Thusness

Got the Blogger app for the iPhone.

2011-09-14T10:41:00.001+10:00

Wish I had something to say…

This is no longer true

2010-06-23T22:23:00.001+10:00

2010 blogging projects

2009-12-14T15:25:00.005+11:00

Looking back on the year, I was wondering about all the books I have read and movies that I've seen. Movies and books are largely means of entertainment and passing the time; however, I generally try to see only good movies and read only good books - ones which have some worth, something to think about, something that add to my life in some way.

But I could hardly remember what I had seen and read :(

This was sparked by seeing Where the Wild Things Are, which is one of the best movies that I have seen. Definitely one of the best in 2009. Um… what were the other good movies I watched this year?

Also, looking through our newly cleaned and sorted study, I came across a boxed set of 20 small books covering some of the Great Ideas* in philosophy from the last few thousand years.

Putting these ideas together, I realised that to make the most of the books I will read and the movies I will watch, I should write a little something about each one. I would also like to work through the Great Ideas set and actually think properly about the ideas contain therein. Anyway, that's my goal, so we'll see how it goes. And if you actually read this blog, please comment on any thoughts I put up - hopefully we'll all benefit from the discussion.

Also, if you like reading, there is a new blog to keep your eye on.

* This is the set we have but I could only find it in this format on the Canadian site.

Surely…

2009-05-25T12:34:00.001+10:00

Most ironic of words
Innocent, yet abused
You must question your thoughts
If this word you must use

If you actually knew
About what you would say
You would surely say it
Without this in the way

This word being present
Can be only at best
Not the sign of a fact
But a wish or a guess

Really good photos

2008-12-18T09:54:00.004+11:00

This comes from a fantastic photo blog: The year 2008 in photographs (part 1 of 3).

I recommend coming back for parts 2 and 3 as well as going through the archives. And then adding it to your feed reader. (See link on the side.)

amiably agnostic :)

2008-10-24T10:42:00.006+11:00

Have you heard about the atheist ad campaign in London? The aim is to make some sort of counter to religious advertising and will be the first ever athiest advertising in the UK.

I liked Neil Gaiman's observation that the ad seems more aimiably agnostic than atheist. (If you click on the link note that the post has several sections so and scroll to a bit over half way - the one that I'm pointing you to starts with "I saw a bumper sticker". The line that I liked was the one just before the picture…)

The article says that the campaign "will give atheism a more visible presence in the UK, generate debate, brighten people's day on the way to work, and hopefully encourage more people to come out as atheists." This raises certain questions.

How many people are not enjoying their life because they are worrying about the probable existance of God? What proportion of the population is operating under the burning guilt and pressure of impending doom? (The article says that part of the motivation for the campaign is to counter advertising by Christian groups saying you'll burn in Hell if you don't follow Jesus.) Is it saying that if there is no God then you can do whatever you want and be happy about it? Isn't that how most people act anyway? And, of course, there is also the point that if everyone just did what they felt like it would not be likely that everyone would end up being happy.

Atheism is not a happy philosophy. It's not necessarily a sad one (depending on where you think nihilism will take you) but it is at least a-emotional. I'm not sure how the probable lack of existence of God will make anyone happy. Because then who are we going to blame for all the world's problems? Us?

It also quotes Richard Dawkins as saying that "this campaign to put alternative slogans on London buses will make people think – and thinking is anathema to religion." I suspect that in a lot of cases Dawkins is correct. But I also suspect that thinking is an anathema to most people (including most people who think they are atheists).

Australian Top Gear summed up:

2008-10-24T10:38:00.002+11:00

To be as subtle and nuanced as the show: IT'S ALL ABOUT DONUTS!

my first (double) ristretto

2008-10-02T09:25:00.000+10:00

We're not pregnant

2008-09-02T08:33:00.001+10:00

And I write blog posts more often than Maz :p

∏ Day!

2008-07-22T07:58:00.002+10:00

The Americans think that ∏ day is 14 March but that is only because they write it 3.14 whereas any sensible person writes the date in ascending (or descending) order. The American conventions is just as bad as saying twenty past eight and 12 seconds (20:8:12 instead of 8:20:12). You can say "twenty past eight" but that doesn't mean that you have to write it that way.

Anyway, today is 22/7 which is a classic approximation for π. How fun.

OMG Pope!!

2008-07-21T08:07:00.003+10:00

I hope you realise that I don't use that kind of language in either full or abbreviated form. But if does seem kind of appropriate for several reasons.

The point of this story is that I got stuck in the only place in the city where the Pope's motorcade created an island. I had left work early to see some of the crowd and to watch the Pope go by if that was convenient. I was due to meet people to see a movie so I didn't have much time to hang around. I walked along the crowds as they lined the barricades enjoying the positive energy with groups singing (although one example of that was "Let it Be" by the Beatles - "when I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comforts me…") or chanting (more like football chants - Beee-ne-dito!). I ended up coming past the State Library and walked across a couple of streets, through barricades, to get into the Domain. There I saw on the big screen that Benedito (Benedict) had just got into the Popemobile and so wouldn't be coming past for a while. OK, I don't need to see him and it was a good time to get going anyway.

But in the few minutes since I had passed through they had decided to close the barricades and no-one was able to pass through. The procession was due to pass around/through the domain and with the highway on the other side I was completely trapped. I had no choice but to wait and watch. Mostly what I saw was people and a few crosses. When it looked like he was about to go past then all I saw was the backs of cameras as everyone raised their hands in… supplication? Voyeurism? (It's easy to get big words like those confused.) Then the Popemobile zooms past. OK, it was moving fairly slowly, for a car, but from my perspective it was only moving slow enough to allow you to see that the pope was actually in it.

It? It is basically a glass display case. It didn't feel like meeting a person. It felt like the viewing of a holy relic, a symbol. Or something interesting, worth preserving, to be kept in a museum (and maybe brought out on special occasions). Or a body in a mausoleum. (I'm not meaning to be morbid or denigrating anything, I'm just commenting on the strangeness of the event.)

In the end I wasn't waiting that long and managed to get up to the movies with plenty of time to meet people and get some food. So I'm glad I got to see the Pope and have some experience of one of the biggest events in the world. And the movie was great too :)

If you got there a little bit late, this is the view that you would have seen (ie the backs of cameras).

And finally we saw him … zoom by. (I like this photo even though it is taked in low light with a dodgy cemera phone.)

Blue Mountains colours

2008-07-21T07:55:00.005+10:00

Blue Mts next weekend

2008-06-30T15:52:00.002+10:00

It looks like the city's minimum temperature is the same as Katoomba's maximum…

Letter frequency in Pride and Prejudice

2008-06-23T08:20:00.000+10:00

Playing with Wordle (where I can make my own word clouds) is fun but I see it as being a short lived fad. In the meantime I'm coming up with other pays to play with it.

So, I decided to take Pride and Prejudice (the text of which I had just downloaded), replace all the letters with the same letter followed by a space (i.e "a" goes to "a ") in order to separate them, then put the result into Wordle…

Yes, I am still studying, why do you ask?

