Power In Numbers

I've been thinking a lot about the issue of energy today. I guess it's never far from mind, what with all the switches and buttons I push in the average day, but headlines brought it to the forefront.

As you may have heard, there was another tragic mining accident in China yesterday. This year alone, the article states, more than 2,700 people have been killed in Chinese coal mines (it was 6,000 last year). To put this in perspective - the latest figures show about 2,100 U.S. casualties in Iraq in the nearly three years of occupation there. This has got to make working in a Chinese coal mine possibly the most dangerous job on the planet.

It could be asked why anyone would check the "Coal Miner" box on their guidence counsellor's Guide To A Healthy Career Path survey, but the reason is simple: poverty. At about 20,000 RMB per year (approx. 4.5 RMB or $0.30 CAN/hr.) the income offers a salary to many of the roughly 900,000,000 people living in China's impoverished countryside.

The other headline that caught my eye today was Canada not meeting its targets for the Kyoto Protocol. I mean, WTF, Canada as a country has little enough in the way of cultural identity - but the one thing we've always been good at maintaining - aside from diggin' the Hockey - is that we're tree lovin', free healthcare givin' people. Now we're not meeting our environmental obligations and if Harper has his way, healthcare should be privatized by January 24th.

So... all of this got me thinking, or rather re-thinking, about China's biggest problem, and the world's biggest opportunity. Clean power sources. Basically, it's long been touted that the fossil fuel and automaker lobbyists in the US negate the country from taking any real steps towards innovative clean power becoming commonplace in the market. However, best I know, China isn't so tied up in such things and seems more fearful of not having enough fuel than most nations. Couple this with a burgeoning marketplace ripe for such products that can tack on their signage "Will Save You Money!" and you've got a winner.

Take the hybrid car for example. Though true, most of China's population is more in the market for a bicycle or bus pass than a car, there is a huge growing industry here for personal automobiles. Why doesn't the CCP make a law stating that all cars bought in China must be hybrids. Considering most the cars bought here seem to be by the rather rich upper crust, this would force them to at least buy eco-conscious luxury items. And if you get an entire country that MUST buy these cars, two wonderful things happen, the cars get cheaper for everyone and car manufacturers start creating them in force.

This is just one example, and I'm sure there's a plethora of logistical problems with this idea - but the point is the concept. We keep excusing developing nations like China and India for being 'behind' in the sources of power game and allowing them consessions for pollution to afford them the ability to catch up. But isn't developing nations going through all the growing pains (and global problems they've caused) that the now 'developed nations' went through a bit like China not using antibiotics because it hasn't been invented by a Chinese person yet? If the technology exists, why don't the developing nations act as a springboard.

I just don't buy that China couldn't afford investment in long-term clean energy sources. I suppose that's, in part, what the Yangtse River's (长江/Chang Jiang) Three Gorges dam and windfields in Xinjiang are all about, but it's just not enough - or rather, not as much as it could be with a little more foresight applied to it.

I guess this is the one thing I do agree with about the American stance towards Kyoto. One of their main reasons for not signing on is that it doesn't make India and China responsible enough, which in their opinion negates the efforts of the other nations. This might be true, but c'mon, the US is the BIGGEST producer of greenhouse gasses. Kind of avoiding the issue there, non mon frère?

Anyway... there's my 10 cents (plus the lazy Tuesday interest rate).

I'm Young. I'm Coffee.

I never thought I'd admit it, but I really miss commercials. As the only English channel I have access to is CCTV 9 and its bland pablum of programming, and all the American TV I watch comes in the form of an advert-removed DVD, I tend to even forget that commercials even exsist.

It's only on the rare occasion that I come home and Maggie's watching Chinese TV that I'm blasted with a heavy dose of consumerism on the boobtube. As much as we might complain about the annoyance of it all, they do serve a purpose. I've always conceeded that I'm very susceptible to advertising, and have pretty much banned myself from watching late-night infomercials for this reason, but I really do feel like I'm missing out on what products are new. In about 1 minute of TV today I got three or four ideas for things I wanted to buy; from a caffeine drink to the new FIR CD.

