News from the Chung
Rumor has it Costco Taichung is now open and issuing cards. Here's a a photo of it during the contstruction phase (BigEl steel at work?).
http://www.seattlestructural.com/international.costco.htm
Where are our beat reporters? For years they've been talking about it, and now that it has arrived, all they can post about are sixty year old musicals? Nihowdy may go queer (musicals?), it may go boring (airports?), but please don't let it go commie (costco = capitalist excess at its finest therefore we are above writing about it). That's just a bit too much for me; let's leave the Reds to the Chaon side of the blogosphere, I need J-Hole telling me how he can buy eight snow cones, a lawn mower and get a haircut on demand.
17 comments:
Bread, the fliers arrived at everyone's house last week - no kidding. Costco Taichung will open in the fall.
I didn't get a flyer. I got a text message from Hogie in Changhua. What is so interesting about shopping for so much stuff under one roof? When did Bret the Brat turn into a MALL RAT?
who is bret? jesus christ, i was best 'witness' in your fucking wedding and you can't even spell my goddam name right? commie conspirator...
The flyers have indeed gone out announcing a November opening. A neighbor stole ours, my wife told me. Construction is further along than in the link but Petra is in China with my camera so no pics yet.
Cynthia and I walked by there on Saturday. They have an office open across the street where you can see a scale model of what the final store will look like, and register for a Costco card.
I got my card through my mom. LOL.
I get all kinds of things through your mom. LOL.
The Costco in Neihu is a happy and disturbing place at the same time, I'm sure the one in Taichung will bring hours of enjoyment to some people.
Last time I went there I played all the Casio keyboards on full blast at the same time. Bossa Nova and Fox Trot/Swing mix is so annoying!
Then I bought a shitload Mach 3 razors.
I used to shop at the Costco in ShiJr. Here are some good tips for the uninitiated: Avoid Costco if at all possible on Saturday/Sunday. Don't go on payday. Don't go with the munchies. When you see the Canadian microbrew, don't get all excited and buy 5 six packs...it's pretty bad stuff. Do buy the good quality steaks and invite yourself to J-hole's place for barbecue. Bring steaks/beer for J-hole.
128oz of maple syrup is way too much. Be prepared to eat a lot more Mexican food than you have in a long time...the salsa made in Taipei is way better than Pace Picante Sauce. Wish the folks at Uncle Jimmys good luck with their future endeavors because they're nice people. Join a gym.
Happy and disturbing is an apt description.
Uncle Jimmy's is already closed, Hannibal. I'm looking forward to Costco!
And dicking on Canadian Arctic claims -- it's not just for Denmark anymore
Russia Plants flag on Arctic Seabed
TORONTO, Aug. 6 -- A dramatic submarine dive to plant the Russian flag on the seabed at the North Pole last week has rattled Canadian politics and underscored the growing stakes as the ice cap melts in the oil-rich Arctic.
Canada and the United States scoffed at the legal significance of the dive by a Russian mini-sub to set the flag on the seabed Thursday. "This isn't the 15th century. You can't go around the world and just plant flags" to claim territory, Canada's minister of foreign affairs, Peter MacKay, told reporters.
A Russian mini-submarine operator plants a titanium capsule with the Russian flag on the seabed at the North Pole last Thursday. The action has thrown the Canadian government on the defensive. (Ntv Television Image Via Associated Press)
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But the government here has been thrown on the defensive by the Russian action, accused by critics of doing too little to meet a deadline for the five Arctic nations to map and claim huge areas of the Arctic seabed.
A U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker left Seattle on Monday for an area 500 miles north of Barrow, Alaska, where a contingent of 20 scientists are to continue compiling an undersea map in preparation for a U.S. claim of the resources there.
Canada has not equipped itself to do the same. It has no icebreakers heavy enough to tackle the Arctic ice head-on.
