Wait. What?

I think I've just figured out why so many Obama-bashers are so generic and have such shallow arguments.

The site I use to monitor the stats of the blog has a search engine keyword tracker as well.
Now, not many people ever reach my site through any way other than personal plug, but here's a list of the search terms people have gotten to my site with.

"ways Obama screwed up"
"ways Obama has messed up America"
"why nuke explode to mushroom shaped"
"Nukes solve"
"why is Obama messing up so bad?" (This one popped up twice!)
"things Obama has messed up"

Do you see a trend?
Yup. My blog is obviously loved by all the right wing conservatrolls out there. Who need to be told why Obama is bad, instead of analyzing what he's done and forming their own opinion.

Seriously? Americans, why do you need to be told what you think about anyone?

ACTA

I was going to post a humorous post today, but then, something came to my attention. ACTA. This has been around for about two years, and I'm amazed that this is the first I've heard of it. I blame the media for this one. Even the New York times has no coverage on ACTA. (Or, none that I found through multiple searches.)

What is ACTA?

I myself find it hard to put into succinct terms, if only due to the rage I feel at it. It is essentially a global law that would supersede existing laws in any countries which joined ACTA. Currently, the United States is among these countries.

A few links which describe ACTA:
Wikipedia
The Anti-ACTA website

Note that ACTA itself has no website. It has been kept under covers from the start, private from the public - only those involved with voting on it have been able to see it, and (AFAIK) corporations.

Now, why do corporations get to see it, and have their say, but not the public? For something that's supposed to protect corporations, won't they, oh, I don't know, make things overly easy for them, and overly hard for the public? Just saying...

I'll stop ranting now, so I have a chance at putting up the post I had planned, and so that I don't bias any opinion you may form on it too much. I'll leave you with a few links, however, if you feel like protesting.

Open this, and keep it open. It is a reloader, used to bump up the Anti-ACTA website higher up on search engines to raise awareness.
Contact your congressman to have your say. You may feel that you're just a drop in the bucket, but if enough drops form, well, that drop becomes more than a drop, no?
Contact your senator to have your say. As above. Except if you use both links, you get to say your stuff twice. Cool stuff, eh?
The only place I found with lots of info about ACTA. Another reason to use reddit.
For those of you not in the USA, there are links on the anti-ACTA site for you to contact whatever representatives you may have.

If you want to stop ACTA as well, send the links (or this blog post!) to everyone you think would be interested, and everybody you don't think would be. (But please, no chain mails. I hate those things, and I'm sure you do too.) Except not 4chan. Well, maybe the links, but just the links.

China 2010, Part 3

No prefacing (save this, apparently) needed.

August 28th - Did what every good visitor to Qingdao should do today; drank beer, ate clams. Yummy.
Also, the fresh-brewed beer from Tsingtao comes in bags. Makes it a bit harder to pour...

August 29th - Finally the sun came out! Back to the beach!

August 30th - More sun, more beach. Not much to elaborate on.
Also, cars stopping for pedestrians crossing the street is like fighting space unicorns using nukes....it doesn't fucking happen.

August 31st - Another dumpling place tonight. I had multicultural dumplings; normal white dumplings, yellow dumplings (A bit of corn in the dough), and black dumplings (Octopus ink in the dough). Yay for not being racist!

September 1st - Train ride to Tianjin today. Said goodbye to various relatives. Sadness.

September 2nd - First and only day in Tianjin. It's a whole lot of road and not much building. Went to a free museum during the day. Turns out they make you pay for the toilet paper. I guess that's one way to make money.

Also learned how over-embellished things in China get. A sign which read "Treasure Hall" had a politician's mouthful of Chinese on it. Which, when translated, read something along the lines of, "Very antique rare most ancient best exquisitely preserved treasures of China hall".

September 3rd - Bus ride to Beijing, then the plane ride back. Trip over.

Coming back from China, just to put some interesting facts out there as pros/cons...

Pros:
All streetlights had timers, so you could see exactly how long you had to cross or how long you had to wait at the red light.
Treads on the street for blind people to follow.
Lots of different meats.
No graffiti/vandalism anywhere. I saw one piece, total.

Cons:
Almost no traffic laws. Cars going wherever they could.
Never sure what meat you're eating.
Everyone lives in apartments. Some of them are quite nice though.

Other stuff:
Justin Bieber is much more popular there because the Chinese, in general, admire men having some feminine qualities. Why they think Bieber is male, I'll never know...
Also figured out why Asians in general are so thin. Rice is meant to be eaten one grain at a time. By the time you get through a bowl, one grain at a time, you're too goddamn frustrated to eat any more.

Next post: Comparing Chinese and English: Why Chinese is better.

China 2010, Part 2

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING POST CONTAINS TEXT!

The second week of my trip to China. Not as many jokes here; this week consisted of eating at restaurants and going to the beach (and wanting to go to the beach when it was rainy.)

August 19th - Forgot the picture of duck tongues.

August 20th - Ate quail and frog today at dinner.

There were also beautifully made apple-rabbits. It was very hard to make the choice between eating them and letting them breed to make more apple-bunnies. 

August 21st - Went to another restaurant. Yummy!

August 22nd - More beach-going, more sand, more water.

Spotted this bit of incomprehensible text as well.

Whatisthisidonteven-

August 23rd - I learned today that Qingdao is known for two things: its clams, and its beer. A popular saying in Qingdao is "喝啤酒，吃蛤蜊" which means, "Drink beer, eat clams."

Qingdao was also occupied by the Germans for a duration of time. Is it any wonder their beer is well-known?

