A few weeks ago Cathryn asked me what I wanted for my birthday. Nothing came to mind. Since I got my kindle last year in November I’ve been happy on the gadget front – I even gave Cathryn the iPod Touch and went back to using the small ipod that’s about 4 years old.

After some more thought, I was inspired by something I’d seen on the internet where a guy had painted a wall sized mural of Calvin & Hobbes in his kids bedroom. We moved into our new place a few months back and it’s quite a bit larger than our old place and comes with less wall art so the walls are looking a bit bare. Despite the obvious value that a full sized Calvin & Hobbes mural would add to this apartment, I decided that it probably wasn’t worth the fuss. Instead, I asked my incredibly talented wife to paint me a series of paintings I call the 4 seasons of Calvin & Hobbes

While I was away on business a week or two ago, Cathryn went to the art store and got 4 medium sized canvases. Then I went looking for suitable images to use. Unfortunately we have no Calvin & Hobbes books here. So I got a kind soul to send me some high-res scans from the covers and splash pages of some of the books. From these images I chose 4 and my beautiful wife went to work.

Day 1 – Pencil Outlines

Cathryn spent the first few hours sketching out the outlines of the images onto the canvases and the results can be seen here:

Cathryn doesn’t realy get Calvin & Hobbes. To her it’s just another kids comic strip. She can’t understand why my whole family likes it so much. There is no Korean translation available that I can find, but maybe one day soon I’ll sit her down and read it together with her. At the moment, she can see how much I like the paintings and she is doing a fantastic job.

More to come tomorrow.

It has taken me almost 3 weeks to get health insurance here, but finally this afternoon it came through. Our first stop was to the dentist. We didn’t make an appointment, just rocked up. Unfortunately, when we arrived they apologised, because we hadn’t made an appointment, we’d have to wait – 30 minutes!!

2 checkups (Cathryn and myself), 2 scalings, 1 wisdom tooth removed, and the removal of some kind of metal pin from Cathryn’s jaw from some previous dental work and we were hit with the bill of $26.50

Plus $2.50 for some prescription pain medication.

Tomorrow we’re off to see the skin specialist and an ear, nose throat doctor.

I love Korea sometimes. But I could do without the -17 degree weather.

However, sadder than the disaster and the loss of life, was this paragraph that I read on the internet just now:

As the death toll from the floods and their damage bill rise, The Australian can reveal a secret report by scientific and engineering experts warned of significantly greater risks of vast destruction from Brisbane River flooding- and raised grave concerns with the Queensland government and the city’s council a decade ago. But the recommendations in the report for radical changes in planning strategy, emergency plans and transparency about the true flood levels for Brisbane were rejected and the report was covered up.

The fact that people knew that this could happen 10 years ago and covered it up should make all people affected, all Australians even, incredibly angry.

In the last week we’ve had our Christmas party with around 30 Chinese students/friends. We’ve packed up our house and put everything into storage and are now in Korea for a month where we hope to accomplish a few things before returning to China in early Feb.

To start off 2011, here are some thoughts regarding resolutions from my favourite philosopher:

Happy new year everyone

So anyway, yesterday I was coming back from another factory visit and a return visit to the Australian consulate in Guangzhou. Unfortunately the visit wasn’t to pick up my shiny new passport, it was just to drop off the replacement photos after the epic fail of my last visit.

This time I had again allowed myself a few hours leeway to resolve any issues that might crop up at the consulate. Unfortunately this went out the window when I got a call from the airline telling me that my 1920 fight was cancelled and there were no later ones, only earlier ones, so I had been moved to a 1710 flight. That two hour window that I had allowed for fixing problems – gone!

So my visit to the consulate was a 5 minute job. They looked at my re-printed photos (higher quality as requested) and asked me if I could go to a nearby photo shop and get a new photo taken anyway, just to be safe! I explained the situation with my flights and they were doubtful that I could even get to the airport in time. So I literally ran out of the building.

Thankfully I made my flight with a few minutes to spare, and it wasn’t running out of the consulate or even running through the airport that caused my toe to feel like it might be broken.

No, it happened while I was falling asleep on the plane.

