Lunatic Finance Interest Free Bank Loans in China, real or not? I was going to make “Be your own loanshark” the next installment in Lunatic Finance, but something else just popped up. My lovely wife recently got a new credit card from a Chinese bank. A week or two later, …
Facing the Reaper My First Experience with Carolina Reaper Recently, my beautiful daughter went to the USA to visit my parents. I made arrangements for her to bring me back something special. A bottle of Red Reaper by the Electric Pepper Company. There is only one ingredient. Finely powdered Carolina …
The Quest for Television Buying a TV in China There are certain items which are essential to civilization. Fire, agriculture, writing, and TV all qualify. Last week, my lovely wife and I were sitting down to watch another episode of Elementary. While getting the DVD player loaded, I kept hearing a …
Attack of the Robowaitresses These Are The Droids You’ve Been Looking For Getting there is half the fun I was intrigued when the editor of HERE! asked me to check out Dongguan’s first restaurant to employ robots to serve clients. Back when I was in the US, I’d done combat robotics …
Swimming with Dragons More Lunatic Fun in My Village On my most recent trip to the US, I bought a Nikon AW120. I didn’t do this because of all the fancy settings (someday, I’ll figure out what those do ). I got it for one reason. I wanted to …
Awakening the Dragons Commanding a Freshly Awakened Dragon For the first couple of years, I missed out on awakening the dragons. Finally, when some new boats were built a few years back, it took a lot of people to get them moved into the water. The next year, …
Rain Pics My Village in the Rain Although I selected a waterproof camera with the primary goal of hurling myself into the pond to take pics of passing dragon boats while swimming in the pond, I found another use for it. I’ve developed a whole new way to make …
Sleeping Dragons For most people in China, their favorite holiday is Chinese New Year. Not me. Mine is Dragon Boat Festival. The dragons only come out to play once per year. What many don’t know is where the sleeping dragons spend the rest of the year. Dragon Boat Day …
iPhoada – If you like your iPad and iPhone, you’ll love this! Be the first to upgrade your life with an iPhoada Are you an iFanatic? If so, you’ve already got an iPad and an iPhone. You probably own at least one iPod (maybe more, just so you can …
China Cultural Notes New vs. Old and Saving Historic Buildings I’ve always loved the historic buildings in the village, but they are disappearing. China’s modernization has led to many people to adopt an “old=bad, new=good” mindset. New things can be great, but to demolish so many of the fascinating older …
This Saturday (now Sunday) (now this coming Saturday), (now postponed again ) Hot Flaming Death Awaits! Someone is going to die, and it could be me. Twice, I have met the enemy. Once, I emerged victorious and accepted my opponent’s surrender. Once, primarily due to insufficient preparation on my …
A New Dining Hall Needs a Cantonese Feast My sector of the village (North Gate) recently finished constructing a new dining hall. How to celebrate? How about a huge Cantonese feast? Sector HQ is on the second floor in the projecting box above the columns. The dining …