bad weather blogging
Bad weather blogging from China Car Times. The translation is not of the highest standard, but it does the job, and the story leaves you speechless. Check it out.
grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Really, how much technical trouble do I have to put up with in two days? First it’s destroying the bathroom ceiling in the process of changing two ridiculously stupidly hard to remove light bulbs. And then, well, the university supplied big ugly box computer has been giving me trouble…
It started yesterday. Four times yesterday one window of Firefox froze. See, I usually keep two windows open- one for news, one for blogs. Works for me. Anyway, four times yesterday one of those two windows froze, meaning I couldn’t do anything with any of the tabs open in that window- couldn’t switch between tabs, couldn’t follow any links in the open tab, couldn’t do anything. The weird thing was I could move between windows, and the non-frozen window worked just fine. I could also minimise the frozen window- changing the size of it being about the only thing I could do- and any other programme running was, like the non-frozen window, unaffected. That meant that four times, to follow up on what I was doing in the frozen window, I had to ctrl-alt-del crash Firefox and restart it. The annoying thing about that is you can’t crash only one window, because that will stop Firefox completely. Fortunately Firefox’s cool restore session feature kicks in when you start up again.
Then this morning Firefox crashed soon after I started it up. Grrr… Oh well, get it going again, and then the same one-window-freezing thing happens again. Crash, restart…. I’m sitting there wondering what the problem could be. Two obvious answers: Some kind of malware, or it’s time to defrag again (something I have to do far more often with this computer than any other I’ve ever used- and just for the sake of using some stupid gung-ho term from crappy Hollywood war films- Screw defragging, I should just frag the computer. Solve me a lot of hassle, right up until the university checks the apartment and asks why there are random bits of its computer embedded in the walls and ceiling).
Alright, so AVG does a pretty good job of keeping computers virus free, even the free edition, and the free edition updates and scans automatically once a day. AVG Anti-Spyware free edition, on the other hand, gives you a one month trial period of full service, then reverts to the free edition, which needs you to manually update and scan the computer. So if there’s a malware problem, chances are it’s the kind that AVG Anti-Spyware is supposed to deal with. So I update and start scanning. The whole computer freezes, leaving me with no option but to crash it and restart.
So as the computer is restarting I get out the laptop and see if I can rejig the network settings so I can plug into the university network, and I get that going ok, although I have had the dial-up pop up and pretend I’m not online (if I need to dial-up, why are websites opening fine and MSN messenger working normally?) a few times- minor annoyance, though.
Then, because I haven’t used the laptop for surfing for quite some time, I made sure the AVGs were updated. And of course, I’ve bookmarked a lot more sites since I last got online with the laptop, so once the big ugly box was properly disk-checked and started
up, I got the bookmarks and discovered the hard way that when you import bookmarks into Firefox, they don’t replace the old ones, they add themselves to the bottom of the list. Once again, minor annoyance, especially compared to the trouble the big ugly box is giving me. Alright, got that cleaned up, and the laptop is good to go.
But then I ran an anti-spyware scan on the big ugly box, and nothing beyond the ordinary tracking cookies showed up. Alright, so I’ll defrag. Doing that now. It’s taking forever and making a huge amount of noise. We’ll see if it actually improves the situation. Based on past experience, though, I think I should just use the laptop.
After all, every time I open the laptop, I’m reminded how much more pleasant it is to use my own computer than the big ugly box. If only the screen were as big… or even better, as big as the office computer’s screen…
It’s frustrating because apart from this one big ugly box, all my experiences with Lenovo have been overwhelmingly good. I mean, my laptop and the office computer are simply beautiful to use. The big ugly box, though, is at best useable. Still, I suspect it’s getting a bit old (not that my laptop is young in computer years), and, perhaps more importantly, has taken too much abuse and neglect at the hands of less technologically savvy former occupants of this apartment.
