Hola Carrefour

Firstly, I think that I should be thanked for not posting about this morning's visit to my hematologist which quickly revealed my versatile doctor to be every bit as eager as Jack Elam to deploy his middle digit in The Cannonball Run. Really. Thank me. Or you will hear about it.


This morning's clump of fliers included Carrefour's and their obvious attempt to deflate the impending opening of Costco in Taichung. Costco will open in November, though the actual date was not set when I went there. They do have an office open to view products, watch their videos and sign up for membership. If you are interested, here are the details.


Personal Membership (Gold Star Member) - $1,200NT a year. This will include two photo ID cards. But if done before the opening, they will give you a third card you can give to a friend or a family member. Split it three ways and it's $400 apiece. The next year's membership is $1,200 for the two cards and the gift card recipient will also have to pay the same if they would like to retain it. However, if you use your China Trust credit card during the year to make purchases of $90,000NT, the next year's membership fee is free. This is not limited to purchases at Costco, but anything purchased with the China Trust card. Costco accepts, cash, China Trust cards and AmEx (pretty sure it's AmEx. I just know we didn't have the correct kind of card). Nicely enough, the people helping you complete your membership are actually China Trust employees. A China Trust card is now in the mail. I just hope it's more than the $500US limit on my other one.


Business Membership - Not sure. I think they give it to you free with an X-Box. I did see a $500 figure on the sign for businesses but just figured it was that or the X-Box.

Back to the Carrefour flier. The online cover features Max Von Sydow dressed like Uncle Sam beholding a bag of Friday's Quesadilla Chips. Here, let's a look at one of the pages.


What do we have here? Chicken enchiladas, black bean enchiladas, a bean and cheese burrito and cheese quesadillas. And all made in the USA - see the red, white and blue ovals with 美國製造? It doesn't say where in the US so I guess I'll go and sample one and see if they have more info.

Bonus pic for our Canadianer friends in Taichung. Heard Special Dinners have become scarce.

Sure, she's hot, but...

Check out this Miss Teen USA contestant's response to a question about a fifth of Americans not being able to locate the US on a map. Wow! I guess she had to say something.

Now available in H K G

Krispy Kreme Doughnuts:)

Munchies..................

The Captin has left the island

Or will be shortly:)

Cheers

Bread are you okay?

Church Deacon, OU Fan Tears Scrotum Of UT Fan In Bar Fight

I hope the docs can fix you up.

For Red A

India Pale Ale

The British often get slagged on for their food, but are rarely given credit for this excellent contribution to beer drinkers around the world.

In India, during the 1700s, there was a great demand for porters & ales from British nationals. The six month voyage and large temperature fluctuations enroute, led to the arrival of flat and sour suds. Coming to the rescue was a Londoner named George Hodgson. Hodgson modified an existing recipe by increasing the alcohol content and adding hops, resulting in a delicious bitter ale that could survive the journey. Though wildly popular at the time, the style eventually fell out of favor with the Brits.

At some point in the early 1990s, the traditional British recipe for brewing IPAs was revisited by a number of Americans on the west coast and became popular again. Pictured are four of Hodgson's great great grandchildren: Deschutes Inversion IPA, on the far right, is 6.8% abv and a bit too malty. On the far left is Boulder Brewery's Mojo IPA, also 6.8% abv and quite tasty. Next to the Mojo is Avery Brewing's Maharaja, one of the finest IPAs ever made. With a 9.78% abv, this 22oz bomber packs a wicked one-two punch of alcohol and flavor. Towering over the group is the 3 litre bottle from Escondido, CA's Stone Brewing Company. Their 10th anniversary IPA is 10% abv and has an awesome combination of flavors.

One nice thing about being back, is getting to choose quality over quantity when having a beer.

Tribute Montage

Taiwan's version of the rock n' roll bad boy look as interpreted by some guy on my wife's Canada trip. He looks like a mini-Wu Bai.

P.s. anyone ever hear of Mini Kiss?

Dog owners

If you lived in this town you would have to pick up poo with your fingers. There are no bags avaliable. I have never seen "Doggy-poo bag distribution kiosks" in Taichung. I guess dog owners like J-hole just use their fingers.

