Thug Life: China Style [WhiteGhost]

[Mad Hatter]

Geeeeze....

 

Also holy shit 10 children!!!!

 

I thought you meant tiger bends at first and was ready to be extremely impressed. Have you ever tried them?

[@mu]

20 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

Thanks!  I don't want to take ALL the credit for it, though  

 

Nice launching platform in your park though

 

Re homework, yep that's a bit intense to do in a single evening, that might motivate them to do fewer mistakes next semester though, in a cruel and painful way (the beatings will continue until morale improves method?)

I was raised a little bit on that sort of streak, not to a Chinese level, but still. It gave me good work habits I think but the price was unnecessarily high on mental health, to be honest.

There is another element though that was really striking to me, moving from schooling in West Africa to France (in the 90s). In Mali, schooling was a privilege and we were all acutely aware of it. There was a lot of respect for learning and teachers. In France, in the first couple of schools were I was, enjoying school and learning gave you a rather bad reputation. You were supposed to hate it and clown the teachers. And there was all this stuff about looking cool instead, being friend with the cool people, being in the cool groups and stuff. You can recognize the nerd's lament I suppose  

 

 

[WhiteGhost]

1 hour ago, Mr_Willes said:

It's one of the most important things i feel this at home here on the boards.

Well, I am certainly very happy you are here.  Your gif-fu is amazing and we have a very similar sense of humor.  Your brand of humor never fails to bring a smile to my face, so keep it up you

 

1 hour ago, Mad Hatter said:

Geeeeze....

 

Also holy shit 10 children!!!!

 

I thought you meant tiger bends at first and was ready to be extremely impressed. Have you ever tried them?

Runs to youtube...  Oh heavens no!  I would break my face  

 

40 minutes ago, @mu said:

 

Nice launching platform in your park though

 

Re homework, yep that's a bit intense to do in a single evening, that might motivate them to do fewer mistakes next semester though, in a cruel and painful way (the beatings will continue until morale improves method?)

I was raised a little bit on that sort of streak, not to a Chinese level, but still. It gave me good work habits I think but the price was unnecessarily high on mental health, to be honest.

There is another element though that was really striking to me, moving from schooling in West Africa to France (in the 90s). In Mali, schooling was a privilege and we were all acutely aware of it. There was a lot of respect for learning and teachers. In France, in the first couple of schools were I was, enjoying school and learning gave you a rather bad reputation. You were supposed to hate it and clown the teachers. And there was all this stuff about looking cool instead, being friend with the cool people, being in the cool groups and stuff. You can recognize the nerd's lament I suppose  

Oh yeah, we had that in school in the US as well, but not so much until high school.  I'm sure a lot of people here hate school, but disrespecting the teacher is uncommon.  Getting on the teacher's bad side is not a strategically sound maneuver.  

[Mad Hatter]

 

1 hour ago, @mu said:

In France, in the first couple of schools were I was, enjoying school and learning gave you a rather bad reputation. You were supposed to hate it and clown the teachers. And there was all this stuff about looking cool instead, being friend with the cool people, being in the cool groups and stuff. You can recognize the nerd's lament I suppose  

I think that might be partly because the kids are older though. At least in Sweden being a teacher's pet was very uncool as a teenager, but for younger kids there was zero pressure to be cool. Maybe it's similar in France? But there's definitely a different attitude, the teacher, at least for teenagers had to earn the respect of the students, it didn't come by default. I feel almost bad for some of the substitute teachers we had that couldn't hack it.  The regular teachers were cool though.

[Lara]

Love your idea for this challenge!

 

The "wet noodle"comment cracked me up

By the way, what are those straps you're using to hold yourself to the bar? I don't think I've seen them before.

Nice inversion!

 

About the chinese education system, I got anxious only reading about it. What a f*** amount of pressure 

[KB Girl]

34 minutes ago, zenLara said:

About the chinese education system, I got anxious only reading about it. What a f*** amount of pressure 

Yea.. I'm a little in shock. Ok maybe a lot. 

[jonfirestar]

 

On 1/3/2019 at 5:34 AM, WhiteGhost said:

Haha, you are very welcome   We just need to make sure that @Mr_Willes never, ever, under any circumstances finds out about this.  It could mean the end of the forums as we know it  

 

 

21 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Diplomatic Immunity does not apply to @Mr_Willes, so no worries there. We saw that one coming and took care of it ahead of time.

