I'm headed to Hong Kong for the week - I'll be sure to post a story & some photos when I get back!

I wanted to post this a couple of weeks ago, but never got around to it. To all my friends living in warmer climates (who cannot believe the temps), here's some proof:

I tried googling myself today - it seems as though I'm not quite as inconspicuous as I had originally thought. It seems my tenure at MKE has made me well known to the entire internet. Of course, someone has to be interested enough to type 'jeremy irwin' into the google search, but I won't get into that... ; )

I had the FNP (Friday Night Party) crew over for dinner & drinks last night. I hadn't been to an FNP since November, so we were well overdue for a dinner party. We had originally decided on an Indian theme, but changed our minds. Carrie & Noel didn't get the updates until late, so dinner was more of a fusion. The menu included samosas, dal, sauteed veggie sandwiches with fresh mozzerella & pesto, Meyer Secret Family Recipe salad, caramel/apple cake, pisco sours, beer, and vodka.

I had a bottle of pisco (bought in Peru in 2005) that was never opened, so we made drinks. For anyone that hasn't had one, I can recommend it. If you like mojitos, margaritas, caipirinhas you will enjoy a pisco sour. Here's a good recipe: http://www.drinksmixer.com/drink7497.html

After dinner, we busted out some guitar hero. I'm not certain how loud we were, but I'm guessing it was fairly noisy. We captured some awesome pics - the best are highlighted below.

Jason plays air guitar while Syd & Carrie rip it up

Looks like Ryan is concentrating too much

My blog from my recent holiday in Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos is finally completed! After 30+ hours of turning my journal into the blog, editing photos, and putting everything online, I can finally take a break from Blogger & Flickr for a bit. Here are the links - they are also to the right -->

Blog: http://jeremyinlaos.blogspot.com
Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jmirwin

I'm happy to report that I'm going snowboarding this weekend at Granite Peak with Lil Buddy - hopefully I'll have some photos to post.

Things have been crazy lately, and I'm sitting at home enjoying the first day of being at home in awhile.

Andy & Holly were married this weekend - the ceremony & party went off really well. The reception was @ Delafield Brewhaus, so we had plenty of good food & drinks. It was a very convivial evening (convivial is one of my new words). A few of the better photos are posted @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/jmirwin

Last week I was working in Switzerland; I didn't have much time for leisure, but I managed to spend a few hours in the central portion of the country. It wasn't exactly the heart of the alps, but the scenery was fantastic. I learned a few german words, that I'm certain to forget. I can now ask for the bill (recnung bitte), so I'm basically on the path to speaking as well as a native...

On the weekend of 11/3, Corey & Leanne were married as well. Standing up in two weddings within three weeks has kept my weekends extremely short. Congrats to you lovebirds - the wedding was fantastic!

Two weeks prior to their wedding, I was working in the Netherlands for a week. I posted some photos onto my Flickr account, but (once again) I didn't have a lot of time for leisure activities, as I was busy bringing home the bread.

James & I are headed to Myanmar on Thanksgiving, assuming that his visa arrives before Thursday. If things don't work out, I figured that we could head to northeastern India for a bit, visit Athith & Phouvieng in Laos, be awed by Angkor Wat, and spend a few days in Thailand. My mission for the next several days will be to get all of my things in order, and my bag packed so that we can head out on 11/22. I'll be back on Dec. 23, just in time to do some last minute Christmas shopping & spend some quality time with my family & friends. I'll be sending a few emails once I'm in SE Asia, but I expect internet access to be fairly non-existent inside of Myanmar, so I'll have to post when in Thailand & Cambodia.

For everyone that I haven't seen in awhile - I hope that your holiday season is filled with happy times & contentment. It's one of the only times of the year when I think that everyone around me is in good spirits, and happy to be alive.

Photos

I've just posted some photos from the Netherlands & Halloween.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jmirwin/

Many of my friends & family have contacted me the past couple of days in regards to the situation in Myanmar. I'm happy to see that there is some interest in what is happening in that country, even if my upcoming trip is the only reason why people are choosing to care. I'm eager to see the resistance & pro-democracy demonstrations gain some momentum. There have always been pockets of resistance to the military government, but it's been mostly comprised of small militias of 'rebels' who are fighting with weapons. I've read several articles/posts on message boards that warn against taking the Yangon --> Mandalay night train due to potential ambushes by the rebels. (There are a large majority of Burmese military officers that commute on the night train from Rangon.) There are many parts of Myanmar that are closed to foreigners, and I expect that many of the areas either contain fighting or the forced labor that I've read about so often.

