Turkey Soup

When I was a kid I used to work at a kennel (my first job, at a surprising $1.10 an hour)  for the Barton's and Mrs. Barton used to make this marvelous, rich and savory turkey soup every year after Thanksgiving.  I am going to recreate that soup today if I can.

For the turkey stock.  

3 stalks of celery and celery tops 

2 cloves of garlic mashed. 

1 t. peppercorns 

5-6 sprigs of parsley 

A few sprigs of marjoram 

a few sprigs of thyme 

2  bay leafs 

A turkey carcass the turkey neck (and giblets other than the liver)  

Salt and Pepper

Break up the turkey carcass and put in a large stock pot.  Add cold water to cover the bird. You can add water if it cooks down Add the neck and the giblets if you use them.   I don't mind the giblets, but the rest of my family doesn't want to eat them so I leave them out.   

Rinse and clean the herbs and add to the pot.  Thyme and Marjoram are my favorite combination of herbs, In Germany, where my mother's family finds it's roots, marjoram is referred to as the "goose herb", probably because it's such a natural in seasoning poultry.  Mash the garlic with the side of a knife and add, loosely chop the carrots, onion, and celery and add to the stock.   

Cook the stock for three to four hours, then strain the stock to another vessel and reserve. Skim off the fat if you like.  I don't do that, because I want to emulsify it into the soup, to enrich the flavor.

The soup

Pick a solid selection of root veggies.  I've chosen parsnip, carrots, onion and rutabaga.   Turnips would also be a good choice and add a sharper flavor than a rutabaga.    Since a rutabaga is a cross between a turnip and a cabbage, it naturally has a milder flavor.  I probably wouldn't choose a beet in this soup, because of the red color it would add.

2 cups or more leftover turkey 

4 carrots cubed

2 ribs of celery chopped 

1 large parsnip cubed 

1 rutabaga or turnip cubed 

2 cloves garlic

1 t. each sage, marjoram and thyme

1/4 c. olive oil
1 cup uncooked orzo.
1 t red wine vinegar, cooking sherry, or white wine

In the stock pot add the olive oil and some heat.  Toss in the pepper first and sauté for a minute or so to infuse the oil. Add the celery and onions and sauté for about 3 minutes until the onions are translucent.  Add the herbs and garlic and continue for about 2 minutes.  The celery should look like it's starting to cook.

Add the other root veggies and sauté until it seems critical to add some liquid to avoid scorching.  Add the reserved stock, the turkey meat. and the white wine or sherry.  Cook 40-45 minutes then add the orzo and salt and pepper to taste.  By now the soup will have married together and be rich in root flavors.  Once the orzo is tender about 10 minutes later, it's ready.  Enjoy!

Turkey Brine Recipe for 24 hours

4 Gallons Water

2c. salt

Garlic

2 T Rosemary

2T Peppercorns

I am pretty sure you would cook it then let is cool, put the turkey in for 24 hours prior to cooking.

How diminished our world is without Lou Reed

One of the largest influences in my life reached out and touched me the other day, after a 5 or 6 year haitus.  One of the things I always wanted to ask you L.T, now that I am in Alviso every workday, is what happened to the boat that was in Alviso harbor?

There's a little tribute here to Lou Reed.  http://www.wayofthedodo.org/2013/11/in-scarlet-town.html.  Thanks L.T

Dear Marmot ...

... Hello, 

Last weekend I was camping and fishing in the Sierra Nevada, not some thing new, or something I was unprepared for.  This is something I have been doing all my life.   I was a good trip generally.  It rained though.  On Monday Morning about 1:00 AM it started and rained hard until about 11:00. 

At about 7:30 I got up and started to pack to leave and put on my Marmot rain gear.  One, the pants, I have had for several years, and two, the new jacket I bought in Alaska over the solstice.  



 The pants are the ones with the zipper up each side so you can take them off without removing shoes, and the have velcro attachments on the sides to adjust the waist and hold them together. 

There wewe some problems.  I find the real test of gear is when you have to use it to do real work.  Not casual walks in the park, or a gentle spring shower.  Monday morning's camp take down was hard work, hauling all the makings of a camp up a hill to load in to the truck, amidst a serious summer downpour.  

Well, Marmot, your $200 rain suit failed miserably on multiple accounts.  One the hood on the jacket wouldn't stay adjusted and the visor, really wasn't stiff enough to protect my glasses from the rain or stay out of my line of sight.  The velcro on the pants wouldn't stay attached, so the pants were falling down for most of the morning.  The pockets of the jacket are very small and really weren't helpful.  

Here's the kicker though.  After about 3 hours of slog,. we were packed and I went to take them off.  I was soaked through and through, and then the zipper on the pants wouldn't operate, so I had to take off my shoes to get them off.   

Complete fail. 

Japanese Inspred Woodworkers Toolbox

 My day really got going with lunch at Su's Mongolian BBQ..   

Lately I have been going through my tools, my studio, my gear, with an eye toward organizing it and reducing it. 

I have a fairly good toolbox, it's one of the 5 foot high multi-drawed thing from Lowes or where ever.  It's stuffed to the gills.  I have a lot of tools.  Auto tool, sculpture tools, woodworking tools.  The list goes on.  I have a lot of interests and I am exceptional;l fond of tools. 

