教的法律在中国

Back in the USA

2009-02-27T06:34:00.000-08:00

Well, now I am back in the USA...back in my hometown of Austin, Texas. I am enjoying the cool sunny Texas spring weather, and the laid back Austin lifestyle. The job market isn't too bad, and I have been interviewing for positions involving law.

I bought a bicycle, and am living a low budget lifestyle while I get settled in. I hope to get a temporary job, take the patent bar, get a job as a patent agent, take the Texas state bar, and then either move up or get a better paying job as an attorney. This will all take some time, so I am practicing patience.

I am also practicing Yoga, Ashtanga Yoga, every morning at around 6 am, with my father. I recommend Yoga to anyone who wants to feel more vital during the day, and sleep better at night. You can view my resume at www.bpanahij.com, if you want to check out my qualifications.

A pic of me from 1989.

2008-10-24T03:07:00.000-07:00

Chinese Driving Etiquete and the Law of the Road

2008-10-22T03:13:00.000-07:00

From Day Eleven China

Chinese roadways follow a single rule of driving, as far as I can tell, and it works very efficiently. The rule is: look where you want to go, and then go. There are traffic lights, and lanes, and center lines, but all of that is just a courtesy of the public infrastructure. I have seen a lot of traffic quickly routed in various directions more quickly than I recall seeing in the past.

The experience is somewhat like trusting that others headed your direction will be looking at you and will not hit you. In fact, it is the best idea for driving I have seen.

There is some amount of caution, as a courtesy demands. For instance, you might look both ways, left and right, before proceeding into an intersection through a red light. However, on a green light, it is best to look in the direction you wish to proceed. You will see what is before you, and others will see what is before them. It's really quite simple and en-genius.

It is getting colder....

2008-10-21T00:50:00.000-07:00

The Yantai air is thick with cold moisture. It sits on the concrete and pavement surrounding my fourth story apartment. The sky is white, and the trees are turning brown or golden, holding onto green between the sunny days. The day is quiet, and at night a stray kitty whines into the north. I sleep in my living room to get some peace. I, drinking green tea, and eating Oreo cookies, smoking Yuxi cigarettes, and playing the blues, installing applications, and my absentee ballot, China tea cups, and class websites, American music and picking up new Chinese words. One year contracts, visions of American lanscapes and buildings. I dream of Whole Foods and a tasty hamburger, and the economy worries me, and then I sit up and keep going.

October in Yantai ...and the air is getting colder

2008-10-20T02:32:00.000-07:00

Last week I took some time to go eat some sushi and see the coast from a different angle. I also took a trip around some parts of town I haven't visited or photographed yet. The coastline here is very photogenic, as is much of the newer and more developed parts of Yantai. The developing parts are less so.

I have so many pictures I don't know how to post them all. These are representative of what I have seen lately. The "wedding area of the beach," some new buildings downtown: apartments and offices, and an old fashioned gate to the park.

Real estate in China is privately owned, and can be purchased by foreigners after living in China for over a year. There is no property tax, but there is a purchase fee to the government, which is a very small percentage : 1% or less.

Perspective on the Financial Bomb from Where I Sit

2008-10-13T01:26:00.000-07:00

Unions in the United States

Unions are the groups of people whom collectively bargain with employers to achieve the benefits they want. In the United States unions are achieving power by performing walk out strikes of specific employees and groups of employees. The United States law regarding labor is historically favoring the freedom of consent and the right to labor. Current laws have denoted the presence of unfair bargaining positions in employment relationships. Labor laws present a set of minimum standards for employment, such as minimum wage, minimum health care, and minimum post employment benefits.

While I was working as an engineer, my employers offered health care and dental plans, as well as significant retirement benefits. These plans are not required by law. The state wide minimum wage rates are required by law. Benefit plans going beyond minimum wage are promoted through employer incentives, granted by the federal and some state governments, such as tax breaks on the dividends of health care and retirement plans.

Some US citizens deny these benefits in favor of more tangible immediate benefits, such as higher pay, or future stock options. Federal corporate and securities laws require companies offering these alternate benefits structures to make them publicly available when the corporation is publicly owned and operated.

Unions in the United States are based on a theory of free consent. Like China, the government adopts some minimum employment terms and benefits, but in the United States, the employers often choose to elect certain tax deductible benefit plans. Plans such as these offer a win-win situation for employers and employees alike; What about investors? Recently Warren Buffet wrote that dividends are the financial weapons of mass destruction. -Wall Street Journal

Dividend Plans are essentially insurance on a failure of an underlying term of a contract. In the case of labor unions these dividends are neither negotiated nor required under the terms of the contracts between individual employers and individual employees. These entities have zero negotiating power over the terms of collectively bargained contracts, and also have no privity of contract with the employee for the negotiated benefits.

For instance, if an employee falls ill and is unable to work as negotiated in the employment contract, the employer must abide by the terms of a separate contract with a labor union, guaranteeing that the employee receives a set of boilerplate benefits under a prior negotiation. These negotiations often take place without the consent or presence of any employees whom become ill. The result is as Warren Buffet, so brazenly stated, that these insurance plans are weapons of mass destruction; in my words, they are ticking time bombs waiting to go poof like a balloon. The fundamental flaw in these collectively bargained contracts, under the current US theory of free consent to contract, is they are legally unenforceable. These contracts, when enforced by law create a case precedent, which favors enforcing non-negotiated contracts.

The current economic emergency is double-fold, one one hand the law is being challenged and maneuvered through, and on the other hand the employees are seeing little to no benefits within the time when benefits might actually do what they should. Essentially Warren Buffett is walking away from this disaster before the American Juries catch up to his financial master plan: Sell empty promises and close the buffet before Americans get their just deserts.

Labor Unions in China

Chinese government institutions operate under the theory of compulsory unionization, where the government requires employees to receive benefits under a collectively bargained negotiation. Unlike free market unions in the U.S. and elsewhere, Chinese unions punish employers for denying benefits and correct the situations through proportional measures.

The use of the strike by US labor unions is often a non-proportional response to individual labor groups concerns, and even at times the result of ambitious salary goals in the labor class. Under the compulsory theory, there is no independent class of laborers. An admonition by a government official and a nurturing hand in correcting and alleviating the real concerns of employees creates a set of laws designed on the whole to elevate the working class, while limiting institutional leaders ability to act irresponsibly.

Non-government companies may not have labor unions, and employee-employer disputes are handled privately or in the court systems.

So

2008-10-10T03:37:00.000-07:00

me in America.

Installing Flash on Ubuntu Intrepid 64 with 64 Bit Firefox

2008-10-10T03:18:00.001-07:00

sudo apt-get install nspluginwrapper
sudo apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree

It works!

The Chinese Network

2008-10-10T03:04:00.001-07:00

Chinese Universities, private companies, and the government created networked connections between all of the major cities in China. These connections currently offer extraordinarily high speed connections between Chinese Universities. They also offer around 3 to 64 K-Bytes per second across the globe, to the United States. I was using my internet connection a few weeks ago to download an upgrade from the Chinese Ubuntu mirror, and as I watched, the speeds reached up to 900 K-Bytes a second. That is fairly fast. I was and am still impressed by the quality of my network connection; It costs me around 1.5 Yuan per day.

The Bonds of Brotherhood

2008-10-10T03:00:00.000-07:00

Brotherhood is a bond in likeness. A brother is as similar a man as can be.

US Taxes and the Law

2008-10-09T02:51:00.000-07:00

The US Constitution does not authorize the United States government nor any government within the United States to collect taxes. The language in the Constitution clearly states that the Congress may levy taxes. However, it seems the government has chosen to vitiate the very authority on which it rests: the rule of law.

How to See

2008-10-08T22:45:00.000-07:00

Put you hands out in front of you.

Seeing is, as Aristotle says, the ultimate sense. Sight provides homo sapiens sapiens of all races the ability to see details from a distance. Faith is always required for gaining sight. The more men sense horrifying things the more faith they must have to see. Violent visual scenes are either real or imagined.

French Cuisine and Some Really Fantastic Wine

2008-09-29T03:02:00.000-07:00

I was cruising around Yantai yesterday, when I came upon a French Cuisine Cafe. I started to stop and say hello, and the coffee sign caught my eye. I went inside to see what coffee lay beyond the door. The owner sprung from behind the bar and greeted me near the door. He offered me a seat and some fine french cuisine.

He spoke in French, Italian and words with a little sprinkle of Chinese. His coffee came in a silver insulated caraffe and tasted like some fine craft or art, and his wine he offered free. So I sat and had a set of coffee, and a glass of the best wine I've had in ages. The wine was a unique bottle of the local Changyu brand. The restaurant was beautifully adorned and covered in a soft warm and comforting light, wherein I felt like our paths meet in Ol' Paris.

It was fascinating to know that local citizens of Yantai spend decaed abroad studying french cooking and then return to the lovely little town to serve the peoples palletes needs or necessities.

Still here

2008-09-24T02:36:00.001-07:00

I found this webcomic on the internets, and I think it is very funny. I have a week holiday next week, for a little while a truly believed it was this week, but I was mistaken. I am still teaching law. Funny, but it is true, I like teaching, always thought I would. My personality suits teaching....I suppose and thinks so.

Switched to Ubuntu

2008-09-16T10:33:00.000-07:00

I am happy to report to all my readers, friends and family that I have switched my PC Operating Systems to Ubuntu Hardy Heron. Most of you won't know what that is. Ubuntu is a free open source operating system, that in my opinion, and the opinion of most people who use it, out-performs and generally out-does any Windows system period. I have tried Ubuntu before, but I think my knowledge of linux has come far enough along to actually use this system the way it is intended to be used.
The 10 greatest things about Ubuntu are:
1. Completely free
2. Can run on any computer
3. Much much more efficient and faster than Windows
4. Loads and loads of free software, down-loadable and installable at the click of a mouse button
5. Can run serious software for serious computer users, computer gurus, geeks and business users
6. Highly modifiable
7. It can easily run a virtual machine (For instance a virtual Windows PC within my Ubuntu session)
8. I feel great not having to deal with the guilt or annoyance of not-free software
9. The support community for Ubuntu and linux in general is second to none.
10. I feel more like a computer user and less like a corporate mongering hack

So, if you have any computer skills and you want to learn more about using computers and open up a lot more potential on your PC, follow suit!

Internet back up...

2008-09-09T02:28:00.001-07:00

So, for all of you my readers and friends, I'll be back in contact soon.
Every day is a new day.

Brian

Teach, teach teach

2008-09-08T01:09:00.000-07:00

I found a new part time job for this semester. The company runs an English school for young people....It is called guess what...."Younger English." They called me after getting my name and phone number last semester from Steve, the Foreign Experts Director here at LuDong. I am going to teach there for the first time tomorrow. I was smart. I negotiated a trial period of one week (really just one day) to see how it goes. I told them that my commitment here in China is to LuDong University, because they brought me here, and that I could only work a few hours a week and must be paid 150 Yuan an hour. They agreed to 130 Yuan an hour, and we signed for the trial period.

I should have internet connectivity back tomorrow. Life without internet has changed me. I have gotten out more, and been cooking my own food a lot. I spend more time at the school using their internet. Today I taught American Governmental Structures at 9:50 am, then I went about taking care of errands. Tomorrow I teach for four hours at Younger English, and then later this week we have a seven day holiday: the second most important Chinese Holiday...more on that later.

My Internet at Home is Down

2008-09-01T01:27:00.001-07:00

So, I may be out of contact, except for emails and this blog for about two weeks. Otherwise, things are going great, just making the transition to the new semester of classed, and I'm pretty busy these days with that.

AskBenny.cn ....WOW...It's Great

2008-08-29T23:23:00.000-07:00

AskBenny.cn is a highly recommended website, by yours personally, me. Sign up and you'll see, it is very good. I love it.
http://www.askbenny.cn

Haircut

2008-08-29T23:06:00.000-07:00

I took a day to explore Yantai some more. Bar street, near the water, was recently facelifted and it looks pretty nice. I checked out some sun glasses, some guitars, and decided to get a haircut. I should start teaching classes on Tuesday. For now I am enjoying free days, with sun and lots of spare time to do what I want. An American from Hawaii moved in upstairs, where a Korean girl lived last semester.

AskBenny.cn and his similar videos on Youtube are great ways to learn Chinese:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovfaYpeejak
also: http://www.askbenny.cn

Some Pictures from Camp

2008-08-25T02:16:00.000-07:00

I went down to the CE office today to learn some Chinese, but Jacky was out. I downloaded these photos to a flash drive instead. You can see here, that I am teaching about probability, lawn mowers, and rocking out some blues guitar.

These large classes last two hours each, and Jacky and I basically play off of eachother and work from a textbook. We sing, we dance, we act, and every once in a while I play guitar.

Last Camp Done...Now to do a little relaxation.

