I think I'm going to keep blogging here after I return to the US from China. I really like it. Who knows what interesting things I will have to say when I no longer am living in China, but hey, one can always hope, right?
Meta-blog note: I use Google Reader and occasionally (okay, pretty frequently) share items that I find interesting or amusing or worth, you know, sharing. Those items now are encompassed in a widget labeled Interesting Stuff on the right side of this blog. So you can get a sense of the things I like to read.
Book note: I am about halfway through The Best American Essays 2007 and am loving every word. I became a DFW fan after reading Consider the Lobster and so picking up this collection, edited by him, was a no-brainer.
Showing posts with label blogging. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blogging. Show all posts
August 8, 2008
May 18, 2008
#100: Keyi Chi Yu
This is the 100th post on this blog. Yay!! I honestly thought that, after my insane post-up in January, I wouldn't be able to keep up the pace. And while it's dropped since then, I continually find things to post about. Good times.
This one post is just to say that the best part of last night was seeing a Chinese cover band doing a bluegrass version of "Something in the Way" (the best line of which is in Chinese in the subject of this post).
My ayi is here now and she continues to serve as a great way to learn Chinese. I rarely see her because she usually comes while I'm at work, but this week she is here on Sunday. I told her my grandpa (wai gong, or mother's father) passed away and so I had to go to America last week. I also managed to convey that he was happy that I was in Shanghai -- Ta xihuan wo zai Shanghai kuai le, if I'm not mistaken :-)
Like many things in life, my Chinese (spoken, understanding, and now even a little bit of reading) improves when I don't think about it. So I'm trying a new approach. The idea is still to surround myself with Chinese (which is not difficult to do, given the circumstances) but instead of concentrating on words and sending them straight to my conscious, I'm going to try letting my unconscious do most of the work. Things seem to work better when I do that, even if it might take longer to bring words to the forefront.
This one post is just to say that the best part of last night was seeing a Chinese cover band doing a bluegrass version of "Something in the Way" (the best line of which is in Chinese in the subject of this post).
My ayi is here now and she continues to serve as a great way to learn Chinese. I rarely see her because she usually comes while I'm at work, but this week she is here on Sunday. I told her my grandpa (wai gong, or mother's father) passed away and so I had to go to America last week. I also managed to convey that he was happy that I was in Shanghai -- Ta xihuan wo zai Shanghai kuai le, if I'm not mistaken :-)
Like many things in life, my Chinese (spoken, understanding, and now even a little bit of reading) improves when I don't think about it. So I'm trying a new approach. The idea is still to surround myself with Chinese (which is not difficult to do, given the circumstances) but instead of concentrating on words and sending them straight to my conscious, I'm going to try letting my unconscious do most of the work. Things seem to work better when I do that, even if it might take longer to bring words to the forefront.
April 2, 2008
We get excited when this happens
Blogspot.com is unblocked for some reason. SO IS WIKIPEDIA!! Woohoo!! I can view my blog and search for random shit again. This is a strange feeling. Obviously not one that many Americans know, for good reason :-)
Another blockage that may get less coverage than these two site is feedburner.com. Many web sites I read use feedburner to syndicate their RSS feeds. The reason is that feedburner can track things like subscriptions and other demographic information that is useful to advertisers. But the site prepends the word "feeds" to all URLs. And apparently that's a no-no in China.
What's strange is that I can still get the RSS feed from feedburner -- it's just that I can't click directly into the link from the RSS item. This becomes a problem when sites post only tidbits of articles in their RSS feeds. For example if I see a story on THT or Wired that I want to read more of, I have to open a new tab and enter the URL myself. Yeah, it doesn't sound like much, but when compared with clicking a link, it's a lot of work.
Fortunately some sites, like Ars and /., provide "Read More" links in their RSS feeds that link directly to the news item. So even though their feeds use feedburner, I can click through to the actual story.
I might actually email THT about this issue. It's not like it's difficult to add a "Read More" link. And it functions as a call to action (Uncle Bob, you should be proud of me that I know that term) also.
In the meantime, baseball season has started, with my beloved Orioles already down 0-1. Most every site I see is picking them to be last in the division this year -- and I can't disagree. The fun thing is that because of the time difference, when I get to work in the morning there are games still going on, because it's only 9 PM ET. Games on the west coast don't even start until 10 PM ET, so on the weekends I should be able to wake up at 9:30 some days and go watch some baseball at Big Bamboo (where I saw the Super Bowl).
Exciting. My favorite-est blog ever is already posting like 5 times a day :-)
Another blockage that may get less coverage than these two site is feedburner.com. Many web sites I read use feedburner to syndicate their RSS feeds. The reason is that feedburner can track things like subscriptions and other demographic information that is useful to advertisers. But the site prepends the word "feeds" to all URLs. And apparently that's a no-no in China.
What's strange is that I can still get the RSS feed from feedburner -- it's just that I can't click directly into the link from the RSS item. This becomes a problem when sites post only tidbits of articles in their RSS feeds. For example if I see a story on THT or Wired that I want to read more of, I have to open a new tab and enter the URL myself. Yeah, it doesn't sound like much, but when compared with clicking a link, it's a lot of work.
Fortunately some sites, like Ars and /., provide "Read More" links in their RSS feeds that link directly to the news item. So even though their feeds use feedburner, I can click through to the actual story.
I might actually email THT about this issue. It's not like it's difficult to add a "Read More" link. And it functions as a call to action (Uncle Bob, you should be proud of me that I know that term) also.
In the meantime, baseball season has started, with my beloved Orioles already down 0-1. Most every site I see is picking them to be last in the division this year -- and I can't disagree. The fun thing is that because of the time difference, when I get to work in the morning there are games still going on, because it's only 9 PM ET. Games on the west coast don't even start until 10 PM ET, so on the weekends I should be able to wake up at 9:30 some days and go watch some baseball at Big Bamboo (where I saw the Super Bowl).
Exciting. My favorite-est blog ever is already posting like 5 times a day :-)
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.
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.
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