Gratitude:
Thank God for my Ipad. If I didn't have the device, my vacation
would have been worse than it turned out to be.
Acknowledgment:
I am a right f***ing
unsociable bastard.
Requests:
Visit my newest blog!
The
AKIC Week in Brief: It was
Tony's last week at kindergarten. I had a vacation but I didn't do
anything and didn't go anywhere. Lame, I know. The Wanda aka
WenJiabaoda Plaza was open and I paid my first visit to it.
The
AKIC Mission: To
be China's leading forum of Gómez-Dávilism and reactionary
intransigence, as well as a provocation to all of AKIC's enemies and
critics.
The
AKIC Motto: Believe in God, trust in Christ, look
with suspicion.
The
AKIC Idiom: Casual
Insouciance and Solecism-ism.
Who
should read AKIC? AKIC is more AK
than C. So don't come here expecting the rantings of a would-be
Sinologist. I just sometimes mention what I happen to see being here
in China. Also, don't expect to read anything about the Expat
community here at AKIC. I keep my contact with foreigners to a
minimum – but then that is like someone declaring his party to be
private even when no one is going to his party anyway. Only kindred
spirits of me should read this blog. That is, flotsam, jetsam,
waifs, lost souls, conservatives, reactionaries, lost-causers,
medievalists, coin-tossers, base brats, marginal humans, watchers,
cranks,walkers, wallflowers, failures, losers, Catholics, solitaries,
and loners.
An
AKIC Glossary
[I
have been thinking that it is silly to put this glossary in each of
my weekly blog entries and that I should set up a page on AKIC
wordpress. However, I am constantly editing the glossary –
something I can't do if I make it a page.]
Gratitude:
will always be the first word of the AKIC weekly blog entry -- it is
the key to happiness.
Acknowledgment and
Request: For me Acknowledgment means
confession; and Request means asking for stuff. GAR [Gratitude,
Acknowledgment, Request] are the simple stages of a prayer which
I came upon following the Jewish World Review site. I used the
GAR format when I delivered the eulogy at my
father's funeral last year.
Solecisms:
I try to rid my blog and writings of these things, but they never
seem to go away.
Jenny is
my wife. She is a Jiangsu woman. Why she puts up with me is a
mystery. I ain't good-looking and I don't have any money.
Her enemies are my enemies. I put up with a lot of isolation for
her.
J: I
will sometimes refer to her that way.
Tony is
my son. If he is annoying or is acting way, way, way
out-of-line, I will spank him -- I don't do this as much as I used
to, having mellowed out in that regard. [I actually put this line in
as a dig against anti-spanking activists who are about as useful for
humanity as pacifists and social workers.] One of the sacrifices I
make for my little buddy is a life of isolation.
T: I
will sometimes refer to Tony this way.
TKIC: Tony
Kaulins in China. I may be referring to the TKIC blogs or to
Tony when I use TKIC. I am sure you can figure out which
way I am using it from the context.
AKIC: Andis
Kaulins in China. The same applies to AKIC as applies to TKIC.
That is, I may be referring to the AKIC blogs or to myself. AKIC
aspires to be China's leading forum of Gómez-Dávilism
and reactionary intransigence.
My
School is
HyLite English located on Zhongshan Road in Wuxi, China. (In Chinese,
it is known as 环亚国际英语
（huanya
guoji yingyu）
Private
Class: At HyLite, a private class has up to four students in a
class. In these classes, we grade the students' grammar and level of
English speaking.
Salon
Class: At HyLite, a salon class is basically a conversation class
with up to eight students where we try to get them to discuss some
pre-chosen topic which they should have reviewed before coming to
class.
English
Corner: I go to a room and try to talk to a group of
Chinese people in English. Often, they don't understand me and
they have nothing to say about anything.
Casa
Kaulins is
what I call the apartment I (really my wife) owns.
California
Villa: The English name of the apartment complex the Kaulins
family resides. In Chinese pinyin, it is called Jia Zhou Yang
Fang. (加州洋房）
Train-spotting.
There is a high speed train track running near Casa K. Tony
& I, when we have a chance, love to go there to watch the trains
go by.
Wuxi
（无锡）:
The city where Jenny, Tony & I live. I sometimes call
it the Wux.
Hui
Shan (惠山）:
The district of Wuxi in which we live. Not to be confused with
the Hui Shan Mountain that is in Xihui Park. There isn't a mountain
anywhere in the district.
