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i went back to work today after taking a sick day yesterday. i slept so much yesterday, i had a hard time falling asleep last night. nevertheless, i woke up well rested, and only snoozed my alarm clock once, waking up at 6:40. my body still ached - mostly in my hips and lower back - which may more of a result of too much walking than cold/flu related. i expelled chunks of yellow pleghm, which i take as a good sign that i'm on the road to recovery. my sinuses are still a bit congested though, which also affects my hearing and speech. not so much that i can breathe through my nose, more like a back of my throat sort of stuffiness.

i woke up early enough to fix myself an egg and ham sandwich for breakfast before leaving the apartment.

more people were back since saturday, but still not everyone. i was surprised to find lihui already on the bus since he's usually late to arrive. he was playing a game on his nexus phone. i gave him the RMB$80 deposit his father left for my hotel back in chenjia and told him he could pick up his company issued jacket later tonight (which i have at my place).

9:00 i'm already feeling sleepy. not a good sign.

today i met yangling in the pantry, from warehouse. she hangs out with zengfei. she said she's never really seen me around, that's because we work on opposite sides of the office. i also added sarah li to my evergrowing qq buddy list.

is it okay if i don't do any work today? i just want to sit here and write blog entries and surf the web and then go home. i'm more concerned about what i'm going to be eating for dinner (rice porridge? with a small side salad?) than i am about working. besides, everyone still isn't here yet, not until the end of the week will we have everyone back.

it's the same feeling i felt yesterday when i went to the supermarket around noontime, that feeling of sensory detachment. it's actually not a symptom of the cold/flu but a symptom of the drug cocktail i took. my body is here but i feel like i seeing everything through the end of a long pipe. everything seems so slow while i'm silently buzzing with energy. i clench my fists with nervous energy.

maybe i will try to take a nap after work. i'm too tired. i thought i'd be energized from yesterday's sick day, but i still feel fatigued, whether from the illness, from the drug, or from lack of sleep.

* android map apps 3D features:
i installed baidu maps onto my phone a few days ago, after remembering being impressed with its interface on lihui's nexus. but it was an older version and every time it tried to self update, the app would freeze. but then today i discovered that baidu maps is actually available through google play, and not only that, it recognized i'd already installed a version, and asked if i wanted to update it, which it did so successfully. finally about to play around with the app, i noticed all the 3D buildings it had for chongqing city. later i'd discover that 3D buildings is also a feature in google maps and amps (the gps mapping program that came with the phone). baidu maps does the best job, but that's only because it's a google knockoff and since google services aren't officially supported here in china (and occasionally blocked as well).

* talk about overtime calculations consumed the final hours of my work time

on the bus ride home lihui helped me install an app that can monitor my monthly bandwidth. after 11 days, i still have more than 502MB of data (from an original 540MB) and a cash reserve of RMB$79.

when i came home i realized i forgot to go pick up my tailored clothes so i went back out. unfortunately the place was closed, should've came yesterday when i had the chance! i'll try again tomorrow.

i tried looking for baidu maps on the google play store on my hisense pro tablet pc, but i didn't see it. i finally found it through a website link, which brought me to the page in google play, but it said that version didn't support my tablet, but didn't say why. so i went to the baidu maps website itself and found a direct link to the app, which i just manually installed. i was worried it didn't work, and at first it look like it froze, but it was just downloading the maps. once everything was downloaded, it worked fine, not sure what all the google play fuss was about. 3D buildings worked too, just as fast as on my phone. not sure if all the features work without a wifi/data connection, but i guess i'll find out the next time i'm in chongqing. although not as convenient as a phone, using baidu maps on a tablet pc is a better experience because you see more of the map.

as promised, i had rice porridge for lunch with a side of salad.

xianglian got in touch with me, having finally come back from shizhu. she asked how i liked her hometown; i would've liked it more had she been available to take my around, so instead i gave her a vague, "i have lots of stories to tell!" answer. she remembered it was my birthday tomorrow but when i invited her out to dinner, she didn't say yes or no. she's taking tomorrow off before finally coming into work on thursday.

elsewhere, baihong recommended i go soak my feet as a cold relief. i gave it a try, but when i went to go move the plastic bowl of water i ended up splashing some on the floor. i mopped it up with my sponge mop but afterwards the foot soak water was already tepid.

i don't know how i feel about tomorrow. i'm sure it'll be business as usual, but turning 40 is a big milestone. i never thought i'd be working in chongqing on my 40th birthday, i'll tell you that. i never thought a lot of things that did and didn't happen at 40.