Veni, vidi, bacchavi
[Recent Entries][Archive][Friends][User Info]
[Wireless LAN Security]
Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in the "William H Howard" journal:[<< Previous 20 entries]
|
09:34 pm
[Link] |
ATTENTION MIA:
Can you please contact me again via some method other than facebook? I'm back in Chch Midmorning December 16th, I can probably do the legwork here, but you contacted me by a method that stopped even notifying me about messages pending weeks ago, and I only just checked due to extreme boredeom. I have to circumvent the great firewall to get to facebook, as I've noted NUMEROUS times, and I don't have a decent proxy handy all the time.
I suggest LJ's internal messaging service, I check here daily. Or every second day, at worst. Which will still give me most of 2 weeks to track down what you want.
|
07:38 pm
[Link] |
Boom, Toaster.
Well, that's my computer impersonating a toaster again. Dad, want to give Dan an email asking about his account details?
In other news, today I spent 4 hours exploring in an unknown direction (North-West). I found a few things, including that airsofts that look quite a lot like pistols are only 20 to 40 kuai overhere from random guys on the street. And while I am glad for balaclava, I need a reputable one that won't make me itchy all the time. (Tomorrow's experiment is: Do I feel itchy if I shave before wearing balaclava?)
Took a bunch of photos, but they're on my camera, at the house. Trapped, since y'know, damn system failure. Currently at my local internet cafe, which is basement level, poorly ventilated, and warmer than my apartment which I've been running a heater in constantly for a week now. How the hell does this work, huh?
Anyway, love ya'll, talk later.
PS: Reiver, can you tell the bunch of idiots that there'll be no updates for a few days before I'm back on the internet via Laptop? I doubt GoogleWave much likes the antique (6.0.xxx) IE on this computer much, and I KNOW from previous experience I don't have permission to install the additional apps to view Wave anyway.
|
|
10:13 pm
[Link] |
Bonus update:
Random pictures from recent times that I've been forgetting to post.
Incase you're wondering, the orange bicycle I took a photo of is my current primary means of transportation.
Votes for where I should go tomorrow? I gather there's a weapons market in town that I could go to.
|
06:50 pm
[Link] |
Today I went to the markets
http://picasaweb.google.com/Confusion.Tempest/ThingsPeopleMightWant
- I'll fill this one in as I see things, and as I manage to convince shopkeepers to let me take photos. I don't want any trouble, and while the fabric market people all understood that I had friends in Xinxilan that I was seeing if they wanted things, other shops I have more trouble in. Not least because the fabric market had much more English usage than elsewhere.
Now, fabric Market photos:
1st floor was probably stuff that wasn't actually silk, included because I tooks ome phtoos. All photos taken in the fabric market were kinda cramped, and in a moderate hurry, which means that a lot of them are pretty shoddy, but hopefully they'll serve to illustrate.
If someone wants something, they'll need to tell me the number from the base of the photo, and which thing from the photo they want. I realise this is a kind of nightmarish process. Sadly I don't know peoples wants well enough to buy without instruction, and there was just so much stuff in the mall (This is barely a scratch of the surface, I completely ignored all fabrics that weren't labelled 100% silk after the first floor) that it's, y'know, large.
If people need me to, I can probably manage to test the silk (rudimentary testing with fire, obviously), but this is a fairly reputable fabric market. So I'm not sure how much Raife's warning applies to it in particular. For those curious, the market is at:
399号 Lujiabang Rd, Huangpu, Shanghai, China
http://picasaweb.google.com/Confusion.Tempest/1stFloor
http://picasaweb.google.com/Confusion.Tempest/2ndFloorSilkShop
http://picasaweb.google.com/Confusion.Tempest/Other2ndFloorShopsOfNote
http://picasaweb.google.com/Confusion.Tempest/3rdFloorButtonShop
http://picasaweb.google.com/Confusion.Tempest/Other3rdFloorShops
Also, as a matter of interest, how many people need a bottle holder? These fit the 600ml Beer bottles common in China, and would probably -mostly- cover a wine bottle. Also, they're cute.
http://picasaweb.google.com/Confusion.Tempest/LootIBought
XPosted, KAOS, SG-DISCUSS, Personal LJ.
|
11:09 am
[Link] |
Last night I went to Windows Bar.
My first time ever really in a sports bar, there was a certain mindless entertainment to watching UFC fights with the sound off, listening to generic rock music and drinking a beer.
