Avoiding Taiwan

There only seems to be one topic in our house that brings out arguments: Taiwan.

We've been going back and forth over and over and over again about going to Taiwan this summer. The prices have been all over the map. From a high of about $14,000 to a low of $4,400 for all four of us to fly. The lowest price comes from some Taiwanese travel agent who lives in Illinois. Christy was referred to her by some woman in Austin's Chinatown, and they've only spoken over the phone and through email.

Who is this woman? Do they have a local office? Do they even have a website? Christy can't even answer these simple questions. I'm not about to give out my credit card number to some voice on the phone I know nothing about.

Christy really cares about her mom a lot. Sometimes too much, I think. At one point she wanted to take Sara out of school for two weeks so the two of them could go this May (when prices are cheaper). No way, I told her. Sara can't miss that much school. She had already missed a week this year because of the flu. Missing another two weeks would not only get Sara in trouble, but me as well. We either have to go during the summer break or we can't go at all.

I then ask Christy what we're going to do once we're in Taiwan.
"Just visit with my mom." she tells me.
"For two weeks? Just visit with your mom and do nothing else??"

I then point out to her that both myself and the kids would become extremely bored with this idea. Only one person in our house can speak Chinese, so it seems that Sara, Kyle, and I are left to wander about the house, getting bit by mosquitoes and looking at bamboo.

Christy likes to bring up the fact that she came with me to visit my family for Christmas three years in a row. This is true...but...I also planned activities for us to do during the day. We went to Disneyland, we went to the beach, we went to Santa Monica pier, Sea World, the L.A. Zoo, etc. I didn't expect Christy to just sit at my mom (or brother's) house (although, at least in Christy's case, my mom acknowledges her existence.)

However, other than visiting David and Pi Chi (my only remaining friends in Taiwan), I'm not even sure what I'd like to do in Taiwan as a tourist. I considered going back to visit the staff at Kojen in Taichung, but the turnover rate was so high, I doubt there would be anyone left I remember. And there's no way I would visit Hess, the cesspool bushiban chain of Taiwan.

I guess I could take Sara and Kyle to the place where I first met their mom (the Starbucks in downtown Hsinchu). I could show them my very first apartment, and the "sewer river" I had to walk over to get to work, and the underground tunnel with the homeless guy who always waved to me. He was pretty cool. I once gave him one of those popular "lunch boxes" with the chicken leg, rice, and boiled egg in it. He loved it.

Nah, I think I'll spare my kids those places. It would probably just scare them out of their minds and scar their brains forever. I'd rather return to the places where I have much fonder memories. The restaurants. "Chen Shui Tang", with its great boba tea and "low bo gow." "1-2-3", with its delicious gung pao chicken. The dim sum. The teppanyaki. The "Sushi Express." The "Doraemon" pancake house. As bad as Taiwan is, at least their food doesn't suck.

Now....if I can just escape from the mother-in-law....

Ramblings #7

Next month, Charlie Sheen is going to be here in Texas, performing a show at the Verizon Wireless Theater in Houston, and another at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. The American Airlines Center was the place I saw Roger Waters doing "The Wall" live. It holds 20,000 people. Now...it's going to host America's biggest loser, Charlie Sheen.

I don't see what this guy could possibly offer to audiences that he doesn't give away for free on all his stupid YouTube videos. 90 minutes of drug-induced ranting? If I want to hear a drug addicted idiot, I can tune in to Rush Limbaugh.

Thankfully, I see that the tickets are selling poorly. It seems most of the tickets were bought up by greedy scalpers hoping to make a profit. I really hate scalpers, and they get what they deserve. The only way I'd go to this show is if someone paid me to go, and I certainly wouldn't drive two hours to see it.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rolling Stone Magazine just published a story about a "kill team" in Afghanistan, a squadron of US soldiers that have been going around executing civilians and then desecrating the corpses. Then they take pictures and videos of it and pass it around to anyone who asks. They even had plans to drive around throwing candy at children, and then gun them down (or run them over) when the kids go to retrieve the candy.

If this isn't a sign to get the hell out of Afghanistan, I don't know what is. This wasn't just one or two soldiers going rogue. This was a squadron of killers, with officers covering it up and trying to suppress the evidence. On a message board, I posted that the soldiers involved should either receive life in prison with no parole, or the death penalty. I was bombarded with negative comments about how I should "move to Afghanistan" or that "I've never been on a battlefield and I don't know war."

