mf.rox

John P. Ryan, who played the father of the monster in IT’S ALIVE, died of a stroke on March 20, aged seventy. 

I found out by reading this post on Mobius Home Video Forum:

http://z8.invisionfree.com/MHVF/index.php?showtopic=7466

I took the pills a couple of hours ago, and as of yet, nothing unusual has happened.  If anything does, I hope to photograph the results!

The other day at brunch, a couple of the white people there were talking about de-wormers.  One woman was saying she always brings some back from the US to give her friends, and another woman who had taken them was raving about how good she felt after taking them.  She was saying the kids in the kindergarten where she works are dosed with them every six months.  She said that her symptoms, which disappeared after she took the medicine, included having her stomach swell up really big after she ate. 

Well, I’ve always been interested in taking a de-wormer.  There have been plenty of times where I’ve gotten sick, and later wondered if anything was growing in there, for instance after the time I got sick in Lijian.  On the other hand, I’ve been told that the gut is its own little ecosystem, and it’s best not to screw with it if nothing seems seriously wrong.  Complicating things are the scary, contradictory documentaries I’ve seen, saying that parasites will make you really sick, and that you are more likely to get diseases like Krone’s disease and MS if you don’t have parasites.

Anyway, I decided to try them.  I got a pack today, talked to Chinese friends who have taken them, talked to the pharmacist, etc.  I’m going to take them this weekend and see what happens!  I’m scared, but then again, I love disgusting things!

Psst … if you get a package from me, let me know.  About three people should be getting something in the mail shortly.  I’d like to know if things get there, though, because I’ve heard that a lot of packages are being opened up these days, especially by the Dep’t. of Agriculture on the US side.

Hui Hui

Originally uploaded by MFinChina.

Today when I went to visit the dog man he told me he had given Hui Hui away. He was pretty sad about it. He said he really missed her, and his eyes were red. It was just too hard having more than one dog in his store. Really, it’s tough with just Alice.

I really miss Hui Hui too! She was the cuddliest of the puppies and she used to go to sleep in my lap! We had been taking walks along with Alice and she was learning to heel.

Bye bye Hui Hui!

Well, I did it again.  I went back to one of the job applications I was considering and found that I’ve actually missed the application deadline.  That’s the third time that’s happened this year.  The next time I copy job info I have to go through it carefully and underline all the important stuff, like when it should be sent in, what should be included, etc.

I’ve been thinking about my desire to leave.  Shanghai is so big that it’s overwhelming and intimidating.  I haven’t ever gotten fond of this city, and I don’t think I’ll ever feel like it’s “my” city.  The huge streets, scary intersections and excessive traffic make going anyplace very difficult and stressful.  On the other hand, if I go somewhere else, I’ll have to start all over again.  I’ll have to meet new people, when I was just starting to make friends here.  I’ll miss the dogs, the dog man, and his family.  But, I do feel I’m in a rut.  I think I NEED to go someplace new.  I can always come back and visit Shanghai from time to time if I want to.  It’s only like sixty miles away.  I’m just wondering if I’m not really valuing what I have here right now.  On the other hand, if I haven’t liked it so much here for three years, why just sit around rather than trying someplace new?

I looked on Yahoo today, and the offending sentence has been changed.  Now it’s the correct “Don’t resign yourself to being fat.”

In other news, I got a “smile” back from Shanghaiist personals.  This time the person wasn’t married, but under alcohol (as in, “Do you drink?”), he wrote, “I am in a six step program.”  Is this like Half Alcoholics Anonymous?  Under “how I describe my ideal date,” he just wrote, “female.”

Leader of Carp Herpes biker gang jailed for attempted murder of teen.

Carp Herpes?  Now that’s a great biker gang name?

(Headline from my favorite source of sleaze, Daily Mainichi.)

1.  Are you related to South African anti-apartheid martyr Stephen Pico?

2.  Are you familiar with the disorder pica, in which the afflicted eats strange things like dirt?

3.  Were you named after this disorder?

4.  Was this disorder named after you?

5.  Have you ever suffered from this disorder?

From Yahoo.com:

Fat is not OK

Many people cope with failing diets by resigning to be fat.

Can you resign to be fat?  You can resign yourself to being fat, but I don’t think you can just resign yourself to be fat.  That isn’t normal English, is it? 

I also find how adamant they are about the fat thing to be a little weird. 

Deciding I’d better get on the stick and try to meet people instead of continuing to be a hermit, I signed up with Shanghaiist Personals.  Today I got my first batch of “recommended matches,” or something like that.  All but one of the people were married!  Two of them wrote that they were unhappily married, and one wrote that he was married but looking to swing!  Here’s the weirdest part — all of the profiles included pictures!  I can’t imagine putting up something on a web site saying I was unhappy in my marriage and looking for an extramarital affair, AND including my city AND photograph!  That’s pretty bold!  I can imagine a wife stumbling across it.  I also can’t imagine people finding it alluring, saying you don’t like your wife but aren’t man enough to get out of your marriage, and instead just want to screw around.  Ironically, one of the men included in his profile, “I take my committments seriously.”  Not his committment to his marriage, apparently. 

