Oh my LORD is FRICKIN' COLD!! Today's weather in Hsinchu (according to Yahoo) sees a high of 13C and a low of 6C - it also states that the current conditions feels like 3C. For a Canadian - albeit one who lives in a not-so-cold Vancouver - to come to Taiwan and say it's cold, it must be fairly chilly. It's cold enough for me to see my breathe - which is an indication of the moisture.

For New Year's Eve, I had been planning on going to Taipei City Hall and Taipei 101 (World's tallest building) for a countdown celebration... but given that I don't have my scarf or gloves here, I'm hesitating now. I'll probably still do it because I'm crazy. Besides, I hear that it's going to be a mob of people there, New York Times Square-like, so maybe there'll be lots of body heat.

Anyway, best of luck in the coming new year! See you (online) in 2005.

R.I.P. to those taken in recent natural disasters.

Well, that was a long hiatus. But things are winding down and I can finally sit down and blog a little. So, let's backtrack to over 1 week ago...

Last Friday (Dec 17th), after a week of practice and studying, I went for my scooter test. A week earlier, I went to the Hsinchu Motor Vehicle Department to scope out the testing grounds and get some preliminary things out of the way, such as my health inspection. In general, I don't think they try very hard to prevent people from getting their licenses. So, here's the quick breakdown of what's involved:

HEALTH CHECK -- The doctor is an OLD OLD man, and he starts by giving an eye exam (wearing my prescription eyewear) - both eyes, right eye, left eye -- reading some letters through an old machine (but not as old as the doctor). Then he asked me my height and weight and wrote them down. He tells me to do 3 simple movements: arms extended open and close hands, wrist rotations, and a bend down (I bent at my hip and touched my toes, not sure if that's what he was looking for, but I passed). Finally, he tells me to look thru a little hole and tell him what color I see. I saw yellow. He agreed. With the paperwork done and stamped, I was out of there.

WRITTEN EXAM -- I got a rules and regulation book in English which I spent 2 nights on. Basically, 52 pages of multiple choice and T/F questions, with the objective of teaching you the rules of the road, signs, license rules, and penalties. Most of the questions can be guessed correctly, especially the morality questions. They could be characterized in this format:

Are you stupid?
(1) Yes
(2) No
(3) I don't know.

I took my test in English on a computer with audio, while those who can read Chinese did theirs on paper. 40 questions needing 85% and higher to pass. With questions so easy, it didn't take much effort to get 97.5%. I wonder what I got wrong.

ROAD TEST -- The "road" test is conducted under a covered blacktop, and it's one
loop that literally takes < 1 min to complete (unless you screw up). There are 4 sections. At the start, you drive, and a couple meters out, you stop at a simulated "train crossing", then you go, turn left, then you stop at a red light, then you go when it's green, turn left, then you stop at another blinking light thingy, go when it turns green, turn left, back up and straighten out for the last section. So, basically, the first three sections test whether you can stop and go, and turn left. Don't practice right turns.

Now the last section is where most people fail. You have two tries to drive straight between a narrow path at a slow pace and without putting your feet down. It's not that difficult, but people often go too fast or put their feet down. It's basically a length of 20 paces (my paces), and you have to complete it in 7 seconds or MORE. This is where I spent more of my efforts during practice. During the test, I put my foot down only a quarter of the way through, and that kind of shook me up. But my second pass was successful with the help of the shifting knees balancing act. You know, to counterbalance the handle steering. It looks like you're dodging bullets with your knees.

My general impressions of the tests... pointless. After reading the rule book, I notice that at least 1/2 of the rules are broken on the road by EVERYONE. In theory, they talk of "right of way"... in practice, there is no such thing, and you'll get honked by the person behind you if you should ever try to abide by such a silly concept. Lots of people who pass, shouldn't. Tiny girls whose feet can barely touch the ground pass. Old folks who probably shouldn't even walk pass. In many ways, it's a test of luck when it comes to the final stretch of the road test because it depends so much on your start (i.e. when you start the final stretch).

Anyway, I passed. I need to find a scooter now.

Busy lately. Will post something new soon... but for now, just read this article. It's actually pretty crazy how far technology has come when you think about it. Today's world is starting to look very futuristic.

Kevin

An email that I found pretty funny.
==================================================


A Marine stationed in Afghanistan recently received a "Dear John" letter from his girlfriend back home.

It read as follows:

Dear Ricky,

I can no longer continue our relationship. The distance between us is just too great. I must admit that I have cheated on you twice since you've been gone, and it's not fair to either of us. I'm sorry. Please return the picture of me that I sent to you.

Love,
Becky

The Marine, with hurt feelings, asked his fellow Marines for any snapshots they could spare of their girlfriends, sisters, ex-girlfriends, aunts, cousins etc. In addition to the picture of Becky, Ricky included all the other pictures of the pretty gals he had collected from his buddies. There were 57 photos in that envelope....along with this note:


Dear Becky,

I'm so sorry, but I can't quite remember who you are. Please take your picture from the pile, and send the rest back to me.

Take Care,
Ricky

Step #6 of Being Taiwanese: Buy a Scooter

So I'm in the market for a scooter. Scooters play a HUGE part in Taiwanese traffic, with a decent variety of shapes and sizes. The Big 3 scooter companies here are KYMCO (intl), SYM, and Yamaha (intl). Scooter sizes are ranked based on engine size: 50cc, 90cc, 100cc, 125cc, 150cc, and a few more above that. The 50cc's are small, and don't require a scooter license (a local driver's license will do), but they're weaker and going uphill with a passenger can be embarrassing. It seems like 125cc's are the most popular size.

Anyway, I'm on the hunt right now, and hope to have both license and scooter in 2 weeks. I've had a few practice runs with my co-workers scooter, and so far the training has gone really smoothly. With my scooter likely to only be used casually (rather than daily), I'll probably pick up a 2nd hand one.

I had a conversation with CS a while ago, that went a little something like this:


Kevin says: yes. I want to buy a scooter.
CS says: yah...lower it, buy a spoiler and install a boom box.
Kevin says: WOOOORD! I'm going to give it a low-rider. And I'll tint the window.
Kevin says: Don't forget the racing stripes
CS says: it'll be a fiiiiiiiiiiine ride my friend...
Kevin says: and the Spoon and Mugen stickers
Kevin says: hmm... where can I hang fuzzy dice?
CS says: on the handle bars. you know...like tassles on tricycles


So, I drafted up a few concepts of what my scooter might look like, if I wanted to go overboard on modifications.

- Here's what a typical scooter looks like...
- Now here's what an American Chopper scooter COULD look like
- Better yet, living in the Lower Mainland, perhaps the Richmond Scooter would be more to one's liking

Of course, I'm only having fun with this, and the chances of me actually supping up a 2nd-hand scooter are thin. But what if I DID...? Would it look like this: 1 | 2 | 3?

Now, if I were to buy a new one, and based only on model name... I think I would have to give extra consideration to this KYMCO scooter. At 250cc's, it would give a new meaning to "Wanna ride my Grand Dink?"

A Few Thoughts...

Ode to the Blog

Given that you're reading my blog, I figure it's fitting for me to announce that the most online-looked-up word of 2004 is, in fact, "Blog". Apparently, news articles about how blogs were affecting the voting outcome of the US Presidential Election drove people to look it up.

Ode to Earth

The day after watching a so-so The Day After Tomorrow disaster movie, I came across a news article that spoke a more real tale, that had eerie similarities to the movie. It's worth a read.

Ode to Sly

With 7 or 8 English movie channels, I get my fill of decent recent blockbusters. And then there are re-occuring movies, or movies that get shown based on their stars. For example, I've seen broadcasted so many Stallone movies since coming, that it's almost embarrassing. Rambo 1, 2, 3, Rocky 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Demolition Man, Get Carter and more. But while some of you may get on my case, Stallone's actually not a bad actor!... at least in some movies. For example, when I watch the Rocky movies, I actually think he passes for a GOOD actor. He's natural, he doesn't overact, and he actually plays a good down-to-earth kind of guy. So, I looked him up on IMDB and found out that one of his first movie gigs was a porno called The Party at Kitty and Stud's (where he played Stud). This movie was later re-released under "The Italian Stallion", after his Rocky success. Go figure.

Boxers or Briefs?

To tell you the truth, I'm not sure why the question comes up as much as it does. Really... does it matter? And there are so many more options now that it's no longer just between boxers and briefs.

I'm a briefs guy, myself. I've bought a pair of boxers, but I only wear them when I find I've run out of clean underwear. So, I consider them backup. I find the freedom a little too overwhelming, and I prefer knowing that things are where I last left them.

However, last year, I picked up a pack of boxer briefs by Prodigy, and they've been great! They're less embarrassing to be seen in than the tighty whities, and they make you feel like you're one of the Mr. Abs seen on the boxes. My boxer briefs come down mid-thigh, and they're SO comfortable. I can be happy wearing these around the house, which I wouldn't do in my briefs alone. They're also great for keeping my legs warmer during cold days.

Unfortunately, with the last point, the boxer briefs are a little too hugging and warm when the weather's 20+, like it often is here in Taiwan, even as we enter December. Some of the guys competing in the UFC wear shorts that seem like they'd be comfy as underwear. They're like my boxer briefs but stop just below the cash and prizes. I should find a pair of those.

But then, while at the Living Mall in Taipei with SC, we came across some real gems of underwear. Hmm... maybe I'll need to revise my underwear purchase plan and get one of these.

"What are you?" When people ask me about my or my family's background, my answer always depends on who's asking. I'm either Taiwanese, Chinese, CBC, or Canadian - making me a racial paradox.

By Nationality, I'm Canadian, and that's the answer I almost always give when I'm away from Canada. When asked within Canada, or by a Canadian, I assume they know I'm Canadian and so I usually reply with Taiwanese. If asked when in China, I usually say I'm Chinese or my parents are from Taiwan (without saying I'm "Taiwanese", to avoid sparking unnecessary controversy) - I tend to just agree with them that we are all alike, although I may not think we're anything alike.

