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“My Dog Ate My Passport”

Wow. We hit a big snag at the airport last night - I’m still kind of in shock. Thao and I got to the airport a little before 10:00pm. James and Erin’s flight arrived about 10:20pm, and a few minutes later, we saw Erin come down the escalator into the baggage area. (We were having coffee in a vistors’ gallery that overlooks the baggage area.) I said “That looks like Erin, but she wouldn’t be by herself.” But after a while Erin looked up and saw us waving and waved back and I realized it really was her.

Thao and I thought maybe James had gone to the bathroom and Erin came on out to get their luggage, etc. Then, after we waited 15 or 20 minutes or so, we thought maybe James got lost in the airport. We really had no clue. Erin kept looking up at us and shrugging her shoulders and pointing back inside the airport, etc.

Finally, I motioned to Erin that I would try to meet her downstairs. I went down to her level and we were able to talk. She was still inside the part of the airport where people without tickets can’t get to (supposedly - more on that later) and hadn’t come through customs yet.

She said that there was a problem with James passport, that one of the pages was damaged and that they were telling him he couldn’t enter Vietnam and had to go back to Korea (where their flight to Vietnam had originated from). I was like “What!?!” I told Erin I was going to go get Thao and try to get Thao inside the airport to talk to the immigration people in Vietnamese.

Well, when Thao and I were walking back in - to the same area where I’d just been - one of the Vietnamese airport security guards came over and wouldn’t let Thao in. We explained the situation, but he said no way. That prohibition didn’t apply to me for some reason, so we got Thao situated outside and I went back in. This time, I walked through customs and went up to the immigration area on the second floor with Erin. (Try that in America - walking into an aiport and through customs without a ticket! Makes me feel really secure about Vietnamese airline security - but anyway.)

So Erin and I got up to the second level and there was James in the immigration area. He was on one side of a little fence with some Vietnamese dudes, and we were on the other side of the fence. He and a Vietnamese employee of Korean Airlines came over to us, and I tried to explain the situation to the Vietnamese guy in my limited Vietnamese (which proved to be completely unnecessary because his English was excellent - I just thought that maybe if I talked to him in Vietnamese and he knew I lived there and wasn’t just a tourist, etc., he might be more sympathetic to us - didn’t work).

He was very nice, but he said that the immigration manager had already reviewed the passport and made his decision and said that James would be refused entry into Vietnam. I couldn’t believe that there was nothing we could do, so I kept talking to him to see if there was anything at all we could do.

It turned out that the problem was that James and Erin’s dog, Cinnamon, had chewed up the cover of James’ passport. The identifying information was all intact - including the photo, signature, passport number, etc., but because the passport was damaged, Vietnam immigration would not let him in. James said that he never thought it would be a problem because he’d traveled internationally with that same passport after their dog had chewed it up - and they didn’t say anything at all about it that time.

Anyway, we explored a lot of different options with the KAL employee, but he was convinced that there would be no way to change the immigration manager’s mind. We then called the U.S. consulate’s emergency number, and spoke with a consulate official. She said she’d talk to the KAL employee and/or the immigration manager for us and, if necessary, she’d go to the consulate (she was on her mobile) and process some type of confirmation for James, etc. The KAL employee was skeptical that the immigration manager would even talk to her, but we prevailed upon him to get the immigration manager to come out of his office.

He came out, and he was actually a very nice guy, but he wouldn’t talk to the consulate official and said that the problem was that Vietnamese law was very clear that they simply could not accept a damaged passport. He said there was nothing he or anyone else at the airport at that time could do - regardless of what the U.S. consulate said. We even offered to pay him or the KAL employee $1,000 USD as a “fine” or “penalty” if there was anything they could do - but they said they couldn’t help us. They were both very sorry about the situation - realizing that James and Erin had just gotten off of a 25-hour flight and were now about to have to get on another 5.5-hour flight back to Korea.

