A couple odd happenings today both before and after this morning's run.
First, we had our first "stowaway" try to penetrate our apartment. A giant cockroach the size of my thumb hid inside my running shoes (which I store outside on the patio when not in use - they aren't the most pleasant-smelling things!), and, thankfully, made his presence known BEFORE I tried to stick my foot in the shoe! (I saw him poking his head out of the shoe while I was gathering my sunglasses, etc.) A frantic effort to exterminate the roach ensued and he nearly escaped into the apartment at large, which may have been disastrous - we've not seen any such critters in our apartment to this point, and we don't want to have an infestation start this way, by having a "stowaway" escape and establish a nest. Before long, the roach was terminated (he was fast!) and I tossed his carcass over the edge of the balcony, watching him fall seven stories to his ultimate doom. Good riddance! I then went for my run.
The second weird thing happened after my run was over and I was walking across Central Park back home. Near the entrance to the MRT there is a "water square" (an open area that from time to time features water fountains spraying up in the air - when there are no fountains going off, it is just like any other square or plaza. Hence, it's a "water square.") On the one side of the square is a small stream that leads to a pond in the park where we like to feed the fish with scraps of bread. Well, today, I could see from across the square that there was a person in the stream, and unlike previous times I have seen kids or adults WADING in the stream, this person appeared to be all the way in the stream, like a person in a swimming pool, or, more appropriately, a bath tub. Hmm, this is odd, I thought as I walked closer (the stream was between me and home, so I wasn't going closer just to be a gawker, I was heading home) - that looks like an adult..who is naked...bathing in the stream! And that's just what it was - an old woman, buck naked, taking a bath in the stream! I have no idea if she was homeless or what the deal was, and to a certain extent I don't blame her - it was really hot out! The other people around seemed to not even take a second glance her way, but this was a little bit weird to me, definitely not something I am used to seeing. Weird.
Full run details posted soon.
GJS
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Monday, May 10, 2010
Birthday Run
Went for a run today - needed to get back in "the right" after only one run last week. Disgustingly humid today in southern Taiwan - I wish it would just rain to get all the moisture out of the air. It was a "sweatfest."
GJS
GJS
Thursday, May 06, 2010
New York Times "Moment in Time" update
This is not the interactive gallery that we had hoped to present by now, showing all the “Moment in Time” contributions that are fit to print. Frankly, the number of submissions has so far exceeded our hopes — nearly 14,000 at last count — that we’ve been struggling to stay ahead of the tide as we review every image and caption coming in.
Instead, we offer another small sampler of the wonderful work we’ve been receiving, in the spirit of our earlier post, “From Many Instants, a Moment.” These are vignettes around the world taken at one given time; Sunday at 15:00, Coordinated Universal Time.
This short slide show should give you an idea why we’re so eager to share the full presentation with you, which we’ll do as soon as we possibly can.
Cool "crowdsourcing" photo project from the New York Times. I sent in a photo - want to see it?
Monday, May 03, 2010
Painting mishap
GJS
("Cammie up!")
Saturday, May 01, 2010
Full Saturday run details and weekly run totals
Here's the pretty picture of today's run:
I went exploring in the hills near my school and had a fun time of it. Made the 8 miles seem to go by (relatively) fast. I definitely got some sun today.
Here are my totals for the week:
I was unsuccessful this week in my attempt to inject at least one more day of running into my schedule. Until I can do that, I think it will be hard for me to increase my weekly mileage beyond about where it is at now (~20 miles a week when I get all three runs in). Adding this volume will be critical in preparing for a marathon later in the year.
GJS
I went exploring in the hills near my school and had a fun time of it. Made the 8 miles seem to go by (relatively) fast. I definitely got some sun today.
Here are my totals for the week:
GJS
Saturday run
...is done. It was improbably good - I had low expectations upon leaving the apartment. More about it later. 8+ miles.
GJS
GJS
Friday, April 30, 2010
Expo 2010 Shanghai - "China has arrived"
The 2010 World Expo opens tonight (Friday) in Shanghai. What a tremendous event! Saw this article in the Washington Post today - check it out, along with the photos. Unlike the 2008 Olympics I had no chance of seeing in person, I fully intend to make it to Shanghai for the 2010 Expo. (Helps that it lasts 6 months!)
At Expo 2010 Shanghai, China thinks big
By Andrew Higgins
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, April 30, 2010; A08
SHANGHAI -- Take the crowd that attended Woodstock in 1969, multiply it by 175 and dump the result in the middle of the world's most populous city. That is, in effect, what China plans to do at Expo 2010 Shanghai, an elephantine world's fair that opens Friday evening on the banks of the Huangpu River.
Everything about the Shanghai jamboree is super-size, most prominently the China Pavilion, a red upside-down pyramid with floor space equivalent to 35 football fields. That makes it about 30 times the size of the Canadian-designed U.S. showcase, which is tucked away in a corner of the main Expo site.
