The easiest way to distinguish between them is to ask what they do in their spare time.
Tech enthusiasts do either tech work, or creative work.
Techbros do extreme sports or other brodudish things.
Then there's really not a lot you can do short of manually curating everything or making copies of known-good sites before they get ruined.
I moved to China in 2001 "for a year or two" to get in touch with my family roots on that side.
I'm here almost 25 years later.
That's what I make of China. 😂
Yeah, I heard her story when I lived in the Arctic and it was quite the resonating thing. When I saw a video about her today I replaced my original planned #2 with Ada.
I guess the original planned #2 will become #3.
From outside to in: my nation of citizenship, my nation of birth, and my nation of residence. :D I'm half-Chinese (mom), half-German (dad), half-Canadian (passport), and all bad at math.
people don’t quit jobs they quit managers
स्वाहा, my dear. Or 娑婆诃.
(Or if you must, "Amen!")
Huh. Apparently if you give it an image it ignores the link. 😲 I'll keep that in mind for future posts.
It might be best to return to the days of in-person gatherings of hobbyists. Like my mother and quilting circles.
Yeah, especially the techobro-ascended managers who kept trying to tell me how to do the job I went to fucking university to learn.
That's what triggered this, actually. I knew her story, but seeing that video put her next on my list of kick-ass women to document. 😆
Well, near the top for sure. There's some areas of India whose cuisine I could live the rest of my life getting very fat on. 🤣
It's street food time again! And this time it's another of my favourites. In the past you've seen me show 肉夹馍 (ròujiāmó) which is my favourite Chinese street food. It is my favourite, however, by a very slender margin because today's essay will introduce you a very close second. This is 锅盔 (guō...
Another little photo essay to share some of my favourite street food snacks.
I can do without the mouldy cheeses, but Emmenthal and Brie (yes, I know the dust is mould too, but you know what I mean) are great!
The PUA types are hilarious as long as you don't get stuck alone with them. So easy to trigger; so easy to convert to MGTOW. ("Men Getting Triggered Over Women".)
If you're stuck alone with them, things get bad quickly. Don't let this happen.
From the Wikipedia article:
Blackjack used the money she saved to take her son to Seattle, Washington, to treat his tuberculosis. She remarried and had another son, Billy. Eventually, she returned to the Arctic, where she lived until the age of 85.
It’s the usual not being taken seriously.
Oh, ugh, I hated that part of working in tech. Double-whammy here: vagina-bearer and in marketing. I had to push back on that so often…
Oh, you have NO idea. 😬 And there's a place literally a two minute walk away from my front door that makes them really well. It takes a force of will for me to walk past them when I go that direction.
Ada Blackjack was an Iñupiaq woman famous for her role in an ill-fated arctic expedition to Wrangel Island. Her journey from impoverished seamstress to sole survivor of that brutally unforgiving journey is the stuff of which legends are made.
Background
Born Ada Deletuk in 1898 in Solomon, Alaska, life was harsh from the beginning: she lost two of her three children in infancy, was abandoned by her husband, and struggled to provide for her surviving son, Bennett, who suffered from tuberculosis. In 1921, desperate for money to pay for Bennett’s medical care, Ada accepted a position as a cook and seamstress on an expedition to Wrangel Island, a desolate Arctic outpost. She had no survival training of any kind and was physically slight, standing less than five feet tall and weighing barely a hundred pounds.
The Expedition
The expedition consisted of five people: Allan Crawford (Canadian, leader); Lorne Knight, Milton Galle, and Fred Maurer (American); and, of course, Ada. Maurer was a survivor of a shipwreck that had been stranded on Wrangel Island for eight months so was deemed as a sort of local expert. The purpose of the expedition was to claim the island for Canada through virtue of having people living on it for two years.
Survival
The mission went fine for the first year or so, but when a resupply ship failed to arrive, things started to turn. There was not enough game to hunt to keep everybody fed, so nutritional deficiencies started to take hold. Knight succumbed to scurvy and was bedridden. The other three men, out of desperation, set out to cross the ice to Siberia to search for food and aid, leaving Ada alone with Knight. For six months, she nursed Knight, acting as “doctor, nurse, companion, servant and huntswoman in one” according to her diary.
After Knight’s death, Ada was left utterly alone. She overcame her fear of guns and polar bears, learned to hunt seals and foxes, and even constructed a makeshift boat and kerosene stove, demonstrating ingenuity that surpassed even the professional explorers she had accompanied.
