So the other day I did something my parents would always tell me not to do (kind of like the time I wrote a letter to the local paper to tell them an editorial they ran was stupid). Well this time I chose to call the AARP a bunch of asshats. They do some good things, like fighting for better health care in America and sticking up for seniors. But if you are under 35, they are asking you to bend over since you will end up paying for whatever happens to Social Security. Below is my email and the response I got from them (it is largely a form letter that skips the major points I tried to sarcastically raise in my letter).
To Whom It May Concern:
I want to say thank you. In the middle of a subprime mortgage crisis you, as you have been for many years now, continue to mortgage my future. So I want to thank you for your disregard for me, as well as the many thousands like me. As a young person, I clearly do not deserve the benefit of a brighter future.
You see there are three main ways to address the costs of Social Security and Medicare. We can (1) cut benefits (2) raise the eligibility age for benefits or (3) increase the costs of copayments/premiums/etc. The AARP opposes all of these three measures. The result is there is only one option left in the bag. Of course, that option is to raise (payroll) taxes on those who are still working. With the upcoming tidal wave of Baby Boomer retirements, the current problems with Social Security solvency are only going to be exacerbated.
This means there are lots of new taxes coming to support Social Security and Medicare (if you cannot rule out the three options above then this is all that is left on the table). And we all know who is going to get stuck with those rising taxes to fund these entitlements, American workers, especially those new workers just joining the job market.
So as a recent college graduate, I want to thank you for your unwillingness to compromise and work out some sort of deal on Social Security and Medicare that does not place the entire burden of supporting entitlements on young people. Let’s not mince words, this is my future on the line. When the time comes that I have trouble buying a car, a house, or a basic middle-class life, I will remember how you thought my future was so unimportant as to stick me with your entire bill. After all, it is only my future, it is not like I really deserve it. So thank you for working so hard to keep it from me.
Best,
ME
P.S. I vote
Dear ME:
Thank you for contacting us to express concern that when AARP vigorously represents older Americans, it might possibly be at the expense of younger Americans.
The vision of AARP today is broad-to improve the quality of life for all people as we age. As an organization of people who are 50 and older, it's true that many of our programs and legislative initiatives serve the needs of the current older population.
Adequate income security and health care programs do help prolong the independence of older Americans, no doubt. However, it is important to remember that when the independence of older people is maintained,the burden of responsibility carried by other family members is lighter, and family resources are freed to better assist the young. Social Security and Medicare have dramatically improved the quality of life for today's retirees. AARP continues to work to protect and enhance these programs not only for current beneficiaries, but to strengthen them for today's young people who will need to depend on them in the future.
For most people, financial security depends on a lifetime of working and saving. AARP serves all working people by fighting against age discrimination in the work place, advocating for expanded pension sand other retirement savings opportunities, and working for safe,affordable and high-quality utility services, to name a few examples.
As we participate in the policy making process in Washington and the state capitals, we recognize that many of the troubled medical and financial circumstances in which people find themselves late in life result from childhood problems such as poor education and poor health care. Therefore, AARP works with the Children's Defense Fund,Generations United, and other inter generational organizations to support measures that improve services to children, improve educational opportunities and our schools, or provide health coverage for uninsured children. Legislative strategies that pit one deserving group against another are not tolerated by AARP.
We are also concerned with the federal budget deficit and the fiscal burden that may be inherited by younger Americans. We have supported budget discipline measure, such as congressional "PAYGO" rules for tax cuts and entitlement changes. In addition, we constantly look for ways to address waste and unnecessary spending in public programs, especially in health care. We look at expenditures from revenues within the tax code as well as at direct-spending programs for opportunities to save taxpayer funds. In the long run,investments in human capital, biomedical research, and physical infrastructure will support a stronger economy and the growing numbers of older Americans.
We know that, like you, most AARP members are very concerned about the shape of the future for their children and grandchildren. Our priorities carefully reflect those concerns. As we work to improve the quality of life for today's older Americans, we work for future generations as well.
Thank you again for taking time to get in touch. I hope this information is reassuring. It is always a pleasure to respond to a member's concerns.
Sincerely,
SOME LADY
Member Communications
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Night out on the Town
I have always thought dancing is something that should be only done under the following conditions: during heavy drinking, after heavy drinking, in a dark place, and in a dark place packed full of people. On top of that, I am an atrocious dancer.
