Taiwan G

Cary's Wedding

2007-10-21T04:33:00.001-07:00

The wedding was held out at Pi-Chen's (the bride) family farm in the middle of nowhere.

A typical Taiwanese house.

Cary flew in his own personal camera man from Japan.

CJ and the blushing bride.

I dressed up for the occaision and met some of my students.

Brooks and Don Cornelius looking all suave. In the background is Steve Wilson who used to pitch for the LA Dodgers.

Armory

2007-10-21T03:47:00.000-07:00

The American teachers at my school have a night out. After all that work we need to relax!

Hong Kong

2007-09-09T02:08:00.000-07:00

I also went to HK on my vacation, and I haven't posted the pics yet so here they are. It was really gray and cloudy and rainy the whole time I was there, so they are not the best pics. I stay at a "hostel" there, which costs $12US a night for a room with no bathroom, but it is just down the hall, and it has AC. It is a really small room, but it is private, which is better than most host
hostels how small it is, it really is literally just a bed.

The view from Victoria's Peak. I told you it was cloudy.
The view from Kowloon looking across the Harbor at HK.

Michigan Sucks

2007-09-09T01:53:00.000-07:00

Hahahahahahahahahahahahah!!!!!
Going into the new College football season, Michigan was ranked #5 and had at least two Heisman hopefuls in QB Henne and RB Hart. Then Michigan lost 34-32 to 1-AA Appalachian State, then they lost 39-7 to Oregon. I bet they drop out of the top 25 completely. Meanwhile Ohio State is 2-0 and ranked #12, but will probably move up a couple spots. However we are pretty weak this year and will not be a powerhouse, but at least we are not getting shamefully embarrassed like Michigan. Michigan sucks! Now if only the Yankees, Bulls, Steelers, Ravens, Broncos, and Detroit Tigers would also lose, not just one game, but get blown out, many many times, and have terrible losing seasons for like the next 10 years, it may get me over the many humiliating defeats that they have inflicted on my poor Cleveland teams over the years. Meanwhile I will continue to revel in every one of their defeats. Every one.

Fantasy Football

2007-09-09T01:25:00.000-07:00

OK so we are staring a new football season (American football not soccer you idiots) and I am playing a fantasy football league for the first time. My best players are Peyton Manning and Rudi Johnson, but after that my level of talent drops precipitously. But it's all just for fun anyways. Here in Taiwan it is hard to get the games on TV. They showed the Sun. night and Mon. night games here last year, live, which meant Mon. morning and Tues. morning here which sucks when you have to work. I bought a DVD-R player which is like a VCR for DVD's so I can record the games (sometimes they showed them at like 4am). But then if you miss the game and have it on tape delay, you have to force yourself (and remember) not to look at the result on the internet or it is ruined. I am usually able to stop myself, but friends don't. But at least I work with Americans, so we are all into football and can talk about it. Most of the foreigners here are British or Canadian, or Australian, or South African etc. so they like Rugby and Cricket which I could give a rats ass about. So let's pray the games are on, and remember Rudi! Rudi! Rudi!

Rita and Rose

2007-09-08T07:14:00.000-07:00

Brian's birthday

2007-09-08T07:10:00.001-07:00

The birthday boy sucking toe. This is what happens when truth or dare goes wrong.

Brooks and I discuss the next dare.

The result of my dare.
Thanks to Rose for the pictures, and also many more thanks for the pictures that were not taken.

Almost famous

2007-09-08T07:07:00.001-07:00

My friend Yi-ling knows lots of famous people like Paris Hilton. She goes on trips to America a lot and her clothing company x-large is pretty popular with the hip-hop crowd. She has also met DJ Muggs and Mike D. I am jealous. I want her to take me with her next time, but I can't afford to go to America! (Kind of ironic isn't it?)

Blink and Wink

2007-09-08T06:52:00.000-07:00

I have been reading a book by Malcolm Gladwell called "Blink". His major premise is that our subconscious is very powerful and actually very often (like maybe 80%) of the time makes and instant snap judgement of a person or situation that is absolutely correct. However our conscious mind doesn't trust is, so we think about it, and mull the problem over, sometimes for a long time, however all this does is actually confuse us, and the first judgment is usually right. He goes on to give numerous examples. Anyways, I have seen this happen to me many many times in my life, where my "gut" instantly told me what to do, but then I thought about it, and ended up doing something else, which was not always the wrong thing, but usually not as good as the first instinct. So basically trust your gut instinct and you will go far. I am going to try to apply this to my life.

Wink. OK, so what does wink have to do with it? Well last night I was talking with some friends about the act of winking. Specifically when a man winks at a woman in a sexually suggestive way. And we discovered that the proximity of the two parties is directly related to how effective the wink is. For example, if the man and woman are kind of far apart, like across the bar, the wink is more effective, because it makes a connection, and shows that "hey, I may not be right next to you, but I am thinking about you". This seems to be more effective (of course you first have to presume that the two parties have some mutual attraction). The woman feels a connection, and has a hope for an encounter soon. But in close proximity the wink is not effective. Usually the girl just laughs at the guy, and says "what are you doing?". So keep this in mind in the future.

Modern Love

2007-09-08T06:11:00.000-07:00

What are you holding out for?
What's always in the way?
Why so scared of romance?
This modern love breaks me.
This modern love wastes me.
Do you wanna come over and kill some time?
Put your arms around me.
-Bloc Party

2007-08-26T03:58:00.000-07:00

This is my hippie house from Flagstaff, Arizona, 1998. We had 20 acres, and a huge house, and it was easy walking distance to the road up to the ski mountain to bum lifts. Lots of hiking, camping, hot springs, snowboarding, and drum circles. Those were the days.

2007-08-26T03:43:00.001-07:00

Missoula, Montana 2001

Spring Break, Florida, 1995

Trip to New York, 1995

Beta Frat Party, College of Wooster, 1996

Alright there has been a lot of talk lately about my hair, and people seem to think I should grow it out again, and I don't have to work for a few more weeks so I guess I will let it. How will it come out? We'll see, but the ladies seem to like it so, hey that's good right? Just for the record these photos are from 1995-6, and these three guys (who will remain anynomous) have all gone on to successful careers/lives in Beijing, Boston, and North Carolina. This is why I never see my old friends anymore, they are flung all over the globe from London, India, China, and all over the US. I don't know what happened to me? Where did I go so horribly wrong, that all my friends from college should be successful and I am all washed out? They are not any smarter or harder working than I am. Ok maybe they are. Ah well, maybe my life isn't so bad, but I don't have a house or a car, which are the American standards for success, but I really don't care.

My hair

2007-08-23T04:57:00.001-07:00

Hmmm... Before and after? and after again? Which one is the real me? People who have only seen me with my short hair always can't believe it is me when I show them a picture of me with long hair. Am I a Republican or a hippie? Should I let it grow again? or get a business card?
You decide. The polls are open now.

Hawaii

2007-08-23T03:11:00.000-07:00

So I went to America for vacation. Well not really America, Hawaii. Not home really. I've never been to Hawaii so it's not like going home. But technically it is America, and it has Starbucks and all that stuff, but it definitely has a pacific island feel.

I went with my Mom. We went to Pearl Harbor. This is a Japanese one man suicide torpedo.
g
This is a US submarine. We didn't go on because you had to pay $10.

Sunset at Waikiki beach.

This lady appeared to be a an authentic local dressed up and dancing on the beach not just for fun. Not a hoax to trap tourists and get them to pay money. Seriously. Which is quite rare.

The water really comes up close to the seawall. Erosion, or was it always like that?
Waikiki is crowded but nice. It is right next to downtown which I think is kinda cool. You can walk around, eat, shop, and go to the beach. I didn't get to surf though.

We went to a Luau.

The "Royal Court" arrives.

Taking the roasted pig out of the ground.

Big Chief explains how to open a coconut.

There was a small random church in the middle of nowhere mountains.

The gods are angry. A restored temple of the old Hawaiian religion. They decided to give it up in 1819. It mostly seemed to be a list of rules or taboos against a lot weird stuff like women eating bananas.

I like tiki statues. Very pagan.

We went snorkeling. The boat took us out to a nice spot. Snorkeling was the best part of the trip. I saw some cool tropical fish and coral reefs.

My Mom is cute.

I told you I went snorkeling.

Note the Bob Dylan hair circa 1966.

The coral reef where we went snorkeling.

We stayed on the big island, and many of the beaches were small and crowded.

Look at the pretty flowers

I saw a three foot sea turtle at this beach.

Hawaii is famous for rainbows. It doesn't mean they're gay, they just like rainbows OK?

This is a big lava flow pool that has hardened.

