“A Christmas Carol,” as reviewed by the woman in the seat next to me November 21, 2009

Hello, reader!  How are you doing?

Today, I went with Esmerelda/Esmeralda and OOK to see Disney’s new “A Christmas Carol.”  We saw a preview for it when we went to see another movie and it looked like it was going to be quite good.

I have never actually read A Christmas Carol, though maybe I will someday.  My previous exposures to the story were fun, but not particularly highbrow:

It's not easy being green! Bah! Humbug!

Blanket does a good Mickey Mouse impression, as far as Mickey Mouse impressions go.

Something that’s really cool about going to the movies in Singapore is that, when you buy tickets, you’re buying a ticket for a specific seat in the theater.  It’s not necessary to show up early to get good seats.  (Boy, that would have been nice when I had to show up an hour before the opening of one of the LOTR movies to claim seats for a dozen friends.  I think we still wound up breaking up into a couple groups.)  I must say I am a fan of reserving a particular seat in the theater.  I am not a fan of the million pre-movie previews and ads.

I really did like the movie.  The 3D animation was superb, much better than that of “Up,” which I saw only a few months ago.  I was going to subject you to my own review of the movie (and, let me assure you, that would have been boring).  You’re probably pretty tired of my voice and take on things by now.  Fortunately for you, the lady sitting next to me shared her opinions freely with her male companion.  Fortunately, again, for you, she did so at full volume, not bothering to even feign a whisper, or an awareness that other people might not need her to read any words that appeared on the screen aloud.  Allow me, briefly, to include some of her (and her companion’s) commentary.  Also, before I forget, the lady and her companion were in their upper-20’s or lower-30’s.

[The movie starts, with the Walt Disney logo being shown]
LADY: Oooooh!
MAN: [Burps, loudly]
[Jim Carrey's name appears on the screen]
LADY: Jim Carrey
[The movie's title appears on the screen]
LADY: Disney’s “A Christmas Carol”
[There is a brief scene which sets the stage.  We get our first look at Ebenezer Scrooge]
LADY: Oooh, his nose is nice!

Do you think his nose is nice?

[We then see "Christmas Eve Seven Years Later" on the screen, presumably to indicate the passage of time]
LADY: Christmas Eve Seven Years Later
[We see Scrooge as an old man, as he appears above]
LADY: He is old!
[Throughout the movie, several Christmas carols are played.  The lady sings along to each of them, except for "Adeste Fideles," presumably because she does not know the song in Latin.  Or, maybe, because she will be talking through another movie later tonight and she needs to conserve her voice.]
[Two thirds of the way through the movie, we see the face of the Ghost of Christmas Present change into the visage of Scrooge, repeating a line we had seen and heard Scrooge himself say early in the movie.  Also, we should recognize Scrooge at this point, if nothing else because we've been watching him continuously for the whole movie.]
MAN: Who is that?
LADY: It is himself!
FLANEUR VRIC: [Deciding for the millionth time since the beginning of the movie that it would be Scrooge-ish of me to complain and ask them to be quiet (a relatively nice request) or to thank God that idiocy isn't contagious (a mean, snarky observation)]

At some point in the movie, Esmerelda/Esmeralda fell asleep and dropped her nachos onto the ground.  That was funny!

This is for you, Dad! November 18, 2009

Time from receipt of Dad’s comment on the prior post to getting this post up: 12 minutes.

In continuing the series of hand birds and holidays, may I present Groundhog Day!

The black oval is the burrow. In this case, the bird (groundhog stand-in) sees its shadow, meaning winter will go on for another 6 weeks. Also, in case it isn't obvious, in the picture, the sun is shining from the right.

Well, that was fun. November 18, 2009

I was trying to figure out what to write about when I began to think about Thanksgiving.  Americans will be celebrating Thanksgiving next week.  It’s the big holiday for my extended family–the Virginia branch of the family tree makes the trip up to northwestern Pennsylvania and a wonderful time is had by all.  It’s too early for me to do a things-I’m-thankful-for post, but you can expect one next week.  (I do hope it gives you some relief to know that, despite all my whining here, there are things I’m thankful for.)

Then I remembered how good I am at drawing birds from traced hands.  So, I present the official Flaneur Vric Hand Turkey for 2009:

Dear Hallmark, if you want to purchase this image for use in a line of cards, make me an offer.

As usual, I was pleased with the result.  I decided the hand bird genre didn’t have to be limited to turkeys and Thanksgiving.  It wasn’t too hard to extend it to Christmas and a dove…

…Valentine’s Day and lovebirds…

I didn't trace my hands for these images--I drew them freehand. Hopefully that explains why the one on the left looks so wonky.

…and St. Patrick’s Day and…this random green bird (peacock?).

I would have drawn a reddish beard on the bird, but--clearly--my drawing skills aren't up to the challenge.

I bet this post has made you miss all the rainbows.  Sorry.

I think God has a sense of humor November 16, 2009

I should say, I hope God has a sense of humor.  If not, I’m going to have a lot of explaining to do come Judgment Day.

Yesterday at Mass, I happened to gaze out the window into the parking lot (okay, “happened” is totally the wrong word, as I gaze out the window at least a dozen times per Mass).  (Also, Mom, I would like you to note that I went to Mass.  Thanks.)

Anyway, and I’m not entirely sure how to set this up.  It was interesting to see how parishioners had decorated their cars.  There were some God-themed windshield stickers, which, through the wonder of crappy cell phone photography, I can share with you…

The serious…

This sticker says, "Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Pray for Us." Please take my word for it.

…the not-so-serious…

The sticker says: "God loves you. Everyone else thinks you're an a--hole." (Sorry the picture is so small...and crappy.)

…and the ridiculous…

These stickers were right next to each other, on the same car!

So, yeah.  I can only imagine this parishioner is hedging his or her bets: “God, with the sticker on the left, I’m betting that you have a sense of humor, and that you don’t mind bad words.  In case I’m wrong, though, the sticker on the right shows that I’m totally down with Mary, and that I value her help.”

Man, this seemed kind of funny yesterday.  Sorry, internet; God may have a sense of humor, but I don’t!

No words in the vernacular November 15, 2009

Well, let’s get this recap over with, shall we?

Friday was work’s annual staff celebration, with the theme “Musical Magic.”

See?

The evening was full of planned activities, but I was really, really looking forward to the employees’ performances of musical numbers (with choreography!).  I say this as a huge fan of “Singin’ in the Rain,” “The Sound of Music,” “Grease,” “Hairspray,” “Rent,” and probably a few other musicals.  I was imagining something like this (I think I first became aware of this link from my friend Nikki):

(So, I know my expectation wasn’t really all that logical, since the acts were planned, rehearsed, and well expected.  Still, I love the idea of seeing normal folks performing musicals.  The performers would be people I work with everyday!  Awesome!)

Before we got to the performances, the DJ tried his best to get all of us to sing a bit of “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life”.

I hope you don't recognize any of these people (I don't).

I have mentioned before that the morale at work seems really, really low.  The DJ kept telling us that we were all “part of a family.”  This song choice is kind of unfortunate, as Esmerelda/Esmeralda informed me, because the song was originally performed in “The Life of Brian,” by people who are being crucified.  A later verse encourages people to “always look on the bright side of death.”  And we did sing this verse, which seems especially dark:

Life’s a piece of s—
When you look at it
Life’s a laugh and death’s a joke, it’s true.
You’ll see it’s all a show
Keep ‘em laughing as you go
Just remember that the last laugh is on you.

Here’s the original…

Three groups of employees performed.  The first did two songs from “Cats,” the second did a take on “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” and the third did some songs from “Oliver,” I think.  The second group provided the best line of dialogue (Willy Wonka says, “This is my chocolate factory, but I am giving it to you, so it is your chocolate factory,” thus condensing the majority of the story into a single line).  In the interest of respecting the actors’ anonymity (since, you know, everyone in Singapore reads this blog), I’ll only post a picture from the first group (they were all in costume).

It was a very fun performance

The guy second from the right was one of my superiors awhile ago, before he moved on to something else.  He was the only person in the group who was singing, and he was really good.  It’s always neat to see coworkers’ hidden (or not-so-hidden) talents.

Okay, I just realized that this picture doesn’t show much action.  And, I’m sad to report, WordPress won’t let me post the video(s) I took of the act.  This picture looks a bit more active (they’re wagging their fingers at you!):

Ooooooh! Action! In a photograph! (Okay, not really.)

Most of the night, I kept thinking how incredibly awesome it would have been if there were ever an occasion in which my sage advisers back home would dance and sing to musical numbers.  That would be so rad.

City sidewalks, busy sidewalks, dressed in holiday style November 14, 2009

I hope you can wait another day or two for my “Spectacular Spectacular” recap.  I didn’t stick around for the entire show, so I can’t tell you who won the musical competition.  I will try to post a brief video of one of the acts, though.

Today, I went shopping on Orchard Road with Esmerelda and OOK. The rationale–for my going, at least–was that, given Orchard Road’s relatively high proportion of ang mos, the shoe stores may be more likely to carry bigger shoe sizes. Awesome. My feet aren’t even that big, people! Well, I mean, they are, but not for my height. This site says the average shoe size for women in 2009 is a 9 (US sizing). My feet are 9.5-10. Hollah! I realize it sounds like I am being defensive; I just hate how hard it is for me just to find shoes to try on here (the average size here is probably a 4? I have no idea, but it’s a size I probably fit into for a day. When I was 10).

Wow, so, um, we went to Orchard Road.  No luck at the first few stores, but we were able to get through them quickly.  (The following exchange sped things up–FV: “What’s the largest size you have?” Salesperson: “40.”  FV: “Next!”  Apparently I wear a 41, which sounds absolutely huge.)

What I Intended to Purchase Today:

• Pair of black shoes, presumably flats, that would be comfortable enough for work and durable enough to last until July
• Clutch-esque bag for work, in which I could carry my phone, pens, and other sundry crap

What I Actually Purchased Today:

• Three more Jennifer Weiner books (Goodnight Nobody, Good In Bed, Certain Girls).  I do very much enjoy the process of discovering an excellent author, then consuming all of his or her works at lightning speed.  Or, as close to lightning speed as my reading can be.
• One 1.5L Coke Zero
• This small bag for work (it will hold my phone, pens, and sundry crap!  And it is shiny and pretty!  And it cost S$13.90, which is ~US$9.25):

Apologies to the bag connoisseurs among you, but I like this. (Yes, Dad, I have been biting my nails, as you might be able to tell here. Sorry.)

• These shoes–they are nice!  I will be wearing them to work!  They cost S$12.90!  They are about an inch too big, but that’s okay!  They aren’t fancy, at all, by Singapore standards, but they’re pretty cool via Flaneur Vric standards…

If I click my heels together, maybe these will take me home.

Orchard Road is already decked out for Christmas, which I really can’t believe.  Most of the Christmas cues I’m used to (the cooling of the weather, Thanksgiving) aren’t applicable here.  I guess Advent will help.  Anyway.  Here are some pictures of the Christmas decorations

One mall's Christmas tree.

It's Christmas! With orange balls hanging from trees! Woo hoo!

Another mall's Christmas tree.

Finally, (an extremely premature) Merry Christmas to you and yours from Flaneur Vric and Orchard Road!

Photo courtesy of Esmerelda.

Extra, extra! Read all about it! November 12, 2009

Hello, dear reader!  As of today, I have been in Singapore for 4 months–a third of my time here has passed.  Pretty crazy, that.

In today’s post:

• Flaneur Vric begins to contemplate a trip home
• The Big Boss takes on a media mogul!
• FV’s place of work prepares to put on its own “Spectacular Spectacular”!

…and a little bit more!

FLANEUR VRIC PLANS STATESIDE TRIP FOR MARCH ‘10

Top Singapore Official: “FV is still here?  Good riddance!”

SINGAPORE–I am happy to report that I finally remembered to look at a calendar to see when I might be able to come home.  (Woo hoo!  Home!  The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave!)  Part of my job obligations* includes teaching the students who show up at work every other month.  I wanted to try to take leave during a time when there wouldn’t be any students around.  I was hoping to make it home in February, but the students are here that month, so March it is!  My friend who asked if NC is close to Colorado arrives in NC on 3/9; I’m hoping to be able to show him around a bit. Plus, another friend from work might come visit while I’m there.

*You could make a pretty crappy portmanteau (“jobligations”) from these two words.  You’re welcome, internet!

LETTER TO A DEPARTMENT HEAD

Dear Department Head,

You’re a nice dude, and I’m grateful to you for the kindness you’ve shown me.  I have to say, though, that I was disappointed and saddened when you made a joke about the Ft. Hood shootings.  I know it was offhanded, but I didn’t appreciate it.

Regards,

Flaneur Vric

BIG BOSS TO OPRAH: “YOU GIVE OUR PROFESSION A BAD NAME!”

