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Posted

Yep,

I've wrapped my Mariners baseball cap in aluminum foil to reflect all of that excess heat. I figure I'll be the only one left around here who doesn't get fried. [:-graduat

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

Posted

The Crown Prince has only two days left to get that money transferred into my bank acct. I responded to all three Princes. Seems like one of them would hire me as their personal assistant.

I stopped with the appointment nonsense couple of weeks ago.

Posted

Here in china, I'm an international date line/one day ahead of you guys. Technically, I should be going first.

I'll let you know what happens.

Kurt,

If you are killed or drown or a building falls on you, please send us an email so we can delete you from the board.

Posted

The 21st is my younger brother's birthday. I told him to watch the sky that day for a huge fireworks I'd ordered up for him.

He's not amused.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

Posted

So Kurt should be through most of the day in China, if it's still there.

If he hasn't posted soon you may want to prepare yourselves.

[:-monkeyd[:-monkeyd[:-monkeyd

Posted

So Kurt should be through most of the day in China, if it's still there.

If he hasn't posted soon you may want to prepare yourselves.

[:-party]

Kurt's got to use the Chinese calendar, so he's going to be off by a month or two. It is still Thursday in Toronto, and that is the Center of the Universe, don't ya know?
Posted

I'm still here, and so is the rest of China. Since the Chinese are hugely into signifiers, portents, magic numbers, and all manner of superstitious crap, you can imagine it's a topic over here.

The government is rounding up and arresting hundreds of people that are disturbing the peace by announcing end of the world from makeshift stages. I watched a bunch of plains clothes goons swarm some folks yesterday at the site of the Wuchang uprising. The police state does not tolerate disharmony.

We, as a profession, are constantly involved in safety. Navigating urban China is somewhere at the opposite end of the safety scale, as we envision it. Take, for example, a brief shopping trip to a new development zone.

The pace of change is so fast, the tear down while rebuilding phenomenon is taken to it's greatest extreme. I was in Optical Valley (a huge, newish, retail and business sector in Wuchang) walking down a sidewalk that was literally getting torn out from under me while they were building another one next to it.

Imagine a few thousand people, walking down a retail street....a cubic yard bucket hoe (that's a big ass machine) swinging it's load inches from us pedestrians, a hydraulic hammer blasting away inches from our feet, a chunk of concrete literally gets dragged out when I'm standing on it, I jump back, the walk ends, we're all funneled into a dirt ditch strewn with rebar, then back onto a cardboard walkway, then funneled out into the ****ing main street artery with 4 lanes of trucks and cabs blowing by at speed inches from our elbows....then back through a fence and onto another mud ditch, back to busted up concrete, then relative calm as we regain actual pavement...and no one misses a step or even makes the slightest sign of recognition that anything strange is happening.

The mass of pedestrians (and you've never experienced a mass of pedestrians until you've been in a Chinese city) stagger around a massive pile of concrete, building materials, dirt hangs in the air, filth, extreme high decibel construction sounds everywhere, step over old rebar stacked in heaps, push through those plastic hanging door air barriers.....and suddenly we're in a Nieman-Marcus like lobby, spotless clean, saccharine Chinese pop music playing, uniformed smiling cosmetics salespeople pushing Estee Lauder at us.

The place is jammed with people buying all that stupid shit. Outside, total chaos and danger....inside, N. Michigan Ave. on Saturday before Christmas.

It's like Bladerunner meets the Robb Report, or some similar clash of barbarism and "luxury".

It's nuts. Heading to Yunnan next week if the world continues. My bet is it will.

Posted

"...Imagine a few thousand people, walking down a retail street....a cubic yard bucket hoe (that's a big ass machine) swinging it's load inches from us pedestrians, a hydraulic hammer blasting away inches from our feet, a chunk of concrete literally gets dragged out when I'm standing on it, I jump back, the walk ends, we're all funneled into a dirt ditch strewn with rebar, then back onto a cardboard walkway, then funneled out into the ****ing main street artery with 4 lanes of trucks and cabs blowing by at speed inches from our elbows....then back through a fence and onto another mud ditch, back to busted up concrete, then relative calm as we regain actual pavement...and no one misses a step or even makes the slightest sign of recognition that anything strange is happening...."

Dig it, Kurt.

I appreciate the commentary. It is like this place on steroids. "Free market" run amok.

Posted

OK,

It's now officially the 21st on the east coast of CONUS. Hey, you guys still there are all you all racing around in Lincoln town cars trying to jump 200 ft. fissures?

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

Posted

Even if I happen to somehow survive the 21st, there still remains my other paranoia...collisions with very large tankers, container ships, submarines, etc, etc. Fortunately, I have found and ordered a book on that very subject.

How To Avoid Huge Ships

At $1,585.96, it seemed a tad expensive at first glance. However, please take the time to read the many glowing reviews. It's clear that Cap'n John W. Trimmer has penned a life altering manuscript. I look forward to receiving and reading this tome and, in future, will not leave port (or starboard?) without it.

Squirrel!!!

Posted

This aluminum foil wrapping on my cap is starting to make my scalp itch. I wonder if I'm allergic to aluminum?

No explosions yet; not even a measly little temblor. Man, what a gyp!

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

Posted
At $1,585.96, it seemed a tad expensive at first glance.
plus $3.99 shipping.

Customers who viewed the item also viewed on Amazon- a gallon of milk and Bic Stic pens. You mariners are an odd lot indeed. Who buys milk on Amazon?

Posted

At $1,585.96, it seemed a tad expensive at first glance.
plus $3.99 shipping.

Customers who viewed the item also viewed on Amazon- a gallon of milk and Bic Stic pens. You mariners are an odd lot indeed. Who buys milk on Amazon?

The used paperbacks are only 189.99. Pages missing? Did somebody forget to bring TP?

We're still here, but I did manage to sell my boat. I have the skills to build a raft if I have to.

BTW, the bow wave from a big ship will push a raft out of the way. We'll be safer on a raft.

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