Merry Christmas

I'll be in Beijing by the time anyone is likely to see this, and it'll be christmas by then, so...

Merry Christmas!

Hope you find some good food to eat in a warm place and enjoy your Saturday =)

I'll be back from Beijing on Monday: I promise to take pictures.

Wednesday December 22, 0902

Last night, I went to a place across the street and ordered braised dog.

It was really tasty! It had the texture of steak, although the flavor was much more like lamb. In the spicy hot pot, I dare say it has been one of the better meat dishes I've had in China. We ordered it along with lamb, and we had difficulty telling which was which: we identified the dog by virtue of the hip-joint piece. The kind of dog used to eat is usually some kind of small yip-dog: likely a pomeranian.

I wonder if there is dog bacon: then I could have some Beggin' Strips. It's BACON!

Monday December 13

Another D&D session tonight, and the game work is coming along nicely. It's rainy and ugly outside today, sadly. Am starting to plan a weekend trip to Beijing with Toby: if it is feasible, I guess I'll have my chance to see the Great Wall and the Forbidden City!

Wednesday December 8, 0952

D&D was pretty fun last night, and everyone seemed to have a fun enough time. We didn't get very far w.r.t. my prepared material, but that basically means I have less work to do for next week, hehehe. Goff Night tonight, so that'll be fun.

Tuesday December 7th, 0902

Toby has arrived! I took Monday off and showed him how to use the subway, and I took him to some of the easier-to-get-to tourist spots, and we also went to a Buddhist temple. He'll be joining in on my D&D game tonight with the other guys, but generally off doing whatever while I have work. So it's nice to have a friend from the states come visit!

Just working otherwise, although I'll probably have to sneak in some D&D preparation at lunch today.

Thursday December 2 0931

The Armin Van Buuren show was awesome: easily the best time I've ever had in terms of paid entertainment!

This week has been having a stuffy nose though, although otherwise I'm feeling much better.

Friday November 26 0900

I am sick: yesterday I slept 24 hours in interrupted bursts. Half the reason I'm in work today is because I cannot endure another day on my less-than-comfortable mattress. It will probably be a half-day regardless, and I have to make sure I don't spread it: gonna wash hands frequently, not touch public things (like door knobs) and ensure I don't talk into anyone's face. Feeling a bit better today, but I hope I'm okay for the concert on Sunday.

Wednesday November 24 0922

Another day, another couple-hundred Mao.

This has been the longest-feeling month back ever, and I hope the rest of my contract doesn't feel so fatiguing. I've got a couple remedies to the work crush though:

On Mondays: D&D excitement (@ evening)
On Tuesdays: Tired from staying up too late.
On Wednesdays: Goth-Night partying (@ evening)
On Thursdays: Tired from staying up too late.
On Fridays: Poker Night or Night-In (@ evening)
On Saturdays: Tired from staying up too late. Prepare for Monday.
On Sundays: Adventure around Shanghai, get some sleep.

I also have Armin Van Buuren this Sunday, and Toby comes two weeks from today-ish. Both of those are good to look forward to!

Friday November 19 1014 (100th Post!)

Friday is here! I'm going to spend the weekend playing Minecraft, preparing the next D&D session, and atoning for how geeky that is. I'll go outside, promise.

I Am Not Dead in an Apartment Fire

Giant Giant Fire

Huge apartment fire (20+ stories) half a block away from my apartment. I'm okay, but sure does smell bad. Total shame about the very likely high death toll.

Regardless, still DM-ing =P

Monday November 15 1041

Been hectic, but some fun stuff has happened.

I'm running a Dungeons & Dragon game (4th edition), with all my western coworkers as players. I'm running a Dark Suns game, which will mean a lot of blighted desert and insect monsters. My coworkers' party consists of an elven Raider, a psionic Templar judge, and a sanctioned Defiler mage.

Although the game features the dominance of the Sorceror Kings over their city in the campaign book, I'm fast-forwarding to the future where the intrusion of The Gray (a scary nether-dimension) has resulted in an even more chaotic than normal setting where all the Sorceror Kings have either died or gone missing.

The party is a troupe of templars who are in the service of the Sorceror King of Balic, a city on a peninsula into a quicksand sea. They are returning across the Great Ivory Plain from Gulg after a failed diplomatic effort: Gulg is in chaos, with its Sorceror Queen dead, nullifying their mission. Concerned that their own Sorceror King is gone too, they trek south across the great salt flat.

First for-real adventure is tonight!

Wednesday November 10th 1421

Although it's been ridiculously busy roping the game design back together, it is going as well as I could hope for. To reward myself after payday, I've bought tickets to see Armin Van Buuren at M2 at the end of the month. It'll be nice to finally see him live, although I've never been to such a crowded venue before. Hopefully the candymen don't come out too strongly!

Monday November 8 0926

Well, at least they had the courtesy to wait until I came back to explode the project. This week we start from scratch with a short 4-month deadline over the whole thing. It's gonna be a busy week!

Tuesday November 2 1654

I just realized I now have more employees than my boss at my last job. What a strange thing!

Monday November 1 1812

I'm in China again!

Thrusday September 21st 1220

I am back!

Friday September 17th

This is my 248th day in China which means that I will leave on my 250th day, a nice round number to remember.

This is also my last day at work for this trip, and I have received my payment and tickets. My aide is assigned his tasks, the project leaders have been consulted, and the plans have been drawn for their actions while I'm absent. Saying a little farewell to the troops of the team, and putting in order my last preparation for departure. I hope to write a 'reflection' tomorrow, and post it when I come back.

What a successful trip!

Thursday September 16 0937

Very very close now: arriving back early-early on Monday, so have been *super* busy making sure the project can continue in my absence, drawing up documentation, instructions, and lists for things to do while I'm away. In this way, I can feel truly able to take my time off, well, off. Gotta run all the way to the finish line though.

Monday September 6th 1711

I am pretty sure I am in a stretched-time phenomenon: the fact that my blogs are spacing out pretty continuously is my evidence. I am often surprised that an entire week can pass by so quickly: it feels just like yesterday that I was in Hong Kong. But the truth is that, with only 2 weeks left, I am temporally hurtling towards my departure from China for home for a whole month and a half, and I am excited! Gotta make sure to get my gift-buying caught up...

Monday August 30 0922

Hope all is going well for you all!

Today I make a presentation for the company that will decide exactly how much money the project will continue to be given, and ultimately how much revenue share I and the rest of the development team get of the final. I'm a bit anxious, but it should go alright.

Only, like, 3 weeks until I fly back!

Wednesday August 25 0928

Hong Kong was really awesome to visit, and I made sure to get around and see it for the day I was there. When I came to Shanghai, I was expecting crowded streets with dozens of big signs hanging over it, but got wide sidewalks and avenues: that's because my picture of China was Hong Kong basically. All the buildings are tall, there are hundreds of pawn shops, whole streets of fashion shops and boutiques, and thousands of money changers. There are British-style trams and taxis, bank towers left and right, and a full-blooded racial class system: Mandarin, Western, Indian, Cantonese, which makes for a really weird place. All the streets are named after western names: I stayed my night in an alley hotel off the intersection of Jordan and Nathan street (which apparantly have their own wikipedia article...)

Hong Kong is in two parts: Kowloon and Honk Kong, with the former being on the "inland island", and the latter being this pickle-shaped isle with a steep mountain range along the center. Hong Kong is centered on the strait formed by their proximity, which is called the 'Harbor'. The skyscrapers are mostly on the isle, but the biggest skyscrapers are in Kowloon. This is a recent picture: my hotel was nearish to the tallest skyscraper in the middle-right.

Hong Kong is tropical: it kept raining, then dry, then raining, then dry, the whole time I was there. I had to buy an umbrella from one of the 7-Elevens (which are EVERYWHERE). All the western chains were represented, and I'd have to say the part of Hong Kong below the third floor is entirely dedicated to shops and public businesses. It's a great place to spend all your money away, I bet.

As a sidenote... The Chinese Bureaucracy is truly Grand and Harmonious. I was really dreading my visit, imagining an even more incomprehensible DMV. The truth, though, is that getting my new visa took a total of an hour spread over two days (application, then pick up the next day). And it's not like I was the only one there that day: there were at least 100 people in front of me in line. However, the lady next to me in line was a television executive, and she answered some questions of mine about the extent of Chinese television regulation and censorship, and I think that caused my net approval of the bureaucratic efficiency to be counterbalanced.

So yea: it is one of the only times I've actually regretted forgetting my camera at home, and I think I'd do a better job relating about my visit in person. It was indeed a very interesting visit, with lots of sights and sounds: I'd be happy to go visit again for a longer duration. Shanghai is probably better to live in for my purposes, but Hong Kong is certainly more rewarding if you are wanting to visit somewhere Eastern but still have some home comforts.

