Date:	2008-09-04 20:10
Subject:	Jetlag + 60-hour week = ... not much else. lol
Security:	Public
Mood:	accomplished

Sorry I've been quiet on LJ lately! (No need to tell me – I know you've been despondent since my post rate dipped below twice a day.) I'm still figuring out how to work at 12+ hour work day (door-to-door) and still have time to, you know, exist. lol On a related note, I've discovered that I have to leave for work before the dry cleaning place opens and I don't get back until after it closes. This could be problematic.

So, new job, new card!

I am unofficially moved in! I want to clean it up and nest some, and there's still some paperwork to do with the PSB... and the minor detail of announcing my existence to my landlord and explaining that I'll be subletting *cough* but other than that, it's all good! The place is amazing. Bigger than I need, and very comfortable! ( Pictures, shall we? )

So that's home for the next two months!

I really ought to call the landlord... lol

Date:	2008-08-30 04:01
Subject:	Shanghaied!
Security:	Public
Mood:	excited

After about 20 hours of travel, I arrived safe and sound in Shanghai!

I couldn't make my cell phone work (I later discovered that it's battery was so dead that it needed a direct jolt of juice, not the normal charger), so I went to a cafe I knew to Skype the guy with the key to my future apartment. As I sat down, I thought I recognized the girl at the next table. "That's impossible," I thought, "I must just be fresh back to Asia and temporarily convinced that all Chinese people look alike." So I made my call, and discovered that I was too late to pick up the key that day. Drat. But then...

"Andy?"

Sure enough, the girl at the table next to me was Emma Wang, Chris's language partner from Nanjing and the one person in this city of 17 million people that I know! Unbelievable! It turned out that she was in the area because she'd met a friend nearby for lunch and would be meeting another for dinner, and was just killing time in between. Wow. We chatted for a while, then she helped me find a nearby hotel for the night. I rather sensibly took her advice and indulged in a $40 hotel room so I could de-stress and clean up from the trip.

After that, I got my cell working again (though I don't actually know my new number yet - I'll post it when I do) and even managed to stay up until (nearly) 8:30! hahaha

Life is good. Today, I'll move into my apartment at 2, register with the police, get my clothes pressed for work, and try to find the office! Life is good.

It's amazing the extent to which going to China for "just" two months has become no big deal.

I should really think about starting to pack. Or, you know, finishing unpacking from the last trip. Or figuring out what time my flight leaves tomorrow.

Maybe after lunch.

Date:	2008-08-26 14:51
Subject:	Happy Birthday to me!
Security:	Public
Mood:	happy

While I've been home this summer, I've helped out with a number of projects around the house. Recently, my dad mentioned a wobbly bookshelf in the garage, and asked me to toss in another nail or two to shore it up. Well, I took a good look at that bookcase, and I realized that one person or another has "tossed in another nail or two to shore it up" for years. There must have been fifty (mostly ineffectual) nails spiking out of the thing, to the point where the back of it looked more like some kind of kinky S&M implement than a functional bookshelf!

It's just a bookshelf in the garage, so Dad made clear that it wasn't worth too much effort. Well, I've got time on my hands and so, in furtherance of the eminently reasonable dictum "While doing no harm to others or to yourself, do whatever the fuck it takes to keep yourself entertained," I decided to do the job right. I completely took the thing apart, removed every single nail, sanded down each piece of wood, stained, and re-varnished the bookcase. Then I put the entire thing back together with wood glue and screws. The result?

Date:	2008-08-23 22:55
Subject:	omg these things are awesome
Security:	Public
Mood:	nerdy

Fact: No matter how many of those awesome magnet construction toys you have, it would always be cooler if you had more. Always.

Date:	2008-08-22 22:27
Subject:	Way back where I come from
Security:	Public
Mood:	excited

dude. I go back to China in less than a week! That only just now became real to me. huh Probably 'bout time to finish unpacking from the last trip! haha

It also occurs to me that I'm going to be home on my actual birthday for the first time in... five years? Since the start of college, anyway. I'm looking forward to that.

so... yeah. Life is good!

Date:	2008-08-19 22:36
Subject:	Going to China... for real!
Security:	Public
Mood:	excited

Thursday, August 28

• Delta 4151: Departs Cleveland 6:00 am, arrives Atlanta 7:39 am
  
• Delta 19: Departs Atlanta 10:05 am, arrives Shanghai Friday, August 29, 1:45 pm.
  
  Tuesday, 28 October
  
• Delta 18: Departs Shanghai 3:45 pm, arrives Atlanta 6:05 pm
  
• Delta 4181: Departs Atlanta 9:30 pm, arrives Cleveland 11:08 pm

Date:	2008-08-14 16:52
Subject:	WARNING: Extreme dorkiness!
Security:	Public
Mood:	accomplished
Music:	The Decemberists - Sons and Daughters

It's a crucial situation. A 3 a.m. phone call moment, if you will. You've got 24 armies on Kamchatka; your opponent has 17 on Alaska. Do you try to break into North America? Is Obama ready for this kind of decision? Is McCain? Well, I am!

