A Glimpse of Wistfulness

Les Misérables

2012-12-26T18:28:00.003+08:00

So I watched another movie today! (Merry Christmas to those of you who celebrate, by the way.) And once again I'm struck by the sudden urge to EXPRESS MYSELF in the general direction of the internet via my blog, haha. I wonder why I didn't feel that urge for all those movies I watched in Taiwan in the past two years. Probably because there were people willing to hear me vent — my family isn't so obliging, haha. (Though they do read my blog posts, I'm told.)

// Anyway, SPOILER WARNING again for those of you who have no idea what happens in Les Misérables. //

First of all, let me start out by saying that this was a really great movie! I loved the musical and am so excited to see a movie version. I definitely cried — and more than once! — as did the person who sat next to me who didn't want to be mentioned on my blog after reading my post from yesterday. Haha. Of course, I still have some criticisms, but there's some praise sprinkled in there as well. ;)

I thought Hugh Jackman did a great job, for the most part. I didn't even recognize him when he first showed up on screen! He looked really different. His singing was pretty good, though for some parts he struggled. I mean, Valjean's part is really hard to sing in the first place, and a lot of sections just aren't particularly melodic, so I suppose there wasn't much he could do about it. Like in the 10th Anniversary concert (which I'm listening to now, hehe), I thought there were parts where it sounded off, even though it was being sung by Colm Wilkinson (he played the bishop in the movie!). It's a difficult part, so I guess I'd cut him some slack. He wasn't perfect, but he was pretty good.

I understand that one of the advantages of movie vs. stage is that we get to see the actors' expressions close-up, but it was way overdone in this movie. As great as Hugh Jackman is, I got tired of seeing the same type of shot of his face over and over. Seriously, some mid- and long-shots for variety, especially when he;s singing, wouldn't kill you! I know you're proud that they're singing live for the take and not lip synching (quite a feat, I know) but you don't need to shove it in our faces. I definitely could've done without constantly staring at people's faces in extreme close-up. And it was awkward when some of the characters looked like they were actually looking into the camera. So weird. And people's eyes looked so buggy. Jackman, expecially. Plus there were some places where someone's face would briefly go out of focus. Is it possible I just imagined that? But I saw it more than once, so I'm super confused. Things like that shouldn't happen, right? Hm.

Next, Russel Crowe was terrible as Javert. TERRIBLE. His acting was bland enough, but his singing? UGH WHY DID THEY CAST HIM??? He can't sing! His voice is mediocre to begin with, but there wasn't even any emotion or dynamic to make up for his technical flaws! The whole thing was just incredibly flat. I was SO disappointed at the way he sang "Stars" and "Javert's Suicide." He definitely didn't do any justice to those songs, which should be powerful and gripping but became completely lifeless whens sung by him. Plus, as mentioned previously, his acting wasn't very good. He was completely non-threatening, non-sinister, and non-compelling as Javert, which shouldn't be the case! It was just so boring to watch him and it made me unhappy whenever he opened his mouth to sing because he's not a good singer. And since a lot of the other people in the cast can actually SING he appeared very lack-luster indeed in comparison. Such a disappointment. They should've chosen someone better! Ugh. He was just so entirely bland and boring and expressionless and his singing sucks. That might be why he didn't get the camera-in-face treatment for as much of his solos, compared to the other people — they probably didn't want the audience to be too focused on his crappy singing, heh.

In contrast, Anne Hathaway blew me away with her voice. I was definitely impressed — I had no idea she could sing! And so well! I thought her rendition of Fantine's "I Dreamed a Dream" was amazing. But again, I was disappointed by the decision to keep to the exact same close-up shot for the vast majority of the song. I mean, she's pretty and is very expressive, but I didn't need to stare at her face the entire time, you know? It really bothered me that the camera never zoomed out or changed angles or ANYTHING, just stayed trained right on her face for most of the song. It just got awkward after a while. It would've been perfectly fine to have some different shots for the middle part and then zoom back in for her breakdown. At least in my opinion. I almost cried during her song, but I didn't really cry until she was confronting Valjean and the mayor. That was when my tears came.

The Thénardiers were pretty entertaining! Ok, Sacha Baron Cohen's singing wasn't the best — the enunciation wasn't great, so it was kind of hard to tell what he was singing at times, but he and Helena Carter Bonham definitely fulfilled their role of Comedic Relief, so they get points for that. They got laughs out of me and successfully lightened up an otherwise very melodramatic story. Not perfect, but I approve and thought they did their job. Yay for funny characters! (And I wasn't upset at "Dog Eat Dog" being cut since signing isn't really his strong point.)

Isabelle Allen as young Cosette was just ok, though. I didn't find her "Castle on a Cloud" convincing — she seems unable to sing and act at the same time — and so my heartstrings didn't feel properly tugged. Her acting was slightly better, but then she didn't really have to do anything difficult, just act like she liked Valjean better than the Thénardiers, which can't be very hard. As for the other young actor in the film, I thought Daniel Huttlestone was great as Gavroche. He grew on me, and even though I knew what was coming, I was so sad when he died! Poor guy. Definitely a better actor than Allen.

I thought the students were great! Aaron Tveit as Enjolras was pretty good, no complaints from me. The one who really got my attention was George Blagden as Grantaire — he was so awesome and cute! I never really appreciated Grantaire until I saw Blagden's take. He's funny and has quite the personality. Definitely my favorite out of the students, and I wish he got more screentime! Maybe if they hadn't cut "Drink with Me" short... Anyway, it was heartbreaking to see how young and foolish those students were, and how few of them fought at the barricades, and how they were abandoned by the townspeople who'd been so willing to contribute to the barricade but refused to join in or even grant them asylum when it was clear all was lost. So, so heartbreaking. Sigh.

Marius was ok, I guess. By which I mean Eddie Redmayne. He was fine, not much I want to say about him. Cute enough and a decent singer/actor, though not particularly engaging emotionally. But it wasn't until I watched the movie that I realized how much of an asshole Marius is, so instead of ranting about the actor I'll be ranting about the character. Because first of all, I don't approve of the whole love-at-first-sight thing. But the thing that convinces me he's an absolute asshole is the way he let Valjean leave because he's afraid he'll bring shame to their family. SERIOUSLY? WHAT AN ASSHOLE. And he didn't insist he stay for the wedding or to say goodbye to Cosette himself? What is wrong with him? Even if he's worried about Valjean getting discovered and bringing scandal to their uppity wealthy family, he should still go to the wedding and say goodbye to his daughter! Ugh stupid selfish shallow idiot Marius. He only decides otherwise when he realizes Valjean saved his life. So if Valjean wasn't the one who saved his life he'd be perfectly ok with him missing out on his daughter's wedding and leaving without a goodbye to her and dying on his own? (Well he didn't know about that last one but it'd still be his fault.) WHAT A JERK. I HATE YOU MARIUS.

Cosette, the character, was slightly better, though she's still guilty at the love-at-first-sight thing. Amanda Seyfried was ok too, I suppose, given what she had to work with. I don't understand why Cosette has all these impossibly high notes. It pretty much sounds terrible no matter who sings it and makes me dislike Cosette more than I would otherwise. The warbling just sounds so shrill! Not a fan of Cosette's songs, in general. They're not particularly engaging, emotionally, and those high notes are just ugh. Also, the part where Cosette and Marius were supposed to sing in harmony in "A Heart Full of Love" sounded awful. They sounded out-of-sync from each other. Is it supposed to be like that? The issue wasn't that pronounced in the 10th Anniversary version, so while listening to them I kept feeling like Redmayne and Seyfried were singing it poorly and it really bothered me. But anyway, Seyfried doesn't sing with as much vibrato in her voice as Judy Kuhn does, so I did find her voice less annoying.

In contrast, Redmayne's duet with Samantha Barker in "A Little Fall of Rain" went a lot better. They actually sounded in sync with each other and the harmony didn't sound totally off. Kinda ironic how he's better at singing with Eponine than with Cosette. But yeah, Barker was pretty great! I did definitely feel more sympathy for her unrequited love than for Marius and Cosette's stupid infatuation with each other. And she can actually sing, so yay, points for her! "On My Own" was pretty good — her rendition isn't my favorite version, but no major complaints from me (though I'm sad it was shortened). And she actually had some different shots during her solo so that was good, though by the end of the song it was still camera-in-face. And I thought it was great that in the movie she got the wound from saving Marius's life — it makes her more heroic and selfless, especially compared with the stupid Marius and Cosette, neither of whom willingly sacrificed anything for their supposed "true love," unlike everyone else around them who were dying left and right so they could live and be happy. Seriously, Marius and Cosette look so spoiled, silly, and shallow next to the kind of self-sacrifice shown by Eponine, Fantine, and Valjean. It is kind of sad that Eponine got cut from "Valjean's Death" since her duet with Fantine is awesome, but given the story it does make more sense that only Fantine is there since Eponine didn't exactly leave a huge mark on Valjean himself. But yeah, her parts were great. Love Eponine! (Even if she did fall in love with someone who turned out to be a jerk. But at least they were friends first, and he wasn't actually that much of a jerk until he saw Cosette. But yes, she probably should've gotten over him once he fell in love with Cosette and left him to die at the barricade — she deserves someone who loves her!)

