Super McBlogosphere Version 2.0 Ultimate Edition

A Cry for Help (Suicide Attempt @ 大蹈程)

2010-08-26T11:05:00.010+08:00

Everyday, as long as it's not raining, I commute to work by bicycle. I take this beautiful scenic bicycle route following the Danshui River along the east side of Taipei City. I highly recommend it, riding in the morning makes me feel much more awake when i start the day, and it mellows me out after work in the evening. It's even more beautiful when the sun goes down.This morning's ride was a bit

Drunk Cockroach

2010-07-15T11:27:00.004+08:00

Last night I saw a cockroach drinking from a discarded beer can. I kind of regret not taking a picture of it. It's exactly how you would imagine it would look like. The beer can was tipped sideways on the sidewalk and a big ass cockroach (the nasty kind that flies) had it's head inside the opening. It's butt was angled upwards and moving up and down a bit, it really looked like it was excitedly

Role Reversal

2010-05-20T16:25:00.006+08:00

While eating dinner one night, I noticed how things are different. I was eating at the dinner table and my mom was in the living room playing Wii and I asked her when she's going to eat dinner. She said "just one more game."If someone could go back in time and tell the 12 year old version of me that my mom would one day be playing video games (and to the point of not wanting to eat dinner). I'd

Date Night

2010-04-15T14:17:00.007+08:00

Saw Date Night (約會喔麥尬) last night. Note: Chinese name translated back into English is "Date Oh My God!"The most interesting part was that the ending surprised me. Not because there was a big plot twist or anything, but because it was kind of abrupt. Which was good because the story was beginning to surpass my tolerance for stupidity (as illustrated in the graph below).I guess I've become

Interesting Sign of Economic Recovery

2010-02-04T11:20:00.004+08:00

I work in the FPD industry. To call business slow would be a huge understatement. Although, recently it has been picking up. And as a whole the Taiwan economy is picking up as well.I occasionally ride the Taiwan High Speed Rail (THSR) train. These trains are fast. They top out at 300 km/h and takes about one and a half hour to get from the top of Taiwan to almost the very bottom (Taipei <->

Dances With Wolves. . . IN SPACE!

2010-01-19T12:06:00.007+08:00

Saw Avatar in IMAX 3D over the weekend. Very cool experience. It had better be, I spent NT 400 ($13 USD) for the ticket. For a country where the average salary is half that of the US, that's something like the equivalent of $26 USD for a movie ticket. In Taipei, almost everything is dirt cheap but there are a few exceptions that immediately come to mind. . . movies tickets, mixed drinks, and

Annoying Commercial

2010-01-07T14:10:00.011+08:00

I hate this commercial. Especially the last part, it makes me want to punch her in the face. But sadly, I think it's not her fault. I believe having the voice of a 10 year old girl is considered sexually attractive with young men in Taiwan.Some background on this commercial. It takes place in an internet cafe. I don't know if any still exist in the States but they are very common in Taiwan. They

Cancer Research Keeps Me Warm

2009-04-02T10:13:00.007+08:00

It's freezing today. 15 degrees Celsius (59 degree Fahrenheit). To those in the US, that might not seem that cold but it's different in Taiwan. Buildings here either have no insulation or very little insulation. So if it's 15 degrees outside, it's 16 degrees inside.Usually this means my hands are freezing, they're always the first to get cold. But not anymore. Many months ago I downloaded a

Pizza Night turned into Tonkatsu Night

2009-03-05T15:46:00.007+08:00

This past Saturday, some friends and I went out to try a NY style pizza place. I was looking forward to it as I haven't had real pizza in a real long time. When we got to the place, we realized it was just a hole-in-the-wall/takeout type place. We had a group of 10 people, we would've needed a giant shoehorn to fit everyone inside. Oops, my bad. I should have did a little more research before

Interesting Brand Names

2008-12-25T16:35:00.015+08:00

Since I moved to Taiwan almost three years ago, I've noticed a few interesting brand names.There's a brand of water called 多喝水 (duo1 he1 shui3) which literally translates into "Drink More Water." At first I was turned off by it. . . I was like, how dare a bottle of water tell me what to do! I'm an grown adult! I'm not going to drink more water just to spite it! But then I thought, well. . .

