Dances With Wolves. . . IN SPACE!

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 mexican food. Don't ask my why, I have no idea. . . although I blame the Mexican food one directly on Taco Bell. There is not a single Taco Bell in all of Taiwan. Damn you Taco Bell! Why have you forsaken us? Taiwan is a real country, with real beef burrito needs!

I wanted to write a review about Avatar, but I'm too lazy for a real write up. . . so here it is in a recipe format.

Avatar:

• 5 cups of Dances with Wolves
• 3 tablespoons of The Matrix
• A pinch of Return of the Jedi

CGI the crap out of the ingredients, and serve piping hot in IMAX 3D. . . and you have a pretty good movie.

3.5 out of 5 stars.

Annoying Commercial

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 are usually open 24 hours and are the preferred hangout spot for young men. They typically provide free unlimited soft drinks and the fancier places have free snacks (chips, popcorn, warm bread/butter) and newspapers/magazines. Actually, I'm not sure if they still do this anymore, I haven't frequented an internet cafe in many years. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't let people my age in. I'd have to find my college student ID and change the 2000 and add a little tail to the last '0' so it looks like 2009.

Which reminds me, I remember they had police curfew checks at these internet cafes. At 10PM or 11PM policemen would come in and ask to see everyone's ID cards. Anyone under the age of 18 would be shot. . . or fined. . . or politely asked to leave. One of those, i forgot which one. Anyways, this always made me a bit nervous because my online game name is "Ronald McCopKiller". They never usually look at the computer screens though.

Back to the commercial. The product they are selling is an energy drink. Similar to Red Bull. The last part of the commercial, the girl says "Won't let you fall asleep." I know I'm old, because that seems absurd to me. A product that prevents you from falling asleep?!?! Ludicrous I say! Sleep is pretty much the best part of my day.

Here's another similar commercial. Equally annoying.

Cancer Research Keeps Me Warm

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 program called Folding@Home. It allows me to donate my computer's extra unused CPU cycles to simulate protein folding. I don't really know what that means but from the Folding@Home website it says:

". . . when proteins do not fold correctly (i.e. "misfold"), there can be serious consequences, including many well known diseases, such as Alzheimer's, Mad Cow (BSE), CJD, ALS, Huntington's, Parkinson's disease, and many Cancers and cancer-related syndromes"

So I'm guessing the goal is to try to find out why proteins don't fold properly. This information could be useful in finding cures for many types of diseases.

What does this have to do with warming up my cold hands? Well, when I set my CPU to run at 100% high performance mode, Folding@Home basically turns my notebook computer into a the world's flattest space heater. Right now my CPU is running at a toasty 87 degrees Celsius (189 degrees Fahrenheit). The hot air it's blowing out the side and the now slightly heated keyboard keeps my hands nice and warm.

It's a Win/Win/Win situation. . . Win for disease research, win for keeping my hands warm, win for . . . . . .

Oh yeah, hopefully a win for getting me a new notebook soon. I'm hoping running the CPU at 100% utilization all day (and the CPU fan at max RPM all day) will blow something up in this old computer. Then it's new notebook time! :)

Pizza Night turned into Tonkatsu Night

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 choosing this place.

So we ended up going to some random Japanese Tonkatsu place nearby. While we were ordering, my friend next to me gets a call from another friend that's on his way to meet us but needs directions. The friend next to me gives out the directions over the phone, the friend on the phone then asks him what the name of the restaurant is. So the friend next to me flips to the front of the menu and scans the pages with his index finger for a few seconds, stopping near the top of the page. . . and then yells into the phone "The restaurant is called Menu!"

He immediately realized his mistake, but it was too late. We all burst out laughing.

After dinner we went to a tapas bar had some drinks/snacks, talked about random crap. . . reminisced about some of the wilder stuff we did back when nobody had a real job. How things have changed. . . I think we left the bar and headed home before 12AM.

Interesting Brand Names

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. . . maybe the bottle of water is looking out for my health. I mean water is better for me than soda or coffee. I'm so confused! What should I do?!?!

I ended up buying a green tea because it's cheaper. I don't know how that works. I mean green tea is just the same exact water but with flavor added. It's like ordering a plain pizza for $20 USD but if you decide to add pepperoni topping it becomes $10 USD. The beverage market is strange.

Anyways, back on topic. . .

I'm not much of a milk drinker so I don't usually pay attention to the milk section when I'm out shopping but this brand stood out. I have so many questions when I see this brand.

Who is Dr. Milker?!?!
Is he/she a medical doctor that spends his free time milking cows?
Or is this someone that got their PhD in milking?
Could you really tell the difference between milk from someone with only a masters degree in milking to someone with a PhD in milking?
Can you really get a PhD in milking?
Can you milk a cat?
I wonder what cat milk tastes like.


Then I think it's probably just some marketing person's idea. . . I'm thinking of starting my own brand of orange juice. . .

I'm gonna be so rich! Nobody steal this idea from me!


Oh yeah and my favorite brand name in Taiwan is. . .

*drumroll*

黑人牙膏 (hei1 ren1 ya2 gao1). This translates to "black person toothpaste."

What's even funnier is there's a cheaper toothpaste called 白人牙膏 (bai2 ren2 ya2 gao1) that translates to "white person toothpaste."


Yes, these are real products. I usually splurge for the black person toothpaste. Only the best for my pearly whites.

24 Days of My Life in Pictures

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 from end of May to mid/end of June 2008 in chronological order:

Random Bicycle Race with a Complete Stranger

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 worth $5000 NT which is only like $165 USD which isn't much of a motivation.

So anyways, I finally got to washing my bike on Saturday. Decided to go downstairs to the riverside park for a short easy ride to make sure everything is working okay. About 20 minutes into the ride, I pass some older looking guy, i'm guessing 50-60 years old. Then about 2-3 minutes later, he passes me back. At that point I was at nice-easy-ride speed. So I turned it up a notch and repassed him thinking that was the last I'd see of him.

A few minutes later, he flies past me. I mutter to myself "oh no you didn't old man." So I turn it up another notch but all I can do is follow him because there's too many other bicyclists and I can't pass. When traffic clears up I pick up the pace and pass him. I go pretty much as fast as I can for 5 minutes, never looking back, then i slow it down slightly when I'm confident that the old man is given up.

He still caught up and passed me! Except this time he was breathing much louder and sweating noticeably more. You could tell he was tired. If I was a bigger man I would've just let him win and give up. Let him have the satisfaction of beating me. . . but nope. I passed him again and I went as fast as I possibly could go. I was surprised I had anything left. I eventually slowed down and looked back about 5 minutes later and I couldn't see him anymore.

It felt good until I realized the following three things.
1. I'm slightly nauseous from riding so hard.
2. I only barely outran someone that's old enough to be my father.
3. I rode so far, I didn't know where I was anymore.