Rumor has it that Sage Rosenfels is close to signing with the VIKINGS!!! For some, they will focus on Sage bringing some focus on a throwing game for the run-confident Vikings. For others, they will see an Iowa State boy coming back closer to home to lead the Purple and Gold. For me, it brings back a reunion with one of my moments of fame and my best friend to ever play in Jack Trice Stadium.
Have you forgotten? Sage was the one that flipped me off during the Nebraska Game. In case you need a reminder, it's been over 9 years since that day in Lincoln where I put my life on the line to cheer for the Cyclones inside a stadium full of Huskers. That was also the day most of my family disowns me, including my grandma Pat who was sitting next to me but very very ashamed. That was also the day when Pitzen and I made it up on Husker Vision!!! And getting booed by 70,000+ fans (and most of the state of Nebraska) in the process.
BTW - my letter was originally much funnier than that. The Daily always took the humor out of my submissions. I had a couple of others that were chopped.
After publication, my letter was photocopied and put onto every locker in the locker room. The coaches made a point to state they were to never EVER do something like this again. And that night I got a call from Sage himself to apologize and thank me for being such a die hard Cyclone fan. We resolved our differences at the next game when he showed me a shout-out during pre-game warmups.
Ahhhh... those college days!! I assume he's no longer flipping people off. With the NFL salaries now a days, he can hire someone to walk around and flip people like me off!
So I didn't get to actually watch the Oscars, but I'm not surprised by the results. Seems like they were about as predictable as ever.
Ever since Friday the 13th a couple of weeks ago, I've been interested in rewatching all of the old HBO Tales From The Crypt episodes. Did you know there were 7 seasons?!?!?! I've made it through the first season and realized how much I loved these "horror" flicks that only last 25 minutes! Talk about a genre that appeases to my short attention span!!! And who could hate the Crypt Keeper? Sure, he's a Jim Henson creation, but I don't think anyone would rather hug him over Kermit the Frog. I remember this show being the reason I was happy when my folks added HBO to our cable selection while I was in High School. It was on late at night on Wednesday Nights I think.... some of these are familiar so far.
A somewhat uneventful weekend around here. The weather was absolutely beautiful though, 90 degrees and sunny. But a bit too much on the humid side for my taste. I was walking around all weekend in shorts and t-shirt (even at night) receiving the stares of people everywhere. They think it's "cold" or something like that still. The neighbors and I did celebrate by grilling some brats (local guy who home makes them) and enjoying some Captain N' Coke. It'll start picking up in rain though starting next month. The mosquitos are also everywhere right now and they annoy the HELL out of me.
A couple of more weeks till Daylight savings ends... or is it begins? Either way, I get to go to bed earlier at that point because my evening phone calls will begin at 8pm rather than 9pm and hopefully done by 11 rather than midnight.
Have a good Monday!! March Madness begins very soon!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY - first to my nephew Elliott... he's getting old already! And also to Claire who is WAY old! An important day for the birthday tracking webpages out there!
Laptop harddrive has been reloaded and seems much happier. Problem is that downloading large applications from US to Taiwan takes longer so the process is more painful. That plus I have an install disc in Rochester for a program I use some of the time. I may have to try to download it and use my serial number, etc to "trick" it....
The Academy Awards are this Sunday (US time) and I have watched all the movies that I'm going to watch in order to prepare for the ceremony. Here are my thoughts and who I want to see the awards:
Movie of the Year:
Benjamin Button - the reason for the LONG delay in releasing The Time Traveler's Wife. The movie was interesting and pretty well done, but I don't think it'll win. Mainly because I was a bigger fan of the book The Time Traveler's Wife.
Frost/Nixon - Better than I anticipated. Another movie that you more fully appreciate if you do a search on Wikipedia for the history of the plot and then follow along.
Milk - More boring than I expected. "Based on a true story" type movies aren't my favorite though sometimes.... I seriously did not think this movie was "MOVIE OF THE YEAR" material.
The Reader - A surprisingly decent movie
Slumdog Millionaire - A VERY good movie and my pick to win. A believable and very well written story line. If you haven't seen it yet, go see it cause it will win.
Best Actor:
Brad Pitt - besides being his usual self that acts by not saying anything (very similar to his Joe Black character), the performance was just ok.
