free jimmy

I saw an interesting movie recently called "Free Jimmy". I have to thank Stoerm for brining it to my attention, it is the first 3D animated film in Norways history and all and all it's a great film. It's vulgar, and the characters in it are real bastards in many ways. It's a very interesting story about addiction and cruelty, I am now going to offer a fairly detailed idea of this movie, I am going to try and leave out spoilers but read ahead at your own risk, anything in italics is a direct spoiler so you may choose not to read it..

Free Jimmy is a story that revolves around 5 groups of people, I will cover them briefly

The Carnies: These guys consist of an american named Roy and three english guys; Flea, Gaz, and Odd. At the start of ther movie Roy is the only official Carnie, at the time Flea, Gaz, and Odd are somewhere in europe between Russia and Norway. Stoerm describes them as scumbags, and that is a fairly good description. The three Englishmen probably aren't in england because they are wanted for one or several crimes. These are the types of guys that haven't had a 9 to 5 job since they were in highschool, if even then ... if they went to highschool. These are the kinds of guys that do a job every few months until they are wanted to much then skip town and go anywhere they can without a visa. When they aren;t working they are getting high or stealing cars. Money was low until Roy showed up after a few years of absence and offered them a job at his circus, three weeks work and a high price.

Jimmy & Moose: Jimmy is an Elephant that has been in a schody russian circus for the last 15 years, the same circus that Roy works for. SPOILER:: We find out that Jimmy has been fed a steady diet of Smack and uppers since he has been with the circus. Smack to keep him calm when there is no show going on, and the uppers when he has to do a show. Sadly Jimmy is in bad shape, imagine keith richards as an elephant and that is Jimmy END SPOILER.
We see Moose several times throughout the movie, he becomes a very important supporting character, especially when it comes to Jimmy's struggle.

The T.W.A.A.T.S.: These guys are a group of inept animal rights activists, they do little more than cause trouble for themselves and anyone else in the movie

The Lappish Mafia Bikers:

The Hunters:

What about China?

Great to hear you will be going to the big apple and such Patrick, but what about China? You did specifically say in a letter to Tom and I that you and Dad would be coming here to check us out? I suppose since Dad is now gainfully employed it makes that trip harder.
Janice is very pretty, honestly the pictures don't do her justice. She is a very nice girl, however being that her parents hate westerners I am not expecting the relationship to last very long. Chinese people are chained to their parents until they are about 30, even if someone really likes you they won't continue to see you if their parents have a problem with you. To me this is rediculous and I am trying to open her mind up a little, so we'll see. She is going to give it a couple of months and then tell them, i really hope things work out I like her alot.
There was a power outage at work last night so we all got done an hour early, that was nice. You know working on saturday in china isn't so bad really, it's so busy. I just hate having to get up so early to get ready to come in, saturday is my early day for work.
The mickey d's across from my place is open 24 hours now ... bad news. Well the time for class grows nearer so I gots to run. Might update a bit later.

wicked busy

Everyone back home must be wicked busy and or upset with me. No one is responding to my emails, and no comments on the blog? I wonder what's up?

janice at hong shan square

This girl I am seeing

So everything is going pretty well with this girl I am seeing, I really like her, she is very sweet. However, it's strange being in China and talking to people here about serious things. Many people here have views but it's difficult for them to see past their own, many people mistake this for unintelligence when it's really a lack of experiences. Many people here are born, then live, then die in the same town without really going anywhere else. They know they don't always like the way their parents see things, when they develop their own view its difficult to see past it at times. One thing that has been a real challenge for me and this girl is enlightening her to different points of view, Everyone can be a little stuborn and closed minded at times, she believes herself to be open minded. However, I and herself to some extent have discovered that she isn't as open minded as she thought. It seems very important to her to be open minded, therefore her learning has gone past just language, I am now trying to teach her some things about philosophy and different views throughout the world. She seems hungry for this type of knowledge and I am willing to trade it all for Chinese lessons, other than that we do have a very good time together. She loves eating at cheap restraunts and has a healthy appetite for a Chinese girl, she likes TV series, she will even have a beer with me. Overall my kinda girl, just can't wait till I am out of debt so we can do a few more things together. Well all, I gotta get ready for class.

by the way, I know lots of you don't really like cartoons but I stumbled onto a very interesting one a couple years ago called the "Venture Brothers". It tells the story of Dr. Rusty Venture, his two inept sons Dean and Hank, and his half swedish, quarter norwegen, quarter navajo body guard Brock Sampson. The story is great and evolves throughout the series, it's also funny as hell and was made for an intelligent audience. If you guys are interested check it out here http://www.adultswim.com/shows/venturebros/ , you can even watch some clips there and such. It can be quite violent at times, but it's a real laugh now and then.

finally combed my hair differently

My teeth

The two cracked molars on my bottom left side are going to have to go, thry are getting close to being infected and are making it so I can't sleep at night. this is going to leave me with one bottom molar until I can get bridges put in. I am not sure how comfortable I am using a chinese dentist to do this, but at least here I may be able to afford it. I should have a friend taking me to get the teeth extracted within a few days and then I guess I will see about the bridges.

