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.