My specs had a tragic accident today. After Sven helped me out at school with a superglue temporary fix, I went to the specs store to get new ones. We get Stick’s contact lens solution at a little glasses shop by our apartment, so I knew where to go, but I hadn’t really looked at […]

A long time ago, there was an awesome DOS word processing program called XyWrite. It was long before point-and-click, instead there was command line where you’d type in the abbreviations for margins and formatting and so forth. You could set up your own shortcuts easily, too. My dad was a newspaperman at the time, […]

Today we stopped playing Civ long enough for lunch at Mexican Wave and a visit to the Guiyou silk market. (Stick’s discovered that if you don’t develop alphabet, but everyone else does, you really don’t need it to trade techs.) I suggest a couple margaritas before any shopping adventure.
Guiyou silk street is listed in […]

Yesterday afternoon, I had a job interview at a Singaporean-owned English academy, to do training and prep for Chinese students who’ll be studying overseas in English-speaking countries. My prospective boss asked me two or three basic questions, then told me I was too well-mannered to be pureblood American, and maybe one of my parents is […]

When I was younger, right before Christmas, my family would drive to Kearny, NJ, where there was a street of Scottish import stores. We would get our all-important Christmas meat pies and sausage rolls, and eat our the traditional pre-Christmas fish-and-chips supper, followed by gigantic empire cookies.
My granny would get nostalgic over all the foods […]

Amy campaigned tirelessly to be called a “postal worker” and not a “mail-cyclops”.

Dr. Colin gives a booster shot of anti-gravity serum to his young patient.

Although being a giant firefighter was a rewarding career, Kim couldn’t find pants that fit comfortably.

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I’ve often wondered at the futility of making advance plans in China. Black And White Cat explains why.
The boss says to his secretary: I’m taking you to Beijing for a few days. Get ready to go.
The secretary phones her husband: I’ve got to go to a meeting in Beijing with the boss for a few […]

The story about Mattel’s factories in China has been floating around China news and blogs almost as much as the cardboard-filled baozi.
I first heard of it when my dad sent me a link to this New York Times article, about Mattel’s Chinese factories being the “gold standard” for toys and quality control. If you […]

Chengdu Evening News fired three of it’s editorial staff after they accidentally mentioned Tiananmen Square.
On the 18th anniversary of the crackdown Monday, the lower right corner of page 14 of the Chengdu Evening News ran a tiny ad reading: “Paying tribute to the strong(-willed) mothers of June 4 victims.”
The mention was in an ad, […]

I haven’t wanted to post about the Virginia Tech shooting because there’s really nothing I can say that hasn’t already been said more eloquently.
Yesterday when I got to LCC, I had a new handout in my mailbox. It’s all about what to do if a crazed gunman runs around campus trying to kill everyone! It […]