Day 8 - Shanghai time 9/01 9:07pm
Went with the niece to check out a street where there's lot of book and art supply stores. I'm so paranoid about buying anything these days because I don't know if I'm being ripped off. A good example is when I was looking at water color pencil sets. One store had a set of forty eight colors for seventy RMB (Chinese dollars). The clerk was so pushy that she made me uncomfortable, so I left. Later on, browsing in another store, I see the same set for fifty RMB - now that's a big difference. At another store, I was tempted to buy one of those metal Koh-i-nor mechanical pencils, that I keep loosing, for thirty eight RMB, but decided not to because I really don't need one.
After we got back from window shopping, and while chatting with the brother-in-law, the subject of China's' car and driving regulations came up. My jaws dropped to the floor. They got some funky as shit over here. For example, if you are driving into this city (Shanghai), you, as a driver with none city plates on your car, you can not drive on the freeways that meanders throughout the city during normal business hours - only cars with city registered plates allowed during the business day. You will have to drive on surface streets to get to your destination, and that's no easy task. If you have a car and plate from the surrounding countryside, you can not drive into the city. I find this next one quite funny; When you get a new car and are applying for a licence plate for your new car, and since they only give out a certain amount per month, you will have to guess what the going rate is for the new licence plates. Are you confused? Apparently, the going rate for a new licence plate depends on how many people are actually applying for the month. If there are five thousand available and only three thousand people apply, then the going rate for plates is cheaper, say four thousand RMB. But if there are more people applying for plates, then the rate goes up. The funny thing is, nobody knows what the rate is until they make a bit. What's also funny is that if you under bit, they deduct one hundred RMB from your bid before returning it. This is the kicker, if you over bit, they keep all the money and give you your plates. So, if you bit seven thousand RMB and the going rate is four thousand, you just lost three thousand to the local government, hahahaha. I'm sure that's not funny to the locals. Here's another kicker, in Beijing, only odd or even numbers are allowed to drive on certain days, hahahaha. I don't know if all this is true, but if it is, that's just crazy. Oh, and btw, car prices here are doubled that in the US. Nice.
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Day 7 - Shanghai time 8/31 11:52pm
Today, the sky over Shanghai is mostly overcast. Walking around outside was like walking around in a sauna. I think it's very likely that if I was butt naked and throw myself at a glass wall, I'd stick to it like a piece of wet noodle - it was quite miserable. By nightfall, everyone went out to dinner to celebrate the other half's' sisters' and mothers' birthdays because they are so close together. Unfortunately, the other half was not able to partake in the celebratory gathering due to her having an "off-site" meeting in another city for a few days. Anyway, if was quite amusing to be driving back to that historical village that I was at few days ago, only this time it's at night. The dinner consisted of a large variety of local dishes. We had appetizers of cold jelly fish, cold cucumbers, fried tofu, Friend tofu with parsley, fried frog, and small fried fish. The main dishes were pork shank, steamed fish, stuffed snail, mitten crabs, some assorted veggies, tofu with oysters, chicken soup (with a whole chicken in it), fish head and tail soup, stuffed lotus root, and finally, sliced water melon for desert. Needless to say, I was completely stuffed. I swear that I could feel an even exchange of mussel to fat the longer I stay. A little while after we dropped off the the other half's' mother and father, lighting started to flash over us as a storm moves in for the night. A few hours later rain started coming down as I drift off into a food coma sleep.
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Day 6 - Shanghai time 8/30 8:50pm
Yesterday's shopping was interesting. On the way to one of the biggest shopping centers in the City, Teacher showed me the old neighborhoods of Shanghai, and I have to say, it ant pretty. Sure, one gets a sense of what the real Shanghai is like, but it's just a depressing sight. These old neighborhoods make the "ghettos" in the States look like middle class neighborhoods. For starters, there's no heating of any kind except for coal. Water is taken from communal faucets and probably needs boiling before drinking. Cooking is done in a communal area that's centrally located around a set of livable space, and that area is only covered from the rain. Forget about toilets, try chamber pots that gets put out everyday for pick up. Although I didn't see the actual living spaces, from what I can deduce, they're the size of large closets. What's even more amazing is that these neighborhoods are interwoven between the fancy high rise buildings and apartments throughout the city.
After the depressing tour, and finally arriving at the shopping center, the shopping began. We started in a building, where the Teacher shops for antiques, full of tightly packed merchants. There, I picked up the mini tea pots for the Chef and little wood carvings for the rest of the gang. It was also there that Teacher was also able to get me a couple of tea cups that are, from his knowledge of antiques, about a thousand years old! The problem is, how do I get them home? From there we hit the open streets with even more merchants. There, I got fancy chop sticks for the Warden. Pricing is crazing, it is safe to presume that merchants on the outside of the main shopping center are more willing to drop their prices. One can haggled the given price down to around fifty percent. But this is unpredictable because it depends on how many tourist are there on any given day. The less tourist are there, the better chance of getting a great bargain. Chances are less inside the shopping center itself. Anyway, the adventure continues...
