Wetigo: A Disease of the Soul

Here's a good vid.

I hope that works. I had a lot of trouble posting that here. Plundering the resources of today to wage war will make democracy the insolvent phantom of tomorrow. Eisenhower saw it. I've written about it here before. The natives of North America all saw it long ago. The more I read about them, the more I think they had it all figured out before the Europeans came over and fucked it up. How'd they do that? With whiskey? Small Pox infected blankets? Christianity? Nope. They have done it with WETIGO. Wetigo is a disease of the soul that transforms ordinary people into what the natives called "windigos." A windigo, a cannibal or a soul eater, consumes his/her own soul and the souls of others around him/her with greed. The natives who first met the Europeans were shocked at their obsession with private property and their inability to share. The natives shared everything for the good of the community. Dogsleds, canoes, food, water, husbands and wives... yes that last one is a surprise to many. But just think of the institution of marriage and try to separate yourself from all the years of relatives, friends, teachers, commercials, TV and movies, music, consumerism, books etc, etc, that have pounded the virtues of marriage into our heads practically from birth, and question it. Isn't it just owning another human being? Isn't the marriage licence just a deed of ownership? And can you imagine how barbaric that must have appeared to cultures that don't reward greed and obsess about how much stuff they own?

We often talk about how Europeans brought disease to North America and it killed a lot of the natives. It has been hyperbolically called the first germ warfare. But the disease that really wiped out their superior cultures was wetigo, the greed of the white man. I still suffer from it. I watch Seinfeld and see Kramer or George come in and just go to Jerry's fridge and grab a piece of fruit or a chicken leg without asking. Jerry doesn't mind! He never says anything! I WISH I could be like that!

And our ancestors were quite a bunch! We can only imagine what it was like for them to come to a place where everything was shared. Just help yourself. No REALLY! Just take what you need. That's where the problem probably arose. They started taking everything they wanted, not everything they needed. Anybody know who Billy Ray Valentine is? In the movie Trading Places, Eddie Murphy plays a street person named Billy Ray Valentine who gets taken off the streets and given a big time home and career as part of an experiment the two old brothers were conducting. Here's the scene in which they try to explain to him that they are giving him a beautiful new home.

That's GOT to be how it was for the European explorers who found the natives. "So I can just take this sled dog here. It's MINE. And then just eat some of that meat you're cooking up there. Cuz it's MINE. And then I can just go over here and play hide the salami with your daughter cuz she's MINE." Did I go too far with the last one? Oh I think not! I read a book about the early years of the Hudson Bay Company in Canada. The very first Canadian company I think. And there was a story about the explorer Martin Frobisher who visited the northern part of Canada and met with Inuit people. It boggled my mind when I read that he dangled a bell over the edge of his ship to attract an Inuit in a kayak. When one approached, he was hoisted onboard, brought back to England and given to Queen Elizabeth as a gift. Kayak and all! The story was that he was allowed to hunt swan on the Avon river in his kayak. But he didn't live long. He died, of all things, from a cold.

But just like the natives, the Inuit shared with the English. They just couldn't relate to their insatiable appetites for resources. Many of the tribes were so plundered by our selfish ancestors that there was little remaining for the long, harsh winter after they went back to Europe. Lots of people died. Entire communities were wiped out. Then, in the spring, when the Europeans went back to get some more loot free of charge from the foolish natives, they were met with what even back then they probably called, "totally unprovoked aggression and terrorism." You see "cowboy and Indian" movies and the "good" guys always talk of their savagery and bloodlust. Much like people who oppose the U.S. are characterized today. But again, question. Look at it from the other side. What would YOU have done? In either position. If you were a native, would you keep on "trading" with these selfish, diseased pillagers? If you were the Europeans getting all kinds of loot for free, becoming rich by victimizing what you consider savages far beneath you, wouldn't you distract from the truth a bit?

Speaking of distracting from the truth, the Westminster, London terrorist attack. 5 dead including the perp, Khalid Masood. A very Muslim sounding name, but he was actually Adrian Russel Elms. I doubt many people will remember that name as well as Khalid Masood. It's almost formulaic now isn't it? You see an event like this and you get the usual week of TV coverage and speculation about motive. Nobody yet can make any solid connections between this guy and ISIL. He was actually an ESL teacher and for a while taught in Saudi Arabia. Maybe he converted to Islam because he liked the religion and the people, not so he could destroy decadent westerners. But for now, the world will assume the latter.

Every time I hear one of these stories and see the overwhelming outpour of international mourning and support and the non-stop media coverage, I wonder if there isn't something bigger we are all being distracted from. Like, for instance, the fact that in the month of March, American air strikes and raids in Iraq and Syria have accounted for as many as 400 civilian deaths. That according to Airwars, a UK based organization that monitors international strikes on ISIL. Mostly in the city of Mosul where ISIL forces use civilians as human shields. They have been holding innocent women and children in the city so that any attacks will result in civilian deaths. You want to kill ISIL, you kill civilians too. I can just hear Trump now privately commenting, (awww hell, he could say it publically, it would probably GAIN him popularity!), "Well at least they're only MUSLIM casualties." We all know that Trump doesn't like Muslims. He did a very poor job of denying that his flight ban was a MUSLIM flight ban, because it was "a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering America." He wants a Muslim database. He said he wants to send refugees like those from Syria back. He praised Saddam Hussein saying he killed terrorists, so good. He doesn't seem to make a distinction between Muslim and terrorist.

Judging 1.6 billion people on the actions of a few is just plain dangerous. This and other statements were made when 20 million Shia Muslims marched against, and despite ISIS. Trump didn't see the story watching Fox News though. Neither did a LOT of us.

What the world, and Trump, need to see is that ISIS or ISIL or whatever they want to call themselves, is just a small bunch of cunts. Most Muslims don't like them. Amping up the attack on them, as Trump has done, will just result in needless killing of their innocent human shields. And it will create justification for many, many more friends and family members of those slain by American attacks to join the terrorist organization. Making these deaths look less tragic by demonizing Islam, and trying to distract with stories of Muslims killing non-Muslims shouldn't work on educated people. It should make clear to us that the huge sorrow over 4 deaths in England compared to the relative anonymity of the 400 dead in Iraq are incongruent. We care more about the 4 than the 400 in the same way movies make us cheer for the bad guys. But this is real life. We see it on the screen and can easily be tricked into believing we're watching a movie. Donald Trump is Al Pacino in Scarface. "The only thing that gives orders is BALLS! And I have UUUGE balls!" But we always seem to forget as we respect and even idolize these guys with "balls" who go out and take their fortunes, they have to think like Tony Montana did. If you remember the part when he says he wants what's coming to him and his buddy asks what that is, he says, "The world. And everything in it." What kind of swelled head do you need to think that way? The same as someone who thinks he can take a PERSON from his home and give him as a GIFT to the queen. And it is a sickness to think you are THAT much better than anyone else.

