One of my favourite songs

I've already mentioned it in a previous post, but now I have a good translation from the Thai. I'd picked up the gist, but missed out on much of the subtlety.

Now be warned - Thai songs are 100% shmaltzy. Chick songs especially, but middle-of-the-road stuff too. And there's certain cultural differences that may take getting used to, like the attitude to sex work - at least in a house of ill-repute with a good reputation, so to speak.

Anyway, if you want to Karaoke, here it is once more:




And the lyrics and translation - first the Thai, then my own free version that conveys the meaning.

Caribao:

กรีดยางอยู่ใต้ไม่ปลอดภัย
greet yaang yoo dtai mai bplot pai
There's no future in being a hick southern rubber-tapper

มาขับวินมอเตอร์ไซค์อยู่ในกทม.
maa kap win mor-dter-sai yoo nai gor-tor-mor
So he went to the Big Smoke as a "Win" company cycle taxi driver


ไอ้ไข่นุ้ยลูกทักษิณรูปหล่อ
ai kai nui look tak-sin roop lor
He's quite a stud, this Hunk from Thaksin

ไม่ชอบเพลงฮาดคอร์ชอบเพลงคาราบาว
mai chop pleng haat-kor chop pleng kaa raa-baao
Not into hard-core (haat-kor) rock, but Caraibao's stuff, yes!

ได้แฟนเป็นเด็กแนวสายเดี่ยว
daai faen bpen dek naew saai dieow
Picked up by an UpTown Girl, a Fashionista Princess

แต่อยู่กันเดี๋ยวเดียวก็ออกลายน้ำเน่า
dtae yoo gan dieow dieow gor ok laai nam-nao
But she cheated on him, treated him like dirt

บอกอยู่กันไปก็อดตายเปล่าๆ
bok yoo gan bpai gor ot dtaai bplao-bplao
Said stay with me or starve, you bore me

เบื่อแล้วคาราบาวอยากจะโมเดิร์นด็อก
beua laew kaa raa-baao yaak ja moh dern-dok
Treated him like dirt, just because he was dirt poor

คนจนก็เลยไม่ยิ่งใหญ่ น้ำตาตกใน รักมาสุดราง
kon jon gor loie mai ying yai naam dtaa dtok nai rak maa soot raang
But even a poor guy has his pride, so with tears flowing inside, his love ended.

สัญญาหน้าฝนมันเก่า หัวควายต้องเศร้าสาวเจ้าล้างบาง
san-yaa naa fon man gao hua kwaai dtong sao saao jaao laang baang
Spring's promise withered, his dream of living with his princess dead

สาวจันทร์น้องนางจากบ้านนา
saao jan nong naang jaak baan naa
A simple innocent country girl

มาเสี่ยงดวงชะตาเพื่อจะเจอโชคดี
maa siang duang cha dtaa peua ja jer chohk dee
Comes here to find fortune and fame

จบ ม.3 ยังไม่ข้าม ม.4 เลือกอาชีพสตรีขายบริการ
jop mor 3 yang mai kaam mor 4 leuak aa cheep sa-dtree kaai bor-ri-gaan
Hadn't finished grade 4 in hich school, but landed a good job as a courtesan

เป็นบ้านเล็กของเสี่ยใหญ่ เสี่ยไม่เข้าใจทำไมลื้อชอบเพลงปาน
bpen baan-lek kong sia yai sia mai kao jai tam-mai leu chop pleng bpaan
Mistress to a rich guy, but one who doesn't like Parn's chick music

มันด่าผู้ชายหลายใจทั้งวัน เสี่ยชักรำคาญเลิกกันดีกว่า
man daa poo chaai laai jai tang wan sia chak ram-kaan lerk gan dee gwaa
Too feminist for him, talking about cheating guys - so he told her to stop listening to it or hit the road.

ผู้หญิงทุกคนเอาแต่ใจ น้ำตาตกในตบมือข้างเดียว
poo ying took kon ao dtae jai naam dtaa dtok nai dtop meu kaang dieow
She has her pride too, so with tears flowing inside, she's left having to clap with one hand.

