I'm off to eat some Japanese style um hot-plate food stuff. Thing. It's hard to explain but it's nice, I did it last year.

According to Babelfish, this is the contents of the letter I wrote to my mum:

"My present, in Taiwan, studies many Chinese - to be allowed to use Chinese to write a letter for you! The aunt said compared me to owe is much better . Good pulls, I have 1. to plan the English position she 乓 to arrange in me help me 1., but I really have study the but actually very many Xin's character I must ask attend your - me the university must go to the money is must such the luck? My "student loan" now a now too 嫚, the body sentiment did not say.. Is must use your "credit card"? Aunt Ye asks on you the pond comes Taiwan after the husband to want me presently to stay time New Zealand or to slide says your in July Taiwan's time? My township pen Ye in front of the one is coming Taiwan very much.. May? :)"

-_-

Henry The University of Auckland

Current Total Balance: $5,222.58

...

Apparently, they need that 58 cents.

Well...yeah. Okay. I can't pay by student loan in time I don't think because it takes three weeks and fees are due 21st...and...I dont know whether to ask my mum for credit card or...

Holy crap I dunno what to do -_-

Maaaa do I pay with credit card, if so, please email me your number.

Did I ever mention I have an irrational fear of canisters of anything flammable? Yeah. I do. Petrol tankers are the worst.

I also haven't eaten at McDonalds ever since I found blood on the lettuce of my Big Mac.

Guess what "Scissor Sisters" is a term for?

Hi. Just came back from Shilin Night Market. I did the following which I really wanted to do:

Buy a string-part-of-necklace thing from the night market to hold the pendant I bought today. The pendant...it's actually quite nice and feels a lot meatier and substantial than the ones on sale at Shilin. Maybe that justifies the price tag.

Ate the following:

Mien Mien Bing (basically like...snow! YAY it was SO nice)
Da Bing Bao Xiao Bing (big biscuit wrapping small biscuit) mmmm peanut flavour
Shui Jian Bao (water fried bun...I had a meat and a vege one. With sauce.)
Tako-yaki (octopus ball things)

Yum!

Am listening to Black Mages II: The skies above. Yeah okay I was gonna buy it but nobody was selling it so...feh. It's pretty good! I'm glad I didn't believe the reviews that flogged it. I think Zeromus is good at this speed...it's good at any speed. I can't wait to hear Hunter's Chance, it better be good.

:) :)

Some people from Kaohsiung are coming up tomorrow, yay, more fun for the weekend. I don't wanna leave Taiwan :(

LAYS CHIPS ARE AWESOME

Tahiti Yellow Lemon flavour...ooooooh! Lemony, fresh, not too greasy, crisp...


Lays you rock.

ButterPillow] 021 1585 204 says:
how do u like my new internet name
[-=Blak=-] » blakomen.blogspot.com -:- www.ffof.tk [64] [Six Degrees of Dream Theater kickass.] says:
butter pillow? i seriously thought it was a chick until i moused over and got the email addy
[ButterPillow] 021 1585 204 says:
WTF
[ButterPillow] 021 1585 204 says:
i take taht as an insult SIR
[-=Blak=-] » blakomen.blogspot.com -:- www.ffof.tk [64] [Six Degrees of Dream Theater kickass.] says:
XD
[-=Blak=-] » blakomen.blogspot.com -:- www.ffof.tk [64] [Six Degrees of Dream Theater kickass.] says:
i know
[ButterPillow] 021 1585 204 says:
but dont u think it has a loafy comfortable ring to it
[ButterPillow] 021 1585 204 says:
it didn't come from butterchicken
[ButterPillow] 021 1585 204 says:
it came from butterflies
[ButterPillow] 021 1585 204 says:
then i thgouth what about butterdog
[ButterPillow] 021 1585 204 says:
but it sounded like some new all american basebal ffood
[-=Blak=-] » blakomen.blogspot.com -:- www.ffof.tk [64] [Six Degrees of Dream Theater kickass.] says:
...
[-=Blak=-] » blakomen.blogspot.com -:- www.ffof.tk [64] [Six Degrees of Dream Theater kickass.] says:
butterpillow soundsl ike butterscotch which is candy
[-=Blak=-] » blakomen.blogspot.com -:- www.ffof.tk [64] [Six Degrees of Dream Theater kickass.] says:
candy is a girls name
[ButterPillow] 021 1585 204 says:
-.,-
[-=Blak=-] » blakomen.blogspot.com -:- www.ffof.tk [64] [Six Degrees of Dream Theater kickass.] says:
butterflies, are feminine
[ButterPillow] 021 1585 204 says:
thta's a weird link
[ButterPillow] 021 1585 204 says:
BUTTERDOG
[-=Blak=-] » blakomen.blogspot.com -:- www.ffof.tk [64] [Six Degrees of Dream Theater kickass.] says:
butter chicken reminds me of rikky
[ButterPillow] 021 1585 204 says:
i kno
[-=Blak=-] » blakomen.blogspot.com -:- www.ffof.tk [64] [Six Degrees of Dream Theater kickass.] says:
butterdog reminds me of hot dog which reminds me of a penis.
[ButterPillow] 021 1585 204 says:
-.,-
[-=Blak=-] » blakomen.blogspot.com -:- www.ffof.tk [64] [Six Degrees of Dream Theater kickass.] says:
so either way, you're either a girl, black, or a dick

