I made two dashes to NYC the week before Sandy hit in order to get my visa. My first taste of China came in the form of the Fung Wah Bus. In order to get to the consulate as early as possible, I took the 2 AM Fung Wah bus twice for what turned out to be all day treks. The first day I had to stay over at a hotel because the agency failed to send me my travel information. Thankfully, I got the visa's. The operation involved taking the Fung Wah to the bowery/chinatown, the subway to 42 street, then cabs or subway to the fed-ex kinkos near 79st. A whole lotta running around! More about my experiences with the job placement agency later.
Oddly, the only picture I took while in NYC was of a wall painting on 41st street. This is a little prescient, because 41st is the demarcation line in NYC between the part of the city with lights and the part of the city in the dark due to super storm Sandy. Just an odd tidbit.
Monday, October 22, 2012
Monday, October 15, 2012
Sunday, October 14, 2012
Turning 40
So going over the hill is not much different than going up the hill. I'm not sure if that is an appropriate way to phrase that, but it is obviously true. Birthdays get less and less poignant for me. I can't relate to people who make a lot about birthdays.
Last year I went to a Mexican restaurant on my 39th birthday and had a tasty steak. This year I had leftovers from my nephews own birthday, a large bottle of wine, and made drunk Facebook posts. Fortunately I did not post anything offensive to Islam or anything too embarrassing. A fatwa on my birthday would kind of suck.
So an inventory of my life at 40 is rather bleak. I have so little. Two years ago I had 10,000 in the bank, 35k in retirement, a law firm, clients, a teaching job, and a home with nice furniture. A rolex, Right now I am broke waiting to move to China. My possessions include an iPad, a 50 inch smart TV, a blackberry, a lot of nice but worn clothing, my golf clubs and hockey equipment.
My marriage to a career con artist led me down a rather dark path. I had debates with myself about wether my hard work and lonely life was something that had any value to me. Questioning your life is best done from a position of happiness. Otherwise it becomes something that can pull you down into a morass of depression.
I like to think I am out of the swamp. Working is what I enjoy most. I am glad to be working again.
Part of the difficulty of the past year has been the lack of any motivation on my part to go back to what I now view as a miserable life. I had become extremely isolated working online and as a solo attorney. It was not psychologically healthy for me. So when I sort of broke down, I didn't want to get back to where I had been, because that was misery.
Even though she was and is a pathological liar, my ex wife/girlfriend broke me down because I didn't want to go back to the loneliness I had endured for years. It is hard to understand how loneliness and isolation work unless you have been there.
My personal life is not better, but I feel a lot better in many ways now.
Last year I went to a Mexican restaurant on my 39th birthday and had a tasty steak. This year I had leftovers from my nephews own birthday, a large bottle of wine, and made drunk Facebook posts. Fortunately I did not post anything offensive to Islam or anything too embarrassing. A fatwa on my birthday would kind of suck.
So an inventory of my life at 40 is rather bleak. I have so little. Two years ago I had 10,000 in the bank, 35k in retirement, a law firm, clients, a teaching job, and a home with nice furniture. A rolex, Right now I am broke waiting to move to China. My possessions include an iPad, a 50 inch smart TV, a blackberry, a lot of nice but worn clothing, my golf clubs and hockey equipment.
My marriage to a career con artist led me down a rather dark path. I had debates with myself about wether my hard work and lonely life was something that had any value to me. Questioning your life is best done from a position of happiness. Otherwise it becomes something that can pull you down into a morass of depression.
I like to think I am out of the swamp. Working is what I enjoy most. I am glad to be working again.
Part of the difficulty of the past year has been the lack of any motivation on my part to go back to what I now view as a miserable life. I had become extremely isolated working online and as a solo attorney. It was not psychologically healthy for me. So when I sort of broke down, I didn't want to get back to where I had been, because that was misery.
Even though she was and is a pathological liar, my ex wife/girlfriend broke me down because I didn't want to go back to the loneliness I had endured for years. It is hard to understand how loneliness and isolation work unless you have been there.
My personal life is not better, but I feel a lot better in many ways now.
Heading to China soon
After much patient waiting I have gotten word that I will be heading to China soon. Of course this happens after I have started a new job. Fortunately, the job I have at a large law firm is just a temporary attorney position, but it is kind of frustrating to get a job after months of looking for one. The whole process of waiting to go to China has been very frustrating. I am just glad to finally know I will be getting my visa in a week or so.
Monday, October 8, 2012
New job
Since I have been waiting for more than a month past the date I had originally for travel to China, I have gotten a new job. Starting the day after tomorrow I will be working as a document review attorney at a giant firm in Boston. I am now taking a wait and see attitude towards going to China. With my luck, everything will come together vis-a-vis China and my time doing document review will be short. The last time I did document review it led to a job I had for three years, so who knows.