Today I need to throw off the shackles of my apathy and leave the house. I think finally making it to the Fabric markets is in order, though yeah, y'know, laaaaaaaaaaaazy.
I'll feel more active once I'm outside, I know, but I'm so tired the last few days, it's actually quite ridiculous.
Current Mood:  blah
|
|
08:46 am
[Link] |
Pic unrelated.
Well, not quite true. I just don't use the icon enough, and I don't think I'm on anyone's sex filters anyway (if my friends even keep such things), so pic is irrelevent.
Anyway:
Teaching yesterday went ok. Kinda nerve wracking, but I expected that, yeah? I think I managed to teach the kids something, and while I panicked and didn't really play games with them, they still seemed like a mostly exuberant and happy bunch of children.
It was just the 1 hour of work, I commuted for 5 hours to get there and back, no follow up contract expected. But 2 places have now said they'll hire me and help me arrange visa, etc, if I get some teaching quals under my belt.
Busy attempting to arrange various things with various people. Need to make some trips to malls and take some photos, I think.
I get to go to Thanksgiving dinner tonight, yay for Campbell and Steph. (I believe, in this particular case, mostly Steph.)
|
|
10:33 pm
[Link] |
<3 @ everyone who commented, and emailed.
I'd have spent tonight responding, but instead I was out doing some non-essential shopping, and got a call from a recruiter, asking me to interview urgently, and wasn't home until about 9:20.
So I have an hour of work tomorrow, teaching a class of 7-8 year olds English. I've been given some material to cover, I've been told there'll be flash cards. What was I thinking volunteering for this, saying I wanted to do this as a career option? I have no idea what I'm dong, oh god.
Current lesson plan looks something like:
"Hello Class, My name is Mister Howard, and I'm from New Zealand.
[22:21] <@Confusion> Today we're going to review what you learnt last week!
[22:22] * @Confusion series of flash cards, sentence practice.
[22:22] <@Confusion> And today we're going to learn these words:
[22:22] <@Confusion> Giant, Smell, Golden
[22:22] <@Confusion> And this sentence
[22:22] <@Confusion> "What time is it?"
[22:22] <@Confusion> "It's seven thirty."
[22:23] <@Confusion> Alright, now we're going to practice telling time from a clock.
[22:23] * @Confusion spends next 10 minutes getting children to draw hands onto clock
A) Does this actually look like a lesson plan to other people? It doesn't really to me.
B) How am I going to make this cover 50-60 minutes?
C) What other game should I use to try to practice the ridiculously mismatched words that are on the review list? There are about 10 foods on there, but there are also 10 things that aren't foods at all. Getting them to play "Can you eat it?" seems a bit like it won't really work.
Or maybe it would. Huh.
|
|
10:42 pm
[Link] |
Loose ends
Way too much time on my hands at present. STOP.
Not sure what I'm doing here. STOP.
Becoming increasingly uncertain I want to return. STOP.
Am apparently confroming exactly to path of psychological expression predicted by experienced international travellers for home sickness. STOP.
People shouldn't worry too much about me. STOP.
It'd be nice to get emails or comments though, telling me what's up in your parts of the world. (Especially looking in the Cat/Dan's direction, but all of that general used to hang at The Sanctuary B&B posse, being some of my closest friends in the whoooooooooooooooooooooooole world I sorely miss talking to.) STOP.
Currently contemplating if it's incredibly vulgar of me to ask what my American friend is doing for Thanksgiving, and if I'm feeling sufficient distance from social norms that I don't care or not. END MISSIVE.
PS: Bought a Stitch Doll at the nerd mall a couple of days ago, official reason is to give it away, though proximate reason is in fact that I wanted to own something cute and cuddly to ward off loneliness. God I'm such a wuss sometimes. END.
|
|
10:10 am
[Link] |
Ye-ouch
At the moment, each of my limbs feels like it requires an autonomous controller, my head is the soruce of about 5 or 6 disturbances.
I lost my glasses (at the first club after Haikus, but I don't know the NAME of that place, or have any idea if Chinese culture extends to keeping such things, or if I lost them in a taxi, or what)
And my jacket is missing. As well as my keys, and cellphone.
Very much hoping its at friends house.
I have NO IDEA how I got into my apartment last night.
I don't feel so good.
