Yasa gaming forum

I setup a forum for the YASA: The Law Of The Steppe website at:

yasa.nycmongol.com/forum/

Interested in gaming a steppe nomad character? Check it out.

Yossarian, and a dozen other cats and dogs

About a week ago I did what can be characterized as an animal rescue. My aunt passed away (the same one who I got Dusty from) leaving behind 7 dogs, 6 puppies, and countless cats. Literally, no one was able to count them - estimates were over 40 originally. The pound picked up the dogs right away and were able to adopt out some of them, and most recently picked up 8 cats (most others ran off by that point, some died) leaving the pound with 4 dogs and 8 cats they did not think could be adopted out easy and wanted to put all 12 to sleep. So I loaded up the van with carriers I borrowed from friends and drove 1,000 miles to Nashville, TN to pick up all 12 of them. Despite all the warnings from the pound and my aunt's neighbors, the pets were friendly and well trained making the return trip remarkably uneventful, and I still have a clean van. I kept Yossarian here, and left the remainder in Cat's care at the farm in Maryland.

2 dogs and one other cat have been adopted so far, leaving 8 pets still in need of a home.

Meet Dusty

I just inherited a horse. Dusty is an 18 month old quarterhorse who belonged to my aunt Jeanne before she passed away. The first horse I ever rode was her horse Moony when I was 8. Now Dusty is my first horse to own. He's stabled at Heritage Harvest Farm (Jenna and Cat's place) in Maryland.

I hope he likes mounted archery...

Happy Lunar New Year!

Sar Shiniin Mend Hurgeye!

I put together some greeting cards for Mongolian Tsagaan Sar (White Moon / New Year) greetings:

www.nycmongol.com/postcards.html

Parade!

Its been 8 years since we last had a ticker tape parade down Broadway... 8 YEARS! Finally a local team won something (Giants took the Superbowl) so we got to have a parade. Best thing is my office is right on Broadway with windows that open, so we got to dump our (paper) trash on everyone. :P

No one can litter like New Yorkers can litter.

more photos:
puppy.viahistoria.com/giants/

Think I'm gonna be sick...

www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/li...news.html

We will invade any country with oil at the drop of a hat, yet we ignore a verifiable act of genocide. Not a diplomatic tongue lashing, no "Axis of Evil" rhetoric, nada! Where's the so called moral majority when it's not an issue that will put more money in their corrupt pockets?

Japanese Belly Dancing

So its just a few photos on someone's blog, but this definitely got my interest:

2006 Kamakura Beach Party: Belly Dancing
patrickmccoy.typepad.com/lost_...b.html

And the event site has a thumbnail pic or two:
www.brentoleary.com/pic.html

Bring it on Home

Well, I made it 40 days in a foreign country without getting arrested, deathly ill, pickpocketed, into any brawls, fired, dumped, written up in any newspapers, covered by TV news, lost, mistaken for a major musician, bumped into by someone I last saw 7,000 miles away, investigated by police/airport security/KGB, (long story... don't ask) accused of anything that could lead to such an investigation, chased by distraught parent/husband/boyfriend, entangled in local politics, or even homesick. A new record!

Aside from a little rain, and some dramatic sights, a relatively uneventful trip. OK, so it was a lot of rain. It rained down death and destruction almost everywhere I went... but that was just the normal local weather, nothing to do with me. Really. I was stuck under a store awning during a downpour my last day in Mumbai and started talking to the locals taking the same shelter. I asked this girl why Indians don't like rain, and she said for her it reminds her of just how filthy the country is. I can see her point floating as a layer on top of any water on the ground. There are times in India where all you can see is a sea of people and trash. Sometimes its piled up in an unused lot, typically with dogs or goats eating through it, and often with poor people sifting for something useful. You can't really walk around to see the city because you spend most of your time looking down so you don't accidentally step in a puddle of sewage or the like. India is great in many ways but it really is filthy.

Hmmm, didn't really write about my last week in India much. Did a few more clubs. Took the 4th off, and wandered around Pune. Finally got to one of the museums which was pretty cool after all. And the neighborhood around it is the old Pune and had some good shopping that never gets spoken of to foreigners. Actually I found things that the locals were surprised about and asked me where the stores were. Spent the last weekend in Mumbai. Saw different parts of the city than my first time there. The hotel and flight home was not worthy of 5 star or business class service one would expect. But I made it home all right.

Its good to be home. I went straight from the airport to a steakhouse. Every day this week since I got home monday night, I've been eating things you just can't get in India whether it was something I missed having regularly or not. Steak, Shreaded pork, Grapes, Hamburger, Blueberries, Pizza, Bagel... you get the idea.

Odd thing is that its been hotter in NY than in India. Early on in my trip it was pretty humid in Mumbai, and Delhi and Agra was anywhere from 95 to 120 while I was there, but mostly I was in cool 80 degree Pune. I came back to NY to mid 90s. Ug. Now its better, and think I went my first full day without any rain in about a month.

Work is insane. Should have taken Tuesday off claiming jetlag, but I was well adjusted and went in. Meetings about my business in India, mad rush of problems that came up the week I came in, its been a dizzying week. The expense reports I just finally finished dealing with are scary. This is my first chance to write, and I'm putting other things off to do so. I should pick up the film from being developed tomorrow. 17 rolls... I need a digital camera. Well, I have a digital, I mean a digital SLR. I decided a new lense was more important for my trip, and think it was a good call. I'll know for sure when I see the Everest pictures.