When they finally convinced us that there really was nothing they could do, we started discussing how to handle it going forward. They were going to make James and Erin get on a flight back to Seoul that was leaving soon, so we didn’t have a lot of time. The real problem was that they might not accept James’ passport in Korea either - in which case they would put them on the next flight back to the U.S.

But assuming James could get into Korea on his passport, the next step would be to try to get the U.S. embassy there to give him a new passport or some type of temporary certification that would be good enough to get him in to Vietnam - at which point they would fly back. I asked them if they could extend their trip for a couple of days to make up for the lost time, but they said they couldn’t because Erin had to start back to work teaching the day after they were scheduled to get back.

We also discussed Erin staying in Vietnam and James going back to Korea by himself to work out the situation. The problem was that we didn’t know if James would even be able to get into Korea with his passport, and if not he’d be on his way back to the U.S. and Erin would be in Vietnam. (Which wouldn’t have been a problem, but then she would have had to travel back to the U.S. by herself as well.) So she decided to go with him back to Korea.

I felt very bad for them. I’ve made that flight or similar flights many times, and I know how tired you are when you finally arrive. And how the last thing on earth you want to do is to get back onto a plane. Erin said a few times “I really don’t think I can get back on a plane right now.” But in the end, that’s what they decided to do.

So I told them how sorry I was, hugged them goodbye, and they were escorted to their flight back to Korea. (For which they also had to pay $1,000 USD.)

Thao and I felt terrible. We couldn’t believe it and we felt kind of sick for them. But there was nothing we could do other than head home.

We woke up several times during the night and I told Thao “James and Erin are still on their flight.” We just felt awful about it.

This morning, I received an email from james that, after a lot of arguing, Korean immigration finally allowed him to enter Korea. So they are in Seoul now. He was going to try to get in touch with the U.S. embassy today to get the passport situation resolved. I looked online and it said the embassy is not open on Sunday, but there is an emergency number you can call and I emailed that number to James. (Not sure whether they will consider a stranded tourist an emergency but it’s worth a shot.) If he can’t get them to do anything today, they open at 9:00am tomorrow (Monday) morning, so he will try then.

My hope is that they will be able to get back to Vietnam no later than Monday night. We will have to cancel the Mekong Delta trip, but they will still be able to check out Saigon, go to the beach at Phu Quoc Island, and take the boat trip to Cu Chi. But it will turn an already short trip to Vietnam even shorter, so that sucks.

I guess the bottom line is before you come here - or anywhere - make sure your passport is in 100% good condition. I can’t imagine how angry I’d be if I flew all the way over here and then was told I couldn’t enter the country and had to get back on a plane. I’m going to check my passport throroughly every time I travel from now on. It actually has some staple holes in the back cover from where I’ve stapled in my customs declarations to keep from losing them. I wonder if that’s enough “damage” to keep me from entering a country? Maybe I’ll just go get a new passport so that it won’t even be a remote possibility.

I told Thao that James might kill Cinnamon when he gets back home. Not really. (By the way, the photo above for those of you who don’t know is of a dog that won the world’s ugliest dog contest a few years ago. At that time, I saw it online and I sent out an email to my family and friends saying that I’d gotten a new dog (this was a few years after my old dog died) and that the attached photo was of my new dog. In that email, I said that her name was Cinnamon - so James and Erin’s dog, Cinnamon, made me think about “my” Cinnamon.)

I’ll update the blog as I hear from James and Erin.

The Short Version

Okay, for anyone who wants to get a feel for the high degree of maturity, profound wit, incredible sophistication, and exploration of existential issues that permeate my masterpiece, “Divergent Perspectives,” but who doesn’t really like to hear someone say “bangin’,” feel free to watch the shorter, edited version below. If I may say so myself, I think I’ve done a remarkable job capturing the major themes running throughout the work:

Attention womenfolk! Prepare to cease speaking to me forever in 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . .

Okay, below is a film I did for my friend Brighton’s film festival back in the summer of 2005. Notice: “summer of 2005.” Three long years ago - three years during which I have grown and matured in so many ways that I can’t even begin to itemize them. Plus, it’s just a joke! It’s a joke! Hah!

I’ve been thinking about posting it for a while, but haven’t done so because there is about three seconds of me looking at porn on my computer and I didn’t want to put porn on my blog. (The setup is the girl I’m purportedly dating - played by my friend Jennifer, who used to live in my condo building in Atlanta) - is telling her friend how mature I am, etc., and how I’m super active and have so many different interests - and then it cuts to a shot of me looking at porn on my computer. Like I’m a real renaissance man. ) Anyway, I’ve blurred and pixelated the porn as much as I can figure out how to do - you can still kind of tell what it is, but if anyone looks at this for its salacious value, they have a problem. There’s real porn out there on the internet people - you don’t need to look at this.

So if anyone is offended by the blurred-out three seconds of porn, I apologize in advance. Don’t watch it! Or close your eyes or something.

There’s also some harsh language - including the use of the term “bangin’” and the f-bomb. So, if you’re the easily-offended type, again, please dont watch this! There’s a lot of good, wholesome material here on Orangwutang - go look at some of it.

Anyway, if you see this disappear from my blog in a couple of days, that is a pretty good indication that someone - or some people - most likely my mother - sent me an email and told me I shouldn’t have this on my blog. And by that point I had sobered up enough to think they were probably right.

Okay, now after all of that buildup, here is my very mediocre film about the different ways (divergent perspectives - get it?) a man and a woman view their budding relationship.

All of my female friends, it has been great knowing you and I wish you all the best.

Sincerely,

Captain Sensitivity

WARNING: NOT SAFE FOR WORK! (Maybe - if you work somewhere that watching three seconds of blurred-out, colorized semi-porn in a parody is “unsafe.”)

“There Ain’t No Party Like a Long An Party, ‘Cause a Long An Party Don’t Stop”

Here are a couple of photos from the party for Thao’s niece, Bao Ngan’s one-month birthday party a few weeks ago (iPhone only b/c my Canon “disappeared” at that same party):

(I think I posted this first one directly from my iPhone earlier - sorry for the repeat):

It’s just not an infant’s birthday party until someone breaks out the Johnnie Walker Red Label.

And below are some iPhone shots of the wedding party we went to the very next day (this time in Hoc Song, not Long An).

Here’s the table of loud drunk men you see at every party in Vietnam - I’m almost convinced it’s the same guys - they just circulate from party to party getting drunk and being loud:

The aftermath:

Holy shit! Noodles in Vietnam!

It’s Friday night here and I am bored. I should be at the gym, but in addition to being bored, I am also lazy. And fat. I went out to dinner the past two nights, and I know I’m going to have a big week with James and Erin here, so I’m just taking it easy tonight. Thao is at her English class until 9:30pm. I am screwing around on the internet.

Do you want to see how bored I am? I created my second creature using Spore Creature Creator. My goal was to make a creature that looked like my old basset hound, Hannah. See? That’s bored - sitting around on a Friday night trying to create an animated computer character that looks like your dog that died six years ago! Actually more pathetic than bored, but here you go:

It looks a little bit like Hannah - if Hannah had been an alien platypus. But you get the idea.

So tomorrow I have to teach - covering for another law teacher who’s out of town - and he’s covering for me while I’m in Phu Quoc with James, Erin, and Thao next week. One class at 10:30am, another at 12:00pm tomorrow. After that: to the gym! (Maybe.) Then Thao and I will go out to dinner and then go to the airport to welcome our weary travelers to the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam. I’m getting very fired up about them coming!

I haven’t been to the gym as much as I hoped/planned, but I have been doing this pushups program with my friend Bart: One Hundred Pushups Program. The idea is you can get up to doing 100 pushups in six weeks. Let me rephrase that: Within six weeks you will be able to do 100 straight pushups - not 100 pushups over the course of six weeks, which is slightly less impressive (but probably more realistic for Bart and me!).

