Halloween 2011

An American Teacher in Taiwan..3 /12 Years Ago

I wrote what I thought would be my last blog entry on my other blog "An American Teacher in Taiwan" on August 16, 2008. But yet, for some reason, I still continually get letters about that blog. So many, in fact, that I started posting them there:

An American Teacher in Taiwan

That particular blog, though only active for a short time, has nearly as many hits as this one has, and I've been writing on this one for 3 years! Go figure. haha

So, since that one still seems to be popular (well...meaning that I seem to have more than 3 or 4 readers on that one), I decided to start it up again with occasional posts, focusing only on Taiwan and Taiwan related topics.

It's amusing to discover what you're most read blog posts are. For that blog, my most popular post is (not surprisingly): "Why Taiwanese Women Like Foreign Men" Ha! I can just picture horny guys googling this subject and finding a link to my blog post. I think maybe I'll title one of my blog posts "Sex With Taiwanese Women" and watch it jump to the #1 spot.

For this blog, my most read entry is "2012: The End of the World." I'm guessing people came to this post hoping for some insightful information, not a review of the movie "2012"

I deleted my "Creative Writing" blog some time ago. It had maybe one reader in total, and it didn't help that I rarely updated it. I've kind of lost interest in writing fiction, anyway. It was fun for awhile, but I obviously prefer writing more stream-of-conscious stuff like this.

While anybody and everybody seems to write a blog these days, we all have different reasons for doing it. Some just like to post pictures of themselves for everyone to see. Others hope to attract attention, possibly in the hope to become famous (like Perez Hilton). I write my blog for myself, to keep my mind active, but I'm glad other people like it. It's also been useful when I need to remember certain dates that things happened. For example, someone recently wanted to know how much Sara weighed when she was born. I had no idea. Then...I checked my old blog! "Sara Amanda Berglund is Born" Oh yeah! 6.9 pounds! What a resource! As you get older, you tend to forget a lot of stuff.

Writing a blog, for most of us, is not a way to earn a living. Even having ads on your blog brings in only pennies, and Google doesn't pay out until you hit $100 in "ad clicks." Right now, even after 3 years, I'm only at $47.10. Maybe after 10 years I'll finally get that big $100 check! haha

David, my Taiwan friend, has a pretty funny blog, but the guy rarely posts anything on it. He claims even he has become bored by it. Once you reach that stage, it's probably time to give it up. I haven't hit that stage yet. Someday I will, I'm sure, but not yet. Hopefully that will make my 3 readers happy.

(Picture: my latest topic on my "other" blog, Taiwanese Brides)

Why I'm Glad I Left Taiwan

I've seen a lot of sick things on the news before, but this about takes the cake. This video literally left my wife in tears. A 2 year girl in China wanders into the street, gets run over by a van (who I'm sure saw her), and over a dozen passers-by fail to help her. Then, to make things even worse, she gets run over by ANOTHER van. It's sick, sad, and it strengthens my disgust over the Chinese selfish attitude of "every man for himself."

This is EXACTLY the reason why I wanted to leave Taiwan. And before any Taiwanese write to me saying "This was in CHINA, not Taiwan." It doesn't matter. I've been to China, and I've been to Taiwan, and you guys drive and act exactly the same. I've stated on my blog a few times that when my daughter was a baby, I was pushing her stroller (in a crosswalk) across a busy intersection in Taiwan and not a single car stopped for us. Nobody gave a shit. My friend David was hit by a car in Taiwan (he was also in a crosswalk, and he was walking with a cane at the time).

You Taiwanese and Chinese really need to look into yourselves and examine your character. I know there are many who are good, decent people, but it's people like this that make the rest of the world feel disgusted with your country. Neither my Taiwanese wife nor I would ever want to raise our kids in such a place as this. To me, this is hell on earth.

WARNING: This video is somewhat graphic.

