The Obblogatory Life

A lifetime in sales? Worth it for the right reasons!

ObverseView — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 17:28:08 +0000

Before I became a business person, I viewed a sales career as something lower than life itself! Why? Who knows? I think that people view sales as persuading someone to buy something they don’t want or don’t need with money they may not have. In other words, totally immoral. Why? Because, having been business for [...]

Driving Glasses, The Sun, and Scrooge!

ObverseView — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 11:37:29 +0000

One of the things that bothers me in our community is the scrooge like behavior that’s taken hold off in the wake of the last economic downturn. While it’s a good thing when uncertainty abounds to know what you can cut out, our community has taken to turning off the lights in the parking garage: [...]

Video: Yesterday was a lie – Telepopmusic

ObverseView — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 11:31:27 +0000

Who do you turn to for advice, help and suggestions?

ObverseView — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 11:27:01 +0000

One of the interesting things about life in Taiwan is the way that people in your family (albeit extended) are often the ones people turn to for all sorts of advice, whether it’s investing advice, medical advice, even English tips. My sister-in-law is one of those who in past times worked for Aetna before they [...]

My first video for Flip Ultra HD

ObverseView — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 11:15:49 +0000

Well, I finally did it. I went and bought a new pc: The Asus Eee Box EB1502 to try out. I’m still not sure that this PC will be able to replace my desktop. What’s good: the size, the fact I get to try out Windows 7 on it, and I uploaded my first Flip [...]

Toyota Prius

ObverseView — Thu, 30 Mar 2006 15:35:58 +0000

Finally, Prius is coming to Taiwan. We get to take part in the global environment saving efforts by buying friendly cars. I did price it, it’s about NT$1.2 million for the car, so it’s about double the conventional price. The fuel savings at the moment won’t pay off the car within a reasonable time, as [...]

Updates on missing posts: they’re not missing really

ObverseView — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 15:31:37 +0000

Dear readers, if you’ve been following this blog for a while, you’ll know that I often post on Taiwan Life, well, I’ve decided to move as many as there are decent posts to my new Taipei City Guide Blog: a blog about the great things that Taipei (and Taiwan) have to offer the world. So, [...]

Should you do customer service? Not just recommended, but essential!

ObverseView — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 15:24:16 +0000

I’ve done so many different customer service jobs from when I started working. It’s been quite a whiz… but I think it’s much better to learn to work with people who are customers. So here’s the list: 1. part-time waiter 2. bookshop assistant 3. English Teacher 4. Boss of a business 5. Sales Consultant 6. [...]

London Parks: A Balmy Summer 2010

ObverseView — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 15:18:21 +0000

Thought you’d like to see this. We rented some deckchairs and enjoyed the sun in the later part of the afternoon! It was quite sybaritic, just sitting there in the sun, enjoying an ice cream cone with family and friends! One of the interesting things about Hyde Park is that there are often horses seen [...]

Worries: it’s a craiglist/facebook world!

ObverseView — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 15:03:56 +0000

Some of my readers might worry about why I’m telling you about our London trip just now… nearly a month after it happened! In short, when people know you’re travelling … it’s an open invitation to trouble while you’re away. So we are trying to exercise a little caution about this by not publicising our [...]

London Parks: Good footwear needed

ObverseView — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 15:00:11 +0000

When we were in the UK this summer, we thoroughly enjoyed our trip to London. One of the first things, though, that Christine did was head to the parks in London, which are amongst the best we’ve ever visited. In fact if you were really park-minded, you could walk all the way from the Thames [...]

Favorite Biz Cards: Tamsui Postcards

ObverseView — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 15:38:16 +0000

Cards:, originally uploaded by obblogatory. I like to buy the black and white postcards from this store. Increasingly, there are the best postcards in the modern era that I can find. So I thought I’d give them a little pitch. You can visit the wonderful blog at http://blog.yam.com/bnwphoto Kenneth

Flip Ultra Mino HD.

ObverseView — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 21:36:55 +0000

This little baby is my new toy: the Flip Ultra Mino HD recorder. It is a great little toy… but I had to buy a whole new pc to get the video processed for sharing. My 7 year old systems just can’t do the work. I wonder why!

Wifi Android plus Apple Ipad – best of both worlds?

ObverseView — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 17:33:00 +0000

As luck would have it, I have managed to drop my Nokia Cellphone, and I think it may have broken the screen. Still not sure what happened, though. But apparently, it’s not the only phone that this has occurred. Anyway, it was repaired and returned to me, I found that in the week when it [...]

100% Worth It: Auto Insurance #1

ObverseView — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 15:25:00 +0000

For those of you who remember my car-accident in Taiwan a few years ago, I would totally recommend taking out decent auto insurance. After driving nearly 45K km in the past years, I can testify to the necessity of having insurance, for much more than basic cover. For example, if you scratch your paintwork in [...]

Studies in the Capital of Golf: I never did play

ObverseView — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 17:07:55 +0000

I went to school in St. Andrews in Scotland. I majored in Greek of the Classical kind, and while it is true that I wasn’t the most hardworking of the students in class, I learned a profound amount from my experience there. St. Andrews was famous as the former capital of Scotland for a number [...]

Quotation: Herbert Marcuse

ObverseView — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 16:22:23 +0000

Herbert Marcuse – The people recognize themselves in their commodities; they find their soul in their automobile, hi-fi set, split-level home, kitchen equipment. (1898–1979), U.S. political philosopher. One-Dimensional Man, ch. 1 (1964). Powered by Performancing FireFox

The Future is Yours: Or is it?

ObverseView — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 15:29:22 +0000

We were chatting about Post it Notes. That was the reading today. I must confess it was, for the kids in the class, to discuss the importance of problems in the creation and identification of opportunities. But first the videos: … there are loads more at Youtube! The story itself is worth reading but it [...]

Assets vs. Liabilities

ObverseView — Sun, 01 May 2005 15:16:39 +0000

A reprise of Rich Dad Poor Dad. There has been much discussion of the authenticity of RDPD’s and the background of the author. You can read about that at other blogs: Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Liar Dad, Thief. However, one criticism of the book is below along with my own interpretation of RDPD’s theories. Jeff [...]

AN Whitehead: Process Thought’s Challenge for Education and Life

ObverseView — Sun, 07 May 2006 17:05:50 +0000

Process Thought's Challenge for Education and Life Change, progress, and stability, who does not support this unlikely triumvirate? The founder of process philosophy Alfred North Whitehead believes in all three. For him, the art of progress is to preserve order amid change, and to preserve change amid order. Whitehead's work, The Aims of Education, starts [...]

The Incredibles

ObverseView — Sun, 03 Apr 2005 17:01:22 +0000

Wow! I think we found this movie quite a romp actually! Very enjoyable indeed. The animation quality was quite excellent and the characterisation was detailed and well thought out. I found it quite easy to relate to the adult characters’ problems and situations. It really appealed to my need for a more complete characterisation. I’m [...]

Some Great New DVDs for Class

ObverseView — Wed, 08 Jun 2005 00:27:56 +0000

I was browsing through the DVD boxed sets at Amazon just a few minutes ago. I am very surprised at what is now available for purchase now. There are many boxed sets from even before the era of the DVD itself. This is just great, especially for the kind of videos that I find useful [...]

內政部移民署 Taiwan What’s Up 電子報

ObverseView — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 16:05:57 +0000

2010/8/16 – No.53 The Real Taiwan: Dutch envoy and author looks forward to retirement in Tainan 真情台灣荷蘭駐台胡浩德代表盼定居台南 Menno Goedhart, the former Netherlands representative to Taiwan, unexpectedly developed a fervent love for this island and its aboriginal culture during his research and exploration of his nation’s earliest settlements and interactions here. As he pondered the [...]

2003 Presentation in Thailand

ObverseView — Fri, 12 May 2006 14:57:28 +0000

Online Chatting Times: Processes, pitfalls and potentials

Shaken, not stirred!

ObverseView — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 15:51:00 +0000

If you live in an earthquake zone, and you experience this kind of shaking, you’ll know the importance of buildings that stay up even under duress, especially when the underlying structure of the building is weak. We live in a fairly strongly built building with a lot of concrete and iron and we get shaken [...]