Glamorama by Brett Easton Ellis

Glamorama by Brett Easton Ellis

I got turned onto Ellis a little while ago by a fellow traveler.  I started by reading Less than Zero, and then American Psycho.  Both of those were fantastic reads.  So, I was eager for more, and Glamorama is the third Ellis book that I’ve read.  

I’m not a fan of it.  As with the first two books, the book is narrated by a deeply disturbed protagonist.  The realism of these psychotic characters is what I like most about his books.  In Glamorama, however, the narrator is so divorced from reality, I don’t really have much of an idea of what actually happened.  The protagonist can’t even recognize people for who they are.  People he thinks he knows turn out to be impostors (or not), and with no resolution.  It ends with an impostor convincing the narrator’s sister (who comes out of nowhere) that the impostor is the real guy, and the real guy is the impostor, leaving me wondering if the narrator isn’t just some crazy dude who was never connected to anybody in the first place.  It’s a mess.  In other words, I didn’t understand it.  

Influence by Robert Cialdini

Influence by Robert Cialdini

It’s a study of how you get influenced by other people, particularly “compliance professionals” such as marketers and salespeople.

The book soundly proves just how susceptible we humans are to conniving and, more significantly, then denying to ourselves that it happened.  

I guaranteed that it will show you how you personally are susceptible to compliance techniques, despite the fact that you are probably very certain that you aren’t.  Many of the studies that Cialdini discusses are spooky in how they show what easy marks we all are.  Prepare to realize what a major dupe you are.

There’s good news though: the book explains what the compliance techniques are, how to recognize them, and how to respond so as to escape the brunt of their influence.  So, it’s got some practical information.

I actually read this book around ten years ago and forgot about it, or at least most of it.  That makes me a double dupe, I guess, since I already read it once and have very expensively failed to apply what I learned during the last ten years.  

I guess that could come off as a counter-endorsement (that I read it ten years ago and it didn’t help me much).  But it probably did help me.  Maybe I’m just a slow learner and would’ve made even bigger mistakes had I not read it.   

Another thing I found interesting this time through is that Cialdini talks about how the quantity of information is exploding so frantically in our lives that our need for defenses against exploitative compliance techniques is especially acute now.  There are a couple of pages of the book that could pass as singularitarian-type commentary about the explosion of information. 

I realized that information technologies are exactly the things that help protect us from compliance practitioners insofar as distilled usable information is gives us a fighting chance against being duped by people who’d try.   

Philippines: Bohol

I spent the past few days in Bohol, a Philippine island in the mid south.  

There, I went to a couple of Tarsier sanctuaries (think gremlins), a butterfly sanctuary and viewed the (locally) famous Chocolate Hills.  The Chocolate Hills are apparently humongous pills of long-dead corral, that, over millions of years got pushed up out of the water.  For whatever reason, they eroded into the nicely rounded large dark-brown mounds, looking like super-massive Hershey Kisses.  Hence Chocolate Hills.  And I stayed at a backpacker haven called Nuts Huts, which was a nice place.  Although hard to get to and from, it was worth it since I met other backpackers there, which I there were other backpackers

The hills and the tarsiers are on the Book-of-Doom recommended things to do, on Bohol.  

May 23, 2012

I spent the night at the Nisa Travelers Hotel in Tagbilaron, an BoD (Book of Doom (Lonely Planet)) recommendation.  Nice place.  They give you little soaps in miniature Ziplock bags,which is nice because I never quite figured out what to do with used mini-soaps.  Now I know: stick'em in little bags.  And they have a decent wi-fi connection.  So, I spent the night booking plane tickets in the future and reserving spots for diving in Sipidan, Malaysia.  Having some plans made me feel a bit better about things.  

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May 24, 2012

I took a Jeepney to the BoD-recommended Tarsier Visitors Center, located between Corella and Sikatuna.  50 pesos.

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The guide at the center told me that tarsiers in petting zoos only last a few years whereas in sanctuaries they live longer.  In the wild, the can live up to around 25 years, he said.  So much for getting to hug one.  They're nocturnal, so I suppose they get stressed out when they have to spend all day getting manhandled.

