Gratitude:
I am thankful for the few
comments and emails that my blogging has garnered me. I am also
thankful to be ALIVE!!!!!
Acknowledgment:
You
have come to the wrong place if you want to know anything about the
Wuxi Expat scene. I am like the Unabomber living in my own
shack. Of course, it is a shack with a lot of Chinese in it and
not too many foreigners. Really, I am more like this character
– I think he was in a W. Somerset Maugham story – who lives in
China but concerns himself with things western. If I remember the
story correctly, this man living in the middle of China and occupied
himself with the Greek and Roman Classics. I occupy myself with
old western texts as well. A strange kind of seclusion no
doubt, but what the hay! I gots to be me.
Request:
I need Tylenol and Crown
Royal: not necessarily in that order. I could also use
some Sleeman's Honey Lager and Cottage Cheese.
The
AKIC Week in Brief.
Not
much happened this week. I went to work and then I went home.
It was a week worthy of Wuxi,
China's Most Boring White Guy. The
only thing of note that could be said to have happened in AKICistan
is that I embraced being the most boring white guy with aplomb.
To
place this entry in historical context,
there was a bombing at the Boston Marathon,and lo and behold some
Muslims were responsible, and I learned that Justin Trudeau won the
leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada.
About
Me (Andis) This is a weekly feature so don't expect
me to give the whole store away all at once. So, what will I
tell you about me this week? Actually, I have given some of the
store away in other sections of this weekly blog entry. So, I
will say this: I am teaching English at a training center in
Wuxi, China. I am married to a local girl and we have a five
year old son who I probably spoil too much. My views of the
world and my surroundings are reactionary and Catholic.
I
am in China!
【我在中国！】我住在无锡，江苏，中国。我是英文的老师。我的学校是环亚国际英语。我可以说得一点点点中文。我的发音不好。我爱我的中国的太太。她是无锡的最漂亮的女人。她也是中国的最漂亮的女人！我很喜欢中国的菜。我不喜欢很多的外国人。我觉得他们是不好人。我不喜欢看电视。我很喜欢看书。我孩子Tony
的年纪是五岁，八个月。他喜欢火车玩具和消防车玩具。下个星期，我告诉你们更多。
I'm
Canadian! I have heard that Justin Trudeau is now
officially the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. For this
reason, I can say I am happy not to be in Canada even though I miss
certain aspects of living there and constantly wonder if I should go
back. Justin, I hear, is less qualified to the Prime Minister
of Canada than Obama was qualified to be the President of the USA.
But I hear that like Obama, Justin has superficiality going for
him, and no matter how lacking in substance, qualifications, and
managerial competence he is, people will stick by him because of what
he appears to be. The only positive is that will be easier to
despise and laugh at Canadian Liberal Party members – not that it
wasn't easy for me not to do so during their hey day as Canada's
natural ruling party, but the fact that they elected the son of a
former Prime Minister to be their leader says volumes and adds
clarity.
I
like to Read!
Here
is what I am reading this week:
Don
Colacho's Aphorisms: there are
2,988 of them in this book that I compiled myself. I read ten
aphorisms at a time. I cut and paste the better ones ¨C they
are all profound actually ¨C and I put them in my weekly blog entry.
(See below)
Ulysses
by James Joyce: I am following along with Frank Delaney as
he slowly goes through Joyce's hard-to-read novel. Delaney is
making the novel more understandable and enjoyable. Delaney
figures he will do his last ReJoyce Podcast in 22 years. Now
that I have caught up to Delaney's podcast (he completed episode #149
this week), I am getting ahead him as far as reading the book.
I will be finished it, I figure, in a year.
The
Holy Bible King James Version . The Gospel According
to Saint John.
University
Economics: Elements of Inquiry Third Edition by Armen A.
Alchian and William R. Allen. It end-of-chapter
questions force one to think so as to be able to explain one's
thought to other people.
The
Hills & The Sea by Hilaire Belloc. I liked The Path to
Rome so much that I decided to read another Belloc Book - I have ten
of them on my Ipad. I choose this one because Father Schall
mentioned it in one of his essays (which I read daily on my dotdotdot
app)
Put
out More Flags by Evelyn Waugh.
He is one awesome writer. Loads and loads of fun to read. If you
read Evelyn Waugh, you should the fact on your CV. It puts you in
the .00001 percent of pure awesome people of human history!
I
like to make videos When I have the time. Here are the two
places you can see my videos: My
Youtube Channel and My
Youku Channel.
