I’ve been reading some news on Gen-Z types not taking any shit anymore and as a result I’ve got The Who’s “The Kids Are Alright” echoing in my head.

Weird. I love squid jerky. Of course it’s probably prepared very differently here from where you are.

I tried marijuana in my youth and all I got out of it was a migraine that made me want to die.

It turns out I’m particularly sensitive to carbon monoxide. So no MJ (or tobacco either, really) for me!

Gas fueled sports cars (real ones, not “sports” cars with automatics) do have three pedals: gas, brake, and clutch.

I carefully look away from the clutter and the boxes at the back of the closet and pretend it’s not there.

I used to be an avid flyer, but the turn airlines have taken to become cattle cars of the air has removed that shine. I recently flew from Wuhan to Seoul to Calgary to Ottawa (and back) in order to do a road trip from Ottawa to Victoria and back (to Calgary, bypassing the Ottawa->Calgary leg) and in the process just reaffirmed my complete lack of desire to do air travel for anything but the absolutely necessary ever again.

I love travel, but I’ll stick to rail for as much as is practical. The road trip was great but exhausting for our driver (my stepfather), and here in China rail is just the best option for long-distance travel. Comfortable and fast. Air is no longer on the list except at specific great need.

Vaguebooking is usually something associated with drama queens on Facebook.

Photographs. My photographs, to be specific. Maybe, on occasion, if it really resonates me, something of local cultural significance. (These can vary wildly from simple charms to complicated works of folk art.)

+1 In general I don’t like pop music, of any era, but sometimes a single song will stick in my head and will find itself on my playlist anyway.

I genuinely have no idea what it is that you’re complaining about. Could you perhaps clarify in an edit?

The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. It’s a Debbie Downer of a song, it lasts forever, and it gets really repetitive.

ABBA’s “Fernando” pops up in my head randomly all the time. Styx’s “Half-Penny, Two-Penny” has a phrase that leaps to mind quite often when reading news. “Justice for money, what can you say? We all know it’s the American Way.” and also “Justice for money, how much more can I pay? We all know it’s the American Way.” And when that leaps to mind the rest of the song follows. Forever (or so it seems)…

As a child I had a problem pronouncing “chocolate” so I called it “drawer”.

This makes more sense to people who know German since that’s what I was using at the time.

Self-driving Tesla is a big boy now! Almost ready to put on its big boy pants!

I want to get some of the local magpies to start eating out of my hand by summer time.

I was nearly frantic trying to find my glasses once. I enlisted the aid of SO (who complied, but was smirking for reasons that would soon become obvious). While I was digging around in places it could have fallen, I mentioned that it would be so much easier if I could actually see clearly while doing this.

Then I had a brainstorm. I took my glasses out of my blouse’s front pocket and put them on so I could see more clearly if my glasses had fallen behind the desk…

You’re conflating two different things:

1. Getting games printed in China.
2. Chinese counterfeit game publication.

#1 is not going to stop happening anytime soon. I saw this in a recent trip to Canada where I wanted to get some jigsaw puzzles with native art on them for friends. There were 500-piece sets manufactured in, I think, Seattle that were three times the price of 1000-piece sets manufactured in China. Yet buying one of each and taking a look at the contents there was little difference in the pieces. (The American-made one was a fraction of a millimetre thicker, but for that the cutting looked more accurate in the Chinese one. The pieces just fit better.)

#2 can be stopped, but would take intrusive border checks that most American businesses would absolutely not stand for.

Could do with learning some more card games. I love that you can play so much without having to buy anything new with them.

This, however, is anathema to an industry which is why you get card games that are thinly papered-over traditional playing card games with relabelled cards and slightly-altered rules. (Think Uno: the commercial wrapper around Crazy Eights.)

There are hundreds—or even thousands—of traditional games out there, playable with simple, ubiquitous playing pieces (like poker decks, small coloured stones/markers/whatever, and simply drawn boards on paper). So if the industry collapses you can keep playing new(-to-you) games for the rest of your life without running out.

I used to, but it’s not really a thing here.

Today started as a Heilung day and ended with Burning Witches. I’ll probably fall asleep to the former.