Hi

Sunday I went to the Yeilu Scenic Park. It features crazy rocks formed by years of crashing waves. Pretty cool. Check it out.
And I know, long time no post!

Damn Right Sucka!!!

My front door.

Howdy!
I've uploaded tons of pics to the "Art" gallery on my site.
Check them at davidphoto.smugmug.com

Hope everyone is doing good.
Not much new here. The weather is cooling down though so that's nice!

10-10

Today is 10-10, or, the equivalent of our 4th of July, so I'm told. I have not seen any fireworks though. So, it's a holiday weekend and no work again til' Monday.

Just when you thought your portfolio was in the toilet...

Compliments of Ken.

.......................................

A little prevention/treatment humor for those who find little to smile about with their investments these days . . .


If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in Delta Airlines one year ago, you will have $49.00 today.

If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in AIG one year ago, you will have $33.00 today.

If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in Lehman Brothers one year ago, you will have $0.00 today.

But, if you had purchased $1,000 worth of beer one year ago, drank all the beer, then turned in the aluminum cans for recycling refund, you will have received $214.00.
Based on the above, the best current investment plan is to drink heavily & recycle. It is called the 401-Keg!!!

A recent study found that the average American walks about 900 miles a year. Another study found that Americans drink on average 22 gallons of alcohol a year.

That means that on average Americans get about 41 miles to the gallon! Makes you proud to be an American!

Skype

Was anyone asking about my Skype name? I got a text from an unknown number asking...

Saturday

Hello friends, or whoever reads this. At least, hello Jackie and Ken! I know you guys read it. Why not throw a comment onto the posts, though, so I look popular. LOL! :P Yep, just click the comment link below. See it? Good. LALALALALALALA...

Ah, another Saturday afternoon and the beginning of my usual 1.5 day weekend. Last night, we had a performance day for one of my classes where they perform at the end of a level for parents. This is one of the few classes I've had consistently since starting back in March. The rest of my classes are a jumbled mess with them switching me around everywhere. Anyway, this class is one of my better ones. Still crazy, but one of the better ones. Here's a pic I snapped of them.



Otherwise, today I need to get a haircut and then I'm heading over to a friend of a friend's who already left the island for a dinner shindig at his apartment. As it would turn out, it's in my old area where I used to live- so I have to scooter it over there.
Anyway, happy Saturday in the West Pacific.

Typhoon Monday

Today is Monday and it's a typhoon day. Yesterday was the gut of typhoon Jangmi. I'm surprised today is an off day at work as the typhoon appears to have passed but I'm not complaining except that we don't get paid when it's a typhoon day which sucks ass. Plus, there isn't much to do on these days. Many things are closed. Just chilling right now in the apt. I may stroll down to the store under the building in a few to check out DVDs and also look at rice cookers as I need one. Haven't updated in a while on this thing as there hasn't been anything to update about. But just checking in saying hey. Email me friends!
Oh yeah, Saturday was Taipei Pride. I was surprised and not surprised. I think anywhere on the globe, Pride's are about the same with their liquor sponsors and such. LOL. I'll put up a few pics later.
Cheers.

Typhoon Time

It's been gusty and raining all night but I guess it's really supposed to start late tomorrow.

Taipei, Taiwan Weather Forecast

And a news story on it:

Taiwan Issues Alert as Typhoon Sinlaku Strengthens Over Pacific

By Aaron Sheldrick

Sept. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Taiwanese authorities issued an alert to ships and warned of floods and mudslides as Typhoon Sinlaku strengthened into a Category 4 storm as it churned across the Pacific Ocean toward the island and southern Japan.

The storm may be close to Taiwan by Sept. 14, the Taiwan Weather Bureau said on its Web site. The Japan Meteorological Agency said the southwestern islands of Okinawa may experience heavy rain, floods and high waves as Sinlaku approaches.

The eye of Sinlaku was 398 kilometers (248 miles) southwest of Taitung on the southeastern coast of Taiwan at 2 a.m. local time, the U.S. Navy Joint Typhoon Warning Center said in an advisory on its Web site.

Sinlaku's maximum sustained winds increased to 232 kilometers per hour from 176 kph yesterday, making it a Category 4 storm, the second strongest on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale of intensity. The storm's winds were gusting to 278 kph.

The typhoon was heading north at 4 kph and is forecast to strengthen further to almost a Category 5 storm with winds of 250 kph by early tomorrow. Waves are as high as 9 meters (30 feet) in the vicinity of Sinlaku's eye, the typhoon center said.

The typhoon is expected to pass between northern Taiwan and Okinawa before swinging northeast and approaching the main islands of Japan by Sept. 16, according to U.S. Navy forecasters.

Sinlaku, the 15th storm of the northwest Pacific cyclone season, is the name of a goddess worshipped on the island of Kosrae in Micronesia, according to the Hong Kong Observatory, which lists tropical cyclone names in use in the Pacific. Japan's weather agency counts it as the 13th.

