Running to stand-still.

Yes, a song from U2’s Joshua Tree CD but also an apt description of my life in China. Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, and charging heedlessly and headlessly between them is a harried Stevo.

Life pitches its share of curve balls. I am facing an uncertain future in a country that I am not a resident of. Yes, there are possibilities, but there is a chasm between possibilities and reality. Existence can be difficult when you are dependent on a visa (for two more years – 5 years of marriage is needed before Stevo and Mrs. Stevo’s union can bear the healthy child known as a Green Card.)

I was A-Number-1, top of the heap. Now - not so much.

Worrying about jobs and visas while doing my job: Trying to wrap up the term while keeping both the school and my team happy, and trying to control my temper to a point where homicide isn’t contemplated.

In a word, exhaustion. I’m tired. Really tired. When I’m not at work I retreat to Azeroth and kill Alliance minions. It’s mindless fun, and not the least bit productive. I have plenty of new photo gear and not the least bit of inclination to use it. I want to shoot, but would rather watch South Park and eat scrambled eggs. There’s a list of articles I want to write, but I’d rather read textsfromlastnight.com and laugh at the silliness.

As Paddy recently said: My mojo is gone. Exhaustion, my friends, has killed my muse. Okay, maybe not killed her, just placed her in a semi-conscious state. If Paddy is experiencing it perhaps it’s something in the blogosphere’s collective unconscious? Maybe it’s not just me, but some insidious plot by the Freemasons to control the blogosphere? Google, on behalf of the Bilderburg Group, is transmitting low-frequency sound waves via our PCs that render self-absorbed blogger-types unable to write? Stranger things have happened. I know a country that elected a less-than-intelligent president. Twice.

I’d like to hibernate, a bear in an air-conditioned den. Rest. Recuperation. Caffeine does not recharge batteries. Maybe a little time away will see both the batteries of me and my muse recharged.

So, friends, pardon my responses to your comments (or lack there of), or posting of new and interesting tidbits. I apologize for not visiting your blogs. I would, but find myself forgetting little things.

Two more weeks. I can do it, that’s not in doubt. Doing it and not requiring convalescence is my goal. Bear with me.

Image from: sketchyd.com

You’re on the road, without a “real” job. How do you make money with your travel blog?

Hostels are your home, long-distance buses a constant companion. You have seen things your friends will never understand. You have eaten unimaginable delicacies. Life is good. For how long? You have no income.

Making money with your travel blog is one way to earn a little extra cheddar as you traverse the Alps or follow the Silk Road. Blogger-extraordinaire Matt Kepnes of Nomadic Matt’s Travel Blog has released a new e-book: How to Make Money with your Travel Blog. The world-traveling Kepnes, veteran blogger, shares his secrets on how to stay in the black while pursuing your travel dreams.

Nomadic Matt makes $3000 per month from his internet ventures. I ponied up and bought his e-book.  It is well laid out and offers great information for both blogging newbies and seasoned pros. Learn:

• How to create and set up a blog
• Get traffic
• About SEO (Search Engine Optimization) voodoo
• Making money.

The list price of $27 does seem a little steep, but I made five-times the price of Matt’s e-book the first week after purchasing it. That’s a great return on investment.

Whether you’re just starting up or a nomadic road warrior I recommend reading Matt Kepnes’ How to Make Money with your Travel Blog.

My week, using David Rochester’s method of posting Random Items in No Particular Order:

What is it? Red Dragon Fruit.

1. After owning my new flash for 24 hours it dropped from the light stand onto my tile floor. It still functions, although the optical-slave no longer works.

2. An hour later my new Sony Sport Headphones slipped off my shoulder and into a (clean) toilet. After a night of outdoor drying they still work dandy.

3) I had the opportunity to say, “No, that’s not what my contract says.” There’s something liberating in knowing you no longer having anything to prove.

4. I resolved to take my dinner to work every night. I packaged it up each day, but forgot to take it two of the four nights.

