Very sorry about the delays and neglect on this site.  Life has been interesting here as always, but also busy to the max.  I’m currently overworked, taking on more than I can handle.  I’m not collapsing or anything, just neglecting some projects and activities I prefer not to.  I keep saying that it will get better, but when it does, I take on something else!  I’m not complaining, just have to get better at saying, “No”.  On to the story:

So, I share an apartment with a Chinese guy, basically for saving expenses while I build up momentum working for myself.  It’s been working out fine; we traveled together a decent amount (Yunnan province, Cambodia) so I knew what to expect.  Anyway, James invited me to spend three days with his mom and him in a “small” town called Zhongshan, about an hour from Shenzhen.  It turned out to be another excellent opportunity for witnessing Chinese culture firsthand.  I wanted to stay in Shenzhen for the remainder of the vacation too to catch up on work.

Well, I certainly can’t tell the whole story here or I’ll be typing all day and I’ve got several pressing matters to attend to!  But, here are the highlights.

In case you didn’t know, the Chinese New Year is based on the lunar calendar and basically is the initiation of Spring, according to the lunar calendar.  Makes sense, right?  Spring is the beginning of life and growth.  And Spring, according to the lunar calendar, occurs each year sometime in January or February.  Like Christmas and Thanksgiving, most people will return to their home towns, or wherever their immediate family is living.  As such, it’s a bad time to travel generally, as I experienced when I went to Guilin for my first Chinese New Year (though that’s a trip that’ll never be forgotten).

The Chinese New Year period actually lasts two weeks after the new year, so as I write this, the new year period has just ended.  New Year’s evening was February 13th.

The first thing we did though was to pick up Jame’s mom and go to Macau for the day.  This day trip in the city certainly wasn’t terribly exciting and not nearly as fun as the time Robert and I visited a year ago.  There was no bungee jumping this time either.  But, we did go to the Venetian, something I’d wanted to.  Well, it’s cool to see once, but to me it was just a huge casino with a glorified mall.  The mall is indeed impressive, complete with a Venetian canal running through it for many blocks and a ceiling painted like the sky in perpetual dusk.  All the shops though, of course, are just high end clothing shops.  So – one time is fine.

We went to a large food court which happened to have a “Fat Burger”.  I’d never been to one of these before and decided to get a hamburger and a shake.  I think I shocked James’s mom with this first impression.  Not to worry, I left Zhongshan three days later with her trying to find me a wife.  She spoke no English, but we had a good time communicating.  More on that later…  The rest of Macau was pretty uneventful.  We just wandered around look at other casinos, visited some of the usual scenic spots that I had been to before.  We returned to Zhongshan in the early evening to prepare for the New Year’s Eve the next day.

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We started New Years’ Eve with an excellent Cantonese breakfast in a hotel restaurant overlooking a misty lake surrounded by wooded peaks.  Bright red Chinese characters mounted on the hillside in the distance announced that we were looking into a natural preserve.  Despite the characters, the scene was quite beautiful.

It’s common for everyone to buy freshly cut flowers and some plants the day before the New Year.  The three of us took Jame’s car in search of flower markets around town.  It was at this point that I realized just how big Zhongshan is.  While it’s much smaller than Shenzhen, it’s still a million+ population city.  Unlike Shenzhen, of course, it’s a much older city and has a very old downtown area.  We visited there for a while too passing through a large Buddhist monestary.

Finding parking at one of the flower markets proved to be a challenge and it wasn’t until we arrived at the third market that we found enough places to park the car.  It’s hard to describe the flower market without being there, but I had the idea of using my iPhone to record the sounds as well.  Turns out that the sounds capture it pretty well.  Press the play button below and listen to the sounds while looking at the pictures.  I can tell you it was typically chaotic.  Cars, motorcycles, trucks going here and there, all of them dodging people and animals.  Unlike Shenzhen, there are few foreigners and I got lots of stares and smiles.  I even heard, “Lian wai lao wai lai zhe li mai hua”.  “Even foreigners are coming here to buy flowers!”