So I was more than a little hesitant when I was at a lounge style bar this weekend to take the offer from this girl to go dance in an open room. Lounge bars are big here in Taiwan, they basically play music while you sit at big sofas or seats and just hang out. I was invited this weekend by a dude that I know here.
Back to the story, this girl's nickname translated means "doll" and she had to be just a little over 5 foot and was a smoker. No way that could turn out poorly for me. Well she eventually got me to dance for a brief moment. After which, I kept up my drinking. All's well that ends well.
So I was more than a little hesitant when I was at a lounge style bar this weekend to take the offer from this girl to go dance in an open room. Lounge bars are big here in Taiwan, they basically play music while you sit at big sofas or seats and just hang out. I was invited this weekend by a dude that I know here.
Back to the story, this girl's nickname translated means "doll" and she had to be just a little over 5 foot and was a smoker. No way that could turn out poorly for me. Well she eventually got me to dance for a brief moment. After which, I kept up my drinking. All's well that ends well.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Stickin' It to The MAN
So what do you get when you give a couple thousand Taiwanese from the South an evening in Taipei with tons of signs, mini-floats, and airhorns? An anti-government rally of course. They were protesting to support Taiwanese independence from China and opposition to the pro-China policies of the current President Ma Ying-jiu and accusing him of allowing in tainted Chinese products. Since his surname, Ma, sounds like a lot like the Chinese f-word there were a lot of creative signs. Most of the people there were Taiwanese, as evidenced by the speakers exclusively using the Taiwanese language and not Chinese
I actually saw the march/rally on tv while I was working on the LSAT in a coffee shop. So I decided to take the subway down to see it. I got there and walked around with this huge rally, which was fun. They were peaceful and pretty well organized with cheers and communal airhorn blows. The Taiwanese are huge on banners, so naturally, there were tons of little flags and banners. Of course, I was one of the few white people there. The rally was held by the opposition DPP (Democratic Progressive Party) so a bunch of their leaders spoke in front of the president’s residence and there was a huge made-for-tv spectacle with lights, cheers, banners, small floats, balloons, songs, and a huge beach ball modeled after the Taiwanese flag.
Most at the rally were from the south were the DPP has its strongest hold due to the large number of native Taiwanese there. These people want nothing to do with China and the recent tainted milk from China has only reinforced these feelings. It made for a fun rally to watch.
I actually saw the march/rally on tv while I was working on the LSAT in a coffee shop. So I decided to take the subway down to see it. I got there and walked around with this huge rally, which was fun. They were peaceful and pretty well organized with cheers and communal airhorn blows. The Taiwanese are huge on banners, so naturally, there were tons of little flags and banners. Of course, I was one of the few white people there. The rally was held by the opposition DPP (Democratic Progressive Party) so a bunch of their leaders spoke in front of the president’s residence and there was a huge made-for-tv spectacle with lights, cheers, banners, small floats, balloons, songs, and a huge beach ball modeled after the Taiwanese flag.
Most at the rally were from the south were the DPP has its strongest hold due to the large number of native Taiwanese there. These people want nothing to do with China and the recent tainted milk from China has only reinforced these feelings. It made for a fun rally to watch.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
One got away one stayed
So after I came back from China it was time to hit up all you can drink night. I went back to Babe18, the name sucks but the place is a pretty cool all you can drink night for $15. The downside is that the bar is like walking into a cig. Everyone there seems to smoke.
Well as the booze started to flow I started making some friends. I ended up chilling with these two guys and one of the guy's sister, all of whom I had met before. Eventually, I end up dancing with this one girl and I get a number out of it before she has to take her drunk friend home. She told me to call her the next day, not a problem at all. Of course, when I tried to call her I found I apparently put in an incorrect number. Shit. Well, Renee, if you're out there and happen to read this send me your digits.
But the night wasn't a total waste. I happened to get a number of another girl there and so in between basketball games with my neighbor during the day I set up an evening coffee. I was pleasantly surprised that she was mildly cool. We'll see how that goes.
Xiamen and Jinmen
The operation in China is still in its infancy, so there wasn't much for me to do. The plus side was that I met the staff there, which is good since I end up dealing with a lot of their orders. I also met the Chinese partners as well as the president of the Korean company that we are partners with in China. It's good I know a little about politics and recent Korean history since it always impresses Korean people that Western people actually know it and much less care.
I impressed myself since just by hearing her speak I could tell one of the ladies in the office was from near Beijing and I could tell by his face that another guy was from Manchuria.
