An All Nighter

Last night was pretty unusual for me. I am not the type that spend the night in club, dancing to mind numbing techno beats. But I have obligation and I did not mind, it was nice to be out of the house and be in the crowd for a change, even if I thought 'Man, this is not really my scene'

A friend of mine will be in BKK for a several hours before his next flight to Phuket. Since he did not wants to spend the time in the airport, we agreed to meet in Silom so I can take him to the local gay club. He is an Italian-American from D.C., he had been working in Hanoi for the pass two weeks and he is having the vacation in Phuket along with his friend who is a woman.

The plan was for him to call me once he arrive at the airport to let me know when to leave the house and we will meet at McDonald in C.P. Tower in Silom which open 24 hours. He call at 23:15, just as I finish dressing up and heading out. It was good timing too, since I can still use subway to go to Silom.

To my surprise, when I arrive at McDonald, D.C. and his friend were already there. After greeting and chatting up getting to know each other a little better, we went to D.J. Station the famed gay club. They were having a good time, with drinks in hands and a foreigner chatting them up. In my case, it was a so so time. Since I do not drink, smoke, nor dance, I have little to do besides watching people. It was Thursday night, after midnight, and it was packed.

At about 2:30, the guy who chat up my friend has invited us to go to another club called G.O.D. with them. We left with him and a few of his friend. The location was in the same avenue as Freeman, only Freeman seems to have been gone and G.O.D. is in its place. The entrance fee was two and half times more expensive than D.J. although we gets two drinks. Inside there was a big stage on one side and a small catwalk from the stage connecting to the D.J. booth in the middle of the floor. There was also a cage on the far side of the stage. There were a few buff guys dancing on stage and in the cage in skimpy undies and it was quite clear that they were the club's staff. There were quite a few other guys who were dancing on stage without their shirt as well. D.C. friend was having a great time dancing on the catwalk and she beckon D.C. to dance on the stage as well :P By now I notice the staff's t-shirt and realize that G.O.D. stands for Guys On Display, hence, the dancers.

The place was still half pack when we gets there around 2:45, but by 3:20 it was packed. It seems that people leaving D.J. had came to this club for more drinks and dance. It was after 4:00 that I have to reminded them that they should go back to the airport. D.C. friend wants to leave at 4:30 but I reminded them that it was raining earlier and it might make it slower to gets to the airport.

They really enjoy their time and thanks me profusely for taking them out. We promise to hang out again if they visit BKK again.

An Ending Chapter

Tonight is my last night at work.

It is certainly not what I had in mind... At least not like this... Not without having something to fall back on or moving on to. Perhaps this is the push I need to make that 'moving on to' happen. Right now I have a mixed feeling of nervousness and relieve. Nervous because it is like I am being thrown out into the real world to fend for myself, and relieve because no more torturous time table and stringy boss.

My mom had pretty much order me to look for job right away. Although I felt like resting for a week or so I do understand that looking for job will be long and hard and it will left me with the rest time I wants anyhow. Afterall, I have been looking for job for the past five years, albeit not very seriously, and I have not been able to landed one yet. Therefore, I am having a sense of dread with my future.

My mom has been pushing me to either opening up some kind of shop in the space we have on the ground floor or seriously get a new job. She also tell me with a straight face that with my age it would be difficult to find a new job. Yesterday, she also informed me that there is a big demand of English teacher in China, and that I should seriously considered this. It sounds quite alright at first, but after giving it some thought, I doubt that it would be a good plan. First, I do not speak Chinese in any dialect. Second, from what I heard China is not a very hospitality country, you would have to watch your belongings (your luggage that is not in front of you, is not considered yours) people do not do queue and they pretty much care for themselves.

It seems that right now, it is like I am being thrown out of a slow sinking ship into a raft in the middle of the ocean. That eventhough I am not drowning just yet, but if I am not able to find something soon I will certainly be dead.

Finally Made Me Happy

I first saw this music video a few days ago, just catching the ending of it no less but the name came up as Macy Gray featuring Natalie Cole. Now I am always love duet songs so I knew I would have to find this song.

Old School yet contemporary

Needless to say I love this song. Especially toward the end, it's the kind of song that you would just love to belt it out against human size speakers :)

To my U.K. fan

I have noticed, from my statcounter.com that I seems to have a dedicated fan in U.K. who use a certain methods to read my blog post by post.

I would like to say Thank you for reading my blog :) I know I am not blogging daily but I hope you still enjoy my writing all the same.

Please let me know if you have any special request for me to blog about ;)

Things I Learned from Reading Mangas

I have been an avid manga (Japanese comic books) since around the age of 10 (that I could recalled, since when I got some of the old stuff from the old house I found some of the older mangas that I do not recall having read but they seems to be mine.)

I am sure many parents have a headache of seeing their children reading comics instead of textbooks. While it maybe true that it will serve them better to read textbooks but this way at least they were at least reading nonetheless, and for me, it made a fast reader.

Back to the subject :) Here are some example of things I learn just from reading mangas:

- I learned how to say 'Bonjour mon cheri' and 'Enchante'
- I learned that 'Merci' and 'Danke' means Thank you in French and German, respectively.
- I learned a bunch of Japanese words and their meanings 'Tama=Ball', 'Shiro=White', 'Beni=Red', 'Ohayo=Good Morning', 'Hana=Flower', 'Yaki=Grill', 'Teri=Chicken', 'Tori=Bird', just to name several :)
- I learned a lot about Japanese cultures from various mangas that based on present time.
- I learn that, of all the SE Asia region, Japanese seems to be the most repressed and kinkiest people.

And I still learning new things, as well as, still reading mangas :) If you area interested in checking out some of the mangas to read, please check out my side bar. You will find several links to where you can download scanlations for reading.

Krabi Trip: Day Three

The morning repeated itself with me woke up with full bladder and cannot go to sleep later because of my younger brother's big snoring.

Today my aunt's family had planned another trip to see the crystal pool, hot spring and mountain. I bailed when I heard the word hot spring :p My back and shoulder still sore from the sunburn yesterday and the Nivea cream does not help. So I decided to spend the day loitering around the area instead as well as spending it in the hotel to recuperate. My younger brother also said that the he heard from a friend that a really good after sun lotion has to be Banana Boat Aloe Vera. It was quite expensive compare to other brand but after the sore on my shoulders we decided to split the cost and pay for it.

I spend the day either staying off the sun in the hotel room and go to spend sometime away from the sun in an internet cafe, just 20 minutes because the price is 1 baht per one minutes :p

Early evening it's time for dinner, by this times a couple of families had left and there were only two left, mine and luckily one with a van. We drove out searching for a restaurant that my mom had heard of, but after about an thirty minutes or so of driving around searching for the particular restaurant. The locals were not quite helpful as it seems it is not the kind of place they would go to. We ended up stopping to eat at a place just off the road called 'Rapu Seafood Restaurant'. The foods were surprising good, with the kind of oyster that only available locally. Here is the number of the place 075-631-416 and 089-873-7733.

Later in the night, as only two families left to stay and a few cousins still stay one more day, one of the cousin spend the night in our room. To my horror, he grind his teeth in his sleep... Added that to the snorer that already slept in the room it became a small nightmarish experience...

Krabi Trip: Day Two, Later in the afternoon

After we return to the hotel, me and my younger brother went back to our room to rest and wash off the sea water. I notice that my shoulder and back became quite red, despite the sunblock I put on at least twice while on the trip, with SPF 50 I might add.

I rest in the room for a while, while the younger kids went for another swimming in the pool. Our tour guide had told us to put on some after sun lotions to help soothing the sunburn, along with taking cold shower.

Around 17:30, we all went out for another family dinner. The food was so so and therefore not worth mentioning :p However, this is when we realize that most of the kids have allergic reaction to the sea hornet and one of my aunt who used to be a nurse will look for medicine for us later on.

After the meal my mom decided that we all need to go to Swensen's ice cream parlour. But after asking around there were none in the area (Ao Nang is not in the city) but there is an Italian ice cream place near by. We finally found the place, which is a small space that sell Italian ice cream brand that I had been in Bangkok as well. But before that we decided to look for the place fon foot starting from McDonald walking toward the beach front. During the trip I decided to walk into a pharmacy to buy the after sun lotion, my aunt also buying the medicine as well. I decided to buy Nivea after sun lotion, because it was the cheapest one. I began to apply some on my arms right away but it doesn't seems to help much.

