Micah Sittig - China, Shanghai, Books

August 1, 2002

If I was a poet, I would enter the Eric Meyer Haiku Contest. Reminds me of perl poetry.

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August 3, 2002

Big ups to This Person for linking to my page, although I'm no longer living in Tianjin! Hopefully I will get the chance to visit again, probably a quick summer trip. I don't know the identity of the linker, but she gets big ups in my book because she watches Japanese and Taiwanese dramas. Maybe I'll snag her copy of Meteor Shower.

Clara arrived in Los Angeles yesterday. I picked her up at the Disneyland Hotel, which is really a crazy place. At most hotels, the swimming pool seems like a second-rate afterthought plopped down in the middle of the complex so that all the voyeurs can peek out their windows at you. Well, at Disney Hotel it's a complete waterpark with jungle plants, water slides and lifeguards. Crazy. I wore my "Lei Feng" T-shirt. Lei Feng is a hero of the ongoing Chinese Communist (socialist?) revolution. He was a studious soldier and a filial young man. Two Chinese tourists noticed and chuckled as they went past. I hadn't realized we'd be going to Shirley's house that evening, or I wouldn't have worn it. Her parents aren't too crazy about the Communists. Also at the hotel, a couple little Japanese girls walked past me chattering away. I felt like I had been transported into a drama episode! Ha! Clara arrived late because the airport shuttle left early, before she reached the stop. On top of that, it didn't drop her off at the directly at the hotel, but in another place designated as an airport shuttle drop-off that was about 15 minutes walking from the hotel. It was a sunny day, and she had a big bag to carry so it wasn't a pleasant walk. But it's over, and she is safely here.

Joe Howley tells us the Definitive Browser Statistics, but he significantly edited it from his original e-mail which I quote here:

> Hello,
> Is any of you aware of the latest browser share statistics? Since CSS is so
> browser-dependent, it would be nice to include an ongoing updated resource
> on browser statistics in the website. Just an opinion.


The consensus we always seem to reach when discussing this is of several parts:
- every "browser share statistics" report is different
- ns4 is declining
- ns4 is still a presence
- ie dominates
- what about opera? opera can pretend to be something else. what about opera? eh? eh?!
- my browser share statistics can beat up your browser share statistics, nyah nyah nyah
- it ultimately doesn't really matter *
- you should really think about the share in your _intended audience_ (or existing audience) when determing how best to alter your standards-compliant code to work with various browser support *


[* - these are the important bits]


Everyone will give you different share stats. So don't worry about it,
code to standards, and then figure out what the needs of _your audience_
are.


Cheers,
===
joe howley

Look here for an update on the party later today.

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August 5, 2002

The mystery person from yesterday's post turned out to be Emma from Michigan. I got a very friendly e-mail from her.

I love your site, esp. anyone that went to my hometown Tianjin ;D

Thank you!

I updated the look of my mirror of Shuji's With Love synopses. They now validate under XHTML 1.0 and CSS2. I watched the first three episodes today, beautiful! Now I'm searching on eBay for more VCDs. They are so much cheaper than back in the day. An eighteen-disc set of Kiss of the Toast Boys is only US$ 20 at Yahoo, and your average Japanese drama set is going for just over US$ 10 at eBay. That's the price of being an early adopter, I suppose.

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August 6, 2002

I'm not the only one who enjoyed the Charlie Rose interview with Jim Collins last week. Collins is an "entrepreneurial proffesor" who operates an academic think tank in Boulder, Colorado and has written two books on succesful organizations, most recently "Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't". He had some interesting things to say about leadership, academia and being married! As always, Charlie Rose probed deep into the mind of Jim Collins to dig out every valuable nugget of insight in this fascinating man's brain. If the transcripts didn't cost $12, or if I had money I would order a copy. Since Charlie Rose doesn't get enough random fan adulation, here is my tribute:

Amazon Access: found while writing the paragraph above, it's a version of Amazon for the visually impaired. Works great for the seeing, too. Even more recommended, but old news by internet standards, is Amazon Light.

