Back from Thailand. Not sure why we came back, but we're back.

Not a bad way to spend a weekend. The snorkel/kayak trip was fantastic, though the water was a little cloudy due to an algae bloom or something. Saw giant clams, crabs, sea cucumbers, parrotfish, and a puffer fish. We also spotted some birds that looked like snowy egrets, except that they were black; Marjorie didn't appreciate my suggestion that we call them "negrets". That night we had an amazing dinner at Samui Seafood; I had the hot and spicy white snapper, which was outstanding, and Marjorie had the sweet and sour red snapper, which was jaw-dropping.

The hotel for our package deal was fabulous (except for dozen or so mosquitos in our room when we first arrived -- and this is a malaria and dengue fever zone). We had Thai massages side-by-side out by the pool this morning, which was vera vera nice. It was pretty much the masseuses' whole body (hands, feet, elbows, knees) versus ours, and we never stood a chance.

Much relaxed, we went out for some last minute shopping. While we were loading up on DVDs of questionable origin, a drama was playing itself out across the street; a motorcycle-slash-street vendor cooking station caught fire. We could see flames licking at the gas tank and the cooker's propane tank, so we high-tailed it out of there. Luckily they were able to extinguish it without much fanfare.

Favorite restaurant name spotted on Ko Samui: Cow Pat Poo.

Greetings from Thailand! We've been on Ko Samui island for a day now. Today we snorkeled a bit, then rented a motorbike and did a trip around the whole island, which took most of the day. Stopped at waterfalls, scenic views, temples, and a giant Buddha -- in fact, we stopped right where these folk did. Tomorrow we take a boat out to the national marine park where The Beach was filmed, for snorkeling and sea kayaking (Mike, you'd be proud, I boycotted the elephant safari part of the package).

News McNuggets.

I'm in better shape than I've been in ten years or so.

I wrote my first check yesterday, and deposited my first one today. They do it all weird here. You have to draw slashes up in the corner for some reason, and some other strange rules.

I've gotten used to spelling my last name with a "zed" instead of a "zee".

I visited the American Club for the first time last night (Marjorie's second visit). They have guys with machine guns out front. I don't think I want to hang out there too much.

The first business trip for me is shaping up to be Tasmania. We saw a documentary on it the other day, and it looks really awesome.

Saw "Catch Me If You Can" the other day. Good mindless entertainment. It's Spielberg, so I guess that was to be expected.

Sorry for the lack of updates. Not much new, other than Marjorie starting her new job (which seems to be going pretty good, but I'll let her tell you). Oh, and I picked up our tickets for Ko Samui today. Woop!

I've noticed one very backward thing about this country. It seems the civil servants, especially at the post office, are enthusiastic and committed at their jobs, often bending over backwards to serve you. You have to look to the private sector to encounter laziness and bad attitudes, for the most part. There are of course exceptions, but it seems to be a general rule. This is in direct contrast to America -- I'm reminded of the Simpsons quote, where Patty and Selma describe their job at the Department of Motor Vehicles: (Patty) "Some days, we don't let the line move AT ALL." (Selma) "Yeah, we call those WEEKdays!"

Another interesting cultural tidbit: when a Chinese person is, say, pouring your tea, the way to thank them is to tap the table lightly with your middle finger. The story about how this tradition got started is that the Chinese emperor went undercover for something, and his henchmen couldn't kowtow to him without blowing his cover, so they started doing that.

Another tidbit: the Chinese alphabet symbol for America is the combination of the symbols for "beautiful" and "country". That's what they tell me, anyway; it could be saying "infidel pigs" for all I know. Many Chinese were apparently told as children that there was gold just lying around everywhere you look in the US, hence "beautiful country".

Japanese lessons are going slow but steady. I'm taking the class with my cow orker, and we've been going out after class for "Japanese practice" at a small out-of-the-way Japanese-style bar where he knows the Japanese bartender, who gives us tips. The fact that she makes the best martinis in town is a nice bonus.

Required reading from the New York Times. (Registration is required, unfortunately, but the NYT is worth registering for. It's free.)

At long last I too have a contract now to look over and sign. Our uncertain situation is gradually getting resolved, thankfully. I have been very, very busy at work; we have to scrape together a demo in a very short period of time; I'm polishing up my tap shoes for certain parts of it.

Mr. Rogers is dead. Some of my earliest memories were of watching his show. While it wasn't my absolute favorite as a kid, as I grew older I grew to realize what a class act this man was. It's a sad, sad day in the neighborhood.

CLASS LIST: I got a list of the little ones starting my class on Monday. One's just moved from Norway, the other moved here from Korea. I hope they both speak English! Only two to start with, but others will be arriving the following week: 3 from Japan, and 1 from the U.S. Two of the Japanese students do not speak English. I don't speak any Japanese. Should be interesting.
BTW, those of you interested in coming to visit us in Singapore now have another year to do so. I've signed a contract to stay and teach until July, 2004.

I'm so overwhelmed right now. I was expecting to have a couple of weeks to volunteer in this school and get to know the layout and the staff at a leisurely pace before getting work as a relief (substitute) teacher. Instead, I've got a crazy/mad week spent trying to get ready for a full-time class with kids who may or may not speak English and will be expecting me to teach them, full-time, on Monday!!! Isch.
I'm not complaining (or at least I'm trying not to). I'm very glad to have work. But the next few days/weeks are going to be draining.
On the plus side, the other teachers at the school seem sympathetic, and the principal is very nice. I really believe I'll enjoy this teaching experience much more then the other two years. And Mark and I are going to Thailand (Koh Samui) in a few weeks, so I'll get a nice little mini-vacation after my first week on the job!

GET A LIFE! Yesterday I was excited because, after a month or so of no social activities, Mark and I are starting to be asked to drinks and game nights by acquaintances. Also, I'd started volunteering at a school, so I was getting some minor career satisfaction. This morning, I was thinking "good for us, we finally got a life"....Well now it seems, I may have also found a job. The school I mentioned in an earlier blog is planning on opening another Kindergarten 2 class on Monday. So on Monday (this Monday, really that soon!) I may be going into work for my first paid day. I just need to get the work permit papers processed and I'm on my way.
Ironically, I also got a call from another school today that I'd e-mailed my resume too. They wanted to schedule an interview with me. I guess when you're hot, you're hot.

I've added a list of birds we've spotted, down at the bottom of the left (red) column. Over there, to your left. Down a bit. You've got it. The mudskippers were the highlight of the day; they're frequently the stars of nature videos we see. It's cool to see things that you knew existed, but you always thought existed somewhere else. Like last year when we went to Tioman Island and saw flying fish, monitor lizards, and giant clams.

Fun and Sun. We went to Kusu and St. John's Islands today. We saw Mudskippers (evolution in progress), giant spiders, Magpie Robins, Kingfishers, Brahminy Kites, Sandpipers, some very tiny white-bellied birds that we were unable to identify, as well as the usual suspects: mynahs, crows, Black-naped Orioles, and some Ospreys. We did some swimming too and were hoping to spot some sea-creatures while snorkeling, but the visibility was crappy.
Overall a pretty fun day.

Very fun. Last night we hooked up with friends of our friend Dean who live in town. Ended up at a karaoke bar -- the "Woody Green"? -- where our group were the only "ang mo", but these people were regulars there. The rule was, when the wrong lyrics appeared on the monitor for the song you're singing (which was often), you had to sing them. We did room-clearing versions of "You're So Vain", "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction", and "Oh, Darling". A very fun bunch of folks. Dean, Rob says to tell you that you're a "pooftah".

Marjorie got us tickets to see the Rolling Stones here in March. Woop!

I figured out today that my phone number here is "93-SEXILY".

Baby Gecko In Da House! Apparently they can make they 17 floor climb. This guy's quick too. I spotted him/her on the floor and it promptly ran under a cd case, but when I lifted the case the little fellow was nowhere to be found. Oh well. Hopefully he'll eat all the little black bugs I've seen flying in the house lately...I think these came in due to our orange plant. The orange plant is gone, yet they remain, but hopefully not for long now that Lizard is on the job.

Not much to report today. Marjorie went off to a movie tonight, giving me a chance for some quality time with my guitar. We've resolved to run off to a beach somewhere, Real Soon Now, as exploring's what we really came here for. Just finding the right time to go is the issue, with my work.

Hopeful: I woke up this morning with no real job prospects, but, lucky me, I got a call around 10am asking if I could come in for an interview. Yea! I'm not going to jinx it by talking about specifics, but the interview went well. Money was discussed, which is a very good sign. And it was more money then I expected, which is GREAT!!!! So wish me luck. I'll let you know more as soon as I know.

Yuck. I've gone off before about the ridiculously-named Speak Good English movement here. Recently I've decided that what they really need is a Stop Picking Your Nose In Public movement. Seriously, it's disgusting. I spot people on the buses and trains all the time, in practically up to their wrist, without an iota of self conciousness. Their ears too. It's obviously just a different set of standards for acceptable societal behavior, but -- eesh.

Konichiwa! With only a few hours advance notice, I found myself sitting in a three hour Japanese class tonight. It was the very first class, and it's "total immersion" -- meaning, not a word of English was spoken by the sensei (teacher). To overuse a metaphor, I was drinking from the firehose... The coworker I'm taking it with and I are both of the opinion that a little English up front might be helpful, but then again, my French teacher in high school did the same thing, and I still remember a lot of the language.

