Change of Address

The blog has moved. Decided to go with LiveJournal instead of DIY.

Zach's LiveJournal

This will be a lot easier while I'm nomadic. Plus, now people can add comments and such.

2 August 2004

Lila

I just started reading Lila: An Inquiry Into Morals, by Robert M. Pirsig, the guy who wrote Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Liking it so far. It has some good bits like, "Getting drunk and picking up bar-ladies and writing metaphysics is just a part of life." Sounds like a plan.

19 Feb 2004

Toothpaste

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    Squeeze from Bottom

19 Feb 2004

New Year's Day

I woke up to this view on New Year's Day. I wrote a little story about the experience. Read New Year's Day. Please suggest a better title. Here's a teaser:

. . . I asked them where we were. "Vientaine," the man answered in an accent I couldn't place. I was hoping for some orientation, but took some pleasure in the fact that my state inspired strangers to tell me what city I was in. My thoughts drifted to the great fat bum in the Carribean who had once asked what year it was . . .

10 Feb 2004

Vegan in Laos

In Vang Vien I finally started to feel confident in maintaining my veganism. I would say in Lao, "Khoi ya king ahan jey. Khoi bo king nom. Khoi bo king kai." That's meant to be understood as, "I want to eat vegetarian food. I don't eat [sic] milk. I don't eat egg." Starting from that, people seemed really receptive to telling me what's in stuff, meeting my preferences when they could.

10 Feb 2004

Kiu Kicham, Laos

I asked about a room in Lao, but she answered in English that was much better. Three dollars. It was more than I had expected to pay. It was also the only option that night in Kiu Kicham. I paid my money and she chased the ducks out of the hallway to show me to my room.

10 Feb 2004

Vang Vien, Laos

Nice Sunset, eh? Vang Vien is a sleepy little town on a particularly beautiful section of the Mekong River. Somehow it got chosen as a tourist destination, and now it boasts Western cuisine, internet cafes, and guesthouses. Nothing really going on, but a great place to chill out. I had a funny experience there and wrote this:

Intersection

I heard chanting as I walked into the Nisha Indian Restaurant. Past the main dining area, a small space had been cleared and straw mats layed down. Two monks and two novices sat on one side of this small room, palms pressed together in prayer. I hesitated at the threshhold, thinking I should find another restaurant. A mixed Indian and Lao family sat in a semicircle around the monks. One of the women of the family saw my hesitation and beckoned me in. I bowed my head, removed my shoes, and joined the group in prayer.

One of the monks held a thick twisted candle over a bowl of water. Flaming wax dripped off and sputtered out in the water I looked at the candle, thinking it might give an estimate of how long the ceremony would last. I was sitting on my knees, feet tucked underneath me, and I knew I couldn't last long in this position. Surely the candle would give up before me though.

Trying not to attract any attention, I glanced about the room. Balloons were strung across the ceiling. Was this a birthday party? Stepping directly through the center of the gathering, an Indian man came over to me and placed a bottle of Pepsi in front of me. I noticed everyone else had drinks as well, straws poking out of glass bottles ignored while all prayed. An orange Fanta sat in front of the monk with the candle, its unnatural orange seemed strangely appropriate next to his matching robes.

There came a lull in the chanting, and the candle was dunked in the water. I seized the opportunity to move to a more comfortable cross-legged position. I could hear Spanish guitar from the bar across the street. I marvelled at the absurd mix: Spanish guitar filling the silences of a Lao religious ceremony in an Indian restaurant tucked between the pizza and burger joints of this silly town.

The chanting resumed, and I brought my hands in front of me. An old Lao man passed alms from a tray to the monk who had been holding the candle. Vegetables, cigarettes, and money changed hands in a slow procession. I tried to recall if I'd seen a monk smoking. Doubtful. I'd heard that out of humility the monks accept everything given to them, and even eat the animal products that Buddha so strictly forbade.

The chanting stopped again, this time replaced by Pearl Jam. Now the oldest monk, until now motionless, rose. The chanting resumed, and he took up an offering of vegetables and the bowl of water the candle had been dipped into. He dipped a stalk of cauliflower into this water and splashed the observers gently, as if annointing us. Finally he sat, and the chanting stopped. Across the street Jim Morrison asked, "Who do you love?" The ceremony was over. The monks filed out of the restaurant. My stomach gnawed at me. Perhaps now I could have some curry. In Lao I told the Indian man that I wanted to eat. He told me in English that the restaurant opened the following day. The Pepsi was on the house.

