Today is Jacob's ninth birthday. I made cookies to take to his class today, and even baked a care for tonight. Tim is picking up his favorite food, KFC, for dinner tonight.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Two Mysteries Solved
A week or so ago I noticed an odd smell when I opened one of the lower cabinets in the kitchen. It was unusual because we really don't keep any food in that cabinet. There were some unfrozen popsicles there, but they certainly did not account for the smell. Yesterday I opened the cabinet when the maid was in the kitchen, so I asked her to take a look inside.
This morning when I came down from breakfast, Yaow showed me the spoiled bag of lunch meat that she found in the cabinet. This solved not only the case of the funky smell, but also of the missing lunch meat bag. A few weeks ago I bought some ham at the grocery store, but couldn't find it later that day. I usually don't put the groceries away (the maid does), so I assumed that I had forgotten the bag at the store. It turns out the bagger had put the lunch meat in a bag with some packs of unfrozen popcicles. Booah had not noticed the lunch meat, so she put the entire bag in the cabinet.
This morning when I came down from breakfast, Yaow showed me the spoiled bag of lunch meat that she found in the cabinet. This solved not only the case of the funky smell, but also of the missing lunch meat bag. A few weeks ago I bought some ham at the grocery store, but couldn't find it later that day. I usually don't put the groceries away (the maid does), so I assumed that I had forgotten the bag at the store. It turns out the bagger had put the lunch meat in a bag with some packs of unfrozen popcicles. Booah had not noticed the lunch meat, so she put the entire bag in the cabinet.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Locked Out
I returned back from my workout this morning and my new maid had locked me out of the house. When Booah had locked me out, she had left the door to the maid's quarter open, and I was able to climb in through the kitchen window. Yaow locked all the doors. I was already in a very bad mood this morning, and this did not help.
I called Yaow and told her to come home. By the time she got home, I had found a window in the back that was unlocked and climbed through.
This is not a good start.
I called Yaow and told her to come home. By the time she got home, I had found a window in the back that was unlocked and climbed through.
This is not a good start.
Jacob
Jacob came into my room yesterday "wearing" this box.
He was actually wearing shorts under the cardboard.
He was actually wearing shorts under the cardboard.
Directions
I bought this bicycle shortly after I arrived in Thailand a year and a half ago. I've been meaning to take a picture of this for a while.
The non-English writing is not Thai, I think its Chinese.
The non-English writing is not Thai, I think its Chinese.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Access Restored?
As some of you may already read from my email, the Thai government or my ISP appear to have been blocking blogger.com. I was able to gain access again, so I set it up so that I can publish my posts via email. This means that even if they block it again, I should be able to continue to blog.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Carnival
One of Aleena's classmates is from Brazil, and today his parents came to class to teach the kids about Carnival. They talked about Carnival, and showed a short film. Afterwards, the children made masks and a "shaker" made of a soft drink can with dried beans in it.
Here are some pictures of Aleena and her mask. She really worked for a long time on the mask, and she seemed absolutely delighted when people told her how pretty it looked. I hope that I captured some of that joy in the photographs.
Here are some pictures of Aleena and her mask. She really worked for a long time on the mask, and she seemed absolutely delighted when people told her how pretty it looked. I hope that I captured some of that joy in the photographs.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
A New Beginning
As of breakfast this morning, Booah completed her time as our maid and nanny. Although there were some frustrating moments, I think we will all miss Booah. She worked incredibly hard, was a good cook, and the girls really loved her.
Before she left, Booah asked if she could have a picture of the family, and we happily obliged. Before school this morning, I took pictures of the kids with Booah.
We interviewed six of seven people over the course of a few days. Some wanted too much money, others couldn't work the desired hours, while others just didn't have the skillset to do the job.
Right before dinner yesterday, a maid for a former neighbor of ours came to speak to me. I had seen her around our old neighborhood before. She spoke with Tim on the phone and she seemed like a good match. Apparently she was very unhappy at her current employer who had yelled at her and called her names over something that she cooked. The girls saw her and also recognized her. The only downside was that she could not start until March 6th. After talking with her, I thought that we would probably end up hiring her. We could certainly manage for a week without a maid. The biggest pain would have been doing the laundry, but it was manageable.
When Tim returned from work last night, she told me that she had spoken with another maid/nanny who was looking for work. She had worked for another former neighbor for many years, but had recently left their employment. I knew her enough to say hi or wave, but hadn't really spoken to her a whole lot. Tim had actually talked to her in the past and liked her.
Tim and I talked about it and decided to offer her the job. The kids already knew her, which would help with the transition. She can also speak English fairly well, which would make interacting with me a lot easier. The biggest downside was that she told Tim that she was not much of a cook. At her previous family, they had a food service deliver meals. There are a lot of ways around that limitation, as I don't mind cooking once a week, and we can order in once or twice a week. Another option is to buy some prepared meals for the week and freeze them. Its actually pretty affordable to do it that way here.
