The past couple weeks in a nutshell:

- suffering under riduculous summer weather. summer is fail.
- had multiple birthday-and-goodbye dinners with my classmates
- saw multiple classmates off (sob!)
- frantically searched for job
- secured job as an editor/translator for a company that translates (chinese-english) chinese news stories for such hallowed news institutions as people's daily and cctv (the govt run chinese tv station thing)
- said job pays super fucking shittily.
- interviewed for teaching position that pays three times as much as said editor position
- still waiting for callback
- found room to rent for cheap for next year
- landlord of said room randomly changed her mind the day i was supposed to move in
- needed said room to secure a visa extension for next year (china is stupid)
- freaked out a lot
- found a studio apartment for a more expensive price
- signed contract
- went to police station to register my new residency. had complications, so have to return monday to finish up. (dear china, what is up with your ridonkulousness???)
- preparing to buy plane tickets to the us for 1-2 weeks, but can't buy until visa issues are straightened. wtf wtf wtf.
- learned to play chun li in street fighter 4. can now execute basic moves. sometimes, they're even on purpose.

Found a job that pays fuckall atm, but I really kind of need the money, so... still doing it.

It's boring as all fuck, and the people there are kind of fucking retarded.

Also, I really despise being patronised.

So much crap going on in my life right now. Am pretty busy sending people off and figuring out stuff that I need to do for next year and this summer and this fall. And oh god, my head's exploding.

--;; I hate summer.

Back from Sichuan. I visited many beautiful places, and also saw the town closest to the epicentre of last year's earthquake.

Pictures to come once I'm done processing the 900+ images.

I visited Hangzhou during February this year, when it was still misty and ugly and grey. That much is evident when you look at the pictures of the most prominent place in Hangzhou: the West Lake (西湖). There are over 30 West Lakes in China, and all of these West Lakes are named after the one in Hangzhou, because this particular lake has so much cultural and historical significance.



( Hangzhou: The Centre of Chinese Culture )

All pictures are taken by yueni. Please comment. I don't know who all's reading this if nobody does. I know I'm mostly posting for me, but I'm also posting for you lot too!

Exams are all over. I probably passed everything. The Major Booklet Of Doom that I was co-editing is completed.

This means that I get to go to One of the Most Beautiful Places on Earth!

Finals. Need. To. Study.

AAAAAAH!

O SNAP.

Where was Daniel Henney when I was playing Byakuya in no_air?

China as a civilisation has a history of over 5,000 years. It is an ancient civilisation with loads of philosophers and thinkers who have come up with centuries of Chinese thought and culture over the ages.

This ancient, cultured civilisation also has no concept of the word "logic" whatsoever. In fact, the word for logic, 逻辑 (luó jì), is basically their phoneticising the English equivalent.

Explains a lot, doesn't it?

So I finally got back my test results from the HSK. The HSK is short for Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi (汉语水平考试), which is basically the Chinese TOEFL. Well, after stressing out about it, I passed! =D

My total score adds up to a level B, but because I have three C's, my overall grade is a C, or a '9'. The HSK tests on a scale of 1-11, with the Basic test levels 1-3, the Elementary/Intermediate test 4-8, and the Advanced test 9-11, so if I'd flunked this test, I'd have had a 0, and not an 8 or less. If I'd just gotten 3 more points in my Comprehensive section, and 5 more points in Listening, I'd have gotten a 10, but I'm not complaining.

A 9 means that I am eligible to apply for graduate work at any Chinese university, and it is the business standard for conducting business in Chinese. =D

( score breakdown )

In a typical show of Chinese government paranoia, the following websites have been blocked: Twitter, Flickr and Hotmail. Apparently, for Hotmail, it's because the "login.live.com" address was blocked. I can still access MSN though. Youtube is still blocked.

Most people believe that it's due to the upcoming 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen protests and we should get access to said sites after June 5th. Sometime. Maybe. Hopefully. (Who knows?)