It's all a burden really. 

My wood working lately has moved away from machines, primarily because I dislike the noise they make.  So many years in shops has damaged my hearing.  I have more time now.  I prefer to work by hand.  Saws, planes.  Labor.  Slow, methodical effort. It takes skill and patience to do these things well
by hand. 

Inspired by a book on Japanese Woodworking Tools by Toshio Odate, I set out to extract my wood working tools from the the big tool box and build them a nice Japanese styled home.    

 

 Gloria with the plane cleaning up the uneven spots.

 

 The completed box

 The box full of tools.

 And with the Planing Bench.

So it was a good day.

The fishing.

The float plane sightseeing.

Only Fools Run at Midnight in Ketchikan, AK

It's tonight. http://www.sailinc.org/only-fools-run-midnight-ketchikan-registration

Ketchikan, Alaska

I'm in Alaska!  First time.  It's my 45th state.  Current travel count: 3 continents, 14 countries (including North Korea), 45 states. I am in Ketchikan for the Summer solstice.  Ketchikan is interesting and the food is good when it's fish.  More about that in a minute.

My travelling companion, and I disembark, proceed down the jet way, and go the the baggage carousel, to get my baggage.  Achut, has no baggage to speak of.   He is an accomplished world traveller, recently returned from an adventure to Antarctica.  Me, I travel like Redmond O'Hanlon, I need porters and bearers.  And a boatman.  Achut travels with just a bit of stuff and sandals.  My bags contain about 35 lbs of camera gear.  Surprisingly, Aschut taps me on the shoulder and points at the cart half full of luggage and runs off.

He's forgotten his laptop on the plane. 

The cheery girl behind the counter at the car rental place asks if we need tickets for the ferry.   I ask, "What happens if we miss the ferry? Will it wait for us?"  "It drops you off then comes back for the employees. so you'll get another chance."  The  ferry is $5 each plus 6 for the car.  We drive the rental car out of the parking lot to a sign that says "U-turn for Ferry."   Although there are only about 1000 yards of road on this entire island.  It appears we are lost already.   The ferry handles about 15 cars and comes out to meet every flight.  It takes maybe 10 minutes for the whole crossing. 

We have rented a house for our stay it's a three bedroom job, called plainly enough, "The Thomas Street Vacation Rental."  It's very nice and has a kitchen, "So we can cook the fish if we catch any, " so says Achut. Thomas street is a Boardwalk out over the Harbor.  The boundary between water and land here in Ketchikan is a board walk with a building on it and two wooden rails facing the water. 

It's easily nine o'clock P.M. by the time we get situated, and Ketchikan is already slipping into the doldrums of night.

Finally we find the spot we need <> and have a halibut fetticini.  We wander  empty piers designed for cruise ships, and then pass by the rowdy bar, with what sounds like a fight coming from inside.

We are seriously undecided about this bar, because it's rough.  We stop to discuss it.  We're are in Alaska, after all, so lets give it a go. we head back. 

A moment later the doors fly open and several people get shoved out, and turn toward us.  High fives, all around as we walk through them.  I have this feeling that I need to be really careful as they ask if we missed our ship.  We get to the door of the noisy pub and it's locked.  The bartender runs up to let us in. Sorry, "I had a problem."

"I think I just met your problem walking down the street."

It's the Arctic Bar, home of the Happy Bear, a beer, whose tap handle looks remarkably like two bears fucking.  Like almost everything in Ketchikan, this place is built on a board walk out over the water. Josie, the bartender, pours us a beer. 

 

Semantic Versioning

http://semver.org

Edges

I am working on my photo process and the workflow from camera to print. Here are some recent shots.

 

Antique Store Plane

 

I found a few things, among them, this Stanley transitional plane.  It is 17 inches long and has an iron 2 1/8", but possibly originally had an iron 2 1/4" wide.  So it could have been several 3 32 like jointer planes.  It appears to have been cut down from it's original length by using a handsaw.  Aside from the iron having been ground square, it looked like it good still function as a plane.   

 We looked at a few other plane irons and ground it to a suitable angle. 

 

And it cuts pretty well.  

 A little sharpening and tuning, and voila!

Pretty awesome at Jill Outside.

Barbequed Turkey

The Pearly Gates

Reposted from Saturday, February 25, 2006.  IK like this post.  I have my moments. 

 

"It's all in the journey," the mystery biker states as he rides away from our conversation climbing up the "backside" of Usery Pass. I had remarked that at 7 miles an hour, it was going to some time to get up that 4 mile incline. He had a cool seat mounted holder for two water bottles. I'll need one of those in a month or so. Notice the temperature of today's ride is over 80 degrees. Today's ride was quite thought provoking. I guess there's some advantage to spending 3 hours in the saddle. Gilby will be happy to note that my love affair with my Brooks™ saddle has started. Maybe I won't be so lonely from now on.

