Kadhafi Watch: Part 2

In keeping with Bread's interest in Kadhafi.

NiHowdy Loses 1.2 Billion Readers

I'm back from China. Apparently blogspot is blocked there.

But on a positive note, I guess our barbecue secrets are safe.

BEEF

Beef is back in Taiwan. That's right. No more grass-fed Kiwi cow carcasses. According to Grand Poobah for Life, Jack McDowell, as of Thursday, March 31, American beef will reenter the Taiwan market. Now, don't go sharpening your knives just quite yet. He informed me that Tesco and Costco will have it but didn't mention about other places. I assume others will as well. Also, the China Post reported that this does not include live animals or bone-in meat. I vaguely remember him saying that this was incorrect, but maybe It's just me that's incorrect.

Other good news for those who still have time left on their sentences. Taichung will break ground on a Costco around October. Not Costko, Fakeco, 101 or any of that other nonsense. The real deal Costco. No longer will we have to wait 2-3 hours as we motor north or south to spend our money. Instead we will merely have to wait until about May of 2006.

All Sports Hootenanny

The All Sports Hootenanny will take place on April, 24. This will include 4 teams: football, soccer, rugby and interpretive frisbee. The four teams will play every other team in every sport. Location: no idea. Time: from not-nearly-early-enough-to finish a.m. to cardiac-arrest o'clock. For more info, bug Lance.

Rumor Control

It has been disclosed that Amcham Jack now has controlling interest in The Taichung Voice. Terms are vague but this mag will continue to exist under the aegis of AJ/the American Chamber of Commmerce. Rebounding from a tough week (sorry about the chili) AJ has cuckholded Mr. Carroll. Please be ready to view many,great and really,really wonderful articles about purchasing really, really great and cheap microbrew equipment in the future. Lance is accepting any and all kneepad donations.

Confirmed

This evening Kevin and I had the opportunity to watch Elliot get confirmed into the Catholic Church (easy on the snickering you heathens). Anyhow, we met out at Providence University, and managed to sit through an entire 2 hour mass, conducted in Chinese. That deserves some kind of medal in my personal opinion, but I doubt Kevin would agree. At the 1 1/2 hour mark I leaned over and asked him when would this 'God damn thing' be over. He politely asked me to refrain from the Goddams until the end of the service. I conceded he was probably correct and managed to avoid any more verbal miscues. On the upside, I learned some new Chinese words -- cool, fun ones like Satan, sin, and obstinate. I asked Kevin if I could say Satan dammit, but I got no response.

Player Clocks Ref

Check out the right hook on this guy... Roberto Alomar forgiven...

Announcer Calls Plane Crash

"No way did that just happen folks..."

brett-kevin-ivo220305
Originally uploaded by ryeguy.

IVO'S FIRST BALL GAME

Ivo&Papa220305
Originally uploaded by ryeguy.

The heavens opened and pissed down rain as we arrived at the Double 10 Rd. stadium at 6:40 on the 22nd. The game had already begun with our pitcher in deep trouble. Perhaps the rain delay would help our guys get more focused. I took the opportunity to fetch a rain jacket and some beer for Kevlar. Bread was his usual enthusiastic self as we were joined by Canadian Chris and his diamond pal Rocky. Chris is leaving soon and we were all happy to be sharing his (maybe?)last CPBL game. It was of course Ivo's first ever. Despite the wetness everyone was in good spirits. The game continued after 30 or 40 minutes. The Bulls starter didn't last through the first and the home team was down by 4 going into our half of the inning. Things didn't get much better for the Bulls all night as the Elephants pretty much had their way with them, the final tally being 13-5. As Kevlar drank deeply of his tall boy, so did Ivo and we were out of milk by the end of the fifth with the Bulls down by plenty. We had to high tail it to see MaMa, keeper of the sweet sweet nectar Ivo craves, but the rest of the boys stuck around to the end. On the way out I couldn't help but notice the house music included Chinese versions of "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" and "Highway to Hell". Cracks me up every time.
After the game Bread met Bulls rightfielder Zhang Jia-hao, who had homered earlier. Zhang is famous for being one the most handsome ballplayers on the island and Wednesday at work Bread reported being rather starstruck.
The two teams played again on the 23rd and this time the Bulls came out on top 4-1...

Moving to Canada?

Watch an Industrial Shredder

Kevin Springfield

Kevin Springfield
Originally uploaded by ryeguy.

I was rooting through some old LPs and came across this one by Kevin Springfield (remember him?) circa mid-80s. But I can't for the life of me recall the album title...

