Page 7

5/16/2024

Masters of disguise…

I love the picture below. I took it outside of an elementary school that is located on the way to my local neighborhood grocery store. I like how the long-hair Persian cat, which has been shaved by it's owner, looks like a lion. What I like more, however, is how well the gray color of the cat matches the gray color of the pavement blocks. This amazing color match, along with the cat's superb hunting skills, seems to have allowed the cat to sneak to within two feet of it's intended prey; which, is also camouflaged. The cat's victim is a bird. To find it, which is really, really hard to do, you have to follow the cat's line of vision. The only thing visible on the bird is it's orange beak, which is located approximately two inches to the right of the tree trunk in the green grass. See it?

This picture shows wall murals of small children playing and a small tree in between them with green leaves. YOu can see a chin-up bar to the left of the tree cutting across the mural of three children playing a game. to the right of the tree in front of the other mural is part of a swing set. in the foreground is a shaved gray persion cat that has been shaved to look like a lion and it is stalking a bird inthe grass at the base of the tree. The bird is very hard to see and you can only really see the organge beak. There is a stone bench facing away from the tree that is located to the left of the tree under the mural of the children playing marbles.

Been there, done that…

I think we have all been in a position where we have dozed off at the most inopportune time. Put me in a boring meeting in a hot room, and within five minutes I'm off to never-never land. Every business in town hires a person to park customer motorbikes and watch them to make sure nobody comes along and steals them. These security guards sit outside year round from opening to closing. In the summer they must endure the heat, humidity, and rain. In the winter they must endure the cold, humidity, and rain. I'm told the average pay is ~20,000 VND (~$0.75 USD) per hour.

picture shows motorbikes parked in front of a business and in the foreground on the right is a women who is sitting in a chair who has fallen asleep.

Kids will be kids and dads will be dads...

man wearing a helmet facing awy from camera holding a child who is asleep.

Photoshop magic?…

These days it seems you hear a great deal about people using Photoshop to manipulate their portraits to match some sort of socially acceptable beauty profile. At first glance, you might think I “Photoshop-ed” this picture. That is, I used Photoshop to remove the person coming down the stairs holding the umbrella. Nope. This was just somebody's umbrella that got away from them in the wind and is heading toward a man who is holding his arm up to protect himself. It was one of those “can't believe I was in the right place at the right time" scenarios.

Picture of an umbrella floating in the wind while a man stands to the right of the umbrella. There is a set of concrete stairs to the left of the umbrella.

These are the biggest jackfruit I have seen during my time here.

Picture of woman with three large jackfruit on the back of her motorbike. She has cut one in half and is digging the fruit out of the center.

One can't help but wonder if alligators like these 10 footers were the inspiration for “dragons”? I took this picture at a restaurant in the Delta region by Ho Chi Minh City on a recent trip. This alligator pit was one of the “attractions” that brings people to the restaurant to eat. No, they did not have alligator meat on the menu. I'm told they feed these beasts chickens.

picture of alligators. one alligator has his mouth open

OCTOBER, p.g 2, p. 3, p. 4

NOVEMBER p.2, p.3, p.4 , p.5, p.6, p.7

DECEMBER p.2, p.3, p.4, p.5 p.6, p.7, p.8

JANUARY p.2, p.3

FEBRUARY, p.2, p.3, p.5,

MARCH p.2, p.3, p.4 p.5, p.6, p.7

APRIL p.2, p.3, p.4, p.5, p.6, p.7, p.8, p.9, p.10, p11

May, p.2, p.2b p.3, p.4, p5, p.6, p.8