Day 7: The Guizhou 100 Km Trail Challenge

So about 10 days ago i get an email asking me if i want to join this 100km race in Guizhou province. Expenses paid, 3 days of running. I'd heard about this sort of race before, so within seconds i replied saying of course, i'd be happy to join. 

Had to convince my editor and bosses that this Guizhou article would obviously be more important than my previous commitment, and they relented. i hadn't run since the triathlon, so i was kinda worried about that. Especially since a follow up email said if i don't complete the race, i won't get my air fare reimbursed. i imagine this to be a scare tactic to keep people to just take a free holiday. 

So i squeeze in a couple practice runs, and off i go, completely f'ing inadequately prepared for the task. 

Day 6: The Tiny Little World of Beijing News

While shooting the Halloween subway vid, i talked w/ a guy dressed as Pee Wee Herman. He noted my journalist costume and hollered, "I don't trust journalists!" I humbly said that maybe he should meet more.

Turns out he IS a journalist, for The Guardian. Which is funny since just that afternoon, i was figuring out how i can pitch a story to The Guardian. Just now i googled his name, and clicked on one of the first links. A podcast which started out w/ a call from my friend and ex-CRI coworker Natalie. Then another ex-coworker's article is linked to the site. Funny.

At another Halloween party i went to (where the average age was over 50), i met another freelance writer, and she also wrote about stuff like bike culture in Beijing and the Inner Mongolia marathon. And also has had a few stories published on The Atlantic via the same editor.

Go figure. 

Day 5: "Work"

Yesterday i was in the office til 8. Then came home and spent more time trying to find music for my vid.

Today i was in the office til 7. Then i grudgingly had to run off to meditation. Yeah, it's work, but when you're on a roll editing, it's pretty darn fun putting the pieces together.

Yoyo just watched the almost-finished project and said, "That's the worst video you've done yet." But i rather like it. It takes an alright party and makes it look raucous. Yay, editing.

Day 4: The BJ Electronic Music Encounter vid

So this went online today:


Can somebody please let me know if this link is viewable from Canada/USA? It's like the CN Youtube, but has f'ing annoying ads.

You can also see it here, lower quality, i think.

Anyhow, it was pretty fun to make, and i learned a few more Premiere Pro tricks this time. i hope that i'll eventually be competent enough w/ my vid and camera skills that they'll make me more employable in Canada. Apparently video work is a lot easier to come by than photography. Or writing. Also... it's pretty fun.

On the downside, it sucks up a ton of time if you let it, and perfectionists (like my bro) will slave for hours over some detail that 99.3% of viewers wouldn't even notice.

I, on the other hand, don't have time for perfectionism. i just have to crank stuff out on time, and hopefully do a good job.

Note: Doing a good job vs a mediocre job at CRI isn't exactly necessary. That's up to the individual.

Day 3: The Beijing Halloween Subway Party 2013

The Saturday one, that is.

I decided to go as a reporter. I had 2 press passes stuck into my fedora, carried a camera, and had my face beat up and glasses broken. 'Cause if you cover sensitive news in China, that's what can happen. I worried that the costume may be tempting karma, but risked it.

The party was pretty fun, though pbly would've been funner if i was just drinking and not worrying so much about if my shot was in focus or not.

then afterwards me and a few friends were sitting around OUTSIDE of the subway exit. maybe for like 10 min. There were a few cops around, as there had been during the whole subway party. They were talking w/ Yoyo at one point. Then i hear Yoyo say, "he's a reporter. He's canadian." Then they're asking me for my business card. I lie and say i don't have any. Then they say "All foreigners in China need to carry their passports w/ them at all times. Where is yours?" I'm like, oh fuck, like i want to deal w/ this. i said i could write it out for them. i was dumb enough to write out my actual passport #. Then he read it back to me, but he thought the J was an I. "Yes, that's correct." I say. He seems satisfied, and we run away.

Lesson: Be careful w/ yr karma.

