Crusty Wizardry 101

Bye Bye Blogger

2004-10-29T01:39:00.000+08:00

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

2004-10-27T07:52:00.000+08:00

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

2004-10-26T20:38:00.000+08:00

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.

It's cheaper by almost half.
The more expensive one isn't compatible with my Tungsten T.
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

2004-10-25T13:58:00.000+08:00

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

2004-10-23T22:31:00.000+08:00

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

2004-10-21T19:55:00.000+08:00

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

2004-10-16T23:42:00.000+08:00

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

2004-10-13T22:18:00.000+08:00

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

2004-10-09T19:16:00.000+08:00

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

2004-10-07T20:55:00.000+08:00

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..."

2004-10-06T21:22:00.000+08:00

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!

2004-10-05T15:21:00.002+08:00

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

2004-10-04T23:49:00.000+08:00

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

2004-10-04T14:37:00.000+08:00

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

2004-10-03T22:42:00.000+08:00

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

2004-10-02T22:15:00.000+08:00

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).

Wikity Wikity Wikity Whack!

2004-09-29T22:30:00.000+08:00

Well I got the miltownkids wiki setup today. I think I'm going to have a lot of fun messing with that. I also watched Ong Bak like I said I would and I was pleased with that movie. Today wasn't as productive as yesterday I guess. I played RO, messed with the site, watched a few movies (I also watched the first half of Dreamcatcher) and went out for dinner. I gave Master Wang a call to wish him a Happy Teacher's Day, but he wasn't home. I did get to talk to his wife for a while though.

What I'm looking forward to most right now is buying a bicycle. Paul said he knows the guy that owns the shop I want to buy from so he's going to go with me to get it. I guess that's about all for today.

Man On Fire

2004-09-28T11:59:00.000+08:00

Just got home from seeing Man On Fire and came away feeling like it was money well spent. I thought the movie flowed nicely and there was never any spots that made me bored or have any other not-so-good feelings about the movie. Actually, I was just planning on staying home today messing with the internet and watching movies, but someone got me out of the house to attend a meeting of some sort (with free beer as an incentive, mom, I only had one). I met another Forumosan friend there and he planned on seeing a movie with yet someone else from the site. So, after the meeting we all met at Warner Cinema and peeped the flick.

Other things I got done today were setting up a blog for our game of Diplomacy. Have a look if you're interested in playing or curious. I also started a yahoo group for "The Game Club" (dum dum duuuuuuummmm!!!) We're already up to 1 members. And finally I started work on that wiki I want to setup. I asked for recommendations over on Forumosa.com and decided to use PmWiki. That should be fully setup soon. I had to contact my host's tech support to change some settings to get it to work.

What the hay! I'll even post a KTV song ("hold back all the 14 year old girls") and just leave it in wav format. The quality isn't so good since it was recorded with my Palm, but it's better then nothing. It's the miltownkid rendition of "I Believe I Can Fly" (it took a while to find a site with no pop-ups). I'd be shocked if you could sit through the whole song (I can't).

I will watch Ong Bak (best site I could find) tomorrow.

Small vacation

2004-09-28T01:27:00.000+08:00

Tomorrow (well technically today) is Mid-Autumn Festival (or Moon Festival or something?) so no work and the next day inspectors are coming, so no work. Two days off. ahhhhh...

So I finished Harry Potter book 4. This book was a lot more sinister then the other three. I also thought it was a great build up to book five (I'm glad I don't have to wait for it to come out). I still haven't finished watching the 3rd movie, but I still think it was the best one.

I did try to get the music (from KTV) on the site today, but had problems with converting and such. Since I have off tomorrow I'll get it done then. Also scheduled for tomorrow is setting up a miltownkids wiki and a blog for diplomacy (the current game with me forumosa friends).

Tomorrow also happens to be Teacher's Day. Well, it's late. Catch ya on the flip side.

Simple Living

2004-09-25T23:37:00.000+08:00

Yesterday mooring I was thinking to myself "Gee, I'd like to master the art of simple living" (what ever that means. Then before I went to sleep last night I decided click the stumble button (which is a pretty cool program) and I happened to stumble upon this site (simple living.net). I've only read through a few pages of it's material, but it seems like a pretty cool site. I'll let you know what I get out of it.

Met Paul today. He showed me some new dictionaries for the Palm (that I'll be getting) and a new digital video recorder he got (now I'll need to get one too). We talked about a bunch of stuff. How much Bush sucks, jacked up things about the US, China reclaiming Taiwan sooner (not later) and making money off the web somehow to name a few things. I drank an Ice Moca Coffee thing (I very rarely drink coffee) and had this peta beef sandwich. Both were good. This was from a place called Doutor Coffee (I pronounced it Dooter/ur).

