myrick

BOOK TAG

I don't read books.

Ha! Chris, Phil, Matt... the madness ends here! I stomped out that silly book-tag meme with a clever lie.

Actually, it required far too much introspection. I felt a need to explain 'why' each book was important to me. That was taking pages and pages of text... for each selection.

So, instead, here's the short-answer version. I may go longer later (and I may give Alan the third part of the Singapore beer bar reviews too... heh, heh, heh.).

Number of books I own: About 1,300 give or take a couple of thousand (ed: the bottom range of that estimate is a 700 book deficit. Please fix that before you go to bed and never, never again, blog after Friday-night beers... and what the hell was that Ostrich post about?!?).

The last book I bought: North Korea: The Paranoid Peninsula by Paul French
< 30 word review: Cheem! Focuses on economics, not missiles. Reason for collapse of economy - read Hayek, you'll figure it out by yourself. (ed: Cheem? WTF? When the hell did you start using Singlish?)

Last Book I Read: The Coming Collapse of China - Gordon Chang
<30 word review: Hyperbolic. Gets the main faultlines. Misses mark on deflation and internet; scores on banks and SOEs. Reason for expected collapse - read Hayek, you'll figure it out by yourself.

The complete works of George Orwell
<30 word review: Inspired me. Did journalism instead of real career as result. Glad I didn't sleep on streets of Paris & London, but seemed like a good idea in my twenties.

The Complete works of P.J. O'Rourke:
<30 word review: Discovered in Korea from "Seoul Brothers" essay. Not PC. Helped wash away seven years of liberal arts education and relativism. Critical, judgmental, opinionated, refreshing.

See no Evil - Isabelle Vincent:
< 32 word review: Was Lat-Am nut as undergrad, loved her coverage. Planned to emulate, ended up in Asia. Met at grad-school lecture - she autographed book. Hung out at pub discussing Sub-commandante Marcos. Hottie. Iconoclast.

Please Kill Me - Legs McNeil;
< 30 word review: Sorry you limey losers - punk was American. Not that the Republicans would ever admit it. Honest, self-critical look at rise and fall of non-movement. Plus, Ramones!

The Tick Omnibus - Ben Edlund
< 2 word review: "Keen!" Read it in late 80s, haven't yet stopped saying "Keen." Obviously it influenced me ... no one else says that.

Passing on the tag to the co-Asiapundits.

BEER IN CHINA

As well as AsiaPundit, I maintain a personal blog and contribute to the Good Beer Blog. I haven't been contributing to the GBB as much recently - nor have fellow China-based beer bloggers Unabrewer and YellowFrog. There is a reason for that. SABMiller CFO Malcolm Wyman explains (via The China Stock Blog):

....the beer industry in China is way behind in levels of sophistication....you're talking about what perhaps the U.S. or other industries might have looked like 50 to 80 years ago when you have total fragmentation across the country. When we entered you had over 800 breweries we are now down to I think just under 400 breweries.
…. there are so many cheap beers that those are definitely not brandable. We try and move our beers up into the upper mainstream and the local premium levels where you can get slightly better margin
....but if you take the vast amount of beer and if you take your normal pyramid -- probably from two thirds and down is all very much low quality, low-priced beer and that beer is certainly lacking in any sort of brand capacity.

INFINITE CAT

I haven't been blogging here lately - I've been elsewhere. (go visit)

I will get around to responding to Chris Taylor's book tag. But first some news.

Our world-travelling cat Dee Dee is now infinite cat number 953.

And yes, Dee Dee is a boy's name.

ADOPT A CHINESE BLOG

Picking up where John at Sinosplice left off, Issac Mao has rekindled the Adopt-a-Blog project.

Introduction

Ever since blog became popular in China, there have been a number of occasions where some blogs were shut down by telecommunications company or internet service providers due to their political speech. These incidents not only brought risks to bloggers themselves but also to blog service providers in China. Many blog service providers had to increase their effort in content filtering. All these brought pressure and helplessness to people who dare to make truthful expressions.

Especially since April 2005, when the law on non-profit website registration became effective, website owners are required to submit their real personal information when they register their websites. The annual registration process as well as hefty penalty for failure in compliance have angered many website owners that use an independent virtual server and domain names.

Therefore, many bloggers in mainland China began to consider moving their blogs outside of China. But because of language barrier, financial, payment and other issues, the cost of moving is rather high and the situation is not optimistic.

It is based on the belief of free speech that we started the Adopt a Chinese blog project. We hope that we and others on the internet who shared the same belief, can share resources and help bloggers who want to freely express themselves and find a safer space for blogging, so that they can continue to blog without worries.

FREE MOJTABA SAMINEJAD!

Imprisoned blogger goes on hunger-strike

Reporters Without Borders today called on bloggers throughout the world to post messages in support of Iranian blogger Mojtaba Saminejad, who has been in prison since 12 February and who began a hunger-strike on 14 May.

"The life of this young blogger is in danger as he is being held in a prison where several detainees have died or have been injured in violence between inmates," the press freedom organization said.

"You must talk about him on the Web and in the media in order to put pressure on the Iranian authorities," the organization said, adding, "all bloggers must feel concerned about his fate and that of his two colleagues who are also imprisoned."

Via Singabloodypore.

FREEDOM BLOG AWARDS

Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans Frontieres) is holding its first Freedom Blog Awards. Among the nominees are some personal favourites Glutter, Angry Chinese Blogger and Singabloodypore (if in China use this).

The full list of nominees can be found here.

TONGUE

I've been off Blogspot for about two months and my traffic still hasn't recovered! I'm a friggin' rat in the ecosystem!

WTF? Not even the scantily clad Christy Chung photo helped restore my stats. Perhaps some nude Britney Spears or Emma Peel photos would help? I'm sure those are googled far more than Paris Hilton Sex tapes! None of which are available here.

But gad damn! I was the third most popular Singapore blog last year. Now I'm hovering at <100 hits per day. How the hell am I supposed to make a decent challenge against Washburn in the Asia Blog Awards 2005 with stats like that?

Speaking of Washburn... Dan you still up for those beers?

Nevermind, I doubt you are one of the fewer than 100 people who are reading me now. I'll just e-mail you. You've probably got better things to do than read this little unvisited patch of the blogosphere, planning another four-month trip perhaps?

Admittedly, I only took second runner up last year because XiaXue was not in my category. She gets lots of hits. Much more than me. And I'm a fucking professional writer goddamnit!!! Crap! Why aren't I as popular as XiaXue?

 

Yeah, she's cute... but my tongue is much, much bigger. I could tongue wrestle XiaXue to the ground in a second (that's just a fact - not a challenge, Lisa would object strongly). Oh, and size is important Adri, ask Tony Pierce.

 

There, that's my entry in the sexyblogger meme started by Messers Brown and Miyagi.

Admittedly the hits have dropped because this blog has been mostly self-indulgent crap since I've moved - but I hope the Paris Hilton sex video reference, cute Asian chick and trackbacks to Brown, Simon and Pierce should help restrore things.

WELCOME, WELCOME

Quick welcomes are in order for the Unabrewer's new site, the former Delaware-based beer blogger  has now stolen my  space as newest Sinoblogger.

Also, I welcome my old pal Craig Welsh to the blogosphere as the TownieBastard. He's another Newfie journo who've I've long pestered to start blogging.

He finally caved in.

Thanks Craig... now update dammit!