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Plan to create a daily update channel

I've been writing about the things I've seen and experienced in China, with the purpose of revealing a real China to the world, especially the parts that don't get reported. However, with less time available to me and my increasing tendency to write longer articles, along with the low profile I must keep for safety, there are infrequently updates on this blog. But recently I've had some new changes and ideas. It takes days to write a long article, but almost every day there are something new about China that I think it should be worth showing to the world. Maybe I can create a new channel dedicated to this type of short content. That I can take the time to write long articles, and do some timely, short daily content updates. If I post these contents here, I worry that it will dilute the style of this blog. Just as I didn't move the journal content from my old blog over. So my plan now is to create a new twitter account, perhaps under a different name, to post conten

Dream: Eating the Solar System

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After having this dream, I finally decided to start a new blog category for writing down my dreams. Probably due to my love of sci-fiction and console video games, my dreams are rarely boring. There are often wonderful and imaginative dreams that I feel I should write down. Early this morning I dreamed I was eating the solar system. I had some sense of fear of the beautiful deep space, and it's the second time recently that I dreamed I was in deep space. Jupiter , which is the giant planet, can be played with in my hands. Am I a giant, or am I the Creator? I took a bite of Jupiter and chewed it in my mouth, the texture was like a boiled egg with little taste, although theoretically it shouldn't be like that---- it wasn't even solid.  After swallowing Jupiter I ate another planet, I think I remember it was Saturn . I'm such a big eater of cold drinks. 😆 This experience was so unique that I soon woke up, briefly recorded it in Telegram, and went back to sleep. I recorded

Good will be rewarded with good

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What I am about to write below is a magical story in my life. It has always encouraged me. Occasionally I think of it, and now I record it in detail here. In 2004, I started living in Tianjin , a city in northern China. My ex-girlfriend at the time was a kindergarten teacher. One evening she came to me in a big anxious, saying that their kindergarten was going to hold a sports event the next day, and there was some sewing work left to do, but she didn't have a sewing kit on hand, so she came to me to figure out what we can do. A common sewing kit in China,  not easy to bought because it is too inconspicuous At that era, shopping was not as convenient as it is today. There was no sewing kits in the small stores nearby. Finally I decided to take her to the largest Carrefour  supermarket in Tianjin, thinking that there would be sewing kits for sale. It was a slightly longer cab ride, and by the time we arrived at Carrefour it was about 9:30 p.m. The lights were half out at the superma

History of piracy in China

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A few days ago I talked to an US friend Jeff about the history of piracy in China, so I wrote this article. I would like to show the era of piracy of video games and computer software that I saw, from about 1990 to the present. 1990-1995 China's folk computer technology originated around 1990. Before that era, the most pirated was NES (the American version of Famicom). I went through the Atari 2600 period but I was too young. Now it is speculated that the 2600s are original because the market is too small. Piracy of the NES has continued to today. Yes, you can still buy various NES copycats and games in China today. My parents bought me a pirated NES in the mall, made in Taiwan. At the time, such a machine with a cartridge would require a monthly salary of 2 adults. Compared with the massive pirated NES, Genesis as the main competitor of NES, there are fewer pirated cartridge. Because Genesis's market share in China is too small. These early pirated NESes a

An education my Dad gave me

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It was a childhood event that I would never forget, a big impact on me. When I was about 12 years old, my family moved to the west of the city. There is a lot of land there, and each household has been allocated a small piece of land to grow various vegetables. Many Chinese people love to grow vegetables, right? My family grows coriander, lettuce, carrot and spring onion. At the time, each household had such a small land Although I looked like a obedient kid, I was actually naughty. Once I with kids ran to other vegetable land, picked some eggplant and beans. Almost all Chinese children did this kind of thing when they were young. Of course now I know this is not right. But at that time it seemed that everyone thought it was not a serious matter. Why do I pick other's vegetables? I forgot what the reason was, but definitely not because of hunger or affordability. Because it's fun? maybe. Anyway, I picked some and put them in my clothes and took them home. I went h

What I experienced during this COVID-19 epidemic

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A Chinese woman wears a protective mask in Beijing, Feb. 3. PHOTO: KEVIN FRAYER/GETTY IMAGES Original article  of this pic and I did not feel offended Although there is a lot to write about the coronavirus, I just talk about what I have experienced and thought about during this COVID-19 epidemic. 1. News Sources Do not get news from Chinese Internet. China has always been very strict with information control, and it has become stricter in recent days. The latest speech censorship laws came into effect on March 1. Several of my friends' WeChat or SNS accounts have been banned. For a long time, I am almost silent on Chinese Internet. Fortunately, I have always been freedom to access the Internet. In mid-December 2019, I heard that patients were infected with unknown pneumonia. Several of my relatives who are doctors have confirmed this. I reminded my friends in Wuhan, the center city of the epidemic, and did not make it public. Because at the same time, eig

You are all heroes. Always.

