I'm off to take a nap before I cheer my boys on, but here's a good luck post for the Yanks. The past few days I've been reading a lot about US Soccer. I've even taken the liberty of nicknaming some of my favorite players. Like Clint "Mark Young" Dempsey. Or Jozy "Slowest Black Man Ever" Altidore. Sigh. That's not very nice; I'll try to come up with a more encouraging one. But, as my wife often reminds me: I'm not nice.
One thing I've been struck by is how a lot of people are commenting on the maturity of Landon Donovan. It's encouraging to see a player feted not just for this ability, but also character transformation. I especially appreciated his insight into how his ex-wife's perspective on acting helped to transform his own perspective on competing in soccer.
This is one of the best compilation videos I've seen. Ever. In the history of compilation videos. I like this particular video because the excitement and emotion is palpable. I've had my share of sports related yelling-screaming-euphoria in my life so I can identify. My favorite is the guy that takes his shirt off and slides down the stairs. Enjoy! Extra goal if you can name the movie the soundtrack comes from. Hint: It's a movie with a hobbit in it. And one of Jennifer Aniston's exes.
The word awesome, methinks, does this video injustice on the grandest scale. If you saw this video, you would immediately tell your two friends to watch it too. Enjoy!
Most of the time, when it comes to ads, I want to run away like girls ran away from me in kindergarten. And the way they ran away from me in elementary school. And in junior high. And in high school. And in college. But I digress.
The reason why people have stuff like Ad-blocker is because they don't want to see the ads. It might seem obvious but that is the biggest reason why people want to block your ads. It's because your ad sucks. So, actually it doesn't matter if people see them or not, if your ad is uncompelling no one will want to click on it and view it. But if it is compelling then I'll want to see it no matter what.
Case in point. I run a Flash blocker when I use Safari. For the most part I find that most things Flash are just ads. Unless I go specifically to watch a video or play a game, I don't want Flash running around in my browser. But there was one time, the Flash blocker stuttered and allowed me to see a quick picture of the Ivan Brothers. They're a Capital One ad campaign and I spent some time trying to figure out who they were and what they were about.
Which brings us, gentle reader, to the amazing point which you have breathlessly waited for. Chinese people get this stuff. Or at least some of them do. I found that a lot of the ads that I see on TV are actually 30-second pieces of a longer production. For example, this Nissan commercial. Ads should be interesting; that's why they are created, to garner interest for your product. When they suck, like most ads do, people want to run away. But when they're awesome, I'm willing to watch it for more than 30 seconds.
Living in an international environment, it is interesting to see how, when faced with a competing viewpoint, people get pretty fierce about how great their country or culture is. There was a group of Pakistanis and a Nigerian on a bus. I know this sounds like the beginning of a racist joke but it's not. Sorry to disappoint one of you. In any case, I was on this bus and they were having a competition to see how could say Quranic verses the quickest. The Nigerian complained that this wasn't really a good competition because it just sounded like gibberish. He proceeded to chant/sing Arabic; it sounded pretty good to me. But the voices kept getting louder and louder on the bus until finally our Chinese teacher told them to (in English): "Have a rest!" It was a bit odd, but I gathered that they were trying to determine which was the more legitimate Islamic culture: Nigerian Islam or Pakistani Islam. I think the Nigerian felt ganged up on; I felt bad for him. So the competition wasn't really about Islam, it was really about which was the better culture/country: Pakistani or Nigeria. Foodwise, you'll probably find me in the Pakistani camp.
It is interesting to note the fervor which nationals of non-US countries have for their country. When I think about the World Cup, I often think about how all the different countries have some sort of song or chant they say: the Brazilians, the Mexicans, the Chinese, the Koreans... I could go on forever. Except for the USA. All we have is: "U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!" Here are some folks trying to combat this lack of chant-power, failing miserably and resorting to their cultural default. The weird juxtaposition of Mexican-Americans cheering for Mexico over the US (or any other hyphenated American for their 'home' for that matter) is another post for another day.
But the point that I've been noticing here, in country, is how most internationals have a great respect for their own country and thus there is a pride they take in the leader of their country because he, for better or for worse, represents them. While they might have some ugly things to say behind closed doors, they recognize that their leader represents them and to disparage that leader would be to insult themselves.
It is ironic to me that the day our president wins the Nobel Peace Prize, many Americans are critical of it. That's not to say that President Obama is beyond critique. He isn't. But the same kind of unsophisticated criticism that the left had of President Bush is the same that the right has of President Obama. The political bickering that I often read about leads me to think that most American politicians and pundits have no international context with which to view their own comments. It's one thing to say that your president's policies are unwise or ill-conceived. It's another thing to call him liar or to hope that all his plans fail. It's not just President Obama that has received this criticism, but many of his predecessors before him. In a culture where we highly prize individuality and self-expression, we cringe at the thought that another might represent us, especially if that other is someone that we don't feel correctly represents us. Living overseas has made me realize that Americans are more alike than different, and I am very proud and glad to be one.
Congratulations President Obama! May your presidency usher in an era of peace and prosperity, both at home and abroad.
Does America still have heroes? You bet it does! "You a disgrace to the man-race!" Such poetry reminds us all that in the midst of a troubled world, beauty still exists.
The boss told me the other day that she didn't really understand the economic crisis. I don't fully understand it either but I found the following video to be helpful.
I was listening to NPR the other night and a program talked about the sense of outrage and desire for justice that many Americans have in relation to the crisis and the bailout. Basically, many people are saying "I was a good steward of my money and I don't have to foreclose on my own home. How come my neighbor, who bought a house bigger than he can afford, gets a bailout because he made a stupid purchase?"