24 Days of My Life in Pictures

2008-12-24T16:08:00.011+08:00

A few months ago, I wrote a post about a guy that took one picture everyday for 18 years straight to document his life. It inspired me to try it out myself.It's kind of sad that I only did it for 24 days straight before I lost interest. It's much more difficult than I thought. . . to force yourself to take one picture that will forever represent that day in your life.Here is 24 days of my life

Random Bicycle Race with a Complete Stranger

2008-11-18T10:43:00.009+08:00

I'm planning to sell my bicycle and buy one of those newfangled folding bikes. Actually, I've been planning to sell it for like 4 months but I've been too lazy to get off my ass and do anything. First I have to wash and prep the bicycle, then I have to take pictures of it, then I have to print out flyers, then I have to post up flyers everywhere. It's not helping that i think the bike is only

Go-Karts Round 2

2008-10-13T11:00:00.005+08:00

From my last post about Hooters, I joked about breaking my hip:I won't joke about that stuff again. I think I got my hip knocked loose on the go-kart track.Yesterday, some friends and I decided to head back to the go-kart track that we went earlier in the year. Weather was perfect and we had a lot of good racing. Most of the people in the group didn't go with us last time so the first time around

Hooters

2008-08-27T13:24:00.000+08:00

Hooters. . . to me it's about as American as apple pie or baseball or NASCAR. So it's kinda funny that I lost my Hooters virginity in Taipei of all places. It's not that there weren't any Hooters around when I was in the the US. I remember in college there was a Hooters about 5 minutes from campus. I guess it was probably just a combination of a lack of interest on my part and the fact that I

Anyone remember that bug scene from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom?

2008-07-11T14:24:00.011+08:00

Just came back from lunch. While I was out it started raining like crazy. . . like "build a ship and load up thousands of animals" crazy. Fortunately, I had the foresight to bring an umbrella. Unfortunately, umbrellas only protect you from rain when it's falling at a downward angle, which it usually does but today's rain was not so cooperative.Because I do not like the idea of working for 6

Flight back from NY

2008-07-01T16:27:00.006+08:00

I believe Ang Lee took the same flight as me, but i'm not 100% sure it was him. I only briefly saw a person that looked like him and his small entourage of people being escorted by China Airlines staff past the mass of people anxiously waiting in line to be stuffed into the economy section.Side note: Why are people always in such a rush to get in the airplane? First of all, the last time I

Inspirational Story

2008-05-22T23:28:00.010+08:00

I saw this on Digg earlier today, usually i don't post stuff like this but I thought this was really interesting. . .Some guy named Jamie Livingston decided to take one polaroid picture a day, everyday, to document his life. He did it for 18 years straight from March 31, 1979 to October 27, 1997. . . he died of cancer the next day on October 28, 1997.Some of his friends decided to make a

Suicide at 師大 (ShiDa)

2008-05-14T12:35:00.007+08:00

I found out this morning that someone committed suicide yesterday at ShiDa. A young girl jumped off the top of the building where I go to class. . . about a 10 story fall. I overslept yesterday so I completely missed the whole thing. My classmate actually heard the sound of the impact and another classmate was able to get a closeup view of the rescue effort. . . well, more like cleanup

Snoopy Sno-cone Machine

2008-04-30T13:35:00.005+08:00

Does anyone remember this thing? I was browsing through a blog that I frequent once in awhile, when I saw some hello kitty drink holder. I'm not sure why but it instantly brought up memories of the Snoopy Sno-cone machine my sister and I had when we were little. I vaguely remember the sno-cone ice that came out of it could be made just as easily with a plastic bag and a hammer, and the flavoring

Crappy weather

2008-04-27T22:44:00.009+08:00

I should really be studying Chinese but I'm so far behind that I don't feel like starting because even if I catch up this week, I'll just fall behind again when work gets really busy.It rains a lot in Taipei. I should be used to it by now, but I'm not.The forecast is usually wrong though. I don't even know why I look at it. I think maybe the guy that does the forecast is in a bad mood today and

Turns out I'm married. . .