Heroism
Ada’s determination to survive was fueled by her devotion to her son. The thought of reuniting with Bennett gave her the strength to endure isolation, starvation, and the ever-present threat of polar bears. Despite having been bullied and marginalized by her male companions, Ada recovered from despair and "threw herself ferociously to the task of surviving in order to be reunited with her son”, again according to her diary. Indeed her diary reveals the immense burdens she shouldered, taking on the work of four men while caring for the sick and dying Knight.
Perhaps the most profound aspect of Ada’s heroism was her selflessness. She risked her life not for fame or fortune, but to provide a future for her ailing child. Her journey to Wrangel Island was motivated solely by the hope of earning enough money to care for Bennett; it was perhaps her only hope, as a despised minority of no means or prospects, of doing so. Even after her ordeal, Ada used her savings to take Bennett to Seattle for medical treatment, continuing to put his needs above her own.
Rescue and Aftermath
When Ada was finally rescued in August 1923, she returned to a flurry of media attention, hailed as the “female Robinson Crusoe”. Yet she shied away from the spotlight, insisting she was simply a mother trying to get home to her son. Her heroism was largely forgotten for decades, but recent retellings have revived her legacy as a symbol of quiet, unyielding courage.
Ada Blackjack died in 1983 at the age of 85, her gravestone reading: “HEROINE – WRANGEL ISLAND EXPEDITION”. The Alaska Legislature posthumously recognized her as a true and courageous hero.
Closing Thoughts
Ada's heroism is not the loud, brash, flashy kind one ordinarily sees held up. Hers was instead a more profound variety, born of selflessness, adaptability, and resilience. Where four professional explorers succumbed to the harshness of being stranded in the high Arctic, she endured and survived, all so that her son could have access to medical treatments.
For me, personally, this is a truer form of heroism than the grandiloquent tales told around campfires of great deeds of derring-do. This is heroism that exemplifies the best of the best in humanity.
And it rested in a marginalized woman.
If I were to ask you who the most successful pirate in history was, I'm guessing you'd come up with names like Captain Kidd or Blackbeard or any number of others of that crowd in the Caribbean. But what if I told you that history's most successful pirate was in China, and was a woman? Would that surprise you? Intrigue you?
Prepare to be intrigued as I introduce you then, today, to one of the single most feared pirates in all of history: Zheng Yi Sao (this is the name I will be using here; she went by others), the pirate queen who was hunted by not one, not two, but three imperial powers, yet who retired peacefully and died not of violence, but of old age.
Humble Beginnings
Zheng Yi Sao—born 石阳 (Shí Yáng) in approximately 1775 somewhere around Xinhui, Guangdong—was a Tanka who worked as a prostitute-later-procurer on a floating Tanka brothel in Guangdong (or so the story goes).
Marriage
Details of her early life are not well-documented, but what is know is that around 1801 she married the pirate privateer Zheng Yi. (Her name literally means "Zheng Yi's wife". Welcome to patriarchy.) A year after their marriage, Zheng Yi took over a pirate fleet from a captured and executed cousin and became, after some heavy infighting among the pirates off the coast of Guangdong, and with the natural organizational skills of Zheng Yi Sao, the commander of a unified fleet of pirates. By 1805 Zheng Yi and Zheng Yi Sao had wrangled together a confederation of pirates with colour-coded fleets of red, black, blue, white, yellow, and purple. Commanding the massive Red Fleet of … You know what? This is too much about her husband and not enough about who we really want to talk about. Let's move on.
Inherited Command
Short version: Zheng Yi, by now the head of the confederation, with his adoptive son Zhang Bao now commanding the Red Fleet, was blown overboard in a gale in 1807 and died. Zheng Yi Sao effectively inherited the loose control her husband had had over the confederation, and Zhang Bao took formal command over the Red Fleet. After entering into a sexual relation with Zhang Bao she cemented control over the pirate confederacy and became the queen of the pirates she would later be famous for.
Queen
Year after year Zheng Yi Sao got more and more ambitious and ruthless. She incorporated cast-iron discipline among the pirates with harsh penalties for everything from theft of booty to rape of female captives. Despite a major setback in 1809 with the absolute destruction of the White Fleet, she became such a terror to the Chinese authorities (and the East India Tea Company), destroying fleet after fleet sent to engage her confederacy, that the Chinese empire looked to "barbarian" empires to help.
