Stick In Rome

Posted on September 11, 2006 by Meg

Stick called me from Rome the other night! It was so great to talk to him!

And then he mentioned the Subject About Which We Do Not Speak. A lot of couples have one, an issue that’s tacitly acknowledged but never really discussed. In my case, there’s something Stick does every day while I’m in China and I know he does it. Things would be different if I were around, but I’m not. I know it’s essential to his well-being and keeps him happy and all that, but I just don’t want to hear about it.

“…and the food is really good.” he said, six times zones away and somehow unaware of how upsetting this sentence would be.

“That’s nice. Don’t tell me about it.” I said.

“…even in the dorm, it’s really good,”

“Really. Do not talk about Western food.”

“We’re getting a lot of pasta and tomatoes and…”

“Stick! Stop it! I can’t listen to this! You do NOT tell the party who’s living in China about food that’s not horrible. It’s just not fair! It’s cruel and you’re being totally inconsiderate! If you cared about me at all, you’d pretend that at least the dorm food was yucky!”

“You’re my girlfriend and I’m going to tell you what I did today and that’s final!”

No consideration, that boy. None.

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Saving Those For The Bad Teachers

Posted on September 10, 2006 by Meg

Nick has started a thread on WTH Conversations In China. Whyguoren writes about trying to use his bank card in a bank. Talk Talk China writes about… actually almost everything on Talk Talk China is about the WTH moment.

Life in China is full of these moments when logic and reason are nowhere to be found. I don’t mean hearing mei you when there clearly are plenty of rooms in the hotel or seats on the train. I mean these moments when a simple request goes so horribly wrong that you have to wonder if they’re just screwing with you.

This morning, I went into my school’s office for some extra whiteboard markers for a group project. The secretary opened a drawer full of markers and took out a handful. She proceded to test each marker on a scrap of paper before handing me three good markers and… throwing the dead ones back in the supply drawer.

We repeat this interaction before every class.

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Nerdy Girl Makes Fun Of Popular Hot Girl For Taking Her Clothes Off

Posted on September 9, 2006 by Meg

Apparently, you can make a name for yourself on MySpace. And that name can have as many capital letters as you want.

ForBiddeN is a MySpace user, who posts naked pictures and semi-naked pictures, as well as offering her own desktop wallpaper, screensaver and clothing line. And now, she’s going to be in Playboy!

This is the nature of internet self-publishing. We all have dreams that our Flickr photos will end up in National Geographic and that our Blogspot technology reviews will end up in Wired. (Clive Thompson, call me!)

ForBiddeN (it hurts my English-teacher soul to type that) is celebrating her sucess with a huge Hollywood party. And it really is a success story. Contrary to popular belief, it seems that you CAN sell it when you’re giving it away for free. Her party attracted all kinds of MySpace users, journalists, celebrities and famous-for-being-famous celebs.

When Paris Hilton gets a DUI leaving your party, you know you’re famous. Or infamous. But when the goal is self-promotion, who cares?

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Kermit And Plato

Posted on September 8, 2006 by Meg

After months of asking about Chinese myth and recieving either blank stares or incomprehensible tales about monkeys in magic headbands, I finally heard a fable I understand.

A frog lives in a deep well, and all he can see is the walls of the well and a small circle of sky at the top. The frog looks up at the little patch of clouds and sun and he thinks that the world is small.

Sometimes I think China may not be so strange after all.

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Forget Facebook Fray — Feeds are Finished

Posted on September 8, 2006 by Meg

It seems that the Change It Back! Facebook groups have been heard. The mini-feed is gone. It seems that the issue has become all about internet privacy and not my complaint that the feeds were mind-numbingly dull.

Mark Zuckerburg admits that the Facebook team made a mistake in an open letter on Facebook:

We really messed this one up. When we launched News Feed and Mini-Feed we were trying to provide you with a stream of information about your social world. Instead, we did a bad job of explaining what the new features were and an even worse job of giving you control of them. I’d like to try to correct those errors now.

Great job, Facebook crew!

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Facebook Fervor

Posted on September 7, 2006 by Meg

I joined Facebook three years ago because I’m internet obsessed hip to all web trends, and in that time, Facebook’s added a lot of cool features. You can list your course schedule and search for users by class. You can search by high school, by major, by dorm or by interest. Facebook also allows you to add friend details, so instead of a pool of a hundred people tagged as friends, you can explain who’s a roommate, a classmate, or and old boyfriend.

Yes, that’s the most important use of Facebook. “Facebook-stalking”, although not yet approved by William Safire, has slipped into our lexicon. I’ve been guilty of checking an ex-boyfriend’s profile more than absolutely neccessary and I’m far from being the only one!

There’s more the Facebook that seeing if the hot guy from history class is single. (Note to all girls currently studying in Rome: He isn’t) Users can upload photos, and then comment on or tag these pictures in a big, interactive photo album. You can send private messages, group messages and public messages to others. Facebook users can also start and join interest groups, from Marry me, Mr. Darcy! to Procrastinaters Unite….. Tomorrow. I am not saying that I’m a member of either group. Just giving you some examples.

But in the last few days, the Facebook folks have made some less-than-popular changes. They’ve down so well making Facebook into a combination of Flickr, MySpace and Xanga, they decided to throw in an RSS reader, too. Only this feed is all about the last ten things you’ve done on Facebook.

And the verdict from Facebook users seems to be pretty universal. This sucks.