Ba
Bai Ban (八佰伴）:
Also known as Wuxi Yao Han, Ba Bai Ban is a famous department store
at the corners of Zhongshan Road and Xueqian Road in Downtown Wuxi.
AKIC goes there to buy Tomica and Plarail toys for his son Tony.
Zhongshan
Road （中山路：zhong
shan lu): This is Wuxi's main drag.
The
Square: The Hui Shan People's Square is nearby Casa
Kaulins.
Central
Park: Hui Shan Central Park is the park closest to Casa
Kaulins. It has a playground area and a small lake with beach.
The park is nothing special. The water in the lake is
unbelievably foul. The playground's fixtures are falling
apart. The park is big enough that its narrow paths, that I
would have thought were meant for pedestrians, have cars being driven
on them. The sight of these cars honking at pedestrians to get
out their way disgusts me as much as the park's lake water.
Hui
Shan Wanda （惠山万达）:
A fancy shopping mall and cinema that is now open and very near to
Casa Kaulins. I will also call it the WenJiaoBaoda Plaza.
Apparently the former Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party is
making a lot of money off the Wanda Plazas that are being built all
over China. The Hui Shan Wanda is the third one to be built in Wuxi.
The plan is to build more.
Century
Times Plaza (Tesco): That is the supermarket that is closest to Casa
Kaulins. Tesco is known as legou (乐购)
to the locals.
Yanqiao:
a town of Hui Shan District -- not too far from Casa Kaulins.
Qianzhou:
an area or a district or a town that borders on Yanqiao.
Jiangyin
（江阴）:
A city or district next to Wuxi.
Meicun: A
suburb of Wuxi city that is far from the downtown.
Shuo
Feng: Ditto!
Ditto! Agrees
with what has been previously said.
To
do List At work, even though I
am not that busy anymore, I print out a weekly list of things to do
everyday. It is a compulsive-obsessive habit that does give my days
some form.
LECTOR: I
got the idea for Lector, a fictional sparring partner for my blog,
from a
Hilaire Belloc book I had read recently.
DBs:
I will leave it to you to try
and figure out what D & B stand for.
School
Laptop: I like to make note of where I make my notes for my
weekly blog entry. One of the four places is my school laptop.
The other three are: my
home laptop, my
Ipad Mini, and my
Ipod Touch.
Dotdotdot:
This is my favorite social app. It is a nice way to read long form
articles on the Internet that allows you to proclaim to the world
what you are reading. I use the app to read the Catechism and the
writings of Father Schall. I get a new follower seemingly every day.
Python:
A script-writing computer program I am learning to use.
Atftb:
A thought for the blog.
Brandon,
Manitoba, Canada is where my mother Aina lives.
Winnipeg,
Manitoba is where my brother
Ron lives.
Minneapolis,
Minnesota, USA is where some of my father's relatives live.
Bao
Bao Sleepy:
What Tony calls it when he sleeps in Daddy's arms or on Daddy's
lap.
David
Warren:
I visit his
website about
five times a day. He a fervent Catholic and reactionary. If
I model myself after anyone, it would be him.
Don
Colacho:
a.k.a. Nicolás Gómez
Dávila. A
South American sage. He died in 1993. He would have been
100 in 2013. I read his aphorisms everyday. He is the
consummate reactionary.
Father
Schall: I am always reading the
site of his which has a huge collection of his writings.
25,602,
602支，610，81，79，67，118，85,
635：These
are the buses I can take to go to downtown Wuxi from my home (Casa
Kaulins) in the Hui Shan New District. I usually take the 602支
in
the
morning, transferring to the 79, the 81, or the 85 to get to school.
In the evening, I can take the 67, the 79, the 81, the 85 or the 118
to get to the stop where I catch the 635. The 635 is the only bus
running to my area of Wuxi after 800 PM. The 81 bus is a
double-decker – quite the novelty for a guy who spent a lot of his
life in Manitoba. The 25 bus is the cheap 1 RMB that I used to take
all the time but now rarely take.
HM:
Harry Moore is from Brisbane Australia. He had a brief
stint as an English teacher at my school. He sends me
emails occasionally. He was my partner in crime in my
notorious Wuxi
China Expatdom Blog. He suffered a stroke recently
but he still heroically plugs away.
The
Wuxi Peach Maoists: AKIC is proud to be the manager of the
official NFL fantasy football team of Wuxi Expats.
VOCFCK:
Stands for View of China from Casa Kaulins, a blog where I take
photos and videos from the apartment.