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I had forgotten:  I had indeed spent a Chinese New Year with a Chinese family my very first year, the year that I went to Guilin.  I spent it with Michael, my friend and colleague from Microsoft, and his family.  That evening featured a great meal prepared by his wife and passing the time watching TV, occasional fireworks, and entertaining his young son with English.  The next day, we went to Guilin.  The evening of Chinese New Year is really nothing more than that, and it’s been described to me multiple times by multiple people that way:  just stay home, eat dinner, watch TV. I guess it’s the TV part that gets me, but the evening is pretty simple.

Same thing again this year.  We enjoyed a really tasty meal together.  I then prepared for all of us to spend the evening in the living room just passing the time chatting and watching TV.  Except, my roommate James has a habit of constantly playing World of Warcraft.  This turned out to be true for New Years Eve as well.  And, playing the game (as my friend Davide and I call it now) also involves just staying in one’s room alone.  My protestations that he should not leave his mom alone on New Years Eve proved fruitless and so I decided that it was my duty to spend the New Year keeping his mom company.

I can’t spend all the time covering the details, but I had a great time communicating in Chinese, watching various shows (including the NBA for a while).  Before the New Year was finished, Jame’s mom was making phone calls to various young eligible ladies that she knew and would pass the phone to me.  I found this really funny, and entertaining.  Seemed like a lot of the girls were shocked too.

The next day featured a big party at various rich factory bosses houses.  James is pretty well connected in his town and was invited to a party at the house of the big boss who owned the factory where he used to work.  This proved to be another amazing visual and aural treat (enjoy the sound file below!).  We, along with other managers at the factory, gathered at the lobby of the factory.  Seems the custom is that we all gather there and then go to the bosses house as a unit.  James gave me all the manners lessons that I needed:  just smile at new people, clasp your hands together and say, while shaking your clasped hands, “Gong xi fa cai”, which is basically a wish for a prosperous new year.  If you’re unmarried, you should say this before and married person does.  Doing so will basically entitle you to a “hong bao” or “red envelope”.  The envelop is ornate with lucky Chinese characters and contains money inside.  Always a single bill, always fresh and crisp.  At first, I thought this was odd and uncomfortable, basically like asking for money.  But, after I saw all the fun and ebullience in it, it became easy.  All told, I collected about 25 hong baos.

The day was cloudy, rainy, and cold.  We formed a convey of cars and made our way to the boss’s house, a big, multi-level rock structure surrounded by a high wall, which contained a small yard which was mostly taken up by a driveway.  The driveway was covered in the red paper ash, obviously from numerous fireworks the night before.  The cars parked were typical: a Porsche SUV, 5-series BMW.  I refer to the house because that seems to be what’s popular – these large concrete buildings full of marble-like tile (I suppose it’s real marble), and, despite the Chinese saying they’re “afraid” (“women zhong guo ren pa leng!”) of cold, all the windows and doors were open allowing the dampness and chill to come in.  What kept it warm though was all the people and hot air from all the bellowing and wishing each other a happy New Year.

The boss emerged from downstairs, beaming.  He was well-dressed but otherwise plain.  Apparently, he was able to buy the factory from the government, when the government finally decided it was time for the nation to get out of poverty and privatize.  Good move there; he’s done well.  He was interested in me, being the only foreigner around and he laughed loudly as we shook hands and took pictures.  We all wished him well, but no hong baos were forthcoming.  Instead, he whipped out a few stacks of 100s from his coat and started passing them out.  Then, more yells followed as someone carried a rickety wooden table high above their head and placed it squarely in the middle of the main room.  Most of the guys surrounded the table, James and myself included, and started gambling with our new 100s (listen to the audio file below…you can hear someone practicing their English with “No!” too).

The game was dead simple, though it took me a few rounds to understand what was going on – each person was dealt three cards.  They all represented their face values, except for suits, which were 10.  You basically just summed them up, then dropped the 10’s place (for example, a total of 17 would be a “7″ final score).  The highest number won.  The boss always revealed his cards last, and very slowly.  Loud yells every time.

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I ended up losing all my money, then dipped into my wallet and pulled out one of my own 100s.  I then proceeded to win it all back plus about 200.  I realized that I was totally nervous dipping into money that I didn’t get through a hong bao, but I figured it would be a good exercise in risk taking (not having a job and all – see the connection?).  Looking back, I should have been much more bold and gambled on much more.

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;

…

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man my son!

OK, next time!

