Hell yeah! Science! (Latest TVC is out)

A few months back, I wrote about my scientist job. Think, think, think, oh yes a unique biomarker derivative. It was a fun commercial to shoot, but also extra exciting because I had the opportunity to speak in the commercial.

While I am working on finding the full English version (which I doubt I will find), you can hear me in the background with the Thai voiceover… as always enjoy.

While on the topic of science, I thought I would take this opportunity to talk about 2 more things.

• My favourite TV show: Breaking Bad (a bit of science spiced in there)
• A common nutrition myth

On the Breaking Bad note, I have been watching it again on Netflix. While not completely immersed as I was on the plane to Korea last fall, I can say I thoroughly enjoy the show. The gradual change of protagonist to antagonist is unique for a mainstream show. My favourite movie the godfather follows a very similar structure this way. Of course, I find it further interesting when they add the bits of Chemistry whether in the production of meth or how hydrofluoric acid won’t eat through a particular plastic. Those moments make me go aha!

As I have discussed many times, my background is a Bachelor of Science: Applied human nutrition. A facebook conversation with a few friends the other day lead me to something I should share with everyone. The nutrition myth: Margarine is one molecule away from plastic.  I have heard this so many times. 

Let’s start with what plastic is. Plastics are made up of smaller molecules linked together in a long chain. The main component of plastics is usually petroleum based products, which is where people become scared of this myth.  The thought of consuming a plastic bag, being the same as consuming car oil is rather repulsive. Plastics can also be made from wood, corn, other plants, and even sugar. Check out this about bio plastic. (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/star.19930450806/abstract)

So as you can see one fear is that plastic and margarine can both be made from vegetable oil, however that is where their congruency meets demise. Furthermore the thought that just one molecule could change margarine completely is a little naive. With margarine there are hundreds of molecules that vary from plastic. Many other simple even life giving substances can be made deadly with a change of molecule. Even without change sometimes. For example: H₂O is water, but HF (hydrofluoric acid) in the right concentrations is used to etch glass or even burn your skin (Breaking Bad did this if you remember).  Or standard table salt sodium chloride/NaCl as another example: pure sodium in water reacts rather explosively. And Cl or chlorine, we know as a common antiseptic, but was used in World War 1 as a weapon. Clearly 1 molecule can make a difference.

I hope that clarifies things a little for you about that 1 molecule thing with margarine.

One last note. Thanks everyone for the support so far. I should be cracking 20 000 views very soon. 

Take a seat, up front (first pic from thailand up)

This past week we have felt the lingering effects of Song kran and things have been a little bit slower.  All week I had a total of just 4 castings, which is very slow for my Thailand experience. The good news of course is that tomorrow I will be filming my LG TV commercial.

In the meantime this week, my extra time was spent, you guessed it exercising and also tossed in a bit of shopping. Kevin and I headed to MBK mall the other day to explore a little bit. I find it somewhat hilarious how you can bargain in a shopping mall and also the fact that 75% of the products are counterfeit. I picked up a few souvenirs and grabbed a bite while there.

While at the restaurant I confirmed further and interesting observation about restaurants in Thailand. They seem to sit Caucasian people at the windows/ near the front.  Alternatively the locals and the other Asians are sat towards the back of the restaurant. This has now happened about 10 times since I arrived in Bangkok.  

I also took the time to stop by a tailor. It was one recommended to me by a past client (thanks David). I know exactly what I am looking for which is good, and it made the process of pricing out more in my control than theirs. The suit I am looking for is a Navy Blue, single breasted, 2-button suit, with 2 flaps, flat front pants, and a couple dress shirts. We discussed the best quality of wools and silks. I was looking at a super 160 wool. The cost is about 13 000 baht, for one suit and 2 shirts. Now this is not a crazy price by any means, but it’s far from the $99 suits you can get. Over these next few days, I will determine for myself whether I need to spend this significant amount on a custom made suit. The suits from this tailor do vary that they take 2 weeks and several fittings vs. the 24 hr. polyester factory made suits at other tailors. 

We had to bail early on our adventure to run to an emergency casting for Cosmopolitan magazine. On that note, I did get some pictures back from the underwear shoot. I am not a huge fan of them; as a matter of fact I dislike most of them. However, my bookers are happy with the pictures and they know the market.

Also came across these 2 funny sights when driving around: 

I am not sure how well I trust a pirate to work on my teeth

And lastly why bother with tie straps, when you can just stand in the back of the truck and hold the rebar

We all hit that wall

Yesterday an excruciatingly long day for me. As I mentioned monday night I wrapped up around 4 am with super sports, and had to be out of the house by 9 am. Well tuesday wrapped very late as well, I think when my head hit the pillow it was also 4.


It took forever or so it seemed until we finally started shooting my part yesterday. I think it was close to 4 in the afternoon when we shot my first couple scenes. Essentially I was to look into the mirror check out my scruff and then decide I needed to shave. Eventually we moved to a new location. An awesome hotel in the penthouse to shoot my bedroom, shaving and getting dressed. Oh I guess I should provide a run down of the story. I am lying in bed, messy room, unshaven when I get shaken from my sleep from a text message. It's my girlfriend, she has just finished in the pool and wants to meet in half an hour. I check out my beard and need to shave. So I grab the razor and shaving cream(these are the products), shave, spray body spray, get dressed, while my gf does essentially the female equivalents. That was all filmed yesterday in what was nearly a 24 hour day for much of the crew. Wednesday the plan was to pick my gf up in my sports car, a mx5.

I started writing this on my phone the other day while traveling to the set. So I figure now that I have a bit of time from the crazy schedule I can get my shit back together.  As it turned out we stopped in a town that was made to look like the streets of France or Spain or Portugal. Or at least what I imagine old streets would look like in some of these countries, with sandstone buildings and the like. I only had one scene to film on this location, the instructions were simple. Speed into the parking lot, and stop right in front of your girlfriend. Let her walk around the car and check out her sexy smooth legs, get in smile at her then speed away.

Following that scene things became a lot more fun. Accompanied by a police escort we pulled into the Thai mountains and starting setting up. Quickly the police had shut down the highway and we prepared to shoot.  10 people were rigged up for safety in the back of a truck, the pistons on the helicopter started firing and I peeled away. As I drove down the highway, beautiful passenger beside me the helicopter whisked around capturing landscapes and the car. A few times the helicopter would come within 5 feet of the car while moving at 50 km/h. At another point we rigged up a camera to the side of the car looking in. This helped achieve close ups of my freshly shaved face and her sexy shaved legs.

Finally after a number of long days, 5 jobs over 6 days, I was given the opportunity to rest. Well very brief rest, Thursday was set up to have 4 castings.