-Ni Howdy-

King's Landing

2009-07-12T20:05:00.008+08:00

Historical recreation of 18th-19th century Loyalist village in the Saint John River Valley -

Good ol' George III.

Pint for 2 pence

Stone home

House Hunting

2009-07-10T22:22:00.001+08:00

This one needs a little work.
Kev?

B o r a c a y

2009-07-06T15:50:00.016+08:00

Private pick up in Caticlan and drop off.... Under the boardwalk..

Down by the seeeeaaaa ......... Sunset from the room......

Private dock and view

BIP ......

C a t i c l a n

2009-07-05T11:23:00.006+08:00

Island hoping to Boracay..........

Sgt. Schultz

How tough calendar

2009-07-04T20:19:00.002+08:00

I had a conversation the other day with my brother wherein he indicated that he had a calendar up in his apartment devoted to the toughness of Chuck Norris (hey, at least it's not livestock, right?).

He described some of them to me and we had some laughs.

For instance,

"Chuck Norris is so tough that he sleeps with a pillow under his gun."

or

"There are no doors in Chuck Norris' house. He just walks through walls."

Awesome.

There's a pretty exhaustive list here - HowToughIsChuckNorris

I like #3, #14 etc. Some are better than others of course - I'll leave you with this -

Chuck Norris does not sleep. He waits.

Happy America day fellers! -

D o n g g u a n II

2009-07-04T10:01:00.003+08:00

Labor Day & Dragon Boat Festival......
2009

Hogan

Ya'll come back now hear

2009-07-03T17:18:00.004+08:00

The Beverly Hillbillies.....

Klink

2009-07-03T02:16:00.002+08:00

I have to be quick and take advantage of this Internet time my computer is gracing me with. I've been back home in Lubbock for about 9 days and it only took 3 of them for me to bar myself from my computer and disable all Internet connections. It's taken 5 days of throwing chicken bones, clicking on anything that looked clickable while wading through Chinese computer gobbledygook to somehow restore a connection. Gotta be fast. Like driving with a broken fuel gauge, you never know when time is up.

Saw my president speak live for the first time. He seems to be making a very conscious effort to limit his "uhs" and "ums." That is...um, well, uh, good. At times he was well-spoken, pleasant, mandatory politically vague and a tad condescending with a hint of smarmy. A combination of Buddy Christ and high school quarterback class president - equal parts. Sometimes shaken, sometimes a bit stirred, but mostly enjoyed. Especially by those wanting to enjoy. I give his press conference performance a very solid "Whatever."
News: Wal-Mart backs an employer mandate for health care - Okay, sorta interesting, though it becomes more interesting after reading short posts about this from The New Republic and National Review Online. The former suggests and the latter flat-out states that this is not just altruistic good citizenship. TNR states "On the other hand, politics is all about channeling self-interest so that it serves the public good. And the timing of this is pretty telling." NRO has this to say "It makes perfect sense for Wal-Mart to back a regulatory initiative that hurts its bottom line as long as it hurts its competitors more." This interested me because of the similarities to the companion measure to the Pure Food and Drug Act, the Meat Inspection Act, which supposedly was a response to the unhygienic conditions in meat packing plants brought to light by Upton Sinclair's The Jungle. Sinclair's intended focus was the working conditions and not the meat itself. One source, Gabriel Kolko's Meat Inspection: Theory and Reality, states clearly what I've seen before - "The reality of the matter, of course, is that the big packers were warm friends of regulation, especially when it primarily affected their innumerable small competitors." According to Kolko, regulation was initiated by the big meat packers some 20 years before Sinclair to increase competitiveness ( i.e., profits). No real point. Find your own. I just like the parallels.
As bi-political (conservative/libertarian) I feel it necessary to end with a quote from C.S. Lewis.
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may
be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under
omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his
cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own
good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own
conscience.

M N L N i n o y A q u i n o

2009-07-02T13:02:00.003+08:00

Terminal 1

Terminal 2

Terminal 3

Take the mini bus between'em......

Did You Know?

