Sunday, September 30, 2012
September 24 to September 30 Blog Entry
This week was a short work week for me due to the October holiday. It wasn't all good though. Problems with my VPN have kept me from uploading videos to Youtube. Fuck the Great Firewall!
Acknowledgement I am the villain in my life story.
Request I need an opportunity to help my wife and Tony.
Canada ain't cool
Canada is better than cool.
Canadian Hockey Players weren't able to keep their cool in the 72 series against the Russians. But Hockey has never been a game to keep one's cool.
Links of the Week
Quotes of the Week.
Most people just won't re-think, period. Henry Ford famously said hat 95% of people would rather die than think. Weidner's corollary to that rule is that 99% of people would rather die than re-think. (from Random Jottings)
Economics, as Keynes and Hayek( and Marx) knew well is subject to politics, morality, human desire and self-discipline (or the lack of it) habit and tradition. Not to mention the existence or non-existence of the rule of law, the thing which I tend to feel is vital to any truly successful state, and which is itself founded on Christian principles. (Peter Hitchens -- the brother of Christopher.)
The Wuxi Corrupt Officials
The official NFL Fantasy Team of Wuxi Expats: The Wuxi Corrupt Officials are 2-0 to begin the 2012 NFL Fantasy Football Season. They won their second match-up 120-57.
Reading
I finished reading Our Mutual Friend, Lord of the Rings, Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.
I have begun to read the Devils by Dostoevsky and a History of the Long March.
Podcasts
I have discovered more podcast of interest on Itunes: Three Martini Lunch, Russian Rulers History, Popup Chinese and Grammar Girl Quickes. The first Three Martini Lunch podcast is a short and concise right wing and conservative podcast telling the listener all he needs to now about U.S. politics. The Russian Rulers History podcast is as good as the Chinese History Podcast and Dan Carlin's Hardcore History. Popup Chinese is useful. I like its ten minute Mandarin lessons. They are very informative. However, when you download the Popup Chinese podcast, you get the Sinaca Podcast where a group of journalists talk about Chinese current affairs. That podcast can be useful but I have been turned off by its Leftist tone. Listening to the podcast about the Japanese Chinese island dispute, one of the guests compared a nationalist movement in Japan to the Tea Party. The guy didn't know WTF he was talking about.
Death of Brutus and the Death of My Dad
Reading Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, the character Brutus has to confront the fact that he is going to die. He did it seemingly bravely. I thought about my experience of death - my father's, and I recalled how my father, when told he was going to die, was brave about it too.
Fingerprint taken at work
Instead of swiping a card when I check in and out of work, I will be giving the finger. That is, I will be inserting a finger in a machine that can recognize my finger print and indicate that I have clocked in. The school is using this technology because its Chinese workers have found a way to abuse the card-swiping machine. One Chinese worker will swipe in say three cards: one for his or her self, and the cards of the other workers who can then come in later.
Chicken Hot Pot
I made a video of our trip (that is Jenny and I) to a Chicken Hot Pot Restaurant on Wu Ai Road. At these types of restaurants, there are cages of chickens by the restaurant entrance. Patrons can choose or see the chicken that is to be killed and then cooked for them.
If I resolve this week's VPN issues, you will be able to see the video, There's Good Eating in Wuxi #2, on Youtube.
No seat on the bus for Tony & Dad
So an old man beckons Tony to sit with him. Tony looks with fear at me. I tell him its okay.
This is a common practice in China for an old person to put a stranger's child on his or her lap on a crowded bus.
Tournament #8
I don't play computer games like many other English teachers in China, thankfully.
What I do is stage multi-team tournaments where the results are determined by the tossing of coins. I have done this for over forty years. I remember one time in Kunming where lacking for company, I staged a tournament in my hotel room. I amused myself with hotel stationery and a coin.
Now, I toss coins on my Ipod Touch and have custom made printed forms to record my results.
This week, I started my tournament #8. It has 32 teams divided into eight groups of four, and two leagues of sixteen.
The tournament starts with each group playing a three game round robin tournament. Each team's standing in the four team group will determine what competitions they can participate in for the rest of the tournament. The first place teams gain berths in the tournament championship and in its league championship (League #1 comprises groups 1 to 4. League #2 comprises groups 5 to 8) The second place team in each group earns a berth in the league championship and in a tournament championship qualifying playoff. The third place team earns a berth in the tournament qualifying knock-out tournament. The fourth place team is eliminated from further competition.
In Tournament #8, the two league championships will be eight team single knock-out affairs. So there will be quarterfinals, semifinals, and a league championship game.
There will be twelve teams in the tournament championship. The eight group winners will earn berths in the tournament. The other four berths will be determined as a result of knock-games involving the sixteen second and third place teams. The second and third place teams from Groups 1&2, 3&4, 5&6, 7&8 will each have one berth to compete for respectively. So three teams from each of the pairs of groups will qualify for the tournament championship.