5. I may patent the recipe for Stevo’s Peanut Butter and Banana Smoothie. Said smoothie is quite delicious with Red Dragon Fruit (right) and omitting the PB.

6. I read that doing cardio first thing in the morning is good for you. With no available equipment I ran up and down my building’s 10 flights of stairs three times. I spent two days unable to walk down stairs pain-free. Like coverage of the Iraq conflict, don’t believe everything you read.

7. I turned down a very high-paying job with a Fortune 500 company.

8. The last hour of my work week seemed to take 9 hours to complete.

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Enough about me, what’s been up in the blogosphere these past few weeks?

redRavine has a great interview with singer-songwriter Lisa Loeb . Fan or not, it’s an interesting read.

Stop and Wander’s photographic tribute to the destruction of Marshmallow Peeps is black comedy at its best.

Ron has a great image entitled Plane and Clouds, and is continuing his Boulevard of Broken Dreams Contest (Until May 1).   Don’t enter, I have it wrapped up.

Ron’s partner-in-crime, Robin, was exploring the world of black and white images, with stellar results. Her post reality is Must-See blogage.

Christine at Almost Fearless has a great post on her Shrinking World. Does the world get smaller, the more you travel?  Nomadic Matt tell us all why  Now is the best time to travel.   Julie at Collazo Projects says Shame on You: Lisa Ling & National Geographic: Thoughts About El Salvador.

Michael at Expatriate Games has a powerful post on a suicide attempt and the apathy of the witnesses to the event.

Josh at Xinjiang: Far West China has a great post on his new pooch, Rusty, becoming an official Chinese citizen.  The photos are a treat (If you have spent time in China, and dealt with bureaucracy and the “Red Stamp” you will appreciate it even more.)

Graham is regaling all with images and tales from his recent trip to Guilin.

From the renegade province of Taiwan (or Political Entity as I have heard it referred to), Carrie of My Several Worlds has a great interview with Lonely Planet Writer Joshua Samuel. Craig Ferguson, image master, presents a timely (and disturbing) photo essay on Tuol Sleng S21, the Khmer Rouge Prison

The weekend is almost upon me. I’m off to Hong Kong in an hour or two to pick up some wireless flash triggers and eat at Burger King. My weekend will be spent trying various lighting setups. I’ve convinced a colleague to pose (actually, she get to read a purloined English copy of Cosmo, and only has to pose when the lights are finally set up.)

What did I do this week? In my real life, nothing that bears mentioning.

The Bads
This site was scraped by two malevolent individuals, to pad the content of their sites. Thanks to My Several Worlds for the heads-up.  The one site required a threat or two. An email to his/her hosting company, and a promise to file a DMCA complaint with Google Adsense (the life-blood of the scraper) resulted in my posts being removed.

The second blog was hosted on wordpress.com. I inquired in the forums regarding DMCA complaints, listing the site in question. Low-and-behold, the scraper’s blog was suspended the next day.

Hey Scrapers: Mess with the bull and you get the horns.

The Good
While two sites (and possible others) stole my stuff, I did receive an email from a father in Nova Scotia, Canada. His son is doing a historical presentation on the Battle of Hong Kong and wants to use some of my images. He asked for permission, which I gave. I looked through my archives and forwarded some unposted shots that would be useful.

In the end, the two balance out. Ying and Yang, light and dark: All that stuff.

Image Credit: http://www.library.drexel.edu/blogs/librarylog/

I’ve made some great friends on these old intertubes. A lot of people use the internet as means of distraction or entertainment. I use it to connect to a life I’ve nearly forgotten. Lately, instead of looking westward I’ve turned my attention closer to home.

I recently met (virtually) some cool new China bloggers. Like me, they are “teaching the English.” Living in China is not easy for a temporary resident. It’s not especially easy for a seasoned expat. I generally steer clear of the pissing and moaning common to China’s expat blogging community. My blood pressure is high enough without angry rants.

I digress, as I often do. I’ll get off my soapbox.

Expatriate Games (a wicked name for a blog, I might add, being a fan of the book the name is taken from) is a fantastic photo blog. EG, as I kindly call him, shoots fantastic portraits and scenes from life in China. I wish I was so skilled. Check out his flickr stream.

