Wednesday, June 30, 2004: Dim Summary

Sandy and I went out last night for Dim Sum with the Penguin Lady who's just got in from Chicago (the City not the musical). I must say though I am no fan of Dim Sum. It just seems pointless, especially when the Esan food on the street is tastier. The place we went to is just around the block from the Redoubt. We've walked past it a thousand times but last night was the first time we went. It was reasonably priced though, we fed 3 including drinks for only 600 baht, which is about 20 buck Canadian.

Today I shifted my trips up Currahee to the a.m. The hardest thing about working out in the morning is getting up. But I must say it was easier once it was done. There is more energy to be had, simply because you aren't all burned out from dealing with the day. The challenge now is to maintain this new schedule.

I met up with Bonhomme today and hung out at Starbucks for about an hour and a half. That was nice as it was sunny out and we could gaze upon the scenery from the cumfy Friendly Giant chairs while listening to classical music. I can never sit in a Starbucks now without thinking of the malcontents who protest against them, and what a bunch of clueless first world dopes they are. If you think for one minute Thai's will lose their culture due to some restaurant francises you know nothing of the people, and clearly have no respect for the strength of the culture you claim to want to "protect".

Tuesday, June 29, 2004: General Elections

Oh Yeah, Canada had an election. How very exciting. As a "Canadian" I guess I should be interested. Except I'm not. Maybe because I think more about being an "expat" than a Canadian. Maybe because Thai politics effect me more than Canadian politics do. Maybe because Canadian politics are so boring that they remain the single best cure for homesickness.

Home sick? Think about... Quebec whining about culture, Alberta whining about Quebec and Ontario, BC whining about everything. Crap weather, 40 percent taxes, 15 percent sales taxes, and a "free" health care system where it is cheaper to take a taxi to the hospital than an Ambulance.

I remember a friend of mine once saying that when he landed in Toronto and walked through customs The Beatles song "Back in the USSR" started going through his head.

No wonder I just can't bring myself to go back.

Meanwhile in Mongolia...

Monday, June 28, 2004: Pulp Spotting

I borrowed a bunch of DVD’s from QNA on Friday, so yesterday became 90’s Movie day. Now if you were to have a 80’s movie day you would need to watch such films as “Footloose”, “Top Gun”, “Flash Dance” and of course “Risky Business”. For a 90’s movie day you really only require two movies; “Trainspotting” and “Pulp Fiction”. I haven’t seen either movie in a while, for “Pulp Fiction” it’s been at least eight years.

Sandy and I watched “Trainspotting” first. The subtitles came in handy for her as she couldn’t understand much of what was said. I had only slightly less difficulty. It was strange to see such a young baby faced Ewan McGregor. I remember when the film came out everyone comparing him to a young Malcolm McDowell in “A Clockwork Orange”. Thankfully Ewan hasn’t limited himself to playing the villain since “Trainspotting”.

“Pulp Fiction” was far more confusing for Sandy. This was partly due to the really bad subtitling. A good example of this would be when Samuel L. Jackson tells someone to “Chill” it is translated that he is asking them to “get the chili peppers”. And when he says “be cool” it’s translated to him asking them to turn down the temperature. “It’s cool” predictably becomes “its cold”. And so on. Through the whole movie. She laughed a lot because of this.

I think “Trainspotting” stands up better with time than “Pulp Fiction”. This might be due to a smarter script. “Pulp Fiction” has some great parts but there were several parts that definitely could have been left on the cutting room floor, such as the post boxing match taxi scene. In the “Bonnie Situation” scene Tarantino demonstrates once again that he can’t act, or that acting like Harvey Keitel doesn’t make you an actor. And then the movie ends abruptly and I wonder what the hell I was thinking when I liked it so much in 1994.

Ten years ago kids! It seems like about 120 years ago…

Wednesday, June 23, 2004: 32 kHz

I have finally figured out how to convert .wav files to MRS-4 v-tracks. This opens up huge possibilities as I can render anything I do in Acid Pro as separate tracks then load those tracks into my MRS-4. From there I can add additional stuff and have it in sync with the Acid Pro tracks when I upload the new tracks back onto the PC. I don’t currently have a sound card or bus that can take a proper mic signal so this way I will be able to add vocals to anything I do in Acid Pro.

