China Trip
Day 3 (25/6) - Shanghai: Old Streets, Temple of the City God, Yuyuan Garden, Craper (Part 2)

One very amazing thing I noticed in China was that there were NO Malaysian Mannikins. Even more reason to go to China rather than Malaysia.

I heard almost no English music played in China. Even France was playing more English music.

At the Bund there were also beggars and one even grabbed my bag. I was very pissed off at the nerve and was almost going to hit him with my umbrella.



I'm not sure if the person in black is male or female.




Mao Zedong poster I got for 30 Yuan (yes, I know it was overpriced even though I bargained it down from 40) and still haven't gotten down to putting up


Temple of the City God (Cheng Huang Miao)


Commercialisation


Entrance


Courtyard





Me and trough


Inside the sanctuary


I'm not sure why people were throwing in their joss sticks. I thought those were stuck into pots of sand.




The many fans (both paper and plastic) detracted from the sanctity of the ceremony




Gateway: 4 storeys of brand (?)

I saw an Ang Moh girl and an East Asian guy. Maybe he was her 'boyfriend'.

Then we arrived in Yuyuan Garden, with half an hour to spare due to various delays despite nagging: photographic, marketing and because 'we have a lot of time'. It was huge. Luckily we managed to cover most of it.


The Chinese like this type of ornamental rock. I can't remember what it's called.













I asked Johnny Malkavian to take some pictures for me and he went to zoom in on me ridiculously close, obliterating the background (the capturing of which was my primary intention and indeed would be the primary intention of all photographers):



He took some proper versions with his camera but he hasn't sent them to me yet (ahem).


Dragon Heads on archway. Of the last 2, I can't decide which to delete.


Frothing fish. Their activity was frightening.


Guan Yu


Luohan tree



Although the buildings outside were probably equally fake/restored as the ones inside, the removal from the atmospheric surroundings made them look more so.




"Here we have Chinese cakes preparing for foreigners. Foreign cakes providing for Chinese people. And Shanghainese can taste nationwide cakes."
The wonders of globalisation. I didn't check the menu too closely, but it seemed predominantly Chinese in scope.

For dinner, YuCheng, Lin and I had a ridiculously cheap Japanese buffet (108 yuan, including sashimi which I unfortunately don't eat) where I met the infamous Zhengjun, whom I had first heard of 11 years ago.




The Butt Plug at night

"History is indeed little more than the register of the crimes, follies and misfortunes of mankind." - Edward Gibbon

***

someone:

- Extracts from The Great Big Glorious Book for Girls, by Rosemary Davidson and Sarah Vine, published by Penguin.


HOW TO DEAL WITH BOYS

The main difference between boys and girls is that boys like doing things - driving cars, playing football, throwing stuff, eating, farting, etc - and girls like feeling things - love, friendship, happiness, excitement, etc. Boys are physical; girls are emotional. Of course this is a gross generalisation, but when you ask a boy "how are you feeling?" he will probably answer "hungry" or "cold" and not "deliriously happy because I'm with you". This can be disappointing but it can't really be helped, as expressing emotion comes as naturally to a boy as ballet does to an elephant.

If you are friends with a boy, bear in mind the following: boys worry a great deal about what other boys think of them. Therefore, even if a boy really likes you, he will be weird about showing this in front of other boys. If he is very immature, he may ignore you completely when he's with his friends. This means that he is probably too much of a baby to bother with, although you may wish to give him a second chance if he apologises and promises never to do it again. If he is actively rude to you in front of his mates, forget about him. He is not just immature, he is an idiot.

Boys are often spoilt by their mothers so they have a tendency to think that girls should do all the boring things in life, like cleaning, cooking and ironing their favourite T-shirt, while they get to do all the exciting things, like jet-skiing, playing in rock bands and being spies. Don't indulge this belief; the sooner they get reeducated the better.

Boys don't always say what they mean and often they don't mean what they say. Communication is not their strong point. They're not terribly sensitive to other people's moods, either, so if you are upset about something you will have to spell it out: it's unlikely that he'll work it out for himself, no matter how much sulking you do or moody hints you drop. Just tell him what's bothering you and he'll probably be genuinely surprised and sorry that he has upset you.

Although boys go to great pains to show the world a confident front, underneath they are as insecure as us. Sometimes, when it's obvious that they are feeling sad (you will know this through your superior intuition), a bit of encouragement or a compliment can help them to feel better. One of the nicest things you can say to a boy is that he is good at something, eg, skateboarding, building a tree house, solving quadratic equations.

If you remember these few basic rules, boys can be among the best friends you'll ever have. And they will carry your books for you, too.

***

I should have a tag called 'misandry', but 'sexism' will do.

u r wt u wr:

- 'Mine's bigger *picture of 2 monkeys comparing bananas*' (this was worn by a fat girl. I'm not sure what the bananas have to do with it)
- 'Luscious for life'
- 'Be my love ♥'
- 'This is my spring break shirt'
- 'Let's get dirty *mud splotches*'
- 'Thank God I'm Female' (I liked this one)
- 'Juicy 1976'
- 'If you are rich, I'm single' (Contributed)
- 'Fuck me like a princess' ("seen in italy, and the woman wearing it was 30something!") (Contributed)

Statistics for the NUS network on Facebook (Today)


Statistics for the NUS network on Facebook (April 17)

3 months ago, there were 3% fewer females, and the same amount of unlisteds. That women are more into social networking than men is not surprising, given that they are more social creatures.

