15 February 2007 – 12:52 pm +0800
They’re painting the mountain green
They’re painting the mountain green
They dare not stop or waste a drop,
So let the paint be seen…
Which, of course, is absolutely the wrong way to go about it. I mean, if you want the SEP field to kick in and make the mountain “invisible”, you need a really wrong color, [...]
27 December 2006 – 12:33 pm +0800
OK, this is weird.
I can access my blog.
And Gmail.
And freaking BlogSpot blogs.
AND NOTHING BLOODY ELSE!!!
Either the Great National Firewall is on the fritz, or something else is afoot.
17 December 2006 – 9:02 am +0800
I’ve been trolling YouTube for S.H.E. videos, looking for a particular one. Well, two. But haven’t found either of them.
How. Ever. I found one that’s just as good as either. Or both. I’d never heard this song before, but I love it, and the video… well, the video is [...]
6 December 2006 – 7:17 pm +0800
In the Shanghai Daily1 today:
Mirror face time study ranks local men No. 1
Rachel Yan
2006-12-06
SHANGHAI men spend twice as much time in front of the mirror each day than their counterparts in other big Chinese cities, a new survey on cosmetics and grooming has found.
Local males rack up 17.1 minutes of daily face time combing [...]
13 November 2006 – 11:23 am +0800
I was walking west on Nanjing Road, passing Plaza 66, when I chanced to look up. She was blond. Wore a hat and wore it well. Had glasses. With nice, thick, boxy frames — the kind I really, really like on women. She was giving a small, warm smile. [...]
22 June 2006 – 10:11 am +0800
Sure, it’s a Party organ, but great scot, to let something like this go unchallenged in the slightest way:
[Foreign Ministry spokeswoman] Jiang said China hopes all parties can act in a way conducive to peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and help ease the tense situation.
She said China has always been devoted to maintaining [...]
19 June 2006 – 10:10 am +0800
Sometimes I wonder if they truly believe the things they say.
Other times I wonder if they’re just trying to make our brains explode with their complete and total illogic.
BEIJING, June 9 (Xinhua) — The controversial blockbuster The Da Vinci Code was withdrawn from Chinese cinemas by its state-owned distributor on Friday, three weeks after its [...]
9 June 2006 – 12:15 pm +0800
The officially atheist government of the People’s Republic of China has pulled The Da Vinci Code after three profitable weeks.
Why?
They ain’t sayin’.
And, you know, it’s not like you can’t get the DVD for a buck or less just about anywhere on the street.
16 May 2006 – 2:10 pm +0800
Most of the expats I encounter in Shanghai are varying degrees of leftist. (Keep in mind a fair chunk of the expat population here is European, with German and French predominating.)
Garden Books, on Chang Le Road, caters exclusively to expats and English-speaking professionals. A few weeks ago, they got two copies of The [...]
10 May 2006 – 2:07 pm +0800
I. Am. Going. To. KILL!!!!
I agreed to take on a student for a very generous (to him) fee (it was basically 25% of my usual rate), as a favor to a friend. After getting jerked around by him for three weeks now about when we can meet face to face, [...]
4 May 2006 – 8:34 am +0800
I was in Chaterhouse Books when I was more or less forced to endure un-muted crosstalk between an American roughly the size of the giant in Big Fish (honestly; must’ve topped 7 and a half feet at least) and a coworker of his, who might’ve been Chinese, ABC, or something in between — his accent [...]
3 May 2006 – 9:20 am +0800
In a bookstore. I’m doing two things simultaneously: reading, and minding my own damn business.
First he peeks around a corner at me.
Then he circles around so that he’s behind me.
Then he moves to stand — way too close, I could feel his body heat! — to my right. And stares.
Then, back behind [...]
2 May 2006 – 2:00 pm +0800
It’s the commie holiday.
Everybody’s got a week off, and everybody’s travelling.
Which, every other week-off-holiday, means that Shanghai is flooded with tourists.
But the city feels empty this year. There are people, but it’s… it’s… egad, it’s quiet. On a weekday! TWO DAYS IN A ROW!
What goes on here?
(Doo-doo-doo-doo Doo-doo-doo-doo!)
25 April 2006 – 10:40 am +0800
Wandering about Shanghai on foot, particularly in the French Concession area, you will notice sooner or later that most of the cooler old buildings have historic markers on them, with legends in Chinese and English. Sometimes they are bare — name of the building, year(s) of construction, design style — but usually with at [...]
20 April 2006 – 2:29 pm +0800
Up till the end of 1941, Shanghai was divided into four distinct sections, administered by three different governments. The area from Yan An Road to roughly a mile south (it varied with the jogs of the streets), and from the Huang Pu River in the east to quite a distance west (I’m unclear on [...]