One More Day (like from Les Mis)

We're about 34 hours from Sarah's arrival in Taiwan. I have a limo ready to pick her up upon her arrival. The Taiwan government is considering a police escort from the airport to the apartment, but haven't confirmed this yet. For reference (and the new readers), Sarah now has her own address label to the right. Yes, it looks very similar to mine but now has her name on it so she can get mail at the apartment! Should have a cell phone number for her by this weekend sometime.

It's definitely back to summer weather in Taiwan. 95 degrees and 66% humidity (the after shock of the Typhoon with higher humidity). Heat index of 102. No, I don't miss the snow, but I do miss the "normal" summers I've been used to in the midwest my whole life. But I do think I am sweating less than I was a month ago.... my body is probably getting a little more acclimated to the heat.

As July comes to an end, my other thoughts are on some of the things I read online:

Jamie Lynn Spears is getting married in Mississippi. I thought they were from Louisianna? Even so, if you had that kind of money in the family, wouldn't you want to get married somewhere... ANYWHERE... besides Mississippi? And what is up with McCain comparing Obama to Britney in his latest advertising? We're supposed to take McCain serious?? Another waste of money in politics as usual.

Pudge going to the Yankees.... seriously? Like they need any more reasons to be hated! I'm still surprised they didn't sign Bonds in the offseason just to make even more people hate him. And when are the Twins going to make a solid move by the deadline? They're playing well, let's get a team to move up to the top. Braves have thrown in the towel for the season already. Sorry, not used to that but I have a feeling the next few seasons will be like this.

China tries to "fix" pollution issues 2 weeks (less than that) before the Olympics. Sorry folks, this stuff takes 10-15 YEARS to fix, not days. I think overall this will be good for China to get in a different mindset (maybe not) and the world to learn more about China and not rely on textbooks that describe China from 1980s. Hopefully most people will also learn about the history of Taiwan and understand that Taiwan is NOT the "capital of Thailand". Take the time to learn about Southeast Asia geography (take you about 15 minutes) - this area will remain in the news for the next many years.

One other thought to share - not all Western Cultural influences are a good thing to see here. Sure, I enjoy seeing evidence of Hollywood films (Batman is a huge success here, even on the IMAX theatre here) or Pepsi in every 7-11 (all 2600+ of them), but when I see the latest craze of small dogs being carried around by young girls.... I get a little frustrated. Yeah, there are miniature dogs here that fit in purses, or are too small to walk themselves so the woman carries it everywhere as she shops. Hoping this fad passes quickly and we can laugh about it 20 years from now just like we do with the Jams we wore in the 80s.

Hope you all enjoy your Thursday! Mine is complete and I'm off to continue watching Back to the Future III complete with Chinese Subtitles!!!

Wednesday - No More Typhoon

So by my count, 58 hours till Sarah arrives in Taiwan. Please keep her travel in your prayers for the next few days. We have outlawed Typhoons till after she arrives. We've also planned a HUGE 2 weeks of games in Beijing starting in August where the world's finest athletes will compete for prizes.... all of course in Sarah's honor.

Been a busy week - both at work and getting ready for Sarah. I have to "de-Bachelorize" my apartment. Putting the dirty clothes in the hamper, making the bed, putting clothes away, put the dishes back where they belong..... I think she'll be impressed. I have just about everything ready for her so she can quickly be acclimated into Taiwanese culture!

Otherwise, nothing new comes to mind today to share..... sorry to disappoint this week.

Enjoy this video in the meantime, sent to me by Eddie:

Babys, Weddings, and a Typhoon!!

Congrats to another Dickinson grandkid born this past weekend. Congrats to Erin/Carlos and of course Auntie C!!!! Diego is a healthy looking baby and we welcome him into the family!!! Hopefully he takes after me and becomes a CYCLONE instead of a Husker:(

We had a Typhoon hit us today. So remember all those "Snow Day" moments growing up where you go to bed knowing you don't have to go to school the next day? Well that was me on Sunday night knowing that the government called off all offices and functions for Monday due to the Typhoon coming our way. So I enjoyed yet another day of "working from home" but the bad part is not a lot of places/restaurants are open either. Luckily I had stocked up on some food on Sunday at my trip to the store. How bad was it? Well a lot of rain and some higher winds, but not really anything to close down everything - but then again I only saw what I saw outside of my window all day:) Here is a radar picture of today's Typhoon Fung-wong. I'll see what I can do to name the next one "Typhoon BigShow"!!



