Proposed Changes to Politcal Terms

Posted on 26 July 2011 by christao408

The thought occurred to me the other day that maybe the problem of the never-ending campaign, in which it seems America has no sooner finished one election season than another begins, would be to change the length of terms to which politicians are elected.

Currently, the President is elected to a four-year term with a maximum of two terms. Senators are elected for six-year terms, with approximately a third of the Senators up for election every two years. Representatives are elected for two-year terms with the entire House of Representatives up for election at the same time.

What, then, if we changed the President to a single, six-year term with no chance for re-election? Senators could remain a six-year term, but modify it so half the body changes every three years. Representatives could be increased to three-year terms.

It would seem that the upshot would be a bit more time between election seasons, allowing for more opportunity to govern. Especially for the President, since he or she could not be re-elected, there would be more freedom to govern based on one’s positions rather than the poll results.

What do you think? Would there be any pros or cons to this plan?

How Does My Garden Grow – Part 2: A Move to the Sunny Side

Posted on 25 July 2011 by christao408

Three weeks have passed since I rolled up my sleeves and started my balcony vegetable garden and while there are encouraging signs of life, there have also been a few lessons learned.

One of the first lessons learned, almost as quickly as I finished washing the dirt from under my nails, was that I should have started the seeds in small containers and then transplanted them once they grew larger. With our heavy rains nearly each afternoon, the wee seedlings were being pummeled and the soil wound up splattered all over the balcony, creating a mess. Plus, there is no direct sun on this side of the building for another month or so.

My solution was to move the pots to the hallway outside our units, where they enjoy some better protection from the rain and at least a few hours of sun in the mornings. Soon, though, that sun will go away as the star passes directly overhead our building. At that point, I’ll move them back to the balcony.

Here is a container-by-container update:

These are the large Chianti Rose tomatoes. The cherry tomatoes are at a similar stage, with the second pair of leaves growing. The cherry tomatoes will also need to be significantly thinned as one 15-inch container is not going to handle a dozen plants. So far, so good.

The carrots and beets seem to be doing well. I think I didn’t grow enough carrots and I think my beets may be too crowded, but I’m happy to see the frilly leaves on the carrots – a sure sign that they really are carrots. I’ve planted some additional carrot seeds in the open spaces between plants. I realized that each plant produces only one carrot. For some reason, maybe because I always see carrots in bunches, I expected I might get a bunch of carrots from one plant. So much for having farmer’s blood in my veins.

The two mini bell pepper plants are doing well, also with a second pair of leaves forming. There is another sprout coming up in the background but I don’t think this is a pepper plant. Not sure what sort of interloper it is. Curious, though, as I know I planted at least three pepper seeds.

On to the mixed herbs container: These two stalks are growing in the area I planted parsley seeds. I’m not sure what baby parsley plants are supposed to look like, but this isn’t what I had in mind. Am I not looking for crinkly leaves? Do those just grow in later?

The first hints of what may possibly be cilantro peeking up through the soil. These little green flecks have scarcely grown in a week. The rosemary seems to be missing in action.

The Italian basil is doing well, not seeming to mind their close quarters. I’m looking forward to having the basil developed enough to cook with, although I guess I could eat the young shoots, too.

That’s all from the farm. Stay tuned for more details in another few weeks!

Buying Girls from Behind Glass

Posted on 24 July 2011 by christao408

Wikipedia

While in Los Angeles last month, Tawn and I slipped up to The Grove, a shopping and entertainment center near the Farmers’ Market located at Third and Fairfax Streets near CBS Studios. While there, we met with a pair of Xangans who were down in LA for the weekend, and also observed first-hand the disturbing trend known as the American Girl Doll.

The Grove is another of these recent developments built to approximate the feel of a real downtown, except with a Disney-esque sense of artifice. An electric tram runs down the middle of the “street” past big box stores that, if it weren’t for their elaborate façades, would look like any other strip mall. It is a nice space, much in the same way that Main Street, U.S.A. is a nice place, but I think I’d prefer to stroll down a real main street rather than a recently built recreation.

Borrowed from someone on the internet for non-commercial use.

Prominently placed on the main shopping thoroughfare is the American Girl Doll store. Have you heard of this trend? It simultaneously fascinates and disturbs me.

