Saturday, April 30, 2005: Evel Knievel

Sandy has been preparing all her graduation paperwork this week. This involved filling out ends piles of forms, as well as getting passport size photos done of her in her official graduation gown. The actual ceremony and photo taking won't take place until next January though.

I had a frightening motorcycle taxi ride last night. Bonhomme and I were going to a restaurant and decided to take 2 motos there. I shouted "Evel Knievel" as I spend off past him on the most terrifying motorcycle ride of my life. It was pod-racing between moving cars. I was glad to get to where I was going. Bonhomme arrived a few minutes behind me.

It is extremely hot out today. I had to go to the money changer earlier but now I don't think I want to venture out from the air-con unless it rains.

Monday, April 25, 2005: Back From Cambodia

The flight back from Cambodia was at 9:30 am so that meant getting up at 6:30 am to be ready to leave the Hotel at 7:30 am. There was a surprising amount of traffic on the way to the airport. We checked through the customs and paid our 25 Dollar airport tax then had a coffee before hitting the little bookstore while we waiting to board our flight.

The flight back was thankfully short. Bonhomme sat else where and later complained of someone eating with their mouth open next to him. I had two London Brits behind me who felt the need to be clever and talk loudly. We got in to Bangkok and took the little bus back to the terminal from the plane then stood in line for immigration. After being stamped back in we got an airport limo and drove back into the city.

Sunday, April 24, 2005: Eggs, Guns and Monkeys

Breakfast was of course at the FCC next to the Mekong River. This is, as I have mentioned previously, my favorite restaurant in all of Asia. It was nice to have properly prepared eggs, and it was nice to be in a place where I don't have the stigma of being a "Farang".

I had my moto taxi guy take me over to the main post office where I bought some postcards and stamps. We watched some monkeys climb across the telephone lines before my moto taxi guy's brother who has a taxi (car) drove us to the Russian market. Bonhomme looked for DVDs and I looked for music CDs. Once we'd got what we needed the driver took us out to the shooting range where at a dollar a bullet it is easy to spend money. Especially when you are firing the submachine gun collection.

They had French submachine gun from the 50's or 60's which was the first one I tried. It was truly awful. No wonder the French got chased out of Indochina. The "Chinese Tommy Gun" was a Chinese knock off of a Russian submachine gun circa WWII. It's that gun so often depicted in patriotic Soviet illustrations of the people's soldier leading workers and farmers to a bright future full of food shortages, bureaucracy, gulags and badly manufactured goods. It had a drum magazine which one was forced to hold on to while firing. It was loud and heavy and awkward but a lot better than the French gun. The best one I fired was this strange Russian Uzi rip-off. It was easy to fire, relatively accurate (for a bullet hose) and nice to hold and aim. It tended to pull up to the right when it was fired for extended bursts but I think that was due to the lack of weight near the barrel. Bonhomme fired off the AK-47 for a bit then we tried some pistols. The nicest of the bunch was the .22 CZ.

With the afternoon and all our bullets spent we headed back into the city to the hotel. It was brutally hot at the shooting range so we were pretty sweaty and covered in grease and gun powder. We took half an hour to change and so forth then met back down in the lobby and headed out for some lunch action. The first place we went to wasn't serving food for another hour so we walked down the main drag by the Mekong and went to the Happy Pizza restaurant.

After we were insufficiently happy we took a buggy over to the Phnom, which is a huge knoll with a Buddhist Wat on the top. I'm not sure if the hill is the Phnom or if the Temple is. We got there in time for the strange chime that goes off by the Neverland Ranch style garden clock, and then we climbed up the Phnom to the temple only going to the first level which didn't require us to take off our footwear. There were lots of families about and many of them were feeding the monkeys who were everywhere. Venders were selling these strange looking fruits to feed to the monkeys. We saw one monkey steal a kid's balloon which resulted in the predictable wailing. The kid's Dad got the balloon back when the monkey was confronted with not being able to climb up a tree and carry the balloon at the same time.

We walked from the Phnom to the Central market where I bought a few t-shirts and were constantly accosted by beggars and people selling hammocks. We walked over to the "new" mall and got a drink then wandered about there briefly. It was far more crowded than the first time we went there a year or so ago. It was getting darker so we took moto taxis back to the Hotel and went out again later for some dinner. We went for drinks first at the 2nd story restaurant next to FCC (just across the street) and watched the river and the lightening off in the distance. Then just before a big rain came down we went across to the FCC and had a bite to eat.

