Taipei Car Free Day

Promotion for a Car (or scooter) Fee Day in Taipei was advertised well. Use public transportation or a peddle bike. The idea is 100% great, but now that I rode my bike -WHERE IN THE HELL CAN I PARK IT!!!!. Taipei government has taken away just about all bike (and scooter) parking areas. I was turned away at multiple parking lots (only cars and limited scooter access). So nice advertising and promotion for the Mayor, but for the rider that would like to make this a habit ---- lets rethink PARKING!!!!

Drunken Chinese Migrant Worker Pets Panda

You have to like a headline like this.

So this guy, Zhang Xinyan, drinks too much at a local watering hole and then meanders to the Beijing Zoo. Figures he should visit and see GuGu the Panda. He suddenly gets a sudden urge that he must pet GuGu. So he jumps into the enclosure to pet GuGu sleeping. And to the astonishment of Zhang Xinyan the panda bites his leg. He bites GuGu on the back and GuGu bites his other leg.

The report said a zookeeper got GuGu under control by spraying him with water. I think the zookeeper should have sprayed Zhang Xinyan to get him under control. How can the human race be so ignorant to captive/wild animals?

Well, I guess people can be ignorant about animals since Zhang Xinyan says: “No one ever said they would bite people. I just wanted to touch it." Maybe we should inform Zhang Xinyan that dogs, cats, mice, horses and other animals bite as well. Heck, even Zhang Xinyan bites.

WAKE UP PEOPLE and remember Friends Don't Let Friends Jump Into Panda Cages

Missing America - [click to enlarge]

Why Buy Pirated Goods?

Pirated good articles have been sprinkling the news for years. The movie and recording industry have brought it to light even more so. But pirated goods can be anything from industrial pipes to handbags. I guess just about anything that can turn a good profit will be pirated (counterfited).

But why do people buy them?
1) Try to look wealthy
2) Feel good having the lastest "in-thing"
3) Not having the money to buy the real item
4) Cheaper and looks the same
5) Give as a present
6) I believe most people would never buy the original item anyway- Be it music, movie or fashion item. If I can not get a bootleg copy of a movie that I would like to see, I just would not see it and view another instead.

Well, I'm sure there are better reasons then those, but how about music directly (since I like music and have a record label www.sinklub.com)
1) find out of print material
2) find live recordings
3) find (discover) artists you never heard of
4) like to hear that new CD you know you would never buy
5) throw away music

Pirated items normally have a bit of a "suck" quality to them. I have had watches, belts, CDs, DVDs and other pirated items. I can tell you none of them lasted long or played well. Original items are the best best, but there are times when the street price just wins due to the dockets in the pocket.

Transcript of - Three Stages in the Program of De-Hellenization

Debate and open discussion seems to be something of the past. Now it is headlines and 10 seconds sound bites. The Pope's speech on "The Stages in the Program of De-Hellenization" is not an easy read. It is horrible that people are taking a small quote and turning it into hate speech.

The problem is the normal person could not make sence of his speech unless you ground yourself in for debate with the understanding of history, religion and philosophy.

Most people likely think Hellenization mean Hezzbollah. Don't take things at face value and think you understand.

Let the the learned in all religions have open discussions. Learn from the past. Learn how to have dialog that does not have to have secondary meanings.

A response {1} {2 speech like this makes Islam appear extreme)

Turn It Off - John Mayer Continuum

All I've read on this John Mayer Continuum CD is good reviews. I see great interviews and I see people crazy over John Mayer. Let's get the CD. WOW, was I blown away. It was one of the fastest CDs I wanted out of my player. I could not stand the droning and soul sound I was hearing. It was like a nightmare of never ending songs. I gave it a good one shot, but could not get past song #9 “Bold As Love” before turning it off. It was only one listen, may be I need to go back with an open mind and just let it play in the background (a little muzak while I work). Is it the kind of album that needs to grow on you? I may or may not ever find out. But with all the fan-fair I will try again and see what I’ve missed on my first listen. Who knows maybe it will one day be one of my favorites.