Blog frenzy: Angry Asian Man, Just a Gwailo, George Will (banned in China!), and China Weblog.

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August 7, 2002

Aaron, if you read my weblog you have to post in yours. It's only fair.

Exotic foods at Edible.com.

If Ashcroft has his way:

From the New York Times, Taiwan Chief Eases Stand; Beijing Rattles Sabre:

The official newspaper China Daily in Beijing quoted a high level military official today as warning Taiwan that China might attack if it actually holds a referendum on independence

Does this mean that the mainland acknowledges that the ruler of a people is decided by the people themselves? If China believes in the unconditional sovereignty of China over the island of Taiwan, then any referendum would be of no political consequence. This is another matter of pridefully "saving face", which a market economy has shown to be an inefficient strategy. I'm sorry, Unnamed General, but you have been made obsolete by contemporary market forces.

The Brea Posse fifth year reunion was a big success. Cole, Natasha, Kartik, Julie, Eric, Shirley, Clara and I showed up. We had a fun time talking and looking through the 1997 yearbook. Dinner was vegetarian lasagna, salad, grapes, bread, chips and soda. Afterwards, we played Trivial Pursuit and snacked on Julie's delicious chocolate cake a la mode, Breyers vanilla and banana-chocolate ice cream. A very fun night.

Kartik and I hung out tonight. It's always fun to chat with him. First we visited Shirley at work (Game Castle), then cruised to Cal State Fullerton to find out that the pool hall is closed by 8:30pm. So we ended up at the Coffee Bean south of the Brea Mall, where I enjoyed an iced Coco Lime drink and some sparkling conversation. We wondered at how it seems nothing much has changed in the 5 years since we've graduated; did we live them in a state of suspended animation? Somehow, we all end up gravitating back to Brea. None of us is doing anything very exciting. Maybe fulfilling is the key word?

We're thinking of setting up a mailing list for the Brea posse on Yahoo Groups. Please chime in if you're involved.

On the job front, I got a call from Borders Bookstore. They offered me a position in the new La Habra store. I've accepted, but only conditionally. We'll see about the teaching gig I'm looking at. Kartik wants me to relax and take the easier retail job. It's a decision between money and time.

The XHTML 2.0 working draft is out. Mark Newhouse has a good collection of links on the subject.

Israel is way ahead of the curve — they've already implemented Pre-Crime.

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August 8, 2002

So Aaron has good reasons for not posting on his Blackholemedia log, but they're under wraps for now.

I watched about 15 minutes of American Idol while I ate dessert after dinner today. What a waste of my time. Now I remember why I don't watch network TV. And why I'm not going to own a TV when I get my own pad.

Bhutan: Featured on Slashdot today, I feel like I have to post a link to PBS's "Bhutan - The Last Place because I spent a good fifteen minutes reading Orville Schell's article, Gross National Happiness. What a refreshing idea. I was chatting with Kartik on Thursday about where the "edge of the world" is today, and the best we could come up with is Iran. I'm surprised I didn't think of Bhutan.

The New York Times is always good for a little cultured humor. From today's A Screen That Cuts the Cord about a cordless LCD monitor from Philips:

Similarly, you can summon a little on-screen keyboard that suffices for scratching in Web addresses. But that's much too awkward a system for writing any document longer than, say, "The Enron Book of Ethics."

I've been linked to from the China Weblog that I mentioned a couple of days ago. Now I feel obligated to write semi-intelligent commentary on China articles. Also, I'll go about restructuring the sidebar on the left to include reciprocal links.

For example a week ago I mentioned China's grant to Angola to rebuild their railway system. Statfor, a premier world intelligence news service, has an article on "China's 21^st Century Africa Policy Evolving" which I can't read because it's a subscription-only article. Doh! That reminds me of my job interview at Borders, where my interviewer told me his dream job would be to get paid to read the news. Is anybody willing to give me a grant to subscribe to Statfor, and the South China Morning Post for good measure?

North Korea Adding a Pinch of Capitalism to Its Economy. Not because I'm a chauvinist supporter of capitalism but because it portends a brighter future, I'm very happy for the people of North Korea.