After ice cream we walk back to the hotel, I went to bed after shower and appling the lotion. And again, enduring the snore of my younger brother...

Krabi Trip: Day Two

My mom told us that one of my aunt and her husband will chaperon all the kids to a four islands tour so we will need to wake up at 6AM.

I had a hard time sleeping after woke up around 4AM with full bladder. After I use the bathroom, I came back to bed to the horror that was my younger brother's relentless snoring. I tried to go back to bed but it was hard to ignore the snore... Before I knew it, it was 6AM with my youngest sister call on my mobile phone to woke me up. We went about our morning routine and went to eat the hotel breakfast buffet. For a rather small resort hotel, it does serve a real breakfast buffet, although with just ten foods to choose from (ham, sausage, bacon, cooked vegetable and stir fried southern noodle) with a large bowl of boiled rice, salad section, two kinds of fruits, toast station and cereal. A present surprise was that they also have omelet station :)

After we had our filled, we gathered in the hotel reception building to wait for the tour guide to pick all of us up with total of about 18 people. We all ride in two vans to the tour company's private pier to board the speedboat to begin the tour.

First, we went to see 'Ao Pra Nang' or Royal Lady Bay in English. Although the bay is part of the mainland, it was accessible by boat only. There wasn't a lot to see in the place because the beach front was quite small and the only attraction was a highly respected Buddha that has been placed in the shallow cave on one end on the beach. It was a beautiful beach with turquoises water and sand comprise of fine crushed seashell. This bay also house one of the most expensive hotel around, the normal room cost 30,000s baht per night and the suite cost 3,000 US$ per night!!! We stayed for about 20 minutes and then we return to the boat for our next destination.

Next, we went for scuba driving near Chicken island. This island have a pillar on one side of the island that looks kinda like chicken head, hence the name. The boat anchored near the island and let us get off the boat to scuba dive. Although the sea water was clear to the bottom, there were not a lot of fish, also all the corals were crushed by the tsunami. However, once I went into water and start swimming, I started to feel a sharp pain like bee sting here and there often, on my legs arms and fingers, and it was not just me. Pretty soon everybody were yelpjng and wincing, eventually I swim close to aunt and she told me to go to the boat and ask the guide what is happen and can we go to our next destination now because there was nothing to see anyway. The guide told me that it was sea hornet which seems to concentrate in this area because of the decreasing tide. Upon hearing this we call everything body back on board and go to the next destination. My aunt's husband was having a pretty bad reaction to the sea hornet sting as he spot red bumps all over.

Our third island is Poda Island, here we stop for swimming on the beautiful beach with very clear water. At noon we had lunch and play in the water a bit more. There were a lot of tourists on this island, mostly white couples and families with some asians and local families.

The last destination and island was Pot Island with is part of the three islands in the parting sea route. The parting sea (I am not sure if this is the official name) is the phenomenon that when the tide was low, sand dune will be visible, connecting three islands together. Our guide said that it was big water day (meaning it was high tide day) the parting will happen around 4:30PM which is beyond the touring time, plus if the parting had happen we cannot return with the boat anyway because of the dune. At the time that we arrive at the island, about 1PM, the dune can be seen in the water. When we get off the boat, I notice that there were fish swimming near by. Soon we all get the snorkle mask from the boat and swim around looking for fish. I spotted at least 4-5 kinds of fish swimming around the area in flocks. As time went by I notice that the sand dune that connects the island became more and more visible as the tide must be lower.

At last the guide called us back on the boat to take us back. It does not take long for them to take us back and to my surprise they actually take us to the beach which our hotel is on. So we did walk back to the hotel from the beach.

Krabi Trip: Day One

On April 16th, we woke up around 6am to freshen ourself up for the trip. Too bad that since it still in Songkran long holiday, none of the food seller show up for us to grab a quick bite before heading to the airport so we just hailed a taxi to DonMueng airport.

The airport looks quite empty this early in the day, but there were still a fair number of people waiting for their flight. This times my mom booked the flight with Nok Air, one of the low cost airways in Thailand. The plane seems to be older model with two engines and two 3 seats row. The plane ride was uneventful, they serve nothing (as expected from the low-cost flight) but you can order snacks and souvenirs from the flight attendants.

Around 11:30am we arrive at Krabi airport, and we gets to go through the new terminal. It was quite a pretty terminal with grey, silver, and marble color scheme. My mom had arrange for the hotel to pick us up at the airport and the driver was waiting for us. Our hotel for this trip is 'Krabi Resort' in Ao Nang area, which is said to be the first resort in Ao Nang. It has a beach front as well, although the water was not 100% clear it still nice to look at. Our first day in Krabi was spend settling in our hotel and a bit of swimming in the swimming pool. And then it's time for dinner.

Click here for photos

After dinner, I was too tired to go out to explore the area so I went to bed. And to my horror, I share a room with my younger brother and he friggin' snore! You see... I have a rather long sleep latency and that is a big problem when add that the snore. After about six hours or so I woke up with full bladder, I used the toilet and then have problem back to sleep because of the snore. And then it's day two.

Blogging from Krabi

Just a short one because the internet cafe charge here is crazy (1 baht per minute)

It was fun, I took some photos with my w810i since my mom still take holds of my digital camera :P It's my third day here, I had been to islands, sunburned, and slightly sleepless night because of my snoring younger bro. whom I share the room with...

I will upload some photos tomorrow when I got home and more details of my times later.

Songkran Time

Just a short note before I went to bed :)

Songkran is probably the best times to *stay* in Bangkok. Yeap, you heard it right. And why is that you ask? Because many people will return to their hometown to see their families. The results is reduced traffic (also because it is long holiday), reduced people, and in general less crowded city.

So if you ever think of visiting Bangkok, Songkran is the best times. Sure some places might be close, you will get wet along the way but you will get where you wants to go a lot faster than usual :)

Out of the Blues, New Shoes

I was at a bus stop waiting for a bus on my way to work when all of a sudden my shoes gave around my ankle.

You see (or may not see :P) what I wore daily (one of my three pairs) is a pair of Scroll brand, the sneaker/slipper hybrid with strap on the front and around the ankels that came up on top. I love this type of shoes because it is casual enough like slippers but you can run in them like sneakers. They usually wore out after two years, usually the adhesive worn out and the strap came loose from the shoes.

I contemplate for a moment of what I should do. I could still go to work with broken shoes but it would not be fast walking around in broken shoes and I would have to spend time buying new pairs later on. Or I could just went to buy the new pairs right away, as the bus stop is in front of a shopping mall, and be slightly late to work.

I eventually go with the later choice and walk back into the mall to the shoes department. I know where to go although I have not been to that part for quite a while. I notice different shoes on the displays and soon realize that the model that I have is no longer available. There were three similar models to choose from though. The one that seems to be the update of my model have a rather ugly straps parts. So I decided on another one which have soft padded and comfortable looking straps.

I am wearing them now, still trying to worn them down a bit. I am not too happy about this obviously... I do not like to spend 965 baht for something unexpected but necessary such as this.

Rainy Monday

I had quite a good sleep today. I went to bed around Midnight (I think) last night, woke up around 8:30pm and went back to bed again around 11am (I work tonight).

It was raining, as I woke several times in my second sleep, I could felt the dropping in temperature and pull the blanket over my legs. It was the time that I wish it would never end as I stay comfortably in my bed with the cool weather that make it even more sleepy. It was the sense of peace that I rarely have lately.

I will have to try to make it happen again...

Sweet Sacrifice

I had been a fan of Evanescence ever since I heard their first single a few years ago. It is one of those songs that I have said that it required a body size speakers to listen to the song with your whole body.

With their new album "Open Door", I fell in love with the first song 'Sweet Sacrifice' the moment I heard it. Such an uplifting song for me indeed :P

So today I saw on Yahoo that the band finally release their third single (meaning making music video for it nowadays) and it is 'Sweet Sacrifice'.

Sweet Sacrifice (mpeg)

I love the looks of the whole video, which match my feelings when I listen to the song, as it has the slightly mental and rage filled looks to the whole thing.

This release has lifted my spirit quite a bit from what happen earlier...

PS: I had post this MV from Dailymotion and not the usual YouTube due to the feud brought on by YouTube initial refusal to remove the offensive clip toward our King on their site. As a results the Thai government has ban the whole website YouTube from Thailand, which might prove to be successful tactic as YouTube later removed the clip. However, the ban is still in action as although the clip has been remove, the still images of the clip is still there.

Contract Terminated

My boss send words that she wants to meet me as soon as possible so I set up an appointment today. As it turns out, it is about ending my contract (her words) which read You are fired.

To be honest, I am not too upset about this, other than the forlorn feeling like when you are the dumpee instead of dumper. I do wants to leave this job anyhow, but my terms is only when I had found a new job.

So now I got one month notice before I would be unemployed. I guess it's time to make use of the office supplies in document preparations.

It's Dah HEAT

The weather is Bangkok has gone into full blown Summer. With the highest temp. of 38C and lowest of 28C, it is really getting depressed trying to sleep during the day...

My sleeping attire had changed from the slick fabric pajamas pants and sometimes loose t-shirts to the slick boxer shorts and tanktops and that does not help much. Early this morning, I even have to resort to turn on the A/C. I rarely do that since my room is not air-tight. Also, the A/C is remote control operated only, it is quite old that the remote control only works half the times... But it kept me sane this times...

I can't wait for my day off... I really need some rest.

Sleeping Aid

Today I came home from another 12 hours shift, although I felt tired I decided to stay up anyway. It was not a smart decision but the weather was hot... It felt like Summer is in full strength here.

Anyway, for the title, I think I will share with the readers a couple of tips that is said to help falling asleep.

1. Banana Ole with Honey: I read a health article about the food that help you fall sleep since they are loaded with Tryptophan is precursor of Serotonin which is the hormone that make you feel calm and therefore sleepy. In that article it mention several foods that has high level of tryptophan, although I remember the few which can be a good nightcap recipe. The items are: Warm milk, banana and honey. Warming the milk will make break down the component in milk to increase tryptophan which make it more effective. Add warm milk, banana, and honey into blender as you like and drink it :) Not only it's delicious, it would be quite healthy as well ;)

2. Body heat re-regulation: For this one I read it from Reader's Digest, which tells you about how your body works when you are about to sleep. According to the article, when sleeping, the body will re-regulate the heat from the center of the body to our limbs instead. Knowing this you can imitate the scenario by perhaps wear socks or hold on to a hot-water bag to simulate the sleeping heat pattern. It was said that this might help you falling asleep.

Sleep deprivation is bad to you across the board. From weakening the immune system to make your heart beat faster as your body is less efficient in oxygen transferred all of which can leads to serious health issues. I hope this post is helpful :)

Afternoon with a Funny man :)

Today, as I promised, I went to see a new friend with talented tongue.

He is a New Zealander, who has been traveling the world for about two years. According to him, he has been to about 40s countries already and looking forward to do more.

The man really have an interesting family background. He regaling tales of his family members. How his mom's best friends were all her dad's ex-girlfriends at one times, how she tell people at the club that she doesn't have any children or grandchildren because she doesn't wants to explaining about them and how his mom have no needs to looks at weather reports on TV because every morning his dad would stand, stark naked, on the balcony scratching his balls and he can predict the weather of the day Correctly.

Needless to say his family is a big Hoot :)

Computer Show

Today my plan was to meet with a friend, however he have other engagement. He could only give me a *maybe* of whether we can meet or not.

Eventually we did not met, when I felt like my plan is going south I decided to check out CompMart instead.

I found some items to drool over with. Although I already bought my flash drive, the items is nice looking Creative speakers. It was not that expensive and has good sound. The 2.1 speakers cost 1,290 baht, which is not expensive.

However, I decided against buying one, afterall my current speaker is still working.

Maybe next times :)

300 - Pretty Legs and Great Big Knockers

I finally have the time and opportunity to see the movie 300 today and Boy Was it Fun!.

It was visually Stunning and I was not just talking about the all the displays of bare pecs and abs on various men through out the movie the background sceneries in general are beautiful too. Especially the one of Gerard Butler in buff starring at the moon in his bed chamber :p Although I was surprise that background scenes were quite realistic, although the light looks very rich and ambient. I was expecting it to be more cartoon likes, as in Sin City, but it still looks good.

Many scenes were quite gory but not totally grotesque. A lot of things seems overdone but in the context of the movie it just swept through without a hitch.

I also heard of how the Iran government protest that this movie has 'Anti-Arab' message. My opinion toward that is this. This is not a historic movie, the entire movie is base on Frank Miller's graphic novel of the same name. It is said that the crew pretty much use the graphic novel as storyboard for the whole movie, taken from it the visual styles, camera view and everything. So to accuse this movie of being 'Anti-Arab' is rather non-sense as this is not, by any means, a historic based movie but rather a comics based one.

As for my 'Pretty Legs and Great Big Knockers' remarks, I had watch Bette Midler's opening performance for Arsenio Hall show on YouTube with the song 'Pretty Legs', to watch click here, and it seems quite an appropriate for this movie. After all, it's pretty legs and great big knockers that sell the tickets :P

Update: After taking a quick peek at the comic version of 300m I found out that Miller actually draw some of the spartans in nude! Too bad that they probably could not do this in the movie :p Perhaps there will be a spoof porn of this movie afterward?

By the way, Paul if you wants the comic file let me know ;) I will upload it to a host for you.

I hate tag sites

Just this week I got emails from two people tagging me into their *social address book*(?) websites.

Personally I have nothing against such site... But what I Hate about these sties is that required me to registered into the site as well. I suppose that's how they built up their clientèles , but I personally find this practice Evil.

I don't likes that I am required to do this, I don't like that I have to give out emails to websites I do not intended for.

This particular website even have the audacity of saying in their email "Please respond or *Name*may think you are not their friend :(" How Dare They!!

My Baby Bear

I have a new member in my room. A bear actually, unfortunately he was not a human bear :P Here is his picture:

Ain't he Cute with capital C? :)

His name is Tiny, one of the mascot from the latest online game opening in Thailand. It was a package consist of Tiny, game client DVD, and activation code for close beta. I was so in love with the doll that I decided to buy one :) The photo was taken on my bed ;)

The white plastic thing in the photo is the 4Gb flash drive I bought yesterday :)

My Trip to Pantip

My mom wants to buy a new Monitor to replace the one belongs to my younger bro. and sis., as that one will be taken to replace another monitor elsewhere.

So today we three, me and my two younger bro., went shopping at Pantip plaza. I went because I wants to finally buy a flash drive, my first younger bro. wants to buy his computer, and the youngest bro. went to help looks at monitor because it will be for the set that he use.

We went separately, as I was eating my breakfast :P, to Pantip. I walked around quickly and check out the price of flash drive in different shops. Finally I settle on Kingston 4Gb Datatraveler, with the lowest cost of 1,060 baht (without VAT).

My younger bro. spent quite a lot of money for his new computer... He got Intel Core 2 Duo, 7600GT graphic card, aluminum tower case and 19" LG L1960 Monitor.

However, my youngest bro. has his heart set on another new 19" LG Fantasy model. It does looks quite pretty, with shiny black frame and red light decor. However, it is expensive and beyond my youngest bro. needs. We tried to talked him out of buying this model. We tried threatened, bluffed, coaxed, and nothing works since our mom back him up on this. Until one of the shop owner that we know explain the monitors spec to him. However, the model that he has his eyes on is the same one as my younger bro. which he already bought the Last one... So now he went back to the same expensive model again.

We are not please with this, but we had tried our best...

Busy March

As I look upon this month I realize that I will be quite busy, too bad it was not going to be filled with men every other days...

Of big events, there will be career expo on March 16-18, of which I seriously need to check out. And then on March 22-25, there will be ComMart Expo, the tech sales events. I recently realize that the price of flash drive has drop tremendously since after new year. My younger bro. seems to went to Pantip on Monday and told me that he found some flash drive with 4Gb that cost only 1,000 baht!! I will definitely buy one of this. Unless they have larger flash drive with reasonable price :dd

Also on the movie front, 300 will be release on March 8, and Ghost Rider on 22.

I am going to do some job applying and I still have two vacation days left which needed to be use before April 1. It is going to be a busy month and I hope I will have some good time squeeze in it.

Showering Time

The weather in Bangkok started to became normal (sweltering heat of 35-38C) However it still not that hot just yet, as I kept my room almost perpetually dark, it still felt slightly cool when turn on the fan at full speed. But it make shower time fun and quite comfortable. Now I can shower with full water pressure and at comfortable temperature.

I also found this funny clip on YouTube (again.)

I wondered how much of this is true for gay men...

