Sky Watch Friday - 12 March 2010

It has been so hot and hazy for the past month (well, there was a 2 day reprieve when a cold front came down from China). SE Asia is having one of the worst droughts since 1992 - a poor rainy season in 2009 combined with no rain in the northern parts. The Mekong river has been very low, which is starting to affect shipping, irrigation and household water supplies. Very scary.

This is what it looks like in the morning:



And mid-day



The near side is Laos, the other side of the river is Srichieng Mai, Thailand.

The air quality is awful these days. I've been riding my bicycle to work and it really gets me coughing. I'm starting to wonder if exercise is healthy.



And in the evening.



I cheated on the last one. It was so grainy when I fooled with the exposure and contrast that I used the crosshatch setting in Photoshop.

Hopefully, it there is wireless where I'm staying, I'll be posting my next week's SWF from Kathmandu, Nepal!

This is my contribution to Skywatch Friday, whose members post pictures of the skies around the world.

Sky Watch Friday - 5 March 2010

I haven't had a chance to post any skies over the past two months. Too much traveling in remote places, not enough time, not enough internet. This weekend is the calm between two storms. Looks like, hopefully, the next storm will come from Nepal where I hope to spend a month for work.



This is one of my favorite recent shots. We were driving from Xieng Khouang back to Vientiane with a guest so I begged some time in Phatang. We walked up into the temple by the side of the Song River and I took some pictures. This picture is of Phatang itself. It literally means "the Cliff Throne."

Friends from Xieng Khouang told me that there were many makeshift internally displaced people camps around this valley, which was about a day's drive from Vientiane at that time. There's a small airstrip at Vang Vieng, where supplies and food could be flown in.

The picture below was taken on 17 Feb, where the sky came down at touched the Earth in Nong Haet district. It was very cold but it didn't seem to stop the kids. I think they were laughing to see the figure of a foreigner materialize out of the mist.



While Laos is considered a tropical country, the mountainous North can get very cold during the winter. The elevation here in Nong Haet is about 4,000 ft.

And finally, raising a house against the background of the sky.



When villagers construct houses, they mobilize friends and neighbors to help them.

This is my contribution to Skywatch Friday, whose members post pictures of the skies around the world.

Books for February

The end of January and through most of February, my work had to take over everything. A lot of the work we planned for December had to be moved to January because of the Southeast Asian Games, which was hosted by Laos. National pride over this international role was palpable.

Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
I remember living in upstate New York on the day in August, 1974 when Philippe Petit walked between the twin towers of the World Trade Center. McCann writes about the event, but also wanted to explore the lives under his feet. The book starts off with a series of seemingly unconnected stories, which comes together at the end.

I listened to an interview on a podcast, where McCann said that we also walk on tightropes, and even if it's only an inch off the ground, we can fall and damage ourselves, or soar above the ground. The section of "The Walker's" practice in Montana really soar.

I also enjoyed this book, as well as other books, which take place in New York City in the late 20th Century (such as 'Fortress of Solitude,' and 'The History of Love'). When I lived in the City in the late 70's, it was a thrilling, eccentric and uncontrolled environment, full of creative and destructive energy. "Let the Great World Spin" captures that feeling.

Way Station by Clifford D. Simak
I first read this book when I was a child and made me wonder about who else shares our universe. Enoch Wallace is the keeper of the Way Station, helping other residents of the galaxy travel through the stars. That's the job I wanted when I grew up.

Arresting God in Kathmandu by Samrat Upadhyay
Upadhyay is the first Nepali author writing in English to be published in the West. He spans two worlds in this collection of short stories, of a changing Nepal still holding on to traditional values yet affected by the rest of the world.

January Books

So, it's the end of January and time to tally up my books read during the month.

In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin
A collection of stories set in Pakistan, this is one of the notable books of 2009. The stories all deal with various manifestations of love, in a less harsh manner than in "Maps for Lost Lovers" (about Pakistanis in London), though so many of the stories are tragic.

