Wednesday, May 23, 2007

My Kitty is So Smart

When DZ is behaving herself, she's very cute and funny. Finally got a video of her getting a drink from the shower.

DZ Gets a Drink

I've also recently uploaded a lot of ABS videos and some of Mojo, too. So after you watch DZ drinking, check out the others.

Sunday, May 20, 2007

If You Want Peace, You Must Not Keep Hurting Taiwan

Lung Ying-tai (龍應台). May 18, 2007. Public speech on May 17, 2007 at Cambridge University, England.

If You Want Peace, You Must Not Keep Hurting Taiwan

Come on World, are you going to continue allowing the Big Bully to intimidate Tiny Taiwan? I try not to think about the number of missiles aimed this way, but sometimes it's not easy to ignore.

Friday, May 11, 2007

Jeez, two weeks just vanished

Seems like only yesterday I was here with an update, but it's been two weeks! Whoa. One day just blends into another and flashes by at the speed of light.

Well, I'm in my third semester at school, and happily back with my first teacher, Wang Laoshi. I love her, she's just so much fun. And the book is way simple, much easier than the last one! This one is called, "Chinese Moral Tales" and it's like Aesop's Fables for Chinese folks. Even though we're only on lesson one, I've already read up through lesson 5, piece of cake. Which hopefully means a good report card. :)

Speaking of which, I got either a 92 or 93 on last semester's! Deng Laoshi said she can't remember which grade it was, but it's great. Wang Laoshi said it's kind of an unwritten rule that the teachers don't give out grades above 93. Yup, I'm way happy about that, and I hope next time I apply for a scholarship I get it (that will be in June).

Here's what I'm not happy about: Those two days of concerts I wrote about last time? Well, the first thing to piss everyone off was the price of the tickets changing and getting higher. And then yesterday, they suddenly announced that there would be no Sunday show, only Saturday! WTF? Charlene had already bought our tickets for Sunday, in the standing rock area, last week at the Tai Ke concert and had gotten them autographed. We bought seated tix for Saturday since we didn't have anyone who could queue in line, figured we'd do that Sunday. Fuck. So now Charlene has to scramble around and change tickets. At least they're going to return the signed tickets to us after the concert is finished, which is nice. But we gotta give 'em back first. Thankfully Tona and David from Singapore were coming on Saturday anyway, but poor Sharrie from southern Taiwan might not be able to come on Saturday due to work. This is really inconveniencing a lot of people.

And because so many people were on the message board at the official site complaining about this, mysteriously that board is now closed, with a message that it's just not up to today's Internet standards and that they'll be giving us a new one after the concerts. Bullshit. You think we're stupid enough to believe that? If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen. What kind of idiots are running Moonlight Music anyway?

Tomorrow we're going to see ABS at The Wall, and that should be fun, despite the fact that they have a new owner who seems to think that raising the price of beer to $6US per bottle is a good idea - and using a smaller bottle, too! Yeah, right, Bud, we're gonna drink a lot of that beer. Pfffttt. If I'm thirsty, I'll pop outside, run to 7-11, buy a can of beer for $1US, guzzle it down, and go back to the show.

I started a diet on May 1, not a super-strict one, but more focused on not buying beer and chips and eating more fruits and veggies. It's working, because I've lost about 4 pounds. I'm hoping once my poor foot is better that I'll be able to do a little more exercise and get the weight off faster. I'm truly sick of the way I look, and the clothes I bought last year in the US are almost too small for me. I spent so much time and worked so hard to lose 50 pounds before, and now 30 of those pounds are back. Not good. I decided this is something I need to do for myself, and so I'm doing it. Because it's Friday, I bought two cans of beer and some chips today, and that was my dinner. Tomorrow it's back to being careful. Even though I'll go out to eat with the gang before the show, I'll still be somewhat good. And at those high beer prices, no worries about drinking too much of that! I think this is when I start missing Hiyoshi - not missing the guy but missing having a person to hang out with and walk, walk, walk. I haven't really met any new friends at school.

But my good friend Kayun called today from Korea! She and Luke had their Korean wedding, and next Saturday they will have their Japanese wedding. She sounded so happy. Gosh, I miss her. But I'm sure saving money on my cell phone bill by not having her around, ha. If I can't get to Japan to visit them this year, maybe next year.

And as for the noisy monsters upstairs, recently it's been much better (except tonight they were doing something earlier that sounded like dropping 50-pound weights repeatedly on the floor. I truly hate those kids.). I think maybe the family on the third floor had another chat with them about the way they bother all of us, so now they're being quiet, yay. However......now there are barking dogs! Last Saturday night at 2:30 a.m., the dog in the apartment across the street from my bedroom started in, yap yap yap. Small dog, one of those annoying yappers. I got up, slammed the windows shut, and turn the fan on to a higher speed to drown it out. Then this week, on Tuesday night, it started in at 5:30 p.m. and kept it up constantly until 10:00 p.m.! I suppose the owners were gone, otherwise they would also have been driven to distraction. Then on Wednesday night, another yapper on the opposite side of the building began barking at 8:00 and kept it up until after 9:00. Obviously the owners had stuck it outside and then proceeded to ignore it. I mean, ke-rist, why have a dog if you're going to treat it like that? I'll bet it's the same one I saw one day as I walked to the MRT station. It was a hot, sunny day, and this poor little white dog was stuck in a tiny metal cage barely bigger than itself, no food, no water, placed on top of the trunk of a car in full sun. Jesus, people, have you no brains in your heads? Do you not realize how easy it would be for the little thing to die? If I see that again, I'm tracking down the owner and giving him or her a piece of my mind. And if they let the dog bark for hours again, I'm calling the cops.

The other night DZ was at the kitchen door, the one that goes out to the balcony. She was just sitting there watching something for the longest time, so I went over to see. Ah, a cockroach. A big cockroach. I opened the door, and she dashed out, but the bug was too quick for her and ran behind something where she couldn't get it. She kept trying to figure out how to get it, so funny. Finally, I made her come back in, but she stayed at the door and kept meowing. Eventually I let her out again, then I moved stuff around so the bug would run, and she missed it again. I didn't want it to get inside (the screen door doesn't always stay completely shut, sometimes there's a gap), so I closed the inner door. Poor DZ, she really wanted that thing. Now every night she goes out looking for it. I tried taking her outside again the other day, but she was completely freaked and wanted to go back in. She likes to jump up on the shelf on the balcony and watch the birds and such, but she doesn't like that big blue sky over her head. Now she's curled up in a box in the computer room, waiting for me to finish so I'll play with her. So, I'll go now. Catch ya'll later.