The first week has proven to be a little harder than either of us expected. Day 1 we did sets of 10, 10, 8, 6, and 9. Day 2: 12, 12, 10, 10, 8 (so you can see we’re already falling off the program as we’re supposed to max out that last set and do at least 15). Day 3 (today - you skip one day between each pushup day): 15, 13, 10, 10, 10 (last set supposed to be 15 - couldn’t do it).

I’m using those Perfect Pushup things that I got back in the U.S. last December. They really isolate your muscles - by the time I hit that last set, my muscles are failing completely. I literally can’t physically push myself back up. I sit there straining and flailing for a while (a very short while, I assure you - I’m not really big on either straining or flailing), and then I collapse to the floor in a sweating heap of middle agedness.

So we had so much trouble this week that Bart and I collectively decided to repeat the first week’s program next week to see if we can at least build our strength up to that of average 80-year-old women.

Also tonight I am downloading the software to crack my iPhone so that I can download applications from Apple’s new App Store. There are some pretty cool applications out there and I can’t wait to try some of them. Of course what will probably happen is I will completely fry my iPhone, but we’ll see.

I’m trying to think if I have any other news. I don’t think so. My law students have their first midterm next Saturday. I keep telling them that I’m going to Phu Quoc on Wednesday and won’t be back before their test on Saturday, so if they have any questions they better ask me before Tuesday. I get some sick satisfaction out of saying to them: “So next Saturday, I will be drinking beer on Phu Quoc Island while you guys are taking your first midterm.” I think they might be plotting to kill me.

We finished our review of negligence today. It’s hard for them, but I think I’m doing a better job than I did last semester, and I also think I have some sharper kids (on average - no offense to any of the brainiacs in my class last semester). I’m going to do an experiment by not being involved in the grading of the first midterm. Two of the other law teachers will grade it and then I and the fourth teacher will grade the second midterm. I want to see if my kids do better this semester than they did last semester - without me being tempted to score my kids higher, etc. So we’ll see.

I’m getting very excited about my trip home in October. This is the longest - by far - that I’ve ever been out of the country. About 9 months and some change. I’m not really homesick - and not really missing anything specific - like a certain food or whatever - but it will just be nice to be home and to see my family and friends. It will also be nice to have some cool weather! The last couple of weeks here it’s gotten hot as hell and we’re in the midst of full-blown rainy season. (I haven’t mentioned that to this point because I didn’t want James and Erin to realize that they’re coming right as rainy season is fully upon us - but as of right now they’re at the airport waiting on their flight out of Atlanta, so I think it’s safe to mention!) It’s really not bad - just rains for a couple of hours every day.

Okay, that’s enough rambling. I’m still waiting on my iPhone software to download. Maybe I will go create another Spore creature. I wonder if I can come up with anything more depressing than my dead dog. I’ll give it some thought.

Hope everyone on that end is doing well!

First Spore Creature

I downloaded the Creature Creator for the Spore game, and here is a video of the first creature I created:

It’s a really neat program. Very intuitive. Like I said before, I am happy I did not have something like this as a child because I may have never left the house.

These People Right Here . . .

. . . will be in Vietnam as of this Saturday night around 10:20pm. That’s my friend and former coworker, James, and his wife, Erin (and me and what appears to be a merkin on my chin).

Thao and I will pick them up at Tan Son Nhat airport Saturday night, after which we will get them checked into their hotel. Then it’s on to the rooftop bar on the Rex Hotel (which is open all night) so James can, in his words, “get [his] Walter Cronkite on.” (Apparently, the rooftop bar on the Rex Hotel was where a lot of correspondents, including maybe Walter Cronkite, hung out - read: drank - during the conflict/war/”disagreement”.

It’s also the place we started Mary Ellen and Tony’s trip way back in November - and those of you who have been following this blog saw how that trip ended up:

Enough. You get the idea.)

