Still More Photos from Thailand

giant reclining Buddha



corn vendor preparing snack for heather




statue outside temple



shiva lingham

gargoyle outside temple

 

russian child buried by her brother

 

fried insect vendor

 

now why would a fish need a massage?

 

giant reclining Buddha

More Photos from Thailand

fish sticks



sign outside restrooms





towing tuk tuk



sunset at the Hard Rock Pattaya

Photos from Thailand

sunset over Jomtien



Ronald and me



Heather and friend



giant standing Buddha



lucky Buddha



entrepreneur

Location:Jomtien beach at Pattaya & Bangkok

the beach, and a change of plans

when i first came to india, i came on a multiple entry visa, which means that i was supposed to be able to stay for 6 months at a time, leave for a day or a week, and come right back.

since then, someone from the US was found to have gone to india a few times to scope out sights for the 26/11/2008 terror attacks in mumbai, and the indian government changed its rules regarding tourist visas.

saturday is heather's birthday, and we planned a trip to the beaches of thailand for her birthday, and so i could do a "visa run". my 6 months runs out on january 12th.

so there's a new plan. heather and i are both going back to the good ol' US of A on january 20th. back there i will get an employment visa, because i found a job here as an editor. i'll get a legitimate employment visa, and come back in a month or two. in the meantime i can visit people back in the US, including my family in florida.

but for now, it's off to jomtien beach in pattaya, thailand, for a week of fun in the sun!

Apple Tablet Predictions

disclaimer: this post is not about india. moreover, it concerns a certain upcoming technological trend and product which may not be of interest to all readers.


this month, on tuesday, january 26th to be precise, Apple is expected to announce the next revolutionary product in the tradition of the iPhone or iPod: a tablet computer that will change the world and an industry the way the iPhone and iPod have. i want to publish some thoughts and predictions before the announcement.
it looks like it will be called the iSlate, be about 10 inches long (looking like an oversized iPod touch), and have a touch screen (with no physical keyboard), a front facing camera, an SD card slot, wifi connectivity, and possibly 3g data connectivity as well. it will not have an optical drive (dvd player). it will be all touch screen, and a touch keyboard will appear on the screen when needed. (there are even rumors that the screen will change and grow bumps for the keyboard for tactile feedback, apple has a patent for that, but i doubt it will appear on the first generation device.)
it will have a new OS, somewhere between the iPhone OS and mac OSX, with new multi-touch features. the interface will be amazing, revolutionary, like nothing we've seen in any other device. you will use only your fingers to write, draw, drag, resize, and everything else.
the iSlate will function as a basic computer, allowing for word processing and photo display, as an internet device for surfing the web, downloading and streaming audio and video, and video conferences. but the killer app, the real reason it will be revolutionary, is that it will be an eReader.
everyone is familiar with eReaders these days, from the amazon kindle to the barnes and noble nook. it's a device that lets you read books or newspapers on a portable device by downloading them from the internet.
when the iSlate comes out, it will make the kindle look like the other mp3 players looked when the iPod came out. cheap, ugly and junky.
and the iSlate will revolutionize the publishing industry the way that the iPod revolutionized the music industry and the iPhone revolutionized the smartphone industry. in fact, it will just about save the newspaper industry.
you will be able to buy subscriptions to newspapers and magazines, have them automatically downloaded to your iSlate, and read them when you want. unlike the current eReaders, it will be in full color. these tablet editions of periodicals will contain the full text of the print editions, in a very easy to read format, with full color, interactive moving videos and charts. you can read the periodicals in any order, or in the same order as the print edition. pictures will spring to life as videos. diagrams and charts will be animated and interactive. and because the screen will be so bright and beautiful, they'll be able to use the same font size as in the printed edition.
and this time, apple has been proactive. they have been secretly working with publishers for a couple years, so that content will be available immediately. they saw what happened to the music industry with the iPhone, and they don't want to be left behind this time, so they are already working on content. here is an example from sports illustrated. as you can see, it's just like the magazine, only more so.
the idea of a portable electronic newspaper has been science fiction until now, but the iSlate will make it real, in a most beautiful way. people will once again read newspapers, and magazines will take on a new life. and the publishing industry will be forever changed.
you heard it here first, folks!

Happy New Year!!!

it's been quite an eventful december. we took a trip to the beautiful beaches of goa, where we stayed with a couple we met in the mountains of dharamsala. i got a job being a subtitle editor. i had my first gig with my band in india, singing and playing drums. we stayed at a hotel on the beach here in mumbai, courtesy of one of my band's guitar players, who manages the hotel and gave us a room for new year's eve. we saw the year change on the beach, amongst the people, dancing under an eclipsed blue moon. and now, we're making plans for 2010.
there's more detail to follow, but for now, farewell 2009 and greetings 2010. may all beings experience happiness and the causes of happiness, and be free from suffering and the causes of suffering.

Another day in paradise

I’m really loving my Sundays lately.
i start waking up kind of early, out of the house by 9. over to Café Coffee Day for a morning bite to eat and drink. then i get in a rickshaw and ride over to Bandra Kurla Complex. it is built on reclaimed swamp land, and comprises lots of new buildings, offices, courthouses, industrial sites, and a few schools. our destination is the American School of Bombay, which lets us use there field for a super fun game of Ultimate Frisbee. today we shared the field with a soccer camp, and there were only about 10 of us, but it still worked out great, because the short field was fun, fast breaks were shorter so much more possible. it’s a game of expats, amerians and brits and a couple indians that went to college in the US (or grew up there) and have come back (repats i guess). it was a great game. after frisbee we can use the school’s pool, so we swam for a while which was heavenly.
then a few of us decided to go eat at The Bagel Shop, a place in Bandra, that bakes their own bagels and puts whatever you want on them. I had mozzarella, pesto and tomatoes, and heather had cream cheese and green olives. by then it was 4 on the clock, so we went home, rested for a little while, and then heather and i headed out to see 2012! we were waiting to see it and today was the day. the opening scene is in india, which thrilled us and the rest of the audience. we had a great time, we love our disaster movies, and this was the best once since Independence Day, in my estimation (hey! i just noticed they had the same director!). after the movie we headed over to a sweet shop for some chocolate mousse, and then took another crazy rickshaw ride back to our neighborhood for a late snack. i predictably had a dosa and we also had watermelon and tomato soup. then we took a rickshaw home.
but as we were walking through the back alleys to our apartment, we heard music, which got louder, and we saw a party going on. we started moving a bit to the music and that’s all it took for the party goers to grab us and invite us in. it was a fun little birthday party with fog and lasers and dance music. and it turned out that we knew the DJ’s, they live in our building. i met them when i first moved in, they made me tea (well their mother did). they live downstairs, and they have Shure and other music related stickers on their door, so i stopped once to talk to them. and yesterday heather met them. DJ Sam and DJ Sachin are their names, and we waved at them in the corner of the party, it was so nice to see them, they even played the Akon song heather likes. we started dancing and of course everyone came over and started to dance with us. they offered us tequila shots (i actually had one), and we met the birthday boy (he must have been 24 or 25) and wished him a happy birthday. after a few minutes it was time for us to go, we blew a kiss to the one girl who gave us shots and danced with us the most, and the birthday boy thanked us. we waved goodbye to our friends the DJs and headed home, tired but exhilarated from a full and fun day. only in india, my friends. only in india.