Stung Eye

The eye of the bee holder.

About | Archive | RSS

Hits your eye

We are now on Koh Phangan island. Speedboat ferries from the mainland make the trip in under two hours. Our "night ferry" took seven, while we slept, side by side, by side, our luggage at our feet. This ferry could be described as every mother's nightmare: old, wooden, bantam*, ramshackle, full of cargo and sleeping strangers. :P

On the mainland, we had been travelling with our friend Mimi. A few days before we parted ways, we visited a small town known for it's Buddhist temples; you couldn't turn a corner, or walk down an alley, without finding one, some of which were thousands of years old.

There were few other tourist in town. The locals were all smiles. The monks, clad in bright orange robes, waved and laughed. For a small donation we fed their fish. In the middle of the pond stood a scripture library, on stilts, built there to protect it from ants and other knowledge-eating bugs. Some temples contained giant golden Buddhas, the walls of others were covered in ancient murals depicting both Hindu and Buddhist history and mythology.

The full moon party is on Sunday; however, we've just been told that the island's power will be cut tomorrow, and will not be at full strength for the following five days. No power, no party? I'm sure the locals will come up with a solution. I wonder if this has anything to do with the proposed ban on the full moon parties?

*Sam once advised me to never use bantam as a synonym for small; I thought it fitting here, as I'm sure there was fowl on board, hidden somewhere amongst the cargo.

from another

A summary of Shannon's first day in Bangkok:

We arrived in Bangkok safe and sound. The flight was over 10 hours long. Wow, that was the longest flight I've every been on. The time is now almost 9pm and the weather is very hot and humid. We are lucky because we are staying at a lovely hotel that is air cond. We will be staying here for 4 nights and then heading to the islands for some beach time. We are also planning on attending a Full moon party which will take place in 2 weeks.

There are many different types of smells in Bangkok, smells of Lemon grass, seafood, sewers, and tasty food cooking. Everything is quite different from Europe. You are allowed to set up a little kitchen on the street and sell homemade noodles and all sorts of tasty treats. There are also more cars, motorbikes, Tuk Tuks and people trying to get you to buy many different items.

We adventured over to the main shopping area and I was amazed by how everything is so cheap. I am definitely going to do some Christmas shopping here. :) We bought a Cd for 2 Euros and some food for 50 cents.

I feel a bit like a movie star as I get many looks because of my blond hair. ;) A cute old ice-cream vendor even took pictures of me on his cell-phone and sent them to his pals. ha! He then gave me a strange icecream bar that was full of bean sprouts.

Aromas and Humidity

Ten and a half hours in the air, plus one in a taxi, led us to the Thai capital city. We're staying at the Shanti Lodge, a true oasis.

After a sweaty afternoon nap, we began to explore the city; the colours are bright; the smells are pungent; the buildings, a mix of grimy and ornate. Stray cats and dogs roam the streets, alone, and in packs. In the markets you can buy anything from chicken feet, to batteries, to Buddhist amulets.

It's been a long day. Sleep beckons.

Time for Travel

Tomorrow at 14:25 (GMT +01:00) we fly to Bangkok. We will arrive at 06:50 local (Thai) time.

It's just past midnight and we aren't packed yet. I'm tired; we'll pack in the morning.

Wish us luck.

Update (10:43 05/09/05):

Packed.

What did we forget?

Off to catch a magic carpet?

You bet.

366 Days

Our Amsterdam experience wouldn't have been complete if one of our bikes hadn't been stolen. Based on the state of the lock, I believe bolt-cutters were used during last night's liberation. The bike will be missed. The cycle continues.

Enough with the sad news. Yesterday, Shannon and I celebrated the one year anniversary of our marriage. We are soon approaching the one year anniversary of our departure from Canada, which also happens to be my birthday. Good times.

Last Saturday, Andrew and I took our bikes on a ferry across the river Ij. We then began our search of "the island" for the 80 meter long party boat, the Stubnitz.

Machine translated from German:

The motor ships Stubnitz, a non-profit registered association, is operator former cooling cargo boat of the GDR high sea-fishing fleet. Since 1992 became the ship a mobile platform for music, cultural production, documentation and communication transformed. Three former loading spaces are used regularly as meeting areas for live-musik, exhibitions, performances and installations. Artists and coworkers can be accommodated and boarded on board. The drivingready ship is used for projects in European ports, in order to investigate and present innovative culture. The meetings can be documented and archived with own technology systematically. Onboard jobs and studios for audio, video, photo and diagram Design make a preparing possible of the multimedia information and their publication in the Internet.