Tuesday August 17

Urghk... my visa is about to expire and apparantly I have to fly to Hong Kong and stay overnight Thursday-Friday while they handle it. I just hope I'm back in time to see Chris off to Britain, and I'm really not very enthusiastic about this abrupt itinerary, and vaguely pessimisstic about being able to figure out what I'm supposed to do alone in Hong Kong dealing with a pseudo-Chinese bureaucracy of Doom.

Thursday August 12 1139

I have a yummy sammich for lunch today, and I am enjoying it very much.

Wednesday August 11 1453

Yeah: I'd be coming back to the states for the whole of October (arrive late September, leave early November), and I think I'll visit Mom during that time for a few days, because I'm pretty sure I can afford a domestic flight. I just need Mom to tell me the timing of Alek/Dalin's visit: I'd love to bring my belated wedding pressie with me.

I'm pretty sure I owe obligatory pictures, so here are some from Huzhou:

A picture of me lately:


Pretty bridge in Huzhou:


I'm on a muvvafuggin' boat:

Tuesday August 10 1033

Everything going alright here. Blake, the guy who brought me here from online, left the company after a period of inactivity, so I'm a truly one-man design team de jure now. The company is eager to bring me back, so I've told them I'm willing to do another 6-month stint in return for the entirety of October off and a pay raise. It's a pretty sweet job here, where I get to do a variety of creative, math-y, and design tasks and get to work pretty independently.

It's also kind of nice to be able to live comfortably *and* save real money at the same time, a winning combo. For example, assuming only a lackluster income for the game, my revenue share will easily pay my monthly college loan payments each month for several years. Free apartment is a huge boon too, and it's been a pretty good proposition so far. Those two together go a long way to eliminating the small amount of debt I have. I am able to tuck away ~$700 each month right now without having to skimp too much on my living: that's money saved for troubled times and future possibilities, and it's nice to have earned myself a cushion from scratch, building entirely on familial social support and my own hard work.

The only drawback is being so far from friends and family, and so I've made clear to the company I'll not do another 9-month stint again: that's far too long to be back home. However, given the opportunity not only to finish this game, but to actually initiate a game of my own design and assemble the design team of my choice is something I've always imagined I'd like to do, and I'm quite excited. Certainly more exciting than finding a US Census Bureau statistician position. I mean, I've been making games since when I was little, so when I am given a budget, a whole art team and a bevy of programmers with the only constraint being that the game must be 'multiplayer', you can only imagine the possibilities.

What kind of game should I make? An MMORPG set in my imaginary world? Make a variant of Emperor of the Fading Suns where everything works? Some enormous game a la Animal Crossing? A game consisting purely of explosions? Who knows!

Friday August 6 0853

This week was alright, but not the best: it's a shame I'll only have one best week in the whole of my life. :-)

Monday August 2 1416

We've been having publishers coming by and checking out the game at work lately. The one who came today was the same publisher who did the Asian distribution of Fallout and, more importantly, the Baldur's Gate series.

Woot!

Friday July 30 0915

Wow, this week went fast: already Friday?!

Well, I've mostly been ill all week and haven't done anything exciting: just nursing a stuffy nose and back ache. Hopefully I'm feeling better for next week.

Friday July 23 1008

The promised pictures from the zoo: my favorites...

Thursday July 22 1515

Interesting thing I realized the other day: I have a strong mental association between death and the taste of green apples. It's true: although I absolutely love the sour taste of a good Granny Smith, it has always had a note of forlorn-ness to it when I bite into one. It's not been debilitating to my apple-preferences, but I've never been able to place exactly *why* until the other day.

Well, I was chilling out in my room after work on my laptop and I accidentally knocked Tigris off the bed (yes, of course he's here! it's the year of the Tiger...) and so I picked him up. I was sipping on an apple juice, and I got hit by a memory from deep childhood.

I remember being at the house in Renton in the livingroom: the room was generally 'brown' with wooden furniture and some paneling, and a kind of coffee-beige carpet. I think I was playing Megaman 5 trying to beat Gyroman, when Dad came out from the hallway (it led out of the livingroom and was the primary corridor where all the other rooms branched off, I think he was coming from the Library room, although I don't remember if the library door's handle was Pre- or Post-dad-escaping-to-rescue-me-from-a-bee-sting). I had just sat back down to play after pausing so I could get a green apple out from the kitchen, but I hadn't started to eat it when Dad said something along the lines of 'Hey Eddy, can I talk to you a minute?'. Dad seemed sad, so I decided to let Tigris hold onto my apple so I could talk to Dad.

Dad asked me if I remembered his grandma, and I already figured that Bad News was imminent, so I said yes, even though I didn't really recall her right away: I was still a bit too young I think. Dad talked about her peanut butter cookies, and I *did* remember liking those, so I felt a bit more encouraged. Dad, with what I perceived as a flair for the melodramatic, then told me that she had passed away, and that there could be no more such cookies. It was a very sad moment, and I started to bawl: no more delicious unique great-grandma peanut-butter cookies!

He offered some words of consolation, but I mostly wanted to just stop crying, and so I recall soon returning back to the TV, giving a sad nod to Tigris as he gave me my apple back, then taking a big, giant bite out of the still-refrigerated granny smith apple.

So yeah, I thought it was cool at least to remember something so far back. It's not my oldest memory (I remember some odd tidbits from Hawaii), but it may be one of the earliest of Renton, which I generally consider as the site of my 'childhood', since I generally see myself as a grown-up by the time I lived in Colorado.

Monday July 19 1521

I had an awesome weekend: Huzhou and the Shanghai Safari. Am rallying together camera pictures, so will post pics later.

Saturday July 17 0809

Yesterday afternoon, Uberboss asked if I'd like to tagalong and be the 'token foreigner who makes the company look more important' guy at a billion+ yuan project proposal to the Nanxun City Government in Zheijang. The city is super old, and was the site of silk-growers for a long time. They're mostly countryside, but they have an enormous government building complex sitting in the middle of a bunch of agrarian fields. They want to change that, it seems.

We walked into the conference room, and everyone sat facing east, except for the executive bureaucrat, who sat on the other longside of the conference table alone facing west. I and others who weren't directly participating sat along the wall, and I was dead center in front of the mayor-equivalent. On the left were the architects, who gave pretty impressive building plans, in the center slightly in front of me was a councilwoman, and to my right was a group of (I presume) local relevant advisors (building codes, financier, etc).

It was all conducted in chinese, but because I had to be 'the foreign guy', I used my advanced skills in figuring out what people are on about to look quite important. It was funny that, because I was looking alert and understanding, the mayor basically ended up addressing me in chinese most of the two-hour meeting, so I'd nod understandingly and stuff. He caught me after the meeting and starting talking to me in Chinese, but he was completely floored that I didn't actually know any. He said I was 'very cool, and a great help to my company', and I just smiled and thanked him: I didn't even know which architect I was supposed to be rooting for!

Now I'm in Hanzhou (a relatively picturesque garden city, although it has plenty of factory smokestacks too?) and am being taken by the Uberboss' business friend to tour around a bit. I'll have to ask to borrow a camera, since I didn't get to hit my house for my camera before being whisked out here.

I think it is super weird that I was taken out here as a luck charm.

Friday July 16 1144

Yesterday being payday, I decided to treat myself to one of these. It's pretty awesome, and I can actually draw on my laptop now. Quite recommended: it's like having a gazillion pens, markers, pastels, and some brushes once you get the settings tuned.

Tuesday July 13 1331

Rainy tuesday, bleh.

Just working here, although almost all the creative part of the job is behind me: it's making list after list now, and not having any player game data to play with for at least a month. Keeping on top of it, but it certainly isn't as dynamic at the moment as it often can be. Working on various small projects at the moment creatively off-work, such as practicing my dialog-writing skills, working on my language (came up with how I'm gonna do names, if you haven't noticed), and other things. Am going on a safari this weekend with Chris, so will make sure to get pictures as long as we don't get rained out. Hope all is going well for you all!

Thursday July 8 0931

Just because, the names of everyone who has posted on this blog in my made-up language (sorry if I missed someone! it won't let me search through comments):

Take your name from this list...

Edward : Guardian = Saribke "suh-RIHV-kuh"
Kirk : Church = Sidhe "SEE-theh"
Tamara : Palm Tree = Nesuldha "neh-SULTH-uh"
Barbara : Stranger = Risdha "RIZ-thuh"
George : Farmer = Suasre "SWAHZ-ruh"
Rachel : Lamb = Kerenme "ke-REN-muh"
Ronald : Advisor = Diceke "di-JEHK-uh"
Michael : Who's like god? = Israel "is-RA-ehl" (funny coincidence, that name!)

And then put your last name after it...

Miller: "In misty lands" = ne Seraba "neh seh-RAV-ah"
Marler: "In wild lands" = ne Relaba "neh reh-LAV-ah"
Davis: "In sunny lands" = ne Kaliba "neh kah-LIV-ah"

(These are the place-locations I associate with the lastnames: mom's side is generally in the West out in the country, dad's side I associate with the Pacific Northwest, and Rachel is from California.)

