Poker

Aaron is leaving like air out of a balloon.

I'm removing red ink from pens the traditional way.

Saturday, mini golf location, starting around 8:30. There is a plan to sell beer on site.

I made it out to PJ's on Tuesday to wish Brit Paul a Happy Birthday. I may be attending poker on Saturday, and if need be, i will go to church on Sunday.

People that should crash this gathering: Aaron,AJ,John,John,Karl

Perhaps I should just forget about making a shout out. I could just attend the regular afterwork meeting at the Mom and Pops.

Who says Chinese have no sense of humor?

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Monday reassured the Chinese government that its huge holdings of dollar assets are safe and reaffirmed his faith in a strong U.S. currency.

A major goal of Geithner's maiden visit to China as Treasury chief is to allay concerns that Washington's bulging budget deficit and ultra-loose monetary policy will fan inflation, undermining both the dollar and U.S. bonds.

China is the biggest foreign owner of U.S. Treasury bonds. U.S. data shows that it held $768 billion in Treasuries as of March, but some analysts believe China's total U.S. dollar-denominated investments could be twice as high.

"Chinese assets are very safe," Geithner said in response to a question after a speech at Peking University, where he studied Chinese as a student in the 1980s.

His answer drew loud laughter from his student audience, reflecting scepticism in China about the wisdom of a developing country accumulating a vast stockpile of foreign reserves instead of spending the money to raise living standards at home.

I personally found this one funny:

"We believe in a strong dollar ... and we're going to make sure that we repair and reform the financial system so that we sustain confidence," he said.

I guess "believe" can mean like "I believe in magic and leprechauns."

The Chinese also chuckled when he suggested they should let the RMB should appreciate against the US Dollar.

Disclosure: I have some savings in RMB. Whoot!

Its Raining in Taichung

Thank God the Move was done yesterday.

My house is empty except for some detritus and the mahjong table we use in the kitchn and a washer/drier.

EVA foam provides suprising comfort for sleeping....compared to concrete.

Very cool

Kid Rides Giant Python @ Yahoo! Video

Foreign Language Books in Taiwan

I have been a long-time customer of Amazon.com for my books, but here is something I found out tonight that might save you some bucks on freight.

There is a wikipedia seach function based on ISBN numbers...which has a link to buy the book you look for in Taiwan at www.books.com.tw

So, in this case I was looking for this book, and you could buy it at www.books.com.tw in English! Cool! The website is all in Chinese, but the books are in English.

And if you don't want to read non-fiction, they have fiction, too. The selection is probably not super comprehensive, so IJ will be satisified with this book, but Karl will have to find his Maplethorpe's Tranny Ninja-Pirates Pictorial elsewhere.

As for pricing, Dan Brown's Angels and Demons is NT$ 350. Its US$ 10.19 at Amazon.com, not including freight to Taiwan, so it seems a good deal. (Not saying that book is good - just using it as a standard unit.)

Buddy

Check out our new dog! He's the chocolate lab!

Blogger blocked from C h i n a

Hello out there in blog land. C h i n a seems to be blocking blog spot once again?

EW reporting to you from the HTC Taiwan 3G sim card within C h i n a.....



13

Almost 50 years ago, Joe Kittinger parachuted from space to Earth. As part of Project Excelsior, he made 3 jumps from a little gondola lifted by helium balloons. The last jump was from 102,800 feet up. That's 19.46 miles. Watch the 5 minute video here.


New links added to the sidebar: Reason.com and Reason.tv

I have been reading and viewing Reason for some time. They feature news, culture, politics, essays and more from a libertarian perspective - " Free Minds and Free Markets."





Here are some other videos that I like but will just give the links.

• Matt Welch on the DC voucher program
• Food Fight with Drew Carey (illegal bacon dogs in L.A.
• Beer: An American Revolution (microbrew to the rescue of thirsty Americans)

Computer Tip

Maybe I am the only idiot who would like to input Chinese characters with my Windows still in English, but here's how you can do this. You will need a Taiwanese keyboard though.

謝謝你, Pinyin Joe.

Warning: I was forced to learn this in order to assist my wife in buying Isotonix OCP on-line. Thanks to your wife, IJ, for getting my wife hooked on yet another expensive quasi-medical habit.

p.s. don't tell her I said that, dude, or I will get killed. Seriously. 

Taiwan makes FARK

Man busts wife, mate in porn DVDPrinSubmit comment:Submit comment

May 13, 2009 01:40pm

A TAIWAN carpenter bought a porn DVD only to find secretly taped motel footage of his wife having sex with his friend, whom the husband later stabbed.

The husband, identified only by his surname Lee, discovered the illicit sex on the DVD in 2002.

