December Already...

Time really does fly by, having fun or not. The last few months I've been so lucky to have be having fun and enjoying living in my new home. Its already December and I've nearly lost track of how long since I first arrived or returned from a trip to the US. It doesn't seem as though time is passing too fast, certainly not too slow, but like I don't need to worry about time either way.

I do need to worry about time in a financial sense however. The credit card that allowed me to draw some emergency money while my wallet was lost has now stoped working. This morning I had 40 baht and was somewhat puzzled at how I would eat and get to school this next week. So I did what any student with photographic equipment would do. I went to MBK and sold a lens. I hadn't been using my fisheye much, because it was meant for film, not digital, so it just gave odd perspectives ... So I sold it for $255. About $100 less than I paid used, but now I can eat until my new bank card comes in the mail.

No word about my transfer. Then again, I haven't been to school since Friday and won't go tomorrow (day off). Actually there was some word last week. I can't register with the faxed copy and will have to wait for the official one in the mail.

Last week I went to Korat on Thursday with Potato. Lot of fun. Going to different provinces always is. We stayed up late chatting, watching tv, and ordering food for the record label to pay for (shhh...). Pup suggested I just apply for a staff photography job on my own, no help. The "I'll ask my boss" direction usually just lead to a lot of waiting. So I'll tackle that one Thursday? I'd like to wait until I have some photos from Bodyslam this Wednesday night, but I also need to just get going on the application process.

Saturday night I went with P'Da to MTV Staying Alive. A concert co-sponcered by Trojan Condoms. 6 bands and talks in-between. Endorphine, Bodyslam, and Thaitanium were the three bands from Grammy. After taking pictures we all got cool MTV wallets, armbands, and condoms.

[sigh] All for now.

A Fridge!

I bought one. Only 5,000 baht. Its pretty big for me. Smaller ones were 4,500 so I splurged. Momo and I went shopping for one together. I'm still thinking about the microwave...

I went and played soccer for the second time tonight. Played with a group of seniors from my school. Fuu, a friend I met in an English-Buddy program, and his classmates. Its a lot of fun. We all pitch in 100 baht and get a near-perfect field, lighted field, refs, and another full team to play against.

I went to Jatu Juk market this morning and bought some shoes. My old shoes that were getting looks, and my cool Asics Onitsuka Tigers are simply cooler.

As far as plans: English class tomorrow morning, MTV Aids Concert Saturday, Chiang Mai next month! Same friends that went to Chonburi mostly. The day finals finish we will either take a 12 hour, wooden seat train ride, or a 10 hour van ride depending on our exam schedules (to be announced). The van would be nice because we could sleep, stop to go the bathroom or eat, and a lot more comfortable. We'll stay at Ying's aunt's house/store and come back on the 2nd next year.

EDIT: I don't know why Blogger hates my photos, but I can never add photos without using Flickr (1 photo)
So...
Old shoes.
New shoes.

These are not the "pre-owned" shoes that can also be found at JJ Market, by the way. Those are all (hundreds of thousands of them, litterally) said to be haunted. I bought these new just because I want to make them look old, not have someone else do it first. I'm just selfish like that.

EFM Fun Fair went relatively well. Only one person died.
I don't wanna describe the whole day because that would be just too long. After a very long day the last thing you want is to get home and have to go back out again. I did. P'Win and his parents (they're very nice) dropped me off on Sukumvit and I took a short taxi ride to my house. Got out of the taxi went to open the door and P'Jak, a Grammy manager, called me. He had already left, one of the sound engineers had found a Nikon zoom lens on the stage and thought it might be mine. Oops. So I took a taxi all the way back to Bangna and got the lens. Then came back again.

I will say that Bodyslam was the best act of the day. Both Clash and Potato filled the stage wings just to see them play. Church, the drummer, is incredible to watch. I love watching him play. The other three are all great as well, Grammy's best at the moment. And we all know it... no debate.

Yesterday, I didn't go to Lampang. I woke up and was just too sick to drag myself to the airport. I also lost my wallet Friday. This means I have no way of getting any money from the US or my bank here. Elye has been very nice and loaned me a little money for now.

I've noticed people riding bicycles now. Wow, what a good idea. At least on the sois. Really.... it is. My soi is filled with them at the moment. Of course it is also filled with the normal motorcycles, about twice as many as cars, so now its just overflowing with moving vehicles. I'd by one, and even have enough money saved, but I don't have any access to that money at the moment.

