December 24, 2007

To Those Who Have Come Before Me

I am not the first person to blog about his experiences in China.

It turns out that George Herbert Walker "41" Bush spent awhile in Beijing (nee Peking) in the mid-1970s. He was a quasi-ambassador (envoy) in a quasi-embassy (liaison office). While he was there, he recorded his thoughts and observations about city life. These observations are being released as part of a book.

This just goes to show you how far ahead of the curve the Bush family was. First there was Vannevar and his kooky ideas about computers in 1945. Then George Sr. invented blogging.

The legacy continues today. In the 2004 presidential debates, George Jr. prophesized the existence of multiple "Internets." Pretty cool.

December 16, 2007

Forward Progress

Don't think that because I haven't updated that nothing is going on ... quite the opposite :-)

Yesterday I began moving my personal belongings into my 10'x10' storage unit just down the street. This week will be more of the same. I plan to spend 2 - 3 hours each night packing and moving. Hopefully I can have the majority of my stuff out and gone by my birthday.

Speaking of which, a friend got me a "survival guide" with a lot of useful phrases listed in it ... transliterated!! That's the best part. The transliteration will help me make the connections between the Pinyin sounds and English ones - for example, "q" is a "ch" (as in "change") sound.

Three weeks and counting!!