Every freakin' thing.

In my last post, I mentioned that I took that link off the Freakonomics blog. For the few who of your who might have made a home under a rock, Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything is a best selling book written by economist Steven D. Levitt and author Stephen J. Dubner that I had the pleasure of reading last month. Freakonomics is a great little read that has no "main" focus, but speaks of a plethora of different topics, tying them all in from a economists perspective. Given that it's a best seller, there are reviews on the book all over the place - making little sense for me to write another one here.

From before reading the book until now, I've started doing some more regular reading of these authors' writing. Take a look at these places:
The Freakonomics Official Website
The Freakonomics New York Times Magazine Articles
The Freakonomics Authors' Blog
Steven D. Levitt's University of Chicago Website
Stephen J. Dubner's Official Website

I took this off the freakonomics blog...
Here's a neat website by Canadian Michelle Walters, FlapArt, from which you can buy fake book covers that will catch the eyes of people on buses, skytrains, and passerbys. A little pricy for what they are, but funny stuff.

Sunday afternoon, AC and I went to see Notre Dame de Paris at the new Taipei Arena. Months earlier, around the time I bought the tickets, I also went out to buy the DVD which seemed like a small price to pay compared to the tickets, and a necessity to best understand the story and lyrics in this French musical. [The musical also probably stays truer to the original Victor Hugo novel, and further from the world of Disney where all the bad guys die and the good guys live happily ever after.] Of course, the real thing was much better than the DVD, and we had a great time - especially since we knew the music. Familiarity with the songs gave me the freedom to paid less attention to the singers and words, and focus more on the performance on stage (the dancing, the visuals). At times, I found that if the audio engineer would turn down the volume a little bit, it would have been just right. When the performers belted out showing their impressive vocals, the amplifiers took it to the next level to give you an earache. I also did notice that there were a few minor changes to lyrics and who-sang-what between the show and the DVD, which was made 6 - 7 years ago. I'm sure they were improvements, although I wasn't paying that much attention.

On a radio interview a few days earlier, Matt Laurent (who places Quasimodo) said that the audience in Asia is generally more enthusiastic about musicals than other places in the world. I don't think so. After each number, they seemed to politely clap. It wasn't until after the finale that there were hollers and loud applauds. Whereas, when I saw The Lion King in London, each song was met with a huge applaud. Taiwanese people also need to learn to arrive to a venue on time. But that's perhaps a cultural thing.

All in all, a great show and enjoyable afternoon.

Smell that? Is that you?

Perhaps a question best answered by your significant other: do you smell? Each of us has a natural fragrance: a function of what we eat, our metabolism, the skin lotions/perfumes/colognes we use, where we spend most of your time, and yeah, probably sweat.

Some people say babies' heads smell like freshly baked bread, which makes your head smell like... sourdough? But baby smells are more like new car smells, sprayed on at the manufacturing plant. In the baby's case, it's really the smell of a womb. Just takes a few months to get rid of the bouquet.

Anyway, ask your husband/wife/girlfriend/boyfriend/etc what you smell like, and report back here. It's okay to sign off anonymously, or maybe leave some initials so I can know who I'm snickering about.

Why do we need to "grow up"?

How much does one person's personality and attitude need to change as they grow older? I feel like most people around me haven't really grown up. We're mid-to-late 20s, even early 30s, and we're all just as giddy and immature as when we were young and stupid. It's fine by me. Growing old doesn't mean acting old.

Being young at heart has nothing to do with being responsible. We all "grow" as we do more in life, and having kids will probably make one think that s/he needs to "act mature". Maturity is subjective, and really doesn't need to be applied in certain aspects of life. Do maturity and responsibility go hand-in-hand? I'm not so sure. I know someone running a multi-million dollar company who still acts pretty immature at times. Trying to be mature all the time is not only draining, but it's boring. I'd advise against it.

Just rambling...

Public Service Announcement:

Get it right.

"DefinItely", not "DefinAtely"
"SepArate", not "SepErate"

I went on a company trip with A to Taichung County. In the morning, we started with potting plants at a private lot where we could cut segments of all sorts of plants and put them into little pots of soil and sand, which we take home to grow in larger plants. I had 2 small pots of: a plant that smells like chocolate, a plant that tastes sweet when you chew the leaves, rosemary, a plant whose flowers blossom 4 seasons of the year, and maybe one other. Of course, none of the English names of these plants are known to me, but it doesn't quite matter. Then we did some pottery acrossed the road at a place owned by the same people. I made a plate, because... I need a plate. We had lunch on "Mushroom Road", which was a lunch with different dishes of mushrooms. Besides being tasty, it felt healthy to replace meat with mushrooms.

