Thank you for the Birthday Wishes!

One really cool thing about living in a super-connected social media world is that you hear from a large number of people on your birthday. While I would no doubt prefer to thank everyone individually for the well wishes I received on my birthday, I'm a little swamped with work right now and thought this would be a nice way to say thank you to everyone at once!

Being in Asia is certainly a unique experience because I've essentially had two days that I can consider my birthday. The 13 hour time difference is typically a bit of an inconvenience, but its been pretty cool the last 48 hours.

To everyone who wished me happy birthday through Facebook and email, thank you! Your thoughts and kind words are appreciated; its remarkable how something as simple as a "Happy Birthday" comment posted on Facebook can make someone feel special.

I thought I'd leave everyone with a couple of birthday-related pics before I head to work (its 6:25 AM on Thursday, August 4th here in Taipei....)

I've really cut back on caffeine and Coca-Cola in the past ten years, which is probably remarkable to those of you who hung out with me in high school and college, but I do indulge on occasion. This morning was one of those occasions; that's a super cool 125th anniversary special edition Coke bottle and my hyper-color Perrier glass (the Perrier logo turns from white to green when cold). If you look closely, that is in fact a "shake-weight" commercial on the Asian ESPN in the background. Priceless.....


This is a pic of some bacon-wrapped asparagus at the Japanese style BBQ place that my friend Ching took me last night for my birthday here in Taipei. This was just one of many tasty dishes we had at dinner; many thanks Ching!


Note the "U.S.A." that my Mom added to return address; for some reason, I got a real kick out of this. And of course, thank you Mom and Dad for the card and its contents!

Until next time, peace!

The Picture Post, Part II

Because truly, the easiest way to write a blog entry is to not write at all.

This is a rice-patty burger from Mos Burger, a Japanese fast food chain. Quite tasty, actually. The "Chinese Sauce" for the chicken nuggets is remarkably similar to McDonald's sweet and sour sauce, which is to say it sucks.

Daniel and I in Old Town in Hsinchu, south of Taipei. Yes, I am drinking a beer. Generally, when there isn't an open container law prohibiting me from having a cold one in public, I feel obliged....

Daniel and San enjoying the "cactus-flavored" Popsicles we picked up in Old Town. Damn tasty, actually.

This contraption is my all-in-one washer/dryer combo machine. When I was looking at apartments, I quickly decided that a combo machine made a lot of sense given the space constraints in a city like Taipei.

After I washed and dried my first pair of jeans, my opinion of the combo washer/dryer was decidedly less positive. If I wanted my jeans to be that small, I'd probably just roll in some navy colored chalk or something; you know, in an effort to look more like the hipsters that plague Austin and other spots across the US.

Its missing the gold Texas star I'm accustomed to, but it still tastes like the Heavy, so no complaints....

I went to a BBQ joint last week in Taipei; this was my dinner about 15 minutes before I was served. Probably the freshest shrimp I've ever had, and the taste didn't disappoint.

So, you're probably wondering what's so special about some 7-11 sushi, right? Well, take a closer look at the roll on the left. You probably can't read Mandarin, and well, neither can I, but my co-worker can. That's a "German Sausage" sushi roll. Hey, if there's a Texas roll in most Austin sushi joints, why not a "German Sausage" sushi roll in Taipei? (Well, probably because a sausage roll generally goes against everything right about sushi, namely that's its quasi-healthy....)

At some point, I'll either get tired of posting pictures of Burger King advertisements, or they'll stop amusing me so much. Luckily for you, we haven't reached that point. Forget the seafood dinner, I'm headed to the King!

This is but one example of the greatness that is Japanese BBQ restaurants in Taipei. Stay tuned for a post dedicated to this wonderful little facet of dining out here in Taiwan....

Some form of grilled flavoring on my Cheetos. Why not?

The Don, you'll like this one. Apparently I moved from Austin (a mere one hour drive from San Antonio), to Taipei (a good 15 hours by plane from Austin) so I could pick up a Spurs ATM card.

Did anyone honestly expect me to forego the High Life in Asia?

They really go out of their way in Taipei to individually wrap their fruits/vegetables. If any particular food deserves this type of royal treatment, it is the avocado, my friends. Only drawback is that a regular avocado is about $3 American here.

My bike, if not cooler than yours, is certainly more portable.....

I had always planned on picking up a bike here, but who knew I'd get something so entertaining for when I get back to Austin.

I'll leave you with the knowledge that you aren't necessarily safe from being iced in Taipei....

