Today, February 14th 2010, I am with my wife (naturally with it being Valentine’s Day) and it is also Chinese New Year’s Day! XIN NIAN KUAI LE! Which, I think is: 新年快乐！Correct me if I’m wrong… Catch you later!
It’s coming. Java Productions will be reborn!
For those of you who have logged on to http://www.JavaProductions.net in the last day or two, you’ll have noticed a couple of things. One; there’s a snazzy new landing page for the domain listing a few of the sites and two; Java Productions and Experienced are offline. Everything has been deleted. Naturally, everything was backed up first… I’m not that studpid… Well, not anymore.
Here’s the plans: Java Productions will switch to a layout familiar to visitors of the old China on a Bike website. It seemed better for it to go that way. Experienced will be moved to either Wordpress or a decent CMS system and will not only feature new reviews and articles, but trailers for new games and stuff. It will also probably adopt the old Java Productions layout or similar… Depends on what I fancy at the time of doing it.
This blog is going to get an overhaul at some point, too. Englishman In The East was overhauled twice in two years… It’s a little bit past the v3 mark, and it really needs updating. Although, this blog has usually just utilised a free template that’s been modified a little. If you know of a good looking template, please let me know!
Java Solo is still up and running, but there’s little new going on that site and it’s slowly becomming redundant due to the lack of videos I shoot now. And the software site is another one that is in that list of being updated on a ‘whim’ or when I write a tool that I think might be of use to others. Speaking of which, I found the old Pachi Battle System lurking in a folder on my hard drive. That’s seriously out of date and needs updating, but I don’t have any access to my Pachis until I return to England… So that’ll just fall by the wayside for now. But when I get back, there’s another project that should get a re-start.
I also tidied up the whole domain and removed files that were taking up space on the server as well as deleted a load of old, defunct subdomains. I might update that landing page to a flash… But haven’t dabbled with Flash before… Might be interesting to give it a bash…
So that’s basically it in terms of Java Productions. There’s other things on the back-burner at the moment which will probably rear up soon and I’ll let you know about that.
Only a couple of days to go now until Spring Festival. So looking forward to having that long-overdue rest. My fuses are almost burnt out from this 10 day stint without a day off. The roads are covered in ice and my back wheel on the bike has a slow puncture. Add to that the rear light hanging off and it hasn’t been a particularly good week overall… BRING ON THE HOLIDAY! Until the next time: Catch you later!
Seems that I don’t get all that much time to post to the blog these days. Our winter session at worked kicked off with two intensive courses… The HF Club! These is, in principle, a glorified babysitting service. None of the teachers here are all that happy about it. But we’re getting through it.
Spoke to Gareth last night about his Young Pioneer Tour company website (http://www.youngpioneertours.com) and it was a pretty good meeting. Some exciting things coming up and a couple of really BIG (and I mean HUGE) things that we’re working on. Won’t say too much for now, but when we’ve spoken more about things, then I’ll let you know what’s going on. But trust me, it’s huge.
There are other things on the horizon as well, but they also are being kept under wraps until I’m in a position to say more. But it’s certainly made me a happy bunny in the last couple of weeks.
Spring Festival is coming up and Spring and I will be heading to Meixian to celebrate with her family. Should be a good time to relax. We’ll be taking the PS3 and laptop up there. I’ll be able to get a little work on the websites done and also we can enjoy some movies and games whilst relaxing. Stepmania is already loaded on the laptop… Just wish there was an actual machine nearby…
Another note: Spring is learning to make sculptured dolls and caricatures. We recieved a set of DVDs that we purchased from Creager Studios (www.creagers.com) and will also be studying those throughout the festival and Spring will start practicing making them when we get back. Found places to buy the polymer clay and some tools. Can’t wait to give it a try.
Talking about that, Jodi & Richard Creager have been extremely helpful in helping us get started and we took a look at some of the DVD when they arrived. If anyone has an interest in art and wants to give sculpting a try, these DVDs are pretty damn good. There are clips on YouTube, but that’s nowhere near as much as the DVD shows. The DVDs are two hours… The clips on YouTube total around 25 minutes.
We’re both getting excited about doing stuff in polymer clay. I’ll be working on an eCommerce site later in the year and that will also be integrated into Spring’s website for her dolls. I’ll tell you now, they’re not going to be cheap! We already asked around people what they think something like these would be worth and we’re going with those prices. After all, each one is an individual work of art.
Well, that’s all for now. I keep rambling every time I post but not a lot of new information. If I think of anything interesting, I’ll add it in. But until then… Catch you later!
The past few weeks have been crazy mad at work. Had no time to sit down and do many of the things I like doing. Christmas Day was lovely. Spring & I got up early (we were actually woken by mum & dad calling at 5am that day…) and opened our gifts. I bought Spring a Swatch watch and a Swarovski necklace. Looks lovely on her. She got me a second PS3 controller, box of Ferrero Rocher and a new guitar bag. It’s lovely! When we head off for a holiday, I’m taking it with us.
Mum & dad sent over a couple of gifts, too. I got a puzzle book and socks, Spring got some make-up and a pair of slippers. Tina sent us some stuff, but it went missing in the post. Bloody postal services.They also sent us some money and with that, Spring has got some clothes (and still has money left). I got a couple of games (EyePet and Tekken 6 for the PS3) a new jumper / hoodie… I know… I usually hate hoodies, but this one was quite nice. I also picked up a couple of sets of guitar strings.