Before I went and had coffee I got a nice surprise. I went to play my daily game of Striker: 1945 and when I got my change this guy says "It's your vacation huh?" (in Chinese, I thinks he's the owner) and I nod and smile. After I'm playing for a few minutes he comes by and gives me an extra 40NT (that equals 8 more games). I say thanks and decide to try and beat the game. I did alright, but got crushed on the eighth stage (what's up with the spelling of "eighth", what's that G all about?)

I never told I sent them, but I got my replies from Sony and Nintendo today (just asked some general questions). They both said they couldn't help me and directed me to another site so I could get the contact info for Taiwan (except the Sony reps gave me the European site to find the Taiwan site. Someone needs help with geography). Nintendo's Taiwan contact didn't have a phone number or website listed. Just an address. So I'll be footin' it up there this week camera in hand. I'll post the emails I got from them tomorrow just for the fun of it.

I also played RO and read some Harry Potter (like I do everyday).

That about does it. Later.

Keeping track

2004-09-25T01:05:00.000+08:00

I heard about this site a while ago, but I just started using it today. www.bloglines.com let's you us the RSS feeds that most blogs have to notify you when someone posts a new blog. That way you don't have to check everyday (and get disappointed when there's nothing there).

I'll be seeing Paul tomorrow (some of you may remember him from the "Sharing" and "May I go to the bathroom" skits).

Nothing very noteworthy happened today. Played a bunch of RO and read the Harry Potter book mostly. I did find out that Nintendo's new handle held (the Gameboy DS) is coming out soon. I'm actually mildly excited about that (I rarely get excited anymore, unless it's over something simple like a foot long worm). I also received the link to those Chen style Taiji movies (for your viewing pleasure). I've only watched the 2 push hands movies on the bottom thus far (I really liked the first one). I'll check the rest of them out sooner or later.

Here a week has gone by with no clips or new pictures from KTV. Well, I doubt anybody was REALLY looking forward to them. I still have them and they'll still be coming.

'till next time.

When you're rollin' in your Chevy and ya feel somethin' heavy...

2004-09-23T23:22:00.000+08:00

I woke up this morning with a bad case of the squirts (I'm sure that's the info you came here to see), so I had this wicked stomach ache at school today. Lucky for me we had a music class today at 9:15 that went to 10:00 then they had a break 'till 10:30 and I only had a half hour to go. I found out I'll have 2 days off next week. That'll be nice.

Today I met the Chen Taiji style guy and he was really cool. He showed me the form and some basic exercises so I'd get a feeling for Chen style. He also showed me how they did push hands and it was pretty different from what I'm use to. He said he's going to give me a tape (or a link) to see some more examples of Chen style push hands so I can better decide if it's something I'm interested in. He also said he'd help me find more Yang style people to practice with, which I thought was cool.

That's about all for today.

Watch out now. Get money get money.

2004-09-21T22:28:00.000+08:00

I thought I'd post those RO pictures I was talking about so long ago. I'll get the rest of the KTV stuff up soon. A sat through an on line Ragnarok Online wedding today. Playing this game has got me wondering what direction online communities will go in in the future. It fun playing around in that virtual world and I can only see them (virtual worlds) getting more complex and involving.

After the wedding they had an after party and the summoned some MVPs (bosses). My level was too low so I just died right away, but it was fun to watch (that's what the last pictures are). The first picture is just a bunch of bears (with me rolling on my peco peco in the middle of the screen). I thought it looked cool.

I have a separate title for each picture, I'll have to figure out a better way to post a lot of pictures.

I plan on commenting on one random blog per day. It's kind of fun. One more miltownkid has joined the list of bloggers, oldsofty. Someone might be giving me a round trip ticket to Korea, I hope that happens. I'll be buying a bicycle next week, looking forward to that. Ah, and in Diplomacy I'm France. I also found out Hinet has 12MB/1MB DSL. I might have to see if I'm in range for that.

I'll get those KTV MP3z and pictures up soon. Probably tomorrow. It'd be too much if I posted them today.

Peace.

2004-09-21T22:25:00.000+08:00

I feel like a Coke.

2004-09-21T22:24:00.001+08:00

The wedding starts.

2004-09-21T22:24:00.000+08:00

And so it went.

2004-09-21T22:22:00.000+08:00

Getting lit.

2004-09-21T22:21:00.001+08:00

Raise the roof.

2004-09-21T22:21:00.000+08:00

Some people had a little too much.

This Means WAR!

2004-09-21T15:14:00.000+08:00

One of the people I'm playing diplomacy with made up an on line newspaper. I'm sure someone will like it. Look HERE.

