What are your jeans doing today?

[Osmosis Jones]

a little fun in the mountains

found a bunch of boulders in the middle of the forest

and then climbed on top

awesome view

[Bowie!]

steam bath at Kamojang crater,garut Indonesia

[Paul T]

Nice pics bowie, welcome!

Normal trip out Sunday morning, complete with normal hangover. Couple of places might be familiar: bagels, SDA jeans, Routemaster bus (an increasingly rare sight), buskers etc. But this was an even more fun morning than normal..

A little detour to Present, Shoreditch High St; best coffeee in East End, stocks SDA, LVC, and these excellent Heritage Research waterproofs, made from Millerain cotton - beautiful stuff, waxed cotton etc.

[Paul T]

Why more fun than normal? Well, cos I sold a few pairs of jeans recently and managed to get my car out of the shop. £250 down, about the same again to go, for new sills and driver's floorplan. THe old jalopy's getting on a bit; 45 years old. WE've seen the world in the old beast: driven across Spain, Italy, France, broken down in Verona, San Sebastian, you name it. Tomorrow morning, we take off; going west. If you see me at the side of the road, bonnet up, brow furrowed, make sure you wave!

[aso2004]

So another volvo nut around here..

Superb p1800 there, is that the original colour??

I am on my sixth Amazon now, a 123, no pix yet i but that will come after the paintjob which hopefully they will finish next month...

Makes sense with the jeans and other old stuff we care about that some of us are bound to drive old cars.

[Paul T]

yes, original colour. I love the 123 - used to have a 2-tone 1960 122S. And for a while I used to drive a Brisih Racing Green 220 estate... nearly bought it, got offered it cheap by the fella looks after mine but figured two old cars was insane. Still regret it.

Edit: I did add the cowhorn bumpers, old style grille and sidelights, though, just cos they look nicer. Looks like I need a new front number plate, to...

[aso2004]

Mine is a automatic...

I took a gamble on that but it is so nice not to having to shift all the time and drive.It is bad enuff having to cast your ego aside when you drive dead slow but the automatic gearbox still shifts like a dream after 43 years and keeps it ample in modern day traffic.

[erk]

awesome photos paul. I love the buskers and the shot of you drivin. what a cool car.

[pomata]

the last leg of the Giro d'Italia was passing by my house today. This is where I usually ride my bike as well but they did it like 7x my average speed. time trial, these guys reaelly go fast, impressive!

also: first day in these Samurais I got from Opeth. I'm liking them a lot, the denim is really different from all the ones I've got (more slubby) and the cut is slimmer.

[jstavrin]

evilcrayon: I know you're in the Bay Area, but which park is that?

[roy6]

My jeans & I walked through the Haight today:

We saw a number of highly disturbing things:

A necklace made by my friend Ms. Audra, at her shop Loved To Death. She tells me she gets the parakeet parts from a local bird breeder, from birds who have died of natural causes. She freezes them and taxidermies them as she had time and incorporates them into necklaces, brooches & rings. I shit you not.

At another shop, taxidermied ducklings:

And most disturbing of all, this display stand outside of a make-your-own-Tshirt shop:

WTF?

[beatle]

disturbing, indeed. People are weird. Anyways - the Roy's are looking great after the last couple of days and stretching**

[fardin]

Paul Wonderful Pics; One Gotta Love That Old Volvo!! Reminds Me Of Simon Templer; Haha: Beautiful Car

[Maynard Friedman]

Why more fun than normal? Well, cos I sold a few pairs of jeans recently and managed to get my car out of the shop. £250 down, about the same again to go, for new sills and driver's floorplan. THe old jalopy's getting on a bit; 45 years old. WE've seen the world in the old beast: driven across Spain, Italy, France, broken down in Verona, San Sebastian, you name it. Tomorrow morning, we take off; going west. If you see me at the side of the road, bonnet up, brow furrowed, make sure you wave!

