plant update, and more

i just got back from a week in the philippines. it was a great trip, excellent weather, blah blah i'll put up a post on it soon with lots of pictures. in the meantime here is a picture of my plant, which has hit upon some hard times after moving to the new apartment. those that follow the blog, however, will remember about how my plant almost died before bouncing back with a vengeance. therefore, i remain optimistic, as long as turner didn't kill the thing while i was away on vacation.

besides the philippine post i am pleased to announce that durrell and i are working on a couple of ambitious initiatives for the blog. and by a couple, i mean one. but it should bring our blog up to 2008 standards, so i do hope you all stick around for the unveiling in a couple weeks.

and finally, i just want to say that the posting reach-around method that durrell is using seems to label every post as by me. though i imagine it's clear who's who at this point, i just want to throw that out there.

Ramblings and an Invention

First the ramblings. Feb. 14 marked the start of not only Valentine's Day, but also the start of Chinese New Year. And for Chinese New Year, it seems that everyone single inhabitant of Beijing goes out and purchases fireworks and firecrackers. At the end of the day it looks like Seattle on the 4th of July times a factor of 20 (which is roughly the population difference or just a made up number). Anyway, as you can imagine after everyone is finished setting off there fireworks and firecrackers there is mounds and mounds of garage in the street. I never really thought about how they clean up the mess, but they employ the same technique that is used during a snow storm, i.e. bulldozers, garbage trucks and thousand of people with brooms. It looked a lot like Golze's post on the snow.

Another rambling is the other day I made pizza with friends and it turned out great. As you can see from the picture. I recently finished the book Outliers and it says that it takes about 10,000 hours before you can become an expert at something. I don't really know about that because I haven't spent 10,000 hours making pizza and I already got a black belt in pizza.

Now the invention. Sir Isaac Newton created calculus in an effort to discover gravities effect on the earths orbit. I created my invention in order to discovers alcohols effect on the brain. My new invention is a drinking game. I have no name for it and am open to suggestions, bur right now it is tentatively called The Long March. Like all good drinking games, the rules are simple, however, the involves cards. The game is played much like war.

Rules:

1. Highest card wins, and if you win you take a sip of your drink.

2. War trumps anything, meaning if you throw out an ace but two others throw out two fives, the winner of the war drinks. If playing with four people and there are two wars then the highest cards war competes.

3. The first person to get rid of all their cards has to drink half their drink and are out of the game.

4. The game is over when only one person is left with all the cards or when one person still left in the game finishes all of their drink.

5. If playing with jokers, everyone drinks when the card is played and the person who throws the joker drinks twice.

Since the game is still in the beta stage, I am looking for better rules and a good name for the game, so please leave suggestions.

2 pimps and a Dealer

After walking home after an intense Brewing and tv watching secession with Golze and New Clark (aka Turner), I decided to cut throw SLT for a more interesting walking home and to see if I could find something to satisfy my sweet tooth. As it was midnight as I was walking, most businesses were closed. However, not all of them. In a one block radius from the Jinkelong to Ya Show, I encountered a dealer and 2 pimps. Apparently, the pimps in China adopt the same strategy as coffee shops in Seattle or for those of you in China as Uighur granola sellers.  The two pimps came at me with the same usual line, "you want sex? Sex! Sex!" Well, I think they were pimps, but I might look like the Becue Biglow type, so it could have been an offer. Normally, in these situations, I try to come up with something witty to see what they will say, e.g. I have AIDS, how much? or Do you have any no armed midgets?, but because I was tired I could not think of anything. I have not shaved in a long while so I look like a complete bum, especially with what I was wearing tonight. So that leads me to assume that the people who buy drugs and get prostitutes look like complete bums too. I think maybe it might be time for me to shave. Because I can't even grow a full beard anyway, I have something of a new style that I am calling the archipelago.

who says there's no innovation in china

from my work's holiday party, which took place last week. it was actually a cream of lobster soup, not very good, but i can't figure out how they got to cappuccino.

my team and i performed a dance to a korean pop song at the party, what my chinese colleagues keep translating as a "hot dance." i'll upload the video once we get it at work.