I'm not going to clarify any more. I sometimes forget this is a public blog that can be read by any and everyone.
I also want to apologize for being a downer recently but things have just not been going my way.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Disappointment
It truly never ceases to amaze me how much people can let me down. I mean people who I consider to be close friends, people I assume I can rely upon when the going gets tough, but they just keep on disappointing me and for some reason after a momentary period of peace I forget that you just can't rely on people not related by blood (you can't even rely on family sometimes either). I'm probably overreacting but it doesn't make this any less true. You can really only rely upon yourself, but as they say nobody is an island. Finding those rare people you can actually trust...now that is hard.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
The longest day
So I went to Roxy last night for the 4 free drinks but two of my friends gave me their tickets so I ended up getting 11 tickets, plus I had to take care of a friend who drank too much...so I didn't get home until really late.
So naturally it was hard waking up this morning. I ended up missing a meeting I had with my cousin's friend to discuss possible career options because it would have been a huge pain to get there since he works at Standard Charter Bank on Dunhua North Rd. close to Nanjing E. Rd. on the Muzha Line. Anyways, I ended up canceling that even though it was in my interest to go. I always keep forgetting to call this head hunter, who is a friend of a friend, who I was supposed to call a month ago...I'm a perpetual procrastinator...sigh
Anyways, I ended up sleeping through several phone calls (which later got me in trouble). And then I finally left for work and took the MRT to Jingan MRT stop but then waited and waited and after 20 min I finally decided to try a different bus than Orange 5. (I looked on the sign and it said even at peak hours it would take 15-20 min and that it could take up to 30 min or more). I saw several 262 buses pass by so I decided to take one and get off on a stop that I thought was close to where the office was...it wasn't. So I got off and then called my boss to ask how to get to the office from where I was but he wasn't even sure himself. Then I asked some policemen who could barely speak Mandarin (in Taipei Xian they mostly speak Taiwanese) and they sent me in the wrong direction. I confirmed with my boss that I was walking in the same direction and then after asking some more people I headed off in the right direction. This is where it started to get weird.
There were all these cops everywhere and there were 8 lanes and the light was green but all the cars were parked. So I just decided to cross the street and the cops just watched me. Well, I just thought to myself this is Taiwan who knows and kept walking because I was already really late for work. Then I noticed that there were no cars on the roads and then I heard a loud siren and people peeking out of their stores and apartments. There was only one other person walking on the street. It was something like out of "28 Days Later." So I started to get worried and asked the guy in front of me what the hell was going on in Chinese. I was afraid there was a pesticide spraying or bomb threat or something that might harm my health since nearly everyone was indoors. He replied in accented Mandarin, "惶恐演戲 （huang kong yan xi）" which means terrified acting literally translated. So I was pretty confused but he replied the same thing more than once when I asked him again. Then when I crossed another street a cop stopped me and told me the same thing. Again I didn't understand but he said that it was broadcasted on TV. So there I was stuck with a group of 4 other people waiting impatiently in the heat and humidity.
*I'm too tired to finish tonight...more on the military air raid drill （防空演習） tomorrow...
So naturally it was hard waking up this morning. I ended up missing a meeting I had with my cousin's friend to discuss possible career options because it would have been a huge pain to get there since he works at Standard Charter Bank on Dunhua North Rd. close to Nanjing E. Rd. on the Muzha Line. Anyways, I ended up canceling that even though it was in my interest to go. I always keep forgetting to call this head hunter, who is a friend of a friend, who I was supposed to call a month ago...I'm a perpetual procrastinator...sigh
Anyways, I ended up sleeping through several phone calls (which later got me in trouble). And then I finally left for work and took the MRT to Jingan MRT stop but then waited and waited and after 20 min I finally decided to try a different bus than Orange 5. (I looked on the sign and it said even at peak hours it would take 15-20 min and that it could take up to 30 min or more). I saw several 262 buses pass by so I decided to take one and get off on a stop that I thought was close to where the office was...it wasn't. So I got off and then called my boss to ask how to get to the office from where I was but he wasn't even sure himself. Then I asked some policemen who could barely speak Mandarin (in Taipei Xian they mostly speak Taiwanese) and they sent me in the wrong direction. I confirmed with my boss that I was walking in the same direction and then after asking some more people I headed off in the right direction. This is where it started to get weird.
