Maybe Tony should learn to play the piano.

I have been reading Spengler. Here he talks about China's six to one advantage over America in music.

China blogger-banker-bartender

Read about this guy here: Fifty year old teaches finance during the day and runs a bar by night.

Obama. Easter. Tony Talks!

I tried to talk about Obama in my English Corner last night, but the students really did not have much to say about him other than he was black and a good speaker. So general were their views, I couldn't go into any detail about anything he has done without doing a lecture that most of the students couldn't follow. I wouldn't have bothered showing them this parody of an Obama speech.

I briefly talked to these students about Easter as well. Again, the students did not have much to say. Most didn't even know that Easter was about Christ being on the cross and then rising from the dead. I mentioned the prediction I linked to in a previous blog. The prediction about China becoming the biggest Christian and Muslim country in the world. One student said it was possible because China did have a huge population. I then asked the students what Chairman Mao would think of this development and one student said Mao would ask "what happened to the communist party?".


I had proof this morning that my wife's fears about Tony not learning and words was unfounded. Before, I went to work, I told Tony it was time for me to be going. He said "Bye, bye!". It is the first time he has done this for me without my first saying "bye bye!" to him. So, there you go Honey! Tony is making progress, at his own pace and in his own way!


I have found another blog I like. In this entry, the doctor says this: My wife has also suggested that working long hours, then coming home and sitting on the computer for the rest of the evening and all weekend is not what she would describe as a “relationship” — funny people, these women are — don’t they understand we men have our needs? And of course, she is entirely correct, and I’m committed to making some changes to fix my malfeasance in this area. Obsessively scanning the web for the latest Obamanation is not terrible good use of time or mental energy anyway, so the change is truly a blessing in disguise. Strange how even doctors can fall into the same habits that this simple English teacher in China has been. I have spent too many an evening on the computer looking up blogs and ignoring the wife. I should change too.

Tony at pre-school.

Wednesday, we left Tony at a pre-school for the afternoon. It was the first time we let strangers look after him. Tony apparently survived the ordeal. He cried for a while because he missed his parents. But then, he was able to have a one-hour nap. He got along fine with the other children.

His parents were able to have lunch together without Tony running away. His parents were even able to walk downtown holding hands.

Tony's father felt compelled to take some photos as well.

The first photo shows a bunch of bikes parked in front of some shops. It is what Mr. K saw a lot of today.

Mr. K doesn't know if you can see, but the women below are bunnies and turtles in those cages.

In the photo below, the taxi is trying to turn around. Notice how the traffic just moves around him, not yielding an inch.

The photo below was taken from Tony's pre-school which happens to be on the seventh floor.

Tuesday Morning in AKICistan.

Happily Blogging away I am as the maid vacuums the apartment. The wife and son are still in bed. So I may be forced to scuttle the entry...

Books I want to be reading now: Confessions of Saint Augustine, a good Latin grammar, something by Shakespeare, Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, The Journey to the West, a good book on something Canadian, a biography of Fred Astaire, and some good poetry.

Oh yeah! Also, a Bible.

The wife is employing my limited domestic skills around the house. I am ironing something for her. Of course, her clothes are full of strange frilliness that won't sit flat!

Shoes a little worn. My pants are become shiny at the butt. It is the best I can do today.

This blog is full of tweets. It looks like I am twittering.

I would be happy if Tony became a tradesmen. He would be doing something useful. If I want him to get one thing from me, it would be that: be useful!

Tony is going to have to learn that when he embraces us that he doesn't have to run at us at 100 km/h.

Tuesday and Wednesdays are my days off but I will still go to school. Three classes tonight and a meeting tomorrow afternoon.

A must see.

I hope I will be able to find the DVD for this film in Wuxi sometime soon. The review of it is brilliant. The film deals with issues that all in my profession must think about. And the times I have felt like the teacher in the film.....

