Obama splits ticket - Boots Biden!

"Yer out Joe! You ain't hot!", said Barack Obama at a press conference earlier today. "Shit, we were caught napping", he continued. "When everyone was looking for us to buck up our experience in foreign policy and other bullshit, that asshole just grabs a hottie and proceeds to shag her in front of the whole country! I'm major pissed".

McCain's camp was largely silent on the issue. "Yes, she's a hot biotch, but what's yer friggin' point?"

Obama went on to describe how he felt about Biden's significant experience but lack of photographic sex appeal. "Look, he's got the street-cred but you wouldn't wanna shag this bloke after ten beers ... would you? Of course not!"

"Geez," he continued, "I'm a black man for Chrissakes! If I don't have some hot white chick on my ticket everyone will think I've got a "not-blackman-like-pee-pee!" - It's just fucking embarrassing. I've got hip-hop stars to impress. That's all I have to say".

"That's all the questions for Mr. Obama", said a staff spokesperson.

Speculation on Obama's potential running mate are running from Britney-bald-farcking-Spears to Jessica Rabbit. Who knows?


For more on Obama, click below:

Presidential Puppy In Rehab After Just One Week!
Rick Wagoner Makes History - First CEO To Be Fired By A Sitting President
"I Vote For Black Guy!" - Obamanation II
Lunch With Obama: Perspective XVI - The Little Things IX
A sex Redesign obama For scandal The oprah Wild oral Wild butt East iPhone Dailies
"Yes We Can": Obamanation
MENSA Endorces McCain/Palin
Obama Splits Ticket, Boots Biden!
Belgian Prime Minister Quits Over Budweiser Purchase!
Obama Brandishes a Bud For The Bubbas!

For more in Political Satire and Satire see:

White House Party Crashers Board Plane Loaded!

Pope Prays For Embattled Putter's Promiscuous Pecker: Tiger Woods Pardoned

Obama Sends 30,000 Troops to Tiger Woods' House!

Obama's Puppy in Rehab After Just a Week

Recession Profit Stategies II

Recession Profit Strategies I

Bush Surveys Presidential Disaster Area

MENSA Endorses McCain/Palin

Putin Hot As Hell Over Palin

SNL Palin/Hillary Open

Cheney Delivers 1 Billion in Aid to Georgia

Obama Splits Ticket - Boots Biden

Belgian Prime Minister Quits Over Budweiser Purchase

Obama Brandishes a Bud for the Bubbas

American Foreign Policy Since WWII

America Overseas - Citizen Mekong to the Rescue

Todd Rundgren To Release 'Arena,' - First Studio Album In 4 Years

Sept. 30August 22nd, 2008 7:00pm EDT



Multi-faceted and celebrated recording artist/producer Todd Rundgren is set to release his first full-length record of original studio material in 4 years, entitled Arena on September 30th via newly launched music venture Hi Fi Recordings. Rundgren has been on the road in support of the release on a 20 + U.S. city tour this summer – which kicked off with a week-long celebration in Hawaii, culminating with the first-ever live performance of Arena in its entirety on Todd's birthday, June 22nd. Rundgren will also hit the road in support of Arena this fall in Europe and the UK where the album will be released simultaneously to the U.S. A sneak peak of an exclusive album track 'Mad' will be available on MySpace.com starting on July 15th.


Arena, recorded in Todd's current home state of Hawaii, is yet another notable addition to Rundgren's remarkable career as a performer, songwriter, and producer. The album showcases his unique songwriting style and sonically captures the essence and energy of "arena" rock with bombastic, guitar-driven tunes like "Mountaintop," "Strike" and "Mad," while the anthemic song "Mercenary," transports you to a stadium with its epic chorus, "How Do You Like Me Now?," resounding to every seat in the house.


"I found myself just going out and doing this sort of guerilla guitar quartet thing around the country and around Canada," said Rundgren, "So when it came time to make a record, I thought maybe I'll just continue in that vein and write something that is appropriate to the guitar, since the fans seem to be enjoying it so much."

"So when I decided to write a new album, I knew beforehand it was going to be this kind of old-school guitar-rock record."


