Saturday, April 30, 2022
Wrong Way to Get to the Party House
To set up this blog entry, I'll need to tell you two things. And I have inserted a photo of the intersection in question to better convey my meaning.
First, there's a Chinese Communist Party branch on a corner just down the street from my currrent apartment building here in the Xi Shan district. The photo above shows a view of the intersection. The “party” building or the “party' house would be on the right hand side, out of the photo.
Second, at the intersection by the corner, there is a left turn lane which runs against a boulevard. (When I say boulevard, I mean the divider between the opposing lanes.) In the photo above, you can see the boulevard is full of bushes. In that boulevard you can see that there is a gap where cars can make u-turns. It is at that gap which is the subject of this entry.
The truth about this gap is that half the cars that use it are making u-turns and half the cars are coming from the opposite direction and are using the gap to get to the entrace to my apartment complex. Thus, they are going the wrong way on the lanes that run right in front of my current apartment building complex. The reason that they drive the wrong way is that they would otherwise have to drive half a kilometer down the road before they can turn around and drive another half a kilometer the right way to get to the apartment entrance. My wife says I can't do this maneuver.
Now, some of these cars going the wrong way aren't going to our apartment complex. What prompted me to make this blog entry is that I saw a car being driven the wrong way to the party house. That is, I saw a CCP member breaking the traffic rules to get to the branch of his party. That they do this, says something to me about either Chinese culture or members of the Chinese Communist Party. It doesn't say much also about the developers. Apparently this a phenomenom all over the world where planners think people will follow their paths like lemmings.
One of Our Apartments is Locked Down; the Other Is Not
The Xi Shan apartment we rent is locked down. My son Tony & I can’t go anywhere.
The Hui Shan apartment we own is not locked down. So my wife can conduct her business.
I had assumed all of Wuxi was locked down until Tony’s baseball coach said he had practice on Saturday morning. I had to tell him we were lockdowned and so couldn’t attend.
April is the Cruelest Month
I wish I had quoted it myself, but it never occurred to me until I listened to the last Radio Derb Podcast for April.
TS Eliot, quoted John Derbyshire, said April is the cruelest month; and for me April 2022 was the cruelest month. I was let go of by my school and was forced to endure a Shanghai style lockdown twice.
Hopefully, May will be better. But it will have to be endured if or until I can find another situation.
email me at andiskaulins@protonmail.com,
Friday, April 29, 2022
Thursday, April 28, 2022
Listening to Music
I like listening to music. Nothing can beat either listening to a good song in the car or walking down the street with a good song in one's earbuds. However, there is one paradoxical thing that struck me about this habit of mine which seemed a topic on which to blog, or to write an essay, or to essay, if “essay” can be used as a verb.
The thing is this, I can't just be satisfied with the act of listening in itself. When I listen, I either fantasize that I am the singer of the song performing for an audience, or that I am listening to the music with someone else and that they think the music is cool and we are thus in some sort of communion. And these urges, if that is what you can call them, are never ever fulfilled.
So I pose some questions. One: Why do I keep hoping for something that can never happen? Two: what exactly is it that I want when I listen to music? Three: Should I stop listening to music? I will deal with each question in turn.
It is getting late in life for me to hope for something that can never happen. I should give it up. But it is easier said than done. Bad as people are, as as sinful as they are, I need their company. They say that solitary confinement is torture. It explains why people are addicted to social networks on their phones.
I listen to music because... I listen to music because... I can't say exactly. Because... I am not a musician. I can't keep a tune. I couldn't tune a guitar because the tones all sounded the same to me. I become jealous and feel diminished in the presence of people who are musicians. I have held on to my adolescent delusion that listening to the right music can make me superior to others. And so I would suppose from this elucidation of facts about my unmusciality, it would seem that I have a desire to shape my identity when I listen to music... (What it must have been like to live in a time before recorded music. It would never have occurred to a self-concious individual at that time to make music a way of raising his self-esteem. Music must have served a different purpose. Perhaps this person, not having recorded music, would have been more proud of being able to know a song.)
Maybe I should put myself in the state of that person of yore who never had recorded music to listen to and get back to being in a more basic state; a state of being not so influenced by technology. I can't say that smart phones have made me a better person. In a lot of ways smart phones encourage my worst tendencies. They certainly don't help me concentrate on music in a proper way. I turn from one musical sensation to another like a glutton at a buffet table. I always try to foist my musical tastes on others who I should know are not going to care. I even try to sing in public without knowing the first thing about singing.
But music like religion satisfies a human yearning. If I stopped listening to it, I would have to replace it with something which my other interests, like reading or poetry or politics, couldn't never satisfy in the same way.
I am just going to have to listen to music in a proper way. I will have to appreciate that music is the thing in itself and that it doesn't lead to anything else, except maybe God... There it is...
Wednesday, April 27, 2022
Photos Taken Around the Complex
This fellow is holding up the Lingxi QR Scan Code
This fellow must be on a break from sticking Swabs down people’s throats.
