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Hengyang: The small big town

So I figure that I should do an introduction of the town that I am going to be living in for the next six months. The town is Hengyang in the Hunan province of southeast-ish China (simplified Chinese: 衡阳; traditional Chinese: 衡陽; pinyin: Héngyáng).

So truth be told, I do not know a whole lot about the area but I will try to share the things that I know. The town is home to about 7.1 million people. Yeah, that is massive especially considering that is about the population of London, England; a town I have personally lived in. But in light of the title that I have put for thispost I must point out that this town is actually the 36th most populated city in all of China. Surprising as that might be, it makes sense when you take in to account the country’s 1 billion citizens. The town is noted to be a mostly industrial town but that modernization is said to be increasing a lot recently.

The town is known as the ‘Bright Pearl of Southern China’ and also as the ‘Wild Goose City.’ The latter is because of the wild geese that would rest here during their migration south for the winter. The town was damaged quite a bit during World War II and so it seems that there is few cool pre-WWII buildings.

That is all I got for now. As I learn other funky bits, I will try to post them on here. Oh, leave a comment! Let me know whatcha think. 🙂

[Thanks wikipedia!]

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Kids, don’t start. It makes ya mean.

Cort. of UK Metro

So not a whole lot happened today in life. Except for one thing. These past couple of days I have been working at a electronics manufacturing place called KimCo. There are about 100 workers at this warehouse. The company struggled a lot through the recession and I learned today that they had to lay off about 130 workers. The company didn’t go under but did turn to other means to stay afloat; temp work. Companies love ’em because they are quite a bit cheaper than hiring and paying full=time employees.

So there was this one guy that I worked with earlier in the week. For the whole ten hour shift, Jason (the guy) literally spent the whole ten hour shift yapping my ear off. Mostly about his “hard-knock” life and such. I found it quite entertaining and figured it would be nice to give him someone that would listen. In particular he told me that he had quit smoking.

Well, for the past two days I got moved to a different department. Today he came over to help with wrapping chips in bubble wrap. Holy cow. He didn’t say a word to me. I asked him about his new born baby. “He’s good.” I asked him a couple more questions … no answer. I swear the guy was going to kill me. Its funny how people act when they quit smoking. But hey, good for him. It’s tough to quit smoking smoking especially cold turkey.

Fun fact: China is home to 300 million smokers who consume approximately 1.7 trillion cigarettes a year, or 3 million cigarettes a minute.  Woowhoo! Just over two weeks!

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China and this website

So this is my new China weblog and my own personal website. Kind of made my head hurt because I haven’t done this stuff in a while. But in the end this is pretty cool.

So I leave for China in just under three weeks. Which is cool. But in preparation I have needed to make as much money as I can. I was blessed to be placed in a job “stuffing” electrical board by my temp agency. I was promised forty hours this. Well, I have about three hours into today’s shift and they sent me and a couple other workers home for THE WEEK because they didn’t have any work for us.

Hopefully next week they said that they have an order of 700 boards to work on and they will try to make sure that we come in. But we will see.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the website. If you do, let me know in the comments! If not, no worries, you can still let me know. 😀

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BYU Football, well, sucks. Please do better.


The following is an editorial that I wrote for the Scroll. Found it quite entertaining:

As all those who follow college football or have parents who’s alma mater is BYU will know that BYU decided to go independent in the realm of NCAA football. And it now looks like it wasn’t the best plan afterall.

For those who don’t have a clue what this means, it is something big. It is something that can change the future of college football team forever.

BYU has been a part of the NCAA-affiliated Mountain West Conference (MWC) for a while. What this meant is that BYU would always play conference teams every year and also had to abide by MWC conference rules.

But BYU wanted better. The problem with BYU being in the MWCs was that BYU was often stuck playing, well, not so great teams. The MWC has very few nationally ranked teams compared to other conference.

The other problem BYU had was the MountainWest Sports Network. In 2006, the MWC had a conflict with ESPN over scheduling and financial compensation so later that year they created their own sports network.

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Scroll: University employment offers opprotunites

Note: Every week I have an article published in the Scroll, a newspaper on the BYU-Idaho campus. The following is one of those articles.



With school back in session many students are often looking for employment, specifically on-campus jobs.

Some see jobs on campus as having advantages over off-campus jobs. One such advantage may be receiving higher pay than from community jobs.

Campus offers over 2,900 jobs that are available for students. The best way to find one of those jobs, according to Patrick Powell, training and student employment coordinator, is to visit www.byui.edu/studentemployment.

On the website, students can search for jobs that are posted by on-campus employers and community employers.


Any department on campus that needs student employees can post information about any open positions.  Information on that posting would include a job description, hours, pay and requirements.


Casually looking on the website may not yield many results.
Continue reading “Scroll: University employment offers opprotunites”
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Charity… I think.

So right now I am currently sitting in my I-COMM Student Media class. A couple of minutes ago, a girl walked in selling these wanna-be sour skittles.

She stated to everyone that everything that they make on these will go to help impoverished kids in Africa. Me, feeling generous and hungry thought to buy some. At that point I realized that I had only two quarters. So I told her that I only had the 50 cents and she reply in a semi-dramatic “ahhhh” and walked away.

Now this got me thinking… I doubt that those cost more than 50 cents buy, probably quite a bit less. But yet, she refused. It’s some better than none? I don’t know why but I am totally perplexed by this. I have never been denied for a small donation before.

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Scroll: Parenting class offers skills to students

Note: Every week I have an article published in the Scroll, a newspaper on the BYU-Idaho campus. The following is one of those articles.


Child development majors at BYU-Idaho will teach a class about parenting every Monday and Wednesday 9 to 10 a.m. throughout the month of June.

Since the beginning of Fall Semester 2008, students have been facilitating this class to share what they have learned in the classroom.

“This program has started to give students the opportunity to practice what they have learned,” said Kevin Galbraith, a professor in the home and family department.

Galbraith said that what is taught in these classes would be helpful to any parent.

At one class, a student discussed how to change challenging behavior, and the positive ways it can be dealt with.


Another student taught about the attachment theory and how it develops consistency in a child’s life.

The last student talked about how to build strong bonds between parent and child and how important it is to take time for your children.

“We have been getting good reception with this, but most seem to come because of a crisis situation,” Galbraith said.

The course welcomes anyone in any situation and it is aimed to be more prevention oriented.

Continue reading “Scroll: Parenting class offers skills to students”

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I lust after this…

So this past weekend I bought myself a really cool looking titanium and carbon fiber CTR ring.  It is pretty much the coolest thing ever.  So today as I was bored, I was looking at carbon fiber rings and found this.  So yeah, 57 dollars of pure manliness. In fact, I kind of want it for a [future] wedding ring.


You heard that right ladies, I’m inexpensive.  I don’t expect much, just a cheap ring.  I ain’t no gold digga.  I expect your phone calls any minute now…. waiting…

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BP Oil Spill: Jimmy Fallon’s take

So there I am this morning… it’s raining outside and I am eating my regular bowl of cheapo brand frosted mini-wheats.  I decided to see what was on CNN and as expected, another story about the BP oil spill.  As a bit of comedic relief, they showed this video of the monologue on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. My favorite part is at 3:08 left.  Think Field of Dreams. 😀 Video after the break…