Naturally, I never did anything about my rant on drunk driving. Just seems distant at the moment.

I'm planning on going to Chiang Mai with friends as soon as this term is over, basically New Years eve. I have finals the 23-29th.

Friends are already planning next terms classes. I hope to transfer credits from my old school, so I don't have to take more boring classes. I looked on the University Record System today and saw that the following new classes have been added to the list of available courses:
AD303 Electronic Media Production for Advertising
AD304 Print Media Production for Advertising
PR304 Print Media for Public Relations
PR305 Electronic Media for Public Relations
JR432 Publication Design and Production
JR440 Electronic Journalism
All sound mouth-watering when written near College Writing (it's not), Reading Skills, Ethics, and other courses that are basics for first year students. Ok maybe I could use some Ethics, but these classes are all designed to be English "refreshers" so mostly focus on English skills.

EFM Fun Fair

Reading the set list now, should be a great concert! If you are in Bangkok, buy a ticket tomorrow.

http://www.atimemedia.com/efm/project/funfair/


www.thaiticketmaster.com

Cat's and Dogs

Rain that is. Plenty of it. Bangkok monsoons are not months of non-stop rain, but daily thunderstorms. The last week my district has flooded several times with water overflowing curbs. Rain comes down very hard, loud bursts of lightning, more rain, then it stops. Everyday. I like the lightning part unless I'm out walking.
Today I had to go to school to get a memory card from Ying before the concert tonight: out walking. I swear I was dodging lightning bolts. Car alarms were going off around me from the thunder.
Sunday night the storm came in the evening and knocked the power out. With no light to read, no internet, and no TV (what to do..) I went down to the ground floor and stood with the landlord and fellow tenants. Most of the people had been forced down by a fear of ghosts. One of my landlords, the deaf (hearing impaired? I feel un-pc here :/) father one, and I were much more afraid of the lightning. The many TV anntenas, radio tower, and new skyscraper (with crane) near our apartment complex make it a reasonably conductive spot. The hand gestures we communicated with showed many possible paths an electrical current could follow. I'm glad the power went out as I got to see who really lives in my apartment.
There is a man on the second floor, German I believe, who has been bothering me lately. Not bothering me in a literal sense, I just feel weird seeing a largely over-weight, red skinned, blond-haired, 60 year old man, naked, and starring at me through his huge sunglasses every time I come home in the daytime. He sits on the balcony naked and just stares at the horizon. Not doing any harm really, just not the prettiest of things hanging off the building.

As far as happenings: I'm sick, I took pictures of Endorphine today, I have English tomorrow, and I think I'll go to Lampang this weekend.
I have a cold, I'm taking pills for it. I had a sore throat the other day, then the nasal congestion. Yesterday I called a friend and they thought I was someone pretending to be me. I was pretty dizzy too and skipped English. Luckily Prof. Wade doesn't mind, because I don't think I would have made it that morning, I was very drowsy.
Today I worked at the Peak U Up Concert. I met Da and Ohm at Pantip Plaza and we went to the university. Nice to see the Clash guys again. We all played sharades with the school's whiteboard while people were waiting for makeup. Not as nice to see So Cool, but I won't complain. The guys are nice, their producer is just a little creepy. He doesn't play with the band, but wears eye shadow and follows the boys around looking tough. He knows (everyone keeps reminding him) that I speak Thai, yet he takes every chance to bump into me so he can say "Excuse me." in a new, exciting way. I guess he just gets his kicks off looking like he speaks English and is in a band of 16 year olds. P2 Warship was there too, along with The First Stage Project, and Lipta, but I didn't talk to any of them.