I wonder who gets to wear the white suit and who gets to wear the blue suit.
Tuesday, April 26, 2022
Monday, April 25, 2022
Bye Bye Beard!
Now that I’m officially on a job hunt, I might as well shave off my beard.
Since Covid stupidity isn’t going to end anytime soon, the Covid beard vow I made — that is to not shave it off till the panic was over — is officially mute. Covid stupidity isn’t going to end. I might have well have vowed to shave off my beard when this world ceased to be a vale of tears. Ain’t going to happen.
Covid stupidity is now just the backdrop to the real drama of my life which is to do right by my son and by God.
Bye bye beard.
Lockdowned and Then Letgoed
April 25th was some day for me.
First, I got news, while I was at school, that my apartment complex was in lockdown and that as soon as I entered it, I couldn’t leave.
Second, I was told to see my school principal. When I got word of it, I had to wonder what it was about. It probably wasn’t good.
And it wasn’t. I was told that they weren’t going to have me working there next year. My first reaction was that it wasn’t going to be good for my son because there was a good chance that he wasn’t going to go back there next year. Imagine. Three schools for your three years of middle school. (Free tuition for my son was a reason for working at the school.)
Third, I had to think what to do next. Obviously, I was going to have to update my resume and all that. But my more immediate problem was who to tell this bad news to. I told my wife right away. That I did so, surprised me. I was scared to. I then told a colleague of mine that I happened to know since 2004. I then told my colleague in my kindergarten level. I really had to get away from the job for an evening. I had lost my motivation for the moment.
Fourth, was the question of whether to tell my son Tony. I had arranged for him to meet me so we could go home together. Walking home, the urge was to for me tell him and so I did. He told me he wanted to stay in this school.
When we got to our apartment complex, we saw crazy Covid lockdown silliness. We saw lots of people in hazmat suits. The security guys had put that crime-scene style tape in front of our apartment building entrance. We had to duck under it to get into our building.
I learned that in building 476, there was a case of Covid. We’re in building 473. That may be the closest I have ever been to a case.
My wife told me not to tell my son Tony my bad news. Too late I told her. So, my wife and Tony talked. Tony started to cry. He then told me he wished I hadn’t told him.
Fifth was the question of whether to blog about about my being letgoed. I don’t think I have that many readers so this might as well be a Dear Diary entry where I just get it off my chest. But if there are any sympathetic readers, now is the time for you to tell me what I should do next.
My email is andiskaulins@protonmail.com.
I will blog more about why I was let go. I will say now that it wasn’t because I was lazy. I can say that in all honesty.
Sunday, April 24, 2022
Some Covid Bureaucracise
From now on, the "7 + 7" control measures will be implemented for the personnel coming (returning) from Yixing Closed Area (Heqiao Town). That is, 7 days home health monitoring (single room, yellow code), 7 day health monitoring, 1 day, 2, 3, 5, 7, 10, 14 days of nucleic acid detection; Implementation of "3 + 11" control measures for personnel coming (returning) from the control area (Heqiao town), That is, 3 days of home health monitoring (single room, yellow code), 11 days of health monitoring, 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 10, 14 days of nucleic acid detection; Check the DNA negative certificate within 48 hours for Yixing (or returning) personnel outside Heqiao Town. There is no history of living outside the city and health code green code within 14 days. The original control personnel shall be adjusted according to the new control caliber.
Saturday, April 23, 2022
Light reflected onto the underside of a bridge.
Sitting in a car parked under a bridge, I chanced to see light reflected from the water’s surface onto the arched wall of the bridge’s support column.
The light glowed on the surface. It twisted and undulated in fantastic shapes like a magical fairy tale creature. In ages before technology such patterns would surely have stirred observing minds into who knows what scapes of fantasy.
To minds made inattentive by technology, the light could spark reflection on how the best plans of engineers cannot fully eliminate insinuations of divine otherness.
Friday, April 22, 2022
Will the Madness Ever Stop?
To get from my apartment to the mall and then back I have to show a QR code at least four times. One time to get into the mall, one time to get into my apartment complex, and two times to get on the train.
The world has gone full Justin Trudeau!
At the train station there are four security persons all wearing Karen Covid masks and visors. I have to show two QR codes to get on the train. (I use my old phone number and old WeChat ID to do this. My new phone number can only produce one of the codes.)
I could have sworn that one of the security person’s job was to check the first code while another had to check the second code.
The world has gone full Justin Trudeau!
My son may, like me, may have to get a new phone number because he can’t produce a lingxi app code with his name on it for his school. Why this is necessary when the app can show he is up to date on his NAT test is beyond me,
The world has gone full Justin Trudeau!
I hear Justin Trudeau fans loved what was going on in Shanghai till they had to be shamed not to.
I have taken five NAT tests this week.
The world has gone full Justin Trudeau!
Just heard, Guy Lafleur R.I.P.
Tuesday, April 19, 2022
Saturday, April 16, 2022
Don’t Ask Me Why!