Lovely car Paul, I used to see that around when I lived in Greenwich. First shot looks like you're driving through the Rotherhithe tunnel. By the way, as the shop sign states, it's beigel, pronounced 'buygall', not bagel! All true Eastenders know that

[riff]

What an amazing page!

First, Markus made me raid the fridge, then Evilcrayon made me remember how much my legs hurt after this morning's training ride, then Pomata reminded me that maybe I still need to ride harder Lucky you to get to watch the action!

Roy.... ROFLMAO, you sick bastard! And you're wearing your Roys too! :jealous fire:

Welcome bowie! Boy, I could use a hot spring right now - nice pics!

Paul, that car is sweet. Dang, I miss my old TR6!

[dkatz]

^BAHAHAHAHA. Riff! Track down that woman NOW, club her over the head, and drag her back to your cave!

Also, mother of crap, TT bikes are sexy. Thanks for reminding me, Pomota! (I miss my baby back home...)

I promise that big update is coming soon - as soon as I get time (hopefully tonight). Posting this from atop a log in outside a little church in Awika village, Arua District, North/West Nile region.

Found this nice big boulder a few minutes' walk from the church where we're surveying folks. Decided it was the right place to make some phone calls to check in on the enumerator teams in other districts (about 30 minutes ago).

(Always on the damn phone concept)

Click the photo for a couple more in WAYWT(DV) - I got a little photo happy while I was up there.

[holleman]

Thats a great photo! +rep

[butt]

found a tricycle

[dubcbadass]

Took the bz out for a day trip to the Deering Estate

where we saw this puny little shack of a place

(compared to the guy Deering's half-brother who built the behemoth Vizcaya which is in all types of movies about Miami) and then got to go inside to check out this

(ballin' banister decorations) and then got to go up on the roof because the guide was real nice

walked under these.

Obligatory self jawnz crotch shot (AW Grifters):

Sorry that my lens hood got in the way of all the shots. I gotta work that out. Enjoy.

[cheapmuthafukr]

today, my jeans got to ride in a 996 gt2.

thing is cazy... spinning tires in 3rd gear doing 70.

[therelativity]

Gardening and housework

took pictures of these MF- around 5months, no wash

tried on the freshly arrived ACL wool+cashmere pants

played with this little cuty

[DENIM SAILOR]

my jeans and i are about to weed and replant the garden,

the Danners want to help as well.

[Mixture]

Decided to go out and take some random pictures since i am still getting use to my camera.

[Mixture]

Then i got hungry so i got this

and this

but then i was still hungry so i looked at the menu again

then i got the parmesan crusted chicken

my cousin got this

for dessert

[dkatz]

So I'm pretty much just going to cannibalize from the blog I've been keeping for family & friends (and intentionally not sharing with you creeps). If this is getting to wordy and long-winded, let me know and I'll trim subsequent posts down.

[dkatz]

So I think my last post was after the first day of my enumerator training, when things were starting off well. The training went generally okay, but I managed to work myself to a point of exhaustion of becoming physically ill by the end of it. Not cool.

Last Sunday morning (23 May), after (again) not enough sleep (and after a transformer exploded into a delightful electrical fire at the end of my block Saturday night), the teams rallied at Lugogo mall to hop in their chariots (matatus) and hit the road:

The matatu I'd be taking to Mbale (East)

Too bad it was Sunday.

We were all supposed to leave when the printed surveys arrived at 9. We were also supposed to deliver said surveys to the printer on Saturday, 7 hours earlier than we actually did. Sooo we waited. And waited. And waited... and waited. 5 hours after arriving at Lugogo (at 7:45am), we finally got the last shipment of surveys and hit the road for an uneventful, but beautiful, five-hour drive to Mbale.

Local Member of Parliament elections were coming in Mukono (on the way to Mbale) - we passed a parade for one candidate.