Last night was ACE, clearly.
|
|
09:47 pm
[Link] |
Shanghai Gang, Experiment 2
Didn't leave it to sit this time, tastes MUCH stronger. Of.. well, whatever it is that it tastes of. It's still not the horror I'd built it up to being in my head. Maybe just knocked back a couple of oz worth, have maybe 3oz left int he glass awaiting the next trip to mouth. Experiment 3 will be straight from the bottle in the interests of full disclosure.
The aftertaste really isn't getting anymore pleasant, but the alcohol coat effect has settled in slightly and is much appreciated. I can't feel my cheeks anymore (as in, they don't feel cold anymore) and putting my hand to them reveals they're warm. (My fingers aren't as cold as I'd expect either)
|
09:17 pm
[Link] |
Shanghai Gang, Experiment 1.
Wooeee, this stuff is pungent.
So, today I went out and bought a bottle of "wine", it's 16.5%, 600mls, and cost 4.8kuai. Which yes, is significantly LESS than the exchange rate for a single kiwi dollar.
Let's call that one, exhibit A, shall we? Exhibit A is on the left. I'm even more scared of it than I am of the Shanghai Gang.
And it's really fucking cold, so I've decided that drinking questionable mid-strength alcohols is the way to solve the day for myself. I know, this is not the best plan objectively, but subjectively it seems like a pretty good idea.
Once I find a balaclava I will once again be king of the streets, until I successfully buy one, my ears are WAY too cold for that bullshit. So yeah.
Shanghai Gang, Exhibit B, was about 16 kuai for the 500ml bottle, and ranks in at 12% alcohol by volume. The label for it has featured previously in my photo stream, when I bought it, and was then promptly scared off by the smell.
It mentions Red Dates and Honey on the label, so as far as I'm concerned, it's some form of Date mead. This can, well, this can ONLY end badly, but you know how I love a good story.
Upon opening the bottle the aroma, the pungent WAFT of the Shanghai Gang assaulted my nostrils. This disssipated over the next 5 minutes, as I stared balefully at my glass, andwrote the account you are now reading, yes that's it folks, I am actually accounting this experience up to the minute.
So, without further ado:
Bouquet: I guess it does smell of dates, I've either gotten used to it, had my nose clog up agian, or the smell has dissipated so it's not nearly so overpowering anymore.
Aesthetic: The darkish liquid reminds me of steeped tea, or possibly of a rum that's a little bit more see through than it ought to be. Infact, my French flatmate Maxim mistook it for rum at first glance.
Taste: (steels self) a little bit of an after taste to the tongue, and it feels like something has kind of coated my mouth. I could swear that it tastes.. well, smoky in flavour, but that makes no sense whatsoever. Maybe an oily coating left through the mouth, like when you eat sundried tomatoes? The taste was fairly bland after everything I built it up to be, I was expecting some bai-jo like experience of horror.
Instead, well, normalcy. It's dssapointing.
Second swig, larger mouthful. There's a taste to it, but it's not nearly as strong as the odor was when I opened the bottle. And it's not a bad taste, or a good taste, just a taste? I guess it really is made from dates or something, I don't have a huge experience of what dates TASTE like, since for me they're usually very texture driven. Maybe it's made from Date-honey, a type of honey I've never tried, but am now curious to find out if it exists or not.
Shanghai Gang: Experiment status: Tasting vessel finished. There is nothing particularly offensive to it, though it bites slightly at the taste receptors on the back of my tongue. This is not really a place I like to have taste receptors bitten. Will have to try some more without giving it a chance to soften it's bouquet, I feel like I must be missing out ont he experience. I really want t be able to make some form of sick jokes about how the Shanghai Gang has taken my mouth hostage, or gone for a rampage through my tastebuds.
The aftertaste is building though, I really wish it wasn't.
633 words, 10 minutes from inception of writing process to current.
http://picasaweb.google.com/Confusion.Tempest/20091119
|
08:34 pm
[Link] |
Writer's Block: Message in a bottle
1 (One) complete copy of The Simpsons.
1 (One) copy of my blog, printed, packed in a vacuum sealed bag.
1 (One) copy of Atlas Shrugged, with my frothing rage at its existence scribbled in the margins.
Tags: writer's block
|
|
11:08 pm
[Link] |
Stream of Consciousness Pt 1
813 words:
So, I've been greatly enjoying China so far. The city of SHanghai has so much more to offer a young person than anywhere in New Zealand can possibly hope to give in the way of nightlife, streetlife. opportunities to get into trouble and things you can buy.