My three choices are also convenient labels to make myself the same as or different from the people I'm talking to as desired. If I'm with my Taiwanese friends, I'm Taiwanese "like you", but I'm a CBC. While proud to be Taiwanese, I'm selective in choosing which Taiwanese characteristics I want to be associated with. I pride certain Taiwanese values and traditions, but take a strong Western views and dislike so many customs here in Taiwan. At the same time, I wouldn't follow the "Westerner"'s family value system either. By race, I'm Chinese, but I'm not Chinese. I'm Canadian, like all Canadians, but of a Taiwanese background, which makes me different from many. So where does that leave me? I guess that's what makes a CBC... a bit of everything, not fully anything.

CBCs (a term I use loosely to include many Canadian Born Asians) definitely have their own culture. In some ways, they're a race of their own, while not necessarily being of the same ethnic race at all. Fluency in their ethnic tongue is rare, and they often can't stand hearing new immigrants speaking their native language amongst themselves, not willing to assimilate into their new environment. Unfortunately, many CBCs suffer from poor English abilities as well, not having the chance to speak at home. At least in Vancouver, CBCs' friends are often other CBCs (or CBAsians), usually with room for a Caucasian or two (or some mixes) who are oddly open to the idea of being "the white guy" and joking about it. Of course, English is generally the main language spoken, but so often you'll hear Chinese words come up, because quite frankly, those are the only words we know to describe certain things. Typical CBC activities are a mix between Western and Asian activities (sports and outdoor activities, bubble tea, karaoke). CBC's also share an understanding of family values, strict parents, traditions they consider dumb and unnecessary, and other traditionally Asian anecdotes. In an abrupt end, that's my babble on CBCs.

A short page describing Chinese Canadians speaks about our roots, not in family, but those in immigration.

What are your thoughts?

The time was 11:09pm, Friday night. I was on my double-pedaled speed rocket heading into the office to check on some unfinished work. The night, dark. The wind, blowing. Out of nowhere, a barking, growling brown dog catches me off guard, chasing me on my twin-wheeler from the left side. The surprise throws my off natural courageousness and I let out a loud "WAAAAHhhhh!!!", as my bike wobbles. Just then, a black dog appears on my right, chasing, growling, and barking. But after the initial shock, I collect myself and know that the only way to survive a dual canine mugging is to keep on pedalling.

As I reach the next block, heart still pumping, I steer onto the left sidewalk. Both dogs follow. But cleverly, I get close enough to the edge of the sidewalk to eliminate any room for a dog to follow suit, so the black dog runs at a short distance on the abandoned road. After another half a block, I figure these dogs will turn back having had their fun. It was just another one of their "numbers" on a Friday night. Sure enough, a few seconds later, the tandem attackers turn away, and my heart slows down to just a rapid thumping. I'm sure they trotted back chuckling about their accomplishments. Meanwhile, I was left questioning my own bravery having over-reacted to stray dogs coming out of thin air.

So, I ask the dogs now... WAS IT WORTH IT!? Was this petty violation worth it? Was taking away a man's dignity worth the few laughs you got out of it? (and you can bet the first thing I did after I let out my human yelp was look around to see if anyone saw)

I recognize those dogs. I've seen them hanging out with their friends, lying on the grass, rolling around without a care in the world. Dogs with no responsibilities, no future, and no respect. Punk dogs, I call them. But their time will come. I assure you. I'm plotting my revenge now.

I'm in Asia. I will catch them, and then I will eat them.

Weekend recap:
- Friday night, caught a free saxophone concert by chance in a park
- Saturday evening, dinner with AJ and MC at a yummy (albeit expensive Japanese restaurant)
- Sunday afternoon, went to the Living Mall with SC... such a cool mall! Also caught some of a wheelchair ballroom dancing event. Totally weird!

Some neato pictures (and some laughable ones!) at my imagestation account.

I "drove" a scooter for the first time today!! It was very spur of the moment as I was stepping out of the office with my coworker, me going to my bike, him going to his scooter. And I had a question for him about his scooter, and he asked if I wanted to ride... so of course I couldn't pass up the opportunity!

Now, it's a law that all scooter riders must wear a helmet, but he didn't have a second one. He said it wouldn't be a big deal... so he drove out of the parking lot, and I walked out to the street. Just then, a police car drove by. Whew... it didn't stop. So, I got on the scooter with his helmet on, and he got on behind me. First thoughts on driving a scooter, it's a little weird, and not that easy to control. Just takes some getting used to. Not far from our starting point, we pass a police officer standing by a car... was he a police? hmm... not sure. Yep, he was. So, my coworker tells me to go a little faster to get away, and he reaches from behind me and speeds us up. At the end of the street, we trade places and he drives us back to the office. Just as we arrive, a police car drives by again... I duck behind my coworker.

Someone out there doesn't want me riding a scooter. heheh...

BUT, I'm persistent. I've already scheduled to have another coworker teach me to ride tomorrow night. Step 1 to owning my own scooter!!

Today is Rememberence Day. It's a time to remember how I used to have a day off back home.

Busyness busyness busyness busyness busyness busyness busyness busyness busyness busyness busyness busyness busyness busyness busyness busyness rest busyness busyness busyness busyness busyness busyness busyness busyness busyness busyness busyness.

In the midst of all this busyness, I finally got some rest. This past weekend in Taipei was a good one. Lots of time spent indoors, and two nights of sleeping that went uninterrupted by a reason to wake up other than lunch. That's not to say I didn't go out, but at least there was no copius amounts of walking, and I ended the weekend without aching feet. Seems like a while since I've had the pleasure.

I need to eat more, and very quickly. I don't feel like I get hungry often, but it seems like certainweight scales report very different weights. One weight scale this past weekend announced that I had lost some 8 lbs and was quickly nearing the ideal weight... for girls! Anyway, gonna start back on my Power Meal and Protein.

Groundbreaking news! Today was the groundbreaking ceremony for our new office building, to be built over the next year right behind the building I'm working in. The new building will become the eventual home for my team. In true Taiwanese fashion, a big ceremony was held. There was an announcement by the CEO, some firecrackers blown, some ceremonial gifts to the Gods (actually, I'm not sure what it was for), lots of paper burned to bring good luck, more firecrackers blown hanging from an excavator's shovel, and the final formal ground breaking. The ground breaking was performed by the company directors, 8-9 of them, using golden shovels. It was big pimpin'. At the end of the day, a conclusion is drawn: Taiwanese people like to burn things.

(the part above was written on Monday, the part below was written on Tuesday)

Groundshaking news! At around midnight my time, I experienced an earthquake. It was my second one (third officially, but I didn't feel the first one) in the last month. The first one I felt was a more violent shake and only lasted about 2 seconds. This one was less violent, although still shaky, and lasted 30 +/- seconds. I even had enough time to wonder whether I should continue MSNing with my friend VS in North Carolina. After the excitement, it was back to watching Rocky 2 on TV.

It's been a busy week here, but I'll just give a quick update.

I've passed my 3-month probation at work, and that's a good thing. Not that there was ever any doubt, but it was still a hurdle and now the opportunities of getting fired are slimmer. I celebrated by getting myself a landline for my apartment. It was installed today, and I tested it with a dial-up connection to a free ISP. I'll go buy me a simple phone over the weekend, and that will be that. Since then, I've been looking at Skype as an alternative for making long distance calls, and not just for free PC-to-PC chats. They have some very good rates on PC-to-PSTN calls, so I might have to look into that a little more.

Halloween is among us... even here in Asia. In recent years, halloween costumes have made their way to store owners around this country. This morning, my worker's son's kindergarden class came to our company and had a little "sing-a-song" performance all made up in their costumes. He (the son) attends an American-Immersion kindergarden class, so that might be a reason they got to celebrate. But it's becoming a little more common for trick-or-treating, although still not widely followed. Kids can go trick-or-treating under supervision, but they're usually taken along a predetermined and pre-agreed path. In other words, the stores or companies or homes (?) that the kids visit are aware that these kids will be coming. I guess it's still not safe to be knocking at some stranger's door, or having strangers knock at your door.

I am missing an opportunity to be a groomsman in a wedding next year, but we'll make up for it by making me the Best Man at a wedding at the end of this year. The role of a Best Man in Taiwanese weddings appear to be much less demanding than those for western weddings. I don't even have to make a speech! Whew. There's much for me to learn about Taiwanese weddings, but one thing I've learned is that things move along much quicker. It's preferred that the time between engagement to wedding be as short as possible. While weddings in the western world take a good year to prepare for, weddings here should take place within 2 months of engagement. However, they're only half-day events here, and not nearly as stressful. Should be fun.

-- new --

Oo Oo! I just got a letter from BT! A Happy Halloween card. Perfect timing because if I got it 1 hr later, I would have received it after Halloween! Thanks BT! But with $5, $10, $5, $10000, $10000, $10, and a "Happy Halloween", my Cash O'Lantern Scratch n' Win was a no winner for me. Guess I'll just keep working hard at this job I have and await the next Scratch n' Win to bring me home to Canada.

Random thoughts from various days...

Tropical weather is so completely unpredictable that Yahoo's online weather forecast can't even keep up to the day. While yesterday was sun sun sun, and today's Yahoo forecast calls for cloud over the next few days, one can be drenched in under 10 seconds standing outside.

Yesterday was the first time in 2+ years for me to wear an Iron Ring. My sister brought my replacement after I had lost my original, and this one fits a little better -- perhaps because of the warmer weather. I think this ring bares a little more meaning here away from Canada than it did back home.

It's been a year since playing in any tournaments, so I have a feeling I'm going to lose my foosball ranking soon. See here. I've already been taken off all other charts. :( But I'm still on this list. Sigh... too bad I couldn't play more. I think I had potential. Even Moya was shocked by my ability to unleash from the back 2-bar. Oh well.

