November 3rd, 2018

Hey there,

Outrage and vindication.  If our family had a crest, those words would be on it.   You will recall that there has been a dichotomy between articles you see on the internet about the deliciousness of Taiwan's food and what you hear from me.  Stumbled across this article about Taiwan being a foodie haven  fallacy and it turns out that a few years ago the TW tourist bureau hired a few European food writers to publish glowing reviews about the island being the next big thing in cuisine.  I do not fault the bureau for making this effort nor for the writers lying to get paid cause it shows you the lengths people will go to make a buck, but it is always good to know that...once again... my assessment has been proven true.  The linked article above is about a new book written about the history of food in Taiwan, and while the history aspect of the book  does sound well researched, it is obvious without saying so that they came to the conclusion that the food here is not any good.  One throwaway fact in there that was interesting was the reason the Hungarians have a pork heavy diet is that when the Muslims occupied the area they took all the other animals away.  

Another history lesson...this one I gave to Babydoll and was from first hand experience.  We're sitting at dinner and something she said (or how she said it)  triggered me to talk in 'Valley Girl'  I do not like to brag, but my fluency in it and how I can hit the right tones is impressive and even acknowledged as such by B-doll and her friends. Wish I could hit my tones in Mandarin with a sliver of the expertise I can talk in Valley Girl,   I was trying to explain to her how I can talk like them so well and was describing how growing up in the valley in SoCal in the 80's was where it originated and then remembered the song.  Stopped everything and pulled this up on YouTube.

Some of the lingo has changed (bitchin', barf out and Mr Bufu) but the lyrical underpinnings are exactly the same.  She was shaken that this stuff is 35 years old and that her generation might not be as clever as they think they are. 

Some follow-ups from last week.  Boy-o's iGEM team did not garner any hardware last weekend.   It was nice of the TAS teacher to take a few snaps of them and provide some info.  God forbid he ever does...

Last Friday night was the Community Center auction and it was easily the best one of theirs I have attended.  A perfect night with the venue being under 101, which was lit in Dodger blue and white.

Eff' the Dodgers.  The fact that I had to agree with Trump's analysis of Dave Roberts managerial moves made me sick to my stomach.  Here is another gorgeous shot a buddy took on the rare blue sky/puffy cloud day with the building acting as a mirror.  Woulda like to have seen this in color.

I usually have some criticism of the night but it was practically flawless.  The room looked great and the items up for bid were interesting, varied and there wasn't too many of them.  They were so good that nothing stayed at price point that I could afford, which is good for the Center and probably good for us.  

The auctioneer and MC are in their 3rd year together and while they are not professionals, they certainly could be.  Even the food, which in a hotel being served to 300 people simultaneously has a lousy success was outstanding.  As it was a Halloween themed event, each dish had little spooky touches that made the plating attractive.  I always get the vegetarian option at these things as they seem to make more of an effort on those and the soup was served in a mini-hollowed out gourd.  First rate.

The booze flows liberally and with the room being filled with folks that are all well aquianted and mostly dressed in costumes (many outstanding ones), people were letting their freak flags fly.  I did not wear a costume sadly.  I had purchased one but couldn't wear it.  When I was walking around in Japan went into a superstore crap shack called Mega Don Quixote and they had a wall full of those costumes in a bag.  As they were sized for the Japanese clientele, there were only two that I thought would fit me...Catholic Priest and Prison Convict.  Really wanted the priest one but this was a formal event for an organization I work for and thought it to be in poor taste, so grabbed the orange prison jumpsuit and was gonna go as Paul Manafort.  On the day of the event I rip open the bag and it has this written all over it.  

Again, am OK making fun of the mentally ill in general,  but as this is an event for an organization that is a mental health facility my inner voice that tells me not to do inappropriate things, which is usually very quiet and easily ignored, really shouted out from her diaphragm.  I felt underdressed once I was there cause everyone really made an effort with their outfits, but I did have the misfire costume story to tell.  Was telling it to an aquaintence and they say they have something I could put on that they said was perfect for me.

Sadly, it was unanimous in people saying what an appropriate choice of mask it was.

On a big banner on the stage is a list of the major donors for the evening and they are broken into Gold and Silver categories.  Costco always helps out the Center and I know they donated the wine for the evening, but they are listed at the Silver level only.  The Country Manager for Costco, who is a lovely guy and friend is there and it was so much fun riding him that some of his major competition in town, like those French bastards at Carrefour, got higher billing.  Betty misses out on stuff when she travels so I will often put things like this in this space just for her.  

Speaking of Costco, I get the weekly advertising emails for them and this weeks had something called Frozen Chicken Essence

Am hesitant to want to know what part of the chicken is its "essence" and even less as to how they extract it.  Will also take a pass on the Frozen Manchurian Sour Cabbage Hot Pot Soup.  That sounds like something they would serve orphans in a Dickens novel

Helping out with auction spotting and other things were a couple of senior boys from the kids school.  At one point early in the evening, the dude sitting next to me that knew them says he has been seeing them sneaking drinks.  By the end of the night when things are getting rambunctious on the dance floor, these guys are flying high, pogoing with their light sabres and making spectacles out of themselves.  Keep in mind this event has a hundred people from the school in attendance and half of those are on staff.  No one seemed to mind and I thought it was hilarious, but they were asked to leave the party by the No-Fun Police.

