I complain about Taiwan a lot in this space but think I am gonna say some good things about it today. Let's see how that goes.
Here is Superette's 1996 song 'Taiwan'.
Not a single comment on YouTube for that clip, which is hard to believe in this age of identity through comment. Shame, cause that is a bitchin' song.
If I were to recommend a visit here, have to say that October is the month to come. The weather is as good as it gets and this year has been seen the best run in the 7 we've experienced. The humidity precludes blue skies and stunning sunsets most of the time, but it has been muted as of late. Saw this the other morning and while it would be just another day on the west coast, had to stop and admire it.
October is my favorite month as the weather suits my clothes, the sports and social calendars are just right and my color palette is definitely autumn. If you come, and we may only have a couple more Octobers here so start thinking about it, you will still have to deal with the potential of an earthquake. Had a 6.0 on Tuesday and while it didn't stop traffic, they can be disconcerting to some. After grabbing the below shot, we had a 5.7 at midnight that sorta woke me up.
What's going on around on the island these days? I didn't know about it beforehand but absolutely would have gone to check out the big rally for independence. A group called the Formosa Alliance organized a street demonstration. They are affiliated with the DPP/Green Party, who is currently in power and are pushing the matter. I said big rally, but have seen reports that the crowd size was anywhere between 6,000 (as reported by their opponents) to 100,000. It's now almost a week later but the cops have not weighed in. Plenty of Fake News in this corner of the world too. I hate that news term and apologize for using it here.
People send me news items to share about Taiwan, and if they involve traffic they definitely get my attention. Betty forwarded this one about Taiwan's pedestrian nightmare. I suggest that you go to that link only if you have a deep desire to know the difference between crosswalk markings around the globe. That article is so dry, maybe because it was originally written in Mandarin and translated into English. It did have links to a slew of other Taiwan traffic related articles, all of which I read, and there was I liked about overworked bus drivers. These guys are working 7 days a week and while they don't drive every one of those days, they are forced to work off the books for free as traffic control zombies when they have accidents or incidents to work off their demerits. Sounds like a recipe for disaster and has led me to give any bus a wider berth on the roads cause these guys are likely sleep deprived. When you do visit next October, let's keep this in mind should we decide to hop on one of these tour buses.
In probably related news, we had a train wreck here a few days ago that killed 18 people (appreciate those that reached out to ensure we weren't on it). Have been reading the local reports and no cause had been officially given although the speculation is that the driver turned off the speed control warnings and was going too fast in a turn. This sounds like the cause of every train accident, no? Why would these drivers give a shit if they were running late? They weren't the ones that made it late in the first place I'd have to assume, so what is their motivation? Taiwan has a certain fetish with all things Japan, and the trains there run ON TIME, so that is what I'm throwing out there at cocktail parties. Just heard another take that the driver reported issues and was told to push through by his superiors. Updates as they arise will be shared
Thought I was gonna say nice things, but those ended up being kinda dark.
Thursday morning was parent/teacher conference day and spoke to all of Babydolls teachers. Super impressive bunch of minds and very healthy eccentrics all. I think we have all been surprised at how well B-doll has been doing in her math and science classes. In elementary school, she didn't show a lot of promise. Will never forget the day she came home from school, must have been Kindergarten, and was so happy to tell us that she learned that 5 apples plus 2 apples equals 7 apples. "That's great" I said, "Do you know how many bananas you'd have if you had three bananas and I gave you four more?" She said no..."we haven't learned bananas yet."
An old gag and shared it with her Algebra teacher who liked it. Think it is my responsibility to go to these things with a gag or anecdote chambered for each teacher to help personalize the relationships. Didn't need to this year cause all her teachers are enamored of her both intellectually and socially. She has been quite impressive in High School on all levels and the confidence snowball has avalanche potential. See great things ahead if she can keep it together.
As for the Boy, it is harder to get info on him cause he simply doesn't share voluntarily. Last weekend was the annual Food Fair at the school here and was again the Chair for the USA Hot Dog Booth. Checked my records and have been doing that for 5 years/10 Fairs. We often have more, but figure 700 dogs per and that is at least 7000 happy hot dog customers. Due to a slew of scheduling conflicts, was missing several of our best workers so had to mine some new volunteers. One of them was a teacher that is involved with the Upper School science department that is leading the schools iGem team to Boston this week who had also taught the Boy a few years back. This teacher tells me the Boy is part of UVA's iGem team and that he will see him in Bean-town this weekend. News to his mom and I, but looked it up and sure enough, off he is going.
Have heard the nerds here talk in awe about iGem, but upon research learned it is the International Genetically Engineered Machine competition. Sounds ominous. On their website, you can see a thumbnail of the schools projects. The UVA team is doing stuff with bacteria and is what the Boy was working on during his internship this summer. I didn't understand what he told me then nor did the below thumbnail help explain it any better.
Quorum sensing (QS) is a mechanism where bacteria detect the presence of nearby cells and coordinate their behavior among the population. Utilizing the QS genes of the Lsr operon and T7 RNA Polymerase, we are developing a biologically orthogonal quorum response sensitive to the universal autoinducer AI-2. This system introduces an alternative method of gene induction and biomanufacturing to iGEM, re-engineering microbial coordination of population phenotypes. Further, we have designed a synthetic feedback loop in tandem with the Lsr operon to increase the mean and homogeneity of quorum activation in a colony to levels comparable to industrial inducers like IPTG. This provides a system of self-regulating induction that can produce target proteins cheaper and more efficiently than current industrial methods. The resulting engineered microbe has increased biofilm production compared to the wild type, which has applications such as microbial cellulose biomanufacturing and hyper-virulent control organisms for testing certain microbial antibiotics.
It sounds like participating in this thing is an achievement that should be admired but on the flip side, helping to create super bugs for Monsanto that will end humanity is a real career path for him. The worst part of this is that he goes to Boston and meets up with an old buddy of his that goes to school there, they head over to Fenway and somehow manage to sneak into game two of the World Series for free. He says that the ticket check moved up the street for the playoffs and they went through an office building that then exited on the other side of the barricade. That little shit falls up and am so jealous of him at every turn. I've never been to a World Series game and he goes to one my effin' Dodgers are in.
The TAS iGEM project addresses the genetics of what causes Asian flush (where Asians get red faced when they drink booze). It isn't just a way to figure out a drug to eliminate that annoyance, but it is related to a dangerous enzyme that is prominent in 47% of the Taiwanese population. Amazing stuff and makes me feel kinda stupid. OK, not feel but confirm. I ride the kids school hard for some things, but am always floored by the work they are doing at a high school level. Went to a thing the other day put on by the School Board that was pure propaganda, but one thing they talked about was the new building called the Tech Cube that is scheduled to be completed in December. It is a state of the art facility devoted to cutting edge sciences that would be the envy of most universities. This school has a roster of the finest teachers they make and now have the facilities to make their visions into reality. Really stunning and we are so fortunate to have had our kids go here.
As for the Hot Dog booth, we had great weather, which is key to moving product and we sold out at 1:26pm...10 minutes earlier than our previous best. Even though we were down some super stars, we had enough seasoned vets to add to our newbies and it was the easiest day for me and for pushing dogs.
I really didn't care but it gave me something to rail on throughout the day. Have come to realize that having something low wattage to complain and goof on keeps me sane and happy. One of my gags throughout the day was to find a fair organizer, one of our booth workers, or anyone I knew and bitch to them about the Koreans, then say I was going to plant this in their food.
On Saturday, at the big sports park across the street and all around our neighborhood, they have an annual Halloween party during the day. Fun to see all the kiddies in their costumes and even better watching the girls that man the booths that give out candy in their outfits. Sexy Devil and Sexy Nurse were two prominent ones last year. Thousands, even 10's of thousands, of people come to that for 'trick or treating' so our area is gonna be hopping. In addition, on the field behind where the Halloween thing is happening there is an American Football game between the Taipei Predators and Shanghai Cyclones. Here is a link to the Predators Facebook page. Watch these dudes practice on the weekend and should be a hoot to catch a game. Will take my camera.
Finally for today, I voted already. I hope you have or will vote. One thing that seems clear at this point is that if you vote for a Republican candidate, any one of them, you are enabling a lot of awful shit. You might say that this particular candidate disavows the bad stuff or that they may have some spectacularly good ideas. While that may be true, it doesn't matter this time my friends. We need a viable two party system and one of them cannot be this.
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