last night was willie's farewell. he should be at the airport by now. hopefully.
our farewell celebration started last night at a xinjiang restaurant. the xinjiang people are (this is all folklore because i have done zero research of my own) the only chinese muslims that exist, and most of them look mixed in terms of genes. in other words, they don't look chinese, they wear these crazy pillbox hats, they apparently smoke bomb, and they make some fuggin delicious food. i couldn't tell you the name of the place - all in chinese - but it's on fumin lu at julu lu.
a lot of what we ordered involved lamb in various forms - spicy skewers, stir-fried with flatbread that we all thought was potato, minced with carrot and stuffed into a crepe reminiscent of mushu pork (what IS that anyway? have you ever had it in a real chinese restaurant?), you get the idea. we also got fried eggplant and a cucumber salad. i wasn't sure what to expect, but it was damn good. and one of our servers was this guy that i swear was in a different dimension. he moved slowly, kept his head in a perpetual and severe chin thrust, and had this very blissful half-smile on his face the whole time, especially when completely ignoring us every time we asked him for something. adele and i watched him closely, fascinated. i couldn't tell if he over-indulged at 4:20 that afternoon or if he was just naturally a complete space case.
the first thing i learned about the xinjiang people when i arrived is that non-xinjiang people hate them and are super mean to them and spread lots of rumors. true to fact, when i told linda where we were going to dinner, she said, 'you mean the people that try to steal all the time?'
the curious thing is that these people are 'chinese' but the ones i met don't speak mandarin. one wonders about the prejudice surrounding them, whether it's because they are visually so different in appearance and therefore the masses do what masses do best and alienate the outsider, or if there is a long lineage of xinjiang pickpockets, i don't know (tangent - if your culture has a reputation for pickpocketing, doesn't that mean you're all bad pickpockets? if people can actually recall who stole their shit?) the only thing i know about then for a fact is that most of them rock the white or black-and-white hat, and i see them selling dried fruit off of carts in certain areas. and sometimes i see them on the metro and there are xinjiang individuals who look asian but have light eyes and hair, and there are others who just don't look asian, and therefore i just stare at them a lot.
so anyway, i digress. we had dinner with dan and his roommate adele, and dan's spazzy friend adam swung through and treated us to a brief and dizzying monologue. alvin had booked a table at attica, but we decided to swing by de la coast first and have a drink with sherry. good thing, because de la coast was nice 'n crowded (and apparently attica just had crickets sounding in the background). our group of 4 turned into a group of 20 as the indos rolled through, steph showed up with bf 'chef,' albert, and scott. rollickin' good times.
and don't ask me how the fuck this happened, but 2 am found us piling out of cabs and into babyface to join alvin. i only break my vows if entertaining willie or said important visiting person is in town, but it was nearly as worth it to see alvin's face when he saw my ass in a babyface establishment (haerbin doesn't count). 3 martell and green teas plus one 3-second martell shot later and i can't say i was having a stellar time (the laser light show and absurd music selection determined that), but it was cool. it was ok. it was worth it just so i can now say that i've been to babyface before i start talking mad shit about it.
i slept from 4-ish to 9 when a cheerful sms buzzed on my desk and i once again asked myself why i don't turn my phone off on the nights when a lot of drinking went down.
tonight is sherry's full moon party and the dress code is 'thailand.' cryptic. what the fuck does that mean? thai hooker? shorts and flip flops? my diving gear? a bikini? nothing but moon boots?
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
remember to bring those spare legs
amidst fantasies of flying over bamboo forests and through the misty clouds of huang shan, reality strikes when confronted with a 45-degree angle incline with only your spindly, useless legs to propel you. where the fuck is zhang ziyi when you need her? shit...
seriously, tho. huang shan is beautiful and absolutely worth it. i had no idea what it was and was actually picturing a shimmering pile of gold coins, what with the association that us chinos have with money and fortune and homonyms for the word, 'gold.' fortunately someone filled me in on the 'crouching tiger hidden dragon' portion of the program, and i was sold. how could you not want to see it after what's-her-bucket jumps off the mountain in the end and sails down over the scenery in an artistic but confusing suicide?
willie, steph, alvin, and linda and i set off via overnight train on friday night armed with KFC and more snack foods then you could swing a stick at. steph and willie had the foresight to bring beers, so we annoyed all of the other patrons of our hard sleeper car (we thought we booked first class... whoops) with hysterically loud games of 'would you rather' and stories about bodily functions. they got us back big time the next morning, tho, hella conversing and cracking seeds and stomping up and down the aisle. and peeing all over the goddamned bathroom (that'll teach 'em!).
we thought we were going to stay in a nice apartment that belongs to willie's mom's coworker's parents, but it was 1.5 hours from the mountain base and we thought it better to get as close to the mountain as possible to cram as much sight-seeing we could into our 3-day trip. so our first night was in tuxi, a small town at the base of the mountain.
we had some time to kill, so we bought some more beer and walked around tuxi, waiting for the hot water to be turned on at our hotel. we spied some interesting things in the market place:
cat meat, anyone?
the next morning, we got up at 5:30 (not at 4 am like the hotel was insisting we do to avoid the crowds) and lined up for the cable car to the summit. 3 hours later, we were actually on the cable car with about 50 of our closest chinese tourist friends. after locating our hotel and negotiating a less-mildewy room, we had a slow and greasy lunch and set off for about 5 hours of hiking.
if you have vertigo, don't take the path towards the northern gorge (aka the 'grand canyon'). i'm definitely scared of heights, and after seeing the sheer drop-offs that completely surrounded us for the rest of the day, willie discovered he was, too. the 'hiking' consists of climbing about 40,000 stairs either up or down and with varying degrees of intensity (from 'intense' to 'insane' to 'i'd-rather-jump-off-this ledge-than-climb-any-more'). however, the views are completely amazing, after you beat off the other 400 tourists that want to see them (for the claustrophobic, DO opt for the gorge trail because very few people are stupid enough to attempt it).
we had an amazing time.
couple views that render you speechless with a group of friends who crack you up constantly, and you have a damn good experience. willie has this special and until now, unbeknownst-to-me talent that i like to call The Most Random Jukebox Ever. together we sang a nice mix of sir mix-a-lot, milli vanilli, day camp ditties, peter paul & mary, and the variations on the diarrhea song, when not completely out of breath, dripping in sweat, and cursing whomever's idea it was to take the fucking path towards the gorge.
there are several hotels on the summit, and we discovered their method of shipping - a most curious mode of transportation - all the necessities to run a major hospitality business:
by foot, no less. these porters swarm the stairs all over the mountain, carrying anything from cooking oil to clean sheets to concrete mix. some even have the energy to be entrepreneurial and try to sell walking sticks or cucumbers to passers-by while staggering up the stairs towards their delivery points. and they do this in beat-up fake keds.
i'm going to assume this is the gorge, but i honestly can't remember
the porters also offer a service for the invalid, elderly, and lazy:
that's right. you can be carried up the steepest motherfather inclines i've ever seen in my life. on a litter, like fuggin royalty. and people actually offer to do this service. staggering. with the exception of linda, we were all hit with different versions of middle-class guilt when seeing tourists who actually opted for this experience and took pictures to assuage said guilt, therefore somehow evening out the cosmos by providing photographic evidence of this indulgence.
so after a night on the summit we hiked about another 3 hours to the western side of the mountain and took the other cable car down. alvin was suffering a mysterious knee injury:
alvin rockin' the dual walking sticks for support
and we were all incredibly stiff and sore. i cannot contract my calf muscles and have adapted a rather alluring old-woman-slash-penguin waddle to get to and fro. we mini-bused back to the train station several hours early to ensure soft sleeper tickets, then were propositioned outside the office by owners of this floph- i mean, motel to shower and rest up for 10 rmb each. considering the dismal shape of the place, it was a rip, but it was worth it to shower and relax a little. we then got bored and went to buy snacks, and ended up shooting baijiu and tequila. EW.
one local saw us pounding booze and stopped to congratulate us
then on the 9:44 overnight train and back to our city of hedonism.
