The next big trips, and the last big trip

It's been a long time coming, but here are some more of the pics and stories from China.  

The haze, the only thing stopping me from moving there right now.  Well, that, the language barrier, the food, the government, and the internet poker

 thing... 

This is the view from our hotel in Beijing e

very morning.

This is the temple of heaven.  It was beautiful and so full of life on a sunday.  I got the sense that this was the place to be for fun and games with family and friends.  There were groups playing badminton, and kicking around a Hack-y-sac like shuttlecock thingy.  It was definitely a cultural experience.  I would say its akin to hippies throwing frisby in the park.

Shanghai, where all sorts of fun can be had.  This is in the top 5 skylines in the world for obvious reasons.  The Pearl of the Orient is a gawdy, ugly, and ultimately quintessential piece of Shanghai's soul.  This view is from the top of the Hyatt hotel where we went to high tea twice, and enjoyed a few sugary cocktails atop their roof bar.  I highly recommend it.

We meet our second guide Joyce at the (jo ji go) airport.  Instantly in love :)

She more or less made our experience during the two day stint in xiao jighao (sp?)

She had a story for every plant my mom asked about and introduced me to Chincobarley wine (not for the avg. drinker...think apple cider mixed with orange juice and rum).  I met up with

 her in Beijing on the last day of our China trip...but that's a different story for a different blog.  Maybe I'll devote a whole entry to her eventually.  She earned it.

Here are some photos from our time with Joyce and Coco touring western China.

mom littering...and enlightened monks

A few pics to Tide one over

Trip report (beginning)

Starting at the beginning here are my thoughts and feelings illustrated with some pictures about the first few days of my trip to China.

Airplanes/getting there

Airplanes we're a huuuuge part of the trip.  I think in total we took around 8 flights.  The best of these flights were really good, there is a new system on the more advanced airlines (the ones leaving from or going to Japan i believe) that allows each person to have their own TV with on demand movies and TV shows.  THIS, makes flying bearable.  I watched around 4 movies on various flights and killed an entire Nicholas Sparks book called "The Choice" on the way there.  The movies I liked:

American beauty...I'd seen it before, but it is one of my favorite movies of all time.  My mom hates it, and most people find it a bit too morbid...but I think it drives home a point that isn't heard nearly enough in this world.  "There is so much beauty in the world, that I think my heart is going to swell up and burst...but then I breathe, and the beauty washes over me, travels through me and it's like I can see it all at once."  Furthermore, there is beauty in sadness.  A point probably only recognized by those that experience sadness less frequently, but nevertheless an important point.

Kung Fu Dunk: hella bad movie to the point of hilarity!  Putting the nail in the coffin of the ole, do Asians get basketball argument. NO.

Duplicity: sorry Clive Owen, I fell asleep twice.  Julia Roberts cannot carry a film anymore.  She is no longer cute and her terrible acting is not tolerable anymore.  (I never found her attractive or tolerable in the past, but this movie will make people start to agree with me)

Star Trek: Okay okay i get what people see in this movie....i guess it's good :/

The first leg:  So we got delayed in JFK, which is a terrible airport.  It's designed like DC as a wheel and spokes type of thing, but planes never leave on time, and air traffic control is inept.  Couple that with a mechanical malfunction with our plane and you have yourself 4 hours on the tarmac and a crappy meal service to boot.  Pictures from this leg of the flight were nonexistent.  We got into Japan, missed our connector, spent the night getting shuffled to a

 hotel, then fed deeeelicious food then shuffled back to the airport the next day.  

Japan pics

 

this is the hotel

  Banzai/peaceful garden.  Japan rocks gardens...and breakfast!  They've taken the best of french cuisine (croissants and other pastries) and coupled it with strange delicious fruits and assorted meat products!  Little did I know we would never see bread for breakfast again on this trip :(

Narita Japan's Airport...WTF is that thing?  It looks like a giant pillsbury doughboy made out of colorful glass...I didn't ask.

Japan was a short part of the trip but from what I can tell the place has it figured out.  While I was there, I thought about writing a blog entry about what a world would be like without planned obsolescence.  Japan is that world, and we have a LOT to learn from them.  I'll spare you the rant however, and instead give you a hint of what's to come in the next entry.

A great philosopher once said, " To inflict harm upon another is a human's first instinct, because a subject always looks for the source of the pain, whereas performing favors for another has the subject looking inward for a source of desert."  I could not agree more.  To be a more advanced human is to be conditioned to seek the source of pleasure.  Further still is the human that performs an act so great that a subject knows that the desert does not lie within, and thusly looks outward.  To be divine is to not meet that gaze with satisfaction.

A philosophy that does not motivate your every action is merely a religion.

-Trev

Having watched one to many episodes of the Mentalist in my life, I decided to perform an experiment.  You see I have at least 5 problem children on my all this session.  Controlling all of them had been impossible for an extended period of time.  So I decided to cheat.  If I could neutralize 2 or 3 of the hellions then my nights would become manageable.  I tried everything, bribery, threats, reasoning, and even physical force.  Nothing worked.  Then last night I decided to try something radically different.  I went up to two of my most rambunctious kids, and tapped them gently on the hand as I uttered, "You, be good tonight."  The response was instant and unexpected.  Both times the practice was greeted by this response: "What?"

I repeated the process, and then both children responded: "Okay, I will."  And they did.

July has been different.  At times it has been gratifying, and at times terrifying, but more than anything July has been tiring.  I'm sick of this place.  I think it's the smell of it, or maybe the fact that I'm trapped like a teenager on house arrest, without A/C, and without stimulating conversation.  I asked a girl to point blank talk to me about something deep today, she said she wanted to go to the mall.  The Spaniards leave on Thursday; I will be sad to see them go.  Many of them have made me laugh at America in ways I never thought possible, and at the same time be more proud of my heritage than ever before.