Stuff

The Little League World Series continues in Williamsport, PA. In the first round of playoffs, Taiwan lost a heartbreaker to Japan in 10 innings (highlights). Big YeeHaw to the boys from Lubbock. With their win over Oregon (highlights), are on to the semis, taking on the team from Georgia. International final pits Japan against Curacao.
FuBar will show the international final Sunday at 2 pm, followed by United States final. World Series final will be shown Monday at 6 pm.

In other news, Winnie got a ticket for double parking on Tuesday night. She pulled up to drop off some recycling for the bar, and when she returned, the traffic cop? was writing her a ticket. She explained that she had only been there a minute, with hazard lights on. The cop? replied he knew that, because he saw her pull up. Anyone who's lived here has seen cars double parked overnight, if not parked on the street. Well, at least they are trying to do something about the traffic problem, eh?

Matrix

Hello readers.......I am the architect, but please call me The General. I created blogspot, and other simple blog pages and video games. I didn't create frogger but I came up with the name for it. Can you believe they wanted to call it highway crossing frog? Ergo.....Concordently....vis a vis.......

Roads....Where we're going there are no roads.....

Taken from the car while driving up north. This on the way to Barrie from Thortong. Frenchie probably knows this road. I think at the end of the rainbow you'll find Frenchie's stash.











This photo is taken in Fergus. I great shot of the sunset on the corn fields. No filter was used. It's amazing to see the difference in the clouds here. Everywhere I drive I take my camera with me now. I'm truly discovering Ontario again and it's great.

North American Union

The Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America.
Started in May of 2005.
The new currency will be called the "Amero".

Here is the link.

Red A Killed the Snapshot Function

I think I did at least. Did it work?

Great White North

Fortunately for me, my parents have a cabin up in northern Ontario. I'm able to go out and paddle on my own in the kayak and take some pics. Here is a pic of the cabin up in the hills. Of course there is a dock down on the lake were I'm able to sit and reflect on my time spent in Taiwan.















As I paddle away from the cottage, about 10 minutes down on the same shoreline you can see this unbelievable summer home. Pretty nice if you ask me, but this is considered to be a relatively small place. I have no idea who owns it, but my guess is it's a hockey player because the dock is always covered by tail.







Here is a great shot of the sunset at 9:50 pm while we are just finishing a normal meat, corn and potato dinner. Peace, quiet and tranquility. A refreshing break from the hectic pace of Taiwan.

Regrettable Google Search Results

Searching for a customer website, Grug Asia, on Google.

Hmmm, no customer - ah, I spelled the name wrong, but look at result No. 4...

White Men Asian Women Home Colorblind ? Expat in China Couples Wei ...

So you are planning that special holiday in Asia? ... the sentences can be extremely harsh (Thailand used to execute grug trafficers by machine gun - it's ...
www.whiteasian.com/Tourist%20in%20Asia.htm - 13k -Cached - Similar pages

Well I gotta click that link, right? Turns out to be a sort of semi-creepy site from late 90's. The highlights include:

a page about Dr. S. Davis, apparently the Hugh Hefner of yellow fever..

A List of asian female/white male couples from which I learned Marky Mark dated a woman named China Chow. (Hey my last name is Chow, I own a restaurant and I am part Chinese, therefore I will name my daughter China! The wife wanted Chyna, but I set her straight.)

Oh, and this fact by itself makes the website worthy:

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's daughter is married to a Frenchman.

The Dentist is Pwned!

After all of those respectable couples, let's not forget a page about sex tourism, you know, just for balance. I'm sure "Norodom Sihanouk, god king of Cambodia whose daughter is married to a white American mathematician" is happy to be associated with that page. Okay, the hotel price-list is kind of funny - I've never been to Thailand, is that normal?

Update: This website about black women with white men also has photos of couples, and includes the number of children and how long they have been married. But no page about sex tourism. That's a glaring omission.

NFL Upset

The Texans just beat Baltimore 30-3. Looks like the Texans have made major improvements in the off-season and Baltimore's vaunted defense couldn't cut it.

Oh wait, it was a baseball game! Lucky I took the entire Texas roster for my fantasy team, eh?