Taipei is on the northern part of the island so we didn't get the eye of the Typhoon.

This past weekend I went to a wedding of a colleague. He is actually the one who invited me with him to the Church I've been attending. It was a Christian Ceremony but was all in Taiwanese:( Don't worry, even some of my peers from work that I went to the wedding with had trouble understanding all of the traditional Taiwanese. They all speak primarily Mandarin (like main land China). I've posted pictures on the right (or here for the directionally challenged). The main sanctuary is very nice, much more traditional Christian Church compared to my English Service sanctuary on 9th floor. This one is on the 10th floor of the building from last week's photos. So imagine building a place like this on the 10th floor of a building! Not sure what the other 8 floors below are for:) But David came in wearing a white tuxedo (which looked very sharp) and when he walked in, the crowd started clapping and cheering:) The music was pretty typical of US weddings (Pachabel, Wagner, finish with Mendelssohn) BUT I have to say that I actually enjoyed the Wagner Wedding March in this wedding since it was played on Piano (not on Organ as the other 99% of the weddings) and was played by our Church pianist who has her PhD in Piano performance.... so the Wedding March played as a performance on piano is actually a very pretty piece. She played some other pieces throughout that were played extremely well - I enjoyed that part. There was a performance from the "Adult Choir" (that's what I'll call them... in the robes in the pictures), and two songs from the "contemporary choir" which didn't wear robes and were a little younger in age. Everything in the service was in a foreign language - even the hymn that we sung. By the 2nd verse, I had figured out the translation linguistics on the right so I was able to kind of sing along. My IBM peer Joseph stopped and stared at me when he figured out that I was singing in Chinese!!!

Other parts of the ceremony to note:

• The bride and groom each wrote their own personal vows and read them to the other person with the microphone - I like this MUCH better than using the standard church vows that are usually used.... much more personal.
• At the heavy urging of the congregation, about halfway to the back after they were "official", David picked up his bride and carried her the rest of the way! It was actually pretty cute.
• Yes, I was the only "minority" in the congregation - I was also the tallest one there so I stick out.
• Lots of group photos afterwards (including one for David and his work colleagues... there were only 4 of us at the actual ceremony though - many showed up for the reception)
• I figured out some of the stories in the Chinese Bible thanks to some of the pictures (one included in my pictures) - they were all printed right to left and top to bottom. Kind of puts a new twist to the Tommy Boy line of "Top to bottom, left to right, a group of words together is called a sentence"....

At the reception, the hall (part of a nicer hotel on the North part of Taipei.... near the IMAX theatre that I just found out they have here) was very fancily decorated. Probably over 300 guests at the reception (maybe 200 at the ceremony??) and the food was in full force! There were lots of songs and presentations (video of pictures - pretty standard now a days) - and even a video of a friend of theirs who wrote the couple a song! On his second (pre-recorded) performance, about halfway through the song, David joined in and sang the melody for his bride as the guy in the video played the guitar and sang harmony.... so a rather unusual performance but one that was done very well! A sort of Karaoke-style done well for a wedding reception:) What a great idea!!!!!!!!

We had some appetizers which included mushrooms and muscle... the muscle kind of sucked, haven't liked it now the 2 times I've tried it. They also brought some Seaweed stuff to eat, some Shark Fin Soup (no joke) which I am told is rather pricey and very elegant! It actually wasn't half bad to tell the truth. Shrimp, Sea Cucumber, Pork..... to drink there was a ton of red wine accompanied by Orange Juice, Guava Juice, Mango Juice, and Cranberry Juice.... It was a very plentiful wedding. Our group had lots of toasting going on to each other and to the happy couple when they were close. Luckily only a few were staying sober enough to drive home at the end of the night.

Well I enjoyed my first Taiwanese wedding - I will most likely attend another one in November (with Sarah of course) that I believe will be a non-Christian wedding.... probably Buddhist... so that will be interesting to take part in.