The inside of the boat had been gutted and converted into a giant club with three bars and three separate dance floors. The party was called Rock Da Boat, and the music ranged from crunchy ska, surf-guitar, and dance hits from the 40s-70s, to hip-hop and techno. Be sure to view the QuickTime VR and Flash presentations found in the info/press section of the Stubnitz page.

After the party we found a bunny living at the end of the pier with her three babies. Using my mad bunny skillz I tamed the mother, and we hung out with the four rabbits. Cute.

Update: I almost forgot, we are going to see Jurassic 5 tonight. Woot.

debating

On the fifth of September we will board a China Air flight to Bangkok. After forty-two days of exploration (Thailand, Vietnam?, Malaysia?) we will begin our journey home:

Bangkok -> Amsterdam -> London -> Montreal -> Winnipeg (Friday 04 November 2005)

***

Three thousand years from now, when keen minds review the past, I believe that our ancient time, here at the cusp of the third millennium, will be seen as another such era. In the years roughly coincidental with the Netscape IPO, humans began animating inert objects with tiny slivers of intelligence, connecting them into a global field, and linking their own minds into a single thing. This will be recognized as the largest, most complex, and most surprising event on the planet. Weaving nerves out of glass and radio waves, our species began wiring up all regions, all processes, all facts and notions into a grand network. From this embryonic neural net was born a collaborative interface for our civilization, a sensing, cognitive device with power that exceeded any previous invention. The Machine provided a new way of thinking (perfect search, total recall) and a new mind for an old species. It was the Beginning.

--Kevin Kelly [quote]

***

Culled from the connections:

All links via zniff.com.

There are signs everywhere

Obscenities Uttered by Jesus Christ by Cara Jennison and Andrew Sutherland

"Dad damn you."

"Holy Mom, mother of me."

"Dad."

"Myself almighty."

"Good me."

"Me, Mom, and Mom's husband ..."

"Me."

[Link]

***

Give me twenty

Last weekend, Harold, Tania, and ChefQuix came to Amsterdam by train and ferry from London. Good times!

Although Harold and Tania have now returned to their cozy flat, ChefQuix will be living with us for one month. After his stay, he will be heading to Romania for 6 months, where he will be crafting a novel. As such, I have enrolled him in Wally Glutton's Quixotic Boot Camp for Writers.

The purpose of this boot camp is to boost creativity while decreasing self-censorship, through constraints on time, word count, vocabulary, and subject matter.

The first warm-up exercise is now complete:

Task: Write the first sentence for 10 novels you would never write.

Constraints: Sentences must be under 25 words.

Response:

  • The still night broke with a death rattle that wandered through the hallways of the ancient mansion.

  • Sharlene always knew that she would die a lonely spinster; she just didn't realize how sharp the emptiness would be.

  • Although the 42nd President was one of the most hated, he was also one of the most respected for his unwavering vision.

  • There are millions of births and deaths each day - maybe it's hundreds - but on any day people are born and people die.

  • A chill breeze blew across the prairie, the first signs of winter on its gusty breath.

  • Booboo the bear bought a bunch of balloons for his beautiful wife, Belle.

  • The road seemed long ahead, but Charles knew he would finish the Tour de France ahead of Neil.

  • There are things in the night, things out of sight, things that crawl near in the depths of our fear.

  • Beatrice had never believed in love at first sight until he strolled in on a warm summer's night.

  • High noon came and went, but Buckshot Benny was nowhere to be seen.

Gadsby is a wonderful example of constraint in writing --a story of over 50,000 words without using the letter "E"-- not to be confused with F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.

The Quixotic Boot Camp webpage was created using PBWiki.

Consume

The Word Consuming Thing

Gods made magic and gave a man, to aid his hay-eaters, a word-consuming thing. "Plant corn," he would say, add the feed-words "I love you," and the thing would suck the sounds in, smile, and carry corn seeds to the field. If he said "I thirst," plus the feed words, the thing would march right off to fetch water. Directed properly, the thing cleaned house, chopped firewood, and cooked delicious meals. It was warm to sleep beside, and -- given the feed words -- offered joys of which the man had never dreamed. In a year's time, it even made a miniature of him, attending to its many needs, while the man bragged to his friends.

Only the feed words troubled him. They gave no command, conveyed no data, yet produced results. At first, he had only to say them and the thing would drape itself on him and, even at midday, lead him to bed and open up its mysteries.

Much later, though the feed-words still got results, the thing would stare at him on hearing them, tugging the long hair that screened the twin hills on its chest. "I love you too," it would sigh in its soft voice, then walk away to stare at a wildflower, sunset, bird, or other useless thing, and make vanishing jewels which it called "tears."

-- From Hot Popsicles, Charles Harper Webb [link - via]

Do as I do

LinkDump: