Rop's Reflections

I miss yummy Thanksgiving dinners. It’s a good tradition that I enjoyed while I was in the US. Family members and friends come together. No gifts. No costumes. No fancy stuff. Just spending quality time together and remind ourselves to be thankful of things.

… need to get out of the airports, now.

People don’t care about this crap. They don’t want to hear your beliefs or read about your accusations. They just want to go home. They want to see their families. They have jobs to do. They have to attend important meetings, weddings, funerals…

They have lives to live. You violate their rights. You are criminals.

To the government: Enough pleading already. You are incompetent. Have some balls and round up these dumbasses and send them to jail.

To do something well, one must prepare. It can be exciting and challenging to do things by inspiration only. But challenges are sometimes not the best thing. When one is prepared, one will enjoy the task more.

If one runs a marathon under prepared, the body will ache badly. The mind will suffer. It plainly hurts. To teach a good class, one must prepare the outline. To perform any type of activity, one must practice. Improvisation can be fun but it doesn’t always yield good results. To excel in any sport or job, one must do homework and practice.

On Sunday I completed my first marathon. I am proud that I finished it. 42.195 km in 5:41. I completed the first half in about 2:10. But then I got bad leg cramp and walked for maybe 15 km. My result:

My legs hurt so bad. The greatest pain I’ve ever felt. All I could think of was “where’s the next km mark?”, “why is it so goddamn far?” and “what huge meal should i eat after this?” But anyhow, the experience was great, being among so many enthusiastic runners. The pain I got tells me that I must be more prepared next time.

20 Nov 2008. Edmonton, Canada. Great video capture, showing the meteor lights up the sky.

Spent nearly 5 hours this evening in Bangkok traffic. Went from Vibhavadi to Sao Chingcha took 2.5 hrs. Then about 2 hours to return home. It is ridiculous. This city is too crowded. Public transportation system is weak. The longer the time spent in traffic jam, the lower the quality of life.

At least I had a nice dinner after all the suffering.

Less than one week left till the race. Ran 7-8 laps yesterday. Not feeling so ready yet.

Following Obama’s updates: twitter, flickr, and soon youtube.

Busy at office. Finding things to do. Taking initiatives. Trying to make a difference. That seems to be an abnormality in Thailand.

Yet another corruption case in Thailand. Bangkok Governor election is to be held in a couple months. It seems to be the only thing Thai politics is about these days. Elections, cabinet shuffles, protests. All glamor, no substance.

Reconnecting with old friends on Facebook. I like that site. It’s so easy now to find and stay in touch with them. It’s great when tech can make life better.

Assembler is fun.

Hoping Federer will come back strong next year.

Hoping Barcelona keep it together and win La Liga.

Missing Davis. Hoping to go back there one day.

This man is inspiring.

You can nitpicks his decisions. It’s the easiest thing to do when you are sitting in front of a computer. But this is politics. It’s not a dream land. You can’t turn a dirty house clean without getting dirty yourself sometimes. You can’t survive playing things by the book all the time. He may not be perfect. Nobody is. Yet people sit in their armchairs criticizing, while Obama is out there trying to make a difference, to change the sorry state of the United States for the better. It’s sad that this race is even close.

Barack Obama instills confidence. He is calm, analytical, thoughtful, intelligent, down-to-earth. Contrast this with the attacks, lies, contempt, fear mongering from McCain/Palin.

Obama/Biden 2008.

Traffic in this city is ridiculous. Just spent 3 hours this evening to get home. What the hell.

When a person has to spend that much time just get from point A to point B in the same city, that city offers a damn low quality of life. Just horrendous.