A rainy Sunday. Soccer later will be soggy at best.

The worldwide war protests yesterday had a decidedly different flavor over here. Word was spread via cell phone SMS messaging, but only five or six people showed up to protest at the US embassy. They were "discouraged" from doing so, as they didn't have a permit. In fact, they were taken down to the station for questioning as to the source of the cell phone messages, but not charged (yet). Read all about it.

Wonder how they would have reacted to a US citizen with a placard? The words "next plane out" come to mind.

Happy Valentine's Day!!!!
Song of the Open Road By Walt Whitman

"Camerado, I give you my hand!
I give you my love more precious than money,
I give you myself before preaching or law;
Will you give me yourself. will you come travel with me?
Shall we stick by each other as long as we live?"

This poem was the only part of our wedding vow that we contributed. We found out months later that this poem was also used in the vows in the movie "Love Story", I swear we didn't know beforehand. This poem is so beautiful and personal to me. It really seems to embody the spirit our relationship.
This Valentine's day will hopefully be as romantic and tailor-made as possible.I got the only gift I really wanted...time. Mark's taking the day off to spend with me. Already on the agenda: Pancakes with blueberry citrus sauce for breakfast at home (in our new Valentine's day presents, Mark got a robe too). A free day to do whatever..... Then dinner at the Singapore Zoo complete with a "love tram" through the zoo. Perfect.

Taken for a ride. Trying to go out to dinner last night, we told the cab driver to take us to Robertson Quay. "Robinson...?" It was like he never heard of it. And this is not that obscure of a place. We should have jumped out right then. But he acts like he knows where he's going so we don't press it. After ten minutes or so, though, even I know enough of the layout here to see that he's not going the right way at all. I ask if he really knows where it is, and he pulls up and says, "Yes yes, here we are, Robinson Drive." Nowhere near. He offered to try again, but we figure our chances are better with some other cab driver who might have a clue. We gruffly pay him off; he may have been conning us, but he did at least give me back more change than he should've.

It takes us at least a half an hour to hail another cab, during which time I realize that my cell phone has gone missing. It apparently fell out in the first cab. Yay. A report has been filed, but I don't hold out a lot of hope.

Anyway, at least I have today off to spend with my sweetness.

Ever feel like you have a theme song for a particular experience? This Soul Coughing song seems to rattle around my head a lot in Singapore:

White Girl,
Market at Van Ness,
Heels to drag,
Discombobulated.
Air all soft around,
Hear the man singing,
Inclines and wires,
Telegraph Avenue.
Look away and she's eastbound, out of sight.
Dropped here,
By the hand of the Astronaut,
Builder of the pyramids,
The man from outer space.
Innocent farmgirl,
Raised by the aliens,
Out in Northridge,
Out in the larger world.
Look away and she's eastbound, out of sight.
WHITE GIRL! WHITE GIRL! WHITE GIRL! WHITE GIRL, WHITE GIRL, WHITE GIRL.

Trust me to open my mouth... Okay kids, I need to apologize for the previous blog, nobody's trying to "prohibit a flag" what's really happening is the State legislature in Virginia are considering passing a bill proposing to DISPLAY (note, not prohibit) the South Vietnamese flag at "official" events where other countries flags are flown. This IS pissing off the Vietnamese government, and maybe rightfully so, but it's not the issue I was upset about.
This is the kind of thing that happens when you don't research your sources and you blog when you've had beer. Oh well.

Very cool new bird spotted on the TV attennae of the low-rise building across from us -- the blue-tailed bee eater. From his high perch he (she?) was making short swooping runs down, presumably to catch bees and wasps, just like they describe here. Later he or she returned with two friends. They're still doing their bombing runs as I type this.

Staring at a neighboring building through binoculars for long periods of time is probably a good way to get in a lot of trouble.

Now this is disturbing: According to today's Straits Times (the English newspaper in S'pore) "Vietnam angered by flag ban in Virginia"...apparently Virginia has passed a bill prohibiting the flying of the Vietnamese flag during public ceremonies....WHAT?!!!!! Is this not the United States where freedom of speech and expression are guaranteed rights? If this law is really in effect it really shouldn't be. I believe it would be rather unconstitutional. These kinds of policies really piss off our friends abroad, and I fear most Americans, including myself are probably totally ignorant of their goings on.
On a positive note, there was a pro-American peace rally in South Korea yesterday. My parents told me the only news they saw in the States from Korea was of the anti-American nature (and they watch a lot of news). So far, all I've seen reported in the Straights time are pro-American stories such as the latter. The truth probably lies somewhere between.

Valentine's Day approaches, and it has a decidedly different flavor this year. Not just because we're abroad, or married. We also share a bank account. In previous years, even if I didn't pick Just The Right Gift, at least I could fall back on saying I care by spending a lot of money. Now, I'm just spending her money, and she's spending mine, so no substituting "pricy" for "thoughtful" like a big dumb male.

Of course, Marjorie's already bought herself a nice robe, which she says can be my Valentine's gift to her, but I'm not THAT stupid.

I have the day off, so hopefully we can get away somewhere nice; maybe Pulau Ubin.

Football match #2, today, and all the jogging paid off. I'm still not a great player but I'm improving and having more fun. The second half was played in pretty much a torrential downpour, the kind where the ball just decides to stop at random points when it hits a puddle. I "took one for the team", diving for a clearing header where I ended up lying in a mudpuddle. Almost made up for the stupid accidental handball in the first half -- I got the only yellow card of the day. It's a stupid instinct, but hard to overcome when you haven't been playing, to stick your hand out when the ball is going by you. Luckily, not in the penalty area.

Afterwards, Holland Village for dinner. We found the place there that rents DVDs; there are only one or two in town (everyone just buys them, it seems). Turns out this place has a branch right near our house.

The job hunt has begun in earnest for me now, and it appears that my prospects are good. Singapore, like seemingly everywhere else in the world, needs teachers. The only real dilemma is should I look for a full-time position? I'd like to be able to go with Mark on possible business trips (there is already talk of Hong Kong, Japan, and Tasmania), and truthfully, I really wasn't happy teaching the two years I did it. But, a large part of me wants a full time position, it's just got to be the right one. Luckily, Singapore does appear to have a few early intervention programs so maybe I'd be able to continue to work where my heart is....with the babes and toddlers.

I've upped my productivity. Up yours! There've been less postings lately because I've set up a separate login on my computer dedicated entirely to Work. Less distractions, like links to the blog, mean higher productivity and greater job satisfaction. I've been producing mountains of code lately. I highly recommend this approach. Working with an internet connection at the ready is like when you used to try to do homework sitting by the window where you could look out into the street and see kids playing.

The winners of the 16th annual International Obfuscated C Code Competition have been posted. This is the highly geeky contest that I've won five times in past years (once in collaboration with a friend). The object is to write the most bizarre but still functional computer program in C.

I submitted no entries this year, but I have an entry almost ready for next year's contest that I'm pretty confident will win.

I also have the idea for a Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest submission, but I need to work the words out just right. The object of this contest is to write the worst opening line of a novel. It's named in honor of the author who started his book with the line "It was a dark and stormy night".

We had an enjoyable evening. We went across the street to the Newton Circus Hawker Center (a hawker center is a food court with vendors selling local fare), and purchased four dinners. Not because we were starving, but the first three weren't that great, and at $3.50 Singapore dollars a plate we figured why settle for mediocre. On the fourth try we hit the jackpot: Mark ordered tiger prawns with chili sauce, and the sauce was soooo good I ended up ordering a small plate of rice to go with them and just poured some of his sauce on it as my dinner. YUM! After dinner we stumbled upon a dancing dragon. It's Chinese New Year so the Dragon puppets that go unanimated most of the year (except practice) and their peeps get the chance to do their thang.
On a sadder note, part of me feels guilty for escaping some of the grief I know I'd feel if I were in the States now for the victims of the Space Shuttle. There are no obvious half-mast flags (probably at the American Embassy, but I rarely go by), and no reminders of the tragedy outside of the T.V. as English language newspapers usually need to be hunted down to purchase, as opposed to being everywhere as in the States. Still, it's obviously a very tragic occurence, and I'm saddened whenever I think of the astronauts and their families.

We just watched our first DVD (L.A. Story). We're hip with the 90's! Woo!

Today was like the day after Thanksgiving back in the states; nobody was working because of Chinese New Year's, so everyone was out shopping. So Marjorie tells me, at any rate; I had to work, and from home, which I hate.

We still occasionally have exchanges where one of us will suddenly say, "We live in Singapore!", and the other responds, "I know, weird, isn't it?"

Here's where the space program should go from here, IMHO. As Marjorie pointed out, I used to work at Kennedy Space Center, and have more than a passing interest in the subject, but only enough knowledge to be dangerous.

1. Investigation of Jupiter's moon Europa. Widely cited by scientists as having the best chance of sustaining life in the solar system besides Earth. Under all its ice there's believed to be an ocean warmed by thermal activity. Exploring it will pose some interesting technical challenges. If we were to find life there, it would eclipse all the combined scientific achievements of the space program up to this point. And we would have to come to the conclusion that, if life could spring up separately twice in the same solar system, it must be ubiquitous throughout the galaxy.