Frank Langella (Nixon) - Probably the one I would like to see win
Sean Penn - A good job playing the role, but I still did not enjoy the movie
Richard Jenkins - I admit, I haven't watched The Visitor yet
Mickey Rourke - seriously, I could have played the same role with about the same effect
Best Actress: Only one I watched was The Reader and I didn't think Kate Winslet's performance warranted a nomination. So anyone else would be fine.
Supporting Actor: NOT Robert Downey Jr please!!! I have a feeling this one is an easy one for Heath Ledger... and probably well deserved ALTHOUGH I thought David Kross should have been nominated for his role in The Reader... not Kate Winslet.
Supporting Actress: NOT Marisa Tomei - seriously, that was a HORRIBLE performance. I actually liked the movie, but the acting was very sub-par including her just walking around naked (which seems to be the theme to get nominated this year) on film. I did appreciate the role played by Taraji Henson in Benjamin Button but I would be surprised if she wins.
Best Director: Give it to Danny Boyle for Slumdog Millionaire
Proof that there are idiots all over the world... this one was seen about a block from my office in NanKang as I was walking from the train stop to my fishbowl-cube for the day. And to think that if I'd have just taken the bus instead, I would have missed walking behind a clear example of the lower IQ:
Anyway - can't all be perfect I guess! GO CYCLONES!!!
I was invited by some neighbors to attend a Hakka BBQ on Sunday. I gladly accepted (despite the 8:30am departure time on a Sunday) and we loaded up the mini-van (7 adults, 2 dogs) and headed south! We arrived in a small Hakka village that caters to groups wanting to visit and enjoy the food. Hakka are a branch of the Han Chinese and are a heavy population here in Taiwan. They speak Hakka language which is one of the 4 pronunciations of every train stop while riding around Taipei (the others being Mandarin, Taiwanese, and English for us ignorants). The BBQ process was take a brick oven, light a ton of wood inside to heat it up, take the coals out to grill on top of, while inside the oven you put a chicken wrapped in foil, sweet potatoes, and corn to cook for a while. The grilling part was good, but very work intensive... for those who did the work:) Some of us went on a cart ride pulled by a bull and enjoyed some of the other farm animals that the village had to offer..... turkey, goats, pigs, pigeons.... felt like I was back in Iowa!!
The food was great - weather was warm and humid (it was in the 80s most of last week and this weekend, back around 70 today with light rain) - but overall it was a wonderful day. On the return home we drove up into the mountains to see the cherry blossoms. They are in full bloom this time of year here, meaning the trees are bright pink (perfect for Valentine's Day right?), plus the weather in the mountains is much cooler (and I loved that part). Then a car ride back to Taipei (with non-stop Christina Aguillera all the way unfortunately... long story).
Once I figure out on a map where we went, I'll let you know. Till then you'll have to enjoy the pictures to the right.
A busy week as always at work. Today is President's Day in the US - surprisingly it isn't celebrated here in Taiwan. Maybe Columbus Day will be celebrated....
Hope everyone had a grand Valentine's Day. I will celebrate this holiday in April with Sarah.
For the single people, today is BLACK FRIDAY! So Happy Black Friday to all of us spending the holiday working. As for Saturday and Valentine's Day - happy Singles Day for those of us spending it alone:( And happy Friday the 13th - watch out for people in hockey masks.
Price of stamps going up again? Seriously??? There isn't enough junk mail floating around from Citibank or MBNA to keep them in business? They should up the postage rate for BULK mail, we'd all benefit from that. So it is even more rediculous to consider that I can mail a card from Taiwan to the US for about 70 cents but it is costing well over 40 cents to mail that bill from your house to the other side of town. Who uses the postal service anymore?
I'm doing pretty well on my goal of watching all the academy award nominee movies before the award's ceremony. I'm about half way and I have to say the movies are pretty good. Expect a full summary next week.
It was in the upper 80s today here in Taipei - and very blue skies! So warm in fact that I had to turn on the Air Conditioning last night to sleep, and it's on now. Should be back in the 70s for the weekend so hopefully some good exploration weather.
Big weekend for holidays - Friday the 13th is first. I had to explain who "Jason" was to some folks today. I also had to explain where the term "slasher" comes from.... also the difference between "slasher" and "flasher". Funny how that single letter changes the reference of "slasher flick" into "flasher flick". Both are shown on USA channel late at night I guess.
