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Post by tao on Jan 12, 2020 3:05:51 GMT -5
24 and sleet this morning, snowing now... Fuck you all. Volunteering to help shovel out Lambeau Field? No, no... if I wanted to, I would need notice in advance... also, I’ve done enough shoveling to last me another year or two.
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Post by Calvinball on Jan 14, 2020 21:48:58 GMT -5
So Bourbon Street is fucking dope, I have to be up at six tomorrow.
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Post by stringypoo on Jan 15, 2020 21:09:40 GMT -5
Today and tomorrow are awesome. I’m getting paid to come to school and not teach. I get to watch football and drink coffee, plan lessons ahead of schedule at my leisure and just enjoy the days. Gotta love Chinese New Year and its effects on my work. Also gonna love two and a half weeks off from work starting next week.
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Post by v9733xa on Jan 17, 2020 17:30:54 GMT -5
End of the year Mosh Awards?
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Post by stringypoo on Jan 17, 2020 18:32:13 GMT -5
End of the year Mosh Awards?
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Post by stringypoo on Jan 19, 2020 23:49:49 GMT -5
One of the best things about being a foreigner in China, and able to speak and understand a fair amount of it? I can choose when “Yes, I speak Chinese” or not. Sometimes I conveniently turn off my chinese ability to avoid undesirable situations or conversations. It’s awesome. I can practice this for the rest of my Chinese life.
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Post by Calvinball on Jan 20, 2020 11:02:45 GMT -5
Chick-fil-A has way too tasty of a mac and cheese for a fast food joint.
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Post by v9733xa on Jan 23, 2020 18:05:28 GMT -5
I have a niece! Lillian Rose, born this morning in SoCal. Mom and Dad and big bro are doing great.
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Post by stringypoo on Jan 25, 2020 4:34:15 GMT -5
I don’t Google, I Bing!
As lame an alternative to Google Bing really is, it is quite adequate for a vpn-free life in China, and is my new response to people I’m conversing with who say “yeah, you could just go Google it.” Lol
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Post by Zeke on Jan 25, 2020 16:14:27 GMT -5
I don’t Google, I Bing! As lame an alternative to Google Bing really is, it is quite adequate for a vpn-free life in China, and is my new response to people I’m conversing with who say “yeah, you could just go Google it.” Lol DuckDuckGo is my choice of search of engine.
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Post by stringypoo on Jan 26, 2020 5:25:05 GMT -5
I don’t Google, I Bing! As lame an alternative to Google Bing really is, it is quite adequate for a vpn-free life in China, and is my new response to people I’m conversing with who say “yeah, you could just go Google it.” Lol DuckDuckGo is my choice of search of engine. I was intrigued. But of course, like a lot of good things, it seemed DuckDuckGo is another website that didn’t make the cut for the Great Firewall of China. I’ll still check it out on a vpn later, but that was a bummer.
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Post by stringypoo on Jan 27, 2020 0:33:46 GMT -5
Although my usual nature is to be always optimistic in the face of difficulties and all, the matter of the Coronavirus is not a situation in which I’m feeling as optimisric. It’s not that I believe I will die of it or anything, but I feel it will take a long time to clear up and will certainly take many lives with it.
For those who aren’t aware, the Coronavirus is a disease which can be carried by animals, but not typically passed to humans. However, in Wuhan (thankfully quite far from Shanghai), the disease was passed partly due to the area’s culinary interest in bat soup. The bats carried the virus in this case. But also, snakes had eaten those bats too, and people there also like to eat snake. So yeah, some people caught the Coronavirus. Its symptoms are like that if a common flu, so diagnosis by self isn’t really wise. It has already claimed a few lives, as it had advanced into a bad pneumonia stage. The worst part is that there is no known cure. Well, that’s one of the “worst parts.”
Along with this bad news, the Wuhan government downplayed the disease and made it seem everything is under control. Because of this mishandling, distressed hospital nurses had to leak a message or to spread the truth, which is that the hospital is overwhelmed in terror and with lack of resources to help patients. Another bad news of this is the fact that Chinese people are literally everywhere. People from Wuhan carrying this virus traveled to so many various places in and outside of China. There are currently at least 30 suspected cases of the virus in Shanghai now. My best friend in Singapore said there are four cases there currently as of yesterday. I know it has spread to many other places. I don’t know if it’s true, but I believe it reached Louisiana according to something I had seen on the tv news.
When this disease is frequently brought up in the same sentence as SARS, it’s hard to feel optimistic. Remember, China never beat SARS. Instead, the weather did, because it couldn’t survive under dry conditions. Well, Coronavirus might end up the same way, as its greatest repellent is moisture. Winter is the driest season in China, although it has rained for the last several days without stop here in Shanghai.
