Overheard at A.I.T.

Official: What do you do for a living?

Supplicant: I'm a private equity banker.

Official: Where will your wife live in the USA? We will need to see some documentation, maybe a utility bill in your name with the address or something like that.

Supplicant: Actually, I live with my parents.

...

In defense of this guy, I heard the CEO of Bear Stearns just moved back home with his Mom too.  And his Mom won't give him an advance on his allowance until all the chores are done.

p.s. The Burger King next to AIT served an awful meal this time. I'm thinking of skipping it in the future. Any suggestions for lunch?

Invincible?

Yesterday was definately one of the more enjoyable football Sunday's in a few years!

Finga's Pie

Season's Greetings

The inlaws came to my house Christmas Eve. I knew they were bringing the turkeybird. I went to Jason's, Capitian'ns (yumahu) and Sinnon. Getting vegetables, looking for cranberry jelly, and stove top stuffing.

After failing I hit Finga's for this 480nt$ eight inch apple pie. It was tasty, but pricey. Then to a supermarket for wine, vodka, lime mix.

The odd thing was that I wanted Bailey's, vanilla ice cream and apple pie. I got carried away with having Christmas day off.

The pie was gone quickly. The leftover bird bits went in the steamer, on a plate with veggies and a little gravy. J-hole once mentioned the steam cooking. The steam really rejuvenates the meal. Why did i ever put meat in a microwave?Today I am gonna attempt Turkey Soup.Don't worry I won't be posting pics.

Puntland Prez: Red A Fodder

I see that this week the Chinese have sent destroyers into the waters off the Horn of Africa to protect their shipping interests from pirates.

Much of the piracy is based in Somalia and Puntland. (govt site)

Now I'm sure this would have been mentioned at some point if I were still around Taichung so here's the Red A fodder part (and in some oddly perverted way, I actually kinda miss his malicious digs at Canada) - enjoy!

The president of Puntland, Mohamud Muse Hersi ran a gas station and raised a family in Ottawa between 1979 and the mid 1990s.

I am picturing palm rubbing and grin-giggling.

CBC story - Former Ottawa gas station operator rules home state of Somali pirates

He has repeatedly denied profiting from Puntland piracy.

Transporter 5

Where do they get that crap?




Shoe phone..

Uranium Savages

J-hole,

Sorry I lost that Uranium Savages tape and your cowboy hat (though I still claim you never gave that to me.)

To make up for it, please find this link to the Uranium Savages web page, complete with downloadable MP3s...

You want to go to discoteque?

Red A Family Christmas Tree

Complete with weird kid-shaped black hole.

Even Christmas Tree lights cannot escape it!

Info Month Expo - Taichung

Petra and I made it out to the expo last Sunday. We left without purchasing anything, which was good because there were so many people there and so crowded I had more than the usual trouble of trying to think. There were computers, cell phones, office equipment, televisions, games, software and more. Jordan's Language School had a booth with their dragon mascot and his co-host, a young Taiwanese woman with an eardrum-piercing,screechy-high, rah-rah voice, putting on an English demonstration in Chinese. The National Palace Museum's booth featured some truly neat-o software. Petra and I played with it for a while and as we were leaving the booth I asked her why she was not considering getting it. She said that it was part of their web site and we didn't have to buy it. Great. But it was not part of their web site and it was indeed software. I only found this out two days later.

This is leaving the expo. It was at the old Shui Nan Airport and on arrival you turned off of Da Ya Road, wound around a minute on a small lane and emerged on the taxiway. As the group of cars and scooters I was following hit the taxiway, we all broke into a high-speed picket line formation and floored it the 1 kilometer to the expo building. I considered it a highlight.

These guys are wearing boxes, clacking little, plastic megaphones to call attention to their printer leasing company. My wife says companies like this are popular right now.

Outside the expo building was a mini-night market complete with games. This vendor caught our eye. Fried shrimp or oyster xiao long bao ( usually meat-filled steamed buns). You can see the buns at the bottom left, before they go into the deep fryer vat. Should have just had them like that. The bun turned out not to be very suitable for deep-frying. While the filing - we had the shrimp - was okay, the bun itself tasted like a big,hot, greasy glob of Bazooka bubble gum.

I am holding champagne milk tea. I am wearing the proper expression for one who has just drank some. If you are wondering, it tastes like creamy bubble gum and cyan.

Christmas lights

Is your house on fire, Clark?
No, Aunt Bethany, those are the Christmas lights.


Happy Holidays:)



would you believe?

Old Alert

Wow, for the first time in a while (perhaps ever) I feel old today. Let me explain. Christmas is just around the corner and as I now work in an office I'm to participate in a Secret Santa. So of course me being a bit of a joker was discussing the gift exchange with one of my younger colleague's (22 + attractive) trying to mislead her. i told her I had Kenny (who is African American) and that I had decided to buy him the new Guns and Roses CD. The flaw in my thinking was she had never heard of Guns and Roses and therefore took my suggestion seriously (which I thought was clearly sarcastic) and mentioned to one of my co-workers that I had pulled Kenny's name from the hat.
This girl in turn said she also had Kenny causing panic throughout the office that somehow someone had made the devastating mistake of putting two of the same names in the hat. Anyways, I'm sure all of this is getting very confusing but can you believe........someone on this earth has never heard of Guns and Roses.

