a trip, musings, read or don't
Got back from Shanghai a couple days ago. i realized over the trip that i probably couldn't live there for any real duration without a lot to keep my mind off the overall filth. I enjoy it, but there are 2 or 3 sides to the city that I hadn't really become cogniscent of previously. I've seen, consistently, the worst sides of the city hidden... no, not hidden, simply obscured slightly by the glitz and sheen of the 1st-world city proper. There is so much beauty there to be found. I feel a little like satan in contempt of the mortals at their utter lack of ability to overtly appreciate the gifts they have been given. people spit and litter everywhere--Everywhere. people flow turgidly into one another without even so much as the slightest thought for their fellows most of the time. boarding elevators, busses, subways, and even taxis at times is an act of desperation. common sense dictates, as well as the writing on the floor, that you allow those ON your conveyance to get the fuck off, and then you board. standing dead center, nose to the opening doors, and rushing the folks coming off is the main method employed by locals. this is indicative of a general lack of common sense found in many other areas.
oh contemptuous satan, why do you question my will and decisions?
I felt deliciously foreign. I was a little bit of a spectacle all by myself. even though foreigners are screwed over 100 fold by the local merchantry, I still found myself in a position elevated. Cab drivers see the nice coat, pudgy, almost bloated girth, and white face and they hear the clang of the cash register sounding off. nevermind others were ahead of us, already having waited longer than us. the cabbie is locked onto me as if via boresight and homes in on me with surgical precision. 50~60yuan rides aren't uncommon for unknowing foreigners. You want to go where? SUUURRE i know just the way. what the cabbie isn't telling you is that there are very few places in the city proper that cost more than 15 to get to during the day.
Shanghai is a riptide after midnight. it is a calm surface of a frightening river. eddies of cabs circling hot spots distract the eye now and then, but the city streets are clear and the only people roaming them are likely the only people enjoying sex anywhere in that city. walking down sidestreets in the middle of the night makes you realize just how depressing a local's life can be. imagine working 6 or 7 days a week, 10~14 hour shifts, from the time you hit 15 till the day your child is old enough and makes enough to allow you to shuffle off to decay as an urchin on the streets, watching his or her child. You spend your entire life in the same 40 square feet. your bathroom is a public latrine not too far away and its sickly sweet bitter sour dried waft waves through you each time you pass. it is the smell of indoor plumbing ill-used. it is the smell of cheap public utilities unused for even the most meager amounts of disease prevention. it is the smell of rolling your pants up else they will soak in the sticky infested festering remnants of someone's tap water second-hand tea. squatters seem to only be cleaner than sitter toilets because nobody would ever CLEAN the sitters.
haggling loses its fun when there is little you need or want to buy. still, it remains one of the top spectator sports in china alongside of ping pong and, only recently, basketball.
television commercials lie. they lied before, but now they lie even more. come the fuck on, people.
a word or two on the sex during this trip: hooray! sex!
1.5 words on advertising in shanghai: what th-??
i'm not sure i really feel like going over all the details of the trip, but some things stand out. I'm now someone's uncle. that makes me feel SO old. fortunately the kid is a little mongolian-looking kid from the country. he's adorable and the child of a nutjob, apparently. wooooooooo i don't envy that kid's home life in 4 more years haha
the dinner on new years eve went well. i have no idea who any of those people are anymore. I must have been introduced to 70 people. feh, oh well.
ok, back to watching bleach.
oh contemptuous satan, why do you question my will and decisions?
I felt deliciously foreign. I was a little bit of a spectacle all by myself. even though foreigners are screwed over 100 fold by the local merchantry, I still found myself in a position elevated. Cab drivers see the nice coat, pudgy, almost bloated girth, and white face and they hear the clang of the cash register sounding off. nevermind others were ahead of us, already having waited longer than us. the cabbie is locked onto me as if via boresight and homes in on me with surgical precision. 50~60yuan rides aren't uncommon for unknowing foreigners. You want to go where? SUUURRE i know just the way. what the cabbie isn't telling you is that there are very few places in the city proper that cost more than 15 to get to during the day.
Shanghai is a riptide after midnight. it is a calm surface of a frightening river. eddies of cabs circling hot spots distract the eye now and then, but the city streets are clear and the only people roaming them are likely the only people enjoying sex anywhere in that city. walking down sidestreets in the middle of the night makes you realize just how depressing a local's life can be. imagine working 6 or 7 days a week, 10~14 hour shifts, from the time you hit 15 till the day your child is old enough and makes enough to allow you to shuffle off to decay as an urchin on the streets, watching his or her child. You spend your entire life in the same 40 square feet. your bathroom is a public latrine not too far away and its sickly sweet bitter sour dried waft waves through you each time you pass. it is the smell of indoor plumbing ill-used. it is the smell of cheap public utilities unused for even the most meager amounts of disease prevention. it is the smell of rolling your pants up else they will soak in the sticky infested festering remnants of someone's tap water second-hand tea. squatters seem to only be cleaner than sitter toilets because nobody would ever CLEAN the sitters.
haggling loses its fun when there is little you need or want to buy. still, it remains one of the top spectator sports in china alongside of ping pong and, only recently, basketball.
television commercials lie. they lied before, but now they lie even more. come the fuck on, people.
a word or two on the sex during this trip: hooray! sex!
1.5 words on advertising in shanghai: what th-??
i'm not sure i really feel like going over all the details of the trip, but some things stand out. I'm now someone's uncle. that makes me feel SO old. fortunately the kid is a little mongolian-looking kid from the country. he's adorable and the child of a nutjob, apparently. wooooooooo i don't envy that kid's home life in 4 more years haha
the dinner on new years eve went well. i have no idea who any of those people are anymore. I must have been introduced to 70 people. feh, oh well.
ok, back to watching bleach.