Perhaps the only positives are that: 1. It makes for excellent tv. Seeing the incredible acts of bravery of soldiers who flew into the quarantined city of Wuhan to provide relief and aid to the nurses and patients was incredible to watch on tv. Brings me to tears seeing those soldiers being interviewed before leaving, saying goodbye to their families, and sharing their dream of a brighter China. 2. It extends my two week break from my job at the international school to a whole month of break. This is a much lesser thing in my mind, but I guess when you’re dealing with a job in a school with 500 kids who likely came from anywhere, who knows what risks you’re running by staying in contact with them... 3. More time with family. My son Ethan just turned 7 months old. Goodness, I’m not a bragger, but he’s so freaking cute! Hahaha
Well, I don’t know, maybe I should have made a world news post instead of putting all my news and thoughts here, but whatevs. Like I said, I don’t expect to catch the virus and die or anything. Hell, I haven’t been outside the apartment in 8 days already! But the unknown is a bit scary for sure, and I’m not feeling terribly confident that this will go away anytime soon.
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Post by Blacksalt on Jan 27, 2020 10:07:58 GMT -5
Although my usual nature is to be always optimistic in the face of difficulties and all, the matter of the Coronavirus is not a situation in which I’m feeling as optimisric. It’s not that I believe I will die of it or anything, but I feel it will take a long time to clear up and will certainly take many lives with it. For those who aren’t aware, the Coronavirus is a disease which can be carried by animals, but not typically passed to humans. However, in Wuhan (thankfully quite far from Shanghai), the disease was passed partly due to the area’s culinary interest in bat soup. The bats carried the virus in this case. But also, snakes had eaten those bats too, and people there also like to eat snake. So yeah, some people caught the Coronavirus. Its symptoms are like that if a common flu, so diagnosis by self isn’t really wise. It has already claimed a few lives, as it had advanced into a bad pneumonia stage. The worst part is that there is no known cure. Well, that’s one of the “worst parts.” Along with this bad news, the Wuhan government downplayed the disease and made it seem everything is under control. Because of this mishandling, distressed hospital nurses had to leak a message or to spread the truth, which is that the hospital is overwhelmed in terror and with lack of resources to help patients. Another bad news of this is the fact that Chinese people are literally everywhere. People from Wuhan carrying this virus traveled to so many various places in and outside of China. There are currently at least 30 suspected cases of the virus in Shanghai now. My best friend in Singapore said there are four cases there currently as of yesterday. I know it has spread to many other places. I don’t know if it’s true, but I believe it reached Louisiana according to something I had seen on the tv news. When this disease is frequently brought up in the same sentence as SARS, it’s hard to feel optimistic. Remember, China never beat SARS. Instead, the weather did, because it couldn’t survive under dry conditions. Well, Coronavirus might end up the same way, as its greatest repellent is moisture. Winter is the driest season in China, although it has rained for the last several days without stop here in Shanghai. Perhaps the only positives are that: 1. It makes for excellent tv. Seeing the incredible acts of bravery of soldiers who flew into the quarantined city of Wuhan to provide relief and aid to the nurses and patients was incredible to watch on tv. Brings me to tears seeing those soldiers being interviewed before leaving, saying goodbye to their families, and sharing their dream of a brighter China. 2. It extends my two week break from my job at the international school to a whole month of break. This is a much lesser thing in my mind, but I guess when you’re dealing with a job in a school with 500 kids who likely came from anywhere, who knows what risks you’re running by staying in contact with them... 3. More time with family. My son Ethan just turned 7 months old. Goodness, I’m not a bragger, but he’s so freaking cute! Hahaha Well, I don’t know, maybe I should have made a world news post instead of putting all my news and thoughts here, but whatevs. Like I said, I don’t expect to catch the virus and die or anything. Hell, I haven’t been outside the apartment in 8 days already! But the unknown is a bit scary for sure, and I’m not feeling terribly confident that this will go away anytime soon. I’m not a religious person but I’m praying for you Stringy, I can’t imagine how scary it is right now in China with the threat of this virus spreading. The North American media is blowing it totally out of proportion (currently there is 1 presumptive case in Canada for instance) and its causing hysteria on social media but that’s pretty common for western media. I hope you stay safe and away from the outbreak but I realize you do come in contact with many people being a teacher. Stay safe man.
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Post by v9733xa on Jan 27, 2020 18:00:56 GMT -5
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Post by Blacksalt on Jan 27, 2020 18:51:00 GMT -5
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