Hello. Today, I woke up, vacuumed the house, and then in the afternoon went with my aunty to something like a day-market. (Maybe Sunday market is the right term...) She had to buy some stuff for herself and my mum and some other friends and she said that there were tons of necklaces for sale there too. What I didn't know that it was wholesale...I saw a pendant I really liked but it was way too expensive (about 25 in NZ) but then she randomly asked someone with a "wholesaler's card"...and everything became half-price...XD RIDICULOUSLY CHEAP

In the area was also handmade sushi, NT$10 for each piece - fresh made - I stood there and watched the dude make it for a while. Holy crap he was fast and it tasted real nice - there was a wide variety of sushi too, eel, fish eggs, tamago, mmmmmmm

Anyway yeah. And then afterwards I went to my aunty's friends house (the one who goes to the same injury rehabilitation centre as her but for rolling her ankle I think, not a knife cut) and they poured me "kung-fu tea" (basically the really artsy Chinese pouring tea ceremony-ish thing) and it was really nice. I can still taste it in my mouth...mmmm...I only found out halfway through that I was drinking really high grade tea and it was costing them roughly $50 per cup. o_O

But it was nice. They had a cool collection of unique teacups and stuff too, it was very nice of them to go to the trouble of displaying it all for me to take photos of. I may go to Shi-Lin Night Market today, depending on whether the drizzle outside clears up or not.

Yup.

Remember when I said I met a three legged dog last year in Hua Lien? Yeah.

1. Study really hard for 7th Form.
2. Get a girlfriend.
3. Be so totally awesome and cool that people will shatter into ice cubes if they can't handle the cool.
4. Eat healthy and stay healthy.

Those were my resolutions from last year. As you can see, none of them turned out really well. I don't think some of those are even possible now...

Okay maybe I did number three. HYAH And a bit of four...I don't eat to be full I eat to not be hungry now. If that makes sense...

Yeah I've been reading through old blog posts. ;_; I must have been such a twat a year ago. Or maybe yesterday. Time seems...so long.

OH YEAH I FORGOT today, the funniest crap happened. Okay I was walking near GuangHua bridge (where I bought music CDs) right, and there were food stalls blocking the pedestrian entry..anyway. A cop came along on a scooter and they all ran away like crazy XD IT WAS REALLY FUNNY but I felt kinda stink for those people. ;_; it's their job, both the people going against the law, and the cops. ;_;

My aunty told me Leo wore the X-box cap I gifted him to school today. :D

Here are some Kaohsiung photos. BE WARNED I POSTED THEM BACKWRADS OR SOMETHING SO GO TO THE BOTTOM OF HTE SET AND READ UPWARDS okay thanks

This is "toilet icecream". XD XD XD You get to keep the toilet...

Using the amazing powers of resonance, my cousin was able to get this simple looking bowl of water to spray like a mofo. This photo was in the long buildup to him actually succeeding. ^^"

This is killer bee baby wine!

I'm getting lazy. I will post more later (later could well be much later...) but the most crucial photos I have to share right now are: this. This is killer bee wine...basically they have wine and then they pour live killer bees into it...the bees get drunk and then die. Yum!