I also had tons of comments about how well I use my chopsticks, I think that's really strange that using chopsticks impresses people so much. If I was not able to use them I don't know how I could eat a lot of time. Then again for white people in Asia the bar is low...they think you don't like the food, you can't eat spicy stuff, you cant use chopsticks, and you can't speak the language...I do all of those with relative ease.
The picture below is the street behind my boss's house. I didn't have many pictures from China.
I had a lot of business dinners. However, my favorite meal was late at night. I had came back from dinner and I was walking around the area where my boss rents his house and I walked by a street side diner (squat tables set up on the street). There were 4 girls sitting there and one said in Chinese, not realizing I understood, "Hey, look there's a handsome foreigner"and they all turned around. Being me I laughed really hard and told them in Chinese "I can understand what you say" and kept moving.
But I passed by on my way back and they invited me to sit down and eat and have some warm beer. I had a good conversation with them. One of them asked me if I dislike black people, I said I have no problem with people of any race and America is much less overtly racist than 50 years ago. To try and make that clear, I told her I voted for Obama. Then they told me they hated Japanese people, oh China. After that they asked if I thought Taiwan was independent, this was a landmine so I did my best not to answer. The conversation got even better when I found out that 2 of the 4 girls were lesbians. I can't make this kind of stuff up. I ok with everything since one of the non-lesbians was really pretty.
My impression of China this fourth time around: I actually like it still despite the lower standard of living. I forgot how fun it is to have people stop and stare at you. It just has an energy to it and you can literally see it modernizing. But more than that it makes me think. I saw a Hummer there in Xiamen. I always think what happens when all of these people here want to consume things and drive cars like Americans do? What does that do to the environment? The globe? What do the poor people in the countryside see when they are seemingly shut out of the progress and how do they express that?
On the way back, I got to ride in the cockpit of the ferry to Jinmen (Taiwanese territory) Island. I had lunch with my boss then rented a bike for 2 hours and rode around a bit and took pictures. I swear there are more temples on that island than any place I've ever been. The people there don't see many white people so nearly every kid yelled "hello!" to me. One kid asked me in Chinese "Are you a foreigner" I told him in Chinese "No I'm from China." He stopped for a bit and got a confused look so I laughed and told him I am indeed an foreigner. Then I grabbed a flight back on my own and now I'm back in Taiwan
.
.The home stretch, how McCain could win
Lets get one thing clear, both are good candidates. In 2000 I said that McCain was the only Republican I would ever vote for. Although it's been said many times, the McCain of today is not the same as the McCain of 2000.
I voted for Obama because I believe he is the better on issues I care about (environment, alternative energy, new direction to U.S. foreign policy, but to be fair I question his lack of support for free trade). I'll let Fareed Zakaria put forth a much better case than I can in making the case: http://fareedzakaria.com/articles/articles.html. I agree with Zakaria wholeheartedly that McCain is out of step with the times on the financial crisis. He is stuck in the thinking of the 80's put forth by Reagan, and that era is over.
So I was thinking the other day, is there any way that McCain can win short of besides coordinated blizzard in all areas that lean Democratic? For one the Ayers story is too late and wrongheaded, if he hammered it 3 months ago it may have stuck but trying it when the economy is in the toilet won't work.
Well the thing that he has to do is what he has failed to do so far in his campaign. He needs to come across with a clear message and stick to it. He got a gift from "Joe the plumber" the other day. I think he needs to make taxes and fiscal responsibility his theme. Say, "For too long we have spent ourselves into the ground, if I'm elected we will cut spending in all areas. It will be painful. But we have to do it and in the end it will help us escape this crisis." He needs to then convene a huge meeting of influential economic minds to look at the crisis and name which ones would be in his cabinet.
Next he needs to do something bold that breaks from the Republican party (and stick to it). For example, say let's have the government take more responsibility for health care or join Obama and say let's talk to Iran. If he did those things, and made his campaign about them by answering every question with a reference to those things while having surrogates hammer these points I think he could improve his position.
The problem is that by doing this and changing his positions it will only feed more into the "erratic" label that he has been stuck with. But at this point there is no choice.
The biggest problem is McCain has been unable to settle on a consistent message and stick to it. He had a few months when Obama and Clinton were duking it out to raise money, get a lead, and get a consistent message. He couldn't do it. For that, and a lack of a unified campaign team, he's paying the price. I can only imagine the result if someone who cannot organize a campaign team was elected to run the country.
