Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Hanoi: Day one

Here is the first post from Hanoi. Im going to post the first few here, and also at this other adventure blog, which i expect everyone to check, and link to. Thank you.

That link is www.robbiereaves.blogspot.com

Survived the flight. It really wasnt so bad, because i ate a bunch of linas pot muffins yesterday. Because of this i was ready to pass the fuck out before setting foot on the plane. Scored a window seat, was set to pass out when a dinner cart started coming around at like 2:00 AM. I have vague memorys of eating some kind of pasta dish while occasionally glancing at this human being of a troll doll sitting next to me. She wasn't really a troll, but she was so awkward that she made me totally uncomfortable. Glasses and this dumb little fishnet hat on her head that some terrible aunt would slap on you. I feel bad for talking shit, but she was just shifting around and sending me awkward waves. Anyways i spent most of the night alseep, occasionally waking to glimpses of 27 dresses and some kind of bill gates documentary.

cigmobile

Woke up about 1:30 PM PST somewhere over japan. The stewardesses fed me another terrible meal. Later a cart full of cartons of cigarettes came around. At this point i have been holding in a lot of farts from the meals and they keep coming and i cant bear to let them out. I dont know why. I just cant do it. Im at this point getting a headache from not being able unleash all these farts on the trollie, and i want to so bad.

Where kings smoke

About 4:15 PST i arrive in Taipei, which is in taiwan i think. I dont really know i was just in the airport. I wandered around and discovered a futuristic invention called a smoking lounge. It seems to have come straight from outerspace/ da club, and exists to allow people to smoke in a helllllaa chill setting. I met a nigerian man named Moka, who is working as a chemist in Chicago, and travelling to the phillipines. Oh the connections you make through smoking. We talked about dunhills and travelling for a while and then i hit the dusty trail.

I arrived in Hanoi a few hours ago. The first thing that hit me was the heat. Like sepping into a room that someone just showered into. Zero other westerners around. Dust is convering everything, this literally is the dusty trail. I thought this was supposed to be one of the bigger citys? Whatever.

Some Australians were supposed to pick me up and take me to the hostle. But i couldnt find them among the mass of signs and people waiving things at me. Took some random cab and had the guy drop me off in the center of the city, because i am a fucking idiot and didnt write down the address of the place im staying. So ive been wandering around for a few hours, smoking Dunhills, i thought i might try my hand at the smoke free life, but seeing as how fucking insane this place is, and cigarettes only cost about $14 a carton, i dont see any end in sight for my nicotine haze. Oh also i knew there were a lot of scooters around this place. but what the fuck. i was not prepped for what ive been witnessing. This is scooter city and im about to hop aboard.

-Robbie out.

PS. Here is a guy in the internet cafe with me probably kicking grant and johns ass at world of warcraft. Sorry, just business dogs.

business dog busses are big business in vietnam.

Sunday, May 25, 2008

evening of sweet dreams

Environmental mischief at fecal face.com - Ryan McLennan interview.

Upon the beach where hound dogs bay

Random Wikipedia Article of the day:

Queue area

"Queue areas are places in which people in line (first-come, first-served) wait for goods or services."

"Since queuing can be a boring and time-consuming activity, but one that may also have high stakes (e.g. attempting to purchase a good or product with a limited availability, such as a concert ticket), people can become angry when the unwritten rules of queuing are broken.

For example, in Britain it is unacceptable to queue-jump (to push in, skip, or cut in line), although it's sometimes acceptable for one member of a party, waiting in the queue, to allow a second member of the party to join the first halfway through the queuing process, without the second member having to join the back of the queue.

In the United States, the above example from Britain (second member of a party) would also generally be accepted. It is acceptable for waiting persons to leave the queue briefly (to use the bathroom, etc.) and return to their original place, without having to ask neighbours to hold their place or to be allowed to return (however, many individuals would still tell their neighbors in the queue). It is also common to allow others to jump to the front of the queue in a train station to buy a ticket if their train is about to leave and if waiting from the back of the queue would cause them to miss their train."

Cutting (in line)

"Cutting in line, also known as line/queue jumping, butting, budging, skipping, ditching, breaking, or pushing in (UK) is the act of entering a line or queue at any position other than the end.

NEGATIVE RESPONSE
A negative response from the rear of the line is expected when someone has cut in line up ahead. According to one study, a person cutting in line has a 54% chance that others in the line will object. With two people cutting in line, there is a 91.3% chance that someone will object. The proportion of people objecting from behind the cutter is 73.3%, with the person directly behind the point of intrusion objecting most frequently.

COVERT CUTTING
In lieu of following the procedure mentioned above, some will cut in line by joining up with family members or friends already standing in line. This action is usually more acceptable, but can still be considered "cutting". Many times, this action is purely out of convenience, when one member of the group "saves a place" for the other members, especially when the wait is lengthy. However, this is not always the case. It is more acceptable when the two people are simply together to conduct one transaction, however if both people plan to conduct one transaction each, it is particularly disrespectful (especially in queues with slow cycle times due to high individual transaction times).

In busy areas where time is of the essence, such as in airports, one can sometimes observe queue drift, where an impatient person treats the line as though it were a slow-moving race, using every movement of the line to cut in front of others in an effort to achieve the pole position. This is enabled by a funnel effect, where there is a large number of people trying to enter the same narrow entrance at the same time and where no formal queue is in place. Queue drifters are usually less obvious than more overt line cutters; while they are annoying to those who notice them, they usually manage to avoid detection.