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iPhone Friday #47
23 Friday Nov 2012
Posted iPhone Fridays, It's A Gay World
in23 Friday Nov 2012
Posted iPhone Fridays, It's A Gay World
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22 Thursday Nov 2012
Posted Thailand Travel Tips and Tales, Tips
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Personally, I think all holidays should be celebrated with copious amounts of sex. Which might explain my personal creed that every day should be treated like a holiday. The exception to the holiday/sex thingy is Thanksgiving. Not because it is considered a family holiday (though I don’t recommend having sex with your family members) but because the copious amounts of food that make Thanksgiving what it is take precedence over any sex you might otherwise have. Thanksgiving is about stuffing yourself until you need to buy at least one size larger in pants. Or until you’ve reached the age where you can say the hell with it and just slip on a pair of sweats. The problem with eating until you can’t move is that that condition takes a lot of the fun out of sex. So unless you knock one off before the food is ready Thanksgiving is a dry holiday. I’m not complaining. Thanksgiving is the one day out of the year that given a choice between a blow job and a second helping of turkey and stuffing smothered in gravy I’d go with the steaming pile of food every time.
But you can celebrate the holiday any way you’d like.
With my mind focused on all the food I will be eating in just a few short hours, it seems appropriate for today’s post to be about food. Fortunately with my blog it is not an either or proposition like it is in real life, so there’s a sex post too. Or at least a naked male flesh post. Or two. The two is because Thanksgiving is all about overindulging and just in case you decided to to go with the sex option I didn’t want to shortchange ya.
When I was a child a new indoor shopping mall opened not far from our house. Not just new in construction but in shopping experience too. It was the dawn of the days of shopping malls and we were fortunate to have one of the very first built on the west coast within easy driving distance from home. Much like with Super WalMart today, along with the mall came a sundry of new stores and restaurants huddled nearby where hopes were high of siphoning off some of the traffic headed to the mall. One of the new restaurants that became a family favorite – and which I can still picture though what that mall looked like has faded to a blur – was called The World Bazaar. It was what as a visitor to Thailand you know as a food court.
I doubt the food was exceptional. But it was cheap. Which scored with my folks. The selection was . . . I’d make mention of a kid in a candy store but with your choice of a dozen different international cuisines the candy store would pale in comparison. Dining there was a lot like having a Thanksgiving dinner. More food and more dishes to try than anyone ever would really need. Even a family of fat Americans. I’m not sure which came first, the closing of The World Bazaar or my maturing to the realization that with food (as with most things) quality matters more than quantity. That restaurant is a nice memory today but if it was still in business you wouldn’t be able to drag me in there if I was starving. Unless perhaps my only other dining choice was the restaurant down the street from where I currently live that is called The Feed Bag. I kid you not. I guess not everyone learns about that quality/quantity equation.
The first time I saw a food court in Thailand, as you may guess, I was less than thrilled with the idea of eating there. As in refused to do so. Thomas Wolfe said that you can’t go home again and I was willing to take him up on that idea. The World Bazaar may have been a warm memory from my childhood but that didn’t mean I needed to reexperience that dining paradigm as an adult. I know. Stupid farang.
Noom, of course, forced the issue. He went along with my emphatic No! the first few times he led me to the food court at MBK. His plaintive cry of “But I hungry!” was all it took the third time around. Now I’m addicted to food courts in Thailand. Like with The World Bazaar, the selection of different dishes is a plus, as is the inexpensive price. Unlike with The World Bazaar, the food is all cooked fresh. And if you are not a whimpy diner, even if you don’t know what some dish is all you have to do is point and hand over your coupons. The food court experience is one of the best ways to try new Thai dishes.