Ogden, the Inappropriate Yoga Guy

This guy struck me as an amalgam of at least 4 different guys I knew back in the Changhua days. Stinky Will (looks), Tennessee Jeff (approach), Naked Yoga Mikey (interests) and Scott the Dick (arrogance). Hilarious!

Check out GoPotatoTv for more stuff like this.

A Taste of Home

This first photo is taken in Georgian Bay. Out of Perry Sound you can go on a 4 hour long cruise of the 30,000 islands in Georgian Bay of Lake Huron. For those of you who don't know, it's about half the size of Taiwan and it's only consiered to be a bay. The cruise was $30 and probably the best bang for my buck all summer. Canada is a lot more expensive then I even remember last year. If you decide to come for a visit, it's a must.

This is a pic for Red A and true beard progression.

This is a refreshing shot of a water lily. My gal noticed how similar they are to a lotus. We go east to view the lotus, asians go west to view the lily.

Gentlemen, I had to post this (maybe old) but here's a great SNL GIFT IDEA for your girl. (May not be suitable for work)

I wonder how on earth this could be?

Taiwan ranks 17th on IELTS scores, behind Japan, Korea

Well, let's look at the first paragraph from Julie Pien of The China Post to see if we can find out.

下一項

Short four picture development of a spring to a stream at my cousin's (for now) Rattlesnake Springs Ranch in the Texas Hill Country.

Not the airport!

Fire on Water say wise man.
Anyways, before leaving Taiwan I had an opportunity to do the Southern Cross Island Highway. It was beautiful and a must see while you are in Taiwan. Absolutely beautiful scenery.










This is a shot from the temple on the west side of the mountain range. I love this shot because when I first came to Taiwan, this is what I thought I would be seeing. It's beautiful, like a painting and I hope to frame this photo sometime.

Below, you can see two photo's on the East side of the range. I had to shrink these photos to get them on the page. I have many more upon request.
(Notice the beard progression)

Taiwanese farmers protest US Pork

Actually, I don't really care about this story, but I found a cool website that has all the pork-related news you could want:

Welcome to ThePigSite.com - the website for the global pig and pork industry

Underwear material HINT

U S M S a m u i

Did you know?

• The longest flight from USM is 1,270 miles.
• The largest aircraft flying out of USM is a 717 with 125 seats.
• USM connects with 6 cities nonstop.
• The smallest commercial aircraft flying out of USM is a DH7 with 48 seats.

# of airlines servin this location?????????? 2

S I N C h a n g i

Did you know?

• The longest flight from SIN is 9,524 miles.
• The shortest flight out of SIN is 184 miles.
• There are over 1,160 long haul flights per week from SIN.
• There are 109 nonstop flights per week departing from SIN.

U'd think more long haul flights a week w/51 carriers servin this location a day!

D P S D e n p a s a r

Did you know?

• There are over 327 domestic flights per week from DPS.
• DPS connects with 28 cities nonstop.
• There are over 139 long haul flights per week from DPS.
• There are 58 nonstop flights out of DPS per week that have over 300 seats per aircraft

26 air carriers and none of them North American based......... ?

Caption Contest

Pant-tease

This is a pair of female _____. Can you guess what they are made from? Hints: It is not cotton, silk, or bamboo.

Late Notice

D-Wayne will be showing the Taichung Li-Shing baseball team's opening game at the Little League World Series at 1:00 today at FuBar. It's a repeat from 6:00 this morning, so no spoilers. Esquire Willy will be in attendance in case you have any rotten tomatoes or vegetables that need discarding.

Free! With Purchase of Holy Handgrenade

The Holy Handkerchief. At least that is the only translation I can find for Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau's Chinese name for Typhoon Sepat (國際命名：SEPAT，中文譯名：聖帕) which is set to strike Taiwan on Saturday.

下一項

The International Baseball Federation (IBAF) cancelled the 13th World Junior Championship yesterday in Venezuela. The IBAF responded to Taiwan's complaint that Venezuela would not issue visas for the team, and lo and behold, they cancelled the tournament and told all teams to return home. They are even, gasp, considering sanctions and punishment for Venezuela.

