No Money, No Problems?

Will Going Without Money Hurt the Economy?

So I read the above article, and it got me dreaming of a money-less life. The concept is so appealing until I think about the things I want and the actual sacrifice it entails. In the article, the guy had no wife or kids. Maybe some day it will be the road I take but for now I will have to work on being disciplined and generous with the money I have.

Porn is as Addictive as Heroin

They say porn is as addictive as heroin.
I guess that makes television methadone just as addictive
but lacking the orgasm.

A poem written while watching Trainspotting on Netflix.

Post First Day of Teaching Jetlag

Yesterday I started teaching. I was so intense.

For three hours in the morning. I taught kids aged 3-5 English. I felt like a character from a kids show. I did a lesson on heads shoulders knees and toes. It was like 3 hours of cardio. Afterwords my throat was all scratchy and I was exhausted. I got to take a nap for a couple hours then I went to teach another 1 and a half hour class. It was much easier. The goal with teaching is to make extra money. Yesterday I made in 4 and a half hours as much as a I made in 32 hours at my last job.

Today I had the day off. I feel kind of jet lagged.  I am still kind of tired from yesterday but this is also inspired by the fact I am watching Lost in Translation. I hope this whole thing gets easier.

Excited About Chinese- My Mission to Hack Chinese

I am about to break the second most important rule when it comes to blogging, it seems ok since I have  been breaking the most important rule in blogging for a long time. #1 Rule You need to blog 2-5 times per week. #2 Never apologize for not posting in a while. 

So I am really sorry I have not been posting. I am not going to make any promises that will change. We will see how it goes. I was inspired to write by Google Analytics. It showed me that the Addictive TV article on my blog Pediadigest hit the big time by actually being linked to from Wikipedia. This inspired me to go after my dream of being a wildly successful blogger.

The man thing that has been on my mind lately (besides Jesus and the Bible) is learning Chinese. Back in April or May I decided to buckle down and really try to learn Chinese. Since I had been basically living in China for over a year and had decided last February to live in China for a couple more years. 

I hired the first Chinese tutor I met for roughly 9 dollars (55 RMB) an hour and had her teach me Pinyin and pronunciation 6 hours per week. Since she wanted me to do homework I knew I would not do I decided to hire two additional tutors that would help me do homework. Luckily since they were college students I was able to pay them $2.50 an hour or 15 RMB. Which they were really excited to get. 

At first I focused on the basics of pronunciation and the tones. My I had my tutors only teach me how to things I thought I would say and words that I knew English Speaking Chinese people often didn't know in English. So this took the form of learning how to say my friends' / boss' address. That way I could get into a taxi and tell them where to go. Also I learned how to say "I want this" and "I want that." This was a great addition to my usual when the waiter comes just point to the picture on the menu that looked like the dish I wanted.

 Another example of something I learned in the beginning the word charity.  I work for a Non-profit organization and it seems like when you meet new people they always ask you what you do. The word charity is not a word that English speaking Chinese people commonly know. So I would tell people I work for a non-profit or a charity and they would louse face because they don't know the word and then I would need to spend 5 minutes having to explain my job. So it was huge help to learn to say charity so I can tell people in English and then add in the Chinese word preventing an awkward interaction. 

It was really helpful that I had been in China for a while when I started learning Chinese. I knew the things that would increase the quality of my lifestyle. So I was able to focus on that and put it to use right away. Though after a couple of months I had mastered saying some basic things and my teacher started trying to teach me all of the basic first semester language learning things like colors and how to say the cellphone is on the table. This cuased a bit of a down time in my learning. All these thing I felt like it would just be easier to say to my friends in English.

But around June I was re-listening to the 4 Hour Work week on audio book and I was reminded of how Timothy Ferriss said he had a master code for learning languages. He explained that there is a list of most commonly used Japanese words. I figured if I could translate that list into Chinese and learn all of those word it would speed up my Chinese learning experience. Fortunately I was able to find a list of the most commonly used characters in Chinese. It is amazing while there are about 8 or 9 thousand Chinese characters it only takes a knowledge of about 3000 characters to be able to read. Then if you are focusing on the most used characters it turns out over 95% of everything said is only requires a knowledge of 1600 characters and 85% of whats said being less than 800 characters. 