เรื่องง่ายๆ ที่ผู้ชายไม่รู้ แต่ผู้หญิงเค้ารู้ ผู้ชายไม่เกี่ยว
reuang ngaai-ngaai tee poo chaai mai roo dtae poo ying kao roo poo chaai mai gieow
Girls understand matters of the heart, even though guys don't.

ความเหงาเป็นขั้วบวกขั้วลบ
kwaam ngao bpen kua-buak kua lop
Loneliness is like positive and negative poles,

หนุ่มสาวได้มาพบกันในคืนร้าวราน
noom saao daai maa pop gan nai keun raao raan
boy meets girl in the night of sadness.

คนเหงาย่อมเข้าใจคนเหงา
kon ngao yom kao jai kon ngao
The lonely understand the lonely

เมื่อสายตาเศร้าๆ ส่งไปทักทายกัน
meua saai dtaa sao ๆ song bpai tak taai gan
when their sad glances meet.

หนุ่มขอเพลงบาวสาวก็ขอเพลงปาน
noom kor pleng baao saao gor kor pleng bpaan
Boy requests Carabao's songs, girl requests Parn's songs.

หนุ่มร้องเพลงบาวสาวก็ร้องเพลงปาน
noom rong pleng baao saao gor rong pleng bpaan
Boys sings Bao's songs for her, girl then sings Parn's songs for him.

ดอกรักผลิบาน ณ ตะวันแดง
dok rak pli baan na dta-wan daeng
And the Flower of love blooms at the "Tawan Daeng" (Red Sun Nightclub)

ความเหงาเป็นขั้วบวกขั้วลบ
kwaam ngao bpen kua-buak kua lop
Loneliness is like positive and negative poles,

หนุ่มสาวได้มาพบกันในคืนร้าวราน
noom saao daai maa pop gan nai keun raao raan
boy meets girl in the night of sadness.

คนเหงาย่อมเข้าใจคนเหงา
kon ngao yom kao jai kon ngao
The lonely understand the lonely

เมื่อสายตาเศร้าๆ ส่งไปทักทายกัน
meua saai dtaa sao ๆ song bpai tak taai gan
when their sad glances meet.

หนุ่มขอเพลงบาวสาวก็ขอเพลงปาน
noom kor pleng baao saao gor kor pleng bpaan
Boy requests Carabao's songs, girl requests Parn's songs.

หนุ่มร้องเพลงบาวสาวก็ร้องเพลงปาน
noom rong pleng baao saao gor rong pleng bpaan
Boys sings Bao's songs for her, girl then sings Parn's songs for him.

ดอกรักผลิบาน ณ ตะวันแดง
dok rak pli baan na dta-wan daeng
And the Flower of love blooms at the "Tawan Daeng" (Red Sun Nightclub)

หนุ่มสาวสานความสัมพันธ์
noom saao saan kwaam sam-pan
Boy and Girl weave a life together

ย้ายไปอยู่ด้วยกันอย่างเข้าอกเข้าใจ
yaai bpai yoo duay gan yaang kao ok kao jai
They move in together, understanding each other's hearts.

เปิดเพลงปานฟังด้วยกันตอนบ่าย
bpert pleng bpaan fang duay gan dton baai
She listens to Parn in the afternoon, after work;

กลับจากวินมอไซค์ ก็เปิดคาราบาว
glap jaak win-mor-sai gor bpert kaa raa-baao
When he returns from Win Motors, he listens to Carabao

สองแรงร่วมด้วยช่วยกัน หวังว่าอีกไม่นานมันต้องดีกว่าเก่า
song raeng ruam duay chuay gan wang waa eek mai naan man dtong dee gwaa gao
Stronger together than apart, helping each other and hoping for a better future

เปลี่ยนสวรรค์บนดินให้เป็นดาว
bplian sa-wan bon din hai bpen daao
Making a piece of heaven on earth

ว่าจะเปิดร้านเหล้า ชื่อว่าร้านบาวปาน
waa ja bpert raan lao cheu waa raan baao bpaan
Opening a winebar, the "Bao-Parn".

