Read Part I
My train journey continued through tea country. The terraces weren’t nearly as wet as the rice paddies in Southeast Asia but their structure was similar. As a Midwestern boy used to corn and soybeans, the overlaying latticework of crops contrasted heavily with the table-top farms of southern Indiana.
Due to both the landscape and the nature of the tea bushes, it is difficult or impossible to mechanize the harvest. Instead, groups of women with bags strapped to their foreheads pick the tea by hand. The man there to supervise them emanated overtones of plantation slavery. I’m not sure if he deserves that reaction or not. That’s one of the difficulties traveling to new cultures. Moral navigation can be tricky.
I finally arrived in Ella. It was gorgeous and soothing, but also the definition of how the journey is frequently more important than the destination. It’s a small town nestled in the lowlands. I mostly remember my late night walks on the dirt roads. The jungle sounds were the soundtrack in my mosquito-netted bed. The next day I went to see a waterfall a short tuk tuk ride away. Its beauty gave me pause and contrasted with the urban and urbane landscape I was used to in Singapore. The simplicity of flowing water made me happy.
From here I went down to Yala National Park on the southern coast to go on safari. I stayed in a tent, but a fancy one with a shower and 300-thread-count sheets. As I’ve aged I’ve graduated to more luxurious settings.
The park is quite arid and reminded me of Arizona. Craggy rocks, brush–an earthy moonscape with sparse greenery. Think tumbleweeds. The elephant skull that greeted me was a great example of why Ancient Greeks believed in cyclopes.
We drove through the park in a Jeep. I soaked in the terrain and encountered water buffalo, elephants, meter-long monitor lizards and troops of monkeys playfully gathering fruit. We soon were clogged in a traffic jam of fellow visitors. A leopard was resting in the shade and everyone was desperate for a glance. She was about 500 yards away, visible with our guide’s binoculars, but not with my camera, sadly.
The park borders the ocean. I do like fishermen and boats. I don’t know why. I don’t like being on the water. Flimsy wooden vessels with old engines popping oil as they chugged along. Honest folk doing honest work to provide for their families. Teaching English in Korea, I viewed my work as being very supplementary. It’s humbling to watch people do something so essential. It reminds me that mine is a life of luxury, and how almost everyone in the world has it worse off than I do. It reinforces why I refuse to complain until bone pierces skin.
On our way, elephants blocked the path. This is perhaps the best reason to have to stop your vehicle. The people in the Jeep ahead of us were idiots–they had left a bunch of mangos out in their open cab and agile trunks were being forcefully frisky about obtaining them. A backpack was ripped from the vehicle by the tremendous animal.
After my stay at the park, I continued clockwise around the coast to Galle–a 16th century Portuguese fortification. It is very reminiscent of Spanish forts in Florida. I briefly met up with my coworker here for dinner on a chance encounter. We had pasta.
Galle was very dreamlike. I knew I was in Sri Lanka but it felt so European. I felt the same way in Montreal when my brain thought I was in Paris. You have to jolt yourself into understanding reality. It’s like when your eyes and inner ear don’t agree and you get dizzy–it was difficult for Evan in Wonderland to parse out the alien familiarity of his surroundings. He walked around the stone walls calmly, tired after traveling for a week straight. Surrounded by an eerie silence, Evan was able to absorb vibrations you otherwise ignore.
He loved the fortifications. How the earthworks strengthened the short, fat stone walls. Being alone gave him time to think about how fort design changed as offensive technology advanced. High walls keep out foot soldiers. Cannon destroy high walls. Fat walls stop cannon. Foot soldiers storm low walls. And so on. An endless game of paper, rock, scissors.
He walked by a schoolyard where some boys were playing cricket. Someone overthrew the ball and it bounced higgeldy-piggeldy on the cobblestone. Athletically scooping it up, Evan relayed it back onto the pitch. He assumed they were astounded by his ability.
I woke up with a pleasant calm. As perfect as it was, I knew my trip was over and it was time to go home. I took a train up the southwest coast back to the airport in Colombo. One was wiped out here on the same route in the 2004 tsunami. About 1700 people died upon derailment, the deadliest train accident in history. Apparently the waves were ten feet over the top of the train car. They all drowned.
