End of Year Fast Approaching

Today's weather: High = 34 Low = 22
Sunny and hot

I'll say one thing for the recent bugaboo of things happening at once to deal with --- it makes the end of the school year approach at rocket-pace speed. The approach of June and then the end of the year, as always with a million things happening at once, is exactly like Einstein's time dilation theory. Time for me passes like a split second, whereas a few months may have actually passed for someone in a different frame of reference.

I've actually lost track of time when dealing with one attempt after another for various business items, never knowing if the task will actually be successfully completed or not.

Living in China and trying to get things done is like being a rat in the maze which is subjected to the classic behavioral psychology experiments of learned helplessness. In these experiments, the rat is given a task to accomplish, i.e. get some cheese. The rat is subjected to a random electric shock to simulate the outcome of failure while attempting to get the cheese. But sometimes, there is no shock, as a way of simulating success.

After enough trials, the rat eventually gives up, even if the shock is later turned off to simulate a 'guaranteed' success. The rat has gotten burned enough times to know better, and so he doesn't attempt the task even if there is indeed a chance of success. This learning to give up is what psychologists refer to as learned helplessness.

So it is with trying to accomplish errands in this country. After getting frustrated one time too many, I throw up my hands in the air and say what's the use of trying another time.

In my case, I still go ahead with actually running the errands and attempting to get the tasks done, but mentally I have given up. It's like going to the train station on a run to Suzhou to try and replace my drivers license, for example, knowing from the start that the whole trip is going to fail. Yet I do the thing anyway, and sure enough it fails.

Eventually after multiple attempts and backup attempts, I get lost in the quagmire of details and then lose track of what I'm actually trying to accomplish in the first place. Oh yeah, right, I forgot, I'm trying to replace a lost drivers license. Who would have ever though it could be so goddamn difficult.

So on that note, off I go to the train station tomorrow for another attempt.

At some point, I should succeed. Then there are other business items to be taken care of with a similar sort of dynamic going on. One thing is for sure, when everything is all done, it is going to be the end of June like the snap of a finger.