Today I am 25.

Today is my 25th birthday. Wow... When I came to Taiwan I was 23, then shortly after turned 24. I have been here for slightly over a year.

I decided to stay here a while longer so I had to renew my Resident Visa. To do this I need to have a job, I am staying at Wells English School here in Taichung. Then I had to go to the hospital for my health check. They do x-rays, draw blood, and test your vision. Check your height and weight as well. I was about 77kg and 174.5cm something like that. Surprising, haha!

I feel pretty annoyed with myself that I only have a few Taiwan videos online, but of course I have other things I am doing too. I am editing episode 2 currently but I haven't been able to get past the intro music part yet...

I make a note not to talk about my relationships on here but I will just say I currently have a girlfriend and she has been helping me to learn chinese more than I had been with my friends. My Chinese tutor moved to New York so I don't have an organized class currently.

There are 3 videogames I am looking forward to coming out soon; Street Fighter 4, Killzone 2, and Resident Evil 5. Hope they are all cool. I have played the hell out of Fallout 3 since November. I want to continue to make videos about Taiwan though, I think I will do some more 'close to home' subjects for the episode after this one, that should make getting footage a lot faster!

Well, I am sorry I didn't update this blog more often. Not sure how many people actually even read this but if you do, let me know in the comments.

Richie Post #1: Driving in Taiwan

This is a post written by my father while he was still in Taiwan in November. It was his first time in Taiwan, these were his impressions:


We went to a Taiwanese restaurant here in Taichung for dinner last night. Ian and I followed his girlfriend and her cousin on their scooter through town in some truly amazing traffic.

Ian drove with me on the back. Disney, or Six Flags should consider such a ride, as it was more thrilling than any roller-coaster ever built.

Scooters are the dominant vehicle here, and Saturday night there are thirty or forty waiting at every light. Since scooters are not "allowed", ha ha, to make left turns, if a rider wants to go left, they make a partial right turn, then a quick left at the front of the intersection and stop to wait for the light. Cars are supposed to wait further back, which they do most of the time.

What actually happens when a light turns green is, (after a brief period where the people; running the light, making left turns across two lanes of traffic, and those who have started the race early, sort out their differences), something like the start of a motorcycle race. A slow motion race, but a definite race none the less. In lieu of high speed the Taiwanese add obstructions to the "official" half lane to the right of the two normal lanes used by vehicle traffic. Bicycles, scooters pulling over-sized trailers, scooters driven slowly by old ladies with both legs hanging down, parked cars, portable signs, a surprising number of people driving against traffic before heading whatever direction they'd really like to go, and an occasional suicidal pedestrian can be counted on to liven up the competition. The track is gaily lit by bright signs of every color and store fronts, so scooter lighting is optional, and since working mufflers are also optional, the sound of the race is authentic.

Once the pack gets up to speed the riders jockey for position ready to squeeze between the various moving as well as stationary obstacles and the now overtaking cars and trucks. To assure the action never slows an assortment of vehicles backing into the roadway, making U turns, and maneuvers of unknown purpose are performed randomly.

It was amazing to me that we were able to travel several miles each way through this mayhem without observing an actual collision. By the time we got back I had begun to develop a begrudging admiration for these fearless riders, and today I'm ready to rent a scooter and join them, slowly with both legs hanging down.

Taiwan Dreamin'

Episode 0 is complete and i will be uploading it tomorrow. 0 is just a intro to Taiwan, Episode 1 will be focused on temples and religious type things like that.

I am using my Taiwan Dreamin' promo to warm things up on YouTube and advertise the posting of Episode 0. I plan to post episode 1 a day after 0 to help boost interest in the show. I hope that I can get a lot of views, and more importantly comments.

My father will be here soon and I will have a chance to get a lot of video. Things like Taipei 101, Hualien, the night markets, and other things will be easier and more fun to film with two people.

So please go and support my video on YouTube here:

http://tw.youtube.com/watch?v=52KvqhxtEWk




I've already posted this on LiveVideo but please click the link even if you've seen it before, help me get more views and spread the word!

My buddies!

Well I am happy to say I have made some good friends here in Taiwan! KC and Claire are both really nice girls and very funny! I am always making bad jokes for them to make fun of me with, haha! Well KC had to go early but Albert came over later and we watched Batman begins! I felt watching it for probably the fifth time, it has quite a slow build up, but I think it will be worth it in the long run of the series because so many questions are answered that are usually a bit confusing about the Batman character.

