All communication must involve both a sender and a receiver of messages, simply because you send a message to someone and s/he is not available to receive a message, then sending doesn’t exist. Of course we often think of communication in the form of written or verbal, but communication conveys through actions are also as important, and if not more so in the business world, this is Kinetic messages. A simple gesture such as a wink, a frown, a smile, a sigh, a nod, they all convey messages. So do grooming, attire, posture, temper, punctuality, and so forth.

I think many times we sent Kinetic messages without realizing it and it’s being sent and received continually. In fact, they are very important because they determine whether people can get along and work together harmoniously, and whether a business can maintain good relationships with its customers. Typically the message transmitted through action will have greater impact than the message transmitted through words, I guess that’s why they say “actions speak louder than words.” I would say that business people have to be just as concerned about what they do as much as what they say, many people that I know got fired from their job because of the Kinetic messages, the verbal just made things worse.

As for me, another types of communication that’s interesting is the Metacommunications. These are messages in between the lines, and at this point, I think it’s good to be a mind reader, sadly I’m not one but I do have good hunches. These messages are not literally expressed in words, but they accompany messages that are expressed in words. Kind of confusing in my opinion and of course they also vary in meaning, I can read the message, and think it’s one thing, and someone else could read the same message and interpret it differently. Also both Kinetic and Metacommunications are present in all messages, whether written or spoken, these messages convey ideas in addition to the ideas expressed in words. All actions, or even failure to act at all have meaning, something to think about.

This is a Carolina Blue sky, with a little help from a polarizing filter of course.

My Ginkgo tree is turning yellow, the fan like leaf shapes are absolutely beautiful this time of the year.

Lee has her own sense of fashion style, you won’t find this outfit anywhere, I made part of it myself last year, not something that I’m proud of.  It’s funny how she puts her outfit together, kind of amuse to watch her dressed sometimes. I asked her what she wants to be when she grow up?  She went from wanting to be a painter to a hat maker, and when she saw the new sewing  machine that my oldest sister lent us, she now wants to be a fashion designer. She wants to learn how to sew, I think she is ready, I started out a bit older than her, might be around 10 or 11 years old.

As for leaf raking,  she is a good helper.

Max wants to be in on the action also.

Again, we didn’t get to tour the town of Asheville, North Carolina.  This is a charming little town where time seems to stand still, as you can see that even McDonald looks retro.

This made me think of Luang Prabang, Laos where modernization has not touched but embraced what’s already there, below is a photo of Wat Xieng Thong, one of the most beautiful Buddhist Temples in my opinion.

The Rose garden is kind of bare at this time of the year, I missed the Rose peak season and maybe I’ll have better luck next year.

But there are still a few blooms left for me to admire.

At first I didn’t know why there were so many onlookers gazing at this Chinese Wisteria tree, but heard the popping noise from a distance.

The question that ’s on everyone’s mind, what made it pop?  I’m not sure if it were because it was warm during the daytime, and by evening the weather cools down and causes the Wisteria pods to pop open. I’m not a science person, so I might be way off here.

I think the Red Poinsettia flowers are the most common one that we see around this time of the year, I often think of it as a Christmas flower.

I was surprised to see a huge Red Poinsettia tree at Hor Phra Keo in Vientiane, Laos last year. This made me think that it’s a tropical plant after all.

Red Poinsettia was the only color that I knew of, kind of surprised to see other colors, especially pink.

Magic Lantern, click here to see the whole tree.

This made me think of the one that my Aunt has in Paksan, Laos.

Well, hers was not as pretty as the one above, but it’s the same idea, you get the picture.

Not very often that you would see a Jade plant in bloom, it’s commonly known as Jade plant, friendship tree, lucky plant or Money Plant.

And rows and rows of Chrysanthemum flowers, I’m glad that I didn’t miss it this year.

Achieving 1 million hits is a big deal to me because Nye Noona is a personal blog, I blog about my life, my interests and anything in between and certainly didn’t expect this kind of traffic.  My goal was to achieve this before my 3 year anniversary, November 26, 2009, but you all have been very kind and tuned in more often than expected, a big thanks to all.

This is an assignment from Scott Thomas Photography, Assignment 4: November.  You are welcome to participate, I think it would be interesting to see what November means to you.