Less technologically savvy than me, now that’s scary…. But then again, apart from being the default translator and relayer of messages between Chinese and foreign staff in our little programme, I’ve also found myself with not-quite-official responsibility for the computers in the foreign teachers’ office. That’s really scary.
excellentness
I’m really liking the all-new, improved, super-duper Granite Studio, and not just because I can read Jeremiah’s sribblings without the dubious aid of a poxy server (deliberate spelling mistake, just so you know). Jeremiah and Ryan (who I believe handled the technical side of the construction of the Granite Studio- excellent work, Mr Humanaught) seem to have brought a small oasis of civility, intelligence, and rational discussion back to the blogosphere. Really, it’s been quite a long time since I actually wanted to open the comment thread of such a popular blog, let alone actually enjoyed or even felt enriched by reading the discussions contained therein.
insidious pessimism
Posted by wangbo in tilting at windmills on February 1, 2008
You know all that stuff you read and hear about in Chinese history about natural disasters and plagues and similar things being seen as bad omens for the regime? Yeah, I’m starting to wonder. As I have been for a while now, but still, this gnawing grows…
a review
It’s not often you come across a review that is written at least as well as the book reviewed, but here’s one example.
nothing to say
Posted by wangbo in Chinese study on February 1, 2008
lzh tells me this guy‘s a famous university professor who writes somewhat similarly to Lu Xun, that his university doesn’t like him because he’s too honest (like Lu Xun). Well, unlike the maths teacher who’s reference for lzh’s boss’ son I had to translate a couple of days ago, he writes like he has a good command of the language, and so it’s a fair bit of work for me to read his posts, but I was struck by his latest post, 无话可说/Nothing to Say. It’s a short one, so I’ll translate it here (and as always, corrections and constructive criticism are welcome):
无话可说/Nothing to Say
Xiao Han
这几天，我都在网上看新闻——除了暴雪还有什么新闻？本来是想写点什么的。
These few days, I’ve been reading the news online- apart from the blizzards, what other news is there? Of course, I was wanting to write something.
今天接到一位编辑朋友的约稿函，请我就南方暴雪问题写点什么。可是，说实在的，脆弱得不堪一击的现代文明，就像人本身一样脆弱，在它面前，我无话可说。
Today I received a letter from an editor friend of mine inviting me to write an article, inviting me to write something about the blizzards in the south. But, to tell the truth, modern civilisation is just like a person’s own body, so fragile it can not stand a single blow, and facing it I have nothing to say.
有些事，因为感动而无言；有些事，因为震撼而哑口；还有些事，却因为震惊而失语。
Some things are so moving they leave you speechless; some things are so shocking they strike you dumb; and then there are some things that are so astounding you’re left with nothing to say.
只好用这几句话——虽然无力，衷心地祝愿，困在白色苍茫中的人们，愿你们尽早回到温暖的家，新年团圆！
I can ony use these few words- weak as they are, these are my heartfelt wishes, people stranded in the boundless white, I hope you return to your warm homes as early as possible, to a New Year reunited with your family.
So yeah, I took a few liberties rearranging things in English, but I think I got the right meaning. But I’m impressed with Xiao Han, and although he writes (naturally) at something above my level, I’m going to try a few longer pieces, too.
Let’s face it, real world study is infinitely more interesting than textbook study.
Of course, I won’t be abandoning the textbook- real world articles and essays and novels don’t take the time to sit down and explain points of grammar or those other little niceties of language to you. I just intend to keep mixing the textbook study up with real world study to keep my interest levels up, first of all, and give me a leg up into real world written Chinese.
a circuit of Pandaomiao
Posted by wangbo in Uncategorized on January 31, 2008
Considering that roughly half my time in China has been spent in Beijing, and roughly half the time I’ve spent in Beijing has been spent in this southeastern corner, around BeiGongDa, it should be kinda surprising that I’d never really explored that small quarter northeast of BeiGongDa, between Xidawang Lu, Pingleyuan, BeiGongDa, and the Fourth Ring Road.
Not that there’s anything to see there, but as I’ve said before, it’s the boring parts of town that are the most interesting.
Anyway, I decided that I needed out of the apartment for lunch and at least part of the afternoon. I was starting to get a bit beyond cabin feverish. So for lunch I went across the road to the campus Muslim restaurant, which is the second closest restaurant to home, but the easiest to get to. It was closed, and will be until February 21. Yeah, welcome to your average Chinese university campus. Anyway, I decided to head northwards, up to a restaurant on the edge of the Pingleyuan market, a Northeastern place specialising in hotpot of some kind or another. Open, good, so I settled in for lunch, ate, and spent a good couple of hours watching the world go by. Then it was time to leave, and, on seeing how this lane followed what used to be the stinkiest canal in Beijing, but which is now dry, to the east, thought, well, I’ve never been down that way before, might as well go for a wander, have a look-see.