Date: February 25, 2006
Today's Mileage: 34.12
Temperature at Departure: 83 F.
Average Speed: 11.7
Total for February: 192.8

One thing that it wasn't today is lonely out on the road. I had conversations with several people today, including one interesting group of hikers over at the drinking fountain at the base of the Wind Cave trail. I don't know if this is just because I spent more time out, or as a result of the rather outstanding weather. The hikers were talking about a 50 mile ride tomorrow. So I asked them what the thing I just climbed was called -- "The backside of Usery Pass" was the definitive answer. It seems this is one of the more notorious climbs in the area. Another -- namely "King Kong," or just "Kong," was responsible for last weeks cramping incident. During this conversation -- I learned of a third, The Pearly Gates. "That will break your hump," says the elder hiker.

The Pearly Gates was a nice ride. I don't know how far it was, but it actually required me to use all my gears. The ride requires that you one, trespass, and two, avoid the copious amounts of coyote crap on the road, and three, work. I can just hear her saying it now, "Coyotes do not prefer to crap in the road. I know you say you've seen them, but it just isn't true." Coyotes and foxes, both share this desire (perhaps wolves too). They would really rather do thier business in the middle of the road. I have seen them more than once, me slamming on the brakes to avoid killing them, trying to take their picture, them, hobbling off so as not to soil themselves, and me again -- failing to get the picture. I want to show it to my friends, and say "See, if you spent any time outta the house you would know this. I secretly suspect they like to do this because it is warmer in the road (you know how you like it warmer in the john than anywhere else). The other possibility is that they know that this is one part of the world that is pretty much screwed, so no one (none of the other critters - except maybe the crows who eat off the road) will mind if they take a squat there.

Anyway, the road to the Pearly Gates is closed (go figure, eh?), which means all those instances of Coyote squat, aren't getting run over, so there are many there to prove my theory, which finally may become a law. It is interesting to note that coyotes seem to urinate and deficate in the same place, leaving two kinds of evidence to both prove my theory, and prove that they are not dogs. The ride, as a result of the road being closed (not the coyotesquatsi) was very nice. With the exception of the automatic machine gun fire from the neighboring shooting range, the ride was oh so quiet and worry free.

Out on the road I was reflecting on this article I read last night, and thinking yet again that I have too much stuff (she -- the woman from above -- said that too), and wondering if I could change my life just by cutting down on the stuff I have (not that I want to suffer a fire), when I remembered the end of that article, which reminds me of what inevitably happens as we force ourselves to dig deeper:

I've learned to recognize a particular moment on a backcountry trip. It's the moment when I can't remember what I'm doing there. It usually comes after some grueling slog, after the pack mysteriously gains weight against all rules of fairness and physics. Everything rubs against me-the shoulder harness, the salt of my sweat, the relentless weather, the earth against my feet.
It's like pushing through a membrane, that instant when misery transforms into surrender. Nothing becomes lighter, faster, easier. Now I can keep on, just for the power, the quiet ecstasy, of keeping on, discarding burdens as I go, growing lighter and lighter with every step, because this-this freedom, this moment, this willingness to trust myself in an untrustworthy world-this is the one thing I cannot do without.

Meanwhile, Pearl the Cat is out the window trying to catch a cottontail. It's hysterical. It's all in the journey, kitty. Look for that quiet ecstasy. Discard your burdens.

Hoppy the Crow

Hoppy the crow.  My pet for 9 years.  Some time ago. he's enjoying a shower in case you wonder.

Pigeon Point Light

Near the Pigeon Point Lighthouse

This was taken 11/21/2010 in Yoosemite

Migrating Your Bugtracker Database to Jira

I have been working on this new project, It's a bug database migration.  Not necessarily simple but pretty straight forward.  Take the entire contents of a BugTracker.net DB and migrate it to a new DB, Jira.   


Step one, analyze the DB for current fields, number of records, organization of date and export capability.  Although the BugTracker.net (BT) has export to excel and some backup capabilities it doesn't look all the smart or convenient or easy, in terms of exporting the entire DB.  I start by reading the docs on Bugtracker and searching for info from other folks that have done.  I ask the guy the who wrote it, Corey Trager.  He's happy to help, if I pay him (Gee, thanks guy).   There's not that much info about it out there. 


So I start looking around -- find the front-end code and reverse engineer it -- pull out the connect string for the DB.  Its a SQL Server 2005 Database (it could have been Mysql, just as well)  running on XP or whatever.  I download a SQL Server Management Studio and connect to the DB.  Pick it apart. 


The initial take, ~6500 records, ~70000 comments and updates, 3211 attachments.   


Next I analyze the target, Jira.  Jira has a great and robust import tool.  If you have to do this project.  By all means use it.  The only convenient way, though, from the BT was to use the comma seperated value method of the Import Tool.  So that became my target.

Create a tab delimited file containing the BT database in it entirety.  Programmatiaclly and reliably extract the entire content of the BT and convert it into a tab delimited file to be ingested by the Jira Import Plug-In. 


I wrote three queries to extract the data from the BT backend SQL Server DB.   I wrote 6 tcl scripts that assemble the BT data into a huge tab delimited file.   