I had taken my shoes off and was trying to fall asleep in a reasonably comfortable position. I don’t do well sleeping in an upright position and airplane seats certainly don’t recline enough to help with this. So I was sitting with my head in my hand and actually managed to drift off…

…only to have a hypnic jerk that caused me to kick the bulkhead in front of me extremely hard with my left foot.

There was no going back to sleep after that. The pain was immediate, and although it subsided over the next few minutes, today it’s back again every time I walk.

In the past few weeks we’ve had some amazing electrical storms here in Kunming, and this has given me the opportunity to try my hand at something I’ve always wanted to do. During several of the recent storms I’ve set up my camera on my tripod at my window and experimented with various settings and timings trying to get a perfect shot. Unfortunately our apartment is only on the 8th floor of our building and has a view limited by the building next door, but out of around 100 or more tries, I did manage to get this shot:

From China – Living

While it’s not an incredibly amazing shot or something I want to frame on my wall – it’s a start and I did learn some lessons in the shooting of it.

While I did OK with the shutter time for my shots, apparently the aperture size I was using was wrong. I had it opened all the way up, and this meant that a lot of flashes that went off while the shutter was open didn’t actually show up in the shots. Next time I should be using something around f7 instead of f22.

I also forgot to turn off IS, which can cause some problems when you’re shooting on a tripod.

Next time gadget, next time!

The reason I’m visiting them every few weeks is to oversee the production and shipment of Satellite TV Set Top Boxes for a customer in Brazil. On each one of my trips so far, I’ve also inspected the production facilities for products other than the Set Top Boxes.

On my previous visit I looked at how CAT 5 and 6 ethernet cable is made.

From China – Work

I looked at all stages from the rolls of copper all the way up to the length marks being printed on the cables as they’re wound onto their final rolls. While I didn’t take a lot of photos or video in the factory, I did grab this picture of the rolls of cable waiting for the final plastic sheathing to be applied. All of the spindles waiting in the cage made me think of livestock waiting to be slaughtered.

Each one of the spindles above is about 9km long and produces 30 boxes of cable. Each box contains a single 305 meter cable.

The factory does quality testing on all it’s cables and one box is selected randomly for testing each time a big spindle is used.

The quality control team cuts various length pieces from the start, middle and end of the cable and checks it in various ways. The theory being that if this one roll is good, then the other 29 should also be good.

At the end of testing, the 305m is now unsellable, and is thrown away.

It made me sad to find out that they just chuck out 300m every time. When I think about how much money I’ve spent on network cable over the years, it’s frustrating to know they just waste all this perfectly good cable.

At least time time I was able to save some of it from the trash heap by getting some “samples”

In a way I’m glad. The braided beard that hides my neck in my current passport photo makes me look like a terrorist and gets me puzzled looks, smirks and stares when I pass through immigration lines. When I think back to that beard, part of me smiles as having it was fun, especially for the stir value, but another part of me cringes… what was I thinking?

Whatever I was thinking at the time, some part of it came back recently and here is something I wore for a few days in a lull between business trips (pic after the jump):

From China – Living

I like to think that a little part of it is a bit Dr. Seuss!

I actually met a couple of the students we’re currently studying with while wearing this facial accessory. After I shaved it was interesting to hear their first impression of me and how close they were to running away at the sight of me.

Anyway, back to the rant!

Last week on my business trip I swung past the Aussie consulate in Guangzhou and dropped off all the relevant paperwork. I had checked and prepared everything thoroughly beforehand and so was mildly annoyed to find out that based on the recent exchange rates they had recalculated the fees for everything and posted a sign in the office that was more expensive than everything on the website. (The website still wasn’t updated when I got back home that night and checked). Thankfully I had taken some spare cash and was able to cover the extra! But still! grrrrrr..

The fee increase isn’t what really annoyed me though. I prepared everything and double-checked before I went. I didn’t know how long it would take and allowed myself a few hours free in case there was a wait in the consulate or if I had got anything wrong and needed to fix it. Finally, before I left I got the person behind the glass wall to double-check that I had done everything correctly before I left because I live in another part of the country and wouldn’t be able to get back there for 10 days. She said everything was good, which was great because my next business trip takes me back there in 10 working days, just in time to pick up my shiny new passport! At least it did!