I cried SO MUCH when Jean Valjean died at the end! Really admire him for always trying to do the right thing and for working to right his wrongs. And he even let Javert go! A bit too optimistic, in my opinion, but I guess Valjean thought he was just doing his job. Anyway, Valjean is a great hero, and Cosette and Marius treated him shamefully. They are awful people and it's so sad that Valjean and Fantine's sweet darling Cosette turned out to be such a shallow and insipid woman. But I did like the part at the end when all the dead people are singing on the barricades. It's a ridiculous representation of the afterlife, but a nice hopeful end to the movie, especially since I got to see all my favorite actors/characters one last time and none of the ones I hated or disliked. Ha.

So yeah, despite my complaints about the awfulness of Russell Crowe and jerkassness of Marius, over all, I did very much enjoy seeing Les Misérables on the silver screen! :)

My Thoughts on Skyfall

2012-12-25T15:39:00.000+08:00

I just got back from watching Skyfall with my family. Some aspects of the movie seriously pissed me off and I need to vent. However, my sister Diane is absolutely uninterested in hearing me rant about the faults of the movie — she prefers to just sit back and enjoy and not think too critically about something that's meant to be entertainment. (She thinks I'm a terrible person to watch movies with, and also a terrible person to play games with. She's probably right.) So I've decided to rant on my blog instead, lucky you.

// WARNING: Major spoilers for Skyfall ahead. If you haven't seen the movie, proceed at your own risk. //

The movie began pleasantly enough, with a fun action sequence to start us off. I was much entertained by the motorcycle chase, with Bond and the mercenary riding up stairs and on roofs and through windows. The theme song and intro impressed me, too — so creative and haunting. The great opening definitely raised my expectations for the film.

Things were good for the first half. I thought it was great that we got to see Bond struggle with his uncooperative, imperfect body instead of having everything come easily to him. It made him less boring. The very understated gadget exchange was different and amusing. And his big fight in Shanghai was visually interesting, too, with the lights and glass doors and changing images.

(Though when he got to Macau, I did wonder if the komodo dragons were really that dangerous in real life, or if they were victims of character assassination. But the movie is right about this: according to Wikipedia, komodo dragons are hunters whose diet consists mainly of deer, and they have been known to attack humans.)

The first (and main) thing that really pissed me off happened on Silva's island. Silva ties up Severine, the Bond girl, and ties her to a boulder. He places a shot of scotch on her head and tells her to stay still, then tells Bond that whoever shoots the shot off her head wins. Bond goes first, and, having had difficulty with his marksmanship due to his earlier injury, misses both her and the shot glass.

And then Silva straight up shoots Severine, and she DIES, and the shot glass falls to the ground, completely unscathed. "A waste, isn't it?" asks Silva (paraphrased), and Bond says, "A waste of good scotch" (paraphrase again), then proceeds to take out all of Silva's henchmen.

UGHHHHHH SERIOUSLY??? I was soooo upset that Severine was allowed to die, and that Bond didn't even show any remorse for failing to save her. She was forgotten, and his only reaction at her death was a quip about the scotch — probably to throw Silva off, but still! A person dies right in front of him because he can't shoot straight and shouldn't have been allowed to go active, and he thinks the scotch is a waste?! I hate that she's shown as expendable. She'd asked for help, she'd shown such fear of Silva, she'd wanted freedom so badly, she'd given Bond what he wanted and hoped he'd free her... and then he betrayed her and let her die. I can't believe he freaking let her die. Pisses me off so much. Stupid, incompetent, useless Bond. I get that Bond girls don't always have happy endings, but she definitely did not deserve to die that way, when she'd feared so much and hoped so much. She didn't deserve to be used and cast aside by both Silva and the man she'd helped and hoped would help her. And they both just forgot all about and never gave her a second thought — ugh I hated Bond so much when that happened. Heartless psychopath.

(Side note: my sister didn't even realized she'd died in that scene! She thought Silva had shot the glass, but I reminded her the shot glass was whole when Severine slumped over and the glass landed on the ground. I don't think she felt as incensed as I did even after I pointed it out, though. But she might've just been trying to get me to shut up.)

And Bond's incompetence doesn't even stop there. Maybe I've seen too many heist movies, but when I found out they'd moved all of Silva's stuff to the MI6 base and was attempting to crack into it there, I immediately thought, "Dude, this is such a BAD IDEA. Don't you know that you should never bring anything created by the enemy into your most secure hideout?" I mean, there have been so many plots where someone wanted to get something into a highly secure area and the only way to do so was to get caught or let the enemy capture it. And then they hook up their own system to the villain's machine and start messing around on it with no precautions whatsoever?! Dear god, what a bunch of idiots. I was not at all surprised by what happened next, because honestly, have you guys never heard of a Trojan horse? Especially after he's already shown that he can totally hack your system to bits? Stupid idiots.

So then they manage to keep Silva from killing M or anyone else important, just nameless policemen there to serve as redshirts. Bond's brilliant plan after that? Take M to Bond's family mansion in Scotland and wait for Silva to catch up to them. He, M, and his huntsman have incredibly limited resources to work with, and they decide to set up booby traps in the mansion. Seriously, that's his brilliant plan. Go somewhere and to hell with weapons and technology, because apparently he and M are too old to keep up with all the newfangled tech available nowadays.

It's the stupidest idea ever. Three people, all middle-aged or older, hiding out in a mansion with a few guns and a couple homemade booby traps, against a man who is rich and clever enough (or should be) to hire a huge number of trained mercenaries, high-tech weapons, and surveillance equipment? Look, that's such a stupid idea the writers even had to dumb down the villain to get Bond out alive. Seriously, for someone who is supposedly a top agent, James Bond is severely lacking good decision-making skills.

This is evidenced by the way he totally failed. Look, they already made Silva dumber than he ought to be, just to give Bond a chance. First he sends some mercenaries on foot with what seems to be very little reconnaissance, planning, protection, training, or communication. I get that it's supposed to be a surprise attack, but it wouldn't hurt for them to be a little more prepared, or at least have some stuff other than guns. So they all wander willy-nilly to the mansion, get gunned down by Bond hiding in his car, and then fall to booby traps and two old people with guns. Definitely seems like Silva could have afforded to outfit his guys with better gear and more information.

I guess he underestimated Bond, but these people know they're in danger and went there to hide for a reason, and they're MI6, so I dunno, it makes sense to prepare for at least some defense, even if you're expecting it to be a surprise attack, right? I mean, there could've been hidden minefields all over the grounds and his mercenaries might've blown sky-high before they even got to the mansion. Some advance thinking would've been a good idea, and from the elaborate planning we saw from him earlier in the movie, it's hard to believe he would suddenly switch from that to "hey you guys just go walk in the mansion and kill them" and that's it. Which makes me think he had to be dumbed down because Bond's plan was so stupid, but whatever, let's just say he was overeager and overconfident and so he didn't really think it through.

Anyway, Silva shows up in a helicopter, except he only has one, which is a shame because I'm sure he could've afforded to bring more vehicles and equipment than one helicopter. But he makes do and throws grenades in the house, which is a good move, except why didn't he give the other team some and tell them to just stay outside and try to smoke them out? Anyway, it's working, and the huntsman and M run out of the house and start wandering around on the grounds, basically defenseless. Great plan, Bond. Seriously, once you guys get smoked out of the house there is pretty much nothing you can do against a bunch of mercenaries and helicopters. And that totally should've been Silva's strategy from the beginning, except him being an obsessed villain means he wants to deal with M personally, which is kinda his downfall (in addition to the other stuff, I mean). If he'd been ok with blowing up the house in the first place, things could've moved more quickly. And also why didn't he have any more backup? And why wasn't he taking better advantage of the vast resources at his disposal to make sure his surprise attack can't fail? Seriously, everything had to be dumbed down for Mr. Bond because he can't come up with any good plans.

And the stupidest thing is that, despite all that, Bond didn't even succeed in the end. Silva basically got everything he wanted. Sure, he'd have preferred a murder-suicide with M, but in the end, they both died, so that's effectively the same, right? Oh fine, I guess Bond can comfort himself with the fact that M didn't die in the exact way Silva wanted, but she still died, so I'd say he still failed. And it's not like him killing Silva was really a big victory, except symbolically, since Silva would've died anyway had things gone his way.

So all in all Bond had a stupid plan that was so badly executed it gave the villain everything he wanted, except maybe not in the precise way he wanted, but hey, what's a couple of small details. M died, he died, his entire elaborate plan got him his end goals. Congrats to the antagonist; well-played. Too bad your opponent was useless.

I mean, seriously. Bond's struggles in the beginning made him interesting, sure, but as the movie went on and his incompetence grew rather than decreased, I became more and more frustrated at him. Not only was he just as bad as Silva in using and discarding Severine, he was a complete idiot who fell headfirst into Silva's trap and also devised a plan of his own that would've failed miserably had Silva not come down with Sudden Idiocy Syndrome. And even with Silva on a sub-prime intelligence level, Bond still managed to get M killed. Good job, loser. Honestly, the only good thing about his plan was that he probably saved a bunch of civilians, but I'm pretty sure that was an unintentional side effect since we've already seen how heartless he is. Sure, he cares about his fellow agents, but civilians who get in the way? Psh, they don't count as people.

So yeah, that pretty much covers the issues I had with Skyfall. You can probably see why I didn't really enjoy the movie much (and maybe even why my sister had no desire to listen to my rant). Sure, there are ways to rationalize away some of these complaints, but I'm just not willing to grant this movie the benefit of the doubt because I'm so pissed off. Deal with it.