About
Me (Andis):
I
in in China! 这个星期，我有一点点旅行。我不去了其他地方。
我不喜欢你的伟大的防火墙！
我要网络的自由！
Politically
I am Conservative/Reactionary!
Dominion Day is what I call Canada's national day holiday, not
Canada Day.
I
am Canadian!
But I don't appreciate all aspects of the new Canada. I prefer
to call Canada's national day, which comes on July 1st,
Dominion Day, not Canada Day. Taking the old names for Canadian
things and replacing them with the word Canada seems redolent of
Communist regimes changing traditional names with revolutionary
names. In short, I think changing Dominion Day to Canada Day would
be like changing Victoria Day to Stalin Day. It is not right at all.
I
am Latvian (sort of)! Sandis Ozoliņš
was a a favorite NHL player of mine! As was Artūrs Irbe. I
remember my father followed their exploits quite closely.
I
teach English! The next
two months are busy for our school. Explain me to complain a lot
about it.
I
am not a freak! There are in
fact other people named Andis Kaulins in the world. Another Andis
Kaulins has a site called andiskaulins.com.
I love the fact that reference to AKIC is made in the site's banner.
And as far as I know, I am not related to the Andis Kaulins who is
domiciled in the USA. [LECTOR: You are a freak!]
I
like to Read! Here
is what I had been working my way through the past week:
Don
Colacho's Aphorisms. There are 2,988 of them in this book
that I compiled for myself. I read ten aphorisms at a time.
I cut and paste the better ones -- they are all profound actually --
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 guides podcast listeners through
Joyce's hard-to-read novel. Delaney figures he will have done
his last ReJoyce Podcast in about 22 years. Now that I have
caught up to Delaney's podcast (he completed episode #159 this week),
I am getting ahead him as far as reading the book. I will be
finished reading it, I figure, in a year. I read the novel despite
its many blasphemies. It is best to be aware of this stuff because
the world is full of it, and the world will always find a way of
slapping you in the face with it
The
Holy Bible King James Version. I am reading a
chapter a day of the greatest book of all-time. I finished
reading Letters to the Romans.
Columns
by Father Schall. I have been
able to take all
his archived writings and place them on the Dotdotdot app.
The
Catechism of the Catholic Church.
Like Father Schall's writings, I have been able to place them on the
Dotdotdot app.
Pickwick
Papers by Charles Dickens. I wish I could bury myself in this
book at the expense of all else.
The
Black Book of Communism. A must
read, especially for left-wingers. It may smarten some of them up.
Most just change their labels calling themselves socialists,
democratic socialists, middle-of-the-roaders, and progressives,
instead of admitting they were wrong.
I
like to take photos
I
publish them in the following blogs: AKIC
wordpress , TKIC
blogspot,
TKIC
wordpress and Views
of China from Casa Kaulins.
I
like to make videos
Here
is my
Youtube Channel and my
Youku Channel.
Here are two of my more
recent videos.: Dad
& Son Q&A &
Views
of China from Casa Kaulins #5.
Here is a blast from the past: Wuxi
Tony Update #360: Canada Day #3:
this video was taken in 2009.
I
like to cut and paste quotations:
Here
are the aphorisms I have chosen this week (one of the ten per day I
read – seven plus a bonus eighth.) from Don Colacho:
2453
A prolonged childhood—permitted by industrial society’s
current prosperity—redounds merely in a growing number of
infantilized adults. [Reading
this, I plead guilty.]
2460
The barriers life frequently throws across our way are not
obstacles for us to demolish; they are silent warnings that divert us
onto the right path.
2469
The only certain patrimony after a few years is the load of
stupidities that chance prevented us from committing.
2479
Humanity is not ungovernable:
it merely happens that rarely does a man govern who deserves to
govern.
2480
By merely looking at the face of the modern man one infers the
mistake in attributing ethical importance to his sexual behavior.
2492
As long as they do not take him seriously, the man who says the truth
can live for a while in a democracy. Then, the hemlock.
2506
True reading is an escape. The other type is an occupation.
[Reading is an escape for me. I
make no money from reading. But that is how I like to spend my spare
moments. I am not scheming or strutting about in order to appear
busy.]
2514
The most dispiriting [kind of] solitude is not one lacking in
neighbors, but one deserted by God. [Solitude
is a word that appeals to me. As does the word loner.
My father was a lonely man, as it seems am I and one of my other
siblings. That is why I really like this quote, it keeps me hope
that being with people can never supply.]