2. Investigation of other potential life-sustaining moons, such as Callisto, and, I think, Ganymede?

3. A comet landing. Comets have played a crucial role in the evolution of our solar system, possibly even seeding our planet with the necessary raw materials for life, and have also been the likely cause of ecological disasters.

4. An asteroid landing. Probably the best scientific bang-for-your-buck.

5. Exploration of the outer planets. This is our best picture of Pluto and its moon.

All of these should be unmanned. Not that this is cowardice in the face of disaster, but because man in space hasn't been a good idea for a long time. Launching humans is just an expensive conceit. I don't know, maybe it's necessary to keep public interest and therefore public funding, but to me that just says that public opinion needs to change...

It is both unbelievable to see, and not at all surprising. The shuttle fleet has been aging. I had still been holding my breath with every launch, and breathing a sigh of relief when I heard that a launch went off successfully. That's where it's surprising; the launches are soooo much more dangerous than the reentries, what with the shuttle sitting on thousands of pounds of explosives. Still, I knew deep down that another disaster would occur, some day.

Future of the program? The shuttle, I think, has always been pretty much a boondoggle, and claims of the scientific worth of the missions have been greatly exaggerated. I've always been more in favor of unmanned missions. There's so much still to explore in the solar system, and it's just not possible to take men anywhere beyond the moon. Costs of manned space travel are prohibitive, both in human terms, as we saw today, and monetary terms. Still, having a shuttle program was better than having no space program at all. This should pretty much put a wrap on this version of the shuttle program. I'll be surprised if there's any more launches, except maybe to retrieve the guys in the space station. Jeez, what's going to happen to that thing? I have no doubt that a new manned program will be planned out and approved as a result of this. The people like the manned missions. It'll probably just new model shuttles; I don't know what else they could do. It'll be two or three years at least before anything new could be launched.

I hope they had a quick death. BBC is reporting that their fate is unknown -- but they're dead, no question. It's just so... sad.

We just found out about the Space Shuttle Columbia. It's so sad. We're both utterly depressed. I'm sure Mark will have more to say about this as he used to work at the Space Center, and eye-witnessed the Space Shuttle Challenger tragedy.
Really, so sad. I hope this doesn't provide an excuse for the government to end or reduce funding for the space program.

Birds. Found a nice site that has let me identify some of the birds we've seen around Singapore. About seventy-five percent of the birds you see are mynahs, and twenty percent are crows, sparrows, or pigeons. It's the remaining five percent that make you sit up and take notice.

Our seventeenth floor apartment affords us a nice view of some tree canopies. In fact, what got me on this today is that I just spotted a large black and yellow bird, that we had seen a few times, which I now know is a black-naped oriole. A few minutes back while out jogging I saw a yellow-bellied sunbird. And a few weeks back I saw two yellow-vented bulbuls. And last year while we were visiting here I'm pretty sure we saw a common kingfisher.

I have a knack for reading books that, unbeknownst to me, are about to be turned into movies, or have just been turned into movies. In the past few years it happened with Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and The Quiet American. More obscurely, it happened with A Beautiful Mind, which I somehow didn't hate after first seeing, but have since decided it a big stinker. I strongly encourage reading the book; the movie left out so much about the fascinating character of John Nash that you'd hardly recognize him.

Now they're making a movie treatment Master and Commander, a rather obscure book I've just about finished. Unfortunately, it stars the same crew as played in A Beautiful Mind: the annoying Russell Crowe, and the annoying Paul Bettany. On the other hand, it's directed by Peter Weir, who did one of my favorite movies, Fearless. I'm still inclined to think it will suck.

What possesses me to use big showy words like "triumvirate" and "unbeknownst" when I write? I don't talk that way. Rather ostentatious of me. Oops, there I go again.

HAPPY LUNAR NEW YEAR!! Today is the first day of the Year of The Goat. So far Mark and I have not participated in any of the festivities, but today we might have more luck. Luckily, the New Year is celebrated over a series of days, so we have multiple opportunities to get involved. This very nice Singaporean gentleman I met on the plane ride home told me that Lunar New Year is similar to the American Thanksgiving in that it's an occasion when people generally spend time with their families and visit their extended families, and not so similar to the Western New Year's Eve. So, unfortunately there may be fewer activities to view then I initially thought, but I'm sure there are still plenty of things going on around town to celebrate the occasion.
Have I mentioned how much I like Singaporean's yet? The guy I met on the plane was so nice, and generally the people we encounter on the streets are really charming as well. Singapore is a very friendly country. Perhaps because there is so little crime, people aren't as guarded as they are at home.
I'm up at 5:00am again today. Gotta love jet lag! There are some perks to it though, as I'm not generally a morning person, it gives me a chance to view the world at a time when I'm normally unconscious. I predict I'll get over this bout pretty easily though as I never fully acclimated to the time change when I went back to the States.

I'm Here! Sorry I haven't written lately. I've had an awful lot on my mind the last few days. I'm glad to be back in Singapore, and very grateful to be off the plane. I wish the weather today was a little better though. It's been raining all day, which has prevented us from going out and participating in any New Year's activities. But we did get to do something new today, we ordered home delivered beer from a local microbrew (Brewerks). Can't do that in Georgia.

Yay, Marjorie's home! 'Bout time, too, as the dishes were really starting to pile up. I kid.

It's one in the afternoon, and she's fast asleep. No surprise there. If the rain lets up, we're going to maybe hit the Hong Bao tonight.

Things Marjorie brought from home:

A triumvirate of my favorite candies: Sour Patch Kids, Swedish Fish, and Haribo Gummi Bears. The only real gummi bears are hard gummi bears. Only heathens eat the soft variety.

DVDs: Rushmore, Bottle Rocket, Pulp Fiction, for our as-yet nonexistent DVD player. I've actually never seen Bottle Rocket, it just came as part of a deal with Rushmore.

Most of our wedding dishes and flatware, and my favorite bowls.

Two packets Shake and Bake chicken recipe.

Two big fluffy towels.

Various other clothes and knickknacks.

My guitar tuner.

Coffee table coasters, and a shower curtain, designed to hold photographs.

My X-Arcade Joystick. Not! I forgot to remind her. That's her story, at any rate.

Sorry about the lack of updates. I've just been passing time in this training class all week. I'm ready for Marjorie to be home. She's ready to come home. She's not ready for the long flight. Like, REALLY not ready for it. Be strong, my cherub.

Sign spotted in the bus today:

Fly Thai Air to Thailand.

So many things to see, you'll want to come back.

I guess when you're Thailand, you don't have to work that hard on your slogans.

I'm not the worst player on the team, I think, and for that I'm thankful. I had a bear of a time finding cleats (er, boots) that fit me today. I went to a mall that at least a dozen stores that sold them, and there were TWO pairs that fit me in the whole place. I gots big feets by American standards, huge by Asian standards.

Anyway, we had at least ten extra players show up, so I didn't even think I was going to play. And the weather was a balmy eight thousand degrees. I told myself I wasn't going to try to volley the ball out of the air today, because that's the easiest way to make yourself look really stupid if you're out of practice. But during warmup I cranked a booming volley perfectly into the side of the net, that I think the coach saw, so I got some play time in. I was nothing too spectacular on the field (er, pitch), but there were no major miscues. Because of Chinese New Year, I have two weeks to get in shape for the next game, which should help.

I scuffed both knees up pretty good, and an ankle, but not too major. The kind of injury your mom used to spray Bactine on, that only causes you a lot of pain when you get in the shower and the water trickles down onto them... Ouchy. So I decided to jump in the pool instead. I stick both legs in, and it stings. I start to swim, and start shivering, thinking "Man, this water must be cold..." Then I remember.

I am Mr. Shocks Aplenty. For some reason, I go into shock at the drop of a hat. Shivering, jaw clenching, goose bumps, spasms... Even for extremely minor injuries like scraping your knee, twisted ankles... probably even paper cuts. It usually happens at night, just as I settle into bed. The worst time was when I dreamt I was in a car accident, and woke up in shock.

I decide that maybe the pool isn't the best place for this to happen, so I get out, thinking that I'm probably the only person in this tropical city who's shivering right now. It'll probably happen again tonight, as I said, when I go to bed. I've mentioned this to doctors, but none have ever heard of this... condition, or whatever you'd call it. It's not a big deal, just annoying.

Tomorrow, and for the next four days, I have a training class. Joy! (That's sarcasm.) I never want to be trained, I just want to have training.

A fun Saturday, spent -- working. Ah well. Suede concert is in an hour. But first, a quick jog.

CONCERT WRAP-UP: A good show. They were energetic, and "on". The venue was fabulous; outdoors on a breezy night, with just a few clouds, some stars peeking through, and some skyscrapers as a backdrop. It's a lot easier to see over the heads of a Singaporean crowd than an American one. The crowd of 5000 or so was, I'd say, about one third Westerners. I even saw my second black person since I've been in Singapore (sadly, I did not have a camera). Everyone was into the show; I half expected people to be there out of curiousity, but they cheered in recognition at the beginning of most every song, and sang along to much of it. (It's seems there's a much hipper indie music scene here than I expected. We really must find out where they all hang out.) I myself was only familiar with one album, Coming Up, which was featured often in the set list (though sadly, not my favorite tune, She). Their best tune was one that I wasn't familiar with, but loved immediately: "She's In Fashion".

