Sunday, December 13, 2009

The Tortoise Tracker!



Here is my final project for my design class:

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

RARRR


Beardapus Strikes Again!

Despite a really fast bike wreck and hours in the mosh pit, beardapus made it through the holiday!

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

SAVE THE DATE!

Hey everybody! We put down the deposit and got the wedding date set!

SATURDAY AUGUST 7, 2010
LOCATION: The MISSISSIPPI RIVER
ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI
Invitations will come out when we get around to making them.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Wedding planning delayed due to BEARDAPUS ATTACK!





THE MIGHTY BEARDAPUS ROSE FROM HIS LAIR IN THE SEA FORREST TO BRING MAYHEM UPON THE ATLANTANS


http://picasaweb.google.com/kathleen.myra.kelly/Beardapus

(at Atlanta Halloween Parade)

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Wedding small update

We had a request to change the date to the 7th and 8th of august?
Still work for everyone?

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Let's get this wedding thing figured out!


Lisa (kitty's sister)'s wedding was great!
So we are also going to get married, so it is time to figure out a time, and start getting things arranged (what a crappy sentence). Haven't done this before, but i guess the first thing is to set a place and date.


The place will probably be around St. Louis, since 80 percent of my family is right there (sorry kitty's side)


So i get done with class on the 7th of May, and will probably have to start working at some internship for a majority of the summer.

So right now we are thinking of having it over a couple of days some time in early to mid August. Right now aiming at
August 14th-15th.




I think it would be cool to have some part in the City museum, but they make you use their caterers and there are a lot of them. So if people who are bored want to look through and find the cheap and awesome place let us know your pics! Also the city museum has some packages from 1000-4000 dollars just to have the thing there. Is that exorbitant?

http://www.citymuseum.org/faqs.html

Tentatively i think it would be cool to hit up both the Zoo and the city museum. Maybe have some time in Forrest park too!

but i also require lots and lots of fireworks at some point of the whole wedding party, which people at all of the aforementioned places will probably frown on thousand of fireworks.

Comments? Ideas?

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Chinese Storytelling Studio Videos Up!

Now you can see the videos that the kids and I made in my class last semester! (Unfortunately the poor chinese kids can't see them because Youtube is blocked over there).





Check out:
http://www.youtube.com/user/StoryTellingStudio

Thursday, August 13, 2009

THE BEST COUCH THAT COULD EVER BE!

OKAY! So after a few days of living on the floor, we decided that enough was enough, and went couch buying. Little did we know that a mere hour later, we would return with the coolest (and heaviest) couch known to man! At first glance one thinks, "Wow what a crazy couch!"...
...but then when you look closer, things seem like they might be even weirder in couch world than previously thought. The world seems to be in disarray, an inordinate amount of dogs are running about the land, people have vanished leaving piles of clothes, the only people around seem a little less righteous than average, all the christian pilots have mysteriously disappeared...



Yes! our couch depicts the End Times, the Great Tribulation, the Second Coming, THE RAPTURE! Maybe we will be able to re-sell it to Kirk Cameron if we ever have to move!




It was only 26 bucks! And actually comfortable! and in really good condition! Also it weighs well over 150 pounds, I guess it must be from bearing the load of all the sins of the world.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Address!

Yay! I have my own address now!

# 15 741 Ponce de Leon CT NE
Atlanta, GA 30308


View Larger Map

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Sunday, July 26, 2009

Vacation Photos!


Here are some pics from our awesome month-long vacation around all of China!

They are in Kitty's picasa gallery because mine was filled up from the blog of the year:
http://picasaweb.google.com/kathleen.myra.kelly/ChinaVacation

Friday, July 24, 2009

Job!


Got me a research job! Work 14 hours and it pays all my out-of-state tuition! Phew!

Plus 1200 bucks more a month! Yay!