The Portuguese agreed to help and managed to blockade the Red Fleet in 1809 … only for the two imperial powers to be fought to a standstill and stalemate as unfavourable winds kept the pirates from breaking free. Finally the winds changed and the fleet broke free, humiliating two imperial powers in their wake.
The Winds of Change
In 1810, seemingly at the height of its power, the confederacy surrendered to the Great Qing. The motives for this surrender are unclear, but it is speculated that the confederacy was in such a powerful state that it could dictate the terms of its surrender and the Qing would gladly agree to them just to finally be rid of the scourge that was harrying their coastlines and rivers. Other theories suggest that upon the British entering the fray Zheng Yi Sao saw the writing on the wall and knew it was time to quit while she was ahead.
Surrender
On April 20, 1810, Zheng Yi Sao and her adoptive stepson Zhang Bao officially surrendered with 17,318 pirates, 226 ships, 1,315 cannons, and 2,798 assorted weapons. (24 of those ships and 1,433 of the pirates were under her personal command.) Zhang Bao was awarded the rank of lieutenant, and was allowed to retain a private fleet of up to 30 ships. The pair were also given permission to officially marry. (Don't think too hard on this.) Pardons were issued to all of the surrendering pirates, and the regular seamen were given pork, wine, and money along with a general amnesty.
Along with that amnesty, Zheng Yi Sao was also given land in Guangdong where she operated a successful gambling house.
Post-surrender Life
Not a lot is known in detail about Zheng Yi Sao's post-surrender life. It is known that she gave birth to a son in 1813. It is also known that she gave birth to a daughter, but little else is known about her. (Welcome to patriarchy.) Aside from a legal case (which was dismissed by the emperor) over some money, she led a pretty unremarkable life, dying in 1844 at the age of 68-69, having run a successful (and infamous) gambling hall on Hainan in the intervening time.
Influence
For a woman almost completely unknown in the west, Zheng Yi Sao has had an enduring fascination and appeal here in the east. She appears as a character in films, in television, in literature, in graphic novels, and in video games. Scholarly works have been written about here from shortly after her death onward. Places have been named (both officially and unofficially) after her. She has cemented her place in history ... and justly so.
Oh, and that thumbnail image for this essay? That's the only known photograph of the great pirate queen herself.
Uhh...
This "mini-course" offered by Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario is not a joke. It's a legit course being given to grade 11 and 12 students.
Thoughts?
This is a 口弦 (kǒu xián or south-east Asian jaw harp) of the 傈僳族 (Lìsù Zú or Lisu People) of 云南 (Yúnnán). This particular one is a functional instrument, but gussied up for decorative/tourist purposes with a colourfully painted bamboo shell, colourful woven pouch (in this case just stuffed with batt...
This is street food at its finest. 肉夹馍 (ròujiāmó), sometimes called (but never by me!) the "Chinese hamburger", is comfort/fast food from 陕西 (Shǎnxī or Shaanxi) province that has spread all over China. As with hamburgers the constituent ingredients can vary, but in general include: 1. Stewed fatt...
I only just put up that little photo essay and then this community gets created.
Coincidence?
Definitely.
Technically this doesn't really count as an obscure instrument where I live, but I suspect there are very few people outside of here who know it. These are stone chimes that date back to "scary-antiquity" times (at least 2500 years and likely more). The set being played is a reproduction of the set found in the tomb of the Marquis Yi of Zeng currently sitting on display in the Hubei Provincial Museum.
As is usual when describing some of the odder musical instruments here, I use the "it's like … but" formulation.
It's like a xylophone, but arranged sideways, and also suspended on wires or thin ropes (depending on which era), oh, yeah, and the sounding plates are made of stone.
When he struggles to reach across the board to move his chariot, I lose the plot.
This is what happens if you get an American djent drummer working together with a Chinese jazz bassist and a Chinese jazz guitarist creating polyrhythmic nigh-cacophony that gets tied together into a coherent whole by an Immortal come down from the moon after a Friday night bender singing.
So when they return to port they can just Scandinavian.
explanation if needed
"scan the navy in"
Apparently he doesn't understand cyberpunk either, which explains so much about him.
My Dearest Sinophobes:
Your knee-jerk downvoting of anything that features any hint of Chinese content doesn't hurt my feelings. It just makes me point an laugh, Nelson Muntz style as you demonstrate time and again just how weak American snowflake culture really is.
Hugs & Kisses, 张殿李