Hope you all had a good weekend. The storms here have passed and I might actually venture out to see fresh air for once today!

Sarah arrives in Taipei this weekend! Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers!

Because I Can

I decided to find some of my favorite YouTube clips from movies that make me laugh. If you don't laugh at anything else today while at work, hopefully these will help. Be warned that not all of them are "PG" rated so expect some naughty language.

It's The Little Things....

Sometimes I forget how the little things that make me laugh from day to day, are also the things that make life most enjoyable.... for instance....

- Had Hot Pot spicy food for lunch. It's the hot stuff that clears your sinuses and I LOVE that feeling. A very filling lunch and my spicy food fix for the week!
- After Hot Pot, we stopped for a beverage to cool off with, and the song they were playing was "Loving You (Is Easy Cause You're Beautiful)" by Minnie Ripperton. I was suprised to hear this song on the stereo, but more importantly, all I could think of was the SouthPark episode with Richard Stamos unable to hit the high note (needed to cause the bomb to go off)..... CLASSIC!!!!


- Stitches come out Friday morning.... I'm currently annoyed with walking on the extra padding and stitches but I'm getting along.
- I got a new driver's license.... here is a scan of it (if you have to ask, you won't find it funny).


Here's the 30 second bunny explanation of the picture.....

- New pictures of the 2009 Ferrari California showed up on my computer today... what a pretty car! Hopefully there will be one waiting for me in Rochester when I get back from some anonymous donation. Very pretty car!
- Sarah arrives in 10 days.... all of Taiwan is excited for her arrival!!!
- One more movie clip for you to enjoy!!! And yes, he does fire 6 times:)

A Blog For The Right Brain

Thanks to the suggestion by my mom, I finished the book A Whole New Mind which is a book that anyone in the 2008 Business world or Technical Field should read. The subtitle of the book is "Why Right Brainers Will Rule The World". So some of you are going to use this opportunity to jump ahead, or go check last night's sports scores (Twins got smoked by the Spankees). But seriously - the book is a great description of the business environment we all are facing in the US. There are other people in the world that can do our job for less money, and sometimes even computers can do our job for us making the day to day tasks that are traditionally left brained.... well, obsolete for "expensive" Americans. So the solution isn't to develop your left brained skills (logical, sequential, binary type thought), but to develop your right brained skills (creativity, innovative, revolutionary). These are skills that a computer can't do, and that in general are not as well developed in the rest of the non-US world. It offers a lot of powerful ways that one can begin seeing their jobs in a new view, from an outside view even. If your company has ever offered the words "Global Resourcing" or "Off Shoring", then this book is for you. You've been officially warned, and told how to prevent getting stuck in the corporate move to have cheaper labor do the same job you are doing now. I'm just thankful that I already saw the lesson of the book and have the natural ability to use the right side of my brain. Now to continue developing it and look for opportunities to use it in my role here in Taiwan!

Anyway - I finally finished watching There Will Be Blood which seemed to be the longest movie with only one plot. I wouldn't call the movie a Top 10 flick, although I did enjoy Daniel Day Lewis' performance (he did win the Oscar after all).... I did however love the music by Johnny Greenwood who suprisingly is of Radiohead fame. Small world. The music was minimalist, written for a movie that takes place in the 1890s.... very well done! If you have about 5 hours to spare, take a gander.

I've been invited to my first Taiwanese wedding this weekend! It's actually a Christian wedding (takes place at the same Church I've been attending) but it might be in Mandarin. Wonder how you say "Takes a man to give away an angel". I'll stop there with the quotes. I'll make sure to take lots of photos. Thankfully the Church is Air Conditioned. I'm still debating whether to wear a tie or not. Who gets married in the middle of summer anymore???? I'll let you know if they play Thriller or Hokey Pokey at the reception. I'm prepared to pull out some dance moves if called upon!

Have a great Tuesday - Hot and Humid in Taiwan with an afternoon thunderstorm out of nowhere.

Is It Fall Yet??

And another hot weekend in Taiwan. The tropical storm from last week left enough rain to make it uncomfortably humid. You know that one week in August where it's hot and humid and you sweat just walking to the mailbox and back? Well, that's EVERY DAY in Taiwan right now. Standing in the sun is not a good idea - heck, standing in the shade isn't a good idea right now! So I enjoy the airconditioning wherever I go. Thankfully all the shopping stops usually have good AC.

