Being in the Moment; Tony & Jenny Conflicting; Made to Put on the Mask; What Load of Bravo Sierra 2020 Has Been!; Thanksgiving; Tony & Jenny Peacing;

I wish I could be in the moment, but often I find myself observing myself think I am in the moment, but really, I am pretending.  This happens a lot in Speaker's Corners where a student is talking and in mind, I stand there and think to adopt the posture of one who is listening intently to what the other person is saying, but really, I am posing.

My son Tony & my wife Jenny are conflicting.  In the past week, Tony has hung up twice on his mother where their conversations became too heated.  I find myself sympathetic to Tony because Jenny, being a Chinese mother, can be awfully harsh on her son.  This is not to say that Tony doesn't need a good kick in the ass sometime, or even every day but, Jenny, like all Chinese mothers, seems to this foreigner, to be over doing it.  She makes Tony become so intensely angry that he doesn't know how to control himself. (And there have been a few cases in my time of children killing themselves because of overzealous parents.)

My mask wearing habit is as follows:  I put on the mask to avoid hassles, but I take the mask off or put the mask off my face as soon as the opportunity arises.  So, when I am on the bus or train, I usually have the mask down.  Thursday the 26th, I had my mask down while on the subway platform and was made to put it on by some uniformed person.  I suppose I should thank my lucky starts that I wasn't in Canada.  Doing what I am doing there would have surely resulted in a hundred dollar fine.

What bravo sierra!!

If Trump can't get back the election that was stolen from him, it will further prove that 2020 has been one of the worse years on record.  And for humanity, it has basically been an own-goal:  one of the worse own-goals since the 1914-1918 war.

Thursday was American Thanksgiving Day.  I asked the students at my Speaker's Corner what they were thankful for, and they had to say the Communist Party and Chairman Mao.  In my mind, I put the finger in my mouth and pretended to vomit.  These retired schoolteachers are grateful for their pension.

I publish this entry on a Tuesday.  There has been peace between my son Tony and my wife Jenny.

Why Has 2020 Been Such a Bad Year?

Two things have made 2020 a bad year:

• Covid Overreaction Syndrome
• Trump Derangement Syndrome

Ten Things about Joe Biden

Responding to his critics, Joe Biden says that the production masks and smasks will increase if he becomes the president.

Joe Biden likes to put potpourri in his pant pockets.

Joe Biden has gotten his son Hunter a chair on the board of the Depends Adult Undergarment company.

Joe Biden says that anyone who questions his sex fetishes is a racist.

Joe Biden says that anyone who questions his son Hunter's sex fetishes is a racist.

Joe Biden says that it is a shame that so many people have died of Covid and that maybe they should have been wearing seat belts.

Joe Biden says that if he becomes president, he will race systemic fightism.

Joe Biden says he hopes that the country can unite and forget that he is a crook.

Joe Biden says that his running mate Oprah Winfrey would be more than a vice-president who spits in warm bowls.

Joe Biden says that he has sniffed pot but never smoked or stroked it.

Parent Teacher Meetings; Too Much Driving; 2 + 2 = 4 or 2 + 2 = 5?

Friday the 20th, in the morning, my wife Jenny & I drove to Tony's school for Parent Teacher Meetings, or what they called PTCs.  We meet with 12 teachers in two hours, so it was all a bit of a dizzy whirl for me, as the three of us went from building to building to building and back again and then back again, to see all his teachers.  (I booked the meetings but paid no regard to their location.)  I took in a lot in those two hours, and it would be best if I just rattle off thoughts and observations in no particular order:

• Most of Tony's teachers spoke with UK accents.  One of his teachers was American.  One of his teachers from was Croatia.
• Most of the teachers said Tony was a nice enough kid, very easy-going, but too shy to tell anyone that he has problems.
• I confirmed my suspicions that Tony needs to read more.  While he can understand a lot of English, he doesn't have much experience writing it, and so some of his tests have been embarrassingly bad, filled with blank responses to questions.
• One of the teachers says that Tony takes a lot of notes.
• One of the teachers says that Tony's got neat handwriting.
• Tony doesn't talk about his problems with his parents.
• Tony can't write English for beans.  (I am trying to get him to communicate with me via email.)
• Tony has had to deal with being a new kid at his school.
• Tony is in his own world (like his blogger father who is a Latvian introvert).
• Tony always says he understands, always gives a "yeah!" whenever he is told something, leaving everyone with the suspicion that he doesn't understand.  I have long suspected this.
• Tony is always hanging with other kids.  He never seems alone.
• The P.E. teacher said that Tony lacks stamina.  I have told Tony this on so many occasions.  One time, I told him that in the NBA, which he says he would like to play in, the players aren't given drives up and down the court.
• None of what the teachers told me was a surprise. 