Brasyl by Ian MacDonald (on my TBR alternative list)
Science fiction novel set in the near future, 2006 and the 18th century. A bit confusing at first but once I settled into the world, it was an incredible book which meshes together history, culture and a mind-bending plot.

Where I'm Calling From by Raymond Carver. I also read Cathedral, another collection of stories, though half of them are also in 'Where I'm Calling From.'
Carver is one of America's greatest short story writers. His style is spare, able to evoke feelings with the minimum amount of words. He writes about ordinary people, trying to find an elusive something through externals - through alcohol, marrying someone new, abstaining from alcohol, divorcing someone, trying to stay married (though this is often by accident). My favorite story is "Cathedral", about how the unnamed character transcends jealousy when his wife invites her former employer, a blind man, into their home.

The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood (on my TBR list)
I just finished this today - Atwood is such a master. In this story, she weaves together the life stories of four characters, tied together to someone who is truly evil.

The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
This book has an idea-driven plot, with interesting foundations: 1. All the oil in the world has run out so a greatly diminished population has to do with renewable power sources - such as mainsprings in cars, guns, etc. Much of the work previously done in the golden age of oil, is now done by human or animal labor. 2. Plagues have run through the world - developed by scientists, they have wiped out much of the crop production. Other genetically modified insects have wiped out the forests by goggling them up. There are any number of diseases that kill humans, or by killing crops have killed humans by starvation. GM companies in the US have both developed these plagues and genetically modified, sterile crops that resist them. Evil.

In order to deal with manual labor issues, genetically modified animals called 'Windups' have been developed. The plot revolves around a foreigner, a windup girl, various ministries in Thailand and refugees.

The writing is OK, repetitive in many places. Where I kinda get left off is the violence in the last third of the book. I'm a peacenik; I don't think the physical violence at the end really needed to advance the plot. However, I think the book is worth reading because of the ideas, and the near-futureness of it. It really could happen.

Wanting by Richard Flanagan
Historical fiction with three main components - 'civilizing' aborigines in Tasmania, where whole groups of people are relocated into villages. One of the children is picked out by the Governor's wife, Lady Jane Franklin to be the subject of her grand experiment to see if a Christian veneer can take. The second component is Sir John Franklin's exploration in the artic. And the third revolves around Charles Dickens and the staging of a play based on John Franklin's tragic end.

This book is very intense, sad and wonderful and maybe packed too tightly into its slim volume. But there are thoughtful and beautiful passages. Because of the complexity of the three stories, I think that it really could be three times as long.

Winter in Thailand

Although the calendar says, "Winter," we never see snow in SE Asia. There was rumor of snowfall in Xieng Khouang in 1984 but the blizzard that drop 1 cm. on Phonsavanh, left quickly and all the snow melted by the afternoon. There are periodic sightings of 'snow' which turn out to be early morning frost. Yes, it does get cold enough to freeze water in some places and make you put on several layers of coats - but not enough to get your feet wet.

There are displays of snow men and Santa Claus in the shopping malls. Maybe it's cold enough to snow wads of money during the shopping season.

That's My World!

These old trees line the road in front of Hor Pra Keo, a former Buddhist temple which is now a museum. I took this picture on Tuesday while walking to the bank. Along with the tree-lined streets and the history of the roads and the old French buildings, Vientiane has a distinct feel!

Best Conference

Continuing the suggestion from Gwen Bell's blog: "Best Conference of 2009."

Living in a Developing Country, I don't often get a chance to attend conferences. When a conference does happen in-country, I'm often in the field and usually don't hear about it until I return and I hear how good the conference was. There are conference offerings in Thailand - if I get a chance to go to Khon Kaen which has the main university hospital for NE Thailand, I see posters for very interesting medical conferences on the walls of the elevators and on bulletin boards but usually for the previous week or the next week. Nothing seems to happen in the present.

