RIP Louie Anderson

Another comic legend passed away. I didn't follow Louie's career too closely until he co-starred in Baskets. He channeled all of his life's struggles-- a drunk father, ten dysfunctional but loving siblings, weight, repressed sexuality-- into that singular character. The show is not everyone's cup of tea, but I highly recommend watching a few to see if you like it. 

Bald and Bankrupt goes to Soviet exclave/enclave

This is thoroughly fascinating. Be sure to watch to the very end.

Hiking Santa Cruz Island

I'm planning a short solo trip. It has to be within California. I'm thinking about visiting the Channel Islands, just north of Los Angeles. I'm not an outdoorsy person, but these vistas are amazing.

Eating the Globe: Kazakhstan

Once in a while, I'll do a country word search on Yelp to see if there are any new exotic restaurants. I searched the word "Kazakhstan" yesterday and found a new place in San Carlos! Perfect. The eatery proclaims that it offers Russian, Kyrgyz, Kazakh, and Uzbek cuisine. The Central Asian entrees are mostly pretty similar. Fortunately, the cashier was Kazakh (the owner was Kyrgyz) and she suggested that I get the laghman noodles if I wanted to cross Kazakhstan off my list. 

It was pretty pricey at $18, but it was pretty good. I think they put cinnamon in the sauce. The ingredients were fresh and the portions generous. That hot sauce was very spicy.

Africa: Algeria, Angola, Benin, Burundi, DR Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, Zimbabwe

Asia: Afghanistan, Armenia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, Cambodia, China, East Timor, Georgia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Nepal, North Korea, Pakistan, Palestine, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Syria, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Yemen

Europe: Albania, Andorra, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, Vatican City

North America: Barbados, Belize, Canada, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, St Kitts & Nevis, Trinidad & Tobago, USA

South America: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, Venezuela

Oceania: Australia, Fiji, Marshall Islands, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tonga

Colin Thubron's The Amur River

One of my 2022 goals is to read ten books. With Covid keeping us at home once again, I finished the first book already. It's Colin Thubron's The Amur River. Thubron is one of my favorite travel writers. His books about Central Asia and Siberia inspired me to travel to exotic places via inconvenient means and opened my mind to less-studied cultures.

Thubron, incredibly, followed the entire length of the Amur River from Mongolia to Russia to China and back to Russia. He rode horses (and broke two ribs and a femur), walked, hitchhiked, rode buses, and even went on a hydrofoil. He did all this at the age of 80. This is in all likelihood his final adventure, and I got melancholy while reading his journey. It's a story about how China and Russia influenced this area for a thousand years, and how the people of the two nations see each other now. Russians in general distrust the Chinese. The Chinese in general see Russia as a source for raw materials. 

True size of Australia

 

Eating the Globe: Belarus

I found these strawberry flavored marshmallows online. They are very sweet. I think I will try them with tea next time.

Africa: Algeria, Angola, Benin, Burundi, DR Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, Zimbabwe

Asia: Afghanistan, Armenia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, Cambodia, China, East Timor, Georgia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Nepal, North Korea, Pakistan, Palestine, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Syria, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Yemen

Europe: Albania, Andorra, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, Vatican City

North America: Barbados, Belize, Canada, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, St Kitts & Nevis, Trinidad & Tobago, USA

South America: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, Venezuela

Oceania: Australia, Fiji, Marshall Islands, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tonga

Rio Tinto Mongolian copper mine feeds 6,000 people

That's a proper institutional dining facility! More on the mine here.

Afghanistan today

This is worth a watch during winter break. France24 interviewed female activists, opium growers, local officials, and many others to show what Taliban rule is like.

Getting into Lego

The boy is four and has a lot of fun with the larger Duplo toys. I had not thought about transitioning him to regular Lego yet because he's not old enough and I can't imagine stepping on a million loose pieces with my bare feet. But our neighbor bought him a camper van (for ages 5+) for Christmas and we had a great time building it together. He even slept with it last night.

I guess I should not be surprised that there are YouTubers who review and analyze Lego sets.

We will get more soon. This super complex and expensive Millennium Falcon is unbelievable.