Gratitude:
I am thankful for food and
beer. I am also thankful that I saw the
Obama was no good from the first time I heard of him. So there is
one thing I don't answer for!!!
Acknowledgment:
I am one of those
passive-aggressive types.
Requests:
Please visit Views
of China from Casa Kaulins! Lots of interesting things to be
seen if you spend a little time exploring it. Also be sure to visit
the
page dedicated to my father and my new
fantasy football site. Also, let's pray that Obama can do the
right and honorable thing vis-a-via Syria. [Be that as it may, I am
bashing Obama every chance I can in this week's blog entry. I have
been holding back the last year or so. I think it is fine time I let
some steam off!]
The
AKIC Week in Brief: It was
Tony's first week in Primary School and a radical change in our
schedule. Tony has to be at school at 7:20 AM, and so he goes to bed
before I arrive home from work. I started up a
new blog for my fantasy football team. With a shrug of my
shoulders, I observed the stupidity of Obama in the matter of Syria.
About
AKIC: If you want to learn
what Andis & AKIC are
all about, you
can visit here.
If
there are things you don't know about, like places and people I
mention in the entries below, you can go
here to find out what they are all about.
AKIC
Weekly Features:
I
in in China!
我住在惠山新区。再回山，我和我孩子很喜欢看火车。
I
am Canadian!
On two separate occasions, I lived in Oromocto, New Brunswick.
I
am Latvian (sort of)! Isiah
Berlin was born in Riga. He
is the most famous person to have come from that country.
I
am a product of the Latvian diaspora.
Politically
I am Conservative/Reactionary!
Living in the Age of Obama, one has to think of eternal things in
order to keep one's sanity.
I
teach English! Sometimes,
I lead the students astray.
I
am not a freak! Perhaps in the
age I live in, I am.
I
like to Read! Here
is what I had been working my way through the past week:
Don
Colacho's Aphorisms. There are 2,988 of them in this book
that I compiled for myself. I read ten aphorisms at a time.
I cut and paste the better ones -- they are all profound actually --
and I put them in my weekly blog entry. (See below)
Ulysses
by James Joyce. I am following along with Frank
Delaney as he slowly guides podcast listeners through
Joyce's hard-to-read novel. Delaney figures he will have the
whole novel covered in about 22 years. Delaney completed
episode #170 this week and is working his way through the chapter
that introduces Leopold Bloom. I am getting ahead of Delaney as far
as reading the book. I will be finished my reading of it, I
figure, in a year. I read the novel despite its many blasphemies.
It is best to be aware of this stuff because the world is full of it,
and the world will always find a way of slapping you in the face with
it
The
Holy Bible King James Version. I am reading a
chapter, or more, a day of the greatest book of all-time. I have
finished the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to Titus, the Epistle of
Paul the Apostle to Philemon and am now reading the Epistle of Paul
the Apostle to the Hebrews.
Columns
by Father Schall. I have been
able to take all
his archived writings and place them on the Dotdotdot app.
The
Catechism of the Catholic Church.
Like Father Schall's writings, I have been able to place its contents
on the Dotdotdot app.
Diary
of a Nobody by Weedon Goldsmith. Finished.
I don't know if I got this book because I liked the title or because
I found a recommendation for it on the Web. Either way, I like it.
It is funny! Mister Gowing is coming, and Mister Cummings is going!
What fun! And I now know of a manner in which to write my diary...
The
Limits of Pure Democracy by WH Mallock. I
am reading this book on the recommendation of David Warren who says
it is essential reading for students of political science. Pure
Democracy is logistically impossible says Mallock who provides
countless detailed examples of how attempts at democracy always seem
to lead to a situation where some sort of oligarchy is required. I
won't be able to look at talk about Democracy in the same way because
of what I have read in this book so far.
General
Gordon by Seton Churchill. This
is the General who helped in the suppression of the Taiping
Rebellion. This biography, subtitled Christian Hero, depicts a
military Christian who wouldn't stand muster among modern PC types.
But I can help but find Chinese Gordon to be a more humane and a
genuinely decent man than even the least selfish of today. Gordon is
a genuine hero who puts the likes of Barabbas Obama and Hillary
Clinton and Bill Clinton to shame.
I
like to take photos
I
publish them in the following blogs: AKIC
wordpress , TKIC
blogspot,
TKIC
wordpress, Views
of China from Casa Kaulins Blogspot and Views
of China from Casa Kaulins Wordpress.
I
like to make videos
Here
is my
Youtube Channel and my
Youku Channel.
