Dog Days Again

I feel like life in general has slowed down considerably since we entered August. It’s either that, or I’ve slowed down and just haven’t really paid attention to the speed at which everything else is happening. Can you blame me, though? August in Shanghai is never pleasant; the heaviness of the heat the past couple of weeks has turned this city into a huge moldy armpit. If I had the choice I would only leave the air-conditioned haven of my apartment to restock the fridge with ice cold beer (no one delivers beer). And maybe popsicles. Mmmmm, popsicles and beer.

Of course, I’m also a relentlessly lazy person. Yes, I indeed have to stretch myself to avoid doing work. And in some cases, it totally pays off. When it comes to my job, the cancellation of a big project we’ve toiled on the past few months has been the perfect capper on what has turned out to be one long drought of motivation, productivity, and interest. If things were to actually start going well, I wouldn’t know what to do with myself. I’m a much better cheerleader when the ship is already sinking.

The reason I mention how crappy work is right now is because it’s an apt reflection of how miserable one can feel during these dog days in Shanghai. Every morning I hop on the web and find another slew of news about product recalls, Olympics-related controversies, and generally fucked up shit that happens in China, and it makes things just a little worse each time around. Add to that the stock market woes, the continuing collapse of Britney spears, my titanic failures in all three of my fantasy baseball leagues, and mornings just never really started on happy notes.

I hate to post one of these bitter, complaining entries after being away from this blog for so long, but it’s probably a healthy thing to get it all out. Then again, in one of my recent Shanghaiist posts a commenter essentially called me a member of “one very jaded subset of penny-pinching-white-male-with-a-yellow-heart-pseudo intelligentsia.” Jaded? As you can see from above, most definitely. Intellgentsia? Definitely not. I’m just struggling to get by and find some more things to be excited about in this city that once filled me with excitement. Dog days, go away, come back again next August after someone reading this blog has decided to offer me a lucrative job being bitter and inert.