This time, it's Ragnarok.

I'm in another Internet/Net Game parlor filled with high-school boys. This one's in Thailand, not Botswana. On one side of me is a kid playing some first-person shooter (could be Counterstrike), and on my other side is one playing Ragnarok, or some other similar Korean game.

Ah, the rattle of simulated automatic weapons fire. Brings back fond memories of Julian's basement, and those massive Halo-fests. :)

So, anyone ever play one of the Korean games? I'm under the impression they're like EverQuest or Asheron's Call, but I don't know this for sure. Have they arrived in the States or are they just all over Asia?

So, what is it about motor scooter riders, anyway?

From the Caribbean to Taiwan, from Thailand to Italy, wherever you see little motor scooters, you see them driven in a manner that can only be described as suicidally reckless, or homicidally insane. Even normally sane drivers are transformed as soon as their hands grab the handlebars of a Piaggio (this often happens in holiday resorts) into *inexperienced* suicidally reckless scooter riders, often with the results you'd expect.

*wham* *crunch* *ow*

I first encountered this alarming phenomenon in Taipei, while stepping off a bus. As I did so, a scooter zoomed by in the 18 inch space between the bottom step of the bus and the curb. I narrowly missed hitching a ride on the scooter by snagging my foot.

dirque says he loves the scooters but all the riders need to die.

It looks like scooter riders go through the following thought process, which I hesitate to dignify with the term "logic": "I'm not a car, so I don't need to obey rules of the road for cars; I'm not a bicycle, so I don't need to obey bicycle rules; I'm certainly not a pedestrian. Therefore, I don't need follow any rules! Besides, I can dodge anything."

So what it is it? The more analytical part of me believes it's because in most places you don't need a licence to register or ride one of these things. Also, in most places where these devices are a significant part of traffic (Thailand, Italy, etc.) most everyone is in a state of denial about traffic laws, so it'd be a stretch to expect a scooter driver to pay them any attention.

The rest of me is just amazed I don't see more dead scooter riders strewn about the roads.