22 December 2013

Winter Solstice

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We finally have some consistently cool weather.  For half the day, and all of the night, I have had the fan off.  I did some major exercise today and never once had to tie a sweatband around my forehead.  That’s cool. 
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The anti-government – i.e., anti-Thaksin regime – protesters have almost completely locked down traffic movement in Bangkok, with thousands in the streets.  You cannot go anywhere into the city.  The huge protest turnouts by middle class folks still astounds me. 
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It is now late afternoon with the sun low in the west.  Tuk is wearing a fleece-lined jacket with a scarf and long pants.  I am only wearing swim trunks and have the fan blowing on me.  She thinks I'm weird.  
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-Zenwind.

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18 December 2013

Cold Snap

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It is bitter cold here in greater Bangkok.  At dawn it was 66*F (19*C).  I was sleeping with long pants, a shirt, a scarf, and a hooded sweatshirt.  After midnight I put a blanket over my bare feet.  But I still woke up cold and finally turned the fan off at 4 AM, the first time I’ve turned it off in recent memory.  Without the fan, a mosquito bit my hand, but I decided not to fight it if they were that determined. 
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Sitting up during the day, it was still down in the 70s F and too humid and uncomfortable without the fan, but I had to wear a turtleneck shirt to keep the cold draft off my throat. 
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On Thailand’s highest mountain in the north, there was frost at dawn.  Emergency units are dispensing blankets to people living in the North and Northeast.  Tuk just zipped up a jacket this evening, in the house!  I think that an apocalypse of freeze is upon us, and we are headed to a new Snowball Earth and an icy extinction.  Bundle up. 
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-Zenwind.

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Christmas Music Ambushes Scrooge

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It happens to me every single year, and I still fail to see it coming.  Monday was a brief humid day just before a colder front moved in Tuesday, and I was sweating while wearing shorts, short-sleeve shirt, and sandals, feeling like summer.  Then I walk into a mall and get hit with a wall of Christmas Carols blaring over the PA system.  Bah!  Humbug!  Is there no place on this planet where I can escape this? 
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-Zenwind.

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16 December 2013

"Shakin' All Over!"

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A recent scientific study adds interesting information to a post I originally made back in January 2011 over at Zenwind.  Here is my original post:  Nightmares of War & theSense of Smell.  I linked this newest study at the end.  
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"Quivers down my backbone 
 I got the shakes in my thigh bone 
 I got the shivers in my knee bone, 
 Shakin' all over!" 
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-Zenwind. 
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12 December 2013

Barbara Branden, R.I.P.

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Barbara Branden (1929-2013) died on 11 December 2013 at age 84.  She was a protege of Ayn Rand and wrote the definitive biography of her.
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See my Zenwind blog for my full tribute.
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-Zenwind.
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09 December 2013

