Untitled

Crystal Castles

2008-10-20T21:46:00.002-07:00

JoJosh introduced me to this recently; my favorite sound right now:

FDC

2008-10-04T18:50:00.000-07:00

I've listened to Delirivum Cordia thrice today, and about to listen to it a fourth time. For some reason, as much as I've listened to it in the past, its really impressed itself on me lately. Gorgeous composition.

My knees hurt like hell from biking. I've been pushing myself on a bike that is probably too small for me, and really paying for it right now. I'm really concerned I may be risking permanent injury, and that would ruin a lot of athletic goals I have for myself. I have one extreme goal ahead of me that I will share perhaps a few years from now when I get things set up for it. For now, I gotta take care of my achy, breaky knees.

?????

2008-09-30T17:39:00.000-07:00

Ok, I need everyone to read this story and tell me if there is some detail that they must be leaving out for some reason. Emphasis at the end is mine. Please comment with your ideas:

TOKYO - Police say 15 people have been killed in a pre-dawn fire at a building in Osaka in western Japan.

A police spokesman says the fire broke out early Wednesday in a video shop located on the first floor of the seven-story building. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, citing department policy.

Authorities are investigating the cause of the 3 a.m. blaze.

Kyodo says the victims were male customers of the shop and were found in rooms equipped with a TV set to view the videos.

Today I Set a New Personal Record

2008-09-15T15:17:00.000-07:00

40 laps (3000 feet) in 19:41. I beat my previous record by 1:02, set on May 7th, my last swim before I left for China.

I used a technique I read in Runner's World last week whereby I started swimming very slowly and then gradually picked up pace, increasing speed all the way to the end. In the past, I have started slowly, but achieved top speed relatively early in the swim, by lap 5 perhaps. This always caused me to struggle through the second 20 laps. I did not reach top speed today until perhaps lap 30. It really made all the difference, and I was able to hack off more than 5% of my time.

My goal is to swim a mile in 34 minutes by December.

I also biked a new high last week: 72 miles. This was even with having taken Saturday off. I am averaging 1 mph faster as well.

I have neglected running for some time now because it is so time consuming. I decided to start doing sprints once or twice a week to build strength, and then do endurance runs on the weekends.

Another Half Step Forward

2008-09-14T11:17:00.000-07:00

I tend to read books of quotes when I'm in trying times or in a conscious period of self-discovery as I am today. Advice columns often offer ambiguous solutions to petty difficulties, and no one is made the better, but a single quote of even moderate wisdom can change one's perspective on their problem, and therefore the way they feel about it, the way they think about it, and the way the approach the problem henceforth. It is the difference between chronic distress and the glory of steadfast resolve. Men and women are empowered when guided to a solution of their own formulation seeded by the wisdom of those who came before them, and insulted by those who hand them a solution, whose application is then a new and more perplexing problem. When dealing with our friends and colleagues, we should consider the best way to inspire them to their own ends, not to shove a means down their throat.

Luckily, my brother gave me several books of quotes distributed in his firm small enough to keep in my bag at all times. A few are helpful to me in the wake of my foolish behavior this past week:

"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or it is nothing." --Helen Keller

Speaks directly to my situation, but in the context of another, I probably would have done myself a favor putting sunscreen on sooner than I did yesterday at the Dragonboat Races.

"True friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation." -- George Washington

"What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies." -- Aristotle

"You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it." -- Margaret Thatcher

CERN

2008-09-08T00:13:00.000-07:00

This is too great not to post. Be sure to read the comments, people are freakin' out:

Forward

2008-08-31T21:10:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Hong for interpreting:

1.Your whole life is just like walking on this teeter-totter

2.You always try to walk from the low end to the high end.The further steps ,the more difficulty.

3.The higher you go the more difficut for balance.

4.When you thought you were higher and higher,actually you were about to go down.

5.Then you realized that you can never stay on the highest point in your mind.

6.After so much struggling back and forth,you figured out that to be on the highest point is so hard since you were always not sure about the balance point.

7.Finally one day,you realized that the highest point is actually the balance point in your life.

8.If you want to stay on the highest point,there is another solution,that is there is someone is on the lowest end of the teeter-totter to support you,who could be your family,lover,or even the enemy you defeated.

Hibernating

2008-08-28T21:10:00.001-07:00

My blog is hibernating right now. Shhhhh... dormancy is a quiet activity.

Untitled

2008-08-06T00:13:00.000-07:00

Still one of the best excerpts I've afforded the time to keep and refer to periodically:

“To do nothing is, however, often the course which involves most risk. The world is never really standing still; and to leave things alone may be merely to drift on to unseen rocks ahead. The bogey of dangers in the path of progress is often raised by us from an unconscious desire to save ourselves the trouble of making up our minds and of beginning to move in new directions. If science points clearly to certain steps which could now be taken in order to benefit our nation in the future, do not let us fail to move in that direction out of a selfish regard for our own comfort.”

Its out, Folks

2008-07-26T14:15:00.000-07:00

Check it out.

Appended

2008-07-24T20:20:00.000-07:00

Interesting Imprimis issue discussing the 14th Amendment and how "birthright citizenship" to children born in the U.S. to illegal aliens has been grossly misconstrued by the modern government came with this gem vindicating what is said in the post below. Excuse any typos, I don't have time to fix them, emphasis mine:

"Mexican President Felipe Calderon was in California recently pushing for more liveral immigration policies. He assured his fellow citizens who reside in the U.S. that he is "actively working to defend their human rights." "No matter their immigration status," Calderon said, "They are human beings with dignity and rights that should be respected. We are working, with the full effort of the [Mexican ] government, to bring a halt to the campaigns that harass migrants." However much Calderon may be worried about the human rightgs of his fellow citizens, he is fully cognizant of the fact that Mexico's economy depends on the remittances of its citizens working abroad. These remittances have become Mixico's second largest source of revenue, trailing only its rapidly declingin oil revenues. It is far easier-- and politically safer-- for Mixico to export its poverty than to reform its own plitical and economic system."

This Product Not Fit For Human Consumption

2008-07-19T20:28:00.001-07:00

I realize I've been neglecting my blog for the past few weeks, but its difficult for me to post on what goes on with me of any interest on a routine basis because it is largely very private. I could report on all the mundane (however interesting to myself) events of my life, but I'm afraid I would lose more readers that way than if I were not to blog at all!

I recently told my friend Arcadiy that I believe it is the moral obligation of the Western world to democratize the rest of the world, by military force if necessary (and in most cases it is). The U.S. has taken a prominent and tirelessly criticized role in this since the end of the second World War, and to no shame or regret it has largely been in our own interest. Whether to liberate oppressed people, redirect control of resources, or improve our political positioning against a more dangerous enemy, and despite a long list of mistakes, the U.S. has been the benefactor of peace and stability more than any other single nation in history. Humanitarian efforts have their short term successes, but I'm afraid it often prolongs and intensifies the problem. When you don't couple food and medical supply delivery and school building with forcing the hand of an irrational and narcissistic dictator, all you do is make it easier for him to survive.

The wall along the U.S.-Mexican border is a good idea, but its not enough (especially for how poorly engineered it is; has the southwest ever heard of razor wire?). I don't have any issues with regulated immigration (its one of the few things I believe the government should have the power to regulate) but illegal immigration is intolerable for a number of reasons:
1. Honest Mexicans are outside the umbrella of free market forces and vulnerable to the worst America has to offer.
2. With honest Mexicans illegally crossing the borders comes drugs, criminals, disease, and of course terror agents.
3. Most of all, it allows the Mexican government to stay ever corruptive because Mexicans have a better alternative to revolution. Holes along the border through which Mexicans cross are like steam pipes releasing pressure from a power plant.

The latter is exactly what happens in nations throughout the world that we make possible through government sponsored international aid and humanitarian charity organizations.

To say that we are imperialist or fascist for influencing change abroad through military efforts is grossly hypocritical of those who support humanitarian organizations. Change does not occur in a vacuum; we're calming the potential angry, desperate masses in many nations, we are quelling potential revolution and liberation of people and are the best friends of the governments we mutually criticize the harshest. It's not unlike taxpayer fueled bailouts for failing U.S. industries, whereby the subsidized industry essentially becomes an arm of the government.