Here's what it says the job is:



I am basically going to be doing the coding to get this big weird body puppet into action, but i guess mostly i will be in charge of making big weird 3-D puppets that the body thing will control.


Relief! fun!

Yay!

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Back with a tight schedule



So I am back in the land of sit down toilets and have about 2.5 weeks until school starts. In those weeks Kitty and I will be running all over sorting things out. So here is a rough idea of where and when we will be!

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Re: welcome back

Our flight went awesome! Started out with we each had 4 bags (2 of which were terribly overweight) 2 backpacks, a purse and a carry-on, but one of our teachers drove us all the way to the Futian Border crossing where there were people to meet and greet and carry our luggage for us all the way to the HK airport. Then, because the HK airport is so nice, they had free big luggage carts which made our luggage a breeze. At check-in we got the nicest guy in the world who drew us a little map and sped us through the whole process and only at the end did he say, "Now sir, i want you to know that your bag IS pretty overweight, so maybe next time try to make sure that it isn't too heavy, okay? Thanks a lot!"
 
Our only worry was coming back through the Chicago airport, but once again they had free carts and customs didn't check our luggage at all!
 
When we got back, Mom and Doug greeted us with big open arms and more importantly NACHOS GALORE!
 
So far it has been awesome!

Monday, July 20, 2009

Back! Almost!

Leaving for the US in 15hours!

Flight leaves Hong Kong at 1 PM and gets in Chicago at 2:30

Only 1.5 hours long!
See everybody soon!

Sunday, July 5, 2009

More rugged vacationing

We are currently in Lake Lugu on the Sichuan/Yunnan border after going to see the LeShan giant buddha, which I believe is just flat out the biggest Buddha in the world. It was really cool, we can post pictures later.

We also climbed up Mt. Emei, which is one of the 4 sacred Buddhist Chinese mountains. It took two days and we had to sleep in a monastery on top of one of the peaks. The dorm rooms were sex-segregated and Andy got pinched by some monstrous rat/cockroach in the middle of the night. Also there are native Tibetan macaques that live on Emei Shan and they are surprisingly scary. The guide book talked about "monkey tolls" on the path, where you have to pass by monkeys expecting a hefty fee in food and sparkly or enticing goods such as cameras, wallets, etc. In the official monkey protection areas, ladies with slingshots follow each monkey and prevent too much mischief, but outside of those areas you're on your own. Andy and I almost got attacked by a group of ten to twelve monkeys with their babies - a couple of them started making truly terrifying growling sounds, but we avoided eye contact and held threatening looking sticks, and we passed without incident.

Lake Lugu is really pretty but maybe not quite as weird as you would expect. It's purportedly the only matriarchal society left in the world. They have all kinds of goddess mountains and stuff, and the line of descent goes through the mother instead of the father. As far as we can tell, men don't have too much importance in society. Anyway it's also home to a huge plateau lake (we think we're about 2 kilometers above sea level), and the lake is really gorgeous.

We're probably leaving tomorrow to go to Lijiang, since this place is gorgeous but life is a little slow and too boring for Andy. It's weird because I'm getting more and more homesick and wanting western food and stuff, but I know we'll be leaving for good in two weeks, so I should probably try to soak up Chinese culture even more. However, I guess Lijiang and Dali are big backpacker towns so it's probably really easy to pretend like you're barely in China at all. While we were trekking on Emei Shan, I dreamt of coffee and french fries, so it's hard to pick another bowl of tomato noodles over a delicious western breakfast when it's available.


Saturday, June 27, 2009

Xi'An and Chengdu

Sorry this will be a picture-free post, but we don't have it together enough to regale you with images. We went through Xi'An recently, the city that hosts the legion of terracotta warriors. It's pretty cool, and a massive act of humanism for a Chinese emperor to bury terracotta versions of his army instead of burying the live army along with him, but I thought it was a little boring. I know each warrior is totally individual, with a distinct face and clothes, but you're not allowed anywhere near close enough to them to really discern any differences. What was really cool was the Xi'An water and music show! An entire square in the city transforms into a dancing fountain that moves to the beat of music. It's really gorgeous. I bet there's a good YouTube video somewhere, but the site's still blocked in China, so you'll have to look it up yourself. I sort of worry that China's new, tackier tourist attractions sometimes appeal to me more than its ancient sights. Makes me feel like a heathen. I'm handing it off to Andy, who will tell you about Chengdu.
 
