yeti speak...

hiatus

We'll be moving from Jianzha back to Xining one week from tomorrow!  Then it will be a short 2 weeks until we plane back to the States from Beijing.

In lieu of a lot of changes and activity during this month of May I have decided I am going to be taking a hiatus from blogging.  I am not sure if it will be a short hiatus or a long hiatus, but I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you.  I am going to be reflecting on the "journey" thusfar, especially over these past 3 years.  After being somewhat of a "spectacle" during this time period in a different country, I am looking forward to a bit of a sabbatical from being in the public eye so much.  In other words I am building a little privacy back into my daily life.

It might not last for long.  Thanks for checkin' in.  I'll let you know when the yeti surfaces again...

blogged out

I've been so bored by the "art" of blogging lately (both reading and writing them) that I decided to go with a "I'm putting myself to sleep" design theme.  I find it quite soothing...

Honestly, I was sorely tempted this week to just hit the [Delete Blog] button and rid myself of the whole endeavor, but in a moment of weakness I talked myself out of it.  Vices are a terrible thing. 

Maybe I can redirect these destructive impulses into a personal renaissance of creative inspiration.  Or maybe I should just use my time building my own "self destruct" button like the one shown here...

Decisions, decisions.

m.i.a.

Sorry for the lack of posts lately.  It's a bit trickier now that we do not have an Internet connection in the home we happen to be eating, sleeping, "living" in.  I have noticed my hit counts dropping and dropping every week which is a bit depressing, but what can I do?

Soon enough I'll get myself organizized and better scheduled.  One can hope...

In the meantime, here's a few pictures of our domicile in Jianzha (one of them anyway.)

(I am pretending to be "online")

The view out back.  (We're on the fourth floor.)

Master bedroom (the room fits one...bed, and that's about it.)

The girls got the bigger room because of all their toys.

The dining area

Bathroom

Kitchen

And let's not forget the kitchen sink...

four years, still bloggin'

In all the hub-bub I've had going on lately, I forgot to mention that I have been blogging for (count'em) FOUR YEARS now!  Yeah, crazy, I know.  I guess time flies when you're having fun.  This blog is almost as old as Sarah.  Not sure what the next four years will hold, but at least this little hobby keeps me out of trouble (for the most part...)  Thanks for pacifying me by reading the yetispeak now and again.  Here's a little YETI picture tribute.  Say HELLO to my furry friends!

one good comment deserves another

I've been really lax in responding to comments on the blog these last few months.  Hope no one has taken it personally.  It's pretty lame because I do ENJOY receiving comments.  So, to rectify this situation I just went back and REPLIED to as many of the comments as I could over the past few weeks (back to the 1st of November).  It's a small gesture (better never than late) but it's my way of saying THANKS. 

Keep'em comin'.

P.S. If I didn't respond to your comment, don't be offended.  Some comments leave nothing more to be said.

a great blurb

Well, after four years of blogging, I finally got the perfect tagline.  This is the quote that will forever be enshrined somewhere on the yetispeak blog page.  And to think I didn't even have to bribe my friend, Rick, into making this comment.  And I quote:

"yetispeak is the GREATEST WEBSITE IN THE HISTORY OF THE INTERNET!"

Wow!  And to think all I had to do was post some pictures of a few dead rats to get this kind of accolades.  This is a lot to live up to of course.  Let me just assure everyone that I'll do my best to make sure that the yetispeak keeps its rightful #1 historical position on the Net.  And I can almost hear the frenzied chanting...

"Four more years!  Four more years!  Four more years!"

dental details and blogging woes

So are you ready for the horror story...I doubt it.  Better take a seat.  After an enjoyable and restful 24 hours on the overnight train to Beijing, I found myself staring up into the foreboding fluorescent dental chair lights.  It was supposed to be a simple filling.  (Notice that the word 'supposed' in that last sentence was in italics.  This is intentional.)  As I white-knuckled the plastic dental chair armrest, I was flanked on either side by three or four Chinese "dentists".  They were masked so I couldn't verify if this was their true profession; I suspect they were really escaped Nazi war criminals who found convenient asylum in the shadowy halls of dental clinics around China.  It wasn't the tarnished instruments that first caused me to question my decision as much as it was the suspicious lack of Novocaine injections on the table beside me.  In my 3rd-grade level Chinese I asked a few times about the Novocaine, but I only got re-assuring nods and incomprehensible grunts.  It wasn't until the drill actually shot shooting and spitting pain through my tooth and entire body that I shouted...

