These are the moments we cherish

What could be more annoying than somebody talking while a moment of silence is being held? Try an eardrum splattering boat fog horn from 10 feet away. THE WHOLE TWO MINUTES THE MOMENT OF SILENCE IS HELD.

Out of respect for the victims of the Sichuan earthquake a moment of silence was called for across the county of Yangshuo. Yangshuo's influential were asked to meet beside the Li river where a news crew would televise the most meaningful moment of muted memorial. Boat captains were also asked to honor the moment of silence - by making as much unrighteous noise as possible. If you've never heard a boat's fog horn up close, its like having Joan Rivers crawl up your ear canal to host the Oscars.

The two minutes of reverence were spent in distraction and agony by those attending (including yours truly), it was all we could do to staunch the bloodflow from our ears. By the end of the "moment of silence" we were all waist deep in blood, spashing wildly towards higher ground.

Truly a moment of meaning and honor.

..."No but if you hum a few bars"

T.V. networks here (well, really "Network") have an uncanny ability to make up original songs for their shows that sound EXACTLY like famous movie theme songs. For instance, today while watching a program I heard both the Brave Heart theme song and the Pirates of the Caribbean (pronounced Care-e-bee-an) theme song. Played shamelessly over top of things like noodle commercials... or something like that. Everything from soap operas to "Imperial marches" on T.V. are accompanied by what I can only assume to be straight JACKED theme music.

This has developed into a little game for me. When I'm watching a soap opera (don't ask) and I hear a... borrowed song then I try to guess what movie it is from. This is harder than it sounds however when the Brave Heart theme is accompanied by a man slurping noodles. Blows any mental image you might have associated with that song.

This occurrence of the borrowed theme music goes along with my observation here of the "copying is always better than creating" mentality. And yes, you still get to claim that YOU thought it up yourself. No really! You promise, it is your original idea!!

View from apartment

For those of you who've noticed, I hadn't blogged until just recently. November last year I made the trip back from China to the States where I stayed for 4 months. As I posted a few days ago, I made the hike back to Yangshuo to resume... doing... uh, whatever it is I'm really doing here from day-to-day.

Here's a little look outside my apartment window just to give you an idea of what my part of town looks like. Well, no. Not really... actually. This is what it looks like in my "apartment complex" if you can really call it that.



I took this picture at about 6:40 am. ONLY because Jet lag has me getting up that early.

cue sound effects -

*BARK! BARK!*
*drip*
*Chirp, chiiiirp, Chirp*
*drip*
*BARK! RAR, RAR, RAR, BARK!*

Getting Back to China - Part 2: "Shoot Me In The Face"

Naive. The only word to describe my previous post.

I would have rather shared my palette with this guy than suffered through the last 2/3's of my journey. Shortly after boarding my second (and longest mind you) flight, I abruptly came down with a face cold. Like the snorking uncontrollably, wiping your nose every 10 seconds kind. Like where you run out of tissues so fast you say "screw it" and use the back of your hand in front of everybody kind. For 11 UNBELIEVABLE HOURS.

Ever had your nasal passages sandblasted? With angry scarab beetles? That's how I felt after about 20 minutes.

Scarab Beetle (for reference)


So to make a long story short, it was horrible. Couldn't sleep, wasn't hungry, had a headache... ugh. I made it to Hong Kong and was temporarily relieved by a Starbucks in the airport. I hopped my final flight into China and then made the 3 hour bus ride to Yangshuo, flopping onto my sofa and promptly falling asleep. All's well that ends well they say.

Another Scarab Beetle (for stupidity's sake)