So, this past year I went to the University of Washington 'Advances in Family Practice Conference.' I think this is the fifth time I've attended. All the topics are interesting and practical, reflecting the current practice standards for assessment, diagnosis and treatment of common problems that medical providers see in their clinics. It's a great chance to review and meet other primary care physicians and physician assistants.

My list of 'Best of Books read in 2009'

Looks like I read 74 books this year. Thought I read more, but I think I forgot to list them on Goodreads. Well, that's the way it goes.

Books I liked the best:

1. Year of the Flood by Marget Atwood
2. American Gods by Neil Gaiman
3. Cats Eye by Margaret Atwood (you can tell I'm a fan of this great writer)
4. Lark and Termite by Jayne Anne Phillips
5. The Thing around Your Neck by Chimanada Ngozi Adichie
6. Tinkers by Paul Harding
7. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
8. The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright
9. A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam
10. The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver

I also read A Wild Sheep Chase, which I thought I had read several years ago, but it didn't seem familiar in a Murakami kind of way. So after I read Dance, Dance, Dance I read A Wild Sheep Chase. Love Murakami's writing. Also re-read Norwegian Wood. I kinda put these separate, as any list that I compose, which includes Murakami, would mean that the books by Murakami would come out on top, as far as I'm concerned.

2010 recommendations: Just be the Best I can be!

At this time of the year, blog posts focus on the best and worst of the past year. Even more amazing, there are many articles on the best and worst of the decade. I can't believe that we've gotten through the first ten years of the millennium. And I've spent them all in Laos.

Along with looking back over the year or decade, everyone posts their resolutions for the new year, or why they don't believe in resolutions and won't post any resolutions. At a new year's party last night, I asked some of my Lao staff if they had resolutions. At first, they were confused because the word 'resolution' is translated as mat-tii , meaning 'law' or 'decree.' So I explained that in this context, it was like a personal law or decree for what they would like to change or try out in the new year. They all laughed and told me that they always want to do the best they can so why do they need to make their own laws?

Well, I was hoping that one of them would say something like, "I'd like to write better quarterly reports and get them in on time." Sigh. I just know that they will continue to do the best possible...

For myself, I really don't make resolutions. My situation is always changing so if I say, "I resolve to write 2,000 words/ day" or "I resolve to run 5 miles/ day," if I don't do it, then I feel bad. So I prefer to make recommendations for myself, such as:

Writing 500,000 words this year. Three years ago, I tracked my writing. I felt my writing was improving and I had the time and energy to keep at it. I discovered that if I wrote a lot, it became easier and my writing grew better. At the end of 2006, I had written about 370,000 words. So, I recommend to myself to write 500,000 words and see what happens.

Train for a half-marathon, whether I end up running in one or not. I always think a lot while I'm running and it frees my mind.

Read as much as possible this year. I always try to read one hundred books/ year which includes lighter reading as well as massive books which have won Booker or other literary awards. I still have a backlog of books, so I'm participating in the 'TBR challenge'.

Try to be patient and be a better boss. That also means handing over more work to my staff so I'm not left with it, which makes me feel crabby and uncreative.

Travel more in the region. I recently found out that I have frequent flier miles on Thai Airways that I have to use. It looks like I'll be doing some work in Nepal in February/ March so I'm going to travel a bit there (someplace safe as the political situation there is always changing).

Strive for quality and not quantity in these recommendations and don't get upset if I don't always live up to them. Just live a good and meaningful life, that's my main resolution.

The Worst Books of the Decade!

Well, if there's going to be a list for the best, there should also be a list for the worst. Actually, it's weird - the Davinci Code is on both the best and the worst lists! I haven't read any of these books, though I did try to start Vernon God Little. Although it did win the Booker Award in 2003, I found it hard to get through because the main character is just so unlikable.

Anyway, about this list - I can you can say that it's the 'best of the worst of the decade.'

