Colours in the Mind

Okay, so let's play a little game that I've been thinking of bringing up. Here's how I figure it will work: I list a few colours (or colour combinations). You tell me what companies / signs / brands / products pop in your head. Let's begin (in no particular):

1. red & white
2. black
3. red & green & blue
4. brown
5. yellow & purple
6. blue
7. orange
8. bright/neon green
9. pink
10. white & silver
11. blue & yellow

Fun for the whole family!

Pent Up

One day, someone (with their scooter) is going to piss me off so much that I'm going to wait until they park it, leave, and then I'm going to secure my disc brake lock on their bike and leave it there.

Not-So-Black Friday

Well, Thanksgiving came and went. Quietly. (Well, as quietly as Taipei can be normally.)

No parade being broadcast on every single TV channel. No turkey carving at the family table; not even a little turkey sandwich with cranberry jam. No festivities, no sitting around saying what we're thankful for.

And there's no Black Friday crazy-shopping day for us here. I kind of miss that, even though I know a lot of you (in North America) dread the hordes of bargain hunters scouring the malls and outlets, and would rather stay in the security of your own home while watching ... I dunno, morning cartoons.

See, Americans, this is your version of the Canadian Boxing Day (December 26): shopping until you literally drop of exhaustion, or have your innards squeezed out of you in the line-ups outside popular stores. This is your greatest chance to clear up your Christmas shopping in one go of great deals galore, and then sit back and watch the rest of the Christmas shoppers go nuts on December 23. (Of course, you won't get all your shopping done today, because most of what you buy will be for yourself. I know how it is; I been there.)

Here in Taiwan, we don't get that.

Instead, our crazy shopping days are usually on weekday non-holidays, sometimes during this year-end shopping season, and they usually put up flyers and ads about some limited-stock item that prompts old ladies to line up outside the store for hours. After all, the rest of the population has to work, and can't be there to queue up for a semi-good discount on a completely frivilous product.

Yeah, it's not really the same. But tonight, I will be on a quest to have some turkey anyhow -- someone must serve it around here. Happy Thanksgiving!

Backpack

How do you wash your backpack? Or do you?

(Learning About) Family Time

Have had substantial facetime with the parentals recently, and most recently, have had the rare opportunity to have the whole family together as well. Most notable was learning that little bit more about what drives my relatives in their own different ways, and beginning to understand the real depths of how that has translated into the effects of my upbringing. Very interesting navel-gazing times, and ne'er a moment too soon.

More Than Ever

What with my parents visiting, and my siblings coming up, my little studio apartment is now teeming with people. And people's things. And constant chatter. And I only have one queen bed and one sofa, which inevitably means that when we awake in the morning and look about us, none of us are necessarily well-rested, and we look like we're a group of refugees taking temporary shelter in an apartment.

My Day

Funny. I don't feel another year wiser.

What'd I Say?

So I was chilling at home mid-day (because I can), and my mobile phone rings. Caller ID says the phone number calling is "1". Huh, that's interesting. Having piqued my curiosity, I answered. A very scripted voice on the other end sprung into life (in Chinese).

"Hello, we want to introduce you to [BlahBlah Inc., I can't remember the name]. [blah blah blah ... she read really fast, and I kind of tuned out at this point as I let her finish her two or three paragraphs.] We'd like to send you a brochure. What address shall I send it to?

I wanted to answer her, but first, I needed to get some answers of my own. I politely inquired,

"Hi, how did you get my number?"

I think she was taken aback by this question, but she had a (prepared) answer.

"Oh, we have our call list from Taiwan Mobile, so those are the numbers we call."

Very well, then. I didn't like the answer, but she wasn't the right person to unleash my anti-telemarketer fury upon anyhow. And anyway, she didn't give me much time to consider her response, because she jumped right back into her script ... and repeated pretty much verbatim one of her previously-read paragraphs. I cut her off, because she was talking too fast.

"Sorry, what did you say [BlahBlah Inc.] was?"
"It's a shopping mall, which is similar to Sogo and ShinKong Mitsukoshi. Where can we send you the brochure?"

I get a lot of junk mail already, and in the interest of not getting more -- as well as letting them save their brochures for people who might be more interested -- I gave her my response.

"Oh, that's okay. You don't need to send me one."

Well, that's neat. My reply probably wasn't on her list of possible answers, and she stammered,

"Um, what?"
"It's okay, please don't send me one."

I mean, I think I was being pretty nice about it. And you know, she probably never came across someone like me. Because ... she really wasn't equipped to handle it, which led to her final response.

"Er ... ahhhhh, 幹你娘 [you motherfvcker]!"
[hang up]

Maybe I should have just accepted the brochure.