question:

what is it that everybody has and some pirates and thieves try to take? da booty.



and here's mine: superman visor ($2) diesel canvas bag ($12) two buddha bracelets. one in white, one in jade ($10) fancy material for three pairs of pants ($15) labor wages for tailor to make really-cool-baggy-pants out of aforementioned fancy material ($30) khaki baggy pants ($8) three keychains destined for other people's keys ($1) avoiding the over-used punchline in every mastercard ad (priceless)



and the best of all. orange nike shox ($27). and i know they're authentic because we followed some guy through the dirty alleyways of shanghai into a little upstairs sneaker gallery. we had to enter with a secret knock (one knock followed by another knock. now you know) and we had to haggle forever. we had to walk back and forth between three secret shops and then leave each one in a huff, walk down the alley, wait until one of the "proprietors" aka "smugglers" came to drag us back in. and after many long anxious moments thinking we wouldn't get our shoes, we forked over the extra $5 we were negotiating for two hours over, and took off with three pairs of shox for $81.



all the above has been tallied in american dollars. multiply by eight to reach chinese yuan. i am a walking talking cultural resource.