In any case, I've rethought what I told Arcadiy only a month or two ago, and democratizing the world may not necessarily be the obligation of the West, but I've only repositioned myself to find uncertainty rather than another, more moderate role for the U.S. and Western Europe. Always glad to uselessly opine for the ol' blog.

Dyooooonyuuuuuhhhhh Fishin'

2008-07-04T12:33:00.000-07:00

Colorado has been mostly fun, although traveling with my family is difficult and often very frustrating for me because I move at a much faster pace than any of them. I watch a few shows, downloading them online so I don't have to watch commercials and I only have to watch what I want to, but I loathe broadcast entertainment. Aside from a few admittedly indispensable virtues, television has been one of the most destructive forces in American and Western culture over the past 50 years. Its been on almost continuously since we arrived at the condo.

On Wednesday, my dad and I went fly fishing north of the tiny town of Kremling. We caught a number of Rainbow Trout, but despite what you may think, they were all straight fish. They were, nonetheless, Obama supporters, and considering their numbers its comforting to know they cannot vote. I'm not certain how long it will be before Democrats try to extend voting privileges to all living things, but if they have their way, the first black president may be an ant.

My friend Dunia came up from a dig in Nebraska last night and we went on a hike down the street from the condo. My sisters and dad hiked with us, but my dad got sick about an hour in and we had to turn back. I totally nailed Dunia with a dandelion. Since she only showers once a week, I bet she still has a huge yellow streak down the back of her arm. Hilarious. A special thanks to my sisters for telling Dunia embarassing childhood stories. I can't wait until those are amplified by the power of the AIESEC network.

Later, we went into Breckenridge and hung out at the Gold Pan saloon for a while. Unfortunately, we had to sign contracts with the bar not to repeat anything we spoke about on the premises or within 25 feet of either entrance, so theres little to relate about the remainder of the night, but lets say it was super fun. It was good to escape some of the tension that had built up with my family back at the condo, too. Dunia and I had fun with closed shop windows.

From 11,000 Feet

2008-07-02T05:57:00.001-07:00

I realized most of my photos are pretty crappy so far, so I'll try to do better for y'all. Promise.

I'm about to go fly-fishing! Look forward to pictures and stuff of that.

Having Fun With Strangers Online

2008-06-27T17:04:00.000-07:00

I recently filed a complaint with the Georgia State Rec Center because, as a swimmer, I have found their water to insufficiently wet for my needs. Following is the response, and then my reply:

Hi Sean,

I received your comment in our suggestion box about "dampening the water". If you could be a little more specific about this, I would appreciate it.

Thank you for replying, Nigel.

I have been in the water my whole life. While we all bounce around in our mothers' wombs for as much as nine months, surrounded by a thick, juicy enclave of amniotic fluid, I still consider this an important part of my own lifetime aquatic experience. In fact, most of my body is made of the life giving fluid we call "water." The Chinese, in fact, have named it "shui" (pronounced "shway," as in "get out of my shway"). Such a pronunciation really drives home the point of having water that is wet enough to support my body isotropically, thereby maximizing the efficiency of my swimming technique.

I hope I've clarified the problem, and wish that it helps us move forward to make a wetter, more watery experience for everyone at the Georgia State recreational center pool and spa. Please let me know if I can further assist you.

Thanks!

Sean

Result: No response

I also wrote to a band in Philadelphia that I want to see play when I go there in November. Following is my request, then the response, then my reply:

deer gang--

i happen to be coming to philadelphia in november and you are required to schedule a show while i am there.

if not, i will seriously come to your house and attack you with my huge claws, because i am a bear of some sort.

i will email you with the exact dates i'll be in town when i get a flight.

do not call animal control, it is no use. i have friends all over, so you will be fucked.

sincerely,

sean the bear

p.s. this is sort of what my claws look like

Hello there kind sir!
We would not like to be clawed, and hope that you will not claw us.
Hopefully we will be playing a show when you are here!
Thank you for the kind email. We would never call animal control on you.
xoxoxo
~~GANG

Sounds like a deal.

Just make sure you have no rabbits at your show. I am terrified of rabbits.

love,

sean the bear

Result: No Response

Here and there

2008-06-22T05:53:00.001-07:00

I went to the museum the other night, and when you buy a ticket they give you a sticker to put on your shirt to indicate that you have paid. Walking around the Houdon exhibit ("Houdon," a French sculptor, is pronounced exactly the same as a kind of Chinese noodle, thereby making him "Noodle Man" or "Noodly Artist," which is fitting because he did sculpt Noods), I noticed that a woman wearing a somewhat revealing dress had placed the sticker ON HER BARE BREAST. Classy.

For some reason, the hits to my video (which you can view below) have jumped from about 50 to about 600 views in the past view days. The culprit? Looks like I've become very popular in Japan for some reason.

Click!

My right arm went number at mile 3.5 on Sunday. I do not know why, but next time I will have to stop somewhere and try out that move I've heard so much about, "the Stranger."

I paid $3.40 for a 24oz bottle of Crystal Geyser water today at Starbucks in the Mariott Marquis. When did the most abundant resource on become more expensive than gasoline?

Wisdom from Randy Pausch

2008-06-14T15:57:00.001-07:00

If you don't know know who this guy is, YouTube him. I watched his lecture traveling throughout Asia, and these are some of the notes I took:

"Make sure you always bring something nice to the table."

"When you're in a place where you're doing something wrong and nobody's telling you, you're in a very bad place to be. That means people have given up. Your critics are the ones that love you"

"Experience is what you get when you don't get what you were expecting."

"The thing about the brick wall is that its there to stop the people who don't want it badly enough."

"If someone upsets or annoys you, it means you haven't given them enough time. You give them time, and they will almost always impress you."

"When you're doing something new, when you're pioneering, you're going to have to take some arrows in the back."

"Best way to teach someone is to make them think they're learning something else."

"Decide if you're a Tigger or an Eeyore. Always have fun, every day of your life."

"Never lose child like wonder. It's what drives us."

"Don't complain, just work harder. Jackie Robinson had it in his contract that he wasn't allowed to complain, even when fans spit on him."

Goals for Summer 2008 and into the New Year

2008-06-13T17:33:00.000-07:00

Hold me to these, public!

Teaching reading

I'm interested in learning how to teach, because the ability to impart your own knowledge on others effectively increases my ability to influence and broadens the power of the knowledge and skills that I have. I've chosen to help a kid read because it is an insurmountably important skill, it will make his life better, and he is in a position to benefit from it the most because he is so young. And investment in people is a very sound investment.

Coaching at Dale Carnegie

Coaching at Dale Carnegie a different kind of teaching opportunity because it will put different demands on the way I communicate with those I'm teaching, it will help me hone skills that I've only begun to work on, it may influence some people to coach once they leave the course, and it may help me to make some connections and meet important people. I also owe, to a certain extent, a debt to Wendy for having given me such an opportunity.

Make the trip to China/blogging/video a final success

I feel like there is still some work to do, some more to learn, from my experience in China, and I believe that completing the work will not only help me get those most out of this trip, but also plan more effectively for the next.

Building my body for racing

Projecting into the future, these marathons are stepping stones, oasi, to keeping fit. Its so difficult to stay fit just for the sake of staying fit, when I could otherwise stay reasonably not-unhealthy. I need a challenge in the forseeable future, a specific event on the horizon to keep in mind so I feel like I'm going someplace meaningful; marathons are perfect because they are so demanding, affordable, and they give me the excuse to travel almost anywhere. Additionally, because of the huge number of people who run them, it is very possible I could make important networking connections in the course of running them, if not simply find new great friends of all different backgrounds.

Work

While I have reached the professional limit of my job, it is important to maintain. For most people, this is a place to get halfway off, do as little as possible without getting fired, and it seems in the past year or so that’s what I've done. But I still have commitments to the lab, and I do my best to provide the highest quality data in the most efficient manner possible, teach my co-workers how to deal with circumstances in the lab and how to perform whatever task may be required of them, and add value to the lab experience.

