After my post yesterday, I thought of a few more things I meant to say – some of which were in my other, universally acclaimed by all who ever read it – namely: me, post that was accidentally deleted:

• TV: My little 19″ tv that is owned by my landlord died last week, so I bought a new tv. Part of my newfound laziness stems from my current habit of sitting around playing Xbox games at night versus running, etc. Games are about $1.50 a piece here, so it’s hard not to buy everything that comes out – and they get the games before they even come out in the U.S. somehow. Also, I bought the box set of DVDs for the “Curb Your Enthusiasm” series on HBO (created and starring Larry David, who was also the creator of “Seinfeld”). I had seen a few episodes before, but never the whole thing. It is really funny. There have been several times where I’ve laughed out loud at some of the predicaments Larry gets himself in. If you have seen it, I would recommend it. Anyway, given my Xbox and DVD-watching habits, I quickly went out and bought a new, 29″ Panasonic tv. Nothing too fancy – no HD or flat screen, etc. – just a big, old-fashioned CRT tv. But it was only $280, so that’s good. Anyway, I’m all set. Thank you for your concern.

• Camera: My Canon SLR is finally repaired. It took a while – and a couple of different repair shops – to dial in the problem and get it corrected, but it’s done. So now I can finally use my new zoom lens that my friend Glenda delivered to me when she and Jun came to Vietnam a couple of months ago. I am glad to have it repaired before I go to Myanmar in April.

• Myanmar: Speaking of which, I wanted to point out that it is not just Thao’s opinion that the Vietnamese name for Myanmar translates to “Country of the Electric Noodle.” I also looked it up in the dictionary and asked one of my classes at school. It checks out.

• Shorts: I mentioned my current flouting of Vietnamese custom and tradition by posing as a tourist and wearing shorts around. One downside – and maybe one reason the Vietnamese themselves don’t do so: Last week I burned the shit out of the back of my right calf. I parked my motorbike somewhere – I don’t even remember where I was – and as I got off, the back of my right calf hit the exhaust pipe/muffler of the motorbike to my left. It hurt like hell and I’ve now got about a quarter-sized burn mark on the back of my calf. I don’t know enough about burns (thankfully) to know whether it’s a first degree or second degree burn, etc. In Mississippi the official designation would be “Son, you done burnt (not burned, burnt) the ever-living shit out of your leg.” Which I already know. But anyway. It’s a fairly common problem here in Vietnam apparently. While they don’t wear shorts, a lot of the women wear skirts, and I commonly see burn marks and scars on the backs of women’s calves as they ride around town on their motorbikes. So I am not alone. If by “not alone” I mean I may be the only man in Vietnam with a burn mark on the back of his calf because the other men don’t wear shorts, but at least I am in solidarity with my burned/scarred nguoi Viet sistren.

• James and Erin: When I was going over my list of possible visits/cancellations, I forgot that my friends James (who I used to work with in Atlanta) and his wife, Erin, may come here in July. They haven’t fully confirmed yet – the last I heard James was looking at booking flights – but I hope they come!

• After posting those posts yesterday, I rode my motorbike downtown and hung out for a few hours. I am trying to buy some extra memory for my laptop. I want to buy a gigabyte of RAM, but my laptop has some old style of RAM – 333mhz as opposed to 667mhz – which means nothing to me – that is hard to find. I’ve supposedly zeroed in on a store that sells the old-style RAM, but they were closed on Sunday so I’m going back this morning. I’m going to buy a new laptop altogether later this year, so I don’t want to spend too much, but it would be nice to give this old laptop a bump in the meantime if I can do it without spending too much money. After that I did some shopping – I bought two pairs of black socks – I brought a ton of black socks with me over here – and even bought some additional ones at Sam’s when I was home in December, but they’ve somehow almost all disappeared and I’m down to my last two pairs. I don’t know what my various maids have done with all of them. Maybe they sell them on the black market because I will tell you this – it is hard as hell to find a decent, normal pair of black dress socks in this country. Someone told me that Vietnam is the largest exporter of socks in the world. That may be the case, but if it is then they are exporting 100% of them and not directing any socks to the domestic market. I’ve looked all over the place. Anyway, the ones I bought yesterday are okay but not great. So Dad, get ready to bring me a bunch of socks when you come here in June! After that I went and bought two shirts – knockoff Polo dress shirts for $15 a piece. “Fixed price.” They actually look pretty good for knockoffs. Then I went and ate at my favorite Indian restaurant here, then home to play a little Xbox (I finished Rainbow Six Vegas 2 yesterday – good but basically just an extension of the first game – also too short), then watched a movie. I rewatched “Layer Cake” – which I still think is an incredible movie. One of my favorites. I watched it with subtitles on, because I have always had a hard time picking up on the heavy English accents in movies like “Layer Cake,” “Snatch,” etc. Great movie. Also, a great soundtrack, which I had forgotten about. I am not a big Rolling Stones fan, but I have to say that song “Gimme Shelter” is pretty incredible. Anyway, it did turn out to be a lazy Sunday, but I got more done that I thought I would.

• So today, it’s about 10:00am right now and I am back at Gloria Jean’s. I’ll finish checking and responding to emails and reading the news on the internet, then head back downtown. I’m going to try to buy that RAM, I’ve got to go pay a bill, and I need to buy a couple of things for my camera. Then I’ve got my Vietnamese lesson from 4 to 6pm, and sometime I’ve also got to make sure I’m prepared for class tomorrow. They’re observing us teach a class this week – part of determining whether we’re going to be offered a new contract after this semester, so I need to do a good job tomorrow.