Tag: Writing

Damn, That Shit’s Elusive: The Happiness Project Revisited (Plus Books! I have books!)
April 4, 2018

Damn, That Shit’s Elusive: The Happiness Project Revisited (Plus Books! I have books!)

About a year ago, probably longer, I announced that I would be revisiting the 100 Happy Days challenge. You know the one- you post every day for 100 days something that made you feel happy, no matter how small, how fleeting. I totally failed. And …

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It’s been a while, Shanghai
November 30, 2017

It’s been a while, Shanghai

  Well now. Shanghai. Yo. I’m flying in to Pudong International sometime tomorrow afternoon, after nearly four years away from China. I don’t tend to return to cities or countries I’ve lived in: It’s been nearly ten years since Istanbul and seventeen since Cape Town. …

4 Comments
Insert Coherent, Concise, Astute Title Here: Notes on Starting the New Year with a Question Mark
January 2, 2017

Insert Coherent, Concise, Astute Title Here: Notes on Starting the New Year with a Question Mark

  One of the downsides to writing every three or six or eight months is that all of the half baked ideas that might have made up a dozen different posts all burble to the surface and battle it out to be the opening line. …

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Are We Better Yet? Notes on Writing About Normal
June 15, 2016

Are We Better Yet? Notes on Writing About Normal

When I decided to reopen the cobwebbed vaults of my semi-abandoned online hiding space, I first looked into the drafts folder to see if  there were any false starts in there worth revisiting and finishing. Here are a few of the titles from the past …

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Greetings From my New Expat Bubble
June 12, 2016

Greetings From my New Expat Bubble

Hi. You might remember me from such posts as that one six months ago, back when we were still living in Hanoi, in a long, narrow railroad flat perched five floors above the reeking, oil-slick, sewage-milky, belly-up fish filled Truc Bach lake. Like many things …

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A Totally Impractical Guide to Changing Everything All At Once (Again)
October 11, 2015

A Totally Impractical Guide to Changing Everything All At Once (Again)

I should be studying right now. Four units into the first module of a master’s degree in applied linguistics, I’m painfully wrapping my head around the idea of a lexeme’s paradigm (not to be confused with a gangsta’s paradise, though I will admit that I …

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Just Like Starting Over: Hanoi 2.0
July 21, 2015

Just Like Starting Over: Hanoi 2.0

Can I tell you about our early days in Hanoi? Back in October?     So many months ago. The weeks when we lived in a stuffy, cramped hotel room in a curious neighborhood that would have been more curious if it hadn’t been hemmed …

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Dear Fellow Travellers and Expats: You are NOT More Special or Better or Smarter Than Your Average Bear
July 15, 2015

Dear Fellow Travellers and Expats: You are NOT More Special or Better or Smarter Than Your Average Bear

  I’ll admit that I’ve been up since 4am almost every morning this week, woken by a wide-eyed toddler towering over me in the early morning half light, adamantly making the ASL sign for water, food, ball, whatever in my face, and am coping with …

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Parenthood and Place: Notes on Writing About Stuff When You Have Nothing New to Say
June 7, 2015

Parenthood and Place: Notes on Writing About Stuff When You Have Nothing New to Say

Aside from being commissioned to write ridiculously detailed 20,000 word guides for relocating to Chinese cities I’ve never even visited much less lived in (I’ve written ten of these in the past year, which must qualify for a work of relentless, massive fiction on par …

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What I’m Talking About When I Talk About China
August 21, 2014

What I’m Talking About When I Talk About China

A few weeks ago, I was randomly contacted by someone working for an expat relocation company. He wanted me to write a guide for Suzhou, a city I spent a total of one afternoon in several years ago, interviewing for a temporary job doing localization …

7 Comments
Waiting For Godot (or a Baby): Notes on Identity, Change and Public Presentation
February 15, 2014

Waiting For Godot (or a Baby): Notes on Identity, Change and Public Presentation

  Any day now, I’m going to have a baby. Like, an actual baby that I get to keep indefinitely. Which is, admittedly, an awfully long time. I still haven’t wrapped my head completely around this concept, even though I’ve been quite pregnant for many …

17 Comments
There has been a slight change of plans, folks
August 20, 2013

There has been a slight change of plans, folks

    Sometimes one or two overly personal and private things can derail your ability to write at length about all the millions of notable and weird and interesting things going on concurrently. Sometimes you don’t want to talk about those things just yet, for …

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