"The obvious conscious message is that China has arrived," said Jose Villarreal, a San Antonio lawyer recruited by the Obama administration in July to salvage floundering U.S. plans for the Shanghai Expo. "We are basically celebrating China's emergence as a world power."
Villarreal, who was named U.S. commissioner general to the event, joined Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in raising $61 million from U.S. companies to finance the American pavilion, which -- to China's dismay -- was nearly abandoned at one point for lack of funds. "We were going through one of the worst financial crises in history, and it was hard to get the attention of corporate leaders," Villarreal said.
On Thursday, China signaled its delight that the United States had finally gotten its act together: President Hu Jintao visited the U.S. exhibit, met with Mandarin-speaking American students who are serving as guides and "congratulated us on completing our pavilion," Villarreal said.
For China, money has been no object. Unlike the United States, which has begged for private money to fund expos since 1991, when Congress made government funding difficult, China dipped into the deep pockets of the state. It is spending $4.2 billion on the six-month Expo -- and 10 times that if new roads, rail lines and other infrastructure projects are included in the bill. (The last world's fair on U.S. soil, held in New Orleans in 1984, went bankrupt.)
One thing that has been scaled back in Shanghai, though, is Friday's opening ceremony. It still features an elaborate fireworks display, but an even grander spectacle was pared down to make sure China's second city didn't eclipse Beijing's opening of the 2008 Olympics.
A dozen boxes of silk
When London hosted the first world's fair in 1851, showcasing Britain as the dominant industrial and imperial power, China's sole contribution was 12 boxes of silk sent by a Shanghai merchant. Karl Marx, who was in London at the time working on theories that would inspire Mao Zedong and which nominally still guide China's ruling Communist Party, deplored the whole affair, known as the Great Exhibition, as an exercise in capitalist excess.
About the only nod in Marx's direction in Shanghai is a second opening ceremony Saturday -- International Workers' Day -- to open the Expo's vast riverside sites to the general public.
U.S. reliance on corporate sponsors has presented "unique difficulties," Villarreal said, noting that all other major countries have full-time government-funded teams that turn up at each world's fair. "We invent the wheel every time," he said.
While throngs of Chinese with advance tickets waited for hours earlier this week to get a sneak preview of China's already operating national exhibit, American contractors were still connecting wires and unpacking boxes inside a hall dominated by the corporate logos of sponsors.
'Rising to the Challenge'The U.S. pavilion -- motto: "Rising to the Challenge" -- features a movie house, a big room filled with stands promoting the companies that are footing the bill and a fast-food joint run by Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut. The United States has also signed some big-name acts, including musician Herbie Hancock, who will perform next month.
Early reviews of U.S. efforts from ordinary Chinese have been mostly lukewarm. "There are too many corporate logos," said Sam Feng, a 30-year-old Shanghai resident. "I thought the USA would have some brilliant and exciting stuff. . . . Except for buying some souvenirs, I can't think of anything special about it."
China's pavilion has also stirred some grumbling. There have been complaints that its design was cribbed from a Japanese exhibit in Spain in 1992. The Chinese designer denies this.
Zhou Hanmin, deputy director of the Expo's organizing committee, said China is not trying to show off by building a gigantic national pavilion. It needs the space to house exhibits from 31 provinces and cities, which each have bigger populations than many countries. Moreover, big as it is, the China Pavilion will only be able to accommodate about 8 percent of the expected 70 million visitors, he said.
I'm still not sure what this is all about
I tried to upload this photo yesterday with my other photos from the dinosaur exhibit, but my computer wouldn’t let me. Perhaps because it sensed that this image represents a profound disturbance in what can only be called “the force.” Just what this creature has to do with an exhibit of dinosaur bones I am still entirely unclear. Disturbing.
GJS
More on the new dinosaur book
I didn't want to leave you hanging about "Bopomofo," so here are a few pictures of John's new dinosaur book that might help. The cover:
...and inside:
See how to the right of the each "main" character there are smaller characters? That's Bopomofo. It's phonetic. Like I mentioned, they mean little to me. Supposedly they are pretty easy to learn, but I haven't tried it yet.
The first line before the comma says:
巨型食草恐龍阿根廷龍
In Hanyu Pinyin, this would read:
Jùxíng shí cǎo kǒnglóng āgēntíng lóng
This makes a lot more sense to somebody coming from a non character-based language background. I mean, when you are supposed to understand how to pronounce something in characters based on another set of characters, it gets a little dicey!
In English it means, "Giant herbivorous dinosaur and Argentina dinosaur..." The "Argentina dinosaur" the book refers to is the Noasaurus, which you can read about here.
