Stepping Out of the Zone

Stepping outside of the box, the zone of comfort, is very challenging for a lot of people.  I am most definitely one of them.  It may not seem like it but really I’m a sissy pants, I like my routines, I like hanging out with the people I know, going to the places I’m used to.  I like everything fuzzy and it’s right place .

Go out stay in, I choose the easy comfy decision.  But when I don’t, something good or at least interesting happens.  For example, last week I had dinner with a friend (totally normal) went home and realized that I was supposed to meet a friend at a pub at 9… sigh it was cold, a little late and I had to work in the morning.  I so very much wanted to bail, and anyone else and I  would have but he was leaving and I hadn’t got to see him yet.  So I sucked it up and went, and had a great time talking to my friend and a couple of other people there.  Met some new people and had some fun and engaging conversation .

This past weekend, I jumped out of the zone feet first.   And some ridiculous-ness  ensued as any of you who are on my Facebook have seen snippets of in my status updates.  I ended up taking the train out to Zhong Li to have dinner, drinks and bowling with some people.   I hate the train… generally speaking I avoid all forms of public transit, for a multitude of reasons.  But worst of all, I never  (have to) take the train so the whole experience ends up being really stre

You are Some Kind of Wonderful

… That was the text message I recieved this morning.

That made my day, my week even.

IT was such a simple little thing, A friend was leaving and I was teaching his class.  I knew his flight left at 11 so at 1030 I though I call say “bye good luck etc”, then I though hey since I’m with the kids I’ll have them say bye to him too.  Well talk about reaching out and touching someone!  He was really happy about it, and then sent me that text.  :)

It’s surprising the things that end up meaning a lot to someone.  The best part was how happy it made him makes me wanna go nuts with the nice nice for people.  Actually, My friend Mel is also leaving and one of her co-workers made  a little video for her saying bye and I am thinking about doing the same thing for my friend who just left as I’m teaching his class.  Not sure if I’ll get to it but it seems like a nice thing.

I’m plotting nice things… hopefully I’ll follow through on them.

Live Like an Immortal

Our time here is limited, but what if it wasn’t?

Chew on that for a second, swirl it around, give it a sniff.  (whatever sense it is that tickles your fancy)

Ready?

Ok, we have a limited amount of time in this world, we’re born, we live we die.  This is non negotiable.  And it’s our biggest downfall.  Many people feel and believe that having a limited amount of time will drive us to do more, to live life to it’s fullest.  Yeah I’m calling bullshit.  Exactly how many people can you think of that even live life a little bit?  Beyond work and trying to pay the bills?  When was the last time you  just dropped everything and learned something new and exciting, damn the costs and consequences?

Probably some time when you were a kid.  Right?  Most people think I live life a little on the wild and free side, well lemmi tell yeah here and now, I don’t.  I’m almost as much of a slave to the man as everyone else, I just work shorter hours pay less tax and have a much lower cost of living.  Thus I can afford to play about a little more.  But I’m a still worried about paying my bills, making ends meet, being a responsible functioning member of society.

What about people who have a near death experience?  They get all kinds of wild and delicious.  Yes, they do for a minute or two, but they usually settle back into the pattern.  Even if they don’t, we all know we have an expiry date, but no one knows when it is.  That air of mystery doesn’t drive us forw

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Eggnoggin’

Christmas in Asia is kinda blowage, there is just no festive happy Christmas feeling and cheer.  Not the end of the world but it doesn’t make for awesome time.

For Christmas, I made Eggnog for my University students.. and they went nuts for it.  Which was kinda surprising as it’s is quite boozy, and they don’t drink much.  A couple of them were really keen to try to make it themselves, so I gave them instructions.  Actually what I did was take a crazy rich but good ‘cooked’ recipe and modify it a little.  Turned out pretty good actually.

• 4 cups of  milk + 5 cloves + 1 tsp cinnamon  + 1/2 tsp of vanilla =heated in a sauce pan
• several egg yolks (6-12… up to you) + a cup of sugar in a bowl, mix until fluffy
• Slowly stir the hot milk into the sugar and egg yolks (mix the whole time)
• Put the whole thing back in the pan, cook on a low heat for 3-5 minutes stirring the w

Lonely Girl in Taipei

Sounds like a personal add doesn’t it?

