Where is David?

Just saw this from another website and thought it was funny. I often toy around with the idea of moving back to L.A., but mostly just to be near my family, not because I actually like L.A. or anything. It’s a response of someone writing about how they hate l.a., and then another person writing after that.

Why I Hate LA
by Allen Weiner

I hate LA. I always have, and suspect I always will.

Reasons? The traffic, the smog, the $60/one hour cab ride from the airport, the plastic people, mindless conversations about long work commutes, oddball posers on the street, the pretense…and did I mention the traffic? And how can you like a place that recognizes the talent of the Olsen Twins by rewarding them with a Star on the Walk of Fame. And what’s there to like about the Dodgers and/or The Lakers?

……………………………

Comments

Re: Why I Hate LA
by Anonymous

I’m sorry. Do you live there? If you do I suggest that you leave as soon as you can. I know exactly what you mean. My entire family was raised in LA. My stupid shallow “Hollywood” Grandma worked at the post office for 20 years and now shes retired. I see her all the time hanging out at the trendy supermarket getting food and stuff. What a shallow bitch. Oh well, that’s a hollywood phony for you. Don’t even get me started on my other relatives. There’s a dentist, a couple teachers, a housewife that used to be a stockbroker (of course), and even me! I fix x-ray machines all throughout this fake city so that self absorbed beverly hills assholes can get their broken arms fixed. As far as LA honoring people for supposed “accomplishments”, check this out. One time my neighbor was walking around echo park lake early in the morning and saw some drunk guy had fallen in and was drowning. He pulled him out and used cpr on him before the ambulance showed up. Stupid LA gave him a “certificate” honoring him for being “heroic”. Whatever. As far as traffic is concerend you’re right on. I mean come on! I’ve been to big cities all over the country. NY, Chicago, SF, DC, and traffic there is a total breeze. Folks in Philly were so helpful during mid day traffic that they even offered me directions to where my head was at the time. The Dodgers and Lakers, sheesh. Other than the 19 championships between the two teams since coming here, Magic Johnson, Sandy Koufax, Kareem, Vin Scully, Chick Hearn, Dodger Dogs, Jerry West, Fernandomania, Nancy B., Nomomania, Game Over, Kirk Gibson’s 88 homer, Robert Horry’s 3 pointer, The Laker Girls, The USC jazz band, Big Game James, Showtime, Derek Fisher’s miracle shot, and a crapload of other meaningless things, there is absolutly NOTHING to like about those teams. I’ll tell you what though. The one thing I hate about this awful city, more than anything else, is that it’s completely filled with folks from other parts of the country (NY, midwest, south, etc) that just love to spend thier time bitching about how everyone in the this city that they moved to is sooooo fake, the city sucks, traffic is too much, etc. Why cry about it instead of just moving? I guess it’s just fashionable. How shallow and fake.

It’s been nice to follow the election stuff going on in the U.S. at the moment. I’ve always been interested in politics, but I won’t write about my personal views at the moment, mainly because I know my family is pretty much ALL over the political spectrum, from the left to the right. If I ever feel like writing about politics, I’ll probably just start a new blog and keep this one for my family and friends.

One thing that makes me smile is when people somehow consider me a walking spokesperson for the U.S., like I’m Tony Snow or something. I’ve had pretty much every weird experience imaginable in this regard. I remember in Thailand, a girl smiled and said, “Ha-ha, Bin Laden…..BOOM!” with a huge grin on her face about 3 months after 9/11. Thais have a ‘different’ sense of humor, and I’ve seen parents laugh when their kid falls or trips over.

Another weird experience was walking out of a bar in Japan, and when I get about 10 meters (30 feet) from the door, a guy walking in says (in a heavily accented French accent), “Fuc zee wa in E-rak”. He obviously heard speaking in ‘North American’ accents (Hey, we could have been Canadian, Eh?) and somehow decided to voice his opinion about the war in Iraq to me. I kind of pitied the guy, because he didn’t have the courage to say this to my face, but then again, the French aren’t known for the size of their spine. And when I say, “say it to my face”, I don’t mean that in the meathead-fratboy sort of ‘let’s start a fight, say it to my face’ kind of way. I mean, I wish the guy could have just come up to me and said something sensical, like, “Hey, I’m assuming you’re American, not Canadian, cause you don’t have a trail of maple syrup dribbling down your chin and aren’t wearing a flannel, so I just wanted to say that I totally disagree with starting a war in Iraq, and you as an American taxpayer and assumedly eligible voter bear indirect responsibly for those actions.” At least then I could muster up some sort of response to him.