Three months after this trip, my coworker and infrequent travel partner–through friends of friends–became acquainted with my then-girlfriend. My ex thought that I had been cheating. The flint needed to ignite our inevitable downfall was sparked.
I was wholly innocent of cheating on her, but I did make the mistake of not being candid with her, and many others to boot. Our loose knot, tied with frayed rope, was too fragile for any further stress. I thought that my lie-by-omission wasn’t so bad and that it could save us, even if only for a stupid short while.
We treaded water in choppy waves for the next few months before getting too much in our lungs. My bad judgment finished the trick that so many nasty nights and thrown knives couldn’t. Knowing that this trip was the final strain is harsh and biting.
Looking back, we were both the problem. I’m not trying to throw her under the bus–if anything I was the biggest obstacle to our solvency. But it was like being bound by superglue–we had to sacrifice a layer of flesh to separate from one another.
*****
Adventures are such for a reason. Their nature involves severing ties to the familiar and the comfortable, all in order to grasp at something new.
I finally was able to tick off another box that I had squared as a child. I will never be able to divorce this trip from the dissolution of something that singular, but time has worn away that coarse stone. It’s been polished into an irregular, yet beautiful obloid of a memory.
Everything condensed into a teardrop.
Comments
206 responses to “Evan Goes to Sri Lanka: Part II”
Based on your travels through Sri Lanka, what are your thoughts on the recent terrorist attack?
This is a good travelogue. I like the pictures too.
+1
+2
Miss Universe Sri Lanka.
https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-M_sYFvzXcHE/WxeFyEbhTuI/AAAAAAAAgF0/ZuxQi862XwovVY40ph0pMvCK-h1_bUzdACLcBGAs/s1600/christina_peiris_6.jpg
She’s hot.
You could call her Miss Sriracha, she’s muy caliente.
May not be Muslim
What a great trip. Thanks Evan.
“NEWS: Facebook has banned Louis Farrakhan, Alex Jones, InfoWars, Milo Yiannopoulos, Paul Joseph Watson, Laura Loomer and Paul Nehlen from its platforms after designating them “dangerous
Other people banned on Thursday included Paul Nehlen, an anti-Semite who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2016 and 2018, and fringe right-wing media personalities Laura Loomer, Milo Yiannopoulos and Paul Joseph Watson.
Some critics questioned why Facebook banned the accounts in one fell swoop on Thursday, instead of taking action against the accounts at the time they were determined to have been in violation of the company’s rules. These critics suggested the announcement was designed to generate positive publicity for the company, which has a history of being slow to act on such matters and of only taking action after facing pressure from the public.”
https://twitter.com/oliverdarcy/status/1124011256887881729
https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/02/tech/facebook-ban-louis-farrakhan-infowars-alex-jones-milo-laura-loomer/index.html
So Farrakhan is being unpersoned now?
That’s a good one.
Gotta have a token unpersoning.
Well, see that shows that they’re being balanced and not just targeting people who are politically more Republican.
That reminds me, I set up a FB account for some silly video game I quit playing a few years ago. Time to nix that and cut the cord entirely.
“Rules” – yeah, whatever.
The current social-media shitshow was inevitable. I just wonder how long it can limp along before it destroys itself. Maybe until the growing size of the army they have to hire to police it eats up all the profit.
It’ll become government regulated and then mandatory.
So another form of destruction.
https://youtu.be/3Ctgn7kKYHo
Heh
“Dangerous”…FFS.
Free speech is most dangerous. That’s why we have to ban it.
A sad tale, well written, thanks,
I hope your future is bright
Well-said. I second that sentiment.
“Camille Paglia Can’t Say That
Art students are trying to get the social critic fired from a job she has held for three decades.
For more than 30 years, the critic Camille Paglia has taught at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Now a faction of art-school censors wants her fired for sharing wrong opinions on matters of sex, gender identity, and sexual assault.
“Camille Paglia should be removed from UArts faculty and replaced by a queer person of color,” an online petition declares. “If, due to tenure, it is absolutely illegal to remove her, then the University must at least offer alternate sections of the classes she teaches, instead taught by professors who respect transgender students and survivors of sexual assault.” Regardless, the students behind the petition want her banned from holding speaking events or selling books on campus. In their telling, her ideas “are not merely ‘controversial,’ they are dangerous.”