It's still hot here. Active volcanic activity.

This was the best beach we found. It was a half hour drive to get there on a terrible road, but that was good because then it wasn't crowded.

Pristine

There is a big mountain in the center of the island.

There is a lot of black volcanic rock here.

Lunch with friends

2007-07-30T05:34:00.001-07:00

The ladies pose at the cafe. Rose takes a bite of her veggie sandwich.
This is a nice outdoor cafe place that the ladies like to go to on Sunday afternoons. It is quite relaxing, and there is a bookstore nearby too.

...and we're back!

2007-07-30T05:25:00.000-07:00

We've been gone for a while because I had no camera. Well, I finally got around to buying a new camera, so here we are. I will get back to posting and venting about life in general. Many people have moved to Facebook and Myspace, so maybe I will start posting all my stuff there, of the two I like Facebook better. Anyways for now here we are.
This is the fun of taking pictures in Taiwan, there is no end to the comically poor use of English. It is one thing if your English is just wrong or bad, but they always manage to mangle it in such a way as to create a new unintended meaning that I find hilarious. I'll just be down at the beauty shop getting my buty waxed. Actually I was just teaching my Taiwanese friend the other day what bootylicious means. Why were we talking about that? I have no idea. Recently I have also seen girls wearing T-shirts that said "Nice box, and "no credit cards accepted". Do they have any clue how slutty that makes them look? No. But they probably get more attention from white guys and don't know why. I will continue the quest to bring you photos of comically absurd uses of English, so watch out!

Sorry Ya'll

2007-06-26T08:25:00.001-07:00

sorry ya'll it's been a while.
Honestly the main reason I have not posted is because my ex-girlfriend took her
camera back and that was the camera I was using and I have been too cheap and or lazy
to buy a new one, but I will get one soon and get back to blogging.

2007-02-27T15:58:00.000-08:00

Brooks poses for the camera. I didn't want to have to post this, but I'll go ahead, at least for the blackmail value. This is what happens when you play strip poker at 3am. To his credit there were also girls involved. It is sad that today you can't do anything crazy anymore because there is always some idiot there with a camera to record it and post it to the internet. In this case that idiot is me! Hahahahahahaha! I really could start a small business either blackmailing people not to post the pics I have, or selling them online, or access to the url after I post it. That is the nature of entrepeneurialism in the internet age. Some of you may know what I mean. I'll give you my paypal account. Anonymous payments accepted, just write a cryptic note that lest me know who you are and what photos you do or don't want. Of course it's also reciprical, if you have incriminating evidence of me that may derail my political career later in life, let me know, and we'll work out a deal. Those of you out there know who I am talking to.

The Beach

2007-02-27T15:01:00.000-08:00

A beautiful spot I found. Hgiher off the beach, I still had a bungalow right by the water. A lovely view from the patio where the restaurant was. Family owned, but this was not a good thing cause Mama was a raging bitch. She told me no rooms, then changed her mind, then doubled the price. When you go there she greets you with a scream "what you want?!" Using the tone that a woman would use when being attacked in a dark alley late at night. At first I thought it was just me but she treats all her guests this way. Sadly Thailand is beautiful but the people are fucked up (of course this is true of most places on this planet). They are so spoiled by western tourists that they just try to jack you for a nickel all the time. Really annoying.

This is the view from a resort where you can go learn Tai Chi for 5 days.

My buddies. I met these guys on the overnight train down from Bangkok. It takes 12 hrs. Then you take a 3hr boat ride. The guy on the left is a cool German guy who takes Americans on tours of Europe 6 months a year, and takes the rest of the year off to study Chi-Gong and Chinese medicine (with time for a beach party in Thailand obviously). Talk about beating the system. The guy on the right is Canandian. He wants to be in Doctors Without frontiers, and volunteer teaches English in Bangkok. All good goals, but we'll see if his raging alchoholism gets in the way.

This is where th rich people stayed. You can sit on a bean bag chair on a deck right next to the beach. They show movies at night. Also it is a semi-nude beach, which is illegal in Thailand, but then again so are a lot of things that go on. If the cops don't enforce the law, who cares, right?

I like coconuts, you can break them open and they smell liek ladies lying in the sun. -WSP

The beach bar

This is one place I stayed. I had a beach bungalow right here on the beach for $10US. Nice little porch with a hammock. There is a little restaurant there that playes reggae music at night. Also you can walk down the beach to the upscale resort where retards are paying up to $100 to stay in the same place because they want luxuries like indoor plumbing, AC, and TV.

2007-02-15T00:03:00.000-08:00

This last photo is the Kings palace. Well, i only got shots from far away because you have to wear long pants to go inside, and since it was 93 out, I was wearing shorts. They do have a place where you can change into pants that they provide, but I refused. It's the principle of the thing. Who are you to tell me that I have to wear long pants? I'm the King of Siam! Well whoopteefreakingdooo your majesty but you can suck it. So I didn't go in. And it is sad really because who knows if I will ever go back there and get to see that beautiful place? I know I am being stupid, but you gotta have your principles right? Also I just have a deep seated hatred of monarchy and authority in my blood, so when it is 93 and some dingleberry says I gotta put pants on and I am on vacation, my natural reaction is "fuck you your highness". You're no better than me, why should I put pants on for you? Now to enter a Wat (temple) sometime this also applies but at least that's religious and I respect the Buddha. See the top pic. It is a 40 foot long, 20 foot high gold Buddha. This was essentially Buddha's message: "When I die, build huge gold monuments to me while the people live in poverty".

Bangkok

2007-02-14T23:58:00.000-08:00

More temples and pics of bangkok

Ride the river boat ferry

2007-02-14T23:46:00.000-08:00

So I found out the hard way that the only way to get around in Bangkok is to take public transport. There is a subway and a sky train, and they are connected, but they don't go everywhere, so sometimes you have to take the riverboat. Taxis and Tuk tuks are no good. First because traffic is terrible, so it is way slower. Second, they always try to rip you off. Taxis have to turn on the meter, and if they do it is cheap, $2 US across town, but a lot will try to take you with no meter and try to charge you $6-10. I had one guy tell me that it should cost $40 to go to the airport, when it actually costs $4. Tuk tuk (open air three wheeled motorcycles) suck because you get to smell the city, which is so foul, so foul. Also they will run you all over town. I was trying to go to the train station, but dude took me to a tailor shop, a jewelerry store and so before we got there, and then he wanted a tip! One taxi driver took me to meet his friend in a shady alley, and the guy got in chatted for a bit, then got something out of the trunk, before we were on our way. Shady? So take the the subway, sky train and river boat, you will have to take all 3 usually to get where you are going, and it may take an hour, but this is way better, cheaper, and safer. Plus the view is nice.

Bonzai

2007-02-14T23:44:00.000-08:00

Roads

2007-02-14T23:42:00.000-08:00

Did you know that you can already say the word for "road" in both Chinese and Thai?
It's easy. You know your good buddy Lou? Well his name also means road in Chinese!
And you know soy that you put in your Latte? Well thats road in Thai!
This language lesson has been sponsored by Gabe's English school, coming to a community
near you soon!

Patriotism

2007-02-14T23:31:00.000-08:00

What country is the most patriotic? I bet it is the lowest shithole on the planet, somewhere in central Africa. It seems the goodness of a country is inversely related to how patriotic the people are there. I always thought America was way overboard with the patriotism, flag waving, national anthem and stuff. However much we love our country, we hate our politicians and leaders though, which gives me hope for our sanity. Well, living in Taiwan, nothing much is changed. People like Taiwan OK I guess, but are far less patriotic, and still hate the politicians. Actually their patriotism is very weak, they are not very sure what their country should be. Should they model after Japan, China, America, or just be themselves. Not sure. But most will agree the best way to succeed is to get out and go to Canada and America, even thought they have it pretty goof over here. Then I went to Thailand. They love their country, and they love their king. They have more flags up and pictures of the king everywhere then I have ever seen. They play the freakin national anthem before movies for God's sake! They love their stupid king. Now to be fair he is a pretty fair dude, and he seems to have been working to improve the lot of the poor people. But I ask you this: if the king is so smart, why do you drive on the wrong side of the road. It is completely archaic in the 21st century to be ruled by a king. Why is this so bad if he helps poor people? Because he has too much power behind the scenes and has built a cult of personality. Recently he decided that the newly re-elected Prime Minister was gaining too much popularity and was a threat so he authorized a military coup to take him out. Nothing much changed, but democracy is severly undermined by such things, and this is the problem with having a king and a democracy. And because of his cult of personality, the people love him, and since he said the coup was OK, everybody got on board and said that it was a good thing, even though they had just elected the other guy! Ugh. Stupid stupid stupid. I think the only countries that have been cured of patriotism is western europe because of the war they learned the hard way that it just don't pay. The King is dead, long live the King!