หนุ่มบาวสาวปาน หนุ่มบาวกับสาวปาน
noom baao saao bpaan noom baao gap saao bpaan
Boy Bao, Girl Parn; Boy Bao with Girl Parn,

สองกายหัวใจเดียวกัน รวมสร้างตำนานรักทรหด
song gaai hua jai dieow gan ruam saang dtam naan rak tor-ra-hot
Two bodies with hearts as one, together they'll build a legend of enduring love.

หนุ่มบาวสาวปาน หนุ่มบาวกับสาวปาน
noom baao saao bpaan noom baao gap saao bpaan
Boy Bao, Girl Parn; Boy Bao with Girl Parn,

สองกายหัวใจเดียวกัน รวมสร้างตำนานรักทรหด
song gaai hua jai dieow gan ruam saang dtam naan rak tor-ra-hot
Two bodies with hearts as one, together they'll build a legend of enduring love.

A more literal translation is at eThaiMusic.com.

Second Paper In

Just before midnight, and perhaps 12 hours before the cut-off date.

...We describe the results of a set of experiments using the PyEvolve Genetic Algorithm (GA) toolset to determine optimum parameter settings for a simple GA in the Computational Chemistry problem domain....Results suggest that there are weak emergent properties from combinations of parameter settings, and that they cannot be studied adequately in isolation.

Now for a well-earned rest, before proceeding with the next step.

If it's accepted - a big if - I'll be going to WCCI 2010, the World Conference on Computational Intelligence, in Barcelona.

De-Criminalisation

HF 2291, recently introduced into the Iowa State Legislature:

A BILL FOR

1 An Act relating to protected traits or characteristics of
2 students under public and nonpublic school harassment and
3 bullying prohibitions and policies.
4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF IOWA:

1 1 Section 1. Section 280.28, subsection 2, paragraph c, Code
1 2 2009, is amended to read as follows:
1 3 c. "Trait or characteristic of the student" includes but
1 4 is not limited to age, color, creed, national origin, race,
1 5 religion, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, gender
1 6 identity, physical attributes, physical or mental ability or
1 7 disability, ancestry, political party preference, political
1 8 belief, socioeconomic status, or familial status.
1 9 EXPLANATION
1 10 This bill strikes sexual orientation and gender identity
1 11 from the definition of the term "trait or characteristic of the
1 12 student" used for purposes of protecting students in public and
1 13 nonpublic schools from harassment and bullying.

Yes, they genuinely do want to de-criminalise the harrassment and bullying of Trans, Intersexed, and GLB kids in schools. To remove existing protections from a 2007 law.

House Representatives Jason Schultz, R-Schleswig and Matt Windschitl, R-Missouri Valley, co-sponsored this legislation. Feel free to contact them to give them your thanks.

Jason Scultz:

DOB: 11/27/1972
Spouse: Amy
Occupation: Farmer
House District 55

E-mail: jason.schultz@legis.state.ia.us

Home Address:
18 Valley View Circle
Schleswig, Iowa 51461

Postal Address:
P.O. Box 70, Schleswig, IA, 51461

Home/Work Phone: 712-676-2109
Capitol Telephone: 515-281-3221



Matt Windschitl

DOB: 12/30/1983
Spouse: Ivelisse
House District 56

E-mail: matt.windschitl@legis.state.ia.us

Address:
222 West Huron
Missouri Valley, Iowa 51555

Home Phone: 712-642-4334

Personal data courtesy of the Iowa House Republicans. Perhaps you should thank them too, and let them know just exactly what you think of this imaginative proposal.

Because you never know when you might need them

There's been entirely too much of great worth and moment recently on my blog, and entirely too few "interesting URLs". With that in mind...

