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
The High will be 28 Celsius; the low 10. How to dress? I had to think about it. I won’t wear a short sleeve just yet. I’ll wear a long sleeve and jean jacket.
The week will be an easy one. No classes and mock exams to proctor. Thursday and Friday are holidays on account of the Qing Ming festival.
If the stats are to be believed, this blog has had over 53,000 views in March. I’ll do an entry about this when the month is done.
And it’s April Fools Day. No tricks up my sleeves.
This afternoon, I did some prep. I would sometimes drop in on Tony and see if he was studying,
Listening to a podcast that has Paul Gottfried as a guest. His analysis of the political scene seems bang on but depressing. Conservatives are so weak. They let the Leftists walk all over them. The Leftists want to destroy those who don’t agree with their stupid ideas,
Podcast Listening: Russell Brand & Radio Derb. Brand talks 100 mph. Derb declares that Conspiracy theorizing is boring. He didn’t make the intellectual leap that the rise of CTing is caused by mass distrust in institutions and by the incompetence of the ruling elites, Derb also felt compelled to apologize for making religious references in his podcast. Are his atheist listeners that intolerant?
Typing on my IPhone is so annoying. So much typing the key beside the one I mean to enter.
I should be at a church this morning,
On my Daily Video, I did some Easter Sunday readings. Some may think I’ve gone off the deep end, So be it.
He is risen! Alleluia!
The resurrection is the most glorious World Historical moment. Christ showed us that death is conquerable, that there is more to existence than life on Earth, and that the passion we give to things like politics and success and stuff is beside the point.
Didn’t sleep well last night. My legs were painfully restless, I decided that I should stop trying to sleep and accept that I was awake and should be doing things. I mean it could be that I only need two or three hours of sleep a day now.
First thing, I did upon waking up was open the Hallow App and extend my streak to 29 days. Duolingo will have to wait today.
My son Tony was at the Jiangyin apartment by himself. He phoned me twice. First, to ask how to bake the remaining salmon fillets that were in the freezer; second, to ask when I was coming back home. I hoped he studied.
I got a seat on the S1 train coming back to Jiangyin. I got off at the Jiangyin train station and went to the taxi station to catch a ride home. The taxi stand beats using a Didi because it is not easy for a Didi driver to find a fare at the big and multi-leveled train station. If a driver phoned me, I have a hard time getting him to understand my Chinese.
However, I had bad luck as the taxi driver at the taxi stand didn’t understand me or know where Yu Shan Wan was. He took the wrong exit off Furong and I had to direct him to the Yu Shan, which I did, despite not being at certain intersections which way to proceed. And I also wondered if he was playing dumb to increase his fare.
They examined me (took a blood test & did a CT scan), and told me that I was getting better and that in three months or so, I could have the appendectomy done. Hurray!
There were a lot of people out today, and even better, there were girls in shorts and short skirts making my head turn. Unfortunately, the weather is not to my tastes because I’ve lost weight and everything I wear looks ungracefully baggy. I still would rather wear layers, but it has become too hot to do so.
I have been thinking of Christ during my daydreaming,
I notice I’ve been suffering from blogger’s block recently, I can’t think of much to say other then the mundane things I’ve done.
Anyway, here’s one thing I noticed. On the train ride out to Wuxi, I noticed that this young couple were wearing matching Nike high tops. I’ve seen couples here wearing matching T-shirts and so the matching shoes was a revelation to me.
I made two AKIC Daily Videos today:
I’ll now edit my AKIC Daily AM Video,
Holy Saturday
Something strange is happening today. There is great silence on the earth.
Extended my Duolingo streak to 2525 days.
Extended my Hallow streak to 28 days.
I will go to Wuxi today by the S1. I have a doctor’s appointment this afternoon.
Posted Christian messages on WeChat. A few liked them,
Tonight, Tony & I will go to the nearby Heng Long to eat KFC and buy drinks and such for the next week.
Tomorrow, I go to the hospital in Wuxi for a checkup,
We adore Thee O Christ and we praise Thee;
Because by Thy Holy Cross Thou hast redeemed
the world.
The high in Jiangyin today will be 27 Celsius, Too warm, too soon.
Busy day at school.
Over 40,000 views of this blog in March if the stats are to be believed,
Maunday Thursday evening. I took the photo. I Typed the crap to go below. And I didn’t publish till two hours later.
