Coming close to departure

I've lost my motivation to work! Help me!

As time gets closer to the day that I go back home, I get more and more lethargic, call it a Senioritis of sorts. I am, after all, graduating from BNU in the end of the Fall semester with a diploma, so why shouldn't I feel lazy. Well, it really depends. I haven't missed a class yet, but every time I encounter a morning class, which is Tuesdays and Thursdays, I seriously consider not going, but once I get to the class it's fine.

Not only am I getting closer to going home, but the other day when I went with Tammy and a couple of other friends to buy last minute gifts, Xiu Shui Jie (Silk Market or Silk Street) was already playing Christmas music, and this was in the beginning of December. They seriously get a move on things, probably to market to the everlasting flow of foreigners. It was extremely hard to bargain their, because of the foreigner flow that I just mentioned, so the salespeople knew that they could sell to other people for prices way higher than what we wanted. Either way, I think we're going to stick to the less popular, but still higher quality shopping districts to get our fix.

Also, there is just an overflow of changes in Beijing, the winter weather is starting to kick in, global warming ain't got nothing on Beijing winter. Actually, starting tomorrow, the weather is going to drop about 10 degrees for both the highs and lows. So today, the low was around 1 degree Celsius (which I admit is cold) and is going to move down to negative 13 and then negative 13 for the next day, followed by negative 9. Now THAT is cold. Not to mention that the highs are going to be around negative 1 to 0, consistently. Hopefully, we'll catch the snow and our wishes will be answered, you never know.


But as I mentioned before, how we are going home in less than 20 days, this also means that we are getting ready for our final exams. They are testing us on chapters that we aren't going to review with the teachers, how lame is that? Listen to this, in the time that we stay here (a whole month less than the other foreign students) we are going to test on 5-8, but then the other students, leaving in late January are going to test from 5-9. Does that seem fair? Testing on only 1 more chapter, with 1 month duration. I don't think so. An average chapter takes about 1 week to finish because we only have the class three times a week. I don't know about you, but that seems pretty unfair to me. I guess I'll just have to study extra hard. It's all for the better anyway.

But in other news, because you all know how I like to talk about new products on the market, I'm NO LONGER talking about the Blackberry Storm. It's failed me and will not reappear on my blog until it has a respectable review and has proved everyone wrong about how bad it is. But, as some of you may know, I've been trying to start some kind of new entrepreneurial venture. As of now, I've gone through about 10 different ideas, one of which really caught my attention, but has died down as of now. I'm back to the drawing board and looking at other start up websites to look for Web 2.0 and web start up inspiration. My review today will consist of two sites that I think are awesome:

1)Kongregate.com

AN AMAZINGLY ADDICTING WEBSITE that features flash games that other sites like addictinggames.com and armorgames.com have, but with a twist, it replicates the system of points and achievements that Xbox 360 has, which makes it more appealing for people to return and compete against each other in ranking. It also gives more incentive and more reward for people playing the flash games that they've been playing for years. If there's one website you should check this one out, but beware, it is addicting even if you aren't a gamer. Ask Tammy :).

2)Killerstartups.com

As I was looking for a website that showcased new start ups to get ideas, I stumbled upon this website. It is a killer. It reviews new web start ups daily, says why their good and what category their in. It even gives the option to paid members to see the numbers that these new start ups are making. I think it's a good website in terms of actively reviewing up to date Web 2.0 and more sites.

And we can't forget Top Gear:

Top Gear Season 12 Episode 5 also was an awesome episode. A few season back they aired a race between home mobiles driven by touring car drivers; this episode they took those same drivers and introduced them to different style buses (double decker, single decker, "bendy" buses, etc.) to do an "accurate" measure of what bus should be, and is best, for inner London driving situations.

I also bought the last Top Gear magazine (in Chinese) that I will ever buy in Beijing, if I don't come back and buy some more later :). It's the December edition. Sweet!