A note on Free Speech

2007-02-14T23:21:00.000-08:00

We have freedom of speech here in Taiwan, sorta the same as the US but not exactly. Anyways I am more or less free to say whatever I want, and I do, and this is helped by the fact that 99% of the people here have no idea what I am saying anyways. I tend to speak my mind and just say whatever I think, which gets me in trouble and offends people, but also can be successful at times. This has actually helped me at work, despite my sometimes criticism of the place. However, instead of just criticising, I also include practical suggestions on how to fix or improve the said problem, and my boss likes this. Now my buddy was not so lucky, he was fired for the same thing. He saw a kid with a black eye, and asked what was wrong, and it turns out Daddy beats him if he gets less than 95% on his test. OK, so believe me when I say the Taiwanese education system is strict, and there is a lot of pressure on these kids. Anyways, so he posted this disturbing news on his blog, they found out, and they fired him over it, cause it looks bad for the school (loss of face). Now you say thats terrible, but couldn't this happen in the US too? If you put some sensitve info that your company doesn't want out there in the public domain, mightint they fire you too? Possibly. So anyways, I tend to edit myself a lot in this blog, well aware that it is in the public domain, even though probably only 3-4 people read it (you know who you are). I tend to keep it "G" rated and not covering any racy or sensitive material. Why?
It's not that I am afraid of losing my job. It's just to protect the guilty, and I include myself in their number. Rule #1: don't incriminate yourself. Now, dear reader, you say, "well then, what am I missing? All the good stuff? All the dirt? The answer is yes. So what to do? I have been seriously considering writing a book with all the good parts included, under a psuedonymn of course. Then I am safe, you can get all the good parts, and I can make a buck. Everybody wins!

Cool temples in Thailand

2007-02-14T22:42:00.000-08:00

Itenerary

2007-02-14T22:34:00.000-08:00

So I spent some time in Bangkok and then down to the islands on the East side of the thin Southern strip of Thailand, the opposite side of Phuket which where all the old fat people go. There are three islands, Ko Samui, Ko Phnagyan, and Ko Tao. Ko Samui is the largest and most commerical. Skipped that. Ko Phangyan is where the Full Moon party was. Hit that. Then on to Ko Tao for a little mellowing, then back to bangkok. I was supposed to go to Chiang Mai, but it was really far away, and I was low on Money, so i just went back to Bangkok. Which was a bummer cause Bangkok sucks, its a huge city, very crowded, dirty, polluted, built up in a hectic pell-mell way, lots of hustlers, and the traffic is a nightmare. So no elephants or mountains for me. Very sad. The upside was that I got to see some cool temples and museums and the kings palace and stuff. Also the people I met were very cool. Mostly westerners, but very cool.

A Day in the Life

2007-02-14T22:28:00.000-08:00

Here is an excerpt from my journal for one day in Thailand:
Well boys, I got up this morning to the sound of waves crashing in,

right on the beach, girls froliking in the surf, did some Tai Chi, had breakfast, and then got a "taxi", which was really a truck, riding open air in the back with two Swedish girls through a Coconut grove on a tropical island direct to another part of the beach to go snorkeling. All in all not a bad morning really. And when I get back I still have two weeks vacay to travel a bit and be lazy. So it's all good actually. Lots of Europeans here, wish there were more Thais (call me crazy but it is Thailand) I mean I would rather mess with Thai girls than Euros at this point but whatever. Also Australian girls are hot too. Later. Will post many photos to my blog when I return. Been trying to get a tan but I am still a pale white motherfucker, also I am the only American here, which is probably a good thing (yes zaheer I don't always like us either) (The photo is of the road I was on)

-G

Thailand

2007-02-14T22:23:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been awhile, but here we are, back by popular demand! I have been on vacation in Thailand. While on the beach I met many interesting and cool people, thought about stuff, had a raging debate with my old friend Zaheer via e-mail, saw some movies, read some books, partied and had a blast! Photos to come. Actually I had 100 photos waiting to be posted before I left and now I have 100 more, so its gonna be awhile till they all get posted so stay patient.

Physical Graffitti

2007-01-05T21:19:00.000-08:00

This specimen was found painted on a garage across the street from my apartment building.

Propaganda machines

2006-12-30T19:04:00.000-08:00

Many old ex-pats here complain of the noise caused by the celebrations of gods birthday. And for you chirstians out there who think this only happens once a year, the Chinese have a pantheon of Gods that would shame the best pagan, there is a gods birthday 3-4 times a week. Seriously. And they get out the firecrackers and bang a drum and dress up in that lion costume and ask you for money. It is cool at first and then it gets really annoying. Anyways this rarely bothers me. For whatever reason, i have only seen it once or twice. However the real problem is the propaganda machines. This is what woke me up today. It is a blue truck with a megaphone attached to the top, the only equivalent thing we have is the ice-cream truck. He comes down the street blaring his crappy message. It's in Chinese, or possibly Taiwanese, so I have no idea what it is, but I guess it goes something like this: "Come on down to crazy eddie's mattress warehouse, where the prices are so low, you'll think I'm crazy! Located on blah blah street, call blah blah number. Legal disclaimer: Sat. and Sun. only, this message is not actually intended to indicate a sale but simply a ruse to trick you into coming to my crappy store." This message is on a loop, said through a megaphone attached to the top of a truck, said by a girl who sounds about 15 yrs old, and he will pull up to a corner and just stop, so that the loop gets played again and again. I live on the 9th floor, off a side street, not really all that close to the main street, and this woke me up like someone yelling at me in my room. It is like the voice is in your room with you. With all the doors and windows shut and the curtains drawn. So as I realize what has woken me up and why, I start to think about my weapon of choice, but unfortunately I don't have a baseball bat. So I start thinking " A knife?" cause I am really gonna go down there and hurt this guy if he doesn't move that *^#$%&^** truck. Then, finally, agonizingly, he moves off. Just imagine in America, this guy would get pelted with rocks until the police came, especially if he woke you up Sunday am with that shit. Here it is a fun normally happy part of life. Taiwanese like it cause they like to feel like they know what is going on. They think the countryside is boring becuase it doesnt' have stuff like that. In chinese propaganda doesn't have a negative connotation, it simply means "information". But imagine the driver. This tape is about 30 sec. long and its on a loop. And it is sooooo loud. So this guy drives this truck around 8 hrs a day (maybe 10-12hrs actually) listening to the same 30 sec. loop over and over and over. How long until you go batshit insane? For me I wouldn't last a week at this job. You would have to lock me up after a day or two. But his guy does it everyday. I dream about going to the depot and setting off an explosive charge that destroys all the blue trucks at once. Speaking of violence, I also need a small metal pipe to keep in the trunk of my scooter, because everyday somebody cuts me off in traffic and almost kills me, and just blazes away as if nothing happened. So if I ever do actually get hit, and am still able to move afterwards i'm comin for ya. I will go upside your head, preferably with said metal pipe. Tainan, you're on notice. You hit me, we're gonna brawl, and I may lose, but the advantage I have is that the Taiwanese won't expect to have to fight after ramming me. They will expect to just drive away. So when I go upside their head I will definitely get the surprise attack factor in. Of course it could be a woman, so I will stop once I can see it s a woman, but those first few blows will still come. If its a dude, its on and it will be ugly. Another advantage I will have in this situation is that I always wear my helmet, and many taiwanese don't, so when I come after you, i am protected and you ain't, its gonna get ugly. I don't care about the lawsuit, i don't care that your brother/cousin/father/ will come after me and take revenge when I least expect it, if you hit me, and its your fault, i'm goin upside your head. And i've been going to the gym lately.

Hang Saddam

2006-12-26T21:46:00.000-08:00

Ah good times. Hanging Saddam. I just only wish that the video leaks and gets posted on You Tube. What a snuff film! The best of all time. Think of the money you could charge people to watch that!

PTSD

2006-12-26T19:34:00.000-08:00

My students have PTSD. They have been tortured by the Taiwanese school system for their whole lives, in some cases for 20 yrs. They have been both physically and mentally abused. Once when they were being bad and not paying attention, I said "I should get a ruler to make them pay attention", and my one student in that class with good enough English to understand what I said (out of 50), said, "You can't hit us, we aren't kids". When planning my finals, for finals week some classes regulary meet Tues/Thurs. or twice a week and they all ask me "if we take the final on Tues. do we still have class on Thurs?", and this shocks me cause in America it is understood that of course Finals Week means you just have to take a final and that's it, and after you take a final, what more class can you have anyways? But they are all terribly relieved when I say "no, no more class after the final", which tells me that they are often forced to go to this empty class for no reason, and are therefore held up from going home for winter break for several days. Often my students will get exited and talk in Chinese and start to run a bit wild, so I have to change out of my normal mellow mood and get kinda angry and maybe yell at them. Then they become quiet and still as death for 5-10 min. This is the way they are normally used to being talked to in class, and this is why they are sooo bored in class.