Sunday night I went to Pataya for the first time. Not excited to go back. I thought I had gone before, but I think we were always on the outside of the city. The beach area and the main strip were downright vomit-inducing. Thousands of 40+ year old white men slinging several very lightly dressed >20 year old girls in one hand, and several bears in the other. So many different "restaurants" that were just filled with people who come to Thailand just for this type of fun. Yahoo.
I went with "M" by the way. M The Star. At first I thought he was a bit of an ass, but I got to like him. No band, just P'M, Tum, a Grammy sound tech, and I. The driver too. Grammy drivers are very cool on a general basis. They are older, but still having a lot of fun, and are consistently invited to drink and watch concerts while they wait on the bands. We played an incredible 6 songs, 4 of which belonged to M, totaling 26 minutes of playtime, at this place. Then we raced back to BKK. We stopped at M's place and took his brand new BMW to Kao San. Clash's new album sounded very very good in a BMW. Kao San was actually pretty fun. Bom, Ohm (Potato Drum, Bass), and Da (Endorphine) were there along with Boy (Peacemaker). We drank and then ate Jok across the street. P'M and Tum were pretty drunk, and I secretly wasn't too fond of Da's friends that went along with them, so I took a taxi home.

Which leads me to an observation of Thai culture. The drinking culture in particular. People don't seem to connect alcohol and drunk driving too well. There are loads of signs "If your drunk, don't drive" and such, but nobody thinks they are drunk. There are at least a couple dead bodies a day per each newspapers front page. Cars hit motorcycles, pedestrians, telephone poles, street vendors, anything. It's ridiculous. ANYWHERE in Bangkok where there is a pub, restaurant, bar, or club, a taxi will pass within 3 minutes. I'll bring the stopwatch. Taxis in BKK are almost ALWAYS less than 200 baht. Even one glass of any alcoholic drink is enough to slow reflexes down. I wish I could think of a way to make people understand that you don't have to be "drunk" to kill someone with your car. I'd do a photo essay tomorrow if I had the guts. I just don't think I could handle it. I'm gonna think about that one. If I can think of a way to get the message across, I'm gonna find a sponsor and put posters up in some bars.
I started the last paragraph by saying Thai culture because we tend to see drunk as bad, drinking as do-able. Where the foreign population either takes a taxi in the first place, or knows that drinking means somewhat impaired. I've never seen police at the exits of bars, or any warnings really, besides inside a taxi. Warning the sensible people doesn't seem to efficient.

Tomorrow I have English in the afternoon, then a Potato concert at night on Rachada soi 4. Potato is doing a show in BKK Saturday, then Lampang Sunday. I think I'll go Sunday and stay for Loi Krathong in the village. This means skipping English once on Monday, but I think I can manage.

Chonburi

Today I met four friends at the Ekkamai Bus Station, and took off for a day of photo-taking and sightseeing. I had a blast, we all did.

I actually met three friends at Ekkamai. Ton, Ying, and Pee. Off was the fouth and nearly left behind. The bus driver let him jump on...
We left at 8:40 and the drive was about an hour and a half long. We got dropped off on the freeway, and took a two-bench pickup truck to the beach area. That part was by accident. So then the five of us rented bicycles and rode the next 10 km to where we wanted to see. The destination was a rode on the other side of the pennisula that was lined with temples spread out along the hills. We cruised down (and hiked up) the hills bearing the heat. It was pretty hot and there were a lot of monkeys out today. These are no silly monkeys. The monkey population seems to have developed a deep vengence towards the human race. They rob shop owners, hiss at tourists, and climb all over shines in the temples. I have to say the babies were pretty cute though.

When we got back to the bicycle place, everyone was pretty tired out so we crashed on the beach. If you've ever seen a picture of high-traffic beaches with the huge umbrella/chair setups lining the beach, thats where we were. 300 or so umbrellas per a row, with ten colums, and a low table under each. Ton and I got some Som Tum with crab for all of us and Ying ordered about five times more food than I could eat in a week. We left at least 3/4 of it on the table when we left. With lots of food, a nearly deserted beach, and nice weather, it was pretty comfy just sitting with eachother for the rest of the day.

Coming back was pretty non-eventful until we got to Bang Na. I have never had to urinate so badly in my life. I've also never sat through so many red lights before, coming from Bang Na to On Nut. It took about an hour. I was so embarrased.... I just kept telling myself 10 more minutes, even though I knew I was lying. If you have ever been in a large bus before you know the jerks and bounces of stop and go traffic. I was like a cross legged 5 year old. On Nut eventually came, and I relieved myself pretty quickly. I'm still pretty embarrased.

Certainly one of the funnest days I've spent with friends in a while. It was nice to get to travel somewhere new too.

School has been pretty slow. Student attendance is still very low and classes are very dull. Something only time can change I suppose. I do think I'll go ahead and buy my management book though, that will be useful for my December finals. I'm actually somewhat excited to get to finals/new year. I think I just want to have one semester out of the way. Sort of a feeling of having completed something. Everything else just feels as if it is hanging by strings.

