Is it foolish for me to have looked up what Stomatology was? The first thought I had was stomach, but of course that would be too simple. It turns out it “is that part of medicine that relates to the mouth and its diseases;” now usually the province of dentists according to wikipedia: “originally practiced by physicians, it was a standard medical specialty through the early 20th century”. My point, is that if a reasonably well educated, middle-class British person doesn’t know what this word means, how likely is it that anyone else here is able to understand the english word advertised here. I suspect the Chinese characters are more to the point.

The button doesn’t actually do anything. It’s just on a loop with the normal cross junction lights.

Chinese "Mind the Step"
Originally uploaded by clarkalastair

This falls under my rather specific category of “signs that have an obvious meaning, but are completely useless as you can’t see them”. My extensive knowledge of Chinese characters tells me that the first one means small, but I don’t know what the other characters mean. Which Miao tells me are, in order: Heart, Station/Platform, State/Step. The first two characters, small + heart means be careful, and the last two characters together mean step. Small + Heart has the connotation of please, i give you some small love, this kind of idea. I think is kinda interesting.

Chuck and Wife, and Wang Miao at Intercontinental Foyer
Originally uploaded by clarkalastair

On Thursday the 25th Dec, the four of us went to have dinner at the Intercontinental Hotel here in Dalian. The meal was a buffet, and frankly superb. Turkey imported from the US, lots of sea food (being Dalian of course) and lots of authentic western food. The service was excellent, the waiting staff smiled lots, a Chinese Santa Clause rang a bell and brought everyone a small present of biscuits and sweet things, the buffet was served by staff who didn’t look too bored when they weren’t serving and with a smile when they were. The only disapointment for me was the lack of an affordable bottle of wine. I was hoping that some alcohol would be included in the price, but unfortunately not. I was sad to see so few people attending they cannot have come close to covering their costs, as the decor was great, the atmosphere was pleasant, comfortable, and felt safe: truly great compared with the area.

Alastair

Beijing Opera
Originally uploaded by clarkalastair

During the Three Kingdoms Period in Chinese History, Liu Bei, a very influential warlord flew to Jiang Xia’s army. [I didn't know they had airplanes in this period] His military rival, another powerful warlord called Cao Cao kept chasing him and his troop. In the chaos, Liu Bei lost contact with his wives and son. His brother Zhao Yun, a very brave, fearless and loyal general, risked his life to look for Liu Bei’s lost family in Cao Cao’s chasing army only by himself. He broke through the enemy’s surroundings and rescued Liu Bei’s wives, respecively Mi Lan, Jian Yong and Gan. Ms Mi Lan entrusted her son called A Dou to Zhao Yun, and then dropped into a well, committing suicide. Zhao Yun kept the little baby in his arms and grabbed Cao Cao’s sword, making all efforts to fight a way out. Later, Liu Bei’s another brother called Zhang Fei came as support. At Change Ban Slope, Zhang Fei shouted like thunder, astonishing Cao Cao’s army back.

Last Saturday saw the English Departmental Dinner, as paid for by the Dean at a local sea food restaurant, where the Foreign English teachers have a chat and get fed and watered. Afterwards we were given complementary tickets to go see the Beijing Opera at a local building with traditional Chinese architecture. Below is a clip, if you want to see more, click to my youtube profile page. I wasn’t quite sure of the plot at any given point, but the main idea was that two opposing armies are standing, looking at each other menacingly. One of the generals has their wife and child kidnapped, and goes into the enemy camp alone to save them. Once he’s there, the wife commits suicide by falling down a well, he saves the child and gets into a little difficulty fighting out. His good friend/brother goes and helps, and they are successful.

Blog Advertising
Originally uploaded by clarkalastair

Apparently that my blog has some rather useful targeted advertising for your average punter. “Beautiful Chinese Girls seek Foreign Men” at ChinaDarlings.com

I so want the KillerNIC M1 network card. I saw it today in one of the regular emails that graces my inbox from shops back home. It features it’s own CPU and RAM, which means it runs a stripped down version of linux to handle all your networking needs. It equates to a hardware firewall between your computer and the internet. You can write your own programs for it. It can run a bittorrent client, and prioritise traffic for different applications. All of this means that none of the networking processes need to run on the CPU, and means that you don’t need to run a software firewall. The only problem is that it’s a little expensive at 190 Pounds [no pound sign on this blasted American keyboard that I'm usuing]. Even so, it’s a dream network card. Haha, one that I don’t see myself purchasing any time soon.