I
teach English or at least I
go through the motions of it. On my resume, I can say I am an
AESL teacher – Andis English as a Second Language.
I
like to cut and paste quotes that I found interesting:
The
following are quotes from Don Colacho:
1838
Innumerable problems arise from the method by which we seek to solve
them.
1850
Pedantry is the weapon with which the professional protects the
interests of his guild.
1857
The increasing integration of humanity merely makes it easier to
share the same vices.
1877
The ugliness of the modern face is an ethical phenomenon.
1891
No one now is ignorant of the fact that transforming the world means
bureaucratizing man.
1892
To condemn oneself is no less pretentious than to absolve oneself.
Damn!
He has a point! I suppose
my self-condemnations are a way above transcending my existence while
on earth.
1896
Liberal ideas are likeable. Their consequences ruinous. I
don't even think they are likable anymore. Rather than admitting
that their ideas don't work in practice. Liberals have doubled down
and become rude & crude. The earlier Liberals, though foolish
were at least earnest in a decent sort of way. Now, they are just
mostly complete iceholes.
1922
The individual does not search for his identity except when he
despairs of his quality. I
never did find myself in China – I did find a wife thought.
Some
interesting advice from Hillaire Belloc: if you will let
your fellow-citizen curse you and grunt at you, and if you will but
talk to him on matters which he knows far better than you, then you
have him ready at the end.
Blame
the Boston Bombings on Rap and Pot Smokers? Sounds good to me. Here
is a link from vdare.com:
Fox
News tonight reported that one or more of the Muslim terrorists who
bombed the Boston Marathon were well known among their peers for
smoking pot and listening to rap. And people think that pot and
rap are part of acculturation to America?
No, rap music is anti-American and anti-white. It is openly racist. A Muslim immigrant who listens to rap is acculturating to an anti-American, an anti-white sub-culture. It is also of note that Barack Hussein Obama is a big fan of rap and smoked a lot of pot while younger. I don't think this is coincidental.
No, rap music is anti-American and anti-white. It is openly racist. A Muslim immigrant who listens to rap is acculturating to an anti-American, an anti-white sub-culture. It is also of note that Barack Hussein Obama is a big fan of rap and smoked a lot of pot while younger. I don't think this is coincidental.
President
Obama failed in his attempt to
pull brains out of hearts
or use emotional blackmail in a supremely brazen attempt to pass
gun-control legislation: Obama is in a huff this
week because his gun bill got shot down like a clay pigeon. Like most
of us, he was deeply affected by the massacre at Sandy Hook. Like
much of the country, he seems to think emotions should drive public
policy.
An
anagram of mother-in-law is 'Woman Hitler.' You
can find other mother-in-law jokes here.
Another
cut-and-paste from Belloc's The Hills and The Seas: the
story of that Sultan who publicly proclaimed that he had possessed
all power on earth, and had numbered on a tablet with his own hand
each of his happy days, and had found them, when he came to die, to
be seventeen. There is a
profound observation in that quote, for sure. I can think of ever
having had a completely happy day – many happy moments but not many
happy days. I had a wonderful feeling sitting in bed on Sunday with
Tony, but the little bugger then annoyed me in the afternoon.
And
another: Wealth makes the run of our days somewhat more
easy, poverty makes them more hard—or very hard. But no poverty has
ever yet brought of itself despair into the soul—the men who kill
themselves are neither rich nor poor.
Politically,
I am conservative I
say this knowing that it doesn't matter to anyone but me.
And with no plans to go on a murderous killing spree, it will
never matter. How much of a conservative
am I anyway? I don't care for Obama. I honored the life of Margaret
Thatcher. I don't care for most of the Republican party.
I
like to keep a diary [Not that
anything happens in my life – nothing does. But I do have some
thoughts and I see some things.]
Here
is the list of diary characters:
Andis
writing in the first person.
Andis being written
about in the third person.
Tony:
Andis's five year old son.
Jenny: Andis's
Chinese wife.
LECTOR: Andis's
imaginary critic and sometime debate partner.
Students
Passersby
Jimmy Stewart
Robert Downey Junior
Someone who probably
has competed in the Boston Marathon
[My Ipad Mini]
[My School Laptop: a
ten year old Compaq Presario]
[My Home Laptop: a
not as old Dell]
The square braces:
“[“ and “]”
Monday
(the 15th)
[this
entry was made in my Ipad]
[LECTOR:
Can I make comments
earlier in this entry? I mean, like not just in the diary section.
