31.07.2006 or "Chinese Valentines Day"

(Added Link to Anime Blog Site above, do I have time to do that?)
(Removed Link to Myspace cause all the cool kids are jumping ship)

Today was my first day of school and since I am typing this message then you know I survived. It has been a long and tiring day but Im glad to say that it was worth it. The children in my class are funny and energetic and all seem to get along with each other very well. Noone in my class was unhappy for the whole day so I count myself very very lucky since I know some of the new teachers in the other classes had a pretty rough time of it. I learnt alot from today, namely how much work needs to go into planning in order for a day, with my particular age group to go smoothly. That would be lots, lots of planning because the thing is, one idea on paper can be done and over with within a matter of minutes.

What I quickly noticed was how short and attention span five year old children have and It takes all of your energy to come up with things to constantly amuse them. To that end I tried my best today but I can see lots of room for improvement. There is one major upside to my job however and that the fact that when the children sleep, you can usually sleep too, which meant I was able to have about a 1&1/2 hour nap after lunch. I can go into school tomorrow with a foreknowlege of what the children are like, what resources to arm myself with and a better vantage point from which to plan my day, something which I did not have until I actually met them. In conclusion, today went very well and I am very grateful for the comments of encouragement I recieved in reply to yesterday's blog, its nice to see so many people have my back even though I am over the other side of the world.

Anyway, enough about work, Im sure there is still some remenants of normal me left underneath the work centric beast I have been shaping myself to be over the past couple of weeks. Today is Chinese Valentines day and unfortunately we have been unable to celebrate it pretty much at all. We are both so worn out from work and this accursed heat that all of the drive and motivation to do anything of substance in our free time tends to get sapped away. I really have become quite accustomed to being out here which is something which I seldom say. Even though I speak no mandarin, im meeting enough English speaking people that I feel myself inhabiting a bubble of my own creation, a bubble made from routine and a shaping of this culture to my own whim. I feel quite at easy cycling around the area both in the day and at night.

I was cycling home the other day and It was dark but the neon lights which are pretty unavoidable out here created this wierd purple and green haze. It is really odd to pass through the streets and shops like that, its unlike anything I have experienced and only ever seen in movies. At the same time, the crowding and the neon dont intimidate me any more, you just kind of learn to accept it as part of the scenery. It's like I mentioned before, it can be a little odd poking your head out of the window at night and seeing a spralling neon sea and giant towers but I have always loved that kind of thing ever since I saw Blade Runner when I was little. That comparison is even more acurate here in Taiwan where things are just a little dirtier than in Tokyo where the buildings and streets are clean and organinsed like big neon circuit boards rather than a smoggy distopia. I really should take more pictures.

Im going to leave you now with the intention of doing at least one thing of value with my free time rather than sitting infront of this screen. I hope all is well for everyone. Please continue visiting arcadefinger in its new home as I see our boy Dave has recently updated with a rather detailed blog on his latest activities. If you are at all inclined towards anime please visit my newly created anime blog schoolgrumble. And finally, keep coming back here where I will attempt to maintain as much content as I can whilst I become increasingly busy elsewhere,

Till next time,

30.07.2006 or "Andy Sellout"

Cant talk for long cause I need to get to sleep. Today has been a full day of cleaning and preparation although strangely enough I still found time for a very sleepy game of Taiko, sans new sticks but I figure I have more pressing matters at hand. One being my first actual school day tomorrow! I have no idea what to expect, im just going to throw myself in headlong and see how it goes. Hopefully well, but I still need everyone's mental powers to send me confidence and gusto so that I can get through the day. Im taking my guitar with me so if all else fails we can sing some songs. No, I actually have things planned but its just a little stressful not knowing exactly what Its going to be like. I hope it's awesome.

Im reading back my Clerks 2 rant and maybe I was a little too harsh on it. Throughout the day, my mind kept wandering back to some of the Randal dialogue and how great it was. He really is the star of the film and I think based on those jokes alone, the film is elevated to a level which I didnt give it credit for. Sure the film is sullied by sentimental pap, but the jokes provide just adequate enough a counterbalance to stop it from going under. Only just enough mindyou. I say this because I think I could actually watch it again and enjoy it. Which is more than I can say for some recently "actually" bad films like Pirates of the Carribbean 2. I keep seeing adverts for Snakes on a Plane. Could someone tell me if this is meant to be a joke, because it seems to be being marketed here in Taiwan as a serious action movie and it cant possibly be can it? The trailer I saw had Samuel L. Attacking these tiny snakes with a shotgun, it looks and sounds like it could be great if its meant to be a joke, if not, it might be great too, im not sure, im intrigued.

In other unrelated news, Andy Lau reered his cheesy corperate face again and you know where.. On every single urinal in my classroom bathroom. Do the children I teach really want to see several times a day whilst they are trying to take a whizz? Honestly, what did he physically contribute to the creation of those urinals? By the looks of it, just a signature, it not like he has time to do anything substatial like design the things because he is too busy advertising every other product made in this country. Believe me, I will get to the bottom of it, and this time, its personal.

29.07.2006 or "Last day of leisure"

Since today was relatively free I decided that It was best spent mooching around. I watched Clerks 2. (Possible Spoiler warning, highlight to read)

I didnt have massive expectations but I was quite excited about the prospect of this film. I dont want to sway anyone's oppinion because amusingly whenever anyone tells people, me included that a film is good/bad there is a knee jerk reaction to find the opposite argument whenever they/ I get around to seeing it. So if anyone of that disposition is reading, then stop here. Well, for me, a couple of things stood out as being a little off kilter. The balance between shock and emotion was really shakily drawn wheras in the original clerks I felt they got it just right. Here they ask you to be so fond of the characters that you can empathise with situations which are either a) exactly the same as the first movie or b) so thinly explained or justified that you feel you have missed an entire other plotline. Some sections which intend to invoke some emotion in the audience just seem plain strange. As usual im sure there are plenty of counter arguments to these points but its just how I felt.

On a positive note, the dialogue and rants within are suitably hillarious and Randal even though he seems to have become much more evil in his old age, still makes a couple of great blunders. Its clear from this that Kevin Smith's forte is truly comedy banter and like most people I know, the Evening with Kevin Smith videos and his audio comentaries and DVD extras are where his best material can be found. As for being a director, a filmmaker, Clerks 2 is ok although not a very good movie.

So anyway, after that I sat down and played Onimusha 3. What a great game! Why did noone tell me how good it was? Its been out for ages. Where else can you be Jean Reno in feudal japan whipping flying monkeys with a chain. Where else can you be Takeshi Kaneshiro laying down some Samurai justice to battle tanks in modern day paris. Nowhere I tell you and this game is awesome. It just feels so solid and fun to play. I hope I get some more time to carry on my game later in the week, although it seems a little doubtful.

Tommorrow is busy, the week following is even more busy, I will keep you informed.

Bye Bye

28.07.2006 or "Apathy and Raw Meat"

Long long day again. I thought I could catch some breakfast at the American diner before I went to school but It was closed. I went without food until about 12 when I ate at school. The day consisted of more classroom contruction and copious amounts of sticky back plastic. Towards the end of the day I lugged around a classroom of Tatami, boy those things are heavy.

In the evening we went out and I ate steak and chicken, steak was really good and I found the best hot sauce in the world. Unfortunately the chicken was pretty undercooked so I had to leave it. Later we went to a book shop and I got a bit lost. I found a book called Akiba walker which I thought was quite amusing. I was going to buy a CD of kids songs aranged for the Ocarina, but it was a bit expensive so I left it.

Coming home I toyed with the idea of hitting TNT but I was a bit too knackered and I still haven't bought any sticks. Tommorrow is pretty much free, Im going to relax, watch Clerks 2 and generally veg out while I still can.

These blogs aren't getting shorter by the way, it just seems that way.

Seeya

27.07.2006 or "Nothing happens"

Well, I come to end of another long and tiring day. Spent most of it at school making things and generally walking around scratching my head as to how and when I can get everything in order. I made quite a fancy progress chart which looks like a cross section of the ocean on which little laminated dolphins can swim across eating fish. It took me bloody ages so I hope no one throws it away whilst I have gone. I still have no idea how we are going to sort the ant problem, maybe someone will sort it. Breakfast this morning came courtesy of the American diner. I had a cup of English breakfast tea which was instantly beneficial to the system. I also had eggs and bacon with HP brown sauce, what more could you ask for. Lunch came from 7/11 again, although this time I managed to find some actual hot water and noodle goodness was had.

After work, we ate at a Sukiyaki restaurant. The only discernable differences I could find with this and regular hot pot is that the soup was way too salty to eat and the meat was pretty oily. The best part of the meal in my opinion was the starter, gherkins with cold octopus, strange mix but really good, especially if you like seafood.

After the meal, I headed on over to Taiko no Tatsujin, but you must be sick of hearing about that, I was rubbish today anyway, the strings kept getting tangled around the sticks when I was playing and like a child I kept stopping mid song to register my disgust. The only answer: join the elite of TNT players who bring their own sticks with them. I’m not playing again until I get them, and that’s that. Or maybe I was just tired and stroppy.

