I took this picture a couple weeks ago. It caught my eye last summer when I was scootering around my neighbourhood on a weekend around noon. Only around lunch does the shadow of the overhanging electrical wires cast down upon the splattering of bird poop on the street below. Fun, huh.

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!

Most of us only got a first look at multi-touch computing through Apple's recent iPhone release. But there are already quite a few different applications using it. This Popular Mechanics video shows just how far its come in some (almost) ready-to-sell products. Kinda fancy.

And for more information, How Stuff Works explains the multi-touch system in the iPhone.

Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary has added the following words and more into its Eleventh Edition. I've marked up the ones I've used before.

  1. agnolotti
  2. Bollywood*
  3. chaebol
  4. crunk*
  5. DVR
  6. flex-cuff
  7. ginormous*
  8. gray literature
  9. hardscape
10. IED
11. microgreen
12. nocebo
13. perfect storm
14. RPG*
15. smackdown*
16. snowboardcross
17. speed dating*
18. sudoku
19. telenovela
20. viewshed

Green roofs. Heard of? Not a new concept, but new to me.

I know, I know, I'm way behind the rest of the game. But keep in mind that I'm not in North America. Green roofing involves putting soil and vegetation onto a building's roof. While significantly more costly than regular shingles or roofing methods, green roofs can help reduce running costs of electricity, keep air both milder and cleaner, and possibly provide a roof-top garden as well. Being at the age where plenty of people are buying new homes, this is definitely something I would consider with my housing purchase (or at least with future renovations)... if it can be covered by insurance.

Here are some resources:
Green Roofs For Healthy Cities
greenroofs.com
wikipedia's page on green roofs
treehugger.com: Green Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre
Hydrotech: Green Vancouver Main Library
Canada.com story: B.C. insurers refuse to cover green roofs
Canada.com story: Insurers put the brakes on green roofs

"Liang Qichao (梁啟超) was a Chinese scholar, journalist, philosopher and reformist during the Qing Dynasty, who inspired Chinese scholars with his writings and reform movements." Here's his profile on Wikipedia.

AC says this particular photo of Liang looks like a larger-eyed version of my brother, BK. On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being "exactly like him", what do you think?

It was a busy weekend. I did my annual health exam on Saturday, and played in a Taiwan Foosball Association singles tournament on the bulk of Sunday. I'll get to the health exam part later, and blog about the foosball tournament now.

21 people registered, but a couple of people were no-shows. I finished tied for 5th, winning 4 matches and losing 2 in a double-elimination format. Each match was best of 3 games, with each game going to 5 points. The two matches I lost both went to the very last point (5-4) on the 3rd game. Unfortunately, I also blew a 4-2 game 3 lead in each case. Just wasn't able to close out. Anyway, I'm still pretty happy with the result, especially since I had never competed in any serious singles competition. So, I can say that I could have beaten two of the Top 4 finishers (who got plaques for their efforts). I, on the other hand, got an injured wrist and thumb.

Side story: One of the competitors had an unlucky week. He got into a car accident last weekend, so while his car was getting fixed he was scootering during the past week. This weekend, he got into a scooter accident, leaving possible scars on his elbow and knee - which meant he wasn't able to play in the tournament either. Poor guy. Two accidents in 1.5 weeks. That blows.

You can see my Taiwanese foosball history and profile here Taiwan Foosball Association, but you might need to read Chinese to understand any of it.

When I have kids, I'll encourage them to try new things and explore different cultures. But if any of them head down Gothic Avenue, that's it... they're going to boarding school.