Because we are big on tradition (we meaning Noom) we eat at MBK’s food court more than any other. The one at the Big C across from Central World is second because they have free water. Free is almost as good as tradition in Noom’s opinion. Though many claim the food court at Siam Paragon is tops, Noom is consistent and if free is good paying 10 baht more than you have to for a dish is just plain foolhardy so that food court is not one of his favorites. Though he enjoys eating at nicer restaurants, or pretends to for my benefit, when we stumbled into the food court at the Nigh Bazaar in Chiang Mai it was like he’d just found home. Now within a few minutes of take off when we fly up to Chiang Mai Noom nods his head once and announces, “Tonight we eat at night market.” End of subject.
Since a farang would never be able to figure out how a food court works, despite the number of times we’ve eaten at one, we have a tradition for that too. I hand him a wad of baht, several hundred more than needed, he buys the coupons, hands me a stack, and we go off on our separate ways meeting back at an empty table with our respective tray filled. I’m always amazed that such a little guy can eat that much food – usually he has a full tray, drops it off at the table, and then heads back out to get more. And then again I’m amazed that such a little guy can each that much food when he’s polished off everything he bought and then helps himself to half of mine. That’s only a problem when he digs into my mango sticky rice. Stabbing his hand with my fork is now a tradition when we dine at a food court too.
I’m an old hand at food court dining now. I know the rice cooker filled with water is there to rinse off your utensils before their use. I know that unless the food court sucks no matter what time of the day you visit every table will be filled. And I know your best bet for getting a table is to stand next to someone who looks like they are almost finished eating so that your presence disrupts their meal and they quickly scurry away. I also know that whoever decided whatever you plan on drinking has to be purchased from yet another specific vendor deserves to be shot.
My folks liked taking us kids to The World Bazaar because it meant a meal out where they didn’t have to hear at least one of the kids whine about where the family was dining. Noom likes food courts because of the cheap price and abundance of food, but I suspect it’s also because he can get his fill of fish without listening to me whine about having to dine at a seafood restaurant. Hey, we all have our own traditions.
So there you have it. A post about food in honor of all the food headed my way in just a few hours. Thanksgiving will be a sexless holiday, but that doesn’t mean foreplay is entirely out of the question. I hear a piece of pumpkin pie calling my name right now. Whichever way your holiday goes, a bit of head or the tail end of the turkey, I hope y’all have a great Thanksgiving.
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22 Thursday Nov 2012
Posted It's A Gay World
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Today in the U.S. we celebrate Thanksgiving as we do with most of our holidays by over-indulging. Not that I’m complaining. At least not on the food part of the celebration. Thanksgiving dinner is the sole meal I eat all year where I stuff myself. And then go back for more. And that’s just a warm-up for pigging out on cold turkey sandwiches over the next few days.
This year WalMart has decided to celebrate the holiday by starting their Black Friday sale a day early. The corporation’s employees have threatened a walk-out over wage levels for Friday, though not being complete idiots they are leaving Thursday alone since that means double pay. Regardless, I doubt anyone will notice if the stores do end up short on employees. It’s not like the place is exactly over-staffed to begin with or that the typical WalMart employee is of any use. WalMart is where you go to get a job when no one else will hire you. They should, in the spirit of the holiday, just be thankful they have a job.
That was my Mitt Romney salute to Thanksgiving.
PETA has also got in on the celebration by asking President Obama to not pardon the white house turkey this year. I don’t know how effective PETA is in their goals, but they are pros at grabbing headlines by making stupid requests. Since it is the headlines they are after, that’s all of the article I read so I can’t tell you why they wanted Obama to kill a turkey, but I did read that recently they asked Honey Boo Boo to rename her pet chicken. They didn’t appreciate the humor of the bird being named Nugget. But doesn’t seem to have a problem with a six-year-old being dressed up like a 16-year-old southern skank for a ‘beauty’ contest. That’s one of the things I love about my country, we always have our priorities straight. And for that I’m thankful.
