Dongbei cai
Food for Tom's thoughts.
pissed over pee
It happened again. For the third or fourth straight year, I'm still not an employee of the Lawrence Journal-World. I'm not surprised so much as disgusted, mostly with myself. Disgusted that I took the same old bait, and disgusted that I actually believed I had a shot at working there. My own stupidity astounds me.
Dirt Dumpling
Back in Lawrence. I always feel like I've been sent down to the Minors whenever I return to Lawrence. Nothing against the town, but there's nothing for me to do here. I can drink and complain a lot, but that's pretty damn boring.
Class Over
Finally. I'm no longer Professor Jimmy Roper. I'll soon lose my foreign expert credentials -- can you believe the Chinese government classifies me as a "Foreign Expert of Culture and Education"? And no more students, damned plagiarizing bastards, I'll miss them.
Bloody Baijiu
I don't remember getting thrown down the stairs. Don't remember most of the bike crashes. I really can't recall licking Li Wong's neck. The only thing I think I know is that "baijiu" must be Chinese for "moonshine".
Paul's report
Paul asked me to post this. It's in part a reference to my "Smile And Retain Smile" blog -- I took some pictures of a vegetable market and the market got closed down. It's still closed down. I learned last night that the student members of the campus Communist Party have been warned to "take care" of the foreigners...less ominous than it sounds, they just meant "be careful of the foreigners"...I think...
fake rain
"Hello, Hu Jiao? Get on the horn to Beijing double-time! Damn crops is dryin' up and if we don't get some fake rain, half this damn country gonna burn up like a flaming phoenix fart! Send the planes! Send the fake rain!"
apology and apologia
I watched Tian Zhuanghuang's banned movie "The Blue Kite" a couple of nights ago. It's the second time I've seen it, but the first time I've half-way understood it. I guess when I said I'm living in the legacy of the Cultural Revolution a few blogs back, I was neglecting the fact that every Chinese is living here too.
Russians keep me coming
It's not without reason that we grow suspicious of the Chinese over time -- they're so universally friendly that it's hard to know if they're being genuine ... Russians aren't stand-offish. That would imply that they're self-consciously anti-social, and they're not. They just don't care about you. Nothing personal.
correction, explanation, warning
My fact checker/editor has been laid-up with coitus in Kashgar for the past several months, so mistakes occasionaly slip threw. You know, references to "tourist sights", or misleading population counts. Also, I think I'll institute a rating system for this blog. I wouldn't want to sear the eyes of the unsuspecting with my potty-mouthed fingers.
Smile And Retain Smile
Clever, huh? This is the idiocy I endure. Don't SARS, just Smile (And Retain Smile). I had purposefully recused myself from writing for a while so that I wouldn't let temporal serotonin fluctuations lead anyone to believe I'm xenophobic. Yesterday's meeting with Foreign Affairs ended my self-imposed self restraint. Chinese people are pissing me off.
Palahniuk, Paul, and the PRC
Paul is a former post-graduate student of mine. I loaned him a book by Chuck Palanhniuk and got this letter back. I've taught hundreds of students, but nobody like Paul. Paul's got balls. This is part book report, part social invective, and for my own part, a way to bury my previous blog which I couldn't otherwise kill.
Napping Giant
This handful of images comes from where I now live and work, the northeastern province of Liaoning, China. This isn't postcard China. No misty mountains or gaping gorges. No pot-puffing backpackers referring to Tibet as "a good scene".
Crazy Chinglish
Learning a foreign language is a hassle. Having a language and culture invade your country is worse. I think Sicilians coined the phrase "revenge is a dish best served cold" and I've a feeling that, as Americans, we'll be eating plenty.
Finding myself in China
I wish I was alluding to something spiritual. I'm not. Funny, because I did come here to either find or lose myself. All I've really found is that I stay pretty much the same wherever I go, plus a few more wrinkles, minus a few more hairs. Finding myself on a pirated DVD took me by surprise.
Casting my pearls before...
I just read Joel Mathis's piece on policing the police. I don't know Dale McCormick or what his exact tactics are, but I'm glad that present attention is being drawn to this issue.
Liaoning/SARS update
Just finished another very short-notice meeting with the FAO. Victor stated that there are now five confirmed cases of SARS in Liaoning province. He also confirmed my earlier information on the nearby town Houlidau, now conceding that there is at least one case there. "Jinzhou, geographically speaking, is surrounded," he said.
Dirt and Distrust II: SARS Wars
"The mountains are high and Beijing is far away," goes a Chinese saying. It means that the farther away you are from the capital, the freer you are. Jinzhou is not very far from Beijing.
Linkin Korn Corpse
It's difficult for me to imagine a band worse than Korn. OK, Linkin Park. So imagine the two combined, with Cannibal Corpse-like "vocals" lighting the way. Imagine thinking it worthwhile. Yeah, well, you haven't lived in Topeka, China for the last year.
Situational Heterosexuality
I guess a similar thing happens when you lock up a bunch of guys together for a long period of time. After a while, they start looking pretty good to each other.
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