Here’s a six-pack to share with the designated driver!
Six-Pack
Truth In Advertising
I got an ad on my GMail today that says “$$$ For Technical Writing – http://www.easywritingbiz.com/ – Online Writer Desperatly Needed On The Internet! No Experience Needed.”
I don’t know what to say. At least they’re honest.
Times Of My Life
I went to the American embassy the other day to pick up my new passport. It was actually a fast and painless visit to American Citizen Services, but in handing all my papers back and forth, I misplaced the claim slip to get my iPod back from security. The claim ticket was actually half a Post-it with the number 10 written on it in blue pen, but without it, the security guard didn’t want to release my MP3 player into my custody.
Actually, he clearly wanted to give my iPod to me, but he was afraid to hand it over without the claim ticket. I might be a master thief who pretends to renew her passport all the time in order to gain access to the little plastic baskets of electronics that aren’t allowed into ACS compound.
“If you could just show me that it’s really your player, I could give it to you,” the guard said awkwardly.
I told him that I had the local times for Beijing, New York, Mumbai and Denver saved, and the guard agreed that was distinctive enough information to consider it mine.
For Your Consideration
Stick and I watched Charlie Wilson’s War this afternoon, and we were just talking about how great the movie’s quality was, with no weird cropping and no silhouettes getting up to get popcorn, when text started rolling over the bottom of the screen. “This video is for awards consideration only…”
Oddly enough, we bought it in a nice shop and the packaging all looks legit, but I suppose you can’t be too demanding for 7 RMB.
On BBC Radio Again!
I got to be on World Have Your Say again last night! The show was on the Africa Cup of Nations, and the changes happening in Ghana due to international sports, and I was asked some questions on the changes in Beijing life with the upcoming Olympics. The whole show was actually broadcast from Ghana, which blew my mind. You can download the podcast here, or read about the show on the World Have Your Say blog.
Posted in Beijing
Tagged BBC, changes in Beijing, Chinese life, podcast, World Have Your Say
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Generation XyWrite
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, and it was what everyone at the paper used, XyWrite was the word processor that could beat up the other word-processors. Until one day point-and-click Word (or WordPerfect? I forget) gave XyWrite the boot, and typists everywhere were slowly doubleclicking mysterious new icons and wondering why they couldn’t use the good old keyboard.
Anyway, I didn’t bring this up just to wander down nerd memory lane. Today I tutored a teenage girl, and after a grammar lesson, she was showing me all the cool things her iSuperDuperGiganticPod can do. (I think Beijing teenagers need to carry their body weight in personal electronics.) Now, I quite like the iPod, but I feel about the function wheel the way my dad’s contemporaries felt about the mouse. Where are the rest of the buttons!?!?!
As she showed me new videos from more and more bands I’ve never heard of, starring handsome young actors I’ve never seen, I realize what’s happening. I must be getting old.
Rudie Can’t Fail
One day last summer, I “borrowed” a bunch of songs off Eric’s computer. Over the years, Eric’s introduced me to They Might Be Giants, Three Doors Down and others. He has pretty good musical taste, themesong from Battlestar Galactica and that Gregorian chant stuff nonwithstanding. Anyway, ever since then, I’ll have my iPod on shuffle, and hear an awesome song, and find out it’s from the Grosse Point Blank soundtrack. Again.
This is an awesome soundtrack. It has:
Rudie Can’t Fail – The Clash
Mirror In The Bathroom – English Beat
Pressure Drop – The Specials
We Care A Lot – Faith No More
Under Pressure – David Bowie and Queen
Let My Love Open The Door – Pete Townshend
…and some other stuff. I love this album. It’s great. I have no idea why Eric ever listens to those Gregorian chant tracks at all.
Conversations That Can Only Happen In Beijing
Meg: Whoa! Is that a six-story neon light-up Eiffel tower?
Stick: Where?
Famous in the UK! And Mental Floss…
I noticed a spike in my blog traffic after my post on our new shower, it turns out I’m getting a lot of hits from British DIY sites and home-improvement message boards… I don’t know what that says about plumbing in the UK.
Google Analytics shows where these hits are coming from, and I recognize London, Manchester, Cambridge, Reading and so forth. Then there were a bunch of unknown-to-me, but believable place names, like Dunstable or Petersfield. But Worksop? Kirkintillock? Wombwell? Huyton-With-Roby? Leyton Buzzard? Are these actual places or just clever names for proxy servers?
The information’s going to come in pretty handy the next time someone asks me if tells me I’m British.
“Yes,” I’ll say, “I’m from Leyton Buzzard. Where’s the tea?”
Edit: And! My shower post was also featured on Mental Floss! Right between gummy anatomically-correct hearts and CowAbduction.com! My internet fame knows no bounds.
If I knew I was going to be famous, I’d worn something nicer than Stick’s sweater.
Posted in New York City
Tagged British, Chinese life, e3, Google, New York City, reading, Stick
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More On Plumbing
This afternoon was spent with me curled up on the couch watching Gone With The Wind, while Stick shouted “Yeah, Rhett! Git ‘er done!” at appropriate moments. I got up to fill the electric kettle at the bathroom sink, when Stick darted out onto the balcony.
“Wait! Turn the water back on!” he said. “Now off! Now on! Off! On! Off! On!”
“Can we play this game when she’s not trying to save Tara?” I asked.
“Come look! Every time you use the bathroom sink, water pours out from where the tank used it be.”
“*unladylike word*”
Stick was right, water was coming out of the pipe that used to be attached to our dearly departed water heater but now goes nowhere. We could get a trickle or a stream depending on whether we turned on the hot tap or the cold. It also made some cool gurgling noises, until Stick did some kind of plumbing magic called shutting off the valves. I’m not sure what that is or why the plumber didn’t do it, but now water doesn’t pour onto the floor, which is a goodthing for us and for our downstairs neighbors.
I’m slightly concerned about all this. See, the old heater was connected to the gas and to the water, and now I know the water lines weren’t properly disconnected…
