Wuxi Tony Update #445: Tony sits still.

Those are Tony's feet. I am focusing in on them for the benefit of his Canadian grandparents who have yet to see him in person.

Some Recent Photos

Above, my son Tony sits still -- something he rarely does these days.

I took the above photo while doing an "Expo English" event for the school. The edge of the apartment looked like it had been the product of a very sharp slicing knife.

A downtown Wuxi park.

My son Tony drinks Coca Cola with a fork.

Tony and Jenny go back to Beixing

Wednesday Morning

My wife and son will take a bus to Beixing tomorrow.  I am not sure how long J and T will be in B.  I haven't thought to ask yet. (I wonder what that shows about my state of mind)

 

Tuesday Plan

I will spend some quality bonding time with Tony this afternoon during which I will take lots of video and photo.  The v and p will keep me occupied during J and T's absence.

 

Wednesday and after Plan

I plan to be a good boy.  I will endlessly vomit out my thoughts here.  I also plan on discovering new things for humanity to think about, crush existing paradigms, starting new fields of human endeavour, and getting closer to G.

A Walk in Wuxi, China #5

I walk in the downtown of Wuxi not too far from my school. Past a church and some expensive shops, I go.

Wuxi Tony Update #444: Tony at a playground

My son Tony is borderline psychotic, but then aren't all 2 year olds?

This video includes interesting sots of an indoor shopping mall.

Wuxi Tony Update #443: Tony along a canal, again.

Quotes and Links

300 Tang Poems

The link above takes you to an awesome site that has 300 poems from the Tang Dynasty with English translation. I have asked the HyLite Study Advisors, and will ask my wife, to read them to me. Only problem is the Chinese is written in the traditional Chinese script (still used in Taiwan). The Chinese you know may have problems reading it.

I have cut and past some of my favorite poems and passages below amongst the other quotes and links.

Alas! What has been lost!

A case against Blogging

Every so often, some established writer complains about blogging. And I will grant there are lot of valid complaints to made about it. However, blogging has some virtues, and there are enough good blogs out there are worthwhile and of high quality to justify the genre. Of course, there are a lot of bad blogs out there. I am sure that mine can be categorized as part of that great majority of blogs. Be that as it may, my family at least read the blog and occasionally I get a nice compliment from someone which helps me bear the indifference I usually get.

You might as well say books are bad because the great majority are bad and should never have been printed. You can say the same for television and movies. Kenneth Clark said movies are a most ephemeral entertainment and he is of course right. But every once in a while, something worthwhile and memorable can come from these modern forms of art.

David Warren on Rush Limbaugh

David Warren, a Canadian Catholic, comments on the Rush Limbaugh -- NFL fiasco. Warren's weighing down on the affair shows a great injustice has been done. Take Obama's Nobel Prize and this tanking of Rush to prevent him from owning a part of the NFL team, and you have proof positive that the Left and the Obamanites have no laudable goals whatsoever. In fact, they are mostly bigots against a certain type of White American. Racism is alive and well on the Left and is becoming more and more hideous. I am debating if I should ever watch or follow the NFL anymore.

Sholom Aleichem

Life is a dream for the wise, a game for the fool, a comedy for the
rich, a tragedy for the poor."

(for me, life is a comedy where I am the fool, only wise enough to see the tragedy of it.)

Untrue Racism Accusations

It is the plague of the times, and it is almost entirely perpetuated by the Left against Right.

Zhang Jiuling

THOUGHTS III

The hermit in his lone abode
Nurses his thoughts cleansed of care,
Them he projects to the wild goose
For it to his distant Sovereign to bear.
Who will be moved by the sincerity
Of my vain day-and-night prayer?
What comfort is for my loyalty
When fliers and sinkers can compare?

Something a student told me

The engineers of Jiangsu like to boast about many elevated highways and road they have built. (I ride under these things all the time. The underside is dark, dank, and dirty. Riding these highways in Wuxi, the city looks dead, modern skyscrapers without the teeming life of the cites.)

Li Bai

DRINKING ALONE WITH THE MOON

From a pot of wine among the flowers
I drank alone. There was no one with me --
Till, raising my cup, I asked the bright moon
To bring me my shadow and make us three.
Alas, the moon was unable to drink
And my shadow tagged me vacantly;
But still for a while I had these friends
To cheer me through the end of spring....
I sang. The moon encouraged me.
I danced. My shadow tumbled after.
As long as I knew, we were boon companions.
And then I was drunk, and we lost one another.
...Shall goodwill ever be secure?
I watch the long road of the River of Stars.

Wang Wei

And the more the King loved her, the lovelier she looked,
Blinding him away from wisdom.

