A slice of my life in the bubble

Book challenge

Mon, 06 Aug 2007 09:51:17 GMT

This will be quick in case I can't post for a while.

12--China for Women.
An anthology of different readings, essays, etc all relating to women and China. It was quite interesting.

13--The Wizard of Oz
This was fun, made the train to Suzhou pass very quickly.

14--Hauntings of Ghost by Ambrose Bierce
A collection of short stories all about ghost hauntings. Odd, but interesting.

15--Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
I listened to an audiorecording of this book and it was read by Eric Idle. That just made it even more enjoyable. But still, and sadly, certain parts worked better in the film. Or is it just that I have loved the film since I was very young?

16--Harry Potter 7
It was good, and overall engaging, but I was disappointed in the ending. Although I'm often disappointed with book endings. Maybe I expect too much.

I think I'm too tired

Mon, 06 Aug 2007 09:24:56 GMT

I was looking for some info on travelling to Tibet and/or Yunnan and I found a bunch of ads for travel agencies. One said, 'Visit Malaysia', but I'm kind of tired, so at first I thought it said, 'Visit Malaria'. And my answer to that would be no. I think my answer to visiting Malaysia is also no, but a less emphatic no than to malaria.

Mon, 06 Aug 2007 08:14:56 GMT

As the subject says, I don't know how long this connection will be good for so I need to post fast, and for all i know i could be blocked again for another few weeks, as happened last time.

Super super fast update:
--I have been going on lots of mini-holidays. It's been great. I'm discovering the pleasures of sleeping past 600am and rediscovering the joys of fresh air and green grass in the countryside.
--On one recent visit to Mogan Mountain, I experienced true countryside life in China. And I'm beginning to understand why there is the one child policy here. Everyone seemed to have at least one child attached to them. Even though there were huge propaganda slogans about family planning posted everywhere. I guess there's jsut no enforcement.
--After three years of hoping/looking, I've finally found compact head toothbrushes.
--I finally finished HP7. The ending was anti-climactic, as expected.
--I'm not sure what's going on before the end of the year, but I'm hoping to get to Tibet and maybe Yunnan. Basically, I just want to see green things and blue skies.
--Gym etiquette/behaviour still confuses me. I mean, why would people even consider walking backwards on a treadmill? And barefoot on a treadmill? That's just disgusting. What's perhaps more confusing though is why nobody from management seems to care about either of these things.

I tried posting earlier, got locked out. Hopefully this post will work, maybe I will have more chances to post again soon :)

Yay!!!

Thu, 12 Jul 2007 09:09:10 GMT

Livejournal is back up in China. At least for now. Let's hope it stays this way.

Food in China

Mon, 18 Jun 2007 08:33:35 GMT

This is a major reason that I don't eat food from restaurants or street vendors here:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070617/ap_on_re_as/asia_tainted_foods;_ylt=AsQYKM3Ay8qjs0G4WSaZsyQR.3QA

I only buy imported manufactured foods, and these are things like yeast, pasta, rice, whole grains, olive oil and spices. I also buy organically-grown produce here, but I can only hope that what I'm buying is actually being grown without pesticides and other chemicals. And sometimes cooking at home all the time gets really tiring, but then I read an article like that one, and I know it's worth it.

Just a few things

Mon, 18 Jun 2007 00:17:19 GMT

In case any of you wanted to educate yourselves a bit more about comma splices and were disappointed with my last post, check here:

http://www.answers.com/comma%20splice

I included the address in the post, but it disappeared when it was actually posted. But that's what I get for posting from China.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Last week I was working ridiculous hours. It's over for a little bit now, but I had really been looking forward to just relaxing and having down time over the weekend. Instead, I was playing host somewhat unexpectedly. A friend of mine told me she was coming to Shanghai for work and asked if she could stay at my place. Giving her a place to stay was fine, but she also wanted to hang out. The entire weekend. I already had made some other plans and invited her to join, but she wasn't particularly happy about it. Also, having her stay with me reminded me that I'm not so much a morning person. I actually had to escape to a long, hot shower to get some quiet alone time Sunday morning.