I have some issues with things you said earlier in this entry.
Andis: Are you a Leftie? LECTOR: If you want me to be. You are
the ones who puts the words behind my name and the colon. Andis: If
you talk earlier in the entry, readers will just day WTF! ]
I
don't work today. I stay home.
I
watch a film on my IPad: Winchester 73 starring Jimmy Stewart.
A great movie of the Western genre. I loved the
landscapes. I was thinking how I yearned so much to see such
scenery. Any sort of scenery there is in the Jiangsu and Wuxi area
is being bulldozed over for scenery-blocking and soul-less high
rises.
I
wonder what book to read next. I wonder if I will ever stop
downloading books. Today, I download a book called The
Intellectual Life by AG Sertillanges. I hadn't heard of the
book till today. Searching for it on the Internet, I read that
a few writers swore by it, said it was their favorite.
Today
was a day that some shit was to happen in Nork land, supposively. So
far, nothing.
I
watched PSY's
new video a few times. I got a good copy of it via torrent,
and so I don't need Wifi to watch while I am on the bus.
All
my stated goals for myself seem empty. I can't raise any
enthusiasms for them. I need discipline today to work towards them.
Laundry,
hung outside the window, flutters in the wind. Behind the
clothes, I see the tops of the trees that are planted on the grounds
of the government building that is across the road from our apartment
complex. Behind and above the trees stands a 20 storey apartment
building. -- on its roof, on each corner, are four covered patio
areas. I would love to be in them taking a gander at all that
is below.
Tuesday
(the 16th)
[this
entry was started on my Home Laptop]
I
will work 1300 to 2100. I look forward to the challenge to be
offered by the fresh horrors that may greet me. Reflecting on
the things you don't want to meet -- indifference to my being is a
thing to be devoutly wished for.
I
hope that the workers clear the pile they made in our apartment
stairwell. (Here
is the photo of it.) Jenny doesn't seem to mind because it is
above our floor and so it doesn't affect us. But I am livid
about the eyesore and the fucking sheer laziness of the apartment
workers. This is not an uncommon sight in Wuxi apartmendom --
piles of building materials left in stairwells and never ever picked
up. This case is particularly grievous because it has been left
not in some corner of a stairwell that is never used but on a
stairwell that people have to pass through all the time.
At
the apartment, I will spend some time looking at Chinese flashcards
before going to work.
I
read in the news that someone set off some bombs at the Boston
Marathon.
[I
made the following entries for the 16th on my school laptop]
No
afternoon classes. It is 1300 and I am prepped for the evening.
So, I have an afternoon of Chinese and Python study to look
forward to.
I
watched the
PSY Gentleman video on the bus. I showed the video to a
colleague at work. The eleventh greatest Englishman of all-time
told me that he likes it.
They
tell me I am a celebrity; what with my image been shown on buses all
over the city. Forced to think an of answer to the question of
what it is like, I say that it doesn't impress my wife and son very
much -- no respect at home, like I am Rodney Dangerfield. And
besides, no one who I would want to impress would be impressed anyway
by my performances.
[Later
at home on the IPad.]
The
pile was cleared. [LECTOR: You were a bit premature in making a
hubbub about it weren't you!]
I
showed the new
PSY video to students. Most didn't like it. One girl, a
Korean pop devotee, knew who PSY's dance partner was. [LECTOR:
Don't you think you are a little old to be liking PSY?]
Wednesday
(the 17th)
[I
am at home on the laptop.]
I
took photos of Tony,
Tony's
Kindergarten Van,
Tony
in the kindergarten van,
and my
shoes.
Why
did I take a photo of my shoes? Well, I am a boring white guy
who wears Chinese slip-on style. And as a boring white guy, I
will defend to my dying breath, the importance of little things.
No
more showing on the new PSY video to students.
I
will work 1300-2100. I will spend the morning at the
apartment doing some flashcard practice.
I
am trying to get ahead of myself with the Python language learning.
I
am really having trouble determining what book I will read after the
Hills and the Seas.
[I
am now on the school laptop]
I
prepare for a 1400 SPC.
I
end the day with a class with two boys of middle-school age. The
topic: Strife in the Holy Land. And so it is not a class
I am looking forward to.
[LECTOR:
That's it?]
Thursday
(the 18th)
[I
am at school on the laptop]
This
week, I had been taking a photo a day of Tony [in
the morning]. I didn't this
morning because Tony was sick. He had a very phlegmy
cough but no fever. Sleeping last night, he couldn't sit still
and straight. He took off the covers and would roll over and
around so that he was at a perpendicular angle in bed to his parents.
