Archive for May, 2003

Yunnan Coffee tastes like sherry wine*

Thursday, May 29th, 2003

<P>(For the title reference, see: <A href=”http://www.doctorjazz.freeserve.co.uk/page17.html”>http://www.doctorjazz.freeserve.co.uk/page17.html</A>&nbsp;and see the paragraph right after the picture of Jelly Roll Morton).</P>
<P>One of my discoveries this trip is Yunnan Coffee, packaged by the Yunnan Coffee company (<A href=”http://www.sinohost.com/yncoffee/”>http://www.sinohost.com/yncoffee/</A>) and sold in the large supermarkets in Beijing that sell exotic foreign goods like paper towels. They sell vacuum-packed bags of [...]

5-25 Self-esteem holiday

Thursday, May 29th, 2003

<P>The picture below comes from the May 25th Self-esteem holiday, something that’s less popular than the May 1 Workers’ Day or the June 1 Children’s Day holidays.</P>
<P><IMG src=”http://www.psych.uiuc.edu/~kmiller/Radio/Self-esteem.jpg”></P>
<P>The sign says: May 25, University psychological health holiday group counseling recruiting</P>
<P>I saw a videotape of the activity itself, although I didn’t see it in person. Faculty and [...]

Attribution in the wired world

Thursday, May 29th, 2003

<P>Below is the cover of a magazine I bought a few years ago in Changsha, Hunan. It’s a good example of malicious translation (the Chinese title means something like “Weekend Literature Collection” or more colloquially, “Readers Digest”, although that name might be taken).</P>
<P><IMG src=”http://www.psych.uiuc.edu/~kmiller/Radio/Weekend-plagiarist.jpg”></P>
<P>I use that image in a slide in courses where I talk [...]

The pause that refreshes

Wednesday, May 28th, 2003

<P>One problem with email is that it’s *too* fast. Chris Sells describes how to set up an automatic pause before email is sent (e.g., 1 or more minutes), which is pretty straightforward (<A href=”http://www.sellsbrothers.com/spout/#savingYourCareer”>http://www.sellsbrothers.com/spout/#savingYourCareer</A>)</P>
<P>If you use Outlook XP, the procedure works like this:</P>
<LI>Tools-&gt;Rules Wizard
<LI>New
<LI>Start From A Blank Rule
<LI>Check messages after sending
<LI>Which condition(s) do you want [...]

The mystery of the Passby bar (continued)

Monday, May 26th, 2003

<P>I’ve now posted some pictures of the <EM>pailou </EM>outside the PassBy Bar in Beijing, a very pleasant courtyard bar, restaurant, internet bar, and lending library. It appears that it really, though, is a front for a child clinical psychology operation. Here’s the picture: </P>
<P><IMG src=”http://www.psych.uiuc.edu/~kmiller/Radio/PassByBar.jpg”></P>
<P>The sign on the left says: </P>
<P>”Chinese Academy of Sciences Psychology [...]

It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future

Monday, May 26th, 2003

<P>The quote is attributed to Yogi Berra (<A href=”http://www.famous-quotes-and-quotations.com/yogi-berra-quotes.html”>http://www.famous-quotes-and-quotations.com/yogi-berra-quotes.html</A>).&nbsp;It comes to mind because of two books I’ve been reading. One is&nbsp;a collection of short stories by Rudyard Kipling (I wouldn’t recommend them), but I was struck by this passage in a story featuring an automobile:</P>
<BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style=”MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px”>
<P>”A quarter of an hour at illegal speeds [...]

Language learning

Sunday, May 25th, 2003

<P>Friday night we went to dinner with two friends who work at the Institute of Psychology. Because of SARS, we haven’t seen them nearly as much in the last month as usual, and they’ve mostly stayed at home and worked from there. Their Institute is being extensively renovated during this time, so it would have [...]

Strange Convergence

Sunday, May 25th, 2003

<P>One of the interesting things about living in China is the ready access to recorded music and video. Certainly some of it is pirated, although it’s a bit difficult to figure out. I think the US recording industry is really making a mistake in pricing its products as high as they do — I think [...]

Fishing & Spitting

Saturday, May 24th, 2003

<P>Today, as last week, my wife and I went on a long run downtown (or at least I ran and she biked along beside me). It’s one of the more pleasant things we get to do together here, and it’s a nice chance to talk. Now that my marathon was cancelled, I’m in a “maintenance [...]

Update

Friday, May 23rd, 2003

<P>UPDATE — Last night I found a great billboard to go with the comments at the end of this, so it’s now enclosed below:</P>
<P><IMG src=”http://www.psych.uiuc.edu/~kmiller/Radio/Propaganda.jpg”></P>
<P>&nbsp;</P>
<P>With every passing day, life in Beijing is slowly getting back to normal. Yesterday, my wife and I biked downtown and came back along the second ring road, in the midst [...]