Re-entry into the US

I'm Home!

2009-09-08T06:51:00.002-05:00

Back in Minnesota - where Fall weather is here and that makes me happy. We have Sarah moved in with me, boxes are emptied (but house is still a mess), and the newest addition to the house... both Diamond and Diablo are exploring their new location. The two girls seem happy to be "dog free" after a year of daily battles with Sarah's parents' dog Chase. It became pretty comical watching Diamond swat at Chase as he walked around the place. But that is no more as we drove them up to Rochester and we're starting anew here.

We had a wonderful Labor Day weekend on the lake. Great last of summer weather, but now reality sets in. I'm still without my laptop (using a loaner that is sort of getting the job done for now) but hopefully my laptop comes back fully repaired today. That would seriously make things easier if I had my own system back. I'm amazed that I went almost 18 months with no problems but of course in my final 2 weeks, on top of everything else I'm trying to get done for the transition, the laptop has to add to the issues.

It's been a shopping week though since I've been back. We purchased new iPhones for both Sarah and I. We picked them up last night and are still trying to figure everything out. I should be able to update via the iPhone now when not in front of my computer (or when it's getting worked on) so my life of blogging can return to normal. We also picked up a new car for Sarah - a 2009 Honda Accord which looks really sharp. The new Accords are MUCH bigger in size than the Accords of old if you haven't seen them. I'll post some pictures soon, but I am actually extremely comfortable in the new ride. Plus it has XM Radio which I've had fun playing with. She went with the Pearl White color (more "off white" than "white") which actually looks really nice. But it also shows all the bugs on it currently after our drive to Iowa.

Goal for today is to continue moving things around in the house so it feels "normal" for all 4 of us now living here. Then we're throwing everything in the fridge and cabinets away (I still have crackers and cereal in the cabinets from pre-Taiwan that are a little stale) and doing a big grocery trip this afternoon. Fun huh??

Anyway - have a good Tuesday. Continue basking in the glory of the Cyclones victory from last week!

Final Countdown

2009-08-25T05:18:00.003-05:00

Well - getting down to the last week. And after the 117 degree heat index day today, I'M READY!!! It's been an interesting week trying to ship some of my stuff home. The rate is higher than I had hoped so Plan B was to take them onto the plane as extra luggage. After looking into that route, there is no guarantee of rate or that my stuff will even get there on the same flight. It's actually not a bad option if you only have a direct flight, but since I have a connection flight, I can't wait for my luggage to carry through Customs. SO..... back to plan A of shipping my stuff through UPS. I moved some of the heavy stuff (books, shoes) out of Box #3 in hopes of saving some money. If all goes well, most of my stuff will be safely in Rochester by the end of the week waiting for me to arrive next week with two suitcases full (but still under weight!) of stuff.

As for customs... I added an extra category to the invoice that lists "country of purchase" so I can show the US Customs folks that most of what I'm bringing home I actually purchased in the US. SO DON'T TAX ME TWICE!!!

Ah, the stresses of moving home! But in 8 days, I'll be back in Rochester with my one and only Sarah. Then back to fighting jetlag and culture shock! Can't believe this moment is finally here!

This past week has included a lot of going away parties. I'm working on the pictures to upload now but of course no going away party is right unless it includes KTV!!! We went out as a large group from work for some food, beer, karaoke, and I even brought a couple of bottles of Captain Morgan for everyone's enjoyment. We also headed out for an all-you-can-eat BBQ for lunch on Friday which turned into all-you-can-drink for the afternoon.

Then some more festivities as we had "guys night" Friday night to an interesting restaurant called DS Music where everything has a hospital theme. They serve beer like it's an IV, they give shots of alcohol in shot containers, the servers are dressed as nurses of course. It's about as PG-13 as Hooters would be and there were a lot of people of both genders at the restaurant, including some high school kids at the table next to us. The food was actually very good and most of it came out with flames or on fire for additional affects. You'll see pictures on the right! Our waitress could not speak much English and we spoke little Chinese so it made for an interesting conversation every time she came by the table. It was actually pretty comical.

As for the weekend? Too hot to do anything outdoors. Further wrapping up of packing and going through the house to get ready for moving out on Monday.

Favre is officially Minnesotan..... get your Purple #4 Jerseys now!

Ticket Booked For Home

2009-08-17T04:03:00.001-05:00

Lots of people are asking about the flooding and mudslides here in Taiwan. It's definitely worth asking, but it's all in the South of Taiwan. I'm in the North which didn't see much damage from the Typhoon other than some trees down, etc. In the Mountains, a lot of times there is only one road to get through there so when a Typhoon dumps 80 inches of rain in 2 days, you expect the ground to react in a negative way. So people are stranded up there and clearing the roads isn't necessarily the easiest thing to do. But that's what is going on in Taiwan right now. Pretty neat to see the recovery efforts by helecopter, etc. I'm seeing them on TV just like you are there, but mine isn't in English;)

It's starting to set in that I'm headed home. Mainly after going through all my stuff and boxing things up. I have three big boxes that are full, taped, recorded (for customs) and ready to send. I'm afraid to ask how much this is going to cost me! I'm pretty sure that everything that isn't boxed up will make it into my two luggage, everything after that is getting donated to neighbors and friends here in Taiwan. It's at this point that I'm glad I bought the $10 toaster, not the $15 one.

I have purchased my 1-way ticket back home. That's a weird feeling yet again.

It was a strange weekend - normal hot weather BUT on Sunday I heard someone knocking at the door of my next door neighbor. Then I heard my door bell ring. When I answered, there was a Taipei Police Officer (with gun and all) asking me (in Chinese but I understood the point) if I had seen my neighbor. I told him that I hadn't. I closed my door but for the next 20 minutes I could hear him ringing the doorbell and knocking trying to get a hold of my neighbor. I heard "Sir, I am police, let me in" and "Sir, I need you to help me". Then it died off for about 15 minutes, BUT then he returned with ANOTHER police officer. They were trying to get the door open for another 30 minutes after that. For some reason they were convinced he was inside but never did get him to open the door. A very strange affair to be sure, and of course I have no idea how it ended. Nothing more happened on Sunday.

Back in the US - football preseason has started and an impressive showing by my boy Sage for the Vikings. Here's hoping for a successful season with 2 wins over the Vikings! As for my Cyclones - I'm just wanting to start with a win over NDSU (there are a lot of NDSU graduates in Rochester with IBM), then a win over Iowa (of course the most important game of the year), a road win of some sorts (break our losing streak) and a Big 12 win! Anything more than that would be SWEET! We shall see how the Clones do this year with a new coach and a seemingly unknown team.

Post-Typhoon Monday

2009-08-10T03:30:00.003-05:00

The "Typhoon" hit us over the weekend including a Typhoon Day on Monday. But as is the case often in Minnesota with Snow Days - the actual event was far less spectacular than the prediction. Don't get me wrong, there was over 80 inches of rain dumped in southern Taiwan - but in Taipei (northern part), it rained heavily with some wind blowing, but far from the severity they were predicting. It's most likely my last Typhoon Day so we spent it watching movies with friends. Actually, the whole weekend was pretty much only good for watching movies with friends with all the rain (and now extreme humidity) that does come with the Typhoon Season.

We did go see G.I. Joe last night. I was thrilled of course since I was the GI Joe kid in the family. Jeremy was the Star Wars kid. You can tell he was the favorite child since my parents held onto his Star Wars toys (which are being enjoyed by the next generation of kids in his family) while they shipped off my GI Joes to Goodwill many many years ago so I no longer have that portion of my childhood. I know I know, my parents were SO mean for doing this. I do have the memories still and 4 seasons of GI Joe cartoons downloaded to remind me of my days of youth starting at 3:30pm for 30 minutes.

The movie was pretty well done. The only thing that bothered me was that the voice of Cobra Commander sounded WAY too close to Don LaFontaine who became popular for doing voiceovers for movie previews and the phrase "In a World". LaFontaine actually just died last year by the way:( Anyway - other than that, the plot was good for introducing the GI Joe concept as well as some character background. Baroness was WAY hotter in the movie than in the cartoon plus she lost the cheezy accent from the cartoon days. And of course I still stand by my childhood crush on Scarlett;) Lots of action, ok plot (actually very typical of most cartoons) and they did a nice job "modernizing" the cartoon version to look like it's 2009 standards. Go see it if you haven't already.

Eat to Die Hotpot tonight for a going away celebration for a coworker (not me). I guess we should start planning my going away celebration at some point this week. Only 3 weeks to go! Can you believe it?

Gearing up for another season of Iowa State Football. The few words that are dedicated to the Cyclones from the "experts" state that basically it can't get worse than last season and ISU could surprise a few folks. Isn't that basically the statement every year? The life of cheering for ISU - hope for surprises but ultimately get your hopes and dreams squished by an interception after having 1st and goal from the 3 yard line. If you have to ask, you weren't there.

Enjoy the week - summer weather finally to the MidWest, hopefully short lived as I'm sick of the 100+ degree days here. Better be back to fall weather by Labor Day!

What's In The Daily News

2009-08-05T03:55:00.002-05:00

I'll tell you what's in the daily news.....

$5 for anyone that knows what that's from without Googling it. Do you drop the "e" in Google when you make it into a verb since it is a "Proper Verb"? Deep subjects today.

So what is in today's news? Clinton leaves North Korea with two journalists... interesting, but not necessarily what I'm interested in. I do enjoy seeing Slick Willy in the news though. Mainly because he makes all the Republicans out there shudder.

What else - Ahmadinejad sworn in. Iran is interesting read but hopefully never really a threat. Only time will tell. It is good to see Iranians taking to the streets to have their voice heard!

Pussycat Cabaret club in Zumbro Falls is reopening..... interesting....

Paula Abdul won't rejoin Idol.... Typhoon on its way to Taipei on Frid..... WHA!?!??!?!?! The ditzy-non-relevant-line-memorizing-has-been Paula Abdul won't come back to American Idol next season? Who's going to annoy audiences with her comments that don't make sense, or never make a "tough" decision, or fight with Simon which got old in Season 2? Who's going to spark rumors with her affairs with past contestants? Who's going to comment about how good or bad the dancing was in a Singing Competition? Who's going to stand up and clap every time she likes a contestant yet still tell a contestant they "look great" when they sucked it up? To all this I say: Paula - Good Riddance. No, I am not a huge fan of Kara either, but at least she is an improvement in proper skill to be a judge of a 2009 Singing Competition. I'm sure the show will "be different" but I guarantee that it will still dominate the ratings as it always does.

As for what's next for Paula? What else can she do? American Idol really made HER a household name, so I'm surprised she's leaving the show. If she's holding out for more money - HA. Don't think there are any other opportunities for her that could pay as well (and honestly be as easy to do) as AI. Maybe a book deal. I've said it before, life is all about finding your 15 seconds of fame then immediately doing the book deal. I'm actually serious about that. It'll be interesting to see what the details come out of it all though.

As for the Typhoon - yeah... this one looks to be going straight over Taipei too! We'll see what actually happens. If we have a Typhoon Day on Friday, I already have plans to go out and get it on camera!!!

Meredith is feeling better but still far from over. Thanks for the continued prayers!

