Chips

The first one comes from Doritos. Tai-Ke flavored Doritos. Yes, Tai-Ke. I expected to find betel nut and Mild Seven listed in the ingredients, but did not. The actual flavor is stir-fried clams ( Tai-Ke comfort food, I guess. My wife gave an emphatic Yes! when I told her about it. She also said the chips do have a bit of the stir-fried clam taste.) Here's a instructional video in Mandarin and Taiwanese teaching you how to make the clams. Even if you don't speak either of the languages, it's pretty easy to follow. After you heat the oil ( he uses salad oil, peanut oil is also widely used), add the garlic, chilies and ginger together. Then come the clams, rice wine, soy sauce paste, barbecue paste, a little water if needed, basil and sesame oil in sequence.

Next is a Japanese chip from Calbee: Mexican chile-flavored potato chips. Looks okay. The ingredients look normal: potatoes, salt, chile powder...

Hey! What is Senor Chile holding in his hand?

I hope that this is only the first in a series of chips with regional themes.

One Funny Dude

One of the best TV shows ever. Korman & Dick Martin in the same week...bummer!

Olympic Torch N i n g b o

Foreigner carries the torch in Ningbo...





Dr. Canyon

Tong Tien Cong Va Noi Day

Celebrating 40 Years.........


Bubinski

Taichung 5 Annual Food Festival

Good food, Friends, family event and lots of alcohol :)
New location was a hit among the locals....


Borman

Hunting Dogs

Went to a hunting dog competition this Saturday with a couple of friends. There were four major phases of the competition:
1. Fetch two ducks at about 300 yards each (photo to the left). In the photo you can just make out one of the shootists in the distance (the other was to the right of the building).
2. Run-swim, run-swim, run-swim, run-swim at about 400 yards (bringing back the duck).
3. Aerial (catching a frisbee off a dock, jumping about 25 feet into a pond).
4. Swim two hundred yards to get a bird shot over the water.

I'm not much of a dog man, but the competition was pretty neat. This was the only Chesapeake Bay Retriever in the festivities -- it was mostly golden retrievers and black labs. However, the owner of Chewa had invited us out, so he's the photo that was taken.

Endings and Beginings

Finished my second year, thank God. Managed a week off where I made it down to Grand Teton N.P. The weather was dodgy at best, but it was nice to have some stillness. Went for a hike where I confronted this little booger from about 15 feet. I"m not sure who, but it appears one of us is in jail.

For those of you who haven't seen the Tetons, here they are through fog, mist and snow.


As you can see, winter hasn't fully abated here yet, though today we did manage to get up to 15 degrees or so. I have begun my new job as a canary, checking out gas leaks and walking the hills of Montana. Pretty much anything is better than sitting at a desk these days, even working for the man.

Compass Food Fest

Annual Waigoren Get Plastered Fest goes Saturday, May 24. Venue has changed from Sogo to the park on Wu Chuen across from the Art Museum. Normal excellent lineup of bands and always good food to be had. See what the booze situation is this year, hopefully not a repeat of "Corona Light" sponsor, WTF? FuBar will be there, and PJ will be serving up his chili spillin' margeritas and most of the watering holes are represented. Always a great time, at least till the double vision starts. The record for drunk foreigners is all of 'em. Let's try to beat that mark, whatta ya say?

The Tonka X issue, vol 9

Building a better boyhood:)


missed it by that much....

The Transporter

It's all got to get there some how.......


Johnny Doughboy found a rose in Ireland.
To each his own.

Chinese for Taiwan politics

inaugurate / take office : 1.就職 jiu4 zhi2 ㄐㄧㄡˋ ㄓˊ 2. 就任 jiu4 ren4 ㄐㄧㄡˋ ㄖㄣˋ 3. 上任 shang 4 ren4 ㄖㄣˋㄕㄤˋ
inauguration: 就職典禮 jiu4 zhi2 dian3 li3 ㄐㄧㄡˋ ㄓˊ ㄉㄧㄢˇ ㄌㄧˇ
inauguration speech : 就 職 演 說 ... yan3 shuo1 ㄧㄢˇ ㄕㄨㄛ
swear in / take an oath (of office) : 宣誓 xuan1 shi4 ㄒㄩㄢ ㄕˋ
status quo: 現 狀 xian4 zhuang4 ㄒㄧㄢˋ ㄓㄨㄤˋ
3 links ( Direct mail, transportation and trading links to China. Currently these are indirect links. See next entry) : 三 通 san1 tong1 ㄙㄢ ㄊㄨㄥ
3 mini-links ( The "mini three links" refer to direct postal, transportation and trade links between the Chinese cities of Xiamen, Mawei and Quanzhou in Fujian Province and Taiwan's outlying islands of Kinmen and Matsu) : 小三通 xiao3 san1 tong1 ㄒㄧㄠˇㄙㄢ ㄊㄨㄥ
1. 通商 (trade/business) tong1 shang 1 ㄊㄨㄥ ㄕㄤ
2. 通航 (transportation) tong1 hang 2 ㄊㄨㄥ ㄏㄤˊ
3. 通郵 (mail) tong1 you2 ㄊㄨㄥ ㄧㄡˊ
Three No/Noes policy: 三不政策 san1 bu4 zheng4 ce4 ㄙㄢ ㄅㄨˋ ㄓㄥˋ ㄘㄜˋ
1, 不獨 (No declaration of independence) bu4 du2 ㄅㄨˋ ㄉㄨˊ
2. 不統 (No unification) bu4 tong3 ㄅㄨˋ ㄊㄨㄥˇ
3. 不戰 / 武 (No war) bu4 zhan4 / wu3 ㄅㄨˋ ㄓㄢˋ or ㄨˇ
1992 Consensus : 九二共識 jiu3 er4 gong4 shi4 ㄐㄧㄡˇ ㄦˋ ㄍㄨㄥˋ ㄕˋ
so-called : 所 謂 的 suo2 wei4 de5 ㄙㄨㄛˇ ㄨㄟˋ ㄉㄜ˙
charter flights: 包機 bao1 ji1 ㄅㄠ ㄐㄧ
One China, Two Interpretations : 一 中 各 表 yi1 zhong1 ge4 biao3 一 ㄓㄨㄥ ㄍㄜˋ ㄅㄧㄠˇ

