liftingbelly

Following Steve's lead, I'm cross posting here. I set up a wordpress blog at www.ElizabethInChina.com so please check it out. I ought to be able to syndicate it here on livejournal, but I can't get the wordpress plugin to work. Oh well.

Anyway, all is well here in China. A little lonely, but I'm getting my footing. I start classes tomorrow, so that should help. In the mean time I've been informed that if I want a visa for 6 months to a year, I have to get a "health exam" -- so I have to find my way to the hospital and have blood drawn and everything. I asked another foreigner how to get there, and he told me to get a friend to take me. I only have vague directions from one of the school's administrators. Of course, I've accomplished a lot so far on only vague directions, so maybe I'll try to get there on my own. It's a bus ride away, almost to the airport -- really far. I'll ask my teacher (laoshi) tomorrow.

So, I'll continue to post on at www.ElizabethInChina.com and maybe I'll fix it so the posts appear here as well.

Love to you all! Zai4jian4!

I wanted to post a short message about my goings-on. Jeremy is in Kunming, China and will start language classes on Monday. I will be joining him (God willing) October 4th.

Here's a fun google satellite map:
http://treehouse.ofb.net/guide/gmap?placeword=%E6%98%86%E6%98%8E&lang=en

I'm off to Chicago tomorrow to get my visa from the Chinese embassy. I'll stay for a couple nights to visit with Sarah and Matt. Going by train. A 5 1/2 hour trip.

If you want to keep tabs on the Jeremy guy, he's blogging from China:
http://www.outofmyface.com/

Nice URL, don't you think?

I quit my job at SEIU. It's a good job, but I need to get some distance and figure out a new plan. My last day is September 23. I tell you, life gets a lot more expensive when you stop having income and the bills keep coming. I'm having second thoughts already.

At least I'll have some stories to tell.

Before and After

http://www.flickr.com/photos/liftingbelly/24801944/

List of web dev rates.

This is mostly for me but I know Sarah's interested:

http://www.dassnagar.com/Software/it_payment_web.htm
http://www.maikaidesigns.com/rates.html#design
http://www.solarwinds.com/web_development/rates.php
http://www.bestwebatlanta.com/about_rates_atlanta_web_developers.shtml

Whew! It's like people get paid to make websites.

Even when I think $60/hr looks reasonable or $300 for the site -- then they all charge extra for every other little thing: graphic design of buttons, logos, flash, shopping carts... jeez.

Am I missing something here or should I just go into web dev full time?

Missouri is doomed.

I'm traveling to the state capitol tomorrow for a demonstration against the terrible budget cuts -- specifically the cuts to health care. The Republicans have proposed cutting eligiblity of Medicaid to only families making 23% of the poverty level.

How much is 23% of the poverty level?

$3700/year

No, I didn't forget a decimal point.

Oh, and they have recently added a provision to "sunset" -- i.e. terminate -- the entire Medicaid program by July 2008. They're killing Medicaid in Missouri.

You can be sure that Republicans in other states are watching how this goes down here. And it's not looking good.

Ok, can anyone remember that really cool website with the musicians positioned in orbits, so that like-music mingled in this kind of planetary way?

Someone please!

So, you all probably already found all this great stuff, but go to Audiofile at Salon.com for some very nice music links. On the right sidebar, there's free music links, not-free music links, and music blogs. Good stuff.

Free Music I immediately found:

Ani Difranco at BetterPropaganda.com

Cat Power at epitonic.com

Knitting success story: Finished first sock.

I sized it for Jeremy and it seems to fit pretty well!



Click on the image for a larger view.

I know the AARP has set up a toll-free phone to connect you to your Congresspeople. Here's some info from a leaflet Missouri Progressive Vote Coalition has published:

"Get your US Representative's and Senator's commitment to vote in support of guaranteed benefits through Social Security IN WRITING.
AARP HOTLINE: 1-800-307-8525
AARP will connect you to your Missouri Delegates to Congress. Don't forget to LEAVE YOUR ADDRESS so that your Represenative or Senator can respond IN WRITING with their commitment to vote against cuts to guaranteed benefits under Social Security."

