I say you had better be - Every morn I leave with huge camera bag in tow and come back with 500+ pictures. I’m having tons of fun, and I hope you are, too. I wish I could do this for a living.

We went to a temple yesterday - the big Quan Yin statue in XiChao. What an amazing place. The weather was perfect, the mood was right, the festivities were in high swing, and it felt like the day stretched on forever. At one point I turned to Igor and said, “You know, Heaven could be a place like this.” He replied, “Well, yes, but without the firecrackers.”

I loved the sound of the firecrackers. They’re the perfect complement to a place as manicured as a temple. Try as you might to keep things all neat and tidy, the universe will send chaos your way.

We stayed there pretty much the whole day, and I went on my own with the big lens to take pics of the interesting folks. There were plenty.

Your combover is so very over.

the Chinese are the new Japanese. They take pics of everything, says the man who has taken a few thousand THIS WEEK. OK, I’m the new Japanese.

one of the bullet points is “running along.”

LOOK OUT! A giant arrow is going to fall from the sky onto the train!

besides a travel agency, what could this possibly be?

I’m trying my damnedest to make best life, thanks.

I’ve never seen Spidey this out of shape.

This guy’s not about to win Father of the Year. Can’t the phone call wait until you get to the top of the stairs? Also: note the lack of diapers on the kid - there’s just a trapdoor in the pants where the kids can squat and release anytime. It can be a shock to see, but it’s good for potty-training. They stop using diapers very early. Lucky!

at dinner last night they used this to calculate the bill.

What division of the army wears this? The Slapping 69th?

I have nothing to add.

Fireworks - I have no idea what they were trying to say with that name.

oh, it’s an ECOLOGICAL forest.

“Mommy, Mommy! Can I please have some shallot oil crackers? But Mo-om!”

no need to be shy about it. If you want an autograph, all you need to do is ask.

I don’t have the heart to tell them. But I love how the pocket was sewn so that it partially covers the logo. Tell those spoiled kids they’ll get no more lunch until they finish the new design!

wait…what?

Again, quoting a LINK is not the way to sell fake DVDs.

Since inventing fireworks, eons ago, the Chinese have done nothing but constantly set them off. It never gets old to them. This particular coil of crackers was like 50 ft. That hexagon at the end explodes in a loud-as-hell fire-nut like something out of Jerry Bruckheimer’s wet dream.

These fireworks are set off to bring luck. As in, “Good Luck with that hearing aid.”

Dismas calls this picture “Calvin and Throbs” which is why he’s such a stone freaking genius.

This creepy guy was fixated on me. Loved the hair, and the Megan’s Law Mustache, and it was only a bonus that he looked like the guy who kidnaps Bruce Willis and Ving Rhames in Pulp Fiction.

No, it’s not Russian. It’s backwards. And even if it was rightways, it’d read “Happy-Spiderman. Spider-man.” And also with you.

Holy Christ - was this really a movie?

lion dancing atop poles, running around like crazy fools - good times. Actually, very good times. More on this in a later post.

I think Google has become self-aware and is writing Tshirts to pay for bandwidth.

This is funnier if you sing it to the foreigner tune. “I’ll be the VOICE. OF. HERO!”

A tasty morsel, it will make us, my precious. I hates hobbitses…

You making time with my girl, old man?