Silent Soliloquies

The man knew better. He had reached that painfully pivotal point when it became pointless to try and continue. And yet, trying was the irony of it; trying something which must come effortlessly. The harder he tried the more he failed and recognition of this fact only made it worse. It was a cruel cycle for which success was not an option.

Synapses on fire with the urgency of an impatient child when all was wanted was to be left in peace. Eyelid-light while bodyheavy was not an unfamiliar dilemma to him. The best of enemies they were and surrender the only cure.

"Why wasn't a day just a bit longer?" he wondered. "Thirty hours should do it. That would surely solve daylight nights." A thought only adding fuel to the fire, "Which planet spins slow enough to allow my dense sponge to absorb on time? Are they missing anyone?" Once again, a pointless proposition knowing his curse would just the same turn this sixteenth into that alienated twenty-second.

Feet on the floor. Hand on the door. The dark cut only by electric, red, meaningless numbers. "At least the owls are awake" he muses. "Rodents aren't what I have in mind though." Everything but.

Far too late for coffee and too early for food. What to do. Twenty-four is short and forty-eight deliriously long. Comfort at this hour is a dream. A distant quixotic dream. Almost there. Always always almost there.

What's in a day?

Today is my birthday. The 37th to be exact. That number isn't significant to me other than letting me know just how many revolutions of the earth to which I have been a witness.

13,515 sunrises and 13,514 sunsets. More than many while less than half what the law of averages promise. Is that greedy or just hopeful? I'm not sure life cares.

I feel universally privileged to have experienced the things I have with the time I've been granted thus far. God-willing, I'll have the opportunity to see, feel, taste, smell and touch much more. Each and every experience is worth everything. Nothing is undeserving of our attention.

With the little I've come to learn about this world and the people in it, there is one thing of which I'm certain; the world is what you make of it.

If money is the goal, jealousy is the reward. Pass. If moments are all you need, all you need will be all you want.

Happy Birthday to me. Happy Everyday to all.

Bangkok Massage Soap Video

I've been reintroducing myself to this site since in internet years I've been away for eons. Looking for links, posts or pictures that may have been broken by server gremlins or things that may have been blessed by the Google gods. Fat chance there, but fortunately nothing was too out of whack.

Scanning my stats program, that allows me to see under which search terms internet surfers find this site, I found several "hits" resulted from the phrase "Bangkok Massage Soap Video." Maybe it was the same guy not quite convinced I didn't have videos hidden in my wordy pages. OR girl. I assume nothing. (call me) Whether it was the same click-happy person or several different ones, the result was the same; I wanted to see the video too.

Especially if I was in it.

However, I didn't remember any of that happening during my 2 hour layover at the Bangkok airport. At least, not all at once.

Looking for what this was all about and possibly a new bookmark, I copied, pasted and a click click click later, guess what? Sure enough, page three on an MSN.com search for the title's good-time terms yields yours truly; Lord of the Bangkok Soap Massage Video.

Now, I've been in this web game long enough to know all about keyword content and how the sillier a string of search terms parsed together the more likely a search engine will blow a sprocket and spit out anything with those terms in any order, but creepy nonetheless I'm considered a purveyor of said possibilities.

Remember on Sesame Street when the shady Muppet in sunglasses, trench-coat and hat would confuse its young viewers with sketches that started, "Psst, hey buddy. Wanna buy a letter K?" Well that's the image I have when thinking about my site popping up in this type of search. As if some trench-coat wearing guy on the corner of MSN and Main is saying, "Soapy Massage? Hmmmm, lemme give it a tink. Yeah sure pal, give dis guy a call." And hands out my business card.

Furthermore, am I now on a Foggy Bottom watch-list as well? Of course not, but if I'm dumb enough to string them all together in this post you can bet your soapy ass I am now.

Rest assured or disappointed, as the case may be, you will find one of my posts via the mentioned phrase, but the only thing getting soapy was my well traveled shirt in a Taipei airport shower in between flights. Sorry, no video. Oh, the Bangkok massage? What can I say...it was worth every baht.

So lets try something. Go ahead, search MSN.com and click. Maybe I can climb the rankings and oust the reigning web champ of suds-sans-slacks and future surfers can read about themselves right here. Boo.

W.O.R.K. Works!

Wow, it's been a few months since I last posted but behind the scenes there has been a flurry of e-mails and phone calls. The amount of work and dedication to continuing the reconstruction effort in Sri Lanka by those I know has been amazing and that list continues to grow. From speeches and presentations to walk-a-thons and mud bog racing, volunteers are finding some creative ways to keep the donations coming in and continue getting the word out. The word is that a lot more houses need to be built because there are still hundreds of thousands of Sri Lankans living in tents and makeshift shelters.

