Starbucks in Tainan

Back to Tainan this weekend. When I told my mom that I was not coming back to Tainan for Moon Festival (long weekend, 4 days), I knew I had to make some compensation to make her happy. So I proposed to come back on Friday evening for the weekend, and then go back to Taipei Monday morning. Since my office is very close to Taipei domestic airport, it is no problem for me to rush to the airport after work, and then go to work directly from the airport on Monday morning.

Terribly hot in Tainan and humid. I had to run to Starbucks to get cool, and also to have a cup of coffee. My head is aching from lack of caffeine (writing this and only remembering the sound of the word, I almost wrote coffin. Why do people use 'o' for coffee, and use 'a' for things that got extracted from coffee? Dictionary.com, thank you!). Now I am sitting on the second floor, right by the glass windows, overlooking the campus of Cheng Kung University. This is the new part of the campus. None of the buildings was here when I went to senior high school in the same neighborhood. Kind of pretty actually, as I can see a lot of trees by the roads. It is amazing.

I also brought Harry Potter with me. I pre-ordered the book so early, but have not finished it. Shameful. Gonna read few chapters while I have nothing to do here.

Lust, Caution

Watched Lust Caution, and I was so impressed with this movie. I love Brokeback Mountain, because Ang Lee did a very good job telling the story following the original storyline. He revived the story on the screen. Some additional scenes are added, but not much, just enough to add some depths to it. But in Lust Caution, a lot is added. The author is a minimalist. In the original story, not a lot is told in the story, but a very solid story is outlined. Ang Lee added a lot of flesh to it to make it a whole complete story. He convinced me what he presented on the screen is exactly the same as what Eileen Chang thought when she completed the story.

A lot of attention was paid to the sex scene, I just have to say I paid too much attention to their interaction, how their faces are telling different stories in different sex scene, silently that I did not think too much about it at all. And those scenes lead to a latter statement when the actress broke down and dobuted what she had to do. Good job done.

At the end of the movie, I sat through the acknowlegement. Was glad to see some names in traditional Chinese, some in simplified Chinese. Obviously some are from Taiwan, some from China, and they show their respect how the names are written. I like that.

Wanna recommend this movie. I know I'll want to revise this post later, but just wanna get some preliminary idea first.

New iPod Product

Apple just recently released new iPod products. I got to play with new iPod Nano. The feeling is very mixed. I do like the new screen that has great resolution, and offers good experience when it plays movies, but also have to agree with some critics that cover flow shows edges, and in my opinion, apple should refines the cover flow before the product release, or commit a date when they will release firmware update. It is not presentable at all, and comes as a suprrise that this is from Apple. Back cover is now shiny metal. It's very easy to leave fingerprints on it, and is also bad. The edge of the front cover is on the sharp side. I may not want to hold it in my hand on the bus to show it off, as it may hurt my palm and fingers. It also looks fat and short. If you put this new version along side with the previous slim version, I think there is an easy winner.

The store also has a demo machine iTouch. Did not have a chance to actually play with it, but it looks great, and simmer than I expected. Would like to go back to that store to try its browser. I always have some doubts if browser is really easy to use since you only get to see a very small portion of the website. But from the few glimpse of the gadget, the money seems really worth it.

Lancome? Biotherm? Beer!

Lancome and Biotherm have their sales today and tomorrow. Of course MM and I have to be there to see if we can get any bargain. The place was not decorated at all. They just put some tables together, put a set of testers on the table, and they could start their sale. Busy! I am glad that we decided to go there first before dinner, and we actually beat the crowd. I got some facial masks for around 70% off. Shopping is so fun!

Then we went for dinner in a beer restaurant. They brew their own beer. Hm.. wondering if it is legal to brew your own beer and sell it in Taiwan. Anyway, beer is great, food is acceptable, but the live music? omg, Bad music can really hurt business than no music at all, let me tell ya. I felt so relieved when he finsihed a song, and had to jump to my feet and applaud when he had to 'excuse me' to take a break.

Then looked around in the bookstore. Saw a few books on Ang Lee. Books on Lust Caution have already hit the shelves. Interesting. Also browsed Sex and the City to revive the women's life again, then came home, and left my umbrella in the bus. Damn!