I recently wanted to write some articles about a big city in Asia. He is my friend, who is the citizen of that city, tells me that don't write anything even on blogger.com, for safety. because I still live on this land. Knows everything I said to him. When we said see you, I whimpered when I hugged him. I am a coward, maybe. You are all heroes. Always.

Back to Blogger.com

Today, I closed the WordPress blog and back to Blogger.com. I gave up the original domain name for some reasons including privacy considerations. Now you see a new domain name, but I have not made a decision whether to continue blogging. Now my available time is getting less and less, and only some of the time is on the podcast. Should I continue to blogging? What to write? There is a lot of content to write in the surrounding environment, but it is difficult to change. I should still try to change myself and vote with my feet. And privacy is what I have always been concerned about now. I would rather remain anonymous and invisible. So blogger.com outside the China GreatFireWall are still an important consideration for me. I also deleted and intend to delete most of the comments in the original articles, in order to protect the privacy of the commenters. In the next period of time, I will adjust the parameters of this new blog, delete most of the original articles, and gradua

Memory of the street popcorn

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In China, when we were young, there was a profession called popcorn workers. They make popcorn for kids. We provide rice or corn, pay worker processing fees (usually a few cents in the 1980-90's). Worker put rice into a sealed metal pot, mix rice with sweetener then heat. When the pressure reaches a value, the worker kicked the pot open, with a loud bang, the air is full of yummy flavor, done. Mythbusters also have a episode of this.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhTdAMWiYeo , but they did not use a sack when the pot was opened. Typical street popcorn equipment It is so delicious and cheap,  the joy of all kids. We often line up. Of course this popcorn is very rare now. When I was in primary school, I had a master named "HaiLong". We lost contact for years. I called him "master", not because he taught me Kung Fu, but he is older than we are, he lead us play also to protect us. The middle is "master". All the kids were forced to

Hi all, relax, I am still here.

Just that I will write in English in the future. This blog has been hosting to wordpress.com, part of it can not be accessed in China, so I can focus on writing. I know that has not been updated for a long time. Because there are more meaningful things out of the Internet. I just did not have time to blogging, and will not give the blog to a closed protocol, such as WeChat. I always insist rss full-text output for free browsing. Insist on reading, insisted independent thinking. The heart of Love freedom, democracy never stops. God loves me. Courage is with me.

Kindle book list a year

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Kindle has purchased 1 entire year. Although at that time I spent a Bitcoin (later a Bitcoin can buy 5-10 units), I still think it is worth. Because kindle changed my lifestyle and thinking habits, these are priceless. Initially expected to be read 20 books, and now it's more. This is the best electronic device I have in recent years, satisfaction over Xbox and any Nexus phone. Anytime, anywhere, simple, pure, extreme. Sum up this year's book list: (* for recommended personally):

Kongrong share the pears

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His name is Kongrong, 4yrs old. He has five big brothers and a young brother. One day they eating pears at home, brothers let Kongrong take it first, but he chose the smallest one. His father was surprised and asked,"Why did you take the smallest one?" Kongrong answered "Because I am the youngest, the biggest one should be for the elder." His father asked again,"But you have a younger brother, you are older than him." Kongrong replied, "I am older than him, so I should leave the bigger one for my young brother." On hearing these words, his father was satisfied with his answer and smiled happily. What a good boy Kongrong. Children should learn from Kongrong. Kongrong share the pears This is a well-known story in China. Everyone was educated in this story when he was a child. Because I have no independent thinking at that time, so the teacher said Kongrong is a good boy, then he is. Now I think that Kongrong has inconsistent, confuse

“Django Unchained” lyrics translation

Time is limited, I don't plan to translate it all, just these four articles. 《Trinity》 He's the guy who's the talk of the town with the restless gun 他是鎮上傳說中的槍手永不等待 don't shoot broad out to fool him around 可別亂開槍當他不明白 keeps the varmints on the run, boy, keeps the varmints on the run 就讓壞蛋們盡情的跑開 You may think he's a sleepy tired guy always takes his time 你以為他經常睡覺發呆 sure I know you'll be changing your mind 我確信你應該換換你的腦袋 when you've seen him use a gun, boy, when you've seen him use a gun 當你看到他用槍的能耐 He's the top of the West 他是西部的頂尖人才 always cool, he's the best 他最棒,還總那麼酷那麼氣派 he keeps alive with his colt 45 他的柯爾特永遠不敗 Who's the guy who's riding into town in the prairie sun 在草原的陽光中,這傢伙騎馬進城來 You weren't glad at your fooling him around 你之前耍了他,於是你的臉色變白 when you've seen him use a gun 當你看到他用槍的能耐 註釋:colt 45,即柯爾特手槍,45是指口徑為0.45英吋。

A heavy user of Internet, what will happen if disconnected?

