Rest in Peace, Mischa

I received word today that my ex-coworker and friend, Mischa, passed away from lupus at the tender age of 25. It was just 3 months ago she was getting ready for the Chinese New Year vacation when her body started malfunctioning and her immune system turning on herself. Soon after, she was in a coma and underwent multiple surgeries to address various complications. But in the end, never having the chance to come out of her coma, she lost her battle.

Mischa was a beautiful person inside and out, always putting on a big smile as she manned the front desk at our office. Learning that she has had to ensure so much turmoil in her family, it's amazing that she could always show up to work with so much energy and enthusiasm, and immediately make everyone feel better. She was one of the kindest souls I've had the pleasure of meeting, and she will be missed.

Mischa, rest in peace.

Happy Chinese New Year~!

恭喜發財!
Happy Chinese New Year!

First off, I'm typing this blog wearing fleece gloves because it's just so dang cold here in Hsinbchu. So, ther may bre spelloing mistgakesa, and theyt're not intentional./ But just to prove to anyone who suspects that it's esay to type with glooves on, that it's not.

It's a mere 17 dewgrees here in my office - pretty darned cold. Everyone's wearing their jackets or extra layers as we bare the cold wind current coming from China.

To pass the Chinese New Year holidays, I was with my sister and university frioend BC (visiting from Tokyo) on the East coast of Taiwan - Hualien County in particular. It was warmner out there/.

Just wanted to sayt Happy CNY. I'll post abouyt my holidfay travels. They aren't that interesting anyway.

Cuts

(Last, last Thursday's news)

I knocked over an empty glass and it shattered on my desk and onto the office carpet. When I picked up the bottom half of the cup (laying on its side), the weight of the base turned the cup in my hand, slicing a 1.5cm cut into my palm with its jagged top edge. My first thought was "F**k, how am I going to play in the foosball tournament this weekend?"

Went to the hospital emergency room, and lay down on a bed with my arm straight outwards ready to get stitched. I told the doctor "Can I raise my head to watch (you stitch my wound?" He replied, "Sure, if you want." I put my head down while the anesthetic was injected, wincing at the pain. Then the doctor lightly wiped my wound and asked me if it hurt. I said it did just a little. Then he starts rubbing it really hard, wiping it clean. And with the way he ruthlessly rubbed back and forth, I said "Uhh... I don't think I want to look any more."

It took about 5 minutes to give me 3 stitches, as seen in the photograph.

---

That Saturday, I still played in the annual Taiwan Foosball Tournament. Unfortunately, I couldn't really play to win, so I played to have fun and be a part of the event. I know a good number of foosball players in Taiwan (at least from Taipei, Hsinchu, and Taichung).

After a week of showering with my hand raised in a plastic bag, and bi-daily cleaning and dressing my cut, I had the stitches removed on Friday. I'm still showering with my hand in a plastic bag, but I don't really need to. I just want the wound to be more or less completely healed before I subject it to water. Should need just a couple more days.

End of update. Go out and play now.

Take a cold shower.

For a couple of months during the summer, I'd turned to taking cold showers. In July, I started swimming in the mornings before going to work. The rinsing shower at the outdoor pool uses cold water, although the pool water is pretty warm. I quickly realized how refreshing cool showers are on a warm day, and made the decision to turn off my hot water at home. So, while the weather was good enough over about 1.5 - 2 months time, I was only taking showers with un-warmed water. By "un-warmed water", I mean that I wasn't using water from the cold pipe, but water that's been sitting in my hot water tank (that I turned off) for the day.

So, my method of showering would be to start from the legs to get the body used to the temperature, up to the thighs, and then to the torso and head. Work better than standing under the shower head and pressing Go.

After a while, I found I didn't even like hot showers - although warm showers I could bare.

The weather has gotten cooler now (somehow even 23 degrees seems rather cool now), and I've gone back to taking warmer showers. But I would encourage anyone to try out cool showers (or at least to reduce the temperature of their shower water).

Give it a try.

Competition is out of the Air

In late August, our company club competitions were just getting under way. A month and a half later, they are thankfully over with. So how did I fair?

Basketball Club
- 3-point shootout
Result: 2nd Place. I shot 10/15 from the arc in the preliminaries, and tied 8/15 in the finals, but lost in the tie-breaker.
- mixed (male/female) special event (just shooting)
Result: no placing.