Ian + Claire + KC

Dark Knight is getting really good reviews, I have been waiting 3 years for it. I guess I am a little hyped, I hope it can meet my high expectations!

Ian + Claire

Albert and I (sorry, no photo of him today!) have also been discussing E3 events. Thats the big video game conference where the companies announce their new projects. Seems we are both really excited for Street Fighter 4. Also Mega Man 9 has been announced. Both are really exciting for me in particular because they are part of the reason I got into drawing. I used to go to my friend Michael's house all the time and watch him play the games while I drew the characters and created my own, was really fun, and inspired my creativity!

I am trying to get going on my animation and video projects so hopefully I can get something up soon!

Gotta change my lifestyle

KC + Emily + Ian @ 89k

UGH!!! I haven't written on here for a while because I have been lazy. It's really bad! I think I just need to MAKE myself a scedual. When I was in the US, I worked 40 hours a week. I woke up at 7 something, got to work by 8:30 and worked till 5. Got home around 5:30. If I wanted to get anything done I had to do it on my way home. Well my point is that I had to do things at those times because of my work time.

Here in Taiwan I work only 19 hours, and its from around 3:30 - 9:10pm. I am not a morning person and before work I am always watching the clock to make sure I won't be late. So I end up waking up really late, going to work, coming home, and staying up really late. Also because of this timing I find its harder to get dinner.

Because of this I think I really need to enforce my own schedual and change this lifestyle. Today I woke up at 11am which is EARLY for me here, haha! I feel really tired right now, but I can't let myself take a nap or I wont sleep earlier tonight.

I think I need to be asleep by 2am. Then I can wake up around 10am, that should be plenty of sleep. After waking up I can go get some proper lunch/breakfast, all the shops will be open at this time. Then I need to stop being paranoid about being late for work, just set an alarm to warn me when I need to get ready to go. On weekends I need to stick to the schedual most times too or it will get out of whack. People have told me that sleeping between certain hours gets you better rest. Not sure if that's true, but I am not getting good rest currently so I can try it.

Hm... so what else is new? I just met a few new people in the past weeks, I think I need to try to be more social - part of stopping being lazy. We went to 89k to see some bands play. Actually they were pretty good I think. After that we went to the dance club Lobby, it was really crowded but having a bunch of friends in there is more fun I think. It's funny though, I thought having all this free time would make me more productive but it doesn't. I still need to make sure I am not sinking into the lazyness cycle. I really need to get working on my video and stuff. Just right now I am really having a hard time with thinking about the structure and format...

Ian + Emily @ 89k

On Saturday night Albert and I rode our scooters down a long road that led towards the mountains, then up beitun road into the next township. Albert just bought the scooter so he is practicing still. The roads at that time didn't have much traffic so it was good, and fun to drive faster on a straight road.

Okay - that's all I got for now - I'll try to post more later!

Teaching English in Taiwan - Keeping Kids Off The Streets

I have been teaching English here in Taiwan for a few months now, I am still a newbie for sure, but I did learn a lot in that time. Teaching in a Buxiban (cram school) here is quite different from teaching in a Elementary or Highschool, or University of Course. Taiwan is full of cities, parents are very, very busy making money. Some huge percentage of Taiwanese own their own business, a lot to manage, and so these kids don't have anywhere to go after school.

It's really impressive that as Taiwan is developing, the country hasn't really been free for so long, they have used schools, like mine, as a way to teach the children as well as being a sort of a daycare to keep the kids off the streets. Of course there are plenty of parents who can't afford it, but it's still doing its part. In the US we have many big gang problems, kids out after school with parents working two jobs. They have nowhere to go so they just make their own rules on the street, this starts them on the path to being social outcasts who don't really match up with the rest of the world.

In my neighborhood back home I saw plenty of other kids, and even some friends, go off on this path. As a kid I never really understood the phrase, "Keeping kids off the streets." To me it was like, "What's wrong with the street? How can just being outside make you bad?" Obviously that's not the point. Kids need rules, parents who know what they are up to, who their friends are. You don't need to rule everything in their life, like their clothes, or their hobbies, but just know who they are getting their moral ideas and things from.

So when I start to feel that my teaching is boiling down to playing games and teaching minor English vocabulary, I am satisfied to know I am a kind of a role model, or at least a good influence for these kids, to keep them out of trouble for the future.

HIGH DEF!

The world is now in HIGH DEFINITION! It's the next generation in entertainment. Now to tell the truth, I am fine with our current TVs and DVDs, but HD is replacing it whether you like it or not, and truthfully it does look pretty awesome.