A bunch of us went out Saturday night to the night market Raohe. It's a pretty fun and full night market known for their food and lots of clothing. The mascot is an owl which you can see in the pictures I posted (link to the right). The market was built around the temple on the far east end that was built to overlook the river. Well now there's so much city between the temple and the river that it's impossible to see the original view that the Buddhist people had originally sought.

We found a game arcade with airhockey and strength test. Don't worry, After coming up short on the first throw, on the 2nd one, I took the gold medal for Team USA. We also found the outlet clothing section of town that has hours of endless streets with VERY cheap clothes - mainly for women. I was surprised I made it as far as I did with the heat as bad as it was Saturday night - and no breeze to help cool things off.

I took some pictures at Church yesterday. They are getting ready for basically a Vacation Bible School and have over 200 kids registered for the English Christian School this week. The theme is "Jesus is my Superhero" and we sang a song that says Jesus better than Superman, Batman, Yo-Gi Oh.... the kids will have fun this week. I remember the days of old with VBS and all the entertainment we had.

My stitches come out Friday morning. I took a picture but decided not to post it - so let me know if you want to see and I can send you the picture:)

Otherwise - the rest of Taiwan awaits Sarah's arrival in less than 2 weeks!!!! RAGBRAI starts this week - the thought of riding a bike 50-80 miles per day in the heat does not appeal to me for some reason. But best wishes to all those riding (including Sarah for a couple of days!)

One last thing I found today on the web. There are plans for a new building in Dubai that actually rotates or spins and changes shape through time. I think this is a facinating idea and a great example of what a little right brain creativity can do to traditional structures. That and a sh!t ton of money!!! Page 2 of the link really shows the concept in its fullest!

Friday Night Begins!

While you all are at work today, I'm at home watching the British Open (sans Tiger).... and atop the leaderboard so far on day #2 is some guy named Greg Norman. He's probably some 18 year old that's named after the golfing legend that was top ranked through most of the 80s and 90s. What? It's THE Greg Norman on top of the leaderboard? This guy is 53 - what's he doing leading the British Open?????? More power to the Shark though! Take advantage of Tiger being out for the rest of the year!

So today's lesson from Taiwan is this - when you go home on a Friday, and it takes you 33 minutes to go from Office chair, on the bus, on the subway, then walk to your apartment door (all with a pretty heavy laptop backpack on) ... don't wait till you are standing in front of your door to realize that you left your keys sitting on top of your desk. So yeah, turn around and walk to train, train to bus, bus to office, find the )#(@$@# keys, back to bus (I took a different bus to be safe, don't want the same bus driver staring at me since he just dropped me off), bus to train, walk to apartment.... so this evening I left work at 4:30 and it was about 6:15 when I finally got home:( And since we're kind of mid-Tropical Storm today, most everyone left by 4pm. Nobody I could call at the office since I knew I was one of the last ones there today.

My Friday evening plans are to rest up after a long and busy week. I'm walking pretty normal again, but still have to endure my stitches for another week. Tomorrow's plans are to do some shopping by day for some more things I need for the apartment, possibly some grocery shopping, then a bunch of us from work are planning a trip to a new nightmarket (new for me) for some fair-type food and drinks. Of course some cheap shopping for random items too! Can't ever get enough of that!!!

Sorry for the skip of a few days of blogging. I've had a bunch of nightly meetings this week. It's been a hot and humid week which wears me out more than I realized at the end of a day. We experienced a Tropical Storm Warning today - basically one notch below a Typhoon - but all I saw was a lot of rain and some moderate winds. Basically like a thunderstorm back in the states.

There are some nice rumors about the future of Bret Favre. Mainly involving the Minnesota Vikings!?!?!?!?!? Not sure what to think about that. I know Green Bay fans think of it as the unthinkable. And can minnesota turn favor on a guy that we've hated most over the past 15 years??? It'll be interesting to see how it all turns out. I guess the Vikings know they need a new quarterback and he's still a better option than their current situation. Not like they'd want to go after a younger quarterback that could play more than 2 seasons though....