I
like to cut and paste quotations:
Here
are the Don Colachoisms that I cut and pasted this week:
57
Spasms of injured vanity, or of greed trampled
underfoot—democratic doctrines invent the evils they denounce in
order to justify the good they proclaim.
61 The momentary beauty of the instant is the only thing in the universe which accords with the deepest desire of our souls.
62 In medieval society, society is the state; in the bourgeois society, state and society confront each other; in the Communist society, the state is society.
67 Vulgarity consists in striving to be what we are not. [This blog must be a veritable fountain of vulgarity.]
61 The momentary beauty of the instant is the only thing in the universe which accords with the deepest desire of our souls.
62 In medieval society, society is the state; in the bourgeois society, state and society confront each other; in the Communist society, the state is society.
67 Vulgarity consists in striving to be what we are not. [This blog must be a veritable fountain of vulgarity.]
76
Whoever does not turn his back on the contemporary world dishonors
himself.
78
We only have those virtues and those flaws which we do not
suspect.
79 The soul grows inwards. [I wish this was true.]
79 The soul grows inwards. [I wish this was true.]
82
Write concisely, so as to finish before making the reader
sick. [Good advice!]
92
The prestige of “culture” makes the fool eat though he is
not hungry. [I have noticed this phenomenon and asked my
students about it in some my classes about culture.]
94
History shows not the inefficacy of actions but the futility of
intentions.
96
The arguments with which we justify our conduct are often dumber
than our actual conduct. It is more tolerable to watch men live than
to hear them spout their opinions.
102
To think like our contemporaries is the prescription for
prosperity and for stupidity.
106
We need people to contradict us in order to refine our ideas.
[Oh God! My life is bereft of people contradicting me.]
117
Mankind believes that it corrects its mistakes by repeating them.
118
He who understands least is he who stubbornly insists on
understanding more than can be understood.
119
Civilization is what old men manage to salvage from the onslaught
of young idealists. [That could
be a purpose of this blog and the latter stage of my life.]
120
Thinking does not prepare one to live, nor does living prepare
one to think.
124 To depend solely on God’s will is our true autonomy.
125 Eloquence is the child of presumption. [That is why it is best to keep one's mouth shut.]
129 The idea of another only interests the fool when it touches on his own personal tribulations. [That is why complaining with others is such a joy.]
124 To depend solely on God’s will is our true autonomy.
125 Eloquence is the child of presumption. [That is why it is best to keep one's mouth shut.]
129 The idea of another only interests the fool when it touches on his own personal tribulations. [That is why complaining with others is such a joy.]
132
Who does not fear that the most trivial of his present moments will
seem a lost paradise in years to come?
135
Despair is the dark valley through which the soul ascends toward a
universe no longer sullied by greed. [Makes
me happy to feel despair, this aphorism does.]
136
Nothing is more dangerous than to solve ephemeral problems with
permanent solutions. [Ever
notice how government programs designed to solve some social ill
never go away?]
Here
is one quote from David Warren: To my mind, the election of
Obama was a mistake; his re-election an unforgiveable mistake, on the
part of the American people. Neither USA nor allies could afford
eight years of hollow at the centre of Western power. [I
am in complete agreement with this quote. Here are some thoughts it
causes me to have: I despise anti-Americanism. People who spout
such beliefs are to be shunned like Nazis or Ku Klux Klansmen or
Socialists. I believe America is a decent
country which has done its best to use the power it has in a good
way. When anti-Americans like to talk of the faults of America, they
are missing the point. So America isn't perfect but it is lot better
than the rest of the world who envy what America has and has been
able to do... But then the Americans had to elect Obama. Now,
anti-Americans love Obama. What is a person who likes America,
Americans, and despises anti-Americans to make of this? It would
seem that maybe the anti-Americans are right and America is
irredeemable. After all, America did elect Obama – a dumb thing to
do. But anti-Americans praised his election. So it is ironic, that
the election of Obama, an event of great joy to anti-Americans, is
proof that perhaps America now is irredeemable.]
I
fashion myself to be a 21st Century Pepys
Monday
[September 2]
Tony
is at Primary School now. God, I hope he is doing okay.
I
don't work today.
I
got an email form Laslzo Montgomery of the China History Podcast. He
told me he
had a good writeup in the South China Morning Post.
I
launched my Wuxi
Peach Maoists website this morning. The Peach Maoists are Wuxi's
official NFL fantasy football team. Why the name Wuxi Peach Maoists?