The post is rising to the challenge of National Blog Posting Month. This month's challenge at NaBloPoMo is to post daily about "The Best of...."

Sky Watch Friday - 01/01/10

Happy New Year everyone! I managed to fall asleep early in the evening after returning from one party. The sound of firecrackers in the neighborhood and the lower booms of fireworks in downtown Vientiane woke me just for a moment at midnight but didn’t keep me awake.

So this morning I felt very energetic and took a six mile walk in the afternoon. The day ended a large cloud over Thailand, with the sun peeking out of the upper layers.



It’s unusual to have much rain during this time of the year. There are some showers during January and February, called the “Mango Rains,” necessary for the fruit to get juicy and sweet.

In general, the skies are clear in the afternoons. I like the view in the mountains, where the high grasses dry out and refract the sunlight. This view is along Rt. 13 going north toward Louang Prabang, before the turnoff on Rt. 7 to Xieng Khouang.



And a couple of views of the sky through my backyard. I tried a bit of High def on this plum blossom:



Unfortunately, the wind was blowing which is why it looks like it should be viewed through 3D glasses.

And my papaya tree. I wonder how many will be ripe by the time I return to Xieng Khouang. I brought a few green ones back with me to Vientiane - once they ripened, they were delicious.

This is my contribution to Skywatch Friday, whose members post pictures of the skies around the world.

The best Books of the Decade!

I've been reading all sorts of "Best of Lists". No only do we have to go through our memories for the best of 2009 but also the best of the decade.

The Times of London list of the best 100 books of the decade is fun. I've read 25 of the 100 books, which includes the last Harry Potter book (although I've read only one of the previous books).

The books I have read on the list were:

1 The Road by Cormac McCarthy (2006)
7 Life of Pi by Yann Martel (2002)
9 Atonement by Ian McEwan (2001)
14 Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi (2003) - I was so impressed with this book when I read it the first time, as part of a group read in the old Barnes and Noble Book Groups. The discussion was led by Azar Nafisi herself. I really felt I got to know the author. I read and re-read some of the books they had discussed such as the Great Gatsby and Lolita.
17 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling (2007)
19 The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen (2001)
20 White Teeth by Zadie Smith (2000)
24 Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (2005) - speculative fiction at its finest.
25 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon (2003)
29 The Accidental by Ali Smith (2005)
30 The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (2003)
32 Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer (2002)
46 Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (2002)
55 Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Baghdad’s Green Zone by Rajiv Chandrasekaran (2007) - This is the real story in Iraq. I plan to re-read it some time and review articles on the some of the events he discusses.
56 If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things by Jon McGregor (2002)
60 Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond (2005)
62 Fingersmith by Sarah Waters (2002) - loved this book - incredible descriptions and plot twists.
66 Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell (2004) - one of my favorite books. I've read it twice already.
72 True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey (2001)
73 Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman by Haruki Murakami (2005) - Great collection of Murakami's stories.
80 The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga (2008)
84 Unless by Carol Shields (2002)
96 The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda's Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright (2006)
97 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (2007)
98 Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie(2007) - another one of my favorites.

Books I have but haven't read but promise to read this year:
2 Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi (2003)
5 Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky (2006)
6 The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell (2000)
12 A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers (2000)
13 Austerlitz by W. G. Sebald (2001)
15 The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins (2006)
21 The Plot Against America by Philip Roth (2004)
28 The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century by Alex Ross (2007)
39 Runaway by Alice Munro (2005)
41 The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry (2008)
44 Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner (2005)
48 A Short History Of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson (2003)
54 Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss (2003)
61The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst (2004)
69 My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk (2001)
94 Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found by Suketu Mehta (2005)
83 This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War by Drew Gilpin Faust (2008)

This month is NaBloPoMo's challenge - "The Best of...."

That's My World!

Even in paradise, you have to clean and do laundry. I washed the slippers I offer for guests visiting my house since it's tradition to take your shoes off at the front door. It's been cool up north so it's been taking them a while to dry so I hung them on the metalwork of the window.

