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Will be arriving August 10 which means it’s time to plan, shop, and pack for 10 months of living abroad. Does IKEA Chengdu offer the same household goods and kitchenware typically found in U.S. stores? On a side note, will I be able to find 3m command hooks (has to be the brand name) and gallon sized ziplock bags (generic is fine)
I just saw them in 7-11.
You can find “ZipLock” bags in Ikea here, they are pretty good but I think the name brand stuff exists here too. Its mostly the same here but I would bring deodorant, Sensodine toothpaste (if you use it) and Tide Pens. Other than that you should be fine, I can’t really think of anything else you can’t either find on the internet or in import stores. I’m sure others can chime in.
This conversation is absolutely fascinating, when I initially proposed the topic I hadn’t imagined it would head in this direction. While I understand some are weary of a future where we allow greed, hate and indulgence to destroy us I believe we will innovate beyond that. When automation is ubiquitous and humans are allowed more and more time to contemplate our own existence.
My hope is for a future where the “human cost” of everything is so low we can provide the 5 basic necessities to everyone on the planet there will be less need for war. Yes it will start with the developed world, if you look around the only places really destabilizing on the globe now are doing so because of religion. Most of that destabilization is done because of lack of information, education and the few holding all the cards. When the internet is provided free of charge, and even the richest most powerful warlords and dictators cannot stop people from seeing just how small the world is we may see a shift of power from the few to the many.
We will reach a time where everything is so cheap we won’t need to fight over power, water, and information. There will come a time where your consciousness can be uploaded to a cloud in some sort of life extension program and I believe it will be at this point where we have been able to innovate beyond religion. When second life is real who needs the promise of heaven?
We may choose to share “stupid” things on Facebook but at no time ever have humans had the means to be connected to each other in such a way. I think Reddit is a better example of crowd sourced human connection. In this example the cream is allowed to filter to the top and even something on a very obscure sub reddit can make it to the front at times.
Some one talked about the printing press being a waste of time and unnecessary earlier. There was a time when the world functioned a little bit like a giant computer. Information was exchanged at a shower pace using ships instead of transistors. In order to assure everyone was on the same page the British standardized education (reading, writing and arithmetic) obviously this was post printing press but pre computer. They needed to ensure that when a letter was written in India or Australia it could be read with ease in Britain. Every one needed to be able to do the same math and know the same basic things. Now we have innovated beyond the need for this type of education. We have moved beyond the need to remember much of anything besides whatever it takes to effectively google it (in this case I use google as a verb meaning “to search” not necessarily with the Google search engine).
There are many problems facing us in the future though. I touched on this in the Uber thread but I am deeply worried about an automated future making most of humanity as we know it unemployable. We only have room for so many highly skilled jobs. I do believe (perhaps in vain) that a StarTrek-esk future is on the horizon.
I talked before about the 5 necessities for human life
- Food and fresh water
- Clothing
- Housing
- Healthcare
- Education
The 6th is purpose, without it humans tend to waver and float through life aimlessly. Some are happy playing Xbox all day long and there will be those that do. But when we are able to provide these 5 things to everyone on the planet free of charge it will open up so much more time to innovate and create things we have never imagines before.
I hope by this time @897934-884 will be tired of rubbing two sticks together and invent a fucking hover board already.
Sorry if this reply seems a bit disjointed I just woke up.
Hi, I am from Boston and recently came to Chengdu a couple of days ago to visit some family relatives. I will be staying for a month and would love to make some new friends
Whats up, I have been to Boston. My cousin went to school there and i was lucky enough to get to spend a week on campus. Swing by the shop Johnny 5 Donuts and say hi, your first donut is on me man!
Check out some bars on Chengdu Places, you shouldn’t have a hard time meeting people there. Other good places to meet people are restaurants in Chengdu like Johnny 5 Donuts and Red Beard Burgers, they both have a distinctly social atmosphere.
Thanks for the shout out man!
I have no idea how much uber drivers are making in China, but I don’t believe it is approaching anywhere near 60k. There have been protests in both San Francisco and New York over pay. Some drivers are saying that they are earning less than minimum wage.
This video pretty much sums up the future that Charlie and I are painting. (Charlie forgive me if I am wrong) But I don’t know if you fully understand the impact that automation will make on society. At the very least our children will see a future where they will live pretty much forever and have nothing to do. I don’t have a ton of time to explain all of this but watching the video may help you understand what we are talking about. If you honestly think self driving cars and ride sharing won’t replace private ownership for the majority of people you should get back in your carriage and whip your horse home.
And for those of you who are morally opposed to YouTube because china has banned the service, here is a YouKu link just for you: youku video
I also do not have the ambition to let Uber care about my opinion … But it still does not change the facts based on which I came to my opinion.
