http://manninchina.blogspot.com/

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Originally uploaded by MJM80.

I will have a new home in the blogosphere for a while – please come visit me @ http://manninchina.blogspot.com/

I have forwarded mannthoughts.com & manninchina.com over there too…

this is a pain

Problems

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Originally uploaded by MJM80.

OK, I’m now in China beginning the one year journey. I arrived here on 17 August, just now got the internet hooked up at my apartment.

I am having some serious connection issues with my yahoo domains, so can’t blog…troubleshooting tonight.

On top of that, I just tried to hook up my wireless router and the damn thing shorted out 20 seconds after I plugged it in, GREAT!

Other than that, things are going well. I’ve got a lot to do, a lot to learn and a lot to see…just wish there was a lot more time to do it all.

I’m off…

It’s almost 3am, still up… last minute packing, of course. I’m off to Beijing tomorrow morning, the journey begins.

New blogs to be launched later this week … http://www.mannthoughts.com & http://www.manninchina.com … the postings on wordpress hosted mannthoughts will come to a hault (due to “network issues” in China).

Stay tuned (all of the 4 people who read this blog)… I promise to get started again very soon.

On to the next chapter of…

How do blogs become popular?

My guess is, most become popular because the person or people behind them have a few “great posts,” or they are doing something against the norm or something new, such as scobleizer, who once worked for Microsoft. He “spoke out,” unofficially, for and sometimes against MS, that’s why he became popular. Granted, he is a smart guy (my opinion based on reading some of his stuff), but is anyone really interesting enough to be consistantly on wordpress’ “Top WordPress.com blogs today?” Everyday? I think not…I think people just want to see what he has to say next. Not a bad thing, it’s interesting, actually.

Say one great thing, and you can become “popular” in the blogosphere (as an individual, of course…corporate blogs are a whole other ball of wax.)? I wonder if I’ll ever post that one great thing and make the dashboard of wordpress?….I don’t really care either way (but yeah, it would be cool)… I blog to blog…trying to write more, keep track of things I do, put my thoughts out there…maybe some people will share similar thoughts or have some good input. Maybe it will help my communication skills.

I’m not that familar with all of the “popular” blogs out there, but the only one that I’ve seen that has a lot of useful information is lifehacker. OK, it’s really not a ton of useful information, but they have some cool stuff everytime I look at it.

As for the rest of the blogs I read, they are mostly people I know. People I trust, people I like to listen to. People that I want to “see what they’ll say next.” I imagine that’s why most people read blogs.

Maybe it’s just that I don’t fully understand the blogosphere yet. More communication, more open thoughts, more feedback, more connections…yes, I get all that and think it’s great, but…how do you get people obsessed with it? And, is that a good thing?

The art of packing a year’s worth of stuff

There really is no art to this at all…I’m just trying to figure out what I want/need to bring and stuffing it in a suitcase or large plastic bin. Not knowing when or if I’ll be back to Raleigh over the next year, I have to try to bring a little bit of everything, for each season.

Clothes. Books. DVDs. Pictures (so I don’t forget home). Wireless router/Vonage. Personal items. Shoes/sneakers. What else do I need?

I thought about bringing some food…”American food,” but I have to imagine that I can find “Western” types of food in China. I have heard that they have western type stores there, stupid me never went to check that stuff out last time I was there. I’ll be living off of rice & noodles.

Well, I guess if I forget anything, I’ll either have it shipped to me or I’ll try to find it in China or elsewhere as I travel around.

What’s on the agenda for tomorrow:

Close deal on Jeep

Bank

Stop into work for a meeting & say goodbye

Mail out some last minute stuff

More packing

Dinner w/ Aunt/Uncle & cousins in Raleigh

Maybe a couple last minute beers with some friends

More packing

Stay up all night so I sleep most of the way to Beijing

Heading to my last hockey game in the States tonight…playoff time & I can’t play (since I only played one game this season). So, I’ll be there giving the guys a hard time, then a few beers in the parking lot.

The nervousness is kicking in, kind of a weird feeling. But, I can’t wait for this adventure to begin, it’s going to be one hell of a ride.

Slingbox…sweet!

So, one of the many purchases I have made for my 1 year journey in China, is a Slingbox. I’ve heard about these things for a while now, but have never seen one in action, until now.

I wouldn’t say I watch a ton of TV, but would like the comfort of “American TV” while I’m in China over the next year. I’ll mostly use it to watch sports…hockey, football, etc…. I’ve just finished installing it and the software on my ThinkPad. Works awesome! It actually wasn’t very difficult to setup.

The performance is fantastic, but of course it would be from the same household as the Slingbox is in. How will it be 7000 miles away? I guess I’ll find out very soon, about 3 days to be exact. I really hope the speed and picture are somewhat good quality from there. I’m also hoping I can easily hook up my ThinkPad to the TV at my apartment via S video and audio cables…should work just fine. To add to the slowness of the sling, I’ll be using a wireless router in my apartment. Please work.

PODS rule

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Originally uploaded by MJM80.

Last night I helped a friend of mine “move.” He hasn’t actually moved to his new house yet, just moved the bulk of his/his wife’s stuff into a POD (PODS = Portable On Demand Storage). This is a great business. Call them up, set a date, they deliver the POD on a cool truck, position it wherever you want and they’re off, leaving the POD for you to fill.

When you’re done, call them up, they’ll pick it up for you and either A) deliver it to your new location or B) store it in their temperature controlled warehouse for as long as you’d like. When you’re ready for your stuff to make it to your new location, they’ll pull the POD and bring it right over.

They signed up for two months of storage…for delivery, pickup, storage and then final delivery, it comes to about $500. That’s for the biggest POD (18×8 I believe).

I wish I could send a POD over to China with my stuff (not that I’m bringing all that much with me). But, to be able to throw your stuff in there, from your driveway and have it delivered to your next drive way, can’t beat it.

1 week … 1 year

Well, at this time in exactly 1 week, I’ll be flying over the north pole for the third time in the last 2 months. I am about to embark on my 1 year journey in Beijing.

The feeling I have now is that excited, hesitant feeling. What I mean is…I know I’m going to enjoy and learn a ton in my year in China, but, I have that feeling of not being ready. Not really sure I fully understand what I’m getting myself into. I think that will make the experience even more special though…I don’t know what’s going to happen. I know what my goals are for work and am ready to go above and beyond to acheive them. But 1 year in China???

I am truly excited though. It’s a great opportunity and I’m going to take advantage of every second of it.

I have decided that I’ll use another blog to track my experience in China. www.manninchina.com is the domain you can find me at. I’ll continue to use mannthoughts for other random things, but I decided it would be best to have a blog dedicated to China.

Exciting times are ahead…now I just have to get all of the packing and other crap that goes along with leaving your home country for one year behind me.

Hilarious video

I finally took the 2 minutes it takes to figure out how to post a youtube video in wordpress…

Here’s one taken by my digital camera in St. Louis last month…it’s kind of dark, but you can still see most.

Beijing Marathon

There’s not a chance in hell that I’d be able to run 26 miles by October 15…not even 13 miles by October 15. 6 miles is doable. As long as I get into a routine when I get to Beijing next week, 6 miles will be no problem.

The Beijing International Marathon is one of the top marathons in the world. Since I’m going to be there, I really want to participate in it, even if for only ~ a quarter of the race, I think the experience will be great.

I’ll be posting my running progress as I get going.

Buffalo to setup ethanol shop

Buffalo, NY, once booming with its massive steel plants and grain elevators, will now finally do something with that infrastructure.

With Lake Erie at the mouth of Buffalo and the Buffalo River (which has access in/out of Lake Erie), to feed ships into the plants, the plants have the railroads right out of their back doors…it’s a scene out of the early 1900s.

The grain elevators, they are plentiful in Buffalo, sitting empty and likely full of rats for the last 30 years, will finally be put to use. They are so expensive to haul down, because they are nothing but feet thick of concrete and steel, they have remained in the city landscape for years. However, the elevators on the old ConAgra plant will soon be put to use.

That site is nothing short of perfect for this. It will receive corn from the west via Lake Erie…the corn will come into the elevators via the Buffalo River…it will be stored, processed and the final product loaded up into the rail cars sitting right outside the plant doors.

This is good move for Buffalo & the guys behind it. It will work.

You can read the story from the Buffalo News here.

Went for a run in South Buffalo

I started off my day giving my dad a ride to work in downtown Buffalo. I need to use his car to run around today. I took the “long way” home, by the HSBC Arena and through the Perry projects of Buffalo. The Seneca Indians purchased a piece of land on Perry St. The goal…to build a casino in Buffalo. I guess it has been a battle from the start & continues to be one. I don’t hear much about it being away, but have heard plenty since I’ve been home. The latest is, the Seneca Indians will now build a 5000 sqft casino, rather than the original plan of a 100,000 sqft casion… big difference, no? I don’t think Buffalo needs a casino nor will it do them any good to have it.

So, as I was making my way back into South Buffalo, I thought it’d be a good idea to take a run. I came home & got ready to go. I had to hang out for a bit until my brother came in. I wanted to say goodbye, he was heading back to Alexandria Bay, NY where he’s a Customs agent. I won’t see him until his stag/wedding next May.
I headed out, made my way towards the Botanical Gardens, just down the road in Lackawanna. To get there, you have to run over a bridge, this is the same bridge that my brother fell & cracked his head open on when we were kids. It was pretty scary, but afterwards, it was kind of funny, because he only let the doctors shave half of his head for the surgery, because that was when he was growing his hair long & didn’t wan to lose it all. I wonder if my mom has a picture of that somewhere.

So, I headed into South Park Lake, this is the place we used to go play golf, ride our bikes, cause trouble, etc…. When my dad coached our hockey team, he also had us in there doing off ice training, that was tons of fun. I made my way around, watching all of the old timers tee off, getting ready to spend their day playing 9 holes, then back in the club house chatting it up, playing some cards and probably having a few beers.