The championship tournament will have three rounds.
The first round will have four groups of three teams. Each group will play a single game round robin. The top two teams from each group will advance to the second round. The third place teams will be eliminated.
In the second round, there will be two groups of four teams. The two groups will play a single game round robin with a game already played in the first round between the two qualifying teams in each group being counted as a round robin game for the second round standings.
The first place team in each of the second round groups will earn a berth in the semifinals of the third round: the Championship playoffs. They will play the winners of the qualifying playoff games between the second and third place teams in each group. The fourth place team is eliminated. The semifinal winners will advance to the tournament championship game.
Only once has a team achieved a triple; that is: a group title, a league title, and the tournament championship. Team G did in this in tournament #2.
Team Y won tournament #7. They defeated Team P 5-4 in the final. Trailing 4-0 early in the game, Team Y tied the game with their last toss, and then went onto win the game and the championship in extra tosses.
Wednesday
- Three days till my holiday begins.
- I found a podcast about Canadian History. The podcasts are about eight minutes long. I download about four at a time.
- The VPN hasn't been working so well lately. I worry that I won't be able to upload my videos to Youtube.
- I did an English Corner about fathers. One student told me her father died when she was seven years old. Another told me she hated her father because he had a bad temper.
- I say someone in a photo looks like someone else. The person I was speaking to said I was insulting that someone in the photo because the someone else was ugly. Talk about Chutzpah! And me being slow on the take, I didn't point it out. It wasn't I who said anyone was ugly.
Thursday
- The sign of which I took a photo, has been filled with signatures. Reminds me of 1972 when Team Canada was getting posters filled of signatures from Canadian hockey fans. Although, the nationalism on display in 72 was far more innocuous than what I just witnessed in Wuxi. I can never see Canadians, even in these days of fatuous "Canada Kicks Ass" nationalism signing posters saying Hans Islands belongs to Canada.
- While having breakfast at the McDonald's at the corner of Xueqian and Zhongshan roads, I saw a old bearded man with one crutch pulling a cart through the intersection against traffic. It was astounding sight because the man looked like he had just come from the 19th century and he dodged traffic like Eddie Murphy in the movie Bowfinger.
- I had a class with a Japanese student in the morning. I asked her about what had been happening in China vis-a-vis Japan, and she didn't seem to be at all worried.
- I told the students I liked to travel by train. They thought me nuts. It seems their only experience traveling the train is during the holidays where any kind of travel is torturous.
Friday
- Riding the bus, I sometimes pass this huge construction pit. I would say it is about 30 meters deep and the width of several football fields laid side-by-side. I didn't notice until today that a canal was running right next to the pit. How is it that the water or even the canal itself is prevented from flowing into the pit? Shows how much I know about engineering.
- I realized I have mixed feelings about the local traffic cops. Chinese driver, pedestrians and cyclists do awfully selfish things in traffic and my sense of Canadian order wants to seem them punished. But these cops represent the state which is often high-handed in its dealings with the population who can't be blamed entirely for ignoring the rules the state tries to impose on them.
- I pass this old man on Zhongshan Road. He was sitting on the front steps of some business, and looked at me with the curious look that I often get when I pass a local. He had a slight built and was dressed like a teenager. His wrinkled face and the glasses he was wearing gave him a dignified and thoughtful countenance. So his whole being looked so incongruous to me as I passed.
- It is the 40th anniversary of Paul Henderson's three wonderful game-winning goals against the hockey team of the Soviet Union. I have made entries, breaking my weekly blog entry habit, to celebrate it.
- Fa Piao. Every time, I go to the restaurant, I have to get the Fa Piao, a tax receipt that I must give to the cash lady at school in order to reduce the amount of social security tax I have to pay. Sometimes, asking for Fa Piao seems to really put out the restaurant. One restaurant has lost my business because it takes it time in giving me the Fa Piao.
- The topic for this afternoon's English Corner will be about friends -- something I don't know much about. Ha Ha! I will try to segue or segueway to segway to the topics of misanthropy and lonerliness.
Saturday
- A holiday for me, but Tony had to go to school. When I sent him off to school, I promised him we would go trainspotting in the evening.
- I am happy to not be going to school. Lazy students drive me mad and make classes pointless.
- I must have arthritis in my hip. Some days, it hurts something fierce and it is hard to stand up. Then, inexplicably, the pain goes away.
- I complained about neighbors across the way having a dog. This morning, I heard the honking of duck. Someone was probably going to cook it today.
- Team Z defeats Team BB 8-7 in the first round robin game of the group 7 round robin. Team Z is the defending group and league #2 champion (Tournament #7). BB won league #2 championships in Tournament #4 and #6.