Well it’s not, just a statement of fact.  (let me just pre-state I”m not looking for comfort or pity… but it’s just how I”m feeling and thinking right now and it’s my blog so I’ll pout if I wanna).

I have been feeling really sad lately.  Mostly things have been pretty good, but I’m just feeling quite lonely, I have wanted to be dating someone for quite some time.  But there doesn’t seem to be much happening in that department, don’t get me wrong if it was a sex thing I’d be all good but I’m just not interested in ran

Urban Legends Will Never Die

Modern urban legends, do you buy into them?  Do you perpetuate them?  Do you believe them?

There are so many of them these days… help the girl kidnapped… twitter updates, facebook is raping your privacy, or they are going to start charging you money to use their service…

I shake my head.   Recently a load of people have been mass updating about the searchability of Facebook on Google… it’s not new.. it’s old.. I know because I changed the settings ages ago.  Yes Facebook changed something recently.. and updated every user about it.  If you ignored it then whose fault is that???   Anyway.. a couple of people in Taiwan kinda got into a bit of a ‘conversation’ about it… and I just couldn’t resist.  Here is a the pertinent part of what I wrote.

(she had mentioned people stalking and using facebook to find your personal information .. look up you address etc. ) In Taiwan???  You know there are no white pages here right…. honestly, you’re getting overly excited.. all the searchability on FB isn’t new… you’re just discovering it… I have known about it for ages… stalkers are much more low tech they just chill outside your house and learn what they want.

You need to understand ALL of this information is rea

Are you an Organ Donor?

I often wonder why it’s not automatic, organ donation that is.  If someone comes into an emergency room.. and they can’t be saved their organs should be automatically donated, unless they have specifically stated they don’t want to donate.

Instead, the way it is now, if someone dies and hasn’t previously stated on their medical records or drivers license they want to be an organ donor.. then tough noogies.  So then the decision falls to the grieving family to decide to cut up their family to save strangers.   Most people aren’t that big, they are too selfish and can’t look past their own grief to help someone.  Give them a week or two, and they probably would.. but the organs are only viable for up to 24 hours (72 for kidneys) after death.

[lots of information about donations here]

Plus did you know, just because you have said once upon a time you that you wanted to be an organ donor, it doesn’t mean that you ar

Do You Trust Me?

What is trust?  Well according to Dictionary.com

verb

13.	to rely upon or place confidence in someone or something (usually fol. by in or to): to trust in another’s honesty; trusting to luck.

14.	to have confidence; hope: Things work out if one only trusts.

16.	to have trust or confidence in; rely or depend on.

17.	to believe.

18.	to expect confidently; hope (usually fol. by a clause or infinitive as object): trusting the job would soon be finished; trusting to find oil on the land.

19.	to commit or consign with trust or confidence.

20.	to permit to remain or go somewhere or to do something without fear of consequences: He does not trust his children out of his sight.

21.	to invest with a trust; entrust with something.

Ok, well that’s a dictionary definition, but what does it mean to you?  How important is trust to you?

How do decide if someone is worthy of your trust?  Are you the kind of person who just gives it out like candy, or do people need to earn your trust?  If someone has broken your trust, can they e

Online/Offline & Socially Accepted Behaviours

So I have concluded that the preconceptions, protocol and rules for behavior online where written about ten-15 years ago when most of us got online.  Really it probably mostly started for you the day you downloaded msn.  (unless you started out with ICQ like us cool kids if you’re cooler and started earlier… shutty)

Back then most, if not all, folks where on dial up.  You couldn’t just hang out online, because it tied up your phone.  Even if you got a second phone line, which most of us did as we got more into the internet, you still paid for how long you were online and the information transferred.  It wasn’t a flat fee, and even if you had a flat fee it was just slow… hella slow.  Computers were slow the internet is slow.