There you go, Red A. That's my Ghost Month story.

NFL is starting soon, but here at home...

...the PRIMETIME section of espnstar.com reads:

Massive win for Singapore's Susilo. (Action Images / Zainal Abd Halim)

Friday August 17, 2007
Singapore's Susilo downs Chinese star

Singapore's Ronald Susilo dumped third seed Chen Jin from the badminton world championships on Thursday, and immediately warned the formidable Chinese shuttlers against complacency....more

	Hidayat crashes out of worlds Indonesia's Taufik Hidayat was sensationally dumped from the world badminton championships on Wednesday by unseeded Anup Sridhar from India.
	Badminton: China launches assault The Chinese shuttlers, who dominate the world rankings, started the World Championships in commanding style.
	Badminton: Europe's Gade determined to crash Asian party Europe's number one shuttler Peter Gade vowed to slay some Asian giants at the world badminton championships, declaring himself fit and ready for the premier event starting on Monday.

Not an Airport III "SMT"

Shanghai Maglev Train (Shanghai Transrapid) (Chinese: 上海磁浮示范运营线; Pinyin: Shànghǎi Cífú Shìfàn Yùnyíng Xiàn; literally "Shanghai Magnetic Levitation Demonstration Operation Line") is the first commercial high-speed maglev line in the world. Construction began in March, 2001, and public service commenced on January 1, 2004. The train was made in Germany with German technology.

The train can reach 350 km/h (220 mph) in 2 minutes, with a maximum speed in normal operation of 431 km/h (268 mph). During a test run on 12 November 2003, the vehicle achieved a top speed of 501 km/h (311 mph). The Shanghai Transrapid project took 10 billion yuan (1.33 billion US dollars or Au$1.49 Billion) and 2.5 years to complete the 30.5 km (19 mi)

track.

The train runs from Longyang Road station in Pudong on the Shanghai subway line 2 to Pudong International Airport, and the total track length is about 30 kilometres, with an additional, separate track leading to a maintenance facility. The train takes 7 minutes and 20 seconds to complete the journey, and its top operational speed is 431 kilometers per hour.

As of November 2006, the one way ticket price is 50 renminbi (RMB) (about $6.33 US dollars) and 40 RMB (US$5.06) for airline passengers with proof of an airline ticket purchase receipt (plane boarding passes are not acceptable). One-way VIP ticket costs 100 RMB (US $12.66). A round-trip ticket costs 80 RMB (US$10.13).

• Operating times: 7:00 to 21:00
• Highest Speed: 431 km/h (268 mph) (Normal Times) or 300 km/h (186 mph) (Extend Times)
• Run time: 7 mins and 20 sec. in Normal Times, while 8 mins and 10 sec. in extend times
• Normal Times is 8:30-17:00, Extend Time is 7:00 to 8:30 and 17:00-21:00
• Interval: 15 mins.

What's next for the SMT......... Could be Shanghai to Hangzhou by 2010:)

Not an Airport IV "NWFF"

And the Macau to Zhuhai ferry............

Thanks Red "A" :)

New World First Ferry Services Limited (Traditional Chinese: 新世界第一渡輪服務有限公司) (in short New World First Ferry, First Ferry or NWFF) is a ferry company in Hong Kong. The company was established in November 1999, when it took over the 10 routes from the Hongkong and Yaumati Ferry. It is jointly owned by Chow Tai Fook Enterprises Limited and NWS Holdings Limited

N K G N a n j i n g

Did you know?

• There are over 44 international flights per week from NKG Airport.
• NKG Airport has 167 flights departing per week for short haul destinations.
• NKG Airport has 329 medium sized aircraft departing each week.
• The smallest commercial aircraft flying out of NKG Airport is a EMB with 18 seats.

17 air carriers and Unknown & OK airways top the charts again:)

D L C D a l i a n

Did you know?

• The longest flight from DLC Airport is 1,236 miles.
• Over 77,128 passengers can travel out of DLC Airport every week.
• DLC Airport has 207 flights departing per week for short haul destinations.
• DLC Airport has 251 medium sized aircraft departing each week.

21 air carriers....... BFD