CinnamonPirate.com

Published Works

FOR SAMPLES of my work and resume, you can download individual pages in PDF format here. All files should be compatible with most

Clips from PiQ

  • Nerding it up in Beijing
    PiQ, June 2008 - 104-109
    Its vendors range from the clean-cut businessman, eager to flash his card and pitch his sale, to the nerd, T-shirt still sporting signs of last night’s ramen noodles, buried under piles of PCBs, soldering iron ready to rewire the guts of his next sale …
  • Meet the Maker! The Yin and Yang of Chinese Gaming
    PiQ, May 2008 - 104-105
    For nearly twenty years, the land of the rising sun has been seen as paradise on earth for gamers, a sort of well where all the top console titles come from. But just a little further west of Japan, another rising dragon has slowly but surely been developing a game industry of its own …

Clips from Beijing Youth Daily (Chinese-only)

  • 老外 这词听起来别扭
    北京青年报, June 6, 2007 - D4
    我发现很多中国人对“典型美国人”的定义就是像电视剧里演得那样。我第一次来中国的时候,很多人问我:“你一定喜欢看篮球比赛吧?喜欢老友记吗?常去酒吧吗?”当他们发现我不喜欢去酒吧,也不喜欢老友记的时候…
  • 谁说我们天天吃香喝辣?
    北京青年报, May 30, 2007 - D4
    英语里有一句谚语,意思是:邻居的草总是更绿的。我们看到别人的生活,很容易把它浪漫化。而美国的电视剧和电影使这个问题更加恶化。电视中的那些人整天都是无忧无虑的,只有某些小小的麻烦 …
  • 美国父母也望子成龙
    北京青年报, April 25, 2007 - D4
    这个世界上有那么多不同的国家,每个地方的文化和生活方式都各不相同。在中国我常常听到中国人说:“哦,你看人家美国人,生活多自在,什么都不用担心。美国的孩子从小就特别自由,没有那么大的学习压力。” …

Clips from Beijing Today

  • Warmth welcome
    Beijing Today, July 27, 2007 - 23
    When translating Chinese to English, sentence order usually isn’t a problem thanks to the languages’ syntactic similarities. Of course, that’s not much help when the translator is standing on his head …
  • No thoroughfare
    Beijing Today, July 20, 2007 - 23
    If the cute icons on Beijing’s signs don’t render them immediately endearing to travelers, the nonsense printed will …
  • The symbol of civilization
    Beijing Today, June 1, 2007 - 23
    This sign is beautiful, and at the same time, a little bit puzzling. It is puzzling because the style of humor in Chinese is distinctly foreign, yet the foreign text remains distinctly Chinglish …
  • Cameras forbidden to climb
    Beijing Today, May 25, 2007 - 23
    This sign is precisely what foreigners are talking about when they claim that the Chinese government is too controlling. There are so many laws and regulations like …
  • Guilty pleasure in Pitt’s pitfalls
    Beijing Today, March 8, 2007 - 14
    There’s no question Clive Cussler is a master of the action-adventure novel. His literally trademark character, the wavy-haired, green-eyed Dirk Pitt …
  • Gaiman’s weird worlds and fragile wonders
    Beijing Today, February 9, 2007 - 14
    After reading this book, one might feel it’s safe to say that the inside of Neil Gaiman’s headust look like it was sketched by M C Escher …
  • Travel Abroad: Marco Island
    Beijing Today, January 19, 2007 - 21
    Florida is a tourist state. There’s no question about that. With 18 percent of its population over age 65 — swinging up to 21 percent when the “snowbirds” arrive …
  • What you should know about CHM
    Beijing Today, December 15, 2006 - 19
    When Shakespeare penned “Eye of newt and toe of frog, wool of bat and tongue of dog,” he may not have realized his spooky ingredients sounded suspiciously like those found hanging in overseas Chinese herbal medicine (CHM), or zhongyao, shops …
  • Chinglish on the way
    Beijing Today, December 15, 2006 - 23
    Lost all your money on the stock market? Gambling addiction ruined your family? Looking to escape responsibility? China has invented a machine for you …

