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.

Fellow bloggers list their search terms from time to time. Stop; Wander often puts up a list, and David Rochester’ recent all-time best term has spurred me to publish some of mine. Over the last few months people have arrived from Google via ….

The Good

• the fates
• asian insults
• bacon poisoning
• cheese
• equation humor
• teacher marries china blog (you don’t marry China, China marries you)
• chinese profanities
• sadistic asian
• i may be a little out of the loop too (aren’t we all)
• kraft dinner pros and cons (there are no cons. KD is all pros)
• i hate hong kong (me too)
• small love test
• fear of umbrellas
• asian towel holders (is this a person, place or thing?)
• old asian king on horse (never seen one. an old asian queen though…)
• bruce lee

The Bad

• working girls
• my hot teacher (I really hope this wasn’t my students)
• jackie chan mistress (not me)
• cold shower
• golden showers
• thailand golden showers
• asien golden shower

The Ugly (and strange)

• feet
• big feet
• asian feet
• asian elevator grope
• asian over knee socks gallery
• girls with big feet
• ugly stockings
• woman shoes off
• asian woman who wear stockings
• photos of my wife wearing stockings (my wife does not wear stockings)
• naked feet women
• asian cannibalism photo,picture

Yes, Asian Ramblings is a foot fetish blog masquerading as a China Travel blog. There, I’ve said it. I won’t lie any more. It’s a ingenious plan on my part. To what end? I haven’t the slightest.

Robin is the unofficial queen of foot fetishists. I wonder if her list is as interesting as this? I’m not even going to optimize this post for SEO. It will be our little secret, okay?

postscript: As I was writing this there was a hit from Google Images using the term “Big Feet.”

image from: Cindy and Jamie’s Wedding Day

Is it possible to die of bacon poisoning? This isn’t a question often asked. I may be the only person in the history of humankind to raise this query.

I love bacon. I ran gleefully home when my local store starting carrying the plastic-wrapped, fat-streaked, heart attack-inducing meat product. I cooked the entire ½ pound package of pork goodness and ate it all in one large sandwich.

Gluttony is a sin, but why one of the seven deadlies I’ll never know. I had a Jewish coworker at summer camp that ate bacon like a hungry savage each time it was served. She knew it was her only opportunity to consume the smokey breakfast without religious stigma.

I did find this gem on an article entitled: Stop poisoning your sex life: minimize your intake of five kinds of food, and your beefsteak will continue to sizzle well into your adulthood.

1) Fatty meats: More bacon means less porkin’. Myth has it that gorging on red meat is manly, but fatty cuts of beef, bacon, sausage and full-fat luncheon meats can be wack for your wood. “Most men know that saturated fat and cholesterol narrow the arteries that nourish the heart and increase risk of heart attack,” Lieberman says. “But they also narrow the arteries that carry blood into the penis, which contributes to erectile dysfunction [ED].” These arteries, by the way, are some of the smallest and will be the first to jam up with plaque.

Perhaps I have evolved beyond the need for intimate contact with my wife. If we had children they would want to eat my bacon, leaving less greasy treats for me. How much is too much? Is it possible to OD on bacon, requiring medical intervention? Is bacon poisoning a possibility? I don’t know. A quick search of Google pointed to some pages regarding traditional food poisoning, as well as illness induced by nitrates and a nasty host of bacon’s chemical companions. I’m too lazy to dig into the matter fully. I’ll consider myself a case study. When I find myself in a Chinese ER, sweating pork fat, the truth will be known. Given the simple kitchen, I may have to learn to cook steak instead.

It’s Friday morning in the Middle Kingdom. I’m off to Hong Kong to pick up my new axe.

I’ll be staying in palatial cheap basic accommodations. My last trip to HK saw me staying at the YMCA. I don’t know what reputation The Y has in other parts of the world, but in HK it’s bomb diggity.

I’ve found some cool new blogs this week (well, new to me) and wanted to share. Give these folks a read, they have something interesting to say.

I mentioned Christine at almostfearless.com earlier in the week. She has a great post about how to receive your mail, in a virtual sense, while overseas.

Julie at Collazo Projects has an interesting piece on flubbed journalistic endeavors and gives her commentary on the Ann Curry/Ingrid Betancourt interview.

Want to do cool, free stuff in Boston? World-traveler extraordinaire Nomadic Matt has the answers in a recent post.

Theresa and Jeff of Livesofwander.com are leaving for a year of world travel. They have some interesting posts and neat things to say. Their site offers readers a chance to vote on where the couple should go on their epic adventure.

Signing off for the weekend. Stay chilly, I’ll try to stay dry.

Image courtesy of the BBC

Christine was a management cog in the corporate machine before she fled the Fortune 500 company that employed her and started life as a free-wheeling travel writer. Almostfearless.com documents her transition from one life to another. From her about page:

I always wanted to travel the world. Who doesn’t? But somehow I ended up trading in my 20’s for a job I didn’t love, money I didn’t need (but happily spent on things I didn’t need), and a burgeoning sleeping problem. One night after I ran out of valerian root and melatonin, I stayed up all night looking through job listings in my field. I realized something—I didn’t want to do any of them. None. I could change my job, change my environment, but the work itself had become excruciating.

It was time to take the leap and start over. I would finally pick up that writing career I had been tinkering with for several years. I would get serious about my photography. My husband and I would sell everything and move abroad with our two dogs (Molly and Jack). What’s the worst that can happen?

As The Stevo is a good bloglleague, he’s contributed a little something to almostfearless.com. Christine has been busy these past two weeks, moving to Spain. Take a boo at my article on How to Breeze Through Customs.

Give Christine some love, she’s a brave one.

Remember I said The Stevos’ have a secret?

No, I’m not gay. (Sorry Grandma, I know you want to march in the Pride Parade.)

No, my wife is not really a man as some have speculated.

No, I’m not a cyborg, although that might be cool. An English-teaching version of Robocop?

Stevo has lost his fat belly? Well, that’s not really a secret.

What’s the secret? Why has The Stevo lowered himself to posting a photo of a cat on his blog? (What did cat lovers do before the internet?)

Wait and see.

Better yet, enter and see.

That’s right, asianramblings.com is holding a contest. If you can guess The Stevos’ secret you’ll be a winner. Well, you’re already a winner in my eyes for reading this post. After all, there is a photograph of a cat.

What will I win, you ask.

The person that first correctly guesses The Stevos’ secret will win their own domain name installed with WordPress and hosting for one year *. That’s right, free!

I’ll post clues over the next two weeks. Email your guesses whenever you like. Enter early and enter often.

* Some restrictions apply.

Photo by: thedepartmentofme