Comma splice

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 04:28:59 GMT

A comma splice is basically a comma used where some other sort of punctuation should be used--a semi-colon, a colon, a period (aka, full stop). Using a comma splice creates a run-on sentence. And in the words of a journalist friend of mine, 'It's Punctuation 101'.

See </a> this page</a> for more info.

I know you were trying to help, but...

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 00:25:09 GMT

I have had a massive amount of work to do this week and applying for my work permit to be renewed really didn't help the situation. My colleague, on the other hand, has been relatively free this week, so he helped me review some chapters. The deadline is coming quickly, and I was already feeling tense last night when I reviewed the chapters he checked for me. So imagine my displeasure when I saw that he had edited text with no errors to actual put in errors, including a comma splice, which has kind of become his trademark. How can someone work as an editor for more than one year and (a) not know what a comma splice is and (b) not know how to avoid using one? Now I just have 33 more chapters to review and send off to the copublisher this afternoon before 4.00 p.m. I think I'll just crawl into bed tonight. I need to sleep.

Weekend, why do you always end so quickly?

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 00:50:38 GMT

I had so much to do this weekend. I really wish it had lasted longer.

Friday night was Dan and Shoshanna's last Shabbat at the Jewish Center. The rabbi made a short speech, and then Dan and Shoshanna each said something. Ortal and Zachi were also there to celebrate their engagement. So the place was pretty much packed, but there were few visitors.

Saturday I was supposed to have dinner with a friend, but Shoshanna had told me she wanted to go to the spa with me. She's leaving Shanghai in a few days, so I cancelled my dinner plans. But by the time I got home from synagogue and called Shoshanna, she had been waiting 20 minutes for me to return her call and had made other plans. After I got off the phone with Shoshanna, Noah called to see if I wanted to join him and some friends to celebrate his birthday. Luckily, they were at a Japanese place across the street from my apartment, so I just had to changes clothes quickly. Then we went to Mesa, a snazzy bar in town, where someone was celebrating a birthday with confetti and popping things; the popping things were pretty loud, which is why we think the police showed up for a quick look.

Sunday morning I met Ortal and Zachi for breakfast because they were leaving in the afternoon for Israel. Then I went home to bake bread (tasty, but rock hard), make curry (mmm....pumpkin greens) and review the last 15 chapters of my colleague's book. This past weekend was supposed to involve no overtime, but the proofs of my book came in two days earlier than expected, and I was still reviewing chapters for my colleague, so I had to hurry up and finish the book.

This week I will be very busy reviewing the proofs because they want them back two days earlier. And I have to renew my visa this week. I think this will be my only post this week.

I love good news phone calls

Fri, 08 Jun 2007 03:39:18 GMT

A friend of mine just called to tell me that she is engaged. Maybe I sounded more excited than she expected on the phone, but I know how much she has been waiting for this. She and her boyfriend have been together for four or five years already. They take off frequently for Israel, but basically they have been living in Shanghai for about two years now.

As a side note, talking with her reminds me that I need to improve my Hebrew conversational skills or at least learn the Hebrew for certain important things that I only know Yiddish for (e.g., candle lighting).

Maybe there is hope for me

Thu, 07 Jun 2007 04:35:01 GMT

I was reading one of my favourite food blogs (http://www.nandyala.org/mahanandi/) when I saw a very familiar picture in the upper right-hand corner of the page. It was hong mi xian! It has an English name--amaranth. That means I can probably buy the vegetable outside of China. That news makes me very happy.

C.ensoring based on personal choice

Thu, 07 Jun 2007 01:09:39 GMT

I have had many disagreements with one editor in particular at our copublisher, and considering his rapid/rabid response, he has always given me the impression that his editing choices are made based on personal feelings rather than professional ones. I can easily point to the reading textbook I reviewed last week, where they had inserted the word 'Palestine' into the text, citing China's recognition of it as a government, but removed the word 'Israel', saying that it was far too political a word. First of all, the politics involving the word 'Israel' also involve the word 'Palestine'. And secondly, while the government recognizes Palestine as a government, it also recognizes Israel as a government.

