12:27 am
After I finished writing this morning I plugged in my USB to make a copy- and every few seconds I'd get a "detected malware" notification. So I took some time to look over all the folders in my USB, finding a number of suspicious shortcuts that either said "Microsoft" or "folder" or some name copied from my existing files. Whether or not it would help, I opted to delete all those shortcut files. I'm a regular icebreaker (not sure if I made the correct phrasing for a Neuromancer reference, that's what I was going for). I began a quick system scan to see what I could see, thankfully I made sure to update everything on my computer the day before I left, so at this point it has mostly up-to-date anti-virus software (12 days out of date is a long time to be out of the game I guess).
It was taking far longer than I expected, so I searched for the chess program... and it looks like when I made the switch to Windows 10 they booted out my chess.
And replaced it with Candy Crush: Soda Saga.
So I played some Candy Crush, and could feel brain cells dying as I watched this "puzzle game" essentially play itself. In theory it was teaching me the mechanics, but it was just level after level of taking the suggested action. All things accompanied by the suggestive utterance of "Juicy!" It was almost 1pm before the scan was complete- some trojan what nots were worming their way in my computers insides, but it knew what's what. The worry then is what'll happen when it DOESN'T know what's up. I should check my other USB to see if it's gotten all virus-upped at my work place. That's the downside of the browser they have to allow me to go on facebook and such- it's super sketchy with pop-ups.
My first stop after leaving the apartment was lunch at Roosevelt Plaza. I had no intention of revealing how reliant I am on my workplace there, so I made sure to give it a wide birth. For food I picked up some sweet and sour something, the rice with its bits of corn and ham, some green vegetable thing with mushrooms in some kind of water business, the tall cup of watermelon pieces, and a bottle of water. All together this put me 6.4 yuan over my 20 yuan daily food budget, but my budget basically went out the window after I got a safety net of extra money from Jordan. (Okay, let's actually count how much is in there, instead of allowing for hypothetical "infinite money" by virtue of never checking, let's open this Schrodinger's box and see what's what... yes, as expected, a doubling of my initial budget. I should spring for oatmeal and see if I can't correct my newfound irregularity.)
Two things of note about this meal: in buying a bottle of water I found I owed the bottle people an apology- the bottles here aren't unnaturally soft and sucky, it's just that I must have been running off of really old bottles from a backstock in that hotel. So that's okay. And also I made a breakthrough vis a vis my chopstick usage. Instead of focusing on how the sticks are being held, I examined the actual interaction between stick and foodstuffs from people around me. What I found was that they used the sticks to manipulate the food into whatever "take off zone" they wanted, and then brought the sticks together UNDERNEATH the food, to scoop the food up. This is an absolutely new paradigm compared to my (admittedly celebrated) pincering technique, which allows for greater personal adjustment according to preference in the portion size of each scoop. This is wonderful! Chop sticks making a certain kind of sense! I honestly didn't expect that to happen! Used in this manner, I may have solved my noodle problem. Time will tell.
As promised, I went south. I was thinking about how chaotic all the roads were, and as I walked, as the bright commercialism of the plaza waned, I realized where I had seen this before: this place looks like the world of Blade Runner. But that's Chinatown, Jake.
Yeah, I started to think, "actually, this kind of looks crummy" but there was a mountain ahead, so I said to myself, "self, let's go to that mountain and see if I can't hike up the thing". Okay, you got me, this time I didn't literally didn't say that to myself. But don't always assume I'm making up dialogue, because I've said that self line before, so watch out!
Er, anyway, yes, mountain. So I travelled down, hanging too near the road for total comfort (no choice though), singing along with my ipod songs, and I found a whatdyacallit. One of those stores that isn't a supermarket, but has a bunch of fruits and vegetables inside. I told myself I'd pick up some bananas on the way back, but I didn't see the store on the return trip. That's too bad.
RIGHT. MOUNTAIN. So I got to the bottom of the mountain, but it was closed of to the public. Rats, right? But the road hangs a right, and if you'd be ever so kind as to turn your head along with it, you'd see a whole other side to Dalian- a city scape that is straight up gorgeous, the crown jewel of which has to be Castle Dalian.
Or possibly Dalian Castle, but I like the effect of saying "Castle Dalian". It's a castle high up on the other side of these groups of mountains here (they're relatively modest mountains, but still very cool)- the castle, from this vantage point at least, looks super tall, like Xanatos was trying to break some centuries old curse or somesuch. So now I followed the road with a mind to go up to the castle.
I was slightly disappointed that it actually was called Dalian Castle, I thought that was just me being romantical- it's a hotel as well as a museum. Er, well, the sign actually said "Hotel" and "Residence" so... people live there? I thought that was confusing. But I was a fan of the English words.