I voted for Obama because I believe he is the better on issues I care about (environment, alternative energy, new direction to U.S. foreign policy, but to be fair I question his lack of support for free trade). I'll let Fareed Zakaria put forth a much better case than I can in making the case: http://fareedzakaria.com/articles/articles.html. I agree with Zakaria wholeheartedly that McCain is out of step with the times on the financial crisis. He is stuck in the thinking of the 80's put forth by Reagan, and that era is over.
So I was thinking the other day, is there any way that McCain can win short of besides coordinated blizzard in all areas that lean Democratic? For one the Ayers story is too late and wrongheaded, if he hammered it 3 months ago it may have stuck but trying it when the economy is in the toilet won't work.
Well the thing that he has to do is what he has failed to do so far in his campaign. He needs to come across with a clear message and stick to it. He got a gift from "Joe the plumber" the other day. I think he needs to make taxes and fiscal responsibility his theme. Say, "For too long we have spent ourselves into the ground, if I'm elected we will cut spending in all areas. It will be painful. But we have to do it and in the end it will help us escape this crisis." He needs to then convene a huge meeting of influential economic minds to look at the crisis and name which ones would be in his cabinet.
Next he needs to do something bold that breaks from the Republican party (and stick to it). For example, say let's have the government take more responsibility for health care or join Obama and say let's talk to Iran. If he did those things, and made his campaign about them by answering every question with a reference to those things while having surrogates hammer these points I think he could improve his position.
The problem is that by doing this and changing his positions it will only feed more into the "erratic" label that he has been stuck with. But at this point there is no choice.
The biggest problem is McCain has been unable to settle on a consistent message and stick to it. He had a few months when Obama and Clinton were duking it out to raise money, get a lead, and get a consistent message. He couldn't do it. For that, and a lack of a unified campaign team, he's paying the price. I can only imagine the result if someone who cannot organize a campaign team was elected to run the country.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
你好 from 厦门
Hello from Xiamen, China. I took a plane to Kinmen island this morning and then a ferry to Xiamen. Right now I am in the local office of my company here. I came to 1. burn my Chinese visa that was going to expire soon 2. see the office and operation and 3. look into getting a new Chinese visa. Since I am at the mercy of my boss this could be an interesting trip (lots of pointless work since there is really not much to do and he wants to keep me busy). That means try and look as busy as possible and adjust to not having AC.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Hualien Trip
I got up at 5:10AM Saturday and rode the train to Haulien (花蓮, Hūalián) in the Eastern part of the island. The area is very very green and has great scenery. There is no public transport there as it is a relatively small city so that meant a lot of riding mopeds. I swore I would never ride those things again, well I had no choice. I actually got to drive one a few times and since I didn't crash I was pretty happy with myself. I was able to get comfortable riding on the back (second seat) of them as well. The downside is that the back the seats are pretty hard so your whole ass goes dead after about 30min or so.
We (two language partners--a guy and his girlfriend--and the girl's cousin) spent a night at a hotel outside of town. There was a water buffalo in a field next to the hotel, this thing was big and even though I really wanted to touch it I was dissuaded because of some big horns and being unable to tell if it was worried about people near it or just mad.
We drove around the town a bit and eventually ended up at the beach. Being of Scandinavian heritage and not being in the sun for a while meant that random place like knees and the tops of my hands somehow got sunburned.
After that, we headed out to a Shinto style temple and then to a Buddhist temple. The Buddhist temple was one of the largest (two floors) and by far the most tourist oriented I've ever seen (snack shops, hotel, bus parking lot, restaurant). We were lucky since they had a HUGE ceremony as we got there. There were enough fireworks to bust some eardrums and there were big drums that were pounded throughout the whole thing. They had dancers in big costumes (about 10ft high) that come in do ceremonial dances and some alter type things as part of a procession.
Then it got nuts. There was a Buddhist priest/holy man who took the sins/evil spirits of the people there into him, well that made him into a maniac and a half. What to do when you take on an evil spirit? Hit yourself with swords and sharp objects of course. He didn't hit himself hard but still managed to get bloody (see the blurry picture below) and then have a nice little exorcism type deal afterward.
From there, we rode through the rain (I had a jacket and a poncho) to a night market for dinner. When eating there were some aboriginal people eating there too, but I was a surprised that they conversed in Chinese and not a native language. I was told the native languages are slowly fading away in favor of Chinese, especially among young people. I had a steak and won some gum for shooting a bulls-eye with a bow and arrow. Then there were people lighting lots of fireworks on the beach for national day. They had some big mortars so it was cool to see that after missing the 4th of July in my neighborhood. We then had a quick tour of the local red light district, which was basically middle aged women hanging out of a window along a dark road. The night was finished with a meal of dumplings at a different night market.
