Thai Society/Culture
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Neither Washington nor Colorado
Forty years of failed US drug policy has culminated in my daughter wearing what appears to be an anti-hemp headband in her preschool parade in Thailand… A country where you can buy marijuana-seasoned chicken soup (not easily, but still), but where possessing it can get you all kinds of ganked, gaffled, or even shot by the police, all thanks to US drug policy. In fairness, there were also anti-drinking, -smoking, and -injecting headbands worn by other kids, and the only thing frowned upon among those by Theravada Buddhism is the alcohol. That’s why Buddhism is so fucking cool – in a place with such high road fatalities due to DUI,…
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Catching Giant Snakeheads with an Excavator
In the past couple of years, the pond in front of our house got seriously overgrown on the banks (as well as on the surface) with reeds, vines, and other opportunistic vegetation. Yesterday, the banks were cleaned up with a Caterpillar 313b excavator: The road hasn’t been cleaned up yet, and I’m not sure that it actually will be (since the predominant way of thinking is that it will get washed away by the rain – even if rainy season is half a year away!), and the weeds need to be pulled off the surface of the pond, but it’s good start. Here are some before-and-after pics: BEFORE:…
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How to Stop Spam SMS messages from True (TrueMove H)
I’m fairly satisfied with my monthly TrueMove H internet subscription; it’s fast enough and I’ve never run out of my monthly high-speed allowance (although I am careful not to download or stream too much with it). One thing that always bugged me about it, though, was the number of stupid spam messages I would receive from True, especially since I’m using this SIM with a Nexus 7 tablet (that doesn’t even have a phone function!). Eventually, I got around to looking it up and found that it’s very easy to unsubscribe from the SMS spam sent by True themselves: Call *137 from the phone you want to unsubscribe (I had…
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Monkey Holding Peach Brand
Monkey Holding Peach Brand Co., Ltd., or alternatively, White Monkey Holding Peach Brand, are the manufacturers of the original “Tiger Balm” type ointment. This is the OG shit right here. They deserve your respect just for having the coolest brand and company name… If I ever have the chance to work with them, I’ll do it just so I can write it on my CV.
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The Best Mass-produced Beer in SE Asia
Beer Lao.
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Buddhist perspectives
Shooting (through) security bars mounted on a temple window in Laos.
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Scenes from a border crossing bus
Been riding a lot of buses recently; this one had the most character. It’s an old Hino Blue Ribbon.
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RIP Koh Samet
We have several guests arriving next week, including my brother and sister from the states. We were going to pick them up in Bangkok and head to the beach, possibly Koh Samet, but that seems impossible now that they’ve effectively destroyed all the beaches and marine life with the oil spill. I guess we’ll have to go somewhere else so we don’t have to smell the seafood for oil before we eat it as recommended by government officials. You can’t make this shit up. Even if you could smell crude oil on a deep-fried delicacy, does anyone even know what the chemical dispersants smell like? Because they probably aren’t very…
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Daddy holding Max and a big snake
@ the Cobra Village in Khon Kaen, Thailand
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Video: Junior Snake Handler Bitten by a Cobra at the Cobra Village – Khon Kaen, Thailand
We have a lot of guests coming from overseas in August, so I’m sure we’ll go there again soon. I want to write more about this, but I just don’t have the time today on this fine Lazy Sunday.