The song was great, though! Too bad it was wasted on this crap.

Bird I

2012-09-20T21:36:00.002+08:00

I think part of the reason I have such a difficult time updating my blog is because I'm overwhelmed with photos. I always want to sort through and post all of the related ones together. But then it feels like such a chore (given the number of photos I take) that I'm rarely able to follow through on a project.

So instead, I've decided to revert back to what I did when I first started this blog: just post one photo at a time. (Maybe more, if I can manage it, but not too many more.) That way, whenever I feel like blogging, I'll just choose a photo I deem decent-ish, do some small edits in GIMP, and upload. Quick enough not to feel like too much to handle (not that I really have any post-work obligations other than vegging out). Anyway, I'll try this out and see how it works out. Hopefully I'll be blogging more often!

Meanwhile, here's a photo of a bird for you:

love,

linda

Mochi Video

2012-09-18T20:40:00.000+08:00

So, as some of you may know, I got a bunny about a month ago! His name is Mochi. I think of him as a red bean mochi, my favorite, since his eyes are white. And he is very, very adorable. (Though a lot bigger now than when I first got him. And look, there are even baby pictures! Yeah, I'm kinda disappointed his eyes turned redder, but ah well.)

Phoebe has been requesting a video, so here it is, finally! It's mainly just Mochi jumping around in a cardboard box. If you adore bunnies, you'll probably like it. Otherwise, you'll probably get bored after half a minute or so. In which case you totally have my permission to move on, haha.

Hope you've been doing well!

love,

linda

April Instagrams

2012-05-13T20:17:00.003+08:00

First of all, Happy Mother's Day, Mommy! <3

You're a wonderful mom, I love you and hope you have a great day today. :)

So, the other day I had a brilliant idea for an insta-blog-post. (Because I suck at actually sorting and processing my photos for a proper post.) Now that I have an iPhone, I actually remember to take photos with it once in a while, and with Instagram that means they're all processed and ready to go, just sitting on my phone waiting for me to make a blog post out of it! (Ok fine, I guess it's not all that original of an idea, but whatever.)

Anyway, here's a peek at how I spent the month of April in Instagrams:

My first Instagram photo ever! I'd had my iPhone for a few days but kept forgetting to take it out and use it. Only remembered in this instance because of a couple of Korean tourist taking photos of Taipei 101. :P

So because my iPhone was new and I didn't really know how to use it, I accidentally took a picture of the ground when I meant to take a picture of something else. But, uh, people seemed to like it? Hahaha.

All-you-can-eat, cook-your-own Japanese BBQ with my high school friend Annie! :) It's so much fun when my friends visit Taipei.

Hey there, Hello Kitty, what are you doing in our hot pot?? (We ended up not eating her, haha. Too full!)

Miramar Ferris wheel with Annie! It was fun, I've never been up there at night!

Hill of tombs on my way to 基隆 (Keelung). So when I took this picture, I had no idea the Taiwanese consider it a bad idea to take pictures of tombs! Apparently they think you might accidentally capture a ghost with your camera, or you might anger the dead and become haunted. When my coworkers found out about my photo they were mildly freaked out, lol. But I don't see any ghost in my photo. Do you? (Maybe I should blame my recent cold on the wrath of ghosts! But it's still worth it because I really like this photo.)

These bottles are from Rebirth Cafe, where I went for lunch with my childhood friend Phoebe, who was in Taipei for an internship. It was fun and we had a long and very intellectual conversation, haha. Also, there were cats walking around at the cafe, including this tiny adorable kitten! I didn't get too close since I'm allergic (sometimes that doesn't stop me, though) and luckily I didn't start getting itchy eyes or a runny nose.

View from 彩虹橋 (Rainbow Bridge) on our way to 饒河夜市 (Raohe Night Market) one evening after playing badminton.

地熱谷 (Thermal Valley) in 北投 (Beitou). There was a lot of steam! Went there with high school friends Annie and Isabella, who both happened to be visiting Taiwan. After walking checking out a few sights around Beitou, we soaked in the outdoor hot springs. Very relaxing, but some of those pools were super hot! My favorite was the one with the massaging jets. :)

Mossy wall and steps from what used to be a fortress around... somewhere. Sorry, forgot the name since my friend took me. It looked cool though so I snapped a photo.

Wow, that was fast and painless. Got to take more photos with my iPhone! You'd think I'd have abandoned my DLSR in favor of my phone camera by now (as it seems a lot of people have), but no, I'm still lugging my camera with me everywhere. And usually I forget to snap photos with my phone for instant sharing, but I'm trying to remember to do that more. I have to say I still like taking pictures with my camera better, though.

Anyway, hope you all enjoyed your Mother's Day, especially the moms out there! :)

with love,

linda

July Outing with Phoebe and Brandon

2012-04-04T13:18:00.000+08:00

{In which Phoebe and Brandon act like old people and little kids}

So this was one of the items in my October poll, and it did get enough votes that I chose some photos and processed them. But then I never got around to actually posting them... oops. But here are the photos, at last! (Sorry you had to wait so long, Phoebe!)

(Also, let me know if there's anything in particular you want to see, either from my April Fools update post or the October post. I'm trying to get back into blogging and it'd be nice to have a few starting points. Otherwise it's kind of overwhelming.)

Anyway, way back in July, I went to the National Museum of History with Phoebe and Brandon to see the Picasso exhibit. It was fun; with my laughter and Brandon's voice, we got shushed like 3 times within the first 5 minutes (it was fine once we moved to a different room).

We made fun of a lot of paintings. I love that Picasso's art is so inherently mockable. (Kidding. Sort of. Ok fine, I'm really just not a fan of his style.)

And then afterwards I took random photos of them around the museum grounds because photography wasn't allowed in the exhibit.

So cute, right?

Then Phoebe's uncle took us to get shaved ice. Yum!

After our snack, we went to the Youth Park, which was cool because I'd never been.

And we saw a bunch of old people doing stretches and exercises on this really interesting structure. So of course Phoebe had to jump in.

How is that old guy beating Phoebe at this splits-on-concrete-logs thing?! Crazy.

And then I took a ton of photos of Brandon and Phoebe being super adorable. They're like little kids!

Kind of hard to tell if Phoebe is pushing him off or trying to save him there, haha.

And then we found concrete slides! Since they already joined in on the old people's fun, it'd be remiss of them not to join the little kids, too.

So that was our day. Aren't they super cute??

Oh yeah, and don't forget to let me know what you'd like to see more of!

with love,

linda

Finally! An Update!

2012-04-01T22:26:00.000+08:00

{In which I catch up on on five-and-a-half months of not blogging}

April Fools! There's actually no update.

Just kidding. (Though I'm sure you wouldn't have been surprised if that were the case.)

So... I have kind of been failing at this blogging thing. I'm always super conflicted when it comes to my blog because I have TONS of gorgeous photos to share, but then because there are so many I get overwhelmed and I fall behind and the guilt is too much and then I go LA LA LA I'M IGNORING MY BLOG.

But here I am attempting to give you a peek of what I've been doing when I haven't been blogging. It almost killed me to choose just ONE photo per month, but I knew I'd never get anything posted otherwise. In the future, I'd like to share more photos if possible, but considering my record... yeah. Don't hold your breath.

Anyway, here are my lame excuses for why I've neglected my blog (aka highlights from the past few months):

MARCH

hanging out with Phoebe: hot pot buffet, night markets, HUNGER GAMES! :D

FEBRUARY

trekking through a gorgeous, misty forest

also: sakura blossoms, bird park, dinner with Ecamp students

JANUARY

making cake pops and vision boards with my high school friends on New Year's Day

also: lanterns (like in Tangled!), Taipei zoo, National Palace Museum

DECEMBER

with Diane and my cousin Grace at cousin Meagan's wedding

also: home for the holidays! Newport Beach/Balboa, Christmas party, Las Vegas and Valley of Fire, wedding rehearsal, hypnotist, New Year's Eve party

NOVEMBER

with my family on a train trip through Norway

also: hanging out with Kit in Taipei for my birthday, business trip in Germany, family vacation in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway

OCTOBER

sculpture park with my coworkers

also: going to the beach with Williamson

So yeah, that's what I've been up to in the last few months, not including my usual weekend activities like sleeping in (the major one), board games, table tennis, shopping, etc. I'm really hoping I blog more! Going through all my photos made me want to sort and post more of them instead of leaving them to gather virtual dust on my hard drive. I think it'd help if I went included fewer photos per post. Otherwise it gets too overwhelming for me.

Anyway, how have you been lately? Got any significant news to share? I'd love to hear from you, particularly if I haven't in a while!

Have a great April Fool's Day! :D

with love,

linda

What Do YOU Want to See?

2011-10-15T18:18:00.001+08:00

{In which I poll the audience then never follow through because I am a sucky blogger}

Oops, haven't posted in quite a while. Don't worry, I'm still alive! I do want to get back to posting photos again — I've been doing a rather poor job of keeping you updated on my Taiwan adventures. Sorry! And thanks to everyone who's asked me about my blog. I'm touched you guys missed my posts! :)

Right now I have soooo many photos I'm not sure where to start. There are photos from May I still haven't gotten around to posting! So I thought I'd ask you guys what you'd be more interested in seeing, since you're the ones reading this blog, and then I'll go from there instead of trying to stay chronological like I've been doing before.

