The weather in Saigon has definitely been quite unusual since Monday. Oddly enough, it looked like it would rain Sunday but I never thought about it. It does not normally rain in Saigon during January. The rainy season usually switches to the dry season in November. Granted, the last three years the weather has not been normal in Vietnam, like much of the world. Normally though, January tends to be a bit cool with the warmer weather arriving by Tet.
The rainfall the last couple of days have been annoying though. The accumulated dirt, sand, dust, you name it, have collected on the streets and alleyways since the last rainfall. Saigon is now a muddy mess. I was surprised to see how muddy my motorbike was just after Tuesday.
Several years ago, the construction sites would have kept their areas clean. The drivers would wash their trucks before going on the streets. I remember my neighbors in Thu Duc used to clean their trucks very well.
Even when they tore apart the sidewalks on Tran Binh Trong street in District 5 nearly 5 years ago, there was not a mess. The workers kept the streets clean. Now when they break up the sidewalks, it is a huge mess. You see the sand and dirt all along the streets. It blows in your face. The days of not wearing a mask are long gone even on rainy days such as today.
I have been quite busy the last month developing with Wordpress. Oddly enough, I had about 6 requests for Wordpress sites from friend and colleagues during this time. Wordpress has come a long ways and with the large number of developers and designers behind it, Wordpress is becoming the permier web content management system. It is perfect for small to medium company websites at the moment.
During this time, I decided to play with some of the features Wordpress themes and plugins are now providing to users. When one of my clients needed to manage their photos, I found NextGen, a great photo gallery plugin. I loved it so much, I decided to use if for myself.
Essentially I have 3 websites with pictures of my trips around the world since 1997. I decided to aggregate them into one photo blog using the free Arras Theme. Presto, Qeeboa is born. Qeeboa is derived from the word, keyboard, invented by one of my students almost 2 years ago. Since I already registered the domain name, I decided to use it for my new photo blog.
Some of you will notice that I use the name Kentai Matsunaga on the site. Matsunaga is my family name from my Japanese mother’s side. Kentai was my Kazakh name that I went by for two years (1997-1999). In Kazakh, it is deprived from a word small since many Kazakhs felt I was, well, small. It also have meaning in Japanese as well. Ken means sword, tai means body. I will explain later why I will plan to use Kentai Matsunaga in the future.
In the meantime, view some of the photos of the various cities I visited since 1997. I plan to put most of my pictures there.
http://www.qeeboa.com
Another interesting post by Japan Probe. Biking over water on a floating flimsy bridge seems easy but…take a look yourself:
Via the Jamaipanese blog, I learned about another Japanese anime series titled Valkyria Chronicles. Jamaipanese gives a good review of this anime series which already completed it’s first season of 26 clips. I am currently watching the English subtitled episodes online at: animefreak.tv.
(Image Source: Wikipedia)
Made it to my third Kendo class this week. I really enjoyed it though I got another blister on the bottom of my left foot. My right ankle swelled up a little so I need to find a really good ankle brace. Despited working out in the gym for nearly 3 months, I am still a bit out of shape for kendo as well. It is quite demanding but I am loving it.
I practiced kendo today at the dojo located on 235 Nguyen Van Cu in District 5. This dojo is ideal for beginner kendokas in Saigon.
Below are some pictures I took with my G1. I will try to bring a digital camera so I can get some clear shots in the future.
(My ICT student, Si, on the left)
(My men (helmet) is crooked…)
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