Random Shot

2004-09-20T23:47:00.000+08:00

How pros fix power lines.
I meant to post this one a while ago but never did. The power was out a few months back and since I didn't have anything else better to do, I took a picture of them restoring it.

Ketchup

2004-09-20T20:20:00.000+08:00

Before I post and pictures or songs, let me get caught up. Friday night I went to sing KTV (that's karaoke TV, it's where you sing songs and the worlds go across the screen). That was a good time. I got to meet a lot of new people that post over on forumosa.com. Saturday morning I had a parent teacher thing, where I had to talk about how I was going to be teaching the class (and I was a wee bit "tired" from the night before). Then the rest of Saturday was spent helping I Ping do deliveries. Sunday I got up and played RO. Went to GameClub. And after Game Club I played the Taiwaneser bootleg DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) because they didn't have the real one anymore (when I first arrived I refused to play it). Me and a GameClub buddy also played some air hockey on what must have been close to the world crappiest tables. The put went flying off the table over 10 times (probably close to 20). That did make the game a little more exciting though (I even got popped in the nose once).

Monday I woke up late because (I found out a 7:00pm) that I set my alarm clock to go off at the wrong time. But I wasn't late for school. At school they have highschool students that help (from like a sister school or something) and one of them must have saw me playing (the bootleg) DDR because they all asked me if I was in ShiLin last night playing video games with a friend.

Class was nice today because we had a clay class today, so I got to make a clay ladybug (maybe a pic will come, who knows). Then I went home, played a bunch of RO (after my daily game of Strikers: 1945 of course), ate dinner and started writing this. Now I'm all caught up.

I'll post again before sleeping.

WE ARE THE WORLD!

2004-09-19T23:13:00.000+08:00

WE ARE THE CHILDREN! As easy as it is to upload, I'm only sending this one tonight. The MP3z will be coming.

Quick Sunday Morn

2004-09-19T10:01:00.000+08:00

I got home too late Friday (from KTV) and was busy Saturday (helping I Ping deliver some things). I'll be sure to get the pictures on today and I'll try to get some of the MP3z up. I'm playing RO right now and will be off to GC (Game Club) after that.

Where'd you come from?

2004-09-16T22:02:00.000+08:00

Got emailed by 3 people I haven't heard from in a while in less the 3 days. It's strange how things work out like that sometimes. I was going to post some pictures, but I don't feel like it. I'm going to go read instead. Ghost's blog is now on the main site www.miltownkids.com. I'll be meeting up with a Chen style Taiji guy next week to practice pushands with.

I'll try to get the KTV pictures up Friday night and the MP3z the next day. Peace out!

HAARRRRRR!!!!!

2004-09-15T21:39:00.000+08:00

It'll be short today, not much to say. I went to an interview today for this teaching job, I'll talk about that more after Saturday night. KTV is Friday and I'll provide pictures and MP3's so you can enjoy the KTV experience from the comfort of wherever you are.

I do have something to say about what I think is going to happen with online communities (from my RO experience), but I'll save it for later.

Peace out.

miltownthespian

2004-09-14T22:37:00.000+08:00

What started as a normal day; wake up, check email, shower and school. Turned into adventure into unseen areas of Taipei.

After eating lunch and messing around on the computer I remembered I had an appointment today. I was an actor in a small sketch about viruses in Taiwan (or something). The story was about the first (reported?) HIV case in Taiwan. I guess it was from an American doctor that contracted it in Kuwait (yeah, I'm confused too). I got to play 2 parts. First I was a doctor that walked by and waved at the sick American doctor (played by my British fried Juba) as he walked to a bath coughing and looking sickly. Then I played another (Kuwaiti) doctor that sees the sickly American looking in the mirror at a bunch of blotches on his neck, so I walk in to take a look. After a short dialog asking him what's wrong I suggest he sees Dr. Hussein (Juba and I got to choose the name). There were a couple of scenes after that as well, but I wasn't in them (so they're no import ;) ). This whole thing was filmed at the infamous HePing Hospital. He said he'd get me a copy of this and when he does I'll put online for download.

Afterwards Juba took me on a short walking tour. First we visited a book store that had a lot of language learning materials (which is nice to know about). Then we stopped at Hostelling International Taipei. And after that he treated me to dinner at a vegetarian restaurant on the second floor of Taipei Train station. When we finished eating we did a lap around the 2nd floor and looked at all of the stores there. He told me that area has turned into a migrant worker hang out spot, so they had some interesting stores.

Then I made my way home checked Forumosa.com, did emailing and wrote this.

The forumosa game of Diplomacy starts next week. This is going to be sweet.