The smallest commercial aircraft flying out of MNL is a EQV with 0 seats.
There are over 1,345 domestic flights per week from MNL.
There are 244 nonstop flights out of MNL per week that have over 300 seats per aircraft
MNL has 617 medium sized aircraft departing each week.
Over 276,632 passengers can travel out of MNL every week.
There are over 593 international flights per week from MNL.
MNL has 1,194 flights departing per week for short haul destinations.
There are 78 nonstop flights per week departing from MNL.

Iron Eagle

M a n i l a

2009-07-01T13:54:00.005+08:00

Gotta like that... Smokee's No Problem

Clean Air.

And Pink Public Urinals........

Stalag

C h a w e n g

2009-06-30T13:44:00.010+08:00

Entrance to Chaweng main st.

Papaya lady & Samui Thai boxing stadium.

Chaweng Beach.

Chaweng walking st.

How high is your corn?

B o P h u t t II

2009-06-30T13:20:00.009+08:00

Ibis: Patio, Pools, Beach and Ocean...........

13

U S M II S a m u i

2009-06-29T12:10:00.009+08:00

Did You Know?

There are over 161 domestic flights per week from USM.
There are over 7 long haul flights per week from USM.
There are over 19 international flights per week from USM.
The longest flight from USM is 1,270 miles.
The shortest flight out of USM is 125 miles.
USM has 166 flights departing per week for short haul destinations.
The smallest commercial aircraft flying out of USM is a DH7 with 48 seats.
USM has 68 medium sized aircraft departing each week.

New terminal.........

Colonel

Transporter 7

2009-06-27T16:41:00.004+08:00

Thai style.....

Cockroach

D u m n o e n S a d u a k

2009-06-24T16:44:00.010+08:00

Floating Market

Kinchloe?

what about fries?

2009-06-18T18:47:00.003+08:00

Hey guys, sorry for my long absence from posting but I've been working really hard getting ready for the Air Sex World Championships -

"you know, like air guitar but f**king" - video

C h a o P h r a y a R i v e r

2009-06-15T13:04:00.025+08:00

View from the old Shangri La hotel looking towards the gulf of Thailand.

Sathorn station all day pass recommended....

Wat Pho Bang O.....

Temple of the worlds largest reclining Buddha.

Wat Phra Kaeo....... Grand Palace. Dress code strictly enforced!

Gr a n d P a l a c e ...

And Grand Palace......

Wat Arun and

Happy Birthday King.

Goldilocks.

Taiwan Tip

2009-06-13T23:45:00.001+08:00

How do the Taiwanese encourage fathers to attend ballet performances in the park on Saturday mornings?

Make sure to have 40 minutes of adult female belly dancers first.

AWESOME.

B a n g k o k

2009-06-13T10:39:00.006+08:00

One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster

One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble

I can feel the devil walking next to me.......

The Iron Eagle

For Karl

2009-06-13T04:51:00.002+08:00

2009-06-12T11:09:00.000+08:00

Poker Report

2009-06-08T08:02:00.004+08:00

Lower Spades,
Bigger boats,
Higher rushes,

Night life
It's all right
No big pussies

table two
11 shoe
no Aaron

* Big and pretty hand, "200 hold'em", Angus plays four tens.

* Most painful has to go to Jeff, "In Betwen" J went for whole pot of 1800, hit the post and added 3600 to the pot (Pot quickly whisked away by a Texas tornando).

* Surprised. "5 card draw,2 draws of 2, 5's wild,max 100" after taking 2 draws of 2, Drunken Danger Dave beat my beautiful Ace high staight with 4 of a kind, he had 3 wild fives. (boo hiss)

Fei Yu-Ching Concert

2009-06-07T17:03:00.003+08:00

Last night while you dumbasses were all playing poker, drinking beer, and joshing around, I went to see the famous Taiwanese crooner Fei Yu-Ching.

Here's his wikipedia page.

Basically, he's Chang-Fei's gay little brother. He can sing pretty well, but even my wife, who bought the tickets and forced me to attend, fell asleep numerous times as he sang soft ballads from yesteryear, back when Taiwan was in the UN. (Yes, this was mentioned in the concert actually.)