Nuclear War
Survival
Skills
Updated and Expanded
1987 Edition


Cresson H. Kearny


With Foreword by Dr. Edward Teller

Or if travelling, a useful simplified map -


In this case, Grand Central Station can be found in the center of the Milky Way's transit system, consisting of three "stations" where four transit lines branch out. Each line represents one of the spiral arms of our galaxy

Tax Deductible

First, please read this previous post on the subject, from 2007. Yes, 2007. And this one from even earlier. And this one from earlier still, in 2006.

Now read this PDF file, giving the decision. Bottom Line:

Held: P’s gender identity disorder is a “disease” within the meaning of sec. 213(d)(1)(A) and (9)(B), I.R.C.
Held, further, P’s hormone therapy and sex reassignment surgery were “for the * * * treatment* * * of” and “[treated]” disease within the meaning of sec. 213(d)(1)(A) and (9)(B), I.R.C., respectively, and consequently the procedures are not “cosmetic surgery” that is excluded from the definition of “medical care” by sec. 213(d)(9)(A), I.R.C., and instead the amounts paid for the procedures are expenses for “medical care”that are deductible pursuant to sec. 213(a), I.R.C.

So it's a win. But not without some opposition though:

In the crash course on transsexualism that this case has forced on us, there are at least four approaches that those who’ve studied the phenomenon of such feelings have had. One response, curtly dismissed by the majority, is that this is a
form of delusion:

It is not obvious how this patient’s feeling that he is a woman trapped in a man’s body differs from the feeling of a patient with anorexia nervosa that she is obese despite her emaciated, cachectic state. We don’t do liposuction on anorexics. Why amputate the genitals of these poor men? Surely, the fault is in the mind and not the member. - McHugh, “Psychiatric Misadventures”, Am. Scholar 497, 503 (1992)

For such psychiatrists, gender follows sex, is a fundamental part of human nature, and is not easily amenable to change. Those who take this view look at transsexual persons to uncover what they suspect are comorbidities--other things wrong with their patients that might explain the undoubtedly powerful feeling that they are wrongly sexed and whose treatment might alleviate the stress that it causes them.
A second approach focuses on the notion of “feeling female.” What does this mean? The answer adopted by the majority and urged by O’Donnabhain is that this is a shorthand way of saying that a transsexual person’s gender (i.e., characteristic way of feeling or behaving, and conventionally labeled either masculine or feminine) is strongly perceived by her as mismatched to her sex (i.e., biological characteristics). This, too, is highly contested territory--gender being thought by many, particularly feminists, to be entirely something society imposes on individuals. To such theorists, transsexualism is likewise a social construct:

The medical profession need not direct the gender dissatisfied to surgery. Counselling is possible to encourage clients to take a more political approach to their situation and to realize that they can rebel against the constraints of a prescribed gender role, and relate to their own sex in their native bodies.
-- Jeffreys, “Transgender Activism: A Lesbian Feminist Perspective,” 1 J. Lesbian Stud. 55, 70 (1997) (suggesting SRS be proscribed as “crime against humanity”); see also id. at 56 (citing Raymond, The Transsexual Empire (Teachers College Press 1994)).

Yet a third school of thought is that the origins of at least many (but not all) transsexual feelings--particularly those with extensive histories of secret transvestism--is that it’s not about gender, but about a particular kind of erotic attachment.
See, e.g., Blanchard, “Typology of Male-to-Female Transsexualism,” 14 Archives Sexual Behav. 247 (1985); Cohen-Kettenis & Gooren, “Transsexualism: A Review of Etiology, Diagnosis and Treatment,” 46 J. Psychosomatic Res. 315, 321-22 (1999) (summarizing research); Lawrence, “Clinical and Theoretical Parallels Between Desire for Limb Amputation and Gender Identity Disorder,” 35 Archives Sexual Behav. 263 (2006).
Scholars of this school regard SRS as justified--not so much to cure a disease, but because SRS relieves suffering from an intense, innate, fixed, but otherwise unobtainable desire.
See, e.g., Dreger, “The Controversy Surrounding The Man Who Would Be Queen: A Case History of the Politics of Science, Identity, and Sex in the Internet Age,” 37 Archives Sexual Behav. 366, 383-84 (2008).
These are all intensely contested viewpoints. The fourth and currently predominant view among those professionally involved in the field is the one urged by O’Donnabhain, and not effectively contested by the Commissioner: that the reason a transsexual person seeks SRS is to correct a particular type of birth defect--a mismatch between the person’s body and her gender identity. That mismatch has a name--GID--if not yet any clinically verifiable origin, and SRS (plus hormone therapy) is simply the correct treatment of the disorder.
I profess no expertise in weighing the merits of biodeterminism, feminism, or any of the competing theories on this question. But the majority’s decision to devote significant analysis to the importance of characterizing GID as a disease, and SRS as its medically necessary treatment, pulls me into such matters to give context to the majority’s analysis.