Then I headed over to Nuts Huts to drop off my backpack.  That cost me a Jeepney wait and a motorcycle wait under a pretty hot sun.  Speaking of motorcycle taxis, it took me a couple of rides on motorcycle taxis to get the hand positioning thing.  The first time (riding from the ferry terminal to the bus terminal a day earlier), I just hugged the guy, and felt sort of retarded.  This time, going from Loboc town to Nuts Huts, I just held onto the guys hips, and felt even more retarded.  I could swear that got some stares and heckling from some bystanders who apparently knew the motorcycle drivers.

Anyhow, he got me to Nuts Huts, and it was empty-ish.  Nuts Huts is in the middle of nowhere.  It's an hour away from the main town, Tagbilaron, near Loboc.  But even from Loboc, it's a pain the ass to get to. It's about 4 Km from town, and then another 1.5 km down a bumpy dirt road.  By the time the motorcycle driving let me off, I'd slid snuggly up to him and my nuts were seeping under the guy's butt crack, which I found embarrassing.  I made a decision right there never to ride on a motorcycle with another guy, EVER.

I next had to walk down a large set of steps.  And found Nuts Huts was empty.  I could just as easily have stayed in Tagbilaron rather than go to Nuts Huts, but of course it's a BoD recommendation, so I just had to do it.  Fuck.  The price was right.  300 pesos (~$8).

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Anyhow, bummed at the emptiness and in-the-middle-of-nowhere-ness of it all, I trekked up the steps, and up the 1.5km dirt road to wait for a Jeepney take me to the Chocolate Hills.  After waiting about an hour, and seeing two packed Jeepney's whistle past me, a motorcyclist stopped to see about giving me a ride.  300 pesos to got to Chocolate Hills and back seemed fair enough, especially considering I apparently didn't have any other options.  Plus, I'd spent that hour watching how other passengers ride on motorcycles.  They either hold onto a read cross bar, or they just put their hands on their lap.  So, I was willing to give that a shot, although I was quite certain that I'd fly off the back of the motorcycle as soon as it started going.  That, of course, would be embarrassing, but not as much as having my nuts seep under a dude's butt crack.  With that, we were off to Chocolate Hills.

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Chocolate Hills were a disappointing bore, at least doing it solo was a bore.  (50 pesos to enter.)  It's probably better as a nice couples thing.  Anyhow, if you've seen a picture (which you will in a second), you don't really need to see them yourself.  I know that people could say that about a lot of tourists sights, but I think the sentiment is more true of some places than others.  Either way, it's probably more a reflection of my shitty attitude than anything else.  

Moving along, we then went to a butterfly sanctuary, which was pretty interesting (40 pesos).  There was a girlyboy taking tickets at the door, which made me think a little.  The Philippines is very Catholic, so far as I can tell, which I would assume means it is very socially conservative.  And knowing that, I'd expect girlyboys to be frowned upon, at least to the point that they wouldn't be working in museum/government-type jobs.  But there he was.  I compare that to supposedly liberal North America, even San Francisco, where I figure girlyboys are mostly told to stay manly for work.  I think the cultre might permit full trany, but not half-way, lipstick and mascara without more.  I mean, I don't recall seeing many half-way girlyboys around in San Francisco, working in the post office or museums or even Starbucks.  Maybe I just didn't notice those things when I was there.  Anyhow, it all makes me think how nonlinear everything is.  With all the categorizing we (I) do, there're still lots of surprises, even in trivial things. 

Next, we stopped at a second Tarsier sanctuary, which seemed a little more staged (60 pesos).  By that, I mean, it was a sanctuary, a natural-looking area.  But there were sleeping tarsiers at extremely photo-convenient locations therein.  Oh well.  Still no hugging.

Then I got back to Nuts Huts, and there were a bunch more backpackers that had arrived.  So, I was happy about that.  I met some nice folks.  I met a cute girl who seemed open to having me come with her to Camiguin, an island south of Bohol, to hang out.  Of course, I couldn't do that beacause I just booked a bunch of fucking flights, including one from Cebu to Palawan (somewhere else, entirely) in two days.  Sometimes I feel like every fucking decision I make is wrong.  Wrong, wrong, wrong ....

