Dad and I went on an AMAZING Shanghai food tour and I highly recommend it if you are in town. We walked around old Shanghai for 4 hours trying all kinds of food, along with some history/insight, local alcohol, and tea. Our guide was Jim and he was fantastic :). We also went to a big Carrefour for some groceries which you will see below :).

My dad and I are visiting China for the next 3 weeks!!! My brother has lived in Shanghai for 3+ years and teaches here, and I am excited to finally visit him :). The flight wasn’t too bad compared to flying to Australia (12 hours instead of 16). Day one was mostly recovering from jet lag, checking out Nick’s neighborhood, using the metro, checking out the bund, and grabbing sim cards.

This article is incredibly interesting on how China is building out a rating system for every citizen (and possibly sharing that data publicly and privately). I don’t know where this is going but it is a really fascinating idea. Imagine if you could pull up someone’s details just by scanning their face or looking at them through your digital glasses. Could you see who they voted for? What they donate money too? What they do for a living? We are getting really close to doing all this.

Plus it has so many interesting applications to promote good behavior, or report bad:

If you see corruption you mark it on the person’s record.
If you see discrimination you mark it on their record.
If you see someone do something nice you give them points.
Of course, you could also do false reports and limitless ability to abuse.

How will people hide the parts they want private? How will you opt out? A bit like the book The Circle which was super creepy. Is this technology going to take us back to old school small towns where everyone knows a lot about everyone else? Is that good or bad?

For Christmas my brother got me some awesome custom made button up shirts he secretly had made by his “tailor” in China (he is hilarious). So for a brief moment we matched, and all was well in the universe :) !

PS. He is always striving to make me “classy”, and to go a step above my jeans and t shirt.

The nearby town of Menton puts on a Lemon festival every year, so we wandered over to take a look. The theme this year was “the tribulations of a lemon in China”, which is really weird and I couldn’t find any further info on what tribulations the lemon endures. What I like best about this poster is the ninjas on the bottom, which is not very chinese, but maybe they are kung fu ninjas? Not to mention all the crazy weird things they did in the spirit of china…

Question, is drawing asian eyes on a white mannequin racist or thrifty?

I spent Thursday to Sunday in Miami on South Beach and had a great time, the conference was well done and they had some great speakers! I was also impressed with South Beach, although not that I could ever live there. Unless I get an operation that infuses me with three popped collars, hair gel, fist pumping, non stop base thumping, and general douchery. I should note it did have great beaches and lots of normal people.

It also made me realize I am super burned out and need a vacation to let my mind rest. I ended up skipping the conference parties just because I needed too and catching up on reading and just nothingness. The weather was amazing, a solid 80 degrees and a gorgeous boardwalk to run on. I ran on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday I did my longest run in a while with 12 miles. I’m doing a marathon training schedule Apey gave me, and going to see about a marathon later this summer I think.

Oh and Cuban food and coffee is awesome. I already knew this from my time living in Boca Raton, but I really miss cheap delicious Cuban food…

I read 4 books and I highly recommend this book that talks about factory girls in China and was just an amazing story (and very well written). Talk about hustlers, I can’t wait to see what those girls do over the next 40 years with their kids and careers. I can’t imagine leaving town at 16 to get a job and navigate such a crazy world, what an adventure!

Please pardon any spelling mistakes, I’m super tired. I’ve actually been getting up while I was there at 7am or 8am to run in the mornings or for the conference.

Wow what a jam packed January! Work has been insanely busy and slowly our new business project is coming together. Just have to keep mumbling to myself that slow and steady wins the race :).

This last weekend I went to NY and had a blast with friends, although I’m feeling the effects as I spent the last 24 hours getting over a cold. I’m hoping to go again in the next few months and actually see a play and the insides of a few museums. Somehow managed to run 10 miles through central park which was great! I can’t wait to run outside again once spring comes!

Upcoming Travel
February – SuperConf in Miami
March – SXSW in Austin and WHD in Germany + Short Vacation
April – Paga Ultimate Tournament Italy + Short Vacation
May – Fayetteville for Jasmine’s Graduation.

Possibles
June – WHD Conf in Thailand
August – San Fran WordCamp and Fayetteville for a wedding.
November – PubCon Vegas
October – Octoberfest maybe?