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Day 5 - Shanghai time 8/29 10:27am
Unusual day so far. The other half always needs to get up around six and leaves for her daily commute, by public transportation, to her office an hour and a half away. Today is unusual because it's been raining none stop for the past four hours. This is both a blessing and a curse, for even though I welcome the wet weather, because it's cooler, it's also annoying because I didn't bring any wet weather gear. It will be interesting to see how I fair this afternoon when the Teacher drops by to take me shopping for trinkets and gifts. Might as well get this done early. I just hope that the sun don't come out, otherwise it's going to be miserable. BTW, seems like I'm only able to publish these blog post, but can't view them. Lame.
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Day 4 - Shanghai time 8/28 8:20pm
Not much happening today except sitting around the local park and do some sketching of the locals. The day's a little smoggy so visibility was a little less. Temperature's still hovering around thirty five degrees so nothing to do but sweat a lot. It wasn't too bad when the breeze picked up, but once it stopped, it was pure misery. I want out!
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Day 3 - Shanghai time 8/27 10:21pm
Today, the significant other of the friend of the other half, who's an art teacher, took time off from his teachings to take me to see an old village outside of the City called Jiangnan. He said that this village was active around the Ming and Chin Densities, so it's at least a few hundred years old. We headed off for a walking tour of that village around nine-thirty in the morning by bus. Unfortunately the bus was not the modern ones that I rode on the day before, but of an older design. By the end of that ride, an hour and a half later, my ass was on fire from being confined to one spot. Weather for the day - freakin hot and humid! The Teacher indicated that we came to this village because the price of admission was still reasonable (ten yuan) as opposed to other historical villages which cost ten times as much, but still had similar flavors. This village, he indicated, was a place where his teacher used to bring him and his class to when he was at art school. He says that he still goes there on occasion because he loves the old style architecture an atmosphere of this village. As we walked towards the entrance of the Jiangnan village after getting our tickets, the teacher gave me some background on Jiangnan; he explained that when this place was built, it was all owned by one wealthy person who built a tower. This tower was built so that he can survey his lands, which was as far as the eyes can see, but was all taken away from his family, for the "people", by the Communist after they came into power. Wonderful. Anyway, this village is built on the backs of a river and half of it is still being used by the farmers who works in the area. This village is also known for it's ancient stone bridges that arches high above the water. The Teacher explained that because it was designated as a "Historical" location and a tourist designation, it has a "make over" of it's existing buildings, instead of the original wooded walls, a layer of stucco was added to them and white washed. He was quite sad about that because he felt that the buildings were no longer "authentic". I would have to agree, but when a nation doesn't have the money, or will to spend the money to preserve a historical sight, what can you do? That was all evident as we walked through the narrow streets that looks rundown and falling apart with vendors selling goods and food to tourist. Pictures of this little outing will be put up after I get back.
On a side note, the Teacher took me on a walking tour around the outskirts of the tourist spots. While on that walking tour, we came across a small area where some ancient homes were being torn down. Stacks of ancient bricks were stacked here and there and we rummaged through then and found some nice roofing tiles with patterns as well as bricks with logos from old brick makers. Needless to say that the Teacher was quite happy with the find. After about half an hour of salvaging, we shoved the artifacts into his back pack and headed for the bus ride home, which took two hours. All in all, besides the heat and humidity, I came away with some nice reference pictures, for paintings, and a few old bricks and roof tiles. This was a three showed.
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Day 2 - Shanghai time 8/26 7:12pm
Yesterday was definitely a three shower day, which I expected was the same today, but thank goodness it wasn't. I was told that it was thirty five degrees Celsius yesterday and only thirty degrees today. So it was only a two shower day. I would advise anyone who wants to visit this mega city to come after September for that's when it's supposed to finally cool down.
At around six thirty in the morning, we headed out to visited the in-laws living in another part of the city. We got there by bus, which took about an hour. Bus fair here was two yuan per person, which is equivalent to around twenty five cents US. The buses here are pretty clean and modern with a couple of LCD displays mounted around the interior for entertainment. But the things that I found interesting and funny about the buses is that seating is almost half the amount compared to those buses in the States, for more standing room, and all buses are manual shift vs. automatic.
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Since I will have no access to a scanner while traveling, all daily sketches will be uploaded when I get back home. In the meantime, I'll try writing little snippets of the day-to-day activities that I go through.
Day 1 - Shanghai time 8/25 5:35pm
Arrived in Shanghai today and it is hot and humid. The announcement over the PA on the plane states that it was 88degrees, and indeed it was quite warm. As we left the front entrance of the Shanghai airport, I hit a wall of moist air that smelled much like a sauna, with a mixture of stale cigarette smoke and a tinge of diesel exhaust. The ride from the airport to the apartment where we're staying was like being in a car chase, seems like every cab driver had it in their minds that you want to get to your destination as fast as possible, and so weaving through traffic in high speeds is the norm. You can expect the drivers to take every opening in traffic he, or she, can see where there's just enough room for him to squeeze through. Within the city, there's no such thing as a "pedestrian right of way", oh, no sir, the taxi driver will make his own path through the river of people crossing the streets. It's amazing that no one got hit.