Notes and Neurons

2009-08-04T06:28:00.003-05:00

First off, prayers and get well wishes to my FSIL Meredith who's still trying to fight off this illness. She's back in good hands of smart doctors and hopefully she can get back to normal VERY SOON!

I found something that amazed me - it's musically related, but I think everyone will appreciate how human nature music can be. Of course it takes someone very gifted such as Bobby McFerrin to point out how we as humans can quickly pick up a concept such as the pentatonic scale. A simple example of the pentatonic scale is the black keys on a piano. They split (unevenly split) the octave into 5 notes, and only the notes that really matter. Ancient civilizations built their music on the pentatonic scale. It wasn't till the human race evolved in mid-evil times that we got the 8 note scale most commonly used and taught today. What I love is how he harmonizes with the crowd while he's jumping around on the stage. I'm trying to find a full copy of the lecture but so far I'm unsuccessful.

It's pretty impressive to me for some reason. I will have to look into that some more.

No Earthquakes Today

2009-08-03T07:38:00.002-05:00

Another scorching hot weekend in Taipei - just when you think it can't get any hotter, it does. August is here which means sub-85 degrees at night is only 2 months away! I'll be home before we get to that point. That's right, the packing has begun to ship stuff home. I already have the Wii packed away along with my unread books. I do have a lot of things I'm giving away too since they're not worth shipping home. Toaster, glasses, ironing board, etc - things I had to get to get by that weren't part of the furnishings.

I was invited to Danshui yesterday by Alisa and her extended family. I was the only one there not Russian or married to a Russian. The three nieces of Alisa were super fun to be around. We hit up the Mexican restaurant that I've heard lots about from others and it lived up to the hype for my Taiwan standards of Mexican food. I had the burrito that was far from Chipotle, but it got the job done. I posted some pictures from the evening up north - we just missed sunset, but you'll see where the river that runs through Taipei, connects to the Taiwan Straight.... if you keep going straight, you'll eventually hit Shanghai area or so. You're looking North West for the most part. It's a beautiful area with a nice breeze in the evening that keeps us cool. Wish we had that breeze in Taipei!

You'll see a bunch of pictures from the Turkish Ice Cream guy. He's kind of an odd ball, but he's pretty popular. The icecream itself is ok, really sticky ice cream, but the show he puts on is the reason to go. He plays with the buyer and spins the icecream or pulls it out just when you think you have a grasp of the cone. I sent Zack up there to get 2 of them so I could take pictures. Let everyone laugh at him so I can get it on film!

I'm down to 4 weeks before I come home. Pretty amazing isn't it? I'm excited to do some tailgating and reserving my spot on the couch every Sunday afternoon for NASCAR/NFL watching. I have to train Sarah how to watch that on Sundays. I'm also excited to be able to communicate with people in a normal fashion. Getting tired of relying only on my computer for all my communication needs.

Sick in Taiwan

2009-07-31T02:41:00.004-05:00

Note that it says "in" not "of" in the title. It's still in the mid to upper 90s this week (106 today with Heat Index) but I managed to catch a cold. I think the worst of it was on Thursday but I'm back in the office today (wearing my mask as is the polite thing to do when you are sick). Luckily I have very little plans for the weekend which should allow me to continue healing and avoiding the heat/humidity.

Another month closes. The next time we role over to a new month, I'll be on my way home! ETA to arrive in Rochester is Sept 2, just in time for bowling season to start! Also in time to watch a successful football season from my beloved Cyclones. Bring on a National Championship!!!

The World Games completed earlier this week without any troubles. Taiwan also has the Deaflympics starting in September, so they're doing what they can to remain on the world stage! No, Taiwan could not handle the full Olympics at this point (or ever in my opinion). It's good for tourism though and of course for bringing in revenue to the country. The government is doing a lot lately to try to increase world awareness and bring an interest in traveling to Taiwan. I encourage anyone who wants to "see Asia" but is afraid of the 3rd World concept of squattie potties (if you've used one, you know what I mean) and unhealthy food - come to Taiwan. You can still use squatties, but it is much more comfortable for the first time Westerner traveler.

I'm working on uploading some videos from this past weekend for your enjoyment. Stay tuned.

More From Hualien

2009-07-28T07:03:00.004-05:00

I guess I am losing my power from midnight till 6am tonight. That means no air-conditioning.... not sure I can make it so I'm working on a back up plan. I have 4 hours to go;) There's been a message in the elevator for the past week, but I can't read Chinese. Finally figured out the date referred to tomorrow so I scanned it and sent it to Kirsten to be translated. Could be a long 6 hours without my AC!

More pictures have been uploaded for this past Saturday's trip up the river in Hualien as well as the Whale/Dolphin watching trip. As I said before, we didn't see any whales and only a couple of dolphins. Definitely better dolphin viewing in Naples Florida!!

As for Saturday - you'll see our group in our suits (I took my own as my size is not normally stocked in Taiwan) and safety helmets (I got a "special" one in larger size) and also life vests (again, I get the special one that only gets used every 5 years probably). But all was well as we headed out early in order to beat the other groups that were following us. It paid off to go early (we were on the water by 8am) as we got to do everything and made it to the top where other groups didn't make it up there.

It was quite the adventure. We did a lot of climbing, some floating in the river, jumping off the falls, swimming behind waterfalls, climbing water falls, rope climbing some of the higher rocks, some cliff jumping (one at 2 meters and one at about 5 meters), and of course just swimming. My favorite part was the swimming since the water was as pure and clean as any water I've ever been in. Fresh water and at some points the water was very deep (thus the cliff jumping) which is amazing. It was so cool in the water, and so peaceful up in the mountains. We did see a poisonous snake (one of the last pictures) which was stuck in the water at the top on a branch. The snake can't swim and it looked like he'd been there a while on a branch that fell but there wasn't enough current to move him down river to escape. Our instructor let some folks take pictures, but he ultimately freed the critter to go back to being a poisonous snake in the forest. He really was an ugly thing.

As for Sunday - everyone was taking some anti-sickness medicine, but I think it made everyone overly tired. We were up early again, but the rest of the gang hung out on the top of the boat. I went to the front in hopes of seeing some dolphins following the bow of the boat which is one of their favorite things to do at times. The dolphins we saw though were feeding, meaning they were more interested in following the fish (which we were scarring away I'm sure) than they were in entertaining the people on the boat. It was still beautiful water and wonderful to be out on the Pacific Ocean!!

Then we had the only bad part of the trip - the return to Taipei which had us hitting traffic. Just like in Chicago, the worst part is the fact that they split everyone for a toll booth, then there's a huge bottleneck getting everyone back into 2 lanes. That seems to be a poor design around the world!!!

We did get to go through the new tunnel which is now Taiwan's longest. It was 14.9 km long (about 9 miles) which is actually pretty amazingly long! There were a couple of long tunnels, but 9 miles is a little rediculous! They even rebroadcast the radio inside the tunnel (as well as having cell phone towers), BUT it gets a little freaky when they interrupt the radio to announce an accident and at what mile marker. A little too science fiction like for me!

Anyway - hope you enjoy the pictures! Have a good Tuesday!!

My "Graduation" Trip to Hualien

2009-07-27T06:50:00.002-05:00

In Taiwan schools, they take a "graduation" trip after their senior year where they explore parts of the Island and enjoy the wonderful tourism aspect of Taiwan. So with my return to the US in a month or so, some of my coworkers planned a weekend trip to Hualien for us. A total of 8 of us drove down Highway 9 which is famous due to the scenic view of the mountains, Pacific ocean, windy roads, and ultimately the beauty of Hualien. This was the same place that Pitzen and I visited in May with the amazing mountains running into the ocean.... and this trip again proved the beauty that is in the East of Taiwan.

I uploaded group 1 of my photos. These are the "general" pics that were taken over the weekend. We headed down on Friday that took about 4 hours by 2 cars. There was a stop for shaved ice and we finally arrived at our bed and breakfast that we rented for the weekend. Plenty of room for the 8 of us! Wonderful view of the mountains and countryside. We also hit the night market (the archery pics and the bumper cars) which also allowed me to pay $10 for my own firework. They were amazed how I wanted the biggest firework they have to shoot off from the beach - it fulfilled my pyro tendencies for a while.

Saturday we had a guide to take us up on a river climb along with his camera toting assistant who got around like a spider monkey on the river. It was an amazing adventure climbing rocks, waterfalls and swimming in the clearest mountain water I've ever been in. Sunday we went looking for whales (no sightings but we did see some Dolphins!!).

I'll post Saturday and Sunday photos in the next couple of days, I haven't had a chance to go through them yet. Plus it gives me more things to blog about this week!!

For group 1, you will see a lot of food pictures:) One thing the Taiwanese do well is eat GOOD food - this weekend had no shortage of good food of course. One restaurant was on the Pacific Ocean plus we were the only ones there so we were VIP! The next night we went to dinner in the mountains that would have had a tremendous view of the stars except for the rain clouds:( We did see some stars on Friday night - amazing how much you miss seeing stars when you live in the city and see none of them year round.

More stories and explanations throughout the week. Enjoy the first group!

PICTURE DAY!!

2009-07-22T07:51:00.005-05:00

Lots of photos to share today - don't take them all at one time as you may have an overloading sensation.

First though is the Solar Eclipse that happened in Eastern Asia this morning. The prime location was closer to Beijing in China, but we were still able to experience it rather well. Now most of us have difficulty seeing this afternoon after staring at the sun most of the day. I was reluctant at first since it's pretty cloudy today - BUT actually the clouds help to actually see the eclipse. Here are the 4 photos that actually turned out from earlier today:

It was a pretty cool experience - I'm just glad some of the photos actually turned out!

As for more photos to share from my trip back to the US - there are 5 new photo albums added on the right starting with seeing Eddie and his beautiful new daughter Sophia, some pictures from Storm Lake, and of course wedding photos (not our wedding). I love our new camera as it really takes great low light photos. None of those would have turned out with the standard point-and-click cameras that all of us have. Very life like and lots of personality coming out in some of those shots.

I've been back in Taiwan for a week but I'm still screwed up for sleeping. I was up at 4:30 this morning and I didn't even nap yesterday for a change. It is however the latest I've slept in all week, just need to keep working at staying up later, then trying to sleep in. There is definitely some weird TV at 3am in Taiwan. Wish I could figure out a way to share it with you.

Hope everyone is having a good week!

World Games 2009!!

2009-07-20T06:58:00.001-05:00

The World Games 2009 started last week - never heard of them? Well you don't live in Taiwan then. They're being held in Taiwan (Kaohsiung which is in the far southwest of Taiwan) and are highlighting a very "Eco-Friendly" games. Call it the "Secondary Olympics" if you must, but it actually has some of the original Olympic sports such as tug of war and fistball. There are also sports such as Parachuting, Billiards, Bowling, as well as lots of Martial Art sports. It is a big deal since this is the first international competition to be held in Taiwan. The Chinese are participating, but they boycotted the opening ceremony last Thursday which of course dominated the news. The tension continues!! Go check it out on Wikipedia for all the sports that are being held. No, the US aren't participating, but many other countries are.

