guin reviews Margaret Atwood’s semi-sequel to Oryx and Crake, The Year of the Flood. Oryx and Crake was just some of the freshest writing I’d seen for quite some time and some scenes were kind of reminiscent of the Earthsea novels now that I think about it. But was it Science Fiction? Aside from Atwood’s protestations, I sure think it was – and it was SF of the best kind: The kind enjoyable by people who don’t read SF.
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Roxanne Shante, the first really popular female rapper, gets a doctorate and gets Warner Music to pay for it. It’s not hard to see what they were thinking when they wrote they would fund her education for life in her contract back in the early 80’s – they thought it would never come about. Haha, suckaz! At my department, we would make the joke that she should now study for her post-doc, post-post-doc, and that other degree with platinum olive leaf clusters and tri-ringed shiny tassels.
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“A federal warning to beware of campers in national forests who eat tortillas, drink Tecate beer and play Spanish music because they could be armed marijuana growers is racial profiling.”

Spondias mombin aka ma-kok (?????)

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Somebody brought in a bag of these the other day and I’d never seen them before so I had somebody write down the name. If I’m summarizing correctly, this may be a kind of olive, or related to olives. What I know is that it was really bitter and sour, the taste of bitter fruits that make your mouth pucker or what the Japanese call shibui (astringent). That explains the bag of chili-laced sugar the ma-kok are sold with (although this also accompanies sweet fruits as well; pineapples, sour mango, various indigenous “apples,” etc.)
I have to be careful to record all of the rare stuff I encounter here because I may never see some of them again.

1:50 AM

I’m grading writing exams and listening to Houses of the Holy. Definitely my favorite Zepp. I tried grading earlier in the evening but Max would come and take my pen away every time. Eventually I grew tired of getting nothing done and crashed out on the couch. when I woke up it was dark throughout the house and the fan that Nam had thoughtfully pointed at me hadn’t kept the mosquitoes from biting the hell out of my legs. Once I got up for water I remembered the grading I’d been doing and now I sit here, scratching my legs and appreciating a quiet house (save for The Rain Song).
Damn, even the songs I don’t really like on this album are pretty goddamn good.