Friday, May 25, 2007
i'm outs
gonna go get my yellow mountain on for a few days. a bunch of us are taking the train. i'm going to see if i can dance around in the bamboo branches like zhang ziyi. fun! i'll see y'alls in a bit.
buh bye.
buh bye.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
cough-ka
not so hot on the physical front right now.
cough.
cough.
cough.
cough all night. wake up at 4:30 and contemplate getting out of bed. get out of bed at 4:45 and down some syrup. too early for another hit off the inhaler. drink some hot water despite the hot weather. fall asleep again around 5:30 until cyn jumps in my bed at 11.
cough when the air con is on. cough when it's off. cough sitting up. cough laying down.
cough all around town.
my lungs are either not happy about being barbequed last night at dan's old farm house (why do some places seem to retain smoke so much more effectively than others?), or there's just something in the air (mad amounts of pollution?) they're reacting to. either way, not a happy camper. two sad lungs.
two hits off the advair inhaler daily. two hits every 6 hours off the albuterol inhaler. one zyrtec daily. allergen covers on the bedding. no cats.
what's a hacking girl to do? she's scaring people.
cough.
cough.
cough.
cough all night. wake up at 4:30 and contemplate getting out of bed. get out of bed at 4:45 and down some syrup. too early for another hit off the inhaler. drink some hot water despite the hot weather. fall asleep again around 5:30 until cyn jumps in my bed at 11.
cough when the air con is on. cough when it's off. cough sitting up. cough laying down.
cough all around town.
my lungs are either not happy about being barbequed last night at dan's old farm house (why do some places seem to retain smoke so much more effectively than others?), or there's just something in the air (mad amounts of pollution?) they're reacting to. either way, not a happy camper. two sad lungs.
two hits off the advair inhaler daily. two hits every 6 hours off the albuterol inhaler. one zyrtec daily. allergen covers on the bedding. no cats.
what's a hacking girl to do? she's scaring people.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
mayhem
pillowfight today. 7 pm, altho willie and i got there around 7:25 and it had just started. completely hysterical laughter. i got whaled on, i whaled. my throat is so painful i can't talk anymore.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
you're killin me
at home, sippin on some sizurp... er, pinot... eating the lovely gouda that gregor gave us, perusing the new york times. it's really disturbing to me to see that every single day, this country makes the headlines, usually related to some contamination headline, or poisoning headline, or something. it really makes me wonder. every other country on the planet wants to get into this market, but when the suppliers here are only concerned with making money - not avoiding killing people, not avoiding poisoning people - and the infrastructure is such where such a dogma is able to flourish... what's going to happen? this country will continue to come in the lowest on the cost scale so countries all over the world will continue to buy exports, but will these companies just start implementing rigorous checks, or will this culture actually change? will the widely-drawn belief that cutting corners by substituting wheat gluten with diethylene glycol or fill-in-the-blank chemical substitution actually be phased out? can a people be changed?
i mean, they must. it must. i'm sure it's happened hundreds of times in history, in civilizations long gone. but being here and witnessing firsthand the pervasiveness of this money-saving, life-devaluing mentality really makes me wonder. cyn and i were barreling through this intersection in a cab the other night and a woman on a scooter who was riding through a red light into the intersection just kept going, directly into our cab. she was going about 5.3 mph and we screeched on our brakes and swerved to miss her (which we did), and she didn't trip. didn't bat a fucking eyelash. this happens daily. hourly. minutely. i've seen bicycles go head to head with buses and trucks and almost die, and the riders just look at each other and laugh merrily. i'm not talking about missing by a mile, either. inches. millimeters. i don't get it, but then again, i do. we theorize that life just doesn't have the value here that it has in the states. not hard to believe when reading it written on some random, half-nonsensical blog, but hard to believe when it stares you in the face and you see the buttons on the blouse of a woman you could've killed but didn't but it doesn't matter because she doesn't seemed to have noticed...
covered in mosquito bites from some time yesterday. one mosquito must've seen my big purple bruises from the pole-dancing class and honed in, because i have this golf ball-sized mosquito lump amongst my bruises. multiples on my ankles. disgusting.
what else is going on... what else...
sometimes i wonder if i could ever be a tai tai, and just do nothing all day while my husband works full-time and supports me. i see all these women at the yoga studio in the middle of the day that clearly are not working full-time, if at all, and i wonder if i could do that with a clear conscience. i guess ideally the dude i end up marrying will be a real stand-up type and i'd trust him with my life and all that crap, but from my perspective here and now, there's no one that i'd trust with that except for me. which is why now i don't think that could ever happen. sure, when you get hitched you ideally believe that this is your other half, this is the one person that knows you inside and out and will support you when you need supporting in whatever capacity. but there's that maligned notion that a fiscal supporting of a spouse is worth far more than the other stuff that goes on. i'm guilty of that thought, myself, so i'm not judging or casting stones. financial support is just so much more documentable, i suppose.
carolyn blabbering. blabbering, blabbering...
i mean, they must. it must. i'm sure it's happened hundreds of times in history, in civilizations long gone. but being here and witnessing firsthand the pervasiveness of this money-saving, life-devaluing mentality really makes me wonder. cyn and i were barreling through this intersection in a cab the other night and a woman on a scooter who was riding through a red light into the intersection just kept going, directly into our cab. she was going about 5.3 mph and we screeched on our brakes and swerved to miss her (which we did), and she didn't trip. didn't bat a fucking eyelash. this happens daily. hourly. minutely. i've seen bicycles go head to head with buses and trucks and almost die, and the riders just look at each other and laugh merrily. i'm not talking about missing by a mile, either. inches. millimeters. i don't get it, but then again, i do. we theorize that life just doesn't have the value here that it has in the states. not hard to believe when reading it written on some random, half-nonsensical blog, but hard to believe when it stares you in the face and you see the buttons on the blouse of a woman you could've killed but didn't but it doesn't matter because she doesn't seemed to have noticed...
covered in mosquito bites from some time yesterday. one mosquito must've seen my big purple bruises from the pole-dancing class and honed in, because i have this golf ball-sized mosquito lump amongst my bruises. multiples on my ankles. disgusting.
what else is going on... what else...
sometimes i wonder if i could ever be a tai tai, and just do nothing all day while my husband works full-time and supports me. i see all these women at the yoga studio in the middle of the day that clearly are not working full-time, if at all, and i wonder if i could do that with a clear conscience. i guess ideally the dude i end up marrying will be a real stand-up type and i'd trust him with my life and all that crap, but from my perspective here and now, there's no one that i'd trust with that except for me. which is why now i don't think that could ever happen. sure, when you get hitched you ideally believe that this is your other half, this is the one person that knows you inside and out and will support you when you need supporting in whatever capacity. but there's that maligned notion that a fiscal supporting of a spouse is worth far more than the other stuff that goes on. i'm guilty of that thought, myself, so i'm not judging or casting stones. financial support is just so much more documentable, i suppose.
carolyn blabbering. blabbering, blabbering...
