Photo

Hey all included a nice black and white I made, this is a suzuki from Fenghuang

Happy Thanksgiving

So, even though it's like a few hours early it's thanksgiving here. I want to wish everyone back home a happy one, to those of you unlucky stiffs that are working like me I feel for you. Not sure what Tom and I are going to do, but we'll do something.

Back at work

well i am back at work after a fair bit of time off, funny how when it comes to time off there is never enough of it. I am glad to be back and see some familiar faces, it's also funny how this all seems so easy now. I can't be sure that I am still teaching well to be honest, but for one reason or another this all just seems so much easier. Anyhow this is just a quick update, i should have internet set up again at my apartment this week some time. Gotta go guys

back in wuhan

So I am back in Wuhan after a horrible month in Zhengzhou, I am quite happy to be home but being in such a poor province and around such crude people has forever changed my opinion of this country. I will want to come home for a break ASAP, I will not have enough money to do so for a while though. 2 days before I came home Janice decided that I didn't really want to be her boyfriend and hasn't spoken to me since, we have communicated through SMS, but she is very angry with me.
You Chinese girls that want western boyfriends come in two or three kinds. The first kinda girl is obsessed with the idea of having a western boyfriend , but in all reality wants him to act like a Chinese guy, the second girl wants an English teacher, the third type wants a trip out of the country. There are a few other types, and combinations are also present. Also understand that a 21 year old Chinese girl is about as mature as your average western 15 year old. I feel like many of the problems we are having are just small problems, she feels like they are huge. So I really don't know how things are between us, and I am not going to turn into a Chinese guy.
You know the fact is I am just not the kinda person who is going to communicate with my girlfriend every single day when i am away on a very difficult and time consuming business trip, when my mother and father are having issues that i feel like I need to help deal with.
When you promise something to a Chinese girl it is expected that you should do it right away, not next month when you can more easily afford it or anything like that. You should always spend more money on her than your own brother, even if it is his birthday. You should always just order her food, if you ask what she wants you are somehow being disrespectful. I am really starting to wonder if it's all worth it.
Feeling really depressed right now, going to go. Post more later

my my again

well ... that was a very justified and well put answer, you may not be the kinda person i would wanna be around much but I can hardly argue with the bulk of that answer. You are welcome to comment on my blog anytime I would just like to move past some issues quickly these days. I seem to have a different mind set as of late, there has been so little to do in Zhengzhou it has put me in a sour mood. I am returning to Wuhan on a permanent basis this Saturday and will return to my normal routine, I hope that will brighten my mood. maybe money and pussy is the only reason, but for an unexplainable reason I am pretty pleased being by myself or with my girl these days and Wuhan is a great place to do it. I live close to everything so i never really need to go anywhere, and travel when i get an opportunity to do so free. I am trying to put some plans together and save up my vacation time for when my father comes here, after that during the next year i want to do some traveling and stuff like that. I am also just recently am starting to get over a cold I have had for over three weeks, it turned into the Flu a couple days ago and i was in poor shape my whole weekend, i got into my bed on Monday night wearing the hottest clothes i could, the hotel has really think blankets, i threw over my head and woke up 12 hours later soaking wet. You can ask Tom i literally thought i was dying, almost as sick as in 8th grade if not a little more. It took some weight off me as i hadn't had any appetite, my throat is torn up from 2 weeks of hacking cough, all kinds of stuff coming out of my throat in the morning, the taste of pus on my tonsils. Not a good experience, and although i was waiting to get back to Wuhan to say this. Carrie informed me Via E-Mail on Halloween day, that my beloved feline Meiko, had passed away due to apparently natural causes. I have had her since she was barely able to see, and her loss has saddened me to no end. Anyhow i hope this public apology is good enough because it's really all i can do. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfNzjqXKvw0 new vid on youtube guys, they put it back up so i am trying to upload as i can.

My My

It seems as though we may have a debate on our hands here, If I ran into Anony at a bar and heard him talking all this shit about the country/city I chose to live and work in I would never want to see the dude again. I am trying to think positively about where am am whilst having a few retrospective moments of clear thought about the place good or bad, his shit just brings me down, it's like he is literally saying i should drop my gorgeous and loving woman, and all my plans i have for business here and flee. Sorta like you shit talking Harlingen Pat, we'd rather not hear it all the time. If any Chinese people see this blog, they are going to say hey this guy is a real "Cockhead" and think all Americans are like that. I mean this guy literally said "Money and Pussy" are the most important things, to me there is a bit more to life than that. I mean Chinese people can hardly argue that they are occasionally a but uncivilized, I have plenty of students who want to get out of here because people spit and smoke all the time. I dunno it just seems that calling people "Bumpkins" and shit like that is a little extreme, I mean correct me if I'm wrong but Wuhan is the 6th biggest city in china and well on the rise to becoming a great and popular city, more people in Wuhan than Tokyo ... i dunno that i have seen any Bumpkins there, i mean i am from south Texas, i would think i know what a bumpkin is. I mean if I were Chinese, not even from Wuhan but just Chinese I would have a serious problem with the defamatory terms about my culture that he is throwing around and have a soured opinion of most Americans. You know I call Zhengzhou a shit hole, but ask anyone from Zhengzhou and they will say the same thing. Most of them want to go to Wuhan, am i hitting the nail on the head here Tom? I mean i can't speak for you but we are generally pretty in sync. I half expect he doesn't leave his name because, because he doesn't want any of his Chinese pals from Wuhan to come to Korea and kick the shit out of him for trash talking them. Of course he's right about those other countries, and of course i want to go to the, now is just not the time.