(GOTCHA!)

Yeah, most of that first paragraph was totally FALSE.  Scary sounding, huh?  But fortunately ALL fabricated.  Thought I would pull a fast one on a few folks.   But you guys are all probably too quick to fall for a lame story like that eh?

True story:  I did take a 24-hour train to Beijing.  I did see a Chinese dentist about a filling.  The dentists were all wearing masks, but were also all way too young, way too Asian, and way too polite to be Nazi war criminals.  I DID get not one but THREE Novocaine shots which made my mouth numb.  What can I say, I'm a wuss!  The dentist kept asking if I could feel the dental instrument poking my sensitive tooth. 

It went something like this.  Shot #1 administered.  Can you feel it now?  YES!  Shot #2 administered.  Can you feel it now?  YES!  BIG SHOT #3 administered.  You probably shouldn't eat for a few hours after this.  We don't want you to bite that thing that you might think is a dead halibut in your mouth.  It is actually your tongue.  Doh-Kaahy.

I still can't believe the previous pain in my tooth wasn't a raw nerve hanging out.  The dentist assured me that it was only part of my filling that had come off.  She filled it back in no problem.  My jaw ached for the rest of the day because of that last Novocaine shot, but I wasn't complaining because I could chew on the right side of my mouth again--without weeping.

The big bad news of the day was when the dentist mentioned I needed to get braces if I wanted to have my teeth remain into old age.  Now I've been given this advice by dentists from three different countries!  Great!  Kind of makes getting a second opinion obsolete.  I keep trying to explain that I've already had braces.  It didn't work.  Been there, done that.  But for some reason they don't like that excuse very much.  I guess I'm going to be a 40 year-old sporting a metal mouth (for the second time in my life!)  Someone shoot me now...

Beijing was nice, but I was only there for twenty-four hours before I hopped back on the train to Xining.  I had time to grab some fast eats, McDonalds, Subway, Starbucks and Orange Julius.  And, to top it off, I squeezed in a late movie, Pirates of the Caribbean 3.  That movie would NOT have been my first choice when I get to the theater so infrequently now, but it was the only thing playing at the theater nearby AND it was in English.  You know what they say about choosy beggars.

Unfortunately in the 72-hour period I was away Sarah was sick and cranky, Christa caught a nasty cold too (while in the midst of planning the teacher's appreciation event for Anna's school which happened this afternoon!) and my friendly internet service provider here in the Middle Kingdom decided arbitrarily it didn't like my blogging tool, i.e. Typepad, anymore.  Fun, fun.  Now, I can't see my blog online (even though I am still able to publish it.)  Well, I can actually see it, but it takes some online maneuvering.  Anyway, this "welcome home" was enough to make me want to hop back on the train for Siberia.  Well, maybe that's a bit extreme.  I'll nurse 'em back to health and the tooth's better which makes me a happy man.  You know what they say, "All's well that ends fills well."  Thanks for all the sympathy votes.

pretty pitchers

Sorry I haven't been writing too much lately.  You might have noticed that I've been playing around with pictures lately.  I've been using some software my friend Rick told me about called The Gimp.  It's pretty addictive once you start using it.  You must know the only tool I've ever used to modify pictures has been MS Paint (not too savvy) so I am pretty easily amused.

Which of these new mastheads do you like the best?
a.)

b.)

c.)

We've also had some interesting developments in the last few weeks in regards to our "next steps" here in China.  We're heading out to the countryside again this weekend.  After we get back, I'll have more NEWS to share with you...

keep the yeti dream alive...

A few months ago, you'll remember I was shamelessly begging for coffee.  It worked (to a degree--thanks folks! But my addiction is relentless and the supplies get short quickly when you're up to two pots a day.  I'm kidding about the two pots.)

So here I am AGAIN asking for another handout.  Only this time, instead of coffee [subliminal message: please send STARBUCKS!!!] I'm scrounging for blog money.