It is tongue-in-cheek but I have my reasons. Where my mother lives
in Canada, the team's main sports team is called the Brandon Wheat
Kings. Brandon has a lot of wheat; Wuxi is famous for its peaches.
Brandon is located in a country whose system of government evolved
from a constitutional monarchy, hence the Kings; Wuxi is located in
a country created by Maoists, hence the Maoists. The logo which is a
pop art image of Mao superimposed on a peach is meant to resemble the
logo of the Washington Redskins who I hope will not buck into PC
pressure and change their name.
Tuesday
[September 3]
[Home
Laptop]
I
work 13:00 to 21:00 today.
Yesterday,
I spent the day at home. With Tony having gone to school so early in
the morning, there was a change in the Casa Kaulins routine which
required a day at home to recover from. I took the time to start up
my Wuxi Peach Maoists website, convert about six movies from avi
to mp4 format, watch the rest of the Japanese film Shall We
Dance, produce and upload Scenes from My Life in Wuxi China #46, and
read.
Yesterday,
Jenny had a visitor who wanted to see the photos I had on my laptop
so I pulled out the photos I had scanned from my family photo albums.
Looking at the photos from my past, the visitor thought that we were
rich. I told her that in the Canadian context, we weren't. I also
came upon a photo of myself wearing a graduation cap. I was probably
about six or seven, Tony's current age, when the photo was taken so,
using a photo software program, I
put the old photo of me and a photo taken of Tony wearing a
graduation cap together.
Yesterday
evening, I took Tony, on his request, to a park. He brought along
his push-bike but unthinkingly threw it to the ground when
alternative chances for fun appeared. He instead grabbed a thin
branch and ran around with another little boy; and they took to
whacking bushes. He also got on some other boy's bicycle and rode it
around while that boy played with his push-bike. He drove me mad!!
While
Tony played, I read Don Colacho on My Ipod.
Shall
We Dance was a charming movie. This Japanese office worker sees a
melancholy but pretty looking woman standing in the window of a dance
studio, and decides to take up ballroom dancing. He keeps the fact
of his doing so from his wife and child. While dancing, he meets an
interesting cast of characters, overcomes his infatuation with the
pretty woman, who is a professional dancer, and becomes a decent
dancer himself.
Tony
fell asleep, my Ipad in his hand, at about 8:40 PM! Wonderful!
Cross our fingers and hope that this become his new routine!!
This
morning, Jenny and Tony were on the road at 7:00 AM!
[School
Laptop]
I
took the 602 bus (not the 602支!)
and the 81 bus (a double-decker) to school today. I noticed that the
81's windshield on the second deck was cracked on the top
passenger-side corner. If there is ever going to be a smashed
windshield on a double-decker bus, that top passenger-side corner is
the place that you would most likely see a smash occur.
At
the 85 Degree Bakery, I chanced to see a young girl, quite pretty,
wearing shorts that were beyond what I would have thought was the
acceptable level of modesty. She might just as well have been
wearing her underwear. [LECTOR: You are a pervert for having
noticed that and then deciding to write about it in righteous terms!
ANDIS: True enough, but I needed something to journalize about. I
couldn't help, even at my advanced age, to have noticed and been
struck by it.]
Wednesday
[September 4]
[Home
Laptop]
I
work 13:00 to 21:00 today.
Last
night, Tony was fast asleep when I got home. It has been a rare
thing but I expect to see more of it for the school year.
I
have downloaded two episodes of Views of China from Casa Kaulins;
episodes #15
and #16
to be exact. I did this despite reading a Taki's Magazine screed
against the tweeting habit which correctly pointed out that constant
exposure of one's self to the Internet was narcissistic.
Hey
world! Look at AKIC and all its subsidiary blogs, and see what an
interesting life I lead! That is the basic theme of all of I do on
the Internet. [LECTOR: Amen!]
Hey
world! See what a beautiful child I have!
Hey
world! See what profundity I am capable of!
I
finished watching The Naked Spur, another James Stewart Western. The
film had a good story and was shot in the Rockies of Colorado. I
downloaded it via torrent.
[School
Laptop]
I
took the #25 bus to work today. If I see the 602支
drive
by while I am on the way to the bus stop, I know that I would be in
for a long wait for the next one so I hop on an empty 25 if one
happens to show up.
Sight
of the day: A red headed Chinese person or perhaps an albino man
boarded the 25 bus. He was dressed for business and was carrying a
bag with a shoulder strap. He had this mischievous grin on his face
and for a brief moment, he suspended himself above the floor by
hanging onto to the overhead bar used for passengers who have to
stand..
