• Work

    lightened up

    I’m socked in with extra work this week MCing for an international conference to be held at my school, Rajabhat Maha Sarakham University, tomorrow and the day after. This morning we held a rehearsal. To get in the mood, I poured cold water over my head after waking up and watched an episode of Louie before heading in — this is the best prep for public speaking that I’ve found.

  • Around Mahasarakham,  Photos,  Work

    A Tribute to Buildings 1&2, Rajabhat Maha Sarakham University

    They are knocking down our “Little House on the Prairie” schoolhouses and will soon replace them with new facilities. They were probably the oldest buildings on campus with solid wood construction, and were a lot cooler than the concrete buildings that have come to represent typical SE Asian construction… In recent years, some of the rooms had been upgraded with whiteboards and sound systems, but there was nothing like going into class every morning and asking students to clean the blackboard erasers. They would knock the erasers on the outside wall below the window sills, which is how students coming in late could hear that class was starting. These classrooms…

  • Around Mahasarakham,  Thai Society/Culture,  Videos

    Insecticide Spraying in Rural Thailand

    UPDATE: I’ve added a video to the bottom of this post. The first time I saw government spraying (fogging, really) in our neighborhood was last year. There was the sound of a lawnmower engine from a block away, and then a man with a backpack sprayer walked by on the street, spraying a dense, white fog over our front yard, which promptly blew through our open windows ala a 1940’s public service announcement/DDT promotion. The cloying stench of RAID remained on the house for a couple hours, and I had to wipe everything down before the kids got back. Today, we got a twenty minute warning by a pickup truck…