Ok, yeah, I've never been on a battlefield. Does that mean that once I set foot on a battlefield, I will suddenly start raping women and executing children in cold blood? And should we really give soldiers a pass for committing war crimes just because "it's war"? By this logic, shouldn't we have let all the nazi officers off the hook for killing Jews in WWII? It was war, after all.

The bottom line is, America is supposed to be the country with morals. We're supposed to be better than them. We're supposed to be the country that other countries look up to. Our army is not supposed to be a mob of brutal thugs.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kyle's birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks. I'm kind of worn out with birthday parties. We just went to another one this past Sunday. Sara seems to get invitations to birthday parties every week, and Christy always insists that we go. She thinks it's important to try to make new friends in the community. The thing is, that once I meet these other parents, we rarely have anything in common, other than having kids that go to the same school.

Christy tries to tell me that I'm not like a typical American. I don't really care about football or bar b que or beer or any of that typical stuff most dads seem to be into, so that's why it's hard for us to make new friends. I'm also a bit on the liberal side (in case you couldn't tell from my rants), which doesn't always go over too well in Texas.

Johnson City, TX and Sculpture Ranch

This past weekend we drove out to Johnson City (about 60 miles west of Austin). Johnson City is the place where former president Lyndon B. Johnson was born and raised. I assumed the city was named after him, but a fairly knowledgeable government employee informed me it wasn't.

Johnson City is one of those very small American towns where everything still seems frozen in time from the early 1900's. You almost expect to see people riding on horses and carriages.

We then drove on about 10 miles to a place called "Sculpture Ranch." This was a pretty cool place. It's a ranch owned by a Texas millionaire who is also a pretty good artist. While most Texas ranchers post signs all over their land threatening to shoot you if you go on their property, this guy opens his entire ranch to anyone who visits. He even told us to park in front of his house, walk around and see all the animals and exhibits (without charge).

His entire ranch is filled with artwork. Most of it was displayed outside, but he also had an indoor gallery featuring many of his paintings (which were also good). The prices were a bit too steep for me (one piece cost $40,000), but I assume he's sold enough of his art to make him a millionaire.

(Pictures: The first five pictures are from Johnson City, including LBJ's childhood home. The second five pics are from "Sculpture Ranch."

Happy 6th Birthday, Sara!

Sara celebrates her 6th birthday today. We decided not to go for the big party this year like we did last year. Instead, we just had a small, family celebration with cake, ice cream, and a few gifts.

Sara's big gifts this year were tickets to see "Disney On Ice: Princess Wishes" and a Fisher Price "Loving Family Dollhouse." She loves the dollhouse, but there seems to be almost no furniture in it. You have to buy all the furniture separately, and from what I've seen, each room costs over $20 to furnish. Pretty overpriced and ridiculous for a bunch of plastic crap from China. It did come with dolls, though. A family of four: the husband, the wife, and twin babies (with milk bottles permanently attached to their hands.) I guess, for now, Sara can pretend that they've just bought their house and haven't bought their furniture yet. Dad can sleep on some newspaper on the floor, and mom can sleep in a cardboard box (the babies came with high-chairs).

Ramblings #6

It looks like Donald Trump is probably going to run for president in 2012. At least, that's what he says. It could just be his way of trying to promote the latest season of "Celebrity Apprentice."
I have to admit, though, I kind of like Donald Trump. While most of the GOP was blindly supporting George W. Bush though all of his colossal mistakes, Trump was out there criticizing him. He was one of the very, very few, wealthy Republicans to say that Bush was "the worst president we've ever had" and that going to Iraq was a "big mistake." He's also one of the few in big business who wants to tax Chinese imports into the country by 25%. He seems like he's determined to try to keep jobs here in the US.

Do I think he'd be a good president? Probably not. He's still a Republican, after all, and would most likely cut all the things Republicans love to cut: education, social services, law enforcement, the "Head Start" program, healthcare, medicare, medicaid, etc. He'd likely privatize social security as well. I think he's a lot better than all the other GOP candidates out there, but that's not saying a lot.
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This year I got $500 in free "Wellness Benefits" that I could use for any healthcare purchases. All I had to do was take a survey at work about my health and lifestyle. I finally received the card about a month ago.