So I did.
Past the market was a very regular housing estate that looked like it was built in the 50s, but probably wasn’t quite that old. After that, there was what looked like a park to the left, on the northern side of the lane, and what looked like was a park-by-default, because the slum opposite the northeast gate to BeiGongDa hadn’t quite extended that far north. So I crossed the former stinky canal/current dry ditch and followed one of the attempted paths along the canal/ditch until I confirmed it was only going to take me to the fourth ring road, then turned back. But there were three almost-paths leading the other ways through the slum to the northeast corner of BeiGongDa, and none of them looked like the went all the way, so I asked a passer-by, then followed her directions. Of course, it was no more than 50 metres from where I was standing to the road I was looking for, once I’d been shown which path to take.
And so I took that path, then I headed to the local Jingkelong supermarket to get those infernal lightbulbs, then came home, and that was it. There you go, nothing to report.
Actually, I did manage to make good use of today’s continuing good, clean air and get something approaching exercise, which is what I desperately needed.
And I discovered that there’s a McDonald’s much closer to here than the previous closest one I knew of, but that ain’t good. But right next to that is a Papa John’s, which I believe specialises in pizza, and which may be worth checking out, but we’ll see. lzh and I will be heading in that direction this evening. Oh, yeah, I got to see the back end of our local Outlets (which was the first in Beijing, from what I remember) on my little ramble.
And I’ve all but confirmed that the temple for which that small corner of town is named, 潘道庙, no longer exists. As the title of this post suggests, I walked around that area, but I didn’t go through it. Difference of about 20 metres. Still, didn’t see a temple.
So, in other words, nothing to report.
garhhh
Posted by wangbo in Uncategorized on January 31, 2008
I never would’ve thought changing two lightbulbs would turn into such a mission.
First one light in the bathroom went out. No big deal, we still had the other light, which was more than adequate. But as much for form’s sake as anything else, I pulled the cover off the light to see if the bulb could be replace with one of the multitude of utterly redundant bulbs in the loungeroom.
No.
All the lights in our apartment are filled with compact flourescent bulbs, the only exception being my desk lamp and the two bathroom lights. My desk lamp has an old incandescent filament-style bulb, because that’s all it has always had (and I can’t figure out how that bulb has lasted so many years), and the two bathroom lights have something in between old fashioned flourescent tubes and modern CFLs. The two bathroom lights require flourescent tubes that have been twisted into a squareish shape, not spiralled like CFLs, and which have an odd plug consisting of four pins in a square, unlike CFLs which plug into any regular lightbulb socket. Anyway, when the first one went and I saw what kind of a weirdarse flourescent tube it was, I thought, bugger it, we’ve still got adequate light in the bathroom.
But then the second bulb blew, and it turned out to be identical to the first. And here’s where it got really irritating:
See, these particular square flourescents are really hard to pull out of the socket. I mean, really hard. It took me two days to get the first one out, and it was only then that I could see enough of the specifications to buy a replacement with any kind of confidence. I bought two replacement bulbs and plugged the first (actually, the second to blow, but the first one I succeeded in pulling out and therefore replacing) one in, then set about replacing the other bulb.
I mean, really: In what kind of parallel universe do you wind up pulling half the ceiling down in the process of replacing a blown lightbulb? Did I somehow fall through a warp in the space-time continuum and find myself on the planet Hanna-Barbara? And it wasn’t just that I pulled half the ceiling down trying to pull the blown bulb out, I just about pulled the bulb itself apart in the process.
Ah, well, eventually I managed to replace the old bulb with the new one without damaging the socket itself, then I repaired the ceiling (it’s made of aluminium (I guess, judging by the lack of weight) slats resting precariously on ridges fastened to the walls), and we now have full light in the bathroom again.
But the whole process was utterly ridiculous. I mean, it has never taken me so long to replace a lightbulb ever before. Nor has it taken so much energy. Nor have I ever broken anything in the process of replacing a lightbulb. And yet it has taken a total of three days to replace two lightbulbs, and half the bathroom ceiling wound up on the floor in the process.
But that’s all just fine and dandy, because it’s all repaired and we now have full light in the bathroom again.
