A New Beginning

Friends & Family,

I have done a fairly poor job of communicating the fact that I am no longer in the cozy confines of "God's Country", aka Austin, Tx.

(For compelling reasons why you should consider Austin a top 5 US city, see the following: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaZx6kGs7pg Ok, that's not really a compelling reason that Austin is great, but for anyone that has experienced Franklin's bbq, it's quite humorous.....)

Anyway, I digress.... About three or four months ago, I was presented with an opportunity to take a position with Dell in Taiwan on a short term assignment. Given the fact I haven't ventured outside the North American borders in my short tenure on this planet, I jumped at the opportunity and was fortunate enough to score the gig.

For the next 10 months, yours truly will be located amongst the Taiwanese smack dab in the middle of Taipei, hopefully making the best out of my time and enjoying myself to boot.

Aja/Mike, Bo/Lindsey, Brett/Sara, Drew/Jeri, and Jordan/Bonnie: my apologies for the implications this little sojourn has on my ability to make your weddings. I was looking forward to attending all of them and will no doubt miss out on some really good times. On the 1 in a million chance you need a last-minute honeymoon idea, I hope to have a pretty nice 2-bedroom apartment in the middle of Taipei in two weeks time!

Back to the blog.....

In order to satisfy my desire to keep in touch with my friends and family, I thought I'd start a blog to chronicle my experience and share it with those that are interested (all 1.7 of you....). While I'd love to claim that I will make thoughtful/insightful posts on a regular basis, who are we kidding? The main goal here will be to inform those of you in Texas and elsewhere of my whereabouts. The plan is to post pictures and thoughts as I experience Taipei a day at a time.

Also, if you have any plans to be in the APJ region over the next year, or would like to have plans to be in the APJ region, you have a place to stay in the heart of Taipei. I'll be renting out at least a 2-bedroom apartment in the Da'an district, which is a pretty cool section of the city that offers plenty to do. Just hit me up if you're headed my way.

I welcome your thoughts and ideas for the blog, and would be happy to respond to any requests and/or suggestions as to how I can make this more interesting for all involved.....

Oh, and since it will inevitably come up: Jack Dog steadfastly refused the assignment to Taiwan and is currently residing with my parental types in East Texas. If you happen to be traveling through Diboll, I am sure he would appreciate you stopping by to say hello....

See below for photographic evidence that this isn't some poorly timed April fool's joke (note the light blue "used" stamp).....



For anyone looking to test Chung Hua Telecom's Taiwanese cell phone network, I can now be reached at +886 988 632 769. If you aren't generally a fan of paying for international calls, look me up on Skype; User ID: Pavlic16

Cheers,
RNP