I
just listened to the China
History Podcast 123. It had a rather obscure topic I thought:
the history of the Chinese diaspora in Mexico, but listening to it, I
could not help but be engrossed. The Mexican Chinese became victims
of nationalist forces unleashed by Mexico's 1910 revolution.
An
engineer from Johnson Controls talked to me of PM, by which I think
he meant Planned Maintenance or Periodic Maintenance. My thoughts
then gravitated to the PM of my creation: The Wuxi Peach Maoists.
My PM's will have their first match-up this upcoming weekend.
今天，我开写中文在我的日记。今天，我有五个课。第一课，我受教英文的衣服的词。I
mean to say that today I will begin to write Chinese words in my
diary. I have five classes today. My first class, I will talk about
English clothing words.
I
just noticed that I haven't smoked a cigarette in a while. The last
time I may have smoked one was in late July. How I have managed to
do it? I have made the spending of money on smoking anathema to my
very being and I have avoided being near people who may offer me
cigarettes.
Are
they “the students” or “my students?” I call them “the
students.” I hear other teacher use “my.' This practice on the
part of other teachers seem self-aggrandizing to me. Other
professions talk of “my clients” or “my patients” and so
teachers hearing this want to create similar aura of importance for
themselves. I will have none of it. [LECTOR: Thereby creating your
own aura of righteousness...]
He
doesn't look me in the eye. Coward. [LECTOR: You are not the only
one! Ha!]
Thursday
[September 5, 2013]
[School
Laptop]
Last
night, a student told me that there had been a great explosion at
Hynix in the Wuxi New District. The fire was black and lasted for at
least two hours. This is not the first time I have heard of this: I
had a student tell me that there a tire factory in the WND that had
been on fire as well months ago.
今天，下雨。Today,
Rain.
Last
night, both Tony and Jenny were asleep when I arrived home. At
supper time, I had tried to phone Tony just so I could talk him other
than at the short time in the morning when he is getting ready to go
to school.
Thanks
to my Wuxi Google alert, I read a story about corruption involving
land in the Binhu District. That district government, said the
article, was flipping land in order to get cash. As well, the
government was stealing land from residents. I have been told that
the Hui Shan New District, where I reside, is having similar
problems. I was told that the local government there had made its
money by selling all its land and now was lacking in cash sources.
It seems Bin Hu has tried to solve a similar cash problem by land
flipping which sounds eerily similar to the real estate flipping that
was taking place in America before 2008.
我看书在我的Ipad。
I
read books on my Ipad.
我的中文马马虎虎。
今天，我下班九点钟。
Friday
[September 6] 星期六【九日六号】
[School
Laptop]
I
work 11:00 to 21:00 today. However, I will be home early. I will do
a demo class between five and six this afternoon.
It
is raining this morning, not in summer torrents but in an autumn
shower. Jenny & Tony rode to school via e-bike in the rain but
they won't be doing so next week when Tony will have a ride to
school.
This
new early morning routine has everybody, even me, feeling tired.
I
was listening to this podcast about plastic bag bans in the U.S. In
Wuxi, you have to pay a few extra maos if you want to get a plastic
bag; in many American cities, they have banned plastic bags entirely.
I can't imagine how people could function. The podcast talked of
shoppers driving a little extra distance to go to jurisdictions with
no plastic bag bans. As well, relatives are bringing plastic bags
from jurisdictions without the bag ban to relatives in jurisdictions
who are subject to it.
I
can almost say that I don't have loose lips. I do however have loose
typing hands with which I may not commit any slanders against anyone
in particular but I do slander groups as a whole. So my silence
though laudatory is not accompanied by any corresponding virtuous
action; and I don't use my lips in even the smallest way to promote
virtue.
Since
I will continue to prep for this demo class, this is all I will do
today for journalizing.
Saturday
[September 7]
[School
Laptop]
I
was at on the grounds of Jiangnan University yesterday evening. The
first time, in my nine years of being in Wuxi, to have been there. I
saw a lot of buildings and a stadium, but I didn't leave the place
with any impressions.
I
was near campus in order to do a demo class for a software company
whose offices are nearby.
I
got home about 7:30 PM last evening, and of course Tony took the
opportunity to play with my Ipad. He feel asleep with it while
having placed it on a pillow so he could watch it will falling asleep
– it made for a great photo.