The thing I miss more than anything else though is trailers. Every once in a while I learn of a new trailer being out and like some freak with a basement tan I go and download it off of Limewire. But it's really the only way for me to get some of the hype for new movies coming out.

Oh, this nearly made me piss my pants, thanks mom: Hawaian Weather Report
If it doesn't work, please leave a comment. It was actually e-mailed to me, and I'm not sure if this link will really work.

Free Quebec - for anyone that wants it

Health & Safety Eat Your Heart Out

One of the great marvels of Asian cuisine is the penchants for cooking at the table; namely hotpot (火锅) and barbeque (肉串儿). This type of cooking could never fly in the west for the simple reason that there's too many safety concerns. I mean, you're either cooking over open coals or with a boiling pot of water - a lawsuit waiting to happen.

Speaking on the latter first, BBQ (said 'rou chuar' in Mandarin) is something that first won me over back in Jinzhou with my friend Matt. We'd go out to a small BBQ place down the road from our apartment and eat stick upon stick of questionable meat, washing it down with draft beer. In the warmer months the restaurant (as most do) puts a scattering of tables and chairs out on the sidewalk (and sometimes the road) for customers to enjoy the cool night air. The range of things you can get skewered and ready to cook is endless. Though mutton (羊肉串儿) is the most common, some of my favourites include chicken neck (鸡脖), chicken hearts (鸡心), beef (牛肉串儿), and steamed bread (馒头).


Typical hotpot set with a spicy and non-spicy side.
Hotpot (said 'huo guo') has recently become the food of choice for these cool November nights. I've had it the last three nights in a row, and would likely eat it again tonight if I didn't have other dinner plans. Hotpot is exactly what its name suggests - a pot of boiling seasoned water, into which you drop a variety of tasty things, wait a couple of moments and then eat. Most hotpot restaurants give you the option of 'la' or 'bu la' (spicy/not spicy) versions of the broth, and some offer both in a pot with a divider. Like the BBQ, hotpot's options for what to cook are endless. The meat is usually an extremely thin cut that is served rolled, placed in a stack and slightly frozen. Again mutton is the most common, but I prefer beef. Some of my other picks for the pot would be: frozen tofu, straw mushrooms, prawns, glass noodles, and about a million other things. The real prize with hotpot is the dipping sauce. Made with a combination of sesame paste, fermented tofu and some chili oil, it's fan-frigin-tastic. Thanks to Maggie, we've now got a hoptpot for the home - and as mentioned, have been putting it to good use.


Maggie would kill me if she knew I showed anyone her hair looking all a mess, but c'mon, it was her first day off in two weeks of solid work.
So, other than eating copious amounts of boiled goodness as of late ... I've also been singin' the greats. It would seem that KTVs have just been a popular way to take in the Fall as I've been to about three of them in as many weeks. Most recently though was Thursday night's trip to the Super K by Olympic Square. The occasion was to say farewell to Sarah, an American Future School teacher whose parents have managed to convince her to run away from the evil land of Avian Influenza, and back to the States. It's easily the most hi-tech KTV I've been to, and despite the 10RMB/bottle beer prices, it was a lot of fun. Here are some pics:


Cam, Maeve, Maggie and I. Not sure who the other guy is - but he did Sinatra well.

The happy couple.

**NOTE: I'm starting to use more and more Chinese characters in my posts as both to add some authentic Chinese content to the site and as a way for me to practice my growing interest in reading/writing Chinese characters. If you've not done so already, you really should install the Asian Languages pack for Windows. It's on your Windows install CD. You'll know if it's already installed if you can see the Chinese characters in my posts. If you just see little rectangles scattered about my post, nope, not installed. Learn more here.


Now that's just good marketing.

Bei Jing Huan Ying Ni : Clever

I've been meaning for some time to say something about last weeks announcement of the Beijing 2008 Olympics' mascots. Now, I've learned two things about the Olympic Games since coming to China. A) The Games coming here is a VERY BIG DEAL to pretty much the ENTIRE population of China. In fact, I would place renmenbi on the fact that if you went to the most isolated area of Xinjiang and found some Uyger sheep herder that had no radio and had never heard of no confangled TV - he'd still swell with pride with mention of the 2008 Summer Olympics. "Best part of being an autonomous region in the great wonder that is China," he might exclaim (but probably not).