Monday, May 21, 2007
tattoo
one of the fuwuyuan at the shabu shabu place last night spied sherry's tattoo and was curious enough to ask her if it hurt a lot to have it done. we showed her (one of) alvin's tattoos, as well. she was so curious and shy and cute about it. i wonder if tattoos have the same bad-girl stigma as they do in the states.
ouch
just got back from a nice shabu shabu dinner with alvin, linda, sherry, and a couple of newer indo students. have to say i was grateful tonight for monday night closures of dan's old farm house, where alvin initially wanted to head. i had my dose of pork for lunch when cyn, willie, and i headed to a canto hong kong-style cafe that cyn discovered a while back. i was feeling soupy because i hit a wall around 5:30 today - sore throat, achy body, exhaustion. the random weird sickness i keep warding off and succumbing to off and on is back. i think everyone in china fights a virus for months, or perhaps the whole duration of their stay here. possibly.
so now i'm home, showered and clean, sipping theraflu and vowing to go to sleep soon.
willie and i went to see the suzhou creek area today. he initially wanted to check out a lacquer and wood furniture exhibit, but we got dinged because it was monday and most things were closed. still, it was very cool to walk around and see what there was that was open. i can't draw for shit but i really love seeing art and being around artsy shit. i meant to head to suzhou creek when i first got here and there was the art biennial, but never did make it up there.
apparently a lot of the 'creative firms' are located near the suzhou creek area, which means that they're in serious need of a full injection of western artsy culture - aka a viable coffee spot. instead willie and i parked on a random stoop and shot the shit for about an hour while slapping random bugs off of us. it's bug season as the weather warms, and apparently because the winter was especially mild, the mosquito crop is going to be off the hinges. not excited about that.
we went back and met steph at aFP, intending to sit outside and have beers in the garden, but the wind kicked in big time and then i hit my wall and got whiny and would only drink fresh OJ. what a baby. willie and steph were troopers and ordered cocktails.
long story short, i was glad we ended up at shabu shabu and not chowing on various meats and sauerkraut and mashers.
we may be heading to yellow mountain on thursday. i hope we do. i've been stuck in shanghai, mired by the thick sloppy mixture of free flow champagne and 2-for-1 martinis. bad scene.
so now i'm home, showered and clean, sipping theraflu and vowing to go to sleep soon.
willie and i went to see the suzhou creek area today. he initially wanted to check out a lacquer and wood furniture exhibit, but we got dinged because it was monday and most things were closed. still, it was very cool to walk around and see what there was that was open. i can't draw for shit but i really love seeing art and being around artsy shit. i meant to head to suzhou creek when i first got here and there was the art biennial, but never did make it up there.
apparently a lot of the 'creative firms' are located near the suzhou creek area, which means that they're in serious need of a full injection of western artsy culture - aka a viable coffee spot. instead willie and i parked on a random stoop and shot the shit for about an hour while slapping random bugs off of us. it's bug season as the weather warms, and apparently because the winter was especially mild, the mosquito crop is going to be off the hinges. not excited about that.
we went back and met steph at aFP, intending to sit outside and have beers in the garden, but the wind kicked in big time and then i hit my wall and got whiny and would only drink fresh OJ. what a baby. willie and steph were troopers and ordered cocktails.
long story short, i was glad we ended up at shabu shabu and not chowing on various meats and sauerkraut and mashers.
we may be heading to yellow mountain on thursday. i hope we do. i've been stuck in shanghai, mired by the thick sloppy mixture of free flow champagne and 2-for-1 martinis. bad scene.
Sunday, May 20, 2007
swingin from poles
mommy sent some chocolate-covered blueberries and raspberry chocolate truffles from peet's along with another inhaler refill. we're really diggin the blueberry things right now.
cyn woke me up around noon so we could make our guinea pig brunch at de la coast. sherry's trying to roll out a brunch service and 50 of her closest friends served as subjects for the experiment. the weather was really nice so keeping in mind that the dlc team has never run a full restaurant service for this many people... keep on drinking the 'bloody sherrys' and wait for your food. it was a nice time. pics below.
lovely shot of the two girls. too bad my framing sucks.
a morning scowl and alix's back
after about 2 hours of brunching, cyn and i headed over to the idancing studio for our first pole-dancing class. i was expecting total cheese, but it was actually really fun. we started off with a good 20 minutes of jazz dance warm-ups and some simple choreography, then we moved on to the poles. there were only 4 poles in the room, so we were about 4 girls to a pole. cyn and i arrived barefoot, but everyone else wears ballroom shoes or their street heels. i've got some decent bruises from pole burn. (note to self... wear leggings or at least some nylons when spiraling down metal poles.) some of the girls we were a bit concerned about because they would just launch full-steam into the pole and kind of smack against it. the instructor is this russian woman named julia, and is absolutely perfect for the job. she kept shouting, 'poosh! poosh your beautiful ass up like this, yeah?' hirarious. we might go again, but i'm not sure i want to sign up for a membership.
after pole dancing we headed to hugo brasserie for the crocs launch party of their wedge heel shoe. hugo turned out to be a rather nice spot. mental note for a future dinner - their canapes were excellent and there was free flow champagne. can't argue with that. cyn and kate scored some free shoes and i scored a nice buzz from the bubbly. willie called midway through so we decided to meet up for dinner.
a very nice day. i'm still exhausted from friday.
got a message from cheryl wanting to add me to her facebook account. jody was also harassing me about this the other day. another fuggin networking site? i can barely keep up with myspace, and that's for like, 12-year olds. not to mention some old account on friendster which apparently people can view when they google me, and xing for business networking. jaysus. you need a personal assistant to keep up with all of the accounts. and what kind of photo do you put up on facebook. is there an etiquette when it comes to using different photos for the various online 'communities?' i'm over it. you have to fill in the same fields - interests, music, movies, whatever. one might find this redundant and rather tiresome...
cyn woke me up around noon so we could make our guinea pig brunch at de la coast. sherry's trying to roll out a brunch service and 50 of her closest friends served as subjects for the experiment. the weather was really nice so keeping in mind that the dlc team has never run a full restaurant service for this many people... keep on drinking the 'bloody sherrys' and wait for your food. it was a nice time. pics below.
lovely shot of the two girls. too bad my framing sucks.