Anyway, this is what it came up with:

Pride and Prejudice (abridged)

2008-06-21T18:55:00.001+10:00

Wordled essays

2008-06-21T18:24:00.002+10:00

In case you were wondering what I was doing at uni… Here are the two essays that I just wrote (both about Xinjiang in north-west China):

This blog

2008-06-21T18:16:00.003+10:00

Psychodougie pointed me towards Wordle. I tested it out by pasting in all the text from this blog. Well, I did cheat a little by getting rid of "comments" and "categories" (and adding "Katrina" since she was sitting next to me as I did it). Fun?

Celebrating our undecimensary

2008-06-11T15:38:00.006+10:00

Katrina made lovely eggs benedict and banana smoothies. I tried using the coffee machine for the first time (I need more practice). And it was a lovely sunny morning for sitting outside.

Tea and coffee experiences

2008-05-25T13:28:00.005+10:00

What I've been noticing about the tea and coffee I drink…

When we buy tea we tend to get something different each time, within three categories: a plain tea for breakfast (e.g Earl Grey); a flavoured tea for other times (e.g. Stockholm Blend); and, to try to train ourselves in the pure tea experience, a fancy tea with no additives (i.e. ones with lots of letters in their gradings).

Here are some recent teas we have tried:

Earl Grey Special - nice but not as nice as the original (it's a bit too lemongrassy for me).
Tea for Sunday - the vanilla pieces actually make it taste a bit odd; it needs a bit of sugar. Not as nice as:
Vanilla - with vanilla bean pieces.
Ritz Carlton - with Vanilla and a bunch of flavourings. Quite pleasant.
Poobong FTGFOP (Darjeeling first flush) - really lovely, delicate and, if brewed just right, actually sweet.
Makaibari FTGFOP (Darjeeling Autumn) - a good normal tea. Quite nice but I like the Poobong better. I'm still interested in trying other Darjeelings (such as second flush).

When I started drinking tea I didn't mind whether or not I had milk in it. As I got used to the taste of tea (as you should know, tea, like coffee, is an acquired taste) I found that I preferred tea without milk. Now I will only drink tea black. (I know there are schools of thought about whether tea is better with milk or without. I have two tea snob friends who fall into both sides. I understand that there are some teas that are better with milk (English Breakfast) and some that are better without (Poobong) and some that can go either way (Earl Grey). I just don't like milk in my tea so I won't drink teas that require it.)

As a parallel, I have recently started to notice that I am starting to like my coffee with less milk. I started off with lattes, often with caramel flavouring/sweetening. I found that I no longer required it to be sweetened. I started ordering cappuccinos when I went out for coffee because they have a bit less milk in them than lattes or flat whites. Then I discovered the piccolo latte (like a normal latte but with less milk). I had a great one this morning with breakfast. Should have taken a photo…

One of the best sound experiences you could ever have…

2008-05-15T11:10:00.002+10:00

One of the best sound experiences you could ever have will be seeing Sigur Ros live in concert. I saw them two years ago at the Enmore where they were utterly amazing and I have been eagerly awaiting their return.

They will be playing at the Horden Pavillion on Sat 2 August. Tickets go on sale Fri 23 May.

I'll be booking tickets as soon as possible. Does anyone want to join me? I guarantee it will be worth whatever they are charging (assuming you can cope with something beyond the Top 30).

(There's also a new album due to be released next month which I'm looking forward to.)

Uninformed and arrogant vs intelligent but unsure…

2008-05-08T12:20:00.002+10:00

The context is a bit too nerdy for me, but I liked this thought:

Am I in the "unintelligent or uninformed and arrogantly confident" camp? If so why and how can I get humble? Am I part of the "intelligent and well informed but unsure and apprehensive" group? If so why and what can I do increase my tolerance for risk and decrease my fear of being wrong?

(You can see the source article here if you like.)

We got a new outdoor table…

2008-04-25T19:31:00.001+10:00

… just before 13 days in a row of rain. (I think I heard that the record for Sydney was 16 days.)

Budawang colours

2008-03-27T08:51:00.003+11:00

Futurama!

2008-03-20T16:07:00.001+11:00

I'll be getting the new Futurama DVD for my birthday (in the unlikely event that no one gets it for me, I'll buy it myself). So, I am looking for Futurama fans to share it with. If that's you, let me know and I'll invite you over…

Hopefully the viewing will happen in the weekend after Easter.

For those of you who don't know:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0471711/

Check out photos of out weekend at Gerringong

2008-01-26T11:12:00.000+11:00

http://picasaweb.google.com/stateofbeingthus

Blood, sweat and tears

2008-01-26T10:16:00.001+11:00

Well, the first day we did the work it was fairly hot. Then Dad kept on cutting himself. And there was almost tears when one of the tiles got cracked after being carefully cut out and put in place.

We still need to paint but the kitchen is now basically ready and open for business.

NYE 2007, Balls Head

2008-01-02T16:45:00.000+11:00

An almost unimpeded view of the bridge, with a fireworks bardge close by, looking over the water, with almost no one around…

The last dozen years governing the economy

2007-12-04T08:07:00.000+11:00

Good summary of Howard's term in office, from one economist's point of view.

Oh, Mr Rudd!

2007-11-29T23:18:00.000+11:00

It's nice to see that the PM elect catches public transport. But just because you're trying to get yourself elected doesn't mean that you should go around tagging everything.

Well, he is going to be the PM for all Australians - including graffiti artists …

Trying to cross the highway a couple of days ago …

2007-11-29T23:16:00.000+11:00

Yes, the curb is totally under water.

Exam time 2

2007-11-22T07:52:00.001+11:00

Part of my (now) ongoing series of exam venue photos, taken on my phone.

More progress on the kitchen

2007-11-22T07:40:00.000+11:00

Dad and I laid the tiles and they look great. We also found a dish drawer on Ebay (the photo is of me collecting it). So, all we need now is wall tiles, wall paint (almost chosen) and to drill some holes to connect the dishwasher. Everything else is working.

Today in writing class

2007-11-21T16:01:00.001+11:00

Well, I'm doing a course on writing at work and today there was a competition to invent a new word. Mine is meganym.

Meganym - overly positive (or negative) superlative used in place of a more appropriate synonym.

Examples: 'terrible' instead of 'bad'; 'superb' instead of 'good'.

Used in an ironic sentence: 'the overuse of meganyms in contemporary speech exasperates me'.

Feel free to use it :)

Contrecoup

2007-11-06T22:51:00.000+11:00

The Else came on the iPod today - this is TMBG's latest album btw - and it's good to listen to it with headphones because different details can be picked up. This time I noticed the song Contrecoup has some intersting words in it. So, when I got home (after playing frisbee in the rain) I looked them up. As part of my investigations I came across the reason why these odd words were in the song in the first place (also see here.). It was basically a dare, an interesting nerdy dare :)

In progress…

2007-10-09T08:28:00.001+10:00

We know how old the kitchen was

2007-09-26T13:35:00.001+10:00

Taking out the trash

2007-09-23T21:47:00.001+10:00

TMBG

2007-09-19T23:03:00.000+10:00

I've been meaning for a while to write about my love of They Might Be Giants. I'm writing this a little too late at night to be bothered to write anything properly but I wanted to get it out of the way. Or something…

I reignited the flame when I bought the Spine and I found that I really loved the album. Then I caught up on a bunch of their podcasts which included such gems as their opinion on string theory. Check out this video (thanks Phil).

