Culture in the Blender

The world from the middle of a culture smoothie

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Entries from July 2008

San Francisco is mine

March 31st, 2008 · No Comments

I wandered around Chinatown alone. I almost cried in the first store I walked into there, because it was almost like walking into China. I walked up Nob Hill by mistake. I saw the sea lions cuddle up to each other at night. I ate with friends across from The Stinking Rose. I had cappucino […]

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Tags: Betweening · Travel

I have returned home

March 25th, 2008 · No Comments

I’m back in Hotelland. I’m at a conference and staying at the conference hotel, the San Fransisco Marriott. (In line with being a typical TCK, I am becoming highly educated by getting a PhD in materials science and engineering.) Last night, I sat in the bar on the top floor looking out at the San […]

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Tags: Affirmative Global · Betweening · Distant Proximities · Global Culture · Third Culture · Travel

PAL vs NTSC strikes again

March 20th, 2008 · 3 Comments

I am visiting my parents at the moment, and while I’m here I thought it might be a nice idea of do some 太极拳 (tàijíquán) with my mother, since we learned in the same context. She bought some 太极拳 (tàijíquán) VCDs in China, and we were going to watch them and follow the instructions to […]

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Tags: Betweening · China · Distant Proximities

Getting hold of music no matter where you are

March 9th, 2008 · 4 Comments

I recently bought a 3rd generation iPod nano, and have spent most of today ripping CDs and deleting mp3s I never listen to anymore to make space for the CD rips. Going through my music not only brings up memories of other places, but due to the global purchase locations of my CD collection, it […]

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Tags: Distant Proximities · Fragmegation

Free Bar & Restaurant Guides for iPods

March 9th, 2008 · No Comments

As with Flightbliss, I imagine people interested in an adult third culture kids’ blog are likely to be interested in that Rough Guides is offering free eating and drinking guides for mp3 players at their website for Amsterdam, Barcelona, Dublin, London, Madrid, NYC, Paris, Prague, Rome and San Fransisco.

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Tags: Travel

Calm

March 8th, 2008 · No Comments

I’ve been very busy lately, with appointment lists filling most of my days and the remainder filled with research, grading and market research. The latter three have tended to spill into nights and weekends a fair bit as well. I’m in some serious need of calm. I was reading some kind of “women’s” magazine, where […]

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Tags: China · Distant Proximities

Global Business & Global Perspectives

March 8th, 2008 · No Comments

Indra Nooyi, CEO of PepsiCo, is using her global, cosmopolitan outlook to both make the world a better place and money, says CNN Money. This woman is fantastic. Not only has she made it to the top as a woman of color/foreigner relative to the United States, she might get a US government post (Haha! […]

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Tags: Affirmative Global · Betweening

Black American Music Culture and American Imported Influences in Music

March 4th, 2008 · 6 Comments

All day today, I’ve been listening to a song by S. H. E. (Taiwanese band) called Ni kuai le wo shui yi.

It has some clear r&b influences in both singing and the music, and the play with the words is fun. (On a more third culture analysis level, I think the American influences are easy […]

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Tags: Outsider · US

Need to be somewhere else

March 2nd, 2008 · 2 Comments

From time to time, I get little hints from whatever country I’m living in that the perspectives from other countries I occasionally mention or present are irrelevant or easily incorporated into the way of thinking prevalent in the country we’re in. (If you know physics, kind of like they dismiss arguments about needing to consider […]

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Tags: Cultural Marginalization · Distant Proximities · Third Culture