Others believe that the student activists are trying to set a dangerous precedent that would undermine freedom of expression and free academic inquiry. “The effort to remove her for expressing her *opinions* strikes me as political correctness run amuck,” a faculty member emailed. “Instead of discussing and debating, they attempt to shame and destroy. This is pure tribalism. It is exactly what Donald Trump does when he encounters something he doesn’t like.” Most at the institution seem to hold positions somewhere in between.”
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/05/camille-paglia-uarts-left-deplatform/587125/
Her reaction was filmed.
Maybe we’ve reached a turning point here – if comparisons to the horrors of Trump need to be made in order to curb this nonsense, so be it.
Set? I think we’re a little beyond that already.
“Wahhhhhhhhhh! I might accidentally be exposed to an idea that makes me slightly uncomfortable!”
I like how he dragged Trump into it. Was it to signal that he was one of the good guys, or is it really impossible for him to have a thought that doesn’t include his dislike of the president?
If the left really wanted to hurt Trump, they’d bankrupt him with all the back rent he owes, instead of just letting him live in their heads rent-free.
He didn’t drag Trump in. It’s a quote from an unnamed faculty member. I think the faculty member used Trump to make the point to the dummies at the college. Trump=bad.
The unnamed faculty member is the “he” in my comment. Duh.
professors who respect transgender students and survivors of sexual assault
These two things are not alike.
Now that’s a gender reveal party.
You do have to award style points.
Besides, plowing through a storefront like that? It’s clearly a girl.
The sign above the door says, “Thank You”. I approve.
Thanks for more posts about your travels, Ev. Really interesting narrative and good photos!
I’d just like to drop a big DITTO here.
Well, just make sure you clean up after yourself.
Fun stuff Evan. Though I do wish your pics were in higher resolution.
OT: my work email has been insulated from spam/phishing emails for a very long time. Now, in the past 2 days, I’ve had 2 clever attempts to get me to click obviously bad links. What causes that?
It’s clearly your small penis, click here for help.
Sean is Japanese?
Work e-mail? Could be all sorts of things, change in e-mail filtering, new better targeting attempts, spearphishing (depending on your role in the company), or internal testing from your internal security.
Both defense contractors I’ve worked for routinely sent fake phishing emails to help train us to be wary.
Or, the Ruzzians said they were the contractors and thanks to you have Tzar Bomba IV: Drago’s Revenge.
That would be quite the charade considering I’ve been in this business for 18 years.
So you’re saying it’s more in line with the Creed continuity, they have Tsar Bomba 8: Son of Drago’s Revenge.
And yet, you still post here.
For shame!
It’s ok—My FBI agent knows. He thinks we’re all a bit weird, but he is far from giving a rat’s ass about it.
That has the sound of a 70’s/80’s sit-com, or, somesuch.
Your HR department, most likely.
Make-work project, you mean.
Well, if by “make-work” you mean HR attempting to trick the hired help into signing themselves up for more security training – yes.
Well, I was going for ‘HR is make-work for most issues’, but, your explanation is just as valid.
Small business. No HR dept. No IT dept.
Dude, his photos are probably fairly high-res, but, if you don’t make them smaller they hog all the bandwidth and make the site load like shit.
This robot gets it. Not all of us have high speed internet. Just sayin’.
Thanks, Evan. Taking a trip through Serendip.
Ha! Coveted, superlucky number 38!!!!!! Suck it.
…..Veronica?
While I doing semester in Sri Lanka we had a week off so I went to Nuwara Eliya – the coolest place on the island. While I was there I decided I was going to climb the highest mountain in the area – higher even that Mt. Washington in New Hampshire. I got to the top and about 20 yards below me was a scene exactly like Evan’s first picture. The old ladies picking tea were not overly impressed by my mountaineering.
The next day I went to Horton Plains National Park to see the cliff at World’s End. I got totally lost in the bizarre forest of Rhododendron trees and had about a hundred monkey hooting at me. I ended up running back down the trail to catch the last bus out.
