Luckily, a rush editing job came in and daddy is going to do an all-nighter. Mommy took the kids to grandma’s house and our house is quiet and lonely. Max’s new fish and newer freshwater crab are playing tag, but more about that later when I have more time. Daddy is doing a job related to the Rockefeller Foundation, and that has absolutely nothing to do with the ROC (“yeah, number one clique here”), yo.
Category: Old Blog Entries (archives)
robot babies
Lookin’ kinda spaced out.
How to defeat a breathalyzer test in Japan 5 years ago, or Thailand today
Put your mouth up to the apparatus and make a show of drawing a deep breath. When you exhale, do it through your nose instead of your mouth, but obviously not in a way that will be noticed by the people administering the test. Basically, you are aiming to make a sound like you are exhaling into the apparatus while not actually doing so.
At least, that’s what I hear.
The best way to avoid trouble at all is of course to avoid drinking and driving entirely.
But hey, work drink-ups are a bitch, I know.
Mina has been crawling for a month
Just to make that clear; sorry I forgot to mention this earlier. No time, ever. Max is wailing because he’s in sickie mode, but I want him to go to school to snap out of it. The babysitter just came, so we can get ready to go.
Oh, and Mina can sit up, pull herself up to her feet, and walk if she has something to grab onto. She might walk really soon… Please, god NO.
Today I ate dinner with a dirty diaper in my hand
…some days there just ain’t enough time for simple pleasures. And apparently, even that isn’t enough because Nam pulled a large glass marble out of Mina’s mouth about an hour before I found her about to swallow a rubber band. She has very quick hands, and follows her older brother around, whose purpose in life seems to be breaking things into little pieces and strewing them all around. This is a bad combination.
Speaking of Max, he got in a squabble with a girl at school today and she apparently stuck a finger in his eye, because his upper eyelid is all swollen up. When I took him to brush his teeth, his own reflection in the bathroom mirror set off a long string of sleepy crying and exclamations of pain.
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So actually, I was conscious of the soggy diaper in my hand and also that I was eating a plate of cold food (I hate cold “warm/hot” food) as fast as I could, but it didn’t bother me so much because babies were crying all over.
Ungh.
badmotorfinger 2010
It’s kind of hard to believe that grunge can still sound sooooo good. Soundgarden recently got back together for performances and are now releasing B-sides from the Badmotorfinger era: Black Rain
ran dry
My red pen just ran dry as I was correcting papers and it got me to thinking – I’ve never used a new pen until it ran out. Of course, I’ve had them stop running prematurely and finished up partially-used pens, but I can never seem to keep pens around from start to finish. Other people take them, or they just disappear magically, perhaps into the wormhole that most of my socks eventually seem to drop into, as well.
Also, I cannot remember how long it’s been since I’ve written a letter by hand. I used to do it every few years just for the novelty, but now… I’m definitely going to make the kids do it, though.
morning light
Nam woke up when it was still dark to go to Bangkok for a meeting. Max stayed at his grandparent’s house. Mina woke at about 6:15, later than usual, and only cried a little bit. I tucked her against my chest and she fell asleep again. She stayed nestled in my arms while the cool morning breeze whispered through the windows.
Chris Pongpitaya’s Supercar Knockoffs
…Because nothing says genuine 911 like a spoiler the size of a Cessna wing (and judging by the height of the hood, front wheel drive as well).
(thx Mark)
This video intrigued me so much, I had to dig around a bit. Here’s the juicy bits:
- When looks alone matter – A Bangkok Post article on Chris and his shop, Schönes
- A thread on a Phuket message board with sweet replica Aston Martin pics
- An online gallery with photos of the old factory in Ekamae
- According to this Danish article, this is the contact info for Chris Pongpitaya / Schönes in Bangkok, Thailand:
Tel: (+66) 81 674 4950
schones_2000@yahoo.com
UPDATE:
Here’s some alternate contact info I found; I have no idea if it’s correct.
Chris Pongpitaya Schoenes Co.
229/3-4 Soi Akamai 7, Sukhumvit 63
Bangkok 10110 Thailand
Phone +66 2392 4177
Deleting Gmail Trash
Today is Mother’s Day in Thailand since it’s the Queen’s birthday, and the Queen is mother to all Thais. Nam and Max went to Khon Kaen with my mother-in-law and I spent the day watching Mina. She basically slept on me all day, only waking to feed and put everything within reach in her mouth before throwing it on the ground.
While she slept, I trashed several thousand mailing list messages in Gmail that I’ve no longer got time or interest in keeping up with, and hit the Empty Trash Now link. The following message ran across the status ticker thingy up top:
Oops… the system encountered a problem (#793) – Retrying now…
Gmail continued to suffer from Excedrin headache #793 for a few minutes, after which the beautifully empty trash page appeared with this message in the middle:
No conversations in the Trash. Who needs to delete when you have over 7000 MB of storage?!
Cheeky.
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On a related note, I don’t really like the new Gmail interface (mainly, the Compose mail button sticks out like a wart), but I can live with it. If you can’t there’s a way to switch back to a much older version of the interface, albeit without Labs support.