Yesterday was a plethora of frustrations.
I went shopping for some camera items in the electronics district. The glitzy Canon booth was manned by someone who wanted to play “screw the foreigner.” That’s not entirely true, they try to screw everyone.
Bargaining is an age-old tradition in China. I asked how much the lens was. The clerk picked up a calculator and typed 6000 元. I snorted and walked away. He tried to call me back, but I was insulted.
To put his price in perspective, another shopkeeper quoted 4200 元. I have used the line, Wo bu ben. Wo de lao po shi zhong guo ren, in the past during such situations (I’m not stupid. My wife is Chinese). Yesterday, I couldn’t be bothered. I don’t need Kreskinesque abilities to know a trip to Stanley Street in Hong Kong, and a non-insulting camera shop, is in my future.
Back at home I decided to change the theme of this page. I’ve wanted to for a while, something with a wider post area for larger photographs. I found a theme I liked, downloaded it, and began to customize. I found some bizarre code and after checking in the Wordpress forums discovered it was actually hidden spyware. The author was counting my hits. Cheeky.
Long story short (too late), I wasted three hours with this nasty theme (six if you count finding a new theme and customizing that.)
Above is my taxi driver from yesterday. Not my best work, but try shooting in a jiggly taxi with a non-IS lens. Getting a light reading off a rearview mirror, and focusing on said mirror, is a challenge.
July 11th, 2007 at 10:43 am
wait… who- what?
Spyware in a wordpress theme? …so it’s wordpress or, the theme author or…
It’s a pretty cool photo, really.
July 11th, 2007 at 11:12 am
The spyware was put in by the theme’s author. Never trust a theme without a contact email address, I have learned. The files were compiled so the offending data was hidden in a litany of garbage numbers. Luckily, a savvy WP user in the forums was able to uncompile the data and reveal the hidden evilness.
The taxi driver, who knew my destination, was the best part of my day. Thanks for the props.
July 11th, 2007 at 1:28 pm
I can’t help being insulted when people try to blatantly overcharge me just because I’m a foreigner. I know it’s the name of the game, but even five years later, it really ticks me off. However, when I get a truly great deal, the feeling is indescribable.
BTW, I think your photo is fantastic.
July 11th, 2007 at 11:16 pm
Hey! I just noticed that you have a ClustrMaps thing. The red dot way up in Norway is cool.
This theme is quite readable.
I’m not entirely sure about what I’ll do for shopping. I suspect that “Wo bu ben. Wo de lao po shi jianada ren.” won’t work so well.
July 12th, 2007 at 1:26 am
I suppose that if I were to use that sentence, Wo bu ben. Wo de lao po shi zhong guo ren, it wouldn’t come off the same way. That being said, I’ll file it under useless information in case I need to show that I know a little Chinese.
July 12th, 2007 at 8:37 pm
I wish there was a Chinese idiom similar to: I didn’t just fall off the turnip truck.