Maybe some of our readers could suggest something appropriate.

Guggenheim will be in Hong Kong

I never quite recalled what happened to the Guggenheim for Taichung plan, except that it failed.

It looks now that Hong Kong will have it rather than Taichung.

p.s. I saw a lady in business attire herding a large pig while driving to work today.

The Wrath of Bread

ryan&brett2
Originally uploaded by ryeguy.

This was taken last year in Tainan during the US-Taiwan game. Beware if you're not wearing orange. Of course tomorrow night it may be difficult to abuse the Elephants whilst sporting a blindfold.

Free Eats

There will be free spaghetti at PJ's today. He has concocted a baker's buttload of sauce and is dishing it out gratis.

Amo, Amas, Amat: Chili, Chile, Chilli

Saturday was beautiful. At the house, hungry and still in possession of my meager poker winnings - the wife didn't anticipate a pre-noon rising - I declared to my dog that we would be making chili again. Now, I've been making chili almost once a week for the last couple of months trying to work out a basic chili template based on the local resources. Back from the market, stocked and ready to go, I continue the chili custom of cooking and comfort.

A few words need to be said about what chili is and is not. It's not a sauce and not a stew. It's not a soup. It is not spicy Prego. Chili is chili. Let's look at the main, and sometimes only, ingredients: meat, chiles and fat. Tomatoes and beans were later additions. Looky here for a good primer on ingredients. Click here for recipes, history and the prevalent Texan view of beans (lower left sidebar). Chili was invented by carnivores, for carnivores. Keeps your belly and backbone from bumpin'. Eat it with broken-up soda crackers and cheese, with a thick slice of sourdough, on some hoagie bread, on rice, next to eggs or straight up. It's the everyman's accessible art. I'm not talking about the Simpson's standard-lowering Hooray For Everything! Nor is it the incomprehensible "genius" of Christo. This is Dogs Playing Poker art. Like grabbin the ring on the merry-go-round. Won't get it every time, but the chance is available to all, always.

The cooking part should remain simple. Stay with the basics and add one or two extras. The best and most challenging variant is the chiles. Fresh, dried and powdered. Now, our options in Taiwan are limited. Mostly, I stock up on different powders when I'm back home. Look for powders that leave a stain on your fingers when you rub it. That tells you the essential oils (flavor) are still there. Meat is important just for the sake of being meat. The cut is secondary. My last batch, and the best of these last couple of months, used beef shank and ground pork. For the fat, you could use oil, but I prefer lard or a strip-of-fat-strip-of-lean from the pork belly (Bart, butter your bacon!). As for the extras, bourbon, bittersweet chocolate, beer and coffee are all players.

Now to the comfort part. After getting it started, you would move on to what Smoky would call his 3rd Basic Position of Barbecuen' (Chili Makin). Being sunny and clear, I assumed a reclining position with a half twist on my patch of grass in the front. Flanked by my dog and my beer, listening to Fowler, Cagle and Hank, I settled back and did not-a-damn-thing for an hour. Rinse (your parched throat), repeat and eat. A beautiful Saturday.

Spring Scream Chicken

Head on down to Kending first weekend in April. The official site has all the info you need. Word is Red A's gonna go this year with a load o' beer. See some of y'all there.

Ivo's First Game?

Tuesday night, Bulls vs. Elephants.

Myself, Canadian Chris, and Kevlar are in. Ryan and Ivo are sitting on the fence due to fears of crowd noise. Anybody else interested? If so, leave a message here.

How in tune with your senses are you?

In a recent lesson at school we covered the senses. One question we addressed was which one of the five you would give up (if you had to give up one). Most said taste or smell, with a few choosing sight, one choosing hearing (so he wouldn't have to listen to me yell), and one poor sap wanted to give up touch. I informed him that once he got a girlfriend he might think twice about that. He looked confused.

Anyhow, this prompted me to an experiment which I have involuntarily been participating in over the past week. Due to a head cold, I have forsaken taste and smell for the past few days. I can report that giving up taste/smell really stinks when your friend brings you fifteen hundred dollars of Fridays and you can't taste a lick of it. However, it's a bonus when you are too lazy to take out the trash despite the dead fish in the bottom of it. Not a bad trade off, especially considering some of the places I have traveled to in the past ten years.

If my sense of smell returns by Tuesday, I am going to go blindfolded for the day (which should be interesting being as I am supposed to be attending a ball game that evening). Hearing will have to be done on a weekend for job security reasons. Not sure how I am going to lose the sense of touch for a day, but I'll come up with something. Reports forthcoming.