BBQ, Beer, and a Babe

Just a rule, putting me around small children is usually not a good idea. Mainly since my maturity level is only rarely discernibly higher than that of a small child. So I was a little worried last night when I went to a bbq with two language partners at their friend’s house and they brought along a 18 month old.

First, let me say a Chinese/Taiwanese bbq is different than an American one. It is a little thing on the ground with some open coals that you use to grill small bite-sized pieces of all sorts of meat, seafood, and veggies whereas an American bbq usually has just one or two types of food that are grilled.

The thing was the whole event took place outside in an area that had NO breeze. Well within no time at all it was very hot, especially sitting next to a grill. So in addition to sweating a lot, my Taiwanese hosts figured they should give the white dude some beers. Now this is never a bad thing but the fact that I had not eaten much yesterday and I was sweating hard made me feel those beers much more than I would have liked.

Of course when I finished those they announced a beer run to 7-11. That was when I knew it…I had found a home!

Well the night was fun and I got to play around with an 18 month old who thought the white dude was pretty interesting. Overall, despite the sweating, it was a great night (come on bbq, beer, and good company is something I will only turn down if I die).

Karma is a crazy thing

So I'm still not over my little ride.

It started innocently enough. I was out tonight to a cool bar with my coworker and her friend. While there I taught them fun English words like "douchebag" and they taught me the Taiwanese equivalents. Just a note hearing a person who cannot speak English try to string together a bunch of f-bombs and such is one of the funniest things on the planet.

Then it was time to go and this is where karma came back to bite me in the ass, big time. I was to hitch a ride back to my place on my co worker's moped/mini-motorcycle. Not a bad deal, I get to ride right behind a decently attractive girl and get home for free.

Then reality set in. In the back, there were only some crappy handles and no real footrests. On these little devils you feel all of the bumps in the road and being on the back always feel like you are about to fall off. It was without a doubt one of the scariest times of my life to be barreling down streets at night when I couldn't see around the driver's head to see what was coming and there was very little to hold onto. All I wanted to do was get off of that thing so karma couldn't come all the way around (i.e. the only thing worse than being on the thing would be falling off of it then being rolled over by the car behind you). On top of that, my coworker thought this was the funniest thing in the world. Nothing like fearing for your life while your driver can't stop laughing.

I'm never doing that again, unless of course...

Haircut

So last night I went for my first haircut since I arrived in Taiwan. Needless to say I was getting a little shaggy and having such a high-brow office job that just doesn't work. About a month ago an American, who speaks no Chinese, on the floor below me told me how tough finding a good place to get a cut was and since the Taiwanese aren't used to Western hair they tend to mess up on the haircuts.

Well I speak enough Chinese to make it mildly clear what I want (short on the sides and slightly longer on the top). However, the simplicity confused the stylist since when everyone has straight black hair everyone wants a cool haircut to stand-out. When I said I wanted short on the sides and long on the top he figured I wanted my bangs cut and my sides cut and then leaving the rest in a mullet was perfectly fine (and it would be if not for my job). After some explaining I was able to come out just fine and I was only set back $4.50.

But since I came in late the guy had to stay over a bit. The thing was that he was cool with it since it was a chance to cut a foreigner's hair. Then the owner of the place came over and wanted just to touch my hair. For me it was really funny since both of them were totally shocked that I have no ladyfriend; I still haven't figured out what that is such a big deal.

The Sun

It sure is good to see the sun again. It has been about 4 days since I last saw it and much of that time was taken up by pouring rain. Now rain is nothing for me, I'm from Oregon, but this stuff during the typhoon was unreal. There would be a light to heavy rain for 10 minutes then an all-out open the flood-gates deluge for 45 minutes then the cycle would repeat (for 3 full days). Beyond that there was a small leak around my AC that went from small to somehow letting a mini-waterfall into my place. But in the end it turned out ok, my landlord--who is an awesome dude--came over last night and fixed that up with a load of caulking.

What's In a Name?

Apparently not much. So over the last 24 hours I found three really funny pronunciations of my name. First, someone at work thought I was named "clean" and figured this worked well because my desk is always clean. Second, another person thought I was named "client." No comment there. Finally, and most forgivable of all someone thought I was named Clinton.

Great Stuff

So maybe SNL is starting to be funny again. This is a great video that started this new season. Check it out.

http://tw.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_xQdynFVLg

Notre Dame football post

First, typhoons suck hard. The one hitting now has been DUMPING rain for the last 48 hours and it is supposed to be around until Tuesday. The wind hasn't been bad but it has been constantly raining. It even rained so hard for a bit that there was some water leaking in around my windows and air conditioner.

Ok, so the ND game. Thankfully, you can watch all the games on NBC without commercials and it takes under an hour. So these are the things I've noticed over the first two games. We have some ballers: Brian Smith (who will be in the NFL as he was all over the field), David Bruton is great, as is Mike Anello who has more heart than all of last year's team, Aldridge showed some flashes, and Tate is going to be great too. And to give credit where credit is due McGuffie from UM is going to be amazing.

In general there have been some good things. The safety play has been great as has tackling and hitting. We have caused a lot of TO's which is always good news. It was funny to see a 330 pound man running down the field. We also have a strong youth movement. But most of all, it's always great to beat UM and start the season 2-0.

However, there are are a lot of things that are concerning to me. We blitz a lot (which I absolutely love) but we don't get consistent pressure or come up with sacks. Conversely, we are lucky not to have given up any sacks as our OL still needs a lot of improvement. Overall the offense needs a lot of work, but it's still early so that will come. The d-line is still absent on too many plays--which cannot happen in a 3-4 defense.

Finally, I say we spread the field with three receiver sets. Get Tate, Floyd, and Kamara in so the defense has to cover them then pound the ball on the right side and run the occasional play-action pass.

The arrow is pointing up on this team.