Political Rant

Hey Folks! Long time no speak. Whats the deal?! Was it something I said?

Oh, right. I stopped updating. Well thats all over now.

I've been pretty pre-occupied between coming home from China and looking for a job,
but indeed that is no excuse at all. SO! Here I write again.

Uh...hmm.... Oh yeah!
So looking for a job can suck your soul out slowly and painully. I think its a good experience for me, though, since I'm an Economist. Economists tend to lose their souls alot too, but usually by ignoring things like the pro's of job security and by a certain insensitivity to the plight of the common worker... so now I'll be safe from that cause I know what it feels like.

How bout them Iranians! Its funny cause even the "reformist" candidate (look at his platform, its still ridiculous) wouldnt have been all that much fun, but a revloution! mmmmmmmm the only thing we (We as in the free world) could gain from this is less funding for Hamas and Hezbollah. Poor guys, victims of the global recession. May even have to start laying off administrators in the Martyrs division, but they've been losing money for years now anyway, and refused to innovate.

Oh, and read up on Sarkozy's proposal for outright banning burqas in France. Banning. A garment... in case you forgot, one of his early actions was to ban head scarves, yarmulkes, and "over-size crosses" from french public schools.... Now, in his mind I'm sure he's just fighting the "radical" and "religious extremist ideas" these things represent, but I'm pretty sure France is a free country. So what the fuck. The scariest part is nobody's making a stink about it.

I mean, FORBIDDING religious garb. He says its because it represents the debasement and subjugation of women. In many senses it does. But there's also a whole bunch of women who put it on by themselves. Educated women, too. So basically very religious muslims will be banned from France. Imagine banning sheitls. yeah, I think its like that.

more pics from China, and a video.
The pics are from a trip to Huangshan, 黄山，literally Yellow Mountain. Its not really yellow tho, thats just the name. The last pic was my first meal in Xi'An.

More pics - treasure

Hey dudes,
there were some crazy museums in the Forbidden City
with all sorts of really awesome treasure.
Here the pictures are:

This is a solid gold sphere with pearls to map all the stars and constellations in the night sky.
It's the only still-existing gold celestial sphere in the world.

A beautiful scene carved out of a single block of very rare blue jade.

From 1720, a Jade figure of an Arhat, whatever that is.

This is a video of some of the Commie guards walking around the forbidden city. There were a bunch of them all over the place. Note the last dude in line holding bananas.

Since the weather was nice we went for a 1am stroll near Tiananmen square, where we saw two green uniformed guards doing straight line back and forth patrol. We were just walking by (nervously) when he stopped and asked us what we were doing. We told him we were just walking (unaware if we were breaking any laws.)

We sat down at a nearby lampost and then he came over and asked us again what we're doing, so we said Just sitting the weather is nice. I asked him if he always works so late at night, and how longs he's been in the guard corps. He responded with surprising friendliness, and a 15 minute discussion later he had insisted on giving me his email address and he'd given me a Chinese name:

李芫龙

So now I'm chinese.

Brain Log

Ive decided I think its silly to record only whats actually happening while I'm here in China.
And not what I'm thinking.

Ive been doing lots of ruminating,
since Ive got lots of time to do it,
and I have been having crazy dreams,
which Ive been recording in random notepad files scattered around My Desktop...on my laptop...

So I'm in China and I spent some personal time with a pretty 26 yr old
chinese lady recently, and I'd like to share.

The fact that everyone in this country is an only child really messes with them.
I mean, only children are different, having siblings affects how you develop.
Most of them are doted on as the pride and joy of their parents' lives...
parents just born in the wrong country and generation,
when that was the legally enforced method of
population control. Kinda crazy.

They also tend to be very immature. the on I spoke to as her own job
but lives with her parents. And can't imagine moving out till she's married.
Only child, like everyone else...

Here are some pictures of stuff.

Self-Portrait from the Tallest Building in the World
But you can't tell cause shanghai has bad smog.

This is a tofu dish that's really popular here...
its really squishy and soft tofu, almost like a jelly

My bike is too far from my computer for me to take a picture...
soooooooon.....

Also,
Your body is the oldest thing around you most of the time...
Those first tree-dwelling hunter-gathering Homo sapiens
was, for 99.9% of his DNA, exactly like you.

