The Arrival of Summer

I know it sounds ridiculous to say summer is just starting, as it is almost August, but I am finally feeling my typical summer high spirits (often reffered to by friends as ‘Summer Brett’). For some reason they were stalled this summer – they commenced as usual this spring with red soxx spring training and opening day, but were beaten back by my thesis and my hustle towards graduation. Although being in China for a month following this was probably the best experience in my life – so far – it was not so good for my summer spirits. Returning to the States in June, I felt a bit of a counter culture-shock. Everything seemed so trivial; I hated the simplicity, the lack of challenge and discovery that was omnipresent in Shanghai and Beijing.

I think I now realize that what is best is to seek a balance between discovery and assurance. Still, if I am to lose this balance, I hope to always lean towards discovery. My biggest fear is complacency, to possess a level of comfort and guarantee that inevitably shields any individual from life’s experiences and from their personal potential. I realize I may not be following my personal philosophy by staying in Minneapolis during my gap year, but I am simply keeping in mind the near future of law school tuition and high costs of living. Besides, I still have a lot planned for gap year – regardless of where I am working – and hope to continue to challenge myself (Japanese lessons?!?!?).

I think this realization has been at the centre of my recent high spirits. I am also golfing more, which has a direct correlation to my attitude (sorry, I don’t have SPSS here, so bear with the excel-style chart):

I was also going to make one that had my golf score as the dependent variable, but I’m too busy lazy and it would simply be a straight line, with no statistically significant correlation between my performance on the golf course and my overall happiness

I am pretty much done with the work week already, which has improved happiness indicators. Tomorrow is our company golf outing, so I’ll be hitting up the links all day. Apparently it is my birthday tomorrow (I didn’t forget this year , so I am celebrating my youth – celebrating my birthday the night before, as is my tradition – with a twilight round of golf. But this year I am also celebrating my age (I usually mourn after my birthday…) by taking a little break from work. After the company golf outing I am going to make the drive across Wisconsin to Milwaukee (I might go out if anyone is around on Thursday night… let me know) for the night before heading to Chicago on Friday. I am hopefully going to check out Northwestern and U Chicago Law Schools, catch lunch with my cousin, and hit up Lollapalooza – I just printed my ticket!!! I am definitely looking forward to Bloc Party, who I’ve wanted to see for a long time… Also looking forward to the Go! Team and Mates of State – here is my schedule, let me know if you want to meet up at all.

I may have planned too much for one day though, as I need to get back to Milwaukee for a 7 AM flight to Boston the next morning… wish me luck!  I haven’t been to Boston for a couple of years so I am quite excited for this leg of the trip, even more so because I will be checking out perspective law schools while I am there. Then I have a flight back to Milwaukee where I’ll see my aunt and uncle and then back to Kiel, WI – the little city that does BIG things - for the annual Kiel picnic and some long-deserved Schwartz’s, my all-time favourite restaurant (possibly in a tie with Village Wok). I think I will need to get another round of golf in while in Wisconsin as well…

All of this driving in the next week or two might kind of suck (if you know me you know how much I hate driving/traffic/automobiles), but I do love to travel, so I can set aside my distaste. I am hoping to check out Austin City Limits in September and am considering driving, although flying would probably be a better idea.  If anyone else is interested, let me know – I am willing to do just a weekend trip, as most are still in school =P  Also hoping for Sydney and Spain within the next year (maybe Shanghai again…) – any suggestions for finding cheap flights???

I’m taking a camera along the journey, so expect more flavourful posts when I return

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Review: Policy and a Pint – the China Tradeoff

For those of you were were not able to attend Policy and a Pint last night (as it was sold out… for the first time), I’m writing a short review, as it is a rather slow day for me and I am quite interested in the subject.

Guests were Alan Holmer, Special Envoy for China and the Strategic Economic Dialogue and Tony Lorusso, Executive Director of the Minnesota Trade Office.

The Citizens League event was certainly an alternative to the China-bashing we have gotten accustomed to. Consequently, it was nice to see the community approach the discussion with level heads. This may actually be a sign of changing attitudes towards China, which would be long deserved in my mind. I half expected a neo-con to rant about security issues or a bleeding-heart liberal to cry about human rights issues.

Still, although the discussion stayed relatively on point, I was underwhelmed by the willingness of the guests to approach the issues in detail. I understand that there was only a measly hour to approach this vast topic, but I felt like I was listening to a recording of a politician’s talking points. I understood that the governor and the state are enacting a ‘broad initiative centered around…’ the first time you mentioned it. The two continually spoke of a need to better understand China in order to form a more productive relationship, yet the policy they spoke to address this was through providing an option for Mandarin in Minnesota public schools. It is great to give this opportunity to students, but how many will actually make use of it? I could have taken Mandarin in college, but the College of Liberal Arts and the U required potential graduates to first pass a proficiency test before leaving the University. Thus, I chose to continue studying Spanish rather than attempting this difficult path of obtaining proficiency in a language I had no prior knowledge of. We will only continue to offer these options to our students, while Chinese students will be required to learn English.