For the person who doesn't care about good quality photos but loves neat gadgets: 007 Digital Camera

I saw a huge snail this morning, and it was unlike any other I had seen. It's body was some 3" - 4", and it had a spiral shell that spun into a cone (as opposed to the more rounded ones found on the backs of garden snails in Canada). At the fattest part of the shell, it was probably 2" in diameter. Any bigger and you would have wanted to pick it up to hear the sea... but you'd be disappointed because there'd be no sea... just snail slime dripping into your ear.

On my way home last night at 1am, I counted four dogs sleeping in the streets. It's kind of odd to see this, because in Canada we have laws obliging owners to keep their dogs on a leash. Hard to say whether these were strays or owned. You walk right past them, and they pay no mind to you. It was when I got closer to home that a dog on a leash scared the sh.t out of me barking, jumping, and growling. Thank god that dog was tied up.

My cousin had a baby girl today. Yay for me who gets to play with her and send her back to mommy for poopy clean-up.

My friend Jasper had an interesting story to relay to me over MSN. Here it is:

=============================

well, I left work at just before 2PM...I had been feeling nauseous all day, so I left. My boss was totally fine with it....I hadn't missed a day of work since I started a year ago this week (how fitting).

so...I'm 4 blocks away, so I was walking back and decided to go into Future Shop really quickly to buy a DVD I was thinking of picking up.....I was there a few days ago and thought it would be good to have something to watch since I was sick...totally innocent intentions. (home is 4 blocks away from work, Future Shop is on the way)

So...I'm looking through the DVDs for a minute and then I turn a corner and MY BOSS is standing there looking at DVDs.

I'm thinking....oh shit...this will not look good, no matter what, even though I really am sick and on my way home...there's no way to make it look good....so I turned around and walked the other way.

(he's done at 2PM, that's why he was there)

So....I walk around for a few minutes, waiting for him to leave and hoping to hell that he didn't see me and wondering what the hell to do.

so he leaves about 5 min later after I have been walking around.

Then...I decide to leave and just get the hell out of there before anything worse can happen (famous last words).

On my way out...I stop at the front DVD rack one more time, because I was thinking of buying Total Recall...that's why I was there. So I picked up the box one more time, looked at it, and then said...fuck it, I can't afford to spend money, and put it back and turned to leave.....

and then....it happened.

I turn around and one of the Future Shop guys is staring me down and he's like...."You are being watched"

I'm like..."Excuse me? I'm being watched?"

He's like..."Yes, you are being watched. Drop whatever you have and leave."

I'm like..."Um...want to search me? I have nothing. I was thinking of buying this DVD (that he saw me pick up and put back without stepping away from the rack) but I changed my mind."

He says, "Don't make a crime out of it"

(little does this guy know but I've spent like $2K in that store, including my FIRST computer that I bought from him like 7 years ago....how ironic)

At this point, I felt even more sick and just walked out very slowly, so they could see how non-suspicious I was.

The guy totally didn't believe me at all.

-----------------------------

Total Recall DVD... $13.99
Jasper's lost wages because of a stupid union agreement where he would've made more money by staying home all day and calling in sick....$50
Jasper almost getting caught by his boss for doing nothing and getting kicked out of Future Shop...priceless.

There are some things that money can buy. For everything else, there's Jasper.

This past weekend was a great one. It was my first so-called "vacation" in Taiwan, and it brought me, and 3 friends from Vancouver (CS, LC, SC) to the Southern-most tip of Taiwan: Kenting (墾丁).

I took Friday afternoon off, and we took a 5 hour train ride to Kaohsiung (高雄) where we switched to a 2.5 hour bus ride to our hotel (Howard Hotel).

The first night was taken a little easy, just a quick walk over to the 7-eleven for a meal. After breakfast on Day Two, we made a quick decision on transportation means -- car rental wouldn't be worthwhile, didn't have a scooter license, didn't see any taxis -- so we rented bikes: two regular bikes and one tandem. It turned out to be the right choice (although scooters would have been hella fun), and we managed to hit quite a few spots. Most rewarding was the 3 minute downhill, which had followed a 45 minute uphill climb. The sight of the day was definitely 龍磐公園 (Dragon Rock Park), an astonishing view perched upon a high cliff overlooking the Pacific. Also fun was standing near the edge for pictures while getting blown by the strong winds. That night, we walked along Kenting Street, played some little games to win prizes, ate tall ice cream cones, and bought a few souvenirs.

Day Three, we bought tickets for the Kenting Street Car (墾丁街車), a shuttle bus that follows a predetermined path, picking up and dropping off passengers at the main attractions/sights. Here, we picked a few worthy stops, including a nice beach, and saw what we could. The bus itself was a bit of a pain, because it left us waiting for much longer than its scheduled arrivals... but that aside, it was another great day, with even better weather than the first. The site of the day was 貓鼻頭 (Cat Nose Head), another great view from a cliff, even better than from 龍磐公園, and allowed us to walk down to the sea. My camera got some great pictures from this place.

Later that night, because of seat availability, I took an earlier train back from Kaohsiung, while the other three took the next train. Turns out, although being on a 5 hour train ride alone, I was the lucky one. I slept most of the ride, while they had to deal with some guy puking in the seat behind. Ick. We got home around 5am on Monday, and I went to work around 2pm. L&S stayed an extra day, while CS headed off to Korea for the remainder of his business trip.

With three digital cameras snapping away, we managed over 1GB of images and movies over the weekend. Great memories. Thanks guys!

Here's a laugh. I received this email two days ago.

For those who read my blog two postings ago, you would be glad to know that I completed the survey giving my honest opinion... and it wasn't pretty. Of course, I didn't give the lowest rating to every question, since that would make me look like a bitter customer influenced by rage.

-------------------------------------------------------


Dear KK,

Recently you e-mailed the eMachines Customer Care organization for technical support. As a part of our ongoing effort to constantly improve the quality of our technical support services, it is important for us to hear from you. eMachines has retained CareCall, Inc., a company that specializes in customer satisfaction measurement, to contact you and gather your feedback about your recent experience with our e-mail support. CareCall is currently collecting the opinions of eMachines e-mail support users via a web survey.

The purpose of this survey is to better understand the quality of your interactions and business relationship with eMachines. As part of this initiative, we invite you to be open and honest in sharing your experiences with eMachines. The information that you provide will be used solely by eMachines to improve their support. Please be assured that your answers will be kept confidential.

Your opinions are very important to us and will be used to help improve the quality of our services. Please take a few moments and share your thoughts. By clicking on the following link, you will be directed to the web survey.


Click here to share your feedback and opinions.

If the link does not work within your e-mail program, please copy and paste the following information into the address line of your web browser:

[URL LINK WAS HERE]

If this link does not work within your e-mail program, please copy and paste the link into the address line of your web browser.

This e-mail is not an avenue for technical support and requests for support will not be answered. Please direct any support questions back to the support channel you have been working with for assistance.

Thank you for your assistance in this process. We look forward to assisting you with your future needs.

If you do not wish to receive any future e-mails requesting participation in our surveys simply reply to this e-mail and type unsubscribe in the subject line.

Sincerely,

eMachines Customer Care

My mind always looks forward to weekends. My feet always look forward to the end of weekends. This past weekend was yet another 2 days of continuous walking.

On Saturday, I went to Yingge (鷹歌), a town in the Taoyuan county known for their pottery and china. My mom, sister, and I went from store to store looking not to leave the Old Street (鷹歌老街) empty-handed. What I had thought would be a 3 - 4 hr day (on one street!) turned out to be a 7 - 8 hr promenade! But we didn't leave empty-handed, and for that we should be pleased. That night, we scooted over to our cousin-in-law's for some wine and snacks to end the day.

On Sunday, I met up with L&S who had just arrived in Taipei on a 5am flight. We had a quick breakfast and MRTed Northward to Danshui (or Tamsui), a town along the North coast of Taiwan -- also a very popular tourist area. We spent the day walking around, looking at the many little food stands/shops, little boutiques, and small eats. We even played a game that my dad used to play when he was young, trying to catch fish with a paper net... I only caught one, while SC managed two, and LC managed to scope one into his bucket after his net broke. Cheater. The best part of the day was when the clouds dispersed and left a great blue sky for me to enjoy. And enjoy it I did. It was the first of a few great days of weather - the best I've had since arriving. Strange how just seeing a blue sky can make me grin like a child who just got his dad to buy him a lollipop at the fair.

That night, I did some record keeping.

- 8:18pm leaving home
- 8:30pm arriving at bus stop just in time to catch a bus
- 9:07 arriving at the bus stop in Hsinchu
- 9:20pm arriving at home in Hsinchu
[this is for my future reference.]

In other news, I've got a new furry pet. It sits upside down on my chin. It's been a week-long project, and I've concluded that it's probably not possible for me to grow any kind of beard or goatee. It's bad enough that the beard isn't thick and consistent -- but on top of that, a good percentage of the hair grows out light brown so it looks even thinner. What's that all about? But since CS wants to see the upside-down Chia Pet, I'll keep it around for another week.

Work is busy now. I'm taking a day off around this weekend, and I have to give a short presentation of some results to some directors on Tuesday. Work work work! But I'm glad to be useful. I should get a promotion after this. ... haha... umm... yeah.

I've been in a good mood recently. I'm happy to see friends, I'm happy to have a computer to use at home (albeit one with a buzzing left speaker), I'm happy with the way things are going at work - both work-wise and socially, I'm happy to have some things to look forward to in the coming years, I'm happy that things are going well with family, and I'm happy to see the sky blue again. I might even get to play volleyball the weekend after next... now wouldn't that be a treat?

So the Saga begins...

