Blog Archives 060610 to 060518

Old pointless chatter instead of new pointless chatter.

 

060610 Beijing, CN 北京, 中国
I'll talk about the visit with my parents in a bit. We toured lots of places I had visited before (I found new things to see each place) and also lots of places I had not seen before, including the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall and the Terracotta Warriors dig in Xian. However, I'll talk about that some after I have some more random thought theater off my plate.

Random thought section one. I have heard lots of Americans claim that economic freedom in China will lead to political freedom. In some circles, it is apparently accepted that free market economy shall inevitably generate democracy. I think this belief (that economic freedom will lead to social/political freedom) is false. On my side, I have both history and modern examples.

It has been known since Roman times that, so long as the nation is able to provide bread and circuses, the people will basically be content enough not to revolt without severe provocation. These days, our bread and circuses (or pizza and TV) are really good at distracting people. Another way of thinking about it is to consider the fact that if you have nothing, then you have nothing to lose by standing against the authorities. Once you have economic standing, you are more easily cowed by the threat of losing your house, car, TV, etc.

Besides, there are several modern examples (Singapore, various oil-rich Arab states) where the standard of living it fairly high and people have a lot of economic freedom, but the nation is either a democracy in name only or is an outright Kingdom. To me it is clear that those in the West who preach political freedom in China through market engagement have either failed to think things through or are simply mouthing "freedom" to gain governmental approval for doing business in China.

Random thought section two. At The Onion's AV Club site, I saw an interview with Lewis Black. I'm not a fan of his, but I saw this bit where he was talking about the book he just put out:

AVC: Did you enjoy writing "Nothing's Sacred"?
LB: No. Anybody who likes writing a book is an idiot. Because it's impossible, it's like having a homework assignment every stinking day until it's done. And by the time you get it in, it's done and you're sitting there reading it, and you realize the 12,000 things you didn't do. I mean, writing isn't fun. It's never been fun. It's momentum, and once you get the momentum going, that's great, but it's a brutal experience in many, many ways. And when you're done, people tell you "Well, gee, I'm not interested." "Great, I'm glad I sat down and wrote this!"

Heh. Of course, I've never written a book, but writing anything that is longer than two dozen pages and must go through several cycles of editing and approval is likely to generate the same negative feelings to some degree... And, of course, it generates the positive feelings of accomplishing something. Lewis Black is already thinking about writing another book despite his bitter comments and I'm thinking about writing another scenario for Wizards of the Coast (when I have the time, many months from now).

Random thought section three. China Airlines has as it's symbol a big red bird painted on the tail. This is meant to be a Phoenix... Is it just me, or do you also find it odd that they chose as their symbol a flying thing that is best known for exploding in a ball of flame? I just thought it mention-worthy.

060609 Beijing, CN 北京, 中国
Just a quick note today, more when I have time to write over the weekend. The visit with my parents was really good. I had a fun time and saw lots of new things even in the places I had visited before. I'm in at work now (clearing a week's worth of email, doing data analysis on an experiment that a coworker monitored for me during vacation, and planning next week's work) and I have to say that I'm glad to have the weekend coming up. My parents tired me out! We were up reasonably early each day and really moving during each day. My legs are still a bit sore from the climb up the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall. I hope I have the same level of energy they have when I'm 60-something. Anyway, enough typing for now. Back to work.

060601 Beijing, CN 北京, 中国
In my "spare" time I have been working on an adventure scenario for the Living Greyhawk game world (managed by the RPGA, a mostly volunteer organization managed by Wizards of the Coast, a role-playing game company owned by Hasbro). Anyway, I finally finished the scenario and it has now been released for play at conventions. It took me far longer than it should have and was quite draining.

Basically, the problem is not with the hobby; the problem is that my current life does not allow for much time commitment outside of work. Between the demands of travel, learning to get around and function in a new city (repeatedly), learning a new project and new set of people (repeatedly), and working on having some minor proficiency in Danish and Chinese, well, I'm tired. The job has eaten my life. It is fun and interesting and a good thing, but I need to realize that I have almost no time outside of doing what is necessary for the job and acclimation to the current posting (which includes wandering around the city, fortunately). Only in the last month or so of a posting do I start to feel at home and have some time that is my own.

If you are at home in an area, then it is no real loss to stay at home and spend a few weekends on writing. I enjoy it. However, if you are not at home in an area, then the time spent writing is time not spent on learning the area to feel at home. Essentially, too much time writing means you create the situation where you are going to spend a long time feeling adrift and not comfortable in a new location.