Nearby, supporters of the incumbent party (the National Resistance Movement - Museveni's party) rallied

Cruising matatu-style

The idea had been to get in early and have a half-day for the enumerators to keep practicing the survey. The 5 hour delay, however, meant that we only had a couple hours to review. Again, bad news bears. I got through a couple rounds of practice, crossed my fingers, and sent everyone off for the night. The matatu dropped Katamba, Tony (team leaders) and me off at our guest house, and promptly left before I could retrieve my bag. No change of clothes, tooth brush or, well, much of anything else for me. Regardless, I dropped in bed exhausted and slept like a rock, albeit for not enough time (theme...) until 6:45.

Monday morning I headed out with one of the Mbale teams, planning on switching to the other team halfway through the day. Both teams had their first survey-sites (survey population are members of church youth groups) in Kapchorwa, home of Sipi Falls

Ascending a bewaterfalled plateau, green plains and farmland meeting the horizon on the other

In the past months, there have been a number of landslides in nearby Bududya district. The government has offered to relocate Bududyans (?) to the area in the above photo, just North from Kapchorwa. But Bududyans have resoundingly refused to move. Why? Karamajong cattle raiders! CATTLE RAIDERS. Yes, they still exist. The Karamajong are the people of Northeastern Uganda, very similar in culture to the Masai of Kenya. They are nomadic cattle-raising and cattle-raiding folks who manage to terrorize and terrify the hell out of their neighbors. Apparently this area just north of Kapchorwa butts up close enough to the Karamajong region that people are afraid to move there. Cattle raiders! (cowboys&Indians racing through my mind)

I also learned that "Kapchorwa" translates in the local language to "place of friends". Awwwwwwe.

Also, apparently most of Uganda's most serious athletes are from Kapchorwa, since it's location on a gigantic plateau, and resultant 6500 feet of elevation, make for excellent low-oxygen-trained-since-birth athletes. We actually saw a dude hauling ass down the plateau in full running regalia as we ascended.

We arrived at our first club, at a local secondary school. Upon entering the room, I was immediately intimidated. I haven't seen this kind of gibberish in 6 years:

The enumerator team got cracking pretty quickly, so I wandered around the school, making myself useless.

For some reason, schools in Uganda all tend to have these little motivational or informational signs all over the place. Just so, you know, you were wondering or uncertain:

[dkatz]

This country is so damn green, once you get out of Kampala!

Sitting on a little rock in the only spot I could find cell signal. 6 other teams all over the country were concurrently rolling out the research, and I'm the main point-person, so I need to be constantly contactable. Bummer when I have to sit in spots like this! (also what I was doing on that boulder in the picture a couple days ago)

And I took a picture of my favorite part of my shoes - this little cross-shaped stitch:

Funfortunately, I only had a few minutes to appreciate the scenery before everything started exploding.

The goal (well... "requirement" would be more accurate) for this baseline survey exercise is for each team to survey 10 clubs per week, with 12 (randomly) selected members of each club serving as respondents. The team leaders had already been working for over a week to begin scheduling their meetings with clubs and informing them of the 12 respondents needed, so we were feeling pretty confident. Furthermore, based on pretesting of the survey by myself and the team leaders, I knew the survey to take between 45 and (MAX) 1:30 to complete. With 12 respondents in 3 waves of 4, that meant teams should be able to cover 1 club in 4:30 max.

Welllll things didn't go quite so smoothly as we'd expected/hoped/planned for. To be honest, I think just about everything went wrong. And guess who was the go-to person for dealing with all issues as they arose, from seven teams in four districts in all distant corners of the country? This guy. Everything went wrong. E-ver-y-thing. Respondents not showing up. Enumerators taking THREE DAMN HOURS to survey one respondent. MORE mistakes on my baby questionnaire still being found (including mistakes I could SWEAR I remember fixing... . Respondents impersonating other respondents 'cause they think there will be handouts associated with the research. Matatus breaking down. Matatus getting stuck in mud and needing to be pushed. Matatus getting stuck in mud and requiring hiring of local kids to help push out of mud. Rainstorms. More rainstorms. Lack of cell signal. Murphy, go fuck yourself. I hate you and your law.