Spent most, well all of my evening working on stuff for school and as a result I am neglecting everything and everyone around me. I guess I should relax a bit, but it’s better to be over prepared. Or maybe not, I’m just babbling. Tomorrow is more of the same but moreso. I’m sure if one was to plot a graph of how much work I do versus how interesting this blog is then It would show a steep downwards curve. Hopefully when I actually start working then I will have things to talk about, as of now, I find myself in the boring planning stages. Stay with me folks, I’m sure something will happen.

P.S This appeared

26.07.2006 or 君にジュースを買ってあげる！

Today I cycled into School and trotted up to class. I couldn't figure out whether the ants had gone or they were just hiding from me. I quick phonecall to the Co teacher revealed that the Typhoon had prevented her from coming in today. Rejigging my plans a little, I hit the 7/11 and then the library where I set about finding books. Luckily this task kept me busy all day and was a drawn out but much needed task which I will thank myself for doing in the future.

At teatime I cycled to McDonalds and had my tea. Then I went home and hung up the washing I had put in before I left for school in the morning. (This blog is becoming very literal). Then sat around and watched TV and then It was time for Taiko no Tatsujin. I walked there, this is what it looked like:



I played about four or five rounds of TNT8 and played suitably well. Ive recently added a new song to my practice list, the Opening to Keroro (About EP 50 Onwards) which has a really great rythym to it. My very last song of the evening was the only "Oni" mode song I have ever managed to finish properly without fluffing it all up. It was the Doraemon theme and I loved every moment of it. This to me marks the beginning of the incredibly hard transition process from Difficult to Oni but at least I have one song (the easiest) pretty much down.

Returning home, I typed up my booklist, drank some Taiwan beer with ice because I had forgotten to fridge any. Now its time for me to relax, sit back and watch at least 2 hours of anime which has been sitting in my downloded box for too long.

Take care everyone,

25.07.2006 or "Day off"

The second Typhoon is coming, you can feel it in the air. When you look outside everything seems to be grey and muggy. I think the children had a day off school today on account of the Typhoon although it didnt amount to anything much here today except rain. As usual for some reason the people in the South are getting the brunt of it. I watched on the news how the streets were flooded and the sewers were erupting out on the streets. I guess its just tempting fate to say I havent experienced any of it yet so Ill just stop talking about it.

We had lots of free time today and I got up pretty late. I went to make my Blendy and realised that there were only nine left! I dont think they sell it here yet so Id better get someone to bring some more. Lunch was at a local Dim Sum restaurant, although I dont like dimsum. In the morning I had built myself a Taiko practice drum from cardboard box which I was merrily thwacking away at with some chopsticks whilst watching the songs on Youtube. It works suprsingly well although the chopsticks are too small and light and to everyone else, I look a little silly. In the afternoon I played on the real thing for about half an hour before realising I was very tired and my legs were giving way. I drank some green tea and headed home to crash out on the sofa.

That brings us up to speed folks, it been a really slow day. Hope everyone is still good and happily getting on with their lives. Speak to you tommorrow.

24.07.2006 or "Ants"

Today started like any other. I woke up, took a show, cup of blendy, wiped the sleep from my eyes and headed out in search of food. My ultimate destination was school but I felt the need for burgers, which is strange for 9am in the morning. So I made my way over to McDonalds, casting all notions of a healthy diet aside and putting up with the sweltering morning sun. I should have really known I was too early for proper menu stuff but I made the mistake of asking for a Big Mac anyway. Long story short, I went to Mos burger which is right across the street, no big problems there. Mos burger looks like a fast food chain but in reality the food is really good quality and the food takes a while to come, i.e. they give you a number rather than a soggy cheeseburger which has been sitting on the hotplate for hours.

I had the spicy Mos cheeseburger which was great. Filled with jalapeños and the special Mos burger sauce that looks a bit like puke but tastes really good. A bit like mashed up baked beans and onions, only problem is, it never stays in the burger for more than one bite, leaving you with a napkin which looks like you or someone else has puked in. Maybe i'm the only one who has these kind of thoughts.

So, onwards to School. I really had no ideas what to expect of my new classroom. A walked through the lobby smiled politely and was greeted by a strange warning. "Watch out, bees" the kind lady said. "Sorry?" I replied. "There are bees, be careful" she added. I tentatively poked my head round the door and looked out onto the open air courtyard and saw two workmen waving branches around in some kind of effort to enrage/ calm down the bloody huge hornets which were floating round the middle of the stairwell. The children were going about there business without fear but I legged it up the third floor, patting myself down like a big girl and finally shut myself into the classroom. It was hot in the classroom, really hot. I switched on the lights and two ceiling fans but the air conditioner looked way too big and intimidating to play with unsupervised. I set up my laptop stood on the tatami mats with my hands on my hips and had my first real glance at the classroom.

It was about this time, or possibly when I sat down to use the computer that I realised we had a pretty serious ant problem. There were hundreds, everywhere, and they kept coming, from the cupboards, from the Tatami mats, from the computer monitor, I spent about ten minutes just trying to get as many as I could to clear a path for myself to sit down and work. After a while I stopped caring about the ants and started caring about how I was going to transform this bare shell of a room into a Kindergarten class within the week. Luckily I have my co teacher to help me after Wednesday and since I let the school know about the ants, it might be sorted or reduced by the first day of class.

The more time I spent milling around the classroom, finding old scraps of work, photos and such from the previous teachers class the sadder I became. It was a very strange feeling. I met the guy who preceded me and he seemed like an incredibly genuine and resourceful guy and he spent his time building up a class and relationship with his kids and they spent every day together for a year. And now, it was all gone, taken down and ready to be replaced with whatever I felt fit. All of a sudden I became aware of the enormous shoes I was going to have to fill to do a good job here. On one level the thought of that inspires me to do my best, on the other, it scares the hell out of me. I guess the trick is to make yourself believe that you are the most capable person in the world; I better get working on that.

Once my work for the day was done I wandered home. I spaced out for what must have been hours, playing on the net and chatting to friends back home. It seems like I’m missing quite allot. We ordered some food in and then mustered up the energy to head to the department store. After spending a while choosing some new jeans I left everyone else and headed up to the trusty 16th floor for some Taiko no Tatsujin. (And also Mr. Driller, is that game as boring as it appears to be?). I must say, after a really disappointing set last time in Tiger City, I was on my best form tonight. I started off slowly, if you can call difficult mode slowly, and I was concentrating less on perfect songs but more about the drumming variations. You see a veteran of two years schooled me on the importance of variating the hands and never using the same hand twice. Its all about the rhythm and maximizing the time you have to follow each note, building up a constant stream of hits which you can variate the speeds accordingly.

Anyway, at one point, about the third song in, something just twigged in my brain and I no longer had to think about which notes to hit, the circles became a constant stream of commands which my arms were following. I have experienced this before when I played games like Beat mania and Gitarooman, you just get to certain level where you are able to read the commands much faster and without thinking. All of the great Bemani game players have to reach this point, it’s like a pain barrier. Its like the first week of playing a guitar, if you quit before then, then you will never learn, but get over that first hurdle of getting your chord changes fast enough then you will get better and better from that point onwards. Anyway, I am making far too many analogies, what I’m trying to say ladies and gentlemen is from this point onwards, I think I can become really good at this game. Asia good, Oni level good, and once I do, I will film it and show you guys.

Phew, that was tiring. If anyone is getting really sick of hearing about this game then let me know. It probably won’t stop my obsession but let me know anyway. I will leave you all today with a rather bizarre video I put together from footage which was floating around on the memory stick. Hope you get something out of it, next time I might try and make something that has cohesive links between the scenes and subjects, until then, enjoy then nonsensical mish mash of images.

Seeya!

23.07.2006 or "Bored of the Layout"

Yeah, I was messing about with the pesky user profile again today and I just cant seem to properly get rid of it. Ideally I want to be able to have a big title spread at the top of this page and links running down the left hand side but my html knowledge is very limited. These frustrations, and basic boredom with the layout have lead to the decision that I will probably try and make a new page pretty soon. I figure since we are coming up to about 26 proper posts at this point, standard anime series laws would dictate that the OP and ED animations along with the theme tunes change right around this point.

Anyway, on to today. I had a pretty productive idea and researching day today and I am ready to go into school tommorrow and potter around my, now hopefully empty class room. I think it will be nice to get a feel of what it is like to walk around in there, get my barings a full week before the kids arrive. I can check out where the posters and bulletin boards can go, get a feel for where the different areas can be laid out and generally get my head in the right place. I also need to find some appropriate books for the topics which I am working on, the library that they have is pretty well stocked although I am yet to get a library card.

I have been playing with the kitten quite alot today, he was being crazy as usual. He just wouldnt be quiet when he was left in his room so I let him out for a bit to run around the house. On a much deserved break, I drank my Blendy and played a game of football with him using a piece of rolled up kitchen cloth. He runs on two legs alot when he gets excited, kind of hopping across the room on his hind legs whist waving his paws, i guess to attack things. I hope I can capture it on camera one of these days.