Christ is King!
Tomorrow: Good Friday. I’ll think about the fourteen stations of the cross. I’ll post about it on WeChat.
I’m listening to James Howard Kunstler and Naomi Wolff. Never would have happened before Trump. Trump changed everything.
Before, l listened to fast talking Russel Brand.
Students. The students I have! Aye yah yah! The lowest common denominator. Some of these students can’t speak English. They merely nod their heads.
I just want to get through tomorrow. I got a lot of classes with half formed plans as to what I’m going to do.
My 6,666th entry in this blog !
Kept myself busy this morning. Two classes to run the clock out this afternoon.
Extended my Duolingo streak to 1523 days.
Extended my Hallow streak to 25 days.
Theatre attacks and Bridges collapsing. What’s going on?
Yesterday, I had to go to the apartment in the middle of the afternoon to pick up Tony’s basketball shoes. He participated in some tournament but they lost their match 16-12.
Extended my Hallow Streak to 25 days.
Apparently, this blog has had over 36,000 views in March so far. That’s a lot. I just don’t know if I can believe the numbers. Why hasn’t anyone commented? Why haven’t any of these readers sent me a goddamn email? Huh? Hmmm? I’m waiting!!!
I am going to read the 3 body problem novel on account the NF series. I’ve been told that there is s Chinese series based on the novel that is more faithful to the novel than the NF series.
Showed my grade 12 students, yesterday, the opening scene from the 3 Body Problem NF series.
When I told the same students thst China was the 60th most happy country in the world, according to the World Happiness Report, they told me they thought it should be lower.
Extended my Duolingo streak to 1522 days.
I extended my Hallow streak to 23 days.
Maybe the kids will like the 3 Body Problem series…
Extended my Duolingo streak to 1521 days.
It’s Tuesday of Holy Week.
Extended my Hallow streak to 23 days.
I read that I was living in the 60th most happy country in the world…. And here I was thinking it was the 28th most happy. Watch today’s AKIC Daily Video (see previous entry) for more of my thoughts about the World Happiness Report.
It was raining as I made myself home from work. I of course had my umbrella — I’m always prepared for rain— but the rain was accompanied by wind and so it was a real battle to stay dry.
I had one can of Budweiser in the mini fridge, I haven’t had a lick of alcohol since early February. My son Tony noticed the beer and asked me if he could drink it. This was a first for Tony. And he’s only 16…,
I wake up to the sounds of birds whistling, for I am at the height of their nesting it would seem.
Extended Duolingo streak to 1519.
Extended Hallow App to 22 days.
Need 40,000 views to have 2.5 million YouTube views.
Had a lot of chances to do stop and chats in the past few days, but didn’t take advantage of them. Students from my current school and colleagues from a school whose name is damned forever in my books.
Was very annoyed by the sight of three teenage boys playing network games on their smartphones while in public. They were sitting on a pedestal near the foot of these stairs that took one into the Yanqiao metro station. They suddenly became annoyingly loud as they played, causing me to wish they were shot. Recalled a similar occurrence where a group of seven boys were playing mobile network games in a McDonald’s.
If the numbers are to be believed, I had more page views yesterday than I had in all of February.
I’ll try to blog to bring on the sleepiness that leads to unconsciousness.
How to battle the dehumanizing tendencies of the managerial and technical state? I say the managers have to refine their techniques so as to be able to maximize human flourishing and not technical efficiency. It seems that the drawbacks of technical efficiency, if measured with regard to its effect on real living humans, would far exceed its benefits. For example, a robot waiter would be more technically efficient at serving than a human waiter. But the way of measuring this technical efficiency would not take into account the loss of human contact that this would entail in the long run. Perhaps, the experts measuring the efficiency are not using very sophisticated measurement techniques. Perhaps, humanity is destroying itself because the technique of expertocracy is not very sophisticated. Humanity needs to smarten up!
David Warren, my favorite blogger, made a great observation about how Nicolas Gomez Davila aphorisms are really great tweets.
My feeling about Elon Musk? I generally like what he has done with Twitter. I no fan of his Teslas, however. But as long as he, like the Donald, says and does things that drive the woke leftist progressive types crazy, he is doing God’s work.
