Both Readable and Rich in Knowledge and Thoughts

"BEIJING, July 26 (Xinhua) -- President Hu Jintao has urged SDX Joint Publishing Company, a reputable domestic publisher, to strive for innovation and produce more quality publications to assist in the country's cultural drive. [...] Hu urged the company to create innovative operation systems and develop 'more quality publications that are both readable and rich in knowledge and thoughts.' "

("President Hu Calls for More Quality Publications", from China's official news agency)

 

Just to throw it in there, here's a picture of the Chinese edition of a certain quality publication.

 

 

 

Herp Update

Just now on a pedestrian flyover near the Sijiqing Bridge, I saw a man selling a single, live, adult snapping turtle in a shallow plastic washtub. There was an inch of water in the washtub and the man was moistening his fingers and flicking them along the turtle's reticulated shell. Once in a while a pedestrian crossing the flyover would stop to prod the turtle. I asked the man how much for the turtle, and while giving the traditional marketplace hand sign for the figure, he accidentally flicked water in my eyes and mouth and now I'm anxious about turtle-born disease.

He was asking for 1,500 yuan, about $240. Nothing doing. The turtle would ootch its neck if people rapped it on the shell. I thought of the baby snapping turtle I found in Croton Park in the Bronx. Readers will remember that little guy.

Chinese Ant in the Courtyard of Our Apartment

Fuck You Life, Fuck You Dream

Transcription of a Plaque from the Forbidden City

ZHONG HE DIAN (Hall of Central Harmony)


A throne is placed in the center of the hall and a board hangs above the throne with an inscription written by Emperor Qianlong. The inscription reads:


"Yun Zhi Jue Zhong,"


meaning 

"The Way of Heaven is profound and mysterious and the way of mankind is difficult. Only if we make a precise and unified plan and follow the doctrine of the mean, can we rule the country well."

Dream Diary

I dreamed I was drawing a huge map of the United States on a whiteboard. I began with the region I'm most familiar with -- the Northeast. Everyone was asking, "What's that?"

"The United States," I said. I drew the Great Lakes exactingly. I was proud of myself.

Then I dreamed I was walking. I was somewhere in the Northeast. I woke up in a hotel, or a hospital, and I asked the desk attendant how to catch a bus, and she took me out onto the main road and explained to me. It was morning, it was early spring or early autumn. I decided not to catch a bus and I went walking north up the main road. Trees, nature. You know what I mean.

Year of the Dragon

Update: never did anything with WordPress.