Everywhere are signs advertising the event (which when I arrived was still nearly four years away); most companies have spent sleepless nights thinking of ways to slip it into their advertising. Hell, Dalian, a city a ways away from Beijing, even has a square in tribute to it. Can you imagine Regina building a square for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver?




Dalian's Olympic Square (奥林匹克广场)
This brings me to part B) No one knows there are Winter Olympics! When I ask people where the next Olympics are being held, they invariably say, "Beijing, dummy." I've put it as a question in every Jeopardy game I've played with my classes, and no one has yet to get it right. When they should "Beijing!" and I say no, I incessantly get confused looks. Not once has anyone said Italy. (It's Torino, Italy, by the way).

I thought perhaps it was just 2008 Blindness amongst the Chinese that didn't allow them to see Olympics other than those happing in the grand year of 二00八. So I tested the question on some of the foreign teachers at my school. They didn't know either. Are we Canadians the only ones interested in the Winter Olympics? I mean, I guess it makes sense, I imagine we bring home more golds with the winter sports, but hell - Britian doesn't bring home golds in either, why don't the English know?

So... I think it's time we start a campaign explaining that the Winter Olympics are by far the cooler of the two. Who's with me?

And going full-circle, I come back to my original topic. Bei Bei, Jing Jing, Huan Huan, Ying Ying and Ni Ni. The latest craze in Olympic marketing; The five Olympic Mascots are positioned to be the biggest extravaganzas since Furbies. Well, at least in China. Four of the charactures represent significant Chinese animals, while the fifth embodies the Olympic torch. The creativity doesn't stop there - they're names (when halved and spoken) are 'Bei Jing Huan Ling Ni - Bei Jing Welcomes You.'

Personally, I dig the little guys - but it's only been a week, and I don't watch a lot (if any) Chinese TV. I'm sure that it wont be long before the dolls are in every market, the posters are at every bus stop, the radio spots, the shopping mall appearances, the dance routine on the Spring Festival TV Special, etc. ad nauseam.

Birds of a Feather: Laowai Warning

I'd like to relay two stories I've heard recently. The first happened a couple years ago and the other happened less than a week ago - but both illustrate something that all of us in China need to be reminded of, we're in China. I know, it seems obvious, but sometimes it's easy to forget and our at-home sensibilities jump in before we have time to remind ourselves of this.

Both these stories are from the best of my memory, and I hope the tellers/victims don't mind me relaying them.

---

Story #1: Scottish Mike's Slashing
A few years ago one of the Dalian English teachers had spent the evening at a local night club. He was standing outside at the end of the night when a Chinese guy who had been kicked out of the club earlier returned. Mike noticed that he had a knife, and so warned a couple people standing around him to get back. The guy, having overheard Mike's warning, quickly walked by him and slashed his abdomen open.

Mike got to a hospital and was stitched up, and thankfully recovered (I am pretty sure he said the doctor told him his spleen was nearly falling out). The police did nothing because the guy had mob ties and that was the end of it.

For some reason Mike didn't let this horrible event send him home and he's good humoured about the whole thing, but damn.

Story #2: Adam's Beating
We were sitting in this very cool Tibetan bar Sunday night when Adam came in with two dark rings around his eyes, looking like he hadn't slept in a week. He relayed how he had been at JDs the Thursday before (not quite a week ago) and saw a Chinese guy kicking the shit out of a girl. Realizing that the gawking Chinese standing around were not going to step in, Adam approached the man and calmly explained that he shouldn't be banging anyone's head into the grill of a cab.

