In case you were wondering

What things look like on this end:


It's surprising, really, how often the servers here seem to unexpectedly drop connections for some websites.

After maneuvers:

Beijing Summer

I know - It's been a while, there's some catching up to do, all in good time. China is carrying on, as it does. Know that it's in the 100 degree range (upper 30's and even 40 for anyone following the world dominant Celsius scale) for most of this week and next week here in Beijing. This is officially the first time in my life that I've considered turning on the A/C. That's mostly because, living in China, it's actually the first time I've lived in a place with A/C available:



Yeah, well, our parents tortured us growing up, and then promptly bought an air conditioner the year after I moved out. And there was this attempt by roommates to air condition that giant somewhat dubiously (il)legal loft in Chicago, but let's face it - a wooden floor that you can sometimes see through to the business below combined with giant, leaky, south facing windows makes the idea of "cooling" more of a placebo effect. We had A/C to make us think it seemed cooler. But really. It wasn't.

So - I'm thinking about it. But check out the only way to turn the thing on, the remote:



We've run into another washing machine moment.

Would you believe I've been studying Chinese since February and I still only know 3 words on this remote: 开（on), 关(off), and 睡眠(sleeping). There is progress though - there are actually a couple more characters here and there that I know, and I am now a virtual professional at looking up characters (on my cell phone...). But even with all of that, it doesn't make sense. So, I will likely be reduced to haphazardly pushing buttons until something happens. Stay tuned - it's a scorcher this week in Beijing...

Annoying, more than anything

In case you haven't heard, these are sensitive days for insecure regimes. Blogspot is blocked in China, so am testing some alternatives. Some work, some don't. Stay tuned.