Ghost in Taiwan


Taiwan Ghost Month

It's not quite like Halloween in the U.S where we get all dressed up and have a great time. Ghost month here is Taiwan is quite different. All over the streets, u can see people setting big fire pits burning paper money to the ghosts, aka "Good Brothers". Its truly a spectacle to see, people worshiping with food stuffs ranging from instant noodles, chips, cookies, beers, and lots of paper money.

Why do Chinese people have such strange concepts towards the afterlife.
I find that there is a strange obsession for them to give (burn) things made out of paper. I've seen paper made stuff to look like money, houses, cars, mobile phones, and even paper man and paper woman.

I say when I'm dead, I really hope I don't have to worry about money or food or any other material things.

But just in case, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE ...

Burn Me a:
Huge house, housekeepers, Mercedes SLR, Big screen TV, Plane, Yacht, lots of GF's and of course MONEY $$$...

Summer Jazz in Taipei

What a wonderful night!!! Its almost unbelievable, but some of the greatest Jazz legends performed here in Taipei. Who says Taipei isn't a international city???

The event is the second annual Summer Jazz Festival 夏日爵士音樂節, which had originally scheduled three concerts with three headliners among the most influential figures jazz has produced in the last thirty or so years: Joe Lovano, Jack DeJohnette, and Ahmad Jamal (cancelled due to health reasons). This may sound pretentious, but we are dealing with icons here and as it goes with icons, they will for sure bring a taste of heaven to any jazz lover. However, the venue is somewhat disappointing. The National Concert Hall is far from being a smoke-filled jazz club, which means you don't get that "Feeling".

I was lucky enough to get tix for Jack Dejohnette, a true legend, he played with John Coltrane, and was a member of the Miles Davis' Band which recorded the first "jazz-rock album" Bitches Brew (1969). The event was sold out and it was worth every penny.

It was truly a marvelous night of Jazz!!!

Moore's Law Holds True

Working in the IT industry, one thing for sure is the constant change and continuous developments in technology. There is even a so called Moore's Law that specifies the doubling of transistors in CPU's. It basically means the rapid development of technology doubles every year.

I was watching TV today and saw a channel showing the movie Johnny Mnemonic starring Keanu Reeves. I remembered it was probably one of the worst movies ever made (but did sorta prepare him for the Matrix). In the movie, he was this person who can store data in his brain. What is funny is that at the time the movie was made, Keanu said he can "Store a total of 80 Gigabytes of data in his head" Now that may be alot 10 years ago, but today, u can buy a 120 gigabyte hard drive at any computer store for less than $100 bucks.

So its just amazing how fast technology has come. Or does it actually mean the Keanu does have a small brain?

A "Brave New World" of Relationships

Seems like there is a craze recently for online dating, meeting people, and networking. There seems to be tons of services ranging from Yahoo Personals, MSN Personals, Friendster , Google's Orkut, and Linked In.

Just within this two weeks, I 've gotten invites from friends to join all of these services. Seems like a interesting and fun way to meet people. And boy there are alot of people on these things. I felt like I was already behind on the times. Its really hard to believe that so many people are using these services to meet new friends, gf/bf, biz contact, etc etc etc.

I have a extreme skepticism toward these online services, especially online dating. I've always believed that there are no real people on these things...Especially the women. I always thought it was these nerdy perverted guys pretending to be women or just really ugly women on there. (this assumption was based on my cousin's online dating experience almost 10 years ago. I drove him to the mall to meet his online date who he described looked like Cindy Crawford, but she turned out to be a really really ugly girl who was not even close Cindy or even the mole on her face) .

So forward my thinking 10 years later...there seems to be thousands of single, attractive, beautiful women online looking for THE ONE. Can this really be true? I hardly believe there are so many bored nerdy guys still pretending to be women and besides, the pics posted now seems to be pretty authentic. What made me a believer is that a girl friend of mine recently posted herself onto a online dating site (She is a person who I consider on the beautiful side). So are we now in a brave new world of meeting people online?

How authentic are the relationships based on birth signs, physical descriptions, pictures, "love walks on the beach & traveling to exotic places" descriptions for hobbies, bulletin board chatting, and experiencing the digital "feeling"?

