benford | 
03 11th, 2009| 
When I was significantly younger (I give a false impression here; I still go to this day) I would often frequent various arcades, filled with the promise of a diverse electronic playground with flush with flashing lights and exotic sounds. Of course, some simpler games, sacrificed deep gameplay for the ability dispense tickets for the bright eyed player. Even when I was young I realized that most of these games were a money loosing proposition: it would take me at least 10 tokens to earn enough tickets for a few pieces of candy, an eraser which did no such thing. All of the cool things, such as a lava lamp, radio, or disco ball, cost at least 2000 tickets. However, with age, comes experience, and with experience (somtimes) comes a healthy understanding of game theory.
After keeping track of technical and practical features of the cuirrent lineup of computers branded as gaming consoles my friends and I have come to some conclusions about what is available today. And also, directly due to its triviality, I’ll be sure to cover our logic in extreme detail.
To restict our focus to a managable amount, we’ll restrict the argument to home game consoles (not portables), and since PC games are another can of worms entirely we will leave those out as well.
Many of you may have heard of Garfield Minus Garfield, an internet phenomenon started on message boards and forums. The premise started quite simply: remove Garfield’s dialog from a Garfield comic strip, and see how the joke changes (usually for the better) . Many variants ensued, one of which involved removing all traces of Garfield from the strip entirely. I’ve jumped on the bandwagon and made one of my own. Image after the break.
Benny and I managed to scale a section of the great wall. The ride out took over an hour of city bus riding. Berjing ls located near China’s northern border. This border is absolute since the great wall sharply defines this entire border. Even without the wall, the local terrain is quite intimidating. Most roads have reduced the angle down to 45 degrees, if that helps any for perspective. We had some quick food at the entry point since there would be none available on the wall itself. Most shops had names describing the wares they sold; the English translations were often enthusiastic, but perhaps to much so. A corn roasting shop described itself as “Roasts the Corn” which is fairly accruate, all things considered. The trek up the wall was very strenuous, completely winding me out several times; Benny shared his secret of timing your breaths with the steps, so that you always have fresh oxygen in your system. We saw the “One world, one dream” logo sign from the Bejing olympics, and a multitude of parodies entered our minds. ONe world, one food; one world, one hamburg (hamburger), and One world, one nation evoked some laughter. Upon arriving at an impassible segment of the tower, we stoped to enjoy the view. Seeing us cornered, a vendor who knew some English took the opportunity to bargin with me to try to sell me a shirt, and when taht failed, she offered postcards. Usually if I bowed and said “Thank you” the vendor would usually stop, but this one was persistent. She eventually realized that I really did not want anything, regardless of price.
Later that day we went to a famous restaurant (it has 300 years of service history, and is listed on the stock market) famous for its Peking duck. It turns out that Peking is just another pronounciation for Bejing, so you might as well call it Bejing duck. It was a bit different than I expected. First, take a standard fajita. Then takea out all of the ingredients, such as beans, onions, peppers, and carne asada, and sauses. Now, add fresh green onion and roast duck. The result was amazing and I can easily see how the restuant both earned its fame and stayed in business for over 300 years.
Benny and I spent a total of 3 days in Bejing. The first day was just the evening, since we had flown in from Shanghai and spent most of the rest of the time trying to find our hotel, It would have been easy to hire a taxi, but the drivers charged more at night — out stop was only a few km away but they would have charged us 5 times the usual amount because they knew that people needed taxis more at night when trying to find a hotel.
The next day we spent exploring several capital buildings within the inner section of the city. At its imperial height, Bejing had 18 wall rings surrounding it, with the palace (and the Emporor) in the very center. Several palaces and guard towers in the middle were in a straight line (north to south as I recall) with the Arrow tower in the very front. Together they formed the “Dragon’s head”. This tower was open for tourists, so we checked it out. Relics dating up to 2000 years prior to the formation of the US were quite common. On this trip we also saw the origin point of china; every geographical measurement in the country is based around this point.
After passing through this anchient fortress, we found ourselves in Tienammen square. It was quite the tourist attraction and photo opportunity zone. Nearby were The Chinese Congress building and National History Museum. Some people wanted to take pictures with me, since I was e a very excotic foreigner. This included a group of three girls on a trip; noeach of them has a photo with me on their equivalent of a facebook page. Looking back on this, my less rational side insists that I at least have tried to get their phone numbers, while more more reational side remembers that I did not know how to ask them. Both sides agree that I should learn more Chinese to avoid mistakes like this in the future.
We eventually made our way to the forbidden palace, which itself chronicled hundreds of years that Bejing was the national capital. So much gold, pearl, and Jade were there that Benny and I eventually got tired of seeing any of these precious metals.The depth of history here dawned on me when one garden was listed as having been established in 1776, the same year that a bunch of men in the colony of Virginia started to get some ideas about a new system of government. We had to go back for a second day to finish the Forbidden city tour since, even after 6 hrs of sightseeing, we only made it trough 3/4 of the reccomended tour as given by the tour maps.
On the way to the forbidden city, we were greeted by a Chinese artist. He gave aneloquent story about how he wanted the opinions of westerners and their preferences in terms of Chinese art. After showing me a large selectin of works done by both himself and students in his art school, he started to try seslling them to me. I had seen by fair share of hard sellers in China so far, but thihs was the most elaboratet sales pitch so far.
