For the last two weeks, I had been touring Taiwan with my dad and Cathy, my stepmom. I’ve finally returned to Taipei and am back online, ready to start studying and trying to make some money. Wish me luck.

The alarms woke me quite early, and I wandered down to breakfast. I ate quickly, packed, and jumped in the car. Next, I drove to the Confucius Temple, parked nearby, and began walking. Along the way, just off the road, a flower market appeared. Cathy and my dad instinctively wandered under the tents, surrounding themselves with orchids and a myriad of other flowers. I tried to hurry them along, but it was like trying to rush children in a candy shop.

I awoke to a loud knock at my door; 8:00am had come too quickly. We had breakfast, packed our bags, and checked out of the hotel. Once the car was packed, I drove to the Snake Kiln, continuing the trip’s theme of ceramics and teapots. Cathy thoroughly enjoyed the kiln, while I had a chance to chat and see some new sights. We browsed the gift shop, made a few purchases, and continued along the highway to Tainan.

We had breakfast at the hotel from the same chain across the street. Full of energy, I started my drive around the lake. First, I stopped at Wen Wu Temple, a large and well-visited complex. I wandered throughout it, explaining its small nuances as we went. In front of the temple, Cathy bought a bag of tangerines before we returned to the car. Second, we visited a peacock farm. Having seen only a few peacocks in my life, I found them intriguing. The birds appeared to be in mating season, with courtship displays occurring everywhere. Third, we visited a small Aboriginal village through which the road passed, where we browsed the gift shops and Cathy eventually purchased a bamboo teapot. Fourth, we saw a huge …

I ate breakfast on my own, as my parents had decided to eat the hotel’s “free” food. Once I arrived, my dad went to pick up the car while Cathy and I chatted and eventually waited by the street. Just as I was beginning to worry, the car appeared, its occupants having only “gotten lost a few times” and “tried to turn down a few one-way streets.” Once on the freeway, I passed through several tollbooths and got only semi-lost while trying to find the perfect area to see blossoms. I found $20 in the bushes next to a large dam, picked it up, and decided not to think too hard about why it was there.

Early in the morning, I took the bus to the hotel, knocked on the door, and wandered across the street to a breakfast place. We ordered enough food for my parents to sample a little of everything, and soon we were off. I needed to check in with work to take another day off, so I brought my parents to Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall. We left the MRT and entered the pavilion, with the National Theatre and National Concert Hall on either side. I could only imagine how it felt for my parents to stand somewhere they had seen in photographs just weeks earlier. We climbed the steps to see CKS’s enormous statue, glanced at the guards, walked through the gardens, and headed to the Taiwanese Handicraft shop.

I waited for the big green bus, but my companion needed to leave to teach. When the bus arrived, I asked a woman behind me in my limited Chinese, “Does this go to the…?” “Airport,” she replied. I jumped aboard and started the journey. That evening, my dad and stepmother, Cathy, were arriving in Taipei. It was rush hour, so I tried to leave plenty of time. I started waiting at around 5:45, but the bus didn’t arrive until almost 6:20. Leaving Taipei was painful; the streets were a parking lot. The bus finally reached the freeway, and by 7:00, about the time my parents were arriving, I was still 20 minutes away. I was somewhat relieved, knowing they would need to collect their …

I really like using PSAD, both on my server and my laptop. You never know where the mean people are. I also seem to use syslog-ng quite often, meanwhile PSAD seems oriented to syslog. This is fine, and I’m pretty sure the install.pl for the source built will configure syslog-ng.conf automatically. However, I almost always tend to stick with packages if I can – if they are even remotely close to the current version. Anyways, if you need to get syslog-ng.conf configured for PSAD, this is what you need to do: Add this code to the “# pipes” section, maybe stick to keeping it alphabetical.

The taxman has come yet again. I’m especially proud of myself this year: my taxes were completely finished by April 13, which certainly beat last year, when I had about two hours left. I fared quite well and, considering I didn’t work that much, will even be getting a slight refund! My state tax was especially interesting: I wasn’t sure how Oregon should treat income earned while I was working remotely from another country, so I reported it rather than rely on my own interpretation. It seemed like a situation best handled cautiously.

I’m a bussing man, I’ll admit it. In middle school I had a great bike and could ride all over town. Then, in high school, I had a car and could drive all over town. When I went to uni, I lived in the middle of a big city and didn’t need a car, so I sold it. Since then, I’ve been riding buses everywhere. They’re cheap and good for the environment; I can’t complain.