Thus endeth your Chinese lesson. :-)
GJS
It's a book about "longnecks"
Bad day to be a longneck
Chinese with "Bopomofo" phonetics
See how to the right of the each "main" character there are smaller characters? That's Bopomofo. It's phonetic. Like I mentioned, they mean little to me. Supposedly they are pretty easy to learn, but I haven't tried it yet.
The first line before the comma says:
巨型食草恐龍阿根廷龍
In Hanyu Pinyin, this would read:
Jùxíng shí cǎo kǒnglóng āgēntíng lóng
This makes a lot more sense to somebody coming from a non character-based language background. I mean, when you are supposed to understand how to pronounce something in characters based on another set of characters, it gets a little dicey!
In English it means, "Giant herbivorous dinosaur and Argentina dinosaur..." The "Argentina dinosaur" the book refers to is the Noasaurus, which you can read about here.
Thus endeth your Chinese lesson. :-)
GJS
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Can't believe I missed World Tapir Day!
via google.com
April 27 is World Tapir Day - who knew? (via Flickr Blog, http://blog.flickr.net/en/2010/04/27/its-world-tapir-day/)
Discover the Jurassic Period
That's the name of the dinosaur exhibit John and I checked out today. John had already been there once when Grandma Mackeprang was here after Lance was born, but neither Barb nor I had been there yet. Today it was just me and John - Barb took a break and rested at home.
Impressions: it was OK, if a tad expensive. Adult tickets were NT$330 (US$10.48 at today's exchange rate) and John was free. We were probably in the exhibit for 15, 20 minutes, tops. A few pics:
With a "Three Horn"
Giant armored dinosaur
Bones
A scary "chicken"
John enjoyed it, but I think he wasn't as excited about seeing it the second time around. You can see some representations of the exhibit on the display's website here: http://www.skm.com.tw/event/200912jurassic_period/content.html. (Sorry, it's only in Chinese; just look at the pictures, it gives you a pretty good idea of what it's all about.)
After we left the exhibit, we picked up a dinosaur book for John. He had been wanting one since he borrowed one from his school over last weekend and we used it to make some dinosaur drawings. After we took the book back to his school earlier this week, he still wanted to make some dinosaur drawings, so we looked on his bookshelves to see if he had a dinosaur book. With the abundance of books the boy has, I thought for sure he owned a dinosaur book. Turns out I was wrong, so today we decided to correct this. The book was far cheaper than admission to the display (only NT$90). Drawback (or plus, I suppose): the book's text is all in Chinese, with "Bopomofo" phonetics (it's a way to learn Mandarin Chinese, but unfortunately, not the Hanyu Pinyin that I cut my teeth on at DLI, therefore not of a lot of use to me in "helping" me read the book.)
GJS
P.S. We found Thomas there:
Pilcher
cat on "Bob the Builder."
Monday, April 26, 2010
Monday run details
As promised:
Not an easy run, but necessary to get faster. PFT coming up in less than a month.
GJS
Not an easy run, but necessary to get faster. PFT coming up in less than a month.
GJS
Today's Run
I'm back from my run. Did about 5.5 miles. Details posted later. Weather not bad today - sunny but not terribly hot. A bit hazy.
GJS
GJS
Comparison
I've been wanting to get some photos of John and Lance side-by-side at about the same age for comparison's sake. Picasa just made it really easy for me - it displayed these two pics right next to each other:
That's John on the left and Lance on the right. I think both pics are taken when they are about one month old. I know for sure the one on the right (Lance) is at one month, I just took it a few days ago. As for John's pic (on the left), that's his Grandpa Sampson holding him while visiting us in Hawaii not long after his birth, probably about a month or so afterwards, but my memory of exactly when my folks came to visit us then is a little fuzzy.
Anyhow, it's fair to say there's some family resemblance here! Discuss amongst yourselves...
GJS
That's John on the left and Lance on the right. I think both pics are taken when they are about one month old. I know for sure the one on the right (Lance) is at one month, I just took it a few days ago. As for John's pic (on the left), that's his Grandpa Sampson holding him while visiting us in Hawaii not long after his birth, probably about a month or so afterwards, but my memory of exactly when my folks came to visit us then is a little fuzzy.
Anyhow, it's fair to say there's some family resemblance here! Discuss amongst yourselves...
GJS
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Lots more Lance
Here's the link to the set called "Lance." I cannot guarantee that all the pics and video of him are in this set, but it's a start, and you can branch out from there.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gjsamps/sets/72157623559413763/
Feel like you are missing out on seeing John? Then take a look at this video of him having a lot of fun last week at the beach near my school with his Aunt Kristine and cousin Nicholas.
GJS
Europe's Kaohsiung Legacy
Like I wrote about earlier this month, I missed Europe's April 3 show here in Kaohsiung, but unfortunately I was unable to escape their legacy completely. This is a local band playing near Central Park a couple weeks ago. The tune? Europe's "The Final Countdown."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)