Our new maid starts tomorrow morning at 7:30 a.m., after the kids are off to school. There are going to be some growing pains as she learns our routines, how we like to do things, and where everything is located, but I am cautiously optimistic.
Before she left, Booah asked if she could have a picture of the family, and we happily obliged. Before school this morning, I took pictures of the kids with Booah.
We interviewed six of seven people over the course of a few days. Some wanted too much money, others couldn't work the desired hours, while others just didn't have the skillset to do the job.
Right before dinner yesterday, a maid for a former neighbor of ours came to speak to me. I had seen her around our old neighborhood before. She spoke with Tim on the phone and she seemed like a good match. Apparently she was very unhappy at her current employer who had yelled at her and called her names over something that she cooked. The girls saw her and also recognized her. The only downside was that she could not start until March 6th. After talking with her, I thought that we would probably end up hiring her. We could certainly manage for a week without a maid. The biggest pain would have been doing the laundry, but it was manageable.
When Tim returned from work last night, she told me that she had spoken with another maid/nanny who was looking for work. She had worked for another former neighbor for many years, but had recently left their employment. I knew her enough to say hi or wave, but hadn't really spoken to her a whole lot. Tim had actually talked to her in the past and liked her.
Tim and I talked about it and decided to offer her the job. The kids already knew her, which would help with the transition. She can also speak English fairly well, which would make interacting with me a lot easier. The biggest downside was that she told Tim that she was not much of a cook. At her previous family, they had a food service deliver meals. There are a lot of ways around that limitation, as I don't mind cooking once a week, and we can order in once or twice a week. Another option is to buy some prepared meals for the week and freeze them. Its actually pretty affordable to do it that way here.
Our new maid starts tomorrow morning at 7:30 a.m., after the kids are off to school. There are going to be some growing pains as she learns our routines, how we like to do things, and where everything is located, but I am cautiously optimistic.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Now Serving
Sometimes translations from Thai to English can result in some humorous signs. Someone reminded me of a funny one last week at lunch.
Our family goes to Denta Joy, a dentist office where they dentist and staff speak English. The service is good and pretty reasonably priced (by Western standards anyway). There is a sign in the lobby that reads "Now Serving Hispanics".
Our family goes to Denta Joy, a dentist office where they dentist and staff speak English. The service is good and pretty reasonably priced (by Western standards anyway). There is a sign in the lobby that reads "Now Serving Hispanics".
When It Rains
As I mentioned yesterday, my maid informed us yesterday that she will be leaving on Thursday. Earlier in the month, the water delivery service company informed us that they were going out of business, although I believe that there is a ready replacement available. This morning when I returned from dropping the kids off at school, the gentleman who washes our cars informed me that he is leaving at the end of the month to go back home.
I'm starting to wonder if I smell or have become particularly offensive causing people to want to stop working with me.
I'm starting to wonder if I smell or have become particularly offensive causing people to want to stop working with me.
Photography Tips - The Tripod
This is the first in a series of blog entries that I am writing about photography. While I am hardly an expert, I've learned a lot over the past eighteen months and you might find some of the tips useful.
You can take great vacation photographs without owning an expensive camera or a bagful of premium lenses. One of the keys to taking memorable photographs of landscapes, landmarks or other sites is to use a tripod. Whatever you shoot with, a tripod can be the difference between a picture you mount on the wall and a beautifully composed, but blurry picture.
The tripod’s purpose is to keep your camera still. No matter how steady a photographer’s hands, there is always some slight movement. The longer the shutter is open when taking the picture, the more likely that movement will cause the photo to look blurry. Major camera companies like Canon, Nikon and Sony have implemented technology in their cameras or lenses to help reduce blurriness caused by camera movement. While these technologies do a wonderful job, they cannot eliminate camera movement as well as an inexpensive tripod.
A tripod is particularly useful for landscape and landmark photography for a few reasons. First, when you take landscape photography, you will usually want to use a small aperture. The benefit of using a smaller aperture is that more of the scene will be in focus. The disadvantage is that the smaller the aperture, the smaller the hole that lets the light into the sensor. Since the hole is smaller, the shutter will need to be open longer to allow in the proper amount of light. The longer the shutter is open, the more risk there is that you will have camera shake if you try to hand hold the camera.
Another reason that a tripod is so useful for landscape and landmark photography is that usually the best time to take those shots is at sunrise or sunset. Sunrise and sunset provide a warm light that is often referred to as the golden light. A lot of professionals will only take these kinds of photographs at and around sunrise and sunset. While the sunrise and sunset can provide a warm light that will improve your photography many times over, shooting at these times has a price beyond the loss of sleep and being late for dinner. It’s simply not as bright as in the middle of the afternoon. Since there is less light when the camera opens the shutter, it needs to keep it open longer in order to get the correct exposure.
