A pizza delivery man in Flint, Michigan just shot and killed an attacker.

Not too noteworthy of a story … but I couldn’t resist the title.

Well, here we go … after I finish my last class today, I’ll take a bus to Changsha, where I’ll spend the night before flying to Beijing in the morning. There are about two and a half days until the marathon, and now there’s no turning back.

Yesterday morning, I decided to evaluate my progress. Even though I had run only once per week in the last six weeks, I felt like I was finally healthy again, over the sicknesses and injuries and busy schedule that had made the last two months so challenging. I knew that my body wasn’t quite prepared, but I felt confident and optimistic about my ability to go out there and run my best on Saturday. I felt great!

I decided to do one last workout, to test out my race day clothes and to give my muscles one more chance to loosen up before the race. So I got suited up and went out for a one hour run, separated at intervals by some steps in my school’s stadium. About fifteen minutes into the run, I felt strong, bounding up the steps with lots of confidence and energy.

Then I slipped. I fell forward, hitting both of my legs on the tiled stairs and catching myself with my right hand … not good. Both of my shins were cut and bruised, and I could immediately tell that I pulled a muscle in my neck … the same muscle that used to immobilize me for weeks at a time in college.

So, for the past day I’ve been nursing the injuries, spraying Yunnan Bayou on my legs, getting neck massages, and resting as much as possible. I’m feeling much better now, and I’m pretty confident that I’ll be near 100% on Saturday … but it was still pretty scary. Just leave it to me to do something stupid like that four days before the race!

As far as the marathon itself goes, I’m planning to run it intelligently. I’ll start off quite slow, hopefully running with some of the other WorldTeach volunteers who are also coming up to Beijing. Several of them are doing the half-marathon, so I should be able to stick with them and keep myself distracted for the first 10 or 12 miles. I plan to walk as many of the stairs as possible, taking my time on the difficult terrain and letting my body retain as much energy as possible. I’ve been doing a lot of research on training and techniques, and I’m pretty sure that I understand what my body will be going through as I push through the race.

And don’t worry … if I reach that limit, that place where it would be harmful or stupid to continue, I will stop. This isn’t a test of my manliness or a physical manifestation of my ability to commit … it’s a simple race. My “performance” on that big wall is much less important than the tremendous generosity that so many of you have shown through your donations to the children of Loudi. That’s the real story here!

With that being said … I still want to wait until after the race to announce the results of the fundraising efforts, in case if any of you are still thinking of donating to help the orphans of Loudi, my city. To read more about the effort and see how you can get involved, just click here!

I probably won’t be online at all in the next few days … I’m going to chill at my hostel, reading and watching movies and controling my physical activity as much as possible. I’ll schedule some automatic posts, though, to keep y’all entertained. And when it’s over, I’ll be sure to jump online and let y’all know how it went!

Onward!

Apple just received a U.S. patent for an iPod with a touch-sensitive back and a regular screen on the front. If a user touches the back, a corresponding transparent navigation system appears on the screen to control the iPod.

This new interface is actually quite stunning … it’s elegant and simple, it shrinks the size of the gadget, and it allows you to navigate without actually having to touch or block the screen with your fingers. I love it!

I was just checking out a friend’s MySpace page, and her “About me” section said the following:

About me:

style type=”text/css”> table table table table table {direction:rtl;} table table table table table td {direction:ltr;} I got my layout at Cleanupmyspace.com

I had to laugh. Honestly, that website is uglier and busier than a Chinese website … do people who use it really have that little sense of design or aesthetics?

Three Hurt in Squirrel Attack at School
San Jose, CA

A child and two adults were hurt when a squirrel wandered into a San Jose elementary school classroom Wednesday morning. The door to a first grade classroom at Evergreen Elementary was left open when the squirrel scampered just after 8:30 a.m., according to school officials.

An 11-year-old girl was bitten twice on the arm, and two adults were attacked as well, said Will Ector, spokesman for the Evergreen Elementary School District. All three suffered scratches and bites, and were taken to a hospital for observation, he said. Ector said the school has never experienced such an attack before.

All classroom doors were immediately closed and children were kept away from areas frequented by squirrels. The animal involved in the attack escaped right after the incident and its whereabouts is unknown. Humane traps have been set in an attempt to catch the critter, said Ector.

