Weblog:
The other night when Elena took me to this restaurant she discovered, I experienced another one of those unique cultural experiences I’ve only seen in China. The restaurant was so packed that we had to wait in the lobby with about fifteen other people. While waiting, I was treated to the sight of a woman in her early thirties sitting across from me, furiously digging in her nose. She would roll around her findings with her forefinger and thumb, then flicking it onto the floor–with the same casualness of someone flipping her hair. She did this for a good five minutes, then surprisingly, decided to cover her busy hand with her other hand while reaching into her nose–as if that somehow made her action less appalling. Now, to put things into perspective, Fuzhou, the city I live in, while not a big metropolis like Shanghai or Beijing, is still considered a major city, but even in a city this size I’ve often seen similar levels of social etiquette in the last four years I’ve lived here. This woman at least had some inking of an idea that what she was doing was probably not kosher, whereas often the social offender in question simply just didn’t know any better. I could list more examples, but it’s almost dinner time, and I’d rather have more pleasant things on my mind while eating.
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Remember I had mentioned my friend Jason Sereno getting laid off from EA? Well, there is a happy ending to that story. He happened to have called me the night before I was going back to China to say good-bye, and I happened to be hanging out with my ex-roomate Jason Felix (who’s currently working for Flagship Studios on Hellgate London) at the time. Anyway, you can put two and two together, or read about it in Jason’s blog. I felt so bad for him when I found out he got laid off because he was getting married in a month, and I’m totally thrilled that I got to help him out. Maybe he’ll return the favor when Elena and I move back to the States in May. 😀
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Speaking of moving back, I’ve been working on a bunch of new pieces for the purpose of updating my portfolio–stuff like concepts for environments, vehicles, weapons, characters, and some 3D stuff with Zbrush. From now till May, there’ll be new pieces added to the site regularly. I’ve been itching to finish off some of the WIP’s I’ve had for a while now too, but those will have to wait till after I’ve found a new job.
