But the simple fact is that I do not live in a country where they even pretend to have freedom of speech. Writing the wrong kinds of things here can endanger my status in this country.

I am a boss. Things that I write may reflect badly on my company, professional image, customers or employees. Not to mention put my career at risk.

I am a family man. Friends and acquaintances of my family could read this and take things the wrong way. It could cause friendships to strain. It could cause rumors or preconceptions to form.

And I am a computer nerd. I understand that what is written on the internet, stays on the internet. Even after blogs like this are long deleted and forgotten.

Ay, there is the rub. I love to write about what I experience, what I find funny, what I love and dislike. I love to keep my friends and family updated on what is going on in my life. But there is simply too much risk in doing so.

It would be nice to say that other peoples opinions don’t matter. But the truth is that they do. So it with much personal regret that this will probably be the last post on this blog.

To my friends, I will send out updates every now and then via email. To everyone else, I bid you a fond farewell and I wish you happiness in all you do.

Anyway, here are a few pics of what went down. I apologize in advance for the poor quality of the images. These were taken by my cell phone in a dark room.
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Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

I was going to do a top 10 list of myths surrounding my disappearance, but after I got to number 4 even I thought my jokes were pretty stupid. The reason I have been silent is a combination of work, life and lazy. Not particularly in that order.

So here is what I have been up to this year in a nice, bulleted and summarized format.

• In March of this year, I closed the doors on the business I started when I first came to China. The financial crisis made all of my clients run for the hills.
• I spent the next several months taking a well needed rest while playing with my boys Wyatt & Cyrus.
• I also continued my involvement with the Guangzhou chapter of the Hash House Harriers. I love that group of people and I miss the free beer. On on!
• In June, through what can only be called “blind ass luck” I was introduced to a person who was looking for someone to run the China operations of their company. The company is a software/hardware development company and my skills pretty much matched exactly what they had been searching for.
• After many rounds of interviews I was offered the position. The job was exactly what I wanted to do, but it did have one big down-side. I had to leave Guangzhou and move to Dalian. My wife has a great job in Guangzhou so we determined that the only thing to do was for me to move to Dalian without my family. They would follow in spring of 2010. And in the mean time I would be flying back and forth on a regular basis to see my family and every night my wife and I talk on Skype.
• At the end of July I made the move from Guangzhou to Dalian. My loving wife visited a month later in order to help me find an apartment to live in and not get charged too much because I was a foreigner.
• Summertime in Dalian is beautiful.
• On October 15th we had the official grand opening of our company here. It was attended by all kinds of VIPs including the Vice Mayor of Dalian, the Irish Ambassador to China and the Irish Minister of Finance and Trade. It was also the beginning of winter in Dalian. My first real winter in over 20 years.
• Wintertime in Dalian is cold. Very cold. Lots of wind. Cold + Wind = Sucks.
• Fast forward to yesterday. Yesterday my wife was offered her dream job. In Wuhan. Wuhan is not near Dalian. This means my family will not be coming to Dalian. So lots more flying in my future. Time to get a frequent flyer card. It is my wife’s dream job. All I can do is support her and know that the choices we make will ultimately be best for our family.

So that is a summary of what I have been up to. Lots more details and stories to be added as time permits. Hopefully I will get around to updating a tad more often.

Somehow, I think it is a little sad that a web design company like mine has to have such an ugly website. But that is what happens when all of your time is spent making great sites for other people.  But I have finally forced myself to set aside the time and the manpower to create the new site.  And it will be one that I can be very proud of. 

Aside from work I have been trying to spend more time with my boys.  But that hasn’t been as successful as I would hope.  During the week I am lucky if I get to see them for two minutes before I have to rush out the door.  Normally by the time I get home they are already asleep.  Weekends are a mixed bag. I get to spend a little more time with them but a lot of my time is still spent working in my home office.

Speaking of my boys, I picked up their American passports the other day.  They are now officially American citizens.  I don’t know how long it will be before they get the chance to go to the United States, but the thought of transporting 2 eight-month old babies on a 14 hour flight seems like a very difficult thing to me.  I will probably have to wait until they are a little older.

In a couple days is Thanksgiving. Of course it isn’t really celebrated here, but there are a few restaurants where American expats will gather for what passes as a traditional Thanksgiving meal here. But the food doesn’t really matter that much.  It is the chance to be around friends and people who share a common culture with you for a little while.  You would be surprised just how much that can mean sometimes.

Anyway, enough of these boring random thoughts.  It is time for me (and probably you) to get back to work.