May 25, 2012

I got up with a horrible hangover.  I blame it on all the sun I've been getting and not the five beers and one rum-laced mango shake that I drank to prior evening.  Blaming things didn't stopped me from feeling all shaky.  An omlette and two cups of coffee did.  Two guys I'd met were renting kayaks for the morning.  There was a third kayak, and another girl wanting to go.  She got the kayak, and insisted that I come along anyhow.  That was nice of her.  I sat on the back while she paddled upstream to some small waterfalls.  And then we fell off the kayak.  After playing around the falls, I basically floating back downstream sometimes holding onto the kayak and getting toed, while Chinese and Philippino tourists in tourist barges passed by, taking many photos.  Good times.

Photos!

A tarsier at the first sanctuary.  He's looks so scared because I'm looking pretty dishevelled these days.

No hands.  I think the secret is holding on with the legs and feet.

Chocolate Hills.

Me with a couple of butterflies.  The guide was saying to me something about the butterflies liking me as I was putting my back pack back on my shoulder.  Doing that almost crushed to poor guy on my left shoulder, which I didn't know was there.  

This tarsier is 16 years old, at the second sanctuary, on the way back from Chocolate Hills. 

Philippines: Manila, Donsol, Malapascua, Cebu

May 14 - 16, 2012

I flew from San Francisco International to Manila, leaving the night of May 14th, and because of crossing the international date line, I completely missed May 15 altogether.  I arrived in Manila safe and sound, on the morning of May 16, and immediately booked a flight to Legaspi, to the southeast of Manila, to go see whale sharks.  After arriving in Legaspi and taking  a few-hours bus to Donsol (still on the main island, Luzon), I found out that no whale sharks had been spotted for about five days.  I booked a boat for the next day anyhow, hoping to get lucky.

Legaspi:

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May 17, 2012

I went out on a boat in search of whale sharks.  None around.  That ended the totality of my plans for the entire trip.  In most parts of the Philippines moto-taxis are motorcycles with side cars, called tricycles.  A tricyclist suggested that I go to a cock fight, which I did.  That was my first cock fight.  Each bird gets a sword tied to its talon and then two of them are set at each other.  They basically jump all over each other until they're dead.  One fight ended within five seconds when both birds somehow dealt each other death blows straight off.  Usually, one survive long enough to at least make it out of the ring.  The most exciting thing for me was when I almost fell off the still-under-construction bleacher.   I managed to jump onto the chain link fence surrounding the cock fight, instead of falling down a stair case.  The crowd of about 200 other spectators all cheered at that.  Afterwards, they set up some gambling tables and food tents outside and people milled around.  

Donsol:

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May 18, 2012

From Donsol, I headed out to reach Cebu, an island to the south.  First, I made it to Masbate City, Masbate Island, which neighbors Luzon, and where I stayed for the night.  

Masbate:

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May 19, 2012

From Masbate, I made it to Bogu, Cebu.  

May 20-21, 2012

From Bogu, I made it to Malapascua Island, just north of Cebu, already feeling a little bummed.  I'd travelled a week already, without accomplishing much at all other than traveling on buses, ferries, boats, and tricycles. But Malapascua fixed that, wtih diving.  So, I went diving with Thresher Shark Divers.  I got an 8-dive package.   At around $375, which included equipment and an excursion with lunch, the price was pretty fair.  This was my first diving in Asia, and my first attempt at using my underwater camera.  The main attraction are the thresher sharks and sea horses.  I believe I've only ever seen one or two sea horses before here.  Guides showed us sea horses nearly every dive.  Pretty cool.  

TSD is an efficient shop, and probably the largest on the island, which means regular daily dives.  The divemasters are well-experienced locals, not foreigners, which I like, for a couple of obvious reasons.  The owners are Brits, who sort of rubbed me the wrong way.  That all said, I'd come back.  