Anyways, I was going to write about my experience at the consulate in Melbourne today, and how that could lead people to hate America. Gettin’ a bit tired, so that will wait til another time…..

Just a quick blurb to say that I’ve finished the beta version of a site I’m designing, for a friend’s company, at Bio Bus Tours. It’s my friend Scott, who is starting a Tour company that uses a bus that runs on biodiesel.

And yes, I have tons to write, but will handle that when I get a bit more free time….ciao,david

K, I’ve been away from this thing for a while….actually, kind of re-examining the whole idea/concept of this blog and seeing what I want it to do for me.

For those of you who don’t know, I’m currently studying for a Master’s of Applied Science degree in Information Systems at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Australia.

I’ve brought Noi and Chloe with me, so we’re all one big happy family here together in Melbourne, in a very tiny apartment for the time being, but hopefully that will change soon.

Since I’m studying programming and all that jazz as part of my degree, I figure I might as well have a somewhat decently presentable website instead of this boring old Wordpress template, so I hope I’ll get around to changing that soon.

Since I’ve been away from this blog for a while, I had to moderate almost 200 comments that accumulated while I was away. Unfortunately, 198 of them were spam comments. (thanks Ani and ‘T.S.’ for the real ones!)

It’s pretty easy to mark the comments as spam and be done with it, but the whole concept of spam just baffles me, so I thought I’d share. The spam was for all sorts of things, but the thing was, they’re basically all advertisements. The thing about advertisements is, they’re always traceable back to the people doing the advertising, so my initial thought would be to say, wow, this is a stupid idea, like me painting graffiti on a building “buy my hair loss gel, it really works” and writing my address after that. I bet the owners of the building would get pretty pissed off if I did that. Well, when people do the exact same thing in cyberspace, I get pissed off too.

Too bad there’s not much I can do about it except complain. And complaining over the internet doesn’t really make me feel much better, either. At least if I go off on a rant at some government office it’s slightly possible I might be getting my point across to the thick-skulled neanderthal behind the counter, I just can’t get that same amount of satisfaction typing into a keyboard and text box at 9:30 p.m. on a Tuesday. Maybe I need to start a video blog and just start screaming into the camera in the future…..anyone else think that’s a good idea?

Anyways, this blog in the future will probably start to focus more on me, David, and my day to day life activities, in a way to keep up with family and friends what I’m up to. I might end up starting some blogs about some other stuff I’m interested in, namely digital media, tv/film/video/music production and technology and other crap like that….but we’ll see. I’ll probably keep those blogs separate from this one, but will post about where to find them if anyone’s interested. This will also still be the place I’ll put up pictures and such…so if you’re not friends or family, you probably won’t find much interesting here.

K, I’m off to buy a webcam….

I’m not a big dessert guy, and especially not a Thai dessert guy, but here’s one Thai treat that serves the palate well.

Khanom Krok can best be described as Thai grilled coconut pudding, usually with a small amount of added ingredient such as corn to tweak it’s flavor a little bit.

There are many different versions, but I prefer the corn or coconut versions. There are sometimes green onion or even mussel versions that don’t quite do much for me.

They usually come in a styrofoam container, as seen in this picture:

and you can probably get 20 of them for about 50 cents here in Bangkok. They’re great hot off the grill, which looks like a similar contraption that they use to cook takoyaki with in Japan or just imagine a huge circular grill with lots of little circular dips where the batter is poured. They can get a bit soggy after a while, but still good nevertheless. If you head to Thailand, I recommend you try them. They’re not too sweet so you can even eat them as a breakfast food as well.

Here’s another photo (not actual size, sorry)

Not important really, but you’d think CNN Asia would be able to catch this typo, considering their offices are in Honk Kong.

Yes, I most definitely am. I’m moving again, this time to Australia……more info in future posts.

This blog is on a bit of a hiatus, but will resume shortly. I’m in the middle of some big events in my life, more details to come.

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - Staff members of an elementary school staged a fictitious gun attack on students during a class trip, telling them it was not a drill as the children cried and hid under tables.

The mock attack Thursday night was intended as a learning experience and lasted five minutes during the weeklong trip to a state park, said Scales Elementary School Assistant Principal Don Bartch, who led the trip.