Massive Anti-Government Protests

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The ideas of Thomas Jefferson and John Locke being invoked by Bangkok protesters?  (See LINK)
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I am continually astonished at the extent to which the Bangkok middle classes (and students) loathe Thaksin Shinawatra (while the rural majorities love him for his populist policies and giveaways to them, policies that are usually financially disastrous and corruptly administered).  He, and the parties he controls, has dominated (opponents say, “bought”) contemporary elections, even after he fled the country as a fugitive to avoid a two-year jail sentence after conviction for blatant corruption and abuse of power. 
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His sister Yingluck Shinawatra became Prime Minister after a landslide victory in the election of 2011, but the opposition objects to her government and to the “entire Thaksin regime,” calling her a “puppet” of his as he dictates from abroad.  They rage against the pro-Thaksin government’s assaults on the Rule of Law. 
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The Thaksinistas have the most votes, but the moral high ground seems to belong to their opposition.  At least one anti-Thaksin intellectual has invoked Jefferson’s warning against a possible “elective despotism” that is democratically elected but thoroughly unjust and unrestrained in its use of power.  (I might add James Madison’s similar warning in The Federalist Papers that there must be strong constitutional restraints on government lest there be any “tyranny of the majority.”) 
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And I am especially astonished at the massive anti-Thaksin rallies today.  I expected the opposition rallies to fade away, but perhaps 200,000 or more Thais filled the streets of Bangkok today, paralyzing all traffic and marching to Government House from all directions.  As they marched there, PM Yingluck announced the dissolution of the House of Representatives and a new snap election on 2 February.  But this does not satisfy most protesters, mainly because the pro-Thaksin faction led by his sister and the Pheu Thai party will certainly win power again, thus the paradox in politics here. 
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At 06:30 today we were suddenly shaken by a very LOUD loudspeaker on the street below us at the entrance to EGAT.  By 09:00 a group of about 200 – mostly EGAT workers – were forming a parade order below us, intending to march to join other protesters elsewhere.  I got to look at them closely via binoculars from above, and they looked like cheerful, decent middle-class folks, many of them surprisingly young.  This is a distinct difference from my personal observation of the pro-Thaksin Red Shirts as I walked through their encampment on 9 April 2010, the day before the violence started.  (See blog post, below, on that date.)  By comparison, the Reds looked like thugs. 
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I created a Twitter account recently to get up-to-date news on protester activity and traffic reports.  Social media have had a tremendous role in mobilizing people and getting the latest news out. 
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Thailand lacks a solid constitution that is dedicated to limiting political power (as do most other constitutions throughout the world, while the USA was lucky to get it partially right in the early days).  When there is a lot of power to be grabbed – democratically if you have numbers behind you – you will be tempted to use that power to make laws and regulations to benefit you and yours financially; and then you can also “buy” more votes with populist policies that will give you (read: Thaksin) a continued democratic majority while ruining the nation’s finances; also power to ban peaceful behavior that you don’t like; etc.
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Friedrich Hayek nailed this hazard of when too much power is constitutionally available.  In his chapter, “Why the Worst Get on Top,” in his 1944 The Road to Serfdom, he was answering the question of why supposedly “civilized” Europe was at that time rife with “gangster states,” i.e., Germany, Italy, and the USSR.  His answer:  loose constitutions allow immense political power to be had, and the most ruthless wolves will win the power game.  Ah!  I need to read more Hayek again for that wonderfully sane perspective. 
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How it will end here?  I don’t know, but I am encouraged to see some of the protesters and intellectuals invoke the very core libertarian insights of Jefferson and Locke.  They had provided the world-classic arguments for rebellion against unjust lawmakers. 
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-Zenwind. 

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04 December 2013

Cooler Weather, Cooler Politics

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I can now sit outside at midday without sweating, although I must still light a mosquito coil nearby to keep the critters away. I don't even have to put ice in my brandy.  That's cool.
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I went into Bangkok yesterday to see a great movie, The World's End. It didn't, as the protesters seemed to have cooled it a bit. But what is politics to an anarchist like me?
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I'm in the shade, listening to classical guitar on the radio. Groovin', on a Wednesday afternoon.
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-Zenwind.
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28 November 2013

Out in the Streets

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“Look what’s happening out in the streets!
  Got a revolution,
  Got to revolution!”

[-- Jefferson Airplane, “Volunteers,” 1969--]
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It is the time (again) of massive protester demonstrations and civil disobedience.  Transport in and around Bangkok is in major disruption, completely paralyzed in parts of mid-city.  (Mother-in-law couldn’t even get into town to her favorite Buddhist temple for the recent 3rd Quarter Moon’s worship observances!) 
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Tens upon tens of thousands of protesters are in the streets, roaring against the current government, and they have taken over several government offices.  The Internal Security Act (ISA) has been imposed on much of greater Bangkok including our area on the northern rim of the city.  It is a law that empowers declaration of complete Martial Law if deemed necessary. 
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One thing different here may have made confusion for Gracie Slick and the Airplane back in the day:  this rebellion is fueled by the anger of the middle classes, who started this round of protests and who were later joined by the students as allies.  They all abhor the thought that this current popular government may try to whitewash and bring home the corrupt exiled and convicted fugitive, former PM Thaksin.  Half the nation loves him; the other half loathes the very thought of him.
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There has been no violence yet, but I don’t know where this endless round of political theater will end, if ever.  The Land of Smiles – and of contradictions. 
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-Zenwind.