It was weird to see the crowd unified, like they never are in the US, in hand clapping, arm swaying, or singing, at the beckoning of frontman Brett Anderson. He finished by telling the crowd that Singapore was one of the few places in the world where he'd consider living.

They had the standard concert snacks, just like back stateside: kotong balls, otoh sticks, curry puffs... I kid. Strange food, but otherwise, for the most part, a very Western-like concert experience...

Apparently Bob, owner of Rocky's, had terminal cancer. This is the most recent information I've heard. I feel so bad for his kids. Regina and Rudi (who is quoted in the article) were really nice kids when I knew them, in spite of the fact that both their parents were crazy, and they'd seen way too much. Regina has a baby now. Last time I saw her she was so grown up and Bob was talking about taking better care of himself because he was a grandfather now. Funny how time flies. I remember taking Regina to the Womad concerts when she was around 12 and chatting with Rudi when he'd visit the restaurant. Both kids were really sweet, hope they still are. They've been through so much. There's a memorial service at the restaurant tomorrow for Bob. I may go.

A better run tonight, about 3K without stopping. Jogged down to a local park looking for a place to kick a ball around. No dice; just a trail around a lake. I will try again tomorow. In the other direction there's a school for the "Spastic Children's Association". No political correctness here, it seems. Maybe they have a soccer field, but I'm afraid I'll be harrassed by a bunch of spastic kids.

When I got back I made it running up a full 13 floors this time before feeling that urge to die. If there's ever a fire and I have to run up and save Marjorie, I hope she's patient.

My new baby. This is her. Now stop looking at her, she's mine. In my excitement to get her home I forgot to buy a guitar strap or picks, so I'm playing tonight using the edge of a credit card. My fingers have lost all their callouses, so I'm all hurty.

Let's get out there and start sucking! I'm all set to play soccer on Sunday. Well, except that I have no cleats, clothes, or stamina, and haven't played in ten years, but beyond that I'm ready. I've watched a lot on TV lately, and it doesn't look that hard.

Had Turkish food last night. It was nummy. Ended up at a nice little Irish pub that actually has bar trivia once a month, sponsored by some children-with-special-needs organization. How perfect is that? The owner and his wife were really nice too.

Me and my shadow: Beau follows me everywhere in the house. I go to the kitchen, Beau comes along. I go upstairs, Beau follows me (even though he is not allowed upstairs and he knows it). I go to the bathroom, Beau tries to push his nose into the door to open it. He obviously missed me. It's really sweet, but makes me feel guilty for not being here and for leaving in a week...Maybe he can come to S'pore with me. What do you think Mark?
In remembrance of Bob my former employer who recently killed himself, I'll try to recall some stories about Rocky's, the restaurant I used to work at as a waitress. Here's a quick description: A swanky (or trying to be) pizza/pasta restaurant in Buckhead. There's a list when you come in of all the celebrities that have eaten here. Among the list are Pat Buchanan and John Gotti (this dichotomy is very Rocky's. Bob befriended, or at least kissed the asses of all famous people and there was definitely some Mafia connection). Others that visited the restaurant in the time I worked there are: Jerry Garcia, Laurence Fishburn (met him, rather nice), Sinbad, Toni Braxton, Madonna, Joe Fraiser (a regular), Eldrin Bell(chief of police at the time), Max Cleland, GA Senator (who is a shitty tipper BTW)....there were lots of celebrities in the place over the years and many politicians (I became jaded about politics largely because of Rocky's. There is definitely a connection between politics and the Mafia. If you don't believe it just look up Bob's criminal record which was somehow overlooked and underpunished by the politicians that befriended him again and again).
There were also always LOTS of drugs in the restaurant. Both managers were heavy coke users. Most pizza cooks and several of the waitstaff were potheads who would sneak outside behind the garbage bins at night to get stoned. Many of the staff also took nips of beer, Chianti, or homey wine during their shift (homey wine is cheap really strong sangria-like wine the restaurant claimed was "home made" and served to guests with peaches. In actuality it was sold in screw top big old jugs like Boones Farm). I myself made a concoction of homey wine, sprite and pink lemonade on many occasions. Ironically, in spite of all the drug use, a lot of the kitchen staff were Muslim Moroccans who would take breaks during the day/night to pray. Many of these guys were perfectly nice, but some of them had serious issues with women and would constantly make advances on the waitresses.
And then there was Bob. Bob was also a coke addict (although I never saw him use it, just the effects). In the winter he would often stroll through the restaurant, chatting to guests, and pat at the guns in his gunbelt concealed under his jacket. On one particularly wild occasion after the restaurant had closed and all the staff had cleared out, Bob and one of his friends played "firing range" in the restaurant leaving several sweet little bullet holes that could then be seen above the smoking section booths and in the bathroom. The existence or raison d'etre for the holes was always denied, but they're there (still).
Bob was crazy, definitely, but not without some charm. He was always nice to me (although sometimes he scared me). And he wasn't stupid, he knew his life was bizarre and would make comments about it's soap opera-esque qualities he would refer to as "as the pizza turns". He had a good sense of humor and he generally treated his employees generously by feeding us most nights and letting us drink a free beer after shifts (while overlooking the stolen glasses of wine during the shift).
Many of the best friends I have in my life I met at Rocky's. The craziness of the place really somehow managed to create a (dysfunctional) family environment, which while totally insane, was really warm and fun a lot of the time. I'm going to see some other former employees this week. I'll pick their brains and see if I can come up with some of the better stories for you over the next week. There are sooo many stories to tell.

The Joys of Jet Lag. I'm back in Atlanta for a few days. After a very, very, very long and unpleasant flight, I've concluded (again) that United's economy class sucks. Japan air seems to be much better. I must really love my husband to be willing to get back on a plane and do the flight in reverse in a week.
I woke up at 2:00am this morning Atlanta time and called Mark. I then proceeded to take care of most of the tasks I'd planned for the day, so now at 7:40am, I'm feeling rather accomplished. I'm sure I'll pass out by 11:00am though, atleast hopefully I will so I can get in a good nap before Trivia this evening.
I've already gotten in some good puppy cuddling time with my parents' dogs, Beau and Sadie. I really miss them when I'm in S'pore. My dad refers to me as the "third puppy" which, honestly, is probably how Beau and Sadie see me. I'm not really an authority figure to them, just a pal that takes them out of the house to cool places like Piedmont Park and the Carter center where they can swim in stinky water and sniff lots of other doggys' butts. I also let them do lots of things they're not supposed to do, like come upstairs and sleep in a "people bed" with me.

Marjorie's home safe. I just a call from her. That's a load off. After thirty hours of flying, she might have to be threatened at gunpoint to get back on the plane again in ten days.

I stink right now. More than usual, I mean. Mildew is a big problem here, and the shirt I'm wearing today is getting more and more pungent as the day goes on. I just saw the repairman about fixing our dryer, so we hopefully won't have to hang things out to dry anymore, which is a big part of the problem.

Had some awesome dim sum for lunch today. I was a little trepidatious, since all I could remember from my last time having it (in Toronto) was eating lots and lots of tentacles. No tentacles this time, though I was saved at the last moment from accidentally ordering spicy chicken feet.

Sucking wind. Trying to get in shape for soccer. Tried to go for a jog last night, but got a cramp after about 500 meters (look at me, I'm Mr. Metric). Walked a little, jogged a little, walked a little... Got a second wind as I got back to our high rise, and tried to jog up the seventeen floors to our apartment. Could only make it up eleven. I feel like a fat tub of goo.

This takes me back. A more in-depth article on John Poindexter, who I used to work with. It even mentions the project I worked on with him (Genoa). Scary guy. But smart as all get out.

Back when I was working on this stuff, my roommates at the time cultivated their own image of what my job was. Their vision was like this: I stand out on the edge of a field, in a white lab coat, with a clipboard. Around me are a bunch of five-star generals and various military brass. In the middle of the field is a baby carriage. The whistle of a bomb dropping is heard. The baby carriage explodes. Everyone gives a golf clap and nods their approval at each other, as I jot down notes on my clipboard.

Not a terribly accurate job description, but it still kind of cracks me up. I'm quite glad not to be working in that industry anymore, though.

Google strikes again. Have you seen this? It appears that the mighty search engine Google is branching out into yet another searchable class of items -- namely, anything you might ever want to buy. You have to admire their chutzpah.

People have tried to make intelligent price-finding agents before, that automatically go out and find the cheapest price for something. They're usually met by resistance from the site owners who don't want their prices instantly compared to everybody else's. Google might have the clout to make it work this time.

There can be broad economic repercussions from this type of tool. Like, what chance does a store have if it's not selling something at the cheapest price to be found anywhere on the internet? Follow that to its logical end and someday every product might have a fixed price.

Hmmm, I looked again, and it doesn't actually do price comparisons. Maybe someday. Right now it's all about just finding the product you're looking for, which is still cool enough.

They need to branch this tool out a bit though, like the ability to filter for products that can actually be delivered to a given country. All the sites indexed by Froogle that I used to shop at won't deliver to Singapore. Sniff.