Example:
Tom and i sitting on my couch, the phone rings it's Ev, i answer

Doug: Hello
Ev: hey what ya'll up to
Doug: nothing just watching a movie with my brother
Ev: ya'll wanna come out to vox, it's busy.
Doug: hang on, hey bro you wanna go out to vox ev says it's cool there tonight.
Tom: uhhhh is Anony there?
Doug: Hey Ev is Anony there?
Ev: yeah he's sitting at the table with me
Doug: yeah bro he's there
Tom: i normally wouldn't go anyway, but now i really don't want to.
Doug: hey Ev listen, we don't wanna be around that guy, in fact if your ever anywhere and he's there to, don't fucking call us.
Ev: Aight man (Click)

I get this feeling from a lot of Americans, Aussies and Canadians in China. It seems to attract real fucking assholes from those cultures. Most nights I would rather save money and stay home on the net, you get hit with less soap boxes that way. Anyway that's my two cents, as i said Tom i am not sure that's what your getting at ... but. Glad this is my blog and I can say this kinda stuff. Btw the shift key on this kb doesn't work.

Sigh ...

Why do you have to talk so bad about WuHan, I really actually like it there, and have plans for business there. You know, I stayed here in Zhengzhou for two weeks and thought it was a real fucking shit hole. I went home to Wuhan for a weekend to see my girlfriend and brother and realized that Zhengzhou is a real shit hole and not only that the people are far more uncivilized than in WuHan as well. Not only that but even Zhong Nan Lu is quieter than any part of Zhengzhou. I mean just on the way to this cafe i saw some guy pissing in front of a shitload of people at some street restaurant, i can honestly say that I have never seen that happen (At least not with an adult) in Wuhan. I am not sure how long ago you were in WuHan but it has changed a lot people are saying it's going to be the next Beijing or Shanghai, generally getting more civilized everyday and a 6,000 kuai salary there is like 10,000 in Shanghai ... cheap living. Man until i was 28 i never left the US aside from Mexico, in fact i have only left my state twice. And you know what I really really really love my girlfriend, as long as she is in Wuhan I am.
I have been to Fenghuang and a small town near Fenghuang, but no i haven't really traveled much. I actually have substantial Chinese debt racked up that is nearly paid off, and a mouth full of broken teeth. So if anyone really wants to help me, tell me where in Wuhan i can get decent dental work done because that is priority one right now. I am trying to plan a trip for spring festival, but my girl may be training for a Job, and yeah Tom i am starting to agree with you.

Moving to (Insert Country)

I feel i need to point out something to my mystery poster. I had a conversation with my brother last night in which he pointed out that there was a great deal of truth to what you commented about, to which I agree. I simply don't need to hear it anymore as I hear it from a lot of people, not only that but it isn't easy for me to go and work in another country as I don't have an official degree. I did go to college for a long time and was very close to completing a degree in graphic arts, but eventually it became a little beyond me and I lost interest in the program. I did take other classes for the next couple years, and decided at some point that I wanted to finish my graphic arts degree. But it had been over 5 years since I started the program and would have had to start from scratch. I couldn't really ever afford to go to school in the first place, I certainly couldn't start from scratch. Anyhow not having a degree really limits my range of countries I can work in, in fact it's easier for me to work in China than it is to work in the US. At 29 i am not really sure about my ability to sit in a classroom for another 4 years, that has never been a good way for me to learn. I am about half way through my English Cert, and of course you can buy degrees these days. However, the legitimacy of those and how well they hold up is always in question. My true passion has been music for a long time, but i have never been very good. I am pretty good at wiring up electric guitars and making them do cool things, running a decent second hand music store with upgraded instruments has always been one of my dreams. I am trying to build up inventory over the next few years. I am a pretty good fiction writer and would love a degree in creative writing.

Youtube is Back!!!!

After a couple weeks of downtime youtube is back up and running, the bandwidth it uses seems to be throttled somehow, but with a little patience everything seems to be working well. I will try my best to get some of the vids I have taken uploaded, but this will most likely happen when I get back to Wuhan, and get Internet set up through another company. I had to cancel CNC because the technicians and the accounting people kept arguing as to who's fault my 691 error was. So we will have to see how things go when I get back, may be 5 days or so before I am back online once i get back to Wuhan. I managed to pick up my brothers Birthday present while I was here in Zhengzhou at the mall I work in so I won't have as much running around to do in Wuhan on that day. Looks like we are going to miss another Thanksgiving and Christmas, I would like to set up some kind of web cam chat with the family if at all possible. With all the turmoil I have heard about at home it may be kinda rough on the holidays this year. Anyway all I have a light day but I do need to prepare so ... talk to you all later.