a morning scowl and alix's back
after about 2 hours of brunching, cyn and i headed over to the idancing studio for our first pole-dancing class. i was expecting total cheese, but it was actually really fun. we started off with a good 20 minutes of jazz dance warm-ups and some simple choreography, then we moved on to the poles. there were only 4 poles in the room, so we were about 4 girls to a pole. cyn and i arrived barefoot, but everyone else wears ballroom shoes or their street heels. i've got some decent bruises from pole burn. (note to self... wear leggings or at least some nylons when spiraling down metal poles.) some of the girls we were a bit concerned about because they would just launch full-steam into the pole and kind of smack against it. the instructor is this russian woman named julia, and is absolutely perfect for the job. she kept shouting, 'poosh! poosh your beautiful ass up like this, yeah?' hirarious. we might go again, but i'm not sure i want to sign up for a membership.
after pole dancing we headed to hugo brasserie for the crocs launch party of their wedge heel shoe. hugo turned out to be a rather nice spot. mental note for a future dinner - their canapes were excellent and there was free flow champagne. can't argue with that. cyn and kate scored some free shoes and i scored a nice buzz from the bubbly. willie called midway through so we decided to meet up for dinner.
a very nice day. i'm still exhausted from friday.
got a message from cheryl wanting to add me to her facebook account. jody was also harassing me about this the other day. another fuggin networking site? i can barely keep up with myspace, and that's for like, 12-year olds. not to mention some old account on friendster which apparently people can view when they google me, and xing for business networking. jaysus. you need a personal assistant to keep up with all of the accounts. and what kind of photo do you put up on facebook. is there an etiquette when it comes to using different photos for the various online 'communities?' i'm over it. you have to fill in the same fields - interests, music, movies, whatever. one might find this redundant and rather tiresome...
Saturday, May 19, 2007
crawdaddy!
so today slept from 3 pm to around 7:30, and woke up so disoriented that i thought it was morning. got up and munched on some stuff in the fridge, cyn came home from some random casting call and yoga and we went out to pick sherry up and go over to dan's. after a couple glasses of wine on his terrace, sherry and i went to this canto restaurant across the street that specializes in char-grilled oysters. i was less interested in oysters and more interested in chao fan and sherry's won ton mein. more wine and at dan's then we headed down to pirate's for the rollerbooty party.
what a sad excuse. we were expecting boogie nights and we got some D-rated version with these ghetto 'skates' that you strap to your shoes. all the kids were out, met willie and dan there, even sherry's roommate was there spinning. kate came out and met us, and we stood around drinking and talking smack about the lack of eye candy, per usual. after cyn and kate left, i found willie shakin ass to blaise's ghetto booty mixes so we all joined in. good sweaty times. charlie xia from smartshanghai showed up again and i hope he does NOT post photos of me getting my groove on. not cute. i got enough beef for those 4live shots.
at around 2 am sherry and i decided to bone out and check out this late-night crawdaddy stand near her place that's always packed. DE-lish. we got maybe half a kilo, donned the plastic gloves, and got to work. nothing like twisting off tails and sucking crawfish heads at 2 am. so yummy. i didn't think i'd be able to eat much because of my two back-to-back dinners. but i definitely held down my end of the deal, then went to the lawson's and bought some apple juice and doritos (as if i didn't already eat enough). having never been a big fan of apple juice, i'm now in a phase. it tastes really good to me right now, even tho nutritionally it's little better than soda. no vitamins, just sugar and water.
tomorrow? sherry's experimental brunch at de la coast, our pole-dancing class, and then a crocs party. i need to sleep.
what a sad excuse. we were expecting boogie nights and we got some D-rated version with these ghetto 'skates' that you strap to your shoes. all the kids were out, met willie and dan there, even sherry's roommate was there spinning. kate came out and met us, and we stood around drinking and talking smack about the lack of eye candy, per usual. after cyn and kate left, i found willie shakin ass to blaise's ghetto booty mixes so we all joined in. good sweaty times. charlie xia from smartshanghai showed up again and i hope he does NOT post photos of me getting my groove on. not cute. i got enough beef for those 4live shots.
at around 2 am sherry and i decided to bone out and check out this late-night crawdaddy stand near her place that's always packed. DE-lish. we got maybe half a kilo, donned the plastic gloves, and got to work. nothing like twisting off tails and sucking crawfish heads at 2 am. so yummy. i didn't think i'd be able to eat much because of my two back-to-back dinners. but i definitely held down my end of the deal, then went to the lawson's and bought some apple juice and doritos (as if i didn't already eat enough). having never been a big fan of apple juice, i'm now in a phase. it tastes really good to me right now, even tho nutritionally it's little better than soda. no vitamins, just sugar and water.
tomorrow? sherry's experimental brunch at de la coast, our pole-dancing class, and then a crocs party. i need to sleep.
Monday, May 14, 2007
svchost.exe - Application Error
fucking glitch.
Click on OK to terminate the program
Click on CANCEL to debug the program
or i can click on FUCK YOU to say fuck you!
i can't tell what the hell is going on. i thought it might be a virus, but i realized when i just ignore the window and open applications and proceed as normal, my computer works fine. once i click on the stupid window (OK or CANCEL) then my computer freezes. it's so godblessed (as grandma would say) annoying i can't see straight.
in other news, had a fun afternoon at aFP with willie, cyn, and eventually sherry. i think we founded mai tai mondays...
here's a pic from sat night at 4Live ripped from smartshanghai. good times.
Click on OK to terminate the program
Click on CANCEL to debug the program
or i can click on FUCK YOU to say fuck you!
i can't tell what the hell is going on. i thought it might be a virus, but i realized when i just ignore the window and open applications and proceed as normal, my computer works fine. once i click on the stupid window (OK or CANCEL) then my computer freezes. it's so godblessed (as grandma would say) annoying i can't see straight.
in other news, had a fun afternoon at aFP with willie, cyn, and eventually sherry. i think we founded mai tai mondays...
here's a pic from sat night at 4Live ripped from smartshanghai. good times.
Sunday, May 13, 2007
sometimes it's a double header
now that it's time for me to go to bed (interview tomorrow morning at 10 am), of course i'm sitting here avoiding it and finding all sorts of things to do online. i hate going to bed. i'm not sure why. i'm all brushed and flossed and washed up, so it's fairly easy: you get in bed.
must... procrastinate...
not really sure what to expect tomorrow. i'm not stressed about it (maybe i should be) because i have this notion that companies in china (unless you're talking about some big international corporation) won't require the same stresses that interviews in the US do. i could be totally wrong, and simply because i'm not preparing for this at all probably means i will be. it's for some part-time gig, which is what i'm looking for. i decided that yes, i do want to make this writing thing work, and yes, i still need to pay the bills. as a recent acquaintance stated, writing is definitely a labor of love. there's not a lot of money in it.
i don't even know what i'm going to wear. i don't have a lot of options, so it probably won't take too long tomorrow, but now i am glad i decided to pack a couple of button-downs when i moved out here. it seemed far-fetched at the time.
sort of contemplating things right now. cyn and i stayed up a long time on friday night talking about past relationship stuff. when you're first starting to get to know someone, it's so hard for me to make judgment calls. you want to be open-minded, but you don't want to lack standards. if there are qualities in a person that you respond to, but, let's say, he has no sense of style or just leads a really different lifestyle from your own, then when and where do you draw the line between acceptably different and not acceptably different? for me making those calls are really difficult, as past relationships have shown. trying to remain open-minded can really fuggin backfire.
