...pursued the suspect on foot...

I saw a real live criminal today. Not a software pirate or a traffic regulation violator, but an out-and-out thief. He wasn't even a druggie, hands shaking, stealing something to pawn for his next fix. Me & my dad found a guy sawing away at stuff on some of our company's property, stealing our stuff. He ran away though, using his mad hops to lead a barb-wire topped fence taller than I am. Hardcore. We got to report the incident to some nice cops though. random times ~

Tomorrow I plan on going to Long Beach with Achfub (Ama') and some others. Thus I am off to bed so I can get some sleep. rock on, blogfans

I'll update you

Well I have been hanging out with many a person lately. Thursday I think involved some instense pool, swimming in the ocean and the likes. Saw Rick at Wendy's.

On Friday I got my Seussical ticket, seeing Brianna & Martha in the process. I then picked up teh Foo, and bought the tape deck thing for my car so I can listen to MP3s. Got Foo cheap sandals & saw Stephen Macmillan at the dollar store in the process.

THEN there was a drum lesson, where I did pretty crappily. Afterwards Ama' showed up because apparently Bethany was in town but had ditched to go out with a boy. So we went to Quizno's where we saw Ashley Armstrong & then Beth shouted at me through a cell phone. Was convinced (by the employees there) not to stop at Quizno's but instead eat the next-door pitas. Did so.

Saturday involved... oh, in the afternoon I hung out with Alleah, and then we all went to see the fireworks. That school shirt of mine fit her perfectly; no wonder it was too small for me.

Sunday I saw the Seussical. Managed to avoid talking to Drew. Ran into Niki and stuff. There was some h-core talent, as well as pure randomness, in that musical. I am curious, though, about something. The musical theatre productions by Arts Alive seemed previously to be performed at the Port Theatre, but now they are at the Bailey. I will have to ask someone about that.

Today was mostly a day of doing stuff. I'm making small progress with my room. I want to hang out this evening; call me.

the slack(er) is back

Hello blogfans & welcome to a long overdue post!

Things are back in indolent half-swing as I have returned to a Nanaimo summer. People think it's hot some days but I think I got used to the weather because I have been finding the weather quite fine, though decidedly cold at night.

I got to see a lot of people lately, thanks to everyone who has made the effort to tag up & hang out. It was great to see those who had the opportunity to come at the social gathering @ Brad's: Foo & Katelynne, Brad, David, Ted, Scott, Chris (Hershell), E-sag & Chris Ruiz, Ama' & Brian, Sean, and I think that was it (sorry if I forgot someone). Some jamming was done, foosball was played, burgers were cooked/burnt/eaten, and passive sentences were written. All in all not too bad.

The next day I grabbed Olives & Lawrie from the ferry, had dinner at the old folks home, and then hung out with them. Olives now sports a massive piece of facial hair under his chin, but "the Olives hair" on the top of the head has been uniformly shortened. He is a mean shot at pool as well.

Lately, most of my escapades have been confined to watching feline antics, playing pool, furniture-moving hijinks, and the occasional spontaneous hacky-sack session participation. Feel free to drop by (calling ahead is good, that number again is 758-9378) for a game of pool, or just hanging out. I promise to feed you if you are just one person, or you + your significant other, but I lack the skills to sustain your retainers, court, and private army. :p

I hope to catch the Arts Alive musical on the weekend, sometime. I have been reading Harry Potter. My little second-cousins are coming over tomorrow, so woohoo.

pizza flavours: apple pie vs. curry chicken

My flight leaves in like 9 hours, whee.

I got packed with enough time left to sleep & everything, but then I gave the Zhangs their presents and talked with them more, b'oh. That's what this house is about--talking with the people for too long. It sometimes made me late meeting Scott too... like baba would just ask me a question about military service in Canada, or camping, or something random, and then we would talk about it, and then I'd be like "shoot, I must go now. Bye!"

Well, looking forward to seeing you all again soon. And some of you for the first time!

rock on,

K

"In Japan, even the catgirls are ninjas"

Friday featured more ... actually I have no idea what I did on Friday. Oh, well I stayed up 'til 5:30 AM the previous day due to an unneeded afternoon nap. Oh well, I must have done something. I probably hung out with Scott, but I might have not done anything of importance all day.

Saturday I definitely watched anime with Scott, plus it involved some of him packing and whatnot. He threw out a lot of clothes so he could fit everything into his duffle bags, which are falling apart. We fixed them with tape, kind of, but Taiwanese people don't have lots of useful household essentials such as duct tape.

In the evening, we went to a Rotary event organized by Claire's club. Originally, we had been invited to dinner by Su ma, but then Vino decided to turn it into a Rotary thing, complete with going to a random crappy hotel restaurant with no home-cooked food whatsoever. The girl going to Japan was there, plus Scott, Claire, & I, people from all the host families, Medicare, and some random Rotarians, not to mention PP Water & Vino. I also got to meet Amy's daughter, Joy, who recently returned from exchange to Texas.

