This one is an unfortunate amputee
I finally learned how to annotate a Preview File! (click to embiggen)
For all your houseplant needs (Donghu Lu @ Changle Lu)
Archive for the ‘Mops of Shanghai’ Category
This Week’s Mop (and a meditation on getting my writing ass in gear)
2010
05.31
05.31
One foot on the railing, leaning back against the tree
Actual thoughtful writing should resume soon- we had a big, tiring weekend away in Nanjing for work and didn’t see daylight for two days. I tried writing a few things on my iPod on the train ride home but the touch screen is small and annoying and I resumed playing Boggle with Doug on his. I slightly (*slightly*) regret having decided to do the NaBloPoMo at this time of year, when a ton of marking and revision is added to our house hunting chores and general life upheaval. It requires a post every single day (no gaps) to qualify (not that qualifying gets you anything but the knowledge that you got your lazy unfocused ass in gear and actually wrote a post every day for a month). I wanted to see if I could do it, if I had the fortitude to stick anything out for any length of time. I am a renowned quitter (or rather, a drifter-away or casual-escapist) and tend to dabble quite lightly in a wide array of things for a short but quite focused period of time before diverting my attention elsewhere. My gym membership is one victim of this, as are my abandoned watercolour paints and my book on felting. I am somewhere near day 20 in the NaBloPoMo and am straining to find things to say that are impersonal enough for this site (can I stretch the NaBloPoMo across several blogs?) I have ten more posts to go before I can relax. I have some ideas brewing but at this point, I’d be happy to take any requests. I will not write dirty limericks though. I draw the line there.
(101 Things About Shanghai) Interdisciplinary Love
2010
05.19
05.19
Their parents don't approve of their love
(101 Things About Shanghai) Furthering the Mop Meme (Just Photos)
2010
05.12
05.12
Mop with Dried Fish
Just the Two of Mops
The 3 Mopsketeers
Mop Climbs Tree for Better View
(101 Things About Shanghai) Street Detailing
2010
05.11
05.11
This morning as I walked to work, a Shanghai municipal worker was crouched down on her haunches, polishing a garbage bin. She had already carefully washed it down and was now rubbing shine into the metal containers with a suede cloth. It sparkled. The garbage can sparkled.
Near her, another municipal worker was meticulously piecing together his own broom, using the branches from some bushes nearby that he had just trimmed. The sidewalks of Shanxi Nan Lu were impeccable at 6:30am.
All traces of the previous day’s phlegm, snot, cigarette butts, baby poo and chicken bones were gone. Leaves were swept up with the recycled-trimming broom. It was shining. 
(101 Things About Shanghai) Mops
2010
04.25
04.25
In the Former French Concession (AKA bits of Luwan and Xuhui), there is a parallel universe operating, much like the ones full of street cats and their armies doing their own thing with their own agendas.
This parallel universe is made up entirely of mops.
They live rich and varied lives in this area, propped up against walls, dangling from trees, jammed into cracks and crevices, hooked on clusters of dangling wires. I’ve never ever seen such a subculture of mops in my life.
I’m thinking of shifting my old habit of taking pictures of doorways to a habit of documenting the habitats of mops in our neighbourhood.
