Thailand Pass Woes
So, I’m trying to get back into Thailand on a TR (Tourist) visa. As of November, all travelers to Thailand by air must enter Thailand using the Thailand Pass system. And there have been a lot of issues with the system since its launch on November 1st. The issues...
Don’t look to Facebook to talk to your loved ones
October 4th should be a day ingrained in everyone’s memory as the day on which Facebook demonstrated its fallibility and undependability. As I write this post, DNS servers appear to load Facebook’s site, but an error message acts as a placeholder for anything else. Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, and other...
Working with diaspora populations should be acceptable in Linguistics
I began working with the Sizang language in 2014-15 and I began working on it while I was still in the United States, before I had ever actually stepped foot in Burma. I got quite a few materials from Kosei OTSUKA during a SEALS Conference in Yangon. Luckily, he...
Goodbye, MM Facebook
Well, it’s happened. I was surprised when my friend sent me this link claiming that Facebook and Messenger have been banned in Burma — from Facebook while I was at home. However, I knew from two days ago that the connection would be gradually disrupted, rather than taken out...
Day 2 in Hpa-An (ဘားအံ)
Yesterday, I arrived in the city of Hpa-An (ဘားအံ), the capital city of Karen State, Burma. According to Wikipedia, the 2014 Census of Myanmar listed over 200,000 residents in its population. It’s a nice change from the hustle and bustle of Yangon and still more populous than Naypyidaw. It...
April 24, 2015: My arrival in Thailand
While I don’t have as many pretty pictures or anything to document my arrival in Thailand, I can at least talk about what I remember. My first impression of Thai bureaucracy at the airport wasn’t stellar. I deplaned and was going through the line. On the plane they give...
April 22, 2015
It’s hard to believe it’s been half a decade already… April 22, 2020 (which is already yesterday, in Burma time) marks the 5-year anniversary of me leaving the U.S. Also, thanks to dear COVID-19, it’s the 5th year in a row without me setting foot back in the United...