Katrina

To all in the path of Katrina, God be with you and watch over you, and give you peace.

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Some pictures from the Land of Smiles

Here's an image from the Queen's Imperial Park, just a few blocks from where I live. I have no idea what the pyramid represents. In the background you can see a little boat house that has paddle boats and such to take out. It's such a tiny lake, however, that boating is really impractical.





Here's where I work... the TASC office. It's an on old residential building that has been converted into our office. There's another building just like it on either side - minus the TASC logo, of course :)

Note the cat on the sidewalk. This picture is unusual in that only one cat is visible... normally we have two or three hanging out front waiting for our secretary to feed them.




This piece of inflatable Americana appeared about 2 months ago. The statue was advertising that Thai Airways now has a non-stop flight to NYC. I just thought it was a kick to see Lady Liberty on the streets of Bangkok.















Sorry, no people in this set of pics... but I'll get some up eventually :)

thupt

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Yet another busy week

Next week is the annual "World Congress of Epidemiology" sponsored by the International Epidemiological Association (IEA). As luck would have it, this year the even takes place in Bangkok. TASC purchased admittance tickets for all of the staff; we are also using the opportunity to set up meetings between the different country representatives that are involved in Child Injury prevention programs. People began arriving today. On Saturday we'll have some meetings here in the office, and Mike has asked me to present some data showing how the ability of an indivdual to recall an illness or a death depends upon several factors, all of which must be considered when designing a survey. I'll also meet again with the folks from Bangladesh about their injury survey surveillance system that I'm helping with. Simultaneously I'm trying to make another pass through the Thailand report so that it's a little cleaner should we distribute copies next week, and getting ready to travel both to Bangladesh and the US in September. So there's alot going on.

Looks like I'll get a laptop for my trip back home. I was hoping to treat this trip as a vacation, but it looks like I'll need to work alot on the surveillance system, seeing as how I'll need to head back out to Bangladesh to install quite soon after I return. They hope to have they system running in November... which gives us the month of October to set it up. So, ideally, I'll have the software in at least a beta stage by the first of October... thus the laptop!

Things are still good with Jah; it's been about a month since the last breakup, and we haven't had any problems since then. I'm starting to think long-term now, and I have some issues to deal with. I've been with her for about 4 months now. Maybe this seems too heavy, but the fact is that our relationship is moving into a point where, if a shared future is not a possibility, then it's best to break up and move on. She's 28 and I'm 32. We both want kids... time is not in abundance. No, no, we aren't getting married and starting a family, but if that isn't in the cards then what's the point?

I don't want to be seen as one of these guys that goes to Asia to find a wife, and I'm worried that's what the appearance will be. Even though she is a strong, independent, educated woman, I'm scared people will just look at her as a mail-order bride and me as a guy that orders a mail-order bride. The fact that I've been single so long in the U.S. doesn't help my confidence on this issue. And that's just on the US side... on the Thai side, many women from her part of the country find some rich white guy to to marry that is really just a source of income for her and her family. Jah doesn't want to be seen as someone that does that, either. I guess in the end, if we do end up together, we'll have to deal with alot of predjudice - an unwelcome burden to assume.

Hm, this sure is a juicy post... maybe the urge to comment will get some of you to register :)

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Registration required

Sorry guys, but I've put on a registration requirement to post comments. I hope everyone will take the time register so that normal activity can resume.

I chose to do this because some schmuck has started spamming my blog comment space with advertising. I've been manually deleting them up till now. To stop this guy from misusing the comments in the future, however I've taken this step.

Sorry for the inconvenience :(

thupt

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The recently departed

Yesterday we had a minor tragedy here at the TASC office.

As I may have mentioned previously, a couple of months ago one of the many stray cats that hang out around here had a litter of kittens. I don't know how many were originally in the litter, because the momma cat chose a secret spot hidden in another building. About a month ago, though, during a particularly heavy rain, momma cat decided to move the litter to prevent the kittens from drowning.

In order to make that move, momma cat had to bring the kittens, one at a time, over a stone wall about 10' high. Apparently all but two of the litter had perished by this time, because the attempted move only involved two kittens. One, an orange one, made it safely. A second went missing; a few days later it was found, barely alive, wedged into a crevice between the base of the wall and some other structure. It had apparently fallen during transport, and mamma lost it. Anyway, that one didn't make it more than a couple more days. So momma was left with one healthy orange-haired kitten.

The crucial player I've left out of this tale of woe is our secretary, Gail. She is the reason that these animals hang out here. She lives about 2 hours away, which makes for a heck of a commute, but still makes it a point to come in even on her days off to care for these animals. She routinely picks up strays from the street who are ill and nurses them back to health. She has a coterie of animals around the city that she travels to visit. She gives chicken and rice, medicine and medical care, to any animal she sees "in need." This is somewhat endearing, I suppose, but also just out of touch with reality. There is no animal control in Bangkok, so stray dogs and cats are everywhere and pose a real health problem. In fact, animal attacks, mostly by dogs, is a leading cause of mortality and morbidity in the country.