Here are some of the interesting Internet searches that have led people to webeldotnet recently:

AC/Midwest
multiple inteligences homeschooling
Stockings boys
animated stickmen
Needa 86
SADAM HUSANE BIRTHDAY
“phnom penh”+marathon+2007
teachable moment humor
清蒸鱼
oj mayo pics
larthargic speech and speech therapy
Akron, NY Church Rummage Sales
涟钢中学
political poster museum shanghai
“You are the most beautiful in the world” Lyrics
matt wicker
pleasant vineyard campground
the amazing race, APRIL 27TH 2007
what causes blisters between my toes?
Humor Photos Irony
nappy hair depression
what she does the great wall of china connect with ??
ture love
“best bite for last”
great wall of china marathon notes
where is the city hospital rummage sale in Akron on May 5th
quotes for family hero

And my top five favorites …

what illness can i catch in china
“i only speak a little chinese” phrases
“middle school teachers deserve”
argentina ,balaclavas
clothes for young pentecostal

Lunch (bao cai fan):

• Mom: Bullfrog
• Dad: Spicy and sour duck feet
• Lance: Fried pork with spicy peppers
• Helen: Eel and cucumber

Dinner (with headmaster and English teachers):

• 1,000-year-old egg (actually fermented for 10 months)
• Tofu with pork
• Spicy whole mini shrimp
• Sweet squirrel fish
• Happy family stew
• Sugary shredded potatoes
• Hollow vegetables
• Spicy steak with bones
• Spicy pig intestines
• Beer-battered duck bones
• Eggplant
• Apple vinegar (cider)
• Chinese beer
• Yogurt (sour milk)

“I’m glad it’s not dog season!”

– My mother, in reference to our dinner plans in China

I’m tired, so this is gonna be quick … Here’s today’s rundown!

• Dad and mom helped me teach 2 classes today … dad told the kids about our family history and mom told a funny story from my childhood.
• We had fried rice and noodles for lunch at my favorite tiny restaurant near my school.
• We also took a guided tour of the Liangang Steel and Iron Factory, a huge modern facility that employs 17,000 people and uses some gigantic machinery to produce billions of tons of metal every year.
• Dinner was at a really nice restaurant with Star and Barbara, two of my local friends … we had eel, beef, lotus root, pumpkin, and green beans.
• Afterwards, we went to another arcade, where we played basketball, danced, and conquered an interesting matching game. We met Grahm (my fellow Loudi foreigner) there and talked for a while.
• To end the evening, Star and Barbara took us to a traditional Chinese tea bar where we (and especially mom) enjoyed some very high quality tea freshly grown in Hunan.

This morning we woke up around 8:30, had some breakfast, then caught a cab to the middle of Loudi. We had noticed a traveling circus the day before and decided to check out the festivities … for a dollar!

The show was crazy … it featured a dozen fearless children and teens who had been highly trained in acrobatics, tightrope, unicycle, horse-riding, rope swinging, and several other feats of fantasmicocity. It had one ring and was under a giant tent … and it was quite obvious that all of the equipment was decades old. Safety first!

Near the end of the show, a couple of the kids ran out into the crowd and pulled me into the ring, motioning me to sit inside a giant copper pot. They then proceeded to lift the pot onto a girl’s feet … and she literally spun me around, juggling me with her legs. You can’t see it in the photo below, but a small boy actually climbed onto the pot at one point as she spun it around!

[BARREL OF FUN, BY LANCE WEBEL]

After the exciting show, we went to the local park to enjoy the beautiful day and relax a bit in the shade. We thought about taking an electric boat ride, but decided instead to go and get an early lunch. We tried a new restaurant and were very satisfied with their eggplant, potato, tofu, and beef dishes … all for about $5.

Next, we walked a couple of miles to the bowling alley for some pin-pushing fun. We even bought some socks on the way because we were all wearing sandals … but when we arrived, we discovered that the electricity was out! Bummed, we instead took a cab to Loudi’s walking street, a brand-new shopping area with lots of upscale shops.

After walking around for a little while, I finally convinced my parents to go get a foot massage with me. So after playing a quick game of hoops in an arcade we passed, we went to the best foot massage parlor in town.

The massage I ordered was top of the line ($5) … it included a couple of foot washings, a long and steady kneading of the feet, traditional medicine, a body massage, and the highlight … a portion where they put towels on our shins, soaked them in alcohol, and lit our legs on fire! You should have seen the look on my parents’ faces when their shins went up in flames!

