Nian and I both had an attack of the lazies on Saturday. We had originally planned on going to Chicago for the Wired magazine NextFest, but I didn’t get the tickets in time plus I had heard the event was overrated, plus-plus Nian and I would be in Chicago this next Saturday anyway, overnighting before our trip out to New York city (the Fourth of July weekend we will spend Sunday through Wednesday there), plus-plus-plus I don’t think Nian was as anxious to see a bunch of tech toys as I was.

Anyway this last Saturday was spent mostly lounging around in bed and watching movies on the big projection screen in the bedroom. I have a rather modest apartment, but my HDTV/DVD/Computer setup is way over the top with a room dominating 10’ screen – a homebrew system I have been building around a NEC-1351 projector I purchased over 3 years ago used, but sill beats anything you will see at BestBuy in HDTV.

Sunday we decided to go to St Louis, even though the Chicago NextFest and Taste of Chicago would still have been options. I missed my shortcut turn onto 148 however and we decided to head on into Springfield first. While there we visited Abraham Lincoln’s house, an exhibit that I think Nian enjoyed quite a bit -- then onto St Louis and the famous Gateway Arch. After an hour and a half wait we made it to the top. A glorious view from 630 feet high and I’m glad we did it, but I’m not very happy with how the trips up the Arch are scheduled. If you buy a ticked for 1:10, it seems you should be boarding at approximately 1:10, not waiting in a long line behind 1:00, 12:50, 12:40, 12:30, etc. ticket holders who have not yet boarded. I understand having to wait until your boarding time, but what is the purpose of making you wait an additional hour past your ticket time, and to do so standing in line. This seems to be the natural course of events at the Arch however and not due to any unexpected delays or overflows, as the actual ticket sales booths had no lines at all, else they should have been adjusting their schedule times if they where falling behind.

We made a little excursion around St Louis trying to find a restaurant and got a little lost while doing so. We seemed to drive for miles and miles and miles of mostly run down areas of St Louis with few restaurants and the few of which we did spy where either all closed or of the fast-food variety that Nian would have us avoid like the plague – not because of cost, but because she has a rather low opinion of the healthiness of most American faire. In the end we circled back to the downtown.

One thing we had not anticipated was the near total shutdown the St Louis downtown has on Sundays. Nian wanted to find a nice Chinese restaurant to eat at, as she had been having to put up with American fair for the last two or three days. We walked around on foot a little in the main downtown area, but most of the restaurants were closed. We asked a few passers-by on the street if they knew of a Chinatown section to St Louis, but they all turned out to be out-of-towners like us and had probably just come to see the Arch. Nian opined that while most of the American restaurants where closed for Sunday or Closed early, that should we find a Chinese restaurant it would likely be open, as the hard-working, industrious Chinese would not be so bound to the American tradition of taking a break-day on Sunday. As we rounded a corner Nian perked up at the sight of familiar Chinese characters. There didn’t appear to be much activity in the outwardly nice appearing Chinese restaurant, but a small white sign in the window said Open -- a pull on the doors proved otherwise however and the hours listed just inside the glass showed Closed Sundays.

Nian was a little crestfallen that we really only had two reasonable choices between a TGI Friday’s and some Italian restaurant with the Italian flag’s red, green, and white, strips adorning its awning, within obvious walking distance. I couldn’t help but needle her about how we should be able find food with “those hard working Italians,” so Italian it was and Nian did seem to enjoy the Chicken-Marsala.