What's cool about the games though is that they are using the stadium that has almost 9000 solar panels that generate 1.14 million kwatt hours of electricity per year! That's a LOT! They sell it back to the country and it gets dispersed around the island. Taiwan is trying to do more and more with the solar panel revolution since it gets SO HOT and so much sun here. So far I've seen a lot of roller blading racing (very similar to watching speed skating at the winter Olympics), and even watched the Taiwan Women's Tug of War team bring home the gold medal! It's actually cooler than you'd think watching Tug of War would be.

I'm still screwed up from Jetlag - taking 3 hour naps in the afternoon doesn't help, but it has allowed me to watch a lot of this past weekend's British Open (aka Watson's final chance at age 59). What a great Open to watch! Too bad he didn't win but was still good for the sport of golf!

I know it feels like Fall in the US, but it's damned hot here in Taiwan. And very humid.... I'll probably complain about it every day till I come home. Which is now 42 days away.

Back in Earthquake Land

2009-07-16T08:01:00.003-05:00

I'm back in Taipei after a busy yet fun trip to the US! It's my last time to go back and forth via plane - and a good thing, I forgot how much I don't fit into coach class on most planes. Thankfully I was bumped up to business class for flying to the US, just wish I was as lucky coming back. It was also nice experiencing temperatures under 80 degrees for one last time till September. I miss the Minnesota summer, especially when it's a "cool" one like this year!

Sarah and I had fun visiting friends and at the wedding (no, not our wedding) - just a lot of driving around the mid-west. I'm working on the pictures now, gives me something to do with the jetlag.

There were some major earthquakes this week in Taipei, a couple causing buildings to sway and requiring some emergency vehicles to be deployed. I was still in Iowa at that time of the "big" one, but there was another tremor this afternoon that had some slight swaying here at my apartment.

As you can see, this is my last leg of my assignment in Taiwan. Only 46 days left till I head home. The time will go quickly, but still lots to cram into these last 7 weeks! Then a new facelift is in order for my blog page:)

Have a good Thursday!

Getting Back Into It

2009-06-29T06:15:00.001-05:00

yeah yeah - it's been a while. I'm trying to get my creative juices back to do some blogging so continue to bear with me.

Congrats to Eddie and Juanita in the birth of an adorable baby girl - Sophia!

I'm headed back to the US of A this week! There's a wedding (no, not ours) in Iowa that Sarah's in on July 11th, so I'm headed home to see Sarah, see some family, and see some normal summer weather. For those of you who are complaining that it's over 90 degrees (100+ with the humidity)... welcome to 4 months of the weather in Taiwan!!! Seriously, it's already 105+ heat index here, and will only get hotter for August and September. Sucks....

A weird week last week - Ed McMahon died... but nobody remembers that now that Michael Jackson died mysteriously as well. Yeah, I know Farrah Fawcett died too, but that was a little before my time. I'm the border of GenX and GenY which means she was too old by the time I was old enough to notice. Now Michael Jackson, I was more partial to the Bad album mainly because I was too young when Thriller came out. But I still appreciate what an incredible influence he was for pop music - for all music! Not many people are as recognizable as he is in this world... even after his seclusion years as of late. CNN International had a MJ marathon all weekend playing all kind of Michael Jackson related clips. No MTV/VH1 here so no marathon of videos for me unfortunately. Sure he was strange in later years, but in 10 years nobody will really remember that - only the musical legacy he created. Same thing happened with Elvis - nobody remembers the years towards the end.

I added another photo album to the right.... we had an organizational outing on a Friday a few weeks ago. We went to an "Eat to Die" BBQ place which also happened to be "Drink to Die". So between the really good food AND an endless supply of beer, it was a good day. Of course everyone wanted to race finishing their beers against me so I was unable to sip my beer and enjoy it. A handfull of us headed to KTV afterwards and had some more fun for a Friday afternoon. And yeah, this was the night I called Sarah at 6:30am her time and then I went to bed right after that:)

And Brett Favre to the Vikings?!?!?!? Hmmmm.... I don't know what to think yet on that one. I had my hopes up for my buddy Sage "Middle Finger" Rosenfels, but we'll see what the Vikes decide to do. Anything is better than Tavaris. Plus I'm still trying to figure out why the Timberwolves drafted 4 Point Guards in last week's Draft....

Ok - have a good Monday. By Tuesday morning your time, I'll be on a plane over the Pacific!

Diving in Longdong

2009-06-08T05:55:00.003-05:00

Summer in Taiwan - it's definitely here and I don't enjoy sweating every time I walk to the 7-11 around the corner. Thankfully there is either a 7-11, a Family Mart, or an OK Mart or whatever it's called. So for your "convenience" the 2007 data said there were 9300+ convenience stores on the 13,891 square mile island and 23 million people. That comes out to one store for every 2450 people. Not staggering enough of a stat? Considering only 1/3 of the island is actually occupied (rest is mountains or beaches or farmland), that leaves 2 convenience stores per square mile. Now that one sounds like a lot, but come visit Taipei, it's more like 2 convenience stores per city block. I can visit 4 Family Marts all within a 3 minute walk from start to finish.

We did some scuba diving this weekend. It was hot and sunny, but no better way to cool off then to go under water:) We went up to the Northeast part of Taiwan again, near Keelung (port city in the North) but the bay area was actually called "Longdong Bay".... I kid you not! Enter perverted joke here..... Longdong Bay was full of lots of people, other scuba divers, some people learning to snorkel, and other people just swimming and enjoying the water. So I guess you could say there were lots of sea men (and women) in Longdong bay yesterday....

This is the final week of NHL - hopefully in the favor of the Red Wings. It's also the NBA finals, but does anyone really care anymore? Since fan voting doesn't determine the outcome, hard to imagine that people still want to watch Kobe cry after winning a trophy thanks to yet another "big man".

Big week for Birthdays and Anniversaries! I'll try to remember them all - I sometimes get screwed up with the time difference too. Happy birthday tomorrow Jen!

Random Update

2009-06-02T05:15:00.002-05:00

I added some pictures from IBM Family Day last weekend. We took a bus down about 90 minutes south of Taipei to a Green Park. It was damned hot in the morning when we got there, but it was a very pretty park that has a lot of natural habitat areas and wildlife to enjoy. There was an ample representation of families as well as some fun animals to observe. You'll see some long snakes in there, they're actually pretty cool. I had Alex ask about how much the python eats and he said they feed it two times a month, each time they give it three whole chickens and that suffices for another 1/2 month. I had Alex then ask about if the python could eat Val, he said no... but then pointed to a little girl who was also standing there and nodded as if to say "yeah, that one he could".

NHL - GO RED WINGS!!! - I've been able to watch most of the first two games thanks to the Slingbox, the next two may be a little tricky with work stuff. I'm hoping for a 5 game series that way I can watch the final game on my Sunday morning.

It's June, which means I come home permanently in 3 months. Can you believe that I've been here for 14 months already?

And The Winner Is....

2009-05-20T03:14:00.002-05:00

I predict a Kris Allen win for the American Idol finals..... and that has actually NOTHING to do with the performances. Both did well, but here's why I think Kris will win:

The whole season plotted the Adam fans vs the Danny fans since everyone had them pegged as the final 2 from the get go. This late in the competition, it has less to do with who gets more vote week to week, as it does who has the stronger fan base of teenage girls texting 100s of times in the 2 hour slot.

So from last week, you had:
Fans X that voted for Adam (probably voted for him most of the season)
Fans Y that voted for Kris (probably a growing number throughout the season - picking up the fans of other contestants week to week)
Fans Z that voted for Danny (probably voted for him most of the season)

The winner is whoever gets the most of that Z amount of voters from Danny.

Break down the Danny Z fans as follows:
20% or so vote weekly for who they liked best, so they'll vote differently every week
30% or so won't vote since their boy Danny is out
remaining 50% are the ones who hold the balance of the AI Champion. And since these Danny fans have ALWAYS seen Adam as their competition since week 1, they will continue to not want Adam to win. Thus they will vote Against Adam and vote for Kris. Plus it's natural for people to root for the underdog, which is clearly Kris.

Granted voting AGAINST someone didn't help us win the 2004 presidential election in order to get Bush out of office, but I think it will for American Idol. So there's my analysis.

By the way Kara - your song sucks, but that's typical of the "new hit" that is always written for the AI final.

I had to watch the performances delayed, I was too busy watching the RedWings win in Overtime this morning while working... yeah, you heard me right. Priorities.

Catching Up On Photos

2009-05-18T06:07:00.002-05:00

Yeah, it's been a long time since I've blogged. Part of that is trying to stay ahead at work (or catch up from being gone some lately), part of that is lacking any creativity when I come home from work. Honestly, it's hard to get back on the computer and blog some days after being on it all day long, then back on at night for my evening calls.

I've posted three picture albums on the right from the week when Brian was here visiting. We had probably the most perfect weather in 2009 to do some site seeing - just before it turned hot and humid. We spent the first 4 days in the Taipei area, so you'll see pictures of some familiar Taipei standards. We then headed south to Kenting (where Sarah and I went last December for a couple of days), but had a totally different experience! With the perfect weather, we rented some scooters and drove around the southern part of Taiwan and had a blast! The scenery is amazing down in that area, driving along the Pacific Ocean on the east side, then through the mountains. Then we returned to Taipei, then back to Hualien on the East coast to go through Taroko Gorge. This was the first time I had made it to Hualien - pictures do not do it justice! Very majestic marble mountains and river valley that we hired a driver to take the 4 of us through. We were joined by my friend/coworker Kirsten and her friend Lily.

Only one minor accident the week he was here - no, not from sledding, but from the scooter. It's been a while since I've been on anything with 2 wheels (probably 6+ years) and I forgot some basic rules of turning - and ended up hitting the curb at about 5mph while leaving the gas station. Scraped up my leg and elbow a little bit, but nothing major broken. My leg looks like it did when I last slid into 2nd base while wearing shorts. A little blood lost, a lot of pride lost, but scooter worked fine for the next 6 hours of riding around.

Enjoy the pictures - let me know if you want any clarification or stories on some of the pictures. Was truly a great week - Thanks Brian for visiting!

American Idol final week - I wasn't surprised by Kris since I thought he was the strongest performer from the final 3 performances. Should be interesting to see how they drag it out despite the fact that they will all record albums. Hopefully the finale is better than the Celebrity Apprentice finale which is causing me to think about not watching that show anymore.....

Red Wings are up 1-0 in the final 4... GO WINGS!! I'm able to watch this year with the Slingbox, so bring on the Cup!!!

Hope you all have a good week!

Visitor From US

2009-05-05T17:28:00.002-05:00

I finally uploaded Florida pictures on the right. You'll enjoy some beach pictures and of course pics of Sarah and I around town.

I have another guest in Taiwan this week. Mr. Pitzen decided to come enjoy the offerings of Taiwan with me for a week+ and we've been having a great time so far. Up till now, we've kicked around the usual spots in Taipei, but on Wednesday morning we're headed to the South of Taiwan for beaches and Kenting National Park. Should have more time to enjoy the scenery and (hopefully) beautiful weather.

It's been fun having someone here to entertain and makes me feel "local" since I'm the tourguide!

Anyway - hope you enjoyed your Cinco de Mayo!

Update on Sarah's Dad

2009-04-28T02:37:00.002-05:00

I'm back in Taiwan - a WONDERFUL week with Sarah in Florida last week. Perfect weather all week with lots of sun and time on the beach. Pictures and more coming soon. I've been trying to catch up as much as possible with work but I'll get the pictures updated soon.