Anyway, here’s James and Erin’s itinerary:

Sunday: Explore Saigon;
Monday - Tuesday: Mekong Delta tour;
Wednesday - Friday: Phu Quoc Island with Thao and me;
Saturday: Boat trip to Cu Chi tunnels; Saturday night flight back to the U.S.

So that’s a pretty short trip (not as short as Rudy and Hayley’s recent trip - 24 hours but still!). We decided not to try to cram in a trip to Angkor Wat in Cambodia, etc., since we only have about 7 days to work with. The Mekong Delta tour should be cool - a chance to see some rural Vietnam, floating markets, etc. (a lot of the tour is by boat). And chilling in Phu Quoc will be great (provided we have some decent weather). I haven’t been there yet, but it’s supposed to be very nice and chill. We’re just going to rent motorbikes and explore the island, maybe go on a hike, eat a lot of fresh seafood, and drink a lot of beer. Finally, the boat trip to Cu Chi makes for a nice, relaxing day. Maybe James and Erin will get to shoot an AK-47.

Anyway, I’m very excited about their trip over here. Neither of them have ever been to Asia before, and it’s always fun to see how people react to their first trip to Asia. I’m also excited about having next Wed., Thurs., and Fri. off of work! Woo-hoo!

Haven’t seen The Dark Knight yet but I am sure the DVD will be out soon. I bought Batman Begins the other day and watched it last night. Pretty good, but I thought some of it was kind of cheesy. For one, I didn’t think the Scarecrow villain was all that great. And the actor who played him - Cillian Murphy - creeps me out - I can’t stand to look at him in any film. I think he was scarier without the Scarecrow mask than he was with it. I don’t know what it is about that guy, but I have a very visceral negative reaction to him. Also, the scene where the Batmobile was jumping from roof to roof and the subsequent chase scene was kind of cheesy. Finally, Katie Holmes was pretty terrible - I don’t usually like continuity gaps like changing the actress from Katie Holmes to Maggie Gyllenhaal in the new movie, but in this case it might be a welcome change. All of that said, I think Christian Bale makes a pretty good Bruce Wayne, I liked Liam Neeson’s character, R’as Al Ghul, and the tone of the movie is a hell of a lot better than the earlier, campy Tim Burton-directed Batman movies, which I thought were kind of ridiculous. Anyway, the reviews for The Dark Knight are uniformly positive, so I am looking forward to that one.

I also watched Get Smart with Steve Carell, which I thought was pretty funny (even though Carell’s Maxwell Smart is basically the same character as Michael Scott from The Office). And I’ve got Hellboy II on tap. Bootleg DVD Fest 2008!

Anyway, I’ll have a new camera when James gets here - one that Thao and anyone in her extended family are prohibited from touching, much less using. So hopefully I’ll start posting - as my friend Mitch recently requested - “more pictures of random Vietnam shit.”

Oh, one last thing: My flight back to the U.S. next year is currently set for May 31, 2009. As much as I hate to admit it, my 20-year high school reunion will be in 2009. I’m trying to get the coordinators of it to have it sometime between June 1 and 14 if possible so I can go. If I can’t go, no biggie, but I would like to if possible. If I can go, I’m seriously thinking about renting that same powder blue tuxedo and hot pink bowtie and cummerbund that I wore to my senior prom in 1989, renting a stretch Hummer limo for the night, and generally doing it up in high style (for Thomaston, Georgia):

Beverly, you out there? Beverly?

“Doin’ Time in ‘89!”

“Mighty Fine in ‘89!”

“Right On Time in ‘89!”

I’m sure there were more of these, but I can’t remember. And in any event, the above should be more than enough to give you a taste of the creative juices flowing through the R.E. Lee Institute Class of 1989.

Here are a couple of lesser known sayings of our class that year:

“Old No. 7″

“My foot!”

“That damn tam.”

“Everybody’s talkin’ ’bout . . .”

“It’s so easy . . .”

“Buc is on restriction.”

