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Squishy fuzzy yummy thoughts
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Saturday, December 07, 2002
Today's waking time: 6:45 a.m. Sandy and I drive in the Skateline van to a "large vehicle carpark" somewhere in Singapore. That's as far as my sense of direction goes here -- I know that I'm "somewhere in Singapore." The streets here turn suddenly, and if I stop paying attention for just one second, I'm lost.
Busses and semi trucks, some with driver, sleep side by side. We swept the 500 meter parking lot oval with a big push broom (he did most of it) and waited for people to arrive.
By the time we start the 300 meter time trial, the sun was up enough to drench me in the constant layer of sweat that has clung to me since my arrival here. We did the events individually, starting 30 seconds apart from each other.
After a 300 meter, 500 meter and 1000 meter time trial, we to eat some rice and miscellaneous chinese/indian food, and then Sandy and I went back to his place, where we both took showers and promptly passed out for about 3 hours.
posted by wtanaka at 12/07/2002 11:39:00 PM
Friday, December 06, 2002
I'm in Singapore now, in some skate shop. It's raining a little bit, but I think I'm going to head out to East Coast Park to do some skating anyway. I arrived at the airport, and tried calling Suzanne, Victor and Sandy Snakenberg whom I had met briefly in San Francisco at one of the Friday Night Skates there.
Sandy asks me if I have a place to stay. I say 'not yet.' He says that I should stay at his place, then.
The taxi driver that tried to take me to his place must have been 1000 years old. He didn't seem to have any idea where he was or where we were going, even when I was pointing it out to him on his mapbook. He even called Sandy at some point on his cell phone to ask for directions. He just kept repeating over and over the names of the streets that we were on and the signs that we saw. The ride ended up costing way too much, but luckily taxi rides are reasonably priced here. Reasonable enough that people even consider using them.
posted by wtanaka at 12/06/2002 10:50:00 PM
This girl claire gave me a phrase in chinese which she says describes me: che4 zi zhe1 xin1. From what I understand it says something about the curiosity of a child.
posted by wtanaka at 12/06/2002 07:07:00 PM
2002 December 1 0717
Random thoughts, club-exhaustion born:
I still feel strange when there's a girl all over me. It's from not having it happen to me too often, growing up. Still a new experience that catches me off guard. Maybe these days it happens more often because I'm better dressed.
I want to read a "networking" book. And a conversation book.
Do I want an LTR, or is that just what I think I want from looking at and living in society?
So what do I want in my life in 5 years?
I want to be someone that's good at what I do
I want to work towards qualities that I've admired in other people:
kindness
sense of direction
genuineness
I want to always be open to improving myself, even if I feel as though I've figured out how I want to be
I want to add: "help people" but it sounds too patronizing.
I need dual purpose activities. For example, exercise helps me think and at the same time keeps me healthy, so I should make sure to do enough of it.
Some things I want to improve on:
sharing my plans ahead of time
stop disagreeing with unimportant things
posted by wtanaka at 12/06/2002 07:04:00 PM
Leadership is about distributing work, but it is also about figuring out how to accomplish vague goals and also about inspiring people to work towards those vague goals.
posted by wtanaka at 12/06/2002 06:57:00 PM
2002 december 5 1054
passing by combination seen on beach from car: large guy, speedos, beach, taichi
posted by wtanaka at 12/06/2002 06:57:00 PM
The throat lozenges that I bought in Hong Kong had the "Q" in the name highlighted in orange. The rest of the nine characters surrounding the "Q" in the name are black.
The chinese version of the name has three characters, and one whole character is orange.
I wonder how much of both languages you have to know before you understand that those two are roughly equivalent. Maybe they aren't even equivalent.
posted by wtanaka at 12/06/2002 06:55:00 PM
Imagine and clearly visualize the end result and communicate that. This will allow others to help get there.
posted by wtanaka at 12/06/2002 12:23:00 AM
I hope that I am able, one day, to incorporate the parts of my personality that I like when I'm drunk into every day life.
posted by wtanaka at 12/06/2002 12:22:00 AM
2002-11-29 1427
I just got a twinrex shot which is the first in a series. The doctor (her english was the weakest of anyone I met at NTU hospital) said that I should get the next shot in one month. The shot nurse said that I should get the next shot in 2 weeks.