We ended up also going to other subordinate big boss houses and experienced similar activities.  Towards lunch time (oh yes, this all takes place in the morning!), it was announced that food was arriving soon!  I wondered what this other big boss would provide for us, besides the usual snacks of small candies and fruits.  Some minutes later, large cardboard boxes arrived…with the McDonald’s emblem on them and labeled “French Fries”.  Sure enough, they were opened up to reveal French Fries and chicken wings.

Completely satisfied with the Chinese New Year, I caught a bus back to Shenzhen that afternoon while James proceeded to go on to Sichuan for traveling.  No traveling for me this time.  Soon, I hope.

I’m often woken up in the morning at 7:30am by blaring horns.  Normally, if I’m on a good sleep schedule, this is no big deal; I should be waking up at that time anyway.  But, sometimes it’s irritating – I need rest!  Why the honking horns every weekday at 7:30am (and then again at 5:30pm)?  Because there’s a school just across the street.  Parents preparing to drop their kids off make a pitiful attempt at pulling over out of the way of the traffic.  Seems to never work.  Sometimes it’s so bad that a complete jam occurs which takes lots of honking to work itself out.  Check out this photo where two lanes of opposing traffic has formed and subsequently collide:

We just finished up our “Call Me in China” January retreat.  My business partner, Peter, who is also a former MS employee was in town for around two weeks.  After leaving Microsoft, Peter moved to Shanghai for the more stimulating social environment and cosmopolitan feel.  Me, I still like Shenzhen.  Peter’s brother, Chris, accompanied him.  Chris, a computer engineering student at Carnegie Mellon, accompanied him and will be spending a semester in Shanghai learning Chinese.  Chris’s capacity with “Call Me in China” was officially intern and his contributions were greatly appreciated.  To learn a little more about the retreat, read more here.

We ate many meals together.  Peter and Chris leaning more towards the Northeastern style cuisine featuring dumplings and me preferring the spicier offerings of the Sichuan and Hunan regions.  Our final meal together was at a fairly small Sichuan restauarant.  Peter heard a suggestion from the waitress of what he though was “sweet chicken”.  The conversation was too fast for me to catch, unfortunately, for I knew what this “sweet chicken” really was.  Actually, it was “field chicken”.  Both “sweet” and “field” have the exact same sounds:  “tian” tone 2.  But, the characters are completely different and thus the meaning is completely different.

“Sweet Chicken”, aka “Qin1 Wa1″,  is another word for “Frog”!  I’ve grown to like frog actually and this was a tasty dish, but it was a bit to realistic for Chris’s liking.  The bodies of the poor frogs were almost intact.  The heads were missing thankfully, but the cute little hands and feet were still intact.  The underside looked otherwordly too; “Alien” was the term that Peter used.  Chris didn’t eat too much of this dish, but at least it made for some good pictures.

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Good news!  Here’s another funny synopsis on the back of a pirated DVD. The grammar is actually pretty good; this time, the comedy comes from the content.  I love how the author believes that the climbing shots are CGI.  I predict that “some people in the audience will cry” with laughter when reading this.  Here’s the text:

Although the movie starts a little slowly, it really picks up about one third the way in.  The main characters (the two mountain climbers and the one female love interest) are all solid actors, well directed, and well casted.  The director did a great job at capturing the climb.  Everything was so convincingly shot, it makes you wonder if they actually filmed some of it on a real mountain.  I supposed they must have used CGI, but it was used so sparingly and realistically that it must be commended.  The contrast between the plight of the mountain climbers and that of the rich bystanders makes the movie so much more emotionally riveting.  Some people in the audience cried.

I enjoyed the movie very much.  Indeed “the CGI” included some of the best mountain videography I’ve ever seen.  (FYI, the movie was shot on the mountain! I recognized much of it, having hiked underneath the north face two summers ago.  Was it really that long ago?)  Michael, yeah, it looks doable!  :-p

My first flight ultimately bound for Hotlanta was scheduled to depart Hong Kong at 8am sharp.  This was the best ticket I could find when searching for a flight to return to the US for Christmas, both by route, layover, and price.  I assumed it would be pretty easy to get to Hong Kong by 8am.  Turns out it’s not.  Well, I should correct that; it is easy, but it took me a long time to figure it out.  I asked lots of people and none of them could confirm anything.  I’d pretty much decided that I’d just go into Hong Kong late the night before, nap some, and then check in around 6am.  Going without good sleep for more than 24 hours is not my strong suit.

