May 2007

I believe I am addicted to a substance found here in China.  It is an “herbal” tea, and I am certain this herbal element must be something illicit and narcotic.  How else to explain my addiction?  Soon, in this heat and ridiculous humidity, my sweat must surely turn red as I exude this delicious liquid.  Then perhaps I will lick it from my arms and imbibe it once again.

Okay, seriously, it’s good stuff, and I wish that I could get some while in the States.  It’s great cold, and perhaps even better hot.  So listen up, you Wang Lao Ji manufacturers, start selling this stuff in American.  And I expect the price to stay around 3.5 yuan.

In other news that’s not even vaguely exciting, I’ve re-uploaded a few galleries.

1. Pictures with my sophomore #2 class in Wenzhou
2. A trip to the Milwaukee Zoo in 2002
3. A trip to Devil’s Lake in 2002

These are all rather old pictures.

It had been a while since I looked at my class photos from Wenzhou, and I found that I miss those students. As students, they were very good and teaching them was one of my high points when I was in Wenzhou. I hated taking the long, bumpy bus ride to the campus, and I didn’t like the campus very much, but the students were great. It is sort of the opposite situation in my current position, to some extent.

To my former students, I hope you are doing well. If I were guaranteed to have students like you, I’d love to teach in China again, but otherwise, I’m not so sure.

Led by the draconian and dominating David Stern and his dazzling defensive demonstration against the duo of Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw, the San Antonio Spurs defeated the Phoenix Suns tonight to win their series and end the NBA season.  I’ve heard rumors that there still may be some games played, but obviously they are all pointless as the winner of this year’s championship will certainly be irrelevant.

That being said, and as stupid as the rule and the ruling were, the Suns have to take some blame for having such a thin bench, and, related to that, not at all playing any of their bench players.  I have to believe that Jalen Rose still has enough to be a factor, or at least not a detriment.

On the good side, besides the upcoming draft lottery and the lottery itself, I am now free from wasting time on sports for a long while.  Thanks Draco Stern.

Update: Phoenix lost the game, though they certainly give it their all. Now they need to win the last two games, a tall effort. In unrelated news, here’s hoping the Bucks win the upcoming lottery. Daddy needs a new pair of… Greg Oden or Kevin Durant.

Bill Simmons of ESPN has said it all more eloquently and completely than I could, or would want to. All of the 0.5 people who read my blog are probably not aware of the incident which occurred during the last Spurs - Suns game. So I will briefly go over it.

In the final half-minute of the game, the Suns had a lead and the ball. Steve Nash was dibbling in the back court up the sideline when Robert Horry hip checked him into the scorer’s table. Some of Nash’s teammates sitting on the bench at that time were naturally disturbed by these turn of events, seeing their MVP and friend flying into a table, so they took two steps towards him before remembering something and returning to the bench.

Read the rest of this entry »

Despite all of your best efforts, I still live. The knives in the dark alleyway, the poison-laced wine, the acid-filled Wanglaoji can, and the ravenous rabies-infected giant panda — I have bested them all. Though they have induced in me, apparently, a condition that causes me to overuse hyphens. No matter, I shall survive that as well.

There are times, though, that I almost wished you had succeeded. Then I wouldn’t have to deal with children in the classroom. I don’t mean real children, I mean the zombie-fied little menaces masquerading as university students, and who have yet to discover their purpose on this planet. Though the latter is a common predicament, isn’t it?

I don’t want to get into that at the moment.

Let’s talk about you. You are a vile, gluttonous (and glutenous), swarthy, pig-headed mote of a being. The next time you see me will be the last time you see anything. You will die with my smile reflected in your bulbous eyes, and I will take them as trophies for my mantle place, if only I had a mantle. So I will have to keep them preserved until the point when I do acquire a mantle. That could be quite a long while, as I don’t expect to own a mantle any time soon. In fact, I’m not entirely sure what a mantle is. Above a fireplace, usually, right?

Be warned, and step warily…