Yesterday, I found even more proof of some of the inconsistent editing going on at our copublisher's office. I was reviewing a textbook (general English teaching, for classroom use) meant for JH students. As an example of an Ang Lee film, _Brokeback Mountain_ was included. The subject matter, and the fact that the film was kind of barred in China, makes this absolutely inappropriate. Then, in the next chapter, there was a lesson teaching about detectives and some of the related vocabulary. That in and of itself is not a problem, but the subject matter was murder. How is that appropriate for JH students? And in case you want to better appreciate the situation, or just want some entertainment, this is the sample dialogue from that chapter:

S1: Who do you think may be the murderer?
S2: I think Jimmy White is most likely to be the murderer.
S1: Why?
S2: Because he's tall and strong. He is good at fighting too.
S1: I don't think so. He's always helpful.
S2: Then who do you think is the murderer?
S1: I think Frank Johnson is the murderer because he is nervous and cruel.

Who writes this stuff?

Wed, 06 Jun 2007 08:42:55 GMT

I kind of have a lull in my work while I wait for the proofs of the listening book I've been working on to arrive. So yesterday I started reviewing one of the teacher's books for my (Chinese) colleague. This TB is just a translation, meaning that it has already been published in English and there should basically be nothing questionable in it. Let me just say that I hope that the English version doesn't look like this because this has a ridiculous amount of Chinglish in it. And on top of that, it gives the film _Brokeback Mountain_ as an example of Ang Lee's work. Regardless of how one feels about the film, I think it pretty much goes without saying that this is an inappropriate example to give 12-year-old students. Especially in China.

[I want to respond to some comments that have been left recently. pingpongphil please leave a comment with your email address and then delete it. druiaen please leave me your email address and delete it too. The comments are all emailed to me.]

Are we really that strange-looking?

Wed, 06 Jun 2007 05:20:34 GMT

I've found over the years living in China that people seem to stare at me. This was understandable when I lived in Suzhou, a small city of five million, but not in Shanghai, a city of nearly twenty million that has tons of foreigners. And yet, many of my expat friends tell me that they get stared at more when they're with than with other expats.

What's worse than the staring is the pictures. Sometimes, people sneak up quietly next to me or near me and take a picture, thinking that I won't notice or won't care. People also used to take photos of me on their mobile phones at the train station when I was commuting between Suzhou and Shanghai. Again, no permission asked.

Shoshanna and I were talking about this yesterday, and she shared a few stories with me that are definitely worse than what I've experienced. When she and another female friend were travelling through Beijing--again, not a small city--people kept taking photos of them, without saying anything to them at all. Then two days ago, in Shanghai, Shoshanna was walking with Dan (her boyfriend), also an expat. Suddenly, she felt an arm around her shoulder. It was a young woman who was asking her boyfriend to take a picture of the two of them together. She didn't say anything to Shoshanna. Shoshanna told her that she didn't want her photo taken; Dan offered to pose with the young woman, but she said no.

It's not like this sort of thing happens every day, but it certainly happens often enough, and it rarely happens to men here. (I've only heard of it happening once.) And after a while, you kind of get tired of it.

Now last year

Tue, 05 Jun 2007 01:13:19 GMT

Every once in a while, I like to stop and think about where I was a year ago and what I was doing. Things seem to happen so quickly in Shanghai, and I find that reviewing things in this way helps me to put everything in perspective a bit better.

At this time last year, wilperegrine and I were kind of sort of planning for Michael's birthday, and I was preparing myself for wilperegrine's eventual departure from Shanghai. wilperegrine was still teaching in Shanghai and keeping my couch warm on Friday nights. Sometimes Saturday nights too.

So I guess my question is, do any of you ever do this sort of regular life review? And where were you at this time last year? What were you doing? Have things changed drastically?

And the total is ...

Tue, 05 Jun 2007 01:04:58 GMT

Yesterday I was reviewing my May Overtime log sheet and I saw that I had worked 37 hours overtime. 37 hours! That's like fitting an extra week into the month of May.

Does this mean I'll be a rabbit soon?