I wondered if the clip can be apply to gay men from both the woman side and the man side...

Very Very Funny Clip

Another gem I have found on YouTube and boy was it Freakishly Funny!! I was not aware of this incident... But Mr. Sulu sure does have the last laugh on this one :)



He certainly is inspiring :) I remembered reading an article, on Reader's Digest if I remember correctly, about how George Takei helps a Star Trek fan quit smoking. This particular fan met Mr. Takei at some convention and ask him why no one was smoking in the show. Mr. Takei replied that by that time in the future people no longer need cigarette for any reason anymore as they were beyond that point. The fan was very impressed by the explanation that he quit smoking soon afterward. If you wants to see how funny Mr. Takei can really be be sure to search on YouTube with 'takei roast shatner', you will not be disappointed ;)

Serenity in the Supermarket

Tonight is my night off, so I spend the night time relaxing in the nearby Shopping Mall.

I was also doing grocery duty for my mom in the supermarket as well. For some odd reason, I often felt... almost tranquil strolling in the supermarket. Maybe it was the fault sense of abundance of the surrounding, or maybe it was a sense of being tangibly useful for my mom...

Whatever it was, I do like doing the grocery... Ever since the new time table I do not have time to do that as often as I like... It did felt good to do the usual things again...

On The Fast Lane

My local ISP has release new package, which cost 9 baht more than the current package I am not but has 1Mbps/512Kbps speed instead of 256Kbps/128Kbps.

One of the requirement is that you need to own the SIM number of the same company as the ISP or subscribe to the cable TV. After a few days of package upgrade via internet now my internet speed is 1Mbps/512Kbps, my download is now beyond believe. Although my torrent is still rather sluggish... It still download very fast but it what had download seems to be junk data as the actual complete percentage did not increase.

Normal HTTP download, however, is just f*cking great :D

Ten Reasons Why I Like Being a Guy

From time to time, it would occur to me that I felt lucky to be born a guy and not a gal. And here are my Ten reasons why I like being a Guy :)

1. I own three pairs of shoes and that's OK.
2. I do not have to spend a fortune on make ups and clothes. I get to spend that on food and computer instead :P
3. I gets to keep my hair real short and gets to wash it daily without spending another fortune on shampoo. Then I gets to spend that money on shower gel instead :P
4. I can finish showering within five minutes when I needed to and still looks as fresh as I take 15 minutes shower.
5. I can be a computer geek without people judging me.
6. I only need one backpack whenever I go out, instead of numerous handbags in every color for every occasions.
7. I can eat large amount of food and people won't look at me as if I commited a crime.
8. I gets to like a lot of mangas that are intended for male fans.
9. I can keep a large collection of porns without feeling weird about it.
10. I gets to have a lot of sex without worried about getting pregnant :P

I wants to tag this to a few friends of mine... But I am not sure if they will play along or not... Well I wanna tag Paul, Joel, Searcher (if he still blogging and have the time), and Torn :)

Do you fancy a bum?

I found this video clip while I was browsing around on Youtube. I just can't help but sharing this with you guys :D

I wondered if he ever get the Yes answer :P I would if you he ask me ;P

The Chill Has Gone

It took about 2 to 3 days for the weather to change from the comfortable chilling to the usual uncomfortable heat of Bangkok.

It does not come back in full scale just yet, although I guess it will in a couple of days. I switch from sleeping in large loose t-shirt and slick pants to shorts and tank top now. From sleeping under a blanket And a quilt to one thin blanket.

I wondered how the weather will be during this time next year...

The Art of Seduction

After seeing this Quiz on Paul's blog, I couldn't help but try it for myself as well. And here is my result :)






I never quite see myself that way though... But I think in a way... I am that way. In that I had maintain my own pace and my own thinking without being corrupted by outer influence (I think). So who would like to have me now? :)

The Pink Time

February came once again... The month when every establishments began their Valentine 's day campaigns. Pink became the colour of the month and Rose and strawberries pop-ups everywhere.

It would be nice if I am not single, but I Am still Single. I know that all the pink, the chocolate, the rose, and the heart are not for attacking me personally. I can't help but felt how the world seems to conspire to make us single folks feels miserable and guilty about being single.

Another reason why I needs to get a new job, I really can't have a social life with my current night job... I really need a social life...

The Second Chill

Another chill air hit Bangkok again about a week ago. This is highly unusual, I recall that it never happen before as long as I could remember. It's almost February already and it still rather chilly in the city.

Not that I am complaining, I slept better in this weather than in the usual perpetual 33C of Bangkok.

Nothing notworthy happen lately... I am still looking new job, I recently working 5 nights straight, and now I am looking forward to a bit relaxing time around the weekend...

I hope I will found a new job soon...

Anti-Biotic and 950 :)

I recently take TOEIC test per my boss' order. I was slightly annoyed by this at first, as I realize how much I hate jumping through hoops for something that deems unnecessary. But I also quickly realize, this would be a good opportunity to get the score which should be useful in my job hunting.

Prior to taking the test, I tried out the TOEIC software that my younger bro had found. As it turns out the format of the exam in both the software and the real one are identical, and I score 889/990 in the software, so I am fairly confident of the results.

The day before the test, I came down with another infection again... Apparently the same symptoms and bugs as the one I got a few days after New Year's Eve. I know which anti-biotic to takes and I decided to get the generic ones as I already bought the expensive ones for the last times. I also wants to compare the results myself, since I heard several people said the localize drugs are not as good as the imported ones. So far I must say the imported ones are better.... One of my friend hypothesize that eventhough the ingredients are the same but the process of making them might not. He gave an example of generic paracetamol and Tylenol, that while both are the same medicine, Tylenol is better because your body can absorb the medicine better. This might be the case here as well... Since with the import anti-biotic, by the third day I got no sniffle already, while this generic one I still have that and this is already the fourth day....

Anyway back to the test story :P What I was saying is that I went to the exam with congested nose and a bit lightheaded due to the illness. My nose was running almost the entire time during the exam. The exam itself was not terribly hard for me, they divided into listening and reading parts. I got full score on the listening part and several mistakes in the reading part (grammar is not my strong point) so in total I scored 950 out of 990 :D

It is a good score, I am happy about it. Hopefully it will be helpful in my quest for new job.

Museum After Dark

It's been a long time since the last times I had been in the movie theater. Today I have the time and mood to go to one and finally see 'Night At The Museum'

The first times I saw the movie trailer I told myself this would be a great movie. It was one of the well made movie trailer, the kind that instantly say this is a must see!

I heard that the movie was made from a book of the same name. It was a fun movie to see that much is certain. It was particularly fun to see how all the different models and dioramas came to life and interact with each other. I guess the wardrobe designer must have a great time with this movie with the clothes for all the era, nationalities and style.

Hopefully this movie will help your appreciate the museum and take a stroll inside your local museum as well :)

Talk To Me

This is the first times I heard this song from of my favorite singer Anita Baker called Talk To Me.

That smooth Alto? timeless voice...

This song is quite a reflection on what I felt right now... perhaps the question I wants to ask MD the most...

I know that he means well that he wants to help me get out of my dead-end job. But he does not make it easy either. Even after the efforts I put into getting the price quotes from various sources (although toward the end I had called about 6-7 places, he would still call that minimal efforts), I still came up with something.

If he is not willing to pay higher price for the trustworthiness (compare to sign up with the India SEO with amazing price) then let's him come up with whatever he satisfied with himself.

Another blow in the Gut: The continued saga

After a few days of silent treatment at each other (read the details here and here) , I decided to break the ice with MD. After noticing that client's website has been updated with keywords tag but not with the rest of the code, so I thought MD had found someone to work on this. I was wrong.

It turns out that the client update the website on their own according to the advice to get rid of the frame and adding the keywrods tag. And that MD has not secure someone to work for him yet. Time is pressing on and he began to stress out. He lament of how he spend his mornings looking for people to take on the works and how it affect this real job.

I propose the idea of hiring a company to handle this client for the time being and hired the part time worker to work with me on another website. Since we literally ran out of time, I figured this would be the resonable and logical solution. This way we can get let someone else handle the urgent works and the yet-to-be-hired Part time person and I can take time with the less urgent one.

He call my idea idotic, stupid and arrogant... and log off...

Dream Fallen

It's official... The business I mention is official fall through.

I called a freelance listed on a website I found. Turns out she will accept the job in her company's name. I am fine with that. After coaxing a price quote out of her, which is about half as expensive compare to the top company but they are doing it for 100 keywords.