AIESEC

I almost skipped this one because AIESEC has become a source of anxiety for me, mostly because it has not lived up to my expectations. But neither have I lived up to its expectations, so we have betrayed each other, and should therefore forgive and forget, and work together in tandem from this point on. I believe many of the things I came to AIESEC for actually are there, while some were not, and I've let things things that aren't get to me too much, and disregard the huge benefits there are still are to gain. I am still in a leadership position, I still have the position that will allow me to make connections with professionals, to put AIESEC out there, to raise money, to guide others to success and to help them achieve their goals. The principle thing I should be after: make sure that other people don't experience the same disappointment with AIESEC as I did. Give others the opportunity to grow, and therein I will as well. I am using the summer to pick up where I never started and create something out of ER unprecedented, I am using this summer to pick up and build momentum that will carry us through the fall and set up huge successes.

Studying economics

I believe almost ideologically that economics is the one common nexus connecting everything in the Universe, not just humans and civilizations and modern nations, but plants and animals, the physical world, from atom to galaxy, mind to body, across dimensions and metaphysics, everything can be described not merely in analogy, but directly in terms of economics. I have some trouble with the math, and I've never liked school, but I have an over riding compulsion to learn about and understand as fully as possible economic principles and how to apply them, how to understand the world better in the context of economy, and how not to manipulate the economy but use its properties to benefit those who abide by its laws. While I believe economics is the single most important pursuit in academia and private enterprise, I also believe, in accordance with my understanding of its properties, that many other fields including science and technology, psychology, business, medicine , education, and statesmanship are indispensible tools of a functioning, healthy economy and (on the most party) should be afforded almost equal status.

Starting a business

I am not as much of a movie aficionado as I probably should be. Most movies bore me. Perhaps I haven't been finding the right ones over the years, but through most of them I shift around and my mind wanders, and I yell at the director through the TV screen because he is a moron and lazy, but in high school I had great fun shooting and editing videos. I loved it all, but editing was my favorite. The thing I liked about it was that I was creating something from nothing with very disparate components. I was taking sound, light, action, story, form, time, emotion, and putting them together in a way that wasn't necessarily pleasant, but rather evocative, striking, attractive, unsettling, or vivifying. Starting and building a business seems like a very similar venture. Taking money, time, the talents of "actors" in a number of fields, a physical place, a vision, and putting them together in a way to produce a product or line of products or services to change the way people live and behave, to impact them in a way that is evocative, striking, attractive, unsettling, or vivifying, to impact their lives in a positive way, and create that from virtually nothing, is a very exciting and attractive prospect to me. I also adore the prospect of the movement from self-reliance to interdependence with my team, marking their lives in positive ways as much as my own. So this summer, I intend to make my first attempt at starting my own business, something small and which I can do largely alone, to both learn the fundamentals of business processes and help to finance school and...

Traveling

…travel. I never left the country until I was 26, a little over a year ago now, and in that time I've visited 4 countries: India, Germany, Netherlands (at least for a few hours), and China. I can hardly begin to relate my experiences here. Many authors fill books with stories of their travels over a period of decades, over the course of 30 countries or more, and I know that they could easily fill books with only a single visit to a single foreign country. Perhaps one day traveling around the world will seem blasé to me, more of a chore than an adventure, and I'm going to work very hard to make sure I get close to that point without ever actually reaching it. I am a map lover. I can stare at maps for minutes at a time, in all their boring geopolitical detail, but be transfixed with imagination at what its like at this point or another, how I would interact with the things I find there, and how they would interact with me. I would like also one day to travel to the Moon.

Learning Chinese

Of the travel I've done, China was by far my most enthralling experience. I absolutely loved the culture and the scenery, the energy, the noise, the atmosphere, the crowds of people. I felt at home in China, and I can't wait to return. It goes beyond a personal interest, I'm also attracted by its economic growth (as a model) and the business opportunities if I learn to effectually navigate the political and cultural gamut attached. Learning Chinese, which is an interesting language in itself, is absolutely necessary to meet each of those three ends. Japanese may be next.

Determining Course Path

School has been a thorn in my side since first grade. I've always been horribly bored with school, and have often fantasized about having a professor for all subjects, like Aristotle or Socrates, and walk with them and a small group of classmates to discuss and theorize and philosophize before removing to my profession. But, as it is, I'm at public university in modern day America and I must finalize my course path so I can finally answer the question everyone keeps asking, "When do you finish?" I'd like to know to.

Develop stock portfolio

I don't have a retirement plan right now. The opportunity to make contributions to a retirement fund at work doesn't seem as good as holding on to every penny right now so I can I can build up to having disposable income. I'm not scared of not having a 401K, but I do need to put together a stock portfolio so I have something accumulating over the next several decades or something to leave to a worthy friend or family member if I were to get hit by a car or something.

Learn to speed read

This, perhaps, would be an even better investment than stocks. I am a pretty slow reader, a little slower than average when I test myself, and I know I can read faster if I practice enough and in the right way. Given all the things I've outlined above, time is at a serious premium, and as much reading as I must do to achieve those things, the ability to cut that time by 50% or more will come back in huge dividends. So I will continue to study and practice speed reading techniques. Think how much more I'll be able to read and comprehend over a lifetime!

Compose a mission, vision, and values statement

This is one of the first things you're instructed to do in success literature, and I've only danced around it and made half-assed efforts to do it in a meaningful way. I make a few attempts, but don't always know how to start or continue with it, always afraid I'll leave something out. I have many other excuses too. I want to build a mission, vision, and values statement to understand myself better and understand my motivations. I understand that I will need to revise, update, and evolve them as I go through life, but to do that I must have something to start with. So before this summer's end, I will complete this heartily.

China 2008: Episode Yi

2008-06-12T16:30:00.001-07:00

If some of that Chinese food weren't strange enough...

2008-06-11T15:17:00.000-07:00

Today I had a sandwich with a smoked ham, pepper jack cheese, a fried egg, peanut butter, and hummus on wheat, and it was scrumdiddlyumptious, yo!

Bonus Blog for You!

2008-06-09T19:23:00.000-07:00

Most of you have not run marathons (yet), but you are familiar with capitalism, I'm sure, and as capitalism dictates, anywhere there is a large group of people, there will be a small group of people trying to get them to buy stuff.

It is the norm at marathons for photographers to cover the entire course taking shots of every last runner throughout the race. I've run 3 now, all different sizes, from 150 runners to 15,000, and there are no exceptions. Those bib numbers? Yeah, what are those for? DecORaySHUN?

No.

They're for identifying you in photos and flooding you with emails linking you to pages with those photos for sale at laughable prices.

And that is what I got today.
Click my belly!

Retro-blog Time!!!

2008-06-09T18:08:00.000-07:00

I have blog material scattered throughout a OneNote document that I've been avoiding because I knew it would take some time to edit, but to my surprise I found some that were all ready to post, so here is one for y'all to read. The original date and place of authorship precedes the entry.

More to come!

5/19/08 Beijing enroute to Qingdao, 11:43pm

The past few days have been too much to document comprehensively. I've been waking up very early without much choice, as soon as the sun shines in my face at 4:30am, and going to bed very late on my own volition. I don't want to miss a moment, and there are many moments not to miss.

I'm sorry I didn't take notes throughout the day. I wish I could tell you a story, but the best I can do at this point is a pile of vignettes and observations. I'll try to be m ore diligent in the future.

I complained out loud on Sunday morning that the massive crowds of people I'd been promised to witness in China had not come through. I was unimpressed with Pinggu, not as a city but as an example of high population density. Although I'd already seen the huge complexes of residential buildings throughout Beijing, or one of its districts, I'd yet to see the people that filled them. The group of guys from LA I hung out with, whose names I could never get straight, observed with me that the restaurants, hotels, and retail shops were staffed by a disproportionate number of people for the number of patrons. The employees would outnumber customers 5 to 1 sometimes such that as you entered a shop or restaurant they would all scatter and clamor to serve you. (At some restaurants, 7 or 8 women would flank the entry way and do nothing more than bow and lightly greet you. Can you imagine 8 hostess at Chili's?)