Amusingly, the blockage pretty much fucks up Microsoft's new search engine, Bing. The Official Chinese Name, of said website is 必应 (bì yìng), meaning "will respond/meet your need" in Chinese. It comes from the Chinese idiom, 有求必应 (yǒu qiú bì yìng), which means (when describing a person), "if you have a need, they will surely help you". They really don't think things through, because the word "Bing" is also a word in Chinese. Actually, it's quite a few words in Chinese, and some people have taken to calling it 饼 (bǐng), which basically means "biscuit". It could also mean 病 (bìng), meaning "disease or illness"...

What a retarded name.

For whatever reason, for the past couple of days, The Boy and I have been super exhausted. I mean, after 8 hours of sleep the night before, he crashed for another 5-6 hours after class yesterday, went for dinner, and then crashed a few hours after. Incredible. I wasn't quite that out of it, but I did have a (completely out of character) 2 hour nap in the afternoon. Ridiculous.

Meaning, of course, that I got nothing productive done at all. Still have yet to get something productive done today. I sent out a couple resumes, and proof-read a teaching contract for a friend of mine who will be teaching in Singapore (hopefully) next year.

Other than that, I've really not done much else, but I've also not really got much motivation to.

Finally finished the psychotic Study Trip Report of Doom. Final character count: 3,980.

One down, a billion more to go. x.x

=P Yeah... that was the previous post of doom. At least I put it under a cut!

中国是世界上独一无二、空前绝后的文明古国之一。这个说法是公认的。无论如何，中国的历史悠久、传统文化丰富，创造了中国人的思想和概念。我们能在中国的建筑物、城市、人民见到这些概念和思想。不过时间逐渐通过，中国的社会也有了现代化的影响和改变。这些影响对中国所保存着的文化物品有几个方面的影响，而且导致中国的文化和历史的欣赏与接受。

在我们班这次往福建省实习的过程中，我终于了解了中国在今日的社会中通过发展之道而走的路。这条路又长又艰苦，但是中国人保持了一个倔强又坚定的精神，坚持在蛇艰苦的道路上前行。当然，真是一个我们外国人不可思议的过程，但是我们也能了解中国人对他们的未来所有的希望和要求。不过社会的发展和进步与历史和传统文化的保存是否有点互相矛盾呢？如果我们想要继续走发展之道，我们也不能忽略历史留下来的概念和思想。如果我们一下子就将我们的根源拔掉，那么发展的道路还值得走吗？这也是一个永恒无效的问题。

( 昔日与今日的土楼 )

I have decided that I am in love with Kurt Halsey's art.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but... there is not enough Star Trek fic or RPGs. After watching the movie last night, I don't even know where to start with how exceedingly awesome it was. I was never really that huge of a fan of the original series, though I did enjoy bits of TNG as a kid, but this movie totally just won me over.

( Star Trek 2009 rambling; possible spoilers )

Need. Star Trek. Icons. Now.

Watched Star Trek tonight. It was pretty win. =D

李柏瑩！如果你偷了我的主题，我不会原谅你！


客家土楼：
-客家人是中原地区的移民
-土楼内含的传统文化
-客家祖先对子孙的期望 （包含在振成楼的对联里）
-振成楼与旅游化的过程
-年轻客家人的现代生活

银鹭食品公司/银鹭集团与马唐村的关系和影响：
-80年代的马唐村
-今日的马唐村
-银鹭公司的发展过程与马唐村的发展
-现代化提高了马唐村民的生活水平
-银鹭公司对马唐村的贡献： 1.建造房屋 2.卫生水平的提高 3.教育方面的发展 4.年轻马唐村民的职业机会

金龙车场
-企业文化：金龙诗歌《同一个金龙》
-新能源客车：一种环境保护 （高科技的发展）

走发展之道、享受现代化的利处是应该的，但是我们也不应该忽略保存中国丰富的传统文化的重要性。

working on installing trillian astra (beta). wootsauce!