Time for an End to 2007

Since I know the people reading this at work are not actually "working"..... watch this stuff to make you laugh. Worked on me:

Still in US

Happy Birthday Drew!!! And anyone else's that I missed in the past few weeks....

Christmas was good, life in the 319 area code this past week is good.... Sarah and I are enjoying time home in the US, with standard stops to Chipotle (yum!), Jimmy Johns (#8 no tomato), and Hardee's Breakfast! Ahhhh the things I miss in Taiwan. Unfortunately it's already Tuesday, and I fly back on Saturday.... so many things to do in that short time!!!

We have a new digital SLR camera now to play with. After many days of online research, I ended up going with the Nikon d60 and it is everything we wanted in an entry-level digital SLR. It's pretty sweet and honestly easy to use. I'll get our pictures of Sarah's cats (there are a LOT of them) up soon. The camera is very quick so it gets the cats at their perfect moments. If any of you have tried taking pictures of cats (or kids) with a standard point-and-click digital camera, you'll know how hard this task is!!! We've been having fun with it and it should provide some better "artistic" shots back in Taiwan and around Asia.

I've been able to get some college football games in while I've been home. This is much appreciated since that was one of the things we really didn't catch while in Taiwan. I would watch some of the Sunday night and Monday night games for the NFL, but not much college football. A nice OT win by Missouri last night to set the Big 12 off at 1-0 so far! And a VERY nice last second field goal by the Vikings to go to the playoffs! Kind of nice to finally go to the playoffs instead of the Chicago team (remember the Twins lost the playoff to the White Sox this past year:( ). We'll see what they can do now that they are there!

Between snow and ice storms, we got some shopping done. Not a ton of things, but with both Sarah and I having new Nintendo DS's, have to pick up some new games;) I love Mario Kart DS - Sarah loves the mini-games on the Super Mario Bros. We also picked up Big Brain Academy which is fun, but sometimes requires too much thinking for a video game. No Wii games this year - I'm still behind on last year's games!!! Nobody sells Game Boy Advanced games anymore..... other than used games (which is ok, but selection is crappy).

Anyway - hope everyone is enjoying the week.... hopefully not a lot of you are working this week or working minimally!

Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas to Everyone!!! From our Gingerbread House..... to yours.....

Back in time for WINTER!!!

Post #700!!!!

Well we made it to Iowa. Where the temperature is -40 with windchill and snowing.... and blowing all over.... But the flights surprisingly allowed us to get back to Rochester only about an hour delayed. We pretty much had booked the path that landed in between snow storms. So no travel worries in the flying part.

Our time in Rochester was very brief - enough to stop at Chipotle and get a few errands done. Then we headed to Storm Lake Iowa for our weekend wedding (no, not ours). That's when the difficulty settled in.... Sarah and I driving 4 hours in the car (remember, I haven't driven a car since July), trying to stay awake after about 3 hours in the past 48! Amazing what sugar, caffeine, and loud music can do.

Hope everyone in the midwest is staying warm and the cars continue to work right. This weather is more typical of February, but I guess after our weekend in Kenting with beach and sun, Karma decided to remind me where my permanent "home" is!!

Christmas in T minus 9 days.....

New updated Holiday thoughts. Usually I don't just cut and paste, but figure for today it's better than no post:

An Iowa State Greeting - I've seen a couple similar ones, but obviously this one is my favorite!!! Only thing missing is a sign saying "Help Wanted for Football - Inquire Within" sitting on the lawn in front of the Campanile. For those not familiar with ISU Campus, the Campanile is not nearly this close to Beardshear.

And the question of "Is Santa Claus Real?" gets explored yet again by an engineer. Click here for his/her explanation.

It's cold in Taipei, but not nearly as cold as the Mid-West right now. I know I'll get no sympathy in my complaining..... but I'll do it anyway.

Coming home in about 48 more hours!!!

Back From the Beach!!

We're back from an incredibly nice and relaxing weekend in Kenting. Before I get to that - beware that there are 3 new photo albums up on the right. Our day trip with some friends to Jiaosi where the hot springs place was. That was still a lot of fun. Then another one of some random photos of all the Christmas lights up all over Taipei. It really is pretty, especially at night. Despite it not really being a Christian country, they do go all out to celebrate Christmas. It's actually "Constitution Day" here in Taiwan on December 25th.

Kenting - we had an early train ride on the High Speed Rail that gets us from Taipei to Southern part of Taiwan in an hour and 30 minutes. EXPRESS!!!! What every country needs to cut back on unnecessary congestion on the roads. We did have to hire a cab to take us the rest of the way to Kenting which is on the southern most part of Taiwan. We arrived around 11am to the small community that is Kenting. It was about 85 degrees and clear skies on Saturday. So needless to say, we enjoyed the beach and ocean life very much. In fact, since we were lucky enough to check in early and the normal checkin is 3pm (don't ask) - we had the ENTIRE private beach to ourselves. Seriously - check out the photos. The water was warm (no sharks) and the sand was very soft..... just like it should be. The water amazingly blue and clean - just like Heaven.

We had some fun meals in town - the best being the night market that the main drag turns into after dark. Sarah and I decided that a corn dog has never tasted so good. It was so good, we went back the 2nd night for another one. We also had probably the best donuts EVER! There were a lot of shops selling all sorts of suvineirs of course, surfing type themes all over town. Our room over looked the ocean, we kept the windows open to hear the sound of waves crashing in all night. Much better than the sound of scooters and car alarms like we hear in Taipei. We had a door in our room that takes us off the deck and about 20 feet from the beach. So yeah, a very nice room at a nice hotel! Enjoyed the spa, pool, hot tubs..... they had everything. Too bad it was "out of season" for the outside bar to be open. We just brought our own from 7-11!!! The sailboat was in action on Saturday but it filled up before sunset. We had intended to go on Sunday, but it was far too windy to go out on that day. The waves were good for using the boogie board to surf with!

You'll see a video of Sarah enjoying the massage chair. Best 20 NTD that I've ever spent!!! And she says no, it doesn't feel very relaxing or whatever it's supposed to do. Those things are everywhere though!

Sunday was windy, but we still enjoyed the hot tub and pool areas. Made the sound of the waves coming in even better! We'll be headed back there very soon I hope! There are a lot of things to do other than the ocean, but we'll save those things for another day!

On a side note, Chizik is gone from Ames..... what the hell??? He didn't do anything! So now we're looking for another coach. Who's available?????? Who wants to go to Ames? I know someone that builds houses for coaches in that area right before they get fired!

Still no senator from Minnesota - what a freakin' mess!!! Not sure how this thing will turn out but again shows the need for some changes. I did call and my vote was received and legit he said. He also could have been feeding me a line of crap, but how would I know?

We'll be coming back on Friday to the US of A. Yeah, the main reason we are flying home is so I can get my Chipotle fix. Christmas is 2nd on the list.

Have a good Monday. Need a strong showing from the Cleveland defense tonight to hold my Fantasy Football opponent to under 34 total points (2 players). If so, I take 1st place for the regular season, if not, 3 way tie for 1st.....

The Dark Knight

Sarah's having a girl's night out to go see Twilight with millions of other girls around the world. Yeah, I said it - no guy who's a real man will go see it. A real man stays home and watches The Dark Knight like I just did. Talk about a pretty darn good movie!!! Here are my thoughts fresh after finishing the movie:

• Christian Bale does not really make a good Batman, but then again the only one that was "good" was Michael Keaton. He'll do I guess, let's see where this "new" series goes over the next 10 years.
  
• Everyone else was pretty darn good in the movie.
  
• Maggie Gyllenhaal is cute, but she's no Katie Holmes
• I was hoping Maggie would kiss The Joker... that way Heath Ledger could have claimed making out with a brother/sister combination... how many folks can say that on their resume?
• Ok... Heath Ledger was good. In fact he was great. Best performance ever? Not really. I haven't really thought about the other performances from the past year to compare it with for the award season coming up. But I do compare him to Jack Nicholson's Joker from 19 years ago (yeah... "Holy Shit has it been 19 years???"... 1989 indeed). Not sure Ledger's Joker performance would have been so well done without Nicholson showing him how crazy the character should be. Just my 2 cents worth.
  
• I LOVED bringing in the creation of Two-Face. Seriously, I knew I recognized the name, but had forgotten who Harvey Dent was to become.
• Good special effects on Two Face and the ugly eye that follows his other eye perfectly.
• Anthony Michael Hall..... is he seriously still acting and only pulling down B-roles? Go back and do a Breakfast Club 25 years later or something. Wasn't even that good!

All in all - if you haven't seen it, go rent it/download it/etc. As for a 3rd movie, I'd be game for it. Bring back Tim Burton and let him do some fun stuff!

Other Movie thoughts - is there seriously another Terminator movie coming out (with Christian Bale)???

I should be done with The Stand this weekend. 1300 pages, I have less than 200 left. I want to start a new book on my way home next week to the US. Tomorrow morning, Sarah and I FINALLY head to Kenting on the south tip of Taiwan. Weather calls for 80+ degrees and lots of sun. We're staying in the top hotel (The Chateau) and a room that opens up right onto the beach. Private beach at that!!! We come back to Taipei Monday morning. It's a 1.5 hour ride on the High Speed Rail (direct route.... takes 2.5 hours on the non-direct route), then about a 2 hour bus ride from Train Station to our hotel. Don't worry, there will be lots of pictures when we get back!

