The Dream Bash (0)
CultureFish Media will host a one-day trio of charity events
Here are five ways to help the event out:
Come to the tournament and shot for one million dollars (HKD)!!
Come to the digital workshop.
Come to the night event bash with Che’nelle.
designed to raise awareness and generate funds for the China Dreamblogue and its associated charities. The three events (YOU CAN COME TO ONE OR ALL!)include:
1. A One in a Million Charity Golf Tournament,
2. The China Digital Media Workshop,
3. The China Dreambash featuring international hit singer and Capitol records artist Che’nelle.
TICKETS HERE!
Golf, Digitize, and Bash for Charity and shoot for $1,000,000(HKD) in our One in a Million Charity Daytime Golf Tournament:
The China Dreamblogue is the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) arm of CultureFish Media which seeks to create positive information about China and support educational opportunities for Chinese students.
At the fundraising tournament, which includes a one million dollar (HKD!) hole-in-one competition, the China Dreamblogue tournament will include:
- Tournament moderator: PGA pro golfer and 6-time long drive champion Paul Surniak
- A hole-in-one competition in which everyone can participate for one million dollars (HKD!)
- A cool morning tee off time
- Best ball tournament with a four-man team
- Straggler pairing—if you come alone, we’ll place you with a team
- A long drive competition
- The tournament includes caddy, cart, balls, 18 holes, and a shot at one million dollars (HKD!)
PRIZES:
- Grand Prize: 2-person trip to Hainan Island for a weekend golf tour package at famed Yaolong Bay and training from, and golfing with, PGA pro golfer Paul Surniak.
- There wil be an awards Ceremony and Dinner banquet following tournament including sponsor give-aways .
- There is also a 50% discount rate on all luxury rooms if attendees stay overnight or thru the weekend and daytime Discounted Events for non-golfers include spa treatment, saunas, kite flying, pool facilities and massage.
BUS SERVICE FROM GUANGZHOU WILL BE AVAILABLE!!
China Digital Media Workshop:
This half-day workshop will include information on digitization of press releases for professionals who work in SEO, SEM, online and traditional advertising, PR, new media, social networking, blogging, and other Internet-related businesses in China.
Topics and special features include: Myths, realities and benefits of online press releases and PR, trends in digital online ads, current trends in IWOM, reputation management: emerging trends and existing patterns
All speakers lined-up are experts in their respective fields. The awards ceremony and post-tournament banquet open to all conference participants
China Dreambash:
Capitol Records recording artist and international star Che’nelle will perform live.mYou can dance and party until you drop! 2 free drinks and discounts throughout the night with paid admission.
Discount room rates (1/2 PRICE!) will be available for workshop and tourney attendees and those who party hard.
The day of educationa and enjoyment is designed to raise awareness and generate funds for the China Dreamblogue and its associated charities. The three events (YOU CAN COME TO ONE OR ALL!)include:
1. A One in a Million Charity Golf Tournament,
2. The China Digital Media Workshop,
3. The China Dreambash featuring international hit singer and Capitol records artist Che’nelle.
Golf, Digitize, and Bash for Charity and shoot for $1,000,000(HKD) in our One in a Million Charity Daytime Golf Tournament:
The China Dreamblogue is the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) arm of CultureFish Media which seeks to create positive information about China and support educational opportunities for Chinese students.
At the fundraising tournament, which includes a one million dollar (HKD!) hole-in-one competition, the China Dreamblogue tournament will include:
- Tournament moderator: PGA pro golfer and 6-time long drive champion Paul Surniak
- A hole-in-one competition in which everyone can participate for one million dollars (HKD!)
- A cool morning tee off time
- Best ball tournament with a four-man team
- Straggler pairing—if you come alone, we’ll place you with a team
- A long drive competition
- The tournament includes caddy, cart, balls, 18 holes, and a shot at one million dollars (HKD!)
PRIZES:
- Grand Prize: 2-person trip to Hainan Island for a weekend golf tour package at famed Yaolong Bay and training from, and golfing with, PGA pro golfer Paul Surniak.
- There wil be an awards Ceremony and Dinner banquet following tournament including sponsor give-aways .
