Halloween in china isn’t much – gotta head over to the expat areas. See one block doing a mini trick or treat. Tried explaining to some of my chinese friends what “trick or treat” is – but gave up after a while. Amazing how something that was embedded in my upbringing was never even imagined on this side of the …
Bai Jiu & Ducks in the Road
Group photo in the office……….took some shots of the Chinese White Wine Baijiu to celebrate FRIDAY…..everyone seems to be getting along nicely and becoming my Chinese family!!!! Brent ran into these in the road the other day visiting the electrapour factory…hilarious….never know what you can run into driving in China.
Financial Disaster – World Continues to Flatten & Consolidate
I believe this financial disaster, while really is sad, is a wake up call. Where did this money come from? It was a house of cards. But what this means to me is that the US dollar will be less of a dominant force in the future. While this tragedy is worldwide, with the US government financing these bailouts – …
Mid Autumn Festival, Mooncakes, & Lost Potential in the World
Today is mid autumn festival in China, so a public holiday (Monday). Represents the full moon, harvest, families sitting around a table as the moon is symbolic of a circular table for the family. Spent Friday evening at a friend’s factory party. It stil amazes me the life of a factory worker…..lives in a dorm next to the factory, what …
Like a Fish in a Fish Bowl
Sitting here late Sunday night…trying my best as a fish in a fishbowl…..really am centered around this computer….where location doesn’t matter and my mind wanders towards the feeling of being a fish in a fishbowl…especially during my skype video conference calls….amazing world we live in these days….location matters less and less! Some recent photos to share my friend Vicky …
Fighting everyone….banks, factories, landlords, refrigerators
Today was a funny story between my landlord and me – my building had a scheduled power outage on Friday (all day, had to work remotely) – and when I turned the fridge back on it started smelling like someone threw up…..cleaned it out, let it dry out, etc – all weekend was trying to figure out what was wrong. …
Spyble kickoff – a bit of insanity
applied for a trademark on spyble last night directly on uspto.gov Really pushing more for online marketing these days…..have been success and seems to use my knowledge much more. Differentiate myself. Spyble SEO competitive intelligence [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jEnTi6pTFY&hl=en&fs=1]
Am I just a white guy trying to profit off low cost labor?
Guess I can say my time here has been somewhat emotional at times…but its sad that I get used to seeing beggars and dead broke people walking the streets. Visiting factories with workers getting paid such small amounts of money (side note – I have not seen child labor – or conditions not workable). Seeing these things day in and …
Suing a Chinese Factory
Let the games begin….here’s the letter to my Chinese Lawyer ============ Hi Liyan, I want to sue a factory for quality issues, can you help? I have a quality clause in it and I have a strong case they did not meet those requirements Mike =========== man, I can definitely say i’m doing some crazy things in my life
hiring and firing…….in china.
Never easy hiring – choosing one person who is better than another to work in your company….but man it sucks to tell someone they are no longer fit to work here anymore. It was a bit of racism too, a girl I had working here, 31 years old so she thought she was senior to me and could teach me …
China is Proud
Wow, it really has been insane being in china during the olympics. I am on the other side of the country (south) and still the energy is amazing….they’ve hung Chinese flags all over….the opening ceremony was out of control…..I thought Americans were proud of their country…..seems in China they had something to prove to the world…and I would say the …
Definitely Never a Boring Day in China
Think what really intrigues me about living in China is the normal day to day living….this didn’t seem too strange to me in the car yesterday, but Ivan my friend mentioned “hey take a picture of that car”…and I did Wonder if I’ll ever drive in China…..but this insanity is what I love about it! I thrive on chaos as …
Finding Trusted Partners & Allies in a Foreign Country
I dont want to say being in China is a reason for saying its hard to find trusted partners. But I think its being a foreigner / visitor in a faraway place that makes it complex and hard to know who is out for your best interests, not only their own. I keep hearing these horror stories about being robbed …
Chinese Visa Issues, Boozer sent back to USA
Financial situations , Employee issues My buddy, Andrew Grilli (I nicknamed boozer) spent his last night in China today – and I was able to sneak a quick snapshot of the 10 year China veteran
Step into my office – is it adapting or changing oneself?
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOHHGDvz3Mo&hl=en&fs=1] Messing around with adding a watermark to a video for more videos – and used the inside of my office as a test video. Want to make some funny skit videos about the daily findings and business interactions I see here. I remember the high school yearbook signing days – and the notes “never change for anyone, ” never …