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18 November 2013

November

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I always hated November and December in Northwestern Pennsylvania, because it was so dark, cold, and nasty.  Here, we get some of the first hints of pleasant weather – although the sunlight can be scorching.  I might even be able to glimpse some clear night skies soon! 
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In readings I’ve recently finished The Crook Factory (1999) by Dan Simmons.  I will read anything he writes.  This one was not in his often mixed genres of horror, science fiction and/or fantasy.  It was historical fiction based on Ernest Hemingway’s actual antics during World War II when he lived in Cuba and tried to organize a small anti-Nazi spy group of submarine-chasers there.  Most of the people and major events are true, some of it released from FBI files on Hemingway at the time.  Simmons weaves a story around this, and it was very good. 
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I also read my first novel by Neal Stephenson, who has won Prometheus Awards and whose novels I’ve been collecting for some time.  I picked an early cyberpunk novel of his to read:  Snow Crash (1992).  It was good, and I will be reading more of his stuff some day. 
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My weight-training routine with dumbbells has been stalled for over a month now.  No excuse but laziness!  My one regular exercise routine is my marches out on the neighborhood sidewalks.  It is a natural movement rhythm, and I rarely get injured doing it – just intensely overheated and dehydrated.  
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The treadmill tends to cause me minor injuries, due to its rather artificial gait.  I need to fine-tune my use of its speed and elevation settings; and I need to resist the temptation to go all-out full-tilt.  The beauty of the treadmill is that I can read books or Kindle on it with my adapted rig.  I pick books with larger print for it, and the time goes by unbelievably fast. 
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-Zenwind. 

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30 October 2013

Recent Books

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Well, we didn't get flooded this year, although I sweated it for a while.  The Rainy Season is over, and we look forward to some relief from the humidity as the monsoon winds shift from the wet SW to more dry Northerly ones out of north Asia.
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I recently read Ender's Game (1985) by Orson Scott Card.  He is a popular science fiction (S-F) writer, but seemingly only marginally libertarian, yet a feature film adaptation is coming, so I read it.  It was a good read and I look forward to the movie.
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I just read Ira Levin's A Kiss Before Dying (1953) and really enjoyed it.  I had been looking in bookstores for Levin's This Perfect Day (1970), which won a Prometheus Hall of Fame Award from the Libertarian Futurist Society, but I mistakenly bought this book.  So I had put it on the shelf and didn't think twice about it until getting a good recommendation from Rand's literary criticism by re-reading her The Romantic Manifesto (1971).  Rand and I agree on most of literature and film, and her recommendations have usually been excellent sources of enjoyment for me, e.g., Hugo, Schiller, Fleming, Spillane, Zorro, etc.  Buying the book was not a mistake after all.
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I've been reading Halloween horror on my Kindle, and I'll post reviews either here or on Zenwind soon.
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Boo!
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-Zenwind.
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15 October 2013

Cate Blanchett

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Wow!  I just saw Cate in Blue Jasmine (2013), seeing it solely because of rave reviews of her.  She blew me away with her incredible acting range.
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To be honest, I don’t care much for Woody Allen films (he wrote and directed this), and I rarely finish watching them.  In this one, I almost walked out in the opening third, as I was bored and I would only be out three bucks for the ticket.  But Cate acted yet another great unexpected scene, and so I had to see where this was going.  Reviewers have said that Allen’s script follows Tennessee William’s A Streetcar Named Desire, which is another (in its film adaptation) that I couldn’t finish watching, even with Marlon Brando in it. 
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This film has some great supporting actors, although it’s Cate’s show.  Alec Baldwin plays a creep, and he doesn’t even have to act. 
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It is one of Cate’s best roles, a kind of Galadriel Goes Raving Insane
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-Zenwind.

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No Flood Yet

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The river is high, but it has stopped raining.  The bulk of the run-off from up-stream floods will be reaching us in the next few days while the tide is high, so if we get through this week we should be okay.
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-Zenwind.
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08 October 2013

Flood Watch 2013

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The Chao Phraya River is extraordinarily high, and dozens of provinces up-stream of us are flood disaster areas.  This means that there is a hell of a lot of water slowly but surely headed our way -- expected to reach us around October 15-17.
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Piled upon that horror is the fact that a period of High Tide will start around the 16th.  Our elevation above sea level is so low that a high tide retards the emptying of a high river that is trying to rush huge volumes of water out, therefore the river water seeks other outlets -- such as low-lying riverside communities like ours.
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Most of our valuables were moved up above ground level during the Great Flood of 2011, when water came up over our knees in our ground floor living quarters.  We had help moving the bed and treadmill (after knocking a hole in the ceiling to reach the unused second floor), but the treadmill was more damaged than we had thought from its brief wetting as we tried to move it up.
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The treadmill soon died, so I bought a new one later, a huge, heavy, quality one.  It sits on our ground floor and is the only valuable thing that is threatened now by this year's floods.  Our options are: 1. to hire a knowledgeable guy (the one from the store who set it up for us) to take it apart so we can move it upstairs (since it is too wide to move through doorways when assembled and too heavy), although we question whether the upstairs floors are robust enough for it; or, 2. wait until flooding actually comes to our ground floor and set it up a few feet on bricks.  Either option sucks, and my back aches just thinking about it.
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So, we are watching the river and the news, waiting for the apocalypse to come.  Stay tuned.
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-Zenwind.
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22 September 2013

