FEB 27 28

Talked to my wife on Friday night. We talked about how I like her hair now that it is longer. People at work ask me when she's coming over. I'm getting tired of answering "I don't (f**king) know" I know she'll be surprised at the amount of taxation. :)

Saturday she mentioned how I seemed to look better on camera, but I said the same thing to her. She always looks different when I see her, always smaller.

FEB 25 26

Since my wife wants to MSN more when I'm at home in the evening, yesterday we did just that. She was just waking up. She was eating an apple, a habit she's gotten me into.

I called her today from work, she was asleep as she's going to bed earlier. I called her about an hour ago, she was still asleep. She likes to sleep for long stretches, I can't do that.

The Shoes!

Talked to my wife today. She is upset at our neighbors, they always leave their shoes outside of our door. The entrances with the doors are crowded close together. She wants to learn better English. I should show her some websites again, but she wants Pimsleur mp3s to listen to on the go.

Go Thomas Friedman

From the NY Times.....

Leave it to a brainy Indian to come up with the cheapest and surest way to stimulate our economy: immigration.

“All you need to do is grant visas to two million Indians, Chinese and Koreans,” said Shekhar Gupta, editor of The Indian Express newspaper. “We will buy up all the subprime homes. We will work 18 hours a day to pay for them. We will immediately improve your savings rate — no Indian bank today has more than 2 percent nonperforming loans because not paying your mortgage is considered shameful here. And we will start new companies to create our own jobs and jobs for more Americans.”

While his tongue was slightly in cheek, Gupta and many other Indian business people I spoke to this week were trying to make a point that sometimes non-Americans can make best: “Dear America, please remember how you got to be the wealthiest country in history. It wasn’t through protectionism, or state-owned banks or fearing free trade. No, the formula was very simple: build this really flexible, really open economy, tolerate creative destruction so dead capital is quickly redeployed to better ideas and companies, pour into it the most diverse, smart and energetic immigrants from every corner of the world and then stir and repeat, stir and repeat, stir and repeat, stir and repeat.”

While I think President Obama has been doing his best to keep the worst protectionist impulses in Congress out of his stimulus plan, the U.S. Senate unfortunately voted on Feb. 6 to restrict banks and other financial institutions that receive taxpayer bailout money from hiring high-skilled immigrants on temporary work permits known as H-1B visas.

Bad signal. In an age when attracting the first-round intellectual draft choices from around the world is the most important competitive advantage a knowledge economy can have, why would we add barriers against such brainpower — anywhere? That’s called “Old Europe.” That’s spelled: S-T-U-P-I-D.

Weekend Report

Saturday night Feb 21

I MSN'd with my wife from my cousin/friend Sean's place, we were going to watch UFC. My wife is in our place in Zhangmutou, you can see our picture on the wall behind her. '



Then, I came back to Toronto. We MSN'd again. Sunday Feb22. Actually, sometimes we don't talk a lot, I leave the camera on, she watches me wash dishes, cook, and watches TV, then I might read some stuff while she showers and then comes back. She was mad at me for making her speak Cantonese to my Cantonese friend, and he played stupid and didn't speak Cantonese back. I bet if she had some Hong Bao for him he'd remember his Cantonese real quick.

I like her hair!!!! Then I told her I liked it better than when I was in China last, but of course she remembered that I told her I liked her hair when I was in China and called me on it. So I had to explain that I like her hair more now. Sheesh.

Feb 20

I talked to my wife at work Friday, the call was short she was on MSN with her friend Ahmei.

I MSN'd with her Friday night, she had to wake me up again using my phone because I was asleep, tired from Muay Thai.

You can notice from the picture she is in our place in Zhangmutou, not the usual Shenzhen.

Feb 19

talked to my wife at work (as usual) and she told me about her friend who has a bf in HK. He's been saying some not so nice things about me, but there are some things he doesn't know. He's the damn one who got my wife on wanting an expensive BS handbag. I'm going to remind her tomorrow that he's a bit of a troublemaker imo.

My wife thinks it's possible that I have a gf here that knows about her and doesn't care. LOL. A wife is enough trouble thank you very much. A married man once told me in a stern voice "Once you have one wife, you're not going to want another (at the same time)".

FEB 18

talked to my wife and she wanted to learn some new English words. So I met her briefly on MSN, and I taught her the words 'relaxed', and 'nervous'.

She returned my SIM card to the Shenzhen office, there was some mix up or something I couldn't understand fully, but they thought she was my 'girlfriend' which pissed her off. I'd rather talk about Gucci bags..

talk to you tomorrow too

I talked with my wife today, she mostly complained about living with her sister, who isn't a neat freak like her. ("I don't happy")

She also talked about wanting to learn English really well because she told this Chinese woman she could speak a little English, the Chinese woman spewed some English and YaoYao (my wife) didn't understand.

