The First Two Years of Conquering the Tundra

December 26, 2009

Christmas Eve Party

Some Diana F+ shots of the Christmas Eve party with my students Grace, Yolanda, and Sarah and their boyfriends who were visiting from various out of town locations. We cooked hot pot and played some games. The guys wanted me to drink a lot of beer but I didn't really plan on doing that so I told them I'd drink as much as Sarah, the quietest and shyest of the three girls. Bad decision. Turns out she's the drinker of the group, consistently out-drinking the boys whenever they go out or have a party. When I said I'd stay on par with her, she immediately cracked open a beer and chugged the whole thing. Always in teacher-mode, I instructed her and the others on how to shotgun a beer. She beat me at that too. Twice.

As you can probably tell from the way the developer cut the film, I tried to turn this roll into one continuous shot. It worked out alright and I was pretty happy with the resulting pictures. However, last week I got incredibly frustrated with something my computer was doing and I threw my Mighty Mouse across the room and into the wall. Turns out, not so "mighty" after all. I can't be bothered to stitch all these shots together with my computer's trackpad. Maybe once I get a Magic Mouse. Probably not. Do it in your mind.

Click here to download:

Christmas_Eve_Party.zip (13486 KB)

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December 24, 2009

Some top notch student gifts

The lighter is from Adam. Zippo lighters are a pretty common gift for dudes in China and this one is fantastic. I laughed hysterically when I opened it.

The card is from Grace, one of the students who treated me to a Christmas Eve party last night. She's fun but she always calls me stupid and threatens to kill me. Her card included some coupons for me to use in the future. Definitely going to take advantage of the "Do not kill me" one.

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December 24, 2009

Majiang

Sent from A Whale's Vagina

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December 24, 2009

Christmas eve party

Sent from A Whale's Vagina

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December 22, 2009

I got drawn

Sent from A Whale's Vagina

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November 30, 2009

Afternoon KTV

Yesterday afternoon I spent four hours doing KTV. To me, 1:30pm-5:30pm is not the most opportune time of the day to sing my heart out in a dark room. Usually I feel I need at least three beers before I can kick out the jams without getting all self-conscious about the craptacular sounds emanating from my vocal chords. I was just there for the pizza. Well the KTV didn't have pizza, but there's a decent pizza shop close by and I owed one of my students, Grace, a pizza for helping me purchase my cell phone a while back. It started out as just Grace (the one with short hair), Yolanda (longer hair), and myself, both of them sang a hell of a lot better than I did. They sang so well that they would turn off the vocal track of each song they performed so their voices would be the loudest sound coming through the speakers.

I did the opposite. I didn't want to hear myself so I turned up the track volume and turned the microphone down. That didn't stop me from performing heart-warming (gut wrenching) covers of classics like Paramore's "Misery Business", R. Kelly's "Hairbraider", and Taylor Swift's "Love Story". After a while, without the aid of alcohol, I gained some confidence, and maybe some XP because my singing ability seemed to level up. I spit hot fire over Huey Lewis & the News' "Doin' It All for My Baby", that song from Titanic, Taylor Swift's "You Belong With Me" and The Cardigans' "Lovefool". I even sang "Country Roads" which seems to be just as popular in China as it is in West Virginia.

One of my other students, Robin (the one with glasses), showed up a couple hours into our singing marathon. She brought her boyfriend (the dude) who she failed to introduce me to. Both of them could also sing better than I could. After taking a break from singing for a while, the girls decided to choose some songs for me. They assumed that I would know all they words to any English song they knew because that song would be so popular that there would be no way that I wouldn't know it. So I had to sing "Larger than Life" by the Backstreet Boys and that N*Sync song with the video where they're all riding in cars and running on a train to try to get away from some girl (I'm trying to pretend like I don't know which song that is). They also chose some Lady Gaga track which was the one song I didn't really know. I realized that I've heard all of Lady Gaga's singles before I just had no idea she sang them. I always figured her music would be a lot weirder than that.

The pictures turned out a little grainy. I'm not sure why, maybe just because it was dark. Maybe because the film was expired and has been for a few years now. Its the first time I've used the Diana's default lens for a while. I'm not used to it. I'll use the wide-angle next time. I've been assured that there will be a next time.

Click here to download:

Afternoon_KTV.zip (10010 KB)

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November 28, 2009

Dinner with the students

Some photos from when I went out with one of the classes a few weeks ago.

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November 18, 2009

Found: student notes

I found this piece of paper when I walked into class today. In my experience, most students write their lecture notes on random sheets of paper or in the book, so nothing is very organized. Something struck me about this student's notes. I know the notes aren't from my class because accounting isn't part of my course plan.

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November 12, 2009

One of my students on Michael Jackson

Her: Have you seen This Is It?

Me: No.

Her: Why not? Don't all Americans love Michael Jackson?

Me: No. I think we had a different relationship with him than the rest of the world. We're pretty concerned with, you know, the potential touching of young children.

Her: He didn't do it.

Me: He was never convicted but it was still a big deal. We also think about "Is he white or black?" and "Is he trying to look like a man or a woman?" he was weird. His music was awesome, but he was really weird.

Her: God isn't white or black. Michael Jackson isn't white or black. God isn't man or a woman. Michael Jackson isn't a man or a woman. Michael Jackson is God.

Me: He is God or he is a god?

Her: He is God.

Me: Wait, Michael Jackson isn't a man or a woman? I'm pretty sure he was a man that just looked like a woman.

Her: What?

Me: Never mind. Didn't Michael Jackson go bankrupt? Seems like God would be able to pay off his loans.

Her: God doesn't need loans.

Me: Huh?

Her: What?

Me: Michael Jackson had loans. I think for the Egyptian tombs and Neverland Ranch and probably some weird animals like some kind of half shark half unicorn. Also for paying off the children he touched.

Her: Do banks give loans for that stuff?

Me: Not to normal people.

Her: That proves my point.

Me: What point?

Her: You should watch This Is It.

Me: I guess so.

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November 10, 2009