Author: Y C

I’ve been waiting for this one for oh, the past 20 years. On SCC 20 years ago, some Jewish twit made a comparison of the Chinese treatment toward Tibetans something like a concentration camp etc, and said that all Chinese students should be expelled. In a brilliant piece of sarcasm (if I humbly say so myself), I copied his piece almost verbatim but substituted Chinese and Tibetans with Jews and Palestinians. Check out this 1992 unofficial FAQ on SCC.

Apparently, some other Jews agree with me, like the Israeli Justice Minister Yosef Lapid. Heh. 🙂

=YC

So it’s kind of big news around here. The after shocks of the recent Presidential elections is still being felt. Today was the inauguration of President-elect Chen Shui-bian even though the recount is on-going. He won by 30,000 or so votes and 40,000 votes are in dispute. Meanwhile, China says, that it will invade Taiwan if it decides to “go independent”. See the fun rhetoric here at the NYTimes and CNN where apparently, China is reiterating its intention to use force to keep Taiwan a part of China.

I don’t know… with $100 billion dollars worth of Taiwan investment and $8.5 billion in bi-lateral trade, I hardly think it’s worth all that money to flush down the drain. Even so, the bark is worse than its bite as China simply doesn’t have the military capacity to invade Taiwan successfully (see Normandy and do a comparative analysis). 15 years ago, I was part of the Taiwan Independence debate on SCC (soc.culture.china USENET group) and feel that things are a bit different then than now. Taiwan is a de facto independent nation and Taiwan should call China’s bluff. You can read what Chen Shui-bian feels in his inauguration speech.

AJ and I were musing today on some fun work related events. It’s directly related to the on-going Taiwan development — namely, those who are most capable, have already left Taiwan for other places. Those who are left are well, direct empirical evidence contrary to the stereotype that Chinese people are smart. MIT doesn’t mean what it used to a couple of decades ago.

Anyways, I’m just continuing on my journey here and see where it leads.

=YC

I found this little experiment of social interaction to be really funny. I know that I wouldn’t like it very much. Women not talking, now that indeed would be a strange one.

This year’s weather has been awfully strange. Since being here, there’s been at least 3 “earthquakes”. One I felt but the other two, only known due to subway announcement but the trains still ran. Typhoon season is coming up so it’ll be interesting to see how it goes in the upcoming few weeks.

=YC

Since when is the best interest of the child not served by being separated from her natural parents? I’m curious to know what the Tennessee burden is in this case

Anyone point a law link to this to explain the judge’s reasoning? Couldn’t quite tell from the news article blurb.

=YC

Whew….I think…..

Actually, not much of one. It’s been go-go-go since February and I haven’t really had time to stop and take it all in. It’s been 11 days now in my new home Taipei but no time to reflect. I think I’ve just been throwing myself into the thick of things. Not that I’ve had much choice. It’s so much better to get everything situated as quickly as possible so that I can go on with a “normalized” life as much as possible.

So far, my schedule consists of waking up by 7am, getting to work by 9am, then leave work around 7pm or so, typical of my NYC lifestyle. Taipei is very much like that, very urban, hip (with a touch of old-world), fast and public transportation friendly. I’ve managed to get a Taipei Metro Card and away I go. Having my cousin (in chinese, she’s my Tang Jie-jie), has helped 1000%. Without her, I wouldn’t have found my nice rental room (yes, it’s about as big as a typical NYC studio) with completely new fixtures and floors. I even got a new fridge, TV, cable and DSL installed. I’m totally plug and play. The neighborhood is quite nice (Zhong He District Taipei). I live next to the Zhong He No4 Park which has a new library (not yet ready), police station, a couple of markets nearby, and lots of stores in a main blvd (called Zhong He Lu). The bus st0p is outside my door and the subway station ( map here) is one block from my apt. I get off the Yung-An Market (Yongan Shichang) subway stop on the NanShiChiao Yellow line. Zhong He Lu has a bookstore, a “Best Buy” type of store, lots of 7-11 types, coffee shops galore, movie theatre across the subway station. Naturally, lots of eats too — it will be a struggle to lay off the calories, but I manage to walk quite a bit every day to-from work so I think I will be successful.

