I've been wanting to update this thing for some time now but could always find another reason not to write (ie. work, friends, poker, etc..) So what I've elected to do was write a GI-NORMOUS entry with pictures to update everything I can remember since the last entry, which was back in July. So without further ado...

WORK

I'm still liking work very much despite the fact that the hours have been cut WAY short compared to the hot summer months where I'd work 10-12 hour days but be making WAY WAY more money. I actually don't like talking about how much money I make (or not make), and ultimately money isn't my goal in life or how I'll measure success. But on the other hand, it was really nice to have a buttload of savings to pay off all my debt. I'm currently debt-free plus some extra savings as insurance, but the hours and salary have come back down to earth to more reasonable levels. My hours are more flexible than before, which has given me the time to take on private tutors. One of my favorite students is the former General Manager of Warner Music Group; now that he's unemployed he has the time to learn English. We spend most of the time shooting the shit about music, movies, pop culture, psychology or other topics of interest to him. Most recently, he's been hinting at more personal issues without directly telling me what it is. My closest guess is that he had an affair with an old flame and maybe his wife found out about it (?). I'm not saying definitely that's what happened, but from our conversations it seems completely plausible. The best thing about my current employer as I've mentioned in previous entries is that compared to the previous "office" job, I'm meeting a lot of mid-upper management types from various industries and I get to converse and get to know them more on a personal level rather than strictly on business terms.

WHAT WOULD MAKE A GROWN MAN CRY?

As a result of inconsistent sleep, an unhealthy diet, and partly the dirty city smog I've started to grow pimples at an alarming rate. In an entry I wrote probably a year ago, I took a jab at all the pizza faces in Taiwan. This is karma coming back to kick me in the face; I'm now one of those pizza faces walking around Taipei. Maybe I'm making more out of it than I should and maybe its not as bad as it seems compared to others; but for someone who skipped the "breaking out in zits" stage during puberty and in general never had an acne problem, this new turn of events has me scared "gay". Since July, I've gone to get a facial (the non-pornographic type) 2-3 times to try to clear up this problem. And anyone who's ever gotten a non-porn facial knows, it F'N hurts. You're having small metallic tools used to squeeze and scrape the gunk on your face. I literally had tears running down my face after each session. It has helped my acne situation a bit, but I've still got a tiny red archipelago along my right cheek I can't get rid of.

WSOP TAIWAN

In the past several months Taiwan had been televising a show similar to Hold'em Celebrity Poker on TV because the game itself has slowly caught on here, even though we have been playing it for years. Anyways, the show began with only celeb participants but eventually allowed online players or other semi-pro poker players to play with them. A friend of a friend who I've played with got on the show and got 2nd place. My girlfriend signed me up for the show and I was pumped to go on and see how well I'd do against the competition as well as get on TV (oh yeah, plus there's a $150,000 dollar prize). Unfortunately the network pulled the plug on the show because despite the game's growing popularity, it wasn't getting enough viewers compared to the celeb Mahjong show. So now the show's in limbo waiting for a sponsor so that it can come back on. If it ever does, I'll have a really good chance to play. Mahjong more popular than Poker in Asia? duh...

PLAYING THE "BRO" CARD

Last month I attended a birthday party with Kenji (my good Japanese friend I met while in TW) for one of our common friends, Holden. This friend was the gatekeeper to my current social life in Taiwan. Basically, I can attribute over half of my friends now (as well as my previous relationships with women) to him. For someone who had difficulty meeting new people and friends when first coming to Taiwan, knowing Holden opened a lot of doors. He's one of those social beings who you can call almost any night of the week and KNOW he'll be out at some lounge or bar and with a few calls could get several friends (usually women) to join. Anyways, I knew things were different when this year at his party Kenji and I wanted to call it a night at 1:30am because of work the next morning. This wouldn't have happened 2 years ago. If this was 2 years ago, both Kenji and I would continue the night drinking with Holden as well as spark up a few more "ciggaweeds" until the following morning and go straight to work from there. When we announced our departure, Holden pulled out the "bro" card. For those unaware, pulling out the "bro" card means our friend was saying "bro! cmon, bro..." a few times in an attempt to sway us from leaving and get us to say "Fuck it, I'll stay. Get me another drink," one more time. We eventually stayed til 2:30am and left after he was clearly F'd up on some other chemical and didn't care whether we stayed or left because the only thing he probably wanted was a glass of water.

