The World Games in Taiwan

Taiwan is making some (minor) news lately. They are hosting the World Games in the city of Kaohsiung. Honestly, I had never heard of the World Games until I looked it up. The World Games is made up of sports that aren't played in the Olympics. So you have such events as: bowling, frisbee, handball, artistic rollerskating, surfing, and tug of war! Okay, not the most exciting games, but at least Taiwan has something. I've heard they even built a pretty nice stadium for the games, too.

China, naturally, is boycotting the games. They don't seem to like anything that makes Taiwan look like an independent country, and with President Ma Ying Jou overseeing the games, China would have to acknowledge that Taiwan does indeed have a president (which they won't do.)

My wife Christy has been reading the Taiwan news about the games, and she mentioned something I thought was kind of funny. The mayor of Kaohsiung has asked the residents who live there to not hang their clothes outside during the games. Apparently us foreigners would be offended if we saw some dirty clothes. Okay, so this is a good start, but I think the mayor can go a little bit further with the requests. How about....

1. fixing all the signs with the horrendous English (good luck there)
2. asking people not to drive like homicidal maniacs (again, good luck)
3. reminding people that the streets are not open trash cans
4. stop spitting anywhere and everywhere
5. accept that foreigners do occasionally visit your country, and not to treat them like they're some zoo exhibit.
6. finally, realize that you share the country with 23 million other people and don't always be so self-centered. Treat your fellow citizens the way you would like people to treat you.

There, that isn't too hard, is it? If these simple changes could happen throughout the whole country, Taiwan could easily be a much more popular tourist destination, even after the games are over.

Legalize Marijuana

California is a state whose economy seems to be headed straight for the toilet (if it's not there already.) The state is billions and billions of dollars in debt. Unemployment there is one of the highest in the country (over 10%). Rents are out of control, and many of us have left or are leaving the state to find better opportunities. California needs something to get it back on its feet.

So some democratic politicians came up with an idea: legalize marijuana.
(see story here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090716/ap_on_re_us/us_marijuana_taxes)

I think this is a great idea, but why stop at California? Legalize it in every state (although I doubt that will happen.)

If California can make an estimated 1.4 billion dollars by legalizing marijuana, I say go for it. Arnold "Governator" Schwarzenegger wants to cut pretty much every service available to poor and low-income residents to pay of the states debt. Why do that? Why should those people suffer for something they had nothing to do with? Did the poor contribute to the housing crisis? Hell no. They can't even afford a house. So why punish them for this? Find other ways to make money, like legalizing pot.

Cigarettes are legal, and in my opinion, a lot more dangerous and addictive than marijuana. Alcohol is legal too, and is just as bad. Marijuana, on the other hand, has often been used as a medicinal drug and has proven very beneficial for those people suffering with cancer.

Also, think about how much money will be saved in the legal system. No more prosecuting people for petty drug crimes like possession of marijuana.

If this country wants to bring itself back from the financial abyss that we're in, and be a more progressive, forward thinking nation, we should implement this as soon as possible.

And no, I don't support it because I'm some stoner pot smoker. I only tried it once, many many years ago, and all I can remember from it was getting a sore throat.

Galveston

Galveston Island is a beach city located about 45 minutes south-east of downtown Houston. This was the first beach in Texas that we had visited. As we crossed the bridge into the island, it brought back a few memories of Long Beach, CA. The palm trees, the "beach city" atmosphere. But once we got deeper into the city, I could tell it was still recovering from the big hurricane that struck it last year (Hurricane Ike). We saw many homes that were still boarded up, never repaired after the hurricane.

The beach itself was okay, although a bit dirty. The water looked a dirty brown, and not something I would feel very comfortable swimming in. One of my readers wrote to me and said "Galveston beach is a joke. You should go to South Padre Island."

Well, sure I'd love to go to South Padre Island, but that is a nearly 7 hour drive from Austin. It's tough enough taking the kids on a 3 hour drive to Houston. 7 hours would be too much for just a weekend trip. Corpus Christi and South Padre Island are on our list of places to visit, though.