The roots of the American Girl Doll are generally impressive. Originally released in the mid-1980s, these 18-inch dolls represented 10-year old girls from a variety of periods in American history. They were dressed in period-appropriate costume and were accompanied by a series of books targeted to 8-13 year olds that brought the characters to life while addressing (in an age-appropriate manner) subjects such as poverty, racism, child labor, etc. In short, a compelling way for young people to identify with and learn about history.

American Girl website

In the mid-1990s, though, a “Just Like You” line was released, with dolls representing a wide range of skin tones and eye and hair colors, so that you could purchase a doll that looked just like you. A variety of accessories are available including matching outfits. (See the picture above.) The dolls, sans accessories, cost $100, a price that strikes me as ridiculously expensive for a toy targeted at pre-teens.

On the one hand, I can see a lot of positives about a doll that reflects the wide diversity that exists in our world. Certainly, any number of women of color have shared stories about not being able to find dolls when they were children that looked like them. At the same time, especially when you can even wear the same clothes as your doll, this seems to be furthering the growth of unhealthy narcissism. Not only are we gazing more at our own navels, but now we can have a dolls whose navels look like ours.

What was even more disturbing, though, was walking into the store and seeing two display cases containing rows of the identically-dressed dolls wearing numbers. Maybe this is just a sensitivity to the too-visible sex trade that exists in Thailand, but this image of women lined up behind a glass wall, wearing numbers and waiting for you to choose them, is especially disturbing.

I don’t know what to make of the whole thing. As I mentioned early, it is both fascinating and disturbing. Reading more about the American Girl Doll phenomenon, the company (now owned by Mattel) seems to do a lot of philanthropy and there are many opportunities for young girls to learn important lessons about the world and about issues they may not often hear about. The messages on the walls of the store – “A confident girl believes in herself!” – are potentially empowering. That said, I’m still a bit disturbed.

Courtesy Sheening

The best thing that came out of the experience was the opportunity to finally meet Piyapong, one of those Xangans who doesn’t blog often but whose posts are still interesting. Also met Sheening again, but he hasn’t blogged in so long on Xanga that I’m not even sure what his user name is anymore.

About Fat Cats and Corporations

Posted on 22 July 2011 by christao408

In the July 9 issue of The Economist magazine, I read this interesting article about why it is so difficult to stir up public sentiment in the United States against the wealthy. For example, why do so many people get riled up about the idea of eliminating the tax cuts for the wealthiest people, when we’re talking about 2% of the population who are radically better off than the other 98% of the population?

One paragraph in particular caught my attention:

“The point here is only that Americans do not seem to mind about the widening inequality of income and wealth as much as you might expect them to in current circumstances. By and large, they have preferred opportunity to leveling; equality of opportunity rather than equality of outcome. The trouble with this is that America is a long way from providing equal opportunity.”

I continue to wonder why it is that when you talk to people individually, they are very much in favor of creating truly equal opportunity. Somehow, though, en masse, they become reverse Robin Hoods who support the taking from the poor and giving to the rich. Even more confusing when it is against their own best interest to do so.

A Healthy Start

Posted on 20 July 2011 by christao408

In an attempt to add a little (relatively healthful) variety to my usual breakfast of oatmeal, I bake batches of granola made of rolled oats and barley, nuts, wheat germ, dried coconut, and flax seed, all of which is lightly moistened with a mixture of canola oil and maple syrup and then roasted until lightly browned. After cooled, I add raisins, dates, or other dried fruit.

Served with some plain yogurt and some fresh fruit – in this case, passion fruit pulp – it makes for a nice breakfast, no? I’d like to believe it is also a healthful but in addition to the whole grains and good fats, I think it is pretty high in calories. Thoughts?

Sunset at Amphawa

Posted on 18 July 2011 by christao408

A week ago we had two pairs of visitors, one on their final day in Thailand after a month-long vacation and another on their first day in Thailand on the start of a multi-week vacation. While the two pairs had never met, I rented a van and driver, bundled them all in, and took them down on a Friday night to the floating market in Amphawa, a town about 90 minutes southwest of Bangkok.

I’ve been to Amphawa many times but on each visit I discover something new or, at least, a new way to approach it. As such, I feel like I’m refining this “tour”, if you will. Each subsequent guest gets a better experience. For example, I have decided that Fridays are a much better day to go than Saturday or Sunday because the market is much less crowded.