A Post for Paine & Sam

As my good friends Robert and Sam have been so kind to point out to me via email, I have not posted a new entry in over two weeks.

Part of the reason can be explained by my trip to Shanghai, China for seven days. You see, the Chinese government is communist, and without the benefit of a proxy server, sites such as this one are not possible to visit. In case anyone thinks I'm actually making this up, here's my proof....



A picture of a hotel mini-fridge you ask? Notice the Pepsi. Not cool.
Ok, here's another form of proof...



Anyway, I was in China for work to meet all the folks I support that are based in Shanghai. My first impressions of Shanghai were that its a huge place with a ton of new buildings (many built in the past 15 years.) This picture out the 49th floor of my hotel room at the Renaissance Zhongshan Park gives you an idea of the enormous nature of Shanghai. Pretty wild, right?



It was a busy week all in all, and I didn't really get out much during the week. Friday night, I did hit up Pearl City and HongMei pedestrian street. The funny thing about this district is that the mandarin apparently reads "foreigner street", and true enough, I saw more Westerners in a 200 yard stretch on this street than I've seen in six weeks in Taipei.

Friday night was the end of my sightseeing in Shanghai. Apparently, eating a cheesesteak with a side of french fries and then washing that down with a few draft beers is a real good way to piss off your American digestive system. I spent most of Saturday and Sunday in the hotel room so I would never be far from the plumbing facilities. While I didn't have any need of the "sanitary bag" provided by the hotel, I still chuckle to myself when I read the brand name.

"Pecksniffs". Really?

Stay tuned for some more blog posts in the next week or so. I've got plenty of entertaining pictures and experiences to share; I just have to get motivated to type them up. And yes, Hong Kong Part II will be among the next couple of posts.

The King

I saw this on the way to work this morning and couldn't resist posting it immediately. Apparently, Burger King is running a promotion here in Taipei where you can add as many layers of patties to your burger as you'd like. Each patty costs a little less than $1 US. Given this promotion, I can only surmise that Super Size Me was not a big hit overseas......

All that being said, this promotion just might lure me into ordering my first BK burger in Taiwan.

JD's First Cone

This has nothing to do with Taipei, Asia, penguins, or anything else I've experienced in the last two months. Rather, its about Jack Dog. About 6 years ago, when I was living in a duplex in Austin, Jack would regularly spar with the ninja-neighbor cat Marco. For the most part, it was just highly entertaining, but Marco scored a hit to JD's cornea on one such "sparring" occasion. This led to a relatively benign trip the vet and some eye ointment.

Fast forward to 2011 right before I shipped off to Asia. I take Jack in to the vet to get his check-up before I leave, and she recommends that I get in to see the doggy ophthalmologist because of a small pigment growth in his right eye. Prior to this, I wasn't aware of the fact there even was a doggy ophthalmologist, let alone that I would ever take a pet of mine to one. $178 American dollars later, I was set up to have my dog have eye surgery while I was halfway around the world.

My wonderful Mom was kind enough to take Jack Dog in to the ophthalmologist in Austin for his surgery this past Monday, and he did just fine. However, I now have dirt on my dog. If he ever decides to get uppity, I'll just hit him with this:

It is real hard to look cool with a white cone wrapped around your head, and Jack Dog is no exception to this rule. If dogs could talk, I would imagine you'd be hearing complaints about his inability to lick certain parts of his body. (And no, I'm not referring to his paws.....)

Hong Kong (A Real Blog Post)

Hello Friends. I hope you are all well and enjoying the weekend in your own little corner of the world. As those of you that regularly follow this blog are well aware, I've been lying down on the job, so to speak. Its high time I spend more than 20 minutes on a blog entry. I promised several weeks ago that I would document my trip to Hong Kong on the internets. Better late than never, right? Without further adieu, I give you HK: (A Real Blog Post)........

The great thing about living in east Asia is that a lot of really cool places are a relatively short flight away. So, when my work colleague Travis (who's stationed in Singapore) suggested we make a quick weekend trip to Hong Kong, I quickly agreed. What follows is a semi-structured (chronological) account of the weekend:

Friday (Travel from Taipei to HK)

I'll spare the details of your typical 3.5 hour flight, but I will say this: Asian airlines are significantly more focused on service and the comfort of their clients than their American counterparts. I haven't had the distinct pleasure of flying on Singapore Airlines yet (which is apparently the gold standard of flying), but both China & EVA airlines have been a pleasure to fly on. While I don't have a picture of the flight itself, I do have a little gem from the men's room in the Taoyuan International Airport (and yes, this is quite literally potty humor, but I am not one to outgrow potty jokes just because I'm almost 32 years old.)

