A Backpack and a Keyboard

2009-07-18T18:55:00.000-07:00

Cape Jasmine Infestationby Mole Cricket!In Beijing ApartmentIt took about a month of me wondering what was causing the soil around the Cape Jasmine (栀子花） to ball up before I decided to investigate. About a week ago I stuck my hand in the very loose soil and there something moved. Something about the size of a large cricket. And gross. I jumped back. I spotted it...stunned as I was. It kept its

An exclusive invitation to join Doostang

2009-06-08T11:21:00.001-07:00

I've requested to add you as a friend on Doostang, an exclusive career network started at Harvard, Stanford, and MIT. Regards, Joshua

2009-04-04T22:19:00.001-07:00

Visiting Detroit Imagining Detroitspring 2009Looking up?I really doubt I agree with country singer John Rich's politics, but his song "Shuttin' Detroit Down" hits a vein. The images are real, the anger is real. The twang is real. And the song is unusually activist for a genre that usually talks about love, swigging beer and bailing hay. Here's the video. Worth it for the images and for the

2009-01-06T06:13:00.000-08:00

1st 1/2 of 2009Q1/Q2=reaping the sownsan diego, london, beijingThis morning, in my pleasant, cheap hotel in downtown San Diego with great continental breakfast (hotel occidental), after a 12 hour sleep, while studying Chinese (oh, supermemo, you're the joy of my Chinese studies and bane of my existence), I opened my .mp3 qin collection. Returning After Resigning was the second song and I surfed

2009-01-02T19:05:00.000-08:00

Movie Mumbai from the Suburban Parking Lot Lagoon:Globalization in Stereo from an American Mini Mallin Grand Rapids, MIThe urge to type comes to me often sitting in theaters. Does anyone have links to where I can buy a silent, one-handed keypad? Or need we invent this device? Or wait for commercial scale wink sensors? Or plugs to the brain?What a joy tonight sitting with Mom in a packed showing

2008-08-16T06:47:00.000-07:00

Reports from Michigan's BeaverAt the first Fox on a Hill retreat on Beaver Island, MichiganYou'll find Miss Michigan's nicest big island tucked up in Northeast corner of Lake Michigan between the state's two pleasant peninsulas.Before this week, I hadn't been to Beaver Island since I was about 12 (1992). As a youngster, I didn't have to say to friends, “No Beaver Island isn't a lesbian resort.”

2008-07-12T00:28:00.000-07:00

Roots & Shoots Day of Peace 2008A message from the DameSeptember 21, 2008, San Diego & Los AngelesHere's a message from the dame. Thank you, my friend!I hope to see you either in San Diego, Los Angeles, or digitally via uploaded photos. Let's create peace in our lifetimes!

2008-03-20T16:58:00.000-07:00

Reflections at morning rain after yesterday's hail and the day before yesterday's sandstormsspring's arrival in BeijingMy grandparents always talk about the weather. If dinner conversation during infrequent visits languors, the weather topic of weather looks plum. My Yorkshire colleague claims weather is required conversation at his family's dinner table. Wow, what surprise outside the window

2008-03-13T21:24:00.000-07:00

Jane Goodallat UCSDApril 1, 2008Not an April Fool's joke! Jane Goodall is visiting UCSD on April 1. Please join us for a tree planting ceremony. Volunteers, invited guests, and ticket holders can take part in an intimate luncheon.

2008-02-10T06:48:00.000-08:00

Happy Chinese New YearPaint the Town Red!from BeijingDear friends and associates........After accepting an offer to do sustainable development work in line with my passions, I am now working in Beijing until the Olympics. I did not expect to stay here when I came to Chinese capital last fall...but those of you who know me well could see that this was not entirely unexpected either. Just like

2008-02-10T04:30:00.000-08:00

Blog Descriptions:Out with the in with the...Old: You may have followed my "s'more goes blog" of trackeds and endtrials through S/SE Asia, the Middle Kingdom, or months of Pan-American overland wandering, but you ain't read nothing till you read about...grad school. Actually, you won't read much about grad school because, well, it's grad school. Expect occasional updates from Jets, Journal,

2007-09-26T05:21:00.000-07:00

to Beijing!with curiosity, hope, and lovefrom San DiegoTen days in the US now over. A final all-nighter to get my work done. Meeting after meeting. Greeting after greeting. Goodbyes here and there. See yous on Skype or google chat elsewhere.San Diego almost felt like home. There's a reason there are so many midwesterners in this town.Sunday was Roots & Shoots International Day of Peace in