Anyway - hope y'all have a good Friday, and a great weekend! Have fun on RAGBRAI for anyone crazy enough to do it!

Another New Baby!

Congrats and welcome to Owen Reed! It's finally the boy we were all hoping for the past 3 years!!! I'd suggest bringing him to Taiwan for a visit, but that would violate last week's rules of traveling with little ones. I wish the newest Cyclone Fan and his family all the best!

I'm hobbling around this week in the 94 degree heat. It's about 50% humidity so far, but the morning heat is what gets me. It's usually already 86 degrees by the time I go to catch the train at 7am. But I'm also hobbling around since I have 12 stitches on the bottom of my foot after this past weekend! The doctor convinced me to get the wart situation over with and just cut the whole thing out. Since I am tired of the other things we were trying (and Mayo clinic was of NO help last week when I was home), we had the thing cut out on Saturday morning. Left me the whole weekend crippled and unable to really walk - lots of time for Mario Kart Wii. But the big chunk that he took out is no more, and I'm actually walking much better day to day already! I should be walking normal by this weekend and then get my stitches out next week! Chicks dig stitches and scars right????

But my drugs and "surgery" have caused me to have weird sleeping habits this weekend and week already. I was up at 2:30am Monday morning, so I watched an unusual movie from the "British Collection" I'll call it - by the same guys that did Shuan of the Dead - Hot Fuzz is pretty funny, especially at 3am for some odd reason. If you like that strange 2000 version of British humor, then you might actually like this movie. A lot less gore than there was in Shuan of the Dead.

The big talk now is regarding the Olympics. We're still about 3 weeks away, but the travel advisories for Asia are ludicrous - basically saying "avoid China till after the games are over". So I think I will do that. What originally was intended as an "opportunity to see the Olympics" is now my thought of "avoiding the mess" and watching it on TV.

In other sports - All Star Game tonight... with the host of the World Series at stake. Not sure how that is supposed to be "fair" but it's been that way for a while now. The MLB All Star game is the most frustrating due to WAY too many players being selected, causing players to only get 1 at bat, or a pitcher only getting to pitch 7 pitches for one inning of work in the 3rd inning. Just doesn't really resemble baseball. But I will admit, the extra points in the NFL All Star Game in Hawaii are funny to watch. Nobody even gets in the 3 point stance:)

Still Catching Up

Still no baby Reed..... so while we wait for "Diesel", we find other ways to entertain ourselves:

New pictures FINALLY of the 4th of July in Iowa. The folks here liked seeing pictures of Iowa since most have never been there. We send a lot of our employees to Raleigh, North Carolina to train since they work a lot with the folks there. But most never make it to the mid-west. My coworker Joys (from the middle of Taiwan weekend last month) liked seeing the windmill photos. I told him of the growing addition of wind farms in the midwest as an alternate energy solution.

Sounds like I missed the greatest Wimbledon final ever:( I actually just saw the semi-finals replayed yesterday on TV here - hoping they show the final at some point. Glad to see Nadal finally rising to his full potential and making another match for this growing rivalry in Men's tennis. Too bad nobody else can compete with he and Federer.

Olympics are growing near. The Taiwan men's basketball team will NOT be represented at the Olympics. Currently they are getting beat 40-13 by team Egypt. No offense to Egypt, but they are not the powerhouse in Men's Basketball.... and they are whipping "Chinese Taipei" pretty bad right now on TV. I think I could probably walk on and play on the Taiwan BBall team. I felt this way about Iowa State many times as well!

The baseball All-Star break is this week. Monday and Wednesday signal the only day in the calendar year that there isn't major sports to watch on TV so you must fill your calendar with some replays or other informercials. Or watch pool or pingpong like I do here. I did buy some pingpong paddles and balls to play at work. I intend on getting good again at ping pong so I can come back and kick Fisher's ass.

Mario Kart Wii is about as addictive as they come. I'm 2/3 of the way through the game (or so). I have finally won all the cups at the 50cc and 100cc levels - the 150cc levels are INSANE! Usually only 3 seconds separate 1st place from 12th place. So of course I get hit with a shell about 10 feet from the finish line and go from 1st to last very quickly. Good way to get my blood pressure to rise!!!! I haven't done a lot with WiiFit yet, but I have done the initial setup and the hulahoop game. It's not as much fun to watch me as some of the postings on youtube. If you get bored, do a youtube search on "wii fit" and you'll see what I'm talking about.