Beat the clock. I'm in the Hong Kong airport, trying to blog a few lines before getting (back) on a plane for 25 hours. I hate to fly inspite of my love for traveling. It literally hurts, I have to take sudafed and wear these funky ear plugs to keep my head from feeling like it's going to explode during every take off and landing.
I'm relatively fortunate today because they booked me in aisle seats the whole way, so at least I can go to the bathroom without disturbing anyone else.
Crazy about Bob, but like Mark alluded too, he lead a crazy life and this is not a surprising end. I'll have to write more about him when I have more time.
Wish me luck on the rest of my journey.

Marjorie's on her way back to Atlanta, to tie up loose ends and bring back some stuff. She should be on her way to Hong Kong right now; from there, on to San Francisco, then Atlanta. I don't envy her the 30 or so hours it'll take to get home. As for myself, to keep from getting lonely, tonight I'm going to go get a curvaceous new stand-in for her.

Marjorie's former boss killed himself last night, in dramatic fashion. I had met him a few times. I can't say I'm surprised -- not because he ever seemed depressed, but because Marjorie has relayed to me so many crazy stories about him (involving celebreties, the mafia, infidelities, etc.) that I had the feeling he wasn't going to die of old age. I'll let her clue you in.

Lousy stinking Eagles.

Earnest and Stupid This is a tag description I came up with awhile ago to describe the recipe for bad lyrics. Just think about it. Almost every Heavy Metal ballad (think "every rose has it's thorns") is earnest and stupid. Every boy band love song, the same. "Eternal Flame" by the Bangles, earnest and stupid. And yet, so many hits fall into this category. It really makes you wonder.
On a different note, we went to see "Full Frontal" tonight (the new Steven Soderbergh movie). It was....interesting. Not the best movie I've ever seen but it definitely gave us topics to discuss afterwards, which is what all good art should do -- provoke discussion.

Boring sports post. You have been warned.

In American football, my Eagles play their last game ever at Veteran's Stadium today. If they actually show it here (they've shown a few other games, but not all), it'll be at like 3 in the morning. I'm debating whether to get up. I never saw an Eagles game at the Vet, but I went to a few baseball games there as a child, and they are fond memories. I think the Phillies are still going to have their season there this year before they raze it. Anyway, go Eagles!

On to non-American football. We get a lot of English premier league coverage here. They even have a Manchester United store up the road (called Manchester United Kids!). Well, it seems that two players from Team USA are making their presence known out there. Brian McBride has had an awesome start while on loan to Everton for three months (three goals in two games, including an amazing bicycle kick goal). And Brad Friedel is being called the best keeper in the league, for Blackburn.

I've contacted some people via email and hopefully I'll be starting to play myself next week. I asked on the Expat Singapore discussion board if anyone knew of a league for out-of-shape windsuckers with deteriorated ball skills, and got a bite. I wonder how badly I'll stink up the field.

Giddy on good beer. We went out for German food tonight and I had a Paulaner Hefe-Weis Bier. Yum. Funny you can find better German food in Asia then in the States, but it seems to be so.
Afterwards we went to a bar and lost our Asian Karaoke virginity singing "All you need is love" (Mark), and "La Isle Bonita"(Me). We also met a fellow southern Expat, a gent named Lynn who we were able to chat with merrily about hawker centers, pedestrian life-style, and the joys of Tioman Island.
We are really enjoying living here. You all should definitely come and visit. S'pore's great. Really, and on so many different levels. I mean, how many other places can you spot a monkey while waiting for the bus?

Wildlife spotting. Today we took the bus up the road to Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. Cool new bird spotted for the life list: the greater racquet-tailed drongo. He let us walk right up under him. He seemed to be intentionally hanging out in the vicinity of a small squirrel; not sure what was going on there. Supposedly, there are pangolins there, which I would love to see, but they are rare and shy. There are supposed to be monkeys there, too, but we didn't see any -- that is, until we left the reserve and were waiting at the bus stop for the ride home. I looked back into the trees lining the road and spotted a long-tailed macaque. He poked his head out and let us get a good look at him.

I'm such a stinker. At one point while we were at the reserve, Marjorie said, "They have those flying snakes in Singapore, don't they." "Yeah," I said. (They do.) "Huh," she said. I could see she was thinking about them as we walked on. So a few seconds later, as I was walking behind her, I just touched her neck lightly. She about threw herself on the ground in reaction. She was ready to kill me.

In other news, you might remember I was debating whether to start taking language lessons in Cantonese (as is spoken by Chinese people in Hong Kong and the United States) or Mandarin (as is spoken by pretty much everyone else). Well, I've decided. I'm going to learn Japanese.

We had quite an eventful evening, in a low-key kind of way. We had dinner at Wala Wala Cafe in Holland Village. After a quick stop at the Haagen-Dazs afterwards, we were meandering to the taxi stand and spotted Kristen of Krisalis (I recognized her from her picture), a blog we've been reading for the better part of a year. We made quick introductions, met Kristen and her fiance Mark, and also met Andrea another blogosphere neighbor. Coolio. We then caught a cab and had the absolute BEST driver ever. Our driver asked where we were from (we said Atlanta) and then proceeded to tell us about his personal experience staying in the Travelodge in downtown Atlanta. He knew all about Peachtree Road having walked all the way from downtown to the Fox in an attempt to walk the entire length of Peachtree Rd. (not an easy feat). He was great. He then proceeded to tell us all about his travels through the U.S.A. The man has been to more places then I have. Really, puts me to shame. He'd been to the Grand Canyon, and Yosemite, and San Diego, and "to your poor cousin Mexico" as well. Hard to explain why, but in many ways this man exemplifies the charm of Singapore. We're so happy to be here, and are so utterly charmed with the people here. I'm sure we'll have many more stories to tell.......

A list of my top 20 movies can be found here. Having a Merchant/Ivory film as my #1 doesn't make me gay, does it? (Not that there's anything wrong with that).

We've got full power, Cap'n! At long last, I have my own power cord for my portable. I had to get one from Ebay, after five fruitless attempts to attain one through the Dell branch in S'pore. Those guys are utterly useless. It'll be nice to be able to surf without the Sword of Damocles battery indicator ticking down at the bottom of the screen.

Question of the day. How long before Bush gets a dog? Presidents always do it at times when they need a soft news piece to be run on them. He's been slipping in the polls, and the election's not too far off, so it'll have to be soon. I have half a mind to set up a betting pool web site where people guess the time of the announcement and the type of dog.

Censorship We knew it happened here, but had yet to observe until yesterday. In less than an hour we experienced two acts of censorship: First, Mark observed that the article "a day in the life of a porn star" had been sliced out of the British Marie Claire I had purchased (interesting he noticed it, huh). Second, I was watching HBO waiting for Sex and The City to come on, it got up to the "and now the HBO original series Sex and The City" and then blip, some dumb movie with Alan Cumming. Looks like you were right Greg, no S&TC for me here. Altogether damned inconvenient but, we knew censorship happened here. Oh well.

I now know enough about what I'm working on that I can actually describe it.

If you've ever called technical support about anything, you'll notice that the tech support guys guide you through a series of questions. This series of questions is not something they have written down sequencially on a sheet of paper; too much depends on your answers to previous questions, and there's a wealth of possible outcomes. My friend out here has a startup company that plans on building software that helps the people who man those lines figure out what questions to ask, and what diagnoses to suggest, using an artificial intelligence technique.

The technique has a lot of broader applications, but technical support is a boom industry out here. Many times, when you call tech support from the States or Europe, your call ends up here.

To overuse an analogy, I've been drinking from the firehose since I started working. I've already learned heaps, and there's no end in sight. The hours are long, but I'm not forgetting I have a lovely new bride. Fortunately, she goes to sleep before I do, so I can spend the few hours after she goes to bed in the evening (that I used to spend jacking around) working. Like I should be doing now, I guess... Being "actualized" is a good thing.

Food update. Had lunch today at Mos Burger. As you can tell by the site, it's a Japanese chain. The menu, in English here in Singapore, starts with hamburgers and cheeseburgers, then gets progressively weirder. Eventually it gets down to a unagi burger (which is eel meat), where the bun isn't a bun, it's a sticky rice paddy. Yummy. I went with the plain hamburger.

Had a business dinner tonight at the BrauHaus, a German place, as you probably guessed. It's right up the road from us, and has the best beer selection I've yet seen in town. We had the mixed sausage plate, and the half pig-knuckle. Pig-knuckle is a first for me.

We saw the nastiest thing for sale in a wet market here last weekend; a pig face. The eyes, brains, hair, and skull were removed, and it just sat there on ice in the display case like a soggy mask.

I'm excited that there's a place right downstairs from my work that sells nothing but fresh fruit. I'm going to snack on fruit every day. Starting tomorrow. Today, I opted for the Mrs. Field's chocolate chip macadamia nut cookie.