But it was all we knew.  So sitting in front of a box for 6 hours TRYING to do stuff online compared to the fact we could get it all done in 20 mins now, was a bit of a waste of time.  Even in uni where most of us were plugged into internet so fast that it puts most of your ADSL to shame and online 24-7, we still didn’t hang out around the computer for long periods of time.

So ‘back in the day’ when we all got online but didn’t really hang out there, online meant something different.  You were there with intent.  You turned the computer on, went online and were looking for and expecting others to pl

Inspiration

I haven’t been writing much on here lately.  Mostly because when I have time to write, I don’t seem to have anything I want to write about.  And then I have a couple of ‘bitchin’ ideas that I want to write down mull over and share. But oh lookie no time.  And we all know me, if I don’t do it now or close to know I’ll either get bored or forget completely.

I would list out the 3 or four posts I INTENDED to write, but honestly for the life of me I can’t really remember what they were about or how I intended to write them (I usually have some kind of angle that I want to throw stuff out at that I think is interesting or cool).

Sigh, I guess the trick is popping in here and writing a sentence or two as a reminder so when I have time I don’t stare at the blank page and wonder what the hell it was I was going to write last night.  Ooops, I’d say lesson learn but it’s more lesson reminded.  I knew all of this before, and actually did it.  I don’ really know when I stopped doing it.  silly rabbit!

Oh well I have an idea and I’m going to write it down… (I know two two whole Ideas.. my cup overfloweth )

Lie to me, Biatch!

So there is this show that started last year that I’m super into.  Called, you guessed it, Lie to me.   It’s all based on the science of this guy called Dr. Paul Ekman, it’s one of the coolest shows I’ve ever seen if for no other reason that the whole thing is based on real stuff.  It’s all about micro expressions, and how you can tell people are lying.  They have all kinds of real life references, pictures etc of famous people that have been later been proven to be lying. (like that OJ kid)

Well every since I saw the show ‘Lie to me’ I have been really interested in the whole topic and with a little research I discovered that not only was it all based on real stuff the main character is (loosely) based on a real guy, who is an actual consultant on the show.  Not only does he consult on the show but Ekman does some vlogs to break down the science behind some of the stuff touched on in ‘Lie to me’.  I, unfortunately not living

Don’t wanna be a Grumpy Gus

So I haven’t written much lately, but I’ve been grumpy stressed and sick… and generally speaking when I look back on things I like to pretend that all the bad stuff didn’t happen.  yay.  But the reality is everything isn’t sunshine and roses. Well it is.. but stuff gets to me from time to time.

Last week I was feeling down, I was mildly concerned about my mom.  But to be honest I wasn’t all that worried, I mean there wasn’t much I could do until after the surgery.  The obnoxious comment my boss made REALLY upset me, I’m extremely tired of being lonely and single.   I was bummed that Tracey was away and I couldn’t talk with her, and my other

The Stick… Seriously?

Am I overly cynical?  screw that .. I’m so not.

This is ridiculous… go to this site.   http://www.thestick.com/ Make your own judgment and then come back and see what I have to say.

Back yet?

Ok…. SERIOUSLY!!! WTF  it’s

350.org

Although this is much more Tracey’s thing, this video is pretty cool.  It’s about the group for the prevention of negative climate change.

if you’re interested in more information, then go check out their website

http://www.350.org/

(bet Tracey’s going to piddle herself with joy that I posted this   )

The Power of Porn

Do have any idea how much porn has changed the world?  What kind of control and effect it has had on the modern world, consumer products and a million other things?

What really decided who won between Betamax and VHS?  Why did Blue Ray win that contest?  Why do all DVD players have a multi-angle viewing button?  Why can we send and receive pictures on our phones? Why is suddenly so important to have 3G phones?  Camcorders… digital cameras, payper view, satellite and cable tv, the internet.. the list goes on and on.

Porn.. porn (and sex) is one of the leading driving forces behind a lot of technological advances.  Now this won’t come as much of a surprise to some people, but I think a lot of people will be at least a little surprised.

