SupremeAC said:

I think that this is just a case of the grass being greener on the other side.  When you're abroad it's easy to forget that all the people you see there have the same worries as you, bills to pay, ...  

Yes I think you're right. The holiday effect as it were.

If one was to visit London in the summer, stay in a nice central London hotel and walk out near Regent Street with free time, sights to see and money to burn they'd probably enjoy themselves. But living here, you can't live anywhere near central unless you're rich, so you face outskirts living, long commutes and hard work. In these other cities like Hong Kong for instance most normal people live far up on Kowloon in considerably less swanky environments. The rich western bankers have it good in central and then they go to western themed bars in Wan Chai with hookers and booze, cheap cabs and nice food.

SupremeAC said:

As for Asia, a friend of mine had to drive a Japanese journalist around a couple of years ago, the guy was flabbergasted by our way of life.  They have like 3 days off of work for the whole year, they work insane hours, their appartments were even smaller than the smallest home you'd find here, ...

I had a friend who taught Engish in Tokyo for a few years, these "salarymen" have a hard life, work long into the evenings, high suicide rate etc. I couldn't believe it when I heard Greeks used to retire aged 50?

No snow here....but 5 hours away in Buffalo they got buried. I'm near the coast so the temps vary greatly this time of year. One day its 60 degrees, the next day its 25.

travo said:

I'm at home, sick with sinus problems.  I guess I'll suffer through this and pick Smash up in about two hours.  

What cold?

I'm still sleeping in boxers with A/C on.

It did snow here but it didn't stay on the ground but it has been cold. It is currently 23 F.

Thanks for sharing the pics, gamingeek, both of your trip and Xenoblade X.  I have recently become very interested in visiting China, ironically, this is because I watched Big Trouble in Little China which is not even shot in China, and is pretty bad (but in a good way).

Mondo_Zappa said:

Thanks for sharing the pics, gamingeek, both of your trip and Xenoblade X.  I have recently become very interested in visiting China, ironically, this is because I watched Big Trouble in Little China which is not even shot in China, and is pretty bad (but in a good way).

There is nothing bad about big trouble, how dare you?! It's a masterpiece.

On a train, going upstate to potentially influence the lives of 10's of thousands of young adults...

...and all I really want is to be home playing Smash Bros...

...is that so wrong?  

I mean, kids would understand, right?  

Finally getting time to read the new Lestat book at least...