On the whole it was a good day, but Nian was a little surprised with the tracts and tracts of dilapidated areas that most American cities seem to have. Not that all of China is modern and clean, but America is considered “rich” after all. Add to this the constant brushes we seem to have with beggars in Chicago and Indianapolis it’s no wonder Nian wonders about our apparent prosperity. St Louis was no exception and as we left the restaurant some emaciate, probably homeless women asking me about my box of leftovers I had from the restaurant, I hadn’t even eaten a half of the large pizza that I had purposely over ordered so as to have something to brown-bag to work the next day or two. I handed the box over quickly without hesitation knowing here was another black eye for America in the eyes of a visitor, earlier we had practically been accosted by some black couple in a van for parking too close. I had really been expecting them to extort money from me for a collision that never took place. The women had been quite insistent we had “hit” their van while neither Nian nor myself had felt anything. I think it would be safe to say most Chinese visitors are leery of American blacks in open settings and this couple did nothing to dispel the stereotype of blacks being easy to anger and unreasonable. I hesitate to write this in my blog for fear of PC backlash, but all I can do is reports the facts as accurately as I can. Having had a great many friendly and competent coworkers and friends I know this stereotype is not true, but to many visitors America can seem a very unfriendly and unsafe place. Trying to explain the complexities of America’s homeless and poor problem can be very draining.

We escaped St Louis without further incident and made it home without getting lost again. Nian probably thinks me an incompetent, since most of our long excursions have included at least some backtracking or direction asking.

Next Week the BIG ADVENTURE
Stay Tuned.

A new Top Ten List for your amusement and this time around even the category is original (NOT from the Late Show Top Ten Contest). This one’s a long one however, with a paragraph devoted to explaining each entry, so if you want view it you’ll have to hop over to my sister blog Larry’s Top Tens

My last Slashdot.org journal entry (HBO -- What are you thinking?) was a bit over the top with whining as Frisky070802 pointed out (though he was kind enough not to use the word “whine”). I have indeed become overly dependant on seeing my shows at a minimum of DVD quality, and had I made the effort I probably could have caught “Six Feet Under” Season 4 on a standard definition channel and taped it to (ughhh) VHS or archive Season 5 on VHS. Instead I am watching Season 5 now (in HD) and will catch Season 4 later.

Onto the main meat of Today’s post which is a reprint of a post I just made to a general Slashdot.org discussion for the thread
DoubeClick Warns Against Ad-Blocking Browsers, but at post 800+ I am unlikely to be highly moderated, viewed, or read. So here is a bit of recycling with the content of my post.

It occurs to me that one reason that popup advertising and flash advertising is so aggravating to many is the mixed media types it employs.

When you’re in the mood for a read, you read. So the ads in magazines and newspapers match the type of sensory input you have chosen which is READING, and don’t require any action to un-obscure what you are reading. Popup ads transform the passive act of reading into a forced interactive one.

When you watch a TV show or movie on TV you’re in a video watching mode and ads while sometimes obnoxious or overly abundant don’t tend t to be a jarring experience because they are presented in the same sensory input experience you have chosen to engage in. Ironically while many TV ads employ printed text also, it is rarely the only content of the ad and tends to be supplementary. If during your 30 minute viewing of a TV show you were subjected to 7 minutes of static, music less, text only ads you would probably have a similar amount of irritation.

For websites and games that are interactive in nature I predict the acceptance of popup type ads should/would be better since you would already be in an interactive mode state of mind. At $50 dollars a pop no one would tolerate active popup style ads in video games, but if Pepsi or Coke sponsored free game content that rivaled paid game content then you can bet game players would tolerate (with little complaint) interactive ads built into the game at between level intermissions. Call me immodest, but I would be surprised if my little post here doesn’t start the hamster wheel turning in some marketing type’s head (granted this idea has already been implemented to varying degrees already, and is no doubt in some stage of development somewhere for something by somebody).

My advise to advertisers who don’t want to be hated, if not to be considered downright EVIL, don’t mix modes when presenting ads. People have expectations for the types of experiences they engage in and don’t want to be forced into another one involuntarily.

New Entry in Larry's Top Tens Top Ten Signs You're Not One of the Most Powerful Celebrities (my entries for this week's David Letterman Top Ten Contest)

10. Can’t get a table at McDonalds on a slow day
    
9. Most prized award is: Best “I’m not a Doctor” in a 60 second ad
   
8. You’ve just starred in an ad for a law firm and they’re suing you for making lawyers look bad
   
7. Credits for last movie list you as: Some Guy played by Some Guy
   
6. SAG keeps offering to refund your startup fee and all dues ever paid
   
5. SAG keeps sending you letters about exciting opportunities in non-SAG projects
   
4. The only role you’ve been offered the last year is for a bit part in G2: Gigli vs. Glitter
   
3. Unable to leap small children in a single bound
   
2. Have never been invited to a Democratic fundraiser
   
1. The only Star with your name on it is a Carl’s Jr. hamburger wrapper you signed for someone that mistook you for Bill Pullman.
   

