There and back again

Here at Here In The Now we are definitely back here right now, but here's a little movie from when we were back there on Ko Chaang having big fun in the then and stuff :)

Holiday!

Airblade II: the revenge

Just another day, another ride to school: no fellow motorists or pedestrians were harmed during the making of this production...

Now what?! (7)

Don't try to adjust your monitors. There is no mistake. No smoke, no mirrors. This is just the next instalment of the show where you guess the product and walk away with a disgustingly decadent amount of prizes!

So do you see it yet? Now come on: this one's easy! Now what is the name of that fresh maker... it's... it's... in the comments of course!

Plus and minus

So what is true about all the stuff you hear about teaching in Thailand? Is it really that good? Is it that bad? Probably not. Here's a pro and con list: you decide.

Pro

+ Teaching can be very sabaai sabaai (Thai for: easy going)

+ The kids and most people you work with are very endearing

+ You'll get a unique perspective of Thai culture

+ No worries about cold winters: the sun will shine!

+ Good food always, everywhere

+ The cost of living (especially in Isaan) is very cheap

+ You are giving people a (huge) opportunity

Con

- Disciplining can be a problem for some teachers

- The range in a classroom is a challenge: from clever to slightly autistic

- Expectations of parents and the school can be very unrealistic

- Sometimes everything else seems more important than learning

- Thai culture can be puzzling and sometimes frustrating

- Saving money and good health insurance can be a problem

A lot of these points depend greatly on one thing: the way YOU look at it. In my school teachers have left crying in the middle of their 1st lesson, never to be seen again. Other teachers have been coasting along for years.

Travel Picture Yard Sale

New York, 2003 around 2 AM. The Fat Cat (jazz club and pool hall) is swinging. Beer is sold outside the jazz club section in bottles. Tonight the bass is tight, the drums rock, the piano is on the money and the sax is stellar. But then again this is New York. The bum in the corner probably plays sax. And of course he's stellar too.

For the life of me I couldn't think of this quartet's name. J.J. Wes and the East Side Swing Cats. Montgomery Flash and the Blue Saints. Red's All Star Swing Revue. Who cares. They don't. Sax guy quickly mumbles the introduction into the mic and then Drums guy counts four so they can do what they came here to do: play.

The Mars logo: a reconstruction

Those who know me well, know that I can get very passionate about the Mars logo. And furious when it comes to the new logo that is now found in Europe to appeal more to females. The old logo was considered too tough. Poppycock! A smoke screen. What really happened was this (the names have been obscured for legal reasons)...

June 6th 2001: The executive in charge of brand awareness C. B. goes on a long well deserved extended holiday to the island of J. For reasons unknown he leaves his cell phone in his bottom drawer.

June 8th 2001: The copy writer F. S. and art director S. R. for Mars at D&B&C&V have a slumber party. Account secretary P. R. mentions the absence of C. B.; at this time we still have the good old logo (A).

June 9th 2001: In the wee hours of the morning F. ponders 'that it would be a hoot' if they would 'refunkifize' the Mars logo. Adobe Illustrator gets started up and a wicked twist of fate P. gets her hands on S's pen, selects the warp tool and creates (B) and saves it.

June 16th 2001: S. sees a strange file on his desktop, opens it, laughs (according to several witnesses) and for the hell of it creates (C). F. walks by and convinces S. that this could totally put them and D&B&C&V on the map.

June 18th 2001: S. has a creative breakthrough and utilises the pucker tool to create (D).

June 25th 2001: (D) gets presented to the Mars team headed by vice executive C. L. who normally works in pet food and (according to several sources at R&D )had had a couple too many the night before at club Z.

June 26th 2001: C. calls F. and S. at D&B&C&V and asks them to 'tweak the concept'. The result being (E).

July 26th 2001: Logo (E) gets a big hand at a meeting at Mars for some reason and gets tweaked and funkifies even more to produce (F). By the time C. got back from J. and gets on the phone with F. and S. at D&B&C&V the new logo has already hit the shelves... Chocolate would never be the same.

Note: I am happy to report that Thailand has remained untouched by this flawed design folley so far.