Qingdao has an annual beer festival which lasts two weeks. I went there today, and to my surprise, it was quite kid-friendly, though there were quite a few cops around, and even a fire truck. The music was pretty loud, but not too bad. At least for me; accompanying parental units found it to be too much. Buzzkill.

So I left the festival with a bit of a sour taste in my mouth (Okay, no more puns), would like to go back (Perhaps in a few years...what's the legal drinking age in China?).

August 24th - Went to a well-known dumpling place before retreating to the apartment. Why does it have to rain now?

August 25th - Rained most of the day. Braved the rain to go to the MYKAL mall for various treats. These will be brought for distribution at lunch.

The MYKAL was pretty much like any other mall in the US, except there was Chinese instead of English, and a secret supermarket in the basement. Said secret supermarket could not spell cooking correctly.

Mmm....cocked coocked food...

August 26th - Went to a different mall today, this one consisting of many small shops and vendors. Lots of shells, lots of jewelry. Apparently there was even more on higher levels.

Spotted this sign when I was walking on the coast. Not quite as mangled as some others, but still...

Please, don't be closer. No! No be closer!

Also, more dumplings, more good food.

August 27th - We went to Qingdao's old alley today. It's one of the oldest parts of the city, a cramped alleyway filled with small restaurants and vendor stalls. One stall was selling various bugs to be fried, so I got some scorpions. Tasted like french fries, if only a bit chewier. Yum.

Final post coming tomorrow, before the blog returns to its normal programming.

China 2010, Part 1

WARNING: The following series of posts may be traumatizing to vegetarians, vegans, and bigots. Especially to bigots.

Right, so I normally don't blog about my life, but this is an exception. However, I understand that reading "We went to the Great Wall today. It was a wall." really isn't all that fun, so I've edited out the more boring parts (e.g. The ten hour plane flight which I originally planned to write in great detail.) and tried to make the rest more enjoyable to read. I'm splitting this up into a few parts, and will be posting one part every one to two days. Be ready for a jumble of present/past-tense narration. Here we go...

August 11th - Left Seattle for Beijing. Wheeee!

August 12th - Arrival in Bejing. Several things struck me about China at once.

The Asians were the second thing I noticed. There were so many! I thought China, like all other parts of the world, was white! But every time I'd look into a car, I'd see...an Asian. Then another. And another. Since when do Asians live in...erm, never mind.

Then again, that did explain why every car was moving so slowly. I mean every single one of the cars packed bumper to bumper was moving 5-10 kmph, tops. This myth that all Asians are slow drivers? Not a myth. 

Now, as the ride came to an end, we (My dad, sister, and uncle) dropped our stuff off at the hotel, and went outside to see (and taste!) Bejing. Don't you even dare make that into one of your sick, twisted jokes.

There were so many toy dogs. I mean, everyone had one! Why? Why? What reason would Chinese people have-

Oh. Okay. Right. Well, looking back, I can proudly say that I didn't eat any dogs.

At least, I don't think I did.

Later, I searched for Chinatown. I was disappointed that I didn't find it.

August 13th - Went to the Forbidden City and Tienanmen Square. It was a foggy day, or maybe just extra smoggy, but even so, the Forbidden City was damn impressive. Pictures to come later.

By dinner, I'd decided that China is a vegetarian's nightmare. And everyone else's place to eat very well.

On a whim, I also took a look at Chinese TV. There's a company, CCTV, which owns almost every station. Tuned into a news show, which I thought was a game show until informed otherwise. The people were holding up signs with Chinese and there were game show noises! Take a look for yourself. Apologies on the slant.

August 14th - Went to the Great Wall today. Again, pictures will come later. Learned several new facts today, among them:

1) Getting on buses with country people in China is harder than getting on the Metro after school, or giving birth. (I've experienced one of these firsthand, guess which.)

2) The Great Wall goes on longer than one might think. Betting that you can run the entirety of the wall is thus not a good idea. 

3) It is not a good idea to stand on steep parts of the wall when it is windy while wearing a skirt. Just saying.

August 15th - A lazy day today. The family restaurant we went to for dinner was impressive in how efficiently it ran. Everything seemed to be scripted, all the staff knew exactly what they were doing, etc. Why can't there be places like this in America?

Also, they had cannibal fishies.

August 16th - Took a train to Qingdao today.

Qingdao has temperatures like Seattle, which is pretty awesome; I was glad to escape the heat of Beijing. Incidentally, Seattle had its heat wave at this point. Bahaha....

I met one of my cousins today as well. 

On an unrelated note, I also learned a few swear words. Totally unrelated.

August 17th - First of many days at the beach. It's a private (Membership-based, that is) beach, so it's not too crowded, and there aren't any foreign devils here, either. Apparently, standing in the water and staring at stuff (sunset, waves crashing on rocks, other people staring at stuff) is commonplace.

However, there are way too many speedos here. What is it with Asian men and speedos? DO NOT WANT with a capital DO NOT WANT.

Earlier, we went to a street called Electronic City. It's a street totally dedicated to all things electronic, and the star building is a 20-floor hotel-style building, which sells electronics only. Nerdgasm. Seattle needs one of these.

August 18th - Met another cousin, and her child. She (the child, that is) calls me uncle. I feel so old...

I also spotted the first of many translation fails to come.

August 19th - Met my great-uncle today. Suddenly I don't feel so old.
Ordered lunch from a restaurant (as we have been for a while now), had quail eggs, and duck tongues.

Duck tongues look like backwards snake tongues.
I also learned my eldest uncle and his wife own a chain of hair salons. Yay free haircuts!

Part 2 to come tomorrow.