The battery was fully charged and couldn’t possibly have drained that much during the twenty or so photographs from the morning. I tried again with a fully charged third-party battery, a different SD card, and removing and reattaching the lens but the camera remained unresponsive.

I took the camera back to the shop that afternoon. A staff member briefly checked the camera and ran the same tests I did. He said they would send it to Olympus to be checked. At this point I should have asked for an exchange but I let him send away the camera. I asked if we would need to send the battery, SD card, and warranty card and I was told that wouldn’t be necessary.

The following Tuesday (January 9), a mere two business days later I received a call from Olympus’s Taipei office. The representative told me that my camera was working properly. I told the rep that it worked improperly for me and for a staff member at the camera shop and explained how the camera had behaved. He said there may have been something wrong with the accessories that were bundled with the camera and asked me to send them.

On January 15 I received an e-mail saying that all the accessories were functioning normally. In the e-mail the rep asked if they could reformat the SD card. In my response, I stated that I was very concerned why my camera locked-up for me and that I may have been sold a lemon. My camera was shipped back to Big Camera on January 20. A member of the staff tested it and it was working. I asked what work had been done to the camera and the report stated that no work had been done. I asked why it malfunctioned and there was no explanation on the work order. At this point, I stated that I was unsatisfied with the camera and asked for an exchange. The staff member said that they would contact Olympus on Monday and I would be able to pick up an exchange anytime after that.

Due to being busy during the week, I didn’t get out to Taichung to pick up my replacement until last Saturday (January 27). I understand that manufacturers churn out units by the tens of thousands and there are bound to be a few lemons here or there. Through this experience, I learned to demand an exchange right from the beginning rather than letting a retailer send away a new product.

Guoxing is one of two areas in Taiwan with several strawberry farms. The other, is Dahu Township [大湖鄉] in Miaoli County [苗栗縣]. There are a lot more strawberry farms in Dahu and it’s much more touristy. If you’re from out of town, Guoxing is a great stop to pick strawberries on the way to some of the popular and not-so-popular destinations in the area.

Although we didn’t see many large, ripe strawberries, there were plenty of small and medium-sized strawberries available. The kids worked in separate rows picking them clean of anything ripe.

We went home with an impressive haul and the kids had a great time. Best of all, we didn’t have to drive all the way to Miaoli and fight the crowds.

Our children are finally at the ages where we can take them to events like this and not worry too much about them getting bored or destroying something. They were most interested in the installations that incorporated mirrors on the floor. However, their excitement caused some nervousness among staff who had the misfortune of overseeing the exhibition during our visit.

The recently remodeled playroom at the National Taiwan Craft Research and Development Institute [台灣工藝文化園區] in Caotun Township, Nantou County boasts an incredible eight-meter long bamboo caterpillar tunnel. I visited a week ago on a field trip with students and managed to take a handful of photographs. Here is a small collection of pictures that miraculously didn’t have children running around in the background.

Natural light comes through the windows and the colored filters in some of the bamboo cuttings create a nice effect.

With the exception of a few tour buses that visit on weekdays with groups making a pit stop on the way to Sun Moon Lake the museum is largely deserted on weekdays. It sometimes gets crowded on weekends if they are holding events.

Behold! The Panocaterpillarama! Photographed in its natural environment:

In mid-June, I found out via a post on a Jhongsing Village Facebook group that it was breeding season for beetles. We set out for a row of trees along Guanghua Road and were delighted to find more than a dozen Japanese Rhinoceros Beetles [Allomyrina dichotoma].

As you can see from the images below, the males are larger than the females and sport a long cephalic horn. Here are a couple of not safe for work images:

We went hiking on the first day of 2017 to take advantage of the gorgeous weather. The Ninety-Nine Peaks Forest Trail [九九峰森林步道] is a 1,930 meter long trail in Nantou County’s Caotun Township [草屯鎮]. We brought the kids here because we figured they were getting tired of the trail we frequent in Jhongsing Village. Furthermore, being a holiday weekend, most of the popular trails in Nantou County were probably going to be packed. We only encountered a couple dozen people on the trail. Amazingly, both kids made it through the whole trail without asking to be carried!

Here’s a small collection of photographs of our hike:

Nathan shows off a leaf

Feeling great on an unseasonably warm January 1st

Going up!

Looking out towards Guoxing Township

We weren’t the only ones on the trail

Close to the top

Nathan leading the way

One of the Ninety-Nine Peaks

The kids miraculously still have energy to run

I didn’t do much blogging in 2016 and I don’t imagine I will do a tremendous amount of blogging in 2017 either. During the final quarter of 2016 I began taking professional development classes to renew my expired Michigan teaching certificate and this year I will begin taking online graduate courses to earn a Master’s degree in TESOL.

Happy New Year!

We snagged a parking spot in the rapidly filling lot because the children managed to get out of bed at a decent hour. Once arriving visitors have three options:

1. Walk to the Dragon and Phoenix Waterfalls (highly recommended) – they are beautiful and it’s an easy hike with the exception of a section on the Dragon Waterfall side that requires you to take your time and watch your step.
2. Take a shuttle bus from the parking lot to the skybridge (more below).
3. Walk to the skybridge (more below).

If you arrive early there should be no line for the shuttle bus. We decided to walk to the skybridge. The first section was a trail – it was paved, then unpaved, then steps.

All too briefly the trail ends and meets up with a road. At this point my son demanded to be carried. It’s a narrow rural road which receives absolutely no traffic…
…with the exception of the shuttle buses taking guests to and from the parking lot and the skybridge. Now you know why my three year old didn’t want to walk anymore.

The picture at the top of the post is the best view offered by the scenic route to the skybridge. In fact, the view from that spot is better than that offered by the skybridge itself.

My son, having conserved most of his energy this morning leads in the final few meters.

I thought the whole point of the skybridge was to give visitors an incredible view of the waterfall, but no, you can’t actually see the waterfall at all.

The mighty Zhangping Creek [樟平溪]

I’m sure this was an excellent idea on paper but at some point engineers must have told county government officials that the waterfall wouldn’t be visible from the glass bottom bridge that was proposed and it was rubber stamped anyway. What do you expect? This is the same county government that is currently allotting land to build a dinosaur theme amusement park in Caotun Township.

The State Theater

The Michigan Theater

The Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum

Renaissance Festival Art

Josie & Nathan meet Ben & Jerry

Home

The Toledo Zoo Pedestrian Overpass

The 1952 Wienermobile at the Henry Ford Museum

A Self-Service Produce Stand

Nathan Does Yard Work

Tag!

The Neighborhood Pond

A Little Chilly

Circles and Lines

Green on Red

Polka Party

Bananarama

Recycling

Somewhere Beside the Rainbow

Cool Shades

Guard Dog

The Natural World