Undead Astronauts

really?

Oh, there’s a pretty girl, lemme go chat…see what happens…

The next morning: You wake up, with remnence of an awesome night of hardcore partying last night. A slight hangover headache. You remember hitting it off with a hottie, things went well, real well.  You look over and …….and……WTF!!!!

(no..she’s not a he)

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(courtesy of ChinaSmack.)

I think this kind of art would make for great t-shirts in the States that could become popular here. There is a very famous contemporary Chinese Artist known for doing similar things with Chinese characters, I’ll have my next A Look at Chinese Art post be about him.

How is everyone? Its been about a year since I have seen most of you guys. Sometimes the times seem to pass by quickly, sometimes it seems to pass by slowly. I thought it would be good to just give a brief update about my life here. Basically, life here in Shanghai boils down to work, the politics and dramas associated with that, my mishandling of numerous relationships, as well as befriending other overseas Chinese such as myself. My typical day starts with work at 9am. I usually get off between 6pm through 8pm. Every other day, I go to a local gym for about 1 hour and a half.

Most week nights I go to dinner with random dates or a girl that I am seeing at the time. Once ever so often I find myself free to enjoy dinner by myself, this is actually one of my most peaceful times. I would take a book and eat somewhere alone. I am currently reading Moby Dick, I wanted to get away from the science fiction and quantum mechanics stuff that I was reading last year and shift more towards literature. But as you can imagine, once every week or so does not leave me with much time to progress much through the book, I believe I am still within the first 50 pages or so.

I have been running more ever since last year. Every other day I run about 30 minutes at the gym and then maybe go to weights. I am starting to see my age, if i am not careful or eat too much, I can gain a few kg within 2 weeks and develop a small gut. Notice I have already shifted to using kg rather than pound.

I am usually never home until 10pm on weekday nights. Once I am home, I sometimes watch a DVD and then go to bed around 12:30.

On weekends, I usually spend the nights with friends having dinner, in bars, and sometimes in clubs. Karaoke is big here and I actually find it enjoyable now that I have learned the lyrics to a few songs. I suppose I am becoming more Chinese. We play ultimate frisbee on Sundays fairly regularly, then afterwards we usually go for a big buffet dinner, often involving Japanese food.

At nights when I have nothing to do I still go on Kongregate to play those addicting tower defence games. Although I have to say Desktop Defender is still the best (others include Gemcraft, Protector, etc).

Oh and sometimes I still watch Starcraft proleague replays as well as SC2 replays. I have a Xbox360 at home hooked up to a nice samsung HD tv, although I havent had much time to play it.

flare, is this the reason u were so bent on getting your own place in shanghai?

The hard-boiled bachelorette, Ma Nuo, has gone on to become one of China’s most recognizable bai jin nu. Marry for love? Fat chance, said the material girl: “I would rather cry in a BMW than smile on the back of my boyfriend’s bicycle.“

…

“My parents think it’s important…. They would rather I marry someone who owns his own property,” said Wei Na, 28, an advertising saleswoman in Beijing. “It just makes you feel more safe if a man has his own place. I think most women feel the same way.”

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in today’s nytimes op-ed, a philosopher poses a question i’ve asked myself many times over: is coming into existence a good thing for a child?

apparently, dead philosopher schopenhauer took this question on and answered with a negative. he held that “even the best life possible for humans is one in which we strive for ends that, once achieved, bring only fleeting satisfaction. New desires then lead us on to further futile struggle and the cycle repeats itself.”

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For RMB 150, I signed up for a Chinese on-line dating website. Prior to posting this, I spend almost 30 seconds contemplating the damage my reputation will sustain due to this public announcement. But, in the end, I did not wish to deny anyone the hilarity which shall inevitably ensue.

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We had a small talk, and by small I mean it dragged on for two days fully integrated with abundant supplies of awkwardness and guilt. I am moving all my stuff out today, luckily it wasn’t too much, (just some clothing) and my own place is only a few blocks away.  She was sad to see me go, and in an attempt to comfort her, I said that I would still be coming to visit all the time. She proceeded to ask that I didn’t take everything away as it would make her very sad. This is when the moment of sacrifice occurred. I don’t know why I did it, perhaps my mind was numb from the 2 day battle. My body was at that very moment positioned so that I was looking directly at it, and my mouth simply blurted out, “Don’t worry, I’ll leave my Xbox360 here.”

Why do you hate me so, mouth. Who is your master, and why does he wish to cause me such unnecessary pain?

Being a man of my words, I am forced to leave you behind today, my cracked and beloved child. I will try to visit you often, but do not worry, for before long I will attempt to rescue you from your predicament.