Then it's only 4 days till we get back to the US of A! We'll be touching down in Snowy Rochester Friday morning so pray for good weather. Our time there will be very short (3 hours), enough to check on a few things then hit the road to Iowa.

Have a good weekend y'all. Christmas is less than 2 weeks away!!!

Christmas Entertainment

Happy Birthday Pitzen..... Hope you're avoiding the snow like I am!!! Also hoping that all are safe in Minnesota and Iowa despite the ice and snow that is currently hitting everyone.

I truly feel the power of this thing called the "internet" when it's Christmas time. I'm able to pull out my favorite entertainment links (some old.... some new) to keep me laughing over and over again. Best part is that by January 1, I stop visiting the links... that way they are fresh and funny come the following December. Without the "series of tubes", we'd have no way to waste hours and hours a day during this Holy month.

So I give you some classic ones, and some new ones:

• Interactive "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" with Santa and his reindeer


• Holiday Lights Video - the original


• Holiday Lights 2008 edition (pretty cool)


• Santa and Reindeer singing White Christmas


• Stoen's Favorite - DING FRIES ARE DONE!!!


• From the Movie Elf - the Angry Elf scene


• Shitter Was Full


• Silent (but Deadly) Night.... you have to check this one out to believe it!

Have a great Tuesday!

Shitter Was Full!!!

After having to listen to the following type of comments over the past 4 months

"Hawkeyes beat your Cyclones"
"Cyclones were too scared to play UNI this year"
"Who's #1 in the state of Iowa???"

After a 71-66 OT win in ISU Basketball on Wednesday, thankfully I have ammunition to fire back. Thank you Santa Clause, for a victory over UNI..... another win next week over the Squawkeyes would complete my Christmas List for this December. Next year bring us more wins in Football.

We made our Christmas Movie list (since TV still is 90%+ in Chinese.... and everyone wants to watch Holiday Movies this time of year right? Here's what we have to watch over the next couple of weeks:

Christmas Vacation (Just finishing it right now actually)
Miracle on 34th Street
White Christmas
Elf
Bad Santa
A Charlie Brown Christmas
A Christmas Story
Scrooged
Muppet Christmas Carol
The Grinch
Frosty the Snowman
Rudolph The Red Nosed Reigndeer
Fred Claus

Am I missing any? No to Home Alone movies, and No to any Holiday movie with Tim Allen who should have stopped with Home Improvement.

An Amazing Birthday

Today is the 100th Birthday of my Great Grandmother. Happy Birthday Granny Nettie!!! In Taiwan, she would be 101 years old today - since they are born at one year old (as in the first year of your life). This may explain why I looked like a lot of 1 year olds in size when I was born.... possibly???

But reaching 100 years is quite the achievement... I couldn't find any webpages that directly talk about the age level or any stats. I'll keep looking. But think of the history that has occurred since 1908:

1908: Ford introduced the Model-T
1909: Plastic invtented (Granny is older than Plastic!?!?!?! KICK ASS!)
1912: Oreos First Introduced, Titanic Sinks.... people are doomed to hear Celine Dion song in a movie 85 years later
1914: WW1 Begins (Granny was 6 years old)
1918: Daylight Savings Introduced (Granny is older than TIME!!!)
1920-1933 : Prohibition in the US (Granny had to wait till she was 25 to enjoy legally!)
1924: First Olympic Winter Games
1927: Babe Ruth breaks Home Run Record (pre-steroid record)
1928: SLICED BREAD INVENTED.... insert analogy here
1929: First Academy Awards, Stock Market Crash
1931: US Officially gets National Anthem
1937: Japan invades China (more relevant to my time here in Taiwan)
1939: World War 2 Begins
1945: UN founded... Atomic Bombs dropped in Japan
1949: China becomes Communist
1950: Korean War begins
1951: Color TV Introduced
1955: McDonald's Corporation Founded (10 people served)
1956: TV Remote Invented (A fine invention at that)
1959: Hawaii was added to the Union as the 50th State..... Hawaii 5-0 can now be filmed
1963: JFK assasinated, MLK "I have a dream" speech (Granny was already 55 by this point)
1967: Super Bowl I (59 years young....)
1969: First Man on the Moon (61 years young)
1973: US pulls out of Vietnam (65 years young)
1977: Star Wars Episode 4 (69 years young) - A kick ass great grandkid named Adam was born
1981: PC Introduced (73 years young)
1983: Thriller released by MJ (Wonder if Granny has ever done the Thriller Dance??)
1989: Berlin Wall falls (Granny was 81 years young when this happened!)
Y2K: 91 years young....
2008: New president and Granny hits 100 years young!!!

By the way, the year before Granny was born, Oklahoma was admitted into the US as the 46th State. New Mexico, Arizona, Alaska, and Hawaii weren't even stars on the flag yet!!!!

Happy Birthday from Taiwan - and best wishes on another year!

December Time in Taiwan

We had a successful Thanksgiving here in Taiwan. Hope yours was as enjoyable. Funny how having the US off during last week actually made things "normal" around here for work load!

Pictures of our Thanksgiving meal are up. Sarah did an AWESOME job with the turkey, stuffing, pumpkin bars, green bean casserole, and I threw in the Garlic Mashed Potatoes for extra leftover potentials. We also added some photos of "Thanksgiving #2" which was Friday night at our friend Matt and Tara's house up in northern Taipei. The more food the better right? And you'll see pictures of Chai (of course) and her BFF who lives next door - ChaCha. ChaCha is a funny dog that loves wearing outfits around town. He seriously has at least 10 different outfits he cycles through. The best part about ChaCha is that he rides a scooter around (with his parents driving of course) but to protect his eyes, he wears goggles!!!! Seriously - you have to see the pictures to fully appreciate it:) He wears them without any hassle..... most dogs would hate even trying it!

Saturday was another beautiful day here in Taipei. I actually wore pants for most of the day as the temperatures were in the 60s, but the winter coats, stocking hats, and winter gloves were out for a lot of the local Taiwanese! We saw a lot of Holiday decorations already up, with more to come I'm sure. While we didn't see the nuts out shopping at 5am (you know who you are!), there were still a lot of folks out enjoying some special prices. And yes, they have elevator Christmas music playing in most of the shopping areas.

Sunday we headed to Jiaosi on the East Coast of Taiwan for some HOT SPRINGS!!! This was a pretty amazing experience! There are plenty of natural hot springs areas all over Taiwan. We're on the underwater volcano circle thingy in Eastern Asia which allows the water to pass through the underground volcanic action and heat it up. So when it gets to the surface, it's nice and warm:) The private park that we went to cost about $6 for entrance fees and had tons of different hot tub areas to experience. We started out with a "room temperature" pool which was full of tiny fish. When you put your feet in, the fish pull the bacteria and dead skin off of your feet. Then we headed to a series of tubs at 40+ degrees (Celsius of course... that's 104 degrees F for the US folks) but each had a different additive to help keep the skin nice and clean. Rose, milk, wine, lavender, some green thingy that looked like a tub full of Gaterade..... they also had a large area that was full of all kind of massage pressure jets. Those felt REALLY good on the back. So yeah, we left there feeling quite rejuvinated! Then we headed to an "Eat to Die" (All you can eat) Hot Pot place that was also very inexpensive! Then a 2 hour train ride back to Taipei to wrap up the weekend. Unfortunately they do not allow cameras inside the park so we don't have much to share from this experience. But for any future visitors while we're here in Taiwan, consider it a new regular stop during a visit!

BCS shows again how ineffective it is.... Oklahoma plays in the Big12 Title Game despite losing to Texas who is a close #3.... Doubt we could see a UT/OU rematch for the BCS title game, I think that if there was an 8 team playoff, we'd see that matchup. Don't forget Texas Tech is 11-1 and probably won't even get to a BCS game! Throw Alabama, Oklahoma, Texas, USC, Penn State, Boise State, Texas Tech, and even a 2 loss Florida (after this weekend) in there to see what happens. Iowa State seems to have ended up in the top 10 list for ESPN's "Bottom 10" for another season. Notre Dame finished worse than us somehow though;)

Anyway - enjoy your Monday! HAPPY DECEMBER!!!!

A Great Thanksgiving Turkey

Happy Birthday to my Nephew Al!!!

To everyone else, HAPPY THANKSGIVING..... we're off to bed!

Pictures tomorrow!