2008-04-18T14:18:00.005+08:00

I got a call this past tuesday from an unknown number. Normally I just ignore them but just so happens that I was expecting a call from a friend of a friend visiting Taipei, so I picked up.The reception at the beginning wasn't so great, so I wasn't sure I knew what the lady on the other end was saying. . . but she sounded like she knew me so out of politeness I pretended I knew her. I'm sure

Strange Contest in Class Today

2008-04-10T12:11:00.008+08:00

Learned the chinese word 憋 (bie1) in class today. It means suppress or hold back. The usage example the teacher gave for this word was 憋氣 (bie1 qi4). Which means hold your breath. So out of the blue the teacher said everyone hold their breaths and she's gonna time it. See who can hold their breath the longest. The first person gave up after 30 seconds. . . PATHETIC! i wanted to laugh at her

Funny T-shirt

2008-03-28T10:38:00.004+08:00

While crossing the street this morning I noticed a girl wearing a T-shirt that said:Friends are foreverBoys are whateverMade me think. . . good thing I'm a MAN! trapped in a boy's body.

Chinese New Years (2nd Road Trip)

2008-03-12T17:06:00.009+08:00

I went with my other group of friends to Miaoli for some go-karting. The place is a pretty far trek from Taipei, roughly two hours by car, but it's supposed to be the best go-kart track in Taiwan.I wasn't disappointed.The track is fairly large, has a fast left hand sweeper, a slightly technical section, uphill/downhill part, a hairpin, and a quick left/right section.Each session costs $250 NT (

Chinese New Years (Road Trip Day 1)

2008-02-12T14:52:00.008+08:00

I can't believe the new years break is already over. . .Friend's company let him use company car over the break. So we took advantage of it and went to a bunch of places around Taiwan.First stop was JiouFen (九份). But getting there ended being more fun than actually being there. On the way to JiouFen we got lost, ended up driving longer than anticipated. We pass by a clump of 3-4 seafood

Pizza and Movies

2008-02-06T22:53:00.000+08:00

This past Saturday, I went to friend's place for a pizza and movie night.Side note: Pizza is not cheap in Taiwan! We got two large pizzas and two buckets of chicken. Ended up being $1500NT which is almost $50 USD. The large pizzas here are more like medium size in the US. We had four guys and a girl and we finished it pretty easily.Side side note: It's weird, everyone sells fried chicken here.

Posessed Phones

2008-02-05T15:49:00.000+08:00

Yesterday, 7:30 AM in the morning, cell phone rings. I'm still sleeping (no class today), i'm thinking who could be calling this damn early. Caller ID says it's the home landline phone.Weird. . .Maybe my mom just wants to make sure i wake up in time for class. I go back to sleep.Later that day, about dinner time, the home phone rings. My mom picks it up, she says "hello", person on other side

Indian Music Video

2008-02-01T11:24:00.000+08:00

Friend sent me this link awhile back. The subtitles are great.

Torture and T-shirts

2008-01-30T13:52:00.000+08:00

How an AIM conversation about an internet advertising company's name switches to talking about torture and then T-shirts.Me: Eyeblaster is the worst name everFriend: yeah I know.Me: when i think of it, i have a bunch of different thoughts. . . all of them badFriend: hahahaMe: it's like a some kind of medieval torture deviceFriend: POW right in the eyeMe: give him 10 minutes on the Eyeblaster. . .

