ricki tikki; yeesh this is gonna be fun

got married in india. leaving for thailand in two days. thinking about starting a cobra farm.





also.. really interesting interactive display from mother jones mapping out the sprawling extent of america's global military reach.

softball mittens; surly.

News:

• Cat Osterman and the softball Olympians lost for the first time in like a billion games since Barcelona. I've seen Cat pitch like a billion innings, and it's an odd feeling every time she isn't perfect. Gotta be a sour taste, as the softball is now dropped from the Olympics. But if lack of competition had anything to do with that, maybe this will be just what softball needs. Read Cat's mom's blog final conclusions here.
  

• We leave for Siam on Saturday.

• Con and I got a bunch of pots and stuff for getting married. Thank you everyone.

• My sister and I swam the entire length of Barton Springs. Suck on that Phelps.
  

• Blogging every day is more difficult than I expected.
  
  
• He could be nothing more than a gasbag, but Joe Biden comes off as impressive in the debates. I like him as VP.

• I hate it when political discussion digresses into name-calling. It's distracting and stupid. But "Mittens" for VP makes me giggle every time.
  

• Here's something fun: Yesterday, the front pages of both the RNC and DNC websites didn't mention John McCain a single time (the theory being that the GOP is trying to turn the election into a referendum on Obama, and that alternatively, that the DNC actually likes its candidate).

• This is my favorite picture I took in Africa:
  

visas; polychromatic monarchs

got our visas to the kingdom of thailand. we were concerned that we wouldn't. now we're ready. i've never had a king before. this is thrilling. i've been calling for the u.s to elect a king for years, and that's the problem. king king king king.

every monday in thailand is 'yellow shirt day', on which you wear yellow to honor the king. you don't put money adorned with the king in your shoe.. and you try to keep the money face up for respect. see.. this is good governance. now we're getting somewhere.

house; (hint).

our foundation in thailand sent us pictures of where we'll live in phayao. we expected a lot less than this:







oddly, it looks a lot like where we lived in the dominican republic.. which, at the time, also surprised me. apparently everything everywhere looks sorta like orange county. this is just one of limitless discoveries of american architectural soft power you'll make when you come visit thailand. (hint).

we're glad, though, that it seems big enough to host visitors. (hint). then again.. so are this and this (wealthy hints).

osterman; residual income

more cat (because olympic [i.e. jennie finch] ads seem more lucrative):

osterman better than phelps?

impossible comparison, of course. still.. while phelps might get his eight golds, only when his dominance causes the olympics to purge his sport will i be impressed.

thailand; bloggy blog blog blog

Just to clarify what we're doing (in.. woah.. two weeks):

Constance (my wife) got hired back in the spring with this Thai foundation, which keeps at-risk girls in school and away from traffickers (in addition to other community-building activities). She'll head fundraising, maintaining and expanding an existing network of international donors. I'll teach an English class, and contribute web and fundraising content. We'll spend considerable time in Bangkok, but mostly live in this town:


It's called Phayao, in the north. It's beautiful and probably interesting and has some problems. It's near Chiang Mai, which is larger and a famous expat destination. Phayao isn't even listed in Lonely Planet, but this guy thinks it has great food.

I'll also spend the days running this new business idea (hire me), and continuing work on the novel (it's coming along.. really.. believe me.. it is). I'll update more on that later.

That's about the extent of the details we know, and that's the adventure of it.

This blog will be largely about that experience.. (plus, irresistibly, about my thoughts on politics, culture, travel, religion, etc. — even if only in an imaginative attempt to stay apart of the national American conversation while a world away).

Osterman.

Looks like Cat Osterman (the bunco player.. below) is having plenty of fun in Beijing (here's her playing slaps with my first cousin, LeBron James).

I wonder.. I wonder.. Naw..

Reminder: read Cat's mom's Beijing Olympic blog here.

more finalists; marie

• me myself and thai
• PHILLIP'S HEAD
• as i gaze into the night sky ...
• i just love thailand!
• thai fabulous
• marie orchard
• drunk noodles, approximately.
• drunk poodles, exactly.

my mom suggested "neener neener (i'm in thailand and you're not)." my mom also "suggested" i put more photos of her on my blog.

i always listen to my mom.

things happening in subcontinental asia; china

Constance (of moving-to-Thailand-fame below) and I love India. Love the food, love the culture, love the architecture, love the Himalayas, love each and every one of the 1.1 BILLION people (more on how that part's not true later) living in the most historically and geopolitcally interesting emerging global superpower I've ever visited (we loved it all enough to get married there in June — read about it on Con's blog here).

Above all.. love the fact that yesterday, India won its first individual Olympic gold medal ... in its entire 9,000 year history.

Even India thinks that's funny:



Love, love India.

finalists; or "keep sending me suggestions"

Here are the best so far:

• Whyland
• Your Inner thai
• The Thai Master
• Switched-from-Motorola-to-a-PrimeCo-phone
• Celine Dion
• Positively Ngamwongwan St.
• Bangkok Skyline Rag
• It's Alright Ma, (I'm Only HEMOPHILIA)
• All The Pee in China
• Stuff Dykhuizens Like
  

August 30; things happening in Asia.

Constance and I are leaving August 30 for Thailand. We'll be there a year or two or three.

In the meantime.. here's an interesting take on the Olympics: Cat Osterman's* mom, Laura (my fifth grade science teacher), is keeping a blog while in Beijing.

Also.. I've been following this Beijing blog from an interesting Atlantic writer who lives there.

* Cat Osterman being the long-time friend and neighbor and classmate and NCAA softball strikeout record holder, whose 2004 softball olympic gold medal** once ended up hanging on my microwave during my annual Christmas full-contact bunco party.

** The same olympic gold medal Cat brought wadded up in her purse.

coming soon.

in the meantime...

www.philliporchard.com

also.. taking suggestions for a good title for this blog.

also.. starting a second blog about making monies via the internet while living abroad (thailand, for random example), and taking suggestions for a good title for that blog as well.