I’ve also decided that it is best to hire a boat and visit several of the temples along the river in the hour or so before sunset. This way you get few tourists but lots of interesting “golden” light. This temple, which has been abandoned to the forest, is at Bang Gung (literally, “Area of the Shrimp”) and while I’ve visited here on bicycle before, I didn’t realize it was an easy walk from the river. Add that to future itineraries.

Riding a long-tail boat down the Mae Khlong River just after sunset it a breathtaking experience. The sky is so beautiful and the water is so calm. Afterwards we explored the floating market, ate lots of tasty, fresh, and inexpensive seafood and other treats before heading back to Bangkok.

Previous entries about trips to the market:
October 2010 – A trip to the market finds is nearly flooded.
June 2010 – A grade school friend and his children visit on a “top secret” assignment.
January 2010 – a trip to the market with a Xangan from London.
December 2007 – An early trip there with an American friend and his mother.

Food in LA – Musha in Torrance

Posted on 17 July 2011 by christao408

About two years ago, Gary and William took me to the Santa Monica branch of Musha, a Japanese izakaya, or small plates, restaurant. They have another branch a few miles south in Torrance and I took the opportunity during our June visit to Los Angeles to take Tawn there. It remains a satisfying place to dine.

An izakaya is a drinking establishment that, in the same way that Spanish bars serve tapas, provides small plates of food to patrons to accompany their drinks, encouraging them (or, perhaps, enabling them) to drink longer. After all, you can’t continue to sell drinks to someone who has passed out and a little food in the stomach delays or prevents that happening.

While at first Torrance may seem an unlikely location, the city is home to many Japanese businesses, including Toyota’s North America headquarters. As such, there are countless restaurants and other services geared towards the many Japanese who live and work in the area. Musha is located in a strip mall on the northwest corner of Carson Street and Western Avenue. With its dark green awning, the building could just as easily house a Starbucks.

The restaurant is a small space with a large table running down the center. Smaller tables line the walls and on the left is counter seating facing one of the two kitchen areas. The interior is a cozy and several fans are running to dissipate fumes from the grill-your-own dishes that are on the menu.

We opted for the counter, giving us a good view of the action in the kitchen and a tempting view of plates and bowls full of some of the previously prepared foods that we could order. It took a lot of will power to not help ourselves.

A must-order item is the Aburi Shimesaba. The description on the menu, complete with spelling errors that seem to authenticate the Japanese ownership of this restaurant, is as follows: “New creation from the great chef of Musha!! Fresh mackerelmarinated with rice vinegar, sliced like a sashimi then torched at your table. Try the taste of “Holly Mackerel !!”

While I’ll avoid speculation about the holly mackerel, I will say that this is a wonderfully complex dish made of only the simplest of ingredients. The rice vinegar helps to cook the fish in a ceviche-like way. It adds a sweetness to an otherwise fishy tasting flesh. Then the torching give the skin a crispy texture with caramel flavors. To top it off, the banana leaf on which the fish is placed starts to char a bit so you get the smoky fruit aroma. While the dish is really only two ingredients – fish and vinegar – the flavor is multi-layered and complex.

The second dish was the lobster roll, a riceless bit of sushi that uses a thin springroll wrapper instead of seaweed filled with lobster and cucumber. Very tasty.

One of my favorite dishes is the spicy tuna dip served with rice crackers. The name pretty much describes what it is, but doesn’t have any superlatives that convey how tasty this dip is. Might I suggest something like, One of the Tastiest Things You Will Ever Scoop with a Cracker?

Another Musha signature dish is the Takotama. This is their take on okonomiyaki, a “Japanese style pancake”. In the case of Takotama, you have the two-layered omelette (pictured sitting on the counter above) with chopped octopus, Tokyo leek, red ginger, bonito flakes, chives, and nori seaweed. The sauce is a thick, sweet sauce topped with mayonnaise.

To finish we had a plate of Typhoon Char Han, a spicy fried rice prepared with ground pork, chili, bamboo shoot, ginger, garlic, and Tokyo leek. Tasty and filling.

Stuffed and running out of time to head to LAX and pick up my sister and her family, we skipped dessert, cleansing out palettes with the complimentary salted plum tea.

