no subject

Not satisfied with sending a shark to kill tourists off the Egyptian coastline, Israel has now sent a geo-tagged vulture to spy on the Saudis.

Miles-blogging #20

Miles was seventeen months old a couple of days ago. It's been a month of progress in language, or should I say languages as his vocabulary is slowly expanding in both English and Thai, although of course he still hasn't figured out he's learning words from both. This will probably confuse him for a time when he eventually learns there are two differently sounding words for everything which he can't freely interchange, yet so far he also seems fine with inter-language homonyms such as 'cow', 'kâo' (rice) and 'kào' (knee). Other progress is his continuing realisation that words aren't just nouns, they can describe things too – his favourites adjectives and adverbs at the moment are 'cold', 'dirty', 'up', 'down' and 'dark', which he says with an awe-inspired whisper when confronted with a dark room; he's also now combining them with other words, such as "big car" which he uses to describe trucks and buses. Best of all has been to see how he understands the conceptual difference that exists between 'mâi mee' (don't have) and 'gone': "mâi mee nam" (don't have water, ie. an empty glass) is a subtly different expression of absence to "car gone" (ie. it's departed). He's been using 'mâi mee' and 'gone' frequently in a variety of contexts, and usually correctly.

He's had a lot of fun playing with other kids over the last month, and generally plays well even if he does have a habit of commandeering other children's toys, especially bikes. He also likes to 'fix' things: he likes to turn a big object such as a bike on its side and tinker with a spanner and screwdriver, something he's probably picked up osmotically from his mum. One small accident last month was his losing his footing and slipping into a dirty village pond inhabited by goldfish, frogs, tadpoles and assorted slimy green stuff – he went completely under and I had to pull him out quickly. He got rather distressed by it and developed an all-over, measles-like skin condition the next day, which is now disappearing after some medication. But he's still okay being close to deep water, he keeps his balance well and someone is always next to him, but I guess there will always be accidents such as this.

   
I've probably taken more photos of Miles in the last month than ever. One thing that's noticeable is how he holds the attention of other people, even when he's playing with their kids. And looking at that third photo above (taken a few days ago and IMHO possibly the cutest random photo I've ever taken of him), wow does he need a haircut.

1990s SF film

Zarkorr! The Invader, 1996, USA   DIRECTED BY MICHAEL DEAK & AARON OSBORNE
Aliens let loose a giant rubber-suited, laser-eyed godzilla named Zarkorr onto the Earth to destroy civilisation – the story is actually more about the average guy who's been 'chosen' to stop the creature, as Zarkorr gets little enough screen time. Okay, my liking for bad skiffy monster movies that simply don't stack up seems to have found a new nadir. It's hard to believe Zarkorr! was considered for even a limited theatrical release before the producers saw sense and ducked the inevitable flak by sending it straight to video – it's meant to be mindlessly entertaining in a gonzo kinda way but really ain't worth the time. The director Aaron Osborne clearly has a love for this stuff too as two years later, undeterred, he made the equally daft and cheesy Kraa! The Sea Monster. This movie, however, does have one claim to fame: the footage of Zarkorr on the rampage was shot before the script had even been written, and it cost a mere million dollars. It shows. Don't lend this to your friends if you want to keep them.