Trust, Innocence, and Bias

Back when I was reporting on elections within Islas, a group of students who gathered online and, on rare occasions, in person, I wrote outrageous stories documenting the votes as they came in, the candidates and the differences between their vote counts, and typically inserted a claim of a complete lack of bias somewhere along the way.

The mainstream media makes no such overt claim, and my contention is that they know they're biased and that they couldn't reasonably claim otherwise and expect people to believe them.

Maybe the day is coming when they will and can make that claim and be believed.

But I'm talking about today.

As of today, there have been two recent, high-profile incidents wherein a black man was killed by a police officer.

Now, the guilt of the officers is not mine to judge; ultimately, their guilt may not even be accurately determined by investigation and the minds of attorneys and judges.

What I'm here to write about, and what I believe is a despicable and manipulative evil, is the bias the media shows concerning the character of the victims in these incidents.

From heavy.com: "Philando Castile: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know"

1. He Was a Beloved School Cafeteria Worker Who Snuck Extra Graham Crackers to Children 

2. He Was a Straight-A Student in High School & Had Only a Minor Criminal Record 

3. He Frequently Posted About Social Justice Causes, & His Sister Posted About Alton Sterling Just Hours Before Castile’s Death 

4. Castile Had a Concealed Carry Permit, According to His Girlfriend, & Informed the Officer That He Was Armed 

5. Protests Erupted in the Wake of the Shooting, & the Governor Called for a Federal Investigation

So Castile was an innocent, unassuming, and ordinary individual with a "minor" criminal record? (other sites are spreading modified lists which claim he had "no criminal record,")

And allegedly he was pulled over and shot exclusively because of the color of his skin?

The fact is, Castile had been pulled over, charged, convicted, and sentenced for dozens of traffic offenses.

In addition, according to police radios, Castile was a suspect in an armed robbery no more than one day prior to his death.

In a recording submitted by a "KARE11 viewer" which seems to contain the officers' transmissions during the incident, one of the officers stated on the radio that he thought Castile matched the description of one of the perpetrators of an armed robbery the previous day.

If one were to watch any one story on the major news stations on the subject, one might believe that both Alton Sterling and Philando Castile were law-abiding, normal, ordinary, average citizens like you and I. You might believe, following such a report, that these men were, indeed, individually targeted exclusively because of their race.

In both cases, this is at best misleading, and more likely a bald-faced lie which slowly but surely erodes the trust between citizens (particularly black Americans) and police officers.

I cannot emphasize enough how much this troubles me. I believe it to be a true evil to report as truth that Philando Castile and Alton Sterling were upstanding, good-natured, ordinary people.

The fact is that neither of them were like you or I. Most of my readers are most likely not sex offenders, and most of my readers have most likely never robbed a convenience store at gunpoint. Most of my readers haven't brandished an illegal gun in a parking lot and said, "I told you to leave me alone," when a homeless person persists in asking for money.


What's my point? My point is definitely not that Castile or Sterling deserved to die. The fact that they were criminals, or had committed crimes in the past, has no bearing on whether a police officer should shoot them during a traffic stop or even an arrest.

My point is that the media's obsessive empathy with the victims of these horrific tragedies turns a blind eye to the fact that many of these victims aren't innocent and law-abiding citizens. Certainly before the incidents they were criminal in their actions, and in both cases it seems they were actively disobeying the law; Castile a suspect in an armed robbery, Sterling illegally carrying a firearm.

This speaks nothing to the immeasurable importance of being calm, collected, and cooperative with police officers during any and all encounters with them. I believe neither Sterling nor Castile were any of these things, as in both cases they had reason at the very least to be defensive and unhelpful, and at worst, to fear the just eye of the law.

I must reiterate what I said before, because I believe it is simply a matter of life and death, in particular to black Americans.

If the mainstream media continues to profess the victims of these incidents as not only ordinary, kind people, but also truly innocent of any and all wrongdoing, the trust between black people and cops will disintegrate and eventually be utterly lost.


A deficit of trust between cops and citizens is immeasurably perilous. As this trust erodes, our servant protectors are rendered impotent.


!Noah!

The Humility of Patience

Something occurred to me, as I was laying in bed, thinking about my choices and options going forward in the coming days and weeks.

Of late, a few things are on my mind with particular weight, not the least of which is this girl I know. She and I have a number of interests and passions in common, and my feelings and desire tell me to immediately act on them. They tell me, "What if tomorrow she met someone else?"

I guess this is fear. I'm afraid that she'll find someone to love her, and I'll "miss out."

What a fool am I.

The problem with this attitude is that, by it, I make the assumption that there's no better man for her in this world than myself. Either that, or, when all is said and done, I'm not the best man for her, and I actually don't care what's best for her.