This is in the same room...the chair you see in the previous picture is the computer chair. Anyway, this was everybody watching me sift through William's blog for pictures of my sister (who was with me when I visited five years ago) and also to download Man 'o War. Yup. The one looking at the camera directly is...

Mkay. This is David, Amy and Leo playing some random card-game which I don't understand. The cards have animals on them. This was at the Hsuieh family house (not sure if I spelt that correctly), which I visited about five years ago and had fond memories of then...yes...

This is the shared meal in party room in apartment complex. Lots of nice food. Christmas decorations were still up...>.>

This is David in the swimming pool in the apartment complex they live in...(its a really good apartment complex...) I know, there is no water...he isn't drowning either...they empty out the pool for winter unlike at policewoman aunty's house...where they leave it, and just don't clean it, and things like tadpoles and frogs take over...yeah. ^^

This is Chen Hong Chia (Leo), younger brother of Amy and David. This is him (attempting :P) to play I think it was snooker...it involved red balls or something...anyway we were just sinking balls for points. Funny story: His original English name was Wewe. When I asked why it was this, he said someone chose it for him. I said that I'd help him find a better one, and we came up with Leo because it's short, easy to say and remember and only has three letters. And plus, if you squint, he kinda looks like a lion. :) Oh yeah this pool/snooker table is in the apartment complex, near the swimming pool and the party room where we were eating that day.

Okay. On the right is David's younger sister, Chen Hong Jin (I think...anyway her English name is Amy) and on the left is someone who lives in the same apartment complex which David's family live in. We were on B1, enjoying a shared meal which lots of people cooked for. There was Taiwanese Sausages. Yum. More on the apartment complex later. Also, I went to the person on the left's house (I'm sorry I don't remember her name) the night before I was due to leave Kaohsiung...her dad is REALLY funny and they poured really cool tea and some stupid movie was playing on TV and we were half watching it kinda but not really, it was called Soldier and involved a snake of some kind...yeah...anyway and the person on the left's mum actually cooked for me some Taiwanese Sausages because I was leaving soon...at like....1 in the morning ;_; thank you so much, I was greatly moved by this gesture...

On the way back from Kaohsiung, we saw this. Flying object, long jet-steam-smoke-trail thing behind it, moving relatively slowly....;_; I got really scared that it was something apocalyptical and stuff...but it was okay, I think. William says it be a comet while David's dad says it be low flying jetplane whose smoke-trail has been made orange by sunset. Hmm.

This is us enjoying said seafood of Kaohsiung fame. There is something wrong with this picture, which only those in the know will know. Please, for those of you who know, do not ruin the fun. Oh yeah, we were also having drinks and stuff. Mostly the drink.

which turns out to be a parrot. \o/

This is Chen Hong Ren (David) in the process of making something...

This is Chijin or...whatever it actually is, I don't remember the name perfectly but yeah. This is what it looks like from a tall building place...it's beachside (obviously) and it's famous for fresh seafood...

Ferry to Kaohsiung. I know, you are wondering how I took a photo of the ferry when in fact I was on the ferry. WELL IM MAGICAL AND I FLEW OVER (but actually the ferries work in shifts, the moment one leaves the dock one arrives.)

This is the game which we played to win the balloons. Basically, you throw a ping pong ball before the little cup things and if you get it in a cup you get points.

Phew. For a moment, I thought Hello died on my computer but I figured out that Hello, the photo posting blog program thing, isn't cool enough to handle folders with Chinese characters. Anyway. This is me with Chen Hong Ren, my mum's brother's wife's younger sister's son. He's in last year of Primary School and we discovered his secret talent of making balloon animals, after we went to a place called ChiGong and we played a little game thing and we picked modelling balloons as a prize. Yeah.

WTF www.ffof.tk NOT WORKING WTF

;_;

Also, I bought some Lay's chips today. Someone in Kaohsiung said that the guy advertising them on TV is cool and I reminded me of them. That was one factor of me buying it. I don't have a photo of said advertisor. I will not consume the chips until later today.

I LOVE DREAM THEATER MORE THAN CHOCOLATE

There I said it its true

Bought "Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence". HOLY CRAP ITS AWESOME

\o/ Dream Theater you are my hero.