Saturday is Valentine's Day. I'm boycotting again this year after a successful celebration last year with Sarah. We'll pick back up next year when we're back together in the same country. She did send me a rather large fix of homemade valentine's day cookies, cherry sours, jube jells, and Penut Butter Cup heart. What a woman! They do celebrate Valentine's Day here, but they do so 3-4 times. This is at least the 3rd holiday for lover's here and it's just as much a publicity to buy things and stimulate the economy as it is in the US. The last Taiwan Valentine's Day in Taiwan I think I bought Sarah her cell phone:) You know how good I am at the Valentine's Day gifts!!!
Sadly, no shovel this year for Sarah. She still has the really good one for the car from last year!!!
And Sunday marks the 1st Annual International "That's What She Said" Day. Michael Scott will be proud as those of us who already overuse the phrase, get to try to over use it even more! Don't believe me? Look it up.
It's been a long week of battling a cold and sore throat. Cookies don't really help the sore throat, but they help my attitude! Luckily tomorrow is Friday with very little official plans for the weekend. It's back up towards 80 degrees here - just turned the Air Conditioning back on.
I am caught up on American Idol... mostly. i'm ready for the "real" stuff to start. The over dramaticized episode last night was way too boring. But overall I think the talent this year shows a lot of promise. Hopefully having Kara on the show will indeed keep it interesting and we can listen to some productive thoughts rather than random thoughts that make no sense from a drunken Paula. I'll do my best to keep up with AI week to week with my usual predictions!
Chinese New Year is officially over - the 15th day is reserved as the Lantern Festival. Since it falls on a Monday this year, the celebration was this past Saturday. The famous area is in Pingxi (pronounced PING-shee, or close to that) where thousands of people show up in a small village for the releasing of thousands of lanterns to the heavens.
We traveled by SLOW train (compared to the High Speed Rail) and took about 90 minutes to get to our destination. "We" being my wonderful neighbors Zach/Alisa, as well as Angel (our Taiwanese connection who got us around) and her boyfriend Ryan, then me tagging along as the 5th wheel. The town is just that, a town. But on the one day every year reserved for the Lantern Festival, it erupts full of vendors selling food, souvenirs, and of course paper lanterns. The object is to buy a paper lantern (at around $3 a pop), write your wishes on the outside of it, then you light the paper underneath allowing the warm air inside the lantern to want to go up and up into the sky. It's an amazing thing to watch actually.
I have some pictures to the right - warning though, there are a lot of them! And honestly, the pictures don't really do it justice. It was raining all day, not heavy enough to keep people at home, but enough to have an umbrella (-ella, -ella, -ella) out all day (hey hey hey). During the day, you can see the lanterns with the wishes written on the sides, lifted to the heavens in hopes of getting the wishes granted in the new year. Before you judge this tradition, I think the same thing is done in the US with New Year's Resolutions... you list a "goal" that eventually turns into a "wish" and you let it go to fade away into the sky!!
We did buy a lantern during the day and filled it with wishes - you will have to view the pics to see our wishes. Success for our lantern. About 1% of them burn up, or the fire goes out, or they don't have enough juice to get up in the air but rather fall into the river. Surprisingly, we were rooting for these 1% situations for other people's lanterns (not for ours of course). This is very similar to a NASCAR race where you want a huge accident, but not involving your driver. Ours was successful in joining the windstreams and disappear out of site. All throughout the day there would be lanterns released from the town (they continued through the night actually) and they would fill the sky with wishes.
In the evening, we headed to the mass area where the group releases occur (the famous one) and among the 500 or so tripods, there is an area (I call it the VIP area) where you are escorted when it is your turn, then they give you the color of the round, light together, then release together. It's very well coordinated and they would release about every 15 minutes. With entertainment of different kinds in between. The president of Taiwan was even there! We went about 2 hours into the night events and had our chance to release with everyone else. By then, the rain had stopped, the wind had died, so our lantern went straight up and was visable for quite a long time. At night, the entire sky in each direction was filled with specks of light - amazing.
I put my videos on youtube for you to get a better appreciation of how beautiful it was when they would all be released.
There were a couple of technical difficulties this week. My laptop is back in the "warning" zone with being happy - going to fix that next week. Plus I found out that even though you don't get a physical bill from the telephone/internet company, you still have to pay it. Kind of difficult to pay if you don't know what you owe, nor do you speak Chinese. Once we figured out why I had a red light on the modem, bill was paid earlier today and I'm back to being online here at home.