Red A 3 - Command & Conquer

I remember playing a version of this game years ago with John and Aaron. I was never very good at it but Aaron had such a knack for conquest he got a nickname out of it.

This actually looks pretty fun...

Who said it?

We are going to get drunk. We deserve this. It is great for our country.

A) Ma Ying-jeou, after being sworn in as the new president of Taiwan.

B) Russian hockey player, Alexander Ovechkin , after beating Canada 5-4 in the finals of the World Ice Hockey Championships.

C) Ofer Ahiraz, Israeli, on opening the first Hooter's in Israel

Regulations in the Park 23-9

For those of u not familiar w/rule # 3


Not b drunk, play gamble, participate in fortune telling and other evils in the park....

I suggest some of u review # 1&2 as well:)









Hi there, Hello.

H C M C Sec 1

Not a bad place to live and work.
1 of our own just moved there......


The blue sun melts the red snow and the purple water runs uphill

H a p p y E l e p h a n t

Servin one mean bean burrito:)


Once again the forces of niceness and goodness have triumphed over the forces of evil and rottenness

New Content

I stole this from some Fark.com thread about Emo kids. Nothing to do with anything in particular but I had to bump those gold dollars down the page.

In God We Trust 1 9 7 4

7 Banks
6 Convenience Stores
2 Wal-Marts
And a Hotel Lobby Bar


Tanganyika

Lessons in Life

Just because you are finished with finals and summer* is in site does not mean you can start jitterbugging like a mad fool when you've recently had back surgery. I dipped a friend a little too low, and now my back is in bad shape. I'm hoping it goes away with ample drugs and minimal hassle.

*right now it's about 42 degrees (5C) and the projected highs aren't looking very summery, but still, no more class!

Never play Scorpions at your Wedding

Bride catches fire (video)

T-shirts

Rye and I have been discussing blog t-shirts for a while and I finally got around to inquiring. As it stands right now, we can get them for about $240-300NT per shirt. They have sizes up to 3X. However, 2X is $10NT extra per shirt and 3X is $20. They supply the shirts which are all cotton, good,but not Hayne's Beefy T's quality.

Rye and I came up with the design consisting of three parts. The top will have the banner from the blog.

They cannot produce the flame effect. I believe they can change the lettering to red. If not, it will be an extra $400-600NT (this is the price for the "mold" for each color and is a one time fee. It will be spread out among the total number of shirts we order, and not a per shirt fee).

Next, is our image, our beloved wai ke. Let me know your choice or we will choose. Also, anyone who is interested and thinks we can get one to them is welcome to voice an opinion. Contributors are already marked down for a minimum of two each.

Below the wai ke, we will have the Chinese lettering from the banner in gold. We choose black tees. Names can be put on the back, but I forgot if there is an additional charge. I will ask. If you would like a name, start letting us know what you want.
The above quote is based on an A4 paper size - A4 paper = 210 x 297 millimeters (8.27 x 11.69 inches). That means the entire design - logo, pic and lettering - will be included in this range.

An A3 size rendering (A3 paper = 297 x 420 millimeters (11.69 x 16.54 inches) will be about $200NT per color used. I am trying to keep the colors to six, so that would mean another $1,200 spread out over the entire order. Let me know soon because Rye is leaving soon.

Reno, NV

4:14 p.m. local time. I am enjoying an ice cold Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.

Its 7:14 a.m. in Taiwan. You guys better get off the computer and head to work.

Yes, my job sucks right now, so I have to tear you down to feel good about myself.

True story from my best customer:

He once won Let it Ride Poker with a Royal Flush and won US$ 30,000.

Now that is one lucky dude.

K o h P h a n g a n

1 day i'll get 2 go:(
Full moon parties, swimming pools and movie stars....



Dead Cowboy ?

B o P h u t

Northern Koh Samui.....
Even better place to just chill w/th wife:)

Room, pool, beach and ocean....


CAD

M a e H e a d

Arrival beach to "Turtle" Island.....
Koh Tao:)


Boga

B a n g K a o

Southern Koh Samui
Nice place to just chill:)


1-way al