So I'd be

Saribke ne Seraba

Monday July 5 0819

Well, it seems the wet season has hit Shanghai, and everything is covered in rain. It made me think of the lovely summer weather Seattle is supposed to have. The Koppen Climate Classification is a way of, naturally, classifying climates of certain places. Shanghai is Humid Temperate - Hot Summer, also called Cf-a. Seattle is Humid Temperate - Cool Summer, also called Cf-b. Since I generally love the weather of the Pacific Northwest (as opposed to the more humid/hot East Coast or Coastal China), I looked up a world climate map and tried to find places I'd like.

Here are all the Cf-b regions I could find:

Pacific Northwest
Very South Fjords of Chile
Lower right-side coast of South africa
United Kingdom
North of France
Belgium
Netherlands
Germany
Denmark
South Sweden
Norwegian coast
Tasmania
South Western Australian coast
New Zealand

Based on this, here are some cities I might like to live in:
Seattle, USA
Vancouver, Canada
Portland, USA
Dublin, Ireland
London, UK
Liverpool, UK
Edinburgh, UK
Lille, France
Brest, France
Paris, France
Brussels, Belgium
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Hamburg, Germany
Frankfurt, Germany
Berlin, Germany
Copenhagen, Denmark
Gdansk, Poland
Prague, Czech Republic
Oslo, Norway
Trondheim, Norway
Stockholm, Sweden
Gdansk, Poland
Port Elizabeth, South Africa
Puerto Aisen, Chile
Melbourne, Australia
Canberra, Australia
Hobart, Australia
Wellington, New Zealand
Auckland, New Zealand
Christchurch, Ne Zealand

And so, yeah... pretty good selection I think!

Friday July 2 0942

Work is coming along well, although my tasks have petered out creativity-wise: it's mostly just coordinating people and tweaking large lists, since it's mostly up to programmers and artists now. I find summer in China to be oppressively humid and hot, so I have to admit I've been loathe to do anything other than hit work and hide in my room. =)

Monday June 28 1057

Rainy rainy monday, blecch. My clothes have been trying to hang-dry for 3 days now with little success: too humid and overcast!

Thursday June 24 0925

I've been playing the original campaign of Neverwinter Nights to pass the time at home in the evenings: I've never actually finished it before. And man... it is a colossal game. Having spent what feels like a hundred hours on it, I'm just now halfway through it! I'm playing a elven Fighter/Thief, and am rocking a pretty mean longsword at the moment. I always play F/T because it is nice to just steamroll over encounters and pick up all the loot afterwards.

In the 'not spend China playing computer games department', it's been really muggy and uncomfortable out the past few days. Despite that, I've been going to the French, Italian, and German restaurants, and am really spending a little too much on the lovely food: I've developed a liking for red wine too. I still order Stella for my beer though.

A new programming intern guy has come out, so it's cool to have a new friend: his name is Matt and he's from Cambridge, England. He has a pretty thick Lennonesque accent, but we'll Americanize his speech eventually through peer pressure ;-)

We're about to finish a major development milestone for the game, so I'm excited to reset and approach the second phase with a fresh head. I'm thinking I might book a fast train to Beijing and see the tanks.

Friday June 18 0940

Pretty slow week: just recharging and getting ready for the last push for development. I've been coming up with some new game ideas, and I'll propose one to Zhang soonish, although I imagine that he'd wait to come on board for another project until the end of this one. I am thinking of how/when I'll get a little vacation while I'm here in China, since I haven't ventured beyond Shanghai Municipality nor Jiangsu or Anhui Province.

Thursday June 10 1420

We're going to E3, so I get to post promotional stuff now =)

Tuesday June 8 1135

Feeling a bit better today, although still have a headache. It's really nice outside though, so will get out of this urban cave for a lunch I think =)

Monday June 7 0943

Blegh: I've been ill the past few days with some kind of summer fever. Woke up better this morning, but sure was lame to miss my weekend recuperating, ah well.

Monday May 31 1516

Sadly, I had my bike stolen Saturday night from out in front of work: it was locked and stuff, but it's light enough that they probably just lifted it into a truckbed. A shame, but isn't a huge loss and was fun while it lasted. I likely won't get a replacement. Probably for the best: riding without plates or helmet was starting to attract unwanted attention from the beefed up police presence (for the World Expo). I did get a package from Dad, though, so that's pretty sweet!

Thursday May 27 0936

I'm going to get new glasses today: it'll be nice to replace my pretty dinged up, chipped glasses =) It'll likely be 600RMB (about 80$).

Monday May 24 0728

Habits in China that I will have to Break Lest I Die when I Come Back

1. Walking into traffic
2. Walking through dark alleys
3. Talking to people on the bus

Habits I'll be happy to Start Up again when I Come Back

1. Drinking from the faucet
2. Reading english-language books
3. Online gaming

Friday May 21 0839

Hello EDWARD MILLER,


Regretfully, we have canceled your wireless service because your account remains unpaid. Our records reflect an unpaid balance of $0.57. If your account remains unpaid, AT&T may be left with no alternative but to refer your account to a collection agency. This may result in a negative reference on your credit report if the past-due amount remains unpaid.

If you have already made your payment, please disregard this reminder. For your convenience, you may also pay by major credit card, debit card or electronic check by calling 1-800-947-5096.

If you have any questions about your account, please call us at 1-800-947-5096 and an AT&T representative will be glad to assist you.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.


AT&T

Not only did I have it cancelled anyways 3 months ago but... seriously? Fifty-seven cents?

Tuesday May 18th 0956

Today I learned that coffee beans are actually the seeds from a kind of cherry! Never would have guessed: I always assumed it was a particularly pungent bean plant thing, or like Okra.

Friday May 14 1454

I've been playing lots of Starcraft, and I'm quite enjoying playing Protoss against the guys on the company LAN. I'm pretty good, but not quite good enough to consistently win in 4-player matches. This weekend should provide some practice!

It is the national sport of Korea, apparantly

Starcraft

Jump to 7:30 or so for the game's start?

Wednesday May 12 1413

I've been given a simulator to play with, and so have been doing SCIENCE at work, looking at the statistics coming out of relevant populations. It's fun, but tests take a long time to conclude, so I mostly doodle and wait to analyze the results when done.

Otherwise, it's a beautiful spring in Shanghai!

Wednesday May 5th 0922

I brought two books with me to China, largely for airplane-fodder. Sadly, I had thought there'd be books in English in specialty bookstores, but I was disappointed: they only really carry "Let's Learn Chinese", "Let's Learn English", and "A Hundred Phrases for the Aspiring Emigree", OR recent publisher Bestsellers like "The Audacity of Hope", "Harry Potter and The Belated Sequel", and such. What I'd much prefer is a nice solid midlist book selection, but I assume that, given the hassles of book importation to the PRC (both legal and logistical) and the mercurialness of the likely customer's tastes, it is hard to avoid relying on sure-profitable books.

And so I've been rereading my two books over about every four weeks, and last night I finished a re-read of Titanicus by Dan Abnett, since I wasn't ready to plow my way through Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake again.

Titanicus is a nice solid geek-fest with giant robots, straightforward characters, and plenty of combat sequences, and so it makes for a nice relaxing read. I imagine it's a lot like Grandma's mysteries in entertainment value (except for the fact I doubt there are giant robots and lasgun combat sequences in the mysteries, haha). Having read Titanicus a few times now, and some other books by the author, I have to conclude however that it is not quite as solid plot-wise as most of his other books.

I think the MacGuyver at the end tends to spoil the book a bit for me (the Archenemy needs to get its act together if a homemade bomb made from piss, screw washers, and nytrate can get pulled through an entire parade ground of troops by a ragged crew of 5 and hit the Weak Spot). I also thought that the resolution for Cally was anticlimatic: she was leading her PDF remnant through all sorts of spiky baddies the whole book, and it ends with her getting a pat on the back and a dead husband, without even a cinematic out: I get the feeling that her injured charge was supposed to be a real interesting sneak through enemy lines, but Abnett realized the book was getting a bit thick for a paperback and cut it off early. I thought Moderati Tarses was real cool, but in the end he was shoehorned into the "Oh Noes A Invictus/Tempestus Commanded Titan in the Middle of Heresy" role. And there were entire characters unused: the gardener guy was intriguing, and added next to nothing to the book.

Overall, the book is solid and gripping for the first 600 pages, but I felt the tying-off of the several plot lines in the last 100 felt like it was rushed and maybe under publication pressures.

Tuesday May 4th 0836

Life in China can be boring, and most of the past week has been basically that. =)

I did go on a nice bike ride with Chris Monday, and I've been playing some LAN games with the guys at work, so at least it's been nice!

Monday April 26 0859

I went to the ocean on my bike this weekend, was fun!

Me and my bike.

The beautiful day.

The stair-tower vantage point I went up. Very few handrails!

Ocean in the direction of Seattle!

