Friday, May 12, 2006
Running 0ut Of Time
Nian is off teaching a class in marketing to some advanced students in economics studies today all in English (keep in mind we are in Guangzhou China right now). I'm not sure whether they are undergrads or graduate students. Most of the morning was spent helping her find some good illustrative commercials to add to her Power Point presentation. My ability to Google my way to find something is evidently a little more developed than hers and our searching went reasonable well.
Now that she has gone to class I have the additional homework of finding a few more good ads for future use. Actually I'm surprised how hard it is to find commercials to download; you would think advertisers would make it easy to get to ads directly. Perhaps they fear looking dated and foolish as the material ages. We found a McDonalds commercial from 1962 with Willard Scott as Ronald McDonald before he joined the Today show that is outrageously dated and amateurish looking. Note this MPEG comes courtesy
of The Adventures of the Accordion Guy in the 21st Century
Anyway, now that we are back in Guangzhou after about a week in Wuhan it is easier to get to a computer as Nian has a nice Toshiba laptop and a fast ADSL connection. Still the both of us could easily surf online all day long and with her needing the use the computer to compare class outlines; it is still a little hard for me to get my daily net surfing fix. Since I can download MPEGs only so fast to support her marketing class, and since she is away right now, I have the time to compose this post. Her computer beeps and makes door knocking sounds at me constantly from various messenger apps like MSN Messenger, but the Chinese versions. Cryptic Chinese dialogs pop up every few minutes with what I assume are plaintive cries for attention. I recognize a few of the names and while the messages are in Chinese the name handles tend to be English names Nian's friends have chosen as for their online avatars. Nian's American handle is Helena, and the name she assumed I would use for her, but I insisted that we stick with her Chinese given name Nian. Now she is unsure we should keep Aiai's (Eye-Eye's) first name, and instead choose something more American. I hope she changes her mind back again as we had sort of agreed on Aiai Ann Calmer, which would be her given name, my Mother's middle name, and my last name, and which to my ear has certain melodic sound. Nian seems to have an endless fascination with my Mother the poet who died so tragically young, actually at the age Nian is now, so this seemed a great way to honor her. Aiai could then choose for herself whether to go by Aiai or Ann.
Actually I'm amazed Nian is able to get any work done at all. When I am surfing or writing she can hardly keep herself from answering to the various online chats that are going on, reaching over my shoulder to peck in a quick reply, the comments of which I have no idea. Nian has complained that her computer is much slower these days and hopes that I can do something to speed it up. Perhaps it has some viruses that her current virus software is not catching. I suspect she has too many simultaneous applications running constantly in the background and we should edit the startup registry to keep them from launching at logon. This way she could just start the application when she wants and not have the distraction of constant interruptions when trying to work. This may not be an acceptable solution to Nian however, as her online social network seems to be an all but consuming passion. I wouldn't be surprised of 20% or more of her waking hours weren't spent on the phone or on the computer with friends other than me -- her husband. Add me to the mix and it might climb to over 30% or a third of her time.
I would love to share some pictures and even a video of me roller-skating in what passes for a roller rink in Wuhan, but we haven't uploaded Nian's camera pictures yet so that my have to wait until I get back to the States on Monday.
----
Running out of time now, it is Saturday and I leave tomorrow morning very early. No time to find an appropriate picture, just get this posted and take care of a million things before leaving and a million more when I get home late Sunday.
Nian I Love You
Sorry I can't take you with me this time or stay myself.
Life is often unfair, but our great happiness is just a little ways ahead in the future.
Now that she has gone to class I have the additional homework of finding a few more good ads for future use. Actually I'm surprised how hard it is to find commercials to download; you would think advertisers would make it easy to get to ads directly. Perhaps they fear looking dated and foolish as the material ages. We found a McDonalds commercial from 1962 with Willard Scott as Ronald McDonald before he joined the Today show that is outrageously dated and amateurish looking. Note this MPEG comes courtesy
of The Adventures of the Accordion Guy in the 21st Century
Anyway, now that we are back in Guangzhou after about a week in Wuhan it is easier to get to a computer as Nian has a nice Toshiba laptop and a fast ADSL connection. Still the both of us could easily surf online all day long and with her needing the use the computer to compare class outlines; it is still a little hard for me to get my daily net surfing fix. Since I can download MPEGs only so fast to support her marketing class, and since she is away right now, I have the time to compose this post. Her computer beeps and makes door knocking sounds at me constantly from various messenger apps like MSN Messenger, but the Chinese versions. Cryptic Chinese dialogs pop up every few minutes with what I assume are plaintive cries for attention. I recognize a few of the names and while the messages are in Chinese the name handles tend to be English names Nian's friends have chosen as for their online avatars. Nian's American handle is Helena, and the name she assumed I would use for her, but I insisted that we stick with her Chinese given name Nian. Now she is unsure we should keep Aiai's (Eye-Eye's) first name, and instead choose something more American. I hope she changes her mind back again as we had sort of agreed on Aiai Ann Calmer, which would be her given name, my Mother's middle name, and my last name, and which to my ear has certain melodic sound. Nian seems to have an endless fascination with my Mother the poet who died so tragically young, actually at the age Nian is now, so this seemed a great way to honor her. Aiai could then choose for herself whether to go by Aiai or Ann.
Actually I'm amazed Nian is able to get any work done at all. When I am surfing or writing she can hardly keep herself from answering to the various online chats that are going on, reaching over my shoulder to peck in a quick reply, the comments of which I have no idea. Nian has complained that her computer is much slower these days and hopes that I can do something to speed it up. Perhaps it has some viruses that her current virus software is not catching. I suspect she has too many simultaneous applications running constantly in the background and we should edit the startup registry to keep them from launching at logon. This way she could just start the application when she wants and not have the distraction of constant interruptions when trying to work. This may not be an acceptable solution to Nian however, as her online social network seems to be an all but consuming passion. I wouldn't be surprised of 20% or more of her waking hours weren't spent on the phone or on the computer with friends other than me -- her husband. Add me to the mix and it might climb to over 30% or a third of her time.
I would love to share some pictures and even a video of me roller-skating in what passes for a roller rink in Wuhan, but we haven't uploaded Nian's camera pictures yet so that my have to wait until I get back to the States on Monday.
----
Running out of time now, it is Saturday and I leave tomorrow morning very early. No time to find an appropriate picture, just get this posted and take care of a million things before leaving and a million more when I get home late Sunday.
Nian I Love You
Sorry I can't take you with me this time or stay myself.
Life is often unfair, but our great happiness is just a little ways ahead in the future.