Sounds like a perfect night, no?  Well it wouldn't have been perfect if I didn't have that minor annoyance on which to rail.  In the house this evening was the couple that wears their Red Sox/Patriots shit all the time.  Am positive I have mentioned them before...have yet to see them at any event without some effin' Pats gear on.   They don't talk to me anymore cause I am relentless in my disdain for their attire (and way of life) and am quite adept at insulting people.  Anyhoo, they are there and at a table where everyone is wearing Montreal Canadien hockey sweaters.  A table of ten with these two wearing their fucking Tom Brady jerseys.   It took every ounce of strength not to go up to the guy and tell him how much I loved his costume...Colossal Douchebag.  They gave awards out for the costumes and one of them was best group costume and this table wins it (not cause it was clever but they were the only group costume).  They go up on stage to accept their prize and the DoucheBrady  grabs the microphone and yells "Canadienes suck"  What a perfect example of why everyone hates them.  

The next day, am listening to an interview with Neil Strauss.  He is a writer and his most famous book is The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pick-up Artists.  An interesting and controversial guy.  During the interview the conversation went on a tangent about being annoyed at people, kinda like me and the Pats fans.  Their example was an annoyance at some guy in a store with his emotional support animal (in this case a cat in a baby Bjorn).  In this discussion they talked about the Jungian concept of psychology called shadow.  They said that in this line of thought, we get most annoyed at traits in others that we have and dislike in ourselves.  Hmmm...is this me maybe? Probably?   Saw that a Boston fan was stabbed after the Red Sox beat the Dodgers and am now rethinking all of this crap.  I love my teams and like to think that a stabbing level of violence has never crossed my mind, but I did joke the other night of wanting to smash Brady-douch (Bradouche) in the head with a giant magnum of wine. And this is just sports...when you see the shit going down with racial and political violence this week, makes you think about your own impulses.  I will try to do better.

Then again...

Why can't we all be like Bills fans and just throw dildos on the field in good fun?

The day after the auctions  was fun in the neighborhood.  A giant neighborhood Halloween bloc party and also an American football game, which is the first I've seen here. 

The football game was fun...the local Taipei Predators had at least 52 guys while the visiting Beijing Cyclones only dressed 10.  Unsurprisingly, it was a 31-0 drubbing.  The field was modified so the end zones were only 5 yards long and field was 80 total.  

The quality of the game was not good but the players were all having a good time with it..  Fans got to be close up...really close up.  These babies in strollers were on the sidelines

It being Halloween, some odd scenes were inevitable.

As you can see, the day was spectacular and it made me sad that I did not see a single soul I knew out there watching.  An unusual sporting event within a 10 minute walk from your house for free on a glorious Saturday?  Whatevs.  Here is a recap of the game and the challenges the sport faces if you want more...

I tooled around the Halloween party that was also in the park during halftime and afterwards.  All the shops on the adjacent boulevard were handing out candy all day until 9pm so the entire town was out and all dressed in Halloween garb.

I had a more than decent hot dog loaded with jalapenos and there were a couple stands serving beer.  Damn civilized.

One can never get enough child on child violence in giant plastic bubbles.

Didn't see nearly as many Sexy Devil costumes this year.  There were these two however.  I haven't seen it, but are all women's costumes now Handmaid's Tale inspired?

And more than one dude passed out under a tree.  I wonder if he wears his sanitary mask to bed?

One more Halloween note...was manning the phones on Wednesday/Halloween morning at the Center.  The landlord also owns some daycares nearby and every year he has the classes come by in their costumes to sing a song in English and trick or treat.  Three different classes two, three and four year olds.  They are freaking adorable of course.

The junior doctor costume is a bit on the nose.      




The Halloween song they sing has something to do with not being afraid of things...like the big green monster, etc.  The last verse goes "I'm not afraid of the big white ghost" and I kid you not, tall the kids/toddlers stared daggers at me while the sang that one.

This time of year kicks off the travel season for us.  This is the part where I get to brag a bit about so be forewarned.   We are heading to somewhere near Cebu in the Philippines that Betty has been eyeing for years for Thanksgiving.   For Christmas this year, we are heading to Ireland/Great Britain.  We start in Dublin for a few days and then road trip for 5 days ending up in Edinburgh for New Years, then train down to London for 4-5 nights.  Have all the accommodations and modes of transport reserved and am fine tuning things like tours and places to eat.

Am working feverishly on our  Chinese New Year trip to New Zealand.  We have plane tickets already so am trying to figure out the best plan of attack for us that doesn't involve too much Lord of the Rings shit.  A lot of the folks that go to NZ tour the place in an RV and looked into that, but after reading this article about planning an RV trip with kids, just cannot see why people do that.  The smells alone...

Finally, here is a word that I would love to whip out in conversation.  Have ample opportunity to do so but just cannot bring myself to spit it out.  Tu quoque.  It is Latin for "You also" and the definition is "an informal fallacy that intends to discredit the opponent's argument by asserting the opponent's failure to act consistently in accordance with its conclusion(s). "

The example given is 

Peter: "Bill is guilty of defrauding the government out of tax dollars."

Bill: "How can you say that when you yourself have 20 outstanding parking tickets?"

It is a fallacy because the moral character or actions of the opponent are generally irrelevant to the logic of the argument.^[3] It is often used as a red herring tactic and is a special case of the ad hominem fallacy, which is a category of fallacies in which a claim or argument is rejected on the basis of facts about the person presenting or supporting the claim or argument.^[4] 

Sound useful?