ESCALATORS

For the life of me, I just can't figure out how some people STILL don't know that you stand on the right and walk on the left of an escalator. Yet everyday, there's some yahoo holding up the left side of the escalator standing there like a retard. Like most Taiwanese I was too polite to say or do anything about it before, but if I'm right behind the guy, I'll give a tap on the shoulder to ask him/her to move and that they should stand to the right. I'll do this almost all the time now because like other people who decided to walk left, we're in a hurry to get somewhere. The only people who I wouldn't ask to move are pregnant women, the elderly, or actual 'handicapped' people. No longer on the exception list are out-of-towners visiting Taipei who also can't quite figure out left from right.

FANTASY BASKETBALL

After a one year hiatus, we decided to start a fantasy basketball league to kick start the new NBA season. We stopped it last year because not enough people could join. We've got the minimum 10 this year and I was pretty excited to do it especially since I reached out to people and even taught some newbies about fantasy sports so that they'd keep up with it (another problem from past seasons). So when it came time to drafting our teams, I thought most of the people would turn up. When I signed in, much to my dismay (and my advantage), I was the only guy. This meant that basically I was the only person who was getting to "choose" my team while all the others had to rely on some pre-arranged list that drafted their players automatically. To no surprise, my team is 4-0 so far and seemingly on the way to a 4-peat fantasy season. (I've won the previous 3 seasons).

MY PARENTS

What do my parents think of my dominant fantasy bball team? They have no comment. In October they visited me. During the month, they were so busy meeting old friends and seeing other relatives that I actually only spent 7 days with them. Also during this visit, less hassle about marriage and career because I told them how much money I was making teaching and they zipped up. I do miss them a lot from time to time, yet I still have no plans to leave in the near future. Here's a pic:

*My dad's gut still bigger, but I think I've got a bigger gut now at 29 than he did when he was 29. There's still hope.

THE ELECTION

I turned in my absentee ballot very last minute but I got it in nonetheless. I won't tell you who I voted for but I will tell you that he won.

THE GIRLFRIEND

Many of my friends met her while we visited the states or when they came to Taiwan to visit. If not, here's a recent pic:

She's been getting recognized around town a little more and more while I pick up the residual gleam from her spotlight. Last month we took a big step and I formally met her parents for the first time. We decided to come out with our little secret during the Golden Bell Awards (like Taiwan's Emmy's) where she was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Award for a Mini-Television Drama. More pics:

(inside)      (on the red carpet)

If you're interested in seeing what else she may be in or has done, I've got some links below for your viewing pleasure (hope you can understand Mandarin).

1. Funny informercial about some diet pills she promotes. In the informercial, she's sad because she can't find work due to the extra weight and then promises to lose 6 kg.  http://tw.youtube.com/watch?v=encmNtjK31k

2. Dancing with the Stars (Taiwan version): Popular show where dance groups compete with each other. This week, they invited television stars to participate in their routines and they only had 4 days to rehearse; the rehearsal also filmed. Hosted by Blackie (popular TV host) and Big S (from Meteor Garden fame).

Part 1. The rehearsal  http://tw.youtube.com/watch?v=Ty8MOZ3kmxU&feature=related

Part 2. The show/dance routine http://tw.youtube.com/watch?v=zMIX5y591JE&feature=related

3. On another popular talk show hosted by Little S (if you guessed Big S' sister, you're right!)

http://tw.youtube.com/watch?v=bAH8_cWFfDI

til' next time.