There were all these cops everywhere and there were 8 lanes and the light was green but all the cars were parked. So I just decided to cross the street and the cops just watched me. Well, I just thought to myself this is Taiwan who knows and kept walking because I was already really late for work. Then I noticed that there were no cars on the roads and then I heard a loud siren and people peeking out of their stores and apartments. There was only one other person walking on the street. It was something like out of "28 Days Later." So I started to get worried and asked the guy in front of me what the hell was going on in Chinese. I was afraid there was a pesticide spraying or bomb threat or something that might harm my health since nearly everyone was indoors. He replied in accented Mandarin, "惶恐演戲 （huang kong yan xi）" which means terrified acting literally translated. So I was pretty confused but he replied the same thing more than once when I asked him again. Then when I crossed another street a cop stopped me and told me the same thing. Again I didn't understand but he said that it was broadcasted on TV. So there I was stuck with a group of 4 other people waiting impatiently in the heat and humidity.
*I'm too tired to finish tonight...more on the military air raid drill （防空演習） tomorrow...
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Swimming Pools in Taipei
So recently I've been swimming a lot at the Shida (NTNU) pool. It's quite expensive but I get more than half off because I am a Shida student. The facilities are decent and they include a spa, steam room, and a sauna. I mostly just use the sauna and the pool though.
When I first started I was pretty satisfied because it was a big improvement from where I used to go at Zhongshan Sports Center (中山運動中心) as that pool was only 25 meters (vs. 50 meters a length at Shida) and now that it's summer it had become unbearably packed at night. The one upside to Zhongshan was that it closed at 10:30 PM, 30 min later than Shida. However, I went swimming this afternoon at Shida and it was deja vu. I changed lanes at least 4 times to try and find a lane with less people. It wasn't just that it was crowded though, the people swimming today just didn't seem to understand basic swimming pool etiquette. Throngs of people would just stand at both sides of the pool so I couldn't do a flip-turn. Then even during swimming people would swim so slowly that I would end up passing 3 or 4 people at a time. Even passing became an ordeal because as I was passing someone, someone from the opposing lane would suddenly want to do the same and would hit me. There were even a group of girls that were just doing handstands or walking in the middle of the swimming lane.
Also, there's this system at Shida where they put up signs that say "慢 （slow）," "中（normal）," and "快（fast）" in each of the lanes in Chinese. However, people swimming incredibly slow, swimming breaststroke, or doing drills with the flotation devices would always choose to swim in the "fast" lane. In the "normal" lane people would just stand around on either side of the pool resting. So I ended up using the "slow" lane even though there were a bunch of kids being taught how to swim in that lane (it turned out to be the fastest lane de facto because it was less crowded).
When I was in the "normal" lane I even hit about 4 people unintentionally. Once I was passing a person and the person in the opposing lane swam near the middle of the lane and I hit him on the head with my hand accidentally rather hard. Then when I was swimming past a person doing the backstroke I hit his arm and when I turned to look, I saw that he had stopped swimming altogether. Then later I was swimming freestyle and this lady hits me hard straight on. This was the last straw. She was swimming completely on the wrong side of the lane! I was fed up by this point so I didn't apologize and just told her straight that she was on the WRONG side of the lane. Then she basically scolded me on how I should look where I'm swimming. Then I told her to look at the ceiling and swim in a straight line. Anyways, she was being rude so finally I just said swim however you like I'm going in another lane.
When I got into the "slow" lane I learned my lesson and constantly looked up ahead of me to dodge kids swimming on the wrong side or other random obstacles that occur in Taiwanese swimming pools and actually ended up having a rather good swim.
[On another note, at the Shida pool they use these planks that they put on one side of the pool so that people can walk on them...I find them rather unnecessary and annoying because they get in the way. Sometimes they put it so that you can't do flip-turns at all on one side and sometimes they are stacked so high in the middle of the pool that it's rather dangerous to swim in those affected lanes. It's also really unnecessary since they could just do 'egg-beater' or swim to keep afloat instead of being lazy, walking on planks].
In other news, it's been raining a lot recently and it's rather annoying.
When I first started I was pretty satisfied because it was a big improvement from where I used to go at Zhongshan Sports Center (中山運動中心) as that pool was only 25 meters (vs. 50 meters a length at Shida) and now that it's summer it had become unbearably packed at night. The one upside to Zhongshan was that it closed at 10:30 PM, 30 min later than Shida. However, I went swimming this afternoon at Shida and it was deja vu. I changed lanes at least 4 times to try and find a lane with less people. It wasn't just that it was crowded though, the people swimming today just didn't seem to understand basic swimming pool etiquette. Throngs of people would just stand at both sides of the pool so I couldn't do a flip-turn. Then even during swimming people would swim so slowly that I would end up passing 3 or 4 people at a time. Even passing became an ordeal because as I was passing someone, someone from the opposing lane would suddenly want to do the same and would hit me. There were even a group of girls that were just doing handstands or walking in the middle of the swimming lane.