Mon, 04 Jun 2007 06:57:43 GMT

For the past couple of weeks, I have been having fun experimenting and cooking with the different greens sold here. Two weeks ago, I tried clover, which was fun and refreshing, but you can't really chop it, which makes eating it somewhat inconvenient. Last week, I became obsessed with hong mi xian, which was translated as Red Mi Xian on the package. (I've tried searching everywhere for an English name and I just can't find one.) In the package, the leaves are mostly green with a little bit of red blooming from the center. When you cook them, though, they turn the liquid and anything else in the pan a fantastically bright red color. This week, my project is pumpkin stalk. I've been eyeing the packages on the shelf for several weeks now, but I've stopped myself from getting it every time because I keep thinking, 'I'm not a rabbit and this isn't the G*rea*t L*ea*p F*orwar*d'. I've yet to find any recipes or information on how to prepare, but I figure I can't go wrong with a curry. That way, if it's really tough or slightly bitter, the curry will help cure that problem.

(I haven't found recipes for any of these greens, which leads me to believe that people on the other side of the world don't actually eat them. That makes me sad.)

Why aren't weekends longer?

Mon, 04 Jun 2007 00:50:05 GMT

As usual, I feel that this past weekend ended far too quickly. Lots happened, but not all of it's important. Here are some of the more interesting things:

--Friday night. Binyamin and I were talking after dinner. I was saying that I was feeling kind of down and wanted to call cao2323 to talk, even if for just like ten minutes. He responded by telling me that despite our close friendship, she's now married and I should leave her alone to live with her husband. Who even asked him?

--Saturday. Michael was telling me about how expensive his ticket to Israel is. I said it didn't sound like a lot of money, especially because there are no direct flights from Shanghai to Israel. Perhaps I could have said it in a nicer tone, but I'm tired of hearing him complain all the time.

In the evening, I spoke with two young women at the Jewish Center. They knew what they were doing when it came to the praying, but they were both wearing flip flops, so I knew that they'd be OK to talk to. It turns out that they just graduated from Penn and know sen_ichi_rei, as well as a young couple that lived in Shanghai last year.

--Sunday. My landlord sent someone to fix my washing machine. The guy had no idea of what he was doing, so my washing machine is still broken. With the same problem it had at this time last year.

Dan and Shoshanna's going away brunch was in the afternoon. It was a really nice party, with a huge mix of people. It was still going when I left at 5:30 to meet the recent Penn grads for dinner.

After dinner, I called Kerin to see if she wanted to go get a facial. She suggested a foot massage instead. We both fell asleep during the massage. It was so typical for Shanghai, and yet, so abnormal for pretty much anywhere outside of Asia.

It only gets better...

Fri, 01 Jun 2007 07:54:59 GMT

In another chapter of the reading book, I found the following sentence:

After that, in true Mexican style, it was party time!

(This was in a chapter about the Day of the Dead.) This author is known for putting in incredibly inappropriate things (which is actually why I pretty much refused to work with him), but the chapter that I am reviewing is supposed to have been copy edited. This means that it has gone through several rounds of editing, been reviewed by more than one person in the office, been fact checked and it has been reviewed by our copublisher. And yet not one person found a problem with this sentence.

I know that I tend to have high standards, but I don't think that removing a sentence like that from a chapter should fall under the category of 'high standards editing'. What's wrong with the people in my office? Are they all a bunch of bigots or are they just not paying attention to their work?

And you say you checked the facts?

Fri, 01 Jun 2007 01:47:32 GMT

I've been reviewing chapters from the reading book that my colleague has been editing. Apparently, my suggestion for a chapter on yoga was rejected and replaced with one about a kosher restaurant. I didn't realize this, and at no point did my colleague ask me to glance over the chapter to make sure that there weren't any glaring mistakes. So imagine my surprise when I started reading it and saw the following:

The waiters and waitresses all wear traditional Jewish clothing. The women wear white shirts and colourful headscarves, and the men are all smartly dressed in black suits and hats.

The chapter is called 'An evening at Kayitz Mis'ada' but it might as well have been titled 'An evening in the European Jewish ghettos'. This chapter is supposed to have been fact checked and be ready to send to the typesetter. How did this sort of thing get sent out to the copublisher? How did the editors in our office ever think of possibly approving this?