Flaneur Vric is quite confused

SINGAPORE–As you may recall, I met with the big boss last week.  There is something about the way the big boss and I interact that always has me feeling like he is going to start criticizing me for some transgression(s) I’ve committed.  (This hasn’t ever happened, actually, but I fear it’s inevitable.  During our meeting, he did repeatedly criticize a presentation I hadn’t been involved in, causing me to wonder if he somehow thought I had been involved.)  Here’s another bit of our conversation:

BIG BOSS: Well.  [Pause]  May I be frank?
FLANEUR VRIC: [Expecting that I am about to be criticized] Okay.
BIG BOSS: Do you know Oprah Winfrey?
FLANEUR VRIC: [Relieved, yet confused] Yes.
BIG BOSS: I believe she gives our profession a bad name.
FLANEUR VRIC: [Confused, as Oprah is not a member of our profession, nor are we members of hers (though it might be cool if we each had our own syndicated talk show)] Oh.

I would be a poor substitute for Oprah. Plus, Elmo has a restraining order out against me.

THE “SPECTACULAR SPECTACULAR” APPROACHES

SINGAPORE–Tomorrow, my friends, is the day that I and some of you have been looking forward to: it is the day for my employer’s annual staff celebration.  As part of the night’s festivities, several groups of employees will be performing (singing and dancing) musical numbers. I cannot express how much I have been looking forward to this. I am going to try to think of a way to share the experience here (assuming I can get reasonable pictures), but we’ll see.

As part of my own preparations for tomorrow, I went shopping for shoes after my one pair of black shoes (which were pretty crappy to begin with) began falling apart.  (The sole of the right shoe is falling off and there are several holes in it.  Awesome!)  In a mall with 4 (or 5?) shoe stores, I WAS UNABLE TO FIND ANY SHOES THAT FIT.  Even ugly shoes!  The women here–almost without exception–wear extremely fancy shoes.  I actually inherited any fancy shoes I can claim to own from Purple Lightning; all those shoes are also back at home, in Virginia.  So, I apologize to my colleagues in advance: Not only will I be wearing an ugly dress, but I will either be wearing flip-flops or shoes that are falling apart.

That’s how I roll.

One of my colleagues also provided this gem in asking if some of us were going to the Spectacular…

COLLEAGUE: P, are you going to the Spectacular Spectacular?
P: No.
COLLEAGUE: Esmerelda, are you going?
ESMERELDA: Yes.
COLLEAGUE: Flaneur Vric, are you going?
FLANEUR VRIC: [Lying/joking] No.
COLLEAGUE: [Becomes very upset] NO?!?  WHY AREN’T YOU GOING?!?
FLANEUR VRIC: Um, P isn’t going either.  Why didn’t you get upset with her?
COLLEAGUE: Because P has enough of a social life that she has better things to do.
FLANEUR VRIC: [Becoming upset] Are you saying I don’t have a social life?!
COLLEAGUE: Erm…
FLANEUR VRIC: I have 600 facebook friends!
COLLEAGUE: So you have to spend Friday nights chatting with them on the internet?
FLANEUR VRIC: …

End scene!

END POST

Flaneur Vric’s 3-4 readers heave a collective sigh of relief

From Uganda to Ireland in 3 degrees of memory November 7, 2009

Hello there!  I am writing to you from my slightly warmer apartment.  There isn’t any water condensing on the outside of my bedroom window, so I hope my neighbor’s wall is doing okay.

I must confess that I am becoming more of a facebook stalker and Google Reader fanatic than I ever was before.  Actually, I didn’t have a Google Reader account set up before I came to Singapore.  When the vast majority of my friends and my entire family are living in areas at least 13 hours behind my current location, the easiest way for me to stay somewhat informed of the happenings in their lives is often via facebook.

#1.

I am facebook friends with a lot of people from my high school, many of whom I haven’t spoken to since we graduated 12 years ago.  (I’ll spare you a non-profound commentary on the difference between “facebook friends” and “real friends”.)  One of these facebook friends has over 1,300 other friends on facebook.  He was an awesome guy in high school, and he appears to be pretty awesome nowadays.  He was the star and captain of our high school football team, one of the people with an obvious claim to coolness in a student body full of nerds.  (If you don’t believe me about the nerd bit, please read this or this. I really did LOVE that school.)

Anyway, my friend has a blog that I occasionally read.  I read a few recent entries today.  In one of them, he talked about a girl from Uganda whom he had met via friend who had worked in Rwanda.  Fine, right?  But he provided his readers with links to the Wikipedia pages on Uganda and Rwanda in his text. (Like I did right there, see?)

Dear reader, if you would like me to provide more in-text links, please let me know.

