To China We Go

Published on June 30, 2007 in Taiwan

We woke up at the ripe hour of 5:00am, and were at the airport by 5:30. By 10:00 we were in Hong Kong, and by 12:00 we were at the visa office at the Hong Kong/Shenzhen border. I've traveled this route before, so knew it wouldn't be a problem getting a visa. However, to our dismay, the visa office is closed for "lunch" from 12:00-14:30 every day.

Luckily the guy came back around 1:00, and my visa was processed. We were over the border by 14:30, and in search of funds. The Bank of China, hidden in some apartment building a few blocks away, provided the necessary ATM. 2000RMB later we were at the train station buying our tickets to Guangzhou, and by 16:30 we were on the train. We were in Guangzhou by 18:00. We had intended on purchasing a train ticket to Tibet that night, however there was a five day wait. Quite unofrunate. We wandered to our hotel by 19:00 and checked in. Immediately we left to eat at our favorite rice ball store, checked our email, and headed back to the hotel. Day 1, over and out.

Australia, Here We Come!

Published on June 29, 2007 in Taiwan

Alas, it is finally time for me to say goodbye to Taiwan. Yesterday Yan-Shih and I spent a few hours cutting and pasting our "unlonely planet guide", basically a collection of freely available information in English and Chinese. I even designed a little cover logo, I find parodies quite humorous.

Last night, after sending some rather important emails, I packed my laptop. Yan-Shih and I didn't go to bed until 3:00am, yet we were basically packed last week. We woke up at 7:30am and started to bring the boxes to the local post office, which isn't particularly close. We acquired a dolly from the breakfast place, yet that still left the need to bring our four 20KG boxes down five flights of stairs. In the Taipei heat, none the less. Eventually our boxes were shipped to Sydney.

I'm now sitting in a cafe sending a few last emails, organizing a few last things. I've written up a little description about one of these things.

The next entry will likely be from Sydney. Wish me luck.

Britney Spears Video

Published on June 25, 2007 in Taiwan

A mere three years later and I have finally put my Britney Spears video (remix) online. This was done as a project for a media literacy class I was taken, and has been shown already to easily a thousand people. So, if you have six minutes to kill, go ahead and watch it.

Forgive me, for I have sinned

Published on June 25, 2007 in Taiwan

The date is June 25th, 2007, and I've sinned. Let me explain.

I've been involved in technology for quite some time, and have been very anti-facebook/myspace/friendster. There has never been an urge to join, I've always thought people spend way too much time updating their profiles instead of actually writing something useful, insightful, or doing something productive. Two months ago I broke my rule and joined myspace for a total of one day, I needed to contact somebody.

Today, I really broke that rule. Sean and I have a webapp idea in the works that could be very, very successful. The ability to utilize facebook's API is highly desirable, so I created an account. For the last hour I've been adding the people I knew from over the years, and I must say, this is a little like crack. Click click click. Just seeing the the thumbnails of some people are interesting, seeing how people have changed. I wonder if people think the same of me.

If I may, I will make one small observation. I've flipped through the graduation years of my high school, and noticed one interesting trend: there is certainly a correlation between year graduated and the amount of people on facebook. The year 1999 had only 9 people, which rose steadily to 2002 with over 80, and 2003 with almost 100. I wonder if this is the same for other high schools around the country...

Well, I had better not be a hypocrite and waste my time writing a few paragraphs about wasting time. I have to finish a site by Friday before I leave for China and the big adventure.

Starting Closure

Published on June 8, 2007 in Taiwan

For the last 16 months I have been living in Taiwan (if it wasn't obvious). Within the next month, that will be coming to an end. Over the next few weeks I will continue studying for the GMAT and finishing my MCSE (hopefully) -- any words of encouragement will be much welcomed. Meanwhile, I will try to avoid distractions, which seem to be coming in the form of Python. Django has been one of the most fun things I've ever played with. Recently I wrote and contributed some code to access both Alexa Web Search and Alexa Site Thumbnails via Python. What I'm really excited for is picking up C (I learned C++ back in Uni, but have subsequently forgotten it), and contributing to the OpenMoko project. For the, the OpenMoko phone will be the best thing I could ever wish for in a phone. The second I can get one with WiFi (and maybe with GPS), count me in. Here's my money. Enough tech talk, sorry, I just get really excited about Python, Django and an open source phone.

What I meant to write is I'm leaving Taiwan. Oh! General admission to Computex is tomorrow, and while I've already seem some photos, I can't wait. Ok, so I'm leaving Taiwan, and where to then? Eventually we will end up in Australia, so Yan-Shih (www.wawaism.com <-- (she made me do that, and says please click it, but it is in Chinese) has plotted the route (and created a little map).

That's a long trip, and I'm looking forward to every moment of it. We'll be gone June 30th - August 16th, and most likely out of all contact. I think I've heard my site is blocked in China (I do mention Taiwan quite a bit), but will still be able to access my email. Well, upward and onward...