---

William, do you remember the Dinosaur Restaurant? I saw it from the outside today. So many memories flooding back...that...there was an elevator in it somewhere...and bone chairs...and some time I watched Congo and I was really scared and those floral patterns on the walls really freaked me out, and I didn't want the door closed while I was taking a shower...and a McDonalds and me playing with a toy car on the floor somewhere in some non-descript playground under the glare of flourescent lights..

Yes. Today, I went to some Tom's Music World or some other guy's "Music World" HOLY CRAP there was a craplot of stuff. I played around with almost everything, tee hee, the Yamaha Scratcher thing is awesome. \o/ Under $1500 for a Pearl ELX drumkit. Dunno if thats cheaper than in NZ. Hmm.

Went looking for Game OSTs, specifically Black Mages II (I want that so bad) and also Finding Neverland Soundtrack. Didn't get either but ended up with:

MGS I OST
MGS II OST
MGS III OST
DT: Six Degrees
Hero Movie Soundtrack (The Asian one)
some random japanese piano thing


okay thats about it im hungry dinner is soon but I will leave you with a googlefight.com result:

PENIS: 24,200,000 results
VAGINA: 7,860,000 results

Winnar is wang


okay bye

Best typo of today:

Sonny Lee: computer = cumpuber

ROFL

okay ill shut up, little immature me mwhaha

(sorry for all the little kids readin)

Yeah okay here's the Kaohsiung Blog. There's a lot of ground to cover, I may get fed up half way and stop but at least I would have given it a shot.

:::The Day We Leave Kaohsiung

William wasnt able to go because his plane flight didn't allow it because he needs to go back to Malaysia earlier to get his stitches removed and teeth pulled out (four hahha just like I did) and my first uncle didnt want to go either because my grandpa has a bum leg and he is worried about leaving him here in Taipei alone and stuff so...in the end only me, my cool cousin and my cool aunt went down.

Buses. Holy crap, were they the awesomest buses I'd ever ridden in my life. Comfortable leather seating with inbuilt visual and video game functions, massage functions and adjustable headrests with inbuilt speakers. XD

Okay it wasn't THAT awesome (the video games were nes games which were really cool and old school - Excite Bike anyone? and the movies were looped etc but it was still REALLY cool) massage functions was definitely the awesomest part of it.

yeah anyway went on bus got back

hmm

it was just awesome

see im lazy now. Intersting points:

There's a river called "Love River" in Kaohsiung. I took photos but it was on my SLR so I'll have to wait till I go to NZ and get them printed. Also, I met my mother's older brother's wife's younger brother's wife's sister. TAKE TAHT

Yeah. It was awesome sorry I'm lazy now

Hello. No, this still isn't about Kaohsiung but I got two emails from there...

anyway this is about:

My Grandpa Today
----------------

Today I went to buy a chicken and prawn Yoshinoya set meal for him, and a newspaper from 7-11, at my first uncle's behest. Anyway, I walked in the wrong direction the first time (there was a 7-11 in that direction but not the Yoshinoya) but got it in the end. Anyway, I did everything right and stuff, except that I wasn't supposed to buy the meal with the chawan-mushi but when I brought it back I ate it anyway cause nobody wanted it. It was nice. Yeah.

Anyway I bought a plastic bag, and last time when William went to buy a meal for him from Yoshinoya he forgot that my grandpa really, REALLY likes people buying plastic bags...long story short he got told off real bad XD (something along the lines of your mother and intercourse)

Moral: Always buy a plastic bag along with your meal.

[nb. In Taiwan most places require an extra NT$1 for a plastic bag. Translates to about..5 cents in NZ. This was encouraged by the government to cut down on trash. It actually works really well, I hardly see plastic bags flying around, unlike malaysia. People stash them away and stuff...except people like my grandpa who insist that they be bought, with the reasoning "it's only a dollar dont be so thrifty i like to spend money so i feel higher in the social ladder".]

Yup. :P

Stupid computer I can't get Chinese input to work properly, you know, the one where you type it in romanized and then you press enter and it lets you select stuff...yeah, that one. -_-

;_;

Hmm. While I'm still procrastinating, I wonder what happens if I change my "preferred name" in auckland university's ndeva thing...where it says preferred and formal...what if I put something like Dumbass...hmmm

*contemplates*

Oh phew nDeva I just checked, they've updated Mus 144 to reflect that it's offered in Semester 2. Same time as Semester one. slots into my timetable like PERFECTION. phew. I wanted to get the 9 points out of the way first then do 7 points, but i guess it just wasn't meant to be.

oh yeah i still have to blog about kaohsiung

While it's copying (15 seconds remaining) I went to my aunt's friend's house who works as a babysitter today. Together we planned out what we could do for the remainder of my trip here. Etc. It was fun, and she had some cakes and stuff from Kaohsiung ;_; i miss that place already...

Hello. I actually really can't be stuffed typing about Kaohsiung, but I want to remember it too so I guess I don't have a choice. (Damn those people who haven't invented auto-memory-recorder-things)

But first about today while that's still fresh in my mind. What did I do today...hmm well if you count from midnight I was still awake until about one in the morning, William's last day in Taiwan. He will probably get to go more often than me now though because my mum says his Chinese is better than mine, or something ;_; its not fair I've learnt a lot toooo :( anyway yeah and then went to sleep. Oh yeah and somehow I awoke sometime between then and 5.00 am in the morning when William left for the airport to music that my cousin was listening to. Dunno why.

Okay, that was really irrelevant. I'm just procrastinating now, cause I did a lot in Kaohsiung...

Hmm okay. I lost track of the days they all seem to have melted into one now but yeah okay STOP PROCRATSINATING

let me load some photos onto my laptop first (load means ALL mwahhaha)

Just came back from Kaohsiung it was SO AWESOME THANK YOU EVERYBODY THANK YOU FOR SUCH A GREAT TIME :D

I will blog more later. :) William leaving Taiwan :(

Hello.

My first uncle knows how to drive a tank.

My second uncle is an alcoholic.

My cousin is studying to be a vetenarian. Did I spell that right? Hmm.

My aunt is about ten years younger than my first uncle, I think.

My grandfather is now using a walking frame cause something happened, I'm not quite sure what.

Oh yeah. HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR

Me and tank driver and to-be vet and my aunt and William went around to pray at various temple sites. Maybe you shouldn't include William for obvious reasons. Anyway, it was not too bad...the incense breaking off and burning you isn't too fun and neither is smoke in the eyes and neither is this random old guy telling you to lift your incense stick higher...but I think I got over those things.

Hmm yeah also they give out these little booklets which have kind of Chinese Astrology information in them, and according to that book, I (born in year of rabbit 1987) will have "bad luck" (by bad luck I should probably say unfortunate event, or maybe just...I have to work harder during those months or be careful I dunno) on the 3rd and 9th month in the lunar calender...3rd month says I must be careful, a little mistake can make a big downfall, and 9th says something like there is an unavoidable monetary expense I must make. Dunno. (sounds a lot like student loan to me -_-)

Yeah. I didn't have any lucky months either. William gets no bad months and about 4 lucky months. -_-

^^ this is if you put weight in the booklet, of course.

Anyway. It's 1pm - bus for Kaohshiung leaves at 3.00pm from the station, exactly. So, this may be last blog in a while. Hmm. Unless I find a way there. I'm really excited, I haven't been in a while and there's people I wanna meet again :)

So, hi Rikky, nice to see you "come back" again, David, thanks for making me think for a bit, it was fun if not futile. Hmm. Yeah.

Bye! (happy chinese new year again, even for those of you who dont give a crap)

^^" more...

If early earth had oxygen in its atmosphere, the amino acids that would have been required for the first cell to form would have been destroyed by oxidation. However a lack of oxygen would've meant a lack of ozone which would've meant a lot of radiation which would've meant a lack of life. Either way, life is screwed. Oxygen and life could only have appeared simultaneously.

--- I don't remember the last time I breathed in ozone. (ie why would ozone be on the floor?) And if they did appear simultaneously..well...what?


Ancient cultures did have a lot of legends. And out of legend you can usually discover a truth that the legend is based on. When every single ancient culture ever discovered has a legend about a great catastrophic world-wide flood in which only a few people were saved who then had to restart the human race, you start to wonder.

--- Yeah but I bet not all the legends involve a story about two animals of each. Maybe there was a big flood. Who knows? If there was...so what? Cataclysmic events occur, nobody doubts that, the dinosaurs know better than most...the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico or whatever knows too.