Hiking up the winding main road, I finally got to an entrance which had a majestic stag statue standing in front of it, with two, what, fawns? The stag had a crew is what I'm saying. Additionally there was a security person on a walkie talkie checking me out. I did my best to appear like a non threatening tourist, first by exaggerating my looks of wonder at everything around me, and second by not letting on like I was aware there was security.
A short distance further up the road was the end point, customer drop-off inntrance (you see what I did there? I substituted "inn" over "en". This was a clever way to make it so you can never again be sure whether or not I make a spelling mistake, or a pun that you just didn't get.) There were some... castle-y... umm... turret... uh, corner stone gazebos that were playing soft music and gave you an amazing view of south Dalian.
I think I live in the bad part of town. What? Come on, man.
There were two other gazebos (that's the word I'm going with) and the second had some stairs down to an area where you could chill out with these three statues, the center of which was clearly Poseidon holding a trident. I forget whether or not he was standing on this large fish, but regardless the fish was using his tail to cover Poseidon's junk. I thought it was funny, which is immature, I know. Right now I'm enjoying the thought of the fish saying "Eeeh, it's a living."
I just wanted to get to the castle before turning back home, but the waters edge was RIGHT there, so down I went, back to the road at the mountain's base. There was a sign for a zoo that was, I believe, 2.5 km east from there. But there's enough going on for this trip, even if it were open.
Augh, okay, interlude: I don't know if there's construction that's going on all night, or if this is someone using the insane washing machines here nonstop, but this hammering business has been going nonstop since about 9pm and it's starting to get to me. It's 1:54am right now! Like, what is the deal?? If this is a laundry machine then I promise to not use it late at night again.
I walked by a rounabout with a statue of what I'm assuming are the three fates. Three ladies, I can tell you that much, and into an area similar to the distillery district: cobblestone streets (is that the right word? you know what I'm talking about) with the buildings to match. Sort of that "rustic rich" aesthetic. Some nice statues of elephants, however, unlike the elephant statues near Roosevelt Plaza, no one had used the nostrils in the trunk for an ashtray. Real classy!
And there I was at the waterfront. Sun high in the sky (well, low enough to blind me in that direction), a couple of small, tree filled islands in the not-too-far distance. A giant bridge spanning the water from (presumably) the Dalian Zoo to some unknown attraction in the west. Seriously though, it's how I imagine the bridge to P.E.I. looks, and it's very nice.
It's 2:11 am, and I'm tired. I'll pick this up in the morning, assuming I can sleep because seriously, this is what it sounds like when Woody Woodpecker takes a job doing construction. If the noise persists tomorrow I may have to investigate... and no jury in China would convict me.
9:59 am and I'm back.
Just behind me and to my left were some public washrooms, just in time. I'm afraid, nice part of town or not, they still don't come stocked with soap dispensers. I'm starting to run low on hand sanitizer.
I realized my inner thighs were sore, so I gingerly waddled over to a nearby bench to look out at the water for a bit and think about my next move. Also I said "now my pants are chaffing me" because of course I did. When I returned to my apartment I realized the problem had less to do with my pants rubbing back and forth on my legs and more to do with inadequate protection from the cold. I'll be wearing my heavier pants today to ward off just such an eventuality.
I considered turning back north now but... to the west was a short bridge, and on the other side was some kind of closed down carnival attraction. Obviously I wanted a closer look at that.
So I wandered a bit off course from my south-north plan. But there wasn't really any danger in my getting lost, not like my initial trip to Zhongshan Square. There was the ever present danger of getting killed by a car though- there were a couple of times when I had to wait so long to cross the street that I started getting angry at this place just for that. I really wanted to keep moving, as the temperature was starting to drop.
The area was fairly isolated, so I was belting out my songs now. The Power Rangers: Time Force theme song is brilliant. FYI. I had to investigate what looked like some neon green palm trees, but on closer inspection they were fake. Considering the cartoon monkeys everywhere, I imagine the decorations were put together for the upcoming Spring Festival- whatever and whenever that is. There are monkeys pictures everywhere guys. And dolls. It's a big deal.
I headed towards what looked like a shopping center to try and warm up some, but it ended up being more a community center on the verge of shutting down for the day. It afforded me some wind protection, but very little heat. I blew on my hands a bit before moving forward.
Out on the north side of this community center there was a sort of winter wonderland playground set up- snow hills, little ski hills, don't quote me on this, but I think a little snowmobile track. Now, there isn't really any snow in Dalian, there hasn't been any parcipitation since I've been here, sidestepping the fact that it's mostly been too warm for snow. So this whole set up is clearly made with a lot of artificial snow.
