10/07/2006
right click the icon and "save link as" to download the mp3, or click it to listen right away (7mb size)Topics:
1. Firefox t-shirt for joining Firefox Flicks months ago! (
my 30 second Flicks ad)
(i'm not complaining, but just want to point out that it says size 'S' though it makes me look like i'm trying out for a nerdcore hiphop group if i wear this. in other words, it's too big and baggy for a size S. perhaps it's a factory printing error, or it's men-sized.)2.
The Motion Sick t-shirt (
and other great stuff)--
super belated thank you since i haven't had time to update.
3. Moon Festival
(15th day of 8th month of the lunar calendar, happened to be Oct. 6 this year)-- it's all about burning meat
I happened to be in the area to buy bbq supplies for our class's own Moon Festival cook-out when .. (read no.4) 
←
stuff bought from Carre Four (btw, no one dared drink the Vanilla Coke i chose in the class's moon festival bbq party. they also said that it's scary, blah blah. vanilla coke is really delicious! i can't believe people don't want to try vanilla coke.)4. red-shirted protesters reach Tainan County--
I was able to shoot some photos of cops rerouting traffic and barricading roads in full riot gear but none of the protesters themselves. (NYTimes article if you don't know what this is all about.)been hearing accounts of red-shirted people (or red car-driving people) being assaulted by people against the protests, so i haven't been wearing my red Motion Sick shirt (see #2) in public.
click link to see
more photos from this non-event5. Thank you Daryl T., Ger R., Eliot J., Joe #2, Andy S., and Jim for writing. =)
Labels: audio, podcast
9/30/2006
click to listen to mp3 (or right-click and "save link as" to download)
sorry this podcast is crappier than usual-- i'm down with a cold and i don't have time to edit out all my "uhhms", "aahs", "you knows", and "likes" (i have to get back to finishing a project before its deadline).topics:
1. famous Taiwanese NY Yankees pitcher- Wang Chien Ming
2. street protests to topple Taiwan's president-
NY Times article link3. found mail
4. engrish signs
The bottom of the first photo says "Ensure mutual respect between the two sexes".
5. moon festival- barbecues and bonfires
(there's a topless drunk onstage in the first photo. click on "All Sizes" in the flickr page to enlarge. priceless shot.)
6. okonomiyaki- a very special egg omelette
Labels: audio, podcast
4/05/2006
i'm so sorry i haven't podcasted in ages!! i was busy with school work. =)
today's topics:
1. Taiwan Railways train:
a. Murder on the
Orient Express Taiwan Railways train- the prime suspect who hung himself, a victim from Vietnam, relentless journalists, finger-pointing officials, derailed trains (i sound like the
National Enquirer)
b. changing the South 2 gate of the Taipei Main Station for luck
2. Today is 清明節, the day Chinese people all over the world sweep the tombs of their dead loved ones
a.
清明節 (
set browser encoding to Chinese Traditional Big-5 to render the article correctly) occurs every year on either April 5 or 6. it occurs 15 days after
春分 (
set browser encoding to Unicode UTF-8 to render the wikipedia article correctly) (one of the 24 "weather patterns" in a year-- for example winter solstice, summer solstice, etc.)
b. this week is spring break
c. strangers praying for you might not actually speed up recovery (from heart surgery)--
according to the New York Times (by the way they
redesigned their site)
-- but that's not all! Prayer can actually be hazardous! if you use joss sticks from Mainland China that is. (listen to know why)
3.
earthquake a few days ago while i was at the dentist
4. 7-11 gives out Disney figurines
5.
Grandmother kills 2 grandsons, attempts suicide (from
The China Post)
read more
The grandmother, 55 and named Wu Shu-hui, was found to have killed her two grandsons, aged only 8 and 7, respectively, by burning charcoal, who died after inhaling too much carbon monoxide, the police said.
.....
The grandmother told the police that she burnt charcoal after her two grandsons fell asleep, but her elder grandson awakened and tried to wake her up. Realizing the elder grandson was still alive, the grandmother used a knife to stab the boy to death before slitting her own wrist.
....
Informed sources said that the father of the two killed boys is making a living by doing odd jobs in northern Taipei and now owes around NT$700,000 in credit-card and cash-card loans to banks. He divorced his wife, leaving his two sons to his mother.
....
In related news, Premier Su Tseng-chang yesterday urged the country's parents to "live and let live," and call for them "to persist to subsist" when faced with hardship and not to take their children's lives in the event they take their own.
Labels: audio, podcast
2/27/2006
topics:
1.
taiwan lantern festival (held in tainan city)
more of my
2006 taiwan lantern festival photos2.