I ran back out the way I came in, back up over the bridge. Looking down at the train tracks, where we used to put pennies, never to find them again. I also recalled the times I’d ride along side my dad on my bike while he ran.

I decided I’d go a bit further, I wanted to head down to Okell St., where my grandparents once lived (died a while back) & where my mom grew up. Okell St. was also the home to St. Ambrose Church & grammar school. My brother Tim, sister Meg & me went there. I recalled the walks we used to make everyday, the stops we used to make to see my grandfather afterschool, or sometimes during lunch.

I headed back towards home and happened to look down Marilla street, this used to be a common stop along our route…it was the local penny candy store. I don’t think those exist anymore.

It was a great start to the day. Especially nice to see it all and recall the memories, as I won’t be back in Buffalo until next May.

KPL tournament

(left to right: Tom (Dad’s friend), my brother Kev, me & my Dad)

One of the reasons I came home to Buffalo this week was for the KPL tournament. It’s a tournament (which is part of many things the KPL Society does) for Kevin Lalley, who passed away in 2002 at the very young age of 32. He was a bartender for the majority of his life, so knew many people. He bartended at the BlackThorn for many years. I was a barback/busboy at the Blackthorn during highschool. My older brother did the same, then started bartending there with Kev.

Of course I’m going to say he was a great guy, but he truly was. He’d never say no…if you needed something, he was there. There are a lot of people who greatly miss Kev, which is why the KPL tournament is a huge success every year.

I typically play with my brother, my father and my father’s friend (that he’s known since highschool). For a couple of years, a friend of mine from NC flew up to Buffalo to play too. We always have a blast. Sometimes, we’ll go up the day before and play a round of golf, have some dinner, drink some beers, play some cards, sometimes not sleep & then the tournament that day (always on the last Monday in July).  This year, my mom volunteered to help, so she got to see us in action … HA!

I’m sure this tournament will last for a long time, Kev’s legacy forever. I don’t think I’ll be able to make it next year, as I’ll be in Beijing. I have to come home to Buffalo in May for my brother’s wedding, so a trip back two months later doesn’t seem like it will work out. I’ll miss it, but will have to be sure to send back a hat for Hugger (Kev’s brother-in-law), he steals my hat every year. As you can see, I had a cool lid for this year’s round.

Speaking of hats… as I was drinking some Miller High Lifes back at the Blackthorn with my Dad & Tom on Monday after the tournament, he was telling me about a haberdashery that was in Buffalo a long time ago. I said “huh?” I think I may have heard the word before, but didn’t know what it meant. Cool word.

Old Friends

I have a group of friends, most of them from highschool, that still keep in touch. In fact, it’s the same group of friends that went to St. Louis last weekend to meet up.

Growing up in Buffalo, NY, you make many friends. For the guys who move away, like me, you don’t really keep in touch with them much. Typically only see them out at the bars when home. This is too bad, but how it works. Not that I couldn’t change it, I guess it just never put in the effort (nor did they).

This past Sunday, my parents had both sides of the family over for a get-together. One of my uncle’s, his wife & their five kids have moved to Florida (just left Monday) and since I’m heading to Beijing for a year, my parents decided to have everyone over. It was nice to see everyone and hang out for a while.

Then, Sunday night, I went over to one of those friend’s house… it was just him and 3 other guys who I used to hang out with growing up. We had a great time, talking about the past, what everyone is up to these days. One of them has a kid, the other engaged & a couple of others still stuck in a rut. Maybe we’ll try to keep in touch via email, but it’s not likely. I guess it does make it more fun when you come home & run into them after not talking for 6 months or a year. It’s just too bad we don’t stay connected.

It’s fun to come home, I see all sorts of funny things. One of my favorites has to be when I’m out at Doc Sullivan’s and I see 3 of the 4 “girl friends” that my brother rotates through at any given time. A typical past time of ours is to hope for, and sometimes watch, a couple of them crying at the bar because they found out about one of the other girls. Why were they crying over Tim? Hell if I know!

Who I met in the air

I’m not one to converse a lot when flying, I guess it all depends on the person sitting next to me, and whether or not I’m awake. There are also those times, coming back from vacation, when I could be a little hung over too, but that rarely happens :).

Anyway, on my flight back from Beijing this past weekend, I met Steve Blount, of Blount Seafood. When Steve sat down, we immediately started talking, first, looking at everyone walk past us and saying to each other, “I hope no one sits in between us.” We’re both pretty tall guys, and needed all the room we could get in coach.

Steve makes a couple trips of to China each year, working on some projects. As he was telling me about Blount Seafood, I started thinking about how much my aunt in NC likes this clam chowder she buys from Harris Teeter … turns out, Blount makes it!

I think I’ll try to talk to people some more on planes in the future…especially these international flights. You never know who you’re going to meet, this time it was Steve, hopefully we’ll get to meet up next time he’s around Beijing. Great guy.