These statistics inspired me. While it could be possible that the real meaning of what people say is not found an understanding of only 85 or 95% of what say, I felt learning the most used characters would be pointing  me in the right direction. I was certain it was much better direction than learning how to tell my friends that already speak Chinese that their pink book bag is under the table.

I have spent a lot of time focusing on vocabulary this summer and it has been going ok. Yet when I started working on putting that vocabulary in sentences that I started to make the most head way. Since I know how to pronounce the words from my initial training. Through flash cards I can focus on learning the literal translations of Chinese sentences made up of the 1060 most commonly used words. 1060 is 90% and it also gives me a lot of versatility in the sentences.Learning the sentences has had two advantages over just using one word flash cards. First since there is context the whole sentence is much easier to remember. Second by learning the sentence I learn grammar and can change the sentence to suit my needs.

I spent a month learning just words which was really hard and I don't recommend that though it did teach em some things. So even though I am nowhere near knowing all of the 1060 words I am focusing on in just a week and a half of practicing all of the sentences my Chinese level has increased dramatically. So what I have been telling people is spend a long time on pronunciation. This is the hardest part of Chinese but once you have it down the rest of Chinese seems pretty easy. Then focus on the most useful words. The words you will use the most first and then the words that are used the most.

My Grandpa's Killer Died

I was learning about SEO and watching a video on analytics and thought I should check the info on my blogs. Since they almost get no traffic minor events can make big changes in the data. Like in the past I got this huge increase in traffic like 9000% or something because someone posted a link to an article I wrote on in a forum.

So today when I say small up tick in the viewers of my personal blog. I thought something silly like that might have happened. It turned out the increase was because the guy that killed my Grandpa had died. It's a little surreal. Haha I guess web analytics are more useful than I would have ever thought.

Wow... What in The World?

So I have been in China off and on for just over 21 months. Some amazing things have happened. I lost about 50 lbs. I have seen a guy be completely changed by reading the Bible and then change back because he stopped. I have seen a person who would have wanted to persecute me inexplicably be unable to see that while I sat next to him I was sharing the Bible with his friend. I helped to start a non-profit dedicated to helping people.  I am pretty excited that I am here. Though a few lingering ideas cause me to take pause.

The main one being I kind of would like to get married. I April 30th I turned 34. I feel like I have a lot of love to give and would love to be in a relationship. Though it seems like the prospects are pretty slim here in China. So I have been challenged to act on faith to start going out on dates with people I can potentially marry. I have been having trouble acting faithfully in this. For some reason I am afraid to talk to the people I feel I would need to in order to find these potential dates. I am scared. I think this is the type of thing that on the surface I am afraid of failure but in a certain way I am afraid of success.

I am not writing this to have people tell me buck up it will be ok. That really irritates me when people respond in that way. It make me feel like they are negating my fears which are at least slightly rational fears. So if you have constructive advice feel free to respond if not I am just trying to be open about my life and I know that GOD is amazing and can do anything and will provide for all my needs and possible desires in a way that is immeasurably better than I can imagine.

Coming Clean

I often hold back the things that go on in my heart. I am very reluctant to reveal the real me which is probably why no one reads my blog. Today I revealed my self and my dirty little secrets to two of my friends. I did it because I knew it was the right thing to do. For a long time I had felt trapped by these secrets.

But on the other hand the they set me free. They allowed me to live in an imaginary world were I could do anything and be anything. In that world I felt powerful and accomplished. It allowed me to escape all of the ways I feel like a failure in the real world.  The sad thing was I didn't like who I wanted to be in that world and the success was simply self satisfaction. Actually many time the success was giving other satisfaction so they would want to interact with the successful me.

I am Jet Lagged

Well I am in LA. I am trying to work though jet lag is ruling my life.