Here
is quote from Crisis
Magazine on Sloth:
Most
sloth falls short of such a hellish extreme of inaction. A more
suitable description would be in analogy with inertia. In
physics, inertia is the tendency to continue in the same direction at
the same speed, unless deflected or hindered in some way—e.g., by
gravity or friction. Among humans, by analogy, a slothful person,
comfortable in what he or she is doing, will tend to continue doing
that same thing over and over. Incentives to lower their
comfort level are met with predictable distress or disdain. [Inert
– that's me!]
In
other news, I see that U.S. oil exports have overtaken imports, &
that our less peaceable neighbour is well on the way to overall
energy self-sufficiency, despite every effort by the Barabbas
administration to exclude human enterprise from federal land.
[Calling Barack Barabbas is just
so apt. Contrary to many of
his fans, Barack isn't Jesus Christ, and resembles the activist that
Barabbas was in his time.]
Today,
we often see the Esau syndrome in couples who avoid having children
in order to “have it all.” Aborting children as unwelcome guests
at their ongoing “party,” they give little or no thought to the
fact that one day they may be asked to account for these children. As
Bishop Sheen used to say, on judgment day, we will be asked, “Where
are your children?” [I was a
bachelor for a long time so I
am not off the hook for this admonition. Though to be honest, I
wasn't your typical swinging bachelor as I had to come to China to
find a wife. It is a move I don't regret as the woman in China are
woman and not aspiring man-woman that they have become in the West.
Left wing ideology has destroyed femininity in the West.]
It
seems the middle-aged white men on both sides of this case are
totally unaware of what Rachel's life is like - a 19-year-old high
school student of Haitian descent who knows nothing more than the few
block radius she has grown up in. The cultural differences here are
exponential. [This quote
spurred some thoughts that I entered on my Ipad Touch on Saturday.
So, go to the Saturday section to read my reaction.]
The
joyless workaholic is on that slippery slope. Not so the man who is
idle, contemplative, prayerful, and content. But for centuries, since
at least the Reformation, the Devil has been working on a false
dichotomy between work and leisure, persuading us that busy-ness has
virtue as an end in itself. This has proved an excellent stratagem
for our enslavement.
That
“the Devil makes work for idle hands” is a more subtle and
paradoxical proverb than may be supposed. I think of it in the
trolley, when I see every hand earnestly clutching a “device,”
and the thumbs working away upon them – and almost every
face intent, but joyless; indifferent alike to God and (non-virtual)
neighbor. [Intent but Joyless. That's me on the bus. I will
have to try to change my appearance on that regard. I must exude Joy
for I have more than most people I know. I notice a lot of intently
joyless people who need to make themselves look busy – the pouting
on their lips can be seen from a million miles away. This quote also
explains what is wrong with the podcast host Adam Carolla. He tries
to compensate for the fact that he is vulgar and rude, by talking
about how busy he is.]
I
like to keep a journal of my daily activities and of any
worthy thoughts that occur to me.
[This
journal records the events that I can talk about. In fact, a lot
happens that I can't talk about, though I try to allude to these
happenings with my thoughts which I will record in this journal. As
well, I don't blog about people I happen to know. I scrupulously try
to avoid mentioning names, except if I happen to have something good
to say about them. [LECTOR: You rarely have anything good to say
about people, I notice. ANDIS: Uh-huh!]]
Monday
[June 24]
[Home
Laptop]
I
don't work today. It is my normal day off.
I
woke up in time to get Tony off to kindergarten. It was raining
heavily when Tony & I went outside.
I
made and uploaded the VOCFCK
#2 video.
I
didn't go to the Wanda Plaza.
We,
that be Jenny & I, did go to the Jinling Hotel for a lunch
buffet. I saw some foreigners there. One of them had a tattoo on
one of his elbows – he was making more trips to help himself to
food than I was. I could overhear the foreigners' Australian
accents.
I
finished watching the tenth and last episode of Season Two of Game of
Thrones. I hope this series doesn't turn into a man versus zombies
battle.
On
the 25 bus which I took back to Casa K from downtown, flashes of
memories of my father's last days came into my mind. He told me the
story of how he carried me on his shoulders, and he kept picking up
the phone like he was expecting someone to call – no one did.
I
took Tony out for a bit of trainspotting after he got back from
school. We saw but one train before we headed back to Casa Kaulins.
What was more interesting was the boat
that was permanently moored along
the canal bank which was below the bridge deck from which we spot
trains. People live in the boat and they seem to make their living
by raising fish and poultry.