Update on Sarah's dad... he is now out of the hospital!!! Everything is going well again. He has his tubes out and they are staying in Iowa City this week for a few more daily checkups. If all is well, there's a chance that he and Sarah may be able to return to their real home later this week.

Thanks to everyone for their prayers and concerns. We're hoping he's out of the tough stuff finally after some discoveries last week. All is much better now.

Leaving On A Jet Plane

2009-04-16T05:44:00.002-05:00

I'm about 13 hours from getting on a plane to come back to the US of A!!! This calls for a special celebration.... Ozzy? Can you help me out??

So by the time you put the dishes away for dinner on Friday night, I should be safe and sound to Florida with my one-and-only Sarah for the week. I'll be checking out Tokyo and Atlanta as temporary stops in my journey. And yes, I'm flying on Northworst Airlines in Coach.... this will NOT be fun. Maybe I can tell them I'm off to see my woman and they'll upgrade me feeling sorry for me.

Our plans for those 8 days together?? Enjoy each other's company and the sunny weather while playing in the Gulf of Mexico. Hopefully see some more dolphins like last time.... eat some good food while we're there. I already checked and there is unfortunately no Jimmy Johns nor is there a Chipotle where we'll be.

I can watch American Idol on a REAL TV, and of course witness some Red Wings domination in the first round of the hockey playoffs, something besides Yankees baseball, hear the ocean roar with people speaking ENGLISH around us!!!! Nothing written in Chinese for once... I guess I'm a little worried about culture shock believe it or not:)

I posted some pictures from our gathering last Friday at a traditional hot pot in Taipei. They have coals on the bottom that use the chimney to heat up the water above. You drop your food in and let it boil before taking out and eating. It was AWESOME! Hot pot is both a favorite of Sarah and I.... wonder if we can find hot pot in Florida....

Coming Home.... Soon!

2009-04-15T06:39:00.001-05:00

Less than 48 hours before I get on a plane to head to Florida. I'm excited to see Sarah again - can't remember what she looks like! Not looking forward to the 14 hour plane flight from Tokyo to Atlanta, but it'll be worth it.

American Idol continues to feel crunched into the 60-ish minute time slot. They bring in Quintin Tarantino who is always fun to watch, but exhausting. Feel like I ran a marathon after watching him - same feeling after watching Jim Carrey or Robin Williams. He's actually pretty good at this coaching stuff - too bad the contestants didn't step up! Never a good idea to break out Brian Adams, two contestants did it and may find themselves in trouble because of it.

Keeping with the Movie Theme..... I present my evaluation Wayne and Garth style:

We're Not Worthy!! We're Not Worthy!!
Adam - that was cool yet again. He's better than some live acts that are currently touring!

Shwing!
Danny - Pretty good, worth another week
Allison - I agree, the last girl to hang in to the competition

Ex-squeeze me???
Kris Allen - not bad - what movie was that from??

Sphincter Says What??
Lil Rounds - what the hell was that? She's bringing sass talking back to Simon, but not bringing into her singing.

NOT or Cha... As If
Annop - The classic senior prom song that everyone hates won't win any votes.
Piano Matt - Again, stay away from songs that make people cringe when they hear.... I think your time has run out here.

On a seperate note - I think 1/2 of my coworkers freaked when the Star Trek movie preview came on.

Hockey Playoffs begin tonight!!!! GO RED WINGS!!!!

Top 8

2009-04-08T05:42:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday Wheeler....

Another thought - I see Kumar has "retired" from TV to help the Obama Administration. So the official fast food will now become White Castle Burgers:) Or maybe they rename The White House to "The White Castle"?? Smoke some pot before making government trips!! I need to rewatch that movie tonight....

American Idol top 8... squeezed into an hour... ish! So the results show is now the same length as the performances? That's called "Advertising". At least Megan is gone, she wasn't up to par with the rest of them.

Best of the Best
Adam - Cool name, cool performance again. And who would have thought of doing Tears for Fears???? Nice.
Matt - I did like the performance yet again (hated the JT hat), but he's had a hard time getting fan support lately. I think he has more talent than some of the other ones and I hope he's around for the next few weeks to see what he can do.

Around for a while yet
Allison - Good but not great.
Anoop - Much better... less frat boy and more talent (few pitch issues)
Danny - not the best arrangement but he's proving to have a good fan base despite being the "old" guy in the competition.... at age 29
Kris - I just don't like the song, no matter who sings it. Pretty good though.

Bottom 2
Lil Rounds - she was good, but yeah - very much a Tina Turner cover band. She's one of the more polite and realistic candidates this year though.
Scott - hmmm... guitar playing not so good. My pick to go home if I had my way.

It's interesting from here out as most everyone can win week to week, and everyone can go home week to week. Could see a judge's save unless it's Kris or Lil.

Another Monday, This Time It's April

2009-04-06T06:57:00.002-05:00

The Braves are in 1st Place with only 161 more games to play - Granted they're 1-0 while everyone else has yet to begin, but hey - it's a start! Yeah, Major League Baseball has begun their season while it snows across the midwest. So instead of rain delays, you'll see snow delays. And they thought it was a good idea to build the new Twins Stadium without a roof... that'll make play interesting when they get back to the post season.

This week marks my 1 full year of living in Taiwan. So 12 months down. About 5 or 6 months left (to be determined). I came to the conclusion that after 12 months, the "thrill" of living in a foreign country is gone. Part of that has to do with being halfway around the world from Sarah, but I now feel like this is "home" and realize that when I do go back after this summer, it'll feel entirely new again despite being back in the US. I also find myself defensive of my "home" if anyone talks bad against Taiwan (mainly due to their ignorance). Similar to my growing up in Iowa. I can make fun of it because I grew up there, but nobody else better rip on it!

It's Easter Week. I did walk by a Christian Church on Sunday morning (with Chai) that was celebrating Palm Sunday. There were 7 or 8 people up front singing with microphones to a CD of music, and about 2 people in the congregation to listen. But they were singing for all to hear the good news that comes with Easter. But Taiwan does not have a fixation on chocolate, and marshmellow bunnies like we do back in the US. No worries, thanks to Jill I did get my fix of sugar coated marshmellows in the shape of chicks.... they were good but after my successful attempt at the Peeps Challenge a few years ago, I have to stop myself at 10 peeps.

But as Christians were celebrating Palm Sunday, it was Tomb Sweeping Day this weekend. Today was actually a national holiday in China (optional holiday in Taiwan). Pretty low key in Taipei, but the traffic in and out of town was HORRIBLE (similar to traffic around 4th of July for people heading North to the cabin).

No chance of winning my Basketball pool - well the one that has a trophy at least. If MSU wins, I win the other league, but do we really want that to happen? I'd sacrifice my pride to make sure the cheating Spartans don't win it all. No, it's been 9 years and I still haven't forgotten.

Anyway -have a good week! I head back to USA in about 10 days!!

Special Birthday

2009-03-31T06:28:00.004-05:00

Happy Birthday Mom!! She turns 21 today, which makes me 3 years old or something.... Best wishes for a great birthday!!

It's April 1 in Taiwan in a few hours... not sure if it has the "April Fools" significance here or not. We shall see.

It is a big weekend though as it is Tomb Sweeping Day (Qingming Festival) or 清明節 for the Chinese Culture. It's basically a Memorial Day with a better cooler name. It's a time to remember those who have already passed and tend to the graves of family. Some people use it as a Spring Cleaning Day as well - although it doesn't really feel like Spring when I don't remember Winter ever arriving here. It's officially Saturday, so no day off here. Those come in May!! Still haven't figured out why from my Taiwanese peers, but there were people burning things in the street last Friday (a sign of some significant holiday) and some festival floats going up and down the streets. And of course the lovely firecrackers in the streets - luckily these were during the day only.

We went to go see The Watchmen this past weekend (yes, with Mandarin subtitles even though it's brand new). A pretty good movie for those who enjoy the superhero/comic book movies of popularity the past few years. The opening scene is extremely loud - maybe I'm just getting old.

Let's see.... What else to talk about today:

American Idol is down to 9 (8 contenders and 1 wanna-be)...
Celebrity Apprentice is down to 7 girls and 4 guys with the departure of Mr. Rodman. That guy is still fun to follow!
Final 4 includes the much hated Michigan State Spartans who cheated in 2000 thanks to referees wearing green and white stripes for that "home" game for MSU. No, I don't forgive them either.
ISU women made the elite 8, but that's it for them. Who lets one player on the opposite team score 47 points in Women's College BBall?
Watched the movie Bolt... cute movie and the graphics are getting better and better with these things.....

Have a good Tuesday - new month tomorrow!

Motown Week

2009-03-26T05:52:00.001-05:00

First - interesting action being done by our old Larry Eustachy (The Natty Light drinking former ISU coach who was making way too much money to be drinking Natty Light): http://www.cnbc.com/id/29860334

Interesting week for American Idol - still proving it's a good year for this group. I like this part of the competition where they take 120 minute show for 10 contestants. That's average of 12 minutes, more like 6 after commercials and babbling, but still enough time to do a full 3-4 minute song and get feedback.

Top Guns with Maverick and IceMan
Non-Twilight Adam - That was pretty freakin' sweet. As was hearing Smokey tell us what he was writing about.
"Not Just the Piano Guy" Matt - Well played sir... well played
Allison - Only girl to show up and made a believer out of me this week.

Hangin' Around Like Week After Christmas Candy
Guitar Kris - Pretty Good, enjoyable and shows he has potential
Danny - An off week for him but still one of the better performances tonight.

Stock Dropping like it's AIG
Scott - no doubt that he's talented musically.... but not keeping up with everyone else.
Lil - Watch out... she's not standing out like she originally did at the beginning.
Anoop - zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz......

Packing up the Skates for the Season (take your pick - hopefully both)
Megan - the last of the "amateur hour" that needs to go home finally. How did she beat out Alexis?? Her voice now annoys me.
Michael - Was thinking "Vegas" the whole time.... anybody else want to meet at NYNY for the weekend???

Observation: Anyone else think Belly Itcher looks kind of like Danny???
Annoying: Randy wearing aqua blue like he's going to a Tar Heel rally.
Very Annoying: Simon bantering of Paula for every single performance
Funny: When Paula has to comment first and she's the only judge that liked the performance.
Overused Expression of 2009 Season:"Singing the Phonebook".... how about trying "could sing the John Deere 6030 User Manual" or "could sing the Chinese Translation of Twilight"???
Ironic: Anyone else notice that BOTH Simon and Ryan wear the same outfit every week? Maybe it's just the Slingplayer reception, but looks like the same every week from Ryan.
Scary: Ozzy and Family with a new show???? Seriously???
Proof for an 80s One Hit Wonder Night:Do we get a "When Smokey Sings" performance tomorrow? That's actually a great song!! 1987 hit from the artist ABC!!

2009-03-24T07:23:00.001-05:00

All Is Well

2009-03-23T07:23:00.002-05:00

So far so good for Sarah's Dad. He is eating normal and already walking around with the joys of his new heart. Thanks to all for their prayers over the weekend for an amazing marvel of modern medicine.

Steve thanks everyone for the prayers, but asks us to also remember that our joy is unfortunately also some other family's loss out there. Please keep that family and their grieving in your prayers.