Known as a man of musical innovation, Rundgren's latest release draws from his vast and impressive career experiences as a performer, songwriter and producer – including notable achievements on the cutting edge of music and technology such as: the first live nationally broadcast stereo radio concert (by microwave), which linked 40 cities around the country in 1978; the very first two commercially released music videos, one of which was nominated for the first-ever Grammy awarded for "Best Short Form Video" in 1983; and the launch of PatroNet, the world's first direct artist subscription service all of course; and of course there are the timeless hit songs, including 'Hello It's Me', 'I Saw The Light', 'Can We Still be Friends', and 'Bang The Drum.'


With ground-breaking accomplishments under his belt, Rundgren's career boasts additional credits to the aforementioned roles he is most well known for, including video pioneer, computer software developer, conceptualist and, most recently, interactive artist (re-designated TR-i). Given this incredible history and his constant creative state-of-mind, there are undoubtedly many more imaginative horizons for Todd Rundgren to discover.


Listen to the first single, "Mad" (Quicktime)
More Todd Rundgren:Starpulse PageOfficial SiteMySpace Page

Advertising and the Effects of 26% Inflation

From http://www.thanhniennews.com/business/?catid=2&newsid=41212


Vietnam’s advertising sector facing hard sell

Newspaper and television advertising sales are down as businesses react to Vietnam’s high inflation and slower economic growth.

The director of a media planning and buying agency, who wished to be unnamed, said his company’s revenue from advertising had dropped 30 percent over the past few months because some clients had cut spending on advertising. Some businesses that had signed long-term contracts with the agency had recently broken the deals, preferring to pay break fees rather than honoring the deals, she said. The director said her company had several pages of advertising space in newspapers but was not attracting enough ads to fill the space.

Not long ago, Vietnamese TV series were considered a fertile land for commercials. But now businesses, with their tightened advertising budgets, have become less interested in buying air time during TV series, especially after so many serials were panned by both critics and viewers. One advertising executive said a television series produced by his company was set to be aired soon but he cannot find enough clients to sell advertising spots. “We are allocated air time during each episode for commercials and if we cannot find clients we suffer losses,” said the executive, who wished to remain anonymous.

Some agencies have been offering discounted advertising rates so they have some money to pay the production costs of their series. “We have to try everything to attract clients because TV series have become less popular recently,” an advertising agency executive said.
Another agency said it was focusing on selling advertising spots and spaces to large companies first. After it reaches a certain level of sales, the TV channels and newspapers often offer discounted rates, which can then be offered to smaller companies.

Nicole Vooijs, chief executive officer of advertising agency GroupM Vietnam, said her clients used to increase their advertising budgets every year but now she expected some of them will cut this year’s budgets by 1 or 2 percent. Hoang Kim, director of another media planning agency, said his clients had become more demanding lately. They wanted to reduce the size of their advertisements in newspapers, reduce the frequency of television commercials and start promoting their products on radio, he said. Kim said the clients’ decision to cut their advertising budgets was taking a toll on his company’s bottom line.

At a recent seminar in Ho Chi Minh City, Professor John Quelch from Harvard Business School said when businesses cut spending on advertising it did not mean they no longer wanted to promote their products and services.

These businesses needed the help of advertising companies to promote their images in less expensive ways, for example through public relations and sponsorship activities. Vooijs said local businesses often had limited financial resources and didn’t allocate much money to advertising campaigns. She said during the first six to nine month phase of an advertising campaign these businesses could organize events and conferences to present themselves to the public. After assessing the results of the first phase, her advertising company selects the best media platform available to promote their products and services in the long term, Vooijs said.
Sabyasachi Mishra, managing director of LOWE Vietnam, said during a time of economic difficulty people tended to return to their families and so advertising campaigns were most effective when they focused on family values instead of individual heroism.

Also, as a result of price fluctuations, consumers now often choose to buy products that can be used for a long time. Therefore, commercials should highlight the high quality and durability of products, he said. Mishra said advertisements that promoted luxury and the gap between rich and poor may fail to win over the public when times were tough economically.


Source: TBKTS
----------------------------------------------------------

My notes on this: Milk has gone from 12,000 to 21,000 vnd per carton in the last year. A litre and a half of Pepsi jumped from 10,500 to 14,000 overnight at my neighborhood convenience store and my favorite restaurant raised prices by a whopping 50% overnight. So far, the only price that has not gone up has been my fees.