So how long is that shutter going to be open? When I took my pictures at sunset in Sukhothai, the exposure time ranged from four-tenths of a second to twenty-five seconds or more. Even with anti-shake technology, a person cannot hold a camera perfectly still for almost half a second, much less for nearly half a minute.
The only way that you could hand hold in those situations is to use a larger aperture, resulting in less of the image being in focus, and to crank up the ISO on the image. Increasing the ISO makes the sensor more sensitive to light, which decreases the shutter time. The trade off for increasing the ISO is more noise in your picture.
In Sukhothai, I saw alot of people taking pictures at sunrise hand holding their cameras. My guess is that when they got home, they had either images that were somewhat blurry or that had a lot of noise. I know that in either case, I would be disappointed.
Tripods come in a variety of costs. Like most things, you get what you pay for. You can buy an inexpensive aluminum one for under $20. The downside is that these are often not as sturdy, and more subject to vibration. The high end carbon-fiber tripods are light and eliminate almost all vibration, but can run you hundreds of dollars, and that does not include the tripod head to which you attach your camera. My tripod is aluminum, but is more sturdy and heavier than its cheaper brethren. It cost me about $100. I tried to use a cheaper one when I was back in the U.S. this summer, but I think my camera and lens were a little too heavy for it.
So what kind of tripod is right for you? Serious photographers who are going to be lugging the tripod around a lot and want to try to eliminate any vibrations will probably be looking at the carbon-fiber variety of tripods. If your goal is to make your vacation pictures look a little nicer, then I would consider one of the inexpensive aluminum tripods. Some of them can collapse so that they are less than a foot long. This makes them easier to carry. The easier it is to carry, the less likely you are to leave it back in the hotel room. The best tripod in the world will not help your pictures at all if it is lying folded on your bed.
The tripod has another benefit in that it lets you “get into” the pictures. I mean, you can do like a lot of people and hold your camera at arm’s length and get your face in the shot, but it’s really hard to compose a nice shot when you are not looking through the viewer or at the LCD.
The tripod really is a great way to improve your photographs. It won’t suddenly make you a master at composition or transform a boring screen into a magnificent one, but it will hold your camera still so that you can get a sharp photo. I look at it this way. If I travel to some beautiful place to which I might never return, I would hate to return home and find that the picture that I took that looked perfect in the small LCD screen is blurry when blown up to four by six or larger.
You can take great vacation photographs without owning an expensive camera or a bagful of premium lenses. One of the keys to taking memorable photographs of landscapes, landmarks or other sites is to use a tripod. Whatever you shoot with, a tripod can be the difference between a picture you mount on the wall and a beautifully composed, but blurry picture.
The tripod’s purpose is to keep your camera still. No matter how steady a photographer’s hands, there is always some slight movement. The longer the shutter is open when taking the picture, the more likely that movement will cause the photo to look blurry. Major camera companies like Canon, Nikon and Sony have implemented technology in their cameras or lenses to help reduce blurriness caused by camera movement. While these technologies do a wonderful job, they cannot eliminate camera movement as well as an inexpensive tripod.
A tripod is particularly useful for landscape and landmark photography for a few reasons. First, when you take landscape photography, you will usually want to use a small aperture. The benefit of using a smaller aperture is that more of the scene will be in focus. The disadvantage is that the smaller the aperture, the smaller the hole that lets the light into the sensor. Since the hole is smaller, the shutter will need to be open longer to allow in the proper amount of light. The longer the shutter is open, the more risk there is that you will have camera shake if you try to hand hold the camera.
Another reason that a tripod is so useful for landscape and landmark photography is that usually the best time to take those shots is at sunrise or sunset. Sunrise and sunset provide a warm light that is often referred to as the golden light. A lot of professionals will only take these kinds of photographs at and around sunrise and sunset. While the sunrise and sunset can provide a warm light that will improve your photography many times over, shooting at these times has a price beyond the loss of sleep and being late for dinner. It’s simply not as bright as in the middle of the afternoon. Since there is less light when the camera opens the shutter, it needs to keep it open longer in order to get the correct exposure.
So how long is that shutter going to be open? When I took my pictures at sunset in Sukhothai, the exposure time ranged from four-tenths of a second to twenty-five seconds or more. Even with anti-shake technology, a person cannot hold a camera perfectly still for almost half a second, much less for nearly half a minute.
The only way that you could hand hold in those situations is to use a larger aperture, resulting in less of the image being in focus, and to crank up the ISO on the image. Increasing the ISO makes the sensor more sensitive to light, which decreases the shutter time. The trade off for increasing the ISO is more noise in your picture.
