Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery …and Plagiarism

Travelling SE Asia, I see a lot of foreign companies are up to shenanigans when it comes to ripping off other products and ideas. Here’s one flagrant example I ran across not too long ago:

 

Legally, Cogo hasn't got a Lego to stand on

"Yes officer! I'd like to report a most heinous copyright infringement..."

Boy howdy would I like to write more and post more pics of this stuff, but WordPress seems to have changed a few things around in order to make it more difficult to use the free version*. Even putting up this small post has been a gigantic pain in the arse, so I’m just going to leave it there for now and go drink away the frustration. 

 

*There’s a 0.26% chance I’m wrong about this and have just forgotten how to post WP stuff since I make a new entry like once every two months. I mean, I can’t even seem to change the font size for this annotation fer chrissakes – arrrrhhhgg!!

Welcome to the Monkey House

Walk down the wrong backstreet in Hua Hin and you’ll run into a certain unpleasant fellow holding court outside a local guesthouse. If you ever wondered what J Edgar Hoover might look like as an ape, well:

The bikini-monkey is creepy on at least three levels

 

Actually, if you’re into monkeys, you’ll want to hop the local train and head about an hour and a half South of Hua Hin to a little town called Prachuap Khiri Khan. It has myriad macaques and a slew of Spectacled Lemurs. What it doesn’t have is a harem of hawkers (taking the alliteration a bit far there, I know but whatever), which makes for a very welcome change.

"Quick honey! Switch the wipers on!"

Monkey labour: cheaper than hiring regular builders... more reliable too

 

Massage Mayhem

Caught this instructional poster on massaging taped to the wall at the last place I stopped by for a rub. No wonder Thai massage has such a suspect reputation. Looks harmless enough at a glance, but check out some of the individual panels.

So relaxing, you'll puke everywhere

Shouldn't it be in your bladder?

 

I said I DIDN'T want that kind of massage this time!

Believe me, no one's going to be able to sleep once you let that out

 

I guess all of that explains why the mattress smelled so “funny.”

Cambodians Love Angry Birds

For some unknown reason, perhaps due to a cheap surplus supply of merchandise, every second kid in Cambodia sports an Angry Birds shirt.

2012 – Year of the Pepsicola

Diabetes is your friend, kids

So… it’s 2012. This year I resolve to write more blog. There’s photos of dogs doing dumb stuff that need exposure, dagnabbit.

In brief, since last posting, I’ve hauled myself through Vietnam from top to bottom, then floated happily along the Mekong into Phnom Penh, Cambodia. I have yet to acquire malaria, but there’s still time.

More later…

It’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good…

Pucca Up

In an age of digital abundance I often find scribbling things down in a notebook – one made from paper, not silicon – to be both convenient and satisfying. Many’s the time I’ve found myself with a drained laptop battery and no wall outlet to hook up to, but I’ve never had to plug in a piece of paper.

You don't really appear to have any

At 10-15 cents a pop, the classic notebook works out a lot cheaper than your standard Asus, Acer or Samsung model too. Of course you won’t exactly be playing Crysis 2 on one, but who needs that when there’s noughts and crosses to look forward to? Sure, it sucks a bit in single-player mode, but come on – use your imagination!

Probably coming on a little too strong there, Pucca

It’s easy enough to overlook, but the artwork they put on the front and back of some of these notebooks is pretty amusing and surreal. Just look at all the kiss-crazy nonsense going on on this one. There’s some psychotic looking girl with fire-cracker pigtails here demanding kisses. I mean, WTF?

This series is called Pucca and I’ve seen their strange antics before:

The type that's illegal in some states?

Five minutes of Google research reveals that this Pucca franchise (originating in South Korea) is huge, with cartoons, a theme park, and even a videogame on the Wii.

Who knew?