9:18 AM View: First Day of February: the laziness has to stop!

 Crappy weather now.  It has made it hard for me to get out of bed.

Less than two weeks till school starts.  What to do? What is my priority?

I saw the video of the Helicopter crashing into the plane.  No sign of either seeing the collision coming.

6:09 PM View: Profille Photos, Wolfgang Smith

 It’s raining. My wife & son ate at the outlet mall.  They’re going to have dinner and watch a movie.  I’m not interested.

Today. I extended my Duolingo streak, I read my daily readings, I edited video that had been taken on the Nantong Bridge Bridge,

and I listened to Wolfgang Smith.  I made several versions of the Bridge video using freeze frame techniques and different kinds of music.  Because of copyright issues, I have to be careful what music I put into my videos on YouTube.  Today, I had to eliminate the original audio tracks for the YouTubes because the Proclaimers were playing on the car stereo.  On WeChat, I don’t have to worry about this do I can make the videos I want.

Wolfgang Smith came to mind because my skepticism last night of the idea that A.I. will be something other than super computers.  Smith is a famous physicist.  I found a podcast where he talked of AI.  He first pointed out that A.I. was incorrectly named.  It was more robotic than intelligence he pointed out.  His objections to modern physics, could also be applied to computer science in that the subject is mathematical and lacking in the corporeal.

Here are two profile photos that I would currently like to us;

They both have the top of me dwarfed by the background.

8:30 AM View: Last Evening

 The morning after.  Last evening & night, I smoked too much and I drank too much even though it was only two bottles that I drank.

Where was I drinking and smoking?  Why was I drinking and smoking?  I went to a Canadian friend’s place in the Xinwu district.  His apartment used to be a brothel apparently.  He was hosting a get together.  My Kenyan colleague from school came; I invited him along.  An Indian friend of my Canadian acquaintance also came,  There was beer and my acquaintance fed me cigarettes 

To get to the Xinwu district, I took Metro Line 1 and then transferred to Metro Line 3.  I took my time, lingering at station platforms so as to not get to my friend’s apartment too early.  I was reading James Joyce’s Ulysses on the phone. I got to the apartment on the dot, as far as the appointed time went.

I and the other Canuck went shopping for food & beer.  His spoken Chinese is great and puts me to shame.  His wife doesn’t speak English so he was forced to learn it.  My wife speaks English and being a not very social type, I never practice it.  Alas, my Chinese is minimal.  Quelle domage!

The gist of the conversation among the four of us was AI.  I can’t say for sure if the talk made me feel resentful or if my skepticism was genuine.  How can A.I. ever be self aware if it is the product of algorithms? I asked.  The responses to my question were not satisfactory.  The optimism about A.I. seemed pure Scientism.

7:47 AM View

 We’re supposed to be going out for breakfast this morning.  I doubt that will happen.

8:07 AM View: Happy New Year! 新年快乐！

Good bye year of the dragon!  Hello year of the snake!

I meant to be up at midnight but I ended up sleeping through it.  I had wanted and intended and hoped to be able to take video of fireworks being used.

6:00 PM View: Fireworks

 

5:54 PM View

 Is it darker because they’re fewer persons around?

4:30 PM View: Chinese New Year!s Eve Approaches

 This view photo didn’t turn out well.  The sun is bright today.

Guess what!  We’re getting a new car.  It’ll be a Citroēn C5 Aircross.  

That’s me with the floor model.  Ours will be a dark blue color.  It has the latest bells and whistles.  It’ll take some getting used to as far as driving it.

We’ll spend our CNY eve at home.  My darling wife Jenny is preparing food as I type this entry.

It will be the year of the snake.  It’s the last day of the year of the dragon; I’m a dragon by the way.  I lived in six dragon years.

Snakes like to boast that they are born in the year of Chuck Norris.

An American dem I chat with on WeChat made hay of the major in quotes crisis Trump was having with Columbia.  I looked up and saw that the Colombian leader was a socialist.  He’s probably Justin Trudeau quality I opined, and I was right as the guy/gal quickly caved..  

I am making my way through James Joyce’s Ulysses.  I think I have a better grasp on the longdifficultnovelthingie.

Chinese New Year Decorations:

8:07 AM View: CNY Eve

 Last evening, I walked to the nearby Wanda Mall to buy some snacks.  Things were quieter along the way on account of many businesses being shuttered for the holiday.

Chinese New Year is tomorrow.  My wife will be busy.

Here are some decorations which she will put up:

4:24 PM View: Back!

 Back in Wuxi after a drive with light traffic.

1:34 PM View: Still in Nantong

 The check out time is 4:00 PM if you can believe it.

Here are some photos taken during our visit here:

Public E-bikes.

These buildings look to be in a triangular formation.

Robot room service,  This one can ride the elevators.

7:58 AM View: A sunny day in Nantong

 I’m up.  I’ll shower and go for breakfast.

Yesterday, we went to the shore and  to the Nantong Mix CC Mall.

This afternoon, we drive back to Wuxi.

8:40 AM Views from our Nantong Hotel Room

 

11:47 PM View: CBA Game

 Here are some photos from the CBA game we attended this evening.