Recent Kindle Readings

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The Kindle is wonderful – easy to hold, carry, read, and store many digitalized books.  It is especially good for storing free eBooks of hard to find classics in the public domain, via Project Gutenberg and other sites. 
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Recent eBooks read on my Kindle are:  The Ego and His Own by Max Stirner (1844); Manfred by Lord Byron (1817); The Vampyre: A Tale by John Polidori (1819); The Man Who Laughs by Victor Hugo (1869); Wilhelm Tell by Friedrich Schiller (1804). 
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I have scores of other books downloaded and ready to read whenever I get the time. 
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-Zenwind.

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21 September 2013

Some Recent Books Read

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I’ve been zipping through paperbacks like crazy, and here are some recent reads of note.  One very interesting one is Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape (2013) by Jenna Miscavige Hill.  Jenna is the niece of Scientology’s supreme leader, David Miscavige, and she defected from the cult as a young adult after growing up in it.  She doesn’t show the church in a good light, and her narrative squares well with other reports I’ve read about it.  (I’m a bit of a cult-watching junky, fascinated by quirky aspects of comparative religion, and I’ve been following Scientology’s meltdown for quite a while.) 
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A Handmaid’s Tale (1985) by Margaret Atwood is science fiction portraying a totalitarian theocracy in the USA.  It was a nominee for the Libertarian Futurist Society’s Prometheus Award.  Scary. 
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What It Is Like to Go to War (2011) by Karl Marlantes is an honest look at the human institution of warfare, by someone who has seen the hell of war.  He had written the novel Matterhorn: a novel of the Vietnam War (2011), and after reading both I see that his novel had drawn on many of his personal experiences.  Nasty shit, but his thoughts on war are important. 
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I am reading the textbook, Buddhist Religions:  a historical introduction (2005) by Robinson, Johnson, and Thanissaro, 5th edition.  I had read the 4th edition before I left the States, and this is heavily revised.  I am also reading, along with it, its companion volume of readings, The Experience of Buddhism: sources and interpretations (2002) by John S. Strong, 2nd edition.  Both are part of the excellent series, “The Religious Life in History”.  But I get bogged down in the parts about the later mystical sects of Buddhism and their supernatural beliefs. 
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Charles Stross is one of my favorite science fiction writers.  His Halting State was great, and I just read the sequel, Rule 34.  His Glasshouse (2006) won a Prometheus award from the LFS.  He has an under-stated sense of humor somewhere between P.G. Wodehouse and H.P. Lovecraft.  (Was Lovecraft funny??) 
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Last Hours on Everest (2013) by Graham Hoyland dealt with the famous 1924 disappearance of Mallory and Irvine on Everest’s heights.  A good overview of the whole subject. 
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I just finished Ready Player One (2012) by Ernest Cline.  Also a Prometheus winner.  A great read. 
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-Zenwind.

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01 September 2013

Rainy Season

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We had a horrendous thunderstorm rage through the neighborhood on Friday evening.  I had to lash the windows shut with rope and stand by with the mop as wind-driven rain sprayed through the gaps. 
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I hope to get my infirm computer into the repair shop in the coming week or two, although I must say that, with all the book and Kindle reading I’ve been doing, I hardly miss it anymore. 
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-Zenwind.

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13 July 2013

Tech Failure

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My computer’s slow death rattles are worse than ever, and I cannot get it fixed right away.  So I’m not online much, and I expect at any time to have a tech crash.  I knew it was a good idea to squirrel away piles of old-fashioned paper books!  I also have many classic books stored on my Kindle, which is lower tech and thus more reliable than my computer. 
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We are doing well here.  I want to check in to this site at least once a month.  The biggest news for me is that last night I finished reading The System of Liberty:  Themes in the History of Classical Liberalism (2013) by George H. Smith, and it is a fantastic tour through the history of libertarian ideas.  Amazing, as George’s work always is.  I hope to review it someday, maybe on my main blog, Zenwind, but my computer will have to cooperate. 
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-Zenwind.