If you enjoy this you might also like to check out Larry's Original Humor Pages

I see my numbers are way down this week, and little wonder since I have not been posting a great deal. Nian and myself continue to debate wedding plans, she is a little aggravated with me for not being more concerned with details like what dress she should buy. I know she has spent hours looking at dresses and wedding ceremonies online. I also know she will be a little cross with me for saying so, but since we haven’t set a firm date yet, all this planning seems a bit overkill. As to the date this is complicated by commitments she has back home in China and whether we should get married here or there, or whether marriage will make it easier/harder for her to return. If she weren’t a professional and just looking for American citizenship we could probably just get married in August and have her stay here. She is VERY emphatic she does not want to be seen as someone just looking to be an American, and if anything her love for me is in spite of me being American not because. In her ideal world I would move back to China with her, leaving my overly greedy and aggressive nation behind. As it is there will probably be at least a six-month stay for her in China before she can return to America again. How we will juggle our two jobs is very much in the air -- her post is very much in jeopardy depending on when and how we marry.

Nian is also very concerned for my health, though as far as I know I am very healthy. There are a few things at work here. One: I had had a small cough for a while. Two: I am older than Nian. Three: her first boyfriend had some serious liver disease. Four: I went for a checkup for the cough and they found a very small though not overly suspicious spot on one of my lungs. Two weeks on and I am still getting tests. The upshot of which is the spot still is probably nothing, but needs to be monitored twice a year for two years, and I probably have a mild case of asthma aggravated by allergies.

Nian also insisted I ask the doctor about a small red spot on my left cheek and some small bumps on my neck. Both where so minor I was almost afraid to mention them to the doctor least he think me to be a big hypochondriac. I did mention them at my exam today since I was having my follow up anyway -- as predicted nothing to be concerned about, possibly a very mild rosacea and psuedofolliculitis (razor bumps).

Not to discourage people from seeking proper medical care, but my small, mostly benign conditions have triggered a flurry of seemingly endless trips to doctors and hospitals as they perform every modern test known, ironically not because they don’t know what I have, but just to confirm what they have already diagnosed and prescribed treatments for.

I still haven’t done much coding on my side projects, but work is busy these days and I have lots to do with Nian. I have definitely decided to revive my work with The Canopy Club, partly to gain a little extra income (I think Nian thinks I am not career driven enough), and partly to get all the electronic crap out of my apartment and into use at the Club, also partly to kill time when I will be awaiting Nian’s return from China. If nothing else it will give me fresh material for my blog when the fall band season starts. I am also steeling myself for the launching of an internet based music video service using Bittorrent. This could be big, but I haven’t made much progress yet. This is definitely the next BIG thing the club wants me to do for them.

I have finally managed to clean up the Junk Room, and this will be a big help in getting my other projects off the ground. Nian will be happy to learn tonight I am moving the video projectors I am working on from the living room back to the Junk Room, now the Repair Room. I also now have a source of parts to get them working again. These are BIG (12’ plus) screen projectors, and will make my video D.J.ing and band taping camera work look awesome. Yep, come fall it’s the return of The D.O.D.J. (The Dirty ‘Ol D.J.)

I had mentioned how happy Nian was with me for the bit of maintenance I attended to around the house on Sunday. I did fail to mention one gray cloud that entered our conversion later that night. It seems one of her Chinese friends had told her to be careful when it came to me, that I was somewhat famous, or perhaps infamous would be the better way to put it, in these parts as a womanizer.

