A Death

It happened around Christmas Day when I was sick.

I learned of it on New Year’s Eve day.

It was a death of an important person in my wife Jenny’s life; and of someone who should have been an important person in Tony’s and in my life as well.  The Kaulins boys never met the person.  My wife broke off relationships with him.

Jenny was asked to go to the funeral.  She didn’t.  I told her that she should have, but she said she had no feeling, and that she had to look after me because I was sick.  I wish she had gone. 

What are they building?

 I don’t know what they building here.

It was the big public square near Casa Kaulins where I had taken many a Youtube video.

Books AKIC Read in 2022

 Here are the books I read in 2022:

Ten Days that Shook the World by John Reed

The Real Anthony Fauci by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

The Waning of the Middle Ages by Johan Huizinga

The Practice of Mental Prayer by René De Maumigny, Elder Mullan

The Medium is the Massage by Marshall McLuhan

Darth Bane 3 – Dynasty of Evil by Drew Karpyshyn

Marshall McLuhan: You Know Nothing of My Work! by Douglas Coupland

Conquistadores by Fernando Cervantes

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

The Inimitable Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse

Killing Floor by Lee Child

Die Trying by Lee Child

The Parasitic Mind:  How Infectious ideas are Killing Commom Sense by Gad Saad

The Servile State by Hilaire Belloc

The Apostles Creed by Michael Mũller

The Fourth Political Theory by Alexander Dugin

Too Much Magic  by James Howard Kunstler

ANTIFACISM: The Course of a Crusade by Paul Gottfried

The Napoleon Of Notting Hill by G.K. Chesterton

Something Beautiful for God by Malcom Muggeridge

The Rape of the Mind by Joost A.M. Meerloo

Franz Kaka Collected Stories edited by Gabriel Josipovici

Explaining Postmodernism by Stephen R.C. Hicks

The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly

The Moonshine War by Elmore Leonard

We Few:  U.S Special Forces in Vietnam by Nick Brokhausen

The Psychology of Totalitarianism by Mattias Desmet

Psychology of Intelligence Analysis by Richard J. Heuer, Jr.

Burning Bush by Sigrid Undset

Browning's Shorter Poems by Robert Browning

The Tempest by William Shakespeare

Margin of Victory by Douglas Macgregor

Essays in Idleness (The Tsurezuregusa of Kenko) translated by Donald Keene

The Path to Rome by Hilaire Belloc

A State of Fear by Laura Dodsworth

The Saint Petersburg Dialogues by Joseph de Maistre

Bullshit Jobs A Theory by David Graeber

Manual of the Sisters of Charity

The Managerial Revolution by James Burnham

The Politically Incorrect Guide to Western Civilization  by Anthony Esolen

An Anthology of Modern Travel Writing edited by H. M. Tomlinson

The Money-Box by Robert Lynd

Idle Days in Patagonia by W.H. Hudson

A Collection of Latin Maxims & Phrases translated by John N. Cotterell

Selected Poems and Fragments of Friedrich Hölderlin translated by Michael Hamburger

American Tabloid by James Elroy

The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII

Wisdom of the Ancients by Neil Oliver

Hitler's Empire: Nazi Rule in Occupied Europe by Mark Mazower

At End of Day by George V. Higgins

Tremendous Trifles by G.K. Chesterton

The Greek Revolution: 1821 and the Making of the Modern World by Mark Mazower

The Foundation of Japan / Notes Made During Journeys of 6,000 Miles in the Rural Districts as a Basis for a Sounder Knowledge of the Japanese People by J.W. Robertson Scott

A Plague Upon Our House by Scott W. Atlas, MD

The Phony Victory by Peter Hitchens

A Year with the Saints by Paul Thigpen

A Year with Mary by Paul Thigpen

The Book of English Verse 1250 – 1900 edited by Sir Arthur Thomas Quller-Couch

Don Colacho's Aphorisms by Nicolás Gómez Dávila

The Way by Jose Marie Escriva

Praying with Mother Angelica

Othello by William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare

I have been keeping track of the books I've read since 2014. Here are the links to previous lists:

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

Any comments on my reading? Send an email to andiskaulins@protonmail.com.

At the Wuxi Tim Horton’s

 

Man of the Year: Artur Pawlowski

 

Woman of the Year: Tamara Lich

 

Poem

Sitting on a bus and what do I see?

Hopefully, no locals staring at me!

Pigeons

 

Through the Years

 

These EV Charging Stations Are Annoying

 

They —whoever these bastards are — put these EV parking stations in the spots where I would park our sensible gas-powered car.  

What a bunch of bumwipes!  I hope they dung diddle did die!  But not before they suffer 108 hours of agonizing torture.

Got to get out of the house !