What do you do when you find that you care about things like the hobo lifestyle and voluntary consumerist withdrawal very deeply? I imagine it would take either some serious lifestyle changes (eg unplugging your TV; going back to your 15 year-old, Flash-incapable Mac; buying organic; riding a bicycle) or physically removing yourself from the exploitative environment (as in, moving to China or Bhutan). Am I ready to do that? Does it conflict a hearty interest in international diplomacy?

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August 10, 2002

The 2002 5k Contest winners have been posted. Try window pong v0.8.

Perhaps like me you've been watching a lot of Elimidate and other such shows lately? (which I fully intend to stop, I really do.) Then you may be interested in a conversational "Litmus Test" or the very amusing Breakup Speech #12.

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August 11, 2002

"Setting Sun? Japan Anxiously Looks Ahead: Diplomats say the Bush administration has increasing doubts that Japan will ever again become a global mover and shaker." I humbly but completely disagree.

'Ghostbuster' breaks sex spell for Taiwan MP. Do you think this would have worked for Clinton? A quote:

Taipei - A Taoist priest has successfully performed an exorcism at a Taiwanese legislator's office to break a spell allegedly cast by an female aide who had lured him into having an affair, said a newspaper report.

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August 12, 2002

I spent over an hour reading stories at Electric Sheep Comix, so I highly recommend it. Standouts were The Guy I Almost Was, a (autobiographial?) story about a young man growing up; and Spiders, scenes from an alternate history of the war in Afghanistan.

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August 14, 2002

I haven't been posting because I've been spending less time online. A fresh batch of books from the library is keeping me busy. I'll have some nice quotes and comments in a little while.

An old Hypercard RPG by your truly sits on the 250 MB hard drive of our Mac Performa 575, stranded when Apple began to charge for Hypercard and awaiting the day when Apple will release that marvelous programming tool to the public domain.

Now that MacOS X has a terminal, more people should find these funny UNIX csh/sh commands amusing.

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August 15, 2002

My sources at Lonely Planet and my limited Chinese tell me that this Yahoo article says that before 2006 China plans to open Tibet to all foreign visitors. Presently, foreigners need to apply for a permit to visit the region. Apparently, this is timed to coincide with the completion of the rail line to Lhasa. The article goes on to say that the gov't representative emphasized that certain areas will still be off-limits.

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August 16, 2002

You must eat at In-N-Out if you ever visit California. The New York Times says its popularity has increased only recently, something I was surprised at. I had thought it was always a popular restaurant. The article also spills the beans on the "Secret Menu", including a couple of options I hadn't heard of like the "Wish Burger" and the "Protein Style", which deserves special mention for replacing the bun with pieces of lettuce. Imagine a 4-by-4, Protein Style. Woo!

Looking at the Javascript behind Brand Recon's Newspage, I found out that their news comes from a company called Moreover Technologies. Moreover actually provides over three hundred news feeds, ranging from tips for webmasters, to Coca Cola news, to human rights news. Crazy!

Moreover, Moreover (haha) provides their newsfeeds in a variety of formats. This begs some kind of web-service application that I'm not brilliant enough to think up. For example, see their China newsfeed in plain old HTML, fed as a Javascript array, in XML, or even XML-RPC. I'm sure there are a variety of ways that I haven't guessed. The Technology Architecture page explains in a nice graphic what they do. The coolest part of this is that they they get their news from free sources, and make their output available for free. Mad props to Moreover Technologies.

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August 17, 2002

A Washington Must: Embassies with Élan, from the NY Times. Foreign embassies in Washington DC are competing to build the grandest buildings and hold the most inventive parties and cultural events. Imagine this strategy amployed on a global scale. Jiang Zemin lounges in the US embassy sauna, smoking cigars and watching HBO over satellite, while Zhu Rongji sips cocktails and chats with Barbara Walters/Britney Spears/Pamela Anderson at the bar. Out back, young Beijing locals play in the embassy skate park while their parents browse the Sino-US art gallery, also on embassy grounds. This is my plan for when I become a Foreign Service Officer.