In May of this year, I purchased my first laptop off TigerDirect.ca. It was a refurbished eMachines M5312 that came with just about everything I needed, and at a very nice price. I received the laptop in the mail about two weeks later, which was just in time for me to leave to Taiwan on a round of interviews. While in Taiwan, I realize that the left speaker buzzed slightly, as if blown, and the right speaker had some sort of loose connection because it would cut in and out. So, towards the end of June, when I returned home, I sent it in for repairs -- still on warranty.

About 3 weeks later, I get the laptop back. The speakers sound fine... but I soon noticed that the DecisionOne (eMachine's 3rd party repair house) technician didn't take care in closing the case, and the PCMCIA slot was jammed, warping the entire left side of the laptop chassis. You can imagine I was most unpleased with this, especially since I was moving to Taiwan for "good" in about 10 days. So I quickly called eMachines customer support who passed me the number to their corporate office to handle the problem. A lady I spoke with sounded sympathetic (isn't that their job?) and ensured they would do whatever they could to try to get it back to me before I left - i.e. overnight courier, high priority repair, etc. Well, long story short, after many non-toll-free calls to the U.S., I didn't get it back in time.

While in Taiwan, I had my father and sister, check up with eMachines on the status of my repair. The communications on the eMachines side, between their different offices and repair centres was HORRENDOUS. No one seemed to know what the other side was doing, and at the end of it, it sounded like the part I needed was in back-order. Well, to me, it seemed like a matter of time. After X amount of time, I would get the laptop back, and things would be okay. I'd then have to bother someone (probably my sister) to bring it to me thereafter. At some point, someone called my house saying that the laptop was ready to be released, and they wanted to talk to me to ask me some questions. After calling back, it seemed we couldn't figure out who wanted to ask the questions, and no one over at eMachines seemed to know anything.

Some 6 weeks after I had come to Taiwan, My sister emails me one day saying that the laptop had arrived. YAY! But wait... IT WASN'T EVEN REPAIRED!!! Well, you can imagine how infuriating it was to hear this, that it took 2 months for nothing to happen, meanwhile I was in another country without a computer. For the last 2 months, my blood boiled each time I thought about my laptop -- and I was thinking about it constantly. I was damn right pissed off at this point.

Then, I had my brother call eMachines' corporate office. On his second call, he managed to get a hold of someone who seemed like he would be more able to get something done. I followed up the call with this email (editted slightly for public posting) to that "support specialist", C.H. I got a reply the next day from him, which was a first. It seemed like things were going in the right direction. After a few more days, a few more back and forths, eMachines sent a new refurbished machine to my home in Vancouver, and my old one was sent back. Out of it, I was able to gain one extra laptop battery. That's it.

My sister brought me my new reburbished laptop... and guess what? The left speaker buzzes slightly, as if blown.

Quick and friendly update:

- Last weekend, I went to Taipei and spent most of Saturday with my mom, sis, and parents' friends (who have an amazing house, and whose neighbours includes the ex-president).

- On Sunday, I met with WW, who took me went on a whirlwind tour of Taipei where I saw the Sun-Yat Sen Memorial Hall, the Chiang-Kai Shek Memorial Hall, 228 Peace Park, the Presidential Office, Taipei City Hall, and a few other places.

- Tuesday was a holiday, Mid-Autumn Festival, which means a day off work... although I decided to go into the office for a while and then for a great back/shoulders/tris workout.

- Tonight, our company had a Mid-Autumn Festival catered BBQ by the beach (postponed from last week due to bad weather). It was fun. Had a live band on stage, coworkers singing, me singing a part of "What's Up" by 4 Non-Blondes. A good time.

General Ramble:

- On the highway at night, many of the cars and trucks have blinking blue, green, yellow, red, or orange lights. They look like big Honger cellphones with wheels.

- The only rule on the road by foot is: what you can't see can't hurt you. You can pretty much walk anywhere you want, so long as you don't look and there isn't a car in front of you.

- The Taiwanese have abused the privilege of clapping. They clap for everything. It's too much. They must stop. They must.

- I miss blue sky here. I realized this when my sister pointed upwards on Saturday and said "hey look! some blue sky!"

- Life is so much better with my laptop. Evenings are fulfilled with IMing with friends, Skyping with friends, or videoing with friends. Miss TV has been replaced, and she's not happy about it. She's giving me the silent treatment.

Saturday and Sunday composed a company retreat to Sun Moon Lake near the center of Taiwan. It went a little something like this...

SATURDAY. Getting up at some 6:40am, my mother, sister, and I got up, got ready, and got out to get to my company for the tour guide buses leaving my company's building at 7:30am. The first stop was roughly two hours away, with a pee break at the one-hour mark. The on-board movie was Alien vs. Predator (oh, you didn't know it was already out on DVD?). Our five buses arrived at the Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village, which was an odd mix between amusement park and cultural shows. Getting there early meant there was no wait to hop on the limited number of exhilirating rides. My sister and my first stop was the UFO Gyro Drop, while mom watched from below. An 85 meter free fall (well, it slows down at the end), the UFO is similar to the Hellevator at PNE -- but free. Then we boarded the Mayan Adventure (what do the Mayans have in common with the Taiwanese? Nothing... but they have section of the park dedicated to them), a suspended looping coaster: one of those spiralling coasters where your feet dangle as you get whipped around and upside down. Thrilling. And to add to that, you get a massage as you bump in every direction in your safety "vest" -- everyone stepped off with red ears. Then we took our mom to some of the less heart-testing rides, the monorail, the carousel, the balloon race, and the Jurassic Cruise. One last stop for a second drop at the UFO site, and it was lunchtime. Lunch included an embarrassment to the pizza community - a pizza with cheese, corn kernels, green peas, and bits of ham. It was a confused salad/shepard's pie/pizza ensemble. Hideous, just hideous. Nothing like the picture.

The afternoon was spent absorbing the natural beauty from the top of the short mountain, whose face the amusement park decorated. We watched a few aboriginal dances, and my mom even joined in the group activity to learn to dance. I just sat at the side and filmed.

Another short bus trip landed us at our hotel, the El Dorado, on the brink of Sun Moon Lake. After dinner in the hotel, we headed outside and watched an unenthusiastic Sun Moon Lake Festival aboriginal dance performance. You know the performance won't be good when they introduce the following dance with a "We're not from this tribe, and we're not professionals, so the next dance won't be that good." Umm... ok. Next. Then we walked around the side of the lake for a short while and called it a night early.

SUNDAY. If I thought getting up at 6:40am the previous day was early, our pre-sunrise 5am decision was difficult too. But, nevertheless, we got up and headed down to the lake to embrace the growth of that day's sun. It was nice. Not awesome, but nice. Then we did more walking around. Towards 9am, we hopped on some boats and had a tour of the lake, stopping at certain places to take pictures and for the tour guides to get kickback from the local store owners. We departed from Sun Moon Lake towards noon and went for lunch in PuNi, known for their plums. Lunch was at a restaurant shared with a wedding party, and the food was excellent. Next stop was a short one at a wine market, although I didn't like the rice or plum wines enough to want to buy a bottle. Finally, we spent just over an hour at a paper factory where we made our own paper fans -- which was good because it was hot. Finally, back on the bus, with a "pre-released" French movie called Michel Vallant, we came back to Hsinchu.

All in all, it was a fun and eventful weekend where I got to visit one of Taiwan's well-known tourist spots, thus allowing me to strike it from my list of To-Sees. With just under 300 photos and videos taken over the two days, I think I have everything anyone else needs to save themselves the trip.

It's been a long week of meetings after meetings. I've averaged about 7 hours of meetings for the first 4 days of this week. Fortunately, tomorrow I get a day off meetings, so I get to sit at my desk and do work instead. The thing about meetings is, someone's always sleepy. At 1:30pm or 2:00pm today, we had 16 people in a meeting, and 4 people dozing or taking "power naps away from the action". Even the project lead was sitting beside me doing "the bob". It was humorous in a now-I-don't-feel-so-bad kind of way.

I think I learned something. In meetings, you can always tell who's about to sleep by the frequency of their eye blinks. I noticed that when I am about to fall asleep, I have an extremely hard time keeping my eyes in focus, so I blink vigorously. I often wonder whether my eyes just focus differently in depth, or whether they go crossed. Anyway, the point is, I blink lots. Now, if there's a guy in the corner blinking lots WHILE twitching, he's got other problems... just stay away from him.

Each quarter, during the week of meetings, we have lunch provided (the lunchboxes I've talked about), and one good meal on one of two companies. Yesterday, we had the good meal for lunch. We went to a Japanese all-u-can-eat, and it was the bestest all-u-can-eat Japanese I think I've ever had. Or... perhaps it just felt that way because those lunchboxes do something weird to your stomach. As I would've at home, I took the opportunity to stuff myself with sashimi. But, as my oyster incident in China should have warned me, it isn't wise to eat too much seafood in Asia, where ever you are. And by the fourth trip to the washroom that afternoon, I was very well reminded. I don't regret it. I'm stubborn. I'd do it again if I could.

For the last couple of weeks, I've been entertained by a show called Monk starring Tony Shalboub as an OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) detective who can't help stand the sight of anything unorderly or dirty. It's a hilarious show, and apparently has been getting some pretty good reviews. Anyway, it's my new favorite show here.

My sister's on the plane over right now. So I will see her in less than 24 hrs. Hope you're having a good flight, Nel! Yay!

Anyway, it's past 10pm, so I'm heading home. With my sis on her way, it also means my laptop's on its way... which means I don't have to stay at work to email! Double yay!

Last Monday or so I talked about "the ideal cubicle". Now, I can talk about what makes a cubicle not-so-ideal. Last Friday, my group of 6 people (+ 1 manager) moved from the 5th floor paradise to the 2nd floor hell. Who knew Heaven and Hell could be so close? Today, my desk is in a cluster just outside the CEO's office. What luck! This floor is mainly admin/IT and has all the big wigs walking around. My cubicle is the second on the right in a double-sided row three cubicles deep (i.e. 2x3 = 6 cubicles), so people can walk by and look at my screen.

