Play the Game of Life
Ryan Petersen's Blog

SteviaInfo.com is a new non-profit Web site carrying information about the health benefits of stevia. Includes stevia recipes, stevia research studies, stevia news articles and stevia comparisons.

Labels: stevia

A key distinction for any sourcing agent in China: If you are considering working with a new factory, always ask to use the bathroom. You can gain a tremendous amount of information about the quality of management and the importance with which they regard their employees by the state of their bathrooms.

We discovered this evaluation technique recently by accident (I really had to go). The bathroom at a factory our company was considering purchasing some units from was absolutely the most hideous thing I've ever seen.

Here is a picture of the factory's bathroom. Please accept our apologies for the foul nature of this photo. And take note that Wasauna, the Back Rub Hub and affiliated companies would never purchase products from this type of operation.

If you ran this factory, and your bathroom looked
like this, would you allow a potential client to use it?

Labels: business, china

China may be the best place to get started in a sport like mountain biking. The Chinese are well-known for being much more group-oriented than Westerners. This can be quite annoying on camping trips, in tourist groups, and many other situations. However, when you are a novice learning an exceptionally dangerous sport, its very comforting that the experts at the front of the pack frequently stop to make sure that the group stays together. From experience in America, you rarely find such an atmosphere of commaraderie between beginners and experts in any sport (or most other activities for that matter).

So add joining a local mountain biking club to the list of activities for a successful language learning routine. You'll get to explore the region around your new home, get in shape, make new friends and speak plenty of your new language.

Labels: china

These are two of the most difficult commodities to find in the Chinese market. This could be an interesting business opportunity...for A.G. Lafley.

Labels: business, china

On Friday I joined a swimming pool and quickly identified several key distinctions between a Chinese swim club and those I am familiar with back home. First, the Chinese don't swim laps back and forth, but rather they all swim around in circles around the outside of the pool. It took me a while to figure out why people were always entering my lane, creating frustrating moments as I tried to work out the system of right-of-way. This is actually a brilliant solution for a country with too many people...you can fit lots more people in a circle going around the outside than in individual lanes. The pool was nearly empty though, so I guess its just something they are taught from a young age.

The next thing I noticed is that people generally behave very strangely at the pool. Their stretches on the side involve hitting themselves repeatedly on every muscle group. I imagine this must get the blood flowing in that direction...Meanwhile several people press their faces up against the bars of the fence so they can watch the people swimming, as if it were something completely novel (which it is, I suppose). The last thing I noticed is that when I was taking a shower several men made overt efforts to check out my wang. I imagine they were curious to learn if there is any truth to the rumor about the massive size of white people's penises. I did not disappoint

Looks like a regular American pool from here...

Labels: china