I've recently had to convert MS Word files with tons of zenkaku English text in them to all hankaku so I could forward them to people on non-Japanese language-enabled systems. Luckily, I happen to have written a macro during my salaryman days that does just that.
Looking at the code, it seems I could never figure out how to get a few symbols working (such as the "degrees Celsius" symbol), but other than that it works very well.
If you have the need for such a macro, drop me an email.
As promised, here's the whole story:
On the second day of the new year, our nanny invited us to her village for the bi-annual emptying of a communal fishpond. We piled into our trusty '71 Crown, picked up a Japanese teacher who wanted to experience village life, and headed out deep into the rice fields. Actually, we first stopped at our nanny's village so we could follow a pickup out to the final destination. I always carry rubber mats, wooden planks, and a shovel in the back of my car to get out of mudholes and sandy spots encountered in the back country, but with the family along for the ride it was comforting to have an escort (also, you never know when a feral Brahmin cow will decide to play cape buffalo and it's nice to have a pickup to play decoy in such situations). The road was non-existent in places and we simply drove over drained and harvested rice fields along the paths of least resistance; I only scraped bottom once when I misjudged the far side of a steep bump. Several times, the pickup driver stopped an got out to warn me about a particularly rough patch ahead and asked if I just wanted to stop and park, but choosing the right lines is something of an obsession when I'm driving and I was lucky enough to choose correctly that day.
We eventually arrived to within walking distance (perhaps half a kilo) of the pond, which was being drained with a pump attachment hooked up to an iron buffalo (large roto-tiller or walking tractor). While waiting for the pond to drain, most of the hunters were out looking for field rats. This is where I started photo documenting the day.
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IF YOU HAD A HARD TIME READING THE LAST POST ON EATING RATS, GO NO FURTHER. GRAPHIC RAT BUTCHERING FOLLOWS (YUM).
The method employed for catching rice field rats on this day was simple and effective. Rats make their tunnels in berms that separate rice fields. A fire is built at the entrance of a rat hole and inside the tunnels, the rats only dig deeper to escape the smoke. Some time after, the tunnels are dug out, and the asphyxiated rats are pulled out by hand.
(As it turned out, most of my photos that day were of preparing the rats for eating. The actual reason why we went, draining the fishpond, I mostly recorded with a camcorder. Some of the footage is pretty interesting but I don't have time to process it yet.)
All in all, it was an extremely educational day. It's always nice to be able to hang out with the locals and see how they really live. It's even nicer when they are willing to show you exactly how they do what they do. On this day, we learned how to empty a fish pond, catch and cook rats, and as a bonus, I learned just how rough a road the old Crown can handle.
I tried to write "spoon man" above, but it came out how it is... I think I like it this way better. Anyway, here's sppon man:
I think I like his facial expression even better than his guitar skills.
This is a "side attraction" at Wat Srisawat, located on Srisawat road in Mahasarakham. The other side of the building pictured above features a collection of concrete animals. I took photos of them last year; I'll try and dig them up.
Nam was trying to sleep in this morning as Max has been keeping her up at night for the past few weeks, but the funniest thing happened: A man selling jugs of distilled water drove his pickup by the front of the house yelling, "nam na krup! nam na krup!" (water! water!), so Nam came running out of the bedroom a couple minutes later rubbing her eyes and asking who was here...
When she saw the guy selling water down the street she asked me to please kill him.
Is it just me, or does the chat function on Facebook feel like it was written about 10 years ago?
Yes, Elmo:
This is officially the best misogynistic muppet video, ever... And that's how you gotta roll, Yomiuri TV!
...and by rooster, I mean the big purple-headed veiny one. The day after I embedded the youtube vid in my Missing Osaka post, they had it removed via copyright claim. If you love your IP, set it free, bitches!
Show Elmo some love already!
UPDATE 20090215: I embedded a new instance of the video on the post in question
This is the only photo we took of him during the period he has been afflicted with the rash from roseola. Even so, this is a couple days before the rash peaked and my anti-noise filter (Noise Ninja) actually wiped it quite effectively.
One of the only tricks I could perform as a kid was to curl my upper lip up far enough to block my nostrils. This was extremely handy when playing underwater and I considered it a kind of superpower (hey, when you're a kid having even the lamest of supernormal abilities is pretty cool). Hopefully I can pass this great gift on to Max.
Wow. There's a compilation of more of his clips on YouTube here: LINK
...and is most able to blackmail you with tears to get one.
*this photo is pre-roseola. He still bears the marks of the chosen one.
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Previous colors in this series:
red red max
orange max
sepia max
coppermine max
blue max
The idea being tested: Even strangers in Osaka will play along when you pretend to shoot or cut them down.
Some of these seem staged; I've seen crazier stuff though, and if nothing else, the fact that it seems possible is why Osaka is so fucking cool.