A
street sweeper was asking me how much money I made in a month. I
thought he had been asking me where I was from and what my job was...
I mean.... like really... how can they ask such questions? It's
what they been taught I would suppose.
Tuesday
[June 25]
[Home
Laptop]
I
don't work today. It is a vacation day for me.
It
doesn't look like I will be doing any travel on my vacation days.
Plans I had for next weekend have fallen through. The person I know
in Shanghai is busy. My one Wuxi contact is busy as well. I may
have coffee with him on Wednesday. Tony is in school and I have two
performances of his to attend on the weekend. It is my own damn
fault for my paucity of vacation doings, so I am just going to have
to make the best of it.
It
is raining this morning on and off, as one minute, the rain comes
down in a torrent, and the next minute, the rain stops and one can
put down one's umbrella, although one should keep it in up because
the next minute, the rain will renew its torrential aspect.
I
think I will make a point of it, to myself and to rare AKIC readers,
to not go to the Wanda Plaza. To end up in a Shopping Mall on one's
vacation betrays a lack of imagination.
I
will instead do crap on the computer like blog, edit video, read
Dickens, read The Black Book of Communism, study Chinese, send some
emails, and try my hand again at Python programming.
What
is my issue with the world? I can't really say as I can have any.
There are many things I don't like about it but I am free to avoid
them and accept the consequences. I have choices. The issues I have
are with myself and my inaction. [Although, as David Warren says,
shame of inaction is a feeling brought on by the Devil.]
I
watched the first episode of the third season of Game of Thrones.
1117
am: I just watched the second episode of the third season of Game of
Thrones.
I
think the Black Hawks have won the Stanley Cup. A message about some
guy named Kane winning the Conn Smythe appeared on my Ipad screen.
If I can get the NHL site, I will be able to confirm it.
So
many photos I would like to take for VOCFCK such as a photo of a VW
Beetle, a certain model of flatbed truck, a cyclist riding while
carrying an umbrella, and peasants.
1409:
It continues to rain heavily. I read.
1512:
Our little emperor, our holy terror will be home in less than an
hour.
I
look at some Chinese flashcards. The program tells me I identified
83 percent of them correctly.
Wednesday
[June 26]
[Home
Laptop]
I
don't work today. My third vacation day.
Yesterday,
I read a lot. Today? It doesn't seem like it will rain heavily so I
may get myself out of the apartment. I may have coffee with Michael
tonight.
In
the morning, I listen to podcasts from the Vatican and the
conservative magazine National Review. These days, I have been
listening to Coffee & Markets – a conservative podcast on
mostly economics, Three Martini Lunch – a podcast from the National
Review magazine, the Adam Carolla podcast, Econtalk – a weekly
podcast, Radio Derb – a weekly podcast, The China History Podcast –
now coming out every two weeks or so, The Russian Rulers Podcast,
and Frank Delaney's ReJoyce.
Last
night, Tony hogged the home laptop watching videos about firetrucks.
I
have been spending too much time on my electronic devices. The past
few days, I have been visiting Facebook.
Tony
brought home his kindergarten
graduation
photos.
I
took a lot of photos for my
newest blog.
Thursday
[June 27]
[Home
Laptop]
I
work today 1300-2100. I will then have five days off.
I
went to the Wanda Hui Shan Plaza yesterday. I vowed not to, but what
was I going to do? I will talk more about it later. [LECTOR: This
is what you said earlier: To end up in a Shopping Mall on one's
vacation betrays a lack of imagination. ANDIS: What can I say?
Lector. You
are number one!]
I
have a touch of something in my stomach. Yesterday, I woke up
and had a very liquid sit on the toilet, and then I had another and
another. This morning, I had a similar trip to the toilet to start
the day. I will just have to ensure I have an empty stomach before I
go to work this morning.
I
had a good conversation on the phone with Tony as I was coming home
from Wanda last night. He understood all I said and answered my
questions with hoped for answers, or I should say informative answers
with information I was wanting.
From
the Black Book of Communism, I read that in September 1928 in Jiangsu
province, Little
Swords massacred 200 Big Swords and burnt six villages. I will have
to see if I can find more information on that incident. This kind of
rivalry between gangs was a prelude to what happened during the Great
Leap Forward and Cultural Revolutions.
Friday
[June 28]
[Home
Laptop]
I
don't work today. It is my fourth vacation day.
It's
Tony's last day of kindergarten! We tell him this but he doesn't
believe us. Tonight, we will be going to a show at Tony's school to
mark the event.