Later I did hike up Adam’s Peak with a couple of other students and paid the Japanese monks who live at the top a few dollars to stay in a hut. The sunrise… somehow the shadow of the mountain forms a perfect triangle / pyramid behind it. And we say the “footprint”. Adam or the Buddha was about a size 95.
https://www.atlasandboots.com/climbing-adams-peak-sri-lanka/
We did it in the “offseason” in ’86 and didn’t see another human until we got to the top – and then it was only the monks.
BTW, saw Avengers yesterday and I thought it was terrible. Not a super hero movie fan, but enjoyed Dark Knight, Dead Pool, Wolverine and a few others. Avengers was a bunch of spandex wearing, expressionless dolts hugging each other for three fucking hours. Spiderman hugs Ironman during a battle scene and says something like, “I like this.” Puke worthy.
Yeah, it was a love letter to those who watched (at least most) of the previous MCU films. It wasn’t something that you could really walk in cold to and connect with.
I suppose they can make whatever they want, but people like me who just happened to go see it are going to leave very unhappy. I overheard a few other customers complaining on the way out. “Tsumaranai” or “Boring”. Even it was a love letter as you say, it should still be at least a little interesting to non fans. On top of that, they take shots time travel movies like “Back to the Future” that were actually fun. Had me shaking my head at the hubris of it.
I think they were expecting that on some level. At a minimum, I’d say you would have to have seen (or at least be familiar with):
Avengers
Captain America: Winter Soldier
Guardians of the Galaxy
Captain America: Civil War
Doctor Strange
Thor: Ragnorak
Ant Man and the Wasp
Avengers: Infinity War
If you’re coming from the comic book world, you could probably knock off a couple of those. But this movie was meant to be the capstone to something that no one ever thought possible, and probably won’t be repeated again. I doubt we’ll see any film with the Avengers name on it for another 10 years or so. You’ll have team ups, and partnerships through the movies, but I don’t think they’ll do something with this scope again.
Watch GotG, skip the rest. And Endgame. Watch GotG again. It’s the perfect superhero movie. Tbh, I didn’t even know it was a superhero movie, or a Marvel franchise. It’s just a solid, fun sci-fi action film.
Give Thor: Ragnorak a try, all you have to know is Thor is proud warrior guy, Hulk is angry and smashes things, and Loki is a trickster. It’s a lot of fun.
I do want to see that one. I heard a lot of complaints about it. It looks fun.
Hulk went to anger management classes.
Hmmm…. Part of me wants to say that you seem to know a lot of (non-Glib) fucked up people.
I found it not in continuity with the rest of the MCU and trying to be Guardians too hard but without Guardians’ warmth. By itself, it’s fine, but Hemsworth getting tired of actually acting started showing up there, so we get Dude!Thor and Cowardly Bruce.
I know it’s popular, but the farther out I get from it, the less I like it.
It’s just weird to me why people are flocking to it. If people who are into the MCU go see it and like it, fine. People who just want to see a movie that stands alone are going to be left saying, “WTH was that?”. It had the charisma of a Disney Channel High School movie. Plastic and fake.
Me neither, which is why I am not going to watch it.
Adobo is such an excellent addition to basically any dish. No room for adobo in your meal? Sip it instead of your wine pairing, pleb.
Puta madre.
I like Puerto Rican adobo. I wouldn’t sip it, though.
Wasn’t terrible, but wasn’t fantastic. Larson had the personality of a stump.
It was impressive just for sheer scale.
Wasn’t there a superheroine show, Jessica something or other? About a flawed, sassy chick? And it was actually fun and popular and it garnered watchers rather than just bunches of reviews from liars shamed into rating it well? That’s what I heard, anyway.
Maybe the most popular cable show was about a nobody high school science teacher who somehow evolved into a drug kingpin over the course of several seasons. So maybe flawed and jaded makes for a character people can identify with. Maybe interesting, human-like characters are appealing to, you know, humans. And not Mary Sue ideological stand-ins. I mean, superhero movies are children’s book-level dumb and patronizing already. Why make them even more glad-handed?
Now, that shit is boring. Wife likes it enough, but I find it very easy to avoid. Not quite sure who thought that Kristen Ritter was/is attractive and a good actress. Of course, RBF is a thing, and probably some guys ‘thing’.
I’m pretty much done with comic book superhero movies – Deadpool excepted. And it sounds like Disney is going to make them all super woke going forward.
