dingledodiedhamma.blogspot.com
Dingledodie Dhamma: September 2013
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Thursday, September 26, 2013. The uke - when you want to play music, but don't have the patience to learn a real instrument. With the notable exceptions of Thomas Pynchon. And middle-aged white guys in Hawaiian shirts. My own attempts at learning the acoustic guitar petered out after a week when I proved spectacularly inept at strumming ,. A massive disappointment considering my former dominance of Guitar Hero. On PlayStation2. Life fails to imitate art, often humiliatingly. So a few days ago, after ging...
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Dingledodie Dhamma: June 2013
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Friday, June 14, 2013. Class(room) Warfare: Korea vs. Vietnam. When I first moved to Vietnam, people asked me a lot of questions. Most of these could be answered without much thought - 'Where are you from? America), 'What's your job? Teacher), 'Does this look infected to you? Not the one with nukes and belligerent Kims. At least not the ones on CNN. If my fellow conversationalist was a teacher, he or she would usually ask something along the lines of, 'Do you prefer teaching in Korea or here in Vietnam?
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Dingledodie Dhamma: June 2014
http://dingledodiedhamma.blogspot.com/2014_06_01_archive.html
Thursday, June 26, 2014. Getting Into Caves in Hpa An. Some people don't like caves. Their position is defensible. Caves can be dim and dank and are often inhabited by creatures you wouldn't like to pet. They frequently reek of bat shit. You can get lost in caves quite easily and there's always a chance the roof could collapse or a tunnel could flood and leave you trapped in a subterranean tomb. And also, this:. Or, in the case of Hpa An, temples. Many of the backpackers I met in Myanmar were hesitant to...
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Dingledodie Dhamma: April 2013
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Tuesday, April 9, 2013. Tuesday was my day off. I had big plans for Tuesday. Tuesday was going to be great. Then I woke up and everything went to hell. This was the worst surprise since Omar caught one at the Korean joint on the East Side. Saigon expats have a curious sense of pride regarding their city. Sure, it might rank #124 out of 140 on the Global Liveability Survey. Of Asia - a hip, edgy place to live and work. Neighborhood markets! On March 26th, I wouldn't have been disappointed if Kim Jong Un n...
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Dingledodie Dhamma: Wreck Dive Buddies: Part One
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Friday, April 18, 2014. Wreck Dive Buddies: Part One. On a list of T op 100 Places to Get Your Divemaster Certification. The island of Coron would rank slightly below ' Sewers of Mexico City. And just above ' Fukushima Bay. He is joined on the list by his brother Joel, the former governor of the province. The brothers Reyes have been fugitives since 2012, presumably cruising around the archipelago in their extravagant luxury speedboats and lighting cigars with fistfuls of pesos. I'm as guilty as anyone -...
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Dingledodie Dhamma: February 2012
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Sunday, February 26, 2012. So then, as the proverbial bartender once asked the horse, why the long face? All of us have dozens of stories frolicking around in our heads all day long, little rapacious bastards feasting ceaselessly on our mind grapes. Try to remember to breathe deep, understand that things are relatively fantastic, and slap on a grin, even if it feels forced. Fake it 'til you make it - the body can't recognize the difference. So, in closing, here are some of the notable "Rich White People ...
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Dingledodie Dhamma: The Up-Down Life of a Divemaster
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Wednesday, April 16, 2014. The Up-Down Life of a Divemaster. The shipwrecks of Coron. To figure out what he meant. Our circumstances, though, were not normal. We were floating in the bowels of the Morazon Maru. A World War II shipwreck near the island of Coron. Once a Japanese cargo ship, it was sunk by an American airstrike from the USS Lexington. In 1944. As shipwrecks ago, the Morazon. In the end, I was saved by the laziest deus ex machina. It's a pretty strong sales pitch. The easy answer, with regar...
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Dingledodie Dhamma: Vietnam's Most Mysterious Shoplady
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Thursday, December 5, 2013. Vietnam's Most Mysterious Shoplady. My destination sits under a large sign bearing the words ' HIỆP PHÁT '. I stand there like an idiot, smiling and brandishing a fistful of bills, muttering cam on. Thank you' in Vietnamese) again and again. She ignores the money, and eventually I give up and mutter cam on. Even more emphatically than before. Then I trudge back across the street, clutching my free lunch and spitting obscenities at the buzzing motorbikes. But Vietnamese is hard.
dingledodiedhamma.blogspot.com
Dingledodie Dhamma: Getting Into Caves in Hpa An
http://dingledodiedhamma.blogspot.com/2014/06/getting-into-caves-in-hpa-an.html
Thursday, June 26, 2014. Getting Into Caves in Hpa An. Some people don't like caves. Their position is defensible. Caves can be dim and dank and are often inhabited by creatures you wouldn't like to pet. They frequently reek of bat shit. You can get lost in caves quite easily and there's always a chance the roof could collapse or a tunnel could flood and leave you trapped in a subterranean tomb. And also, this:. Or, in the case of Hpa An, temples. Many of the backpackers I met in Myanmar were hesitant to...
