Check out this website, called Anti-CNN, which is a collage of videos and photographs showing how the truth is ostensibly shaped and formed in the western media.   Very few know what really happened over in Tibet; I’m sure there was a good bit of shenanigans and mischief on both sides.   What I’m realizing throughout this story, which seems to by dying down, is that I’m trusting all types of media less and less.   Many folks might think that’s depressing, but I’m pleased with it (my good friend Dave Dault would understand well).

Another thing I know is that silly protests in Paris, San Francisco, London, and wherever else that attempt to extinguish the Olympic torch is counterproductive.   My instinct is the majority of those protesters protest to be seen, not to effect any change.   Those who do feel honestly righteous about their cause are unfortunately misguided in their tactics.   “Protesting” is a western concept and it makes no sense to the majority of folks here.   And I don’t think it’s because the Chinese government is suppressing it’s people; it’s just not part of the culture.   In the end, the only thing that the protests accomplish is revealing an inexplicable side of the West and unifies people here to support their country even more.   Folks who believe in the cause would do well to discover the best way to communicate their interests.   It’s not protesting the Olympic torch.

Sorry, comments still aren’t working for my site.   I’ll have someone look into that soon.   By now, though, everyone’s probably used to just reading the stories and looking at the pretting pictures.   More coming very soon, I promise!

Here’s a quick video of a group lunch at a Sichuan restaurant near where we work. This place features the best tea I’ve ever had in my life. It’s so tasty, a little sweet for a change, but not overpowering (although you will see me add a chunk of sugar to it in the video). The name of the tea is “Ba Bao Cha”. It’s a collection of flowers and seeds in a cup. Hot water is added in traditional fashion – through a pot with a 2-3 foot long spout. You then cover the cup with a small top and drink it, leaving a little gap for the tea to flow between the cup and the top, but enough to keep the little flowers in the cup. So tasty. Notice how red a lot of the food is. We went on the spicy side today ordering a chicken dish (basically a baked chicken, without the bones removed of course, chopped into many small pieces and smothered in red peppers), shui zhu rou (one of my favorites – the red soupy mix consisting of pork, bean sprouts, and spices), and rabbit with a variety of peppers (that’s the dish with the flame under it). On top of these main courses, we ordered some egg rolls with potatoe inside and a tangy toufu soup. Remember, in China, toufu has nothing to do with vegetarianism. In fact, I have yet to meet a vegetarian Chinese. In fact, toufu is often served with pork and it’s really good.

The first typhoon of the season struck Hainan Island in the South China Sea on April 18th. This is a little early for typhoon season and it happened to coincide with Daryl’s visit from the US. Our team planned a hike up Nanshan mountain on Saturday morning, the day after the typhoon hit the island. However, in the end, it was only three of us: Marshall, Daryl, and me. With our umbrellas in hand (Daryl bought one at 7-11 at the bottom of the mountain), we began the march up road leading to the “trail”, which is really a concrete sidewalk and stairs that runs the ridge for a couple of miles. Down low, it was just a gentle rainstorm, but we could see the trees bending and lurching in the wind high above us. Looked fun.

We set a quick pace up the stairs and within a minute, I knew that I’d be sore the next day. The guys were consistently ahead of me, but Marshall had to stop and rest a few times and my steady plodding saw me on the ridge first. Along the way, we passed other hikers enjoying the brisk walk. Some were with umbrellas, some with jackets. Some wore with business casual with no umbrellas and were completely. There was more than one young girl in short skirts with one hand firmly grasping the umbrella and the other trying desperately to manage the skirt. I’m not sure what they did up on the ridge. Though it was wooded, it was much windier than the ascent, especially at the cols.

(l-r) The stairs, A little boy pretending to be blown away

On the ridge, just below the highest point, we past a small army of workers who were ferrying small uprooted trees down the mountain. They had no worries of the wind and rain and laughed and caterwauled as they passed us. The more we greeted them, the louder they yelled. The wind was strong enough too that the umbrellas were unmanageable, so we closed them and let the wind dry us.

(above) Down in the drippy green and pink canopy.

There’s really not much else to tell. It was windy, it was rainy, it was great. At the bottom, we hitched a bus to the Chairman Mao restaurant where we met up with the not-so-brave members of our team (one of which had called Marshall up and was worried that we’d not have a fun time up there with the unpleasant weather…guess I haven’t shared enough climbing pictures in the North Cascades yet).