 

I don't know. Diplomatic Immunity would go a long way in explaining @Mr_Willes

 

 

 

[karinajean]

wow, yeah. I totally understand how the Chinese education works from a person management situation, because of the number of people in the country. but it really scrapes against that well-embedded "control of your own fate!" american feeling that I have!

 

 

(I also never did homework! I got by fine until college, which was kind of a rigorous engineering curriculum. Freshman year I had to learn how to study and how to do homework... it was a rough time. This experience makes me feel like a huge hypocrite when I'm working with Fifteen on study skills, but he's not as good at paying attention and taking tests as I was, so I'm just saving him that freshman year pain I felt.)

 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

I had heard similar reports about schooling in Asia to what you posted WhiteGhost. That's why I don't get bent out of shape when people talk about how the US ranks against other countries in education, it's not a realistic comparison. 

[Sylvaa]

12 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

I was involved in that discussion, but I don't remember how much I talked about from the Chinese perspective.  I'm not really sure what you mean by "rigid in their expectations", though, so I'm not sure how to respond

 

Your outline of the Chinese education system was really cool to read, although pretty daunting. I was vague because I don't know that I have any actual real info. Just anecdotes about how much smarter and more advanced some areas were. But it definitely makes sense based on your experience. 

[sylph]

The Chinese system sounds very similar to the Japanese one. We had an exchange student from Japan live with us for a year when I was in high school and I was just as baffled when she described it to me then as I am now.

[WhiteGhost]

5 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

 

I think that might be partly because the kids are older though. At least in Sweden being a teacher's pet was very uncool as a teenager, but for younger kids there was zero pressure to be cool. Maybe it's similar in France? But there's definitely a different attitude, the teacher, at least for teenagers had to earn the respect of the students, it didn't come by default. I feel almost bad for some of the substitute teachers we had that couldn't hack it.  The regular teachers were cool though.

So teenagers being rebellious is a thing there too, huh  .  I think there is definitely a cultural difference here, where teachers generally get respect by default but then can lose it by being terrible.

 

4 hours ago, zenLara said:

Love your idea for this challenge!

 

The "wet noodle"comment cracked me up

By the way, what are those straps you're using to hold yourself to the bar? I don't think I've seen them before.

Nice inversion!

 

About the chinese education system, I got anxious only reading about it. What a f*** amount of pressure 

The straps are just canvas straps covered in soft cloth that lock your hands to the bar (I wouldn't dare do half of the stuff I do if I thought there was a risk of falling off the bar.  I have no idea if actual gymnasts use them, but I suspect not because they wouldn't be able to do any dismounts.  They are really popular here in China among park gymnastics enthusiasts, though.

 

3 hours ago, KB Girl said:

Yea.. I'm a little in shock. Ok maybe a lot. 

Yes, it is a very different system than what most of us are used to.

 

3 hours ago, jonfirestar said:

I don't know. Diplomatic Immunity would go a long way in explaining @Mr_Willes

 

Haha!  You are not wrong  

 

1 hour ago, karinajean said:

wow, yeah. I totally understand how the Chinese education works from a person management situation, because of the number of people in the country. but it really scrapes against that well-embedded "control of your own fate!" american feeling that I have!

There is a reason the suicide rates here for students are really high.  The desire to control your own destiny is not the exclusive domain of America

 

1 hour ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

I had heard similar reports about schooling in Asia to what you posted WhiteGhost. That's why I don't get bent out of shape when people talk about how the US ranks against other countries in education, it's not a realistic comparison. 

There is way more behind the headlines than most people realize.  Also the way many of those statistics are compiled take into account only certain aspects of learning, so memorization and test taking (areas where the Chinese system excels) rank way higher than critical thinking and practical application (areas where western systems excel).  Let's not even get into discussion about creativity...

 

1 hour ago, Sylvaa said:

 

Your outline of the Chinese education system was really cool to read, although pretty daunting. I was vague because I don't know that I have any actual real info. Just anecdotes about how much smarter and more advanced some areas were. But it definitely makes sense based on your experience. 

I'm not sure it is really accurate or fair to say either system is smarter or more advanced.  Both systems generate very talented individuals but the specific talents that are imbued can be quite different.

 

1 hour ago, sylph said:

The Chinese system sounds very similar to the Japanese one. We had an exchange student from Japan live with us for a year when I was in high school and I was just as baffled when she described it to me then as I am now.

