Special Days

Chinese New Year’s Eve 2011: Hello Rabbit

Last night was my sixth time welcoming in a new lunar year here in China. I always approach Chinese New Year’s Eve with a healthy dose of cynical expatations, and I’m always blown away, pun intended, with how it never fails to impress me. True, the day(s) leading up to CNYE have every ratta-tat-tat sound …

February 3, 2011
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Retiring The Humanaught

It’s been a long time coming, but I’m finally retiring “The Humanaught” moniker. It’s been a good run, but time to hang up the handle and start publishing under a domain I’ve been sitting on for a couple years now — ryan-mclaughlin.com (that’s the cue to update your bookmarks). I started using “The Humanaught” back …

December 31, 2010
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Casey’s First Week – A Retrospective

We’ve been home from the hospital since Monday afternoon, and are slowly finding our day-to-day groove. It’s challenging, but not as difficult as I built it up to be in the months/weeks leading up to Casey’s birth. I’m happy to report that despite a bit of jaundice that we’ve been told should clear up in …

May 13, 2010
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May the Fourth Be With You

Those closest to me during the ride up to this fatherhood thing know how much I was hoping that I’d forever be able to say “May the 4th Be With You” to my kid on his birthday. Well, the geek-fates have smiled on me and yesterday at 12:50pm my son was born. The emotional amazingness …

May 5, 2010
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CNYE in China Lite

Guò Nián HÇŽo and welcome to the Year of the Tiger! A couple cups of strong coffee and I’ve recovered from my 5th Chinese New Year‘s Eve in China. Despite living in Suzhou-Singapore Industrial Park (SIP) last year as well, this was the first time we celebrated the holiday in this district. Normally I would …

February 14, 2010
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All about the babies, and a son to be

Maggie and I are in our final week of a 5-week visit to Canada, and it has been a whirlwind — both physically and mentally. It has been wonderful being home for the holidays, and a visit that has been full of firsts. It was Maggie’s first time seeing British Columbia (as we flew into …

January 2, 2010
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World-renowned author visits Humanaught

Alright, Lisa might not be world-renowned yet, but she’s well on her way. And she’s certainly a well-known fixture in the China expat/blogging circle. Perhaps best known as “Other Lisa” in the comments at the Peking Duck (or @otherlisa on Twitter), Lisa’s a long-time blogger (her blog, Paper Tiger Tail is one of my favs., …

November 25, 2009
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Friends Baby Together

Our good friends, Ric and Gin, are proud owners of a brand-new 2009 model Laowai Baby, and having just returned from meeting her for the first time, I wanted to take a moment and reflect. The benefit of having two close friends go through everything we’re about to, only six months ahead of us, is …

October 27, 2009
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A baozi in the steamer

I may be a lot of things, but someone who can keep their mouth shut is not one of them. This blog is a testament to the fact that I am completely under-skilled in respecting the sanctity of privacy in my personal life. For years now I’ve blogged the smallest and largest moments of my …

October 9, 2009
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16 Candles x 2 = Some Serious Wax

So, it’s my birthday — and shaping up to be one of the best ones I’ve had in years. As mentioned in the previous post, my best friend Cory arrives from Canada today for his first visit to China. I leave in a couple hours to grab the shuttle from Suzhou to the Shanghai Pudong …

July 16, 2009
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Proud to be a Canadian (expat)

I love Canada, I truly do. For all the grief that myself and my fellow compatriots give the country, it really is top shelf as countries go. Sure, it’s a bit vanilla when it comes to foreign affairs and global influence; a bit archaic when it comes to political makeup; and, well, a bit cold. …

July 1, 2009
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On seabugs, mother-in-laws and holidays

As many of my friends pack up and head out to face the torrent of travel over the May Holiday, I’m just happy to finally have a moment to sit down and type randomness on here. My mother-in-law arrived from Dalian Thursday evening and while Maggie and her enter day three of non-stop-family-gossip, I’m hiding …

May 2, 2009
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