- At the local Tesco, I saw a foreigner. Unfortunately, it was a foreigner I knew and didn't like. He was once a teacher at our school. We had fired him and were glad to see the last of him. Last I heard, he had left town. So I was stunned and disappointed to see him shopping in my part of Hui Shan. Some English teachers wander around China, getting fired from one school and then easily finding another school that will hire them. Hopefully, I and this example of this school-jumping teacher never come close to crossing paths again. He seemed like a nice person at the interview and the true darkness of his personality came out as soon as he started working.
- Mashed potatoes for supper. That makes my day.
- Tony thought I had asked him to play train videos. We didn't go out. Tony wanted to watch train videos on my computer.
Sunday
- We will get up at eight a.m. says the wife. I didn't believe this would happen, and as it is now 830 a.m., my disbelief has been shown to have been justified.
- The plan: go to Li Hu. (I have a yodeling story idea for my Wuxi China Expatdom Blog).
- Later: we do go to Li Hu. On the way, Tony and I looked at the animals in the Nanchang Pet Market. At Li Hu, we wandered around. We went into an amusement park that had a very tall Ferris Wheel. Tony was upset because he wanted to ride the cool rides in the park, but couldn't because he was too young and short. He eventually rode the rides that his age and size permitted him to ride, like the Ferris Wheel. I took lots of photos and video of course.
- Scene: Newly built road. Area through which the road runs is full of half-demolished houses and fields of rubble. Red China flags have been hung on the surrounding street lamps for national day.
- Two of my favorite writers, Peter Hitchens and David Warren, are anti-car. They like to mention in their columns that they don't have cars, and I think they have enough money that they could if they wanted. They both say that they hate cars for the ugliness and anti-humanity they bring to urban environments. Of this, they are undoubtedly correct. In China, where more and more people have cars, and the normal civilized rules of parking and moving on the road aren't followed, government urban planners have created environments full of concrete that are very ugly and depressing to behold. The planners have created these environments to conform to an idea of a modernity that they believe is car-friendly. The end result is that any free space has a car parked on it and you can't walk anywhere without having to make way for a car or cross four to six lanes of traffic to get anyway. The New China will no longer have the compact neighborhoods full of narrow lanes that I love to walk through. Instead, it will be consist of apartment complexes with tall buildings separated by roads and grass that quickly deteriorate into rubble and muck.
- The brakes of the 25 bus doth squeak too much.
Thursday, September 27, 2012
September 28, 1972: Henderson Scores for Canada!
Forty years, I was living in 236 Place Biloudeau in Val Saint Michael, Quebec. I remember the Canada Russia series was being played, but at the time, I wasn't paying much attention to it. I have a memory of playing in the back yard while my father was watching the game on a small black and white television which he had put outside.
I wasn't a hockey fan in 1972. But by 1974 when the Russians played a WHA Team Canada, I was a hockey fan. in '74, I remember going to the school gymnasium to watch the games, hoping there could be a replay of the magic of 72.
In 1974, the 72 Series was already legendary. To my young mind in 74, 1972 was a different age, it was eons before.
In 2012, 2010 was only two years ago, a mere blink of the eye.
Though I wasn't involved with the Summit Series at the time, I have been able to watch replays of all the games since. I have felt very emotional watching them. Watching game 2 of the 72 series, I can say that I have never watched a game with more tense atmosphere.
Last week, I watched a documentary of the series, and I was full of adrenalin as I imagined what it must have been like at the time to have watched the series.
Canada beating Russia in the 72 series was like Alexander the Great defeating the Persians. Like Alexander's soldiers, the Canadian hockey players were tough bad asses. Like the Persians, the Russians were effeminate and lacked heart.
The Canadian ferocity shocked the Russians who were certainly not unfamiliar with brutality. Were the Canadians dirty? No doubt. But the games in 72 were more than just games. The Russians were an evil force. Extremism was no vice in 72.
Sunday, September 23, 2012
September 17 to September 23 Blog Entry
The week begins with my NFL Fantasy Football Team's first game and my wondering about what will happen between Japan and China, as the Chinese have been stoked by their government.
All are looking forward to the upcoming October holiday. I will have six days off in a row. Most Chinese workers will get eight.
.
.
.
Here are the weekly regular features:
Gratitude
Thank God for all the buffets in Wuxi.
Acknowledgement
I am an unfriendly sort. My first instinct when I see someone I know walk down the street is to avoid them.
Request
I want my son to be a good kid who will fight for himself but never bully.
Canada Ain't Cool and not as Leftist as some want it to be
If cool as be thought of as a synonym for interesting, that I thank God that Canada ain't cool. With things getting interesting between China and Japan, I yearn for the dullness of a Manitoba Provincial Election.
More thoughts about the 1972 Canada Russia Hockey Summit. If Canada is supposed to be so pacifist (according to a Canadian Leftist), why is it that Canadians and not Americans are prominent in hockey? How can it be that Americans and even Russians are shocked by the ferocity in which Canadians play hockey?
Links of the Week
Forty things you didn't know about the 1972 Canada Russia Hockey Summit Series
A Love Story in Twenty Two Pictures
This writer is frosted by the support that Obama gets.