The Vietnam sNews - Nothing Much Happened Again Today in Vietnam: V

Yep, today was boring as usual. A slow news day - so I'm going to spend some time with the local paper, The Vietnam sNews and read it to you - cover to cover.

Let's go!

The Vietnam sNews - all the news the censors say is fit.

Front page:

Headline: British glam rocker Gary Glitter freed in Vietnam

By SUPIN WANNAGOHORNY – 4 days ago

BANGKOK, Thailand (PP) — British glam rocker Gary Glitter was refused entry into Thailand, officials said Wednesday, a day after the convicted child molester was freed by Vietnam following nearly three years in prison.

The 64-year-old Glitter arrived at Bangkok, Thailand's international airport after Vietnam deported him. But he refused to board a connecting flight to London and officials denied him entry into Thailand, a senior immigration official told The Associated Press.

Glitter was confined to an airport transit lounge, police Maj. Gen. Phongded Chaiprawat said. Phongded said he did not known Glitter's next destination but that it was the responsibility of Thai Airways International, the national carrier on which Glitter was flying, to fly him out of Thailand. "Those assholes ought to fly him to hell, that f#%&*^$! pervert", he stated.

Another Thai immigration official at the airport said his department received a note from Vietnam and Interpol requesting that Glitter not be allowed entry into Thailand. "Give him the old cavity search for about 18 hrs.", the note read, "He liked that sort of thing in prison". The official spoke on condition of anonymity since he was not authorized to speak to the press.

The immigration official said Glitter refused to board the London-bound plane, complaining of an ear ache. Immigration officials, he said, gave the airline permission to take Glitter to an airport clinic where the doctor checked his complaint. He was then returned to the airport's lounge with the ear having been removed and put into a jar of formaldahyde for reattachment after the flight. Poofter.

Page 2- Business:

Headline: Smelly seafood industry loves exports

By Khanh Thanh Manh– 4 days ago

HCM CITY — In the first seven months of the year, Viet Nam’s seafood export turnover increased by 200 per cent year on year to US$20.4 billion, according to the Viet Nam Association of Seafood Exporters and Pirates (VASEP). "Geeez, the smell of fish around here is excruciating! You'd think somebody died but we're laughing all the way to the bank", said a representative who wished to remain un-named. In July alone, processors exported over 136,000 tonnes of stinky seafood, worth nearly $476 million, according to VASEP. This is the highest growth rate for quantity and value in the past three hundred years. "This stuff was poor quality anyway. Better to get a bunch of dumb foreigners to eat it than serving it to our own people", the official stated.

Page 3- International:

Headline: Foreign men come by the bazzilions to Vietnam

By Tranh Phanh Schwanh– 4 days ago

(23-08-2008)

HCM CITY — Although this year’s rate of male attraction to Viet Nam is lower than last year’s, the country is still the fiftieth most attractive destination for men among emerging markets, according to the second annual PricewaterhosePoopers (PwP) Emerging Market 20 Index. "You could put your money in Mongolia and chase camels across the Gobi but Vietnam's warmer, has beautiful women and the ability to get over-the-counter drugs that you'd need a court order for in the western world" said an immigrant who wished not to be identified.

"I get a woody just thinkin' about it", he continued. The index shows that the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) continue to offer good opportunities for male investment. However, the results of PwP’s innovative country risk and reward model put Vietnam in a class of it's own. "I chase tail in Vietnam every day and all I ever loose is the cash in my pocket, a celphone or an iPod or two. I'm good to go!"

Page 4 - Finance:

Headline: Cashew cash goes south

By Lanh Quanh Danh– 4 days ago

(23-08-2008)

BINH DINH — Farmers are chopping down cashew plants in the south-central province of Binh Dinh, complaining the crop "ain't worth a hill of beans".

Figures from the province’s agricultural department show that the area under cashew cultivation has shrunk by 10,000 ha this year to 180,000ha. Up to another 20,000ha are forecast to be lost this year.

Farmers say that if the weather is fine a ha of cashew yields 400 kilograms of nuts. At VND10,000-15,000 per kilogram, they earn a profit of a mere VND2-3 million per ha. Ha, ha, ha. "Chicken feed, I'd say", said Tranh Long Dich, an ex-cashew farmer

If the crop is affected by disease, the profit turns into a loss, they points out.

