Well, it is still effin' hot. Since early May, the high temperature each and everyday has not been lower than 106 degrees. Not long ago, Taiwan experienced the hottest day on record. Recently, TW was reported to have the second lowest crime rate in the world and think it is cause it is just too damn hot for the criminals to want to do crime. Seriously though, these guys have low crime and they don't pull cars over en masse and most cops don't carry guns. You do the math.
Anyway, I decided to not coach baseball the first quarter for petty personal reasons I should not share, but the school has other coaching needs and they asked if I would help with the 7/8 grade boys volleyball. I know as much about volleyball as you do, but the kids don't know that. We had our first week and have to say that I loved it. The boys were better than I thought they'd be and were mostly all respectful and engaged. The practices (they were really more assessments) were crisp and we got a ton of stuff done. The head coach is quite good at demonstrating what he wants and we all spun off from there. Having watched hundreds of thousand of hours of sports of most kinds, think I have a pretty good eye, which should help me along this quarter.
The best part of volleyball? It is in an air conditioned gym. I get done with practice and am almost dry. After the assessments, the coaches get together to compare notes and in the chatter, and one of the team is a PE coach and he says that it is so hot during the day that his shoes are melting on the artificial turf field. Thought it was a metaphor, but he shows us how the treads of his Nike's are actually melting. The principal came out with a thermometer and the temperature on the field yesterday was 60 celsius. That's 140 fahrenheit. These kids are having PE out there and are wearing masks. I've mentioned that there has been no C-19 here for 4 months, right?
I am also on the lookout for volleyball jokes. Have seen a few I can use but even those are pretty weak. One that has been popular is, What do you call a girl in the middle of a volleyball court? Answer below.
On another topic, my brother-in-law was the subject of a CNN story about the origins of the iPod and some government involvement during its design. An interesting story that you can read more about in his open blog post on this Apple insider chat page. I like his writing style but worry that the men in black suits may come and take him for a helicopter ride.
In local culture corner, we have started Ghost Month! The month of the year where the spirits walk among us. As with a lot of things Asian, I have come around recently to not snub my nose at any of the stuff that sounds nutty. I have learned a lot about Ghost Month in the past but found some new things to consider in this article about taboos to avoid in hotels during this period. This article shares common sense things like avoiding rooms at the end of the hallway (where the ghosts like to congregate) and greeting residual residents when entering rooms to let them know that you are gonna borrow the space for a night or two. My personal takeaway is to flush the toilet as soon as you get into the room to "wash away unworldly waste left behind by accident." Makes perfect sense as there are filthy people out there and they don't get any cleaner in the afterlife.
Every post, I write up a screed about how pissed I am about the state of the States and almost always delete them. Usually it is cause there is nothing I could say that hasn't been said a thousand different ways and I am really trying not to totally give up on the humanity of the humans that float around my atmosphere. It is good to get the bile out, but it feels tedious at this point.
Instead, I will leave you today with this article about the college student that got a do-over on an online exam as some of his meatball sub fell into his computer during the test. Oh meatballs, it is hard being so perfect.
The girl on the court? Annette.
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