Haruki Murakami is one of my pet Japanese authors, and for good reason. His stories are rich on many levels, depicting depressing relationships and disfunctional people as they interact and stew in their lack of direction or ambition. The feelings expressed are so very post-modern, very neo-Tokyo though set in today's Japan. Recently he has crossed over into non-fiction with "Underground", a series of interviews with survivors of the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway in 1995. His newest work is the recently translated "After the Quake", just reviewed in the New York Times. "After the Quake" is a collection of fictional stories that take place a month after the Kobe earthquake. To me it's very interesting that Murakami took the leap from writing fiction to documenting non-fiction, to stepping back somewhere in between. Although his first novels had no connection to historical events, the characters were true to life and expressed emotions that were deep and sincere, as do the interviewees in "Underground". (related: Salon.com intervew, "unofficial" page)

"Lines Crossed in China", on dirty competition in the telecom market:

"Sometimes I think we just should let one company do it," Rui continued, strolling under a maze of phone lines, electricity lines and clotheslines. "You know, just let one business do it and regulate them. You know, a real socialist company serving the people. But we don't have those in China anymore."

Struggle for control of China as Jiang clings to power. It sounds like the Beidaihe meetings ended without much conclusive results. News to me is that Tianjin native Wen Jiabao has been unofficially pegged as Zhu Rongji's successor. A little Googling brings up a speech by Mr. Wen to the UN General Assembly, but nothing surprising, just the usual calls for "the right of a country to choose independently its path of development in light of its specific conditions" and the standard Chinese support for world-wide economic development. The original article also mentions Jiang Zemin's son first-born, Jiang Mianheng, who turns up on Asiaweek.com's list of China's I.T. Power Players, an interesting read.

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August 18, 2002

I'm cheating a little bit and putting this entry out an hour early, when it's not actually Sunday yet. I need to implement some kind of headline system, or group my entries into categories so I avoid starting a new day just to get some seperation between personal and editorial entries.

Yesterday I spent the day with people whose company I enjoy (well, Laurel is arguably on the border). In the morning I went out to breakfast with Kartik. We spent a couple of hours discussing politics and culture, particularly Bush's handling of the Iraq issue (is he crazy?!) and lack of cultural sensitivity. In name, Kartik is a Democrat and I'm a Republican, but in reality we're both fiscal conservatives and social liberals. Also, the requisite time was spent bagging on Brea and moaning the fact that we're here. Kartik leaves for medical school in Chicago in a week. I will miss talking with him, and I hope we can keep in touch through e-mail.

In the evening dad drove the family up to Los Angeles. We had dinner at Phillipe's, a classic LA restaurant that my grandpa used to take the family to before Dodger games. They're most famous for their French dip sandwiches and hot mustard. Phillipe's is a family tradition, I've even taken Shirley there once. Afterwards, the family scooted up the 110 to Pasadena. While dad, mom, Annie and Laurel browsed Vroman's bookstore, I snuck away to Canterbury Records and picked up several LP's, including the Annie musical, the Promises Promises musical (a Bacharach/David cooperation), a Don Ho precursor "The Extraordinary Kui Lee", the soundtrack to 1964's "The Umbrella's of Cherbourg", and a copy of Carmina Burana. Being out of the country for a year, I'm too out-of-touch to spend over ten dollars on a CD. In fact, I'm not sure I'll every be willing to spend that much on music anymore after having tasted the sweet wine of music piracy in China. Across the street from Vroman's is Cliff's Books, which had a copy of William Gibson's Neuromancer for four dollars. By this time, my wallet was down to $1.50, and the book is due back at Fullerton Library in a couple of weeks, so I'll wait and pick it up then.

For people who follow Apple Computers, the history of the Apple logo is an interesting read.

There is a Gou Bu Li baozi restaurant in Vancouver?!

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August 19, 2002

If China cares about people's opinions, maybe they should ask before they raze their homes. As usual, public discussion is just a rubber stamp for the decision of the leaders. Shirley and I got a taste of that at the school in Tianjin where we worked last year. Very frustrating, and leading to inefficient and unpopular decisions. Not that Bush would ever do something like this (*coughWACOcough*).