The month of November made me think of Chrysanthemum flowers, this picture was taken at Biltmore Estate last Sunday.

But what November means to me is less time to play outside, especially in my garden, as the days are getting shorter, and nights longer.  I feel trapped inside, and keep thinking of the beautiful vibrant autumn leaves that are falling off the trees one by one, wondering if I would ever see the last falling leave.  As for my dog Max, I know he would, he has all the time in the world.

It’s obvious that he has got it made, he even has the time to stop and smell the fire hydrants.

Danny is booking more with JCPenny these days, here is another photo of him modeling for men leather jackets, a link to JCPenny.com.

I love blue sky, but could never figured out how photographers get their skies to be this blue, and thanks to the tip from Scott Thomas Photography.  These were taken with a polarizing filter, and not photoshop.

Fish in the pond asking for food, I don’t think we’re allowed to feed them.

There are still some flowers in the garden, I will post that next, see what Biltmore Garden is like in November.

I missed the peak season of the Autumn leaves, I was looking forward to this year but with the busy schedule and unkind weather, it was impossible to get up here.

It was late in the evening, we hung around to wait until dusk.

Biltmore employees started to light the candles to make the paper bag luminaries.

My niece came with us this time, she loves the Christmas tree decorations inside the Biltmore House, and also the Christmas lights.

This was taken around 5:15 PM, it gets dark faster these days.

Lee was not too thrilled about the Christmas lights, she was ready to head back after she got her toys from the gift shop.  It had been a long day for them, we got there too early because most people started coming around 5 PM to see the Christmas lights, and here we got there around 12:30 PM.

And by 5:48 PM, the wait was well worth it.

We left there at 6:00 PM, by then it was completely dark.

Christmas seems to start earlier and earlier every year, and at Biltmore House, the Christmas tree lights were lit on Friday November 6, we got to visit yesterday. I’ve more photos and will post when I have more time.

I was inspired by a comment made by Abbas, “He has set free the two seas meeting together. There is a barrier between them. They do not transgress. ” (Quran, 55:19-20) on the Water: The Two Colors River post, I found that it’s not only in Laos and Thailand that have the two colors river, but in other parts of the world as well, this one is very profound, it is the meeting of the waters Rio Negro and the Rio Solimoes in Manaus, Brazil, photographs by Global Nomad1 at Flickr.

According to Global Nomad1, the dark water from the Rio Negro gets its color from the humic acids of decomposing forest litter. The muddy waters of the Rio Solimoes originate in the Peruvian Andes, where erosion contributes huge quantities of sediment. The two rivers meet near the city of Manaus in the Brazilian Amazon. Photo taken from ~ 3,000 ft on Jan 30, 2008, photo Source.

Hi there, thanks for tuning in, if you are new here or not so new, but tune in everyday and only saw part of the post and just might not know it.

My GI Joe sister tunes in almost everyday but I can’t say that she saw every pictures that I posted, she often asked me, “where did you put it? I only saw a few pictures.” I tried to explain to her on the phone, but it didn’t help because she was not seeing what I’m seeing. I finally had a chance to sit down and show her, see the Read the rest of this entry >> below, you can click at that and read the rest of this post, I only do this when the post is very long.

As for my GI Joe sister, I do have to give her credit for being able to surf the Internet with ease now.  But she still doesn’t know much about the technical side, one of her American friends looked at her computer recently because it has been running very slow, and said to her, “Gosh, you’ve so much cookies in your computer, you need to get rid of your cookies to make your computer run faster.”

Photo borrow from Sim’s blog.

She was a bit alarmed to hear this, her replied, “Are you kidding me, I never bring cookies to eat at my computer before!” He just shook his head, and tried to explain, but I can’t say that she got the concept. Next time I need to send Lee over to teach her about how stuff works in the computer, I’m sure she can make all her cookies disappear.

With the time change on Sunday night, I actually drive home in the dark now, and I saw a full moon tonight.  This made me think of Loy Krathong, I knew it was that time of the year and sure enough many places in Thailand celebrated their Loy Krathong over the weekend.

The Loy Krathong Festival takes place in all parts of Thailand, and in Laos, it is called Lai Heur Fai Nam, this takes place on the full moon night of the Twelfth Lunar Month. The Krathong or Heur Fai is made of banana leaves that contains flowers, candles and incense sticks, as well as some food and coins placed in there.

