I had a business trip to Taipei yesterday to install a system at a customer site. The hardware, which costs $30K US and is the size of two pizza boxes stacked, was the precious cargo. So, instead of taking a charter bus, our company called a taxi. Or at least I thought it was a taxi. I was called at 1:00pm telling me they were waiting for me downstairs, so I quickly took the goods and brought them downstairs. When I got out, it seemed that the company had called a car service... an S-class Benz. Sweet. It seemed like an "extended" (elongated?) Mercedes, with tons of floor space in the back seat, such that I could extend my legs straight out and not touch the seat in front. It was nice to sit in a pimpin' ride like that for a 1 hr ride to Taipei. On the side of the car was a plaque that said "Chairman", which was rather appropriate since I went to Taipei with the Chairman of our project.*

That night, I attended a CCPN gathering at a pub called Lady Bird, which strangely enough had pictures of ladyBUGs all over the place.

My coworker told me today that that car was actually from a Korean maker called SsangYong, that uses Benz engines, but is essentially different. And then they just stick the Benz emblem where necessary to make it look like a Mercedes. Well, doesn't change the experience.

A: "... and we would love for you to be ______ Godfather."
B: "Of course! I would be honoured!!"

A couple months short of my friend and his wife having their first baby, a thought popped into my mind. This in no way is an indication of what has or will happen to me. But...

What would you do if someone asked you to be their child's Godparent and you just didn't want to? If it were your best friend, and you are really close, then you'd love to. But what if you are just so-so friends? Is it a question you can really say "No" to? How would you justify your response?

Run that scenario in your mind and tell me what you think...

Blogging seems down this year. I look at friends' blogs, and less than a handful have updates in 2006. Comments are down this year too. Where is everyone?

I couldn't wait to open my brand new iPod nano, so I did so at my desk. The idea was more so I could charge it at work, and play with it right when I got home. But after the shrink wrap came off and I carefully plucked the nano out of its impact resistant foam home, I found that when I shook it, something inside was loose and would make a little sound. It still functioned, but the unsecured internal object kind of concerned me. At lunch, I visited the Apple Center about 15 mins away, and found that I'd have to send it in for repairs to know if there was really a problem. So I took the simpler solution, which was to return it to my coworker.

I'm now nano-less once again. And once again, in the market for an iPod nano.

This is a tiny anecdote. A nano anecdote, if you will.

I've been recently in the market for an iPod nano, and with the worldwide shortage of 4GB iPod nanos, I settled on a 2GB one. All stores in Taiwan appear to sell the nano at the same price, so I decided to look online at Taiwan's Yahoo! Bid online auction.

After searching around, I found one seller that was selling at a reasonable price (700+nt less than in stores), and was conveniently in my city. I bid and won. Then I called him up a couple days later to arrange the meeting time. He said he was in the Science Park (same as me!), and we used the post office hear a small central hub for the exchange at 9:00am.

I arrive at 8:58am, and I'm waiting and looking around for him. A couple minutes past 9, I see two guys walk up to the post office, one holding a couple boxes of goods, and the second giving money to the first and getting something that looks like an SD card in return. So I kind of walk over there, and kinda look around to see if it was my man.

I say to the man with the boxes, "Mr. Shieh?"
He says "Yes."

And then he looks at me, and makes a "eh?" sound (commonly used in Chinese to express one noticing something), as if he recognizes me. I look at him again, but I don't really know the face. Then my eyes fall down to the left breast of his jacket where I see my company's name. He's my coworker! Of course, it's easier for people to recognize me, since I'm the only Canadian in our company. The encounter provided me with a little humour, and furthermore, I came out with my first MP3 player!

B, N, M, and I had eight days in three cities in Cambodia over the Chinese New Year break. Here's the breakdown of our trip! (btw, I took that beautiful picture)

Jan 27 [Friday]: Arrive Phnom Penh 10:00am, Phnom Penh

Highlights: Ghetto USD$1.50 lunch for 4, National Museum, Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda, Independence Monument

Jan 28 [Saturday]: Phnom Penh during the day, travel Phnom Penh -> Siem Reap

Highlights: Central Market, Russian Market, Ray's Bubble Tea, Toul Sleng (S-21), massage #1, no visibility on the night's road... although our driver seemed to know every wind and turn of the disappearing road, simultaneous assassination of mother and baby foxes

Jan 29 [Sunday]: Siem Reap

Hightlights: Temples of Angkor: Bayon, Baphuon, Phimeanakas, doo doo behind the wall, Terrace of the Leper King, Terrace of the Elephants, Angkor Wat until sunset

Jan 30 [Monday]: Siem Reap during the day, visit Angkor (with sunrise), and other sights

Hightlights: Temples of Angkor: Sunrise at Angkor Wat, Banteay Srei, Banteay Kdei, Pre Rup, Ta Prohm, bargaining for souvenirs, Sras Srang, and sunset at Phnom Bakeng, massage #2

Jan 31 [Tuesday]: Siem Reap during the day, travel Phnom Penh -> Siem Reap

Hightlights: Floating village, miniature Angkor Wat, then walking around Siem Reap (Old Market, massage #3)

Feb 1 [Wednesday]: travel Phnom Penh -> Sihanoukville in the morning, Sihanoukville during the day

Hightlights: Renting motorbikes, visiting the beaches, sunset on Sihanoukville mountain, dinner at the Snake House (with a live snack IN our table!)