Draft

2006-12-15T20:05:00.000-08:00

This says it all.

Freshman Class

2006-12-15T19:50:00.000-08:00

My Freshman English class poses for photos in the hallway. They have been waiting patiently for me to post this pic for a while, so here it is, sorry it took so long. They still have a long way to go, but their English has been improving a lot recently. This is a night class, and many of them work jobs, and then come here for class. I have had to improve my Chinese in order to talk to them, but this is good for me. These are only some of them, there are actually 50 students in this class. This is common in Taiwan, and Asia, but luckily I only have three classes of 50, and my other three classes have 6, 5, and 2 students respectively.

Saddam

2006-12-15T19:39:00.000-08:00

OK so in "Flags of our fathers" we see US troops trying to raise money for the war, cause back then you actually had to pay cash for wars, you couldn't put them on your credit card like we do now. Bush has cut taxes while paying $2 Billion/week for his war. Imgine that money going to a worthy cause. Why you could turn the whole state of Mississippi around with that kind of money. Or put computers in the classroom, or save the endangered spotted owl, etc. etc. Anyways, so I have an idea for raising money to pay for the war. Nobody wants more taxes right? OK so f%$# the Saddam trail, it is BS anyways. Put him in a bullet proof glass cage where he can stand up or sit down in, and take him on a tour of the US. People would pay good money to see him and have a chance to curse him or spit in his general direction (of course some people would try to kill him, that's what the bullet proof glass is for). You could raise a lot of money. Charge $100 a pop, and go on tour. Next stop, Saddam in Chicago! Then its on to LA.! Special appearance in your town soon!

Another great idea I have for rasing money (and changing US policy) is to have Rumsfeld, Bush, and Cheney all stand there, and people could buy tickets to kick them in the balls. And hundreds if not thousand (or millions) of people would line up. And you could give one of them one good punch or kick. Only one. And the point is you could raise some money, but also, at some point they would give (they would be tied up so they couldn't run away) and then they would beg and ask "what do you want?" and then you could have a list of demands ready, like pull out of Iraq, scrap tax cuts, scrap No Child left Behind, Increase the EPA's funding by 1,000% and so on. And when they laugh and say no way, they get another kick in the balls. This would be very effective. Much better than a trial or an impeachment.

I found this listed under "Why we hate George Bush".

Stuff I do

2006-12-15T18:15:00.000-08:00

I have been more active recently, actually than I have been in a long time, doing several things that I have done on and off during the years that I found interesting, but they faded away over the years. Well, for whatever reason, in Taiwan, with my situation, I am able to do these things and it is good. I feel like I can activate myself as a person again. First of all, I don't really watch TV much. Partly because I can't, I only get 7 channels in English, mostly movies, so once you have seen a movie, how many times are you gonna watch it? We also get CNN, but that gets depressing after a while, and ESPN which is in Chinese and tends to cover a lot of sports I don't care about. We also get the Discovery channel and animal planet which are pretty cool. So anyways the choices are limited, and whereas at home I would just come home and watch TV, here that is not so much an option. I have a bunch of cool DVD's including family guy and simpsons, but I try to ration those because I don't know when I will ever get new ones.

So anyway, the point I am trying to make is that I am now active and doing things that I want to do. For example, learning Chinese. Here is my Chinese teacher: She is very active and fun. Unfortunately I only meet her for two hrs a week. But I also have a lang. exchange, but that is also only 2 hrs / week. I need like full time Chinese 20hrs/week. But I will just have to study more on my own. Vocab, pronounciation, and tones are murder. Forget about grammar. But I have picked up many things from osmosis just being here, and my students have taught me many things unwittingly, because their English is so bad that they are always talking Chinese, and I have to learn some survivial classroom Enlgish or I will be eaten alive.

Also I bought a new guitar for around $100, which in the US would be a POS but here it is OK.
My guitar teacher:
He is pretty cool. His English is not great, but he has ESP (English for Special Purposes) and his
English music related vocab is pretty good. Also he is a great guitarist, a good teacher, and a cool
guy.

I have also joined a new environmental group that just started (pictured here) which is trying to do something proactive to help clean up the environment here. Apparently it has gotten better recently, and it is not as bad as China, but it's still pretty bad. We are doing a beach cleanup, and thought about starting a petition, but it can't just be local, Taiwan is very top down and it has to go to Taipei. Anyways we are brainstorming and we are trying to contact other local groups that we can team up with. The air quality is really bad here. Depending where you are in the city, you just can't breathe without a mask. It makes me choke.

Also (and I don't have a picture) I have been going to Meditiation nights at the Yoga center every Wed., and I have met some cool people there, and the Monk in charge is really cool. He is from Texas but left America 21 yrs ago and never went back. He has been doing meditation for 33 yrs. It is really mellow and calm, not severe like Zen. He plays a bit of guitar and there is some chanting. It is very relaxing.

Also I go to the gym (again sorry no picture) and it has weights, treadmill, elliptical, and a swimming pool/spa/jacuzzi. Very nice. I even sometims go running on the track at the high school across the street which you can see in this pic from the roof of my building. I would love to hang out up there, but it just got colder, and there is a TV satellite there, so all those beams aren't good for your brain.

Doing all these things and working 40 hrs/week, I have been very busy (and also a bit of travelling), but I feel very positive and happy, more so than I have in a long time. It is like waking up again after a long sleep. Having recently seen (again) Lord of the Rings (all 3 extended version) and Star Wars 3, which are both Sci-fi stories that I love it made me think about things. If I really believe this, then I must act. You know the point of those stories is that there is good and bad in the universe, and once you wake up and the veil is lifted and you see what's really going on and take the blinders off (most people choose to wear blinders, like the people in the Matrix they are sleeping but living in a bubble world, they just go to work, go home watch TV, talk about the weather, and the health of people in the family, and maybe sports and politics, but that's it) so if you know, if you KNOW, then you can only choose to ignore it for so long. I have been ignoring it for a long time, and this is what has made me depressed from time to time over the last 10 yrs. Knowing and ignoring is worse than not knowing (this is why ignorance is bliss). And I have wanted to take action and be pro-active, but it is hard for me to motivate on my own, I need stimulus, or the right environment. In the US this is out West, Europe is cool too, but for some reason Taiwan brings it all together for me.

Anyhow, back to LOTR and Star Wars,the thing is if you know what's going on, you can only sit on the fence for so long, and then you have to choose sides. Well, although sometimes the dark side seems tempting (you can just wreck shit and be evil and get what you want) in the end it is emtpy and hollow and destroys your soul. And the thing is you want to feel good right? Well getting some things you want makes you feel good temporarily, but feeling good all the time inside is way better long term. So being good is really the only choice. And these movies make it very clear. I mean do you want to be the evil emporer? Do you want to become corrupted like Anakin? Do you want to sell your soul to the devil like the witch king? All these people thought they would gain power but they lost their soul, their humanity, their dignity, and ultimately were defeated. But even before defeat they had become this ugly horrible twisted creature (like gollum). So obviuosly the darkness rots you from the inside, whereas Luke, Obi-Wan, Gandalf, Frodo, Sam, Aragorn and so on are who you want to be. You want to shine your light. There is a great quote about this in "Coach Carter" with Samuel L. Jackson that I just saw that kinda sums this all up:

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond imagination. It is our light more than our darkness which scares us. We ask ourselves – who are we to be brilliant, beautiful, talented, and fabulous. But honestly, who are you to not be so?

You are a child of God, small games do not work in this world. For those around us to feel peace, it is not a good example to make ourselves small. We were born to express the glory of god that lives in us. It is not in some of us, it is in all of us. While we allow our light to shine, we unconsciously give permission for others to do the same. When we liberate ourselves from our own fears, simply our presence may liberate others.’

- Marianne Williamson in Return to Love: Reflections on a Course in Miracles

This of course, sounds rather Christian, but it could also be Buddhist. I personally would cut out the bits about God, unless you can understand that God is also the "Chi" (or Mohammed or Vishnu or Jahweh or whatever you want to call it, but not just Jesus). That is how I choose to see it. But there definitely is an energy and a power in the Universe, I just don't think it is an old white guy with a beard and a thunderbolt in his hand sitting on a cloud. If so and he created us all in a grand experiment 5,000 yrs ago and is always watching is, he is a sick sadistic bastard. He lets people be raped, tortured, and slaughtered for his own amusement. So no, it is not a conscious being, but an unconscious force that created the universe, and the Universe is finite and it is shrinking (according to Einstein), the big bang started it and now inevitably (I love this word) it is slowing down and going back. Yin/yang there is always a balance. Unfortunately human action has drastically sped up this course of events. Naturally we would all die in millions of years when the sun explodes. But we should have these millions of years to frolic in our happy little world. However we do not, in 20 yrs London and Shanghai will be under water if we haven't nuked ourselves first. The Mayans, Nostradamus, the Egyptians, and the Bible Code all say there will be cataclysimic change in the year 2012. However this does not have to be bad. The true good Jedi, the buddhist monks will fight to protect us (and they say they have foreseen this is in a vision and will win the final victory, but of couse this is all just speculation). It may be a comet, aliens, war, or gloabl warming, but something is gonna happen around Christmas in the year 2012. I just really hope (and I know this is naive, but without hope all is lost) that it can be positive change. That the aliens are good. Or that people figure out how to live in harmony with nature. But it will take a major shock to the sytem to get us on the right track. Right now we are headed for hell in a handbasket, in large part because, we the American people allowed Bush to steal the election from Gore in 2000. We should have marched on Washington like they do in Latin America. But of course the worlds problems are greater tha just America. If Iran gets a nuke, if N. Korea gets a missile to carry their nuke, dirty bombs, terrorists, republicans, etc. etc.

So the thing is, you, me, we, we all gotta do something, because regardless of 2012 I could get hit by a bus tomorrow (knock on wood). Life hangs by a string. We thought we won a political victory, but now a Dem. Sen. is sick and the evil bastard Cheney might take over again. It all hangs by a thread.

So doing these things, and I am going to add Tai Chi is my Jedi training to try to make myself stronger, because when the fight comes, you have to be ready, and if you want to be effective, you have to be strong. Ideally, in 2-3 yrs, when i have some money and my Chinese is better, I will drop out, and go study under a monk for 3 or 6 months or however long I can take it. I know it will be very hard. But I have always wanted to do that. It is the only true path. I can't ever really fully drop out of society because I love my xbox, ipod, internet, and so on too much, but I just know I feel better if I do what's right.

"It's not how you look, it's how you feel. It's not where you're born, it's where you belong, it's not how weak, but what will make you strong."
U2- Summer rain

Cheerleaders

2006-12-13T17:59:00.000-08:00

We had cheerleading games at our school the other day. Outside. In December. The cheerleaders cheer at cheerleading championships, they don't cheer for a team. We don't have a real team, just intramurals. Which is really sad because they have a lot of cheer, I mean serious school spirit. They have class until 10pm, and then they practice in a field lighted by floodlights after that. They really j-eye yo themselves (gogogo). This condition is true of many students. In class they are asleep, or half dead zombies, just bored to tears. They drag their body to class, but usually do not bring their minds. However the second that bell rings they come right back to life and want to play ping pong, basketball, cheerlead, go bowling, play computer games, or study? Maybe? I think the Taiwanese sytem has sucked the life out of them, but I guess a lot of American students are that way too. It is just frustrating as a teacher. I tell them turn the Dian Now on. Dian Now means "electric brain" which is Chinese for Computer, and they are there in class, but the switch is not on.

Safe in Taiwan

2006-12-06T17:10:00.000-08:00

To follow up on my post about Taiwanese friendliness, you are also totally free of crime or threat here. As America slides toward the abyss, see:

Pennsylvania town mulls recommending guns for all

In Taiwan you are perfectly safe (except for scooter traffic). There is no physical crime, such as muggings or attacks. And almost no stealing, that I see. Of course these things exist. One guy went bonkers in Taipei and attacked some people with scissors before the police came. But he was probably mentally ill, and in America he would have climbed a water tower with a sniper rifle. Some guy did try to break into BeeJen's family home, but father sleeps on the couch downstairs and the noise woke him up, so he started calling to see if it was brother Wu coming home. This scared the burglar away. But the other day I left a CD player and two guitars sitting outside and went into a store, and nobody touched it. I always leave my scooter helmet just sitting on my scooter, and nobody touches it. In contrast, my brother had his backpack stolen while standing on the street waiting for the bus because he turned his back for a minute and left his bag. He also had his car broken into and all his CD's stolen. This is not to say the US is bad. Of course shit happens everywhere. In Poland, I knew a British guy who owned a car (by the way this is a big deal, to own a car, everywhere except in the US where half the 16 year olds have one) and people broke into his car constantly. He refused to get a car alarm based on the principle that he hated the noise when people left their car alarm on all night and he couldn't sleep. Well, he finally changed his mind when he found one morning that a guy had not only broken into his car, but was still sleeping in his car. In Poland poverty and alchohol fed these types of incidents. Once I was biking with my buddy in the woods in Poland on a beautiful Tues. morning in May, and we came upon these two fishermen at a lake. Being innovent, naive, and hopeful, we approcahed them full of good cheer. Turns out they were sloppy falling down drunk. The one guy turned around and puked. On a Tues. morning. In the US these guys would be homeless, but the family structure is very strong in Poland, and Mama and the family will always take care of these guys. Anyways the point is this type stuff just doesn't happen in Taiwan. Partly it is because they don't really drink alchohol, and partly they have money, and partly they have this Confucian, Daoist, Buddhist, thing going which says losing face is worse than confrontation and social harmony is the most important thing. This means fighting or violence or anger in public is almost unheard of. Of course there are other societies with the same values (Thailand, China) who have major social problems. But in Taiwan mostly it is chill. Of course they will riot over politics. A man in the legislature last month set off a tear gas bomb in the legislature to protest that the 3rd recall of the president had failed. (Yes the 3rd, and they will go for a 4th, and it will fail too, but they won't give up). This guy, even if he was a congressman in the US, would be arrested as a "terrorist". Here is an eccentric. But politics aside, it is very safe here. I can't tip anybody. Cabbies will studiously count my change and ensure that I get back every nickel. A cabbie in Taipei gave a lady back $10,000US in cash that she left in his cab (even though he had $30,000 in gamblng debts and the gangsters were coming to break his legs, seriously). He followed the lady and when he couldn't find her he went to the police, and then the lady called and got her bag. When they asked him about it, he said he just wouldn't have felt right about it if he took the money. Criminals will try to steal money from locals, but not knowing Chinese ensures safety from all these scams. They lend money at extortion rates, and call the house saying they have kidnapped your son and you have to pay ransom. This usually doesn't work, because everyone has a cell, so they just hang up and call their son and he says, "I'm OK", so they know it's a scam. But they shrug it off. If people did this in the US, you would have the FBI on the case and shit. OK, last example, I go running on a high school track close to my house, which sometimes is lit at night and sometimes not. But nobody is around, you can't see the street, just trees. To do this at night, alone, is not safe in America. Some wierdo guy may attack you. Here I am perfectly safe. The worst that happens is a couple of students are around and gawk at me.

Jianada rocks the House

2006-12-06T16:52:00.000-08:00

The Canadian Invasion was a beach party with two stages, one hip-hop and one House. It was at Sun Yat-Sen University in Kaohsiung, on the beach. I had never been to this area before, and getting there we saw a very cool waterfront district. The Uni itself is magnificent, perched on a cliff overlooking the sea, but I only saw part of it at night, it must be great during the day.

Just to mess with the Canucks I wore this shirt. If you don't know me, you don't know if I am a semi-proud, semi-self mocking Canadian, or an American making fun. There are a lot of Canadians down south where I am. They are by far the largest contingent of "Westerners".
All the Americans seem to be in Taipei. Anyways so it was a good disguise. Many asked which province I hailed from. This girl I talked to said it was strange to see the shirt because no Canadian would be "proud" enough to wear it. (I though it was making fun!). Only an American would do something so silly as wear a shirt with his national flag on it (to Canadians). Lots of people wanted to take my picture. All in all it was a good time. The beer tent was selling beer (corona) for $5US but we found Taiwanese vendors selling Heineken for $2, and they also gave us free water. I should have got a jedi light saber, they had both blue and red, but I got a free glow stick so that was good enough for me. But the light saber would have been fun later for play fighting my roomate. Good times. The DJ rocked it. I am still supposed to get the CD of the show from the guy who sold me the ticket, but I haven't met him yet.

