Barca is a football team

Im sitting now in the beatiful city of Nanjing with 2006 closing in and this year has just over five hours to live.

Me and my friends left from Gongqing to Shanghai as I've told you and we had great time. They ended up buying so much that both of tham had to buy a new suitcase. That didn't prove to be a problem because there they have the fake market where you can get a brand new (fake) sanmsonite for around 20 USD. We also played the turist a bit and with my friends taking pictures everywhere, only thing missing was a Hard Rock Cafe t-shirt.

Christmas was a bit sad though. We ended up having our Christmas dinner at Pizza Hut! Then since it was Saturday we wanted to get one night out on the town so we got a little drunk on Xmas. Shame on me!

Yesterday I went out here in Nanjing. First I walked for about 2 hours trying to find this foreigners bar but gave up eventually and went to an Irish pub. Even ordered Kilkenny just for Tim (it was double price from Carlsberg). Everybody told me that the place to be was 1912 but when I came it was closed. I went to Scarlets which is the other hot place here and met lots of people even ended up with a discount card just minutes after my arival (only for foreigners Im gonna take a picture of it). I sure did use that discount and was happy that I ended up at the right hotel with all my stuff.

I guess I will celebrate the new year at McDonalds since my school hasn't paid me yet. Im thinking about going to this Scarlet again but Im not in a mood for drinking.

Zaijian,
Ulli

p.s.
two things... Im not that much for Asian girls but Nanjing sure has pretty girls. The other thing to Adam (and some other people). Barca is a football team not a city use BCN or something instead, please.

Merry Xmas

Hello,

Just wanted to wish you all merry Christmas and happy new year. Tomorrow I'm going with two Icelandic friends who came to visit me to Shanghai where I will spend next 5 days. They brought me a "care-package" from home so I'm getting fater by the second. This is also my last day before leaving that I'll have internet. So I called my parents (and other relatives) with the help of Skype and opened my packages. Thankfully I got warm clothes, money and a book. That is all I need.

I might go on the trans-Siberian next month since I have almost two months of holidays. Money isn't something I have enough of around here so I am happpy with it.

So again I wish you merry Xmas and congratulate you that on 28th the blog will be 3 years old.

Happy birthday,

Úlli

One more thing....

See this web page also. They've become rather famous as myth-busters in recent years.

Conspiracy Theorists vs. The Conservative Right

This is entirely a reactionary posting, but hopefully it will come across as a fair rebuttal.

Perhaps some of you took the time to click on the link Edgar sent out about the Flight 77-Pentagon collision on 11 Sept. 2001. Perhaps some of you had seen it before. In fact, I first saw this video about a year ago. We were deep in the heat of the election here, and I was pushing hard for Kerry, and this video starting making its way around the Internet. I watched the video and became immediately incensed with the conservative right, with George Bush and his administration's lies.

But then I began to think. While this is an interesting scenario, where does the footage come from? As the Bush administration has proved to the American people, it is very easy to splice and edit in such a way that you can convey almost any point you choose. This video allows you to see only what it wants you to see. What about the footage and news reports from reputable global news sources (as I'm sure many international crews were present that day)? Who are these so-called eyewitnesses? Apparently they were quite easily found by the makers of this video, but the liberal news media outlets were unable to find them to fuel their attacks on the White House. Believe me, they would have used this information if at all valid. Now I know I sound like I'm supporting the administration and the right, but that is far from the case. I disagree entirely with their handling of both foreign and domestic policy. However, I do not think that an image of liberal Democrats as conspiracy theorists (a la Mel Gibson in "Conspiracy Theory") is an effective way to return a Democrat to the White House. If it was not Flight 77 that crashed into the Pentagon, where did Flight 77 and all the dead aboard that flight go? 64 people were on board that flight, and you can find the list of those people here.
It is an insult to their memory to suggest some alternate explanation for their death. There are also several articles that debunk the myths proposed in the pentagonstrike.co.uk video, one of which, from a reputable source, can be found here.

I won't judge too harshly because I too have fallen victim to these conspiracy theories. I fully agree that the administration should have released more information to the public and that they have lied time and again, but we need not create conspiracies. There was no reason to fake an attack on the Pentagon. The American people were already pissed off about the attacks in New York, and frankly, most of us could not care less about the Pentagon.

I mean no disprespect to Edgar--just wanted to post my views. These theories are all good things to consider, and many questions remain.

Tim