Since I had already confessed to a long string of failed relationships to Nian, I think the words resonated with more importance than they should. In all honesty I have had not that many relationships the last couple of years, and with the exception of meeting one Taiwanese women in Seattle two or three years ago (a match.com thing) and a short relationship over ten years ago with a Korean girl I can’t see how I would have any reputation in the Champaign/Urbana Asian community as a womanizer. In fact to be brutally honest since almost all my girlfriends the last five years have been black, and since Nian’s friends are near phobic about socializing with American blacks, I don’t see how they could know anything about my dating habits. To be honest I suspect that Nian has confessed to some that I have had black girlfriends in the past, and that this has somehow circulated around within their small community giving me a reputation I didn’t have before, but is now considered fact.

It’s strange that this accusation bothers me so. It would probably sting less if there hadn’t been times in my life when it probably did fit, but not now. Maybe it is because I could see the concern on Nian’s face when she mentioned it. Still I’m pretty sure I am the victim of mistaken identity. All the more reason I would like to get this straightened out and figure out if this person actually knows me, or is confusing me with someone else, or if this is some rumor gone amok.

When you are 46 and have had an average of maybe one relationship per year and maybe dated 2 or 3 different people per year, well the numbers add up. Nian at 30 has only dated two men, so we definitely come from different dating perspectives. To Nian it would seem I have had a staggering number of girlfriends

I had mentioned an argument in the last post, and this is tricky thing to touch on, a danger of reopening old wounds so to speak, and it all starts with a story about a wound. Friday night we went and saw Mr. and Mrs. Smith the new movie starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. In it Brad Pitt gets stabbed in the leg towards the end and there after barely limps through a manic scene of killing more bad guys than I could count. The thing is I’ve been stabbed in the leg, not very severely, but my bare half-inch wound left me limping more than Brad Pit who was completely skewered.

So few really strange things happen in ones life I couldn’t resist telling Nian after the movie how my second fiancé’s sister had accidentally stabbed me in the leg while threatening suicide. I had attempted to grab a kitchen knife from her and ended up getting nicked on the leg in the attempt. In hindsight I was being much too hesitant and careful in trying to take the knife away, worrying not so much about myself, but about hurting her. I don’t think she intended to wound me with the knifepoint; she just didn’t want to give the knife up easily. This is not what led to our fight; but that I had continued on to tell how Kathleen had made up to me for her sister’s actions afterwards. I will purposely omit exactly what it is I said that set Nian off, but she took offense where none was intended, though I certainly exercised no tack, and should have just ended the story with the fact I got stabbed in the leg.

Still in the uneasy moments that followed I was really worried that I had done irreparable harm to Nian and my relationship. Things seem to balance on a knife’s edge so to speak, but we eventually forgave each other and went on to have a great weekend. Still to tie back to the beginning, this accusation from one of her friends comes at a critical time for us. We have not been together long and are already planning marriage. And even with marriage plans in the works it sometimes feels as though things could just slip away in an instant. Perhaps I should not read too much into our one rough spot. I’m sure there will be others as our cultures collide. Learning how to work these however will be the biggest challenge for me and oddly not one I’ve had to cope with often in the past. Of course that maybe the largest single reason I’m still a bachelor at this late age.

I should start today’s post by telling about Friday night’s dinner out and a movie that ended in a fight between Nian and myself. We got over the fight and had a great Saturday and Sunday together however so I will start with those events instead. Saturday was something called Dragon Boat Day: a traditional day of celebration for the Chinese. Nian told me the story of how it came to be, something involving the drowning of a good man and the local villagers attempt to save and find him by throwing rice on the water. We spent the day together then she went to a Dragon Boat Day party. I was not invited though I’m sure I could have insisted on going. I would have been a wet blanket on the proceedings, however, as everyone there would be speaking Chinese.

Nian and I got together the next day and set about to do some shopping for some items I needed around the apartment. I had started to fix my place up before meeting Nian, but now that I have a steady girlfriend/fiancé (oh yeah we’re engaged, more about that later too). I’ve been determined to make the place much more livable. The shopping didn’t go well however, we had trouble finding just the items we needed. To add insult to injury Nian looked as though she was going to get sick any moment from lack of sleep and a bit of a hangover. The most I have ever seen Nian drink is one Heineken, and only the one time when we very first met, but evidently imbibing alcohol at a celebration is a Chinese custom, in fact Nian informs me that when I meet her father I will probably have quite a bit of some kind of white wine to drink to be sociable.

