segment

There's a new segment in this blog called: That's technology!

That's technology!

A guy at work showed me his camera a couple of weeks ago. Here's how it works: you point it at someone, it detects where the person's face is and puts a square around it, you click the button to take the shot, and the camera waits for the person to smile before it takes the shot. That's technology!

Regular blog again

This guy really knows how to make it happen: this one

To the left there's a view from my apartment window. That can't be good for the ol' lungs. There have been worse days than that for smog, but there have been a lot of ones better than that too.

hot toddy

H. Workman is playing the Jack Singer in March. Sign me up, but I'm kind of disappointed that the Mount Royal and UofC concerts are over. You could get up close and personal. Also, the new song on his website isn't doing it for me.

I'm trying to get rid of my cold by taxing my liver. It's worked before.

My brother was here in Beijing for the last week. It was action packed. We walked so much that our dogs were constantly barking, we saw a fantastic wall, we ate duck. He got me into paying more attention to Chinese characters, and it's helped a lot. I know three characters so far.

L-dopa

Here comes the science

I'm increasing the level of dopamine (the gunk that gives you pleasure and motivates you) in my brain right now by having a bottle of fine Belgian beer called Duvel. It's kind of gross because it has 8.5% alcohol. After doing some research I've decided that my brain doesn't create or pick up enough dopamine, so I compensate by eating too much or by drinking DC, which is a source of phenylalanine (which either turns into dopamine or causes more to be released or something).

Obese people have fewer dopamine receptors. That might be why they overeat -- to make up for it, since eating will give you some dopa-pleasure. Exercise can also increase the amount of dopamine released and/or the number of receptors.

I guess what this all amounts to is that a) you should exercise if you're fat and b) alcohol is a pleasurable thing to drink.

Here comes the ladybar

Last weekend a couple of coworkers and I decided to check out one of the bar districts of the 'jing, and I don't know where we went wrong but it was a bad scene. We wanted some action, but it was mainly quiet bars with people listening to bad singers playing guitar. So after a while we thought we'd cave in and head to a ladybar.

We didn't know what a ladybar is. The bars hire girls to follow guys around and lead them in, so we let them lead us down a dark street and into one.

I assumed it would be a strip club, and even though I find them kind of yucky and uncomfortable, I figured it would at least be something interesting to do. I was wrong. The first thing you do after sitting down is choose from a line of ladies. I kind of wanted to get out, but the two other guys chose their ladies and so I did too.

This story kind of gets boring from here on out -- you know me, it's not going to go anywhere naughty. The ladies sat up against us, we had reasonably-priced beer, we were forced to buy the ladies unreasonably-priced drinks (which smelled very unalcoholic), and there was a big communication gap. I treated my lady to all the Chinese that I know ("I like to read!" and other useful phrases) and she treated me to all the Chinese that she knows, which is a lot.

Hi.

Ginger beef

I don't know how they block sites, but there's a way around it. I haven't tried it yet. And, if the gov't is reading: I WILL NEVER TRY IT.

This Chinese version of blogger won't let me upload pictures. I'll have to link to one:

bugs

I saw those bugs for sale at a food market on Saturday night. There were a hundred stalls of food. I'm pretty lucky I didn't become a Yes Man when I got to China, because the guy I was with suggested that he'd eat a scorpion if I ate a cricket. Then again... that's a good trade-off. What was I thinking? Poor little baby can't handle a little cricket in trade for watching a coworker eat a scorpion?

Anyway, I really like it here. Good place.

China!

Ok. I made it. I'm here. I did it. And it appears that I can post to my blog, but can't read my blog or other people's blogs. But your comments get e-mailed to me, so that's good.

Here's the summary:

Beijing is like this: picture Vancouver but with so much smog that you can look at the sun. Picture more Chinese people and Chinese lettering, and make the city bigger, and have more buildings. And take away the ocean. And remove the 7-Elevens. So I guess it's not much like Vancouver at all, then.

My hotel is fun because the brochure is helpful. This one page tells me that "It is honorable and refined that makes you the best of the fields." So true. And there's a product in the bathroom to help me clean my genitals. "Use this product on and around the pudenda by massaging for 2-3 minutes." If I can figure out where my pudenda is, I'll gladly massage it for 2-3 minutes.

kung fu

I don't know much about languages, and I don't know much about the Chinese language, but I'm taking lessons and so far it's a brazilian times simpler than English or French, except for the pronunciation.

Example: Instead of having special words for each month, they simply say 1-month, 2-month, 3-month, etc. And instead of having special words for high numbers, they say 'two-ten' for twenty, 'three-ten' for thirty, etc.

Those clever bastards.

flat white

I'm seriously considering drinking a coffee tomorrow. I don't like coffee, but sometimes wish I did. Practice makes perfect. I'm going to order a flat white, shown on the left. It's the most popular coffee drink here in Australia.

In other news, somebody asked one of the Chinese guys I'm working with what some of the sites are that are censored in China. His response was "Wikipedia and Blogger". Besides making me a bit angry that a government would practice blatant censorship, it also made me realize that now is a bad time to start this eblo. I'll have to find a way to update from China.