A guy on a bicycle with a motor on it, somewhere, takes off and drives away. If we were in a Mad Max scenario, the guys in China would already be ahead of the curve, most everything with wheels already has a motor in it. I saw one thing yesterday that looked like maybe the back half a motorcycle. If it's currently operational then the best I can figure is that it's some kind of hoverbike.
Perhaps because it was the return trip and I wasn't busy looking at everything, but it didn't take me as long as I thought to return to the Roosevelt Plaza area. And you know I walked inside to warm up. Then outside, and back in at the next available plaza. Well, I guess there aren't any stunning revelations to be had with this line of conversation. I made it back to my apartment at the ripe old time of... 6pm- what, that's it?
Wow, okay, what to do with myself. I ate some crummy orange slice candy (I just finished another piece now, no, it isn't growing on me), I napped until the construction sounds really kicked into gear and I tried to spot the source outside the window. No luck there. I took some time thinking about what I'd be up to if I were still in Toronto- I'd probably be watching some internet video with Simon, getting set for a meal of, say, fish sticks, fries and creamed corn. Not really healthier than anything I'm eating here. But there'd be some laughs to be had.
I played some more of this Candy Crush business (augh), and watched the only video I've got saved on my laptop- the pilot episode for The Flash! I haven't actually seen the broadcast version, so I wonder if anything is different... I briefly considered playing some pokemon, but I'm too afraid to charge my 3DS here, so at the moment it's a resource too precious to use.
Clearly, I need to get some kind of social life in Dalian for when I don't have the mental energy to do hours of writing about my day. Plus some language books to get a grip on Mandarin.
I thought I'd do some hair trimming- and with my honkin' big scissors confiscated at Pearson that meant a steady hand with my electric trimmer. I wasn't afraid of ruining it, it's a piece of junk. So I took it out- hey! My phone charger! It was mixed in with the trimmer cord! That explains that. I removed my plug adapter from my laptop, and plugged the adapter into the wall near the bathroom, with my trimmer attached (I think it was set to the on position if that matters) and POW! Spark! I dropped the trimmer on the counter, and removed the adapter. I plugged it back in to it's usual spot for my laptop, and nothing.
Ah! Aaah! I immediately regret doing that! Did I just cost myself the ability to set my alarm in the mornings and, more importantly, write my posts? My computers battery is in rough shape as is, I was surprised how much had drained in the few minutes since unplugging it just now. Aaah!
Okay, I removed the adapter from the plug, and pulled out the instruction booklet from my luggage. I was too tired for the tiny print, so I'm happy to report that in my luggage is a magnifying glass from some nature book I had when I was little. Aw yeah magnification! Oh right, the rather serious situation. So my adapter felt kind of dead, it even had a sort of death ratttle to it. The instructions told me about a spare fuse built into the adapters case- well, it's not going to get any more broken, so I may as well see if I blew its fuse. I used the tiny scissors in my toiletries bag to pry the little fuse compartment open (those stupid scissors have to be good for something other than yanking at my hair in a vain attempt at cutting) and there was this tiny rod attached to the compartment door. I removed the rod before realizing I was probably supposed to keep it in the door and shove the whole thing into the regular fuse spot. I hope I didn't mess everything up just now!
I removed the in-use fuse compartment, and the tiny tube there was in rough shape. "Unbelievable, that this piece of junk could be such a big problem." - Doc Brown
I tried to fit the new fuse in, but it wasn't going. Then I remembered that "death rattle" from before, and turned the adapter over until, yup, a piece of the old fuse dropped out. The old fuse, altogether, looks like a broken TCRI canister of mutagen. So that's cool. Now I was able to fit the new fuse in (it still took some doing though..), and I plugged it back into the wall near my laptop, plugged in the laptop- success! It works!... otherwise I wouldn't be able to type this to you, right?
With this all too recent bad experience, I was reluctant to plug in my cellphone. But if I could get a working watch for my classes that would really help me out... I decided to risk it, but not with my computers adapter. That was now off limits. So I took out my second adapter that I had previously been unable to figure out. I got it took work by using the unintuitively marked US side... to me it just looks like a regular plug, but it can fit inside the weird outlet here, and voila, charging cellphone. I tried to send a text to Jordan about it, but it wouldn't send. I managed to send a text to Simon a while back at the Roosevelt Center, so maybe I'll try again there.
So, yes, that was my harrowing experience with the near loss of my main adapter. Maybe the other one would work for my laptop too- if I blow another fuse, you know I'll be trying it.
It's 11:06 am, so let's see what I can see today. What's west? Who knows!
Wish me luck, have a good day
No comments:
Post a Comment