Nian had one more social obligation to attend to Sunday afternoon, though not an all night affair like Dragon Boat Day, so I dropped her off to join her University colleagues while I continued to shop for what was needed around the apartment. Nian would call at 8pm for me to come pick her up. After not finding what I really wanted or needed at Schnucks, Carters, or Sam’s Club, I went hog wild at Wal-Mart. I’m not trying to rave about Wal-Mart, just that for whatever reason this day I found just about every remaining item on my list of things to get and then some. I didn’t have a written list of what to get, but all the failed shopping primed me for things to get and so I did. Picture frames, a replacement mirror for the bedroom door, a drain rack for the sink, just the right kind of desk lamp for Nian to study with, a hand vacuum, a mattress pad and fitted sheet that actually fits the waterbed (these last two items I had been searching for over a month for), lots of other small necessities. Towards the end of my shopping I also got 3 yellow roses (for my Asian rose) and chocolates for our one-month anniversary. Then to be really domestic and top things off I bought two large semi exotic houseplants and found some reasonably attractive woven potholders to place them in.

I was shocked by how much the plants added to my rather drab living room when I got them home. I’ve never been much of a plant person, but to add even a little more dash I went outside and pulled a few wild plants from along the nearby road, and arranged them in the empty pots I had been meaning to fill with something so they didn’t look so useless. The effect turned out to be quite aesthetic. My father had lots of plants at his apartment when he was alive, but they had always looked tacky to me, mostly because they were mostly dull common plants like philodendrons and not potted in anything other than the dull green plastic or dull orange ceramic, plus he had a tendency to over-water, which didn’t hurt the plants, but wrecked his furniture they were on in short order. Wherever dad set his plants was always covered with deep-water rings and stray dirt -- the veneer actually pealing from the tabletops and drawers where dad placed his plants. To be fair the rest of his apartment was always clean as a whistle, no mean feat given his arthritis, but he put up with plants for some indefinable reason -- they probably symbolized something to do with life or hope to him. Then again it could just be he thought they would improve the air quality of his small apartment.

I whirled around the apartment trying to get everything installed and in place I had purchased. I had hoped to have enough time to start some work on the back junk room, but after Six O-Clock I decided I would run to the gym to get my workout in (they close at 8pm) and then if Nian was late calling I would have time to start the junk room.

The workout went well and I stayed until the very last instant when they kicked us out. It was now a little past 8pm and no call from Nian, I made one last quick errand run to finish my puttering around the apartment then returned home. Nian was there waiting to my surprise and quite happy with all my thoughtful purchases, especially the roses to officially mark the one-month occasion though she had found them on her own in the refrigerator.

Evidently I did such a good thing with everything Nian didn’t even point out I had failed to tackle the back junk room again.

Nian chided me a little about my over the top complaints with HBO’s marketing practices. I assure you I am not as obsessed with this as my last post would suggest. On the other hand, I do suspect HBO and others do Google the blogs and I hope they notice my criticisms.

For those that want juicy details about my and Nian’s blossoming relationship, on to the small bits of drama. Nian worries a bit that I am an American playboy -- only time will convince her that I am not I guess. Today is our one month anniversary, one month since I asked her to dance at the High Dive -- so a night out is in order. Nothing fancy, just dinner and a movie. Yesterday I reinstalled my Ethernet Router (NAT) so Nian could plug her laptop into my network. I had taken it offline for a while due to instabilities with my cable box, hopefully it will stay up and running without problems this time. Nian had seemed decided unimpressed when I had mentioned I was going to get her a direct internet connection for her laptop when I mentioned it the day before, but once we got home and plugged in her laptop and it connected directly with no muss or fuss she became giddy as a school girl. She spent the remainder of the evening chatting with friends online through IM and other utilities that are more tailored directly to support native Chinese than my main machine. I was unable to tear her away as she teleconferenced with her friend Lucy back home in China. Since I couldn’t understand of word of what was being said, and because I had to keep the room quite I was getting a bit bored and edgy. Nothing would do also but that Nian get me in on the conversation with her friend Lucy in China on the Cell-Phone while Nian monitored and interpreted for Lucy over the internet. Lucy knows some small amount of English, but either far less than Nian gives her credit or she is just TOO shy to say anything. Most of the laborious overly long conversation was spent asking childish how-are-you and are-you-having-a-good-day questions, most of which Lucy couldn’t answer back for whatever reason. I know Nian wants all her friends to like and approve of me, but I can’t say the dialog with Lucy accomplished much except perhaps frustrating both Lucy and Myself.