So due to some scheduling conflicts, I will be unable to accompany my friend onto Whenzao; he will be starting work again, and there will be nothing in that town for an English speaker to do. My friend has been an excellent host and the trip was very good and unique. I had to transfer to tokyo on the way to Shanghai on the way over, so for the return trip I called delta and ajdusted my flight schedule so that I went on my Shanghai Tokyo flight 3 days before my Tokyo to USA flight So now I will have a 3 day trip to Tokyo effectively. oes anyone have suggeestions for things to do there?
I forgot to mention that on the day I went to the bund, Benny also took me to A Chinese arcade place. It was a Sega game center, similar to one that I went to in Tokyo last year. The games selection for the most part was also similar to Japanese arcades. Benny and I played a time crisis game but then went on to more unique games. THe best part was probably a half-pope style ride. It was a two story contraption where we were both strapped to an oversized skateboard. You got points for stomping on the center of the board as you approached the center of the halfpipe. The whole experience was fairly unique, especially for an arcade. Other standout experiences include immersive blobsled and formula 1 racing games. IN both of them, I was in a minurature replical of the target vehicle. When the road turned or bumped the vehicle on screen, the vehicle I was sitting in shifted to match accordingly. All results were on big screens (one per player) so that onlookers could easily look on.
On the second day in Shanghai, Benny took me Chunquan temple. As its name implies, it is a temple, but only a small portion of the area still serves that purpose. It was also a fully developed commercial center, hosting both shops and restaurants. Breakfast that day was a plate full of “Short-long” bread. They get that name not due to a translation error, but because of the way these buns were cooked; this bread was steamed inside short circular boxes that would be stacked together to form a tall tower. Even Chinese bread lives in skyscrapers!
Continuing the grand adventure in Shanghai, Benny and I went on to see many unique places.
For a foreigner like myself, even a trip to the grocery store is a bit of an adenture. Many aspects were familar, including a checkout process very similar to that back home. However, there were a few standout suprisies:
- Driekd Kiwi fruits:just like the fuzzy, internally green fruits that we know and love, but dehydrated, buch like beef jerky. It was quite delicious, but was the first time I had encountered it. Please tell me I am not alone here.
- All of the Candy is the same: Blue and white gummy sharks? Check. Gummy coke bottles? Check. Gummy worms? Check. Mike and also Ike? CHeck.
Bannanas, being harvested eallier in their development lifecycle, were generally smaller and available in bunches of up to 20.
We also visited several other malls around the area. KFC and McDonals have been very prominent so far, being probably the most common restaurants I have seens o far in China. Once KFC that we went to was so packed that we could not get a seat, so we have to leave. Imagine any KFC state-side being in that high of demand.
We also toured though a region called The Bund. It is acombinaiton of green belt and tourist point of interest. It overlooks the river that goes though the middle of Shanghai, dividing the older section of town from the newer section of town. The old section has a variety of architectural styles, ranging back hundeds of years, while the new section is actively devoted to becoming aworld financial center. Several prominent skyscraper towers, including the Eastern Pearl and the Shanghai World Financial Center tower dominate the city skyline. There is a path going along the river so that you may see the skyone in contrast to the old style buildings. The attraction is very popular, so the etnire street is quite crowded. One ship on the river had a giant video monitor built into its sides, making for great advertising as it caught my attention immediately.
Later that day we had the opportunity to scale th Shanghai WOld Financial Center tower. At 471 meters, it is the tallest structure in all of China. We had to take stairs down to the basement, and waitied for awhile in line. THe first elevator took us from th e- 2 floorto the 94th floor. Escalators carried us from floor 94 to 97, and a final elevator took us to floor 100, the skybridge. There was a gap between floors 97 to 100 in the middle. You could look down from floor 100, straight though the floor to see floor 97 below. The view from this point was fantastic. THe sun had just set and the city lights were quite active. The effect was magnified since all floors and ceiling in this room were highly reflective. I must post some pictures later when I get the chance.
As a quick update, I was able to meet up with Benny just fine at Pudong airport. Due to mistaken informatifrom me, whichc in turn was mistaken information from the airline ssschedule, he was waiting for me at Hangqiao airpot instead (bith were in shanghai). One of the officers at the airport ws kind and helped me make a phone call at the payphone, after which Benny was able to pick me up.
We had dinner near the house we would be staying at in Shanghai. It was a very traditional Chinese restaurant, so what I had known as chinese food is only afaint shadow in comparison towhat was on my plate today. The beef pepper dish was hot beyond beleif, though Benny thought it was only slightly warmer than mild. We also had some baked fish, served whole on the plate. It was baked with several suases, including soyish sause, and the skin evfen had a good flavor.
I arrived in shanghai during the last two day’s of spring festeval AKA Chinese New Yea. I could say that there were firewors, but that would belik e saying that Antartica was a bit chilly, or that wrestling a bear was a not so good idea. ONe of the Chinese favorite way to celebrrate the new year is to light fireworsk… all week long. as we were walking t the appartment building, There was a constant barrage of fireworks in most directions. Imagine that ccrazy uncle you all had who spent 1000 dollars on firworks every 4th. Now imagine that everyone is seting off that amount every day… each. One family I saw was carrying a pallet ful of fireworks, and went though them in less than a half hour. The apartmesecurity staff didnt sto them as this was completely normal behavior, even if noone could heaaaaaa each other.
We arrived at the house, a bit tired, a bit exhausted, but ate leas t I was mostly in the right time zone. I had stayed up for the equivalent of 36 hours on four hours of sleep, so by the time It was time for bet, Iwas very tired…… The next day we went on a grand tour of shanghai, covering a shopping mall, the Bund financial district and green belt, and the Shanghai Fiancial center building, which is 100 stories tall and from thet top you can see the ajority of the city.
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And so here starts the tale of the trip that almost didn’t happen.