Daryl and I returned again on Wednesday for a “Dawn Patrol” in the style of Michael Stanton. The weather was surprisingly rainy again and we delayed our start by 25 minutes. When it showed signs of letting up, we hopped a taxi for Nanshan. We blitzed up and down the full circute of the mountain in less than one hour.

China was planning to hold the country’s first Ironman triathlon Sunday, April 20th, in Haikou, Hainan. Despite the leftover effects of the storm, the race was indeed held.

By the way, one day I suddenly realized that the word “typhoon” closely resembeled “tai4 feng1″ in Chinese, meaning “Great (or too much) Wind”. Thinking I was brilliant, I looked it up on dictionary.com only to discover that there is also mysteriously a Greek word, “tuphon”, meaning “Violent Wind”. So, the English word “typhoon” derives from which one? How are they so similar? Just coincidence? I’m confused now.

I had the opportunity to participate in a “Career Day” at the QSI International School in Shekou. I was nominated by a colleague here who has a child going to QSI. I thoroughly enjoy participating in these sorts of events now. I suppose I’ve been working long enough where I feel that I have enough experience and opinions about what works and what doesn’t. It wasn’t so long ago that I was sitting on the opposite side of the table with no idea about what I wanted to do. I also recall having little interest in the topic, so my goal was to do my best at capturing the attention of the youngsters.

The panel I was assigned was an inspiring group: A Philipino woman who openly admitted she was in it for the money, having opened up a bar and spa in the Philipines. She’s now the proud owner of a gorgeous spa in Shekou. Another was a serial entrepreneur who started a few companies in China. He boldly stated that Shenzhen was the number one spot in the world to be an entreprenuer. Another woman was a teacher at the school, who participated to fill in a couple of empty seats. She was able to best connect with the kids. I brought ways to have fun at your job as well as ideas about turning your hobby into a money generating business.

We were fortunate enough to start with sophomores and progress to the seniors. It allowed us to hone our message for the ones that it really mattered the most – the seniors. Although, after the first session, folks were puzzled why there wasn’t so much audience participation, especially after meeting with the seniors. At that age, just a couple of years makes a big difference in your willingness to open up.

Ultimately, I probably wasn’t as successful as I had hoped at reaching the kids, but one final one-on-one conversation with a gawky, lanky tall from Brazil who expressed an interest in software but a lack of self-confidence in his ability. So, I had to share my same sort of story trying to write adventure programs on the Radio Shack Trash-80 and getting myself into all sorts of programmatic pretzels with BASIC and gotos, gosubs. I remember how clueless I was about “peek” and “poke” and not understanding anything at all about how memory worked, or what addresses were, and so on. So, bottom line, I told him, is that there is plenty of hope and opportunity to go around. Take an introductory course in computer science and, if you like it, keep on going. There are some definite barriers to entry, like an analytical mind, but most folks have enough innate ability, I think. Desire is what takes you the rest of the way.

Read the article on Career Day at Shenzhen’s QSI International School.

Here’s an update for my “Small step” post below. After studying the phrase a little more and getting clarification from a colleague, I realize that the translator of this phrase got lucky by translating it in the style of the great Chinese philosopher, Confucius. Doesn’t this sound something like, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” to you? But, is “small step makes big success” an accurate translation of the text (“Qian2 jin4 yi1 xiao3 bu4, wen2 ming2 yi1 da4 bu4″).

No!

Here’s a more accurate translation: “Small step closer, big step for civilization.” (I got lucky by discovering the word for “civilization” a few days before (“wen2 ming2″))   And there’s a good reason why it’s in front of the urinal. The intention, according to my colleagues, is “Step closer to the urinal and don’t make such a mess. That small gesture of cleanliness will do wonders for our civilization.” Big let down my first Confucian interpretation, I guess. It reminds me of the 2008 Olympics advertisements running in China. I often see them when riding on the subway. They encourage all sorts of good social behavior like sharing an umbrella, not spitting, and waiting your turn.

(above) I wonder if this was put up by the Beijing Olympic Committee.

For the guys in the audience, you are all aware of restaurants practice of displaying the days newspaper at eye-level behind glass in the men’s room, right? Well, what did I notice in the men’s room at my office today, on April Fools Day of all days, but another communist reminder of the important things in life. It’s a good message I guess, just funny that I see it every day now at eye level. I’ll have this saying, including the characters (I know all but three), down in no time: