Some decent karmic news. Was able to get my main laptop repaired (needed a new fan) so writing is a bit less clunky. Mentioned that I needed to navigate the Digital Plaza here in order to fix it. The Plaza is 6 floors dedicated to all things technology. In classic Taiwanese fashion, similar things are grouped into districts and even within the Plaza, each floor had its own focus; Gamers on 2, accessories on 3, etc. For my purposes, maintenance was on 6 and there is one stall that just services fans. If all was in English, this would have been a simple process as being able to pre-plan my activities would have been easier. For me, had to stumble around for a while to find the right floor, figure out the lay of the land, encounter enough people that spoke English to get me to the right guy and then realize that as it was a holiday week, he was closed and had to come back another day. Regardless, once I did find the right spot, dude was efficient and it cost a total of $42 to get the part and repair done. As I lamented last time, felt like all the forces of nature have been against me, but something flipped and once I got going, everything was so efficient.
Need to indulge myself for a moment and tell you a tale that no one cares about but makes an organizationally obsessed hard core Virgo from Los Angeles dance around like he just hit a buzzer beater. Once I found the repair guy, he had to order my part and a couple days later, called that it was in. The shop is in a busy part of downtown and while it isn't far, dread a run down in any situation. I wanted my machine back so headed off at 1pm in hopes of missing rush hour. Pull into the parking lot and a space opens up by the elevator, which whisks me directly to the repairman's stall. He says he needs 30 minutes or so. My April coffee morning was the next day so had to make a Costco run for the snacks. Mapped it and while it was across town, on the other side of the downtown core, a route gets me there in 12 minutes. I make it in 8. I get to the Neihu Costco, which as I have detailed many times before is the nastiest car park in town, and a dude pulls out of the best spot in the place leaving it open for me. Naturally, I navigate the Costco like Magellan (even stopping to chat with a couple of acquaintances that happen to be there), get back across town deftly, finding and even closer spot to the elevator at the Digital Plaza, and the repair dude has just completed repairs. From home door to home door, took an hour and 53 minutes. I later learned that during my dark tech period, when even the cups and spoons were against me, Mercury was in retrograde. Coincidence?
Mentioned above that it was a holiday week. Wednesday was Children's Day when we are to celebrate the protection of children. It is apparently a thing in the States although I had never heard of it. June 26, 2018 apparently, so mark your calendars. Thursday was Tomb Sweeping Day. Locally called Qingming Festival, is a day where people pay respect to their ancestors. Have talked about this one a couple times in past years and have nothing new on the subject other than to say that while I diminish many of the more voodoo types of Chinese traditions, this is one that I think all cultures should adopt. Closest things we have in America would be Thanksgiving and Memorial Day. Since we already have a Veteran's Day, say we beef up Memorial Day and pay respects to all of our ancestors. Who's with me?
Another note in the above was that it was monthly Coffee Morning at the Center. This month, we had the GM of the English language radio station (ICRT) on the island come in to talk to us. Must say I was pissed, but not surprised that attendance was low. Not surprised as radio is a dying industry. Toys R Us, Sears, TV ratings...the landscape is riddled with industries that were once titanic are now rendered irrelevant by technology. Pissed because here is an opportunity for a person to get a view into the world of one such industry, how they view the changing marketplace and hear what they are doing about it, and get a collective 'meh' from what is supposed to be a curious and educated community. I know people are "busy", but here is a chance to expand your mind and have some delicious free treats all the way from Costco. Lame.
Side note, I always plug Costco at these things and try to bring something new at the warehouse to introduce. This week, they had Portuguese egg tarts.
I know you're saying that those are things they serve at Dim Sum places, but what you should know from reading this space is that they were introduced to China by the Portuguese during their...pick your word...colonization, pillaging, etc., of Macau. As a long time aficionado of the egg tart, these were pretty damn good.
So I invited the radio guy in as I thought he would have an interesting story to tell, and he absolutely did. He had me at the onset as he told us that he was originally was from Minneapolis and that Prince was in his Junior High Band class. The first part of his talk was a history of the station, originating as AFRN (Armed Forces Radio Network) which is also known as Voice of America. When the US switched recognition of China from Taiwan to the mainland in 1979, the station's mission changed and by decree of the (still very militaristic) government at the time, became the foreign language station on the island. They certainly had to tread lightly in their "opinions" and even after democracy came to the island, they remain as neutral in their news as possible. ICRT deservedly get criticized for that, but knowing they would have their license pulled in a second for rabble rousing, makes sense.
Even though I love the history, was more interested in hearing how they are dealing with the cord cutting. Long story short, just as you'd expect...no easy answer for when people just leave cause they have new options that are simply way better than what you have lovingly provided for decades. This station is in an even weirder niche than in the States as they can't just target a certain demo. You can't just put Rush on the air and get 35% of the "population: to tune in. ICRT's audience is only 5% foreign with 95% being Taiwanese with English as a second language. That means that their most popular shows are instructional. Since talk is tricky for the political reasons above, as well as not being easy to produce due to a lack of talent that is bilingual, music is their primary content, and how do you make everyone happy with your musical choices? As a certified music snob, I will say they do a decent job of it, but I never listen cause I am a certified music snob.
They understand that their online presence is their only path to continued relevance and while their platforms are years behind, at least they have a plan. What I would love to see from my position as a consumer is more podcasts. They are beefing that up with two that I am sampling for a few weeks...one is a weekly Taiwan news recap and the other is one about being Latin on the island. My thought on other podcasts they could produce include one on events happening on the island (like art, music, festivals etc.) and another on the history of Taiwan. So many topics to discuss that I hesitate to start a list here. Whether those would be of interest other than to a handful of people and myself (and whether they could get ad revenue from them) is the big question, but I'd tune in to them regularly. I would give him our list of speakers as that would be a great place to start.
I pledge to dedicate myself to the art of dance;
to constantly strive for excellence;
taking risks and embracing challenges;
to respect our bodies and each other,
Always maintaining a cooperative spirit
and giving back to the community.
I pledge to always celebrate the joy of dancing.
In doing so, I shall prove myself worthy
Of a place in the Dance Honor Society.
Can't argue with any of that. Her two best friends are also in the Society with her...here they are from l to r...Babydoll, Jade and Nicole.
Seeing these kids talent and dedication across all forms of the arts was impressive, but I am a sports guy and get terribly bored and uncomfortable sitting through these things. That is on me of course and I will be the dedicated 'arts dad' and not miss a one. My pledge is to always have an open mind, heart and soul...whether I like it or not.
The other Babydoll news is that we are already working on her college opportunities. I am friendly with the college counseling staff at the school and was talking with them the other day about coming over and doing a Coffee Morning on the topic of college admissions in conjunction with the European school with the focus being on looking at university opportunities globally. They were open to doing it and it is on the calendar for next Spring accordingly, but in our discussion I used the example of a conversation Betty and I had with college recruiters when we were in Australia about the lovely schools they have there and that the cost is 1/3 that in the States. One of the school counselors then told me about some other opportunities. For instance, they have an English language only engineering program here in Taipei that costs US$2000 in tuition for a whole year. Housing is US$200 a month. Jeez! Another one that hit me as being ideal for our youngest was one in Seoul that is a George Mason affiliated campus, and has more course choices and is only US$4000 a semester. By the time she graduates High School, she will have lived half her life in Asia, and as it was the more developmentally impactful half, I can see it more every day that she is not your typical "American". She has a love for the local culture, food, everything that it would take me decades to adopt. As her affinity for Korean culture is strong, when I mentioned this George Mason program as a possibility, she was more than receptive. Told her George Mason Seoul is visiting her school an a few weeks and she immediately added it to her calendar. I couldn't pay the Boy to attend one of these visits to his campus for a single school when he was knee deep in the process and am excited that Babydoll has this interest early. Really respect her openness to this unconventional idea and if we can get away with spending four thousand bucks a semester for college....ka-ching.
One more thing on B-doll. She is getting smart. She isn't smart yet, but can see it starting to break the surface. My example is from our Singapore trip and one night, she engaged me on some politically incorrect thing I said. Can't even remember what it was, but she called me on it. I countered with something, but the details aren't what was important, it was the debate that I loved. Standing up for things, being strong willed and engaging in a debate are traits that I love to see in anyone, especially my kids. Need to work on her skills though, and am happy to do so, but I may be at a disadvantage as my vocabulary seems to be out of sync. Not talking about slang per se. We're driving to school yesterday and see a couple of teachers walking down the street. One of them has a back pack from that Nordic company that is really trendy (and expensive). I see it sold in the ladies accessories section at Nordstrom, but the person wearing it is a dude. B-doll says that he has the backpack she likes and I counter that dudes shouldn't wear that as it is a girls thing. 20 years ago, I would called him'gay', but this time I proceed to call him "lame" for wearing it. B-doll counters calmly that "lame is a word that is used to describe people that can't walk, and I don't use that word." Ouch. Is she right? I think I can safely say that with my many maladies, that I would be defined as physically "lame" and it never occurred to me that was a slur. I fall solidly in the middle on this politically correct stuff and get so pissed when a word that I've used forever and felt innocuous is now unusable.
Not much news on the Boy...he didn't go see Yo La Tengo when they were a mile from his dorm last Sunday even though I offered to buy him a couple of tickets. Little shit. We did communicate about his old school's baseball team as I have been assistant coaching them all year. They flew to Jakarta this weekend to play in their tournament and were 1-1 after the first day. A couple of the teams in the 6 team tournament are really good and while our boys have great spirit, they are not skilled baseball players. It's not that they aren't good athletes, there just isn't a single baseball junkie in the lot so they haven't taken 10,000 grounders or 20,000 swings. Think their highest place could be third and know they would be delighted if they played in the consolation game. If you wanna see their level, you can go to this site and check it out. For day one, go to the 9hr 30 min mark to catch the game they won. Listen to the announcer for two minutes and you'll want to hit him in the face with a shovel.
At the last practice before they travelled, told them good luck and all that, but what got me was when many of the boys came up to me unsolicited and said, "Thanks Coach". I have been called a lot of things in life, and have many nicknames. Tumbleweed, Chinese Dinner, E-5, The Vacuum, Gomez, Yogi, 360 and Asshole. I like some of them, will not run away from the others, but the one that I love hearing the most and that fills me with something that I consciously try to avoid...pride.
Finally for today, had a going away party for a co-worker last night and we were talking about our collective experiences in Taiwan. They are moving back to Germany and were lamenting that they were going to miss the weather. Astounded, I asked why and they said that with all the humidity and moisture, that the climate makes you look younger. Not sure I agree, although I have felt sexier lately, but I will try to use this as a positive as I walk around in sweaty misery.
One other saying I found charming was when a Taiwanese lady was talking to the German couple about how they had been married for 20 years and says, "you two look like each other." That is not a thing I would ever say to a couple in a positive way, but apparently is a massive compliment. It is not meant to say that they physically look like each other, but that they have adopted the facial expressions of their spouse over time and that they are now one in soul. Kind of endearing.
Tomorrow is Spring Fair, which means that I am manning the hot dog booth. 800 dogs to peddle from 10am to 3pm. Is the hardest I work all year by far and is always a ton of fun. Best case scenario is for cool and dry weather but in the 8 times that I've guided the stall, that has happened once. We did it in a torrential downpour one year, and when you are using charcoal without a tent, the degree of difficulty is all the way to 11. We gave away half our supply that year. Have been watching the forecast and it went from cool and dry, to thunderstorms and Taiwan humid, to now being dry but scorching hot. Fingers crossed...talk soon
Watched a little bit of that ball game.. maybe it was a youtube glitch but they game schedule was pasted such that it covered 60% of the field and you couldn't see any of the game except for the 3 passed balls/wild pitches over the course of the 4 pitches that I watched. Good couple of posts lately.. you're hitting your stride. MS
ReplyDelete