[LECTOR: Tony still sleeps with his parents. Andis: Yes. Indeed.
In between his parents.]
As
I was about to order breakfast at McD's, I saw a woman buying an ice
cream. Breakfast ice cream? It seems very unseemly to me.
I
work 1000-2100 today.
The
Strife in the Holy Land Class turned out to be with an adult and an
middle-school student. The adult had lot to say and there
wasn't much I could do to get the middle-school student, who is very
quiet at the best of times, to speak; but I couldn't help but feel
that I was ignoring him. Anyway, talking about the Middle East,
the adult told me his belief that the Americans wanted control of the
"tap" of Middle East oil as part of what it saw as its
struggle with China. I thought he was nuts.
I
had a grandmother in my class, just now. That is only the
second time that has happened. The other grandmother student I
can remember was from Japan.
Friday
(the 19th)
[I
am on the Ipad.]
I
am waiting for T&J to get up.
The
pile is gone.
I
will expound on these things when I am on the school laptop.
I
started to read Put Out More Flags by Evelyn Waugh. [LECTOR: Oh!
Whoopde Whoopde do!]
I
don't think of myself as a Wuxi Expat anymore.
Robert
Downey Junior is being "screwed again?"
I
will expound on this things as well except for the sentences I want
to be cryptic.
ptvn
cudr ghr sjbi!
The
last sentence is in code. [LECTOR: You are telling us you have
homosexual proclivities? Andis: No! LECTOR: You are saying that
some people you everyday are gay? Andis: Nope!]
[I
am now working on my laptop that is at school.]
The
pile of material that I complained about earlier has been taken away.
Thank God. And it is nice to be wrong.
Tony
always gets up at the lastest minute possible when he has to go to
school. [LECTOR: Latest?]
I
suppose that to be a real Wuxi Expat, you have to be part of the Wuxi
Expat Scene. I keep to myself like the Una-bomber in
a shack. I am also an English teacher. English teachers
really can't be Expats, for they live in China, they don't travel
back and forth to it. [LECTOR: I think what you mean to say is that
ET's are low-status Expats.]
In
order to not to get people mad at me. I will write certain
things in code. It is more for my benefit for I plan to read
these rantings sometimes in my waning days. I have figured out
a code pattern, and I dare you to try to crack it.
I
did my Chinese flashcard practice, my Chinese typing practice, my
Python fiddling-around (perhaps you can call it study), and my daily
readings (of books and sacred books). So, feeling I had done
something, I decided to take a break. I went to the nearby
department store and bought a toy for Tony -- a
fire-fighting ambulance trick made by Tomica. Tony is sure
to love it when he gets it -- I am not sure when I will give it to
him. I'd like to give it to him after he does something
extraordinary.
Saturday
(the 20th)
[Ipad
mini]
I
wake up hungry for updates from Boston.
Last
night, Jenny Laid out almost all of Tony's toys for some
photos. I posted three of the photos I took to my various
blogs: here,
here,
and here.
[School
Laptop]
A
crappy wet day outside. I should have worn a extra layer of
clothing under my shirt and sweat jacket.
The
surviving Boston bomber is on a boat, or so I have been told.
I
await a trainer who is famous for his tendency to exaggerate. I
want to ask him if he had run in the Boston Marathon naked and drunk
only to be robbed of a victory trophy by officials who were out to
get him.
That
last Bomber, Sarejevo Mahovolich or whatever his name is, has been
caught! [LECTOR: Don't read anything into the fact that he is
Muslim!]
A
student told me that live monkey brains tastes like tofu. I liked
that because I am sure to repeat that saying to many a person.
[I
am writing on my home laptop]
A
student told me that a Chinese woman was killed in the Boston
Marathon
bombings. Her name was Lu Lingzi.
Jenny
wanted to go to The Grandma's restaurant in Ba Bai Ban. As we left
school at 500 PM, I was thinking that the cold weather would make for
a shorter lineup, but I was to be sadden mistaken and shown to be
overly optimistic, as the lineup was absolutely terrible. We had 77
parties ahead of us so we gave up. We ended up going to 永和大
where I had black pepper beef and
youtiao. [LECTOR: What is Youtiao? Andis: Fried dough sticks.]
Back
at Casa K, our home, I immediately departed on a shopping expedition
to the nearby Tesco where I bought bread, milk, margarine, and chips.