I get asked a lot - by both people back in the US as well as here in Taiwan - "What do you miss the most from the US".... Well I do have moments of food cravings often (Chipotle is a daily craving), but there are other things I do miss. And after just finishing another showing of Miracle (with Chinese Sub-Titles of course that probably bash the Soviets just as much as the movie itself does), I'm in a very "Pro-USA" mood... hard not to be after that movie.
So here are the things that come to mind when asked "what do I miss from the USA"
Sarah (of course). As well as all my family and friends there
Clean Air - while Taipei is still better than Los Angeles, I miss the air of Rochester
No Noise Pollution - same as above, but I enjoy not hearing trucks or jackhammers at 8am on a Saturday
Netflix - while I've found a way around this, it is something I miss considering how easy it was
"Free Shipping" from ordering on the web - now I have to shop and have it shipped to me requiring $$$ or I pick it up on one of my trips back to the US
Shopping with multiple stops where you can drop things off at the car in between stores. One of the few downfalls of not having a car
Along that line - I do miss driving a car as most of the 16 year olds back in the US are driving more than I am
Stars - although this has more to do with living in the city than it does in Taiwan. Only one I see is the big orange one during the daytime.
I love observing people (this place is great for that), but not being able to eavesdrop makes the observation process a little less exciting at times. I miss being able to overhear people talking in English.
Along that line - I miss being able to casually talk to strangers, making jokes or something weird like I usually do when I'm out and about.
Watercooler talk about things like American Idol, politics, etc. You definitely become "out of the loop" with things going on.
DVR - I have one on the slingbox back home, but it'd be nice here too.
Water from the tap..... which you can make your own ice cubes from rather than buying bags of ice every couple of days and a 2 gallon thing of water every few days.
Chipotle, Wendy's, Jimmy Johns, cheap Kwik Trip coffee when you need a "fix"
Telemarketing phone calls in English
Junk mail..... actually, mail period. I usually get about 2 things a week, 99% of the time it's a bill or an advertisement in Chinese that our security guy failed to screen.
Sportscenter
Monday will mark the end of Chinese New Year (Technically a 15 day celebration.... take that Hanukkah!!) and it will be the yearly Lantern Festival. Since like most US celebrations that focus on the weekends due to the thing called "work", we will be celebrating Saturday by writing our wish on the lantern that gets lifted to the sky. So I have a wish to give, anyone interested in paying me for it? I'll take lots of pictures of the event and area to the North of Taipei that is famous for this festival.
Rise and shine, campers, and don't forget your booties 'Cause it's cooooold out there today!! It's cold out there every day. What is this, Miami Beach? Not hardly. So the big question on everybody's lips. On their chapped lips Their chapped lips is, does Phil feel lucky? Taipei-tawny Phil, thats right wood chuck chuckers its.....
GROUNDHOG DAY!!!!!
So here in Taiwan, I think the Groundhog didn't see his shadow which means Chinese New Year is over. Or something like that. Since it's back up in the 70s here, I think Winter is OVER for me - kind of was as soon as I left Chicago last month. Yeah, I'm going to rub it in some more....
A great weekend for sport finals. I watched Nadal in not one, but TWO five set marathon matches for the Australian Open title. What an amazing athlete. In fact, name one other sport that requires the endurance and physical skill that is required in tennis? 5 hour match with a 90 second "break" every other point. And it's an individual sport meaning you can't take a night off, or can't sit down at the end of the period and let a backup play. If you took the time to watch Nadal run down some of those shots, I hope you'd agree the physical demand required of the top tennis players right now..... amazing.
And the Super Bowl. Not a bad game!! We had it on in a conference room while at work - even had some great chicken wings delivered during the 4th quarter (was 11am Monday morning by then)... sadly the office rules prevented me from bringing in beer so it was a sober Super Bowl. Thank heavens for the Slingbox contraption.
Meet my new roommate for the week. Since some friends are in the Philippines for the week, I am playing "uncle Adam" but this time to a Quaker Parrot. No, Quaker Parrots don't eat oatmeal or Captain Crunch (I've tested this theory already) - but they make an interesting house guest so far.... Say hello to "Olive". She doesn't talk quite yet, but we're working on it every day. so far I've had her for about 24 hours and she only ventures to the top of her cage, then back in it - that's all.