I experimented a bit with this last night. At first the tracks played at the wrong pitch because I’d failed to render them at the right sampling speed of 32 kHz. This mistake may prove useful though for slowing stuff down in a screwed up kind of way. Not that any of you would want to do that. But I might want to. Possibly.

I recorded a second “new” song which is actually about a year and a half old. I just haven’t bothered to record it until now. I am not completely happy with it, although I’m not sure if it’s because of the quality of the vocals or the flatness of the guitars. I may redo the whole thing from scratch, or at least the rhythm guitar and vocals.

Sandy came back last night at around 10:00 pm. I think she had planned to “surprise” me, but her surprises are frequent enough that I’d be surprised if she didn’t try to surprise me. If you follow.

My Walkman is dying. On average my Walkmans last between 6 to 9 months tops before failing. This is one of the reasons why I haven’t bought a mini-disc player. I can get a Walkman for under 1000 baht, and a blank 90 minute tape is about 20 baht. Why on earth would I want to shell out 14,000 baht for something that will most likely break down after a year? As for sound quality, I don’t think that matters much as I only listen to it on little ear plugs anyways.

Funny how when CD’s first came out the “improved digital sound” was touted as the be all and end all and that they wouldn’t skip like a record. That was before I knew the difference between 16 bit and 24 bit sound files.

Tuesday, June 22, 2004: No Rain

Wow. It didn't rain yesterday at all. In fact it was really nice all day. It sort of felt like it MIGHT rain, or that it SHOULD RAIN. I expected it to come down at around 4:00 pm but no... just sun.

I met up with QNA at Larry's yesterday after the gym. We got a pair of her sunglasses mixed up with our stuff so I had to get those back. I had chilli con Larry which I later regretted.

Afterwards I went back to the Redoubt and recorded another tune on the MRS-4. I have yet to upload the tracks, but since Sandy isn't back until tomorrow I will probably edit and mix them tonight.

Monday, June 21, 2004: Mr Flakes

I had to make a Visa run last week. It was pretty uneventful except that I fell asleep at different points than normal during the drive to Poipet so I was confronted with what seemed like a totally new route. It was the same route however. I just hadn’t seen it before because I was awake when I would normally nod off and asleep when I’d normally be awake. Poipet itself was the typical dirty, noisy crowded affair. The system of bribes and pay offs on the Cambodian side was slightly different this time around. We had to make a pit stop on the way back since Kaboom had to change the battery in the Zero. Then it was off to MK for a pig out.

The sunburn I got in Koh Samet has turned to a flake-fest of peeling skin. Sandy has never seen this before so it’s all fun for her. It was really itchy most of last week. Now my back is finally coming off. I think it was the worst sunburn I’ve had since 2000.

Yesterday the bug man came to spray the laundry zone and the toilet. He has to come back next weekend and do it again. I think they are going to replace the door to the toilet and the door frame, as well as the drop ceiling in the toilet. Fortunately this won’t cost us anything. There were lots of little termites on the laundry zone floor wiggling in their tiny toxic deaths after he was done. I was surprised at how small they are, considering the damage they’ve done.

Sandy went to baby-sit for her Sister last night. She’ll be gone for the next few days. I worked on a song all night. I think I have finally mastered using the Zoom MSR-4 in conjunction with my PC. I put down about 9 tracks, uploaded them to the PC, edited them in Sound Forge and mixed them in Acid Pro. I had failed in coming up with a good drum loop on the Groove Box so I used some Acid Pro drum loops and it worked out perfectly. I am recording tracks pretty dry now, and using the effects chain in Acid Pro spice them up. The most time consuming part was muting the intakes of breath on my vocal tracks. I don’t have a proper studio system that prevents that to start with, but I can get rid of them after the fact in Sound Forge. The success of this latest experiment opens up some nice possibilities.

Sunday, June 13, 2004: Walking on the Beaches...

Sandy had some notion about waking up at 5:30 am to watch the sun rise. Considering I get woken up everyday at 5:30 am by Abu at the Mosque around the corner yelling over a loud speaker I was not interested in this. It was cloudy anyways. We did go for a walk on the beach at about 8:00 am which was nice. We headed down to the spot where MX fell down and went splash. There is a statue there of some mermaid and a Thai mythical hero which one has to have a photo of if visiting Koh Semet. Apparently if you don’t have a photo of it then you may as well not have come over to the island. I find it interesting that mermaids exist in Thai folklore.

