I don’t even know where to start

Wow.

I could try to sit here and discuss everything that’s happened in the last week or so, but I think my fingers would probably start bleeding from overtyping. They’ve already bled enough from when I sliced myself open trying to remember how to correctly peel a mangosteen, my favorite fruit in all the world that I discovered in Thailand. Instead of pulling a Julie Andrews and starting at the very beginning, I’m going to pull the classic “lazy blogger” maneuver and start by describing events in the present before attempting to revisit the past, rather than the other way around.

In case you’re just joining me, which, unless you’re Marie, you are since I haven’t bothered to send the link around until today, make sure to go back and check out the first few entries that describe how I got myself into this interesting position. What interesting position is that you ask? Why helping Red China’s government controlled try to tap presently unused offshore petroleum reserves as a means of fueling the countries continued ascent to worldwide economic dominance, that’s what. Just the sort of summer job that would have gotten me seriously blackballed in the 60s. Now, helping commies is one thing, and helping oil companies another, but helping commie oil companies? Well, now I just feel a little scummy.

A point of clarification: I had no idea that this was what I’d be doing here. I was under the impression that I’d be sitting at a computer all day running analyses of fluid flow in flexible pipes. I do have a computer to sit in front of (where I can finally post my subversive government-banned propaganda) in a nice clean cube farm with some other grad students, but it also looks like I get to run some actual tests on actual oil pipes. I had never seen actual flexible oil pipes until yesterday, but I can assure you that these are not the flexible pipes used to ferry beer around at my former workplace, the Neptune Brewing Co. (makers of the renowned “Beverly Brew”). These behemoths are made of layers of wrapped steel cable and rubber, a foot in diameter and maybe ten in length, and I get put in charge of the machine that pulls them apart, which is approximately the size of my bedroom. Hehe… cool.

I’m not sure yet what the details of these tests will be, or if they’re as dangerous as they look. I’ll post further bulletins as events warrant. Now that I’ve gotten through today, over the next few posts I’ll go back to document my arrival in China and our first few days in Beijing, that, due to some creative internetting, I’m finally able to share. I should point out that the Great Firewall of China actually does block this website. I kinda like the idea of well-dressed officials getting together around a big round table and discussing how to stop this crazy dissident named Jimmy, but I’m pretty sure they just block all blogs produced by blogger. Oh well.