Happy Thanksgiving

Things I'm Thankful For - Version 2008

1. Sarah - the most incredible person I've ever known..... and the most beautiful fiance that I could have ever dreamed about
2. The fact that Sarah said "yes".... mainly to the idea of moving to Taiwan with me, but the marriage proposal was also pretty cool to hear that response to
3. My family - for their health and support through all my weird endeavors
4. My friends who continue to make me feel at home despite being half way around the world from them
   
5. The lady at Chipotle Headquarters who said she wishes she could send me my burrito to cure my cravings but unfortunately they can't export food very easily
6. My kick ass neighbor in Taiwan for letting us use her BIG kitchen for our Thanksgiving dinner while she enjoys a Chipotle Burrito in the US
7. My Fantasy Football team that has me at 9-3... now if I would only quit benching the wrong quarterback week after week!! A win this week puts me in a 3-way tie for first!
8. Facebook which keeps me in contact with random people from my past. Plus allows me to make my smart ass comments for the world to see while only taking 10-20 seconds to type them!
9. An Obama victory this past month - and all the people who voted for him hoping he can help lead the fix our country needs.... badly.
10. The opportunity to see and appreciate a foreign culture.... and a big city... two things that were important to my maturing process in life.
11. The fact that in 2 months I'll be on the white beaches and blue ocean of Bali while it's probably -10 or -20 degrees in Minnesota. Don't worry, I'll remind everyone of that again later.
12. My Great Grandmother Nettie who turns 100 years old next week!!! Seriously!
13. My nephews, especially Al who turns 6 years old on Thursday!
14. My pretty much complete healing from my surgeries this summer. Never fun but the right move. Screw Mayo and their lack of effort to get me better!!!
15. The fact that some people still read my blog, even though I've been horrible about updating it day to day.
16. My turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, pumpkin bars, and veggies that my kick ass fiance is making for me on Thanksgiving
17. Slingbox that will allow me to watch NFL Football games Friday morning from here....
18. The Airplane that will take us back to the US for Christmas, even if it's only for a week.
19. And Finally - that God has blessed me so many times in my life. No matter where I go or what I do, He always is there with me!!
    

Trip to the Zoo

There is a new picture album online to the right. There are a lot of pictures of Chai that only a few people currently visiting Seattle will be interested in every single one;) But then you'll get to our zoo pictures.... then some more pictures of Chai and her BFF ChaCha who literally lives next door. We'll open the doors and let the two dogs chase each other back and forth to wear each other out. ChaCha also wears a lot of outfits, so expect some more pictures of him now that we are taking our camera on evening walks.

Oh yeah - we also caught a rat that our neighbor has been trying to catch for a while. Peanut butter did the trick. Yes, I killed it against PETA objections. We haven't had any repeat visitors since!!!

Saturday was one of the more beautiful days we've had in Taiwan. About 80 degrees and a nice breeze to keep us cool. Sunny, very low humidity.... you get the picture;) Much better than the snow flurries back in the US. We decided a trip to the Zoo was a good way to enjoy the weather. It is only about a 30 minute train ride from our house... and only 2 bucks to get in!!! It's costin' ya NOT to go......

It's actually a pretty amazing zoo. Split up by geography in the world of course like most zoos. We started in the section of the Taiwan native animals which does include bears and monkeys. In the bathrooms of that section, they have things to read as you do your business that answer all the questions about bear poop, smelly poop, life size poop.... what better time to read up on animal poop then while you're doing your "doodie" before heading back out???

Koala bear house, more monkeys, an Asian Elephant (much smaller than the African Elephants) then the TIGERS! At first, one tiger was napping, the mama tiger was pacing in the back near the service door, eager to get some food. As we continued on, I saw a gate that only those of us that are 2 meters tall can see over. You'll see some pictures of the tiger only 10 feet away from me!!! Sarah wasn't as brave as I was.

Emu (not the same as an ostrich), and the Giraffes (which were probably my favorite). Then we saw a family of lions with a fairly young lion cub who was ready to play. He "attacked" dad only to get brushed off and sent to his mother. It was at this time that Sarah started singing songs from The Lion King. The penguin house was a little bit of a let down considering all the penguins were just standing there waiting to be fed... none of them were in the mood to swim. Back past the African Elephants (the female peed for the crowd and dumped about 5 gallons of fluid in doing so).

So that was our day at the zoo. For those who are taking off extra days this week, happy early Thanksgiving!!!

Chai The Taiwanese Wonder Dog

As our wonderful neighbors are visiting the United States of New Hope for the next week, Sarah and I have a new task while living in Taiwan. We are the temporary parents for Chai. No, not a Taiwanese baby, but a Taiwanese Dog!!! Chai is all black and is referred to as a Taiwanese breed. So we are spending our time at Chai's apartment across the street where she has more space to run around in the living room alone than Sarah and I do in our entire apartment. She also has more toys than I thought was possible.

Chai's a very good dog. She loves waiting to see if we will give her human food (a common trait among all dogs - both American and Taiwanese).... which we don't of course. She loves playing tug of war with her blanket/towel.... and her boyfriend Cha-Cha lives right next door.

So our life has been altered till after Thanksgiving with our new friend Chai. It also gives us a bigger and more capable Kitchen to make our Thanksgiving Dinner with. Currently our menu includes the 13 pound turkey we just purchased (it's the smallest one they had and you really don't want to know what we paid for it)..... Greenbeans and Broccoli (not sure yet how we're going to combine them), garlic mashed potatoes, stuffing, and pumpkin bars or something for desert. Yum!!

Not sure how many people are working this week - I have to work all week as the US Holiday of Thanksgiving is not recognized here in Taiwan. Neither was July 4th.... hmmm, I think I'm getting screwed for holidays this year!!!!

Pictures of Chai:

A Random Monday

I was given a mission by Pitzen as I came over to Taiwan. A tough mission that I seriously thought was impossible. He challenged me to find one item over the 18 months of living here that read "Made in the USA". Well I have been looking off and on, but I never realized that one of my first purchases when moving from the hotel to the apartment indeed is made from Home. My towels!!! Here's proof and no, I did not bring these over with me from the US.



Sarah and I went and did some shopping this weekend here in town. There are some high class places near us that we thought would be fun to window shop in. Problem was we were there at the same time of an annual sale so EVERYBODY was there. This is the first time I've ever seen workers directing traffic of PEOPLE on and off the escalators. You would have thought it was free admission at Disney World!!




We've found our Thanksgiving Turkey. Sarah and I will be using a neighbor's oven to make our meal - so far we're looking at Turkey, stuffing, potatoes.... who knows what else we can find over here. We have another week or so before we have to worry about that. The only bad thing about Thanksgiving in Taiwan is that the tradition of eating a lot, then falling asleep while watching football in the afternoon will now become eating a lot, then going to bed for the night. Then work again on Friday:(

Have a good week!

Another Birthday

Happy Birthday to my Big Brother! I may be physically bigger, but he'll always be my "big" brother. That's what happens when you're 5+ years difference in age, you're pretty much at the mercy for most of your childhood of doing what "big brother" wants. It was far easier to just go along with his ideas, then to turn him into mom and experience the wrath for a long time when mom's not around. Younger brothers everywhere will know exactly what I mean. But Happy Birthday to my favorite brother - always has been.

It's been yet another busy week in Taiwan. Weather is still "fall" ish (50-60 degrees) but with a lot more rain than I would like. I still travel around with a short sleeve shirt and jeans. The rain makes it hard to go around with shorts on. We do have our Bali trip planned and tickets booked for Chinese New Year 2009! A week of (hopefully) sun and white beaches, blue ocean..... Hoping to have the same thing in a couple of weeks here in Taiwan.

Sarah's ankle is healing well. Thanks to all for the suggestions/tips/prayers over the past week. She's still using the crutches to be safe, the swelling has gone down a lot, and the bruise will hopefully heal by this weekend. We are attending a fund raiser for an animal shelter on Saturday night, otherwise another weekend of healing.

I was running on the treadmill at California Fitness the other morning and since my battery died on me 3 minutes in, I was forced to find other ways of passing the time. Luckily I met a new friend who was on the treadmill 2 over from me - turns out he's a DJ on the only English Radio station here that plays some really good music actually. "Rick Monday" is the guy - real nice guy that I'm sure I will see more of in the mornings at the club. He said he's glad he's no longer the biggest guy in the club in the mornings and gladly gives that title to me. I usually hate talking while I run, but it was a great person to meet here in Taiwan.

Have a good Thursday!

A Shitty Twist

Thursday night, Sarah and I were on our way to the bank then dinner. As she stepped off of the curb, she stepped on a nasty crack in the street and sprained her ankle pretty bad. We were about 4 blocks from home, but after some blackouts, a fall backwards from the sitting position, and carrying her across the street to get a cab, we got her home. Spent the evening icing her head and ankle and hoping that it wouldn't get any worse. The doctor visit Friday morning showed no fractures in either her ankle or her head. So we spent the weekend laying very low and trying not to go out unless we absolutely had to. She's on crutches but making great progress. The swelling is going down, but it will probably be a slow week this week and hopefully she's back to walking a little more normal by this weekend.

It was ok as a cold front came through this weekend and it was a wet and rather cool weekend. The first time it has truly felt like Fall here. I went to the store on Saturday in shorts and tshirt while everyone else was wearing a winter coat acting like it was 30 degrees out! It was probably in the upper 50s at a minimum. The rain was kind of annoying though.

Anyways - hope everyone's had a good weekend despite yet another loss by the Cyclones.