In the view of opposition leader Jack Layton, head of the New Democratic Party, the government has responded with little more than rhetoric to threats to Canadian sovereignty in its frozen backyard. "Canada must move quickly and make immediate, strategic investments in its Arctic," Layton said Sunday.
The 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea gives each of the five Arctic nations -- Canada, the United States, Russia, Denmark and Norway -- 10 years after their ratification of the treaty to map out the Arctic seabed.
The maps, along with sediment samples and other scientific information, can be used to claim parts of the seabed that are extensions of the continental shelf of each nation. The claim would apply to the buried resources, not to the water above.
For years, progress under the international treaty was slow. The United States has not ratified the convention, though observers expect that to happen soon under the Democratic-controlled Congress. Global warming has added a sudden urgency to the process by thinning the Arctic ice cap, making drilling and shipping more feasible.
The potential rewards are great. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that 25 percent of the world's undiscovered oil and gas lies in the Arctic.
"The huge irony is that we are only talking about this because humanity has burned so much oil and gas that the ice is melting," said Michael Byers, an international law expert at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. "It could be a vicious cycle: Climate change is opening up the Arctic to oil and gas drilling, which almost certainly will cause more climate change."
Russia, the first of the Arctic nations to ratify the treaty, has undertaken extensive mapping using its huge nuclear-powered icebreakers. Norway and Denmark have also conducted undersea mapping. Canada, which ratified the treaty in 2003, is cooperating with Denmark on the ice northeast of Ellesmere Island, setting off explosives to seismically map the ground under the Lincoln Sea region of the Arctic Ocean.
The United States has been mapping the Chukchi Cap area since 2003, according to Larry Mayer, director of the Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping at the University of New Hampshire. That area is not expected to conflict with Russian claims, he said.
Mayer, who will join the icebreaker USCGC Healy as chief scientist, said the U.S. mapping effort will be greatly aided by sonar mapping done by U.S. Navy nuclear submarines that routinely cruised under the Arctic cap during the Cold War. That classified information has gradually been made public for scientists' use, Mayer said.
Canada historically has considered much of the North American side of the frozen Arctic its territory and bristles at U.S. claims that the thawing Northwest Passage through that area is an international strait. Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who is to tour Arctic communities this week, has called the Arctic "central to our identity as a northern nation."
Nice one Michael!
"This isn't the 15th century. You can't go around the world and just plant flags."
Lol @ hannibal because 128 oz. is way too much maple syrup.
Good advice about the Costco trips...Sunday is especially difficult. In Neihu I drove my friend's van and there were 4 of us. One guy had to get out and stop traffic just so we could get a parking spot! Granted, this is Taipei and the population density is a little greater, but just watch out. People turn savage in the face of super savings. o_O
I think that Uncle Jimmy's has moved, not closed. Friend of a friend of a friend heard that they are on Siping Rd. now.
Does Costco carry Fritos? Cause Boxcar Willy is S.O.L. - the bag broke in my luggage.
No Fritos, but you can get a 24oz bottle of McCormick's Montreal Steak Seasoning :)
They have Lays, Ruffles & Tostitos, which are all Frito-Lay products, but no Fritos.
Q: What will be on J-hole's steaks in hell?
A: Montreal Steak Seasoning
Thanks for taking that one for me, H.
Okay, here's my Costco favorites:
Jalapeno Poppers
Frozen burritos
Mango salsa
Chicken Bakes
Honey Nut Cheerios (kid likes 'em)
Bagels
Quattro shredded Mexican cheese
Taiwan made Tortillas don't separate easily, but are okay.
wife likes mixed nuts...
T T double T,
Brett likes his double T,
one T is never enough.
Brett walks into a T-bar, says" Would you like to join the Brettitan Church"?
Bartender says" This is a T-bar!, no men allowed."
BreTT " Let's convert you"
Bartender " no thanks"
Brett " The real problem is I lost a "T".
Bartender " Well there are lots of "T's" here, have a look.
Brett "Bless you"
( It is hard to make a T joke)
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