It was an ok event, and some of the food was actually good (after we got ketchup to dip it in). I spent part of it translating speeches for Claire's mom, who was visiting from England. For kicks, when they did English I translated it into Chinese. Afterwards I went back to Scott's, and we watched more anime... the end of Escaflowne (overall series is good, but the ending is crappy) for starters. Su ma gave me a set of children's stories about the Eight Immortals, so now I can figure out the significance of those places we visited & the little statues I saw at the National Palace Museum.

Then we watched a Rurouni Kenshin (Samurai X) OVA & man it was high quality. I was impressed to the max by the quality of animation. Went to bed around 5. Scott woke me at 11ish by poking me in the head repeatedly until I got up. Threw the nearest available projectile (a pillow) at him. Moral of this story: don't wake me up if I am sleeping near/holding something that looks like it would make a painful missile weapon, but other than that, go for it.

We had breakfast/lunch while watching an awesome movie on TV. We had to leave for the airport before finishing so I must go buy it or something. Man it was fun. The part where we carried Scott's somewhat heavy bags (the two together weighed 44 kg) down the 5 flights of stairs at Su Jia.

Claire, her mother, and Kenta all happened to be leaving that day. Yujing had left earlier so I didn't get to see her, but Ivonne was there. Got Kenta's email, and more information. It seems I may be able to carry on my guitar; thus, wont be sending it to get broken at extra charge. Afterwards took a bus back, a different cheaper one which goes up to the middle of the red line. I think it's slower but it doesn't matter as I won't be busing to the airport any longer.

Scott left at Terminal 2 & it turns out I do too now. It's a lot nicer, kind of, but Terminal 1 has way fewer people & I remember it from arriving there/seeing Raph & (almost) Anna off. Had dinner with the Zhangs & one of their random girl-relatives that the children brought back from the south. We went to an all you can eat barbecue place & it was pretty good. I wonder how much it cost, but it was a good deal, considering how hardcore they ate.

Today I've just been chilling at home. I started playing Master of Magic again, because it involves strategy & the gameplay is just so enjoyable, even 15 years after release (or almost) it doesn't matter how midi the sound is, or how pixelated the graphics are, it's a brilliant game. Didi is going to some kind of summer school again now. I don't understand why, as he just wrote the high school entrance exams, and thus doesn't have a big test for anohter 3 years. Even the people preparing for the college exam start later than that. Whatever--it sucks to be a student in Taiwan, so I am glad Hannah considered my advice & is moving to New Zealand soon.

Anyway, see you all later.

Oh, and Maddox made a hilarious post about blogging.

Two milestones in one

Well wouldn't you know it, but this is my 150th post. And, from consulting my archives I've found it's the one-year anniversary of the first post on this blog. One week remains until my takeoff.

"Holy crap it's next friday" as I said to someone on MSN.

Well, I am kind of stoked for getting back now, and there's not much of anything really keeping me here. Lately I have been hating how the weather is freaking hot. Well, not hating it really, rather eating two meals a day because I don't expend energy, because if you move you start sweating. If you exist outside of a/c, you start sweating.

Monday was the last Rotary meeting in Taiwan I will ever attend. No more Taiwanese Rotary for me (if this was MSN I would make a :D smiley right now). Unfortunately they didn't give me allowance for July (I do still have transportation needs, you know), but I did get my ticket, passport & money back. Now I need to put it in the bank, because I am not going to spend $300 US in seven days, no sir.

Happily, there was actually a Rotarian's daughter at the meeting (my club never brings their children). Bonus part 1: she was hot & interesting to talk to. Bonus part 2: of course she wanted to go play pool with me and my friends. So we busted a move on over to Wanfang, and met up with Scott & a girl from his school. Neither of the girls had played before so we explained the rules and taught them how to play. It worked out well & she got good fast, but Team Scott still beat us both games.

Later on, met up with Kaylee & Haoyun (another of Scott's classmates) at the MRT, then took a bus to Gongguan. Had dinner at the Bing place (they don't sell tangyuan in the summer) and then watched a movie. It was all in all quite good times. If more Taiwanese people I'd met were interesting like Hongi and Haoyun, and the majority of my exchange year was filled with such enjoyable hanging out, I would have a more positive view of it overall. But it wasn't. At least I learned some Chinese.

Tuesday I would say involved watching a lot of Trigun with Scott. Pretty much.

Wednesday Trigun, then the start of Escaflowne. Escawflowne is really really good, but Scott has a low-quality version. And it's realplayer format. He had to download the program so we could watch it and he was like "I feel so... dirty" and it's just so awful to do something like that to your computer. He also discovered the goodness of beverages from that bubble tea place by his house.

Today involved a whole lot of nothing, piano, w/e... I got tired and had a 2+ hour sleep in the afternoon, then American Alex called. The long-awaited match of pool!

