I just got an email from some of my old fraternity pledge brothers who are planning a pledge class reunion in Athens this October.  I can’t believe it was 20 years ago already that we were lining up at dinner to have rolls thrown at us and mashed potatoes stuffed down our pants!

Here’s the photo that accompanied the invitation to the reunion.  Your boy is fifth from the left in the top row:

This video always cracks me up. They won $10,000 in the talent competition. I wish they had videos of their competition. I envision church choirs and jug bands, etc., and then the full Sly and the Family Stone roll out onstage with about 20 people and just tear the roof off. The best is around the 3:36 mark when Sly starts doing his softshoe or whatever you call it.

I picture all of these farmers in overalls in the crowd going “What the hell?”

I just finished teaching my first class of the semester.  It went pretty well.  I used my revamped slides, and it went a little faster than I anticipated.  I got into the material from the second class slides and still finished early.  Seems like a pretty sharp group.  We’ll see.

I changed the theme for my blog again – couldn’t quite get used to that last one.  This theme is called “Contempt,” and is a variation of the “K2 Lite” theme I was using before – just a little more blocked off and so a little more professional looking.  I like it.  I wish I could move the “Orangwutang” and accompanying tagline (don’t have one right now but if I did it would be centered under Orangwutang) over to the left like before.  I’m sure there is a way to edit the code and do it, but I’m not that proficient at stuff like that.

I’m having trouble getting up and getting going in the mornings.  I’ve gotten used to sleeping late during the break – and it doesn’t help that I don’t have any class starting before noon this semester.  I start my Vietnamese classes back up after a short break – co Phuc has been in Cambodia with her family – on Thursday, and will be doing that at 8:30am three days a week, so I will have no choice but to start getting up earlier.

No other news to speak of here – not that I can think of, at least.

Yesterday, Sunday, was depressing movie day for me.  Not my original intent – I had recently downloaded Frozen River because I wanted to watch Melissa Leo’s Oscar-nominated performance.  Finally watched it yesterday morning.  Great performance by Leo, for sure, although I would still give the best actress Oscar to Anne Hathaway for Rachel Getting Married based on the movies I’ve seen.  But overall just an okay film.  Very depressing, kind of pointless, and a few things in the story that just didn’t ring true to me.

Then last night, after Thao and I got back from dinner with two friends visiting from Atlanta, I watched Dear Zachary – a documentary about a man who was killed by his ex-girlfriend and the legal aftermath of that murder.  Complicated by the fact that, at the time she killed him, she was several months pregnant with his son.  A very, very good film but a complete tragedy.  Almost made me weep for the parents of the murdered man for all they went through.  I won’t say anything more here to spoil it, but I would highly recommend this film.

I’m back to school today.  Don’t start teaching until tomorrow, but need to go get prepared/organized/etc. today.  I’m excited to start teaching again tomorrow!  (Although this break has been really nice.)  It’s funny, but I’ve been having this dream the last few nights where I am having to take a law exam.  I’ve had similar dreams a lot in the past – usually it’s like I have a huge test that determines whether I pass or fail the course, and I have somehow completely forgotten that I even had the class, had never attended the class or studied for the exam, etc., and now I have to go in and take the test blind.  I’ve talked to other people who have had the identical dream – maybe it’s a function of having gone to law school.  We get so tested-out that we associate stress with exams?  (Not that I have much stress in my life here, to be sure.) 

Anyway, last night’s dream was a little different because in the dream I knew that I was actually the law teacher, and I kept saying to people in the dream that I didn’t think it was necessary or fair for the law teachers to have to take the law exam.  Ah, the human mind.  I think I’ve mentioned before that I still dream a few times a week about my old basset hound, Hannah, who died almost 7 years ago.  I wonder if I’ll dream about her for the rest of my life?

Trying out some new stuff on the blog today.

#1:  A new theme.  Not sure I like it as much as the old theme and I may change back, but thought after a year and a half or so it was time to try something else.

#2:  Replaced my Google Reader Shared Items feed with my Twitter feed.  My Twitter feed includes my Google Reader Shared Items feed, so that stuff will still be there – just mixed in with any other mini-updates I post to Twitter.  You should be able to click on the “Fail Whale” image on the right there and go to my Twitter page – where you can follow me, etc.

#3:  Added a link to my Facebook profile – the image of Ho Chi Minh there on the right.  I don’t really use Facebook.  I just don’t like it and can’t get into it.  I waste more than enough time on the internet already and the degree and granularity of the information you get on Facebook is just too much.  The only reason I have a Facebook account is because I was trying to get in touch with an old friend that I could only find on Facebook and the only way to send them a message was to set up an account.  All of that being said, I realize that a lot of people use it and like it.  So what I’ve done is configured my Facebook account so that my blog posts and Twitter updates show up on my Facebook account as well.

I think that’s it as far as changes to the blog.

Everything is going great here.  School starts back up next week and I’m looking forward to that – although not having a whole lot to do for a while now has been nice as well.

Thao and I sat down and tried to figure out what made the most sense as far as her coming home to the U.S. with me.  I was thinking Christmas this year, but it is hard for both of us to take time off from work at Christmas, so that doesn’t really make a lot of sense.  What seems to make the most sense for both of us is to come for Tet next year, as we both have about 10 days off of work then.  Tet begins on February 14th, 2010, which seems appropriate, as if we are still together by then we will probably be visiting the U.S. as Mr. and Mrs., I would imagine.