Ramblings #13

"Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes that you can do these things. Among them are a few Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or businessman from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid."

President Dwight D. Eisenhower, l952

I came upon this quote this morning (thanks Janet Fish!) and found it pretty amazing that a Republican could say such a thing. I wonder what Ike would think about this current crop of GOP candidates. A sad bunch of characters if ever I saw one.

With Rick Perry no longer a viable candidate, Herman Cain, the "9-9-9" man, seems to be the flavor of the month within the conservative community. Obviously, I think his 999 plan is crap on a stick. I won't go as far as to say it's really a "666" devil plan, like Michelle Bachmann says, but his plan does totally screw the poor and middle class. A 9% tax on all goods and services, and another 9% on personal income would be crippling to the economy. Someone buying a brand new house for $100,000 would now have to add another $9,000 to the price. That is just insane. And don't get me started about the tax deductions that would end under his policies: The child tax credit? Gone. The mortgage interest deduction? Gone. A family of four (like mine), on a modest income, would end up paying thousands more than we do now. No matter how much Obama might suck as president, I can never get behind a presidential candidate with this sort of plan.
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Although I support the "Occupy Wall Street" movement, their ultimate goal of separating corporations and state is going to be a tough one. My ex-wife Amber is a big participant of this movement, having gone to many of the local protests in Los Angeles. Democrats and Republicans alike have long been fattening their pocketbooks in service to big business. There's a well known story about our current Speaker of the House, John Boehner, giving out checks from the tobacco industry on the House floor for votes. I can tell you that politicians are not going to give this up without a fight.
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In lighter news, this past weekend I took the family to "Southpark Meadows" (sort of a shopping mall and park mixed together) where they have live music on the weekends (for free!). This past weekend was the Pink Floyd cover band "Austin Pink Floyd." They were okay. Vocally, they kind of sucked, but the guitar player was pretty good. Here's a video of them playing "Comfortably Numb":

Video - Roger Daltrey in Austin - Baba O'Riley

Here's another video from the concert. The Who classic "Baba O'Riley"

Video - Roger Daltrey in Austin - Pinball Wizard

Here's some video I took of Roger Daltrey performing "Pinball Wizard" from the Cedar Park Center in Austin. You can decide for yourself if you think his voice is shot.

The Who in Austin!

Well...not really "The WHO", but I suppose it's the next best thing. The Who's lead singer, Roger Daltrey, performed at the newly built Cedar Park Center on Tuesday, October 11. Since he was going to be performing my favorite Who album, "Tommy", in its entirety, I decided to go.

The Cedar Park Center is a pretty good venue for concerts, and the sound system there is excellent. Its maximum capacity for concerts is around 8,000 people, which is about half of the size of most concert arenas. Unfortunately, for Roger Daltrey, but fortunate for me, he didn't even sell half the amount of tickets to fill the arena. Apparently, only about 2500 to 3000 tickets were sold. Empty seats were everywhere. As a result, they moved the stage to the center of the arena, and basically turned it into a big club gig. The seat that I had originally purchased didn't exist anymore, so they relocated me to the 7th row on the floor. Not bad. With the exception of the front-row seats I once had for Simon & Garfunkel (which was a total fluke, I just happened to check for tickets on the day of the concert), this was the closest I have ever sat to any band that was playing an arena show.

The show, as expected, was filled with old-timers and hippies. I felt like, at 41 years old, I might have been the youngest one there, but I did see a few kids. There was one guy sitting in front of me who looked to be in his 70's, who covered his ears during some of the nosier segments. Eventually he got up and left. Yes, I guess sometimes you can be too old to rock.

Other than Daltrey's voice not being quite up to par on some of the Who epics (Baba O'Riley, Young Man Blues, See Me Feel Me, etc), he put on a good show for someone who is 67 years old. It's unfortunate that the turnout was so sparse, but I guess if he dragged Pete Townsend along and called themselves "The Who", it would have been packed.