Body count

The first things you noice as a westerner when you arive in Asia are the differences. The culture is different, the food is different, the people drive differently, everything is different. Then, after a month or two, you start to notice the similarities. There are McDonalds everywhere, and American style convenience stores on every corner. People wear jeans. Everyone wears jeans. I've always hated jeans, not because they're not practical, convenient clothing, I just hate the fact that they're everywhere. I don't own a pair of jeans, and I have no plans to buy some any.

Yesterday I was talking to friend Andy about this and he asked, "do you think there is a one-way transfer of culture from the west?". My immediate answer was yes, but then I started thinking, things go back the other way too. We give Asia fast food, nasty sugary drinks to rot their teeth and make them fat, convenience stores, and the least imaginative articles of clothing the west has to offer, and these are all lapped up by the naive youth. What does the east send back to the west? Feng Shui, quackery, cheap dangerous fireworks, and plastic models of the Statue of Liberty with a pencil sharpener in the bottom.

There is an irony here. We're sending each other our crap.

I thought you might be interested in my cockroach trap. I set this up under my desk Wednesday. It looks quite cute when assembled as you can see.



When opened of course if reveals all the foull little creatures inside. Are they attracted to the sticky stuff inside? Would it work better if I baited it with a jelly baby?



I realise that this makes it look as though I work in a filthy, roach infested, rat's nest of an office. That is not quite true. It's just that large insects seem to like it here. I'm not in the lead as far as body count is concerned. Jamie has more in his trap, and he actually has two traps under his desk, so I'm not sure that they shouldn't be counted together. And I think Sumedha is winning the contest for largest corpse. I may give you an update here on Monday. Incidentally, they don't die when they get trapped. All those little beasties are still waving there antenna around and trying to escape.

I must apologise to Luscious who is into Irish dancing and was falsely attracted to this page yesterday. I did insult Irish dancing and I'm sorry. Not very sorry, but a bit sorry. I'm not turned on by Riverdance, what can I say.