[Legs on fire, by lance webel]

Next, we went to a local market, where mom bought a $2 necklace and the rest of us walked around for a while admiring the piles of little shops and stores. Eventually we got tired and went back to my apartment, where I served some grilled cheese and dragonfruit for dinner. Afterwards, we watched some Seinfeld, played some Chinese checkers and darts, and talked to my sister on the Internet (Happy Birthday, Ronda!).

All in all, it was a typical day in China. And my parents are beginning to see what I mean when I say that I’ll never really be able to describe this place to people back home, no matter how hard I try!

My mom just typed a really long email to our neighbor back in Akron, so I asked her if I could edit it a little and post it here. It’s kinda nice having another author in town … and I think that it’s fascinating to read about her impressions of China.

Dear Karen,

Yes, it’s your neighbor here! We are knee deep in the Chinese culture. It has been such an eye-opener for us! You cannot explain on an e-mail what it is like here … in most ways, the country is opposite from America.

We were in Beijing for a week and the people were literally body-to-body. May first was a holiday and people from everywhere traveled there to see the many important Chinese landmarks. We saw beautiful pagodas, gardens, ornate bridges, and important historical areas … I think that we hit most all of them. We stayed in a youth hostel that was located in the “Old China” region. The dwellings in this area were in an arrangement called a “hutong” … they were beyond interesting! We saw the real everyday life of the humble Chinese families and how they exist and provide for their families.

Since then, we have been on buses, trains, cabs, on foot (a lot!), and have been continually moving. Lance moves with great ease through the crowds and has taught us how to cross the street, a matter of life and death! Now we are in his hometown … there are old trucks, cabs, motorcycles, rickshaws, rickety buses, people pushing carts with trash in them or volumes of food, furniture, boxes of who knows what … on and on.

I think that it is really sad how the people live. They are poor and struggling. The towns are dirty and full of garbage and there is unfinished construction everywhere. I can’t understand how they live that way. Lance has explained that they are meticulous about their person but do not feel a responsibility towards their surroundings. There are little venues all along the street with every shop you could ever think of, and street food is a very common way to eat here. There are cheap jewelry shops, plumbing shops right next door, and then maybe a bridal shop, complete with a caucasian mannequin. Crazy!

Though this is their situation, they get an A+ for their kindness, smiling faces, and willingness to help out if you are lost. Here where Lance us located, he really is a “Rock Star” of sorts. For that matter, so are Adolf and I. We are the ONLY foreigners here. People just stare at us and come up and try to speak to us so they can tell their friends that they spoke to a foreigner. They gather in clusters and point or say “hello”, their favorite English word, by far.

The little children are beautiful and the young ladies are stunning! The men are hard-working and seem worn out. As they ride on a bus, you will see may times that they fall asleep, waking up abruptly when the bus jerks or stops. It is not uncommon to see a family of 3 or 4 riding across town on a motor bike. You are rich if you own a car and a car is a treasured posession.

Well, I can’t begin to tell you all that I am experiencing but thought you would enjoy a small part of it. We will attend Lance’s school on Tuesday and the rest of the week and he is threatening that we will have to teach his classes! His apartment is located right on campus and is quite comfortable and adequate.

Your Neighbor in China,
Linda

Not on the Test
by John Forster and Tom Chapin

Go on to sleep now, third grader of mine.
The test is tomorrow but you’ll do just fine.
It’s reading and math. Forget all the rest.
You don’t need to know what is not on the test.

Each box that you mark on each test that you take,
Remember your teachers. Their jobs are at stake.
Your score is their score, but don’t get all stressed.
They’d never teach anything not on the test.

The School Board is faced with no child left behind
With rules but no funding, they’re caught in a bind.
So music and art and the things you love best
Are not in your school ’cause they’re not on the test.

Sleep, sleep, and as you progress
You’ll learn there’s a lot that is not on the test.

Debate is a skill that is useful to know,
Unless you’re in Congress or talk radio,
Where shouting and spouting and spewing are blessed
‘Cause rational discourse was not on the test.

Thinking’s important. It’s good to know how.
And someday you’ll learn to, but someday’s not now.
Go on to sleep, now. You need your rest.
Don’t think about thinking. It’s not on the test.

[via WIT]