Yes, the actual systems are very similar (as are the Korean and Singaporean systems).  However the pressure to perform (and the stakes for falling behind) is much higher in China

 

[Lara]

2 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

There is a reason the suicide rates here for students are really high.

:/

[Mad Hatter]

3 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

So teenagers being rebellious is a thing there too, huh  .

Let’s not forget that 80+% of the students at my school were first or second gen immigrants though, including myself.  It was a decent school with good kids, but perhaps not representative.

 

Whatever system of learning a school adopts students health should really be top priority. It’s tragic that a kid should feel enough pressure to drive them to suicide...  

 

[WhiteGhost]

17 hours ago, zenLara said:

:/

    

 

14 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

Whatever system of learning a school adopts students health should really be top priority. It’s tragic that a kid should feel enough pressure to drive them to suicide...  

 

That would certainly be the ideal, unfortunately it is not always the case.  Which is indeed very tragic

 

Update time:

 

Yesterday afternoon I went to the Entry/Exit Administration.  I don't like to drive unless I need to (both because I'm turning into a treehugging hippie and because traffic is almost always a nightmare).   The subway has improved a lot since I first moved here.  When I first got there they had just completed a new 3rd subway line, but it wasn't yet integrated into the other two, so you had to buy two different tickets if you wanted to transfer between them.  The current subway map looks like this

And there are at least 3 new lines currently under construction.  I have mentioned this before but cash is quickly going the way of the dodo, and there are now only a few holdouts left where I need to used cash.  Until recently, the only things I needed cash for was parking, subway fare, and tithing donations for church.  Now almost all parking lots in the city have integrated into the ETC system that the freeways use, so now we can use one single card for tolls and parking - very convenient.   Also, just in the last couple of weeks they have introduced an electronic payment system for the subways.  I can buy a pre-paid card on my phone, then use the NFC function to swipe my phone to get into the subway.  Also very convenient  

Just swipe your phone over the image on the reader and the gates open    Now the only thing I need cash for is tithing.  I am sure I will have more to say on the topic of tithing later, so I will leave that for now.

 

On the Entry/Exit administration website they say that from this year you need to schedule an appointment through the website to visit an officer (which I did) but when I got there they were still giving numbers and letting people get in line without pre-registering.  owever, because I was already pre-registered, I got to skip the line and go directly to an officer (It turns out he was the same officer I talked to last year, and he is a very helpful guy.  He went though my documents and unfortunately I was still missing a document so I have to get that prepared before I can submit my application.  I can get that document done on Monday, so I will need to go back and resubmit then.  I also learned that as long as I submit my application more than 1 month before my old visa expires, I can apply for a multi-year visa.  I did no know this so in the past I have had to get a new visa every year.  Unfortunately, my visa expires in January, so I ineligible this time around  

 

After I got home, I was going to make myself some dinner, but Ghostess called and said she was going to order some Sichuan style boiled fish, so I decided to wait for that instead.  In the meantime I got a little hungry so I had some snacks.  I made myself a bowl of custard pudding and then had some traditional Chinese peanut snacks.  I have no idea what they are called, but they are super yummy

Oops, that picture is upside-down

 

Ghostess got home late, so we ended up having dinner around 11pm. 

From bottom left going anti-clockwise that is Sichuan style boiled fish, Spicy bullfrog, more fish, cold noodles, and a bowl of spicy pig guts pork offal & blood tofu.  I don't like the offal, but the rest of it was really delicious  

 

This morning I was thinking of working but I didn't.  Instead I made a tiramisu because it is Ghostess's favorite dessert and she asked me to give it a go.

 

I also made a meatloaf because @Tanktimus the Encourager used some kind of subliminal power forcing my hand.  I didn't have any ground beef so I made my own, but had to work with what was the absolutely worst cut of beef I have ever encountered

I salvaged what I could from it and made some sage pork sausage and mixed them together for the meatloaf.  I put bacon on top because Tanks thread seems to be beyond my power to resist.  The result was not super photogenic but the flavor was amazing.  So amazing in fact that it was gone very soon after leaving the oven (it isn't even dinner time yet) and both Ghostess and Ghostlet strongly recommend that I do this recipe again.  That does not happen very often  

I really should have made more of it, because I still want more too...

