Other bloggers may be out at the bar or at a New Year's Eve party but Not AKIC.  I live to blog.  I blog to live.  I am living when I am blogging.  So, I will spend the final hour and a half blogging for you rare readers.  New Year's Eve is really a holiday and time based on an arbitrary  determination.  There is nothing profound or poetic about it like Christmas which celebrates an event of cultural and intellectual signifigance.  They write carols about Christmas, not New Year's. 

So, in the first of my blog entries this New Year's Eve you can see the second last Wuxi Tony Update, the greatest Internet Baby Update Series of 2008 or any other year.

Two of my favorite writers and opinionizers are the Derb (John Derbyshire) and Seablogger (Alan Sullivan).  Both are conservative, though the Derb is more a paleocon and his position on the Iraqi War was that Bush was right to get rid of Saddam, but that the occupation was a waste of time.  Seablogger is more libertarian and he decries Bush's compassionate conservatism but supports the Iraq War.  Anyway, I am always interested to hear their take on events and I will agree with them at least 95 percent of the time.

Their views on religion and faith interest me extremely.  Here are the Derb's.  And here are the latest musings from Seablogger.  One link chronicles a loss of faith though not a profession of atheism; the other is maybe the gaining of.  Both entries have things to say about evolution.  To the Derb, evolution is an established fact.  To David Warren (quoted in Seablogger), evolution is a plausible idea, but the idea of God is more plausible. 

What influence do their views about faith and religion have on my mine?  They both agree with mine in a way that I can reconcile though I don't know if I can adequately explain how to you.  There is a paradox in existence that both articulate.  The question of whether the resurrection really happened is one that I wish I could answer in the affirmative but can't confidently.  But the secularist humanist view is not satisfying to me either emotionally or intellectually.  Religion answers a human need in a secular manner so that I can never be a militant atheist.  But religion stripped of having some basis in truth is weak gruel indeed.  It would make more sense if it were true, which is a trite thing to say, but the trite can having meaning.  And there lies the paradox which explains why I am sympathetic to both positions.

I am for practical purposes like the Derb wishing I can make the Seablogger leap.

There is no way, I am going to be able to make a magnum opus kind of blog entry about 2008.  I will just have to provide you some reflections piecemeal as time allows me and my inclinations push me.

Seeing Tony grow is the highlight of my 2008.  I could and have written reams about it.

Another other highlight was the family K move to Hui Shan or Yangqiao, forty minutes from the downtown of Wuxi.

Moving to Yangqiao has seen my life take on an isolated course this year.  No longer will I be able to go to the downtown Wuxi Expat haunts very often.  The commute takes an hour out of my day.  There is no one else out here we can talk to.

My wife and I do wonder if it was such a great idea to come out here.  But we made the commitment and there seems to be no question of escaping it. 

I was never completely enthusiastic about moving here but did it to make the wife happy.  I was somehow expecting the move to blow up in my face.

And it has though not the way I could have foreseen.  But is seems so clear now in retrospective.  Since it was staring me right in my face but I choose to ignore it.  Riding on others' coat tails as we did when we moved here but bound to come to grief sooner or later. 

I had figured that the whole public work's aspect of the area where we now live was a signal of its doom, but that just hasn't happened yet - the things we have to look forward to!

I can say that having the electric bike is an experience that I glad to have - it has given me a new perspective on living in China, so there is one good thing I can say about being out here.

I know the average viewer of the Wuxi Tony Update series hates to sit around all date on his or her fat duff, not doing anything.  A WTU viewer has to be involved, committed, active, and doing something useful to advance his or her or its' agenda of self-fulfillment.  And I know you appreciate the advice I give you when I tell you what to do when you watch an episode of WTU, the greatest Internet baby update series ever.  Now, I am not sure what you should do when you watch this episode.  You obviously should take notes as you listen to my wisdom.  But I will leave it to your imagination as to what you should do to enhance the enjoyment of this latest episode.  I will make some suggestions:  stand on your head, put on your trenchcoat and rubber boots, put you underwear on your head, save money by flipping your drawers, pour cola on your head, convince you yourself you are a chicken, eat soup, eat crackers, drink J.D. on the rocks, and/or sit in your chair.

Before you watch Wuxi Tony Update Two Hundred Fifty Three, the second latest episode of the greatest Baby Updates Series of all time, you should drink six beers or so.  And you should drink them fast!  At most you have ten minutes or however long it takes for the full video to be loaded into your compter...

Who is the handsome man in the photo below?  Is he a Wuxi Expat?  Sorry, Wussie Expats his isn't?  And I apologize to the ladies of Wuxi too.  Of course, you should have known he wasn't a Wuxi Expat because he ain't ugly. 

Anyway, this man be my brother.  He ain't heavy man!  He's my brother Ron, who lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.  This photo is a revelation to me for not only is my brother handsome, he looks like he is in his thirties.  He is my kid brother and yet he is somehow not.  I haven't seen him in five years.

Ron will be the subject of the biography series, I am thinking of starting: the brothers of the great men of history.  I will also write about Tom Stalin, Mark Jagger, Theo Van Gogh, Wally Jesperson, Felix Mahovolich, Fred Napoleon, Morris Mantle, Chad Sinatra, Chris the not so great, and Cedric Obama.

Tony and his father went for a walk in a big public square in the Hui Shan Economic Development area.  You are welcome to join them.  You probably need the exercise you over-weight, over-sexed, over-drunk, and overly-watch-too-many-DVDs-on-the-couch Wuxi Expat!

