La fortitude et la vertu

GERTRUDE
Il ne l'est pas encore
Claudius a reçu le prix de ses forfaits ;
Mais les dieux irrités ne sont pas satisfaits.
A leur juste fureur il manque une victime

...

(Elle se tue)

J'acquitte tes sermens.
J'expire ; règne heureux.

HAMLET
Moi, j'aimerais la vie !
Quand, hélas, pour toujours, ma mère m'est ravie !
Que tes remords sur toi fassent du haut des cieux
Descendre et les regards et le pardon des dieux.
Privé de tous les miens dans ce palais funeste,
Mes malheurs sont comblés, mais ma vertu me reste;
Mais je suis homme et roi : réservé pour souffrir,
Je saurai vivre encore ; je fais plus que mourir


--- Hamlet / Jean-François Ducis

Knowledge.

TeachThemHowToThink: "Perspective gives you a clearer picture, agreed.  That picture isn’t always pretty though."

I am amused that this is made from images which had the opposite moral:


(Surrealism)


(Perspective)

I choked on my green tea.

A white heteronormative cisgendered CEO professor and - Comment #128 added by iluvharrypotter at Doors and Feminists

A white heteronormative cisgendered CEO professor and Baptist preacher was teaching a class on Karl Rove, known Christian.

"Before the class begins, you must get on your knees and worship Jesus Christ and accept that you too can become straight through daily prayer, self-flagellation, and eating Chik-Fil-A every day!"

At this moment, a brave, trans-Asian, self-diagnosed pansexual demiromantic vegan multisouled person who had been free of all animals products and bought only products at the local transgender co-op boldly stood up, holding a glass filled with some white liquid.

"Hey, Professor, what is this?"

The arrogant professor smirked like a rapist and smugly replied "It's clearly milk, you crazy faggot. What the fuck does milk have to do with political science?"

"Wrong, it's an all natural vegan soy almond kombucha latte. No animals or transpeople were harmed or raped in the making of this product."

The professor was visibly shaken, and dropped his chalk and copy of the Wall Street Journal. He stromed out of the room, clearly planning some kind of rape. The professor realized that he had been playing into the hands of the kyiarchy of CEOs, investment bankers, the Religious Right, and psychiatrists. He then killed himself. The proper term for this is "trans-dead".

The students checked their privilege, all diagnosed themselves with autism and gender identity disorder and joined the gay-Straight Alliance. An obese trans-eagle furry otherkin waddled into the room and tried to perch upon the American flag, bending the flagpole in the process. All parties involved gave up meat, Christianity, and the right to bear arms.

The students all lifted their glasses of soy fluid in a toast.

"That beverage's name? Harvey "The One Percent" Milk" said the vegan trans-autistic Korean.

Old Age and Contentment

"As soon as he saw me, Cephalus welcomed me and said: Socrates, you don’t come down to the Piraeus to see us as often as you should. If it were still easy for me to walk to town, you wouldn’t have to come here; we’d come to you. But, as it is, you ought to come here more often, for you should know that as the physical pleasures wither away, my desire for conversation and its pleasures grows. So do as I say: Stay with these young men now, but come regularly to see us, just as you would to friends or relatives.

Indeed, Cephalus, I replied, I enjoy talking with the very old, for we should ask them, as we might ask those who have travelled a road that we too will probably have to follow, what kind of road it is, whether rough and difficult or smooth and easy. And I’d gladly find out from you what you think about this, as you have reached the point in life the poets call “the threshold of old age.” Is it a difficult time? What is your report about it?

By god, Socrates, I’ll tell you exactly what I think. A number of us, who are more or less the same age, often get together in accordance with the old saying. When we meet, the majority complain about the lost pleasures they remember from their youth, those of sex, drinking parties, feasts, and the other things that go along with them, and they get angry as if they had been deprived of important things and had lived well then but are now hardly living at all. Some others moan about the abuse heaped on old people by their relatives, and because of this they repeat over and over that old age is the cause of many evils. But I don’t think they blame the real cause, Socrates, for if old age were really the cause, I should have suffered in the same way and so should everyone else of my age. But as it is, I’ve met some who don’t feel like that in the least. Indeed, I was once present when someone asked the poet Sophocles: “How are you as far as sex goes, Sophocles? Can you still make love with a woman?” “Quiet, man,” the poet replied, “I am very glad to have escaped from all that, like a slave who has escaped from a savage and tyrannical master.” I thought at the time that he was right, and I still do, for old age brings peace and freedom from all such things. When the appetites relax and cease to importune us, everything Sophocles said comes to pass, and we escape from many mad masters. In these matters and in those concerning relatives, the real cause isn’t old age, Socrates, but the way people live. If they are moderate and contented, old age, too, is only moderately onerous; if they aren’t, both old age and youth are hard to bear."