When I was little living in Thailand, I was told that Loy Krathong is a traditional Thai way of life, it is widely believed that these are offerings made to Mae Khongkha (mother of waters) either to please her in an expression of gratitude for providing life-sustaining water throughout the year, and to ask her for forgiveness for man’s carelessness in polluting the water that nourishes all life. Many also believe that by setting adrift the krathong, one symbolically casts away one’s grief, misery, and ill fortunes. Coins are also placed in the krathong as offerings. For the romantic at heart and young couples, Loy Krathong is the time to make wishes for happiness together and success in love.

The Lanna (Northern Thai people) use sky lanterns all year round for celebrations and other special occasions. And on Loy Kratong festival, lovers and partners gather on the riverbanks to float flowers and candles, launch fireworks and release sky lanterns together, also known as Khom Loy or Khom Fai. It is considered good luck to release a sky lantern, and many Thais believe they are symbolic of problems and worries floating away.

This year’s event, Loy Krathong Sukhothai.

More information on the Lanna celebration.

My GI Joe came to visit us over the weekend and she made a Thai Spicy Beef or Nom Tok for us on Sunday.

Ingredients: sliced Onion, chopped Kaffir Lime leaves, chopped Galang, chopped Lemon Grass, Lime juice, Mint leaves, sliced Chili peppers, ground Chili peppers, sliced Scallion, chopped Parsley, grilled (broiled) Beef and broth, Shrimp paste, and Fish sauce.

It was rainy outside, and she couldn’t grill her steak, so she broiled it for about 15 minutes, then sliced into thin slices.

She reheated the broth from the grilling pan, and add Shrimp paste but not fish sauce, she said to add that last for flavor.

She mixed the sliced Beef, sliced Onion, chopped Kaffir Lime leaves, chopped Galang, chopped Lemon Grass, Lime juice, sliced Chili peppers, ground Chili peppers, and pour heated broth over it.

Then add Mint leaves, sliced Scallion, chopped Parsley last, and add Fish sauce last for taste.

I think this is very similar to our Lao dish Larb minus the Padek, or more of Thai(Lao) Issan dish.

Almost a month and a half later, Bo’s front lawn is coming along slowly just like he had promised, he told me back then that “don’t be alarmed, it’s going to look worse before it looks better because Zenith Zoysiagrass is a slow-growing grass.  And last night the front lawn took a lot of abuse from the many tricker treaters that we had.

He planted his grass 2 times, almost 2 weeks apart since he didn’t have enough seeds the first round.

The second seeding came along slower, I think the cold weather also stunt the growth because I’ve seen these the size of a rice grain for several weeks now.

He used a different types of seed for the side-yard next to the driveway, he called this the smart seed.

I’m surprised that I still have many Gardenia in blooms, these two big bushes are next to my driveway.

I can’t say that Halloween was the same as when I was a kid, I guess it was because I grew up in the city, not knowing much about Halloween and had never gone trick or treating. In fact, Halloween was something that I didn’t look forward to, I dreaded going to school on that day, and had to hurry home because I didn’t want to get hit by eggs.  I took the subway home, and the walk from the subway station to our apartment was like a war zone, kids would be up on the rooftop of a 4 to 6 story apartment buildings throwing eggs down to passerby, I had to run fast to be able to dodge the egg bombs.

I’m happy to say that it’s not like that anymore, especially for Lee.  We live in a small town now, and our neighborhood is very safe and we’ve a huge turn out every year, kind of surprised me that we seemed to have more this year than last year, even though it rained part of the night, but people didn’t mind coming out at all.

Lee was dressed up as Princess Jasmine, a fictional Arab princess and the heroine of the 1992 Disney film Aladdin.

I was surprised to see several adults dressing up to give out candies, this lady was dressed up as the Chick-fil-A Cow.

My camera didn’t do too good with night shot, also might be that I don’t have a steady hand.

Some neat and cute customs.

Bo was running out of candies fast, he went through our pantry and gave out anything that he could find, cool aid, animal crackers, potato ships, popcorn…

Believe it or not, I got a hot dog, there was a block party and they gave out hot dogs and sodas last year, but only hot dog this year.

We had people from other neighborhood dropping off their kids, I guess they were neighborhood hopping, something that we had never done before, just our neighborhood alone is about 1 to 2 miles walk.