Chengdu is super fun! We just got back from the panda research center, where thanks to lucky connections with cool people we met, we discovered that we can avoid paying the 100 yuan fee to our hostel or the 58 yuan regular entrance fee, and instead were able to get special 1 yuan panda gold cards which allow us to visit most of the attractions around here totally free! So i used all that money i saved and blew it on getting to hold the cutest best red panda in my lap and feed it apples! IT WAS THE BEST! (I could have also held the baby famous pandas but those were 1000 yuan instead of 100). We got there at a perfect time and all the pandas were going freaking nuts:Running all over , attacking each other, and generally being the cutest things imaginable. Oh man!
 
Before that we have been visiting some weird old temples (if anyone ever played the game "Dynasty Warriors" we got to go to liu bei's mausoleum and castle), eating super spicy sichuan hot-pot, relaxed at a tea house and missed a very lame chinese death metal concert. (it started at 8 and was over before we got there at 9:30, super metal)
 
 
Tomorrow we are going to try to head out to some cool taoist caves, and maybe the world's largest overall buddha (http://www.gluckman.com/LeshanBuddha.html).














 

Monday, June 22, 2009

Yeah!

We visited the Great Wall, although we went to the wrong park first and could SEE the Great Wall but weren't allowed to go on it... Almost started crying! But we did make it up there, and Andy did ninja kicks and set off fireworks. It was awesome. We'll have to do a quick rundown of what we did.
 
1. Saw Mao's body - he sort of looks like they put a light bulb inside of his head. Now I only have Ho Chi Minh left on my list of mummified dictators.
2. Sort of ran through the Forbidden City.
3. Went to several temples, all of which had some kind of record-breaking Buddha (tallest wooden Buddha, Buddha with biggest mustache, Buddha doing highest Rockettes-style kick)
4. Got served amazing bewildering dishes at what is possibly Beijing's fanciest restaurant.
5. Made brownies!
6. Bought a lot of things at the outdoor Dirt Market that need pictures to explain them.
 
So tonight we're heading on to Xi'An, where the Terra Cotta warriors are. Maybe we'll make a better blog post then...

More Beijing!

More pics! the egg and weird european ruins in the middle of the city!

Beijing!

So we arrived in Beijing, our first stop in our giant China travel itinerary, after a six hour delay in Shenzhen airport. Apparently it was too foggy in Beijing to fly in, and it's true that you couldn't see for more than about 15 feet for the first few days. We're staying at our friend Sasha's parents' house - they are truly spoiling us rotten. Not only is their house gorgeous, they feed us extravagantly and they let us use their private driver to see the sights!

Monday, June 15, 2009

Chinese Yard Sale

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Like every time I move someplace, I have to first say goodbye to my loads of cherished, useless crap. I figured what better way to do it, than introduce the good old american concept of a yard sale to the comrades.



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I drug a huge suitcase full of stuff, two bicycles, a guitar, a kite, and a ripstick downtown and set up shop on the corner.
At first they were pretty weirded out, but once they noticed my "cheap cheap, everything must go!" prices, they couldn't resist.


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Some of my students noticed me, got their friends, and then all wanted the chance to buy something from mr. andy.

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Within 1 minute, the passers-bye instinctively assumed standard chinese, huddle-and-gawk formation.