To put it simply, that complete lack of humility, in my view, makes the difference between love and hate. If love is the giving of oneself for the benefit of another, and hate the giving of another for the benefit of oneself, then I do, indeed, hate her by presuming to be the best person to know her and love her.

And this says nothing of how insulting it is to assume she'd choose someone unfit, unkind, or unloving, which, incidentally, is exactly what I become if I pridefully presume to be the best for her.

That is, through my lack of humility, I make myself less able (also less worthy) to love her truly.

I've lived my life patient, by my estimation. Sure, I'm not always patient, sometimes I feel impatience, and I certainly act on it from time to time. But when things matter, when I probably should be pushing and driving both myself and others to be better, I usually wait and prefer hope instead of action.

Thus, it grates on my very soul to turn again to patience as the best course of action, but I think in this case it may be best. If for impatience' sake I would either think less of her, or more of myself, then I'd say I've sabotaged the endeavor from the outset.

Perhaps I should act today, but I know with absolute certainty I should never act motivated by the fear that she would "find someone better".

If anything, I should pray to God she finds someone Godlier than I. Quickly.


!Noah!

Love, feelings, and all that stuff

So, a few years back, I met this girl who is incredibly kind, loves people, is intelligent and funny, and to top it all off, is a sort of classically gorgeous which is usually lost under all manner of superficial facades or deep character flaws these days.

I obsessed and I pined and, to the best of my ability, spent my time being around her, talking to her, engaging with her, learning more about her, but, until about two years later, never overtly insinuating or indicating that I had any interest in her.

There's a part of me which still contends that this is the best way to approach things. A guy and a girl should know each other reasonably well before they start dating, right? Right?

I'm not so sure anymore.

Part of my hesitance to accept that approach is that I have little or no success engaging with people in group settings. I'm not a very talkative guy, and I know it. I further know that it's not an issue. There are situations where I need to talk or I should talk, and I'm willing and able to do so. However, to engage in highly social settings with people I barely know with the ulterior motive of romance?

About that I have serious reservations. I don't easily engage and commit to people without similar or greater commitment on their part. I guess this is probably part of the problem, but being an introvert, I find it much more easy to engage with a single person and avoid, ignore, or block out the rest of the world.

That's kind of how I ended up asking out this same girl; it was just after church, with dozens of friends, acquaintances, fellow church goers, and a few family members nearby. People were conversing energetically as they always do. I noticed she had some buffer between her and surrounding people, so I saw my opportunity, walked up to her, and asked her out on a date in plain English with a normal tone of voice.

I remember that she told me she admired my boldness, which I guess I appreciate. To me, it felt marginally safe; in my mind, the rest of the room had sort of ceased to exist for a time. It wasn't that much of a distance between us and everyone else; perhaps some of them realized even what was happening.

She said no. It's been a year or two since then, and I haven't completely stopped feeling like I did.

But the fact is, if my only standard is that of being rejected by one girl; that is, that's the highest, the furthest I've gotten when it comes to advancing my affection into reality as word and action...then I have as much gotten over her as I will until the moment I ask someone else out.

My feelings are equally strong for girls I've met since then. Does this mean that I've forgotten her character and beauty, and have moved on? Why should I still feel, then? Why aren't I still numb? Well, why shouldn't I feel? I didn't commit to her in any way, shape, or form, except by my own design and in my own mind. Yes, the feelings still remain; I still wish, wonder, and hope with the determination of a fool and utter inaction to match.

But, why should I act? Why should I care? She said no. I believe that to second-guess her choice or motives would be to consider her either a flighty and fickle human (like myself), or a liar. I choose to believe she is neither.

"But," quoth the self-same fool, "I like her so much!"

So what? If you love her, (that is, if you functionally care more about her than you do about yourself) it doesn't matter how you feel, you will still do what's best for her, regardless of the consequences to you or your feelings.

Get over it. Forget her. Move on.

"How can you be so heartless," the fool whimpers.

There is no heart in feeling. The heart chooses another's peace, happiness, and well-being over their own...or it chooses to serve itself and its own desires. The heart is what chooses to suffocate mere feelings and keep walking. Heart is what makes the world work instead of merely wishing it did.

A principle I've adopted as my own (from where, I can't exactly remember) is that one's emotions should either match one's actions in equal measure, or be abandoned in favor of emotions which do drive you to love; to love truly; to place your own desires and well-being second to someone else's.

Do your feelings drive you to love her? Then do so.
Do your feelings drive you to hate her? Cast them far from you.


!Noah!