(Okay, that sentence took a lot of work.  Did you notice I provided a link for the comma, too?  Nothing but the best in pursuit of a not-very-funny joke!)

Um, anyway.  My friend’s blog is much more entertaining than mine.  He’s much more entertaining than me.  His first and last names were pretty typically American.  Let’s say his name is Joe Smith.  One of the many cool things about Joe was his extremely Italian middle name (on the order of “Giacomo”; I had to check to make sure “Giacomo” isn’t the Italian equivalent of “Joseph,” because I am an idiot.  Duh, Giuseppe!).  It was like an injection of spice into a relatively bland chicken rice dish.  Joe Giacomo Smith.  (His real name is much cooler than that.)

His middle name is the connection to this next memorable individual.

#2.

I spent one of the summers during grad school, round 1, in a smallish town in southwestern Virginia.  It wasn’t like “The Dukes of Hazard” or anything, with lots of good old boys and mullets, but it’s not the place one would expect to run into a dude who, for me, was an archetypal New Yorker.  During a slow day at work, I got to spend some time with Salvatore Giacomo (this name is incomplete and partly falsified, to protect the innocent).  Some of my grad school friends and I had a “group journal” in which we would e-mail the group the zany comings and goings of being a student.  I shared my encounter with Salvatore in one of these e-mails:

so, i got to spend 2 hours talking to a really neat guy on monday.  (the visit should have taken about 15 minutes, but the guy was a talker.)  his name was [salvatore giacomo] and he’s from brooklyn.  he told me a bunch of stories which all involved him beating someone up (corrupt police men, criminals, a priest, etc.) and (without exception) the person he beat up was irish.  he’d introduce a story with something like, “yeah, there were these irish cops one time…” and i’d be able to guess where it was going.  “you beat them up, right?”  “yeah.  i beat them up, then let them recover, then beat them up some more.”  the guy was a character, but he was really cool.  i apologized on behalf of my people (he told me i was good).  he thanked the irish people for potatoes.

(You will notice, dear reader, that I eschewed capitalization at that time in my life.  I would not let grammatical rules constrain me!  Actually, I don’t know if capitalization falls under “grammar” or not.  I obviously did not get into my nerd high school on my verbal skills.)

This exercise in race relations forms the basis of the connection that gets us to Ireland. (Ha ha ha, with that link! Gosh, this is awful…)

#3.

It is Ash Wednesday, 2005, and I have just arrived in Ireland.  It is my first time abroad. I went to Ireland with one of my best friends from grad school, round 1.  I’m not sure how we wound up being friends, let alone such good friends, but he was brilliant, handsome, and exceedingly nice, so I was definitely happy it happened.  Ireland was a much cooler destination than the other places we’d visited (Baltimore and Valhalla, NY).

Ash Wednesday 2005 was also memorable because it was the day my grandfather had a series of strokes.  He wound up passing away while I was in Ireland.  I bought him a cumbersome, decidedly un-awesome rosary while I was there.  I did a reading at his funeral Mass a few days after returning to the States; I cried the whole way through.

Anyway, that first day, my friend and I explored Dublin in an extremely sleep-deprived state.  The first picture I took was of a double-decker bus sporting a prominent advertisement for the Sponge Bob movie:

Didn't believe me? Here it is!

We were walking down the street and I took the first of many pictures of buildings-that-are-older-than-anything-in-the-States!!!!!!! when a random, kind-appearing man stopped us.

RANDOM MAN: Are you American?
FLANEUR VRIC: Yes.
RANDOM MAN: Take a picture of me!
FLANEUR VRIC: Um, okay?

God, I want to go back to Ireland.  He really was a kind-appearing man.

See? Fortunately, contrary to this image, he was not a blurry man.

Chillin’ out maxin’ relaxin’ all cool November 6, 2009

It’s a Friday night here in Singapore.  Ever so lamely, I have spent the evening chillin’ out, both literally and figuratively, in my awesome HDB flat.  I was contemplating going to bed to read the awesome book I’m working on (I think some of you will be disappointed that it’s not The Brothers Karamazov) when someone knocks loudly on the door.  Um, okay.

It was one of my immediate neighbors, whom I’ve never met.  In fact, I hadn’t ever seen him until a couple days ago, when he took the elevator and I took the stairs, but we arrived at our respective apartments at the exact same time.  (Okay, that was an unnecessary detail.)  He said that my air conditioner was causing water to leak into his apartment and he wanted the number of my landlord.  I immediately developed some moderate anxiety as: a) I hate causing other people trouble, in general; b) I don’t actually know if I have access to my landlord’s number; and, c) I haven’t had the apartment’s air conditioners serviced yet (they’re supposed to be serviced every 3 months, and I’m about 10 days overdue.  I was fully intending on doing it soon, but thought maybe my negligence was about to get me in big trouble).

