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| i'm too lazy to go around the Great Firewall, so since i'm in korea for a few days, i'm doing my "i'm still here" post. hope all y'all are doing well.
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| Some people have already heard, but The Great Firewall of China is still undergoing expansion, and xanga's are now under it's protection. I'm posting this from Vietnam (on vacation  ) to say that I won't be posting anymore. Unless I decide I feel like subverting the GF to post. For now, I'll just have to be content with reading email digests. Oh, and if you post comments, I can't see them since I can't log in. It's great. Hope you're all doing wonderful. For the time being, peace out ... | | |
| Two days ago I received a package. But not just any package – it was a package of snacks from my good, nay, great/wonderful/fantastic friends, Todd and Rhonda.
The booty:
1 package of 6 Jalapeno Cheddar flavored Mission tortillas
1 bottle of Tapatio
3 snack-size packs of Mini-Oreos
2 snack-size packs of Cheez-Its
1 bag of mini Reese's Peanut Butter Cups
1 bag of Sour Patch Kids
1 box of Duncan Hines Family-Style Brownies Chewy Fudge brownie mix
2 boxes of Cracker Jack
1 pack of Knorr Creamy Pesto mix
I pack of Taco seasoning mix
2 bags of Instant Oatmeal (1 Cinnamon and Spice, 1 Raisins and Spice)
1 box of Mexican Style flavor Rice-A-Roni
1 can of Rosarita Traditional Refried Beans
1 bag Planters Nuts & Chocolate Trail Mix
2 packs of Nestle Hot Cocoa Mix
I've never been happier to receive a can of refried beans. 
Alice also gave me a can of
 she brought back from her trip back during the holidays. So, I took the opportunity to make a nice Asian-Mexican fusion SPAM breakfast burrito.
Later that day, a friend took me to a store that has cheese – not too common given the lactose intolerance of most of the 20 million people in Beijing. So then I made a quesadilla in my wok, then proceeded to generously splash Tapatio on it before savoring each wedge.
Then, since I had more SPAM and cheese, and I had picked up some green onions, I made another Asian-Mexican fusion SPAM breakfast burrito.
The bad news is I've already used up about 1/3 of the Tapatio. The good news is it was Delicious (yes, that's with a capital ‘D’).
In other food news, the store I bought cheese from sells a variety of imported items, one of which was Tostitos tortilla chips – for 41 RMB (that's over $5)! But I've been wanting chips and salsa, so I splurged on the chips, but made my own salsa. Now I know you're thinking, $5 isn't bad, but let me give you an idea of what you could buy for 41 RMB:
- 8 meals at my campus cafeteria
- enough fruit/vegetables for 2 people for 1-2 weeks
- 20 pounds of apples
- 82 meat skewers
Well, but that's also about the equivalent amount of money you'd spend at McDonalds for a meal here too, so it's not a stretch to spend that much. But if you tried, that 41 RMB can go a long way.
Anyways, thanks Todd, Rhonda, and Alice for the gift of flavor. I have tasted and seen that the Lord is good, and my friends are too. 
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| So it's been quite some time since I last posted, and in that time, I've quit my job and finally taken the plunge back to the Motherland (aka "China"). I've been out here in Beijing for almost 3 weeks now. I'm taking Mandarin classes at Tsinghua University. Due to overwhelming response, I thought I'd paste an email update I sent to family and friends.
Enjoy!
--
Dear family and friends,
I'm writing to inform you of how
tremendously blessed all y'all are. As Luke puts it, "Happiness is not
a warm gun, but a well-formed turd." To help you fully appreciate this,
let me elaborate based on my current experience. WARNING: bodily
functions discussed henceforth.
Toilet, O Toilet! How many times hath I used thee in the last
hours, twenty-four? I hath lost count of all the times ... but I doth
know that I hath used more than two rolls of toilet paper.