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06 June 2013

Coolness at Last

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The Hot Season seems to be over – although it is always hot and humid in Thailand’s central plains.  We have been getting some rains, although not heavy downpours, and the cloud overcast is blocking the sun and cooling us off a bit.  I can tell that the worst of it is over because I am no longer applying Snake Brand Prickly Heat Cooling Powder, whereas I had been covering my sweat-soaked body with it four times a day for the almost eight-week period of grueling heat.  
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I always have an electric fan blowing on me, even at night, to keep mosquitoes away and to keep from being drenched in sweat.  But last night, for the first time in quite a while, I wore long pajama bottoms and a top with a hood.  It was so cold that I had to cover my bare feet before morning. 
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Blessed coolness.  Zen delight. 
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-Zenwind.

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20 May 2013

Decline of the Soi Dogs


I am not talking here about the excellent band by the name of The Soi Dogs Blues Band.  (They are thriving and are back playing the Blues again, on Sukhumvit Soi 11 on Thursday nights at Apoteka.)  I’m talking about the canine “soi dogs.”  A “soi” means a back/side street, and soi dogs are homeless and always looking for a handout.  They have all but disappeared. 
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Our neighborhood used to be filled with soi dogs.  They would be around our place in the early mornings to beg food – often at the same time as the Buddhist monks on their alms rounds, soi dogs being no fools – and also in the evenings they would show up for handouts.  When I would straggle home from a late outing long, long after midnight, local soi dogs that knew me would get up off the street, stretch, and merrily follow me home where they knew I’d give them some scraps.  Waggly-tailed neighbors with big smiles.  Cosmic hobos with the wisdom of the streets. 
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But they are gone.  The Great Flood of late-2011 disrupted all street life and the communities in the region.  Soi dogs started to disappear at that time (although cats did not, perhaps because their climbing abilities put them high and dry).  But even since the end of the flooding, soi dogs that survived started to vanish one-by-one. 
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News reports started to tell of organized dog-napping operations, where stray dogs -- and even pets -- were rounded up and illegally exported to neighboring countries (the main one being that in which I once spent an unpleasant year over four decades ago).  Why were they kidnapped and exported?  Cuisine.  Dog meat.  Huge cargoes of closely-packed caged dogs were found by police – skinny, mangy and dying.  Apparently this black market demand for dog meat and the related supplier operations have continued to be quite successful, as the streets now have a conspicuous lack of soi dogs. 
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Here is an investigative account of black market dog trading, Dog-Meat MafiaRead the full article transcript.  But only view the video if you are strong of stomach, because it is not pretty.  Here in Thailand, the blame goes not only to the villainous traffickers and corrupt officials who expedite this trade, but also to blame are the assholes who are too cheap to neuter their dogs (and cats) and thus allow so many homeless and unloved animals to come into the world. 
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May the karma of these ill-used soi dogs ever improve in their future lives.  If I actually believed in rebirth that would be a more comforting thought. 
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-Zenwind.
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03 May 2013

Waiting for the Rains


Early May.  It is still 100*F almost every day; the direct sunlight is brutal and the sweat is constant.  The monsoon Rainy Season will come soon and be of variable intensity.  We hope it comes very soon and with enough intensity to cool us off (just so long as we are not flooded again as in 2011).  Damn, it's hot!  
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-Zenwind.
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25 April 2013

Immigration Office Hell


It was the annual immersion into the torture chamber, the dread annual visa renewal.  We had copied and re-copied the required documents and more, rounded up statements from the bank and from the US Embassy, etc., but the Immigration Office always hits us with one more unannounced requirement – and this year it was two new ones.  Bureaucracy is a major stressor, but they are smart to play loops of “Mr. Bean” on the office’s TV monitor; his humor is universal (Thais love him) and doesn’t require language or sound; Mr. Bean’s agonies when waiting in a long queue (as all of us sitting in Immigration are doing) is spot on. 
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I decided while in queue that – if I live through this day of wrath and tears – when I got home I would promptly get wasted on the strongest Thai beer I could find:  Chang Classic!  Ahh!  A giant mug full of ice cubes and Chang! 
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It is a pain to get out into the boonies where the Immigration Office is located, and hard to get taxi service.  We tip the driver very well because he must wait a long time.  Everybody likes Tuk, and so the driver enjoyed a good conversation with her on route and back. 
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There are new buildings going up everywhere, even in the boonies, as greater-Bangkok quickly continues to spread outward.  Condominiums, malls, homes – there is construction everywhere.  (I hope there is not another real estate bubble expanding toward a burst, such as the one that started here in Thailand in 1997 and took down much of Southeast and East Asian economies.) 
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I admit that I do enjoy seeing the countryside, the rice paddies, etc.  We can still see the dirty high-water marks of the terrible flood of late-2011, over knee-high and everywhere.  I am still astounded at the immense area that was flooded.  It is amazing.  One thing I’ve noticed when going on outings like this is that while people are generally rebounding from the floods, rebuilding, there are a few species of trees that were killed by the floods.  Not many trees, but of a certain type.  I will assume, since the 2011 floods were the worst in over 50 years, that these trees were planted since then and are of a kind that is not used to being flooded – hence they die. 
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We are home safe, with major visa headaches a year away.  Now if it would only rain hard and relieve this horrendous heat. 
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-Zenwind. 
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13 April 2013