Friday April 23 0937

After noticing that I was able to see a little bit of bone-definition by my sternum a week ago, being unable to lift much weight, and after long having an ache-y back, I've been trying to be a bit more healthy lately. Towards this end, I've started stretching before and after sleeping, going on more walks, and even doing push-ups lately. When I first started a week ago, I could only do 3 proper push-ups before the burn was too much, but this morning I did a full proper 25 before I had to stop. The stretching (mostly focused on my arms, neck, shoulders, and sides) is helping me sleep better at night too, so apart from my little hay fever, I've been feeling overall more healthy as of late.

Although I doubt I'll end up lifting weights, doing pull-ups, or even being particularly muscular, at least my energy is up and I ache less!

Tuesday April 20th 1730

It is impossible to find salted peanuts in China: only MSG ones. Although they taste alright, they bring a sweetness to the snack that I am not looking for when I'd much prefer an over-salty/dry legume. At least you can get them de-shelled but still have that papery-brown membrane on the kernels.

This weekend, I'm going to ride out (rain permitting) to the ocean by Shanghai on my moped and see what it is like. I'll actively lower my expectations over the week though, because smart money says that the ocean probably looks as polluted as the Huangpu.

I've been playing a first-person shooter game called Counterstrike with the people at work: it's Artists vs. Programmers/Designers, and it is very fun to be able to shoot my bosses through the head with a semi-automatic.

Humidity, poor air quality conditions, and stagnant-feeling rain are causing mold to spring up into the air here in Shanghai, and so I've been struck with a kind of hay fever which has left me all stuffy. I've been taking care to air-condition my room (de-humidifies) and casually ride my bike (moving air) to ease the symptoms.

Monday April 19th 0948

I am now the proud owner of a 130cc motorbike.

It has a top speed (artificial engine pin limit) of 70kmh, and is black with red stripes (pictures forthcoming). It has a small gas tank, and it looks like it's 90km/City, 120/Country. It rides just like a bicycle, except goes about 10 times as fast. I've ridden 100km on it around the maze of streets this weekend, and am hoping to get my plates in a week maybe, and maybe a helmet. This is certainly a lot different learning-to-drive experience than highway driving in a sedan! I've only had one "Eek!" moment so far (a mean chinese guy tried to run me off the road), but even that I handled with (I think) excellent reaction time. I sincerely believe that if I can learn to drive in Shanghai, I can drive anywhere.

It's registered under my chinese name Ai De Hua, which apparantly means 'the love of words' and sounds vaguely like 'Edward'.

And yes, I'll be very very careful ;-)

Monday April 12th 0948

Ahoy!

All the new programmers have arrived, so have been spending lots of time meeting new people, which's been nice. I've gotten quite good at ping pong, so the new opponents are appreciated.

And some geekiness: I've been sinking my teeth deep into a game of Emperor of the Fading Suns using the Nova patch: I'm playing a random galaxy as House Hazat, and am stomping over Holy Terra and the other Houses, waging planetary war on the Church, Al-Malik, and Hawkwood simultaneously with universal warehouse off, which is quite a logistical feat given the roughly two hundred troops I am ferrying towards the respective targets (primarily hover tanks and marauder legions). You can't run away with sceptors in this patch (they can't be transported), so doing raids on the palaces have to be full-on occupation efforts. I have 20 out of the 35 sceptors in the game, but I had promised departments before this, so I am actually doing all these massive invasions while fighting against the Imperial Navy and the Stigmata Garrison (Aragon is right next to Stigmata in this galaxy >_<) with my own home-grown fleet of invasion landers, meson starbases, and battle cruisers loaded with Prophet torpedoe fighters: I am particularly eager to make headway against Hawkwood so that I can get access to Delphi's gem resources so I can get more ships made. I hope to take Holy Terra, Delphi, and Ishtakhr within thirty to forty turns, and will declare myself Emperor once I've conquered them and assassinated their nobles on Byzantium II, although I might delay it if I feel like doing a Reconquista on the Symbiot worlds. Fun =)

Tuesday, April 6 0958

It was a three day weekend, since Monday was Qingming, translated to me as 'Tombsweeping Day' or 'Mourning Day': it's about remembering ancestors and visiting gravesites. Sean, Chris, and I spent the day walking out on BeiDi road and then BeiQing Highway and walked straight out of Shanghai Municipality: roughly 50km on foot through construction and countryside. At the end was the 'communist china' one sees in movies, with people walking out of factories which look out over fields of safflowers with peasants planting. It was really cool, and I had brought my camera, but sadly I didn't realize I was out of battery power =(. Total fail on my part, but oh well: we're hoping to take mopeds down the coast to Hong Kong in a couple weeks, and so I should be able to see similar terrain and take good pictures.

Thursday April 1st 1023

Well, I've been hesitant to write this, but I figure everyone should know.

I've decided that, given the lower cost of living, the job opportunities, and the ability to have nice dinners all the time, I've decided to stay in China indefinitely. Although I will miss being in the land of burgers and fries, I think this is the best way forward, and that I can do without English reading material if I can pick up the lovely Chinese language.

I'm courting a girl, and her parents like me enough that I think it will work out great: her father has already given me the nickname of Gweilo! I'm looking forward to having one child some day, and having my wife give me an allowance of my own salary: we will maybe even buy a house with a special room with a lock where we can make our child the brightest and most talented and most wonderful little doctor.

Another good thing is that there are no homeless scum in Shanghai, and I can walk unaccosted by the degenerate subhumans. Also, because I consider the Chinese as white brothers, Shanghai also doesn't have any stinky colored people, and I so can make lots of money without having to care about anyone.

I make this decision knowing full well the effect it might have on my loved ones, but I figure you could always fly over and visit. I simply can't pass up all of this, or else I'd be caught the fool.

Wednesday March 31 1738

Heya!

Today is kind of blecch for weather, and just work really. In news, though, our lovely office assistant Tracey is leaving for a new job, and so today is her last day. It'll suck that she won't be around to help me talk to my chinese coworkers, but at least she gets to go be an art curator. I'll just have to pick up more chinese, haha. =)

Monday March 29 1728

Doing alright here: had a fun weekend walking around on a derive about Shanghai, but feeling too lazy to do a write up :-)

I'll try to put one together later tonight and post tomorrow maybe, but the summary is that I walked 14km in the wrong direction and ended up not seeing the Sea but instead the inland suburbs of Shanghai. It was interesting in its own way, though!

Friday March 26 1013

New coworkers are arriving slowly as we ramp up the project. The first one has arrived, and he's nice (although a bit talkative). It occurs to me, though, that every single American I know over here in China is a Ron Paul libertarian: maybe they just flock together, lol. The Brits and Chinese aren't though =)

Wednesday March 24 1020

Rainy day today, but otherwise it's going alright here. I definitely want to come up with a place to go sightsee this weekend, assuming the weather is alright. Maybe a temple?

Tuesday March 23 1642

Hey!

I'm getting my wage doubled just because of how good my work is, and if they ask me to stay for two months longer, I am very very likely to be able to get a large bonus at the end, so I am quite pleased. =)

Also, I've been put in charge with the game design in general, so that's sweet. Yay for me, haha

Monday March 22 915

One interesting thing about China is that, when a shop goes out of business, it is stripped down to drywall within 24 hours of its last business. What this means is that, having gone there the day before and had a dinner, I'll go "oh nice, I'll go again today" and find it to be cordoned off and the inside bare concrete. It's really startling when it happens, and it seems to happen regularly!

Thursday March 18 1116

I think I will have a four-cheese pizza to myself for lunch today =)

Tuesday Marh 16th 1613

Happily working along, and still many meetings: we're doing a kind of internal restructuring, and I'm talking salaries and bonuses with the bosses, along with interviewing translator applicants. Busy times, so I'm relaxing at home by sampling the many varieties of over-ripe chinese fruit: one literally smells like trash, the Durian. It smells like a sewer rat in heat, and tastes much the same.

Monday March 15 1738

Meetings meetings meetings meetings meetings meetings!

Blargh.

All today, from things ranging from testing interviewee's English skills to the minutiae of server architecture. Tired, I'm going to go get some nice pepperoni pizza and relax!

Thursday March 11 1135

Work is very interesting at the moment, and I think I could be getting a pay raise for when I come back. Also, just noticed I have school loan collectors knocking at my e-mail. Fun! I'll just file a forebearance for while I'm in China, and sort it out for when I am earning USD again, lol.

Monday March 8 1019

Although I of course miss friends and loved ones, it is easy to be strong and enjoy what I am doing at the moment. However, the things that most consistently have me going "uggh, I wish I had some ---" and "argh, this isn't like ---" are the following:

Little Things I Miss:

1- Doritos: Every chip here is meat or fish flavored, nothing else, not even Sour Cream or Salt & Pepper, and absolutely no chance of a cheesy tortilla chip.

2- Tap Water: You can't drink water that has come from the tap, only boiled or bottled water, unless you want to risk a microbial stomach sickness.