Here's their website: www.missouriprovote.org

Just wonder if anyone out there receives social security benefits -- Grandma? Grandpa? What do you think about privatizing social security? Anybody else have any thoughts?

Krugman Editorial from NYT

The first meeting of our new knitting circle just broke up. Only four of us, but at least four other people have expressed interest in joining next week. Pretty cool. Lizzie's the old pro in the group. She actually brought me a pair of mittens and a hat she made me! For real! She and I helped the two others get started. Maria needed a refresher, and Beth was starting out for the first time. I'm not sure I'm such a good teacher, but Beth is a very patient learner. She's left-handed and we started out with my right-handed method -- so she decided she might try to figure out a left-handed version.

Maria was super excited about seeing Edison. She still calls him Ginko and misses him a lot. She took him in off the mean streets of St Louis, nursing him back to health over 2 months. But her house has reached its cat limit.

Edison was very well-behaved for the knitting circle... all things considered.

So, they announced that we've given up looking for WMD in Iraq. Hm. Funny, I thought we went there to-

Right. Nevermind.

I hate stupid people, especially our president.

Did you know there's a The War on Christmas?

Well, it's that time again. Jeremy's been out of the house less than a dozen times in the last week. I see him at meals. But tomorrow's the last exam, and then he's on break!

My "christmas bonus" is some extra vacation time for the days between christmas and new year's. Cheap union bosses. (hehehe) But since Jeremy's been exammed-out, we haven't made any trip plans. Makes things difficult. Sigh.

Did you know we adopted a cat? His name is Edison.



So our calendar got Hanukkah wrong -- by two days. It said last Thu and it started (last) Tue. But we still got the gifts to Jacob and Sophie in time. Squeaking them in on the last day! Whew!

I haven't bought a single christmas gift. (Now don't everyone be upset.) I haven't really bought any Hanukkah gifts either. I think I'll make cookies for the people at work.

Maybe even you, dear reader, will receive cookies.

Here are the photos from my trip:

Nov 6-12, San Jose - Took classes at the Costa Rican Language Academy. My professor was Karol Fernandez. Stayed with the Vargas Family.

Nov 13-15, Santa Elena/Monteverde - Butterfly Garden. Sky Trek (zip line and canopy tour). Stayed at the Pension Santa Elena.

Nov 16-19, Manuel Antonio - The Manuel Antonio National Park! Animals! And the beach! Snorkeling!

Nov 20, back to San Jose - Super fancy Costa Rica Backpackers hostel. Earthquake!

Ok. So you probably don´t even know that there was an earthquake here in Costa Rica last night -- at 2:07 a.m. It was big! 6.2 on the Richter scale. Yikes.

Don´t worry. I´m ok.

Going home today.

I'm so sorry. We really did everything we could. I have no idea how this happened.

We've all been working so hard for a Kerry victory. Let's hope we see some happy results tonight!

I'm escaping to Costa Rica on Saturday. It's the rainy season, so I'm not really looking for the sunny beach kind of vacation. Instead, I'm going to study Spanish for two weeks. Class is Monday through Friday, and I'll have the weekends to explore a little -- maybe see some monkeys.

Jeremy is pretty jealous.

I've got a ticket to Costa Rica!

You'll like this: Jeremy

By my count, beginning tomorrow we'll have 50 days until the election. . . the General Election on Tuesday, November 2, 2004. . . you know, for President.

Maybe my Republican friends would like to look at the following site:
http://www.republicansforkerry04.com/whykerry1.html

Others:
Overtime Pay Reclassification of some job titles will allow employers to give employees "comp time" instead of time and a half for hours worked over 40 hours a week.
National Surplus to Deficit (Definitions: Deficit v. Debt) Spending is through the roof, while education and health care are underfunded.
Guantanamo Almost three years now.
Iraq War
Iraq and Al Qaeda
Homeland Security

With Bush's record, is there any way Kerry can lose?