I've been taking a lot of flack lately for not keeping this blog up to date. I apologize and proffer the following explanations. My first problem is the blogging software. Earlier this year, I got tired of writing everything in HTML code, so I invested in some website software which I really like. The problem is that the software crashed and I had a big fight with the manufacturer to get it running again. As you can see, it is working.

Secondly, the economy has been slow and none of us have been traveling as much as we did at this time last year. It is not that my company is in bad shape; we're just suffering about the same as everyone else is. To be honest, it is nice to have more time at home with my family.

Third, after I got my blogging software to work again, I came down with a bad case of gout in my wrist. It hurt terribly and is only now well enough to type again without intense pain. Of course, now that I can type and the computer problems are taken care of, I'm in some tiny rinky-dink hotel where the internet access is slower than molasses in January. Somebody up there likes me.

Guangdong is probably the nicest place I've seen in China. I love it here. In English, this province is more commonly referred to as "Canton". "Guangdong" is the same name in Mandarin. The people here do not speak Mandarin dialect, however. They speak Cantonese. They are both Chinese dialects, but are mutually unintelligible. In truth, they are different languages since a Mandarin and Cantonese speaker cannot talk to each other. The characters are the same, however, so they can both read the same newspaper without difficulty. For example, the Mandarin word for dog is "gou". I don't know what it is in Cantonese, but I know that character that means "dog" is exactly the same. One of the cool things about the Chinese language...