The never ending adventures of a Canadian who lives in Wuxi and Jiangyin, China with his Chinese wife Jenny and their son Anthony aka Tony
Look at the photos below. They make no sense to me. Perhaps the blogger stats function is playing one on me:
This blog is over ten years old. If the images above are to be believed, I got nearly 20 percent of my all time page views last month.
Where are all these readers? Contact me at andiskaulins@protonmail.com!!!!
Enough of taking pictures, I need my rare and/or non-existent readers to do some reading.
What to write about for them? I’ll just rattle off some thoughts and observations.
I’m in love with the gerund. I’m loving the gerund — that’s what I’m saying. I should also say I love gerunding. A student did something good recently — I was tempted to tell him that what he was doing was good studenting.
While facebooking, I came across a libtard definition of libtard. A libtard was someone hated by the rightist (or whatever) because the libtard knew history, world affairs, spelling, and one or two other things while the nazi-racist-fascist-Maga didn’t. Reminded me of someone saying that Hilary Voters had more degrees than Trump voters. I posted a retort saying that if the libtard did know these things, along with how to critically think, then the libtard wouldn’t be a libtard. I should have also posted — I could post now there but can’t be bothered (my rare non-existent readers being more important) — I should also have posted that a libtard probably couldn’t do any work with his hands, and knew nothing about plumbing or electrical things.
By the way, a better moniker than libtard is White Liberal. I wonder if the libtards would adopt that insult? That would be giving the game away however.
Does a libtard believe men can have babies? Oh, the witty responses keep coming to mind…
The prospect of a week long holiday has filled me with dread and loathing. This mid-autumn festival is going to be filled with a lot of boring patches. For one thing, my wife Jenny is going to be working during the holiday. For another, my son Tony is only going to want to not go out and do anything. All he seems content to do is play computer games and live with his devices. And if we do do something, we’ll have to deal with the crowds and lack of parking. And furthermore, if we do meet people, it’ll be boring. I don’t know anyone that I can feel at ease with socially. I wish I could converse with the friends of Nicholas Gomez Davila; not people who aren’t angry about the Covid reaction.
I finished reading Chadwick Moore’s biography of Tucker Carlson. His detractors don’t understand him. He can’t be labeled as part of any political faction. He is sui generis.
I also finished reading a book about Covid entitled Hindsight 2020. It was fine, but dull. The author tried too hard to appear reasonable to the Covidians. At one point in the book, the author wrote of needing to eye-witness the truckers protesting in Ottawa before she could happily determine that they weren’t nazis and bigots. She was playing the libtards stupid game. Never ever accept the premises of a white liberal. She should have known immediately that Trudeau’s charges against the truckers were patently absorb. And the writer was also too admiring of economists. Economists have a different way of thinking about things, said the author. Economists can’t seem to get their act together as a profession, I say. The author went fluff portrayalish at points in the book, turning it into an extended article for Lockdown Sceptic Monthly.
I come back in a bit to edit that….
Edited. I mean, I went over what I wrote.
I am now reading Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. That perhaps explains why I writing the way I am in this blog entry…
Problem is, I don’t do drugs like Hunter S. Thompson, and though I drink, I have low tolerance. If I drink more than one or two beers, the idea of going on a bender goes away. I couldn’t hang out with Thompson or Sinatra. If I did, and I was intimidated by those two, I would surely die, or hate myself.
There was a time in Aldergrove where I smoked this strong weed — I couldn’t say no because I was a wimp coward — and I truly experienced the stoner high. I was driving and I felt I was in the back seat, and I ate two packs of Pringles when I got to my room.
A guy like Thompson did that all his life. Why would he? Sober Life is annoying, but destroying oneself doesn’t make things better.
My life here in China is a lonely one. I couldn’t survive here without my Bee Pee N.
It was nice to hug my wife Jenny. I hadn’t been in her presence in almost a month. I did this despite her annoying me so much as she criticized my choice of lane as I was driving on Xiu Xiao Ke Road between Wuxi and Jiangyin. It started when I was behind a black van that turned out to a coffin transport for a funeral company — so its signs said.
Would spending a week, say, in Hong Kong or Vietnam make me feel better? Would it shake off the malaise life is giving me now. I doubt it. I imagine myself going there and feeling bored as I did wandering around downtown Vancouver.
I am not looking forward to going to Canada next year. I get the impression that it is a folkorama festival with higher prices than concessions at a sporting event.
One abiding sensation of the last MLB game I attended was the pangs of hunger. because the food was so goddamned expensive. That could be my three weeks in Canada next year.
I hope that’s enough blogging for now….
Say what you will about China but it’s a serious country. That is, its leaders are serious about making their country better.
They build a lot of infrastructure, they do in China. It is soulless — apartment blocks and malls— but the West has lost its mojo when it comes to architecture. The only nice buildings in the West are its older buildings which the Chinese do sometimes try to imitate.
Friday, September 29, the National Holiday Week starts. Maybe, we’ll go to Suzhou. Maybe, we’ll go to Jenny’s hometown.
That is what the stats say this blog has had this month. I can’t believe it. It must be a bot.
Eleven away from a hundred for the year!