Also, there's this system at Shida where they put up signs that say "慢 （slow）," "中（normal）," and "快（fast）" in each of the lanes in Chinese. However, people swimming incredibly slow, swimming breaststroke, or doing drills with the flotation devices would always choose to swim in the "fast" lane. In the "normal" lane people would just stand around on either side of the pool resting. So I ended up using the "slow" lane even though there were a bunch of kids being taught how to swim in that lane (it turned out to be the fastest lane de facto because it was less crowded).
When I was in the "normal" lane I even hit about 4 people unintentionally. Once I was passing a person and the person in the opposing lane swam near the middle of the lane and I hit him on the head with my hand accidentally rather hard. Then when I was swimming past a person doing the backstroke I hit his arm and when I turned to look, I saw that he had stopped swimming altogether. Then later I was swimming freestyle and this lady hits me hard straight on. This was the last straw. She was swimming completely on the wrong side of the lane! I was fed up by this point so I didn't apologize and just told her straight that she was on the WRONG side of the lane. Then she basically scolded me on how I should look where I'm swimming. Then I told her to look at the ceiling and swim in a straight line. Anyways, she was being rude so finally I just said swim however you like I'm going in another lane.
When I got into the "slow" lane I learned my lesson and constantly looked up ahead of me to dodge kids swimming on the wrong side or other random obstacles that occur in Taiwanese swimming pools and actually ended up having a rather good swim.
[On another note, at the Shida pool they use these planks that they put on one side of the pool so that people can walk on them...I find them rather unnecessary and annoying because they get in the way. Sometimes they put it so that you can't do flip-turns at all on one side and sometimes they are stacked so high in the middle of the pool that it's rather dangerous to swim in those affected lanes. It's also really unnecessary since they could just do 'egg-beater' or swim to keep afloat instead of being lazy, walking on planks].
In other news, it's been raining a lot recently and it's rather annoying.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
California Fitness; 'The Office;' MMOROP
So last night my friend brought me to his gym, California Fitness (the Daan branch), which is also known as 24 Hour Fitness in the states. Long story short (bc it's past 3 am and I should be asleep) I nearly got swindled...in fact I did--in large part bc my friend convinced me--but in the end I got a refund on my credit card. I think I will update more on this later...it has to do with being enrolled in an autopay system without my consent, completely arbitrary slashing of prices and random 'special deals,' and irregular mind games played by the salespeople or 'consultants.'
I also will be starting on my first editing project for Island Technology soon. They are developing an 'MMORPG,' which apparently stands for mass multi-person online role playing game. He said that I should do it at home and then tell him how many hours I spent on it and then come up with a hourly rate...I'm not quite sure how much I should request though. I talked to my grandmother over dinner at a hot pot restaurant and she said I should ask what he thinks is reasonable before I start working. That probably seems like a better way of haggling since I'll have more leverage if I just refuse to work if the pay isn't up to par.
Anyways, on a different note I'm going to start swimming in the mornings (8:30 AM...yikes) before class because once I start working my evenings will no longer be free. Plus, I need to get out of this apathetic slump I've been in ever since I sprained my ankle (which still clicks when I rotate it and is sore if I try a slow jog). I just got done with this insane marathon of watching "The Office" (US version); I feel like the 1st and 2nd Seasons were much better--I'm not a huge fan of the people from the Stamford office. I think what's lacking in Season 3 is that genuine interaction b/n Pam and Halpert. Oh yeah another incentive is bc I found out I'm rather fat...after I went to Cali. They measured my body fat percentage and it's remarkably higher than I had thought. Technically, I'm 'healthy' but I think I read somewhere that professional athletes are 10-12% or lower, and to add insult to injury the friend who brought me to Cali is a mere 2%...
I also will be starting on my first editing project for Island Technology soon. They are developing an 'MMORPG,' which apparently stands for mass multi-person online role playing game. He said that I should do it at home and then tell him how many hours I spent on it and then come up with a hourly rate...I'm not quite sure how much I should request though. I talked to my grandmother over dinner at a hot pot restaurant and she said I should ask what he thinks is reasonable before I start working. That probably seems like a better way of haggling since I'll have more leverage if I just refuse to work if the pay isn't up to par.
Anyways, on a different note I'm going to start swimming in the mornings (8:30 AM...yikes) before class because once I start working my evenings will no longer be free. Plus, I need to get out of this apathetic slump I've been in ever since I sprained my ankle (which still clicks when I rotate it and is sore if I try a slow jog). I just got done with this insane marathon of watching "The Office" (US version); I feel like the 1st and 2nd Seasons were much better--I'm not a huge fan of the people from the Stamford office. I think what's lacking in Season 3 is that genuine interaction b/n Pam and Halpert. Oh yeah another incentive is bc I found out I'm rather fat...after I went to Cali. They measured my body fat percentage and it's remarkably higher than I had thought. Technically, I'm 'healthy' but I think I read somewhere that professional athletes are 10-12% or lower, and to add insult to injury the friend who brought me to Cali is a mere 2%...
