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

in studying foreign languages, i’ve often wondered about learning words based on usage frequency. if your goal is to get up and running with basic conversation, then memorizing the most commonly used 300-500 words would probably be easiest. it would obviously leave lots of gaps, but you would probably have enough of a foundation to understand most conversations and then figure out the rest based on context.

wiktionary has created lists of most commonly used words (sorted by language) based on the subtitles from movies and tv shows. i guess that would mean it would apply to the spoken forms of language more than the written ones, but would seem like a good way to decide which words to learn

ohh, this reminds me …. i’m into week three of the new school term, taking spanish, sanskrit, japanese and an introduction to thai literature.

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Frequency_lists

if anyone happens to be in la now, get your ass to LACMA to see Dali: paintings and film and then to MOCA for the Murakami exhibit.

whenever i come back to the states, i try to get to as many museums as is possible. the arts scene in bangkok is definitely growing and i can’t tell you how excited i am that the 11-story bangkok arts and cultural center will open up walking distance from my apartment … but the exhibits we get in bangkok still aren’t of the same caliber that major western cities are lucky enough to have. for some reason museums have pretty much banned photography (i have no idea why) so i don’t have much to share with you except for my praise and the links above. i’d love to go back to see the murakami show with someone who can explain it to me. visually i enjoy his work, but i feel like it is full of references to Japanese Buddhism, folklore and popular culture which i don’t understand.

photographs below are from in and around los angeles.

when i first flew to india, i felt that the airport had the most bizarre security practices i had ever witnessed. that was before flying out of bob hope airport in burbank, california. in america, they are constantly afraid that a plane is going to blow up. security guards and transportation security officials are scary, surly people and the policies of what is allowed and what is not allowed change all the time, often without much logic. after richard reed tried to blow up a plane with his shoe, lighters and matches were banned from planes. now they let you bring matches, but only three books … apparently this keeps people from setting their shoes on fire.

i had known that liquids were either banned or restricted on planes, but had a 100ml bottle of face and body lotion in my bag that i had flown over with from thailand. i had heard that anything under 3oz was allowed, but wasn’t too worried if i had to end up throwing it away. when i got to security at the bob hope airport, they found the lotion and told me that it had to be in a zip-lock plastic sandwich bag. now security had no bags to hand out, but apparently over at the gift shop they were passing out special bomb-resistant bags. i walked 5 min back to the gift shop, 5 min back to security, placed my lotion in the zip lock bag and walked through security. i was tempted to just throw the plastic bag away then and put the lotion back in my carry-on, but i wasn’t too sure that the security people would see the irony in that.

i did have a nice, only-in-california moment tho soon after this …. saying good-bye to tee was a little more emotional that i think either of us had expected. when we finally did say good bye, this security guard was watching and she told me “now you hurry back and make him a happy man!” … being gay in thailand is very open and accepted, but not in the same way that it is in california. the thai’s have this history of katoey’s which is some sort of third sex …. and i think that because of that, the over-feminized gay man is something that has historical precedence and is accepted. the more modern view that a gay man can just be a normal guy, watch sports, wear dockers (well maybe not that far), get married to another man, adopt kids, etc … is all something new over there and is still gaining acceptance. i guess more than just gaining acceptance, it is something that is entering people’s thoughts as a possibility. i don’t know if anyone is even reading this blog, but would love to hear some comments on this if anyone has thoughts to share ….

so here’s what the newyorker has to say about airport security. used without permission …

ummm, so i think it’s just going to be easier to post a whole bunch of pics from la all at once …. the pics are pretty much from two events. having dinner with some friends at a thai restaurant that another friend just opened and hanging out with my nephew and niece. well i guess there are a bunch of other things thown in here too … if you’re really confused, send me a note or something.
it was really nice to get to spend some time with my nephew and niece again … with adults it seems easier to be away for a whole year, but so much seems to happen with 7 and 2 year olds when you’re gone for that long.