We can't wear shorts or slippers on this floor, and I was told today by my coworker that we can't eat at our desks on this floor either, or else we'd get words from "above". Sigh...

My internet connection should be up and running by the end of the week; just in time for my laptop, which is arriving on Friday along with my sister. Hehe... I suppose one would say "my sister is arriving along with my laptop". Woowee!! I can't wait for my laptop to get here! ... and my sister!

They've been broadcasting a number of Stallone, Bullock, Reeves movies lately. I caught Rambo: First Blood on the tube the other night, and decided that Sly, in his earlier years, wasn't such a bad actor. David Caruso (CSI: Miami) was in that movie too as a young police officer that Rambo stabs in the leg. I thought Rambo was supposed to be a critically acclaimed series of movies... according to RottenTomatoes.com, only the first one got good reviews.

Taiwanese censorship sucks. In movies, all the "good parts" are skipped or lead right into commercials. If the scene is important, they just cover up with big unsightly mosiacs. When WWF Monday Night Raw is on (I don't keep up with Wrestling), any time someone is hit with a chair, thrown on a table, or beat viciously, the screen pause just before the attack and resumes right after that attack. It makes the show unwatchable... not to mention the Mandarin translating commentator.

Also checking RottenTomatoes.com, I noticed that Hero made it into the U.S. box office. I guess it was a matter of time. I, on the other hand, got my original copy of the DVD through a contact in Shanghai in January. And contrary to what I had thought, they're putting the Chinese version of Infernal Affairs in North American theatres. I had heard (thru the grapevine?) that a U.S. film company was filming an English version with North American stars. Glad to see that that's not true.

Ok, random update done.

My weekend? Sure, I'll tell you about my weekend. I went back to Taipei to enjoy the bad weather from the 9th floor instead of the 2nd. Without a vehicle, and with minor flooding in many places, one feels stranded and compelled to stay home... and sleep. I finally finished Les Miserables, and perhaps I'll drop a post about that in the coming days. So, because of the weather, I took a few short trips out of the house, walking to Sogo with LN who was in town from Vancouver, and going to breakfast, then lunch, with my cousin, BH, and TH. Then I left Taipei on Sunday afternoon to beat the rush and crowds returning to Hsinchu on Monday morning... little did I know it would be crowded on the Greyhound-like bus anyway. I had a conversation with a middle-aged man who immigrated to the United States 20 years ago, and was back for a temporary stationing in Hsinchu for work - it gave me a chance to preach my ideas on how he should force his children to speak and learn Chinese, because his youngest son always speaks to him in English. We had a crazy bus driver, who must have been flying down the highway at 110+ km/hr, and literally making sharp swerves on a wet pavement. It was a little frightening, but denying fear, I bit my lip. The older folks at the back of the bus were more open and they started yelling at the bus driver... one man came to the front and scolded him, telling him to stop driving recklessly and to slow down. The bus driver said he was swerving to avoid the potholes. After getting into Hsinchu, I noticed that the bus skipped my stop. So I got off a few stops later, and lined up to double back on the opposite side of the street. Then, the bus driver wouldn't let me on because I didn't have my ticket stub "stamped"... How am I supposed to know to get it stamped? It was their (company's) bus driver who didn't stamp it! Anyway, after a few minutes of confrontation with the driver and the rude b.tch of a ticket lady, they let me on without charging me. So I arrived home...

This week is full of quarterly group meetings. Ugh. Meetings aren't bad in themselves, but when you have nothing to contribute, you tend to get veerry veerry sleepy. Not to mention that I got in at 9:24am for a 9:00am meeting. Hehe, oops! But that's okay, no one seemed to care. We finished today's meetings at 6:40pm... now just 3 more days to go. Save me.

There's a lot I can complain about. Last night, I watched the last episode of Couples Fear Factor, and the team I was rooting for lost. I couldn't sleep for the first hour because the air conditioning installed in the building outside my room (about 2 meters away) was dripping onto a low metal roof driving me absolutely nuts. Broken down, I succumbed and opened a pack of ear plugs I had brought from Canada. Damnit, I was saving those for a special occasion. I slept poorly thereafter, tossing and turning, making my 7 hours sleep seem like much less. In the morning, I watched some UFC 39 that was on TV, and the heavy-weight bout ended with Ricco Rodriguez beating Randy Couture, which wasn't the ending I was hoping for. I walked to work because it was pouring out. This gave me a chance to realize that the umbrella that came free with my body wash doesn't cover diddly squat (maybe the idea is to make you think "shower"...) and reduced my pants to two wet extensions from a dry pair of shorts. The hood of my water resistant windbreaker did a fine job of collecting rain before a gust of wind lifted it, emptying its contents into the back of my shirt. Work started with a frustrating debugging task that cost me my lunch break, my lunch nap, and it never got resolved before we decided it wasn't our fault. Now, I'm still tired, and I probably can't go for a workout because it wouldn't be worth my time to sit at the equipment and yawn.

And oddly enough, it spite of all this, I'm still deliriously happy because my laptop crisis has come to an end. I should sleep well tonight.

So, am I having a good time? Am I enjoying myself here in my new life? Sure, I guess. Not everything in life is exciting, regardless of where you are. Vacationing is one thing, working is another. When you're on vacation in a foreign land, everything is new and entertaining. When you're working in a foreign land, you take things in slightly differently. You care less about some things because curiosity doesn't knock as often at your mind's door.

On Friday night, I was taken to an all-u-can-eat Taiwanese hotpot place in 永和(Yonghe). It was kind of like the A.U.C.E. sushi places where you pick sushi and whatever else off the conveyor belt - except that what came around on the little train of small dishes were things to go into your boiling pot of soup: beef/pork/lamb slices, meat balls, clams, tempura, dumplings, etc. It was fantabulous. All for only 200nt. After eating 便當s (lunchboxes) during the week, going back to Taipei is always a treat. I think I'll have to do that more often. Not to say that the 便當s are bad; on the contrary, they're quite good - usually consisting of rice, some veggies, perhaps an egg, a fillet of meat, and some other stuff. But everyone has warned me that while I still enjoy them now, I'm going to detest them soon enough. I guess that's something to look forward to.

I also picked up a new toy this weekend. Got a mobile phone over the weekend, much fancier than my last. It's a Motorola C650, which I chose because it was fairly affordable, has tri-band GSM, has a built-in camera with zoom, and all the polyphonic fun one can ask for. The color scheme isn't as nice as the black top, but I'll live. So far, I can only complain that the case is shut too tightly (or jammed), because I haven't succeeded in getting the darn thing off. If you think you might want to call me here, just ask me for my number. It's no secret.

So it was a short return to Taipei, and I was back here in Hsinchu by early Sunday. Came back with lots of good things too, including a hot plate. I actually cooked in my room for the first time, which was nice. It was noodles (which I took from an instant noodles bowl), some added condiments, some beef balls (different from bull balls), some fish paste things, and made myself a simple meal. Would have been better if I checked the instant noodles' instructions before making it because I ended up putting the sauce in the soup instead of draining the soup and adding the sauce afterwards. Ah well. We learn.

Describe your ideal cubicle. What cubicle, desk, or computer position makes you feel most comfortable and at ease? I'm not talking about the regular worker who works his regular 8 hours and then goes home. I'm talking about the other people who excel and do "more than just work".

First, I think it's important to sit facing traffic. Any slightest movement in your peripheral quickly triggers the subconscious ALT-TAB reflex. This is the best situation aside from owning your own office. In this facing-outward case, I prefer my cubicle be the first when entering a row of cubicles. By being situated near the outside, you can slip away from your cubicle as many times as you'd like without coworkers "behind" you noticing. One thing I've noted in that position is how often and how long my coworkers leave their desks. It's an important statistic.

But if you aren't fortunate enough to have your monitor hidden, then of course you'd want to sit as far in the back as possible - preferably so hidden that most people don't realize the office extends that deep. This means that the only people who might pass behind you are those who coming looking for you. In this case your senses and reflexes become indispensible, and heightened auditory acuteness is natural. I notice as I leave my cube, my eyes can't help but to lock onto each monitor I pass -- perhaps out of curiosity, perhaps out of love for TV (and hence naturally drawn to anything ressembling a TV), either way, I know exactly who's working all the time and who's MSNing most of the time.

I am of the bunch whose backs are turned from onlookers, but I sit deep in my row of cubicles. Furthermore I have a concave mirror (like the "Objects are closer than they appear" side mirror of a car) that sits on my monitor keeping me in tune with everything behind me...

... of course, I don't need to worry because I work hard all the time, and if it's not work-related, it doesn't appear on my monitor.

So, how do you like to sit at work?

This past weekend was largely spent reading Les Miserables, a novel my friend gave me in grade 10 or 11. In spite of loving themusical, I'd never gotten around to reading the book I've owned for so long.

Saturday, I went downtown Hsinchu to a big mall called WindDance. 5 hours of walking around, buying a few things (my first clothing purchase in Taiwan: 3 pairs of socks), reading Les Mis at the food court, getting caught by a sudden downpour of rain, reading Les Mis at Starbucks, and then reading Les Mis at home.

On Sunday, I finally decided to go to the lake near my house. It's probably not man-made, but it's situated in the most unlikely of places... which probably meant construction went up around the lake. Again, read Les Mis by the water where parents brought their little ones to feed the fish and turtles. From the angle I was watching, only seeing the reflection off the water and no fish below the surface, the flurry of fish darting at the falling food reminded me much of the suspicious violence at a water's surface beneath which lies some kind of monster in some kind of thriller film. That night, I went home and was educated on what a real truffle was (on TV) -- a truffle of the size of two fingers curled goes for probably AU$800. Ouch. And it's basically a pick-n-sell kind of deal where you find them on the ground!

