eating my last breakfast for this tip. 3 weeks go by in a flash! didn’t get very good sleep last night as usual before a big flight. packing till 1am, mia waking crying as usual. stressed about not being able to pack everything as usual. but i’ve got my fried instant-heart-attack yummy fried elephant ear/egg type thingy and a cup of coffee so i’m happy for the moment.

hongie’s sister & mom just got here and we’re re-packing some crap in boxes that we forgot to pack before. throwing up random pics.

We went to visit Hongmei’s friend Zheng Qi, and her son Wang Chuan Yi. We had fun playing! For dinner we had Mongolian Lamb Meatballs, so yummy!! Mushrooms, Chinese-style tofu tortilla with pork & eggplant; little stir-fried fish, and corn with sweet syrup.

Videos have been published to an FTP site.

If you are interested, E-mail me.

Day 6. It’s been impossible to keep up with the blog. Pretty much the past few days have been jam-packed with activity, and little time to sit down to devote to writing. Right now, though, Mia’s getting ready to take a nap, so there’s nothing to do except hang around the apartment.

Going back and doing a day-by-day “What we did” is too difficult now… it’s all run together already, and we’ve only been here six days. I’m just going to write about things in general so far anyway.

So- Today, we’re at Hongmei’s Sister, Hongyen’s, apartment. She is married with one daughter, Bao Xi, age 9. They live in a small town north of Tianjin. It took about an hour to drive up here from Hongmei’s Aunt’s apartment. It’s a lot more luxurious here! We have an actual sit-down toilet, more rooms for privacy, and a marble-tiled floor.

It’s really interesting to observe how many of the details of things are here. I’m not talking about social stuff; I’m talking about refrigerators, outlets, cooking methods, toys, shopping carts… America prides itself on ingeniuity, but I’ve seen so many things here that are so clever, it makes you want to slap your forehead and say, “Why didn’t I think of that?” Still, conversely, some things are done in a backwards, inefficient manner as compared to how they’re done in America, that I think to myself, “Why in the heck do they DO it that way?”
For example, it is quite common to see people sweeping the street, or floor, with an old, careworn straw broom, with a short handle that forces the user to bend over. A shop push-broom would probably increase the sweeping efficiency on a scale of 500-1000%, but push brooms are simply not a common item. I saw ONE for sale, the last time I was here 3 or so years ago, but it was a sad, neglected item carelessly placed in a dusty corner of the entrance to the supermarket, for sale.
Electrical outlets are, of course, 220 volts here. However, there are two formats for plugging in: Your basic 2-prong plug-in, identical to ours; but their three-prong plug-in is such that the two positive/negative prongs are at angles from each other. In general, all power strips contain two 2-slot outlets, one 3-prong outlet, and another two-prong outlet on the end face. This is an example of a clever design: Should one only desire to use it as an extension cord to something with two prongs, you can plug it into the end, creating a more streamlined connection, space-wise. To date, I have never observed such a device in America.
Another example of the small engineering differences are the flush toilets. The most common type of flush toilet has two buttons on top of the tank lid. They are designed as two halves of an oval shape; giving a more elegant design to the buttons. One button, usually bigger, is for a full flush; exactly what you’d expect when you flush a toilet. The smaller one simply opens the tank valve as long as you’re pushing it, only flushing for as long as you hold it. This allows you to control the amount of water you’re flushing with.
Cooking is mostly done with older traditional utensils and pots, pans, etc. As I’ve mentioned to lots of other people before, Chinese do not bake anything in their homes. Nobody has an oven. Everything is either fried (stir-fried, or pan fried), boiled, or steamed. Wood and bamboo steamers are used.
Chinese love to drink hot water, and thus her sister’s apartment has a water cooler/heater in the living room; the typical office-type water cooler with the big 5-gallon tank on top of it. The refigerator is also in the living room. This is probably because there is no room in the kitchen; which is actually in a balcony area. The dining area is more like a wide hallway leading to the kitchen, so there’s no room for the fridge there.
Milk is not a commonly purchased item, and it’s actually somewhat of a luxury item. It’s sold mostly in small cartons about the size of a Juicy Juice container, complete with straw, and the straw actually has two tubes so that it’s extendable. It is not necessary to refrigerate it as much as American milk; I’m not sure why; it’s somehow processed to last longer at room temperature. However it will last longer in the fridge so we keep it in the fridge. At the supermarket, I saw all the milk for sale. It was all packaged in very fancy cardboard boxes with glossy print around it, a ribbon stuck to the front, and a plastic window showing the cartons inside, thus further exemplifying it as a luxury item.
Cheese is a rare luxury food item too, being as expensive here as it is in the U.S. I actually saw genuine American “Land O’ Lakes” brand American Cheese and Butter for sale, but they were prohibitively expensive. More expensive than they are in the U.S.! We bought a slightly cheaper brand. I knew it was genuine because the package had no chinese characters on it whatsoever.
Another random example of small engineering differences that seem clever, is the sink stopper in the bathroom sink. Rather than being a long stand with a chrome hubcap on top and a rubber seal, it’s a thick disc fitted in the drainhole and permanently fixed on an axle, so that you can flip it and it comes un-stopped. Hard to explan. I’ll probably make a video of this stuff anyway. This design does force you to stick your hand down into the water to drain the sink, but if you’re that particular about your sink water, then you have problems. Besides, this design is much more maintenance-free, as I can personally vouch for, having replaced some sinks in my past.