2008-08-24T06:30:00.000-07:00

The final summer camp is done. It was a good experience. I learned some new Chinese, met many new people, and learned a lot about teaching. I am considering going to Xi'an, although I would have to be back in five days...that means only three days there. I think I will wait until after the 30th, when I meet with the school administration to discuss schedules and curriculum. Classes may not start until September 15th, so I could squeeze in a trip in early September. For now, I am learning a lot of Chinese. Jacky offered to teach me anytime I want, so I am going to take advantage of that in the next week.

Crazy English Camp # 3

2008-08-17T19:51:00.000-07:00

I am at Crazy English Camp, the third session. I enjoy teaching the children new words and phrases, as well as pronounciation. I decided to stay at camp this term, to save myself and Jacky(the camp owner) some dough. I told Jackie that if the room has internet I'll stay at the camp, and he delivered internet! So I am content, and it saves me about an hour commute every day. The food is not great, but it is healthy and we get three square meals a day.

I use my free time to work on my SL projects, including an autonomous battle droid. SL is an online virtual reality, where users create their own content and can buy and sell what is made. http://www.secondlife.com . My name in the virtual world is Zinger Bing. I am a droid engineer and Sith Lord in the Star Wars role playing community. I go by Lord Malakos.

So, I am enjoying my summer. I am meeting new people, and making some dough.

In a week my travels take me to the old capital of China: Xi'an.

In Qingdao You Drink From Grocery Bags

2008-08-15T06:10:00.000-07:00

It is true. In Qingdao you order your beer at a street bar and they bring it to you in grocery bags. There is no can, no bottle, no glass, just beer and a plastic bag! The Aussie and the Brits taught me how to pour and we all drank plenty of tasty Tsingtao (Qingdao) beer.

The instructions are: hold the two handles in one hand, pinch the middle of the back end of the bag, and pull away from the drinker/cup until the beer pours out the other side and over the top of the bag lip. Hang extra beer bags on a door handle or a hook. Enjoy!

It is actually pretty fun to do. The beer is super inexpensive: 5 Yuan (That's about 75 cents) for 2 liters of beer. So we had plenty...one of the Brits (Philip) puked on Yukis bed, and Yuki had to take an empty one. I told them I am too old to drink so much, so not me! Stewie and the Irish guys drank a lot: it is true that Irishmen can drink.

Olympic Sailing in Qingdao

2008-08-15T05:49:00.000-07:00

I had last week free; I was going to Shanghai, but thought I should see some Olympic events while I am here. Instead of Shanghai, you guessed it, Qingdao! Qingdao is the host of the 2008 Olympic Sailing events. Little did I know that Shanghai is hosting Olympic soccer. Oh well, I am not a big soccer fan (I'm American....duh). I travelled to Qingdao by bus, and then took a Taxi to Kaiyue International Youth Hostel, where I booked a dorm bed (read bunking with 7 other dudes), and three nights. Then I went down to the bar, and later met some of my dorm mates. Two Englishmen, one Aussie, two Irishmen, an Australian lass, two Chinamen, a Taiwanese, and a Japanese. I was going for consistency there. Forgive me if it sounded offensive. So we all hung out for the few days. The Aussie and the Englishmen and one Taiwanman(Dan the Man, whom is pictured doing cartwheels) and I set out to fetch some tickets, only to find them sold out for the day. Somehow we managed to get some anyways, but it cost us a little more. We tried everything we could to get on a boat to see the sailing, but to no avail. I even tried to hit up an English reporter staying at the hostel to take me on the news boat. No avail.

After a few hours in the sun, we finally got to the Olympic venue and watched some sailing, way off in the distance. We could barely make out the national flags on the boats, but it was still rather exciting. Although the USA didn't do very well. One of the Brits was interviewed for the local news. I took a picture with the Denmark mascot girls, and Dan the man just chilled and looked for good looking women.

Smile Damnit

And then Dany was attacked by a munchkin!

And Dan did hand stands...

Taiwanese men have no tolerance....

This is where they make Tsingdao Beer!
...and here we are ordering some beer in plastic grocery bags.

Downtown Qingdao...one part of it. The city is about 3 million people urban-wise.

Yuki, our Japanese engineer friend.

The gang eating street food:

My Chinese Translator Device

2008-08-10T05:44:00.000-07:00

There is a Chinese company that makes language devices for learning foreign languages. Just my luck, the device also translates English to Chinese, and vice versa. The device is about the size of an iphone, has a 3 inch color LCD screen, has stylus input, can play mp3s and movies, and on the back (the real killer app) it has a speaker which will pronounce the Chinese or English sentences after translation. What really impressed me is that it recognizes my Chinese writing. So, when I am around town, instead of carrying a pocket dictionary, which is about ten times the size of this device, I can carry this. When I see a Chinese language sign, or hear someone say something, I can either type in Pinyin (phoenetic sounds of Chinese) or Chinese characters and learn what the phrase, sentence, or word means as well as how to pronounce it. I can even save phrases I have input and recall them later. It has an SD card slot, and the battery life is up to two weeks on a single charge, if used for only translation. I can connect it to my computer via USB and download more language packs, as well as educational software to learn more about Chinese.

Taxi Ride From Downtown to My Apartment

2008-08-03T17:47:00.000-07:00

This Guy Is Great

2008-08-02T06:47:00.000-07:00

My Chinese Dragon Kite

2008-08-02T05:22:00.001-07:00

Here is another gift from a tutoring student. I was helping this girl to go before the US Consulate to get a student Visa to the US. She told me she loves flying kites. The next day she showed up with this kite she either made or bought, I am not sure, but here it is. In China kites are very popular among old men and little girls. When I was in Qingdao there was a kit club that took the sport very seriously.

Some New Pictures

2008-08-02T05:03:00.000-07:00

This is a watercolor painting my friend and student Zhuang Hong Zhe brought me back from his home town. It is a very beautiful rice paper mounted on waxed cloth, and between two scroll rods. It is hand painted, and individually signed and stamped by the artist. You can see there are two birds on a tree limb near a blooming tree. I called him for some advice the other day, and he was like: "Hey I bought you one of those nice paintings I told you about, when can I come over and give it to you." I was like: "I am free now, come on over." And you can see my water cooler over here, and my front door over there, with winter coats hanging from it.

The other picture is my friend and fellow teacher at Lu Dong. I don't know his Chinese name, but he is very kind to me. He has given me fine tea and fine tobacco cigarettes every time I come to the office. He likes it when I come to the office 20 minutes before class so we can discuss culture and politics with the help of Hong Zhe. In this picture he is showing me the painting in the office, which looks very expensive. Those are bamboo slats painted with bulls and framed by rice paper covered with calligraphy lettering.

Back at Crazy English

2008-08-02T04:39:00.000-07:00

So, I am back for the second session of CE Summer Camp. I have more hours this time! Today was the first day of camp. I taught four four hours. Tomorrow I teach for six hours. Teaching these kids is great! I am like a superstar! Everyone wants my autograph after class. I enjoy coming up with really useful rules and ideas to use with the English langauge. Jacky has his driver drive us foreign teachers back home if we want to sleep at home at night. I go home for my computer. If it weren't for my internet connection, I would stay at camp.

I have always been fascinated by latin virtuoso guitar. That's a bit off topic, but I just had to bring it up, because I am listening to some of it on youtube right now.

Jacky asked me if I would do some recordings for the Crazy English lessons. He wants to put out some accompanying mp3s for students. In exchange he is going to teac me Chinese, using the Crazy Chinese style. Yes, there is such a thing as Crazy Chinese. Jacky says many things, among them: "You are on sexy man," "you are very handsome," " you are a really cool guy." It makes me laugh sometimes. I wish some pretty girl would say these things to me. Some of the younger students say these same things, and Jacky said today that sometimes students pretend to be me, saying: "I am Brian Johnson......I........"

A girl in my class asked me today whether I know any immigration lawyers in America. Her husband works in the States off and on, and she wants to go with him when he goes. So, if any of my readers can offer some names and numbers, I would love to pass them on.

I think role playing is a good way to get my students talking and working with the language. I did some role playing with my more advanced class today. I had them play waiters in my restaurant: "Brian's Enchiladas Especialle." It was fun bossing them around and putting them through training. I had some other students pretend to be lawyers, and a decorator/designer. Role playing makes them think about what it is like to be someone other than a person learning English, and also lets them get some perspective on what the people they wiull be talking to in everyday life are saying and thinking.

Just Finished 7 Days of Intensive English Teaching

2008-07-28T06:11:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I finished the first of three Crazy English summer camps. I taught for twenty five hours, and was on campus for most of the week. It is a good experience. I get to meet a lot of young intelligent people, and work on being a better public speaker. I had to answer many difficult questions about myself, America, what I think of China and Chinese, as well as provide substance in the form of English language pronunciation and common usage. Hey, I'm pretty American, so it comes naturally to be culturally like that.

I am planning to go to Qingdao tomorrow. I finally wired some money back to my US accounts. Speaking of money, I was feeling a tinge of jealousy yesterday, which is unusual for me. I was talking with some of the other teachers about money in China, and we all concluded that Chinese people have a lot of money. They save almost everything they possibly can. Every time I go to the bank, every other person there has a stack of 100 Yuan bills that makes my stack look like pocket money. I wonder how they do it, what motivates them to save so much money. Maybe it is the lack of a strong credit card industry, or the cultural importance of stability and security. Perhaps it is family, the close knit unit, which provides for all of its members. It has me thinking about how I could be a better family member, saving more money than I spend to support my family now and in the future. I guess I am growing up a little.

This comes to mind because I went to the bank today to make the transfer request. The money is already there, after only nine hours, amazing, really. Although it costs me about $45 USD to make a transfer, which is a huge waste of my money. I can do that for now, but I am going to find a more cost effective way. It seems both banks charge me about $20 to do a transfer. That is a lot of money to spend every month just to change a couple bits on a computer network.

I am looking forward to going to Qingdao again. Last time I went for only two days, and only one day of sight seeing. This time it is four days, and I know where to stay and where to go.

The kids at the summer camp are so cute. They all asked me to sign autographs at the ends of the camp, and they always told me how handsome I am. The camp was held at a small professional school campus on the seaside, about 30 minutes from my home. Crazy English provided me with a room on campus, with a shower, TV, and two beds. I came home to my apartment most nights, because I have other things to do with my free time. However, the nights I stayed there were a pleasure, everyone took care of me, we were provided free meals, and the children provided entertainment in the form of adorable-behavior and words as well as an actual talent show. I performed in the talent show, playing blues on my electric guitar. The children seemed to enjoy it, although they had never heard the blues as I play it before.

Some Great Info on Yantai Attractions

2008-07-19T22:21:00.000-07:00

http://www.yantai-life.com/yantaitours.htm

This is a really informative page, with short descriptions and pictures of various attractions around Yantai. I'll probably go to the winery, the mountains, and Penglai very soon.

A Seminar for English Teachers

2008-07-18T21:02:00.000-07:00

Today, I am giving an English seminar for English teachers. Josh and his department organized a seminar for English teachers. I am teaching for six hours today. I just get up there and talk, ask questions, and answer questions. The teachers are more talkative than my students, I noticed. I am giving them tips and pointers about English for their own education as well as their students.

I recently became an advocate for Chinese English, although I continue to respect and encourage western grammar. Chinese English is the form of using Chinese grammar with English words and sentences.

China is an old culture that knows respect and how to celebrate life. Chinese people love to eat food, and to enjoy the company of others. They enjoy expressing their opinions and thoughts to their friends. Chinese personalities are as diverse as American personalities. I have met so many different people, and each one is unique in their perspective, interests and goals.

I am also meeting a lot of expatriates from around the world, here in China. Everyone is intrigued by the culture here, and the vast differences along with the peculiar similarities between cultures. I often extol the virtues of American infrastructure and the Chinese social culture. The joy of sharing food, company and the learning experience is a great relief from the joy of sharing infrastructure, but there is more than enough infrastructure, both modern and ancient here in China to satisfy even the most critical happy man.

Qingdao Shi

2008-07-18T03:10:00.000-07:00

For the past two days, I have been in Qingdao. Qingdao is the second largest city in Shandong province, and is reputed to be the best city. The name may sound familar; it is the birthplace and hometown of Tsingtao beer, famous the world over. The city was once a sleepy fishing village, until, while under German occupation, the Tsingtao beer became world renowned. The City was then named Chingdao, or perhaps it was the beer which was named after the city. Chingdao in Chinese sounds like Tsingtao in German.

I booked a room at a local Hostel in Chingdao. It was the best travel stay I have had, and I have stayed at the Ritz in San Francisco and in Cancun, as well as Four Seasons and Hiltons all over the United States. The hostel experience is very comfortable and it feels like a home away from home. I made so many friends while I was in Qingdao for two days. I met people from Ireland, Sweden, Holland, Scotland, England, Australia, China, Korea, and few other places as well.