Star Wars: The Death of Subtlty, Imagination, and Wit

Read further for spoilers, potentially in the worst possible sense.

I'm not a seasoned movie reviewer, not the best of Star Wars fans, and probably ought to think a bit before writing further.

But I'm not going to.

I tend to have a hard time holding onto ideas and thoughts, and thus I've decided to write at least a preliminary review immediately. If I see the movie again (ideally after a highly critical re-watch of the original trilogy), I may revise this review to reflect any additions or changes in my opinion.

But, yeah. This is my opinion. It will most likely be a long series of incomprehensible tangents, but they're my incomprehensible tangents.

Again, if you proceed further, expect not only spoilers to the actual plot, but potentially a spoiler for the experience as a whole, because...I don't think they did right by the series.

In the beginning, we find ourselves on yet another desert planet. I don't necessarily fault anyone for this, it just seems to be a common trend, for no obvious reason. Maybe Jedis only originate from deserts?

Anyway, we find ourselves in another desert colony. Our hero, at least for now, seems to be a pilot, part of the Resistance (oh, how I loathe that they chose that name. As if "The Rebel Alliance" wasn't original enough). He's got an X-wing fighter with him, to retrieve a small portion of a map which will lead, eventually, to Luke Skywalker.

And Luke, for whatever  reason, has decided to leave his Jedi way and hermit it up on some lush, ancient island in some remote, unknown corner of the galaxy. Being a Jedi is just too hard, I guess. After all those years, things just got tough. He had to, you know?

And let's talk about Han (I promised tangents, remember?).

So the dude has apparently had a son with Leia (yay!), but become soft in his old age, despite the fact that almost everything has gone wrong since the end of the Return of the Jedi.

No, really. His son becomes a Jedi, trains under Luke, and, for a reason I've either forgotten (good job telling me that story in the first place, then), or was never explained in the first place. He leaves Leia and returns to his smuggling ways, "the only thing I'm good at," or something like that.

Despite all this, not only is he in debt to at least two separate criminal enterprises (I don't know, I guess he's a scoundrel or something), but he's become soft and easy, with quips well-suited to television for toddlers. Random girl steals your beloved Falcon and is found stowed in the honestly completely obvious grilles which were supposedly sufficient to hide the crew in the original trilogy, and what is his response? I'll drop you at the nearest planet.

Original trilogy Han would have tossed both her and "Finn" straight into the brig, or more likely still, left them to explore the never-ending, icy cold, soul sucking darkness of space.

That's not the least of Han's sins. Han would have to become an especially epic kind of soft to do the incredibly foolish thing he did. Han is a survivor of survivors, proven still more by the fact that he's back after all these years, still smuggling and fighting.

JJ did Han a huge dishonor by allowing his character to be so changed from his original self. There's no good reason for this change. He got married, had a Jedi kid, and said kid turned to the dark side?

If anything, my guess is Han would have become more cynical, calculated, cruel. To have someone so beloved torn from you by basically evil itself would make you feel helpless and desperately lost.

I must move on. Han, though, is probably the greatest sin this movie has to offer.

The movie is gorgeous. Spectacular. Shiny, bright, impressive.

The plot, meanwhile, is basically A New Hope, but this time, it's bigger! It's prettier! And you can sure as heck depend on there being women and "minorities" everywhere, from the Stormtroopers (who were cloned from a man, as I recall), to the heroine herself, to Finn, to the pilots of the X-wings.

There's nothing wrong with that. But it makes the movie no better if the only thing different or better about it is skin-deep.

Rey I like. But what am I supposed to do. She's an attractive young woman. Her garb is flattering, and she does justice to Star Wars' trend of having beautiful women in leading roles.

However, I don't think her character is worth the pixels she appears on.

Again, I may seem harsh, but I did warn you that, A. This is my opinion. Take it or leave it, and, B. Spoilers.

Why don't I like Rey's character?

It's far too easy for her. The story may develop and explain this in later movies (we are getting another trilogy, I'm assuming), but Rey learns to use the Force with such incredible speed, it's absurd.

For Luke, grasping the Force took at least days, likely longer (we're never really clued into how long the entire thing took). Even after he trained with Yoda, he was "not ready," as both Yoda and Obi-Wan said. Rey, without prior knowledge or preparation, performs a Jedi Mind Trick on a Stormtrooper. Yeah, it took her three tries, but even that isn't something Luke would so quickly grasp.

There's the possibility that Rey was child to two force-sensitive parents, rather than Luke and Anakin's one.

Perhaps "The Force Awakens" is more than well-worded bait for eager fans. Perhaps they actually mean that the power of the Force itself is growing, such that more people are attuned to it, or those who are, are "better" tuned to it. If this is the case, it could be the explanation for Rey's incredible power and quick learning.

