Month February 2023
A cocktail, not beer, not wine, not a splash of liquor mixed with soda, but a real fucking cocktail with some bite to it. They call it Apple Yam something or other, some strong liquor tasing of alcohol with a faint hint of sweet potato, mixed with apple liqueur and lime juice. Almost nothing to dilute the alcohol, the full force of it hitting your system with every sip. It's expensive and fancy so you take it slow, one sip every few minutes, savoring the taste while pretending to read your book. You're not drunk...yet, but we'll on the way to getting there, and you have to go to work tomorrow. Life...is good
The thing about Taiwan’s countryside is, like Forrest Gump said, like a box of chocolate, you never know what you’re gonna get. Last weekend we went up in the mountains outside Hsinchu without any real plan. As we were driving along a small, rather remote road we rounded a corner and came upon a bunch of large, colorful paintings on the concrete wall next to the road. This was utterly unexpected. This was deep enough into the mountains that you’d expect to see little more than vegetation and waterfalls, yet here was some extremely colorful art. This of course fit … Read the rest
After a number of switchbacks the road straightens up and in the distance ahead of us is a wall of mist. Along both sides of the road are cherry trees, their bright pink flowers clearly visible through the fog, the ground underneath scattered with petals. We take one last look at the cherry trees then plunge into the mist...
A few minutes later we enter a tunnel that looks like something from a horror movie, all dark and gloomy with nothing but a milky white unknown at the other end. As we exist the tunnel the fog magically lifts and the world opens up in front of us. The road dips downwards again and starts winding it's way towards the bottom of the valley. On the other side the green hills rise up toward a sea of clouds, misty waves lapping the hill hilltop shores, and in the far distance a row of jagged blue peaks, faint against the sky. It only lasts for a few moments before the fog comes rolling in and shrouds our world in white once more.
Black Mirror is Annoying and Here’s Why
For those, who like me have been living under a pop-culture rock for the past several years, Black Mirror is an anthology series centered around modern technology. Except for a few minor references, the episodes are all completely stand-alone and each one focuses on how a certain current or (supposedly) near future technology could go wrong or be misused. I work as an engineer and I think my experience has made me somewhat skeptical of new technologies so this show should be perfect for me. That’s true for a few episodes but on the whole it’s just not…
While watching … Read the rest