To repay Adam's sharing of this somewhat common-sensical knowledge, the guy, very drunkenly, took a swing at him and missed. Adam, just generally wanting to stop this guy from hurting him or the girl, put the guy on the ground. At this point two of JDs bouncers, who had been watching the the beating of the girl and the altercation with Adam, came over and offered their assistance - to the drunk guy. They held Adam down while the guy went to work on his face. One of the bouncers took a couple swings for good measure, all in all leaving Adam with two black eyes and a fractured nose.

---

The moral of the story: Chinese people are much more likely to stand around and watch horrible things happen then offer help. And should anyone get ambitious and offer to help, no matter who's right and who's wrong, it will ALWAYS be for the Chinese person.

Adam's story was especially poignant as a few days before I had been returning home from class and saw a man and woman screaming at each other, with the man somewhat violently pushing the woman away. Typically, the scene had attracted a crowd whose only call to action was to obtain a better viewpoint. A lot of me wanted to step in and do something, but I took a second look at the situation and realized no good would come from me getting involved and I reminded myself I was not in Canada.

However, had I been Adam, like most people raised with a Western sense of values (sorry Chinese people, but action and a lack of it really speaks in this case), I too would have stepped in and with similar results no doubt.

All of this is just to say to all those new to China, remember, you're not in Kansas anymore. 95% of the time, if you're responsible, you'll be fine in this country and most Chinese people are kind, caring and lovely human beings. However, should you find yourself in that 5%, don't expect much, if any, help. Best I can figure the order of assistance is as follows for most Chinese people:
-Family
-Self
-Friends/Those With Guanxi
-Locals
-Chinese
-Foreigners With Guanxi
-and MAYBE Foreigners if it's not too much effort

It may be a cold way of dealing with things, at least from Western eyes, but it's a system that has been developing in this country for a few thousand years and isn't likely to change tomorrow.

Oh, and may I suggest any foreigners living in Dalian boycott JDs? I realize it's the only real meat market club around, but maybe we can show some solidarity as foreigners and let them know that a club that survives off of foreigner money shouldn't kick the shit out of their customers.

真的吗?

I saw this article referenced on life of a rat, and found it interesting. Basically it talks about the counterfeit US bills being made in The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK or North Korea). The article is written for a South Korean site, and there's no love lost between the two places, so read with bias. However, it wouldn't surprise me at all. Those DPRKers are a suspicious bunch, what with their complete lack of a viable economy, alleged nuclear arms, and just a general bad attitude. However, that said, the only North Koreans I've met have all been lovely.

My only experience changing money in China was at the Shanghai airport, and it failed. Like most airports the world over, Shanghai airport has booths of various banks that will change money for you. However, if you want to change Chinese Renminbi you need to have official receipts from the source of the money. Without it all you get is a "next!"

The solution was remarkably simple: patience and the Bangkok airport. When I arrived in Bangkok I simply went to a said bank-exchange booth and they happily changed it for me. Gouged a bit on the exchange rate, but did it none the less.

However, the most common way that I've heard from other foreigners to change money in China is to just use the black market exchanges. Most major banks will have a guy standing outside casually mentioning his services to those that walk up. Like most things in China, it's a bit dodgy. Also like most things in China, it pays to have guanxi. If you know someone who knows someone you are much more likely to get a better rate (and real bills). Personally though, I think I'll just stick it in my carry-on.

Alright, so I'm officially a net junkie. I know I've always spent a rather large amount of time gripped in the talons of the World Wide Web, but this is just getting silly.

The problem, at least of late, is I've got too many things on the go. If I'm not sitting at the computer trying to write my novel, I'm reading up on news, or blogs, or random advice columns, or living in China forums, or ESL info. It's just never-ending.

Lately I've been spending more and more time checking out possible ESL jobs in other parts of the country. My contract here in Dalian finishes at the end of February and I'm going to need employment until I head home at the end of June. Plus, I'm starting to feel that maybe I'm missing some things just staying put up here in the north. I've only been to Beijing and Shanghai in the nearly a year I've been in China and it's dawning on me that there's probably more to see: Xi'An, Yunnan, Shandong, Xizang (Tibet), Xinjiang, etc., etc. So, maybe moving to a new place and getting some new scenery might be a good idea.