I packed noi clothing, just the clothes I wore. I also packed a toothbrush, my laptop, some books, and some Chinese language accessories. I travelled light. The long distance bus from Yantai to Qingdao took around 3 hours. I sat next to a man who lives in Yantai, and travels to Qingdao every weekend for business meetings. He is 30 years old, and works for an international transportation company. He invited me to dinner with him at one of his favorite restaurants. The food was very good, barbeque pork and squid and some vegetables. We drank a lot of beer, and then he told my cabbie to drop me off at the hostel.

The night was still young, so I dropped into the hostel bar. There was live music, a pool tables, a playstation 2 with video games, a "DVD room" a full bar, and a food menu. During one of the musicians breaks I approached him and asked if I could play a song. So, I played one song, which turned into several songs, and then I sang backup for him and played some solos over his rhythm. We had some good applause and people were having a good time.

The next day I set out late, because I wanted to get some sleep, and then I had to check out. I thought about it a little, and I found no use in going home already. I booked another night, and meanwhile, across the counter from me a Swedish fellow was trying to book a room. The hostel was full, and the hostess asked me if I would share a room with him. I agreed, because it would be less than half the price, and we would have a private shower, two beds, and a really nice room. My first room did not have a bathroom, instead I used the public showers the first night. This is typical of hostels: some rooms have six beds in them, so that costs can be shared and reduced. My new friend and I decided that since we are living together, we may as well hang out for the day, and sight see together. Most of these photos are from our day. He'll send me more as soon as we get in contact again.

The day was great: kites, movie stars, being treated like a celebrity, seeing an actual Chinese celebrity, walking through a giant park, negotiating our way around town on very little Chinese, carnival games, ancient daoist temples, the beach, souvenirs, a tram ride in the mountains above the city, and a lot of walking and taxi rides.

That night I played again on stage for a song or two, and then spent the rest of the night playing cards, drinking and chitchatting with some girls from Ireland and their friends from Sweden and Australia.

I left the next morning before 8 am for Yantai.

Another day of food and fun!

2008-07-15T05:30:00.000-07:00

I went to the Penglaichen Restaurant again today to try some new dishes. This is the fish-balll soup, and it is very very good "hen hao." I also had a large bowl of the beef noodles, of which I had a cup last time. This is a liter of Yantai beer, made locally and one of the best beers in China, I think. They only come in these large bottles.

My waitress at Penglaichen is very nice, and she seemed really interested to talk to me, so I asked her if she wanted to hang out during her break. She and I went to the Nanshan Park, a short walk away from the restaurant. We just sat and talked and relaxed. It was nice. We found someones wallet, and it had about 30 Yuan in it. We turned it in to the park staff.

Her name is Wan Ni, and she is going to grad school to study chemistry. She is very wacky and I am constantly laughing at her antics.

I am going to Chingdao tomorrow for a day or two. Wan Ni says it is cleaner and nicer than Yantai. I have read there is a very nice aquarium. Steve says the Taxi drivers aren't very nice there, but I think I can win them over.

Some Tang Dynasty Poems

2008-07-14T21:22:00.000-07:00

The Bamboo Hut
竹里馆
by Wang Wei
王维

Sitting among bamboos alone,
独坐幽篁里
I play lute and croon carefree.
弹琴复长啸
In the deep woods where I'm unknown,
深林人不知
Only the bright moon peeps at me.
明月来相照

月 = moon
明 = light
人 = person
林 = woods
不 = not
相 = peep

Other new words and characters:

公共吃车Public Bus (gong gong chi che)
这附近有位生间吗Is there a restroom nearby (zhe fu jin you wei chengjian ma)

Some more images of the day>>>>>

2008-07-14T02:32:00.000-07:00

Change of Change of Plans

2008-07-14T01:05:00.000-07:00

This morning I handed in and had my assistant enter my students grades in the school system.

I have a few days here to do what I want to do. I thought I might catch a train somewhere, but that takes too much planning for the last minute. So, instead I found a list of the best restaurants in Yantai, and I took a Taxi ride to the one that sounded best to me. It was no disappointment, it was the best food I have had in a long time.

I had a platter of shrimp, melon, cucumber, carrots, cashew nuts, and some special ingredients, I suppose, and it was delicious. I also had a platter of eggplant cucumber and thinly noodled chicken. Mmmmmmm, that was fantastic. To top it all off I had a bowl of the best noodle soup I ever put in mouth.

I wasn't done with the day, so I jumped in a Taxi and showed the driver my map. I pointed to the tip of the peninsula that juts out of downtown Yantai. It was a long ride, and 32 Yuan later I was at the Yantai Raffles Ship Building Crane (The largest crane of its kind in the world). It can lift and entire Old Rig out of the water, and hold it there for workers to get underneath it.

The road out on the peninsula was a dead end. The Taxi turned back. As we headed back I saw a Giant Buddha encased in Plexiglas inside of an old fashioned temple. So, I asked the cab to pull a u-turn, and had him drop me off by the park where the Buddha sat.

A Sunny Day in Yantai

2008-07-13T06:25:00.000-07:00

Today, I woke up late, and the sun was shining very brightly, more so than I have seen since I arrived. I made my goal today to finish grading papers; I just did so. I made a trip down the street for lunch to get some Nio Ruo Mien, Huangua, and Bashan for food. It was so sunny I just couldn't pass up the photo opportunity.

Kung Fu Panda

2008-07-12T07:43:00.000-07:00

Kung Fu Panda is a great movie.

Great visuals, a very Chinese story, and a good story about life, create a good experience and an important lesson in life.

The story follows a young Panda who is destined to be the greatest warrior of all time: the Dragon Warrior, and thus the Kung Fu Panda.

Po is your typical good youth. He does what his father tells him to do, and he dreams of being great. He has to learn the lessons of life as well as the very important lesson, which not many learn, "there is no secret ingredient. It is just you."

My Brush Calligraphy Set

2008-07-09T02:45:00.000-07:00

This is my Chinese calligraphy set in its full beauty. The paper is actually some sort of resin coated cloth that turns black when whetted. The book was on sale, and I saw it as I was walking out of the book store. I returned the book I bought at full price, which was half the size, and purchased this book for the same price. The brush is a bamboo brush, made specifically for Chinese calligraphy art. The characters are my work. Sun, Moon, Eye, Four, Three, School, Center, Mouth, Seven, Big, and Eternity.

Another Day in the Yantai Summer...

2008-07-09T02:24:00.000-07:00

Today the temperature was hot. On hot days women carry umbrellas, and I sweat alot. I decided to find a good reference for writing Chinese Characters. My next post will show you what I found. These pictures are what I saw walking around today. The mall (Parkson) is the largest mall in Yantai, and it has everything you could ever need. There are two KFCs, one on either side, and a Pizza Hut also next door.

My Chinese Character Writing

2008-07-08T19:01:00.001-07:00

This is my practice notepad. Each character has a distinct meaning. The first row is the numbers 1-10. The second row is knife, strength, man, enter, small, river, mountain, above, below. Chinese characters are very straighforward. There is one meaning, and each meaning has a story and a history related to the past uses of the word and its origins.

An Evening Walkabout

2008-07-07T05:26:00.000-07:00

A Laugh is a Way to Ease Tension

2008-07-06T22:19:00.001-07:00

I tutor a few English students as a part time job. One of my students was recently accepted to Ohio University, by no help of mine. She is working towards getting a Visa. This is where I come in, I am helping her with the Consulate's questions. She asked me today, after explaining that many Chinese are afraid to talk about it, whether Americans will laugh at her for not speaking English well. I thought about it for a moment, and quickly answered "Yes, they will. A few Americans will laugh at you for speaking English not as well as they do. Laughing is contagious. It is a way to relieve tension. They will laugh, but you will not know why. They may laugh because they feel a cultural difference or are uncomfortable. It is just a good way to relieve tension." She was a little nerve wracked at first, but then I saw her on my way to the store, and I explained that it is nothing to be nervous about, just laugh with them. Laughter is contagious, so you will fit right in. Is this good advice? I think so. Do you?

Cultural Note

2008-07-06T04:24:00.000-07:00

In China, the Chinese word for culture translates roughly into "building-people." As I walk or bus around Yantai, the main thing I see is buildings. There are large apartment buildings, cookie cutter replicas of a certainly functional model of living. There are large banks, mega structures wreathed in glass and shiny stone and metal, models of modern industry and commerce. There are small one story buildings, dirty and shabby, with a plethora of goods housed in a compact space, models of efficiency and brevity. There are old world hutong buildings, remnants of past culture and lifestyle, painted with colorful paints, and plastered with traditional Chinese characters and symbols of fortune, prosperity and longevity. I see broad three and four story buildings filled with every imaginable good for a particular purpose. If I had to put it down to one thing, I would say Chinese culture is very compartmental. Apartments are a certain kind of building, banks another, hutongs another, and commercial retail buildings another. Chinese don't waste space. Every retail store is packed to the gills with goods. Every apartment is brimming with addons, extensions, and modifications. If a building is just taking up space, it will soon be gone.

Another notable Chinese cultural item is the difference between insides and outsides. I first took notice of it when I was with a friend. The outside of buildings are rarely cleaned or paid attention to. As soon as you go inside the building are clean and highly organized. There is a sort of minimalistic theme that what can be used efficiently should be used to the greatest extent, and what cannot be maintained efficiently should be left at the mercy of nature. I think that in this way, many Chinese resent the modern industrial style of building. These large concrete buildings are not designed with the kind of natural elegance and weather-loving design that a traditional Chinese building has. Traditional walls and buildings are made to last, and they are designed to get dirty on the outside while looking natural and elegant, and remain clean on the inside. I will rarely see a wood floor in a Chinese building. Most floors are tile or concrete. These kinds are cleaned efficiently with water and soap. If you look at many second generation industrial buildings, you will find that the exterior is covered with tile, perhaps an attempt to transfer ease of maintenance to the outside. The most modern buildings are made of glass and painted steel.

Looking to the future, I see a sharp return to traditional motifs of Chinese culture on the horizon. I think Chinese people are calling for more traditional buildings with modern designs, to improve the visual aesthetic of their cities and improve the cost of building traditional style buildings. I heard recently that many Chinese are upset that the earthquake regions were cultured with flimsy buildings made to make a quick buck. This model is a very un-Chinese model, and I have a sense that it has much more to do with the influence of late Qing Dynasty imperial foreign officials than it has to do with the post Qing Dynastic global China. Global China is focuses on what it does best and the foreseeable outcome that the skills and intellect of the Chinese people are in much demand, thus, the buildings should have a Chinese informed design, with modern materials and modern financing. When I go to Beijing, I will check out the new buildings constructed over the past 8 years, and that will be where the rubber of my ideas meats the road of reality.

Judging an English Contest

2008-06-30T03:56:00.000-07:00

Today, I judged an English contest. I was one of three judges for the Yantai City finals, which is a tributary to the Shandong province finals. There were 31 contestants, each chosen from the city's numerous primary schools. They were very cute, but they also are intelligent and courteous. It is an impressive sight to see so many beautiful young talented people.

There were two other judges. They sat on my left and right. I was like the head judge. The students were very happy to have the opportunity to speak with a real foreigner.

CRAAAAAZZZZZYYYYYYY ENGLISH

2008-06-29T07:23:00.000-07:00

I will be teaching Crazy English this summer. Crazy English is this method for learning English, created by a Chinese man, named Li Yang. Li Yang has translated for Tony Robbins; it is told me, that he was the only Cninese translator with enought gusto and umph to translate for Tony Robbins. You know why, if you have "the Edge." I am told, well I get the idea, that Crazy English is all about being crazy enough to use a language before you fully understand it, by speaking out loud, and acting out the language while you learn. It is really quite fascinating to me. This is the way i like to learn: dive in, get your feet wet, heck, get your hair wet too. You can philosophize on mastery later. After all, native speakers get their feet wet with experience before they move on to art......

I am teaching for three 8 day periods at the summer camp. It is 8 days of intensive English training. Should be an experience to remember.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/04/28/080428fa_fact_osnos

A Gig at Jackie's Cuisine and Bar

2008-06-29T07:06:00.000-07:00

I have been going to Jackie's since my friend Allen introduced me there. I like it there. I have written about it before, so I won't reiterate it for you here. A few weeks ago I asked Jackie whether I could play on his stage some night. He said if I did, he would provide me free beers and a burger for the time. I have been back a few times since then, and I just bring my guitar with me. I'm looking for an opportune time to whip it out and play. Well, tonight I found a few of those. Jackie let me play on stage, and he liked it. We agreed that I will come back on Tuesday to do a sound check. I think I might be playing there Friday night? Maybe for a banquet or party? So, I am working on a play list for it. Playing live music is great, because you just roll all of your mistakes into the song, and it becomes art, painted your colors, and your mistakes make it more human, more related to our lives. We are human to err, and erring makes us more human, but still the music must go on.
[Pictured: Allen and I]

Some Memories

2008-06-16T03:50:00.000-07:00

Samson plays my electric guitar. I just bought it that day, with a little extra Yuan. It is a Fender Squire Bullet Stratocaster. It cost me about $150.00 USD.