The privacy issue seems to have a lot of usuers up in arms. It doesn’t really bother me, because there’s nothing secret on my profile. My problem is simply that the new feed is boring. My Facebook profile is now a mind-numbing list of “Meg said hello to her friend. Meg posted 5 photos. Meg said hello to another friend. Meg commented on her friend’s photo”.

I don’t want to ditch my Facebook account. I like checking in with my friends, and unlike MySpace, Friendster and Consummating, the focus seems to be more on keeping up with classmates and less on finding online love. I love the photosharing, I even like the new status updates. I like how there are so few ads, and the ones I do see are flyers for college events. And I really like how many of my friends and old classmates — even the technologically impaired ones — are on the Facebook.

There’s only one thing to do. I’m joining the Dear Mark Zuckerberg, please change it back Facebook group.

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Closer Than My Peeps

Posted on September 6, 2006 by Meg

Barbara, one of our students, invited Dave, Zorro and me to come to KTV with some of her friends. Now, I am no stranger to getting mildly intoxicated and belting out a Human League duet, but a Chinese Kareoke bar is a little different than at home.

First, you get your own room so you don’t have to listen to any drunks crying ballads or Cyndi Lauper with the six girls:one mic ratio. Unless you brought those people. Second, although there was no pin yin option, so no one got to hear my fabulous rendition of Mice Love Rice, there was a pretty extensive English section. Page one had Africa by Toto… I took this picture because I knew no one would believe me. Honestly, that’s what it says!

We alternated between Two Butterflies and Looking At The Sea and so forth, and the English section.

This is Dave and me singing Imagine. In China. Yeah.

And then I found Angel, more commonly known as “the peeps song”. Usually my version of the song goes like this:

“So then he said… Oh my God! Is this the peeps song? It’s the peeps song! Eric, it’s scanning! How do you take this off scan? What do you mean, the same way as last time? Oh, thanks. CLOSER THAN MY PEEPS YOU ARE TO ME! It’s the peeps song, Eric! Listen! SHE WAS THERE THROUGH MY INCARCERATION, I WANNA SHOW THE NATION, MY APPRECIATION! Yeah!”

I realize now that I am going to a special English teacher hell for singing these lyrics.

Looking back Shorty always be mention
Said me not giving her much attention

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Rorschach ESL

Posted on September 5, 2006 by Meg

Fall has come rapidly to Yantai, as if the weather is trying to match our textbook’s explanation that September, October and November are autumn. It’s beautiful here, although it’s strange to feel fall and be going back-to-school on the other side of the desk.

I was teaching Susie this morning, and we were looking at pictures and trying to match the scene with the dialogue. Basically, the lesson shows a typical exchange between parent and child, or customer and shopkeeper, or two friends, and so forth, and the student must identify that the mom is more likely to say “Go to bed,” than “Here’s your change”. A lot of my students like to guess at random, so I thought I’d prep her by asking what she thinks each person is talking about.

I showed her a picture of a shopper with a basket of food and a shopkeeper at a register and asked what they might say to each other. Susie gave the very Chinese answer that the shopper was bargaining, because the seller had tried to charge too much money. When I pointed out that both people were smiling, she suggested that maybe they had already reached a good price.

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Chinese Food. Again.

Posted on September 3, 2006 by Meg

When Stick was here, I constantly surprised myself with how much I’ve adjusted to Chinese life. Things like “yeah, yeah, Chinglish signs are funny, whatever” came out of my mouth… when I wasn’t spitting on the street, that is. Stick is an amazing boyfriend because he puts up with me. Also he took me to the Beijing Sizzler where I descended upon the salad bar like a plague of locusts and devoured my Western food (mayonaise-free salad!) before he got back to the table.

But my point had more to do with the strange things that don’t seem so strange anymore. For example, when I first came to Yantai, I was surprised to find that most eateries have a glass-fronted fridge full of uncooked dinners. You choose which plate you want, remind the staff not to make it too hot or use too much oil, then sit down while they cook it up for you. Here’s a photo.

But here’s the catch. I didn’t take this picture to show you the plates of chopped veg and animal parts. That didn’t even register as strange or noteworthy… it’s just a menu. Look closely at the bottom left. Do you see it? That plate of chicken wings and a can of Pepsi?

I checked with Zorro, and the label next to the plate really does say Pepsi Chicken Wings.

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China’s New Altruism Videogame

Posted on September 2, 2006 by Meg

Usually my local net cafe is full of boys and young men playing CounterStrike for hours on end or staring at the lao wai girl (your results may vary). As internet gaming becomes more popular, it’s having some surprising effects in China.

China is home to the Beijing Internet Addiction Treatment Center. It may not be totally unwarrented, as this article on a serial cyber-husband, whose internet dating cost real cash and a huge GPA decline, shows. I’m not entirely sure how one cures internet addiction… does the treatment center fake a power outage? Do they find girlfriends for the nerds in page-refresh recovery? Do they enlist all the addicts in a week-long D&D game?

Also, the CPC is worried that these gamers are learning about dark elves and snipers, but not about Mao. So now the Chinese government has asked the Shanghai-based gaming company Shanda to develop a new game, called Chinese Heroes. In this game, players will learn about Chinese history and tradition virtues. No word on if there’s a dragon boat race to rescue a drowning poet.

In case you think China was inspired by America’s Army, some tasks include carrying bricks and answering questions about the hero’s life. I’m not sure how that’s going to pull players away from WoW, but Puzzle Pirates’ block games were surprisingly addictive. No release date yet.

Little Red Blog’s take and PC Magazine’s article

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