I've spoken to Maggie about it and initially she was reluctant to move too far from her family (Dandong, 4 hours away, is the furthest she's been from home), but she's warmed up to the idea of experiencing some place new and she recognizes that it might be a better opportunity for us to save some cash for next summer. We'll see what all this endless searching yields.

The other item that's criss-crossed my cerebellum recently is I'm considering perhaps moving to Japan next year to teach. There is a big question mark on what to do after visiting Canada for the summer, and Japan might be the answer. I've looked at a few sites and it seems the average contract pays between 200,000 and 250,000 JPY (about $2,000 - $2,500 CAN). Compared to the barely $1,000 I make in China, it's a bit more cash - and I think even taking into account the cost of living difference, it would be a good place to save some cash. Now yet another thing I now have to look up on the next - Japanese Cost Of Living - sigh, it never ends.

真的吗? = zhen de ma? = really?/real? --- one of the most useful sayings I've learned in Chinese.

Now You Don't See That In The National Post

Three steps to Chinese law reform:
1...

...2...

...3!!!

The teenage girl beer drinker spews up after drinking the beer. [actual published caption]

Chinese Girl Takes On Beer Binge
China has come up with a first nationwide regulations on managing alcohol sales, including a ban on selling alcohol to minors, China Youth Daily reports. [Full Story]

If the personal day-to-day experiences in China weren't enough to amuse me... the media certainly would provide enough entertainment to keep this monkey occupied.

Training Day

Well, I've only managed to bump my count by 500 words (up to 6,425)... man, that 50K is looking further and further away. Today I did have a slightly reasonably reason for not getting things done though - I had to go to some training. I don't know about the rest of the group, but personally I feel like a better, more prepared and generally just 'with-it' teacher now.

For what it's worth Sera (the teacher trainer that replaced Lorna last month) did a good job of keeping us all doing stuff, and the material fit the topic. Basically what it came down to though was the subject was 'classroom management' and no matter how long and how hard you talk/think about it... kids are going to be kids. It was however a nice way to spend some time with some of the other teachers - as we all went out for lunch afterwards. There's something so gratifying about drinking with people shortly after noon... perhaps it's just when there's a lack of people it makes me feel sad. ;-)

After lunch a group of us went to the Electronic City by Carrefour (near Future 3) and did some serious DVD shopping. Though there were a number of others I would have liked to have got, I limited myself to these six:
Mail Order Wife
Instinct
Romeo+Juliet
Candyman
The Beach
& A Life Less Ordinary

Ok, self-affirming way I've wasted time today:


Thanks to Eric for making me feel good about myself. He's 22% stupid.

Altruism - A Click Away

Hey, so I came across this amazing concept, using Internet click-ads for the benefit of humankind (and our other brothers and sisters in the animal kingdom). All you do is click on the button, go to the site - click on the other button (don't worry, it tells you which one, it's really easy - trust me) and presto - you're Albert Schweitzer (he's cool, trust me).
Save The World - One Click At A Time!
On each of these websites, you can click a button to support the cause -- each click creates funding, and costs you nothing! Bookmark these sites, and click once a day!

And should you not bookmark the sites, just bookmark mine, as I've added this feature to my sidebar. Scroll down (I promise it's there - trust me).



And yeah, so I was reading the news just now, killing time waiting for Maggie to wash her face so we can watch Friends. I saw an article about a strange weather phenomenon that ripped apart a school in Hamilton. This reminded me of something Ryan brought up the other night after Phoebe's birthday party. He said that it just seems like a lot of bad shit is happening in the world these days. I countered that I thought it might just be because we all read the news a lot more now (that we're in China, that is), and so are more aware of what's going on. I am pretty sure that Revelatory journalism has been the mainstay of most media for the past 100 years or so, and that it is just that we are far from home, so hungry for news of it, that we hear more about it.