My neighbor was really nice, but seemed to expect that I didn’t believe him.  He said the wall was leaking water into his apartment and he insisted that I follow him to see for myself.  He said that a rug had been hung on his side of the wall between our apartments until a couple days ago, but the wall was leaking water.  There was dirt on the wall, but there was clearly condensation on his side of the wall.

At some point, my old school physics (I think it’s physics) began to kick in, as well as some basic logic.  The AC in my bedroom is on the opposite wall, so it couldn’t be leaking into his apartment.  Plus, my side of the wall was bone dry.  I tried to explain that the discrepancy in temperature between his room (with no AC) and my room (with the AC on full blast) was causing water vapor in the air to condense onto the cool surface of the thin wall.  I said, “You know how water condenses on the outside of a cup if you pour a cool liquid into it?”  He said, “Yes, but where is the water coming from?”

So, that wasn’t quite effective.

I immediately offered to turn the AC down (duh–it’s the least I can do).  We then had an awkward exchange…

NEIGHBOR: You don’t have to be embarrassed!
FLANEURVRIC: No, really, sir.  I will just turn the air conditioner down some.
NEIGHBOR: This is not your problem.  I am so embarrassed!
FLANEURVRIC: I am wearing a sweatshirt.  I don’t need it to be this cold.  I am going to turn down the air conditioner.
NEIGHBOR: I will call a contractor to find a solution.  This is my problem.
FLANEURVRIC: I hope that isn’t necessary.  Really, I will keep my apartment warmer.
NEIGHBOR: Singapore is very hot.  The weather here is bad.  It is not like your country.
FLANEURVRIC: Yes.  I don’t need to keep it this cool though.  I’m sorry.
NEIGHBOR: I really am so embarrassed!  Do not adjust your air conditioner!
FLANEURVRIC: I am going to adjust my air conditioner.
NEIGHBOR: Don’t adjust it!
FLANEURVRIC: I am going to, I promise.
NEIGHBOR: NO!  I’m sorry!
FLANEURVRIC: I’m sorry!  I’m going to adjust the air conditioner.

(Etc.)

So that was some fun neighborly diplomacy.  I (obviously) didn’t realize this was going on, but I am going to schedule an appointment with the air conditioner service folks.  And it might be good to have access to the landlord’s number…

How to salvage a crappy day November 5, 2009

Man, dear reader, did today suck.  I had a conversation with the big boss that ended with me on the verge of tears.  I can’t really explain why.  He didn’t say anything critical or mean, or anything like that, really.  I’m just frustrated with the months I’ve wasted, with feeling lost and directionless.  Before I left home for this year abroad, I tried to prepare myself for the possibility that things wouldn’t go smoothly, even that the year might be “a waste,” whatever that means.  Still, every bit of the disappointment I feel in myself and this situation pains me.  A lot.  I can’t explain it.  I feel ineffective and helpless.  I would say that I’m not cut out for this, but I can’t even get a clear answer as to what my bosses think “this” is.  I actually don’t even know who the boss at one of my jobs is.  It doesn’t help that the general morale at work is, to paraphrase The Temptations, so low you can’t get under it.

Enough whining.  Sorry about that.

In an ongoing effort to convince myself that there is more to life than work, I found the perfect antidote to today’s crappiness: I JUST BOUGHT TICKETS TO VISIT VIETNAM LATER THIS MONTH! The Friday after the American Thanksgiving is a holiday here, so we get a 3-day weekend.  I am going to visit Ho Chi Minh City with my friends Esmerelda and O.O.K.  (An unrelated, yet necessary, aside: Are there tutorials on how to come up with good aliases for a blog?  If so, could someone tell me how to sign up?  Thanks.)  I cannot tell you how excited I am about this!

These are some of the things I can see and do (N.B.: I have tried, ever so subtly*, to link these pictures to yesterday’s post):

Notre Dame Cathedral

*Subtle, huh?

Wikipedia says this is a picture of the Building of the People's Committee, with a statue of Ho Chi Minh.

And, perhaps most awesomely, I will be able to have pho!

And with this, dear reader, I retire the rainbow-drawing bit.  For now…