All are looking forward to the upcoming October holiday. I will have six days off in a row. Most Chinese workers will get eight.
.
.
.
Here are the weekly regular features:
Gratitude
Thank God for all the buffets in Wuxi.
Acknowledgement
I am an unfriendly sort. My first instinct when I see someone I know walk down the street is to avoid them.
Request
I want my son to be a good kid who will fight for himself but never bully.
Canada Ain't Cool and not as Leftist as some want it to be
If cool as be thought of as a synonym for interesting, that I thank God that Canada ain't cool. With things getting interesting between China and Japan, I yearn for the dullness of a Manitoba Provincial Election.
More thoughts about the 1972 Canada Russia Hockey Summit. If Canada is supposed to be so pacifist (according to a Canadian Leftist), why is it that Canadians and not Americans are prominent in hockey? How can it be that Americans and even Russians are shocked by the ferocity in which Canadians play hockey?
Links of the Week
Forty things you didn't know about the 1972 Canada Russia Hockey Summit Series
A Love Story in Twenty Two Pictures
This writer is frosted by the support that Obama gets.
She writes well about her being frosted. (I would have to say that I am saddened.)
Marc Steyn masterly puts down one Geoffrey Dunn of the Huffington Post
Steyn had a lot of fun with Leftists seeing racist code-words and dog whistles in everything Conservatives and Republicans say, especially during the recent Republican Convention. Dunn responded to Steyn by doubling down on the racist assertion and then called Steyn an idiot. A racist, these days, is really a Conservative who has won an argument with a Leftist. But I will continue to use it in the old sense. I abandoned Leftism because I actually took the time to listen to Conservatives like Rush Limbaugh, and realized that they weren't racist at all. In fact, I realized that Conservatives are the ones who have made strides toward creating a color-blind society. Given the past history of racism in America, America isn't racist but racialist. That is, nearly all people look at people of different hues and are aware of the different hues, but don't look upon them with animosity. However, in the case of the most rabid of Leftists, they look at people of minority hues with a patronizing air, and they look at White people with an animosity that is racist.
Marc Steyn masterly puts down one Geoffrey Dunn of the Huffington Post
Steyn had a lot of fun with Leftists seeing racist code-words and dog whistles in everything Conservatives and Republicans say, especially during the recent Republican Convention. Dunn responded to Steyn by doubling down on the racist assertion and then called Steyn an idiot. A racist, these days, is really a Conservative who has won an argument with a Leftist. But I will continue to use it in the old sense. I abandoned Leftism because I actually took the time to listen to Conservatives like Rush Limbaugh, and realized that they weren't racist at all. In fact, I realized that Conservatives are the ones who have made strides toward creating a color-blind society. Given the past history of racism in America, America isn't racist but racialist. That is, nearly all people look at people of different hues and are aware of the different hues, but don't look upon them with animosity. However, in the case of the most rabid of Leftists, they look at people of minority hues with a patronizing air, and they look at White people with an animosity that is racist.
A book review by Florence King: one of my favorite female writers.
.
.
.
Below is a collection of thoughts and experiences collected during the week:
Monday
Jenny and I go to the Jinling Hotel for a buffet. I get an idea for my Wuxi China Expatdom Blog: Buffet Reconnaissance.
In the evening, at the Hui Shan Century Plaza KFC, Tony and I sat across from each other eating chicken wings. A truly wonderful father-son moment.
Later in the evening, Tony and I had the most incredible wrestling match. He was trying to grab hold of My Ipod Touch so he could make the car in this driving car game app pink; I was trying to stop him and make the car a black color. The match ended a draw, as Mom confiscated the Ipod.
.
.
.
Below is a collection of thoughts and experiences collected during the week:
Monday
Jenny and I go to the Jinling Hotel for a buffet. I get an idea for my Wuxi China Expatdom Blog: Buffet Reconnaissance.
In the evening, at the Hui Shan Century Plaza KFC, Tony and I sat across from each other eating chicken wings. A truly wonderful father-son moment.
Later in the evening, Tony and I had the most incredible wrestling match. He was trying to grab hold of My Ipod Touch so he could make the car in this driving car game app pink; I was trying to stop him and make the car a black color. The match ended a draw, as Mom confiscated the Ipod.
The Wuxi Corrupt Officials
As I type this, my fantasy football team is trailing 80 to 68 in its first game of the season. My opponent's players have all played. I have one player who hasn't: my quarterback. He is Matt Ryan from Atlanta. He did well in week one, and there is a good chance, he could get me the 13 fantasy points I need to win the game....
...Later. The Corrupts Win! The Corrupts Win! 89 - 80!
(The Corrupts are, as I type this later sentence, winning their second game. I will let you know how they ultimately did, in next week's blog entry.)
Tuesday
I finish Scenes from my life in Wuxi China #23.