Saturday, April 23, 2005: To Phnom Penh

Today was visa-run day so Bonhomme and I decided to go to Phnom Penh. I headed over to his at around 10:30 am then we took a taxi to the Airport. They now have soldiers with metal detectors deployed at the entrances although they didn't check us for some reason. Our flight was supposed to leave at 12:40 or so but was delayed so we went to a cafe and had some truly diabolical food while watching a B-movie on their big screen TV. We finally boarded the little bus that ferries you out to the plane at around 2:00.

We got into Phnom Penh at around 3:30 pm and went through the customs zone. They now have little web cam hooked up and snap your photo as they stamp your passport. I'm not sure why this is necessary since you have to provide a passport photo with your visa application, but then why is it necessary to have 4 people verify and sign of on your visa?

We took a taxi over to our Hotel and headed out after to get some food at the Foreign Correspondents Club. The menu is sadly smaller than it once was. Their Tex-Mex choices were especially missed. We had a great meal though and I had an amazing apple crumble with ice cream afterwards. I don't usually eat ice cream but the ice cream with this was outstanding.

We went back to the Hotel for a bit and met later in the lobby in order to go out. We hired two moto taxi guys to take us around for the evening and paid them the generous amount of 5 US dollars, which is apparently significantly more than their normal rate. They drove us to a few clubs and we eventually ended up at a big outdoor spot and hung out there for quite a while. I had Pho at the Riverside Cafe before I called it a night. I had my moto driver take me up to a store so I could buy some tooth paste then road over to the Hotel. The city at night is spooky since it's so dark and empty along many of the streets. It was nice to ride in the cool of the night air though and the park areas and tree lined streets made it feel like a nice cool summer night in Toronto.

Friday, April 22, 2005: Stupid Phone Law

Sandy's Sister Pooh was still in the Hospital but I believe she'll be out today. It is fortunate that she works in that hospital otherwise the cost of this whole thing would have been difficult for her to pay for.

It has continued to be incredibly hot. As we move into rainy season though the heat is broken by the inevitable thunderstorms.

The government here has come up with another brilliant (not) idea to make into law. Under the excuse of Terrorists using cell phones to trigger bombs the Thai Government has decided to make everyone "register" their previously anonymous pay as you go Sim Cards. ID will also be required to buy the top up cards. This of course sounds vaguely reasonable except for the fact that the Terrorists can simply get Sim Cards from Malaysia or anywhere else for that matter so long as they have international roam and still set off their bombs.

The other part of this plan that sort of stinks is the fact that Prime Minister Thaskin OWNS the mobile provider AIS which has lost about 30% of its business to DTAC and Orange over the last year. Mostly because of DTAC's aggressive pay as you go Sim Card promotions. No conflict of interest there... The other problem which is far more obvious to a Westerner is the complete invasion of privacy that would be. If the GOVERNMENT knows your cell number they can track you everywhere you go. The Thai people don't seem to have read any George Orwell.

Anyways at best the idea is a pain in the rump, and at worst it won't work to stop any Terrorists from setting off bombs. Thaskin in his brilliance still won't admit that the Jihadists in the south have any outside connections which is of course ridiculous. All these different Jihadist groups cooperate and they all receive financing through various "charity" organizations. The JI Bali bombing mastermind was catch in Phuket and still the Thai Government insists it is just “bandits” causing trouble in the South. As if bandits bomb Temples and kill Buddhist monks for fun.

Wednesday, April 20, 2005: Appendixal Vocordications

Sandy's Sister Pooh had an appendicitis attack yesterday so she was admitted to the hospital. Sandy went down with her other Sisters in the afternoon and stayed until after the appendix in question was removed. I played with Mr. Roboto until she got back at around 9:30 pm.

In 1982 my cousin Brian made me a cassette that featured some songs he and my Brother Bruce had recorded on a Tascam cassette 4-track "Portastudio". I brought this tape back with me from Toronto and have digitized it and transfered it to my computer. On the tape Brian includes a remix of a song Ron Bianco and I recorded in Surrey B.C. in 1981 that I must have sent Brian. Brian added drums, bass and guitar to this strange piece of music and had sent it back as a suprise. With that in mind, and with my intention of sending Brian a CD of this "tape" he made me over 20 years ago (is that possible?? TWENTY YEARS!) I have been working on a remix of one the songs he had included. So for the last week or more I have been wittling away at that.

I have taken one song, sampled bits of it, made some loops and arranged it all in Acid Pro with additional bits from here and there. Last night I added some Vocorder bits to the "front" sections. Now I just have to mouse it all and render it.

Huzzah! Brian Gagnon at 148 BPM as nature (and quite possibly he) had never intended.