When I told MD about this, he seems to be foaming at the mouth (judging by his chat) asking if this is Europe firm or BKK firm. He said he can get much better service there with the same money and added that he had contact SEO companies in India (the top three listing on Google search) who quote an amazing One Year price, the amount that usually the cost of three months package here. After he told me that I tried to look for that price quote myself. Those that actually listed their price shown that the price he was quote is about the same as the monthly fees in those companies.

Either he understood it wrong or that he must have got the quote for Pay-Per-Click instead of SEO, I don't know. I half wishes that I was right about that... I am very interested to see if I was right or not...

Since Pay-Per-Click or PPC is similar but not really SEO, with PPC you don't need to anything to your website. What you need to do is bid on the keywords on Google and then your website will be seen on every search page resulting from the keywords you bid. The pro is that it generally cheaper than SEO and you can control your budget each month. The con is that as soon as you stop paying then your website will just goes back to obscurity as before.

Eventually he announce that he has enough with me not producing any results and that he had cut me off.

Everybody whom I relay this whole ordeal to: my colleague, my friends, my family members, a complete stranger (whom I was trying to hired to do the job), all say similar things. If they were me they would have quit long time ago (my colleague and my younger bro.), or that I should not waste my time on this unrealistic project (the stranger and my friend), or if I think it's too complicated then I should quit (my mom).

I have never been a quitter, therefore I tried and tired to make this works. It is obvious that whatever I came up with is never good enough for him. I guess it's never meant to be...

Still in Limbo

The *Business* with MD that I mention in several of my previous post, is still not taking off just yet.

The Business is to *outsource* the work (Internet related) from clients he got (five so far...) in New York to BKK to have it done here at much cheaper cost. The initial plans was for me to learn the process and do the work myself. The *work* divided into two parts. The easy part is the starting point and have about 25% significant of whether we will get the result. This part I understood quite well and I think I can do it. However, the other 75% significant fall onto the hard parts, which I have the understanding of how it is done but do not have the exact know-how of it. I am not sure whether MD understand all this... He kept saying he can do this easily but he did not have the time to read the texts. From what he said I think he seems to think that the entire work consist only of the 25% part....

I started by searching on Google to looks for local service company. When I give him their quote he freaks out that I use Google to search, saying he could have done that himself. He would not hear it when I told him that since this is search engine related service, it is wise to look for the company that can proof itself by making their own website appear when search. And then any local companies I found are either charge too high or lack of sufficient guaranteed than those that he had found in US. Personally I think got mixed up with the pricing... He seems to quote from the different but similar service...

After weeks of hair pulling talk on chat program, we finally agreed that since we are only amateur, we should hired a pro to handle the task. MD prefer to hired a Part-time specialist to work at my place so I can learn the process from. I had some doubts about this plan... I had found two local webboards where the experts gathered and I had post in both webboards looking for *Teacher* for this subject. One got no response at all while several people in another board said I should spend the budget on books and trial and error instead.

I would prefer to hired a company to handle the task, even just for this first client who already sign up for the service since I would have little time to supervise and learning due to my 12 hours night shift. Now we still did not have someone to work on the project yet!!

When I agreed on the hiring a person plan and got him the classified ads price quote, MD then nitpick on how I did not read the newspapers that I had called for price quote for evaluation. He would not hear it when I told him that there were only a few well known newspaper with classified ads in it and that I know the looks of these papers and that we do not have tech oriented newspaper here.

I kept asking him which one would he prefer, the Thai language daily news newspaper or English language business newspaper. He just reply with some remarks of how I didn't really agreed with this hiring plan or how lazy I was for not reading the papers or how I spend little time to do research for company or personals. And he kept blaming me for the predicament we are currently in, although there was some truth to that, him repeating it does not really help improving our situation either.

Another annoying thing is that he kept saying that the services in Thailand should be 10 times cheaper than in New York and that would also be the case for this business too. Without regarding the fact that this service is involve around Internet and the cost generated from that does not care which country you are in. And when I failed to find the company that charge low enough to his liking he kept mocking me about that...

According to a long time friend of mine whom I rant with on this situation, he think MD is a disrespectful pusher who is taking advantage of my good nature. That reminded me of the conversation I had with MD about how he criticise me for being too *Westernized* because I was opinionated and more or less did not obediently do whatever he wants.

So on Monday morning I will finalize the ads myself. It would not put a great dent in my wallet and maybe I will be prove wrong. Maybe I will be able to find some capable person to work for me.

What a Bomb...

I had quite a good time, where I shall not say... But It was a good time indeed. I think I gain a new friend. But we will see how it goes.

While I was having a good time I check my mobile phone and saw that there were many (about 40s in total) of miss called to my mobile phone, both from the office and from my family. I call my office first to see what it is all about. That's when I heard of the six bombs that was blasted earlier. My college called because the boss wants to make sure we are alright (and perhaps to see if the schedule have to be change due to injuries :p).

Although I had a great night, it was barred by the fact that I have to work tomorrow night... Otherwise I will be able to stay with the couple who invited me to their hotel room :ppp

Another reason to quit my job...

One more before 2006

It's been a crazy year indeed... Other than went on a trip to Japan with my family (see the side bar) the rest seems like a blur and not as important...

I wish for something better next year... At least I will do something fun on New Year's Eve... Just like last year :)

OMG!!!! XDDD

I first saw this clip once on TV years and years ago, but I remembered it quite vividly. I was started to watch sitcom on cable and back then the local cable seems to mostly shows the sitcom from the 80s and Golden Girls was one of them. I love that sitcom so much...

What can be funnier than this!! XD

I am so happy that I finally found this on Youtube. God bless the person who upload this clip.

Another Changing Time

When I look back at my old post a year ago, things has change a lot since.

I was just a happy go lucky sort of guy, living day by day with little worried with the world and this year I became moody, sullen and slightly vindictive toward life in general. The culprit is, without any doubt, my job.

Now with the venture I mention in previous post, I will finally be able to quit and concentrate on my well being instead. I had weight myself on a scale recently and confirm what I had suspicious of ever since my bigger pants felt fit around my waist. I had officially gain more weight than I thought. The first digit had changed! I need to work outs... Things will be better once I quit my job.

It is time to join a gym and work my ass off, I guess it is time to ask around which gym is populated with hunky white gay men :d

Finally a breather

The venture I did with my friend finally get his approval. It is like lifting a mountain off my chest!!

Now I can look forward to slightly brighter future and quitting my current job... It became too much with the 12 hours night shits working every other 3 nights, regardless of the public holiday.

Looks likes I will be enjoying this Christmas after all, even if will just be on Christmas day.

On another bad news... I gain weight... Another reason why I wants to quit the job. I can eat only a meal or two when the hours were less...

Guilty Pleasure

Another quickie... This is my 'guilty pleasure' song :)

Boy... how I wish I have a boyfriend to grind with while this song blasted on a streo.

The Chill Finally Arrive

The Winter finally arrive in Bangkok. The dawn is about an hour later than usual now and the morning chill can be felt outdoor.

It felt good to have a 10 degree C drop in temperature for a change. Now I can sleep better in the daytime, at least for awhile.

I had been working for 6 nights in a row for two weeks.... It was so f*cking tiresome. I wants to quit this job...

Prince: A Quickie before Bedtime

I found this old MV on youtube.com of one of Prince's song that like and kinda stuck in my brain :) Not to mention how the sexy MV seems to burn itself in the back of my mind for a long time :P



I like how Prince sing this song. He sounds like he is bellowing out the song full force without straining and to me it sounds slightly hypnotic :)

My Banana

I have been meaning to do this post for quite sometimes. The problem is that the subject in the photograph is not easy to find and when I find them it wasn't long before I devour them all :p

Here is what I am talking about

Aren't they look good enough to eat??? :d

They are grilled bananas, one of Thailand's.... well it's not dessert and it's not appetizer, you will not find this any restaurant as they are usually found on street side stands.

They use a particular kind of banana called 'Hugmoog'; Hug means to snap or break things (usually in half) and Moog means pearl. I do not know the origin of the name however :p Anyway these bananas will be cut when the peels are still green. When grilled the peel will be slit and then place on hot charcoal grill. The secret seems to be in the timing of grilling. When grilled at the right time the banana will turn sunflower yellow, it will became sweeten and very very juicy. I could ate 6 of them at once or more :dd.