My Quest For My Favorite Movie

OK I have a confession to make. I have been lie about my favorite movie. I haven't really had a favorite movie up until now so I would tell people that my favorite movie was a movie I think they would like or one that I have like for a long time. The other day I was asked by a stranger (a guy I meet on a tour of the earthquake affected areas of Sichuan) about my favorite movie. I gave him some of my old stand by and then Amber mentioned her favorite movies and I realized I need to discover what my real favorites are.

Here are my criteria.
1. It needs to be re-watchable.
I think a favorite movie needs to be able to be watched a million times and hold up under the strain.
2. It needs to have inspire emotion.
I have never been a big fan of mindless movies so the movie needs to make me think or laugh or cry or all off the above not just pass the time.
3. Really I was kind of done with criteria after number.

So I have started to repeatedly watch movies I like, to see how they hold up to the re-watchable criteria. My candidates so far are; "Pursuit of Happyness", "The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" and "Elf" which I hadn't seen until the start of this endeavor but was hilarious.

Chinese New Year's Eve

I returned today from my four city tour of China today. It was very eventful. I learned about China I met new friends and I learned to interact better with my old friends.

I came home and watched Gran Torino and The Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind. I hadn't heard anything really good about Gran Torino. It was funny I kept hearing from people it was good but... I was never clear what the but was all about, and after seeing it I think it was just good.

Though The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind has left me in a very melancholy mood.

Any Thing Can Happen in 2010

Wow so it is three days into the new. 2010 so far is on track to be amazing. I have been in China for 135 days. It has definitely been one of those weird times when times seems to fly and yet be so long all at the same time. To think that I have been here almost 4 and a half months seems so crazy but then so many things have happened if I had to guess I might say that I have been here 6 or 7 months based simply on all that has happened. Five Chinese people have been baptized in the Pancakes IHOP group. I have made some best friends. I started studying the Bible with a guy. Then had my heart broken when he my heart quit studying. Then I went through a phase where I was depressed that Juan was studying the Bible with two people and I wasn't studying with any. I got pointed back in the direction of the Bible and God. Started relying on God and am now studying the Bible with five guys. Plus I have lost 20 lbs. Man if God keeps up this pace anything can happen in 2010.

Oh and PS. I think this will be the year I jump on the medical mask bandwagon.

Christmas Tastes Better With KFC (Just Ask the Japanese)

KFC Christmas in Japan LA Weekly Article

From the perspective of a foreigner living in China this article hit home. Since China is just getting into Christmas and loves KFC I am suprised it is not like this here.

Potential

potential

the potential to change history, to reach out and make goals and dreams reality. Everyone has this potential, in the story of the Tower of Babel, God says, when man works together, nothing is beyond them.

Pasted from <http://chucklew.livejournal.com/?skip=240>

Many people have told me i have great potential....what they mean is that they think i could be doing so much more then i am.

Pasted from <http://chucklew.livejournal.com/?skip=240>

Potential is such a crazy thing. A person telling you that you have so much potential is a very back handed complement. It really is saying that you are not doing enough. I used to be told this a lot mainly when I was in Middle School and High School. Then in the past week at 32, I was told for the first time I was that I had a lot of potential and then someone was gave me specifics on how I can change things to fulfill that potential. It is such powerful and encouraging thing to have someone tell you I think you have so much potential and then give you specifics on what is holding you back rather than simply say that you are not living up to your potential.

The Airport

They say you can't go home again but it seems like you can and if you had a crazy childhood like me sometimes it gets better.

On Thursday I made the journey from LAX to O'Hare a journey that I had done repeatedly since I was 13, but stopped making when I was about 25. I spent weeks in transit between during my junior year of High School. That year I was living in Chicago with my Dad but since I was rebelling against him and everything else I would use every opportunity to fly back to LA. Since I flew stand by the airports became my turf where I was master of my domain, even though like every where else I had no control it seemed there was always hope and the airport and the chance to get a flight and to go where I wanted or needed to be. So on Thursday when I hunkered down to wait for my standby flight to Chicago it felt like going home again.