So I headed over to Jingmei, bearing the Wilco CD I'd borrowed from him so man months ago. We got fried squash & deep-fried chicked, and great bubble tea, then headed to the pool hall. There was Taiwanese pop music in the background and I was MUCH too familiar with the songs, haha. We talked about stuff and played various games for a long time. When we bought the bill it came to 500 NT ($20 CDN) so we must have played for at least 5 hours.

Good times indeed. American Alex is awesome, and still owns me at pool. I look forward to hopefully seeing him again in 2006. Perhaps my game will match his then.

But now, promised pictures:



Rock on. See you in a week.

whoa, a whole week

with no posting. Sorry to any dedicated readers who might've checked back every day.

Monday Fabio & Etienne headed back to Brazil. I finished "Scrapped Princess" with Scott. In the evening talked with Amanda & the Zhang 'rents for a while about stuff. She seems to have revised her untenable position. Turns out she just really wants to go chill with her Ama, so the children will probably go down there first while a 'rent or two stays here to keep me alive & get me to the plane on time. whee

Tuesday involved some talking on MSN in the morning, followed by hanging with Scott in the afternoon at 101. Oh, while enroute I met some random Canadians, mentioned a few things they could do in Taipei (they just got here). I read part of a book called "Underground" about the Aum cult's 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway. Also drank some really good (but pretty expensive) bubble tea. The lady at the store where Scott got his something said there wasn't any around, but then I saw a girl with some. So I asked her where she got it & we found the store. huzzah

Wednesday featured the watching of part of "Angelic Layer" at Scott's, plus dinner with Claire, Ivonne, & Scott at the Zhangs'. Seemed pretty random, probably for the girl.

Thursday I went back for the last day of school. Got about 17 kilos of books & stuff and tossed the rest. It was heavy to carry around. I gave a card to my music teacher & Rolin gave me an ocarina. w00tage. Also ditched my English magazines &c on Lingling.

I took a bus to 101 after that. I finished reading "Underground," the book I'd been working on. The first part was all interviews with the victims, and then it ended. Then there was an essay in the middle by the author. Then, just to add to the coolness, the last part was interviews with Aum Shinryoko cult members (not the perpetrators) so you could hear their accounts of what it was like. All in all a badass book, and one which provided interesting tidbits of Japanese culture.

Friday I got up early and went to Xindian to meet with my classmates for one last BBQ. Actually, they didn't invite me at moon festival (mid-autumn festival) but if you'll recall, other classes did. At that point in time, my hair was short, and some girls liked me, but I couldn't speak Chinese so darn. When I got to the station I realised I was an hour early, so I ate a 7-11 burger, and looked wistfully at the faraway Bubble Tea store. I made a card for my classmates but I forgot to give it to them.

Anyway, it took us forever to get stuff like the beverages, and meat (which arrived by courier on a scooter). Then we rode the bus for a long time to Wulai, which is very south, but still in Taipei County. A hot chick on a scooter smiled at me. We walked to a riverside to bbq & play in the water. It was a hot spring, so the water by the edge was anywhere from warm to "oww, freakin hot!" The rocks were so hot they hurt to sit on after a while, and I got stuck in the river... because it was cool, but when I stepped on shore in my bare feet it was WAY too hot and I had to run back.

The food was pretty good & I took some pictures--some at the station & one by the riverside--that are really, really ace. Just ask me about them. You can wait 12 days, can't you? I certainly hope so.

Saturday... hanging out with Scott, hurray! His phone was broken so I called him at like 4 pm to be like "dude, where was my phone call?" And thus, we watched more Angelic Layer.

Today we went to the Zoo. The girls he was meeting there were mad late. Like, an hour late, so I had McDonald's, but it was crowded. Basically we spent the whole day hating small children, because it was the zoo & they were numerous, but not guai or quiet at all.

His schoolmates were cool, but kind of boring in that they had no interests & all conversations with them just ended after a sentence or too. One girl was at the Avril concert as well. Subsequently, there was the conclusion of Angelic Layer at Su Jia. If we have time we'll watch Trigun.

The past few nights I've been trying something new. Scott had a really awesome teacher who taught him Chinese/calligraphy at his school. One time he asked her, "You're a Chinese major. You just studied English on your own. Why is it so good?" And she replied, "well, I found a way to use it every day, so that I won't forget. I write a story, a very long story, in English; it's not a good story, but it doesn't have to be. Each day I write one page. I learn words I don't know and ways in which I want to express something. That way I keep studying and don't forget."

Soshite, I started doing it. My story started out crappy, but then just last night a twist came up. I think it was Holly Lisle who said it, but something like "your characters take on a life of their own. Bit characters start demanding more lines, they use their heads. The red-shirted Ensigns get smart & start dodging bullets, and the token character that should have died keeps coming back." Anyway, now it's interesting & fun as well as beneficial, but I haven't done it for tonight, yet.

My internet has been kind of crappy of late, so I apologize if I miss responding quickly to an email. And Brad, I'll get to that eventually. :p rock on