This is a translated article from Koosang Koosom Magazine, written by Marood/Din Dang in Thai Language, translated by Nye.

In 1992 (Thai year 2535) I was working as an Ambulance Driver at one of the local hospitals in the Northern part of the Issan region.  My job was to pick-up and drop-off patients, and sometimes helped handling patients by moving them in and out of their beds or anything else that they asked me to do.

One day, we had a patient that was in a car accident and he was from Krung Thep, and came to visit the area as a tourist.  He was in critical condition, and they had to perform an emergency brain surgery because he had sustained a cerebral hemorrhage.  He was in critical care for 1 week, and passed away.  I had to drop off his body in Krung Thep and had his male relatives, 2 monks, and my co-worker named Pi Song that came along for the ride.

We left the hospital around 5 in the evening and I drove while Pi Song sat in the passenger side to keep me company, and in the back were 2 of his male relatives, 2 monks chanting on and off as part of the ceremony for his soul to rest in peace, and my job was to keep on driving.

Wat Hua Lamphong Bells, photographs by Mataho

We got to Krung Thep around 3 AM, his relatives told me to drop him off at Wat Hua Lamphong.  I parked the car and helped carried the body, I stayed at the foot because I was afraid, and the atmosphere in the middle of the night was very eerie.  At that time there were several people that came to open the Sala Wat (Buddhist Temple Worship Hall) and about 6 or 7 of his relatives were there waiting, but I was still afraid.  I helped wheeled the body into the Sala and lifted the body onto a bed.  I was in a hurry, still lifted from the foot because I didn’t dare go near his head since he had had surgery there and they wore a hat for him.  Since I wouldn’t lift from that end, then it was a job for Pi Song, he lifted from the head side, while I stayed at the foot end.

Pi Song and I finished our job, and it was going on  passed 3 AM, and we bid them farewell.  To be honest, it was very eerie at the time and I was so afraid.  His relatives were very kind, and gave us each 500Baht (Approximately $15).  I then asked Pi Song to go say good bye to the body and lit incense sticks and told him, “We came to drop you off, and it’s time for us to go back home, please let us travel safely back.”

After that I invited the two monks back into the Ambulance, but then it wouldn’t start.  I was puzzled because it had plenty of gas, and the battery, and spark plug were working fine, but why it wouldn’t start no one knew.  His relatives told us to stay at the Sala (Worship Hall) with them till the morning and they’ll have someone to look at it for us, so we had no choice and stayed up and talked to the relatives until 5 AM.  At the first light of dawn, I crank up the car again, and this time it started.

We got back around 4 PM, I dropped off the monks at the temple and drove back to the hospital.  The hospital then gave me a day off the following day.  The morning after that, I came to work as usual and  I met one of the nurses that worked there named Pi Pboy and she asked me, “Por, yesterday I went to Wat (Buddhist Temple) and saw Por drove the Ambulance into the Wat.”

I replied, “Oh, yesterday I dropped off the monks, we just came back from Krung Thep.” Pi Pboy then said, “Awwh, I saw the body in the back of the Ambulance, my husband also saw, we were confused as to why you drove the body to Wat but only parked in front of the worship hall.” She went on and said, “The body was covered with a red blanket, and wore a hat, is that right?”

Pi Pboy described the body as if she saw it with her own eyes, I had chilled because she couldn’t have known this since she didn’t work the shift when I left the hospital with the body, but this, she was describing what I just dropped off, how could she have seen it?

Two-three days had passed, and I was working the night shift.  When I approached the parked Ambulance, the one that I used to drop-off the body the other day,  it started to shake, rocking side to side, but I kept thinking that I might have seen things, so I examined the vehicle very carefully and it was parked in a normal spot.  I was curious, so I approached the vehicle and I smelled something rotten from the car.  I was so afraid and took off running toward the hospital.  I waited till morning and asked Pi Song to come with me and when we opened the front and back doors of the Ambulance, the pungent, rotten smelled flew out and kicked our noses, but it was only for a brief moment.  I wanted to know where the smell came from, so we looked around, through the nook and cranny and saw a black waist pouch and clothes that belonged to the body that we just dropped off, but I forgot to give it to him.

No wonder, he came to get his stuff.  I immediately told the hospital staff to contact his relative and for them to come and pickup his stuff.