P.S. I only had to wait 4 hours to get a flight though I did have to crawl on the floor to get it.

Today is the half way point of my journey in Central America. I woke up at 3:00am from a dream where the gir of my dreams was in her car telling someone about her prays for a man. She expressed how she wanted to marry someone taller than 5'11". Which left me thinking about my dream to one day marry her. The thought of how much I like her and how I want to be transformed into the man of her dreams kept rolling through my head. Then I am fearful that she will again become my white whale and that I will be closed off to wanting to date other girls.

I yurn for a woman with a mission mind set and a desire for the ministry and some of women that I know and are beuatiful are literally fleeing from God. Yesterday Blair was telling a story where she asked someone a question about the Bible and then took that as an opportunity to share their faith with here and she literally ran away.

After thinking I decided to read some more Into Thin Air so I could go back to sleep but all it did was get my mind going even more. It made me think of how this trip is really an eye opener. It has made me desire so much more to be a missionary because I see so much more how the world is helpless and harassed. But through the illness and fatigue I better see how much a sacrifice going to China will truly be.

Nicaragua Cont. The Day I Meet the President

This morning we took a bus tour on Nicaragua. It was weird they had all these Christmas trees up with the number 30 on top of them. It turned out that they were from the previous Christmas and the Sandinistas decided that they would leave them up all year to celebrate the 30th anniversary of them taking over power from the Somaza regime. We drove around the city and saw areas where people had simply become squatters and started building shacks then were given the property by the Sandanistas.
The first stop we made was to a archeological site called Huellas de Acahualinca.It is incorrectly believed by some that the foot prints were made by people running from a volcanic eruption, the footprints were really made by people walking to Lake Nicaragua to get water. The footprints are 6 or 7 thousand years old. There were roughly 10 to 20 people who left footprints one of the footprints looks like it has 6 toes, which was most likely created by one person walking behind another walking in the first person’s footsteps. There are also animal tracks near the footsteps but they are headed in a different direction so the animals probably came after the people and were headed in a different direction.
After we saw the footprints we went to the location of the old presidential house. It had a history of the Sandanista party and some information on Augusto Sandino who was not actually part of or the founder of the Sandanista party but a rebel against the US control of Nicaragua in the 1930’s. Sandino had been the son of a farmer and went on to fight against the US Marines in a guerilla war, in which Sandino’s soldiers had the advantage because they were familiar with the terrain of the jungles.
We had to get dressed up for dinner because we meet with ex-president of Nicaragua Enrique José Bolaños Geyer. Don Enrique had gone to University in the US and received a degree in Engineering. His family wasn’t really involved in politics they were more concerned with business. Geyer was a cotton farmer who had his property confiscated by the Sandinistas. As president Don Enrique fought against the political corruption of previous administrations. Don Enrique told us about how Central America didn’t really have a revolution to gain independence from Spain that gained its independence because Napoleon named his brother King of Spain.
Don Enrique also explain the benefits of a canal in Nicaragua and how there is more water for a canal and how a canal in Nicaragua would be able to handle ships almost twice as large as the ships the Panama canal will be able to when it is done being expanded. The goal for the Panama Canal expansion is 130 thousand pounds while a canal in Nicaragua would be able to support a boat weighing 250 thousand pounds. Even without a canal we Vanderbilt used Nicaragua to go from the Atlantic to the Pacific it took half the time it would have take to travel around South America.
Don Enrique also discussed how he had high hopes for united Central America similar to the EU. He said that Nicaragua needs help with that in order to bring this about and increase the power and prestige of all of Central America. He said the per capita GNP of Nicaragua is about $1000 while the per capita GNP of Costa Rica is $9000. Don Enrique said that $40 per person in Nicaragua per year for infrastructure improvements is what would be needed it increase the GNP of Nicaragua to a level similar to other Central American countries. He also said that a customs bank or CAFÉ integration bank would be required to distribute customs revenues to bring greater equity in Central America. Don Enrique if Central America chose to follow the same path that Europe did a unified Central America would be possible.
After our dinner with Don Enrique I went back to the hotel and swam and then went to Karaoke, I started getting tired so I headed back the hotel alone and called it a night.