So, for the last few weekends, while trying to wrap up the writing on the scenario, I have spent one full day each weekend on the scenario and one full day on learning the city and seeing the sights as a sort of compromise between fulfulling the writing assignment (although I missed the original planned deadline by a few months) and doing what I need to in order to feel that this is my home rather than a business trip that has gone on forever.

Now, it is finished and I'm already thinking of some ideas for sequels or alternate writing projects, but I know that would be stupid to do. The job has eaten my life and I'm OK with that... I just need to remember that fact and not offer to do writing where it is nearly guaranteed that I will not be able to meet any sort of reasonable deadline.

Oh, my parents arrive this evening for a visit. We're going to tour around Beijing and take a side trip to Xian. It has been a while since I've seen them, this is my first vacation since arriving, and we'll be seeing a number of things that I have not seen yet, so I'm really looking forward to it. If I don't post anything for a week or so, you'll know it is because I'm having fun.

060528 Beijing, CN 北京, 中国
I'm out and wandering around and I decided to stop in a little cafe near a technical university. It turns out they have pearl tea. Yum. I noticed that they serve food as well as drinks. The menu had English translations on it and I spotted a dish labled "Spice with spicey spice chicken", so I just had to get it despite the row of red peppers printed as a warning next to the menu item. It was wonderful; the chicken was tender and juicy and the portion was just the right size.

My only worry is wondering exactly when my surprised expression will fade. You see, I'm pretty sure that sometime around the first bite or so, my eyebrowns must have climbed up to my hairline in an effort to escape the blast of fire from my mouth. Based on the amount that my nose is running, I suppose I should be worried that my melted brains are leaking out, but I'm too busy enjoying the endorphin rush. Yee haw. Good stuff.

Now I need to hurry to meet a coworker. We are going to see "The Davinci Code". Normally, I'm not wild to see a movie if I have already read the book (I already know the plot and I usually prefer my imagination to the director's vision), but in this case my coworker wants to talk about some of the Western/Christian cultural references and history. She saw the movie once already and is not entirely sure what is invented and what is real in the history being depicted in the movie. It should be fun to talk about.

060527 Beijing, CN 北京, 中国
Well, I reorganized the left-hand menu bar and fixed one incorrect listed phone number (which had an extra 0 in it). Not to see how things look... And I guess it looks fine, although the new subdivision pages have a rather big menu bar and then just a few paltry links in the main body area. Eh, I'll figure out a better solution later. Most of you only take a look at the front page anyway, so there's no real loss by burying the other stuff a bit in an effort to clean up the front of the site.

060524 Beijing, CN 北京, 中国
Well, I wrote a little something that I have chosen to post as a separate page rather than cluttering up the blog. This time it is not a rant, but musings on US national debate, using the "Presidential right to declassify" debate (aka "Plame-gate") as an example.

Anyway, since the left-hand menu is now pretty huge, I think I need to finally reorganize things a bit. While I know how to do some pretty cool CSS tricks (creating pull-down menu bars, expanding tabs, etc.), I am also aware that if you need to use these tricks, then you ought to reorganize since a fance mess is still a mess. So, once again, I'll be skipping the glamor of fancy tricks in favor of the (hopeful) utility of better organization. Perhaps I'll do the reorganization this weekend.

Now for the random thought theater bit: There is a MSN piece entitled " Ethanol: Myths and Realities". If you know nothing about the whole fuel ethanol concept, it provides you with a very basic description. Also, my father forwarded me a couple of interesting articles: The first is about the ongoing attempt to simplify the Chinese written language: "Chinese media culls undesirable characters, down to a mere 900 pictographs". The second article was the result of a question inspired by the first... How many words do you really need for basic communication? Fortunately, someone has tried to answer that question (and Ken dug it up), so here are the "850 Basic English words". I think it's pretty interesting.
As for me, I'm stuck attempting to learn far more than 850 or 900 Chinese pictographs. "Argon", "enzyme", "oxidation", and "chromatography" are not part of the basic set for some reason.

060520 Beijing, CN 北京, 中国
This past Saturday, I wandered down to the old art district again. My intent was to just get a chop carved and then find a tea house and sit and read a bit before coming home. Of course, this meant I was nearby all that lovely tempting art... No harm in just looking, right? Well, the good news is that I have finally mastered bargaining, even for art.