Another storm to the northeast of Sinlaku is forecast to approach Tokyo later this week, according to the U.S. center.

Tropical Storm 16W was 552 kilometers southeast of the Japanese capital at 3 a.m. Tokyo time today.

The storm's winds were blowing at 65 kph and it was moving west-northwest at 22 kph. Its winds are forecast to strengthen to 83 kph by 3 a.m. tomorrow when it will be closest to Tokyo, according to the U.S. warning center. Japan's weather agency doesn't have information on the storm.

I'm actually looking forward to it so I can say I've experienced a typhoon! :)
Besides, I'm in he city and not the mountains or the coast so I expect just tons of rain and wind and noise.

Well Hello Dere!

I wonder if any of you mofos ever read this.
Ah well. Lalalalalalalaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

Anyway...
I've noticed something about Taiwan and have been wanting to post it forever but keep forgetting. How about now? Okay. So I've noticed that Taiwanese businesses like to compete with each other. That sounds normal, right? But, take for instance: On a given street, you will see 10 hot pot restaurants, or 10 scooter helmet restaurants, or of course 10 7-11's. All right by or across the street from each other. 7-11 is a franchise over here, but still. I think they like to see who can be better. 7-11's prices are all the same from store to store. But the other businesses, like helmets, might vary a few dollars in their prices. It's like they are all trying to dominate an area with their busnesses. All clustered together. Then you will go miles and not see any sort of business like helmets, but maybe, like I said, a hot pot place- and then 9 more within eye shot. It's kinda funny. Instead of diversifying an area, they saturate it with one type of place. But when you go to the touristy places, well, then you see the worldly places and many different selections. Now I'll tie this into kids. You tell them to think of a topic to write about and they all start writing about the same thing! Even if you give them a multitude of topics, they all choose the same thing! It's funny. Maybe they are subconsciously competing with each other (and don't know it yet). I'm wondering; is it a lack of creativity within? Or is it constant competition. I'm thinking the latter- especially since kids are brought up with rigorous school work and English classes on top of that so that the average teen doesn't go to bed before 2am because they are studying. Is it a constant "do better than your neighbor" mentality. And at the same time, Asian countries, the economically comfortable ones like Taiwan, China, Japan and others I'm sure, succeed more than their western counterparts. But at what price? At the price of creativity and individualism?
Just a thought. Perhaps this wasn't well written, but it was all just coming off the top of my head.

Hey Hey!

What's up guys. I've done tons since I've been back including a water park as well as a few new sights around Taipei County that I've visited- some just yesterday. The weather has been very hot and humid lately, although some days not that humid. I hear it's supposed to beging the cooldown process next month though so we'll see ont that. Everything is cool otherwise.
For the next two weeks I have Kindergarten. I'm subbing for another teacher. The extra money will be good to offset the money I lost while on vacation- yeah, we don't get paid for vacation. :( Anyway, today was my first Kindergarten class. Only 8 kids in my particular class. extremely cute kids. They are 2 and 3 year olds so it's basically 2.5 hours of day care. LOL. You do teach some English and they can actually talk. The rest of the time is excercise time, snack time, play time, toy time, many bathroom breaks and hand washing breaks, draw pictures time, and then lunch time. LOL. It's pretty easy actually. Although, I have a five hour break until my afternoon classes start. I took MRT today so I don't have my scooter so here I am playing on the internet. :D
I have to run some errands, though, that I can do in walking distance of work here so I'll do that as well as grab some lunch.
Hope everyone is cool and by the way, happy birthday to Ray and Ugly! I talked to you Ray, but not to you Ugly, last night on the phone. You were all partying it up at Ray's. Good times and I'm sorry I missed it.
Well, off I go. Oh, and I'll be posting some pics later on tonight most likely unless I'm too beat. Later.

Hiya!

Hey guys. I bail back to Asia in one day from today. It was a great vacation back here in the states but it's time to get back to work and back to tourism!!! Unfortunately I won't be back here in the states for the holidays as it would be too expensive. The good news is that I plan on going to Thailand for a few days during that time of Christmas or so. :) It's much cheaper and I've never seen the place. And a lot closer to Taiwan. I'll try to post some pics of the trip I've had here the last two weeks soon. You can also go on my myspace or facebook too. As far as my Smugmug account, that website is more for my pro and art photography and not for fun snapshots. That's just the way I've chosen it to be. It does really get hard keeping up with all these sites though. LOL.

So remember, smugmug is davidphoto.smugmug.com

myspace is http://www.myspace.com/cakozmic

and for facebook you can just search for my name.

:)

Cheers!
David

I'm in the Taipei airport now awaiting my flight to LA!
The airport is practically empty, security is so easy here, and my flight is pretty empty, so cool! And obviously free internet in the terminal.
Anyway, signing off for now from Taiwan!
Next stop, Los Angeles!!!