Katrina gave me Here Come the ABCs which is a fun "children's" album and then I bought their 12th album bringing my total up to eight. (I'm missing their first two as well as the internet only album released through eMusic.)

I'm looking forward to Here Come the 123s :)

2007-09-19T22:03:00.000+10:00

Although I've managed to regain contact with some friends with whom I had lost contact, my use of Facebook is turning into a battle with Maz on the Traveller IQ Challenge.

Arrr!

2007-09-19T21:53:00.000+10:00

Avast!

FBOP

2007-09-04T13:43:00.000+10:00

Recently the mother-in-law gave us a sample box of Earl Gray FBOP tea. What? Well the packet told us that 'F' stands for flowery. Hmmm… Subsequent investigations have opened up a new world of tea and we are planning on doing some exploring. I'm looking forward to trying TGFOP :)

Ah, yes I see…

2007-09-04T13:05:00.000+10:00

Although the main distraction is in setting up my profile and joining lots of random groups and seeing who are friends of my friends and sending invitations to friends etc. I feel that once it is set up the actual use of it will be small.

And I'm not sure that the whole social network is all that social. Seeing whether you're the same kind of werewolf as your friends and leaving messages that say less than your average sms aren't the most meaningful forms of contact…

Fun,yes (take me on in the Traveller IQ Challenge) but deep, no.

The question everyone's asking

2007-09-03T17:22:00.000+10:00

No, not 'when are you going to write something on your blog?'. Only two people have asked me that… This particular question is just a bit more common than that:

Are you on Facebook?

A couple of people ask me. Why would I be? I get an invitation. I ignore it. More people ask me. Or, I'm present when they ask someone else. Then my wife joins (!) and everyone I know is wanting to be her friend. Then I'm asked a couple more times. Then I get another invitation. Then I see this while I'm (meant to be) studying…

Can you see where I'm heading? Well, too late. I'm already there…

Where did we go? Here's a clue:

2007-08-03T20:29:00.000+10:00

OK, if you want to know more, click on the Picassa link on the right. Do you want stories to go with the photos?

2007-08-01T09:18:00.001+10:00

Marge: Homer, is this how you pictured married life?
Homer: Yeah, pretty much, except we drove around in a van solving mysteries.

Well…

2007-07-06T17:28:00.000+10:00

It's really hard to know how much my life will change tomorrow. How much and what ways.

I'm feeling calm at the moment but I think that is mainly because I haven't been thinking enough about it. Perhaps I still don't realise what's about to happen. I've found that it is easy to stay distracted by thinking about and doing (and not doing, of course) all the little things I need to get ready. I've had to pack up and clean my flat (I'm in the middle of doing that now), organise a holiday :) and generally get ready for 'the big day'.

I'm not worried about tomorrow. I think it will mostly be fun. I can do events and I can be the centre of attention if I have to. So taking part in a wedding is fine. But then what? What does that mean? I'm somewhat prepared for a wedding but I'm not sure how prepared I am for a marriage.

OK, with God's help we can work it out together as we go. I just need to work out how much I need to change and to learn to love Katrina, making her needs and interests a priority, even though I won't always understand when her mind works differently to mine.

Some advice that we were given for the wedding also applies to the marriage: remember to have fun!

(Meanwhile, you can look forward to honeymoon photos…)

A dark, lonely Monday night...

2007-06-25T23:27:00.000+10:00

This is the scene at 6pm tonight, outside a lecture room, waiting to have an exam. My first exam in 6 1/2 years. I got out of the room at 8.50pm.

Despite being a bit distracted (in thought and deed) and not always having motivation to study, I was satisfied and found that I had done enough study and thinking about the subject. So yes, it went pretty well I think (but no promises about what mark I'll get). I just finished the first subject of my post graduate course :)

Good to have it out of the way so I can concentrate on... other things... for the next week and a bit.

And at least it didn't start raining until after I got home and was relaxing in front of Futurama :)

indecisive because I'm not emotional enough?

2007-06-13T08:24:00.000+10:00

I like Ross Gittens. It could be partly because I'm discovering that economics can be interesting and he explains concepts well. He also looks at things from a more human perspective rather than a purely rational one (as in economic rationalism). This article is an example of that.

But the reason I'm putting it here is because of something he mentions briefly. I seem to have a bit of a reputation for indecisiveness. Yeah, OK, it's often true, I'll admit. But it's not that I can't make decisions. It's more that I'm not good at making random ones. I need to have a certain amount of information before I can decide that option A is better than option B. If I don't have enough information, what can I do?

I also have a reputation for not being very emotional. Hmm... yes and no... It's true that I have a preference for rationality. It's true I don't have extremes and there are a lot of things that won't affect me very much. But I definitely have emotions (you'll be pleased to know) and I can be emotional. I even make emotional decisions sometimes. But if you put me on the scale from emotional to rational I'm definitely placed to one side...

So, it turns out that these things might be linked. If I'm indecisive about something it could just be because I can't easily make an emotional decision about it.

5.5 weeks

2007-05-29T21:47:00.000+10:00

In 5 weeks, 3 days, and 12 hours the ceremony will be about to begin. It's only just starting to sink in that I'll have a fair bit to do in that time.

This month will be pretty busy so I'm expecting that there won't be much time to play with people - we'll hopefully make up for that in August... Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up:

I've got my uni course to finish, my wedding to arrange, my fiance to support and a new flat to renovate. I'm swamped.

J. R. R. Tolkien on marriage

2007-05-26T12:08:00.000+10:00

Nearly all marriages, even happy ones, are mistakes: in the sense that almost certainly (in a more perfect world, or even with a little more care in this very imperfect one) both partners might be found more suitable mates. But the real soul-mate is the one you are actually married to.

Katrina sent this to me. It comes quite close to some of my thoughts on marriage. Well, especially the first part - we'll have to work on the second part…

New photos…

2007-05-22T22:55:00.000+10:00

Follow the appropriate link on the side...

She is such a girl…

2007-05-01T19:14:00.000+10:00

From an email:

And I've realised that one of the benefits of having taught myself many years ago to touch-type is that I can type while looking at my pretty sparkly ring... :D

Studies

2007-04-12T19:45:00.000+10:00

Bart: Look at me, I'm a grad student. I'm 30 years old and I made $600 last year.
Marge: Bart, don't make fun of grad students. They've just made a terrible life choice.

Yes, I am technically a 30 year old grad student.

This is old news, and I meant to write about it closer to when it started, but I'm currently studing development studies at Sydney Uni. I tried to enrol in the Masters but they wouldn't let me. They did, however, like me enough to let me start with the Graduate Certificate (if I go well enough - prove myself - I'll be able to transfer to the masters). I was going to do the grad. cert. in one year, doing two subjects each semester, but I've already dropped a subject...

