I've been dealing with an achey hand for 3 days. On my way to the doctor's, I spotted this just down the street from my office. My very own Engrish spotting on a red car no less. Double mojo. "The red car will drive to studing arts and paints reason." I couldn't of come up with that one even if I wanted to. I love Taiwan for so many reasons. This is just one.
How about this snazzy cell phone with 1.3 million pixel camera, mp3 formatting, and compatabiliy with ScanDisk memory card. Best of all it's in Australia and Brazilian national team colors. You can be the hit of the football pitch with this phone-just in time for World Cup this summer. All yours for only US$400
How much is that doggie in the push bag? What'll they think of next? Why bother to actually walk the dog when you have this handy-dandy wheeled pooch-pod? All for only US$30.
Hi everybody-it’s the friendly self-promotion machine. Just wanted to let you know that the EWF is now available for download over at PodioBooks.com. Thanks to Chris and Tee for instructions and technical hand holding and to Evo for coming up with the idea in the first place. Subscribe and let me know what you think. Make sure to check out all the other great stuff over at PB.com. You’ll be glad you did.
I can't tell you how many times I've spoken with overeas friends or family member and they say, "wow-I just love Taiwanese food, so spicy, and you have such pretty beaches there…" It's at that point when I know they mean Thailand and not Taiwan. No, Taiwanese food is not spicy actually kind of bland but healthy. The beaches here are unexceptional due to lack of development mandated by the government's paranoia over the mainland Chinese attacking, hence many of the beaches host military posts.
There is a legacy of confusing names & titles for this place. When I was studying about China and Taiwan in school it seemed a daunting task to bring clarity to these different names, a task akin to seperating the the many strands of spaghetti that form one bowl of the noodles. Here we go: Formosa, Taiwan, Free China, Republic of China (R.O.C.), Chinese-Taipei. Th flip side of this coin is the many names for China as well: Red China, People's Republc of China(PRC), Communist China, Mainland China, etc. This can easily lead to some perplexed head scratching and wondering, "How many China's are there?"
To be continued
Once you've done tidying the house with your lovely little robot vacuum cleaner, you might be tempted to nod off for a little bit. Fear not-this lovely nod-off alarm device will set you straight. We only want high-production slackers here. Wouldn't this be a great gift item for college students to use in "organic chemistry" and other tediously boring classes. Better still devise a gadget that shoots a stream of warm water on your wrist or ankle, causing you to… ah I think you know the rest.
I moved to Taipei friom Tucson, Arizona a classic western US city layed out on the grid system, I was totally unprepared for Taipei's geography. It always baffled me how after walking through the campus of the neighboring Veteran's General Hospital to get to Tian Mu Rd. bus stops that I could get on the bus which made a short left and a long right, or the other bus that made a longer right and then a long left. Either of them would take me to almost the exact same spot miles away down in ShihLin by Ming Chuan College (formerly an all-girl college now a coed university). Ah, Ming Chuan college, the fond memories of all those cute girls 
in all those different grades/seasonal uniforms.
One night I was on top of my friend's appartment building which was then the tallest building in Shihlin, when I observed how the 2 previously mentioned roads (Chung Shan & Wenlin) traveling from Tianmu into Taipei were squeezed by Yuanshan at the Grand Hotel. 
The Grand is where I spent my first night in Taiwan and where this long and interesting adventure began.
Let's see-it'd been around 17 years since I lived in Taipei. I probably lived in Taipei during the worst time of it's modern history(1987-89). They were digging up the city for the mass rapid transit system forcing the scooters, buses, handful of cars, and scant Mormon missionairies on old beat up bicycles to fight for the little bit of asphalt remaining. Uhh, the taxis ended up with most of my paycheck. I've seen all kinds of taxi themes from rolling karaoke parlors with the funky garish colored lights on board to little mobile movie theaters. Most of them having exotic sacramental looking bottles of air freshener on the dashboard. Well enough said. I have plenty more on this score but am saving it for upcoming podcasts.
Ahh, ok-I was in one cab. The driver had a strange and vacant look in his eyes. My Chinese was passable at that point but eveything I said to him he would repeat with this weird zombie-like grin and stare at me in the rearview mirror. This reminded me of that scene in Annie Hall where Woody Allen is talking with Diane Keaton and car is being driven by Christoper Walken(plying Dwight-Diane Keaton's brother). Then Dwight asks Woody Allen's character if he ever dreams about driving on the road at night and having a desire to steer the car into oncoming headlights with a somewhat crazed look on his face, to which Allen replies,"Gee Dwight-I need to be getting back to earth right now! Been there-done that.
Here in Taiwan this bag which, yes Virginia in Newcastle, looks very much like toiletry kit bag, is used as man's purse and carried around. While we are on the subject of memories, when I first came to Taiwan almost 20 years ago, many of the small food shops would leave a roll of toliet paper on the table for….,eh. wiping, eh,… your hands. That's right. At that time this was one of the forms of towels/napkins provided.
Their rationale, well it's all paper… On that score they are right.
Well here we go folks- Taiwan Pop Culture, products, Engrish, gizmos and other oddities innagaural posting. First from top left to right-synthetic reversible rubber keyboard covers to protect from moisture. An alarm clock with changing color LED, and tiny mp3 player that can accept memory cards. This mp3 player retails for US$20 here. All 3 of these items ofered in Yahoo Taiwan's online store.
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