e
p 02 20
09
Chinese cities with beautiful women, I seem to know how to pick ‘em
Before moving to Dalian in 2005 I spent a good amount of time on the Internet researching the place to see if it was the type of city I’d like to live in. Looking back on what I read, it was the typical “Dalian is a beautiful sea-side city” tourist crap that I would hear mindlessly repeated to the point of nausea while living there.
What wasn’t mentioned on the Web sites I reviewed, but was added to the rhetoric after I arrived was that Dalian girls are considered some of the most beautiful women in China. I’m betting had…
read more...u
n 02 20
09
Blog redesign, take 5-ish
As will be apparent to everyone reading this, sans feed readers, the blog is undergoing a bit of reconstructive surgery. Please bear with me as I juggle the redesign of the site with “real” work.
I had nothing against the last design (despite it borrowing 5 bucks and not paying it back), but after having it for nearly two years I was starting to itch for something new. So, I sat down Sunday morning and killed the ass-end of my weekend whipping up what you see before you. There are still a bunch of kinks I need to work…
read more...p
r 13 20
09
p
r 07 20
09
Disturbing Dubai
It’s rare that I hit on topics here that don’t involve myself, my adoptive country of China or my homeland of Canada. However, I just finished a long investigative report in The Independent about Dubai, and felt the need to share.
The article, written by Johann Hari, shocked me. I had never really put much thought into Dubai, more than knowing it was a common option for people living the expat life.
Hari does an excellent job of breaking down the success and seediness of the city state into multiple levels:
A Canadian in a car park
Karen, a…
read more...a
r 31 20
09
I am an atheist
I’ve always considered myself a spiritual person. But I suppose if I’m going to write about this properly, I need to define that at least a little. I’ve always looked at myself and my life as a palette by which I can express my existence in more than just a purely utilitarian way. I view myself as more than the sum of my parts. This, to me, defines spiritualism.
However, I have absolutely no belief in any god or gods, nor do I believe in miracles or magic. I have no hope of heaven, nor a fear of hell. I…
read more...a
r 28 20
09
Reminder to turn stuff off: Earth Hour tonight
Just a quick reminder that Earth Hour is tonight from 8:30pm to 9:30pm (local time). One hour of lessened electrical usage might not suddenly spark a mass movement towards a cleaner greener world, but I hope you’ll all join me in turn your stuff off for 60 minutes to recognize that there is a cost for the conveniences we are fortunate enough to have – and that debt has come due.
But before you go powering everything down for a bit of candle-lit clockwatching, check out these posts on Lost Laowai peripherally connected to the topic:
…
read more...a
r 22 20
09
a
r 19 20
09
e
b 01 20
09
One final toss for The Dooze
An incredibly touching story by ESPN’s Bill Simmons about the death, and most wonderfully, the life of his dog “The Dooze”.
Impossible not to draw some similarities between Bill’s loss and our own.
h/t Beijing Boyce on Twitter.
read more...a
n 23 20
09
Mac’in it up with a fruity new computer
I’ve officially joined the club. You know, that pretentious group that hangs out in cafes with their white Apple-logo lit, doing little other than subliminally pointing to the branding and winking.
Those that are quick to tell you how amazing a Mac is, and how super better it compares to a PC, while barely having any concept of what runs either machine.
The people who aspire for a hybrid, drink coffee named and sized in languages they only pretend to understand.
Yes – I’ve bought a MacBook.
And I FUCKING LOVE IT! Can I get a venti® Vanilla Rooibos Tea…
read more...a
n 22 20
09
Optima Dog Food Saga: It’s Done
Most often I feel time is moving much faster than I expect it to. This last month, however, is an exception. It’s hard to believe that it was just over four weeks ago that we got the news about our Optima dog food being contaminated with aflatoxin.
Only a month ago that we began to suspect, and then learned, that our beautiful dog Addie was dying.
These 18 days since she died have been sad, lonely and full of anger at a situation that could never give back what it took from us.
But now, it’s done.
As…
read more...a
n 17 20
09
Optima Pet Food Saga: Media’s double-edged sword
It’s been a crazy week – both with trying to catch up on work I let slip while caring for Addie over the holidays and also with trying to bring some perspective to this whole, ongoing, experience.
When all this began I created a Google Alert for “Optima dog food”, so I’d know any time the phrase appeared on Google’s news channel. For weeks there wasn’t a peep, but then suddenly (just after the Shanghai Daily piece) it lit up and I began receiving several notices a day.
