Ye Olde...Songjiang?

I have been working in a suburb of Shanghai called Songjiang. There are a couple of things that have attracted people to Songjiang that makes it appealing: cheaper housing then Shanghai (yet fairly close), cleaner air, tax benefits (for companies), and the creative housing that is being built.

You might have read ariticles on Thames Town, a villa community that is built to look like England, and they actually did a good job of it. I was able to visit there during my lunch break and here are some pictures, enjoy:

Not sure if the church is real or just for show, but it's nice.

At least one car is facing the right direction (if you were in the UK).

Knot quite Knotting Hill.

Thames Town is located in the New City of Songjiang. From what I have seen and been told by my client, the only thing that Old City Songjiang offers is some nice bridges, which I got some pictures of below:

The Matt that broke the chair's back

Before coming over to Shanghai, I was in a client's office working on an audit. I sat in one of their chairs and it broke. It is a HUGE wakeup call when you start sitting in chairs and they break. Basically it was the chair's message that I was really overweight (for those of you who have not been keeping up I was about 50lbs heavier back in the States before coming over here). So being that I am a couple of lb's less then I was back in the States, I decided that my chair breaking days were behind me, then.....

Today I was at a client's location outside of Shanghai in Songjiang. I still have a little ways to go before I am at a "healthy" weight, but it is certainly a great wake up call when you start breaking things cause you are so big. The client came into talk with me today and I leaned back in one of their chairs and it started to recline, then it just kept reclining. Now, let me say right now, the chairs are not designed to recline at all, so the fact that it started to recline should have been a sign, but I digress. To describe the chair, it didn't have 4 legs rather it had one metal bar that made a U shape on the ground then was bent upwards and then made another U shape to support the seat. So when the chair broke, what I was actually doing was putting so much weight on the back of the seat that the metal just bent backwards. When the chair was bent all the way back it was near impossible for me to get up (imagine having all your weight leaning back and you just wanting to stand up), so the client had to help me up, all the while he couldn't help himself from laughing hysterically, yey for me.

I guess the best part was the fact that we followed up the really awkward moment with a "lost in translation" awkward conversation of which I started by saying, "Sorry for your chair," and he replied by saying, "Sorry for you." Yes sir indeed, sorry for me.

IN: Transformers - I know I am late on this one, but the movie has still not yet come out, so I guess I am early. This will be the dawning of a series of at least 4 movies in the series of Transformer real action movies. For anyone who grew up on the cartoon Transformers of the eighties (not that sucky stuff that came out in the '90's), we always dreamed of what a real action movie would look like, and look what we have. Now for the real fans you will already know that Transformers did itself full circle with the original characters by having that great cartoon movie (chock full of one curse word), but some good things never die. I'm sure the movie will be full of shallow action scenes, but really how deep can Transformers get, to say the least I am excited, my only wish is that the toys were still made out of some cheap metal from Taiwan, the taste of which was out of this world.

OUT: Marine Biology - Let me get this straight, we invented machines that can fly, we invented machines that could go underwater, we send people into space all the time, and we invented a juicer that will make me look 10 years younger, but we can't figure out a way to get whales from one body of water to another. Hmmmm...this sounds a little fishy (sorry for that). Really, how hard is it to take some whales from a river and send them back into the OCEAN (is the ocean really that small)? Or maybe they just want to celebrate good ole Memorial Day with every one, so throw them a plankton burger and let's let them celebrate already. Come on marine biology try to get past 1956.

Santa's Clean Sweep

Similar to last Saturday morning, I woke up at around 6am (yes my life is that awesome). Both mornings were like any other weekend mornings with me reading until the kids got up. The only thing that was different was all of the sudden I heard the tune of "Santa Clause is Coming to Town" outside of our apartment. It was gradually getting louder as if the noise was being carried on something. My excitement was building as I was expecting some presents to be flung into my hands as I fell into a comatose state dreaming of reindeer and elves. Needless to say that didn't happen, but I finally looked out as the tune got to its pinnacle and noted that it was a street cleaning truck that was playing the song to warn bikers and other passers by that it was coming (not quite what I was expecting). I want to point out that while it may seem really unusual to have a Christmas song as the street cleaner tune in the middle of May, it kind of makes sense. You tend to hear Christmas songs in department stores and other shops all throughout the year, most of them are either just smooth jazz Kenny G type of songs and others have the actual words being sung. The big thing is there is still a significant population that doesn't speak English so playing an English song isn't a big deal, and the rest of the population doesn't truly understand Christmas, so again it is not a big deal.

