Fuzz

Today is August 15th according to the traditional Chinese Lunar Calendar. So... that means I get to celebrate my birthday again! So am I one more year older? Does that mean I am shoved up against 30 like a rat against the wall being pestered by a mangy alley cat? I sure hope so!

Teaching has started again, much to my relief. You know, having a paid 3 month vacation sounds like a good idea at first, and maybe it is in the US, but here in China is torturous HELL! After about a month the fun of it all wore thin... then it just got boring all fuck. I had nothing to do all damn day but eat, sleep, and watch movies... but I already watched all the movies I wanted to watch. So instead I played videogames. Then I won them all. So then I started sleeping more.

However, my friend Johanna is here so that has helped a bit. She and I have been spending most days together being bored. Now that teaching is back in action I feel tired when I go to bed instead of forcing myself to sleep because there's nothing else to do.

Until next time: "What kind of world do we live in where a man dressed up as--" "Your butts!" "-- gets all of my press? This town needs--" "Your butts!"

keep off the grass

Sorry so dry in posts. I've been in a rut lately, the summer dullness has gelled my brain over pretty well. Classes will be starting in another week or so, then I'll have to get my lazy mexican ass up outta my chair and do some real work.

I'm gonna post more pictures soon. I haven't been much of a shutterbug, but that might be changing if I can motivate myself.

Headlines: Atari discovered a strawberry yogurt that doesn't taste like fermented ass sweat.

Corn Nudes

I saw a package of interesting looking noodles at the store a month ago, so I bought them. Usually the noodles here are the white wheat noodle sort, typically like Japanese soba noodles, if you've ever had them. However, these particular noodles were from Korea and are made from corn. I thought to myself "Hey, I like corn. These might be an interesting change."

So... a month goes by and I didn't make them. Tonight I was totally starved and it's too late to go out to get food, so I decided to try out the corn nudes. Mistake. They're slimy, soggy, and have an odd metallic flavor (like the flavor of a house key in your mouth). Yuck.

Lesson learned: sometimes your favorite foods in a different form are not what you think. Like a hamburger candybar. Probably not a good idea.

A small view of Yichang, China

Here's another movie. It's not very long, and it's really shaky and blurry, but at least you can see some of what my life is like here. I'll upload some better movies in the near future once I get some more interesting footage shot. I think I might do that tomorrow night.

Have a good weekend everyone!

This week in film

This post has nothing to do with film. Well, kinda it does. Two types of film that have nothing to do with movies.

One is the film that is in the back of my throat after recovering from the flu. I'm better today, but the past two or three days have been miserable.

The other film is the film that would be in my camera, if I still had a film camera. Instead I have a digital camera. I take nice photos.

More movies of the place where I live to come soon, as requested by Mr. Bobby. I have to decide what to film, and it has to stop raining.

homemade, like it should be

As many of you may know, I know my way around the kitchen. I cook almost all my food from scratch in the states, and it's been the same here. Lately I've been getting really bored with the food available and I have a lot of time on my hands, so I've been trying to branch out and try things that I've never made before.

Back in Ohio I realized about a year or so ago that I have a natural knack for baking things. I can make cakes, pies, bread, rolls, almost anything baking related. Well, I decided to try making bagels. Even with the proper equipment this can be a very difficult and time-consuming process, but I wanted to learn. I only have a toaster oven to use to bake my breads and such, so you can imagine how time consuming and tedious a lot of this is.

I made one batch a few weeks ago and they were okay, but something was wrong with the dough and they were a little too... I don't know how to explain. Well, lets just say that the dough just didn't "feel" right. This time around I tried something a little different and they came out PERFECT. I'm eating one right now. Delicious.

I have thought about going to culinary school for baking, just so I can learn some new things. However, someday I need to try to get a real job. I can't be a student for life, though if I had a million dollars I'd spend the rest of my life learning. That's a topic for a different day, though.

footage from the storm

Stupid iFilm. Third edit, this time i used photobucket to upload the video. Copyright bullshit.

