Bye Bye Blogger

Bye Bye blogger.com, you treated me well, but your slowness (being down almost all day yesterday) has gotten the best of me. Continue the chronicles of the Crusty Wizard at http://www.emkid.net/blog/

I know things might not look as pretty there now, but I have more control over that new software (it's installed on my server) and will be updating it all the time. See you (mom) there. I will keep this page up at it's current domain, so you can always come back to it. I think I might have messed something with this last post so if you notice anything funny email me. miltownkid [at] hotmail.com (with blog in the subject).

This might be my last blogger post

Having blogger.com being down for half the day yesterday inspired me to installing blogging software on my webspace. I'm going to try and move all the the blogger posts there. The new blog is located at http://www.miltownkids.com/blog

It looks like I'm really going to like this new blogging software so I'll probably stay.

Title 14970

Let's see... Well I decided that I'm going to go with the Sony Ericsson T610 (I would have linked to Sony's site, but it was down at the time) for a few reasons.

1. It's cheaper by almost half.
2. The more expensive one isn't compatible with my Tungsten T.
3. I don't think I'd use the extra features that much.

After I get the phone I plan on doing some mobile photo bloging. That could possibly be fun. It'll just take shots of stuff and send it instantly.

Went to an interview for a new teaching job. It'd be once a week for an hour. I wasn't looking for a job, but a friend asked me to check it out because he's leaving so I did. It was pretty cool. I'd just be teaching 3 kids all around 12 and their English is already pretty good.

A bonus to going to that interview was seeing a bike shop on the way. I stopped in and asked him if he had a taller seat post... Yes. Then he showed me a bunch of bigger bikes. He had 21, 23 and even 25 inch frames and for reasonable prices. I think I might sell my bike and get a bigger framed one.

I don't think I said it yet, but after finishing Harry Potter I started Da Vinci Code like I told me brother I would. So far it's a fun read, but I don't see what all the hoopla's about. Maybe I will when I get deeper into it (I'm about a 3rd of the way through).

Alrighty, peace.

MkWiki

Going to www.miltownkids.com now takes you to the wiki. So the wiki is the main site now. Not much to report from yesterday. It was just game club and the usual chillin'. There's a typhoon going on now so I got a paid day off of work (yipee!).

I won't write much now because I plan on posting again later. I'm not sure who'd be interested in these, but I put some Elva lyrics into tone marked pinyin (KFC, you reading these?). You never know when those could come in handy.

I'm gonna go have me some lunch now. Peace out.

Donuts are serious business

Went and checked out the (kind of ) new Mister Donut yesterday. I took a few pictures and posted them on forumosa.com. There's a 4-5 hour line of people waiting to get donuts there everyday.

This morning I went for another bike ride. This time we rode down to the Taipei City Zoo. That was a pretty good ride. My seat is way too low, so long distance riding kind of sucks, so I'm looking forward to getting a new seat post, new bike or bringing a bike over from back home (maybe I can get my brother to bring it for me).

After that I just chilled at home. While chilling at home I researched cell phones. I think I'll end up getting the Sony Ericsson k700i after selling my old cell phone stuff.

I've had this canker sore on my tongue for the last 4 days and that has dampened my spirits a bit. Off to bed now, hopefully it will clear up soon.

Crusty Wizard Daily Will Be Back

Now that I know my one reader has her Internet connection working again (my mom, in case she couldn't guess it was her). Funny, I just realized I didn't play RO once today. I didn't play the PS2 either. I better go see a doctor or something.

Let's see, not much to talk about. Our Taiwanese study group had it's first meeting yesterday and I feel that went well. Starting to study Taiwanese (actually, just thinking about studying Taiwanese) excited my language nerve so now I'm studying Mandarin again more seriously. I have a strong feeling I'll pick up Taiwanese pretty quickly (conversational), we'll see.

Last Friday, Saturday and a few days this week I did telephone tests with my students. That was pretty cool. They all did really well except for 2 kids and those 2 are catching up quickly. I also ending up getting into rather lengthy conversations with those two kids parents about how they are in class and things. My Mandarin has been decent for a while, but I didn't think I could get along on the phone so well using only Mandarin *miltownkid pats himself on the back*.

The principal of the Elementary school gave me a third year Mandarin book and I like that much better then the books I've used before. It's much more fun reading these short stories then boring dialogs in normal Chinese learning text books. I think I'll work my way all the way through those up to high school stuff.

We'll be having another KTV outing next month and I plan on singing at least one song in Mandarin and one in Taiwanese. And get both of them up on the site right away a long with pictures. My new PS2 game should be coming next week (hooray). I guess that's about it for now. I best get back to study.

Blog

What shows all your cares,



Alone or in pairs,

Looks better then your neighbor's dog...

What hits harder then Mac,

And fits on your sack?

It's blog blog blog!!

It's blog, it's blog,

It's big, it's heavy, it's electronic

it's blog, it's blog,

It's better then bad it's SUPERSONIC!



Let's see, we had an earthquake a few days ago.

It rattled hard enough to make me wonder what I'd

do in the event of a really hard rattler.  Still

gotta get those pictures up.  That'll do for now.

Happy Days Are Here Again

They have Strikers: 1945 back at the arcade. Good times. I've been a little lax on the blogging, but not much to report. KTV was good, but I took no pictures and recored no sounds, maybe next time. I spoke with "Smokin'" Joe W. this week. That was a good time as usual. He's saying he wants to visit this year as long as we stay SARS free (that's what stopped him last time).

I blew the dust off y PS2 and pulled out GTA: Vice City to get prepared for GTA: San Andreas (thanks to Jobnumber for updating me). I ordered that and a movie player for the GBA (that can also play NES games, use ebooks and do some other things) from Lik-Sang.com (your Hong Kong video game export specialist.) I payed for the speedy shipping too (I'm such a kid) so I should get me stuff before the end of the month (E Bro, you might have to wait for the DS to come out before I send the GBA, but your records are still on the way).

I got pictures from last weekend's bike ride to put up. I'll try to do that tomorrow.

Quicky

Going to KTV now. Did a nice bike ride this morning with me buddy Brian. Will report in tomorrow after KTV. With pictures and stuff of course.

I've been promoted

I got promoted to moderator over at forumosa.com. It's just for the classified forums though (the way I like it). I'll just keep titles looking good and posts in the right place.

My school asked me to work in the afternoons to teach 8 gym classes and 2 English classes. I said yeah to that. It'll just help me get a laptop that sooner then expected and give me something else to do with all the free time I have.

I burned a disk with Mandarin learning stuff on it and listened to it while I rode today. That worked out nice. I think I'll go through 2-4 lessons a day until I start getting to the harder stuff. I also stopped and went through the taiji form a few times during my ride. That felt good. I'm pretty sure riding and taiji'ing will be daily events.

Not much else to report. I should be doing to more updates to the webpage soon. I plan on making the wiki the Main page and messing with the templates a little bit.

The "I haven't ridden a bike for 2 years butt pain blues..."

And I really have them too. Man, yesterdays ride was so cool. I was only out for a couple of hours, but I saw so much stuff. I started in YongHe and went along the river bike path up to BanQiao. Let me think, what did I see...

• Some Taiwanese mafiosoness (that wasn't on the bike path)
• Radio controlled airplanes and a mini track for radio controlled cars (and one person racing on it, there were about 7 planes in the air)
• Numerous stray dogs and I little puppy I ended up giving 85% of my water to.
• An archery range
• A snake (that attacked me, I felt like I was in Anaconda 2 for a second)
• and bunch of scenic views

Today I spent all my time after class looking for the AC adaptor for my CD player, but didn't find it (but ended up cleaning my computer room in the process). Since I couldn't find it I hopped on the MRT to Taipei Main Station and picked up a new one. That messed up my bike riding time for today, but tomorrow I'll get to listen to my Mandarin learning CD's while I ride.



LOOK MOM! NO HANDS!


It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Superma... Wait wait. No, it's just a plane.


SNAKE ATTACK!!


GO SPEED RACER GO!! You can see the car on the right side turning the corner. The guy is in the background on the stands.


Some guys playing roller hockey.


I think I might roll around with Scooby Snacks from now on. He was whining and stuff, I felt so bad. At least I could give him some water, he seemed to enjoy that (that's water next to him, he drank out of my hand.)

Pictures Pages Picture Pages!

Anybody remember that old Bill Cosby show (or segment I guess I should say). With that pen that went beebeldybeebeldybeedeli bop. I sooooo wished I could've had a pen like that.

Well, I got a bunch of pictures up today like I said I would (did I say I would?) Having the bike sitting out on the porch looking all shiny and new persuaded me to stop playing RO, post and go ride (I'm posting now, the riding part comes in a little later). I think this is the first time I've ever posted something before 10 PM. My posts are usually a little rushed because I need to go to bed, or want to play RO some more.

I'll stop writing here and just fill in some captions for the pictures. Enjoy!


You can do it! Lift the freaking bottle! (this is the picture of that carny game I was talking about earlier)


My bike in Alan's Mountain Bike shop. I like the way the flash made all the reflectors light up.


My bike in Alan's Mountain Bike shop.


These are all picture I took on the ride home:
On the ride home I just crossed a bridge and follow a path that went alongside the river.


I took this one because there was a soccer (football) field in the back ground, with goals! The field I've been playing on just had the American football goals posts so I'd have to do a lot of running around to practice shooting.


Some old guys playing tug-o'-war under a bridge.


Some gardens. You can see the Taipei 101 in the back (currently the worlds tallest building I believe). Note: I was right. Taipei 101 will hold 3 of the World's Tallest Building titles when it is topped out: Tallest to structural top, Tallest to roof and Highest occupied floor.


More gardens.



I think this is a driver's training course or something, I'll have to ask next time. There were about three people out driving around. It looked pretty funny for some reason.

Rolling with the hommies

Well, got the bike now. I only rode from the store home today, but I already feel like I've been invited to a new Taipei. The ride home showed me all kinds of stuff I never see taking the subway and staying on main roads everyday. I stayed up late trying to find a better host for www.forumosa.com so I didn't get my pictures and stuff read. I'll get those posted tomorrow. It'll be the bike, accessories and some random shots I took on the way home.

Mom, you'll be happy to know I bought a helmet today and I also got a bag that attaches to the front (and can de-attach to make a cool Pat (I never knew Pat had a movie) style fanny pack) to put my PDS, phone, camera and wallet into. Another KTV expidition is planned for this Saturday. I'll get pictures and sounds up faster this time.

I'm not gonna run a spell check today. So if you find any spelling errors, keep them (stolen from Rascal)

A Sad Day In YongHe

Let's have a moment of silence for Striker: 1945... It's moved on to that arcade in the sky (or a new location.) Sad times. Well, I'm off to get my bike and that's good.

DDR Freak

Well, played a bootleg one anyway (For those unfamiliar with DDR click here). I had a crowd and everything today. I felt just like a (miltown) kid again. This was after another Sunday session of Game Clubbin'. Today me and Geoff (I hope I spelled that right) played some WeiQi (or Go) and that was right nice. We (5 of us) also had a couple games of poker after that.

The morning was filled with the usual day's nonsense. Playing RO with Will and John (and a dash of Nicky). After we (a group of us from the GC) left the arcade in Shilin we saw one of those carny type games (it was #5 on that page, careful, link has pop ups). We watched the carny dude lift the bottle twice in a row and my friend said he "knew" how to do it. I told my friend that I'd buy whatever he won for 500NT (to get him to play so we could all witness his bottle raising skill). Well, he flopped. I took a picture, but my battery died right after. I'll have to post it tomorrow.

OK, off to sleep.

Just another day

Let's see... Yesterday I had some Indian food at Andy's new restaurant (he just opened it 3 weeks ago). I had this chicken dish and tomato soup that was good. Andy was a friend from my first job at Idear.

Today (after playing RO of course) I met Paul to go bike shopping. We went to a store where he knew the owner. He said he bought the first 2 bikes he (Alan) ever sold there. I ended up getting a cheap Giant with medal petals, a computer (for speed, distance, time, etc.), water bottle and holder and lock (that attaches to the frame as well) for around $130 US. I didn't take it home today because it was raining, but plan on picking it up Monday. I plan on picking up a helmet as well.

After that I met I Ping at a hospital for women who've recently had a baby (what ever you'd call that) to see my new niece (I forgot to mention I have a new niece huh?). In Taiwan, when a woman has a child they get to just chill out for a month to recover. After that me, I Ping, her mom, brother and niece #1 (Irene) went out to eat (and I had some really good sweet and sour soup).

If you look at the Diplomacy blog, you'll see that England attacked me. He said it was a mistake (likely story). It also looks like I've helped convince forumosa.com to start a wiki (I mad a fake forumosa.com wiki in my wiki). That'll be cool. I'm investigating digital video cameras now so I can start posting movies. That might not be for a while though. We'll see.

Mom, don't forget to tell Dave about the bike. He should like that. I'll post a picture of it next week after I pick it up (won't that be exciting).