.
The Muse has flown. I feel like my IQ has taken a sudden plunge into the low dullard range. My replies to emails and any work on writing projects are completely stalled out. Dead head.
.
I noticed it a few weeks ago with the change of season as the monsoon rains started. The barometric pressure has been erratically going up and down, and that encourages FMS symptoms: pain, fatigue and brain fog. Top that off with a bad head cold that hit me last week and I sit here Dazed and Confused (without any help from booze or drugs, which would be more fun!).
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-Zenwind.
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02 June 2012
22 May 2012
Tropical Sun
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The Northern Hemisphere moves closer to its solstice. We are still north of the Equator here, yet at 14-degrees N. latitude the Sun is north of us at noon. That always amazes me.
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-Zenwind.
.
The Northern Hemisphere moves closer to its solstice. We are still north of the Equator here, yet at 14-degrees N. latitude the Sun is north of us at noon. That always amazes me.
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-Zenwind.
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06 May 2012
A Cool Break
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We had a mercifully cool break yesterday and last night as thunderstorms passed through. Clouds blocking out the blazing sun make a big difference, and the strong breezes are refreshing. This hot spell that we have been experiencing for so long is now said to be extreme even for Thailand’s Hot Season norm. So it wasn’t just my imagination after all.
.
-Zenwind.
.
We had a mercifully cool break yesterday and last night as thunderstorms passed through. Clouds blocking out the blazing sun make a big difference, and the strong breezes are refreshing. This hot spell that we have been experiencing for so long is now said to be extreme even for Thailand’s Hot Season norm. So it wasn’t just my imagination after all.
.
-Zenwind.
.
27 April 2012
New Visa, Old Hot Weather
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27 April: We successfully renewed my visa for another year, and this is always a nightmare, trying to scrape up enough money in our bank accounts to qualify and to get the paperwork right. But this morning we did it. Time for celebration.
.
The weather is another matter entirely. Brutally hot and humid. We must get new electrical wiring and then install a/c before next year’s Hot Season.
.
Yearning for a cool breeze.
.
-Zenwind.
.
27 April: We successfully renewed my visa for another year, and this is always a nightmare, trying to scrape up enough money in our bank accounts to qualify and to get the paperwork right. But this morning we did it. Time for celebration.
.
The weather is another matter entirely. Brutally hot and humid. We must get new electrical wiring and then install a/c before next year’s Hot Season.
.
Yearning for a cool breeze.
.
-Zenwind.
.
11 April 2012
High and Dry Here
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In case anyone wonders, we are okay here. Didn't even feel the quakes. Apparently there will not be any tsunami on southern Thai beach areas.
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-Zenwind.
.
In case anyone wonders, we are okay here. Didn't even feel the quakes. Apparently there will not be any tsunami on southern Thai beach areas.
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-Zenwind.
.
24 March 2012
Cold Steel Tanto
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I have always tried to go with the “fast and light” ethos – in Boy Scouts, in the military, in hiking, and in backpacking and climbing. Strip all excess weight from pockets and packs. Cut every once. Especially in this heat, I don’t want anything that is not needed weighing me down when I go out on foot.
.
I have a great daypack here, a North Face “Recon.” I like it because it has enough compression straps to tighten it down into a very small capacity pack – and small packs do not temp you to fill them up with a lot of junk. “Simplify, simplify”, said Thoreau (and Yvon Chouinard). In a pinch, the Recon will expand to hold a respectable amount of extra stuff, and I only started using it as a bigger capacity pack during the floods when I was foraging for food. Since then, I have been regularly expanding it on food runs and shopping trips to bookstores. A great versatile pack.
.
And yet I have been wondering why this pack always feels so heavy when I am starting off from home with it empty. I go through the pockets again and again, dumping out any extra pens and paper, loose change, paperbacks, small flashlights, etc. Even though it is heavy-duty North Face construction, it still felt too heavy for their designers’ proven mountaineering roots. It didn’t make sense.
.
So I was astounded recently when for some reason I dug deep into the very bottom of the pack’s padded computer sleeve, which I only use once or twice a year. What is this at the very bottom? It was something I’d been searching for ever since the flooding in October, something I thought was lost downstairs when the water was knee-deep. There, wrapped in padding at the bottom of the sleeve, was my heavy knife, my Cold Steel 7-inch Tanto blade (a Magnum Tanto II) in a thick leather sheath. I had always kept it under my pillow, but I must have put it there in the bottom of the pack when I was packing “bale-out” bags in case the floods forced us to move out, and then I forgot about where I had put it.
.
Not only is this a very thick and heavy blade – much too heavy to carry around every day – but it is most probably very illegal here. I got it for home defense use only, because 7-inch blades (like the USMC’s traditional K-Bar) are combat knives with their deep penetration. Damn! I’m glad I didn’t try to visit the embassy with it.
.
-Zenwind.
.
I have always tried to go with the “fast and light” ethos – in Boy Scouts, in the military, in hiking, and in backpacking and climbing. Strip all excess weight from pockets and packs. Cut every once. Especially in this heat, I don’t want anything that is not needed weighing me down when I go out on foot.
.
I have a great daypack here, a North Face “Recon.” I like it because it has enough compression straps to tighten it down into a very small capacity pack – and small packs do not temp you to fill them up with a lot of junk. “Simplify, simplify”, said Thoreau (and Yvon Chouinard). In a pinch, the Recon will expand to hold a respectable amount of extra stuff, and I only started using it as a bigger capacity pack during the floods when I was foraging for food. Since then, I have been regularly expanding it on food runs and shopping trips to bookstores. A great versatile pack.
.
