Friday, January 4, 2008

The Toner does a roll for the first time!

  • Last night, I put Tony on his stomach.  He then managed to roll onto his stomach, unassisted.  His first effort took 30 seconds.  His second took two.  Milestones like this make the struggles of parenthood all worth it.
  • Our new apartment decoration starts today.  The wife had to leave the house before me this morning to get to our future abode.  Meanwhile, the mother-in-law looks after Tony.  Headache city for the wife and me.  But she has more on her plate than me.  I will be at school doing my usual routine and headaches here should be minimal.
  • They were playing crude Hip Hop at the McDonalds this morning.  Luis, a Hip Hop enthusiast, was shocked at what they were playing.  He said that the particular song he heard had gun shot sounds and there was talk of shooting people, probably b****s.  He made a video with sound which he will put on the Internet.  It seems to be a thing they are doing every Saturday now.  Even not understanding the words, how could anyone think that stuff is anything but people trying to imitate the spin cycle on a old washing machine?
  • I have complained about those notorious people on scooters (electric bicycles) making quick turns in front of pedestrians.  There is nothing more annoying than walking down the street, minding your own business, and then having an idiot on a turning scooter suddenly dart in front of you at 20 km/hr narrowly missing you.    This morning, I saw a scooterist doing this actually make contact with a pedestrian.  The collision wasn't full-on, but the pedestrian and the scooterist had to stop in their tracks. 
  • The Duke of Wuxi is back to work, not rested after two weeks of being up all night and changing nappies.
  • My wife is still talking about our recent dust up.  I arrived home last night to hear her talking to the King of Wuxi's consort about it.
  • The wife was a dynamo this morning as she got ready to go to the apartment.  This means, I will have to be careful and be on my best behavior this evening.
  • The results of the first U.S. presidential primaries held in Iowa yesterday were interesting to say the least.  Huckabee won on the Republican side; Obama on the Democratic.  Obama's victory has already been hailed as a coronation by some and proof that he will be elected the next president.  Hilary is seen as the big loser of the day.  Her coronation was supposed to be dead certain.  I am not sure what to make of Huckabee's showing.  It has been treated with dismay in much of the right wing commentary I have read.  The most generous comment I have read about it said that Huckabee saw the proper wave to ride, but doubted if his victory yesterday was anything but a flash in the pan.  My man Rudy got just three percent of the vote.  He wasn't going to win that primary anyway (Iowa is a left-wing state) and he never made much of an effort to do so, his strategy being to campaign in the bigger states like Florida.  However, three percent is still awfully small for the man who is still thought of as the front runner.  My second choice, Fred Thompson, had a mediocre showing.  But winning the first primary, has not historically been a guarantee of winning the nomination. 
  • The primaries have shown to me that no body knows what they are talking about.  So many opinions on what has happened and what will.  I will say that not too many are foolish enough to claim that they knew what was going to happen.  But many will claim in hindsight that they know what happened.  And all these opinions won't offer any semblance of clear insight.  Voters will vote and what most of them are thinking will be a mystery to those who care about these things.
  • NFL playoffs start.  I should be able to see one game live tomorrow morning.  The Saturday night playoff game will take place Sunday morning Wuxi time.
  • I have seen stories that the Chinese government wants to control all the video sites on the Internet.  The first question to pop to mind is what does this mean for Youtube?

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