With the plants usually grown on hilly land in Binh Dinh Province, they find it hard to apply intensive farming. If there is heavy rain during the time the plants blossom, they bear few fruit, leading to even lower productivity. "This is crap", said another local farmer, "I'm going to Saigon to open a massage parlour. I'm getting a line to Amex and will just bleed expat foreigners coming in here on fat corporate contracts. Now that's a living I tell ya. Screw cashews."

Page 5 - Leisure:

Headline: Belly dancing boyz bare their buttons

By Zanh Xuanh Nanh– 4 days ago

(23-08-2008)

I almost didn’t recognise Nguyen Manh, an office worker, when he changed from business attire to an Arabian dress, adorned with bells and baring his midriff. He is getting ready for his belly dance class with South Korean dance teacher Ara Hwang, who is considered to have first introduced Viet Nam to belly dancing. Many men like Manh are taking up belly dancing as a new fitness and beauty trend in Ha Noi and HCM City. "Being gay used to be a problem in Vietnam but no longer", he said. "Now chicks dig me!"

Lan finds office work repetitive and stressful, he was first attracted to belly dancing as a way to relax, but has since discovered other benefits. He has been belly dancing for over a year, and while other students go to one class a week, he attends at least four.

"Practising once a week is not enough to remember the dance movements, I have to practice regularly," he says.

"Belly dance is not so much for fitness or weight loss, if I just wanted to lose weight, I would go to aerobics class, but I'm gay so all I care about is meeting men who want have rabid uncontrolled wild sex with me!" says Lan. "I love belly dance because it makes me love my body and discover my true self."

Disclaimer: Of course none of this is real. Are you a bleeding idiot? No animals were hurt in the making of this blog. None of the people except Gary Glitter are real. This is satire. Deal with it.

For more in the "Nothing much happened" series, check below:

VIII People Are Just Dieing To Get Out of Here
VII The Hair Job
VI Happy New Year! Chúc Mừng Năm Mới!
V The Vietnam sNews
IV At The Center of Miss Universe
III My Walk in the Park Today
II The Stevie Wonder Post
I Ear Cleaning

Who are you?

This is cool! Take the test and see what they think!

Look at the multi-coloured box in my sidebar and see who I am, then take the test yourself. One of the neatest things I've seen lately. Click above or if all else fails, paste the address below in your browser and go directly to the site.

http://personaldna.com/tests.php

The Last Word From Saigon High

Geez, I'm tired. I don't feel like writing...but wait a minute...I've had 100 kids writing for me for the last few months. Maybe it's time to give them a turn.

Here's the last word from Saigon High: (...in their own words. The average age here is 12.)



http://thegreatencyclopedia799.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Some things I love

I love my family,

I love my teachers,

I love everything in the World,

as well as including my sisters.

I love computers,

I love food,

but I don't like smelly things,

because it's not good.

I love school,

I love the colour yellow,

I love my friends and

saying to them "Hello".

I love my mom,

I love my dad,

but I don't love death,

because it makes me sad.

http://alexei-naughtydevil.blogspot.com

[B]etray[E]r....!!

Lov What?
I do not care...
U beg me for forgivness
I have had you by my side
Then you gone away without good-bye!
You don't know how hard i tried
To find you and apologized
Even though i didn't make any mistakes
But i hav to make it right

I know i was so blind
To be in lov with u...
I didn't try to control my mind
I was so blind 'cause you were so kind!
But now i've escaped that cage
Fixed that mistake
Please let me try
For the last time i won't cry

If u let me go
Like i let u go
Stay away from me
Now we're just strangers
I want u to be happier
And so will i

Leave me alone...
Let me wait for you the next dawn
Hav had you is like heaven
I won't be fallen
But now i think
Without you is the best
No more tears and no more moans for the next
God! Help me to forget u...
Now i'm free and so are u

Thank u!
For this last moment i will tell the true
That for so long
I've been loving u...

Posted by Alexei at 12:45 AM 2 comments

http://blueislife.blogspot.com/

Monday, August 11, 2008

What I found on the wall ?!