This is just another example of how nice the Taiwanese are; if I were in charge I'd be a lot less subtle with this particular message. In fact, I had a pretty awesome bathroom sign back in the day that conveyed the same message but in a more graphical and blunt way. The sign below is the closest thing I could find with the magic of the internet. And no, this isn't the funniest bathroom sign that you can find if you Google "funny bathroom signs" and click on images, but hey, I'm making a quasi-concerted effort to keep this blog PG-rated. (Said another way, I highly recommend a Google search on that phrase.)

Anyway, other than the humorous trip to the Taoyuan Airport, my flight was uneventful. Upon arriving at the Hong Kong airport, a nice stroke of luck occurred: Travis and I bumped into each other in the shuttle queue. Turns out, this was a good thing. We found an ATM, got some HK dollars (1 HK dollar is worth ~ .1285 American dollars, and yes, this is a worthless comment, I just like saying "American dollars"; get used to it), and hopped on a bus into town. Our bus was very similar to the one pictured below.

Its pretty easy to see the British influence in Hong Kong, and riding a double-decker bus, for whatever reason, was definitely on my to-do list.

After wondering around aimlessly for about an hour looking for our hotel and generally coming across as clueless, non-Cantonese speaking Americans, we stumbled into a really nice, English-speaking dude from some country in Europe (I say some country because I can't remember where the hell he's from, but I think it starts with an "S"). He was cool enough to show us the way to the Cosmopolitan, our home for the weekend. The hotel itself is not worth a picture, but the view out the window is.......

That is some kind of park where they race horses or something. Polo anyone?

So, after hitting the showers to freshen up from our sweat-inducing march around Hong Kong (have I mentioned how humid island countries near the equator are? Every bit as bad as Houston in August about 3 hours after a thunderstorm on a 100 degree day), we struck out for Lan Kwai Fung, the famous bar district in Hong Kong (requisite picture below.....)

For someone who's spent 8 years of their life living in Austin, TX, yet another bar district half way around the world doesn't just blow me away. LKF (Yes, its another acronym in a world that could probably do with a few less acronyms) was amusing for people watching purposes, though, and Travis and I managed to establish ourselves as petty criminals (or maybe just asshole Americans) while dining at the local Mediterranean restaurant.

We checked out a couple places and had a few beers before ending the evening in another part of town at a Carnegies (which also has a location in Taipei near my apartment.)

Note: Carnegie's is famous for its policy of allowing patrons to dance on the bar top. While I won't win any awards for my picture editing skills, I was able to touch up the picture below so you at least get some sense of what this spectacle looks like. Girl on the right was the main protagonist of the bar top dancing that night.

This is not exactly the safest bar policy I've encountered. True to form, the poor girl above fell off after one too many shots and was unceremoniously dumped outside by the bouncer. For obvious reasons, I didn't bother to capture this on film.

Saturday (Daytime)

Saturday was pretty uneventful during the day because Travis and I both slept in and were worn out from travel and our Friday night. But, we did manage to grab lunch at a solid local joint close to the hotel. We ordered enough food for four people, ate about half of it, and crushed a couple of bottled Coca-cola's. Honestly, is there anything better than a bottled Coke? (Well, maybe a bottled Dublin Dr. Pepper, but work with me here.....And don't say Pepsi, you know my thoughts on Pepsi....)

On our walk back to the hotel, we happened to glance down at a street crossing. This is what greeted our eyes:

It seems to me that its rather obvious when crossing a street that you'd be better off actually keeping your head up and looking both ways instead of staring at the street, but the folks in Hong Kong apparently saw the need to point this out.

When we returned to our hotel, we found the tour guide saleslady and she hooked us up with a harbor tour Saturday night as well as a bus tour on Sunday (all for a pretty penny, of course.) We cruised down to the harbor in a taxi and I snapped a few pics before our boat showed up.

Given the fact this post is getting a little long winded and I still have the rest of Saturday night (boat tour, an encounter with some Bangladeshans, and the Ladies Market) and all of Sunday to cover, I've made the executive decision to break this post up into two volumes. Maybe this will convince those of you that are totally annoyed by this to sign up as a follower. If nothing else, you will get updates in your blogger dashboard, and my ego will get a boost (23, well, actually 22 followers and counting!)

Stay tuned.....

Happy Birthday America!

Its a celebration America, enjoy yourselves.......