LOAD OF BOLLOCKS

COOKIES

I've noticed a two big differences in cookies between American and Cambodian. First, of course is the amount of sugar used. Pretty much everywhere in the world uses less sugar than Americans. This is a well documented fact. The second less documented fact is packaging. In America, when you buy a box of cookies you open the box and there is a big plastic bag which contains all of the cookies. They know the average American will eat them all in one go as we Americans tend to be fat bastards. Well, at least I am. In Cambodia, the cookies are individually wrapped. This would allow you to eat one or two and keep the rest as fresh as possible longer. Fortunately, it is still possible to eat the whole box in one go - it just requires more effort.



MORPHEUS

Listening to an audio book when you're asleep can give you some odd dreams. I was listening to a book and fell asleep. I'm guessing that either the main character in the book was named Doyle or the name Doyle was mentioned a lot. But it was not Justin Doyle that haunted my dreams - it was Travis Powell's character Doyle. [We're talking imaginary character from RPG's if you're behind the geek curve here.] Anyway, this Doyle (in my mind) looks just like Travis but add a hundred pounds of Unnecessary Muscle Mass and two scars. I don't know why just two scars but I'm guessing it is all my mind can hold. For those who listened to the old Heroic Cthulhu (RPG) stuff, you'll know Doyle was a fun loving 'kill stuff, blow it up and stab what was left with a spear' kind of fun loving psycho. Anyway, as the name Doyle got mentioned over and over in this book the world in the dream filled up with Doyle. Soon, everyone was Doyle. All of them were angry, psycho and close to snapping all of the time. You know the little kid name plates you can get to give kids a pride in their own name (as well as sickos valuable information about your child)? The store had one name only on a stand made for one name only: Doyle. They had 'Doyle the Role Playing Game' where people from this earth full of Doyle's could play Doyle. I remember stating whilst in the dream "This is one fucked up dream. I will write it down on facebook." So, beware the temptation of listening to an audio book when falling asleep! Today, I plan to listen to that book (Anubis Gate by Tim Powers). If I don't hear 'Doyle' mentioned frequently, I will suspect someone has put a hex on me. After listening to the first few chapters, I have discovered that indeed the main character is in fact named Doyle. Unfortunately, I lost interest in the book about a third of the way through it but I was grateful for the freaky dream it gave unto me.



CHILD LABOR

So, I'm wandering around in Cambodia. It is HOT. Hot like it gets in Southeast Asia. Sweat rolling down my body (well, my 'festively plump' body) hot. I see two ten year old kids working on a road crew. They were using hammers to make big rocks into little rocks. I am not kidding. Since I know the saying "Pics or it didn't happen", here's some video of it. Heck, I don't even swear in the video. Amazing. A lot of people from rich countries would look at this video and say 'isn't that terrible'. I say 'they are probably helping to support their families'. Here is the video!



EVIL BUGS

While I was writing this, I saw and killed a cockroach that was as large as my middle finger - truly! I've come to accept the small black ant problem but I'm not fond of the cockroaches. Unfortunately, I don't think that I can find a room with air conditioning, a desk, a balcony and interior bathroom for $14 per night elsewhere here. So, I might get stuck with that.



RICKY GERVAIS PODCAST

I've been listening to the Ricky Gervais podcasts. The more I've heard, the stupider Karl Pilkington gets. Some good chuckles in there.

Happy Dictators!!

I'm sure I'll meet many happy-go-lucky dictators.



"An Idiot Abroad"

Well, they finished up the series in the best way possible. The whining host of the show often spoke with fond memories of his trips to Wales. They sent him there. He looked as miserable as anywhere else. This helps illustrate that he is just a miserable no fun bastard. It was interesting watching him whine his way through several countries. I can't help but think that it would have been fun to get him into more life threatening situations. One that came to my mind is the running of the bulls. I'd have had him dress up for it and not told him what it was about. Then, I'd have had someone with a laptop show him the opening scene from the movie city slickers and say "See that? Hear that cannon that just went off? I'll give you three guesses what is now on it's way!"

I don't think they will get him to do another series in this same vein.

The two executive producers, Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant had different things (in addition to putting together a show) they wanted to achieve. Stephen Merchant wanted to expand Karl Pilkington's world. He failed. Ricky Gervais had (IMO) a much better goal - he wanted to torture Karl Pilkington. Ricky succeeded.

If this guy was an American, he'd be called a typical 'Ugly American' - since he is a Brit, they just call him an 'idiot'.



Just judging by this rough map, I don't think I'll be 'feeling the rains down in Africa' any time soon.




I'm not a politician but with the three big problems I'm seeing
a) You can't just show up at the border and buy a visa
b) You need various immunizations due to all kinds of diseases
c) AIDS - sure it's a disease but it's severe enough I think it deserves it's own bullet point
d) Ongoing conflict - including al-Qaeda terrorists hanging out and snatching folks

I'm thinking WTF? I believe that it is very hard living there and such but wow, it's not a really 'tourist friendly' place. I may in the future find out some information that makes me think "I should go there" but right now I'm thinking the risk/cost vs reward is just really not looking good.

Either the very north (the Arabic places) or the very south places look OK. Not sure how I'd get to the southern places easily but right now most of the center of Africa kinda looks...rough...