With the extinguishing of the Olympic torch less than 12 hours ago, we closed the book on pre-Olympic Beijing.
For those of us not directly involved with the Olympics, we were at least standing on the sidelines and cheering for the hordes of anonymous workers who were tirelessly putting the finishing pieces on the new buildings around the city. Like watching a marathon, there were decisive winners followed by a slew of those who either dropped out or crawled the finish line in wretched condition. For example, the new CCTV building which looks a bit like a acid-trip version of the Arche de La Défense in Paris is still sporting cranes and still encircled by tall construction barriers despite having 100% of it’s skin on.
Buildings which couldn’t get their facades in place got massive, colorful Olympic banners to cover their naked skeletons. I can’t imagine what it was like for project managers 9 months ago when realizing their pre-Olympic deadline would be impossible. Yet it was thrilling to see the projects that tried and succeeded to hit their deadline like the Sanlitun Village (home of the new Apple store) where they had thousands of workers scurrying around at 3am to put the finishing touches on the shopping center days before the torch was lit.
But it wasn’t just about the physical build-up. There was definitely an emotional one for all of us here. I don’t imagine that it’s easy to characterize the vibe to someone who has never lived through an Olympic city’s preparations and ultimate hosting of the Olympics. It’s a slow heating to a rapid boil which is only perceptible after the flame is doused.
Earthquake. Yes, I felt it. Yes, we’re ok. I was in the office that was shown being evacuated on CNN. Everyone in Beijing is ok but we are worried for our friends who have family and friends in Sichuan provence. Point your good vibes this way.
So I’m heading into the city to eventually end up at a Paul Van Dyk show (see previous entry). In my pocket is a little plastic bag containing contraband for this evenings event.
It contains…
3 chewable children’s vitamins
2 ibuprofen tabs
1 chewable Pepsid Complete tablet
1 pair of ear plugs
The vitamins are to counteract the effects smoke, pollution and povide preemptive measures against the effects of the formaldehyde-laced beer here. The ibuprofen is in case a headache flares up after the first 10 minutes of pounding bass. The pepsid addresses the havoc that the ibuprofen and beer plays on my stomach. And the ear plugs are…well, they’re ear plugs.
Those who follow my posts know by now that I’m a bit of a closet fan of electronic music, well, maybe I’m not in the closet considering I’m telling you about it here. One of my favorite DJ/producer/artist dudes, Paul Van Dyk is coming back to Beijing tonight. Unlike last year, when I was sleep deprived and fighting off a headache (common for foreigners working here), I made sure to get extra liquids, extra sleep and extra vitamins. Does that sound like someone preparing for a sporting event? It should. Going to one of these shows usually involves 3 hours of continuous movement to a pounding, 140 beat per minute armageddon of sound.
Anyway, Paul Van Dyk is considered to be one of the top DJs in the world according to the The DJ List which lists him as #2 but he’s been in that stratosphere for so long that overall, he’s probably still considered the most commercially successful DJ in history.
Madeline and I went skiing yesterday. The binding on one of the skiis didn’t work correctly so I took it back to the counter and asked them to look at it. They pulled a screw driver out and tried to get it to work and after a minute of fiddling around, they indeed, got it to hold her boot. He looked up at me with such pride for efficiently fixing the problem.
“Are you freaking insane?!!!!”
In my best Chinese I said…”it still is broken and very dangerous…we need a new pair”. He complied. The ones they gave us were a little better but still very stiff. The tension (DIN) settings showed ~2 which is fine for a beginner like Madeline but I still had my doubts. We just had to have a little bit of faith in the odds that she wouldn’t fall in a way that would injure her..
In the U.S. (or any country that has expensive lawsuits), ski technicians will put the boots in the bindings, make adjustments, then whack the boot out with a rubber mallet to make sure they actually work. In China, they just hand you a pair of skis and boots and send you on your way.
Skiing in China Tip 1: Do a bit of research on things like DIN settings, etc. and don’t let them get away with this dangerous practice. Take the boot, snap it into the binding and test it right in front of them. )
Skiing in China Tip 2: Bring a can of anti-fungal spray and thoroughly blast the insides of the boots. I was prepared this time. The last time I went, I had to throw away my socks afterwards because I couldn’t even keep them in the hotel room. Better yet, bring your own boots.
Like my previous entry about safety, I concluded that a few expensive lawsuits and/or (better maybe) the injury of a high-profile government official’s son would solve this problem.
At the same time, the libertarian in me would be sad to see a wholesale cultural change like in the U.S. where everything, including things only dangerous in the hands of idiots, has to be safe. Yes, my hands have some burns from Chinese New Years fireworks…but it was worth it.
I’ve tried to describe to people what Chinese New Year’s fireworks are like. It’s almost impossible to describe. However, this video which I took near midnight last night captures the essence of it. Note that this just happened to be the street I was driving down….nothing special about it. Multiply this by every street in Beijing and that should give you a sense of the static-like, never-ending, crackling hum in the air. If fireworks really chase off bad spirits, then I guarantee that there won’t be any descending anywhere near Beijing.
I was just at a website searching for references to one of my favorite bands of the 80s named “The The”. Most of the time, search engines are tuned by ignoring words like “the”. Thus, finding “the the” references hasn’t been an easy task.
To see what I mean, type “the the” into Google…there’s no reference to the band in the main results area. Now try it again with quotes around it. Typically, Google will catch things like this but this still seems to stump Google.
But you might notice that the sponsored link on the right returned the correct band. I did a search of the iTunes music store and it too found the correct band.
So…note to self. Don’t name a popular band with only fillers or conjuctions.
I’ve met a couple of people in China using the iPhone but due to the fact that it’s locked to AT&T in the U.S, the aren’t using it as a phone…only an internet device and iPod.
When I pushed them about the fact that they spent so much to not have a functional phone, they said that they were fairly confident that a crack would be available at some point. I personally doubt that will happen anytime soon without a combination of re-chipping and patching the kernel.
After thinking about this for a while, I concluded that an announcement of a hackers ability to unlock the iPhone to be used with a different SIM card would initially cause the AAPL stock to climb. The validation and release of the hack would cause a flood of orders for the iPhone in the U.S. and overseas.
In the history of devices and/or the hacking of such devices has there ever been the probability that hacking a particular device would dramatically benefit the manufacturer in terms of market share and stock price?