When I entered the room, I thought, "The shoes are dancing without me!" So here they are in flight:



This is my contribution to That's My World! where everyone plays tour guide for their part of the world.

2010 TBR List

This is my third year on trying to respond to the TBR Challenge and get through my impressive to be read list. Although I read nearly 100 books this year (still have to count them up), somehow I seemed to avoid my TBR list. I have read a few but not all. Part of the problem is that books are physically in one location and because I travel so much, I'm often in a reading mood and the book is elsewhere; or I bring the book to another one of my work sites and leave it there and forget where I left it. One of my New Year's resolutions is both to read the books on this list and also to not move them so I know where they are.

So my primary list:
1. Development as Freedom by Amartya Sen - Xieng Khouang
2. A War of Nerves by Ben Shephard - Vientiane
3. Black Lamb and Grey Falcon by Rebecca West - Xieng Khouang
4. What I talk about when I talk about Running by Haruki Murakami - Vientiane
5. number9dream by Daid Mitchell - Vientiane
6. Wandering through Vietnamese Culture by Huu Ngoc - Xieng Khouang
7. In an Antique Land by Amitav Ghosh - Xieng Khouang
8. Alentejo Blue by Monica Ali - Vientiane
9. The Ancestor's Tale by Richard Dawkins - Xieng Khouang
10. The Care of Strangers by Charles E. Rosenberg - Vientiane
11. The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood - Vientiane
12. Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon - Audiobook, anywhere

Alternative list:
1. Banker to the Poor by Muhammad Yunus - Audiobook
2. Hard Times by Charles Dickens - Audiobook
3. Bleak House by Charles Dickens - Vientiane
4. Herzog by Saul Bellow - Audiobook
5. Specimen Days by Michael Cunningham - Audiobook
6. The World without Us by Alan Weisman - Audiobook
7. 2666: A Novel by Roberto Bolano - Vientiane
8. Physics of the Impossible by Michio Kaku - Audiobook
9. Brasyl by Ian MacDonald - Vientiane
10. A Grand Delusion by Robert Mann - Vientiane
11. BuddhaDa by Anne Donovan - Xieng Khouang
12. Mara and Dann by Doris Lessing - Vientiane

And if I get around to them:
1. The Execution Channel b Ken MacLeod
2. Shriek: an Afterword by Jeff Vandermeer
3. Slan by A.E. Van Vogt
4. Dreams Underfoot by Charles de Lint
5. The Redundancy of Courage by Timothy Mo
6. The Tapestries by Kien Nguyen
7. On the Natural History of Destruction by W. G. Sebald
8. Gould's Book of Fish by Richard Flanagan
9. White Noise by Don DeLillo
10. The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene
11. The Street of a Thousand Blossoms by Gail Tsukiyama
12. I am a Cat by Soseki Natsume

Well, we'll see how it goes this year.

And here are the physical candidates, on the bookshelf next to my bed in Xieng Khouang:

SWF - Christmas edition

OK, so I've been quiet for a while, but I have time to go over my images from the past month or two in the little bit of quiet time available between Christmas and New Year.

On Christmas Day, we supported a training in Animal Raising/ Village-level Veterinary skills for people injured by unexploded ordnance or family members (such as parents if the UXO survivor is a child). We usually have twenty people in the training but make appointments with twenty-five people, just in case there are 'no shows.' This month, everyone attended, including four people from another province which requires more than a day's travel.

After two days of theory, we have practice sessions in one village, vaccinating chickens in the evening when they have come home to roost, like so:



We were trying to find the chickens in their coop but their owner told us to look up!

On Christmas morning, we vaccinated more animals in their mangers.



The buffalo in the foreground has a newborn white calf. The buffalo in the background was just starting to go into labor. We weren't in that section of the village long enough to see the baby. Water buffalo calfs are really cute, not like the full-sized version.