1:56 PM View from Our Nantong Hotel Room

 The drive here took about 2 hours.  We encountered slow traffic on the toll road, a very long bridge, and very elevated roads and train track.

8:18 AM View: Going to Nantong

 Yesterday afternoon, I did get out of the apartment to do some errands like fill the car with gas so we can drive to Nantong.

Details to follow

10:36 AM View: 1825 day streak

 

Most of the parked cars have moved.  The ones remaining may get ticketed

I can hear someone playing with fireworks.  I’ve never much cared to do so myself.  It’s too loud and makes a mess that I would feel obligated to clean up.

I extended my learning streak of Chinese, Spanish and French on the Duolingo app to 1825 days.  The app has designated my streak as being 5 years long.  I think it shouldn’t be designated for another two days on account of leap years 2020 and 2024.

How good is my Chinese, Spanish & French?  I know enough stock Chinese phrases to occasionally fool some into thinking my Chinese is good, but really it still sucks:

My French and Spanish is better in that I can read, listen and understand a lot.

4:59 AM View

 Notice all the cars parked on the road.

2;27 PM View & What I See

 From left to right, what I see from my 27th floor window;

A dirt road winding through ground covered with green tarp.

Eight pink apartment towers.

An intersection.

Blue city bus.

Five tan colored apartment towers.

Long paved road or lot, unoccupied.

A blue three wheeled cart.

Dirt paths through an empty lot.

A police car.

Two diggers.

Five more tan colored apartment towers.

A curtain sticking out of a refrigerated truck.

Black car followed by a white car.

A Wuxi Metro train in the distance.

A long train of barges on the Xibei Canal.

Elevated road traffic.

Empty lot with brown areas and green tarped areas.

Oil tank truck on the toll highway.

A distant skyline with 30 to 40 apartment towers.

1:44 PM View: 5 things I see

 From left to right, five  things I see as I look out the 27th floor window:

A gull flying.

Eight construction cranes.

A parked e-bike.

Wuxi Metro Line One Train

A boat cruising swiftly on the Xibei Canal.

9:18 AM View: Thoughts about driving from Wuxi to Changzhou and back

 Driving from here to Changzhou and back, I made an observation, that had recently come to me while in Chongqing, to Weiming Zhao about how China is full of engineering but not beauty.  I said this after complaining about the monotony of driving past endless similar looking apartment towers.  It was all very ugly.  The roads were nicely built, I did say.  However, the overall effect of the engineering was oppressiveness.

Also annoying about the drive were all the trucks, so many traffic lights, so many Chinese drivers, and so many lanes maybe being left turn lanes or not causing one to either be forced to change lanes or to be cut off by other drivers being forced to change lanes.

And all these dazzling infrastructures that I see being praised by foreigners on WeChat videos are heavily subsidized by the government.  

7:25 AM View: Foggy not Hazy

 Not sure what I’m going to do today other than read, blog, vlog, and not annoy the wife.  I’m zoned after all the driving and talking I did yesterday 

8:49 PM View: Hanging Out with Weiming Zhao

 It was touch and go but my wife was able to coax my son Tony to come with me to Changzhou to meet Weiming Zhao, who now hails from Brandon, Manitoba.  He is in China to take care of his ailing 93 year old mother.

I took the following photos:

8:11 AM View: Today Changzhou

 The green in front on the towers on the right is some construction project.  I have no idea what is being built there.

Whenever I can get Tony up and ready, I’ll drive to Changzhou to meet Weiming Zhao.

I extended my Duolingo streak to 1823 days. I’m approaching a milestone.

4:02 PM View: Executive orders and Changzhou tomorrow

 

Another hazy day,

Trump has signed a lot of executive orders.  The ones I heard of are great:  withdrawal from the WHO, withdrawal from the Climate accord, pardoning of the J6ers, 90 day moratorium on bureaucrats creating regulations,  and freezing of government hiring.  It’s a return to common sense and justice.

This meme is inspiring;

It seems that I will be losing some things over the next year and there are relationships for which I can’t rely.  Things are slipping away from me.  Seeking God is my only hope.

Tomorrow, Tony & I will go see the famous Brandon, Manitoba painter Weiming Zhao.  He’s visiting his parents in Changzhou.  I was hoping my wife would accompany me but for reasons that seem inexplicable to me, she won’t.

8:30 AM View: The Don of a New Day

 I stayed up to watch the movie inauguration ceremony on X.

In the preliminaries, it was very annoying to see Bill Clinton, Hilary Clinton, Kamala Harris and Joe Biden called honorable; nice to see a tenor  gave a great performance; interesting to see Elon Musk with the Trump family; and curious to not see Vivek and Michelle Obama.  Is Michael going to divorce Barack?

The big new news before the ceremony was Biden’s pardoning of a mass murderer and a treasonous general.

When Trump got sworn in, I brought my phone over to my son Tony so we could watch the historic moment together.  He put down his laptop for the moment.  He thought it curious that Biden was there.

Trump’s speech afterwards was stirring,  He was a beast.  Trump put Biden, Harris and Obama in their place.  He put the world, China, the Deep State and Wokeism on notice.