In Sukhothai, I saw alot of people taking pictures at sunrise hand holding their cameras. My guess is that when they got home, they had either images that were somewhat blurry or that had a lot of noise. I know that in either case, I would be disappointed.
Tripods come in a variety of costs. Like most things, you get what you pay for. You can buy an inexpensive aluminum one for under $20. The downside is that these are often not as sturdy, and more subject to vibration. The high end carbon-fiber tripods are light and eliminate almost all vibration, but can run you hundreds of dollars, and that does not include the tripod head to which you attach your camera. My tripod is aluminum, but is more sturdy and heavier than its cheaper brethren. It cost me about $100. I tried to use a cheaper one when I was back in the U.S. this summer, but I think my camera and lens were a little too heavy for it.
So what kind of tripod is right for you? Serious photographers who are going to be lugging the tripod around a lot and want to try to eliminate any vibrations will probably be looking at the carbon-fiber variety of tripods. If your goal is to make your vacation pictures look a little nicer, then I would consider one of the inexpensive aluminum tripods. Some of them can collapse so that they are less than a foot long. This makes them easier to carry. The easier it is to carry, the less likely you are to leave it back in the hotel room. The best tripod in the world will not help your pictures at all if it is lying folded on your bed.
The tripod has another benefit in that it lets you “get into” the pictures. I mean, you can do like a lot of people and hold your camera at arm’s length and get your face in the shot, but it’s really hard to compose a nice shot when you are not looking through the viewer or at the LCD.
The tripod really is a great way to improve your photographs. It won’t suddenly make you a master at composition or transform a boring screen into a magnificent one, but it will hold your camera still so that you can get a sharp photo. I look at it this way. If I travel to some beautiful place to which I might never return, I would hate to return home and find that the picture that I took that looked perfect in the small LCD screen is blurry when blown up to four by six or larger.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Not a Great Day
So today has not been a great day. While Aleena was well enough to go back to school, Nalin was up all night coughing, so I took her to the clinic. The doctor diagnosed her with bronchitis, and gave her a bunch of medicine. She'll miss school tomorrow, and if she is still coughing tomorrow, she gets to go back to the clinic.
In other wonderful news, our maid told us that she is leaving this week. She has to go back home to Myanmar (Burma) because of some family emergency. She said that she doesn't know how long she will be gone, but we told her that if she comes back, to let us know.
The girls are going to be very sad when we tell them. They tend to like the maids a lot. Jacob, on the other hand, probably won't care so much. For me it sucks because I have to teach someone else the entire routine. I had an interview today with a maid, but she only cooks a little and is not a live in.
In other wonderful news, our maid told us that she is leaving this week. She has to go back home to Myanmar (Burma) because of some family emergency. She said that she doesn't know how long she will be gone, but we told her that if she comes back, to let us know.
The girls are going to be very sad when we tell them. They tend to like the maids a lot. Jacob, on the other hand, probably won't care so much. For me it sucks because I have to teach someone else the entire routine. I had an interview today with a maid, but she only cooks a little and is not a live in.
Happy Birthday Tim
Today is my lovely wife's birthday. Happy birthday Tim.
It was a pretty quiet day. We went out to a Thai restaurant for lunch. Tim spent some quiet time watching Private Practice episodes.
We ate dinner at home. Instead of cake, we had rice crispy treats for Tim's birthday. I offered to make either, and she picked the rice crispy treats. Truthfully, if she had chosen a cake, I probably would have bought it.
It was a pretty quiet day. We went out to a Thai restaurant for lunch. Tim spent some quiet time watching Private Practice episodes.
We ate dinner at home. Instead of cake, we had rice crispy treats for Tim's birthday. I offered to make either, and she picked the rice crispy treats. Truthfully, if she had chosen a cake, I probably would have bought it.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Writer Pardoned
Harry Nicolaides, who was convicted of les majeste for a passage in his 2005 novel "Verisimilitude" received a royal pardon and was deported from Thailand.
Although he was foolish to put such words to paper here, I am very glad that Mr. Nicolaides received the pardon. Prime Minister Abhisit has expressed concern that the les majeste laws are being misused, and in the past the King has said that it is permissible for people to criticize him.
PM Abhisit has a valid reason for his concern. I've read numerous articles in the paper where politicians and activists accuse their opponents of insulting the King. One politician was investigated because he was accused of offering commentary on the constitutional monarchy system.
Although he was foolish to put such words to paper here, I am very glad that Mr. Nicolaides received the pardon. Prime Minister Abhisit has expressed concern that the les majeste laws are being misused, and in the past the King has said that it is permissible for people to criticize him.
PM Abhisit has a valid reason for his concern. I've read numerous articles in the paper where politicians and activists accuse their opponents of insulting the King. One politician was investigated because he was accused of offering commentary on the constitutional monarchy system.
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