But, thankfully, the day before my flight, I happened to ask my Philippino friend who pointed me to “Sky Limo”, claiming that they left at 5am, maybe even earlier, for the Hong Kong airport.  Turned out that I also had a business card of theirs too (I can’t remember when I last used them).  I called the Hong Kong number and asked in Mandarin if they had any English speakers (I don’t understand any Cantonese).  I got someone who was OK and between Mandarin and English, got it all worked out.  However, there was still some doubt when she first told me that the earliest departure was 6am.  When, I said I needed 5am, she just responded, “5am, no problem!”  Well, I trusted my friend.

I’m not writing this little airport journey story because it eventually turns funny or horrible.  Everything worked out fine.  I just enjoyed the ride from the taxi to the Huang Gang border in central Shenzhen, the only 24-hour border, and thought I’d write about that (and now I’ve got it documented should I need to take an early flight again).

I left my apartment complex around 4:20AM and interrupted a taxi driver’s sleep.  He sprung to life when he saw me leaning over him and we were off.  On the way in, I was amazed at the number of “Ming2 Gong1″ folks I saw on the streets.  These are the people in the aqua and yellow outfits, with those traditional Chinese hats, who are cleaning up the messes that everyone else makes during the day.  I got the distinct impression that, much like how money, goofy gifts and card, and wrapping paper is the lifeblood of the Christmas economy, trash is the economy of the night for these folks.  Maybe it’s halfway a good thing that a lot of Chinese people will think nothing in tossing trash carelessly on to the street; the ming gongs will spring to life after hours and get the city sparkling, despite the stains, again for the morning.

In my basic Chinese, I sort of joked that “ming gong” (tone 2, tone 1) probably translated as “tomorrow industry”, meaning that the sweat from the common laborer was the one who’d provide the muscle to bring the country into a better world, day by day.  Well, no, it doesn’t have anything to do with this.  In fact, this is not the “ming” which means “tomorrow” or the “gong” which means “industry”.  I’m not really sure what it means, dang.  I’ll have to research this some more and add comments later!  Man, speaking of with, there are so many “gong” words which are tone 1.  It’s really hard to keep up:  “industry”, “public”, “company”, and “palace” are the ones that I’m aware of.

Well, might as well finish the story.  I arrived at the Huang Gang border.  Some guy, of course, saw me and said, “Airport?” and tried to take my suitcase.  Obviously, this wasn’t right; I had to cross over the footbridge just in front of me.  A quick, “Bu yong” and I was off.  The stairs leading up the bridge were lined with old beggars; I hadn’t seen such a pitiful scene in a while.  Arriving on the other side, I asked where the Sky Limo window was.  It was just a few booths down though, being 4:45am, they hadn’t arrived at the office yet.  The “limo” ride, actually a mini-van,  was quite comfortable, though we were held up at the Hong Kong border for about 45 minutes because one of the women in the van was pregnant.  I wasn’t sure exactly what she needed to do to pass through, but fortunately the journey from Huang Gang is only 25 minutes.  So I still arrived with enough time.  Thankfully, the security lines were short.

Right around 7:30 am, as I was working on some shredding exercises, I looked up at the video map and noticed that we were flying right over the North Cascades.  I opened my window hoping that I’d see a little sunrise.  There was enough sunrise at just the right time.  I spotted Mount Baker just as there was enough light.  After that, all the other peaks fell into place:  Glacier Peak, Johannesburg, Forbidden Peak, Columbia Peak and so on.  It was great looking down on my old stomping grounds and I had a sensation of the smallness of the world.

I like to shift offices from place-to-place.  It keeps me interested and focused.  I know it would be a dream for many people to work from home, but for me, staying in one location is hard.  So, this is an easy problem to solve since my office if portable – my laptop!  I often go to a Hong Kong chain restaurant in a large shopping area near my apartment for breakfast.  The name, in Chinese, is “Da4 Jia1 Le4″ which translates to “Everybody’s Happy”.  That’s a typical Chinese name.  Though it has an English name too (since it’s from Hong Kong), “Cafe de Coral”, my expat friends and I prefer to humorously call it “Everybody’s Happy”.  “Hey, I’m going to ‘Everybody’s Happy’ for breakfast tomorrow morning.  Come along and bring your laptop!” or “Are you at ‘Everybody’s Happy’ now?”

