Cha bu duo yi nian...or 差不多一年

(You might want to enable your computer to see characters to fully see the title of today's randomness.)

Opening get to know you question in this town is “How long have you been in China/Shanghai?” I can now start answering that question “about one year.” How have I been living overseas for nearly a year? This does put another check mark on the list of things I want to do in my life, but I feel like I never made the conscious decision of “Yep I want to live in China.” Things just kept coming up and I kept coming back/staying. Will something come up to keep me here again? Maybe, but I’m going to let it find me because I’m not really searching that hard. But I am coming back to the US for sure in July for at least a month because my visa runs out and I have to leave the country.

Now I know that everyone who reads this isn’t necessarily a techie, but I think that pod casting may have saved my life. It’s common knowledge (speaking of which where’s David Brenner these days?) that I can’t live without music. Not the biggest fan of downloading, but I live in a country that doesn’t have record stores so I do what I can to survive. But through a certain program that starts with i and ends in Tunes, I’ve been introduced to a few individuals that are knock down drag out funny and/or thought provoking.

The first is Harry Sheerer and his program called “Le Show” form KCRW in Santa Monica. Brilliant. He does great political impersonations (no real surprise) and just when you think he’s gone to far he’ll break out the skit where Newt Gingrich and Hillary Clinton have a secret love affair. He’s done some great things for New Orleans and even moved his show there for a while right after the hurricane.

The second is Ricky Gervais with help from Steve and Karl Pilkington. It’s the called “The Ricky Gervais Show” and it’s done from the UK (they’re all British). Ricky and Steve created the TV show the Office and if half of what their podcast has is in The Office I should have been watching both the US and UK versions. This show is really too good for words. And I can only sum it up in the following quote.

Steve: Karl, I know you’re fascinated with doppelgangers, so if you could spend a day with an exact replica of you, what would you do? How would you utilize him for one day? What would you talk about?
Karl: What would do me head in is, how would I know which one I was?
Ricky: Because you’d be you. That’s amazing! That is the most stupid thing ever said by a human being. Can we get the Guinness book of world records on this?

Granted it’s British and it doesn’t really translate in a transcript but trust me it great. I’m trying to collect all of the first season and I just got the whole second season. Downloading... means to an end.

Abruptly switching topics…
Have you ever turned on the lights and seen the cockroaches scatter? Neither have I but you’ve got the picture in your mind now. That’s what it’s like to see a bunch of people selling DVDs out of suitcases on the street and someone yells that the cops are coming. Thank you IPR crackdown.