Morris, our adopted kitten (aaawwwww…)

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| Cute | Texas |

Yesterday as we were walking back to the dorm we heard some pitiful little squeaks coming from a drainage hole in the side of the building behind some bushes. We looked in and found a tiny pair of eyes staring back at us. We lured him out with some tuna… he was so hungry that he didn’t care to notice Jessica sneak up from behind and scoop him up, though he sure hissed at her lot (not very fierce). We took him back to our apartment for more tuna and some warm milk. (He was tiny, and really scrawny, but got real friendly after Jessica held him for a while. We named him Morris (after the dorm) and put him outside when we went to bed (with some more tuna). He woke us up with his meowing at 5am this morning. We can’t keep him in the dorm, and had decided to put him up on the internet with all the rest of the stuff we’re selling Jessica felt bad about putting a price on his head, but I didn’t think making $5 on a free cat was a bad deal… besides, we had to recoup the tuna expenses!).

But this afternoon the a/c repair guys from maintenance adopted him as their “shop cat” and he now lives in luxury (with real cat food even) at the Central Plant. We’d love to have a cat, but it’d be hard to sneak one over the Canadian border in August (nevermind importing a cat to China… and we’ve all heard what happens to those cats! =)
 

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8 years of college but still learning the hard way

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| Learning | Texas |

Today I (Joel) received a distinctly West Texas education. You’d think after 8 years in college I’d know how to answer this question:

“What should you do when it’s 40 degrees C outside, you’re driving your ’77 Nova at 45mph with the windows down because it’s short trip and the a/c takes a while to kick in, and you see (and smell) a large hairy carcass formerly belonging to a now-unindentifiable animal dead-centre in your lane 10 meters ahead? It has not yet been flattened. Should you:

a) swerve around it, like all the drivers behind you who know better

b) speed up and try to flatten it, just for kicks

c) try to straddle it, driving directly over it so that (in theory) your wheels pass by safely on either side, even though the suspension on your car gave out years ago and you already ride mere inches above the ground?”

I opted for “c”, and the results were… instantaneous. Even if my aim wasn’t off and I hadn’t nailed it with the driverside tire, we ride so low that it would probably have got hooked on the underside anyway. We had to smell that thing all the way to our small group meeting and back. People like my younger sisters already think our car is nasty – I’m afraid I can’t really argue with them anymore, at least until that stuff cooks off in the Texas heat.

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A North American couple with a background in Intercultural Studies tries to make a life in China. This is our coping mechanismblog.

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    国保/国宝

    Pronounced: guó ​bǎo
    Literally: National Security/National Treasure
    Means: The two terms are homophones, and "national treasure" often means "panda". A writer at Seeing Red in China explains the rest: "how panda becomes the symbol for Chinese security thugs: Chinese national security (more like secret police) is called 国保 (guó ​bǎo) for short, and it’s pronounced exactly the same as 国宝, national treasure. Netizens sometimes refer 国保 as 国宝, jokingly, hence Panda, China’s national treasure. Kungfu Panda movies provided the basis for Panda to be a martial character."

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    - 2011/12/19

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    InterWǎng Debris

    Recent China internet debris.

    Those aren't Chinese New Year's fireworks; they're "recreational munitions"

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    "...parties are held on a scale so massive that Caligula would have nodded in approval, and enough recreational munitions are set off to make the Battle of Waterloo feel like a suburban bar mitzvah. You’ll notice my careful word choice here: “recreational munitions” rather than “fireworks.” “Fireworks” as a term carries with it more celebratory, even innocent connotations, but you can’t define Chinese celebratory fireworks by the intent behind them. Certainly they’re set off with great excitement and joy, but you can, after all, also lob a grenade into a dumpster with great excitement and joy, and most of what is being set off these days qualifies for inclusion in the dumpster-grenade category. So: recreational munitions."

    For more about the genuinely stunning Chinese New Year fireworks phenomenon with photos and video, see:

    Happy Chinese New Year!

    - 2012/01/22

    Tension rising with Mainland students in American universities

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    It seems that Mainland Chinese attitudes toward education don't play well among their American classmates. For example:

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    - 2012/01/11

    A brief introduction to Watchman Nee & the Little Flock Movement

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    A basic understanding of the place of Watchman Nee and the Little Flock Movement in Chinese history adds some helpful nuance to understanding the relationships between the Party, Chinese Christianity, the TSPM, and Chinese patriotism and anti-foreignism.

    - 2011/12/29

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