Thanksgiving was one of the two high holidays left in the U.S. for which all businesses closed down. Not any more. That the following day is the biggest shopping day of the year wasn’t enough and now retailers are opening on Thanksgiving too to celebrate their bloated bank accounts. No problemo. I honor holidays by posting applicable pictures of naked guys and for Thanksgiving there just ain’t that many photos of nude pilgrims floating around out there. So instead this year I get to also combine Thanksgiving with Black Friday and honor the other tribe who joined in on the first Thanksgiving feast. And I’m thankful for that opportunity too.
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22 Thursday Nov 2012
Posted Absolutely Thursdays, It's A Gay World
in≈ Comments Off on Absolutely Thursday #47
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21 Wednesday Nov 2012
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Wat Duang Di is a small temple in Chiang Mai that few touri stumble upon. Just a block away from the Three Kings Monument it’s off the beaten path, even if that path, a small residential soi shaded by longan trees, is enticing in its simplicity leading away from the hectic pace of Phrapokklao Road. There’s a sign that alerts you to the wat’s existence, but even then it is one of those wats you have to be looking for to find. In a town filled with hundreds of wats, it’s an easy temple to overlook. And according to Google, easy to miss identify too. Half of the pictures returned by the search engine are not Wat Duang Di. And that ‘Multicolored Dragon Statue’ that Zazzle is so thrilled with? You won’t find it at Wat Duang Di either.
What you will find is a small wiharn, an ubosot, a chedi, and the temple’s ho trai, or scripture repository notable for its stucco decoration. The most striking feature is the front facade of the wiharn, which is richly carved and gilded. The inside of the temple is simple, decorated with rather crude murals, and even the main Buddha statue is not very imposing. But the wat is rich in history. It’s bot dates back to the beginning of the 16th century when the temple was called Wat Ton Mak Nua. And in 1761 a monk from the wat became the ruler of Chiang Mai for a brief period when the city was free, temporarily, from Burmese control.
As small and unassuming as the wat is, the obvious pride the surrounding community has for the temple is readily evident. It’s grounds are beautifully landscaped and well cared for, and on-going renovations to the buildings and monks’ residences attest to the neighborhood’s involvement in keeping the ancient structures in pristine condition. While I’ve never felt anything but welcomed at any wat I’ve visited in Thailand, seldom have I been treated as warmly as during my brief visit to Wat Duang Di. The locals and monks I met all went out of their way to greet me and, quite proudly, showed off areas of the temple that felt I needed to see. Perhaps part of that attitude was due to the wat not receiving many foreign visitors, but it was such a concerted effort on their part that I couldn’t help but enjoy their enthusiasm and friendliness. There are certainly more impressive temples in the immediate area, but none that can compete with the welcome you’ll get at Wat Duang Di.
The temple’s name means The Good Luck Monastery. I don’t know if that means worshipers go there to pray for luck or it speaks more to the temple’s history. I do know that by visiting the wat you’ll be lucky to have experienced the warmth of its people who will remind you of one of the things that makes Thailand such a special place and why it is called the Land of Smiles.
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21 Wednesday Nov 2012
Posted Chiang Mai, Travel Photography
in≈ Comments Off on Bonus Shot: Wat Duang Di Details
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Perhaps if Chiang Mai’s Wat Duang Di was larger my main post on the temple would have been lengthy enough to include these shots. But then again maybe not. Tradition dictates that if you are posting an article about a temple the accompanying photos should show the main buildings, the grounds if extensive enough, hopefully the main Buddha statue or at least the altar area, the wat’s main or sole chedi, and any other buildings or features the wat is known for. Those are ‘establishing’ shots and they help fix the temple in readers’ minds. But they are seldom the photographs that remind me of a temple I’ve visited.