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Today we hit BETA and that means I have emerged from the light at the end of a very long tunnel. Tomorrow is team picture day and comes Friday, I'm off on a much needed vacation, but another long tunnel is fast approaching. Let's not worry about that until we need to.
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Haven't had much to say or have any good ideas on what to draw. The past two weeks have been a slow decent from the high speed race to content Lock. Now that we're there, every one's just trying to get the bugs down to zero for Beta, which is next Wednesday. Friday, I'll be taking a two week vacation, which is not even long enough, I'm sure. My original plan was to take at least three to four weeks off sometime after final, which is around September 12th. That's gone out the window when I was given heavy hints that I'll be rolling off of the Simpsons to work on another projects that's currently speeding up for end of next years' release - one who's pipeline and design is way behind schedule, and this is after over a year of pre-production. In my opinion, they should all ready be in full production by now, so I'll have to see how long I last before I get a major nervous breakdown. I can see it now; staring into the bright monitor with glossy eyes, drool running down the side of my mouth, making "baaa, baaa" sounds. Life in the fast lane.
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A little sad today. For some reason, I thought about a teacher I had when I was in college, Dwight Harmon. He was such a fun teacher to have. He taught because he enjoyed teaching the students in his class and he had fun doing it. But this thought was not a happy one. It's more in remembrance to his memory, for he was killed a few years after my graduation. He was shot in a car jacking incident. I can still remember that day when I heard about his untimely death. I could not believe it. It was so unreal. I was angry and sad at such a lost to this world, and in turn, that thought also brought about another memory of another teachers' death from lung cancer, Judy Crook. She was an awesome color theory teacher, although I did not fully understand what she went through while I was in her class, it all made sense later on. A lot of what she had taught is still a part of me to this day, and not a day goes by where I don't use that knowledge. To Burne Holgrath, my he rest in peace. What a pleasure it was to be in his class - the artist of Tarzan and author of Dynamic Anatomy and many others, he knew every muscle in the body and how they looked in every possible position. For a seventy two year old man, at that time, he was as energetic as any one of us in his class. He would sometimes brag about having his drawings "in the Louvre". Quite a character. He past away from a heart attack after departing a plan. And finally, to Richard Bunkall, a great oil painter and oil painting teacher who was quiet in nature but gave lots of encouragement and advice to everyone in his class. His paintings of old theaters were an inspiration. The richness and textures of his paintings were absolutely beautiful. They will surely be missed.
http://www.fineartpublishing.com/artists/harmon/index.shtml
http://www.bpib.com/hogarth.htm
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=richard+bunkall&um=1&sa=N&tab=wi
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Had a lovely day off yesterday and got a few things done around the house. That was the first day of the week of cleaning before the other half arrives back Friday. The other half does not like messy abodes, so clean, clean I go. Work today was not too bad. Got a lot of bugs cleared from the task list, but near the end of the day, I just wanted to strangle someone. Tomorrow's another day.
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I am such a screwball. I am three-quarters the way through reading the last Harry Potter book and I finally realized why I'm having such a hard time relating to what's been going on in the book. I'm reading details in the book referencing things that happened in the previous book. I thought that I had forgotten what I had read in the previous books, and accepted that fact, thinking that all the details would come back to me. But the more I read, the more frustrated I got until last night when I finally got off my duff and decided to look through the previous Harry Potter book. As I opened the book, with the thought that I'd flip to any page and see if I recall reading any of those paragraphs, the book opened to about half way, and the reason was that a bookmark was there. It's at that point that a light turned on above, and the light of realization came down and dope-slapped the back of my head. Yes, sir. Looks like I never finished the previous book. "No wonder you didn't get the next one, dumb-ass." So I guess it's going back and re-read what I have and work my way back to the last book, hahaha. "Moron."
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Headed into work after the Warden had left for his work for the evening. Pretty much put in a FULL days work on the day of rest. I was so tired after getting home past midnight trying to get in as much Content Lock bugs and tasks as possible, so today was kind of a wash. I did very little work due to the entire environmental art team being treated to "The Bourne Ultimatum" during lunch by our Lead. Now that's an action packed movie - really good. The hand-to-hand fights are just ridiculously amazing to watch. Must go watch it again soon with whom ever wants to go. After work was a birthday dinner for an ex-coworker and some co-worker friends and now I am totally stuffed with Japanese food and cake - there goes the low carb diet. Now it's time to go into a food coma. Be seeing you.
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Today, I only had four DevTasks due for tomorrows' "Content Lock" mile stone. By noon, I was informed that a few of the other arts, including myself, were to "help out" our counter parts in the recently acquired Salt Lake City studio. "What the hell?" was my mental reaction accompanied with a twisted, angry face. Here, I thought, today I was going to be able to go home at a reasonable time. But, no. I was informed that they were two men short and way behind schedule with around 171 DevTasks due tomorrow. And so, with free food ordered from a not-so-great place, a long day has past - all thirteen hours of it. Can't wait for tomorrow, woo, hoo! Not.
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