May 10th, 2015

Think I have griped about this guy before, so indulge me for a second.  I like to walk the track across the street for exercise.  It's a nice track and the surrounding grass fields make it a popular place to play soccer, fly kites and hang out, so it is typically full of families.  I'd say that one out of every seven times I'm there, there is always the one dude that insists on going around the track clockwise.  You will have everyone else going counter clockwise with the exception of this guy.  And he is always kinda weird...always with his shirt off, typically he is in good shape but skews a little older.  This means that he doesn't have a lot of body fat, but age and gravity make his man boobs/nipples bounce rapidly and hypnotically.  My favorite of this guy is the one that wears the little black band around his chest, covering his nipples.  Have you seen these things...they look like electrical tape and go all around the chest at nipple level.  I went to the internet to find a picture of them and they must not be super popular as I could not easily find one.  Could not search for long as while the names of the products were funny (NipEaze/NipStrips), the images of bloody runners nipples was too much to bear.   My point is...what was my point...oh yeah, while I totally appreciate that runners nipples will chafe and get what the band is for, but when you are running without a shirt, why the hell do you need the ridiculous looking band.  Would love to know the motivation for doing this, am guessing it is narcissism mixed with loneliness, but what a dick.

Received an email advising that the annual air raid drill would be held this week,

The Taipei City Government has announced that the annual Wan An Air Defense Exercise will be held on Tuesday, April 28, 2015 from 1:30pm- 2:00pm in northern Taiwan.  The exercise will be marked by a loud siren.  During this 30 minute period, all vehicular and pedestrian traffic will be suspended.  Vehicles must pull off the road (except for freeway traffic), and pedestrians must take shelter for the duration of the exercise.  MRT trains will be operating as usual, but passengers will not be allowed to exit MRT stations.  The Taipei Rapid Transit Corporation (TRTC) has advised that violators of the air defense exercise regulations may be fined up to NT$150,000, per Article 25 of the Taiwan Civil Defense Act.  Please plan accordingly. 

Have been through these before, and this one went off as usual...sirens sound and then the streets are completely empty for a half hour.  I understand that in the recent past, everyone had to go to a designated bomb shelter, but now you just stay inside.  Always feels a tad surreal, and it does make you think about the underlying reason why they continue to do this.  While it is inconceivable that they would, there is still a real fear that China would make an all out assault on the island to retake Taiwan. 

Am not sure if it is due to our proximity, or if China is flexing its muscle more, but am pretty sick of PRC style.  Seems like every day, there is another story that makes me hate them even more.  Here are some from the last week...

- Katy Perry was in town last Tuesday, and in her show, she wore a dress made of sunflowers.  The sunflower was a symbol of the Taiwanese protesters last year that forced the ruling government to scale back their cross-straight trade deal with China, and ultimately led to that party's sound defeat in the November elections.  The Chinese are steamed at her and are contemplating banning her from China for it.  Talk about thin skin.

- Next up was this article that made the rounds on most of the news websites.  It is about how Chinese will hire Westerners to hang out, making their businesses more international and therefore, desirable.  The article centers on apartments and how having Westerners being seen at the location will feed the demand for that complex.   A couple of quotes from it...

"Now, it is true that the price of white people is expensive," the same agent told Borenstein. "But it makes the place feel classier."

and my favorite

If a client can't afford a white foreigner, he or she is advised to go with a black actor instead who have "a very open personality, yet are quite cheap." 

The most disgusting news item in this vein was the reaction to the Nepalese earthquake.  Aid from around the world was offered and accepted by Nepal, with the exception of that coming from Taiwan.  Now, Taiwan has their share of quakes and has well developed search and rescue teams, but their skill was not used in Nepal due to Chinese pressure.  Seems that China has been ramping up "aid" to Nepal in the last year or so with the thinly veiled caveat that Nepal crack down on Tibetan dissidents that traverse the country to meet with the Dali Lama in India.  As one of the poorest countries on Earth, Nepal can't afford to risk getting that desperately need aid cut off, so as to not offend them, they opted to let their own people die.  What dicks.  They have been showing the Godfather trilogy the last few nights on the local cable, and Part III is as bad as you remember, but the "make them an offer they can't refuse" ethos is alive and well. 

China is in the process of building islands in the Pacific to project their sphere of influence mainly because no one is willing to be their ally.  Their military ships cannot call on any ports in the world cause no one dares enter into that kind of security relationship.  Their "aid" is accepted in countries in Africa and Pakistan, but all of those places soon find that influence is a one way street. 

Look, you will never find me beating the drum of American exceptionalism.  Ted Cruz is the biggest tool in the shed on this front this week, telling a group of supporters/paranoid white people that the Garland Mohamed cartoon shooters were now able to meet their virgins.  I certainly don't condone fanatics resorting to murder when they are insulted verbally, but that was a story that had no good guys (eff you Patricia Geller).  I guess the cop that shot them down was a good guy, but you get my point.  Ted's speeches always are how Obama is going to consign the US to the scrapheap of history with his policies on health care and the IRS (or whatever).  Hey Ted, a gentleman is someone who know how to play the bagpipes, and doesn't.  The use of fear has always been a part of politics, but these guys are taking it to unprecedented levels.  Bitching about something is not a political platform.  Anyhoo, the US also uses aid as leverage, has tarnished history with regards to human rights, and about 40% of our electorate would just assume we send our planes and troops into half of the planet (the half where the brown people live) cause they are easily seduced by people that use American "exceptionalism" to sell more weapons.  But no one likes China.  No one.  Dicks. 

Heard a joke that I liked the other day.
 

A buddhist monk approaches a burger foodtruck and says “make me one with everything.” The buddhist monk pays with a $20 bill, which the vendor takes, puts in his cash box, and closes the lid. “Where’s my change?” the monk asks. The vendor replies, “change comes from within”.

A couple of quick movie recommendations.  Hot Fuzz and Tremors.  Hot Fuzz is hard to categorize...comedy and noir thriller...I love it cause not a scene is wasted and everything ties into the narrative.  Watch it, love it.  As for Tremors, it has been in my pantheon of great bad movies since the day it was released.  It had a run on one of the local bad movie cable channels (we have three) and could not turn away after stumbling on it.  You'd never see it if you read the plot, or even if I told you the genre, so will not give a synopsis, I just recommend that you check it out with an open mind and enjoy the ride. 

Finally for today, and I would guess I am late to this party, but have officially become annoyed by the "Keep Calm and..." t-shirts.  I not only question the judgement of anyone that prints, sells, buys or even slips on one of these lame ass things, but immediately disregard them as non-entities.  And really, have you ever told someone that is in distress to "calm down" and it has anything but the complete opposite effect?