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Purpose of this blog
Ostensibly, the purpose of this blog has been to document my work experiences in China and while traveling. However, I am still waiting on my visa. It has therefore defaulted to a collection of thoughts and a chance for me to keep in the habit of writing. I have been writing far less than I did a year ago. Up through 2011 I was dealing with a few dozen emails a day and lengthy written work every week.
Anyway, I also may need to estuary this blog with tumblr or Wordpress because I believe blogger is blocked in the PRC. This well could end up being a blog with a different aim soon. A new aim to include inventing a new normal...
Anyway, I also may need to estuary this blog with tumblr or Wordpress because I believe blogger is blocked in the PRC. This well could end up being a blog with a different aim soon. A new aim to include inventing a new normal...
Inventing the new normal
It has become apparent to me what the goal of this blog shall be. It will be to invent the new normal. Whatever the hell that means. Perhaps, oh gentle reader, that should just be a tentative goal. Your narrator has not the slightest notion how to go about creating the new normal, however we will go forward with this as a tertiary directive.
If someone as insane as Al Gore can create the Internet perhaps your humble narrator could help define the new normal.
In other news, there are a lot of bedraggled looking people here in G-Vegas. Please, don't tell them about this blog. They might take offense and in an emotional moment of peak attack your humble narrator whilst driving the public roadways of this vile we call G-Vegas.
For example, there is a homeless type okie guy with a long beard. I am trying to set him up with my mom. Now that would perhaps be a good place to start at defining a new normal.
I also saw a woman looking person who was shaped like a large grapefruit. She was about as wide and she was tall. The aspect of obesity is not much interest, but it was her shape as nearly being spherical like a grapefruit that makes her apart from the normal. She perhaps defines a new normal, but I'm not sure that would be a good idea to promote a new normal of being as wide as you are tall.
Over the past few days I have seen a chipmunk, many turkeys, a down woodpecker, a chickadee, a coyote, and a skunk. There sure are a lot of critters out this way. I would like that to be the new normal. A lot of well fed critters would be a nice new normal.
There is a new shopping alternative to the two super markets. It is an even bigger supermarket. Not sure how that makes sense. They also are rebuilding the Walmart to be a newer über Walmart. That will mean three supermarkets and an über Walmart in a town with like 3 stop lights. I think they are adding a new stop light near the new supermarket.
It's wie because G-Vegas is not really thriving. Adding a stoplight is big business. That will throw off the ratio of donut shops to street lights. Dogs will mate with cats and the world will end in an orgy of violence. I am going to wait until after the election before I find out what direction this lazy vile will shimmy along towards.
They are building a commuter rail extension so now the train to Boston will have a stop here. That could be what all the hubbub is about with new grocery stores and an über Walmart.
If someone as insane as Al Gore can create the Internet perhaps your humble narrator could help define the new normal.
In other news, there are a lot of bedraggled looking people here in G-Vegas. Please, don't tell them about this blog. They might take offense and in an emotional moment of peak attack your humble narrator whilst driving the public roadways of this vile we call G-Vegas.
For example, there is a homeless type okie guy with a long beard. I am trying to set him up with my mom. Now that would perhaps be a good place to start at defining a new normal.
I also saw a woman looking person who was shaped like a large grapefruit. She was about as wide and she was tall. The aspect of obesity is not much interest, but it was her shape as nearly being spherical like a grapefruit that makes her apart from the normal. She perhaps defines a new normal, but I'm not sure that would be a good idea to promote a new normal of being as wide as you are tall.
Over the past few days I have seen a chipmunk, many turkeys, a down woodpecker, a chickadee, a coyote, and a skunk. There sure are a lot of critters out this way. I would like that to be the new normal. A lot of well fed critters would be a nice new normal.
There is a new shopping alternative to the two super markets. It is an even bigger supermarket. Not sure how that makes sense. They also are rebuilding the Walmart to be a newer über Walmart. That will mean three supermarkets and an über Walmart in a town with like 3 stop lights. I think they are adding a new stop light near the new supermarket.
It's wie because G-Vegas is not really thriving. Adding a stoplight is big business. That will throw off the ratio of donut shops to street lights. Dogs will mate with cats and the world will end in an orgy of violence. I am going to wait until after the election before I find out what direction this lazy vile will shimmy along towards.
They are building a commuter rail extension so now the train to Boston will have a stop here. That could be what all the hubbub is about with new grocery stores and an über Walmart.