The next day we went to the famous Taroko Gorge (太魯閣, Tàilǔgé). Along the way we stopped for a swim at an aboriginal village (normal little town, if not for being poor). There was a tiny Catholic church there as I was told most of the aboriginals are Catholic. As a note, the aboriginals were obviously the first in Taiwan and they and were followed by waves of migrants from the mainland over the years.
It was there that I had my first try of chewing betel nut, it doesn't taste like anything but makes you salivate a ton and makes all the saliva turn bright red (if you chew a lot over a long time your teeth and gums turn red too). Won't be doing that again.
We then went for a swim in the river next to the village. There had been one little girl in the village that was having great fun playing hide and seek from me before I went swimming (as I got into the water she was standing on a hill above us yelling "The foreigner is going swimming!" but no one really paid attention) and she eventually joined some other young kids about 100m down river from us. After a while, I swam down to where the kids were and got out and talked to them in Chinese. This was amazing to them since here was a white person--something they don't see much--who could talk with them in Chinese. They immediately asked if I was from the US, I told them I was from Africa and let that sink in before telling them I was indeed an American. They all had English names and had studied English in school and they asked me all sorts of questions (how to say monkey, apple, orange, etc. in English).
After some pictures with the kids, we finally went to Taroko Gorge (a big scenic gorge near Hualien) and drove through there and took some pictures. There really isn't much I can say about it. I mean, after 40min it started to all look the same.
From there we drove back to the train station and along the way picked up some Hualien speciality candy made from sticky rice Muaji and snagged some standing-room only tickets on the train back to Taipei.
I'll put more pictures up on Facebook soon.
We (two language partners--a guy and his girlfriend--and the girl's cousin) spent a night at a hotel outside of town. There was a water buffalo in a field next to the hotel, this thing was big and even though I really wanted to touch it I was dissuaded because of some big horns and being unable to tell if it was worried about people near it or just mad.
We drove around the town a bit and eventually ended up at the beach. Being of Scandinavian heritage and not being in the sun for a while meant that random place like knees and the tops of my hands somehow got sunburned.
After that, we headed out to a Shinto style temple and then to a Buddhist temple. The Buddhist temple was one of the largest (two floors) and by far the most tourist oriented I've ever seen (snack shops, hotel, bus parking lot, restaurant). We were lucky since they had a HUGE ceremony as we got there. There were enough fireworks to bust some eardrums and there were big drums that were pounded throughout the whole thing. They had dancers in big costumes (about 10ft high) that come in do ceremonial dances and some alter type things as part of a procession.
Then it got nuts. There was a Buddhist priest/holy man who took the sins/evil spirits of the people there into him, well that made him into a maniac and a half. What to do when you take on an evil spirit? Hit yourself with swords and sharp objects of course. He didn't hit himself hard but still managed to get bloody (see the blurry picture below) and then have a nice little exorcism type deal afterward.
From there, we rode through the rain (I had a jacket and a poncho) to a night market for dinner. When eating there were some aboriginal people eating there too, but I was a surprised that they conversed in Chinese and not a native language. I was told the native languages are slowly fading away in favor of Chinese, especially among young people. I had a steak and won some gum for shooting a bulls-eye with a bow and arrow. Then there were people lighting lots of fireworks on the beach for national day. They had some big mortars so it was cool to see that after missing the 4th of July in my neighborhood. We then had a quick tour of the local red light district, which was basically middle aged women hanging out of a window along a dark road. The night was finished with a meal of dumplings at a different night market.
The next day we went to the famous Taroko Gorge (太魯閣, Tàilǔgé). Along the way we stopped for a swim at an aboriginal village (normal little town, if not for being poor). There was a tiny Catholic church there as I was told most of the aboriginals are Catholic. As a note, the aboriginals were obviously the first in Taiwan and they and were followed by waves of migrants from the mainland over the years.
It was there that I had my first try of chewing betel nut, it doesn't taste like anything but makes you salivate a ton and makes all the saliva turn bright red (if you chew a lot over a long time your teeth and gums turn red too). Won't be doing that again.
