Twitter anyone?

Is anyone else on twitter? It's basically a site that hosts ultra short blogs, text only. It's like facebook's status updates, but marginally more useful, since you can update and read other's pages via RSS or SMS updates. 

My twitter is http://twitter.com/taichung

Teacher Rips Off Boy's Face!

I saw this article in the news feeds today:

Chinese schoolboy has 52 stitches after attack from teacher
A primary-school student in central China had to have 52 stitches in his face after he was beaten by his teacher for not doing his homework.

By Malcolm Moore in Shanghai
Last Updated: 2:44PM GMT 08 Jan 2009

Zheng Chaoqun, 10, is still being treated at a hospital in Henan province after his teacher tore away a strip of flesh. Zheng told a local newspaper, the Dayang News, that his assailant, 37-year-old Guo Yabin, had picked him up by his cheeks after he failed to hand in his work."She was very angry at the time," he said. "She ripped and tiwsted my cheeks with both her hands and then she lifted me off the ground."

The boy said he felt his face ripping off and fell back to his seat. "She still had my skin in her hands, and my face was bleeding. She looked anxious and sent me home," he said.
Doctors in the hospital sewed up a five inch wound. Zheng's father has reported the case to the police and is expected to press for damages.

But no action has yet been taken against Mrs Guo, a mother of two. The authorities said they, and the police, were still investigating the incident. However, graphic pictures of Zheng's injuries have circulated on the Chinese internet.
Mrs Guo's relatives have reportedly produced a hospital certificate to show the teacher is mentally unstable. "When she tore off his face, we were horrified," another student told the Dayang News.

The teacher got so pissed at this kid for not turning in his work, that she actually picked him up by the face. Some of my students here have told me their teacher hits them or their classmates with a ruler or something, which I find to be inappropriate and unjust (although sometimes tempting...,) but this is way out there.

And as if ripping his skin off isn't nasty enough, she had the nerve to send the kid home. What did she say to him? "Zhang! Get the herr out of this classroom! Stop bleeding all over the damn place! Come back when you finish your homework and put your face back in order!"

EDIT: Now with photo. Warning, not pretty. Scroll down,

Lazy Saturday

Bored, just playing around with the webcam...

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas all. I found this comic today, and it reminded me of some recent Christmas mornings at my house. Probably what will be happening there this morning too (ahem, Andy...) 

Also check out the "weirdest Christmas light displays in America."

Christmas, Good Grief!

Christmas is this Thursday. I'm not at all in the Christmas spirit, as was previously touched on. I know I'm not the only one out there who is having a difficult holiday season, and I'm not complaining about it.

I have to work on Christmas Eve, as well as Christmas day. I probably won't see many of my friends on Christmas, and I know I won't see my family. There probably won't be any presents for me besides the ones my mom sent (thanks mom!), and I won't eat turkey, or egg casserole, or drink egg nog, or any of the other activities that I've come to love.

I watched the Charlie Brown Christmas cartoon today with some of my students, and I realized how alike Mr. Brown and I are. I too, have a funny looking tree, and everyone around me seems to be buzzing about Christmas without any true meaning behind their words.

But what Charlie and I have is an ability to see the best in a situation. Linus tells Charlie that out of all the Charlie Browns in the world, that he is the "Charlie Browniest." He calls Charlie on being such as sad sack, and turning a wonderful celebration like Christmas into something bleak and depressing. Everyone's got things that they could be depressed about. I do too. But I've also got a lot to be happy about. I've got a job in the midst of an economic crisis. I've got a girlfriend who adores me, and I've got a place to live and food to eat. I have all kinds of distractions like movies and blogs, and I've got pretty decent weather for Christmas week.

I'm looking on the bright side, and I know that once Christmas is over, my situation will be the same. I'm thankful for what I have, and even though the season isn't what it could be, what I want it to be, I can still be positive and focus on the positive. I don't have to be the Charlie Browniest.

Here's an amazing Taiwan photo I found. Click it for a link to the source.

Members of the Tao tribe hoist a new fishing boat into the air during a traditional launching ceremony on Orchid Island, Taiwan

Fa Ra Ra Ra Ra

Christmas decorations are going up here in Taiwan. Trees, lights, giant Santas and snowmen, and candy canes. Fifteen foot reindeers leap out of the facade of a local department store. McDonald's employees wear Santa hats, and those tunes you know so well play from every PA system all the time.

So much attention paid to decorating, and yet it feels nothing at all like the Christmas that I know. It doesn't feel special at all. I understand that the real meaning of the holiday and the atmosphere it creates in places where it is truly revered may be lost in translation to many Taiwanese. I don't expect Western traditions and culture to always carry over to other places. I'm just confused as to why so much effort is put into the visual manifestation of Christmas here in Taiwan. 

I mainly see the decorating and Christmas references in stores and restaurants and places trying to sell me stuff. It seems that Christmas advertising must be  alluring to the average consumer here, since the stores are pretty much unified in their embrace of Christmas imagery. There are even specialty shops popping up that sell ornaments, trees, signs, and other brickabrack. It would seem that the Taiwanese are just as nuts about Christmas as Americans.

And yet when I mention it to any of my students or local friends or coworkers, it seems that they have a good idea of what it is, but no personal ties to it or tradition in celebrating it. I ask kids what they get for Christmas, and most say that they either don't celebrate it, or don't really give or get presents. Apparently the big gift giving holiday is Chinese New Year. Cash is exchanged in red envelopes, and kids and adults go shopping for new clothes or PlayStations or whatever they fancy.

So if the major consumer holiday is CNY, which is a full month after XMAS this year, then why is so much effort put into Christmas related advertising here? Is there a consumer force backing it up, or is is simply a novelty factor? Maybe it's all of the surplus decorations and fake snow and plastic trees making their way across the straight from China. Whatever it is, it's not enough to inspire any warm fuzzy feelings in the cold bones of this foreigner.