There is an idea in the US that in Asia you can buy electronics and media and such things much cheaper. Well I haven't seen that in Taiwan. Right now I am considering going HD with my gear. I just checked those prices and they are pretty heavy, looks even worse when you see the price in NT.


SOOOO PS3, it plays Blueray DVD, the only way to go for HD movies now that HDDVD has gone out of business. At the store up the road the PS3 bundle costs about NT$17,800. That includes any two games, an HD Cable for connecting with an HD TV, and a new Dualshock 3 controller. Its a decent deal - comes out to about US$580. I think this is affordable enough. It seems I will be able to save about US$300 - 500 a month with my current spending and work hours and all that, just guessing.

HD TV = NT$34,500 for a big one, that's about US$1,125. It's about the same as in USA... I think its a decent price for what you are getting. Maybe I can get the PS3 first, check my spending for the next month, and if I decide I can afford it, maybe get the TV.

Whenever I leave Taiwan I'd have to re-sell it or something I guess which will suck. Really, moving back to the states sounds like a super pain in the ass. Leaving USA was easy because I could just give things to relatives and so forth, but going back - I think I need to sell everything.

Over 100 Posts!

Well I just noticed this will be post 102 for me! I guess I really wrote a lot!

My sleep schedule has been very messed up these days and I've been sleeping till very late like 2 o clock, and staying up 'till like 8am, haha! So this morning, it is 6:13 now, I just got back from a nice jog. I ran around the city, the air seems a lot cleaner in the morning and the sky is so blue. I saw lots of stray dogs and old people out for an early Sunday morning stroll.

I have been losing weight and gaining muscle with all the walking I have been doing, maybe if I start jogging in addition i can get more tone to my muscle, that would be nice, I still have some flab I guess, just being picky, not like I am fat at all. Anyways I was feeling a little depressed recently but this morning I am feeling cheerful.

I saw the movie IRON MAN last night with Albert, was really awesome. Right up there with Batman Begins for me really. The story was well done, special effects on Iron Man's suit were prefect, looks like a possible sequel featuring The Avengers (Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Giant Man, Wasp, among others.)

Unlike many super hero movies, Iron Man looks even more awesome in real life!

It's fun to see a super hero who isn't really trying to hide from anything, no scarred past, no conflict between his personal life and his super hero life, it's a different kind of character than we see with Batman or Spiderman. I also heard that this was the first movie that Marvel Comics developed on their own instead of licensing out their characters to another company, anyways, check it out!

Scooter Graffiti!

I started customizing my scooter by drawing on it, graffiti style! I am using some markers that I think will be permanent and seem to use the same paint as spray paint bottles. Well I did a old english typeface "A" for Alexander, and some arrow designs. I plan to really cover the whole thing, make it look really wild, haha!


You can see in the photo I now have a new Cell Phone, it is a Sony Ericsson, pretty nice and not too expensive, I had to shop around to get one that was a little cheaper, many 'cheap' ones were around $90 US, mine was about $45, and looks nicer too I think!

You can also see my helmet, its a pretty nice one with a face shield and close-able air vents in the top. So just wanted to show you that stuff!

Da Jia Mazu

I have new photos up on Flickr now from Da Jia Mazu.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sayianianian/sets/72157600036573461/

Mazu (sounds kinda like ma-ju) is a taoist goddess of the sea that tours Taiwan at this time to answer prayers and generally check up on things and tries to make everyone happy. So many people travel from temple to temple along with Mazu, but you can also go before she arrives.

My friend in the US, Hui Ting, her boyfriend Wei lives near Taichung. He took me, Albert, and his friend TaiYu to see the festivities in his car. Before we arrived we ate some Rice Cakes and Brain soup - yes pig brains! I ate pig brains, there's not really much flavor to it just salty and soft like custard. I don't know what the zombies are on about!

After doing all that we came home and played some one on one Tekken 5, and some 4 player free for all in Super Smash Bros, pretty fun!

So here are some photos:

Youtube VS LiveVideo

YOUTUBE:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=oXU11RP-6iM

LiveVideo:
http://www.livevideo.com/video/BF448C9F189240579F5230671C730DB0/dance-masters-competition.aspx

Which do you think runs better?

Dance Competition

【青春達人SHOW】舞春─勁舞大賽
Dance Masters Show - Spring Dance Competition.
http://www.livevideo.com/video/BF448C9F189240579F5230671C730DB0/dance-masters-competition.aspx

Follow the link to see the video- my friend Queenie and her friends dance together as 'Ice Queen' in a Dance Competition in Taichung in front of 新光三越 (shin kuan san yue) Department Store.

