mf.rox

A page from a Vietnamese bootleg Batman comic, posted by Ethan Persoff on www.ep.tc.

I must admit whenever I hear about someone I was friends in with the past but had a falling out with, I want to hear that they have failed at everything they’ve done.  When I see they have been successful in any way I feel angry and bitter.  That’s bad.

I’ve had about enough of people telling me how unhappy I’m going to be when I move back to the US, how I’m going to freak out and have culture shock, etc. I don’t need to hear that! Why would anybody think that would be a good thing for me to hear? Do they think I haven’t worried about that already?

I’m also tired of people asking me a million questions about why I haven’t gotten everything totally arranged yet. Moving from one country to another is hard, that’s why, and I can’t wave a magic wand and get everything all done.

I had planned to send off three boxes of stuff today. That would have been the official start to my moving back to the United States. But today I woke up to this really incredible rain that has lasted all day so far. I can’t go get the boxes because they’d get wet, and I can’t go retrieve my drycleaning because that would get wet too. I guess this will have to wait until (I hope) tomorrow.

Congratulations to Kelly K. (formerly Kelly S.) on the birth of her new baby!

Unexpected piety at the supermarket.

Originally uploaded by MFinChina

I found this last week at my local Trust-Mart.

I haven’t written personal stuff in here for a long time. I guess it’s because the stuff I want to say is a little strange and I feel weird about saying it.

I’d like to explain a little about why I decided to leave China, and to leave it now.

To some degree, it’s because I’m feeling sort of flat. Nothing is exciting me here. My job isn’t challenging me right now either. I feel I need to so something new, learn something new, have something to work toward.

I was also sort of worried about the Olympics. I thought Chinese people had built it up unrealistically in their minds, expecting it to be this perfect thing that would gain accolades from all over the world. I expected that a lot of foreign media organizations would be nitpicky, focusing on all the little problems they saw, and that Chinese people would be surprised and angry about that. I guessed, because of my experience with Chinese people so far, that people would get really bitter about this, and it might affect the lives of foreigners here. We might be the target of resentment, or not be as welcome as we once were. Therefore, I thought that now might be a good time to leave. What with all the events in Tibet, the biased media coverage, the disruptions of the torch relay and the nationalistic feelings these things have stirred up here, it seems like I was right about that.

Thirdly, I have a feeling that it’s just time to go. This is what I feel weird about talking about. In a way, it’s a kind of “God told me to” feeling. I have this deep gut feeling that I am meant to leave China this summer. It reminds me of in DONNIE DARKO, when the teacher who is played by Noah Wylie, says something to him about “walking in God’s channel.” I feel like if am going to walk in God’s channel, and stay on the path I am supposed to be on, I need to leave China this summer.

I was goofing around on this dandy site called Oracleofbacon, and typed in Editor B’s name. It came up that he had three degrees of separation from Bacon. According to the site,

Editor B was in ‘Java Madness’ formerly titled ‘Coffee Madness’ (1995) with Kenneth Patrick Brady
Kenneth Patrick Brady was in Dead by Sunset (1995) (TV) with Ken Olin
Ken Olin was in Queens Logic (1991) with Kevin Bacon

If that’s true, because I was in several ROX episodes, I should have four degrees, and anyone else who knows me should have five!

I await confirmation from B to see if the first linkage is correct.

Apparently, during the 2000 primaries, a Bush operative (probably Karl Rove)  started a rumor that John McCain’s adopted daughter from Bangladesh was his “secret black lovechild”!

From:

“Highlight the torture and your brown daughter”

and

http://www.sepiamutiny.com/sepia/archives/000311.html 

Really.

These folks in Dharmsala are way more radical than the D. Lama.  I think it may be a mistake to present the Lama as the true representative of Tibetans now, considering what happened in March.

If finally watched CODE 46 tonight, which is a DVD I only picked up because the cover said a lot of it was shot in Shanghai.  It is supposed to take place after some sort of big disaster has turned most of the world to desert and also necessitated widespread use of in-vitro fertilization.  The distracting thing was that all the footage in Shanghai was shot a couple years ago, with no attempt to hide advertising.  Therefore, I saw ads for products I use every day.  While I was watching, I was like, “Oh, look!  An ad for M-Zone!”  Plus, tons of props came from Ikea.  For instance, the lamp in Tim Robbins’ son’s room was the same as the one that is sitting one foot away from me right now.  These thing kept jarring me, not letting me suspend my disbelief.

