Yearly Archives: 2008

Who stopped the rain?

Suzhou is green. Hell, it’s a garden city. And a great part about it, is it stays green all year round. It makes the city a nice place to look at no matter what time of year you come here. The tradeoff is that it rains non-stop. We go from rainy season to typhoon season …

July 8, 2008
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Emergency Fundraiser BBQ for Xiao Hua

And now news of a barbecue of a different, and much more solemn and purposeful nature – I received word late yesterday from several friends that there will be an emergency fundraising BBQ for their friend Xiao Hua, whom was the victim of a hit and run here in Suzhou on Sunday and is now …

July 4, 2008
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Canada Day BBQ in Suzhou

Ok, I’m a couple days late in posting it – but Happy Canada Day! This year’s Canada Day marked the fourth I’ve been in China for, but the first I’ve celebrated – and what’s better, we did it properly with a BBQ and beer! I had tossed around the idea of doing a Canada Day …

July 3, 2008
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George Carlin expires ‘like a magazine subscription’

George, you paved the way for some of my favourite socially and politically charged comedians. You showed me just how versatile a word can be. And, you gave substance to TheHumanaught.com’s #1 visited post. “Older” sounds a little better than “old,” doesn’t it? Sounds like it might even last a little longer … I’m getting …

June 24, 2008
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Mailbag: Suzhou, home for cheats and liars?

Being that this blog has been around for a while now, and that it consistently lists at the top of the search results for many things “Suzhou”, I tend to get my fair share of e-mails from readers or random passers-by. Most of these are e-mails from folks moving to Suzhou, or China in general, …

June 22, 2008
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The True North Strong in Fee

For all the noise I’ve made about the recent visa situation here in China, or bureaucracy here in general, I tend to forget that this isn’t a China-exclusive thing. Before I can get my visa renewed next month, I need first to renew my passport. No big deal really, a couple of photos, an application …

June 18, 2008
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A few changes around here

Just a quick note to reference a few changes I’ve made to the site. First: you’ll notice that I’ve changed the comment submit layout. When I initially designed the look of this site, I was eager to try some new things, and so had the comment submission form stuck at the top of the comments. …

June 11, 2008
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Bill Moyers on Media Reform

I first learned of Bill Moyers while I was in school for journalism back in Canada. A classmate of mine lent me the book version of his rather famous interview series with Joseph Campbell entitled “The Power of Myth”. In the years since I’ve watched a handful of his numerous interviews and I have to …

June 9, 2008
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Our Apartment in Suzhou SIP (video/photos)

As I mentioned a couple weeks back, we’re moving to a new apartment at the end of the month. As it is fully furnished (I’ve yet to rent an apartment here that isn’t – though some call into question the definition of “fully”), yesterday we had to head over to the new place and meet …

June 8, 2008
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Quality of Life vs. Standard of Living

An e-mail to a friend this morning got me thinking about what it’s like to live in China. By “live”, I don’t mean in the common temporary sense, as a short-term contract teacher or business person might, but rather as someone who has no firm plans on the if and when of their eventual departure. …

June 4, 2008
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