Slightly modified itinerary.

Matt's friend Jake has to leave on September 7th and he wants to see Cambodia and Vietnam, so that's going to change our itinerary a bit.

We're going to eliminate the northern Thailand/Laos part of the trip. We're still planning on arriving in Bangkok (myself the 24th, Matt and Jake the 25th) and then go to Koh Tao until Sept 1st. At that point we'll head back to Bangkok and head to Siem Reap in Cambodia to visit Angkok Wat. We'll then either head to Phnom Penh for a day or two or go right to Saigon.

Once Jake heads out, Matt and I will figure out what we want to do. We might head up to visit Chang Mai/Luang Prabang. Or more likely we'll be beach bums and work our way up the Vietnamese coast to Hanoi. Possibly bump over to Hong Kong for a few days and then head to Japan. We are both interested in getting some quality suits made for us, and Hong Kong is a great and relatively inexpensive place to do it.

The veggie haul grows...

This week's CSA was:

Two heads of lettuce

A bag (three handfuls) of salad mix

a bunch of collard greens

bunch of onions

bunch of scallions

a summer squash

a zucchini

two cucumbers

a big handful of carrots (small ones)

one head of cabbage
a bunch of fresh picked cilantro
a quart of fresh picked wax beans

Since we got slightly less than that last week and still have some left over, we really need to make sure we're eating all of this stuff this week.

Big salad for lunch tomorrow for me, that's for certain. And most of the days this week

Bumblebee....

I decided to get some more practice in with the camera by taking some more pictures of the flowers we have growing in the backyard.

I got lucky and caught a bumblebee in action. Take a look
























Some are a bit overexposed, so I'm going to play with them on photoshop a bit. These images have not been altered.



















The bee:

Full steam ahead...

All the arrangements for my fall semester in Tokyo are now complete. I have been accepted to Waseda, filled out all of the visa paperwork, and I have been assigned housing at a private dorm right across the street from campus. Check out this link if you can read Japanese. It is a dorm set up by a Christian group based in Japan. The room is less than $600 a month, though with electricity and the random fees they charge I figure my cost will be around $800/month. Since I was expecting to pay about $1500, that is very good news.

All of my financial aid has cleared and will be available to me August 18th. Hopefully I will get the check by the 22nd but if not my wife can cash it. That was my last concern. My wife will get her new figure skates and I'll be able to figure out my budget in Japan.

Flights booked, reservations made...

After receiving confirmation that my financial aid money is all set and will be disbursed August 18th, I went ahead and booked my flight to Bangkok. I'll be leaving Boston at 1pm on August 22nd and will arrive in Bangkok at about 12:30am on August 24th. Damn international date line!

I booked a room at a hostel that appears to be a pretty good deal. Rooms are $10/night. Air conditioning, 30 minutes of internet/day for free and very cheap rates thereafter. It is located a little bit away from the "touristy" areas so it should be a little quieter. They also offer some inexpensive tours that I might partake in.

Two friends (including our Thai/American guide Nissa) are arriving the 27th. My friend Matt and his buddy will probably get there around the same time I do. On the 27th we head for Koh Tao and the beach. And then after a week or so Matt, Jake and I start our little tour of Indochina.

I think I witnessed a police shakedown last night (but I didn't)

I think I witnessed a police shakedown last night. Everyone here knows I live in suburban Boston , but I'll leave the exact details out. I don't feel like getting harassed if the 5-0 figures out where I live.

I was out eating dinner with a friend of mine. Near the end of our meal a young kid walks in, puts in a take-out order and asks for a beer. The waiter takes the order and gives him the beer. The kid sits down holding the beer. I realize later that he never took a sip of it.

About ten seconds later two men who were apparently plainclothes police officers enter the restaurant. One approaches the waiter, one approaches the kid and asks him if he's 21. The kid says he's 20 and the officer says "you're under arrest" and is escorted out of the restaurant.

This conversation was more stilted and poorly done than an acting scene in a porn flick. It was painfully obvious this kid wasn't under arrest and was, in fact, in on the entire thing.

The other cop comes back into the restaurant and asks his partner if the person he is talking to served the kid the beer. He is and other cop says "he's under arrest too" and walks out never to set foot in the restaurant again.

First cop then pulls the waiter aside and begins talking to him. As we left the restaurant first cop was leaving (without the waiter.)

My friend is going to call the restaurant today to see what happened. I think the first cop told the waiter that for a payment, they would give him a warning and not arrest him.

This was an ethnic restaurant, and the waiter spoke good English but far from perfect.

My friend and were looking at each other the whole time thinking, "this just isn't right."

I'll follow up if we find out anything new.