I saw Demolition Man that night. I used to love that movie -- Wesley Snipes' character in particular. He kicked ass. What's funny about this version of Demolition Man is that instead of Taco Bell "winning the fast food wars", it was "Pizza Hut". So "Taco Bell" was dubbed over by "Pizza Hut", and the signs were all placed-over by Pizza Hut signs... not so easy when it's a fast moving action scene and you notice a floating Pizza Hut patch trying to keep the Taco Bell sign behind it covered. They also missed one (suckers). It was fun to watch though.

Today, my coworker came around distributing iced mochas... in celebration of getting his stolen car back. Haha... such is life in Taiwan. Anything you can use to get from point A to B gets stolen... cars, scooters, bikes... shoes. His car was taken the day he was supposed to take me apartment shopping, which would explain why we went by scooter that day. I suggested to another coworker that we steal his car and return it weekly for free coffees. Not sure if that suggestion will fly.

I'm glad the Olympics are ending in a couple of days. It's taking its toll on me. I'm not sure how many more nights of sleeping at 1:30am I can take before I start to fall asleep at work. Two nights ago, I watched an exciting Canada vs. Cuba Men's baseball semi-final until past 4am -- knowing very well that I would have the next day off thanks to Typhoon Ally. At this point, the G-S-B medal count sits at 4-5-2 for a total of 11 medals. Hey, I'm a Canadian Taiwanese, so I root for both sides. Damn those American-Chinese with their 137 medals. >:(

Last night, I installed a piece of aluminum in my washroom to block water from spreading from shower area to the rest of the washroom. All it took was a little common silicon caulk, and the ol' index finger. I have to wait for the caulk to cure before I try it tonight, although it should make my post-shower experience all the better. It was a Do-It-Yourself project (or "D.I.Y." as they say here) that really looks like a Do-It-Yourself project. Whatever, I'm happy with it... who cares what you think.

I was extremely pissed off early today when I received some news of my laptop back home - so much so that I was almost shaking from anger. But I guess I'll relate that story in full when it's deemed over.

I've been working for a full month now, and I guess things are still coming along smoothly. It was starting to get a little boring for a short while, but I've been given some work to do, so I'm happy to report that I'm entertained with it. I have a deliverable some 3 weeks from now. Good to have pressure. I can't work in a relaxed environment because there's no incentive to stay motivated. I need more "DO IT or LOSE YOUR JOB" kind of work. :) ... hope I don't lose my job.

A short update since I'm hungry and ready to go for lunch.

Friday night, I got a ride back to Taipei and went clubbing at Minitry of Sound (MOS) in Neihu in a complicated mish-mash of siblings and cousins. The club, built this year, was pretty awesome, with three floors of different music, and a huge dance hall that was later entertained by a live band/techno group. After clubbing, at 1:00am, we went to the batting cages next door.

My mom and I had my aunt over on Saturday for lunch, and I left in the early evening to stay at E.C.'s place for the night.

Early Sunday, a group of 14 of us drove down to Neiwan in Hsinchu County and had a BBQ down by a stream along with 200 other people. Taiwanese BBQs... packed like sardines.

Anyway, there's a typhoon heading our way, and while a few counties further North and East got the day off, we in Hsinchu County only get the afternoon. :) So, I'm out.

Most people I've talked to in the last little while have asked me how work is going, and how I like it. So perhaps I should give a somewhat complete update on the work situation (leaving out anything that I don't think should be posted online).

In short, work is great. This company parallels the many things I liked about Spectrum when things were going well for us there. For those that know me well, you probably also know how much I loved working at Spectrum. The benefits are very accommodating as the company has been doing very well in the last few years. Vacation allowance is better than most, and company retreats seem to be coming a little more often than one expects.

I had a few fears (more concerns, really) working in Taiwan:
1) Extremely long and gruelling hours of hard work
2) Boring coworkers, nerdy and male
3) I'd get out of shape from doing no physical activity

Fortunately, in reality, none of those fears are quite true. We generally work from 9am - 6:30/7:00pm, which is far better than the 9am - 10pm hours I had heard about before coming. Of course, every company is different, and there are some that do do long long hours. I just landed in a company that values life a little more. That said, like at any non-governmental company, there will be deadlines and periods of extra work... but in general, it's good.

The coworkers, while mostly male, aren't boring nor nerdy on the whole. As Asians generally are, they're fairly playful and chummy, and it's actually pretty refreshing. And, as you'll read in the next paragraph, they're fairly active too. Anyway, there was no awkward moment from the time I started. Everyone was very friendly, and my coworkers have been really accommodating in all aspects of my settling in. But yes, there is a definite unbalance of male to female.

Our building, only 1.5 yrs old, is nicely equipped with a universal gym, some elliptical trainers, stationary bikes, treadmills, a massage chair, two ping pong tables, and half a basketball court which doubles as a badminton court. People play basketball or badminton or ping pong daily, which is awesome, because I'm finding that I've been more active here than I have back home in a long time. The starting times for ball or badminton are around 6:45pm - 7:00pm, so it encourages people not to work too late (unless they really have to).

From a work work perspective, things are also going well. I've been given the opportunity to learn firmware programming and aspects of IC design, which I always had an interest in, but gave up because I didn't have the skills coming out of university. As such, I've been enrolled in a crash (night) course in Verilog HDL at a famous local university, NCTU, to learn these skills. I think, on a whole, the experience I'll get out of working here will be rewarding and valuable.

So, all in all, for just about all aspects of work, things are going very well.

Haven'tposted anything recently because I haven't thought of anything of much significance. Early next week, I'll probably give an update on my work situation since that's generally the first thing people ask me about.

In the meantime, let me report that I have a fang. Just one. It's the third tooth from the middle, on the left side of my upper jaw. One would think there'd be a matching predatory mechanism on the right side, but I think it's been rendered blunt and ineffective from grinding my teeth at night. But let's just focus on the one that is there and is very dangerous.

This convincing evidence of food chain superiority angles down from about 2mm above (closer to the root) the surrounding teeth, and sharpens to a menacing point 2mm past its neighbouring bones. Sometimes when I'm alone, I like to look in the mirror and make a threatening face, exposing the marvel-worthy spike, accompanied by a mirror-shaking growl -- in reality, it's really my right hand holding and shaking the mirror furiously, thereby giving it the desired effect. Other times, I like to start from a calm, nonchalant face before lashing out a sudden fury of tooth and hiss. Very feline. Very intimidating. Occasionally, I stumble backwards heart-pumpingly surprised at my own terrifying display of faked aggression.

Everything you wanted to know about my fang.

Fang-kiu very much.

This past weekend was my first weekend alone in Taiwan, and I had no idea what to do ("What ever should I do?", said little Kevin).

Saturday, I took the Speedster out for a spin. Just 10 minutes down the road, there was a Nova, a building of small and mid-sized boutiques selling consumer electronics, mainly computer products, MP3 players, and digital cameras. I shopped around looking at the odd this and that, compared a few prices, and such was my day. In the evening, I made the choice to go to a McDonald's not 5 minutes ride from home. I got a Spicy Chicken meal, and as the documentary recommended, I "Supersized" it for about 20 cents CAD. Along with me, I brought a book by Timothy Ferris, "The Mind's Sky: Human Intelligence in a Cosmic Context", a book that was awarded to me in Grade 12 for excellence in Mathematics (yippee). For some reason, I never cared to read it, so there it sat on my bookshelf until one day I decided to move to Taiwan. Anyway, I stayed in the cool air-conditioned climate of America's top fast-food restaurant for two hours while kids banged away at the bright yellow, red, and blue plastic playground. And such was my day.

Sunday, I rode off on my Road-Warrior to Hsinchu City, a city as boring as it is old and ugly. Haha, well, it's not quite so bad. Downtown is much like any part of Taipei, less the cleansiness - with every street lined with shops and/or restaurants. I spent a good three, four hours walking the streets, window shopping, and consulting my map. In one particular bookstore, I saw the biggest spider I had ever seen in person and non-captive. The body was roughly an inch long, and about as wide as a quarter (Canadian, not US) and each leg extended roughly 2 inches out. Holding my left leg from shaking, I kept my cool. Anyway, there was no reason to fear it since it appeared slightly injured (or drunk) as it stumble across the bookstore floor before being BASHED with a broom and brushed away for disposal. Anyway, big spider. I ended my Sunday with a trip to Chung Hwa nightmarket and with a little more reading.

I started my four-week weekly Verilog course Monday evening, and it was a pretty barable 3 hour crunch of information. The professor seems very well qualified, having worked at GTE, AT&T Bell Labs, and then becoming a professor and doing consulting. With the Powerpoint slides all in English, it wasn't hard to follow the Mandarin lecture. He says "Exclusive OR" as "Excusi OR"... teehee... reminds me of EuroTrip. Anyway, I digress. I finished Ferris's book last night, and decided that while he brings up some interesting points, it's mainly a book of ramblings - as he admits right at the start.

Okay, lunch is over.

There are many gross things in Asia. Here's one of them.

Imagine ripping a loose thread off a white shirt. Now let's say you were bored, so you decided to play with it; so you twist it back and forth between your thumb and your index finger until it becomes this thick wad of thread, maybe with a loose end sticking out.

I was in a taxi with my manager and another, coming back from an extended lunch. As I looked over at the driver from my back passenger seat, I noticed that he had a white hair about 3 inches long extending from his jaw -- similar to the ones that grow so consistently out of moles, but there was no visible mole. This hair, wasn't quite straight, as it curved here and there slightly like the Trans-Canada Highway coming out of Vancouver.

Now take that curled up piece of string you were playing with, and imagine it attached to the end of the 3-inch hair growing out of this man's face. That's gross.

