it's been awhile since i've updated, probably cause the purpose of this blog has shifted from me rambling on about nothing to having to provide actual substance in the form of describing my everyday life here, so naturally i've been lazy. sorry, i've been reading too many long-winded novels (all borrowed from kevin) so i'm probably gonna use a bunch of big words incorrectly.

some highlights from the past few weeks:

- today my friend sent me a link to an article written by some dude, called The 10 Men for Whom I Would Consider Turning Gay...his list started with ed mcmahon and ended with bob newhart (whoever that is). needless to say, my list would be quite different, probably starting with brad pitt, or maybe a young tony leung, and ending with brad pitt (or a young tony leung).

- one day after it rained i tried getting some students to play mud football in the main field. there weren't many people there however, so i ended up just throwing the ball around with a couple guys, and the first time i tried punting it i slipped in the mud and totally ate it, and a gigantic tidal wave of laughter erupted from the invisible onlookers in the buildings surrounding the field.

- so far i've burned about 15 movies, 26 episodes of cowboy bebop, and 60 simpsons episodes onto cds.

- i went to a convention of provincial artists and was forced to drink baijiu (disgusting bat barf liquor) with lots of stranger artists to prove my friendship to them. i got completely hammered off about a thimbleful...the day culminated with a very drunk artist, the dude who invited us, trying to make out with me (you weren't there!) and an entire goat being roasted on a spit (not that tasty).

- 2 of the first 4 segments contain homoerotic references if you're keeping score.

- i showed the first half of the Jsus movie (dubbed in chinese) to the kids in sunday school this past week. for the hundredth time, that movie must have been specifically anointed by the Holy Spirit to have been able to lead millions of people to faith, since i (along with the kids unfortunately) was bored silly by it. that sounds bad i know, and the story is the most important of stories, but seriously, it's a poorly made movie.

- i went christmas tree hunting in the mountains for the first time in my life, we picked out a 10-11 foot tall one and carried it back to town, singing:

i'm a lumberjack and i'm okay
i sleep all night and i work all day
i chop down trees, i wear high heels, suspendies and a bra
i wish i were a girlie, just like my dear papa

it might've been just me singing that.

- we had a big christmas party on christmas eve, decorating the tree, exchanging gifts, building gingerbread houses, poking people with candy canes, singing and dancing to christmas songs, about everybody we've made friends with (~ 45 people) showed up, it was lots of fun.

- micky mao: reloaded - the school is having a new year's ceremony this sunday and is requiring the foreign teachers to put on a minimum of two performances. me and kevin are gonna perform intergalactic planetary by the beastie boys (set to the instrumental version) and loser by beck, of course (him on vocals, nicky on guitar, me on drums). thus far our repertoire includes the sweater song, ice ice baby, 1979, basketcase, creep, and the two songs mentioned above, though if we get booed off the stage, the ceremony never happened. cd due out whenever china stops pointing missiles at taiwan.

enough for now, i'm outtie, merry christmas everybody, and more importantly, happy birthday to mao! (...)