Our afternoon stop was at a new tourist spot (name not remembered) on which there lies a European-styled castle (which country, no one explained to me). A significant amount of landscaping contributed to the beauty of the land. 800,000,000nt ($30M cad) was spent on its construction, and it's not quite done yet. It's a nice place to stroll with family or significant other, and probably a good place to sit down and eat if your budget is looser.

So, that was the company trip. I was up early (6:30am) after a long week of work, so I was tired most of the day, sleeping on the bus for as much as I could. And to end my weekend, I'll be attending a highschool friend's wedding reception in Taipei on Sunday.

(I just freaked myself out slightly while writing this blog. In the darkness, I was typing with the laptop on my lab, and then I looked up and saw my illuminated face floating in the mirror. It was quite a sight.)

Does death scare you? I mean, your death.

Let's narrow it down slightly -- natural death. I'm actually less afraid of getting killed than dying of old age.

When I was a toddler, I would often stay awake thinking about dying when I was old. The fear would sometimes send me running to my parents' room crying. And once in a long while, I still get those thoughts today, though I'm comforted by the fact that I know it'll be at least 40 years before that should happen.

The reasoning behind fearing this kind of death is because it's a certainty; and as you grow older, the certainty becomes closer and closer. When I'm 80 years old, I know that it will be only a matter of years (whether 1 or 20) before I go. So, what happens after that? I'm not religious, so I'm not expecting my 'soul' to go to Heaven/Hell or through a rebirth. As far as I'm concerned, it ends right there.

Maybe older people are more at peace with dying. They've lived longer, seen more, experienced more, maybe raised children and grandchildren. They're ready to go. And perhaps when I get older, I'll have the same satisfaction with my life and be ready and willing.

What are your thoughts on death?

(Hopefully this blog doesn't scare you... really, it's a natural process and there's nothing to be afraid of.)

As a growing company, we've needed to expand - and so construction of a new building behind our current building started in late 2004/early 2005. There are so many things to notice about this building, such as the way it is connected to our building, the new underground parking that will do wonders for our scooters, etc. But I keep focusing on how people in that building can look into the windows of our washrooms.

I'm on the second floor, and our washrooms have windows near the ceiling to let in light. Windows in Taiwan are almost always covered with some kind of tint to reflect the heat from the sun, making them mirror-like during the day. But at night, when the washroom light is on and its dark outside, people from higher floors of our new building can peer into the washroom watching men at the urinals. In some cases, they can probably see into some stalls too, but not to the extent that they'd see someone sitting on a toilet. When the new building opens, I'll likely move into it, so it's not really my problem. But how can I not notice? In fact, *I* will probably be in the new building looking at people going to the washroom.

I'm warring with an anonymous colleague. S/he doesn't know who I am either. Here's the basis of the war...

In our kitchenette are paper cups provided to employees for tea or otherwise. The cups come in a long plastic sleeve (like they all do when you buy paper cups). The old way of extracting cups was to make a hole at the top end of the plastic sleeve, and take out cups from the top. But I reversed that methodology. Hardly innovative, just more practical. I started making a hole from the bottom end of the sleeve, so you pull the cups out by grabbing on to the cup (like most dispensers).

But someone insists on the old way, which makes no sense to me. I don't want someone putting their fingers on the second cup trying to separate the two top cups. My mouth could be on that second cup. Not to mention, dust can fall into the open side, dirtying the inside of the cup. So we have this constant tug-of-war where s/he flips the cups one way, and then I flip them back the next time I see them. I've even gone so far as to tie a knot in the plastic sleeve just above the top of the cups, hehe...

Am I crazy or is there really some benefit to pull cups out the top? (Or do I just have too much time, thinking about inconsequential things like this?)

Good vs. Bad.

What makes a bad family? How do you deem someone's family "bad"? Unstable, abusive, unsupportive, unloving -- all qualities that easily fall into this category. Seems fairly clear how we would all define a bad family, doesn't it?

So, what makes a good family? "... and s/he comes from a good family." would be a plus when talking about a potential mate. But everyone's definition of a good family probably differs much more than their definitions of a bad family. Everyone has different priorities in life, and I think as long as the family in question matches those priorities, you would say that it's a good family.

How do you define a good family?
- Is wealth important?
- Is love important?
- Is education at the top of the list?
- How about manners and politeness?

All of those add points towards a good family standing, but what about the lacking of those?
- A poor family with loving parents...
- Parents who are wealthy, value education, but burp in public and are rather rude...
- A rich family whose loving parents want their kids to pursue their own dreams regardless of education...
- A poor family with a lot of love and support, but nothing else...

Where do you draw your line?

Alive and kicking...

