The Bates Dynasty has moved

So I finally took the plunge and setup a website.

I like blogger and could have happily continued to use it as an acceptable blog, but China keeps blocking it and it's just getting annoying.

So I have a fully functioning website now that should be regularly updated and even have lots of media, like photos and videos, hardwired right in.

web.mac.com/thebatesdynasty

enjoy...

Also, if anyone has a clue how I can import some of my blogger posts into my .mac site, let me know...

Brother/Sister-in-law(s) - revised

Two of my three brother-in-laws now live w/in a 5 minute walk from me. That's unusual but not unheard of. Add in the fact they're not siblings and the odds are a little stronger.

One's my sister's husband, Buster, and the other is my wife's brother, Mat {w/ one 'T'}.

But what really makes it unlikely is that I live in China. This might be the smallest demographic I'll ever squeeze into. Seriously, I wonder how many American dudes have two of their brother-in-laws, from different sides of their marriage, living w/in 5 minutes of them in a foreign country? Not that this is very interesting in any amazing way, I just realized that I was in this very select group and wanted to mention it.

Also, it should be noted, that these two guys are my only two regular readers here at Batesdynasty, so I figured I'd give them a hola!

But b/c Mat {w/ one 'T'} is currently new to China and w/o internet, and Buster is busy w/ his new daughter, I feel like I should take this opportunity to say something bad about them while they can't respond!

nah, I'm too nice...

(actually I'm just brain-farting at the moment and can't think of anything to say about them)

REVISED:

After posting this, I realized that my wife has me beat; she's only got two sister-in-laws and they BOTH live here. (married to Mat {w/ one 'T'} and Buster) Coincidentally, they're also both named Amy. Furthermore, one is Amy Beth and the other is Amy Elizabeth. I think Bet really is one-of-a-kind.

5 YEARS AND COUNTING!

Today 'The Bates Dynasty' celebrates its fifth year in power! I'm not refering to this blog, I'm refering to May 18, 2002. On that day Bethany Brewster decided to marry me, poor thing, and the rest is history.(or 'crap that happened', that's for Dan)

So this is my indirect way of telling you all that I won't be blogging this weekend; I'll be chilling in a 5 star hotel suite for three days!

I promise, I'll get back to my regular posts next week. I'm gonna start a new weekly too, ya it's music related. I'll post more stuff 'From the www' in the future as well. (this is my best sales pitch)

Till then, root for the Suns against those cheap shot thugs in black and silver!

GO SUNS!!!

Tragedy In Virginia (revised)

(revised portion)
so there was a mistaken identity early on in this tragedy and we now know that the shooter was from South Korea. tomorrow our school has an assembly about the shootings and i wonder if they'll mention this information; in an international school setting they sometimes have to be really extra careful about things like this. about 20% of our student body is South Korean, about 50% is American and beyond that even more of our students spent a large percentage of their lives living in the States. but we have an awesome community of kids here and i think they'll handle the whole situation very well. (the South Korean kids are really wonderful; this isn't a reflection of their country at all!)

Buster wrote a little post about this over at his site. i majored in journalism and for some reason i'm pretty bad at putting together the right words in a post. so go check out his, articulate, blog post.
(revised portion)

i wrote this really fast so it might be full of mistakes...

i'm writing this b/c i know we're going to get emails about it (and i want to say something before i have class the next 4 hours); what happened in Virginia is CRAZY!!! and yes, it really freaks me out for two reasons:

a. i was in college a few years ago and picturing this whole thing gives me chills

b. this guy was within 15 minutes of my house when he left Shanghai

this also has a wider scope of affect due to the 'foreign student' aspect b/c a lot of our kids here are Taiwanese Americans that will need a visa to go to college and this thing might affect them. and i think that the seniors might freak out about going to college

this one's from my brother-in-law's site

i probably won't do this too often but i really liked something Buster wrote, over on his blog, about sharing the Word.

here's the link

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! anyone else that knows my mom can drop some happy birthday messages in the comment section for her to read.

so you can accurately wish her a happy birthday; she turns 27 today.

for your birthday, here's your son wearing a tie