I told her at the end of our conversation "Talk to you tomorrow", to which she replied "Talk to you tomorrow too"

10 things to remember when applying to Canadian Immigration

Not that I can say this for sure works, but there are small lines in fine print in your application, that state to provide additional records, it's more like ESSENTIAL RECORDS.

These are things you want to include,


1. Make a statement letter containing
- education plans
- children plans

2. Include all records of interaction, E V E R Y T H I N G
- emails
- phone bills
- MSN conversations (with screenshots)
- visa stamps
- plane tickets
- hotels
- dinners

3. Don't forget 1, 2.

4. pictures of places of you together with different backgrounds
- no cds

5. cards
- no electronic cards

5. Letter from friends
- stating their knowledge of your relationship
- giving you a character reference

6. Letter from your parents, letter from your spouse's parents

7. Explain any instances of denial of visitor visas

8. Start a blog

9. Remember, in the event of an interview, dates and details must match.

10. Have patience, you are not dealing with a free market business that gives a sh!t about customer service

funny

This picture is older. It's of my wife and I on MSN. She doesn't understand the english on her shirt. :)

more pictures from my last trip

from Happy Valley, shopping in Dongmen and on the subway, and visiting Hurricane Brandon in the hotel in Dynatown. My eyes don't like flashes, they are always closed. oh well...

Feb 16 morning

I returned early and MSN'd with my wife. Her friends were over. I'm pretty sure I've met the one in the picture. We didn't talk about much, but she gave me other pictures from our trip from our friend's camera.

late Feb15

Late Feb 15 Sunday night I went to my buddy's place. He's on some crazy vegan cleansing diet, he's only eating nuts and some vegetables for 2 months, then he gets some berries to add for 2 years. I gave them the gift she made, it was red with yellow stitching with the symbol of good luck and its stages of evolution.

BULLSH!T

Canadian Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said Thursday (Feb5) that authorities had decided to give Lai Changxing a visa. Canada’s courts have refused to deport him citing concerns over China’s treatment of prisoners.

This guy is a criminal but won't be deported.

Also...
Minister ponders permits for Gitmo's Uyghurs
http://www2.canada.com/topics/news/story.html?id=1253541

I'm opinion, if you ended up into Guantanamo, you did something, somewhere that would be classified as criminal, and you shouldn't sure as h3ll shouldn't get priority over my (plain vanilla) wife to come to Canada.

FEB 15

Sat. night, I was late for our midnight MSN date. See the picture, my wife is not really impressed, but she knew I was asleep.

Then, I went to sleep, and left MSN on, she stayed in the apartment. At about 4am, I heard the video shut off, (couldn't hear her type) so I got up and reactivated the video call. Hence no shirt.



She went out to buy something, then came back. I told her about the song "My Girl" and the part "I've got sunshine" You can see me playing it in Winamp.



She especially likes the part about "I don't need no money." See my previous post about Coach bags.

FEB 13

Talked to my wife on the phone at work - she was upset that I called her at 11:30 pm China time as opposed to the day before when it was 10:30. It was "too late" but I usually call her around that time...She told me about all the flowers her and her sister saw at the store for Valentine's, and then was mad that I couldn't give her any.





Then we talked on MSN at 12:30 pm technically Valentine's. I was tired and had just woken up. I was tired from Muay Thai class. Can't stay awake on Friday's like I used to.

our convo today

I remember some girls once a few years ago talking about "we had good convo..." wtf

When I talked to my wife today she complained that her phone only gets a good signal on the balcony in our place in Dongguan.

I also taught her how to say "Talk to you tomorrow" so her Chinglish gets better.

Called my wife Wed. She is complaining that the new DVD player has crappy sound. Pictured you can see the old white one our 'nephew' Hurricane Brandon broke. I think it's because he messed with the sound on the amp.

- When I called my wife Feb 8 EST, she was upset I didn't call her as soon as I got off the plane but I thought she would still be sleeping. But she apparently didn't sleep well.

- When I called her Feb 9, I told her how I didn't sleep well because I wasn't with her.

- When I called her Feb 10, we talked about how I got a safe deposit box for about 300 RMB per year, hers costs 1000. I also told her about my co-worker's stories about young kids emptying the fridge, and flushing keys down the toilet. She thought that was funny. The young toddler in the pictures below is her friend's, not ours fyi. No eta on that sort of thing yet.

MEGA picture post

from the remainder of my trip