TO QIWU QIAN BOUND HOME
AFTER FAILING IN AN EXAMINATION

In a happy reign there should be no hermits;
The wise and able should consult together....
So you, a man of the eastern mountains,
Gave up your life of picking herbs
And came all the way to the Gate of Gold --
But you found your devotion unavailing.
...To spend the Day of No Fire on one of the southern rivers,
You have mended your spring clothes here in these northern cities.
I pour you the farewell wine as you set out from the capital --
Soon I shall be left behind here by my bosomfriend.
In your sail-boat of sweet cinnamon-wood
You will float again toward your own thatch door,
Led along by distant trees
To a sunset shining on a far-away town.
...What though your purpose happened to fail,
Doubt not that some of us can hear high music.

(Can this poem provide solace to a high school student today who has failed his high school entrance exam?)

Du Fu

...A thousand years' fame, ten thousand years' fame-
What good, when you are dead and gone.

Han Yu

MOUNTAIN-STONES

Rough were the mountain-stones,

and the path very narrow;

And when I reached the temple, bats were in the dusk.

I climbed to the hall, sat on the steps, and drank the rain- washed air

Among the round gardenia-pods and huge bananaleaves.

On the old wall, said the priest, were Buddhas finely painted,

And he brought a light and showed me, and I called them wonderful

He spread the bed, dusted the mats, and made my supper ready,

And, though the food was coarse, it satisfied my hunger.

At midnight, while I lay there not hearing even an insect,

The mountain moon with her pure light entered my door....

At dawn I left the mountain and, alone, lost my way:

In and out, up and down, while a heavy mist

Made brook and mountain green and purple, brightening everything.

I am passing sometimes pines and oaks, which ten men could not girdle,

I am treading pebbles barefoot in swift-running water --

Its ripples purify my ear, while a soft wind blows my garments....

These are the things which, in themselves, make life happy.

Why should we be hemmed about and hampered with people?

O chosen pupils, far behind me in my own country,

What if I spent my old age here and never went back home?

(I love the concluding lines of this poem.)

government officials grow fixed in their ways

And never will initiate beyond old precedent;

(some things never change.)

Wuxi Tony Update #442: Tony on the Hui Shan Big Bridge

The boat traffic on the canals that criss-cross Wuxi do give this jaded foreigner a feeling, verging on authentic, of what old China was like. So it is a pleasure for me to take Tony to the bridge near our apartment. It is not quite a wonderful setting as the bridge near Xi Hui Park, but it will do.

Headlines for a Sunday in Mid-October

Back and Forth Tony

About 11 pm Saturday night, I was trying to read a book but instead faked falling asleep to get Tony to do likewise.  However, Jenny was in the other bedroom on the computer.  So, Tony was running back and forth between the two rooms, ignoring my entreaties to go to sleep.  Finally, Jenny screamed at me to take Tony away from her.  Luckily for me, I didn't have to get up because Tony finally lay in bed beside and went to sleep.

Tony falling asleep is a dynamic process because he doesn't lie still.  What he does is toss and turn and squirm, standing up several times in the process.  I have to cover myself with the sheets as he does this, because he does like to poke me, slap me, and sit on top of me.

Carnage on the Roads of Wuxi

When I had supper last night, Jenny had the television tuned to the local Wuxi news on which was shown graphic footage of traffic accidents.  I saw the aftermath of a man on an electric scooter having been run over by a truck.  I saw the debris of the scooter  -- including a memorable shot of a scooter's rear container separated from the rest of the bike.  I also saw the relatives of the cyclist in a distraught state.  I saw another accident where a body and blood could be seen on the pavement, although from a distance.  

The news crew will even take cameras to the hospital to interview the accident victims.

654,000

Youtube was boasting that they get a billion views a day on their site.  I get a very small portion of those views.  I can now say, not boast, that I have had my little videos seen 654,000 times.  One day, I may well boast of having had a million.  But as long as I don't edit my videos, and continually exhibit poor cameramanship and bad narration, it will take a long time to get to the milestone.  Still, 500 views a day is nothing to complain about.  If only my blog had so many hits.

Meanwhile, on Youku, the Chinese video sharing site, I have had about 10,000 views.

Regrets

I had have some.  But I don't want to sing the particulars of them.

Country Road (adapted for Wuxi)

Almost heaven Wuxi City

Hui Shan Mountains Tong Zhong River

Life is old there older than the Peach trees

Younger than the canals

Growing like the breeze

Country Road take me home

To the place I belong

Wuxi China Tai Hu Momma

Take me home country road

All my memories gather round her

Farmers lady stranger to blue water

Dark and Dusty painted on the sky

Strong taste of Baijoe

Tear Drops in my eyes

Chorus

I hear her voice in the morning hours she calls me

Internet reminds me of my home far away

Riding a bicycle down the road I get a feeling that I should 

have been home yesterday

Yesterday

Chorus