But then shouldn't a trained Sith (I assume that, as Jedi are still a thing, Sith are as well, despite the fact that the name was rarely or never mentioned) be far, far more powerful than an untrained Force-sensitive young woman?

And furthermore, the first time she wields a lightsaber, she fights like someone who at least knows how to duel with swords/lightsabers of some sort. Perhaps not with great proficiency, or with much strength, but enough to keep her from dying swiftly.

So option 1 is that Rey is a spectacularly powerful Jedi in the making, or option 2, that Kylo Ren is no more than a simpering, power-hungry man-child with a fancy "laser sword," as his "grandfather" once called it.

Kylo Ren. Apparently "Ren" is now what "Darth" was before it...or something like that? It's confusing. I forgot what Kylo's given name was, as well. Maybe I wasn't intended to remember that information? Anyway.

Kylo Ren, like Darth Vader before him, sounds deadly and terrifying, but unlike Darth Vader, at the request of his father, he willingly removes his helmet, removing all mystery and potential for imagination. Oh, and it's no secret from easily one third through the movie who Kylo Ren is. And the reveal is unimpressive, as if an afterthought. It's depressing.

Kylo Ren, in an absurdly cliched manner, "softens up" to his father before he...

Oh, and he goes to "Supreme Leader" Snoke like the simpering child I described before. Almost like this pathetic commander is his equal. If he were a child rushing to his parents to tell his side of the story first, it would be far more believable. "Mommy, it's his fault, not mine!"

In a long line of villains who were either human, though torn and destroyed by evil, or villains who were essentially beings composed of corruption, power, and evil itself, who actually did strike fear into their subjects (think back to the second Death Star; Darth Vader arrives, scaring the commander there quite enough, but then brings news that the Emperor himself will arrive shortly; that man looked scared), Kylo Ren is a disappointment. He goes before his master as he were equal with a lowly military official. Darth Vader murdered at least three of the commanding officers on Star Destroyers and the two Death Stars during the original trilogy.

I recall Kylo Ren murdering no fellow "First Order" members.

Oh, and the "First Order"?

Please. The resemblance to Nazi Germany is not lost on me, but explain to me the exact point of giving a bloody pep talk to a few thousand Stormtroopers? Aren't they going to do your bidding to the best of their ability anyway?

And what's with Finn "waking up"? The Force "awoke" him as well, I suppose? After all, he knew well enough how to use a lightsaber too. He got himself hurt and basically would have been dead but for Rey's helpful interference. But he lasted a good five or ten seconds with a weapon he'd used for a good thirty seconds maximum, versus someone who at least should have trained for weeks, months, probably even years, if you count Luke's training as well.

Compared to Kylo Ren, Rey and Finn should both be well-cooked mincemeat. (explain to me why a weapon hot enough to burn through solid metal can't completely and permanently cauterize a wound; looking at you, Kylo Ren)

Let's get back to the "First Order," though. The fact that you think you're the "First Order" means either you think you're better than everything than came before, or you are simply ignorant (willingly or otherwise) of those who came before you. Yoda, Sidious, Dooku, Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan; they cam before you, and they mattered. This is no "First Order".

Maybe the First Order refers to their supposed objective of ridding the galaxy of chaos and strife? Perhaps that's it. Yes, let's destroy a half a dozen planets, march Stormtroopers in circles around every planet, and we'll all be happy.

But wait! There's more! There's a new Death Star! And this time, it's bigger! This time, it's better! This time, it siphons energy from stars into its core, somehow converting that into a big curvy laser beam that splits into multiple beams, and you can see coming at you! I guess light works a little differently in Star Wars, so I won't knock them for making a laser beam slower than the speed of light, which splits and automatically targets five separate planets at once.

But the best part, the most spectacular part about this new Death Star? Its name! Let me look it up here, I completely forgot due to the magnitude of their ingenuity.


Starkiller

STARKILLER

Let me move on, please.

Now, to the more sweeping topics, which basically encompass the entirety of the movie.

This movie is 100% a 2015 movie. What I mean by this is that they led with their expensive, digitally rendered foot forward. The story bares so many elements in common with the original trilogy that almost nothing is surprising. What could be surprising down the road is tossed into the audience's lap like a dirty sock, inside out, just in case you weren't sure what it was.

The greatest mystery remaining is Rey's origin, which is actually interesting and befuddling, but the fact is that there at least appear (for now) to be no hints as to where she came from. It's possible that she's Luke's daughter, but aside from her visions while holding Luke's lightsaber, there's nothing I remember to hint or indicate that.