Impracticalate

• Tomorrow, as I said in the previous entry, is a day off. What will the K family of AKICistan do? My wife, the ever practical one, is going to wash shoes. What will her husband, the ever impractical one do? He will impracticalate. He will teach his son to impracticalate too.
• Actually, and I am half-serious, I am thinking that I want Tony to be taught by the Jesuits. I read in the Northern Magus that their students become nasty-hard. Not wanting my son to be a dilettante, I hope he does something like join the Marines. Pierre Eliot Trudeau, to his great disgrace, never enlisted in the great W.W. II.
• Most of the students I talked to today didn't have much to tell me about their ancestors. They could only go back three generations. One student did tell me that his great great grandfather was an official in Wuxi for the Qin Dynasty. That man's son, not the student's grandparent, became an opium addict and sold his house.
• This op-ed from the New York Times is almost completely sensible, and scary, not because it is the NYT being out of character but, because of what it says about China. The Chinese did have a policy of not floating the RMB. The problem with the government fixing prices is that something has to give in another way. Like putting a lid on a boiling pot, pressure inside will accumulate until something blows. In China's case, the blow will come from the serious decline in exports that is occurring. Trying to rid itself of the U.S. treasury bills it has would result in a decline in the value in the U.S. dollar which would then mean a decline in the value of Chinese assets. China is in a dollar trap. It should have let its currency float.
• There are more Andis Kaulins's in the world that I would like. Someone sent me a message on Facebook. They were looking for an Andis Kaulins from Toronto (No!!! I am not from that God forsaken city.). Coming across this particular Andis Kaulins, they had to ask what I was doing in China.
• I learned of a practice of giving a family giving all children of the same generation the same name. In China, the first name is the Family name and two other names. With this generational identification practice, the second name is the family's generational name, and the third name is the individual's given name. So the children of brothers all have the same first names and second names - cousins, brothers, and sisters. This practice still is carried out in the countryside but not in the cites because of the one child policy.
• I had a grilled cheese sandwich tonight. Something, I haven't done in a long time. It was so good like the first ones my mother ever made for me.
• Tony saw my drinking some pineapple beer. He gave me his wallet full of money and then pointed at the can. The kid is learning fast. I will have to send him to the Jesuits tomorrow.

Saturday Morning.

It is Saturday Morning. Other Expats are probably still asleep and nursing hangovers. I am awake and always at your service.

I will now iron my pants.

I contemplate the horrors that await me today. There are many and there are potential ones. First off, will everyone come to work on time? Many Saturdays that doesn't happen. And then there are the students. Most are great, but some! Ai ya!!!

I just gave Tony a bottle. The bugger is up a little too early this morning.

Eventually, I will trudge to the Bus stop where hopefully the number 610 bus has seats so I can read Atlas Shrugged or a Chinese reader I have full of simple sentences in pinyin for me to practice.

It is sunny but cold.

I was looking at this blog entry attempting to classify Expats. This blogger was awfully nice when she classified them as adventurers, mercenaries, and misfits. There are other categories that she should have mentioned like losers, addicts, and perverts. Thankfully, being married, I don't see as much of the latter three categories as I used to. But I don't see many of the former three either.

I like to think I defy categorization and classification but, if forced to identify myself, I would say I am a misfit-loser.

Sometime today I will download the latest edition of Radio Derb. It isn't available at the time of this entry.

Three slices of bread and a one-serving package of yogurt - that be my breakfast.

No profound insights.

I have nothing to offer anyone with this blog entry other than a realization which I will present to you that I have an urge to say something but nothing to say. Being with a 16 month old child has made my brain scatter shot. I don't have time to concentrate on one train of thought other then "will that child of mine behave and stop getting into things that he shouldn't?".

Radio Derb is putting its transcripts on the web. If you are smart, you should be pleased to know this.

Virus. Chinese Army to attack Somali Pirates?

I had a virus on my work computer. I had to wait two hours for my anti-virus software to scan my hard drives. It was two hours lost. All I needed to do today, I needed files on my computer for.

I went to bed early last night. I felt tired. I still have that feeling of exhaustion today.

One student was excited to tell me that the Chinese Army was going to Somalia to attack pirates. I should look on the Internet to see what he truly meant.

Busy.

It these days of Economic difficulties and an Obama presidency, it is good to be busy. This morning, I spent some time with my little guy snapping photos. At school, our problem is we are very busy. A much better problem than not having much to do.