- There is also a 50% discount rate on all luxury rooms if attendees stay overnight or thru the weekend and daytime Discounted Events for non-golfers include spa treatment, saunas, kite flying, pool facilities and massage.
BUS SERVICE FROM GUANGZHOU WILL BE AVAILABLE!!
China Digital Media Workshop:
This half-day workshop will include information on digitization of press releases for professionals who work in SEO, SEM, online and traditional advertising, PR, new media, social networking, blogging, and other Internet-related businesses in China.
Topics and special features include: Myths, realities and benefits of online press releases and PR, trends in digital online ads, current trends in IWOM, reputation management: emerging trends and existing patterns
All speakers lined-up are experts in their respective fields. The awards ceremony and post-tournament banquet open to all conference participants
China Dreambash:
Capitol Records recording artist and international star Che’nelle will perform live.mYou can dance and party until you drop! 2 free drinks and discounts throughout the night with paid admission.
Discount room rates (1/2 PRICE!) will be available for workshop and tourney attendees and those who party hard.
Offer support as a sponsor.
Can’t come? Still want to be involved? Donate 100 Yuan and someone will shoot for you for the million!!
Just sign up at CFM and we will send details on how to participate from afar…
PRICE LIST:
Tourney (Caddy, Cart, Party, Lunch, Dinner and Million Dollar Shot) 2,500 RMB
Digital Workshop: 1000 RMB (includes lunch) for those in tourney or with sponsor agency (2000 for non-sponsored)
PARTY: 300 RMB Includes two drinks
Million Dollar Hole In One Shot Only: 100 RMB
Dinner–All You Can Eat Gourmet Buffet: 330 RMB
Posted 16 April, 2008 in Chinese Media, Guangzhou, Chinese Internet, American Professor in China, China Expat, Golf Tours, China Golf, Entertainment, 中国, China Sports, China Expats, The League of Extraordinary Chinese Women, China Photos, Top Blogs, Photos, Top China Blogs List
You Gotta Have Friends… (3)
A few years ago I was in a Hong Kong software shop when suddenly a shrill voice began shouting what I now know was Cantonese for, “Cheese it the cops!”
Within seconds the metal gate to the entrance was electronically being lowered and like some character in a low-budget HK martial arts flick I had to dive under the door to keep from being trapped inside.
And it was a good thing I made it out as at as fast I did because five of–I am sure of this–the largest policemen in Hong Kong came in short order to kick the door down and begin demolishing what must have been bootleg DVDs and software knock-offs. A few seconds later in my departure and I might have been making my way back to America on the next cargo plane one-way.
There have been a number of measures implemented since that time in HK to ensure that consumers, many of whom are mainland tourists, get authentic products. The fake Rolex guys are still on every street corner, but are transparent about the quality of their goods. But, a consistently reputable shop with static sales people is hard to find. Though I think I might value the fakes in HK more than the i-Bods and i-Fones and Rolez watches sold in the mainland.
Soon after my brush with deportation I sought out a trustworthy and found one I have frequented for the last three years. I do not buy anywhere else in HK: It is a tiny shop called Suntekco at Haiphong road, nearby the South Entrance of Kowloon Park. It is the first shop on the left as you head straight away from the Starbucks outside of the Marco Polo Hotel. Phone: (852) 2376 2915
Every salesman, in a shop hardly big enough in which to change your mind, is an expert on any electronic or photographic device new or old. And if you need to save a few dollars, and a generic lens will take the same quality pictures as the brand named version, they will tell you. Too, I have never even produced a receipt when returning merchandise (2X in three years and once it was due to user error) and my goods have been replaced without question.
They have dozens of customers each hour passing through yet can remember my name and that of my friends as well as every piece of equipment I have ever purchased. It doesn’t get any better than that.
This is not a paid infomercial, but a letter of gratitude. I should have written it a long ago because I call the folks at Suntek friends now and love nothing more than to see good friends succeed. Head over to the Dreamblogue and see some of the great pictures David and I have taken with discount gear purchased for us at Suntek Camera Store by the sponsors of the dreamblogue.
I have my eye on a 16-gig i-Phone and the lightning fast new Canon, but as it is for me, I have a few paychecks to squeeze some change from before I head back to HK.