Change of Mood

Despite my optimism from yesterday with all that is going well while living here, there is still a list of things that are starting to annoy me about living in Taiwan:

1. The damn construction in my building that has not stopped for about 4 months. It's currently at its worst since they are jack hammering on the roof for who knows why. Sarah deals with it every day all day, but I get to "enjoy" this on the weekends (both Saturday and Sunday) and on a day like today where I take all my phone calls from home. Ahhhh, I look forward to leaving apartment living behind me. I miss having one neighbor non-existant, and my other neigbor in bed by 9pm.
2. Lack of Chipotle. I emailed them today to see if there were any options of overnighting a burrito or opening a Chipotle in place of one of the 100,000 Starbucks that nobody uses here.
3. The commercials they take during movies. We have an international HBO and Cinemax, but the Movie Channel is kind of like a TNT where they have commercials (in Chinese of course) and they take them at the WORST time in the movie. For example, I'm watching Miracle and there's a commercial taken about 15 seconds before the US makes the go-ahead goal against the Soviets. This happens often in the middle of scenes that shouldn't be split up like that.
4. The heat - was in the 90s again today, with some humidity. We have a lot of periods of Fall, but I don't like temperatures over 85 as they have been for the past 6 months. Plus the fact that it's so hot but the sun still sets by 5pm. Very weird.....
   
5. Missing the ISU tailgating season. The good ol' days of tailgating and not going to the game because you know you'll lose - that was most of my college years!! Ah, the signs of a true ISU fan!
6. The fact that between 3pm and 7pm, there is nobody online outside of work to talk to. Sarah goes to work at 3, the early birds get online by 7pm Taiwan time.
7. When we realize a day in advance that there's a birthday coming, we can only send a card and realize it takes 7-10 days to get there.

That's it for today....

Christmas Comes Early

October 28th - I get:


October 31st - Sarah finds me:


November 3rd - My kick ass neighbors find and bring me:


And if that wasn't enough - On November 4th (actually on November 5th here):


You know what????
LIFE IS GOOD!!!

Go Obama Go!!!

No Daylight Savings Here....

As you all in the US deal with daylight savings changing, we have no such thing here! It's actually kind of nice not to have to readjust to a new level of light outside when you wake up or go home from work. So for the record, Taiwan is +13 hours from Eastern Time and now +14 hours from Central Time. So when you are at work at 9am on Monday morning, I'm hopefully on my way to bed at 11pm here in Taipei. Never works out that easily though.

A successful Halloween in Taiwan. It's rather hard to find costumes here, but Sarah did a pretty good job. You'll see I added a bunch of new photo albums on the right side. Sarah's Bday and Halloween thrown together. She went as a bottle of ketchup (and did a very nice job on the costume) and I just wore a spider hat because I ran all out of creative juices after all the excitement the past couple of weeks. There is no trick or treating here, nor do people appreciate horror flicks, scary houses, corn mazes.... Glad I can appreciate Halloween back in the US next year!

Sunday was our first open water dive for scuba training and we had an absolutely perfect day to go to Keelung on the NE side of Taiwan. We were as far NE as you can go, basically looking out over the Pacific Ocean and across the water towards Japan:



We had some rain at 7am when we were out there, but by the time we were ready to dive around 8am, the sun was popping out. The waves were kind of high, so we decided to only do one tank's worth of diving for the day. In the hour that we were under water, it was absolutely incredible! We had about 3 meters of visibility down below, and made it to about 10 meters deep and explored along the bottom of the ocean - but the experience far exceeded our expectations. We saw many clown fish (Think of Finding Nemo) and the very bright blue fish all over. Even saw some baby clown fish that were maybe a day old. Lots of plant life under there, a star fish, and my favorite - the BLOWFISH. Our instructor even tried to piss one off to get it to blow up in defense but was unable. Guess we're not threatening enough.

Pictures on the right of Keelung coastal area. It was about 80 degrees with a nice breeze off the water. One of the most beautiful days I've experienced since I arrived here 7 months ago. We're planning a separate weekend trip to Kenting just for Scuba Diving later this month. Should be an awesome opportunity since the visibility there is more like 10 meters. Then another trip to Green Island off the SE coast of Taiwan where the visibility can be 30 meters!!! Now to find an underwater camera to take with us.....

The election is coming - and seriously, the whole world is talking about it. Everyone here is considering Tuesday/Wednesday as very important days and everyone will ask, "did you vote"? Of course I voted!!! And I hope all of you vote, no matter who you vote for. If you don't vote, then you have no right to complain is the rule I go by. That's why you see me complain about the past 8 years of hell we've endured. I at least tried to change it....

Have a good Monday....

Halloween 2008

Happy Birthday Cari and Nate! Enjoy the cake with your Mellowcream pumpkins.... mmmm.... pure sugar shaped like a little pumpkin with Brachs written on the bag.... does life get any better?

Thanks for all the engagement wishes - I agree, Sarah will make a wonderful wife.

I am indeed wearing my Halloween costume today at work... yes, I am the only one. Sarah's costume is much better than mine. Should see more pictures next week so stay tuned.

And of course - HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

PSA: Yeah, Another Announcement

Things this PSA is NOT about:

- Not moving back to the US early... still have 11 or so months here
- Sarah is not dumping me, I think she's rather happy
- No, I'm not voting Republican
- I did not win the Taiwan Lotto, or Australian Lotto, or get that free money wire from the king in Africa that keeps emailing me.

If you guessed that I got engaged this week, you'd be correct.

Sarah's birthday present from me included a lovely "girly" day yesterday with a full body 2 hour oil massage, then a fancy dinner on the 85th floor restaurant inside of Taipei 101. After dinner with flowers, we headed to the 91st floor where the open deck observatory is. I proposed there;) I know, I don't make it sound very romantic, but Sarah tells the story much better than I. So thankfully she said yes and of course she was as shocked as can be.

No, we have not set a date yet - we have some time so we'll consider all options and go from there. For those who suggest we get married in Taiwan.... she says no, I haven't given up on that idea yet. Other places I've considered but I know she will veto include Vegas so don't think I'm tryin' here.

For those who haven't gotten a phone call from Sarah yet, she appologizes. And for my friends and family, you have to understand by now that my blog is the fastest way to get word to the entire world! That and facebook. Yes, our status has already changed on facebook! Pathetic, I know.

So not sure how many people can say they got engaged on top of the world's tallest building.... but we can.

And feel free to insert your favorite lines from Old School here. I expect nothing less from some of you.

Tell Britney I'm off the market (again) and that I will not be returning HER calls now.

Anyway.... hope this bit of good news surprises some, and makes your day all that much better.

Life From Abroad

An interesting weekend... very warm here, back in the upper 80s. I'm starting to like this Taiwan for winter idea... too bad I had to do a summer here too:(

Sarah thanks everyone for the birthday wishes. For those who tried calling our home phone and told me my phone didn't work - you were correct. The home phone is now fixed, the telephone company came to the house for all of 30 seconds to reset something and test it out. But we had a fun Birthday Celebration last Friday at Amigos - Mexican food and of course: Margaritas!!!! No, she did not drink excessively since we had our final scuba training class on Saturday.

We headed to a diving pool that is 6 meters deep and great for scuba diving. This was our final lesson and we ran through the rest of the training part. It was a long day with everyone using their full tank and the heat of the day getting to us in our wetsuits. But I'll be honest, when we dove to the bottom one by one and looked up to the water at the top with bubbles rising to the top - that was pretty amazing. That was the moment I wanted to experience when we set out to do this! So we passed all the training, now we have to log 4 tanks worth of diving in the open water - 2 of them will come this Sunday when we all head up to Keelung on the North side of Taiwan. Our instructor said it's not the most beautiful place to dive, but it's a great place for beginners! We also talked about future dives on some islands to the south of Taiwan, and possibly going to Thailand next year for some diving!!

In case you were wondering, I got killed in my Fantasy Football league this past weekend. I played a good game, but every week it seems that my opponent has "career" week. This week was no exception and I lost (even have one guy playing tonight but that's not going to be enough). So I'm 5-3, but the BYE week issues are behind me and I'm still in 2nd place. I have scored the most points, but my opponents have also scored the 2nd most in the league against me..... go figure. Not too bad considering I'm half way around the world from the action. Oh, and ISU sucks again this year. New uniforms didn't help I guess - so what else can we try?

My ballot has been faxed/mailed.... should arrive in the Minnesota authorities by Monday so it will indeed be counted! Are you ready to vote? Trust me, voting from abroad is not as easy as one would think... plus I had to pay $15 in shipping to vote thanks to the rules of Minnesota. Some of you may be paying that amount in gas to get to and from the polling place.

Ok - time to go, have a great Monday!

Gonna Drink Bicardi Like It's Your Birthday

Happy Birthday Sarah!!!

The hottest girl on the planet turns 21 or something like that today. We're on our way for Amigos Mexican food (and drinks of course) here in Taipei. Should be a group of 18ish going out to celebrate. Who knows where we end up after that.

Happy Friday to everyone else - kind of doesn't matter since the focus is on the Birthday Girl:)

And you know we don't give a .... cause it's your birthday!!!

If you have to ask, it's not worth asking.

Big 30 Tomorrow

Sarah's birthday is Friday October 24 in case anyone's wondering. Yeah, that's tomorrow. We have a big group going out for Mexican food and drinks. Then who knows where we'll end up for more drinks and fun....

First day of Scuba lessons is complete. Second day is today. We have an outdoor pool all to ourselves, under the lights in a park;) It's far from romantic, but it's kind of funny to have an entire public pool to ourselves in order to swim under the water. It's about 4 foot deep on one end, and 8 feet deep on the other. I had troubles with the "emptying water from your goggles" exercise, and Sarah had a few glitches on one of the "what happens if someone kicks your tube out of your mouth" part. We were told that we catch on very quickly. And Sarah is able to control her "buoyancy" much better than I am. I think it's all the muscles I'm carrying.

