Good News/Bad News

+I finally find out that my flight home will be on the 24th. I’m not sure what time I’m landing, but at least it’s nice to know when I’ll be in Okinawa again.

-The bad news is, this is a week later than the projected return date. I’m not pleased with this at all.

+The GT-R will be out of the body shop by then.

-Due to me leaving for Thailand at the time of the Ryukyu Soul launch, I feel like the site is suffering. I certainly don’t wish to underwhelm people with an idea that will be forgotten. This much brings me anxiety.

+Not using Facebook since the year began is nice. People who wish for your friendship will make an effort to step outside of their comfort zone of a social networking page. I feel like the people who decide to talk to me when I leave for other countries, are those who care.

-Since it’s so unbearably hot in the mountains of southern Thailand, I’ve been forced to shave my head.

A Lot of Moving Parts

I’d like to thank everyone that is supporting Ryukyu Soul since the launch earlier today. I’d also like to encourage you to go follow the tumblr if you aren’t already. Currently, I’m in Thailand so I’m going to relying on my growing staff to keep content coming until I return. It shouldn’t be too much of a headache but it sucks that I can’t be everywhere at once.

This lifestyle of my day job (if you know what it is) is killing me. It’s time for a career change. This may seem like an ambitious goal, but I would like some legitimacy behind the site itself that can translate into a work visa. It’s possible.

This time around in Thailand isn’t like my last trip. We were staying in a relatively nice hotel on an all-expense-paid political trip to tapdance around the U.S. aid to Thailand during the flood relief operations. It sucked but in a different way. Now, I’m in the field. The field is what reminds me why I chose this life, but the personnel I’m with make it all the more apparent that I need to move on.

Mosquitoes, 100 degree weather, sleeping outside in a tent, lack of proper hygiene (what are showers), and a complete clusterfuck of unorganized happenings sums this trip up. I have three weeks until I’m back to working on the GT-R and wandering about the island of Okinawa taking photos. When I return, I promise, yes, promise, that stickers and window decals will be taken care of. Depending on the leftover cash I have, I might even open a bigcartel store on the site.

We’ll see.

(Source: fameone.net)

The Thailand Chronicles 006: Are We There Yet?

Armed with hard liquor, a very poor disposition and A-Trak’s brilliantly done Fool’s Gold Radio (November 2011), I write this next entry with a bit of distaste. My grievances about my current state of affairs in Thailand is personal. Although I have a leg to stand on in my argument, it’s not an argument at all that I wish to propose. I only wish to state the facts about the situation. Now, before I can even allow my annoyances to creep up on me while I drink my kidney into submission (joke), I’m reminded that there are all kinds of wonderful things happening in my life right now. As far as the present is concerned, I’m comfortably staying in a pretty decent hotel in downtown Bangkok. Things can’t be that bad, right?

Civilian media has always got under my skin. I love the world of journalism, but when it comes to news, journalists often forget that they are human beings. So many of my civilian colleagues merely concentrate on the moment. They operate as if their next lead on a story which is relevant to the world is going to skyrocket them through the ranks of journalistic success, or force them to sell their bodies for money. The flood relief effort that the U.S. attempted to conduct hasn’t been the most successful. If you refer to previous entries of the Thailand Chronicles, you’ll notice that I touched on the circular questioning between key military leaders from both the U.S. and Royal Thai Government. Realizing that it was going to be a stalemate, the U.S. decided to leave.

Some journalist sensationalized a story about the U.S. going back on their promise of $10m worth of support. No, this journalist wasn’t aware of what was going on behind the scenes. Why am I a credible source? I think sitting in on the meetings at the Ministry of Defense allows me to get front-row seat on the talks between forces. I also haven’t divulged any information that could jeopardize my job. The local Thai reporter decided to tell the restless news-hungry population that the U.S. came, did nothing, and left. While it may seem true to a certain extent, it’s a matter of perspective. After all, the Royal Thai Government initially didn’t want us doing anything because we weren’t forking over the cash.

It gets better.

The U.S. military is only going to do what the U.S. military is ordered to do. When operations are left up to military leaders who are at eye level, the situation is kept well in hand. Unfortunately, the U.S. government, in a swift move of incompetence, decided to trickle down some orders until U.S. Pacific Command deployed the USS Tortuga to the shores of Thailand… at the end of our flood relief effort. Please say hello to the civilian media, again. It’s quite obvious when a massive U.S. vessel is inbound to the main port in your country. Rumors are bound to run rampant in the event of an unscheduled stop. With the local media already up-in-arms over the stories recently run about the U.S. departure, and even more stories speculating that the ship wasn’t going to stay (it wasn’t), the Royal Thai Government caved and now have a list of demands for the flood relief forces to meet.

I was scheduled to leave tomorrow so I can get back to a beautiful country and a beautiful woman. All in due time, I suppose.

Missing Thanksgiving doesn’t bother me in the least. The belief that Thanksgiving is any more significant than any other day of the year does. I’m not big on the holiday season. I would like the first-world luxury of giving a shit, but I’m never home. I’m ok with this. I made the decision to serve in the military, therefore, being away from wherever I consider home comes with the territory. I’ve since adopted the philosophy that life is too short and everyone should be grateful to live the life that they do. You are born and you will die, but all of it in between is yours. Make the most of it and the people around you. I only wish the best to the family and friends of Eddie Allshouse; the young man who was brutally taken from this world yesterday morning. Again, I reiterate the point that there should never be one day that you express your gratitude for those in your life. Let someone know that you love them, and mean it.

Have you ever had Thanksgiving dinner at the home of a U.S. ambassador? I have. It was something to tell the kids. Free wine and beer and a buffet of food is the best/worst idea anyone can come up with. Thank you. I also thank the bus driver, who shuffled 30 U.S. service members in khakis from the hotel to her quarters, for forcing us to watch Machete while stuck in traffic. I’m not even Mexican and I was offended. Otherwise, I really enjoyed the gratuitous nudity. 

(Source: fameone)