Cool, I thought. $500 should last a while. I could see the dentist. Sara and Kyle could have eye appointments, and there should be money left over.

Nope. Christy used it all in one swoop at her dentists office. $500 for a new freakin' crown on her tooth. What sucks is that she already had a crown on that tooth, which was put in by a Taiwanese dentist. Apparently, the Taiwanese dentist did such a terrible job, that it had to be replaced.

$500 for one crown on one tooth? Why? What is it with these dentists and their insane fees? And why does dental insurance never seem to cover crowns? Why do I pay for dental insurance that is worthless? (I have Metlife PPO, btw.)
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I saw a couple of movies recently. One at the theater, and one on Pay per view:

"Battle: Los Angeles" sucked ASS. It was so derivative of every other alien invasion movie, copying heavily from "Independence Day," "War of the Worlds," and even "Saving Private Ryan." If you watch the trailer, you'll see all the best parts. Rating: 4/10

"Hereafter", the newest Clint Eastwood film which deals with the question of what happens after we die, was a lot better. It wasn't as good as I thought it would be, or as deep as I thought it would get, but a decent film. Rating: 7/10

Helping Japan

The situation in Japan seems to be getting worse with each passing day. You'd think that after a major earthquake and tsunami, the worst would be over, but now they've got to deal with radiation poisoning yet again. Some of the pictures that I've seen look as though they've been hit with another atomic bomb.

Christy, being the kind-hearted person she is, decided to volunteer her time working for the Taiwanese equivalent of the Red Cross. It's a Buddhist organization called "Tzu Chi." She spent her afternoon in Austin's Chinatown, outside a grocery store called "MT Mart", collecting donations from whoever decided to be generous. Most people were pretty generous. I noticed her collection box was filled with a lot of $5, $10, and $20 bills. However, there will be a Grinch in every situation. One older Chinese man said to Christy "You're a slave for Japan." There will always be Chinese (and Americans) who will never forgive the Japanese over WWII. Even though most of the participants in that war have already passed on, the animosity hasn't. I still see comments from people (and even Tokyo's own mayor!) who say that the tragedy in Japan was "God's punishment." It's either God's punishment for Japan's greed, or WWII, or their killing of dolphins, etc. Let's get over it, people.

For anyone who wants to either donate time or money to the Tzu Chi Foundation, their website address is
http://www.tzuchi.org/

For the local Austin branch, the number is 512-491-0358

And now a word (in Chinese) from Christy:

如果你想要進一步了解或是提供任何幫助, 歡迎上慈濟網站。

The Civility of the Japanese

I've never been to Japan, although I have always wanted to. Even when I lived in Taiwan, I never managed to get to Japan. I came very, very close in 2004, before I met my wife. I had to do a visa run since my visa was going to expire, so I had to go to another country to renew it for another two months (for some reason, you can't just do it in Taiwan). My choices were either Okinawa or Hong Kong, and even though my first choice was Okinawa, I ended up going to Hong Kong. Why? Out of convenience and laziness. There were only two flights to Okinawa from Taiwan. One flight was very early in the morning, and the other was very late at night. In Hong Kong, there were flights every hour. So, basically, I picked Hong Kong because I didn't want to wake up early.

Many of my fellow teachers had been to Japan, and I was always told stories about how nice it was. Japan was a very clean country and everyone was so respectful to each other. I still remember one teacher telling me that he was sitting in a McDonalds, and there were two Japanese kids running around and shouting (as kids usually do in McDonalds.) The teacher looked over at the kids with a very stern look. The kids looked back at him and saw that he was angry with them for disturbing his Big Mac meal.
"So sorry." the kids said, and then sat down and didn't make another noise.

Wow, I thought. That's discipline. Those were the kinds of students I wish I had taught in Taiwan. Instead I was teaching a bunch of brats who would burp while I talked, throw things, talk on cell phones, beat the crap out of each other and just plain act like rude little monkeys.