Falling apart

Oh my god, I've done it. After all this talk about burps and belches, I was sitting here eating my lunch, surfing the web, and without even thinking about it, and not even considering my environment, I let out a soundly burp. I'm weak. I'm broken down. I'm won't last a year here.

Chicks dig guys with bikes...

... or so I've been told. Last night, I bought my primary form of transportation for the next x years: a bicycle. It's a silver Giant S165 (hold the applause), 18-speed, front wheel suspension, equipped with a lock, a small bike pump, a red flashing rear light, a bottle holder, and a gay silver basket on the front. It's my speedster. It's my salvation. ... but getting it into the elevator at home was hell. It took a few tries before I realized it wouldn't contort properly going head-first, but rather had to be backed up. Yes, back that thang up. On the way to work this morning, I learned how difficult it was to tilt the bike upright to get it through a winding Tetris-block-shaped gate into the Science Park. This bike definitely isn't one you'd go cross country in. You'd break your back just carrying it on your shoulder.

Remember how I mentioned burping two blogs ago? I did a quick count, and between arriving at 9:02am and 11:03am, I counted 9 burps. Probably 16+ over the course of the day, and mostly executed by the same guy. He's a winner.

Some mornings, on my way to work, I pass a 1-level building with a bunch of old women just outside of the entrance. And each time I pass them, their slouching backs, their dark skin, and wrinkles remind me of the Worms in Men In Black. I have a strange imagination.

Today ends my first week in Hsinchu and my first week of work. It's been a good week, and everyone at the office has been really friendly. I'm not yet sure what I'll do this weekend, but there's a good chance I'll take my Speedster out for a cruise to familiarize myself with the neighbourhood. I'll put the top down so the wind can blow through my hair. And with my shades on, my right hand on the steering wheel, I'll lean back and wave as attract a continuous line of gasps, applauds, and "oh my god, there he is!"'s. Chick dig guys with bikes.

Taiwan: Part 400

Wow, I can't believe I'm on Part 400 already! Time really flights. Thanks to all of you for sticking with me over the years...

Ah, the beginning of yet another exciting day. I spent some time two days ago meeting people and learning their names, and I spent some more time yesterday meeting and relearning the same people's names. Here's what I've noticed: All you Chinese people look alike!!! In Canada, I meet someone, and I can say "oh, that Chinese guy Robert", or white, or Philipino, or etc. Here, they're all Taiwanese, with the exception of one Australian bloke. It really is difficult when you can distinguish people by race.

Learning more and more about digital design, Verilog, and our company's products day-by-day, as you can expect. But culturally, I've learned that Taiwanese people don't seem to consider burping rude. Over the course of a day, I'll be working quietly and hearing a couple people talk, and even mid-speech, one will burp. It'll be like "ching ching chang wang yang wah [burp] jah bah jing chao..." But it's not like it happens once a day, it happens several times a day. It's like being at a swamp during mating season when the bullfrogs show off their undeniable masculinity. Much like bullfrogs. Much.

I think I can get by buying only breakfast and lunch each day. Roughly 35-50nt for breakfast, and about 75nt for lunch. Dinner I can have ordered in at work if I'm here late, and we have a 3 o'clock "Afternoon Tea" (i.e. we get some buns for free). Please see my sponsorship plea below.


Kevin - lives in Taiwan
Minimum $120 per month
[Sponsor Now]

Here is an Engineer awaiting a World Vision sponsor. Kevin lives in a community severely affected by male engineers. In Taiwan, the disease has impacted the entire social structure, creating a generation of lonely men. Kevin needs your assistance to pay for his food each day to get his mind off the romantically inept nature of his surroundings. Kevin has been reserved for you to sponsor, for the next few minutes. Just click on the [Sponsor Now] button, to become his sponsor in less than five minutes. All it takes is $5.00 a day, the cost of a (venti mocha frappaccino) cup of coffee. With your help, Kevin will be able to enroll in Engineering courses until he bleeds from the eyes. He will write you monthly to tell you how much he appreciates your financial love. Also each month, he will send you pictures so you can monitor his progress. Please don't let another Taiwanese Engineer slip through the cracks.

Taiwan: Part 399

On Sunday, we were supposed to go watch the final four games of the Jones Cup international basketball tournament, but the good tickets were sold out. So we went to Ling Ku about 40 mins drive to play basketball in a mall. At the mall, they have some courts set up in the middle of a sporting goods complex (where there's a Puma, Nike, Reebok, etc etc store around the perimeter). You pay 70nt (25nt = $1 CAD) and go in and play pick up. We were five people, split into two teams of 3, and were getting killed by the "kids". For the most part, none of us play much anymore and the highschool and university students were much too skilled for us in our old age. Nevertheless, it was fun. I did a lot of sweating, which is good, since I don't sweat enough in Taiwan as it is.

Monday, I awoke at 5:50am to catch a ride with my uncle to Hsinchu. It was a half-move, with a semi-large luggage, a small carry-on luggage, a backpack, and my day pack from MEC. The first day at work was good. The people have been really friendly and helpful, and just about everything was ready for me when I arrived. I was told there was a mis-print on my business cards, so I won't be receiving those until Wednesday. That's fine, I have no one to give them to anyway. I have a decent idea now about the product we're developing, and I'm not finding the language too big of a problem. Although, I'm finding that not reading Chinese is rather tedious and irritating. Consequently, I've scheduled to have my Chinese Windows 2000 and Office converted to English versions on Thursday. My PC is a 2.80GHz P4 with 80 Gb of space, and a ViewSonic 17" ThinEdge VP171s LCD display. So far, everything is to my liking, and I don't have much to complain about. Well, not true. I have to walk outside to get lunch since we don't have a caf. But drinks are subsidized and usually only cost about 10nt.

Living with my manager isn't too bad. Basically, I do as I please and we live our own lives, but if I need anything, he's there to help. My eventual home is only about 8 minutes walk from this temporary home, which means it's 8 minutes closer to work, but 8 minutes further from the bustling street where all the store and restaurants are. With a bicycle, none of this really matters.

On the first day, I was dress pants, my nice shoes, and a dress short-sleeve shirt. I felt anal. My friend joked the other day about the engineering "dress code", where it would be plaid shirts, pants hiked up to the belly button, and black leather shoes (the soft kind). I wasn't close to that, but I wasn't far either. Anyway, I wanted to make sure I looked proper on my first day... today, I'm back to wearing what I normally wear. The shirt's untucked, my Oakley slip-on shoes, and a pair of casual slacks. I feel much better. Now I can do some work. ... which is what I need to do, since I start a weekly evening course next Monday from 6:30pm - 9:30pm on Verilog, Synthesis, and Simulation. Fortunately, only runs until the end of Aug.

That's that! All is well.

pssst... write!

Taiwan: Part 398

I'm tired of standing and walking. I need to sit. The last couple of days have required to much on the part of my feet.

On Thursday, I went to the Taipei Computer Applications Show at the Taipei World Trade Center (TWTC) with D.C.. Basically, it's a show where people can go and oogle at showgirls and by consumer electronics and games for cheap. Similar to the Computex Trade Show I went to a couple months ago, but bigger stages, more dancing, younger attendees, and less nerdy. Since D.C.'s girlfriend was working at the Show, I scored with some free giveaways, including a few sets of chopsticks and spoons that will come in handy after I move. Had a quick lunch at the mall next to the Taipei 101 (Asia's tallest building right now, I think... 101 floors). Then I bought my shower curtains at Working House and had dinner with my mom at a food court in the mall. Mall food courts in Taiwan kick Canadian food courts' asses! Food is cheaper and much tastier than what we have back home, although with less ethnic variety. Thereafter, we went to see House of Flying Daggers at Warner Village Xin Yi. Was it any good? Hmm... overall, it was okay. I really enjoyed watching it and the fight scene were cool, as were the use of colors and landscapes... but the ending fell short of my expectations. I felt it left things too open and messy. I need closure.

Yesterday, I went to Yang Min San (Yang Min Mountain) with my mom and aunt. Y.M.S. is a nice get-away from the heat of Taipei. They also have a hot spring there which is piped into private and public baths. My aunt has a place there, so we went there for a bath. The public baths are separated into Men's and Women's. I've never been to a public bath, but it was early enough in the day that there was no one there -- so I took it as a BIG private bath. Unfortunately, my aunt was unaware that they clean the baths on Fridays, so I had about an ankle deep of water to bathe in... but I did it anyway (weird as it was). A little later, another guy came in. (Heads up, graphic description coming) By that time, the water was about 1 foot deep... so he lies flat in the water... but being slightly heavier (not fat, but far from thin), he lies in the water flat. Unfortunately, a one foot deep bath doesn't quite cover a man of his size, so parts can't help but to stick out of the water's surface. I was on my way out anyway, and that was my cue to exit. After that, my mom and I went to Gunther van Hagens' Body Worlds exhibition ("The Anatomical Exhibition of Rael Human Bodies"), a scientific exhibition of live bodies stripped to different extents of skin, muscle, bone, etc. It was a fascinating show, and was done such that you wouldn't be disgusted by it (unlike art, where the bloodier the better). Some of the more interesting displays were:

- "Torso with severely deformed spinal column and body wall"
- limbs of muscle, but keeping the ligaments in tact
- a man where his muscles were removed from his skeletal structure, and were put side by side (i.e. his skeleton was posed in a walking motion, and his muscles were put together in the same walking motion next to it). Silicone rubber is used to give the muscles the ability to stand up freely without the support of bones.
- Male torso with Situs Inversus: case where internal organs are reversed (heart is on the right side, for example). Happens 1/25000 people.
- Action shots: bodies doing some action, and they split up the muscles, ligaments, bones to fan out so you can see them easily
- Configuration of arteries: ONLY blood vessels of certain organs or parts of the body

Anyway, it was a great exhibition to attend, and I would recommend anyone to see it.

Today, dinner with relatives. Tomorrow, an international basketball competition -- 4 games for $24 CAD, so so. Monday, work.

