You know how I’m always seeking out new and interesting experiences? Well last weekend I went drift racing. One of my coworkers, Miki, is extremely into cars. He has a Limited Edition Impreza (one of […]
On December 20th of 2006, I received an e-mail from my dad. It contained this Powerpoint file. The forwarding messages all included such phrases as: “I CANT EVEN LOOK AT THE PICTURES WITHOUT GETTING DIZZY!!” […]
Picture yourself looking up at a blue sky peeking through a huge canopy of leaves on a perfectly clear day in Kyoto. As the faint sound of Japanese flutes recedes softly into the background, it’s […]
How many of you have heard the name “Transdniestr?” Not too many, I’m guessing. Transdniester – also known as Pridnestrovie in Russian – is a small rogue nation occupying a narrow strip of land along […]
I’m here. In Tokyo. Finally. During my idle time on the flight over I kept on thinking, “what am I going to write to everyone once I finally get to Japan?” Most of you already […]
The morning after Chinese New Year, January 26th, Andy and I woke up bright and early to meet Leo and his family for a visit to a nearby community temple – an absolute must during the New Year holiday.
Not surprisingly, we weren’t the only ones in China with such an idea.
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Chinese New Year is about two things: fireworks and family.
I believe my previous post made it fairly clear that I got a good taste of the former aspect of the most populated country’s biggest holiday. But what about the latter?
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One of the truly crazy things about China – aside from the fact that about 10,000 barber shops seem to occupy nearly every inch of commercial real estate – is the concept of rules and laws.
That is, there are none. Or at least that’s how it often feels. Everything and anything is negotiable, from the check at a first-class restaurant to cost of a speeding ticket. It’s just a matter of money.
And while it is true that this concept of seemingly lawlessness does apply to a far greater percentage of the world than many realize, in China, somehow it’s different. Because here, if you want to locate a legitimate, non-pirated DVD, you simply can’t. Maybe in the biggest most internationalized cities you could – but not in places like Shijiazhuang. A city that’s virtually unknown to the majority of the world, yet home to over nine million Chinese residents.
Disembarking from my cross-country train and stepping out onto the plaza in front of the station, I quickly picked my friend Andy out of the approaching crowd. He was bundled head to toe in winter gear so I couldn’t see even one inch of his face, but his height – towering above everyone else around him – was an instant giveaway.
During the taxi ride to his nearby apartment, we discussed how it felt to be “back in China.” Continue reading »
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The morning after my bikeride to Xingping, it was finally time to say goodbye to my temporary home in peaceful little Yangshuo. And to all my new friends from Bamboo House Inn & Lodge: to Annie, who cheerfully called out my name from her post across Xi Jie every single morning; to Debbie, who absolutely refused to believe I was over 19 years old; to Sally, who I spoke with from Guangzhou before even arriving; to Carey and Lively, two of only three residents who were there longer than myself; to the girl at the backpack shop, who I chatted with daily on my way to the supermarket; to the friendly owners of my favorite dumpling spot, who always knew exactly what I’d be having; to Mr. Bing, the English-speaking police officer who helped explore options for extending my visa; and even to the silly shoeshine guy who couldn’t have offered me less than seven hundred shoeshines over the course of my stay.
I hopped on a bus to Guilin with five hours until my cross-country train’s departure. Continue reading »
I added a new item to the Travellog page for the recently concluded trip: “Asia 2008.” This time, I didn’t bother linking each marker to the related blog posts; I figure barely anybody is actually looking at them anyway, and with the amount of traveling I’ve done lately it’s probably more bother than it’s worth.
I also upgraded WP to the latest version (2.7.1), migrated my Feedburner account over to Google (due to the recent acquisition), and brought a bunch of plugins up-to-date. As usual, please notify me if you see anything weird.
In addition, I finally implemented a new Flash-based media player for the Videos page (as per Andy’s request…er…demand 😆 ). Previous videos for which I could find the original DV projects have been converted to Flash, but the rest remain as .WMV’s – the loss in quality from recompression would be too great.
Example of the new player: Here.
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