That is well worth the benefit of playing some real blues licks on a Strat! Samson and my tutoring students enjoy playing with my gadgets and instruments when they come over. It was used, but I saw that it had been used very lightly, probably by a music student who did not take to the guitar. It still had the plastic film on the pick guard. Also, it has some really nice pickups, and a lot of tonal variety. I adjusted the lower bridge, put new strings on, adjusted the pickup height, and cleaned it up a little, and now it sounds great!

Some summer cherries. They're everywhere. Two weeks ago, all of the teachers went on a field trip to a cherry farm. I went home with a small bushel of cherries, and that was enough for then. I am getting a craving for more cherries though. They are very inexpensive, and they taste delicious. Each cherry is very large, about an inch in diameter!

Frank plays with my FM/Am radio. It was about $5 USD, and I can pick up very many radio stations with it. Nice to have for a day at the park, or just a relaxing evening at home.

These are some berries for sale. You can find berry vendors all over town right now. Kinda' nice, and convenient too.

I caught Frank off guard, because each time I tried to take a photo, he would hide behind his bag or a pillow. I suppose he doesn't like the way he looks in photos, but this is a good one, so here it is.

A summer day on the road near my apartment, and the scenery and sky is clear and soft. I just randomly snapped these photos. Yantai is very photogenic. It never looks like this in person for some reason?

I like the photo, because the contrast is there between old Chinese manufactured vehicle and the modern athletics building. Plus, there is a concrete truck in the lower right corner!

A bee in a rose. I am told this is not a rose, but rather a Chinese version of a rose. To this I responded, a rose by any other name is still a rose. This one happens to have a bee pollinating it.

Fellow Laoshi and I at Jackie's, discussing politics, teaching methods, the universe, and eating jalapeno burgers and salsa, with coca cola and a nice atmosphere. Jaskie's is the place to meet and greet in English in Yantai.

My student and friend Dora, and her friend, whose name I cannot remember. Dora is very nice to me, but she is very shy sometimes. At other times she is as gregarious as a little schoolgirl, which I suppose makes sense. We three walked around campus this day, and they took me to all the best relaxing spots and we sat and talked about America, China, school, and food.

This is my favorite relaxing spot, which Dora introduced me to. It is a good place to take an acoustic guitar and play some sonnets to the sun, the plants, and man-made architecture.

The view from my industrial looking balcony, which is charming really. Just concrete, tile, and a view. That is my brick, which was there when I moved in. I want to use it someday. I think I will also find a Banzai tree to put out here, so I can sculpt it.

The Semester is Coming to a Closing

2008-06-10T22:40:00.001-07:00

With one and a half weeks left in the semester, I have been preparing the final exam, and final essay paper. After examinations, I will have most of July and all of August off for personal time. I have it to plan for. I was thinking about Beijing and Shanghai, but perhaps I will save those cities for later. Instead, I am thinking about Qingdao, and seeing the Olympic sailing events. The city is about 2 hours drive from Yantai, and is told to be the best city in this province, in terms of modernity and infrastructure, and economy. It would be a less expensive alternative to Beijing and Shanghai. I will be receiving a travel bonus at the end of this semester, of 1100 Yuan, so that will go towards a trip. I will also receive the pay from my professional English class, and my paycheck from the school shortly. So, that should be enough to pay some bills back in the good old USA, and to to take a small trip, and then eat, sleep, and get my chores done.

Qingdao (pronounced Chin Dow) is pictured below:

Olympic Sailing in Qingdao

Qingdao-Yantai Railway Info

N382/N383 Qingdao(四方) 13:15 Yantai烟台 16:28 3h13m 229 Km

N381/N384 Yantai烟台 08:50 Qingdao(四方) 12:21 3h31m 229 Km

Prices for seats range from 30 RMB (Yuan) for a hard seat, to 50 RMB (Yuan) for a soft sleeper. That is about $5 USD.

I will likely spend most of the time studying and preparing for next semester, interspersed with some personal projects of mine: Oblivion Modding, SecondLife Scripting, Weblogging, discovering more of Yantai, finding some nice restaurants, and some musical pursuits. Any ideas you have for me can be sent to my email address. Please, send your ideas!

Some more pictures....

2008-06-10T06:55:00.001-07:00

Chinese Double Dragon Party

2008-06-10T06:24:00.001-07:00

My fiend, Yang Fang Lin, invited me to see the Psychology Department's performance art "party." She reserved me a seat, next to her boyfriend, whom is a very nice gentleman. She and I met at the little market near my apartment. We have something in common, but we don't know exactly what it is. She speaks very good English, at least her accent and voice is very comforting. In any event, she is a very nice person, and I wish I could just be friends with her. So, we are going to be friends. So, I went to this "party," and she is one of the dancers in a hip hop group. It is very sweet, that she asked me to go, because I don't know, it is something new to me. She told me she is a dancer, but I couldn't imagine how, because well I am not that imaginative. There are numerous acts in the performance. They all deserve applause, and in fact they are all very good. I took a lot of photos, but I will spare you the poorly shot ones and give you the best of the crop. That's 杨芳林（pronounced Fang Lin） on the far right.

As you can see it is quite a production, there are lights, smoke machines, speaker boxes, and many dancing girls. What fun it is to observe dancing girls!

This girl was astoundingly cute, with her poodle dress, poodle hairdo, and poodle boots. Any ways, I found that she was very talented. She sang a number with a friend, like a duet, but with dancing and some counter-play.

These were the hosts for the show. They came out between performances. I couldn't understand a full sentence, but I heard Laoshi many times, and Yang Fang Lin told me that the first act was about the earthquake. She asked me to feel the mood, because even though I couldn't understand the words, the mood was set.

This was a Gong Fu performance, where the men paired up into teams of two and performed various gong fu moves on each other. It is my favorite one, but Fang Lin's was my personal best friend's, so I favor it more. Here are some more pictures of it:

Me and the Roses< Laoshi in the Roses

2008-06-06T03:09:00.001-07:00

On Second Thought

2008-06-04T13:52:00.001-07:00

Society as a place for the weak, and a burden to the strong. The weak have always been the focus of societies laws. More recently, with the advent of ways to prolong the lives of the weak, the strong have become discouraged by societies slanted playing field. Then again, perhaps society was never quite even handed. Take for example the Lord Jesus Christ. he was the best carpenter in town. He was handsome, tall, good looking, and he wore a thorny crown and carried a big cross just to please the weak. He became strong because of them, but lately the burden of carrying their weight was just too much to bear. The weak have on essential flaw that dominates their fake flaws: they lie around and do nothing and complain about it all day long. The weak complain to other weak, and they coalesce and gather around each other and develop plans to become the strong. The problem with their plans in their minds is that were they to become strong, they would be subject to the burdens and responsibilities of the strong. This is what is known as society. The strong are now a group of weak, gathered around their weakness preying on the strong. The strong are perhaps too wary of strength already to pursue more strength in numbers. Perhaps there are too few of the strong to overtake the weak. The weak have a will to destroy now, and hunger for power, not fed by nourishment or care, but by callousness, anger, retribution, and that good old fashioned malaise that got them their spot as the weak. They would create a dichotomy between good and evil just to suit their ends. To make life easier to bear. However, they are unsuccessful, by nature failures, and will continue to fail even after they recognize the truth. Life is a tapestry of failures woven together and decorated with the few successes we make. My place in the chain of reality is not so dominant nor so meek that it is going to unchain the structure of it. Indeed, the weak will remain weak until they can impress upon the strong the virtue of their weakness. The strong will remain mired in failure, until they can devote themselves to the weak. In truth, the weak are no longer the weak, and the strong no longer the strong, but the new strong may have some skeletons in their closet to overcome. Perhaps their humility will come in handy. Now, the weak will tell you to stay indoors and hide from the sun, stay away from any possibility of offense, and remain hidden at all times, while the strong will shrug it off as something not within out control to decide. In the end, the weak are cowered indoor, and the strong live with the fear that their hard work is not hard enough to overcome the laziness of the weak. Office buildings are filled with the weak. They will tell you not to work too hard, to pace yourself, and then purposefully drive you made to maintain that sort of status quot. Life is a pleasure to them because it can be lived slowly and left to run idly while still maintaining life. The strong will tell you that is not enough, and there has to be some higher purpose in life, than to sit around and enjoy what nature has to give us. The weak enjoy fighting for the victory, and the strong enjoy winning for the glory. Are these two ends so different. No, they are very similar. I admit, yes, glory is a higher love of life than victory alone, but still victory is commendable. It is still a worthwhile endeavor. So, to all you weak, from the strong, go dominate us strong, defeat us even, and enjoy yourselves. It has been a long time since you provided the food that made us the strong, and the shelter that kept us from becoming weak again.

Two Theories of Consent

2008-06-04T10:37:00.001-07:00

The law is a mixture of men’s reasons, touted by those who will it to be law, and the natural moral authority of men to live.

A man must decide whether to obey the laws prior men make, to make his own laws, or to bring his law to bear when he is called to make an answer and appearance. A man should be judged by his laws.

When men who ordered laws are dead, their laws cease to find a moral origin in their consent or obligations. Their laws should change with the lives of the living, who bear the law with their heart, order the world with their minds, and are subject to the law with their bodies.

Laws in America are the fruits of many individual, familial, and cultural threads, tied together with the written laws, common values, and actions of the men and women who live or make a living here. Even the greatest law of the land, the Constitution will bend and bow before it breaks, and against the hearts, minds and will of men and women it is no obstacle to truth.

The written word, signed and promulgated in 1789 is only the basis of what American law is today. It’s authority may be shattered, strewn about, or broken and torn down, but some form of government must remain intact.

Each written rule of law in the Constitution states a principle, tied to the rest of the document through the words used and the actions performed by the society it was designed to serve. The words are written by the founding fathers in the late eighteenth century. That original meaning is lost to us, because the men who wrote it are dead. Certainly the founding fathers were aware that they are mortal. The empires and kingdoms of prior societies and civilizations found continuity of moral rule in the family unit. The authority of the Constitutional form of government remains continuous by a respect for the integrity of words. The rule of law, made of up of documents, composed of articles, sections, paragraphs, clauses, sentences, and, or words, is authoritative only when the true meaning of that language is based on moral truth. Words have never before served such a central role in the government of human action. (See ancient and past civilizations….i.e. Romans, Greeks, Chinese, Russian, Aztec, Mayan, African, the world at large). Ancient civilizations often guarded the language of laws against corruption of thought and the rush of judgment. Societies who failed to properly guard their languages failed, because the language changed, but the truth of the moral rule of a society, which promulgates laws, is that it creates valid moral authority.

Modern American legal authority is based on the principle of consent to law. When language changes as it does in a society which promulgates its laws, men have the inherent liberty to adjust the language of law to fit the moral justification upon which it is based. Jurisdictional standing, which is now known by the modern jurisprudence that men must avail themselves of some law to be subject to any law, is a rational basis for the authority of law.

Natural authority to govern is valid on a living planet. Soil, plants, animals, water, air, and all things living engender an inherent moral authority to rule in those who care for them, and those who keep them for the general welfare, because those things provide life. Trees may live many thousands of years, but mostly, these living things do not depend on us for life. We depend on them. Trees provide oxygen, shelter for animals, homes for animals, and much more. Trees are important to human life. Animals provide food and materials. Plants provide food and materials. These living things are a primary source of our living. They have been a primary source of our living for as long as men have written words, laws, or held offices of authority, and longer. Our lives depend on the rationing of these resources. Our consent to be governed is our will to live, a recognition of the value of living things to our lives, and the importance of rationally regulating their use to ensure we may all continue to live.

The current American legal system has authority to govern only to the extent that it rationally regulates the use of living resources. A large number of laws whose authority is based on contractual consent to the original Constitutional document may or may not be morally valid authority. These laws may be revoked or replaced by men, in offices established under the Constitution. The Constitution of the United States of America has the natural authority to morally rule, but the contractual authority to rule by consent remains within the authority of living men and women. Living men and women can choose whether to consent to laws regulating human activity when the rational regulation of living resources is not the concern, because the natural consent by a will to live does not extend to contractual agreements between people, unless those agreements affect the rational regulation of natural resources. Our consent to a specific form of government is contractual, but the natural consent to some form of government is undeniable. Therefore the continuity of government must remain intact in order to protect lives depending on the resources of the planet, but we may still live as we will.

Slavery is the one textual element of the Constitution that remains to this day subject to the moral authority of living men (see Abraham Lincoln Speech). Although it was part of the original government, it does not conform to the authority naturally established by limited resources. In hindsight, it is still difficult to say whether all men are created equal, but it is not fundamental true that men should be treated unequally by the moral authority. In truth all men are created un-equal, but a moral authority should, in order to retain contractual consent to the entire government, because it must, to secure the natural rights, establish equality among all men and women in the eyes of the law. Otherwise men would not contractually consent to that form of government. It is established then, that the natural consent to be governed creates the continuous authority in some form of government to morally rule the rational use of the resources of the living planet.