The breakfasts are really good and inexpensive.  I’ve been told that the coffee is terrible, but that doesn’t matter to me; I always have hot milk tea.  My favorite breakfast consists of:   Breaded fish, little ham slice, scrambled eggs, toast, some corn, with hot milk tea.  It runs around $2.60.

Where “Everybody’s Happy” stands apart though is its wireless internet.  It is fast and reliable, which is pretty rare here.  So, it’s a great place to come work!  The only downside is that every restaurant (I also visited one in GuangZhou) uses the same 10 annoying 1950’s American songs on endless repeat.  OK, the songs aren’t bad but they repeat over and over and it drives me insane.  Reminds me of Christmas carols.  So, my medication:  I ready my iPod and crank something like Therion, Racer X, Yngwie Malmsteen, Wintersun, or Ozzy Osbourne.  Something with a nice wall of sound.

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As part of trying to adopt a better work schedule and feel healthier, I’ve set aside time on Mondays and Thursdays for going to the gym.  I’ve been going for about two weeks now.  I started off by doing the usual routine:  running on the treadmill for 10-20 minutes and then weighlifting.  I noticed though that there were various classes that the gym had.  Yoga classes in particular interested me so I asked one of the staff (there’s virtually no English) if I could join.  Sure, she said, I could join and there was no additional fee.  Great.

I went yesterday for the first time.  The teacher was a guy in his late twenties, I’m guessing.  There were maybe ten people in the class.  Another man, in his late 40’s probably, and me were the only guys.  OK, nothing too unusual here.  That was the breakdown in the US when I went regularly two to three times per week for about seven or eight months.  I enjoyed it then and noticed that I better, plus could concentrate better in key situations.  (One such incident I can still clearly remember using the tantric breathing or whatever was on the Brothers Traverse)

Even though I haven’t done real yoga in about five years, not including the easy yoga classes that I attended this summer with my dad, I remembered a lot.  But, this class was tough and some of the stuff I couldn’t do, nor did I try.  I was content to stick with the most basic levels.  We held the positions for a long time, which I like.  It was hot and I was sweating like crazy.  The instructor also came by and corrected us (mostly me) numerous times, easing me into the proper form of the pose.

The class was, of course, in Chinese and I only grasped about 10-15%.  The instructor had decent English though, much better than anyone else at the club I’ve talked to.

Looking forward to going back.

I’ve been pretty lucky in Shenzhen to have avoided being returned counterfeit bills.  Not that people haven’t tried.  One such incident was when Robert and I were in Dong Men and a DVD street salesman (to be avoided) wanted me to pay with a crisp 100 instead of a ratty 10 so that he could give me fake 10’s in exchange.  No such luck.  I also had a colleague have a few of his 100s stealthily replaced with fake ones while he was in Dong Men.  Bad move there – don’t ever whip out a few 100s in front of those folks.

But, the other day, I did get handed a fake 50 from a taxi driver.  I was in a hurry so didn’t bother to check.  My mistake.  And, I have had a tough time unloading it.  No one has fallen for it.  I’ve had to get rid of a 20 before, and that was pretty easy.  But, maybe I’ll just stick with this 50 for a constant reminder to be on the lookout.

The 50 RMB note, worth roughly $7,  is the most popular fake bill in China because it’s the second highest bill available.  Any time you purchase something on the street markets or get change from a taxi, you should check.  The funny thing with the taxis is that they are virtually never fooled when you hand a fake one to them.  First, they do this all day.  Second, they have a little infrared light above the overhead light that you can hold a note to which will verify for certain if the bill is fake.

But, what are you to do if you have no such high tech equipment or skill?  Here are the ways that I’ve been told:

• The coarseness of the paper just to the right of Mao’s chin is present on real notes.  This one is tough for me.
• The magnetic strip; this is easy to fake, it seems.  But not to a machine that can read it.
• The detailed symbol in the upper left.  Hard to tell if the note has been crumpled.
• The Mao watermark.  I think you need a lot of experience with this one.
• The note numeral on the lower left on the lower left will sort of sparkle on real notes.
• The half-circle on the front and the half-circle on the back that, when viewed with a back light, form as a perfect circle.  This is the one that works for me.

