Noodle place

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 eating there, a rat the size of small cat ran underneath my chair. It was so quick i didn't even have time to react, i was in the middle of slurping my noodles.

And then last week, there was 2-3 tiny black ants in my wonton noodle soup. I picked them out but I'm sure i missed a few and probably ate one or two. . . Yum, protein!

It sounds pretty disgusting but I really like the food, it's served fast, it's cheap, and it's close to the office. I'll keep on going back as long as I don't find anything really disgusting in the food or i get sick. But so far that hasn't happened yet (knock on wood).

Japanese Bug Fights

I enjoyed watching these videos more than I'd like to admit. . .



See more of them at http://www.japanesebugfights.com/

Back to school

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 student. I forgot exactly what she said (8AM, my brain not 100% functional yet). She said something like "Wow, Kevin is back" and everyone welcome the computer expert back in chinese. I was a bit confused and then i remembered the last time i went to class we were just starting the chapter related to computers and computer parts. I didn't think they'd still be on the same chapter.

They asked me a few computer related questions like what's the difference between RAM and Hard Drive and is it cheaper to build your own system. They also asked about the Eee PC i brought in a week or two ago when it was my turn to do presentation in front of class.

If you've never heard of it, it's a tiny full function notebook computer the size of a standard 8.5" x 11" piece of paper folded in half. Does web browsing, email, instant messaging, word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, divx/xvid movies, mp3, photos, skype, games, etc. Has SD card slot, Wi-Fi, and webcam, and has battery life of around 3 hours. Not bad for $11,500 NT dollars here in Taiwan, roughly $340 USD.

Here's pic of it on top of standard 14.1" notebook.

slw11648

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 gone online in a really long time. . . until I came up to a "slw11648." It sounded so familiar, yet i couldn't remember. i kept on thinking for awhile. Who is this slw11648?!?!

Then I thought, maybe it's my boss from almost 10 years ago, back when i was working part time as a web designer. His first name starts with an 's' and his last name starts with a 'w', maybe the 'l' in "slw" is his middle name and the 11648 is birthdate.

I googled his name and first thing that came up was a short article that said SW had passed away less than a month ago (Dec-07) due to complications from leukemia. It also talked about the small company he founded and some it's products that i had a small part in building.

He was a good boss, funny guy, he helped me get my first real job out of college when i used him as a reference. I have some great memories from working with him.

RIP SW
1948-2007

Great start to the New Years

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 completely white. But it's been with me everywhere for the past two years. Every blurry, out of focus picture you see on this blog was taken with that phone.

I'll probably get my SIM card replaced by Friday. If anyone needs to contact me before then, use MSN/AIM or Facebook.

All-you-can-eat Hot Pot and Soccer

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 was a surprisingly good game. My team won the first round, the other team won the second round.

But the biggest victory of all was not a single person puked. We should all be proud of that.
Us: 1, Nausea: 0

Toyota 101, world's tallest billboard

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 yeah, i had dinner at a hong kong style place near Taipei 101. It was one of the very few times i remember ever breaking out laughing when I tasted my food. You see, I ordered some noodle soup. It looked appetizing in the menu, but when I got it, it looked exactly like instant noodles. I was like, okay it looks like instant noodle but we're in a hip trendy looking restaurant/cafe located in a fairly hip trendy area. . . it can't possibly be instant noodles. . .

Then i tried it.

Lesson learned: Instant noodles by itself. . . not funny. Going to a restaurant and accidentally ordering instant noodles you could've made yourself in 3 minutes for 1/10th the price. . . hilarious.