Walking the Path

This week has been one of both frustration and joy.

Frustration because I was waiting for a prize I’d won in a contest to arrive (it was delayed due to shipping problems and it arrived on Wednesday night) and I found myself becoming almost obsessed with waiting for the prize to come. I started to get angry at myself for doing that. It felt like I was trying to force the prize to fill a gap in me that needed to be filled by God. He was already there doing that – I just was losing focus on that.

The joy came when I started to realize that and was able to put the frustrations aside and realize that God was using that frustrating period to speak to me more about patience and telling me to sit back and relax.

Stress has been a big issue for me of late and I am realizing through my conversion and the time that I spend in pray that I need to take time to slow down and disconnect myself from work, the Internet and the general noise of the world.

Pray has helped me a lot with that as it is a time to speak and listen to God and that helps me regain perspective on things. And most of all that’s taught me patience.

J.

Been really busy recently. On the work front I’ve been organizing a trip to Taiwan; on the personal side, Betty and I are preparing for my parents to visit for Chinese New Year and our upcoming marriage (on Valentine’s Day). Hope to give more details once I get a few minutes but in the meantime I thought I’d share what I’ve been reading:

-The two space debate I’m a single spacer.

-What does curating mean? I’ve become to believe in this particularly with my Kobo, which through the construction of my home library is letting me create my own literary cannon.

-How Facebook beat Tunsia – I’m fascinated by how social media is helping us to create political change. Though, I admit it isn’t as straightforward as going on FB and the government falls.

Have a Happy Chinese New Year.
J.

I hope everyone has a happy new year and a good start to 2011.

J.

I just want to wish everyone a merry Christmas and a happy New Year. To hear what I’ll be doing for Christmas listen to the latest CBC Radio 3 podcast. I’m the last song request.

Merry Christmas from chilly Shanghai
J.

Shanghai faced its first “serious” winter snow last week. I put serious in quotes because what Shanghai considers a big deal is 2cm. To a Canadian 2cm is a dusting. It’s what falls on a cool night in November.

And to me that first snow was really the start of the Christmas season. The Christmas decorations have been up and carols have been blaring in restaurants and shopping malls since American Thanksgiving in late November but I didn’t really feel it was appropriately Christmas until that little bit of snow fell.

I wasn’t out making snowmen, but I was enjoying my twice daily walks with Roger more – he thought it was great and loved running through what little snow there was on the grass. I’ve just generally felt happier though things have been quite busy at work and with preparations for Betty and my upcoming wedding (we’ve still got a year and a half so don’t want to rush).

It’s also the start of my Christmas period reading kick. I read two books this weekend. Finishing Jonathan Franzen’s excellent Freedom and Chris Taylor’s novel of expat drop-out China Harvest Season. Right now I’m reading R.B. Flemming’s biography of Peter Gzowski. I’m only on the second chapter but it seems pretty good so far. Flemming seems to place a lot of emphasis on Gzowski being too “imaginative”, but to be honest I think his heart’s in the wrong place. Being imaginative means Gzowski was just a good story teller.

J.

Been a bit busy recently. My boss has been in town all week and we’ve been hammering out the goals for the new year. This was after I saw him in Singapore last week for our annual Asia-wide steel conference. By the way Betty and I got officially engaged three weeks ago.

Yeah so big changes a foot. Looks like we’ll be getting the marriage license in February hopefully during Chinese New Year when my parents come to visit. And before then I’ll be making a trip to Taiwan to visit steel mills there as the island will become part of my coverage area from the start of 2011.

You think I might be going a bit batty with some much going on at once. But I’m remarkably calm. Part of that I have to chalk up to my Kobo ereader and my iPod. I’ve been reading a lot more and listening to more music – mostly on the subway to and from work and on airplanes as you would expect.

I’ve read a number of good books recently including Djabouti by Elmore Leonard; Layover in Dubai by Dan Fesperman and right now I’m really enjoy Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom.