I had lunch at the American diner around the corner. Burger and chips. Some guy was really kicking up a fuss about them not having mint sauce for the lamb he was eating. He kept saying, "It's important". I could'nt disagree with him on the subject but I think some allowances need to be made for the fact that we are in Taiwan. I mean, I eat there too but I know Im a bit of a cultural recluse and I definately wouldn't expect the food to be exactly like home, even though the food there is really good. It just surprises me how people can be such assholes and still have people running around for them. I dont know why I instantly take a disliking to self important people, I guess its because I can see through it, and that they are actual just idiots hiding behind a title or a speciality which they think makes them better than everyone else. Theres alot of that with other westerners in Asia, you see them purposefully avoiding eye contact with you because they think that the existance of any other foreigner than them somehow makes their lives out here less special and self centred. Its a bit like kids acting out just because they are on a field trip. Well, never mind, its none of my business anyway.

In other news there is another Typhoon coming, suposed to be here on Tuesday so I hear. Hope it doesnt do too much damage and mess up my first week. On the upside I can learn more about Typhoons for future lessons on Summer weather.

Im off now, see you later.

22.07.2006 or "Plotholes of the Carribbean"

Just a short one today cause Its later than usual. I spent the daytime working more on my School stuff. In the afternoon, we headed of to a place called Tiger City, a type of all singing all dancing enclosure of shops restraunts and cinemas about a 20 minute drive away. I ate at a place called Chilli's which I think is an American chain of restraunts, where I had fajitas and a chocolate milkshake. I found an arcade which had three Taiko no Tatsujin machines, 6, 7 and 8. I played a couple rounds of each but I really was not on form, I felt like my arms were ignoring all the messages my brain was sending them and I ended up just pointlessly whacking the drums with all my might and missing half of the notes.

Went to see Pirates of the Carribean and I felt like I was forcing myself to enjoy it rather than face the concept of being bored and trapped in a darkend cinema for two and a half hours. I know for a fact I could not have watched it all the way through had I not seen it at the cinema. To paraphrase someone else, it was like they had five scripts, loaded them all into a shotgun and fired them out into the ocean and then hired someone to pick up random pieces and make a script out of them. Once again, the only reason to even think about watching this franchise, thats right, theres going to be another one, is good old Mr Depp and you get the impression even he was bored. I wasnt the worst film I have seen in the cinema since the scale was suitably grand, but its probably one of the most pointless. If Ive learnt anything, its that films are very different when translated into different languages so I cant account as to why it is so succesful here but, whatever, Im tired of talking about it now.

Tommorrow is more work so Im going to try and get an early start on it,

Seeya

21.07.2006 or "Trapped"

Today I was determined to get to work on my first months curriculum. I managed to pull together a considerably large amount of ideas, some of which I will probably use, but all in all I was just looking forward to lunch. Last night I had discovered this really cool American diner around the corner and I was going to head off to get myself some kind of Burrito for lunch when I realised I had left the keys in my girlfriend's bag and had no way of letting myself in or out. So once again, I ate ramen for lunch and continued to work on the net. I consumed my weight in Blendy and broke up chunks of research with Anime.

Bleach 89 followed by Nana 14. After the filler and fluff respectively, I was left with a rather shallow oppion of Anime in general. I have recently taken on two new Anime although I have no time to do such a thing. The first is called The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya which has a really interesting animation style, in that they actually animate instead of just moving the mouths of the characters, and Witchblade which seems like mindlessly entertaining nonscence based on the American comic. Its wierd, the opening credits sight it as a Top Cow production allthough its an entirely Japanese cartoon. What exactly Top Cow has to do with it im not sure (I probably should reseach these things myself) but it seems to be watchable. I know I make fun of Nana but this weeks was better than most, it was kind of quiet and introverted with a eye for weird camera angles and effects, which always make things look more interesting than they actually are.

Back in the real world, Today brought some important news, the young man responsible for Arcadefinger celebrates his 23rd Birthday today so you should all swing by and leave him a Birthday message. And even better, buy him a cider, as I regretfully cannot.

Not alot more to say about today, real work and stuff doesnt make for great banter material. I hear you guys in the west are still suffering in the heat. Try and stay cool and dont let the heat get to you, although from what I have been reading you shouldnt put too much trust in those electric fans.

On that note, I shall bid you farewell for today,

20.07.2006 or "The Lunchtime Dilema"

Its been hot today, really hot. And I know Enlgand is suffering too but But it doesnt stop me from complaining. I just got back from School and Im sitting here with the fan on full blast, comfortable, but it means all of the sweat is solidifying into a horrible salty wax. I should really take a shower but I need to sit down first, and typing takes no physical effort, so this comes first.

Today was really good fun, I got to see the same class I saw before and generally take a wander round the School and check out my classroom to be. I met with my co teacher and we talked about how were going to go about creating our new class and its schedule. Its scary to think that in just ten days I will be into the fray and all of my planning will need to be actually implemented. I did however pick up some good advice from some of the Teachers already there, some of which will be leaving after tommorrow to make way for a new wave of teachers for the new semester, one of which is me! Ive decided to dedicate all of my time to getting everything perfect for when I start. Monday I am going to the school with my construction head on, things need to be made, signs, charts, calendars and its going to take all of my GCSE art skills to pull it off. I need to physically go there to do this because It will give me access to alot of materials which I physically do not have here at home. Bright, bold and cute are words I will be keeping in mind when contructing the classroom. My co-teacher is has considerably less free time than me at the moment but she expressed a burning desire to help make stuff. We both need to get together to design and clean the classroom for the new term and stick the stuff to the wall but thats probably going to be done on Friday.

I had another terrible sweet bread experience today. I came out of the school to find something to eat when I realised that I dont actually have the skills to choose or buy anything unless it was from a Mc'Donalds or 7/11. I had to go to the latter since the area I was in was surprisingly Mc Donalds free. I looked at the chilled section, realised I neither knew how to read or ask the microwave instructions on the food. I wandered some more, found the crisp section, but unlike in England when you go to buy a packet of Walkers, (Lays over here) they do not sell normal human sized amounts of crisps. They may be the same price, but the bags here are much too big to reasonably eat or carry in a lunchtime scenario, rather they are the size of the big packs of Doritos and Dip type bags. And since I had to go back to school, there was no way I was going to bring a half eaten bag of crisps with me becuase A) I would look like a bit of an idiot B) The last time I put food in my bag, it got infested with ants.

So crisps were out. I finally was left with the dreaded bread section. Now there was alot, but I knew that anything which looked like normal bread was going to be sweet. (It might be because they put milk in it) So what I went for, out of desperation was something which looked like a cheese coated cob. Now cheese, on a cob, cant possibly be all that bad can it? I reasoned that even if the bread was sweet, the cheese would somehow counteract that taste with a bitter/salty possibly even tangy aroma, lessening my trauma. Well my reasoning was wrong everyone, and once again I got burned at my hungriest and shakiest low. I bit into the cob and was greeted by a thick caustic, sticky layer of what must have been sugar added to fat, mixed in with flour and custard. I recoiled in pure undiluted frustration, stood up threw the cob into the bin and vowed never to eat another piece of bread in this country ever again. Cheese cob my ass!

But I still needed to eat, I couldnt finish the day in the state I was in, kids need you to be energetic and I was running on nothing but filter coffee. I hit the instant noodle section and found the instant version of the uber ramen which I showed you all a while back. By this point the check out assitant was getting a little sick of hearing the trademark "Bing Bong" of the 7/11 doors and having to say welcome to me everytime. Nevertheless, I cracked open the ramen, added the five or so packets of stuff which need to go in it and filled it up with hot water. What I realised qute quickly when I sat outside on the bench with my free chopsticks and spoon was that the water, although hot, was not hot enough to adequately heat up the ramen to the point of being soft. So to wrap up all this ridiculous rant I found my self in the boiling hot sun, on a bench crunching down solid noodles and slightly warm soup and feeling genuinely sorry for myself.

The moral of this story, if you are going to go to a country for an exended period of time, make sure you know enough of the language to order whatever you want to eat. Otherwise you will just end up like me, having to forfeit all the great food the country has to offer and have to settle food which people who dont have communication skills are forced to eat. I am so at the mercy of other people at the moment to commucate for me and sometimes that is a hard fact to swallow. I have to learn chinese, and fast, otherwise all joking aside, I might actually go a bit nuts.

Signing of for today, yours truly,

Aaron

19.06.2006 or "Yet another wasted day"

Its a little early for blogging but gosh darn it if Im not the most bored I have been in a while. Truly I shoudlnt complain about having free time, on the contrary I should be enjoying it while it lasts, but do you ever get those days where your timing is messed up from when you wake up and you never quite muster the energy to do anything at all. And so you sit, maybe you watch some TV programme or another, mill around ideas in your head and then reject them all because you never quite gather enough steam to bring any to fruition. Thats what today is, a big pointless lethargic waste of time.