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By the five minute mark, this lady purchased about half of what I had, and then tried to steal some squirt guns on top of it. I was only charging 3 kuai each, or 5 kuai (NOTE: I had questions about this, Chinese money is called renminbi, or RMB or Yuan, kuai is a unit word for money, like saying "bucks") for the set (about 45 cents). She then gave the guns to her kids and said that i couldn't take them from the kids since she already gave them the guns. I called her a theif, and harnessed the power of the crowd to stop her theivery. Begrudingly, she pressed the 5 yuan into my hands in 50 cent increments.

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8 Minutes in, the guy in the A-shirt bought my handy bike, 2 pairs of "Fatty Man underwear" and some hair extensions. I threw the colander in for him for free.

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After only 10 minutes of intense humidity, shouting, and craziness i sold out and made 300 RMB. I think i might have a real love for yard saling. Maybe one-day I will pursue my new life-long dream as a globe-trotting 1 man yard saling machine. First I gotta go back to school.




But first I gotta travel china!


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Leaving shenzhen on Tuesday! To beijing! Then Xi'an! Then Cheng du! Then Lijiang! Then Kunming! Then Back!



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Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Chino Productos

Time for less ranting and more of what everyone wants: MoRE WEIRD CHINESE STUFF!


First up, the most appetizing dish at a dessert restaurant in Hong Kong. Mmmm! I've had the "Mutually Symbiotic Loranthus" version, but this one's gotta be even better!

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Here is a great restaurant that we pass all the time when out shopping, but haven't been able to really locate it.

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The back of the case for the show Dollhouse. As with many of the DVDs here, the english was taken from some blog or user post and copied directly onto a template for the back. Kelsey had an even better one for the movie "Death Race 2000" which read,  "This movie is the only thing more painful than participating in an actual death race." (more risque DVDs at http://picasaweb.google.com/Andrew.Quitmeyer/ChinoProductos#)

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Good job chicken! Gold medal!

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On our last trips to the tailor we spotted the place that we should have been going to the entire time.

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This thing came with my peanut butter. It was really appealing looking, but WHAT IS IT! In our little apartment we only have chopsticks, so i was hoping it would be something i could spread my peanut butter with, but nope, got big weird holes in it. Had to throw it away for spiting me so hard.

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Kitty returns to her kingdom!

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Subverting the Big Brain

June 4th (or as the renegades refer to it, May 35th, in order to undermine the search filters of the "Great Firewall") came and went with little incident throughout the country. Hong Kong-ers were, of course, allowed to protest freely, but in the Mainland, where any type of demonstrating is illegal, Tiananmen square was filled with uniformed police as well as undercover police. Apparently, though, the plain clothes officers all decided to wear the exact same outfit, so they weren't exactly incognito. They also dispatched special police units armed with umbrellas all over the square who would attack your view if you tried to snap any photos. Overall sounds pretty goofy.

Some of our teachers, who had been university students during the "accident," as it is referred to here, actually had really interesting conversations about the rather taboo topic. Overall they seemed disheartened by the actions of those higher above, but entirely optimistic as to the future of the country as a whole. They seem to really believe that the leadership is getting much better and less corrupt and that these qualities will filter down throughout the entire republic.

What is really odd is that the gov goes through all the difficulties of blocking all of youtube, twitter, blogger, flickr, and wikipedia, but as long as I use google.com over google.cn any information about tiananmen i could ever want loads up quickly and easily. If i was the government, I think i would be blocking the sites like the ny times that are running several stories trying to find the truth behind the incident, rather than block zillions of videos of people's cats falling off things, or fat people singing pop covers on their webcams.

Anyway, I am able to get a few posts in, but it is a pretty big pain, so hopefully the ban will be lifted sometime soon. Here (hopefully) are some of the things the country really doesn't want you to see, i guess: Super fun, tourist-inducing, vacation photos of beautiful beaches! These were some of the last photos taken with my old camera before it got fixed and then stolen, so you can see the weird blurriness it was doing to things. If none of the photos work, you can go to:

http://picasaweb.google.com/Andrew.Quitmeyer

and check out our pictures there.