Another common ‘talking point’ was that of alternative fuels and China’s drive for resources. They spoke of how China’s thirst for resources can provide opportunities for Minnesotans in the Iron Range. This is all well and good, as long as investment is being done by Chinese companies. The taconite is already depleted in the range and there is no need to invest more tax revenue into the pork barrel projects concocted to appease employees who refuse to adapt to a changing labour market. Furthermore, neither guest addressed how the Chinese have swarmed Sub-Saharan Africa and its implications on the global resource pool. The Chinese are currently investing in this resource-rich area while we refuse due to ‘political concerns.’ The recent history of China has certainly showed us that we are correct in assuming that democracy is a prerequisite for investment and development… Our hesitation to embrace politically diverse nations is costing us daily.

All in all, the event was actually worthwhile – I simply like to be a critic first and foremost, it’s in my nature. However, I am not sure I will be attending further Citizens League events unless the topic is of great interest to me. Still cheers to the Citizens League for attempting to address such a complex topic.

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Policy and a Pint: the China Tradeoff

This is just going to be a quick post, as I had a ridiculously long day at work and I’m tired because I messed up my sleep cycle yesterday. I was considering stopping by First Ave. for the Wolf Parade concert tonight, but Last.fm didn’t inform me of it like they were supposed to and I didn’t prepare/free my schedule (and I’m too tired… giving up coffee is rough).

Anyway, the point of the post is to inform you of an interesting program tomorrow night at the Varsity Theater and to encourage you to join me there at 6:00 (doors open at 5:30).  The Citizens’ League (I think they are sponsored by Best Buy, which explains how they can pull in high-profile guests…) is hosting a discussion about policy towards China and the economic implications for Minnesota. They are bringing in Ambassador Alan Holmer, so it should be a worthwhile time. There is a five dollar cost, but there is food being brought over from Loring, so it’s definitely worth it in my opinion. Here is a link to the Citizen’s League event description.

If you can’t make it, I may try to write something up on Friday depending upon my schedule. Hope to see you there!

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Slow Day

The entire manufacturing floor has left and it seems like no one is in the office… great time to post. I would just go home for the afternoon, but let’s face it: I need the money.  Plus, what am I supposed to do during the day… sweat?

You may have already noticed, but I added more pictures to my Flickr yesterday. They were the remainder from Beijing, the majority from Sha, and some (not taken by me) from my cousin’s wedding in Naples, FL.  Here is a picture of Shanghai in case you don’t feel like going to my photostream.

I’ve been considering buying a camera and getting into photography, but I don’t really want to buy the camera. There are also about a hundred things I should buy before that which I don’t want to spend money on: some type of musical device to break the chilling silence experienced while driving in my car, a working air conditioner for a) my car b) my room, a motor for my car window that has not opened in six months, new car?, groceries (although I’ve eaten at home once since returning from Shanghai), an upgrade to this wordpress blog (although I am considering changing hosts – improving this one seems too time consuming – If I don’t switch, I promise I will do it however), my own address for the blog, classes or books or something to satisfy the extreme boredom I have being academically idle, and about 90 more that I’m too lazy to write out.

In other news, I have completed and handed in all materials for graduation.  I believe I should soon be the proud owner of a bachelor’s degree, which due to credential inflation means very little (starting law school soon, however). Thanks for the congratulations everyone (everyone = my mom/dad, sister, a random VP at work, and an old friend from home who read my twitter status). I feel as alone in my moment of success as I did along the entire journey =P

I read a pretty interesting article from Fast Company today. If you’re half as interested in China as I am, check it out — “China Storms Africa” That’s about it for today though, I’m too lazy to write more. Enjoy your Independence tomorrow! In lue of this holiday, I may go to Brit’s Pub downtown tonight to celebrate America’s British heritage. Regardless, I am drinking Gin & Tonics – both for their British origin and for their ability to repel mosquitoes/malaria (…yes, I know the tonic isn’t like that anymore).  I believe I will be down by Lake Calhoun tomorrow afternoon with friends (after working till 1ish… :/): text, twitter, or call me if you want to meet up. Hanging out by the water in the afternoon with a cooler and watching the fireworks over downtown sounds like a good 4th to me (although I’d rather be in Boston, of course).  To my friends back in WI – enjoy the SheVegas festivities!!

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Failure…

Ni hao,

I have to keep this short as I am on my lunch break and have a lot of work to finish before I can leave for the weekend.

My grand intent to blog while on my trip in China was thwarted by the censors. Regardless of which computer/mobile device I tried to use, I could not load the post page. I will try to share some of thoughts in the next few weeks, but so far I have been busy since getting back. Furthermore, I came home to a blue screen of death on my home computer (which I still have no idea how to fix and don’t want to take it anywhere and have them looking through my information). Thus, for those of you wanting to find out about my time in China, either call me or wait; I will try to upload some photos to flickr, but since getting back I have been working a lot, struggling to re-adjust, and have not wanted to try doing it on my laptop – as it may explode from such a laborious task.

Otherwise things have pretty much returned to normal. I am working a lot and still have much to do with respect to school before I can technically graduate – although I actually have my degree already. I still need to finish a research paper on investment and development in China as well as prepare a report and presentation for the China Center on campus. After I wrap those things up in the next weeks, I will start studying for my second LSAT exam – need at least 170! All in all, this summer should be quite relaxing when compared to the several months before. I am hoping to get to the lake many times, as well as the golf course.

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