and another question: when should friends step in? so many of us have been in relationships with guys or girls that our friends either have serious doubts about, or just outright can't stand. cyn argues that if she should - hypothetically - voice her concerns about the quality of whatever dude i'm seeing and i end up marrying the guy, then who is she to opine on our relationship or his personality or whatever it is that she may dislike? my argument is that sometimes you just need a reality check; relationships can get so involved that you lose your perspective on things. i know i have. certain people i absolutely respect and have no problems with them telling me something like, 'look, this dude is a tool and here's why' or 'you guys have a psychotic and unhealthy relationship.' ha ha. seriously, tho. cyn thinks it wouldn't be her place to say something like that, and i say it is. who other than your best friend and/or your sister to give you feedback? i need feedback. i swear i don't trust my instincts any more.
anyway. off to bed, for reals.
must... procrastinate...
not really sure what to expect tomorrow. i'm not stressed about it (maybe i should be) because i have this notion that companies in china (unless you're talking about some big international corporation) won't require the same stresses that interviews in the US do. i could be totally wrong, and simply because i'm not preparing for this at all probably means i will be. it's for some part-time gig, which is what i'm looking for. i decided that yes, i do want to make this writing thing work, and yes, i still need to pay the bills. as a recent acquaintance stated, writing is definitely a labor of love. there's not a lot of money in it.
i don't even know what i'm going to wear. i don't have a lot of options, so it probably won't take too long tomorrow, but now i am glad i decided to pack a couple of button-downs when i moved out here. it seemed far-fetched at the time.
sort of contemplating things right now. cyn and i stayed up a long time on friday night talking about past relationship stuff. when you're first starting to get to know someone, it's so hard for me to make judgment calls. you want to be open-minded, but you don't want to lack standards. if there are qualities in a person that you respond to, but, let's say, he has no sense of style or just leads a really different lifestyle from your own, then when and where do you draw the line between acceptably different and not acceptably different? for me making those calls are really difficult, as past relationships have shown. trying to remain open-minded can really fuggin backfire.
and another question: when should friends step in? so many of us have been in relationships with guys or girls that our friends either have serious doubts about, or just outright can't stand. cyn argues that if she should - hypothetically - voice her concerns about the quality of whatever dude i'm seeing and i end up marrying the guy, then who is she to opine on our relationship or his personality or whatever it is that she may dislike? my argument is that sometimes you just need a reality check; relationships can get so involved that you lose your perspective on things. i know i have. certain people i absolutely respect and have no problems with them telling me something like, 'look, this dude is a tool and here's why' or 'you guys have a psychotic and unhealthy relationship.' ha ha. seriously, tho. cyn thinks it wouldn't be her place to say something like that, and i say it is. who other than your best friend and/or your sister to give you feedback? i need feedback. i swear i don't trust my instincts any more.
anyway. off to bed, for reals.
it's a keeper
been either talking too much or sleeping too little because when i talk my voice sounds like an adolescent boy going through puberty.
saw willie last night at his friend's bananas party. the music was really good - 4 djs spinning with some live vocals, a good mix of music. i was happy. willie looks great and we got to have a good talk about shit. got caught up on the last decade, really.
there was a gaggle of extremely drunk girls on stage that provided additional live entertainment. i know two of them, and i swear they're nice, normal girls (if our past stands for anything, it's to prove that dancing on stage has nothing to do with the content of your character), but willie kept looking at them, looking at me, and asking, 'you know these girls?'
btw... the drinks at 4live are for shit. they taste like juice. but i applaud their efforts in getting live acts booked in shanghai. i read somewhere that the government was trying to get live acts banned, or that they did, but somehow they have them at 4live. i appreciate it.
saw willie last night at his friend's bananas party. the music was really good - 4 djs spinning with some live vocals, a good mix of music. i was happy. willie looks great and we got to have a good talk about shit. got caught up on the last decade, really.
there was a gaggle of extremely drunk girls on stage that provided additional live entertainment. i know two of them, and i swear they're nice, normal girls (if our past stands for anything, it's to prove that dancing on stage has nothing to do with the content of your character), but willie kept looking at them, looking at me, and asking, 'you know these girls?'
btw... the drinks at 4live are for shit. they taste like juice. but i applaud their efforts in getting live acts booked in shanghai. i read somewhere that the government was trying to get live acts banned, or that they did, but somehow they have them at 4live. i appreciate it.
Friday, May 11, 2007
holy schwartzkopf
so if any nice, friendly danish owner of two restaurant/bar establishments - possibly in shanghai and suzhou - serving german and danish food ever asks his bartender to offer you and your friend shots on the house of what translates to 'black pig,' you should immediately take him up on his offer.
black pig is a homemade liquor that tastes of salty licorice with a buttery finish. it's like jagermeister, but better. top off three shots of black pig with about 2 liters of bavarian lager, and you'll find yourself riding through the french concession with your friend sherry on the back of a refuse wagon being hauled by one calmly pedaling refuse worker at 3 AM, singing at the top of your lungs.
now that's a cool thursday night.
i remember most of it, and i remember being dismayed by the hoarse and scratchy quality of my own voice, plus the fact that i can't carry a note. i don't know about you, but i imagine hearing myself singing in my head, and it's always fantastic. then i actually start singing and things start to happen. my cat runs out of the room. the windows tremble. my dad looks up from the newspaper and sighs loudly. bricks start falling from the chimney.
cyn's back from thailand and we went and picked kodi up from dan's yesterday. he had some friends over and she was basking in being the center of attention. dan's friends, ben and marielle, completely fell head over heels with boogie and we now have another potential doggie-sitting resource for those weekends out of town. dope dope dope.
oh, and willie's out here. he got in yesterday and will be here 3 weeks. awesome, right? i'm excited to see him. his friend dan is throwing a party tonight at 4live so we're gonna go kick it. yay! i have to remember to bring the camera. oakland in the house... redwood heights in the house...
despite the on-again, off-again sinus infection cold thing i have, cyn and i stayed up last night till the sun came up. we sho' can talk. i should *really* think about getting some sleep. i slept from 5 to 10:30 this morning, but my allergies always wake me up. need to start napping again or something. haven't slept a full night since getting back from guangzhou.
and i went on a date yesterday. a lunchy-afternoon thing. it was surprisingly fun. i can hear will bitching at me, 'another white boy? you go all the way out to china and find white boys?' but you gotta come out here and experience the shit yourself. any ABC or CBC out here is taken. i mean, and then some. prolly got a girlfriend plus hella girls throwing themselves at him on the side. plus the 6-foot minimum standard i have is a bitch sometimes. don't get me wrong, the white or latin guys out here get way too much love from the local ladies, too, but for some reason it's always the white dudes that call. what can i say.
black pig is a homemade liquor that tastes of salty licorice with a buttery finish. it's like jagermeister, but better. top off three shots of black pig with about 2 liters of bavarian lager, and you'll find yourself riding through the french concession with your friend sherry on the back of a refuse wagon being hauled by one calmly pedaling refuse worker at 3 AM, singing at the top of your lungs.
now that's a cool thursday night.