Foosball Club
- Men's Competitive Singles
Result: 1st Place. No losses.
- Doubles
Result: 1st Place. No losses.
- 4's
Result: 1st Place. This was mainly just for fun.

Fitness Club
- Muscular Fitness (includes push-ups, chin-ups, benchpress, leg lifts, high-jump, bicep curls, and lat pulldowns)
Result: 1st Place. Won 5 of 7 events, and won overall.

Billiards
- 14-1
Result: no placing. Dropped out, because I didn't figure I'd do well. I don't play pool anyway.

Table Tennis
- Men's Competitive Singles
Result: no placing. Got CREAMED. No wins, 12 losses. Back to Recreational Singles next year.
- Doubles (not mixed doubles, but my partner was a female)
Result: 3rd Place.

Photography
- Scenery
Result: no placing.
- People
Result: 2nd Place.

Swimming
- Men's 100m Freestyle
Result: 1st Place. 50m in about 38 seconds.
- 400m Relay
Result: 1st Place.


So, tallied up, my results look like this:

Childhood Memories (Part 1)

I just finished reading Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs, which is apparently "Now a Major Motion Picture".

While reading Augusten recount his childhood tales, it reminded me of some of things I did as a young child. No, I didn't live nearly as crazy a life as his book describes, and I'm not gay and I didn't walk in on the Minister's wife going down on my poet mom. But this book kind of reminds me of how silly an adolescent's logic is and their way of thinking.

So, I've decided to write a few short memories from my long-forgotten childhood. Hopefully my family will forgive me for the wrong I'd caused, even if they didn't know about it until now.

Story ONE:

My first memory conjured up by Running with Scissors brings me back to Grade 3. Mrs. Travis's class. She had a young student teacher teaching some classes here and there. I don't remember her name now, but I'm sure it's for the better. Anyway, in my innocent 8-year old eyes, I almost loved her. She was a doll. A really pretty blond and the kindest human - particularly when standing next to a jagged Mrs. Travis. And I guess the reason I most fondly remember her was because of one day when she wore a summer dress. That day, when she bent over to speak to me, her dress collar hung down exposing her naked bosom for a young mind to absorb. Remarkable. Well, truth be told, I don't remember if she was wearing a bra or not. But for an 8-year old kid, seeing a woman's bare breast or seeing her bra is equally fantastic. Though if my memory serves me right (or maybe I only choose to remember what I please), she let them fall naturally. God bless student teachers.

Bring it, Bin Laden...

This day marks the 6th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the US.

It's also the day I fly out to Japan for a business trip to Shin Yokohama and Tokyo.

After spending 6 days in Tokyo earlier this year, I'm not sure what else to visit on the 1.5 days personal days. Last time I went, I had 2 friends there to see and hang out with. This time, I'm going solo.

What to do, what to do.

Something Funny

Here's another story from E's birthday party.

We booked a table with couches for our group. I was sitting down on the couch, and E was standing in front of me. Standing off to the right of me was a girl with her back turned to us. So I grabbed E's wrist and threw her hand into the girl's butt.

The girl turns to her left and looks at E. E, shocked at what I just did, points at me, and the girl looks my way. And I say "I didn't do it!"

Then the girl talks to her guy friend, and as she's walking away, she says to me (in English) "That's not funny."

Guess it depends on your point of view. I had a good chuckle with E.

Anyway, in hindsight, I kind of feel a little bad. If I had a clear mind, I might have apologized and told her that I threw someone else's hand into her butt. Because her last impression was probably that I, a guy, slapped her ass. And that might have ruined her night of partying. Oh well. In hindsight.

A Night with Jose

Saturday night was E's birthday, with celebrations clubbing at Room 18 in Taipei.

For the most part, Room 18's hip hop music selection was good - up tempo and perfect for bumpin' on the dance floor. At our table, everyone was having a good time eating chocolate cake, and downing red wine and Jose Cuervo.

Now, one of the few things I remember well from my 1998 trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico was what I learned at at a tequila distillery. The tour guide taught us that tequila is made from a plant called Blue Agave (agave azul), and the good tequila is "100% Agave", which is labelled always labeled on the bottle. Jose Cuervo, which at one time was a quality tequila, is no longer. It's over 50% agave, qualifying it to be "tequila", but it's loaded with artificial additives. The result is a drink that give you nasty hangover the day after.