What I'm learning is all very new and all very intersting and I'll hopefully try to write about some of it. Anybody out there know much about economic theory? Or can tell me much about the relationship between the US and China now that the US is starting to impose countervailing duties on certain imports from China? (I'm kind of doing an assignment on that one.)

Honeymoon Destination Guessing Competition - Prizes!

2007-04-08T13:19:00.000+10:00

In 3 months Katrina and I will be going on a holiday :)

Can you guess where that might be? I'm going to avoid giving clues, as much as I can, in case I give too much away. So feel free to exert you powers of educated guessing. What is likely? What is realistic? What is appropriate? What isn't? It's a big world...

And if you guess correctly, or at least most correctly, you will get a prize. Yes, you read right - there will be a winner and the winner will get a prize. This is likely to be something from where ever we end up to prove that we were there.

So, start putting your thoughts in the comments. If this works I'll probably post updates on the main page.

Post TWZ activity

2007-04-06T14:00:00.000+10:00

I seemed to have passed through the Three Week Zone (thanks James) relatively unscathed. In fact it has now been four weeks since I proposed and although there will always be doubts at the back of my mind they seem to be staying there. In the week since emerging from the TWZ a fair bit has been organised...

It seems that a lot of people think that three or so months is not enough time to organise a wedding. That makes sense if you are trying to find the right reception venue and the places you want are booked out. Well, we had already settled on a date because it fitted in with uni holidays and a few other things. Then last weekend Katrina's parents went to look at a few places. On Monday we were taken to their first choice which is perfect for a range of reasons. We loved it. Anyway, a couple of days later it was booked :)

We also had to think about booking some sort of holiday to have after the wedding. It's such a big world - what should we do? Well, several things came together and key things have been booked. We'll be starting a Honeymoon Destination Guessing Competition soon...

Closer to hand, we have also sorted out plans for the engagement party. (Just need to sort out invitations. We have connections for the printing of them which makes that part easy. The harder part is working out the list...)

Three points for the moment but these are fairly key things so we think we're doing well.

Any married people reading this? If you would like to give any advice of what else to keep in mind that would be good too :)

happy eater

2007-04-05T18:46:00.000+10:00

Easter

2007-04-05T08:46:00.000+10:00

Good article on what Easter is about and why it's offensive.

What's wrong with this picture?

2007-03-29T23:07:00.000+10:00

This should give you a few seconds of... interest.

Hmm... I seem to just be putting up the odd thing that I find interesting or amusing. And since I often couldn't be bothered coming here I often don't share good interesting things that I find. I don't want this to just turn into a totally superficial blog. (Feel free to offer encouragement.)

For the Mac nerds...

2007-03-28T22:44:00.000+10:00

You know those "I'm a Mac" ads? I've only seen one other take off to compare (the one with Linux) but this is the funniest I've seen. I especially like the reference to Ultimate... (For those of you who couldn't be bothered the gist is that Mac users are young, hip, video making, Ultimate playing hippies.)

Several notes:
- Yes, I know there won't be many people who are reading this who fall into this category
- Yes, I found got this link from Daring Fireball and I know that those who are reading this blog and are interested probably already saw this, for that reason (hi Nic)
- Yes, I am going to bed...

07/07/07

2007-03-25T09:21:00.001+10:00

Google takes over the world…

2007-03-25T08:38:00.000+10:00

I intend for there to be a bit more activity on this blog from now on. There are certainly plenty things happening in my life to talk about. The catch is that these things are going to take up a lot of my time so I'm not going to have so much time to be wasting on writing this sort of stuff. But we'll see how I go.

And what's this about Google. Well, you'll see them often enough in the news to think that maybe they are expanding their... interests to be heading towards world dominations. Actually, my point is that I seem to be using a few Google products. Blogger, of course. I have a Gmail account (of course). The point about that is that my Gmail address is the one I use for both GTalk and MSN. So, if you use either of those, please feel free to add me to your list. (It doesn't matter which, I use a program that lets me check both at the same time.)

And, the other thing to annouce is that I'm starting up an photo gallery over at Google's Picassa... Check it out.

Old?

2007-03-25T08:19:00.000+10:00

Today is such a momentous occasion, I've been given an extra hour to celebrate...

yes, lets see what happens…

2007-01-08T23:10:00.000+11:00

Chinese name (pt 4)

2006-11-22T00:04:00.000+11:00

Yep, I changed it back to 帝木 partly because of Thomas' comment but mainly because these are two characters that I can actually recognise.

I am actually planning on changing it again in the future. A lot of Chinese people end up with quite random names - Titanic, male, and Hideaway, female, are two that I met. So, I want to come up with a random Chinese name. That is actually much harder than it sounds because most real Chinese names are quite random. But it is possible: a guy in my class in Beijing called himself Kung Fu. That's a great effort. But I would have to know a lot more Chinese to be able to come up with anything good, so I'll stick with 帝木 for the time being.

OK you can go about your business now...

That Russian ex-spy that was poisoned...

2006-11-21T23:41:00.000+11:00

... was given iocane powder!

For example, look here and here:

Thallium is a poisoner's dream - colourless, odourless, tasteless and easy to absorb. It was once used to treat syphilis, gonorrhea, ringworm and tuberculosis, until it was realised that some of the patients died. More than 10-15mg per kilo of body weight can be lethal.

Pushing

2006-11-10T22:15:00.000+11:00

For anyone out there who still checks this blog occasionally (that would be you Mazzy), thanks for sticking by...

I did plan, as I promised, that I would post more thoughts, on China or otherwise, when I got home. That was a month ago. I haven't given up on Thusness and I will be posting here, just not necessarily regularly. I also plan to use this as a bit of a photo blog.

But in the meantime, there was something I was going to mention. I don't think I'll capture all of the thought, but I'll have a go at getting at it's essence.

If you were to ask me to sum up what China is like in one word I don't think I could. China is a big country. Big in different ways and on different scales. Geographically, historically, culturally. It is the 4th biggest country and holds the greatest population. It has one of the longest and most diverse histories (and think about all that happened last century!). There are many different cultures: ethnic minorities with more people than most countries; some of the riches and some of the poorest people in the world; some of the most modern and some of the, well, least modern technologies and customs.

But what is one thing that you will see everywhere? What is something that you will see exhibited in many different ways? OK, OK, the heading gave it away... Pushing.

There is no queuing, there is only pushing. How does traffic work? Push your vehicle through (and maybe give way to something bigger than you). In a lot of situations, if you don't learn to push, at least a bit, you won't be able to get anywhere. But I think it is more than just rudeness - it sums up a part of the Chinese way of thinking. If you want to go somewhere, just go. If you want to do something, just do it. And do it now. If you need to talk to someone, call them now. If you need some light in your room, just whack a wire through the window and attach a light globe. If you want to run a dentist service, why not put it in a shop open to the street (because then you can park your scooter next to the dentist chair). I'm sure there are other better examples, but I hope you get the picture.