I
asked Tony which he prefers: playing with toys or going to school.
He said the latter. I don't think he understands comparative forms
in English yet.
Yesterday,
I went to school. It was a minimal duty day for me which means I
only did school stuff and didn't lay extra tasks on myself like
Chinese and Python study.
I
had a seat on the 635 last night. It was the front seat that faces
towards the center aisle and was behind the driver. I normally don't
sit there if I can because there is a high chance I will have to give
up the seat to an old person or some woman with kid – although at
900 PM that can be less of a problem because most Wuxi old people and
children are already in bed. Anyway, sitting up front, I noticed
another thing to hate about sitting up front in the bus: I was
crowded in by the standing passengers. One man who wore his backpack
on his chest had the backpack continually butt against my Ipad on
which I was trying to read some Chinese – I had to ward the bag
with my hand. I then had a person's arm enter my field of vision.
This fellow was short and had nothing else on which to hold except a
bar near where I was sitting – he had no choice but to extend his
arm in front of my face to hold to grab a hold of that bar. It also
didn't help that my knees on my long legs extended into the center
aisle more than was normal. Still, even though I was packed in, I
was able to read my Ipad almost oblivious to the crowd around me.
I
did a salon class about family with some higher level students. One
student had a great grandparent who was 97 years old. Another had a
great grandmother in her early nineties. The most interesting story
was about a neighbor of a student back in his native Ningxia province
who had ten sons! (No girls!) This story impressed all the
students.
My
wife was able to order Kraft Dinner on the internet. She
got six packages for 84 rmb. Cheap!!!!
As I said yesterday,
I did actually did something social on my vacation. I went to the
Starbucks at Wanda and had coffee with Michael, a local businessman
who speaks decent English. Michael always has interesting things to
share with me. He says the Chinese economy seems to be slowing down,
at least from the anecdotes he has gotten from talking to other
businessman who talk about the numbers of containers they have to
ship out. He also told me the chain of Wanda shopping plazas are
owned by ex-Premier Wen Jiabao. Perhaps I should be calling Wanda
the WenJiabaoda. [LECTOR: This is what you said earlier: To end
up in a Shopping Mall on one's vacation betrays a lack of
imagination. ANDIS: What can I say? Lector. You
are number one! LECTOR: I win!]
So
I went to the WenJiabaoda Plaza for the first time on Thursday
afternoon. It has a lot of good stuff in it like a McDonald's, a
Pizza Hut, an Apple store, a Dairy Queen, an Imax Cinema, a Watson's,
and an Urghur restaurant. I told Jenny that we will have less reason
to go downtown now, other then I would have to go to work. [LECTOR:
This is what you said earlier: To end up in a Shopping Mall on
one's vacation betrays a lack of imagination. ANDIS: What can I
say? Lector. You
are number one! LECTOR: I win! Again!]
Thankfully,
no one asked me how my vacation had been at school! Actually... One
of the Chinese staff did. I told her, rather sheepishly, I didn't
know what I was going to do with my four days off. [Two of them have
been taken up with Tony's events.]
Locals
who know of me scream “Tony!” at me to get my attention. I
ignore them.
I
don't know what to think of this Snowden fellow. His revelations
didn't seem so stunning to me. The students, however, have told me
that they have been following the story without my prompting them to
say so. Michael asked me what I thought about it, and I had to tell
him I wasn't sure what to think.
For
lunch, Jenny & I went to the BeiXiang Restaurant in the Wanda or
WenJiaoBaoda Plaza. We had green beans and lamb.
MMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!!!!!!!! 很好吃！
The
food was good. Only thing however disturbed me: one of the washrooms
on the main floor of the Plaza was a real horror. Black sooty water
had backed up so that the sinks were overflowing making for a very
yucky and mucky looking floor. While the Wanda looks okay now. I
can already see signs of hastily done construction when I look around
the place.
I
went to Tony's kindergarten, for what I hope is the last time, to
pick up his linen, backpack, and lunchbox. Tonight, there will be a
performance by the students at a primary school near the
kindergarten. Jenny & I will take a taxi there.
I
finished watching the third episode of the third season of Game of
Thrones.