That's about it for the other theories. We're insane, evil, or perverts.

And to treat us so we don't actually die would be to co-operate with a mental illness (because there HAS to be a "talking cure" according to their ideology, they've only been looking for it for 80 years, after all), or to commit a "crime against humanity" (again, because that's what their ideology says it is), or is justified because sexual deviants are people too. That plays real well with the voting public and legislature.

Notice a certain common thread that binds these three very contradictory views together? All three have been used as reasons to deny us basic human rights in the past - and will no doubt continue to be used in the future.

I guess we're lucky. Because those prejudiced against us can't agree on exactly why we're a Bad Thing(tm). Just that we are. And that rather undercuts their case, and strengthens our contention that the animus against us has no rational basis. I don't think even the Jews have been accused by Anti-Semites of being Evil, Psychotic, and Deviant.

It's been 8 years since Ms O’Donnabhain put in her 2001 Tax Return. It's taken 8 years, and untold expense, to claim the huge sum of.... $5,679. Actually less, the amount for breast augmentation was disallowed as having its necessity insufficiently evidenced in this particular case. So her refund will be less than $5,000.

Other TS people will now be rushing to file amended returns. Too bad the cut-off date is 3 years, so if they had treatment before 2007, they're out of luck.

For the rest - Many Happy Returns.

Don't Ask....

I will though.

Who said:

The Army is not a sociological laboratory; to be effective it must be organized and trained according to the principles which will insure success. Experiments to meet the wishes and demands of the champions of every race and creed for the solution of their problems are a danger to efficiency, discipline and morale and would result in ultimate defeat.

Was it
a) John McCain?
b) Phyllis Shaffly?
c) Col. Eugene R. Householder?

Well, it wasn't John McCain. He said about the anti-gay "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT) policy:

The day that the leadership of the military comes to me and says, 'Senator, we ought to change the policy,' then I think we ought to consider seriously changing it."

That was in 2006. Now the last three Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, including the current one, all support the repeal of DADT, he's said

At this moment of immense hardship for our armed services, we should not be seeking to overturn the 'don't ask, don't tell' policy."

A double reverse back-flip. But no cigar.

And it wasn't Phyllis Shaffly. She said

The primary purpose of the armed forces is to prevail in combat, not to engage in leftist social engineering."

That's pretty close. But not close enough.

No, the guernsey goes to Col. Eugene R. Householder, addressing a gathering of Negro Editors and Publishers the day after Pearl Harbor, to tell them that the Army couldn't Integrate now.

More on that subject at Integration of the Armed Forces, 1940-1965 by Morris J. MacGregor, Jr. Published by the Center of Military History, United States Army.

Just a Coincidence

Trigger Warning for any Trans woman.
Have hankies ready before viewing.
You're about to see your soul exposed.
If you're pre-op, I need say no more.
If post-op, some very emotionally loaded memories will be recalled.

And if anyone reads this who is not Trans, and wants to understand what the experience is like as a teenager - just view this clip.

If a trans scriptwriter were to base a character on the distorted webified impression of a Trans/IS Rocket Scientist doing a PhD in evolutionary computation, a woman who was one of the more visible small fish in the even smaller pool that is the trans community... it might turn out something like Zoe. Or maybe the scriptwriter's just a Dr Who fan.

We Have The Technology