I
used three devices to make today's entry. What do you think of that?
[LECTOR: Not much!]
I
forgot to mention that I worked 1000-1700 today.
I
gave Tony his new toy almost as soon as I got home yesterday night.
I couldn't wait.
Sunday
(the 21st)
[The
following has been typed in my Ipad and sent to my laptop by email.]
Last
night, for a few moments, we took Tony
to the toy store at Ba Bai Ban where a table set up with TOMY
Plarail track and Tomica parking garages. The latter are used
with Tomica toy cars which are the same size as Hot Wheels and
Matchbox cars. The toy "garages" are an ingenious
combination of elevators operated with cranks, levers, and
push-button releases. Tony is always immediately drawn to play
with them, as he was yesterday.
As I was saying, you need a toy car to play with the garages. It just so happened that Tony had a toy truck, from Matchbox, in his backpack. Seeing the toy garage set, he took off his backpack to find his toy truck which he knew he had.
I found this little incident with Tony looking for his toy a wonder to behold. My little guy has ideas. My little guy has the concept of possession. It shouldn't surprise me that he does or will; he is growing up, and yet it does. I suppose I still have my childhood sense of time where a year seems like forever; and yet the time flows like a I am a middle-aged person -- quickly.
I am still amazed at the fact of my son's birth. I still think he is the little helpless creature with no concepts. His growth is a wonder to me and those little things he does.
As I was saying, you need a toy car to play with the garages. It just so happened that Tony had a toy truck, from Matchbox, in his backpack. Seeing the toy garage set, he took off his backpack to find his toy truck which he knew he had.
I found this little incident with Tony looking for his toy a wonder to behold. My little guy has ideas. My little guy has the concept of possession. It shouldn't surprise me that he does or will; he is growing up, and yet it does. I suppose I still have my childhood sense of time where a year seems like forever; and yet the time flows like a I am a middle-aged person -- quickly.
I am still amazed at the fact of my son's birth. I still think he is the little helpless creature with no concepts. His growth is a wonder to me and those little things he does.
I
didn't work today, but I
was up at six all the same. [LECTOR: Those links have
nothing to do with the sentence!] I read for a couple of hours and
then did huggy baobao with Tony
-- I don't often get to linger in bed with Tony my side so it was a
pleasant moment to be remembered for eternity I told myself. [I
remember December 24, 1971 looking out the window at the snow.
I was in Courcelette, Quebec in a PMQ. I told myself to
remember that moment for eternity as well. I couldn't tell you
from what room I was looking outside. All that I can recall is
the snow and the thought. LECTOR: Big Deal!]
We went to a Taiwanese Restaurant for lunch where I found myself actually liking the Tofu. I suppose I liked it because it was spicy. The Taiwanese restaurant is the only foreign restaurant in our complex. Ha ha! [LECTOR: Your wife is right. Your jokes aren't funny. Andis: Shut up you lefty! I was about to type dumb lefty but that would have implied that are lefties who are smart. LECTOR: When you say smart lefty, you could be saying he is smart among lefties but not the whole population. Andis: True. But, now I wonder whose side you are on. Lector: You're the one putting words in my mouth, so to speak. It. Is really your fault if I am not consistent.]
I spent the afternoon with Tony. I had been hoping to go on an e-bike ride with him to the countryside, but he peevishly and petulantly insisted on being taken to Ba Bai Ban to visit the toy department -- the one we had been to the night before. It was not what I wanted to do, but Tony agreed and did abide by a vow made to his mom that we weren't to buy any toys. He didn't beg for toys once!
We went to a Taiwanese Restaurant for lunch where I found myself actually liking the Tofu. I suppose I liked it because it was spicy. The Taiwanese restaurant is the only foreign restaurant in our complex. Ha ha! [LECTOR: Your wife is right. Your jokes aren't funny. Andis: Shut up you lefty! I was about to type dumb lefty but that would have implied that are lefties who are smart. LECTOR: When you say smart lefty, you could be saying he is smart among lefties but not the whole population. Andis: True. But, now I wonder whose side you are on. Lector: You're the one putting words in my mouth, so to speak. It. Is really your fault if I am not consistent.]
I spent the afternoon with Tony. I had been hoping to go on an e-bike ride with him to the countryside, but he peevishly and petulantly insisted on being taken to Ba Bai Ban to visit the toy department -- the one we had been to the night before. It was not what I wanted to do, but Tony agreed and did abide by a vow made to his mom that we weren't to buy any toys. He didn't beg for toys once!
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