See, I partially blame the internet for days like this. You see with the internet, you can maintain such a low level of interest in what you are doing/ reading/ watching and still feel like you are partaking in some kind a valuable activity. But thinking about it, I have spent all morning on the internet doing one thing or another and acheived absolutely nothing of value. Lets see, when I woke up I watched some Anime, Elfen Lied, the one I told you about 15 post ago I had given up for dead, its still quite rubbish, but I watched it all. Lets see, I made some ramen, even though I had ramen for my evening meal last night also. I watched episode 13 of nana whilst I ate, all the time wondering why I still watch such ridiculous fluff. I took a shower and had a shave even though I have no intention of leaving this room today. I thought about doing lots of productive things but in the end, im still sitting here on the bed, typing my blog, which In a way is also kind of pointless, especially when I have nothing of substance to talk about.

Days like these make me forget Im actually on the other side of the world. I slip into a lethargic slob like state and all of a sudden look out of the window and think good god why are there huge skyscrapers and chinese signs everywhere. I guess If I was more confindent of my bearings and communication skills then I wouldnt feel so confined sometimes. It is easy to spend so much time on the internet when everything else is in a language you dont understand. Now I kind of understand why the overseas students I met at university were such horders, its a comfort thing, things which remind you of home help you to relax and to feel safe depite how fantastic and interestic the country is at time, sometimes you just want to get away from it all and recharge the batteries.

Im currently wearing the T-Shirt which has come back from the spiritual dry cleaners, it feels nice. Needless to say, there were no otherworldy visitations last night and sound sleep was had all round. Im going to force myself to do something productive tomorrow, get out of the house or do somethings which need to be done, anything other than mindlessly clicking through the net all day, hiding from the sun. Otherwise the only otherworldly corpse like aparition that floats through these halls is going to be me.

Ive recently added a truck load of favourites to my Youtube page. Its a good job I quit putting them up on here because there would be nothing but video screens on the whole site. I know I go on about it, but Youtube really is a revolution, I really do not know what I did without it. Of course it is also Youtube which allows me to post up my video clips for the site, and expect to see lots more of them when I get my act together and do something worth filming again.

I would like to keep on typing because it is keeping me occupied but I fear I really have nothing to say. (Spends at least 5 minutes staring at the screen blankly and thinking) Nope, Thats all.

18.07.2006 or "Loose Ends"

Having not been able to put up pictures for some reason yesterday I made a short video of the trip to the south of Taiwan. There are some pictures at the end and the rest of them Ill find a use for somehow.



Little footnote to the end image, apparantly the chinese translation is more to do with safety and less about child abuse so dont be alarmed, it is but an amusing mistake im assured.

Today has been a wierd one, without going into detail it seems that paranormal happenings have been affecting everyone in the house except me. I remain suportive without overstepping my line of cynicism. Its strange though, events such as these show you just how spiritual this culture is and just how little faith I have in anything in comparisson. I can rest easy pretty much anywhere, except where I am actually physically at risk of harm from real people. Anyway, in conclusion, measures have been undertaken (well I just watched) to rid everyone and everything of bad things and hopefully all should be fine and dandy by the morning.

I just ordered some ramen because were to tired to get something ourselves. I had some great food from a rest stop yesterday on our return home. It was just fried chicken and side order type things but the box was so meticulously crafted and I got a pair of surgical gloves to eat it with. Just another little cultural quirk, much like the boiled eggs and fishsticks in 7/11 which keeps me entertained on a daily basis.









Well, my foods here, seeyou later guys,

16&17.07.2006 (South of Taiwan)

Well, I have recently returned from the trip to Kenting about a 3 hours drive from where we are. Theres lots to talk about so ill get right to it...

(Quick note: Blogger is not letting me put pictures up right now so Ill have to try and update this later)

Woke up the morning of the 16th feeling very tired for some reason, it took me all morning to get my eyes to open properly. We had to get a new memory stick for the camera so after checking the car would last us the trip, we set out in search of electronics and breakfast. Breakfast came in the form of KFC, a burger and a gallon of iced coffee. After hitting the local electronics basement and snagging the memory card we were on our way.

The road journey was relatively stress free. I had made a couple of CDs the week before that served as well on the duration of the trip, some Johnny Cash, Ryan Adams, new Radiohead and a boatload of Japanese stuff which helped us stay awake. About an hour into the Journey the heavens opened up and the weather turned really nasty. Torrential rain, lightning and black clouds as far as the eye could see. It was starting to luck a little like the beach was out of the question. A few minutes later we made the obligatory rest stop. The place was packed with frustrated looking motorists, smoking constantly, probably asking themselves why they set out in this freak post Typhoon madness. I took myself off to the 7/11 to get more coffee and take some photographs of the shelves.

Fed and watered, it was time to be heading back on our travels. Miraculously the weather made a complete turn around as we got out to the coast. Although the sea was still very angry, although by the time we arrived and checked into the hotel, it seemed best to leave any beach fun until the next day. Instead we investigated the town itself, walking down the main road and eating various fried foodstuffs and checking out the shops. When it became nightfall, the whole street lit up and became pretty rowdy, although in a good way, not in a Blackpool oh no were actually going to get shanked kind of way.
People were coming and going to various clubs which spilled out onto the street like most shops do in Taiwan I assume because of the climate. Even from the hotel with the windows closed you could still hear the music into the wee small hours. Having worn ourselves out from traveling and shopping it was time to return to the room. I crashed out on my bed, ate some ramen and watched Runaway Jury on TV with Chinese subtitles.

This morning was all about the beach. We actually went to two separate ones in the end. The first was quite rocky but really nice to look at and the second was more sandy and hence more people. Lunch consisted of some really nice garlic and chilli pasta and a really disappointing seafood pizza. After lunch I plucked up the courage to go in the sea despite my fear of all things which lurk in the sea. I still freaked out a bit when I felt thinks brush past my feet like seaweed and drift wood.

Before it was time to leave my spider senses twigged onto the presence of a Taiko no Tatsujin machine somewhere in the beach area. Sure enough, tucked away on the top floor of a little shopping arcade lay good old version 6 lying in wait for the day I came to this place. I played six rounds consisting of some old faithfuls to some new ones ranging from fun to impossible. In order to get better I’m only picking musukashii settings now.



So, having made the long trip back home again, life is pretty much how I left it. I’m quite sun burnt despite having put on sun cream and worn a hat and sunglasses all the time. Tomorrow is going to be way less active and more geared towards serious planning for the weeks ahead. I would put up more stuff but I left blogging to the last minute as usual and now its late and I'm sleepy. Until next time everyone, stay classy

(What, no one sent me any signing off suggestions yet)

15.07.2006 or "Insert daft subtitle here"

Last night I investigated the local pub across from us. It is advertised as being a foreigner bar although there were more locals than foreigners. In indulged in some Fosters, the first western beer I had sampled in a while since in Japan it was always Asahi and Kirin and here its usually Gold label Taiwan beer. Beer like most things here are quite cheap. I chatted to some of the locals and read the horrible Expat magazine which looks to have been written by complete morons. Towards the end of the evening I was ushered upstairs to watch some American guy play guitar and sing, there weren’t many people up there so he was taking requests. I got him to play some Radiohead although he didn’t know the words so I occasionally had to shout them out to him. I must have been up there for a while because when I got up to leave, my legs were not half as stable as they used to be. I plodded back home.

I woke up and my head felt like a sack of rocks. I tried to figure out why I was feeling ill having not spent much money on drinks. I then stopped trying to figure that out and concentrated on getting better, the solution, lemon tea, blendy and plain toast. I sat myself down to watch two films, well, one and a half because the first, The Grudge, the one with Buffy, was so crap I turned it off half way through. So then I watched Takeshis' which was great. As a movie it was so solid and entertaining. I often question whether Kitano is as great as I think he is and what the actual appeal of his films are. I guess as a protagonist, Takeshi is just so lovable, like a child given free reign to do things which are simultaneously shocking and creative. His films have a great sense of humor which never effects the compelling nature of the stories. I think his eye for artistic shot construction makes every scene much greater than the generic imagery of the Yakuza genre for example. I just loved this film from start to finish. It was so great to see so many Office Kitano actors coming back and still fantastic after all these years. I want to watch it again and again, and so I will, and so should you too.

So anyway we went out for some Yakiniku at a pretty cool place about a ten minute walk from here. My stomach was still a little off but cup after cup of coke seemed to sooth the beast. I ate various types of meat and we also tried to roast marshmallows over the grill but it didn’t seem to work very well.

Tomorrow we are off to the south of Taiwan for a bit of a scenery change. The weather is still a bit rubbish on account of the Typhoon but maybe we will get some luck and we can check out the beach without being too soaked by the sideways rain which has been persisting it down over here. Anyway because of this, I might not be able to put out a blog tomorrow. You will have to do something else with the 4 minutes it usually takes to read this stuff. May I offer up some suggestions...
You could read an entirely random persons blog by clicking at the top and choosing next blog, sometimes that is good for a cheap laugh. You could try to think of ten things which rhyme with blog and then make a little song with all of those words. Although be sure to record it and send it to me so I can play it to the kids at school. Or you could just sit still, close your eyes and go to your happy place for a while, remember to take big deep breaths and breathe in the good energy and push out the bad. If any of the above activities work out well for you, don’t get too carried away and forget to come back.