Sunday, November 22nd, I did a lot of driving. In the morning, I first drove Tony to his drumming class, which was downtown, about thirty minutes from Compound Kaulins.  On the way, Tony said something about forgetting his book for a music class which I didn't know he was to have after the drumming class.  So, after the drumming class, I had to drive back to Casa Kaulins so Tony could pick up the book.  I then drove him downtown again for this music class.  When he finished this class, I saw that my phone run out of money so I couldn't use the GPS to get back to Casa Kaulins.  I had to drive back by memory.  I was going to take the Taihu Avenue Tunnel but there was a lineup of cars waiting to enter it.  i decided to take another route through downtown Wuxi that was much slower.  I spent an extra fifty minutes on the road and was annoyed as all heck.  Finally, in the evening, I drove him to his school Dorm and back which about an hour or so all told, I spent three hours on the road.

When I am dealing with my Chinese wife, I feel like I am dealing with someone coming from a universe where 2 + 2 = 5.  Now, it could very well be that I am the one who is living in the 2 + 2 = 5 universe, but I don't think my wife is aware that we are in the midst of two universes, and a lot of what she expects of me seems, to me, to be as if she is expecting me to believe that 2 + 2 actually equals 5.

Thought experiment:  who is more likely to bang their head against the wall:  the person who thinks 2 + 2 = 4 or the person who thinks 2 + 2 = 5, when they are dealing with each other?

And if my Chinese wife is in fact in a 2 + 2 = 4 universe, she seems to be unaware that 1 + 3 = 4 also.  That is, that there are different ways to try to come up with the same result.

Latvian; Thank you!; Should I stay or should I go?; the Black Dog, Stand Off; Parent Teacher Meetings; Pain; Cold Winter?; I Take Part in a Company Video

I said something a few entries back about composing Latvian sentences to put into my blog entries.  Then, I didn't.  Oops!

So here it goes:

Sveicieni!  Es esmu Andis Kaulins!  Man ir latviešu senči!  Es dzīvoju ļaunajā Komunistiskajā Ķīnā.  Es esmu angļu valodas skolotājs.

And I have been further remiss.  Thank you, very rare reader indeed, for taking the time to read my blog.  If you have any comments, email me at andiskaulins@qq.com or andiskaulins@hotmail.com, or both.

I would like to go back to Canada and take Tony with me.  But Canada has become so stupid that the likelihood of it ever not having an intelligent leader seem remote.  It will be stuck with some Trudeau or Progressive "Conservative" as PM forever.  Maybe, I am best stuck here where I am not one with the locals, I can keep to myself and I don't have to deal with many Karens or Shitlibs.

I blog this after reading dissident right bloggers in the States wondering about countries, they can move to in order to escape the Stalinists eager to wreak vengeance on those who supported Trump.

The black dog hits every once in a while.  The feeling of being not worthy of the salary I get seems too much to bear.  The dark year that is surely coming because of the Covid panic derailing my travel plans for 2021 darkens my mood as well.  But I pray the rosary and to my guardian angel, and so I can look at the depression as what it is, a physical affliction that has to borne with like the toothaches and stomach aches that afflict me as well.

On the way to work and writing this entry, I walked down this narrow two-lane street which has a fence in the middle.  The street has a hospital on it, so if one goes down this street, one is trapped in a lineup of people waiting to get into the hospital.  I assume the street is one way, because I have seen taxis driving in the left lane to avoid the lineup in the right lane.

Anyway, as I was walking to work and to write this blog entry, I saw a taxi driver and a deliver driver, on a e-bike, having a stand-off.  Each wanted the other to back up.  The delivery driver was going against traffic and attempting to enter the hospital compound.  The taxi driver was trying to make his way down the road.