Happily satisfied that everything passed their standards and tests on the first try, I left the embassy and arrived at the airport with a good 5 hours to spare before my flight.

When my phone rang as I was boarding the plane I thought it was Cathryn because I’d just sent her a message to let her know I was on my way home. I was quite suprised when an Aussie accent greeted me!

My surprise quickly turned to frustration and anger. Apparently the photos that I had printed weren’t up to the quality required. to the naked eye they are fine, but when scanned into the computer, they are too grainy.

The consulate asked if I could bring some new photos tomorrow.
I told them no, I’m boarding a plane now.
They asked if I could send new photos?
I replied, sure – I’ll email them to you.
They informed me that they don’t accept emailed photos because they have no facilities to print them. I would need to re-print and post new copies.
I pointed out to the guy that the problem they were having was getting a good digital copy of the photos I used which look great to the naked eye…. Wouldn’t it save them a lot of trouble if I just emailed the photo that I printed and they can have a high resolution digital copy that is THE EXACT SAME PHOTO THAT I PRINTED?
I was told no. The process has to be followed.

AAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So now I need to take the photo from my computer, go and find somewhere to print a higher quality picture then post it to Guangzhou, all so that they can scan it back into the computer!

My 10-day perfect timing is now shot. There is zero chance of the new passport being ready by the time I go back. I’m now also up for the postage fees to send these new photos, and on top of the extra they sprung on me in the consulate, possibly double postage fees to get my new passport sent to me and then send my old passport back to them~!

Which brings me to my next gripe!! Why do I have to give my old passport back?? Can’t they tear out or punch some holes through the front page or something so that it can obviously never be used again!? I’m sure they’re just going to trash it anyway… This is a record of all of the places I’ve traveled in the last 7 years. Each stamp brings back memories of countries visited and time spent having adventures in foreign lands!

Why can’t I keep it~!!?

On Tuesday morning when I started this trip, things didn’t go exactly according to plan. Thankfully I had set the alarm on my phone as well as my computer that night because the power to our entire apartment complex was turned off during the night sometime. This meant no lights, no toast, no tea or coffee, no hot water, no shower and no shave!

Originally I thought it might be a black-out, but the timing of the power coming back on at exactly 6am, just a few minutes before I was due to walk out the door for the airport was a little too precise. I’m sure there were notices helpfully posted around the apartment complex in Chinese, so I guess it’s not really their fault. Anyway, I shaved, washed my hair with what little hot water we had/boiled. Scoffed some toast and ran out the door.

When I got to the check-in counter at the airport, I handed my passort across the counter and told the check-in-lady I was going to “Guangzhou”. She did a search on their computer and asked me “Shanghai?”. What the…? Until this point I was 100% confident that without a doubt I had booked my ticket to Guangzhou. But the website is completely in Chinese and while I’ve figured out how to buy internet plane tickets by myself in Chinese – could I have made a mistake…? No!!! I had used the internet last night for check-in!! I even knew what seat I was sitting in! What were they trying to pull? Did they kick me off?

A look of panic passed across my face as I said “No, Guangzhou” and the check-in girl looked back at her screen and typed some more. She looked back up after a second and said “Los Angeles?” “………!!!?” My ticket to LA is next month! I know some people make mistakes with the dates of the flights – but come on~! I’m at the domestic check-in.. is your opinion of the intelligence of foreigners really that low?

Again I told her no, that is next month, today I’m going to Guangzhou. At this point maybe the panic in my voice or the line that had stopped moving behind me caused someone else to come over and assist. They checked again on the computer and finally came back with “Sorry, we only have your information for LA.” Handed me back my passport and turned to another customer.

At this point my stomach dropped and fear and panic started to set in. How could I have checked in and then dropped off the system? They had upgraded their website recently – did checking in actually check you off!?

All I knew was that I had to make this flight! I was in an airport that isn’t really known for the quality of the English ability of the staff. Could I fight it out with the ticketing staff? Could I call Cathryn and get her to translate everything over the phone and try to fix the problem? The driver from the factory was expecting to pick me up in just over 2 hours at the other end! I knew that I had a fat wad of money in my bag. But that was for renewing my passport on Thursday. Possibilities streamed through my mind and I was really getting worried.