Bon Voyage Taiwan for a while!

Greeting folks! Today is the day that I fly back to the USA for my visit! Can't wait! I actually go back in time and get there the same day I leave here but earlier. HA!
I think I'm leaving Taiwan at a good time too because the weather has heated up a lot lately. Today is the hottest day so far. Actually, you kinda just get used to it- or numb from it, not sure on that one.
My last day of work before holiday was yesterday and on Saturday were end of semester performances for 2 of my classes. One class did awesome and better than rehearsal. The other class and younger class not so good. They couldn't even remember where to stand! Here is a picture of them during a rehearsal. These are costumes for he show and not their every day wear. Adorable costumes, though. LOL.



That's all from the update desk at this time. My next post will be from the States!

Sunday Whatever Day

So last night, James and I met up with my friend Wesley and his boyfriend for some beer and drinks at the Taiwan Beer Factory. We were there two weeks ago as I posted but by ourselves that time. It was fun. We also saw two other friends of our who were having a party there for their Dragon Boat team. So we ate and drank. We got two of those 3800 CC table kegs too. LOL. It figured out to be cheaper that way actually. Everything in bulk is, I guess. After being there a few hours, we hopped in a cab and went to Fresh, the gay bar. I was totally bored with the place as usual and the music was not good for dancing. It was really weird music. We didn't stay long there and hopped in a cab home. Had a really good night overall and yummy food at the beer factory. Always a good time at the beer factory. Today I'm sitting inside. Very, very hot out today. But I'm going to head down to a public pool soon, if I can find it that is. I figure some cool swimming would be... cool. :D
Ciao!

PS- Looking forward to seein' all you fools stateside in a few days! Wooohoooo!!!

No love when shopping for food

I thought I'd make dinner tonight being that I'm off today. So I scooter it down to the Carefour Chaos Center in between the rain drops. I go to the food section after browsing electronics and as usual, I don't know what to do when I'm in there with all the weird food and nothing very familiar short of canned corn. Then I see hot dogs. I think, hmm, beans and franks. Okay, cool. I pick up the hot dogs and proceed to look for buns. HAHAHAHAHA! After that fun of looking all over I ask someone, or moreso, point to the pretty picture of a hot dog bun on the package of hot dogs. He in turn says something I don't understand and asks another lady who happens to be manning a sample cart. She waves over in the distance behind her and he mimmics her to me. He's waving to the bread section. But they don't have hot dog buns. Most of the bread is not packaged in Taiwan, it's fresh. Why the fuck is a store selling hot dogs without having buns in the store? About to cry, not from the fact that I can't have hot dogs in buns, but because I'm just frustrated, I return the hot dog buns back to their cold home and head to the frozen food section where I buy some frozen pizza things and chicken nuggets and then to produce to buy some green apples. And a bottle of wine. Somehow the liquor areas are universal whereever you go and easy to navigate. I pay for everything and head down the escalator to find the rain has returned in buckets. I have never ridden my scooter in heavy rain so I wait and walk around inside looking at the pet shop and the pretty fish and ugly hamsters. I go back to the window and the rain has let up enough so I go to my scooter and don my cheap 7-11 yellow rain trash bag and scoot home. Here I am. So much for making a good dinner. I guess that's why most people just eat out here- at least the foreigners. It's so difficult!!!
If it wasn't for this heat right now and humidity, you'd think it was winter with the gloom. It changes so often here that you can never judge if you will be getting wet when you go out the front door.
Man, my blood sugar is really low right now and I'm feeling really bitchy. Luckily I just heard my frozen pizza announce that it's done in the oven.

Also, the photo of the day will turn into something more like photos of the week. I don't have the time to post one every day, or rather, take one every day. Plus, it's only one island I'm on. LOL.

Photo of the Day

On the river that seperates city from county.
-Taiwan

Hello

So this last Friday consisted of me going to the Taiwan Beer Factory with my friend. Finally some decent food, and of course good beer. I really do like the Taiwan brand of beer. It's quite good. Anyway, they had a band playing. They even played YMCA and everyone joined in. LOL. Fun times. And here we are at Monday again. Only 8 days til' I fly into LA. I can't wait!!!
Anyway, here are some pics of the beer factory.

I don't know who they are but I wanted to show the size
of he mini-keg you can order at your table. Lushes! LOL!
We just had a few bottles. Huge 22 ouncers for only 60 NT
or about $1.80 US. Not bad considering it's good beer.

The outside sign. Not sure what the 346 means but
those are all beer cases.

Photo of the Day

This is a fruit stand obviously. Fruit in Taiwan is great, better than their meat, anyway. So naturally there are lots of fruit stands much like you would find many carnecerias in East LA. :D

Yum!

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm good food last night finally!!! I'll write about it later but it involved the Taiwan Beer Factory!

Photo of the Day

Photo of the Day

MRT arriving at the station.
Taiwan