 Since I came down with something (was it Covid? Who knows?) on Christmas Day, I haven’t left Casa Kaulins.  I’m hoping to do so today.  I am floating the idea of the three of us — that be my wife Jenny, our son Tony & I — going to the downtown Wuxi Tim Horton’s,  I actually was quite happy to go there on Christmas Eve.  The place wasn’t crowded on account of the Covid panic.

I’ve been called a friend of authoritarians because I don’t accept the Russia totally bad narrative about the Ukraine war.  I was called this after I had pointed out some of the bad things the GAE had been doing in the Ukraine since 2014.

These memes were circulating on the Internet about the Canadian Medical System and its use of assisted medical suicide.  One featured a physician with a noose. I posted that to see the reaction.  

Recovering

 I’m recovering from whatever it was that I had.

Was it Covid? I can’t say for certain.  I had a headache, a bit of a fever and was stuffed up.  I stayed in bed for two days.  I had to force myself to phone Canada for Christmas, and to keep my Duolingo streak (currently at 1066) going.

Do I got it?

 Maybe I do.

I feel like crap.

Christmas Morning in Wuxi

No tree.

No presents.

I hear construction going on across the street from my apartment,

Few Shoppers

 The locals are spooked by Covid,  Few of them are going shopping as these photos can attest,

Instead of Wearing Stupid Masks..,

 Instead of wearing useless masks, I suggest we wear Balaclavas.

Balaclava Mandates!  I think their time has come!

58

 I am 58 today.  Two years I’ll be sixty.  That is if I make it.  

I am confident I will.

Covid or Covid panic has ruined another important time of the year,

Christmas Eve Eve at the Mall

 December 23td, my wife Jenny and my son Tony came to pick me up from my Jiangyin apartment and take me to Wuxi.  After dropping off my stuff at Casa K, we drove to the Hen Long Mall in downtown Wuxi.

We didn’t go there to do our Christmas shopping.  We went so I could pick up my iPhone 13 which had been repaired. It had gotten a new battery and logic board.

Because COVID, the Mall was very empty.  There was a definite lack of shoppers because people were scared to go out.  But we didn’t have to show QR codes to enter the mall which was a very good thing.

A further sign that a Covid panic has engulfed the population here is that the nearby convenience store was closed early.

Exam Week Postponed

 End of term exams were to have taken place December 26th to December 30th.  

It was decided because of the COVID panic to postpone them to the start of February,

Another Hat Trick!

 

What can I say?

Seven Million of Our Students have Covid

 That’s what you would think if you were doing online classes with my students.  I can’t help but suspect that many of them are saying that so that they can skip online classes,

Views of the School

 Since there was hardly anyone on the campus, I went to a spot to take some photos:

Hat Trick!

 

Online Teaching

 I’m doing it from my classroom which is warm and roomy compared to the tiny apartment I am renting. 

The electronic whiteboard you see in the photo is connected to the Internet.

Early Morning

 

An Exciting Video of Them Going Home!

 

They’re Going Home!

 On account of Covid, the students won’t be on campus.  The students above are leaving on a Tuesday.

It’s okay for me.  I can still go to school and do the classes online.

Hat Trick

 

Two students with Covid…

 …that I know of.

Half in Person — Half on Line

 Half the students in one class were at home; half the students were in the classroom. The students at home were on Ten Cent Meeting which was on the electronic board. I could share a screen with those students.  But otherwise I couldn’t help but ignore them, and spend most of time talking to the bodies who were in the classroom.

Either one or the other but not both!

Deuce!

 

Hardly Any Students

The week before Christmas, there will hardly be any students at school on account of Covid.  

I’ll be going to school to do online classes for the grade 12s who have all chosen to stay home. For the grade 11s, I may have live students and online students.  But who knows for sure.

End of term exams which were to be written, the week of the 26th, may be postponed to the start of term in February.

Roadside Vendor

 Two things in this photo. My primary purpose as I was walking was to take a photo of the road going up the hill. I have walked up it a few times and lament its lack of paths for pedestrians.  The vendor just happened to be there and I thought it was an interesting detail to show.

A Holiday Video

 

Someone I Know Got Covid

 My plans for the Christmas weekend had been set in stone since November.  But now I am without.

My friend’s wife, a local girl, came down with it I learned Saturday night. She has all the symptoms: headache, stomach pains, fever and throat pain. My friend suspects he was the carrier.  His young daughter is staying with an Ayi (domestic help) and can’t go to school.  He is locked down for ten days.  

So I won’t be doing much this Christmas weekend.  Under the circumstances, I can’t make alternate plans.

As with anything to do with Covid, whether it be the over reaction to it or the virus itself, it came just in time for the holidays.  Too bad.  I was looking forward to the party.

The Gate near the International Department of My School

 Photo taken with the loaner phone.

The bugger thing is that this gate is rarely open so I have to take a roundabout way to get to work.