We pop, we brawl, gettin' money til the day we fall

2004-09-13T23:16:00.000+08:00

Don't mind the title, just keeping things fresh. I forgot to mention how many people were at our weekly gaming get together (aka game club) yesterday. 11. Haven't seen son many in a while. There were also 4 new faces.

My RO playing is getting less and less as days go by. But it's still fun. Now I like setting up shops and making money.

The PBM (play by mail) game of Diplomacy is going to start really soon I think. I'm going to make another website dedicated to Diplomacy moves and maps. This is going to be good.

If anyone's interest I found a nice program for windows and Palm (and Mac) for playing Diplomacy.

My favorite plane on Strikers 1945 is the Flying Pancake now. I almost made it all the way to the 5th stage on one token today (go me!). I jumped the gun a little bit on the website yesterday. It's up now. Have a look.

Alrighty, I'm gonna go read.

I almost forgot. Robonutz and Ghost (I forgot the address, I'll need that) have started blogs. Those will also get added to the homepage.

Diplomacy

2004-09-13T01:35:00.000+08:00

We played our test game of Diplomacy today and it went really well. We'll have the online game setup soon and I'll post links to that soon enough. My RO playing has slowed down a little, but I still spent a good amount of time playing it. I finished Harry Potter Book 3 last night and started 4 today. Book 3 was my favorite one so far and I really liked the way book 4 has started. I'll compare 3 with the movie as soon as I can. I still remember the movie fairly well and I think they did a good job with the converting. This book had a lot of really cool extra details about the new characters (and old). It's late so I'll stop here. My scrabble streak ended :(.

Check out www.miltownkids.com. I'm gonna make a real quick page right now with MS Word. It should be TIGHT!

The Raiden MASTER!!

2004-09-13T01:32:00.000+08:00

You can't tell go from the picture, but this guy is the Raiden 2 MASTER!!! He was playing both ships, whoopin' all forms of ass WHILE casually smoking a cigerette. I took this all shady like after I got done with my game of 1945 (on the right).

2004-09-13T00:33:00.000+08:00

This one's for J.Brnr, he should know why.

JOBNUMBER joins us

2004-09-10T22:52:00.000+08:00

Brother Pawn has started his blog as well now. You can see his at jobnumber.blogspot.com. It won't be there for long though. Soon it will move to jobnumber.miltownkids.com. Today was good. We had an exercise class at school today. I took some pictures of the students, I'll post those tomorrow.

I swore I had something to say, but it's all gone now. Too much video gaming I guess. I must say that game is really addicting.

Man, I'm blank right now. I'm chatting with someone on MSN so my mind is elsewhere.

Will's going to start a blog too. Soon we'll have the whole Miltown Crew blogging. Wouldn't that be nifty. The KTV has a date of next Friday now and we're going to have a game of Diplomacy this Sunday. I'm kicking ass in RO. A level 63 Knight now. Expect a bunch of pictures tomorrow.

Oh yeah, there's one thing I wanted to say. Life just got a little better for me. The arcade (sort of place) down the street re-opened (they closed because of police problems or something) and they have Raiden and Strikers: 1945. Oh Yeah!

I'll post pictures tomorrow. G'night.

A Quickie

2004-09-09T23:31:00.000+08:00

Today was good. My brother started his blog (bummpy.miltownkids.com). It looks like the KTV (if you don't already know, KTV is Karaoke) and Diplomacy get toghethers are going to happen.

More stuff tomorrah.

Gazed and gazed but little thought...

2004-09-08T22:49:00.000+08:00

is what's written on that can of papaya juice in front of my screen. The warning on the Tekken character's box says:

WARNING:
COOKING HAZARD-Melting parts.
Not for eat under 900years.

If someone wanted it I could get a close up of both translation boo boo's. Well, the gazed and gazed but little thought might mean something. I've thought about it a while. It seems like some kind of Zen quote.

On screen is a picture of that game I'm playing. You can look forward to me taking some (action packed!!) in-game screen shots for your viewing pleasure. Under the can and toys is my Dvorak key layout picture. I don't need it anymore, but it doesn't seem to want to go anywhere.

I (kind of) cut back the playing hours of RO (which is good). Now I have a merchant, so I can just sit down somewhere and sell stuff (as seen in the picture). I can play in my sleep!

A few of us are trying to organize a game of Diplomacy. I meant to get a face-to-face game started, but it looks like we're going to get an email game going too.

The run didn't happen today, rain (yeah right). I'm a little sore from those push (how sad). The next 2 days at school should be nice and relaxed. Tomorrow we have a music class (not taught by me) and Friday an exercise class (I'll also just be participating).

That seems like enough for today.

By the way. I bought those Tekken character's special for my buddies Rbrnr and JOBNUMBER (featured in that other post).