Posted 22 March, 2008 in Camera shop in Hong Kong, China Business Consultant, Sunteck Camera Hong Kong, Photo Equipment, Cal Poly, 中文, Wholesale Electronics China, Expats, Photos, 中国, Wholesale Products China, Hong Kong
Zaijian…. (46)
Books have been virtually replaced by blogs. But, puns aside, many of them showcase the transformative elements Pablo Neruda* suggests as essential to written art in Ars Magnetica:
“From so much loving and journeying, books emerge.
And if they don’t contain kisses or landscapes,
if they don’t contain a woman in every drop,
hunger, desire, anger, roads,
there are no use as a shield or as a bell:
they have no eyes and won’t be able to open them….”
Here I have I have tried to smooth the stubble of memory, share poetry, attempt humor, journal my social conscience, and reconcile my longings while shoutng to you in some far-off room. I leave here absolutely bewildered that anyone, other than my long-suffering friends, ever returned to listen. I am grateful you did.
(more…)
Posted 2 August, 2007 in Entertainment, Guangzhou, Travel in China, New Blogs, The Great Firewall, Guangzhou China, The Sharpest Guy on the Planet, Censorship, China Book Reviews, Charity in China, Beijing Olympics, China Law, UK SEO EXPERT, China Business Consultant, American Professor in China, 中文, Chinese Education, Hainan Island, 中国, In the news, Expats, Teaching in China, China Editorials, Intercultural Issues, China Expats, Hong Kong, China Humor, Hong Kong Blogs, China Cartoons, China Business, Confucius Slept Here, Just Plain Strange, Photos, Weird China, China Photos, Cancer Journal, American Poet in China, The Unsinkable Ms Yue, China web 2.0
It is OMBW’s Free Degree Day! (4)
Tired of no respect? Weary of fellow Airport Security officers ribbing you for taking vocational education all five years of High School? Do you think George Bush could beat you on Scrabulous? The answer for you is here today on OMBW!
Get instant respect from the school and for no money!!!
There is one small catch. You need to pass this simple test:
1. What stands out in this picture from an Internet advertised English Training school (移动英语—沟天下 易如反掌) I discovered today on the Chinese net (YES, REALLY!): MOBILE SCHOOL
If you answered, “David quit dyeing his hair!” you are on your way to a new and profitable career as a China fake-goods spotter. That alone will save you tons of dough on eBay and Craigslist!*
Now the tough one:
2.What is unusual about the school’s certificate of appointment from Harvard University?
If you answered, “There weren’t three Decembers in 2004!” you are almost there!**
Last question: Why do they call it the Mobile training center?
And if you answered, “Where the hell is stuff I paid for?” you can download your Jiade diploma right now:
*Harry?
**Chinglish in the citation…and Harvard has a Principal?
Posted 30 July, 2007 in 中国, In the news, Photos, Chinese Internet, Internet marketing China, Education in China, 中文, Chinese Media, Just Plain Strange, Personal Notes, Asian Humor, China Humor, Humor, Teaching in China, China Editorials, Weird China, China Photos, China Business, China web 2.0
I Love China and other finds… (3)
Blogroll diving today I discovered I Love China written by a 8-year tenured British Expat in Shanghai. His is a diary from one of the faithful: He is as cyclothymic/manic-depressive as the rest of us, but he states that the norm for him is a genuine appreciation for the language, culture and heart of this country; hence, the blog’s name. He must be a good guy: he has Waiter Rant on his blogroll to balance out the Time Blog entry.
I found a wonderful picture on his site of a phenomenon so common here I forget how much of a novelty it might be for my western readers.
You see, In China one can own a 3,000,000 Yuan house in an “exclusive” complex that comes with all the amenities EXCEPT a clothes dryer. Every balcony in my neighborhood has skivvies to dress shirts hanging out to dry–damned tough some days when it is 97 degrees and 80 percent humidity.
Most “high-rent” locales like mine (a wallet-slamming $300 a month!) have a special porch area that is partially hidden from view so the neighbors don’t get to peek at your delicates. It is essential because locating a washer-dryer combination in a household appliances section of a mallin China is like finding chicken feet in the snack section of an American 7-11. I Love China snapped this shot in Shanghai:
For the record: The web-footed one’s carcass and the adjacent slabs of meat are, thankfully, not real common in my neighborhood.