First Day In Nicaragua

Wow it has been a jam packed trip it is so hard to believe we have only been here one day. I had a great time swimming and hanging out at the Karaoke bar last night then this morning I went down to breakfast at around 7:00 so I would have time to read the Bible and drink a couple of cups of coffee. We left around 8:00 and had a tour of Granada by horse drawn carriage. We saw the old hospital, the old train station and the old cathedral. Then we went by a place where they made cigars, some people rolled some and we all shared a sample cigar. It wasn’t as strong as I would have liked it to be so I ended up not buying any cigars. At the cigar shop they had a parrot and a poster ofArnold Schwarzenegger. Then we went by this cemetery that had a bunch of mausoleums and statues to mark the graves. They also had mango trees there and we found out that Granada is a city with a lot of Mango trees. Then after the cemetery we went on a tour of a Nicaraguan Cultural Center. The cultural center had used to be a very large house and then part of it was turned into the cultural center. It had a lot of contemporary Nicaraguan art. There was also a radio station and an artist working on new pieces and selling some of his art from a work room.
After we left the cultural center we started talking to some kids who were playing around barefoot in the street. Claudia asked them why they were not in school and one of the boys replied because he didn’t have shoes. One of the most eye opening things about the trips so far has been the poverty. Like the kid, Michael, last night who ate the half eaten hamburger we gave him and the kids that claim they can’t go to school because they can’t afford shoes it is very heartbreaking. It also reveals how truly wealthy we are in the US. Never has my mom, even when I thought we were really poor and my family homeless, been unable to provide me with shoes. Also very rarely did I go without eating and even when I did it wasn’t long enough to cause me to feel like I needed to eat a stranger’s half eaten food. I was told that the average income is $100 per month for a Nicaraguan and while things are cheaper in Nicaragua then in the US things are not 20 or thirty times cheaper. There is definitely an economy based on begging in Granada. If the average income is $100 all a kid would have to do is get a couple dollars a day and they would greatly increase the living conditions of their family if they earned $3 or $4 they would be making the income of an adult.
In the afternoon we went to Lake Nicaragua. Lake Nicaragua is a fresh water lake and is the only place with fresh water sharks. The sharks in Lake Nicaragua are Bull Sharks, they used to swim up the rivers but were trapped by a volcanic eruption. Lake Nicaragua was very beautiful and after Renee, who was my guide on the boat said, a small island could be purchased for as little as $100,000 I wanted to buy one. Though Renee followed that up with the cheaper Islands are usually pretty close to diapering. A medium sized Island would sell with a house would sell for $400,000 which seems pretty cheap by LA standards. Lake Nicaragua had been part of a transit system to get from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific and also made Nicaragua an appealing place to build a canal before Panama Canal was built. Someone brought white faced monkeys and spider monkeys to one of the Islands. I think Josh was allowed to feed the monkeys.
After the tour of the Lake we were set free on the town of Granada. I ended up going with Evan, Christine and Keith to a typical Nicaraguan restaurant. I had wanted to go with Josh to eat some crazy food and we were told that Centralito, the restaurant I ate at, was the place to go but they only had the regular Nicaraguan food. I ended up getting a steak which cost around $8 and a 2 mojitos for a dollar. Then a vendor had come by with a 25 pack of Romeo Y Julieta cigars and I talked him down to $20 then I ended up leaving them at the restaurant and someone took them by the time I got back. There were about ten kids going around begging and then street performers trying to get donations and a guy who was making friendship bracelets sitting right next to our table so anyone of a dozen people could have stole them. Losing the cigars was a good wake up call to be more conservative with my money. So I just went back to the hotel to upload some of my pictures to facebook and and work on my journal. I ended up having a good conversation about the trip and the poverty in Nicaragua with Kevin, Nell and Eileen.
The thing I have been most impressed by on the trip other than the poverty has been Roberto’s skill as a tour guide. His English is great and he is very intelligent and caring. I was standing up because someone was in the restroom and had wandered back toward the bar to wait and Roberto was very quick to make sure everything was alright and if I need anything or felt sick. It was also amazing how patient he was with all of us. It seem like so many times today he was surrounded by people each with their own request or demands and he took it all in stride and didn’t seem to get bugged. Also a group of us lead by Josh wanted to eat weird exotic food plus some guys wanted to go surfing and he promised to help make it all happen. He was amazingly diplomatic and reassuring which seemed to be essentials for a really good tour guide. Because it seems like the tourist experience of being in Nicaragua is being in slightly wild and exotic country but also people can easily get feed up of things being too different.