We then went for a swim in the river next to the village. There had been one little girl in the village that was having great fun playing hide and seek from me before I went swimming (as I got into the water she was standing on a hill above us yelling "The foreigner is going swimming!" but no one really paid attention) and she eventually joined some other young kids about 100m down river from us. After a while, I swam down to where the kids were and got out and talked to them in Chinese. This was amazing to them since here was a white person--something they don't see much--who could talk with them in Chinese. They immediately asked if I was from the US, I told them I was from Africa and let that sink in before telling them I was indeed an American. They all had English names and had studied English in school and they asked me all sorts of questions (how to say monkey, apple, orange, etc. in English).
After some pictures with the kids, we finally went to Taroko Gorge (a big scenic gorge near Hualien) and drove through there and took some pictures. There really isn't much I can say about it. I mean, after 40min it started to all look the same.
From there we drove back to the train station and along the way picked up some Hualien speciality candy made from sticky rice Muaji and snagged some standing-room only tickets on the train back to Taipei.
I'll put more pictures up on Facebook soon.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
哭笑不得
There is a Chinese idiom (哭笑不得) that means “not knowing whether to laugh or cry.” That pretty much explains last night. The machine I spent all that time working on last week had problems over the weekend and could not run. So Sunday and some of Saturday were already lost for production and we were already behind on an order.
Well the local agent came in and couldn’t do anything, as is usual. So it went a lot like last week where I would take pictures and send emails to the company that makes the machine and then end up calling them to light fires under their asses to help us (some of those people have to hate me). I brought in my computer and used the built-in camera to make Skype calls so they could see what we were doing.
After many calls and instant messages (around 9PM) we found the entire problem that caused the machine to shut down was a loose plug in an outlet. At that point, I was not sure whether to laugh or cry—we had stopped production for two days and the second time in a week while we have a million piece order for Thailand this week—all for a loose plug.
We managed to pull off the order in time, which makes me look good to my boss and is nothing short of a miracle. But this makes me look like a dumbass to the customer since I warned them that we may be late twice only to be on time.
I really need some sleep after this last week. I can tell I am getting a little sick so I think I’m going to take it easy tonight and go to bed early.
Well the local agent came in and couldn’t do anything, as is usual. So it went a lot like last week where I would take pictures and send emails to the company that makes the machine and then end up calling them to light fires under their asses to help us (some of those people have to hate me). I brought in my computer and used the built-in camera to make Skype calls so they could see what we were doing.
After many calls and instant messages (around 9PM) we found the entire problem that caused the machine to shut down was a loose plug in an outlet. At that point, I was not sure whether to laugh or cry—we had stopped production for two days and the second time in a week while we have a million piece order for Thailand this week—all for a loose plug.
We managed to pull off the order in time, which makes me look good to my boss and is nothing short of a miracle. But this makes me look like a dumbass to the customer since I warned them that we may be late twice only to be on time.
I really need some sleep after this last week. I can tell I am getting a little sick so I think I’m going to take it easy tonight and go to bed early.
How to be The Most Powerful Person in The World
What you need:
Computer (with camera and hopefully a power source)
Skype (and headset)
Internet connection
I learned if you have those tools the world is at your fingertips. I came away amazed last night at the power of technology. With only the three things above I was able to talk with people in Germany, let them see our problems, troubleshoot those problems, and do it in one evening. I have no idea what would happen without it. Technology is truly amazing.
Computer (with camera and hopefully a power source)
Skype (and headset)
Internet connection
I learned if you have those tools the world is at your fingertips. I came away amazed last night at the power of technology. With only the three things above I was able to talk with people in Germany, let them see our problems, troubleshoot those problems, and do it in one evening. I have no idea what would happen without it. Technology is truly amazing.
How to Make Yourself Really Tired
When I think about it good times at bars are just a bunch of short stories and people thrown together. I am going to rate my weekend bar/club experience along these lines of pretty good, good, neutral, bad, or crappy.
So this weekend I went to the all you can drink Babe18—I have a knack for finding bars with strange names—which is NT$500/US$15 for the night. Behind me in line there were two Japanese girls talking in broken English with a Taiwanese girl hosting some event at the club talking equally broken English, quite funny (good). Talking to an American dude who was born in Taiwan and works in China (good). Then I realized his buddy was totally gone. I remembered the pictures of my 21st when people posed with a nearly-passed out me and when I checked the camera the next day I had no idea who they were. I returned the favor to this dude, just image his shock when he was too drunk to remember the white dude at the bar (pretty good).