I
went to Tony's kindergarten
graduation ceremony show. [In
the photo, the banner on the stage said the following: 2013 3之3
幼儿园毕业典礼
（pinyin:
3 zhi 3 youer yuan biye dianli；
English:
3 plus 3 kindergarten graduation ceremony)] Never being one to try
to make others envy me, I will be honest and say I envy anyone who
doesn't have to go to these things. Performances by kindergarten
students are torturous to watch, and the idea of graduating from
kindergarten being all that important is silly. It just isn't. I
did have a reason to go to these ceremony however, and that was to
see my Tony, but it wasn't to be. Tony
stood at the back of his group when he went on the stage and I
couldn't see him. His performance also had him standing at the
back where I couldn't see him. The best performance, in fact,
involved five boys dancing to Gangnam Style – it is de riguer
for any public ceremony these days to have someone dance Gangnam
Style it would seem. Mercifully the ceremony ended fifteen minutes
earlier than I had expected, but it was still one of the longest 105
minutes I had ever spent in my life. Maybe, the Chicoms, in their
infernal wisdom, love to stage these boring ceremonies so as to stop
parents from having more than one child...
But
then I saw something that actually astonished me. At least three of
the kindergarten teachers were bawling their eyes out as they stood
on the stage with their students. Jenny told me that it was a very
emotional moment for the teachers because they were seeing many of
their students for the last time. These teachers had spent three
years with the kids, and become quite attached to them. Seeing Tony
hug one of them brought tears to my eyes, and made me a little
envious. I can't say that I have developed any emotional bonds
towards any students I have had. I have to admit that most of the
students I have had have left me with numbness at best and more than
often with contempt. The students I like are not so because of
anything I did. Of course, it could be because I am older and a
selfish fuck while the teachers at school are young and not even
married yet.
There
was also the girl with intellectual challenges. My wife pointed her
out to me but I knew of her from going to Tony's classes. In the
primary schools and kindergartens I have been to, there is always the
slow children, one in each class, who wander around the class and do
their own thing because they can't understand what is expected of
them. The girl stood at the back and was imitating her classmates
while not really being part of the show. I wondered what it was like
for her parents.
I
hate the fucking GFW! I just want to watch the highlights of the
Stanley Cup Final without buffering! [I was able to watch and the
players seemed so bloody young. They looked like junior players. I
must be getting old. LECTOR: You are getting old.]
I
watched the fourth episode of the third season of Game of Thrones.
Saturday[June
29]
[Home
Laptop]
I
don't work today. My last vacation day.
This
afternoon, I will go to downtown to see a performance of Tony's dance
class.
This
morning, I don't know what to do with myself. It is a horrible
feeling to not have a purpose. [LECTOR: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
ha!]
I
have been trying to upload VOCFCK
#5 for nearly two days now. It is a slow process to upload to
Youtube from behind the GFW. [LECTOR: What's the point? No one
will watch it anyway.]
[Ipod
Touch]
Took
the 25 bus downtown. I would have rather have taken the 602支,
and then transferred to another bus because I didn't want to stand.
The 602支(the 602 is a
different route) always has available seats. My wife didn't
want to walk a longer distance to get to the dance class -- our
intended destination. She wanted to take the 25 bus which,
while getting us directly to our destination, is often crowded.
Standing on the 25 bus is an ordeal because it takes 45 minutes to
get downtown. I rather sit on the trip and walk a little even
with my gamey right leg than stand for so long.
As it was, we got a seat on the 25. But it was crowded with construction workers carrying their possessions to the train and bus stations, peasant looking old women, and poor mothers carrying babies. Jenny who insisted on standing complained of how crowded it was. She wanted to stand because she didn't want Tony sitting on her lap. Too heavy she said.
Reading in the Black Book of Communism of the tortures that many innocent people were subjected to during various Communist caused brutalities, I can tell myself I have little of which to complain. Imagine what it would be like to be a 60 year old teacher being tortured by students, a stick stuck up your rectum -- this happened during the Cultural Revolution.
As it was, we got a seat on the 25. But it was crowded with construction workers carrying their possessions to the train and bus stations, peasant looking old women, and poor mothers carrying babies. Jenny who insisted on standing complained of how crowded it was. She wanted to stand because she didn't want Tony sitting on her lap. Too heavy she said.
Reading in the Black Book of Communism of the tortures that many innocent people were subjected to during various Communist caused brutalities, I can tell myself I have little of which to complain. Imagine what it would be like to be a 60 year old teacher being tortured by students, a stick stuck up your rectum -- this happened during the Cultural Revolution.
Middle-aged white men couldn't possibly understand what black youngsters and teenagers undergo in their lives. This is said as a way of defending black criminality. It is used as well to keep alive the contention that white men are racist and could never give a black person a fair treatment.