So I ask you is the "balls" we love in so many of our rich and famous heroes respectable or is it a sickness? Does it take "balls" to crush others and rise to the top or is it just wetigo. If you steal all the free toilet paper at a Chinese tourist attraction washroom then sell it for one RMB a sheet to people desperate to relieve themselves, are you an entrepreneur or could any Joe Blow have thought of that? Maybe you have some mental condition that makes you think it was clever but really, you're the only asshole who will do such a disgustingly vile thing. Are Trump, Tony Montana, and all the billionaires out there who OWN more than we do, heroes or are they soul sucking, sociopathic cannibals greedily devouring us and the flesh of our children?

Here's how my country and the country where I'm working are viewing things.

The U.S. is a ridiculously rich country. Look at this vid! There ARE hungry people in the richest country in the world. If that's not astounding enough, there are ways of actually using coupons to MAKE money, not just save it. I found that to be the most shocking thing about this clip. If America used some of its riches to stop fighting some countries and start feeding its own, they wouldn't feel any weaker. In fact kindness, (if you can call NOT bombing people "kindness"), would make the extravagant military less necessary. So more and more money could be diverted. Soon feeding hungry people in OTHER countries would be possible. And the massive military spending would be further and further unnecessary. I'm not saying they should cut it. Keep a military for defence. It's necessary. But, come on, how insecure does a country need to be to have such an ostentatious military? How insecure does a president have to be? I dunno about you but I could see Trumpboy getting plastic surgery to lengthen his hands. Is it for similar reasons he is expanding the military?

Near Perfect Trip

I was crossing the street in Donzhimen, Beijing just last week to get to the Canadian Embassy and I noticed a Chinese man with one hand in the customary elderly stroll, behind the back position, and the other holding a brown, leather leash. On the end of the leash was a small poodle with well maintained, curly, brown hair doing the trembling, three-legged hop you sometimes see in a constipated animal trying to start or finish a shit. Although the green pedestrian signal was lit, I didn't look for long, lest a power-tripping motorist, motorcyclist or even cyclist turn the corner directly in front of me purposely forcing me to stop if I saw them or get run down if I didn't. This mockery and abuse of the lowly pedestrian is one of many things I hate about Beijing.

I made it across the eight lane road unscathed, a feat unworthy of mention in most places but worthy of an athletic point to the Man Upstairs in the city of Beijing. I slowed my pace and got a better look at the spectacle I had glimpsed while Froggering my way to the safety of the sidewalk. Or to keep my blog current, "CrossyRoading" my way... The dog was able to squeeze out a tidy, hard-looking turd onto the strip of lawn that surrounds the Canadian Embassy of Beijing. It didn't occur to me until the man pulled the poodle away from a test smell and continued their walk without scooping the poop, that this was, in all likelihood, Canadian soil that now featured its still steamy, oily-looking log of dog feces.

So, my trip to Korea was great. I met up with DB and Amber in Incheon. We went to Tacos on St. Patrick's Day but steered clear of the green beer and were all happier for it in the morning. I went with DB into Seoul to find some items that are more expensive or just unavailable in Taiyuan. I found quite a few of them and was pleased. DB and I went to a place we'd gone before for one of the more daring of Korean dishes, Hae Jang Kook, a staple for the older men of Korea. It's made from all manner of pig entrails and is FAR too delicious to say, "Well at least it's not dog!" Need it or not, this soup provides legendary stamina for the male of the species. I shopped for more stuff until dinner time and had myself a rack of ribs at Canucks Pub. Amber had fried up some bacon and eggs for breakfast that morning so I think I ate about half a pig that day. I later went out with the whole Peet/Spiwak family for Sam Gyup Sal and Kalbi at Busan Kalbi and could have started on the second half of the pig, but didn't want to, cough, make a pig of myself. I said hello to most of my friends in the area and made cameos at most of my favourite places. Then I successfully flew back to China in the early afternoon of the following day without even a hangover.

Alright, what's missing? Can you guess? No problems! When have you known me to take a trip without even a little hiccup? I don't mind telling you that by the time I got to my old room in my old hostel in Beijing and had a lovely welcome from the staff there and a healthy lunch at the McDonalds nearby, I was getting scared. My apartment to the Taiyuan train station by cab; Taiyuan to Beijing by train; train station to airport by subway; Beijing to Incheon flight; To downtown Incheon by subway; Incheon to Seoul by subway; Seoul to Incheon airport by airport bus; Incheon to Beijing flight; airport to hostel by subway; NO PROBLEMS!!! Not a lost bag, a "lost" cab driver, an objectionable seat partner, a subway going the wrong way, the one and only glitch was a delay in the Beijing to Seoul flight, but there is always a delay. I was having a clean run. A boring trip. An eventless travel experience. I'd heard about these before, but had yet to be gifted with one. All I had to do now was go to the Beijing Canadian Embassy and pick up my brand new passport. It was Monday, March 20th. I was told to pick up my new passport on or after March 15th so I assumed it would be ready. I had waited a bit over a month and it had cost me 300 Canadian dollars, so I would have been pretty annoyed if it hadn't been ready. Even more annoyed than I already was that in the embassy IN China, my Chinese money was refused as payment. I had to use my Canadian debit card. I was just lucky it worked! Otherwise, I might have gone Canadian Postal on someone's arse! That doesn't mean the same as "going postal" in America. In Canada it's more literal. I would have written, and, if you will, posted a strongly worded letter to someone.

But no need! It was ready! My card worked. I had done it! The perfect game! Scored a 10! I was in a travel ZONE! All I had to do now was take the train back to Taiyuan and this trip would be legendary! Just like when you have the last empty seat on a plane, train or bus and you hear, "Excuse me, do you mind if I sit here?" you absolutely KNOW there's a great big BUT, (butt), coming! BUUUUTTT, as she handed me my spanking new passport, then stamped the old one a couple times with her "cancelled" stamp and cut it up, she said to me, "You now have 10 days to transfer the visa." Immediately my head swam with questions and I had to rank them in order of importance because there was someone already pushing his way past me to the window. "I live in Taiyuan. Can I do this in Taiyuan?" She said, "Yes," then to the jerk behind me, "Can I help you sir?" So THAT was the only question I asked. I wanted to ask a few more like, can I even get back to Taiyuan since the train stations make you show your passport a few times before you can get on the trains? WE know I have 10 days, but will THEY know? Was my visa, which I had just renewed for two months with my trip to Korea, still valid even though it was now in a cancelled passport? Would I be able to do the 100 other things I needed to do in China that require a passport? Particularly change over to a work visa.

I had about 2 hours left before I had to check out of my hostel and head to the train station. As I exited the embassy, I texted Faith, the representative of the school sponsoring my work visa, that everything was fine except the visa transfer. But told her I could do that back in Taiyuan. I noticed the pile of dog shit as I passed it once more. Just in case, Faith called the government office in Taiyuan that the Canadian Embassy said could do the transfer and they confirmed that they could NOT do the transfer. I had to go to the office in Beijing pronto. Luckily for me, the staff at the hostel agreed to keep my bags behind the desk while I went to the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau, Exit-Entry Administration Building to get what seemed to me to be a useless procedure done. Faith told me that she had had the experience before with a foreign teacher and that teacher's passport was kept while they did it. AND it took a month. So then we started wondering what I was going to do with my old, cancelled, CHOPPED UP passport. Would I be able to get the blood tests and medical tests and all the crap needed for the work visa with my old passport? So Faith called a couple places and they said they could do the medical stuff with just a copy of my new passport. A digital copy. So I had to find a place that made digital copies. The hostel scanner was not good enough.

Long story short, one of the girls from the hostel went with me and we got the digital copy done and got to the office and filled out a form and waited in line and got to the teller who said, "Do you have the receipt for your new passport?" I hadn't brought it. I said something like, "Well of course, why wouldn't you need that?" Seriously! What in the wide, wide world of sports do you need the fucking receipt for the passport for when I have just given you the passport? With my picture on it. Taken a few days ago. Wearing the exact same shirt I had on at the time, even! But THEN she said something that invoked in me a muscle relaxation that I can't exactly explain. I know there was some surrender to stupidity, and there was some relief, some flabberghasting and a touch of gobsmackery, but I couldn't hazard a guess at the exact percentages. She said, "You don't need to transfer the visa." My translator and I BOTH wanted a second opinion and we asked another official who said that it's not necessary for the business visa. It's only necessary for visitor visas or something like that. Well, I wasn't about to argue. We got out of there before they changed their minds or the laws.

It still sticks in my craw that the girl at the Canadian embassy didn't check if I had a business or visitor's visa before giving me her totally invalid advice that I needed to transfer the visa and, yes, Taiyuan could do the transfer, AND she hadn't told me the idiotic rule of requiring the receipt for the transfer application. Maybe I SHOULD write that strongly worded letter.

But, whatever, it was a waste of a little time and taxi money. And we got a bit wet in the rain. Does that qualify as a hiccup? If it hadn't been for the stress of wondering if I could take the train home and what I could and couldn't do while they had my new passport, I wouldn't even have taken 1% off my 100% travel success. But then I got to the Beijing train station. The time wasted had postponed my buying a ticket home by just long enough that even though it was only 2 in the afternoon, I had to buy a ticket for 6:02 PM. I was ready to check out at 10 AM and would have taken an 11 o'clock train to Taiyuan, which would have gotten me HOME by 2PM. Instead, I was just buying my ticket at that time and I had a 4 hour wait. It turned out I met an Australian Chinese guy named Ming who's in the coal industry and we had a really good chat. The time passed faster. I got his card and his WeChat. Nice guy.

So I came that close to my first ever perfect trip.

These days, I am more and more keenly aware that even though I came to this city and applied for this job with considerably more money in the bank than many of the jobs I'd started in this racket, I am still broke! Since I first contacted this school I've paid for everything. The interview was a flight here, a stay at a hotel, taxi around town, food and a train back to Beijing. I've paid for two of the visa runs to Korea described above. I've paid for three months rent on my apartment and all the cleaning and supplies that were needed to make it into my home. I've paid for my food, travel and entertainment. Now I'm told that I'll be paying for the aforementioned medical tests, the flight to Hong Kong including hotel and food during my work visa run. By the time I get my work visa, I will have paid for everything but the cost of the document itself. Since the school is making far more money than I am from my teaching, you'd think it only fair for them to offer a more equitable split of the price of setting me up here. Every school in the ESL industry does! I know I'll look back at this post in a few months and I'll think I was whinging a bit, but right now I'm feeling a little ripped off. I like the offer, I realize it's a fantastic salary and I'll be making more than a lot of people over here who work longer hours and all that and I appreciate that, but... right now I feel like I'm paying the school to allow me to work for them.

Another thing that makes me a little nervous about this job is the low number of students in my classes. Don't get me wrong, I love low numbers! But I am not sure of whether I should be worried about them or not. Whether the international school is a separate part of the school or if it's funded by the THRIVING school with a couple thousand students I see exercising on the soccer field every day. I am worried about job security here. Will this job be phased out before I can even finish my contract? I am hoping to work for several years here. With this deal, I can save enough to retire at a young age. So I don't want to appear ungrateful by complaining that they're not paying their fair share of the initial fees. So I had a chat with Faith. She gave me some good advice. There is an 8000 RMB flight reimbursement that comes at the end of my 1-year contract. That's about 1600 Canadian bucks. Not bad. I am going to ask for 4000 of that in advance to help cover the work visa costs. I don't see why they wouldn't do that. And it saves me from crying for equitable treatment and losing favour.

It is another example in my evolving "At least the glass ain't ALL empty" philosophy. Yeah, they SHOULD pay more and I shouldn't pay so much. But after working a few years at the highest salary I've ever received, it's not going to matter much to me. So it's best to just not complain.

This is all contingent, of course, upon a long term stay here in Taiyuan. I know it isn't going to be the work that drives me away. I like the school and the students there. The mosquito problem I have already reduced to reasonable levels. I don't yet have friends here so it's a bit boring, but I am hoping to do some teaching in the off time in Korea, where I still have good buddies. I'd be crazy not to expect problems, but I'm still pretty hopeful about my new life here. And if I'm going to be totally honest, the amount of raw materials, oil, water, wheat, trees, minerals, who knows what China gets at ridiculously favourable rates from Canada, the number of laws Canada relaxes for China, the number of opportunities for work and education I've missed out on in Canada because privileged Chinese people filled them, and eventually forced me to work away from home, the way China has metaphorically shat on Canada just during my lifetime, and not even including my Chinese girlfriend I waited on hand and foot who gave so very little back, I think China owes me this. If I lose this job I'm going to Beijing to that strip of grass surrounding the Canadian Embassy, which is always festooned with various shades, ages and consistencies of dog shit and I'm going to find an offending pet owner, pick up his dog's doo-doo and do to him the reverse of what his dog did to a little strip of Canada. I hope it never comes to that.

Star Dreck

The above is a short scene from the despicable TV show, The Shark Tank. Every time I watch it or the Dragon's Den I see how easy it would be to make money if I had money. In every episode you see people who are smart and talented and have business savvy, but it's not the sharks or dragons, it's the people whose ideas are stolen. The Simpsons recently did a spoof in their episode called "Havana Wild Weekend" that included the show, "The Vulture's Nest," in which Mr. Burns, the Texas oil man, Lindsay Neagle (the cliché female C.E.O type A personality), and H.K. Duff are the investors. The tag line for the show is, "The Vulture's Nest: Where billionaires swoop down on your investments and peck out the eyes." Milhouse and his Dad are on with an idea for a retainer that looks like gangsta bling teeth. Lindsay Neagle offers 3 hours of her time for 90% and a second later says, "Too late! 95%!" At the end of the show Homer makes a pitch for toilet breakfasts and Burns offers him no money for 100% of his company because there is no doubt that he developed the idea on Mr. Burns' time.

As always, I agree with the Simpsons. That's how I see those TV shows. The above episode is a bit of a departure in that a good human being gets money to help others. Now I don't know if the investor that partnered up with the farmer raised the price of the Tree Teepee to 12 bucks or not, but Kevin O'Leary would have. He would have charged at LEAST that! I recently read a little list of things Kit Thornton is tired of and one he mentioned was, "we believe in the “right” of rich douchebags to charge as much as, and more than, the market will bear." I don't believe in that right, the farmer in this video doesn't believe in that right, but, as he shakes his head in derision at the 4:40 mark of the video, you can tell Kevin O'Leary thinks it's a no brainer. Ironically, this is what passes as smart business in this day and age.

Another "smart" businessman, Donald Poindexter Trump agrees.

This is NOT smart business, it's what is slowly killing our planet. But neither Trump, nor O'Leary are going to go down in history for their intellect. I just love the part at the end when O'Leary tries to hone in on some of the sweet, sweet love that emanated from this man he just tried to put the screws to and says, "Tell your Dad he's a great man!" Well the guy's Dad is dead and that is what he answered. But that giant foot in his mouth doesn't deter O'Leary from desperately trying to keep himself from looking like the fool he's proving he is. "Well he's STILL a great man!" he says. Wow, nice catch, Kevin! You don't have to be smart to make lots of money. Mattel Toy Company thought Kevin O'Leary was smart and bought his company SoftKey, which resulted in losses and lawsuits but it made him a multi millionaire. Screwing Mattel is what got him on TV.

He was on celebrity Jeopardy once. He lost BIG to Green Bay Packers QB, Aaron Rodgers. Let's see, do I have a photo of that? Oh yes I do!

Not taking anything away from Aaron Rodgers, but, man that's gotta hurt! Particularly when you write your name as Kevin Mr. Wonderful! What a bozo!

When on TV on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, he says he gets back at the station for the ridiculousness of making him work for women by wearing no pants. And, while he doesn't grab the jean model on the Dragon's Den "by the pussy," he does grab her ass. He's an obvious Donald Trump wannabe. The only thing he could do now to be more like the object of his broner, would be to run for office. This mental giant with degrees in environmental studies, psychology and entrepreneurship, announced his candidacy for leader of the Conservative Party of Canada in January of this year.

I'm not the only one who has noticed the connection. Here he is exhibiting what my new friend, Kit Thornton would call, "The scathing rebuke of the politically illiterate." Singing the praises of his hero, Donald Dipshit Trump and how he's making America great again by cutting carbon taxes and corporate taxes to attract investors. PLEASE READ THIS ARTICLE. I've posted it before on my blog but the message hasn't reached my country yet. It's written by someone who IS politically literate and who cares about Canadians. It is saying exactly the opposite of what O'Leary is blathering about. O'Leary doesn't care about Canadians. He thinks they're all stupid enough to believe that giving big corporations tax breaks will help Canada's oil industry. He thinks we're empty-headed enough to believe even if it did, regular Canadians would somehow benefit from it and not just the super rich. He thinks we're braindead enough to believe that what he did on the Shark Tank and the Dragon's Den was tell the truth to investors. And he thinks Canadians are so irretrievably stunned that we'd vote for him.

78% corporate tax rates, folks. That's what Norway charged and people still drilled there. This snake oil salesman is trying to make himself and his rich buddies in Canada and other countries even richer. And he's trying to screw regular Canadians to do it. Just think what he'd do as Prime Minister. Now I'm not saying Trudeau is perfect. I'm not even saying he hasn't employed a tactic or two in common with Trumplestiltskin.

Where's the electoral reform? Where's the tax reform? Why does he show such compassion for the native people of Canada one day then give a long speech about why we need the oil pipelines they, (and all the politically literate people of Canada) hate? Where's the legal marijuana?

Having said that, at least he's better than Trump North would be. Is this what politics is coming to? Just find the biggest pecuniary psych-job you can to lead the country? People with high levels of greed are sick. Money addiction is a disease. This is a realization the world ignores at its own peril. They need to be put into rehab or jail or at least be diagnosed and treated for their psychological dysfunction. It is unhealthy for any human being to think they NEED a billion dollars. If a person actually believes he needs more, why, we put that person in charge of an important company or country in the world. Trump and O'Leary are fun to make fun of and make jokes about, but in all seriousness, how long before it's not funny any more?

Both are TV Stars and both are, in my opinion, pieces of human trash. Their four-year political missions: to boldly go where no moron has gone before them. To get us into space before they destroy the earth. So here's another joke. Let's enjoy the laughter while we can. Star Dreck. My first meme. Oh well, you can find it on facebook.

Some of my best writing is just comments on other posts

This seems to be the only way I can post a video. So if I figure a way of putting my apartment video onto YouTube, then I will be able to upload it here. I'll add it to my last post. THIS post, however, will be about some other stuff. The video above was a chance occurrence for me. I got onto YouTube and it suggested this video for me. I don't know why. I have a curiosity about human behaviour, especially the extreme type like the psychopaths/sociopaths, so I have watched a few of their stories on YouTube. I also have this belief that the psychopathic serial killer can give us a lot of insight into the kind of mental deviants that I think are far more dangerous: the C.E.O., captain of industry, Donald Shithead Trump type of sociopath. I don't think there is that much difference between the two and often wonder if one wasn't screwing people out of billions, would he be serial killing? Or does he derive some sick pleasure out of knowing that he IS serial killing, however indirectly? I could be wrong but I think the psychopaths are the ones who kill people and they ARE sociopathic, and the sociopaths, (a nicer sounding word), are just destroying the world, killing far more people, but they wear business suits, not leather or hockey masks.

I guess that's how this came up. So I decided to find out what Ted Bundy had to say for his last words and a lot of my opinions were strongly reinforced. Watch the interview. It's a great example of how these guys are not dummies. Now, Trump, and this is actually in his defence, may not be smart enough to be a full blown sociopath, but if you look at Bundy, look into the studies and read people who are experts in the field, they'll tell you the same. Sociopaths are usually very smart. And they KNOW it. They want to SHOW it to themselves and to the world. This is almost always how they get caught. Their egos. This guy who has raped and killed several people actually had me feeling a little bit sorry for him for a little while. He blamed it all on pornography and the craving for pornography, sexual violence and more and more extreme amounts of it. That's how addiction works. I heard that Elton John was flying over some mountains covered in snow and he said that that was about how much coke he'd sniffed. He was snorting it every 6 minutes I think I heard. Because you just aren't satisfied, you need more and more. That's what Bundy was carefully explaining. And he used a lot of textbook manipulation, things that are used by con artists, politicians and used car salesmen the world over to shape the softened, under exercised minds of average folks.

But here's what prompted this post: I have been wondering how much, how should I say this... attention I get when I put stuff on the internet. Being in China I know that my computer is monitored just like every single computer in the country. But with so many of them, just how closely is it monitored? And I wonder that about other sites all around the internet. Three days ago I posted a comment on this video something to the effect of:

Wouldn't it be nice if people could see some literature depicting clothed people doing nice things to each other, then become addicted and crave more and more fully clothed people committing graphic acts of kindness? And soon become so hooked on decency that they go on mass sprees of good deeds? This doesn't happen as often. Why not? Because there's no power in being nice. In fact it's giving power to other people. A person has to first like graphic sex, rape, violence and killing to want more and more of it. The pornography didn't make Bundy like these things and crave more and more of them, it's pretty roundly accepted that it's the selfish lust for the power that comes with them that is the attraction for people who do these things. And the narcissism that makes people think so highly of themselves that they believe they somehow DESERVE the power over their inferior victims. Often it is a feeling of superior intelligence. (Jeffery Dahmer drilled holes in the heads of some of his victims and poured acid into the holes in attempts to create sexual zombies that were completely in his power.) Let's not forget, Bundy'd been in jail for a long time and a few stays of execution before this interview, so he'd had years and years to perfect this snow job he gave Dr. Dobson. Along with the hours and hours in front of a mirror perfecting just the right pained expression to paste on his face when the victims and victims' families were mentioned. And he almost had me identifying with him up until the point when a phone rang in the background and for an instant his entire demeanor, not to say mask, was dropped. I thought he was going to crack a joke! But within a second he got back into character. He also used textbook manipulative tactics like saying how he "harmed" people rather than savagely raped and killed them and destroyed untold numbers of lives in the process. The cliché conversion to Christianity when you are put on Death Row, (or in the Whitehouse). And he acted like he was overwhelmed by grief and couldn't even talk about the 12-year-old he raped and murdered. No, he just knew there was no way this little project of his could maintain any credibility if he tried to talk about that. I guess his God complex hadn't reached the heights of omnipotence necessary to think he could sway public opinion on THAT particular count. So the less said the better. Then the old, "I'm not bad, I'm sick. I need help," ploy. Which must be accompanied by the, "I take full responsibility. I'm not claiming I'm innocent," con. Closely followed by the, "BUT, I don't take full responsibility and I AM innocent," gambit. All very well played. His purpose for this can't be known, but I guess it was just one last way for him to feel smarter than other people before he got the chair. The whole time he had to be thinking, "People are STILL stupid enough to believe me! I AM the greatest!" At the end of my comment I mentioned how several times he says that he wants to make clear he's not innocent but then explains how he's not totally guilty. It's like the old, "No offense, but...(proceed to offend)" Why do we fall for this? I guess I should have started this comment with, "I want to make clear that I don't think Ted Bundy was a sociopathic, selfish, power-hungry, sadistic, guilty as sin piece of garbage who deserved what he got, but...

When I checked the video today, to see if anyone responded, all comments had been disabled.

Now, the comment before mine had been posted some 4 months before I seem to recall. And while I don't remember exactly what I posted, (the above is probably better worded), I do recall that the comments were very infrequent. SO, I have to assume it was MY comment that made someone suspend them all and I am wondering what the reason might have been.

Here's another video I commented on:

https://youtu.be/D9rr640Hx1Q

I've heard VPN's are quickly disappearing here in China and I won't be able to access the sites that are not freely allowed such as Google, Facebook, and others I want. Right now when I use my internet without the VPN it's great. But with it, it's crap. I talked with a rep from Pure VPN and they pretty much told me it doesn't work. See last post. So I tried to find out some information by watching this little vid. It hit a nerve that has been tweaked a few times before so I thought I'd make a first attempt at putting it into words. And this is what I posted:

Here's a question: What's the difference between "transparency" and "theft of intellectual property?" Is it just point of view? If I look at the massive American businesses that China is limiting, I have to think, "Well, they ARE American businesses." Even in America people want to know how the super businesses get super rich and, I'm just going to say never here because it's close enough, they're never without their dodginess. Even their president, who is the poster boy for American business, won't release his tax information. So Americans trying to keep business or politicians honest are said to be calling for increased transparency. What I'm wondering is how much of China's Great Firewall is this and how much is straight theft of intellectual property? And how different are they? The cheating and stealing techniques ARE intellectual property, aren't they? Donald Trump's secret accounts in the Cayman Islands are his intellectual property, aren't they? To put the question in a more cynical way, are American businesses just upset that China is stealing their best methods of screwing the world and getting rich?

The whole post I entitled positive negativity and a lot of my attitude that I think will make this new workplace more successful was inspired by a comment I posted in answer to my Filipino friend's question about glass half empty and half full types of thinking. I read it and a wave of philosophy warshed over me like darkness over the Dude! I now had a way of describing this positive negativity in another way. I think I posted something like, "There are glass half full, and glass half empty people. As I get older I am becoming an, 'At least the glass isn't ALL empty' person." Why, just today I was asked about my next visit to Korea. I replied that I need to get my work visa here processed in about 10 days or I will need to leave and get my other visa renewed. Then I can take a little trip to Korea. Either way the worst thing that could happen will be something gums up the works and the work visa will be delayed. No surprise. It will be expected. AND, bonus visit to Korea! I am planning people to visit, things to do and things to buy. Sure it's money out of pocket that could have been avoided but if you plan for the worst, you can make it not so worst??? My new philosophy.

And then the other day I was looking at someone's post about one of the ever growing stable of douchebags in Trump's G.O.P. shooting his mouth off discriminating, being called a racist and claiming that just means he's winning the argument. Or maybe it was Ted Nugent. I forget. But I started thinking about how ignorant and racist it was and then I just thought about the origins of racism and the actual word. What the hell does it mean exactly. It's just another word almost everybody uses, I just used, and almost nobody knows, I don't know, what it actually means. If we did, we wouldn't use it. Here's what I wrote:


Think about this for a second: In the 18th century, people were divided by a German, (maybe not surprising), anthropologist into five ridiculous races: Caucasian (white), Mongolian (yellow?), Malayan (brown), Ethiopian (black), and American (red?). The Caucasus region includes India. Not many white people there. Where do the people of Europe fit in? Germans? Homer Simpson actually IS yellow unlike any of the people I've met from the "Mongolian" region. He's not Mongolian. I have a good buddy who has Down's Syndrome, which some folks used to call Mongoloid because they saw some resemblance to Mongolians. He's not yellow. I've never met a red American. Having said all this it embarrasses me to say that I've been forced to fill out forms, IMPORTANT forms, on which I have had to check "Caucasian" as my race.
So is a "racist" just a person winning an argument? I've been called racist a few times and in every case it was by a person who chose ignorance over facts about people from other cultures.
A Caucasian is a drink, a delicious drink, nothing more. A race is a sport. Any use of these terms otherwise is pure ignorance. But that's just... like... my opinion, man.

This was also brought on by my filling out of forms for my Canadian passport. In a nation that prides itself on multiculturalism, to still have any forms with questions about race is embarrassing. I think I remember quite a long time ago, while I was still in university, a big fuss about this on the Canadian census. I thought we wiped it out back then. Then I saw this vid:

https://youtu.be/U8wuCkfGphU

55% of adults have degrees? The most educated country on earth? Third largest oil reserves, 20% of the world's fresh water IN ONE PROVINCE? Trees everywhere, mining everywhere, riches beyond any country, and yet, a population lower than Tokyo to divide those riches amongst! 18% of these degree holders are unemployed in Canada. And another percentage, including me, have to find work in other countries. Needless to say, I had a little bit to say about THIS post. It's quite possible that given these statistics, the high tax rates in Canada, and I'm sure others we are unaware of, we probably rank number one in another category: citizens most royally FUCKED by their country. I've used Norway as the best example. They just have the oil and not nearly so much. But everybody there has a job and a million dollar pension. Why? Because the riches of Norway were given to the people of Norway. The resources of Canada get sucked out of our country. Look at what Nestle did to the aforementioned water in Ontario! During a drought! With forest fires burning! So I don't know if I really should be that surprised at being asked my race. Canada discriminates against its own people! The only people who matter to government are their customers. Who are their customers? Why, lobbyists representing big business foreign and domestic. If you don't believe Canada is a corporation READ THIS closely. "Lobbyist" is a euphemism for a customer who is buying a government.

So we've come full circle. Since Canada is being run as a corporation by corporations and has been for some time now, since corporations are run by sociopaths who think they are WAY more wonderful than you and deserve WAAAAAAY more money and happiness, since discrimination is as prevalent in corporate sociopaths as pornography in psychopaths, I'm just wondering if the world doesn't need a healthy round of political and corporate big wigs tried and sentenced to the exact same thing Bundy got. There's a reason why the only video I posted was the Bundy one. Watch it! He would have made a hell of a politician, car salesman, C.E.O., lawyer, news reporter, or any other profession in which lying is central. When you watch Trump speak, does he seem more sane? When I watch Justin Trudeau speak about why Canada needs to continue building pipelines that suck even MORE of Canadians' legacy right out of Canada while destroying the beauty of the country that belongs to us, because I'm not a foolish girl watching a Disney Prince, I can see that he's full of shit. Just as full of shit as Bundy. And he probably gets off on knowing how badly average people are being screwed and that HE is the genius that can placate them and convince them to bend over and ask for more. AND SAY PLEASE! If you still don't see how wonderful he thinks he is, you haven't been paying attention. But what are the options? It looks like maybe Kevin O'Leary, basically Trump North, a fucking piece of dog shit might be J.T.'s replacement. You want to see him in action? WATCH THIS!

"Fuck water conservation, fuck the farmers, concentrate on the money!" When they ask why only 5 dollars and he answers that he's working with farmers, look at his face. "What a shmuck!" is exactly what he's thinking. You make it for 2 bucks, you gotta sell it for 12! THIS is the kind of thinking that is ruining the world and indirectly killing people. It gets people into positions of power and government, but it shouldn't. Then the WORST part is when this shithead who just said no to this guy, and probably wanted to call someone who could steal this idea immediately after the show, says, "Tell your father he's a great man!" "I want to kill millions of men just like him but tell him I love him." You want THAT soulless fuck even LIVING in our country spreading his disease?

Try them all and see if they're worthy of positions of power or the electric chair. It's just so crazy, it might work! I am sort of leaning toward NOT supporting capital punishment, but I believe that some crimes are of such magnitude that it is sometimes warranted. Politicians and captains of industry who are causing poverty, climate change, starvation, slavery, pollution and general misery worldwide affect more people than serial killers. Their crimes are far greater. So if we give Bundy the chair, we should fry Kevin O'Leary too?

Okay, it's a bit extreme. But we can at the very least do what Korea did. If we have these assholes who think they're untouchable once they've placed themselves in positions of power basically thumbing their noses at us and DARING us to do anything about their corruption, let's do it. I believe it's our duty. Problem is, where do you find a replacement? You use the same broken system for that. If we only understood what a billion dollars is, we'd all agree that NObody should have that much money. It is an affront to common decency for anyone to have more and if you can PROUDLY state that you have more than a billion, you are a mentally ill human being. There are, according to Forbes Magazine, 540 billionaires just in the U.S. They could solve all the problems of the world, let alone just their own country, with their pocket change! That is NOT an exaggeration! But, like Uncle Elty and his coke, they feel they need more and more and MORE. And this is Forbes Magazine. You NEVER get the ACTUAL number in Forbes, just the legal ones.

It's a sad world controlled by sick human beings. But to end on a note of positive negativity, I'm going to continue treating people like brothers and sisters instead of competitors and enemies the way our rulers want us to. And I hope love will someday conquer the world. Right now greed is winning. Greed and hate. Selfishness and lust for power. Killing and porn, politics and discrimination. Where is the love the love the love????

I don't agree with all of this and it's not all factual, but it's fairly close to how I feel.

My New Place

Well folks, I took a video of the new place but am unable to upload it to this blog. I am positive I've uploaded vids before but now can't. I go online for help and get the idiot treatment. "You go to your blog, click on the icon that says upload a video. It's got a movie camera pic. Then you..." Wait a sec, there IS no icon on my blog for uploading movies. I'm sure I remember it being there at one point. Now it's just not. "Oh sure it is. You just aren't looking in the right place. It's right beside the picture icon to upload pics. See it? It's there." No it's NOT there.

I've sent messages to several blogger help places, left messages on chat boards, everything, but nobody else in the world seems to have this problem. I even seem to remember this problem going away for a short time and being happy that I could upload vids again. But now it's returned. But this is just the start of my technology problems. I am typing away here only because I have a VPN. For those who don't know, that's a way to give your computer a false IP address from another country. Because of China's REAL great wall, its FIREwall, I can't use any Google sites, Facebook or this blog without a VPN. So I pay 10 bucks a month for that service. You need to find a country and contact a server in it, then you will get a fake IP address and you're off to the races. Some countries never work at all, and some are usually good. I find Saudi, Azerbaijan, Finland, Norway, sometimes Australia, NZ or the U.S. to be good. But I'd been in the Beijing hostel for so long and the wifi there was such crap that I figured the VPN wasn't the problem. I just had a trickle of wifi so that's why most countries didn't work. And when the above countries DID work, the service would only last 30 seconds at a time before I'd be searching for another country. It was a real pain in the arse! One of many I had in Beijing.

But now I'm in Taiyuan. I bought my own high speed internet, got a powerful, brand new 450 megabyte router hooked up and now I'm blazing right along! Right? Well... no. I still go to facebook and watch the page load pixel by pixel. I can't stream. Downloads take forever. I try to watch sports highlights but 1 second of vid followed by 10-20 seconds of waiting for the next second of vid gets pretty hard to watch. I usually don't make it through the highlights. Same goes for vids people upload to facebook. The VPN doesn't time out every 30 seconds but usually I get the minimum mbps. A thin flat line across the bottom of the graph. I check my wifi and it says either "good" or "excellent" strength. There are almost always three full bars on the little wifi strength meter. Yet I try to play the one game I play, Simpsons Tapped Out, and it takes about 20 minutes to load. When I finally get going it's not long before I lose the connection and have to try to regain it again. I find things to do while I'm waiting. I'll turn on the hot water for a shower, turn on my Kindle and select the Simpsons game, then that'll give me time to have some breakfast while I wait. If the game hasn't turned on before I'm finished breakfast, I take my shower. Then hopefully after the shower I'll be able to play until I get booted. Who knows how long that'll be? Yes the days of good internet in Korea may have spoiled me, but I KNOW the shit internet I have here is not normal.

Here's the thing: it WAS better when I first got here. It was better when I first got to the hostel in Beijing too. It deteriorates. Almost like Big Chinese Brother is watching me and limiting my bandwidth.

But, at least it's usable. I'm getting stuff from my ESL websites again and I can keep in touch with folks on Facebook. Those are the main things. The new place is pretty good. It was a dusty, dirty mess when I moved into it but I saw potential. Yeah, ALL the places I looked at were dusty, dirty messes. That's how the landlords here sell them. And expect a year's rent up front! When you have a huge market, I guess you get away with crap like that. Not like the new flooring and wall paper you normally expect in Korean apartments. Although, if you'll go back several posts, the last two places I was at in Korea were dusty, dirty, (and moldy), messes. So I guess the landlords are keeping up with the hagwon owners and expecting more while giving less. The glory days are over. Here at least I have a better contract than I can get in Korea. But I'm starting to really worry about this apartment.

I have spent my first month here cleaning, scrubbing, demolding, dusting, washing, organizing and figuring things out in the apartment and it's feeling pretty comfortable. I'm in the smaller bedroom now because I don't have a mattress for the big bed in the big bedroom yet. But that's on order. I'm cooking meals every day here and that's a HUGE step up from the hostel where I ate mostly sandwiches. Wasn't allowed to cook there. I also didn't have a fridge. The one I have here also needed to be demolded and cleaned but it's working and I can now have a COLD glass of juice or water or, (THANK GOD), beer. Like everything in China, I have to settle. The beer is not very good here. In fact it sucks. The taste is fine but I don't want to get bloated on 10 beer before I feel a buzz, know what I'm saying? So I usually buy the German dark beers, which, even here, are expensive and STILL not the kind of beer I like. The food I am eating is much better than the sandwiches but again I have to settle a lot. The other day I had some Russian spaghetti noodles that were absolutely gross! How do you fuck up spaghetti, Russia? Yuptvoyu mat! And I ordered some cardboardy parmesan cheese online here. Again, very expensive. Bread is not the best and meat is a challenge. Some things are surprisingly scarce here like tea, normal tea, I have to hunt for. Soy sauce! They have a million kinds but I just want the regular soy sauce and still haven't found which brand that is. Cheese is a luxury and butter is not common. My kingdom for some basil! And I'll tell you what, the Chinese food ain't so hot here. It's nothing like the Chinese food I have grown to love in Canada. I used to wonder at my students in Korea when I asked if they liked Chinese food. They would often answer that it's too oily. Of course there are still those in Korea who think the Chinese eat three things, but I digress. I am actually on their side now. Chinese Chinese food IS too oily! If you get fried rice or chow mien, eat it ALL while it's hot. When it cools off you notice how disgustingly oily it is.

There was a little restaurant a few doors down from the hostel where Allan and I used to eat once in a while. Convenient. It was just a hole in a cement wall with plastic stools and I think 5 tables if that. VERY rustic. Well one time Allan and I were eating there and the security, I think it was the MPS, Ministry of Public Security, pulled a pick-up truck up to the doors and stormed in. One guy barked at the restaurant owner and cook while about half a dozen others started removing furniture and fixtures and throwing them into the back of the truck. We just kept eating. Awkwardly. The owner didn't seem too worried. He never said a thing to either of us on our many visits but this time he smiled and sort of communicated for us not to be worried. I guess he hadn't paid his "taxes," or whatever they're called. But he remained casual the whole time. UNTIL somebody grabbed his big wok and his giant can of oil. Then he put up some resistance. Without the oil the restaurant wasn't a restaurant.

