CORRECTION WEATHER PART II

Okay so two fuck ups in one day. A fuck up at work and a fuck up on the blog. The blog one, The pictures ARE NOT from china. The photographs are from Switzerland back in 2005. A colleague of mine forwarded the pictures he saw in a Chinese website claiming the pictures to be from Wuhan. So lesson learned, check everything before I post. My apologies to the faithful. I am leaving the pictures up because they are kick ass and actually happened, albeit not in china. From now on the pics will be pics of what I have taken myself, which most likely won't be nearly as cool. I will be non posting until February 12 or so when we come back to the office after Chinese new year. What's funny is that when I wrote "it was a lake not the sea" I wanted to check if Wuhan had a lake, I didn't. hence the mistake. the original post will be reto corrected. Once again my apologies. Gongxi to everyone in the year of the Rat. good times. Speaking of Pics, there is the annual office party, so there shall be pictures. Fuck up at work has been fixed now. Phew, that was close.

Okay couple of links. http://nymag.com/arts/tv/features/43266/. really well written article on analyzing Letterman vs. Leno post writer's strike. just beautiful
Jeremey Stevens (former Seattle Seahawks and University of Washington tight end) might have some serious issues or he might just be a terrible person who doesn't give a fuck. Either way I can't root for this guy. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004147460_rbstevens270.html. which reminds me that Rick Nieuheisel might be the biggest scumbag in college football.
Courtesy Sports Guy from ESPN for both links.
This almost made me a vegeterian, almost.

Correction on weather info

So, as I explained Shanghai only got a couple inches of slush. This is only because of Shanghai's proximity to the coast. Inland south China got hammered. check the AP story
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jvk7Cm_LiUKmk09LgSM7wXayDzlwD8UFEUJ01
So my colleagues who had planned to go home, some of them can't get train tickets or their existing tickets are no good because the railway system has been seriously damaged by the ice. Some pictures from Wuhan in the Hubei province which is slightly farther south than Shanghai but more inland. Ouch, are you kidding me, this was on the 14th of January. Never seen anything like that before. In Wuhan hospitals are full of people with broken bones from the falls caused by the slippery walkways and roadways. NOTE dated Feb 1, 2007: The pictures are not from Wuhan in 2007 but from Switzerland in 2007. check the comment for details. Undertandable, don't you think from the picture. by the way that's a lake not the sea/ocean.

So the news is that power is cut off because of the ice on the powerlines forcing lines down but also because chinese coal powered power plants are not getting sufficient fuel due to the damage to the railway systems. Flights in Shanghai were down for a couple days, the domestic ones becuase the domestic airport, Hongqiao, wasn't equipped to handle that accumulation of 2 inches (i guess you don't plan for that when you havne't had that kind of accumulation over 50 years). so that's the update. Shanghai right now is clear and sunny. looks beautiful out there

Chinese New Year

So in one week , the Chinese New Year is upon us and the entire country will pretty much go on vacation. So what does this mean, if you planned to travel within or outside of China, you better have made some arrangements towards the end of the previous year as it usually falls in the february time frame. So since daddy is a known and probably one of the finest procastinators that have walked both sides of the prime meridian, his dumbass ( oh shit, no he didn't, was that veiled third person perspective) will be in Shanghai, not in Thailand like he should have planned. IDIOT. Also, I'm not sure if shangahi will be empty or crowded as everyone will go home. On the team, there are 11 people two of us are staying in town, one of them is the devlishly handsome writer, and other is a Shanghai native. the rest are out of towners who will make their annual trip home. People from Hong Kong, go back to Hong Kong, people from Singapore, go back to Singapore, pretty much where your parents are. I don't think there is a holiday in the west that compares to the importance of chinese new year, and being with family, your parents, particularly, not even Christmas, there's nothing that compares to the value. This is just my opiniohn. Oh and those of you listening to news about the extreme cold and heavy snow in Shanghai, y'all can relax. It snowed about 1 inch maybe 2, but, mind you, it is the most snow Shanghai has seen in about 50 years or so, so I've been told. Back to work kids, more later

Still around

Sorry for the panic attacks caused by the lack of posting. Went home, didn't get back t'll a couple of weeks ago. Good to be home, shout out to all my boys and girls back home. Really great to catch up and made me realize what i miss so damn much out here. i have good friends here, but shit ain't gonna nothing (you like that right there, the double negative) be like my friends who i've known for almost 2 decades now. good to see the family, not enough time, spread myself thin, but better than last time, and of course some cheese steaks. damn right.

So here's a toast to my old friends and my new ones, and the ones that make me feel like a damn king, you know who you be. see y'all as soon as I can.

so now let's get back. so today it is snowing like a motherfucker in shanghai slush everywhere, might freeze over, wish us all luck tonight. Need to follow more chinese politics, i need a good source for it though. work is busy, but been slightly slacking. today was all expense report time. yikes, bitches owe daddy some straight up cash homey. I have been watching waaay too much wire. gonna get in on season 6 of the sopranos real quick like.

so check this out, you are not going to believe this. so lent is coming up. that means no meat, and for added challenge i'm giving up movies (which means dvds here) for 50 days. okay i might be only able to do the dvd thing for 25, pray for me kids, and wish me luck. this is going to be ridiculous. so saturday, me and teh boys are goingto head over to a brazilian bbq and put it out of business.

Movies: No country for old men-great flick but did not like ending, charlie wilson's war--really enjoyed, kite runner--might have been my favorite of the holiday season, need to see the other oscar nominees.
Links: www.truthorfiction.com or www.snopes.com allows you to check for truths on those chain emails. like the ones that claim old Barak's father was a jihadists, etc or freezing water in plastic bottle causes dioxins to be realeased. both cases are not true. but you know for the chilluns
Books: shadow divers, only 25 pages and i'm hooked.

until next time hopefully soon. if anybody has any recommendations on books on economic fundementals all ears. macro or micro. it don't matter. trying to figure out this whole housing market and the asian markets collapsing faster than the credibility of the MLB's drug enforcement plans, and then rebounding on the U.S. fed cutting rates again. reading way too many pundits, believing them all because I don't know what's what. so let me know kids some simple basic fundemental references