Will I Finally Get Covid?

 These talk of a surge may mean I may finally get COVID or know someone who did.

But I sometimes wonder if I might have already gotten it.  Just before the Chinese New Year 2020 when it all went down, I had a nasty cough that was so bad that I couldn’t drive the car because of the spasms I would suffer as I coughed.  I had caught the bug from a nurse who I had had a class with.  And at the time, I had asked if I had this corona thingie.

Deuce!

I had a two guess Wordle result a few days ago. I was remiss and forgot to post slash brag about it.

Till now:

I had about ten deuces this year.

French Foreign Legion versus Argentina in the World Cup Final

In my opinion, the  third place match is more compelling.  Now that not much is on the line, will the stingily defensive Moroccan and Croatian teams open it up and play an extravaganza game full of goals?

The final could well be a nil against null yawner decided by kicking the ball at a practically open net until someone misses.

The Africans I know take solace in the fact that the French team looks awfully African.

Mask Hysteria

 People are nuts!

Got to get those N95 masks they say! So many new Covid cases!

Whatever!

Mask Mandates! Will the Madness Ever End?

 My spidy senses were correct,  There was something going on with the masks.

My school is saying mask wearing is mandatory.  I never taught with a mask on, so l wore the mask on my neck.  I really can be bothered to make the students wear them, and they don’t seem scared enough to wear them.

Why are people wearing them?  News going around about a surge of cases for some variant. Probably gaslighting on account of the QR codes enforcement going away.

Restrictions Are Easing but

 Covid restrictions are easing.  I didn’t need to show a code to get into a mall.  The Apple Store person serving me told me the health app wasn’t needed anymore when I asked if I needed to install it on my Loaner Phone.  No testing  has been done at my apartment community.

But, maybe it’s just me, but more people are wearing masks.  I was the only person in the mall to not be wearing a mask,

Loaner Phone!

 My IPhone 13 was freezing and crashing.  So, I took it to the Apple Store in Wuxi.  Two weeks for it to get repaired, so loaner phone!  Loaner phone!

Loaner phone!

View from the School Cafeteria

 

Question

 Do you know when Christmas is this year?  No one I talk to seems to know.

Early Friday Morning Hat Trick

 

I got Covid tested yesterday at school. I forgot to take a picture.

Early Thursday Morning Hat Trick

 

Waiting for a Siren

At my school on December 6th at 10:02 AM, an air raid siren was to blare and the students were to stand in honor of Xiang Zenmin.  

It didn’t quite come off.  I told the students to stand when they heard the siren, but the siren wasn’t heard.  

Happy Birthday Uncle Ron!

 

Monday Morning Covid Test

 I forgot to take a photo but you can take my word for it.  I got tested.   What can I say?  It was a rough weekend.

But now that I think of it.  Here is some proof:

In the bottom left, my health code indicates that I was tested at 6:36 AM on Monday.

Tony Doing Online Classes

 Tony’s school is in Anzhen town where there must be Covid cases or something.  Sunday afternoon, there came word that the boarders were not to go to school.

So, Tony will be at home doing online classes.

It’s a normal day for me as far as I know.

Sunday Afternoon Photo

 

Sunday Morning Covid Test Cancelled

 There was a notice on the apartment community’s WeChat group that there was to be Covid Test this morning. So I duly got out bed, got dressed and made my way to the testing area; only to find that the booths were closed.  Checking on my WeChat, I then found a smaller message saying it had been canceled.

I am in a quandary as to what to do.  Should I wait and hope that my school or my apartment community will have tests tomorrow? Or should I take a taxi to a place that is doing tests today?

It is cold and wet in Jiangyin today.

Sunday Three Guess

 

Husbands & Snakes

 

I’ll Reward Myself with Breakfast

 After I’ve done the stuff I have to do for school.

And Women Must Weep Sample Essay Answer

 Explore the ways in which Richardson makes you feel sorry for Dolly in 'And Women Must Weep.'

 

Richardson in “And Women Must Weep” makes you feel sorry for Dolly through use of point of iew, symbolism, long paragraphs and the story title.  The reader can very much identify with Dolly's suffering as she goes to her first dance, full of hope, only to have a bad time and to go home to cry.

 

Richardson writes the story, in third person, but from Dolly's point of view.  We know what Dolly's thoughts are throughout the story.  We see her initial high hopes and nervousness when she is at home waiting to go to the dance.  We feel her sense of lowered confidence when she goes to the dance and notices how everyone else seems to have a prettier dress than her.  We feel her shame when the partners she has to dance with are far from ideal.  We know how hard is it for her to maintain her dignity in response to the indifference everyone else at the dance has for her.