Spy vs Spy

'Spy vs spy' is the classic story with two spies. One is black and another is white. It's a funny comic strip created for MAD Magazine by Cuban Antonio Prohías. It's interesting because the funny of 2 spies like each other but different color. They are made to look virtually identical: trilby hats, overcoats and long pointed noses. The creater is very good when he choose the classic type. It's help reader do not feel boring. There funny fighting is very popular and attractive. Here is some 'Spy vs Spy'

•—»::«—•

•—»::«—•

•—»::«—•

http://nicolaswow.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, 13 August 2008

THE GORILLAZ

Gorillaz is virtual band created in 1998 by Damon Albarn of Britpop band Blur , and Jamie Hewlett, co-creator of the comic book Tank Girl. The band is composed of four animated band members: 2D, Murdoc, Noodle and Russel. The band's music is a collaboration between various musicians with Albarn being the only permanent musical contributor. Their style is broadly alternative hip-hop, but with a large number of other influences including hip hop, electronica, dub and pop.


The band's first album, 2001's Gorillaz, sold over seven million copies and earned them an entry in the Guiness Book of Records as the Most Successful Virtual Band. There are also "Feel Good Inc" , "DARE" , "Dirty Harry" and "Kids with Guns" in their second studio album, Demon Days. Demon Days went five times platinum in the UK, double platinum in the US and earned five Grammy Award nominations for 2006 and won one of them in the Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals category. Gorillaz have also released two B-sides albums and a remix album.

YOU CAN FIND GORILLAZ's VIDEO AT MY VIDEO BAR
GL & HF

Posted by Nhan "Nicolas" Chou at 10:55 1 comments




http://nancytrinh-crazygirl.blogspot.com/

5)Technology: Who invented mouse???????

Have you ever wondered who invented the computer mouse? Here we talk about the history of the computer mouse. The first computer mouse was invented in 1963-64 by a man named Douglas Engelbartas. At the time, Douglas was experimenting with better ways to point and click on a display screen.

The first computer mouse.

The first mouse was bulky, carved out of wood, and only had one button. It worked with two metal wheels which made contact with the working surface. He named it a computer mouse because the cord came out from behind it, resembling a mouse.

Introduce Douglas Engelbartars

Born in 1925, Engelbart grew up during the Great Depression near Portland, Oregon. He finished high school in 1942, and then studied electrical engineering at Oregon State University. During World War II, he took a break from his studies to serve in the Navy, which sent him to the Philippines for two years as an electronic/radar technician. In 1948 he received his B.S. degree in electrical engineering and went to work for NACA Ames Laboratory (forerunner of NASA). He then applied to the graduate program in electrical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley and obtained his Ph.D. in 1955. He stayed on at Berkeley as an acting assistant professor but a year later he left to work for Stanford Research Institute, or SRI Intl.On December 9, 19658, Douglas C. Engelbart and the group of 17 researchers working with him in the Augmentation Research Center at Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park, CA, presented a 90-minute live public demonstration of the online system, NLS, they had been working on since 1963. The public presentation was a session in the of the Fall Joint Computer Conference held at the Convention Center in San Francisco, and it was attended by about 1,000 computer professionals. This was the public debut of the computer mouse. But the mouse was only one of many innovations demonstrated that day, including hypertext, object addressing and dynamic file linking, as well as shared-screen collaboration involving two persons at different sites communicating over a network with audio and video interface.

Posted by Trinh Nguyen Hong Nhu Y (Nancy)(2C) at 2:32 AM 0 comments



http://missrose11.blogspot.com/

Sunday, 3 August 2008

My life list

1/ Two books I'd like to read:
Harry Porter,cook with Ms.Tram.
Why?
Because I like to have a magic and cook well.

2/ Two movies I'd like to see:
Hanah Montana, Cory in a house.
Why?
Because it is very fun.

3/ Two people I'd like to meet:
Hanah Montana, Cory.
Why?
Because I like to sing look like Hanah and funy like Cory.

4/ Two people I'd like to meet:
Ho Chi Minh, My grand father.
Why?
Because i never see them.

5/ Two instruments I'd like to lean how to play:
piano and guitar.
Why?
Because I want to be a musician.

6/ Two sports I'd like to lean how to play:
Tennis, table tannis.
Why?
Because I like to play that sport with my friends.

7/ Two girls I'd like to marry:
Girl in China and Japan.
Why?
Because they are very cute.

