interesting...

The Guardian has a noteworthy article titled: Websites that changed the world

I agree that these are all influential; however, some are better described as "websites that changed the world wide web."

1. eBay.com
2. wikipedia.com
3. napster.com
4. youtube.com
5. blogger.com
6. friendsreunited.com
7. drudgereport.com
8. myspace.com
9. amazon.com
10. slashdot.org
11. salon.com
12. craigslist.org
13. google.com
14. yahoo.com
15. easyjet.com

a good book

bought it Friday, read it Saturday, done by bedtime.

What Should I Do with My Life: The True Story of People Who Answered the Ultimate Question by Po Bronson. ISBN 0-345-48592-0. $10.99 in Canada.

It's definitely a good read. It's a collection of human interest stories on how some people have made work work for them in different ways at least temporarily. The author admits that he doesn't have a representative sample of Americans - very few minorities, mothers, immigrants etc... mostly white boomers and GenXers.

• There's a guy who gives up law to open a store that sells homestyle cakes (Becky).
• There are several people who find work in and out of their field overseas (Kern and Kristin).
• Several writers (Jaclyn).
• Many people who find or devote themselves to their cause. Why don't I know people who work fulltime for their cause?
• There's only one case of a guy who had spent his life preparing for one profession (marine biology), hated it, made an immediate switch to another profession (dentistry), and lived happily ever after.
• Otherwise there aren't really any fairy tales.

I would not hesitate to recommend it to anyone, regardless of whether s/he is satisfied with his/her work.

This was in The Guardian. The Guardian!

"According to Levine, parents should take care not to pressurise their children to try to be outstanding at everything...."

pressurise. pressurise!

I believe in language growth and change. I really do. But I cannot accept this.

Woe is I!

Photos from China

I actually have very few useable photos because of my camera's death and the number of times my film canisters were X-rayed. Which made the following compilation come together very quickly. To the right is my favourite shot and probably the biggest highlight of the trip - hiking the Great Wall at Simatai.


Our guides were invariable surprised that we went to the Great wall twice in Beijing. But they were very different experiences. Compared Badaling, Simatai is a little more remote (about three hours from Beijing versus 1.5 hours) and allows for more climbing. Simatai was restored during the Ming Dynasty and is more rustic than Badaling that has been more recently and heavily restored. There's no climbing the Han Dynasty wall near Dunhuang at the Western-most section of the Great Wall. It's made of straw and clay. This section is about the height of tall person.

The Great Wall
The Great Wall near Dunhuang Han Dynasty	Simatai. The Great Wall near Beijing Ming Dynasty	Badaling. The Great Wall near Beijing Ming Dynasty

The Forbidden City

The Other Four shots that actually developed properly
The Seventeen-Arch Bridge on Kunming Lake at the Summer Palace in Beijing	Jiaohe ruins. There were at one time Buddhas in each of the cubby holes. Jiaohe was a stop on the Silk Road until it was abandonned during Mongol invasions.
One of our stops on the Silk Road. This is the view from our hotel in Dunhuang	Yang, our favourite guide

The prime directive.

Dion insists that Yolande and I violated the prime directive in Dunhuang.

Our guide, Vicky, was a sweet but mousy young woman. Late on our last night while we were waiting for the driver I decided to make some fun. I asked Vicky if on a night like that, when she gets home late, whether her husband has dinner waiting for her. Well, by the look on her face, you'd think I was from another planet. Of course not. He gets fed at his mother's house.

I explained that in general, Dion and I split the cooking. If I cook, he cleans up. If he cooks, I clean up. cook together, clean together. Vicky was astonished. Not only was I recounting this freely in front of my mother-in-law but even more shockingly, my mother-in-law seemed pretty happy about it. She's proud that Dion pulls his own weight. She pointed out that it's fair that way when both people work and that Vicky could tell her husband that. Vicky's response? "I will. Thank you?"

I also told her that she should teach her son (now 3 years old) to cook. He'll get any girlfriend he wants. Vicky's response? "I will try." I don't think she meant it.

making friends in China

On my last night in China, I discovered the easiest way to make friends in China. Sit in an internet cafe with English prominently displayed on your monitor. Eventually, someone will sit beside you and start reading and making conversation. Exactly as 19-y.o. Xiaolaoshu did in my case. It was particularly fun since Xiaolaoshu speaks about 10 words of English so we had to make do with my Mandarin. In fact, we've already exchanged a couple of emails.

Having internet access also facilitates conversation. Babelfish from Altavista is helpful. Google Earth is a big hit but, unfortunately, it doesn't cover any part of China I've looked up.

I was also able to find a way to display the images that I have previously posted on my blog. Several were a source of great amusement for Xiaolaoshu, including that little paragraph in pinyin and characters that I wrote about a weekend. I was pleased that the pinyin seemed funnier than the characters. Xiaolaoshu also had a good laugh at a picture of me and Dion, although, I think he was just laughing at Dion because that is when I pointed out that Dion does not speak Chinese.