I eat Chao Mian Pian at a Jia Zhou Yang Fang Muslim Restaurant.
I hear nothing about Japanese protests. I spend my time listening to podcasts with North American concerns.
I do pass a Honda, a Mazda and A Nissan car and notice that none of them has been vandalized.
I was told that a small group of 50 students staged a protest against the Japanese on Zhongshan Road. There was a much larger gathering in the Wuxi New District.
Civil War Podcasts
I am listening to podcasts about the American Civil War courtesy Itunes. In one of the podcasts, I heard the speaker gave a passoinate defence of Lincoln against those who say he was a reluctant emancipationist.
Traipsing
I will make a short video about traipsing around Wuxi: Scenes from My Life in Wuxi #24.
Dico's
The Chinese version KFC has Wifi and is next door to my school so I go there to update my Ipod touch.
Thursday Evening
One of our Japanese students came to school. I asked him how he was doing, and he shrugged and sighed. I told him that I worried about him. Apparently, Chinese have demanded war with Japan in his presence.
Paul Krugman is a geek!
Who is Paul Krugman? He is a Nobel Prize Winning Economist of the Keynesian persuasion.
What is a geek? A clever person of limited scope, lacking social skills and practical wisdom about the world.
This explains Krugman's warped Economic views.
I say this because I have come upon this episode of a podcast, called the Geek Galaxy, which had Krugman as a guest.** Krugman talked about his interest in Science Fiction, and not so much his Economics. Krugman said he was truly steeped in Sci Fi, and I didn't doubt it. He said he read Dune and the Foundation Series – things I have read. He mentioned how people looked down on Sci Fi as literature, and how they shouldn't, but he didn't really talk about why people looked down on it.
Science Fiction, the fiction of Geeks, is looked down on because it isn't very realistic and because it is superficial. Sci Fi often forgets about humans as much as it forgets about science. But Sci Fi is the literature of Geeks after all.
And Krugman's economics is the economics of geeks. What I heard of it in the geek podcast was enough to confirm it. His economics was highly impractical and unwise. Krugman actually posited a future in which people would not need money. In the podcast, he talked about the evil of corporations – a theme from seemingly every science fiction movie ever made.
After the Krugman interview, the podcasts hosts or geeks continued to talk about economics. They talked in an appalling ignorant way about economics mouthing the usual leftist claptrap about evil corporations and about inequality like it meant a neverending unimproving state of poverty for the poorest.
**Why can't Krugman be a guest on Econtalk? The host of that podcast, Russ Roberts, has said he wants to have Krugman on, but Krugman has declined to do so. Krugman it would seem is chicken wanting to talk about science fiction with economic ignoramuses.
Friday Evening
One of the students tried to make sentence referencing Japan when I asked him to make a sentence with the word "dangerous."
Talking about Europe, I told the students how evil Karl Marx was. One of the students then told me that all of the Chinese were Marxists. Really?!? I replied.
Wore a Long Sleeve Shirt on the Wrong Day
Saturday, it was cool enough for me to say I should have worn a long sleeve shirt.
So, I wore one on Sunday. Only problem was I shouldn't have. It warmed up really good overnight.
The Brooklyn Nets
I don't much care for the NBA. However, I do think it is cool that they have a team in Brooklyn now, called the Brooklyn Nets.
As I type this, my fantasy football team is trailing 80 to 68 in its first game of the season. My opponent's players have all played. I have one player who hasn't: my quarterback. He is Matt Ryan from Atlanta. He did well in week one, and there is a good chance, he could get me the 13 fantasy points I need to win the game....
...Later. The Corrupts Win! The Corrupts Win! 89 - 80!
(The Corrupts are, as I type this later sentence, winning their second game. I will let you know how they ultimately did, in next week's blog entry.)
Tuesday
I finish Scenes from my life in Wuxi China #23.
I eat Chao Mian Pian at a Jia Zhou Yang Fang Muslim Restaurant.
I hear nothing about Japanese protests. I spend my time listening to podcasts with North American concerns.
I do pass a Honda, a Mazda and A Nissan car and notice that none of them has been vandalized.
I was told that a small group of 50 students staged a protest against the Japanese on Zhongshan Road. There was a much larger gathering in the Wuxi New District.
Civil War Podcasts
I am listening to podcasts about the American Civil War courtesy Itunes. In one of the podcasts, I heard the speaker gave a passoinate defence of Lincoln against those who say he was a reluctant emancipationist.
Traipsing
I will make a short video about traipsing around Wuxi: Scenes from My Life in Wuxi #24.
Dico's
The Chinese version KFC has Wifi and is next door to my school so I go there to update my Ipod touch.
Thursday Evening
One of our Japanese students came to school. I asked him how he was doing, and he shrugged and sighed. I told him that I worried about him. Apparently, Chinese have demanded war with Japan in his presence.
Paul Krugman is a geek!
Who is Paul Krugman? He is a Nobel Prize Winning Economist of the Keynesian persuasion.