 

This decline in Dolly's confidence is symbolised by her dress.  The dress represents her hopes and ultimate disappointment of her experience of going to the dance.  At the beginning of the story, she is proud of the dress and tries very hard to keep it looking nice. But her efforts are ruined by the dress accidentally being torn.  The efforts of her aunt and Miss Biddons to repair the dress are unsuccessful and so when she arrives at the dance, the pride she had in her dress quickly disappeared.  Everyone else, she sees, has a better looking dress and she feels that everyone must notice the damage done to her dress. The reader being close to Dolly’s thoughts is well aware of the lowering of her hopes.

 

The reader is made to feel  the lowering of her hopes through Richardson's use of long paragraphs that draw out the agony of Dolly's frustrations and her painful attempts at maintaining her dignity.We become aware of every possible thought that could cross her mind like her having to put on a fake smile, the false hopes she had when a gentleman walked in her direction, her resentment at the men who can chose any girl they want but don't ever think to chose her, and of her pleas that one of these men would chose her.  We see that when she goes home from the dance, that she cannot help but lock herself in her room and cry.

 

That she wouldn't cry would be impossible given that the title of the story includes the word 'must weep'.  The title of the story foreshadows for the reader what has to happen at the end.  The alert reader will know right away that Dolly's little bit of optimism at the beginning is doomed to go away.  Nothing is more pathetic to watch someone undertake a process where they going are to fail, and know they are failing while they are doing it.

 

Richardson in “And Women Must Weep” makes us feel sorry for Dolly by presenting all aspects of her ordeal to us through many plot and literary devices.  Not once is the reader tempted to laugh at Dolly.  Instead the reader feels her pain like it is their own.

 

 

 

Saturday Morning Hat Trick

 

Weekend in Jiangyin

 I may go out Saturday night.  I’ll spend the daytimes  planning classes for next week.

I haven’t seen any blank paper in Jiangyin but I’ve been going from school to the apartment and back all week.

I have heard blank paper was seen in Wuxi at Sanyang plaza.

I asked my son Tony, who’s boarding at school if he had heard of the blank paper and he said he hadn’t.

It isn’t easy to teach students with poor English about English literature.  Many of the students sleep in class because they stayed up all night to watch the World Cup.

I might as well be teaching opium addicts the way the students are addicted to their IPads.  Why the grade 12s  (aka ALs) can have them in their classes is beyond me.  In the ten minute break they have during a class, they immediately play games.  It is sickening to behold.

Some students want to write about Covid but I tell them not to because it is political.

Friday Morning Covid Test

 

Friday Hat Trick

 

江泽民 R.I.P.

I learned about from my son Tony, on WeChat.

 

Wednesday Morning Covid Test

 No rioting at this booth.

Covid Test on Wednesday!

 So excited I am.

I’ll take a picture for y’a!

Worry you not!

Monday Morning Covid Test

 

Why did I get tested on Sunday afternoon?

Start the Week with a Hat Trick

 

Orange Vests

 

Sunday Afternoon Covid Test Lineup

 

Frog by the Rice Field

 

Funky Funky Groovy!

 Groovy Groovy Funk Down!

Funky Funky Groovy!

A Chemistry teacher at my school has a signed posted in a classroom that says “Chemists have all the solutions!” I think it be cooler and more humorous if there was a sign that said “Acid is groovy!”

All I saw in Huaxi was a symptom of an amazing hubris.  I never saw tributes to Chairman Mao that were so over the top.

I have heard so many anecdotes and rumors about the Covid policies around these parts that I am reluctant to travel anywhere. For instance, I have heard that an outsider goes to Shanghai, they can’t enter public places for five days.

There is suspicion that lockdowns will come around Chinese New Year.  It has become a truism to say that lockdowns always seem to happen around holidays.

I am able to watch a World Cup match in the evening.  However, the first Canada game and the USA-England game were at 3:00 AM in the morning.

I consoled the teacher from Ghana, who was disappointed with his country’s loss to Portugal, that at least his country had scored goals…

Maybe it would be better if Canada didn’t score any goals in the 2022 World Cup and missed a few penalties while doing so.

I wonder what the size proportion of a puck to a hockey net compares to a football to a soccer net.

Huaxi Photo Gallery

 Here’s the video:

The Building with a Gold Ball on Its Top and AKIC

 

Cherry Bomb and AKIC

 I took the previous photos on a school field trip.  Here I am with a student whose English name is Cherry Bomb.

Forgive Them for They Know Not What They Do?

Is this the attitude I should take to Mainland Chinese Drivers?  I suppose I should, but it is so hard.  Their level of impatience and selfishness is astonishing to behold.

I just had a driver try to cut me off as I was driving out of the parking garage.  I was able to stop the driver from doing this and I really took my time and slowed that driver’s impatient ass down so that he honked his horn.  I don’t think that driver deserves forgiveness.

Four Guesses

 

The Chairman