NASA

NASA is one of the top attractions in Houston. If you come here expecting to learn a lot on space exploration, you'll probably be disappointed. It's primarily just a place for kids to play. There is a 90 minute tram tour, where you may learn a few things. There are two different tram tours(the red tram or the blue tram), and they will take you to different parts of NASA. One goes to the historic "Mission Control" area, and the other goes to the Astronaut training facility. We didn't see Mission Control, but the astronaut training facility wasn't that great. There wasn't anything going on at the time we were there, and we had to see everything from behind glass several floors up.

Once the tour is over, you are taken back to main building, which is almost entirely made up of attractions for kids. So I'd say if you have kids, take them. They'll love it. If not, save yourself the $19.95 (or $25 if you choose the "audio guide).

(Pictures: 1-3. Exploring the rockets of NASA. 4. Sara poses among the astronauts. 5. Sara and Kyle meet C3P0 and R2D2. 6. Another NASA rocket.)

Houston

This past weekend, we visited the city of Houston, the last big city left in Texas that we hadn't seen yet. Over the course of the weekend, we saw an Astros game, visited NASA, and took a short drive out to Galveston Island (more on those later).

Houston is the biggest city in Texas, and the 4th biggest city in the U.S.A. While navigating the freeways, the place reminded me a lot of Los Angeles.

Christy experienced her first baseball game ever when we saw the Astros vs. the Washington Nationals. She hadn't even seen a Taiwan baseball game before. She told me that, in Taiwan, you don't really have a team to root for, because the teams are just named after companies. For example, you might have the Chen Dong Burger Kings vs. the Wong Ding McDonalds. There's no home team against a visiting country. It's really pretty lame. Anyway, the Astros just barely won the game, beating Washington 6-5 on the Friday night game. The kids, however, didn't enjoy the game. They wanted to leave the entire time.

I guess the best thing about Houston is its close proximity to the beach. Galveston Island is about 45 minutes south of Downtown.

(Pictures: 1. A view of the Houston skyline, taken from the car. 2. The "Minute Maid" Stadium, which I believe was formerly the Astrodome. 3. The Astros in action. 4. Sara and Kyle bored by the baseball game. 5. Some more Houston skyscrapers.)

4th of July (Part 2) - Zilker Park Fireworks

Later in the day we ventured to Zilker Park for their annual Austin Symphony Orchestra concert and fireworks show. That was pretty fun. Last year, Kyle was scared of the fireworks, and he started crying once they were going off. This year he loved it, screaming "Yeah!" and "Yipee!" during the whole show.

The local food stands at the show, however, should try to provide a few more healthy alternatives, rather than food like "chicken fried bacon." (see pic above)

(Pictures: 1. The crowd gathers at Zilker Park before the show. 2. Kyle tries to beat the heat. 3. A local food stand selling chicken fried bacon(!) 4. Peace loving hippies demonstrate before the show. 5 & 6. The fireworks begin.)

4th of July (Part 1) - A Day at the Pool

Now that it's summertime, and the temperature here in Texas seems to get over 100 degrees (42C) every single day, it's great to have easy access to a swimming pool. Just about every apartment building I looked at in Texas had a nice swimming pool.

Taiwan, on the other hand, doesn't seem to even know about the existence of swimming pools. Virtually every apartment building I ever lived in or looked at in Taiwan did not have a pool. Even the more high end, expensive apartments didn't have one. It's just not very common there. However, one of the apartments I lived at in Hsinchu did have a swimming pool, but it was only open for about one month out of the entire year. And to use the swimming pool, you had to purchase a ticket (which cost about 50 NT dollars - US $1.50). Yes, we had to pay money to use a pool in our own apartment complex.

I went swimming in that pool twice, and that was it. Both times, after I used the pool, I got sick. It wasn't well maintained at all. It didn't really even look like a swimming pool. The shape and design was bizarre. There were giant cement columns going through the middle of the pool, which really prohibited you from swimming laps, if that's what you wanted to do.

It's not fun to swim at the pools in Taiwan hotels, either. There is always some security guard telling you to put a cap on your head (if you don't have one, you have to get out), and most of the other swimmers are there just to exercise, not for fun. I always thought it was a bit of a contradiction that the Taiwanese go to great lengths to prevent people from putting their hair into a swimming pool, yet when you step outside onto the streets, it's as dirty as a cesspool.

So now that we're back in the US, it's fun to go swimming again. I wish the pool was deeper than 4 ft though, but the kids love it.

(Pictures: Sara and Kyle having fun in the swimming pool at our apartment complex.)