We have class tonight for a couple of hours, then we should complete our certification on Saturday. The suits are ours to keep, including shoes and goggles. I'll try to get some pictures this weekend of us in our sexy suits. They will not win us any magazine cover pictures, that's for sure.

Hope everyone is enjoying the World Series that has 100% political commercials in between. I had it on this morning while working, don't think i saw a single one telling me why I should vote FOR Norm Coleman, only why I should vote AGAINST Al Franken. It's all over in about 10 days!

Have a good Thursday - send Sarah those birthday wishes to her email if you have it or if you see her online!

Weekend Summary

So I lied about getting everything up by Tuesday - but it's Wednesday so the pictures are up on the right.

Sarah and I are FINALLY getting our scuba certification classes started tonight. We were delayed about a week since our original start since the wet suits were delayed in arriving. Something about them having to go kill an extra seal since my size was "non-typical" for the region. More on that fun later this week!

The pictures you will see start with a very nice rainbow that I saw on my bus ride home last week. I think it was Friday. Then Sarah and I decided on a nice dinner at a place in town called "Peoples" and it's a Japanese restaurant with pretty good food. The best part of the experience though is going down the stairs to the restaurant location and coming to a HUGE set of doors with no handle. There is an intercom to the right, but we were told that figuring out how to get in is half the fun. Of course my smart girlfriend figured out that if you put your hand inside the rock formation to the right, it sets off the sensor to open the doors. Kind of a neat concept.

Saturday we went to Yanmingshan National Park to the North of Taipei. "Shan" means Mountain in Chinese so it was basically Yanming mountain. We were able to take a train, then a bus to get up to the main area. Then a shuttle bus (or a "short bus") that took us above the fog levels and through some of the walking areas. Funny how the weather can change so quickly when you get up into the mountains! We stopped at the main park area which was full of people and lots of dogs. We watched the sun disappear behind the mountains, then started walking up the mountain, then down the 1.2 km path to the waterfall. Good timing too as it was very hard to see, but still enjoyable. Then another 1.2 km walk to the next closest town to catch the next bus. We stopped at a different area on the North side of Taipei with a University, as well as one of the most amazing city panoramic views I've ever seen. Very beautiful view on a beautiful night - of course our cameras do not do it justice. There was also an interesting mural on campus that Sarah enjoyed!

Sunday was a slight change of pace as we were recommended to the German restaurant in TianMu (North suburb of Taipei) called "Wendell's". It definitely had the Oktoberfest theme setup to go for us. Thankfully we had a reservation and there was a ton of beer to be had. As you'll see in the pictures, I found this a good time to enjoy the Warsteiner by the liter. The food was very good, the beer, imported... thus a little pricey. But once you get past the first liter, who cares right?!?!? There was a band playing German music, the guy even pulled out an Alpinehorn for amusement (he was pretty good at it). We went with our friend Alisa and my coworker Matt and his wife Tara. Fun was had by all, I had way too much to drink... made for a long monday this week!!

Hope everyone is enjoying the last few weeks of political ads on TV!!! GO OBAMA GO!!!

Another Blog About Nothing

So after a week, I am trying to make time to get back at my blogging. We've had a lot going on - getting ready for Sarah's birthday this Friday!!! It's been a relatively good past week weather wise in Taipei. Warm, but a nice cool breeze to keep us from sweating to death. Have we had frost yet in Minnesota? There is no such thing as "frost" in Taipei.

We're starting to plan out the next 2 months before going home. Mostly some travel around Taiwan since this is the most beautiful time of year in Taiwan. Spring isn't bad, but it rains a lot. The trip to Kenting is on hold till December due to hotel we want to stay in being completely booked for a month. There was a trip to Yanmingshan Mountain this past weekend - getting my pictures in order so check back tomorrow for details and photos.

Yes, they celebrate Halloween here, but not as much as in the US. We have been looking for pumpkins, only found some little ones at the flower market that aren't much to carve. Not sure what plan B will be. But they do have Christmas Lights for sale in some places. Nice to see that the over early holiday planning goes on around the world, not just in US. And yes, they celebrate Oktoberfest here as well. Just have to know where to find the good German restaurant with beer tent outside. Pictures of that to come as well!

Have a great Monday!

The Day After Vietnam!

We are back from Vietnam! It was a successful trip, good weather (no rain at least) and all of our flights and travel went as planned... kind of. We decided not to pay the extra money for a tour guide/translator and had just as much fun "winging it" - we got to everywhere we wanted to for the 2.5 days and had a wonderful time exploring Northern Vietnam! We traveled with Zach and Alisa, our neighbors here in Taipei who also were experiencing Vietnam for the first time.

First thing I noticed - Vietnam is definitely different than Taiwan! We flew into Hanoi which is 6+ million people per the web (over 2x what Taipei is), yet it doesn't really feel like a big city as Taipei does since there really isn't a city center. There are a hand full of buildings over 20 stories tall, but not many, and they are not really grouped together.

Second thing I noticed - There are a LOT of tourists from "the west" in Vietnam. It made me realize that Taiwan has Westerners, but most are here to work or live here (like me) - Taiwan doesn't currently have the Tourism that we saw in Vietnam. It's unfortunate for Taiwan.

Third thing I noticed - it's all about American Money in Vietnam. Everyone wants to sell you something, everyone takes American Dollars, everyone wants to be helpful to you on your trip in return for a small tip. It's probably the most "in your face" sellers everywhere that I've experienced in my somewhat worldly travels. The same person will come back after 20 seconds to see if you've changed your mind in buying one of his 20 books in a box. Granted things are as cheap as I've ever seen in the world, but I was annoyed pretty quickly with people invading my personal bubble space constantly trying to get me to buy something or take a ride on the bike ride thing. Even worse than when I was in China! As for the American Money - too bad nobody outside of Taiwan takes the Taiwanese Dollar;) But we were able to find an ATM that gave us Vietnamese DONG (seriously, their money is called Dong) and we were set to go!

We started with a day in Hanoi, the capital city in the North. It's probably what most people picture life in Asia as looking like. Not very modern, and the living conditions for the locals are ok. They have running water and electricity, but they don't beef up and make things flashy like they do in more 1st world countries. Yes, Vietnam is Communist, but outside of the red flag with yellow star on it, we really couldn't tell. It's not like there are guys with machine guns walking around the entire time. If you think that's what Communism is all about, you're way off. Hanoi was pretty polluted, but the lake that we decided to focus our day on was very nice. Pictures on the right - start with Day #1 and the Hanoi pictures. We were actually there on 10/10 which seems to be a National Day of sorts for them as well. They are actually gearing up for 10/10/2010 which will be a 1000 year celebration. A lot of people that want you to buy things speak English. If you ask them a question in English that won't result in you giving them money, they seem to be immediately unable to speak English. Plus cab rides will have a different rate every time depending on your cab driver. The exact same distance cost us 2x once than it did a few hours earlier. Go figure.....

We did have a group of elementary school kids pass by and they thought it was a great time to practice their English and say "Hello" every time they walked by. It really was funny. A lot of things are translated into English - again, they want that American money! The Vietnamese language is quite different than the Mandarin I've been accustomed to hearing here in Taiwan. The written Vietnamese uses English type characters, but lots of additional strokes to the letters (like a sash through the long part of the h) that makes it look rather unusual to the untrained eye. We had a couple of buffets that day that were very cheap, and actually really good Vietnamese food!

Day 2 was much more exciting day of adventure as we took a 3+ hour car ride to Ha Long Bay. This was encouraged to us by a couple of people and was described as "Lost-esque" referring to the TV Show. He was right. Ha Long Bay is being considered for one of the Modern 7 Wonders of the World and it really is a beautiful way to spend a day on a boat. Best part was having a huge boat rented just for the four of us. The drive there kind of sucked as it's a 2 lane road with a lot of traffic for tours. By the way, the driving rules in Vietnam are basically "yield to things bigger than you" which is very true. Also gives one an upset stomach if you watch traffic coming at you continuously. As I do in China, I learn to look off into the distance at the mountains and water - that way you don't see how close you just came to getting hit by a bigger truck.

Ha Long Bay is a large group of islands of Limestone that the water has shaped over the years. Basically for those of us who believe in some sort of Earth Evolution, the glaciers came through, created mountains, but then the ocean water came back and covered most of the bottom parts of the mountains, leaving the tips of the limestone to stick out of the water. Some are small enough to fit in a standard Living room, but a lot of them are neat enough to explore, if there is a way to dock and climb up them. There is one island that was open to tourists as part of the paid tour that includes a trail through a huge cave. Our camera did not do this cave justice. It was very amazing and very humid;)

Some tours can be arranged where you stay a night on the boat out in the middle of nowhere. That might be on my list for my next visit to the area. For anyone who's thinking of visiting Vietnam, skip the other stuff, go straight to Ha Long Bay. Just pray for a clear day, ours was kind of hazy - but it did NOT rain:)

I'm sure I'll think of other things throughout the week to share, but my time today is minimal. I have the pictures uploaded and am working on adding comments after I post this.

