Thursday, December 20, 2018

Day 24

A productive day - ran 8 loops at the Garden, and because it was cleaning day I had to be out of the condo from 11:00am-1:00pm, so I walked to the Free Bird Cafe planning to work on my laptop. Fortunately I also brought along Luzhin's Defense because there were signs posted in the cafe - "Please no computer use in the cafe". I have not seen a sign like that before in any cafe or restaurant, and I thought back to my visits to Free Bird in 2012 when I would eat a good meal while editing pictures. I tried to think of a reason for the ban on computers, and the only idea I have is Lisa, the owner, does not want the the place to turn into a haven for "digital nomads", although seeing the place was fairly empty, I don't see how having the place crawling with bearded hipsters would be a bad thing. So I read a few pages of Luzhin and drank a passion fruit smoothie, this time opting not to order food because I still had a bitter taste in my mouth from the No-Curry Curry dish which I ate the last time I visited.

I also recalled from 2012 that I was able to make a printout using Free Bird's printer, thanks to the lovely waitress and teacher Maria, who I was on friendly terms with. However, I have not spoken to anyone at the Free Bird in 2018, and so I could not request use of their computer and printer. I thought back to the times when I would need some odd supply or piece of equipment, and my mind, in possession of the shocking gift of Materialization, would focus on the thing needed, and within a few days the thing would appear, usually through an unexpected source. The past 2 days I have been focusing on materializing a computer hooked up to a printer, and after reading at the Free Bird it materialized. I was walking to the CMU campus to see if I could find the university stadium, because I wanted to check out the running track. A few blocks before finding the stadium I was walking down a street filled with scooter traffic and I was passing a row of shops which had their doors open, and inside these shops were computers and printers, turned on and ready to be used. I was not thinking of my evisa so I passed a couple of the shops without realizing that my mind had materialized what I was in need of. When it finally struck me that I could print my visa on this street, I stepped into one of  the shops and not bothering to ask the rates or if I needed a reservation (I was so confident that I was going to get what I needed that the thought of a negative outcome was far away), I sat down  at a computer desk, plugged in my disk, opened the file, and pressed print. I watched the printer produce the visa, I pulled out my disk, and with visa in hand sought out the owner of the shop to pay up. When she saw me she smiled and I asked how much for 1 printout. "1 baht" she said, giggling. "1 bhat, oh I can give you more than that, you saved me a lot of trouble", and I handed her a 10b coin and left.

 Materialization Street