Coldplay and Radiohead; Love Actually and Lord of the Rings; Music and Reading; Friends and Prison Break; and Grey's Anatomy and Tuesdays with Morrie still maintain the top spots in their respective categories.

The proportion of Singles is about the same at a third. SDU still has a lot of work to do.

Finally, having been socially engineered well, a good two thirds still do not list their political views, whether out of apathy or fear. Together with the apathetic crowd which has stayed at 5%, this means a good 70% have learnt the correct lessons from the smashing of the students' union in the 70s under Tan Wah Piow and are doing more productive things like covering their rag preparations with tarpaulin so the other Halls can't perform industrial espionage and sabotage.

(Unfortunately, comparative historical data for the Singapore network is unavailable)

***

Also seen on Facebook:


AdultFriendFinder ad placed in the Singapore network! How immoral! (Why are they asking us, in July, to make a date for Valentine's Day?!) And I'm guessing they didn't choose the NUS network because people here don't need AFF's help to hook up...

"The man of knowledge must be able not only to love his enemies but also to hate his friends." - Friedrich Nietzsche

***



MFTTW: "i thought you might appreciate the humor in this sign. found in the female toilet stall."

"No one really listens to anyone else, and if you try it for a while you'll see why." - Mignon McLaughlin

***

I watched Psycho at a free screening outside the National Museum yesterday. For all that it is lauded, watching it you can see how much movie making has progressed in 47 years. Meanwhile the story isn't even that fantastic, at least if you don't dig up the nuggets the director threw in to make people go "Ooh, he's so smart!", as in films like The Matrix, so I am curious as to why it is so hyped.

There were many moments where the movie went silent, so I accepted it as our getting what we paid for. What was unforgivable was that they cut two scenes: where Arbogast is pushed down the stairs and slashed, and one where I read that there was a shot of the mother's corpse. Fortunately, the former is on YouTube (the version I watched last night cut off at about the 10 second mark).

I'm guessing that going by similar criteria, the shower scene should've been cut too, except that it's too famous and everyone would complain.

Gah gah gah

***

An amusing consequence of making a film ripe for meaning mining is people come up with rubbish such as:

"The uptight proprietor meticulously shows Marion where everything is, pausing on the word "mattress" [a word remarkably similar to the word matricide]"

"He... banters away... challenging ('baiting') him to confess"

"His body convulses and spasms (orgasmically?)"

Even some of the other stuff, like the butcher's knife being phallic, seems questionable (sometimes a butcher's knife is just a butcher's knife).

7.5 hrs after finishing my training at Bukit Timah Hill and after a half-hour-long nap just now, I still feel horrible.

My feet hurt, my arms feel tired and to top it off I have a headache that floats just out of view whenever I try to confront it.

Looks like, just like the last few times, I'm going to be gone for the rest of the day.

I really don't understand the people who claim that exercise makes them feel good. It's only ever made me feel like shit.


[Addendum:

Xephyris: "exercise makes you feel good only if you do it regularly haha
otherwise yeah, it makes you feel like shit"

But then, in slavery it still made me feel like shit.]

If a Lady says No...

One very important skill to master in the broad category of "emotionally manipulating women" is persistence.

Persisting regardless of the other party's feelings or desire (ie Ignoring Kant's second formulation of the Categorical Imperative - "Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, always at the same time as an end and never simply as a means") can lead and has lead to results, not least because resistance or disinterest is sometimes feigned as a test, to prevent accusations of being 'easy' or otherwise.


Anecdote One:

My friend was helping this girl configure something on her laptop, so she was at his house. He tried his moves on her, but he got no response so he stopped.

Later, he was discussing this with her, and she said "your house, your game", so he set up a rematch, during which he advanced all the way and got what he (both of them) wanted.


Anecdote Two:

One female friend had hooked up with this guy, and I asked her how this had happened (she was supposed to be with this other guy, but that's another story, maybe not for another day).

She said he had hit on her, but she wasn't interested. However, he kept on hitting on her, and as she related this she sounded very pissed off with him.

However, eventually he got her, at least for a while (this persistence was not the reason she eventually ditched him).


As my Evolutionary Psychology instructor commented: "Men are more likely to read too much into the smile. It is adaptive to risk a rebuff... If 9 out of 10 women slap your face and say 'bugger off', it doesn't matter if the 10th woman smiles and, you know?... Bad manners are good for genetics."

"If a lady says 'no', she means 'maybe'.
If a lady says 'maybe', she means 'yes'.
If a lady says 'yes', then she's no lady."

Cock: We're Overthrowing the PAP government! Viva La Revolution!

Actually, no, far from it. But I hope that caught your attention.

Young Republic Summer Jamboree on the 9th of August ( isn't it appropriate?) at Gabriel's place.

[My address]

Starts at 5 pm.


Me: Once again this will be a potluck. So please bring whatever food you are both willing and able to (and tell me and preferably Jiekai too what you have in mind). Adequate cooking facilities are available, and arrangements can be made.

For those who do not bring anything, a donation is recommended but the truly destitute will not be turned away.

Esther Wong is still most unwelcome.

***

Among other things, we will deconstruct the National Day Parade (assuming we don't get raided by the ISD). Yay.