B- went back to the US early this morning…. Had the whole day to sleep and was wonderfully relaxing and alone….
This is one of the NYT best articles I’ve read recently.
Came across this very interesting fellow named Dale and his cast of friends @ Distract.
Hope everyone is doing well and a good April’s Fools day 🙂
Been awhile…. it’s been a hellish month of January with the work and travels (travails more like it! :(). Started the New Year with an earthquake that reduced us to near isolation of the island connected barely through Skype via two links (NTT Japan and Asianetcom Philippines). Then as that crisis passed and stabilized, we got super busy with our HR tasks – performance objectives settings (corporate, functional, personal), 2006 reviews, and 2007 HR training development plans). Each one takes several hours – for one person, around 5-6 hours at least to properly do everything. Great experience and helped me appreciate more the entire process as well as really respecting teachers and what they do day in and day out.
A couple of weeks ago, we had a week long trip to Shanghai for a big regional conference (Jan 20-27th) and it was fantastic. B- went with me and we stayed at the Westin on the Bund in Shanghai first. First rate hotel and service was fabulous. English speaking staff, super efficient and warm service always. As expect at the Westin, the interior and atmosphere was welcoming. B- and I took a day trip to Suzhou and had a wonderful trip learning about the silk production and Suzhou’s reputation as the silk capital of China (and probably the world). We stopped by the Suzhou No. 1 Silk Factory CO. . The process is amazingly simple which belies the beautiful product that comes from it. We couldn’t help ourselves and indulged in some purchases for what I thought were a great value. We saw of course Westlake and toured some of the places around it. Extremely interesting was the growth and development of that area – commercial and industrial dotted with farms, villages and “old” China.
During my conference, B- went around the city and I was soaking up the rah-rah of the 2007 kickoff for the region. These things are very tiring, meeting people, eating, hearing stories, celebrations etc. One of the awesome things was that we had the 12 Girls Band perform live for us during our gala dinner :-). They are as amazing as they sound!
Shanghai has great foot massage but I found a place in Taipei that was almost as good. For the conference days we stayed at the Pudong Shangri-La. Unfortunately, despite awesome infrastructure, the “soft-side” was lacking. Still very local, not enough English speaking staff there which was shocking as compared to the Westin Bund. Saw a lot of sites and perhaps when there’s time, I’ll be able to start putting up our personal website and start sharing it. I dont’ think Flicker is the way to go but we’ll see how my time is (not looking good :().
We enjoyed amazing good thanks to a colleague’s wife recommendations. Cheap but spectacular Shanghainese cuisine. Even got a chance to hit up the Xinjiang lamb dishes at Yunnan North Road. Prices were incredibly cheap (4 people, 5 dishes and beer for 100 RMB! :o). Shanghai has the closest buzz to NYC and a great place to go. Not sure about the living due to the haze and likely pollution but I really enjoyed it. Hope to go again and see how the 2nd time feels.
This past week was crazy with meetings, our company’s wei ya which is a traditional year end company party. This year was extra special because my colleague and I had to do dress up (twice). The theme was Casino Royale and there was a 20 min skit that had to be performed by the Executive Committee (which I’m a card carrying member). I was “M” and had to dress up and get some make up done. But the highlight of the night was my colleague and I had to own up to failing to make good on our diet promise. His failure meant he had to dress up as Mr. Incredible because he actually looks like him :). My failure was even more spectacular. I had to dress up in a pink tutu. This past week my staff went through amazing lengths to procure the materials to make one (as at 103-5kg, finding one was impossible). I found that I could actually fit into pink nylons. So we had to perform for 5 minutes on stage in front of some 250 staff & guests. Luckily I had enough booze in front of me and adrenaline to go through it. All in all, wasn’t as bad as I thought but next time, no making idiotic promises while drinking (which is how this bet came about).
Rested up a little bit today, did some shopping and spent a nice evening & dinner with B- to catch up on my working until midnight for this whole week.
One more rest day and then another week. I’ll be taking 2007 one day at a time….
I love this article: Little Asia on the Hill. Author could’ve delved deeper into the themes more but I’m sure they will be thrashed out on the AA sites like Model Minority (aka Angry Asian Association). Every 15-20 years, this gets hashed out and the themes I argued years ago in the late 80s, early 90s is starting to come to play now. Back then I was the minority within the minority, but no doubt my views will prevail. It got me to reminisce back in the day when I crossed swords on Soc.Culture.Asian.American USENET group with the likes of Alan Hu (Stanford), Arthur Hu (AsianWeek columnist), Tim Lee, Wataru Ebihara (OSU/Ohio), JJ the curmudgeon from ATT Bell Labs (email address JJ!Alice@UUCP or something like that), George Wu, Andrew Chin, Gary Tse, Bryan Wu, Roger Tang (UWash aka Just a theatre geek), James Pak, etc.
Ah, memory lane.
Back on-line…. actually B- and I went on a holiday excursion to Southern Taiwan. Originally we were supposed to attend a wedding of one her B-‘s US friends in Neipu, Pingtung County. We took the train down to Pingtung City (屏東市) and stayed at Fu Guang Da Fan Dian (hotel) on Gong Yuan Rd. Train ride from Taipei Main station took about 6 hours and was really leisurely and smooth. I like trains from my college days in Pgh, taking the Amtrak from Newark Penn Station. I got a lot of reading done, enjoyed the views, and generally got my space to decompress and rejuvenate.
