Anyone see a pattern?

Wave bye-bye!

Gaza City غزة

All look same?

Do you think everything Chinese, Korean and Japanese looks the same? Or do you think you are Asia-savvy enough to tell the difference? Take the tests and see for yourself.

I made the mistake of relying on fashion and hairstyles more than facial features in trying to discern the faces - I only got about half correct. I realized later that these people are residents of NYC making the former traits less reliable than if they had been photographed in their home countries. The art, food and architecture tests were much easier.

And the stars look very different today...

My new hobby is collecting astronauts. Here are a few
of my favorites. Above you see Yi So-Yeon and Ko San from South Korea. Below is Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor - Malaysia's first rocketman.

Who needs Second Life? Get a Real Life!!

This game was designed for social studies students but I am addicted and have to admit I've learned a lot about how friggin lucky I am in such a cruel and random world. In the game, just like in life, you are born according to probability - half of the time in China or India and 95% of the time poor. However, as you age you are given choices - how to spend your free time, whether or not to pursue romance, when to move out on your own, whether to immigrate legally or illegally, as well as lots of moral decisions (help a beggar, do a shady business deal, have an abortion, protest against the government, etc). It's quite complex and much better to play than to explain.



In my "first life" I was born a bi-sexual boy into a poor family in China, but studied hard and became an entertainment technician in Guangzhou. Saved up my money and immigrated to Overland Park, Kansas where I landed a sweet job as a lab technician. Retired in Scottsdale, but got bored and moved to Mexico where I had an affair with a hot construction worker 20 years my junior. I died at 80 from diabetes. My next life I was born a girl in northern Kenya - I died at 2 years old from malaria.

Recently I was born into a struggling working-class family in Slovenia but I noticed that compared to the rest of the world we were incredibly rich. After I got a job, we became upper-middle class and our economic level compared to the rest of the world was completely off the chart. Makes you truly appreciate your privilege and gives you the realization that life can turn out billions of different ways.

Hakodate 函館

This is one of my favorite places in Japan. A gritty port city in Hokkaido crammed onto a thin isthmus with Russian, British, and American clapboard consulates dating from the 1800's. Old houses, funky bars, and a Russian Orthodox church wind their way up Mount Cow's Back to a park and viewing area (in the foreground). Red brick warehouses around the port (left side) were converted into restaurants, shops and a microbrewery. A star-shaped castle (back-left corner) and a fairly nice beach (along the right side) are worth a look and the whole place is cyclable. Hakodate is home of the ika-odori (squid dance) - performed by locals at the summer port festival. Go to the morning fish market to taste fresh crab and squid - and in the evening have a beer at the Comfortable Octopus or Peace Place - friendliest bars in town.