So it only seems fitting that it was Jose Cuervo that would make me puke for the first time because of alcohol consumption. Yes, I know, at 28, it seems I should have drunk myself to a good throw-up long ago. I don't regret not doing it till now either. In any case, I still remember the night well, and felt better throwing up 3 times quickly (into a toilet). Still woke up with a bit of a headache, but it wasn't too bad.

Just want you to know, Jose, you're a bad, bad man.

Competition is in the Air

It's that time of the year again. Our company is holding the annual "Clubs" tournaments, where each company club has a budget of 8,000nt - $15,000nt to hold a competition. This year is my busiest yet, because I'm entered in a whole slew of events. Here's the rundown.

Basketball Club
- 3-point shootout
- mixed (male/female) special event (just shooting)

Foosball Club
- Men's Competitive Singles
- Doubles

Fitness Club
- Muscular Fitness (includes push-ups, chin-ups, benchpress, leg lifts, high-jump, bicep curls, and lat pulldowns)

Billiards
- 14-1

Table Tennis
- Men's Competitive Singles
- Doubles (though my partner's female)

Photography
- Scenery
- People

Swimming
- Men's 100m Freestyle
- 400m Relay

So that's going to keep me busy on top of my overloaded work schedule. But I'm looking forward to it. I expect to take medals in a few of those events, at least. Just for sport, for money, and for fun.

We are taught to observe the rules of the road. So, what do you do when the rules of the road are broken or redefined by rogue operators of rogue vehicles? You take the law into your own hand. I don't write tickets or give warnings. I just do my best to give such people a hard time in the 3 seconds we encounter each other on the road. Call me a vehicular vigilante.

Scenario 1: On smaller single-laned streets (one in each direction), drivers like to give themselves room from parked cars by driving in the middle of the street, half-and-halfing it over the solid yellow dividing line. If there are on-coming scooters, they expect the scooters will steer clear of them.
Scenario 2: Scooterers often use the opposite-direction lane overtake cars, such as those stopped at a red light, to get to the front of the line.
Scenario 3: When a red light turns green, cars and scooters waiting to make a left turn will often try to beat the incoming traffic. Scooters have a better chance of doing so because they accelerate faster.

My solution to Scenario 1 and 2 are the same. When I see someone ahead of me cross into my lane from the opposite direction, I ride closer to the middle line. Playing chicken usually establishes my territory and forces them back into their own lane.

For Scenario 3, if I'm at a red light and I see people at the other side of the intersection getting ready to make a left turn, I usually peel out of the stop position as soon as the light goes green. This gets me to the middle of the intersection before they get a chance to squeeze in a turn. If someone insists on turning, I let'em have it with my left thumb on the horn.

I have no problem making good use of my scooter horn either. It's there for a reason. Besides, mechanical and electric devices have shorter lifespans if they're underused.

On Sunday, my sister and I went with a group to Taipei's Yang Ming Mountain (陽明山) for a day of rock climbing. We probably started climbing around 10am and wrapped up after 6pm. I gotta say, it felt really good to be out there. The weather was mostly pretty good, with a brief bit of rain. Plenty of grinding, sweating, and fun company. But most of all, it was just nice to be out away from the pollution spending the day where mosquitoes have good appetites.

The first picture kind of shows our climbing set-up. The second photo is of my sister. She did the climbing there, but I'm credited with taking what I thought was a pretty good photo.

On Saturday, I attended a Science Creativity competition held by my company's Education Foundation. It's an annual competition with a cash prize/scholarship of 100,000 NTD to the winning team of four highschool students. The challenge was to create an automated structure with 4 stages, show two displays of Physics and two displays of Chemistry. So students, in the area provided, would create systems of moving parts, pullies, cascading dominos, ingredient mixing, burning things, etc using as much creativity as possible - subsequently judged on their efforts. But I was actually pretty disappointed with the results. Team after team had failing experiments, with links between each Physics/Chemistry stage that would break instead of falling through to continue the action to the next stage. I felt like these teams didn't think their experiments through, and didn't prepare and practice enough to be successful.

Nevertheless, it reminded me a lot of going to the Technolymics back in highschool. Those were fun times. Hopefully these kids learned a few things along the way too.

Oh, What a Night!

Last night, I went to a company Innoluxin Zhunan (竹南), about 15 minutes by car (by highway) or 40 minutes by scooter (regular roads), for foosball. Zhunan is one area I'm not familiar with (having only been there once almost 3 years ago), though I happened to have lunch across the street from Innolux just at lunch yesterday-- a little coinkidink.