Learning to Be Chinese: "A" is for assimilation at China's strict minority schools, an article from Newsweek states. A few comments on this article. First of all, it's clear that this institution is an antiquated left-over from the days of hard core political indoctrination and supression of dissent. Secondly, Wuer Kaixi, one of the student leaders of the 1989 Tiananmen Movement was of the Uighur ethnicity, and a student at Beijing Normal University. Thirdly, this article is intersting to me in light of a Foreign Affairs magazine article I read a while back which argued that immigrants were quicker to assimilate into American culture than in Europe, which was cause for higher rates of violent incidents and racial conflict in Europe between immigrants and locals. So is China just applying this principal to a higher level, or swinging the pendulum too far in that direction?

On the China weblog, Richard notes a Letter to the Editor in the New York Times that calls for democracy in mainland China before reunification with Taiwan. I'm pretty disappointed with the New York Times; it would been enough to print the person's name and title, and his letter would have been unnecessary:

JUNG-TZUNG YIH
New York, Aug. 14, 2002
The writer is director of the Information Division of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office.

It's like printing a letter from an Israeli calling for an end to the Palestinian suicide bombers, or a letter from an arab person advocating the creation of Palestine. Is it really news? This is the same reason I filter out the good reviews at Amazon: a sincere self-criticism is worth a thousand words of flattery and self-agrandizement.

From the August 17^th entry at The China Hand, a great quote from a Salon.com article The Media Titans Still Don't Get It about the Web, which also describes my feelings towards China:

Similarly, Weinberger views the Web's perennial technical problems and "under construction" imperfections as a healthy antidote to sterile professionalism and a key to the Web's phenomenal fertility: "The designers weighed perfection against growth and creativity, and perfection lost. The Web is broken on purpose ... Remove the controls and we'll have to put up with a lot of broken links and awful information, but in return we'll get a vibrant new world, accessible to everyone and constantly in the throes of self-invention."

Yes!

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August 20, 2002

Damn, I gotta get me some permalinks.

An intelligent article about Namie Amuro and dekichatta kekkon by Philip Brasor in The Japan Times Online. Worth a read if you're into Japanese pop culture or music.

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August 21, 2002

In loosening of China's one-child policy, province expands categories allowed to have second. Note that the province in the title is Anhui, one of the poorer eastern provinces. Historically, it has been the birthplace of revolutions and reform that has swept the nation (eg private land leases in the 80's).

7-11 coming to Beijing. There are already 100 locations in China + Taiwan, according to the article. Currently, seven locations are open on the mainland, all in Guangdong province. Five hundred locations are possible in Beijing within 5 years. I know 7-11 has a big presence in Taiwan, even selling bus tickets. The Oriental Plaza Malls off of Wangfujing in Beijing have a Dairy Cream, where Shirley and I shared a Chili Dog.

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August 22, 2002

I apologize to regular listeners of this site for not posting as frequently as I once did. I'm now employed! By Borders Bookstore in La Habra, California which is slated to open on September 7^th. They've put us to work unpacking, sorting and shelving books from 8:30am to 6:30pm every day, which get exhausting. I am also simultaneously preparing to apply to graduate school. As a result, I have less time to read articles and comment on them, not to mention less energy.

One ultra-cool feature of the new Borders that I ought to mention is that the music listening stations are completely digital. The music is served in 20-25 second snippets from a server in the back room, and are accessed by swiping the CD you want to hear under a barcode reader. Also, this Borders location sells DVD movies. When you swipe a DVD barcode, a small LCD screen shows a trailer for the movie. Is that cool or what?

In my breaks, I've been inspired by Tod Dominey to begin reading Designing with Type: A Basic Course in Typography by James Craig, William Bevington, Susan E. Meyer, one of the books I unpacked today. It's a very cool book; so far the first few chapters have covered the font families, leading and kerning, stuff that I've heard about off-hand but never studied formally. Borders gives full-time staff a US$30 monthly stipend for books and music, and a 25% discount beyond that. Besides that, they allow employees to take books home on loan. I'm looking forward to that.