All in all, I think Musha offers tasty food at a fair price. Like all “small plates” restaurants, you have to watch out because the bill can rapidly increase. That isn’t a matter of the prices being high; instead, it is a matter of ordering more food than you really need. If you are in the South Bay part of Los Angeles, or in Santa Monica, a stop at Musha would be worth your while.

Searching to Silence a Squeaky Bed

Posted on 14 July 2011 by christao408

The bedroom, according to Thai culture, is a private place. It is a place into which you do not normally invite others, whether they be strangers or even friends. But I am going against convention and inviting you into my bedroom because I have a story to tell about my quest to silence a squeaky bed.

A local metal worker made the bed frame we have used since moving into this condo more than three years ago. It has all the stylings of an expensive Martha Stewart Living frame (upon which the design was loosely based) at a fraction of the cost. But in the past year or so, the bed frame has started to make noise.

Cue the obvious jokes and smart-alec comments.

Somewhat ironically, it doesn’t make any noise from those sorts of activities. In fact, it only makes noise when you turn over and, even then, only intermittently. The noise isn’t the full-throated “squeak, squeak” of mattress springs. Instead, it is a subtle but high-pitch chirp that echoes through the frame and is at just the right volume and frequency to momentarily wake you up, producing something like an auditory sleep apnea.

We tried many things to troubleshoot the problem. For example we cut up an old yoga mat and used it to cushion every point at which the frame came into contact with anything else. We tightened all the screws and connections. Initially, we didn’t realize that the frame was held together with hex key screws and were just tightening the decorative knobs. When that didn’t work, Tawn had the makers of the bed frame come out and they revealed the hidden screws, tightening all of them. That lessened, but did not eliminate, the chirp.

Notice the little bits of pink yoga mat cushioning the frame.

Working our way through the problem solving process, we turned our attention to the board under the mattress. Ever since moving out of my parents’ home decades ago, I’ve never had box springs, not seeing the point of them. But I started to rethink the wisdom of living without box springs because every twist and turn of our bodies was being transferred to the frame, which would in turn protest with that shrill, sleep-interrupting chirp.

The next-to-final solution was to purchase two box springs to replace the boards and transfer the full weight of the mattress to the floor rather than to the bed frame. Workers from the department store came and measured to ensure the box springs would fit inside the frame. We placed an order and last night, some six hours after the scheduled appointment, the delivery men arrived and installed the box springs.

The fit is good and the box springs are only about an inch higher than the boards on which the mattress previously sat. Tossing and turning to test them, we could not induce a single chirp from the bed frame.

Waking up the following morning, I’m glad to report that there were no interruptions to our good night’s sleep. The weight of the mattress now bypasses the frame and with two box springs, one person’s turn causes less disturbance to the other sleeper. There appear to be only three resulting problems:

The first problem is that the frame, which no longer has any lateral support, shifts easily. This means you cannot sit up in bed, resting against the headboard to read a book. The second problem is that there is no longer any under-bed storage now that there are two box springs taking up what was once free space.

The final problem is trying to figure out what to do with the two large plywood boards. Any takers?

Food in Long Beach: Starling Diner

Posted on 11 July 2011 by christao408

Near the end of our trip to Los Angeles last month, while driving down the Pacific Coast Highway to visit Janet for tea, we stopped for brunch at the Starling Diner. Located on East Third Street in Long Beach, the look and feel of the Starling Diner is that of an old-time neighborhood institution. The food is comforting, the service friendly, and the fellow diners are, well, neighborly.

Starling Diner is all this despite having been around for less than five years. It is no surprise then to learn that owner Joan Samson made a very conscious effort to create a space that had that neighborhood institution feel. From their website:

In times past, neighborhoods were Communities where everyone casually knew each other and the gathering places were icons such as the front porch, the corner store and the neighborhood diner. It has always been our personal mission to create gathering spots that provide a sense of place along side the highest quality food and drinks. We live in and love Long Beach. We just made a place where we would like to meet our friends and connect.

My cousins had first brought me here in 2009 and I was eager to share the cute restaurant and tasty dining experience with Tawn. He wasn’t disappointed.

This pale green cruiser parked outside seems to exemplify the Starling Diner. Located amidst houses on a quiet street, this is the type of place you would hop on your bicycle and ride three blocks to meet some friends for breakfast at.

