Archive for February, 2006

Too Much Google News

Thursday, February 23rd, 2006

I’m getting a little overwhelmed by how much press Google is getting lately. Every time a turn around (or scan a news feed), someone is accusing Google of something, or Google is defending themselves against some earlier accusation, or Google’s stock is going up, or Google’s stock is going down. I like Google. I always [...]

Xinhua – THE Source for Britney Gossip

Wednesday, February 22nd, 2006

As I was sipping a cup of hot chocolate this afternoon (I felt calorie-deficient; consuming any hot beverage in the sweltering Sahara of our office is foolhardy), I trolled a few RSS feeds for the local Chinese and Beijing news. Some article sparked my interest, and I followed a link over to the English Xinhua [...]

My Red Qipao

Tuesday, February 21st, 2006

For my slightly-belated Christmas present, I went to Yaxiu market in January and had a traditional Chinese dress tailor made. It’s the first time I’ve ever had a piece of clothing tailored from start to finish, and a lot of the fun was just the experience. When I went in for my first fitting, I [...]

Internet Services in China – The US Debate: Democracy vs. Capitalism

Friday, February 17th, 2006

Since I don’t know how much coverage this received in the mainstream news back home, I thought I would write a post on what’s been a hot topic lately in the Chinese internet world. If you didn’t know, the US legislature held a hearing on Wednesday to discuss the practices of US internet companies doing [...]

Butterscotch the robo horse set to scare small children this fall

Friday, February 10th, 2006

I just really loved that headline from engadget! How can you not click on that when it shows up in your Gmail Web Clips?!
Butterscotch the robo horse set to scare small children this fall
The actual write-up isn’t all that interesting, but some of the comments about potential hacks for the robotic pony are slightly amusing.

Goodbye, Snow!

Friday, February 10th, 2006

Our first heavy, lasting snow was earlier this week! We made snowballs and I actually made a snow angel outside the gates at Tsinghua (I think I thoroughly amused the passing locals)!
However, the snow is almost all gone now. All that’s left are a few dirty piles along the roadside. I wish it had lasted [...]

What the world needs now: Low-rise Thermals

Monday, February 6th, 2006

Or at least, what China needs now!
The Beijing fashion powers that be (aka the suppliers for the clothing markets) have a predilection for low-rise jeans, and often extremely low-rise jeans. I know that the insanely low-cut jean issue is not, in fact, a conspiracy to make buying pants in China even harder for me (and [...]

Happy Chinese New Year!

Thursday, February 2nd, 2006

Xin nian kuai le!
I’m back from a few days off for Chinese New Year’s. We get a 3-day holiday, although most of our Chinese colleagues choose to take today and tomorrow as vacation to make it a full week. So the office is pretty empty except for a handful of ex-pats and a [...]

The New Year’s War Zone

Thursday, February 2nd, 2006

A Whole New Perspective on Fireworks 
This past weekend was Chinese New Year’s, and the festivities began on Friday night. Most of the ex-pats still in Beijing (a lot of people took the opportunity to travel) got together to celebrate with a dinner of, oddly enough, primarily Indian food, a lot of alcohol, and in keeping [...]