 

    Thanks to Nims for the encouragement. By the way, not only did someone write a book called "Nims Island" but it was made into a major motion picture with Jodie Foster and the little girl who plays the "little girl" in every movie nowadays. Nima is probably tearing out his hair right now.
    Work has been good, I'm just happy that I'll be contributing to society again. The hours are flexible and the pay is pretty good. I really can't complain except that I think I joined a company that is on a downward slope and looks to be going out of business sometime in the next year or two. No matter, I'm glad I'm earning again and I'll hopefully be able to dig myself out of my hole and actually save a good deal of money in the next year.
    Although I may not be here for that long, I enjoy the environment at my new job so far. I like the method in which we use to instruct our students. I like communicating with my students (who are 90% adults working middle management in several international companies) because I get to learn a few things from them too. The job allows me to keep a semblance of professionalism because I get to continue wearing a suit to work everyday and I get to teach at the Taipei 101 building every week. On a side note, I don't understand why people who aren't elderly, handicapped or pregnant take the elevator to go up or down one floor. They would rather wait for an elevator longer than it would take to actually walk up or down a flight of stairs. Especially in a building as tall as the 101. There are so many floors...that going up or down the elevator (as fast as they are) takes some time. However there remains insanely large groupings of lazy a**holes who stop to get on the elevator to go from  the 28th to 29th floors when I'm on my way to the 30th. But that doesn't really tick me off as much as when people take the elevator up to/down the 2nd floor of a building.
    Ever since I posted that last entry about my hot scoring streak, my basketball shooting skills have dramatically declined and I'm officially back to my old self again, as in I can't score anything thats not a put-back layup. It was nice for awhile getting the respect of the other players when I hit game winning 3 balls or scoring over half of the team's points. I've lost complete confidence in my shooting ability and I don't get the ball passed to me as often as before (sigh) because my teammates have lost confidence in my shooting as well. I'm feeling a bit like the Lakers in the 2nd half of game 4. Speaking of which, I don't like either team in the finals but I was hoping the Lakers would make it more of a series. I still hope they do because despite my hatred for both teams (or rather the fan bases of both teams), I really enjoy watching close & exciting competitions when more than just a trophy is on the line.
    Thinking back to my youth, I remembered getting made fun for not being too cool. Part of that aside from being timid and awkward around people, was collecting comic books. I have close to 2000 comic books sitting in a cardboard box somewhere in the garage back in SD and I remembered how much they meant to me and my imagination when I was a kid. To support an earlier entry I wrote about fob nerds making lots of money, paying for hookers and being generally successful, one just needs to check out this summer's major blockbusters (or those of previous summers) to notice that the comic book nerd has infiltrated Hollywood and many have become successful. Iron Man has been the summer's biggest movie so far, and I see the new Batman movie overtaking it. As a result of this acceptance in Hollywood,  being into comic books has become "cool" whereas when I was 13-15, liking comic books made you a social pariah (at least in my neighborhood). Then again, maybe it was because my hands would sweat profusely when talking with girls at that age that made me a social outcast.
    As Americans we make fun of Asian fobs mainly because of their accents but also because of their incorrect grammar usage. As a teacher who has taught many a fob over the past couple of years, the most common grammatical errors made are:

• Prepositions (for, to, in, on, etc...), ex) I look forward see you again!
  
• Verb tenses (especially the past tense and all the progressive tenses)
  
• Countable & uncountable noun use...ex) Let's go see movie.
  

Back in Taipei and not much has changed in the month I was gone. Still rainy, still loud, still smoky, still smells like stinky tofu. But it makes sense. I've been gone from America for so long that the changes there seem a lot more drastic than a month away from the country I've called home for the past 4 years. There's stuff to be done, mainly making money so I can eat and sleep under a roof. Right now, I'm broke but had enough in the account to pay for March and April's rent. I italicized HAD because I am an idiot and forgot to renew my Taiwanese visa in the states before coming back, which means I've got to spend more $$$ on plane tix to Hong Kong at the end of the month to get another visa. The result of this is I won't have the money for April's rent. I've started tutoring again but that won't be enough to cover. I'm still jobless and looking. Good thing is I've got nothing but time now. Bad thing is a computer is really important for my search and I don't have enough cash to get one at the moment. In fact, I'm paying to use the computer at an internet cafe as I write this and waste time ..... ..... .... .... .... ..... ..... ...... ..... ..... .... .... ...  (Oh, guess I'm not eating dinner tonight.)

What I wanted to say in the entry really was "Thanks" to everyone who took the time out to meet up with me though time was short. I apologize to the few I didn't get to see and those I didn't get to spend a lot of time with. There's many highlights I'd like to share with more pics but I don't have the time now and I'd like to eat food tomorrow as well. See you later.