3- Sandwiches: There. Are. No. Sandwiches. In. China.

4- My Laptop's Virginity: Before I came to China, my laptop was fine. Now, due to the petri dish that is the workplace network, it is crawling with viruses that I will have to nuke when I get back.

5- Easy Banking: Every mechanism to stop Chinese people from stealing my money online works great. Too bad I'm 'Chinese'.

Thursday March 4 1741

Another day done: gonna squander my evening playing a computer game, buahahaha. This weekend, though, I'm going to go rollerblading in Century Park, because I've bought some blades recently: so hope for good weather!

Wednesday March 3 1119

Back to work today: went home early on Monday and slept through Tuesday: feeling better now though, and payday is in a week! I'm managing to stow away some RMB, so that I can have some nice money when I get back: it'll be a modest amount, but should pay my expenses for several months, and what more could you ask of your cash than that? =)

Monday March 1 0928

Had a nice laid-back weekend: went to English Corner and saw the last of the fireworks for a while I think, since Sunday was the lantern festival. Sadly, I didn't do anything for it, since I'm actually feeling a little under the weather the past two days: just a touch of a headache and the sniffles, so taking it easy and drinking water. I blame it on the fluctuating of the weather and mediocre air quality after two weeks of fireworks.

Thursday February 25 1227

I find that whenever I am trying to pick up a new language (Latin, French, Chinese), that I end up spending more time on my own invented language instead. I think it's the same impulse where it's more fun to write something else instead of your school paper, or cleaning your room instead of the kitchen.

English: I should learn more Chinese.

Jezzali: Ec kadar calmi sena Cinu.

Chinese: Wo yinggai xuexi genduo Zhongwen.

Wednesday February 24

Darn efficiency: no Qingdao, since there actually is an available agent here in Shanghai, and the company doesn't want to go through the extra expense. Aw well =)

Beautiful weather in shanghai recently tho! It'll be getting rainy the next two days, but it has been very sunny and had warm air and cool breezes.

Tuesday February 23

Living in Shanghai last week was like living in a heavy-fire warzone, except the artillery didn't usually destroy anything. I was expecting that the Chinese would do a large firework show over the river or something, and that'd be largely it other than the occasional firecracker. There was no organized firework show: instead, every Shanghaier spent I'd guess about 1000rmb on ordnance. Here is one of the 'smaller' shows:
They sell those big fireworks on the corner in lieu of sparklers: serious business! If you've ever seen some of the grittier WW2 movies, any kind of night-time aerial bombardment of a city, that is what New Year's was like: clouds of gunpowder smoke meandering through the streets, there was so much iodine and particulate in the air that what was supposed to be a slightly humid night resulted in snow falling thick over entire street intersections littered 2-3cm deep of firework cardboard. I'd like to emphasize the fact I am not using hyperbole or any kind of exaggeration! It was like walking through autumn leaves much of the time, there was so much fireworks on the streets. 1000rmb bought you either 10-minutes of mega-firecrackers, or roughly 16 mortars of explosive fireworks (these two being the most popular to do). When 19,213,200 live in a city, and each family spends about 1400rmb or so, you can imagine the firepower!

It was like that for a week, the sky lighting up constantly with explosions until about 2 in the morning. It was really very cool! Sadly, fireworks are *quite* difficult to get pictures of on my camera, as it goes into nighttime mode and tends to only catch the fading light (it's a bit slow on the click). Just imagine the biggest fireworks show you've gone and went to, and then put that right next to your apartment building, and move the explosions down from hundreds of feet above to just about the third story: I swear that there was only enough in the mortar and the fuse was just short enough so that the firework explosion didn't hit the ground (although perhaps only a foot overhead). No such precaution about not hitting people's windows though! The above pictures' show very often had the shells bouncing off the apartment windows, resulting in truncated spheres of explosions, the rest showering off the walls.

Awesome!

Sunday February 21 0857

Much to my chagrin on this beautiful Sunday, I'm at work getting ready to start a work day. The Chinese have a bizarre approach to holidays: the days you get 'off' aren't actually 'off', but are largely compensated by sprinkling work days on the weekends throughout the year. Today and Yesterday go towards compensating the Lunar New Year, and the practice seems to be a universal one in China.

This'd've meant that I was in work yesterday, but I was notified on short notice and so I refused to come in on a Saturday. I wouldn't've come in today, but I'm going to Qingdao (to get my Visa extended comfortably past my stay's completion) on business expense, and I'd have to take a day off during the workweek, so I consented to working it off ahead of time.

I'll be composing my Lunar New Year post, which should have several nice pictures, throughout today and it should be my post for tomorrow =)

Wednesday February 17 1452

Sorry for the intermittence: it's a lot of trouble to get into the workplace during the holiday, so it is a pain to write up anything. I usually write them on my laptop and then transmit over the wireless to my work computer, but they've shut down the router. Doing well, and will give a nice summary blog for this week this monday, but I'm at the kindness of the janitor, hehe =)

Monday February 15 1211

Chinese New Year was very very fun! However, I'm not in a blogging frame-of-mind, so consider this an IOU =)

Thursday February 12 0930

Last night, I was surprised to discover I was being taken out to a fancy French restaurant with the other programmers by the Uberboss.

I had an exquisite steak and exquisite red wine (Bordeaux) at the excellent French restaurant in the old French Concession with amazing chocolate cake to top off the endless warm baguette slices with oil.

Yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

And for free too!

We repaid the Uberboss by going to a nearby fancy bar and playing this vicious game of dice that made us all drink more than one should do on a Wednesday evening, and took taxis home. It was awesome!

Wednesday February 10 0904

Only today and two more days left until my week off! I really need to think of things to do though =\

After the holiday, I'll probably head to Qingdao for some surf and sightseeing.

Tuesday February 9 0913

Another day, another post!

Chinese New Year is this weekend, and so I really need to get some plans together for Saturday and the following week (which I get off). I'd prefer to hang out with the locals, since I figure they know how to have fun on the New Year's eve, but my default plan is to go fireworks watching over the Bund.

Today, though, is just work. No real sign of work fatigue yet though, since I still look forward to coming in just about every work-morning: can't say that's been a common experience, haha!

Monday February 8 0908

Ahoyez Vous!

This weekend I did very little other than relax on the couch and programming/conlanging, since it was quite wet and no one was free to hang out. It was alright: I tried my hand at getting a genetic algorithm to work, and almost got it, except there is a bug I cannot seem to fix with my selection algorithm, which doesn't seem to work at all for some subtlety of reason beyond my capacity. Irritated, I just focused on thinking up all the verbal forms in Jezzali I could think of: I remember thinking to myself "Nah Ed, you won't need to bring Describing Morphosyntax by Thomas Payne to China, you can leave it here in Seattle".

It's always the book you don't bring... =\

Also, need to find if Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake is in any of the foreign bookstores, since I just finished the preceding book in the series.

Friday February 5 1740

Hey there!

Long meetings, eh. Gonna relax tonight! Pretty laid back weekend too: might program a little for fun.

Thursday February 4 0930

Ahoy!

Been working hard, but it's the kind of hard work you do when you are actually into the job, so am having a blast. It's still work, with deadlines and stuff, but I really do quite enjoy what I'm doing at the moment, and the people are cool. I'll try to take a picture of each of my friends in my next batch of alkaline batteries... I think I keep running out because I only ever take one picture every time I turn my camera on: I know the pictures I wanna take, and feel like the worst kind of tourist when I go around taking many photos at a go.

Apparantly there is a big company dinner tonight, and those are always pretty ritzy (with Budweiser, it has to be classy...) and so that should be fun.

Wednesday February 3 1605

Heya!

At work at the moment, taking a little break. Doing well, and thought I'd leave a short list of reasons why living in China is a-ok:

Two Mile Taxi: $2.50

1/2 kg of steaming Chow Mein: $0.60

6-pack of beer: $1.20

Internet Router: $20

Tuesday February 2 0941

Heya! This weekend I went to a rockery garden at People's Square, and here are some pictures. It was gray, and my batteries died a bit early into it, but it sure was nice to walk around a bit of nature, even if it was all artificially put together.

Monday, February 1 1743

Busy day at work, since the bosses got back from their conference, so wasn't able to write up a blog post. Will throw pictures from this weekend up tomorrow, since I need yet more batteries for my alkaline-sucking machine.

Friday January 29 0919

Yay Friday!

I hope to go down to Huangpu District tonight and hang out near the Bund I think, and will try to take pictures. Sunday I'm doing English Corner again in People's Park, and I'm not quite sure what I'll do Saturday. I don't think I'll go out to the bar this evening: I'm trying to budget down so I can stow away some extra cash for Chinese New Year.

Thursday January 28 0909

Another day another dollar, although I will be putting together a cool simulation today, so I'm looking forward to that working.