Worked from 6:45 to 4:15 without lunch.
I had longer days when I was relief driving, but for my age, that is hoofing ‘er.
At random times during the day, someone was letting off firecrackers on the street below the apartment in Jiangyin. It was so annoying. I had to turn off the podcast I was listening to till the noise subsided.
I listened to this interesting podcast where the guest said that by rejecting Aristotelian philosophy, the West has gone all wrong. The philosophical conundrums of today had been solved by Aristotle, he added. (A true message or one that happens to appeal to me?)
To celebrate having over 450,000 page views on this blog, I commissioned AI to ask me ten interview questions about my blog:
AI: Can you briefly introduce yourself and tell us what inspired you to start your blog?
AKIC: I’m Andis Edmunds Kaulins, born December 24, 1964. For 37, 38 years, I lived in Canada. I have lived in China since 2004. I started this blog because I had the dream of being a writer and because being in China may cause the blog to be of interest to someone.
AI: What topics or themes do you typically cover on your blog, and why are they important to you?
AKIC: I blog about whatever happens to interest me. It could be politics; it could be my life; it could be what I see here in China; it could be a lame idea of mine that I hoped was funny.; whatever…
AI: How do you come up with ideas for your blog posts? Do you have a specific process or source of inspiration?
AKIC: Sometimes, I tell myself that I have to blog, so I brainstorm. Sometimes, I see what other blogs do. Sometimes I have no time but to take a photo. I look at the blog like it’s an historical document.
AI: Could you share a memorable moment or experience related to your blog that has had a significant impact on vou?
AKIC: Not one in particular. I have had strangers walk up to me and tell me they read my blog. Some liked it, they told me. Some warned me to not pick on the excesses of pervert expats.
AI: What challenges, if any, have you faced while maintaining your blog, and how have you overcome them?
AKIC: Being in China, it is of course, the great firewall. I have a good Bee Pee N now, thank God! Another is my mistakes. I really should wait a while before I publish my entries. I don’t have an editor but myself. I need to remove myself from myself when I do self-edit. Another is my moments of ill will, my temper tantrums, as it were. Do I record these moments or not? Do I wait for a better time to expose myself? There are things I am holding back from saying.
AI: How do you engage with your audience or readers? Do you have any strategies or tips for building a strong connection with them?
AKIC: I keep telling them to email me. andiskaulins@protonmail.com. One response.
AI: What do you enjoy most about being a blogger, and what keeps you motivated to continue writing and sharing your content?
AKIC: I get a big kick out of good view numbers, and the occasional attention the blog gets me.
AI: Have you encountered any surprising or unexpected benefits or opportunities as a result of your blog?
AKIC: A few times, people have bought me lunch.
AI: Can you share any insights or advice for aspiring bloggers who may be just starting out on their own blogging journey?
AKIC: Don’t bother! I don’t want the competition!
AI: Looking ahead, what are your future goals or aspirations for your blog, and how do you envision it evolving?
AKIC: Maybe, I will change the name of the blog to Andis Kaulins Was in China or Andis Kaulins in the People’s Republic of Canada.
My previous hat trick was 819. So it’s been a week since my last one. It seemed longer.
Twelve to go to get to my goal of a hundred for a year.
Monday, I was so busy with classes and degrading grading that I didn’t take lunch. I worked 6:30 to 16:45.
I thought to buy some vegetables at the only shop near the apartment but was thwarted by some technical glitch at the shop — either that or an incompetent clerk. I was in the shop for about fifteen minutes, and the customer at the front of the line, who was purchasing many items, had not yet been able to pay. Evidently, the register’s mouse needed a new battery, or so one customer seemed to suggest. I gave up and put my purchases back in the vegetable bins. I was third in line when I did this and the lineup of locals was ten long. That Laowai had no patience.
I watched a movie on the weekend of the 17th and 18th: The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973). A good movie which had a astonishing sequence (I thought) take place in the Boston Garden during a Bruins game. I saw Tony Esposito with his trademark mask and Robert Mitchum say lines praising Bobby Orr.
My Jiangyin weekend spent mostly in the apartment. Tony & I went to the Monte Carlo for beer, pizza, fries and salad. Lots of older foreigners at that bar. I didn’t talk to any. I still don’t know my way about downtown Jiangyin. I did class planning and Tony did his homework. Sunday, we went to a Decathlon so Tony could buy swim trunks for swimming class.
I listened to a Prayer the Rosary audio session on X (Twitter). About a hundred people listen to it. Most of these people must be in North America.
I made this delicious egg burger cheese wraps for Tony. He seems to like ‘em.
Could Biden be impeached? The numbers in the congress say no. But who’s to say that the Democrats don’t use it as a pretext to get rid of him. He’s senile, an embarrassment, and even Dems can’t deny it.
I had to kick out an idiot from my Wuxi He Man group. He was spewing bigot talk to the point of distraction. (Notice I didn’t say he was razist)
James Delingpole has something to replace the London Calling podcast, he no longer does: a podcast about the Psalms. I’m thinking to do a video where I film in China but read a Psalm.
I then put down my phone, and the answer came to me.
Thirteen to go,
Completed just after 6:00 AM,
