Bigger and Smaller

Flipping through photos of just two years ago, I was a lot bigger back when I was still adamant about my 3-4 gym visits a week, and forcing a semi-strict high-protein diet and adhering to my low-fat and low-carb regimen. Clearly, that kind of discipline has been left by the wayside as I've started to adopt a Taiwanese lifestyle ... and 12 pounds of muscle lighter, I'm a shadow of my former self.

Perusing pictures of even years before that (when I found my elementary school class photos on Facebook), I saw that I was clearly a lot smaller than my classmates. M came across them and said it was easy to find me in the pictures: just look for the tiniest kid in class. I wonder if that would still hold true if we were all to meet again in this day.

Empty Threats

The past two weeks, the CWB (Central Weather Bureau) has used its forecasts to threaten us with rain, and lots of it. And so far, aside from one day of pretty hard rain lasting about 3 hours, the most we've had is light rains and mere drizzles that have lasted at most an hour. Seems like the air will get uncomfortably hot and humid, making our clothes stick to our skin the moment we step foot outside, but the skies just won't open up.

Ah, who cares. I hope it rains between June 4 and 8 -- when I'm far away in Hawaii -- and gets it all out of the way.

Wedding Overload

I guess it's that time, both of the year and of our lives. These few days are wedding-rich: Thursday wedding, Saturday phone meeting about MCing an upcoming wedding, Saturday wedding, and then Sunday wedding photo consultation.

I already have a slight hangover from the first one (last night) which, as you can imagine, will make this afternoon's work orientation for new employees (coming over a month after I've started working here) extra extra fun.

Tonight, I rest up for tomorrow night's wedding (and afterparty) and hope my tummy recovers better than it's (not) doing now.

The Awakening

On a workday, I can be completely deprived of sleep and still hobble to the office in the morning. Then I sit at my desk and desperately fight off the desire to nod off while reading interesting patent applications (not). Sometimes it gets better as the morning progresses, sometimes it doesn't.

Most times, it doesn't.

But one thing stays constant: I have this ability to suddenly awaken, and my energy level lifts back to normal, as lunchtime approaches. I'm like one of those lazy farm animals that lies around and does nothing until feeding time.

Run DMV

I skipped lunch with the coworkers today to get my oil change ($500NT), and while I was at the (reputable) Yamaha shop, I asked about renewing my scooter registration and whatever. She tells me there's the mandatory insurance ($1400NT) and some owner's registration ($1050), and both the locations for doing this are easily half an hour away by scooter and only open during regular business hours. So I fork over the $200NT handling fee to get them to do it for me.

And during this discussion, I found out that I've been driving with an expired scooter license for the past year.

Oops.

Turns out, they put the expiry date the same as my previous ARC, which I've since renewed for much longer. I guess I have to head out tomorrow morning to the Motor Vehicles Office (which is out in the opposite direction from work) to renew my license quickly, before I get pulled over for whatever and then fined a subsequent $6000NT.

A Whole 'Nother Set

I had a strange dream last night. (Actually, I probably had several, but upon waking up, I could only remember this one little snippet of them.)

I remember thinking that I should "correct" my habit of only brushing my teeth with my right hand holding the toothbrush, because there are probably parts of my teeth that I just can't reach well from the different angle. So I switched hands and used my left hand to hold the toothbrush and then put the toothbrush on the left upper teeth (the side that touches the inside of my cheek). And in my dream, I was right; the outside surfaces of those upper left teeth were plaque-covered and utterly filthy.

But in real life, they're not. I can get all my teeth with my toothbrush held in either hand.

Cold, Cruel World

Yesterday morning, while getting my routine morning sandwich for breakfast outside my office building, I noticed something rather un-routine.

A car was stopped in the alley just before merging onto the main road. Two people -- a man and a woman, though it doesn't matter -- were standing in front of it. Slightly obscured from my view was a little bicycle propped on its kickstand directly parked in front of the stopped car. And the two people, whom I presume were previously seated in the car, were staring down at the wailing elderly lady.

"Oh, it hurts so much! You have to take me to the hospital now. Call an ambulance! I must have broken something. I need you to take me to the hospital."

Now, understanding how disobedient people are to the traffic rules -- and this trend is increasingly so as you move further away from the capital city, and as your vehicle size gets smaller -- is it bad of me that I automatically assumed that this elderly lady (whom I'm sure is the nice grandmother of some cute little children) was simply blindly disregarding the traffic laws and haphazardly rode her bike oblivious to the fact that the road does not belong to her?

And is it doubly worse that I had no sympathy for her and actually felt that she deserved it? Even without having seen the actual accident to see whose fault it was?

Well, I don't care. Let that be a lesson to all of you on bicycles that ride all wobbly while trying to mingle in with the scooters, cars, trucks, and busses.

And for the record, she did not really appear to be injured. And none of the 10+ rubberneckers seemed to be particularly concerned for her wellbeing either. So I think she was just trying to milk it for all it was worth, possibly to buy something nice for her nice grandkids.

Long Hiatus

Whoa. I haven't blogged for 11 days now. That's a pretty long time.

The World Through My Eyes

Yeah, yeah.
I have double standards.
So what?
I like it.

Just One More

We all know it, even if some of us won't admit it: sometimes you just need a second flush. Sometimes the toilet flush power isn't enough, or the capacity doesn't suffice to rid its bowl of last night's beans-n-fiber bonanza.

And I know about the whole being energy efficient and natural resource conscious and all that. But if you're going to process the bowl for the next guy, it's worth that extra flick of the handle to eliminate those pesky lingering brown sediments.

Seriously.

Yes, mysterious coworker on the fourth floor, that means you. Don't make me do your dirty work, buster. I'll be looking out for you.