And yet I have been wondering why this pack always feels so heavy when I am starting off from home with it empty. I go through the pockets again and again, dumping out any extra pens and paper, loose change, paperbacks, small flashlights, etc. Even though it is heavy-duty North Face construction, it still felt too heavy for their designers’ proven mountaineering roots. It didn’t make sense.
.
So I was astounded recently when for some reason I dug deep into the very bottom of the pack’s padded computer sleeve, which I only use once or twice a year. What is this at the very bottom? It was something I’d been searching for ever since the flooding in October, something I thought was lost downstairs when the water was knee-deep. There, wrapped in padding at the bottom of the sleeve, was my heavy knife, my Cold Steel 7-inch Tanto blade (a Magnum Tanto II) in a thick leather sheath. I had always kept it under my pillow, but I must have put it there in the bottom of the pack when I was packing “bale-out” bags in case the floods forced us to move out, and then I forgot about where I had put it.
.
Not only is this a very thick and heavy blade – much too heavy to carry around every day – but it is most probably very illegal here. I got it for home defense use only, because 7-inch blades (like the USMC’s traditional K-Bar) are combat knives with their deep penetration. Damn! I’m glad I didn’t try to visit the embassy with it.
.
-Zenwind.
.
07 March 2012
Hardware Meltdown. Offline
.
Sometimes I hate being right in my predictions. The terrible heat seems to have killed my computer, so I have no regular access to the internet.
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-Zenwind.
.
Sometimes I hate being right in my predictions. The terrible heat seems to have killed my computer, so I have no regular access to the internet.
.
-Zenwind.
.
03 March 2012
Too Hot to Compute
.
Our winter here is over, and we have gone straight into the Hot Season. Brutal temperatures and humidity. I am afraid to have my computer running for very long because I think the heat might kill it. So my postings here will be sporadic and usually made up of pieces of draft material that I never finished. I am not spending much time researching online or trying to polish my writing.
.
One of the reasons we are feeling the heat more than usual is that we now live in an upstairs room that heats up quickly. Before the floods we lived downstairs in a tiled room without windows, and it stayed relatively cooler there. Moving back down there is not a good idea since it was flooded for three weeks and that dampness will never leave.
.
One of our dreams is to someday have the house re-wired with a good, safe, grounded system. Then we could install air conditioning. Until then, it is Sweat City.
.
-Zenwind.
.
Our winter here is over, and we have gone straight into the Hot Season. Brutal temperatures and humidity. I am afraid to have my computer running for very long because I think the heat might kill it. So my postings here will be sporadic and usually made up of pieces of draft material that I never finished. I am not spending much time researching online or trying to polish my writing.
.
One of the reasons we are feeling the heat more than usual is that we now live in an upstairs room that heats up quickly. Before the floods we lived downstairs in a tiled room without windows, and it stayed relatively cooler there. Moving back down there is not a good idea since it was flooded for three weeks and that dampness will never leave.
.
One of our dreams is to someday have the house re-wired with a good, safe, grounded system. Then we could install air conditioning. Until then, it is Sweat City.
.
-Zenwind.
.
17 February 2012
Giordano Bruno Day
.
17 February: On this date in 1600 C.E. the great philosopher and cosmologist Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake for having theologically incorrect theories on god, the universe and everything. Among the many ideas that got him into trouble, he taught that the Earth rotates on its axis and revolves around the Sun, the Sun itself being just one of many other stars in the universe. Imagine that. His sarcasm did not help his cause, and he never suffered fools. But the fools burned him.
.
-Zenwind.
.
17 February: On this date in 1600 C.E. the great philosopher and cosmologist Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake for having theologically incorrect theories on god, the universe and everything. Among the many ideas that got him into trouble, he taught that the Earth rotates on its axis and revolves around the Sun, the Sun itself being just one of many other stars in the universe. Imagine that. His sarcasm did not help his cause, and he never suffered fools. But the fools burned him.
.
-Zenwind.
.
15 February 2012
Valentine’s Day
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14 February: It is my 62nd birthday, and I still feel like an 18-year-old – except for the aches and pains. I went for a march in the midday sun and returned drenched in sweat and a bit sore. I must remember to stretch more carefully before going out.
.
Listened to the radio play Richard Strauss’s Also Spake Zarathustra, which he wrote in homage to the philosophical genius of Friedrich Nietzsche. This music is known by many as the opening music in the Stanley Kubrick film 2001: A Space Odyssey. That sure stirred up the heart of this old romantic!
.
15 February: There has been yet another travel warning for Bangkok after a few explosions in town yesterday. As always, we are cautious and keep a low profile. This latest episode seemed to involve amateurs, as one of them blew his own legs off.
.
Late afternoon: It just rained briefly, but not enough to bring coolness. It rained just enough to dampen everything so that, as the sun comes back out, steam rises. H-U-M-I-D-I-T-Y-!-!-!
.
-Zenwind.
.
14 February: It is my 62nd birthday, and I still feel like an 18-year-old – except for the aches and pains. I went for a march in the midday sun and returned drenched in sweat and a bit sore. I must remember to stretch more carefully before going out.
.
Listened to the radio play Richard Strauss’s Also Spake Zarathustra, which he wrote in homage to the philosophical genius of Friedrich Nietzsche. This music is known by many as the opening music in the Stanley Kubrick film 2001: A Space Odyssey. That sure stirred up the heart of this old romantic!
.
15 February: There has been yet another travel warning for Bangkok after a few explosions in town yesterday. As always, we are cautious and keep a low profile. This latest episode seemed to involve amateurs, as one of them blew his own legs off.
.
Late afternoon: It just rained briefly, but not enough to bring coolness. It rained just enough to dampen everything so that, as the sun comes back out, steam rises. H-U-M-I-D-I-T-Y-!-!-!
.
-Zenwind.
.
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