I know I should be ashamed of myself.  It's bad enough in my line of work (which to the naked eye looks a lot more like being a student than actually working) to expect even more philanthropy--but here I am petitioning nonetheless.

But why am I petitioning?  After all, aren't there free blog tools available? 

Well, that's an interesting story actually.  I used to use Blogger (a free blogging tool that many of you use) before we came to China, but once we arrived I discovered that the Blogger sites were often blocked by our ISP over here.  Some days you can access blogspot.com web addresses and other days you cannot.  There are ways around this, but for authoring purposes they are not very convenient.

I also looked into Wordpress, MSN Spaces, and a few other tools, but found them either not-very user friendly OR simply blocked by our Chinese ISP (this was the case with Wordpress for example.)

Anyway, last year I bit the bullet and switched over to Typepad, an easy-to-use blogging tool that has a yearly subscription fee.  Not only was Typepad (curiously) un-blocked but it also proved to be a much better tool overall.  No duh, it should be.  I soon discovered that I could post entire photo albums and make changes to my blog templates, sidebar, etc., in HALF the time it was taking me with Blogger.  It was a one-stop-shopping type deal and I loved it.  So I didn't really mind the comparatively "hefty" price tag for the service*.

But since then a year has rolled by and now I have to pay the fee again.

And I don't mind paying it--really I don't.  After all this is my outlet, my hobby, my therapy, my sense of self worth (ok, that's taking it a bit far.)  A lot of why I do this IS about me, I realize; it's self-serving.  I like writing.  I like it that people like reading my writing.  I enjoy sharing about our lives and experiences here in China in a media that suits me.  We have to be good stewards of the things we are given.  But some of it (perhaps a small bit) is NOT totally about me...but about you, dear reader.

I know when the rubber meets the road I will pay the fee as opposed to either a.) switching over all my posts to another free blogging service again (that's a nightmare!) or b.) retiring the yetispeak altogether to take up other more scholarly pursuits.  Obviously we have funds.  People have been VERY generous with us in assisting us in seeking to follow His pursuits.

But a friend gave me another idea when he commented recently on the blog, "I can't believe I don't have to pay to read this stuff..."  He should have never said something like that.  It gives a guy of my demeanor ideas and ideas are a dangerous thing.

It made me wonder just how much people (i.e. you, dear readers) value the yetispeak?  Can a dollar amount be assigned to your appreciation?  Is the writing, dry wit, or tirades of a such a unique quality that you might "drop a tip" on occasion to keep it going?  Or am I just giving in to delusions of grandeur? 

Let me say it wouldn't cost too much to bankroll me.  It's only costing me about $7.00/month.

So what do you say?  Anyone out there want to help me to keep the dream alive?  This is not a threat but an opportunity.  If just 12 people gave up two lattes a year and contributed that money to the Yeti's blog, well, that would cover the entirety of the production costs. Isn't it a small price to pay for my sanity? 

(Wouldn't I make a great fund raiser?)

Consider this a pledge drive.  If you want to make a donation or drop a tip, just send me an email and I'll let you know the where/how to contribute.  If you just want to leave your name in the comments, I can send you an email with the info.  If you wish to scold me for my beggarly ways, that too is possible using the comments below. 

Whatever the case, the yeti goes marching on, for richer or poorer, till death does us part, et blog ad nauseum.  Maybe some of you are now ready to pay me to stop bloggin', eh?  Ha-ha.

* = hefty in comparison to free

getting the nod from The Don

Having read all of his books, it looks like I'm getting some reciprocation from Donald Miller.  Well maybe that's not entirely true.  "The Don", as I like to call him, author of Blue Like Jazz and Searching For God Knows What, et al, has started a website called Burnside Writers Collective which gives voice to writers needing an "alternative to franchise faith".

This Burnside website recently accepted one of my articles and posted it this week.  (Ha-ha!) 

Check out the article here...  (It's a revised version of a story I previously posted on the yeti-speak.)

So maybe, just maybe, The Don will actually read something I wrote instead of the more typical vice versa.  (Well, ok, he probably never reads this site even though his name is on it) but at the very least, someone that The Don knows personally will have read my work.  That's a good start.

(Special thanks to Christa for initiating this submission.  I would not have attempted it on my own. She has confidence in me even when I don't have confidence in myself...)