You are welcome to accompany the Kaulins family as we walk on Zhongshan Road near the Hongdo Building.  Ladies and Gentlemen, Wuxi Tony Update Two Hundred Fifty One is the real deal.   Accept no substitutes.

Here is a recent view from my parents' home in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada.

Walking down Zhongshan Road, near the Hongdo Building and the Sheraton, you can see this building fatten out.  That is, from one angle, the building will appear as thin as a piece of paper.  But then you move a ways, and the building suddenly fattens out.

Happy Boxing Day!  I hope you all get in some good left hooks.

This will be my Christmas video.  It really isn't about Christmas at all.  The video shows you the inside of a kindergarten and an interesting view of downtown Wuxi.  It is also about the birth of a child, Chen Chen.  Watch this WTU and you can see Tony's reaction to boy Chen Chen.  Tony, just a year himself removed from Chen Chen's situation takes on the role of an elder looking on a new-born.

So Ladies and Gentlemen, AKIC productions wishes you a Merry Christmas and hopes you watch this quirky video Christmas Card.

What does Christmas mean to me?  The question arose when I made a little speech about Christmas to some Chinese students on Tuesday.  I told them that Christmas has many meanings for Westerners and that it has had many meanings for me.

In China, I have come to the realization that I am uniquely unqualified to be doing a lecture about Christmas traditions.  For in fact, most of my adult life, I haven't practiced the traditions at all.  Having Tony now, I will have to try to practice them, but it will have to be without the benefit of having had much practice.  And this year, because Tony is so young and because of our finances, I can put off the attempt for another year.

But that won't stop me from blogging about it.  This is the speech I made about Christmas to the students.

Christmas is the most important Western holiday.  If you ask a Westerner what Christmas means to them, you will get many different answers.

The most basic view, they will have depends on whether they see Christmas with Santa Claus or Jesus Christ in mind.   The Westerners who have given up on the religion of course think of Santa Claus.  Westerners, who still profess to be Christians, think of Jesus.  The split over these conceptions of Christmas can explain a lot about the cultural conflicts that now grip the West.  The Santa Claus faction seems to have the upper hand these days.  In fact, there is a movement afoot among them to ban all mention of Jesus altogether from what now is a "holiday" tradition. 

I have been a participant in the Santa Claus faction, but my mind and heart resides in the Jesus faction.  To ban Jesus from Christmas seems suicidal from a cultural point of view.  The stories so define who Westerners are even if they are not religious.

Christmas, despite becoming more secular, still has a personal meaning for almost all Westerners.  How you are feeling on Christmas Day says a lot about who you are.

When I was young, Christmas was about getting presents.  The anticipation the evening before and the opening of presents on the morning of the 25th are great memories for me.

As I entered adulthood, Christmas became an ordeal.  Not certain of where I was going and what I wanted to be, to go home for Christmas in small town, small potatoes, Brandon, Manitoba seemed a come down.

The ten years I spent in British Columbia saw Christmas being a lonely time for me.  As a bachelor with few acquaintances, I had some very lonely Christmases.  The ones that weren't so lonely, had me feeling like a fifth wheel.

China strangely revived the Christmas feeling in me.  Being with people so far from home, I was able to find a more congenial Christmas setting.

Now being married with Jenny and having Tony enter our lives, Christmas has taken on another meaning entirely.  Family is what Christmas is all about, I see so clearly.  But I endured a lot of loneliness and silly depressions before I realized what I should have known all along.

So for me, Christmas is about the birth of a child thousand years ago who was the son of God, and about family that I so thoughtlessly neglected and now for whom I must "raise my game".

P.S. Thanks to Connie for the birthday greeting.  I was surprised but pleased to get the phone call.  Let's hope you can come to our house for a proper Christmas Dinner in 2009!

With the Internet being so slow, it is impossible for me to correct or edit mistakes made on this blog.  For instance, in Part 1, I said that Part 2 would be published first.  Well, it was but without photographs.  Here is the entry with the photographs and editing.

Being pushed about December 24th, Tony did a good Citizen Kane impersonation.

Tony was mobbed by young admirers.

Tony discovered the joys of using a spoon.

This blog entry was impossible to upload in one part.  So I have uploaded it in two.  Part 2 was uploaded before part 1.

With Tony about, I can stop complaining about my birthday being so close to Christmas.  It isn't about me anymore.  Here is what Tony was doing on December 24th.

The K family went out for the day.

Tony hates walking which is why this photo below is so rare, a collector's item as it were.

He would rather be held.

Being pushed about, Tony did his a good Citizen Kane impersonation.

Tony was mobbed by young admirers.

Tony discovered the joys of using a spoon.

An old student and friend of mine, Lucy Liu, gave birth to her son three months ago.  It was my pleasure to see her and her son Chen Chen this December 24th.

Lisa and I talk bullshit while the Littelfuse driver takes us along some Wuxi freeways.

December 23th means Tony is Sixteen months old.  Here is one of the latest photos I have of him.

December 24th means Forty Four years of me.  Does Forty Four mean double death in Chinese?  Does it mean I am in for a lot of bad luck?  Stay tuned to this blog to find out.

I have no photos of me worth showing.  My bald spot is becoming bigger than the solar system.

December 25th means Two Thousand and Eight years of Jesus Christ, more or less.  I am no observant Christian but if reports I have been reading of attempts to obliterate mention of Christ at Christmas time are true, I must protest.  I say keep the story alive and let those who would take offense be offended.  Their offense is one born of bigotry so it is not worth worrying about.

How could I have gone so long without providing you with a WTU?  Please accept my profound apologies, except if you are fat and gnome-like.