Taiwanese Friendliness

2006-12-06T16:36:00.000-08:00

Taiwanese are very friendly. At least to me anyway, because they like white Americans. So far my students have given me teas, coffees, a small stuffed bear, a small seashell (heart shaped) box,
and so on. You can get small repairs and things done for free at shops. I bought a small tea for a quarter from a small stand and the lady gave me a free tea bag (from Alishan, arguably one of the best tea-producing areas in the world). Everytime anyone goes to get gas you get a free box of tissues or a bottle of water. Since these things are practical and you will use them anyways, and they cost about 10NT and gas for my scooter is about 100NT this is like getting 10% off gas everytime. Most places I have been to or called asking for something, if the person doesn't speak English they will call or go get somebody who does. My school has really gone out of their way to meet my "crazy" American demands (to them, to me normal) and have done everything possible to make me happy and feel comfortable.

Me and Bee find another Temple

2006-12-02T19:36:00.000-08:00

We found another temple in Tainan just driving around. There are soooo many here. Tainan is a very old city for Taiwan, and some of these temples date back to the 17th C. This is not old by Chinese standards, but then again the commies destroyed all the good stuff on the mainland anyways.

A cool boat. What was it used for? Beats me.
Artwork on the side of the boat. Is this a Chinese Neptune?
It's nice to find these green places because the city is so gritty.
Cannon for defense.
Beautifully landscaped garden and bridge.
The temple entrance.

The People in my Neighborhood

2006-12-01T16:44:00.000-08:00

The school cafeteria. This is where I eat lunch almost every day. They are very helpful for me with my poor Chinese, they try to understand me. They are very fast, and really hustle at lunch. The lady on the left has some lungs, when an item is ready she screams that it is ready. And boy can she yell.
Students in my graduate TOEFL class. They hope to go to the US next year to study.
Another TOEFL class. The good thing about these classes (as you can see) is there are only 5 students, so we can actually make progress with specific problems that they have. This is an "experimental" program that we are copying from the Japanese. The "experiment" as far as I can tell, is to have 5 students instead of 50 like all my other classes. I have to right a weekly report on their progress. Overall they are a good lot.
Diana is my office assisstant. She is from Seattle and is doing her IMBA at STUT. Most of the other students in this program are from Vietnam or Thailand, and are in my Chinese class.
Cindy is the go between for me and my boss, so she is always giving me new instructions. We try to smooth relations by going to lunch. sometimes.

We teach the new iBT TOEFL

My office now that it is set up a little bit

The big picture of the office

We are hip to Azar at my Job

Student in the undergraduate night TOEFL class. This class has 50 students. Some nights it goes until 10pm, so it is hard for us to stay awake, but we try. They are motivated though, and mostly, their English is pretty good for Freshmen.
A real action photo of students at work.

A couple of my Grads.
Brooks hard at work. He is one of the other teachers in my program. He's from S. Carolina. Having him around had helped alot, because we are about the same age, like sports, and so on.
Diana and Richard hashing out the issues of the day. Diana is the other American on our team, and Richard is a teacher in the Language Center.

Alright, I know that for a long time a complaint about my blog has been that there were'nt enough pictures of people. I just haven't had time to take so many pictures, but I finally got around to some. So here there are. I know you are all eagerly anticipating...

Hu's on First

2006-11-22T07:48:00.000-08:00

Presedent Chen Shui-Bian of Taiwan President Hu of China and Premier Wen of China

OK OK OK OK OK OK so there's these three guys right? One's named Hu (who), one's named Wen, and the other's first name Shui-Bian in Chinese sounds like "whatever" (although I'm sure there is a different tone used). So they're all these big important dudes right? And they have this big official meeting to discuss trade policy between Taiwan and China (this would actually never happen because they hate each other) but just go along with it.

Hu: When will he get here?
Whatever: Who?
Hu: Wen
Whatever: Who?
Hu: No, I'm Hu, wen is coming soon.
Whatever: yes but when?
Hu: Wen is coming When?
Whatever: That's what I'm asking you.
Hu: Whatver. (said in a 14 year old girl kind of way)
Whatever: Yes?
Hu: Yes what?
Whatever: Well, who is joining us?
Hu: I'm already here!
Whatever: Who?
Hu: Me!
Whatever: So who will be here When?
Hu: I'm already here!
Hu: What I want to know is who is holding up Wen.
Whatever: Who's doing what now?
Hu: Whatever. (Walks out in disgust)
Whatever: Yes?
Wen: Sorry I'm late.
Whatever: Yeah, Who just left.
Wen: Who?
etc etc etc

Cultural Learnings of Taiwan for make benefit of glorious nation of USA

2006-11-21T23:23:00.000-08:00

Before I start on this rant I will give you, the dear reader, a pleasing picture of a cool monastery in Northern China. Sent to me by my friend Kurt who has been sighted thereabouts. Ok, so Taiwan, pros and cons. Pro: You get really good service here. As a consumer, the people you meet are terribly polite. Every store, it's "welcome to out store", "how can I help you today?", and "yes sir". (Although mostly this is said in Chinese, the idea is the same). The clerk will go out of his way to find anything you want, will even literally run to the back to find it. They will bow to you and if they can't find something you want will apoligize profusely. As a consumer this is great. Con: In personal relationships this can be tricky. This super polite attitude may often be superficial and hiding the person's true feelings, which may be the opposite. This can lull you into a sense that everything's OK until they turn on you. This is caused by their society, going back to Confucious, whose main idea was social harmony through conformity and obedience to authority without question. Recently President Hu of the PRC claimed his new vision of China's "Harmonious society" which he claims puts him in the pantheon of great thinkers such as Mao and Zhaoping (in Chinese eyes these men are great thinkers). But this is not a new idea. It has ruled China for 5,000 years. So this means people will smile to your face even when they hate you because getting mad disrupts this precious social harmony. This is sort of disturbing to Americans because we may feel unsure of a person's true feelings.

Pro: As an American you will be treated very well here. You are almost like a movie star or something. Everywhere you go people will stare and say "look it's a foreigner, or it's an American" (in Chinese), with the kind of schock and awe that Americans would have if they saw a celebrity. You can use this to get what you want and get away with just about anything (in most cases).

Con: For the same reason celebrities hate the paparazzi, this becomes annoying. When living in a foreign country one hopes to blend in and act like a local (I do at least). This worked when I lived in Poland because I looked like everybody else. My proudest moments were when someone at the bus stop would ask me "when is the next bus?" (in Polish), and I couldn't answer cause I can't speak Polish, but just to galnce at me they assumed that I was one of them. Not so in Taiwan. I stand out like a sore thumb. This gets old when everybody on the street has to stop and say "Hello", even though that is the only English word they know. When in an elevator, or walking on a campus a group (they only have the nerve to speak in a group) they will see me and someone will say something terribly clever like "10th floor", or "How are you today?", and then the whole group will burst out laughing. But this is the teeneage/younger set. Older people will genuinely try to use English to talk to you.

Pro: You can make good money here and there is lots of work.

Con: Your boss may speak poor English, and may surprise you with stuff you can't imagine in the US. My roomate gets paid every week, and last week they told him that he hadn't been paying taxes (no one told him to do so) and so this week they would take his whole check to pay it. With no notice, on payday. Kinda ruins your whole week. At my school, I started in Aug. and they said they couldn't pay me until Nov. They did get around this, but only through dreadfully difficuly maneuvering. They constantly send me memos and e-mails in Chinese, and wonder why I don't respond or comply.

Victory- as so sweet

2006-11-18T15:52:00.000-08:00

Yeah baby! I'm smoking a cigar! Michigan sucks! Republicans suck! Victory!
Wendler and Rumsfeld suck too! Ha! We're No. 1! We're No. 1! I credit my lucky red Ohio State hat. I had lost it and freaked and tore up the house, then I found it. During the game I took it off for awhile and we fumbled, then I put it back on and we won. It will now be framed and hung on the wall.
Listening to it on the internet radio, the guys are already saying, let's go to Arizona
to watch the Championship game. Well, I wish I could, but no way. Still, it's awesome.
And in the works we still have LeBron for the Cavs.

Street

2006-11-18T15:42:00.000-08:00

A couple of typical street scenes in Taiwan.

Sunrise

2006-11-18T15:36:00.000-08:00

I usually don't get up early, but I had to get up at 5am today to listen to the Ohio State-Mich. game on internet radio. This is the view from my apartment balcony on the 9th floor.

The Garden of Erudition

2006-11-18T15:33:00.000-08:00

I think my Dad would like this.

The Beach

2006-11-18T15:01:00.000-08:00

Went to the beach the other day. It is still 85 degrees here so the beach is still an option in Mid-Nov. There is a very long coast line close to Tainan, and what they call "The Gold Coast", however it's pretty dingy. It could be nice, if it was cleaned up, but it is too dirty. Here you can see the pier and me on the sea-wall. I was watching the crabs fight the giant sea-cockroaches. It was a good battle. Actually you could train them and have bets on who will win. In China they have professional scorpion fighting. So its possible. You can also see the people fishing on the pier. Pretty normal right? Well, except the sign in Chinese clearly says "no fishing on the pier".
OK, so you figure "when the cats away the mice will play". They will fish as long as no cops/authority types are around. Well this may apply in the US, but not in Taiwan. The pier is actually right next to the coast gaurd office, which has several boats, and do not even need them because they could easily walk over (it is so close) and say "hey guys, read the sign, no fishing". But of course they don't. This points to one of the major problems of Taiwan, which I call the "Chiang-Kai-Shek system of Management" (copyright pending). This consists of making a bunch of rules from the top down, some of which make sense, many of which don't, and then largely failing to enforce the law while lecturing (or haranging) the people about moral values in a cheesy boy-scout harry Potter type of way, so then largely the people ignore the law so that they can live their lives. Then the authorities will randomly crack down and enforce the law (maybe 10% of the time, but that is just a guesstamate). Sometimes this is good, like traffic cops pulling people over for not wearing helmets. Sometimes this is bad like when the cops start shooting in the middle of a crowded street at a guy driving recklessly because he's been sniffing glue. Sadly this same concept of management (or mismanagement) also applies to parenting. I have often seen parents in public just let their kids run wild, running, screaming, kicking, everything. The parents will calmly sit there and ignore it for as long as half an hour, then suddenly get up and grab, hit, smack, or yell at the kid. Then they will go back to doing whatever, and the kid will be calm for a while, and then slowly start acting up again, as the cycle repeats itself. So the moral of the story is, if you make reasonable demands, and then follow-up to see if what you want is being done, then you won't have to freak out later when you find that the exact opposite of what you wanted is being done. The Chiang-Kai-Shek system of management is, by the ay, also a major part of the reason why the Nationalists lost the war and had to come to Taiwan in the first place.

The little things

2006-11-18T14:54:00.000-08:00

OK, so usually life is about all the little things like, did I leave the iron on? Did I forget my keys? etc. etc. and slowly if you do those things right, and slowly learn something over time and make some progress you can feel like "OK, maybe life is Ok and maybe getting better. However, big victories, really big victories, are very rare and in between. However lately, there has been some kind of major shift in the force (So I just watched Star Wars 3 again). Congress, Rumsfeld, and Wendler all sacked? And now Ohio State to beat Mich. and go undefeated No. 1, and Troy Smith win the Heisman with no real no. 2 team to play for the championship? Things must be going well.

TVBS

2006-10-16T23:53:00.000-07:00

One of the biggest most popular TV stations here is called "TVBS". Hahahahahaha. I love it when they try to use English, and actually, it's OK, or grammatically correct, but has a funny or bad connotation in English. Reciprically, I found out that "LP" (sounds innocent enough right?) has a bad connotation in Chinese, so it works both ways.

Hooray for Keith Olberman

2006-10-15T22:07:00.000-07:00

I have noticed recently that Keith Olberman at MSNBC has been doing a great job on Bush. His writing is thoughful, coherent, and strongly anti-Bush, but with really good evidence. See it here.
He has made many relevant points that the mainstream media miss, and all this from a former Sportcenter anchor! Who knew?

Worst Line Ever

2006-10-12T18:49:00.000-07:00

I didn't really intend this site to be used for movie reviews but here goes. This is a good movie, violent, but what did you expect? Anyways I saw it here in Taiwan and it has the worst line ever (as comic book guy would say) at least if you are in Taiwan. *Note- If you still haven't seen it this does not give away anything critical to the plot* Jack Nicholson is a gansgter and he is trying to sell computer chips to Chinese gangsters and some Chinese official, and these can apparently be used to fire missles. They are not sure of the deal, so Jack says "If you chinks wanna nuke Taiwan anytime this century, you gotta talk to me!". Oi vey, or as they say here aiyo. I cringed. This is just about the worst thing you could possibly say here in many ways. In America probably nobody would notice, but being in Taiwan... To combine a racial epithet, along with the Chinese threat of attack, and on top of that to make it a nuclear threat (which nobody here even contemplates, they just think of regular missles or a ground/sea invasion). Just about the worst thing you can say. My girlfriend tells me that the subtitles were not edited, in Chinese they said the same thing. I wonder if this movie is playing in the mainland?

Transport

2006-10-09T07:17:00.000-07:00

Taiwan is scooter heaven. If you don't have a scooter it's like you don't exist. Unfortunately I do not yet own one. There are some motorcycles, but mostly scooters (although my students don't know the difference in English). They cost between $300 for a used one to $2,000 (US). Lucky I live near the train station, so I can take the train to town in five minutes (cost $0.50 US). The train is OK, but the problem is walking around town after that. It is not pedestrian friendly. Scooters rule, which means they may kill you at any moment if you are walking. Add to that the fact the sidewalks are almost non-existent and you see my problem. A Taxi costs $4, but that is the same cost to fill up the tank on your scooter. So for now, I don't go out too much. My girlfriend lives an hour away, so she drove her scooter up this weekend, so we could go out.
When I get paid, get my ARC, and get my driver's license, I can get a scooter, so we are looking at late Nov. I'll lay low until then. I walk to school anyways. It's only 10-15 min and I listen to my Ipod. Without the Ipod it is rather cruel, with the Chinese, the traffic, the pollution ( I tried to wear a mask like people do when they ride scooters but it was too hot and hard to breathe), the people staring at me ( I always stand out as a foreigner, and they never let me forget it, this really bothers me because when in a new place I like to try to blend in with the locals, in Poland I could sometimes do this, but here it is impossible, this is another benefit of the scooter, the mask, helmet and sunglasses help me blend in), but with the IPOD on, it is a funny cartoon world like manga or something. Maybe that doesn't make sense, but it does to me.

Taiwan Nazi party

2006-10-09T06:58:00.000-07:00

Yes, Taiwan has a Nazi party, but its not as bad as it seems.
On holiday with my girlfriend I came across this sign. She translated and told me that it is just a finger wax sculpture making tent. People dip there fingers in wax and get a little mold. Apparently the Chinese word for this sounds similar to thr Chinese word for the Nazi Party, thus the tranlation. Innocent enough, but also scary. Ignorance can be a dangerous thing. If only my Chinese was better, I could tranlate! Arrgghh! (Hahaha, yeah in ten years). The other disturbing thing is the reverse swastika symbol, which is all over Taiwan. It is an ancient Buddhist symbol that the nazis stole, but is entrenched in my mind and (most westerners) as the Nazi symbol. That one I will just have to learn to live with.

Taiwan Politics - Now

2006-10-09T06:31:00.000-07:00

Photos- Chen (left) and Shih (right)
So tomorrow is National Day (like July 4). There is a guy named Shih Ming-teh who some call the "Nelson Mandela of Taiwan" because he spent 25 years in jail under Chiang for protesting for democracy. In the last few months he has been running a campaign against President Chen (DPP) for charges of corruption. Now Shih used to be a DPP member but now he is attacking it. He says he is not on either side but he has major backers in the KMT (not surprisingly since he is trying to take down their enemy). Shih is using his name to rally the people against Chen. He has been holding nonstop rallies of thousands of people outside the Presidential palace. He accuses Chen of corruption. Chen's son was found to have made an insider trading deal worth a lot of money, and his wife was accused (but recently cleared) of using influence to get thousands of dollars in coupons for a department store. Chen himself is accused of no crime, only of allowing these things to happen on his watch. The problem is for the KMT to call Chen corrupt is really the pot calling the kettle black. The KMT is probably one of the most corrupt parties to ever exist in government. When Chiang needed to get control of Shanghai during the war, he made a deal with the largest drug and arms dealer gangster in Shanghai to harass and drive out the commies. Chiang recieved $2 billion in US gold bullion during the war. The US commanders called him "cash my check". Then in Taiwan the KMT simply took whatever they wanted under the martial law period. Ma, the KMT mayor of Taipei, and likely the next presdient, was recently charged with using his personal sluch fund for his dog. His reply was that he only had to show receipts for half of it. This is true of all government officials in Taiwan. Talk about corruption! It doesn't matter who rules, the problem is 1) that officials even have slush funds (outside of the regular salary) in the first place, 2) that they only have to show receipts for half od this money. As long as this system continues, corruption will continue, whoever rules.
Anyway Shih's protest is supposed to have a big show for National day. They have been wearing red to show their anger at Chen, but this is scary because red means the commies, and that was not allowed in Taiwan for a long time. It seems that Shih and his KMT backers may have Mainlander money and support. This is bad news if the KMT wins because then China can have a soft power takeover like they have long wanted. Anyways what really gets me is the idea of comparing this to the situation in the US. I mean what Chen did (or may have allowed) is so minor compared to George Bush who has lied, maipulated the media, stripped citizens of their freedom, spyed, tortured, invaded two countries, stole the 2000 election, probably committed what would be condired war crimes according to the Hague and the Geneva convention, continues to let a moron named Rumsfeld run the war, allowed millions of African babies to die by forcing US aid money to be tied to an abstinence only program (not condoms) increased American babies rate of autism tenfold by allowing big Pharma to put mercury in innoculations, etc ect etc etc I'm sure you all can add to the list. Where are the protestors? Where is the Shih of America? Now Shih is saying that he wants Chen recalled. He wants the DPP legislators recalled becuase they will protect Chen, and he may be able to pull this off (maybe not) but he is trying. Now the thing is Chen won two elections, so he is the choice of the people, but so was Bush, and Bush manipulated the hell out of those elections, partly by controlling the press. The KMT controls the press here. Now I only wish that someone with power in the US had the balls to say that 2 million people need to come out on July 4 and tell Bush he has to go, and if he won't step down we will have recall elections to recall every Republican because we know that they will protect your sorry ass. Can you even comprehend someone saying that in America, let alone doing it? Imagine.

