24 Treehugging?

Before I got crippled in the bandwidth department, I was on the front lines of 24, seeing more than a few episodes before they even aired on television, so it pains me to read this: Jack Bauer’s Next Mission: Fighting Global Warming
Cry me a river if Jack Bauer drinks California Condor blood for dinner with a dugong fetus apertif; all I really care about is that he kicks ass constantly and consistently… Fuck the Prius delivery routine, fuck solar powered cappuccino makers, and fuck these arbitrary carbon footprints – for fuck’s sake are you all wearing palm frond skirts and organic hemp pantalones, or what? – and give me Jack shooting people’s mothers in the kneecaps in the name of national security already… Is that too much to ask, or what?
Besides, let’s not forget which channel produces 24 – this ain’t the Discovery Channel, yo.

heine

Nam and I went out for steaks; it was the first t-bone I’ve had since god knows when. I drank a few or more beers and ended up back at home taking a shower in the rain. Nam even brought me a bar of soap, because it was pissing down. Taking a shower in the rain… I cannot recommend this highly enough.
Happy Hiroshima day!

fruit sacrilege

Thai farmers dumped a ton of mangosteens on the street in front of city hall to protest the low selling price. I’m pretty sure all the government workers rushed out to scoop up their share.
3 baht per kilo does sound pretty low, though. They retail for 18-20 baht/kilo up here in the northeast; the best quality ones at their peak went as high as 25 baht/kilo a couple months ago.
I do have to say that if you’ve never had a fresh mangosteen, you are missing out on one of life’s real pleasures.

millimeters matter – chaque millimetre compte


For those who are curious, like me (but also lazy, like me): chaquemillimetrecompte.com
HOLD IT!
As it turns out, the above viral video must have been an early cut. After some searching around, I found what looks close to a final cut:

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I think I prefer the earlier version because it wasn’t clearly an ad, and the score was much better. The Blue Danube has been used for far too many commercials already.

Something… for nothing!

The first person WHO HAS A PAYPAL ACCOUNT and types a comment in this post can have the remaining balance of my current account.
That’s right, you will be a whopping four dollars and six cents (minus transfer fees) richer, unless there is a minimum transfer amount or some such shit I’m neither aware of nor inclined to look up at this particular moment.
FREE MONEY! FREE MONEY! FREE MONEY!
…so don’t ever say I never gave you anything!
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The reason I’m doing this, according to PayPal’s help page:

Q: I’m moving to another country. How do I change my street address?
A: When moving from country to country, you will need to close your existing account and open a new account in the country where you will be residing.
For example, if you move from the U.S. to Canada, you will need to close your U.S. account and open a Canadian account. If you move from Canada to the U.S., you will need to close your Canadian account and open a U.S. account.

So fuckin’ lame… The terrorists have already won (as if this wasn’t proof enough).

On the Road 2007 (Part 6) – The Animatronic Chicken Roasters of Rayong, Thailand

On a previous trip to Thailand, I wrote about the most delicious roast chicken I have ever eaten. I have many special memories of Rayong, and the awesome roast chicken stands by the roadside are certainly counted among them. I had been looking forward to reevaluating the chicken itself since the last time I visited, to be sure it hadn’t been a fluke, or just how hungry I had been at the time.
The chicken stands to which I refer are concentrated along a half-kilometer stretch of a long road into town, from the east end of Mae Ramphueng beach. We scoped out the whole stretch a couple times and stopped at the one that caught my eye.

This stand had the best chicken illustration on their sign (important!), as well as the freshest-looking birds.

Aloha shirt, ski goggles and mask, and a straw hat! What’s not to like?

Grinding away in the heat – this guy’s job really sucks

The entire setup is powered by an electric motor drawing power from the lines directly above the stand.

If shirts could talk…

My man here is styling, too.
As it turns out, this wasn’t the only stand with animatrons, but it was the only one with multiple animatrons. I saw other stands that already were, or were in the process of being semi-automated with motorized spits, and most had the automatrons as well, so I figure the same man or crew may be creating them for everybody on that strip – whoever he is, the guy’s a genius.
The non-automated spits actually require a person to turn them, which is just torture in the midday heat amplifying the heat of the coals. The stands still of course require humans for all the other tasks, and this one was manned by a mother/daughter team:

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I came for chicken and by god, I got chicken (and sticky rice, biooootches!):

The sauce from this stand was good, but not great. The funny thing is, this chicken is so good, it doesn’t need sauce.
Mandatory “glistening fat” closeup:

That bottom right part is the neck – mmm, mmm good.
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All links for the On the Road 2007 series:
On the Road 2007 (Part 1)
On the Road 2007 (Part 2)
On the Road 2007 (Part 3) – Koh Chang
On the Road 2007 (Part 4) – Overloaded
On the Road 2007 (Part 5) – Tamnanpar
On the Road 2007 (Part 6) – The Animatronic Chicken Roasters of Rayong, Thailand