For the comments, attachments, updates, and emails:

set nocount on SELECT a.bp_bug, a.bp_type, b.us_username, a.bp_date, a.bp_comment,
        a.bp_email_from,
        a.bp_email_to, a.bp_file, a.bp_size, a.bp_content_type, a.bp_id,
        (select '#@#@#@#' newcol) #@#@#@#
    FROM dbo.bug_posts a, dbo.users b
    WHERE b.us_id = bp_user
    ORDER BY a.bp_bug, a.bp_type, a.bp_date;

For the bug relationships:

set nocount on SELECT re_bug1, re_bug2, re_type 
    FROM dbo.bug_relationships 
    ORDER BY re_bug1;

For the issues:

set nocount on SELECT bg_id bugtrackerID,
        (select pj_name from dbo.projects where bg_project = pj_id) project,
        (select 'projectKey' newcol) projectKey,
        bg_short_desc summary,
        (select us_username from dbo.users
              WHERE bg_reported_user = us_id) reporter,
        (select ct_name from dbo.categories 
              WHERE bg_category = ct_id) issueType,
        (select pr_name from dbo.priorities 
              WHERE bg_priority = pr_id) priority,
        (select pr_name from dbo.priorities 
               WHERE bg_priority = pr_id) urgency,
        "Custom Field 1" customField1,
        "Custom Field 2" customField2,
        (select us_username from dbo.users 
               WHERE bg_assigned_to_user = us_id) assignee,
        (select st_name from dbo.statuses 
               WHERE bg_status = st_id) status,
        (select 'newcol' newcol) resolution,
        bg_reported_date reported_date,
        bg_last_updated_date lastUpdatedDate,
        (select udf_name from dbo.user_defined_attribute 
                WHERE bg_user_defined_attribute = udf_id)
        component from bugs,projects
WHERE bg_project = pj_id
ORDER BY bg_id ;

That should get you started. 

Ultimately Corey Trager did give me a one interesting clue, asking me "what are you going to do about attachments, like screenshots, if they were posted as blobs into the db?"  I looked all over for evidence of inline attachements, blobs in the db, or a way to post them.   I didn't find that at all.  I did find the attachments in a very unusual place on the file system for the Web front end to Bugtraacker.  They were in c:\Temp\Uploads.   Basically these were copied into a place were the Jira import tool could find them and poof ... it was done. 

The import tool for the Jira went extremetely well.  There were issues around the organization of data and arranging the file for the successful import of comments, and attachments, but overall the tools is well designed and works quite well.  Error reporting is good and the process can be a bit tedious, but that is just the way it is with delimited files. 

Here's a snippet from a conversation about the import between my colleague and I:

4:50 PM L: Ah no
4:50 PM Shawn Kielty:ok
4:50 PM L: it's shows up correctly in the wizard !
4:50 PM Shawn Kielty:yeah ... stunning thing -- that wizard
4:51 PM L: Ok, importing issues is in progress
4:52 PM Shawn Kielty: sweet
4:52 PM L:Yes, this wizard is very good

Johnny's Cookies

These are a big hit around my family at Christmas and originally came from my grandmother Gertrude Kielty.

1 cup shortening (I use butter)
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 3/4 cup sifted flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon soda
1/4 cup thick sour milk (I use sour cream)
3/4 cup pecan haves broken into pieces
1 cup candied cherries (a small container) cut into pieces.
1 pecan half for the top of each cookie

Mix all the ingredients together reserving the pecan halves for the cookie tops. Drop small teaspoonfuls of dough onto a greased cookie sheet. Place a pecan halve on top of each cookie. Bake @ 400 degrees for about 10-11 minutes.

Makes 3 dozen cookies or so.

Zipfizz

Near the end of last year, someone at zipfizz contacted me to ask if I would consider reviewing their product.  Since this is not really the kind of product I would normally use, I was somewhat reluctant.  I agreed. 

It came in the mail, and got mixed in with Christmas.  It was basically their Multi-pack deal with an addition in the form of a zipdrive containing promotional materials.  So, nice water bottle, small free zipdrive, and some sample flavors of the energy drink mix. 

Everyone, you know me.  Good food, good tasting and hearty.  That's what I like.  Foods with names like eggs, butter, cream, meat, fries, rice.  Wholesome foods.  During an expedition in the desert, I might drink a 50% solution of Gatorade™ and water.  But Gatorade™ is this huge success story, a victory of the mind over the failings of the body.  In a crazy pinch on a bike ride or wicked hike where I need some real calories I might use a Honey Stinger™.  Typically, I am opposed to this kind of food.    Like Dr. David Agus, I am opposed to vitamins, prefer "a good fat diet, olive oil, canola oil, heart healthy eggs, cold water fish."  Real food.  Good food.  On a regular schedule.

Skeptically, I unwrap the package, look at the stuff.  Go to the web site and look at the ingredients.  A little scary.  There's a lot of what I call science ingredients. I notice a couple of foods I recognize, ginger root, ginseng, caffeine.  I mix it up.  Taste is good.   Generally good, a bit vitaminey. 

I have a formula for fueling my body during extreme activities, It's an extension of my normal diet. Nothing is quite as good as a pint of ice cream to overcome a major calorie deficit. Possibly, I will keep a few of these zipfizz around for those moments when I need an extra shot of caffeine.