I am guessing that the drawback here wold be that in a steady wind the unmentionables could end up smelling like pork or duck. Then again that could be an aphrodisiac in Canton, but I digress….
Posted 24 July, 2007 in The Internet, 中国, Blogroll Diving, 中文, Shanghai, China Expat, Top Blogs, Photos, Asia, China Humor, China Expats, Intercultural Issues, Confucius Slept Here, China Photos, Humor
SEO SECRET…. (6)
I started an Search Engine Optimization (SEO) series a few months back and then abandoned the effort: Feedback from regular readers, most of them blogless and not looking to adopt, read, “I’m bored senseless!” It seems that only members of the China shoe-money society really read things and then they pissed and moaned: “It’s too simple,” or “Explain how to put an image in my post that doesn’t blow out my sidebar” were some of the two emailed questions….And then there was the uproar created by comments on a blog that used my posts to generate traffic by calling Fili and I “Greedy Superficial Bloggers” for discussing Search Engine Optimization (SEO) methods on our sites. It even got people taking sides and nearly cyber-rioting before he kind-of admitted it was just a scam meant to coax more readers to his site. But, I digress…
One of the deservedly best-loved sites on the planet is Post Secret. The trouble with being public and popular is that you are open to spoof. (Dear Sinocidal, I am still waiting for next April 1st….
The picture above was blatantly ripped off a very funny parody of Post Secret. Now, a lot of it is out loud funny, but a bit of it will only be understood by Fili, Ryan and others like the ass-hat. You can take a peek at it by clicking on the picture above. The photo references Matt Cutts, a paid stooge for Google whom I parodied hereon the site, a few weeks ago. Anyway head over to the comedy and have fun. REMEBER to click on the links below the pictures for more fun….
PS: Speaking of Fili: Head over to his blog as that greedy, superficial blogger living in China’s latest province is actually offering free SEO help (There must be a catch :-)…) to anyone who wants to bring in traffic via sound and in-offensive methods.
Another SEO stunt in the works can be found by the hit-grubbers at Hao Hao and Chinalyst :-). They are sponsoring the 3rd-failed annual China Blog Awards. If you have already have a fave site you can vote for them and, more importantly, you can visit some of other blogs that you may not have cruised through yet. There is a terabyte of great stuff out there!
PPS:
Above is a way to view Blogspot (Thanks J) if you live in places like I do….One site you need to get to:
Posted 19 July, 2007 in Blogroll Diving, SEO, Internet marketing China, Seo China, The Internet, Chinese Internet, SEM, Seach engine Optimization, SEO China Expert, Taiwan, 中文, Chinese Media, Search Engine Marketing, 中国, Top Blogs, Top China Blogs List, Greater Asia Blogs, Asian Humor, China Humor, China web 2.0, Videos, Asia, China Editorials, cartoons, In the news, Photos, Just Plain Strange, Weird China, China SEO
Rats off a sinking ship: Yum! (2)
The weather widget on my Mac says it is 97 degrees here in Guangzhou, but “feels like 107.” Who writes their copy? I think it would be a lot more descriptive, and accurate, to say: “97, but feels like you are clothed snorkeling in a sauna.” It has rained daily and the humidity is malleable. But, somehow I think we in Guangzhou have it better than the folks in Anhui and other areas experiencing torrential rains and home-destroying floods.
Guangdong residents have found a bizarre pot of gold at the end of the intermittent rainbows: Rats! They are being brought in by the truck-load especially from central China, where 2 billion of them (did someone really count?) were displaced when a lake flooded.
The reason for jubilation?: “Rat Banquets!!” Rat vendors (I am in the market for one of their business cards) are making huge money on the fabled eating habits of the Cantonese. I have lived here long enough to attest that it is not a myth when they claim these folks will eat anything that does not eat them first, or objects that they have to fly in or sit on…
The rats, reportedly NOT the bad bug-ridden rascals from Hunan where they are part of a crop-destroying plague, go for about 75 cents US for a kilogram to the buyers and fetch about $18 USD in the restaurants. The rat-catchers near the lake can haul in 150 KG a night and make about $10.00 USD. That is pretty good money in central China.