I have found some things that are good. Milk, luckily, I have found but at a price. More than 3 bucks for a litre. I know that's normal price but this is China here. Most of the bread is cake but you can find some good bread if you look hard enough. I have farm fresh eggs, fruit and veggies just across the street from me. And the lady who runs the place seems like someone I'd like to talk to. Her hands are obviously those of a farmer. And you can't beat her prices. I can get everything I need for stirfries except the meat. And I can get the meat, bread and butter at another place close by. I have my staples, it's just a few things I will miss. But as I get more familiar with the local cuisine, I'll need the staples less. I found a place in Burnaby when I lived there where they made chicken chow mien that is making my mouth water just thinking of it now. Hopefully I'll find something like that here.

I found some Raisin Bran the other day. A tiny box was 5 bucks. With the expensive milk on it I feel like I'm dining at the Ritz! I went to the only pizza place I have found so far besides Pizza Hut, which is expensive and not good. I say not good because all the pizzas they have are abnormal, Asian types with stupid toppings like squid, mustard, spam and such. This place I went was called "Margrita's" so I reckoned I could get a Margherita pizza there at least. Then I saw the website, "maglita@..." and wondered. Sure enough there wasn't a normal pizza on the menu. I asked several of my students if they know what pepperoni is and they don't. So I selected a Brazilian Barbecue pizza because I thought it might be close to normal. It was crap. The crust was a soft cookie, the sauce was spicy ketchup and the toppings were unidentifiable. Except for the corn! There's gotta be corn! I think I'll just settle for an expensive Pizza Hut pizza next time.

But I'm sure I'll work that stuff out. The BIG problem I think I'm going to have is one I'm plagued with year after year over here AND at home: mosquitos. It's still winter here. Below zero at night. I opened a few windows yesterday, with fully intact, sealed screens on all of them, and tonight I killed 6 mosquitos. Two of them woke me up at 3:30 and were full of my blood when I smacked them. It's February THIRD!!! I shudder to think what will happen in the summer! So yeah, it's 5:30 now and I've been up for a couple hours. What did I do in that time? Why, I decided to try to get a VPN for my Kindle. As I said, I already have a VPN. So it should be easy to just get the ap for the Kindle, flash 'er up and get going. But again, this is China. I go to the VPN site and log in. That works! I'm all happy because I thought the site would be blocked or my password wouldn't work. I've had the usual username and password woes with my VPN provider. Always! Always. So there's an ap for androids. I click download to get it and we go to the Google ap store. Everything Google is blocked in China. So I'm at the usual impasse. I need a VPN to download a VPN. And the help website is also blocked. However, I've learned through much trial and tribulation, that there is online help for my VPN in the homepage on a chat box. I open the chat box and ask for a way around the Great Firewall of China. I am given a link. I click it and get a warning that this program could damage my Kindle. I ignore that and keep going. The download starts. Should be a cinch with my speedy internet. Nope. It says, "Unknown time remaining on download," then stops at about 21%. I retry and it stops at 50 or something. I try a couple more times and finally after half an hour I got it! YAY!

So I start it up. It's different than the VPN I use for my desktop. Same company just different looking. But I go to the usual countries. Azerbaijan - waiting for server reply, Saudi Arabia - waiting for server reply, Norway - waiting for server reply, you get the idea. It doesn't work yet. So I will have to chat with the chatbox some more. I just don't want to. Instead, I decided to write this blog post and whine about it.

So there. No movie of my new place, no pics because the good camera I have is on my phone and that's where I have all my good pics. Unfortunately but certainly not unexpectedly, the phone is a device not recognized by my computer so I can't put them on it and then upload them to this blog. IF I could get the VPN to work on my phone, I could upload them from there, but same problem as the Kindle. So you'll have to imagine the place. Oh, and why can't I just take pics with the Kindle? Oddly enough, the movies are fine, but the pics are terrible. This is the clearest pic I could get of some of my interior decorations.

So there you have it. My new place. Pretty nice, eh? I'm goin' back to bed.

P.S. So I DID go back to bed and slept well. No more mozzies. When I awoke, I lived a very interesting addendum to this post. I got onto my VPN again, which is PURE VPN by the way and it's costing me 10 US dollars a month, and I told the new guy in the chat box, Jade, how I couldn't get it to work. I told him I was from China. He then asks what messages I was getting when I tried to connect. One was "connecting to server" again and again every country I tried, and then when I changed to the "TPC" setting I got "connecting TPC... reconnecting TPC... reconnecting TPC" ad infinitum no matter which country I tried. So I explained this to him and Jade says, "TPC won't work in China." Okay so I ask if I need to use the other setting and he replies, "No that won't work in China either." So I ask why the other person, who knew I was in China, would send me the link to this useless ap. He asks if the other guy knew I was in China. I said yes. Then he wrote something that was beautiful. I tried to copy it all down but he closed the conversation box before I could finish. Here's the beginning,

"Well it does not work in China however in some cases it might work. Honestly you can try different modes and server but OpenVPN might not work for if that..."

I could tell before this that English wasn't this guy's native tongue. He got the job with passable English skills and probably very good computer skills. At the end of all these conversations they ask the client to rate how helpful they were. I assume this makes a difference to their wages. I probably would have given Jade a thumbs up because, while he WAS trying to do the corporate thing in the end to try to get my thumbs up and maybe defend his colleague and company, he did a poor job of it. My guess is that he's from a country that hasn't yet fully committed to the screw-everybody-but-me corporate culture that dominates the countries we proudly, however euphemistically call "developed." The other people were trying to keep me wasting my time banging my head against the wall trying to get this useless program to work long enough to receive a payment or two more. Which I'm sure they have been trained to do. He also said that if I am using Microsoft I may have some success by opening up the new "Hotspot" function and selecting "Stealth" mode. In stealth mode, which is a bit more complicated because you need to sign in as an administrator, there are only a few countries available to get the fake IP address. I tried them all and none worked. At the hostel AND here with my flashy new internet hook-up. So that's just another wild goose chase.

Bottom line: don't use Pure VPN. They're crooks. And the service was terrible long before this. Every time I try to pay them I need to use support and they have to reset my password to what it always has been and never explain to me how the hell it got changed. I'm done with them. Who needs them? So if anyone has a decent VPN to suggest, please do so. Thank you for your support.