So this kitten, who's was born of a stray cat and was in this world for all of about 2 months, was run over yesterday. Gail immediately jumped into action, but was unable to get it to medical care in time. It died in transit. The rest of the afternoon (about 3 hours) was spent with her mourning the death of this kitten. She placed it on her desk (in the office), prostrated herself on top of it and kissed its head for a good 10 minutes. She performed a buddhist ceremony outside, then proceeded to use the kitchen counter to wrap it in a burial shroud. There were many tears, of course. We don't know what happened to it next, but we think she took it home (remember, a 2 hour trip) to bury it in her yard.

All of us here think this behavior crossed the line... it was really creepy. We all tried to be sympathetic and supportive for "her loss", but if it happens again, something will be said and/or done by one of the bosses to keep that kind of stuff out of the workplace. It's one thing to like animals, its another thing to turn your place of work into a pet mortuary for an afternoon.

*Shivers*

Thupt!

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Of Mice and Men

I, apparently, am a mouse. According to my sister, most women are the men.

Now there's a thousand different directions to take that statement, but I'm referring to colds. I developed one on Friday, and on Saturday I was completely wiped out. I could feel the sinus pressure building inside my head, pressing against parts of my face I didn't know I had. I had a throbbing headache, a faucet for a nose, my eyes hurt, my throat hurt... all I could do was roll around in bed and moan. This is what my sister describes as getting knocked out. She says that men are babies when it comes to colds, and that women don't have the luxury of being that miserable.

As far as the being a baby part, I have to disagree. Not that I think I can't take it like a man, but rather that I'd much rather take it like a baby if I could! I remember as a kid I'd get a cold and wonder what all the fuss was about. I'd wipe my nose on my sleeve, cough in someone's face, and keep on runnin'. There's a inverse relationship between my age and my cold-handling abilities. The older I get, the more incapacitated a common cold seems to make me.

Anyway, by yesterday afternoon it had mostly passed, although I still have a headache this morning.

I may not be delaying my return to the US afterall. I'm currently scheduled to depart on the 8th of September, and I think I'll be able to keep that. Then I'll return around Sept. 30 or so. My departure depends upon an upcomong trip to Bangladesh. Ross will be going with me and he wants to leave on August 30, stay five days and come back about Sunday, September 4. Me, I'm pushing to get back one day earlier because Saturday night is when Jah can come in. But it looks like I may lose that fight. In any case, if we get back here by Sept. 7 then it will be easy for me to leave for the US on Sept. 8.

Thupt!

p.s.

Go Titans!
Go Democrats!
Rah! Rah! Rah!

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Something of an update

Talked with Mike today about the future, and I spoke with Ross earlier in the week.

Looks like this will be the deal:

1) I'll delay my trip to the US about a week, which means I'll leave about September 15. I'll stay in the US for about 3 weeks. Given that time frame,I'll probably take about 4 days in Blowing Rock before heading to Baton Rouge.

2) I will continue to be a fellow, not an employee. My stiped will increase about $400 per month, which, combined with lower apartment rent, allows me to pay my car note (or save for a new one) and have a little more spending money.

3) I will probably take 3 hours a semester towards my phd. It may not be from Tulane, however; there's a chance I could transfer to the School of Public Health at the University of Washington. I'd say that's unlikely, however. The outcome of this point depends on what Tulane does. TASC will pay for it if I don't get a tuition waiver.

4) I'll be here for another year, and will have as a major responsibility setting up surveillance systems in different countries. Bangladesh is the first, and is what I'm working on now. I'll also try to get a few research papers published between now and then.

5) My general impression is that TASC really wants me here, but wants me cheap. So long as I can support my debt, eat well and have a few beers on the weekend, that's ok with me. However, I no longer think that working here as a salaried employee is in the cards. It may come to pass, but more likely I need to use this to gain a ton of experience and then, in a year, after I've completed my courseload (and hopefully my dissertation), leave here for some professional position - probably in the US. If Jah and I are still together then, I expect she'd come along.

I'm about as happy now as I've ever been. I love the work I do and enjoy the people with whom I work. The girlfriend thing is very good - I'll just leave it at that, for now. I'm healthy, not wealthy, but perhaps a bit wiser. If I just had X-box live and a way to watch Titans games then everything would be perfect. I do miss family and friends, though, which is why I say I'll probably come back to the US when I'm done with TASC.

Reporting from the everexpanding la la land,

Thupt!