I have been reading this forum and I just can’t help but think this is the exact same argument that horse drawn carriage makers had when the automobile came about. Honestly, how can you so vehemently defend a losing argument. Are you so anti innovation that you can’t imagine a world without hail-able cabs? Do you think cab drivers like what they do? They drive 12 hours a day and many for less than 6000 RMB a month. I was talking to my Uber black driver today. I took Uber black because I had a large delivery to a wedding today and I needed a large, clean car with A/C that would be okay with helping me with the delivery. Should I have ordered a van? Well that would have been illegal given the fact that they aren’t licensed transport vehicles either. My order wouldn’t fit in a cab so my hands were tied and instead of riding the 1 hour trip with my donuts melting in the back of a hot, dusty fruit wagon I rode in a Mercedes GLK SUV. He had his child seat strapped in because he has a full time job and just does this on his day off for a few extra bucks to meet people. However my driver has a friend who got 3 phones, signed up for 一号专车, 滴滴打车 and Uber from what my driver said he made over 60k last month driving the same 12 hours a day.
Do you want to talk about a moral opposition to doing illegal things? It is against the law in Chengdu to have a restaurant in a residential building. Ignorance of that law does not give you justification to break it. Are you now going to immediately stop going to your local noodle spot because you don’t want to be an accomplice or an accessory to their illegal business? I mean, it’s not your fault or anything but you don’t want to be there when every one gets shut down. Don’t go to the BBQ on the corner either, that is against the law too.
You know what I love the very most about China? They would rather have someone “illegally” selling fruit from a basket to feed their family than having the same person leaching from state welfare. They don’t actively try to stifle entrepreneurship because it is bad for the broader social good.
I sincerely doubt you could find a single city where ride sharing/hailing services have had a huge negative impact on the taxi business. You might want to pick up the yellow pages and find someone to get that information for you, or at least don’t use Google or Baidu to source it. They are both deeply invested in Uber and you wouldn’t want to support the enemy.
There will come a time when these types of things are part of our social DNA and the fight against it, just like the fight against automation, or scientific research, or AI is a complete waste of time. The fact is, one day you will be breathing with a lung grown from your own stem cells, while ordering McDonalds made by robots, delivered by a self driving car owned by Uber.
Here’s to the future.
I just wanted to touch on a few quick points,
- Uber is not a taxi service, imagine if I used the “People Nearby” feature on WeChat to locate someone close to me, messaged them and then used the “Share Location” feature to show them my exact location. They then chose to leave their house, get in their car and pick me up after which, I used WeChat Wallet to send them some money based on our trip distance. Is that illegal? I would imagine not, they are simply a willing volunteer and I need a ride. Uber drivers don’t work for Uber, they are provided a platform to use to give rides to people they may or more often may not know.
- Uber is VERY good at connecting people with drivers all over the world. They have a fantastic infrastructure built out and are happy to act as a middle man between my driver and I.
- I don’t even have to use 一号专车 to know it sucks and in addition to that, I can imagine they provide zero support to their drivers. Uber has vowed to pay the fines of their drivers “caught” driving “illegally” in every market they enter. I rest easy knowing that the 30,000 RMB fine levied against my driver will be promptly taken care of by Uber
- Get into an accident? My friend was in an Uber car in LA that was in an accident that wasn’t even the Uber drivers fault… Free rides for a year. Plus Uber gives a 1 million dollar insurance policy for you when you are in the car.
It looks like they might buy HERE, Nokia’s mapping platform is for sale and Uber needs it to gain autonomy from Google Maps. You may remember Apple making a similar decision with iOS 6. This will allow Uber to expand its carpooling services.
Uber is the answer to cab companies failure to evolve with a changing tech landscape. Asking why you should use Uber as opposed to waiting outside with your hand up is similar to asking why you should take a high speed train to Chongqing. I think we should shut it down because it’s taking away business from the slower train. But then again the slower train completely decimated the horse drawn wagon business so who should we blame there.
Lets just weigh the pros of taking Uber vs. a normal cab.
- I can call an Uber when its raining and not wait in the rain.
- I am alerted when it arrives.
- They don’t complain about short trips.
- They don’t try and take long trips off meter.
- I don’t have to worry about getting fake bills back from them because its cashless. In addition I don’t have to worry about the denomination of currency I pay with BECAUSE ITS CASHLESS
- It’s Cleaner, no cigarette smoke, no gum, no vomit or shit or spit or pee.
- The AC is on in the car if you want, or the heat, or the music.
- They offer water, some have wi-fi and phone chargers
- There is no 滴滴打车 noise, no printer noise, no grinding gears.
Have you ever been a taxi where they are driving like an asshole? raving the engine at stoplights for know reason? They are boosting the meter by tricking the fuel monitor into upping your bill.