So it doesn't surprise me how well the Japanese are handling themselves after that disastrous earthquake and tsunami on Friday. The people are waiting patiently in lines for food and water, and using the public phones. You don't get any sense of the chaos and disorder that you see in other countries. Even after help finally arrived for victims of Hurricane Katrina, many days later, you still had soldiers on the streets aiming their M-16's at civilians. It wasn't until later that the commanders finally told them to put their weapons down. This wasn't Iraq, after all, or maybe it was.

Christy also told me about two Chinese tourist groups in Taiwan who went to "Ali Shan." They got into a big fight with each other over who would be first to get on the bus. The Japanese simply wouldn't do that.

"If that tsunami happened in China or Taiwan, it would be chaos." Christy told me. "People are selfish even when there isn't any catastrophe."

I'm reminded of the Taiwanese people who cheered when a hotel collapsed from heavy flooding. It was like a big Hollywood movie to them. Again, I doubt the Japanese would do that.

At work, Christy was approached by her co-workers and asked if her family was okay. Although she is Taiwanese, she seems to be the "go-to" person for anything that is Asian. Violence in South Korea? ....is Christy okay? Trouble in Thailand...is Christy okay? Earthquake in Japan...is Christy okay? A document written in Korean...have Christy translate! A customer on the phone shouting in Tagalog....get Christy! Yes, there are still ignorant Americans out there that think an Asian face is the key to unlock everything that is Asian.

The Japanese are a tough race of people. They hold the distinction of being the only people to have atomic bombs dropped on them, and they survived. Compared to that, this is nothing. They'll get through it.

America, Hamburgers, and Heart Attacks

Only in America do we have restaurants that celebrate the obese.

I had never heard of the "Heart Attack Grill" until I saw a story about their 575 pound spokesman dying at age 29. He didn't die of a heart attack, as you would probably assume from his picture, but instead he died of pneumonia (no doubt made worse from his size.) Anyone who says obesity played no part in his death is fooling themselves.

The "Heart Attack Grill", which is opening a new restaurant in Dallas soon, sells 8,000 calorie "Quadruple Bypass Burgers", french fries cooked in lard, and soda with extra servings of sugar. Customers over 350 pounds get to eat for free. Wow.

Should this place be shut down, as many health specialists are calling for? No, I don't think it should, but I'm hoping this sort of place doesn't catch on with the public and become a national chain.

This is America, after all, and we have the right to do whatever we want to ourselves as long as it's not harming anyone else. Anyone going into this restaurant knows that they might not come out alive. At least this restaurant is honest up front about how unhealthy everything is.

However, the problem with this restaurant (other than how extremely unhealthy it is), is that it's embarrassing to us as a country. The rest of the world tends to look at America as a bunch of fat pigs who eat far too much of the world supply of food. I had read somewhere once that America only takes up 20% of the population, but yet we eat 80% of the worlds food. We are gluttons. We overindulge in everything. This restaurant only makes that case stronger.

(Picture: The spokesman for the Heart Attack Grill, dead at age 29)

Video - When Babies Attack

More videos! Yeah!

This video started out pretty simple, I was just trying to record my wife working in our backyard, but then the kids went nuts and wanted to take my camera from me.

Video - More From the Kite Festival

Here's my other video from the Austin Kite Festival. Sara and Kyle are trying to fly their kites, but are obviously having trouble due to the lack of wind.

Video - Austin Kite Festival

Here's a video from the Austin Kite Festival on Sunday. From the video, it might seem more appropriate to call it the Taiwan Kite Festival instead.

Austin Kite Festival

Pictures from the annual Austin Kite Festival on Sunday 3/6/11. Part of the festival was dedicated to the Taiwanese, as you can see from all the Taiwan flags flying around. The event might have benefited if there had been some wind, but most of the kites (including ours) only managed to stay airborne for a few seconds.

Obama Writes Back

So, I got a letter today from President Obama. About a month ago, on my "Ramblings #2" post (http://taiwantotexas.blogspot.com/2011/02/ramblings-2.html), I mentioned that I wrote to the President about my concerns over hydraulic fracturing ("fracking"). This is the response I got, which I also included in the "comments" section on the original post:
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Dear Ken:

Thank you for writing. I have heard from many Americans concerned about environmental issues, from recycling and pollution control to the well-being of our national parks and wildlife. I appreciate your perspective.