If you like this sort of thing, zipfizz™ is probably a good choice. 

jade Beach at Big Sur

Temple Man

9/24/2011, Anshan, Liaoning, China. Near the temple of the largest jade Buddha in the world. 

Fox Parang XL

This is a jungle knife, that I just got from Fox Knives.  It's made in Italy, I guess, or the USA since there are lots of flags on the website. Nether place has all that much jungle.  I have several different jungle knives.  Maybe I'll write some reviews, but first I will have to test this one out.  Since I don't have a jungle or forest right here in the yard ... well, it might be a few days. 

Typically, jungle knives fall into one of two general categories, slashers, and choppers.  With a fairly thin blade and knife like edge, this appears true to it's name.  A parang is a jungle knife from Borneo, and it's a slasher. 

The sheath on this knife is comfortable and has nice features, and appears to be thoughtful.  It appears cozy even while wearing it around the office.  More later ...

Hey, Did You Ever Ask Yourselves ...

Dear  readers, 

Andy Rooney died today.  An icon of our generation has passed.  Sad, albeit true.  He's gone.

... so I have to ask.  Did you ever wonder why t-shirts and other comfortable clothes have those irritating little labels on them?  Don't you find it unusual that the only part of a  100% cotton t-shirt that isn't cotton is the hive inducing label which says same.  There ought be a law.

All my life I am with the shirt trying to figure out how to remove the label with out destroying the shirt. Im my opinion the best tool is the razor blade.  I remove all labels from all clothes.  Seriously.  If I don't remove the label, I get a small square rash direclty under it.  Amazing.  2 square inches of hives on the back of the neck.  Really not fun. 

I understand that dissident spies alway take their labels off all their clothes.  I saw that on television.  I uderstand that regular spies do this as well.  Alledgedly, they take the labels off thier clothes so that no one knows where they shop.  I once even had a woman I know ask me if I was a spy because I had no labels on any of my clothes.  I don't know why she noticed that, but she did. 

I suspect though, that spies actually remove the labels from their clothes because they are so freaking irritating.  Imagine James Bond doing his spy job, suddenly having to stop and uncontrollably scratch his label itch.  I don't think so.  So he removes the labels

There ought to be a law, seriously.  Write your congressmen and congresswomen and ask them to pass a law prohibiting irritating label materials and expressly prohibiting labeling which claims "100% cotton" unless the entire shirt including the label is cotton. 

Do it now.  And save the spies of the world from having to cut the labels out of all their clothes. 

Re-Entry

Re-entry is interesting. I landed in San Francisco in the morning (October 10) and had lost some of my normal sensibilities. I had grown weary of dense crowds, pushy Asianess. Once I had reached San Francisco, I found myself comfortably shoving some overly pushy Asian guy out of the way so I could gather my bag. I am sure he felt that it was reasonable to shove me into the person behind me repeatedly to create a large open space in front of himself, and didn't realize that I might find this objectionable. Regardless, I felt guilty after I shoved him into his precious space to make some room for me and my bag.

I felt miserable from the eleven hours of plane discomfort and the extenuating test of patience that it is, and was dehydrated from the air conditioning ... I was parched and stripped of my well being by the tragic environment of flight. I was also coming down with strep or pneumonia, or some other contagion..Thirty-six hours after my arrival, I will be in the doctor's office with scarlet fever and a thirty-nine degree temp.

I slipped into a cab for the quiet ride home, and a series of joyous reunions. Eighteen days in Asia leaves me wanting for my own bath mat, a bar of soap and drinking water from the tap. The dog runs up and tries to be cordial, but is angry, and doesn't really greet me. It will be days before the dog will greet me properly. I am tired of travel, and glad to be home to the scowling dog.

The comforts of Asia unfold from my satchel. The shorts I wore for days on end work their way toward the laundry ... the shoes that I still haven't put on since my return come out. The camera and 15 or so compact flash cards, it will be a week before I look closely at these. For now, I am afraid to look at my work, fearing the worst.. There's tea, Anxi Tie Guanyin, Iron Goddess, Steel Buddha, Oolong; it comforts me. Sunflower seeds, which will still be on my desk a week later, flavored with some substance, clearly marked on the package in perfect Chinese, wholly unidentifiable to me by taste or other means, feed me. Peanuts, which my mother reminds me are fertilized with “human excrement,” feed me.

This culturalism I hear from my friends and family plagues me. “They use human excrement for fertilizer there.” It's a disease of misinformation. Of misunderstanding. I call it culturalism because it's not directed against the Asian Race, only against the culture of China. The Chinese people are reasonable healthy today, the agricultural practices may be different than ours, but centralization of sewage treatment and composting of wastes, help to make the foods safer to eat.

When I mentioned that I had been to China,. Even my doctor was quick to associate my illness with China, claiming that, after all, ”They are still living close to the animals there,” as a justification for his assertions. His assumption that I was the vector binging disease from China into the US seemed disturbing. Everyone, it seems, knows a lot about China. I think back, and I don't remember these things from my trips to China, from my experiences. I don't remember that anything I was taught about China was necessarily true once I got there. I can't make the stereotypes stick.