The thing that pisses me off about the woke stuff in movies and TV: They virtue signal off of people that are simply saying that they can see through the activism. How many people out there are thinking, “Get them fags and mixed race couples off muh TeeVee!”? How many people are thinking, “You’re relying on showing how righteous you are and the stories are suffering.”? The woke producers, directors, actors and get to shield themselves from criticism which is legitimate and then claim they are victims of hate.
Instead of showing character development, set-backs, and growth – some characters are just super awesome based on gender, race, whatever. Makes for horrible plots.
Are we supposed to tip our guide? It was a great trip and a great story. Thanks Evan. Hope you are traveling when you hit Thailand too, far easier than me trying to carry my own bags.
If Mark Twain’s Innocents Abroad is anything to go by, your guide extracts his tip by treating himself to meals at your expense and escorting you to shops with whom he has an agreement. So no, don’t tip the avaricious frog bastard.
+1 week I spent in China
Our guide & driver were pissed that none of us (group of 5) were buying anything at all the stupid tourist traps (a silk factory, a tea shop, some Chinese medicine nonsense, etc etc etc). There was even some kerfuffle over tips near the end. What a shitshow & I decided then and there I’m never doing another fucking tour group again.
“A protester asks for help in spelling “white privilege” outside the @ICEgov street blockade.”
https://twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/status/1124002328011575296
Is there any reason not to neutron bomb Portland?
“Abolish Work”
LOL. Sometimes I wonder if they’re just trolling everybody. I know a lot of them are just there for the “fun” of the protest.
+1 Warriors, come out to play!
My nephews?
I have a cousin there. Typical proggie. Nuke it from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.
There was a friend of a friend in my circle a couple decades ago, back when “my circle” largely meant “bunch of us who hung out at the goth/industrial clubs”, who was the first person I ever met who unironically called himself an “anarchist”. Even the then-unsophisticated me figured out he was a bit of a commie. He moved to Portland around 1999. He’s probably running these events now.
It’s sad when you have to ask, “Do you mean, ‘no one coercing anyone else into doing something’, or, ‘a different group of assholes coercing the people I don’t like into doing something I want’?”.
As a white guy, I’m not sure how I’d like “White Privie
dge Island”.It could be fun, I s’pose.
https://mobile.twitter.com/ABC/status/1123918073734606850
I’m not a particularly emotional guy but this definitely gave me chills.
h/t Riven’s Twitter feed
?
Wow. Shalom.
Loved the writing and the pictures Evan.
Thanks for writing
I promise I’ll read it tomorrow, Evan. But I’m drunk and already super envious of your travelogue lifestyle, and I’m just going to OT bitch in your comments.
His writing style in endearing and has a very Evanesque feel. Watching NBA as I read that and heard the announcers keep using the word “problematic”. At the end of the day, I’m looking forward to the vast majority of our hacked democracy to be triggered into destroying the English language.
I look forward to see what he can do with he’s 1 1/2 Evans old.
I’m his age, but does anybody wonder what commodious thinks? No.
We’re similar in temperament, but does anybody care how commodious feels? No.
But you fuck one sheep…
Quit fucking sheep and go travel, commodious!
Are you really that young?
Young? We’re in our thirties.
*shakes head and farts dust*
Enjoy, kid.
*tosses another AARP invite that arrived in today’s mail*
If you’ve never stressed out about Russia sending flying atomic bombs to blow us all up, you’re young.
Well, commie ICBMs were going to kill us, or AIDS. Either way, we were all dooooomed.
I apply the standard of asking if someone remembers Reagan getting shot. Not only do they not remember, they don’t even know it happened!
I’m old, and public education is largely awful.
Hell, I even remember Buckwheat getting shot.
Of course, when I’m asked if I remember what I was doing when Kennedy was shot, I can honestly say, “Nothing.”. But, at least I know it was an occurrence*.
*Living in that city, I damned well should know.
I remember Emmanuelle was shot. In fact, I’ve seen it many times.
Touche’, straff….you win this round.
I remember Emanuel was in space.
I apologize for Q type link, but you pervs probably like it, your low cut tops were asking for it.
I was scared to death when Reagan announced that America would start bombing the Soviet Union in 15 minutes.