The oddest part–if there can be any quantifying– of the CNN story is that this new wave of furry fare is plentiful, not because of the lake, but due a lack of critter-chasing snakes and owls that the Cantonese love to include in their food and medicine.
Joyful Guangzhou netizens are now posting rat recipes on their blogs.
Yum.
P.S. Speaking of Guangzhou: Here is a site with some amazing 3-D maps of “home”…
Posted 16 July, 2007 in Chinese Internet, The Internet, Guangzhou China, Guangzhou, Chinese Medicine, 中文, Travel in China, 中国, In the news, China Business, China Editorials, Intercultural Issues, China Photos, Weird China, Photos, Just Plain Strange, Asia
It is OMBW’s Free Degree Day! (2)
Tired of no respect? Weary of fellow Airport Security officers ribbing you for taking vocational education all five years of High School? Do you think George Bush could beat you on Scrabulous? The answer for you is here today on OMBW!
Get instant respect from the school and for no money!!!
There is one small catch. You need to pass this simple test:
1. What stands out in this picture from an Internet advertised English Training school (移动英语—沟天下 易如反掌) I discovered today on the Chinese net (YES, REALLY!): MOBILE SCHOOL
If you answered, “David quit dyeing his hair!” you are on your way to a new and profitable career as a China fake-goods spotter. That alone will save you tons of dough on eBay and Craigslist!*
Now the tough one:
2.What is unusual about the school’s certificate of appointment from Harvard University?
If you answered, “There weren’t three Decembers in 2004!” you are almost there!**
Last question: Why do they call it the Mobile training center?
And if you answered, “Where the hell is stuff I paid for?” you can download your Jiade diploma right now:
Posted 13 July, 2007 in 中国, In the news, Photos, Chinese Internet, Internet marketing China, Education in China, 中文, Chinese Media, Just Plain Strange, Personal Notes, Asian Humor, China Humor, Humor, Teaching in China, China Editorials, Weird China, China Photos, China Business, China web 2.0
What would Buddha do? (3)
Several years ago, attending a Jimmy Buffet concert with a Catholic priest (Indian trail, NC, not Margaritaville) , we were discussing ways to raise money for his new parish. In neighboring Georgia a woman was drawing huge crowds claiming to see incarnations of the Virgin Mary. So, we laughingly concocted a never-to-be scheme that involved catching and releasing a trout on the church property that we would say bore some saint’s likeness on its its tail. We would then put donation baskets all up and down the creek. It was sacrilegious, but damned funny anyway.
A few years later I visited Shingo, Japan where they claim to have Christ and his brother buried on a hill above town. Jesus, according to local mythology, let his brother take his place on the cross and then went to rural Japan and retired to a happily married life in the sticks. Surprisingly, there was no marketing involved anywhere near the grave site.
Please bear with me as this all comes together for you in the usual intuitive flash at the end…
I just read a delightful book first printed in 1999 entitled What would Buddha Do? by Franz Metcalf. The pocket-sized tome is rife with well thought out answers to a host of everyday questions, some that made me laugh out loud:
1. What would Buddha do if his credit cards are maxed out?
2. What would Buddha do when making a salad?
3. What would Buddha do to avoid burnout?
4. What would Buddha do about trusting the media?
The answer to last question can be found in the Buddhist writing Undanavarga 22.17: “One’s ears hear a lot; one’s eyes sees a lot. The wise should not believe everything seen or heard.” Buddha must read the China Daily too, where I found the picture above. It seems Buddha hung around for about an hour on Heibei’s Zushan Mountain, but unlike the manifestations in Georgia, he didn’t impart any wisdom to the local tourists.
In another book I reviewed recently, One Couple, Two Cultures, there was a story about a British man and his Chinese wife discussing behavior common in each other’s country. The wife seemed to have no trouble commenting on behalf of the entire 1.3 billion residents of China, while the Brit’ demured on speaking for the whole of England. I can with absolute certainty say that had the Buddha appeared in Stone Mountain Park, Georgia, that every redneck (remember before you shoot that my father hailed from Harlan County, Kentucky), instead of burning him as a heretic would have tried to sell him on Ebay. I still remember the eerie glow-in-the-dark St. Joseph that watched over me as a child sleeping in the dark.