Bye bye, Da Bai!

Originally uploaded by MFinChina.

Da Bai and his sister Xiao Bai were adopted yesterday. I hope they have a happy life at their new home.

A story about the hated manpurse, from the International Herald Tribune:

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/01/17/news/rbag.php

Every time I go out this year I see tons of pregnant women.  It’s because of the Year of the Pig.  Everyone wants to have a baby this year so it can get in on the Golden Pig luck.  I heard on the news that in a typical year, 100,000 babies are born in Beijing.  During this lunar year, 144,000 are expected.  That’s a lot of babies!  Actually, even the normal figure is bigger than the population of many whole US cities.  That’s just the births for one city! 

Speaking of population, Shanghai’s official population count was just revised.  Now it’s 18.5 million, not counting migrant workers.  Jeez!

In other news, while I’m reapplying to teach here next year, I’m sending out other applications for summer and fall to see what will happen.  A lot of things make me jittery, and writing job applications is one of them.  I’m always afraid of screwing up in some way, writing a hilariously bad cover letter, etc. 

I was about to write an application for a place called U. of Pittsburgh.  I was thinking it was just a normal state university branch, or a city university.  Then I found out it was the famous school — Penn (or was it Pitt?  That shows you how much I know!).  I probably have no chance to get a job there, but I feel like I should send in my app. anyway, although writing it is scary.  Maybe they’d need me for a summer position, or something?  (Ooooh, but as usual, I’m scared to get going!)

A guy named Ben found a great advertisement for New Zealand vodka while out on the town in Beijing.  The text on the poster reads:

So we didn’t invent paper

or gunpowder

whatever bro

we still kick the shit out of Baiju

GanBei Motherfucker

To read the whole thing, go here:

Decadent Western Dog

Found through Peer-see.

I’ve had this ongoing problem with my down coat.  It got dirty, and because it’s 20 RMB each time I dry clean it, I just put it in my washing machine.  That was okay for a few times, but then little feathers started coming out of it.  The problem has been getting worse and worse, even though I’ve stopped water washing it.  My coat is always covered in these little feathers, and every time I take off my coat, my clothing has white feathers on it too.  Since I wear a lot of black, that makes it look even worse. 

Well, today I was shopping, and I took my coat off because it was too hot.  Walking by a mirror, I saw that my whole body, from my shoulders to my knees, was covered in little tiny pieces of down.  Embarrassing!  I’m going to get rid of that thing!  Luckily, the weather will get warmer soon.

THE POSTMODERN LIFE OF MY AUNT is not a comedy, as the ads, and the poster, would suggest.  Instead it’s a depressing story of how a woman’s life slides downhill.  Being misled about the content of a movie (like “DIRTY FILTHY LOVE is a wacky comedy!”) is something I really hate!

There are lots of criticisms I could make of it — that Siqin Gaowa seemed too dowdy to be a Shanghai woman, and how Chow Yun-Fat looked to suave and sophisticated to be a middle-aged Mainland man.  I also didn’t see the point of the young boy’s character, although I guess it is an Ann Hui trope (if that’s the right word) to have a character’s story told through the eyes of a kid.  He was a real cypher, and was barely in the film at all, though.  How could he even know that stuff about his aunt? 

All in all, it was a big disappointment. 

Oh — and I didn’t understand what was supposed to be “postmodern” about it.  Was it that the woman’s idealistic Communist ideas (a metanarrative, I guess), turned out to be outmoded?

At Maria’s Choice this week they’re showing THE POSTMODERN LIFE OF MY AUNT, directed by Ann Hui, starring Chow Yun-Fat!  I’m going to be there!  I’ll even go early to get tickets (although I’m still afraid they’ll be sold out)!

I’m mopey, but I can’t express exactly why here.  It’s a mix of not knowing whether I want to move away or stay here, of worrying about sex, wondering whether I’m dumb to be as stagnated in relationships as I am, wondering if I’m unrealistic in my thinking, and childish … But it’s all hard to talk about and tease the ideas apart.  Maybe I should just talk into a tape recorder for a while and then listen to it. 

Didn’t they have a song called “Rat in the Kitchen”? 

The thing escaped again, this time from a glue trap.  I’ve set out a few more, hoping to it’ll get caught next time it comes back.

Nothing much to say otherwise.  The semester started last night.  I woke up with a sore throat.  No good photos lately.  That’s it.