I asked my colleague when she was born and she said 1986. I believe Appetite for Destruction was released in 87. Now I feel old.

Ponce de LeSmith

Chaon has recently declared war on us here at Nihowdy. Wow, nothing like an overweight, undersexed 7 foot goofball lining up his A&A pieces to take us down in a moment of Jihad. The interesting thing about his little pissing contest? In order to be a successful jihad, isn't it imperative that he die in the name of his atheism? And if he does indeed die in this endeavor, does that mean his wife is on the market for other lovers of ninja lesbians, like this ninja bunny?

*I must confess, I'm with him on the Tonka posts, but if we mention we're tired of them Willie will post more just out of spite. So keep posting Big John, they're really fascinating.

Hope Dashed

Well, I posted a couple of weeks ago about Obama and how neat the evening of his election was here in Missoula, MT. I didn't vote for Obama (and certainly not McCain) because I feel he is second coming of Clinton, that he will kowtow to industry, and that he will basically shoot the progressive movement in the foot. The right has become so adept at defining anything left of Rush Limbaugh as liberal propaganda that we have started believing them. A brief look at Obama's cabinet:

Sec. of State: Hillary. Pro Iraq war, no meaningful foreign policy experience, friend to India at a time when an even hand is needed, voted for the latest round of wire tapping and the "Patriot" act and has stated speaking with foreign leaders we do not agree with is a bad idea. You're right Hillary, let's just bomb them instead.

Sec of Defense: Gates. Not much to add here, it's pretty clear where he is coming from.

Sec. of Education: Duncan. A beleiver in test taking and no child left behind (interesting considering Obama said he'd do away with the law during the campaign). enemy to teacher's unions everywhere.

Sec. of Interior: Salazar. I cannot begin to describe how awful this pick is. Supported the ultimate science hater gale norton, voted for ranching subsidies on public lands, threatened to sue fish and wildlife for putting prarie dogs on the endangered list, voted against fuel efficiency standards for cars, voted to end offshore drilling restrictions, and the list goes on. Agency Capture Continues in Interior should be the headline.

Sec. of Treasury: Geithner. What the F...? Looks like treasury will continue in the same direction it has been going under Paulson. I understand the need for institutional knowledge, but this department has been a disaster and Geithner has been standing right there the whole time (allbeit from just outside).

Sec. of HHS: Daschle. Couldn't do Hillary Care in the 90s, why will this be any different?

HUD: Donovan. Honestly don't know much about him, so no complaints yet.

AG: Holder. Marc Rich, really? To be honest, I kind of like this pick. Tough on corruption, big on curbing executive power, will speak his mind and stand up to Obama if he thinks he is legally wrong and not show Obama how to get around a law he doesn't like -- all in all we could have Gonzalez back, right?

Commerce: Richardson. Clinton retread, again, don't get me started on this corrupt son of a bitch.

Agriculture: Vilsack. I'm not sure people realize how important this position is, being as it controls food standards, national forest leasing, farm subsidy policy, etc. He is an agribusiness hack and a huge supporter of "biofuel," whatever the hell that means. Disgusting choice.

Energy: Chu. A nobel laurete and believer in science! Yeah!

Homeland Security: Napolitino. No idea whatsoever what these people do. Seems like your main job is as a public administrator, making sure people get what they need when they need it and ensuring the intelligence agencies aren't getting so jealous of each other they withhold information.


So there you have it, a cabinet defined as "liberal" for all the world to see. Yet the only liberal policies they espouse are biofuel, which is stupid in theory and practice, protectionism, which is stupid in theory and practice, and universal health care. Maybe science is a liberal idea now, I'm not sure. I'm also not sure where this revolution of change is coming from given the people Obama has chosen. Other than Chu, Holder and possibly Napolitino, I wouldn't vote for any of these people to be dog catcher. Looks like four more years of Clintonian center right (which is better than Bush far right) and that's just poo.

Mess with the Taiwanese

I'm back in Taiwan now, and just successfully messed with my wife's head again.

Every time I'm in China, I try to learn a new phrase that is used there but not in Taiwan.

Then when I get back, I start using it continuously to the annoyance of my KMT-voting but slightly anti-China wife.

This time the two phrases were:

"Da4 Guai3" and "Xiao3 Guai3" literally Big Turn=Left Turn and Little Turn=Right Turn

The trick is you have to casually use these phrases as if they were completely normal Chinese - and, why, yes they are. Then when your Taiwanese counterpart acts flustered, you repeat them louder and louder. What? Don't you understand Chinese? Ha ha ha!

Griz v. Spiders

A special shout out to Dean-O, alias Mr. Bean, whose Richmond Spiders defeated Northern Iowa to advance to the finals of the FCS for the first time. They will be joined in Chattanooga, TN by the Montana Grizzlies for all the marbles. Some friends and I were contemplating the drive, but being as we have an afternoon final the day before, it just wasn't happening.