Taiwan Politics - Background

2006-10-09T06:12:00.000-07:00

(Photo of Chiang Kai Shek "The Generalissimo"
For many of you who are unaware of the situation in Taiwan, I will first give some background to the Political scene in Taiwan. There are basically two political parties, the KMT (Blue) and the DPP (Green). The KMT represent the Chiang Kai Shek crowd that fought for the Sun Yat Sen
idea of a Nationalist China after the fall of the Empire (1911) . They still commemorate this date and actually base their whole calendar on it, so it is not 2006 in Taiwan it is 95. Which is kinda cool because in 1995 we never said 1995 we said 95 so it is like going back to the future. 95 was a good year for me (ahh the good old days). Anyways, of course the KMT was OK when they were fighting the Commies in WWII but Chiang was an opportunist and a bit too soft on his enemies, he incorporated known gangsters into his outfit and tolerated corruption. The man himself was not corrupt, but he did not crack down on it hard enough. So when he lost and came to Taiwan in 1949 he really cracked down to establish himself. In 1949 people of Chinese heritage already lived here along with Native Islander peoples. Chiang and the Nationalists he brought with him from the mainland imposed martial law in the fear that Mao would attack (a reasonable fear at the time). When Chiang died in 1975 this was less likely. His son allowed some freedoms. By 1990 free elections were allowed for the first time and the DPP emerged as the main oppositon party to the KMT. The DPP stood for the local people of Taiwan (those who did not come over in 1949). They want Taiwan to be called Taiwan not the Republic of China, have a UN seat, and basically be independent. This is already true in fact but not in name. However addressing the truth is not communists strong suit, and China won't allow this. So some say if you live next to an angry dragon it's best not to make him angry. Others say Taiwan is independent and should be recognized as such. The average person in Taiwan probably would go for the former, but the DPP pushes the latter (which also makes the US angry who want to maintain the status quo). Anyways in 2000 the DPP won the election and again in 2004. However they don't have a majority in "the legislature" (nobody is sure if it is a congress or a parliament or what). So they can't push their agenda and the KMT votes against them at every turn. Gridlock. Sound familiar?

Temples in Tainan

2006-10-06T05:21:00.000-07:00

Still being poor, I do not yet have a scooter. However, my girlfriend rode her scooter up here Kaohsiung this weekend for the Holiday (Autumn moon festival) so we went out and took some pictures of Temples. Tainan has many great temples compared with other places in Taiwan. The detailed artwork is especially intiguing. Although as a Westerner who has studied Buddhism, I find all the rituals dissapointing. Burn incense and pray to Buddha. Isn't it really the same as praying
to Jesus or any other "God"? Buddha specifically says "do not worhip me like a God". Anyways,
after seeing the mundane, often ugly architecture, and street chaos in Taiwan, the temples
are a refreshing sight.

Kaiyuan Temple, with high rises behind. Notice any contrast?

I wasn't the only person interested in taking photos today. It made me feel a little better.
It's always a good sign if the locals are doing it I am not horribly desecrating the temple by taking pics.

Some interesting writings. My girlfriend tells me this says the temple has been here foe over 100 years.

This tree is also 100 years old

The front gate of the temple

Your fearless author, practicing Tai Chi with the Gods.

My girlfriend poses with our jolly green friend.

The Nazis stole the swastika symbol from the Buddhists. It is thousands of years old and symbolizes the turning of the seasons, or the wheel of life. Unfortunately it is still disturbing to see it, because in the west we are so conditioned to associate it with the Nazis.

Some cool dragons go at it.

A sign in English! I wish I could read the poems on the wall that it is talking about.

A Lion protects the entrance to the gate.

The entrance to an interior temple. Taiwanese people will go inside and donate money,
burn incense, and pray for a bit, asking for success in business, marriage, etc.

A lucky lion. In the future I will visit more places so stay tuned!

On Campus

2006-09-17T02:14:00.000-07:00

I will share some photos with you to try to describe things over here, although I can never
really take enough photos to show everything, I will keep updating the blog so you can see
more over time.

Although Taiwan has many beautiful aspects, the cities are a sort of urban hellscape of traffic, pollution, crowding, and ugly buildings. Luckily I went back to the U.S. and got my Master's degree so I could teach at a University, which is much nicer. A bucolic haven actually.

This is the building I work in. It has a Chinese name, but luckily we can just refer to it as Building N.

A pleasant tree lined avenue on campus.

Here is a nice little garden with a koi pond and a statue of some dude.

The campus library. I have a library card, and they have a decent English section. Not much in the way of fiction, mostly classics, but still it's free. Some of my classes are there. They have classrooms that look like something from Star Trek with leather chairs and pull down TV's. I'll have to get a photo.

Campus recycling. Recycling is taken very seriously in Taiwan.
Campus volleyball court.

A girl walks by the volleyball court holding an umbrella for the sun. Taiwanese girls do this because of the old tradition that darker skin means you are a peasant, so they associate lighter skin with prosperity. Taiwanese women take many measures to keep their skin lighter, from umbrellas, to wearing jackets while riding on a scooter even though it is 100 degrees, and also skin whitening cream. (I will have to get more photos)

My office. It just got set up, so we need to put something on the walls. In another strange case of misunderstanding, I asked for a phone for my office. They had just installed 6 brand new computers, chairs, desks, printers, etc. so I figured a phone would be OK. Well they thought I was being difficult and that this was unnecessary. anyway, now we have sorted it out and it is a nice office. There are six places but only three teachers. The other two teachers are Americans (again I'll get more photos).

The view from the fifth floor. Because it is warm year round, many buildings in Taiwan are open air. So there are open air wlak ways around the building and a nice inner courtyard.

However, also becuase of the open-air effect, the building cannot be locked down so each
room has its own locked gate and barred windows. This is common in Taiwan.

Object d'art on campus.
A pleasant spot for a picnic on campus.

Our University is sponsored by Starbucks and 7-11. Apparently this means we are wll endowed.

A sign on the elevator in my building. Taiwan is stronlgly influenced by Confucianism, which tends to be heavily involved in your everyday affairs. This type of advice and heavy-handed paternalism is normal here. This kind of thing tends to piss Americans off (even if the advice is good as it is here) because we are used to being treated as adults. One time I was playing Black-Jack in Vegas and there was a Chinese lady at the table. She kept telling everybody when to bet and when to pass, and so on until everybody get sick of her and told her to shut up and mind her own business. By her Chinese way of thinking she was just being helpful and trying to help the other players win. By to Americans this type of advice is seen as interference and very annoying. If given a chance Chinese/Taiwanese people will try to give you advice about every aspect of your life. My girlfriend was taking out the trash and the neighbors were snooping and told her how she could better sort her recycling. So she said if you are so interested in my trash why don't you sort it yourself? That shut them up. Luckily for me, my University has taken a very hands off approach, very different than when I was here before and had an agent controlling my life.

2006-09-17T02:05:00.000-07:00

Hello all and welcome to my website on Taiwan!
I will use this site for sharing news, updates, info, and photos with friends, family
and all interested on the web. Sometimes things in Taiwan make sense and sometimes
they don't. Through photos I will try to document life here, because I know it
is hard for people back home to picture how it really is over here.

This is me, the hero of our little saga, while hiking up a mountain near Nantou. There was a Daoist temple at the top but it burned down and now there is just a small one.