Also, prayers going out to my uncle Milan in another farming accident. I thought farming was supposed to be "safe" in comparison to other jobs in the world yet I know many people with farming accidents now.... PTO... augers.... damn them all. I do know kind of what a PTO is now after some weekend research.

Speaking of farming - I was watching a special on the GPS tractors from John Deere that make the work so much easier for farmers. The only thing they have to do in the combine is turn it around when it gets to the end of the rows. The GPS tracks the speed, position (within 2 inches), and dictates how much energy has to come from the engine to maintain that speed.... pretty easy, even I could do it!

It was over 90 degrees yesterday here in Taipei... and humid:( Back into the 60s today for a few days with light rain.

In case you were wondering, I'm still in it for a chance to win my basketball pools. I was 14/16 in picking the Sweet 16. I have all 8 of my elite 8 still playing and obviously all the teams after that. I picked Louisville to beat UNC in the final... see how I come out;)

Enjoy your Monday!

Got The Call

2009-03-19T17:38:00.003-05:00

Please pray for Sarah's dad.... he is getting a new heart and will be in surgery Thursday night US time. Hoping all goes well and a successful surgery.

For Sarah

2009-03-19T07:16:00.003-05:00

Today's video is dedicated to my one and only Sarah....

lyrics pretty much sum up my thoughts lately:

except for the last part:(

American O'Idol Week

2009-03-18T04:42:00.003-05:00

Been a bad day at work - if that wasn't bad enough, I find out American Idol is "Hillbilly Night"???? Day just got worse. Why couldn't they do this with the final 3 or something so I only have to listen to 3 performances. It's St. Patty's Day, why not do U2 night? Or "non-Country" night??

Worth Winning If Decided Only By Tonight's Performance
Adam - LOVED IT! I'd buy that recording - sure, it was messed up, but was worth tuning in for. Kind of like Jim Morrison mid-acid trip.
Anoop - proof that doing a ballad can be gutsy and still GOOD! Not sure he can win it overall.

Middle Crew (in ranking order)
Matt the Piano Guy - Compare him to Scott, Matt played like he's a Billy Joel, Scott was the one hiding behind piano tonight. Well done Matt.
Danny - Pretty good... he'll continue to improve week to week. And I agreed with Simon - Polar Expedition is exactly what I was thinking!
Allison - Actually wasn't painful. Still not sure what to think of her.
Lil Rounds - I thought it was good, not sure why the judges hated it so much. Not her genre, but that's the risk you take with having theme nights.
Kris - had some pitch problems that bothered me and I didn't think it was as good as the judges let on. Yes, I actually do like that song.
Scott - blah.... falsetto part was horrible and honestly, Paula was right for once - nothing "rock star" about him yet, especially tonight.
Michael - Country Night was for him, the harmonica player was pretty good and he was just ok.
Alexis - the middle part was the reason it sucked. Still see her next week though.

See You on Tour... or maybe not (oops)
Megan Joy - nope... goin' home this week

I will say that once they ditch Megan this week, maybe Michael next week... this thing gets really interesting!!

In another note - sorry in advance for any Catholics, but the Pope continues sending the wrong message proving my issue of having a figure head like him speak on current events... when you visit Africa, a continent plagued by AIDS, to suggest that condoms won't help the war on AIDS is ignorant. Yes, I think we should put more emphasis on the abstinence option and making sure everyone understands the only 100% risk free option... but realistically we need to complete the education and encourage them to use modern methods of protecting themselves. Condemning condoms is not cool. I haven't liked him anyways up till now, this one continues to show irrelevant with the times he makes the Catholic Church unfortunately. Not a way to attract people to the Church.

St. Patty's '09

2009-03-17T06:10:00.002-05:00

First off: To the SOBs at AIG if you're reading this.... get your head out of your ass and do what's right, not what's best for your personal wealth. Seriously - this whole thing really pisses me off. I'll ask the questions that everyone is asking, how can a contract be structured to allow someone who leads a company through such a collapse be allowed to get paid to do it? This is further example of how the rich get richer, the rest of us have to get by as best we can.

And while you do hear about the NBA taking out temporary loans, you do NOT hear about professional athletes taking pay cuts, or unemployment rising in the big leagues. It's all very sad actually.

Anyway - my soapbox of the day.

Today is St. Patty's day. I was wearing my green shirt (green dress shirt, couldn't wear my "Kiss Me I'm A Cyclone" shirt from my loving mother) at work, even pulled out the "Kiss Me I'm Irish" button that Sarah sent me. Come to find out, St. Patty's Day is NOT a Taiwan wide holiday. I took some time to explain the history as best I know (patron saint of Ireland was about it) and how on the 17th of March, most of us in the US brag about being 5% Irish or knowing someone who can speak with an irish accent. To celebrate this commonality, we drink green beer and wear as much green clothing as possible. When you explain it to the Taiwanese, it really does sound dumb....

Basketball bracket is set... I'll sleep on it tonight and see if I can pull home a 4th trophy (in 6 years) for a pool at work. Not expecting to win this year since I've barely been able to follow from here and seems that the tournament is wide open this year.

The weather is beautiful here - 70s and no moisture in the air. Gets in the 60s at night so I sleep very well:) Should be like this all week.

Enjoy your St. Patrick's Day!

Why My iPod Needs A Fix

2009-03-12T05:59:00.001-05:00

I have a rubber protection thing for my iPod classic that I bought off ebay for $3 (including shipping). Further proof that man should be able to live off of ebay alone. It does the trick of protecting the iPod from scratches and dumb stuff while in my pockets or traveling. I get a lot of usage from my iPod while commuting in Taiwan. The catch is that the rubber extends over the click wheel. It's thinner there, but it reduces the effectiveness of the touch required to maneuver through the menus. So when I want to go quickly through the alphabet, it doesn't work. Now I could disconnect my earphones, slide the rubber off, then do it, but when I'm walking - that's a lot of work and risk. So I suffer through it. One of the "tricks" around this is to select one of the functions by pressing the wheel (this works 100% of the time with the rubber on), then backing out and trying again. Enter my problem that needs to be fixed. By pushing the "Play" button while in the main menu, it automatically starts at the first song by the alphabetically first artist. On my iPod collection, the first artist alphabetically isn't AC/DC.... not ABBA.... but A-Ha (the dash is a lower ascii number than any of the alphabettic letters.... here's an ascii table in case you don't beleive me. My nerd friends will have already known this). It's the same reason that 10.xyz comes before 7.xyz when you are putting files in order.

Anyway - so if you know anything about music, you know what song is playing on my iPod when I accidentally hit the "play" button when trying to find something good. Take On Me was cool in 1988. It was funny in the Family Guy. Hearing it at 7:15 as I walk to the bus stop is NOT funny, nor is it COOL. So I must fix this problem after having it happen maybe once every 2 weeks over the past year. Just hearing the introduction is enough to start the day out on a bad note. Literally....

American Idol - no surprises other than Jorge went home maybe a week or two early. I did think the Kanye performance kicked some major ass! That was awesome! Kelly Clarkson was cute and did a nice job, but hard to follow up after Kanye. Sarah's comment was "he needs to pull his pants up" which may be true, but that's the in thing now! New judge rule? I'm ok with it. I still think they should change the format to the "Wheeler Rule" where you vote for the person you want to go home. Makes a bigger difference in these early rounds....

One more thought - I still want to change my English name since they get more time to do that here in Taiwan. Some of the cooler names here are Piano, Eagle, Zoey (girl), Chili, Hawaii, and today I had someone apply who is named Elvis. I'm tempted to give him the job as long as he shows up with a guitar and performs all day. There's a story of a marketing guy who changed his name to Billboard. I could change my name to Godzilla since that's what I'm thought of around here.

Cyclones are done for the season.... no miracle run. Onto next season which will be our 10th "rebuilding" season in a row.

American Idol Top 13

2009-03-11T07:00:00.000-05:00

First off - prayers go out to those affected by the school shooting in Germany. Never an easy thing to hear about, no matter where in the world it may happen.

As for American Idol Top 13... back to the part of the show that actually matters. And a MICHAEL JACKSON night..... Could it get any more exciting for week 1??? I could pull out the Thriller dance at this one:) And thanks to Paula who brought our her stumbling random thought process that we've missed!!!

The talent this year is some of the better stuff I remember. I also love the fact that they couldn't use 1-888-IDOLS-13 since I'm guessing it's a "special" number reserved for people who have their credit cards handy. Hopefully doesn't hurt Alexis's votes this week. Back to 11 next week.

Top 3
Danny - song was strange/unfamiliar but the performance was pretty awesome.
Adam - another awesome performance on a song I've never really liked
Alexis - probably one of my favorite MJ songs and she did it very well...

Next 3
Scott - he's growing on me, I actually enjoyed the performance.
Michael - I was surprised, keeping up with the competition
Lil Rounds - she has a lot more to come, this one wasn't worth a highlight reel

Indifferent
Allison - can't figure out how good she is yet, not sure how "popular" she'll be for the AI crowd though
Matt - looks good behind the piano, but he'll hide there all season
Kris - good but the guitar thing was awkward since he only played the one chord
Jorge - Missed the mark tonight but worth keeping around since he's probably one of the more passionate about being here.

Bottom 3
Jasmine - tone was horrible, she can't compete. She did look hot though.
Anoop - my first pick to go home this week... I call it the "frat boy at a wedding reception" performance
Megan - What the hell was that? The song was bad, then the crow sound at the end? This is an actual Michael Jackson song? My pick to go home for sure.

Random Stuff:

I'm starting to do my research for the NCAA tournament for this weekend - a little more challenging from here since I don't have the 24x7 analysis going on ESPN, but maybe that's a bonus. GO CYCLONES!!!

New legislation to sell liquor in Minnesota on Sundays?!??! YEAH!!! Seriously, what better day to go buy alcohol than on Sunday? Football games are on, Race is on, Monday morning is only 12 hours away, can't think of a better day to drink!!!

Have a good HumpDay!!

Insomnia and Warhol

2009-03-10T07:03:00.000-05:00

I finally finished Stephen King's book Insomnia. It's listed by many official and unofficial lists as one of his "top 10" novels. I'm not so sure on that one. You may recall from blogs of a couple years back how I've started this book at least 5 times. Seriously! For some reason, I think this is one of the slower starting books I've read of his. Also Tommyknockers which I don't think I ever finished either. But Insomnia is 704 pages of what I call a mediocre plot. I will admit that Ralph Roberts is one of the more likable heros in most of the books I've read, but the plot takes about 400 pages to develop. And in the end, the results of the outcome don't really make sense unless you've read the entire Dark Tower series (all 7 novels each running 600+ pages). So I didn't appreciate what Ralph did since I am not able to see how his action saved a book I've never read..... make sense? I did recognize the character "Crimson King" from what I know of the Dark Tower series. Maybe I will have to go back and try reading those again someday. For some reason I just don't do as well with Fantasy as I do with the "horror" genre. This book was far from horror though.

All in all, it was finally good to finish the book. Up next? Cujo which is much shorter and about the rabid dog. Then I only have Bag of Bones left to read here in Taiwan. Reload on Stephen King novels when I go home next month. I did enjoy getting a chance to be reaquainted with Derry, Maine which I have seen mentioned in other books, but not since my first King novel It which unloads the dark secret of Derry.

If you have never read a King novel, about 95% of his stories take place in imaginary cities in Maine. Never has the state gotten so much attention or interest as it has from Stephen King.

As for stuff happening in Taiwan.... we finally made it to the Andy Warhol exhibit (not Xzibit), that is going on through the end of March here in Taipei. LOTS of artwork borrowed from Italy which surprised me that the leader of American Pop Art is owned by Italian galleries, etc.

His famous "Marilyn" was on display and some of the variations/offshoots from that original were also there. Not much on the Campbells soup works. They had a small Elvis original, not nearly as cool as the original life size Elvis at the MOMA in NYC. I enjoyed the exhibit, but it was isolated at the Chiang Kai Sheck Memorial, not near other works of art to also enjoy. Oh well, still neat to say I saw so much of his work. No, it doesn't really inspire me to draw since that's not really what he's known for;)

Have a good Tuesday - weather here today was 65 and sunny in the morning, cloudy by the afternoon but still nice by my standards for March!

Time Switch Monday

2009-03-09T05:45:00.001-05:00

Thanks for all the "Get Well" wishes and the unique "it hurts when I pee" eCards.... I actually was able to pass the stone and sure enough it came out the following morning. No pain since then though so I think I'm safe now. I do not wish that much pain on anyone though - thought I was giving birth!

Speaking of giving birth - another girl for Matt and Jen!! Congrats and welcome Baby Julia!!

Only 10 more wins till Iowa State claims the National Title in Men's Basketball for 2009!! That's right - 4 straight wins takes the Big 12 Title, then as probably a 16 seed, they need 6 wins in the big dance to bring the crown home!!! Hey - a man can dream right? So after starting 11-4 this season, we finish 14-17? In a weak year for the Big 12??? yuck..

Big week for American Idol - the final 13?!?!?!? I guess I can go for that as long as we're done listening and watching Tatiana who has to be the most annoying AI contestant EVER! GOOD RIDDANCE!!! So far - I'm thinking the strongest group is definitely the guys - expect long life from Adam (the Twilight guy that has a killer 80s hair band voice and will get the 13-18 year old female votes), Danny (the sentimental and all around nice guy), Jorge (who gets better every week... the hard worker... like Elliot Yamin), and Lil Rounds who has the R&B votes and is a stellar performer entering the competition. Megan or Jasmin goes home this week;)

An interesting start to Celebrity Apprentice. Was hoping that Tom Green would go this week since he's as annoying as he was in the 90s with his own show.

Things have been busy, but now that Daylight savings is here (or did it just end??? I can't remember) - I get to go to bed an hour earlier after my nightly phone calls for work! Hopefully a little more "normal" schedule around here.

Have a good week! The future looks good!

A Pissy Morning

2009-03-04T05:46:00.000-06:00

Nothing like waking up on a Wednesday and going to the ER. I have all the symptoms of a Kidney stone - one of the main symptoms being PAIN. Holy shit did it hurt. Went to the ER, they had me pee in a cup (which about killed me) then did an xray. Ever since peeing in that cup, i've felt ok. The xray didn't show anything, but they gave me some meds and a painkiller shot anyway. I couldn't sit, stand, walk, or do anything for about 4 hours this morning. So stay tuned, not convinced I'm in the clear yet....

At the hospital, I was describing my symptoms which I stated as "unable to pee" (I though the word "piss" was a little too crude even for me and the large amount of pain I was in). She looked confused so I demonstrated through charades, and she said "oh - urinate". Guess I need to take my medical dictionary with me for future appointments to make sure I avoid the slang terms. Is "pee" a naughty word for the parents of 3 or 4 year olds????

Anyway - 8 hours later I seem to still be ok.... for now.

No, I haven't watched the new Celebrity Apprentice season yet.

No, I didn't watch the "controversial" final episode of The Bachelor Whore.... don't care.

I did however watch the 3rd week of finalists for American Idol - much better than week 2. Should be an interesting season of AI. Send through Jorge, L'il Rounds ( seriously STILL hate that song even 4 years later), and Ju'Not. Easily the best three. How does this Wild Card Week thing work?? Von Smith and Scott were pretty good too.

As for the U2 album - it actually grows on you the more you listen to it. It also helps to have good headphones to appreciate the bass action that makes the songs even more unique. You won't hear a lot of the album on the radio - but that's not usually why they record music. They don't need the money, they don't need a new identity, they just want to record music and tour.

No Line On The Horizon

2009-03-02T06:30:00.004-06:00

As I write this, I'm listening to the NEW U2 album!! Yeah that's right - No Line On The Horizon comes out on Tuesday in stores everywhere in the US.... but CDs are SOOOOOO 2003 folks! And for those of you who have to wait, let me give you a real time review. If you don't like U2, I'll see you tomorrow....

Track 1 - "No Line On The Horizon"
Good Guitar Intro - not necessarily their usual track 1 intro that is off the beaten path (think Achtung, Zooropa, ATYCLB).... Bono doesn't count incorrectly in some random language on this one either. Sorry to disappoint those fans of Spanish. I like the guitar riffs, but Bono's singing a little too high. Chorus is definitely good, but the verse is kind of boring, nothing to the melody. Definitely

Track 2 - "Magnificent" (dedicated to Adam T. Dickinson)
I swear that's what my CD liner says!!! This is more typical of a random start to a song that builds up to the guitar explosion that we're used to from these 4. Takes Bono 1:16 before he sings something. Catchy tune and much better fitting of Bono's voice.

Track 3 - "Moment of Surrender"
Strange.... not sure how else to describe this one. You knew it was going to be a ballad (every 3rd track on U2 albums are ballads).... write this one up with "God Will Send His Angels" as songs I could pass on them performing live. Again it's 1:17 before Bono sings, and he's back to singing way too high in his register. Note to Bono, you can't hit the 1986 high notes anymore.

Track 4 - "Unknown Caller"
A little space age type song that is just ok. Good chorus though. In the words of Simon... "forgettable"

Track 5 - "I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight"
Now we're talking - this one is worth listening to. Bono stays under control despite a title that plays to the multi-personality Bono... go figure, the one time we expect randomness, it comes out kind of predictable.

Track 6 - "Get On Your Boots"
The song already on the radio, which to me sounds like it was written for an iPod commercial. Seriously, can you see the green background with the shadow of someone holding a white ipod and headphones bouncing around????? Try again.... It's just an ok song.

Track 7 - "Stand Up Comedy"
I enjoyed this one best so far - good "U2" type guitar and straight forward rhythm part. Bono uses his voice well in this one. Good song all around, may have to come back and enjoy this one again... and again.... and again...

Track 8 - "Fez - Being Born"
I swear we're playing back in the days from Passengers circa 1995. Strange... I guess if you go with the "Being Born" concept, I can hear it... maybe??? Again, we wait 2 min to hear something actually being sung to resemble a "song". Next....

Track 9 - "White As Snow"
This one sounds like it's from a soundtrack, not a studio album! I'm picturing the moment when Clint Eastwood comes home to see his mountain ranch burned to the ground, his wife and son have been kidnapped by the bad guy - so after contemplating what happened (sees it in blurry slow motion), he gets on his horse and starts riding through the mountain snow with only a shotgun at his side. That's the only thing he needs for "justice". It's a slow song that is ok.

Track 10 - "Breathe" (not a Faith Hill remake)
Again, what's with the weird long guitar intros? There are too many syllables to squeeze in onto the melody, but I think that's the point. I actually dig this one though. Well written and catchy. I don't care for the computerized "String Quartet" that sounds nothing like an actual string quartet. This will be one of their encores while on tour! My prediction!

Track 11 - "Cedars of Lebanon"
The Political Track of the CD... you knew they had to have one. And as a lot of the last tracks go, it's strange and very different from the rest of the album. Not sure how they would do this one live. Very very strange....

Overall, a decent album. Not sure it's worth the wait, but then again it's U2. They can do whatever they want and people like me are going to buy it... or download it...

Go get it - you know you want to.

Return of the Bird.....

2009-02-24T06:15:00.001-06:00

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.

Unfortunately not all was well in the Cyclone loss. You'll see my letter to the editor from that time here.

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!

And The Winner Is.....

2009-02-23T06:15:00.003-06:00

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!

This Cracked Me Up

2009-02-19T07:39:00.001-06:00

Birthdays and Oscars

2009-02-18T05:38:00.003-06:00

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

Animated Feature Film.... KUNG FU PANDA!!!!

That's all I have to say about

A Hakka Experience

2009-02-16T03:17:00.005-06:00

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.

Random Friday Thoughts

2009-02-13T07:26:00.005-06:00

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.

Have a good weekend!

Holiday Weekend Ahead

2009-02-12T07:06:00.002-06:00

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!

Have a good Thursday!

2009 Lantern Festival

2009-02-09T03:30:00.002-06:00

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.

Finishing Chinese New Year

2009-02-06T03:49:00.002-06:00

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.

Have a good weekend! Behave.

GROUNDHOG DAY

2009-02-02T06:19:00.003-06:00

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.

6am Is Too Early

2009-01-30T07:18:00.002-06:00

If I seem crabby in today's post, it's because the entire neighborhood was awaken before 6am today by lots and lots of firecrackers. I guess it's tradition to celebrate the "end" of Chinese New Years by pissing everyone else off. It was not just one person, but a series of people all over lighting off your basic brick of Black Cats which can be loud given the tight proximity of buildings in the area. The ones right below us would make it sound like a World War was going. Someone would have them going about every 10-15 minutes all morning. The rain came in around noon, but that only delayed the "celebrations" to about every 20 minutes. It is now after 9:00 and I think it's been about 30 minutes since I've heard any so I hope it's done.

It's Super Bowl Weekend - I almost forgot about it. While they are aware the game is going on, it's not the focus of 100% of the population like it is in the US. It's actually been nice not seeing everything revolve around the game. But with that said, yes - I'll be watching the game from here MONDAY MORNING while at work. Kickoff is at 7am and we have a mini-Monday Morning Celebration planned. As for my pick, I'm going with Arizona. Pittsburgh just won it a few years ago, plus Fitzgerald made me quite happy in Fantasy Football this past year. I'll have the US version on the computer/slingbox so I can comment next week on the commercials (which is half the reason we watch right??

I'm watching the Australian Open as much as I can this week. Currently, the 5th set just started with Nadal and Verdasco and it's been over 4 hours of tennis already. Great TV watching for a Friday night! I've never really seen the Australian Open "live" like I am this week - it's kind of interesting. Usually the US gets delayed broadcasts, plus it's the "lesser" of the big 4 tournaments. I'm pulling for another Nadal and Federer final classic, but I fear that the winner of tonight's semi-final isn't going to have much left in the tank to face Federer.

I did venture out today to see the stores mostly re-opened post holiday. I finally picked up a new digital camera to replace my strangely lost old camera. I snagged a Nikon Coolpix S550 which has an incredible 5x optical (20x digital) zoom on it and is pretty small and easy to handle. It's actually a good camera so far for anyone just wanting an easy to use basic digital camera.

Anyhow - another month has completed which means I'm only 8 or so months from coming home. Not sure how I will handle being back to normal in size ... well - a little more "normal" than I am here!! Have a great weekend!