In other news, the temperature is holding steady at -7F today (about -22C), just cold enough for the old nose hairs to freeze up* after two seconds outdoors. Fortunately, I and a couple of friends spent the day in some hot springs (photo below) about an hour out of town. One is returning to Japan soon and wanted one last American experience. I was happy to oblige.


*this is also known as "ice snot"

一中街 / Yi Chong Street

Taichung's Yi Chong (or I Chong, how do you Romanize it?) Street is very popular with students, young people and wives who want their husbands to go someplace other than establishments providing frosty, adult beverages. It is actually one or two main streets with many alleys feeding off of it and gazillions of people feeding themselves and the vendors. Action is busiest on the weekends and holidays and that is when my wife told me that we were going. We were looking for Christmas gifts. We found none. I'm sure there are things there I would buy - 90% of my students' accessories come from there or the Feng Jia area. However, this was truly a 人山人海 situation (people mountain people sea: huge crowds of people). Final score: Other people - 0, Me - 4. I got four sets of matchboxes with classic themes: Elvis, Bruce Lee, Clint Eastwood, old Chinese adverts and Chinese Huangmei opera films.

I also met these guys. College students giving out hugs. Their goal was 10,000. Get a hug and sign your name. I got one from each of the seven pictured but don't know if that counts for seven or just one, me. Anyhoo, they were very nice and spoke English very well and confidently. That was a nice experience.

My continuing quest for good dumplings was not as nice though. I tried the first soup dumpling stand that I came upon. 5 dumplings for $20 NT. Dumplings, yes, soup...no. Well, you get what you pay for, so I tried a different stand nearby selling the same amount for $25 NT.

Me: Do your soup dumplings have any soup in them?

Unhappy Girl Helper: ( Nothing is said. Just looks at me like a tree full of owls.)

Me: Excuse me. Do your dumplings have soup in them?

UGH: ( Still nothing said but her expression changes to one of disgust and amazement at my stupidity - dismazement. She then slowly points to each character on the sign indicating that this is a soup dumpling stand, nodding her head slowly at each character, hoping round-eye can understand and order or go away. I'm gonna send the Hug Squad over here and order her a double.)

Me: I know this is a soup dumpling stand, that's why I'm here. But I just came from that one there and there was no soup in his dumplings. What about yours?

UGH: ..........Boss!

Boss: What's the problem!

Me: No problem. I just want to know if your dumplings have soup in them. That's all.

Boss: What do you mean? Of course! You want them or not? ( Hug Squad, where are you?)

Me: Yeah. And give me a spoon, please.

Boss: What do you need a spoon for?

Me: Uh...nothing, I guess.

I guessed right. Nothing. After carefully making a little hole in each of the dumplings to let the soup drain into the clear plastic bag, that is what I ended up with. Not even one drop. Well, I'm going to pay a little more and go back to the soup-friendly dumpling places I know of

PIMP, I saw that you requested a recipe for the broth. Follow this link and have your wife translate. It's a copycat recipe for Ding Tai Feng's 小籠包 (xiao3 long2 bao1).

The Tonka XVII issue, vol 16

One 4 the road...........





New York Mets win doubleheader

Y I W Y i w u

Did You Know?

• The smallest commercial aircraft flying out of YIW, CN is a 737 with 166 seats.
• There are 7 nonstop flights per week departing from YIW, CN.
• YIW, CN has 21 medium sized aircraft departing each week.
• The largest aircraft flying out of YIW, CN is a 737 with 166 seats.

KAOS in Control

Two Things

1. If I am ever in charge of a US company who sends overseas vendors Excel Files to fill in for pricing, etc., I will make the forms fit A4 size. I bet you can even buy that in America. 8.5 x 11" is annoying as hell.

2. 10 hours in van with customer wasting my time while they think about using the competitors we are visiting. You know, the ones we set up meetings with and planned out when we could have been doing our own products.  This is not a good time to claim that our QC service % is too high and that we really don't do anything. I was ready to walk away. He claimed I was "threatening him." WTF? You think its not a valuable service so I say, fine, I won't do it. That is not a threat but a promise, in fact. Does he think people should work for free?

Barotrauma

Five dives, food, accommodation and transportation from Taichung to Green Island. Lots of fun!!, 8000nt.

.
Six days later I went to China medical to get my left ear sorted. After testing my options were A) A needle and meds. B) Meds, wait two weeks and then a needle if necessary.

.
I choose option (A). After the doc used a syringe to extract the fluid from my middle ear my hearing instantly returned.
Over the next ten days the eardrum was cloudy and occasionally clear. Now it is A-one.
.
This is the second time I have had fluid trapped in my middle ear. I was careful to take my time and equalize, on my way up and down.
.
On my next dive trip how can I prevent this "Barotrauma"? My ear doc agreed with my suggestion for decongestants. But I think we may have had a minor communication issue. Any suggestions?

Air shows

I'll b ur wing man......









Dead Cowboy