la has two large thai-style buddhist temples, this one is in north hollywood

me outside the temple

me with my great-uncle dick and his daughter annie (i think she is my first cousin once-removed, but i’m not quite sure)

me, my great-uncle and tee

tee, me and ron at mj’s bar in silverlake

sexy go go dancers at mj’s bar

keith flirting with the bartender

outside of the frank ghery designed symphony hall in los angeles

tee, luke and p’jia at naraya restaurant

p’jia and p’tee

p’thee, p’tee, luke, p’jia, p’joon at naraya restaurant

big dessert plate at naraya

that’s me with p’thee one of the restaurant owners

me doing yoga with my nephew jullian

me with my niece amelia

me with my niece amelia

india reunion with joey, vincent, jennifer and me

so this whole jet lag thing is pretty interesting. last time i flew to la from bkk, i found that i could sleep ok at night but that for four days i would be exhausted around 4pm and would have to take a nap. i arrived here on monday evening, tue followed a similar pattern, but then on wed and thr i was totally fine. last night (fri night) i was having coffee after dinner with a friend and literally fell asleep in the middle of a sentance. i woke up right away and all, but did zonk out for a sec. it probably doesn’t help that i have a cold, but still it was pretty bad. hopefully today will be better.

well i’m here in la, been here for almost four days now. thai international is flying these new LA< =>BKK direct flights which are really amazing coming this direction. i left bkk at 19:40 on monday and got into la at 19:10 on monday. so basically i slept for 7 hours, watched some movies, ate some indian vegetarian food (special order and actually tastes ok) and then arrived without missing any time. for some reason the jet lag wasn’t too bad either, the first full day i was really tired in early afternoon but after that have been ok. i did manage to get a cold tho and this dry air is making me cough too, but i should probably ad

i have been taking lots of pics, but have been having trouble getting my laptop online, so pics will probably follow once that i working better. mostly just visting with friends and family, eating lots, drinking more wine than i’m used to, speaking lots of english and practicing yoga at my old shala again.

ohh once i get the laptop online, i’ll put up some pics from saraburi and from sasha’s going away party. my last few weeks in thailand i was so busy that i really didn’t get a chance to put stuff online.

today is asalabucha day (วันอาสาฬหบูชา) which in thailand commemorates the first sermon of buddha to his five first disciples. it is a national holiday in thailand so the embassy is closed here.

today is also the full moon day, which means no yoga practice. my final visa paperwork arrived recently from bkk so i took advantage of the free morning to head over to the embassy and get my paperwork processed …. i’ll head back tomorrow or monday.

i guess this isn’t really all that newsy, but i’m trying to get back into the swing of posting more. i leave in just under two weeks …. aargh.

well anyone who still reads this probably knows already, but i’m going to bangkok on aug 3rd to teach yoga for a year. more details to follow … for now, here’s this.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/myanmargenderoffbeat

yeah i know i haven’t really posted much lately, i have written some half-posts both in my head and online … but never felt like finishing them or posting. i’m sure the ideas will eventually make it up.

so i spent father’s day with my friends bob and maria and their kids jullien and amelia. we drank mojitos and listened to free mozart in the park, along with a kazoo performance by the kids and their dads ….. it got a bit cold around sunset but other than that, the weather was perfect all day.

pics of me with my new hair cut and amelia …. chances are that i’ll start posting more soon, but i don’t want to promise anything and then stress myself out when i fall through on it.

a really common comment from people who have a regular ashtanga practice is that it makes you very sensitive to what you put into your body. when i was writing software, i had no problem eating a fatty, heavy dinner, drinking three glasses of wine and having two cups of coffee on my way into work at 8am. sure i felt sluggish and slow in the morning, but so did most people at work and we all got over it in a few hours. getting up early tho and doing this ashtanga practice every morning, makes it pretty much impossible to behave like that. well i can still do it, but i really feel it in the morning.

last week i somehow got the bright idea of eating domino’s pizza (yeah i know they support horrible political causes) and drinking a bunch of wine while watching some movies in the evening. i had a cancellation and only had to teach one earlier class. the next morning in yoga, i literally smelled the pizza coming out of my body in my sweat. i had showered before bed, but could still smell it coming out of my body. even later in the day after another shower, i could smell it on my body. i also found it really difficult to concentrate, like that heavily processed food had somehow poisoned my mind.

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