When we got there, it was chaos at the Pingtung Railway station. Mass jam as everyone was coming and going all at once. Found a helpful taxi driver who took us to the hotel. It was perfectly spotted thanks to one of my English students who grew up there and forwared the recommendation. Fu Guang was next to the big park where they were going to hold the majority of the New Year festivities. So we got to see from the 5th floor, fireworks which was pretty awesome :). It was also near the main drag of Pingtung which is a pretty small city, we walked from the hotel to the train station and saw the major shops and streets, night market etc. There’s a nice big Sogo Dept store a couple of blocks from there as well. B- and I spent coffee shop time there with our books and magazines reading. So relaxing :). I feel better going back to work tomorrow.
Anyways, 2007 is here and lots to do in the first three months. Back to the war tomorrow but at least I got one reinforcement!
Be well all,
Merry Christmas everyone… posting on X-mas even in Taipei. Been a very busy week and holiday season. Lots of people to visit and share with. Involved with many a church activities as B- joined the community choir group. They tried to rope me in but alas, I’m the grinch that can’t sing.
Did more shopping and walking around which made it a much nicer Christmas than 2005. Also, this year it seems that the retailers even got better at promoting it too. Spent a lot of $ on books and so it was very happy :).
Except for today and yesterday, weather was comfortably nippy to give it a nice wintery Christmasy feel and that was a nice touch. Tomorrow is a company holiday, but not an official government one. Officially, there aren’t that many Christians in Taiwan so there’s no reason to have it as an official holiday according to the gov’t. Inconveniently, Muslim Malaysia has Christmas as one of their official holidays. Oops.
Any how, wishing you all a wonderful and safe Christmas and holiday season!
YC & B-
Been a while since posting but wanted to wish everyone a happy and healthy holiday season. Been a pretty tough couple of months and things are just starting to settle down to more manageable issues @ work.
Next year, looking forward to new role and responsibility that’s a WIP (work in progress) plus a new high profile but high risk project with tight schedule…. Because of all the work things, I’ve found myself doing more and more reading and studying. I’ve ante-upped on my Amazon books wish-list which you can see by clicking —>
I count my blessings that I was born with the unsatiable curiosity and desire to read which I thank my parents for. I fear that if I hadn’t had this love, I would be hopelessly swamped in today’s bump and grind corporate world where just keeping up is as hard as it’s ever been.
The previous weekend, I also taught a PMP class and despite the horrible class materials, my improvisation was a welcomed change by the students and many have thanked me. That’s made all the difference really to hear that I helped them and made a difference :). The pay wasn’t bad either ;).
Last weekend, B- and I walked around the Xinyi shopping area and did some X-mas browsing and food court sampling. Food courts here in Taipei malls are actually pretty gourmet-type experiences, not pedestrian in the US.
Going to HK tomorrow night for a day. Catch you all laters.
You didn’t ask for it, but you’re getting it anyway… Triscribe turns three years old on Tuesday, so we’re celebrating with our first tri-coastal Triscribe Podcast. Yes, we got SSW and YC on opposite sides of the Pacific, and SSW and myself on opposite sides of the North American continent. What dedication! (at least until SSW’s sandwich shows up…) Listen to it here or on the newsfeed.
Just took 2 mental health days, Wed & Thurs. First day was strange, I didn’t know what to do. Shocked my system. Didn’t sleep all that well and then tried to nap but only fitfully during the day. At least I got to play some hoops later in the day. Not at all that peaceful.
Second day, was a bit better but was suffering through some severe tooth pain from before. Tooth pain causing big headaches and couldn’t think straight nor sleep. I finally located my dentist’s pills but it’s only a short term strategy.
Overall, just tired, but was getting in the mood of forgetting work. But got back in and there was 235 mails waiting for me, all just in the past 2 days. Doing 3-4 jobs is starting to wear on me so need to be careful of my health. Weather change and typhoon coming. It’s wet and cooler now…
I need more mental days…at least more time to exercise. Hoops was nice. I think that’s what I need more of and less eats. Oh well, hope next time I’ve got some time off, i’m less pathetic at relaxing on my day off.
Huge 2 incher fell into the toilet bowl a few days ago. I couldn’t flush him down, somehow the bugger was able to hang on the side of the bowl. So I just left him in there to give me an opening… then yesterday, he did just that. He wandered to the far side and exposed himself. I took a shower hose and hosed him into the water. He was struggling mightily to swim back to porcelain ground but I wouldn’t budge. The water turned brownish from his coloring…. Then slowly flushed the toilet continually hosing him down with the shower hose. He drowned. RIP.
What an amazing story with the board intrigue… what kind of water are those folks drinking out there? Crazy stuff.
Meanwhile , back at the ranch, I’ve got my own battles with our internal IT services group. It’s been a lot of deja vu, staying up late at night, early morning, fire fighting, trying to make snap decisions to get systems and IT services back and running during business hours. Feels good to be back into the Ops again but has made Taiwan and me a famous guy in the company’s internal IT services group. I’ve been nicknamed the “terrorist” ’cause I’m lighting fires, dropping bombs and firing missiles at people…. all to get them to get off their asses and do their job the right way.
Then after all is said and done, we go out and celebrate with the team. Laugh about it, joke about it and then reload for the next battle :).
Just finished some employee staff reviews, set performance objectives and develop plans for 2006/2007. It’s nice to talk about personal and professional career growth. I was pleasantly surprised that one of my managers is very senior in experience and used to do my job but on a local level. The nice thing about it was that the team likes working together, likes working with me, we have good chemistry and have a good attitude to learn and serve our stakeholders. Today we’ll be doing some team building at Jinshan hotspring and spa action.
It’ll be fun.
And …..