Conducting my financial affairs remotely from China is a real right pain, primarily because of having to use an internet proxy (which makes online bank transactions very difficult to get verified) and the fact that such verifications require that I be available at a phone-line, but my phone being incapable of sending or receiving international calls. I have to jump through hoops everytime I manage a transaction back home. Ah well!

Wednesday January 27 0846

I woke up to see that it was raining outside, and got excited: the streets of Shanghai have quite a load of dirt and dust, and my jacket was turning from black to not-black, so I was looking forward to a free jacket-cleaning from Mr. Cloud. I also wanted some of the background smell to get washed away and get replaced with Seattle-ish air, if only for a day.

Well, the rain isn't as crisp as it is in the states, and it seems only to have made the streets muddier, so oh well. Today should be an interesting day at work, since I'm switching to another task for a while to avoid burnout on my previous task: should be fun!

Tuesday January 26 0838

Things are going pretty well, although I have to admit I don't do much on the weekdays that I can discuss about here: work does go well, however, and it is an exciting project to work on! I'm being given a free hand to do my part, and so it is nice being able to design creatively with little pressure other than to communicate what my design decisions are to the team members. It's a great workplace, with cool bosses (!), great coworkers, and ping pong over free lunches.

Sunday, I went to a tea ceremony with two chinese girls who had approached me in the park and invited me, and it was very fun until I saw what my part of the bill was: 344 rmb! I only had 85rmb, so the lady from the tea ceremony had to come with me on the subway to Jing An where Blake loaned me the debt (I paid Blake back that afternoon). No hard feelings any which way, I don't think, and I learned a few important lessons:

1. Always ask how much
2. Chinese girls on holiday like to bring foreigners to expensive fun things
3. Tea can be made really complicated!

<---Chris

<--Cauliflower.

<-- safety in china?!

Monday January 25 0846

This weekend, I went to Fu Xing Park and the site of the First National Congress of the Communist Party of China.

Thankfully, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Friday January 22 0838

Yesterday, I had a pretty good day at work, mostly teaching myself SQLite: it should come in handy for my work! I'm having jiao-zi right now with what I assume has a chicken (rather than a gou or mao) filling. I also picked up some Fanta, since I've found that my preferred Pepsi over here isn't as consistently 'good' as it is in the states. On an interesting note, it is nigh impossible to find Sprite, but 7up is everywhere, which is sad, because Sprite is much better.

This weekend, I won't have internet access again (since Garrett is gone until Tuesday, I can't take him wifi router shopping). However, I am kind of glad I don't have internet at the apartment because it discourages me from spending my evenings in front of the computer, so I will likely only get a wifi router if Garrett pushes for it. This weekend, I will likely go to bars with Sean this evening, go to the building where the first meeting of the Chinese Communist Party was held on Saturday, and then on Sunday go to English Corner and try to make a friend or two. As for today, ping pong and work! :-)

Wednesday, January 20 2014

This week I'm trying to learn numbers so I can bargain next time I go to Yu Yuan Gardens. Otherwise, tomorrow is another normal workday.

Ling - 0

Eee - 1

Ahr - 2

Sahn - 3

Seuh - 4

Wu - 5

Liu - 6

Tsi - 7

Ba - 8

Jiu - 9

Shi - 10

Bai - 100

Qian - 1000

This is Carrefour, where I get most of my essentials. It's a french chain and is 4 stories tall!










This is the view out my window in the morning.








This is the Huangpu bridge at night. It's right near Carrefour and goes over the Huangpu river.

Monday January 18 2345

Monday January 18 2345

Today after work, Chris was very kind and took me to a Japanese restaurant, where we had a very nice meal for 102rmb (about 30$) which consisted of some quite spicy beef in rice with spring rolls, dumplings, and an exquisite fried chicken with some delightfully subtle sauces flourished on top. The whole thing was really very yummy, and I need to make sure I treat him to a nice meal sometime.

After that, we went back to the office to retrieve his forgotten keys and I ended up playing ping-pong with Sean for several hours over a beer or two: he gets philosophical when he drinks, so it was fun to chat while I tried furiously to counteract his spinning curve-serve. (I've yet to figure out how to react).

After that, I returned back to the flat and wished Garrett a good trip before heading in to bed. Quite a pleasant day, and I hope that such nice days become the 'routine' days that fill in between more eventful days.

Sunday January 17 2032

Today I took a morning walk in search of a park to practice my ocarina a little bit in. I had a bit of difficulty, but did find a little one several streets down off of Changzhou Lu (Lu=road). It was a beautiful day, with little smog in the blue sky and the air temperature had increased a bit.

I got a text from Chris asking if I wanted to go to People's Square and visit English Corner, and so I met him in front of work and we took an 18RMB taxi out of Jing An for Huangpu District. We got some KFC and a Pepsi and headed into the beautiful, bustling park. The last time I'd been here was with Blake at night, where we had mostly been underground, so this was the first time I got a good look at the large park. We arrived at a nice little shaded plaza, where a group of Shanghaiers were sitting around.

Upon sight of us, they got up and approached us: Chris introduced me as his coworker, and then I quickly found we had two small crowds around us. You see, English Corner is named such not because it is particularly British, but because it is a place where Shanghaiers go to practice their English with native speakers. They get authentic, free English practice, whereas the foreigners get to have a limelight in return and meet people.

And so I talked and talked and talked for several hours, and was asked where I came from by every person. Chicago was held high in esteem by several, but I couldn't talk about it much since all I've ever done is drive through it. Most of them were men about my age or much older, but a few pairs of girls stopped and chatted, and that was nice. I found the experience, although pleasant, a bit draining: the nature of the arrangement is such that the conversation tends to be a bit one-sided, with roughly a dozen people asking and expecting answers of the same foreigner. Although I mingled well, interacting with groups of people has always been a fatiguing thing for me, so Chris and I left early. I do plan to go back next Sunday: maybe I can get better at group conversationalism.

After that, Chris and I took the taxi back to Jing An, where we ran into Blake on the street: he had just gotten duplicate keys made, since Sean tends to lose his housekey. Chris and I continued on to work where we played ping pong for a while, and we practiced our games. After that, we went to our homes.

Later that evening, I remembered I needed batteries from Carrefour, and so stepped back out onto the streets. However, instead of going up Yuyao to Wuning and carrying straight past Changzhou, I decided to follow Xiening (I think that's the name) towards the river. There was a small, under-construction bridge which I went over, and quickly found myself in a network of alleys straight out of Bladerunner: clothing hung just overhead from lines, the alleys were tight, boxes and fire-barrels littered around amongst the merchants and people living their evenings. This was a place, I could tell, that saw very very few foreigners. It was pretty neat, and I bought a round of sweet bread from a man for 1rmb.

Once I had finished exploring this neat place, I walked up to Wuning Rd (once I found an exit from the warren), crossed over the bridge (I will get a picture of it at night, it is quite cool) and got batteries at Carrefour. I grabbed dinner on the way back (fried rice) and am now back at the apartment, likely to turn in early. Tomorrow I'll be looking to take a few pictures and find a good way to put them online, so expect some pictures (finally!) in some of the following posts.

Saturday, Jan 16 2322

Today, I woke up and went in front of work to meet Chris and Blake to go to Yuyuan Garden, a rather large bazaar. It was such a bustling place and bargaining flurry that I find it difficult to write down the series of events, but the general state that I found myself in was that of poking into hundreds of stands each with odd little baubles and goods, with the air loud and crowds omnipresent. Blake was our bargainer: all merchants initially state six times the price of their product, and it is wholly on the buyer to not pay such ridiculous prices.One has to walk away at *least* twice and have the merchant chase you before you can get a good bargain: no 'sales' here, only haggling.

Personally, the idea of haggling over a price is extremely alien, but seeing the kick that Blake got out of chaining four merchants on him, each of which he had engaged in haggling, showed that bargaining can be a true pasttime! I felt like a pied piper with my new ocarina, doodling little notes as Blake became the bane of every shopkeeper: foreigners aren't supposed to be good at bargaining, so Blake was called (I believe) 'bu ren', or "bad man", by some of the ladies he had gotten bargains I'd've never thought they'd allow. For example, Chris' eye was caught by t-shirts in his size, and he had bargained the lady down to 1 shirt for 100rmb. Blake intervened, and while I stood and looked at the stand, the woman and Blake traded "too much!" and "great price, just for you! no lower!" until Chris had 3 shirts for 100rmb with the lady mumbling curses as we left. Insane! I got an ocarina (76rmb, fixed price) and a timepiece (80rmb from 200) that I hold to be the Platonic Ideal of all 'Baubles': every other little gizmo is but a physical instantiation of this particular watch-in-a-crystal-ball. It's like an old pocket watch, but encased in crystal: quite cool!

