I mean really.

"Another earth quake and a tsunami on its way...what is going on. Anyone else feel like God is trying to tell us something...?"

That was someone's status update on Facebook. I find it kind-of difficult to not find that offensive. What, pray-tell, is god trying to tell us then? "I hate Chileans"? or perhaps "I hate poor people"?, or more accurately "I hate not-white impoverished people!". Now that may not necessarily go for Chile but it most certainly goes for Haiti, and hell while we're at it the tsunami in 2004. Perhaps it was because of the dreaded gays again. We all know how god likes to punish all of us for tolerating gay people by destroying the lives of poor people (see Katrina). You better listen to me (or clean up your act, or pray more, or make more virgin sacrifices), or else the poor, economically vulnerable, generally not-white folks will get it! Mnah, seeeee?

I know that was almost certainly not the person's intent with that kind of a comment, but I mean really. What exactly are you saying when you say something like that?

Maybe god was just saying "Fear me world, for I am a petulant god!"

Hell, lets just chalk it up to bad aim.

Hot Springs and the New Year

Below is a roughly 4 minute video of my recent excursions. It's mostly me visiting the nearby hot springs just outside of Taipei. The first was just wandering around Xin Bei-tou 新北投, seeing the sights. Then there was Chinese New Year, which I suppose is still technically going on? It's a multiple day event. However, the important stuff is over with. Jared and I's friend Brian was supposed to fly in from Hong Kong, but unfortunately he had some visa troubles and won't be coming in. Sorry you couldn't make it Brian, hopefully we'll see you in the spring.

Taipei is pretty dead right now. A lot of people head to other parts of Taiwan to visit family, and most shops are closed. Which makes it difficult for those without family and who don't celebrate with little to do. Jared and I ended up seeing "The Book of Eli". Handful of good action sequences, but don't see it. We followed that up with a visit to the hot springs at Wu Lai 烏來, a very scenic area roughly an hour south of Taipei. The video doesn't feature the actual hot spring area because nearly all the hot springs are completely nude. Meaning once you go past the locker room, you're nude from there on out. It's a bit awkward at first, but after about 15 minutes or so you get over it. No else cares, so you stop to care as well. Yes, they're separated by sex. Afterwards you go upstairs and you can drink as much tea as you want, featured in the video. It's probably among the most relaxing things you can do, I highly recommend doing it. Not to mention, I would assume compared to American hot springs (I have no experience so I don't really know) it's fairly affordable. Or, if you want to have a really cheap the nearby streams have pools, or in the case of Xin Bei-tou 新北投 you can just go a stream that's probably as hot as the hottest pool at the hot springs we went to (42-43C, 107.6-109.4F), also featured in the video at the very beginning. That was good just to dip your feet in.

Anyway, the video isn't very exciting but it's something. I'm on vacation right now, which just means I'm getting my grad application stuff ready for when the application period starts at the end of the month. Wish me luck! Enjoy the video.



還有
Articles that I found interesting:

Good insight into how China's nationalism is influencing their politics, whether certain members of the government like it or not.
The View from Taiwan

The always interesting Glenn Greenwald: "Religious faith in government accusations"

Hiking Elephant Mountain (and the one behind it)

Last weekend I went hiking on Elephant Mountain (象山). There, I took some amazing photos of the Taipei 101. Yes, I know. Those are about 90% of my pictures at this point, but it's the signature building in Taipei and you can see it from just about everywhere. While most of the hiking paths around Taipei are paved, don't let that decieve you. Going up steep sets of stairs takes a toll. I think anyone who has visited the Great Wall can agree with me on that one. People regularly hike the paths to stay in shape. So, I hiked around for a bit, seeing the sights. Eventually got up to the top of Elephant Mountain where I saw this:



Needless to say, I was pretty satisfied with where I had gone, but then I noticed a sign pointing away towards another mountain. I honestly can't remember the name it. Something-母山 I think, close. Anyway, I went for it. While on my way there I ran across a random temple. Which at first I found amazing and fairly spectacular, which admittedly it was. After a short while though I remember how Buddhism is like cat nip to foreigners as it seemed that any foreigner remotely near the place began showing up, while all the Taiwanese people just kept on walking. Really though, who wouldn't stop?







And so I went higher. Eventually I found a rougher path with poorly made, unkept stairs and made my way to my first ever genuine rock-wall climbing experience. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures or videos while on the path or climbing up the wall, but during the former I was trying to catch my breath as I climbed up the steep, uneven stairs and during the latter I was trying not to fall off a rock. BUT after successfully climbing up all the different rocks, and eventually coming back down a different way, I circled back to the first, much less intimidating, rock wall and took a picture.





Good times. Really. At the final wall, I stood there for a while thinking about whether I should climb it or not. It was near vertical, and things were spaced much further apart. While I was thinking about it two Taiwanese guys it quick succession, easily climbed up the wall. The second had stopped to briefly chat with me, as I had just come down from trying the wall not knowing how to climb up. Like I said, the foot holds and all that were further apart. I had said "It's too hard; seems a little dangerous.", to which he replied, "Nah, it's not dangerous. I've done it a bunch of times, here watch." and promptly scrambled up the wall, after which he yelled down "come on!" (this was all in Chinese, so he didn't actually yell 'come on!' he yelled '來!'). So, I did. The key was to use the ropes for all the arm movement. I can now say that I'm one step closer to not being afraid of heights. I eventually made my way up to the top of this mountain I can't recall the name of, and what should I find at the very top? A normal, well paved path being traversed by elderly people. It made my muddied self lul. Needless to say, I had climbed a bit higher:





360 look around the top of the mountain:


Not much of note happened on the way down. I found another difficult path and took that down to the bottom. It was a bit slippery, and probably not the wisest choice as my legs were a bit wobbly. I had to use ropes again, and one had a bit of metal sticking out of it, so I got a gnarly deep paper-cut that was actually very superficial. Still, BLOOD.



Once I was down, I got some cheap vegetarian curry rice for NT$50 (US$~1.56) and headed home. All in all, Elephant Mountain is my favorite so far.



All the pictures are here.
Sorry if this post was a bit of a media blitz. I'm on vacation now for the Chinese New Year until the beginning of March, so I just stayed up late and put all this stuff up. Looking back, I have some videos you guys may be interested in so I'll try to edit some together over break and get those out. I'm not making any promises though. I've got to get grad applications done and Jared and I's friend Brian is coming in next week. So, we'll see how things go.