Hello Lamppost! Whatcha Knowin?

Poems. Limericks. Wordplay. Labyrinth of thoughts.

Rush Hanoi Rush!

A call woke me up today. It was one of the tenants in my apartment. She told me that my bike, parked in our basement, was leaking. Gasoline was all over the basement floor and the place’s now reeking the smell of it.

That’s the perpetrator shown in the picture. A Honda Super Cub from the 70s. Actually, no. I sold that bike a year ago because being a vintage bike, it’s broken all the time. Then I bought a new one, a Chinese knockoff called Fonda Super Cub. It looks exactly the same like that old bike in the picture, even with the same egg-yolk color, only a tad chubbier. And now it’s leaking.

I know that there’s no way that I would have the time this morning to bring the leaking bike to a sửa chửa xe (garage), so I decided to take a xe ôm (motorcycle taxi) to the office. 

Not having to drive, I was able to capture some pictures of Hanoian rush hour from the back of my xe ôm. All was taken at around 8 o’clock in the morning.

Not as intense as imagined, eh?

That’s Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum.

Still not too bad…

Then suddenly it started to pile up…

A policeman, trying to control the traffic…

Hanoi’s summer fashion for girls

More summer fashion…

Rush rush busy street rush!


Bonus: To fully capture the ambiance, here’s the sound of traffic in Vietnam taken from http://www.goingslowly.com/bicycle-touring-in-southeast-asia/, two cyclers writing about their bicycle adventure all around SEA (read the blog, I personally love it!)


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cinderellainrubbershoes: “Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time. A book is a proof that humans are capable of magic” -Carl Sagan

cinderellainrubbershoes:

“Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time. A book is a proof that humans are capable of magic”

-Carl Sagan

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That Day, the saucers landed. Hundreds of them, golden,
Silent, coming down from the sky like great snowflakes,
And the people of Earth stood and
stared as they descended,
Waiting, dry-mouthed, to find out what waited inside for us
And none of us knowing if we would be here tomorrow
But you didnt notice because

That day, the day the saucers came, by some some coincidence,
Was the day that the graves gave up their dead
And the zombies pushed up through soft earth
or erupted, shambling and dull-eyed, unstoppable,
Came towards us, the living, and we screamed and ran,
But you did not notice this because

On the saucer day, which was zombie day, it was
Ragnarok also, and the television screens showed us
A ship built of dead-mens nails, a serpent, a wolf,
All bigger than the mind could hold,
and the cameraman could
Not get far enough away, and then the Gods came out
But you did not see them coming because

On the saucer-zombie-battling-gods
day the floodgates broke
And each of us was engulfed by genies and sprites
Offering us wishes and wonders and eternities
And charm and cleverness and true
brave hearts and pots of gold
While giants feefofummed across
the land and killer bees,
But you had no idea of any of this because

That day, the saucer day, the zombie day
The Ragnarok and fairies day,
the day the great winds came
And snows and the cities turned to crystal, the day
All plants died, plastics dissolved, the day the
Computers turned, the screens telling
us we would obey, the day
Angels, drunk and muddled, stumbled from the bars,
And all the bells of London were sounded, the day
Animals spoke to us in Assyrian, the Yeti day,
The fluttering capes and arrival of
the Time Machine day,
You didnt notice any of this because
you were sitting in your room, not doing anything
not even reading, not really, just
looking at your telephone,
wondering if I was going to call.

- Neil Gaiman

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“Been There Done That Got The T-Shirt (BTDTGTTS)” button pins - limited edition. :)

“Been There Done That Got The T-Shirt (BTDTGTTS)” button pins - limited edition. :)

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Je t’aime plus que tout la planete

—

followed with a silent sigh

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Gramedia is having its 38th birthday! Here’s a happy birthday clip from Agus & Budi of Been There Done That Got The T-Shirt :)) made by Emeralda Noor Achni.

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Kakapo

From cracked.com:

“… Over millions of years, most animals have adopted some kind of defensive strategy. An enterprising species might develop camouflage, sharp teeth or spines (if it’s smart, it’ll just go straight for the pistol-hands). But what if there were no natural enemies whatsoever? An animal could put absolutely all of its energy into eating and reproduction! On the plus side, that’s a surefire recipe for a species to thrive. On the down side, those criteria would probably result in a fat, helpless, delicious-tasting nymphomaniac. Ladies and gentlemen, we present to you the kakapo: the BBW of the animal kingdom.”

:)) :)) I can’t help wanting to sprint home and hug my boyfriend after reading this. It reminds me so much of him. In a good way :)) :))

Pic was taken from here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/10565417@N03/

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Fairy tales have always got to have something a bit scary for children - as long as you make them laugh as well,

—

Roald Dahl

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Innocent Innuendo

I was once told that I’m the queen of Freudian slip. But apparently that’s not all. Upon describing the concept of simple joy of life in my book, I made a series of poems and limericks, and above was one of them. It’s not until they have printed the book, and I re-read the whole poem, that I finally realized that it’s… it’s full of innuendo. Holy moly shyte-o-mama, I swear to god the intention was purely innocent.

That’s not the first time it happened. Several years ago, I was working with this amazing author and artist for a fingerprinting art book for children. I made some poems and limericks to be put in the book, and helped her with the book editing. When the whole compilation was done, she still hasn’t figured out a perfect title for her fingerprinting art book. So I came up with a suggestion:

Behold,

But then again, it’s a great activity book for children and adults, so I guess it’s okay.

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