 

[The Battle Chef]

Dang man, that food looks good.  I probably wouldn't cook much if the takeout quality in my area was that level.  The offal & blood tofu is pretty hardcore, I'd probably like it.  I do enjoy a German black pudding dish called "Himmel und Ered", which is fried black pudding with caramelized onions, mashed potatoes and applesauce.

 

Also +1 for tiramisu.  I haven't made that in ages.

[@mu]

On 1/4/2019 at 1:59 PM, Mad Hatter said:

 

I think that might be partly because the kids are older though. At least in Sweden being a teacher's pet was very uncool as a teenager, but for younger kids there was zero pressure to be cool. Maybe it's similar in France? But there's definitely a different attitude, the teacher, at least for teenagers had to earn the respect of the students, it didn't come by default. I feel almost bad for some of the substitute teachers we had that couldn't hack it.  The regular teachers were cool though.

 

It sounds pretty much like what you describe. The age range was12-14 (in a small provincial town), still fairly young to break teachers but it did happen once  (music teacher, it was really unfair). After that, I moved to another high-school and the type of peer pressure was different, so I'm not sure if it's age-related or something else.

 

woofff, I'm getting a tad bit HUNGRY now

 

4 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

I also learned that as long as I submit my application more than 1 month before my old visa expires, I can apply for a multi-year visa.  I did no know this so in the past I have had to get a new visa every year.  Unfortunately, my visa expires in January, so I ineligible this time around  

 

argh! But next year will be the one!

We have been applying every year for a holiday visa (for my husband), until I realised his visa was multi-entry  and valid until 2021... fortunately it's free...the embassy did not notice either and kept adding more visas to his passport...

Do you have to pay for it? The 1-year visa was free as well for E. (EU law) but apparently we have to pay a "stamp" at the immigration office once in France.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

That meatloaf is amazing. You're gonna have to start putting out warnings about not coming to your thread hungry.

[WhiteGhost]

18 hours ago, Rusk said:

Dang man, that food looks good.  I probably wouldn't cook much if the takeout quality in my area was that level.  The offal & blood tofu is pretty hardcore, I'd probably like it.  I do enjoy a German black pudding dish called "Himmel und Ered", which is fried black pudding with caramelized onions, mashed potatoes and applesauce.

 

Also +1 for tiramisu.  I haven't made that in ages.

That is certainly a benefit of living in a huge city - the options for eating out are endless (and most of them deliver).  I have tried the offal & blood and while it isn't as bad as it sounds in my mind, it isn't something I particularly enjoy.

 

15 hours ago, @mu said:

argh! But next year will be the one!

We have been applying every year for a holiday visa (for my husband), until I realised his visa was multi-entry  and valid until 2021... fortunately it's free...the embassy did not notice either and kept adding more visas to his passport...

Do you have to pay for it? The 1-year visa was free as well for E. (EU law) but apparently we have to pay a "stamp" at the immigration office once in France.

They have long term (up to 10 years) visas for visitors, but they do not allow you to work.  The visa is not free, and is generally reciprocal for the fees required by the applicant's country.  For US citizens, a one year visa is 400 RMB (about $60) but Brazilians have to pay much more this year because Brazil jacked up the fees for Chinese applying for Brazilian visas. Multiple year visas cost more, but I am not sure how much more.  I guess next year I will find out  

 

Anyway, it turns out that it was actually a good thing that I got turned away at the Entry/Exit Administration.  Once the application has been accepted, it takes up to 20 working days to get it back, so you are without a passport during the interim.  I will be visiting with my lawyer later this afternoon to discuss my labor dispute case (first hearing will be this week), and he reminded me that I have to have my passport there for it.

 

15 hours ago, @mu said:

woofff, I'm getting a tad bit HUNGRY now 

14 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

That meatloaf is amazing. You're gonna have to start putting out warnings about not coming to your thread hungry.

 

Well, I did say there would be food porn.  Probably not a bad idea to warn people though  

 

Last night we went to one of the bajillian malls here for dinner and a movie.  We went to the place that has the Spanish restaurant we like for the fake off brand Paella. 

It was good as usual, but after having made it myself since last time we ate there, I discovered that I actually like my own version better.  While we were there, we were talking to a server wo mentioned that they had opened another restaurant in the mall (on the same floor across the bridge) except the new one was Spanish.  Confused I asked how that one was different because the one we usually go to is already Spanish.  The server explained to me that the new restaurant is Spanish and the current one where we were is actually an Italian restaurant.  I was surprised to hear this, but the server pointed out that the menu does not have a dedicated Tapas section, but it does have a pizza section, so obviously it must be Italian.  Apparently not having a single pasta dish on the menu was irrelevant.

 

After dinner we went to watch Bumblebee.  I was really happy with it, especially because the transformers looked like the ones I had as a kid, but also because it was more than just shots of electronics in a garbage disposal and toilet humor.  Ghostess said she preferred the original ones because they had more action, and Ghostlet liked the original ones better because there was less kissing (but I think he probably doesn't remember the originals very well  ).  At any rate, there is just no accounting for taste   

 

This morning was church, and then afterwards I stopped off at the cobbler to get some shoes fixed.  I don't think I have ever been to a cobbler in the US but I suspect they probably exist.  The one I went to looks like this:

I gave them 3 pairs to be resoled, and 2 for polishing/general maintenance.  Not sure what this is called in English, but basically they clean then up and give them a treatment to make them last longer, kind of like a spa for shoes.

 

Ghostess is making lunch today, but it isn't done yet so that will have to wait for tomorrows update  

[The Battle Chef]

Yeah, I live in an unincorporated section outside of a small city, not much but burgers, pizza, fried fish and "North American" "Chinese Style" food (because heaven forbid we learn things about another culture when we can stuff our face full of cheap carbs)

 

Shit that paella looks good.  Another thing I haven't made in a while.  I love one pot dishes like paella, jambalaya, stews and whatnot.

[Lara]

4 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

Apparently not having a single pasta dish on the menu was irrelevant.

[RogueLibrarian]

Following back! I used to live in Thailand and did a trip to China once as a teenager. We're hoping to get to Hong Kong for a few days this summer.

[WhiteGhost]

21 hours ago, Rusk said:

Yeah, I live in an unincorporated section outside of a small city, not much but burgers, pizza, fried fish and "North American" "Chinese Style" food (because heaven forbid we learn things about another culture when we can stuff our face full of cheap carbs)

 

Shit that paella looks good.  Another thing I haven't made in a while.  I love one pot dishes like paella, jambalaya, stews and whatnot.

North American Chinese Style is very different from actual Chinese food.  I remember the first time I took Ghostess to the US and she tried what passes for Chinese food there she was shocked.  On the other hand, when I have seen most of what passes for "Western Food" here I feel the same way.  Many of the standard fare that passes for Chinese food doesn't exist in China (i.e. beef & broccoli, Genral Tso's Chicken, Chop Suey).  I have only seen one fortune cookie in all of the time I have lived here, and it was at one of the places that caters almost exclusively to foreign tourists.  They just aren't a thing here.

 

Interestingly, there is a sort of parallel between how Chinese see "Western Food" and how many westerners see "Asian Food".  I am not sure how things are in Europe (or on the east coast/Deep South) but where I grew up out west, you have "Chinese" restaurants that has on the menu a mish-mash of Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Thai, and Malaysian dishes.  Even the pure Chinese places will have some of the more poplar dishes from across China all on one menu.  What you don't see as often is general European restaurants, that have Italian Pasta, German Sausages, British Fish & Chips, and French Escargot all on one menu.  

 

In China, things are very different.  Pretty much exact negative of that, in fact.  Here a "Western Food" restaurant could have pizza, burgers, German sausage, pasta, Tandoori chicken, gyros, and even 'fajitas' all in one menu, but you would not generally see Korean, Japanese or Thai food anywhere except a Korean, Japanese or Thai place.  Singaporean, Malaysian & Hong Kong food, all kind of fall into one group, though.  What you would also rarely see is a restaurant that has Sichuan boiled fish, Shanghai Soup Dumplings, Northeastern Honeyed Pork Cutlets, Macao Style Fried Noodles, and Sweet & Sour Pork on the same menu.  (The exception to this are restaurants that primarily cater to foreign tourists).  Here a Sichuan restaurant will have mostly Sichuan dishes, a Northeastern restaurant will have Northeastern dishes.  Same goes for Shanghai, Guanzhou, Chongqing, etc.  Mixing these is the local equivalent of having something like a German/Italian restaurant.  They may exist, but would be very rare.  

 

21 hours ago, zenLara said:

My reaction exactly  

 

12 hours ago, RogueLibrarian said:

Following back! I used to live in Thailand and did a trip to China once as a teenager. We're hoping to get to Hong Kong for a few days this summer.