--- The Republic (Book I) / Plato

BKK 2012 - Day 2, Part 2 - Ayutthaya, Bangkok

“An unalterable and unquestioned law of the musical world required that the German text of French operas sung by Swedish artists should be translated into Italian for the clearer understanding of English-speaking audiences.” ― Edith Wharton

***

BKK 2012
Day 2, Part 2 - 8th September - Ayutthaya, Bangkok


On Wat Phrasisanpeth


Wat Phrasisanpeth










Nua




"Clean Ayutthaya"
Presumably this was the imperative mood




The Director-General of UNESCO was visiting around this time


Lake

I then had a look at another site without entering, since it would just be more of the same.


"Please do not climb up" because you must pay for a ticket

This temple was quite similar to the others I'd seen, except it had a very phallic main building.








Map of Ayutthaya


This was a neat anti-dripping device for ice cream. The coconut ice cream was 10B which was a fair price. However it was slightly too sweet and had coloured coconut shreds in it.

Only Indonesia rivalled what I'd seen of Thailand for lack of signage. Of course this was to generate work for guides.

Next was Wat Naphrameru-Rajikaram. This last temple had escaped Burmese destruction.




Dog


Buddhas


On Wat Naphrameru-Rajikaram
"King of Burma... He fired a cannon by himself and one of the cannons burst out and injureel him seriously. He had to go back to Burma with his army. But he died at Tak's border on his way back to Burma"
Sad.


Buddha


Buddha behind rolling door


Guan Yin


God of Many Faces




"Astrologer"


Maybe this read "clean me"


For some reason I found monks on the back of a pickup quite funny


20B mystery meat sausages. I couldn't even finish the one I bought.
Across the road there was real food but I was scared of missing my train.


18B mystery flavour (probably Freaky Fruitade - I'm not sure if it was F&N) Fanta in a weird 450ml size


What Last Class looked like. A Japanese woman paid 245B for first class tickets. This was 15B for the real Third Class - unpadded wooden benches (on my way here my seat had at least had some padding). Too bad there were no chickens in the cabin.


Fortune Telling


"Shield. The Glamorous Bangkok"
"Glamorous" is not the word I'd use


Thai convenience food. Which looks very good.


Schwepps Manao flavour (Thai lime), 14B
I love local flavours
Long live 7-11! May Western Economic Neo-colonialism drive out bastard hawkers who overcharge farangs!


Hua Lamphong Station

A tuk tuk quoted me 30B to my hotel. I was surprised it was so cheap, then I found out the catch: he said I had to stop at his "sponsor", but did not buy anything. At least he was honest, but I didn't want to waste time (the point of taking a tuk tuk would've been to save time anyway). I gave him props for his honesty. I said no, and he claimed it was 3km to the hotel. At this point I got annoyed since he was lying now - I'd walked the distance in the morning and it was no way it was 3km.


I'd read that we could thank the British for covered sidewalks (i.e. 5 foot ways, which supposedly are exclusive to British Southeast Asia), but this was close enough even though there wasn't 100% shelter.


Narrow Alley


"General Paint"


Cute pigs

One shop advertised Birds Nest for 100B. I went in and the cheapest was 300B, but it came with coconut.


I couldn't figure out the translation logic on which languages to use.

A man I presumed was the owner couldn't speak Mandarin, and I didn't do Cantonese, so we used English. Hurr hurr.


Birds Nest with coconut. The coconut added a delectable richness to it.


"Special Discount"

I ended up topo-ing (getting lost) a lot as it was hard to navigate (no romanised signs, a bad map, confusing streets). Perhaps I was losing my powers. In the end i walked more than 3 km.

A lot of people think Thailand, Southeast Asia etc are very cheap. Actually this is not the case. One must factor in hidden costs, swindling being one. I had already spent 2900B (~S$120) in 1.5 days, excluding my hotel and the sumptuous Chinese meal, and it wasn't as if I'd spent a lot (I'd only taken one taxi or other form of transport dedicated to me, e.g. tuk tuks). Everything adds up - people think Bangkok is cheap because they take short trips, but on a daily basis this is not so.


Huge snacks


Pandemonium: there was a temple event


Temple


Wat U Phai Rat Bamrung


Nice pig

There was a place called "Visa King". Green cards on the fly?


"Warning for Tourists... They are usually well-dressed, friendly, speak little or good English, but all of them have one thing in mind... TO SCAM YOU... Take the above-mentioned advice and your vacation will certainly be spared from 'nightmare' perpetrated by con-artists"


Flasher


Map with warning: "Beware of stranger offering ride to discount Jewelry stores or buying fake goods or Other forms of deception. Firmly decline when approached and report any such incidents to the Thai Tourist Police"


Carpark shrine


Even in Eastern Europe and Greece I don't get Asian-level swindling. The White Man's Burden should've been to make honest men out of Asians. It says something that there is a site called BangkokScams.com.

One way not to get swindled: get the hotel guy to call a taxi for you, so they will use the meter. Or you can try calling the Passenger Protection Center, I guess.