the bedside table

true enough promised to tell me how to live in a post-truth society.  well, it did not quite deliver, but i did get some good information anyway.

farhad manjoo spends most of the book deconstructing many of the myths that people labor under - 9/11 was an inside job, the media has a liberal bias, john kerry did not earn his medals.  he does not exactly set out to disprove the myths, although he does along the way, he more lays out the specific societal constructs that made each possible.  he mixes sociology, psychology and history to root out the cause of the disappearance of truth.  it is an easy and enjoyable read, but not quite the guide to modern living that i had hoped for.  

but it does give me more ammunition when i am confronted with the bits of common knowledge that abound today.  i need all the ammunition i can get.

The Latest Question

I think a lot. So do most of you readers. I appreciate this very much. I know that you do not always think the same as I do, or as each other. This is why I love you. It gives me perspective. As most of you know, I love to think about politics and economics quite a bit. And prose poetry... but that is for another time, sorry. Now for the question....

what do you think should be done about the U.S. auto industry?

If I get enough responses... or any, I will post what I think on my next post.

The Map

Here is the college. Think of it what you may. There are some interesting takes: McCain's largest % take for any given electoral area (I say area because of D.C.) was 66% (OK.), while Obama's was 93% (D.C. itself). Obama's largest actual state take was Hawai'i at 72%.  And in California Obama took in more votes (61% of CA.) than McCain did if you combine the totals he won for 13 of the states. Considering that McCain won only 21-22 states, that is an impressive take in California for Obama (and a good argument to keep the college in place). I am proud of the last two states I have chosen to live in... California, and more recently Hawai'i. They have done right by me, and the world in their voting. Now, if only the Thais could learn something from this...

An investment opportunity

As I look at the date today, I wondered how many of you took me seriously when I left the post about going out of the country. Yes, I made it to commie land (Laos) and back alive. The part I am wondering about is the comment on the 7 7/11's. 

Yes, I have 7 different 7/11s between my apartment and the closest sky train stop (Victory Monument).  It is a straight walk of about 1 km (just over a half mile), and I s**t you not, there are at least 7 of these stores in that small distance. Two are right across the street from each other. And one of them opened up two days after I moved in. 

Understand that I have only counted on the street between my apartment and the BTS (sky train) station. I am supposing that were I to do a 1 km radius count of the 7/11s from my apartment, I would count far more than 7.  And the funny thing about this is that every one I have been by is always packed with people... including the walk up stand that only has a window, a hot dog roaster, a slurpee machine and a cold case for beer and soda and milk (imagine something about the size of a smart car or a yugo).

So as Asia industrializes, all I can think is 7/11... what an investment opportunity.

the bedside table

among the thugs

like drinking?  like football?  (the english version, where they actually, you know, use their feet.)  how about exotic travel?  can i interest you in some good natured drunken fun?  what about lots and lots of violence?

bill buford does for soccer hooligans (WARNING:  reading this book makes that picture a lot less funny) what hunter thompson did for the hells angels.  he lurks on their fringes, learns their habits, participates in their adventures and tells us all about it.  like the crowds that he examines, the book moves along peacefully at points.  it is even fun.  then, with little or no provocation, violence erupts.  buford is looking for why, and never quite finds it.  but, again much like the crowds, the trip is pretty interesting.

exhale

aaahhhhhhh

Screw it, I'm leaving the country

Going to Laos. So don't let Timmeh burn the site down or get McCain elected or anything drastic like that. I will be back with your new  mother in a few days. Hope she is pretty. Oh, and I left some beer for ya'll at one of the 7 nearby 7/11's, and some rum in the freezer.... Remember to Barack the vote and turn the lights off on your way out.

Apparently, I F**ked up

I guess I should have woken up earlier.... or at least stayed in the country.

four years later

a little something to get you ready for tuesday.  let's hope it works this time.

Trips to the store

What is a trip to the store? Is this something you do when you are out of milk and honey... uh, milk and beer? Is it done when the baby is in the sink and the pampers are in the trash and you notice that there are no replacement huggies? Do you do this when you are lonely on a wednesday night and you just want to check out some hot MILF in the produce isles? It is all of this and more....

It is something you do whether you have the time to travel to the tundra to ride bare back on a carabou, or the energy to make a life changing journey to the grand canyon in order to pee off it at 2 am. A trip to the store fills the daily void. This is where we go to sustain ourselves on a regular basis. Yes, we do need to vacate our reality occasionally and travel to the beaches of Hawai'i. Of course we need to every so often replenish the soul with journeys to Thailand. But it is our trips to the store that keep us alive and going until those times come. This is the action that fills the emptiness in our daily grind. It is the profoundness of our everyday routine. 

With the profundity we gain in the simplicity of going to buy the dish washing soap, we build the foundation of who we are. And we place the mortar in our foundations that makes it so that when we swim with the tigers in Hawai'i, we devour the moment, even if we are in turn devoured by those tigers. The trips to the store provide us with the food for our fidelity. The sustenance for our souls.

And so next time you are collecting the cleanser at costco, and you see that every checker is open, and there are forty people waiting at each one, smile and continue to relish the moment you are alive in. For this is a trip to the store.