Welcome!  As I mentioned to KJ, China today is probably very, very different from what you experienced as a teen.  Hong Kong is, in my opnion, the best place in the world from food choices.  The one thing I really miss about living there is the amazing food.  If yu get there, make sure you take advantage of that and try out lots of new and exciting dishes. (My absolute favorite is the Lebanese place on the bottom end of Elgin Street in the Mid-levels/Central  )

 

OK, following from where I left off yesterday...

 

Lunch was Pork strips & peppers

This is one of the most quintessential, stereotypical food in China. It is so well know, in fact, the I remember seeing a funny car commercial in Japan that used the name of this food (Qingjiao Rousi) as the punchline (it sounds very similar in Japanese to  "put away & unload" (tsunjyao, orosu).  For some reason, it's fame didn't make it across the Pacific, because I don't think most Americans have ever heard of it.  At any rate, it was very delicious.

 

After lunch, Ghostess and I left Ghostlet at home to work on his homework while we went and talked to my lawyer.  Arbitration starts this Thursday, so we wanted to get everything ready and make sure we have all of the details laid out and disucssed how we wanted to present them.  I think it may be interesting to lay out the details of the case.

 

Shortly before I was hired, I needed to renew my visa.  Because I am here on a work visa, the visa needs to be sponsored by the company I work for.  However, at the time I had not yet signed on with my company and had already left from my previous one.  To cover me during the gap, I went and got my work visa through Ghostess's company.  They had just done an overhaul of the work permit process and under the rules at the time, it was extremely difficult to change from one employer to another, because the new system couldn't handle that kind of work.  When I talked to someone at the labor office, they advised me that it could take up to 6 months to get the visa changed over to my new company.

 

So once I was hired by the new company, I talked with my boss and told him the situation, and we agreed that I would continue to be registered at the Labor bureau on my wife's company, but I would sign an employment contract with my new company and they would pay my salary.  The only thing that was irregular was my registration with the labor department.  I should point out that this practice is not technically illegal, but the Labor Department frowns and gives very dirty looks for this kind of thing

 

Fast forward now to when I leave the company.  According to Chinese labor law, they must offer me a severance, and the minimum they can offer is 1 month salary for every year of service, rounded to the nearest full year.  2 years and 5 months would be 2 months salary, 2 years and 6 months would be 3 months salary.  The "salary" used in this calculation for people with above average salaries (like mine was) can be rounded down to the average of all salaries in the administrative district.  This is the minimum that the company ca offer as compensation by law.  However, the law states that the employee does not have to accept and the employee can only be terminated upon agreement of a mutually acceptable termination package.  The standard for my industry is to offer the minimum number of months, but based on the full salary, not the district average.  If they had offered this, I would have accepted and gone on my merry way.

 

What they actually offered, however, was less than half of what the legal minimum was.  They assumed that I would not know Chinese Labor Law and hoped they could save a buck by offering me a token amount.  However, Ghostess used to be the head of HR for her previous company, so she knows labor law very well.  When I pointed out that their offer was less than the legal minimum, they scambled to put together another offer, but they again violated the law by cutting the notice period down to 10 days (it should be 30) because the 30 days would bump me up over the half year mark.  BY this point we were so disgusted with them, we consulted with a lawyer who pointed out a whole bunch of other areas that they were breaking the law in order to give me less than I was legally due.  I discussed with my boss to see if we could come to an agreement without the courts, but he told me that the CEO and other partners were happy with the way HR was handling the layoffs (most people don't know labor law and were accepting far less than they were due, which was saving the company loads of money).  Seeing that he was going to be no help, we went ahead and filed the law suit.  

 

Our claim is pretty straight forward, but their lawyer is saying that because my Labor Department registration is not with their company, they technically did not have any labor relationship with me at all, and therefore no severance is applicable.  We believe that our argument is much stronger, but we will just have to see what the arbiter thinks (labor disputes must start in arbitration).  However, the arbitration has multiple appeal levels, and if nothing is agreed by then, it goes to the courts, which also have multiple appeal levels.  If they really fight this, we could be in for a long, long process.  We have some other ammunition if we need it, though.  As part of our review process, the lawyer discovered a lot of places where the company was violating local and national tax laws, labor laws as well as quite a few financial regulations.  We would not get any benefit from bringing those to the regulators attention, but if they don't want to play ball we can use the threat of that as leverage.  In the end, it would be much more costly for the company to deal with all of that stuff than to just give me my due. All we can do now is buckle our seatbelts and get ready for the ride.