Yeah, I just accepted nuclear war was going to happen. Like rain. What’s there to worry about until then?
My dad: If the siren goes for 30 seconds it’s a fire, if it goes for one minute it’s a tornado, if goes for two minutes it’s a nuclear bomb.
So much harder to grow up today, dads are like “You’re 30, could you try getting a job?”
Nice work, Evan.
As I said last time, it’s so nice to have someone document what I will never do. Thank you.
As I’ve aged I’ve graduated to more luxurious settings.
I may have been responsible for you being a unit of measure so this made me really happy. You learned pretty early that suffering isn’t always necessary.
For the record: that should have been a 4-0 victory for the Bruins. That puck was out and all the officials missed it.
I feel marginally better about the Bruins’ chances.
I don’t know. That was a weird game.
These whole playoffs are weird. I fully expect the Isles to blow out the ‘Canes tomorrow*.
*Not really.
I think it’s a real possibility.
Right? Who knows.
Not me. I can’t imagine sports book on NHL playoffs
These whole playoffs are weird
Amen.
Yeah, a bit weird but the Bruins didn’t look like they were hanging on by their fingernails, like they did in games 1 & 2 (I was unable to watch game 3).
Tukka’s great play was essential, of course, but so was the Columbus goalie’s.
Like I wrote – I feel marginally better.
It’s going to seven.
That’s my expectation.
This is already the best Bruins performance in the playoffs since 2014 when they lost 4-3 to the Canadiens in the second round.
That series started well, then the Bruins just ran out of gas, as I recall.
I have to admit that I have an imperfect recollection of the 2014 season. After the Bruins fucked up their 3-0 lead in the series and then the 3-0 lead in Game 7 in 2010, it took me several years to start following them closely again. Yes, that includes their best recent years of 2011 and 2013.
So,Sonic the Hedgehog The Movie is now a thing. And again nerds are mad that the movie people can’t translate from other properties properly. This doesn’t sound that hard, take thing that made money and make more money with it. For fuck sake, you don’t have to have a ‘take’ on everything.
Not sure I’m following this–that the transition from game to movie looks like shit?
They always have to change shit. The Transformers now look like cars that turn into a formless pile of junk and we’ll focus on the humans only show the feet of the GIANT ROBOTS BATTLING TO THE DEATH! Resident Evil is popular because of the suspenseful atmosphere, LETS MAKE IT NONSTOP ACTION! Just make what people like about the thing you’re trying to sell them, don’t try to change anything, CAPITALIZE!
I can’t believe I’m going there, but–
I actually “appreciate” the Transformers movies showing actual devastation of human cities, considering the premise of the story. And, scale is a thing, so sometimes you’re gonna get ‘feet’ shots. Or, just leave Earth/humans out of the movies.
/yeah, yeah–Bay crap popcorn movies dumbing everything down, etc, etc.
A shot to show scale is OK, it needs to happen. But 90% of the robot action is shot that way.
I hated Sonic the Hedgehog the Video Game. Pass on the movie.
Master of Monsters was my jam.
I liked them when I was 8, but I don’t give a shit now. I just don’t get why it’s so difficult for the morons to take a thing that makes money and make more money by doing more of the same instead of trying to change it.
I would think that it’s because people are saying, “They’ve already seen X/Y/Z…we have to make it ‘new’!” I mean, Sonic doesn’t really have a narrati………why the hell am I commenting on a Sonic movie?
BECAUSE, it’s not about Sonic, it’s about every time a movie based on an IP fucks with the formula. The excuse used to be because the budget couldn’t allow it, now it’s just arrogant people making shit decisions. Somebody with Blender, After Effects and Final Cut could make this movie for $10 million (plus the cost of acquiring the IP) and get a warmer reception from fans.
Basically, they think this is every fan of whatever IP they have.
Silly gesture invokes silly responses.
https://twitter.com/sacbee_news/status/1123599229296025600
Oh, sweet Geezum…I looked at the comments!!!
GAH!!!
TL;DR version. “I know exactly how to fix the homeless problem. Just build more homes!”. *Mic drop, faceplants off of raised stage*
TL;DR version. “I know exactly how to fix the homeless problem.