The laws that protect these resources of life remain authoritative despite a lack of contractual consent by living men. This is true because men can live without any other laws. Although their lives may be threatened by other men, their consent to the authority of government is founded when they avail themselves of governmental protection from other men. This is the basis of the founding fathers authority to adopt the Constitution and found a new government, so long as they do so without interrupting the continuity of authority by some form of government which rationally regulates the use of the natural resources.

The laws that protect men from one another may change with the common practices of men and women. Men and women may change their common practices. Men and women have changed their common practices, from the time before civilization, to the modern era of this dawning global civilization.

KTV and the Foreigner

2008-06-03T05:48:00.001-07:00

Last weekend some students took me with them to a park. The park is on a hilltop, covered with old trees and topped by a temple replica. Below the temple lies a lake, made by man, and surrounded by a promenade and joined by bridges and small islands. We started at the temple, where I played a sonnet to the few students who would listen, and the passers hid among the stone pillars and beneath the shade of the ancient trees beside the temple replica. I played several songs and several sonnets, and soon songs were not sung on the tide of the wind, so we left. As we passed through the park, the rising colorful figures of painted metal spirals and swirls joined the ground before me. Amusement and merriment resided in the old remains of a play-scape, still running along like the little train that could. Below the roller-coaster and the carnival rides a middle aged man sold twisted stalks of green some forming snakes and other dragons, and even an alligator or two. I bought a dragon and a snake. Later, by the lake, I twisted the snake into a coil, and the dragon's wings fell of, so I put them back where I saw fit.

We walked around the lake, where we found the students who wouldn't wait for a song, sitting beside the water, on a table as round as a wheel. Beside them the water was shallow, but beyond the bridge there lay an island covered in green grass, defined by a stream slithering around it in green water.

I fished, and caught nothing, but I did catch some tips, and picked up some knowledge of the local fishing shop. These fish like live bait, and the weeds are too thick to use a lure. We all left the park, and traveled in a bus to the school. One Sichuan girl noted us that there is a small restaurant that sells Sichuan style meals. We went and had some porridge and noodles. Mmmmm. It tasted like oatmeal with sugar. It was rice, but now it is in my stomach. After meals, we left and so I went home to subside until six, when we were to join again to sing songs. At six, we slid down the road in a taxi made by VW to a fancy place called KTV. There, inside the first person who saw me, stood in complete awe and shock with her mouth hanging open. Western?!!!!!!!! So, we rented a small room, with two leather sofas, a screen sensitive to someone's finger, and an LCD simply hung within a set of cabinets, wooden and subtle.

The songs came in Chinese and Western style, and we sang everything from "Ring a Ring a Ring," a Chinese favorite of mine, to some of Lionel Ritchie's works. I sang John Denver, the Beatles, Celine Dion, and more. I sang the chorus for a song I call control: Here it is:

My Wanhua Chemical Company English Class

2008-06-03T05:00:00.001-07:00

Twice a week, Mondays 4-6pm, Wednesdays 4-6pm, I teach an English and culture class at Wanhua Chemical Company. They manufacture plastics. They always provide me with plastic bottles of spring water. Plastic is their main product, although I am sure they manufacture more than just plastic.

The class is 20 students, ranging in age, English language skill, but mostly in field of expertise. There are engineers, designers, businesspeople, salespeople, and administrators. During the first day, I divided the class into four groups; group 1 is the highest skilled English language group, and group 4 is the lowest skilled English language group. They are all proficient at using English to some degree, but they each have something they would learn more than they know. That is why they are in class.

I teach a course in English. For me, that means that I teach about American English and culture. After all, I am an American, and I have little to no knowledge of good Old England. So, I teach them about America. Last class, Monday's, I taught them a little about the American derision upon the word "need". In America it is commonly said that "nobody needs anything." I sometimes wonder why we have a word like that, a word that should never be used. I think "should" falls under that same category of words you may know, but never use. Why should I? Why do you need it? What do you need it for? Who says you should? Should and need just lead to a lot more discourse and a lot less getting things done. Perhaps it is better that way. So, as I defined the words laid out in the textbook, I also added cultural notes, as such. They seemed to enjoy it, and it seemed to have an impact on their comprehension of American speech and writing: language.

It is quite a worthy endeavor to extrude the meanings of words from the word itself, and to include culture into the mixture of meaning and definition. You cannot break a word down properly into subterfuge without breaking the words meaning, but if you care to, you can define the word a little more clearly.

Some More Blues: These are freestyle

2008-05-25T06:59:00.001-07:00

I am practicing guitar, because I am going to play at Jackie's, the best western bar and restaurant in town. The other night I took my guitar to the beach, and as I played a crowd gathered. Here is something I just played off the cuff. Mind you, I have been working on this style for a while now: like six or seven years.

Some Blues Guitar in China

2008-05-25T06:49:00.001-07:00

A Crowd Gathers

2008-05-24T09:53:00.001-07:00

So, I was supposed to go to KTV today to do some Karaoke, but the student who knew where it is, didn't show up. I should back that up by saying, she did show up, at 8am, and I said come back at 6pm, cause this is too early for Karaoke. The other student and her friend showed up at 5:50 pm. We waited for Ann. She is this very little and smart girl. She comes from central China. I suspect that her family has experienced some of the earthquake related despair lately, because her cell phone no longer is in service. I agreed to pay for KTV, but I had no idea about the 8am time choice. We waited, and she never came. I tried her cell phone, but it was out of service. I am sure I will catch up with her next week. She always comes to my international law class, even though she is not on the class roster. I really appreciate it.

So, Dora and her friend and I went to the seaside instead. I took my guitar, because Dora was excited and finds it funny that I play guitar. On our way to the street from my apartment, her friend suddenly told me Dora is Christian, which I found a bit of an odd thing to say about her, randomly. I do however, appreciate the implications. She subscribes to a most western philosophy, but one of prudence. To boot, she likely has family ties to the Jesuit and Christian traditions of China. I snagged my fishing rod and reel on the way out the door. I figured seaside, might find a place to throw a line out, bring fishing rod. Simple arithmetic.

I was hungry, but the girls had eaten. They offered to find me some food. They found a little restaurant, typical in Yantai, with a picture menu in a refrigerated shelf. The pictures are of the ingredients of the meal in a bowl, and you order it, and the chefs cook it for you. It is an easy way to get good food. I ordered dumplings, and they initially thought I should have forty of them, but Dora, asked me and we reduced my order to 20. Little did we know, we would have another guest at dinner. Instead of waiting in the restaurant, we went out onto the promenade by the shore to wait. There are plenty of stone balls, and benches to sit on, and people are everywhere: women fighting with their boyfriends, lovers strolling, children flying kites, and all manner of humanity out for a wonderful Saturday night at the beach. I was answering questions from the two girls, when I saw a foreigner walking alone. I thought, well, I have ignored foreigners twice now, and I regretted it later, because there are so few here: so I waved. He, at first ignored it, and then he seemed to think twice, and he started our direction.

He approached and I loudly said hello. He responded, that means he speaks English. He explained that he is from the Philippines, and this is his first day in Yantai. He is working for a ship company, on the docks, and he will be here for a year. Wow, exciting. He asked me for advice about Yantai, so I gave him the rundown: Darunfa, Jackies, Alibaba, SanZhang Market, KFC, McDs, (forgot to mention Pizza Hut), but I emphasized Jackie's: it is a great place for a foreigner to go, when in need of some English language. He, however, spoke some Chinese, and began conversing lightly with Dora and her friend. So, when it came time for us to go get our food, I asked him along, at a spur of the moment. He came with us to eat, and he ordered a second 20 dumplings.

After dinner, we parted ways with the other foreigner, and we made our way to the Opera/Pop fountain. This is a lighted water fountain, about 100 yards by 100 yards with a water spurt show, choreographed to the music being pumped out over loud speakers. It is quite nice at night. Dora and I sat down and waited for her friend, whom had gone to find us Coca Colas, and ice cream. I whipped out my guitar, and before long there is a crowd of about twenty people, admiring my skills and listening. A Shanghai pair of brothers ask to try their hand at guitar, and one of them upstages me subtly with a very lovely classical guitar solo. I quickly regroup and play some blues: back at ya. Blues is my Forte. Two pretty girls approach and they ask my friends all sorts of questions, which I would find out later to be: does he have a girlfriend, what does he do: his singing is very good, etc... The crowd dissipates after I show a clear attitude of "no show here, just relaxing with friends, but I am willing to play if you just want to listen." People come and go, and many stay and look at me admiringly. It feels great, and Dora explains that they were very impressed by my skills. I am no dummy, and I know my skill level, and I also know, they rarely hear the blues in China.

So, that was it...well, we did go to the night market, where there is about two square miles of products on tables, and I got some very high responses to "Duo Chau Chen?" : Wu Bai, Arr Bai. I know that if I hear Bai (One Hundred) I am getting the Westerner price. I buy nothing. It makes me mad: I don't make that kind of money. I start to think about swiping some things I want, but I know better, way better. So, we have to go, because the dorm staff close up at 10pm, and I don't want to face the uncomfortable dilemma of where will Dora sleep. We didn't catch fish, we didn't fish, but I caught some attention with my blues guitar skillz, and I feel good that some pretty Chinese girls found me interesting enough to ask about me. What will tomorrow bring? As Steve says, Tomorrow is another day.

KTV with my Students

2008-05-23T23:54:00.001-07:00

Despite that many of the people signed up for my International Law class on Fridays, stopped showing up after five weeks, there are two Sophomore students that come every week, even though they cannot take the class until next year. They came to class last week, and my lecture was a particularly good lecture, defining the difference between the Un and the WTO, in terms of legal effect, and sources of law. After class, I ran across them outside, in the courtyard in front of the school, and they asked me to go to KTV with them on Saturday, which is today.

This will be my first KTV. For those of you who have not seen Lost in Translation, KTV is a kind of private karaoke room, where friends get together and sing karaoke. That sounds like my bag. In just a few hours we will go to the KTV place for some singing and fun.

Beijing Opera at my Balcony

2008-05-23T06:36:00.001-07:00

It was not noteworthy at first, because I was just enchanted with it. Now, I have to mention it, well, because I may have run out of things to write about for the time being, and well, it is different and fun at the same time. Every evening, just after dark, I can hear someone singing opera outside. Sometimes there are gongs and chimes too. It sounds really good. Every once in a while...it just got louder...I guess she knew I wrote this....it starts in the morning.

The style is way different than Opera I have heard before. It is very snappy and the syncopation makes it sound more oriental, way more oriental. It is a cool reminder that I am in China.

In other news, I successfully told a taxi driver to take me to the Book store near three stations market, in Mandarin, of course. I was surprised when he understood me, and then we had a small conversation! Wow!

I went to the bookstore to get a map of Yantai. I have been wanting to go fishing, but without someone Chinese to fish with, I need to be able to communicate where I want to go to a taxi driver. Taxis here start at 7 Yuan, and the most I have ever paid was about 20 Yuan. You get several miles for the first seven Yuan, and then the meter starts running. The map is so that I can just point to a place on the coast, and the taxi driver can take me there. I will likely go to the special technological zone beach tomorrow, as I hear it is the best beach. Of course I don't know whether a fishing license is required, so this is just a scouting mission.

My Fishing Gear

2008-05-19T09:55:00.001-07:00

I love fishing, I love computers, and I love music. So far, since I been here, I bought a computer, and a guitar. Both relatively inexpensive, but still, they weigh heavily on my tight budget. I thought I was done, but I really want to get some fishing in. I live on the coast. For Christ's sake. We should all be fishing!

Yesterday, I went looking for a rod and pole. Just something to cast off the docks with, and I can sit there and sing "Sitting on the dock of the bay" by Otis Redding. I want to land some strange Chinese fish. I am sure there lurks some kinds of unusual creatures off this coastline. So, I asked the taxi driver (read: had my student tell him on the cell phone) to take me to a fishing store. He did, it was right where all the good store are: Three Stations Market (SanXiang). So, I got out of the cab, and he drew me a little map, which consisted of a straight line and a Chinese symbol next to it. Oh well, I thought, it must be straight down this road. It wasn't, so I searched and then finally pulled out my dictionary.

I asked this girl: "Yumen?" which means fisherman, and she looked at me strangely, and then shrugged, so I started acting like I was reeling in a line and casting it. She recognized that, and I think my poor pronunciation was outweighed by the charade and the meaning sunk in. She directed me to follow her. I did. She took right to a fishing store. They had all kinds of good gear, some of which I thought were pool cues at first, but turned out to be long bamboo poles, I think. I looked around the store for a long time, asking prices, and getting things off the shelves.

Try to read where it says" "lingth" That is the indicator that it is fake. It is still really nice, but not a real Okuma, like the label says. At least I only spent $50 USD for both rod and reel.