Vietnam - 2 Days Away

Plans are starting to come together for our 2 day trip to Vietnam. Too bad Vietnam is turning out to be a lot more money that I ever would have guessed for what everyone calls "cheaper than China". Seriously....

Where are we going? Flying into Hanoi (Northern Vietnam and the Capital of current Vietnam) which mixes old with new (founded in 1010, inhabited in 3000 BC) and has 6.2 million people. We're spending a day there, then Saturday we go to Halong Bay which is in North East Vietnam and is a neat looking system of isles and caves made of limestone. Should be plenty of photo opportunities there. James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies was filmed and partly took place in the Ha Long Bay area.Sunday we return to Hanoi to enjoy more sites, returning to Taipei late Sunday evening.

Even though we're going North and Ho Chi Minh (former Miss Saigon) is in the south, I'll still sing something from Miss Saigon.... Any other Vietnam song references??? Most of the songs in the 60s would probably qualify!

Lesson Learned for this week.... "free coffee" at work is a bad thing. Especially after about 3 big mugs full in the afternoon. That usually turns into me not sleeping till 1:30am last night. There is more free coffee today at work - see if I can enjoy in moderation this time!

I was sent a pretty funny and creative webpage. Remember all those great music videos of the past where the words of the song don't really match what's going on in the video? Well someone took the time to change the lyrics to match the video for A-Ha's Take On Me and I'm glad they did:)

Presidential "Debate" - more like Presidential "Rambling".... *YAWN* Looks like the VP debate last week was the highlight of the race. This thing over with yet?

Chinese Characters Are Hard

New address label. We haven't been getting mail the past month+ since I changed it, so we're making a move back to what it was, or closer to what it was. Please use the links on the right from now on. The English part was fine, but the Chinese address wasn't 100% like I was led to believe last month.

Thanks for your continued patience;)

Leopards are Champions

I had this whole thing typed up for Monday, but then forgot to submit! Sorry about that! It's worth the wait!

OJ...... guilty.... again..... no gloves to get him out of this one. Interesting how they tried to find jurors that were not biased based on his first trial many years ago. Good luck with that one! I remember the FIRST OJ verdict - I watched from the barber shop in the MU back at ISU that had a mini-TV up in the corner of the little shop. There were some 30 of us crammed in there and in the hallway to watch the OJ verdict of not-guilty. Karma is a bad thing.

Lots of new pictures up on the right. I finally have the photos from last weekend's Taipei Gay Pride Parade up. Should be some in there that will make you smile no matter what your opinion is on homosexuality. I also updated pictures from this past weekend of the IBM Sports Day here in Taipei, as well as our trip to the beach yesterday.

Sports Day.... Saturday was about 95 degrees but a nice cool breeze. IBM puts on a yearly gathering for all 5000+ employees here in Taiwan that lines up 4 different divisions against each other in about 20 events. The Golf and Softball events were done in September while the weather was still "safe" for those events. The rest of them were this past weekend. I was signed up only for Tug of War which had 20 people per team. Our team was team "Leopard". Since it's hard to find a mascot costume for a leopard, you will see we had the Pink Panther as our mascot. But not even the true Pink Panther, one of those cheap knock offs that is close enough to recognize, but not too close as to infringe on copyright protections. Same thing with winning a Winnie the Pooh or Tigger at the carnival... close enough to convince a 3 year old, but far enough that you'd appear "cheap" to a 6 year old. Anyway - our team is basically all the Engineers in IBM Taiwan. The other teams were HR, Finance, Marketing, Sales, etc..... so think of this as "Revenge of the Taiwan Nerds".

In the end, our team won. Seriously - you can't write a better ending to the movie. We were horrible in all the individual events like 100m sprints, last in the cheerleading competition (we have a very low female population in engineering and unfortunately we don't get the sorority girl type personalities either), last in golf (not sure what our excuse is for that one), last in manager's relay (I didn't run but considered it). BUT, we did win the 1500m men's run (two of my employees took overall 1st and 2nd with times in the 5:20 zone), won Tug of War (granted we had the Biggest Guy in Taiwan on the team for intimidation), won Dodge Ball, and SOMEHOW we won the 20 person 2500m relay despite finishing last in 10 of the 12 100m races. Still not sure how that worked out. But in the end, we won on Team Performance.... so again, the TEAM effort got us the overall championship. It really was a fun day with food, games, Human Foosball (great for birthday parties in my opinion). Make sure you enjoy the pictures on the right.

Sunday was a great day for the beach. We were pretty burnt from Saturday, so we went later in the afternoon to avoid even more hot sun. The late afternoon was awesome time to be there and we got to see the sunset before returning to Taipei.

This Friday is National Day which is basically Taiwan's "4th of July". Ten/Ten (Oct 10=10/10) is their magic day here and it's already well decorated with Taiwan flags lining most of the major streets in town. They also have a 10/10 (in Mandarin of course) on the top of Taipei 101 for everyone to see at night.

We have Friday off, so Sarah and I are going with friends to Vietnam for the weekend. I'm sure there will be lots of pictures to share next week.

Answer The Damn Question

Reasons NOT to vote for McCain and Palin:

• I'm not sure I can put up with another 4 years of someone pronouncing it "nu-cu-lar" - I can blame a lot of things on Palin's Alaska accent, but joining Bush in pronouncing it incorrect is probably more ignorance, not accent
• Yeah, I'm used to a Vice President not answering questions (Cheney disappears or gets things crossed out when the trouble arrives) but at some point it has to stop. Thursday night, Palin averaged about 20% in coming close to answering the questions she was asked.
• I want a president that knows how to use email. Obama has a blackberry (yeah, it's nerdy, but it's the way most people operate in 2008), McCain doesn't know how to use email. My grandmother is an email expert and reads my blog daily. To me, she's more qualified than McCain.
  
• I'm tired of hearing about "the Maverick" and "the Hockey Mom". That's not who I need to run my country.
• I was shocked to hear that the problems with the polar ice caps melting are "cyclical". Um..... seriously? What planet did you grow up on? Thankfully, I was relieved that Joe knew where the problem was.
• Gas prices are $3.20 something per my "daily gas price" email from Ames. That should not be a sense of relief, but further proof that we need an alternate solution. I want a president that uses innovation in energy as a potential growth for the US. Which side do you think is going to give us that?
• Using your experience as Mayor in Alaska as training for VP is like stating "When I worked as a waitress at Hooters, I learned how Corporate America worked so I should be CFO".
  
• Obama and Biden aren't afraid to admit when they aren't in 100% agreement. But I see them as able to consult people who know. Bush never had that, he was the "Decider". I didn't hear Palin state anything but "I agree with John McCain". Is she a VP or a robot?
• A "shoutout" to 3rd Graders? Seriously? Is she running for VP of PTA or USA?
  

You can agree or disagree with me - don't really care at this point. These are just my thoughts after watching the VP debate. Sorry, I did not get much of the Presidential debate last week. You know my mind has been made up for a while now anyway;)

We have SPORTS DAY tomorrow here in Taipei for our work event. I am signed up for Tug-O-War and I'm ready to win. We're limited to a certain number of people - I figure I count for at least 2 people in size:) When you have THE BIGGEST MAN IN TAIWAN on your side, you can't lose.

Sunday is either Go To The Beach Day, or Avoid Another Typhoon Day. Stay tuned.....

A Classical Review

Sarah found a connection that hooked us up for some last second VIP seats for the Taiwan National Symphony Orchestra Concert Wednesday night. We got to see the inside of the National Concert Hall (outside is still under construction) and the inside is as beautiful as can be! It was a 7:30 concert that featured a guest conductor from Spain. Inma Shara is a young FEMALE conductor from Spain. Tonight's concert featured Spanish classical music, along with the famous Rachmaninov Piano Concerto #2 with Ching-Yun Hu. Hu took the top honor in the 2008 Arthur Rubenstein International Piano Concerto Competition. So you knew she would be good.

Here's my "review" for those who are interested. If not, see you tomorrow.

I am a pretty confident person, but I admit that tonight I was unsure what to expect from a familiar engagement, but in an unfamiliar setting. I've been to many classical concerts of all levels, even played in hundreds of concerts (too many to count is my point). But they've all been in the US.... So given the opportunity to hear Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 2 performed by the Taiwan National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) was an occasion I couldn't pass up.

First things to note was the incredible National Concert Hall that was absolutely stunning inside. Next thing to mention were our 8th row VIP seats that Sarah scored for us to enjoy tonight! Nothing like knowing the right people at the right time in life! Tonight's concert featured up and coming female conductor Inma Shara (age 36) in front of a full orchestra. All the men wearing white ties (it's actually pretty sharp). More details that nobody will care about? 14 1st Violins, 12 2nds, 8 violas, 8 cellos, and 6 bass players. Could have used more cowbell.

Since an Orchestra cannot start out with the Rachmaninov, an Interlude and Dance from the Opera "La Vida Breve" by de Falla was inserted. This was a quick warmup for both the orchestra and audience that gave us insight into a Spanish Wedding dance. The groom is named Paco, so it has to be good right? Paco's cheating on his new bride though, so all is not necessarily well. But it was played with tremendous excitement and hinting at what was to follow for the rest of the evening.