This cow is wondering whether it's safe to leave.



And I took photos while everyone else was working. I experimented with some HDR after we returned to Phonsavanh. The blue sky over a bamboo trellis and fish traps.



And over a cow pen:



When I told a friend we'd be vaccinating animals in the manger, she asked if that included camels and donkeys. I told her, "of course. Donkeys are the animals with short horns on their heads, get into everything and go 'baaaa,' right? And camels are the slow moving animals with big sweeping horns which are used for plowing." She had to agree with me.

And in case anyone gets the wrong impression that it is always sunny here - the mornings are often very foggy.



I didn't even realize that the cows were under the tree in the middle of Ta-Oi town until I nearly stumbled over one.

This is my contribution to Skywatch Friday, whose members post pictures of the skies around the world. Huh, I guess this is the last one of the year! Season's Greetings everyone!

NaNoWriMo progress

Did I mention yesterday that I wrote almost 10,000 words for NaNoWriMo in one day. It felt good to stretch out and write. The backdrop of the weather didn't provide any distractions - cold and windy with the threat of drizzle in the air. The gusts of wind rattled the window and I was glad to be inside, though without heat the insides of houses in Xieng Khouang are nearly as cold inside as outside. When the temperature dropped in the evening, I stoked my internal furnace with a glass of wine.

My story starts in a village in Kham district where Daeng, the hero, and Boua, the heroine grow up. Not a smooth childhood - Daeng's mother dies in childbirth and Boua tries to marry her off to the son of a neighbor. They are both tormented by an older boy named Vong. This typical village life is contrasted with global events - new technologies and China dominating the movement to return to the moon. While the village doesn't have electricity, people still buy cell phones, which they charge when they go to town. So I'm writing about some of the juxtapositions I see in my daily life in Lao.

I'm glad to get ahead with this project, far enough to see the possibilities in several sub-plots. Also, glad to get ahead as I have some work-related stuff coming up and I'm not sure how much time or mental energy I'll have after work.

That Luang Holiday

Being based on the lunar calendar, the main Buddhist holidays occur on the days of the full moon. Many Lao names also revolve around the moon. My own name, Chanpheng, means "full moon". The person who gave me the name said that 'The full moon is beautiful and likes to have fun.' It also has Buddhist meaning, because of the main religious days being on the full moon.

That Luang itself is a gold colored monument (also called a stupa because it often contains relics, particularly those of the Buddha). Many believe was that missionaries sent by the Emperor Asoka in India, brought a Buddha relic which was built into the stupa in the 3rd century. The temple was rebuilt as a Khmer temple in the 14th century. In 1560, King Setthathirat moved the capital from Luang Prabang to Vientiane and rebuilt That Luang, which was again destroyed in 1828, when the Thai raided Vientiane. The French using old plans, rebuilt the stupa in 1900 but it was finally rebuilt in 1930 and people say that the shape is more elegant and pleasing to the eye.

Boun That Luang is the holiday falling on the full moon of the eleventh lunar month. Yesterday, people making merit at the Sri Meuang Temple brought their wax flower offerings on a parade from Sri Meuang to That Luang. Today, thousands of people offered food to the monks, who came in from all over Vientiane and the provinces. Tonight, while the Thai celebrate Loy Krathong, there is the Vong Vieng, where people light candles and circle the stupa three times.

Well, this year I'm up in Xieng Khouang and didn't wake up early enough to offer food to the monks. I'll also miss out on the ceremonies at That Luang. On the other hand, it's been a quiet and creative day. The sky has been overcast and strong gusts of wind hit the house. I can feel the temperature dropping. Earlier I noticed that the flowers on the peach and plum trees are starting to bud. Cold season is coming.

November 1st - getting back onto my blog

The past few months have been kinda wild and I haven't had much of a chance to write. I visited the US for what should have been for a month, but circumstances dictated otherwise.