Just build more homesThe Government needs to buy everyone a home!”. *Mic drop, faceplants off of raised stage*I made the same mistake Sir Digby. Argh!
The stupidity is strong in that list.
In honor of those fruits playing the meme poster game there, I will post my personal favorite.
Are you not using your VPN comrade as mother
RussiaAmerica instructed?I doubt the college uses them. And I don’t Comp Fu.
It is pretty pathetic. Especially the one that says simply: “Cause: capitalism”
Really? Do you even Venezuela, bruh?
Maduro is a right wing extremist, like Hitler!
Can’t we just give them free helicopter rides? Pleeeeeease?
BTW, how’s it going, Hayek?
It’s going fine. Sir Digby. How are you?
My husband’s former band mates who had been staying with us a few days left today.
It’s oddly quiet!
Ahh, to decompress!
I’m well, TY. My wife just got offered to be an affiliate with Twitch. Something she’s been wanting (I think more strongly than she’s let on), so she’s been fairly upbeat.
Congrats to the wife! I hope it’s everything she is expecting.
Thank you (on her behalf). I think it’s the idea that we might get some extra $ coming in. Actually, what I’m afraid of is that she secretly hopes to be able to quit her job as stream as a career, which I can’t see happening for her/us).
After retirement, if it’s still a thing, fine. Then again, I could be wrong about her thinking (I hope). Either way, she seems to be happy now, so, yay!
The man there to supervise them emanated overtones of plantation slavery.
How do you say, “What we have here is a failure to commun’cate” in Sinhalese?
By eating 30 eggs?
Good travel tale Evan. You write them well. Sri Lanka is an interesting place. I hope to travel more in Asia, I’ve onky been to Thailand and Cambodia in the late 90’s. Traveling in Cambodia was like being on a weird acid trip.
More like Thaiboy and Cambootia, am I right!? *never been*
Only if KSuell is HM.
The closest I got to Thai ladyboys was when two of them pulled my pants down after being invited on stage by a couple of female strippers. This was in front of my friend from home that was living there and laughing her ass off at me. I played it off and danced a bit and the owner got pissed and I gladly hopped back off and watched the rest of the show with her while getting propositioned by the ladyboys and real gender ladies.
That’s pretty fuckin close. Headline confirmed.
So…..it was a 50/50 evening, eh?
My friend wanted to see live sex in a tuk tuk. Nothing else would do. She dragged me out of that place, perhaps thankfully. We ended up getting denied at a couple places where round eyes weren’t welcome. We never saw sex in a tuk tuk, but we did see all kinds of vagina tricks performed.
I see the phrase
and I start giggling, because my mind immediately goes here.
Just because.
Asmith at their raunchy best.
I think that was just around the time I was starting to know their music–not so much what I was first introduced to, per se, but right around that time.
To pick up on the dead thread above, this seems like a plausible explanation:
https://twitchy.com/brettt-3136/2019/05/02/heres-a-great-thread-on-how-the-media-probably-decided-that-louis-farrakhan-is-far-right/
The meanest thing? Farrakhan’s birthday is next week! Have some heart, you’ve let this guy spout his shit for 30 years, what’s a week and a half to give a brother a nice birthday?
Hey, if it saves just one child….
My fave response in that thread is “To someone who thinks he’s on “the left,” everything bad comes from “the right.”
Unfortunately, the terms left and right haven’t been useful since the 18th century French National Assembly.
A scale from anarchist to totalitarian would be better.”
I think this is more the case. They also think Hitler was far right, so they lump a guy like Farrakhan in there.
I tend to doubt most of them understand the difference. This looks really tribal to me. The logic is I’m good and on the left. He/she/it is bad. They must be on the right.
Language is weird, isn’t it. I’ll show how much of a mental powerhouse I am:
It wasn’t that long ago-say, 15 or so years-that I was politically conservative to the point that I would sometimes see trucks from National Carriers on the road, and cringe/give the gas face when I would see they were based in Liberal, Kansas.
Not my finest moment, even if I didn’t make a big deal out of it. It took you people (and some others at TOS) to educate me and help me see what liberal (classic) should mean in our system. Now, I do what I can to use it the word correctly, and consider myself as much, politically.
Learning and growing is admirable.