Halloween I was supposed to meet the band Kala at The Emperiam World at Samrong. I took a taxi to the huge shopping center and sat for at least an hour waiting for the van to arrive. Tum was pretty stressed out and said he'd be pissed if I was late. Rut, the drummer, called me and said he'd be arriving pretty soon and to wait by the side of the road. I waited for about a half hour, then Tum called me. He was pretty upset that I had missed the van. Apparently, Rut had said cross the road, not by the road. There was a convention and music blaring at the time, so I blame my hearing. Because the van couldn't park anywhere, they had to take off apparently. I was pretty upset too. By now Rut and Tum were pretty sure I couldn't understand a word they spoke, because of missing the van. So I took taxi home feeling pretty crappy. Num (Kala) called me after a couple minutes in the taxi and said that it was no problem at all. The van I missed was only headed to his house! So the taxi driver and I sat through an hour of traffic on Ratachada to get to Num's house. We drove around the gated community for a long time looking for the house, but only needed to tell the bicycle-armed security guard "Num Kala's house." oops.
Num and Rut didn't actually care that I couldn't make the van, so we sat and hung out for an hour. Made t-shirts, watched TV, and listened to Kala's favorite band, Clash. Then we went to eat at a small restaurant, and headed to the concert.

Tuesday I did some laundry and called P'Ohm. Ohm (Potato) said to come shoot the concert that night in Saphunburi, so I met he and Da (Endorphine) at The Mall. We ate some really good Japanese food, then Ohm and I took off to Suphanburi. Met up with Pup, Bom, and Win at the hotel. Concert. Sleep. Ohm went back to stay with Da and met us the next day. I roomed up with Win, who I've always liked. We are both student photographers, and not the biggest of partiers. We all woke up around noon. Signed autographs (even me!?) and got in the van. P'Die, is the coolest van driver at Grammy. He is very tall, 40 years old, wears black tank tops, baseball caps, and heavy chains. Hes one of those people your sure is actually an 11 year-old trapped in a huge body. He's always watching out for everyone and brings presents. The one thing P'Die doesn't do so well, is offer a comfortable van ride. On the way to Petchaburi, we would fly over mini-bridge bumps so fast that when the van landed, everyone had changed seats and was screaming P'DIE! The van ride took about 3 hours and we pulled into a condo style hotel at about 4. Win and I set our things down and turned on the TV. We had no idea what we were going to do waiting for our 12pm show (8 hours). Looking back, I don't remember what we did. Hung out in Pup and Bom's room a bit, played video games, listened to music, watched soccer. Not exactly painful stuff, just took a while. Ohm and Da drove up and we headed to the show. A whooping .5km away from the hotel. We could have walked. But we wouldn't have wanted too. The Petchaburi crowd was something else. It was if these people had been starved of they're share of concerts and wanted revenge. Banging on the windows, grabbing hands, torsos, guitars... Crazy. Win, Da, and I all got actually "sucked in" to the crowd getting from the door to the stage. P'Die came and ripped (I mean it) each of us from the hands. I didn't bother to take pictures that night. Da and I just sat in the far corner with Die, and talked. People still mobbed begging for 1 more picture (Petchaburi for 10 more) but not too much grabbing. We got back to the hotel within 2 minutes. Win showered, I chilled with Bom and Pup. We watched the very flamboyant host on FiveLive and singed more autographs. We had thought the hotel was empty, but apparently 4 people were across the hall. Its somewhat..no very... awkward when I get asked for autographs or pictures. What should I say? Its very weird signing my name next to all the others because I'm just the freakin' photographer. Why me? Everyone that knows who I am thinks its hilarious, and in way I am starting to as well. I'm gonna have to practice signing in my free time. :rolls eyes at self for a very, very, very long time:

I still haven't bought a fridge. Or a microwave or washer. That Management book is also on the list. I also need to figure out where to make prints. It truly is mind boggling what to do with 1,500+ photos. I have to go through them all, choose some, and print them at the same time? Or maybe separate into bands? Or date maybe...

Chey is having chemistry problems. The professor might be going back on agreeing to give an early final. I hope that doesn't happen, as Chey wouldn't get here until January vs. Another twenty days.