Typhoon Wipha

Typhoon Wipha is coming this way to Taipei area. It was quite gusty sometimes when I came home from work. Stopped at the evening market to pick up some veggies, and tofus. It was quite challenging already trying to fight the crowd to get food, and to balance among backpack, umbrella, and food. Taipei announced a day off on Tuesday (yeah~~), but since I took the laptop home, and could call in for the phone meetings, so I'll still need to work tomorrow (no~~). According the weather forecast, northern Taiwan will be affected by Wipha all day long on Tuesday. It is now midnight, and is raining quite hard, and I can really feel the wind (and it feels quite good as a matter of fact).

Love, Sin?

Sony released their new T200 camera. Someone post a report on mobile01. Such lovely red color! The camera looks just like mine. Another perfect example of love at the first sight. MM recommended to add an agenda to try the real thing on weekends, and that's what I'm gonna do. It is really a sin to make something so beautiful. I can't refrain myself from getting the credit card out. Help me! Aaaaarrgh~

Tuesdays with Morrie

This is the third book of Mitch Albom's that I finished in quite a short period of time. Very well written, I'd say, but as I finished 3 very quickly, I feel the same writing styles across all 3. It was quite interesting to read the first, but the third? I felt that's it.

The topics mentioned in the book is really worth spending time to think about, but then you'll realize the idea in the book is quite realistic. Life is a series of making choices. We just can't expect to have everything, and have to learn to compromise between conflicts. It will be a blessing to balance between work and life. Is it too much to invest too much time on work to accomplish at the expense of family life? Nope, as long as you realize in advance this is what you have to pay, then proceed without regreat. Some people choose family life, and some choose to balance between two. Why whining if you have made a choice?

Promenade

I was dusting my bookshelf this morning and happened to see this postcard. Quite a good souvenir when I look at it now. The name of this painting is "Promenade" if I remember it corrently, by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Getty Museum in Los Angeles has a very good collection of impressist painting, and Promenade is one of them. Still remember how happy I was when I visited there the first time and saw the collection. Did not expect it and probably stayed there for about an hour, and was determined to get a postcard. This is a thing to remember.

Heineken Green Tea

I don't normally like sugar in my tea or coffee. Sugar always leaves some funny after taste, and I always feel like having bad breath because of it. But things may change a little bit now.

Heineken Green Tea is a new drink, and is quite popular. I had heard of it, but always thought the idea was funny and never wanted to try. I have been quite fond of Heineken recently, and few days ago found a very cheap source in a bargain grocery store (this is a different story), and got a dozen of it. Was thinking of having something different way to drink it, and Heineken Green Tea came to my mind. After some search, the recipe is surprisingly simple: Heineken and green tea with passion fruit flavor. Start with 1:1 combination and adjust accordingly to your preference if you like it sweeter or prefer more beer taste.

Green tea with passion fruit is very sweet, but when it mixes with Heineken, the bitterness from the beer is gone, and the sweetness from the tea is weaked a lot. The drink now has very smooth texture, and has such wonderful aroma from passion fruit. After some tweaking, my favorite recipe is Heineken:tea=6:4.

I was able to finish the whole thing within 30 minutes. It was great and I was too thirsty.

Because I Said So

Starring Diane Keaton. I did not expect a whole lot before I went, so I did not have any disappointment. Just a fun thing to watch a stupid movie and get a good laugh out of it. Diane is a mother of 3 daughters in the movie. To avoid her daughter from making the same mistake like she did, she put up a personal, and interviewed guys for her daughter. Come on, this sounds so un-American! Look, they put all kinds of weirdos for the interview, and then the last person is a successful handsome young guy. Of course there is an easy winner. Then there is just a serious of events when women scream... Just picture it.

Lust, Caution

Lust, Caution, Ang Lee's latest movie, just won him the second Golden Lion at Venice. His first Golden Lion was Brokeback Mountain in 2005. When Lust Caution was premiered in Venice, everyone was shocked at how intense the 3 sex scenes are. Newspapers paid more attention to how the actor exposes his balls in the film, instead of how the sex scenes are trying to tell them.

Eileen Chang, the author of Lust Caution, is one of the greatest writers in the 20th century. Her writing always gives me a sense of movement. I feel that there was a camera in her mind when she wrote, and she knew how to manipulate the camera well in very simple and compact words. She definitely knows how to abstract the story. Sometimes it gives you more to think about if you do not know all the details, and that's how she dealt with Lust Caution. She did not tell how the 2 main characters developed their affections, but the main point was that the female character tried to approach the guy, just to assasinate him, but she ended up falling in love with him, and told him to run when her group planned the whole action and everyone was ready. He ran away, but, in return, told his men to get the whole group and kill them all. We all believe this includes her, but of course Eileen did not say that. Ang Lee wants to use the 3 sex scenes to tell the audience how their love evolves with the story, and I think that is a clever thing to do. That is the untold story in this story.

