May 17, 2013

Some random thoughts for today. 

I heard a quote on a podcast the other day that rang true for me.  "My pet peeves keep multiplying, so am having them spayed/neutered." 

Yesterday was the Wanan Air Raid drill.  At a designated time and date each year in the major cities, they test the air raid sirens and certain crowd control procedures.  They tell people to get off the roads and indoors for a half an hour and will fine you if you disobey.  Not great audio, but this it what it sounds like.  I remember they used to test the sirens in SoCal when I was young, early 70's, but they stopped doing it around then for whatever reason.  And also recall seeing a lot of Fallout Shelter signs around in those days but haven't noticed one in years.  Obviously, the fear of the mainland taking out the island was more of a recent real possibility here, but you don't feel a lot of fear of that from the population these days.  I read two articles about the Taiwanese military recently.  The first was about the recent change in the Taiwanese army from conscripted force to volunteer army, but they are coming up woefully short in numbers as the society is doing well and kids have a better chance of making more money outside of the military.  The other was an interview with the US State Department attaché on Taiwan affairs admonishing the Taiwanese for not being responsible for their own defenses by not keeping up with the mainland on arms purchases.  Such bullshit and so transparent.  Which got me thinking that Taiwan should go the way of Costa Rica and do away with their military altogether.  The mainland would never militarily attack Taiwan at this point as it is far too valuable as is, and they are so damn patient that they will just wait until the day they will voluntarily unify.  We get so pissed at the PRC for not being more engaged with things like North Korea, but they have it right in just letting the game play out as they know they will win in the end more often than not.  Such a smarter way of conducting policy rather than the feeling of needing to intervene somehow that is de rigueur in the US.  I think going military-less would be the ultimate power move, they could throw that money into an already impressive domestic infrastructure, and be the darling of the free world.  Proposed this in the car to Betty and she was horrified, and know there would be uproar from the older generation with direct memories of the exodus from China, but think it's a genius move. 

The other day we're stopped at a traffic light, and the Chinese people in the car in front of us all get out and shift positions in the car.  Surprisingly, the kids knew what a Chinese fire drill was and they were excited to see one performed by actual Chinese.  I asked if they knew what a Polish fire drill was...that's when they get out of the car, but lock the keys inside.  I miss polish jokes...Why wasn't Christ born in Poland?  They couldn't find three wise men and a virgin.

Have noticed they name a lot of things Mister.  There is Mr. Christmas (which has never been open so don't know what's going on inside)

 The racially insensitive coffee chain Mr. Brown (more iPhone picture issues)

 Felt hat and lederhosen wearing Mr. Mark.

 And Taipei's favorite donut mogul, Mister Donut

Mister Donut is the hugest letdown.  When you look in the case, you see these beautiful looking, Homer Simpson mouth watering donuts, but bite into one and it tastes like a piece of cardboard.  They left out the gawddamn sugar!.  And what do you think they do with all of the sweet stuff they didn't use in the donuts?  Of course they put it into their bread and sausages.  It's truly a bizzarro food situation. 

Talking about this sweet and sour / ying and yang at dinner (at Din Tai Fung, so yummy.  Locations in both LA and Seattle and you need to go and have the soup dumplings if you haven't already.  Go today.)  with the kids the other night, and Betty and I related one of our favorite food stories.  It was at breakfast before a long ago day at Bumbershoot and our buddy Howie was in town.  We went to Beth's (home of the 6 egg omelet, and surly aggressively pierced and or tattooed waitresses), and Howie orders the breakfast special of bacon and eggs served with pancakes, waffles or French toast.  The problem was that Howie didn't notice the word or on the menu, and when the waitress asked which of the three he wanted, he gave her a look that was half confusion/half disappointment.  Not skipping a beat, she looks at him and says, "you thought you were going to get all three, didn't you?"  His sheepish reply of  'Yes' was so damn priceless. 

Carolyn has been playing a little baseball at school.  Nothing much to say about it, but thought she looked cute in the catcher's gear so had to share.  This is when I asked her how many outs there were?

 

And it's hard to see her expression, but this is when I asked if she had her cup on.