ThinkObvious

My Favorite Photos of 2016

Apparently I’ve lapsed in my posting of photos both here and on Facebook, so I’ve decided to dump my favorite photos (sans family) of 2016 here:

Prepare for the Difficult While It’s Easy

Every few weeks, the Chinese high school I work for asks me to do something a little different. It could be something as simple as interviewing prospective students, judging debates (in English), teaching a law class to Chinese teachers, or giving speeches to parents to promote our school. This past weekend, I spoke to an audience of about 50 people for an hour and then answered questions for…

My wife, son, and I are on a mini vacation as I begin writing this. How are we able to take a break in the middle of the week? We have the Chinese education system to thank. Students in both the junior high where my wife teaches and the high school where I teach ate having their midterm exams this week, and we’ve been given Wednesday and Thursday off. Our two-year-old son Calvin also happens to…

Make America Great Again?

America is a great country. It really is. Having lived in China for the past 4 years, my appreciation of the freedoms, order, and stability most Americans (myself included) take for granted has increased immensely, far more than I could have imagined while living in the mid-western “fly over state” of Ohio. While living in the USA, I took my freedom for granted as I think most Americans do.…

Chinglish Factory

This afternoon, one of my students came to the foreign teachers’ office to ask us about a couple of words she was having trouble with. The first one was easy, externality. I gave her the typical economic definition and the example of pollution. The second word she asked about had us briefly stumped. She said the word was diarena. I instantly imagined a contest between people with dysentery. “TWO…

A little over a year ago I became a dad for the first time. Before this past year, I don’t think I fully understood what it meant to be a father. Changing hundreds of diapers, hours spent bottle-feeding, and becoming a human safety-net has shown me that for too long I’ve lacked the perspective and thoughtfulness to tell my dad what he has meant to me. Let me tell you a little about my dad. I call…

Hot Post-Racial Political Choke

Pre-summer heat has leaped upon Changsha, China like a lion attacking a defenseless baby zebra. Along with the increasing temperatures, so too my desire to write is rising. Maybe there’s something in the air conditioning or the fact that I’m back to savoring two cups of coffee per day. Whatever it is, words are once again buzzing around my mind like fireflies on crystal meth. But I don’t know…

The longer I stay here in China, the harder it is for me to maintain an interest in blogging on a regular basis. There’s something about living here that seems to suck out all the curiosity out of me. This dearth of energy I feel every day gives little impetus to writing and publishing what I can only imagine would be seen as overwhelmingly negative thoughts about my life here. So I’ve kept…

My wonderful wife spent more than half an hour dealing with the incompetent internet service provider in order to get our interwebs turned back on. Because we used to have internet at a rented apartment, but we didn’t renew that package, the ISP tried to force us to pay a 12 yuan fee to disconnect it plus pay for one month of service. My wife was not going for that nonsense and called the…

Due to circumstances outside our control, we are without internet at our apartment as of today. Basically, my wife and I just haven’t had the time to drive to our ISP to renew our service for another year. In the First World, people would simply go online to perform a simple transaction, but this is China where many people still don’t trust online transactions and online banking really isn’t…

Tech Passing Me By

Living in China definitely has some major disadvantages for a geek like me. The most annoying one might be the blockage of Google services by the Great Firewall. Without connecting to a VPN (virtual private network) I can’t even update or sync my Google Calendar on my phone. More than that, the Google Chromecast dongle I bought last year fails to work because it can’t see “the Internet”. That’s…

What Games Can I Watch?

The NCAA Mens Basketball Tournament truly gets underway on Thursday afternoon over in the states. That’s the middle of the night here. This year, I haven’t filled out the brackets or predicted a winner. I don’t even know whether CBS will be streaming some or all of the games without requiring a cable subscription like they did last year.

With any luck, I’ll be able to watch something Friday…

This post is a direct result of my school forcing me to have office hours during the school day in the hope that some students will take the opportunity between their many classes to speak to a foreign teachers. Unfortunately, the school hasn’t bothered to post the new office hours of each foreign teacher on our office door. Without posting our hours, how are students supposed to know when we’ll…

More Office Hours, Please

Yesterday afternoon while sitting in the AP Center’s Foreign Teachers’ Office, I sent my proposed office hours to Jennifer. I suppose you’d call her the liason between the foreign teachers and the training center that runs the AP Center. I thought the five hours, one per day, I proposed would be more than adequate considering I’ve only ever had about four students visit me at my desk during all…

To Live and Die on Mars

To Live and Die on Mars

I can’t for the life of me understand why any rational person of sound mind living in the free world would want to give up everything they have, all the opportunities Earth provides, to take a one way trip to Mars. Personally, I can’t imagine being stuck on a space ship with only three other people for six to eight monthsas the latency of  internet and communications with…

Don’t Tip the Applecart

Rumors all over the internet say that Apple may be testing some kind of electric/autonomous car. Would I ever consider buying a car I couldn’t modify in any way, no, but millions of Americans who don’t know aren’t capable of setting the clocks on their microwaves would. Did I just slam people who buy Apple products? No, no, no. Jony Ive seems to believe that customization of a cell phone is…