“Jennifer [last name omitted] got caught . . . in Barnesville.”

“Varmint-Cong”

“L.P.G.N.!”

“Students Against Couch”

“We didn’t know about the kids, ma’am.”

“Why don’t you tell us about what happened at the Sci-Trek Museum on Friday?”

“Frank Bunn!”

“Frank Gibson!”

“Scrack!”

“Dr. Ice and L.L. Cool Ray a/k/a 2 F.U.N.”

“Know the lake.”

“Sri Chinmoy’s Boys”

“Stan Bumgardner”

The Billboard Hot 100 (1989)

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  • 1. Look Away - Chicago
  • 2. My Prerogative - Bobby Brown
  • 3. Every Rose Has Its Thorn - Poison
  • 4. Straight Up - Paula Abdul
  • 5. Miss You Much - Janet Jackson
  • 6. Cold Hearted - Paula Abdul
  • 7. Wind Beneath My Wings - Bette Midler
  • 8. Girl You Know Its True - Milli Vanilli

  • 9. Baby, I Love Your Way-Freebird - Will Te=o Power
  • 10. Giving You The Best That I Got - Anita Baker
  • 11. Right Here Waiting - Richard Marx
  • 12. Waiting For A Star To Fall - Boy Meets Girl
  • 13. Lost In Your Eyes - Debbie Gibson
  • 14. Don’t Wanna Lose You - Gloria Estefan
  • 15. Heavan - Warrant
  • 16. Girl I’m Gonna Miss You - Milli Vanilli
  • 17. The Look - Roxette
  • 18. She Drives Me Crazy - Fine Young Cannibals
  • 19. On Our Own - Bobby Brown
  • 20. Two Hearts - Phil Collins
  • 21. Blame It On The Rain - Milli Vanilli
  • 22. Listen To Your Heart - Roxette
  • 23. I’ll Be There For You - Bon Jovi
  • 24. If You Don’t Know Be By Now - Simply Red
  • 25. Like A Prayer - Madonna
  • 26. I’ll Be Loving You (Forever) - New Kids On The Block
  • 27. How Can I Fall? - Breathe
  • 28. Baby Don’t Forget My Number - Milli Vanilli
  • 29. Toy Solider - Martika
  • 30. Forever Your Girl. - Paula Abdul
  • 31. The Living Years - Mike & The Mechanics
  • 32. Eternal Flame - The Bangles
  • 33. Wild Thing - Tone Loc
  • 34. When I See You Smile - Bad English
  • 35. If I Could Turn Back Time - Cher

  • 36. Buffalo Stance - Neneh Cherry

  • 37. When I’m With You - Sheriff
  • 38. Don’t Rush Me - Taylor Dayne
  • 39. Born To Be My Baby - Bon Jovi
  • 40. Good Thing - Fine Young Cannibals
  • 41. The Lover In Me - Sheena Easton
  • 42. Bust A Move - Young M.C.

  • 43. Once Bitten, Twice Shy - Great White
  • 44. Batdance - Prince
  • 45. Rock On - Michael Damian
  • 46. Real Love - Jody Watley
  • 47. Love Shack - B-52’s
  • 48. Every Little Step - Bobby Brown
  • 49. Hangin’ Tough - New Kids On The Block
  • 50. My Heart Can’t Tell You No - Rod Stewart
  • 51. So Alive - Love & Rockets
  • 52. You Got It (The Right Stuff) - New Kids On The Block
  • 53. Armageddon It - Def Leppard

  • 54. Satisfied - Richard Marx
  • 55. Express Yourself - Madonna
  • 56. I Like It - Dino
  • 57. Soldier Of Love - Donny Osmond
  • 58. Sowing The Seeds Of Love - Tears For Fears
  • 59. Cherish - Madonna
  • 60. When The Children Cry - White Lion
  • 61. 18 And Life - Skid Row
  • 62. I Don’t Want Your Love - Duran Duran
  • 63. Second Chances - .38 Special
  • 64. The Way You Love Me - Karyn White
  • 65. Funky Cold Medina - Tone Loc