Malapascua:

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May 22, 2012

In the afternoon of May 22, I left Malapascua, heading south to Cebu City.  I made it to Cebu, only to find out there is a nursing convention and all the hotels were booked.  (Nurses and nuring schools are a natural resource here, I think.)  I spent the night in McDonalds, screwing up my sleep just as I was finally getting un-jet-lagged.  Aside from the regular menu items, Philippine McDic's has spaghetti with rice (WTF is the point of that?) which I saw plenty of people eat, fried chicken and rice, and Burger McDo's.  the McDo is a hamburger with no condiments, except some pinkish sauce (ketchup and mayo?) that I couldn't eve taste.  

Mat 23, 2012

Due to ferry bullshit, I spent nearly a day just in getting to Tagbilaron, Bohol, and island just south of Cebu.  Here, there are the (locally) famous chocolate hills and tarsiers, which I hope to see.  

Comments

It shouldn't be a surprise to me even though it is, that the Philippines is pretty westernized/americanized.  It reminds me of a South American country.  One difference, although I'm not sure if I'm imagining this, is that it seems that Philippino culture promotes the image of smart women and dumb men. It's like the women are the clever ones, and the guys are the work horses.  I'm probably just imagining that.  Either way, the people are generally nice here.  

I'm not sure what to think of the cock fighting.  It doesn't even seem particularly cruel to me.  In fact, I found it a little boring, though I've never really enjoyed spectator sports of any type, or crowds.  Anyhow, each cock at least gets to go out with a bang, rather than meeting its end in some sort of mechanical chopper upper.  Maybe I'd have a different opinion if chicken weren't my main source of protein.  

I noticed in Cebu (a pretty big city) as I was walking around late at night still trying to find a hotel, there were plenty of women walking around (like nursing student types, not girly-boy hooker types, though there were those as well), even in what seemed like poorly lit areas.  I have to assume that predatory crime isn't much of a problem here.  

It's tough to find internet connections around here, making it super frustrating trying to plant ahead.  In hindsight, I should have done a little more advanced planning.  I finally found a hotel with a good connection last night and booked flights and scuba divigin out for a month so that I can have a bit of a plan.  The past few days, I've felt half-way frantic trying to figure out what I'm going to do with the precious 21 days I have in the Philippines (the max visa stay is 21 days).  

I haven't seen many other backpackers, which sucks.  I was hoping to make some friends as soon as I got here.  It looks like that might have to wait until I get to Indochina and the proper backpacker circuit.

Photos! 

Here's what not seeing whale sharks looks like:

 

 Cock fight.  They prep the birds by making them peck each other in the back and on the head before the fight:

Fish in Malapascua

 

A flounder (or something like one):

 

A sea thing (I think):

 

A scorpion fish (next to the orange thing), facing the camera, hard to see:

 

Me:

 

Flatworms.  I've always heard them called "newdiebrants," but no matter what spelling I tried, google wasn't helping me:

A big sea horse:

A little sea horse:

Another scorpion fish:

A thresher shark:

Happy Songs 6: Girlfriend

Girlfriend

by 

Avril Lavigne

Ultra-Light Packing Gear List for South East Asia

I posted a list of the equipment that I took with me to South America, here.

This time, I'm going to South East Asia, starting in The Philippines.  Here's what I'm taking to South East Asia.  I tried to go take even less this time.  And I think I actually did that:

Clothes

2 pairs board shorts, 2 t-shirts, 1 rash guard, 1 rain jacket, 1 pair socks, 1 pair sneakers, 1 pair flip flops, 1 light hoodie, 1 travel towel.  I left for the airport wearing the flip flops, a pair of board shorts, a t-shirt and the hoodie.  So, I didn't really pack a lot beyond what I actually wore.  

Actually, my original plan was to pack nothing other than what I was actually wearing: board shorts, a t-shirt and the flip flops.  But, then it just seemed a little silly to not bring at least what I did end up packing.   

 

Toiletries

1 shower scrub mitt 

1 baggie: toothbrush, toothpaste, floss, lip balm, comb, tweezers and clippers

1 baggie: condoms, Pepto Bismol tabs, two travel soaps, aspirin, antihistamine, anti-malarial pills.

first aid kit: bandages, wipes, safety pins.