A China newb, Graham Woodring, blogs at An American in the Far East. He hasn’t been in the Middle Kingdom for long, and I look forward to his thoughts as he experiences a different culture and life. I hope his search for milk is successful.

Go west, it was once said. Josh at Far West China, blogs from The Middle Kingdom’s western frontier, Xinjiang Province. Josh mixes news and photographs from western China and recently won the 2008 Best China Blog award.

Most foreign residents in China love shopping: Haggling in the market, searching for the ultimate (and often campy) bargain. There are many global devotees of online auction house ebay. Few know about China’s own ebay-like site: Taobao. Yes, it’s all in Chinese, which makes navigation difficult, but Taobao kicks proverbial butt.

One enterprising soul has created the Tao Bao Field Guide, featuring interesting (and wacky) products for sale on the Chinese auction house. More importantly, The Tao Bao Field Guide offers step-by-step instructions on registering an account, searching for items, and starting your online shopping spree — All in English. I no longer have to bother my coworkers.

The good things about new friends, regardless of real-life or vitual status,  is they soon become  old friends.

What have I been up to?

Life speeds along at an out-of-control pace. I do my best, but find often myself running-to-stand still. I miss my Lao Po, I work too much, work out too much, and eat to many vegetable. Oh, to be the dirty slacker I once was.

Blogging

Things have exploded here at Asian Ramblings. Traffic is up 231% thanks to some handy-dandy SEO work I did. Being a 2009 Bloggies finalist didn’t hurt things either. A plug-in I installed led to an email from my hosting company, informing me that Asian Ramblings almost crashed their database server. Bye-bye plug-in.

Asian Ramblings was invited to be part of Lonely Planet’s Blog Sherpa program. If you’re surfing the LP site you may see a post or two by moi.

My review of the Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera backpack was recently published on Matador Goods. Want my opinion on this high-security pack? Read it, and give it a green SU thumbs up, please.

So many projects, so little time.

Photography

I am slowly wading into an uncertain sea called flickr. I have been  a member of Photo.net for three years, but think Flickr, (for the same price, if I pay the “pro” fee) offers a lot more. All the features I used on Photo.net were ones I could receive without paying the $25-a-year fee. Check out my flickr stream.

Craig Ferguson has taken his photography blog in a new and interesting direction. I’ve been playing, using his latest lighting tutorial. I shot an interesting self-portrait (which Ron will love) and am looking at getting a second flash, stands, and umbrellas.

Bountiful Healing, Robin’s photo blog, gets better and better. A recent post, Dead Giants, featured some stunning images.

Fitness

Only 7.48 more pounds to lose and I’m at my “goal.” I used to think trousers with elastic tops were the last resort of overly fat men. I’ve since learnt that a man shedding pounds can also use these evil garments when his belts and pants are too big.

To spice up my cardio fitness routine I bought a Dance Dance Revolution pad for my PC (a whopping $6.75 US). If I was to post a video on Youtube of myself attempting to stamp on said pad, I’d be infamous. Watching someone with no rhythm trying to dance is amusing.

Reflecting on eating right and dieting I wish:

1. Vegetables tasted like steak,
2. There was a high-protein, low-carb beer,
3. Eating deep-fried food was extremely healthy,
4. Water had a more interesting flavor.

What’s ahead?

I have some cool posts coming up. My feature on the Opium War, and some interesting tales of Chinese Canadians fighting in World War II will soon grace these pages, as well as a photo essay on the Battle of Hong Kong. I hope to post a regular cooking article as I continue to decipher Chinese food. Speaking of food: amuirin at Stop & Wander was suppose to start a week-long food series, but has postponed it. Damn, I was looking forward to reading it. I’m always looking for new ideas.

Also

An RSS email subscriber sent me an email, telling me that Hong Kong was not the real China. Yes, I know. My post on how I Hate Hong Kong is testament to this. That said: Hong Kong is extremely photogenic.