2007-09-15T14:26:00.000-07:00

fortunes read from traffic camerasand other tales of wonderfrom Paris, London, NYCBefore going to Paris, Mom and I saw the Merchant of Venice in "Shakespeare's" restored Globe Theatre. We liked the atmosphere so much that we saw a new play there the next night, We the People, by Eric Schlosser of "Fast Food Nation" and "Reefer Madness" fame. It's amazing to see new plays with 20+ actors covering

2007-08-26T05:58:00.000-07:00

Realisation:How to Handle the Most Difficult Person(s) in Your Lifesome tricks to see past the delusion of angerI found this post in my weekly thedailyenglightenment.com email, which often has interesting dharma movie bits and fine zen quotes. I repost here without permissions, thus happy to take it down.It is a most ironic "illusion" that there are many difficult people in our lives out there,

no war with iran--an important message about reviving public debate in our republic

2007-08-23T16:21:00.001-07:00

Dear friends, This Harper's article presents convincing evidence that our executive branch and our chief executive's ideological handlers are using Fox News to quicken our nation's pace toward war with Iran, just as they did in the lead-up to Iraq in 2003. For the fast, dirty evidence and an online petition asking other networks not to follow Fox New's lead, check out this page.Let us do more

2007-08-21T23:35:00.000-07:00

Unconstitutional:The War on Our Civil Liberties...is the third in a series of Public Interest Pictures films ... Unconstitutional provides the facts and stories that illuminate administration lies, wrongheaded policies, and the real victims of these actions--the American people.Here, you'll get the real story behind the USA PATRIOT Act and other administration policies and the gut wrenching

2007-08-18T09:58:00.000-07:00

the last days of guqin campat the Royal Academy of MusicLondonFollowing from this post.I could write a lot about my week at the Royal Academy of Music's summer school, but I won't. I enjoyed the people I met and being in that atmosphere of exploration and excitement about Asian music. There were many people who had never seen a qin before, and others who had practiced half a lifetime.The campus

2007-08-09T16:46:00.000-07:00

Future Mediascape?Don't say you weren't warned... Admittedly a bit sensationalized, but still a decent video that adds something to the debate and wonder of our emerging mediasphere.

2007-07-31T12:19:00.000-07:00

first day of guqin campat the Royal Academy of MusicLondonI met a man from Portland, Jim Binkley, who wrote a new book, and was John Thompson's roommate in Taipei in the 1970s. He came to London just to take part in the Asian Music Circuit's 5th annual summer school at the Royal Academy of Music.Zeng Chengwei is our teacher. Charlie Huang wore his famous hanfu. His newest is on its way from China

2007-07-24T00:51:00.000-07:00

mapping the self:new social/search maps cluster the clutteronline (everywhere, really)The Firefox experience keeps getting better. For every add-on that encroaches on my browsing space, the world it opens is ten times more mind expanding--or 10x fun, at least. Greasemonkey smiles, Firefox does real-time spell check. Twitter tweets. My latest addition is the StumbleUpon toolbar. The Mozilla people

2007-07-20T08:50:00.000-07:00

I like big thingswith melodramatic music and fast-moving partslike the port in Dalian, ChinaCheck out this Dalian China port promo video. Globalization at China speed...with Enya lending some majesty to the images of northeast China's oil infrastructure.

2007-07-16T10:17:00.001-07:00

The truth about climate change?Our worst scenarios are too optimisticsays new NASA report[This is from our friends at China Dialogue, originally published in the Guardian.]Fossil fuel-free in 20 years?George MonbiotJuly 12, 2007Prospects for renewable power are promising. But it means nothing, argues George Monbiot, if the public interest is drowned by corporate power.Reading a scientific paper

2007-07-10T09:47:00.000-07:00

Impeach CheneyNowNot a great video, but it gets the point across. Sign the petition before it's too late.

Britain goes smoke-free

2007-07-02T01:24:00.001-07:00

say goodbye to smoking in pubs Originally uploaded by kafka4prez On July 1st, the UK banned smoking indoors. Here's a funny poem on a pub blackboard.Whether you do or don'tThe time has Come,To Say goodbye.To Smoky pubs + watery eyes.Your clothes won't smellNeither your hair.But bring your Jumper,So you don't freeze out there*from 1st July*(It's also abnormally chilly for early July).

2007-06-26T13:09:00.000-07:00

Getting Emotional About Silk:Guqin Hours with John Thompsonin Weehawken, New JerseyBefore I left San Diego I got a random message on Facebook from UCSD music grad student Alex Khalil. He informed me that I had just missed events surrounding guqin maker Wang Peng's visit to campus. He blamed limited publicity. I blamed finals. Still, neither despaired, for each of us had discovered the other. One