In my mind this thought also relates to the concept of freedom. And conditioning. I think we have the preconceived idea that the Chinese people are somewhat brainwashed. Yes, there are restrictions on the press, the internet, certain organisations. So yes, freedom of speech and freedom of the press isn't so great there. This means if the government tells them something it will be harder to question it because there are no, or less, other viewpoints to compare it to. But this idea of pushing... well, there is a freedom there. If you want to do something, you just do it. You can do it in public, loudly, because you don't care what other people think. You don't let

Whereas those in the west, with democracy and free press, and being able to say that your prime minister is not the nicest person on the planet... Well, we're not so free. We're slaves to 'rules' and conventions. We're not free to just do what we want. If the laws don't restrain us, then our consciousness does. We can use driving as an example. Again, I think there are better examples, but it's too late at night to come up with anything better. I saw many things in China that would cause serious accidents in Australia. Little things like overtaking over double lines into oncoming traffic. No problem, the oncoming traffic just veers a bit to the side. Everybody is on the look out for everybody else just driving the way they want. Red lights and road rules are taken as suggestions - if you can push in, then you can go. In Australia if someone did something a little out of the ordinary like that they probably wouldn't react so quickly and something like this would probably end up in a head on collision. That's because Australians are more rigidly confined to certain ways of thinking while driving. We do what 'the government' tells us and blindly expect everyone else to as well. We've been brainwashed by road rules and don't have the freedom to think outside them.

Yeah, I have used a bunch of generalisations, and I haven't explained all my examples as fully as I could. But the point (or, a point anyway) is that there are different kinds of freedoms, some of which China has more than we do and some we have more than them. There freedom is in the (roughly, very roughly) 'just do it' way of thinking.

(I'm not sure how well this thought ended up being expressed. If my little thesis doesn't sound quite right I'm inclined to blame the expression of the thought more than the thought itself. Because it's bed time. And because I haven't reread what I just wrote...)

I'll be home tomorrow...

2006-10-09T14:04:00.000+10:00

I'll probably still have things to say about China and my trip, so stay tuned...

Chinese name (pt 3)

2006-10-09T14:00:00.000+10:00

I've changed my Chinese name to 提摩 (short for 提摩太).

Mid Autumn Festival

2006-10-09T13:00:00.000+10:00

Friday was Mid Autumn Festival (by the Chinese Lunar calandar). That didn't make much difference to me but it happens to be the day I'm going to write about. I was expecting to say that I had had a tough day, going to Shenzhen for a massage. And shopping. Oh, and eating... But our little outing wasn't quite what we expected.

We were going to go for the afternoon and come back in the evening since it isn't really that far away. We went over the border, spent some time looking at shops then met up with one of Phil's friends and his girlfriend and had dinner. After dinner suddenly the talk was of going to the beach. What? OK, we let them convince us. We ended up taking a taxi out of the main city area to where the beach is. There we had to buy cheap shorts to swim in, pay to enter the beach area and pay for a locker. On the beach there were lots of people, with a few in the water, and a giant TV screen showing a movie (which you had to turn your back on the water to see). All a bit strange. Especially since it was around midnight. Phil thought swimming in Shenzhen was much more scary than swimming in HK so I only went in a bit past my knees. I'm not really sure the point of the place. For someone who lives in Sydney I can accept that the beach is a nice place to go, any time of day or night. But to pay? To sit on the sand and watch a movie? To sit at a table and play cards? China...

Were we still going for a massage? Yep :) We took a taxi back to town and had our massage. At about 3am. Quite pleasent :) Face and back and legs. And I got to practice my Mandarin too. But we also got a good deal. The massage took place in a small room with a single bed (so we were all in different rooms and afterwards they give you a doona and let you sleep there. For no extra cost. So we ended up staying the night and coming back to HK the next day. Which was good because the massage finished at 4am. (Yeah, I was sleepy all weekend.)

This site wants more traffic. Apparently this is how it's done...

2006-10-04T19:38:00.000+10:00

Tim in HK

2006-10-04T18:57:00.000+10:00

As you should know I am now in HK. The point of this trip was to hang out with Phil so I'm not feeling guilty about having had a lazy time so far. Well, it's not like I've done nothing... I've been shopping :) (Are you excited? I bought a suit.)

Actually today we made an effort. Last night we went out to Lantau Island and stayed the night in a drug centre so we could make an early start this morning. Yes, proper early. We started walking at 7.30 with the aim of climbing the four highest peaks on the island (2nd - 5th in HK). Hot and humid but with good views from the top. (Since there hasn't been any topless pictures on this site for over a month I'll be posting pictures of the hike a bit later.) But on the way down from our 3rd peak I managed to roll my ankle and do some tendon or ligament damage (I heard something go 'pop'). We then had to (slowly) walk a few more km and descend 500m in altitude to the road. Yeah, I'm ok but I won't be doing too much walking tonight.

A week and a bit in Fuzhou

2006-09-30T15:19:00.000+10:00

While in Fuzhou I visited an orphanage, a school/orphanage for kids whose parents are in gaol, a church based English class, an English college English class, a drug rehab centre, a kind of strange amusement park and a 5 star hotel. I cemented, I played with wires, I played with babies (not so dangerous), I taught some English lessons, I gave a little improptu talk, I looked after /played with Gabby and Sophia (Jose and Fi's daughters), I met lots of lovely people. I didn't take many pictures. Is that enough to summarise my time in Fuzhou?

(I'm happy to answer questions in the comments section.)

More on the 上有天堂，下有 pick-up line...

2006-09-30T14:42:00.000+10:00

I met a guy in Fuzhou. He was working in a little shop that sells convenience store type items but is just a hole in the wall the size of your bedroom openning onto the street. He spoke good English and was friendly so I went back another night to get a drink. He ended up taking me out to dinner - Chinese hospitality :) I told him about the pick-up line and he laughed and thought it was great. Later in the week I took him and his girlfriend out to dinner (well, they picked the place). He told me to try the line on her. She wasn't so fussed about it.

Fi and Jose have a Chinese tutor come to their place twice a week and on my last day in Fuzhou I sat in with Fi (Jose had something else to do). She is a lovely young university student, studying nursing. So, I tried the line on her. She laughed as well and said that it would be a nice thing to say to a girl (and that Chinese boys don't normally say such mushy things to girls - I told her that most boys are like that).

So, if you are trying to chat up a nice Chinese girl, you have at least a 50% chance of success :)

Fuzhou atm

2006-09-23T14:09:00.000+10:00

Not going to say much - I want to talk more about it after I've done all the things that I'm going to do. Hmm, that might make more sense later, when I actually talk about it...

I'm in Fuzhou, visiting the Salsidos who worked at Crossroads in Hong Kong for a number of years, including when I was there four years ago. They haven't been here all that long - about seven months. The plan was to take about half a year to settle in, get to know the language and the culture a bit, before getting into the work they want to do. Well, they have done that and are now looking at starting up a business. But in the mean time they have also managed to get involved in a whole range of things which I am getting to see too - they are keeping me pretty busy :) More on that later...