Little things about Vietnam keep recirculating through my mind lately: An elderly women carrying her grown son on her back in Ho Chi Minh city. He must have had Cerebral Palsy, he was very emaciated and clearly paralyzed, she smiled weakly at me as we passed in a taxi;
Tiny little children yelling "Hello!" to Mark and myself as we wandered along a river in Hue, in an area where not many tourist venture;
The "man of the house" at our homestay in Sapa keeping us up singing that Jack Wagner hit "nothing's gonna change my love for you...";
Watching some Caucasian women on the beach in Hoi An surrounded by vendors trying to sell them stuff they didn't want or need, and feeling very grateful to be in the no harassment zone provided by our hotel. Then looking towards the opposite end of the beach at the Victoria hotel's Elephant "Darling" giving guests rides up and down the beach.
Seeing so many limbless people making their livings by begging in the streets of Ho Chi Minh.
Vietnam was tough, but I'm glad we went. I saw a travel show today with a guy in Cambodia, the Cambodians on the show had the same flat affect I saw on people in Vietnam, maybe an expression that comes from living through so many horrible things lik War, Genocide and Poverty. They went to a temple and the man said he was going to pray for the same thing all Cambodians pray for: "peace and prosperity".
Singapore is nothing like it's nearby neighbors. It's more like the U.S. in many respects than those places, but not so long ago they weren't so different. The Singaporean people have worked amazingly hard to create this incredibly modern and safe city. The striking differences really make me wonder, what is the difference between a modern "1st world" city, and a "3rd world" place? The difference between Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh, and Singapore makes some things easily identifiable in terms of what makes me feel more secure in a city, and makes a city seem more modern:
1. Construction site regulations and dust sheets to protect the surrounding areas from all of the dust created by the building site. There were no shields in Hanoi or much of Vietnam and the cities were dusty and overly polluted because of it (Ho Chi Minh seemed to be an exception).
2. Side walks should be kept open for pedestrians. In Vietnam, especially Hanoi, the sidewalks were primarily used to park motorbikes, forcing people to walk in the streets.
3. A central agency to regulate food sales, such as a board of health. No such entity appears to exist in Vietnam. In Singapore all food vendors are required to display their health/cleanliness rating, same as the U.S. and probably all other modern nations.
4. Clean water. This is crucial. How does a country provide clean drinking water for its populace? I don't know, but it's a requirement to be considered a modern metropolis (at least to me it is).
5. Child labour laws. We interacted with way too many very young kids out in the streets all over Vietnam selling things to help support their families. When do they play?
I'm sure more things like the preceding will occur to me later. It's just interesting to thing about these things, especially now that we live in a Country/City that's made the transition in the fairly recent past. What are the conditions necessary to become a modern city? I know some of these conditions would probably not be met by many places in the U.S.. It would make an interesting study. Can anyone tell I have my undergrad degree in Sociology? I love this stuff.

Little things -- evidence that we are not in Kansas anymore:

I can't imagine this happening in Atlanta. At lunch today, at a cafeteria-style place, a woman reserved her table -- by putting her keys on it. She wasn't back with her food for ten minutes.

Umbrellas are sold at a place nearby -- S$8 (about $5 US) when it's not raining, only S$6 when it is raining. Downright unAmerican.

Commercial breaks that only last one minute.

Bought a packet of hard salami. The calorie content was listed on the label under "Energy".

Yummy! I made Thai green curry with chicken for dinner tonight using the new recipe book I found. It was soooo yummy. It's so sad that this is the most exciting thing I have to report from the day, but.......
On other fronts, I've sent my past work information to the American Association here so hopefully they'll be able to link me to an agency that could use my volunteered time. I clearly need more to do here and an outlet to meet new people. Speaking of meeting people, I'm going to be in Atlanta next week. I'd love to see the old Posse.

Like, soooo interesting. This is so spot on. My niece Abi is now at the age where she recognizes things as sarcasm, but thinks it's sooooo stupid when you use it. The article neglects to mention how much fun it is to use anyway. She's still a sweetheart, though, and that's not sarcastic...

My first real day of work in the office where I'll be toiling away. Pretty cool. Right now they have me in the conference room, which is like a big private window office of my own. Too, it's on the 24th floor, looking directly east from here. Zoom out a bit to see where on the island this is. There's a view out over the shipping lane where boats line up (er, queue) to come into the port. On a clear day, there's a chance I might be able to see Indonesia. Though I doubt I'll be in the conference room for long; instead, it'll be a desk in one of those typing pool-type offices (lots of desks, no dividers). I hate that.

Making progress already at work. Amazing how much you can get done when you work solidly all day, and how much more fulfilling it is.

Not quite the day off I'd hoped for. Our planned excursion to Bukit Timah Nature Reserve was foiled by a late start and a rainstorm. The bird singing place was pretty much a bust, and the Monkey Temple that was supposed to be nearby seems to be gone. Too, the guitar shop where I planned on getting a new acoustic was closed. It's still a lot of fun to just tool around the city randomly though.

We just watched The Sixth Sense on TV -- Marjorie's first time, my second. As far as I could tell, it was completely unedited. I was worried that Marjorie was going to figure it all out before the end. She totally nailed the Munchausen-syndrome-by-proxy part before they revealed what was going on -- she always picks up on things like that before I do in movies. Luckily she didn't figure out the... other part.

We have a pet, sort of. There's a mynah that comes and sings to us everyday from the porch opposite ours. I occasionally go out there and tweet or whistle back at him/her and he/she responds by looking over and tweeting or squawking back. It's a great little interaction with nature.

One of the consequences of living here and having friends and family back in the states is that nearly all the blog comments, email, and discussion list postings we receive occur while we sleep. Mornings we check it all in one fell swoop.

In other words, all of our social interactions now come in digest form.

Sorry for the irregular postings on my side. We still don't have a plug here for the portable, so Mark has to charge it at work, which gives one only a short window to web surf and such. So....sorry. Things are slowly moving along for us. Mark is working crazy hours, which is to be expected with a new project, but leaves me alone for way too much of the day. My days have been filled with running to the Cold Storage (grocery store) several times a day to stock the house with goodies. Or I run off to some shop to buy whatever home item it is we need. Not too stimulating. I need a job. I'll probably try to volunteer some of my time next week, seems there are a number of good social organizations here related to special education that would be happy to get a few hours of my time.
Other than the boredom and loneliness, which is typical of not working anywhere, Singapore is great so far. The people are relatively nice. The food is great. Almost anything you want from home can be found here. Even the weather has been kind lately, with today's weather staying in the mid-80's and breezy, just how I like it.

Life is unfair. We're ordering cable TV. I tell Marjorie I can do without the sports channels option -- even though I was addicted to watching soccer while we were in Vietnam (there's never any coverage in the US). She says, "Really? I'm getting HBO." (She's loves "Sex and the City".) So I say, "Okay, I'm getting the sports, then."

Cable has been installed. Turns out, HBO doesn't show "Sex and the City" here. Not hard to figure out why. Nor do they show "The Sopranos", or "Six Feet Under", it seems. Maybe it's just off-season.

But I get lots of soccer. And rugby. Mwu-ha-ha-ha-ha...

I guess I should be saying "football" instead of "soccer". We're gradually catching on to the Britishisms they use around here. I've successfully used the terms "taking the piss", "queue", and "lift", but "boot" (for "trunk") and "mate" (for "friend") still sound weird to me.

Surprised to see that a band I recently started to like is actually playing here in a couple of weeks -- Suede (aka the London Suede). Tickets are expensive (about $40 US), but the service fee is only a buck! Here's hoping TicketMaster doesn't discover this place.

Still setting up house. We went to Ikea last night. I'm glad to see Marjorie is not as in love with that place as she used to be (I've always referred to it as "Icky-Uh", which we've found is pretty much how Singaporeans pronounce it. They're a wise bunch). But it is convenient for some simple, cheap household purchases.

Today we get cable TV and cable modem. Currently our TV only gets some very wacky Asian channels. We do seem to get all the Bollywood we want, though.

Residency. We found an apartment, and have moved in. Our moving van was two taxicabs.

It's a smallish but nice place, quite near to some major shopping areas. We have a six month lease.

Are we officially ex-pats now? Maybe not until I get my work permit. We're working on that. My job so far has consisted of shopping for parts for the computer I'll be using, and assembling it. This is all work-at-home, so far; I haven't yet been in to the office where I'll be stationed.

We witnessed a rare Singapore occurrence last night: a crime. While in a taxi, we came across an accident, where a guy in a car knocked over a woman on a motorbike. They were arguing about it, and then the guy got angry and tried to karate kick the girl in the chest. Unfortunately he was about six inches too far away to actually make contact (I think he was drunk). Then he grabbed her jacket and tried to wrestle her to the ground. Our cab driver jumped out and helped another guy subdue him.

Consider the lilies of the field. I start to work tomorrow. Why is it that a man should have to work? Aren't we the most advanced species on the planet? Why is it that only we toil away at jobs?

While we're at it, it's the 2000's. Aren't robots supposed to be doing all the work for us by now?

Shall we dance? You're walking along, through a crowd. Somebody coming the opposite direction has a trajectory that leads directly into you. You look up just before you run into each other, then start to move to one side, just as he moves to the same side. So you start to move the other way, again, just as he does. You smile at each other, and gesture with your eyes to one side, and finally, you move around each other.

It happens thousands of times in every life. The other day, though, I had that experience with a buddhist monk, in full robes, coming out of the subway.

