Random Thoughts for the New Year

Happy New Years! After an evening of many many fireworks going off around town, Taipei is now kind of a ghost town. There were spots of boom (delayed splash) from about 8:30pm till midnight, but right at midnight - LOTS of fireworks going off. People dropping black cats (or the Made in China version) out the windows into the streets. It was loud for about 15 minutes, then a few more till about 2am.

So it's now Year 98 in Taiwan. Took me a while to figure out the whole date thing because it was usually listed as 97-5-28 which would have been May 28th, 2008... or year 97 in Taiwan years. This is the Minguo Calendar - started in Mainland China in 1912 but transferred to Taiwan when they were founded in 1949. 1912 was the year that the Republic of China was founded. Plan on a big party in 2 more years (2011).

We celebrated New Years Eve by going to Yes Man movie with Jim Carrey. I liked it a lot - reminds me of the humor from Bruce Almighty. If you're looking for a good way to pass the cold winter, go check it out. Then since everything was closed (reminds me of Christmas morning in the US) came home and enjoyed some homemade quesadillas.

Other movies I've seen (DVD) that are worth a watch: Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Traitor... movies to avoid: You Don't Mess With the Zohan, Pineapple Express, Bangkok Dangerous, The Mummy 23: These Things Never End (or whatever it's called)....

I've also had some more time for reading since Christmas. I'm still on my Stephen King kick, trying to get through as many of his books as possible and I realize I'm way behind!! So I got through "Carrie" pretty quickly... very interesting read. It was one of his really early ones. I did watch the movie then afterwards and that was equally as good. I finished his new collection of stories as well - "Just After Sunset". Over the past 2 weeks I got through "Pet Sematary" which is now one of my favorites. It was really well done, causing me to have some bad dreams about Sarah's cats and think twice when I was around animals.... Another movie that was pretty well done.

As for the rest of this week? I've enjoyed the time away from work, catching up with Tiger Woods 2008 on Wii... fun times.

Check out the pictures I took of New Years Day around Taipei (within walking distance from the apartment). It's been on the colder side the past few days so it's not the greatest time to be exploring. Perhaps I'll get more ambition this weekend.