Too bad that they are not easy to find in BKK and whenever I found some I would buy 3 to 4 pieces at least at a times :ddd They seems healthy at a first glance but as MusicMan said when I send him this photo "It's not heathly since it's charcoal grilled"

It seems that whatever taste good are usually bad for you eh...?

Clive and his BMW

A while ago I was browsing on Youtube to kill some time and I came across some clips of Clive Owen. As it turns out, the clips was part of a series of short movies comission by BWM to showcase their car with Clive Owen as the driver in every movies, each was directed by different famous directors. Below are two of my favorites of the series :)

What's not to like about this clip? Features King of Soul, Gary Oldman, Las Vegas, and special cameo guest star at the ending XD

I like this one because of the score music, apart from the feel of the whole movie, anyone have the score music?

About Mr. Clive Owen... Well, what else can yo usay about the man other than he is All MAN with all the capital letters! The man is not exactly handsome but the man raw sexual appeal that could melt you on the spot and that's even when you have not heard his sotto baritone voice... How nice would it be to have someone like that in bed, rolling around in rough manner with his deep voice growling in your ears...

Ohh... How I wish I would know someday...

Instant Message on a Go

I had covered this topic before but it is time to update a bit since I just found out that AOL also have the web IM (Instant Massenger) as well. Therefore, start from the beginning:

In case you are in a situation where the computer you are using do not or cannot or do not wanted to install certain IM software but you wants to chat with your friend on MSN, Yahoo, or AOL here is your solution.

MSN Web Messenger, this one is, of cause, for MSN users. However, true to Microsoft's style, it will only works when you are using Windows OS and preferably with Internet Explorer as your browser (on the website it said it will also works with Netscape 7.1 but I doubt anybody still using that one)

Yahoo Web Messenger, the name saids it all. This one seems to be tougher to use than the other... It seems to utilize different port than usual, thus, it probably will not work in case of office environment where they often blocks most other internet activities other than web browsing.

AIM Express, for AOL users. This one seems to be the most versatile among the three. It works in closed environment, just like MSN Web Messenger (my praise to that) and it will works on most web browsers as well.

I hope this post is useful to whoever read this :)

Music Therapy and Template Update

I have not been in the best mood lately...

With the prospect of have to working for more nights than usual due to staff shortage, the new lead from my younger bro has not contact him again (it's been a month now), and the fact that the system that I have my work on will be replace by the end of January, made me quite worried about my future.

I know that I no longer wish to work 12 hours a night 3 nights on 3 nights off anymore. Esecpially no the telephone operator job that will became full time once the current system has been replace. I think I can get transfer to tech support position, but that is under the same boss and I have no desire to work under her anymore...

Anyhow, I find that in the moment like this, Rock songs seems to help quite a bit. Such as blasting guitar and goth style of Evanescense, Amy Lee's emotional vocal seems help me cope for the time being. I guess I will have to try harder with job hunting and other plans... If any of you readers have job leads for me please feel free to either leave comments or email me. I am getting slightly desperate and any help would be Very appreciated.

I also finally do the template update thing with the intension of being able to add the red ribbon on my blog. The end results seems quite nice, luckily I copied the HTML code of my old template on to notepad beforehands so I could add my accessories and links back to the updated template. It took quite a while to completely restore my sidebar but it will be quite easy to work o nthe template and looks of the whole blog with the new features from the update. I suggest you should try it :) But only when you have time to update the sidebar back to normal and made sure you made copy of your old template beforehand so you have still have the original codes and links.

I also added a new feature called "True-A-Day" :D Scroll down a bit and you will see ;)

My Wednesday Fun

I had quite a long day today... Wake up before my intended time again, despite my lack of sleep the day before... But it turns out quite alright... My mom was still home so she cook me some noodle with the left over stock soup and noodle :)

My destination today is MBK Mall, to do a bit of shopping for my friendS (yeah with a capital S since I actually bought stuff for three persons). I end up spending about four thousand baht on the DVDs/CDs with only 200 baht of that belongs to my goods 'Murder on Orient Express'. The majorities of my acquisition belongs to CA, who made me slight worried as he has not reply his email for quite a few days now. I hope he will not doing a disappearing act on me or else I will end up with a big lost on my hand.

Other than that I got to spend some fun time talking with my regular game shops and even help out a bit with my in depth knowledge about games :)

Today I spend quite a lot of money on different food... There is a Egyptian food booth in the food court here in that sell slice chickens in tortiya (I don't remember the name right but it is quite good). Then I went to Pizza Hut to try out their smoked salmon pizza, which turns out to be just so so for the 149 price tag for the small one which didn't even feel full to me, I don't think I will have it again... The money will be better spent saving up for good Salmon Sashimi :d My mom said earlier that she will not cook tonight so I went to have a chicken on rice at a Japanese restaurant. Then after I finally arrive at Central Ladpraw after the grusome two hours 20 minutes on the road back from MBK Mall, I decided to went to Swensen's to also try out their new menu :P

So today I had both Pizza and Ice Cream, neither were quite fulfilling my appetite but it was quite fun day nonetheless :P

Pried My Wallet Open

My future is on hold again... Well.. not my life pre se but rather my future. I am waiting for the job leads from my younger bro to came through so I can make plans and so on. That has not happen yet so it became a waiting game... So I will post about something more pleasant that happen recently.

The shopping mall near by house is having a big sales again. Since many of my briefs have hanging treads and became worn off, I decided that it is time to buy some and bought them I did.

I ended up bough one polo shirt, one shirt (deep red color, no less), 3 briefs, 3 bikini briefs and 2 tenga brief (nylon and lycra mix fabric, for special occasions to come,tee hee), all Jockey brand. I also end up bought a backpack as well. I like the look and style of this one, it has three compartment, sturdy padded back support and a small pocket for mp3 player on the left side strap.

So in the end I spend quite a lot of money than usual for all these, but I surely need all of them and I am wearing one of those items right now, wanna guess which one? ;)

Day Two & Three (I am getting lazy :p)

I woke up before alarm again... I hate when it happen... Anyhow the breakfast was ok, typical hotel buffet breakfast comprise with the usual egg dishes and local breakfast meals. Then we are off to the Royal Flora Expo.

It was quite nice, abide hot and sunny weather with no cloud in the sky. I was cautioned enough to push extra SPF moisturizer on my face (but neglected my arms -*-, which results in reddish color the next day with slight sore in the tender wrinkle area). My intension was to take as many picture of beautiful and interesting things in the Expo as much as could for my mom. And I seems to did just that with total of 345 photos (there would be more if I have the time) just in the expo alone. We enter the Expo around 10am and the appointed time was 2pm. Toward the end of the walk my digital camera ran out of power and I have to use my w810i to take photo instead. It surely could take good photo ;)

The highlight was, of cause, can be seen here :P

There was also a little excitement going on. You see I was late to return to the bus that it had took off without me :p Somehow the tour guide miscount me so they have to return to pick me up. All this happen while I was walking toward to exit which lined with shops that sells flowers and souvenirs :p In the end I have to run quite a distance to the parking lot to board the bus. And then we are off to Baan Tawai

Click here to download the photos (55Mb)

Baan Tawai is a famous wood products market of Chaing Mai. It seems that most, if not all, of the wood products there are made with teak wood. I saw some very nice crafts and one has very delicate wood craving panel. All can be seen by download below.

Click here to download the photos

The day ended with a party, but I am only there for the food and spend 30min in the near by shopping mall and an hour in the internet cafe opposite from the hotel that the event was held :P

Last day was quite uneventful... but nonetheless interesting. After breakfast we went to PraSingha Temple, one of the famous and sacred temple of Chaing Mai

Click here to download the photos

And next we went to Chaing Mai Cultural Center which we learn the history of Chaing Mai

Then we are off to lunch and visit a souvenirs market. Since there were sometime left before going to the airport, we stop at the silver factory for the last bit of shopping. I was tempted to buy some ring but most are too small for fingers, also the design was not to my liking.

Then we are of to the airport. It was my first times at Chaing Mai airport, the check-ins was without a hitch and since I did not felt like browsing the shops I went to the gate quite early. The flight was delayed by about 30 minutes but it was a short flight anyhow. After about an hour in the air we arrive at Suwannapume airport.