Back to the street cleaner, it got the tune stuck ringing in my ear, and I guess I have solved the mystery of what Santa does the other 364 days of the year, if you believe that. I'll have to see if he can get me some of those awesome rainbow candy canes, yum.

SIDE NOTE: Did you know that Greg Page from the Wiggles (or formerly from the Wiggles as I think he is retired(ing)) likes to sing about "hot potatoes and fruit salad, yummy yummy." A good fact I have learned after watching a Wiggles video for the 50th time.

SIDE NOTE 2: My family and I are over here in China on a sweet expatriate package with my Company. Compared to the going rate here, we really do make an insane amount of money. If you want a story of a Westerner that is trying to live the local life, check out this blog. It is this guy, Ben Ross, who is working as a barber in a city in China on the wage that a regular barbershop apprentice would make and he documents all his experiences of working a local job and the ups and downs of that job. Pretty interesting as most of you westerners will only hear stories from your very well to do western friends about working in China.

What am I dreaming?

I woke up in the middle of the night a couple of nights ago and remembered vividly the dream that I just had, this is a bloggable experience as I never remember the stupid stuff running through my subconcious. Anyway, I was sitting poolside (where, I have no idea) and all the sudden there was this guy on a bike who rode the bike right into the pool and on top of that he was actually able (cause he was peddaling so hard) to ride his bike across the pool. It was some kind of Jesus meets X Games Bike Riding type of moment. There were about 3 or 4 other people who did it, not sure who the people were, but I just remember that I was mesmorized each time it happened, actually I still am mesmorized by it.

Not sure if its being innundated by all the bikes here in China that got the dream going, but it sure is weird that out of my entire life I remember a stupid dream like this one (why I couldn't remember those dreams where I had a great idea and became a millionaire is beyond me).

IN: LOST Season Finale, I'll admit I haven't actually watched it yet, but from what I hear it's a doosy. I recognize that the show is a little frustrating cause it doesn't do a good job of answering the questions like the general one of, "what the heck is going on?" But from what I hear they do a good job of grabbing the fans back into the idea of watching another season with this show. I'm a little surly that they will have only 16 episode seasons from here on out with the next one not starting until January 2008, but what can I do.

OUT: $5.15 federal minimum wage. Actually, most if not all states have already increased their statewide minimum wage, but now Congress signed a bill to increase the minimum wage to $7.25 over a 2 year period. Not sure what this means with the whole immigration bill that was just signed. I think we are going to be adding about another 10million US citizens with the immigration bill, and if they are added with the new minimum wage of $7.25, where does that money come from? The minimum wage is a stupid thing to start off with, as if someone could even live off of $7.25 an hour. Do the math, at $7.25 an hour working a 60 hour work week (not too many people do this) for 50 weeks out of the year is $21,750, wow good luck living off of that. Oh and don't get me wrong, I am not for a living wage. I am just saying that it is junk to even increase the minimum wage. Basically the US loses jobs when it is increased, we don't gain jobs. So when the minimum wage is increased, there are less jobs for the unskilled to even pursue, making more unskilled family's incomes even lower. So it just does not make sense to me.

I got clubbed

I know, it has been a while, but for all you fans, sorry I was just not motivated to write any blogs over this week. But alas, I will start her up again.