Allow me to summarize the day with this: I have this phone, a Nokia "Katorchy" (sp?) which is a terrific simple little phone. One of the features I most appreciate is the battery, which tends to last me a solid 5 days.

I burned through the ENTIRE battery on that Monday - so much was I on the phone, trying my damndest to put out fires.

Halfway through the day I decided I should check on the other Mbale team. I found myself a boda, and hopped on for the ~20 minute ride. Naturally, since I'm in Equatorial Africa and all, I didn't have a raincoat. Or a jacket of any sort. And so, also naturally, the rain started pretty much the moment I hopped on the back of the boda. Much though I tried to hunker down behind the (jacketed) boda-boda man, I was pretty well soaked, and freezing cold, by the time I reached the other team's survey site. Seeking shelter as quickly as possible, I made my way to the church they were interviewing in at as close to a dead sprint as my desire to not look like an unprofessional doofus would allow. Aaaaand, as I made the sharp turn to enter the doorway, I made sure to firmly plant my pivoting foot on the squishiest spot of loose mud I can find. And down I went. Straight into the mud.

Soaked, frigid, exhausted, stressed out of my damn mind, and now muddied down my entire right side, I entered the disaster that was this team. By 3:30, they were 2/3 through their first club. They'd arrived at 9, and were supposed to meeting their second club at 2. Shit. Suffice to say I had a knot the size of a small continent in my chest.

Fortunately, I at least kept my camera near at hand.

One of the enumerators trudging her way through the survey, in the unfinished church.

(More) looming rain-storms

The Mbale teams finished 8.5 hours after arriving at their first club, have completed what I had planned as a four-hour exercise. Only one of the seven teams around the country had actually managed to survey its two clubs that day. Fuck me.

Looking like a massive dork, with my hair needing a cut, a size-too-large organization-branded t-shirt tucked in (to Tellason Strummers) and a black nylon Timbuktu camera holster attached to my belt like I'm Batman or some shit:

Exhausted, stressed beyond all reason, and depressed to boot, I passed out hard for (say it with me now) not enough time. And Tuesday was almost not as bad.

Fortunately I at least went to sleep with the image of children playing with blown-up condoms as balloons in my mind:

That's all for today (up to 8 days ago). I'll try to catch up more soon.

I actually have a de facto most-of-day off today, due to a near enumerator-mutiny yesterday. Gonna go try to relax a bit... I haven't had more than a few hours at a time off from work in 5 weeks.

[ppsos]

today my jeans visited this....

vintage & repro chambray shirts, westerns etc.

in the closet there are Vintage Levi's, '93 LVC, and some japanese denims

on the wall, hang the vintage shirt, almost 100 years old

inner part of the store, vintage furniture

some are 100+ years

some ads which was"really" used in the past

this one is Sweet-Orr's

'70 and '90 converse

sorry, not the decent shot of the denim

[ihatebrianwilliams]

These two are just so good together.

[ranonranonarat]

first WAYJDT post since i got back to singapore.

met up a few friends for dinner tonight but had to trek for a bit to get to the place. ambience wasn't fantastic but the beer and food was good, so why not? worked up quite an appetite.

so here are my skull 5010xx 6x6s and i getting ready for a bit of a walk

we had to get across a train track

roads are all clear and ready, no accidental event of getting hit by a train

walking a well trodden path

quite a bit of a deadfall lying around the area

a little hut we passed by but were too hungry to check more of it out

nice little view with a big space, good for a photoshoot idea

a bit of graff about

and finally we get to the place we wanted to get too. they served a mean fried rice special which is your typcial fried rice but with ham and a special sunny side up. had two of these.

and to wash everything down with a nice, good, cold beer. everything was great again. midweek! have a great week sufu fam.