"Jes, I hhhaf herrd of this Wal - Marrt.  It is the place where you look this way and djou see tirres and den jou look this way and see FOOD!  WooooW."

-Kike

The great war of our generation, is with the illogical

Last night something finally snapped. Kid A (I will call him) decided it was in his best interest to not take his medication. It was nearing 10:30, and I knew the result of him failing to do so would be a sleepless night for him, and most likely his roommate too. The next day would only bring a deeper spiral out of control as his bipolar disorder took over. So I reasoned with him. I pleaded the case for taking the pill, but Kid A refused. I asked why he wouldn't and he said, "I want to get angry so I can kill Kid B!" To which I merely said, that is not going to happen Kid A, I won't allow it, so it's pointless to not take the medication.
"I DON'T CARE!" said Kid A.
I want to get angry.
This conversation went on for what felt like an eternity. Far longer than it should have...
It ended with me calling his parents, and him taking the pill after 20 minutes on the phone.

Afterward I asked him what his parents had said. He said, "Well, they told me that tomorrow was Monday, and that killing someone on Monday was frowned upon."

I shook my head...and quickly agreed.

Later that night I went downstairs to watch Friday the 13th with some of the staff. I generally detest scary movies, but once I start watching one, I have to finish! It's the suspense of it all, no matter how awful it is, I have to know JUST how awful it ends. So I watched it to its conclusion, and as i suspected everyone in the movie was retarded/died/will have died soon after the movie concluded (just trust me and don't start watching). YES, it was scary, but I never quite understood what it is that people find good about being scared.

So I went to bed, locked my door, and began thinking of Kid A somehow finding his way into my room with his 3 iron or something. I woke up three times during the night, once because I forgot to turn off my alarm for 230AM (gotta catch them campers sneakin out on thursday ya know) and twice because the fans blew my door against the hinges making a loud thud. Each time I jumped out of my skin, and did a lap of the room and hall to make sure everything was ok.

F the illogical

Youth but not youth

It saddens me greatly to see the state of today's youth. Two days ago I talked to a child that had had sex with two different people, one of whom was later described as, "a walking STD". She continued by saying that she had an inexplicable love of "spics" (it was ok for her to call them that, because she hangs out with them and they call themselves that so its like totally whatever). She was 14.

Furthermore, we have a child who's soul purpose in life is to make everyone around him more miserable. He is blatantly racist, has made numerous inappropriate comments to all of our black staff and campers. We won't get rid of him because of the love of the almighty dollar, and when we repremand him he cries and cries and cries but changes nothing. He is 13.

We have a child who has twice almost killed his twin brother via stabbing. He takes more pills a day than I have in my entire life. He held his family hostage with a knife and sent a kid to the hospital at a wrestling match. He lives two doors down from me, and I lock my door every night. He is 12.

For every case of a bad child, every pharmacutical ridden preteen, every sex-crazed teenager in camp there is one who is perfectly nice, and capable of some level of respect and self sufficiency. But the ratio is as close to 1:1 as i've ever seen.

I fear for my unborn child. For these are the children of the well to do.

the death nell of online poker, cheerleaders, and DC

Okay folks, lot to talk about very little time. Speaking of time its winding down here at "The Tower"...we're moving out soon and the place looks more and more vacated by the day. Dan is long gone, with his bootiful TV, and my measly 32 inch stands in its place. As for the others, sam and brian are in the process of exodus, and peacock and I are frantically searching/applying for houses in the district. Next year should prove to be the best year of my life...assuming a few things.

Before discussing some sobering news, I was stationed in the Rio sport and health in Gaithersburg for my charity advertising work. I thought it was going to be another boring day, but fate had the Redskin cheerleaders in store for me. An hour into my pitching of random people to let me rear their children (OMG HE WANTS TO REAR YOUR CHILD!!!! GET HIM!!!!) These beautiful girls dressed in street clothes passed nodding and smiling etc. etc.
They disappeared into the girls room and never in my life had i more wanted to be a fly on a wall. Anyways 20 minutes later they emerged in full redskinette garb (or non-garb) as it were. 3 more beautiful women I had not seen in quite some time. They we're overseeing the opening of a new energy drink store inside the gym...and the patrons that day we're overseeing them. It was hilarious. Bottom line is I got some pics and some signatures for my boys (as a better chance to brag probably would not present itself for quite some time). I chatted with them for a bit about their non-scantily clad jobs and one was a teacher of highschoolers, and the other was a lawyer...and I cursed my decision to not go to law school.

Sigh now for the sad news. Online poker suffered a serious blow today. 30 million was seized in cashouts from pokerstars and full tilt. This means one of two things... America is after poker players money, or poker players souls. By this I mean, the government wants to either tax the crap out of poker while leaving it legal....or they want to shut us down completely. Either way, we lose. The only positive that can come out of this is that we may show that we are partaking in a game of skill not of luck, leading to widespread legalization of the game. There is a bill in congress that would allow us based casinos to set up websites (something previously illegal) if a state deemed it legal to do so. Utah and hawaii have already said...no no this will not be legal in our state, but there is still hope for large states like cali and ny to allow it which would expand the player base by millions if it were easier to get money online. Anyway...here is the article courtesy of Sharon L.
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB124459561862800591-lMyQjAxMDI5NDE0MDUxOTA1Wj.html


anyhow...more to come on this later I'm sure
best,
Trev