smokerblog

The Fretful Porpentine

Okay, so if you haven't already noticed the new link at the top of the list over there to the right, here's the official directing-of-your-attention thitherward. Also, this will serve as the announcement that effective sometime soon, smokerblog will go into retirement, to be replaced by the fretful porpentine.

Do Not Fear: all of the existing smokerblog posts (including the Story of Ben) will remain in their current archived location, but comments and other interactive gadgetry will be disabled. This is just a change in title and design (which will likely be evolving), plus also some much-needed behind-the-scenes retooling of the machinery that manages the organization of all this self-indulgent blather. There's a new version of the blogging software running at the FP, and if I've got it right, this should provide a better defense against the hordes of comment spammers I'm having to deal with today.

So but why the name change? No reason really, except that I've had the domain name kicking around for a while now and I thought it was high time to put it to good use. The source text for the name comes from Shakespeare, (Hamlet, Act 1 Scene 5):

I could a tale unfold whose lightest word
Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood,
Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres,
Thy knotted and combined locks to part
And each particular hair to stand on end,
Like quills upon the fretful porpentine

I really should give some poetic explanation for why I chose this name, like maybe my I'll be saying things in my blog that may be shocking or some such, but the reality is just that I find the snippet above to be highly hilarious, especially when taken out of context. But maybe that's just me.

Ben-Lag

It's not jet-lag, what we've got now is Ben-lag. We were prepared for the language learning curve, potential health problems/deficiencies, special dietary needs, etc. We were even prepared for the possibilty that he might not like us.

But for some reason, we weren't quite prepared for sleeping problems. I mean, we've taken a four-year-old kid, removed him from the life he has always known, and plopped him down in a strange house with strange people who speak a strange language, you'd think maybe we'd have forseen this.

So bedtimes have been a bit of a struggle. We've gotten plenty of advice: a quiet hour before bedtime, white noise, toys/books he can take to bed, etc. We try to establish a routine, and Ben tries to sabotage it. We're doing our best to remember that we've only been parents for two weeks, there's plenty of time to work this out.

Capitalism, Chinese-Style

Last night, President Bush made reference to the economic competition coming from China. I gotta tell ya, from what I've seen, he's got a point. Everyone knows that there are a gazillion people living in China, and during my visit, it seemed that at least a half a gazillion of those people have money to spend.

This is the view through the blurry windows from the hotel in Shenyang:

The traffic is light, these pictures were taken at mid-morning. Luckily, this was a relatively smog-free day. The glare and blurriness is due to the dirty windows I was shooting this through. This view was similar to much of what I saw in China. People were selling (and presumably buying) things all over the place.

One thing that was a little strange to me was the ubiquity of Western models used to sell Chinese products. One the plane ride from Beijing to Shenyang, I flipped through the complimentary Air China inflight magazine. I counted approximately 53 total advertisements containing models. Of that number, 21 featured Asian models, 19 featured Western models, and 12 featured a mix of both Asian and Western models. It was the same thing in the view from the hotel window. At least half of the large display signage that featured models featured Western models only.

I'm not sure why this is. I'm not even sure it's worth pointing out. I just thought that it was interesting. Still, despite the fact that capitalism is bursting out all over China, it's good to remember that all of this is still happening under the watchful eye of Chairman Mao.