Last Friday night Renee and I volunteered to help out with a dance night for this youth program here in Shanghai. We headed out to the artsy district here in Shanghai (Moganshan Lu for anyone interested) and got there early to get our assignments. I was one of the guys put onto security duty for the night, so basically I just had to make sure there was no drugs or alcohol or anything like that (all the students attending were in high school, so while the drinking age is 18, the event was drug/alcohol free). The night was actually a fun night, or so it seemed as I was not able to look like I was enjoying it cause I had to keep a straight face like I was legit security. Yes and I looked quite legit cause I was sporting my yellow SECURITY shirt from Target coupled with the fact that I was about 5 inches shorter then most of the teenage guys there, quite intimidating. They brought in a band named Mishkin from the UK who, while not my type of music (harder alternative), wasn't bad, although my football coach put it best when he said, "even the ugly girls start to look good after being around all guys." So I guess after all that Chinese pop has made even bad rock music sound good. They also brought in a DJ, DJ Email, supposidly the #1 DJ in China, but I have not idea what that means. Anyway, he played the regular club music and it was good. I have never been to a legit club myself, so all the dances I attended would play popular hip hop music (can anyone say "Midwest Swing"), so actually hearing the club dance music was fun.

The only real security thing that I did was I prevented a kid from jumping on stage when Mishkin was playing, that was actually the only security event that happened all night, so I have become a little bit of a legend, but that's to be expected wherever I go.

Renee and I got the chance to stay out until 1am, which is probably a first for us, but we both had fun at the event and staying out late, although that 6am wake up call from my daughter doesn't help with staying out late, oh well.

I'm a movie star...not really

The other day I was in the burbs of Shanghai (a big deal since Shanghai is so massive) in Songjiang. I was out at a client location and when lunch rolled around, he took us to a hotel that was on the set of a film studio. Now as you might already know I am quite the radio superstar with an appearance on Ira Glass's This American Life (circa 1998) and with many calls into sports talk shows.

I figure with this visit I could expand my super stardom to the ever so famous Chinese Soap Operas. When we were pulling into the studio hotel, there was about 200 people waiting outside the studio, they were all waiting to get the chance to be an extra or get a part in the movie. Me myself, I guess I thought I could just get out of the car and get noticed. Well....that didn't happen, nope, no there was no 9mm made of the true greatness in acting that is otherwise known as me, but who knows, I will be there later in May, so maybe I still got a shot.

I'll send you this around....2050

So yesterday the US Postal Service increased the first class stamp rate to 41 cents, a not so massive 5% increase from the 39 cents. This marks the 2nd time in 2 years that the rate has increased (last increase was January 2006). To show you how irrelevant the price of stamps have become, the only news about it was more for informational purposes rather then getting negative reaction from the public. In fact, I really think no one cares anymore about stamps, they could have increased it to 50 cents and there wouldn't even be a rumbling, so why they don't do it is beyond me. Anyway, being the smart people that they were, the USPS introduced the forever stamp. A stamp that can be used for first class mail no matter how much they increase the price in the future. Actually this is a great deal for anyone who actually uses stamps and I'm very confused on how the USPS thinks they will benefit from this. Basically they might make a little more money this year, but they are so far in the hole that it really doesn't matter, and they are setting themselves up to be even farther in the hole in the future because people can just buy up these things now and in 20 years (if the stamp is still around) the price will be over $1.00 and the smart people will still be sending stamps they bought at 41 cents.

Now you may ask why I am ranting about stamps, but I worked in a mailroom in college, so I feel a sort of psychotic connection to stamps and mail, and I just don't understand this move (although you will see me buying up some of these and saving one for when I am old and sticking it to the man when I send out a letter for 41 cents).

IN: Paying for your music. When I was in college, way back when, I would indulge in the free peer to peer programs and download music. I think its high time that people start to paying for their music. Not paying for your music was cool 5 years ago, prior to Itunes and other cool programs, now it is just rediculous. Remember, the artist doesn't really benefit much from CD sales and song downloads, so stop thinking you are sticking it to the rich musician, rather you are hurting the people in the Company who are involved with production (most of which are not multi-millionaires). Just dish out the $1 for that sweet sound of Kelly Clarkson.