I found a nice long but inexpensive pole and a cheap reel. Then the store manager came over and recommended some nicer items from the display. Curious, I asked "Doh Chow Chin" (Which sounds like the phrase "how much is it" in Chinese), and they were anywhere from 150 Yuan to 800 Yuan....Yikes. 800 Yuan, that is a lot, even for a rich American like me. I haggled and haggled and haggled, to no avail.

I put together a big group of products and got a quote: 580 Yuan. Man, I am not going to spend 580 Yuan on any one thing, unless it is a computer. But, all said and done, that is a pretty reasonable deal, it is about $82 USD. I didn't buy it all. Instead I haggled and haggled, and haggled. I pulled out 300 Yuan, and flipped it in the air tantalizingly. I moved it before and around the woman, and showed it to her. "San Bai Yuan, huh?" Three red colored beautiful 100 RMB notes. Mmmmmm, looks good doesn't it, I was thinking. Mmmmmmmm RMB, you like? Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. She didn't bite. I guess my fishing skills are rusty. So finally I started putting things aside, and showing her the 300 Yuan in front of what was left.

I got tired of taking things aside, and she was starting to grow agitated, although she always came right back and picked up each item quoting a price in Mandarin, extolling the virtues of her wares. I was like, this little rubber worm, is not worth 7 Yuan. That's too much! To no avail, she couldn't understand me, which often works to my advantage in these situations.

So, I finally said "Doh Chow Chen" and held up the rod and reel. She said 150 for the reel, and 350 for the rod = 500 Yuan! I was like geeze, this lady won't budge. The Dean, of the school I work for, told me to offer half of what any store owner asks for, so I would have felt a fool had I left it at that. I pulled out my 300, and said "jooguh," which roughly means "this." I was determined to get what I came for for 300 Yuan. She turned it down, I added another 50 Yuan note, and she quickly jumped, almost as if, she was happy to get anything else out of me. I was about to leave.

I bought this nice carbon fibre telescoping rod, and a 10+ ball bearing long cast reel for 350 Yuan. I called my student and he said I got ripped off. Oh well, I always get ripped off, it seems. He means that I should have gotten it for 300 Yuan. The store owners see me, and their eyes light up, like, it's business time! I feel like it was a good deal. 350 Yuan is about 50 dollars, and the equipment is pretty decent. It is fake "jaide". The Rod says Okuma on it, which is a premier brand in fishing, although usually affordable: $30-80 USD for a real Okuma rod on the Internet. I got mine for like $20 USD, and the reel is not labeled as Okuma, but it feels great. The Chinese know how to make things, but they are still learning to sell over priced junk for too much money, and get away with it, like American companies can. Also, I have read numerous stories online about how manufacturers come to China, give a factory their designs, and then decide the manufacturing is either not cheap enough, or not up to snuff. The factories just keep on manufacturing them anyways, and they sell them. I guess they feel like they should get another chance, so they just take one.

I like my new rod and reel, now I just need fishing line, lures, and some leaders. I think I can get it all for around 100 Yuan! Then I go fishing!!!!

Teaching the Business Types

2008-05-19T09:02:00.001-07:00

Today as usual, I traveled by Taxi to Wanshua Chemical company, where 20 professionals dying to learn English await my arrival. I planned some lessons for the first time. I planned all of my lessons when I first came here to Yantai, but I found that I am better off just listening to what the students want, and catering to them in real time. Well, my students asked for more planning and structure last time, so I made a plan, gathered some business vocabulary, and downloaded some videos for them to watch. There was a lady in the back, whom works for the company, and she fell asleep after two hours of not participating. I don't blame her. Everyone else had something to do, but she was just there to observe. Two hours is a long time to observe.

So we watched a lot of videos. The students wanted videos. These are people from age 22 to about 40 or so. They all wanted to watch videos, and their other teacher lets them watch videos. So, I found some videos on CNN.com, and downloaded them: Three about the Obama Bush battle over words and politics, two about great entrepreneurs, two about the Beijing Olympics, one about Iron Man the Movie, and some technology similar to the Iron Man suit, and one about a car that runs on grease and disposed oil. They didn't understand very much of it, nearly none at all. I tried to stop the videos and make commentary, but it interrupted the flow too much. So, I just did a question and answer at the end of each video to judge comprehension. There was always at least one person who got it. Those people must have been in the zone. One CNN correspondent was mumbling and stuttering so much, I was having difficulty listening to him....blaaaaaahhhhhh.

Afterwards I gathered their homework, and we discussed their homework for next week: Bring a movie they like to class: in other words, something they can understand.

To put things in context, I did do some teaching. The first half of the class I read and covered material in the textbook. They learned how to find a bus stop, and ask for help on the bus. I am sure that will be useful if they go to the US. They might as well know it. They can all speak some English, but I can imagine how many words strung together rapidly and in quick succession could be hard to follow.

The Music Spot

2008-05-17T17:54:00.001-07:00

I went to Jackie's as a celebration for transferring money back to my US bank account. I took the student, John, who helped me at the bank as a way of saying thank you. I bough a guitar last month. I saw that Jackie, the owner of Jackie's could use some music. I asked him whether he had live music. He said he does, but the band he normally employed broke up. I asked him, whether I could play there. he said yes. I told him I play alone, and I play the blues. He thought that would be a good form of entertainment. So, I asked him, whether he would provide me with free beer. He said, that he would, and anything else I wanted. I think he meant burgers and food, and beer. I bought our meals, drank a few cokes, and then I bought some cheese. Jackie's carries the best assortment of cheese in Yantai.

I have been practicing Nirvana's "Lake of Fire", Cross Canadian Ragweed's "Leave Me Alone", Nickel Creek's "Reason Why", The Shins' "Phantom Limb" among other songs. I want to come up with a list of ten songs I can play, which suit my musical style and voice. I am thinking of learning some Tom Waits, even though his name is Tom, and he is crazy. He has a rough voice and he play lots of great music.

The Commercial

2008-05-17T17:44:00.001-07:00

I read for a radio commercial on Friday. The company wants a forceful and powerful reading on the background and commercial situation of their progress in the lumber felling and processing field. I met the teacher, here at Ludong, whom is the contact for the company, at the South gate of school. A Russian man named Ivan met us a few minutes later. The three of us hopped in a company car, and we headed to a recording studio downtown. The studio is a small facility, but it is pretty nice. I recorded first, but there were many mistakes in the English. I had to correct them. The company paid me a pittance as far as my work is concerned. It does not really bother me. If they liked it maybe they will ask me to do it again. If not, perhaps, then it is best to charge very little. I am not a man of principle. I am a man of reason.

The law is the same way. I bet you hear all of the principles floating around, claiming to be some basis for law. Well, that is just rhetoric. It only serves to affect emotional outcomes, based on evil agendas. Rather, the United States Government is set up to infuriate and dispose of emotions. The many procedures, professional demands on lawyers, and technical nature of trial, are a path of emotional disrobing. For some it can be quite disarming, and in many cases it can lead to emotional breakdowns. This is a means of removing emotional weaponry from the process, rather than enabling it to become a factor. I will hand it to you, that some are more adept at bringing emotion into the courtroom. Those are the ones that win big cases: read, cases that should not have been won. Often, these people are given the label: he/she gets things done. I am not one of those people.

I am a man, I believe that emotion serves in one capacity, and not another. The courtroom is not a place for healing. It is a place for retribution, condemning, and punishment. It is intended as the last vestige of reason amidst a dysfunctional disagreement. Emotion does have its place outside the courtroom. Emotion serves to disarm. It serves to show the bare necessities of life, while maintaining dignity and respect. A courtroom is a place intended by the founders, and by the euro-afro-sino-indo-mexo-aborigino-american law making body, to be a place of solace and remorse. These emotions are not as powerful as fear, anger, platitude, discord, mongering, divisiveness, or any other potent emotional content. These emotions may leave room for emotions of lower potency, which are not intended to be in court, to enter the courtroom.

The courtroom is a place to resolve, between two conflicting interests, a path towards accord and satisfaction, among other legal outcomes. As any good lover knows, getting it all out on the table, when it come to emotion, is no way to resolve issues. Some emotions just are not founded, and others are sheer madness. Perhaps, then, emotion has its place in the courtroom of favor, perhaps in the commitment for truth, honesty, and a bright future. I started this article to write about my experience, only to find emotion as a hindrance, rather than a validation of my fears.

I am now at the point of moving emotion to a small, back room, replete with antiquated storage articles, useless human appendages, among other useless things. Sure, politicians make a living off of emotional content, and so do advertisers, but when have you ever said to yourself: I want to be a politician? I have never said so, in earnest, I know that political livelihood, the kind that bases its validity on emotional support, is less politics, and more professional help, like psychiatry. It is an affirmation of the emotional hope, that the more emotionally inclined, and less emotionally validated, use as motivation for making "life more interesting." I suppose we can chalk that up to the impetus for war. I do always end with war. It is the maxim for men to make war the last resort and the end of all things, like the atom bomb, or the nuclear warhead, there must be an absolute, and it must be tangible. Without it, we are lost to ponder the meagerness of our lives. What else can I make a living from?

I made 150 Yuan from the radio spot. That is a start. It is the meek and emotionally weak that taught me to save money. My personal contribution to society is not going to last beyond the day I stop working for society. It was the strong who taught me that life does not throw a dog a bone, and that old dogs are left to die under a little boys bed on a cold night. Life is fair, but fairness is the beautiful girl who would never date you because your back is too hairy.

I am Doing a Commercial

2008-05-13T02:17:00.001-07:00

A company named Northwest Forestry has asked me to record some promotional material. I will be reading the promotional material for a recording presentation to foreign investors. The company appears to be a very large logging company, here in China. They told me they want the tone to be very forceful and strong, to represent the strength and power of the company. I will be recording on Friday afternoon. I better practice to make sure I do it very well.

Four Jobs!

2008-05-11T22:15:00.001-07:00

Now I have four jobs. I work for LuDong University (my main job), then six Chinese primary school students and their parents, then Weihai Chemical Manufacturing Company (A plastics manufacturer), and now I read in English to some other business (I will learn more about this today). This brings my monthly earnings to roughly $1000 USD, or 7000 RMB/CNY.

I have been sleeping a lot, but staying up late. I was not getting the bug to pursue anything until really late at night. Rather than wait until the next day, I just decided to keep at it all night. I am back on a regular schedule now, and I feel great.

I began exercising last week. I am taking it really easy, just one or two laps around the quarter mile track, then some Kung Fu exercises, and a lot of stretching.

I'm thinking a lot of saving money. It is important to save money. With saved money I can start a business or do what I like to do.

I am writing a science fiction novel. The story centers on an alternate future where a computer makes all the rulings in legal cases.

I am learning Mandarin Chinese. I know the following:

Numbers 1-10, 100-1000

Words: university, south, left, right, turn, hello, nice to meet you, bye, thanks, how much is, this, me, Chinese, America, China, American.

Still learning, and I am getting more comfortable using pinyin pronunciations.

I set up a website for myself to route files and encrypt my Internet connections, but that has recently been blocked somewhere along the way from the US to China.

Volleyball Practice

2008-05-07T09:13:00.001-07:00

I am invited to join the faculty volleyball team. Today, John called me, at about 3:45 about practice at 4:00pm, because I missed his text message earlier. So, I headed on down to the v-ball court, and we played some v-ball until it started raining. Here are the pictures:

Law as a Relationship....see Marriage

2008-05-06T01:46:00.001-07:00

Today I wanted to lecture on a lawyer's role in the international law field of practice. I read this blog post on ChinaLawBlog, about arbitration clauses in China. It made me start to think about a lawyer's role. The post is about what it means to put a boiler plate arbitration clause in a Chinese manufacturing contract. It is written that such a standard arbitration clause can lead to long delays in adjudication, and possibly a loss of potentially huge amounts of business. The fact is that an arbitration cannot enforce injunctive relief, especially in the time frame required by modern business. ChinaLawBlog recommend writing in a carve out provision that allows for a plea to the court system for injunctive relief. The lawyers role is to know this kind of practical advice, that the black letter law of a statute or even a contract regarding a business transaction cannot compare to the efficiency of getting things handled quickly and efficiently. The efficiency of arbitration cannot compare to the authority of a court when injunctive relief is necessary. This all boils down to relationships.

A lawyers role is to create a contract that builds a relationship, much like a marriage contract should. Some things will kill a marriage, like murder of the spouse; other things will drastically harm a marriage, like infidelity. In business, selling your buyers goods as your own can lead the relationship down a rocky road. That is why quickly resolving any possibility of that being done is absolutely necessary to building on that business. However, we all know that some things cannot be prevented by a penalty, like murder, or infidelity. Murder is final. Infidelity leads to more infidelity, because the immediate rewards are very nice: I am writing about sexual pleasure and intimacy. These kinds of behaviors should be stopped, by physical force if necessary: we will sacrifice a small wrong to stop a big one.