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Email

For those who don't have my email address (I'm looking at you, Paca!), it is:

thomas840@gmail.com

For those that don't want my email address, just travel back in time about 10 seconds and choose not to click on this link.

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Waking up happy

This morning I woke up just elated. I felt like I was a truly blessed individual... and for the most part I still feel that way today at 5:35. I know it's cheesy and all, but part of that is the response from you guys... knowing that, even though I haven't written in a while, you still check in... it makes me feel warm and fuzzy :) So thanks!

When will I be coming home? Well, I believe my flight from here is about September 8. How long I'll be home has yet been determined, but it'll be at least a week, hopefully 2. I'll fly in first to Blowing Rock and spend some time there, then head back to Baton Rouge for the majority of the time. I hope my sis hasn't rented out my room already!

Last Friday I took my first ride on a river taxi. For a very long time the primary means of transport in Bangkok was via the canals that weave throughout the city. As the country grew wealthier more folks acquired cars and motorbikes, and the city contracted to build a subway and a skytrain system. So now most visitors never see the old river taxi service. It's still there, though, and frequently used by the Thai. Furthermore, since the subway/skytrain network covers a fairly limited portion of the city, and since traffic in BKK is a beast, the canals are often the fastest way to get from point A to point B. So, on Friday, I took my first river taxi ride to "Pontip Plaza", the city's largest technology mall.

It was fun, fast, cheap, and easy. 10 baht (about 25 cents) brought me to within two blocks of the mall. It was a bit of an adventure, though, because it's definately not for the tourists. There are no signs in English to identify the docks, the boat workers speak very little English if any at all, and there's no real boarding ramp but rather you just kind of climb in and out of the boat as it slows down next to the doc (stopping is only required when large crowd of passengers needs to get on or off). The boats can hold about 50 folks, maybe 75, who all crowd into the middle. The ticket takers clamber along the sides, tethered to the boat with the skimpiest of ropes. All-in-all it was very cool and I plan on doing it again when the opportunity arises.

Thupt!

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Take this job and ... oh, wait, can I have some more, please?

Hey, I'm alive!

If a blogger posts a message and no one is there to read it, does it make a difference? I suspect I'll find out soon enough, because chances are that noone's checking this site any more. Hm... perhaps that means I can post freely, without censorship! That's a liberating thought, actually.

Well, let's see. Two weeks ago was one of the busiest, most stressful weeks of my time here. I was trying to meet a deadline to get this report completed for UNICEF by the end of the week. Pretty much everything was done when Mike critiqued it and ordered a ton of revisions. That put is up against a tight deadline and I and the new fellow (Vicky) worked late all week to make it happen. We made the deadline, mostly due to my insistence. Vicky was pretty relaxed the whole time, once asking me if I had ever missed a deadline. No, I haven't. For someone as laid back and disorganized as me, it's amazing that I have that little hangup. But I do... if I commit to do something by a specific date, unless my dog dies I figure I have no excuse not to produce by that time.

Anyway, that was 2 weeks ago and last week I began to design the database for the Bangladesh Injury Surveillance system. The backend is the easy part, I know how to do that. The tricky part for me will be the UI, as I've never done that before. I'm learning VB.Net; I figure that's the quickest way to get something usable produced. Still, it'll probably take me a couple of months to get version 1 complete... and then I'll still have to add reporting functions and make it customizable. So lots of work there to be done. And, given that I've worked for two companies that basically made these kinds of systems for profit, I know that the value I'm adding to TASC by doing this is huge. They are getting a steal by paying me what they are. But I'm glad to finally do something that isn't too far afield of my strengths. All this epidemiology was making me feel inadequate!

As far as personal matters go, I've been seeing someone here - off and on - for about 3 months now. It's starting to turn into something. What, exactly, remains to be seen :) But it's gone on long enough that it seems to be more than a passing fancy, so I'll share with everyone. Her name is Jah. She lives and works outside of Bangkok in Ayutaya, which used to be the capital of Thailand long ago. She comes to BKK Saturday nights and leaves again on Sunday. She's in this management development program in a jewelry factory, which keeps her busy 6 days a week. It's not unusual for her to work 68 hours a week... so needless to say she likes to relax on her one day off!

She's very charismatic and likable, gets along with everyone. She's smart and organized (which I need) and fairly liberal minded for a Thai woman. She likes to try just about any kind of food, which, as some of you know, is one of my indicators of compatibility. And she has a great family that has really sacrificed to give her opportunity and freedom.

On the downside, she tends to worry even more than I do about relationships and gets herself worked up very easily. She's walked on me three times already because she convinced herself of some fiction, only to come back later after a few days of thinking. We'll have to solve that problem if this is to continue - but we've talked about it and are trying to keep the lines of communication as open as possible so that we can nip future problems in the bud.

OK, that's about it I suppose. I've got to get back to work.

Thupt!

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