Yeah, well…thank you. I’m dense–at lease, politically. And, historically. And, in matters of the sciences. I strive for consistency (heh).
Portland’s last decent mayor died
https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2019/05/frank-ivancie-last-conservative-mayor-of-portland-dies-at-94.html
Still much bigger government than my taste, but he was mostly right about the above. He deserves to be known as a mayor of Portland, not Portlandia, in my book. RIP.
The sun is getting low big guy.
Here’s an admission by someone at TDB that I would never expect to see come from such an august publication:
To wit: https://hotair.com/headlines/archives/2019/05/yes-buying-alcohol-still-illegal-parts-u-s/
Oh….there’s the real TDB:
Yeah, I suppose you can read it as just a factual statement. I see it as the lament for more federal regulation that it is.
I think you heartless bastards are rubbing off on me (eww). I found this article to be hilarious.
Not about people in bad emotional states, mind you. Just the general shittiness of both the campaign and the article.
Who is writing these ads? That one is cringy AF.
About 1700 people died upon derailment, the deadliest train accident in history. Apparently the waves were ten feet over the top of the train car.
Seems unfair to mark it up as a “train accident”.
Come back to the bicycle parking lot and find this bright yellow warning hanging on my bicycle. “Lock your bike!”. Gee, thanks for alerting potential thieves that my bike was unlocked.
https://m.imgur.com/a/ujJPDD9
I find that to be hilariously troublesome. Glad nothing happened to it–which makes me think, how bad is theft where you are?
Bikes and umbrellas are “borrowed” quite often. Other than that, nothing gets stolen.
To pick up on Sir Digby, it seems amazing it’s not locked, it’s flagged as unlocked, and it’s still there when you get back. Maybe I should be surprised it wasn’t washed for you.
2 years and I haven’t locked it once. I won’t even be angry if it gets swiped at this point. It’s become an experiment on how long you can leave your bike unlocked in Tokyo.
I’m flabbergasted.
When concepts like honor, shame, and integrity are taught, and have positive impacts on peoples’ lives.
Don’t get me wrong–it’s taught here, and I’m not suggesting there’s no downside to Japanese culture.
Still….
It’s like an opposite Amsterdam. There it’s a constant fight agia t bike thieves. I bet you go a few more years.
Last time we were there (2008) we witnessed a canal dredging (Wifey was amazingly indulgent while I got my Civ.E nerd on) and it was mostly tangled balls of rusted bikes.
Sir Digby’s version of Chafed’s idea.
There’s only one barracks thief in the Army/Marines. Everyone else is just trying to get their stuff back.
That’s basically woke ideology in a nutshell.
Sigh… the stuff one learns when left in the barracks, as one was attending a class, while the rest of the battery went to the field. “Stealing posters SSgt. Stay-back Profile? That’s pretty fucked up.”
Speaking of helicopter rides needed….
https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ny-california-bill-looks-to-ban-hotels-providing-small-shampoo-bottles-20190416-dlpe4hu6wvcz7bkfgfnjzsxpyq-story.html
Yeah, and we’re all going to die at some point in time. Are we allowed to help ‘facilitate’ you in that direction, ya fuckin’ drunk
I see we both homed in on the same ridiculous quote.
Lord, please save us from all of the political “helpers”.
I hate to say it, but part of me thinks it might drive some innovation for toiletries ( o-0 ). See: Leto II “Golden Path”.
Then, I think, “Fuck ’em-don’t give them the satisfaction of thinking that they actually made a positive difference”.
“We’re talking about changes that (are) already happening,” Kalra told ABC News. “We just want to help facilitate it in that direction.”
By passing another law telling us what we can offer paying customers.
F@ck off, slavers.
Sorry HS. You may have gotten here just in time to turn out the lights.
I’ll be around for a few hours more.
“There is always one last light to turn out/And one last bell to ring”
This state is well on the way to be the polar opposite of what it was when I moved here.
I truly wish there was a similar ecosystem elsewhere in the country that had more liberty-minded people and a healthy business climate, where we could all live and hang out. Maybe I’d be more sociable, then.
I’m sorry. I’ll leave with this
https://youtu.be/Yy57Xdk9u0o
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/peter-mayhew-chewbacca-star-wars-dies-at-74-1207099