*followup: They were fined, no cash was demanded or exchanged. The the whole thing was still very shady but apparantly legit. It would seem that the local police have little else to do then bust on restaurants. The rising murder rates in Boston would not seem to be a concern...

A quick update...

The job is going well. More spreadsheet work than I expected, but it is certainly not an all day thing and is forcing me to learn some more areas of Excel, some of the few we did not cover in Professor Canella's modeling classes.

All of my financial aid is confirmed for next year. I very much want to get this done now and get my funds, because I'm not going to be around to handle any problems in person. Let's hope this works out.

I just sent off my final paperwork to Waseda for the fall. The package included my housing forms, funding, and my visa applications. I'm hoping they can turn around the visa certificate before I leave for Asia. Right now it is looking like a close thing. Worst case scenario is I'll have them hold it and enter Japan on a tourist visa, then switch over to a student visa.

Well, I hope that's the worst case scenario anyways.

A scenario arose with housing that could have helped one of my fellow students. He is going to Keio, a different school in Tokyo and his wife is going to go with him. Unfortunately for him Keio does not offer housing for a spouse, so he is going to have to find his own apartment. Waseda, on the other hand, does offer housing for married couples. Had we knows this before accepting our school assignments, we simply could have switched schools.

I'm going to let the head of Student Services know about that as I'm sure it will arise again at some point in the future.

Dave is finally back in town and flush with ca$h from working, so we're headed out to the Porter Exchange for noodles. I have to start weaning myself off of beef and pork and eating more fish instead. I don't want all the Asians thinking I'm a funny-smelling American (I've heard this is true because we eat so much animal fat in our diets.)

Frustration

0/0 Tourney Texas Hold'em Game Table (NL)Tue Jul 04 10:35:26 EDT 2006
Table Tea Tree Gully (Real Money) -- Seat 4 is the button
Total number of players : 3
Seat 2: jddbb720 (2076)
Seat 4: jas01111 (1572)
Seat 5: blue39 (8352)
blue39 posts small blind (200)
jddbb720 posts big blind (400)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to jddbb720 [ Th, Ac ]
jas01111 raises (1572) to 1572
jas01111 is all-In.
blue39 folds.
jddbb720 calls (1172)

Note that at this point I’m in and have my opponent dominated. He has Ah 6s

Creating Main Pot with $3344 with jas01111
** Dealing Flop ** : [ 4h, Jh, 7s ]
** Dealing Turn ** : [ 3h ]
** Dealing River ** : [ 6h ]
** Summary **
Main Pot: 3344 |
Board: [ 4h Jh 7s 3h 6h ]

jddbb720 balance 504, lost 1572 [ Th Ac ] [ a flush, jack high -- Jh,Th,6h,4h,3h ]
jas01111 balance 3344, bet 1572, collected 3344, net +1772 [ Ah 6s ] [ a flush, ace high with ace kicker -- Ah,Jh,6h,4h,3h ]
blue39 balance 8152, lost 200 (folded)

And then he gets a flush and gets bailed out of a horrible decision.

0/0 Tourney Texas Hold'em Game Table (NL)Tue Jul 04 10:35:51 EDT 2006
Table Tea Tree Gully (Real Money) -- Seat 5 is the button
Total number of players : 3
Seat 2: jddbb720 (504)
Seat 4: jas01111 (3344)
Seat 5: blue39 (8152)
jddbb720 posts small blind (200)
jas01111 posts big blind (400)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to jddbb720 [ 8s, 8c ]
blue39 folds.
jddbb720 raises (304) to 504
jddbb720 is all-In.
jas01111 calls (104)

Short stacked with a pair of eights, your choice is pretty clear.

Creating Main Pot with $1008 with jddbb720
** Dealing Flop ** : [ Ad, 6s, Jh ]
** Dealing Turn ** : [ Ac ]
** Dealing River ** : [ Jd ]
jddbb720: how many rivers am I gonna lose
** Summary **
Main Pot: 1008 |
Board: [ Ad 6s Jh Ac Jd ]

jddbb720 balance 0, lost 504 [ 8s 8c ] [ two pairs, aces and jacks -- Ad,Ac,Jh,Jd,8s ]
jas01111 balance 3848, bet 504, collected 1008, net +504 [ Td 9s ] [ two pairs, aces and jacks with ten kicker -- Ad,Ac,Jh,Jd,Td ]
blue39 balance 8152, didn't bet (folded)

Answer to my question above: Not this one, because I lost it when the jack hit on the turn. That counterfeited my pocket eights and my opponent won because he had a 10.

I don’t even know why I fucking bother. It seems like I get far, far more than my share of bad beats.

Oh yeah, and top two spots in this tournament get paid.