Did you know that the reason VHS became the primary technology was NOT actually because Sony wouldn’t let anyone else use the technology.  It was due to the porn industry choosing VHS as the platform on which to produce their films because it was cheaper for them to produce.. and suddenly.. loe all kinds of people had a VHS player (why buy the expensive one that won’t play your sexy films on it??)

Don’t believe me?  Do you own a DVD player?  Go check the remote.  Does it have ‘cha

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The Art of Failure

Being afraid of failure is STUPID . (<— I should write the book)

I freely admit I am a moron.  I’m am terrified of failure, coupled with my shrieking fear of change I’m nigh on crippled half the time.  The other half I just rock and stare at the wall praying it will all go away now, it never does you know.

You wouldn’t think it, (or maybe you would) but I really am.  And that’s with my knowing why it’s stupid to be worried about failure.  But obviously I don’t KNOW it.  I know on some intellectual, theoretically level but it’s not part of who I am, yet!  I mean look at the whole, quit my morning job business.  Scary, but then what did I do with the whole thing?  And then I was deliberating over that whole online course I was taking, now I’m just sorta floating around trying to choose a direction to move in.

Why?  What’s the big hold up?  I’m smart, I know how to do things, I’m extremely good at most thing when I put my mind to it.  Hell I’m good at them when I don’t even put my mind to it.  What is it that’s holding me back from…. taking over the world ( per-say)?

Fear, mind boggling terror.  Of what?  Failure.  That’s right, I’m a moron.  I’m completely freaked that I’m going to try to do something, loose a bunch of money, make some horrible mistake and look like a fool.  Really what do I care?  No offense but I don’t really care what ‘people’ think, so what the hell is my problem?

Here I am, telling you, how stupid it is to be afraid to fail.  Hypocrite!!

Well, screw it! Hypocrite or not, I’m telling you all (and myself) to stop it.  Stop holding yourself back, reach as far as you can.  So what if you fall on your face, get back up and reach again.  If all you ever do and try is what you’re confidant of, you will never even come close to reaching any kind of potential.  You will be like everyone else, mediocre, average, CRAP!!!

Well, what’s the art then?

Do you have to fail?

That’s pretty much it, isn’t it?  You need to stop being scared, and the only truly effective way I know to stop being

Choices!

So I was faced with a choice last Friday.

After work, I stopped at Sababas  on the way to Editing (which is definitely not my favourite thing).  When I got to work, I looked for my phone and realized it was gone.  When I arrived, they told me that had called me and my co worker had answered.  So I called her, and we arranged for her to leave it at the Highlife (like 7 11) near our school for me to pick up later on.

Had a chat with some friends after work, and when I went to get my bike (scooter) I discovered that they had shut it behind some huge locked gate.  And I totally couldn’t get at it, possibly not until

Where’s the Party? Bolivia, Apparently!

I can’t remember where I came across this article, someone must have posted it somewhere and I thought it was interesting.

It turns out there is a bar in Bolivia, that moves around of course, where you sit down hang out have a drink and do a line or ten.  I’m sure some are up in arms about it, but I think it’s a grand idea.  Not because I’m all about doing blow till my gills turn green, whether I would go there or not isn’t the point.  The point is if you’re going to do drugs it would be better to be getting it from an organized and reliable source.  And doing them in a

Salty and Crunchy, Nuts in Your Sack.

Ok so I know this is random, but I was looking online trying to find out the nutritional values of pine nuts vs walnuts and cashews.   I was just thinking about what kind I would like to buy for putting on my salads.  I love pine nuts but they are hella expensive, so I was looking at alternatives.

Check out this link for all the detailed information you might want to know about nuts tee hee. [click here] The even have a little about their history and some cooking tips, of how to incorporate them into your diet.

I honestly I wasn’t even looking for all this, but I was really interested in all the cool stuff I found out.  Like did you kn

Your input would be really appreciated!

I’m going to make a site, but I can’t decide on a domain name.  It’s going to be funny picture and I have most things ready to go but I’m not sure which domain name to buy… it’s not about life in asia.. is crazy ass weird shit you see all the time here but you just wouldn’t see anywhere else!