Until next time,

P.S, You could also try and think me up some signing off patter, I never know how to end these things, cheers.

14.07.2006 or "Less Youtube more Patter"

Im becoming a little too reliant on Youtube nowadays, so instead of constantly bomarding you the reader with TV screens in these posts, Ive just decided to put a link to my favourites at the top of the page.

I noticed on the news today that the Typhoon has all but past Taiwan and is currently making its merry way over to the south of China. The effects it had on the south of Taiwan look pretty bad but here in Taichung I didnt even notice anything happening. It got a bit windy but because I was mostly indoors I still dont have any real sence of what a Typhoon is or does. After the massive rant about breakfasts I had the other day, I was happy to find a certain Japanese supermarket (Yumaowu Market and Bakery) which had some awesome bread. I found myself an actual loaf of bread, which wasnt sweet and also the most amazing thin bagette which enclosed a spicy german sausage. It is the most perfect beer snack I have ever encountered and I shall return to buy another. I also tried my first super spicy curry bread (god bless the japanese) which I had for breakfast this morning. Its kind of a crunchy oval pan pumped full of curry which you eat cold. My whole breakfast routine has been solved! I also found weetabix and have found my morning drink because of yet another Japanese invention "Blendy", a kind of packet instant coffee.

I hate to keep imparting Japanese pop culture to you guys when I am actually in Taiwan but thats just because of the extent to which this country is influenced by it. If you look on the map, Japan is but a 3 hour flight away and it doesnt help that they are one of the most economically successful countries around. You turn on the TV and one in three of the shows are Japanese, all of them if you only look at the anime channels. Products, games, music, they are all Japanese. It is hard to extract the true essence of Taiwan underneath all this imported neon fluff, but I guess if its to be found anywhere, it is in the culture. I only wish I were clever enough to competantly explain it to you, the history, the art, the society but alas I am not. I am but an amusing oddity to the Taiwanese and even more shut out because I didnt study chinese, only Japanese. Luckily this skill allows me to speak to Japanese speaking Taiwanese and any Japanese people I may come across living and working out here. So I press on, doing my best with this blog, but forgive me if I paint a fragmented and inacurate portrait of this country, its only because I am yet to figure it out myself.

Besides, after reading many other blogs, I can see that attempts to blog a topic with any type of authority results in you sounding like a completely self centred and dillusional ass. And we dont want MMI to go in that direction do we?

Tonight I will be on my own until quite late, I havent figured out quite what I am going to do yet. I will keep you posted.

Time for some comedy me thinks

13.07.2006 or "The most unproductive day"

Today I woke up and realised I have not as yet bought anything for myself to eat for breakfast and even If I were to prepare ahead, I would have to rethink the whole breakfast dynamic. You see to me, breakfast is two pieces of toast and a cup of tea. This combo has served me well for many years and is the perfect thing to fill the body with both bulky mass and caffeine. Here people dont buy toasters as we think of them, they have them in some stores but generally the only toaster you will find is a small front loading grill type contraption which is reminicent of the fisher price kids ovens which were all the rage when I was growing up. You are only going to get one slice of bread in there maximum and you are going to have to do some flipping half way through.

The next obstacle to the breakfast combo is the actual bread. Now, I dont know if anyone is like me but I almost never like to eat sweet things, sweet things always walk a tightrope with me, they can be ok in moderation but most of the time, especially when you arent expecting it, sweet= sickly. And baring in mind that mornings for me are the most unsettled stomach time of the day (hence the toast and tea) It is difficult to accept the fact that all bread in Taiwan is sweet. All of it, even regular sliced loaves, all have at least a sugary quality to them which to me lifts it right out of the savoury breakfast court and into the desert/ snack area which immediately disqualifies it from any place in the Toast/Tea combo breakfast.

Now tea is a similar story, aside from in Starbucks (and not all of them) it is almost impossible to find English breakfast tea anywhere. Two types of tea take precedant here, and this is quite complicated so I will break it down for you. First off you have your green tea (lu cha) which is either served hot, with meals, in winter etc, or cold, in the literally hundreds of tea shops you will find out in town. The cold green tea is mixed with everything under the sun. What I always buy from the 7/11 is passionfruit green tea which tastes a little bit like flat lilt. I used to drink one which contained green tea and Yakhult although not many places strike the balance right any more and it ends up with white globules of solidified milk which stick in your throat: not nice. Next up is the Milk Tea, now when I first came here I made the mistake of thinking Milk Tea was milk with tea (ha, what was I thinking), no It, like the above varieties of green tea are SWEET. And milk tea is the worst culprit because it is so sweet and creamy, its like drinking custard with added sugar. So in conclusion, not being a person who takes sugar in regular tea, I cannot find a drink which would substitute the role which English tea plays in my life back home.

So you know what Im going to do, switch to black coffee. And why black? Because people in Taiwan dont have a real use for milk and there fore it is never around and it is expensive to buy. So now, what do I eat, well going by my past experiences I have mostly skipped breakfast and waited until lunch comes around like I did today. Dont get me wrong, Taiwan has some of the best food you will ever find, but alas, no concept of the bland tasteless breakfast. I give up, if someone could just send me some Kingsmill in the post you would be doing me a massive favour.

This blog is so titled because just like the first half of yesterday I have done bugger all all day expept mope around and play on the internet. I watched Episode 88 of Bleach, the animation is really going down hill, I think that the makers, like me, are beginning to lose interest on acount of the filler. It makes sence, if you were forced to animate something which inceasingly dropped in value because you were not aloud to make the actually story, you would cut corners too. Inactivity definately leads to apathy as I am finding out at the moment, I cant wait for something to actually happen now. Im going to watch Infernal Affairs again later because A) Andy Lau is everywhere I look now, not only Urinals but clothes shops, drinks cartons, food packages. Something tells me I should watch one of his movies so that I dont begin to hate him B) We went to KTV last night and some people were singing the theme tune. The music video made it look like the best film in the world and since I saw it so long ago, I have all but forgoten what it is even about. So I shall partake in that, and watch Takeshis which has been sitting on my HD for about a week now and I have been too lazy to commit to it.

In other news, looks like the Typhoon here is picking up, it getting real windy and even though I still dont know what a Typhoon is, other people sound very ominous about it so I will just stay in side where nothing bothers me. Thats all from today, unless of course something remarkable happens in the next eight hours, allthough I doubt it today.

12.07.2006 or "Slow office day"

Videos like this make me think I picked a bad hobby. As you can hear from the emphatic Taiko announcer, this guy gets Furu Combo! I.e, not one miss. I saw some kids today, must have been about 7 at the most, playing a secret oni (demon) difficulty and nailing it. If anyone is interested this seemed to access it by repeatedly hitting right after the musukashii (hard) setting. And you know what topped it all off, they even brought their own sticks with them from home.


The song I said I wasnt going to forget about



In the deepest ocean
the bottom of the sea
your eyes they turn me
why should i stay here?
why should i stay?
i'd be crazy not to follow
follow where you lead
your eyes they turn me
sunk without a trace
the bottom of the deep
your eyes they turn me
turn me into fantasies
i follow to the edge of the earth
and fall off
everybody leaves
if they get the chance
and this is my chance

11.07.2006 or "A tale of two hospitals"

Today I awoke from an epic dream which must have been the manifestation of a million things which are running through my head at the moment. It was me and some faceless friends sneaking into a top secret government facility. Once inside, we wandered around the labyrinth type building and managed to pass ourselves off as some of the many people of all ages who appeared to be inputting data into various terminals. These people were all wearing white and they ranged from young kids to middle aged men and women. During my time in this delusion, I somehow became aware that the jig was up and people were surreptitiously talking into walkie talkies and looking at us strangely. Before I knew it, I was confronted by a woman who asked to see my identification, having handed over my passport and such I turned out the woman was a sympathizer to the injustice which was going on within the facility, I forget what this injustice was, but it all got a little 1984 from that point onwards. I just remember waking up from a night without having turned the air conditioner on, a mistake which had cost me the ability to function for about two hours after waking.

Some photos had been dropped off for me down in the lobby which I needed to dispense to the relevant people as the day progressed. Today was more efforts towards getting my work visa, namely a medical examination and another trip to the school. Having tried to explain where I wanted to go, the Taxi took me to the wrong hospital. Having wandered round the wrong hospital for about an hour before I realized it I caught another Taxi to what I thought was the actual hospital. Luckily it was and I went through various X-Rays poking, sight tests, blood pressure, blood tests and a brief chat before I was told I would receive the results a week from today. Luckily for me, the nurse there spoke pretty good English and at no point did I have to take my trousers off so it was relatively stress free in the end. Turns out you have to do one of those every year when you apply for the working visa. Anyway, I dropped off some stuff back at the house and then headed back out to the school. Turns out if you are trying to get a job based on your degree, you are gonna need the actual diploma certificate. The earliest I can get mine is August so let’s hope it gets sorted in time.