Interesting to see Tony Snow died. Of course I didn't care to see the guy on TV, but I did respect him of all the Bush press secretaries. Guess he seemed less of a tool than the other ones in the past 8 years. Sad still to see someone die so young.

The heat is on in Taiwan, Is there a war goin on? (isn't there a song like that? Oh, that's from Miss Saigon... still rhymes, but nevermind). But seriously - it's HOT here! Makes me thankful for my air conditioned apartment. Plus this time of year is similar to January/February in Minnesota where the weather outside is so extreme that you just get up, go to work, go home... do what you can to stay out of the outdoors. Soon enough though the weather will be beautiful here again (Mid-September). Can you believe the summer is already half over? (Sorry teachers).

So enough rambling for today - have a good Monday!!

BigShow Font

Please click on the following image to get the FULL effect!!! This is what happens when I find something that really amuses me. If you desire to be as cool as I am, then go to www.fontifier.com and follow the instructions. A scanner is required. Let me know if you have any questions in the process.



Sorry for no blog yesterday - you can blame Sarah since she's the one that bought me Mario Kart Wii. My most favorite game for the Wii yet!!!!

Rules For Traveling By Plane

After a mini-break, I'm back in Taiwan!! "Home" is just how I left it - very humid here for the next two months, definitely feels like mid-August here. But it's already middle of July and the beautiful Fall/Winter that I've heard so much about it just around the corner!!

I actually had a wonderful week back in the US. I mastered the art of jetlag going back, just stay as busy as possible the first few days so you don't have time to sleep. But I landed at 5am this morning back in Taiwan and I've struggled all day to stay awake. We'll see how I do at this part of the jetlag:)

I'm still trying to get caught up and unpacked, but here's a bunch of thoughts I wrote down based on my most recent flying experiences this past week. It's funny to watch the inexperienced travelers try to keep up with the pros. I'm actually somewhere in the middle, but I do have this flying and getting through airport stuff down pretty well!

My Rules For Airplanes

1. If you're under 6 feet in height, you are not allowed to recline your chair. Also, if the person behind you is over 6 feet in height, you are not allowed to recline your chair. Seriously, the planes are NOT that big... this reclining "feature" shouldn't even be there.
2. People not checking luggage should board last. My little laptop backpack takes up FAR less space than their oversized "carry on" that they keep making bigger to avoid the $15 fee for checking luggage. I was in the last group to board in San Francisco to Chicago last week, of course there was no place for my laptop backpack except under the seat in front of me..... no room for me to put my feet and legs at that point.
3. You are allowed 1 bathroom trip per 4 hours on the plane. If you can't hold it, don't drink so much.
4. Babies under 2 are not allowed on the plane because they never stay quiet. Plus it takes 4 times as long to check all the car seats, strollers, etc. ALSO, you board first to give you more time, well you can exit last to take as much time as you need too.
5. You don't need your light on to sleep. Especially on a red-eye flight where your light is the only one on and you're snoozing away. Turn it off.
6. Just because you wear a suit when you fly, doesn't give you a reason to be an asshole to everyone around you. I'm important too, just not dumb enough to travel in a suit. Don't think you're better than me since I'm wearing shorts and sandles.
7. I don't really like hearing "please turn off all electronic devices and cell phones" either after boarding a plane - but don't be Mr. or Mrs. Rebel and keep talking. Turn the phone off when told to.
8. I'm a fat guy, yet I manage to stay on my 50% of the seat - so when you're small, try to do the same while you sleep. Otherwise, don't sleep.
9. If you're planning on "heavy drinking" for the flight, you are not allowed a window seat. Not only does it usually mean more trips to the bathroom and having to bother everyone, but they usually have to play the passing game between you and the Flight Attendants. Cash, then liquor.... repeat every 30 minutes.
   

Have a great Tuesday and welcome back to work everyone!!! Hope you enjoyed your 4th. I hope to have pictures and stories up soon!