According to the conventional theory of star formation, stars formed from swirling balls of gas and dust that were condensed by gravity to form stars. Their heat comes from the tremendous work done by gravity or something. If the sun and solar system evolved from a ball of gas, where has the gas that didnt form the sun and the planets and stuff gone? Into the sun? Nope, we'd have an infra-red fireworks display if it was. Out into space? Not there either - gravity wouldn't let it. It simply doesn't exist. Where oh where did our solar system come from?

--- ...the gas is still here...gas is a changeable state too, don't forget...

According to the teory of plate-techtonics, the mid-oceanic ridge is where plates are being formed. The ridges are supposedly in the middle of plates and consist of material "gushing" out from the mantle and spreading out to form the plate. This would possibly explain why Africa and America are moving slowly apart (like - 1 inch per year). However there is no geographical evidence to validate this belief. I'm not going to go into that now though.

--- So, a huge ridge isn't geographic evidence?

When they say "terrestrial-like brines, and earthlike isotopic patterns" they essentially mean that the meteors look like chunks of garden hurled out into space. This does indeed "implicate earth as their source". The things they found on them either came from earth or earth's undiscovered identical twin very recently (like within a few thousand years). Incidently, to say life was seeded from somewhere else removes the problem of explaining how life evolved on earth, by transfering it to the problem of explaining how life arose on whatever planet we were supposedly seeded from. That doesn't even slightly help.

--- Neither does this answer...I don't understand. And anyway, who's to say the people picking up the rocks are 100% correct? They could have mistaken a rock for a meteorite.

An amino acid is more than a peice of spaghetti. There are two types of amino acids - left and right-handed. Each amino acid molecule's made up of a LOT of smaller molecules. These molecules had to come together simultaneously to form one amino acid. There is a 50/50 chance that that amino acid will be either left handed or right handed. A protein molecule is made up of hundreds (usually) of amino acids. Not only that but they are all right-handed. Left-handed molecules are toxic. Not only that, but becuase of nature constantly trying to return to equilibrium, even if an amino acid did miraculously spontaneously form, it would instantly decay into its constituent molecules. No more amino acid, unless the whole protein spontaneously formed and instantly started working in its correct place in the cell (which must also spontaneously form).

--- Oh okay. So you're saying somehow, somewhere, someone NOT made of amino acids shoved some amino acids together? I dunno. Don't like that notion.

A planet hit by a comet would break up before it began spinning in the opposite direction.

--- Jupiter didn't break up when it got hit by Shoemaker Levy-9.

-:In Response To David:-

1. Where has macroevolution ever been observed? What’s the mechanism for getting new complexity, such as new vital organs? If any of the thousands of vital organs evolved, how could the organism live before getting the vital organ? (Without a vital organ, the organism is dead—by definition.) If a reptile’s leg evolved into a bird’s wing, wouldn’t it become a bad leg long before it became a good wing? How could metamorphosis evolve?

Macroevolution? Evolution occurs over such a long period that it probably isn't very realistic for us to be able to "observe" it. I mean, fossil records as they are - do you know how unlikely a fossil is? Very, very, very unlikely. An organism has to die (first of all) and then die in the right place, in the right conditions, and not be disturbed for billions/millions of years and THEN finally have someone come across it by chance. Those odds are...very small. So, fossils really aren't an accurate record of the entire history of the world - just one snapshot. Can you say you truly know a person from one picture? Hmm.

The mechanism for gaining new complexity, uh, I think you mean evolution again, this is that whole chance thing isn't it...hmm. Well, obviously, an organism without a vital organ isn't gonna go very far and therefore dies etc. Which is why, you don't see people without hearts running around. There has been a very, very long time attributed to the evolution process...you start from the amino acids...then proteins...then things chain themselves together and it's just a huge huge huge process that takes a really, really long time. Of course, I'm not saying it's easy. I agree it's very unlikely. But it doesn't really require divine intervention, I say. And evolution occurs in small steps too. Radiation isn't THAT powerful, neither is genetic reshuffling...so a reptile having half a bird wing would be really stupid and improbable.


2. Do you realize how complex living things are? How could organs as complicated as the eye or the ear or the brain of even a tiny bird ever come about by chance or natural processes? How could a bacterial motor evolve? How could such motors work until all components evolved completely and were precisely in place?

a) yes. Otherwise I woulda picked Biology in school. b) Over a very, very, VERY long time. c) See statement b. d) What do you mean by motor? If you mean respiration sites etc, complexity occurs over a long period of time - no doubt the first ones were probably very small and very not efficient. Go read Bill Bryson.