What do you guys think? you can vote on more than one and suggestions are totally welcome.  (my original idea was www.onlyinasia.com but it’s not available )

please pass this along to others and give me as much input as you can… thanks guys!!!

Marriage is NOT a Band-aid!

I spent years telling people I didn’t believe in Marriage, and that was never entirely true.  I don’t believe in the INSTITUTION of marriage.  That paper, doesn’t mean crap to me, the legalities, whatever.  But the commitment?  The sanctity of the relationship?  I do believe in that.

To be frank, the levity with which people enter into marriage offends me sometimes.  Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t think there is anything wrong with ending a relationship that isn’t working, getting a divorce etc.  But I do think that getting married doesn’t change the commitment you make to someone.   In my opinion you can make that same commitment without actually getting married. And if you make a commitment, stick to it, really work at it and then if nothing can be done to work things out, you’ve tried it all, then end it.  Not pft, I don’t like those curtains and the neighbor has a nice tush, grow up at least try.

Another thing that really bothers me, is how many people treat marriage and kids like a band-aid.  Marriage isn’t a bloody fix!!!  WTF.  My first serious boyfriend had a little cheating problem, well I guess he didn’t have a problem so much as an expertise in the field.  Once I realized what he was up to and finally confronted him about it, do you know what his solution to the problem was?  Well he loved me, so we should run away and

A Friend is a Friend is Family a Friend..

Ok, so sit down and get ready to read.

What is a friend?  How do you define friends?  Are there really different kinds and levels?  Or is it really just black and white?

Personally, I think it’s a little of everything.  I do think there are definite lines but at the same time, for me anyway, there are multiple types and levels of friends.  Then bring family into the mix, things get even more complicated. Who is closer family, friends?  Is blood thicker than water?  You can pick your friends, but not your family… or can you?

I feel confidant that everyone has these thoughts from time to time, but maybe I’m wrong, perhaps it’s just me .    Either way I have friends, I have family but the lines get all blurred.  I have friends that are great, I love them, but they aren’t REALLY friends.  Not in the ‘my people’ sense.  On the other hand I have ‘people’ who are obviously friends because you can’t become people with out being friends, yet I never see or talk to them.  But in a pinch….

So who is a friend?  Who isn’t? What makes someone your friend?  A great time over a drink and a chat, regular lunches and confiding, close reliance on each other, there in a crisis, regular conversations, occasional deep and serious conversations, keeping in touch, or just

Happy Birthday Bex :D

I’m stealing your idea.. why because it was good

It’s my friend Becky’s birthday.  Becky is super awesome cool, and tons of fun.  I think my favourite was the time that I showed up and rang her door bell with no advanced warning, from Taiwan .  Although cruising the beach on Canada and enjoying the “scenery”.. that was pretty epic too!

I only get to see her every couple of years when I go home, I’m still waiting on my visit over here .  But I always have a great time, and I really look forward to the times we do hang out.  Especially as we both have been working on being awesome possum, it’s great having someone cool to confer with who totally gets the need to have positive, fabu people to interact with.

Becky and I have a funny little history, she was my classmate’s little sister and our mom’s where friends.

Bex was having trouble with math so I used to go over and tutor her a couple times a week and hang out afterward.  She was always fun, and good for a giggle.  Didn’t really bother us, but it was a little weird back in school to be friends with someone a couple years out of your grade.  That’s us always pushing that envelope (in a good way! )

One thing I have to say, is I really love and appreciate how awesome Becky has always been.  I have a lot of different types and styles of friends.  But I have always been able to count on Becky for an ear, shoulder, hand (just full of handy body parts ) and most awesome an encouraging word.  Perhaps you don’t know how important that kind of thing is, but it has value beyond words.

Hugs Becky!!!  I love you.

Happy International Becky day! W00T!

See how nice I am?  Didn’t add anything about how you sneak into pictures, steal lip-gloss (and then give yours up to throw people off the sent), and full on plot PLOT I say. GRIN.

Tee hee… times twelvety five.  But Becky… what we all really want, nay NEED to know is do you like sausage?