Perhaps most prominently, the Associated Press picked up the…
read more...a
n 12 20
09
Shanghai Daily-late and dollar short
The Shanghai Daily finally got around to reporting on the emergency recall of dog food after pets poisoned and seem just as confused as the rest of the net on where the Optima dog food comes from and how it ended up killing dogs in China (including my baby).
The site reports:
Since the end of November at least 20 dogs are believed to have died in Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing and Hangzhou from liver complications. Some pets died within 10 days of showing symptoms.
An agent of Shanghai Yidi Pet Co Ltd, a Shanghai dealer of Optima
…
read more...a
n 06 20
09
Addie’s Ashes – cremating our dog in China
It’s been a handful of days now, and both Maggie and I are coming to terms with Addie’s death. I still expect her to be there, wagging her tail, when we open the front door; and I still look for her underfoot when I get up from the sofa. But time is a cool leveler, and has given me a glimpse that the pain we initially felt will eventually fade and be replaced by our numerous fond memories of her.
One step in that process is laying her to rest. You would think that with everyone and their cousin having…
read more...a
n 04 20
09
From time to eternity
Addie has died. I’ve sat here at my computer for a while now looking for the right words to start this post with and can’t come up with any. But as that first sentence is why I’m sitting here, it seems reasonable that it is where I should start.
Reason. Ration. These are vile words when you’ve lost a loved one. Words that, like some linguistic drug, offer you an escape from the pain you’re feeling by masking it with purpose and order.
But, and continuing with the metaphor, they’re circular. Rationalizing the death leads no where. There’s no reason.…
read more...e
c 31 20
08
Addie Update #2: The Youth in Asia Debate
A couple of days ago I drew up a calendar on a whiteboard Maggie uses to keep track of her yoga clients. The calendar shows the dates from December 23 (the day before we found out Addie was suffering from aflatoxicity) to January 4th (one day after the vet said she would be lucky to live until).
It’s been a week, and with three days to go, Addie’s still putting up a good fight. She’s looking a bit worse for wear though, and despite us doing our best to clean her, smells of a rather horrible combination of stomach…
read more...e
c 28 20
08
Addie Update
Having been up until 4am the last two nights watching my dog suck endless bottles of medical juice into her veins, my head’s not really in the game – but I wanted to post a bit of an update on her condition and the situation as a whole.
First, she’s de-energized but still fighting. She’s having a really hard time keeping any food (and/or pills) down, and is quite nauseated most of the time. We’ve routinely been giving her shots to help with the nausea, and that seems to alleviate it for a while, but hasn’t much helped her appetite…
read more...e
c 25 20
08
US-made Optima dog food in China may have killed my dog
In what’s poised to be the absolute worst Christmas ever, there is an excellent chance my dog – my awesome, beautiful, wonderful, fantastic dog – is going to die.
After posting the other day about the possibility of her having come into contact with aflatoxin contaminated Optima dog food, a visit to the vet yesterday confirmed it. Her liver is shutting down.
We had hoped that her fussy eating lately was just her usual finicky self. However, when the whites of her eyes yellowed yesterday and she peed in the house (something she never does) we called…
read more...e
c 23 20
08
Feeding your dog Optima in China? Stop.
The last two days we’ve been dealing with a bit of a scare. We got a call from our pet shop asking us if we’d seen the news. Optima – the decent-quality, American-made dog food we’ve always fed our pup – was issuing a major recall because contaminants had been found in it.
Apparently since the end of November about 30 dogs have died in the Yangtze Delta (Shanghai, Nanjing, Suzhou, etc.) of liver complications – and they all ate Optima dog food.
According to the pet shop, the food was contaminated with “黄曲霉素”, or aflatoxin, an extremely toxic and…
read more...e
c 18 20
08
America more communist than China?
Aside from the proliferation of Chinese food other than Cantonese world-wide, the coolest part of the People’s Republic’s grand opening 30 years ago was that the country started down the long road of disassembling State-run industries. If communism has proven anything, it’s that the government has no ability to properly run a business, any more than a corporation has any ability to run social programs (thank you capitalism for teaching us that nugget).
Now with the majority of State-run businesses at least partly privatized, and the future of an econimically powerful China prophecized, why is it that the Great Torchbearer of…
read more...
AJB: 
Ping Pong: 
ccddmj: 
ji xiang: 