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The object of this experiment is myself. The last time disconnected the Internet was go to Beijing in 2001. There was no smart phones and mobile Internet, so disconnected with the world as long as two weeks, when I got home, typing hands are stiff. Recently move to a new house, I suddenly realized that all these years has not been real quiet, so I thought: why not try life without the Internet? Gmail also blocked completely by China's goverment (of course I can access it), I do not learn some fools seclusion, just think in these took too much time. Well, I will spend more time to join parties underline, cooking, watching movies, reading, writing articles, playing consoles, sleeping. As an IT and Internet practitioner, disconnect is not an easy thing. My plans are: Not to install fiber-optic and broadband. (Completed) Log off / stop all social services except Facebook. (Completed) The only connection that can be used is a cell phone network and Wechat app. I can watc

Bought Google's third son

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Switch from Nexus One to Nexus S , then Galaxy Nexus . Should Google give me a prize? 😁 GN looks beautiful, the screen is much larger, but the touch is average. The black screen of SAmoled is outstanding, but it has graininess and high contrast. The overall screen performance is not as good as NS. The hardware is of course improved, and the battery life is good. In short, GN does not give people a stunning feeling, it is just a regular upgrade of NS. Looking forward to the fourth son this Christmas!

Talking about donations to disaster

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On the night of heavy rain in Beijing , I slept well. I haven't followed the news recently because there is no news. It is said that Beijing is calling on people to donate for the disaster. You see, there is really no news. If North Korea announced that Kim was not the head of state, that would be news. But speaking of donations, I remember two things a few years ago. ONE. The 5.12 Wenchuan (a city in Sichuan Province, China) earthquake in 2008 when I was working for an advertising company. The company organized several donations, and I didn't pay a penny. Whenever the donation box is sent to our office, I always shake my head with a smile. I still remember the accountant asked me with a slightly ridicule: -"Why don't you donate?" -"Is it forced?" -"It's not forced." -"Then I won't donate." -"Why?" -"I don't believe my money will be used on the right path." I like this straightforward

IOU sent by Aiweiwei

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No. 012346. This paper should be kept properly, wait for the fat guy  to pay back!😄 I read the first sentence and lol: "The man who wrote this proof now owe a lot of money inexplicably "...

The Red Scarf

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"The Red Scarf is a corner of the national flag, dyeing with the blood of martyrs." On June 1st, 1988, as the first group of honorable young pioneers in the first grade of primary school, the teacher said this to us. So there was a bloody scene in my mind: There were dye tanks on the ground, and martyrs stood in line. Each martyr walked to the front of the tank, his arm was cut, and blood flowed into the tank. Bandaged when the blood was about to run out, the next martyr was cut and continued to bleed... Another group of workers has to do the work of cutting the national flag. Each national flag can make three red scarves--see the picture, the upper left corner is not available, because it is not good to cut to that or the people --Finally, the cut flags was put into the dyeing tanks and then dried to make a red scarf. My imagined red scarf making process My feeling at the time was: It's so tough to be a martyr, you have to be caught and bleed to make a r

Donate for JAPAN

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No expect domestic fundraising in China, I do it myself. During the 5.12 Wenchuan earthquake , the state and enterprises launched a large number of fundraising and forcing donations. I didn't donate a penny. The reason is that the using of these donations is not transparent. I can't believe that these funds will not be corrupted--don't tell me that it's good that even 10% funds reach the disaster area and you can donate, that 's you-- but I chose something more meaningful. Now  3.11 Japan earthquake , no government or organization has asked me to donate, but I want to make this step. There is a Chinese proverb that "when you drink water, don't forget the person who digs the well." Many items in my life are made in Japan, and they give me a lot of convenience. Japan has given us so much help, and we should help them within our ability. I trust Google the most. There is already a donation section on Google's special topic page . However, w

Stories related to user experience design (UED)

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I have been paying close attention to UED. Here are a few things I have experienced. If the designer thinks more, these embarrassments can be completely avoided. Freak out after-sales manager He told me he received a user complaint a few days ago, like this: "Liar! the microwave popcorn isn't ready at all! I unpacked it and it was full of hard corn kernels and a pile of oil! Can't eat it at all! I microwave it and caught fire! I spent more than 1,000 yuan to buy a new oven! My oven worked for 5 years and it was burnt by your popcorn! Give me compensation for the loss! ... " The manager was down. He told me and couldn't laugh or cry. Think of users as idiots In the summer of 2004, I worked on user interface (UI) design for a period of time. At that time, the project manager said to me: "Just treat users as idiots." He explained the meaning: Because the user's knowledge and experience are not on the same level, we must consider the dumbe