David Wain = GENIUS

Something Wicked This Way Comes

We've had some really awesome storms here in the past two days. Yesterday it rained so hard that the windows in my living room starting leaking, then the roof started leaking, then a huge puddle formed in my kitchen. It was coming down so hard you couldn't see 20 feet in front of you. Amazing.

Then the rain slowed, but we had some mild thunder and lightning. I was in my room typing on the computer when I saw a flash of light outside that was so bright it looked like daylight. The peal of thunder followed right after, so I think a building at the university got it. The sound was so loud that all the motion sensitive stairway lights in the neighborhood turned on at the same time. I wish I could've gotten it on film.

Tonight I watch as a storm started rolling in from over the horizon in the direction of the reservoir. The lightning flashes have been very numerous, literally one to three every second, but I think it's just heat lighting because there really isn't any thunder. Every once in a while I can see nice shaft of lightning, but it's always far off. Once the thunder really starts kickin' in I'm going to sit on my balcony and try to get a few shots with my camera.

The lightning hasn't let up for over an hour now. It's all so quiet and calm, though, just bright flashes of light in the sky over and over. It's like a strobe light in the clouds.

Cool.

My favorite restaurant is closed

They went on vacation for three weeks. The food there is really good and just too damn cheap to pass up. I can order two dishes that, the powers combined, make my belly burst; and still I only pay 10RMB, or just a little over one american dollar.

Usually I spend the equivalent of 75 cents on a meal, but there are some damn good fried rice shops where I can eat for 35 cents. Near the primary school where I taught earlier this year there was an awesome hand-made noodle shop where I could get a bowl of saltly, garlicy, soup noodles for 25 cents. As you can see, food is really cheap here.

Even so, it does get old eating the same things over and over again. I try to eat one meal at home and one meal outside every day. I've been losing weight slowly this summer because it's so hot outside that I usually skip a meal because I don't want to walk anywhere. It's funny, though, I feel like I have lost a lot of weight, but I still weigh 68Kg. Perhaps that doesn't seem heavy to some of you, but when you're only 5 foot 5 inches tall, that's a lot.

Damn, I'd kill for two slices of cheese pizza from Flying Pizza right now. No, really, I'd go out and choke-slam some unsuspecting Chinese dude to have it.

Sleep doesn't come easy, or does it?

How well can you sleep when you're staying here?

The commodities

Precious commodities such as cheese need to be taken serious in China.

Cheese is very hard to come by around here and it doesn't always taste good. I travelled to the capital city of my province to buy cheese at a German import store called Metro. It's like German Walmart. They have Walmart here, too, but instead of hillbillies they have rich Chinese wannabes who think it's "cool" to shop at Walmart. Most Americans I know are trying to avoid Walmart, but these people are dying to see it. Go figure.

So I went to Metro and bought a 10lb block of white cheddar from Ireland. It was the smallest size they had to offer, if you can believe it. I actually was hoping that the 15lb block of mozzarella I saw last time was still there, but I was out of luck. I got it home and sliced it open and let me tell you... DAMN it's good. It's sharp cheddar, too. Nice. Atari's gonna be eating some potato cheddar soup this winter, I figure. It's gonna take forever to eat 10lbs of cheese, though.

I also bought 10lbs of pinto beans because a Mexican's gotta have beans. Even a Progressive Mexican can't escape his destiny.

I always forget a title

I fear that China may be turning my creative juices in to rancid mud.

I haven't been able to make anything even remotely creative since I got here. I feel like I have no muse at all. Not even my usual creative fuel, coffee, is helping. I hope this drought doesn't last long... I only have 4 weeks of vacation left before I gotta go back to mind-numbing teaching again.

In other news: I'm off to Wuhan tomorrow to buy some foreign groceries. It's damn expensive, but a little slice of home is worth it. Perhaps a few new comforts of home will give me some creative insights.