But then I remember thinking earlier this year that there had seemed to be a lot of crazy things happening with the world. And then this thing in Hamilton, just some random crazy weather that rips apart schools... so, to recap:
Tsunami in S.E. Asia - kills nearly 300,000 people
Earthquake in South Asia (Pakistan) - kills about 90,000 people
Major floods in China/S.E. Asia - kill a bunch of people
Floods/Landslides in S. America - kill more people
Avian flu - 63 people dead (but well... it COULD mutate... and LOTS of Chickens died)
Hurricane Katrina - 1,281 killed (and more from Wilma, etc., basically BUSY season for ambitious tropical storms)
Typhoons hit Asia; bombs go off in Iraq, London, Jordan, and a number of other places; earthquakes in Japan; heatwaves in Ontario; and the list just goes on and on and on...

Now, the question is... is this normal? I mean, is it just because I've been paying more attention to news over the last year while away from the virtual safety (apart from Hamilton) of Canada? Or are the seven signs upon us?

Well, I guess one guy with a blog in China isn't going to stop it all... so might as well just sit back, pop open another 2 kuai Yantai beer, and enjoy the descent.

Procrastination: The Mother of all Intention

Well, I can't say that today has been overly productive on the wordcount front, as I've only upped it to 4,698. However, I did finally sit down and come up with an outline and though it's still cheesy as hell (how cheesy is hell, really?), I feel a little more confident about the storyline.

I have come up with a three act plotline that fits nicely with the general ideas I had for the story. I've also broken up the tediousness of writing 1st Person narative by having two main characters - splitting the narative between chapters. Considering the diversity of my two MCs, it's made the process a but more fun.

Sadly, I didn't get to writing until late in the day today. I had all intentions of starting nice and early, but instead chose to lie in. When I finally got up at about 10:30 I finally finished watching Troy, which I had started last week. Upon completion I got a text from Tim that his news broadcast was going to be on at noon. At only 10 minutes, that provide me with sufficient procrastinating material, so at about 12:30, when I finally sat down at the computer, I started catching up on reading blogs/news.

I think if I really want to make headway with this thing I'm going to have to unplug from the Net and go write in the livingroom or something. I am getting worried if I don't put word to screen soon I'll be too far behind to even possibly hit the 50K mark in three weeks.

Tonight is the birthday dinner for Phoebe, a woman I work with. Her and Richard are a married couple that have been here for about four or five years (forgive my memory) and are just a great set of people. They're always happy to pass on advice, and despite having played many a role in Future School over the years, are just as prone to bitch about a class as the rest of us.

I had planned to get Phoebe something, but cannot for the life of me think of what to get her. Having not spent a lot of time outside of school with them, I know little about her interests.

Ah well.

Oh, and for strange news story of the day:
Garage doors work after mysterious radio signal disappears
The powerful radio signal causing the problem stopped transmitting on Thursday afternoon, around the time CBC News contacted the U.S. Embassy to ask if it knew anything about it.

Good to know that the U.S. is putting their Canadian Embassy to work.

Oh... and check out http://www.voipbuster.com/en/index.html. It's a program, similar to Skype, that lets you call places via your computer DIRT cheap. You can talk to me online with it for free, and/or call me in China for only 1 cent (euro) a minute. Not too shabby.

Super Be Dingle

I just thought I'd share with you a tid-bit that sheds light on the complexities and humour that comes with learning a new language.

Yesterday in my C-13 class (high level learners usually in the 13-16 year old range). We were doing a reading about different forms of entertainment and in the text was the word 'superb' I got the kids to underline all the words they didn't know in the text so we could go through them one by one. The conversation went something like this:
Me: "Any words in the first paragraph you don't know?"
Jacky: "Yes, 'Super Be'"
Me: "Super Be?"
Jacky: "Yeah. First line. 'The play was super-b!'"
Me: Shakes head and realizes this learning English thing ain't so easy.

The converse of this was shown today in my Chinese lesson when Ryan Wang and I were doing a reading with some new vocabulary. One of the new terms is 'ding' (定) which means 'to decide, to fix, to set'. To make verbs past tense in Chinese you add 'le' (了) to the end. It had myself, Ryan W. and Carol (our teacher) near tears when in the reading he hit the term 'dingle' (定了) and couldn't resist saying "DINGLE" not "DING LE".

