Ok, it’s really not that hard to grock.

so i’ve been meaning to post this info for a while … i’m going on world tour in dec, look for pictures of all the cold places i’ll visit. if you happen to be in any of these places at the same time as me, let me know …

mon dec 4th Arrive into LAX at 19:10 from BKK on TG794
sun dec 10th BUR->OAK 4:40->5:50pm on SWA1663
sat dec 16th OAK->ALB 7:15am->7:35pm on SWA1062/445
sat dec 30th Depart from JFK to BKK at 12:00 on TG791

i went and had south indian vegetarian food with pank last night and had a pretty funny exchange with the owner / waiter … i think i run into a lot of things that as a westerner seem pretty funny, but to other people seem pretty normal. it was just the two of us having dinner, i ordered three dishes to share and when i started to order a fourth dish the owner told me that i had to wait before ordering the fourth. he told me that three was probably enough for us and that if we ordered too much, he would have to throw stuff away and he didn’t want to do that. this is also the same restaurant that will not accept tips and makes you take your unfinished bottled water with you.

ohh and yeah three dishes was plenty. we probably would have stuffed down four, but three was enough.

a friend told me recently that he only practiced yoga to keep in shape and that after years of practice he felt no spirtual benefits from it. when i asked him how he felt after practice and he said that his mind was calm, he seemed a bit surprised when i told him that this was a spirtual benefit. there is a saying in the west that “idle hands are the devil’s play”, which is very different from what is taught in the ashtanga tradition. pattabhi jois (guruji) teaches that that only reason to practice ashtanga yoga is so that we can start to see god in everyone and everything. he starts with asana (poses) first as he feels that the body is easier to control than the mind. we start with the body and slowly move to the mind. if it’s possible to calm the mind during an invigorating yoga practice, then eventually it will be possible to still the mind sitting on a meditation cushion or walking through the mall.

guruji teaches that once the mind is still and calm, that only then can we invite god in and start to see his manifestation around us. when the mind is busy thinking and doing too much, we just distract ourselves from seeing this.

a common complaint i hear from people is that they can’t practice ashtanga because they aren’t flexible … i’m starting to wonder lately if these people are the ones who actually will have an easier time with the practice. when the body is really open and flexible, it is easy enough to just move through the series while letting your mind wander. when you have to work hard just to touch your toes, it may be much easier to be in the moment.

when i walked to go practice today at 6:30am i didn’t wear my sweater which probably means that winter is over. winter started about a week ago. people like to joke that bangkok does have seasons: hot, hotter and hottest, but there is actually a short winter most years. the weather is noticeably cooler and in the early morning and late evening hours it drops to the mid to high 60s, which is sweater weather around here. from what i understand, some years this week of winter doesn’t happen.

ever since leaving the east coast 10 years ago, i have moved to places that have fewer and fewer distinct seasons. first san francisco, then los angeles and now here. the more time i spend in these places tho, the more i get tuned into our own versions of seasons. sure bkk doesn’t have snow or fall colors, but there are very negotiable shifts in the way that the weather feels. the winds feel different, the chance of rain changes … and even here the department stores and hotels are getting out their christmas decorations.

in case anyone is interested, there is a graphic on the right side of this page that shows the current weather in bkk.

i guess it’s time to put my sweater away for a while tho.

i took some pictures from outside the windows of my new apt. the first one shows the full moon over the tallest building in bangkok and the second one shows traffic and the skytrain. what i find pretty funny about the first picture is that on the building is an ad for johnny walker that says “drink don’t drive”. in usa all the ads say things like “if you must drink, please don’t drive”. here they just tell you to give up the driving all together and dive into their product.

there are actually a good number of alcohol ads around tho which will use half of the ad space to say something like “drinking alcohol is against the 5th buddhist precept” and then the other half of the ad says something like “drink jack daniels”. nothing really seems to follow much of a pattern in this country.

so back when i was glued to the computer, i read way too many web magazines and what not. now i get to depend on my dad for most interesting things … lately interesting to him means any random gay news or anything that points out something about that ass in the whitehouse. lately it seems like there have been a good number of news stories that meet both criteria. here’s the highlights:
birds and bees may be gay

tom cruise sues over unauthorized use of image on butt plug

a new night of long knives

the first two are somewhat interesting, but the article at the third link is really important. the usa has in a mess of a political situation right now, hopefully things will change with this next election but i don’t know how much confidence i have.

i’m kinda out of the loop on things happening with the internet, but i guess this company youtube is pretty big now. some sort of online video sharing thing … actually i have some vague memory that they got bought by one of the big players, but i could be totally wrong. after 8 years of being glued to my computer, these days i use it for watching dvds, sending email every now and then, looking at artistic-roman-inspired pictures and very-occasionally updating this blog.

but … back to youtube, a good friend of mine from highschool is in the youtube video of the year awards. she’s really talented …

the video is online here

and you can vote for it here

so i seem to have developed a wheat allergy. it’s nothing that will kill me or anything, but it makes me just way too tired to stay awake. more so than just wheat, i think what kicks it off is wheat and sugar in large amounts … so pretty much cake, muffins, croissants, things like that. things like cheese cake and pasta seem to be ok for now, it’s just that one combination.

i guess i blame my ashtanga practice. it has a way of making the body very sensitive to things. i can hardly drink alcohol anymore, i can’t eat meat, i can’t be around cigarettes, i can’t deal with annoying people (hmmm …. i’ve always had that aversion). the thing about practicing ashtanga daily is that it really starts to make you aware of your body (and your mind). so i guess part of me wonders if i’ve always had these sensitivities and have just started to become aware of them or if they developed as a result of my practice.