WESTERN UNION IS AN EVIL INSTITUTION AND CAN BITE MY BUTT!!!!!!!!
Mark and I have made some mistakes during this move. One of these mistakes was not setting up a bank account as soon as we arrived in S'pore. What can I say, this is a learning process and we've been under a lot of stress, and some important things have been neglected. So, anyway, now that we've found an apartment (maybe) we needed to put down a deposit and needed lots of money immediately. Enter Western Union and my father, who is wonderful and able to access our account from home.
So, my dad gets money from our account and wires it to us here in S'pore using Western Union. Thanks Dad, really, we appreciate all your help. That said Western Union sucks!!! They charge a fee for wiring the money, it's an outrageous fee, but its published upfront and that's not what I'm complaining about...what I'm complaining about is the crappy exchange rate they give you without giving you the option to pick up the money in the denomination sent (in this case USD). So, they STOLE about $50.USD from us, which is over $100. SGD by giving us a horrible exchange rate ($1USD = $1.707 SGD it should be $1 USD = $1.74 SGD). I've sent them an e-mail asking how they determine this crap rate and asking for my money back, but I don't there will be any recourse. They really are evil, you know? I mean most of the people that use their service are poor. And I imagine most people sending currency across borders are immigrant workers sending money home to their families (in the States perhaps mostly Mexican and other Hispanic workers, here in S'pore, probably mostly Indian laborers or Filipino maids sending money home) only to be charged on both ends by this corporate monster with no scruples. Bastards.
Aside from that I'm happy to be moving into our own place (fingers crossed, hope, hope, hope!!) soon. Living in someone else's house is hard. I don't mean to be ungrateful, but I don't feel at home here and it's a subtle little stress in our daily life. Our host has been wonderful though, and we are very fortunate to have somewhere so nice and spacious to stay.

Better now. Much, much better now.
We've put a deposit on an apartment. Hopefully it's all downhill from here. The apartment is small, but it has an oven (a rarity here). I'll discuss the apartment in more detail later after we've officially moved.
I'm coming home (to the States) in a few weeks to gather up more household items and visit for a few days. I'll be home the 21st and I'm back to S'pore the 29th. A short trip for such long flights (about 30 hours each way), but I want my things. Plus we have some loose ends to tie up with banking and such. There's so much to remember before a move like this....We've definitely made some mistakes along the way.
Joy of the day: Discovering Crest toothpaste at the grocery store near our new home. Crest is a rare find in this town. Overall though, we've been able to find most everything we want/need. Singapore's a pretty easy place to live in most respects.

More pictures!

Wildlife spotting: the Hanoi gutter chicken.

Trekking 'mongst the rice paddies. The path that Marjorie and the guide (and the village children) are on is wide, but the smaller muddy barrier between the two levels you see in the middle is the sort of thing we spent much of the time walking on.

The outhouse over the river during our homestay.

A big load of bull. On the right, smart guy. Water buffalo droppings were enormous. I had big plans to take a picture of one, and post it with the caption: "Marjorie's reluctance to use the local squat toilets ended in embarrassment after four days of trekking." But I forgot.

Lots to see in this picture. The waterfall was nice. The path down the mountain was typical, and very, very slippery. The bridge on the right had gaps of at least a foot between boards; Marjorie crossed it because she had her hands free; I took the easy bridge to the left, because I was carrying our walking sticks. That's my story, at any rate. The villager is, I believe, a Black Hmong.

A typical spread of food.

Problem resolved. The movies I uploaded caused me to go over my storage limit. There was no feedback, though, to tell me such, until I complained to tech support.

I had to delete some of the other movies, but here's another movie I've uploaded. This is the view from riding around in a cyclo (basically a rickshaw/bicycle). There's a good example within of how people cross the street, as well as the national sport of let's-see-how-much-we-can-load-on-a-bicycle.

Apartment hunting in Singapore makes me miss the care-free days of wedding planning.

This is a test, this is only a test. We're having problems with the blog updating so there's no content here. Just testing.

2003 is here. Let's hope it's as exciting and eventful as the last, though it's hard to see how it could be. We went to a small party at a friend of our friend's here, and considering how much red wine I drank, I'm lucky to only be feeling a little crapulent. I've been up for three hours and Marjorie's still asleep; I don't think she's faring as well...

I forgot to mention the cool thing I bought in Vietnam. I've decided to collect musical instruments from wherever we visit, and in Vietnam I decided on an instrument I saw played at the water puppetry: the dan bau. It's a single string, and you pluck only harmonics on it. The bar sticking up on the right is very like a whammy bar on an electric guitar. It's really cool. And it actually plugs in to an amplifier.

Tomorrow, once everything is open again, we start house-hunting in earnest. We have a number of criteria, which we hope won't hinder our ability to find a place:

Must be near MRT (subway). We're not going to have a car, so this is a must.

Near a grocery store. ("Cold Storage" is the only chain out here.)

Washer/dryer in building, or at least hookups for them. We're not into trudging bags of clothes onto the MRT.

A nearby pub. You might view this as a somewhat alcoholic- (or at least British-) sounding requirement, but we liked having one nearby where Marjorie used to live, just to nip off for a quick bite and a pint.

Wired for fast internet. A must, here.

Speaking of pubs, there's a hairdresser up the street that has a sign that reads "Unisex saloon". And another one two doors down apparently copied the misspelling. Lots of funny manglings of the English language all over southeast Asia. Reminds me of this site.

Year In Review This year has been amazing. Maybe the most intense year of my life. Here's a quick summary of the highlights and for some reason I've decided to include a song that reminds me of each moment:
1. Engagement in Paris, Christmas Eve, 2001. For those that don't know the story...Mark asked me to marry him after dinner in Paris on Christmas Eve. We were crossing a bridge over the river Seine with Notre Dome in the background when he got down on his knee and popped the question. Very romantic.
Song: Tower of Learning by Rufus Wainwright.
2. The Birth of My Niece Katie, first offspring from my side of the family. Song: Danny's Song by Kenny Loggins. "Pisces Virgo rising is a very good sign"
3. My Marriage to Mark. We got married in Key West in a very small ceremony on the beach with just our closest family and friends. It was really beautiful and intimate.
Song: Rainy Night in Soho by the Pogues because my darling Mark "you're the measure of my dreams, the measure of my dreams".
4. Hanging out with my best girl friends the day after our wedding. I so rarely get to see them and to have everybody together in one place was really great.
Song: Reunited by Peaches and Herb, because it felt so good.
5. Seeing David Bowie in an intimate show (about 1000 peeps) at St. Anne's Warehouse in Brooklyn, NY (Thanks again Mike!!!!).
Song: Moonage Daydream by David Bowie "keep your electric eye on me babe"
6. Meeting my friend Jenn in Atlanta. Friendships are sometimes like romances, you have immediate chemistry and immediately like each other and know you're going to be friends. It was like that with Jenn this year, and I'm so sorry I had to move before we got to know each other better. Thank goodness for e-mail, and I look forward to reading your blog and will keep harassing you until you create one.
Song: Waiting on a friend by The Rolling Stones
7. Leaving Atlanta after 10 years of residency. Atlanta was very good to me in the time I was there. I was really ready to leave, but I'm sure I'll miss it.
Song: Sugar Mountain by Neil Young.
8. Moving to Singapore. After months and months of talking about it, then more months planning for it, we finally did it.
Song: Island in the sun by Weezer. "We'll run away together, we'll spend some time forever, we'll never feel bad anymore. Hip Hip"
9. Visiting Vietnam. The longest and most intense vacation of my life. Very educational, but not an experience I'm likely to do again.
Song: In my place by ColdPlay. "I was scared, I was scared, tired and underprepared."
10. Culture shock, This is sort of the combination of Vietnam and Singapore and a prediction of difficulty to come. I'll do my best to maintain my sense of humour. It's funny, I remember reading the book "Culture Shock, Singapore" and thinking that culture shock was something we'd be immune to. If only.
Song: What's the frequency Kenneth by R.E.M. "Richard said to retreat in disgust is not the same as apathy".

We gotcher movies! Here's some footage we took with our digible camera during the trip.

The boats you see in this movie all have families who live on them. And almost all of them have a dog, which is really wild.

This is the house where we stayed on our "home stay" with the ethnic minority villager. You can see Marjorie sitting in the doorway with our guide. The small little bamboo shack in the very middle of the last frame was the outhouse, built over the river, with a hole in the floor.

More movies (and pictures) to come...

Note: If you're having trouble viewing these movies under Windows (they're QuickTime movies, which is an Apple format), try right-clicking the link and selecting "Save Target As..." to save it somewhere on your computer first. Then, double-click it in whatever folder you saved it, and follow the instructions... While we're on it, does anyone know a good .mov - to - .wmp conversion program?

Back "home", inasmuch as Singapore is home, which it doesn't quite feel like yet. Our seats on the flight back from Ho Chi Minh City were double-booked, so we got bumped up to bidness class. Very nice. Except that my salad fork wasn't chilled. It's so hard to get good help these days.

We're very much looking forward to all the "comforts" of "home" -- I think we're going to go hit Borders books first, and maybe a Starbucks for Marjorie. And for some reason we're craving Subway. I know none of that sounds very Asian, but we need to recharge our batteries after three weeks in (decidedly non-Western) Vietnam. (The only Western business we saw the whole time was a single Kentucky Fried Chicken in HCMC.)