The tables are crowded with little tin tubs of all the condiments you might need. Interestingly, they serve water in these biodegradable corn-based plastic cups in order to save the environment. As I pointed out to the server (in a friendly, non-complaining sort of way), they would do more to save the environment to serve their cream, jellies, sugars, etc. in bulk containers rather than individual sachets and packages.

The fact that our server took that suggestion with a thoughtful smile and remained friendly and welcoming is a good example of the type of consistent service I’ve enjoyed during both my visits.

The highlight of the menu is the San Francisco stuffed French toast. Unlike most French toast, this is broiled not fried, and is made from baguette, not square loaf bread.

It does not disappoint! The result is something that is light and crispy rather than heavy and soggy like most French toast. This is a recipe I would like to learn to recreate at home.

Tawn had the crab cakes sandwich, which had these wonderful, large lump crab meat and tons of fresh greens. This was really tasty, too.

All in all, the only disappointment at the Starling Diner was that there were just the two of us and, as such, we were only able to try two items on the menu. Mark this on the list of places to come back to on a future visit!

How Does My Garden Grow – Part 1: Defying Gravity

Posted on 9 July 2011 by christao408

Gardening is probably in my blood. After all, my father was born and raised on a farm and when I was growing up in suburban San Francisco, he tended to an extensive backyard garden. But in the nearly twenty years since I moved out of that home, I’ve had only two summers when I was able to garden: 2004, when Tawn and I were living in San Jose and I had five tomato plants growing from 5-gallon buckets, and 2005, when I was living in Kansas City before moving here to Thailand.

Finally, I am going back to the land, getting the dirt under my fingernails, and fulfilling my birthright: to grow my own food!

In the more than three years we’ve lived in this particular condo, we have wanted to hang plants from our balcony but the wire planters they sell locally are really wimpy – good only for petunias and shrinking violets. We finally found a gardener who said he could make some heavy-duty planters for us. It took a year to actually get them made, but finally he delivered.

But they look pretty flimsy, don’t they. Sure enough, just hanging on the edge it looked like they would hold maybe 10 pounds at best before collapsing four stories onto the backs of cars parked below. So the gardener went back to his workshop and returned a few hours later with three metal brackets to put below the planters, providing better support.

I’m still petrified that the planters will crash to the ground below, seeing as how they are actually attached to the balcony railing with wire! I’ve purchased some plastic cable straps to provide greater security and am inspecting the planters frequently to look for signs of distress.

We have two balconies, one in each unit. For the balcony outside the bedroom, Tawn wanted a hedgerow so we don’t have to look at the abandoned building next door. These trees provide a nice sense of greenery outside and with the bamboo blinds, one can wake up almost imagining being in a tropical resort.

While in the US in March and June I did some seed shopping. Faced with limited space, I whittled down my selection of seeds to these five: mini bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, beets, carrots, and heirloom tomatoes.

Didn’t get a picture of me actually mixing the soil, which was a bit of a mess given the small work space. However, we now have five 37-cm pots hanging over the edge of the balcony. I mixed chopped coconut husks into the bottom two-thirds of the soil to ensure it drains well and to reduce the weight of the pots.

Some Starbucks stir sticks were purloined to make for row markers. In addition to vegetables, I did one pot with mixed herbs. I think I’ll have to purchase a few more pots and place them on the floor of the balcony.

One challenge we face is that our units face southwest and during the summer months the sun is actually to the north of us (since we are so close to the equator). During the cooler months, though, we get direct sun. I’m worried this might throw the plants off a bit, especially the tomatoes which I think will do best if they have hot days but, as the fruit sets, relatively cool nights. We’ll see.

P1150104

I planted the seeds on July 4. Three days later, the first sprouts were pushing their way through the soil. Here, a cherry tomato seedling. It occurs to me now that I should have planted first in some small containers, then transplanted into the bigger ones. I’m going to have to thin out all of the larger pots since I can’t grow multiple tomato plants in a single pot.

Sweet Italian basil “micro-greens” – ha ha! Of the four herbs – basil, rosemary, parsley, and cilantro – the basil is the only one that has so far made an appearance.

Well, stay tuned over the coming weeks and months to see how this experiment at gardening goes. To be sure, my maid is fascinated by my interest in this. You have to reach a certain level of the bourgeoisie, I guess, to see growing your own food as a hobby rather than a necessity.

christao408

The adventures of an expat American who moved to Bangkok for his husband.

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