Also, being that JJ Abrams was so heavy-handed with the rest of the secrets in this film, it's almost like he doesn't care. Like they don't matter.

And the story is so obvious and similar to the previous films that differences are jarring rather than refreshing.

The special effects were stellar, as far as I could tell, but maybe I missed some of them looking for a story worth extending my unfortunately short attention span.

I read online after seeing the movie, in a Youtube comments section, not to expect Original Trilogy quality from a brand new movie in 2015.

The amount of hype this movie has gotten has been basically without compare, not the least of which was the possibility of Jar Jar returning as a greater Sith Master than Sidious before him (still a possibility, really); in my view, the movie borrowed heavily from plot points of episode four and five, added all the fancy special effects their budget could afford, took on a gorgeous female lead, brought back a few of the most iconic characters from the original trilogy, and left compelling, innovative storytelling, good character development, and true depth behind.

I think C-3PO would do a better job writing and directing this trilogy than Abrams has thus far.

If anyone doubts it was a fun movie, fear not. It is that. If you don't care about a good plot, deep characters, or compelling villains, and just want to see a fun, flashy flick sometime, I recommend it...but only after the Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, the Lego Movie, or your Pixar movie of choice.

Am I judging the movie too harshly? Doubtless. But this is a sequel to a trilogy which is truly unequaled in its time. Star Wars is an epic. It is one of the most valuable movie franchises in history. It is enjoyed by children and adults alike. In order to achieve the same effect, JJ Abrams seems to have cheapened humor, depth, and character, making them all accessible, glib, and, in the end, boring.

I don't say this lightly. Certainly I should probably watch the movie again, maybe a few times, even return to the original trilogy with the same critical eye, but Han wasn't sly, irritable, and filled with foolhardy one-liners. His character sagged from too few bones, his words were shallow and his actions were those of far less a man than the scoundrel, smuggling scumbag we first met.

Leia wasn't proud or strong-willed. She didn't look much like a leader. She looked like a tired, impotent figurehead.

Luke, who we saw for mere moments, shows the depth of his character by his absence alone. As the last Jedi in the galaxy, he has a duty to essentially give his life to preserve the Jedi Order for generations to come. He seems to have given up based on the abandonment of one who was probably poised to be his best pupil.

As to imagination, fret not, for JJ Abrams has brought the galaxy far, far away into this world, with special effects which make you long for a world that bright, colorful, flashy.

This is a problem with movies and TV shows as a whole these days, but I believe this episode in the Star Wars franchise gave me no cause to imagine worlds more beautiful or ugly, as it was as clear as life itself. Can I blame him for this? I guess not; a director returning from the digital wonders we have today to the kind of old movie magic which made Star Wars in the first place would probably lose him his job.

But at the same time, given this incredible wealth of tools and skills, artists and effects, one could put together a story which both beckoned our imaginations to wake and see, to disbelieve and then believe, to challenge our minds to hope and dream, to wonder and think, to walk from that darkened room trembling with new eyes in our heads, new feet on our legs, and new hands on our arms.

The cinema is a medium of art with such incredible capacity to convey meaning, truth, and ideas, that it is incredible how few movies these days challenge our imaginations, our ideas, and our minds.

I argue that the Force Awakens fails to deliver wit without need for a "Get it?" sort of pause, and most of all fails to challenge us to imagine or understand the galaxy far, far away any better than we already do.


I think I have said my piece in good measure, for now. I'll probably see the movie again in a month or two, when it's at Riverview, but until then, these are my cogitations, and you take them or leave them.


!Noah!

Where Is the Door?

So, unfortunately the latter part of my trip to Southeast Asia hasn't yet come up on this blog yet. I'm sorry for that, but priorities have changed. To put things in perspective, I'd like to give you a bit of background and information on what's been going on since I got back from a wedding in California, since I got back from Vietnam, and since I've been born. The days have piled up.

So to begin with, I'm an addict. I guess that's sort of a hard word to say in our world, but rest assured it's not cigarettes, drugs, or alcohol. I dislike cigarettes, alcohol, and drugs, almost without exception, even to my own detriment, at times. So what is it?

Well, for the sake of some of my audience, I won't be mentioning one of my greater struggles, as it is one unfortunately better fought in the company of brothers, but of the remaining two or three, I will be candid.

I've been playing video games for probably ten years now, maybe more. I can't really remember, being that my memory isn't great to begin with, and it's been so long...but it's been a long time. I started out playing Xgalaga, Tuxracer, and Age of Empires, all to my parents' chagrin. Eventually it led to ban after ban of the games we'd play, as, even in those days, I'd go out of my way to play the games and to conceal it from my parents. Now I'm an adult, unfortunately, so no such concealment is necessary. However, I live at home. I'm not independent or self-sustaining, and given the way I'm using my time and life right now, I'm a leech.