Chris headed back home in a taxi, but Blake and I caught a cab to Eric's house, the same place I first visited in Shanghai. There, I got to have this *DELICIOUS* Szechuan sausage that Eric's mother had sent in the mail: it was savory, spicy, and stuffed into intestine. Also there were what I *think* was bok-choi in a deliciously spicy sauce that you can only get from Szechuan: I would have gobbled it all up, but it was too spicy, and so my body rebelled against the heat, even though I quite loved the hot taste. I then played (for Blake and Eric's entertainment) some PS3 games, the most awesome of which was Little Bigplanet, which is possibly the purest form of innocent, unadulterated fun I've ever found in a console game: if I ever bought a PS3, it'd be specifically for that game.

We then met Eric's wife and went by the river near Huangpu District and took in the night skyline, seeing The Bund at night, walking around and staring up at the skyscrapers with Blake and I practicing our Chinese. I wish I hadn't been hungover in the morning so I could have gotten batteries for my camera, but I will be here for months, so will get my pictures eventually. There were candle-balloons being launched from the river that night by people, and they speckled the sky with little candlelights: it was very beautiful.

Here are some phrases I've learned this week (not sure about the spelling... writing how they sound to my ears)

Ni hao - Hello
Zai Jian - Goodbye
Xie Xie - Thank You (My *most* common utterance this week in Chinese)
Doibushi - Sorry
Wo shi Meguo - I am American
Ta shi Inguo - He is British (usually about Chris)
Ni shwou Fa wen ma? - Do you speak French? (to discourage peddlers, who barely know any English, let alone French)
Ni shwou Ing wen ma? - Do you speak English?
Bu - bad, not
Duay - yes, correct (like d + french ouais)
Hao - good
Yi - One
Bu yao - don't want
Ma - question marker, comes at end
Chur - eat
Xihuan - to like
Ni xihuan chur mao ma? - Do you want to eat cat?
Wo bu yao, Bukene! - I don't want! Impossible!

Friday Jan 15 1645
Almost end of work here, and I get the weekends off. I don't have internet access at the apartment yet, so I may not be able to post the next two days: I will write my blogs like usual on my laptop into text files, but I might have to post them Monday. Will try to get internet though: just don't worry that I got hit by a bus or anything... even though it is quite possible, I am being particularly paranoid about not being roadkill (Dad would hate crossing the streets here, lol).

Friday January 15 0758
Yesterday, I woke up and did a walkabout before work, getting comfortable with the area immediately next to my workplace. I didn't see much new stuff I hadn't seen before, but the morning pedestrian rush is impressive: they get a lot of crossguards and police to enforce the jaywalking laws, otherwise traffic would be completely and utterly halted. I went to Carrefour to get a Pepsi, then went to work, where I mostly just worked hard all day: it's Thursday, and so the weekly deadlines are due Friday leading to people being a bit more absorbed in their work than the Wednesday I came: even the artists were all working quite diligently rather than playing games or watching movies.

After work, Blake took me to People's Square, which is home to a rather extensive below-ground market. The result being like a hybrid between Pike Place Market in Seattle and a high-class Macy's, it was full of "girly" shops. I was looking for a pair of practical, affordable shoes, which became quite a task indeed. We eventually found a Nike shop, which had a shoe big enough for my feet: although my shoe size isn't that large for in the states, here in China it is hard to find a shoe larger than a Men's 9. We stopped for a Subway, then got onto the subway back to Jing'An Temple, which is near where I work (today I plan to buy AA batteries, and will start taking pictures).

And so I came back to the apartment and played on my computer, and went to bed early: I hadn't gotten a long sleep the night before. This morning, the sky is a bit cloudy + smoggy, and I'm having hot chocolate.

Life is good!