i remember most of it, and i remember being dismayed by the hoarse and scratchy quality of my own voice, plus the fact that i can't carry a note. i don't know about you, but i imagine hearing myself singing in my head, and it's always fantastic. then i actually start singing and things start to happen. my cat runs out of the room. the windows tremble. my dad looks up from the newspaper and sighs loudly. bricks start falling from the chimney.
cyn's back from thailand and we went and picked kodi up from dan's yesterday. he had some friends over and she was basking in being the center of attention. dan's friends, ben and marielle, completely fell head over heels with boogie and we now have another potential doggie-sitting resource for those weekends out of town. dope dope dope.
oh, and willie's out here. he got in yesterday and will be here 3 weeks. awesome, right? i'm excited to see him. his friend dan is throwing a party tonight at 4live so we're gonna go kick it. yay! i have to remember to bring the camera. oakland in the house... redwood heights in the house...
despite the on-again, off-again sinus infection cold thing i have, cyn and i stayed up last night till the sun came up. we sho' can talk. i should *really* think about getting some sleep. i slept from 5 to 10:30 this morning, but my allergies always wake me up. need to start napping again or something. haven't slept a full night since getting back from guangzhou.
and i went on a date yesterday. a lunchy-afternoon thing. it was surprisingly fun. i can hear will bitching at me, 'another white boy? you go all the way out to china and find white boys?' but you gotta come out here and experience the shit yourself. any ABC or CBC out here is taken. i mean, and then some. prolly got a girlfriend plus hella girls throwing themselves at him on the side. plus the 6-foot minimum standard i have is a bitch sometimes. don't get me wrong, the white or latin guys out here get way too much love from the local ladies, too, but for some reason it's always the white dudes that call. what can i say.
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
it's one of dem nights
when staying at home seems like the only option. walked into our apartment late this afternoon and it was so clean that i just want it to stay that way. cyn and i tend to get cluttery living together, and me living in her office... the coffee table serves as her desk and my desk and our dining table and ottoman all in one. our actual dining table serves as a file cabinet and a laundry-folding center. our dining chairs hold whatever bags we choose to carry for the week and drying laundry. add to this one 80-pound rottweiler with more fur than a barrel of sea otters and an unfortunate inability to retain bodily fluids... and you get the picture. twice a week ayi comes in and blazes a brave trail through our filth. sometimes i wonder if she opens the door and wants to throw up her arms and run out. or beat us senseless with our half-broken broom.
at home, in my apartment, this would never fly. i'm so anal normally that i will happily spend a saturday afternoon re-arranging my kitchen cabinets or ordering my books and cds alphabetically. my sister once complained that she could never find anything in the kitchen when we were roommates because i kept changing the organization. i wash my flip flops after i wear them with tide and a scrub brush. i arrange everything on my nightstand so that they have linear relation with the other objects. and yet, i have no problems with having to clear a place to set my feet on our coffee table, or when i walk through one of kodi's puddles on the floor. either i am learning to be less anal (unlikely), or all of this is ok because mentally it all feels so temporary, so i don't have the urge to terrorize my roommate with a martha stewart-esque iron fist. either way, the folks at home would be shocked.
at home, in my apartment, this would never fly. i'm so anal normally that i will happily spend a saturday afternoon re-arranging my kitchen cabinets or ordering my books and cds alphabetically. my sister once complained that she could never find anything in the kitchen when we were roommates because i kept changing the organization. i wash my flip flops after i wear them with tide and a scrub brush. i arrange everything on my nightstand so that they have linear relation with the other objects. and yet, i have no problems with having to clear a place to set my feet on our coffee table, or when i walk through one of kodi's puddles on the floor. either i am learning to be less anal (unlikely), or all of this is ok because mentally it all feels so temporary, so i don't have the urge to terrorize my roommate with a martha stewart-esque iron fist. either way, the folks at home would be shocked.
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
i bid farewell
...to foshan tomorrow. yay! i'm legit now and can exit and enter the country at will for the next year. so my stint as the princess of the underworld draws to an end. no more mysterious errands and extremely grand meals with government officials here, none of whom i can actually speak with. no more getting babied surreptitiously and receiving fancy seafood dishes ordered just for me. i think i can gladly hand over the title to someone more deserving.
i tried honestly and earnestly to catch a flight down to thailand to join cyn in her last days of vacay, but it was proving too complicated and too expensive to spend what sounded like about 48 contiguous hours (only 12 of them in daylight, really) in thailand. c'est la vie. probably better to save money.
back to shanghai tomorrow. even 2 days of not controlling my schedule and not having regular and guaranteed access to coffee was starting to make me anxious and a bit aggravated. god knows how i lasted nearly a week last time. additional note to self - next time must pack coffee AND snacks when i travel. altho i did find the price list for the room noodles and they are only 6 rmb. less than a dollar.
did you see this tidbit? shanghai is about to get tackier, if possible:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/08/world/asia/08shanghai.html
in other news... well, someone else is going to have to contribute because i've got zilch.
i tried honestly and earnestly to catch a flight down to thailand to join cyn in her last days of vacay, but it was proving too complicated and too expensive to spend what sounded like about 48 contiguous hours (only 12 of them in daylight, really) in thailand. c'est la vie. probably better to save money.
back to shanghai tomorrow. even 2 days of not controlling my schedule and not having regular and guaranteed access to coffee was starting to make me anxious and a bit aggravated. god knows how i lasted nearly a week last time. additional note to self - next time must pack coffee AND snacks when i travel. altho i did find the price list for the room noodles and they are only 6 rmb. less than a dollar.
did you see this tidbit? shanghai is about to get tackier, if possible:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/08/world/asia/08shanghai.html
in other news... well, someone else is going to have to contribute because i've got zilch.
Monday, May 07, 2007
writing
and writing. more writing. sometimes being locked up in a hotel room has its advantages.
frustrations. i feel the very rickety house i am erecting out of toothpicks sway under the pressure of thinking too hard too fast. i would never begin an endeavor without a little industry research, which serves as a treacherous gift indeed. i need this piece to be marketable. i need my fiction to be published. i need to make sure that the dizziness i get when writing transcends to those who are reading. i need to decide if i'm going with short fiction or if i will head for longer and more painful pastures that i have never explored. i need to make sure my creativity (i fucking hate that word) isn't being stunted by the fear of knowing all of this.
take the girl out of california... and she still acts the same. i wish i could say that being in china is inspiring me, but it's really not. it is affording me the time to write about the same things i would probably be writing about at home, except that i would be too busy projecting sales and marking down product. mostly being in china on a daily level sort of annoys me because i can't get the right shit at the grocery store, and that's about the extent of the impact. oh, and i get lost a lot because i can't read a lot of the signs. sad, but my international experience is turning into another version of carolyn experience somewhere else. episode 5, season 2.
writing. writing.
frustrations. i feel the very rickety house i am erecting out of toothpicks sway under the pressure of thinking too hard too fast. i would never begin an endeavor without a little industry research, which serves as a treacherous gift indeed. i need this piece to be marketable. i need my fiction to be published. i need to make sure that the dizziness i get when writing transcends to those who are reading. i need to decide if i'm going with short fiction or if i will head for longer and more painful pastures that i have never explored. i need to make sure my creativity (i fucking hate that word) isn't being stunted by the fear of knowing all of this.