We are going to go ahead and move in together in July, after I get back from my trip to Tibet, so that should be interesting.

Got word that my buddy Mitch is coming to visit at the end of April, so I’ll be looking forward to that!

I’ve finally started to work out fairly regularly again and have lost about 4 kgs – about 9 lbs.  I hope I can stick with the program this time.  I need to lose about 8 or 10 more pounds.  What I will do then, I have no idea.  Maybe just go ahead get fat again.  I’m still off coffee – haven’t had any in a couple of months now, I guess.  Just getting it done with the black tea and an occasional Diet Coke (or “Coke Light” as it’s branded here).

Okay, I’m rambling.  Need to jump in the shower and make an appearance at work since it’s already 1pm and I haven’t done a damn thing so far today except mess with this blog.

Oh, last thing:  I downloaded the Lost and Damned add-on content for Grand Theft Auto IV – it took forwever to download and just finished this morning, so I haven’t played it yet.  But if there was ever any doubt about what my weekend might involve, there you go.

Just booked the flights for my next trip.  I fly from HCMC to Lhasa, Tibet (technically China I guess, but anyway) on June 9th, leave Lhasa on June 15th on the high-speed train, arrive in Beijing on June 17th, spend a couple of nights in Beijing visiting my friends Jason and Mindy and their daughters, then fly back to HCMC on June 19th.

I’ve been wanting to take this high-speed train for a long time, so I’m really excited about that.  Also about spending a few days in Lhasa.

I was supposed to be coming home in June, but I canceled that flight and transferred the credit (minus a $100 cancellation fee) over to my new flights.  So that worked out pretty good and this trip will not end up costing me very much.  I am going to try to get Thao a U.S. visa and bring her home with me in December for Christmas, so it didn’t make sense for me to spend the money to also take a trip home in June.

Anyway, I’m working with a tour company in Lhasa to help me get the required travel permit, etc.  I’ll keep you posted on how everything develops – and I realize it’s still four months away, but it really gives me something to look forward to.  Woo-hoo!

[Update: I forgot to mention that while out on my bike ride tonight, I drove out past the airport and promptly got lost. I ended up on a street with three - three! - dog meat restaurants. I had not actually seen that before in Vietnam, and thought most of the dog-eating action went on up north. I guess I just had not gotten lost on the right street before, because there they were: "Nha Hang Thit Con Cho." I confirmed again with Thao tonight after I got home that neither she nor her family eats dog meat. So far she's continued to say all the right things.]

It’s Sunday night, about 7:30pm here.  I just got back from a bike ride.  About 20km.  I hope you’re sitting down for this . . . I’ve now worked out three days in a row.  Rode 22km Friday, did the rowing machine and treadmill yesterday, and rode today.

Thao and I had a nice Valentine’s Day yesterday.  We went to a sushi lunch at the New World Hotel, where they were having a Valentine’s Day special.  It was great.  Then I worked out and Thao studied English.  Then we went and had an hour-long massage.  Finally, we went out to a nice dinner at a restaurant here called the Refinery.  (It is housed in a building that used to be an opium refinery back in the day.)  Excellent food but American prices.

Today Thao went to visit her family in Long An and I begged out of going and just hung around here all day – not a very productive day.  I am currently reading The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano.  It’s good, but I don’t think as good as 2666.  Similar in some ways, but just not as compelling to me.  I watched the movie Rachel Getting Married today.  I thought it was excellent.  Kind of hard to watch in places because of the emotional content, but great.  I think Anne Hathaway should win an Oscar for her role.  Much better than Angelina Jolie in The Changeling, which Thao and I watched last week.

I watched another movie the other day that I liked a lot – the first part of Che directed by Steven Soderbergh and starring Benicio Del Toro.  I thought it was excellent.  I’m in the process of downloading part 2 right now.  Can’t wait to watch it.

I have another week before I start teaching again on the 23rd.  Will use this week to prepare, get organized, etc.  This semester I’m teaching 3 commercial law classes and one industry project class.  I’ve taught the commercial law course for a year now already, so that will be a breeze.  And I’ve also taught industry project for one semester.  In fact, this will be the first semester that I haven’t had to learn a new subject to teach – so that will be nice.  My schedule is pretty good – one class on Saturdays but no early morning classes like the last two semesters.

I’m out.

I went and bought a new mountain bike today – god knows I need something to get me off of my ass couch and exercising again.  It’s a 2008 Giant Igana Disc, matte black color.  Here’s what it looks like:

I paid too much for it – but you always end up paying a little more for genuine gear here due to the importing, etc.  I just rode it from my house down to RMIT to test it out.  I looped around a little bit so it was about 13km.

It will take some getting used to riding a mountain bike in Saigon traffic.  But it feels pretty good.  I always have buyer’s remorse about things like this and I am worried that it’s a little small for me.  I’m 5’10″ (really 5’9″ though, according to my doctor’s scales’ height measurement thing) and it’s a 17-inch frame.  It seems to be about right as far as standover room and it feels okay – and I read some articles on the internet that said that around 17 inches was good for someone 5’9″ or 5’10″.  So I guess it’s okay.

Alright, time to get back pedalin’.  I’ve got about 10 pounds to lose.  Didn’t exactly go easy on the food and beer when Winder was in-country.