OUT: The USPS, can I say anymore about this, when we lived in the States I only sent one bill using the mail and that was the only time I used stamps, so sorry guys, need to come up with a better alternative.

The Review

On those weeks when happenings are really slow over here, I am committed to at least giving you all a week in review, so here goes:

For the first time....
Other people find my wife, Renee, really humorous, me on the other hand, well for some reason I just don't. Not sure if this is a husband thing across the board or if this is just a me thing, but she will say things that other people laugh hysterically at and I will sit there thinking, "well that's not funny at all." But it happened, for the first time I chuckled out loud at a comment that my wife made (okay so it probably wasn't the first time ever, but it is such a rare occasion that I had to note it). To be honest I don't remember exactly what was said, but she used a play on what I said in order to get me up and help her. So I give my wife props on her quipiness.

You're not my wife...
We had a house guest this week, a woman, from the US. She is a candidate for the youth ministry position here in China. She is pretty much a straight shooter when it comes to telling people stuff, so I had to watch what I said or otherwise I was going to have a wisecrack made at me, I always thought that was reserved for a guys friends and wives, but I guess not.

3 Days in 1 Week!!
Get your minds out of the gutter, I'm talking about the NFL draft. This is kind of old news, but ESPN is working with the NFL to see if they can extend the draft to a third day. This reason I bring this up is I just included the idea in an email. I already believe that there is a God (and that he is awesome for that matter), but this would be like God's manna to me, a third day of the draft, a primetime Friday edition sounds good to me. In fact they could call it "The Really Good Friday," (okay, maybe not).

Mothers Day
Big ups to Renee, the mother of my children, she is an awesome wife and mother. Also to my mom and grandmoms for helping mold me into the Pulitzer prize blogger that I am.

Thank You for Smoking
This is one of those movies that kind of fell through the cracks, that not too many people saw, and they missed out. Man what a great movie this was, if you haven't seen it go out and see it, I can't believe it, in the past year I got to see Little Miss Sunshine and Thank You for Smoking, literally the last good comedy movie before these puppies was The Royal Tenanbaums, now I can sound like I actually watch movies.

The Wager
I officially have a wager with one Desmond Huntington over who will be better this year, the O's or the Pirates. Despite these last couple of days with the O's, I still stand strong with my prediction that they will end up around .500, I really don't think the Pirates can hang with .500 (they play Milwaukee a bunch, and they play the White Sox and Angels in inter-league). We'll see, some DSD's and MTO's are on the line, so let's go O's.

Holiday Wrap Up

Finally back to work after a week off and wanted to just give a quick wrap up. I made it back from the States all in one piece. My last night in San Fran I went to the Giants game, they were playing the Rockies...really could I have gone to a more meaningless game. But it ended up being a fun night. I specifically went so that I could say that I saw in person Barry Bonds the season that he broke Aaron's home run streak. Oh well, the guy went 0-4, so not much excitement in that department (by the way he hit one out the next night and then the night after, just my luck), but I sat in the left field bleachers and got to watch Bonds up close and personal. Sat next to pilot Dave, who is a huge sports fan from Denver so we had a good conversation about sports and other things (the guy lived in Japan for a couple of years, so that was a nice basis for a conversation).

Nothing else exciting happened since I got back to Shanghai, had some great family time with the wife and kids, the weather was awesome so we got to be outside.

IN: Nicolas Sarkozy - Aren't I so worldly? The people of France have spoken (when they speak amongst the rest of the world it is but a whisper, so not many of you care), and they chose Nicolas Sarkozy as their new president. Now the mainstream US media has put their own spin on the guy implying first that he is going to be a friend to the US, which, while he won't be pompous like Chirac, just means he might be more open to talks with the US then the previous regime. They also mention the fact that he is the conservative candidate of the two that were running, which should have been written that he is more conservative then the SOCIALIST Segolene Royal, but for US standards is still a pretty liberal guy, oh well just something that the US media seemed to have forgotten. Nonetheless the guy looks like he wants to get the French working has some good ideas about fighting the French Unions, making employment more free then it is right now you know the things that have kept the French from really becoming a world economic leader, we'll see how that goes.

