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finaaaaaaaals.
I’m administering the first of four speaking tests this week, starting from the lowest performers in class first. I’m way behind schedule and have only finished seven out of forty-three… This is a special kind of hell.
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Boy (?) Scouts
I know that boy scout leaders in other countries wear khaki uniforms as well, but it’s just too common of a sight in Thailand. They take their scout positions very seriously here, and the thing that gets me is that the scout leader uniform is just a giant version of the ones worn by the scouts themselves. So sometimes I’ll be attending some official function with school presidents and deans and other demigods-in-their-own-mind and some poindexter in a half-length khaki uniform and clip-on tie will amble up on stage and start presenting awards or whatever… It’s really quite trippy. I guess the moral of this story is that if you…
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Tobita Shinchi Rap
I’ve been wanting to post this video for some time now, but forgot where I put the link. It is, quite simply, brilliant: For those who don’t know, Tobita Shinchi is one of the historical red light districts in Osaka. Located in Nishinari-ku, the brothels operate to this day, largely unaffected by anti-prostitution laws and the police. It is the largest brothel district in Kansai. The equivalent of madames stand in the genkan (entryways) of their homes and beckon passers-by to come in with clapping and hand gestures, ostensibly “for a meal” where they might just happen to “hit it off” with one of the young women living there. This…
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stack ’em up
My Kubrick collectible Pantone robots (AKA baby toys) stack very nicely.
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INN-DARA SMS Spammers deserve to die
I use text messaging on my mobile quite sparingly, as is the case with voice calls as well, since my life has become devoted to babies. So it’s a real irritation that some stupid fucking Thai celebrity news service called INN-Dara has been spamming me with 15-20 messages every day for the past two weeks; it’s basically caused me to stop checking messages altogether. I’m on DTAC, and all the other people I know receiving this spam are also on DTAC. However, calling DTAC to complain has proved unhelpful – they simply say that this is a “service” that will cut off automatically after 15 days if we don’t subscribe.…
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Dropbox vs. Google Docs for document backup
Hey, that rhymes, yo. Before Dropbox came along (I actually tried 3 or 4 similar services, but Dropbox was the best), I was backing up all of my Office documents (MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint) in Google docs, which replaced the time-honored practice of e-mailing documents to myself… As it turns out, I was better off doing just that, because I recently discovered that a lot of the formatting in the documents (particularly tables and tabs) were being corrupted by Google docs, whereas I haven’t had a problem with e-mail attachments for many years. But all of that is moot now because Dropbox has largely replaced both e-mail backups and flash…
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An Island of 31 Square Miles
15 years ago, there were rumors of a lone wild man living in the Amazon forest. The rumors were confirmed by sightings and, eventually, contact by Brazilian government officials who determined that he was the last survivor of an uncontacted tribe. To protect him, they created a 31 square mile sanctuary which was meant to stop the encroachment of land-hungry settlers and loggers. This is one of the most interesting things I’ve read in a while and you can check it out over at Slate: The Most Isolated Man on the Planet
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PP in SW
King sent me this awesome Power Point spoof image: It’s just so well done… who knows, Microsoft might take it seriously and use it to advertise the next version! — It’s from here: A long time ago, before death by PowerPoint
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Magellanic pengo
There’s an article featuring my sister, Mika (head penguin honcho/aviculturalist), over at the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s SeaNotes blog: Magellanic Magic The MBA is pretty awesome; we visited again when we took our trip back in May and Max pretty much flipped out over all the fish: It’s also nice having a brother and a sister working there – we got to eat free sea otter steaks!
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Daddy needs money for a new clutch
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.
