Your tee time is at 6:27am

Barrhead, Alberta. 2009

Through the glowing, heart beating race of life there are so many things to keep us entertained. I feel like most of the world is centered around entertainment. "I can't see a meaning in all of this so entertain me until I die."

Funny faces, play pen, Little Einsteins, show and tell, video games, making out, going to the movies to make out, going for a drive just to make out, football games, golf, strippers, chess, going for a walk at an age where holding hands is equal to making out, watching TV, making funny faces to grandchildren, watching more TV, death.

Somewhere in there is golf.

According to my friend/The Internet, golf's origin is debated muchly. Like everything else, it's either from the Romans or the Chinese, though the modern game originated in Scotland. King James the 2nd banned the game because he said that it distracted people from their archery lessons. Where as Lebron James is a basketball player who took his talents to the beach.

That thing about archery made me think that there is more to the story if I were to use logic and push it back a few years. Somewhere along the line someone was sick of archery. This person was probably high class, therefore he had a lot of money and time to figure out exactly how to invent the modern game of golf. This person was more than likely a pre-enlightenment douchebag. Actually, he would probably be more famous for being the first douche than the inventor of golf if his identity were known today. No doubt that when he stepped up to the tee and would pop his collar everyone in the group would secretly roll their eyes.

"But Brett, why are you so negative towards this unknown golfer? This nameless hero, if you will?"

I don't mean to speculate, but from watching movies and reading Anna Karenina I can decipher that anyone who did anything significant back then had money. These people were usually selfish 20 to 40 something year old men who spent their time trying to steal some innocent peasant's virgin wife. Along the way they discovered things like golf and polo and all kinds of things that take time and patience to play. These guys were so rich and bored that they actually invented complicated and time consuming games to play on large areas of grass that some poor fellow needed to cut with his bare hands.

"That's an interesting theory, Brett. But where are you going with this? I've got a tee time at 6:27 tomorrow morning."

Exactly! 6:27 am. Because by 6:31 you better be down the fairway. This is another example of the European aristocratic influence on western society. The same stain is found in baseball, though I don't know how it seeped into the American pass-time. "The first pitch is at 7:05 so we should leave around... 6:22."

My caddie and me in Thailand, 2008

The point that I am not trying very hard to get to is that there is supposed to be a golf course somewhere around here. I heard that they had built it an hour or so outside of Xining but I have not heard if it is finished. The other more pertinent point is that even if this golf course does exist I do not have clubs and I am sure that playing at this course would be far too expensive for anyone to play besides the 0.05 % of the population that they built it for.

"But Brett, aren't you considered 'rich' in China? I mean, you have food to eat, right?"

Yes, we are rich. We are definitely rich here. We have an apartment and we can make food with import store products.

That being said, there is a tennis court in town that we can play at if we pay 140 yuan an hour. That is a little over $20 Canadian an hour. That is why I don't play tennis. I don't have a whole lot of hope that I will be playing golf this year either.

I was reminded of golf the other day when I was walking through our complex to our building. After walking past the stench of the giant garbage can my senses were overwhelmed by the smell of fresh cut grass. They cut the grass about once every two months. Needless to say it is an event I look forward to each and every time.

Fore!

So, I popped in the DVD and then what happened was...

Some of you may have noticed a little area to the right that tells you what movies I have enjoyed recently. They are not limited to new releases.

I have a hard time tracking down new releases. I know that there are ways to watch on the Internet but more often then not I find that the quality of the movies and speed of the connection are not as 'spot on' as I would like. Therefore, I am basically limited to watching whatever I can get my hands on. This usually means Classics, 80's Action, Oscar winners that I've never seen, Hitchcock, cartoons with cars or some sort of talking animals and Chinese movies..

Now with this approach, I am actually quite surprised that I have not enjoyed that many movies lately. I saw one called I am Love staring Tilda Swinton. There are parts that I loved about this movie but there were more parts that I did not like at all, including the parts where they show too many people parts;)

I watched a Chinese movie called Yi Yi. It was really good, but not "3 hours long but it's so good so I'm going to keep watching" good. Actually, at the point that I gave up I started to fast forward thinking that I was near the end. Well, the fast forwarding took a really long time and I think I gave up on that and just went to scene selection and found the last one.

Then we have director Kar Wai Wong. I watched In the Mood for Love and Chung King Express and loved both of them. To my delight I found a few other of his movies. I soon found that I was not a fan of all of his work. The look of his movies is very interesting, but the topics* seem too drab and empty to maintain my attention for the duration of the film. Needless to say, after crawling through My Blueberry Nights I have left both Ashes of Time and 2046 unopened on my shelf for quite sometime now.

*Something about a wandering woman or man who gets lost in the confusion that is life and the big city.