Friday the 20th, I will be going to Tony's school for Parent Teacher Meetings.  I will see more laowei in two hours than I have seen in the last year.  I would like to tell the teacher with the gobblely-gook talk in messages to shove it, but I will be nice.  Tony apparently likes this teacher.

On the 18th, I did a Speaker's Corner about Pain.  Most painful thing you ever experienced. I asked.  One student misunderstanding said she never had much pain in her life.  I got similar lack or response from the students, all of whom were older women.  So, I had to give the answer I was expecting:   childbirth.  The one student then said it was very painful.  Then another student said abortion was painful also...  I shrugged to myself.

The student who talked about abortion being painful, then said something about Jack Ma, China's most successful businessman, being a bad man.

A student told me the upcoming winter will be cold because it was warm on November 18th.

I took part in a video where I was the laowei visiting a company.  I had a hard time acting naturally, for I was telling myself, all the time, to act naturally.  I was also telling myself to bring out my inner Steve McQueen, and act minimally, but that only made myself more self-conscious.

Friday the 13th; Covid and Trump; Annoying CTV News Updates; Trump: A Great Revealer of Character; Joe Biden; Sunday the 15th; Tony's School is Run like a Government Bureaucracy; the People Running the World are Insane!

Thursday night.  My son Tony & I are having a phone call.

Tony:  Do you know what day is tomorrow?

Me:  Friday the 13th.

Tony:  Yes!

For Tony, the significance of the day has to do with the movies of the same name; for me, it's about superstition.  I like to say I am superstitious but in a practical way.  If it gives you peace of mind, do it.

A speaker's corner attendee asked me if I thought that Trump lost the election because of the Covid.  I told him that the election had not been decided.  He kept on talking like he had only heard the mainstream portrayal of events.

These CTV news updates that I get on my phone about the Covid seem alarmist and surreal.  Canada has gotten the Chinese hypochondriac virus.

Can you trust anything about the news?

Trump has blown up everything in my eyes.  He has shown me that it is a mistake to even say that Democrats have good intentions.  He has shown that most Republicans are feckless.  He has shown the liberal democracy is a scam.

Joe Biden sucks lemon rinds.

Joe Biden always forgets to flush the toilet.

Joe Biden puts potpourri in his pant pockets.

Sunday the 15th, I drove Tony downtown so he could take some music classes that my wife Jenny had set up for him.  While he was doing this, I wandered about the area or sat in the car reading.  In the area, there was the grand canal over which many bridges had been built, so I looked at them and watched the boat traffic.  You can go to my photo blog to see the photos I took.  In the car, I did my usual daily reading requirements, that is the reading that I require myself to do.  While I was sitting there reading, some woman in a white Audi SUV tried to parallel-park her car behind mine.  I watched her, thinking she was cutting into the space too soon.  And she hit our car, or at least i thought she did.  She then just drove down the street and I saw her struggle to park her SUV in another space.  I went out to examine our car and saw it had been scuffed.  When I wiped away the paint, it was hardly noticeable.  I just didn't feel like confronting the woman about it, but I stared at her as she walked down the sidewalk past our car.  Why I didn't explode in a rage seemed inexplicable to me.

This international school that Tony is attending (NKCS Wuxi) does seem to be run like a Canadian federal government bureaucracy, in that it talks a good game about serving the parents, but a bureaucratic wall separates the parents from the actual staff.  

I write this after I was suddenly not allowed to accompany Tony to the entrance of his dorm house on Sunday, the 15th.  

Most of the world has gone fucking insane.  We have had this unnecessary lockdown caused by Chinese people's hypochondria and the election of a stupid senile man to the US presidency.  I know the kingdom is not of this world, but world get your act together!!!

What Happened; Tony's Growing up; Trump Must Fight; Tony's on a Basketball Team; Nonsense Posting on WeChat;

Trump won the 2020 election.  Men of good will must pray that it isn't stolen from him.