I guess in this day and age where the first and last thing I see in my day is my computer, its not surprising we're accepting meeting people like this. Who knows, I may find my soul mate for "walks on the beach and traveling to exotic places" on one of these services.

Sometimes I find it ironic that you see people typing away chatting on MSN with complete strangers, but cannot stop to even look at the person sitting next to you on the subway or the co-worker at the next cubicle.

"There She Blows"


Aftermath of Typhoon

My poor tree in the front yard...After two days of typhoon here in Taipei, all its leaves are gone and left with a barenaked stem...

For Better or Worse...

I know its hard for many of you to believe, but I actually know someone who seems to have even better life than me.

Even though I'm already enjoying life as much as I can, my friend Vicente, takes it a step further. He's traveled to more countries than you can imagine, extremely talented and he is one of the smartest guy I've ever met, he speaks at least 6 or 7 languages.

He recently joined Emirates Airline as a flight attendant just so that he can travel the world.

I sometimes truly envy this guy!!! Learn more about his adventures on his blog

Blogging Helps Others!

Wow...I really didn't know my blog actually help some people (or that anyone actually reads it)

A friend in UK, MSN'd me the other day and told me that my blog about "Metrosexuals" actually helped her get a study project for her PhD. She had read my blog and was having discussion with her professor about new age men. So she used the term "Metrosexual" and her professor really like it. Now he wants her to do more studies on this area.
Now she gets paid to go do research and attend seminars. Why can't I get a job like that.

I'm glad my blogs are helping others and amazed that my ramblings have value. Hmm..wonder if I can get some royalties from her. He He
Now I feel like I have a strong responsibility to inspire others ...Alright...I'm aiming more for not boring them to death...

Oh, BTW, if anyone out there is really interested in reading good and funny blogs, my friend, Diva, has a amazing blog.

If you get inspirations from either mine or her blogs, I want royalties or referral fees...HeHeHe

Stereotypical ABC...Moi?

I've always found that Taiwanese have a bizarre stereotype of "ABC's". Everytime I meet someone or even long time friends, they always think my life is full of excitement and intrigue. They think us "ABC's" have some kind of secret club and handshake and we all get together every night, eat at the trendiest restaurants, and party at the clubs or lounges. Even more, they think we have tons of hot girls hanging around us all the time. Gosh, I wish it was all true...

I think in some ways, it kinda holds true...There is quite a small community of foreignly raised young chinese (don't like the term ABC) working in Taiwan and we do have social events to get connected and do enjoy going out and having nice dinners...Enjoying life overall...

So is the stereotype justified? I guess in some ways it does, and I don't really make that much of a effort to change it because I think it makes my life more interesting than what it actually is and my friends seem to like living through my so called exciting life. So no harm no foul.

Hmmm...maybe there are ABC's out there who are living the posh lifestyle that I don't even know about.... Damn!!!

Slim Fast

Well...After some intense exercising (torture) by my trainer and power yoga... I can now finally indulge in the spoils of my hardwork.

Tonight, I stepped onto the weight scale and have lost 5 kilos since returning from the US. Feel like I am starting to get rid of the flab gained from all those great food and delicious buffets in the States. I can feel my stomach fat burn away...

So now the plan is to work out more and gain some more muscle mass...enough to compete with those big boys at the gym (ok..maybe not).

Rendez vous at the Emergency Room

Nothing can screw up ur evening like having to go to the emergency room of the hospital at 3 in the morning. My roommate last night woke me up at 3 a.m to ask if I can take him to the hospital because he was experiencing immense stomach pain.

So I drove him to the local hospital and checked him into the emergency room... I can honestly say that it was a horrific experience for me. Although its not my first time going to emergency room, but its definitely different when having to go there in the middle of the night. There were alot of sick looking people there...alot more sicker than my roommate.

Its a sad scene when you see old people who are sick and frail looking, lying there one by one in the hallways. I was beginning to feel like I was sick also just by seeing this. Everyone had tubes and wires hanging out of their bodies.

Well, the evening was capped off by seeing someone guy being rushed to the operating room while he dripped blood all over the floor and someone who died being rolled across in front of you. Let me just say it was quite a traumatic experience.