Now I get to catch up on Pennsic planning... Getting the household and the business ready is a daunting task for such short notice. Oh yeah, I don't have a way there yet. Need to go van shopping tomorrow.

In a Monsoon Mood

Its rather strange to be in a country where rain is considered to be unlucky. Perhaps its because they get so much of it. During the monsoons there are no big holidays or festivals, people don't plan weddings and home sales are always in a lull.

Its been raining off and on daily for almost three weeks now. Occasionally heavy, but mostly a constant drizzle. Apparently this year the rains have been harder than normal. The papers have been headlining with the rainfall totals and death tolls all weekend. 18 dead in one day here in Pune with dams overflowing and structures collapsing, and some other areas are being hit far worse. So what are the local authorities doing about all this? They were too busy this weekend with shutting down clubs and bars to commit all their resources to emergency services. Religious extremists make very poor administrators, and this part of India is too much under their grip to function effectively. I just wonder how much the local economy is stiffled because of them randomly shutting down businesses around here.

So what is there to do during the monsoons besides reflecting on the local sociopolitical atmosphere? Not much. With most of the transportation hubs being randomly flooded and closed down, I didn't plan to go anywhere. Just spent my time around the city all weekend.

Friday, I went out to dinner with my local coworkers here, both the guys I'm supposed to be training and the other team we are in process of merging with. They are a fun bunch, would fit right in with everyone in NY. After dinner, I went to a club with one of them. It was nice to get out, and all the hype about the problems I would face were unfounded. A small club by NYC standards but decent place none the less which supposedly attracts people from as far as Mumbai - a good 3 hour drive away. Same bad music as American clubs plus a Bollywood song here and there, drinks were good, and so was the food. But they close by 1 am.

Saturday it was raining in the morning as usual but it lightened up in the afternoon so I went to the other side of the city were the main shopping district is. (Turned out to be a few blocks from the hotel I was in but didn't realize) Walked MG road which is lined with stores, and hit a mall or two. Well, one was really a big department store and the other had maybe a dozen stores - all as pricey as NY or worse. There was a very different crowd then in the other parts of the city. Wealthier clothes, more frequent obesity. It is kind of amusing to go into a clothing store and see a Woman's section and Woman's Ethnic section equally as large. I completed most of the shopping I still needed to do that day, including a traditional outfit for myself.

That night I decided to go back to the club alone. Got in no problem. Like any club anywhere, if you have a look they want, you get right in no problem. It was twice as packed as the night before. I got a drink and ordered dinner, and before I finished a plate of food, they were calling last call. The police had the joint shut down and emptied out before midnight because some religious group (whose members include many state officials) complained it offended them. After looking around and talking to some of the club kids, I found out every bar and club in the city was shutdown in a massive sweep. This was the same time that 18 people died on the poor side of town because of the rains. All the talk in the West about India fast becoming a modern developed democracy is simply not true. It is still under the grip of fanatic religious groups that stiffle freedoms and maintain an institutionalized racism. No need to invent new terms here, the caste system is a form of apartheid plain and simple. One newspaper had an article recently about the sanitation workers here, aparently they have to wade through the sewers and unclug stoppages by hand with no equipment and have regular deaths. The irony of the whole situation is that neither the prudishness nor caste system have any foundation in traditional Hinduism. Many people here believe the whole fear of sexuality is Muslim influence that Hindu leaders have adopted and imposed on their followers.

Sunday the rains did not let up most of the day so I stayed close to my flat at a movie theater complex that also has a few stores (not much worth buying though) and resturants. Unfortunately the food court was all vegetarian, including the place labelled as an All American Diner. The Italian food was kinda scary, but at least had decent garlic bread. Ended up seeing Die Hard 4.0 (thats the title they use here) AND Ocean's 13. I was there all day basically. Every time I considered walking back, the rain got harder. Mildly amusing, both of them had the same line: "You are an analogue guy in a digital age." That was odd. The resturant downstairs had a DJ after dinner and had quite the dance floor going.

So now I'm on my last week in India. This time next week, I'll be on a plane heading home. That is unless the rains shutdown the airports in Mumbai again.

Pup

TV in India

I have been happily away from TV since I moved out of the hotel a week ago. When I was staying in the hotel the first week, I watched a lot of TV. Aside from the distinct lack of variety on most of the local channels, they have some decent news stations both local and international and an occasional channel showing foreign (re: American) films and TV shows. About the only interesting things I found were Alias reruns, an old Hong Kong Kung Fu flic dubbed into Hindi, (wish I remembered the title, had some good fantasy gaming source material in it) and the occasional model falling out of her clothes on Fashion TV - yes, the selection was that bad where the latter was one of the highlights.

There's a TV in my flat but I never bothered getting batteries for the remote. Last night I went over to the other company flat where they have a cook to get some dinner. While I was there I tried watching some TV. The other guys there were watching Cricket as usual but they handed me the remote. I flipped around to see if there was anything besides sports or the usual Bollywood movies, retro channel of old Bollywood movies, entertainment coverage of what Bollywood star is getting married, and pop videos of hit songs from Bollywood movies. Saw the last 10 minutes of the movie Wolf, (worst part of the movie as I recall) tried the BBC but it had sports, tried CNN but they were covering Paris Hilton. Turned it over to the other guys and tried following Cricket for a few minutes, then just left. Don't miss TV much.