happy new year

It is the chinese new year today for all of those that dnt know. It will become the year of the rat. That sneaky bastard. See the rat is the start of the cycle because it hitched a ride on the ox to go to the council. As it got near to place it was supposed to be it jumped off the ox and ran to be the first to arrive, thus being the first to be in the lunar cycle. This should tell you a little about how different the world looks to our respective cultures. While I and most americans see the rat as a cheating conniving little fucker that should be thrown out of any races in the future. The chinese see it as clever. They say it used its wit to outsmart the rest of the animals and are happy to reward it with the first place. Now this seems trivial but imagine a whole culture that believes it is ok to let someone else do the hardwork of life for you. If you are there first to take credit for it you are to be rewarded. Now try to imagine being a teacher in this culture. Plagirism, fine its being clever. Others taking graduate school exams for you, clever boy. Using your mother and father to get into the better schools or get better grades. Oh how smart you are. And why should they do the hard work themselves? The students will tell you that if they do the work on their own it wont be as good as someone else who was clever enopugh to buy it on the web or copy it from an expert. It is a really vicisous circle. One that is 12 years long. Ends with the pig then back to the rat.

As has been pointed out to me it is in fact the year of the cow/ox now as the rat has just finished. I apologize if this caused a confusion in your holiday plans and had made you buy ratty things and not cow stuff. My deepest regrets for this. I will try to get back to being perfect.