The PhD students took me out, so today I have the aftereffects. Too many toasts...

It's a fun class. We talk about a lot of things. They keep asking me questions about finance or economics though, which usually gets them the answer " I'm a Computer Scientist".

My other classes seem ok. The usual bunch, somewhat better because they know about me from previous classes. So the term is off more or less ok. We had a lot of scheduling problems, but they should be over now.
Looks like Harbin for National Day, so I won't be around Beijing. But I'll be back for classes afterward.

In the movies,
I saw news that Will Smith is in a remake of _I am Legend_.  I hope it's better than _I, Robot_ was.   There's also a screenplay of The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - after the horrible mess Hollywood made of Starship Trooper, is there any hope for a complex and philosophical novel like TMisHM?  I almost hate to hear that Holywood is considering it.
I saw the movie "The Crazy Stone" the other day. It was really funny, even if I could understand very little of the Sichuan Hua.

I think I'll do 'Bend it like Beckham' for the next class. It's pretty interesting.

Later everyone.

Got home last night and checked email. I saw the news that tanks had closed downtown Bangkok to traffic. So I tried to catch Nook online and see if she's ok. Didn't see her yet but she probably is - Thai coups aren't usually violent. It must be scary for her though. OTOH Thailand's had 17 coups since WWII, so it's not unusual.

Today is a light day, so I'm preparing for classes. Yesterday I rode the bike over to Xinjiekou and found most of the DVD shops closed. I guess they were pirates. I suppose it's good for IP reasons, but it makes it hard to find videos. Too bad, for a while you could find almost anything. Now it's like the US- hard to get old stuff.

Just got home from the grad class. They're an interesting bunch, mostly working people going for an advanced degree. I sure get tired during the long class though.

Regular classes start tomorrow. I'll be busy all day. It should be interesting meeting the new students. I've got Project Management majors this time so we'll certainly have fun. Maybe another field trip.

The next week will be rough- way too many hours. It should be over by Oct, though, so I won't worry too much about it. After all, I'll have a break then for Nat'l Day.

I'm putting some pictures up. I met the old ladies in a hutong near here. 90 years old. They've seen some remarkable things. Pictures of the Big Bell Temple 大钟寺　and the inevitable flowers :)


　　

Saw Shaun's place last night. It's pretty nice. Big, comfortable, bright.  Looks like a nice place to live.

Today I'm showing _Full Metal Jacket_ to the class. Classic war movie, but with Kubrik directing it has interesting twists.

The training always seems to get to students. The military training they all go through isn''t nearly as intense as US Marine basic ( few things are!). It kinda startles them too when they find out that their fat, smiling teacher has gone through similiar training.

The classic war movie theme of taking individuals, breaking down their resistance and then building them up as members of a group who will follow orders comes through pretty clearly. G/Sgt Hartman was played by a real Marine DI, and he comes across as authentic. Very authentic. His creative use of language depicts how recruits' ideas of religion, politics, morality- pretty much everything- are insulted, challenged, and replaced by devotion to the Corps. 

The following war scenes reflect the craziness and futility the Marines feel at being in Vietnam, and the culminating scene shows what a lot of soldiers feel - relief at being alive.

It's a fairly timely movie too, because right now US Marines are going through identical training and going off to what looks like a futile and useless war.  There are probably Marines in Iraq now who can identify with Pvt. Joker.

Showtime!

Later

September 11 is a special day for Americans now, but for me September 11, 2003 is another special date. I got on a China Air flight in Los Angeles airport to come to China on that day.

Of course, because of time differences and the length of the flight, I arrived on September 12. Either way, next week I'll have been here for three years!!!.   It really doesn't seem that long, although I've done a lot of things here.

It's been mostly fun.  Classes in English and Cinema and Information.  The impromptu classes on Project Management when I met the PM majors. (Fun field trip wasn't it?)    Lots of memories - Santa Claus in the Christmas performance, tea plantations in Guizhou, Siberian tigers in Harbin, Kongzi's family's palace in Shandong.  Standing on Taishan at daybreak wishing the rain would stop so I could see the sunrise,  yang rou chuan and bai jiu in the night markets, Uyghur dances, Buddhist temples, duststorms, ancient palaces, modern skyscrapers.

Lots of people too. Students, other teachers, neighbors, taxi drivers, random strangers on buses and trains.

Hmm... Now that I list all that, it does seem like a long time. The list is way too short, too. I've done many more things. Some of which I'll never post in public, of course.

It's been interesting, all of it. The ups and downs, good and bad, all of it interesting.

I'm hoping for quite a few more interesting years.

Thanks, to all of you who've made life here what it has been.

Later

After Dog days comes Indian summer. The time in the early Autumn with warm days, blue skies and cool nights. Again I have no idea why we call it that.  Yesterday in Beijing was nice. In the morning the sky was divided, a layer of cloud in the south, blue skies in the north. 蓝天白云　  Today looks like high clouds with sun.  All around nice weather. Beijing is nice in the Autumn.

I saw the news that the Crocodile Hunter - Australian Steve Irwin, was killed by an animal. It's not unexpected, really, since he took  risks with dangerous animals. It's sad to hear of though. He really seemed to enjoy life. 

First 'audio-visual' class today. I'm showing 'Crash'.  It has some good observations on life in LA, and I like the way everything twists - no good guys or bad guys - everyone does good and bad things.
I'm gonna have an alternate since one of my classes looks like 3rd year Int'l Trade, which may have seen Crash last term when I had Int'l Trade in 2nd year. 'Full Metal Jacket' might be a good way to start. They've all been thru military training, so watching scenes from US Marine Basic is usually shocking to them.
"Do they really train that way?".    Heh, yeah. I went thru most of what you see in that movie in Army Basic, which is usually considered less demanding than Marine Basic Training.

I can't find my @#$$@@  Flash disc today, might have to get another one. Lucky I backed it up on the hard-drive of this PC before I moved. Guess I'll have to get another one.

See y'all later.

Or not, as the case may be.  I got my class schedule, but it seems my classes don't start for a week or so yet. Imagine my disappointment...     The movie classes will be from 4-6 in the evening too, which will leave my days mostly free. Wow.
Now if the software company will come thru, might be a nice term.

I had an interview with a software company, part of it in Putonghua. It came across as many of my previous interviews: "Most techies aren't very articulate, you speak easily and even tell funny stories."     "Ma'am, no one's *ever* called me a normal person." :)

I think my hi-lite for an interview was at Coca-cola, when the HR boss tossed some beanbags at me and said "You can play with these while waiting for the IT guy to get here". I started juggling them - a simple fountain, but I kept them up. I told her "a good consultant has to be able to juggle things". Much laughter. I didn't get that job, but I did find out who did, and went and got the job he was leaving. A good consultant is resourceful too. That's how I contracted for Lucent for awhile.

But back to the present. 
I spent the afternoon at the zoo, with a friend and her daughter. It was a pretty good time, the kid ran around and we talked, as much as we could- she doesn't speak English. Ordinary day-to-day putonghua is ok for me, but get outside of that and my vocabulary is lacking. We seemed to get by though. It was nice. Then off to a Japanese restaurant for dinner.

Now I have to go and send the rest of the Great Wall pics to the GuizhouGirl.  So I'll sign off 'til tomorrow.

See y'all