Uber doesn’t benefit from taking you on a longer ride, everything is mapped with GPS and you can rate the drivers on a scale of 1-5 stars. And you if you leave a bad review you are contacted by an Uber support person the next day to resolve the situation. I have never resolved anything with anyone from any company in China.
Anyway, I just wanted to throw in my 2 cents on the situation.
Eat 🍩!
I made it through the first 4 tracks of TPAB and I wasn’t all that impressed. Stylistically it felt a bit tired, perhaps KL was rushed in the studio to get something out in time. I didn’t feel like the album was telling any kind of story but I will revisit it. I am more of a fan of Childish Gambino’s stuff, I feel like its smarter more biting than anyone else right now and his free style blew me away.
I will listen to the KL album again
Q1- what are your top 3 kpop songs Q2- whats your favourite animal
Hyuna – Bubble Pop
G Dragon – Crooked
Girls Generation – Run Devil Run
Favorite (American Spelling) Animal: Dog or a pygmy marmoset
With that and all of the controversy this AMA has caused I am closing this thread down.
Thank you to everyone who has participated, if you want to ask me more just swing by the shop. 7 days a week 11am to 9pm or later!
Johnny5, sensational AMA. I’ve heard that in certain cities one can eat very well from donut shop dumpsters. Urban myth? With this in mind: a)where is your dumpster located? b)is your dumpster clearly labelled? c)what time should I be raiding this dumpster? No seriously, I’m curious about how you plan how much to make (basically how do you anticipate demand)? Does it differ on the weekend? Do you eat the unsold donuts? Do you even have unsold donuts? Not hustling for half price semi-fresh donuts, just curious. I notice that some bakeries offer discounts for yesterday’s stuff. What’s your policy on this practice? is it crass to do this? Thanks.
I will answer these quickly and in order:
1) Totally true there are left overs, I have seen pictures of the dunking dumpsters
a) b) c) Mike’s wife’s mother has created some kind of donut black market for the left over donuts where she trades them for various things, none of which I have personally seen but I think they may be for food (for staff meal of the pizza place) All I know is she takes them away each morning/night and I never see or hear of them again.
I will not cheapen my brand by selling the donuts for half price the next day, I want everyone who walks in to have the freshest possible donut and I fear if I offer the option to have a lower quality thing for less too many people will never have the chance to have the “real thing.”
I do my best to anticipate demand and I am usually pretty good, sometimes I am very wrong and we sell out at 3pm or we have a shit ton left at 9pm. It’s not a science and I am always trying to be better at predicting demand.
Hey everyone,
I just got a text message that my forum had gotten too real for its own good. I said in the beginning that I would answer every question that came in. I did this because I felt that in a forum this small it wouldn’t be unfair to cherry pick questions (this practice is a necessity on reddit given the number of questions one may receive in a popular AMA).
Hyobin,
Did you read my answer? If you did, you can see that I never actually answer the question he asks. Not that I was particularly uncomfortable, in fact I spoke at length with friends about what I would actually do if put in that scenario. I felt uneasy giving a whole hearted answer, considering my position in the community. I felt it more important to manage my reputation a local business owner, mentor and all around good guy. I don’t understand why you are so offended by it, I believe we should be at a point socially where we are able to ask each other just about anything. While I agree with Charlie that I intended this to be a way to introduce myself to Chengdu expats and provide a forum to get to know more about what I do, who I am etc. I also understood that with the term “Reddit style” I could get in to some pretty deep waters full of some pretty divisive questions. I didn’t think of the question from a man vs. women standpoint in the same way (being half black) I don’t think the white asshole that I just met is being an asshole because of the color of my skin. In my opinion he is just an asshole. I can imagine you might see this blindness as a personal downfall on my part. The fact that I am not controlled by a this vs that, feminist, masochist, white, black, fat, thin perspective might make me the wrong person to really get in to this issue. I am sorry you were offended and I did my best to answer the question, however absurd it was with white gloves.
Mr Klink,
What are my thoughts on gender equality?
I have absolute respect for women rights, I like living in China where women seem to do every job right along side their male counterparts. From SWAT team to construction worker it is refreshing to see women taking on the tougher tasks on a daily basis. With that said I will touch on some of the finer points of gender equality. I was raised by a single mother, my dad was a drug addict, he had already left one family before he started mine and by the time I was one he was finished with that too. I do believe, in my experience there are rolls that men and women are better at. While my mother did her best, I personally think I would have been better off with a male in my life. You may disagree with this, however if you look at nature male and females don’t take on the exact same rolls in the animal kingdom.