Tony's growing up.  That's what kids do, of course.  But on the weekend, there was a moment when I was filled with pride looking at how he had grown.  I took Tony to a nearby hair salon to get his hair cut.  After he got his haircut, he was looking good.  Getting up from the chair, he looked manly.  His gait was full of authority, his clothes made his lankiness appear graceful and manly; and when he went to the counter to ask a question, he looked like he meant business.  I couldn't believe that he was my boy!

Tony hopes that he grows to six foot five.  Talking about this, he agreed that the metric system way of measuring height wasn't good as the old imperial.  And reminded Tony, that America put a man on the moon without the metric system.

Even if the amount of fraud in the election wasn't enough to change its ultimate result, Trump has the moral duty to do what he is doing.  His opponents have been very bad these four years ago and they should instead of insisting on unity, be asking for forgiveness.  If they can't apologize for the Russia-gate nonsense, the nonsense impeachment, that Ford woman, the lie that Trump supporters are Nazis, and the standing aside and letting the rioting happen, Trump should not gracefully concede anything and is morally obligated to do whatever can to ensure that the transition of power be shat upon.

Oh well.  Life goes on.

Tony's on a basketball team at his school.  It is his first go at participating in organized sports.  He is happy about it.  I maybe more.

I have to go a few more days before I can start thinking about something other than the election.

I have been nonsense posting on WeChat moments.  I have been posting things like this:  "If you can't submit, you must remit."; "Salad Boy likes salad.  Water Boy likes water.  Toy Boy likes to be toyed with."; and "Shimmy Shimmy Shammy!".

Why have I been doing this?  These silly thoughts come to me and I need to blare them out.

I will try posting nonsense about Biden, for as long as he is in the public eye.  Examples:  "Joe Biden likes to keep his Melba toast warm by putting it in his under shorts."; "Joe Biden likes to eat lemon melange pie with kitty litter."

US Election Reaction

A few weeks ago, I watched the series of Putin Interviews done by Oliver Stone.  I watched it and found I liked Putin and I admired how he stood up for the Russian people.  Note, I say this as a Latvian who has many issues with Russians.  A most interesting part of the interview was when Stone asked Putin who he wanted to win the 2016 US presidential election.  Putin wisely didn't answer the question, but he did make what I thought was an acute and prophetic observation of the US political system:  the US president has to deal with a strong bureaucracy.

This explains a lot and what has happened that last four years in America since Trump became president.  Currently, it is why Trump is right to claim the election is being stolen from him, and why he is right to not concede the election without a fight, a good fight, a fight that is a big f*** U to the swamp, or what Putin termed the strong bureaucracy.

Why can it be declared most certain, that the election was/is being stolen?

First, there is the way that the strong bureaucracy has behaved to Trump.  There was the Russia-gate nonsense.  It was a story concocted by the Hilary election team to deflect attention from the fact of her highly illegal mail server and the fact that some idiot at the DNC opened an email that was clearly an invitation to scamming and hacking.  Then there was the nothing burger of an impeachment over the phone call with the Ukrainian leader.  It turned out that the Bidens were engaged in corruption in Ukraine, and the impeachment was a way to deflect attention from it.  The efforts of the strong bureaucracy supporting media then to suppress the story before the election was telling.  

Second, there are all the Democrat strong bureaucracy election "innovations" that are surely an invitation to fraud like no-I.D. voting, mail in balloting, lowering the voting age, and allowing illegal aliens to vote.  When Trump mentioned this, they tried to pre-empt Trump by saying that he was going to protest the election and that somehow, he was being fascist in doing so.  Scoff they will about Trump's contentions, but that is because they can't disprove the potential for fraud.

Third, it is hard to believe that a party that has been truly awful the last four years could win the presidential election.  They have lied and allowed looters and murderers to terrorize normal law-abiding Americans.

The strong bureaucracy doesn't deserve to have power peacefully transferred to it.  Trump is well within his rights, to piss on their parade, and I hope that he and the good Americans that voted for him don't take what is being done to their country lying down.

Tech censorship everywhere; Temper; Avoid Annoying; Another McDonald's Shuts Down; Exasperation!;

I had student tell me about how she has to be careful on Chinese social media, lest she catches the attention of the CCP Social Media police.  She told me for example that some words are restricted and if you try to type them something happens.  I then told her about what Facebook and Twitter were doing to the Hunter Biden Story.  Tech Censorship is everywhere.