I must say that the airport did not impress me at all. The interior was rather dark, as if the brightness was at 50% of what it should be. Perhaps this is because of the glass panel as the wall that would make it bright during the day, but did they not think of how it would look in the night? The column and ceiling were not painted and were left in cement color, they also have metal pipe running through them along the walkway. I understand that it is the 'modern' design but it does not look good nor Thais at all. It took a while to walk to the luggage belt area (four floor escalator no less). And it took about 20-30 minutes before the first luggage arrive, since it would took awhile to unload them from the plane into the truck and came to the area...

And then we have to wait for about 20 minutes for the bus back to the office as there seems to be a miscommunication of the rendezvous point. However it took only about an hour on two highways back to the office which is about 10 minutes away from my house :)

Chaing Mai Trip, Day One & Two: BKK->Chaing Mai; Doi Suthep, CM Zoo, Khantoke Dinner

The trip began by coach bus from the office to Hua Lumpong, the Grand Central train station of Thailand. I think it was my first times ever in that place.

It does looks slightly modern with the terrace style shops on both side and the A/C waiting area. At around 18:00 we boarded the train to Chaing Mai. The ride itself was, in all honesty, quite horrendous. Eventhough we got the sleeping carriege, the A/C was very cold. After the train staff set up the sheets, and blankets and pillows, I went up to sleep on the upper bunk. Which is a big mistake since the cold air from the A/C was blown in just above the curtain rails and directly into my head. To make the matter worse, a card game just happen to be played, quite loudly from time to time, opposite from my bunk. After fell asleep and woke up for 3 hours, I felt wide awake and decided that I had enough of the chill and went down to look for empty lower bunk to settle myself in. The first one I tried, has this exhaust fume smell coming in so often as well as the loud engine noise, so I have to switch to another one. I read the book I brought with me to kill times before went back to sleep. Morning came and it wasn't until around 9am that we finally arrive in Chaing Mai and not before I have the endure a lousy sandwich which comprise with only onion, tomato and lettuce as well as boil rice with chicken.

According to the schedule I printed out from the office, we were suppose to began our tour right away but then, much to my delight, we went to our hotel first to freshen up before began our sightseeing of Chaing Mai.

We went to a Chinese restuarant to have Lunch first, it was quite ok although I later heard from other people that it was one of the worst place to eat in CM :P

Then we headed out to Doi Suthep which is one of the most important temple and signature location of Chaing Mai. I think this is my second times there although I didn't recall most of the places... They let us spend sometime there and I took quite several photos as well. The place do looks peaceful although packed with tourists.

Click here for my photos of Doi Suthep temple

Adter Doi Suthep we headed back to Chaing Mai Zoo, with the highlight of seeing the Pandas from China. My impression of Chaing Mai Zee is that it seems... unfinish somehow... And perhaps the standard might not be up to par in some presentation. Anyhow, the pandas is now quite huge and perhaps rather lazy :P One was sleeping on the tree while another is eating bamboo from a handler behinds the bars. They has kept cool by the big fan that also spraying water mist to cool down the surrounding. Some of the photo of the pandas were not clear because the camera flash was banned.

Click here for Chaing Zoo's photo

When we headed back to our hotel from the Zoo the tour guide began to handed out the... I suppose it could be call a decorative cloth to be place over the shoulder which is a local tradition of Northern Thais or in local tongue we called "Larnna". The cloth is meant to be use in for the Khantoke Dinner which is the traditional 'Lanna dinner' serve in the occasion of foreign visitors by the head of the city. For men they have selections of three colors, blue green and light tan. I wants the blue one but it was ran out so I have to wait till later to get one from other bus. After we finish freshen up and dress up (for some, not me :P) at the hotel, we headed out to old Chaing Mai cultural Center for the dinner.

The dinner began with the reception which has a lot of locals food to choose from and tried. The idea was to really eat up before the main events since real Khantoke food are quite minimal and it would be during the show. So there will be less times to eat.

After the show was over we went back to the hotel, some of the guys in our group talked about went out to see the night life of CM but I was very tired, plus I have no desired for the straight night life anyhow :P

A Quick One for the Boys

I just got back from the trip :) It was quite fun and tired at the same time... I guess I am not used to all day activities. However I want to do a quick upload for you guys (several now :D). The picture is taken in the Moroccan garden in the Royal Flora Expo.

I wondered if this is the Moroccan Boy that Paul was talking about :P

He is working in the section that seems to replicate the Moroccan market, all of the goods seems genuine Moroccan.

I will post my Chaing Mai trip experience tomorrow :) I had taken about 650 pictures, several from my phone no less as my digital camera ran out of battery during the Flora Expo. With the total space of 827Mbs, I won't upload them one by one but I will do so by locations and upload the whole chuck as zip on sendspace.com

Northern Expenditure

My company has set up a friendship tour for the occasion of company merger (actually I would called it a take over, in which mine has been taken over :P). We will be heading to Chaing Mai for 4 days starting this Wednesday.

At first I was not going to sign up for this trip thinking that there will be "friendship activities" that required mandatory participation, but when I saw that it's going be a real touring trip and we will actually came back to BKK by plane (we will be there by train), I am sold :)

So I spend about 30 minutes packing my clothes and digital camera. It will only be about four days so I will only bring the small trolley I got from the Japan trip, along with my trusty backpack (which started to torn on the top :~( ) for the necessities: such as comic books and other stuff.

This will be my second trip to Chaing Mai, my first trip was with my family years ago... Don't remember much about that trip anymore though...

We will be visiting the... World plants exhibition (roughly translated from the Thai name), some safari park too I think...

Let's just say there will be many photos to upload once I got back :)

Another ComMarts Affairs

Commart Thailand started out as a innovation expo (if I remember it correctly...) but it gradually became sales event instead. Most of the major brands in IT industry will came to sales their goods with promotions and discounts. As it became a quarterly event, the novelty seems to diminish a bit but it is always very crowded.

This times I went to look for a good mouse to replace my old one. My intended budget of estimated 500s baht got blown away when I walk pass Acrox booth and found this mouse.

It is a laser mouse, which means it can scroll faster than normal optical mouse as it was intended for gaming purpose and with the laser sensor it can be use on any surface even on glass panel (I guess for posh tech geek who use computer on glass table :P)

Click on the photo to look at the mouse's homepage.







After walking around the area several times, I walk into the main hall which house most the major brands from Mac to Lenovo. As I expected, the main focus of this event is still on notebooks. I did not really look into them though... Since I still do not need to buy any just yet, plus Intel will release their quad-core CPU this week. That should effect the computer price (at least on the desktop front) quite a bit.

However, my eye fall on this item and I just have to take a closer look.

Try save the picture on your computer and flip it upside down and tell me what you see ;)

It is a gel based wrist supporter. I only saw a green one at first and I was hesitated about getting one, but after I looks behind it and I saw the blue one I just think what the heck I just need to splurge myself a bit (My favorite color is blue :D).

I was also sorely tempted by the 190 baht USB bluetooth adapter. But I figured that I might not use it that much. Plus I prefer to scroll in the phone memory with explorer rather than using the phone menu, some might not show up by using the phone menu alone.

Epilogue: I left my home around 11am and must have arrive at Queen Sirikit Convention Center no later than 20 minutes later using the subway, but when I left I look at the clock and it 3pm already!! I seems to easily lost tracks of time when I am around IT stuff...

New Feature and My Coming Soon Weekend

After considering this for a while I decided to add chatter box on my blog, I am not sure anyone would use this but what the heck :P Just something a bit fancy for my blog :) So please people, left kind words, suggestions, anything on the newly added box on your right ;)

For this weekend, I will go to another ComMarts event at Queen Sirikit Convention Center. It must be the forth times this year that they held this event, which became more of sales event rather than innovation one. My goal this times, is to buy a new mouse. I am not too fond of my current one, it is a tad small for my hand and it made my hand ache after prolonged use. Plus I wants to look for the type with five buttons.

I also wants to check out the price and specs of notebook, in case I need one :)

Seventh of Nine

My sanity is still intact so far, thanks to my luck that seems to only effects minor things. My workload is still on the light side due to the missing data that required another person to give me the correction for it. Looks like tonight I will rest easy again and two more nights till I feel like a normal human being again. Gosh I need to shave, get a haircut, and getting laid (although I am not sure I felt like it... sleep deprevation does decrease libido).

Fifth of Nine

Right now it is the fifth night... Some might think I am being a drama queen but the stress (although there wasn't a lot of work for now, perhaps tomorrow night...) of being in the office is not something to be taken lightly... Especially when you cannot have a restful sleep in the day due to hot weather.