Mean age for concert goers: 65

Number of Foreigners Attending: 1

He did tell two pretty funny jokes. I will see if I can translate them and keep them funny.

C M U H

2009-06-06T11:01:00.004+08:00

Freedoms just another word for nothing left 2 loose......

Since 1980

I know nothing?

2009-06-06T10:36:00.002+08:00

Summer vacation is nearing and the annual end-of-the-school-year rituals are in full play: signing yearbooks, creating final grades for 800 students and ducking all supervisors. The last one is most important to me and one that I try to be faithful to year round. It's made easier because my supervisors are doing the same. However, given time to make a decision - whether one needs to be made or not - they inevitably make one that is wrong, stupid, repetitive or all three. This is where I must step in and show them that even after eight years it is still possible for round eye to be completely ignorant of, and completely disregard the concept of indirect criticism.

I teach at a combo junior high / high school / vocational school. Similar schools in Taichung have foreign teachers numbering in the teens. At my school, we number in the upper twos - three to be exact. The senior teacher is Paul. This is his 9th or 10th year there and even though he does not have a teaching certificate, he has been grandfathered in and is safe. Before, a college degree was good enough. A couple of years ago, the government got stricter about the requirements (having a teaching certificate) and sales of Photoshop and tickets to Bangkok soared. I have my certificate and permanent work and residence visa. I too, am safe. It is our third teaching position that has given us problems. We have rotated this position like drummers for Spinal Tap. The last one before the current teacher was my good friend Jerry. Our school declined to offer him a new contract because he did not have a teaching certificate. I was not happy. The school said sorry, that's the way it has to be and we will never hire another teacher unless they have a teaching certificate. Until they did.

The new, current, teacher is a very good teacher who gets along with the students and other teachers. So, our school decided enough was enough and decided to not offer him a contract for next year. When the contracts were distributed, we noticed there were only two. Nothing for Andre. Andre told us the school had already informed him that he wouldn't be coming back. He then handed me a printout of a news story (in Chinese) from Yahoo Taiwan news which had been given to him by the number two guy at our school. Andre was told it was about a crackdown on unlicensed teachers that was starting in Taibei and moving south. He was told the article said that the penalty was severe and teachers would be deported within two days. He was told the school was very sorry but they had to protect themselves. I said, give it to me.

I read the article. I took it to my Chinese teacher to let him read and see if he concurred with me. I then showed it to four Taiwanese teachers in the Junior High department. We all agreed. The school's version was complete bullshit. Yes, two licensed foreign teachers in Taibei were caught working at another school. They were not deported. There was no crackdown. They were turned in by the school they were under contract to. The news article was about the behavior of the teachers when coming out of a meeting after being fined (the teachers, not the school). The teachers reacted rather unpleasantly upon seeing some of the media there. They responded with the finger, cussing and assaulting a reporter. I took my knowledge and black hat to confront Numbers Two and Three. I told them they lied. I also added that I would not sign my contract until they settled this. Not really a huge threat, but we would only have one foreign teacher and our so-called Foreign Language department would collapse. They have since offered Andre a contract, but he can only teach in the morning or in the afternoon. Why? Because the Immigration Police who are not cracking down on unlicensed teachers will only raid our school in the morning or the afternoon - whichever time Andre is not working. Yes, they really said that. Number Three supervisor has told Andre and Paul to tell me to please not talk to her directly. I am too upsetting. If I have something to say, tell them and they will tell her. So I scheduled a meeting with her and Number Two next week.

Andre recently got a visit from Number Two a disgruntled parent. The issue? An 85 for disgruntled's child. The result. Number Two said that the students in that class could only get a score of 95-100. Change it. Now. This is a class whose tuition is being covered by the school and guaranteed admission into the high school of their choice. I told Andre to change Precious's grade to 95 and give everyone else in the class 100. Hope he does it. Were are also told to adjust (never lower than 85) any aboriginal or underprivileged student's grade. We have no idea who they are and have never adjusted their grades. The other Taiwanese teachers in the Junior High department do not adjust either, and no one has ever been spoken to about it. I guess the Free Ride class is a little more equal than others. Just two more weeks and then I'm home for about 5 weeks. Get your requests in now.