Two links on Janet Reno: Janet Reno Shower Cam (funny because it exists), and Janet Reno on TRL flippin' you off.

"THE WOLF AT THE DOOR:" HOLLYWOOD AND THE FILM MARKET IN CHINA FROM 1994-2000, by Stanley Rosen. Dr. Rosen is a professor of political science at USC, and a chaperone for my uncle Ted Erskin when he went to China on a Fulbright scholarship. Jianying Zha, the author of China Pop: How Soap Operas, Tabloids, and Bestsellers Are Transforming a Culture, was a graduate student under him. I would be honored to study under him some day.

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August 24, 2002

A hilarious Chinese Pulp Fiction conversation, courtesy of Brendan Okane of bokane.org.

Now people I don't know are linking to my site. Yikes!

I had an interview of Kraemer Middle School today, and I'm so conflicted. The interview went great, and I think it would be a great school to teach at. The student body of more than 1000 kids is largely Hispanic, and they offer many "sheltered language" classes for kids who understand English below their grade level. It's in the Placentia-Yorba Linda School District, which treats its teachers very well in terms of both pay and resources made available. At the same time my high school is inviting me to teach there, which the bonus that it has already extended the job offer while Kraemer has only promised to notify me "in a few days". I would rather teach at Kraemer, we'll see...

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August 27, 2002

Scientists Discover What Makes Geckos Stick: via Slashdot. This is extremely cool science. Van der Waals forces, who woulda thunk!

Jung Typology Test: "Your type is ISFP."

After reading about it on a random blog from weblogs.com, I went to the Naz 8 Cinema in Artesia and saw the movie Devdas, in Hindi with English subtitles. The story is long and tortuous, and the movie is 3 hours with a 10 minute intermission midway through. Neat singing and dancing, I like Indian music for the phat beats. I'll definitely be returning to the Naz 8 in the future, and I'm much more motivated to run down to DVD City in Buena Park to rent some Bollywood releases.

American Gives Beijing Good News: Rebels on Terror List: "The Bush administration has listed an obscure Muslim group fighting Chinese rule in the western province of Xinjiang as a terrorist organization". This move is largely symbolic because the US won't be sending troops to China anytime soon, but I still largely disagree with it. The rebels in western China should be able to argue their cause at the bargaining table, which the Chinese government it not willing to provide. The United States should be tightening screws on China to create channels for groups outside of the CCP to voice their grievances and influence policy-makers. This reminds me of an article I read in Foreign Affairs many moons ago about this very topic, which unfortunately I cannot find in the archives. I'm still waiting for somebody to sponsor a subscription for me to FA. In the meantime, I will continue to buy 2 year-old issues at Fullerton Library book sales.

Speaking of Foreign Affairs magazine, there are two good articles on China this month. I have not read them yet, maybe you can beat me to the punch and review them on your blog before I do! China's Governance Crisis by Minxin Pei comments on the imminent change/unchange in Chinese government leadership, while an update to a Jul/Aug 2001 story Crisis in the Taiwan Strait? by Kurt M. Campbell and Derek J. Mitchell tells us that the Chinese military build-up continues and Taiwanese public opinion increasingly turns against reunification.

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August 31, 2002

Wow, there's just too many webloggers writing about China these days. A very quality log with a knowledgable writer behind it, Hangzhou T-Salon provides insightful and high quality commentary on Chinese society and politics.

Today I did my training at the Borders Books Information Desk. The search tool(s) for looking up books is amazingly primitive. In fact, it looks like a semi-proprietary solution cooked up by Altavista. Considering the poor quality of the program, I'm not surprised that Altavista has done so poorly since the advent of Google. The user interface is more of a maze than anything else. Cryptic abbreviations and non-intuitive command names abound. A cooler look-up application is Title Sleuth, which is available for customers to use in computers around the store. Title Sleuth can look up a book by author, title, publisher, ISBN, character name(!) and keyword. It can look up music by artist, album title, and by song name. Within Title Sleuth you can access list of award winning books and movies like the Newberry, Caldecott, and Academy Awards, among others.

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