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Wednesday Jan 13 2010
Well gee: I'm a bit drunk I suppose, but still coherent enough to type without penalty, so I figure it is best to record how my day went while it is fresh in mind. What a great day, though!
I woke up, wrote my previous entry, and waited for what seemed like hours until my roommate and project leader, Garrett, was up. I would have wandered in the very near vicinity of the building, except for the fact that I had forgotten to get a pair of keys (one for the flat and one for the complex), and so I spent the time writing my blog entry so that I could copy+paste it later that day at work. Garrett came out of his room fully dressed (great-coat and all), and so I was glad I already had the dress shoes Mom had bought me at Alek's wedding on. We went down the stairs (we're on the sixth and highest floor) and into the bright, crisp Shanghai morning.
Garrett asked me "Do you have favorite breakfast you like have?" and offered to stop either at the bakery right near the apartment complex, or a convenience store further down Yunyao Lu. Although a bit of bread sounded good, I wanted to practice my Chinese street interaction skills more, so I indicated I would like some cereal from the convenience store. And so we walked, and I pointed out blindingly obvious things like "boy, traffic laws are a formality here" and "in the States, it is unusual to hang your panties out your window" and such, mostly making Garrett laugh.
We stepped into this semi-claustrophobic 7-11 equivalent, where Garret indicated that we could find cereal or maybe a biscuit. We went to the right aisle, where we found granola-type stuff. I made a comment (which I now kinda regret) that usually I prefer Corn Flakes, or other 'normal' kinds of cereal. He asked if maybe I'd prefer a biscuit: thinking of the kind you get at KFC, I thought that might indeed be a good breakfast with some milk and honey and replied in the affirmative. Unfortunately, I soon realized (when he went to the snack aisle) that not only was I facing a Chinese language barrier, but also a British one: he was talking about cookies. Knowing that I'd have to write a blog post explaining to Mom why my first breakfast in China was a package of Oreos if I took the easy way out and just bought them, I instead navigated a needlessly overcomplicated conversation culminating in an arcane "instant" substance that apparantly turned hot water into yummy cereal. Satisfied, and performing my first 2.80 yuan transaction (thank god that Arabic numerals are used on the register's display), my boss/roommate went down Yunyao Lu towards South Wuning Lu, where the office is situated, roughly 4 blocks away.
We're on the third floor. We walked in and I met my first coworker: the receptionist, Grace. She is native Chinese, and very likely native Shanghaihese: she has auburn-red dyed hair. She knows only a little bit of English, but I can tell she is quite a characterful person. I made a special point to remember her name, since I guessed that she would be the one who would order lunch and make coffee for me (I was right) and so I have made sure to be extra nice to her, especially since the room she sits in seemed quite cold: I always greet her by name and wave whenever I go through. Garrett then took me left down a hall, then right past a frosted glass wall with "AFM Games" stenciled, and then a quick left into the studio.
Houston? We have a ping-pong table.
The workplace is in two salient sections: the larger floor that has the ping pong table, and the smaller adjunct floorspace that doesn't. The ping-pong room has artists on all the walls, who are also masters of retrieving and deflecting (often with their heads and chairs) ping pong balls: I have come to appreciate how exemplary in their stoicism they are in the face of hollow plastic spheres hurtling towards them at speeds of approximately 60kph, and they are surely about as brave as the intrepid jaywalkers of Shanghai.
The other floorspace is where the game-designers work: our space has the door leading to Garrett's office, and the ping-pong room is where Eric's office is (I learned later that Eric is actually the one responsible for the whole of AFM Games: I had had him confused with Sean, who I met later in the day). Here, I was introduced to several people at once by Garrett. I actually felt quite trepidated, since I wanted to make sure I gave a proper personal greeting to everyone, but because everyone's desks were facing the walls and I was in the center of the room, I almost felt assailed by greetings from all sides, and really very much tried to meet them all non-generically. Sadly, I was unable to achieve such a herculean feat of tact, so I prioritized meeting the people nearby Blake, who I met in person for the first time.
Although it probably isn't of any illustrative value to most who will read this, Blake is almost exactly the same in carriage and manner as my best dormitory roommate of college: Neal Finne. As a result, I felt very comfortable and able to communicate with him. I also met Chris and Li Hao and 'Jason'. Garrett said he'd be in his office if I needed anything, and Blake took his cue and introduced me to much of the staff.
(In writing this, I realize that this is actually going to get quite long if I go in this much detail. However, I also realize that it'd be best to write too much than too little. If you are getting a little weary of this wall of text, the short version is that I had a pleasant day at work, wherein I played much ping-pong and essentially set up my workstation so that I could be ready for tomorrow. Later this evening, I was taken out to dinner by Garrett along with all the programmer-types to a fancy-shmancy-with-fancy-on-the-side dinner at the same table as the Uber-Boss, where I got quite drunk after several strategically targetted "Gang-bai"'s against me and have returned tipsy to write this blog post. For more details, please, continue reading).
Then next came a flurry of introductions: although the programmers were a bit more 'forthright' with introducing themselves, the artists in the ping-pong room were a bit more reserved (possibly they predicted how wildflung my ping pong was at times, and their instincts to dodge and hide were perking up) but Blake did introduce me to the two (rather cute) girls first, then the various guys. I was impressed by the variety of the computer monitors: everything from 3dsmax to World of Warcraft were in attendance. Blake then took me to the rec room, and showed me how to get hot water and warm water (apparantly, due to the undrinkability of tap water, any 'fresh' water you will get is actually quite warm since it has been boiled: throughout the day I was caught off guard by the fact that my glasses of water were actually a bit hot to the touch: I anticipate I will come to appreciate ice-cold water even more in the weeks to come).
We went back to the studio, where the tech-guy was waiting. He asked Blake if he should install English XP on my workstation, and after a bit of fussing I caught the gist of the question. In a perhaps masochistic twist of fate, not wanting to burden the man with reinstalling an operating system onto a computer (an onerous task indeed), I indicated that I needn't have the OS reinstalled, and that my familiarity with the OS would be enough to use it. (As a result, I learned that Chinese have a word for "Save" "Load" and "Close" that don't begin with S, L, or C, and so the keyboard shortcuts are different... which meant that I had not the slightest clue which button in the menus went to what, being in Hanzi and all. I still haven't admitted I haven't the slightest clue what button I'm pressing when trying to do rudimentary things like clicking "Okay").
Thankfully, I have this laptop, which I am now immensely grateful that I have: for a few months I was wondering if I had maybe splurged unnecessarily with my graduation money, but truth be told this laptop (along with Blake) are my linguistic sanity-hold now.
About an hour later, Sean came in, another programmer. Around this time though, I had mixed my "cereal" and found that it was only passingly edible. Thankfully, Blake came over and said he was going to Carrefour (a French chain) to get stuff, and invited me along. Obliged, I left with him out the front (making sure to wave-smile-greet to Grace) and down into the noon-tide of Shanghai. We turned the corner and walked down South Wuning Lu, towards a 10-lane street.
It was here that I learned that Blake is absolutely, stark-raving mad.
In the states, there are these things called pedestrian walk-signals, where there is a little white guy who essentially says "You can walk now, and you won't get brutally mauled by a ton of metal". There is also a big red hand that says "You can't walk now, or you will get quite brutally mauled by a ton of metal". I had always taken these portentious signals as something heeded by all but the most callously foolhardy, and a mark of common-sense in its purest, most distilled manifestation.
Blake, it'd seem, has quite a callously foolhardy take on all that, and is simultaneously mad and an exemplar of bravery.
Images of Ian being thrown 20 feet by vehicles on repeat on my mind, I found myself standing amidst swirling vehicular tranist from a combination of a desire to "do as locals do" and "Blake *must* know what he's doing, right? And he counts as a local now... right?!"
Harrowing indeed, but the fact that an old-old lady had enough confidence in me to use me as a meatshield--er, as an escort-- gave me the courage to not cower in the middle of the melee. And so we reached Carrefour.
You know how, despite the widespread proliferation of music and (hopefully) musical aesthetic taste, supermarkets and department stores have a notorious taste in music? Well, we in the States are walking on clouds compared to the psychotic chorus permeating this Fred-Meyer-esque market. I don't even know how to describe it more precisely, so I won't. Suffice to say that after realizing that Blake is actually quite a celeritous walker (another trait he shares with Neal), I acquired a carton of milk and a new cellphone. He got a thing of olive oil (he's a vegetarian, so ends up having to cook his meals a lot more often since in China, although meat entrees are at a touch of a premium, most foods are soaked in broth of some variety) and we headed back to the office. The ten-laned street, in a stroke of mercy, had a little green guy letting everyone know that it was safe for Ed to cross.
And so we returned. Here, Blake went off and did something, and I came to know Chris and Sean, the other two Englishmen of the studio besides Blake. We largely met over the ping-pong table: they are both rather good, but apparantly Eric and Garrett are *quite* good. Chris is a larger fellow who comes from the Isle of Man: he was quite impressed when I told him I knew where exactly it was, and we've largely bonded over the bits of trivia about Britain I've picked up from Richard: he was *quite* impressed that I knew what Weetabix was. He seems really nice, and has British sensabilities that I feel a bit familar of: he reminds me in many ways of Richard's brother, Mark.
Sean fit into my categorization of "online blake, british chris" by being "american sean", and is tall with auburn hair. He is a bit more social, and very easy to get along with, having a friendly but not overly-familiar manner. He has a goatee, and so is the only person I noticed at the studio other than me who has significant facial hair. He is also the guy who "spikes" the ball in ping-pong, and is the cause of many an artist's flinching.
In lieu of overly long, possibly awkward introductions, we all played ping-pong. And I don't think I need to say anything more than that I learned quite a bit about the people who played by seeing how they played ping-pong. Blake holds back until he's sure the opponent is on his level, Chris plays reservedly and cares about a good, close game, and Sean plays best when his mind is on other things.
(Oh geez, this is getting really *quite* long! I'll speed up a little to get to the dinner scene)
The last person I met at the office today is the wonderful Tracey: the official translator for the bosses. She is wonderful not only because of her sanguine attitude, but also because she is friendly and (also!) fluent in English. She took me to the local police station (yes, all police stations are exactly alike) to register my residency. They didn't offer to copy the deed Garrett had passed along, so we had to go to a copy shop that also sold candy, porn, and beer. Me and Tracey got along just great, and she helped me fill out the form (I'm coming to realize that the English "translations" on signs, placards, and forms are often just about the most abyssmal amount of effort I've come across in an official capacity).
After that, we returned to the office and I had a meeting with Garrett, Blake, and Tracey about the Design goals of the game and what he hoped I could help the studio accomplished. I felt very confident and excited about what I feel I'm able to do, and tried to communicate this to Garrett, inbetween lessons in 13375p34k to Tracey in an attempt to subvert perhaps her English skillz.
(I am sober now, and think I deserve a round of applause for writing all of the above tipsy).
The rest of the day was me pretending to work, to be honest. My goals for the day were more of the social kind, like remembering everyone's names, setting up my workstation, syncing it with my desktop, playing ping pong, and figuring out the appliances in the rec room. I made a special effort in the second half of the day to meet the non-English people on the team (like my deskmate Jason and Li Hao (also known as Fox)).
Sean invited me along with Blake and Chris to go for a walk to the local convenience store. Chris had no coat for the weather for some reason, so we had fun teasing him as we meandered to the store. Once there, Sean got Warm-Coffee-in-a-Can and Chicken Ham sticks, Blake abstained, Chris got a bit of a snack, and I got a 7-up. Chris mentioned that a building was being torn down when he came in to work, and that he wanted to see it, so we went.
Alright: I am absolutely convinced that China has no equivalent of OSHA or labor safety regulations, since I was almost sidestepping welder sparks: the building looked like it had been bombed out, except it was full of de-construction workers. Apparantly the Army had been brought in earlier in the day to do the demolition. It was a sight to behold: men hanging over the wall-less floors chopping off the floors beneath them, hanging from rafters they were cutting off (on the wrong side, no less). It was comical. Chris said that in the UK any given spot'd be violating at least a dozen regulations: I quipped that they'd prolly de-construct the building 20 times faster, at least. We had a good time walking back.
(I'm really very tired: I will finish this blog in the morning.)
Towards the end of the day, I heard that I was to go out to dinner with the bosses and my immediate coworkers, in what Chris told me was "His attempt to prove that he is worthy of me, and so earn my respect". The notion struck me as odd, since we had been getting along quite well, and I didn't think any sort of prostration was required of him, but I didn't mind the gesture I suppose. And so we went out into the Shanghai night down the block past the "Men's Club" (I'm not sure what the place is, but I imagine there are some questionable things done in there) to a third story restaurant.
Fancy.
We were going to sit out in an open room, but when the Uberboss came, he talked rapidly to the waiters and we were rushed to a private suite. There, we had a myriad of trays on a large lazy-susan, with only a few dishes being identifiable to me. In clockwise order, it was me, Blake, Chris, Sean, Uberboss, Eric, and Garrett. Apparantly we were being served fancy beer, but I still was kind of confused that the Budweiser I was being poured was considered 'fancy' at all. It was fine I suppose, although I ended up having much more red wine.
There's this thing that sounds like "Gang bai", and I came to learn it is verbal weaponry: you may aim it at a person and they have to match how much you drink. Being 'new guy', I found myself being alpha strike'd by people at the table with friendly, mischievous toasts of "Gang bai!". I had never seen a person have a shot of wine, but it'd be a common sight directed towards me. The Uberboss made a point to do it every five minutes. I'm grateful I'd picked up a little bit of a tolerance from recently having an occasional beer lately, since I didn't particularly want to get silly-drunk.
The food was great, everyone loosened up, and many embarassing stories were told. It was really very great, but I am having difficulty describing the scene, because we mostly just talked a lot and were generally merry. I walked home with Garrett, wrote a bit, and went to bed.
This morning, I explored a little bit, cementing a mental map of my immediate neighborhood. I mostly retraced my path of yesterday, visiting Carrefour and buying a pepsi after I had gone to a convenience store and gotten bath materials (getting overcharged: I added the cost up before I went up, but neglected to look up 'too expensive' in a phrasebook and hadn't written down my summation, so I let it slide. After all, $3 for soap, toothpaste, and a bottle of shampoo is really quite reasonable anyways, and I didn't feel particularly Ebeneezer when I woke up this morning.)
Now I'm at work, and should probably get to work.