Chapter 30

This morning, the hordes of illiterate peasants really ramped up the explosions, as now more and more people are on vacation and thus those inconsiderate pieces of shit can cause maximum disruption. Some of them were so loud they made our windows rattle.

I made a strange dream about a taxi driver overcharging me, my memory of it was deconstructed and confusing, at times the language used in the dream was Russian, then French, then Spanish, but it had that general story arc. If it was a normal year we’d be out traveling by this point, we’d been talking about going somewhere tropical to snorkel, or Japan for hiking and skiing, and also Iran, which is one of the girlfriend’s dream destinations (and one of the few in the world where it’s much easier for Chinese than Canadian passport holders to visit).

It got me thinking about travel scams and double pricing, which has been the bane of my existence when I was out vagabonding in certain countries of the world, and how weirdly enough it’s not something I think about in my day-to-day life or when traveling in China. One would think that such a cut-throat culture that has birthed countless scamming schemes, combined with a xenophobic government that doesn’t give half of a shit about the potential plights afflicting foreign visitors, would lead to an endless barrage of official (double pricing in tourist sites) and unofficial (general scumbag shit from shopkeepers and touts and cab drivers) widespread scamming but no, such incidents do happen here and there but nowhere near as much as elsewhere I’ve been, and I’m thankful for that.

I watched some of Styxhexenhammer666’s videos while drinking water and stretching my sore old man muscles. He talked about that stock market short squeeze, and from what I gathered it seems to be one of the rare events that unite people across the political compass, relishing in the despair of the wealthy parasitic finance speculators. Aside from a handful of neocons, of course, but fuck the neocons. I for one am awaiting Biden’s administration’s response to this, whether they cave in to Wall Street’s demand for regulation and even outright bailouts, which would piss the fuck out of people.

I also watched a YouTube video analyzing the episode Xerox Of A Xerox in the last season of Bojack Horseman. Bojack might be one of the very best TV shows in history, and that guy Johnny2Cellos makes fantastic analysis.

I worked out in my home gym. I added another 5% to my rep numbers: 60 push-ups, 60 lying leg raises, 12 pull-ups, 12 handstand push-ups, and 30 kettlebell swings. Then repeat for another set. I had a bit of blurry vision after that, as I came out of the shower, not sure if it’s the exertion or not wearing my glasses for a bit. All the while I listened to a “Sovietwave” playlist, a quite interesting mishmash of Soviet-era melancholic music, 80s beats, and dreamy electronic loops. There’s really all sorts of weird music out there and I love it.

I made eggs and cream cheese bagels. I brought a plate to the girlfriend, who didn’t move out of bed until well in the afternoon. Nothing wrong with that, she’s been overworked at her job, squeezed out like the Chinese worker ant she is. I ate my brunch while watching videos about MMA on YouTube.

Then I read on the couch, listening to a few albums. Someone on a metal Facebook group posted something by Black Breath, an American death metal band, and I enjoyed their later offerings, which were pure death metal, as well as their older stuff, which had a lot of crust/hardcore elements.

I got dressed and took the dog out. I also took out the trash, but now that they’ve built those garbage collection cabins, I can’t just dump it anytime, I have to go during the small window in the morning and in the evening, for whatever reason. That displeases me a lot. As I talked about yesterday, there are aspects to my China expat life that are very uncomplicated compared to if I stayed where God put me on this planet. Low cost of life, absence of crime, and a general lack of rules and restrictions which might seem paradoxical to the average Western moron who reads too much media propaganda and mixes the PRC with the DPRK. But now, by centralizing garbage collection and removing all the large garbage cans around the apartment complex, they add a thin layer of complication to my carefree life. Some people just leave their garbage bags and boxes outside the locked trash collection cabin, and I thought about doing that until I saw one of those huge cast iron barrels on the side of the road, that are used by the shit-shoveling peasants when they blow up their morning fireworks. So I threw my trash in there.

I browned pieces of beef and simmered them in marinara sauce to make spaghetti. All the while, I watched a few YouTube videos about poker tips for beginners, as I was going to the bar to play Texas Hold ‘Em after dinner. I won some, lost some, and ultimately went all in with a pair of fives and lost the few chips I had left. It was fun though.

I got home and watched a few YouTube videos about history, music or deathmatch wrestling, because I can be a bit of a sick fuck at times and there's something fascinating about that ridiculous form of "sports entertainment".