Let me demonstrate:  Have a look at the two bills below.

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One is a real; one is fake.  See the difference in the circles?  The perfect circle is very hard to duplicate.  The only trick is actually paying attention to when you get one in return and making sure that it’s legit.  I think I was laughing it up with the driver when he passed this to me and offered me a friendly, “Bye bye!”.  Well played, sir!

Since moving to the “Coastal City” neighborhood, I’ve become much more adept at riding the bus. I was a little skeptical about moving to Coastal City, having been so dependent on the subways before.  But, I’ve adapted well.  The busses, despite having a few with English announcements, are generally a tougher form of transportation than the subways.  The main reason is that all of the routes “maps” are not really maps; they’re just ordered names of locations.  And, those location names are only in Chinese characters.  So, if you only know how your destination sounds, you’re out of luck.

However, since I committed to sending text messages in Chinese to Chinese people, my character recognition has gotten good enough to where I can go to a bus stop, read a route map and generally know if a bus can take me roughly where I want to go.  I haven’t made a mistake yet and taken a bus to some bizarre location (that happened to Daryl on his most recent trip out here.  Took a couple of hours in hard rain to get back.  Daryl’s one of the few people I know who doesn’t speak Chinese brave enough to try the busses).  It’ll probably happen to me eventually.

Since returning, three new subway stations have opened along the main line, extending westward into the High Tech Park where the MS office is located.  There are many other stations still under construction and are set to open in a year or so (dang!).  The new stations are very nice.  Shenzhen is still rapidly transforming and it’s going to be a great city once all those subways are opened.  Fix the air and this will be a world class place.

Many people have been telling how good of a show that HBO’s Deadwood is.  Since I had no new DVD material that I was regularly watching, I decided to pick it up.  Not to mention, it would be a good diversion from working into the evening.  I scouted around the DVD places and learned that the name of the show is a direct translation:  “Dead” and “Wood”.  In Chinese, it’s “Si”, tone 3 (we don’t have this “i” sound in English; it’s not the same as the Spanish word for “yes”!), and “Mu”, tone 4 (Basically like a cow:  “Moo!” with a strong downward inflection (that’s what “tone 4″ means)).  So, this is pretty easy to pronounce correctly.

I didn’t buy anything right away.  But, I came back a week later to the place that had all three seasons with good quality and a good price.  I couldn’t find it, so I asked for “Si3 Mu4″.  Confused looks.  I explained a little more, “It’s an American TV show.  It’s called ‘DeadWood’.”  Instead, I was directed to someone else.  More confused looks.  I know I was pronouncing it correctly.  Eventually, someone handed me a piece of paper and a pen asked me to write it down in English.  Then we translated it.  “A!!!  Si Mu!”  Yeah, that’s what I was saying!

Anyway, I bought it, but as a continued experiment, I asked a few English-speaking Chinese if they could understand what I was saying.  Most of them weren’t sure.  One good response was “Dead Deer?”

See, it’s not that I was mispronouncing anything.  It’s just that Chinese is such a damn weird language that without the context, you can’t tell what I’m trying to say!  The sound “si”3 and “mu”3 are represented by multiple characters, so with so few words, how do you know for sure what I’m saying.  If I were better at Chinese, I would have said something like, “‘Si’ as when you die and ‘mu’ as what trees are made of.”

Some seventy or eighty years ago, as I understand it, there was a movement to do away with the Chinese characters and adopt some sort of alphabet, like the Western alphabet.  To demonstrate how necessary the characters were, a professor in Beijing wrote a nonsensical story that told about someone named Mr. Shi who lived in a stone hut and was addicted to eating lions.  Sounds weird, but the point was that although he used numerous characters to tell the story, there was only one phonetic sound (excluding the tones):  “Shi”.

See how messed up that is?  People who read the story can understand it fine, but if they hear it, they have no idea what’s being said.  Pretty crazy, huh?  Outside of maybe a short sentence, this isn’t conceivable in English.

The Chinese language is optimized for subterfuge, double meanings, and confusion.  No wonder Westerners here often get frustrated or just plain perplexed.  Maybe this is why Chinese have such a great reputation in negotiation and business; they are accustomed to wearing down opponents just by using frustrating language.