Interesting thing I learned in Chinese class

2008-01-18T12:03:00.000+08:00

Normally nothing interesting happens during class, either it's too early in the morning for me to remember anything or I cut class for an extra two hours of sleep (those are the best two hours of sleep ever!)A little bit background info for people who are not familiar with Chinese characters. Chinese characters are like molecules built up from smaller elements like atoms. These smaller elements

Noodle place

2008-01-15T11:48:00.000+08:00

There's a noodle place near my workplace that I frequently go to for lunch. It's great except for the fact that it'd fail every health inspection code if it were in the US.On three separate occasions I've seen a cockroach crawling around on the floor. Not those cute little german roaches, like the one shown below:No, they were those huge "I will eat your children" cockroaches:And once while i was

Japanese Bug Fights

2008-01-09T12:57:00.000+08:00

I enjoyed watching these videos more than I'd like to admit. . .See more of them at http://www.japanesebugfights.com/

Back to school

2008-01-08T17:46:00.001+08:00

I recently took a self appointed week off from school. I'm such a bad student. I feel a little guilty for wasting my money but whatever. . . it's my money. That's what I get for choosing the 8 AM class.When I went into class for the first time in a week, I knew the teacher was going to make a big deal. And I was right. . . she couldn't just let me quietly sit at my seat and pretend to be a good

slw11648

2008-01-04T15:51:00.000+08:00

I started using a new instant messenger program recently that combines all the different networks (AIM, MSN, Y!, gTalk, etc) into one. It's called Pidgin, it works pretty well. I recommend it.Having all your friends under one program is nice but it creates a huge list that's quite cumbersome. So, I decided to do a little housecleaning. Deleting all the people i didn't recognize and that haven't

Great start to the New Years

2008-01-02T11:34:00.000+08:00

I hope everyone had a great New Years. 2008 didn't start off so well for me. About 30 minutes into 2008, I lost my cell phone. :(I already miss that phone. Yeah it had it's problems. . . like it would turn itself off whenever you looked at it funny, or that the outside looked like I lent it to Edward Scissorhand for a few months, or if you pushed the buttons too hard the screen will just turn

All-you-can-eat Hot Pot and Soccer

2007-12-30T16:02:00.002+08:00

Saturday night, went to 吃到飽的麻辣火鍋 (all you can eat hot pot) and right afterwards we went to play soccer. . . in the dark, 10 o'clock at night, while it was drizzling out.Not the smartest idea, this. . . stuffing yourself with random hot pot goodness until your stomach hurts and then going outside and running as fast as you can pretty much non-stop for an hour chasing the damn soccer ball. It

Toyota 101, world's tallest billboard

2007-12-25T11:34:00.002+08:00

While I was hanging out on saturday night I noticed Taipei 101 was a little different (see pic to the right) . I love how Taipei 101, the most well known building in Taiwan is now sponsored by Toyota! :( To me that's like the Empire State building having a big Volkswagen logo on the side of it. I'm not that big on national pride or anything but couldn't they atleast get a Taiwanese company?Oh

Xing Nian Kuai Le

2007-02-19T11:48:00.000+08:00

It's Chinese New Years, i'm off for a whole week! Feels so nice. Most of the family together, lots of great food.I spent Saturday morning at my family's ancestral home in the countryside. I think that's what you call it. It's kinda like a little private temple for my family's ancestors. I think most(?) of the family gathers there and brings some food as offerings, light some incense and bow a

My Observations of Toronto

2007-01-25T11:48:00.002+08:00

I'm in Toronto! It's COLD! There's a lot of Tim Hortons. What the heck is there to do in Toronto?!?! There's a bullet hole in my window!

Beijing not so fun

2007-01-20T11:47:00.002+08:00

Time has passed by unbelievably quick. I can't believe January is almost over. I'm pretty busy with work and school, not much time left over for anything else (like this blog). It's ironic because I now have more things to write about but almost no time to actually sit down and write. Luckily for the three people that actually read my blog, i've found a few minutes! LUCKY FOR YOU!!! So. . . I

