As a writer, I notice little things in life that everyone notices, and I try to put them on paper in a way that might be unique. 171 and a half thousand words in the English language and everybody seems to communicate mostly in sentences we've all said about that many times in our lives. Good morning; good afternoon; good evening; good night; how are you; I am fine, thank you and you; stop putting things up there if you want them back, you know, all the things we say just about every day. I admit, I stole that joke from Bojack too. It's about the best show in the world right now. A little dark and sweary for some, but I love it. I reckon being a writer for a show like that would be about the best job in the world. But I know there's as much chance of that happening as the Trumponator owning his baldness.
I'd be out of place in that world I think. I have no problem with any drug use, if it only affects the user. I just choose not to do that with the one and only exception of alcohol. Of course I am talking about mind altering drugs that are practically an essential part of the Hollywood, (or Hollywoo), scene. I wouldn't want to put myself into that environment. I think I could handle the temptation, (I could be wrong), but I doubt I'd want to deal with the depressing drug culture in which friends go in and out of rehab, or just become junkies depending on income. And, like in Bojack, eventually die tragically. If the show is written from experience, the writers room probably looks like a pharmacy.
That's not for me. I'm better way over here in Asia where there really ARE no drugs other than alcohol unless you're into huffing adhesives. And booze is the only crutch I need to deal with this nightmarish world. Oh it IS a nightmare, folks. Most of us are well trained to believe it's not, against all evidence to the contrary. It's astounding how that can happen! I think it might be kids. We maintain this obligation to procreate even though every single kid we pump out is nothing more than another person in line, another car in traffic, another shopping cart blocking the supermarket aisle, another person in the hospital waiting room, another consumer of resources. They're exactly what the world doesn't need. But maybe we keep cranking them out at Apocalyptic rates because they keep us from giving up on the world.
And without any cultural or geographic barriers, we all raise them to be what we all should be. Share with others; don't be selfish; be honest; just get along; be kind; be generous; think of others; love good; hate bad. Then, somewhere around adolescence, they watch the Princess Bride for the first time. "Life IS pain, Highness! Anyone who tells you different is selling something." WOAH! Truth bomb! Then they work their hardest and don't make the team. Then they don't find a date for the prom. Then they get a job and their boss cheats them. Then a friend screws them over. Slowly but surely, unless they are children of privilege or incredibly lucky, these beautiful, little people begin to realize that saying your prayers and taking your vitamins is as disingenuous advice as the fake hero, (Hulk Hogan), who delivered it.
And how about the Hulkster in politics? It could work! "You wanna take your shirt off, Putin? OK, let's play team politics, brother! You can be shirts and I'll be skins!" Then he could tear off his shirt.
"And whatchagonnado when the largest arms in the world, (24 inch python kisses), and the largest military in the world, run wild on you??!!" Ha ha ha, scenes we'd like to see...
Anyhoo, children lose their precious innocence as they find out that living a Disney life won't get you far in this evil world. It will get you taken advantage of. This is the hardest thing in the world for me to observe. It kills me inside. And I only see this happen in OTHER people's kids. I would hate to have to see my kid converted to the dark side.
But I have my workaround. Even though I can't raise a kid and try to shelter him/her as long as possible from reality, I CAN get away from the evils of the world in a few ways. I like spending time with kids and sucking up all the innocence and honesty I can. I also find spiritual succor in nature. It too is honest, clean, pure and although it can be harsh, predators killing prey for survival is Sunday school compared to the avarice that fuels the evil in our world.
But there aren't a lot of kids I can hang out with or soothing, natural retreats in the cities where I've been in China. So, I drink. I find more and more I need a little help to focus on the positive things in life. Or maybe more accurately, to lose focus on the negatives. Alcohol can usually do that. Not always, but I find it is more often than not, worth the hangover if I can have a night of feeling like an innocent child taking pleasure in things without the requisite thoughts of, "What's the angle here?" or "Who's profiting from this?" or "What's the catch?" Drinking tends to knock the edge off my healthy skepticism defence mechanism. I think this happens to a lot of us, which is why we tend to meet more people and even hook up with lovers when we're drunk. Imagine a world in which we could meet people easily, even get laid easily, WHILE SOBER! All we need to do is maintain our innocence, trust, honesty and live like children our whole lives. But there are always going to be selfish assholes who look at an environment like that with dollar signs in their eyes. Or, in my case, RMB signs. Which isn't an S, it's not even an R, it's a Y for Yuen. Or maybe it's a Y for why can't they just choose a name for their money and stick with it? Renminbee, Yuen, Quai? But then again, Pound, Shilling, Guinea, Quid, what the hell's going on there?
If you've been following, you know my latest example of this: Huasheng. They are STILL at it! Payday was 3 weeks ago and I still haven't received anything. They DID lose another girl though. Doris quit, as I told her she would, as all the others in her position have. They work a month or so, find out Huasheng isn't going to pay them, then they quit. So there's a new gal nicknames Candice. She's the 10th person in 10 months in her position. Now it's HER job to try to convince me to "handle the procedures for the resignation." Poor kid!
