Funny bits and ends
Written by Julen Madariaga on January 16th, 2009Some strange things happening in this blog:
Post unpunned?
It is hard to resist when you are writing a post and you see the chance to put in one of your puns, but lately I’ve been pretty good at it. It’s been more than a month, for example, that I don’t refer to the Leadership of the PRC with the sentence: “Who and when attended the conference?”.
I say this because I just noticed the opposite case in yesterday’s post: a good gag appeared unnoticed and now risks to seriously embarrass me, as it involves - again- a leader of the People’s Republic. If you remember, I was telling you about Wen Jiabao’s predictions getting a good kick in the family jewels. Only now I realize that Wen’s first name actually, literally, means: Family jewels. Man, I love this Premier more every day.
I don’t believe in self-censoring, so I won’t have it unpunned. For now.
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Meet the activist Uln Win
I don’t hide that I was pleased when my trackback indicator told me I had been linked by no less than the Telegraph - well, OK, from one of its blogs. When I went to look at the article, I found this:
The Chinese blogger Uln Win has reprinted the core principles, together with some analysis, on her site. [...] Uln Win makes the point that while the charter originated within mainland China and its signatories are all from within the country, she remains concerned that the vast majority of people in the country remain wholly unaware of it…
Extraordinary! Not only I am a girl now, but I am also Chinese and I am called Uln Win. Let’s go by parts:
1- The change of sex: I kind of fancied I had a virile writing style, obviously I was wrong. I can’t blame him on this one though, it is true that my profile is not clear in this respect.
2- The Chinese nationality: Funny. The first sentence in my profile famously is: “This blog is written by ULN, a foreigner happily living in Shanghai”.
3- The code name “Uln Win”: This has to get the top prize. I just can’t imagine where he got it from, there is not an instance on the internet of such a name. My guess is he wanted a powerful name for his female Chinese hero, and he added the “Win” as a sure winner! I can’t wait to read his next post, will Uln Win rescue Liu Xiaobo from the claws of the regime?
Well, this explains why my statistics give so many visits of less than one minute, that’s what I call skimming a blog. I suppose it is the excess of information we all bloggers suffer. To be fair, it looks like at least he read the post, which, I suppose, is what matters.
kermit said:
Joe said:
试观二十四史所载，名臣名将，功业懿铄、声 名彪炳者，舍翊助朝廷一姓之外，有所...
author wanglili said:
jose said:
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Anelly said:
16
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Steve Ballinger FOR THE (ULN) WIN!
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Now I know Uln is a Mr not a Miss. Strange enough,I used to think it’s more likely you are a girl. I don’t know why I would think that way. My English is so bad that I even can not fully understand you article. Why do I have that kind of perception?
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@davesgonechina: Haha, yes, I vote for that one too. But it is amazing how his blunders beat all the laws of statistics. I mean, what were the odds that he got all things wrong? He must have done it on purpose!
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@Xu:
Wow, actually I hadn’t considered that possibility. I mean, I always thought it was obvious that this blog is run by a man. Clues: the sober layout, the interest in economy, the continuous ranting against Shanghai princesses, the lack of pictures of cute kittens…
OK, now they will call me sexist..
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Jajajaja, Uln, Uln, what will your friends back in Spain think when they get to know that you are mistaken with a woman in Shanghai?
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Hey Fapiao!! You got bored of my Spanish blog and came over? welcome back! Hey, in English you have to use the “h” to laugh, it sounds something like this “hahaha”…
BTW, it might be as well if you don’t inform those friends back in homeland who will find this issue of interest…
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haha, I was wrong about the sex either..
It just seemed to me that you paid a lot of attention to details. Maybe that’s what made me think this blog was run by a female blogger. But the lack of pictures of cute kittens? you’re right, now it makes sense.
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Ciao Bella.hahaha! Have you considered to post a photo of you at ULN section? I believe this mistake would happen constantly in the future since your written style are not going to change immediately.
As for “Clues: the sober layout, the interest in economy, the continuous ranting against Shanghai princesses, the lack of pictures of cute kittens….”
Well,the runner is a man as you reiterated. But some of the readers are female and even Shanghai princesses.
Do you indicate that “sober layout” and “the interest in economy” are only belong to MAN?!
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Haha, I knew someone would come back with that. OK, I will give you the interest in economy (although I don’t have so many girlfriends interested in that). But for the sober layout: I still have to see one girl in my office who doesn’t have the desk full of photos, Hello Kitty ballpens, colourful plastic accessories, mobile phones with dangly things, etc.
And kittens.
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PS. No I will not post photos, some of the comments I got were scary and I don’t want to give any clues to the flesh searching fenqing (young patriots)
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Congrats on your recognition by the Telegraph, but that sucks how they butchered your identity. Someone will have to write a letter to their editor and get the facts straightened out. Hopefully they will get it right next time. Have a happy spring festival!
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Haha, thanks Joel. Actually it is only one of the Telegraph blogs, and I don’t like to be nasty to him, some day the same might happen to me (if I start taking too many drugs)
Anyway, I have a few incoming referrals from his blog so I guess Steve has already seen this and is probably laughing at it, I hope.
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