The Latest

Hey gang!

Just wanted to say hi before I run off for Chinese New Year/Spring Fest over at the in-laws! Yoyo and her parents are already over there, tapping their toes for my imminent arrival.

Should be pretty fun. You know. Drinking expensive baijiu (which still tastes less-than-pleasant), over eating, and watching the CCTV Spring Fest Gala tv show. Maybe playing basketball with Yoyo's dad. Hopefully finding time out to have a toke somewhere.

BTW, Canada was super fun. Got to see almost (but not quite) all of the folks I thought i'd get to see. Yoyo got to do a bunch of Canada winter stuff she'd never done before. Like...

drink egg nog :)

make a snowman :)

sledding :)  *what's up w/ all these f'ing old people on the hill???

eat turkey :)

X-C skiing  :(

Upon arriving in Canada she asks, "Why are all the buildings so small?"

Yoyo was also shocked at how many homeless people there were in Vancouver, in the "best city to live in" in the WORLD.

She actually liked Calgary better than Van, partly because of the above, but also 'cause in Calgary it's actually easier to shoot the breeze with random strangers than in Van. And she thinks Van and BJ aren't all that different.

Frankly, she thought Canada would be more different from CN than it actually is.

Mostly she was surprised that Canadians were so... polite! Everyone saying Hello, and How's It Going? and Thanks, and Come Again, and drivers all like stopping for pedestrians to cross the road, and letting other cars get into the lane ahead of them. That's all pretty crazy, yo.

Since getting bk to BJ, Yoyo's been feeling rather uninspired to do anything, and that's been challenging, but for now she's feeling better over at her parents. Hopefully things go well when we get bk to BJ, also planning our wedding and all that sort of fun stressy stuff. haven't got a clue how things'll pan out, but I for one plan to have some fun...

And work's been pretty lame since i got back. W/out going into details, i've been writing tons of stories for our new website china.com (which we bought for ELEVEN MILLION DOLLARS... and they can't find money for a CF card reader?) about places i've never gone, and foods i've never ate. That's pretty lameorific.

At least it shold be temporary, and admittedly hasn't been very hard.

So 春节快乐，everyone! Hope this Horse of a year will be one full of oats and kick, and may our manure help the crops grow sturdy and tall!

Looting!

Wow, fascinating article here:

http://english.cri.cn/11354/2014/01/08/3521s807190.htm

Two trucks loaded w/ mandarin oranges tip over in NW China, and the cops can't stop locals from stuffing as many oranges into their bags and pockets as they can squeeze in.

A cop fired a gun in the air to try and gain control over the crowd.

The article talks about how Chinese people still lack adequate moral standards. And that may be true, but also think... they're stealing a plastic bag's worth of ORANGES.  

Then there's similar pix of people looting sunflower seeds or chinese CABBAGE (also from tipped trucks). These ain't exactly big ticket items. So immoral behaviour is one issue, yes, but basic desperation is the unaddressed issue (perceived or not).

And of course, there's the issue of overloaded trucks. Hell, that's FOUR tipped trucks in the first 8 days of this year! And who knows how many weren't captured by new photographers...