serialdeviant.org(y)

Cool. Frogs with ultrasonic croaking. In China!

This cat killer only got a three-month jail sentence despite evidence that he was a compulsive abuser. Singaporeans, please sign the petition calling for a stronger punishment.

It knows deep in its heart, I’m sure, that if it was violated in the dead of night against its owner’s will, then forced to marry the rapist (I just get the yucks thinking about a goat rapist), it will find itself a victim of spousal adultery. (Lorraine sent me this, but in its BBC News form.)

20,000RMB per square metre at some posh apartment block on Xiahe Lu (to be ready in 2008)? Each apartment costs about 10 – 12 million RMB? A freakin’ fountain in every home? Anyone who buys into this has what I call more money than sense.

Both sites are now upgraded to 2.0.2. The upgrade is never a hassle (major kudos to the developers), but the FTP uploading is a pain the butt.

“If we got him to flap his ears…?”

• went to Shannon’s surprise birthday party
• had breakfast / lunch / dinner at Relax Cafe (their grilled beef sandwich isn’t bad, and I’m beginning to really like sour plum tea)
• watched Chicken Little (meh)
• had claypot rice for dinner
• watched a bunch of episodes from seasons one and two of Shameless (Neil says everyone in the UK is either from or knows a family like the Gallaghers, which, frankly, is terrifying)
• made two new crochet ducks
• watched five episodes of Desperate Housewives, season two (Neil was watching rugby at some stupid boys only night, but the upside is that France killed England)

Wow, it’s Friday. How’d it get to Friday so soon?

I sent off craft swap packages earlier this week. I’m crocheting up a storm now that I’ve (editorially, not finally) got the next issue of What’s On Xiamen out of the way. I changed the images and colours for the What’s On Xiamen website but am not uploading them till next week. I’m changing the images on this site (not the layout). I submitted my (very very small) softie to March’s A Month of Softies. This little fella I’m keeping, since it means nothing to anyone else.

Does China issuing new identity cards with RFID chips mean that those who never changed their hukou (户口) when they moved are in shit when they need to replace or renew their ID cards?

(Chinese citizens must go through a mess of bureaucracy when they move cities.)

Another human case of H5N1 ends in death in China. I bought Chicken Little on DVD yesterday. Coincidence? I think not!

• had dinner at Havana (where we wouldn’t go but for the vouchers I get — it’s not that good, frankly)
• went to The Londoner for a bit (and had a great time watching old videos — sadly, without sound — on MTV)
• got stuff prepared for posting off on my first craft swap
• had dim sum at Lucky Full with the Chong clan
• went to Fenny’s place and watched The Naked Kiss
• tried to go to the chiropractor (it was closed and moving to another location)
• went for a massage at Chang Sheng Tang
• had dinner at the Singapore restaurant
• had lunch at a great Xinjiang place
• went furniture window shopping with Choi and Apple (Choi and Apple were shopping, we were looking)
• watched Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit (whee!!!!!)
• watched a couple of episodes of Arrested Development, season one
• had dinner at The House (which, by the way, was quite disappointing — my vegetarian gnocchi is about 2/3 the size it was when it was first put on the menu, and for the same price)
• finished reading Stupid White Men

Neil’s mate’s wife, Emma, will be running the London Marathon in support of Mind, the mental health charity. Contribute towards her donation goal of £3,000. DONATE!!

Just a day after Neil and I were talking about what Beijing was going to do about the horrendous personal hygiene issues in time for the Olympics (I thought they might stop people from other parts of China from travelling to Beijing — still a possibility), Paul goes and sends me this link about Beijing teaching their citizens good manners, spitting being the worst problem.

What I think is an even bigger problem is people spitting straight ahead (but without much trajectory) as they’re walking. This ensures you end up spitting on yourself. It makes you look kind of retarded. And yes, there are lots of you.