Hey Hate Haters! Is ‘I hate white boots’ hate speech? (I’ll put this in my anti-blog)
Back in Jiangyin.
Saturday was busy. We took the taxi and then the S1 Line to the Hui Shan apartment. We drove to the Livat Mall where we had some Burger King and then saw a Russian restaurant which we would like to try. We went to the IKEA food store. We got the car serviced. We drove past a campus of a school Tony had been to before just recently. We stopped by a Tim Horton’s in downtown Wuxi. We went to Hui Shan Wanda. We went to the old Hui Shan apartment to pick up some baseball equipment. We then walked to the Yanqiao metro station with a lot of stuff as we S1ed it and taxied back to the Jiangyin apartment.
I heard about a writer named Jacques Ellul on the Chronicles podcast. He had some interesting things to say about technology and how in its striving to make the world more efficient, it has robbed people of their humanity. The technology society could only be done away with if it was torn completely to the ground, and somehow not be restored, but ultimately it is impossible as the allure of technology is too much for humans to eschew. It would seem to me that we can only adopt a NGD reactionary attitude to the conundrum of the technical managerial society:
‘The pure reactionary is not a dreamer of abolished pasts, but a hunter of sacred shades on the eternal hills.’
Always hunt for the sacred, the love of God,..
Working my way through the Devils novel written by Dostoevsky. So many characters.
Extended my Hallow streak to 21 days. I notice that when I try to pray, it is hard to keep thoughts of my current situation and immediate worldly concerns from seeping into my mind.
Extended my Duolingo streak to 1518.
From Romano Guardini, I learn that the discipline of praying everyday in the morning, evening, and any other time is an absolute necessity.
Later today, we’ll — that be my son & I — will go to Wuxi.
Maybe, I’ll listen to a podcast..,,
Hurray?!?
Students were annoying today. I’ll have to forget about them till mundane.
It’ll be a busy Friday followed by a busy weekend.
Extended my Hallow streak to 19 days.
Went to Turtle Head Park in Wuxi for a Cherry Blossom Festival ceremony. After the ceremony, walked, I did, with the Jiangyin delegation of foreigners around the park Cherry blossoms were seen. The park was nice and it seemed to me that today was the first time I’d been to it. I met people from the Philippines, Kenya, Siberia, Texas and Mauritius to name the few. I learned that Siberia and Manitoba had a lot in common.
Then, we returned to Jiangyin.
Last night, I ate in a restaurant for the first time in a while.
This morning, early reading class which starts at 6:45.
Done did Monday.
Made a ninety second long Daily Video you can watch on my YouTube channel.
Have not slept well recently. I go to bed at 9:00 PM but am still awake at 3:00 AM. Finally I feel sleepy at 4:30 AM; but at 5:00 AM I have to arise.
I listened to a podcast about a gentleman from the 20th century named George Kennan. He was said to be for a country minding its own business, against Communism, against Democracy, and for hierarchies. He seems like a good egg and so I must read things about him and by him, He wrote like Edward Gibbon apparently.
I’m still not right in the stomach area. There is always a discomfort in the pit of my stomach.
Took video of the eggs I bought, my air fryer, my coffee pod machine and the kitchen sink.
God, I hope my family in Canada is doing well.
I listened to a podcast interview with a half brother of Justin Trudeau. The half brother was not at all impressed with Justin’s performance. The half brother lives in the states and is a RFK supporter. It would be interesting if Tucker interviewed him.
The JQ was brought up on the James Howard Kunstler podcast. K is J and admits he is ashamed of what some of his fellow Js are doing. Some of them are spearheading the lawfare against Trump and the J6ers, as well as the movements in some cities to not prosecute crime.
Extended my Duolingo streak to 1513.
Extended my Hallow streak to 16. He knelt down and wrote on the dirt,
Extended my Duolingo streak to 1512.
Finished reading The Great Shark Hunt by Hunter S. Thompson. A fun read but politically, HST can be hyperbolic in his preferences.
Finished reading Learning the Virtues that lead you to God by Romano Guardini. An uplifting and thought provoking book.
I extended my Hallow streak to 15.
Realized how selfish I’ve been with family, both here and in Canada. I should elaborate, but won’t.
Contemplated the state of Ireland. What happened to it? It’s no longer the culture I found fascinating..,