4 Feb 2004

Thinking About Moving

I've been thinking about my coming departure from Japan quite a bit lately. I can't say that I'm not looking forward to it. That fact made me remember a quote about someone who wants to move not being happy. I shared this memory with Anners, who, serendipitously, had that very day read the same quote and was able to provide the source.

Tereza had explained all this to Tomas and he knew that it was true. But he also knew that underneath it all hid still another, more fundamental truth, the reason why she wanted to leave Prague: she had never really been happy before.

[...]

A person who longs to leave the place where he lives is an unhappy person. That is why Tomas accepted Tereza's wish to emigrate as the culprit accepts his sentence, and one day he and Tereza and Karenin found themselves in the biggest city in Switzerland.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being, p26

I was once compared to Tomas. I took a bit of pride until I was informed that it wasn't a compliment. Now I find myself in Tereza's position, wanting to leave my home because I'm just not happy in the current situation. That's February for you though.

4 Feb 2004

Fighting and Cooking - A Response

Quite awhile ago I posted a bit about fighting and cooking being very opposed and asked for comments. Caroline, a fantastic vegan chef and capoerista, wrote back with the many ways she thinks fighting and cooking are similar.

both can be motivated by strong feelings about a person, both can be violent (carniverous meals, not fairly traded foods), neither take very long or leave much in the way of remains, both can be creative, both can be run of the mill, both can be bitter, sour, painful (chilli), dangerous (heat, knives), can end in tears or laughter, both can fulfil human needs, both are often accompanied by alcohol, both are often carried out by arsehole men, both can be rough and homestyle or highly stylised and distinguished, both contain emotions...

Well said, Caroline.

4 Feb 2004

Going to Latin America

My next big plan in life is to travel around Latin America, look for work, hang out. Everything is very vague at this point, but I'm thinking about a route from Quito, Ecuador to Buenos Aires, Argentina. This Indymedia article sums up pretty well why I'm so interested in Latin America right now. Viva la revolucion! Que se vayan todos!

Times of change in Latin America

After the military cycle that killed hundreds of thousands of people and devastated their economies, Latin Americans are gradually recovering from their tragic recent past. Reacting to foreign intrusion and the FTAA - which is viewed as an aggression against their liberty and self determination - Latin America is moving towards the creation of a single confederation from the Rio Grande to Cape Horn, called "Patria Grande" (Big Fatherland). The epicenter of this peaceful revolution is Venezuela, where President Hugo Chavez is inspired by the ideas of Simon Bolivar and other revolutionaries such as Zapata, Sandino and Che Guevara. One of his projects is Petroamerica , a merger of the state-owned Latin American oil companies to compete on equal terms with the giant private corporations.

In most Latin American countries, left-wing parties are winning elections. In others, rulers who followed neoliberal policies were deposed by popular uprisings, Indigenous movements playing a leading role in them. Latin America's Indigenous and African roots are being revalued and are influencing a new generation of artists and writers.

Latin American countries are also pursuing a more independent foreign policy. They formed the bulk of the G-22 group that successfully resisted the US/UE axis in Cancun. Last week, after being criticized by the US Department of State for his relations with Venezuela and Cuba, Argentinian President Kirchner said that his country is not a "doormat" of the United States any more. He is also considering a referendum where the people will decide whether they should continue paying the foreign debt. It is estimated that more than 80% of the population would vote "no". Latin Americans strongly opposed the invasion of Iraq, and Brazil's Lula has recently visited several African and Arab countries, calling for a Latin American/African/Arab partnership.

Originally published on the Indymedia website 1 Feb 2004.

4 Feb 2004

Kip Millionaire

Here's Caroline in Laos, a kip millionaire. Of course 10,000 kip equal 1 dollar, so don't be too impressed (at least not by the money). No, I didn't take the photo. See the rest of Caroline's SE Asia photos on her Clubphoto site.

21 Jan 2004

A Sign It's Too Cold

What's my first step in cooking almost anything lately?

Thaw the olive oil.

21 Jan 2004

Friday Night in Bangkok

I'm trying out my hand at a bit of travel writing. Here's a teaser from my short piece Friday Night in Bangkok

. . . The juggler was finishing his act just as I returned. I thought for a second I had missed out, but shortly realized he was just one of a troupe. Now a sexy African woman with flaming poi moved into the center of everyone's attention. She didn't just spin the poi; she danced with them. I was mezmerized. The two balls of fire shot in and out around her body, illuminating its ample curves . . .

20 Jan 2004

Long Time No Blog

Sorry to leave all you loyal readers alone for two months. Busy times lately, but as they were spent creating good stories there should be a lot of action here in the coming days.

20 Jan 2004

Read the old stuff.

I've archived all my brilliant work to date.

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September - December 2003