8/ Two boys I'd like to marry:
My boyfriend and my
husband.
Why?
Because I like them.

Posted by MISS ROSE 11 at 20:50 0 comments

http://iamabeautifulmonkey.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, 13 August 2008

My Brother

My Brother

I felt sad because I quarrel with my brother. My brother is a bad brother because he is never care about me and he is alway make me feel angry. He never talk with me and see me, he just angry with me. However he doesn't know everyrthing he does always make I feel sad. I never and never is a younger sister of him and so him,too. I don't want talk a lot about him. I just don't want see him again. Now I feel he is really stay away from me so I really sad. I really need affection of my family.

Posted by Anh Pham at 09:16 0 comments

http://selenalandj-14dance.blogspot.com/

Monday, August 4, 2008

I love

I love chocolate

Because it make me turn to black

I love music

Because it make me stupid

I love my bag

Because it make me sad

I love my body

Because it make me worry

I love my computer

Because it so super

I love my pen

Because it make me get ten

I love my teddy bear

Because it so scare

I love my mother

Because she like my father

I love my sister

Because she bigger

I love candy

Because it like a fairy

I love cookies

Because it very sweetly

I love all things

Because my life so boring

Posted by Tien Nguyen at 7:54 PM

0 comments


http://thelovelydolphin.blogspot.com/

Bat

Bat is a special animal too. because it has sonar. So how do bats use sonar? Bats use sonar waves to navigate. Bats are nocturnal which means they are active at night and sleep during the day. Since bats have to hunt for their food at night, you would imagine that they need exceptionally good eyesight. but this is not the case, as bats do not depend on their eyes for getting about. When bats fly, they utter a series of very high pitched sounds which are too high to be heard by the human ear. The echoes from these sounds are thrown back to the bat when it is in flight, and it can tell whether the echo came from an obstacle nearby or far away. the bat can then change it course in flight to avoid hitting the obstacle!

Posted by Thanh. Ngoc Phuong. Vo at 07:16 0 comments

http://hellomaiden.blogspot.com/

Thursday, August 14, 2008

;;

Many countries are beautiful and nice to live in such as France, the US, England, Hong Kong, Thailand, etc. But Japan is the best country to live for many reasons. Japan is unique because it is existing between the old and the new, so people are able to enjoy special and different feelings and style of life. Japan has a lot to offer and it is the best place to live because of the food, comfortable life and the people who live there.
The food in Japan is famous all over the world and excellent for many reasons. Japanese food is very clean. When people visit in Japan, they can find black or dark red bowls in restaurant. It looks more than clean. It is good to the taste. Those foods are very simple. Probably, those are easy to cook. Because of stuff and recipes are very simple and easy. And also Japanese foods are healthy. Most Japanese food don’t have fat. Food like Sushi, buckwheat noodles, many kinds of fishes, and many vegetables.
The style life in Japan is comfortable and appealing. The Japanese skillfully developed technological for modern. So, Japanese cites have modern housing, plumbing and transportation. Many people called there are ‘kingdom of vending machines’ in Japan. Because there are many kinds of vending machines. For example, there are vending machines of map, tobacco, rice, ramen, magazines, vegetables vending machines, etc. If we live in Japan, we can fall in charm with vending machines. Many vending machines are useful to everybody.
The Japanese are special in their own way and help to make Japan and great place to live. Japanese are famous as very tidy, and very stylish; Hair style, fashion style, make-up style, etc. They always care about their personality, so their style become more and more tidy and stylish. Some of Japanese sometimes wear an unbecoming style of dress. But they are rather indifferent from their style. They have their own individuality. Also they have well developed personalities.
As stated above, Japan has a lot of appeal and interesting country. So, you may want to know some more about Japan and have a pleasant experience. You are going to visit for that and study about Japan. Then in the future, you will be able to attend university in Japan and find a job in there. You will become attached living in there as passing time.