So, atm I am being looked after in their home, hanging out with their two lovely daughters and tagging along with Fi and Jose ('hosay' for the Spannishly challenged among my readers :p).

Hangzhou, briefly...

2006-09-23T13:49:00.000+10:00

You know I keep mentioning that phrase, about how the Chinese think that Suzhou and Hangzhou are such beautiful cities? Well, I can see what they're on about in Hangzhou. This city has a famous lake, West Lake (which, appropriately, lies to the West of the city centre. It is not just the lake, but the fact that that it is surrounded by mountains, mainly on the South and West sides, so that standing on the city side you will see beautiful scenery. From the mountains looking back you will see highrise. Lots of it - Hangzhou is a big city.

My room mate in Beijing, Miguel, went back to Spain for a week and a half but then came to Hangzhou to do research relating to his PhD. So I came and visited. It was fun hanging out with him and seeing where he was living. On one of the days one of the people working in his department (a girl who was also doing a Masters in English literature) gave us a little tour around part of the city.

The story with the young family in my previous post happened when I went exploring myself (on a Monday - Miguel had to work). I forgot to mention on little thing that is a key part of Chinese curiosity towards westerners. At one point, as I was sitting next to the mother, she held out her arm and put it near mine to draw attention to the difference. To draw attention to how pale I am. Most westerners are pale compared to most Chinese but there wouldn't be many that are paler than me. I think this skin colour difference is quite interesting to most Chinese in a country where most people look fairly similar. OK, there are various ethnic minorities but the vast majority are Han Chinese. There are differences in skin colour but that is mainly the difference between well off city girls who like to be pale and labourers and farmers darkened by the sun. People like me are an anomaly - we must look pretty strange - so it's not surprising that people want to take pictures of us...

A foreigner in a strange land

2006-09-21T21:48:00.000+10:00

It's interesting, that being so obviously not from around here that it makes the locals so curious. Even in relatively touristy areas, such as around the edges of West Lake in Hangzhou I was still being looked at. Over the last few weeks I've had plenty of people calling out 'helloooo', usually from a distance or from behind me. Most of the time it's OK but sometimes it can be annoying or there is a hint of negativeness in it...
Walking around Suzhou, which is meant to be a touristy town, I had lots of people looking at me. Well, actually I was wearing shorts and they were all looking at my legs. I think I saw only one local in shorts in the two or so days I was there (and maybe a handful of girls in skirts).
But overall I have had a pretty good experience. Even though China is opening up and tourism has been here for quite a while people are still curious about foreigners. It is not unusual for people to come up to you and ask to have their picture taken with you.
Sometimes someone will start a brief conversation with you so they can practice a bit of English. Sometimes they will want to talk to you but they don't speak English and I get to practice the little bit of Chinese I know.
A couple of days ago, wandering through a park in Hanzhou I walked past three Chinese people. To me they looked like two young girls (on a young teen) and a little boy. They asked to have their picture taken with me. Sure. As I was walking back, I met them in a different place and one of them invited me to sit with them. We chatted a bit in Chinese.
[An aside. My Chinese is very limited, so the success of a conversation will often come down to the Chinese person words their questions. If they ask me something that is a bit different from the text book conversations I probably understand even though I might have been able to give an answer. They then might just give up. If they ask their questions in the right way then I can answer and we can have a little conversation.]
It tuned out that the girl (not the teen) was actually the mother of the little boy. After a bit of age guessing we were both surprised to find that we were both 29. She had gotten married at 21 or 22 and had the boy at 22.
In Fuzhou I had to stay two nights in a hotel. The first evening I went wandering to find some drink and went to one of the nearby little hole-in-the-wall shops that sold drinks and fruit and snack foods and thermos flasks and cleaning products etc. Working there was Henry, a happy smiley welcoming young man who welcomed me to his shop (well, of course, so I could buy things). His English was really good and I found that he had studied something to do with computers and was working here in his family shop in the evenings. Last night I needed some water so I wandered over to his shop to see if he was there. He was and he invited me to sit (which I think is fairly Chinese). We chatted for a while and he told me about his plan to open a restaurant (not quite what we'd expect - it would be a hole-in-the wall type shop selling easy to cook fast food). This is because he thought it would be more likely to make more money this way than to have a regular job. He had already worked for five years installing computers and slowly worked his way up to an OK salary (2000RMB per month). But his cousin owns a couple of these little restaurants and makes 5000RMB per month. We also did the age guessing game. I was surprised to find he was 27 (he looked young even by Chinese standards). Then he was surprised that I wasn't 20...
Someone bought some bananas he gave me one, on him.(Katrina has already busted me for casually mentioning eating bananas. What can I do? I can't help it if I can casually eat bananas here...). I thanked him and mentioned that I was a little hungry. When his brother-in-law relieved him we went out to dinner. I didn't have much of a chance to stop him but dinner was his treat as well. He asked about taxes in Australia, whether they were high. I compared Sweden which has really high taxes and we talked about social services and social security. Well, in China, there is nothing. If you need to go to hospital you pay. If you are old, well you better have saved enough money. If you don't have a job, well, get a job.
This is a very different world...

OK, I need to do some catching up

2006-09-19T21:51:00.000+10:00

I wanted to write a little more about Suzhou and I need to write something about Hangzhou and now I'm in Fuzhou... I'm in a really nice hotel here but internet is expensive so what you get is a couple of quick posts. Leter in the week I should get a chance to put up a few other points I thought of.

But, brief summary of where I am. I've just left Hangzhou (near Shanghai)where I caught up with Miguel who was my room mate in Beijing. Beautiful lake. Now I'm in Fuzhou (halfway between Shanghai and Hong Kong) visiting the Salsidos who are doing work with an orphanage and a drug rehab centre (the same organisation that Phil worked for). I'll be helping out there for a week and it sounds like I already have heaps lined up for me. I'll let you know about that adventure... afterwards...

I've discovered...

2006-09-19T21:44:00.000+10:00

... where the home-boy cool, one trouser leg rolled up look comes from: old Chinese men :)

上有天堂，下有苏杭

2006-09-19T21:17:00.000+10:00

Leo wanted to change that into a pick-up line (but he was never brave enough to try it out):

上有天堂，下有你

Anyone think it would work?

Suzhou gardens

2006-09-17T00:32:00.000+10:00

I guess I should be a bit less lazy than usual and point out that in Pinyin (the official representation of Chinese using the Roman alphabet) ´zh´ is pronounced like a ´j´, ´ou´ sounds like the vowel when Homer says d´oh! Think of a girl called Sue and a boy called Joe. Sue Joe.

So, Suzhou is famous for it´s gardens. As a city, it´s not that exciting, although it has a few canals spread around the place which can be pretty. Now, these gardens are not about hedges, lawns and flowers. Here its about rocks and ponds. Doesn´t sound exciting? Well, they´re not meant to be exciting, there´re meant to be calm and relaxing. Walking through them I did find them relaxing. I wouldn´t mind living in this kind of place.

I only went to a couple of actual gardens and my camera battery died so I don´t have that many pictures unfortunately. Here are some of them.