She sent me a text asking if I wanted to go with her to the "Exit-Entry Administration Bureau." I didn't get the details, but I assume she wants me to sign the fumpee end of contract contract and use it to cancel my residence status, foreign professional certificate or my work visa. This, in all likelihood, would mean I would have a month to leave the country. I still have to work for more than a month here at TUST. Huasheng knows this, but, as I've told the representatives of this school repeatedly, and may FINALLY be getting through to them, Huasheng doesn't give a shit! They will gladly screw TUST too. Just for the perverse pleasure of piling a little bit more inconvenience and suffering onto the massive pile they've already given me. Where in nature, other than man, can you find such evil?
Candice also mentioned that she "heard I will be leaving China in January." That got my healthy skepticism a-whirring! Where could she have heard this? I have a very good idea. And I'm only on my second beer so it's grating on me a bit. I have a theory. The girl in the office here in charge of payroll, Cindy, talks to Huasheng. She lied to them before and cost me money. She told them that classes here are 45 minutes. They're not. They're 50 minutes, but based on this lie, Huasheng got about 6 or 7 more classes a month out of me. Thanks to Cindy. She is also the one who, "FORGOT" to pay me for my hours in August. Well finally, after three months of hounding, and after referencing it in my letter of resignation, "I am still awaiting my pay for August, but other than that, TUST has treated me fairly...", on my December 1st paycheck there was a little extra. I think I finally got paid for August. Which probably, (hopefully), came out of Cindy's pocket.
Well by NO coincidence, Friday after payday at exactly 5 PM when Cindy leaves the office, my internet was shut off. There is nobody here all weekend so even though I informed the proper people about the problem, it wasn't fixed until it was too late to plan my lessons for the week. I also went the whole weekend without internet, or phone since I have "foreigner's" 4G data and it doesn't work unless there's wifi nearby. For a guy like me in a boring place like Taiyuan, that sucks. I couldn't watch hockey or even check the scores. I couldn't chat with friends. I couldn't blog. And now I'm hearing that SOMEBODY'S been talking about me leaving the country in January. It's funny that someone knows that because I don't even know that. It's possible, but not likely. I certainly don't have any definite plans to do that! But Cindy was at her desk when I had a meeting with David and George and gave my resignation. She probably THOUGHT she heard something that she didn't. Or OVERheard. Eavesdropping maggot!
There's no way of knowing for sure, but this is my theory. At any rate, David has been informed of Huasheng's desire to take me to the Exit-Entry Bureau, (by me), and he says he will call Huasheng and find out just exactly what the hell they are planning to do. And I sincerely hope he asks who told them I was leaving China in January. He'll probably be nice though. I just can't win!
So power outage two weeks ago, and as late as TWO DAYS AGO there are STILL power outages around campus. I taught another class with no lights and no computer. Then the next class, (in asshole teacher's classroom), the board was a mess, the computer was locked to his page, the screen was down, the desk was a mess. I swear by the triple starched collar of Donald S. Cherry that scumbag would catch a beating if we were in Canada! But it's China. I have to let the locals work things out for themselves. I think it's going to take a while.
And last weekend I was off the grid. It's a helpless feeling. You really don't notice how vital to survival the internet is to a guy here in China until it's gone for a few days. What a nightmare! I had to watch downloaded videos instead of live streams. I couldn't facebook. If some huge news story happened, (and it DID), I couldn't hear about it. I heard the GOP passed their tax scam. I guess it's not final yet. Or is it? But I didn't find out about it until way after the fact. I got so bored I actually exercised and studied Chinese! Wo ju dzai bu hao jia. I live in no good home. Heh heh.
As always, it coulda been worse. And I can say that on my fifth beer now. Short of having a kid, which I just can't see happening, it's the best way to mellow out for me. I have to make final exams for most of my classes this weekend and I have to write lessons on Ireland and Christmas for the culture knuckleheads. This will be difficult if I have a third weekend without wifi. But in a few more beers, I'll hardly be worried about that at all. Just in case you're worried, I had nothing to drink at all for the past 4 days. I'm not drinking every day. I still have my sense of responsibility intact. I'm not an alcoholic, although that's just what an alcoholic would type. The old body just can't take drinking like it used to. Man, just SLEEPING makes me sore! And the burn after exercise feels more like injury than beneficial muscle gain. Not to fault God but, if I were to design a body, it would have one difference: beer would be old age medicine.
*** You will never believe what happened like half an hour after posting this! One of the girls who worked for Huasheng messaged me and told me that her and all the previously cheated employees, (pretty much all girls), there are filing a class action lawsuit against the company! This is about the best news I've had since I read my letter of acceptance for university! I feel like my favourite sports team just won a playoff game! It's even BETTER than that! And not because I stand to be paid a LOT of money that I was cheated out of here, (possibly 10 or 15 thousand bucks), I am totally honestly feeling better for the Chinese employees that one after another have been hired by Huasheng and stiffed. Like I told you above! They find out after about a month that they won't be paid and they quit. But nobody ever DOES anything. Well now, en masse, they ARE doing something and maybe with a lot of people saying the same thing, they'll win. And they are including me in this lawsuit too. I can't tell you how happy it would make me to see Huasheng forced to pay all the people they have cheated! But that remains a dream for now. According to this blogpost, this sort of thing never happens. And to be fair, we're in China here so, will the ordinary people win, or will the company win. We shall see....
It's an epilogue I could never have guessed! Good for you, girls! I hope you fill my half empty glass!
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