take the girl out of california... and she still acts the same. i wish i could say that being in china is inspiring me, but it's really not. it is affording me the time to write about the same things i would probably be writing about at home, except that i would be too busy projecting sales and marking down product. mostly being in china on a daily level sort of annoys me because i can't get the right shit at the grocery store, and that's about the extent of the impact. oh, and i get lost a lot because i can't read a lot of the signs. sad, but my international experience is turning into another version of carolyn experience somewhere else. episode 5, season 2.
writing. writing.
walk it off
so, got a little intense yesterday after reading about the diethylene glycol thing. sorry if i scared anyone.
managed to get to hong qiao feijichang and catch my plane on time... and i'm in guangzhou. well, to be technical, in foshan, about 30 kilometers away. (those of you who know this already... bear with me). it is fascinating, as usual. *scathing sarcasm* not much new to report. david picked me up at the airport with girlfriend in tow. since much of our communication consists of charades and sign language, i didn't learn her name, but we drove for what seemed like an hour and i'm here at my hotel, waiting for my uncle to show up. he should arrive in gz from hk around 6. i'm starving, but my hotel is in never never land. i'm contemplating busting into one of these noodle bowls they have here in my room. how many times do i have to remind myself to bring food when i travel? you just never know when your next meal is coming, esp if you hang out with my uncle. usually we tend to err on the side of over-eating, but hey. a granola bar is not heavy. wouldn't hurt me to think ahead once in a while. and here i used to make my living planning things out. oh, the irony.
i may go down for a nap soon. i bopped around until 3:30 last night for uncompelling reasons if you are not me - scrubbing newly-discovered mildew from my favorite canvas bag, blow drying the bag, cleaning out the fridge - and got up at 8. not used to actually needing to wake up at a given time any more. i need to investigate finding some of those silicon moisture-absorbing packs so there will be no repeat occurrence of last night's horror when i dug out my duffle. bay area kids really don't understand humid climates. and to find something growing on your stuff..? so gross. i immediately googled 'mildew treatment' and gots to scrubbing.
my sister wrote me with good news - we were able to successfully sign the new tenants to a 1-year lease on my condo, so yay! they are young (recent berkeley grads) but have steady income, good credit, plus i trust my sister's ultrasonic perception of people. two roommates, and they used to write for hardboiled! small small world. because i was one of the editors and knew the other editors far too well, i can't say that based on that relation alone i would have assumed they'd be good tenants, but one of the kids (the boy) just landed a financial analyst position, and that i trust. analysts are anal and deliberate. that was a good sign.
i tried to nerd out and start 'connecting' with people on xing today. (see what being in foshan will do to you?) well, trying to join groups, anyway. i try to negate the normal cynical carolyn from time to time by blasting random energy into being social and trying to act all cheerleader. i joined some media professionals group (mostly german-speaking members from the look of it) and then tried to join the women in business group, but they wanted me to enter some crap about how i 'discovered' the group (by searching under 'groups,' duh) and to share what i hoped to gain or what i was looking for by joining. are you kidding me?! for once i'd like a women's group that wasn't all fuggin kumbaya and lifetime network. jesus. just let me join the group already. they even said that they "share" what their members write from time to time. what?! hells no. i hit cancel. cut and run. i would rather be groupless.
i'm going to start a women's group. it's going to be called something like, 'for women who deplore stereotypical-female bullshit' or 'the anti-hallmark league' or 'no hand-holding required.' have you ever seen anything marketed directly for women without seeing the word, 'share' somewhere in the description or mission statement? not all of us sit around waving kotex pads and comparing emotional notes. god.
managed to get to hong qiao feijichang and catch my plane on time... and i'm in guangzhou. well, to be technical, in foshan, about 30 kilometers away. (those of you who know this already... bear with me). it is fascinating, as usual. *scathing sarcasm* not much new to report. david picked me up at the airport with girlfriend in tow. since much of our communication consists of charades and sign language, i didn't learn her name, but we drove for what seemed like an hour and i'm here at my hotel, waiting for my uncle to show up. he should arrive in gz from hk around 6. i'm starving, but my hotel is in never never land. i'm contemplating busting into one of these noodle bowls they have here in my room. how many times do i have to remind myself to bring food when i travel? you just never know when your next meal is coming, esp if you hang out with my uncle. usually we tend to err on the side of over-eating, but hey. a granola bar is not heavy. wouldn't hurt me to think ahead once in a while. and here i used to make my living planning things out. oh, the irony.
i may go down for a nap soon. i bopped around until 3:30 last night for uncompelling reasons if you are not me - scrubbing newly-discovered mildew from my favorite canvas bag, blow drying the bag, cleaning out the fridge - and got up at 8. not used to actually needing to wake up at a given time any more. i need to investigate finding some of those silicon moisture-absorbing packs so there will be no repeat occurrence of last night's horror when i dug out my duffle. bay area kids really don't understand humid climates. and to find something growing on your stuff..? so gross. i immediately googled 'mildew treatment' and gots to scrubbing.
my sister wrote me with good news - we were able to successfully sign the new tenants to a 1-year lease on my condo, so yay! they are young (recent berkeley grads) but have steady income, good credit, plus i trust my sister's ultrasonic perception of people. two roommates, and they used to write for hardboiled! small small world. because i was one of the editors and knew the other editors far too well, i can't say that based on that relation alone i would have assumed they'd be good tenants, but one of the kids (the boy) just landed a financial analyst position, and that i trust. analysts are anal and deliberate. that was a good sign.
i tried to nerd out and start 'connecting' with people on xing today. (see what being in foshan will do to you?) well, trying to join groups, anyway. i try to negate the normal cynical carolyn from time to time by blasting random energy into being social and trying to act all cheerleader. i joined some media professionals group (mostly german-speaking members from the look of it) and then tried to join the women in business group, but they wanted me to enter some crap about how i 'discovered' the group (by searching under 'groups,' duh) and to share what i hoped to gain or what i was looking for by joining. are you kidding me?! for once i'd like a women's group that wasn't all fuggin kumbaya and lifetime network. jesus. just let me join the group already. they even said that they "share" what their members write from time to time. what?! hells no. i hit cancel. cut and run. i would rather be groupless.
i'm going to start a women's group. it's going to be called something like, 'for women who deplore stereotypical-female bullshit' or 'the anti-hallmark league' or 'no hand-holding required.' have you ever seen anything marketed directly for women without seeing the word, 'share' somewhere in the description or mission statement? not all of us sit around waving kotex pads and comparing emotional notes. god.
Sunday, May 06, 2007
diethylene glycol
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/06/world/americas/06poison.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
some shit just blows your mind. even for this country. selling barrels of antifreeze instead of glycerin so that thousands of people die around the globe? parents feeding their kids what they think is cough syrup and it's actually an industrial chemical? fucking awesome.
i understand wanting to make some money, but this is absolutely revolting. it goes beyond profit, this is a singular and aggravated disregard for human life in the most evil form. if ever i will this country to burn to the ground, this would be why. fuck the olympics and the cheap exported goods and movable type and gunpowder and silk. how can a civilization that led the way in progress throughout history sire such a pathos?
from the article:
bold type is my own addition:
"In China, the government is vowing to clean up its pharmaceutical industry, in part because of criticism over counterfeit drugs flooding the world markets. In December, two top drug regulators were arrested on charges of taking bribes to approve drugs. In addition, 440 counterfeiting operations were closed down last year, the World Health Organization said.
so note here that the government is 'vowing' (which they seem to do a lot of) to clean up their act because of the criticism they are facing, not because it is morally wrong to ship barrels of poison and sell it as a consumable product. not because you are essentially guaranteeing death. not because lives of people you don't know matter. nope. that would be facing the issue and perhaps shouldering some sort of responsibility.