Finally got a chance to play on Tekken 6 this morning. Kick ass! I’ve got about 35% of the trophies so far… Still quite a way to go before I get that Platinum, though. There are a few online trophies, but nowhere near as many as Little Big Planet, so it should be manageable… If that’s how you spell it…
The thing about Tekken 6 on the PS3 is the Scenario Campaign… It’s a cool storyline, but there are quite a few long winded cut scenes in there. You can skip them, but I’ve become too involved in the storyline now. Interesting to see how it finishes up. Then I have to go back to the arena with all of the unlocked characters to see their prologues and end movies… Then I have to go back on Hard mode to unlock some extra stages, then I have to at least compete in 30 matched online… That should give me most of the trophies. See what’s left after that lot…
Anyways, only a quick post. Belated Merry Christmas to anyone reading, and just in time to say Happy New Year! Catch you later! (In 2010, no less…)
Actually, that’s probably the spices for Christmas baking that I can smell… But ’tis a nice smell. It’s this time of the year when I really want to go home to have a real Christmas with all the family, but it’s not possible. However, this is the first Christmas that I will be spending as a married man. That’s a good thing.I’ve bought a couple of gifts for Spring for Christmas (won’t write what they are here in case she looks on here… Not sure if she does, but in the last few months she’s been using “Catch you later!” on messages to me… And I’ve never actually said that out loud as far as I’m aware…). She’s got me three things… One of them is bloody huge! In fact, it’s bigger than the Christmas tree!
I should point out that our Christmas tree isn’t very big… It’s a little 3 footer, but still… It’s a big gift. Maybe it’s another Christmas tree! Also, speaking of gifts, my sister’s package still hasn’t arrived. Posted on the 20th November… Same day as mum’s (they went to post it together) and the same time, mum’s got here and hers didn’t… So bloody strange.It’s been almost a month since it was posted and no sign of it. I’ve checked at the local post office and the regional centre to see if it’s got held up anywhere along the line… Nothing recieved. Technically, I didn’t check. Someone at work did it for me. It might have got sent the worng way round… Instead of airmail, someone might have cocked up and put it on the boat instead… Just have to wait and see.
On other notes, this week is super busy and it means I don’t have a lot of time for doing many things unrelated to work. Our Director of Studies has left now, so there’s nobody in charge of the school’s foreign teachers except me (hoping I can move on up into that position… That’d be nice.) Also this week, I’m taking over the demonstration classes as well as an activity and two different presentation classes with reports to write for those. Next week, there’s another presentation class, two demos and an activity followed by the same the week after. There’s also been complaints from the teachers about working on Boxing Day at 8:30am in the morning having to teach. The option was given to them to move their classes… But they equally didn’t want to finish at 9pm on that day, either. I can see their point. I mean, most people like to have a good drink on Christmas night and play a game of cards or something… So having to work so early the next day is not all that good. Especially in a profession like teaching. If you work in a supermarket, you’ll probably be unfortunate to have a 10am start at the earliest… But at least they understand you’re going to be hung-over or something. With teaching, it’s not good to be hung over. Firstly the kids are noisy little buggers who are semi-spoilt little buddhas… Having them screaming their heads off will trigger a HUGE eruption from a teacher. Also, the majority of those classes on that day are presentation classes where the parents come in to the class… So they’re going to come in, smell the alcohol on the teacher and see that they’re hung-over whilst being in charge of their kids… That wouldn’t bode well for the SCHOOL let alone for the teacher. Finally, I wouldn’t be surprised if the teachers we do have call in sick…
I’ve noticed that the teachers in the school are not best thrilled about working here at EF4. The CCs keep selling courses even though we’re getting to our limit on teaching hours. That’s putting pressure on the teachers as their workload is shooting up. The other ADoSes are trying to cut ach out of activities which I’m not in favour of (an activity is 1 hour… which is 1.5ach… They want to give it just 1ach…). There’s also a lot of resentment directed at this year’s staff party. It falls on a Monday. Some people have classes on a Monday. Some have a day off. Those with a day off want to spend their time elsewhere. Those with classes are wondering why they’re being cancelled for a party, but Boxing Day is a full working day… For the foreign staff, they don’t see the staff party as an important event and not something they feel like they have to attend. As for our school, it’s even worse. They’ve chosen a location that’s great for the schools 1 – 3… But miles away from school 4. It makes it difficult for teachers to get there and get back. Personally, I’ll have to leave early due to my apartment getting locked up around 11pm… So to be able to get a bus or taxi back here, I’ll have to leave there around 10pm at the latest… The whole thing starts at 6:30… Which has changed from 4:00… And 6:00… Which they’d make up their f***ing minds… One of the teachers at our school is in a wheelchair, so for them to get the bus is out of the question and taxis seem to stop running from 2pm to 5pm… It seems they all take a break at that time… So how is he going to get there? We’ll have to see if we can have the school mini bus to take us down. Whoever organised the venue really hasn’t given much thought to everyone who lives in the north.
I have to admit, the feeling at work from the other teachers is that of a resentment and hatred towards senior management and their decisions over how to handle foreign staff interests and respect of their traditions and customs. If only this were England where employers are required, by law, to take these things into account. I’m sure if Spring comes to England, her employer would take into consideration the fact that Chinese New Year is the biggest holiday for her and give her a few days off around that time for celebration. Because if they didn’t, it would be so easy to make a claim againt them for something… Wonder if that can happen here… Hong Kong have a 4 day holiday for Christmas… Because, like in England, they also get the first weekday after Christmas day as a bank holiday… And another thing… My calendar shows a list of all the national holidays in Hong Kong and in China… There really isn’t that many in China in comparison to Hong Kong… Should have gone there… At least we could have a proper length Christmas together.
Anyways, I’m just ranting now when I should really be getting ready for work… Catch you later!