The evening took us out to a brand new department store, one bigger than all of the others I have seen before. I’m talking three connected skyscrapers, each holding fourteen floors of shops each and being packed to the rafters with shoppers. Unfortunately the arcade they had there was a bit rubbish so I settled on sitting outside and getting a coffee as all the people were freaking me out a bit. Nothing of major interest happened after that, we got some food, headed home and I played with some new pens I bought out in town, hopefully they will allow me to create some pretty decent line art for some future Photoshop experiments. If off to bed now, today has worn me out a bit, I might take it easy tomorrow and try and avoid any more major quests for a bit.

10.07.2006 or "Taiko no Tatsujin Revisited"

Thats right! I found out the name of the name of the Namco Drum Game, just in time for my inpromptue return earlier today. This time it was on my terms. We had originally intended to just eat a meal a couple floors down and leave but something inside me drew me back up there. Our meal was some freakin awesome ramen, the likes of which are rarely found. The place we ate was apparently started up by two guys who won the final of Japan's answer to Masterchef and created a succesful ramen chain out of it. There was a lovely ball of Kimchi placed in the centre of the creamy golden pork laden noodle bowl which I mixed into the soup to make an orange glowing ooze of wonder which gave me the power I needed to rock out two of my best rounds on Taiko no Tatsujin 8. First round I started off modest, medium setting, first round, ichirin no hana by High and Mighty colour followed up by Glamourous Sky by Mika Nakashima, no problems, 100 percent on the first, almost perfect on the second, I was in the zone. And the best thing about it is that this time there was no kids around to make me feel self consious, just an adoring girlfriend who was genuinely impressed by my drumming skills, even though it is a kids game.

Another round was in order, this time all new choices. Again, medium settings because I didnt want to be burned again, not on this kind of drumming high. Now the first one was about the most poppy and infectious slice of cute J-Pop you have ever heard but when I was playing it, it was a rock anthem, and I was the king of Taiko. Returning home I dug out the actual song from the depths of Youtube and suddenly I found myself feeling a little less manly. Ladies and Gents, I give you the phenomenon that is Sakuranbo by Ai Otsuka.



See what I mean. Anyway, the next song was also awesome but I cant for the life of me remember what It was called, although I will not let it go, Ill find it eventually when I go back for more practice. So, the rest of the day, hum, what did I do. Oh, I now have wheels, two of them, in the form of an old bike. I say old, it looks nice now we hosed it down and got the tires inflated and put some lights on it, this means I can hopefully be able to stop asking the guys downstairs to order Taxi's for me and I can take one of the first few steps towards independant living. I am pretty reliant on the kindness and charity of other people at the moment but as soon as I get a visa and a job I will start paying everyone back for their generosity. Speaking of jobs, looks like Im gonna be cutting it pretty fine with the visa application as I am throwing myself at the whim of the University and to as and when they can get my offical diploma out here to me. Tomorrow is a big day for all that kind of stuff, lots of forms to fill out, money to pay and ooh fun, a medical examination so they can rest asured Im not going to drop dead whilst teaching.

Of course I know there is nothing actually wrong with me, you know aside from morbid inactivity for the past 15 years, but its still a little daunting when you are in a foreign country such as this, god I hope they can speak English. If they dont they may have to bring in an interpreter whilst my pants are around my ankles and that would just be awkward. I guess Ill have an amusing experience to share with you guys though which is something at least. Still not got around to seeing Pirates 2 or Superman yet, which Im a little sad about because I want to see them both. Hopefully I can convince someone to take me, if not Ill just have to watch one piece with the sound down and do a Keith Richards voiceover for Monkey D. Luffy instead.

Thats all for today folks, as always I hope everyone is doing well, Im going to try and get some of my own video footage up here soon, I had toyed with the idea of some kind of podcast but ultimately my voice is far too anoying and I wouldnt be able to talk for more than five minutes at a time, Ill see what I can come up with. Seeya,

MMI News

Mostly brought to you by youtube today but its early so you can forgive me.

>First off, the theatrical trailer for Clerks 2 which I found this morning, looks like its hitting cannes again this year and coming out late this month in the U.S. Hopefully Kevin Smith can put us all out of our misery in the U.K soon after that.



>Next up, its time for my weekly, or even daily push to get you all playing Melty Blood. Ive upped the ante and put some game footage on here to enspire you, I cant be alone in thinking this is a fantastic game.



>Upcoming super cute PSP game LocoRoco has an amusing website where you can play about with a flash version of the game and learn all about it. Click Here to play.

>Finally, this has been kicking around the office for quite a while now and I never cease to be amazed by it. If anyone is interested in checking out more of its kind go to http://www.animemusicvideos.org. I reccoment the AMV hell series if you get time to download them.




This has been, MMI Morning News,

10.07.2006 or "00:13"

Ok, so I cheated, Its not really todays blog at all, its but a meer few hours since I last posted but what can I say, I felt like ranting and the house is so unbearably quiet It makes the mind wander, and randomly click through other peoples blogs to see if they are at all interesting and for the most part, they arent. I must admit the only reason I started this blog was because I feel I have a mildly interesting back drop which is fun to share with you guys. My utter confusion and bewilderment in Taiwan is entirely genuine and it creates situations on a day to day basis which make for amusing anecdotes. Believe me, its stressful being your clown but I myself enjoy reading back just how unstable may days turn out to be over here on the other side of the world. And if for that reason alone, I shall contine to document my days here, however many of them there may be.

Its been raining here pretty hard today, I figured out that maybe the torential rain contrubuted to my not remembering anything which happened, if that makes any sense to you. We were driving around in the car and I watched kids on scooters battle against the elements in their one piece anoraks. (As in, one piece of material, rather than One Piece themed anoraks, which incidently they do have here). There was a dalmation joining them in the rush, although without fear the dog appeared to be running straight down the road as if he was a car. I forgot about him until much later when we saw a similar dog, quite far away from the original place, plodded along the middle of the road again. It just stuck me as odd that he would be able to keep up such a ridiculously dangerous hobby all day, through the elements and not get hit or removed by someone. I bet he is still out there now, trotting down the road with the cars, stopping for traffic lights and petrol. I hope I see him again, I admire his unshakable spirit and drive to do what he wants to do. Unless I see him run over, and then I would have to say he was a stupid dog.

Dont laugh but I went to the Gym tonight. I just had so much energy left over from not really exherting any energy and eating all of that food. I was skipping around the room, generally pestering everyone else so I decided to give it a shot. This place has a very nice but very underused Gym down in the basement, needless to say I was the only one down there. I knew it was underused because I was cutting a pattern into a layer of dust with my socks as I decended the wooden stacks. The secretary asked me if I wanted the TV on, I said yes, and hit channel 15 for some anime goodness while I work my guns. Thats a little joke there.

I hoisted my jelly like body onto the running machine and puffed away for about 7 minutes before I wanted to die. I slumped down onto the floor and watched a good 15 minutes of anime before I was ready to start up again. They had a pretty fancy looking drinks dispenser, a kitchen and cabinets, I was started to feel pretty privelaged in my little Gym, athough the dispenser was difficult to fathom out and on traversing the workout area a smacked my clumbsy western head on the ceiling. Next up was the rowing machine, which I liked because it was attached to a big fan and using it created a nice payback of air. I did the stairmaster and a strange vibrating bone cruncher thing which you stand on, press a button and it feels like you are being electrocuted from the inside out before swaggering back up to the room, taking a shower and sitting myself down to the computer from where I am currently typing. One Piece Eps 21 - 30 has just popped up on my screen as having finished downloading, I must say, with the risk of stating the obvious, go watch One Piece, Its so good, please dont be put off by the poo Cartoon Network version, its an entirely different show in Japanese and its laugh out loud funny. In fact, in order to satisfy any anime fans out there I will document everything I am currently watching.

First off, "Bleach", Its not as good as it can be at the moment because its filler, but if you havent seen then try to because its one of the current essentials.

"School Rumble: Ni Gakki", Consistantly funny and incredibly varied in its animation style. Its cutting edge stuff masqerading as a generic school anime and thats why I love it.

"Nana" Yes, this franchise should have been done by now but I am a sucker for the whole story and its cheesy emo anime at its best, this weekly version sticks closer to the manga than the movie and it looks nice and glossy even if it is a bit girly.

"Keroro Gunsou" What can I say about this anime aside from it being about the craziest and funniest animation since the first time I saw FLCL. I would love to meet the people who come up with some of the plotlines and dialogue for this because they are ridiculous and the mind boggles at why Keroro is hillarious, he just is, go watch it.

"One Piece" covered it, its awesome, go watch it.

Thats the bulk of it, Im wary of taking on new shows because I need to be doing real things, there are a couple of shows I was just starting to get into before I set out for japan which I havent really continued with, namely Elfen Lied (Partly because it was really mean spirited) and Tsubasa Chronicle (A bit too cutesy and pointless). As always I will keep you all informed if I find something great in the future. Oh and also, despite my repeated inability to get into it, Naruto comes highly reccomended by my friends so maybe check that out too.