Musically I’ve been downloading whatever I can get my hands on. Girl Talk’s All Day Light of Dawn by Bedouin Soundclash and The Weight is on the Wheels by the Russian Futurists. And I can’t forget the complete discography by the Dears.

Haven’t been doing much on the weekends. Mostly just been taking care of the house and spending time with Betty. Finally watched the Dajerling Limited and finished season 1 of the IT Crowd on Sunday and loved them both Looking forward to seeing the new Harry Potter film this weekend and hopefully hit up the Logo CD release party at Lune on Saturday.

Sunday I think I’ll just relax at home with Betty and the dog and prepare for another busy week.

J.

I can’t stop thinking about Canada since I came back from my vacation there. I’ve been reading constantly about the country – I just finished volume 1 of John English’s biography of Pierre Elliott Trudeau before that I was reading Harperland and The Book of Negroes. I’ve been listening to CBC Radio constantly.

I’m even re-watching David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin’s The Social Network and even though it’s an awesome moving and always worth watching again anyway, I think I’m just doing it because I saw the movie when I was home in Canada.

But despite all this I’m not lonely and I don’t want to go home. I’ve actually never been happier. I’m living at a great place in Shanghai and Betty and I have never been easier. I just want to consume everything I could about Canada right now. Keep in touch with everything about the country I can at the moment.

It’s not loneliness that driving this interest. I think it’s just something that happens when you live outside of your home country for a number of years. You start to see it differently. I was interested in Canada when I lived there. I followed the news but now I’m looking at it as an outsider now on a cultural level.

And I’m liking everything that I’m hearing. I spent most of today downloading music by Canadian bands – Wintersleep, Tegan & Sara, Berson Lakes, Owen Pallett and Ohjibou. I listen to CBC Radio 3 podcasts everyday.

I’m looking forward to reading the 2010 Giller Prize winner The Sentimentalists.

I’ve never been prouder to be Canadian but I have no desire at all to go home. I’m enjoying China too much and I don’t think it’d be a wise move back with the current job market hanging by a very thin thread, but it’s still a million times better than the US. Work is also going really well.

So life is really really good. And therefore I don’t think I’m home sick and I don’t think I need to leave China. I just think Canada is a dynamic and culturally enriching country and I love being Canadian.

J.

I went to the Queen Sea Big Shark show at Mao Livehouse last night. I didn’t really enjoy the show and it wasn’t because the band put in a bad performance or that the club staff offered shitty service. Both were excellent.

But I found the light show too strong, there were too many smokers and I didn’t want to stand for too long. I left at 11:30pm disgusted with myself. I used to love going to shows but now I just wanted to go to bed.

I might have been a just bit rundown – it was a Friday night after all – but I have a feeling that it’s because I’m focused on other things. I’m spending a lot more time taking care of the house. I spend most of Saturday shopping and cleaning the house.

And that seems to take a lot of me. I was going to go out tonight but right now I want to just curl up with a DVD and go to bed early.

Geez I sound like I’m 80.

J

I haven’t really been doing anything very excited recently. Most of my free time is spent with my Kobo reader or occasionally watching an episode of Mad Men or Hawaii Five-O. I haven’t been out a live music show in ages but I’m happy. Work has been going well and the new place is working out well. The trip to Canada went great. Roger is being a well behaved dog and seems to enjoy living in a new place. Everything seems to be going smoothly.

But I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop. I’m not used to things going this well for this long. I know it’s paranoid but I’m always waiting for some little hiccup or some new challenge to face. So far that hasn’t come and I’m waiting for it to happen. I’ll just have to see how everything goes. If something does come up I’m sure I’ll work my way through it, but it’s that unknown feeling I don’t like.

It looks like I’ll have to sit back and see what happens.

J.

Been on vacation in Canada since September 30th. Travelled a lot so far. Betty and I have travelled across most of Ontario hitting Niagara Falls, Toronto, Ottawa and London. Spent Thanksgiving with the family, read a couple of books and just saw the excellent The Social Network.

It’s been a great vacation. Regular posting will resume the week of October 18th.

J.