Has it really been 10 years?

Fri, 01 Jun 2007 00:02:46 GMT

I was just rereading a post from druiaen saying that she might take out the tongue ring that she's had for ten years. I can't believe it's been that long. I remember watching her actually get it done, and after that, I'm not sure that I could ever watch another person get his or her tongue pierced.

Don't worry, I'm not becoming a night owl

Thu, 31 May 2007 23:55:03 GMT

This past week I have not been able to drag myself out of bed before 600 am. (It probably doesn't help that Kerin's been away from Shanghai, so I haven't had the extra incentive of going to the track with her.) So I've been jogging in the evenings, which I used to avoid because I always had difficulty falling asleep afterwards. But now, I use that extra time after my jog to cook food for the next day's lunch. Last night, I had fun making something with garam masala powder, new potatoes, quinoa and a leafy green vegetable called red mi xian (that was the English on the package and I can't find any further translation for 'mi xian').

In other news...Binyamin's back in China, and tonight will be his first night in Shanghai, so we'll probably spend time catching up. Sunday is the going away party brunch for Dan and Shoshanna. They're leaving on the 16th, but they're moving to Long Island, so it's not so bad. And my project is finally nearing completion. The first set of proofs may possibly arrive on Wednesday. The copublisher will probably inform me the morning after they've sent the proofs by overnight courier.

Oxford Reference Online is the Motorola of search engine software

Thu, 31 May 2007 07:26:20 GMT

One of the problems I have this afternoon is trying to decide whether body parts should be listed as plural or singular when the possessive pronoun 'our' is used. I searched for 'our brains' in ORO, and the definition for pea-brain was the first result. Who designed the search engine software for ORO? It's ridiculous. They have fantastic information on the site, but I can never find anything useful because their search engine is terrible.

I only like politics when I can vote

Thu, 31 May 2007 00:24:44 GMT

Last December, when I was writing up topics for one of the Reading books, I suggested using a travel diary about Israel in one of the chapters. At that time, our copublisher told us that they would prefer to avoid discussing Israel because of political issues. I can accept this. Our books are supposed to avoid overt politics. So then I suggested a travel diary of Jordan instead because my real purpose was to show students something about the Middle East outside of politics and conflict; they know nothing about the area physically or its people and customs. The copublisher accepted that suggestion.

I thought everything was fine until yesterday afternoon, when I began reviewing the chapters. (My colleague has been editing the book, but I have a higher position than him, so I often review his work.) Among the countries that border Jordan, 'Palestine' was listed. I flipped. Palestine is not a country. And putting it there defeats the entire purpose of using Jordan in the first place. Apparently, someone at our copublisher's office thought it would be a good idea to include it, and while my colleague disagreed, our direct supervisor agreed with the copublisher. China recognizes Palestine as a country or government or whatever you would like to call it. This was her reasoning. However, there are certain countries that recognize Tai%^wan. This is a parallel situation.

To make the situation worse, I checked the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary (it's the resource we use more than anything else and it's one of the most popular dictionaries for students here), and it has no entry for 'Palestine'. I then went and checked the half dozen English-Chinese dictionaries in the office. None of them have entries for 'Palestine'. That means that if a student is confused by the word, and goes and looks it up on the Internet, he or she will find all of the political mess that we've been trying to avoid.

When I was speaking to the head of our department about the situation yesterday, as soon as I mentioned the word 'Palestine', she said, 'We can't put that in our books. We need to avoid political issues.' She's Chinese and a Party member, so her response was kind of a pleasant surprise. My colleague wrote to the copublisher yesterday explaining the situation. Now we just have to wait for their response.

(My direct supervisor was not here to weigh in on all of this because she's been on sick leave for the past two and a half weeks.)

Correction

Wed, 30 May 2007 03:07:48 GMT

I can't edit my old posts, so this is a correction. My neighbour didn't exactly ask me for clothes. He said that he could use them. He said that he collects plastic bottles and glass bottles because he can sell those for recycling, but he said that he can use pretty much anything if I'm going to throw it out, including clothing.