Another tremor…

On the Carole King scale of measuring earthquakes it was about like this…

I hope the quakes stop because I’m not sure if I can find any more awful renditions of “I Feel the Earth Move” on YouTube.

The Earth moving under my feet

Annie and I, along with many others across the Midwest, experienced our first earthquake this morning. We were asleep when our bed started to shake.

“Was that an earthquake?” Annie turned to me and asked.

“Nah”

We both went back to sleep.

If you are wondering what an earthquake is like in Indiana. It’s kind of like this:

As opposed to one in California, which, I imagine, is more like this:

Cheesy Press Release

For some reason I started getting travel-related press releases by email and mail.

Yesterday I received a packet with a map encouraging me to take a road trip to visit “116 tasty points of interest across America’s Dairyland” – Wisconsin. The following sentence says it all:

“The possibilities for fun are endless, including information about specialty cheese shops and cheesemaking facilities, where you can meet many of the nation’s most awarded cheesemakers, tour their “workshops” and sample some of Wisconsin’s best products.”

Among the things that I include on my endless possibilities of fun list are NOT “information about specialty cheese shops” or “cheesemaking facilities” or “cheesemakers.”

Even though I will never visit one of Wisconsin’s 116 tasty points of interest, I would like to encourage the Milk Marketing board to continue to send me their PR’s because I really do appreciate their effort. Plus I learned a fun fact: there is a Colby Wis. Who knew?

Chinese Student says CNN faked images

One of my favorite NPR shows is On Point with Tom Ashbrook. Monday On Point aired from Beijing where they talked with three students about the Olympics, Tibet, China’s place in the world, and the Chinese perception of the USA.

The students, like China, are driven. In fact, I would argue that they have at least three times the amount of drive as most of us Americans. While it was neat to hear about the exciting possibilities they see in their own and China’s future, some of what they had to say was less than exciting.

One of the girls said that CNN faked images from the riots in Tibet. She said that CNN dressed up Nepalese, who she could tell were Nepalese because of their skin color, and staged faux-Tibetan riots. Tom was a bit flabbergasted at the accusation and asked her how she could be for sure since China does not have a free press. She never really answered his question.

I hope this was just some half-baked theory circulating on the internet and not “real” news in the Chinese media. Either way, this girl is China’s future and if she actually believes that the US has it in for China to such an extent that our free press is concocting stories, the future of Chinese and American relations may be more complex than I ever thought.

(Of course, many of we Americans still think that Obama and Osama are related.)

Not that the US media is not influenced by politics and corporate interests, but the day CNN stages a riot is the day I shack up in the woods to grow a very long beard and clean my guns.

If you haven’t already, you should check out the comment thread of this post where Joel and Jessica of China Hope Live talk about the Chinese Media and how it’s reporting recent events versus how the American Media is – very interesting.

Wal-Mart saving the world one funny light bulb at a time

Yep, that Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart’s CEO Lee Scott:

Companies should create businesses that focus on building products and services for the poor. “Such a system would have a twin mission: making profits and also improving lives for those who don’t fully benefit from market forces,” he plans to say….
In particular, he said, he’s troubled that advances in technology, health care and education tend to help the rich and bypass the poor. “The rate of improvement for the third that is better off is pretty rapid,” he said. “The part that’s unsatisfactory is for the bottom third — two billion of six billion.”

In the next three years, we would like to build a very different system. We believe that there should be one framework of social and environmental standards for all major global retailers. And there should be one third party auditing system for everyone.

You can read more about Wal-Mart saving the world on salon.com and in this NY Times story.

Here’s an excerpt from Where am I Wearing? about a buddy recalling the W-A-L-M-A-R-T cheer he had to do each day before his shift:

John told me, “There are a lot of things that I have done in my life that I have tried to forget and having to shake my ass in that cheer is one of them.”

In the hands of a higher power

I finished editing the book yesterday. Now it’s in the hands of a higher power – Richard, my editor.

I’m happy with how it all went and I enjoy reading it, which is really saying something because I wrote it and I’ve read each word a bazillion times. I should be sick of it.

Back in December when I signed the contract for the book, I was somewhat worried with how soon Wiley wanted it. I had never written anything over a few thousand words and wasn’t sure if three months would be enough time to pump out a book that I would be happy with. As it turns out I wrote at least 25% more book than I was contractually obligated to write. I’ve cut some of the words, but I’m still about 15% over. In the next couple weeks, I’ll have a new challenge – unwriting.

For now I’m happy with the book, but this is subject to change depending on what the Higher Power thinks.

Excuse me while I sacrifice a goat.

Happy Bengali New Year

Last year on this day I celebrated Pohela Boishakh with Bibi Russell and her gang of models, weavers, and fashion designers. Basically the day was the exact opposite of a New Year celebration in the USA.

Instead of staying up late we got up early.

Instead of drinking lots of alcohol we drank lots of water because alcohol isn’t really socially acceptable in Bangladesh; not too mention if we didn’t drink water, we would have died of dehydration.

Instead of dancing with our hips, we danced with our shoulders.

(I’m the one in the yellow shirt)

Three thousand words: My wife the Ninja

Yesterday we were playing with Annie’s nephew when she busted out the kick-ass-kung-fu-guy-gets-knocked-down-and-then-hops-back-up-to-kick-your-butt move. I’m not sure if she has ever impressed me more. Just another reason why I (can’t) don’t beat her.

Sweatshops on NPR

This past Christmas Talk of the Nation did a 35-minute spot on sweatshops. I listened to it last night. If you want to know about the “Anti-Sweatshop Bill” in congress and what it has to do with cat and dog fur, you should give it a listen.

Holy Willie and the China Olympic Boycott

The upcoming Chinese Olympics made writing about China even more difficult. My book comes out in November and I don’t want to date it so I had to skirt the subject. I do talk about human rights and try to do so somewhat objectively, although I suspect it probably isn’t to hard to tell where I stand.

Since I can’t address the Olympics and the storm surrounding it directly in my book, I’ll do so here.

Personally, I think China is reaping what it has sewed. The government seems to do whatever it wants to preserve its own power and grow its own economy while ignoring the suffering it inflicts on its own people and that of others around the world. Not that other governments haven’t done or do such things; it’s just that China seems to be the best at it right now: Tibet. Darfur. Labor camps. No wikipedia, etc.

I don’t mind the torch protests as long as nobody gets hurts. I don’t mind political leaders boycotting the games, but as the issue becomes more heated, I hope the athletes won’t become more pressured to follow suit. The Olympics represents the place where athletes showcase their hard work, training, and abilities. The games only come around every four years and to deny them of their chance to shine would be a great shame.

In Edinburgh’s The Scotsman, Allan Massie does a great job of putting all of this in perspective. The editorial is titled:

We don’t boycott their clothes, so why boycott their Olympics?

And goes on to write:

Anyone who regularly buys clothes from Tesco or Gap or other stores which stock Chinese goods is in no position to call on our athletes to boycott the Beijing Games or even to make some sort of public protest.

As consumers, we are customers of the Chinese regime, and even its accomplices. To pretend otherwise is hypocrisy, something which, as heirs of Holy Willie, we Scots usually do rather well.

I had to Wikipedia Holy Willie (something I couldn’t have done in China). He was a church elder who asked God for forgiveness while at the same time asking God to smite all of the other sinners. I suspect a bake sale and ExLax may have been involved.