The sexual acts apparently had been recorded using a hidden camera and were on a pornographic DVD, titled Affairs with Others' Wives, which the husband bought from a vendor to watch at home. 

Lee, who lives in Taoyuan County near Taipei, divorced his wife after viewing the DVD. His friend, a butcher, fled their village. 

In August 2008, Lee spotted the butcher in Changhua City, returned with a knife and stabbed his former friend in the thigh. 

KEY LESSONS

1. When having sex in a motel, make sure to choose a reputable establishment that uses two camera shoots and quality editing. 

2. Make sure the woman knows to fake a few orgasms and comment appreciatively on your size and skills.

3. Be wary of poetic justice. If you are a butcher, expect to be stabbed with a knife. If you are a teacher, expect to smothered in chalk dust. Be prepared.

This reminds me of the story, possibly an urban legend, of the foreigner in Changhua who was caught sleeping with the police chief's wife. That pretty much means your ARC is going to be revoked, dude.

Mother's Day

R u ready?

jolly jokers

Something 2 look forward two

Now that's a refreshing look on today..........






Thirteen

For John

Behave woman

C u on th flip side.....
U just got there 1st.

That's all.











There has never been a successful escape.

Hey, D-Wayne! It's raining _____

Having a wife who likes to stay up till 3:00am watching TV in the bedroom could be considered a bit impolite. However, as all programs on Taiwanese TV are captioned with Chinese subtitles, no volume is needed. This is great when trying to sleep, but not so great when other Taiwanese are around watching an English-language program. They tend to "read" the show while continuing chatting in their outside voice.

She will also watch things you would never consider watching. Fine with me. She's the miner working the sieve, occasionally returning with a nugget or two. The other night, she did just that.

She was watching an investigative news show on the one and only Peanut Head, Chaing Kai-Shek. Before I go any further, let me tell you that the use of "peanut" relating to CKS is not a Johnny Neihu-ism. I remember seeing it first in Barbara Tuchman's Pulitzer prize-winning book, Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911-45 . General Joseph Stilwell (Vinegar Joe), the military attache to China in 1935-39 and commander of United States forces and allied chief of staff to Chiang Kai-shek in 1942-44, used peanut and peanut head regularly when referring to CKS.

This show claims that CKS's three, yes three, sons were not his own. According to the show's panelists, an accident at the age of 4 made fathering children impossible. At that time, crotchless pants were the norm for toddlers. They would walk around and when the mood took them, relieve themselves wherever they were. It seems that on one cold day, little CKS's mood took him inside to warm up, where he found a nice very warm spot to sit and rest. This very warm spot just happened to be the house's brazier, used to heat the home ( Man nuts roasting on an open fire,,,). The panelists did not say how long he sat on that ring of fire, but are somehow convinced that his bird was cooked.

Okay, PIMP, I have opened the door for your and your cohorts. I expect a conspiracy-theory video of at least two parts to be up and available for viewing in 2-3 weeks.

下 一 項

Air Asia is offering $888 NT one-way flight to Kuala Lumpur. You must book before May 03 and the travel period is 1 Jul 2009 - 31 Jan 2010. From KL, you can connect to many other places dirt cheap. For example, a connecting, one-hour flight to and from Langkawi is $28 US. Total round-trip Taipei-Langkawi-Taipei (including taxes but not including about a $700 baggage fee if you check anything) is about $5,000 NT, give or take a couple of hundred.

下 一 項

An enhanced Joe Cocker at Woodstock video. It takes about 25 seconds to really kick in. Watch and then proffer your best guess at what type of software/program was used.

下 一 項

There really are no accidents.

Not quite as good as the previous workplace safety video, but the construction accident can compete with any of them. Five, thirty-second clips.

Transporter 6

Ever wonder where their all going?






Hammelburg?

Question for the Ages

Why is the mold that grows on my books at home white, while the mold that grows on my books at work black?

Stuff

I am moving back to the USA in June, so my wife is going through my stuff and tossing everything.

All my music CDs went to the local library. I guess they can enjoy my Dwight Yoakam CD. Two boxes of books, too. I told her I could give them to a bar, but she couldn't wait 1-2 days to give me time. They had to go in 20 minutes! 

Since most of the music is on my Ipod, its not too big a deal, but I still have some DVD's (region1) and books, and such that she has not tossed.

Anyone interested? There will also be more stuff coming down the pipeline as my wife turns her sights on everything else.

The world is an amazing place.

Bacon Salt.

Not only vegetarian but kosher as well.

So if you want to freak out any vegan jewish friends, I think you have your prank right here.

Is it just me?

Not sure about the name, but loads of fun. click here