But do black people understand Middle-aged white men and give them fair treatment? I somehow doubt it when the line that white people are oppressors is accepted uncritically and is an article of faith among leftist race hustlers who propagate it unaware that White Americans aren't racist anymore.
I one day intend to become am old white man. I resent the racist epitaphs that are thrown at them that assumes that experience blinds them and makes them bigoted unlike old people who are women and/or not of a light complexion. I have seen many a kind old white man have their views discounted because they are old and white. Case in point, the Popes and Republicans. [Lector: You are a racist!]
A taxi makes a left turn passes close to a car making a right turn. Just before they approach the perigee of their two turning arches, an e-bike makes it way in-between them and narrowly misses being hit by these two other vehicles. The incident is nothing unusual except that I noticed it and needed something to blog about. [LECTOR: I don't think you are correctly using the word perigee.]
Sunday
[June 30]
I
don't work today.
I
arise at 830 or so. A recollection of my
father dying came into my mind. I was floored with sadness and a
longing ache.
Some
numbers: 356 views of my
new blog. Thirteen Views of a little essay I typed entitles
Travel
Narrows the Mind? The over night numbers were very
disappointing.
We
went to the Little Sheep Restaurant in the Wanda Plaza last evening
for supper. We thought it was okay at first because it didn't have a
lineup like many of the other restaurants, and we were able to walk
right in and get a table. But then we discovered there was a reason
that the restaurant wasn't busy. It's service was horrible. My wife
vowed to never go to the restaurant ever again. They gave us dirty
glasses and the service thereafter was fumbling.
I
woke up this morning about two AM and sat on my porcelain, nay, iron
throne. I must have had a Little Sheep poop. I was reminded of a
song by Johnny Cash.
Visitors
in the morning. Tony's primary school teachers. One of them is
named Selina. I will need to remember that.
I
passed a foreigner as I was walking the road in front of Casa
Kaulins. I avoided eye contact, pretending to be focused on Tony.
Jenny then asked me if I saw the foreigner. I said “well....
yeah. He is probably French or something.” I should have said
hello but I just couldn't press the trigger on my friendly gun.
Yesterday,
I saw a older Chinese man with curly hair. It was an unusual sight
because 99.9 percent of the Chinese I have seen have naturally
straight hair. This man's hair was curly and white, he reminded of
Marx Brother named Harpo, the one with curly and white hair who never
speaks. He did say hello to me, but I never had a chance to question
him about his origins. He was with Chinese cronies drinking tea.
Coming
home from downtown yesterday, we went to our small shop to buy some
drinks. Tony didn't want anything, but he got very upset when I
bought drinks for Jenny and myself. He kept screaming “No buy
drinks!” He continued saying this even after we bought the drinks.
We didn't know what he wanted or what his complaint. Did he want
us to return the drinks and get our money back? Was he angry because
we ignored his order? Or was he simply irritable from a lack of
sleep. In fact, earlier
at the dance class, he refused to participate for the last ten
minutes. Asking him if he thought dance class was stupid – I
thought it was – he said it was stupid. It must have been the lack
of sleep. He didn't even take a nap on the bus – his usual habit.
The
Hui Shan Tesco Plaza is very quiet on account of the opening of the
Wanda Plaza. The two plazas are about two hundred meters from each
other. And the word on the street is that the supermarket in the
basement of Wanda is cheaper than Tesco. I think that a lot of this
shopping mall construction is just shuffling retail demand about, not
really increasing it. Although, people must have come from Jiangyin
to visit the new Wanda.
My
vacation time wasn't that bad at all. I just have no stories to
tell, and I can't make them up. People who have this “talent,”
have a brain that somehow doesn't register reality.
Tomorrow
is Dominion Day, not Canada Day. Only Communists call it Canada Day.
Real Canadians call it Dominion Day!!!!
Sunday
afternoon about 345, I took Tony to the Wanda Plaza. I took him to
two arcades, McDonald's, and any store that happened to sell toys.
He was well-behaved once. When he was eating his four chicken wings
at McDonald's. Something about those spicy wings makes Tony sit
still and take his time. Otherwise, he runs around excitably like a
chicken with no idea what it wants to do. [LECTOR:
This is what you said earlier: To
end up in a Shopping Mall on one's vacation betrays a lack of
imagination. ANDIS:
What can I say? Lector. You
are number one! LECTOR: I win yet again!]
I
spend most of Sunday evening, looking for solecisms in this blog
entry.