My first week in Seattle was interesting. As I fought off jet-leg, I attended the annual Family Practice Update at the University of Washington. It's my favorite continuing medical education conference, with a wide variety of topics. It's always amazing how medical understanding and treatments progress, even in the two years between the conferences I attend.

The following two weeks are a blur. I must have picked up the dreaded H1N1 in the caverns of medical advancement - I was quite sick and even after the week of high fevers ended, I still felt weak. Unfortunately, I didn't think of bringing Tamiflu with me and I didn't feel sick enough to go the a doctor. Seattle was reporting so many cases that they advised people to stay home if they weren't on their last legs, or coughs.

Fortunately, I was able to beg my boss to stay another two weeks. "I can work on reports and proposals while I'm over here," I said optimistically. Well, they certainly took me up on that and I think I ended up dealing with about an hour of e-mails every morning plus the report writing work.

I did go down to San Francisco for about two weeks and enjoyed some time with my Hmong friends in the Central Valley. I attended the Hmong "Cultural Festival" in Oroville in mid-October. Everyone said that it was the earliest celebration of the Hmong New Year ever but they didn't want to give the impression that Hmong New Year was starting so early, hence the new name. I also went to a party in Fresno and met up with many Hmong friends there.

After returning to Seattle for a few days of shopping, packing and sending the stuff that couldn't fit into my bags for Laos, I took off.

I'm doing both NaNoWriMo and NaBloPoMo this year and have a feeling I'll be able to keep up with both. I've been back in Laos for a week and as my jet-lag fades, I feel more energetic. Also, I'm just regaining my commitment to write, which is sometimes battered with my responsibilities at work. We'll see how it goes!

While I was drinking coffee and deleting the posts of Disa, the spammer, I came upon my TBR list (To Be Read Challenge) that I posted in December. I've read about 60 books this year, but still haven't gotten around to most of the books below. Ah well, will be going on home leave soon so better bring a few of these with me.

List One:
1. Baghdad Burning II by Riverbend - I used to follow her blog but now I check back intermittently to see if she has posted anything new after 22 Oct 2007. She has blogged of her experiences as a Iraqi woman and her thoughts on the war, American troops and a life being boxed in by the violence and the aftermath of the occupation. In October 2007, the family decided to leave - and her last post was in Syria. What happened next? Where is she? Her first book was great and very intense.
2. The War of the Nerves by Ben Sheppard
3. Brasyl by Ian MacDonald
4. In the Spirit of Crazy Horse by Peter Matthiessen
5. Shriek: an Afterword by Jeff Vandermeer
6. Dark Sun by Richard Rhodes Vte
7. Gate of the Sun by Elias Khoury - currently reading
8. Black Lamb and Grey Falcon by Rebecca West
9. Wandering through Vietnamese Culture by Huu Ngoc Vte
10. Espresso Tales by Alexander McCall Smith
11. Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
12. Development as Freedom by Amartya Sen

Alternate List:
1. Echo House by Ward Just
2. A Long Long Way by Sebastian Barry
3. A Mercy by Toni Morrison
4. Indignation by Philip Roth
5. Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith
6. Physics of the Impossible by Michio Kaku
7. 2666: A Novel by Roberto Bolano
8. The Stuff of Thought by Steven Pinker
9. Sly Mongoose by Tobia Buckell
10. Kirinyaga by Mike Resnick
11. A Case of Exploding Mangoes by Mohammed Hanif
12. A Grand Delusion by Robert Mann

Being spam-botted

Sorry to say, I've just put comments on verification and moderation cause some spam bot is leaving comments in Chinese on old entries. I myself find having to do the verification thing for commenting to be time-consuming when I'm on dial-up and sometimes the comments don't go through but I'm feeling desperate.

Anyway, I think I'll reconsider when and if the coast is clear....

I just can't imagine why these spam-bots exist. What benefit do they get in leaving messages on blogs, in other languages?