I should have kept my tongue in my mouth, but I later told Nian that I really hadn’t enjoyed the forced conversation and felt a little ignored during the evening. Nian got very apologetic and defensive at the same time. We spent most of the rest of the remaining evening trading “I’m Sorry”s and “No I’m Sorry”s.

Still I plan on running a CAT-5 line out to the living room so she can network all she likes and I can just lay back and watch some TV with out me disturbing her -- or her disturbing me. I had already made a better study table arrangement in the living room for this anyway. I already know she will not like this solution completely as she wants to be in my presence at all times, but I think that is mostly insecurity and that it will lessen with time. While I like most of the shows and movies Nian likes to watch, she definitely has no taste for my favorite shows, which tend to be Sci-Fi and Fantasy. Nian only likes real life, and you can see her plotting the trajectory of her life through the lens of the social complications she sees the characters having on the screen. While she is lost to the world chatting to Chinese colleagues half a world away, I will indulge my pent up apatite for Sci-Fi and Fantasy (my worlds are more than half a world away).

There has been little interest in the Toy section of my left side bar. The stuff (so far) has been a little dull and amateurish I must admit. Even so, I do plan on improvements to what is there plus add three new items sometime in the near future. I have small Hiku like word game generator that I could put up now, but I am polishing it up so it will allow the best poems to be saved and voted on. This game requires a certain kind of structure to the poem, but I will leave you guessing what this structure would be. I haven’t written one line of code for Monkey-Typewritter yet, but the scope of the project keeps expanding and requires generating a special database of words and syntactical relationships for it to work. While contemplating Monkey-Typewriter a simpler toy to be called Errant Parrot came to mind. Errant Parrot will simply echo back text, but with word substitutions that are not quite random, relying on synonyms, antonyms or just close relative of words. If an especially amusing phrase is echoed (in relation to the original), the program will allow the user to save it and its mother phrase for all to see and vote on. This saving and voting thing is something I need to generalize because it really should be added to every interactive toy I make, which by and large will be word based baubles.

OK, here is the deal -- I like “Six Feet Under” the HBO drama a lot. HBO is now showing season 5 in HD, but I haven’t seen season 4 yet. I’ve had HBO for close to a year now and I didn’t see any season 4 episodes (I usually only check the HD offerings), and I can’t just catch up on the season 4 episodes because they aren’t out in DVD yet. Because the channel is encrypted I can’t archive the episodes to watch later after I have watched season 4 when it comes out on DVD (who knows when, still waiting for them to release the last few seasons of OZ).

And these stupid TV executives wonder why people download stuff on Bitttorrent? I’ve paid my dues -- I want to watch my “Six Feet Under” in order. I rented seasons 1 2 3, but there is absolutely no legal path for me to watch this as intended now.

To add insult to injury HBO made no attempt that I know of to let me know that new episodes of “Six Feet Under” where coming up on HD. They just kept hyping the replays of The Sopranos’ last season on Sunday nights. This crap makes me so mad I could just scream.

I’m willing to pay for the episodes HBO, you just won’t let me have them, you and your stupid moronic shortsighted marketing droids. Sometimes it really feels like you want to punish your customers rather than serve them. I have money to pay for the episodes! Hello! Anyone there? Money, you know that’s why you make this stuff, to make money!