QNA had suggested we eat breakfast at 8:30 am over at the Sausage Factory so we attempted to rouse them. They were too sleepy or something so we gave up and had some food at the resort. Bonhomme joined us and later they showed up as well. We staked our spots on the beach and were forced to pay another 20 baht a chair. Then it was a day of sunburn, snoozing under the parasol and splashing about. Everyone but Sandy and I went on one of those banana boat things. I continued burning myself in the surf. Sandy joined me in the water today. She is constrained by Thai modesty, not taking her beach shorts off that she wore over her bikini. I removed them in the surf. She acted as if I’d taken her bikini bottoms off. That was highly amusing. She got her revenge though but getting me all… unable to leave the water.

Check out was at noon so we moved our stuff into one room, checked out of the others and went back to the beach. It started to cloud over and threaten rain. Sandy and I walked to the 7-11 and as we were hungry we hit the Sausage Factory for a meal. Sandy ate 3 sausages and I had bangers and mash. The peas were great too. We also had several Tetley teas before heading back to the beach. It started to rain just as we got back. QNA had already moved our stuff off the beach to the cover of the resort café. We hung out there for the next while as the rain came down and we waited to take the boat back across to the van. “Attack of the Clones” was on so MX got to quote the dialog along with the movie.

At 7:00 pm we took our stuff back out to the boat and climbed on board. It was raining a little and sort of rough. The ride back across was in my opinion fun. I am not sure about the others opinions, but I can speculate by the speed of which they left the boat when we arrived on the other side. It was a little rough, so we did a lot of skipping across the tops of waves to come down with a thud on the other side. I sat up in the front with the driver so I could see the waves coming. Everyone in the back just sat there getting bunted around and soaked. I had my MEC rain gear on but I gave it to Sandy so she wouldn’t get a cold. It started squalling at one point so everyone was totally soaked. We got to the other side and pulled up beside some moored ferries and had to climb up on these car tires into them, and then climb across them until we got to the pier. Everyone scrambled out like the boat was on fire.

The van was waiting and some folk changed before getting in. I changed my t-shirt only. I hit 7-11 and bought us some supplies then we headed out in the pissy rain towards the skyway. We saw one nasty accident. It must have happened only 5 minutes prior to us going by. Some big truck smashed in the side of pick up truck. The driver of the pick up was still inside, his driver side door totally mangled and he was looking none too pleased about his situation. We zipped by and went on to the sky way. It rained almost all the way back to Bangkok. We dispersed at Chez Bonhomme, Sandy and I took a taxi back to the Redoubt. Sandy's sister Pooh was waiting for us there. She fish sat this weekend.

Saturday, June 12, 2004: Koh Samet Beach Tour

I haven’t had a proper swim at a beach since I left Samui in 2002. So this weekend Sandy and I went to Koh Samet (or Semed or Semet depending on the postcard) with MX37, QNA, and Bonhomme & Associates. Stage one of the trip was getting to the pick up point where the Van awaited us. We all met up at around 8:00 pm then climbed aboard and headed south east. For some reason I thought we were going west. The CD player was broken but MX37 entertained us with his rendition “Run to the Hills”, an old Iron Maiden song.

We got to the dock and we had a speed boat take us across. The boat wasn’t much bigger than Relic’s jet boat which made it crowded for 7 people, but the ride across to the Island was pretty smooth. It took less than half an hour and once across we checked in to where we were staying. Sandy and I moved into our little Smurf house and then everyone met up and walked over to the 7-11 to buy anti-mosquito coils and other supplies. We took a walk down the beach, sat on the beach for awhile then walked over to some bar. I am required to mention that while on the way to this bar, MX went to take a leak and fell down some rocks in to the water. He did not however “fall off a cliff into the ocean” as he claims.