The Day of Transit

Day 1 June 21st
It was a long day. I was on the first flight that left LAX at 7:40 so I decided to get to the airport super early so I could sleep at the airport. I figured I would get more sleep that way. It was pretty effective except for the fact that I was woken up at 5:30 by someone who thought I was going to miss my flight.
We had a long layover in Houston but the time was well spent getting to know the other students on the trip. I hung out with this guy Max, his sister Terra and this girl Kirsten. A guy named Josh wanted to eat crazy food so after we all had gone to Ruby’s he ordered up some fried alligator and a bunch of people tried it, though I missed the chance to get a bite.
When we got to Nicaragua the first impression was that it was hot. Which was a small surprise because we arrived at night and I was thinking it would be cooler.
The second realization that I came to was that there was a great chiasm dividing the economic prosperity of Nicaragua and the US. The airport was clean but looked very old by my standards. Also when we got out of the baggage claim area and were walking toward the bus there were children begging. Also while I was going to the restroom there were two women in that gave me the impression they were prostitutes.
We got on a very nice and modern bus and meet our tour guide Roberto. Roberto was very interesting. He had studied Engineering in Bulgaria and now was a tour guide part of the time and an Engineer part of the time. I got the impression that he made more money being a tour guide than he did as an engineer. Roberto explained how the evening would progress, with an hour long bus ride from Managua (were we landed) to Granada where we would be staying. He also explained that we would eat dinner and the choices would be limited and for breakfast the next day that the food choices would be limited but reassured us that going forward we would have a lot of choices that the first two meals where limited to help things go quicker. Roberto also explained that we should not give money to people begging that if we wanted to give them something we should only give them food.
I was impressed by the colonial architecture of Granada. Sometimes I get the impression the whole world is trying to look like the US it was nice to see buildings that were designed different. Our hotel had everything I imagined; the exterior had a colonial Spanish look then when you walked through the doors you entered an open plaza with a fountain and palm trees.
I found it interesting that our first meal in Nicaragua was a hamburger. I was a little disappointed especially since I had a hamburger for lunch at Ruby’s. Though I guess it the concept was to get us acclimated slowly to being in a new country. The hamburger patty was really small and it had a lot of vegetables (tomatoes, onions, pickles). We also tried a bunch of local beers. I decided Toña would be my beer of choice it was the least bitter.
Right away I discovered the importance of the phrase “Donde esta el bano?”. Also it was very exciting to be able to put my limited Spanish skills in to practice helping the students with no knowledge of Spanish. One of the guys didn’t even know that cerveza was the word for beer. It seemed like the first night the important Spanish phrases where “Cerveza, por favor” and “Cuanto questa?”

Deprture 2

I slept a little bit between 2:15 and 3:45 which was oddly refreshing so the plan that I would sleep more at the airport might be working. Its funny the floor felt so comfortable while I was laying on it but when I got I was definitely achey.

When I went down just after 3:45 there was a huge line so it took 45 minutes to check in so I found an out of the way place to try to sleep for the next 2 or 3 hours.

Departure

I now realize the idea to get to the airport at 1:30 am and spend the night was crazy because LAX doesn't open until 3:45 am.
I have spent days at the airport flying stand by so arriving 6 hours before my flight seemed like a much better idea then trying to arrive at 4:40. So I am sleeping on my luggage next to the security check in waiting for the airport to open. I will have to plan things out better in the future.