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Common Decency
So today I went to Yonghe to see my 90 (give or take a couple years) year old grandmother, who's been very ill with something and has been vomiting at night. Seeing her I could see her frailty immediately as her skin looked sallow and she is visibly slimmer from just a few weeks prior.
Anyways, what spurred me to pen this new post after such a long hiatus is what happened as we were heading downstairs to grab lunch. I was walking behind my grandma, who was already weakened and walking slowly due to her condition so we decided to take the elevator. Well, as the doors opened my grandma walked in but then the doors suddenly closed on her right as she took a step in, even though a young girl was inside and was clearly pushing the open button. At first I thought the old lift must be broken since the girl was repeatedly pushing the open button with vigor. Then when I tried to walk in after my grandma (while holding the two doors open) it shut on me as well. So then I felt something was fishy and alas I saw that the young girl was actually pressing the "Close" button which was clearly stated in English. Now you may say she didn't know English but open and close are words that every child in Taiwan comprehends since English is a required and heavily stressed subject. Furthermore, anyone could see by the actions of the lift that it was indeed CLOSING. At this point I was furious. The intense heat and the walk over to my grandma's place had already set the stage for my anger and then this extremely rude gesture just set me off.
In Chinese, I asked the girl, "What do you think you are doing?! Can't you see my grandma is trying to get on the elevator? Don't you have any manners at all? You should be ashamed of yourself. Apologize to my grandmother right this instant!"
But to my surprise the girl just stared ahead like a retard (even her mouth was slightly agape) and kept pressing the "Close" button! I just stood there watching her completely shocked at her response. Before I could recover she bolted out and down the street.
When I asked my grandma why she let the spoiled brat off so easily she just said, "Well, she's just a spoiled Taiwanese kid." That certainly is no excuse in my book. I was quite close to slapping that kid some manners. Her only excuse would be that she was actually retarded or autistic and wasn't sure what she was doing. While she looked somewhat slow and could possibly be special ed, I still think she was just an extremely rude kid with absentee parents.
Well, this really bothered me because my grandma is really old and frail and I can't be there always to look after her as she lives alone. If it happened to me I probably wouldn't even think that much about it besides that she is a juvenile delinquent but since she purposely did it to my grandmother for her own twisted amusement-to me that constitutes as a cruel crime that deserves retribution.
This incident just showed me that you really cannot count on the common decency of strangers. If a sick, elderly woman doesn't inspire compassion or sympathy in a human being that I don't know what will.
Anyways, what spurred me to pen this new post after such a long hiatus is what happened as we were heading downstairs to grab lunch. I was walking behind my grandma, who was already weakened and walking slowly due to her condition so we decided to take the elevator. Well, as the doors opened my grandma walked in but then the doors suddenly closed on her right as she took a step in, even though a young girl was inside and was clearly pushing the open button. At first I thought the old lift must be broken since the girl was repeatedly pushing the open button with vigor. Then when I tried to walk in after my grandma (while holding the two doors open) it shut on me as well. So then I felt something was fishy and alas I saw that the young girl was actually pressing the "Close" button which was clearly stated in English. Now you may say she didn't know English but open and close are words that every child in Taiwan comprehends since English is a required and heavily stressed subject. Furthermore, anyone could see by the actions of the lift that it was indeed CLOSING. At this point I was furious. The intense heat and the walk over to my grandma's place had already set the stage for my anger and then this extremely rude gesture just set me off.
In Chinese, I asked the girl, "What do you think you are doing?! Can't you see my grandma is trying to get on the elevator? Don't you have any manners at all? You should be ashamed of yourself. Apologize to my grandmother right this instant!"
But to my surprise the girl just stared ahead like a retard (even her mouth was slightly agape) and kept pressing the "Close" button! I just stood there watching her completely shocked at her response. Before I could recover she bolted out and down the street.
When I asked my grandma why she let the spoiled brat off so easily she just said, "Well, she's just a spoiled Taiwanese kid." That certainly is no excuse in my book. I was quite close to slapping that kid some manners. Her only excuse would be that she was actually retarded or autistic and wasn't sure what she was doing. While she looked somewhat slow and could possibly be special ed, I still think she was just an extremely rude kid with absentee parents.
Well, this really bothered me because my grandma is really old and frail and I can't be there always to look after her as she lives alone. If it happened to me I probably wouldn't even think that much about it besides that she is a juvenile delinquent but since she purposely did it to my grandmother for her own twisted amusement-to me that constitutes as a cruel crime that deserves retribution.
This incident just showed me that you really cannot count on the common decency of strangers. If a sick, elderly woman doesn't inspire compassion or sympathy in a human being that I don't know what will.
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