Actually, that happens a lot with Ikea products.  I was roped into watching CAPTIVITY, and partway through, one of the people I was with realized that the lamp in Eliza Cuthbert’s cell was the same one in her bedroom at home.  Heck, even John Woo’s THE KILLER uses stuff from Ikea!

Pentagon Suspends Propaganda Program
Following an exposé in the New York Times that revealed that the Pentagon had successfully planted military analysts on all of the major broadcast networks and cable news networks to support its Iraq war policies, a Pentagon spokesman said Monday that the program would be undergoing an internal review and would be temporarily suspended. Meanwhile, several political blogs have pointed out that the propaganda program, which was prominently featured on the front page of the Sunday Times on April 20, was virtually ignored by the broadcast networks (who were criticized for failing to mention the ties to the Pentagon of their military experts) and that the Times itself, which acknowledged that it ran Op-Ed articles by the retired military figures who had received “talking points” from Pentagon public affairs officers, did little follow-up. Wrote Jason Linkins in the Huffington Post: “The aftermath of the story, for the Times, has been one of scant follow-up, lost scoops, and poor comparison when set alongside similar journalistic efforts.”

From Studio Briefing.

A few days ago, Alice came running excitedly to the Dog Man’s with what seemed to be a little toy rabbit. She set it down, and to everyone’s horror, it started moving! The Dog Man and his brothers tried to drive Alice and Hui Hui away with sticks, which was hard because the dogs got all keyed up and kept wanting to attack the rabbit whenever it moved. It ended up hopping into a little drainage hole. I was afraid it would die down there, so I borrowed a glove, pulled it out by one ear (which was all I could get ahold of), then got it by the scruff of the neck and took it way to the back of the compound, to a grassy area where Alice doesn’t usually go. I put it down and it hopped away. I was thinking it would be too hurt to do that, but it did. Hopefully it is okay. Actually, this is my second time rescuing a bunny from another animal. Once Numa the cat brought home a rabbit that at first I thought was dead, but had just fainted from fright. When it came to it ran around my apartment like a maniac until I could corral it and take it outside.

You guessed it …. China!

Guangdong factory makes Tibet flags 

From a report in Ming Pao Daily, translated and posted on ESWN, and then mentioned on Danwei.

The recent comment by the Korean guy was one of the most popular things ever here. It seems like he knew what he was talking about!

Samsung Head to Step Down

I haven’t written anything personal in here lately, basically because I’ve been stewing and in knots about getting ready to leave. It’s really overwhelming.  I have so much stuff here, it seems impossible to plow through it all and pare it down just to the stuff I need.  I’ve been doing a bit every day.  I DO have more than two months left, but it is still something I’m really worried about.  I’d like to get as much done as possible, so I can just think about it and get it out of my mind.  I’d also like it to finally get warmer so I can send my cold-weather clothes back to the US.  I HAVE gotten rid of 14 kilos of paper already, as well as about fifty DVDs I don’t want, about eight books I’m finished with, and two large bags of clothes.

There are more factors that make it difficult, like the new visa regulations that are in place this year, but I’ll write more about those later.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/4/15/224155/744/780/492483

Even Stephen Hadley, Bush’s National Security Advisor, doesn’t know the difference between Nepal and Tibet.  Well, I HOPE he does, and this was just a slip of the tongue.

This really bears out the satirical article I wrote for Shangzilla a couple weeks ago.  Matt changed it a little when he printed it, but here is the original:

DNN officials deny bias in China photos

As China netizen outcry over inaccurate reporting increases, DNN officials issued a statement Tuesday denying their mistakes were caused by bias. 

“Our mislabeling of photos was simply caused by the fact that we, as Americans, don’t know what’s going on,” said one network leader.  “Many of our present employees attended high school during the Bush administration.  They’re lucky they can even find the United States on a map.”

The editor who supplied the caption justified himself, saying, “I mean, those pictures were taken in a foreign country.  There are lots of foreign countries, like France, and India, and Puerto Rico.  I get them all mixed up.”  When asked about the picture taken in Nepal that was captioned as being Chinese, he scoffed. “Nepal isn’t a real country.  It’s made up, like Khazakstan, for that Borat movie.”

“While it’s easy to suspect that prejudice colored media coverage, there is plenty of evidence to support ineptitude claims,” noted Hong Kong Media University professor W. S. Law.  “Just look at last month’s article from the culture section, ‘Hitler’s film Modern Times, a classic for the ages.’”

Would this sell in the United States?

Originally uploaded by MFinChina

Would this sell in the United States? I can see people at Wal-Mart getting up in arms about it. “Sushi? That’s un-American!”

Found at the Carrefour near my house.

The Protests, the Olympics, and Race