The experience for my friend wasn't much better. When he got there..he had to walk himself to get x-rayed, blood tested, urine tested and then finally saw a what I think a young and inexperienced doctor. He didn't seem to know what's wrong with my roommate, only that maybe he had a stomach infection (no shit Einstein) So the doc hooked him up with a IV and that's pretty much it (It seems that everyone had a IV and its the miracle drug used for treating everything at this hospital)

I realized that the human body is extremely frail. You really don't realize it until you see all these people in the emergency room. It seems that we are all alike and no matter how our lives are different, in the end, we're still fragile.

I just hope that when I get old and start having problems, I don't have to suffer.

Anyways, I stayed with my friend at the hospital until 8 a.m. He was much better when we left, not sure if it was the IV or just that he slept it off...hmmm...

Lifestyle of the Poor and Definitely Not Famous

Well...its obvious that if your reading this entry (and the fact that u don't see a Mercedes in front of ur house), it means those stupid Lottery people didn't draw MY winning numbers.

Therefore instead of jetting off to Paris to party...I can only sit in front of my computer and dwell in my own sorrows....

Its alright...I couldn't think of what I would have done with 12 Billion NT anyways... :(

Lifestyle of the Rich and Famous

Ok, maybe not yet, but by this time tomorrow, I WILL BE. I just bought 4 tix (yes folks, only need 4 tickets, that's how confident I am) to Taiwan's 6/49 Lottery. Tomorrow's jackpot will reach an all time high of 9 billion NT dollars (about 30 million USD).

I usually don't believe in this lottery thing..but the thought of winning is just too damn tempting (especially when ur jobless now) and also because when I was in China, a old fortune teller said I should believe in random fortune luck this year...yup yup yup

So this is my first lottery in a long time.... Tonight I can think about what I would do with the money if I do win.

Here are my lucky number ( I mean WINNING numbers!)

1) 21, 29, 33, 34, 40, 45
2) 13, 21, 22, 39, 40, 44 *I personally think this is the ONE
3) 05, 08, 10, 11, 18, 32
4) 13, 18, 20, 24, 37, 39

Ok..so when I win, I'm gonna take all my good friends on a "Around the World in 80 days" Trip and buy each one of you a Mercedes...

The rest I'm gonna waste it on cars, alcohol, women, and bad investments...HE HE HE (why? just because I can)

Alrighty, Check here for the winning numbers tomorrow night and just pray you're on my good friends list (its never too late to add urself, just add ur name in the comments section)

Yoga Me softly

Tonight I went to a "Power Yoga" class with a couple of friends. This place is located on the 4th floor of some building. It was a tiny tiny room, but packed with women (I really mean PACKED to about 40+ people). Kinda felt like sardines in can...The fun thing is that I'm the only guy there (not counting the 13 year old or grandpa). Now most guys would think this is a ideal situation..You and 40+ woman...but honestly..it was quite intimidating. And after you start getting exhausted..U can really care less about the women around you.

Well, the class started kinda rough for me because of the aerobics..I seriously have two left feet..Cannot move to the beat if my life depended on it....Whenever the teacher was moving left, I was moving right. Talk about frustrations...At least I know I suck in aerobics and to avoid it at all costs in the future.

After the frustrating aerobic, the real Yoga started..all kinds of bending and stretching of muscles I didn't know existed before. God damn its tiring...I felt like I was about to die from the exercises, but what kept me going was the teacher, 陸文灝, she seems to be quite famous here in Taiwan and is a 56 year old grandmother that looks like she's in her 40's and is not even breaking a sweat doing the exercises. I was impressed with her endurance and flexibility...Amazing what a human body can accomplish.

I truly learned that what we think are limitations are just in our mind.

After 2 hours of intense Power Yoga, my body is flexed and stretched to the limit. I can say that it is quite tough and definitely not for the weak hearted... I think everyone should give it a try...even the guys who say Yoga is for sissies....

Just to give a shout-out to Barbara,

She is the one who enlightened me to the term "Metrosexual"

So anyone out there needs enlightenment, you can contact her...