And the food, the food is glorious, there is totally no incentive to cook at home here, if you want to a few kuai will pick up tasty food from the street, ranging up to full dining out on improted salmon experiences that have been a match for any of the brilliant foods I've eaten back in New Zealand. (Sorry Cat).
Also, met someone who, if she wasn't Asian, I would expect to be about 4 times her size. She says her urge to cook everything and feed everyone is a New Jersey thing. If so, perhaps New Jersey has risen to the level of somewhere I could be content to die and be reborn in. I mean, mmm, people forcing food upon me.
The people here are great, by and large they are very friendly, and most people don't seem too pissed off with me for my bumbling Chinese, or my complete lack of even bumbling Chinese, in most situations. I'm continually surprised by the palces where people will speak perfect English back to me, mostly dairies and McDonalds, lowish wage places where its a symptom of the youth of people rather than anything else. The bulk of the people I buy my endless stream of books from can't speak very much English at all, they know enough to wave things when I say how much, like a number of fingers, or a calculator, or a phone. Maybe they mispronounce numbers at me, and I pronounce them back to check, accidentially agreeing on a price. (Which I'm not quite cynical enough to think is a cunning marketting ploy on their part), and all in all, I enjoy the act of circumventing the language barrier.
It's also the first place I've really had heavy conversations with non-native English speakers in my life. There's a certain thrill to battling around coloqualisms or words people just haven't heard before. I had to explain what I meant by coat-hanger to my French flatmate earlier, and I felt quite accomplished when we agreed on what it meant. I eman, this is the simple end, I usually drop my language complexity right down and try to avoid such moments.
There's a certain THRILL to the act of commerce here, I think it's the haggling. People are keen to do business, and you can work at it to. It's a much more involved buying process than back home, though there are enogh shops with PRICE AS IS, and NO DISCOUNTS in large letters, which I think are mainly ploys rather than actualities, but i'm unsure. I think supermarkets tend to be no-haggle places, because the margins are too low, but I was told you CAN haggle with toystores, so go figure.
Also, I think I'm just enjoying the buzz of finding things. NEW Bookstores back home don't have the buzz of finding the book that exactly fits what you want, appeals to your tastes, etc, from within the stack. They're too ordered. And while there is SOME of this thrill to be found in secondhand shops, it's a different kind of style. I mean, you know where to look, what you might find, roughly, in a secondhand book store, but from a guy ont he street who you may or may not ever see again? No idea what he'll have in his cart today (other than an inevitable stack of books on management, success, and how to WIN at life), will he have philosophy books? Psychology books? Contemporary literature? Science Fiction? All are possible.
What I really want to know is that it says about the market that he has the particular collection of literature available that he does. Why THIS selection, and not some other? I don't think I've seen a high-fantasy book yet, though Twilight's popularity means that urban-fantasy is represented everywhere, and I've seen a fair bit of Gaimen for sale. I'm gettingmroe and more tempted to fill out my collection with a copy of American Gods, but I'd be too tempted to read it agai, and that'd keep me from ever getting to Clockwork Orange, or say, Sophie's Choice. I'm trapped from rereading things I love by my voracious need to consume these books I've heard are good. It's times like these I really wish I had a mind more like say Cat's who can assimilate a book in minutes.
Also, FUCK, keyboard dying. So much for5000 words in an hour. 800 in 16 minutes will have to do for now.
|
|
10:02 am
[Link] |
wOooo
For some reason my desktop has spontaneously started working again. No, I do not have any idea why.
|
|
01:45 pm
[Link] |
Moving on...
I just spent a few hours lazing at an internet cafe. I think its time to move on for the day. Tomorrow I'll remember to post photos when I come here, probably.
Anyway, its wet here in Shanghai, and my computer is still broken. Contemplating all sorts of things, will attempt to formulate them better later. For now, heading home, I think, well, heading to buy pizza but then home, definitely. Maybe.
Cheers to all the people I talked to online today, you made my day a lot better by being there to talk to. :)
Read since I got to China:
A Canticle for Leibowitz (Scifi, good, semi hopeful)
Night Watch (Funny, as expected. The Terry Pratchett book.)
The Time Travellers Wife (Just finished, compelling, good)
Matter (Good, thematically consistent with other culture novels. Didn't really have the gut wrenching disgusting scene I'm used to Iain Banks putting somewhere though)
Fight Club (Ok read, quick. Less compelling than the movie in many ways, but preferable ending I think. The afterward from the author in my edition was enlightening.)