America's natural resources and landscapes are among our Nation's most precious treasures. We have an obligation to be responsible stewards of our environment and to protect these resources for future generations.

My Administration is taking action to protect and restore our land, water, and air. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which I signed in 2009, provides funding for hazardous waste cleanup, wastewater infrastructure construction, and projects that improve our Nation's parks and wildlife refuges. In March 2009, I also signed the Omnibus Public Land Management Act, the most extensive expansion of land and water conservation in more than a generation. It designates thousands of miles of trails under the National Trails System, protects more than 1,000 miles of rivers, and secures millions of acres of wilderness.

As individuals, we can all take steps to reduce our impact on our environment. Americans can walk, bike, and use public transportation; buy products with less packaging; recycle and reuse paper, plastic, glass, and aluminum; and teach young people about environmental preservation. Families can save money by purchasing energy-efficient products, turning off lights, and unplugging appliances. These small changes in our daily lives help build a cleaner, safer planet. To learn more about our environment and how you can make a difference, I encourage you to visit www.epa.gov or www.WhiteHouse.gov. For more information on ground water and drinking water, please visit: water.epa.gov/drink. To learn about America's Great Outdoors Initiative, visit AmericasGreatOutdoors.gov or read my 2010 Great Outdoors Month proclamation.

Thank you, again, for writing.

Sincerely,

Barack Obama
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Obviously, it's very easy to see that Obama didn't read my letter. A staff member, who has to go through thousands of emails like mine each day, probably just saw the topic of my email, realized it was about the environment, and then sent me this pre-prepared letter. No mention of the actual topic that I was writing about, which was "fracking."

Do I expect anything more? Of course not. Obama has a lot more to worry about (like the economy), than my frustrations with a lax environmental policy.

Obama seems to be following a similar route that Bill Clinton did. He started off with some major progressive ideas, then either gave them up completely, or watered them down to appease the GOP. The wars are still going on. More money is going to defense, while education is being cut left and right. There is 0% chance of ever having "single payer" health insurance. Guantanamo Bay is still open. The criminals of Wall Street remain unpunished. We may as well have a Republican as president right now, because Obama doesn't seem to be that much different.

In November of 2008, the American people knowingly voted for a progressive liberal because we wanted change. Where did that guy go?

Ramblings #5

I watched the Oscar ceremony on Sunday night, and I have to say, it was the worst I've ever seen. I've watched the show regularly since I was a kid, and I've seen some bad shows and bad hosts, but James Franco and Anne Hathaway really take the cake as the worst hosts in the history of Oscar. I have to really single out James Franco. He seemed either totally bored, or stoned, or just totally indifferent to the whole event. I liked his performance in "127 Hours", but his performance at the Oscars will go down in history as a major catastrophe.

I haven't seen "The King's Speech" yet, so I can't really say if it's worthy of the Best Picture award. It seems many people don't think so, and feel that "The Social Network" was robbed. It wouldn't be the first time the wrong movie won Best Picture.
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Kyle is nearly 4 years old and still not potty trained. If we want him to go to Pre-K later this year, he needs to learn how to use the toilet by August. Compared to Sara, Kyle's development seems to be much slower.
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The Westboro Baptist Church, in Topeka, Kansas, seems to have avoided paying a 5 million dollar lawsuit, thanks to the Supreme Court. As much as I despise Fred Phelps and his church, with all their hate-filled "God Hates Fags" signs (among many others), I think the court made the right decision. Freedom of speech is freedom of speech, and that's one of the great things about this country. People can say whatever they want, no matter how rude or ridiculous. What I find really sad, though, is when I see small children holding those signs. These kids don't really understand what they're doing, and their brains are being poisoned by this hate. Parents have such an enormous influence on their children, and this kind of upbringing is just going to make their adult lives difficult.
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I seem to have gotten a lot of comments on my last "Ramblings" post regarding abortion. Just for the record, I'm not "pro-abortion." I'm against it, but I don't think it should be made illegal. Does that automatically make me "pro" abortion? I don't think so. Obviously there is a deeper problem here, where kids these days seem to have an indifferent attitude towards sex and pregnancy. Too many teenagers in America (and especially here in Texas) think that having a baby at 16 years old is no big deal. This kind of thinking needs to change.