Friday, October 5, 2012
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Lithuanian Jews
In conversations with my mother, I have come to the conclusion that my mother's father's side of the family were Lithuanian Jews who fled to the United States to escape persecution by the Czar. It is possible that they were just fleeing the Czar, but for certain specific reasons it seems like he was Jewish.
The main points are as follows; my great grand father's best friend, who he played with as a child in Lithuania, lived two towns away and was Jewish. For my great grandfather's best friend to be Jewish, in the early 20th century leads me to the belief he was at least a somewhat progressive person. Massachusetts was no different than most parts of the US during that era, and a close relationship between my dairy farming grandfather and a cow selling Jew is probably not a common type of relationship. My Great Grandfather spoke English (very limited), Lithuanian, German, Polish, YIDDISH, and Russian. Yiddish at that time was a trade language spoken predominantly by the Jewish community, but also by people who did a lot of business with Jews.
Further evidence is the fact my great grandfather moved to G-Vegas, but rarely attended church. He allegedly went to the local Catholic Church, had some kind of disagreement with a priest, and then rarely if ever went back. As a working man with no apparent ideological basis for atheism, it seems like he was not welcomed by the church because he was not Christian. That is what our consensus is.
My great grandfather was from Panemunis, a village in Lithuania. His brother was forcibly taken away by Cossacks or other Russians. It is unclear why, but Lithuania during this period was a vassal to the Russian Crown. The gulag system was first initiated by the czarist a as a method of ideological control. The nazis actually copied the Russian concentration camps.
I kind of believe my great grandfather came here, shed his Judaism and identified as Christian to avoid the types of problems his family had endured in Lithuania.
Any people interested in genealogy or research in this vein, please let me know.
The main points are as follows; my great grand father's best friend, who he played with as a child in Lithuania, lived two towns away and was Jewish. For my great grandfather's best friend to be Jewish, in the early 20th century leads me to the belief he was at least a somewhat progressive person. Massachusetts was no different than most parts of the US during that era, and a close relationship between my dairy farming grandfather and a cow selling Jew is probably not a common type of relationship. My Great Grandfather spoke English (very limited), Lithuanian, German, Polish, YIDDISH, and Russian. Yiddish at that time was a trade language spoken predominantly by the Jewish community, but also by people who did a lot of business with Jews.
Further evidence is the fact my great grandfather moved to G-Vegas, but rarely attended church. He allegedly went to the local Catholic Church, had some kind of disagreement with a priest, and then rarely if ever went back. As a working man with no apparent ideological basis for atheism, it seems like he was not welcomed by the church because he was not Christian. That is what our consensus is.
My great grandfather was from Panemunis, a village in Lithuania. His brother was forcibly taken away by Cossacks or other Russians. It is unclear why, but Lithuania during this period was a vassal to the Russian Crown. The gulag system was first initiated by the czarist a as a method of ideological control. The nazis actually copied the Russian concentration camps.
I kind of believe my great grandfather came here, shed his Judaism and identified as Christian to avoid the types of problems his family had endured in Lithuania.
Any people interested in genealogy or research in this vein, please let me know.
Getting an absentee ballot and duck hunting
Over the next few days your humble narrator will assuredly obtain an absentee ballot. There are a lot of crucial electoral races pending. Perhaps you have heard of them?
It would be a lot of fun to hunt some ducks or wild turkeys that traipse through the woods hereabouts. I might not be such a great cleaner of dead fowl though. That is the part of hunting I dislike. Gutting is one of the main reasons I don't fish more.
It would be Antarctic to be able to harvest meat from local critter population. Personal reminder to check on the hunting laws out here.
It would be a lot of fun to hunt some ducks or wild turkeys that traipse through the woods hereabouts. I might not be such a great cleaner of dead fowl though. That is the part of hunting I dislike. Gutting is one of the main reasons I don't fish more.
It would be Antarctic to be able to harvest meat from local critter population. Personal reminder to check on the hunting laws out here.
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Monday, October 1, 2012
Preparations
I am getting ready for China in earnest. The folks working with me to get the visa have told me to be patient, which having read prior blog posts in this blog you my gentle reader know I have been.
The leaves are turning color. It is still mid 70s in Beijing. Around here it has been hanging in the mid fifties.
I need to buy some board games like scrabble, a set of international electronics adapters, some long johns, and various miscellaneous things. It is also going to be important to keep up my review of grammar.
I am pretty tired and will resume tomorrow.
The leaves are turning color. It is still mid 70s in Beijing. Around here it has been hanging in the mid fifties.
I need to buy some board games like scrabble, a set of international electronics adapters, some long johns, and various miscellaneous things. It is also going to be important to keep up my review of grammar.
I am pretty tired and will resume tomorrow.
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