2-28 incident and recent drama surrounding itwhat is the yearly commemoration of the feb. 28 (1947) "incident" all about? who was behind the massacre that quelled the uprising?
links:
a. 2-28 incident
backgrounder in Chinese (you'll need to set your browser's character encoding to Chinese Traditional Big-5 to read this article properly)b. 2-28 incident
backgrounder in English- the page is from the official Taipei 2-28 Memorial Museum's website.
c. 2-28 incident
entry in wikipediad. drama surrounding the 2-28 incident
who is the main culprit behind the 2-28 incident?
(cue in voice-over narration from that South Park episode Cartman's Mother is a Dirty Slut: who is cartman's father? could it be Ned? .. Officer Barbrady? .. Chef? etc. etc..)
<----- I ain't tha one!
anyway, a committe recently determined that
Chiang Kai Shek (he's on the
10 dollar and 1 dollar coins, check him out) is one of the main culprits behind the 2-28 incident. this of course raised a lot of controversy.
President Chen Shui-bian wants Chiang Kai-shek remembered as the chief culprit of the February 28 Incident of 1947, in which thousands of innocent people were massacred in Taiwan.
Speaking at a meeting to mark the publication of a special report on the incident, President Chen said yesterday forgiveness is important, but that does not mean the people should forget who was actually responsible for the massacre.
The report, published by the February 28 Memorial Foundation, concludes Chiang Kai-shek as the "chief culprit" for the massacre that followed the riots which occurred spontaneously in Taiwan.
continue reading
news article from The China Postof course my "reporting" on this in my podcast is pretty short, neutral and amateurish since i don't know much about it and nobody around here knows much about it too
(my classmates in Animation and I aren't exactly history and current events buffs) so just check out these very well written (and more in depth) links for commentaries surrounding the drama on "identifying" Chiang Kai Shek as the chief culprit of 228.
a.
228 was Chiang Kai Shek's fault! post (from The Leaky Pen's blog)
b.
Chiang's Grandson Suing Authors of 2-28 Report post (from The Leaky Pen's blog)
c. if you're too tired to read two posts above, read this short recap of the previous two links on this
feb. 26 blog roundup post- read
the paragraph after the photo of the tarts and cupcakes (from Michael Turton's blog)
Labels: audio, podcast
1/23/2006
topics:
1. first, i would like to thank
marouflash (
she's a really great calligrapher, check out her site) for
the lovely calendar she mailed me. i'd like to thank Jim W. for sending me
his book too.
2. a rash of stabbing crimes over the new year (last week of dec '05 to the first week of jan '06) here in taiwan
3. taiwanese soap operas need "protection"
editorial from the newspaper (jan. 12, 2006)
4. i believe i've already mentioned mark forman's taiwan-based
legup podcast already before. anyway here's another english language podcast about Taiwan for you guys to check out--
What's Up in Taiwan podcast.
5. there's a new rap/rap-rock? group called Fort Minor (i heard their music in my classmate's room). they're really terrible. stay away.
6. i will be going home for the chinese new year break so i might not be able to podcast until i come back in february. i go online via 56kbps modem at home. very primitive.
i will be posting my end-of-term animation and a short video about night markets while i'm away though. i've already uploaded them. i'll just post one video a week.Labels: audio, podcast
1/16/2006
today's topics:
1. December 25 was "Constitution Day" in taiwan (the constitution of the Republic of China was ratified on Christmas Day 1910)
2. January 1, 1911 was the day the Republic of China was officially born. that's why Republic of China (now Taiwan) Year no.1 is 1911. 2006 is.. do the math.. Year 95.
so if you buy chocolate milk in Taiwan and the bottle says the expiry date is 95-01-31, don't freak out, it doesn't mean 1995. it's just Year 95 in Taiwan years.
to convert Taiwan years to regular years just add "11" to whatever year you want to convert. the reason is because Year 1 was 1911. so Year 2 was 1912 (2+11), Year 95 is 2006 (95+11=06).
3. another Taiwanese holiday that falls around Christmastime is
the winter solstice (people celebrate it here).
4. short explanation of why the fall semester ends mid-January in Taiwan (and not mid-December like other countries).
5. some links to check out: (these were links i meant to talk about in my end of dec. '05 podcast but i never recorded that program because i was busy with my end of term animation)
1.
twochineseboys.blogspot.com 2.
Doghouse of Booya (
some posts of his that i like)
6. what i was doing on Christmas Eve (
tracking Santa with Google Earth. what a loser.)
7.
Forget December by
Something Corporate8.
link for those of you who didn't get to watch my "
two days before Christmas 2005" video.
-------------------------
sorry for not podcasting for a long time. i was busy cramming my end-of-term animation. i'll put it up when it's done.