3. If macroevolution happened, where are the billions of transitional fossils that should be there? Billions! Not a handful of questionable transitions. Why don’t we see a reasonably smooth continuum among all living creatures, or in the fossil record, or both?

do you know how unlikely a fossil is? Very, very, very unlikely. An organism has to die (first of all) and then die in the right place, in the right conditions, and not be disturbed for billions/millions of years and THEN finally have someone come across it by chance. Those odds are...very small. So, fossils really aren't an accurate record of the entire history of the world - just one snapshot. Can you say you truly know a person from one picture? Hmm.

4. Textbooks show an evolutionary tree, but where is its trunk and where are its branches? For example, what are the evolutionary ancestors of the insects?

Probably the trilobyte, I'm not sure, I'm too lazy to look it up. It's there. (if you wanna be broad, sure, bacteria.)

5. How could the first living cell begin? That’s a greater miracle than for bacteria to evolve into man. How could that first cell reproduce? Just before life appeared, did the atmosphere have oxygen or did it not have oxygen? Whichever choice you make creates a terrible problem for evolution. Both must come into existence at about the same time.

I don't know how the first one began, but neither do you. Of course, you're welcome to take the easy way out and say "Hey look someone made it ah well" - but you'll never understand it. Do you think all those paganists really knew about the science of crop rotation, how hormones make plants grow towards light, etc? Probably not.

The first cell reproduced by mitosis.

Respiration comes in two forms: aerobic (with oxygen) and anaerobic (without oxygen). Both exist to this day. So, really, you didnt have to have both. If I remember correctly, atmosphere didn't have oxygen level it did today - first life was anaerobic (i think it was CO2 to O2) and later life adapted to use O2.


6. Please point to a strictly natural process that creates information. What evidence is there that information, such as that in DNA, could ever assemble itself? What about the 4,000 books of coded information that are in a tiny part of each of your 100 trillion cells? If astronomers received an intelligent signal from some distant galaxy, most people would conclude that it came from an intelligent source. Why then doesn’t the vast information sequence in the DNA molecule of just a bacterium also imply an intelligent source?

Natural process that creates information? Uh, your brain? Thinking? Dunno. -_- Uh, if DNA didn't assemble itself why would it still be here going on today? Cosmic rays etc are very powerful...without the ability to repair itself you'd be long dead/mutated. And...I hope you aren't calling bacterium stupid. They're more intelligent than you think. Bacteria seriously, they live everywhere. They're really hardy and can adapt to so many different kinds of environments...I'm not sure where I'm going with this but I'm not sure what the question was trying to say either so I'll move on.

7. Which came first, DNA or the proteins needed by DNA, which can only be produced by DNA?

Uh, amino acids, which form proteins.

8. How could sexual reproduction evolve? How could immune systems evolve?

If life could evolve why not sexual reproduction or immune systems? Probably over a long time, again.

9. If it takes intelligence to make an arrowhead, why doesn’t it take vastly more intelligence to create a human? Do you really believe that hydrogen will turn into people if you wait long enough?

a) Of course it takes huge amounts of intelligence to "Create a human". Heck, nobody alive could start from scratch with amino acids and form a person. Not possible. So the answer is yes it takes intelligence to create a human. What's your point?

b) No, I don't. But the world isn't just hydrogen.


10. If the solar system evolved, why do three planets spin backwards? Why do at least 30 moons revolve backwards?

Evolution applies to objects that are alive. Thus, the solar system did not "evolve". If you mean the physical processes which formed them though, spin is a fickle thing and space is not stationary. Sure, space is a lot of space but there's still things moving around in it. When there are things moving, there are things colliding. I think you can figure out why some spin backwards and why some moons revolve backwards again.

11. Can you name one reasonable hypothesis on how the moon got there—any hypothesis that is consistent with all the data? Why aren’t students told the scientific reasons for rejecting all the evolutionary theories for the moon’s origin? What about the other 138+ moons in the solar system?