“We got together and discussed what we would have done in a real situation,” he said.

But parents of the sixth-grade students were outraged.

“The children were in that room in the dark, begging for their lives, because they thought there was someone with a gun after them,” said Brandy Cole, whose son went on the trip.

Some parents said they were upset by the staff’s poor judgment in light of the April 16 shootings at Virginia Tech that left 33 students and professors dead, including the gunman.

During the last night of the trip, staff members convinced the 69 students that there was a gunman on the loose. They were told to lie on the floor or hide underneath tables and stay quiet. A teacher, disguised in a hooded sweat shirt, even pulled on locked door.

After the lights went out, about 20 kids started to cry, 11-year-old Shay Naylor said.

“I was like, ‘Oh My God,’ ” she said. “At first I thought I was going to die. We flipped out.”

Principal Catherine Stephens declined to say whether the staff members involved would face disciplinary action, but said the situation “involved poor judgment.”

from AP

from The Nation

An opportunist thief drove off from a Bangkok police station late on Tuesday with a police sergeant’s pickup, without knowing that the officer’s sixyearold daughter was asleep in the back.

The theft took place some time between 9pm and 10:30pm at the Lad Krabang Police Station. But it was not until 3am yesterday that more than 100 taxidrivers were involved in their collective heroism by tracking down the 25year-old thief. They spotted him driving the stolen vehicle in Nonthaburi.

The girl was rescued unharmed, apparently not knowing what she had gone through during the fierce hunt for her captor. She slept well during the ordeal, while her captor drove her all the way from Lad Krabang to Prachaniwet, to Ngarm Wongwarn before he was stopped Tiwanon 11, Nonthaburi. The whole distance was about 50 kilometres.

“I was looking for a passenger around Soi Ngarm Wong Wan 18 when I noticed a pickup with a description matching the one stolen,” said Somsak Okkaew, a 34yearold taxi driver.

Somsak heard the report about the stolen vehicle from Jor Sor 100, the popular traffic radio station.

Cabbie Somsak chased after thief Tewa Parnses, as did many other taxis. When the pickup went past the Kae Lai intersection and turned left in the direction of Sanam Bin Nam, a taxi driver cut in front of it.

“When I cut my vehicle in front, I was also thinking in my head of what I would do if the thief pulled out a gun and shot me. Still, my wish to help the girl and arrest the thief was so strong,” said taxi driver Prasert Chairatleetrakoon, 57.

By the time Nonthaburi police arrived, at the entrance to Soi Tiwanont 11, more than 100 taxis had surrounded the stolen car.

Tewa attempted to flee the scene, but the taxi drivers helped to arrest him.

The news of his arrest and the girl’s rescue brought joy to Sergeant Akradej Makasen and his wife Pathumwan.

“I will never leave my daughter in a vehicle again,” Akradej said.

Tuesday looked like any other evening for pickup owner Akradej at first. He finished his shift at Lat Krabang station in the evening, but parked his pickup there because he needed to help his wife, who runs a food stall just metres away.

At around 9pm, he carried his beloved daughter - Orawee or “Namfon” - back to his pickup. He started the engine, switched on the air conditioner and let her sleep. But he did not lock the car.

But when he returned to the station at around 10.30pm, Namfon and his pickup were gone.

“At first, I thought someone was pulling my leg. I thought it must have been a joke,” Akradej said.

His heart sank when his colleagues and relatives insisted that they did not know where his daughter and his vehicle had gone.

“I lodged a complaint with police. I was so worried about my daughter. I had left my loaded gun in the pickup, too,” he said.

Speaking after his arrest, Tewa said he did not know the vehicle belonged to a policeman and he did not know there was a girl inside when he stole the car.

“It’s simply that the motorcycle I was riding ran out of petrol in front of the police station. When I looked around, I saw the pickup was unlocked and its engine was running. So I decided to get in,” he said.

Tewa, who was once a noodle seller in Chachoengsao’s 100yearold market, had borrowed his nephew’s motorcycle for a trip to visit his friend, who works at a convenience store in Lat Krabang.

“I was shocked to see the police uniform and the girl in the vehicle. I was planning to drive the vehicle to visit a relative,” he said.

He said he had never committed a crime before.

Tewa is now facing charges of stealing property from a government compound at night and illegally detaining a minor.

- “I will never leave her in the car again,” Akradej