Shouzer

I had some visitors here last week–the first of a few this summer–which was a pretty good time.  My parents, my aunt Anita, my little sister Kyla, and both my dogs (Widget & Bluto) made the drive out here.  That’s no small task, either, as I believe the drive is something like 2000 miles.

Long story short, Rock Band fun was had by all.  :)  We also made an ill-fated attempt to go check out Mt. Rainier that basically involved us driving around staring at the clouds, haha.  One thing people like to say about this area is that it rains all the time, but that’s just not true.  Honestly, it really doesn’t rain that much, but it is cloudy damn near every day.

Anyway, I realized while they were here that my biggest “regret” (for lack of a better word) in living so far away from my family is missing my little sister grow up.  Realistically, I can’t expect to see her more than once or twice a year, and that’s pretty disappointing considering how much she’ll likely change between visits.  When I see her now, she’s always interested in what I’m doing and wanting to play games with me, but I’m sure it’s only a matter before all that starts to change.

I suppose for the time being about all I can do is try to head home for holidays and such as often as possible.

No matter what you might think of cloning and whatnot (for the record, I don’t like the idea of clones myself, but this is actually pretty far from it), this is just damn cool.  Apparently doctors have created this thing they call “pixie dust” from pigs, which “encourages” stem cells to do their thing.  If it actually works out, I can only imagine the long term benefits within the health community.  Check out the story right here.

I finally broke down and bought Rock Band the other night.  I pretty much knew it was only a matter of time before it happened.  I’ve played it a few times, I own Guitar Hero 2, and I really like them both.  Now, obviously I wasn’t going to pay full price for this bad boy if I could help it.

Typically the game goes for $170, and sales tax up in these parts (since there’s no income tax) is near 10%, bringing the retail store total to about $187.  I looked around a bit and found that Newegg sells games.  Who knew?  They had it for $153 with three-day shipping and no tax.  Booyah.

Something about this story just irks me.  Now, before I get ahead of myself, I want to say that I think major athletes are greedy.  Not each individual necessarily, but as a whole.  Strikes, lockouts, sitting through training camp…  What a joke.  Just do your job and get paid your millions of dollars.

Now, what bothers me about this story is that NFL owners somehow thing it’s wrong that the players get 60% of the revenues.  Really?  They don’t deserve a slim majority of the money the league brings in?  How does that work?  Honestly, even if they’re greedy themselves, they’re still the ones out there making the plays and bringing in the fans.  Nobody goes to a game because they love the owners.  What a joke.

I saw this over at Penny Arcade, and I thought it was pretty damn cool.  I wouldn’t have the patience (or the skill, for that matter) to do this.

So it turns out that it only took 7.5 years, but I finally agree with Bush about something.  Basically, Congress voted to stop filling the strategic petroleum reserve in an effort to lower gas prices.  Bush is opposed, because he doesn’t believe it would affect oil prices, and he thinks national security is more important.

Now, granted, Bush has taken ‘national security’ to the extreme in his tenure as president, but I think he’s right about this one.  Yes, gas is expensive, and it pisses me off.  I just don’t think this is the right move.  Overzealous military man or not, he’s right that we shouldn’t put ourselves at risk (however small) over this.  I also don’t personally believe that this will affect oil prices in the least.

There were several questions posed to me in my last big update post which I felt were better answered in another post. Namely, Jared was curious as to how living in Thailand for a year has changed me. I’m not sure that I can adequately answer this question to be honest, but I will do my best. I am sure that many of the changes have taken place on a nearly subconscious level though.

I would say one of the main advantages of living and working abroad is it increases your flexibility. Within the first week or so, I found loads of little things in my new environment that bothered me. I had to learn to adjust to a new way of life that mimicked the local people. For example, I had a serious problem with taking taxis before I came here. I saw them as a gigantic waste of money, and I avoided them as much as possible. In Bangkok, that is nearly impossible, and it is foolish. Taxis are cheaper than alternative modes of transportation in many cases.

Living abroad also decreases dependence. This was not a major problem for me this time around as I had already lived in Sydney for a while, but I just thought I’d mention it for the general case. Two examples of this for me are Mt. Dew and NFL. I miss them both here, but I’ve learned to live without them.

In more specific terms though, I have changed the way I look at work and living. When I was at Rose, school consumed my entire life. Yes, I had some outside fun, but it was always there in the back of my mind. When I was looking for a job last year, I felt that I needed to find a career opportunity that would completely fulfill me. This, obviously, proved to be an impossible task. My list of requirements for a job was probably longer than my list for a wife.

Working this year as a teacher, though, has been a blast. I have loads of fun most days, and I have greatly enjoyed my life here in Bangkok. Having said that, I have several major complaints with my current company, and I could never see myself working here for a long period of time. So what gives? Well, I’ve simply learned that there is more to life than work, and a job doesn’t have to be perfect to be enjoyable.

Juvers asked me if I had any plans to work on alternative energy. Sure, I would like that opportunity, but if it never happens for me, I’m not that bothered. I used to feel that my work needed to impact the world, but I am more relaxed about it now.

Being more relaxed is another major change from this year. I am pretty content to sit on my balcony and stare at the view in the evenings, I do not get in as big of a rush as I used to, and I have more patience in general. Thais has a phrase, “mai ben lai”, and it means no worries or no problem. That pretty much sums up the culture. They just don’t get their panties in a bunch about anything, and I like that. Imagine Timon and Puma from the Lion King singing “Acunamata”, and you’ve pretty much got a grip on Thai culture. (That’s a vast oversimplification, of course.)

I feel like I’ve made strides this year in terms of social confidence as well. It’s obviously impossible to quantify this, but I just feel more comfortable meeting new people and interacting with others. It’s good to get away from engineering for a while.

I feel like there should be more, but I honestly can’t think of anything else right now. If I think of something, I’ll try to write another post.

In other news, my flight is arriving in St. Louis on June 3. I’m starting work in the Detroit area on June 16. If anyone is in the Herrin area during that time frame, let me know.

I’ve gotta say, after playing GTA4 for a while, I’m fairly surprised at the reviews it got.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great game, but it’s no 10.  I would definitely say, for instance, that I enjoyed Gears of War more.

My biggest complaint is fairly simple, actually.  The camera is horrible while you’re driving.  It’s too low (the car literally gets in the way of you seeing), and when you turn, it doesn’t follow you quickly enough.  You’re pretty much driving right while the camera is still looking straight.  These probably wouldn’t be big deals in a lot of other games, but you spend a lot of time driving in GTA, so it really gets old quick.  Ah well, it was still definitely worth the buy.