Since I arrived back from Vietnam, I've put over three hundred hours into video games, and that's the smaller part of the time I've put into a wide variety of games over time. It wouldn't be unreasonable to suggest I'd put three or four thousand hours into various games, not the least of which would be the Battlefield series.

It is an escape. Just like the other such addiction which I'm not mentioning, it takes me from the present and prevents me from worrying about life and my problems.

Finally, I've idolized, and become addicted to, the idea of a relationship, marriage, and, of course, intimacy. This has been going on for nearly a decade as well. I'm continually frustrated in my attempts to advance myself in a romantic capacity, not for lack of confidence or anything. For lack of substance and purpose, I believe.

Substance and purpose. That would be amazing to have right now. I could go and clean up the kitchen, do the dishes, make life better for my family. But why? Tomorrow the same mess will be there, the same apathy and unwillingness, in myself and my family, to do anything productive, anything worthy and God-honoring.

And where is my faith? I flatter myself that I've never known a day I didn't know Jesus, but what weight has my faith? I languish and laze every day, and in the end, the sun rises, and I fall.

I am a wretch. These are not empty words. I can't even fathom the depth of their truth; I merely see the surface, the sheen of truth. The meat of it goes far deeper.

All of this must go somewhere. All of me must purpose itself anew. I must find direction and meaning. My soul wastes away as I do otherwise.

As a child I once imagined I might become a missionary to a foreign country. As a child, though, I had not these idols and addictions. I had no thousand dollar gaming computer. I had no serious interest in girls.


Going to Vietnam was a good thing, but it, too, allowed me to waste in my laziness and apathy. I made art, I wrote, I met new people, and I loved them...

But God I forgot.

And it doesn't hurt half as much as it should.

I'm going to a conference where I'll meet more lovers of God, spend good time hearing the Gospel, over and over.

They are all escapes. I keep jumping out windows, for I'm blind to the door...

This world is a cruel maze to find the God of the universe in.

Pray that I find my way.


!Noah!

Taking' a Break.

For the next week, if all goes according to plan, I'll be stuck on an island with no electricity, internet, or running water. That's what I've heard, anyway.

So you're going to have to wait for my next post...like you mean it.

Write you in a bit,


!Noah!

World-Class Banana Pancake, a Frog, and Angkor Why?

One of the things I've been told a few times as I've traveled is that you must see Angkor Wat. People online, a few I've met while traveling...yeah. They pretty much love the place. I didn't.

I got up early this morning, at 5 AM, in order to arrive before the sunrise. I intended to go by foot initially, but was convinced by a tuk tuk driver to exchange money for his services. It's not that he necessarily overcharged me, or his service was bad (neither are really true), but I'm on a pretty strict budget, and spending money on tuk tuks will probably mean I can't afford one or more of the things/trips I'd like to in the next few months.

But as I was saying, I got up early, went out there, and on top of the fee for the tuk tuk ($10 for both ways), the price for entry into Angkor Park (where the various temples and ruins are located) is $20 for one day, or $40 for three days out of a week.

I know, I know. I'm sort of being an entitled little twerp by griping about this, but to top it all off, I get into the park, start walking around, and realize that it's actually not so rare to get up this bloody early.

At this point, I'm kind of wishing I'd just bought the one-day entry ticket.

But...I hadn't even been there for ten minutes. It does get better. That said, I am still not a fan of this site. I expect I'd spend less and enjoy it more if I were to go to some random temple in Myanmar or Thailand. My Son in Vietnam, maybe. But, I spent the $40, so I'll probably be back tomorrow afternoon. The weird thing is the park is only open between 5:30 AM and 5:30 PM. Sunset is at six, so...I don't know. Maybe it's already mostly down by 5:30.

So I continued on. I really didn't want my $40 to be in vain. I walked up the main path toward the temple. It's arranged a bit like a castle, with an outer wall, and then a square made of four towers, with a single, taller tower in the center. There's a little under a hundred feet between the outer wall and the inner temple.

The inner temple is quite large (compared to most pagodas in Vietnam, and most religious places I've seen thus far.

I've largely shown the less famous sort of perspectives on Angkor Wat. The most famous view is straight on from one of the sides (don't really know which), making it seem like there are but three towers, when in reality, there are five.

I keep wondering why I'm so unimpressed with the place. Everyone seems to love it (as evidenced by the number of tourists in the previous photo).