@$#&*&# Fireworks

2009-01-29T08:18:00.005-06:00

The fireworks are still going on around here. It's past the "humorous" point and the noises in the street at 1am are now to the "annoying" point. I had thought that some of the brighter (but still very loud) ones that go off from 8-10pm nightly were coming from Sun Yat Sen park about 10 minute walk from the apartment. But tonight on the way to go see them, turns out they're actually coming from the top of an apartment building. So in my new amateur photography career..... no comment.... here's my attempt at getting some of the fireworks caught on film. Nothing worth framing, I know.

And of course Chai was loving every minute of it:

Songsmith

2009-01-28T06:57:00.002-06:00

Beware - today you'll learn of maybe the WORST product to ever come out of the Microsoft folks - Far worse than Windows ME or Vista! Thanks to Chris (papa for the 2nd time - CONGRATS) for the links and laughs.

An actual new product called Songsmith. Here's an extended video/commercial that gives you the jist of how it works.

And if that isn't bad enough - here are some real life examples of some songs you'll recognize, but of course with the addition of Songsmith.

What the....

Anyway - for some good music, I downloaded Offspring's Greatest Hits.... I feel like I'm back in Towers again for our floor parties!!

Random Thoughts for the New Year

2009-01-27T04:08:00.003-06:00

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.

Last Days of the Rat

2009-01-23T06:04:00.003-06:00

Chinese New Year has arrived.... well almost. My "break" from work is here, Chinese New Year starts Monday! Some people travel around Asia during that time. Most people will go to their family's home and spend time with them (similar to the US Christmas). It'll be cold unfortunately here in Taipei. I do plan on taking pictures of the empty Taipei streets since this will be the only time not to see 1000s of scooters and cabs polluting the roads. I'm not sure if there will be a parade here or not!!??!? Nobody has mentioned anything but I will continue to pursue some more traditional celebration activities to partake in.

Out with the year of the Rat and in with the Ox. The Ox is said to bring prosperity through fortitude and hard work. Like one's own vision of a cow or ox, it is said to be steady and strong in character. As for the element, this year is EARTH (as opposed to Fire, Air, or Water).

Anyway - it's an exciting time to be in Asia. I can cross "Chinese New Year in Asia" off my celebrations list. I've done New Years in Time Square, Christmas in Ireland (not that that was famous or anything)... still have many others to hit around the world at some point in life.

Have a great weekend! New camera tomorrow so I should have pictures to share from next week's random travels and activities.

Free At Last....

2009-01-20T05:24:00.001-06:00

New President Day.... I am already celebrating in Taiwan! I'm a little amazed at the hype and focus the inauguration is getting. I don't seem to remember all of this in 2001. I'm excited and should make for good TV watching for those who are able. I'll have to watch it tomorrow as I'm not going to stay up till 11:30pm to start watching.

I guess I'm becoming "local" and it's showing. For whatever reason this weekend, I was asked to take someone's photo in 2 seperate instances. Maybe they see me as a friendly face, or maybe they think I'm actually Taiwanese. And the real funny story was that while waiting for Alex on Saturday, I seriously had a Taiwanese person ask me if I knew where the bathroom was. This was while I was standing out front of the Technology Mall.... and I told him no, I had no idea where the bathroom was. Not sure what that was all about.

Scanning through the channels last night, I stumbled across Dora the Explorer again. I was determined to share with you especially since a lot of you have young children who LOVE watching Dora and learning Spanish. In Taiwan, Dora speaks Chinese and helps the kids learn English as you'll see. (Sorry, can't embed this one)

Anyway - short blog today. Happy New President Day!

Last Full Day of Dub-Ya

2009-01-19T05:12:00.000-06:00

An interesting Super Bowl is set up. We'll be watching from here, on Monday morning..... 7 am kickoff!! The Cardinals made the Super Bowl with Iowa-Boy Kurt Warner???? Didn't they finish 2-14 a couple of years ago? Just shows what the Vikings could do with a real quarterback. Looked online and that leaves only 5 teams who have never made the Super Bowl - Houston Texans (new team), Jacksonville Jags, Nawlins Saints, Detroit Lions, and Cleveland Browns. Too bad the Browns don't get credit for the Ravens since that's where the team went after they left Cleveland. With Phoenix vs Pittsburgh, I'll be watching for the commercials!

A beautiful weekend for weather here in Taiwan. In the 80s, and VERY clear skies. I did some exploring on Saturday with Alex. We went camera shopping (long story) and some other tech gadgets that he was shopping for. Afterwards, he had some time to kill so we went to Longshan Temple which is the largest temple in Taipei. It's part of the "old city" that is close to the river and basically the starting point to grow from for this now very modern city. The temple was packed in anticipation of Chinese New Years - a lot of people praying for a prosperous new year. We start out with some incense sticks for praying. There are three main gods to pray to, so we took three sticks each. You light them (you can see the picture of me lighting the sticks), then you go in front of one of the buddhist gods to pray with the sticks held straight up. When you get done praying, you bow, shake them twice, then throw them into the big tank with the rest of the incense... and lots of smoke! It was interesting - one of the buddha gods was for good grades. They have buddha gods for everything. Since I'm Alex's manager, you'll see him in one picture praying for a good appraisal this year in our PBCs. The temple itself was very neat, old, but still very ornate just the same. I took some pictures of the man made waterfall inside. I even played with the "panoramic" function on my phone.

So the "long story" is that I cannot find my OLD digital camera. I have looked everywhere I can in Taiwan, we were sure we didn't take it home to the US. It's nowhere to be found at this point, so I had to take pictures from my cell phone. They get the job done, but nothing spectacular. I'm camera shopping (again) because I do not want to haul my new SLR everywhere....

After the temple, we went to the Snake Alley Night Market area. It was daytime, so the snakes were put away, but you can still see them. This is a very tourist area, and most Taiwanese will typically pass on attending the shows. You will see some of the big pythons in their glass cage in the pictures at the right. Can you guess what the rabbits are for? They also had mice above the rabbits.... There are also many cages that are for smaller, yet still ugly, snakes. These snakes are part of the menu for eating if you want.

While this snake behavior is more common in main land China, please realize that it is not normal in Taiwan. This area represents a unique tourist attraction area. Think of it like Disneyworld in the US. It's very touristy and most of us that live there don't want outsiders associating the entire US population as walking around in costumes singing "It's a Small World" all the time.

It's MLK Jr. Day in the US, but we don't observe that here in Taiwan. They do understand who and what he contributed to the US culture, just not a lot of "minority" people here... other than me of course.

New President tomorrow.... I'll be watching (and enjoying) this one!!!

Stayin' Warm

2009-01-16T03:33:00.003-06:00

A quick memory for my "little sis" Shelly who passed away 4 years ago today. I still think of you often and look forward to seeing you again in Heaven someday. Keep doing that goofy dance till I get there!

Wow - cold temperatures in the midwest. I see Cedar Rapids is supposed to be -51???? I took a stab at explaining that to some of the Taiwanese in the office, most have never felt temperatures below +40 degrees. I tried the freezer analogy, but that's not right. What I was considering was using the analogy of poking them with a pencil eraser and stating "That is 0 degrees".... then poking them hard with the leaded end of the pencil "That is -10 degrees"...... then grabbing a baseball bat to see if they get the idea. On a positive note, last year when I suffered through the Minnesota freezing cold/snow and was thinking "next winter I'll be in Taiwan"..... well I'm in Taiwan and it's back up in the 70s today. An absolutely BEAUTIFUL day today, windows are back open and the skies were 100% blue. It should be in the 70s all weekend so a good time to go out and enjoy the warm January air. How many times will I get to say that in my lifetime back in the midwest??

Interesting side note - Taiwan is beginning to pass additional and stricter no smoking in public laws. I don't fully understand them yet, but note that the recent trend (and a good trend in my mind) making it more difficult for smokers to pass along the harm to others who don't want it has now arrived in Taiwan. Not a lot of smokers here though - my guess is one in maybe 8? Maybe one in 10? But China... it's well over 50% there I think.

Pictures posted again of yesterday's wedding of Tony. You'll see the work gang in many pictures, one of whom flew up from Singapore to be in the wedding! An array of fancy foods, some good, some ok, some I wouldn't touch. You'll like the chicken picture. The chicken meat was actually really good! But the Chinese folk lore says that if the chicken head points to you, you will be the next one laid off. So we just kind of turned it so it wasn't pointing at anyone in particular. That picture is now one of my favorites so far in Taiwan. They also played a game for a kind of raffle where everyone writes a wedding message on a card (with tape on the back side) to give to the new couple. When they enter wearing outfit #2 (remember, there are 3 outfits), everyone walks up and puts their card on the groom somewhere. Then the MC pulls off three cards at random and those people on the card get a special gift! It was fun, especially since one of my employees was one of the winners! On a side note, the DJ sucked as they were playing about 30 minutes worth of music, the only song I recognized was "Kiss Me" by Sixpence None the Richer (from the movie She's All That for those who remember) and I heard it 7 times. The first 4 times as part of the loop, but then during the exit line (outfit #3), the song was played over and over!!! So no, that song will not be played at my wedding now. I will make sure of that!

On a side note - I'm thinking of starting up a wedding dress rental company in the US. Like the Taiwanese, they rent their dress instead of buying it (similar to the groom's tux).... wonder if that would work?? Thoughts?? Would some of you be willing to sell your wedding dress to my new company at a cost much less than you paid for it?? How much is that antique-never-to-be-used-again-nor-fit-into-again dress in the closet worth to you?? This could be my chance.....

Miracle on the Hudson River... kind of a weird situation, but a miracle none the less. There was discussion today at work of the crash in 2002 here in Taiwan of a China Airlines crash on its way to Hong Kong were 225 people were killed. That's a lot of people unfortunately:(

Have a great weekend - for most of you, try to stay warm!!!

Weddings, Cats, and Wei-Ya

2009-01-15T02:32:00.002-06:00

It's been an interesting Thursday... the weather is improving (my new watch that regulates the Barometric pressure among other nerdy functions agrees that the weather is "improving") and while most of you suffer through negative temperatures, cars not starting, and wrapping up tight.... I have the windows open again and traveled today without a jacket.

One of the Taiwan employees was married over Christmas, but the reception for friends, family, coworkers was today for a formal lunch. It was a nice wedding on the north part of Taipei. Always interesting to see new foods (note I didn't say "try" new foods.... just take pictures and pass it to the next person). I was all ready to boycott the Shark Fin soup (under Sarah's orders after she saw a special about the Taiwanese killing sharks for soup which is considered a delicacy here) but alas, it was chicken soup. Funny how Sarah (among many others) hate sharks, but they boycott the soup. I just don't really care for the soup so I don't eat it. I did try the cod fish which wasn't the worst thing I've ever had. If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm not a huge fan of most seafood. I did enjoy the cheesecake-ish type dessert. It was nice to spend the afternoon with coworkers enjoying company and good food - rather than sitting in meetings!

American Idol started this week. I have them recorded and plan on catching up this weekend. I hope you're as excited as I am for another season of spending 100+ hours watching people try to sing and listening to Paula try to speak in complete sentences. I saw there's a "4th judge" which may make it interesting for the "you're going to Hollywood" rounds. Ahhhh, this show never gets old does it?