OUT: Boxing - if you didn't already think that boxing was out, then the latest big time match should cement it. I got to see a little bit of the fight thanks to CCTV5, but from what I hear the match was a bore fest. Glad that I was not in the States getting caught up in all the hype. Everyone thought that this would be the match that would help put boxing back on the map, but when fighters don't even connect with one good punch in 12 rounds and people are practically falling asleep in their chairs, it more rings in the fact that boxing is dead. So for all you people looking to go into boxing, try something like badminton it is huge over here and I bet the Olympic badminton events get more viewers then the boxing events.

Signs I'm Getting Old

I'm 26 and starting to feel old father time coming down hard on me...okay, well not really, but every once in a while I get a swift kick in the face that I am getting old. In celebration, you will get a nice look into the mirror of "Matt Getting Old," so enjoy.

1. American Eagle - Being back in the States, of course I had to go on a nice shopping spree. This included having to pick up some new clothes for the summer (having lost a couple of lbs doesn't help with the clothes from last summer), as such I decided to walk into an old haunt of mine, American Eagle. Now when I say old haunt, I mean the last time I bought something from there was around twenty ought one, so needless to say it felt a little uncomfortable walking into the place. Unfortunately when I walked in I couldn't tell the men's section from the women's section. No really, it was that hard, even with pictures of guys on the wall leading me to the men's section had me questioning the clothes in that section as men's clothes. You know when you are walking behind someone and you're like, wow that girl has a really good body, and then they turn around and its a guy, that is American Eagle to me right now. Needless to say I didn't stay for more then 3 minutes, I basically walked in, looked confused as I walked from the women's clothes section to the not so women's clothes section (or was it???) and walked out. Happily no one asked me if they could help, which I contribute to the fact that I probably was about 10 years older then their average customer.

2. Silversun Pickups - I am very gender bias when it comes to my music, basically I am not a fan of too many women rockers. Although I really thought the Silversun Pickups had changed me on this one, then I listened to their album, and I now am convinced their lead singer is a guy. Actually I am still confused on this one, is it a guy or a girl? I have no idea, I am starting to think more and more that it is a guy, all I know is it's good music.

3.Old Navy-Clearly fashion isn't my thing, no I'm not wearing polyester suits, but I'm definitely no Ross dress for less model. Nonetheless, after my embarrassing encounter in American Eagle, I figured I could go into the much tamer and not as fashion progressive Old Navy store. I got a couple of items and headed off to the dressing room. After trying on a pair of jeans, I noticed that this pair of jeans had some fabric riffles in a couple of places on the jeans(I describe a riffle to be not a rip circa 1990, but its like the fabric is about to rip, kind of messed up looking). So I leave the changing room, pants on mind you, and ask if those riffle things are supposed to be in the jeans or if I just picked up a bad pair of jeans. With a lot more then obvious chuckle, the woman said that this was the style of the jeans and its supposed to be there. My reply, with my head slumping like the idiot that I am and my body exuding the confidence of an awkward middle school boy, "Oh...that's what I thought." Still chuckling, the young woman said, "Don't worry we get that question all the time." Hooray for me, let me get my cane and buy my grave plot now.

Signs I'm still young

1. The ringtone - A glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. The other day Renee had some high school students visiting our apartment, one of them had the infamous ringtone that old people can't hear, you know the one that is basically one pitch down from a dog whistle. Anyway, I had them put the tone on, and of course I could hear the tone, I am money (forget what you read above). I didn't completely believe that people couldn't hear the tone, so I had my dad come into the room and low and behold, he could not hear the tone. Wow that was pretty neat, I am a believer now.

IN: Riffles in your jeans. I could be a couple of years late here, but I never bought jeans with riffles, I guess they are in or else Old Navy did a good job of ripping me off.

OUT: Keyshawn Johnson, it's really funny that he was guest hosting in the draft and had to fake like he was excited when the Panthers took Dwayne Jarrett, I guess he knew that was the end of the line for him, sorry man, that's the NFL.