If you fail to plan, you plan to fail

Let me give a shout-out to my fellow bloggers: Mr. Clemmons, Chris Knight, and Roland Allen, you can find links for all these blogs on www.rolandallen.com. I especially recommend Mr. Clemmon's post on Nordstrom's. It will make you laugh out loud!

Ok, peep this. First, I wanted to mention the great Chinese expression we learned today, which is supposed to mean "when in rome...", though their expression is literally "enter border follow custom". This one really puts the idio(cy) in idiom.

Just a couple of things that popped into my mind during class. First of all mechanical pencils. I'm tired of all the mechanical pencil companies (I'm looking at you bic) cheating us out of that last centimeter of lead. You know what I'm talking about, you work your way through the little piece of lead and then when you get to the end that last little bit won't write. Now I've been using mechanical pencils exclusively since college, so these little piece have been adding up, probably for a total of about 1 kilometer of wasted led. You're telling me we can't put a man on the moon, but we cant make the last little centimeter of led useable. Come on, now scientists, let's get to work on this.

Ok, another thing that's been on my mind is how when we were kids, video games kinda sucked and I didnt even have any video games. I didn't mind playing board games, but I have a serious problem the board game Sorry, or should I say bored game. This game was absolutely the worst. It was basically just roll a die and and see if you get around a board. Then the designers must have realized that their prototype was absolutely the lamest game ever so they added a little dice popper and a rule that if you landed on someone else you said sorry and moved their piece back. I have a theory that the name "Sorry" has actually nothing to do with the game, and is an actual apology from manufacturer to customer, in a feeble attempt to atone for their failure of a creation. I had a real eureka moment when I was looking at the video game store in Singapore airport and saw Sorry: The Video Game. You could have knocked me over with a feather.

Ok post cards. Postcards are such a waste of time. Here is a sentence that the English language will never allow: "Geeze Louise, I am so happy that I got this post card!" Whoevers bright idea it was to add four lines for an address on the back of a picture and charge 75 cents was an absolute mastermind. Whoever's idea it was that they will brighten their friends/lover's day with a post card doesnt deserve to use up my air.

In class today, we were practicing our gramatical structures and the teacher asked me a question: "I think Chinese and America are the same, because they are both free countries. What do you think?" she said. The second I responded "I think that Chinese and America are different, because..." I know I had walked into a trap. I stopped myself and she asked "why? why are they different" thankfully I managed to fake a seizure just in time.

I wrote my uncles and aunts a note, and I got this back from one of them:

Tom,
> 
> Thanks for the note.  I saw the webshot photos of your new haircut and
> you are now as good looking as your dad.  Congratulations!  The
> Chinese will be intimidated by American business savvy and style. 
> That should
> keep them off balance long enough to get the trade imbalance under
> control. 
> 
> Those were interesting shots on the Great Wall.  I noticed the muscle
> shirt you were wearing didn't come with any muscles.  I believe a stew
> of mushrooms grown on yak dung, tiger testicles and curry of elephant
> placenta can address that issue.  Check at your local Cantonese
> deli for a bowl that can be microwaved.  Eat half of it before slathering the
> balance on your seminude body----- a Kung Fu(tm) jock strap is
> sufficient--- then do a 20 minute headstand in an inverted Lotus
> position.  You'll soon be known as the InTomidator. 
> 
> Enjoy the rest of your trip.  When next we meet, I'll show you my
> patented Kung Fu grip and Pouncing Lion knee buster.
> 
> Your favorite uncle,
> Kevin

As I mentioned I bought some glasses at a Chinese Market, and then I hopefully figured out how to use photos on my blog. This is a deadly combination if it works. However, in China you can only post to blogs, not view them (the government's crack squad of 50,000 internet watch dogs makes sure of that), so I have no idea if this is working or not. Let me know and keep checking back for more updates!