What is a geek? A clever person of limited scope, lacking social skills and practical wisdom about the world.
This explains Krugman's warped Economic views.
I say this because I have come upon this episode of a podcast, called the Geek Galaxy, which had Krugman as a guest.** Krugman talked about his interest in Science Fiction, and not so much his Economics. Krugman said he was truly steeped in Sci Fi, and I didn't doubt it. He said he read Dune and the Foundation Series – things I have read. He mentioned how people looked down on Sci Fi as literature, and how they shouldn't, but he didn't really talk about why people looked down on it.
Science Fiction, the fiction of Geeks, is looked down on because it isn't very realistic and because it is superficial. Sci Fi often forgets about humans as much as it forgets about science. But Sci Fi is the literature of Geeks after all.
And Krugman's economics is the economics of geeks. What I heard of it in the geek podcast was enough to confirm it. His economics was highly impractical and unwise. Krugman actually posited a future in which people would not need money. In the podcast, he talked about the evil of corporations – a theme from seemingly every science fiction movie ever made.
After the Krugman interview, the podcasts hosts or geeks continued to talk about economics. They talked in an appalling ignorant way about economics mouthing the usual leftist claptrap about evil corporations and about inequality like it meant a neverending unimproving state of poverty for the poorest.
**Why can't Krugman be a guest on Econtalk? The host of that podcast, Russ Roberts, has said he wants to have Krugman on, but Krugman has declined to do so. Krugman it would seem is chicken wanting to talk about science fiction with economic ignoramuses.
Friday Evening
One of the students tried to make sentence referencing Japan when I asked him to make a sentence with the word "dangerous."
Talking about Europe, I told the students how evil Karl Marx was. One of the students then told me that all of the Chinese were Marxists. Really?!? I replied.
Wore a Long Sleeve Shirt on the Wrong Day
Saturday, it was cool enough for me to say I should have worn a long sleeve shirt.
So, I wore one on Sunday. Only problem was I shouldn't have. It warmed up really good overnight.
The Brooklyn Nets
I don't much care for the NBA. However, I do think it is cool that they have a team in Brooklyn now, called the Brooklyn Nets.
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Sunday, September 16, 2012
September 10 to September 16 Blog Entry
This week: Another weekly entry where you get your week's dose of AKIC in one dump.
The world looks to be entering a dark period:
- Israel and Iran could go to war. Japan and China could go to war.
- I have has students tell me about their brouhaha with Japan without my asking them. On the bus and on large video screens around Wuxi, you can see images of the islands.
- They are also going nuts again in the Middle East about some stupid movie that no one had heard of till the U.S. ambassador was killed. Mitt Romney who didn't make the film that the Muslims are mad about, who didn't organize the attacks on the U.S. embassies, who wasn't the person responsible for not reacting to warnings about the attacks, and who didn't make that cowardly statement about tolerating religions, is a bad guy for pointing out the last fact. And then there is the economy and the NHL could suspend operations because of a strike. Obama could very well be re-elected.
- Obama could very well be re-elected.
At least, the weather has cooled down in Wuxi.
The school is the school as it has always been since it began to be.
In two weeks, there will be a National Holiday in China. I will get six days off in a row. Most Chinese workers will get eight. I hope to spend the holiday in Wuxi. I will happily go to Beixin in February.
.
.
.
And now for the regular weekly AKIC features!!!
.
.
.
Gratitude: Thank God the temperatures in Wuxi are cooling down.
Acknowledgement: When I get a seat on the bus, I hope that others will yield their seats to the old person who just got on.
Request: Visit my Youtube Channel and increase my view counts. I want to be able to say that my videos have been watched over two million times! (In fact, they have if you count my Youku views, but what I am trying to say is that I want two million Youtube views).
Canada ain't cool
It isn't and it shouldn't bother trying to be. And I am saying this out of affection.
Not having any other Canadians to talk to Wuxi, I find I never talk about Canada at all. I follow it via podcast. The concerns of these podcasts are very Canadian and so very provincial, and yet I feel more and more homesick for them.
I wonder if Australians feel the same way, that is about Australia.
Anyway, the Chinese view of Canada is that it is a nice place. They don't know much else about it. They know a little more about America, but they most always conform to the idea that they think they are the Middle Kingdom.
The obscurity of Canada in the world suits me. Canada has a good thing going, being close to the great country of America. It doesn't have to suffer the burden of greatness that the Americans have and so it can skate through tough times with little effort.
Curling: can you think of a more uncool sport? I can. Synchronized swimming. Still, Curling is very uncool.
Curling is a Canadian obsession that will never make it worldwide. I don't really care if the rest of the world plays it. It is our excuse to drink.
.
.
.
And now, everything else: a collection of observations and tweety bird thoughts.
.
.
.
Monday was Teacher's Day
I got one email from a student.
Douche Bag Drivers
From this headline, you may guess that I have been listening to Adam Carolla.