Anyway, hit 4,482 words today. Not where I need to be, but moving forward.

And for some humour, check this out: http://harpers.org/BubbaTea.html
Some excerpts from My Life: Bill Clinton's memoir, as seen in the unauthorized Chinese translation version. Who knew Clinton had such an affinity for Deng Xiaoping and China?

No News Is Good News

I'm just waiting for Maggie to come home from her second day at her new job and I'm killing the time by catching up on news - as well as getting versed in the beauty of football.

So, first off, in case anyone cares or is worried... Liaoning officially has cases of bird flu (ahem, I mean 'avian influenza'). Liaoning for all those not clued in is the province I live in.

Nearly 400,000 birds were given a swift quick to the afterlife up near Shenyang the other day. They've vaccinated about 14 million other chickens, and everything seems to be under control. Keep in mind, not one case of human infection has been reported here yet. Did anyone else know this stuff's been around for like 100 years? (More Info)

The other funny thing I read recently was that South Korea is getting testy about cheap imports of Kimchi from China. Aparently they don't like getting the parasite eggs that are included free of charge. The bit of the story that I thought was damn near tear worthy on the laugh-o-meter is thus:
It's the latest salvo in a kimchi crisis [that's great writing BTW] that has gripped the two Asian nations since last month, when South Korea banned kimchi imports from China after finding parasites normally found in human feces in Chinese brands. China, in turn, banned some South Korean food products.
"China, in turn, banned some South Korean food products." Hahahaha. You don't want our shit spawned parasites, well then, we don't want Samsung cell phones and gawd damnit, we'll find our own source of Internationally praised cinema.

Kimchi for those that don't know (in particular those that wrote the CBC article), Kimchi is a collection of various 'pickled' things (usually vegetables, but I don't think it's limited to this). The most famous is spicy cabbage (La Bai Cai in pinyin). The stuff is fantastic, and I enjoy going to Korean restaurants for this alone (and it's usually FREE!). Anyway, for more information about Kimchi, go to Life In Korea: Kimchi and prepare to salivate.


Alright, Maggie just called. She's waiting at the restaurant for me. Sadly her working means less home cooked Chinese meals, but it does give me more opportunity to rediscover my cooking abilities. Just not tonight.

Caf-fiend: NaNoWriMo Day 4

Yesterday, shortly after I posted, I had a bit of a breakthru. Nothing monumental or anything, but it took me from my paultry 600 some-odd words up to just over 2K. Then after more writing today, I ended off with 3,388 words. Not the 10,000 I should be at by this point - but at least it's moving.

The things that were getting me down Wednesday were that I wasn't feeling the character, didn't know much about him. Didn't know where I wanted to take him or how I wanted to get there. I had some rough ideas, but that was all. Plus I hadn't written enough to have commited to the concept of the story. However, now I'm deep in it and have a desire to tell the story for the story's sake, not just because I want to get to the 50,000 word mark by the end of the month.

I realized a little while ago that this is likely the most consecutive fiction I've written in my entire life. I've written longer articles for magazines, and I'm sure I had to write longer essays in uni, college or high school. But never fiction.

Oh, the other thing I clued into was the amount of caffeine I have in my system is directly proportional to the amount I can write. It would seem that if I keep feeding myself cups of coffee throughout the day, the writing goes smoother. Sadly, it kills my appetite, and I've missed all but dinner the last two days.

Sitting at my computer for large amounts of time does afford me lots of opportunity to procrastinate though.

Biggest form of procrastination today:

Congratulations, Ryan!
Your IQ score is 140

This number is based on a scientific formula that compares how many questions you answered correctly on the Classic IQ Test relative to others.

Your Intellectual Type is Visionary Philosopher. This means you are highly intelligent and have a powerful mix of skills and insight that can be applied in a variety of different ways. Like Plato, your exceptional math and verbal skills make you very adept at explaining things to others — and at anticipating and predicting patterns. And that's just some of what we know about you from your IQ results.