I guess it has to do with the kind of person I am. I get up early in the morning most of the time to sort of encounter with nature, to be on my own in the beauty of God's creation, but in this case, I got up early in the morning and ended up being among a great multitude of people probably much more enamored by this site. It's a pretty impressive architecture, and it makes you wonder where the inspiration comes from. The very steep steps seem to be something shared between Aztec and Cambodian architecture, which is weird, because they're basically on the other side of the world from each other. And I wouldn't say tall stairs are everything that seems similar.

But I should move on, as I know almost nothing about Aztec history, Cambodian history, and especially the comparisons of their respective architecture.

I continued on through the temple, taking the occasional photo (the light wasn't particularly good that early, as it was overcast), and was handed one of these sort of incense sticks. They're a bit like a sparkler (that's what I initially thought they were, back in Hanoi, when I first arrived), but they don't spark or flare or anything. They just smolder. It's a bit like a very thin, long cigarette. Regardless, these are used to pay respects or something. 

I was handed on while inside the temple, and decided not to follow the example of the man demonstrating in front of the shrine. I may be misunderstanding ritual and everything, but as I don't know what the ritual means, I won't participate in it. If I did know what it meant, I'd know whether I should participate or not, as a Christian. Anyway, he seemed a bit miffed, but I'm not worried about it.

As I continued on, I got a few more interesting shots, but sooner than I'd planned, I ended up heading out from the park. I had gotten a few good pictures, but it was difficult to do so in part because of trees, and in part because of other tourists. The quantity of people trying to get selfies in the most absurd positions was ridiculous.

Anyway, I went back, spent a bit of time in the room watching a livestream of a Youtuber playing Battlefield 4 (yes, I kind of miss it out here), then went out to have lunch. I had a pizza, which was merely alright, and an appetizer, which was much better. It was a sort of long triangular crackerish breadish thing. A bit like a breadstick, but also kind of a biscuit. Also included was a small bowl of mashed potatoes, which didn't make a whole lot of sense to me, but I ate it anyway. That part of the meal was better than the pizza, but it's ok.

My expectations for pizza in Southeast Asia have remained low for most of my stay here. I expect you can go into a proper, expensive restaurant and come out having eaten a good-tasting western-style pizza, but I don't really care for spending more on food than I already do.

My Japanese host seems to get a lot of Japanese guests to stay with him, which should be no surprise, as his knowledge even of the language eases the stay for anyone not familiar with English.

In the last several weeks, I've slowly realized how invaluable English is abroad; it's not just that it's helpful to learn it as someone in Vietnam or Cambodia or wherever, but as a traveler, it's important to learn English, because it's far more common to encounter a native (particularly in Cambodia) who speaks English than one who speaks, for instance, French.

This is a peculiar position. I find myself enabled by my knowledge of English to travel with greater ease, but at the same time, being American and knowing very little of other languages, I'm also sort of crippled in my ability to communicate while abroad. We have an advantage in that our language is common and desirable, but the fact that it is means that it's far easier to travel as an English-speaker than with solely French, German, or any other language.

This evening, I once again returned to my beloved banana pancake, and this particular rendition was actually pretty excellent. It was a soft, fluffy, sweet pancake with straight slices of banana fried in. I've had rather thin banana pancakes, thick ones, ones with long strips, ones with no cut banana inlaid, and this one is probably in my top two. Anna's were so big, and the banana pieces so good, that its bread part being somewhat odd wasn't really a problem.

This one had an unfavorable sort of texture thing to it, which I can't really describe, but the taste and the sweetness was excellent. I really hope I make it back there.

Ecstatic Pizza is the name of the place. The logo is a bit hilarious. Maybe a tad scary.

Anyway, I enjoyed both of my visits there (had lunch there this afternoon...or was it yesterday...I can't remember).

I remain well, and my guesthouse here in Siem Reap is actually kind of nice. I ended up paying another $1 for breakfast (boo hoo) and $2 for a bike for the day. I'll probably go to Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom again tomorrow, but I've already booked my ticket back to Phnom Penh on the 16th, from which I'll hopefully find my way to Phu Quoc and a quiet beach.

Oh, and a lizard accompanied me while I showered.

Thanks for reading!


!Noah!

Pigeons, an Island Paradise, and Eggs on a Bike

Tonight I bunk with some young Japanese travelers, and having seen Cambodians and Vietnamese before them, the differences become more obvious. I'd probably still confuse one out of every two, even in a multiple-choice, but Cambodians are definitely different than Vietnamese, and the Japanese I'm looking at now are different yet again.

What's more, the language throws me off in a really weird way. They're jabbering away in Japanese, and I'm used to Vietnamese and (to a degree) Cambodian. Japanese, weirdly enough, actually sounds sort of normal. Almost English. I really don't get it, but the contrast doubtless has something to do with the perspective I have now. I can't adequately explain it, but, being the writer, I can start a new paragraph and talk about something else entirely and you can do nothing about it.