The only big difference between you and him
are the tools man has built for himself and
the ideas he's invented...

Just one big big tower of a thousand generations of ideas on ideas on ideas on ideas....

THANKS FOR READIN!
And thanks for the comments! please leave more!

China Pictures

I met a bunch of expats at the Shanghai Chabad.
No, no Chinese Jews. Just Expats,
but very friendly.

One dude, Irving,
who, surprisingly, is NOT a 45 year old balding accountant,
invited me to his friend's apartment nearby,
where we drank and drank.

a 40 oz. bottle of Budweiser cost me 50 cents.
a 20 minute cab cost me all of $3
True stories.

Then we went clubbing. Which was lame.

I'm also slowly starving to death,
since all the food here is like...crazy.
just....you know, maybe Ill put some pics of dishes up here.

I know how to say "vegetable dumplings"
but unfortunately,
nobody has any.

I got excited when I saw some sushi at a store but,
silly me,
it was crab and ham sushi!
YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!

no. so I had a salad, and ate it in a nearby park while listening to OK Computer.
And got stared at. Shamelessly. By everyone.
Can't really pretend I didn't like the attention.

And here are some pictures, finally.

I didn't ask for the twisty straw.
The chinese reads: People are really smelly.

Nah. I have no freaking clue what it says...
and here is the view from my 21st fl hotel balcony:

I believe the Weather Report was "Mostly Smoggy"

What does "Masseuse" mean to you?

Me (12:34:17 AM): when I got back drunk last night the hotel called my room (CALLED!! at 430AM!) and offered me a "masseuse" for 100 US dollars

Me (12:34:29 AM): it was so ridiculous

Me (12:34:39 AM): I laughed out loud

Me (12:34:47 AM): so thats the price

Me (12:34:50 AM): 100 US and Im laid

Me(12:34:52 AM): ahahaha

A Friend (12:35:03 AM): the hotel does that?

A Friend (12:35:03 AM): wtf

Me (12:35:09 AM): yeah

Me (12:35:11 AM): the HOTEL

Me (12:35:12 AM): 5 star

Me (12:35:14 AM): right

Me (12:35:16 AM): jesus

Me (12:35:18 AM): jesusjesus

Me (12:35:25 AM): what a country

Welcome To China!

The only other white guy on my flight was sitting in front of me,
and we exchanged ripped movies off our hard drives and discussed recent comic book films.
Good way to pass the time.

It did not take me very long to get ripped off for the first time.
When I landed after a 15 hour flight (West and North, over the North Pole. I flew over Siberia!)
and changed some money, some middle aged woman asked:
"Tah-Shee?"
So I said yes, at which point I had to follow her
in the complete opposite direction of the Taxi sign I'd seen.
I was a bit suspicious but too tired to care,
though there is always the fear of being totally fucked over
and having my luggage stolen at gunpoint when I get into the car.

After a long and sketchy walk we got outside and an old red jalopy picked us up,
and the woman was looking around constantly, very nervous.
She rushed me into the car and we were off.
I'm pretty sure what they did was illegal, since they weren't a real taxi-cab,
which are heavily regulated by the state.

Since there was no meter and I only had a rough idea what it should cost,
I got very ripped off (I found out after the fact).

I am having trouble uploading the movie I took in the car, hopefully all internet in China isn't this bad.

~The Twenty Something

STONER MONOLOGUES CH. 2

The Stoner Monologues Ch.2
Nature in My Own Backyard:
This is the view from a footbridge where I smoke all the time with the ducks.
I just watch them, they don't care about me.
Every now and then one of them quacks, but in vibrato
a drawn out quack-quack-quaaaaaaack

It always reminds me of someone laughing.
So the ducks are having a good time too.



The bottom picture is a drawing I did from memory at home of the mental snapshot I had meant to take. Clearly, 10 megapixel cameras have the advantage.

Why go to the wild?
Well I just saw Into the Wild which,
despite its horrid length and unbearably Vedder soundtrack,
had an affect on me.

The beautiful nature shown in the movie is inspirational,
set so closely to contrast with man's
individual struggle for survival.
Helps you feel how you were made.
Viewing the behavior of modern humans
can be much more meaningful if one remembers
how we are all hard-wired,
what evolution has taught us over the years.
Our own psychology.

I got to China on Wednesday!

~the Twentysomething