Dear American Press,

When I was reading the previous issue of The Economist today, I stumbled upon some news in the Business This Week section, stating that some of Mattel's toys were recalled due to "impermissible levels of lead" in its toy cars and "potential safety risks" in up to 18.2m toys containing small magnet pieces. On the same note, Nokia identified a dodgy batch of 46m batteries supplied by a Japanese firm (but made somewhere else).

What struck me was, they made sure they highlighted the point that they were all made in China. And I also recalled some comic strips in Conde Nast's Portfolio website regarding the same issue of Made in China. They had a whole gallery of them.

To Americans, I'm sure this is nothing new already.

To me, I can imagine how naive but convenient it is for you Americans to claim such things.

First of all, let's not do stats, but just a simple percentage calculation. Why are there so many problems with these Made in China things? Because most of the things are made in China. So when something is faulty, wouldn't you expect the chances of it being from China to be rather high? I think yes.

Are you blaming the Chinese? I don't know.
To you producers:
I'm sure you sent some of the manufacturing operations to China because it is relatively cheap. So if the press cares so much about people's well-being, hey, maybe you should consider pulling the plants away from China. Manufacture somewhere else, let it be more expensive, so long as your Americans don't get hurt.
To you consumers:
Check the label. Made in China? Say no. Wanna be ahead? Dump whatever Made in China stuff you have. Boycott them altogether.

Convenience. In the midst of your bad economy and just as shit a forecast, I bet I can understand why the press is trying to shift people's attention away from home.

In this small world, we need each other.

I'm not trying to ask you to boycott Chinese products. Because that's what the press is already doing.

Dead Dual Milestone

When we came out from class at five p.m. today, it was brighter than usual. Ironically though, it was colder. But that isn't the highlight of the day.

Ever since I started deadlifting, I've always been very conscious of my form, for two reasons: to avoid injuries (especially the lower back) and to ensure the respective muscle groups are used (hence stimulated) optimally. Instead of asking a friend to spot my workouts, usually I'd have them check my form. I guess it was quite a milestone today, when an instructor just came by to me and complimented that I'm deadlifting pretty well, better than most of the people. Maybe not in terms of the load, but the form. Nonetheless, I'm finally lifting 125 kilos (275 pounds) now. I guess that's not too bad for a non-powerlifting average build guy.

Snow

It's already been exactly 6 days since I left to Falls Creek. Time just passes so fast and while I have barely caught up with work, here comes weekend again. But before my memory fades, here is a little debrief of the trip.

I, Will and May gathered about 2-3 hours before departure in Safeway to get some last-minute groceries. It wasn't until 1.30am that we had to meet in Melbourne Central so we just sat in QV chatting away and devouring a roast chicken till it was time to move.

The journey took more than 5 hours, and by the time we reached, everyone was just dead exhausted. Yet, we couldn't check in till 3pm. So we just had our stuff chugged into this storage room, got our gears, and up we went to the mountains.

It was about this time that all the "muscle man", "big man", etc. nicknames bloomed into life. I was no more Ben or Benedict.

11pm we called for lunch. 12pm was time for our beginner's class, which I sucked the worst in the entire class. My slow learning made my first day rather frustrating.

Everyone slept early that night except the few of us who chose to sleep later and talked more cock. We however, woke up earlier than almost everyone else the day after.

So we started our day earlier as well. Will wasted one hour of his life accompanying me down a run. Unfortunately, a part of the 2nd day was still a little frustrating. Until I was enlightened by the lesson of the day: don't look at the board.

Just as the fun kicked in, I decided I should go grab a meal. Later, there wasn't much time left. So we went for this rather challenging run (at least for me). And I did great! I'm so glad I did 'coz it mattered that the last run put a big smile on my face and really great satisfaction.

We went back to return our stuff, ate, started drinking, talking cock and watching some friends sing and do impersonations.

After getting bored, I got back into the room only to see there were already a few additions to the bed talk crew. And so we talked and talked till 5.55am. And slept. Till 9am. We went up to the snow again, this time just to play instead of any boarding at all. And we headed home.

Photos in next entry.