I also think the strongest women are the ones who aren’t constantly pointing out what they are doing and how they are doing it better than men. The women I respect the most are those who just, do. I say that for men as well. Parading around talking about how great of a father/mother you are doesn’t make you a great mother/father. If we made more educated and rational decisions about having children and took time to find a person who can match us as an equal perhaps we wouldn’t have a bunch of scenarios where we have to take on every roll alone. That being said, I wouldn’t exist if my own mother had followed my advice.
When people speak about culture clash I think they may be talking about an open America vs a more conservative China. I have only been here for 5 months but from what I can see (not to offend, and correct me if I am wrong) is a society full of a majority that does not question. A culture of saving face and shame for many topics that Americans discuss openly. My mother spoke to me about sex when I was very young, she didn’t answer my questions in a crude way but took time to explain my origins in the best she could. My friends girl friend has a 21 year old son and would never dare to bring up sex with him under any circumstances. If you don’t know how babies are made, if your only point of reference in sexually is the porn you share among friends how are you supposed to grow to be a passionate adult. Without parents who are involved in your upbringing and without the ability to question, to move beyond a “because thats how mamma did it” mentality. How can any of us become positive and contributing members of society? This is why a question some of the methodology behind religion as well. That is a whole other topic though.
I do hope this shed some light on my feeling on the important issue. Lets keep this forum open, all sarcasm aside I would like to hear more ideas. this type of discussion in an environment where opinions can be voiced in an uncensored way is healthy for humanity as a whole. Let’s also keep the questions coming.
Ray, your answer to what we do with the left over donuts is coming!
P.S. Sorry I didn’t quote everyone, I am busy making donuts and didn’t have time to risk messing up my response.
P.P.S #DropsTheMic
Yea, Lozzi is pretty garbage. The bakery in my neighborhood is small, but has pretty good quality. I have not tried their donut (they only have one kind) but their croissants and puff pastries are pretty good. Their name is Lusitana, and they are located at 成都玉林西路165号附1号。(8339 6863).
Thanks I’ll check it out.
Johnny5 wrote:
A serious question like this deserves a serious answer.Johnny, you are the first person ever that somehow managed to give me a perfectly acceptable answer that didn’t actually include a concrete choice. I enjoyed reading that. I got scared for a second there but I’m glad your mom turned out fine. I’m sure she’s a sweetheart. I’ll be dropping in to try some of your donuts this week. Actually I think we might have randomly run into eachother in the Poly elevator a few days ago. I was the secretly bald tall guy next to you. You said you were hoping to be the tallest one that ride. Not even sure if that was you, I just saw some pics on CL Places and it does look like it. Who knows. Great thread!
We were in the elevator together! Awesome!
I have no questions but I have answers , and my very special psychic abilities to see in the future indicate me that a Frenchman is gonna eat some donuts in your shop sometimes this week end. He is snobbish ( French ) and expect your donuts to taste like heaven , so he will be merciless with them. Be prepared.
I am cautiously optimistic to hear this frenchman’s response to my American donuts (I have been told by the my French friends that all culinary creations in America are inferior to their French counterparts.
See you soon!
first, thanks for helping me with my donut cravings recently! loved every bite. 1. Are you open to customer suggestions for donut flavors or experiments? Like Sriracha peanut butter donut, alcohol flavored donuts (mimosas, beer, mojito, etc,.) 2. Open to collaborating with other businesses and organizations for future awesome events? 3. Which donut is most underrated in your shop? Overrated? 4. Would you rather be an apple or a banana? And why?
Sorry for taking so long to answer this question, it sort of got lost in the fray.
I am always open to suggestions, liquor flavored donuts are on the roadmap for sure, I would love to do something and pair it with a shot that I would put in the center. The problem is it has to be shelf stable and not refrigerated, I am limited a lot by this.
I’m always open to collaboration and would love to do more events, I was talking today about hosting a homeschool class on donut decoration.
Under rated donut would probably have to be the blueberry filled, the darker filling makes it look less appealing I guess but it is delicious.
The most over rated I guess i would have to pick the Boston or the S’mores. They are both really good but people who buy them have a hard time trying other things after, they just get stuck.
I would rather be a banana, outside tough, inside sweet if you put me near other fruits I ripen them faster and I taste great dipped in anything sweet. and its phallic…
I am going to repost my ‘Reddit AMA styled’ question, as it appears to have gone AWOL… My question, a very serious consideration for any self respecting bachelor/donut maker is; How many donuts can you hang on your dick? I was initially thinking ring donuts (is there a standard gage of acceptable donut depth/rise?), but seeing as it’s your donut shop I guess you get to be creative.
I answered this question before it went missing. I said I don’t know because I can’t find a cutter large enough for the center ring. They just won’t fit…
Johnny, if forced, Dunkin’ or Krispy?
Dunkin’ if they are cold and only if its in Boston. Krispy Creme anywhere if they are hot.