For the record, I've never seen this done to a stranger in Japan, but you see it all the time among friends. Come to think of it, among friends at least, everybody overacts like they're being shot. An alternative to the standard ban! (bang!) is firing an imaginary revolver dry. That sounds something like this: ban! ban! ban! ban! ban! ban! kacha.. kacha.. kacha!
(via)
This is a preview to a photo series I shot during our New Years holiday. I've been meaning to put it together since I shot it but Max got sick and life got in the way, etc., etc., and so forth (quote from KoS). I'm now busy doing other things, but perhaps I'll get around to it this weekend.
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On the second day of the new year, our nanny invited us to her village for the bi-annual emptying of a communal fishpond. We piled into our trusty '71 Crown, picked up a Japanese teacher who wanted to experience village life, and headed out deep into the rice fields. Actually, we first stopped at our nanny's village so we could follow a pickup out to the final destination. I always carry rubber mats, wooden planks, and a shovel in the back of my car to get out of mudholes and sandy spots encountered in the back country, but with the family along for the ride it was comforting to have an escort (also, you never know when a feral Brahmin cow will decide to play cape buffalo and it's nice to have a pickup to play decoy in such situations). The road was non-existent in places and we simply drove over drained and harvested rice fields along the paths of least resistance; I only scraped bottom once when I misjudged the far side of a steep bump. Several times, the pickup driver stopped an got out to warn me about a particularly rough patch ahead and asked if I just wanted to stop and park, but choosing the right lines is something of an obsession when I'm driving and I was lucky enough to choose correctly that day.
We eventually arrived to within walking distance (perhaps half a kilo) of the pond, which was being drained with a pump attachment hooked up to an iron buffalo (large roto-tiller or walking tractor). While waiting for the pond to drain, most of the hunters were out looking for field rats. This is where I started photo documenting the day.
To Be Continued...
Too good not to share on this historic day:
Max is recovering slowly but surely and the red spots all over his face and body are steadily disappearing. It's still so hard to watch him suffer from the bouts of itchiness and teething that hit once in a while, but things are better than they were before. At least he can sleep for several hours at a time now. He still has a runny nose but we took him off all of the meds the pediatrician put him on because the congestion is just a nuisance and not really affecting his breathing at night anymore.
So it seems he is out of the woods. Hell, with roseola perhaps he was never really in the woods, but I tell you, there's no feeling like when your child is suffering... It's like every parent ever tells you, except worse because when you feel it there's absolutely no sense of elation in thinking to yourself, "Oh, it really does feel horrible."
OK, I need to stop thinking about the negative stuff now and end with a Maxie chaser (from New Years since I haven't really taken photos since then):
For my little sis at med school:
This is the coolest acrobatic martial arts video I've seen in a long time: HTH visits Loopkicks 2008
In other news, Maxie is taking an afternoon nap and we are cleaning out the house to reduce dust and other potential allergens. Fun fun.
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UPDATE: This soccer trick shot video from the same site is worth watching too.
I watched this clip many, many times last night, especially the complete intro at the end. Was this the best show on TV back then?
Or maybe it was this?
It sure brings back memories... And makes me want to pass on all my favorites to Max. I read The Hobbit in fourth grade and never looked back.
Max has roseola. Yesterday the fever left and the pediatrician said the rash would peak, and it seems that the concentrated red spots all over baby's face, chest, and back have turned somewhat blotchy and less well-defined today. The important thing is that Max is getting stronger again. We played around some yesterday and even though he didn't smile so much, it was a relief to see him demanding mental stimulation again. Until two days ago was just horrible - he was hugging mommy all day and got weepy about anything.
Last night, he actually let me hold him and put him to sleep with two conditions:
So I held him and walked around the living room from 9pm to 3 am. This is only fair, since mommy has been taking care of him every night like this, although I kinda went into this Gumpish trance and couldn't stop walking or even change the arm I was holding him with - my left arm feels like it did a thousand pull-ups or something. I gave him milk from a bottle when he woke up every couple hours and Nam finally got some uninterrupted sleep. In fact, I believe her exact words right before she fell unconscious were, "haha now you know what it feels like," followed by, "don't wake me up."
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It started with a runny nose a week ago, then a fever four days ago. Then coughing two days ago and a rash on his face this morning. The pediatrician thinks it's a bacterial infection in his intestines and perhaps an allergy as well. Max is now on an antibiotic course and taking a lot of fluids - mama's milk, lactose-free formula (mostly sugar it seems), electrolyte beverage and water.
