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When the Book’s Cover is Shirtless and Toothless
I’ll admit, I’ve been known to buy a book solely because its packaging was pretty. But I try to hold off on such superficiality when it comes to humans and their covers. Books are usually a moment in...
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Weekly Photo Challenge: Happy
Happiness is a difficult and elusive word/concept. We pursue it like there’s no tomorrow, but what does it mean? My current working definition is that it is a state – not necessarily constant – that is...
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Weekly Photo Challenge: Big
Sadly, the photo I used for the Everyday Life photo challenge would have been perfect in a literal sense for this topic. My Chinese pig’s testicles were the largest I’d ever seen on a mammal, prompting...
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Hate Mail
I just got the best psycho comment on one of my posts from someone from my past. The person chose to remain anonymous (because it is easier to be an asshole when you don’t spew forth your name with...
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Weekly Photo Challenge: Silhouette
This week’s photo is inspired by a recent anonymous commenter who indicated that s/he knew me long ago. Apparently permanently scarred by my declaration that pregnancy is decidedly not for me, this...
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Precious Little Ones
To my great surprise, a few months ago, I agreed to work in a Chinese kindergarten. Those who know me well, know that when I teach, I usually choose to work with adults or teenagers. The reasons for...
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Special Photo Challenge: Inspiration
My blogs serves several purposes, but one of my primary inspirations for photographing and writing is documenting real life wherever I travel. I frequently find myself living in China, so my...
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Weekly Photo Challenge: Thankful
In a country where women are trained from birth to see themselves as lesser beings, there is at least one day of the year where they are allowed to celebrate womanhood. International Women’s Day. One...
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The Heart Wants What It Wants…
…or else it does not care because really, your parents are in charge. 征婚 (zhēng hūn) or marriage seeking is a very serious business in China. Having entered the digital age, online dating sites have...
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‘Tis the Season for Abusing Heathens
fa la la la la, la la la la I promise my next two posts will be more inspiring, but I have something disturbing to talk about. As I promote writing as a healing tool in my work, I feel absolutely...
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Weekly Photo Challenge: Surprise
The most surprising thing happened to me the other day, and while I am not positively sure why it happened when it happened, I have some ideas. I have acquired a Chinese mama. But, as per usual, some...
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An Explosion Beyond My Control
I had actually planned to quietly ignore Christmas, especially since I live in a place where the whole world doesn’t come to a crashing halt because of the holiday. On the agenda was the usual workload...
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Weekly Photo Challenge: My 2012 in Pictures
2012 was a big year. Lots of travel, lots of activity, including: finishing up a difficult frozen winter in the Yukon, a long and uncomfortable 3,344 mile Greyhound bus trip from Whitehorse all the way...
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Weekly Photo Challenge: Resolved
I don’t make resolutions typically, but I’m in the middle of trying to decide whether the mounting nonsense that is my job in China is worth it. First, the photos, then the conundrum… Working in China...
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Weekly Photo Challenge: Illumination
When I was a child, my grandmother introduced me to the proper times of day for coffee, tea, and beer. I learned the difference between black coffee and cafe au lait, I knew how long a pot of tea...
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Weekly Photo Challenge: Beyond
One of my favourite things to photograph is a good public market. And some of the best and most interesting markets I’ve encountered have been in China. At their busiest, there is so much going on...
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Weekly Photo Challenge: Kiss
I have a double whammy for you – a photo with two interpretations of kiss AT THE SAME TIME! I had to drag it from the vault – a black-and-white of yours truly at the age of 8 with my grandmother’s dog....
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Weekly Photo Challenge: Forward
Again, this week, I want to try to double dose the theme. On the surface, my photo collection will focus on a literal ‘forward’ – athletes in or on the brink of forward movement. But I also want to...
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Courage
Preface (or Finding Oneself up Against a Major Barrier that Prevents Forward Movement) A few weeks ago, one of my instructors charged me with writing something about courage. You see, the epic struggle...
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Weekly Photo Challenge: Future Tense
Oh, the expectations parents have of their children. And I’m not just talking about humans. During a short stay in Salt Lake City, Utah a few years ago, I ran across an interesting ‘great expectations’...
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