Now, if only I could find the brilliant architect who designed our apartment so that the first thing you see on opening the door is the bathroom and the even more spectacularly intelligent fellow who decided to light our bathroom with the most absurdly difficult to replace bulbs, I’d soon be a happy man… just as soon as I had finished picking the bones I have with them, that is….
breakfast ranting
Youth workers surprised by teen backlash? Well, no, that should read “surprised by backlash against teens”, it’s not the teens doing the backlashing, but people who should deserve the term “adult”, but who apparently have not yet reached that level of maturity. And surprised? No. Shocked or disgusted, perhaps, but surprised makes it sound like they unexpectedly got something they always wanted. Here’s what I’m ranting about:
The next day 15-year-old Pihema Clifford Cameron was allegedly stabbed to death by 50-year-old businessman Bruce William Emery.
The stabbing allegedly occurred during an argument that arose after Pihema was about to tag a fence on a property.
He was chased and stabbed.
Yesterday, Christchurch City councillor Barry Corbett defended the man’s actions.
“If I was on the jury, I would let him get away with it, but that is just me,” he said during a Christchurch City Council debate over whether to introduce bylaws to tackle graffiti, vandalism and substance abuse.
The day after the murder Manukau City mayor Len Brown said tagging was the starting point for youngsters to go on to commit more serious crimes.
So here we have a Christchurch City Councillor and the Manukau City mayor justifying the murder of a teenage boy. And why? Because the boy was caught trying to tag a fence. That’s right, a 50 year old man catches a couple of teenagers trying to tag his fence and gets in an argument with them. Alright so far. But then he chases them up the road and stabs one of them with a knife, killing him. And these two clowns who should be pillars of the community try to justify this man’s action.
We are not talking any measured, appropriate response here. We are talking a 50 year old business man murdering a 15 year old boy for attempting to tag a fence. Of all the reasons to kill someone, this has got to be the stupidest, most pathetic, most incredibly immature reason ever.
And a Christchurch City Councillor and the mayor of Manukau City try to justify it.
It’s when I read reports like this that I think I’m probably better off just staying in China.
Well, this business man has yet to go to trial, so we have to add the word “alleged” in front of anything: This alleged grown man allegedly stabbed a 15 year old boy to death for trying to tag his fence.
And as for Barry Corbett’s stupidity: Correct me if I’m wrong, but if he were sitting on the jury, his job would be to decide whether this alleged grown man had broken the law or not, and not to decide whether he was right or wrong, justified or unjustified in breaking the law. And barring some plea of temporary insanity or some other mitigating circumstance allowed by the law, if it turned that this alleged grown man had stabbed this boy to death, then Corbett and his fellow jurors would have no choice but to swallow their puerile bravado and find him guilty.
This would be ridiculous if it weren’t so utterly disgusting.
filling gaps
Thanks to this post of Scott Sommers’, here’s another blog to fill one of the desperately large gaps in the blogosphere: Tea Masters. Now I’m not so concerned with the Taiwan-centric blogs, and I don’t want to tread on any political toes here, so please, don’t nobody read any political statements into this, cos there ain’t none: Ya woulda thunk that in the branch of the blogosphere based in the home of tea, that most wondrous herb, there’d be more tea bloggers out there. But it takes one guy on Taiwan to fill in for all in Greater China. That’s just as huge and grievous gap in the blogosphere as the lack of Chinese food blogs- except that I’ve started finding some of them (sift through my blogroll for those I’ve found). And it’s strange how you (or at least I) never really notice the lack of things like food or tea blogs until you (or at least I) discover one or two.
Now, Prince Roy also does an excellent sideline in food and drink (and if I ever go to Taipei, I’ll be scouring his archives for precisely that reason), and Beijing Boyce and his Grape Wall of China have Beijing’s bars and China’s wine scene covered, but still… I wonder what the prospects of a baijiu blog would be? Nah, it’s just too acquired a taste, and most foreigners never get it, and Chinese already know about it, and I could only cover baijiu in the cooler months, and my tastes are a bit too focussed on the North, Northeast and Neimeng… Yibin’s brews are decent, but a bit sweet for me, the stuff I tasted in Hunan I remember being overly spiced, and Fenjiu is passable but a bit weak, with a cloying sweetness that goes fine with vinegar and Pingyao beef, but…
Anyways, even though I’ve only just started reading Tea Masters, I can guarantee you, that blog is instantly going into my list of daily must-reads.
Oh, and so you’re warned, the Tea Master seems to alternate between French and English, so if you don’t read French, just scroll down to you find a post in English.