I learned lots of things about mosquitoes when I worked at the NYC Health Department during the West Niles Crisis.  NONE of those tips have helped me so far.

1) I have stopped eating bananas and fruits as any sugary items end up in your sweat and apparently attract mosquitoes even more – bananas are the worst offenders.

2) I have stopped using any of those floral body sprays and perfumes.  Certain scents are more noticeable for mosquitoes.

3) I have tried to avoid sleeping without the AC.  The cold temperatures make mosquitoes less active.

All of these precautions has led me to still create the biggest mosquito I have seen.  The bloody thing is really noticeable on my ceiling.

I currently have 5 bites from this apparently, very happily fed mosquito and they itch like crazy.  So I have the biggest welts on my legs and toes.

Attempts at killing this thing also has come to no avail.  Other than fumigating myself with poisonous levels of DEET and using all the Avon Skin So Soft Wipes which are amazing, I am stuck with this extremely arrogant and smug mosquito.

By the way this thing is sitting directly above my head.  Unfortunately, the thing is too far away to kill with my stubby arms, despite the flailing.  I thought about getting an electrified tennis racket but none of them were long enough.

It led to a significant clearing of all standing water in my office.  I decided to water the plants in the surrounding offices with a pot of water a green plant was sitting in because I saw 4-5 instar stage mosquito larvae swimming happily about.

I know you all have been waiting for my food posts because our Chinese food in the U.S. just cannot compare to those in the Hubei University of Economics Cafeterias and the street food across the street from the North Gate.

My favorite local breakfast food is the Tofu Skin dish which is suppose to be a specialty in Wuhan.  Basically it is friend tofu skin over rice with pieces of meat and scallion/green onion sprinkled on top.

One of my favorite street foods across the street from the main gate is grilled scallops with garlic, oil, shallots, and a little red pepper.  Who knew the seafood could taste so good and NOT get you sick.  As you know, I have a pretty sensitive stomach so Montezuma’s revenge for me is a constant problem.  I have yet to get sick from this seafood stand across the street so you know the food is sanitary and yummy 😀  They also have clams and this seafood soup thing which is pretty good but I forgot to take photos.  It is a mom and pop stand with their son (?) who helps them out.

Okay more food posts soon when I remember.  There is this guy who makes amazingly good bread with salted meat, pickled vegetables, and/or mixtures of all.  I need to ask him if its okay to take a picture of the food and them making it.

It is the first official holiday for the 70th Anniversary for the Defeat of the Japanese.  While I think that the military parade and the weapons are interesting, apparently some people disagree.  Anyhow, I also really liked President Xi’s wife’s clothing – she generally dresses in Chinese name brands and I love her style.  Frankly, all first ladies and heads of states should represent their own country and support their own name brands.

Other than watching lots of military weaponry and wishing I was born a guy so I could qualify to actually fly an F-15 or any one of those other awesome military jets, I figured out the following:

1) How to pay for electricity.  Now you all at home may think that this is really easy as we all get the bill in the mail and pay it monthly.  Not so easy in China because it differs depending on where you live.  In Shanghai, I just needed to go downstairs to the front desk, they would add money to the swipe card, and I would go upstairs to then stick the card on top of the meter and – “Let there be light.”

So in the apartment building here, I need to go to the apartment building administrative offices, find the nice lady who accesses a computer program to add money to my account, swipes the card, then I have to come back to the apartment building I live in and swipe the card next to the meter located in the lower level of the building. Think of it like  a crawl space area.

2) How to Figure Out Produce Pricing.  We are really lucky that in most places, someone comes in between the hours of 2-6AM and weighs the food and puts the price on the produce and vegetables for us.  In Shanghai for the most part, if you go to a grocery store, they already have things pre-labelled.

I went to the grocery store across the street and for a second could not figure out why there were no prices on the pre-packaged produce.  Afterwards, saw the hoard of people surrounding this lady who was trying to organize the masses.  Anyhow, it turns out that she is the scale lady and she weighs everything for you and then you go pay at the cashier 😀

Sorry everyone – forgot my camera and the phone does not work so I need a new one.  Otherwise there would just be lots of pictures.  I might go back and take the photos if people don’t get too freaked out by my baby.  I seriously just need to bite the bullet and on pay day go off and buy a lovely new iphone 😀

3) Why the Guys Think I am like Bernadette from the Big Bang Theory.  I have not really watched the Big Bang Theory until recently due to the time issues and just not really being into TV but I have now seen enough of the Big Bang Theory to know why this guy started calling me Bernadette.  Apparently, I have a similarly child like voice and tend to yell at people for things that I think are inefficient, stupid, or just plain wrong.  Bernadette’s character does the same.

I watched the episode where she yells at someone, “I AM NICE TO EVERYONE!”  Even I had to laugh and say that really is me sometimes.

4) Find a Way Around the Great Firewall of China.  So for those of you who have realized that there seem to be a lack of pictures in the presentations and papers I have been emailing you all, it is because for some reason, Baidu has censored them and I needed one of you to get the photos for me and email them to my Chinese email account.  I bought lifetime subscriptions to these VPNs which don’t work.  Sigh 🙁  No google and access to my favorite news and scholarly journals.  I need to find a student who knows what a VPN is and to figure out which one to buy.

I can’t even research legal cases properly.  So for those of you who remember the case where the two students had a fight over some other stupid law student (boyfriend), let me know.  This case was special because one of the idiots involved decided to create a hate site dedicated to this other girl to prevent her from making friends and prevent her from getting a job.  It took the victim 5 years to get it sorted out in court and unfortunately, some parts of the website and bulletin board the vicious idiot set up is still floating around the internet.  Long story short, the one who started the blog/website/bulletin thing has no job and has to pay damages to the other girl who was, last I heard a privacy expert.

So if you find the case can you send it to me?  I can’t remember the law school this happened at but the law suit made the papers and the law blog rounds my 1L year so that would be 2011-2012.

I was trying to use the case in my Con Law lecture about Freedom of Speech and how it does not protect against slander, defamation, and crimes associated with that.

5) Literature Review = Happy.  So some of you may know that I am trying to finish out the PhD – the one I consider the real thing and not the JD because I already have that one…  For those of you who don’t know, I am trying to finish off the PhD on subaqueous soils which is still a relatively small field and therefore, thankfully, not as well developed, and therefore, my old ideas and research are still considered cutting edge even though I started this project at my job in 2001 and for my PhD in 2004 😀

So you now know why I was so happy to have finished the literature review and realize that my theories and data sets are still valid and not scooped 😀

Sent off some concept papers and they got relatively good feedback and now off to more Big Bang Theory and Let Review reading.

If any of you have suggestions on putting together a Con Law class let me know.  The Environmental Law class should be much easier and even through some of the cases overlap most will not.

Current Mood = Mrtyle the Sea Turtle at the Boston Aquarium after a meal and her favorite trest, Brussel Sprouts.  Yep, these photos are mine and please credit me if you choose to use them 🙂  I need to figure out how to get a watermark into them.