I
finished watching the Far Country, another Western starring James
Stewart. I enjoyed it. It was set in the Yukon and Alaska
territories but, as I suspected it, was actually filmed in Alberta.
Last
night, I started watching Bend of the River, yet another Western
starring James Stewart. I will have to put him in the pantheon of
Western Stars which includes John Wayne. I can't help but be taken
with Stewart's aw-schucks and taciturn acting methods, and his tall &
lean physique which is not in fashion thanks to that modern cult of
body. It is probably true to say that when acting in movies, less is
more, and Stewart does this to a tee.
Last
night, I was told of a young men, just getting out of university,
whose rich factory-owning fathers were buying them Audis. I
commented that if I had the money, I wouldn't be spoiling my child in
that manner. I will spoil him on the cheap...
If
you want to ruin the society from which you benefit, spoil your
children.
Is
the word “than” a preposition or a conjunction? I had stupidly
thought that it was a preposition, and hence I told the students that
you could say “I am happier than him” or “I am happier than he
is” and not say “I am happier than he” based on the assumption
that the “than” was a preposition. If “than” is a
preposition then you couldn't say “than he” because “he”
could not be the object of a preposition.
But
then this morning, a student told me that he was told that “than”
was a conjunction. I told him that I had assumed that it was a
preposition, but I immediately went to look at my references and
search on the Internet to check. It seems that it is okay to say
“happier than he” because the “is” is often assumed, and that
maybe “happier than him” is incorrect because the “than” is
said to be a conjunction. Swan's Practical English Grammar says
that “happier than him” is correct in an informal style, but
“happier than he” is correct in a formal style. On the Internet,
I read that some grammarians say that “than” can be thought of a
preposition, and there may even be controversy about this, but most
of the time “than” acts like a conjunction, a coordinating
conjunction in fact. The fact that “than” is in fact a
coordinating conjunction is the cause of the confusion I had on the
matter for you can really slap two independent clauses together with
a “than.”
So,
lets look at the following phrases using “than:”
- I am happier than he.
- I am happier than him.
- She likes me more than him.
- She likes me more than he does.
- She likes tea more than him.
- She likes tea more than he.
From
what I have learned, sentence #1 and #2 are correct, although I would
say I am happier than he is, and not assume anything. Sentences #3
and #4 have very different meanings. In #3, it is a question of “she
likes me” or “she likes him;” in #4, it is a question of “she
likes me” or “he likes me.” The same problems arise with
sentences #5 and #6. Sentence #5 is a question of whether she likes
tea more or she likes him more; while Sentence #6 answers the
question of who likes tea more. So, I am going to have to be more
careful when I talk about comparisons. Now, I think that “than”
is a conjunction in #4 and #6 most certainly; the other four
examples, I am not certain. And #6, I would say as follows: She
likes tea more than he likes tea.
Sunday
[September 8]
[School
Laptop]
Last
night after work, I went straight to a restaurant in the Hui Shan
Wanda Plaza. This restaurant was so big that it had two floors, each
about a football field long, and its own elevator. I went there
because Jenny was treating the family who will give Tony a drive to
primary school and back.
The
food was standard China banquet food. Okay but boring if you have
eaten as many times as I have. I ended up drinking about four
bottles of beer and felt sick for the rest of the evening and through
the night where I couldn't sleep. I woke this morning with a
headache and my day's opening bowel movement was a wet and dark one.
Clearly I had had something that wasn't good for me last night.
It
is now evening:
- I lazed around all day more or less. I did vacuum around the house and clean behind the toilet where I discovered the plunger that I had thought Jenny had thrown away.
- I took photos for my Casa Kaulins Blog.
- I filmed, edited, and uploaded Views of China from Casa Kaulins #17.
- I read some of the General Gordon biography. He was a hero who exhibited real courage unlike Obama.
- It took a while to coax Tony but I got him out of Casa Kaulins and onto the Kaulins Family China E-Bike which we took to Jiangyin for a bit of train-spotting. We went to the area near the Xiake park where I had recorded some scenes for Scenes from My Life in Wuxi, China #46.
- Tony acted strangely on the outing. As soon as we got to our train-spotting spot, Tony wanted to leave. He first talked of going to the Wanda Plaza but I would have nothing of that. He then told me that it was going to rain. Making our way back, Tony then insisted on stopping at a few places on the way.
- Dogs that we passed were not very friendly. We even had one chase us a ways.
- We did encounter this friendly old woman who was on a pedal bike. Seeing Tony run on the road, she expressed concern when she saw him stumble onto the pavement.
再见！