It's great to see the monks leading the charge for peaceful demonstrations. If there is one factor that can unite the country made up of so many different ethic groups, it's Buddhism.

I've been keeping tabs on the events daily, quietly hoping that progress will be made towards freedom. I fear that the violence of 1988 will be repeated if the international community doesn't step in - especially China & India. While the US & most of Europe has economic sanctions against Myanmar, the country has been able to operate mostly due to its neighbors who have overlooked the atrocities.

Aung San Suu Kyi (the Nobel Prize laureate currently under house arrest in Rangon) wrote a great essay about how fear is the reason for corruption, and I see today's events as an example. The government is backed into a corner; every day that the marches are allowed to continue, they will gain more people and more press. With the imposition of the curfew, maybe the government is obviously trying to quarantine the people, as well as limit the exposure of the happenings to the media.

Only time will tell - I'll be anxiously watching the reports. I hope everyone reading this appreciates what we call freedom, because there are tens of thousands of people in Myanmar risking their lives for what we take for granted.

Here's a small selection of the news articles:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14663814
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/09/25/myanmar.protest.ap/index.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7012673.stm

MS 150 Bike Tour


This past weekend I rode my bicycle from Waukesha > Whitewater > Madison to raise money for Multiple Sclerosis. My grandmother, my uncle, and an aunt have MS so I have a very compelling reason to ride. For those of you who aren't familiar with MS, here's a good explanation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_sclerosis. There currently is not a cure for MS. Some drugs that have been able to stop the disease from disabling the person, and they also help them to recover after an attack.


We started on Saturday morning at 7:30; there were 19 riders on our team. I joined my FIB friends from Illinois - Amil, Greg, and Jim. All of us wanted to ride 100 miles both days, so we stayed together with the goal of reaching 200 miles. All of them are experienced cyclists, which is great because everyone can ride at the same pace in a draft line.


On Saturday, we had beautiful weather. The sun didn't shine for more than 15 minutes all day long, but the clouds kept us cool and the humidity was low. We were lucky to escape the onslaught of rain that occured in the afternoon - we reached our team tent at the same time that the rain started. We ate, checked into the Whitewater dorms, showered, and headed to the Saturday night party. Cyclists were honored on stage for years of participation, as well as how much money was raised. In total, all of the 1689 riders raised an incredible $1.65M for the continued research to cure MS.


The number of volunteers is amazing - these folks contribute their entire weekend to the cause. They support us by directing traffic, taking care of first aid issues, fixing bikes, distributing food, information, and liquids. I don't think that I met one volunteer who was in a bad mood! It was great to see that most of the volunteers & riders were there to show their support for cure for MS. Most people either have MS themselves, or they have friends/family that they ride/volunteer for.


I had a good weekend - I didn't fall, nor did I have any flats. However, Emil was very unlucky. He had two flats & a punctured tire on Saturday. On Sunday, he had another flat tire. Luckily most of these were near rest stops, but we had to repair one rim on the side of the road. Replacing the tube wasn't an issue, but keeping the mosquitos at bay was like trying to convince sharks to go home during a feeding frenzy.

I want to thank everyone who supported me - I appreciate your generosity.

Ryan Kari
Sanjay Venkateswarulu
Dan & Melissa Trittin
Lynn & Craig Mules
Claudia & Darryl Immel
Jason Shimko
John Byrne

I'll be posting photos on Flickr soon enough - Emil is mailing me a CD.

I'm headed to northern Wisconsin tonight for a weekend kayaking & camping. I should have something decent to share next week!

Since I'm a fan of irony, I'm sharing something that I ran across on the net. I am currently doing some research for a potential trip to Tibet. I was on the Weather Underground website, trying to figure out the climate in Tibet in November/December. I found this ad to be very amusing - I can meet 20-something blondes in Tingri, Tibet!