I put up new pictures from my new camera. There should be more tomorrow once I have more time to sort through them. The pictures are of Diamond and Diablo - Sarah's cats who missed her terribly while I stole her away to Tiawan. We have never had any really good pictures of them because as anyone with animals or young kids knows, they don't hold still long enough for a standard point-and-shoot camera to capture them. The new SLR is much faster and takes great photos of them as you'll see. Diamond is the white/grey cat and she's a Mackerel Tabby cat. The "M" on her forehead makes her a Mackerel, and it's a pretty clear "M". She's more human then she is cat sometimes, and she has no fear. Diablo is the bluck tuxedo cat (all black with a white neck/belly like someone wearing a tux) and she can be evil... at least towards me. She hisses at me every now and then and usually likes to be left alone. Sarah's mom has bonded with Diablo like we've never seen anyone bond with her. It's pretty cute actually. Diamond and Diablo are sisters from the same litter that Sarah took in after the whole litter was rescued in Chicago. We don't know who's older, but my guess is that Diamond is the elder sister since she acts like it.

Random nerd thought - everytime an ambulance goes by outside (which is about 3-4 times a day probably), I am still amazed at the phenominon of the Doppler Effect. It's pretty confusing actually, but I found the Wikipedia overview helpful, especially when they talk about a pitcher throwing a regular cycle of balls at you, but he's moving closer as he does so. That visual helps me at least.

Only 5 more days of Dub-ya.... can you believe it??????? Thought this day would never get here!!!

I'm off to a dinner celebration for work in honor of the upcoming Chinese New Year. It's "Wei-Ya" or 尾牙 and should be a good time! Good food and good drinking!

My Happy Place

2009-01-13T04:53:00.002-06:00

Happy Gilmore has been on one of the few English channels the past few nights. I forgot that the movie is already 12 years old, but It's still funny as hell. One of the better moments is when Happy has to find his "Happy Place" as follows:

Watch more Megavideo videos on AOL Video

So I started thinking - what would be in my Happy Place????

Sarah (of course).....
We're on a beach with blue ocean all around
78 degrees, not a cloud in the sky
Ample supply of Shiner beer and Captain and Cokes (no lime)
Candy dispenser full of Skittles, Reeses Pieces, Gummy Worms, Gummy Raspberries....
U2 playing hour long sets
Elvis playing between U2 sets
Iowa State winning football games on TV
Girls jumping on trampolines - I won't lie to you....
And no need to go back to work... EVER!!

How'd I do?

It's freezing cold here once the sun goes down. It gets to about 50 degrees at night, with a chilly breeze. I know, nothing to complain about compared to most of you in the Midwest, but I only have a jacket here and no heat. The trick is not to open a window when the sun is up and accidentally leave it open for over an hour. This creates a problem on how to get the apartment warm again considering there is no heat in the houses here. I have a small heater/fan that does the trick for me (Sarah would not be happy with me in this cold), and for the few minutes after shutting the open window, I just turn the stove top on high for a few minutes and let it add as much heat as is required. Primitive, I know. Kind of like leaving the freezer open in the dead of summer to help cool the house off!!! I don't really have a lot of other options at this point and I'm not sure I want to buy a larger heater just for another 2 months.

Chinese New Year is approaching. Out with the year of the Rat (those of you born in '96, '84, '72, '60, '48, or '36) and in with the year of the Ox (or cow) (those born in '97, '85, '73, '61, '49, or '37). There are already noises in the street with people letting off random firecrackers from time to time - as well as all the Christmas decorations still up. How convenient that they serve as deocrations for Chinese New Year as well!!!! I'll share more with what I learn about CNY as it happens.

Arrival of the Weekend

2009-01-09T06:14:00.006-06:00

After a couple of days of struggling with jetlag, playing catch up with email, cleaning up the house, taking care of errands.... I think I'm back to "normal" here. It's kind of cool here... you know, only 50 degrees at night. Funny part is that without heat in most places, they have no way to heat up a house when it does get this cool. Luckily I have a small room heater - plus my apartment is about the size of a normal person's room back in the US.....

I've grown my winter beard since right before Christmas. As if I needed yet another reason to stick out in Taiwan. Now I'm the tallest, bald, fattest, and now the only BEARDED guy in Taiwan. I have been getting lots of complements on my "new look". I'm also getting the standard stares - even saw a guy taking a picture of me on the train yesterday.

Thanks to the power of Slingbox, I was able to watch the BCS championship game last night. I was disappointed in yet another loss by a Big12 team in the championship game, but I also think that neither team really played like the best two teams in the country. I would rather see Texas vs USC now - with my money on USC. The joys of a non-working BCS continues.

Since we extended our stay back in the US, we were not able to check out the fireworks from Taipei 101. Luckily there is a thing called "internet" which helps us catch up with what we missed in the world.

And to entertain you - I took a few pictures of my own tonight with my new camera. Remember, I can walk to Taipei 101 in about 20 minutes!

Plans for this weekend? As little as possible!!!

Ilha Formosa

2009-01-06T06:25:00.002-06:00

I made it back to Ilha Formosa in one piece. Few things to share:

1 - Exit Row on International isn't as bad as it could have been. Helped not having anyone in the middle seat. I could stretch out, get up at free will - but I had no pocket in front of me to stash stuff (or leave cameras), and for some reason, people use the "open" space in front of me for calisthenics with about 2 hours left in the flight.
2 - I actually sleep a little easier in a window seat than an aisle seat. Also helps to have a new pillow thing that goes around your neck. They really aren't too bad.
3 - LAX is now my least favorite airport in the world. It was already on the top 5 list, but now it's at the top! I was rerouted through there with my delay, last time I let that happen.
4 - 14 hours is too long of a flight. It's longer to fly to Asia in the Winter, but faster in the Summer. Interesting....
5 - You don't get to claim milage for unused (but still paid for) plane tickets. It also took me about 5 minutes to explain that even though Sarah wasn't riding back, I still wanted to use her milage on my frequent flier program. I still think that should be possible and I will continue to investigate. That's a lot of milage to lose!!!
6 - Taiwan is back to "wet" but still not cold enough for a coat (for me at least).
7 - I really feel horrible the whole day upon arrival from the US. Might be easier if I didn't have the 4 airports/3 flights mess to deal with.... I know there will be a few people who would vote for us moving to San Fran or Seattle.
8 - The next time I see snow will be at the end of 2009 and I will probably be married by then and back in US for good. How scary is that? That is unless I go up into the mountains here like I want to....

My 550 Square Foot Apartment still feels small in case you were wondering. It will do for now. Over half way done over here - time really flies!!

A last minute Texas win. I will take another Big 12 win, but was hoping this one wouldn't have been that close.

Anyway - off to bed - enjoy your Tuesday.

Happy New Year!!

2009-01-02T09:41:00.003-06:00

A happy new year to everyone! This is my final full day in the USA, I head back to Taiwan on Saturday, arriving Monday morning Taiwan time (yeah - Sunday just doesn't exist for me this year).

An update to what has been happening and what will change in the year to come:

Sarah's dad has been in the hospital with some heart issues. We are now at the point where he is waiting for a heart transplant. His spirits are well and he is otherwise doing great - but at this time he requires some additional help and support and will for the near future. So Sarah and I have talked about this option for about a month now, even more so since we've been home. Sarah will stay here to help her family at this time while I return to Taiwan. So yes, we'll be back to the long distance relationship thing again for a while. We've done it before, we can do it again.....

There are lots of benefits to this solution - besides the obvious one of helping her dad and family, she can also start planning our wedding!!! We're getting closer to establishing a date and location, just have to make a few calls next week and we can get all that information out to everyone. She will be closer to her cats who I know missed her very very much while she was gone. The only bad thing is that she and I will be apart, but it happens.....

We have been driving between Marion, Iowa (where my parents live) and Iowa City Hospitals daily to see her dad and spend time with him. Even snuck in some beer and watched the Iowa bowl game yesterday with him! He should be going home next Monday for the time being. Please keep him in your prayers!

I hope everyone starts the New Year out safely! Next update from me will be from the other side of the Pacific!!!

Time for an End to 2007

2008-12-31T13:06:00.002-06:00

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

2008-12-30T08:15:00.003-06:00

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!!!

2008-12-25T08:20:00.002-06:00

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

Back in time for WINTER!!!

2008-12-22T16:16:00.003-06:00

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.....

2008-12-16T07:29:00.000-06:00

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!!

2008-12-15T07:20:00.003-06:00

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

2008-12-12T07:07:00.003-06:00

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

2008-12-09T07:37:00.003-06:00

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!!!

2008-12-04T07:54:00.003-06:00

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

2008-12-03T04:00:00.002-06:00

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

2008-12-01T05:43:00.000-06:00

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

2008-11-27T07:52:00.001-06:00

Happy Birthday to my Nephew Al!!!

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

Pictures tomorrow!

Happy Thanksgiving

2008-11-26T08:12:00.003-06:00

Things I'm Thankful For - Version 2008

Sarah - the most incredible person I've ever known..... and the most beautiful fiance that I could have ever dreamed about
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
My family - for their health and support through all my weird endeavors
My friends who continue to make me feel at home despite being half way around the world from them
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
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
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!
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!
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.
The opportunity to see and appreciate a foreign culture.... and a big city... two things that were important to my maturing process in life.
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.
My Great Grandmother Nettie who turns 100 years old next week!!! Seriously!
My nephews, especially Al who turns 6 years old on Thursday!
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!!!
The fact that some people still read my blog, even though I've been horrible about updating it day to day.
My turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, pumpkin bars, and veggies that my kick ass fiance is making for me on Thanksgiving
Slingbox that will allow me to watch NFL Football games Friday morning from here....
The Airplane that will take us back to the US for Christmas, even if it's only for a week.
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

2008-11-25T06:52:00.006-06:00

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

2008-11-24T07:21:00.003-06:00

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

2008-11-17T06:54:00.000-06:00

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

2008-11-13T02:19:00.002-06:00

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

2008-11-10T05:06:00.003-06:00

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

2008-11-06T04:20:00.002-06:00

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:

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.
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.
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.
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.....
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!
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.
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

2008-11-05T06:47:00.006-06:00

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!!!

2008-11-04T05:56:00.000-06:00

No Daylight Savings Here....

2008-11-03T05:24:00.001-06:00

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

2008-10-31T05:33:00.000-05:00

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

2008-10-29T04:59:00.002-05:00

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

2008-10-27T07:31:00.002-05:00

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

2008-10-24T05:22:00.004-05:00

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

2008-10-23T05:38:00.000-05:00

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

2008-10-22T02:36:00.004-05:00

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

2008-10-20T05:29:00.003-05:00

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!

2008-10-13T03:08:00.004-05:00

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

2008-10-08T08:34:00.000-05:00

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

2008-10-07T09:37:00.003-05:00

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

2008-10-06T08:19:00.000-05:00

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

2008-10-03T04:50:00.005-05:00

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

2008-10-02T06:03:00.000-05:00

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

2008-10-01T06:46:00.000-05:00

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

2008-09-29T04:51:00.003-05:00

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

2008-09-22T06:10:00.000-05:00

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!!!

2008-09-17T05:10:00.001-05:00

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!!