The group of three people who I went to the bar to meet, the same people I went to karaoke with last weekend. They were smoking like damn chimneys (this isn’t too bad as the whole place was essentially a cig), not really drinking, hiding in the back, showed up late, and wanted to leave early (bad).
Talking to random but super cool people and then having them offer me drinks, oh the joys of being white (pretty good). The two girls dressed in school girl uniforms who kept stopping me and pretending like they knew me and telling me to go to their table—I was mystified by this situation until I realized they were the meat to attract guys to some table hosted by a nightlife party promoter (neutral). Ending up by that table only to see one of the other school girls was someone I met at a bar the week before (pretty good).
Bar getting out at 4AM and me deciding to wait 2 hours to catch the subway instead of taking a taxi back to my apartment—wait that’s what I did that one time at Fever, except that time I decided to walk home (crappy). Some guy outside the club convincing 4 girls to give me a kiss on the check and say, “Welcome to Taiwan.” (pretty good) Getting back at 6:30AM and very drunk to find ND beat Stanford (priceless).
So this weekend I went to the all you can drink Babe18—I have a knack for finding bars with strange names—which is NT$500/US$15 for the night. Behind me in line there were two Japanese girls talking in broken English with a Taiwanese girl hosting some event at the club talking equally broken English, quite funny (good). Talking to an American dude who was born in Taiwan and works in China (good). Then I realized his buddy was totally gone. I remembered the pictures of my 21st when people posed with a nearly-passed out me and when I checked the camera the next day I had no idea who they were. I returned the favor to this dude, just image his shock when he was too drunk to remember the white dude at the bar (pretty good).
The group of three people who I went to the bar to meet, the same people I went to karaoke with last weekend. They were smoking like damn chimneys (this isn’t too bad as the whole place was essentially a cig), not really drinking, hiding in the back, showed up late, and wanted to leave early (bad).
Talking to random but super cool people and then having them offer me drinks, oh the joys of being white (pretty good). The two girls dressed in school girl uniforms who kept stopping me and pretending like they knew me and telling me to go to their table—I was mystified by this situation until I realized they were the meat to attract guys to some table hosted by a nightlife party promoter (neutral). Ending up by that table only to see one of the other school girls was someone I met at a bar the week before (pretty good).
Bar getting out at 4AM and me deciding to wait 2 hours to catch the subway instead of taking a taxi back to my apartment—wait that’s what I did that one time at Fever, except that time I decided to walk home (crappy). Some guy outside the club convincing 4 girls to give me a kiss on the check and say, “Welcome to Taiwan.” (pretty good) Getting back at 6:30AM and very drunk to find ND beat Stanford (priceless).
A Long Short Week
So this last week was pretty rough. We had the largest typhoon of the year on Sunday/Monday so that meant we had Monday off as a typhoon holiday and sent out a late shipment to Thailand (but with the weather they said it was ok). Then Wednesday evening our most important machine started having problems. Well the machine is from Germany so guess who at the company happens to speak English and be in charge of these sorts of issues and communications…me!
Thursday we had the local agent of the company that makes the machine come in and that’s when it started to go down. The main guy in Singapore who does service calls was busy and isn’t too good with software (the source of the problem) anyway. So that meant I had to go direct to Germany. Now we have a 1 million piece order going on Tuesday that absolutely needs this machine and I was instructed that I was authorized to have someone fly direct from Germany if it looked as if we couldn’t solve the problem. The problem here is that in Germany they get to the office at 2PM Taiwanese time so it wasn’t until late in the day that we could find anything from them.
The process went like: this email Germany the problem and what we did, wait and get nothing, Skype call to their service hotline, they email, we try the suggestions, take a bunch of pictures, email pictures and results to Germany (so they could simulate the problem on a machine there), and then start from the beginning.
About 5PM I called Germany to see if they could send someone…bad news. The next day was a public holiday and if we couldn’t solve the problem the earliest they could send someone would be Monday (WAY too late) and they needed to know the source of the problem before they could send someone. It was then I knew it was going to be a long one.
So we went through some more processes and eventually Germany gave me an email of things to do. This was the beginning of the end. I’ll spare you the details but I was on the phone for 3 hours troubleshooting the machine (which I never operate). I was the (as Bush may say) the communicator but I had help from the local agent and a coworker. In the end, we solved the problem and I left the office at 11:30PM (15:30 hours at the office, I also went back to the office at 8AM the next morning).