Anyway, there are lots of these kinds of drivers in Wuxi. Some of them take their expensive sports cars and drive them very fast in traffic. When I see these cars weaving through traffic, I hope that they have accident -- hopefully with another douche bag in an expensive sports car or a light standard.
Who are these people? Are they the spoiled children of kleptocratic parents? Probably.
And why don't the police stop them? Wuxi Police seem to be more into using road blocks than having their cruisers chase speeders.
I have also heard that these children of the kleptocrats laugh at the policemen who give them tickets.
Podcasts I have discovered recently
So many podcasts, so little time!
I have subscribed to:
- Alison Rosen is your New Best Friend? Alison Rosen appears on the Adam Carolla Show which I have started listening to in the last month. The first episode was stupid modern girl dating and growing-up talk.
- Donald Kagan's lectures on Ancient Greek I highly recommend them.
- The David Pratt Show He is a talk radio show on Vancouver's CKNW. I listened to five minutes of the first episode.
- The Dave Dameshek Football Program This is the NFL podcast I have chosen. There are many such podcasts. I have chosen this one because I have heard Dameshek on Adam Carolla.
Tuesday I had breakfast at the local KFC
I drove the e-bike to it.
They got my order wrong.
Links of the Week
Cockroaches
I don't have them. Thank God and Knock on Wood!
But I have heard others in the downtown have the problem, even an Expat who owns an apartment in Wuxi.
The problem where I live is ants. There are so many of them here that when they gather together, they clump. The solution: baby powder.
My golden week holiday
I will have six days off from September 29 to October 4. I hope to stay in Wuxi the entire time, but we got invited to wedding in Beixin on October 2, and it will be hard to get bus tickets for October 2&3.
Thursday
Tony wasn't a happy camper when I took him to the van that takes him to kindergarten. Mom and Dad had just scolded him for not wanting to put a shirt on. When he said good bye to Mom, she said "no good bye!" to him. I had slapped him on the hand. And he wasn't all keen on my telling him to behave better. He gave me the "Oh yeah whatever" look when I kissed him goodbye.
I shoot another commercial for the school in which I have to wear a tie. I walk into an office and tell the receptionist I have an appointment. I did just one take. I would like to have done it again, but it probably would have been worse.
My sister tells me that she is going to Morrissey in concert in Bellingham, Washington State. Do I wish I was there? Hard to say. Morrissey has put on weight.
Cairo and Benghazi
America had coming to them!
Anyone who knows me, knows I don't agree with that, but I know many feel that way.
What thoughts do I have about it? It looks like a failure of Obama's foreign policy. It was in Cairo that he made his famous make-nice-to-the-middle-east speech. In was in Libya, that some Obama sympathizers said that he had found a new foreign policy paradigm. Come on! I thought that Obama would make everyone love America.
If any good can come from it, let's hope that it results in Obama's defeat in November.
Quote of the Week:
"To maintain a joyful family requires much from both the parents and the children. Each member of the family has to become, in a special way, the servant of the others." - Blessed Pope John Paul II
Friday on the Bus
Sweatpants and pullover. For the first time since April, I wear them in the house.
My eyes and the Bus 617 driver met as he prevents me from crossing the street. I was halfway through crossing when he turned his bus right in front of me.
Nothing to say to some at work.
No seat on the bus.
I didn't observe 9/11 this year. I should have.
Time to wear a jacket? Others on the bus have started to....
A car passes our bus rather foolishly I think. The car driver, a male, cuts it close, weaving between an oncoming meridian and the bus to get ahead. But he then comes to a red light and the bus pulls up beside. Hah!!
Sweatpants and pullover. For the first time since April, I wear them in the house.
My eyes and the Bus 617 driver met as he prevents me from crossing the street. I was halfway through crossing when he turned his bus right in front of me.
Nothing to say to some at work.
No seat on the bus.
I didn't observe 9/11 this year. I should have.
Time to wear a jacket? Others on the bus have started to....
A car passes our bus rather foolishly I think. The car driver, a male, cuts it close, weaving between an oncoming meridian and the bus to get ahead. But he then comes to a red light and the bus pulls up beside. Hah!!
Friday at School
Oh God! More talk from some students about hating Japan or wanting to fight Japan over the islands. Then, a teacher tells me that he is constantly being asked about what he thought about the island controversy.
I had been paying attention to the middle east flareups. I hadn't though much about the Island controversy.
There is normally no point, or rather no urgency, in following Chinese politics that closely. It is a dictatorship.
Saturday Blogging on the Bus Ride to Work
Friday evening in one of my classes, a young girl tells me that she was accompanying her friend to the hospital. Why? I jokingly asked. To have an abortion she replies.
Oh! I says. I didn't want to know that.
Anyway. I do get a seat on the bus.
Saturday: Later
- Cultural Difference: Just as the bus was approaching my destination, I saw two boys, probably middle-school aged, share a seat that had become free. One sat on the other's lap.