 

In the evening I made some BBQ ribs

However, that wasn't enough for us, so we augmented that with some take-out

From bottom left going anti-clockwise that is lamb & onion stir-fry, cabbage and glass noodles, more pork offal & blood tofu, spicy-sour soup, kung pao fish, some kind of corn starch based noodle (Ghostess insists that it isn't a noodle and wants me to call it something else...), and some kung pao shrimp.

This morning I went to the park and did a pull workout. Exercise list in the spoiler for anyone who cares

Spoiler

one arm deadhang x10s/arm

tuck front lever lifts x5

jump muscleup x3

tuck back lever lifts x5

archer pullups x2/side

commando pullups x6/side

One arm chinups (wrist grip supported) x2/hand

tuck front lever pullups x7

chest to bar pullups x4

tuck back lever pullups x5

behind the head pullups x5

inverted pushups x7

one arm scapular retractions x5/side

tuck front lever rows x10

clap pullups x5

reach (handraise) pullups x2/hand

back lever extensions x10

L-sit pullups x10

inverted dips x10

one arm rows x5/hand

front lever lifts x5

headbangers x10

dragon lifts x4

typewriters x6

I also did 3 sets of gymnastics swings working on kips and bent arm inversions

 

 

Today was supposed to be warmer than last week, but it was still -6 when I went out, so I geared up for the cold assassin style

 

Lunch was chicken quesadillas again.  No pictures because I already posted some last time.

[WhiteGhost]

I should probably do a summary for week zero and review how it went.

 

But I won't

 

And there is nothing any of you can do about it  #diplomaticimmunity

[The Battle Chef]

1 hour ago, WhiteGhost said:

North American Chinese Style is very different from actual Chinese food.  I remember the first time I took Ghostess to the US and she tried what passes for Chinese food there she was shocked.  On the other hand, when I have seen most of what passes for "Western Food" here I feel the same way.  Many of the standard fare that passes for Chinese food doesn't exist in China (i.e. beef & broccoli, Genral Tso's Chicken, Chop Suey).  I have only seen one fortune cookie in all of the time I have lived here, and it was at one of the places that caters almost exclusively to foreign tourists.  They just aren't a thing here.

 

Interestingly, there is a sort of parallel between how Chinese see "Western Food" and how many westerners see "Asian Food".  I am not sure how things are in Europe (or on the east coast/Deep South) but where I grew up out west, you have "Chinese" restaurants that has on the menu a mish-mash of Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Thai, and Malaysian dishes.  Even the pure Chinese places will have some of the more poplar dishes from across China all on one menu.  What you don't see as often is general European restaurants, that have Italian Pasta, German Sausages, British Fish & Chips, and French Escargot all on one menu.  

 

In China, things are very different.  Pretty much exact negative of that, in fact.  Here a "Western Food" restaurant could have pizza, burgers, German sausage, pasta, Tandoori chicken, gyros, and even 'fajitas' all in one menu, but you would not generally see Korean, Japanese or Thai food anywhere except a Korean, Japanese or Thai place.  Singaporean, Malaysian & Hong Kong food, all kind of fall into one group, though.  What you would also rarely see is a restaurant that has Sichuan boiled fish, Shanghai Soup Dumplings, Northeastern Honeyed Pork Cutlets, Macao Style Fried Noodles, and Sweet & Sour Pork on the same menu.  (The exception to this are restaurants that primarily cater to foreign tourists).  Here a Sichuan restaurant will have mostly Sichuan dishes, a Northeastern restaurant will have Northeastern dishes.  Same goes for Shanghai, Guanzhou, Chongqing, etc.  Mixing these is the local equivalent of having something like a German/Italian restaurant.  They may exist, but would be very rare.  

Yeah, it's the same in North America and Europe (to the extend that I've visited there).  People who have never been to a different country have no concept of regional cooking styles (or that other countries even have distinct regions).  I call those mish mash menues "Whitey's Ethnic Cuisine" lmao  (I am horribly guilty of it, too.)

Speaking of mishmash, there is a local "Greek" restaurant owned and run by a Korean family that makes awesome pizza, kebabs and bulgogi XD  Talk about getting your money's worth