Since it's illegal for scooters to take the highway (for safety's sake), my path was as you see to the right here. This is what you'd do: take 寶山路 (Bao Shan Road) straight towards downtown. Then turn left onto 食品 (Shi Pin Road), follow the curve right, go up and down a bridge, double-back along a lane next to the bridge and turn right onto 中華路 (Zhong Hua Road). Then take Zhong Hua road, a big street, all the way until the destination. About 18+ km in total.

And yet, while that all seemed simple enough, that's not how it turned out. The second map is the route I actually took. Working off 5 hours of sleep, I forgot about the bridge, and somehow turned left at the intersection before it. But I didn't notice anything wrong, even as the road I was on twisted and turned (unlike Zhong Shan Road should have). I started to question myself as I felt I was heading into the mountains, but since I didn't stray from the main road of what I thought was Zhong Hua Road, I kept going. Until... I ran out of road. All I had were motorways and highways. I went one way, then felt it was wrong, and went the other way. In the end, I decided to follow the road signs that said 竹南 Zhunan... which took me onto Taiwan's largest highway. Happily it got me where I wanted to go, and made for a fun story. My detour only took an extra 10 mins for a total of 50.

This morning, I woke up to the sound of my radio alarm at 8am. Got changed, and went to the swimming pool. After a quick rinse, I did a few stretches, and looked up at the clock hanging from a post at one end of the pool. 7:21am. Exsqueezeme? In Adrian Monk style: Here's what happened. Last night as I was setting my alarm, I accidentally pressed the wrong buttons, thereby changing the hour of my alarm clock one hour earlier. The result was me finishing my 1000m and getting to the office by 8am.

Tonight, we need to be out of the office by 7pm because there will be a carpet cleaning and disinfecting (happens a couple times a year). So I'll probably go bowling and maybe have some MJ at my coworker's place.

It's 3:20am. I can't sleep. Let me ramble about what's going...

I was making Vietnamese drip coffee at work today. Drank it around 7pm or 8pm. I never thought I had ever been affected by the effects of caffeine. But here I am, at 3:32am sitting on the corner of my bed typing a blog.

So, what's up with me? Work's been busy lately. Working on a Sales Kit for when we start driving the Asia Sales Force sometime this month.

Been swimming about twice a week in the mornings, just before work. Not swimming all that long, my last swim being 800m. Increasing 100m each time. I was planning on swimming again tomorrow, but seeing as I can't sleep, I can't swim. I'm going to be a complete wreck in the morning.

Been also busy with taking rockclimbing lessons with my sister. We just finished our 5th and final lesson for this introductory course, and we've got a outdoor trip this Sunday to do some climbing at Ya Ming Shan in Taipei. Lots of fun. I'm going to have to take a break after we finish that. My fingers need a rest, and my so does my injured left shoulder. No workouts at the gym the last few weeks. Don't want to worsen my shoulder's condition.

After work tomorrow, I'll be scootering to another company to play some foosball. Just signed up for another tournament for 9/1. A smaller one. Gotta play more and practice.

I hate not being able to sleep. Mainly because at 2am or 3am, I get really hungry, and it's far too late to eat.

Ok, 3:31am now. Time to try sleeping again. Night.

Last weekend, I bought a large white plastic storage box to store some winter clothes. Unfortunately, there was no elegant way of taking it home on my scooter. It was too big to fit on the scooter floor in front of me. So, I came up with a clever idea of wearing it on my back, over my backpack full of groceries, and strapping it on with some elastic mesh from the front. The result is what you see to the right.

No doubt I turned a few heads on my way home.

Heroes in a half shell - Turtle Power!

This weekend I spent a considerable amount of money (not enough to break the bank, but enough that I would complain and say I spent a lot of money). But it was money well-spent, and mostly staying with the theme of cleanliness.

After an allergy blood test showed that I was allergic to dust-mites and not a whole lot else, I took some action to improve my living space along those lines. Here's what I got:

1) Jean Perry (supposedly from France) anti-mite mattress and pillow protectors
2) Louie Casa (supposedly from Italy) anti-mite queen sized quilt cover
3) Honeywell filters roll for my various air-filtering appliances (air purifier, air conditioner, and dehumidifier)
4) Mouthwash
5) 3M deodorizer, and
6) Toilet pucks

Also bought a shirt from G2000 at 70% off. But that has nothing to do with clean... other than it's a clean shirt.