- McDonald's: The girl gets my order wrong. I say nothing. The mistake wasn't grievous: instead of getting a double sausage sandwich, I was given the breakfast hot dog. I knew that mistake was made as soon as the girl entered the order into the register. I was charged less than I was expecting. Sometimes, it isn't worth the trouble, and perhaps I would get the girls in trouble, I reason.
- The Islands are Chinese: Near the McDonald's on the corner of Zhongshan and Xueqian is a huge video screen. Going for lunch, I noticed they had pictures of the disputed islands, and I could make out from the Chinese writing that they were saying the islands were Chinese. This was all in big letters and something is going to happen on September 18th. Oh my!
Saturday Evening Bus Blogging
Make a sentence with organize I tell the student and so I get: Students will organize a demonstration against the Japanese on the 19th.
Then, I tell them to make a sentence with shower: I can tell you take a shower every day.
Got a seat! (I have an urge to blog something so I mention this trivial fact!)
Will the bus station big screen say those islands are Chinese? I just see advertising.
Sunday Morning Bus Blogging
I accompanied Tony, the previous evening, as he rode his bike (with t/w). I first had to get the bike's tires fixed. We went to a nearby bike repairman. Tony knew the way. All that was needed was to put air in the tires. The man did it for us and refused payment for the service.
We then went to the square where Tony rode about with the skaters. Just as it was time to leave, this female skater, a little girl, pushed Tony knocking him and his bike over. Tony got himself and his bike up. The girl pushed him down again. I saw this from a distance and as I walked over, it happened again. I screamed at Tony angrily and told him to fight back. He stared at me and just pointed at the girl who watched our scene and backed away. There was no sign of her parents. It was time for us to go home anyway so we left the square. I continued scolding Tony but he didn't understand.
As we walked home, the foreigner and his son were quite the sight. So much so that this one teenage girl, who was walking ahead of us with two older women, kept staring back at us. This happens all the time to us in Wuxi, this being stared at, but the way the girl smiled, like she was looking at freaks or clowns, made me feel furious. If she had been closer when she had given us the look, I would have said WTF to her.
I stand on the bus. Sunday morning, the 25 bus is always packed.
I accompanied Tony, the previous evening, as he rode his bike (with t/w). I first had to get the bike's tires fixed. We went to a nearby bike repairman. Tony knew the way. All that was needed was to put air in the tires. The man did it for us and refused payment for the service.
We then went to the square where Tony rode about with the skaters. Just as it was time to leave, this female skater, a little girl, pushed Tony knocking him and his bike over. Tony got himself and his bike up. The girl pushed him down again. I saw this from a distance and as I walked over, it happened again. I screamed at Tony angrily and told him to fight back. He stared at me and just pointed at the girl who watched our scene and backed away. There was no sign of her parents. It was time for us to go home anyway so we left the square. I continued scolding Tony but he didn't understand.
As we walked home, the foreigner and his son were quite the sight. So much so that this one teenage girl, who was walking ahead of us with two older women, kept staring back at us. This happens all the time to us in Wuxi, this being stared at, but the way the girl smiled, like she was looking at freaks or clowns, made me feel furious. If she had been closer when she had given us the look, I would have said WTF to her.
I stand on the bus. Sunday morning, the 25 bus is always packed.
Sunday at School
Another student asked to make a sentence with a lesson vocabulary word, made a sentence talking about the conflict with the Japanese over some islands. "They are going to war!" said another student.
What would I do if China and Japan go to war?
I don't know. It would be an experience.
But at the back of my mind, I have always wondered what would happen if trouble happened here and I was in danger. I have about the time I swore at the locals and imagined them getting back at me.
Whatever happens, happens, I suppose.
Sunday Night and the 1972 Canada Russia Hockey Series
I ran into an American named Ian who lives in my area. He speaks good Chinese and tells me that Chinese television is showing nothing but the Island controversy, and so the Chinese will talk about nothing else. He seemed a much nicer fellow that this Canadian guy named Ian who lived in Wuxi for a while.
I then find my 1972 Canada Russia Hockey Series Documentary DVD and watch it. I felt very emotional as I watched the video, even after all these years. There was nothing finer done by Canadians than to put those Left Wing Commie Soviets in their place.
One thing really struck me about the documentary was how the Canadian players were so emotional and violent during the series. The violence of the Canadians shocked even the Russians who surely must have been dulled by the brutality of their regime. That series was more than a sporting competition, it was a war. M
Mild-mannered Canadians can be violent when the situation demands. That's why they were the best soldiers in World War Two.
The Canadian Players had some really temper tantrums during the 1972 series. Watching JP Parise want to beat the referee Kampala in game eight, I thought of my occasional tantrums against the locals here. Parise checked himself as I have.
Much as I admire America, I will always be Canadian.
September 28 is Paul Henderson Day, or it should be.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