1 개의 덧글 이 게시물에 대한 링크


http://tommyhandsomen.blogspot.com/

at 11:31 PM Posted by Tommy Nghia Nguyen Links to this post 0 comments

Running With Scizzors - Perspective IX: The Little Things IV

The woman runs alongside a portable street foodselling cart with a stack of not so fine China - the kind you buy cheap in Chinatown - and then throws the stack into traffic as a man weilds a 2" X 2" stick at another man on a motorbike. Falling to the ground with the bike pinning him down, he thanks the government for his newly regulated helmet, protecting him from serious cranial damage from the man still swinging the stick and still making cracking contact. Birds scatter. Down the small alleyway more commotion spills onto the main road and through the beep-beep-beep of interminably snarled traffic in this daily malaise, my driver presses on - as the 7 pillar pagoda smolders. Today is the beginning of the Vu Lan festival and the start of a full moon. Multi-storied houses, luxury cars, laptops, bicycles and more will burn in the hope that guilty and lonely ghosts can be pardoned for past indiscretions and leave the humans to their pollution and domestic squabbles. But the items to burn will be effigies, made of paper, and consumed by fire in honor of lost relatives. The smoldering stone pagoda is only a shrine with a more than usual preponderance of joss sticks (incense) burning in memoriam as well. Welcome to the Vietnamese version of Halloween - Vu Lan also known curiously as "Mother's Day" - is also a day to be nice to your mother. The lady throwing the dishes must have not been feeling properly respected. Hancock is needed around here and would fit in just perfectly in his alcoholic imperfection. Ha. I loved that film, seen a few nights ago in probably one of the most civil environments in the city - a threatre - far away from the streets of my daily entertainment. "They say a child born out of love stands a better chance of happiness in life" - from the film Gattaca and a reflection for me in the light of a friend's comment that I seem to let things roll off my back more easily than others. I am an adopted child and surely born of a passion that could not have stood the rigors of my birth parents unmarried condition at the time. This makes me smile. The attorney explains to me that the man with the beer mug acted unprovoked on attacking another foreigner in my regular pub here the other night. There was glass, there was blood, a lot of blood I heard. The lawyer shows me his head and cuts obtained in trying to break up the brawl. There was a woman involved but no one is sure exactly how or why. The man with the mug had no companion. Georgia, the American one not the Soviet, was the home of another man involved, now transplanted to Vietnam. No stranger to rodeos he has told me, this must have been just his second month in Saigon and just what he ordered? Hospitals, police and goons are described. Goons looking for the man who hit people with his beer mug - and police too are looking, but my money's on the goons. The injured man was not described as being involved in whatever issue set the man with the mug off. I know them all but was not there - home watching Gattaca on HBO I was - and probably lucky to have not have had to have been pressed into the roll of peacekeeper in this unseemly battle. Sanities have been questioned - of all. "There were a lot of things in life I thought were real that turned out to be fake" - a quote from another film seen recently whose name I can't remember. For me the exact opposite has been true lately. Are there 20 birdcages or 30? Or fewer? My new home is the home of the birdman of Co Bac, a neighborhood free from the dangers of brandished beer mugs but not far away from the midway of Pham Ngu Lao, home to my French cafe and tonight's delightfully countrified meal of Sauccices de Canard (Duck sausage). The birdman is my new landlord after my old home above the cafe became flooded in a monsoon two weeks ago. Birds tweet and flutter inside their ornate bamboo cages as the man fritters with sorting tiny squirming worms from peat moss he has grown for them - everyday. Now I wake to birds after having gorged on a cousin. "I want rules. I want boundaries. Because without them all life is, is just a series of surprises" - a quote from the lead character in the film Running With Scizzors - an absolutely crystal remembrance of a life much less charmed than mine - and it makes me wonder - If my life had been less normal, less conventional would I have been more of an artist - a better artist? The passing of a man mentioned very much earlier in these pages is one of continuous speculation. As his body was turned over from the sideways sleeping position, it has been described that the portion resting on the mattress had turned to a deep ceurelean blue - the effects of blood having pooled over the previous 24 hours. That's how long he had been dead before he was found - in his room - and women and heroin and various accounts of uncertain lifestyles illustrated in speculation of the true cause of death. His parents declined the autopsy and kindly saved his memory for the best and happiest of what we all in his presence shared with him. And 100 students wait for me to grade the blogs they have just begun to write. So much thought. So much reality on all sides of our lives - the young and the older. Who needs pictures? As I did when I was a teenager listening to old radio dramas on KAAY midnight FM, it's so much more real to just let the words carry the mind into these Dali-esque dreams - these dreams that interupt the movies I see to keep balance in such abstract expressionist days.