I'm not too worried because he's a strong boy and getting sick is part of growing up, but it's hard on Nam because he's even more weepy and sensitive than he was a few days ago. She's not getting much sleep at all, and is basically carrying him all day and all night except when he allows the nanny or me to spell her for a little while. We have to go see the pediatrician again tomorrow. Here's to hoping it all ends well soon (especially the rash on his face, it pains us to look at it and we couldn't bear to take a photo for reference, either)
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I happened to be going through New Years photos as I wrote this so here's a photo of Max and his great grandma:
Even out here in the sticks BT enabled me to watch the first two new episodes of 24. Technology is grand.
So that concludes this session of faux-moblogging. Out with the new camera phone photos and in with the new, I say. Hell, I might even have to get a new phone with a better camera if I drop my current one a few more times...
Sorry for the crappy focus. I was trying to take a photo without the vendor noticing... This was taken at a temporary vendor inside the new Big C in Sarakham. They were actually quite nice leather children's shoes. I really want to know the story behind the brand, though.
In November 2008, Thai superstore Big C opened a branch store in Maha Sarakham, just a few minutes down the street from us. Life hasn't been the same since, mostly in good ways since we pay less for more and no longer have to venture downtown to the small Tesco with shitty parking inside the SermThai department store. Also, there were certain things - such as sporting goods and bicycles - that were only sold at ridiculous markups at small stores until now, so watching said shops close up forever is satisfying on some very small, very human level. On the flip side, traffic on the main street in front of our house has increased greatly - sometimes making a U-turn in front of Big C is like sitting inside a supercollider and watching electrons whizz by.
"Balldings" is officially the best knockoff name, ever. Better than a genuine BOLEX watch, better than PenesamiG, better than MICKEY MUSOE. What was that last one, you ask?
I believe this is known as a self-fulfilling prophecy; the only thing that would have made it better is if it was being towed.
Close up:
Now there's nothing remarkable about village headmen here. Every village has one, and there are presumably thousands of villages in this region alone. What's remarkable is that (presumably) a village headman has taken it upon himself to advertise his position on his pickup.
I wondered about what kind of egotistical twat would have the nerve to do something so tasteless, so pointless, and so retarded... So I waited for him to return to his car for over twenty minutes. Sure enough: One self-important asshole in a pickup, not bothering to look before he pulled into traffic and almost crushing a passing biker, to go!
No comment, except that these were on sale at Fuji supermarket in Bangkok so this is an Engrish mistake and not a Thainglish one.
... or not. That's what they get for using the word "sanitary" on the packaging:
I'm too lazy to look it up.
This, by the way, is my favorite insect photo here.
From September 2003 to May 2006, I ran a moblog as well as a moblog sidebar as a PHP include on this blog. I really liked it and think I was one of the most prolific adopters of moblogging at the time.This golden era ended when the gateway I used to e-mail blog entries from my phone suddenly died. I had put so much work into tweaking the sidebar publishing system and maintaining it over the years that I really couldn't bear the idea of doing it half-assed with a flickr widget or starting over from scratch again, so I just omitted it from the design completely. Sad.
Anyhow, all of that doesn't really matter anymore because I've ended up in a GSM country where the phones are just beginning to evolve to where Japanese keitais were about eight years ago. E-mail? Internet? PC Modem? These functions are all available for a hefty sum of money, but are really quite pathetic from a Japanese user's perspective so I don't even bother. Here, mobiles are for voice com and texting and capturing photos/video for mainly offline use, and that's it.
So. I've downloaded photos from the crappy camera on my crappy phone via USB cable, Bluetooth, IR, and primitive GSM voodoo, and it's time to get it online in the spirit of my long lost moblog. The next several entries are all from my camera's phone, and represent the best out of a hundred or so I took last year.
Behold what needs to be crammed into our A33 on the way back from a 2 day trip (admittedly, the front seat floorspace is crammed with rice from Nam's relatives' fields in Surin).
Max is currently going through a very clingy stage with mommy. The past few nights, he would only sleep if she was holding him - and get this - walking steadily. The second she tried to set him on his bed or even just sit down while still holding him, he would start sobbing uncontrollably (BTW, it's amazing how babies can tell if you're actually walking or just sitting and rocking back and forth to emulate walking). This went on all night, every night, and I'm impressed that Nam still goes to work and functions normally and all that.
So.
Yesterday I stayed home with the baby all afternoon and watched him while his nanny cleaned the house. He was demanding, as ever, but not nearly as weepy as he is with mommy. Oh well. He has full rows of front teeth emerging top and bottom, so maybe it's just driving him a little bit crazy... I often tell him not to be such a baby, but he just ignores me. Oh well, I guess this is all part of parenthood.
I plan to post some pictures from last week if I get the chance later.
In the past six days we've come back from our trip to Surin, started on grading midterms, and daddy just got back from a volunteer teaching gig out in the sticks to help out less privileged mooban children. Now all he needs to do is visit some friends who need help, check a family registration translation, finish grading midterms, and get in some more quality time with the baby.
Updates will follow after that.