Adjusting some more.

Everything is going well. Adjusting to teaching, getting used to the weather, and food. Things are going well. I've been meeting new friends, finding what I have in common with others, and I am still planning how to do my Taiwan Dreamin' show. I have been a little busy/lazy and I need to work on the intro some more.

Teacher Craig gave me this cool photo of a Door he found in Lu-Gang. Supposed to look like a temple door - but hm... those don't look like Chinese gods to me!


I hope I can get a scooter soon. I need some more advice and a Taiwanese friend to go with me for bargaining and such things. I am still thinking about getting a new scooter, but if I found a nicer used one I guess that is also good.

My Chinese is improving slowly but surely, learning from my friends. I am still waiting for Super Smash Bros to arrive, excited about that. I watched a really cool anime yesterday called Paprika, with Grant. It's made by mad-house and seems very similar in theme to their TV series, Paranoia Agent.

Well I should stop playing on the internet and try to get some work done!

Scooters VS Motorcycles. TW VS US

Some of my friends and family in the US were asking me, "Why would you buy a scooter rather than a Motorcycle?" Well here is my answer, you can correct me if I am wrong:


In America a Motorcycle can be safer at high speeds because it has a larger wheel, this allows you to hit pot holes without flying off your bike. However, in Taiwan you rarely get up to any speed that will send you flying, the cities are crowded. So far I have seen no traffic jams whatsoever but you rarely get up past 40 or 50 mph in the city. Another point is that there are TONS of scooters, they are very maneuverable due to the small wheels and if you are not able to keep up with their maneuvering that will be more of a danger. Taiwan driving is at a lower speed with more obstacles to dodge, American driving is at a higher speed where you need to worry more about road surfaces and maneuvering around large cars, rather than other scooters. Another point to mention is that Taichung is a totally flat city with really no hills to speak of so that makes it nice for scooters as well.

I also live on the first floor and I have huge garage doors on both sides of my house, I could park my scooter inside easily, and really I could park my dad's pickup truck in my living room if I wanted, I have enough room. I am considering whether or not to buy a new scooter. New scooters are quite a bit more expensive that a used one, but if I stay in Taiwan for a few years I think it could be worth it, I wont have to be as concerned about it randomly breaking down, and I can try to take good care of it to make it last a long time.

Taiwan Dreamin' Videos

I am currently working with my graphics programs to make an intro for my Taiwan Dreamin' show. I am planning to make a silhouetted landscape, black on red, the camera will move backwards across the land showing some Taiwan landmarks. There will also be the words "Explore" "Experience" "Examine" with the final image being similar to the one above.

I also want to comment quickly on some messages I've received online recently. I'm getting the feeling more and more that Taiwanese have a super strong stereotype of foreigners. Any time I mention that I don't like, or don't do one of these stereotypical things people act shocked. Well It's really annoying me. It makes me appreciate where I come from in Maryland. America has a lot of racial tension but we also have many accepting, tolerant, and fair people. Every day we can see mayn types of people and after getting out of middle school I rarely met with many problems in that area. Phoebe mentioned that many Taiwanese love to gossip, so even though it has not effect on them, and its none of their business, they can spread rumors and things like that. I think even if they think its bad for foreigners to date with many TW girls, it's their choice, and the girls like it too, so how is it really even bad. The people involved are satisfied and everyone else needs to butt out.

I hope I can do a segment on Taiwan Dreamin' discussing race issues in America VS Taiwan, and also dispell some stereotypes in the process.

Taiwan Dreamin' Promo

Okay, I downloaded a trial version of this editing software today and took a few of my DVDs I recorded and smashed them all together into this video. I guess this will portray the exciting style that I hope my Taiwan Dreamin' Program will take on.

This editing program is actually really amazing because it runs on my laptop pretty well, and I had like over an hour of footage i was editing down to the short video. I might try to buy it.

I used the punk rock version of "Somewhere over the Rainbow" a cover by 'Me First and the Gimme Gimmes.' I think it's exciting and also gives you the idea of dreaming about travel. There are some little jokes in there too if you pay attention to the lyrics and the images.

Okay so here is the link to the video on LiveVideo:

http://www.livevideo.com/video/2947cfc95dc746b49d001b6ae00575e3/taiwan-dreamin-promo.aspx?m_tkc=10608554

Taiwan Dreamin' Promo

Please Leave me comments on the LiveVideo page, and vote too! Let me know what you think!
Also, don't feel bad if you were left out of this one, I will use all my intros eventually!