World War Z (Very fun read)
I'm not sure if there were more in this list.
Currently Reading:
Wikinomics (Interesting so far, about social change caused by distributed collaboration forces, epitomized by wikipedia unsurprisingly given name)
Guns, Germs, and Steel (Interesting so far, look at the history of the world and why West-Eurasian society came out on top, not very far in)
Clockwork Orange (2 pages in, no real commentary yet)
Occasional Reading at present:
The Dao
The Analects (Confucius)
The Three Kingdoms.
|
|
12:27 pm
[Link] |
Radio silence commencing in...
My computer died today. It had been acting upf or awhile, and it did it's whole "I'm going to reset now" thing, and then it did it again, and again, and again, across shorter and shorter timespans.
And now it's not going at all, not sure if the motherboard alone is gone, or if it took the graphics card with it as well. Hard to tell.
Anyway, I am now sans computer, which means I am sans torchlight also. This very much annoys me.
Will now have to figure out how this problem will fix itself. My ideal solution is so far beyond my capabilities it's funny.
Anyway, that's all. If anyone has anything urgent for me, leave it in a comment here, also if you post anything important in the next few days, I'm likely to be sparse on my reading of LJ until I get a working computer at home again.
At present, I can't even use the iPod Touch to connect to the net via other peoples wireless, because it ran out fo battery and the charging cable I've got for it is dodgy.
So yeah, life is woe, but I'm having fun generally, so y'know.
Current Mood:  pissed off
|
01:05 am
[Link] |
Birthday was fun.
I went to SHelter, and saw Ronnie Size. http://www.smartshanghai.com/event/10267
Twas fun. Anyway, now I'm wiped out tired, I don't remember the night past about say, 1.30 AM, until I come back to my senses at about 6:30AM, being ushered out of the place by staff members cleaning the place up.
I didn't have my keys at the time (turns out I left them in my apron at work). Went home, got 4 hours sleep, played a tiny bit of Torchlight (my dad bought it for me for my birthday, he's awesome.) and got back to Nuzi to tend bar. Finally put a semi-respectable take through, though my take was 50 up, which was kind of weird.
I had it pointed out to me today that maybe I really do know more wierdoes than other people. The woman I was serving went goggle eyed when I started telling stories about the New Rocks and combat knife incident, or as I like to call it, where Maya got a taste for human flesh.
|
|
10:01 am
[Link] |
Birthday
The weather outside is dreary, it's kinda cold in the apartment. I'm feeling kinda MEH.
And it's my birthday. I guess this post is my pleading for attention please location.
I miss people immensely.
Later today I'm going to go tend bar/get drunk, and see where the world takes me.
|
|
08:57 pm
[Link] |
Roleplaying, and how I miss it.
So I have this problem, and it was manifesting itself before I left NZ even.
See, I really love roleplaying games, they give me an escape, and a way to interact with people, and a way to feel creative, and express parts of myself, and experience things.
It's like reading, but you get some input on the story, and you don't quite know where it's going, y'know.
Anyway, I don't have any games at present.
And I'm having problems finding them. THe IRC server I lurk on and previously got gaming fixes from has dried up for RP, at least, IRC. And due to my way of approachign life, forum RP just never works out with me, I lose interest in it too fast.
So I'm wondering if any of the rest of you are n a similar situation for wanting RP, but not being able to organize it, and maybe we could rig up some form of online thing in the afternoons or evenings NZ time (someday out of Sunday to Thursday works for me)
Probably with an intent to move the game to wave once everyone manages to get on their, because I read articles about it, and it sounded interesting.
Only, then there's the second problem:
I don't actually really want to run a game myself, so anyone feel like GMing but don't have the time?
Clearly this is all just free floating, and probably will come to nought for lack of organization and collective interest.
Oh yeah, links:
http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2009/11/designing_society_for_posterit.html - What kind of government should a generation ship have? I think my Dad in particular would be interested in this one.
http://linedandunlined.com/2009/10/27/public-notice/ - Graphics Design geekery about Public Notices and the peculiar rules for their production.
http://www.fixedearth.com/geosynchronous_sa.htm - Crazy people ranting about how the earth clearly isn't spinning because satelites are geosynchronous.
|
11:18 am
[Link] |
"In Flanders Fields"
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
— Lt.-Col. John McCrae (1872 - 1918)
|
[<< Previous 20 entries] |
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}