By now it's ten days later. I crave for the companionship of my friend in China. I want saucy foods with rice and fish with bones in them. I miss the drone of conversation in another language that I don't even need to try to decipher. I miss that smell of the street, the interesting chatter and compelling noise that is the street in China, interesting places like the Beijing's Hutong, where quiet neighborhood charm and narrow streets make some essential life spill out of the doorways and alleys.

Here it's quiet, the keyboard chatters as I write, David Letterman idles in the background. I am no longer (extremely) sick. I am tuning up my bicycle and the noises of suburbia surround me. And it's a bit boring right at the moment. I am eating with a fork and contemplating stealing some red plastic chopsticks that say “Tsing Tao” on their sides. My culture shock has passed. Welcome to America. Re-entry is complete.

1928 Hawthorne Deluxe

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Bikes in Yingkou, China

Dear Canon, ...

Here's a copy of a letter I received from Canon today regarding my inquiry about repairing my Canon 17-85mm lens:

Dear Shawn Kielty:

Customer service is our number-one priority at Canon U.S.A., Inc. We take great pride in providing you with the best service possible and strive to make your Canon ownership experience enjoyable.

Please take a few minutes to complete a brief online survey and tell us about your experience when you phoned our Technical Support Center on 10/13/2011 14:04:51regarding your Canon product. To access the survey click on the link below, or copy and paste the address into your browser.

https://www.customersat3.com/e.asp?IID=84DBA0FFFD72F0C08357C63910FE1D79

You must be 18 years of age or older to participate. Thank you for your feedback and for being a valued Canon customer.

Sincerely,

Canon U.S.A., Inc.
Customer Support
Please do not reply to this e-mail unless you are having difficulties completing the survey.

That's right, please do not reply ... yeta, yeta, yeta.  I don't want to complete your survey.  What I want to do is take a few moments to tell you about my experience with your camera on my recent trip to China.  During my trip I carried one camera, a Canon 20D, and two lenses, A 10-22mm zoom and a 17-85mm zoom.  I'd like to be able to tell you that I made this decision because your gear has been so reliable in the past, but it wouldn't be true. 

Last year just before my trip to China, I had to rent a 17-85mm zoom because mine failed miserably, just a few days before I left.  

So off I went to China for 18 days with a stripped down version of my normal gear, and a few days into my trip, my 17-85mm lens stops working all together, producing repeatedly the oft reported "err99".   Done.   Epic Fail.  I don't want to hear and talk how good your customer service is. 

I want to hear and talk about how good your product is.  I want to hear you tell me that the quality of your product is your number one priority.  I want to brag to my friends about how great your camera is.  The way I used to.      

Alas, I cannot!

China, Goodbye

This trip has been amazing, I saw some of the greatest landmarks the world has to offer, the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square. I went to a hospital in China. I was on a tour boat, probably inside the borders of North Korea, I saw several cities, including Beijing. I saw great things, met great people, ate outstanding food and have a myriad of new stories to tell. I was fire cupped. Plus what, I caught a fish! I have been to farms and out to the coast, literally, in every way, off the map (well, my map anyways). I enjoyed reconnecting with the folks I met last year. I think every aspect of my comfort zone was stretched on this trip. It was a good adventure.

Tomorrow, I will say goodbye to China with a tear in my eye. It will be sad to leave my friends. It will be sad to leave the good food, good health, and vibrant energy that I have seen and felt on this trip.

Huge thanks to my friends here in China, who have opened up their lives to share with me and make my stay so enjoyable. So much hospitality. So welcoming and friendly. Thank you.

Yak Bone Pendant

So the other night I was wandering around in the Hutong with my friend and her friend when we went into theis Tibetan shop. where I spotted a pendant I thought looked cool and right. I asked, he said, "50 yuan," I said "Done."

My friend looked at me in amazement. I had caved immediately without so much as a whimper, violating every tenet of succesful bargaining in a fell swoop.

I said, " what s that. like 8 bucks?" He just offered me a handmade, yak bone, silver and gold plus other stuff pendant that wards off evil and brings good luck in the form of money to a person who wears it, for all of 8 dollars. How could I argue with that. It seems unconsionable to weasel him down to 4 bucks.

Yanjing Beer, Delivered in Bottles by Bicycle.

Yanjing is the largest beer producer in China. If you made a single beer for everyone in Beijing each day, that would be 22 million bottles of beer a day. Not that Yanjing does that, but according to the wikipedia, "The company has approximately 20,000 employees, and is one of the largest beer manufacturers in China. They produced 3.11 million tons of beer in 2005 alone. "

I have been noticing a phenomena around town, especially in the Hutong, and other areas with very narrow streets. Bicycles are out in numbers delivering large amounts of beer, most of it Yanjing. In the store across the street from my new hotel, I noticed the bottles of Nanjing were all pretty significantly abraded in the widest part of the bottle near the top. I am pretty sure this is from delivering it by bike, especially since I've never seen it delivered any other way.

Now – I am thinking that if you make 3.11 million tons of beer a year, and you deliver it by bicycle, you'll need at least 20,000 employees. They also deliver it by plane I here, to your seat. And to some other countries in the world.

I'll see if I can get a photo of a bike loaded with beer.