I was about to turn around and go to the ticketing agent to try and sort out a new ticket when I remembered that I had downloaded a PDF of the booking confirmation a few days ago and filed it in the dropbox folder on my computer so that the secretary in Taiwan could give it to the accountant.

I pulled out my laptop and opened the file in question, showing the guy behind the counter that in fact I wasn’t crazy and did have a ticket that morning for Guangzhou. He wrote down the number and typed it in after they had finished dealing with the person who jumped ahead of me. The e-ticket number brought up the correct information and it was the turn of the staff to look puzzled. They went back to their first screen and searched for me agian, this time my information came up and they printed out my boarding pass.

What happened? Did searching by the e-ticked number suddenly make the computer remember me? I think not!! I’m still not positive because I wasn’t leaning over the counter in panic for the first two searches, but I’m pretty sure that either the check-in person was either over worked and stressed and in too much of a hurry and simply mistyped my information wrong about 4 times. Either that or she was so stunned by my suave look in my new suit that she mistyped my information.

From China – Work

Due to the power outage I was a little late out the door, now with the delay at the ticket counter, things were getting tight and the security lines in the mornings are terrible. Usually at least 30 people long, and that’s only when Chinese people decided to respect the line, which doesn’t happen very often. Most of the time they think lines don’t apply to them and they just walk to the front and demand service.

By the time I got to security I was having a bit of a panic, the boarding time on the ticket showed a time that was too many minutes behind the time shown on my watch. I went straight to my gate as fast as I could, thinking all the way that if I missed the flight the ticket people were going to get an earful – even if they couldn’t understand what I would be saying.. Thankfully I was the last one through to board the bus to take me to the plane before they closed the doors.

On the bus ride over my heart-rate and breathing slowed to a more normal level and I thought to myself. “What lessons have we learned here?”

1. Set two alarms every time you need to catch an early plane.
2. Shave the day before not the week before a business trip.
3. Prepare some kind of torch or candles so that if there’s a blackout you’re not trying to get dressed by the reflected glow of streetlights 8 stories below you.
4. Always write down your e-ticket/booking number before you go to the airport.
5. Although they say to be at the airport 1 hour before a domestic flight, maybe a little bit more time might be better for my heart.

In the end, I got to the factory and now 17,550 set top boxes for a satellite TV company in Brazil are ready to be shipped out tomorrow, and now I’m sitting in the airport 5 hours early for my flight! Lesson 5 at least is learned.

Cathryn and I are always on the look out for new and interesting games to play with each other as well as the friends that frequently visit our house. From time to time I check out the top scoring games at boardgamegeek.com to see what’s good and occasionally we drop into the board game shop that recently opened up near our apartment.

Unfortunately most of the games for sale there are in Chinese, and while I recognise the names, the in game text is way too complicated to buy the Chinese version (although it may actually help my study).

Last week I noticed power grid on the shelf in the shop and the name rang a bell. I came home and confirmed that it was rather close to the top of the list at BGG, and was happily surprised to see that the language dependancy was “No necessary in-game text“! Meaning that even if all the manuals etc were in Chinese, once we know the rules, we don’t have to puzzle out what the cards are saying!!

From China – Playing

It took a day or two of nudging, but finally Cathryn agreed to get a new game. The picture above is the game information from the side of the box. At first I wondered if the pictures were so random because it’s another Chinese bootleg. But in the end I decided that it was a joke around the name of the game.

It’s also took a few tries to successfully play a full run-through of the game. This was due to our busy schedule and that it takes about 2 hours to play a full run (moreso when you’re learning the rules).

From China – Playing

But now, a week later, we’ve played the game twice and it’s a lot of fun!! It takes quite a bit more thought, planning and strategy to win this game. There isn’t any element of chance like in Catan or Carcassonne, it really comes down to maintaining a balance of cities, power plants and resources. This is a photo at the completion of a 5 player game that had several guests join and leave throughout the hour or two we were playing.

From China – Playing

Finally, this is Cathryn, Liubo and Jiao-hui at the end of the game. Liubo and Jiaohui are two of our closest Chinese friends here.