Restarting the Scublog

Hey all,

I've returned to Shanghai for Year Two with some new goals in mind. One of these goals is to not only blog more often (which wouldn't be difficult really)... but much more often. Last year, after setting the bar rather high in Europe, I kind of faltered out once real life started in Shanghai. In retrospect, I wish I could have kept it going, but I realize now that when my life changed - from vacation to career mode - I should have changed my blog format too. During vacation in Europe, I had only one responsibility: blog about the cool stuff I did. So I devoted hours to long, gushing entries then reviewed and edited them several times before publishing. I no longer have this much time and, since I'm cramming my brain full of Chinese, sometimes I forget the interesting things I do on a day-to-day basis. Therefore, I'm going to switch my style up.

If I know one thing about myself, it is this: I've got two gears, first and fifth. I'm all or nothing when it comes to a lot of things. Trying to blog once a week, for example, is way too close to blogging zero times per week. So instead I'm going to go all out: by blogging everyday. So if I miss a few days, you can still get me three or four times a week. Mostly I'll do short blurbs, maybe a photo or a video with a little analysis or just something I learned/thought of that day. In addition, I'll try to have a "feature length" article each week, with the amount of depth that you've come to expect from me (whenever I actually posted something). I figure not only will this keep you guys up to date with what I'm doing, but force me to take more photos and do more awesome junk more often so that I can make my blog (slash life) fun.

Without further ado, here's some goals/topics I'm plan to achieve/write about in the coming year:

• The Qing Dao beer festival
• See the Terra Cotta Warriors
• Visit (and high five) a live panda in its natural habitat
• Chill down a river in Guilin or Yangshuo
• Make stops in Hong Kong and/or Taipei
• Cook Chinese food (post step-by-step recipes)
• Go to a professional badminton and/or ping pong tournament
• Rate the video arcades of Shanghai (I can't find listings or ratings online, so I need to take this into my own hands)
• There is supposedly a World of Warcraft based theme park outside of Shanghai, I never got into WoW, but I that won't stop me from dressing like an orc and riding all the roller coasters (zug zug)
• Ride a horse
• Celebrate the many Chinese holidays
• Potentially go to India, Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam this winter break (fingers crossed)
• In the case of a lockout, see as many NBA players as possible in the Chinese Basketball League

That is a lot of future articles right there, hopefully I can pull this off.

Speaking of Chinese holidays, Chinese Valentine's Day was last Saturday and today is Chinese Father's Day. This is because today is the 8th day of the 8th month [8/8] and the number 8 is pronounced ba in Mandarin. 8/8 = ba ba and ba ba is the informal term for father in Mandarin. So Happy Father's Day to all the fathers in the world (especially you dad).

I would love to make this blog more interactive too. So if you have any suggestions, questions, comments, additions or subtractions (no multiplications or divisions though), please send them my way.

Until next time (uh, tomorrow),

Stephen "Scuba" Lauer