Bridge Fund Dot Org

I hope to complete my final report tomorrow morning, though I still have a tutorial, three classes, and a test to get through before I can really say I'm finished. Even then I'll need to incorporate the scores into my report, and I haven't even started the thirty-odd student evaluations I need to write.

Now that I'm wrapping things up, it's nice that the Bridge Fund, an organization for which I am technically only a contractor, has finally gotten its website running (please take heed, those of you who have followed the link in my sidebar and found only a picture of a yak-hair tent and an "under construction" notice).



I really encourage you to look through the new site if you have time, especially the photo gallery. They really did a remarkable job.

Worm Food

Tom and Kendell came back through this weekend and I think they had a pretty excellent time during their week-long stay in Kham. To chronicle their trip on the Trans-Siberian Railroad, they have set up a blog aptly--though unfortunately--named Transsibirskayamagistral.

Here's a picture of theirs that I quite like. It is the entrance to what is probably a special sanctuary for performing the Tantric arts, the left-handed path that propels practitioners to powerfully realize the emptiness of form.


It's worth clicking to view the paintings of skinned humans and decaying faces in detail.

Thanks Mike

A couple of young travelers came through Kangding County on their way to explore Kham for a week or so. One of them brought me a gift from the twin on the south side of the Himalaya.


I hadn't worn a real t-shirt in ten months.

SMITH/DANIEL MR 18JUL 2007

It's going to be a very long Wednesday.

CHINA AIR        18JUL HONGKONG TAIPEI        125P 305P
CI 608       WEDNESDAY HK INTL  TAIWAN TAOYUAN
                        
CHINA AIR        18JUL TAIPEI   LOSANGELES CA 440P 135P
CI 6         WEDNESDAY TAOYUAN  INTL
                  
CONTINENTAL AIR  18JUL L.A.     HOUSTON TX    455P 1007P
CO 541       WEDNESDAY INTL     G.BUSH INTERCO

CONTINENTAL AIR  18JUL HOUSTON  NEW ORLEANS  1055P 1158P
CO 1416      WEDNESDAY BUSH INT LOUIS ARMSTRONG 

             

windows to a dream

• While taking in the river from John's fifth-story window some days ago, I watched as a young Chinese student clambered upon a rock beneath the wall that separates the back courtyard from the water. It was night and she surely felt alone. She threw a folded piece of paper over the wall, and shouted inaudibly over the waves. Its jejune babbling appeared indifferent to her swallowed cries. In 2046, we are told

  Do you know what people did in the old days when they had a secret? They would climb a mountain and find a tree. They would carve a hole in the tree and whisper the secret into the hole, which they would pack with mud so no one would ever hear it.

• Friday afternoon I shared a taxi to Kangding with a young and modern Tibetan woman. When she realized I could basically understand her Sichuanese, she invited me to go for beers. I didn't meet her until Sunday, determined to make good on her challenge to outdrink me in spite of the school night. I caught a car in the rain, and as we approached Guza a techno song repeated the chorus, "I don't want no small dick boys." I saw her waiting through the window. She had a face like a wolf and, as I discovered when the evening drew to a close, a boyfriend.
  

• Using a volleyball and a basketball last week in my tutorials, I demonstrated how the tilt of the Earth's axis relative to the sun gives cause to the seasons. I also explained the reason different hemispheres and seasons see different stars, and why the moon waxes and wanes though the face of the man (or rabbit) never changes. For kicks, I showed them Google images of the relative size of the moon to the Earth, the Earth to the sun, the sun to the Milky Way (Silver River), and the Milky Way to the "rest" of the universe. After they took in the pictures, I drew the curtains for dramatic effect to reveal towering mountains and a swollen river. In Thursday's group, Karma Sonam exclaimed

  Oohh! Life really is a dream!

  
  

So Fresh It's the Anti-Freeze

I guess the logical thing would be to avoid brushing my teeth for the next six weeks.

From Forbes:

U.S. health officials warned consumers Friday not to use toothpaste made in China because it may be contaminated with a poisonous chemical used in antifreeze and as a solvent....

The FDA identified the following brands of toothpaste from China that contain DEG ad are included in the import alert: Cooldent Fluoride; Cooldent Spearmint; Cooldent ICE; Dr. Cool, Everfresh Toothpaste; Superdent Toothpaste; Clean Rite Toothpaste; Oralmax Extreme; Oral Bright Fresh Spearmint Flavor; Bright Max Peppermint Flavor; and ShiR Fresh Mint Fluoride Paste....

The FDA has seized tainted toothpaste at a DollarPlus store in Miami, Fla., and from a Todo Un Peso, a store in Puerto Rico.