There is also a story about finding that bridge...

Response to Carmen's blog

2006-09-16T01:26:00.000+10:00

At the moment I am in Suzhou, heading to Hangzhou tomorrow. These are meant to be two of the nicest cities in China (and so, are meant to be two of the more touristy). I'll have to write up some of the things I've done. But first, one last thing on the Silk Road. Kind of appropriate, then, that I'm here, since Suzhou is famous for it's Silk. Silk doesn't originate from here but the city became famous for its silk production pretty early on.

Carmen (fellow ABS employee, fellow Chinese student, fellow traveller along the Silk Road) has written up her account of the Silk Road trip.

Here is my response to a few of the things she wrote:

- Thanks for putting up with having to translate for me. It wouldn't have been as good without you.

Day 1
- I didn't mind the hotel in Urumqi. Even though they kept trying to look at my previous China visa. The girl just couldn't accept that the current visa was the current visa...
- scared of mutton?

Day 2
- we almost had two crashes, which would have been pretty decent if the driver had reacted one second later.
- it is true that I danced and won the pretty girl. Oh, do you want the story behind that?

Day 4
- Yes, this tour guide was great (we had a different one in each place, you see).

Day 5
- What is so embarrassing about getting dressed up in costumes and taking silly pictures? Oh.

Day 6
- Yes, I was the centre of attention as I tried to practise Chinese

Day 7
- The famous temple was actually really intersting, mainly because we got to see the normal every day activities, rather than it just being a tourist attraction. But yes, Carmen was sick :(
- I liked the salty tea. The salty milk was OK too, but I was clever enough not to put any butter in it :)
- The heated argument looked like it might turn into a fist fight at one point...
- What's with the anti mutton propaganda?

Silk Road photos

2006-09-12T19:31:00.000+10:00

Here are some of the photos from my trip. You will have to wait until I get to experience the full slideshow. Here are just enough to give you an impression (and to make you jealous)...

Silk Road (cont.)

2006-09-10T14:44:00.000+10:00

4.9.06
Sky Lake at 天山 (Sky Mountain) - we're now in Switzerland :)

China has only one offical time zone but we are really 2 hours behind here. Locals all run on local time. Our tour will apparently run on Beijing time, but we seem to be having breakfast at local time (ie quite early) and lunch and dinner on Beijing time. The days are long...

Tonight we jumped on an overnight train and leave Xinjiang provence behind.

5.9.06
We arrive in Gansu provence, another land of desert and oasis.

We visit the Mogao caves - centuries of Buddhist carvings. Amazing but rushed. 'One of the greatest repositories of Buddhist art in the world' Lonely Planet says. Again it is right.

After lunch we visit some sand dunes - they look just like those fake looking ones in Star Wars - and go on a camel ride. I have now ridden camels with one hump (in Oman) and two humps (lets not get into and argument about what is really a camel - I don't know - they both look fairly camel like to me). Then having a ride on an inflated ring down the dune (I'll show you the movie when I get back).

Sheep feet at dinner - just skin and bone, just like chicken feet but a bit bigger. Yeah, I didn't really like it.

6.9.06
We left Dunhuang to take a 7 hour bus ride to the Western end of the great wall. Apparently this is the first year that the tour didn't have to get up at 2am - the road used to be so bad that it took 14 hours. Most of the way we rode along the new road but it is still being built so there were a few times when we had to go along the old rough road. At one point the driver bribed a road worker to let us onto the new road since regular traffic didn't seem to be allowed on it at that point. At lunch we stopped at a new city. And I mean new. I don't think that we can really imagine how China works, living in Australia. What I saw was a city of new buildings, new parks and new wide streets, with practically no-one in them. I think the story is that the population of the old town is being moved over to the new one (but hasn't happened yet).

We then took the overnight train to Lanzhou. Meanwhile I'd been adopted by one of the Chinese ladies on my tour - she designated herself as my Chinese 老师 (teacher). We got upgraded to Soft Sleeper (the top class - we would have been getting hard sleeper) but I think that was just because they stuffed up the booking.

7.9.06
We arrive in Lanzhou, famous for being the most polluted city in the world, and spend a morning there. Time to go on a raft ride on the Yellow River (the Mother river of China). Not just any raft - we were floating on inflated sheep skins (you'll need to see photos to truely apreciate this).

Then a bus ride out to Xining in Qinghai provence. Now we're in Tibet. OK, Tibet is a seprarate provence, but historically this area was part of Tibet. Outside the Xining (which has lots of Chinese people) the signs are in Chinese and Tibetan.

8.9.06
A long day. And a cold one. But worth it to see the 6th most important Buddhist monastry in the world. Seeing a monistry is OK, but I've seen them before. This one was really interesting because all the normal monastic things were going on around us. Despite groups of tourits folling shouting tour guides, there were people from the local minority group, with traditional clothing and intersting braided hair, worshiping and prostrating them selves in the different temples. There were also lots of monks wondering around. I also got to hear a little bit of throat singing and chanting in one temple as the tour walked through - very cool sound. Interestingly a few of them stopped a few times for a chat and a laugh while the others continued around them.

Then up to Quinghai Hu (lake) a huge salt water lake 3200m above sea level. Snowy peaks well over 5000m were passed on the way. The reactor where China had its first succesful results in researching the atomic bomb was passed on the way back.

The Silk Road

2006-09-10T13:54:00.000+10:00

I've just got back to Beijing after a week and a bit tour of the Silk Road. Quite an amazing and different and fun experience but also rushed and tiring (and I'm a little bit sick atm). Here is a summary of what I saw:

I went to the city that is the furthest away from any ocean. Ranged in Altitute from the second lowest place on Earth (after Death Valley) to 3200m. Hot and sunny days to temperatures approaching freezing. Sand dunes and desert to green glacial valleys with snow capped peaks in the background. And saw quite a range of cultures...

2.6.06
We arrived in Urumqi (Wulumuqi) 'the furthest place on Earth from an Ocean (2250km) according to Lonley Planet.

3.6.06
In Beijing you can see signs (such as road signs in Chinese and English). Here you see them in Chinese and Arabic (Arabic writing, not the language) - we are really in Central Asia now. Well, Central Asia with Chinese people since lots of Han Chinese have migrated out here.

This morning we are rushed through Karez Paradise, a museum about the karez wells. This is talked up as being the 3rd biggest ancient construction achievement in China, after the Great Wall and the Grand Canal. And fair enough too - we are in a desert and there was no water that could be dug up either. So, the locals dug wells in the mountains, tens of kilometers away, and built tunnels to move the water to where they lived. Virtical shafts were then dug down to the tunnels to access the water. Gravity supplies the water pressure - no need for a pump. (Try and find pictures on the net.)