Taipei Computer Expo

2006-12-17T11:47:00.000+08:00

I went to the computer expo here last weekend and picked out a computer. Due to me switching jobs, I didn't have a computer of my own for almost two whole weeks! I was pretty close to commiting suicide a few times. I'm so glad that ordeal is over. . . I'm currently typing on an Acer Aspire 5583 Specs:14.1" WXGAIntel Core 2 Duo 1.66 GHz1 GB of RAM256 MB Nvidia GeForce Go 7300120 GB Hard DriveDVD

Roller Coaster of a Month

2006-11-23T11:46:00.001+08:00

Some big changes in my life since my last blog/entry/post whatever you call it. I'm not gonna go into the details as it's boring (and I'm not in the mood to type all that crap out) but basically, a few weeks ago I quit my job. After that, I seriously contemplated moving back to the US. About a week ago, (amazingly) I got a new job! Now I think I'm might be in Taiwan indefinitely. Life is so

My mom is funny

2006-10-12T10:45:00.001+08:00

My mom always compares herself to one of her close friends. A long time ago I started referring to her friend as Tim Allen because for a small asian woman she looks a lot like . . . well, Tim Allen. Now I feel kinda guilty because it's not very complimentary and now even my mom refers to her as Tim Allen. Also because I actually don't think she looks like Tim Allen that much anymore, so it

5 day weekend almost over

2006-10-10T02:16:00.001+08:00

5 day weekend almost over. :( I didn't really do much except sleep a lot and watch a movie and protest against the president. On Friday I saw World Trade Center: The Movie. It was basically two guys stuck in a hole, talking to each other. For a movie about two guys stuck in a hole, it's really very good. . . but I prefer movies where the scenery changes more often. I just came back from the "

I don't like this. . . i'm old.

2006-10-05T05:49:00.002+08:00

I just got an invite for my high school's 10 year reunion. I wasn't really ready for it. . . kinda snuck up on me. I remember briefly talking about this with one of my friends last year but it's been completely off my radar until now. I wonder how all my classmates are. I wonder what they'll look like. I wonder who got married, if anyone has children yet. I wonder how successful they are. The

Guess what fat girl eating noodles?!?! Wo hen yo kong!

2006-09-28T17:39:00.002+08:00

I'm not really sure why but for the past few years I've thought about running a marathon. I remember making a pact with my friend a year or two ago that we'd both do the NY Marathon that year. That if one of us didn't run we'd have to pay the other a certain amount of money $100 or something. . . i guess that was supposed to be the motivating factor. It's pretty obvious nothing happened of that.

What's that smell?

2006-09-18T18:24:00.002+08:00

Awhile ago I got my shoes completely soaked riding my scooter in a torrential downpour. Yeah, i know I'm a genius. It takes an long-ass time to for things to dry here. . . took like 5 days for my sneakers to air dry. No biggie since I'm a patient guy. I only started wearing them today. I really should've examined them before I did this. The reason why? While in the middle of explaining to us the

i hate monday

2006-09-11T14:48:00.001+08:00

I hate waking up on Mondays. No matter how many hours of sleep I get, I still have trouble getting out of bed and i feel like crap. The only thing I'm kinda looking forward to is that I'm going to see a college friend I haven't seen since backstreet boys were popular. haha backstreet boys. Anyways, should be fun. ain't no lie, baby bye bye bye! Scooter story of the day:Riding to school this

Rain ruins my weekend

2006-09-11T11:03:00.001+08:00

I miss having a car. It's been raining a lot for a few days here. Starting to get on my nerves . . . is there such thing as a "dry dance" I could do? Anyways, my main mode of transportation here is riding a scooter. If you look at the sketch I drew, you might think that your feet is relatively safe from the rain. I wore sneakers. It was the wrong choice, even going barefoot would've been a

Holy crap! I started a blog.

2006-09-09T11:39:00.000+08:00

I guess I'm a bit late to this bloggin' thing everyone's been doin'. Whatever, i'm slow. . . deal with it. school just started.I think I'm retarded.They put me in the remedial classcuz I farted. . . Seriously though, I'm retarded and i'm in the remedial class. This will be my third attempt at learning Chinese. First time was when i was in elementary school (failed/dropped out), second time