2004-09-08T22:45:00.000+08:00

My desk

2004-09-08T14:55:00.000+08:00

Test post with hello.com . Don't look at the monkey's privates please.

A picture is worth 1000 words.

2004-09-07T22:54:00.000+08:00

You know how they say a picture is worth a thouhsand words, right? Well today I'm sticking with simplicity. Enjoy a picture of my best friend Marcus.

MACRUS (271K) I took this when I went back home last year. You can see Rcebrnr and JOBNUMBER in the back ground.

Today I played RO, worked and read my book. I found a guy to practice push hands with and will start next week (I think). Nothing exciting. I think I need to start running again. I'll let you know if it happens tomorrow.

Nighty night.

Let's see how outta shape I am. I'm going to do as many push-ups straight and report back. Hold on a sec...

40... I probably could have squeezed a few more out, but might have passed out, thus unable to blog. ok, g'night.

Rushed

2004-09-06T23:12:00.000+08:00

I was in bed and remembered that I didn't blog today. Let's see... Played RO of course. I'm a knight now and get to run around sitting on a bird. Isn't that great. School was good. I do still have to see the acupuncturest. I went today and it felt like I was there about 5 minutes. He had me lie down, then he kind of massaged my back. After that he pulled out this bell thing and started hitting it and I fell right asleep. Then he woke me up and did t again and then it was over (well, he did some stuff before and after that like check my neck and things).

I uploaded the scrabble picture, but I'm not sure if it will show. It doesn't show in the preview window. I might have to edit this post after I post it (I don't know why I wrote that, no one will notice me change anything).

I'd like to point out that in the scrabble picture "thorny" was "horny" first (and no, I didn't spell that). The weird square thing I was talking about is on the left side of the board. I think it looks cool.

I'm still practicing Dvorak, but I haven't been doing all my posting with it. Now I want to investigate other alternative input devices. Keyboards seem so 1970's.

Man the spell check on this site really sucks (blogger.com).

OK, I have to add the link manually. What I did didn't work.

Yesterdays scrabble game. (53.3KB)

Fixin' electrical poles Taiwan style. This one was shot off me balcony a while back. There was nothing else better to do since the power was out. (357KB)

Sunday

2004-09-05T22:04:00.000+08:00

Today was a nice day. Woke up early and played RO. I talked to John for a while. Spoke to Marcus briefly (and he was a tad on the tipsy side at the time). I Ping's Mom came by today and we played a few games of Chinese chess. She won twice and I won once. Then we went to eat at the same Thai place we ate before (I got the name card this time). Thai Town Cuisine. The food was once again good. After that I went home and relaxed for a bit. Then it was off to game club.

I had another lucky game of scrabble (I won). I took a picture of the finished board because there was a strange spot in it where we made this square block that formed words. You'll have to see what I mean (not today though, too lazy).

Well, I'm gonna go to bed at a respectable time tonight (like I should every night). I'll get that pic posted tomorrow. I'm still reading that Harry Potter book. I just got caught up with my new game. I'm about half way into it now. I've said it three times, but I'll say it again. Reading books IS much more fun (educational, better) then movies/TV. I actually watch less then a half an hour of TV a day now. In the past I'd watch 3 or four movies a day (talk about zoning out).

Enough blabber.

I dID iT mY WAaaAAAAAaAAYyY!!!

2004-09-04T22:45:00.000+08:00

I did go to KTV today, but I forgot to bring my camera (doah!). I'll be sure to bring it next time. Next time should be better anyway because they'll be more people (I'm trying to get a group together from Forumaso.com). Let me see, what were some of the songs I sang... I want to rock with you (MJ), My Way (Franky), End of the Road (Boyz2Men) and some other songs. I think I record a song or to and post them in MP3 format. Those would be funny.

I added a profile last night in case you didn't notice. Check it out if you feel inclined to do so. E bro may join the ranks of bloggers. I hope that materializes. Smokin' Joe Frazier called me this morning nice and early. It was cool talking to him. He said he might make a trip over here sometime this year. Marcus said he might come some time soon too (did I say that already).

I played a lot of Ragnarok Online (this link is better then the last, you can see what the games like and even try it if you want to) today. I still don't know what my mission is (I think it's because I'm playing on a hacked version of it) and it's still fun.

Because I failed to get pics of the KTV place I'll have to give you guys a substitute.

Here's me looking retarded with a monkey (I mean no offensive to retarded people, it's just an expression).

Seven too many

2004-09-04T01:04:00.000+08:00

A friend here is trying to get rid of some pups.

Juba's bitch Queen and her seven pups

:D

Let me know if you want one, then I'll let him know.