Over the past month I have been listening mainly to: Front 242, Nitzer Eeb, VNV Nation, Infam, The Kooks, Panic! At the Disco, Betty Serveert, Tega & Sara, Autechre (would like to hear Autechre Curated 3.0) , Godsmack and Tiamat. As I look at this list I can sorta understand why John Mayer did not tickle my fancy at this time. Oh, well.

Severe Punishment threat to North Korea

Simply put: What severe punishment will North Korea face if they conduct an underground nuclear test?

Close allies, Russia and China, have made note that North Korea wants to prove their nuclear capability (Sept 10, 2006). North Korea is just about out of friends and has been on a collision course of some sort for some time now.

So, what will happen if they detonate their test? What is the severe punishment the world nations are discussing? What would Russia and China do? Can you help give me a clue?

Dell's Dunn Wrong

Dell chairman messed up and got caught. The issue here is they got caught and now the ones held responsible should pay the consequence and step aside. I find it hard to believe that top executive at a computer company would be dumbfounded by how to get around technology and how pretexting works. When you hire someone to “sneak” around what do you think will happen – hence the word “sneak.” If the news of the investigation was made known to the board it would have been a “probe” or “investigation” and the board would have agreed to it. At which time no “sneaking” needed to take place.

I don’t believe Dell guys can play dumb on this. The good thing is that they brought pretexting to public light and maybe now something can be devised to combat it. Well, maybe not until it happens more to Senators and those in Congress.

Steve Irwin- put Stingray to death

I always felt Steve Irwin was flirting with death too much. The dangerous profession he rose to stardom with was also his downfall. Never meet the guy, but he did seem in control and professional from the TV clips we are shown.

If a dog, bear, armadillo killed a person we would put it to sleep. I wonder why the Austrailan govenrment is not going after the Stingray. It would seem this Stingray is dangerous. I read that Queensland Police Superintendent Michael Keating said there was no evidence Irwin threatened or intimidated the stingray. Thus the Stingray is a man killer and should be hunted and killed.

A sad example that humans are very vunerable in the wild. However, as our species over runs every piece of land the ocean may be the last place to find wild animals.

Steve Irwin would have made native hunters proud.

UPDATE: (Sept. 13, 2006)
I am totally dumbfounded that I just read an article entitled: Stingrays Mutilated after Steve Irwin's Death. Seems that some people feel the stingrays need a good revenge killing (or beating) after what one did to Steve Irwin. Very sad.

House Hunting & Selling Current House

The $8.5 million house was just too much for us at this time. We will now look at a $5 million house. Housing prices on this small island of Taiwan are just sky-rocketing. However, income is not moving in the same direction.

Two years ago we bought a house in NeiHu we loved (and still love). But with the school and the current job I have is not allowing us any additional savings and just tossing us in to more debt. We also want to expand our school (Curious Monkey), but with no extra money coming in - it is not possible.

So, the house is now up on the market and we are looking at housing in DongHu. A move of about 4-5 miles. A move that will give us a lower cost house and believe it or not a bit more space (about 177 square feet more).

This decision was not made lightly. This decision had many more "plus" side arguments than "negative" side ones. We are excited as a family on the decision.

Sometimes to move forward you have to go backwards.

2006 Taipei Beef Noodle Festival

The 2006 Taipei Beef Noodle Festival is supposed to kick off on September 3, 2006. It is now September 1st and I can not find any news on it. The last news posted about it is from July. The Taiwanese people can not even find any news on the event. I hope the government gets their act together to sponsor this event.

The 2005 Taipei Beef Noodle Festival website is still up....... and it is 2006! Let update and EAT EAT EAT...............

CORRECTION: the site is up - start voting. . . Just a bit difficult to find. the 2006 Taipei Beef Noodle site up.!!!!

I WANT MY BEEF NOODLE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Japanese TV thanks to YouTube

Japanese TV is so very entertaining. Thanks to YouTube you can now see Hard Gay, TV ads, Game Shows and so much more. No need for me to point to exact videos. Just go and discover them yourself. . . .