In the context of this post, the natural bond between a married couple, with children is a bountiful diagram of what a business deal should amount to. As long as the child or children are put first, then the rewards of the marriage will overcome the desires of extramarital affairs. A lawyers role is to craft a contract with this in mind. The business law principle of speed and efficiency of resolving disputes is tantamount to keeping the child alive and healthy, so that the purpose of the marriage can be fulfilled. The partners are happy with a prosperous child. In business, the transaction is the child. If everything else goes bad, the transaction continues, and is healthy enough and well educated enough to adapt to problems in it's life.

We create children together with out partners, not with anyone else. Law is not meant to protect bad businessmen or women, who cannot maintain their life outside of the home, or who fail to keep up their end of the bargained for exchange, my semen for your eggs. It is meant to provide a course of retribution, punishment and incentive for the marriage to get back to healthy. Law is a contract that guides the wayward onto a road of penitence and forgiveness, towards a fruitful relationship. Bare minimum standards have no place in the heart of a lover, and children cannot survive on love alone. So, the next time you get in bed with a manufacturer or an IP owner, make sure your commitment level satisfies the marriage diagram.

View from My Balcony

2008-05-05T03:04:00.001-07:00

This is the view from my balcony today. I finally got off my lazy butt and did some exercise at the school stadium (not pictured). I negotiated a new contract today for another year, ending in July 2009. I made a commitment to myself to stay away from bad influences and seek out the good ones. I am going to cook pork noodles tonight, and my neighbor brought over some kind of leafy vegetable for me, so that will become part of my noodles too.

I am reading this great book about China called Oracle Bones. Some of the real characters in the book were able to save $5000 USD in one year, on less than half of my salary; that is inspiring me to save money. My clothes are outside drying right now.

Here are two pictures of my living room, so you can see how I live.

Vacation is Relaxing

2008-04-30T05:32:00.001-07:00

I am relaxing for vacation. Today, I broke down and bought a guitar for myself. I have gone two months without one. I usually play every day, practice makes perfect, right. I found a nice Epiphone acoustic for 540 Yuan: like $75 dollars. It feels great to be able to play, so today I learned to play "Leave Me Alone" by Cross Canadian Ragweed.

Dinner With Lisa's Family

2008-04-27T06:25:00.001-07:00

So, I met Lisa at the computer market at Three Stations about two weeks ago. She had me come over for dinner tonight. She lives with her mother and father. I met her at my apartment and we took a taxi to her home. Her mother and father were waiting inside, and her mother was preparing food. She made some delicious dumplings and salted sugary roasted peanuts, lamb meat balls and mushrooms, celery and pork, noodles and pork, and eggs/tomatoes/bell peppers.

Lisa's father liked me very much. We drank some Baiju, Chinese alcohol, and some wine, and smoked a bunch of cigarettes. Her father offered me his American cigarettes, that he had received as a gift. he got very excited and kept talking to me in Chinese, and Lisa tried to translate, which was always, "I love the foreigner".

Basketball with My 12 Year Olds and Dinner

2008-04-27T03:05:00.001-07:00

We have a week vacation starting Monday. I can't really afford to travel now and again in late May, so I am going to stay here in Yantai and get situated, study for class, and do some personal work. Bar results come out for me on May 2nd, so that is a major event.

I had my 12 year olds over today for tutoring. It is such a nice day, and they wanted to go outside, so we played some basketball. The basketball courts were full, so we played a hybrid between basketball and ping pong.

Well, I have to go to dinner with Lisa, so I'll write later.

The Norm (in International Law)

2008-04-24T21:16:00.001-07:00

The International law is said to be a set of norms. Norms are the values and judgements we all share. Norms do change over time. Thirty years ago it was normal for women to stay at home and take care of the kids. Today, the man is as likely to do so. It is still not normal for women to head large businesses, or to run governments as heads of state. Perhaps that is why Hillary won't win the Presidency.

In teaching my class, I had to face this concern. All of my students on Fridays International law class are young women. It must be hard for them to accept the norm, when it doesn't adequately represent them. They cannot go before an international panel and claim that women are discriminated against, because that is not true. There just aren't many women who practice international politics. When they do, their isolation and uniqueness make them stand out against the crowd. Consequently they get blamed for more than their share of problems.

The norm changes, but who changes it. Normal should be consistent over time, it should always equate to one at the extreme, and 0 at the other. It only takes a few exceptional women, maybe one out of every billion to adapt the international norm of women in politics to a degree equivalent to or better than the men. The norm can handle more women in international politics without it being strange or abnormal. There is no rule against it.

A female president would be just one more step towards making women in politics more accepted. It goes without saying that having adequate representation in politics goes a long ways towards establishing a more adequate norm, and thus more adequate laws.

Feeling Better Again

2008-04-24T04:28:00.001-07:00

So, I drank plenty of tea, and ate a bunch of oranges and bananas, and some soup and I feel much better. I think I will be fully recovered tomorrow.

Getting Better

2008-04-22T03:02:00.001-07:00

So, I had to cancel class today because I am sick. But, I made up the time by browsing the Internet for new about China, and did some research on the WTO. Two of my students came by to bring me some fresh fruit, and chat a bit. I am feeling much better now, but I seem to get a little congested at night, so I have to see how I feel tomorrow. Fortunately, tomorrow is a free day.

There is a holiday from April 27th - May 1st. No classes during that time.

I am starting to get the law bug again. After all that Bar studying and three years of law school, I felt a bit overwhelmed by studying. Now that I have had some time to think, the WTO issues are really beginning to become interesting to me.

Nothing too interesting going on right now, because I have a cold, and I stay home all day. Tomorrow I am going to go around town with one of the professors and my student/translator, John.

My new friend

2008-04-21T05:28:00.001-07:00

Last week, I met a woman at the Three Stations Market. She said she wants to be my friends so she can practice her English. I gave her my number, and told her to call me sometimes, and we could work out a time to meet. She came over in the evening today. I had a hard time telling her how to get here, so I went looking for her around campus. She knew the school, but does not know enough English to find my place. So, I called her while I was looking, and tried to explain, to no avail. I knew one of the students passing by me on campus must speak English, so I asked a few as they walked by. A girl heard me and came over to ask what I needed. I asked her to tell my friend how to find the bridge on campus, and she did. A few minutes later, she was at the bridge, so I went over to her, and she followed me back home. I told her I have a cold, and she felt sorry for me, so when I went to make some dinner, she said she would do it. She made a nice dinner for me. She just left a few minutes ago, but she wants me to come over to her home for dinner Wednesday night.

I Have a Cold

2008-04-20T22:57:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I woke up early and realized I was under the weather. I have a cold. So, today I am taking it easy, and drinking plenty of water, as well as trying to stay in as moist an environment as possible. I hope I get better really soon.

Teaching the Fundamentals of International Law

2008-04-17T21:30:00.001-07:00

What good is knowing the text of the law if you can only recite what someone else wrote? You may ask yourself whether this is a question worth answering. My days of formally learning are formally over, when it comes to law.

What do my students need to learn? They aren't going to get any use out of knowing all of the international statutes and treaties; not yet. Nor will any single written law, or even all the written laws, satisfy the fundamental knowledge of international law. It has come to my attention, the fundamental knowledge of global exchange and travel is based on expectations of a full enjoyment of life: Life, Liberty, and Happiness.

Class has been dragging in some areas. I have not quite figured out why, or exactly what is causing the difficulty. The students seem to understand what I am saying, but are having trouble expressing themselves. There are some things students would rather not yet think about. A global world is a small priority for someone who is still discovering their country. This discovery, that theirs is a global country, is an opportunity for them, and an imperative for me.

Some Photos from The Week

2008-04-14T04:45:00.000-07:00

Dean Chu and His Wife Took Me to Pizza Hut

2008-04-14T04:31:00.000-07:00

Dean Chu promised to take me to Pizza Hut, but he was in Beijing, doing research, last week. So today he told me he would take me. After class, I met him downstairs, at the school of law and politics. His wife was with him, so we all got in the car and headed to Pizza Hut. Pizza Hut here is a fine dining experience. They have waiters, fancy menus, and a nice decor.

After dinner, they took me shopping, at RT Mart, a Taiwanese grocery store/everything under the sun store, in the downtown area, right next to Pizza Hut. The Dean heard about the pickpocketing, so I suppose he wanted to make things right, and to show some compassion.
Here he is picking out groceries for me:

RT Mart has live fish in tanks, soft shell turtles, and giant live frogs:

Cheers, Dean Chu:

The Rule of Law in China

2008-04-14T00:02:00.000-07:00

The Rule of Law goes like this: When the law is supreme, the evil doers pay, and the righteous succeeed. This is summarily not true at all. In fact, everyone pays. We all pay for the rule of law. I believe, strongly, that law is a human capacity worth affecting. It is valuable to create rules, to pursue right, and to make our ends righteous and good. I think that law accomplishes this, but at great cost, and at great sacrifice of freedom. Pursuiing human freedom always comes at a cost. The more we perfect one freedom, the less we have others. Confucious has a great saying about a man who lost his whole kingdom for want of a horse shoe. That's a lot like freedom, when we perfect human rights down to a science we lose many other essoteric freedoms, like family, happiness, autonomy.

The Excitement and Peril of Victims

2008-04-13T23:04:00.000-07:00

Ever watch a fascinating TV series, or a great movie. Odds are that amongst the many hours of entertainment available, the recurring theme, that which excites you, is a victim overcoming the odds. Keeping things on topic, I want to address the blogs that have been writing about the victim-dilemma in China. The victim-dilemma is a common statement that the Chinese people prefer to feel victimized.

I think it all goes back to political dissent. The story begins with some controversy, so and so government oppressed so and so people; so and so people rejected the oppression and sought reform; reform did not resolve underlying issues; so and so people feel victimized, even when they are not.

A better explanation of the truth: people accomplish more when they are motivated. When scorned by love, oppressed by power, or prevented by nature, we strive to overcome that. When there is no oppression or force preventing us, we find ourselves accomplishing more. What alarms me about these Blogger statements about the Chinese is that I find the Chinese People surprisingly honest, straightforward, self-motivated, and having a can-do attitude. Where does victimization fit in? A new drug?

I could explain it complexly and align it with the truth, but instead I will rely on the crutch of simile. I liken the push towards victimization to steroids in the Major League Baseball world. One player gets an edge by using them, then another, and then another. The ones who don't use them lose a competitive advantage, and feel victimized. It is a disssater of a comparison. In truth the drug is victimization, of a particular sort. The people who do not use victimization as a motivator, then begin to feel victimized, and in turn succomb to the global norm. World Leaders often appeal to this weak spot for victims. They make themselves and their states appear to be victims of darker larger powers. The only real way to defeat the cry of the false victim is to either make the victimization more real (teaching the would be victim the error of their ways: which rarely yields any sympathy for the actor), or to become a victim. In the major leagues, the true victims (the non-steroid users) chose to make the steroid users victimization feel more real. Consequently the hearings against famous ball players has commenced, and they are revealing their motivations in cloaked truths. The would be victims (non-users) took action, and the original actors (Roger Clemmens), are falling from fame into infamy, along with those who followed suit. Are the Chinese following suit to France, America, Africa....?

The Chinese are surprisingly resilient to real victimization. They rarely strike out. They rarely take action into their own hands before the forces of nature and time do. They have a way of letting things pan out on their own. I like to think of it as some ancient Existentialism. Nature is so much more mightly than we, and thus nature will always right the wrongs.

So where do the Olympics, Tibet, Taiwan, and alleged human rights fit in. These are all efforts to stem the growing global movement towards victimization. The arrogance of performance enbhancing drugs, and likely victim mongers, will not infect China; the Chinese are far to mired in the depths of the reality of life to tempt fate in that way. But I do see the influence of the Western obsession with victims peeping around the corner, and the youth are definitely curious.

I was surprised and elated to find out that top student is going to remain in China, perhaps become a Chinese lawyer. He will still venture to America for a taste of the brave new world, but only a taste, and then back to reality. Nature has a way of overcoming nurture, and I for one, find the omen of the harsh reality of mother nature far exceeding the bemoaning cry for more nurturing in the call of victim mongers.

Communism is an old theory, older than democracy, and deeper than we Westerners are taught. Does it live up to the myth of oppression and fear: no, it does not. It stands alone, with solice, braving the undertow of the great retreating tide of money fed victimization, and I think it is not long for shore.

Chinese Language

2008-04-13T01:41:00.000-07:00

"Chinese Character" "English Word" "Mandarin Pronounciation"
零 zero (ying)
一 one (eee)
二 two (arrr)
三 three (san)
四 four (cshi)
五 five (wooo)
六 six (leeeoooo)
七 seven (chee)
八 eight (baaaa)
九 nine (geeeo)
十 ten (shur)
十一 eleven (she,eee)
十二 twelve (she, arrr)
十三 thirteen (she san)
二十 twenty (arr, she)
二十一 twenty one (arr, she, eee)
一百 one hundred (eee, buyer)
一千 one thousand (eee, che, an)
一万 ten thousand (eee, woo, an)
十万 one hundred thousand (she, woo, an)
一百万 one million (eee, buy, woo, an)

Me and the Temple Near School

2008-04-12T02:22:00.000-07:00

I sometimes go up on the roof of the school, because the view is great. It is also a great place to get some peace and quiet. One of the students sawme up there, contemplating the days' lessons, and he came up to say hi. I asked him to take a picture for me. Here I am, on the roof of the School of Law and Politics at Lu Dong.