This should give you an idea of what I've been up to lately:

Outings/Events
- KTV with James, Claudia, and Sandra
- Renee's piano recital + dinner + tea shop
- FHL sports day at NTHU
- Youth Park photoshoot with Brandon & Phoebe
- Offerings/拜拜 for ghost month
- Company lunch at Japanese fusion buffet
- Company dinner at BBQ buffet
- Photoshoot at outdoor sculpture museum with Claudia, Samson, James

Meals/Hangouts
- Team K from E-camp (restaurants & dorms)
- FHL people: Patrick, 偉哲, Williamson, Jimmy (restaurants, fish store, tea shop, beach, etc.)
- E-camp TAs/mentors: Andrew, Amelia, David, Connie
- Meals with family friends: Auntie Audrey & Benson, Asher
- Coworkers (lab photos, board games, dinners, etc.)

So tell me, what kind of stuff are you more interested in seeing? Photos of food? Taiwanese culture? My attempts to get my friends to model for me? Silly photos? Specific people? What I do at work?

Whatever it is, let me know in the comments, and that will help me decide how to prioritize my photo processing/posting. You can list everything that sounds like something you'd want to see, or ask for photos of you or people you know, or mention specific subject matters. I'll take a look at what people request (Diane's votes will count more because she's my sister. :P Love you!), then I'll start working on the posts and try to get at least a few of them up before I leave for Europe in November.

Also, I'd love to hear what you've been up to lately, too! Hope you're doing well, whichever corner of the world you're in. :)

How I Survived My Weekend

2011-08-31T00:02:00.000+08:00

{In which I lock myself out of the apartment for 20+ hours but managed to get back, with minimal hysterics and plenty of good luck}

(Oops, I didn't expect typing this out to take so long. Sorry about the lateness on email and blog comments and general MIA-ness. This post explains why on two fronts: 1) I got locked out and 2) I was writing this beast of a post. So yes, this account is kind of wordy. If you want, feel free to skip to the TL;DR version.)

I was planning to have a nice, quiet, relaxing weekend. Work had been more burdensome than usual lately — I stayed past 9pm several nights last week — so I was very much looking forward to recuperating with some alone time during the weekend.

I wouldn't be entirely anti-social for the weekend, though, since Mom's friend had planned a get-together dinner on Sunday night. I checked with Grandpa on Thursday to make sure he was free, since he'd mentioned that he'd be gone on a business trip from Friday to Sunday. Grandpa decided to return to Taipei earlier than planned on Sunday night so he could talk business with Auntie Wenny's husband, and I told him we were meeting at the department store across from Taipei Main Station, sixth floor, the restaurant named Shin Yeh. 5:30pm.

On Saturday I slept in (as usual), then set out for the library in the afternoon. It's kind of embarrassing to admit I'd been in Taiwan for more than a year without checking out the Taipei public library system, especially since the main library was in my district. But I'm pleased to say that I only messed up the Google Maps directions a little bit, and managed to find the library without having to stop and ask for help. And now I'm the proud owner of a library card! :D I had fun browsing the shelves of English literature, though I'd arrived too late to check out many of the YA books I'd wanted since the children's section closes earlier than the rest of the library. Ah well, next time. (Also, it turns out you're only allowed to check out five books at a time! It was kind of shocking. I guess I'm spoiled by the 50-book limit at my public library in SoCal.)

After that I went to Macho Tacos (recommended by the awesome Hungry Girl's Guide to Taipei) for a carne asada burrito. Library books and Mexican food in Taipei? Bliss. It's been months since I'd had either, so I was highly anticipating a lovely evening with my burrito and books. I bought some drinks and snacks at 7-Eleven on my way home, walked up to the door of my apartment building, reached in for my keys... and came up empty.

It was the worst time possible to forget my keys. Usually it wouldn't be a problem since Grandpa would be home, and I could just call him and sheepishly ask him to open the door for me. But he was gone on a business trip... and I realized I didn't have my cell phone anyway. A veritable disaster. I tried to stay calm while I checked my bag several times, vainly hoping my keys or phone would magically appear. I mentally kicked myself for forgetting such important objects — how could you be so stupid, Linda? — then resigned myself to the situation and began considering my options.

There was no way I could get in to the apartment unless I called a locksmith, and I had no idea where I could find one. Grandpa would be home by tomorrow evening at the latest, so things would've been okish as long as I met up with him for dinner, but in the meantime I needed to find somewhere to spend the night. And I couldn't call anyone since I had no phone.

I'd accidentally locked my grandpa out once, and he told me he'd spent the night on a park bench (I was horrified and apologized profusely). I didn't think I could do that myself. A motel, maybe? There were a lot around where I lived, but I didn't really want to spend that much money. Or how about camping out at one of those 24-hour fast food places or tea shops? At least I wouldn't be bored, thanks to my library books.

At any rate, I refused to let myself panic. Things will work out, I told myself. The worst-case scenario isn't all that bad; you do have options, you just need to approach the situation rationally and calmly.

In the end, I'm not sure how rational my decision was. I decided to hang out at the door of my apartment building until someone came in or out, and then beg for assistance. (Ha. Great plan, right?) Eventually, a middle-aged woman arrived. I approached, smiled my brightest, and said, "Hi, do you live here?" (Uh, duh, of course she did.) "I live on the seventh floor and forgot my keys, do you have any idea how I can get someone to get the door open for me?" She didn't smile back and wasn't overly friendly, but I didn't fault her, since my question came out of nowhere and had nothing to do with her. I managed to ask about finding a locksmith while failing to recall what the word for it was in Mandarin; fortunately she understood me. Less fortunately, she informed me that as it was 10pm, they were all closed.

I was dismayed by the news. There went my hope of getting into the apartment that night. I frowned and bit my lips, not sure where to go from there.
"Why don't you talk to the manager? I just passed by her on the street," she suggested.
"Oh, cool! But I have no idea what she looks like," I admitted.
The woman brought me out on the street and pointed down the lane. "They're still over there, chatting at the intersection. They're a couple. The wife's name is Ah Zhen."
I squinted but had no idea who she was talking about. I wasn't sure I'd be able to find the manager on my own, but the woman seemed disinclined to walk down there with me and make an introduction.
"Just go ask for Ah Zhen," she said.
I looked down the lane, and then at the woman, and decided I'd imposed upon her long enough. "Ok, thank you very much," I said, and made my way down the lane, keeping an eye out for any couples.

I soon encountered a man and a woman speaking to each other in Taiwanese, and, hoping I wasn't wrong, I approached and asked the woman, "Excuse me, are you Ah Zhen?"
"Yes, I am," she said. "How can I help you?"
I was incredibly relieved, and explained my predicament.
Ah Zhen and her husband exchanged glances. "All the locksmiths are closed now," she told me. "There was one guy who opened 24 hours a day, but he quit the business."
"Oh," I said.
"What will you do? Where will you stay?"
I shrugged helplessly. "I don't know."
They discussed for a bit. "Maybe she can stay in the basement," her husband suggested.
"Would that be ok?" Ah Zhen asked me.
Better than the streets of Taipei. "Sure," I said. "Thank you."
They conferred a bit more. "The basement is a bit hot, isn't it?" "What about if she stays in our house?"
Ah Zhen turned to me. "The basement is hot and there are mosquitoes, so maybe it's better if you stay at my house. We don't have an extra room, but you can sleep in our living room if that's ok with you. Why don't you come with me?"
"I don't want to impose," I said cautiously.
"Not at all!" she assured me. "I'm hardly there anyway. My kids live there but we usually stay at this building."
Sleeping in her living room did sound a lot better than sleeping in the basement. "Oh, ok, then. Thank you so much! And I'm so sorry to be a bother."
And that's how I came to crash in the living room of my manager's apartment.

It was empty when we arrived, and I ate my dinner while she did some cleaning. After she made sure I was settled in, she left, and I took out one of my library books and began to read. I was slightly surprised that no one arrived for quite a while, although she had mentioned that her kids tended to stay up pretty late. Around midnight (I'm guessing) someone rang the doorbell and I figured out how to buzz that person in (I was so proud of myself!). A boy in a raincoat walked in, saw me, and then did a double take.
My ability to speak Mandarin suddenly left me, so I told him, in English, "Hi, your mom called you about me, right? I got locked out and she said I could stay here for the night."
He looked bewildered. "Can you understand English?" I asked in Mandarin. Eyes wide, he shook his head wildly. I considered how to translate myself. Before I had it figured out, his cell phone rang.
"Wait," he said in Mandarin, then spoke to his friends. "Where are you? I thought you guys would be here. Oh. Ok, I'm coming now." He hung up and turned to me. "I came here to look for my friend but he's not here. So... yeah. Bye!" He waved, flashed a bright smile, and walked out the door.
"Bye," I said. I laughed a little to myself — I must have scared the poor boy quite a bit, spouting English at him like that.

Fortunately, he was successful in finding his friends. The three boys trooped in quite a bit later, only to leave again for McDonald's. They're college freshman, I think, and they were cute and funny and Ah Zhen's son was kind. While they were gone, Ah Zhen's oldest son came in with his girlfriend. They hung out in his room for a bit, then left again. By then it must have been well past midnight, and people kept coming in and out while I sat calmly reading my book. It was interesting.

The three boys came back with food for their movie night. Ah Zhen's son offered to let me sleep in his room, but I thanked him and declined. It would've felt too weird for me, and I didn't mind staying up to read while they watched the movie. They shared their fries with me, which was super nice of them, then popped in Black Swan. I half watched the movie and half read my book, which worked out well because I missed most of the really disturbing parts that way. We finished the movie around 4am, and then the boys left again to go who knows where, while I went to sleep on the couch.

The sun woke me the next morning, as did the boys' return around 9 or 10am. It was too bright to sleep, so I sat up and pulled out another book. The older son woke up around 11ish, saw me reading, and asked, "Did you stay up all night?!" I smiled and assured him that I did sleep. Not much, though.

Slightly before noon, Ah Zhen arrived with friends to play mahjong in the living room. I suppose I could have gone shopping or something, but I was feeling lazy and didn't want to lug my books everywhere. I was rather annoyed at myself for locking myself out of the apartment, and there was no way to get back in — apparently, locksmiths are closed on Sundays — so I decided to just stay and read and watch them play mahjong, and escape my frustration by diving into fiction. (Later, I counted: while I stayed at Ah Zhen's house, I read over 1400 pages.)

I borrowed Ah Zhen's cell phone a couple times to call home in the unlikely event Grandpa went home before going to the restaurant, but no one picked up. The second time I called I noticed it was 5:30pm. Crap! I was going to be late. I hurriedly said thank you and goodbye to Ah Zhen and took the bus to Taipei Main, then went to the department store across the street. I desperately hoped Grandpa would be there already since I had no idea what Auntie Wenny looked like. I wondered if she'd be able to recognize me on her own.

I distinctly remembered the name of the restaurant, and that Auntie Wenny had said it was on the sixth floor, but the directory next to the elevator stated that the sixth floor was menswear and that the restaurants were on the twelfth floor. I tried to stay calm and went up to the twelfth floor, hoping that I'd merely gotten the floor number wrong, but I didn't see the restaurant I expected to see, either. I made a few rounds of the floor, then went down to the sixth floor, just in case. Nope, no restaurant there. Maybe I'd gotten the building wrong? I went back to the first floor and made a circle around the building, but didn't see any signs for the restaurant. By then it must have been past 6pm, and I was getting anxious. What if I couldn't find them at all? Had I gotten the directions wrong? They were probably calling my cell like crazy and I had no way to reach them, explain my predicament, or ask for directions.

I went back to the twelfth floor of the department store, where the restaurants were, and paced back and forth several times while running through my options in my head. Maybe I could ask someone where the restaurant was? Still, there was a chance I wouldn't be able to find them at all, in which case I would have to wait until nighttime, when Grandpa got home. It wasn't the end of the world, but by then I was so tired of feeling lost and hungry and confused and anxious that I allowed myself a moment of melodrama and dropped my face into my hands.

When I looked up again — wait, is that...? Oh, yes! Oh, happy day! (Well, not really, but you know what I mean.)
"Grandpa!" I called out joyfully. "Hi!"
He seemed rather surprised to see me, too. "What are you doing here?" It was a reasonable question, as I was wondering the same. After all, I was at the wrong place.
"I thought it was here, but I don't see the restaurant," I said.
"There's a Shin Yeh on the sixth floor of another building nearby, but I didn't see them. I came here to double check since you told me it was in this department store. I called your cell phone six or seven times but it was off," he said.
"I left my phone at home and locked myself out so I couldn't get it. I spent last night in the manager's living room," I explained. "What should we do now? I can't reach Auntie Wenny either since I have no phone."

We went back to the restaurant and walked through it, looking for Auntie Wenny — or at least Grandpa did, since I wouldn't have recognized her anyway — but he didn't see her. :( At least I was with my Grandpa so I could actually go home! He said we were super lucky to have both been there at the same time; otherwise we might never have found each other. We grabbed dinner elsewhere and then went home. It felt so nice to be back! I immediately turned on my phone, but no one picked up when I called Auntie Wenny's house phone, the only number I had.

She called around 8:30pm; they had been at the restaurant, under her husband's name (we'd asked for hers) and somehow Grandpa hadn't seen them in all three of his passes through the restaurant. She said she'd called me several times the entire day but my phone had been off, and I felt awful for messing everything up with my own stupidity. I explained to her what happened the day before and apologized again and again. I felt terrible that they waited in vain and couldn't reach me by cell, and that Grandpa cut his business trip short without getting to meet up with them. I think that was the worst part of my weekend, knowing that everything got screwed up because of me, and that there was nothing I could do to fix it. Sigh.

Anyway, that's what happened this past weekend. I got nothing productive done and have tons of stuff to catch up on, but I'm mostly just grateful to be back in my room! I meant to make this account more entertaining and funny but just typing it all out took way more effort than I expected. Oh well.

TL;DR version:

On Saturday night I discovered that I'd locked myself out of my apartment and left my cell phone in my room. And my grandpa was on a business trip until Sunday evening. All the locksmiths were closed by then and I had nowhere to stay. Somehow I found the manager, who I'd never met before that night, and she let me sleep in her living room. I spent most of my time reading library books I'd checked out on Saturday until it was time to meet up with Grandpa and my mom's friend for dinner. I went to the wrong place about half an hour late, but somehow my grandpa found me anyway, thank goodness. Unfortunately, we couldn't find my mom's friend or tell her what happened since I didn't have a cell. But at least I found my way home! And that's how I spent my weekend.

So yeah, hope your weekend was better than mine!

with love,
linda

Links! Photos! Stuff!

2011-08-18T23:49:00.000+08:00

{In which there is much randomness}

Ugh, I suck at updating now. Sorry. :( I can't believe I once posted every weekday! *is full of nostalgia for those long-ago happy days*

Anyway, I still have thousands of photos to sort through and process and upload, and you'd think that given how much time I've been holing up in my room lately I'd have more to show. But no, I've been taking advantage of my recent bout of anti-socialness to work on other projects. Like Camp NaNoWriMo, except I got stalled because I have this terrible habit of needing to have everything planned and outlined before I can write (left over from my days of writing one-draft English papers the night before they're due). Soooo I've been plotting (and reading about plotting) instead of writing, which is good for my sanity but not so great for my word count.

Since I'm here, I thought I'd share some random photos as well as awesome links I've come across lately and would love to discuss with someone. So go read these articles and tell me what you think!

ONE
My sister is an amazing writer/photographer (yeah, it runs in the family :P) and she has a blog! Well, several, actually. She has a Tumblr and a Blogger blog and she's also blogging at the195.com for her semester abroad in Denmark.

But the post I want to point you to is this one, about family and communication and language. Maybe I only like the post so much because it's about my family, and I LOVE my family. But I still think you should read it. :)

TWO
I totally meant to write a post on "What it's Like to be a Tall Asian Girl" for a Monday Musing post, but never got around to it. And then I ran across Savannah J. Foley's post on What it Feels Like to be Really, Really Tall, and even though I'm not nearly as tall as she is (she's 6'2"), the whole time I read her post I was like YES YES OMG THAT'S HOW I FEEL TOO!! Especially now that I'm in Taiwan where people are short. And blunt. So yeah, go check it out and you will understand me much better.

THREE
I think I adore Penelope Trunk, but I'm not sure. I have conflicted feelings. Sometimes I read one of her posts and I think, "Dear God this woman is crazy," and I almost unsubscribe, but I don't, because she is so smart and interesting. And she knows it. But anyway I have a bookmark folder just for her posts, because they are that brilliant. Here's her post on Blueprint for a Woman's Life. You should read it because her ideas are fascinating and insane-sounding but backed up by research. Definitely great food for thought, even if you disagree with everything she says.

She embeds tons of awesome links in her posts, and you should read those, too. Like the one about how women should marry first and think about career later, because there is a biological clock for having children but not so much for pursuing your career. Or this one about how being attractive makes a big difference in careers and it might be a good career move to invest in your appearance by buying attractiveness through plastic surgery (crazy, right?). I'm definitely not going under the knife any time soon, but wow, it makes me think I should pay more attention to beauty and skin care and self-presentation!

Now for the photos:

Rainbow Warrior, the Greenpeace ship in Keelung

Lamp from some restaurant I went to. (So specific, I know.)

Bowl of spoons! I take a lot of photos in restaurants when I'm waiting for the food to arrive, haha.

Flower! (As if you couldn't tell.)

Yeah, this post was thrown together rather haphazardly, but I hope you enjoyed it anyway! I'm hoping to have the July Food Post up soon, or at least some more Photo Diary-type posts. No idea if I'll manage to do any of that this weekend, but we'll see.

Have a great day!

with love,

linda

August 8th

2011-08-09T00:42:00.000+08:00

{In which I celebrate a special day}

Lots of things going on these few days! August 6th was the Asian equivalent of Valentine's Day (July 7th on the lunar calendar). And today is Father's Day in Taiwan since 8/8 sounds like "dad" in Mandarin. My coworkers were surprised to hear that Father's Day happens in June in the States!

But neither of those is the reason for today's post. My dad already got his Father's Day post for the year, and as for Valentine's Day... well, if I ever get a boyfriend, that's when I'd feature photos of him as a kid or something. Because what are special occasion posts for, if not sharing old photos?

Look at this one and see if you can guess what's so special about today:

Yup! Happy anniversary, Mom and Dad! Here are more photos of my gorgeous Mom and handsome Dad looking young and in love:

And here they are, decades later:

See? Incredibly gorgeous and handsome. :)

Mom and Dad, I know your relationship has had its ups and downs. I just want to say thank you so much for fighting for your marriage, for sacrificing for our family, and for your commitment to keep moving forward together. Your love for each other is the most precious gift you can give to Diane and me, and I'm so grateful for all you've done to provide us with a loving home. I've learned so much about forgiveness and love and family from you, and I hope that you will continue to cherish one another and be role models for Diane and me. Congratulations on your anniversary, and thank you. I love you both so, so much.

Here's to many more years of walking through life together, and much love, joy and unity. <3

with love,

linda

Christine

2011-08-03T22:56:00.000+08:00

{In which I make you all insanely jealous because my friend is THAT gorgeous}

So, way back in May (yes I know how behind I am with photos), Christine came to Taiwan for a family friend's wedding. And I was SOOOO EXCITED to get to see her! :D We bought a ton of Taiwanese snacks at 7-11 and had a fabulous sleepover filled with lots and lots of girl talk. And then the next day we spent the morning primping and then had photo shoots around Taipei. :P This is one of my favorites:

I love having Christine around — not only is she fun and free-spirited and adorable and kind, she's also a wonderful friend and lovely model (her eyes are beautiful).

Just look at all these photos:

See? Absolutely gorgeous.

The shots with the flowers and sidewalk were taken in the alley where I live (my address goes: street, compass direction, section, lane, alley, number, floor; so, yes, I really do mean alley), the donut shot at 五分埔 (Wufenpu), and the rest in between the City Hall Bus Station and Eslite.

Ooh, here's a silly one at the Taipei City Hall MRT Station:

If you're wondering why there aren't any pictures of me... well, there are. Quite a few, in fact. But I am just not as photogenic, and I looked funny in most of the photos taken that day. So I'm not sharing as many of me.

Hm I guess the photos of me when we went shopping at 五分埔 (Wufenpu) are decent-ish too.

Ok maybe not. SERIOUSLY, LINDA, STOP SLOUCHING SO MUCH. Plus, your friends are right; your "neutral face" looks super frown-y. (Yes, that is my neutral face.) But at least you get a sense of what the shopping is like in Taiwan (read: awesome).

(All photos of me, as well as of those two ladies, are courtesy of Christine.)

We did a LOT of shopping that day. After brunch, we read books and hung out with Christine's friends for a bit at Eslite, and then went shopping at 五分埔, 後車站 (near Taipei Main Station), 地下街 (underground mall), and 饒河夜市 (Raohe Night Market). We did a ton of walking and were super exhausted after. But we got a lot done, and it was so much fun to shop and chat together. (Christine is awesome at haggling. But apparently her mom is even better at it. She can get more than 50% off asking price. A master. Seriously.)

Ending with this shot of Christine trying sea snail, because it's cute and funny (and because you'll probably go back to admire the pretty shots again, anyway):

Hehe. Miss you lots, Christine! Can't wait til the next time we hang out. <3

with love,

linda

June Food Post

2011-07-22T23:22:00.001+08:00

{In which I am horribly late with the food post}

Yikes. I seem to take longer and longer with these food posts each month! How can July be almost over already?? Sigh.

Anyway, here are photos I like of stuff I ate last month:

This is a mini 粽子 (zongzi). At least that's what I thought it was, until my coworkers told me it's a fake one, because what's inside isn't glutinous rice.

This is the real one, from when my coworker James brought some for everyone in honor of 端午節 (Dragon Boat Festival):

There's a photo of how a zongzi looks unwrapped in my first food post, if you're wondering what's on the inside.

The cake on the left is when I went to Artco Cafe with Phoebe. I had fun talking with her at John's favorite cafe in the world.

On the right is a lychee. Omg Taiwanese fruits are soooooo delicious! Awesome perk of living in the tropics. :)

小籠包! From Miramar's Hoja, not 鼎泰豐, but still good.

Did you know that there's a specific way you have to unwrap these seaweed-wrapped-rice-triangle things? There's one layer of plastic on the outside and another layer between the seaweed and rice, to keep the seaweed from going soft. If you don't unwrap these correctly, you'd get a mouthful of plastic unless you unwrap the seaweed to remove it!

Also, 7-11 has these awesome blue plastic nets they give you in lieu of plastic bags. These blue things look like flat square sheets of paper until you put something in the middle and pull up the sides. Really clever.

Fried tofu from dinner with Patrick in Taipei.

Pork cutlets from dinner with Sandy and Anna in Hsinchu.

Ooh, now we get to the good stuff. Diane's friend Renee had a piano recital in Taipei (she is an amazing pianist! I enjoyed the recital so much. Loved the trio pieces!) and her mom treated her friends to dinner at 陶板屋 afterward. The food was great (well, most of it) and I enjoyed chatting with Renee, her brother Simon, and Renee's Taiwanese friends.

This was the appetizer, which I didn't get to choose (there's a set menu and for most courses you can choose what you want). Mushroom. Ew. But Simon said that the pepper masked the mushroom taste, so I gave it a shot. And it wasn't as bad as I'd expected, since I couldn't taste the mushroom too much. I still didn't finish all of it, though. And then the waiter asked me if there was something wrong with it. I had to assure him I just didn't like mushroom. (Also, Diane, Renee told me you like mushrooms now? WHAT HAPPENED?! I still think stuffed mushrooms are gross...)

Omg, the salad and dessert were soooo good! Definitely my favorite courses. The salad was seafood plus fruit, which sounds kind of weird but I loved it, and so did Renee. The dessert was milk pudding with red bean and green tea sauce. It was wayyy better than the mint chocolate cake Renee chose (we got kind of competitive with comparing the foods we chose, haha).

This is the main course Renee ordered. Those are fried garlic chips. It ended up being too well-done for Renee, despite the long discussion she had with the waitress while ordering. Renee wanted pink but not bloody, and asked for 7, but the waitress recommended 8 (in Taiwan, rareness is on a 1-10 scale, with 10 being well-done). The waitress did offer to bring a new plate, which Renee declined because she was full. But then the waitress brought her a sample anyway. Which we ate for her, haha (it was kind of bloody though).

This is the main course I ordered. Fish and beef. And a fried leaf! (I didn't order for the fried leaf. It was a surprise, but a cool one.)

There were other courses, too, but not all of them photographed well. After dinner we all rated each of our dishes, as well as the service, atmosphere, etc. on the survey they gave us. It was interesting to see what everyone put, especially the picky people (*cough* Simon *cough*). Then we went to a tea shop for drinks and card games. We had such a blast laughing all night. (Photos to come!)

Drinks from the tea shop, as well as fries. Actually, the fries are from when I hung out with Jimmy. We went to a ton of fish stores because he wanted to buy one for his aquarium, then went to a tea shop afterwards, where Patrick joined us. One of these days I'll post those photos, too.

Hope you like the photos, and have a great weekend!

with love,

linda

Why I Won't Tell You to "Be Yourself"

2011-07-17T22:00:00.001+08:00

{In which I give advice on, well, advice}

Be yourself. I see this all the time, and I'm rather tired of it; I find it much too vague to be of use to anyone. If I were ranking pieces of advice, I would place it somewhere below "do three jumping-jacks every day" (which is concrete and specific) and above "eat mushrooms" (because mushrooms taste gross).

What does "be yourself" even mean? How can you tell when you're being yourself and when you're not? Am I more myself when I'm having a bad day and let everyone know it, rather than trying to hide it with a smile? Am I less myself when I strive to adopt a virtue or trait I've observed in someone else, rather than embracing my flaws?

Sure, the phrase may sound good, but it is so general and abstract on its own that I wish people would stop saying it without explaining what they mean or suggesting how to go about it. And if they mean to say something else entirely, such as "stop ripping off my stuff" or "I don't approve of plastic surgery" or "I'm positive you can be successful by doing only the things you feel like doing" or whatever, well, I wish they'd say that instead.

I'm guessing that some people use the phrase as a shorthand for encouraging individuality, which is nice, but still not that helpful unless the concepts are more fleshed out. I don't claim to know all the answers, but if I were to offer an alternative to the "be yourself" cliche, it might look something like this:

1. Know what you want

I think this is the key to, like, everything. Without some sort of purpose, or goal, or even preference, what's the point of doing anything? So yeah, I'd say it's pretty important figure out what you want.

This comes easily to some people. They have an amazing amount of self-awareness and clear ideas of what they want to accomplish in life. For other people (me, for one), it takes some exploration and reflection, and my vision for life is definitely still under development. But at least I'm working on it, which is a big step in the right direction, I think.

So, what do you want? This can include anything from lifestyle, accomplishments, to personality traits. Maybe you want to be happy. Or maybe you'd rather be interesting. Maybe you want to be able to think of yourself as honest and respectable. Maybe you want to feel important, or content, or rich, or liked by as many people as possible. Or be the world record-holder for stuffing the most hot dogs in your mouth at once.

Whatever your wants happen to be, identifying them will make it a lot easier to make decisions that facilitate their transformation into reality.

Be honest with yourself about what you want. Don't mistake something else — what others want, or what you think you should want, or what you think others think you should want — for what you actually want. Sometimes those overlap and sometimes they don't; knowing the difference can save you avoidable heartache and wasted time.

2. Know your priorities

Knowing your dreams and goals is all well and good, but it's also important to be realistic about the price of achieving them. They take time and energy and resources, and some may even conflict with one another. It's pretty hard to do nothing and be lazy all day and earn a billion dollars, you know? Some dreams rely heavily on chance, some are entirely impossible, and some are incredibly costly. If you know yourself — what you're willing to sacrifice, what your strengths are, what matters most to you — it'd be easier to balance the various aspects of life and make the compromises that make the most sense for you.

It's up to you to decide what your priorities are, and whether the costs are worthwhile for you personally. Some people think practicing the ukulele for twelve hours a day is a small sacrifice in exchange for mastering the instrument; to others, it's insanity. Only you know which one it is for you.

Sometimes you can compensate for weaknesses in one area with strengths in another, so take stock of your resources, whether it is raw talent, lots of free time, a great network, bountiful wealth, or anything else. Define your own ranking of what matters, what makes you happy, and what trade-offs you're willing to make, and use that to determine the best course of action for you. After all, what's valuable to others may not be so to you, so be sure to use your own value system as a guide since you'll be the one living with the outcome.

I'm not saying you should disregard everyone else's opinions. It's ok to value others' good opinion of you. Just don't confuse their values for your own. And as with everything else, choose your compromises carefully, and be honest with yourself about why you make them.

3. Experiment to see what works for you

A method that's effective for another person may not be so for you, even if you have the same goals. You have your own unique strengths, genetics, worldview, way of processing information, experiences, etc., and that means that what works for someone else may produce different results when you try it out. It might take a bit of trial-and-error to find a good fit, so experiment! If something doesn't work despite your best efforts, move on, but don't write it off entirely — who knows, it might work better at another time in your life. If something gets you the results you want, that's awesome, and don't listen to anyone who says your method is wrong. (Although if an untried alternative is offered, you may consider giving it a shot to see if it works better. Or not, if consistency matters more to you than a potential increase in effectiveness. See? Priorities are so handy.) There's more than one path to success, whatever that means to you, and you have to find the one that works for you, given your current set of traits/beliefs/abilities.

4. Reevaluate your goals, priorities, and methods every once in a while

The biggest issue I have with the idea of "be yourself" (other than its vague, abstract quality) is that I don't believe each person has this one true self that's always there beneath the surface. Your idea of your best self and your current self are both constantly evolving — don't be afraid to change your mind about what kind of person you want to be, or what you find important, or what process is most effective for you.

You are always yourself. But how you feel about that depends on how well you think you measure up to the standards of your value system. If you don't like where you're at, change some things. You can shift your priorities, or work harder, or pursue a new dream. You will never fail to be yourself; the question is whether you're making the most of it.

So yeah, it'd probably turn out to be something like that. :P What do you think? Is it more helpful than being told to "be yourself"?

with love,
linda

Mid-July Update

2011-07-13T22:00:00.014+08:00

Yay, I finally have all of June's food photos selected and processed! They'll be posted soon. Gah, I'm getting later and later with the food posts. And here I'd thought they were the one thing I did consistently on this blog. Maybe I should try posting a photo every weekday again? Diane seemed to like that, and one photo wouldn't be too hard, I think. Maybe. We'll see.

And I totally meant to do something special for the six-month anniversary of my blog (and one year in Taiwan!) in the beginning of July. Oh well, it can be late. But I'm not sure what to do. Q&A? Giveaway? I'm hoping for something that involves participation from YOU. :)

Oh and while I'm here, some updates:

I went to see the Picasso exhibit with Brandon and Phoebe! I'm not a fan of the art but had a blast hanging out with them and catching up (we got shushed three times in the first five minutes, haha). And we totally made fun of the paintings when we weren't chatting about other stuff. And then Phoebe's uncle took us to the Youth Park and I took tons of photos of the two of them with my new lens! Definitely a happy weekend.
I went to 師大夜市 (Shida Night Market) and bought so many new clothes. Being in Taiwan is making me like shopping a lot more, because things are actually affordable! Except there aren't many vendors that let you try on clothes before you buy, so there's a bit of a risk involved. But still, I'm excited about my haul as a whole, and I would totally be tempted to post my outfits or start a style blog or something if I thought I knew anything about fashion. (Which I clearly don't, as evidenced by that time I asked this salesgirl at Sogo about an item she informed me was so last season.)
More hangouts planned for the weekend! People I met at last year's Ecamp are back in Taiwan so I'm excited about seeing them, as well as mentors from the camp. But I'm a bit wary about the weather since I heard a typhoon will hit this weekend. =\ (And I totally got caught in the rain without an umbrella today. AGAIN.) Still, the rain isn't so bad. Preferable to the heat, in my opinion.

That's it for now. I just felt like posting something, since I haven't posted much lately. (Need to fix that!)

Here, a random photo for you:

Flying Fish

2011-07-08T00:09:00.000+08:00

How can it be a week into July already?! Craziness! I've been terrible with blogging lately. Still in the process of collecting all the food photos from June for the monthly food post; hopefully I'll get that done over the weekend (but then I say that about every weekend). It's starting to get hotter and hotter here, but a lot of friends from the states are visiting, so I've been meeting up with people and planning get-togethers and basically enjoying summer despite not having an official summer vacation for the first time in my life. Plus I didn't even get July 4th off!

And of course I take tons of photos at each hangout, and since I haven't done much photo-processing lately, that means I'm super behind. But then what else is new?

Anyway, here are a couple shots from when I visited Keelung with relatives way back in April.

Hope you had a good Fourth of July!

with love,
linda

SYS Memorial with Victoria

2011-06-29T23:21:00.001+08:00

{In which we have way too much fun with an umbrella}

So after brunch at Omelet to Go, Victoria bought an umbrella and we strolled through the grounds of Sun Yat-Sen Memorial to talk and take pictures.

Here's Victoria pretending to be blown away with her brand-new umbrella from 7-11.

Ooh and then we saw this really cute puppy! Oops, forgot to include it with the other shots of dogs in Taipei.

Then I had Victoria pose some more with her umbrella.

Me: "Wait! Do that again!"

Victoria: "What, throw my umbrella up in the air?"

Me: "Yeah!"

Cue sequence of photos showing Victoria with her umbrella up in the air. :)

Hehe, wasn't that fun? I love how that guy is in the background of all of them.

I didn't have an umbrella. So I threw myself up in the air.

Then we saw this sign:

Very specific indeed. I wonder if that means you can feed the fish other things. The Chinese characters say "Do not feed bread" — so I guess if you can't read English you can feed toast and crackers to the fish, but if you get caught feeding bread to the fish you better claim to be Chinese-illiterate. :P

And we finally got a photo together!

Why yes, that's our reflection in the window of a tour bus in the parking lot. I'm pretty sure there were people sitting in the bus wondering why I was taking a picture of them, lol.

Have a safe trip back to the States, Victoria!

with love,

linda

Spring Snowman

2011-06-24T22:00:00.015+08:00

{In which we discover how useful orange microcentrifuge tubes can be}

In case you didn't know, I work in a lab. We keep stuff like proteins and DNA and buffers cool by placing them on ice, which we get by putting ice cubes through a shaved ice machine. It's not a huge leap to imagine the hill of icy goodness with all sorts of delicious toppings — mochi, ripe mango chunks, condensed milk — but since the ice is made of tap water, I'm never tempted to dig in even though it's been getting hotter and hotter (besides, all the toppings would be imaginary anyway).

During spring cleaning we got a lot more ice, thanks to the -20C refrigerator; basically moisture freezes out of the air inside the refrigerator and attaches itself to whatever surface is available. That ends up being a lot of ice.

The ice got dumped into the sink by the bucketfuls so it could slowly melt away over the weekend. But it was Friday afternoon before a long weekend, and all that ice proved to be too tempting. So one of my brilliant coworkers (I forget who) decided there was only one thing to do.

Build a snowman, of course! (Did you think I was going to say we had a snowball fight in lab? I wish! Plus, the title of this post kind of gave it away.)

It was a mini snowman, which means it was super cute.

Isn't it adorable? Instead of a carrot, we used an orange microcentrifuge tube for a nose, and a centrifuge tube cap for a jaunty hat.

See? I told you there was a lot of ice! And now Mr. Snowman has yellow pipet tips for arms.

I have no idea why the eyes are yellow. But those are little squares off the pH-testing strips.

And here is our little snowman with a red mouth, holding a staff with a heart on it. I made that heart by bending the glass pipet over a flame, an activity which I thoroughly enjoyed. (I guess I do have some pyromaniac tendencies.)

Amazing what you can use to build a snowman in a bio lab, huh? :D

So yeah. That's what I get to do at work. Sometimes I think I have way too much fun. :P

with love,

linda

Windshield Wipers

2011-06-23T22:00:00.000+08:00

Saw this in a parking lot near the office and asked my coworker why all the windshield wipers were up. "So they won't melt onto the windshield," he told me.

Yup, Taiwan summers are sweltering. I'm starting to love rain; I used to hate how inconvenient it made everything, but now I'd be grateful for a respite from the heat.

Hope that, unlike me, you're enjoying summer weather!

with love,

linda

Omelet to Go

2011-06-22T22:00:00.000+08:00

{In which you get to see my Chinese handwriting, which looks worse than that of Taiwanese kindergartners)

Way back in April, my high school friend Victoria and I went to Omelet to Go for brunch (except we didn't get it to go, haha). It was a really cute place near my uncle's apartment and the Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall.

We got there around ten-ish (or was it eleven-ish?) and snagged the last two spots at the bar. The place was pretty tiny — probably the reason "to go" is in their name. The waiter handed us a clipboard to write down our orders, and I was really excited because I hardly ever have the chance to write Chinese.

Victoria and I both ordered a Denver omelet, and I got it as a set with iced black tea and cheese quesadilla. Here's Victoria sitting the bar. Hey, is that waiter behind her writing down that girl's order for her?!

Later, a table opened up so we moved off the bar. But here's a photo of how it looks. Cute, isn't it?

But we moved to the table since they had cool artwork on the wall there.

They provided unlimited iced tea, but if you wanted milk tea you have to mix it yourself. So that's what Victoria did while we waited for our omelets to arrive.

They have a lot of eggs.

You can see better shots of the omelet and quesadilla in my May Food Post.

After brunch we decided to walk around for a bit. Since it started to rain, Victoria bought an umbrella at 7-11 (I chose to go without) and it served as a fun prop in our Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall photoshoot — post to come!

Victoria is going back to the States at the end of this month. I will miss my Taiwan buddy!

with love,

linda

Happy Father's Day!

2011-06-19T22:00:00.000+08:00

My daddy as a boy:

All these years later, he still retains that boyish charm:

Thanks for being a wonderful dad — I know you will always be young at heart. :)

Love you and miss you!

with love,

linda

Volleyball at NTHU

2011-06-18T12:02:00.001+08:00

{In which there are photos of people in mid-air}

I love hanging out with NTHU FHL since being with them reminds me so much of the good times I had with Berkeley ICA. They're fun and quirky and kind and refreshing. I always felt relaxed and happy and cared for with my friends from ICA, and it's so comforting to find a group of people in Taiwan that can recreate that feeling for me.

So when I was a little stressed out over the wedding photos, way back in March, I decided a change of scenery was in order and made my way to 新竹 (Hsinchu) to see them. I was excited when I found out people wanted to play volleyball — I'm not that good at it, but I have fond memories of taking volleyball class with Brian, David, and Helen, and getting tips from Danny, and playing for fun at Willard Park.

Hanging out with cool people and getting some exercise definitely made me feel a lot better. :) In the middle of playing, I suddenly remembered my camera and whipped it out to capture the moment. I'm not much of an action photographer — I prefer portraits — but it's fun to try something different. And it's so cool to catch people in the middle of a jump. :)

I mean, look at this one; 立偉's serve is amazing!

Hehe, 如磐 totally looks like he's dancing. :P

Face-off! So cute how gleeful 偉哲 looks in this photo:

I had so much fun shooting the volleyball net!

I really like this shot of Andy:

And of course 偉哲 is ridiculously photogenic as always (for further evidence, see the Taipei Fine Arts Museum photos, or the ones from 西門町).

That net is so awesome. :D

And here's Williamson all tired out afterward. :P

So yeah, I had a ton of fun! These are just the volleyball photos — there are other ones from when I visited NTHU in March; I'll share those in another post.

Anyway, sorry I've been slow with photos lately. But today I somehow woke up at 5am (on a Saturday! *gasp*) and decided to process some photos, and it felt soooo good to be productive, especially so early in the morning. :) So there will be more photo posts coming next week. Yay!

Enjoy your weekend, everyone!

with love,

linda

May Food Post

2011-06-11T20:33:00.002+08:00

{In which there is Taiwanese food — well, more than usual, anyway}

I think this is the latest I've ever been with a food post. Oops. Also, the photos aren't as good this time either. I guess I've just been an all-around slacker this month. But there are a lot more Taiwanese foods in this month's posts, so I hope you enjoy it!

A Taiwanese delicacy, 豬耳朵 (pig's ear). A yummy side dish.

皮蛋豆腐 (thousand-year-old egg and tofu).

燒肉/叉燒/香腸 — my favorite kinds of meat to get when we eat 燒味.

Occasionally we buy lunchboxes too.

Costco pizza in Taiwan: the topping is Peking duck — sooo strange, but really delicious!

Fancy thin-crust pizza from dinner with Auntie Audrey.

This is sea snail. I declined to taste it, but Christine tried some.

水煎包, basically meat or veggie buns.

大腸麵線 (vermicelli with large intestine). Oyster is also a common ingredient, but I'm not a fan of oyster, clams, or mussel. My coworkers joke that I only like expensive seafood (crab, lobster, and the like).

On the right is 蛋餅 (egg pancake), a common Taiwanese breakfast. I have 肉鬆 in mine, but there are a lot other fillings you can ask for.

A guy making 愛玉 at 饒河夜市. Apparently 愛玉 is made by rubbing the dried seeds of a specific fruit until the gel comes out; Christine told me that she made it before, during one of her previous summers in Taiwan. I had no idea! It sounds super cool. And the guy who I photographed was really funny — he was all like "Don't just take a photo of my hands! Take a photo of me!" So I did. Haha. Unfortunately that photo didn't turn out well — I think I caught him blinking — but it was still cute how charming he was.

Omelet and quesadilla from brunch with Victoria a few weeks ago — more photos to come!

I bought these expensive handmade cookies from City Super on a whim because they looked interesting. Haha.

Chocolate cake from Black as Chocolate for a coworker's birthday! The devil forks are super cute too.

That's it for now. Oh and if you're gonna be in Taiwan this summer, let me know so we can hang out! :D

Have a great weekend!

with love,

linda

Still Alive!

2011-06-08T21:50:00.002+08:00

{In which I share what I've been up to lately}

I'm back! Did you miss me? :D It's sort of funny how I get more comments about my blog when I neglect to update it as often. I didn't realize people actually notice when I don't post! But it's nice to know that you care and want to see more, and I'll do my best to get back into the swing of things. I've been (kind of ) busy and (very) distracted and (incredibly) lazy lately, and it's so hard to fight inertia. So I'm making it easier for myself by starting with a quick update.

Let's see... what have I been doing since my last post? I had a great dinner with Auntie Audrey and her family — we had Italian food followed by Häagen-Dazs at the flagship store in Taipei. Benson is adorable and super smart and not at all shy about sharing his thoughts and I enjoyed talking with him and with Auntie Audrey.

I also went karaokeing (is that a word?) with my coworkers. It was fun! Unlimited food and lots of singing (of course). I'm so proud of myself for knowing enough Mandopop to be able to sing along to quite a few of the songs (being able to read most of the lyrics helped). They did have a limited selection of English songs as well so I sang a few of those too. I took lots of cool photos of my coworkers singing that I'll show you... er, eventually.

And then this past weekend was 端午節 (Dragon Boat Festival) so I took advantage of the three-day weekend to visit my friends at NTHU. I worked on photos while they studied for finals, played monopoly, stayed up late to talk, went to FHL's sport competition, had dinner with my E-camp students, and basically enjoyed myself a lot (although I must admit I was super exhausted). Unfortunately I also managed to injure my finger and lose my cell phone this past weekend. :( Oops.

Other than that, things are going great. I do experience ups and downs — sometimes I think, "wow this is so cool I can't believe I'm actually living in Taiwan and being all independent and adventurous and having so much fun!" but there are also times when I think "omg I have no idea what I'm doing and I'm totally going to end up being a useless bum for the rest of my life!" For the most part, though, I love being in Taiwan and am not in any hurry to move back to the States (sorry Mom and Dad). And I'm going to try harder to make the most of being here and stop giving in to my laziness and apathy so often.

Which means I'll be blogging again. I did manage to process a few photos over the weekend (not as many as I would have liked, alas) so I'll be posting the May Food Post this week. The photos aren't as pretty this time but the food is more interesting, I think. Anyway, you'll see when it goes up.

Hope you've been doing well! And thanks for reading. :)

with love,

linda

Randomness

2011-05-21T17:00:00.010+08:00

First of all, hello to new followers! Though I admit that I was at first confused about why writers who blog were getting directed here (my personal blog) instead of my other blog, but then I realized I'd neglected to add a link to my new blog in my Google connect profile. Oops! So if you're a writer and would be more interested in writing-related updates, it would be amazing if you could check out my writing blog. Thanks! :D

In other news, I've been super busy lately. On Wednesday I decided to do laundry instead of post photos like I originally planned. Good thing too, as Christine decided to come to Taipei a day early. Thursday was my boss's birthday so my coworkers and I went out with him to celebrate.

And then Christine was in Taipei! So we went to 7-11 and bought a ton of random snacks and had a lot of girl talk in my room. :D Then yesterday we hung out all day, shopping and having random photo shoots and generally having a blast. I'm so glad I got to see her! I miss her already.

Oh and Christine is WAY better at haggling than I am. She's more patient and determined, whereas I'm not good at being in it for the long haul. I tend to get antsy and want to just buy it and be done with the whole thing when tenacity is key to getting a good deal. But her mom is the real master -- she told us she haggled the price of a purse from NT$5000 down to NT$1600! Wow, I still have such a long way to go. Time to go practice more. :P

I'm having dinner with my mom's friend tonight. Auntie Audrey is a lot of fun so I'm sure I'll have a good time. But I'll try to process some photos before then so you have something to look at next week.

Have a great weekend!

with love,

linda