These shots are from our return journey to Tai Long Wan (big wave beach) that we had visited last october. First we stopped off to check out the floating fish market made by boats pulling right up to the sidewalk peir.

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People were wrestling with big live octopi and selling made-to-order cracked open starfish.
 

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Friday, May 29, 2009

Whoo! New Camera!

Yes it was quite tragic that my good old camera just got stolen, only days after repairing it, but as my dad points out, "Good thing [I] live in the part of the world where these kinds of electronics are cheaply and abundantly available."

So i got the upgraded version of my old camera, even more water and shock proof. ?ui=2&view=att&th=1218ab6acc8495f7&attid=0.1&disp=attd&realattid=ii_1218ab6acc8495f7&zw

Unfortunately, China is blocking blogger, so it's hard to get any of the new photos to upload.

Hopefully the ban will be up soon and I can show off. Other than that, it has been kinda rainy here, giving kitty a chance to sport her awesome, Skulls and Roses rainboots around town.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Lame

There has been a slow pressure building over here. It is hard to believe we have been here as long as we have and now we are in the midst of finishing everything and trying to not be overwhelmed by the pressure of the boundless potential in this crazy city. So we have been getting stuff tailored like crazy, getting plane tickets ready (trying to buy tickets from airchina is about the craziest process in the world (in short- it involves taking a lot of pictures of things you write freehand)), and buying last minute electronic and DVD neccessities at awesome prices.


Sad story:

So earlier i reported about my handy camera started having CCD problems. Now in the US this would cost about $100 just to get someone to take a look at it to try to fix it.
Luckily I live in the city of ingenuity and took my camera over to a shop. They told me they could fix it and the entire cost would only be around 200 RMB ($30).  It would only take 3 days.

On this third day, though, I made my first successful telephone call entirely in Mandarin. It was great; I could understand everything including the part about how my camera was terminally ill. There was nothing I could do but pick it up.

I got to the camera shop and the man assured me once again that there was nothing he could do because he said there was water in it (which is odd for a supposedly waterproof camera). I was confused when he handed it to me though. The camera worked much better now. The blurriness was mostly gone, except for a tiny blurry area in a new section of the screen. The man apologized again and didn't make me pay anything. When I got the camera outside I noticed that the lens had this big blotch on the inside.

Apparently they must have fixed the CCD and then spilled something onto the lens. So I took the camera to this Electronics Carnival wonderland downtown to see if anyone could fix it. Indeed they could, and in 1 hour and less only 65 kuai ($9.50) I had my camera back up around 90 percent of perfect.

Then today I hopped on the bus after eating fun syrian food, but this jerk in front of me wouldn't go further than just inside the door. It was pouring outside, and everyone was shouting at him to go on. He quickly turned around and went back out to the bus station with his friend, and kitty and I made it in and out of the rain. Then the bus left. Now my camera is gone. So I did a really good job getting the camera fixed for that guy.

Lame.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Standard Chinese Fun

So I am all depressed because my camera is kind of broken, the CCD is screwing up and making the top and left side of things all blurry. So I might have to get a new one or find some people here who can fix the current one without destroying it. Anyway here are some of the last few pics i have been taking with it showing some general chinese weirdness and fun.

This is a clip from my textbook where i have to teach about civil obedience.


I love how once laws dissapear, one of the first things that everyone will do in hong kong is to start kung fu fighting (just like you would always imagine). Of course the absolute best part are the sad little "Social Order" and "Public Interest" blob creatures that are about to get it!


Here we are surprised by a pearl watermelon, which i guess must be some sort of watermelon canteloupe hybrid because they are yellow on the inside!

This is when i got lured into crazy karoake where people physically held my head down and nose shut and poured nasty little cups of beer into me then made me sing the titanic theme song and bon jovi over and over again. You can see how the night progressed...