Another day in Saigon I still maintain the opinion that, overall, Ho Chi Minh city is much easier to negotiate than Hanoi, and the hassle factor is less. The kids here, however, are much pushier. That said, the kids here, and over all of Vietnam, have been the best parts of our journey. Here are two opposing, yet striking images of kids burned into my memory now: 1. Little kid on the road in front of Reunification Palace holding a very real looking silver gun and pointing it into traffic. This kid would have been dead in the states. The police would have shot him. Very menacing looking image; 2. A very little boy (must have been 3 or 4, looked about the age of the kids I work with) tried to sell Mark some gum last night while leaving the very good German Restaurant (Gardenstadt- no kidding, the best German food Mark and I have ever had outside of Germany, In Ho Chi Minh City!!!!). Mark manuevers to get around him, kid manuevers to stay ahead, they both break into a run in front of me, the kid continues to chase Mark down the block (a game at this point). This was one of the most adorable things I've ever seen in my life. Really, made me want to laugh and cry at the same time, wish I'd had the camera out.
As a result of little guy number two I bought some stickers today to give to the little ones when they attempt to sell us something. This is nice, but doesn't work well. You end up with a crowd of whining kids around you begging for one more. And they're pushy, going so far as to put their little hands in pockets and feel you up to get to the stickers. Poor little guys. Really, they shouldn't be hustling on the streets at so young an age. They're so tough, but they're just babies. Sadly, Mark saw a little fellow about 6 or 7 yesterday selling cigarettes of all things.
We're are totally pampering ourselves our last day here. Tomorrow will be moving to the Rex Hotel. This may not mean much to most of you, but I'm sure you know what we're talking about Dad. Very plush.

Still confused as to why people think Ho Chi Minh City is more hectic than Hanoi. HCMC is a piece of cake, and has so many more places to dine and shop and drink than Hanoi. We're getting bad, though; we just ran out of the rooftop bar at the Caravelle Hotel after only peeking at the menu, because they were charging 46,000 dong for the cheapest beer. That's outrageous! We paid half that at the previous place. Then, riding down the elevator, we realized that that's only $3.00. What's become of us?

We went to the Czech restaurant in town today for a real beer. Then we got caught in a downpour on our way to try the Mexican restaurant in town (the Tex Mex Cafe); it was, uh, not very good. Serves us right.

We've settled into Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), and it's not half as hectic as we were expecting. Everyone we talked to said it was worse than Hanoi, but it seems everyone we talked to was smoking something. There are wide sidewalks here, and traffic lights, and a lot less honking of horns. And, we found a supermarket! It was very exciting, after seeing nothing of the sort for weeks. We loaded up on goodies.

I was reading a book I bought in Hoi An called "In Siberia" by Colin Thubron, but I left it in the taxi when we got dropped at our hotel here. The blurb on the jacket reads that this guy was one of our greatest travel writers, which is a load of hooey. But I think I can do a pretty good imitation now of his style of writing, so I will describe our final day in Hoi An as he would:

We slept in on our final day, then camped out under beach umbrella to soak in a last lingering look at the majesty of the wind-swept ocean. The weather began to turn, and Marjorie internalized it; her illness an unhealthy portent for the trip ahead.

The car arrived to take us to the airport. He drove us down a street in the proximity of the hotel that had lurked nearby, invisible to our concious minds, perhaps visible only to those who sprung from the native soil. The road was an artery for the local village; each motorbike a corpuscle, carrying life-giving sustenance to those who dwelled there. Nearly half the houses were painted sky-blue, in defiance of the weather, as if to say to the Fates, do your worst. We will subsume you and rise above.

ESSCH! We're in Ho Chi Minh city. This is supposed to be the tough city, but so far Mark and I find it much more modern, clean, and manageable then Hanoi. Just goes to show......
Went to the War Remnants Museum today. Pretty disturbing stuff. Got stopped by a guy outside one of the halls, who was missing both arms and an eye. He was very pleasant and spoke English very well. He seemed to just want to make conversation and sell some books or postcards, but given the situation and my nationality (which he immediately inquired about) I felt very depressed and manipulated. Mark showed up shortly after I encountered the guy and gave me a graceful exit. The man did nothing wrong, but I still feel so horrible about the encounter. Guilty, is really how I felt. The museum really pushes the crimes the "Americans perputrated against the Vietnamese". Funny there's no mention of the re-education camps and the way south Vietnamese (ARVN) veterans are still being oppressed here today.
I'm sick again. I've been fighting headaches and the worst reflux of my life the last few days. Not sure what's going on, but I'm ready to be home. Too bad we don't really have one. Priority number one when we get back to S'pore is finding some kind of semi-permanent residence. We had thought about living in some kind of home-share with another expat couple, but I think that idea's been trashed. We need privacy, something I'd love to take for granted after over a month of traveling and living in other people's houses. I'm definitely starting to feel travel fatigue.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!!! Marjorie and I are sitting together at the Hoi An Beach Resort, and would like to send our warmest holiday greetings out to all, especially to our families who have been so wonderful for us this year.

Our Christmas wish came true for today; all we did was hang out at the beach, and the pool, and had wonderful weather the whole day. Other highlights of the day:

The next resort down has an elephant named "Darling" that we saw walking up and down the beach all day. We went down and had pina coladas at their bar.

Our hotel has an area of the beach that is free of people harassing you to buy things. It was fabulous.

Marjorie came out of the restroom after dinner tonight with a baby gecko on her shirt.

The weather looked threatening as recently as an hour ago, but now we see a multitude of stars.

Merry Christmas! Our xmas will be rather anticlimatic if the weather here doesn't clear up. We've no presents for each other and no special plans, but we have moved to the Hoi An Beach Resort. Unfortunately it rained all day today, hopefully we'll have better luck tomorrow.
Hope you are all having a wonderful holiday! I miss being a part of it all, but I'm sure this will be a memorable xmas in it's own right.
Very sorry to hear about Joe Strummer's passing. Sucks for us all, but especially for his family this time of year. Mark, I'm sure, is even more depressed than I, as he was a fan of Strummer's recent solo work as well as the Clash.
We are very out of touch with any global news or news of celebrities so we appreciate the updates (thanks Jenn!) about anything that might be important. The English newspaper here is rather bizarre, with an interesting twist on reality, tries to neatly summerize whole societies and such... you know, I'm sure our own papers do that but I don't pick up on it because the generalizations probably fit into my schema. Who knows.
We're here (in Hoi An) until the 26th, then we are off to Ho Chi Minh city/Saigon.

I'm so bummed! One of my musical heroes has died. Joe Strummer -- whose two recent solo albums are two of my favorite albums of the last few years -- has, like phony Beatlemania, bitten the dust. What a Christmas eve downer. Before even hearing the news, I was planning on coming in here and quoting this bit from "Straight To Hell", just because it's relevant to our current time and place. I guess it's now a tribute.

When it's Christmas out in Ho Chi Minh City
Kiddie say "Papapapapapasan, take me home.
See me got photo- photo- photograph of you and mamamamamamasan,
of you and mamamamamamasan."
"Let me tell you 'bout your blood, bamboo kid:
It ain't Coca Cola, it's rice."

Three Shirts, Two Pairs of Shoes, One Skirt, One pair of Cari Pants, and a Nightgown later.... I'm finished shopping. It's nice to have new things, but the custom-made experience is not without risk. The skirt I had made yesterday is already sort of falling apart as a result of wearing it out into torrential rain last night with another new shirt which leaked black dye all over the skirt. I frantically washed away at the dye on the skirt when we got back to the hotel and now the material is fraying(and the dye's still on it). Oh well. Also the shoes I had made look pretty cheap, but what do you expect for $20.00. I had Manola Blahnik dreams only to settle for something that looks like it's from Payless.
The weather has been very rainy for the last 24hours. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that tomorrow will be nicer as we'll be moving to the beach resort then. It doesn't feel at all like Xmas here. Part of me really misses all the shopping and stress and Holiday specials on TV. I'm a bit homesick still, but things have definitely been easier for us here in Hoi An the last couple of days.
We've made our reservations to leave for Ho Chi Minh City/Siagon on the evening of the 26th from Danang. Hopefully we'll have time for a boat tour of the Mekong Delta.

We happened into the same restaurant last night as Helen, our fellow traveler from Australia who we saw several times in Hanoi. So we dined and chatted into the night; she's a hoot. Hi Helen!

The long walk back at night, in the rain, was creepy; there was not a cyclo driver to be found, so we had to hoof it. Besides the "suburban" location, we realized our current hotel has these disadvantages:

1. The air conditioning doesn't work (despite our insistence on a room with AC).

2. Roosters. I've come to hate the filthy buggers. The myth that they crow at dawn is purely anecdotal; they crow all night. The fact that I had pho ga (chicken soup) for lunch today is just a coincidence, I assure you.

We've switched to a cheaper hotel to save some dong; the Phu Thinh II is almost as nice (pool, AC, cable TV, nice bed, but no bathtub) and is about a third the cost of the Hoi An Hotel. It's a bit of a walk out of town though.

I've left Marjorie to her shopping; custom-made clothing is addictive. She already has a blouse, a skirt, and two pairs of shoes, with eyes on at least two more blouses and a purse. We both kind of wish that we had come here first, with empty suitcases.

Another very Communist-seeming thing here -- there's a green army truck that rides around making stern-sounding announcements out of a large loudspeaker mounted to the cab. I have no idea what they're saying, but it sounds very Big Brother-y.

We're going to go lounge by the pool later; the weather here is fabulous, and our pool looks out over acres and acres of rice paddies.