Who say old books no important?

Og here. Og happy today - Og refer to classic book of China during phone call today! Og work for Red Cross, see; Og is Red Cross computer mog-ur. Today Og boss, Red Cross boss make phone call, talk about computer thing for keep track all money people give Chapter. Computer thing very strong, very complic- com- have many many part. Not everyone learn every part. Even Og, computer mog-ur, not use every part this computer thing. Red Cross boss say to phone call person, maybe we use other computer thing? Maybe computer thing we use now not so useful? Phone call person say maybe. . .

Og jump in then. Og say, Red Cross boss right. Computer thing now very powerful, but very hard for new person learn, like using sling and rocks. (Og try this once. Og bounce rock off Og head. Ow.) Og say, if no one ever use all detail in computer thing, is most likely good idea use different computer thing. Use computer thing now is like lighting furnace to burn hair.

Red Cross boss, Og boss, phone call person, other Red Cross person all laugh, but all agree with Og. Og very happy, because Og get use casual reference early chapter Romance Three Kingdoms, which is China history novel size of wooly mammoth butt. Og think this good thing. Old book still good!

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Someone, it would appear, has been reading his Pastor Niemoller. Catholic bishop of Hong Kong sides with Falun Gong

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Out of pure curiosity yesterday I wandered over to orbitz.com and asked it to find me airfares from Newark to Beijing sometime next September. (My sister is getting married during the summer and as I am in the wedding party it would be a bit cheesy to take a major trip the hell out of the country beforehand. Everyone in this family is involved with the prep.) The numbers I got back were around a thousand bucks American. I mentioned this to my mom...

She reminded me that I'd never taken the trip she and Dad had offered me as a college graduation gift, the one I'd considered to Scotland/Wales/etc., and then said that if I saved my own money from now until then, she and Dad might be willing to pay for part of the trip.

*boggle*

Most of me is pleased at this. Some of me is a little scared at this, because I'm a ... oooh, there's a cardinal outside my window!... member of Amnesty International and harbour a private fear that I'll get a visa application back with spit all over it - or worse, that someone will dig up some letter I wrote on some Tibet-related thing years ago while I'm there and next thing I know I'll have to remember the Mandarin for 'my identity papers have been confiscated'. I admit, I'd like to go but I'm kind of worried about the prospect... it might be stupid or ill-informed of me, but there it is, one more thing for me to overcome.

There is also a tiny part of my brain that is silently snarking at my family. Something to the effect of 'how come when I was this interested in science fiction back in eighth grade, you got worried about me losing my grasp on reality and forbade me to read the stuff*, but now that I've got an obsession with something more socially acceptable it's considered a good thing and worth encouraging financially?'. Seriously. If you replaced all my China books, pictures, posters, lessons, etc. with equal-sized, similar-in-variety** volumes of or about science fiction, my parents would most likely be arguing about an intervention. Not because it'd be an obsession with something not real, just because it'd be SF. I doubt anyone would freak out if it was all, I dunno, Dostoyevsky or something. Mind, I did like Crime and Punishment quite a bit...

But that's not the relevant part. Now I have to see about saving up the money. Now I have to see about finishing my damn master's. Now I have to see if I keep working here, or if I move to Denver or Virginia or California or Seattle, or what. Now I have to decide if I'm ready to go from the Big Wheel (Epcot) to the training wheels (Canada***) to the Harley-Davidson (China).

We'll see. I think I might ask for some Frommer's travel guides this year for Hogswatch.

*Not that this worked. Library paperbacks generally fit very well in the inside pockets of my jacket, or under a shirt, or behind my room's trash can, or between the bed and the wall, or...

**This would be a bit difficult to accomplish. I suppose 'The Science of Star Trek' and 'The Dune Encyclopedia' would be as close as one could get to an SF answer to Sima Qian.

***Let's face it, Anglophone Canada is almost a perfect place for Americans to get used to the feeling of being Foreign. There are enough similarities to keep a body comfortable, and enough differences to keep you well aware of the fact that This Ain't The States, Dammit.