I've spent all night on the train on the "soft sleeper." Only 50 dollars for 500 miles travel on a train, and unlike Amtrak it looks like we're going to be on time. The Chinese countryside is hard at work growing food for the aforementioned masses. Its not clear to be what crops are being grown, but it looks like most of what I'm seeing may be wheat.

Last night I went out with Guo Xiao, who I knew from when she did an internship with Deloitte in Atlanta earlier this year. Not only did I meet her, but 6 of her friends. They wanted to work on their English a little, which I didn't expect, and I struggled some to figure out a way to speak one- on- one with each of them, and encourage them to ask questions not only to practice their English but to teach them some about the United States. Dinner fluctuated between awkward silence (for me, an uncommon scene at a table full of college-aged women… they giggled when I commented on never having seen a table full of girls so quiet) and bright-eyed conversation about American Idol and whether Americans really think all Chinese look alike. I had this conversation earlier in the week with the guys from L.A., and we decided that many Chinese do look alike, but that we also encounter many white people that are difficult to distinguish in passing. Although, it is more common for white Americans to consider Chinese people to look alike, so I discussed both ends of the spectrum with them.

We dined on Beijing roast duck, in which you take a piece of sliced duck meat, dip it in a sweet soy sauce (which was actually salty) and place it on something like a crepe or small tortilla with celery and onions. You then roll it up and eat, with chopsticks.

Chopsticks were a neat little challenge for me. I've used them numerous times, of course, but being in China, I thought, would be a good opportunity to learn to use them correctly. I'd taught myself, imitating others, but decided it wasn't good enough, that I was going to use them the Chinese way. But Xiao assured me that any way that worked for me was okay, and that there was no proper way to do it. When I was a small child, my mother taught me what was the proper way to hold and use a fork, knife, and spoon, and it wasn't unnecessary. I'm glad I don't scoop up my food like a 5 year old, because I might otherwise. So it was hard for me to believe that there was no particular way to hold and use chopsticks, but there was no reason for me not to believe her, and no one else objected.

All of the girls had American names they had chosen in their English classes. It was very helpful for me because there was no way I would be able to remember even one of their birth names, but for Xiao whom I already knew. One girl named Jane sat next to me and seemed particularly interested in learning about whatever I had to teach her. Her English was pretty good, she was almost as proficient as Xiao (who had the best English of the lot, and who occasionally interpreted for me) but I often had to ask her to repeat herself because she spoke so softly. That is something I've found that many Chinese do, and I think its partly because they don't have a lot of confidence in their English, and partly because they speak softly even in Mandarin. I am not blaming them, though. The few Mandarin phrases I know I have been reluctant to use because then everyone starts speaking to me in full Mandarin sentence. Wo bu nu bai ni shuo shenme!

Gittin' Back

2008-06-04T15:33:00.000-07:00

Today, running in Piedmont Park, I saw a man with two navels. It was quite a sight.

I'm getting back to normal now, jet-lagged worse than ever. The new Queens of the Stone Age is a really good record, although its mostly "new" to me, having been released a year ago but downloaded to my hard drive in just the past 3 days.

I still have all these China blogs to post, but I've spent all my time sleeping and working since I got back. I'll finally have time tomorrow to work on it, I believe, but the lab is really begging my mousy expertise this week.

I made the worst mistake I've ever made yesterday... I rinsed twelve samples of T-cells with ddH2O instead of salt solution. So what, Seancy, its just water! Well, the cells don't think so, when all the salinated fluid inside them rushes out and makes their walls rupture and kill them. Sorry, little T-cells! It really was a gigantic fuck up, so I decided to wait a few days before I ask for more vacation this summer. My parents invited to me out to Colorado for the 4th of July.

I can't wait to do some hiking out there. I've never been to the mountains.

I can't believe myself.

Goodbye China... Hello Retroactive Blogs

2008-05-28T15:23:00.003-07:00

Well, these here are my last few hours in China, at least for the time being. I really dropped the ball on blogging for the past week. Since I've been in Shanghai, I haven't even been particularly busy, but the past 4 days I've been sick with a head cold and have avoided spending too much time looking at the computer screen. I cancelled my trip to Suzhou, but still managed to meander around town for a few hours a day. Yesterday I spent some time at the art museum, pictures of which I'll post when I get home.

I have tons of blog material to post ready to go but for some organization and editing, so get ready for some latent blogging over the next week, if you're all still interested. Videos and things are to come as well. I've gotta finish packing, flight is in 3 1/2 hours.

I have 19 hours in the air today.

Photos!

2008-05-22T10:16:00.000-07:00

See some of my photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/8502959@N05/

The Marathon Nightmare

2008-05-22T08:54:00.001-07:00

5/20/08, Qingdao office tower

I'm going back a few days to write some about the marathon. I did not prepare well. Because of irregularities in my sleep from travel, which were less due to jet lag and more to traveling for 35 hours straight, I slept much of the afternoon on Friday. This was a two-fold problem: I missed dinner, and I couldn't sleep for the rest of the night. Not having eaten any lunch Friday afternoon, I found myself in a bus seat on the way to the marathon not having eaten in 24 hours and having already been away since 9:30pm the previous night. I felt good anyway, and ate two of the breakfasts provided, each of which had a hardboiled egg (which they eat a lot of here) a banana, a sponge cake like thing filled with cream that was something like a Twinkie but not nauseating, and a bag of milk, which I did not drink. Yes, it really was milk in a bag.

I took in the scenery as the bus headed into the mountains. Even this far from the city, the Sun was kind of a pale brown. I joked that, while Japan is the Land of the Rising Sun, China is the Land of the Sun You Can Stare At. There was a surprising amount of traffic on the way to the site, especially at 6:00am on Saturday. It didn't appear to be marathon related traffic, and they were driving like madmen, passing full length buses on mountain passes and around blind curves. There was one very near collision between a van and a three-wheeler that had the entire bus gasping at once, but it didn't seem to phase either of the drivers.

The waiting period was pretty dull. It was mostly people standing around chatting and stretching, and brought with it that impatience I've had prior to every run I've done. It was a good opportunity to take in the scenery from a stationary position, but the part of the Wall we would be running could not be seen from where we were, so I just stood around anxious to begin.

Without harping on every detail of the run, which would take all day to write, I'll start with the end of the marathon, a period I regret not shooting video of, as humiliating as it was. (I will try to post the video I did shoot once I get to Shanghai, where I expect to have a more reliable internet connection.) Around mile 18 I passed a water station where a member of the medical team waited to check out anyone who was having trouble. He approached me and put his hand on my shoulder, telling me I looked pale and asked if I would manage. I nodded with the confidence of someone who could not possibly manage. Less than a mile down the road, I finally sat down unable to go any further, at least for the moment. I threw up a little.

After several minutes, and several refused offers of help from passing runners, I stood and started walking, a few tens of paces after which I vomited five stomach loads of water. It was the best I'd felt since mile 1. I trotted for a while until I reached the paved road, where I was starting to feel ill again. The remainder of the marathon retraced the first seven miles, so I only needed to run the paved road to the start of the race, run the Wall again (a hefty task in 4 little words) and the last 3 miles would be almost entirely downhill. I walked the paved section, throwing up a little occasionally, but having no water in my stomach but the small sips I was taking since I emptied the tank earlier, it was mostly stomach acid.

Once I reached the Wall, I received a lot of unwanted encouragement. Its very frustrating to have a street lined with people yelling in your face when you're in that condition, even if they are encouraging you, but I did my best to ignore it. I climbed set of stairs, only 10 or 15, where police were telling mid-afternoon tourists to get out of the way. I rounded the corner and, no one being in sight, leaned over and threw up again. After waiting a few minutes, I found the resolve to push on when a photographer offered me help. First there was a flat bridge, which was easy enough, then some stairs, which were tougher, a steep dirt trail, which I covered quickly to take advantage of the good footing it offered, and then the nightmare began. The Wall was much steeper on the way back, and sections that did not have stairs but rather a steep sheer section of rock that only went down the first time all went up the second. These were really the toughest parts, because there was nowhere to stop halfway up. You had to cover each of these sections all at once.