Sleeper to Beijing

6 October 2011, near Shanhaiguan, Qinglong, China

It's dawn. I am on the sleeper from Anshan, Liaoning, China to Beijing. Rivulets of sweat stream down the windows and across the floor. A night times worth of perspiration. A person above me is stirring and little bits of movement rise in sound from around the room. Train personnel sweep through the cabin opening the curtains. A green countryside unfolds, blurred by the sweat condensed on the glass. I am excited to be going to Beijing.

The loud speaker begins it's Mandarin rhythm, a female voice droning on about something unintelligible, to me at least. I am the only Caucasian I have seen for many days on my trip. Bodies begin to unfurl themselves from unbleached white sheets, and gradually it develops in to a cacaphony of unquietness, destroying the peace of my sleep.

There is tea being made. A young woman deftly unfolds down the ladder from somewhere in the sky to artfully find her shoes crammed under the bed below me, without ever touching the floor. The food vendor starts a melodic slow mantra and rolls his cart into the car. My companion stirs. The train is awake.

This could easily be the Nineteenth century, except that the train is very modern. One white guy on a train with 20 coaches of Asia; uniformed train people ply the hall with there goods; their servitude. It could be 100 years ago except the sounds in the room are the smart phones, nooks, kindles, Ipads, PC's of a new generation of China. The sounds of technology enchanting the present. Corn and rice fields arise out of the blurry landscape. The smells of breakfasts being eaten fill the coach. Beijing is in the distance.

and the result

Home Remedy

REI Flash 18

This bag is awesome! Ultralight with hydration capability, waterproofed bulletin cloth and comfortable straps, plus a waist band, make this bag an all around success when you need to carry a few things for a day trip from your hotel. It's an excellent bag to take along empty on your vacation. It's strong and comfortable so could useful on extended ultralight hikes, runs or climbs.

As we know, when travelling, the amount of stuff you ultimately take home can increase, especially if you make friends along the way. Having an extra lightweight bag lets you throw some extra things in to this bag and carry it on to the plane.

On this particular trip, I was planning to ditch my worn out duffel after I delivered all the gifts I carried here to China. The things I carry home as gifts, hopefully will fit into the ultralight bag, making my trip home extra smooth, and without any baggage fees. We will see if I can actually come home with less stuff than I brought.

Four Stars, and So Much More

This is clearly a four star hotel. It says so everywhere. The trappings are well done, the furnishing appropriate. Grand and stately. Looks great all the way around.

Tomorrow morning I will check out of this place, which has been my home for a few days now. I know which of the staff speak English well, how to get enough water for my needs without using the minibar, when they will ask me for a new deposit. I know how to get to and from the place.

I've learned a few things while I am here. I've learned not to push all the buttons to call elevators, but instead to pick the elevator that looks like it's coming towards me, and push one button. It's like sharing only slightly more complicated. When the clerk asks me for money for a deposit, I immediately claim, "That's too much." It is now what I will do anytime any Chinese person quotes me a price for anything.

He asked me if I'd like to pay 1000 Yuan, I said, "That's too much." He said, "How about 800?" Much better. It doesn't matter, when the charges are all settled they will have charged me what they want and I will have paid it. I can't really resist, and I can't really quite get what they are doing, so I just agree and they charge me.

It doesn't really matter, except I suspect that he expects me to try to negotiate the price down. So from now on. "That's too much" is going to be my mantra.

My room was pretty cozy, two double beds with no heat or air and a toilet who's seat would not stay up. I gently tried to adjust it, and it snapped off in my hands. Yes, I broke the toilet seat off the toilet in my room (awesomely, they fixed it immediately). The shower was pretty good, but there was no way to not be pretty much in the stream. They never once filled the mini bar or washed a glass, or vacuumed. In their defense, they did buy my breakfast every day and make the bed, and they did my laundry about four different times. The fan in the room was exceptionally noisy the first few days, and there was a drain in the floor that was venting sewer gases into the room. These two things combined to make me feel like I was in Asia. Once I learned the trick about the fan the stench from the sewer went away.

Leave the fan on all the time. The noise stops, the smell goes away.
One day with not enough to do I looked at the services, which include a bath house and massage … neither of these were actually available. I was pretty disappointed actually, actually, because I was imagining my self James Bond in Hong Kong with the young Asian masseuse coming to my room to attempt to to seduce me to my death. No. No massage, no bath. They did offer to secure someone from the neighborhood for the massage. I declined. No seduction.

I am not complaining. Just pointing out the features of a four star hotel in China. Once I got accustomed to the idiosyncrasies, I was pretty much delighted. The staff are friendly and helpful, one of the elevators comically announces the wrong floor in English. There's plenty to talk about, I can sit it the empty bar and have a coke or a coffee, and write in my notebook. It is much better than many of the places I've stayed. There's a store that sells the same stuff as the mini bar, for about 25% of the price. It feels like home already.

And now I am leaving. Soon, I will be on a sleeper to Beijing. And I will be at a new hotel. With some stars I hope.

Trouble in Cameraland

Problem, my 17-85mm Canon zoom lens is hosed. Last year, about 1 day before leaving for China, my 17-85 zoom stopped working – so I rented a similar lens and sent mine to Canon for repair. This year it's a "err99" every time I try to shoot, which is entirely irritating and unproductive. So that leaves me here in China with one lens, a 10-22mm. Great lens, but not so versatile. So now I have 4 days in Beijing, 10 gigabytes of card space, and 1 extreme wide angle lens.