The rules are pretty simple. After all, you can only be "cheated" if you allow yourself to be cheated. Take a look around and don't let yourself be pulled to one section or another. Linger over one that you like and then be sure to linger just as long over several you are not interested in, so that the shopkeeper thinks you just stare at things for a long time and does not interpret length of staring as an ability to shove the price high. Look at the art and calculate ahead of time how much you want to pay for it. When figuring out this "ideal" price, remember that this is China, not New York City and also remember that you are in the middle of an art district with many dozens of shops all competing on price. After you have already made the decision of your mental price, you can finally ask how much is the art's price. Take your time and stay silent while mentally calculating the price from RMB to USD. If the named price is much greater than double your mental price, then you are essentially done; it is time to consider other art because their starting offer was too far from what you were thinking of paying. Remember, it does not matter how long the artist worked on it or how famous the artist is: you have already decided a price and there are thousands of other pieces of art in the surrounding shops. Also, it does not matter that you can afford it; just because you can pay a ridiculously inflated price (over the price that a Chinese person would pay) doesn't mean that you should. If you hear a starting offer that is around or below double the price you are willing to pay, then the bargaining can start. My rule of thumb is a rule of thirds. Take their number, divide it by three, and have that as your initial counter offer. Do this even If their starting offer happens to be below your mental price. Watch the shopkeeper's reaction. If they don't wince and start complaining, then you have probably started a little too rich and you will have to bargain hard to shove the price down closer to what the shopkeeper is really willing to part with. If they wince, then you have a good starting offer and you can let them slowly fight you up to towards the neighborhood of your mental price. When you have bargained them to a price that they consider final, you will know; they will stop giving by even a yuan and you can agree to the deal so long as it meets or is below your mental price.

The most important thing is to have that mental price fixed ahead of time and to remember to sit and calculate each offer from RMB to USD. The thinking time puts pressure on them since it is interpreted as careful consideration of maybe not taking the offer and it gives you a regular reality check.

Right now, with the art, I think I've done OK; I didn't spend too much before learning how to bargain properly. Still, I'm running into a minor problem: I have found a handful of pieces that I liked enough to get, but they were not on scrolls. They are matted on a square format. This is appropriate for framing, but I don't want a bunch of framed pictures. The frames with glass are heavy, fragile, and really inconvenient for travel. I far prefer the scrolls; scrolls are far easier to handle, travel with, and display. I have no idea, though, if the pictures I got are appropriate for having them matted into a scroll format or where I might be able to have this done... It looks like I will have to go back into the land of temptation again in an effort to ask around about having the already purchased art turned into scrolls. Man, it would be nice if I was even vaguely competent at Chinese when attempting to ask about this stuff.

060518 Beijing, CN 北京, 中国
Other than being dragged to a Mexican restaurant once by a visiting friend, I have not eaten anything other than Chinese food since arriving. Foreign food is not usually done very well here. The Mexican was, er, interesting, with spagetti sauce used in place of normal burrito filling, and ketchup instead of salsa provided as a chip dip. Anyway, I apparently forgot that experience when I spotted pizza at the local grocery store. It was premade cold pizza sliced into rectrangles and popped into small rectangular boxes clearly labled "pizza". Anyway, I bought a slice for dinner and went home to enjoy. I'll bet that you didn't know that pizza is made with sweet cream cheese and a layer of sliced, vinegar-marinated carrots in place of tomato sauce... Ugh. I tried eating it just to see if the flavor combination might grow on me, but it remained a nasty experience. Oh, well. Back to my usual rule of thumb: the only decent foreign food here is Korean. It's a good thing I really like Chinese and Korean food. It's pretty rare that I get a craving for western style food.

Dental hygene. While lots of Chinese people have adopted modern dental hygene habits, there is still a solid percentage that are only familiar with the general theory of the toothbrush while remaining unfamiliar with it's actual use. One of my coworkers is cute, single, and speaks good English, but every time I think of asking her out, I am reminded of the furry brown nubs she uses for teeth (yikes!). Due to the constant reminders (seeing other people's teeth), I find myself brushing my teeth a lot. I'll have already brushed my teeth, then think about some of other teeth I've seen of late, and then get the urge to go brush my own teeth again, just to be sure they are really clean. It's like I'm fulfilling some sort of subconcious need to symbolically brush their teeth. So far, I've resisted the urge to carry a toothbrush around with me, but I've thought about it more than a few times.

Page Last Modified: 2006 07 20, 21:14:01

 

 

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