If there was ever any doubt, MSG is alive and doing well in Taiwan. I heated up my free dinnerbox (which had cooled down while I was playing basketball) and sat down at my desk to eat. When I opened the cover, I saw that today's menu included deepfried battered fish. And for extra taste, there was some MSG crystals sprinkled on top.

Of course I still ate it. I was hungry. Did you read? I had just played basketball.

SFU recently published an article on their website about three students who created an algorithm to match a musical rhythm to musical rhythms within a database. They called this snazzy invention Song Tapper and created a website where people can try it out. Despite a very unsexy name, Song Tapper is worth a good 5 minutes of entertainment... so check it out!

There's a show on TV (生活智慧王) in Taiwan where they give simple tips for household problems, Do-It-Yourself solutions, and how to prepare simple meals.

Today's simple solutions:

P: Write on your skin with a ballpoint pen?
S: Use sunscreen and a cloth to wipe it off.

P: How to I take the tarnish off my silverware?
S: Use White Out (the liquid kind) on a cloth and wipe it.

P: Got White Out on your skin (maybe from cleaning your silverware)?
S: Use Green Oil (綠油精)

P: When you Stacking up newspapers, does it take up too much space?
S: Before you fold the newspaper, cut each end of the fold. This will flatten it quite a bit.

P: Having trouble storing away comforters because they take up too much space?
S: Fold the comforter into thirds, and then roll it up length-wise (like you do with a sleeping bag). Then use an old dress shirt, and "dress up" the rolled up comforter, using the buttons to hold it together, and tying the sleeves in a knot, as well as the bottom of the dress shirt in a knot.

Other tips:

Make a storage couch by taking a small shelf (say, with 3 levels), and turning it on its back (so the open end faces up). Then buy a piece of plywood and size it to the same dimensions as your shelf. Stick thick sponge on the plywood and cover it with a nice cloth which wraps around and is stapled to the back of the plywood. Add hinges to connect the cover/seat to the shelf. Done! A seat where you can store things inside. Simple and cheap.

Are you like me?

Do you ever say to yourself: "I want to get into a fight..."
And then add to it: "... but against someone I can beat."

Sometimes I feel like I want to just get into a scrap with someone. I want some guy to do something wrong/inconsiderate, and then when I point a finger at him, he fires off and throws a punch at me. And then I want to whoop his butt - just to prove to myself that I can and to teach him a good lesson. But com'on, no one wants to get into a fight just to come out getting his butt kicked. I don't want to go head-to-head with the wrong guy where he leaves the scene walking away and spitting on a beatened Kevin. That scenario just wouldn't fulfill my tustling fantasy. I want to win, and win convincingly.

Sigh. It's just so hard to tell these day whose ass you can kick.

Since coming to Taiwan, I've posted a few blogs about mosquitos, as have N and B. And it's not so much because I dislike mosquitos... it's because I despise them. Mosquitos are as menacing as insects come.

Flies don't bother me at all. Besides a little buzzing, most of the time, they're trying to get out of the room as evidenced by the way they continuously bang their faces into the window looking to get outside. Mosquitos are just the opposite. They come into your room looking for YOU. They follow you in the door unnoticed like unwanted pets and hang around on the wall just waiting for you to say goodnight.

Just watch the way they move. Flies zip around like they have somewhere to go, somewhere to be. Mosquitos float around in the air, not really looking to get from A to B, but scanning the grounds for something to suck on. Yeah, they suck. And for the record, it's only the female mosquitos that drink blood. And I'm not saying that has any relation to humans. Just a fact.

Everyone hates cockroaches, but a roach skittering across my bedroom floor (which, actually I haven't had yet) is less disturbing to me than knowing there's a mosquito in my room. Generally, my room is mosquito-free (and cockroach-free). But once recently, at around 4:30am, I heard the sound of a mosquito buzzing at my ear... and felt and itch on my face. That's one of the worse places to get a bite, because it's so darned visible. People either realize it's a mosquito bite or they think it's a zit -- either way, you lose. Regardless of the hour, if there's a mosquito in my sleeping quarters, it MUST die before I sleep - even if it takes me an hour to kill it and its comrades. Because I know that if it's there, 9 out of 10 times, it will get me (again).

I'm not violent and I'm no psycho, but I can tell you that it's extremely satisfying "clapping" a mosquito or smacking one against a window or wall in a bloody mess because I know it's my blood and it's just the sweet sight of revenge.

Even those big stupid mosquitos back in Vancouver that don't bite humans - they look like they're high off drugs, flapping around uncontrollably with wings maybe too small to carry their own body weight comfortably - they have to die.

Mosquitos. Die. Mosquitos.