Will post the vid when it's ready. 

Day 2: The Secret Super Late Halloween Party

Tonight there's a party on the subway tonight to celebrate Halloween, rather after the fact. But they couldn't have the party yesterday because yesterday was a different secret party on the subway. Same time, same station, same 50 minute loop, but different organizers.

'Cause when you secretly invite yr friends to meet on the Dongzhimen platform to ride a loop, it's not like anyone can stop you.

Or can they?

Apparently the organizer's already invited 500 university students  to come out, plus whomever, and is apparently trying to break some world record. Who knows how you get an official head count.

But if that many people come out, or things get unruly, maybe the police will pay a visit. "Let me guess... you're supposed to be... a police officer, right?"

But you know how it is with work. Somebody contacts CRI and asks them to send a videographer, and now i have to work Saturday night. Grumble grumble.

i had to work last wkend too, at some experimental electronica event. Grumble grumble.

Just jokin' folks. Can't you tell when a grumble's sarcastic? Although it is true that i'm racking up the overtime and haven't had much chance to take time off.

And won't for a while. More on that later.


Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/awreye/

Day 1: Recap

Well here i still am, and i think Nov could be Nat'l blog posting month. Well i def didn't do any in Oct, so i'll try now then. 

It's been a while and LOTS has happened. So here's a terribly short recap. 

i entered and completed an Olympic distance triathlon. It was super fun. And much easier than i expected. Much easier on yr body than a marathon, that's for sure. 

My freelance career has kicked off. Sold a story to Vice magazine (CN) and to The Atlantic. Good for the resume, but incidental on the wallet. i even got paid to shoot photos for a BJ design wk event, which was fun. 

Went to do a 4 day bike ride around Qinghai Lake w/ Yoyo, but after a sleepless night of hotel hassles, Yoyo was in no mood to continue on, so we turned back to the city of Xining. Then we met up w/ her relatives in Xian and that was fun too, in a different way. But Qinghai Lake really is spectacular, so it's w/ a twinge of regret that we turned back after one day, and 106 km.

went on a trip to Shanxi province w/ a bunch of professional photographers, which was pretty good. i feel like a real rookie when people talk tech, but in the end, my pix generally hold up. Also, i edit RAW files now. It's SOOOOOOOOO much better. Can't believe i went so many years editing jpegs.

And Yoyo and i have booked our wedding site, for next May. A gorgeous BJ courtyard restaurant that's like 8 minutes jog from our apt. Lemme know if you might be around BJ at that time! 

 

Well, that's about it. I'm good, and i really hope you all are too. Cheers, friends!

One Link Plus Another Link = Hitched

Well there ya go.

Last Thursday, me and Yoyo took a train to Xian to get married. Signed some papers, not without complications, but luckily no complications that were insurmountable. I repeated some Chinese sentences whose meaning i had no clue to, signed some papers (requested not to use my real signature (which is illegible)), the marriage officer suddenly decides to accept our marriage photo which doesn't meet specs, (see above) and presto! We're married!

This may come as a surprise to some as I may have let slip about plans for a 2014 wedding.

But there's a Chinese tradition (one of the new "traditions") where couples get legally married up to a year before their wedding date.

Because the legal process of getting married is definitely not w/out its hassles. Such as having to go to Xian where Yoyo's hukou (Chinese household registration) is from.

Many Chinese folk don't consider a couple married until after the wedding, regardless of legal papers. So that puts me and Yoyo into the gray area of "sort of married," ha.

But it's married as far as we're concerned. Now she's my shijie shang zui hao de laopo and i'm her laogong.  That's fun.

Yoyo's mom and dad and cousin came out from Hanzhong to celebrate w/ us. We had a couple gala meals, which was all rather good fun. Her family's really great. My Chinese is slowly getting better and better, but still horribly inadequate to communicate as well as i'd like to w/ her parents and relatives. They nonetheless give me the benefit of the doubt as to being an all around fine chap.