Songkran 2556 BE/2013 CE


Local celebrations for the traditional Thai New Year, aka Songkran, are a bit subdued.  I walked to the store and back without getting wet (except for profuse sweating).  No one threw water on me, and none of the kids with water-guns squirted me.  Maybe they felt sorry for this old man.  Still the pavements and sidewalks were mostly dry, whereas in other years everything is wet.
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It is also the 270th birthday of Thomas Jefferson.  You are not forgotten, Mr. Jefferson. 
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-Zenwind. 
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09 April 2013

Melt Down


This incredibly intense and prolonged heat spell we are having is killing our hardware.  It is over 100*F every day and far worse than a normal April.  Our electric system is getting alarmingly hot, and we are using as few appliances as possible.  Our DVD player is dying, and I’m worried about even using my computer.  As long as the basics work, i.e., an electric fan and the refrigerator, then I still feel civilized; if they stop, then we have slid into true barbarism. 
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-Zenwind.
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23 March 2013

Hot Season


The Thai summer is here again, aka the Hot Season.  We will be sweating it out more than ever until the wet monsoon comes in late May or so.  The temps have been pushing 100*F this week, and of course the humidity is off the charts.  The only things keeping me going are iced drinks, an electric fan, and Snake Brand Prickly Heat cooling powder.  This last one I apply many times a day, especially to my back by putting it on a dry long-handled shower brush to reach between my shoulder blades.  Ahh, the cooling relief! 
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-Zenwind.
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02 March 2013

Reading Nietzsche on My (recent) 63rd Birthday


After finishing a long reading project, I had the great pleasure of deciding on what next to read out of many choices.  I reached for The Portable Nietzsche, edited, translated and with commentary by Walter Kaufmann.  This is a classic that I first read 40 years ago, and it is still as fresh and relevant as it was when it was first published. 
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Nietzsche is ruthlessly honest, boldly curious, iconoclastic, and timelessly in tune with the human condition from ancient days straight through into our own future.  …  The man continually amazes me. 
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-Zenwind.
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03 January 2013

Tennessee Waltz— Patti Page, R.I.P. (1927-2013)


I was shocked today reading the news that American pop singer Patti Page died.  I was shocked primarily because I had no idea she had lived up to this point in time, but also because she was only 85 years old (a year younger than my late mother would have been).  She is one of my earliest musical memories, because my mother was a big fan of hers and had a number of her records which I grew up with. 
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Reading her obituaries, I saw that the dates of some of her greatest hits were during the years when I was a rug-rat in the early 1950s.  We had an old cabinet phonograph, and the records of that era were the big 78-rpm ones that broke so easily.  One song per side. 
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Reading of Page recording with Mercury Records reminded me of the old Mercury label on the 78s and of me playing Tennessee Waltz over and over again.  It was a sad song, and with me being just a little tike I didn’t completely understand all of the feelings involved – but I recognized, somehow, the mournful yearning expressed in her beautiful voice.  I get chills just thinking about the lyrics to this day.  A classic, it was played in the 1983 film The Right Stuff. 
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Other songs of hers that I remember from those early 78s were Mockin’ Bird Hill (an absolutely beautiful song), and Detour (“Detour/ There’s a rocky road ahead/ Detour”).  One special favorite of mine was (How Much Is That) Doggie in the Window.  I’ve been singing it in my head all day long.  ("How much is that doggie in the window? /The one with the waggley tail/ How much is that doggie in the window? /I do hope that doggie’s for sale.”)  As a little kid, I probably drove my parents crazy by singing that out loud, over and over again. 
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Patti Page.  That gal had a beautiful voice, and I thank her for the memories. 
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-Zenwind. 
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