Category: Chillin’
COVID-19 Numbers, USA
Doubled nationwide and doubled in Hamilton city (not county), in comparison to 10 days ago. People from other countries cannot understand why many Americans won’t wear masks, but it’s simpler than you’d think – Freedom or Death!

It would be remiss not to mention that arsonists have tried to destroy at least 50 5G towers in several countries in the EU, UK, and US. It has not helped the spread of the coronavirus at all.
We bought Covid 19 insurance
Many insurance companies started offering it in Thailand from about last week, and the rates are similar. We just have the lowest tier of coverage, which starts at about 250 baht (one time payment) and covers up to 200,000 baht in medical expenses for a year. The higher tiers cover about double that.
I have to go pick up Max in Washington state in a couple months, so it seemed prudent. I looked at air tickets last night, and the transit countries (Japan, Korea, China, etc.) are all hot zones, except for Taiwan. So, hopefully Taiwan stays safe and I can use Eva Air. But who knows how all this will turn out. Fucking pandemics, man. Really inconsiderate.
Sometimes you just need to dreamcast

Very, very cheap on Steam (-85%) until October 15. GO GO GO.
Remember, if there had been no Jet Set Radio, there may have been no Borderlands (see history of cel shaded video games).
Catch!
When we play catch or practice hitting balls around the vacant lots and parks around here, people stop to watch. Hmm… I’ve never seen anyone else playing baseball in Thailand, either! I’m not a big baseball fan or anything, but it’s great for kids’ hand-eye coordination.
I found the equipment for sale at a secondhand Japanese goods store in town. This was a very popular business until very recently – you could buy containers of household stuff from Japan at various Thai shipping ports for around 70,000 baht and up. A lot of people started used Japanese good shops with stuff from a single container. You couldn’t see what was in the container before you bought it, so there would be some new stores opening with tons of old clothes, others loaded with baby strollers and rice cookers (the wrong voltage for TH), and many with just worthless crap. The best containers were probably the ones loaded with wooden furniture and bicycles. Many of the products were packed in similar moving company boxes, which led to speculation as to where this stuff was coming from.
Now that I’ve Googled a bit, UPDATE: We export used clothing from Japan to Thailand
Kon-Tiki – The Best Fishing Movie Ever?
I don’t remember the last time I saw this movie, but it must have been around 35 years ago… I can’t believe how good it is. This might be my favorite one-hour movie, and perhaps my favorite documentary, ever. There are just these gems of knowledge and experience spread throughout the whole voyage. Gonna watch the Hollywood remake from a few years ago next.
Rogue One AKA Star Wars in Dubai
For me, this is the second or third best movie in the entire series, behind Empire Strikes Back and maybe A New Hope. Definitely better than Return of the Jedi.
I really loved that Donnie Yen was in it, but kind of hated his mystical Tai Chi Yojimbo character (we get it, blind people’s other senses are finely attuned as hell, and Asians all have Jedi-like intuition except when driving ha fucking ha). And goddamn Star Wars weapons always piss me off – why does his sidekick with the belt-fed MG have to rack the slide like a goddamn Remington 870 after every shot at the end? Is it an over/under plasma LMG/shotty?
Aside from the usual cookie cutter Star Wars plot and minor nitpicks, the movie just worked. No fucking teddy bear creatures, no annoying CGI sidekicks, no damn jedis doing inexplicably stupid shit. The droids were fucking dope. And the final tie in to A New Hope! It was pretty goddamn satisfying. Now if Joss Whedon would just do a second season of Firefly with the same budget as the original, I’d be happy. Might as well hope for a season 2 of Freaks and Geeks, tho.
(Harry) Bosch
This is the best series I’ve seen in a long, long time. It features writers and actors from the Wire, which is evident throughout the first season. For some reason, it made me think of a certain character from 24 as well, and that actor suddenly appeared in one of the later episodes!
If you’re an Amazon Prime member, you can see it for free.