Newspaper

Does anyone else miss newspaper?

Sometimes i miss being able to actually hold the news in my hands and get the ink on my fingers. I miss being able to read long passages without scrolling or having my eyes water from staring too long at a computer screen. I also love that newspaper has so many uses. You can wrap gifts with it, or use it to make paper mache projects. Or crumple it up and throw it at people. It makes me sad to think that the newspaper is on its way towards extinction.

Also, i really could have used a newspaper today to cover myself when a girl walked into the 2nd-floor unisex law-library bathroom i was using. My iphone just didn't cut it.

Snowmageddon

Last Saturday night i was over at Nik's house watching some football. Go 49ers! After the game, the local news came on and a breathless info-babe* went on and on about "SNOWMAGEDDON 2012!"

"Whatever," I said to myself. "People in Seattle are wimps when it comes to snow." I will admit that the snow here carries more moister and turns to ice easier, but people in Seattle are quick to flake out on their responsibilities and go sledding.

For example, SeatteU Law cancelled classes on Wednesday, Thursday, and probably Friday too. Long story short, i haven't had class since Tuesday morning and i'm getting a little antsy. I took a walk today and snapped a few iphone pics.

This bus was stuck

* "Info-babe" is a term that was coined by Rush Limbaugh and refers to women who are cute when compared to the other people who usually host the local news, but probably wouldn't cut it as a bond girl. See Fox News. Anytime.

Looking for Porn?

If you're looking for dirty photos, I'm glad you stopped here. You've come to the closet, the tickle closet. This is a place where you can feel safe. In the closet you're free to laugh and dance and get help. That's right. If you're looking for porn while you're at work, or doing your homework, or if you know you're going to regret things later, then check out this website.






To the faithful followers of the TC,

Blogger graphs the number of hits a blog gets each day. Well, the Tickle Closet gets a lot of hits. Now, I know a few people read this blog for its witty insights on culture and politics, but I don't think that number is over a hundred every day. I can't be certain where all those hits are coming from, or why, but I wonder if there are people out there searching for sites and blogs they can practical-joke-subscribe their friends to, as a kind of dirty trick or surprise -- the kind of thing true friends would never do to each other.... Or how many people are straight-up looking for skin. Either way, a blog with a title like this one has to be suspect. The content warning probably legitimizes things, but when a picture picker sees what's actually here then what? Do they just peruse photos? What do they think when they see three dudes in red long-johns? Do they read some of the entries, or titles? Do they leave immediately? There's no way of knowing, or at least, there's no way I know of knowing but there may be. Still, I wanted to reach out to that section of our readership.

This is a poster in Borneo that made us take twice and laugh once. Taken in 2006. 

Eat like you mean it.

A poster hanging at Lance and Ryan's school in China. 

My hostel boss, Simon, kept encouraging me to try dog meat. "You don't understand us," he said, and he was beginning to become more passionate as he spoke. "We don't eat pet dogs, just the wild yellow dogs."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah, because in Chinese medicine eating dog helps bring people balance. That's what I do, I like to help bring people balance."

And I probably should have walked away a long time ago when I first peaked my head around the corner and saw the squatter toilet, but Simon seamed genuine. I mean, you could tell by his passion for  dog meat.

"Besides," he continued, "we only eat it in the winter."

"Why's that?"

"Dog meat helps keep us warm."

I only went to Yangshuo to see the mountains, and as I was, I noticed there were a surprising number of dogs running around. I even saw some people, not sure if local or tourist, with pets, like a big hairy sheep dog looking woofer. I thought it was bold bringing a dog into this K9 thirsty province, and in winter no less, it's like bringing Evan Kinne down the hooker street in Wan Chai (Asian's dig his build, but then again, who doesn't?).

I saw a lot of yellow dogs as I was biking through the countryside. All of them carried a healthy weight on their bones, none were skinny like most third world dogs. I thought about catching one and bringing it back to Simon as a gift. But none of them seemed that wild. I think, actually, they were somebody's pet, fed and fattened for a nice sell at the night market.

See, I rationalize things too. I call them wild, pagan, mysterious, Vietnamese or whatever, and hunt them down and make compromises.