Find out your IQ

Personally, I think it's a bit unbalanced, as there is only 30-40 questions, making each one a bit more weighted than they would be in a real IQ test. Who doesn't like getting compared to Plato though... oh, but if anyone does it and gets the "Like Socates, your exceptional ...." paragraph, please note that I am not just going to have sex with you.

NaNoWriMo: Day Three (in Hell)

Well, it's Day No. 3, and I've quit roughly the same number of times as my paultry word count - 955. This NaNoWriMo thing is no easy task. I keep going online to their forums (half for help and half for procrastination) and getting hyped again about the idea, or at least getting some commiseration from like souls. Then five minutes later, when I try to dive back into the story... nothing. Everything seems like drivel and I have no clear idea of how to do anything with my characters other than make them walk around and bang into walls (whomever said art reflects reality was on to something).

Anyway, I knew it was going to be tough, and I'm still committed to the idea of completing this thing, even if it sucks more than I ever thought it would. Initially I thought choosing a topic I wasn't too serious about was a good idea because then I wouldn't care if it sucked (as opposed to using one of my collection of semi-well-developed ideas), but what I'm realizing is that it's difficult to sit down every day and spend a few hours writing about something you don't care about. Bit of a Catch-22.

Well, I just spent the last hour and a half talking to Cory (voice) over the Net using MSN Messenger and it was fantastic - pretty clear and didn't cost us a dime. So, other friends and family members... get into it, I want to hear from ya all. However, it's left me with only four hours before I need to be in class - time to get back to the novel.

And so it begins...

Having just logged on to the NaNoWriMo site, I've learned that the clock has started ticking... and only 14 short minutes ago... they must have known the night I was going to have last night and the slow start I was going to have today because of it - or more likely it has to do with time zones.

So, I've broken it down that I must write about 2,500 words / five times a week to reach the 50,000 goal in four weeks. So really, what am I doing wasting word count on this damn blog?

But something should be said about Halloween in China. It was pretty good. Much better than I would have suspected, and I would say better than the Halloween party I went to last year in Penticton. Basically my buddy Justin and his friend Adam got chatting with Matt, the owner of The Tin Whistle (a hip little Irish bar down by the Shangra-la Hotel, off Renmin Rd.), and decided to hold a bit of a 'thing' there.

Usually these things work out well for the simple reason that most people here have bugger else to do, and if they hear that a place might be a 'hot' thing to do... the foreigners become moths to a flame. Matt, said owner, also got in touch with the local ex-pat scene and advertised the event to them, so instead of just having the usual English teacher crowd we had people from all industries. In fact, I met a nice guy from England whose job it is to watch ships, or check ships, ah... definitely about boats.

The night was a blast. I found out that my friend Corey's Chinese girlfriend, Helen, studied in Canada for four years - spending time at Mohawk in Hamilton, and considered going to Niagara College! I never thought it would be a Chinese person I'd be reminiscing about the 406 with. She also was able to give Maggie some much needed insight into dealing with Lao Wai (we're a crazy bunch).

Tim also showed up, which is always cool (if not somewhat rare), dressed in a costume which has the double function of being his work clothes. He just took a second job as Dalian One's newest news anchor! He even left his pants at home to give the costume added realism. After a few rounds of beer he broke out the guitar and between him and Corey we had some great East Coast/West Coast representation.

Eventually the night wound down (3-3:30?) and we all emptied into the street and went across the road to huddle around a little BBQ stand (the Chinese equivilant of after-bar street meat) and fill ourselves with bits of BBQ goodness. Despite Camilia disagreeing (somewhat violently), the chicken hearts were a personal fav.

It's a bit strange (and Camilia's disgust drove the point home) dating a girl that enjoys stranger food than me. It's not uncommon to find Maggie craving random inner bits of otherwise familiar animals. She actually got me to try chicken feet last week, and all I can say is, as expected, they're a bit boney. But it screws with your sense of femininity when this cute, beautiful girl turns to you and says, "Mmmmm... I really want to eat some pickled pig's face." (She just read this and confirmed 'it's sooo delicious').

Anyway, my novel's not going to write itself, and the fried noodles I've got waiting for me certainly aren't going to eat themselves...