Things Well Done: Tim Minchin / Storm

Last weekend I was introduced to comedian Tim Minchin by my friend Nicki. Thanks to her I’ve spent the last few days firmly entrenching myself in the Tim Minchin fanclub, watching damn near all his videos on Youtube, as well as his “Ready For This?” DVD last night. Minchin’s act is a combination of comedic …

October 25, 2011
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Getting Canadian Citizenship in China

When we first started the process of getting Casey his Canadian citizenship here in China, I had intended to write a post about the experience. The long delay between the application and us actually picking the thing up left the post in permanent “draft” mode until I received the following comment from Cam in Xi’an …

October 19, 2011
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Oh, so this is the rainy season…

According to Wikipedia, Haikou’s rainy season falls between May and October, with the most rain in September. We knew moving down here in April that we were essentially moving into heat and wetness. We waited for the rains all summer, not out of excitement but out of curiosity regarding this new and strange climate we …

October 8, 2011
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Review: Penn Jillette’s “God, No!”

Back in 2005, during a visit home after my first 8 months in China, a friend introduced me to “Penn & Teller’s Bullshit!“, and I’ve been a fan of the duo ever since. And while Bullshit! certainly hinted at the pair’s atheistic views, it wasn’t until I started watching Penn’s podcast on Revision3 that I …

October 7, 2011
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Nesat – our first typhoon

Waking up this morning and peeking outside, you’d hardly believe 150km winds were sweeping over us just a handful of hours earlier. Actually going outside, however, was an entirely different story. The first casualty of Nesat was our papaya tree, which had fallen before dawn yesterday. I say “our” papaya tree, as it’s right outside …

September 30, 2011
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State Mandated Beach Day

I’m not sure if it’s just our perpetually “under construction neighbourhood, or Haikou at large, but I’ve suffered more sudden power outages living here for 6 months than I did in 5 years in Suzhou. As such, yesterday when the electricity went out shortly after we woke up, it wasn’t a huge surprise. I took …

September 17, 2011
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Things Done Well: 27bslash6

I was cleaning out one of my inboxes this morning and came across an e-mail my sister forwarded to me a little over a year ago. Titled “Nowhere in the Bible does Jesus have a sword fight” I can only assume that the reason I didn’t pay more attention to it when it arrived was …

August 27, 2011
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Bugs!

I realize I risk a little goblin coming in the night and stealing the essence of my manhood by saying this — but I fucking hate bugs. I’d have to be more than a bit ignorant to move to a tropical island and not expect to cohabitate with the creepy crawlies, but it doesn’t disturb …

August 26, 2011
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Evolution IS a Blind Watchmaker

Here is a fantastic video elegantly removing the legs from the archaic, yet amazingly still used, watchmaker” analogy. Even if you’re well past believing in fairy tales, it’s worth a watch (pun not intended, but embraced) for its excellent job of explaining evolution via mutation and natural selection. One thing I should add is: expect …

July 18, 2011
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What’s in store for Thirty Four?

Today’s my birthday. I’m 34. I think this is the first birthday I’ve ever said it, but I feel older. Not old, but older. Undoubtedly some, if not most, of that feeling of age relates to being a parent now. Nothing forces you to look at the world in more “grown up” terms than when …

July 16, 2011
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Hainan’s Red Detachment of Women Ballet

While later today Canada will be celebrating its own anniversary with fireworks, BBQ and a whole lot of drinking; in China it’s all about the Communist Party of China’s 90th anniversary. Not one to shy away from the spirit of things, I figured it was an excellent time to showcase one of Hainan’s most well …

July 1, 2011
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