We got to the first bar and hung out there for a while. We watched the few people who were there dance around to the music and drank whatever we’d brought with us. Everyone was amused by these two Goth/Punk chicks, at the beach with their high heels, but I found them far more tolerable and lively than all the new age pajama people who were stumbling around looking for their Lonely Planet enlightenment. We eventually tired of that place and moved on to a larger place further along the beach. Of major interest by this point was the burger/hotdog stand since we really hadn’t eaten since before 8:00 pm and it was now past 1:30 am.

I hadn’t been drinking so it was really weird to be sober in this situation. I stood waiting for my burger while all these drunken kids came up and stumbled around looking very confused. We sat down next to the bar part and I was hit by the level of desperation and panic amongst the revelers. I was so content not to be a part of that. Everyone was splashing around in their drink looking for some one to latch on to like shipwrecked sailors trying to grab on to any piece of wood that’s bobbing by in the water. Even if I didn’t have Sandy I can’t see myself being even remotely interested in entering that fray. Such desperation!

We headed back before 2:00 am.

Today Sandy was up long before I was. I crawled out of bed at around 10:30 am and we went down to the restaurant zone of our little beach resort and ate. Bonhomme joined us after which we claimed a spot on the sand. In Samui the challenge was beating the Germans to the beach chairs. I swear they got up at 4:30 am and put their blankets out. Here there wasn’t such a problem, not at least at this time of year. The only thing we had to deal with was the venders selling stuff, the massage ladies and having to pay 20 baht to sit in the chair. MX37 joined up with us, and eventually QNA also immerged looking rather hung over.

I swam. The water was nice and calm, the sun was nice and hot and I am now nice and sun-burned. Or is it sun-burnt? Which ever it is, I am. Bonhomme and MX37 came out too, so they also got burnerated. We all got massages, which is a nice thing to get while laying on the beach. That is provided you aren't getting a handful of sand mixed in with the oil and not being attacked by legions of fire ants that MX incited by poking at them with a lit cigarette. (note to self, buy MX a magnifying glass for his birthday...)

It clouded over in the afternoon and threatened rain. I was snoozey from the sun and the sand & oil massage so Sandy and I went back to the Smurf house and I slept for a few hours while she sat on the porch and read. She managed to rouse me at around 7:00 pm and we went back to the little restaurant zone and ate. MX and QNA showed up and urged us to join them at a place called “The Sausage Factory”. Supposedly it had the best sausages in all of Thailand. We’d already eaten but we tagged along, the promise of Tetley tea being my main motivation.

The Sausage Factory was just a small café in the Gilligan’s Island tradition. The owner is an expat Brit and he and his Thai wife run the place. It was very homey. We sat down, Sandy and I ordered tea and MX and QNA ordered Bangers and Mash. I had MX order an extra sausage for us to try. Bonhomme showed up later and we watched Rugby and listened to the confusing explanation of the confusing rules from MX and QNA. The sausages were amazing. Sandy was converted to Tetley.

We hit the 7-11 on the way back then went to the beach and sat in front of our resort. MX and Bonhomme ran off to buy some fireworks. They came back with some kind of rocket that launched itself up into the air and exploded into a shower of sparks. That signaled that it was time for a torrential downpour and we had to quickly flee the beach for the cover of the resort’s cafe where the locals and staff were watching the Eurotrash 2004 Soccer Frenzy.

The storm was a big tropical one with giant rain drops, lots of them, thunder, lightening and so forth. Going back to our huts at this point was out of the question. Both QNA and Sandy entertained us with an exciting light show when they went off to the toilet. In order to find which light switch turned on the lights in the toilet they switched lights on and off all over the front of the resort.

Sandy and I stayed up until around 11:30 pm. The rain had leveled off by the time we called it a night.

Friday, June 11, 2004: Termites and Spooky Booms

The Redoubt has termites! I would guess that every building in Bangkok has them but anyways they were previously gnawing at the door frame from the laundry zone next to the toilet. Now they have spread to the drop ceiling in the toilet itself. As the building is made of cement and cider blocks I'm not worried about waking up on the 3rd floor or having the 6th floor land on my head while I sleep, but termite goofer-dust is not something I like to find on my tooth brush in the morning. Building management has been notified, although I am not sure what they will do. Or what they can do.

As for the apartment above us.... What the hell are they doing at night?