The food out here is different as well, of course. Mostly mutton, and no pork. I'm loving the bread :)

Last(ish) goodbyes

2006-09-01T16:27:00.000+10:00

Now it's over, which is a bit sad. One month is so short: to learn Chinese and to get to know people. One month is enough time for you to get to know people well enough to know that you would like to get to know them better. And since I can't hold a conversation in Chinese I am limited to who I can get to know. A lot of my class mates couldn't speak much English, so we resorted to speaking in a mix of bad Chinese and bad English. It meant I had to use my Chinese but it also meant I couldn't say very much. I would have liked to get to know them better. And now I won't be able to keep in contact with them since we have no decent way to communicate. I have met a bunch of Leo's class mates and he has to speak to them in Chinese. But he can, so he has made better friends with them.

So lots of good byes. Who knows, some of the Japanese might visit Australia one day. Realistically I should be able to keep in better contact with Leo, and pay him a visit some time. Anyone want to have a trip to New Zealand? I have been wanting to go on a hike there for a while... There are also some people I will be able to see in a couple of weeks...

My rough itinerary for the next month is:

1-9 Sept - Joining a Chinese tour of Xinjiang Autonomous region
10-12 Sept - Maybe spending a couple of days somewhere close to Beijing
13-14 Sept - Have a couple of days in Beijing and catch up with people - some foreigners who haven't left and a couple of locals
15-18 Sept - Go down to a city near Shanghai (I've forgotten the name) where my room mate Migel will be studying and have a couple of days hanging with him and exploring - it is meant to be a nice city
18-30 Sept - About two weeks in Fuzhou. Apparently there isn't anything interesting to see there but I know some people working in an orphanage and drug rehab work and I am going to help out.
1-10 Oct - A week and a half in HK with Phil (yay!). I'll get to catch up with Crossroads people and others as well.

I probably won't be in contact much in the next couple. Expect and email or blog update in the middle of the month.

I've started to collect some signs...

2006-08-29T15:33:00.000+10:00

These are quality examples. One is from under the toilet seat cover in my room (click on it so you can read it) and the other is in the laundry/kitchen room.

Some obligatory touristy shots. Guess where...

2006-08-29T15:05:00.000+10:00

This last one shows a count down to the Olympic Games. To the second.

Something about a TMBG song...

2006-08-29T13:03:00.000+10:00

Yes, time is marching on...

I have finished my course. I have done the speaking and writing tests. I just have one more lesson to go over the test and a leaving party/lunch thing tomorrow.

How have I progressed in the language. Well, I could take that answer from the tests: I thought I could have done better in the speaking test, but I got a pretty good mark; today's writing test was pretty easy (although not easy enough to get full marks - but I'll find out how I went tomorrow).

But I think it is better to judge my progress by how my Chinese is outside class. I've been noticing that when I'm hanging around friends in higher level classes that I can actually get the gist of some of the things they say. I can understand what a waiter asks me in a restaurant. I can understand what Chinese people say, if they say it slowly three times. I still struggle with pronunciation and often can't remember the tone even if I remember the right word. My vocabularly is still very small. Hopefully I'll be able to practise what I have learnt and learn some more in the next month.

[Edit] Actually thinking about that paragraph, I've made it sound like I've learnt alot. Well, compared to knowing nothing I have learnt alot but in terms of actually communicating with people I still know almost nothing - 3 weeks isn't really that long.

Chinese name 2

2006-08-26T23:03:00.000+10:00

I noticed that my first teacher has used my Chinese name a few times this week... I am still generally called Tim by the second teacher, and she is the one that uses almost no English.

You'll also notice that, as Phil requested, I have added my Chinese name. Posts are now made by Tim 帝木.

Cultural learning

2006-08-21T17:13:00.000+10:00

Even though Paranoid Android is a good song, it doesn't work at Karaoke.

Koreans eat raw beef (and so have I).

International schools have good facilities but it is still hard to run around for 3 hours when it is over 30 degrees and really humid (and you're not as fit as you should be).

Chinese name

2006-08-21T17:04:00.000+10:00

Phil was complainging that I'm not using my Chinese name on my blog. He also commented that I should be using it because they always use Chinese names when studying in China. Some friends that I have here who have been here for a while also asked me what my Chinese name was. But in class the teachers call me Tim. They were very surprised since they also said that Chinese names are always used here.

And it's true - everyone in my class is called by thier Chinese name. I had been given a Chinese name when I registered but when we started the class I couldn't remember it. So I guess I slipped through the system...

btw the Chinese name they gave me is 帝木 (di mu) - Emperor Wood/Tree

Writing...

2006-08-20T00:33:00.001+10:00

OK, now part of the purpose of this blog was to write. Yes, it is possible to have a photo blog but I was planning to use this blog to write down my thoughts and experiences... But that will have to wait for another day - I am just quickly using a friend's computer to check my email so am not going to spend hours composing fantastic blog entries. (This is the crazy Swede's computer. Look, I've got Swedish letters: åäö!)

Anyway, I am doing well. Have learnt more Chinese but have forgotten most of what I've learnt. Have met more people but am realising that time is running out. Well, I was realising this anyway but the fact that one month is so short is emphasised when you are making new friends after having been here for a bit more than 2 weeks and you realise that you will have to say goodbye in a bit less than 2 weeks.

I'm going to try to play Ultimate tommorrow.

A crazy Kiwi and a crazy Swede at the Summer palace

2006-08-17T23:58:00.004+10:00

He's helping to protect the railings

Buildings at the Summer Palace

2006-08-17T23:58:00.003+10:00

Interesting designs at the Summer Palace

2006-08-17T23:58:00.002+10:00

We need more topless boys on this website...

2006-08-17T23:58:00.001+10:00

Hand and Desk

2006-08-17T23:58:00.000+10:00

I've fixed up my room (with a bit of help*)

2006-08-14T18:40:00.000+10:00

* The Schendielorz Home Design service offers mate's rates :)

Sunday... again

2006-08-14T18:19:00.000+10:00

I have started to realise how short one month is. Two weekends in 北京（Beijing） have passed and I only have two more.

Yesterday felt quite cool - I asked a couple of people what temperature it was and they said 27 degrees. I was ok in a t-shirt but there were times when I thought I might need something more. It also rained for most of the day. We have had rain but mostly for only a short time - an hour or so - with thunder and lightning. It was kind of nice to have a day full of drizzle. It also meant that the air cleaned up a little allowing you to see several kilometres - I noticed for the first time that there is some sort of mountain down the road from the uni.

On an unrelated note. I knew that the little supermarket on campus sold beer but I only just noticed that it sold Coopers. Yes, Australian Coopers. For about $2 a bottle (375ml). Is that actually slightly cheaper than in Australia? And no Fosters to be seen :)

Cunning weather

2006-08-12T15:17:00.002+10:00

I was lulled into a false sense of security when I arrived. Yes it was hot, and yes it was humid, but the air was pretty clear and it wasn't too humid. There was actually blue sky! As the temperature peaked in the middle of the day it became relatively drier and more comfortable. This was not too bad.

Since then the smog levels have slowly increased and visibility has slowly dropped. I first noticed a few days ago that I could look at the sun quite comfortably 2 or 3 hours before sunset. (The sun disappears well before it actually sets.) Buildings a few hundred metres away are half greyed out and I don't think that I can see anything more than a kilometre away. It seems to be getting slowly worse.