But, we'll have to wait until end of September for the movie to premiere in Taiwan. I'll definitely go watch it. By the way, I love Eileen Chang. Her early stories are so compact and great. I believe she gives a sense of defeat to those who want to be writers, because they know they'll never be this good. She finished all her major stories in her early twenties.

Bridge Color

I was on my way to the gym. The bus stopped at that intersection, and I saw the yellow color on the bridge. Not sure if it has been there for a while or what, the color looks interesting to me. I think I've seen blue color on the bridge, but yellow color? This is the first time.

Earthquake

I was awaken last night by earthquake. It took me about 3 seconds (could be longer!) to realize what was going on. I swear I heard my windows rattling. Everything was shaking. I ran to the bathroom door right away. According to bro's analysis, there are 2 major supporting columns in the bathroom, and the safest spot is the bathroom door. So there I was, waiting for bro to bring the baby, rush out and hide. Nothing happened. I guess the princess really wore them out. Need to ask them tonight if they realized there was an earthquake even! Later the news said it happened at 1:51am, at 6.6 on the Richter scale. Epicenter is in the ocean somewhere south east of Taipei. Major aftershock happened at 1:55am, at 5.7, but I was too tired to open my eyes. The scale was 3 in Taipei. I have to say that 3 is scary enough. The sleep turned out to be not so good after all.

Maokong Gondola

MM's birthday today. It was cool and did not rain, so we decided to try Maokong Gondola.

Maokong Gondola just recently opened few months ago. Very easy to get to the station. Just take the brown line of the mass transit to the last stop, and walk 300m, and you'll be there. Quiet night tonight. We did not have to wait more than a minute to get on the gondola. Ride was smooth, but when the gondola went over a pole, it was a bit jerky. We got on the gondola from Taipei Zoo station, and the destination is Maokong. Very disappointing at Maokong. The city opened up this ride, but did not plan very well in Maokong, which is a quite famous place for tea. Many people will go to Maokong to see tea farm, have tea at the tea house, or simply go hiking. But when we get to the Maokong Gondola station, we did not see clear information where to go. We saw a sign saying for this tea house, its number is B16, for that tea house, its number is B10, blah blah blah, but did not know how to get to those places. We stayed there for like 20 minutes, and decided to come back.

Ride itself was fun. The night view was very good. Quiet ride with sounds from frogs, crickets, dogs, and laughters of course. 50NT for one way is really worth it. I'll try the day ride some day.

Jim Thompson's House

Jim Thompson's House is right by the river, within walking distance from MBK center. Visitors have to pay admission of 100 bahts to get in, but also gets guided tour to show around the house. It is nice of them make it compulsory to get guided tour, as it is more interesting to have the tour guide tell me the history when Mr. Thompson had several traditional Thai houses connected together to simulate a western house, or when he had the walls installed inside out, just because he wanted to see the patterns of the outside wall when he sat in his comfy chairs. You can get some food and drink in the coffee shop, or visit their gift shop to buy some Thai silk. Thai silk merchandise is very expensive in the gift shop though. You can get a much better competitive price from Chatujak market.

Change

It looks run down, but it used to be the 7-11 I shopped every day. I would get off the bus in the morning, walk into this 7-11, grabbed a box of milk, take a look of the headlines on the newspaper, and then walk forward to a bakery to get some bread, and head off to the office. One day I wanted to enter the store, but the automatic would not open. Being in an auto-pilot mode, I was not thinking, and almost hit the door head-on. The employee popped out his head and said this store was closed. No warning, no sign, no nothing. Not fair to their regular customers. Then I saw the merchandize was removed, the shelves, and now the whole place seems to be stripped completely naked. So this is the ugly fact under the well decorated convenience store. I can't wait to see the new store move in, and will post another picture for a nice comparison.

Tamsui Sunset

First weekend after the Chinese class is over. MM and I went to Tamsui in the evening. It started to rain after we left the MRT station, but the rain did not last very long. This is my first time to be in Tamsui at that time to greet sunset. Gorgeous color. We chose a BBQ restaurant, an ok outdoor table, chatted, and see the mountain turning from blue, greyish blue, to different shades of black. Lights from the other side of the river made up a band of color in the distance. It was quite enjoyable to see the color transition.