Hmm.
posted by wtanaka at 12/06/2002 12:21:00 AM
I realized something about what Maggie has been saying about wanting more of a commitment at some point in the future.
IF she does end up wanting more of a commitment, it will be sometime later. Not only that, whether or not it happens is out of my control. So I shouldn't be worrying or stressing out about it before it happens.
In my thinking about the world, a very useful categorization to use to divide up "things that happen/may happen" is:
1. things that i can do something about
2. things that i can't do anything about
posted by wtanaka at 12/06/2002 12:20:00 AM
2002 November 27 1902
McDonalds here in Taiwan plays some pretty cool jazz music. It's the music with the most style that I've heard in a shop or restaurant in all of Japan and Taiwan.
posted by wtanaka at 12/06/2002 12:18:00 AM
Sunday, December 01, 2002
I bought a 256MB CF card in Hong Kong. It was about $590 hong kong dollars, which seemed pretty good. I am hoping greatly that it is not flaky.
posted by wtanaka at 12/01/2002 07:50:00 AM
Cliff mentioned to me that he has gotten to know his roommates a lot better during the two weeks that I've been here than during the month (was it a month) that he was living with them before that.
I'm actually really thankful that I decided that we should invite Brenda and Cecilia to whatever unplanned vague thing we were going to do for Thanksgiving. Brenda came up with the roof bbq party idea, and they both invited friends, cleaned, helped set up, shopped, drew maps to make the whole thing work out.
Before inviting them, I hadn't talked to either of them very much. Talking to them was still a little bit intimidating for me.
After the bbq idea came up, I was greatly hoping that it would be a good bonding opportunity -- shopping, setting up, and cleaning up.
I love the feeling of cleaning up or setting up with a group of positive people. The feeling of well-greased teamwork is nothing that I've experienced in any other kind of situation.
posted by wtanaka at 12/01/2002 07:44:00 AM
My last night in Taiwan was spent at the club where Cecilia works. This is perhaps the fourth time I've been clubbing. I forgot to bring the earplugs that I bought for the very occasion. Oh well.
A girl at the club, bright blue contact lenses, sitting in Cliff's lap.
Cliff catches my arm as I walk past.
her: (something in mandarin)
me: wo bu hui shuo zhongwen
her: ah... wo keai ma?
me: [think for a long time]. uhh. keai.
(i had learned this word just the day before)
her: wo bu cuo ba?
me: [think for a long time]. uhh. bu cuo.
her: (something)
me: uh
her: (something, even louder)
me: uh
cliff: she wants to kiss you [he points at her lips]
[i feel as though cliff can't possibly have gotten that right]
[then she does]
posted by wtanaka at 12/01/2002 07:34:00 AM
Thanksgiving was spent with Cliff, Cliff's roommates Brenda and Cecila, and a bunch of their friends from Taipei. Up on the roof of a neighboring apartment we had set up some furniture from the apartment, strung up some christmas lights, playing some funky hip hop music, and grilling some meat and vegetables.
The police came up the stairs to stop the party at around midnight, at which point the party moved down into the apartment. The apartment very quickly became quite a mess.
I've never really noticed girls "all over me" (physically and not) before. Maybe I was imagining things. Maybe I've gotten more observant. Maybe I look better than before. Maybe I look more attractive to Taiwanese women than American women. Maybe I look better to younger women.
With only two full days remaining in my Taiwan stay, it's hard to imagine pursuing anything in practice other than, say, casual sex. But the idea of casual sex does doesn't seem so appealing to me. Maybe because it seems "available." Maybe I'm getting old and have less testosterone than before.
I can imagine that some folks thinking that "he must be gay."
The signs of our times.
posted by wtanaka at 12/01/2002 07:28:00 AM
It turns out that Tom was over 60 years old. At first, I thought the pictures of him that I have jumping up on skate ramps were simply amazing. Now I find them completely mindboggling.
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