To address living with my boss, I'm sure it won't be bad at all. He's been really accommodating so far, and I'm sure will do all the right things such that we don't have a strained manager-employee relationship at the office. He did tell me, however, that his place doesn't have air con. I'm glad I'm not staying there for long.

I think I'm giving up a lot moving away from Vancouver. The mild weather, the active nature of Canadian friends, the fresh air, and the relaxing pace to name a few, but I think I should mention a few things I like about Taiwan.

Everything is nearby. Restaurants line the streets where stores don't. Convenient stores are actually "convenient". You can pay every bill imaginable at every 7-Eleven, and I've already talked about how many 7-Elevens there are (entry 2 months ago). Flat panel monitors are used excessively in such convenient storse to display your purchase amounts at the till. In Canada, if you don't have a car, you're pretty hooped. In Taiwan, at least Taipei, public transportation finds its way through every major street... and in Taipei, every street is major. You can dress as poorly as you want or as well as you want, and you'll always fit in here. The streets come alive at night with lights and lit banners, and the streets are still fairly crowded until midnight. There must be more, but it's not coming to me at this time.

That's enough reading for you today. Write me. Love me. Love me long time.

Taiwan: Part 397

It's only been two day since my last visit to Mr. Aztec Internet Cafe, but I was bored today, and I already told you what doing nothing at home usually results in.  Today, I rollerbladed to the Cafe, which cut the travel time quite a bit.  But isn't it my luck that when I rollerblade, it starts pouring raining en route?  I hope the rain doesn't last the 3 hours I'm here.  That, and I haven't tried my blades since I brought them into Comor to have them serviced... not sure if they rotated the wheels, but the wear is such that they're really slippery right now. Hmm...

Chinese.  The only language I know where text is written vertically, horizontally backwards and forwards.  This can be confusing if it weren't for the fact that my reading abilities are stellar.

Had dinner at a steakhouse with my Kitsilano school-mates.  A tough 8 oz. (roughly) steak in mushroom sauce, and all-u-can-eat fix'ems for about $6 CAD.  Then we headed over to a "Dante's Coffee" shop, where the drinks were bland and the air con turned up too high.  Good to catch up with old friends anyway.

A friend sent this to me, and I thought it was appropriately Asian: Feng Shui Motherboard.

My replacement Iron Ring, I hear, has arrived at home.  I hope to have it on my pinky again so that I can lose it shortly thereafter.

Yesterday, I did some Visa / Alien Residency paperwork in Hsinchu and went to Home Depot / Revy's-type store called B&Q to do some preliminary surveying.  Looks like I'll have a spend a few hundred dollars on making my home feel like a home.  Electric fan, shower curtains, laundry basket, toiletries, iron, a few rugs, plastic storage boxes, and a broom are on my list, amongst a few other things.  I'm looking for a comfy chair... something like this one but with a little more padding of my delicate self. Can't wait to go shopping!

I finally finished going through my Second Year CMPT290 course material (in preparation for my new job). Wow, I can't believe how fun digital design could be! Wish I paid more attention to that kind of stuff in school. Now I'm working on reading "Verilog HDL" by Samir Palnitkar, my last big purchase from Vancouver.

Drop some comments! Make me feel loved.

Taiwan: Part 2

Thankfully, my housing ordeal is getting close to being resolved.  With a little bit of work on my part, I think I get my crowded suite with the big washroom. I'm pysched!  It's really weird to be pysched about having what's really a normal sized washroom by Canadian standards, but when you look at the limited options here, you can't help but to be a little relieved (and I expect to spend a lot of time being relieved in that washroom).  The only catch is that this place I'm going to rent isn't ready until mid-August -- they're still building it!  So I will be staying with my hiring manager (is that weird???)  for the first two weeks of my stay in Hsinchu (the city I'm working in).  I'm sure I'll have a good blog about that in due time.

I've been praticing my signature in Chinese, both vertically and horizontally.  I think it's ready to go.  Every two out of five scribbles are very similar.

I cut my last paid Internet usage short, leaving after only 2h10m instead of my pre-paid 3 hrs. I had an impromptu meeting with PS who was leaving Taiwan for Canada on Sunday after a co-op at a Taiwanese company.  That was nice.  Good to see familiar faces in a different country.

Last night, I had dinner with RL, AJ, and MC from SFU Engineering.  That was cool too.  It's been a short while since I'd seen a couple of them (maybe 2 yrs?), so it was great to chill and chat again.

Tonight, I've got dinner with some highschool friends, EC, JC, and DC.  I saw EC at the Computex Taipei Computer Tradeshow about 1.5 months ago, but only briefly.  I haven't seen JC since highscool, and DC since about a year ago.  Should be a good time.

It's frickin' boiling here.  In an effort not to waste electricity at my cousin's place where I'm staying, I have the air con on only sometimes.  So at night, I'd wake up and I'm drenched in sticky sweat (no jokes, guys).  During the day, when I'm at home (where there's no TV), I find myself bored a lot of the time.  There's separate air con in every room, so I usually find the smallest room and sit in there with the A/C on. But there's really nothing for me to do in that room.  So I usually just sleep. I SLEEP SO MUCH HERE!  The heat makes you lazy.  It disables you.  It cradles you in its arms and softly says "you're a lazy bum, just go to sleep again... or I'll poke you in the eyes until you have to close them."  The heat's a jerk.

Girls here?  Lots of them skinny.  Too skinny.  Sometimes you're fooled into a second glace, to be met by noticing arms that wouldn't be strong enough to hold up a candied apple at a fair.  And then there are the girls who seem to have slender (but not too skinny) figures... but for some reason, 50% of them limp or walk like they have major joint issues.  It's weird.  Maybe if they did sports once in a while.  But I'm not here to meet girls.  Let's just make that clear.

Work starts in a week.

Please post a comment.  Give me something to read!

Taiwan: Part I

Finally. Internet. How many days can an Engineer go without internet without twitching like a person bludgeoned into convulsions?  Regardless of that, I paid for 3 hours of access, for 120nt (roughly $5 Cdn)... comes with unlimited drinks.

I'm here.  My new home.  What's odd about this whole "move" is that there really wasn't an emotional moment.  Sure, I'm sad to leave my friends and my Canadian life behind, but I didn't feel like I would miss anything.  Perhaps the back and forth from Asia in the last few years have prepared me mentally. So I'm looking forward to what lies ahead, while cherishing what was left behind.

I looked for housing, and I'm not so excited about my living conditions.  After visiting 7 places, I decided on a place, but it's not fully settled.  I found a building being built (not ready until mid-August) that's around 10 minutes walk from work.  Perfect location.  Last night, I decided I liked one room, but didn't want to rush into anything.  The rooms aren't big, but the washrooms in these types of rentals are generally pathetic.  A typical washroom would be the size of a washroom equipped with a toilet and a sink.  Now put a shower head (with the hose) and a faucet on the wall somewhere and add a drain.  There is absolutely no separation between the shower and the rest of the washroom.  NOW, while the one room I liked was a little smaller than I would have liked, it had a long washroom where the shower was at one end (still, no shower door or anything), slightly separated from the toilet and sink.  THAT, I liked.  But when I called the owner at 10am this morning, she told me it was already rented out.  This means I'm going to have to settle on a sh.ttier room with a sh.ttier bathroom.  ARGH.

Aside from being very close to work, this apartment building is also about 3 minutes away from a little lake (where I got 12 mosquito bites yesterday) and some outdoor basketball courts, a swimming pool, and lots of restaurants.  Location is key, right?  I can always shower at work.

At work, there's a small universal gym (new), stairclimbers and stationary bikes (who does cardio anyway?), two ping pong tables, and a half-court for basketball which doubles as a badminton court.  So, I won't be far from physical activity here... which is something I was worried about.  I've been ghetto the last three days, using a bucket of water as weights for doing bicep curls.  I feel like Jackie Chan.  The one thing I want to complain about: NO FOOSBALL TABLE!

Overall, things are okay here.  I feel comfortable in my new surroundings.  I'm going to meet up with some university and highschool friends today, Sunday, and Monday.  I didn't have a chance to meet up with anyone on my last trip, so it will be good to see some old faces.

And that's that.

Leave a comment for me to read!

I just finished watching "Welcome to Mooseport" with Ray Romano and Gene Hackman. I thought the movie was kind-hearted and humorous in a Ray Romano kind of way. After the movie ended, I decided to see what the critics thought and found this comment by Roger Ebert, who gave it a thumbs up:

"We question that such a naive and innocent town could exist in America, and are almost relieved to find that the movie was shot in Canada."

I don't know whether I should be offended...

Maybe you have enough friends. Maybe Friendster just doesn't do it for you. Maybe you should sign on to Fiendster.

It was a couple days with the boys - to chill, to hang out, to reminise. We went to VY's for a BBQ, then jumped in the hot tub for an hour, and ended the day off with a game of Risk - which surprisingly ended after 3+ hours (first time our games have been so quick... I died first)! We stayed overnight, DL staying in VY's room, and GW and myself sharing a room with RS's enormous snore. In the morning, we had some leftover BBQ meat (there're STILL leftovers, even after our late breakfast) and played some pitch & putt. I'm not sure what the final scores were, but I would guess it would have been in the order of RS, GW, VY, DL, KK. I always go for the higher score. Then we did the Grouse Grind, which took 1h09m, longer than what I remembered it taking; on the other hand, I'm no longer a young, fit Kevin, and my quads have been put to a lot this past week already. Took some pictures at the top of Grouse and took the Gondola down. To wrap it up, we went to Ebi Sushi (Granville & 41st) for some 9:30pm All U Can Eat Sushi and talked about how we first got to know each other, our first impressions, our stories of each other, and our stories of other people back in the Engineering Days. It was good for the guys to be guys around guys without any need to hold back.

Happy Canada Day!