As I wrote earlier, Jesper and I have been trying to put together a group to return in early 2006 to build some more homes. I'm happy to officially announce that home building project is underway! We have formed the non-profit group W.O.R.K. which stands for Willpower. Organization. Respect. Knowledge. We believe these are the 4 tenets required for a successful volunteer group and our motto is W.O.R.K. Works! We invite you to take a few minutes and learn more about our upcoming project at our new site Work-Works.org

Several members of our April group will be joining us again this go-round as well as many new faces who are anxious to experience what they've heard so much about. We can't wait to get started! In fact, we have started and with a bang! For this project to be successful we also need funding and lot of it. With our first foray out into the world of non-profit fundraising we came up with nearly $20,000 in cash and supplies! However, we need another $167,000 to successfully buy enough land and materials for 20 homes. Because a large portion of the island nation is currently reconstructing and there is only so much raw material and speed with which it can be prepared, costs have risen substantially since our visit. Now instead of $4-$5k for a fully funded home it is now close to $7k per home. But, whatever the cost we will meet our goals and do our best to meet their needs.

If you would like to be a part of our project and help us build 20 homes for 20 families then please visit our site and find out how you can get involved. There will be a blog on the W.O.R.K. site for us to keep everyone updated with our reconstruction effort so be sure to watch it for any news.

Somehow I knew my involvement would be longer than just two weeks when I stared this blog but this new project is far beyond my best guesses. I'm thrilled to be actively working towards returning and helping even more people than our previous visit. Even more exciting, I get to continue working with some great people and no doubt will meet many more.

Another beautiful day in the UK

It is Wednesday 10:30am in London and today looks to be a beautiful sunny day and I'm looking forward to another day of walking the streets and checking out all London has to offer. Monday I was planning on doing a museum tour but lucked out as Ruth had to take the day off to send her family back home after their trip. We were able to connect and since she is a merchandiser and buyer for BHS (British Home Stores) I was able to hit a few secret areas of London where dept. stores unload their overstocks at rock bottom prices. Linen suit, £35! I felt bad for running Ruth around central London on her day off doing what she normally gets paid for but we had a great day. Thanks Ruth!

On Tuesday, I put my museum plan into action and visited the Natural History Museum first. I was impressed with the building alone but the exhibits contained within were unbelievable. I believe most all museums in London are free and that's an amazing feat considering the amount of traffic they see on a daily basis. However, with 17% sales tax I can see how this is possible! I saw the dinosaur, Earth sciences, and Darwin exhibits. Amazing all.

I next visited the British Museum. This has been my favorite so far. Here's a typical conversation I had at the info desk.

"Excuse me, can you tell me where the Rosetta Stone is?"
"Yes, thru those doors on your right, take a left and it's straight ahead."
"Thank you very much."
"Cheers."

What?! THE Rosetta Stone! I don't know why Napoleon's army didn't just ask at the info desk. Really helpful people there. Besides one of the greatest literature finds in mankind's history, which was the key to deciphering Egyptiann hieroglyphics, the British Museum also houses many carvings from THE Parthenon, stone carvings from Mesopotamia, Babylon!, mummys, Egyptian sarcophaguses, etc etc ad naseum...
Wow. Truly an amazing place and one you must visit if you have the chance.

Last night Paul came back into town from Brighton and we had dinner out with John and Ruth. It was a short evening as we were all tired but I believe we'll be joining a few others Thursday night for another get together. I've heard rumors of Lottie and Sara joining us so I hope to see them again as well! I'll have to update this blog better about Scotland when I can get all my thoughts together, but I'll never forget listening to Paul's newly acquired Richard Pryor CD as we were driving thru the Highlands. I'm sure that's a journey not many have taken. Fantastic stuff!

Oh yes, Thursday. The day I was supposed to be back home. Well, I've done it again and pushed my departure back until Monday. One last weekend in London will hopefully be enough but you never know! Just having too much fun and regardless of when I leave I know I'll be back soon!

Hope all is well with everyone and I'm looking forward to returning and joining my good friend Jim in Maryland for a Wilco concert towards the end of the month in the same venue we saw Radiohead at last year. Can't wait! Alright, enough of this. The sun is shining and I have a tube to catch to Hampstead Heath which is supposed to be the premier outdoor spot and park in London. Perfect day for it!

-Chris