Long time no posts

Hey all, it's been a while since I had a post and I just want to appologize. I get busy and then lazy, usually in that order. I have also been suffering from muscle aches lately, I guess from standing so much or something like that. Happy belated independence day to all of you back home, I hope you guys had a good time at the lake or something like that. Ahhhh the lake, you know I used to hate going there sometimes because it was always so hot and humid and stuff like that. Now that I haven't been there in over a year I really miss the place, when I get back home I am going to want to spend a day or two there just to relax and enjoy the peace and quiet. SPI is also high on my list, but just like Tom I am not really sure when or if I will be returning home, it's really tempting to stay here.
Tom said some things on his blog and as he needs to clarify I do as well. He is right about friends, many of them are student's that are willing to help me with things, but really just want to hang around me for endlish practice. This is something you really have to put up with here, however I do go to Vox bar, something Tom doesn't really do very often and especially lately have made a great many western/indo english speaking friends there. Most of them are good people and friendly, because of them I have been having to hang around with chinese people that just want to use me less. Still though out of all the people that call me and want to hang out with me all the time it's hard to spend time with them all.
My place is actually quite clean, I have trashcans around me all the time. It's helping to keep me a little more clean as I am by nature quite messy, I still will not take all the responsability for the mess at Tom's place because wether he admits it or not ... he helped. However I really don't have very much furniture. When I was staying with Stoerm and Tom I had no space, not to mention many of the things Stoerm says to me are Dismissive, Disrespectful, or Commanding. Referring to it as Tom's place when I had lived there the past nine months paying my own rent, it's hard to have space when your sleeping on the couch.
I am not sure what paraphanalia Tom is referring to, but anything personal I keep in my bedroom and he usually doesn't visit my bedroom. Plus there are just certain things that should be left in the closet. I simply don't feel as though I have been treated with very much respect since Stoerm arrived, am I a professional? Of course, a degree doesn't really mean shit when you get down to it. Hell you can buy an accredited degree, my job expects me to look a certain way and do a job a certain way and I do so to the best of my abbilities, I am well liked by the sataff and student's and although it's alot of work sometimes I like what I do. If that's not being a professional I don't know what is. Odviously I have no secrets when it comes to Tom even if I try he always finds out, so I figure I may as well say what I feel. I did however feel quite bad about that post and got rid of it.
In my mind most of our lives our relationship has been very one sided with Tom always being more handsome, smarter, more succesful, and me trying the whole time to make sure he's happy. I have always tried my best to be a good big brother and do the best I can for him, often putting my parents or other relatives second. Have I needed to borrow money occasionally, yes. However, I have always tried my best to pay him back, again putting my parents second many times. Many of the things I have purchased for Tom have been purchased simply because he is my brother and I love him, I don't know how many ways I can show him that. I tried to make good as best I could on my "Free food for a year" promis in return for my english certification, although now that I have moved out it's harder to do so. However, I feel that I more than compensated for the cost of the certification. Any further debts I have with Tom or Stoerm will be settled next month. Will Tom and I be able to bury the hatchet? I'm not sure, I would hope so, if not ... then I don't know what to do. Many of the people Tom and I both know say I should slap him across the face for the way he treats me, but I could never do that. Tom is who I had growing up, we took care of each other. I still plan to take care of him as best I can, he can hate on me and dislike me and distance himself all he wants but there is no way he's going to make me feel any differently. I'll still invite him to dinner or lunch, I'll still invite him to Vox (Iwonder if he knows they have some of the best food I have ever had there now) even though he doesn't want to go. Because I'd be a fucking asshole if I didn't, I don't know how to be good enough for him anymore so I am going to be myself and try my best to take care of myself. I hope to get some furniture this paycheck and have a little house warming party, I hope he'll come. I do live only a block away.
I met a girl, her name is Janice and she's really into me. She's 22 and very cute, however she is vey traditional and starting a relationship with her is proving to be difficult. I am not very into a relationship without the prospect of physical intimacy. Many of you are prolly saying right now that there is more to a relationship than sex, I feel I should point out that the majority of you who are thinking that right now can get laid whenever you want, have lots of sex, then give it up for two or three years and then see if you feel the same way. So yeah I want to sleep with my girlfriend, not right away, but sooner than half a year. I have been very honest with the questions she has asked and the fact that I have had sex at all makes her a little uneasy. She has not asked how many times or with how many women (Thankfully) but it is putting a little crimp on the starting of our relationship. However I do appear to be taking ground, besides it's a chinese girls way to say she is traditional and the become very untraditional :), I will keep everyone posted on how it all goes. I think he cell phone is out of money because I can't reach her.
For at least two more weeks I am a dog owner, Everett is going to bew gone for two months and has decided he doesn't want his dog "Teddy" anymore. I agreed to take him and find a new owner, I have already found another owner but she is out of province for a couple more weeks so I am stuck with him until then. Honestly he is a very sweet, very well mannered little dog. He doesn't make any trouble, or noise for that matter. He shits and pees in the bathroom and when he doesn't he's not hard to clean up after. He doesn't eat much and he'll eat anything, i'd love to keep him, but he's one of these long haired critters that needs groomed every month or even a couple times during the summer. Also I am just not up for the responsability of a pet right now. I'll have Lex when I get back home, perhaps if he had shorter hair I would keep him but eh ... he was a matted mess of dreadlocks when i got him and had to cut alot of his hair off. He came with food and treats so no real money out of my pocket although I do plan to get him groomed before he goes off to his new owners. I'll try and get a video up for you guys. aznyway that's it for now I need to enjoy the rest fo my day off.

I got the videos done

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mukFz7C3MnM this one I have had doen for a while but just forgot about it, it's the second half of the arboretum trip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0r-cbW4FLw this is the one of the dog, BTW dog is "Go" in chinese.