Brothers was okay. I like the story. I had a hard time believing that Tobey, Natalie and the gang were actually adults with real families and problems and stuff. Maybe Natalie can gain 5 or 30 pounds for her next "mother of an 8 year old" role. She looks like she's heading into 10th grade. I will say that the movie was interesting and that Tobey even took it to a slightly higher level in this one, despite the fact that he still looks so cute and teenagery.

I've seen True Grit a few times now. I think that most people have seen that one. I don't know anyone that didn't like it.

That's about as new as it gets. I look forward to seeing Tree Of Life within the next 3 or 4 years. I heard that Super 8 is entertaining.

This week we had a good time with Scott Pilgrim verses the World. Have you seen that one? I had pretty low hopes for it. Not MacGruber low, but low enough as not to be expecting too much. I found it to be entertaining, funny and very creative. I would recommend that people of a reasonable age watch it. Or maybe you're all over your Micheal Cera phase. He is timid and awkward and such, just like all of his other roles, but somehow it still works for me.

That is about it when it comes to movie watching. Lack of good movies has given me more time to tweak my fantasy baseball team, write, and read on my Kindle. As always, I also anticipate the upcoming NHL season with great... anticipation. Only 2 and a half months away!

This is pretty much the extent of my exposure to a fabricated western culture. I get home sick quite a bit, but these kinds of internet hobbies help take the edge off. I also eat a burger at Bill's Place once in a while. Also, I hear that The Greenhouse has 'pour over method' coffee now.

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Regarding my movies, today I had a little meeting with a prospective actor for a short film I want to make next month. It looks like it will work out. She is an 11 year old girl that I need to look like an 8 year old. When I met her I thought that she was 9, so that's good enough for me. I have a few other parts to cast and I need to confirm a friend's apartment for use as a location. It's fun being back in the pre-production phase of things. I have faith that it's going to work out. In any event, it will be fun and educational to at least give it a try.

More on all of this later.

Swimming with the fishes and other happenings

We went to the park last week. The People's Park, in fact. It's really nice this time of year and we figured that Friday would be better than the busy weekend. We figured correctly.

The boys went on some rides, the train, and played in the playground. They even got some ice cream!

Miles Waiting patiently.

Miles reaping the rewards of patience.

They also tried to catch some more fish friends for our pet fish Flowerduna, whom Miles caught and won as a prize on our last visit to the park. Well, this time it didn't work out so well but we ended up buying 2 more fish anyways.

Miles with Flowerduna, April 2011

Fast forward 24 hours...

A sad day in the Gitzel apartment this week. Our first pet, Flowerduna the fish, passed away. She was far too young. Oh the places she could have gone to.

The cause of death seems to be the arrival of 2 new fish, Fireduna and Sunny. We think that the new fish were not eating the food, thus Flowerduna gorged herself on too many little pellets of food. Or... it just might have been murder. Fish on fish murder. We don't know these new guys that well at all. In fact, Fireduna and Sunny might not even be their real names!

The new guys getting used to the spacious territory

Jonas didn't really notice too much of what happened. Miles on the other hand learned something new. When we told him that she was dead he laughed, not really understanding the situation. Then we said that we had to flush her and that she could never come back. He thought that that was strange, but was more curious than broken up about it.

Do I hate the new fish for killing Flowerduna? Do I hold them responsible for Flowerduna's death? Do I think that they might be racist fish with an agenda? I do and I don't.

We gathered around the toilet and flushed her down. That was it. The other two fish continue to survive and I think that they are eating alright. I still step lightly around their bowl, not wanting upset or aggravate them. I mean, they've already committed one murder this week.

But poor Flowerduna couldn't cope with new environment.

"So long, golden little fish. You will always be our first pet. You did a good job, kid. Swim on into that vast ocean of eternal sewage."

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I ordered a hat online and had a friend bring it out. My regular hat is faded pretty bad from the hot sun up here and I've always wanted a San Fransisco Giants hat. I ordered an XL. Well, as the story usually goes, it does not fit. It sits hanging from my lamp, as a reminder that I am not a normally sized headed person and I never will be.

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Two more things.

I ate the first fruits from my pea plants. Crunching into those bad boys took me back to the days when we would pick peas in our back yard. Or in particular, I remember picking peas in Uncle Randy and Auntie Janice's backyard before they built their garage.

The sweet basil is also growing nicely. I put it on pizzas and in spaghetti sauce. Very nice touch. I love Basil. Heck, maybe we should name our next fish Basil. Basilduna...

basil on the left, cilantro in the back, and mint in the foreground.
That's how they roll.

The mint is also growing well. What do I do with mint? Manufacture chewing gum? Mojitos?

The cilantro is soaring to new heights. I am trying to figure out how to use the stuff since Barbara doesn't like it at all and I only like a bit of it with Mexican food. Why did I plant it in the first place?

My worm bin has been around for over a month now and thee little guys are still chewing away. It's working pretty well. Worms and fish are about the only pets I am interested in having in this apartment.

What an emotional week.