Wai Khru - Respect to Teachers

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

So yesterday before work, I was watching the new Contender Asia show...and this one is better because it's Muay Thai Kickboxing...and Sly was nowhere to be found. Not that I don't like Sylvester Stallone...but because he needs subtitles...and apparently they refused to do that for him during the first season when it was just boxing. Anyway, this one does have subtitles...because it's bringing kickboxers from all over the world together and being mentored by Stephen Fox, a legend in the sport and former champion (not the poet). It was just the first episode that I saw...but it introduced the guys and split them up into teams...and even had the first fight. The matchup - Well, one team got to pick the guy from their team fighting...and the guy from the other team that would fight. The team leader asked if anybody WANTED to fight first before they could view the other team for weaknesses and what have you. Of course, the Thai guy that speaks three words of English said, "I want fight." Australian team leader John Wayne Parr, "Are you sure, mate?" "I want fight." If there's one thing that I know about Muay Thai kickboxing, it's never bet against the Thai guy. In the interview (with subtitles) he was saying how he fights for his mother and to provide for her...and that if he somehow lost this fight, he wouldn't be able to show his face in Thailand. His opponent - An unexperienced Canadian boxer turned kickboxer with a new wife and daughter back home. I felt sorry for the guy...and yeah, I'm pretty sure that he lost (had to go to work before the last ten minutes of the show...and the Thai guy was handling him pretty well in the first two rounds). Love kickboxing. I was waiting for Jean Claude to be in this show...but oh well, maybe in the finale...oooh, or Tony Jaa. That'd be even better.

Also, I'd like to wish Happy Birthdays to Lost hottie Evangeline Lilly (29), Patriots quarterback Tom Brady who turns 31, Metallica frontman James Hetfield turns 45-ugh (he ends all his sentences with an ugh, listen to an album or two), character actor John C. McGinley turns 49, former convict Martha Stewart turns 67, father of Chuck & Emilio actor Martin Sheen turns 68 (real name is Ramon Gerardo Antonio Estevez...in case you were wondering too), and lounge singer Tony Bennett turns 82.

Dog Adopts Tiger Cubs - A golden retriever at the Safari Zoological Park in Caney, Kansas has adopted three tiger cubs that were abandoned by its deadbeat mother. They were born Sunday a week ago, but the next day, the mother stopped caring for them. Park owner Tom Harvey said the cubs were wandering around, trying to find their birth mother, who wouldn't pay attention to them. That's when the cubs were put in the care of a golden retriever. He said he has seen reports of pigs nursing cubs in China, and he actually got the golden retriever after his wife saw television accounts of dogs caring for tiger cubs. Puppies take about the same amount of time as tiger cubs to develop, and Harvey said the adoptive mother just recently weaned her own puppies. "The timing couldn't have been any better," he said. The most surprising thing about this story though…isn't the dog stepping up to care for the tiger cubs…but that there's a safari park with tigers…in Kansas. So many surprising things that I don't know about our great nation. Anyway, enjoy the picture of the white tiger cubs.

Ten Buck Laptops? - India is developing a laptop to be sold at US$10, that will target higher education applications. Research on the new low-cost laptop is being carried out at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore and the Indian Institute of Technology in Chennai. This measure will help raise the quality of higher education in India. As part of this new "National Mission in Education through ICT", the government is also working on developing a very low-cost and low-power-consuming access device. The government also plans to make available free bandwidth for education purposes to every Indian (not Native American). It plans to use this bandwidth to build a "knowledge network" between and within institutions of higher learning in the country. India's Internet penetration is currently very low. The country had 4.38 million broadband subscribers at the end of June for a population of over 1.13 billion…or roughly 0.4% of the population. Sure, this doesn't mean much to most of us here in the United States…but I just wanted to show what countries can do when they're not involved in a lot of expensive wars with their tax funds. Soon we will be able to decide whether we want two gallons of gas...or a laptop. Technology's amazing.

Depp as the Mad Hatter? - So Tim Burton is allegedly slated to direct a remake of "Alice in Wonderland" some time in the next few years. He's already named his Alice (Mia Wasikowska from HBO's "In Treatment") and now...in the most unsurprising casting call ever, Johnny Depp has been offered the role of the Mad Hatter. This would be the 7th time that Burton & Depp have worked together...and they're usually pretty good. The only problem apparently is that Depp is said to be teaming up with director Terry Gilliam to finally make "The Man Who Killed Don Quixote" - the troubled project the pair previously tried to work on in 2001 but it fell apart due to a variety of issues. My Prediction: Helena Bonham Carter will be the Queen of Hearts. Write it down...and wait for the news flash.

That'll do it for today. Still no word on Vegas...or finding that China journal. That's actually irking me more at this very moment...because I had control over it. You know how that is? Yeah, I'm sure ya do. Checked all the place where my other journals and travel stuff is...but damn my memory if I remember seeing it in the past three years. Anyway, have a great day!!! Remember to tell everybody out there how much you Love them.