I've been on a mission on and off for a few years to figure out the odds in Risk battles. Since I don't have the stats background to do it in a "pure" calculation, I decided to hack it together by writing a program to simulate battles and keep track of the outcome. I was doing this on my TI-83+ back in college, but its CPU (and its batteries!) just weren't up to the tens of thousands of iterations I wanted to do. Well, this week I finally got off (on) my ass and taught myself enough JavaScript to do it on my computer.

( WARNING: Extreme dorkiness! )

So, what are highlights?

• For small battles (fewer than 10 armies on each side), the attacker has the advantage if he starts off with at least one more attacker than there are defenders. For bigger battles, you're going to want an advantage of two or more.
  
• There's no such thing as a perfect attack. Even in the most lopsided battles, the attacker should count on loosing at least one army.
  
• An arms race favors defenders. The bigger the troop build-ups, the greater a numerical advantage the attacker needs to win.
  
• Adding more armies has the biggest impact where there are the fewest to begin with. With one defender, you have a 25% chance of fending off two attackers; add one more, and your chances suddenly go to 64%.
  
• Beware the Law of Small Numbers! The stats I figured out are based on millions (or at least hundreds of thousands) of battles, and the hundred or so battles in any given game of Risk could very easily look nothing like these odds.

Date:	2008-08-09 22:37
Subject:	Citius, Altius, Finally...ius
Security:	Public
Mood:	happy

I can't believe the Olympics are actually happening! After years and years of buildup in China, I'd started to think of it as a sort of Iraq-esue "aspirational time horizon" that you'll never actually get to.

I was baking today, so I saw some of whatever random event was on at the time. Things I learned today:

• There's actually more to beach volleyball than incredibly fit women in incredibly small bikinis. They have hand signals! That must mean it's a real sport! Also, one of the announcers referred to the father of a member of the Lithuanian team as 'A legend in the history of Lithuanian beach volleyball history.' This made me giggle.
  
• Michael Phelps can set an Olympic record during qualifying rounds... after dialing way back from his start to preserve energy for the real thing later. wow.
  
• Seeing the bike race through Beijing and then the Great Wall made me homesick!
  
• Some talking head thought that the Opening Ceremony was, and I very closely paraphrase, "Possibly the most important night in China's 5,000 years of history." This person is silly.
  
• Even NBC broadcasters can't reliably pronounce Sichuan. It's SIH-chwon (first sylable sounds like "sit" without the T), not Szechwan. stop it.

Date:	2008-08-05 12:19
Subject:	It's a sin when success complains
Security:	Public
Mood:	disappointed
Music:	Rilo Kiley – It's a Hit

My internship start date has been pushed back from August 15 to September 1.

I saw this coming, and it's no huge deal, but its still disappointing. On the official U.N. Scale of Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Things (where 1 is a rather bad hangnail and 10 is a giant meteor about to destroy the earth), I'd say it's about a 1.2, 1.3, somewhere in there. Disappointing, but not worth bothering Moreno-Ocampo over.

On the up-side: MUCH MORE D&D!!! lol

Speaking of my subject line, I can't help but be amused that people are flipping their shit because economists expect China's growth rate to decrease to "just" 9 or 9.5 percent over the coming year. Man, that country's gonna go nuts when it hits an honest-to-god economic downturn!

Date:	2008-08-04 12:50
Subject:	everything could just keep going on the way it was only you just wouldn't be there
Security:	Public
Mood:	impressed

There's a really excellent article about Mao's continuing role as a cultural icon in China, told from a very "Andy Warhol" perspective: The Power of Mao, Multiplied. Really interesting! And, if you go through the slide show, you will never look at mangoes the same way again. I promise.

Date:	2008-08-03 20:51
Subject:	If you listen to the heartland
Security:	Public
Mood:	happy
Music:	Butterfly Boucher - Another White Dash

I'm home, safe and sound, in Ohio. Today had absurdly good driving weather – the kind of weather that gives you a hilariously asymmetrical tan and makes you not care what having the windows down and the sunroof open at 70 does to your gas millage. Good times! I-77 is beautiful as it winds through the mountains of West Virginia... but don't buy gas there! Fill up in Virginia and hold out 'til Ohio, no doubt. Anyway, I really enjoyed the drive.

While I had a successful afternoon, the same cannot be said, unfortunately, of my D&D character! Within minutes of pulling into my driveway, I got a call from gaius_marius informing me that SUV Tahoe al'Durango of the Humvee clan (we all named our characters after cars... don't ask) was about to fail his third and final saving throw against death. TPK'd!

And so, to commemorate this excellent vacation, I leave you with this Rather Unfortunate Photo:

Date:	2008-07-30 13:46
Subject:	North Carolina!
Security:	Public
Mood:	happy

I've been down in North Carolina, visiting Julianna and Caela (and Gus and Kiwi!). Great times! I have also discovered that North Carolina Barbecue is delicious (and taken way too seriously by its devotees). We had eastern-style NC BBQ, which is pulled pork with an awesome vinegar/hot pepper/salt sauce - totally different from the overly sweet, ketchup-based gloppy sauce that you get as "BBQ Sauce" in the supermarket! I think the sauce would also make an amazing salad dressing. mmmm...

