User Comments - pretzellogic

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pretzellogic

Posted on: Teaching English to the Neighbors
January 9, 2012 at 2:29 AM

In Lanzhou, I'd get asked to teach someone English periodically. Rarely a neighbor would ask, as it seemed they didn't have the interest. More likely a person on the street would ask me to teach them English. In Beijing, neighbors that are interested in English already know it (like the Chinese retirees from New York next door). Then there are always the scam artists at Wangfujing.

Posted on: National Stereotypes
January 4, 2012 at 1:33 PM

Yes, i'm a intense fan. I'm also an fan of many things Brazilian. And i'm not even Brazilian :-) I need to go to Brazil so I can see the bad with the good.

Posted on: National Stereotypes
January 4, 2012 at 1:30 PM

As if, mate :-)

Posted on: Visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art
January 4, 2012 at 2:36 AM

and another for the 798 Art Zone:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/798_Art_Zone

Posted on: Visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art
January 4, 2012 at 2:25 AM

Ok, shameless plug for the Art Institute of Chicago

http://www.artic.edu/aic/

Posted on: Extreme Weather and Pollution
January 3, 2012 at 2:52 AM

Poor Beijing.  The latest reading is

01-03-2012; 09:00; PM2.5; 16.0; 52; Moderate (at 24-hour exposure at this level) // Ozone; 0.0; 0; No Reading

Visibility is good.  You can see Terminal 3 at Beijing airport, and also see the CCTV Tower from a strategically located place in Chaoyang.  So you could call it a "10-mile day" this morning.

Posted on: Focus and Specialization
January 2, 2012 at 3:24 AM

Baba, John, Jenny and the rest of cpod could be really tech savvy, but the way tech is specialized, they may still not know the first thing about what a router is, what it does, or how it does it. I always tell people when cornered, "I'm a software guy, not a hardware guy". Or cornered badly, "I'm infrastructure software, not applications". That usually stops them dead :-)

Posted on: Focus and Specialization
January 2, 2012 at 3:19 AM

more specialization: If you fly on United to China, you can listen to Chinese air traffic control into Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. ICAO rules require English be spoken if requested. But in China, China Eastern, Air China and other China based airlines speak Chinese with China air route traffic control centers. I'm sure its the same stuff spoken in English as in Chinese, but it would be nice to know it, and entertaining for those of us flying to/from China.

Posted on: Where's the soap?
January 1, 2012 at 1:55 PM

after searching for hand sanitizer in the local supermarket, I was shown something like 'hand disinfectant'. Probably because I showed the service person the characters 消毒液

Posted on: Where's the soap?
January 1, 2012 at 9:17 AM

I wish I had remembered this 3 days ago.