Every evening it is a new sound effect. Sandy and I will just start laughing because from directly above us will come a crash or a bang that invokes cartoon images of some failed attempt by Sylvester the Cat to capture or consume Tweedy Bird.

Other times there will just be these sounds... and I will lay there and imagine some weird scene because the sounds aren't any of the typical noisy neighbor sounds.

Okay, his glass eyeball just fell out and is now rolling across the floor...

Grinding maze?

And so on.

I don't know who is up there, or why they have built a huge Lego and tinker toy construct in their apartment but it is like living under a giant game of Kerplunk. Fortunately it can be as amusing as it is annoying. One night there was a serious of knocks and noises ending with a muffled crash that prompted me to shout "mouse trap!”

Unfortunately Sandy didn't get the reference.

Thursday, June 10, 2004: Rainy Season

Well no one else might want to admit that rainy season is here but it certainly does look like it to me.

Meanwhile in the south...

BANGKOK, June 7 (Reuters) - Two gunmen on a motorcycle shot dead a Buddhist teacher in Thailand's restive Muslim south on Monday, the latest casualty in a spate of violence which has claimed over 200 lives since January, police said.
The 49-year-old, who was in charge of general studies at an Islamic school, was shot as he was about to start his car parked at a school in the province of Pattani, police said.

The teacher was killed despite stepped up security at schools, where at least 1,000 soldiers and police have been deployed since the new school year began in mid-May.

Wednesday, June 9, 2004: Night Train

I received word from Sandy Moon that Sunday June 14th with be Sunniva’s last shift at the Grape Fruit Moon before she moves to Nova Scotia. I am sorry that I will be unable to go and say "hello, goodbye" but that’s how it is.

We’ve been listening to The Undesirables’ CD while we fall asleep. I’m usually out before its half over. I have so many strong memories in regards to their music, seeing them live, or just hanging out with Corin that hearing their music now is sort of surreal. Everything that happened before 2000 now seems like something I read about rather than something I actually experienced. Listening to these songs reminds me of what I had in Toronto.

Sandy was worried that listening to it would make me more homesick. Actually I find it quite comforting.

Monday, June 7, 2004: Mail Call

Oh Joy!

A package!!

I got a special package in the mail this morning. Justin M sent me a copy of The Undesirables' "Summer's Gone" CD. The Undesirables were/are one of my favorite local Toronto acts. A duo who's songwriting is so outstanding and delivery so honest and heartfelt listening to them is like being with close friends sipping wine on a warm summer night.

I also received a post card from NBM in Beirut.

Thanks you guys.

Sunday, June 6, 2004: Juno Beach

I spent most of the day watching the D-Day ceremonies on the BBC. I was especially interested in seeing the Canadian service at Juno Beach. The BBC ran it because the Queen spoke at it. It was good to watch and great to see the 14,000 Canadians who landed on Juno getting the credit they deserve. Especially since both the British and Americans tend to forget we had any part in the proceedings. The Americans tend to refer to us as the “Canadian Volunteer Force” as if our contribution was 14 trappers with muskets in a couple of canoes. The British tend not to think of us at all.

Some dope once berated me for wearing a jumper with a Canadian War Museum crest on it.

(actual conversation)

“What war did Canada ever fight in? Har har…”

Let’s see. 1812, the Boer War, the First World War, the Second World War, Korea, Lots of Peace-Keeping missions, The First Gulf War, and Afghanistan.

“Yeah but who in your family ever fought?”

Let’s see, my Grandfather was in the First War (wounded at Vimy Ridge), my Father and all his Brothers were in the Second World War.

“Yeah but who in you family died?”

My Mother’s Brother Wilbert was killed in Caen.

“Yeah but you were never in the army…”

I was a cadet in the Halifax Rifles as a cadet when I was a boy.

I’ve had to deal with some real pea-brains in the last 3 years.

Saturday, June 5, 2004: Larks Tongue In Big C

Last night I dreamed I was in Toronto at some tiny club with The Original Chris Chiasson. King Crimson was playing and I had some special arrangement with the club owner to secretly record them. I had to rush to Big C to buy blank tapes (dream logic at work; a trip to Big C from anywhere in Toronto would require a flight back to Bangkok) then hurry back to start recording. They began to play and after turning on the secret tape deck I went out to watch with TOCC. Some old hippy guy pulled out a new digital camera and took a photo which resulted in them stopping and leaving the stage.

