Observations from a half-fried, half-Chinese, half-Australian American.

I used to work at the Chicken Kitchen in Miami (I think it later became Starr’s Chicken Grill or something). Most of the staff were Haitian or Guyanese immigrants. I was studying French in school at the time and my Haitian co-workers spoke creole. One co-worker, Franz, seemed to have a knack to seduce women. Hoping to pick his brain for secrets on how to sweet-talk a girl, I asked him for a sample of his persuasive prose. He produced the following for me on a scrap of notepaper:

C’est avec un coeur recuplis de joie et d’allegresse et que je propite aujourd’hui de vous dire quelque chose,

je t’aime mon amour,

et je t’adore,

parce que hier je t’aime aujourd’hui je t’adore demain se sera pour toujours pour toujours;

si je pourrais dis l’amour que j’avais dans mon coeur pour vous,

cette journee ne sera pas suffisante.

I’ve been playing violin in a Piazzolla cover band, Tango Negro (myspace, 無名小站), for just over 2 years now and have had to learn a whole set of new (and unusual) techniques for the violin. For those not familiar with Piazzolla’s music, the violin and other instruments have been assigned to provide atmospheric sound effects and percussion. It is difficult to find English-language literature or resources on these techniques, but some do exist as listed below.

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Working in a Taiwanese company has provided me with great insight into how things work here. I get to witness and participate in group decisions on a daily basis. On one hand it can be particularly frustrating because people are not forthcoming with their thoughts, or when they do say something, they try to say it in a way without rocking the boat. On the other hand, one can witness the deeply rooted attempts to maintain harmony at work: the principle of “不好意思” (bùhǎoyìsi). One example occurs daily at lunchtime, the question being “where should we eat lunch?”. Read more

Being here for a few years, I’ve just attended what has to be at least my tenth wedding here in Taipei. Though each wedding has its nuances, just about every wedding I’ve attended save one has followed a simple formula. I’m writing this guide as a record for myself and also as a tip sheet for others who are less familiar with weddings here in Taipei.

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Well, I signed up for the Versions app beta and finally got it about a bit over a month ago. I installed it and then minutes later, I clicked it off, fired off an email to their feedback address and removed it from my dock, expecting never to use it again. You see, the problem was I couldn’t get it to work with my Site5 SVN setup. I received an email back from the beta team and now it’s working and back in my dock.

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