One of the many reasons I purchased the Star Trek: The Motion Picture DVD was to see this guy, whom I had a crush on, not in 1979 when the movie came out, but later, in the TV and videotape versions. I suspect that the actor's name is Joshua Gallegos, and he is seen on the bridge several times. He has a station on the bridge but no lines, and I don't think he was ever referred to by the major characters. He was just there, a walking drool promotion.

This is kind of a theme with me and movie characters, something that my friend Mindcrime often harrassed me over. I almost never find any of the main characters in movies attractive. If anyone catches my fancy it's usually the dopey sidekick of some other peripheral character. I suppose this indicates that my standards of personal beauty are so bizarre that they are not shared by anyone, at least not anyone in Hollywood. Another example would be one of the completely lineless guys who rode up on a kid's bicycle when Peoples Hernandez was being taken away in Shaft, and although I thought that Peoples was extremely foine, the guy on the kid's bike had even him beat in my book.

Sorry, yesterday's undressing-model experience was rather unsettling...just making sure I'm still a 'mo.

So our Chinese New Year's holiday has begun, and I have wasted an entire day already. My plan is to eventually become so bored with goofing off that I will have no choice but to do something productive. Hopefully the looming Book Expo will motivate me as well, but it feels not a little like I am back in school again with a due date for a report I have to write. I can still recall the feeling of waking up one morning and realizing some vital piece of homework was due that day, and that I had completely forgotten about. Ah, the memories!
etched by at 3:09 PM

I just saw Monsters, Inc. What a great movie! I would even go as far as to say it is the best thing Pixar has made yet. The animation was amazing, developed to the point where you forget you're looking at animation, and the acting was wonderful. Perhaps I just needed to see something like this and my state of mind made me particularly amenable to this kind of film, but I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. Very, very well done. As far as pure enjoyment goes, it surpassed the Lord of the Rings by a fair bit, I thought.

There is a restaurant/bar thing on the ground floor of our new building called the "in house DJ lounge restaurant chillout experience" I've seen some of my co-workers in there, but I haven't been in myself. It just sounds too wierd, though, so sooner or later I won't be able to resist actually going in and seeing if it lives up to such an all-inclusive name. Does the attendant give you a choice, i.e., "Would sir like to Listen, Lounge, Dine, or just Chill?"

This afternoon I was standing by the window looking at the mountains, as I am apt to do, when I noticed a group of people, including two foreign girls, downstairs by the Bridge To Nowhere. A group of photographers was taking pictures of the girls, so I assumed they were models of some sort. Then one of the assistants got out a sort of hula-hoop thing and put it around one of the models, who promptly began to undress. Man, if I weren't a 'mo I would have been a really happy camper. I don't know how they missed an entire building full of people looking down at them when it was right there. Maybe they didn't care. In that case they won't mind me posting the pictures here. Hee!

Concerning the Great Shoe Debate, I decided to take Shauna's advice (she being the fashion mogul that I know she is) and bought the Storm Pegasuses (Pegasi?). Thanks to all who contibuted to the discussion. It was truly enlightening.
etched by at 11:39 PM

Today is my last day of work before our Chinese New Year break, which starts tomorrow and lasts until the 18th. Eleven whole days to get my book into shape and a compelling proposal constructed before the Taipei International Book Exposition opens on the 19th. I will have to take 2 or 3 days off from work to attend, but that shouldn't be too big a deal. This is important, after all, even though I have absolutely no clue as to how exactly one is supposed to get a book published. Mostly likely I'll spend the greater portion of my time there wandering around wondering who the hell I should talk to.

Yesterday morning as I walked through Da-an Park on my way to the MRT I noticed a group of older people practicing Tai-chi Sword, apparently doing the same form that Seamus taught Dean and I so long ago, but different than the forms I've been learning more recently. This morning I saw them out there again, and I was thinking that I should leave early one morning and try to find out more about these people. They're mostly older and mostly women, but any chance to learn more sword techniques is a good thing. At least in reasonable weather, which has been rather rare lately.

Last night I met up with former News-drone Graham, who is presently employed at the Times. The Times lately has been following the same path as the News did a couple of years ago, i.e. getting rid of the native English speakers on the copy desk and replacing them with cheaper Taiwanese copy editors, letting their parent organization's political views take precedence over good objective reporting, etc. Maybe Graham is a cybernetic fabrication sent from the future to try and save the Times from the News' fate. In that case, I should probably be nicer to him, no matter how hard he laughs at my shades and says I look like a thug.

Anyway, we repaired to the Tavern and were soon joined by other friends, including Brian Kennedy, who used to work at the News as well. Donovan, from Taichung, was also there and sported a roaring case of hiccups which he claimed were not in any fashion related to the series of empty Boddington's glasses on his table. I don't drink beer in general because it tends to taste terrible, but if I had to choose one it would be Boddington's, just for the creamy texture. All in all, though, I'd rather have Bailey's or Kahlua and half-n-half (slogan: Your arteries will love it!").

Next Tuesday, a full month after I had my eyes zapped, I will be able to wash my hair and face properly for the first time in a month, sleep without eye covers, ride my motorcycle and perhaps even visit a sauna or two. I look forward to all of that.