Ironically
enough, after all of the street vendors that Luke and I daringly
frequented, it was the campus ShiTang (canteen) that nailed me. Note,
the juxtaposition of "shi" and "t" -- we find this no small
coincidence. The past 24 hours have been some of the most horrible in
my life. Ever. I didn't just have food poisoning -- but full-on flu
symptoms as well (massive body aches, fever, chills, diarrhea, etc.) I
couldn't sleep last night because I was in so much pain. I went back
and forth from chills to fever. I later realized a pattern that if I
rolled onto my left side, I had to get up to go to the bathroom, but I
was slightly delirious through the middle of the night so it took me a
while to figure that out. But it was quite therapeutic; I've got
another 4AM appointment with the broom and dustpan to determine if I
was held too much or too little when I was a child. Those guys are
great. I got up at least once an hour to go to the bathroom, which, as
my body was quite weak, got more and more painful. I feel like I got a
small dose of the frustration and pain of childbirth with a side of
torture. Granted, when I was through, there was no elation of, "It's a
boy!". However, I think ancient cultures might have missed out on using
food poisoning as torture -- "I got your torture right here. Have some
E COLI!!" "NOOOOOOO!!!!! NOT THE E COLI!!! ANYTHING BUT THAT!!"
I'm still pretty much laid up on the sofa. I managed to force
myself to eat some bread this morning so I would have some strength to
go to the bathroom. I tried some rice later, but after a few bites, I
wasn't a happy camper. Luke was kind enough to go get me some bananas
and apples tonight so I can round out the B.R.A.T diet (bananas rice
apples and toast). I've had a banana, and that went down easy, but
caused a minor disturbance in my stomach. I think I'll try an apple
next.
I'm
sure this was TMI (too much info) for some of you, if not all, but
hopefully, the next time you need to go number two, you'll remember how
blessed you are!
cheers,
brian
--
(Addendum: After sending this email, a nutritionist friend responded that the "A" in B.R.A.T is for appleSAUCE, along with a detailed explanation that amounted to, don't have an apple, it will make you poop more frequently. Too bad I ate it before I got her email.  )
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| last Wednesday, April 19th, in the year of our Lord 2006, at approximately 1 o'clock in the afternoon, outside of my office:
  
the moving truck driver neglected to set his parking brake, and there was a slight grade, so the truck rolled and ran my motorcycle over!! (truck = over 30 foot long moving truck)
at least no one was hurt, and no other vehicles were damaged (i had left a space between me and a bmw, so she was happy about that). but it was sad, cause that was my first day riding my bike to work since the 40+ days of rain, and it was a beautiful, sunny day ...
when i first saw it, it was just surreal. after a while, all i could do was laugh, cause there was nothing that could be done about it.
so of course, we took this picture:
that helped a little. just a little. the driver felt really bad, as he should, and thankfully he was doing his best to cooperate with the police officer who gave us a courtesy report, and the moving company had current insurance.
took it to a local motorcycle shop (Berkeley Performance Motorcycle) that luke and i have been wanting to bring some business to so we can get to know them better, and i was thinking, hey, it's free.
damages that i know of:
-dented in slip-on exhaust
-cracked and bent right rear set
-cracked and bent left clip-on
-gashed radiator hose
-impacted radiator
-bent kickstand
-scratched front and rear plastics
-scratched left sideview mirror
-burning oil because oil leaked into the air box while the bike was on its side
-clutch? was having a little problems before, but probably worse now
rich, the owner of bpm, said that it would be about $3500, including parts and labor to fix the bike.
the bad news is, the adjustor called me this afternoon, and they're going to "total" the bike.  my coworker says that i could probably buy it back under salvage title from the insurance, then fix it myself and make some money off the transaction, but i dunno ...
now i'm just bummed and
i just wanna be able to ride my bike ...
it's ironic too, because my motorcycle got hit, a bunch of the other motorcycle riders at work came over and introduced themselves and invited me to go riding with them, which is a total blessing. i've been hoping to get to know some of the other riders and be able to learn from them, and now i can, but i have no bike ...
sigh ... ok, enough whining.
"The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD."
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