1 baggie: Q-tips.

1 baggie: Neosporin, bug cream, sun cream, crazy glue, silicon grease (for lubing the seal of the underwater camera housing), bottle of tea tree (I'm still not exactly sure why other people buy this stuff; but after trying different things, I think it cured some mild crotch chafing once), peroxide.

1 roll toilet paper.

Aside from the toilet paper and dental hygiene stuff, everything else is totally dispensable.  But I figured I had the other stuff and it made sense to bring it all.

Gadgets Stuff

Going more or less clockwise from the top left, we have:

Underwater Housing for Cannon S100, $222, amazon.com.

Suunto D4 scuba dive computer, $685, amazon.com.

iphone 4.

Pen with duct tape wrapped around it (need duct tape), extra pen, notebook.

SE Asia on a Shoestring Book of Doom (aka Lonely Planet), passport (48-pages), tons of bank cards, credit cards and relevant ID cards (scuba, kiteboarding, driving), money in a binder clip.

Macboook Air (still lovin' it), 256GB solid state drive, $1,500, amazon.com.

Power cord, ear phones, outlet adapter (not a converter, meaning it fits plugs, but doesn't alter the voltate), battery charger thingee for my camera battery.

Western Digital My Passport portable 500GB hard drive for Mac, $90, amazon.com.

Cords (for iphone, camera, hard drive).

SanDisk Cruzer 16GB USB thumb drive, $13.50, amazon.com.  (I paid $13.50 for it, a month later, it only costs $7.43; that's technology for you.)

Cannon PowerShot S100, 12 megapixel camera, $404, amazon.com.  (A month later, it's already down to $380.)

Transcend 16GB SDHC memory card (inside camera), $15, amazon.com.

LifeProof underwater iPhone case, $65, amazon.com.  (I paid $80 for it more or less as an impulse at the AT&T store.)

Storage Stuff

Deuter Futura 32 backpack--32 liters / 26” x 13” x 9”, $135, backcountry.com.

Black Diamond Magnum orange daypack--18 liters.

Assorted plastic bags, Ziplocks and aLOKSAKs.  aLOKSAKS are like super-deluxe Ziplocks.  They're expensive.  I'm not sure they're really worth the money, but they do come in a convenient variety of sizes.  

Small (but not dinky) padlock.

Hair elastics (which are good at managing cords; you can see a couple in use in the gadgets photo).

2 carabiners (mostly to signal my imagined bad-assnness).

Here's a picture of everything together (minus the hoodie, which I hadn't decided to bring, yet, and the iphone water-proof case, which I hadn't impulsively bought, yet):

Not Pictured

Cell phone contract lock-in.  I'm still locked into my AT&T cell-phone contract.  So, I'd be spending a minimum of about $60 a month to not use the phone (and have been doing so for the past year).  This time, I'm paying a little extra to have a limited data plan on the road.  It's $25 for 50MB of data a month (i.e., internet and email).  

Final Thoughts

Obviously, I'm making a point of packing light.  But even so, last time I left home with my 32 liter backpack, I had it filled to the gills, which was almost silly.  The benefit of the 32 liter bag is that it qualifies as carry-on luggage.  I've probably taken about a twenty flights with my 32 liter pack, and never once have been given trouble at a check-in counter.  But, either way, I think it's important to pack space.  If you pack everything super tight, it's a royal pain to manage your crap.  This time, I tried to make sure I'd have some space.  That's be my recommendation to anybody: deliberately pack space into your pack.  If will-power fails you, you could trick yourself by packing an empty box into your backpack, and then throwing out that box when you get to the airport (and away from anything that you could decide to put into your pack).  

That said, the underwater camera housing takes up an insane amount of room.  I hope it's worthwhile.

Happy Songs 5: Good Feeling

Good Feeling

by

Flo Rida

Video on the Singularity

Here's a video that I must've watched six or seven times I like it so much.  It provdes a visual demonstration of what Ray Kruzweil (a futurist) calls the Six Epochs (of technology), basically a way of looking at the progress of technology and where we're headed ...