Here is my guess. HBO feels they have to have you checking their listings every week, make sure you’re not missing anything, and hey if you haven’t been a customer for the last 6 years solid, screw you -- WE WANT LOCK IN. Miss your favorite show? Guess you shouldn’t have quit checking the listing even when we haven’t shown crap for the last 3 months and now summer movie season has started and we’ll just sneak this in to keep you on your toes. Besides if they offered DVDs in a timely fashion people might only subscribe when there are new episodes of their favorite shows and not put up with the half-year long intervals of crap that stream out from time to time. As far as movies go I probably watch more classics on HDNet than the glut of recent Grade B fare HBO serves up.

I should just give up on HBO (I never would have subscribed if not for shows like Sopranos, OZ, and Six Feet Under). I’m not really getting my moneys worth, but there is so little HD available, and it does show my system off well for company, and it really isn’t much extra compared to what I’ve already sunk into equipment and other cable services and high speed internet. BUT come next year, when HD-DVD or Blu-Ray HDTV compatible disks come out, bye bye HBO. I’ll wait however long it takes for stuff to come out on disk rather than suffer with your programming practices.

Hmmm, having a new Girlfriend keeps one busy, especially when one has been a bachelor for a while and the accommodations have to be brought up to spec.

I had left my last post possibly suggesting I was in for a tongue lashing from Nian, and she might have been slightly unhappy with me, but forgave my negligence quickly.

I started to write about two significant events between Nian and myself over the last two weekends, but somehow I just couldn’t find the right tone, so I’m starting over.

We’ll start with some of the more important stuff first. Somehow I have failed to ask Nian if she has any children. I was of the impression she had none, but I’m not sure why, maybe just because none where evident after dating a week or two. So she asked me weekend before last why I hadn’t asked about whether she had any children. It turns out she has a 1 ½ year old daughter back in China staying with her parents until her return from her short exchange stay with the U of I is over. So Nian is definitely heading back to China in August. Our relationship has become quite close quite quickly and we are talking very serious plans, but August fills Nian with a lot of anxiety with regards to where we will go from here. We are all but officially promised to wed in November, which would entail me making a trip to China, and her coming back to the US to live after some six-month obligation is filled for her school.

A casual US reader might assume Nian is anxious to live here in America, but this is actually probably not the case, though there are cultural reasons that made her life more difficult in China as a single parent than probably single moms find here in America when it comes to finding the right person. Her life has also had some ups and downs with respect to family obligations (real or imagined) that I won’t go into. So she wasn’t looking for an American husband, but I just sort of came along after some Chinese men had pretty much treated her pretty badly. Her ideal would be to pack me back up with her to China permanently, and for her to support us both if need be (she does have a Masters after all, and a PHD in the works). It also seems she wants more than the one child she already has, and this is another motivating factor, as I provide and end-around-run past the One-Child policy of China even if we moved there.

OK, now on to some less serious stuff, and I have gotten Nian’s permission to write on this subject. It would seem Nian blogs in Chinese, and has a much larger readership than I do, at least for her latest installments. She has gotten thousands of hits each with her last couple of entries about her nervousness about accommodating my “Large Penis” when we make love. She has only had two boyfriends (the last abandoning her with child) so I can’t really say I’m much better endowed that most Chinese, what with Nian only having a sample size of two, but there is some small percentage of Chinese (maybe .000003 %) that now think I have stud like proportions. Her second posting was about how it was indeed uncomfortable the first time or two, but has now settled down into a great source of pleasure. I can’t really say I’ve garnered this kind of praise from many American women. For Chinese women however it would seem to be a case of: “Once you had Larry, it ain’t too Scary.”

Well, that’s enough for now. Sorry I haven’t posted in a while, but as you can see life has been busy. I’m sure I’ll be posting with better regularity again soon. In fact Nian kind of insists on it. I wouldn’t say she nags me a about a great many things, but she is on me everyday to clean up my back “Junk Room,” so if I go MIA again you’ll know she’s locked me in back there and won’t let me out until I’m done.