Monday, April 18, 2005: Not Much Song Kran

Well Song Kran is over. That's the Thai holiday that involves water throwing and white paste smearing. Circumstances didn't allow for much Song Kran fun for me this year so I'm sorry I have little to report. The city pretty much empties out as well. There was virtually no traffic until today. It's surprising what an effect that has on the quality of the air.

Saturday night Sandy and I ventured out for some MK eating at Big C. We were running short of supplies by that point as most everything had been closed since Wednesday. We walked over, had a feed then did our shopping. It was nice and empty so I didn't find it as annoying as I usually do.

Tuesday, April 12, 2005: Reruns of the Jedi

Sandy got back from her Sister's last night at around 9:00 pm. She didn't stay awake long. I wasn't that sleepy so I watched "Phantom Menace" on TV. I guess the new one comes out some time this year. It's hard to believe I saw "Menace" nearly SIX years ago. In some ways it seems like last year, and in more ways it seems like 14 years ago. It's a head scratcher to be sure.

I had a few thoughts about the movie as I watched it. First the CGI which was so mind blowing in 1999 looks sort of crap now. The Jar Jar element was always annoying but now he looks bogus too. I still like the sword fighting in this one though. Especially the end battle where Liam Quan whatever his name is gets killed by Darth Mall Rat. I think the main weekness in the whole Star War thing now is the EPIC nature of it. The first one was fun because it was just a big adventure. Then it became a grand opera and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz... Yeah trade federation blah blah blah... How much better would a few films just about young Obi Wan running around doing Jedi stuff have been? Instead we get whiney Baby Darth having a temper-tantrum hissy fit in future Uncle Owen's speeder repair shop. Brrrr.

Song Kran is this week. I'm not really in the mood this year. It is so hot. I got an email from Arielle. She gets here next month.

Huzzah!

Sunday, April 10, 2005: Lazy Sunday

Yesterday I woke up for some reason at about 7:00 am and spent the morning playing with Mr. Roboto until Sandy woke up and we went to the Market. Today was the opposite. I woke up at about noon and Sandy had already changed the water and cleaned the fish tank before installing the new blower-fan thing.

Sandy’s Sister Pooh came by at around 1:30 pm and took a bunch of boxes of stuff she’s been storing at ours for the last 4 months to her new apartment. Sandy went with her so I recorded some ideas on the MRS-4.

Sandy got back at around 4:00 pm but had to go out again. She’s staying over tonight at her Sister’s house and will be taking her Mom to the Hospital at 5:30 am tomorrow morning.

I walked over to Fresh Milk for some dinner then spent most of the night messing with Mr. Roboto. I also added some beats to the thing I recorded earlier today.

Saturday, April 9, 2005: Weekend Market

Sandy was at her Sister’s last night and got back to the Redoubt at around 9:00 pm. This gave me ample time to play with my new bestest friend Mr. Roboto. I am very impressed with this machine. Not just for the obvious Vocorder functions, but for the synth sounds as well and the nifty little apreginator that which can be step edited. Not that I need another sequencer (well maybe just one) but I quickly figured out that if the internal clock is midi sync’d to my recorder, and the key sync is switched off, and the latch function is on… well you get instant 1980 blitz style bass lines. Oh my visage indeed. Lovely. The joy of joy though is the Vocorder’s ability to use external sound sources as the carrier so I can in effect vocord my voice on top of a drum loop or a guitar feed or a recording of something else. Or I can combine two audio ins and vocord them into each other. The MicroKorg’s filters can also be used to filter external inputs such as drum loops or guitar feeds or what ever. Not that the Shermanator will ever lose its job but the more the merrier.

During the week the underwater fan blower thing for the fish tank gave up the ghost. This resulted in on annoying night of blub blub blubs until I got up and searched the apartment for the old fizzer ball thing from when we had a smaller fish tank. I reconnected the compressor the fizzer ball and promptly went back to sleep. Today of course being Saturday meant a trip to the Weekend Market to buy a replacement blower-fan so the water can once again circulate through all the filters. Sandy and I headed over by BTS, and walked through the market. It was hot and crowded but not as crowded as I’ve seen it. We bought fan-blower thingy as well as some other fish related items then walked about some more. I later regretted this when Sandy found a vender selling picture frames. She bought many large ones which were thankfully not priced according to their weight. She was thrilled at the bargain. I was not thrilled at having to carry a bunch of wooden picture frames through the heat and congestion of the market and to the BTS and back to the Redoubt. When my work was complete I invoked pack-mule’s rights which meant I got to play Quake II for an hour without interruption or distraction.