It is the smaller details that bring back memories for me. A pile of ceramic roof tiles baking in the sun, still waiting to be installed, shouldn’t be the shot that immediately reminds you of a specific wat, but it does. When you get down to it, if you’ve visited dozens of temples in Thailand, few Buddha statuses are so unique that you can place that image at the wat it belongs to. But those roof tiles, for example, as common as they are can be just the image that brings your experience back to mind. In the case of Wat Duang Di those tiles symbolized the community’s pride in their temple and the most recent renovations being done at the time I visited. As unspectacular as the wat was, it was that obvious pride that gave me a sense of the temple’s worth to the neighborhood and made the visit a memorable one.
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21 Wednesday Nov 2012
Posted It's A Gay World, Wednesday Wetness
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20 Tuesday Nov 2012
Posted Dancing With the Devil
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Life, sticking its head in as it sometimes rudely does resulted in my publishing today’s post late. It was a toss-up whether to blame life or Romney; as popular to lay the blame at Mitt’s feet as it is today, I thought I’d share the wealth instead. On the plus side it gives me an excuse for a quickie post and to dispense with President Obama’s visit to SE Asia in one fell swoop.
When I first heard of the President’s plan to visit Thailand, Burma, and Cambodia I intended on doing a post about the historical significance of his visit. When the matter was taken up on the message boards, I still intended on writing an article even though the board pundits immediately focused on the main issue of his visit: the expected traffic gridlock in Bangkok.
Then I watched Bill Maher’s program last Friday night. Bill mentioned the trip as a throwaway line and his panel was clueless, not even knowing a trip was planned. Well except for the Latina who was on the panel to represent the Republican Party and blame Romney for their election loss while making it clear he is an evil man who does not represent the conservative vote despite the fact that less than two weeks earlier she had been out stumping on his behalf urging the country’s Latino voters to support Mitt since he was the only hope for the future of America. She at least was aware of President Obama’s plans to visit “Tibet or somewhere like that.” It’s good to know that along with a green card when you become an American you can dispense with pesky little issues like geography.
Their lack of knowledge in or interest of the President’s visit brought home the problem with what serves as news in America today. The talking heads who profess to be experts on all matters political are so narrow in their focus they are unaware of anything that does not directly touch on their pet issues. And foreign affairs seems to be no one’s pet issue. The President’s trip was significant on several fronts. Yet in last night’s broadcast Greta Van Nancygrace summed the entire trip up with a quick clip of one of the network’s on-air personalities who, reporting from Cambodia, was inadvertently positioned so that it appeared one of the “lion” statues serving as a fountain looked to be spewing water into the reporter’s ear.
I guess with Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert on hiatus someone needed to step up to the plate and provide the comedic version of the news.
This morning I read a recap of President Obama’s trip on-line that at least touched on the historical significance of his visit: it didn’t hold a candle to Nixon’s visit to China in 1972. Of far more interest was the President’s unscheduled visit to the Shwedagon Pagoda that resulted in his, Hillary, and their Secret Service detail wandering about shoeless. The issue of the President using the country’s name of Myanmar in a speech he gave was also touched on, though we all now know the politically correct name is Burma (like, duh – which is easier to spell and pronounce?)
The big news however was the President’s meeting with fellow Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi and how uncomfortable she looked when he hugged her, which was attributed to her being a “devout Buddhist”. That’s why reading the news is so important. I’d been previously misinformed and thought the prohibition was against touching Buddhist monks when it turns out you are not supposed to touch anyone who practices that faith. It’s a good thing, and I thank the gods, that Noom has decided his is a Hindu now instead of a Buddhist or I would surely be condemning his soul to hell. Though I guess since neither the Hindu, Buddhist, or Tibetan voting block will impact the 2016 elections it really doesn’t matter.
Following the professional journalists’ lead, there is no good reason for me to discuss why the President’s trip was important and instead I can get away with an entirely inappropriate and demeaning comment thanks to the above photo of the President and Thailand’s Prime Minister. If that isn’t a “Where you from,” “Where you stay?” “How long you stay Bangkok?” moment then I don’t know what is.
I’m just glad the President got to experience the Thailand so many other Americans have before him. And now we know why he left Michelle at home.