I think after this ordeal has ended, it is time for Japanese buffet that include Salmon sashimi, some takoyaki and nice Japanese sticky rice :ddd. There is one such resturant called 'Kuroda' near Ekamai BTS station (walking distance).

The problem is that... I don't have anyone to go with me and when you have buffet meal it is best to have company so it won't be boring... Perhaps I might ask my younger brother... Eventhough I could ask my mom, she might decline since she did not like to eat Japanese food that much, and not in the amount that will make paying for 399 baht per person worthwhile.

I also need a new mouse. Not the living kind but the kind that attach to computer :) My current one is a tad too small for my hand which will cause aching when used for over a period of time. Plus the wheel button is not working anymore...

It is tough to find a decent mouse that I like that cost around 500 baht. Also that I like five-buttons mouse, the only model so far that has that is no longer produce. Plus its cable tend to break internally after a year or so, which I believe is faulty design. Anyway I will find time to go to Pantip, there is no rush since the current mouse is still working.

At least my state of mind is still intact so far.

Second of Nine

Tonight is the second night of working for nine nights straight due ot my co-worker return to his hometown in the South. Apparently he got married awhile ago and now it's like his honeymoon... Not to mention that it is the end of Ramadun month and I think that by tradition he has to return hom to visit his family.

Now I understand his reluctant to return when I request for him to come back one day early so I could go to the comic book publisher event on the last weekend of this month.

This is just my second night and yet I felt like my sanity is slipping away... It felt almost like depression is looming around the corner and if I am not careful it will overpowered me. I knew I will be in pretty bad shape by the ninth night and I will probably sleeping the whole day away. Hopefully the weather will cool down a bit and permit me a more restful rest in the day. At least Monday is public holiday here which means I will get extra O.T. for working on that night :D.

No More Toilet Paper

This is a dedication to Torn, who seems to have problem with dry toilet papers ^^ I would like to offer a solution that might ease his problem.

I had became accustomed to this... instrument since about... perhaps 15 years ago when it was installed in my house for the first times.

It is essentially a water hose with the spray head similar to shower head but smaller with the hand level that you can close your grip on to release the water.

It is essentially a better way to clean your... well your behind after you finish your business.

and if you manage to hook warm water with that... It is a very nice feeling :PP

I am not sure if this available in Canada... At least it seems that it wasn't install at the hotel Torn stayed while in Las Vegas...


Maybe I just get the impression... But let me assure you who never tried this to seek this out in the baht section of the hardware store. You Will Love It!

edit:
So... Per Torn's comment, he never saw something like this before... I am always wondered if the reason that this is not popular in Canada and perhaps USA is because of the hot water pipe...

Anyhow, I still recommend a trip to hardware store. And perhaps you should also print out this picture to show the salespeople there :) If it is not available, then I might recommend a trip to Thailand, ring me up and I will be happy to show you where to get one or more ;)

The Opened Position

I am currently a contractor working for a big company. I had been in the same position and same status for quite a long time and now the same position but with employee status has been open up and I gotto know about this on the public email annoucement as the internal application process.

My problem with this? The person who request this mus be my boss. I think that he boss should have some decency to tell us that this is going to happen and give us some extra time to prepare. And why should we have the courtesy warning before hand? Because we been slaving away at this job for 9 years, with minimum benefit and no bonus, I understand that since we are just a contractor but when this position happen why should the boss did not tell us beforehand...

Anyhow , I already submit my application for it as well as for a PR position that happen to be annouce around the same time as the one mentioned above... The catch is that the boss must sign the either approval or acknowledgement paper for every internal application. Somehow I don't think it bode well to have the two papers for two positions to came at the boss' desk at the same time. Luckily my position has later deadline so I ask the nice lady in the mail room to send the paper of it a day later than the one for PR position which has deadline on today. I hope it's all works out...

It would be nice to be able to finally say that I officially work for this big company not to mention having a regular day job and normal sleeping hour.

Grace is back and My Day with Grace

On Saturday night, during the walk home with groceries in both hands, my cell phone rang, and when I pick it up it was Grace.

At first she ask me if I remember who she is, and I said her name right away and said so she is back in BKK already ;) She was a bit surprise that I still remember her voice but then she is the only close woman friend I had :P

She back home from London to see her family, her bf is here as well. Since she was on a paid phone on the street, I told her I will call her in her hotel room when I reach home so she don't have to spend a fortune on the phone.

So when I got back to my room, I search the hotel name and got the number. After two rang she pick up the phone and was surprise of how quick I was and said she just back in her room as well.

We talked a bit about the new airport, she said it was big and beautiful. And then she told me about how the hotel screw up her reservation and put her in smoking room. She complain and the front office said they will move her tomorrow since the hotel was full, she refuse and argue that it wasn't her fault that the room was not available so they eventually move her to a new non-smoking room. However, when she got into the new room it still have the cigarette scent so she went to ask the maids and they told her that the whole floor is smoking floor. She went through the roof about this and go berserk on the front office :P She asked to speak with the manager since she already talked to five different people and got no where. The manager came and said to settle this issue she will be move in to the suite. Grace said when saw the suite she say no more and completely satisfied with the room :P

Later on we set the time and place to meet on Sunday, she was excited to hear that there is a subway now and one of the station is just around the corner from my house. Since the hotel is in Sukumvit, we agreed on meeting in the subway station. I also mention that now her English has British accent.

Sunday came and we meet, Grace does not change much except that her hair is a lot longer, of which she said that haircut is very expensive in London, while Leo (her bf; he looks more Moroccan than Europian, and have nice tight body due to work out :P) comment that he likes the long hair so it was good for him and I joked that he have to keep an eye on her so she won't be sneaking off to a salon :P

We had lunch in Central Ladpraw and then Grace said she wants to buy photo albums so I lead her where they sell that. After she finish buying the albums we went back to see the suite room and it is huge, twice the size of the normal hotel room with living room+desk+small kitchen and big family size refrigerator. The bedroom has king size four posts bed and 42" plasma TV with DVD player, the bathroom is very big as well.

We talk a bit and then look at the photo that she had develops. She asked about my plan and we discuss that a bit, she suggest that my new schedule is bad and I should get a new job. I told her that perhaps I should looking into sticking to my plan instead. Later it was time for me to go as they would leave to do some shopping as well. And she pull out a Starbucks paper bag saying it is her gift for me, that she did not know what to get me but she remembered my glasses collection. So she get be Starbucks London city mug (a collection of 20 from around the world (according to the package of the mug).

It was nice to see her again. And we will probably meet one more time for dinner at one of the Japanese restuarent I mention. That would be nice for sure ;)

Friday Fun

The first week of the month is usually the busiest time of the month for me. Though it is not busy as in the normal sense of the word but it definitely straining me more than usual.

Especially this month, which my shift falls on the 3 busy days straight. However, on Friday I will be off to a certain decadence place for my relaxation :P It's been months since my day off falls on the first Friday of the month like this. Can't hardly wait ^^

O Mare e Tu

It means 'The Sea and Me' in Italian, in case any of you wondered :)

I first saw this MV on cable several years back and it captivated me ever since. Back then I still visit record store from time to time and with the opening of Tower records in BKK. I went there on occasion since they have seperate classical music section.

At first, I did not quite catch the name of the song, but thanks to the sample stations in Tower Record. I was able to get the name of the song and acquire it later :P And the song has been stable on my mp3 players afterward ;)



Andrea Bocelli voice is very captivating in this song. Some might say he sounds better in Opera songs but I am not into that, so this one is more appealing to me :) This song made me wish for a decent store system with human size speakers so I could close my eyes and *listen* to the song with my whole body...

The Wet Pants

I woke up today to the sound of rain (alright by the sound of the alarm set on my w810i :p). It was raining pretty hard but I think nothing of it, it is the rainy season here after all.

By the time I left the house the rain has almost stop so I did not bring my umbrella with me. However, when I finish my meal in Central Ladpraw department store around 19:00 it still raining and quite heavier than when I left my house. The water has gone over the road into the pavement and of cause the stalemate traffic.

It is never fun when it's rain in the early afternoon when I have to get to work. This times it is downright offensive that I have to get off the bus two stops early because I was already late for work. The most annoying part is that I have to walk through the rain and the flooded water (brownish and with garbage) to finally reach my office.

Imagine my surprise that I was the first one to arrive at the office :ppp