I had a chance this weekend to take the Beitou-Nanshijiao line and stop at at Jiantan stop which is a huge night market area, near Taipei Sea World. So much good food there, it would take me a whole year to just sample it all. It’s gotten hotter here too so the summer dresses are out and the eye-candy is at overdose levels. I’m starting to be able to pick out the ABCs in the crowd vs. the locals. A quickie rule of thumb would be that the ABC/expats guys like myself tend to be a little heavier and taller than the rest. As for the women, I’d have to relate AJ’s observation when he approached a female on the street to ask for directions and he asked her in English. To her astonishment, he relates, it was elementary — she was chunky, makeup-less, and dressed-down vis-a-vis local gals who are almost uniformally always “well-put together” (so to speak).

Well, til next time….

=YC

I’ve been remiss, but last night in the US of A and a quickie post. Flying off to Taipei on my latest life adventure. Too busy and stressed out to get emotional about things but it has been a tough few weeks.

I so hate packing and am so bad at it that i vow this time around I will collect nothing and throw away things. Travel light and live light is the motto.

AJ is off to Hawaii for a friend’s wedding this weekend and I’ll be crashing over his place until I find new digs. I’ll post laters in another week or two.

Cheers!

=YC

I’ve been awfully busy the past few days. Have been terribly remiss with postings. Am moving, packing, shipping stuff and running around getting paperwork finished.

Flying back to the East Coast Saturday and then back and then onto Taiwan and a new adventure.

The whole Iraq thing has been really troubling me …. I just want to scream.

=YC

I love this article in this week’s NYT Magazine about a high school coach. Brought back a lot of fond memories of my teachers in high school.

I was moved to post a reply to the thread. And am moved to talk about it here. I think he’s a hero and one of the few old school teachers out there. Did any of you guys have a teacher like him? I had one and will never forget him.

=YC

Well, I get on the plane and then the next day there’s a few substantive blogs to read. Woo, I should needle more often hehe….

I feel… traveled out (I think that can be a feeling or emotion?). About 7 weeks out of the country going from one place to another and now I’m back. Not sure how I should be feeling other than…. tired ? I’m glad I wasn’t hassled at SFO immigration and customs. I get off and while immigrations was easy, “Hi, Mr Blah, Bleh?” “Yes,” [stamp] “Thank you”. I saw a huge line in customs “Nothing to Declare” Line. The custom’s officer seeing my 2 large suitcases and carry on says, “Please exit” when I try to head to the big line. Cool! I feel bad for all those people probably still waiting to get cleared from customs.

I don’t know but the airlines look pretty full to me. All my Asian flights were fully booked and no detection that there’s an airline slump. I flew EVA unfortunately not a UA code share partner. I will try to see if I can get my trip miles post flight. I worry that all my air miles will go poof when UA decides to go out of business. I think it’s about 75% sure in 2-3 years. They just can’t seem to get themselves fixed up…. Oh, and why is Boeing getting their lunch eaten by Airbus? Because those seats are simply too small!!! I flew the Boeing 747-400 and sorry, it was really uncomfortable. Now, I know I’m a pretty big guy by comparison but people are getting bigger all the time. Boeing hasn’t kept up with the times and will soon be obsolete too.

I’ve survived my trip not having totally gained back all the weight I lost going there… Now it’s sorta back to semi-normal US California life although it’s sort of weird to say that since I have no idea what that means anymore. Given that I am going back to my “un-rooted” phase of life again, I guess emotionally, I can’t be attached to any one place. From the East Coast, I’ve moved out West for almost 5 years. I’ve made a number of friends and have started to get completely used to the lifestyle here. I’ve always missed the NYC Metro area and my friends there. In the back of mind, I’m still in NYC. I’ve traveled and moved to many places that making friends and keeping them is really tough. One of my oldest friends is returning to his roots, and moving to Chicago with his wife and kid. Without IM, e-mail and hopefully soon for more people, video-cam; I’m not sure how to keep it all together. It’ll be so much harder as I’m moving to Taiwan in May.

=YC

So it’s nearly 2am, working to get a presentation out for 9:30am meeting. Looks like winter still hasn’t left NYC. Meanwhile, it is cold here in Taipei but am getting ready to go back to California.

Working late and all the way until I fly out. It’ll be weird.

Seems like everyone is busy, no time to blog for 4 days hmmmm.

=YC