Rainy day. Stay at home. Oh say! Can you see the puddles at the landscaping site?
I still annoyed about my Chateaubriand Channel being shadow banned. Especially after achieving two milestones:
1) 300 followers
2) 666 Likes
Tweets about the NBA finals
My latest WeChat Profile Photo:
Since last night, I’ve added images of Sinatra, my wife Jenny, younger me, Fred Astaire, Pope Trump, my son Tony, a young Arnis Kaulins (my Dad), Tony Esposito, John Wayne, hockey player me, the Latvian flag, my father’s gravestone, Evelyn Waugh, Gary Carter, Robert E. Lee, and a crucifix,
My son Tony, who is asleep at this time, would probably object to my opening the window to take view photos because water is dripping on the veranda floor. So, I’m wiping it up with tissue paper.
As I was saying, it is the DBF weekend in China which means:
Am I blogging into the void? When I’m in Canada, I may well entitle the new blog: Blogging into the Void. BitV. I’ve been BitVing all these years.
Tony, who is my son, said he didn’t want to go out because it was raining. It wasn’t, but when I went out, it started raining. So what do I know? And what do you know?
I went to the Wanda Mall, bought snacks, drinks and McD’s. 20 Chicken Nuggets for 21 RMB. Isn’t that something?!?
I went to the Canal, which can be seen in the above standard view photo, after I drove my wife to work. I took a few videos.
I drove back home and saw this near where we park our car.
Parking the car would have entailed maybe driving over it and crushing it. So, I had to stop the car and move it out of the way.
How did it get there? Was it dropped by accident by cleaning staff? Did some nebbish put it there for nefarious purposes? It was annoying to me either way.
And now a confession and reflection:
As much as I express my emotions about things on this blog, like my dissatisfaction with how my teaching career in China has ended, I still hold things back. I can think of lots of things I did in my past that I regret, truths about myself that I overlook, and assumed conceits on my part that are just not warranted and are in fact the opposite of the truth. I don’t openly discuss many of these things because they pain me or shame me or embarrass me or minimize me.
But here is a confession I will make about myself because the recollection of it was so long ago and I can disavow my younger, immature self. Still, it does somewhat embarrass me and may say something about the point of my present blogging and vlogging activities. I was in Primary School in Valcartier, Quebec. We had a sports day and I didn’t win any ribbons, and I suppose I was sad about it: it is hard after over fifty years to remember exactly what my mindset was, but I did this embarrassing thing: I bought a ribbon off some kid who did. I look back at that act of mine and want to slap my head and say dumb! dumb! dumb! I suppose that I needed recognition or felt left out.
So, what does this act of mine from the early 1970s say about the sixty year old blogger and vlogger? I still crave that recognition and am doing it while all the evidence indicates I am wasting my time — and my money like the much younger me. Life is the sum total of all one’s acts.
Feeling the effects of the five beers I drank last evening at the graduation dinner. The affair had me feeling out of place and depressed. Out of place I felt because of the unsatisfactory performance of the students. They were horrible and the feeling of them having accomplished something was a fraud. Sad because my time in Jiangyin and China is coming to an end.
At 1300, I will go to the grad ceremony. I won’t record it for this blog. Too many bad memories will be conjured into my mind.
I have prayed the Rosary four times today. That’s a personal one day record. I prayed the sorrowful mysteries: the ones to which I’m most attached.
I saw a piece of wood with nails lying on the road, just as a vehicle drove over it. When the vehicle drove off, I couldn’t see the piece of wood.
This morning’s NGD quote video:
I’ve uploaded this video to one of my YouTube channels and two Weixin aka WeChat channels. Sometimes, a quote video gets lots of views on YouTube. They had been getting a lot of views on the one Weixin Channel I was uploading them to until 3 days ago. I went from getting a thousand views to nothing even though I had been gaining followers on a daily basis. So, I uploaded the videos to my other Weixin Channel and have been getting a lot of views and adding followers. I did get a strange message from a viewer on the old channel. He said he was a retired police officer and found my videos great for learning English.
I didn’t sleep well last night. I was debating about whether to go to the graduation ceremony that will happen this afternoon. I have many reasons not to go. Many of these students don’t deserve to graduate for one.
I had several chances to take standard view photos during the day, but I was too frazzled to do so.
What wearied me?
There was this practical Chemistry exam I invigilated. At least three students slept at their lab stations as soon as the exam started. I had too much time to observe and ponder and recall, and I got enraged. And then when the exam ended, one of the students, Tony, swore at me and so I punched him. Why my son was mad at me is something I can’t tell you. It was bizarre. Too bad I can’t punch other students
Then there was my drive downtown. My wife Jenny came to Jiangyin so we drove to downtown JJ for dinner. Along the way, I decided to go straight through an intersection rather than make a right turn. But I ended up with my rear end stuck in the turning lane as the light was red. Cars were able to squeeze by me except for this Tesla which scratched the passenger side of our car with its mirror. This ruined the evening, but at least everything got quickly resolved as Jenny called the police and they were able to find the driver of the Tesla with video. We had to make a trip to the police station. We meet the other driver and I felt sorry for her and her husband. They were a nice couple, I told them I was sorry we couldn’t meet under better circumstances.
Any who. Here is the latest uploaded quote video.
I put these videos on my other Weixin Channel now and they are getting lots of views again (see previous entry for more detail).
Does this standard view photo look different. It was taken with a Smartphone stabilizer. What’s a smartphone stabilizer? A glorified self stick with some gimmicky features. So I attached my phone to the stabilizer and stuck it out the window, just a little nearer to the trees and towers and the background hills.
I am Canadian. I have lived in Wuxi, China since September 2004. I teach English. In this blog, I recount the things I have seen and the experiences I have had here in Wuxi. I also make comments on things that strike my reactionary fancy.