An interesting thing to point out was how at the conclusion the short introduction piece, Shara jumped off the podium, and in her excitement, she reached out for the concertmaster and touched the side of his face. I cannot speak Chinese very well, but the body language of his response to her touching his face was VERY clear. He did NOT appreciate that one bit. She instantly realized this and tried to get him to stand up for what looked like a bow. He would have nothing to do with her at this point. It was rather uncomfortable to watch, but it was clear this is not her usual gig.

Other things to note at this point include how a Female Conductor can wear something elegant, be in all black like the rest of the Orchestra, and still look professional. Unlike some female conductors of a midwest symphony who I won't mention by name. Hard to take someone serious if they look like they're wearing a Hugh Hefner style Robe. Plus she didn't talk in between pieces;) Another thing to mention is the program for this evening was amazingly nice (and expensive as noted by both Sarah and I).

Known as "Taiwan's Pride" by her countrymen and women, Ching-Yun Hu came out in an elegant dress that was only surpassed by the elegance of her performance. The beautiful thing about Rachmaninov #2 is he didn't waste time with the Orchestra at the introduction - it's all about the Pianist at the start. And Hu showed us all why she won top honors this past year in Tel Aviv. I have to admit, I've performed this piece as a bass player, and as a bass player you NEVER get to see a piano soloists hands since the piano (and troll) are usually in the way. From the VIP section, watching Hu gracefully move up and down the 88 keys was immaculate and mesmerizing. She was able to express herself with just enough flare as to not to be distracting or arrogant. It was hard to contain ourselves in between movements until the final "BRAVO" echoed through the Hall. As for the Orchestra's performance - I was honestly shocked at how well they blended from our 8th row seats. Usually seats that close are dominated by the strings, but tonight was not the case. I also give a thumbs up to the audience who remained superbly quiet during the cadenzas that the only other noise heard outside of Hu was the high pitch emitted from the television camera about 20 feet above us.

Intermission was brief. No alcohol was served that I could see, but this is a good thing since it was only about a 15 minute break. Barely enough time for Sarah to wait in line, wait in line some more, then finally get in and take her break, then return to our seats.

The anti-climatic 2nd half gave us another Spanish piece from the early 20th Century. Turina wrote his Sinfonia Sevillana to express his homeland and the sounds of Southern Spain. Shara used the entire piece as an opportunity to dance on the podium, most of which was unnecessary, and I'm not sure if it was entirely preferred by the Taiwanese audience and performers. The piece was wonderfully executed though with a noticeably strong performance by the castanet player in the percussion section. Yeah, those things you played in 2nd grade and thought you were a musician! They alone gave the piece it's taste of Spain.

I enjoyed my first Taiwanese Classical Concert. I now anticipate more over the next year.

Yeah, that's right - I'm now 1/3 of the way through my assignment here which means I should be back in the US of A permanently in 1 year. Start the countdown!

Random Links

On my way to the symphony here in Taipei... more on that tomorrow.
Until then, enjoy some of the following:

Taiwan Typhoon video on CNN

A celebration of sorts for Strong Bad Email #200!!!! Very unusual as always

Some political humor/links:

SNL skit with Tina Fey returning to impersonate the "lack of real answers" Palin

JibJab takes a swipe at 2008 election

We also learned this week that you CAN modify scooters to have "pipes" that are way too loud for comfort. They weren't chrome, but they were definitely louder than other scooters! Reminds me of living with Drew and having Jerry come visit us.

Damn Twins....

Jangmi... not Jumanji

We're celebrating TYPHOON DAY here in Taiwan. We were hit Sunday by Typhoon Jangmi (yes, I know if looks a lot like Jumanji which was the horrible Robin Williams movie from 1995. Also known as "the first time around for Zenthura") but Jangmi was MUCH more of a Typhoon than the one we saw a few weeks ago. Lots of heavy winds, rain, and of course closing of stores and restaurants. Saturday was actually ok to walk around, just a little misting, but Sunday was a "stay inside" day. I did brave the one block walk to 7-11 (they stay open for EVERYTHING) during the middle of the Typhoon. Good time to go pay bills and pick up some junk food for watching movies. Then just like we're little kids, we huddled around the laptops and pray for the glorious words "NO WORK AND NO SCHOOL ON MONDAY"!!!!! Just like a Snow Day. No, I don't have to make this one up;)

Saturday was also the Taipei Gay Pride Parade that Sarah and caught about 2 blocks from our house. It was MUCH bigger than I would have imagined for Taiwan, but there were lots of folks marching with signs, free condoms, free brochures, and of course, lots of unusual dress by some of the members. At points, it looked like an audition line for The Rocky Horror Picture Show! But tolerance was also shown by the people lining the streets to watch. A fun experience, one to add to my list of "Things you won't see in Rochester". Yeah, that list seems to grow everyday....

I'm finally getting over a cold. It's that "late summer" cold season around here and yes, it's just as annoying in Taiwan as it is in the US. Funny part is instead of wasting my time by going to a doctor and getting a prescription just for a cold, I can head to a pharmacy here and just tell them what's wrong - then they hook you up. I'm on some "over the counter stuff" that seemed to do the trick, but even anti-biotics are available without a prescription. People don't seem to abuse it here... that whole "responsibility" concept comes into play that I think limits us a lot in the US.

Twins blew an easy chance to get into the playoffs - now they have to hope for the White Sox to lose tonight. Otherwise they play Tuesday night in Chicago:( At least the NY Mets missed the playoffs AGAIN thanks to yet another late season slump. Maybe they should spend more money on their team (same for the Yankees).

Iowa State did NOT lose this weekend. Granted they didn't play, but a "no-loss" weekend is a win in some of our minds. Lots of upsets in NCAA football though, but the Big12 seemed to benefit out of it.

$700 Billion is a lot of money.... not sure how much I agree with it, but I do think there needs to be a large effort on "financial responsibility" which includes banks, businesses, corporations, AND people. We'll see where this "buyout" gets us.

Have a good week - hopefully I have more energy to blog this week now that I can breathe through my nose once again!

Salsa

This is post #666.... so I guess I should make it EVIL or something. We'll see what I come up with.

It's outrageously hot still. 95 something on Saturday with a LOT of humidity. Heat index hit 107 that day. Sarah and I walked around for a couple of hours and about died. Funny thing is that after the sun goes down, it's absolutely beautiful! So we're altering our schedules to go out after dark more. Yeah, kind of like vampires. That's the norm though here in Taiwan. Hopefully the 90+ degree days are still limited.

We had a great Saturday evening doing some Salsa dancing. A large group of us went early for the "free" lesson. The lessons went pretty quickly, but was enough to realize it's just like doing the polka:) Right-left-right, left-right-left..... repeat. Kind of like doing the Bunny Hop dance as well. We had a great time though, amazing to watch everyone Salsa dance here - they're actually really good! It was warm and a late night, but we're looking into some more opportunities to salsa sa'more.

I'm back on the winning track with Fantasy Football (I'm 2-1). Plus with my Slingbox, I was able to catch up on some football highlights, as well as watch most of the Packer's loss to the Cowboys. Vikings pull one out under Gus Frerotte (coming from behind in a much needed way). Good bye to Jackson and hopefully the losing part of the Vikings season. I also got to see some highlights from the US victory over Europe in Ryder Cup - pretty impressive considering that Tiger is out and he pretty much is the greatest player in the Universe. Now for some baseball watching as the playoffs start very soon. Yankees will not make the playoffs (a win for everyone except for the networks) and no more Yankee Stadium, the Mets are fading (a win for Braves fans), and the Twins are pissing away yet another opportunity to make the post season. Oh yeah, the NHL pre-season just started! Good time of year for sports fans!!!!

Have a great Monday. Enjoy the political advertising that looks to only be getting worse by the day for those of you in "swing" states!

US TV - AT LAST!!!

So the Slingbox is all connected and works very well actually. Having some "remote" issues - as in trouble getting the remote control to correctly tell the Moxi what to do. It's close and I was able to watch Baseball Tonight and Sportscenter in English with NO subtitles. It's a beautiful thing.

So for those who are wondering what I'm talking about - basically there's a cable box setup in Rochester that connects to a "Slingbox" which translates the signal into something to boradcast over the internet. Connect that to a router (thanks Mike!) and then I can point my computer from Taiwan to the cable box in Rochester!!! The quality is actually really good here at work when I set it up. I'll try from home tonight to check the connection speed but it seriously is good! The program also allows me to control the DVR from Taiwan using an IR cable connection back in Rochester, but that's the part that isn't working so hot. Minor problem at this point that we will figure out how to work around! It's pretty sweet! And only one person at a time can connect which preserves the bandwidth. Next task is to build a PC for our apartment that I can have always connected, run that to our TV, and PRESTO - US TV in the apartment.

Yeah, I'm a nerd but since we have 1 year left here, it's a necessity!

An interesting article about Obama's BIGGEST supporter (Rochester folks make sure you read). I may be the biggest man in all of Taiwan, but I have nothing on Igor!!

We decided to go to Vietnam next month. So plans are underway to get reservations, visa, things to do, etc. We should have 3 full days to enjoy what the 2008 version of Vietnam has to offer. We are also planning on a trip to Kenting in south Taiwan at the end of October. Mountains, beaches, coastline over looking the Ocean, blue water, sunny weather... yeah, basically just like Hawaii!!