Feb 2 [Thursday]: Sihanoukville, then travel from Sihanoukville to Phnom Penh after dark

Hightlights: Time on Serendipity and Ochheuteal Beaches, great lunch at Rom Dual's, sitting right at the beach with some cold drinks, dinner right off the beach, "Special Happy Shakes" (with hashish), feeding our leftovers to a hungry beggar, something crawling around the car on B's arm and over my foot

Feb 3 [Friday]: Phnom Penh

Hightlights: Central market, North Face backpack purchases, Wat Phnom, massage #4, and flight home to Taiwan

It was an eventful trip, and I had a great time. Made lots of small purchases, and so long as we don't discuss it further, I think I paid a decent price for most of it. Really, aside from the temples, Cambodia doesn't have THAT much to offer, and there's only so much you can take of peddlers and beggars (many missing limbs) asking for money -- but I enjoyed my stay. It was nice to come back to Taiwan for a hot, clean shower. So starts some planning on my next trip!

In general, are men just worse keep-in-touchers than women? Are they worse communicators?

I generally do my best to touch bases with most of my friends, spread equally over both genders. But since coming to Taiwan, I've received a 16 cards and letters from 8 different people. All 8 were female. So, does that mean that guys generally don't care to write? OR that guys don't care to write to other guys? Considering I'm far from any form of a ladies' man (unless you want to liken me to The Ladies Man), I can probably exclude that I "attract" more letters from females -- especially when we factor in that most of these female friends have boyfriends, are married, or are soon to be married.

Perhaps it is just the sad fact that guys are apathetic towards putting words on paper, and prefer the convenience of emailing instead. Even then, emails usually come in the form of replies rather than conversation starters. The way I see, if I don't say "hi" first, we probably won't talk for a long time. Who knows whether it's a reflection on the other person or our friendship.

Although, I can probably also safely say that most guys would do a better job keeping in touch with female friends than male friends that are far away. I'd like to think I'm impartial in this regard... but who knows, biases are often blind.

Just some thoughts.

Hello from Kampuchea (Cambodia)!

I'm on the second last day of my 8 day trip here, and it's been a great experience. Cambodia isn't nearly as popular as it's neighbouring countries Vietnam and Thailand, but perhaps that's a good thing. Nevertheless, there are still a lot of tourists, and even more so during the Chinese New Year.

In short, our days were broken into the following: 2 days in Phnom Penh, 3 days in Siem Reap (where the famous temples of Angkor are), 2 days in Sihanoukville, and 1 day in Phnom Penh.

Khmer food is pretty good, and sort of a mix between the foods around Indochina. The best thing is probably being able to have really good meals at only $2.50 US/person. But not every restaurant is that cheap... especially those that realize they can get more from tourists. We've gone for 3 massages, which range from $4US - $6US/hr... not bad. I think we've mentally scheduled another massage for tomorrow as well.

Angkor's temples (Angkor Wat, Bayon, Ta Phrom, etc.) were excellent. We spent 2 full days visiting those - we had a 3-day pass. There're plenty of things to take pictures of. Between 3 digital cameras, we'll probably be just shy of 3000 photos altogether. Pretty crazy.

Khmers (the Cambodian people) are generally quite nice. There are a lot of peddlers, motobike taxis (motodups), tuk tuks (a carriage pulled by a motobike), and kids selling all sorts of things. Of course, I think we've done a good job in negotiations, and we're probably paying much less for everything we spend money on than many foreigners -- most of whom probably don't care how much they spent. Damn foreigners. :P We picked up Lonely Planet Vietnam ($5 US), Thailand ($5), and Laos ($2.5) for future trips as well... copies, yes, but very good copies. I also bought a few other Cambodian books for $4 US... books that would normally sell for $30, $40 if they were "real". Party on for bargaining.

So, that's my quick update. Will write more when I return to Taiwan.

Ever look at the To header in an email for the order of recipients to see where you placed? Wouldn't you agree that order usually DOES matter? In something as trivial as email, whoever's name goes first is the highest priority, and the last one is often an after-thought. In any case, that's how I see it. So when I write emails to multiple recipients, I usually intentionally mix up the names or put them in alphabetical order or use BCC lists.

What's the buzz?

Interestingly enough, this ties in well with my last post.

My group at work went to lunch at a Taiwanese Aboriginal restaurant today. We probably ordered 10 dishes or so, and every dish was quite tasty. The most interesting one was the deep fried bee pupae. Sounds disgusting, perhaps. But it was with deep fried with green onions, a bit of chili pepper, and some other flavours, making it fairly likeable. The other spices and flavour masked any hint of "bug" (not that we know that it would really have much taste to begin with) and the texture was sort of a soft crunch. The most disturbing part was seeing their thin black oval eyes... but even that was easily barable.

Round of bee pupae for everyone? Alright then.