First week of work, over

2004-09-03T23:22:00.000+08:00

The one nice thing about working is Saturday and Sunday mean a lot more. When you're not working it's like everyday is Saturday, so you don't appreciate having those days off. Gives you something to look forward to.

I got an email from Elliott today (yeah, I'm shocked too). Sounds like he might want to start a blog too. That would be cool. We didn't go to KTV today because it costs too much for just 2 people to go on the weekends. We're going to go tomorrow at 3pm, because you get a discount at that time.

Been playing a lot of the RO game. I'll probably get tired of it in a week or two.

It'll take some pictures of the KTV (Cashbox) building and room tomorrow, so there's something to look forward too. I like the Gmail account. 2 things I really like: 1) The way it keeps replies in one group and B) because you'll be able to search through messages which I think will be killer nice (you can already do that if you use a Outlook, Eudora or something, but other online email services don't have this feature). Plus you can store a Gig of messages. That should end up being a lot of emails.

That's good enough for today.

Wait, here's a funny story most of you wouldn't have heard. An English teacher got caught having sex with his co-teacher by one of their students (I think, by someone anyway) at nap time. Stupid foreigners. LOL

RO addict!!!

2004-09-03T00:14:00.000+08:00

Will blog tomorrow. Stayed up too late playing RO and it's time for bed. I'm going to KTV tomorrow so I'll have something to blog about.

Nighty night

A new game

2004-09-01T23:28:00.000+08:00

I like this RO game, we'll see how long it lasts until I get tired of it. The strange thing is I don't really even know what the point of it is. You just go around beating stuff up, buying stuff and getting stronger. But it ends up being a whoop ass good time.

I sold a set of Ax's Squabble Cards (he has another site, but it's down right now, this site is one he made a long time ago and put in my domain). He gave me all of his cards because he's going to be moving to Japan soon (tomorrow actually). So now I'm the distributor.

I Ping has bought me a bunch of new clothes for my job. I told her it wasn't necessary, but she likes having an excuse to buy clothes for me. I must admit that I do like the stuff she picked out though. I even have more then one pair of shorts now.

I spoke to Marcus briefly this morning and I might have convinced him to start a blog. That would be cool. I plan on taking the borrowed scooter for a joy ride tomorrow, just by the river, I think that'd be fun. Me and I Ping ate at this Thai restaurant (should have grabbed a name card because I forgot the name). The food was really good, but I didn't eat much because I wasn't very hungry. School still going good and all seems well.

I have a Gmail account now and if anyone wants one contact me and I'll send you an invite (I don't have many left now, but who actually reads this page?). You can reach me through the forum or miltownkid ((((at)))) hotmail dot com. Expect a Gmail review to come one day after I've used it for some time.

I finished the Harry Potter 2 movie today and I'll say it again, as good as the movies seem, they got nothing on the books. I also check Rotten Tomatoes to see if it agreed with my theory (that the movies have been getting progressively better) and it did.

I'm going to play RO for a little while longer, then hit the sack.

Books are better

2004-08-31T20:47:00.000+08:00

I didn't even finish the second Harry Potter movie. I got tired of watching it about half way through. I'll still finish tomorrow, but watching it felt like reading Cliff Notes missing all the good parts. There are still cool parts in the movie and the movie great for visuals but I'd choose the book over the movie any day of the week.

Ragnarok Online just finished downloading all of updates while I was typing this. I'll be checking it out shortly. That's all for now.

My first Dvorak post

2004-08-31T13:21:00.000+08:00

I have all of the keys memorized, now I just need to practice. It took less then 24 hours to learn. So far I like it a lot.

I don't have much to talk about right now. School was good this morning. I'm downloading the free Ragnarok Online game that rcebrnr told me about and I'll check that out later. I'm about to eat some cold pizza and watch the Harry Potter movie.

Dvorakian Style

2004-08-30T22:17:00.000+08:00

I guess I'll have to wait for a day or 2 before I start writing blogs with the Dvorak key setup. Surprisingly I'm having no trouble switching from one style to the other. The program I posted about in my previous post keeps a log of how long you've spent practicing and I haven't even logged an hour yet. I think after about two or three hours of use I'll be able to use it casually. When typing in the program I was getting about 20 WPM, but it is a lot more comfortable typing with it (from my limited use).

I haven't blogged about this, but I've been seeing a blind accupuncturist. Today I had my last visit with him, he said I'm back to be healthy again. I just need to continue doing the exercises he taught me. I also got to see him use his computer today. I was suprised that the monitor was on while he was using it. When you looked at the monitor it just had a bunch of garbled text. He had one of those little braille pad things that I first saw on Sneakers. It was pretty neat seeing him use it (but for what I didn't know).

I had a pizza from Paizza hut for dinner today and I realized I eat those just for filler. They don't really taste good (or bad). They just make you not hungry.

Finished Harry Potter book 2, started book 3 and will watch the movie tomorrow (part 2).

On to dreamland.

First day of school

2004-08-30T14:32:00.000+08:00

The first day of school went quite well. I got there about a half hour early, a head teacher (or something) gave me the books I'll be using, then over an hour and a half went by before I started teaching. I got lucky, no kids crying, throwing up or anything like that. Their level of English is very basic right now and for some it was the first time learning English so I'm started with the "What's your name"'s and "My name is"'s plus some other simple vocabulary. I think this should turn out being a really nice job. I have to be there at 8, start teaching at 9, take a break or 2 (I thought 2 was 1 too many, but I won't complain) and finish at 11. Pretty nice hours I say.

This might be my last qwerty blog. From reading other people's experiences I think I'm making the switch to Dvorak. I'll probably use both for a little while, but I'll struggle through my blogs with Dvorak from now on. I've actually gotten ok using qwerty too. Hmmm... Maybe I'll do a speed test to see where I stand now. Then I can compare it to Dvorak when I get comfortable with it.

[imagine a pause while I find a website to check my Words Per Minute]

I found a crappy one and looked for something better but didn't find anything. The score I got was a little over 30 WPM (BLAZIN'!!)

I'll be posting again tonight so I'll finish here.

The Scrable Master

2004-08-29T22:42:00.000+08:00

We played two games of Scrabble at game club today and I think won both (official rules need to be checked). In the first I was helped by my miltown spelling of acquited (notice the missing T for those whose spelling matches my own). By the time someone noticed we were too far into the game to change it. We also played Clue. That was the time I've played that game and I'm really impressed at how fun it is. I think if I played it a couple more times I'd have a full proof system worked out for beating it, but it'd still be fun.

I start the new job tomorrow, I'll post about how that goes tomorrow. This morning I had to help I Ping move some stuff from her companies office to a warehouse. After I did that I chilled at home for a spell and went to game club. I want to get to bed early tonight, so I'll finish off here.

'Till tomorrow.

I just threw my digital camera batteries on the charger (after many a month of non-use), so fresh pic's should be on the way.

2004-08-29T01:43:00.000+08:00

I saw that Daft Punk movie Intersella 5555 and it was quite nice. You might have been like me and saw a few animated music videos that were suppose to get linked together into a whole movie some years back and it never happened. Well it did. If you like their music you should enjoy this movie. It's almost like an hour long music video (it plays the whole Discovery album from front to back) but it has a keen story to go along with it. I say CHECK IT!

I saw my (step?) niece today and I've been upgraded from being called Ko to Unko (Uncle). It's really cute when she says it and she gets all excited about it. I'll have to post a picture of her one of these days. I hung out at I Ping's brother's house all day for ghost month stuff. All I did is sleep and read me Harry Potter book (and play with the kiddy of course). I was suppose to eat dinner, but I had to beat feet over to Alleycat's (the Pizza place) to work.

Today was a really busy day at Alleycat's. There was a business type meeting going on where people were bouncing ideas around about English teaching, plus all the regular Saturday night customers. I served many a beer, soda, juice, ice tea and ice coffee. I was kept thoroughly busy the whole night. While I was working a guy (James) offered to buy me a beer (so I had one) and when things settled down someone else (that I helped out a bit ago, MapoSquid) also offered to buy me one (so I had two), then I wanted another one (so I had three) and all was well. Alleycat said tonight was one of (if not thee) busiest nights he's had. When it was time to go home, me and Mapo shared a taxi to Yonghe. We live pretty close to each other so that worked out nicely.

Before I forget, this morning before my day began I went over to Ax's place to pick up his Chinese Squabble Cards. Since he's going to Japan he wants me to sell the rest of them for him. So if you're looking for Chinese Squabble Cards, I'm your man.

It's late, the Carlsberg has me groggy and I'm tired. Time to hit the sac.

2004-08-27T23:00:00.000+08:00

Well my interview went well, a big thank you to anyone that wished me luck. The school is only about a 10 minute walk from my apartment. I just showed up, goofed around with the kids for about 15 minutes and left. After chillin' in the crib for an hour or two I got a call saying I could have the job if I wanted it. I accepted. So I'll be entering the world of the working again on Monday.

I got to see Paul today, and that was real nice. I haven't seen him in a long time. We met up at Chili's near Warner Village. I had a Cajun Chicken Sandwich (that was seriously lacking in Cajuness). We exchanged conversation and jokes (I got to use that Pimp joke in person :) ).

Looks like I'm probably going to sign up for another semester of classes at Shida. The kindergarten I'll be working at is only in the mornings 8-11 (or 12), so I can still do school in the afternoon of I choose to.

I got a hold of Robonutz today. He's been busy with work and things (surprise surprise), but he seemed to be doing well. Well, it's kind of late and I don't really have much else to say. Keep an eye on www.miltownkids.com, I plan I putting something there (even better then what's already there if you can believe that!). OK, I'm going to do some reading and get some sleep.

2004-08-26T20:30:00.000+08:00

Another day another A. Well I finished Harry Potter book 1 a few days ago and I must say, I liked it. So I gave the movie another look today and boy did I sleep through that one. They had the part with the unicorn and blood dripping just like I remember it from the book. But, like all book-to-movie movies (I assume, I haven't read many books) it was missing a lot of important and not so important details. I was going to get into details and talk about them, but why? If you wanted to know you could find out yourself.

Did I talk about the Pizza place I'm working at in my last post? Well even if I did I know I didn't provide a link. The name of the place is Alley Cat's and it's the best pizza I've had here. Is it better then Dave's back home (my mom's boyfriend)? Well, I'll just say it's different. His style of pizza is thin crust and Dave's is thick. I've give a report next time I'm in the US (next year?) and can try a Dave special.

I installed some new programs for the ol' PC yesterday and today. I set up a firewall (contact me if you want to know which one) and found out how often a computer is scanned by different worms floating around out there (every few seconds), I was a little shocked. I also installed AVG which comes highly recommended from people online. If you don't have antivirus software installed yet check it out. IT'S FREE! I ran a full scan and was clean. I'm saving what I think is the best for last. It's a little time saving program that I found on www.download.com on accident. It's called SlickRun and you know what? It's SLICK! Basically you can make these shortcuts for programs you like using. So instead of double clicking the email icon, you just type email hit enter and your email client opens. You can do it for webpages and other programs. I've only used it for a couple hours and I already like it.

Forgot to add one thing about that Harry Potter movie. It understand why I slep through it. It's boooooring. Even after reading the book and having a "deeper" understanding of it. This must be one of the few movie series where (IMHO) they get better and better. After I finish book 2 I'll watch the second one, and do the same for the third.

This is getting kind of long so I'll wrap things up. A friend (AX) told me to talk about my friends and family as well. Mom's good. Dave's good. Elliott (me bro) is enjoying his summer break from school (drinking beer and such). I haven't heard from Marcus (my old school friend) in a while, I'll have to give him a call. I haven't heard from Joe, but I bet he's still being DJ and a smooth playa. RCEBRNR is being rcebrnr. Will in Vegas (possibly laid up with a lady friend). Talked to Superman, I haven't heard from him in a long while. Jobnumber's situation is up for a change, we'll see how that pans out. Those are the people I've heard from recently. And I Ping is good. I'll get into more detail as time goes on.

I think I'm going to want to change the template soon, add a picture and stuff, but no need to rush things. I have an interview tomorrow, wish me luck.

2004-08-24T02:58:00.000+08:00

A big hello to everyone out there in cyber space! This is my first blog posting (that you'll see, I actually posted some other stuff but it's since been deleted). If you're reading this I will assume you as I are on the path to being a crusty wizard so there is no explanation necessary. This first blog will be about a book I'm sure you've all heard of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's (Philosopher's) Stone". You may be ask yourself why philosopher is in (). Well me being a lowly junior crusty wizard didn't know that in the UK it was originally titled philosophers stone (a level 63 ice maiden had to point that out to me). The version I have is the American English version, so it's been translated into a language us muggles can understand. So now I bestow this information on to you.

The philosophers stone is also related to alchemy (which the book briefly describes), but I won't dive into that subject as it has little to do with Crusty Wizardry.

Now I did see the movie of this before I read the it, but that was so long ago and I slept so much that I didn't recall much of what I read. I now have one chapter to go and I'm on the edge of my seat in suspense wondering if Harry Potter will save the day. I'll have to see the movie again but I do think it left out many cool and important parts of the story (as I'm sure many book to movie translation do). One of which that comes to mind is the part when Harry is in the forbidden forest looking for the unicorn. My mind painted a vivid mental picture of the cloaked monster with unicorn blood dripping from his face. And of the centaur that helped Harry. I also really liked the conversation the centaurs had with Hagrid.

Hagrid: You see anything strange lately?
Centaur: Mars is really bright today.
Hagrid: Yeah it is, but have seen anything?
Centaur: Mars sure is bright.

I like those spacey kind of answers they gave him. By the time I post again I'll have finished it and will be able to give it a well rounded review.

I think that's enough blogging for today.

P.S. I'll only be a crusty wizard until I'm tired of it, then the theme will change, change, change and change again.