*gasp*
within the expat community here, there is constant discussion of getting this country 'caught up' to the pace of westernized countries. although i do sometimes employ this rhetoric, i also partly disagree with what it implies - that the differences between the 'east' and the 'west' are due to the 'east' being behind in progress. on some levels, i disagree. my dislike of the service i get in restaurants and the fat gobs of loogies being hawked and the filthy hair and long dirty fingernails and getting shoved on the metro is based on what i am used to. i'm a westerner... plus spitting spreads disease. china is filthy and disgusting sometimes, but can also be completely amazing. at the foundation of all that i find amazing is its history, and i disagree that china should start working immediately towards 'western' mimicry. it should find its way by proceeding on the plank of its own history and culture.
but FUCK, it really needs to understand certain things. call them western, call them whatever the hell you want.
and a major note to any pharmaceutical companies importing raw goods from here - test the fucking hell out of your shipment.
some shit just blows your mind. even for this country. selling barrels of antifreeze instead of glycerin so that thousands of people die around the globe? parents feeding their kids what they think is cough syrup and it's actually an industrial chemical? fucking awesome.
i understand wanting to make some money, but this is absolutely revolting. it goes beyond profit, this is a singular and aggravated disregard for human life in the most evil form. if ever i will this country to burn to the ground, this would be why. fuck the olympics and the cheap exported goods and movable type and gunpowder and silk. how can a civilization that led the way in progress throughout history sire such a pathos?
from the article:
"When at least 88 children died in Haiti a decade ago, F.D.A. investigators traced the poison to the Manchurian city of Dalian, but their attempts to visit the suspected manufacturer were repeatedly blocked by Chinese officials, according to internal State Department records. Permission was granted more than a year later, but by then the plant had moved and its records had been destroyed.
“Chinese officials we contacted on this matter were all reluctant to become involved,” the American Embassy in Beijing wrote in a confidential cable. “We cannot be optimistic about our chances for success in tracking down the other possible glycerine shipments.”"
blatant and inexcusable disregard.bold type is my own addition:
"In China, the government is vowing to clean up its pharmaceutical industry, in part because of criticism over counterfeit drugs flooding the world markets. In December, two top drug regulators were arrested on charges of taking bribes to approve drugs. In addition, 440 counterfeiting operations were closed down last year, the World Health Organization said.
But when Chinese officials investigated the role of Chinese companies in the Panama deaths, they found that no laws had been broken, according to an official of the nation’s drug enforcement agency. China’s drug regulation is “a black hole,” said one trader who has done business through CNSC Fortune Way, the Beijing-based broker that investigators say was a crucial conduit for the Panama poison."
so note here that the government is 'vowing' (which they seem to do a lot of) to clean up their act because of the criticism they are facing, not because it is morally wrong to ship barrels of poison and sell it as a consumable product. not because you are essentially guaranteeing death. not because lives of people you don't know matter. nope. that would be facing the issue and perhaps shouldering some sort of responsibility.
*gasp*
within the expat community here, there is constant discussion of getting this country 'caught up' to the pace of westernized countries. although i do sometimes employ this rhetoric, i also partly disagree with what it implies - that the differences between the 'east' and the 'west' are due to the 'east' being behind in progress. on some levels, i disagree. my dislike of the service i get in restaurants and the fat gobs of loogies being hawked and the filthy hair and long dirty fingernails and getting shoved on the metro is based on what i am used to. i'm a westerner... plus spitting spreads disease. china is filthy and disgusting sometimes, but can also be completely amazing. at the foundation of all that i find amazing is its history, and i disagree that china should start working immediately towards 'western' mimicry. it should find its way by proceeding on the plank of its own history and culture.
but FUCK, it really needs to understand certain things. call them western, call them whatever the hell you want.
- because there are 1.3 billion people in this country does not mean that lives are worthless.
- lifting of censorship and providing fundamental education to all citizens will only serve to prevent more diethylene glycol massacres, not that the sky will fall.
- ridding the government of corruption and cronyism will only benefit the people and will perhaps serve to more evenly distribute the current and highly skewed ownership of wealth and power.
- align the government's constant propaganda about bettering the country with what will actually make the country better, i.e. safer.
and a major note to any pharmaceutical companies importing raw goods from here - test the fucking hell out of your shipment.
Friday, May 04, 2007
cough cough
permacough is back. it's either the intense smoke from logo the other night, or this cold. i went to hot today (bill's class, yay!) and had to chill for a bit a couple times. felt like i was going to faint. that happens when i go to bikram when i'm sick. boo.
what's new... cyn left today for thailand. she came in around 6 am to say bye, and after she shut the door, kodi proceeded with the longest whining, howling, body-slamming fit that i've heard come out of her. it was borderline alarming. she definitely knows what it means when her mom wheels out her suitcase.
i went to city shop after yoga to indulge in some westerner grocery shopping. some people swear by parkson's or pines market, but cyn and i like city shop because it's got more american stuff on the shelves. other shops seems to specialize in german stuff, or british or aussie stuff. at city shop you can find all sorts of organic cereals (one box will set you back about $8), mexican food, kettle chips, good baking supplies. i wanted oatmeal, a jar of natural peanut butter, and some decent coffee, but ended up buying stuff for tuna salad (mmm, pickles) and a few other snacky things. can't help it. i'll be leaving soon so i didn't stock up, but i definitely needed the oatmeal and pb. i live off that shit.
slept for 12 hours last night... i have this weird sinusy cold thing, so i guess it's wearing me out.
what's new... cyn left today for thailand. she came in around 6 am to say bye, and after she shut the door, kodi proceeded with the longest whining, howling, body-slamming fit that i've heard come out of her. it was borderline alarming. she definitely knows what it means when her mom wheels out her suitcase.
i went to city shop after yoga to indulge in some westerner grocery shopping. some people swear by parkson's or pines market, but cyn and i like city shop because it's got more american stuff on the shelves. other shops seems to specialize in german stuff, or british or aussie stuff. at city shop you can find all sorts of organic cereals (one box will set you back about $8), mexican food, kettle chips, good baking supplies. i wanted oatmeal, a jar of natural peanut butter, and some decent coffee, but ended up buying stuff for tuna salad (mmm, pickles) and a few other snacky things. can't help it. i'll be leaving soon so i didn't stock up, but i definitely needed the oatmeal and pb. i live off that shit.
slept for 12 hours last night... i have this weird sinusy cold thing, so i guess it's wearing me out.
Thursday, May 03, 2007
'next time you're down on your knees...'
second time this week we've stayed up till 10 am. wtf? my body clock is so screwed.
woke up at 3 pm and watched some bad movie with thomas howell in it. classic.
woke up at 3 pm and watched some bad movie with thomas howell in it. classic.
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