Jealous yet?

We are going salsa dancing this weekend with a bunch of people. There are lessons and a free drink with an advanced purchase of a ticket ($10 US) so we're in. I'm sure there will be lots of pictures from that experience. I left my salsa dancing clothes back in the US, so I have to come up with a plan B of what to wear:)

Have a great Wednesday - my week is over half way complete!!

Typhoon 1 - Cyclones 0

After 4 days of HEAVY rain, and some winds, I'm out looking for the olive branch. So far I haven't found one and even though the rain seems to have stopped for longer than 10 seconds for the first time since Sept 11th, I'm still thinking I should be building an Ark right about now.

Our first major Typhoon is over! Granted we didn't see the severity of the Hurricane Ike as they did in Texas, but we did get a full hit from Typhoon Sinlaku. What did we do during the Typhoon? Well since pretty much everything closes (few places to eat which saved us), we played a lot of video games (Super Mario Brothers 1 and 3... Mario Kart Wii which Sarah is NOT a fan of yet) and watched a lot of movies. Day 1 was kind of fun sleeping in knowing there was no reason to get up. When we did walk around a little outside, most places have put tape on the windows (in case something comes crashing into it) and the wind gusts at time were kind of nasty. Pretty much like an Iowa Thunderstorm, but lasts for 3 days or more. It did kill the plans for the Moon Festival which was this weekend. Supposedly it's a big weekend for grilling out but that was pretty much dropped by most people.

This weekend was the Mid-Autumn Festival, otherwise known as "Moon Festival". It's a Chinese holiday celebrated for over 3000 years by worshiping the Moon. There are celebrations (when there aren't Typhoons going on around you) and some of the other traditions include eating Moon cakes, lighting laterns, burning incense (as they seem to do every day around here), planting trees, and doing funny dances. We saw lots of "burning" things in the street as they do on every holiday, but wasn't really a weekend to enjoy the other things. Here's what moon cakes look like:



I think they float... which was important this past weekend. I've never seen so much rain in 4 days. Surprisingly Taipei is built well enough to not experience any flooding.

This past weekend was also the ISU/Iowa game. I think Iowa won since my girlfriend hasn't stopped singing Iowa fight songs for the past 2 days. I told her I told my boys to go easy this year so she could have her victory for once. Looks like ISU played a decent game but couldn't get in the endzone when it mattered. Did we try the "Draw up the middle" play????

We have a 3 day weekend coming up in October. Debating between going to Beijing or Vietnam. We should probably make up our mind this week and start making plans. Any suggestions???

Typhoon Time!!

Hurricane Ike might be on it's way to Texas, but in Taiwan, we're preparing for Typhoon Sinlaku!!! Sinlaku means "goddess" in Micronesia. Here's the current radar:



So what things are needed to prepare for a Typhoon? Here's what Sarah and I got:

2 jugs of water - each one is 2 gallons. In case 7-11 actually does close for once.
chips - Doritos are standard for any "event"
Flashlight and D batteries. No, I will not be bringing home the $1.50 flashlight
Downloaded movies - we're stocking up
Milk - you know, more things to spoil if the electricity goes out
3 bottles of wine.... in case the electricity goes out... or doesn't
beer, vodka, tonic....
Each Other.... haha:)
Internet connection to watch Iowa State beat Iowa!!!! GO CLONES!!!!

Big weekend with the game - here's to hoping I can brag for yet another year.

Have a good weekend - stay dry!

Weekend in the Sun

Never fun when you work for a company that has "Quarter End" every 3 months. It's been consuming my "free" time lately.

But we still had a wonderful weekend going to central Taiwan and then to North of Taipei. You can see the pictures on the right. I have switched to Picasa to house my photos, let me know if any of you have viewing issues. There were some changes at shutterfly recently that prevented a fan from saving the picture locally. Well, it can be done, but not easily. So Picasa should allow my viewers to do this. I don't care if people download and do whatever to my photos. I'll let you know if I start charging;)

As for this past weekend. We took the early high speed train to the south and then went on a tour bus up to Sun Moon Lake. It was a beautiful morning for such a tour. Only problem is that a bus going up into the mountains takes a very long time. Next time, we will just rent a car. Don't get me wrong, our tour guide was extremely nice and great. His English was very good in fact! I can't remember his Chinese name, but he had an American name (Peter), a Spanish name (Fernando), an Italian name (Valentino), and an English name (Dalton). I only have American and Chinese names.... I'll work on my other names. There were about 20 of us in the overall tour - some from Singapore and a lady from Chili. So we were not the only ones that required English to be spoken.

Sun Moon Lake is very beautiful. Someone compared it to Lake Tahoe how the big lake is in the middle of the mountains and of course the hotels on the lake are overly priced ($750 US per night). We took a boat trip out on the lake, stopping at the man made island in the middle that floats and has wonderful wildlife. If you get seasick, you don't want to go out to the island. Then we took the boat over to a Temple that's on one side of the Lake. Nice area with some nice big views of the entire lake. Then back on the boat, and finished the boat tour by being dropped off for our lunch at the culture village that's on the edge of the lake.

Lunch was interesting - I didn't take any photos, but might have some from Sarah or Meredith's camera later this week. We were entertained with a dancing show (think Adventureland in the summer) and lunch (think a very cheap Chinese place in the US... but didn't taste that good). Then we had tea (common for people after lunch), and I even tried deer wine. Too bad I tried the wine before I found out how it was made. It was actually really shitty to tell you the truth. They take some basic water, and let it sit over night in slices cut from a deer's horns. Didn't realize there was so much blood in deer's horns. It was pretty disgusting!! Both to taste and to watch.

For the rest of the afternoon we avoided the rain, toured Wunwu Temple (which is shared by both Buddhists and Confucious religions.... proof that conflicting religions CAN get along....), then headed to a paper making factory. This was part of the tour, wasn't our choice. We had the opportunity to make a fan (luckily was included in the price of the tour... would not have paid extra for it) and now have a souvenir from our paper factory;) By this time we were ready for a nap! We took the high speed train back to Taipei, ordered some pizza (Taiwan style) and enjoyed the rest of the evening.

As I'm typing this, there was just an earthquake. MY FIRST EARTHQUAKE. I felt a little up and down motion, then some side to side. Here are the details. A 6.1 about 100km off the coast of Taiwan, about a 2.0 by the time it hit Taiwan. No damage that I see, just two Americans who felt their first earthquake!!

Sunday we headed to Danshui which is about a 30 minute train ride North of Taipei. I was picturing a calm coastal community, instead I found a lively walk along the Danshui river which leads into the Taipei Sea. It's one of the better places in town to see the sunset (which we documented on "film") and then took a ferry ride up to Fisherman's Wharf for dinner. That's where the big bridge and night pictures are from. And like any good Wharf, there was a video arcade to enjoy:)

Hope you enjoy the pictures. Hope you didn't feel the earthquake!

Cyclones are 2-0!!! GO CLONES!!! Let's hope for one more victory on Saturday against the Squawkeyes! And Vikings lost at Green Bay thanks to our shitty quarterback.... Ahhhh - football season has begun. Isn't it fun?????

Back at it... Finally!

Sarah and I welcome our 2nd guest to Taiwan tonight. Her sister Meredith will arrive in about an hour and we are READY for her! House is clean, weather is.... ok for now.... but we always love having company!

We have big plans for this weekend. Going to Sun Moon Lake (for more than a 20 minute stop like last time) and through Central Taiwan. Should have lots of pictures to share. And on Sunday we head North to the beaches and coastal town that is supposedly pretty beautiful.

I blinked and all of a sudden it's football season. College football is already hearing useless sports casters that were good players in college but since they never got a degree (despite the full ride scholarship), they go act like they know how to analyze football. I would be more thankful if they could just form complete sentences. They are discussing Heisman Finalists??!?!? Didn't we just start? But Iowa State is off to a 1-0 start which I'll take for now. Our bid to the National Championship BCS game is still alive!! If you think about it, we're already 1/13th of the way there! Only 12 more wins (includes Big 12 title win) and we are in the final game!!

I don't make fun of your dream, so please don't make fun of mine!

And Pro football is finally here. Most of the sports fans can quit acting like they care about baseball (even though I'm still hoping both Boston and NY Yankees miss the playoffs... it could happen!!) and focus on "America's Sport". I was "thrown" into a fantasy football league last second. Looked at my team today and it's not great, not bad. I should have more time next week to look at making some improvements to my team.

Note that I haven't commented on Palin's selection as GOP VP candidate. Figure most of my readers are Republican (I'm not proud of this btw) so I might as well not try to piss off my audience. I'm sure you can guess my view. If you really want to know, send me an email. I think Sarah's tired of hearing my analysis. Lucky for me, she's in agreement.

I still think I would be an excellent political strategist. It's just a game and I can master that game.

Sorry for the few postings this week - it's been extremely busy at work and trying to stay on top of everything at home too. Good news is that Sarah has her ARC card as of this morning - so she's EXTREMELY official now. Plus she can go in and out of the country now. Thanks for all the prayers in getting her to this point!

My cousin Lindsay gets married this weekend. Hope everyone has fun without us, sorry we can't be there! You know I would if I wasn't half way around the world!