Laughing at the Trendy People

My handy little Internet news ticker told me recently that Apple through a firmware update just bricked all the modded iPhones and deleted third party software on others. Many, many people are not happy about this.

Their response to complaints "go buy a new one, YOU broke the terms and conditions of the product".

And the thing is, Apple is completely correct.

So for all of those people who blew $400-$600 USD on an iPhone only to have it bricked I have only one thing to say... SUCKERS!

What the hell is wrong with you people? First of all the whole iPod thing is a joke. It's an mp3 player with some fancy bells and whistles. But no all the Mac die-hards claim it to be soooo different. Not only that but it's locked in to the Apple iTune standard and other Apple only shenanigans. Sure you can use it with Windows OS but that was a marketing decision made to reach a larger sales demographic.

So it's no surprise that the iPhone is exactly the same. Like everything else bearing the prefix of "i" this oh-so-new gadget is just a reinvention of what's been out there (smart phones) with some added bells and whistles. Same stuff different package, BUT also locked in to Apple's way of doing things. Again this has been the double edged sword of Apple since the beginning. They close off their systems at the expense of losing customers, but in return they have more reliable systems. Somehow the company managed to market the i prefix gadgets into a trendy fad.

And that is where all these suckers come in. Many of Apple's customers already had smart phones, mp3 players, and a subscription to download music. Somehow, just somehow, they all got conned into this "new" trend surfacing from good ol' Apple. Now everyone lives in iWorld.

I may get a lot of flack from die-hard Mac users but honestly this is where all of their products come into play. Most of the Mac buzz is from an anti-Windows stance, which is somewhat understandable (I still use XP though). However, just like in American politics, people can't seem to count past two and realize that they have more options when they are dissatisfied, if only they would stop worrying about what "other people" are going to do.

/Rant... Suckers

Thai Politics

I try not to get involved but everyone keeps talking about this stuff.

What makes it worse is that I'm clueless. I don't know what to think. I don't know why there was a coup exactly. I don't know the history of Thailand enough to "get" the way things are done here. To put it simply my answer to every political question regarding Thailand is "I dunno".

Why do people want my opinion anyways? I am not Thai, and therefore I can't vote. Like some farang who just wants to fight is a good source on anything. Nobody asks for my credentials, and if they did a B.S. in Psychology and a general interest in obscure crazy topics is nothing to brag about.

I hear buzzwords like corruption, democracy, and so on to the point they lose their meaning and just become fading emotional tones. Drifting off slowly until they mean exactly what their being used for, nothing. Leaving me only with the taste of cynicism and apathy in their departure.

Mud is thrown in every direction, every political party is supported by the King (or is it vice versa?), and to top everything off, the same ideas trade sides as if they were baseball cards.

You know, this wouldn't bug me if it wasn't so similar to... American politics.

In a way I'm kind of glad that I don't yet understand enough of the Thai language to hear the political speak in it's native tongue. I can just follow the lead of the Thais around me and I'm just fine. I may have stood and clapped for completely opposing sides depending on where I was but I didn't, and still don't, know who is who.

Cool Blog

I found a cool blog about the street dogs in Bangkok.

Rangsit (a part of Bangkok???) has it's collection of dogs, and I may take a picture of one who comes by the Muay Thai Institute around 5-6pm everyday.

There are also many stray cats, including one that has made the stadium it's hunting grounds every other day. The cats aren't as friendly or as mean as the dogs can get. Rather they like to be left alone. Maybe some pictures of them are due as well.

What do you guys think; yes, no, or STFU and go train?

We are Okay.

A huge quake hit Indonesia and has been producing aftershocks for a while. Tsunami warnings were given to neighboring countries and anyone in the Indian Sea. However Thailand specifically has yet to be given one.

You may remember a few years ago that a tsunami rocked Thailand pretty hard, so people are obviously concerned.

We are far enough inland not to feel the hard hit of a tsunami but we are also surrounded by rivers and canals. We may get flood water if one hits but I can't imagine more than that.

But so far we are doing fine and Thailand is the same as it has been for weeks.

EDIT 09-16-07: We were also not on that airplane that crashed in Phuket which has been all over the news here. I dunno about elsewhere but it had a lot of foriegners on it so it might get some news.

Reflections on 9/11

I am very glad that today I am not in America.

Not because there are silly videos of bin Laden, not because of some copycat threat, and not because of fear. I am glad to be missing out on the constant bickering and political discussion that always comes with this day. Whether it be the latest ultra-left conspiracy theory or the neo-con nutbag using today as an excuse for racism. I'm sick of the lives of those lost being used to further personal and political agendas, not only by politicians but by the pundits among the masses on either side. It doesn't matter if you make movies or just engage in coffee shop drama. For the sake of those who died today, please STFU.

It's sick it really is.

If you wish to talk about lives lost, how about Hurricane Katrina, which would have been much less fatal if FEMA was operating correctly. But no... that was a natural disaster, and 9/11 was an attack. Either way the most damage was done by human error in one way or another so I don't think that it's too far off for comparison. But who in the world remembers the anniversary of Katrina? I know a friend of mine who lost her home to it does, do you?

But here in Thailand it's just another day. I'm sore from training, I'm really hungry from training, and everyone is going on with their lives. Including those in the far south of Thailand where cars still blow up thanks to the same kind of extremists that attacked America years ago.

Lesson learned from the Thai people; you have to move on like those in Katrina have, and it's going to be impossible in America while people still use 9/11 as an excuse to get on their little soapbox and depress the crap out of everyone.

/END RANT

Halfway through.

So we are halfway through our trip to Thailand and I figure that's a good time to recap things.

I am just behind where I wanted to be in terms of my training. A few injuries and some unkind food set me back a bit so I still think that I'm doing well overall. The only things that I want to accomplish is a bit more time in the weight room, maybe put in a few 6 hour days, and securing my weight back up at 160 pounds.

Danielle started training and I think it's great for her. There were women Muay Thai fighters at the show we went to yesterday but unfortunately we had to leave early and not see them*. She also seems to be more interested in fighting in general and we have been looking at female fight vids both MMA and Muay Thai since YouTube is no longer banned in Thailand. She says that watching women fight gets her more interested in training as well**. Good stuff, although I fear that she will not be as comfy, soft, and squishy to lay next to if she keeps it up.

*This brings up another point. Even in America women usually fight at the very beginning or the very end of a show. I understand that Thai superstition says that a ring where women fight is cursed or something so maybe having them fight last here is due to that. But it seems odd to me to have this marker separating them from other fighters on the bill. I know most male MMA fans love to see women fight, for various reasons. So the draw is there, why not?

**Props to any organization that has women fighters alongside men. The fights are just as interesting, and the women themselves are athletes who have poured just as much sweat, blood, and who knows what else into their training.

We are adjusting well to our surroundings the only barrier here is still language. There are about 10 words that all sound like "kao" to me so the tones and length of vowels are really being a large barrier to understand common speech. However what words we do know, we use without hesitation anymore and we seem to be picking up odds and ends of the language here and there.

I am used to cold showers, dirty streets, and the general opinion that we live and train in one of the many assholes of Bangkok.

I keep looking back to America every now and then, to be honest there are many pro's and con's about comparing Thailand to America. This is expected as with any other country. But I really look forward to only a few things back home. Friends and family are what I miss the most, I miss training with The Kai and feel silly now for not pushing myself there as I am here, and everything else is just small stuff. For the record I do not miss work, but I miss some of the people there.

In all I am having fun here, but I miss you guys. I look forward to being back in November, and I'll probably not shut up about Thailand until I find a way to get back here.