At the last meal, we drank the super expensive bottle of baijiu that i bought for her parents last spring festival, and we also cracked out a pretty damn tasty bottle of Canadian wine (courtesy of my parents).

Lots of toasts and all. Yoyo's dad was entertainingly inebriated. Also, a couple of my best BJ friends were also in Xian and were able to attend the lunch. This American friend's Chinese is pretty damn impeccable, so he was a big hit, ha. I also win face from that, so that's all good.

My folks and Yoyo's folks also had a semblance of a Skype conversation, which is all good to establish a bit of contact.

It all feels a bit unreal. i admit, i was ignorantly mostly expecting it to be a simple legal affair, not anticipating the gatherings of  up to 20 people. But it felt really good to see everyone out.

As for now, i still have to pay attention to stop calling her my gf. But it's great to be w/ this awesome lovely woman who really cracks me up sometimes. It's great to plan a future w/ her. And yes there'll be challenges and ups and downs, just like Oprah promised, but it's nice to have someone at my side to ride it all.

Also... me and Yoyo plan to go to Calgary and Vancouver this December. We've been busy gathering all sorts of pain in the ass records, documents and bank statements to attain her travel visa. We've been told that having a marriage license might smooth out the visa process, so we added it to the documents and submitted the whole inch high stack of papers as soon as we were back in town. Wish us luck! I'll be hugely disappointed if we don't get it.

Crash Course

On Friday i was riding my bike to interview a woman (and carrying a crazy expensive work camera), riding pretty fast when suddenly some car just zooms out in front of me. I jammed on the front brake, hit the side of his car and ended up sprawled on the hood. I slid off, and yelled at the driver a bit. "Fucking hell! what the fuck are you doing? Is that the way to drive?" (1/2 in Eng, 1/2 in bad Chinese). I was repeatedly slamming my fist down on the car hood. It was very exciting. He was certainly apologetic and asking if i was hurt or needed to go to the hospital. 

I was acting pretty mad, but in my head there was a little voice saying, "No problem. You don't need to be so mad." So i paused and looked over my body, which seemed to be quite free from damage. I looked at my bike, which seemed to be quite free from damage. I worried about the camera, but assumed it was free from damage. 

"Sorry, I shouldn't have yelled at you," I apologized. "We should both be more careful." Then I hopped on my bike and rode away. Maybe 5 minutes later i realized that the front tire sustained a flat. Which complicated matters, but actually led to some very cool things that afternoon/evening. 

Anyhow, that's the 2nd time i've been in a car accident in BJ, both times, very fortunately escaping body unscathed. Most sincere thanks to the powers that be. 

I would never ride a fixie without brakes in Beijing. Or anywhere pbly. I like brakes. 

Riding a bike in Beijing can definitely be a bit dangerous. But even the cyclists can be dangerous too!

Like some months ago, it was a rainy day, and some pedestrian was wearing dark colors and I totally rammed into him at pretty high speed. That wasn't so cool. 

And another time, I ran into this old man who had a little girl on his bike. Everybody ended up on the road. the girl was crying. The old man's shirt was all dirty. I looked up and was like, Hey who had the red light? Oh, it was me. Sorry! 

The good side of those bike accidents is that now every time i'm annoyed at people riding like idiots, i have to say, "Well at least they're not crashing into people!" Really, i shouldn't gripe about other's riding habits. Or driving habits. So long as i come out okay, no big deal. And thanks to the universe.

Hanggai Festival 2013

i'm pretty happy w/ this vid i did about a music fest. After i had HOURS of footage, i had no idea how i could squeeze it dn to my ideal of 4 minutes, but in the end, i think it worked out pretty smooth. This vid was more of an independent effort than the others: i stopped hassling my coworkers, asking "What do you think of this part?" all the time.

Also, it really is a great and unique fest. Pretty great that my job gets me to do stuff that i wouldn't normally do, but still really enjoy.