At around 3:00 pm we grabbed a taxi and headed over to Sandy’s Sister’s to visit her Mom. Sandy fussed over the new little cousin and Pet goofed about. I was hot so I sat in a comfortable chair in the breeze and drank soda. There was a big feed of rice and shrimp which was great but not satisfying. I had been craving a GFM style meal since I woke up. When ever this happens I am at a loss. There is no where I have found that can give me a satisfactory brunch. The British or Irish Pubs aren’t what I desire. Plus they seem to try and recreate the depressing atmosphere of the UK by blacking out the windows, filling the places up with cigarette smoke and mildew. Plus there are the bald-headed drunkards to listen to. No thanks.

Anyways we ate; Sandy’s Mom came down and didn’t look very well. The daughters took care of her and I said my Thai greetings although I think she was feeling too bad to care that much. I fell asleep in my comfy chair for an hour or so then woke up in time to flee the onset of the evening’s mosquitoes. We stayed until about 8:00 pm then took a rather frightening taxi ride back. I driver seemed to think he was in a race and I hung on the Jesus handle the whole way back. We were both really glad to get out of that taxi.

Friday, April 8, 2005: Mr. Roboto

VOCORDER - A device that applies the spectral character of one audio signal (the modulator) to the sonic character of another (the carrier), and outputs the result. In the most popular use of a Vocorder, one would speak or sing into a mic (the modulator) and play notes on a synthesizer (the carrier) keyboard to create the impression that the instrument is "singing".

And that's only disco application. What happens if you run the sound of your guitar as the carrier and ancient cassette recordings of Hugh Macgregor babbling about something as the modulator? Or perhaps a drum machine as the carrier... or why not as the modulator? Imagine the Sherman Filter Bank NOT being enough sonic mayhem for someone...

In any event the Vocorder is all mine. Sandy will be visiting her Mom tonight so...

Domo hari kato Mr. Roboto...

Sandy made the observation yesterday that "CNN only talks to people who look nice, the BBC only talks to people who live in the jungle". When she says "live in the jungle" she means "looks like they live in the jungle" which basically translates to English as "look like they live in a swamp". I think she'll miss doing tonal imitations of the BBC reporter’s whiney voices too. She would do that constantly, mimicking their way of speaking in a way only someone who speaks a tonal language would pick up on. Not the words, the SOUNDS.

But CNN... a "Pop Culture Correspondent?" please. And where as the Beeb would endlessly cover the environmental end of the world CNN seems to mostly cover pop culture crap. Michael Jackson's trial, some trollop model becoming a columnist for The National Enquirer...

Bizarre. Truly bizarre.

Thursday, April 7, 2005: The Truth is Vocorder

The Vocorder debate continues. All the fancy functions aside the deciding point seems to be how much better the 8-Band Korg Vocorder sounds than the other one. So it looks like it will be a Korg after all. That is once I get a chance to pick it up.

Sandy's Mom is staying at her Sister's place so we will probably go over there this weekend to visit. She seems to be doing much better.

I have noticed when I'm forging tracks featuring the Emu Vintage Keys a certain "glassy" nature of the sound. The Mellotron samples don't seem to have this problem but EVERYTHING else does. I keep having to squish the tracks so they don't have this weird digital POOOOAHHH in the peaks. I will have to experiment further with running the Emu through the Shermanator to see if that solves the problem.

I picked up season two of the X-Files on disc last weekend so we watched the first two episodes of that last night after she got back from saying goodbye to the Penguin Lady who has gone back to Chicago until autumn.

Wednesday, April 6, 2005: Sandy Returns

The debate isn’t whether or not to buy the Vocorder. The debate has now shifted to which one to buy. The one I have been looking at has 2 Oscillators, 8 voices and 4 note polyphony and is an 8 band Vocoder. There is one made by Alesis that has 3 Oscillators PER voice, 8 voices, has 8 note polyphony, and is a 40-band Vocorder. The question is how much more it would be here (its US list price is $399) and can I get it here at all and if so how long will it take to get here.

Meanwhile I am still adjusting to CNN. One thing I will say for CNN, despite the annoying incidental music they play during the market updates, the one female anchor is quite fit. The BBC gals were at best plain looking and at worst looked like they belonged on Kaow San Road. The CNN femmes are all done up like Russian hookers and some are actually attractive. But that incidental music is so annoying! And how will I live without Click Online and Top Gear?

Sandy got back last night. Needless to say, no gym this morning.