You thought I avoided tuk tuk drivers this morning? YOU WERE WRONG.

So this morning, I went out to the river bank to take photos of the sunrise and the pigeons. Again. I got a lot more photos this time, because I'd had the night to charge up two of my three batteries. A number of the photos from this morning should be included in this post. I felt a little bad when I was scaring a hundred pigeons away from the food strewn on the ground for them just then.

I've mentioned that I wanted to go to a beach and just sit around for a while in a couple posts, and I posted to reddit just this afternoon to see if I could get any ideas for places to go.

Someone responded rather quickly, referencing a place he'd visited about five years ago in Vietnam. It's an island actually closer to Cambodia than Vietnam, but part of Vietnam. Anyway, he'd visited a place there near the beach where the prices ranged from $12 to $18 per night, and were adjacent the beach. I asked for further information, and he produced a fairly exact location. My plan is to go there and hopefully find the place I'm looking for. I should find backup plans, but I really hope I can find this place.

 The bus on the way over here was terrifying. I'm not kidding; the buses I've taken before have been on better roads...and occasionally in the morning. The roads we ended up taking between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap were bumpy, dusty, and dark. Thus, visibility is terrible without brights, and with brights, you're a hazard to all other drivers. The more light you're shedding on the night, the less they can see where they're going.

So take typical Southeast Asian driving (which usually just means driving anything and everything like it's a motorcycle), put it in the dark, on a bumpy road, with bikes, motorcycles, tuk tuks, trucks, buses, and construction. Do you get the picture now? I might not have been in as much danger as I thought, but it was scary sometimes. And it turns out you can get between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap by boat. Boats go on water, which doesn't have bumps. Ok, it has bumps, but a giant barge warding off waves is far more stable than a bus going over the highways I just went over. I think I'll probably book a boat on my way south, for variety's sake, if nothing else.

I called home just outside the hostel. It worked fairly well, on both mobile data and on Wi-Fi. We talked a bit about what I'd been up to, and what was going on, and then I took a tuk tuk to the bus station. I'd sort of been unwilling to take tuk tuks since a day or two ago, when I'd been charged $5 for a ride of less than two kilometers. I tried to bargain him down to $4, and it was probably worth $2 or $3, but I ended up paying $5. Thus, I was sort of sour and just walked around for a day or two.

My hostel for the night was an absurdly cheap $2 per night. I decided to take three nights, and so far, I don't have reason to regret it. The bed is soft, there's soap and toilet paper, and Angkor Wat is a (slightly long) walk away from the hostel. I kind of need to finish this blog post if I want to get there early tomorrow morning...anyway.

The Japanese people bunking with me tonight are actually fairly good with English, and I explained to them where I've been so far in Vietnam and Cambodia, and I think they actually knew the name of my home state. I guess I think this because I've heard one Asian race or another to be especially fond of Laura Ingalls Wilder, but that might be the Koreans.

They seemed very interested in where I'd been, and when I mentioned the places I'd loved, they seemed enamored for my joy. It's kind of a wonderful thing, sharing joy.

Being that my birthday didn't actually happen until morning on the 13th (time zones, yo), I decided to buy a smoothie thing on the street, mixing pineapple and banana yet again. I think she went a little light on the pineapple, but it was still delicious, and it was priced very well (maybe 20 oz for a dollar). I walked back to the hostel, and had enough left over to drink with my breakfast.

It's not uncommon in Vietnam and Cambodia to see motorcycle taxi drivers laying on their motorcycles. I guess this guy is getting some early-life practice.



This is a mobile mobile shop. That is, you can buy mobile phones, and it's capable of moving.

If it doesn't fit on a motorcycle, you can tow it with a motorcycle. If you can't tow it with a motorcycle, put it on a trailer and tow that. If you can't tow it with a motorcycle, I guess you'd better put it in a truck, stacked two stories high with a couple pals on top.

One thing I once saw on a motorcycle in Vietnam was a large quantity of eggs. They were in the 2 1/2 dozen egg cardboard carriers, but there were probably a dozen of them lashed together on the back of a motorcycle. Will they crack if he goes over a pothole deep enough?

I also saw a motorcycle with a cage full of chicks, and I wouldn't be surprised if Vietnamese frequently put cages of full-grown chickens on their motorcycles, too. The circle of life.

Anyway, I really do want to get up early tomorrow, catch the sunrise over Angkor Wat, and have some breakfast. Did I mention my $2 accommodation comes with free breakfast?

Livin' the dream, baby.


!Noah!