This morning it couldn't decide whether it wanted to be sunny or rainy so it did both at the same time.

Friday, June 4, 2004: Post From Commando

Commando sent me a funny story from The National Post. I would have just posted a link but The National Post is another one of these newspapers who is deluded enough to think people will pay for on-line news (That's almost as stupid as MSN thinking people would pay for Hotmail!). I won't even go through the bother of registering for a "free" newspaper, why would I pay for one? Duh!

As the guy from Ghostbusters once said, "Print is dead..."

Anyways it's interesting story. I hope he's basking on the beach in Koh Samui.

Elite soldier plotted his own vanishing
'Nobody had any warning': Military searching for bomb maker who went on vacation and didn't come back

Chris Wattie
National Post

Master Warrant Officer Caron said the military does not want to make Sgt. Paisley a target for criminals or terrorist groups. "We are looking for him, but we don't want other people looking for him as well."

Well if I were to guess, I'd say he moved to Cambodia to clear land mines. There are several ex-Special Forces fellows running clearing operations there, including guys he might have met in 2002. Cambodia would offer him everything he'd need. Beautiful beaches in the south, nice old French colonial houses for rock bottom prices, and all the unexploded kit a guy like that would ever dream of playing with.

Or maybe he's drinking mai tais on the beach with Milton.

Or maybe he's with Mike in Soi Cowboy.

Or maybe he's at Country Road with Country Roads.

Thursday, June 3, 2004: Falling Asleep

The most tired I've ever been in my life was in 1984. I'm not sure of the exact date, if I had my 1984 journal I could tell you. I think it would have been in early March of that year. I was working at the Pay n Slave inconvience store/gas station (also known as the Smash and Grab) and I'd done a swing shift that weekend. I'd worked the 4 - midnight shift the Friday and then I worked the 8 - 4 shift on the next day. I remember after work wandering around Chilliwack with my friend in this weird daze and by 6pm I was falling asleep while I ate dinner.

What made me think of this was how tired I was yesterday. I think it was the SECOND most tired I've ever been. I'm not sure why though. I got the usual amount of sleep the night before, got up at the usual time, did the usual things, ran the usual distance, lifted the usual amount, did the usual amount of sit ups and so on, but I was exhausted by 5pm.

On the way back to the Redoubt I got a call from Sandy asking me to meet her at the Video shop where we rent DVDs. I went there met up with her and we got a few movies to watch. I started to slip into that weird in between dream state as we poked through the choices. I just couldn't focus and my bag that I had my gym kit in it seemed to weigh twice what it normally does. We took the BTS back to the Redoubt and the whole trip was dreamy and weird. Thankfully yesterday was some sort of Buddhist holiday so the BTS was pretty much empty.

After we got home and I'd changed and everything I sat down to relax and watch some TV. Sandy went to make some tea and between the time it took for me to turn on the TV and her to plug in the hot water machine I instantly fell asleep.

INSTANTLY.

I woke up two hours later all dry-mouthed and crispy-eyed (hadn't taken out my contacts) and completely confused. Sandy complained that I'd been "making a noise" while I slept.

I must be getting really old.

The FISH BLIGHT has ended. I think. The three remaining fish are swimming around like normal demanding food.

Tuesday, June 1, 2004: Tricky Dream

I woke up at about 6:00 am today and couldn't get back to sleep. I had a dream last night that I was living back in Toronto. For the first part of the dream I was doing this and that, gathering up my stuff from various locations and so forth. It was a very realistic dream, without any of the usual weird dream-logic that tips you off in your sleep.

Towards the end of the dream I decided I'd walk up Manning Ave and go to the Grapefruit Moon. As I was walking along I ran into both Sunniva and Sandy M. They were all happy to see me, there was a great deal of hugging, but then they were surprised at how reserved I was about being back.

Sunniva asked what was wrong and I answered, "Well I'm still not sure if this is a dream or not."

She asked, "How will you be able to tell?"

I replied, "If we actually get to and go inside the Grapefruit Moon, I'll know this is for real. I never actually get there in my dreams now."

They both hugged me, Sunniva said "We miss you so much" and I woke up.