Now this saved the company a boat load of money since we didn’t have to pay for a German engineer to fly out on short notice, for his transport, work hours, and hotel. And just as important I gave us a fighting chance to make our Tuesday order on time. That is important since Thailand gave us a 4.5 million order for next month, which is the largest ever and we need to show that we can handle that volume.
The problem with this is that I had to put off a lot of other work such as sorting out the software and production schedules for sample cards that need to be urgently sent to Thailand and a lot of the invoice and spare part orders on my desk as well.
My boss has a way of overstating things (getting my hopes up to travel to Cambodia, Indonesia, and Laos) but hopefully he wasn’t kidding when he said he is going to try and get me a mainland China work permit (just think of the irony there if I get it, I could work in China but not in Taiwan there I live). But he said that I’ll likely be travelling to mainland China next weekend for a few days to check out our operation in Xiamen and I think he’s serious about this one.
The GM was pretty impressed by my work this week and recognized me in the morning meeting on Friday and then gave me the day off om Saturday (we have to work one Saturday each month and this was it). That gave me the chance to go to a breakfast lecture club this morning held by an old ND alum here. It was not too good of a breakfast (toast and “ham”) but I met another old ND guy (52’ grad) who was in town. The talk was about services for foreigners from the Interior Ministry. Seeing how I am here not-so-legally there really isn’t much they can do for me so it was a little boring. Although the guy who was speaking thought I was in high school so I got a kick out of that, maybe I really do still look 17.
Thursday we had the local agent of the company that makes the machine come in and that’s when it started to go down. The main guy in Singapore who does service calls was busy and isn’t too good with software (the source of the problem) anyway. So that meant I had to go direct to Germany. Now we have a 1 million piece order going on Tuesday that absolutely needs this machine and I was instructed that I was authorized to have someone fly direct from Germany if it looked as if we couldn’t solve the problem. The problem here is that in Germany they get to the office at 2PM Taiwanese time so it wasn’t until late in the day that we could find anything from them.
The process went like: this email Germany the problem and what we did, wait and get nothing, Skype call to their service hotline, they email, we try the suggestions, take a bunch of pictures, email pictures and results to Germany (so they could simulate the problem on a machine there), and then start from the beginning.
About 5PM I called Germany to see if they could send someone…bad news. The next day was a public holiday and if we couldn’t solve the problem the earliest they could send someone would be Monday (WAY too late) and they needed to know the source of the problem before they could send someone. It was then I knew it was going to be a long one.
So we went through some more processes and eventually Germany gave me an email of things to do. This was the beginning of the end. I’ll spare you the details but I was on the phone for 3 hours troubleshooting the machine (which I never operate). I was the (as Bush may say) the communicator but I had help from the local agent and a coworker. In the end, we solved the problem and I left the office at 11:30PM (15:30 hours at the office, I also went back to the office at 8AM the next morning).
Now this saved the company a boat load of money since we didn’t have to pay for a German engineer to fly out on short notice, for his transport, work hours, and hotel. And just as important I gave us a fighting chance to make our Tuesday order on time. That is important since Thailand gave us a 4.5 million order for next month, which is the largest ever and we need to show that we can handle that volume.
The problem with this is that I had to put off a lot of other work such as sorting out the software and production schedules for sample cards that need to be urgently sent to Thailand and a lot of the invoice and spare part orders on my desk as well.
My boss has a way of overstating things (getting my hopes up to travel to Cambodia, Indonesia, and Laos) but hopefully he wasn’t kidding when he said he is going to try and get me a mainland China work permit (just think of the irony there if I get it, I could work in China but not in Taiwan there I live). But he said that I’ll likely be travelling to mainland China next weekend for a few days to check out our operation in Xiamen and I think he’s serious about this one.
The GM was pretty impressed by my work this week and recognized me in the morning meeting on Friday and then gave me the day off om Saturday (we have to work one Saturday each month and this was it). That gave me the chance to go to a breakfast lecture club this morning held by an old ND alum here. It was not too good of a breakfast (toast and “ham”) but I met another old ND guy (52’ grad) who was in town. The talk was about services for foreigners from the Interior Ministry. Seeing how I am here not-so-legally there really isn’t much they can do for me so it was a little boring. Although the guy who was speaking thought I was in high school so I got a kick out of that, maybe I really do still look 17.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
What a Day...
I got to work today at my usual 8:00AM. But I got off a little later than usual...11:30PM. I'll write more about this later but for now I am going to sleep.
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