Tuesday, April 5, 2005: More Bombs in South

More bombs in the south. Video footage of the one in an Airport shows some guy walking with his 3 year old son then all goes blank. The Father was killed the boy is in critical. Allah Akbar my ass. What exactly are these bastards accomplishing by blowing up a 3 year old and his Dad? Other than proving beyond any doubt that they are heartless bastards who have nothing better to do than kill and wrap it up in some nice romatic notion of jihad.

The Western news coverage never cesses to annoy me either. They always refer to "Thailand's restive South" as if the whole problem is due to some kind of sleep disorder. They also throw in that the "insurgents" (purposely killing Monks, Civillians, and who ever else is around makes you a TERRORIST not a insurgent) are "seperatists" and that they are complaining of "discrimination" of some sort. No mention that these clowns want to set up a Calphate Islamic state that goes from Thailand to the Philippines and that they want to set up shahia law in that area. Thus the killing of Buddhist monks.

Monday, April 4, 2005: Heavy Rains

Rain! It started coming down quite heavy last night at around midnight. I fell asleep to it and was surprised to wake up to it. I got up at 6:00 am with intentions to go to the gym but it was coming down so hard I said "tomorrow" and went back to sleep.

When I go up a bit later it was still raining although not quite as hard. It's a bit early for this kind of weather. I wouldn't mind it so much if I had a Vocorder though.

Sunday, April 3, 2005: Pantip & Fuji

I met up with Bonhomme at Pantip Plaza this afternoon. He was buying a MP3 player of some sort so I tagged along. We went to the IT Center on the top floor and spent about half an hour pondering the many many many many choices.

How much memory do you really need? Over 128 Mgs? Under 5 Gigs? Over 20 Gigs? And so on. Then there was the question of how big the player should be? Tiny and flat? Bulky and odd shaped? Or Clunky?

The IPod definitely was the best looking of the bunch and the best price for the memory but when Bonhomme started trying to use it the weird menu thing with the circle jerk control mechanism the IPod quickly lost its appeal. The IRiver was sort of bulkier but the menu and controls much more obvious despite our momentary inability to figure out how to adjust the volume. The other selling point was the IRiver is basically drag and drop for uploading new songs, as if it’s just another hard-drive.

I of course would love to have an IRiver or IPod but I need to update my PC and there is of course....

THE VOCORDER... need to buy VOCORDER... must have... VOCORDER....

After the purchase we walked over to the Siam Center and had Japanese food at Fuji which as always was great. There was a big rainstorm which cooled things down nicely as it was brutally hot again today. Thankfully it stopped before we headed out.

I talked to Sandy a bit on the phone tonight. She's not happy about being stuck up in Palooka Ville at her Parents but she is the only Sister not working so she gets to take care of her Mom until some time next week.

I spent the evening trying to figure out why the channels have all suddenly changed on the TV and how to reprogram it. I managed to get most of them back but I've lost BBC which seems to have been replaced by CNN. As much as BBC News is sort of biased and or annoying there are many BBC shows that I do like such as Top Gear, and Click Online. Those will be missed. CNN is just annoying and seems to cycle the same crap every 15 minutes. Blah.

I also worked on another new ditty. I have been running my soft-synths under Midi on Lappy since old clunky will usually crash under such a load. I have figured out a new (backwards) way of creating tracks. I will write a Midi track or three in Acid Pro then render each track as a Wav file at 32,000 MHz. I can then upload the Wav files to my Zoom digital recorder and use them as beds. I can add guitar, synth or what ever THEN save those to Clunky and upload them again to Acid Pro and mouse the tracks as I please. Backwards yes, but so far it works. Until I get another PC where it can handle the strain of the newer Soft Synths it is the only way to fly.

And I really do need a Vocorder. Really.

Saturday, April 2, 2005: HOTTER

Yesterday wasn't hot enough. So today is hotter. Try walking around a packed market in 40+ degree weather. Eventually one is forced to go to a proper mall like the World Trade Center.

I found a great music store today (in World Trade or Central World Plaza or what ever its called now), they sell KORG gear.
Mmmmmmm. Vocorder 18,000 baht... must have vocorder...

Sandy will be away until at least the 7th. Blah.

Apparently the someone at the BBC didn't know Bob Marley had passed away...

Friday, April 1, 2005: HOT

It is HOT. Really HOT. Why it must be April or something.

It looks like Sandy will be away for a week or so depending. So I am doomed to week of not sleeping well and eating susi for dinner. My visa run draws closer. I have been considering several destinations, the debate being between places I've been and want to see again, places I haven't been and going somewhere cheap cheap and spending the savings on a new PC.