I can't control my temper.  I sometimes get overcome with anger and explode.  I then feel quick remorse.  (Unlike some people I know who can stay in a snit for a long, long time)

However, I do try to avoid people who annoy me.  But that is usually a consciously made decision and has been thought through.  You have to avoid people who say stupid, stupid things; or are just supremely stupid in their outlook.  I.E. Shitlibs.

There used to be a McDonald's, at the corner of Xueqian and Zhongshan Road that was a two-minute walk from the school.  That closed down a few years ago, and so I had to walk to a McDonald's that was at Nanchang Temple which was a ten-minute walk away. 

I went to the Nanchang Temple McDonald's on a Friday recently to find that McDonald's had been shut down too.  I first had a hint of this, as I was approaching the restaurant location and someone standing by said something to me, a foreigner, in Chinese about the thing being no longer there.  I then saw what the local was talking about.  The place was empty.  I was about turn around and head back to school when I decided to take a photo of the notice that had been left on the door.  All the while, the locals were trying to get my attention.

Needless to say this was annoying.  I had been to the location on a few days before and never suspected that the place was about to close.

The Monday before the US Election was full of exasperation for me.  And was really annoying about it was that it was day off. 

Monday started off well enough.  I had my morning coffee and was able to get my readings done.  My wife then got up.  And the plan was to get the car washed and then go downtown so she could check some new coffee shop called the New Scientist.  I was quickly ready to do this, but I had to wait an hour for my wife to get ready.  In the meanwhile, I was getting antsy and annoyed, but I managed to check myself from complaining. 

We got the car washed at a whole in the wall joint that was at one corner of our apartment complex.  They did a thorough job for 30 rmb.

Next to the Car wash is a hair salon.  Jenny told me she wanted Tony to get a haircut at this place, and then suggested that I get one there right away.  I was reluctant but submitted.  I got annoyed because the haircut took longer than I would have liked.

That was my last bit of annoyance till all hell broke loose.  We went downtown, had coffee at the New Scientist and then a okay dinner at a Greek restaurant.  Tony, I figured would have liked to have gone to it.

Trouble started when Tony made his nightly weekday phone call from his dorm room at school.  I was in the bedroom and I could hear my wife swearing about some kid that was bullying Tony.  When my wife gets mad, I don't know which is worse:  the incident that is making her mad or her reaction to it, which is to say that she gets angry a lot.  What Tony was telling her about the bullying was something that she should be mad about:  this classmate of Tony is really making Tony's school life bad.  However, I can't help but worry that Jenny will do something over the top that would be the situation worse, not better.  So, after she finished talking to Tony, she handed me the phone, but instead of letting me talk to Tony alone, she had to stand beside me and glare. which was really disconcerting.  I told her this, but she got mad at me and said that she wasn't mad at me, and that I was not handling talking to Tony about this properly, before trying to snatch the phone from me.  It was all so exasperating.  Tony was listening in on this and put the phone down so he could cry.  I was scared when he wouldn't reply to my asking where he was.  We eventually got a hold of Tony and said good night to them.  And then we had a big argument.  Apparently, I am stupid and should be one with my wife in her anger and should not be mad when she interferes in my trying to find out what is going on from Tony.  Or something to that effect.  Since I have a low EQ, it seems I should take everything my wife says as gospel.  Or something to that effect.  She couldn't imagine, how other husbands, even foreign ones, would object to anything she does.  I don't think she understands what the word "reasonable" means.

And to top it off, when I told her of my exasperation, she talked about getting a divorce.  Which was enough to make me slam my slippers on the floor.  One day, I should ask my wife, who has a high EQ or so she says, how to deal with people who are exasperated.

Maybe not by bullying them.  In my married life, I am fighting battles on two fronts:  one against problems that life throws at me, and another against my wife's reacting to them.  I swear that if World War Three began, the war wouldn't be such a problem were it not for my wife getting angry about it and finding a way to make me feel guilty.

As for the bullying problem, I am communication, via email, with staff at the school.  I hope that they, Tony and the bully can come to some resolution of the matter without my wife feeling she has to exact vengeance.  I am all for solutions to conflicts where Tony and I don't become isolated.