Lets see what I can do with that. It's a big place, wide lens … it might be OK.

P.S. If you want to comment on how to fix this, that's great, but first we can eliminate some things. It's prolly not the camera body, the battery, or the connection on the camera side, or the camera operating software. These all have worked fine to date. And they work flawlessly with the newer wide angle lens. From the research I did, it might be the connection to the lens from the camera, or it might be a failing shutter. I think the err99 is a bad communication with the lens, a problem I once had while shooting under a waterfall in Zion. Apparently getting the camera damp doesn't help it work correctly. The "err99" seems somewhat nebulous as far as problems go, so may not be easy to solve on the road.

I packed somewhat sparsely on this trip, so didn't bring a lot of extras. Note to self: Next time bring the 50mm prime lens. Next time in China I want it to be 4 stars all around and 4x5's.

P.P.S. Ironically, right after I wrote this I went through the lens and cleaned it and worked all the controls and put it on the camera … and it's working. A hunch. One of the switches for IS or auto-focus was in a position exactly between the fully switched locations.

Small Farm in Northeast china

This Sea of China ...

I remember when Herb Caen, Pulitzer prize winning icon of three dot journalism, when to China. He wrote this great bit about taking Polaroids of people and having a line form of people to get one. He was so novel, and so was the Polaroid. His detailed description of the crushing force of the Chinese people, rushes into my mind today.

Last time I was here, I remember people calling out to me "Waiguoren," which means "foreigner." I remember young people rushing up to me to test out their English. "Hallo!" I recognized my rarity, how novel I was. For some reason this year, I am noticing that people are staring at me. Sometimes they look away, but sometimes they stare me down. They are staring at me as if they have never seen a white person before. I look around and realize that I am the only white person. In fact I have only seen a very few white people at all, and no Americans. Not even ugly ones. No fat American demanding ice for the beer. Not one American complaining about having to pay to pee. I am virtually alone in a sea of China. One American in a sea of China.

I've been on the road a few days now and I am a bit tired. Nine days to be exact. The temperature overnight was one degree Celsius, clearly indicating to me that my beachcomber attire is probably done for this trip. The choice of two pairs of shorts and one pair of pants was just slightly wrong, and not bringing a jacket has proven to trouble my hosts more than I, but over the next 9 days, I will need one. I have been using the hotel laundry service to keep me in clean clothes, and I have been trying to find a warmer day to launder my pants, since the hotel wants to keep them overnight. I need to buy some clothes.

Being in any foreign country is hard, but this part of China is very challenging. Walking around is a problem because of the amount of traffic, and although there may not be a huge threat all the time, the omnipresence of scooters, bicycles and larger projectiles, makes feeling secure, even on the sidewalk, somewhat difficult. If you stop near the curb, a sea of pedestrians pushes you into the street. Finding a quiet spot to change lenses, or write a note to self, requires putting yourself behind some sort of barrier and hoping no vehicle hits it while you're distracted.

Additionally, the language barrier is considerable. Only occasionally, will someone venture forward with spoken English. Often, they are high schoolers testing out their new English to see if it really works. They say "Hello, how are you?" and giggle with their friends when they hear a reply. Not much help if you are trying to buy some yogurt, or a pair of pants. Even with my friend and her family it's a bit difficult, being the only other English speaker, she says twice as much if I am trying to speak with one of her family.

It's tiring. After yesterday's adventure into the burning corn fields of China, and fishing, everyone seemed tired. We had a simple dinner of rice noodles and a movie, and agreed to take today off, I can do some chores, sleep in, maybe take a walk in the park.

So I got up this morning and headed out in to the streets, grabbing a hotel business card on the way out and headed to the park. Well. I never made it to the park. Yesterday was National Day, and this week, Golden Week, is a big travel week. There are a lot of people here and it's quite crowded on the streets. Plus what, I had no idea how tired I was. I made a big circle, stumbled on to the KFC I had eaten in before, and had a Chinese chicken burrito for breakfast, and headed back to the hotel for a two hour nap. I lounged over that and took an extra long shower.

I ate a bowl of instant ramen from the mini-bar. Like the burrito, it was good. There were no bones in it. No garbage within the food that has to be sorted with tongue and teeth, no delightfully fine fish bones, no pork rib bones, no chicken bones, no crab cleaning, no shrimp head sucking, just pure carbohydrates with a fork. No pressure to eat something I possibly wouldn't.

I don't eat KFC at home, so why would I here. One, I know what's on the menu, so I can just point at it and get it. Two, it's familiar and ready to eat, it's probably safe. Three, I suspect that the chicken industry in China probably hasn't been modernized in the same way as it is in the West. I prefer to think that the chickens are farm raised and scratch fed, in a pleasant and attractive way, without a lot of chemicals in their diets. Managed by human energy, as it were. Maybe I am deluded, but it sure tasted good.

So … today. A day of rest in a sea of Chinese. Respite. Warm showers. Hotel mini-bars. Afternoon naps.