here we are in the something-or-other airport in Korea. Apparently it’s 6:38 PM back home.

Ate at a Bi Bim Bop restaraunt in the airport. They had many interesting ammenities. For instance, to get water with your meal, you retrieved a stainless steel cup from a cabinet that had ultraviolet light to disinfect them, and they were also heated. You had your choice of hot or cold water.

Day 1…

Well, not quite yet. Here’s the plan:

In case you didn’t know, we’re going to China for three weeks. This will be my third trip. The first was one week. The second was two weeks, and yes, you guessed it, this trip will be three weeks long. We’re leaving the apartment today, and driving up to my aunt’s in Lisle, where we’ll park the car, have dinner, then call a taxi or limo to take us to the airport. The limos are actually comparable to the taxis, and are far more convenient and luxurious! Our flight leaves at 1am, and we were told by the travel agency to be there THREE HOURS ahead of time… So I guess we’ll take off around 9:30 or so. I think that’s a load of crap, we’re going to end up sitting at the terminal for 2 hours. Oh well… Better safe than sorry, I guess.

Once we get on the plane, the flight is many many hours, to Seoul, Korea. There’s a 3-hour layover there, then we fly to Tianjin. I actually don’t remember what time we’re supposed to touch down, but it’ll take an hour or two to get through customs, get our luggage, all that. From there, we’ll probably be beat and tired and wanna just go to sleep.

I bought this thing, which is supposed to purify water, for $100. Hongie was giving me a hard time about how much money I spent on it, but if you were in my shoes you’d do the same thing, buster. That there Mao Tse Tung’s revenge, or “Travelers diarrhea”, is nothing to take lightly. It’s horrible. Anyway- this thing is basically a wand, with a digital display, and a 3-inch long tube that emits ultraviolet light. supposedly, if you stick it into a cup or bottle of water, and stir it around for 90 seconds or so, it kills 99.99% of the bacteria, viruses, and some other microscopic thing which I forget. critters. I expended some brownie points to get it… I hope the damn thing works.

HA! The auto-correct function wants to turn “Hongie” into “Hoagie”. Awesome! My wife is a sandwich!

I also packed two large bottles of generic Pepto-Bismol, and I have a prescription antibiotic as well, that may help if I do end up getting it anyway.

Another thing I’m bringing are a bunch of recipes I got off the internet, and all my measuring cups and spoons! I hope, that when we get there, I am able to procure an oven, and all the ingredients to bake lots of yummy treats! Cookies, Bread… Yeah, all the things I’m not supposed to eat because I’m “Glucose Intolerant”. Hey, man, I got nothin’ against glucose. But my body does. It’s basically one step away from diabetes, and too much sugar & carb consumption could tip me over the edge when I’m older. But that’s not going to stop me from trying to pump out large quantities of yummy tasty treats if I can! and maybe even cook some good dinners! Apparently, though, it’s pretty tough to locate many ingredients there, and they may end up being really expensive. We’ll see.

So, that’s basically it… the girls are both still sleeping, this is my last time to myself. Naturally I fired up Starcraft and played one last single player game. I’m pretty bored with the standard game, though. I can’t wait for the new version to come out!

In case you didn’t know, China blocks Facebook. I can’t reach people via Facebook there, and Google as you may know is talking about pulling out of China as well; which would mean more limited access to my e-mail. Of course, I won’t have a phone; and if I did, there are only a couple times per day that are convenient to talk to people on the other side of the world: Early in the morning, and late at night!

So I’m going to try and reach this blog; and keep updates through this channel.

I blogged a long time ago that Microsoft has discontinued making MS Money. Here are 16 alternatives.

 

“Get Rich Slowly” is an awesome blog, by the way, for anybody interested in personal finance (and who shouldn’t be)?

http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2009/07/01/good-bye-microsoft-money-16-powerful-personal-finance-programs/

In 1997, I took an “Engineering Economics” course. This was one of the best courses I ever took, because what it REALLY taught had nothing to do with Engineering; it had to do with MONEY and INVESTING. During this class, we had a project in which we would pick $5,000 worth of company stocks and see how they went.