So, I dont think theres much more to talk about now, I kind of crowbarred that section into the blog so that I could keep myself typing but now Im running a little on empty, I guess this was to make up for missing two days of blogging, although silence is better than verbal poop as I would demonstrate if I were to continue typing any further, which I wont, night night everyone.

09.07.2006 or "How did I lose a day?"

I must be becoming increasingly disorientated by this country because I neglected to write an actual blog for the past two days. I honestly couldn't tell you why. I cant let myself slip into apathy like that, because If I dont maintain this blog, my thoughts and ramblings have absolutely no outlet, I couldnt even tell them to a stranger on the street because they wouldn't understand me, this is how essential this blog has become to my sanity, so have no fear dear readers, MMI is back.

"Woke up with yawn this morning, Im still alive, turned on my radio to start up new day"

Well, I would have done if I had a radio, instead I rose at about 11am and surveyed the world before me, I must have been pretty out of it because I have little or no memory of anything before 4pm, does that mean im actually going crazy, I hope not. Ah, I watched some One Piece, that I do remember, they are just about to recruit a new guy, a chef who kicks ass and compationately feeds people for free, something about a noble oath of cooks. Its all mildly amusing nonscence anyway, a bit like this blog.

When I eventually left the house we headed down to Changhua in the south by car. On the way, I ate McDonalds, then we arrived and headed out for more food, steak and pasta followed by Ice cream, I was still a little full from the burger and that, but I managed to finish it all. Returning back to base camp we headed out yet again to visit relatives. I played a couple of PS2 games and got beaten by a child not half my age. I played big Toho monster type fighting game where you slap each other about in various city scapes. It was great fun, especially scaling the buildings and impaling each other with electric pilons. After that, we headed out to eat yet again, by this point my stomach was at capacity and I only managed to eat half of my pasta bake type thing. I went into the lavatory, I looked down at the urinal and was genuinely shocked to see Andy Lau's cheeky grin smiling back at me. Not his actual face, but his own unique brand of aproval for the automated porcelain bowl in was weeing into. Times like these I kick myself for not having the camera.

Returning home we played the game of guessing which massage parlours were genuine and which ones were special ones, I naively lost every round. I think other people are eating again now, im hiding from it, I cant eat any more otherwise I will be sick. And thats the image I am leaving you with today.

MMI News

> Theres a new Bleach ED song in town. It played out on episode 87 which aired on the 4.07.2006. See what you think.



Song: MOVIN!
Group: Takacha

> There is also a new player in the Blogger community, a good friend of mine who is documenting his thoughts and activities over at arcadefinger so go check it out and leave him a post.

> Like I said before I have been trying to get my head around some of the features of photoshop which seem a little dauting, namely layers and gradients and all sorts of things which make line drawn art look nice. I knocked out this picture as an exercise to see if I could put them to use. I was quite pleased with it and I hope to produce something substantial now I know where most of the button are.




















Anyway, Thats all for now!

07.07.2006 (Part 2) or "Patience is a virtue"

A virtue however which I do not possess, im working on it, seriously. Meanwhile...

Oh, and I signed the contract for my job today. My description may sound a little lack luster but rest asured, these two things are perhaps the most important things I have acheived in my entire life. Im am in utter shock and disbelief and now, as I sit here typing, a little fried (I got lost out in town again, my brain fluid boiled over), I wonder what is to become of me. These things mean big descisons need to be made. Firstly, once my work visa is through, it means I will not be coming home. Secondly, because of the School schedule, I unfortunately will not be graduating with you guys this year, although I hope to tag along to a future one. And finally, it means I was able to pass an entire degree, despite having failed to understand massive chunks of what has been taught, and I think you all know which parts.

But anyway, enough about me, I want to here about you guys, how did it go, what are you doing to do now? I sincerely hope you all aced it and are now celebrating with massive measures of partying, I wish I could be there for that.

I shall leave you for today, look forward to more pretentious blog titles in the future as I attempt to become a teacher and forge myself some kind of life.

Take care,

07.07.2006 (Part 1) or "Thanks a bunch University!"

Me: Yawn, Oh, I think Ill go check my results now that it is the 7th and they should be up!
Gosh I hope nothing goes wrong like they didnt prepare the site for a high volume of traffic
or just didn bother to make sure the results were up for the morning.

(Click click click....)



Me: Wow! I hope I can print out this error message and use It to get a work visa!
Hold on, Ill just go to the school and check...

Me: No, seems that It is just a useless piece of crap!

FIX IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

06.07.2006 or "Once more into the Breach"

Today I woke up early and headed back to the school. I felt way more at ease this time having jumped into the deep end the day before. Today was merely a day of observation, to see how a day progresses, how it is broken up, how the kids go through the day and maybe to pick up some pointers from the head of the class. The classroom was up on the third floor, although all of the class rooms were connected by an outisde veranda type contruction which meant that you could see practically all around outside, soak up sun sun and generally feel like you are not confined to to the conformity of a typical class room box type affair. The whole day way really great and the kids were the funniest and kindest little things I have ever met. The kids were at an age where they would have no concept of fear or shyness around new people and they warmed to me almost instantly, which made my life a heck of alot easier.

The life of the kindergarten kids seems so fun, learning without knowing it and playing all the time. As it turned out, my observation turned into full scale participation, I played with them, read them all a book, painted some sunflowers, played the xylophone, crashed out for an hour on the tatami mats they had there and had lunch. It really seems like if I took this job, and took responsibility for the creation of a work area, teaching schedule and activities, that I would have a job I could thoroughly enjoy every day.

Which is why I am currently so stressed out about the whole situation. Today I was given a contract to do just that, to have my own class in the new semester (end of july), to have an assistant and a budget and my own little office, It is all laid out for me in black and white. And why you ask, can I not sign it and make the leap into real life big time job land with a good salary (even by real life standards). Ill tell you! Its because my university takes so freakin long to give us the actual piece of diploma paper which I need to present along with my passport in order that the school can convince the government to let me live and work here. As I sit here typing it is 21:38PM on the 6th. My only shot at getting this sorted is if University puts up those results at 00:01 UK time and I have A) Passed and B) That the print out of the results from the net will be enough to warrent the application of a work permit. Now those are some big IFs, but unfortunately they constitute the horse I have backed all my money on.

Now I know, I know, last time I said that life was going south, It turned around the very next day, but as Spiderman says, "everybody gets one" and I hope to god that I get two, because if I get this job, I know I can stop hanging my hopes on alot of things and head towards one definate goal. For everyone else I know from University who reads this, I wish you the very best of luck, I know you, like me will be refreshing that page until the results pop up. I just hope you all, like me, didnt gamble so steeply on the outcome.

As always with this crazy journey, I will keep you all posted,

05.07.2006 or "Another damn filler episode"

Today all my work and preparation paid off, well, almost. I arived at School and put forth an amusing presentation for the little kids. They could see the fear in my eyes and as I shakily lead them through the story of Frog and toad, more amused at the sight of a new foreign face paralysed with fear than the content of the story. I didnt throw up or pass out so I call the whole experience a successful attempt. In debreifing however, my lack of experience was identified as the cause to why I could'nt get the kids to do anything but stare at me. I do however now have the experience of having gone through the worst part, having stood up and tried for the first time to do something which I plan to be doing, even though it was as nerve wracking as it was. Im heading back tommorrow to see if I fare any better with the younger kindergarten kids, I hear they have a more relaxed and enjoyable schedule, meals, show and tell, nap time, music... alot like my own life really.

Other News, I downloaded Melty Blood, now that wont mean much to most of you but if you get a chance check it out, Its one of the best 2D beat em ups ive played in a long time. Ive been messing about with photoshop alot lately so dont be surprised if I post some of doodles on here some time soon too. Like yesterday, I am totally wiped out for some reason, my big post is going to have to come later.

04.07.06 or Fate favours the downhearted.

Yey, everything turned out great! I wont go into details but if all things I hope to be very busy starting tommorrow. Cant chat for long because I need to get lots of sleep, today was a mad treck across town, punctuated by various stops for food and photos. I shall let the snaps do the talking and I leave you with the promise of a much meatier blog tommorrow. Love to all,


Bleach Gacha Gacha, I won a chad!



A cool clock which moved and stuff.



Some kind of thing, outisde...



My lesser spotted "yey we're in MOS burger dance"



Chad kicking ass and taking names in MOS burger



My Lunch



Another Sunny day in Taichung, although I hear
I was really hot in England today!