Hot Pot at My Place Tonight

2008-04-12T02:14:00.001-07:00

So, I completely forgot that students are coming over tonight for hot pot. They just showed up, and they borught a lot of food. They are making me hot pot, and dumplings. They are in my kitchen right now.

Two of them are from Szechuan Province, so they really know how to make Hot Pot. One of them is a girl from a central province known for its food. She is coming with more food later. They even brought a Beijing Duck, imported from Beijing.

The Thief, pickpocketed me!

2008-04-12T01:27:00.000-07:00

Today, I was pickpocketed. I had been warned: "Watch out for pickpocketers on the bus!" Well, today, as I was getting on the bus, to make it to a Comm. Party Convention with a student, I felt someone puch up against my back. I am used to this as the people waiting for the bus often push and shove ot get on first. I thought nothing of it until I sat down, and I didn't feel that uncomfortable lump in my back pocket: my wallet! Ghasp, I leaped to my feet, made the bus driver stop and ran out of the bus. John, my student followed suit. I told him: "dammit my wallets missing, I just got pickpocketed." He was like "no way, man didn't I tell you to watch it." He did. So I looked around and noone familiar was still at the bus stop. I saw several people just kind of lurking, and I thought oh they'll be back. So I set up an observation point just far enough away from the bus stop. I watched for suspicious activity. I wasn't too worried because I didn't have much money in my wallet, just $25 dollars worth of Yuan: 180 元. So, that is gone, and so are my bank card and credit card. I made a police report, and called the bank and the CC company, reporting stolen cards, so no worries there. Sadly I had to miss the Comm. Party Meeting. I wanted to go and see what they talked about. Fortunately, all of my really important documents are at home: Passport, Visa, Residency Permit: So, I am safe as that goes. I was using my pocket wallet, laziness, I will be using my travel wallet with restraining strap from now on.

The loss was not that bad, I emphasize. I only lost about 25 dollars. I can live without my bank card or credit card until I get a new one from the card companies. Also, I get paid tomorrow, for tutoring, and then again on Tuesday for teaching. So, no worries need be had for me.

Chinese Value Judgments

2008-04-10T00:20:00.000-07:00

I did an exercise last International Law class. I asked the whole class to rank certain values: the most astonishing thing to me is that many students placed Family above Human Life. Astonished, I asked the students who chose this ordering why they did so. I had some pretty good reasons why Human Life should always be ordered above Family: for instance: If one values Human Life first, then Family life is notedly valued highly as well: why not just value all life equally and then value Family second, in order to ensure that we are all alive before we start picking favorites.

Some stalwart students held their ground, explaining that life without family is not worth living. To be fair, most students chose Human Life above all, and some even placed freedom second, or in a few cases first. I tried to list some examples where, one's family is alive, but perhaps in prison, and while it is painful, it is better than death. That life, even restricted life is better than no life at all. I believe thaty some students are more comfortable with the absolute principles of great figures like William Wallace, Thomas Moore, and others valuing honor above life. They have a more realist viewpoint, that while the death or imprisonment of family is not absolute, the hunger for freedom, honor, and love is still absolute, and life must be given for the sake of "real" life (Life with family, food, clothing, and happiness). An example of this I enjoy is that almost every student of mine love, absolutely loves the new TV series: Prison Break, where Scoffield's brother is on death row for a crime he did not commit, and Scoffield intentionally gets sent to prison, and constructs a life endangering scheme to break him out of jail before he is executed.

Also of note, many of my students think I am like Scoffield. That makes me happy.

Changed my name

2008-04-09T02:22:00.000-07:00

I was originally going to take the Chinese name Li Hong Zhu, but I nwas told by Jackie, the owner of an American restaurant, that that sounds like the name of an infamous religious cult leader here in China, whom I have read about. So, now I go by Wong Hong Zhu, much better.

Woah, Strange Day

2008-04-09T02:06:00.000-07:00

Today was a free day, so I decided to wander around downtown. I found two guitar shops, and checked out their holdings. I saw a some fenders, jacksons, and a few others I liked. They also carry Chines guitars, which are very nice: all are in the 1500 Yuan to 2500 Yuan range: 2500 Yuan for an american Fender Telecaster is a great deal....really it is. But, I am not in the market yet, just looking to see what is around. After finding those, I just strolled around. I ended up near the seaside, and was on the lookout for a dinner restauarant that opened early: I found one. I went inside, and I tried to order Niorole Mien (Beef Noodles), but the waiter said, no. Then the only other customers (a table of four Chinese men) started waiving me over. They were sitting on mats on the floor, at an elevated platform, and they had clearly been there for a while: peanut shells, sunflowers seeds, and Korean dried seaweed were strewn about....as well as Yantai beer. I started to approach, but then they waived me away. When I sat back down they waived me back again, and clearly wanted me to sit down. None of them spoke any English, but they ordered me soup, and gave me a glass for beer. Then they offered me peanuts, sunflower seeds, and Korean dried seaweed. From what I understood, they wanted America and China to join together. They were able to understand that I am a teacher (Laoshi) at Lu Dong University (Lu Dong Dao Xie), and one of them actually lives right next to to the University. They kept proclaiming Ganbei (cheers) and refilling my beer glass. The glasses are tiny, so I could easily finish it in one gulp, but they kept filling it up, so now I am a little drunk. They told me they were ver very happy (In english), and then we proceeded to eat and drink. The one who lives near me, offered to drive me home: I couldn't refuse, because I was drinking beer, so I accepted. He later took me home, in a very kind gesture.

Notedly it was very fun, and I did not expect it all for today. They were older men, around fourty of fourty five. They all dressed nice, and seemed to be having a good time, so why not? They invited me back for tomorrows meeting of friends. I would go, but unfortunately, I have class tomorrow.

Josh offered to introduce me to a girlfriend?

2008-04-07T06:54:00.000-07:00

Josh offered to introduce me to a Chinese PHD student, teaching English here at the school. She has a PHD, speaks English, Japanese, and Mandarin, and she works at the University. She has her own apartment. So, I can't wait to meet her.

Chinese Bath, Massage & Barbeque

2008-04-07T06:40:00.001-07:00

I met a Chinese teacher, teaching English, here at Ludong. He lives in the next building over. He is 25, and taller than me. We chatted, after the market lady down the street got confused about what I wanted. He speaks English well. So he invited me to go out to dinner tonight. We went to have Chinese BBQ, which includes: squid, lamb, pork, sausage, fish, corn bread, bread, and egg drop soup. Everything is brought around the restaurant by the waiters, and they ask you whether you would like some. Prices are charged by the skewer, which is added up after the meal is done.

I had originally wanted to go find a good guitar shop. Josh (aforementioned Chinese English teacher) said he had a friend who knows where several are. We ate dinner first. After dinner, unfortunately all the shops were closed. We were going to go to a pool bar and play some pool, drink a few beers, but Josh mentioned that he likes to go get a bath and a massage every week. He had missed his weekly bath and massage. I made sure it was not a gay thing, subtly, but surely. Chinese men love the massage, and he said I have the choice of a blind man or a woman. I chose a woman, although blind men are apparently way better at massages: I doubt it.

For 38 Yuan, I was able to take a shower and sona (steam bath), with the option of some guy washing me (which I declined), and then went upstairs where a girl gave me a full body massage. It was purely massage, no sucky sucky or anything like that. She started by cleaning my ears with q-tips. Then my face and temples with oils, and then my shoulders, arms, hands, legs; then she turned me over, and massaged my neck, head, shoulders, back, thighs, calves. She then jumped up and started walking all over my back, doing various acrobatics, with the assistance of ceiling bars. It was a very thorough massage. Then she oiled and cleaned my feet.

The whole thing took about an hour. I feel very relaxed now. Oh, and I found about four guitar shops all within a vlock or two of eachother: just take the number 46 bus from school, and I am there! Tomorrow I will check out some guitars. Guitars here are very inexpensive: 500 Yuan for an acoustic electric, of decent quality, or 600 yuan for an Epiphone acoustic, 1800 yuan for a signature model Steve Vai Ibanez, and about 1400 Yuan for a fender telecaster, although I don't think the tele is authentic.

Stream of Thought

2008-04-06T10:03:00.000-07:00

word
wierd
baidu
shoolu
cockatu
wooboo
willibomba
shombalee
hello kitty
ditty
a little ditty
p diddy
I feel zitty
you look pretty
my little kitty
sit down
you f'ing clown
shower down on your crown
while I pound out a sound
from my loud tamborine
smelly and clean
like a machine
lemon
apple
pine
trees
on skis
with knees
please
cease
my bees
for meees
shes so hot
plot my revenge
for her within (A little racy)
for a girl named lacy
chase me
place me in your room
your a baffoon
I use a spoon
and listen to tiny tunes

A Great Blog about Yantai

2008-04-06T09:28:00.000-07:00

http://pasteywhiteguy.blogspot.com/2007/08/reader-request.html

I found this blog and have been reading it. It is very funny and informative. Tonight I went to Jackie's Cuisine Restaurant downtown. A local Yantai expatriate living in London, but back here on vacation, introduced me to it. Lots of local expats frequent there. Like tonight, I ate at the bar with a UK expat working for a ship builder here in Yantai, name was Bill, and his son Peter. I had a jalapeno cheesburger and several budweisers....Mmmmmm. Fun stuff, especially after tutoring six sub-teens in English.

Found Some Great Chinese Books

2008-04-05T01:35:00.000-07:00

Today, I decided to ramp up the Chinese learning curve. I called John, and we went to the large bookstore dowtown. They had a great selection of English-Chinese Lesson books and a great Dictionary for finding Chinese Translations of English words. While waiting for John, I took some photos of the children's school near my apartment: It is very decorative.

Then,I had a picture taken at SanJiang Computer Market...

I decided to make my Chinese name: Li Hong Zhu (The same first name as John, and the most popular Chinese surname.) I am learning Chinese much faster now with these books I purchased. They all have pinyin/english/chinese characters, and the phrasebook has some very useful phrases.

Basketball is big in China

2008-04-04T20:05:00.000-07:00

Waiting for Franklin to bring his ping pong gear, I played a little pick-up basketball. Chinese love basketball, and they admit they are not very good. My inability to make a shot goes unnoticed here.

Yesterday was a Chinese Holiday!

2008-04-04T19:41:00.000-07:00

Usually Friday is my busiest day for teaching. Yesterday, Friday, was a holiday, so no classes! Some students wanted to spend time with me to practice their English and get to know me better. They came over at about 8am, and we looked at some photos of my home town, my family, and some cool places in the USA. Initially we planned on going hiking, but none of us were in the mood for climbing mountains; instead, we played some ping pong at the school facilities. I must be pretty good at ping pong because noone could best me at a game to 11 points.

While I was playing, the students wanted to try on my cool shades. They thought they were so cool, that they decided to take some photos of themselves with the shades on.

This was at the ping pong yard. Then, after ping pong, we went to get some lunch:

The meal was delicious: eggplant, marinated in oils, fish stew, stringy potato with sauces, pork and mushrooms, and Chingdao beer. After lunch, since they paid for it, I decided they deserved a good western style dinner: Steak and Potatoes, Texas style. So, we went shopping to try and find some good beef. it took us attempts at three grocery stores, and two street markets to find beef. Once, we found it I purchased up three large slabs of beef, some russet potatoes, some salt, pepper, and four coca colas. That is pretty American! I made them steak and potatoes for dinner. They were not used to eating so much beef, and it took them some time to get used to it. They finished their meal.

Here they are after eating their first American steak (see the cokes and the empty plates):

I had to cut the steaks up for them because all I have is chopsticks, no forks or steak knives. Franklin (middle) is having a hard time digesting all the meat. Alex and Annie, enjoyed the steaks, and Alex said he would have it again sometime.

After dinner we watched Swingers, a classic American movie. They didn't understand any of it, but they thought it was a good movie. The dialog was too fast and too colloquial for them. So, instead of finishing Swingers I popped in The Doors, movie about Jim Morrisson and the Doors by Oliver Stone.

They thought the Doors was the most visually stimulating movie they had seen. Unfortunately, I had to cover their eyes or fast forward through certain scenes, because that movie is a little mature for them. Anyone who has seen it knows it a great directorial movie for Stone, and a great catalogue of sixties and seventies culture in America.

NOTE: If you are ever in China and want to screen the movie for your Chinese students, make sure to have the remote handy to fast forward through all the mature rated scenes. Man, Oliver Stone is risque!