Next step is Virginia! Whether or not we'll go up to D.C. is still up in the air. We shall see!

Date:	2008-07-27 22:09
Subject:	Workin' that liberal arts degree!
Security:	Public
Mood:	productive

I have been useful like a fiend around the house. Yesterday, before helping Papa with lawn work for a few hours, I stopped the squeak in Charlotte's bed by reinforcing the squeaking joints with a second bolt padded with rubber washers. Check. Today, my mom told me that her Magic Faucet Fountain (a lot like this, but into rocks in a bucket instead of a watering can) had slowed to a trickle, killing the illusion. I saw that it had a lot of calcium deposits from ten years of limestone in water, so I decided to take the rocks out and run pure vinegar through the system for an hour or two. Worked like a charm! The pump is back to full strength, and the bucket itself is shiny as new. This is why you send your kids to a liberal arts school! haha

Further projects on the home front will have to wait, though, because my Southern Tour begins tomorrow! I'm headed to North Carolina to visit Jul and Caela tomorrow morning, and then up to Virginia to visit Chris on Wednesday! Chris and I may swing up to D.C., but I figure we'll play it by ear. Should be fun!

From the Erotic Domain, an Aerobic Trend in China

Like I needed another reason to get back to China as fast as reasonably possible!

Date:	2008-07-24 10:50
Subject:	uh-oh
Security:	Public
Mood:	anxious

This doesn't bode even a little bit well for my visa to do the internship at HCD. According to the China Economic Review:

Five of mainland China's six Olympic host cities have effectively suspended business visa services for foreigners until after the games, the South China Morning Post reported. Authorities in Beijing, Shanghai, Qingdao, Shenyang and Qinhuangdao will no longer provide the invitation letters required in support of applications to visit the mainland for business, market research or training. According to the relevant authorities in each city, the issuance of invitation letters will recommence in mid-September. The Shanghai Foreign Economic Relations and Trade Commission said the new restrictions were ordered by "the superior authorities" in order to "sustain social stability during the games." Shanghai authorities said exemptions would be made in emergencies, while Beijing said it may consider applications from people coming to sign contracts in China.

As my birthday present to Charlotte, I took her and Rachel to Cedar Point today! We'd been planning to go yesterday, but there was a threat of thunderstorms, so we went today instead. This prooved to be a mistake.

We went on Raptor and Millennium Force, grabbed some burgers for lunch, and were waiting in line for the Magnum when the rain started. Once we started hearing thunder, we figured the rides would be closed for a while, and that we'd get our hands stamped to come back in, go play a round or two of bowling in Sandusky, then come back. Turns out, not so much.

On our way out, Rachel wanted to be sure we hit her favorite part of going to Cedar Point: Dippin' Dots. While we sat under a tree, vaguely sheltered from the rain, the ran got harder and harder and harder! We finally abandoned our ice cream and headed for the car. By this time, the rain was so heavy that there were ankle-deep rivers flowing down the midway and we were completely soaked! Then the hail started. Fun fact: pea-sized hail hurts. lol We took shelter with some other folks in the awning of a hot dog joint, then headed for the car when it was over.

Predictably, the instant - the exact instant - that we got to the car, the rain stopped, the sky cleared, and the rest of the day promised to be beautiful. By that time, though, we, our clothes, and our shoes were completely drenched, and I knew it'd be a few hours before they opened the rides back up anyway. We called it.

And you know what? It was a blast. My sisters are growing up into very cool people, and (fortunately!) they thought that our rain-drenched fiasco was quite the adventure! Rachel was singing in the rain and Charlotte was happily lamenting that this boded ill for her fourteenth year. haha That's cool, you know? I mean, it was gonna rain. Nothin' to be done about that but decide how you're gonna deal with it. And they chose to make a memory of it.

Good times!

Remember that job I applied for during the Olympics? Unsurprisingly, not gonna happen:

Hi Andrew,

I learned this morning that we will definitely not be able to process visas for anyone who is not already in country. You were among the better qualified candidates, but given the various logistical and time constraints, management was forced to give greater priority to immediate availability in making their decision.

However, thanks again for your interest.

Date:	2008-07-20 11:11
Subject:	Semagic
Security:	Public
Mood:	happy
Music:	Dar Williams - Iowa (Traveling III)

I've decided to try using the Semagic downloadable client for LiveJournal posts. It feels a little less hardcore than doing it off the website, but at least I can still type my HTML if I want to! My theory (and it's a bad one) is that maybe this'll work better in China than having to Tor my way into the full website. It won't.

I am, however, completely enamored with this client's "Detect Music Now" button! I'm going to have to start listening to music just to detect it!

In other news, this is a great article from the Post: China Is Growing Unfriendly to Foreigners, Visitors Say. Doesn't exactly bode well for my last-minute efforts to get a visa to work the Olympics!