03.07.2006 or "Look Tibetans can dance too"

Today was an odd one I must admit. Having gathered all my childlike drawings the night before I woke early in wait of a call from my prospective employer. I woke, showered, potterered round, adapted and updated some of the holes in my presentation, by 10am I was raring to go. I ate lunch, watched some anime on TV, Kare Kano followed by a double helping of Ranma. It came to 11am, I packed up my things in a neat folder, ironed my tie and put on a pair of trousers. 12 am, I sit back down, figure I could get half an hours sleep in before the inevitable phone call, after all, I hadn't really slept much that night. I awake at 1pm, still no call, I know this because the mobile was right next to my head and the land line was just as close. By 2pm I had resigned myself to the fact that the call wasnt coming and that the best course of action would be to drink a beer and watch One Piece in a huff, which I did, and there were no calls. At about 4pm, I called them up, seems the lady I spoke to wasnt in the office right now and that she would call me back on her return. 6pm, I was tired of waiting in the house and we headed out to get away from it all.

We went to a restaurant which serves food onto a giant metal counter infront of you, needless to say, its awesome and it was the mainstay of my diet last time I was out here. With food and fresh air in my I started to feel a little better about my wasted day. We hopped in a taxi to one of the larger music halls out here in Taichung and watched two hours of Tibetan performance artists singing dancing and doing skits for our amusement. It was pretty cool, they were speaking in their own language which created a rather surreal atmosphere. Noone in the audience, aside from the 40 odd Tibetan monks (full garb and everything, just like in Tombraider three) laughed at the jokes. Im curious to know what kind of jokes would set Tibetan monks off like I witnessed today but alas the only sporadic explanations came by way of one or two voiceovers in chinese, and I understand that about as much. They were pretty heavy into the Dali Lama, and when questioned about whether a Dali Lama still existed today, I shrugged in my my usual cultural and historical ignorant way. I was more concerned as to wether the monks were going to start a ruckus and that if I attacked them once, they would hinder me for the rest of the entire game.

We hopped in a very dodgy Taxi home, clutching my big mac and the car door handle in case a sharp exit was required and plodded up the apartment where I sit typing this blog. As they say, with every semi crappy day comes the promise of a better one and I for one am going to have a beer watch some Taiwanese drama from the comfort of the sofa and wait for tommorrow to be more promising. Wish me luck everyone!

02.07.2006 or "I was showing off Tim"

Today I took on the task of wandering unsupervised through the burning streets of Taichung. The sun was blazing and all consuming. My goal in this cultural melting pot was none other than the omnipitent Mc'Donalds corperation who had set up shop in one of the more heavily congested traffic areas in town. I dont think I will ever understand Taiwan's traffic rules and I resigned myself long ago to accepting that there aren't any. You need to have your wits about you which is quite difficult do do when the sun is constantly blinding you. I felt a little like Zim when he gets lost in the city and his eyes crust over from the suns angry rays.

So I eventually come across M'Cy D's as the kids like to call it, thirsty as a coyote, walking only due to the iminant promise of a large frosty sprite when a young lady scuttles around the counter with a clip board and what I came to realise was a menu check list. Now In hindsight, the girl was very polite and competant in English and having belched out my death rattle request for Sprite and after hearing that the entire building was without water, It may have been a little harsh for me to groan and do a little dropping to my knees mock dissapointment display. But, she added, we do have lots of coffee. I went with the coffee, a large tub style canister of iced coffee lady's and gentlemen. And I dont drink coffee, buts thats what it had come to.

So I get my chinese style Big Mac (Much like an English big mac minus spite, and human soil) and sit there swilling my giant helping of Iced, strong as hell, coffee trying to avoid the ice becase since they had no straws, so they told me and it seemed everyone else but me had them, baring in mind I speak no chinese whatsoever, and feel like im cooling down. Cooling down and also perking up, way up, I wander round outisde for a while and try to find a certain English bookshop and on failing that task decide there is only one thing for it in my wierd hyper caffinated state. Something I have missed ever since I left the pearly gates of Akihabara, thats right kids, you guessed it. Arcades.

I started off slow in seeking out my fix, I potter around the collected sit down machines up on the 17th floor of the SOGO department store. SOGO is one of about three major chains out here and Asia are full of them, monoliths of consumerism which everyone flocks to in their droves. Personally the other main attraction of these places for me is the best air conditioning around. On a hot day, as soon as you step through though doors, it feels like every molecule of sweat is evaporated and replaced with icy pine freshness which I guess they figure puts you in the mood for spending. And spending alot when you count the amount of floors these places have. I digress.

So the bog standard arcades had your KoF series, puzzle games, more KoF, some Metal Slug, the new KoF and powerstone on big muliplayer unit thing, which I was very impressed with since I always thought I was the only one who sung that games many praises. I played some KoF, 2003 I think it was, realised Kula wasnt in it, moved over to KoF XII I believe, one before the newest one which I played in Tokyo anyway. I picked my usual dream team of Kula, Iori and Kyo and got to work. Much a great game later I headed up to the cabinets to wear the remainer of my Mc'Caffiene out through the medium of Dance. Well, not dance, just enthusiatic gesturing and drumming etc. Now Ive never been sure of the name of the drumming game because its always been in Kanji when I have seen it, so if anyone knows, please leave a comment and let me know but it was #8. New songs in Eight are the Mario Theme, Glamourous Sky and a couple of Naruto and Bleach themes, one of which I gained a little confidence on in Akihabara. Therin lies the forshadowing of my downfall up there on the 17th floor, infront of lots of kids, mothers and staff who had gathered to watch the big foreign guy make an inevitable fool of himself. Somehow I thought for my first song, I could take an untested song and nail it on the hardest difficulty and impress all my newly gathered adoring fans. OH how wrong was I. I started out quite well, but soon I began to realise that the amount of energy I was exherting in the first 20 seconds was not going to last me till the end of the song, or even half way through. And you try it next time and you will know exactly what I mean. Ultimately I learned that if your going to show off in front of strangers make damned sure you know what you are doing and for gods sake, dont do it in Asia where they live and breath the stuff. I walked off, tired, shaking and with my head held low. "Too many rocks in my rucksack"

Returning home and realising I had wasted an entire day, I set about the task that I woke up to do today rather than mess about, that was plan a lesson for some kids to learn my language, so that they too can grow up and ramble about entire drivel for a handful of people who have better things to do. I was going in blind and I feel the quality of the final product bespeaks that fact. No, Its alright, I hope, Its just hard to prepare material for children who I have no idea what level of study they are working or have worked at. Tommorrow I should get a call and thats when I place myself at the mercy of the interviewer, with my flimsy bits of paper and handmade diagrams. I honestly hope it goes well, I could do with a job like that. Anyway, I leave you all now, Its late and I need to go prep the aircon so I dont boil in the night. Hope everyone is still good, Ill let you all know how the job interview went tommorrow and try not to ramble for so long next time, Ill sign off with some pics I dont remember taking today...


Mopeds in abundance and the Mc' Highway to Hell


Saving lives, the super cute way!



Got lost, found a temple, they are as frequently seen as 7/11s.
Ironically I took this pic standing outside one.

01.07.2006

So, lets get this new month kicked off. Woke up today and messed about on the internet for far too long. I had some instant noodles. Now, little did I know how far this institution had progressed when I open up the packet to pick not one, not two (which to be fair I have seen in England) but FIVE packets to add to the noodles! One of them was huge, and contained steak and a rich gravy which on first inspection looks a little like cat food, but add that bad boy to its prepacked friends and by golly thats some fine noodle action. I sat eating my gourmet noodly snack which I had carefully rested upon the only think I was willing to stain which sadly was last months edge. I spent the day sorting out loose ends, getting up to date with some podcasts and manga and putting some finishing touches on my CV.

When 3:30 came around I was ready to head out into the vast heat of the outisde world. It dawned on me that I hadnt spoken to Kitty yet, and as I type I realise I still haven't. Hope hes OK. Im rambling. We drove round to a local Kindergarten to take a look at what kind of environment I may or may not be working in some day soon. The people there seemed really friendly and I handed over my CV. In return they gave me some base material to have a look at, see if I could draft together some kind of prospective lesson plan for kids of about 7 to 8 years old. It seems really interesting and a good challenge for myself so I decided to dedicate tommorrow to seeing what I can do with it.

After leaving the School, we were both starving. It was decided that chinese hot pot was the best way to go about gorging ourself so we headed it. The place was nice, typical set up which, for anyone who is unfamiliar, is a table with a huge gas burner imbedded into the centre onto which they place a compartmentalised metal pan filled with soup. After super heating the soup, a variety of raw materials ranging from shrip to chicken and vegetables, noodles, tofu, various things I would never touch but people here love are cooked in the murky depths for a worryingly short time and then fished out and eaten. Its messy, but its primal and satisfying, like fishing in hell. It can go down a pretty gory route if you buy certain things, you consume so much blood from the amount of black pudding related items that you turn ferral. Well, Ive never seen that happen but I did get the impression that the meal, combined with the produce of the millions of other food stalls dotted around would give a vampire a pretty darned convenient lifetyle.

Returing home from eating our body wait in hotpot we just passed out. For about six hours, and I have only just woke up but since I dont envision myself doing anything else of note tonight (except a Keroro Gunsou marathon) I though I would bring you guys up to date. Seeyou next time.



Blogging Central, (Taichung Branch)



"Gentlemen... Zi Uber Ramen"