  • 66. In Your Room - Bangles
  • 67. Miss You Like Crazy - Natalie Cole
  • 68. Love Song - Cure
  • 69. Secret Rendesvous - Karyn White
  • 70. Angel Eyes - Jeff Healey Band
  • 71. Patience - Guns N’ Roses
  • 72. Walk On Water - Eddie Money
  • 73. Cover Girl - New Kids On The Block
  • 74. Welcom To The Jungle - Guns N’ Roses
  • 75. Shower Me With Your Love - Surface
  • 76. Stand - R.E.M.
  • 77. Close My Eyes Forever - Lita Ford
  • 78. All This Time - Tiffany
  • 79. After All - Cher & Peter Cetera
  • 80. Roni - Bobby Brown

  • 81. Love In An Elevator - Aerosmith
  • 82. Lay Your Hands On Me - Bon Jovi
  • 83. This Promise - When In Rome
  • 84. What I Am - Edie Brickell & The New Bohemians
  • 85. I Remember Holding You - Boys Club
  • 86. Paradise City - Guns N’ Roses
  • 87. Iwanna Have Some Fun - Samantha Fox
  • 88. She Wants To Dance With Me - Rick Astley
  • 89. Dreamin’ - Vanessa Williams
  • 90. It’s No Crime - Babyface
  • 91. Poison - Alice Cooper
  • 92. This Time I Know It’s For Real - Donna Summer
  • 93. Smooth Criminal - Michael Jackson
  • 94. Heavan Help Me - Deon Estus
  • 95. Rock Wit’cha - Bobby Brown
  • 96. Thinking Of You - Sa-fire
  • 97. What You Don’t Know - Expose
  • 98. Surrender To Me - Ann Wilson & Robin Zander
  • 99. The End Of The Innocence - Don Henley
  • 100. Keep On Movin’ - Soul II Soul

Exclusive Deleted Scenes from “The Dark Knight”

$974, $1,160, or $68?

I was going to buy that Dell laptop recently for $974 - but Dell couldn’t ship it to my friend James before he comes over here in a couple of weeks. Then I was going to buy an even more souped-up HP laptop for $1,160 - but once again they couldn’t get it to James before he left the U.S.

So today I went and bought a gigabyte of RAM for my old Compaq laptop for $68 and it is running a lot better. So that’s sweet! I also bought a copy of “Windows XP Black” - which is some black market version of Windows XP that comes with some extra programs built in, etc. For 20,000 dong - or $1.25.

So I’ve reverted from Linus back to Windows XP. Linux was okay - but didn’t really run much faster on my weak system than Windows XP does. Also, there were several programs that I couldn’t get for Linux - one is a program I use to help me learn Vietnamese, and another was iTunes, which I need to move music on and off of my iPhone.

Anyway, hopefully this new RAM will let me use this old laptop for at least another year - and hopefully more.

More Mexi-Cam Footage

My buddy Aaron just sent me some more great photos from his and Mirjam’s trip. He just got these from the guy on his dive boat at Sail Rock in Thailand: Link to Photos

Here are some samples - I can’t imagine how cool it must have been to be that close to a whale shark!

Incredible!

“Jerry?” “No, it’s Hank.”

I got the following email from my friend - I may have called him “Meatlord” on this blog before, but today I will call him the “Carpet-headed Hibernian” - telling me about a dream he had last night:

Hank, what’s up,
fella? Check out this dream I had last night. I was working in the
office and suddenly Jerry Garcia was in my door - or at least someone who looked
a lot like Jerry Garcia. I said “Jerry”? And he said, “No, it’s
Hank”. Anyway, I didn’t believe him/you, but he insisted that he was
you. I was making fun of you for not aging all that well. I said
something like “Damn, Hank, looks like Vietnam has been rough on you.”
That’s all I remember. Rock on.

I love it!

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