Thoughts and Feelings
Soft Tissues for Silent Cries
My first call to arms in the war against social injustice sounded in my grandfather’s voice.
I Finally Felt It
I have a new roommate and a new appreciation for life.
Head and Shoulders, Poesy and Prose
This bit of wisdom wrenched from the unheard mouth of Francois Guizot was passed to me by my grandfather a couple of years ago. My grandfather is a very wise man.
To Blave
My rare moments of gifting zen have always arrived unsought, the way true zen is not supposed to be—but always is—achieved.
Of Rome and Rhetoric
A brief survey of world-wide power struggles could lead us to a sense that we are entering a golden age of reason and restraint. Don’t buy it.
iRead
Disclaimer: I usually wouldn’t try to discuss advanced scientific issues, given the fact that I’m relatively inept in the field (relative to the average third-grader pulling the legs off bugs). However, I made an exception in this case.
Self-exploitation
Call me naïve, but forced depression just rubs me the wrong way. As does exploitation.
Reconciled
Waiting for my food, I watched the amulet seller outside the window. He hit up Thai and farang with indiscriminate futility. Eventually, a waiter took him out a meal. I was surprised to find myself thinking of his work as his career, his pop-up table as his desk, his guidebook-recommended restaurant at his back as his regular lunch break.
The Glass Elevator
Most people seemed aware of their ocular defenselessness. Until they stepped into the glass elevator.
There is an I in Beijing
Thus continues a series of notes about my recent travels. I didn’t post them earlier because they were mostly written as notes or based on notes scribbled in free moments in cafés, restaurants, train stations and buses. I have tried to modify them only enough to make sense of them, not to make them read-worthy.
How [...]