Our reduced bonus ledgers were handed out yesterday, along with the Big Boss' letter explaining that we aren't doing so well. I circled the most blatant lies vigorously in red and drew a big question mark so that I can leave the letter on my desk for people to happen across. Did I reveal a company secret by suggesting we're making more money this year than last year? Oops.
etched by at 5:21 PM

One of the DJs on the radio this morning mentioned that he witnessed Taipei's first-ever car chase on Zhongxiao E. Road this morning. On my way to work a police car screamed by at high speed. Does this mean that Taipei's policemen are officially allowed to have car chases now? Wow, add this to the coming entry into the market of larger motorcycles and watch you've got even more chaos than even Taiwanese drivers can handle, I think. Maybe I should start looking for a nice little place in the country. Maybe Beitou, Tamshui, Xindian or even Muzha. I know it may be asking too much, but I'd like a place of my own, near an MRT stop but also close to mountains and streams and the like. Someplace with a view but no road noise, fresh air and room for siamese cats. Oh, well, keep dreaming. There are more immediate problems at hand to be dealt with first, like my damn book and my next film project.

For some reason our company has decided that neither of our elevators will stop at my floor. Is this a message, a way of them telling me to lose some goddamn weight? I don't think so, as there are a lot fatter people than me on other floors where the elevator does stop. I think they made the decision like they make all of their decisions, i.e. it was taking too long for the elevator to reach the Big Boss's Floor, which is the top floor, and the Big Boss didn't like being reminded on a daily basis how her underlings eeked by on less than a 20th of her salary. The solution was simple and obvious: rewire the elevators so that Her Top-floorness wouldn't run the risk of being exposed to the palpable waves of disgust emanating from her recent decision to cut our bonuses in half.

Bitter? Me? You betcha. Bitterness is what this site is all about, at least for the last paragraph or so. I also take issue with the people coming in here and closing all of the blinds on all the windows, even though there's no possibility of strong sunlight due to the thick cloud cover and rain. Taiwanese people just don't like to see out of the buildings they happen to be in. I suppose this is a result of traditional Chinese architecture all facing inwards and all, but geez, people, we have this wonderful view and nobody wants to look at it. All they want, I assume, is the prestige of having a desk with a view, not the view itself, sort of like Beijing wants the prestige of Taiwan as part of the PRC, but not all of the trouble having Taiwan would bring them.

I can't believe I just made that analogy. If anyone with any political prowess is reading this, please disengage your detonators. I'm not always like this. I can make sense sometimes, if I try really, really hard.

*tries really, really hard*

Ok. Paul, by far the tallest of the actors in the play I was in a few months ago, is having a New Year's Party at his home in Keelung on the 9th, and Bret is having one on New Year's Eve at his and Alan's apartment out in Nangang for everyone who has no family here with which to spend that important date. Got that?

*gives up on making any sense whatsoever* Whew!

Ok, back to the zaniness! It's time to Pick Poagao's Shoes! (applause)

Yes, I am torn between two kinds of shoes. You see, it's been raining here every single day, with no end in sight, and I am sick of wet feet. Because of my old knee injury, I like bouncey shoes that don't jar, so I've been wearing Nike Air shoes for a long time. Problem is, my present shoes like to go swimming in puddles without my permission.

I think it's time we got to the contestants:

The Crested Butte. This questionably named shoe is an extremely ugly way to cover your feet, with a harder sole, but it is absofrickenlutely waterproof. We're talking near walk-on-waterness here. It's got cushioning but isn't as bouncey as I'm used to. It's also about NT$1,000 more than...

The Pegasus Storm. This shoe (have to click on the name) looks a lot better, feels better, but is only water resistant, i.e. "Winterized", whatever that means. Will that be enough? I have no clue.

So anyway, there you have it. There are more suitable shoes on the menu, but none of them are sold here in Taiwan. Let me know if you think I should buy the Butte, the Pegasus, both, or neither. I know I should be worried about more important things than shoes, fer cryin' out tears. That's where you, both of you, come in, helping me with the more trivial decisions in my life, freeing up my schedule for more important things like movies, video games and elbowing people out of the way in the subway.

Next week: Which color 7-Eleven umbrella should Poagao buy?
etched by at 5:20 PM

Where did the weekend go? I can't really recall much about Saturday except working on my book and running into a bunch of apparently sighted people with blind people's sticks trying to cross a pedestrian bridge on Heping E. Road. I spent today walking around the Jianguo Flower Market in search of free kittens (don't ask me why they give kittens away at a flower market. They just do), even though I haven't yet decided to get one. Couldn't find any there today anyway. Maybe it's a Sign. I also took pictures of some sweaty cooks and added the one I liked the best to my long-neglected photo page. That page gets the most hits of any on this site, so I suppose I should pay more attention to keeping it fresh.

Dean and Kay are heading out of town to the Philippines on Tuesday, and most everyone I know is planning to leave soon as well for the Chinese New Year holiday. Taipei will become a ghost town for a week again. At least some places should stay open, unlike in years past when one couldn't even find anything to eat for several days. Hopefully Dean will be able to pick up some Dunkin' Donuts from the store in Manila on his way back.

Nike's come out with a line of supposedly waterproof shoes. I need some. Taiwan is a very wet place, and I am tired of sloshing around in wet shoes. The only problem is that the waterproof shoes are also quite ugly. Oh, well. I'd include a link but Nike.com is one of the most confusing, hard-to-use sites I've ever seen. Let it suffice to say that the shoes in question are gold. Ugh. Hey, Nike, you know other people besides Michael Jackson want dry feet as well, you know? I'm seriously tempted to just buy a portable hair dryer to dry out my shoes and socks every time I leave my room rather that be seen wearing gold shoes.

I'm tired from walking all over the place, plus I've got a headache from watching the wormhole scene from the Star Trek: The Motion Picture DVD, so that's all for now, kids. Tune in next time. That's an order.
etched by at 9:36 PM

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