black friday monk

my friend, kone, sent me this picture he took while shopping at 4 am this morning. he included the caption: black friday is for everyone! yup, even the monks know when to get in on the action.

hope yall got everything yall wanted this year. black friday is my favorite holiday - the one holiday that hasn't lost its true meaning.

Laoz really isn't the biggest language

so earlier this week i was looking through facebook and blogs, and i found this link posted on jai Lao's fb page; it is a blog by roland drake who is going to Laos - i think to the village where Jai Lao just built their most recent school - to work on a water sanitation project. here is the link:

http://myjourneytolaos.blogspot.com/

his blog is very earnest and sincere, and very much void of the sarcasm and meanness that i got splattered all over mine... and that being said, here i go again; (on to what i really wanted to post about:)

i found this youtube video on roland's blog and it is the best thing since i first ate padek. watch the video, then read my review...



so the wonders of the Laoz language, with its 5 tones, (ain't there 6?) i think that the real difficulty here is that you most likely got an american-born kid teaching people how to speak some basic Laoz. i'm guessing he must be in the mid-west somewhere by himself (without a large Lao community around him,) and so he ain't aware that he don't know Laoz all that well. otherwise he'd never had the courage to post this. in my job i run into quite a few Laoz young people, and they're overly aware of their deficiencies in the language and would never post something like this, even though some of them speak Laoz really well.

but if you're still reading this critique, the main problem (besides the lakone thing: nobody really says lakone unless you're singing a cheesy Lao break-up song; and the inconsistent romanization of Laoz words; and the fish, aunt, and crazy comparison: fish and aunt start with a different consonant (p) than crazy (b); and the coughing up phlegm on camera thing; with all the jump cuts, that could've easily been removed, right?) is what is in the cage behind him? is that a dead hamster back there???

and i know this is mean of me... i really shouldn't say nothing at all, because look at all the comments on youtube from other Lao-american kids who also don't know Lao! so all said and done, props to this kid for putting himself out there and teaching us all something about the Laoz language. (or as they say in Louisiana where i'm from: bless his heart.) and he even has a couple of good jokes: sabaidii does sound a lot like somebody, especially if you can't speak Lao all that good.

bussing it by air in Laos

the Jai Lao Foundation just completed its mission to Laos to build its fourth school in baan hat kham, and while they were in Laos, i really enjoyed checking for the facebook updates - pictures, stories, etc, posted by the mission participants.

if you don't know about Jai Lao, read my previous posts (see labels on sidebar) and go to their website (linked above) and donate!

but one of the facebook posts by the board president included this picture, taken on a flight from Laos to thailand (i think!) with the following caption: Lao airline's new airbus plane. we got to be one of their first flyers on its third day of operation. YAY!! so beautiful and my favorite green color!!!

the plane looks amazing... but seriously? airbus? why not a nice big boeing plane made right here in washington state? maybe if they put that green papya color in their airplanes then Laos might buy one from them too. here is a link to the article about the new airbus planes in Laos. i guess they're getting a second one in december.

http://www.aviationrecord.com/FC/FCnews/Lao-Airlines-receives-first-Airbus-3024.aspx

importance of ichiro

i've been meaning to post this link for sometime; (well, since the summer when jacob sent it to me...) and even though baseball is over for the year, this is an excellent article about ichiro... or to take it from the writer's caption:

ten years after ichiro suzuki broke into the majors, a reflection on the 2001 mariners, jackie robinson, the four noble truths and the cultural impact of baseball's most enigmatic player.

here is the link to the article by jay caspian kang:

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/6626419/importance-ichiro

how i miss those 2001 mariners...

all dogs go to heaven

a real nice picture montage of pet rescues during the recent floods in thailand. thank you wl for sending me this link...



the pictures are real sad... and adding insult to injury, they're paired with one of the worst songs to come out of thai pop music in a long time. unless you believe that all songs of thai pop music genre are the wosrst. was this particular singer drunk/high/drowning when she sang this? tavern karaoke at 2 am sounds better. and for those that might be wondering, this song roughly translates as "thanks for not throwing me away or abandoning me..." (or eating me, in this case.)

dengue fever

dengue fever is heading to Laos as a part of their tour of southeast asia. i saw them a couple years back when they came to seattle, and they are just as good as i thought they'd be...

but to see them in Laos, that would be really good. and if you aint heard of them, check out their second album, escape from dragon house.

if you are down that way, here are the tour dates and a link to their website:

11/12 @ FCC, Phnom Penh, CAMBODIA
11/13 @ Epic Arts Center, Kampot, CAMBODIA
11/15 @ Hotel De La Paix, Siem Reap, CAMBODIA
11/16 @ Venue tbd, Battambang, CAMBODIA
11/18 @ Diamond Island Building, Phnom Penh, CAMBODIA
11/23 @ Venue tbd, Vientiane, LAOS
11/26 @ American Club, Hanoi, VIETNAM

http://denguefevermusic.blogspot.com/2011/10/dengue-fever-confirms-se-asia-dates.html