Archive for the ‘Personal’ Category
Wednesday, June 30th, 2010
I can never find these when I need them: compact, low-volume, contact lens cases. The cases sold by contact solution companies are positively cavernous, sucking up a relatively tremendous quantity of solution every time you use them!
I had an assortment of these Flents Econo-Mates years ago, but managed ...
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Sunday, February 28th, 2010
Fremdschämen is a German word which means vicarious embarrassment on behalf of others.
For examples, refer to almost anything that Ricky Gervais has made.
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Tuesday, October 13th, 2009
I've begun to gather information on rock climbing gyms in Japan and put them into Google Maps. This map is centered on Tokyo, but I'll add gyms anywhere in Japan as I come across them.
My goal is to provide, for each gym:
Exact location, including standardized Japanese address, as well ...
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Wednesday, January 7th, 2009
So, if you tell people in the US that you're going to Thailand, they'll often start wiggling their eyebrows, jab you in the ribs with an elbow, and mutter something about ladyboys.
This morning, I was at the Ekkamai bus station in Bangkok, waiting for my bus to Cambodia. A ...
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Wednesday, January 7th, 2009
So, here's my brief summary of how I got to Angkor Wat from Bangkok, Thailand, by land:
Take a government bus from the Eastern or Northern Bangkok bus stations. Leave by 7:30am. You can probably buy your ticket the same day, just show up at 6:00am. (190 baht) ...
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Tuesday, January 6th, 2009
I blew nearly two days just trying to get my Cambodian visa in order to visit Angkor Wat. All this to save, what, a few minutes at the border?
So, it turns out that the Cambodian embassy is not in Lhumpin Park anymore. As of around October, 2007, it ...
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Sunday, January 4th, 2009
Having completed my SSI Open Water certification with Princess Divers on Koh Phi Phi, I decided that I couldn't leave Thailand without diving the Similan Islands. Unfortunately, I couldn't justify the cost of a live-aboard trip, which could easily be in the neighborhood of $900 or more. Instead, ...
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Friday, January 2nd, 2009
Sure, Thailand is full things that seem weird to Westerners. After all, T.I.T. "This is Thailand" is the mantra of expats, uttered to sooth their frayed nerves. But all in all, it's a fun adventure, and a very old, complex culture.
There is one, single thing, however, which just really pisses ...
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Friday, January 2nd, 2009
Not just any sunglasses, but very dark, or reflective sunglasses. Possibly wrap-around. Maybe even a welding helmet...
Yes, the sun can get pretty bright here. But that's not the reason you NEED sunglasses. No, the real reason is to hide your eyes and avoid harassment by street vendors and taxi drivers.
Have ...
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Wednesday, December 31st, 2008
The other evening, I saw what sounded like a young German man sporting a mullet which can only be described as magnificent. This is in addition to several other mullets I've spotted on this trip, always on the heads of Europeans.
If Europe is really "five years ahead" of us on ...
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Wednesday, December 31st, 2008
Today, I finished dives three and four in my open water certification.
Highlight of dive 1: chasing an octopus. They're really impressively fast. But then, apparently, they get lazy, and decide to smoosh themselves into gaps in the coral. They're pretty well disguised until you float by, they get all pissy, ...
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Monday, December 29th, 2008
After wandering around, talking to three shops, and getting freaked out by the weird high-volume approach of the shops near the pier, I settled on an SSI course at Princess Divers.
Prices are all fixed on the island. Ostensibly, this is... Well, actually, nobody ever gives a reason why, neither plausible ...
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Saturday, December 27th, 2008
Kelly, who hosted the mostly-Peace Corps X-Mas dinner, has a nice house in Nakhon Si Tammarat Province. That's on the east side of the southern Thai peninsula, if you care. Well, while drinking on Christmas evening, we heard a loud noise like a fat, fat moth flying into one of ...
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Thursday, December 18th, 2008
Alec and I went for an hour long elephant ride. This was thoroughly badass. Impressively, the elephants smelled no worse than, say, cows, and were much more fun to ride.
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Sunday, December 14th, 2008
One other thing about Thai toilets: they have small doors. Initially, I thought this was a fluke, a unique characteristic of the cheap room I was in. But after visiting Alec's place (which, by the way, is basically a garage...), his friend's house, and a new room, I realize that ...
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