Two years into these dark ages, I had to get a new phone number. I had had the old phone number since 2004. But then a new Covid app on my phone could not connect the old phone number to my passport number. China Mobile could not connect the old number to me. Don’t ask me why. So a new number it had to be.
I worried about all the inconvenience this change would cause. Too many things I had set up with the old number that would now need to be undone. It was enough to make me angry.
Thankfully I had an old IPhone Six that I could use for the new phone number. So I would have two phone numbers and two WeChat IDs.
Here is what I typed out on Holy Saturday morning as I was at a China Mobile office to get the new phone number:
Getting a new phone number involves me having to take my mask on and off several times. I have to take the mask off so a camera at the clerk’s desk can take a photo of my countenance. Why this has to be done more than once is beyond me. And I have been told that the taking off the mask and then putting it on again renders the mask useless.
I chose a number and then I had to chose another number. Don’t ask me why! The first number ended in 064. The next one I chose had a rhythm to it, I think. 13812191479. What do you think?
Then I had to take a selfie video with the clerk. I agreed, on video, to taking a SIM card ending in 479. Don’t ask me why!
Then to sign I had to print my name in capital letters: ANDIS EDMUNDS KAULINS. Don’t ask me why!
Friday, April 15, 2022
Wednesday, April 13, 2022
What to Make of What’s Going on in Shanghai
I live about 100 KM or so from Shanghai. I don’t visit the place much. In 2021, I went there twice.
The past week, I watched Tucker Carlson’s account of what was happening with the Shanghai lockdown. He described their lockdown as a virtual imprisonment accompanied by starvation. I didn’t know what to make of it. The lockdown here in Wuxi has been annoying but never have I felt like my life was on the line. And to be honest, I have been content to be a homebody. Food wise, I have had enough to eat.
But people, who have contacts in Shanghai, say their friends have been down to their last grain of rice…
So, it’s been better in Wuxi than Shanghai.
Tuesday, April 12, 2022
Monday, April 11, 2022
Sunday, April 10, 2022
Good Three and Bad 3
I got the NYT Wordle in three for the third day in a row.
I got my third jab at the party house near the Longfor apartment complex where I am currently domiciled in Wuxi, China. I didn’t want to but my wife insisted….
I call the place where I got the vaxxx the party house because it is some sort of branch office for the Communist Party of China. So as I was going through the jab process, I saw photos with Chinese Communist histography.
One benefit of the jab is that I don’t have to do a NAT test for two days. I wasn’t told that I couldn’t drink for 24 hours so I may just imbibe.
How do I feel on account of the jabbb? Numb and buzzing.
Saturday, April 9, 2022
Day 100
Sunday is the 100th day of 2022.
How would rate your 2022 so far?
I would give it a 20.
Send you rating to andiskaulins@protonmail.com.
Friday, April 8, 2022
Thursday, April 7, 2022
Wednesday, April 6, 2022
Now Will Be Going Back to Work
It’s Thursday AM. Just learned that we will go back to school this afternoon in order to prepare for a normal working day tomorrow.
Ah! I sighs as I let out a breath.,.
Noice!
Not Going Back to Work on Thursday
Wednesday Evening at about 8:00 PM or so, we were told that classes would temporarily not resume.
I Been Told to Get Ready to Go Back to Work
It’s Wednesday evening.
We were told about 14:00 or so that we should get ready to go back to work.
About whether we return on Thursday (tomorrow), we haven’t been given definite word.
So we wait.
Tuesday, April 5, 2022
Monday, April 4, 2022
Sunday, April 3, 2022
Reading Naomi Wolf
The election of Trump has changed so much.
I learned to hate most Republicans. (My opinion of most Democrats didn’t improve, btw)
I found myself reading people I never thought I would be reading in a million years like RFK jr. and Naomi Wolf.
It seems she has come to the realization to improve the world, we need God.
I love the articles she has been writing at substack like this one.
Saturday, April 2, 2022
Friday, April 1, 2022
Lost Track of How Many Nuclear Icicle Tests I’ve Done.
The security types in my apartment complex use loud hailers to let all the residents know when it’s time to get a Nucleic Acid or Nuclear Icicle test done.
I’ve lost track of how many of these tests I’ve had done. I managed to go the first eighteen or so months of the Covid panic without having one done. Now in the last three months I’ve had so many done, I’ve lost track.
I’ll do one this afternoon at 13:00 or so. The third in three days.
3 Godfathers
3 Godfathers is the third film I watched this lockdown.
It was released in 1948, directed by John Ford and starred John Wayne and the cast from other John Ford directed films.
Three back robbers on the run come upon a dying mother who makes them godfathers of her newborn baby.
A nice little picture. “Pleasure to make your acquaintance Ma’am!” What manners!
No Veggies or Fruit
I drove to Metro (a kind of Costco), on my one allowed outside journey, to do some grocery shopping. They didn’t have any fresh fruit or veggies.
Dry and frozen goods were plentiful however.
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