Labels: audio, podcast
12/29/2005
the video is in the .m4v format (video for iPod format). the newest version of
Quicktime can play it too. size: 5.4MB
topics:
1. night market knock-offs
2. roasting chestnuts
3. "Santa Claus" and three female cohorts in Korean costume
4. soup with a mystery ingredient (watch the video to know what it is)
it's barely one minute long, so sorry if there are no screenshots. i also have already used up my Flickr photo space for this month so no photos.
Labels: audio, podcast
12/20/2005
thanks again to Ger and the
super cool def wheezer for your lovely presents!!
today's topics:
1.
state-of-the-podcast address: response to Tire's question on why my videos don't work on the new iPods that play video, and [misadventures in taiwan]'s immediate future (answer: still mostly audio with occasional video thrown in)2.
photos of my trip to taipei a couple of days ago
(not from the november trip. you already saw the video of that.).3.
Hey-Song soda memorabilia
more photos4.
exotic imported beer from Taipei
5. 滷味 stalls-- a fixture in every night market (
try to identify the mystery meats).
(dec. 21, 2005 update:
andrew agrees with me that lu-wei -- that's how 滷味 is pronounced -- is really rank.)
6.
mole map- find out what that mole on your face or body means.
click on the photo and you'll be led to its flickr page. and then hover your mouse over the photo (in the flickr page, not here) and then you'll see the notes i put on what those points mean (if you happen to have moles in those same places). click on "all sizes" if you want to see it full-size.7. what is the
Yakult (they call Yakult 養樂多 in Taiwan) beverage? also green tea + yakult (綠茶多多) tea concoction.
8. minor pet peeve on how most people spell christmas here (xmas with an apostrophe after the X).
if any more lovely people would like to send me things, this is my
christmas 2005 wishlist. hehe..
my address is here. also please add "g920713" (that's my student number) after my name. that would make it easier for the school to locate me.
Labels: audio, podcast
12/04/2005
topics:
1. elections are over but noise pollution from politicians' loudspeaker-equipped roving trucks hasn't lessened.
2. stikfas toys are fun. (click on photos to enlarge)
3. browsers
a. rocketboom's IE vs Firefox mini survey video
b. maybe you guys know all these browsers.. the popular ones, IE, Firefox, Opera, Safari, the semi-famous ones, Maxthon, Flock, but you've probably never heard of these browsers which are.. how do I say it, native to Taiwan: KKMan and PCMan. These two are actually quite popular here and many people use them.4. tiny, tiny, tiny, train station-- Balin Train Station/ 拔林火車站，in 拔林 (or 拔子林)
click to
watch Flash photo slideshow (you'll need to click on each slide to advance to the next slide.)
5. i finished putting together four videos, and i'll be putting them up in the next few days. please just watch for them. i might be very busy this month with school work so if i don't get to make another podcast this month at least you've got these vids.
i already put the first one up- oct. 31, '05 trip to tainan city. three more to go- taiwan national receipt lottery, nov. '05 taipei city, liu cha night market. Labels: audio, podcast
12/01/2005
today's podcast topics:
1. engrish catchphrase of the day: moder show young fashish (click to enlarge photo):
2. a riddle-like question about Taiwan's upcoming midterm elections.
3. girl, 17, given the kiss of death by her boyfriend. (
news article)
Dec. 2, 2005 update: i made the mistake of assuming this bit of news happened in Taiwan just because i read it from a Taiwanese internet news source. it actually happened in Canada. i didn't read it that carefully. =) sorry..4. public humiliation day: students punished for getting lousy grades by being made to stand on a busy sidewalk memorizing things. (
saw this on TV but found an internet link for you guys)
Labels: audio, podcast
11/24/2005
topics:
1. a week ago i was in taipei. i'm trying to make a video out of the photos and short video clips i took. might take forever.
2. Taiwan's very own piss drinking family-
page referencing this- you have to set your browser encoding to "chinese simplified" to view it right. This is not pr0n related, alright?
3. for someone who's used to reading chinese traditional text, chinese simplified looks like what "w0kE Up n wEnT wIt MAh B0yFrIEnd 2 sK00l n wE aTE iCE cREEm hE Iz s0 sWeEt 2 mEH." would look like to someone used to reading normal English.
reading many paragraphs of chinese simplified text really strains my eyes so i converted the text (in the
article about the piss-drinking family) to "chinese traditional" with
OpenOffice Writer. see how it's done! (click photos for full-sized versions.)
step 1:
step 2:
this is the
TV Show that the piss drinking family was on. i couldn't find the page for the specific episode they were featured in.
3. what's a perm press? and stuff about
general knowledge.
4. i want
christmas presents! =)
Labels: audio, podcast
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