Now I’m not sure what made them think it was Buddha and not Mother Theresa, Confucius, or Steve Irwin. But I continue to digress…
What surprised me the most is that nobody is now selling watches of Buddha waving from the peak or claiming to have private chats with Gautama himself. Another missed marketing opportunity for China. David and I are thinking about sorting through seaweed potato chips until we come up with some that look like Sun Yat Sen or Lao Zi. We promise to donate all proceeds (and extra chips) to charity.
So what would Buddha do if Buddha were alive today? I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t be standing around in the Heibei fog, though he might possible blog a few meditations–using a wordpress platform, of course. So I’m off to see if WWBD-in-canton.com is taken. This way, we can answer the pressing questions like:
1. What would Buddha do if someone stole a taxi out from under his nose?
2. What would Buddha do if someone took the food from his plate at a Cantonese buffet?
3. What would Buddha do if he found out he were watching a bootleg copy of Seven Years in Tibet?
4. What would Buddha say if his disciples kept commenting on his weight and skin color?
Now I’m getting ready to read Metcalf’s answer to “What would Buddha Do about that Coffee Habit?” If this post isn’t a call for my spiritual rehab or caffeine detox, I don’t know what is.
Posted 10 July, 2007 in past posts, Chinese Festivals, Entertainment, Guangzhou China, 中国, Just Plain Strange, Photos, In the news, Chinese Internet, Internet marketing China, 中文, American Professor in China, China Expat, Chinese Media, China Book Reviews, Guangzhou, Blogroll Diving, Personal Notes, Confucius Slept Here, Greater Asia Blogs, Asia, Japan, Asian Women, Asian Humor, Book Reviews, Humor, China Humor, China Expats, Intercultural Issues, American Poet in China, China Photos, Weird China, China Business, China Editorials, Expats, Teaching in China, Hong Kong
Bamboocycles! (0)
I have been blogroll diving again! There is a new one in town Responsible China (No, it is not an oxymoron!) and it is worth your attention: Erica Schlaikjer, a trained journalist (She has had paltry internships at: The Chicago Reporter, Crain’s Chicago Business and National Geographic. But, she has never written for OMBW, so….) one of the producers for Entrepreneur Magazine’s online radio show, The China Business Show, hosted by WS Radio, is the author.
She has a bunch of great posts up now and I picked one to showcase that I thought was interesting:
The article is on Bamboo Bikes. It caught my attention because I helped a company create a prototype of a Bamboo baseball bat last year, but it proved too durable and they opted for something that Barry Bonds could break–even off the juice. But, I digress….
According to Erica, China is home to 450 million bicycles and 4.21 million hectares of bamboo and it make sense to combine the two into something good for the environment. And it appears that designers Liakos Ariston and Jacob Prinz, who started Daedalus Custom Bamboo Bikes two years ago after drawing up designs on a napkin, feel the same. The problem is the bikes will be for Laowai or well-heeled Chinese as they cost about $1,250 each. For $1250 a Cantonese would want it to float, double as a shelter, act as a fishing rod, stand-in as an eating utensil and play bootleg MP3s and DVDs. If the truth be known, I wouldLOVE to have one of these, but at my salary it would take three months of starvation.
“The raw materials are sustainable, so potentially make less of an impact on the environment, the designers say. But that’s not the only appeal.”
‘We’ve gained a lot more respect for the material we work with because we’ve had a few accidents on them and generally riders and bikes have come out unscathed,’ said Ariston, 25 . . . .” I get the unscathed bike part, but I wonder how the rider gets a break (no pun intended) from injury.
If it gets cheaper to make it could have a future in China as Erica reports that China’s Ministry of Construction wants to restore bike lanes to their old glory.
Here are some links she posted to bamboo related projects and designers:
Bamboo Bike Project
“The project aims to examine the feasibility of implementing cargo bikes made of bamboo as a sustainable form of transportation in Africa.”
Brano Meres Engineering & Design
“This is my second home-made frame. This time I used bamboo rods connected with carbon composite joints.”
Calfee Design
“Beginning as a publicity stunt in 1996, Craig’s bamboo errand bike evolves into a well-tested new model for the general public.”
Thanks Erica and welcome to the Sphere!