If I had actually invested $5,000 in those stocks, they would now be worth (You ready for this?) $9436. That’s nearly double!

Now, before I tell you what companies I had pretended to invest in, let me say that two of them are now out of business, the third has lost Two-Thirds of its original value. So what were they?

American Trans-Air (Gone)
Gateway Computers (Gone)
Advanced Micro Devices (Lost 2/3 value)
Apple Computers (Yep! The Winner!)

Apple was $22.19/share in 1997. Now it’s $209.79. I would have made about $4,436 over 12 years, or a 188% increase. I think.

…But, given my previous history of ACTUALLY buying stocks, going from $1,000 to Zero, I’d say my genius is still in question.

Why is the apostrophe necessary? Diff’rent Strokes used it! Why didn’t What’s Happening use it? bah. i’m getting off track. the purpose of this blog entry was to update my adoring fans as to what I’ve been up to. Well, fans, let’s see. first off, today, I just FAILED my 70-643 Microsoft exam. Egads! Oh well, it happens. I could blame everybody else, but would that be the right thing to do? Yes, yes it would be. It is everybody else’s fault except mine. However I forgive you all, and fully plan to re-schedule the exam within a week or two’s time. I shall probably order some ancillary study materials. Just don’t let it happen again, OK, world?

Mia’s hitting the stage where her cognitive skills and personality are beginning to develop rapidly. Her vocabulary increases at breakneck speed, and she’s starting to get a little bit of the terrible two syndrome. Yes… soon, the supernanny in me will have to start coming out. The Brat Whisperererer. Only, I probably won’t whisper. It’ll be more like, the Brat Yellererer. It is 25% her fault I did not pass my exam.

I got a bag of sun chips here, and guess what: There is still a surmountable bunch of caloric intake with sodium and partially hydrogenated vegetable oil that is going to be consumed during the crafting of this missive.

Speaking of writing, I have discovered a wonderful new world of fiction. The author is Terry Pratchett, and he writes fantasy novels. “Whoah, whoah, whoah! I don’t like elves & shit!” well, too bad. you’re reading MY BLOG. so GTFO if you don’t like it. The “Series”, I suppose you might call it, is the “Discworld” universe. But, let me tell you: Beyond that, it bears less resembalance to a tradititional Tolkein-like fantasy, than to say, Douglas Adams’ “Hitchhiker’s guide” series. If you like Douglas Adams, you will like Terry Pratchett. But, don’t start with the first book. from what I’ve heard, the fist couple books sucked. I was recommended “Guards! Guards!” but I have not read it. I HAVE read “Going Postal” and “Making Money” and they are pretty good. It is 12% Terry Pratchett’s fault I did not pass my exam.

Sigh, I must prepare a sippy cup of milk for said brat. An additional 2%.

BACK! so i’ve been getting a lot of cd’s from the library and ripping them. I’ve got like nine George Carlin CD’s, and I also just got about five Richard Pryor CD’s. Rodney Dangerfield, Lenny Bruce, Stephen Wright. Also, music. A co worker has turned me on to the Kinks, so I’m exploring that vast musical ROOT of ROCK now. I had no IDEA the Kinks went back to the 60’s! I just don’t understand how they stayed under my rock & roll Radar for so long!! George, Richard, et. al, plus the kinks, are 5% to blame.

MMmmmm. Sun Chips. 2%.

We continue to be debt free, build up the nest egg, and look to the future through the scope of a high-powered .38 caliber rifle. The Future is TOAST! I will PWN the future!! I will forgive the Future its blame for my failing the MS exam, as it is never really here.

We will be in CHina for the better part of February. Actually Jan 30 through about Feb 20th or so. THREE WEEKS! The People’s Republic of China is also 6% to blame for my certification debacle.

We of course had a great thanks giving up in Hebron/South Haven/Portage/The Dunes. We had a full house, and I saw my grandpa, my parents, my mom’s sisters and their spouses, and my cousin erin and her spouse, my sister and her friend. Collectively, you all hold the greatest responsibility for distracting me away from my studies, and you ought to be ashamed of yourselves for tempting me with such good food, heartfelt family love, and awesomely fun game playing in Origins and Outburst! God, I love family game holidays!! They are so much FUN!!!  30% of your Daily Allowance of Why I failed my Exam.

my Comcast rebates are finally in, so… I guess it’s time to cancel the cable. *sniff* it was fun while we had it. But I cannot justify an extra $60/month just to get DVR recordings of a few shows, the most important of which, are available streaming online. Hoarders, Survivor, Barney, Thomas the Tank Engine, those three shows constitute about 80% of my TV watching. Survivor alone is probably 5% to blame.

Speaking of which, Hoarders is now half over… so, if I start watching now, I can >> through ALL the commercials! HA HA Ha ha haaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!

me