Clips from The Oakland Press

Clips from The Oakland Post

  • War teach-in draws campus community
    The Oakland Post, March 12, 2003 - A1
    With war in Iraq looming ever closer, citizens have begun to rise up and voice their disagreement with the objectives of the Bush administration …
  • Senate eyes bottle deposit proposal
    The Oakland Post, March 5, 2003 - A1
    The decades old issue of what to do with Michigan’s waste problem was addressed at a public hearing of the Senate Beverage Container and Recycling Task Force on OU’s campus Monday night …
  • Former Congressman to speak on campus
    The Oakland Post, Feb. 12, 2003 - A1
    David Bonior, former congressman and candidate for governor, will be delivering a speech about the need for social work on Mar. 4 from 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. in the Gold Rooms of the Oakland Center …
  • Keeping kids safe
    The Oakland Post, Feb. 19, 2003 - A1
    A 20-minute appointment could save your child’s life.
    OUPD officer Nan Gelman is offering free car seat inspections for anyone who would like to learn how to set up and use the seats properly …
  • Crowds, congestion lead to car damage
    The Oakland Post, April 9, 2003 - A1
    With OU’s rapid growth, old problems have grown too. Trouble in the parking lots is a complaint many OU students can relate to at this primarily commuter school …
  • Tests on way for welfare
    The Oakland Post, Nov. 6, 2002 - A5
    A court ruling gave Michigan the go-ahead to resume its pilot program of randomly drug-testing welfare recipients …
  • Students bleed for Red Cross
    The Oakland Post, Oct. 23, 2002 - A3
    The OU-sponsored blood drive, run by the American Red Cross and hosted by the Center for Student Activities, ran last week on Monday through Wednesday and generated 275 pints of blood …

Clips from The Second Dimension

  • Romancing SaGa 3
    The Second Dimension, January 1, 2005
    Flip a coin. If it’s heads, you may enjoy the SaGa series. If it’s tails, go back to Final Fantasy …
  • BS Legend of Zelda
    The Second Dimension, December 8, 2004
    Back in the 80s, when Nintendo ordered our parents to help set up our game systems, there was one game everyone had to have. That glittering golden cartridge, one of only two in the system’s entire life, captured the eyes of many 8-year-olds …
  • Emerald Dragon
    The Second Dimension, November 13, 2004
    In 1989, a little known PC developer in Japan released a game that, when judged on its story, could arguably be one of the best RPGs of all time. At that time, it slid by in obscurity …
  • Déjà Vu: A Nightmare Comes True! (Review) (PDF)
    The Second Dimension, October 31, 2004
    Awakening from a drug-induced stupor in a bathroom the janitor forgot, you find yourself with blood on your palms and a puncture wound in your arm. Your jacket and gun hang on a peg in front of you …
  • Soul Blazer
    The Second Dimension, October 24, 2004
    In the early days of the Super Nintendo, most of Enix’s best games came from sub-development studios. The best of these developers was Quintet …
  • Neutopia
    The Second Dimension, October 10, 2004
    Never in my life have I seen a game try so hard to imitate another game. Usually games have some element of originality, creativity, or anything else that makes each game unique …
  • Super Hydlide
    The Second Dimension, September 25, 2004
    If, like many, you were an impatient child during the Nintendo years, chances are the name “Hydlide” is enough to throw you into a seizure. Consequentially, many people never gave its sequels a chance …
  • RPGOne’s FF6: To play or not to play?
    The Second Dimension, May 3, 2004
    One summer when I was a little kid, a swarm of yellow jackets decided to settle in the rocks near my house. Being young and dumb, the neighborhood kids and I proceeded to hammer at the rocks with basketballs and soccer balls …
  • Metroid Zero Mission
    The Second Dimension, April 19, 2004
    In 1986, Nintendo shook the video game market with a new kind of game. The world had seen side-scrollers before with earlier games like Kung Fu Master and Super Mario Bros, but this game redefined what a side-scroller could do …
  • Lufia & the Fortress of Doom
    The Second Dimension, February 15, 2004
    Lufia & the Fortress of Doom came silently onto the SNES scene in 1992 after years of RPGs most would call mediocre, like Drakkhen and Lagoon. For the few who had a chance to experience it, it became one of the most beloved RPGs of all time …
  • RoboWarrior (Review)
    The Second Dimension, February 14, 2004
    The 1980s were an amazing time. The hippie propaganda machine of the 60s, which pointed to humanity as the greatest enemy the Earth has ever known, finally gained mass acceptance and was spoon-fed to children in schools with big words like “CFCs” that nobody understood nor cared about …