August 27, 2012

August 27th, 2012

Leading off, was provided some new info on the raised thresholds from my last entry by my buddy Don. Apparently, Chinese ghosts have no kneecaps and are unable to cross over a threshold if they are raised. In remembering back to Capser cartoons, it's obvious that they don't and this form of architecture is simply just good science. We also just learned that Ghost Month has just kicked in and the gates of Hell are sprung open so that the spirtis can wander the living world. Some serious shit... check this out. Side note - How weird is this...when I sit down to write these entries, typically stream KEXP (best station ever) for some musical inspiration. And what song do they play right when I am writing the above? 'Ghosts' by The Jam. A 30 year-old deep cut Ghosts by an English band being played by a Seattle radio station and listened to by a guy in Taiwan as he's writing a diary posting on ghosts? Kinda freaking out just a bit right now. A couple of the things to avoid durning Ghost Month (and there are a lot of things to avoid), are any kind of travel, and swimming in the water. So what do we do yesterday? That's right...drive to the beach for some swimming. We were hoping to get in some body surfing as a typhoon was twisting it's way a few hundred kilometers to the north and thought the swells would be up, so off we went to the north facing Baishawan beach. We weren't disppointed as the waves were good, although they were better for boogie boards (going to have to buy a couple of those soon). We got tossed and smashed to the point that you were still feeling the tugs while lying on the beach and were very happy to finally be frollicking in some real surf. Side note - There are a couple of typhoons in the neighborhood. The first one (Tembin) was smaller and hit the south coast of Taiwan last Friday (caused the worst flooding in that area in a century), while the larger one (Bolaven) that was following it turned to the north towards Japan/Korea. Have been watching them periodically, and Tembin made a counter clockwise 270 degree u-turn and is now forecasted to again cross the same path in southern TW and head up the east coast on the heels of Bolaven. Watching hurricanes on the east coast of the US, have never seen one make that maneuver, but apparently is caused by the interaction of the two storms. It is called the Fujiwhara effect and "occurs when two cyclonic vortices are close to one another. When the two are of unequal sizes, the larger one tends to dominate the interaction and cause the smaller one to orbit around it." Kids spirits were raised by the prospect of a possible Typhoon Day school closure. In addition to the nice water, the traffic to the beach was super light and the sand was virtually empty when we got there (in retrospect, now understanding why in due to Ghost month). There was one group that we identifed as being southern European (will let you fill in that blank), another Western couple doing yoga/meditating at the water's edge, and us. Very relaxing...so much so that after we played in the water for a bit, Paul went back to the towels and chilled out by READING A BOOK! It was obvious the kid had been inhabited by a benevolent (and literate) spirit. Towards noon, a group of 6 Chinese dudes descended on our serenity. The beach is still virtually abandoned, but where do they decide to set-up shop? That's right...as per the local custom, directly next to us. Of course, they're talking loud, get down to their super small Speedos, and start smoking, all cramped under one umbrella. We're waiting for the games to begin and they throw us a curveball...out come the cameras and it turns into the Zoolander gas fight. That was a link to a Chinese recreation of that scene...here is the real clip from Zoolander (funny scene and arguably Ben Stiller's best movie...need to rewatch it soon.) Trying not to sound to...whatever...but these guys kept posing for each other, with each other, for a good hour or so. They were speaking only in Chinese, but here is my best attempt at translating a brief snippet of their conversation... Guy#1: To guy #2 "I'll lie down in the sand and you stand over me so I can take a good picture. Guy#2: "Great idea...let me get my little sailor hat." Guy#2 dons his sailor cap and stands over guy#1 posing with hands on hips and says to guy#1, Guy#2: "Let me turn sideways so you can get a good shot of my bulge" Guy#3: Watching from side. "What bulge?" All: Laugh hysterically Guy#6: "Enough of these stupid pictures...let's throw some sand at each other!" All: "Hooray!"