I sat and threw up at the beginning and end of each one of them. It got harder as I went along, of course. With the constant fluctuations of nausea, I had trouble breathing. After each time I vomited, the ease of breathing would return and I'd be able to push my way up, but as I got higher the wind would pick up more and more. Because I was pale, I imagined my circulation was not good and my body was not regulating it's temperature very well. I was very cold. I wished I could have a blanket. I would have run with a blanket on, like a cape, looking like some Great Wall superhero. That would have been totally awesome.

I don't think I could ever actually show you were I sat at one point when I became dizzy and almost delirious. Watching my time closely, I tried to figure out a way I could do 4 miles in an hour in my condition, but there was nothing realistic I could come up with. I would have to run at least some of those miles. I threw up violently. When nothing was left in my stomach, my body kept pushing it out. My entire abdominal region seized uncontrollably, and I must have sounded like I was being beaten with the wails I was making trying to take short breaths. My eyes watered and my nasal passage was stuffed with mucous. A photographer ran down from one of the towers having heard me and he seemed as convinced as I did that I was dying. It only required him to say "I'm heading back that way in a half hour, you can go with me if you like…" for me to get up and keep going. I was having none of that.

It was a relief, obviously, to reach the end of the Wall. I could see it from the last tower. Approaching the last turn, I imagined someone popping out and telling me that I had to go straight to complete the marathon. I was imagining that this marathon was a living thing that wanted to make me suffer, but I was the one that was making me suffer, and willfully so. There was no way I was going home without doing one of two thing: finishing, or collapsing.

The last three miles, at last, and I could go down hill. I was well enough, somehow, after all that crazy vomiting, to trot down. Making new calculations, I could make it, but it was going to be close. The only time I slowed down on my way down the hill was a bend in the road where it went slightly up hill for about a hundred yards. I saw some people just ahead of me that were walking it as well, so I felt comfortable with it, but as soon as the road started going downhill again, I could no longer see them, and so ran.

Returning to the flat road in the valley, I did walk just a little more. Iwas very close to the finish, maybe 3/4 of a mile. With 12 minutes left, I was no longer trying for a good time, but merely to finish under the 8 hour time limit. There was no difference between 7:52 and 7:59. There was a lot of traffic down here, both pedestrians, cars, and large trucks. For the fourth time I passed a group of camels lounging on the side of the road. I looked at one and it had hardly more than change position since I'd seen it at the outset nearly 8 hours earlier. "You lazy worthless animal, you should be carrying me 26 miles," I mumbled to myself, in so many words.

I trotted again at this point, and rounding the bend I picked up speed through the finish line. After lying on the concrete with my eyes closed for a while, and after only one more runner crossing the finish line, they announced the marathon was over. My time was about 7:55. I was the penultimate finisher.

I took a few bites out of a Subway sandwich that had probably been sitting unrefrigerated for over 5 hours. Walking to the bus, I was overwhelmed again with illness and sat on the concrete. This prompted the medical staff to take me in. I received 2 litres of IV fluid and the backseat of a late bus where I could sleep on the way back to Beijing. It was late enough that I missed the Beijing Opera, which I was so excited to see, but at least I got back and had a room where I could sleep. I had enough strength to be hungry again, and luckily the hotel restaurant was open until midnight. I was in no mood for Chinese food, so ordered, with some reservations, a pizza, which I was sure wouldn't be much of one, a Coke, and green tea. The pizza was actually really good. It tasted like homemade dough, had no sauce (which I prefer) and cheese, sausage, and vegetables.

I fell asleep in my room to the only channel in English, listening to the continuous coverage of the earthquake.

Marathon Completed

2008-05-17T08:54:00.001-07:00

The restaurant I'm in is about to close, so I don't have internet for more than a few minutes. I just wanted to say real quick that I completed the marathon today, got really sick, and will write more on that later.

The previous two posts are from the past few days before I could post them. Enjoy.

For some reason I can't move the image to a more appropriate place

2008-05-17T08:41:00.000-07:00

5/16/08, Yu Yang Hotel, room 2022

I woke up at 5:30am this morning, having slept about 6 hours. The sun was already high in the sky, and I was wide awake almost immediately. I took a few minutes to stretch and orient myself to the new day before throwing on some running gear and setting out for a 5K around the nearby city blocks. It was very different from Amsterdam 2 days ago, to say the least. Beijing is not the only Chinese locale loaded with infrastructure. Multi-lane roads in each direction sprawl all over, with sidewalks at least as wide and lined with young tree. The main thorough ways were surprisingly clean, although there were many droppings from the countless small dogs wandering the streets. The alley ways were as dirty as you might expect, but not as bad as India. Many people were preparing breakfast on the sidewalk, with small open indoor areas behind them where customers could eat.

Breakfast was better than dinner the night before, as far as what I was able to eat. Mostly boiled, rice, cream puff roll things that were stuffed with sausage or some kind of vegetable mixture. We were all pretty sure the orange juice was actually Tang. That wasn't a problem for us. We watched from our table a number of waiters lined up outside on the terrace like soldiers. It was apparent they were being trained. One guy lost control of his tray and spilled a couple of beers. Everyone was laughing at him. We saw him walk away, also laughing himself, but he never returned. During a break, several of the waiters started doing stretches, as if they were about to… um… run a marathon. Ha.

There is a small team of students from UCLA that came with one of the runners who are producing a documentary of the marathon tomorrow. It looks like they'll be doing some interviews of other runners, and asked me if I would speak with them, so… of course.

After breakfast, I waited in the lobby for a small group that was going to the grocery store. I approached the desk clerk about getting a map of the city to see if there was anything within walking distance that might be worth checking out. No one at the desk knew English, so the girl with whom I was speaking so ineffectually dialed a number, spoke a moment, and then handed me the phone. "What would you like?"

"Oh, I'm looking for a map of the city and…"

"Please repeat, and slow down."

"I need a map... of the… city."
"Oh, give the phone to the girl."

After shuffling around behind the desk, searching through drawers, and asking other clerks where a map might be, she found one that looked okay. I was beckoned to speak on the phone again:

"She will give you a map. Please give it back to the hotel when you return."

Thereafter, she opened the map she'd already planned to give me. Deciding it wasn't one she could give me after all, there were another exchange on the phone and I left the hotel without a map.

We didn't travel far, and the city is built in a pretty perfect grid. It doesn't have the same pitfalls as getting lost in Atlanta when you take road after road that winds around in circles and robs you of all mental bearings of location. Down the road and a block or two over, there was a huge grocery store with lots of sundries and appliances in the vein of Wal-mart. Each area had its own personnel who would stand next to you and watch everything you did. Its exactly what an American would do if they expected you to steal something from their store, but after sometime we figured out that they just wanted to be helpful. One couple that I was with found a pack of batteries and managed to tell one of the people stationed in the area that they wanted a two pack. There were none available, so the clerk simply took two of the batteries out of the package and sold them individually.

My room mate Lee was also with us. He later told me that he was in one area by himself when store personnel were following him around everywhere, and once he walked a certain distance from that area they stopped and turned around. "It was like I had left their area, so they weren't responsible for me anymore."

I wandered away to the produce area. On display in the meat section were squid, octopi, eel, skate, fish, pork ribs, duck, and a number of cooked meats that I did not recognize. I raided the candy, filling up a few bags, with the same overly-helpful clerk looking nervous when I resisted her help. She wanted to stand next to me and hold the bag open while I perused the candy, reading labels, assembling the kind of variety I wanted. I avoid eye contact so I could do my own thing.

Below the store was a condensed mall concept where clothing and jewelry stores each about the size of a two car garage were partitioned by walls, but which still allowed free movement among them without exiting to the main walkways. I recognized a lot of the brand names. This was the most Americanesque retail I'd seen since I arrived. Something I noticed throughout this whole retail complex was that it was operated almost entirely by women. In fact, out on the streets and the outdoor shops, it was mostly women doing work and men sitting around smoking cigarettes. There were even women doing sewage work.

I feel like I'm depriving the most dedicated of my millions of unique readers of the full breadth of my experience here hitherto, but so much has happened that I simply can't spend the necessary hours sitting here writing it all out. When I started writing about today, I didn't expect to have much to say because, believe it or not, I slept most of the day. In fact, I slept through the pasta dinner tonight, and I'm persisting on the candy I bought. THAT IS MY MARATHON PREPARATION. So we'll see how that works out. But I suppose I did do quite a lot today.

Internet is scarce at the moment, and there doesn’t seem to be anyone in the area, even hotel staff, that can speak English proficiently. One desk clerk told me "your room will not play your computer" when I asked about internet access. Begging for other options, she told me internet in the hotel was out. Lee told me a few minutes ago, however, that he was able to sneak into one of the hotel offices and use the computer for a few minutes before they cautiously kicked him out, so I think I'm going to sneak in there in the morning to post this before the marathon. If the post is dated Friday night, you'll know I was successful. Once I return to Beijing after the marathon tomorrow, Lee tells me the hotel there has free wireless internet. That will give me a chance not only to post about the marathon, but also put up some photos and video (if youtube is available).

Keep checking in!

First Night

2008-05-17T08:40:00.000-07:00

5/15/08 9:12pm Beijing time, Yu Yang Hotel Lobby

At long last, I made it to the hotel. I had to pay 800 kuai extra to get here by taxi, which I intend to make Northwest pay for. I tried to calculate the entire travel time… I got around 35 hours. About 20 of that was on a plane. Otherwise, the rerouting of my flight had mostly positive consequences. I got to see Amsterdam. I got a great seat on the flight out of Holland. And apparently, having seen the marathon site had taken some of the anticipation out of it for the people who were here on time. So despite the inconveniences, I really came out on top.

In my Dale Carnegie coach training session I learned of Carnegie Mellon professor Randy Pausch who recently retired and was invited to do the traditional "final lecture," whereby the retiring professor delivers that "lecture he had always wanted to give." If I remember right he was quoting someone else, but nonetheless made this point:

Experience is what you get when you don't get what you expected.

That has really rang true so far, just in the first 48 hours of these next two weeks.

I haven't yet witnessed the crowds I've been told about in China. I haven't seen any more people on the street at once than in any other city I've been to. But the sheer volume of infrastructure, the endless copses and outcroppings of high rise residential buildings amid towers donning corporate logos, is tremendous. Its really like visiting a city on another planet with a much older intelligent species that has already had to deal with swelling populations. Everything is just so big.

Ironically, I read in my Fodor's guide to China that the Chinese government has spent a lot of money over the years trying to scientifically prove that Chinese are a separate species from homo sapien, that Chinese ancestry only goes back to China, and not Africa.

For your amusement, some instructions from the hotel guest guide. All errors are as published:

"Activities such as prostitution, go whoring, gambling or drug addition [sic] etc. in violation of Chinese laws are prohibited in the hotel. "

"For you safety, Please do not contact with the stranger. "

"For your safety, please slam your door at a moment."

And the best of all, an ad for the "Bright Spring Day" Night Club, cause everyone loves to go out on a bright spring day, you're sure to be afforded "imperial enjoyment and noble taste by our delicate services."

Arrived in Beijing

2008-05-14T21:08:00.000-07:00

Interesting problem... I've arrived here in Beijing, with a host of problems that I'm chipping away at... I got a phone, some cash, some food, a place to plug my laptop in at last, and I copied all the hotel information into a notebook because I never bothered printing it out before. Its kind of hard writing in Chinese, even when copying.

Back to my interesting problem... I can write and edit posts, view my dashboard, etc, but I cannot view my blog at all. I'm curious to see if this even posts... otherwise, its going to ruin my little blogging project here.

The flight wasn't too bad. I got the very front row in coach, so now seat to jam my knees up against for 8 hours. And I watched Enchanted, a wonderful Disney film of a young princess who is tricked into entering real-world New York and struggling with culture shock and the inability of animals to speak. I noticed that the first 4 hours or so of TV and movies they showed had Dutch subtitles, and the second half of the flight were all Chinese subtitles. All the entertainment was spoken in English.

Someone send me an email to help me verify that they can read this post! Thanks!

Amsterdam

2008-05-14T08:24:00.001-07:00

So, here I am in Amsterdam. As soon as I got off the plane, I headed for the train station and into Amsterdam Centraal, the major shopping and cultural district from what I could discern. There were five kinds of stores in the areas: pubs, porn, smoke bars, clothing retail, and asian massage parlors. While the streets weren't as clean as Germany, and more like the United States, the air was still fresh and cool. The town was full of old stone buildings with newer infrastructure built over it. Most off Europe seems to be benefiting from centries-old architecture as a backdrop for modern technology.
I stayed in a pub for a bit talking to a few Dutch guys who were about my age. We discussed the differences among Euros and Americans, mostly regarding superficial cultural features like soccer vs. football. Although baseball is not played widely in Europe, the Dutch team beat Japan in the last Olympics, which was acknowledged in Netherlands with 'oh!' followed by 'eh.' One thing that surprised me is that the Netherlands reputation as a land of free drugs isn't exactly true. Even marijuana is illegal in Netherlands. It is illegal to grow more than one plant, and it is illegal to distribute it, but not illegal to sell small amounts in bars and smoke in the open. The loophole was left to take take some of the muscle out of the black market and help to ensure the safety of what is sold, but it is still and unregulated market. The Dutch say they "look through their fingers with their hands over their faces."

My battery is dying and my plane is boarding.

Odd Occurences I

2008-05-13T17:23:00.000-07:00

In Atlanta, I saw a Jewish man with a University of Florida yamaka (please excuse the misspelling or incorrect term, my Jewish friends.) It had the logo, right there on top.

For those of you who know him, I happened to see Andrew Martin strolling through the airport. He was late for a flight and had to keep going, but it was good to see him.

FUCK NORTHWEST AIRLINES

2008-05-13T13:34:00.000-07:00

My flight out of Atlanta was delayed an hour and a half, so I'm sitting in Detroit now waiting for a 9:20 pm flight to Amsterdam. From there, I'll sit around for about 6 hours, and then to Beijing. Because I was supposed to leave Beijing for Jixian and then the marathon site at 5am (4 hours before my new arrival time) I'm going to have to figure out how to get to my hotel, check in, then get a ride to Jixian 3 hours away, check into my hotel there, and then get to the marathon site.

Buuut, I get to see Amsterdam a little bit. No visa is required, so I'll have a few hours to wander around town, depending on how easy it is to get between the airport and town. They also gave me a bunch of free miles, some vouchers for food in the airport, and some other stupid thing. The adventure begins.

An Explanation for You

2008-05-13T06:04:00.001-07:00

Because I sent out an invite, I suppose a number of you will be reading for the first time, so I'll synopsize my trip to China for you:

I plan to visit Beijing, Qingdao, Shanghai, and Suzhou. My main goal is to complete the Great Wall Marathon, the site for which you can find easily by Googling. Most of my trip, though, I'll be studying business in China. I've found some contacts over there and am slated to meet with a number of men and women in finance and manufacturing, and others of whose industries I'm yet uncertain.

I have this, a personal blog, and a second I'm keeping as a more professional blog. Many of the entries, I think, will be copied and pasted from one to the other, but I wanted to keep a private one for my own security. I can see myself writing things that I don't want just anyone reading. You can find my second blog by clicking on my profile.

I wish I had some certainty as to how frequently I'll have internet access over there. As I understand it, it can be hard to come by. But I will post as often as I can, complete with photos and hopefully videos.

Everyone, feel free to leave as many comments as you'd like. I dig it.

And please forgive spelling and grammatical errors... I will often be writing quickly and will not have time to edit. Trust me, errors bother me a lot more than they bother you!

Happy reading!

2008-05-13T02:31:00.000-07:00

I tossed and turned for 3 hours when I got home earlier tonight, and it has almost nothing to do with going to China. It is, instead, an ongoing issue, a cosmic game of cat-and-mouse, that often lets me think I'm starting to win for a while before checkmating me again and again, as it has once more. So, as in all abusive relationships, I've resigned to smiling and kind of enjoying it. Thank you, Universe, may I have another?

I have most things in my life really going for me, but this just keeps kicking me in the ass over and over, and its the one thing I don't think is ever going to change.

I make no apologies for how turbid this entry is. Y'all can suck it. Its 5:30am, so-- time to pack it up.

MSIWH

2008-05-11T21:46:00.000-07:00

Laleh and I saw Mindless Self Indulgence at the Masquerade Saturday night, and they were as much fun as they've ever been. Their music has evolved in a way that I don't appreciate. Its often grossly overproduced, has slowed down a lot over the years, and about half of the new album is of songs that have been floating around on live albums and recordings of live shows for years. They're still entertaining enough to be worth seeing, and there's still so much energy in the show that its hard to stay away.

Good ol' WH

Afterwards, we chatted with my neighbor's mother for a while before Laleh took off for home. Then Frances and I went to Waffle House where we harassed each other over eggs, sausage, and waffles. Thats pretty much what Frances and I always do wherever we go.

Continuing to prepare for China...

2008-05-07T19:30:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to make my blog more attractive, but finding little more than superficial ways of doing so, like adding photos regardless of their relevance:

Its very difficult to consistently please my millions of daily unique readers. I hope none of them ever feel the tireless anguish each day which I endure; my suffering would thereafter be only in vain.

Earlier today, I boarded the shuttle after my swim to return to Emory. At the last moment, a very nice lady from Nanjing who now studies accounting at Georgia State jumped on. It was the first time I'd seen her since before the new year, and it was never a better time to see her. She remembered that I've been planning a trip to China, and before even saying hello! asked me how it went.

"I leave Tuesday. This Tuesday, I'm so excited."

I listed some of the places I planned to visit. She replied with histories and descriptions. I hadn't realized in our discussions last semester how well traveled she is, but she knew of the German architecture still extant in Qingdao from colonial days, the millenia old public gardens of Suzhou, and other places outside my itinerary like X'ian, her native Nanjing, Wuhan, and Wuxi. It was pleasing to see her impressed with me for knowing where most of those places are.

"I suppose I could go to Hangzhou on the way back from Suzhou... oh, but Hangzhou is south of Hangzhou, so its probably a different train."
Wide-eyed in the retiring sunlight, "Oh! You really do know where they are."
And with a smile, "Yes, I have a map of China on my wall at home that I like to study."

Last night at Dale Carnegie, I learned that trust has two components: credibility and empathy. At this point I'd established credibility pretty well. Without even realizing it, I proceeded in a way that allowed me to show the natural empathy I have for friends.

"How do you feel about all the protests, and the Olympic and Tibet stuff?"
"Oh, I was going to go to the protest at CNN, but [my daughter] was sick. What about you? Did you go?"
"No, I'm not really a protest kind of guy." I thought even when I was a kid that protests and picketing are very childish and pointless, but I understand how people can get wrapped up in them.
"What do you think about Tibet? What do you know about it?"
"Well, I don't know that much about it, but based on what I know, and what I've always known about China since I was a kid, is that Tibet is part of China."
"Oh, I like you very much."
"Yes, well, also, I think the Chinese government is full of liars, and I don't believe what the Tibetans are saying either. I'm not sure China has behaved all that irrationally, though." I didn't mention that I believe Taiwan is and should be a sovereign nation.

She went on to say that China has invested itself in Tibet in unique ways. Many college graduates go to live in Tibet with the intention of staying there for many years in what is geographically and culturally very disparate from the rest of China. They work there in various industries to build the Tibetan economy, making significant sacrifices when they could otherwise be sharing in the indefatigable flow of wealth and prosperity of the east. Now, obviously, the Chinese government isn't pushing college graduates out there because they have such warm, fuzzy feelings about Tibetans. They are intentionally developing economic ties that will make Tibet entirely dependent on them. I have some problems when these kinds of tactics are used in domestic policy, but it is, regardless, the best argument I've heard for Tibet belonging to China. And in the end, I think I effectually garnered her trust through the combination of credibility and empathy.

I spoke with other Chinese friends throughout the afternoon who are equally enthusiastic about my foray into un-Sean-tered territory. Its interesting because throughout the world, while America has been the place to go for so long, there are new amazing places to explore and natives of those places with a newfound pride.

T-minus 8 days

2008-05-05T19:57:00.001-07:00

8 days until I take off for China, and things still haven't come together. This week will be really important for making contacts, scheduling appointments, training, and making last minute preparations. Much of my trip remains uncertain, and that is really exciting. Much of my return remains uncertain, and that is really exciting too. This week, while a preparation for my trip to China is likewise a preparation of a platform for what will happen when I return. This is my my next big push.

That's What She Said

2008-04-25T07:01:00.000-07:00

I never used the "that's what she said" jokes when I was younger, but as an avid viewer of the Office, I have compromised on what used to be a mature, thoughtful demeanor and turned it into... well, this very blog post. Here are a few good ones from the past several weeks:

gchat--
she: i was chatting to my woman about how i had my hair braided at the renfair last weekend and she kept asking me how tight it was/if it hurt putting it in and how long it lasted lol
me : oh really? is... that what she said?
she: LOL

text messg--

james: i have to work but i have sequenced my part already it just needs to be tightened
me: thats what she said
james: who is she?

FACES OF DEATH IS A SHAM

2008-04-20T08:54:00.001-07:00

So I'm watching this documentary on Friday night called "The Dark Side of Porn: Does Snuff Exist?" The title was amusing, to the say the least, suggesting a light side of porn. In any case, its a short clip, about 45 minutes, so I delve in and about halfway through, the director of Faces of Death is interviewed and he announced most of the scenes are completely staged. Although some of the clips are real situations, all of the up close action is scripted. Real video of people out on ledges or otherwise are merely spliced with other video of actors on crudely shot film to make it look real.

Persuaded to have believed its real when I was in high school, some of those scenes have echoed in my mind ever since and terrified me. Bravo, Faces of Death, you son of a bitch. Bravo.

800 miles

2008-04-17T20:12:00.000-07:00

i'm pretty jelicious that vardigan is going to see gang tonight, but its okay. they probably do not brush their teeth.

haha

2008-04-15T19:49:00.000-07:00

also, i loathe this blogging format, and look forward to the summer when i'll have time to design something that people can continue not reading. haha. and end fewer posts with. haha.

eh

2008-04-15T19:34:00.000-07:00

somehow i started having a bad day all of the sudden, and feel just awful right now. somehow i got paranoid about an issue, one of those "ah ha" moments that has failed me many times before, but was nonetheless accurate in the past insofar as realizing there is more going on behind the scenes than i am aware of, but i have no way to verify the last part either.

however, its my dad's 64th birthday, so i will give him a call. its late, yes, but he's a timezone behind, so where he is... its "getting late."

Cracked America

2008-04-05T15:58:00.000-07:00

I couldn't help but marvel at the timing of CNN's program "Black America," a series of documentaries about the history of people of African descent in the United States. I presume it runs the gamut from slavery to segregation to modern day injustices and discrimination.

Remember to look out for Fox News's series on POWs soon.

Vanity Plate I

2008-04-04T11:04:00.000-07:00

I've been awake for about 30 hours now, and it just occurred to me how stupid I've been up to now. So I plan to make long time wrongs right and get a vanity license plate that says "ALF HA"

Cleaning House

2008-03-31T13:25:00.001-07:00

When I was younger, the house was often pretty messy. Both my parents worked and everyone was otherwise busy. There was usually a kitchen sink half full of partially rinsed dishes, laundry waiting to be folded, and vacuuming was always an option.

However, when guests were coming over, it was time to clean. Ironic that we would clean the house for guests and not ourselves, but a messy home is the hallmark of great industry and output, a signature of the ever-productive. The real issue, though, was to market ourselves as both clean AND industrious. A guise of military-grade discipline would supplement our pronouncements of hectic schedules and sleeplessness.

It seems China follows a similar protocol. Guests are coming into town in a few months, so its time to ban public smoking, cull stray animals, restrict the pollution pigs (the counterpart of cash cows?) of 3 quadrillion privately owned internal-combustion conveyances from the arteries of Beijing, and, naturally, to cut western Chinese remonstrances off at the knees.

The parallels between my childhood household and China are remarkable. At one time, an inferior race of whites lived in the shed next to a pool-sized sandbox in the backyard. They were normally pretty docile, but would sometimes raise the issue about exactly where the property lines were drawn, claiming the shed was not on our land at all. We called city zoning officials a number of times over the years to clear up the dispute, but they never responded. One day that old shed just went up in flames. Dad blamed it on lightning on what was a very clear night. Not a cloud in the sky. "Heat lightning," he would explain. We never did hear from the Shedites again.

In 1993, we were forced to issue a public smoking ban when 51% of smokers under 17 in our town reported having had their first cigarette on our property, out behind the old shed. It was a shame, since our property hosted many responsible, of-age smokers who just wanted to have a good time. But a few ruining it for everyone else is pretty common place. Just look at Nicholas Cage.

Observations I

2008-03-30T20:40:00.000-07:00

I learned a few things this week:

Standing in line at the post office, an Emory student behind me was telling his friend:

"You know, I'd really love to live in a socialist nation for a while. Like Germany."
"Yeah, but the tax rates are really high."
"But the great thing is, it doesn't matter, because NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO WITH YOUR LIFE, the government takes care of you when you retire!"

Brilliant, economically responsible citizens Emory is turning out there. Its time to jump on a boat for Euroland to live out my dream of being a junkie, cause no matter what I do with my life... well, refer to comment above.

In other news, I've come across a Jenna Jameson interview on Fox News about her life and career. At one point, the voluptuous Jameson promulgates the empowerment hardcore pornography has imparted on her as a woman. Mystifyingly, she fails to explain exactly how she is empowered by receiving anal sex, fellating a penis smeared with her own feces, and then allowing the agent of empowerment to ejaculate on her face. But I'm sure there is a very good explanation!

Please feel free to leave ideas in the comments and we'll try to send them to her. Thanks!

A Month Already...?

2008-03-23T16:44:00.000-07:00

Wow, I can't believe its been a month since I last posted. I've tried to keep a blog many times, but as compelled as I am to deliver my experiences to my sole and faithful reader... me... I'm always dissuaded by more pressing responsibilities. It's cathartic to write about certain experiences, but catharsis requires distress, so happier times don't demand the same discursive treatment that means so much when I'd rather hide in a foxhole. Those moments are much fewer and farther in between than in the past, so now I find myself stagnating with the contentlessness of contentedness.

I think, however, that getting into the habit of writing about my positive experiences may help to enhance them and extract some ideas otherwise hidden or never born, while honing my composition skills.

I'm pretty much talking to myself now, so click here for something I think you'll really like.

Bad People in a Good World

2008-02-23T19:01:00.000-08:00

I consider myself to be less naive than the average college student, if only because I have a few years on most of them, but I'm a little astonished and badly disheartened after the events of the week.

I stopped at the Twisted Taco on Monday night for a few beers and trivia to celebrate Katie's 21st, and my car got busted into. The window was smashed in using a sock full of stones, evident from a few of which were left on the car seat, and my bag with my laptop, camera, gps, mp3 player, about 275 bucks in gift cards, and some clothing. Most of it insurance will cover, but I'm still out $184 for the window, $100 deductible for the property, and I doubt the gift cards will be covered.

The real damage is in a number of irreplaceables, particularly the information on the computer. Although I occasionally backup my laptop, I hadn't done so for about two weeks. Scores of hours of work is lost, scores of hours of thought and preparation, so some animal could get a few dollars for drugs.

Its vague to me the mentality requisite to looking through people's cars, picking one out to loot, willfully smashing the window in, and then casually walking away with someone else's property. Its beyond my understanding how someone can do that, much less so much worse as people will do, but I do understand that it happens.

Putting my loss to shame, Shanky just got walloped for whatever he had on him in Nairobi last week and has lost potentially irreplaceable function of his hearing and who knows what else. From here, all we can do is hope he's okay, and when he returns, give him every last bit of support we can muster. He may need some real help. I'll recover from my loss in a few weeks, but he could be in it for the long run.

I have some small understanding of what can motivate willful intent of personal violence, but what I have almost no understanding of is why law enforcement permits it. It is not difficult to pick and choose who on the streets are robbing and looting and attacking people. People do not stand aimlessly in parking lots at 2 am because thats where they like to hang out. Identify the people causing the problems, and get them the hell out of the area. In the United States and throughout the world, theres no reason this type of behavior can't be extinguished if it decided that it will no longer be tolerated. Push these people out to the fringes and then snuff them out. You should be home in time for dinner.

Untitled

2008-02-16T01:44:00.001-08:00

I've traveled very little in my life, even in the sense that for several years I hardly left the house. I was more interested in saving my money than moving around to collect experiential capital. But now I find myself zooming around all day, constantly on the move among 4 campuses, or "campi" perhaps.

I work to survive in a laboratory pursuing curative therapy for diabetes and other diseases for which engrafted cells may promote reversal of the offending physiological malfeasance. From there I shuttle to Grady Hospital, a magnet for Atlanta's indigent, which neighbors Georgia State University where I attend classes. It’s difficult to consider myself part of the student body there. I've never assimilated in these past 3 semesters. I sometimes chat with people I recognize from class, but I don't have any real relationships. I feel an intellectual disconnect with most of them, and while there's no shortage of clever kids there, there is certainly no surplus. My only meaningful connections there might be some professors who I've managed to engage.

Throughout the week, I make stops at Georgia Tech, my brother's alma mater, where I have entrenched myself in AIESEC. This is a real whirlwind of a student organization and blows away any others that have come to my attention. It can be described as no less than a microcosm of real world politics, play, pride, and passion. The real value-centers of the organization are never spoken of because they would send you running for your suicide room of a comfort zone if anyone revealed them to you before it was too late to get out. Learning business and leadership skills are what attracted me most to AIESEC, but the opportunity to travel and learn about the world first hand was what sealed the deal. I want not only to learn from others throughout the world, but to teach them about my world as well. This, of course, is a growing mentality among the younger generation of Americans and throughout the world and a mechanism of what is now described as the flattening world.

AIESEC is a different organization to every member. Personally, I'm at odds on a lot of issues with other people within my LC. While "peace and the fulfillment of human potential" is a common vision, it’s become apparent to me that the pathway to and meaning of that vision itself is very different depending on the @er you ask. Therein lies one of the hidden gems of the AIESEC platform, i.e. one of the aforementioned value-centers: the opportunity to learn skills to persuade others to your point of view. In academia, your success tends not be measured by or resultant of your ability to persuade others to your point of view as much as by the addle-minded rigor of debate that often concludes with the serene consensus to agree to disagree. Congratulations on earning your degree, kids, you can now barely discern fact from fiction. Diplomacy and persuasion are some of the most valuable and least acknowledged skills in human endeavor. This is why Henry Kissinger, a maven of persuasion, does not have a bronze statue in a public square yet.

Campus 4 is the office complex adjacent to Perimeter Mall, where I am taking a Dale Carnegie course for the next 10 weeks (I have completed 2 of 12). I have read Dale Carnegies three major works** and many other books and audio programs from achievement icons like Steven Covey and Brian Tracy. (Why these kinds of books are not mandatory reading in public schools, I cannot understand. Schools should be more in the business of teaching kids how to learn rather than what to learn, and that is what much of the success literature genre does.) I am elated to be taking the course because, since I have read the course materials over the past few years, I finally get a chance to put them into practice in an environment designed to help me integrate them into my behavior. I also want to bring what I learn back to my LC. This involves none other than persuading people to take on new perspectives to change their own lives for the better. See? I was right. Ba, da - bah!

About a year ago, I thought to myself that I was in the most dynamic period of my life. Since then, that dynamicism has only escalated. While I am starting to materialize what I have in store for my life, I can only imagine what my life has in store for me. I spiral from campus to campus throughout the week, often frustrated and inspired and exhaustingly energized at the same time, and I usually have the sensation of movement, winding up to launch myself into a maelstrom of personal and extra-personal conquest and change. I'm descending on a flight into Chicago this very moment, looking out over the physical reorganization of land and materials designed to make the environment a better and more efficient place to live. In AIESEC, we move around and reorganize people for the same purpose.

**How to Win Friends and Influence People, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living, and The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Public Speaking