I fully empathize with this sentiment, but there are a couple things that this complaint is missing. First, this is an economic problem right now, but it could quickly devolve into a social one. Since this affects everyone, even people that were good stewards of their money will find themselves in difficult financial situations. Prices may rise, jobs will get scarce. So, even though your neighbor made a stupid mistake, the question is how far will we go to have them reap the consequences of those actions. Will we allow those repercussions to affect us?
The second thing that the program brought up was that people make stupid decisions like this all the time and yet society has already decided that dealing with the problem first is more important than determining justice, at that point. Examples are things like smoking in your bed and then your house catches on fire. The fire department will come right away and put out the fire. They won't sit there and try to figure exactly how much you should suffer and whether or not you can afford to have them come and put it out. In fact, even though your neighbors will be annoyed at you, your neighbors want the fire department to save your house because there are ancillary benefits to them. Another example might be going to the hospital in the event of an emergency.
In the mini-video, it shows some people walking away from their homes because their mortgages are more expensive than the value of the house. First of all, I think that's wrong. The person borrowed $300K to buy the house. They ought to pay it back. Second of all, the price of something is only worth determining if you are going to sell it. If you want to live in your home forever, then the price that you paid is what it's worth.
(Sure, you might want to borrow against the amount of money that you own in the house and that might determine it's current value, but that presupposes that you are willing to move out of your house. Which is the same thing as selling it…)
The most interesting part of the NPR program was that an ethics expert (what's an ethics expert) commented that people are clamoring for others to get what they deserve, but if everyone got what they deserved, we'd all be in hell. I don't have any reason to believe that this comment was made with spiritual/religious implications, but I thought it was interesting that even in this economic crisis there is a necessity for grace.
The program reminded me how I am inherently ungracious and undeserving and I need to extend grace to others.
The New York Times recently ran an article on Chinese hip-hop. I thought it was fascinating how there was a "poppy" version of hip-hop and a more grass roots, "authentic" version of hip-hop. So I started looking for this song and came across a lot of mp3s that were Chinese opera. But I finally found this song both in mp3 format and on Youtube. The other interesting thing was that this version on Youtube is a cleaned up version of the, I'm assuming, original song.
Here's my translation of this version. The whole rap reads like a commercial advertisement for Beijing. Which is really interesting because I took a look at the lyrics for the "dirty" version, and it seemed way more real. For instance there's a line in the dirty version that says, "In Beijing, there's dog poop everywhere." And the line in this version that says "Everyone rides a bike" is "Everyone has had their bike stolen." This probably had to do with getting their rap approved to be broadcast, but still, in translation, there was a lot I didn't understand. A lot of it had to do with being unable to differentiate whether something was the name of a place or it was actually trying to describe an object. Language is so interesting…
So, I don't really feel like these lyrics are so awesome but I do think the song is catchy and I like the way they filmed their video. The original lyrics are probably better. (On a side note, I feel weird translating this. There are a lot of Chinese phrases that just sounded stilted in English. I can see why a lot of signs get translated so weirdly; even if your English ability is high, it's hard to find a good translation…)
Intro:
Have you heard of Yin Cang? (隐藏)
Uh…I'm not sure.
Have you heard of Yin Cang?
What was that? Uh…no.
Have you heard of Yin Cang?
Where is Yin Cang?
[pause…]
In Beijing, word… (the funny part of this is that the guy literally uses the Chinese word for "word")
In Beijing, you're walking on the capital streets.
In Beijing, there's tons of hot girls.
In Beijing, incense sticks are in the temples.
In Beijing, cruising in your hood in the HuTongs.
In Beijing, go to the Forbidden City to study history.
In Beijing, there's stuff to buy like a t-shirt.
In Beijing, Tiananmen square is too big.
In Beijing…
You don't understand.
My house is right on the eastern gate,
Their house is on the college street,
All of us go everywhere so you better hide cuz there's nothing in BJ we don't know.
The whole ocean is a school with a computer store. [I have no clue what this means]
At the intersection of the fifth road is where all the foreigners buy their CDs.
At night you can go into the ocean, go to a village three miles away to drink a little,
Both places have karaoke, [something that I reveals my lack of knowledge in Chinese]
At night, not only is there dancing, drinking, talking but there's other stuff to do too.
On the next day, when you get up from bed you'll [feel like you're walking on air?]
Taxis have two prices: 1.20 and 1.60.
Traffic is usually ok, but sometimes there is traffic.
No need to tip at the restaurants.
Roast duck and noodles, on Gui street you eat hot pot, oh my god there's too many choices!
When you get up you smell the mountain fragrance, you feel the immensity of nature
Don't forget when you come back to go to the Summer Palace.
BJ University has friends and really hot girls,
On ChengFu street there's a train you can go into downtown on.
In Beijing, that's where the 2008 Olympics will be.
In Beijing, it's getting more and more pretty.
In Beijing, there are lakes and rivers.
In Beijing, everyone rides bikes.
In Beijing, China's capital.
In Beijing, winter's a little cold.
In Beijing, there's the People's Heroic Memorial.
In Beijing, you know it now!
You can buy cellphones at the gate.
You can buy clothes at [another location somewhere in BJ]
You can get lost at BJ's west train station.
From [some place] to [my poor Mandarin again reveals itself].
At SanYuan bridge they sell old electronics.
Fifth Ring Road, you'll get through traffic soon.
The Fourth district has so many roads, I can't tell them apart.
Zhaoyang district has the embassies, the street has big trees.
Long distance bus stop busses are on the expressway.
The royal well is really clean.
The Eastern Frontier Art Gallery is really peaceful.
[Some other places and how great they are]
BJ welcomes everyone to come back.