What is with applying "evolution" to objects which are not alive, all of a sudden...-_- Probably some long time ago when Earth was very young (billions of years ago) it was hit by something and some matter broke free and formed the moon. There. That's a hypothesis. Can you test it? Well, can you go back in time and find out? I don't understand what "scientific reasons for rejecting evolution" means. Are you saying the moon is alive? Are you saying there have been many moons and they've reproduced and through natural selection Earth ended up with this moon? I hope not. And yes, what about all the other moons?

12. Where did matter, space, time, energy, or even the laws of physics come from? What about water?

Who knows. Scientists are still working. Go look up singularities or something ;_; it's really complex stuff. Water, however, is H2O. Two hydrogen atoms, one oxygen one. There.

13. How could stars evolve?

This question does not make sense.

14. Are you aware of all the unreasonable assumptions and contradictory evidence used by those who say the earth is billions of years old?

No, but please, do share.

15. Why are living bacteria found inside rocks that you say are hundreds of millions of years old and in meteorites that you say are billions of years old? Clean-room techniques and great care were used to rule out contamination.

Because space is empty for the most part so it's safe from being damaged etc. I don't really get what you mean by this question either. And who says meteorites can't originate from Earth?

16. Did you know that most scientific dating techniques indicate that the earth, solar system, and universe are young?

I'm sorry, I cannot consider anything beyond a billion years young. Please, do correct me if I am wrong. Carbon-14/16 or whatever isotope dating is NOT relevant, please do not mention that. That only applies to organic matter and has a relatively short half-life.

17. Why do so many ancient cultures have flood legends?

Because that was their way of explaining natural phenomena which they did not understand. So what if there was a flood thousands of years ago...heck, there was a tsunami last year. And a flood in New Zealand. What's your point?

18. Have you heard about the mitochondrial Eve and the genetic Adam? Scientists know that the mitochondrial Eve was the common female ancestor of every living person, and she appears to have lived only about 6,000–7,000 years ago.

No, I have not. That's nice, can you please provide a link? And yeah, sure, everybody's common ancestor could be from 6000-7000 years ago. I don't get your point, still.

19. Careful researchers have found the following inside meteorites: living bacteria, salt crystals, limestone, water, sugars, terrestrial-like brines, and earthlike isotopic patterns. Doesn’t this implicate Earth as their source—and a powerful launcher, “the fountains of the great deep?”

Okay, Earth is their source. And obviously, the rocks have come back to the source, if you want to look at it that way. So?

20. Would you explain the origin of any of the following 25 features of the earth:

The Grand Canyon and Other Canyons
Mid-Oceanic Ridge
Continental Shelves and Slopes
Ocean Trenches
Seamounts and Tablemounts
Earthquakes
Magnetic Variations on the Ocean Floor
Submarine Canyons
Coal and Oil Formations
Methane Hydrates
Ice Age
Frozen Mammoths

Major Mountain Ranges
Overthrusts
Volcanoes and Lava
Geothermal Heat
Strata and Layered Fossils
Metamorphic Rock
Limestone

Plateaus
Salt Domes
Jigsaw Fit of the Continents
Changing Axis Tilt
Comets

Asteroids and Meteoroids

Whoever asked this question obviously did not study Geography or is living in the 17th century. Thanks. I really don't see the point of explaining plate tectonics if you do not already know.

Hmm. Today is Chinese New Year eve. Tomorrow I head down with my aunt my uncle my cousin down to Kaohshiung which I went to a couple of years back...William can't go because we come back too late for him to catch his flight back to Malaysia :(

But today, me and William and two uncles went to this really old house which they owned, which apparently my parents visited while they were still studying at Uni or something, and this factory place which wasnt rented out to anybody. Y'know how I mentioned the burning of paper money? Yeah, that happened. And prayer offerings of yum food :)

The only sad thing is my left side really hurts for some reason from the car ride - maybe my posture sucked or something, and we were nearly involved in two car accidents (damn you Helen :P), both of which the other car was in the wrong...one of them while we were on the highway daringly crossed about three lanes and passed us because they decided it would be fun to change their minds with about 5 metres until you can't possibly switch between the exit/highway. Bastard.

Did I ever mention I really love windchimes?

The adventures of my remaining grandfather and animal meats:

Mkay. This is my grandpa on my mum's side (the other one hasn't been with us for...I don't know, quite a while. The only thing related to him I can remember is his funeral, not in a mean way or anything, but it was dark, the walls were concrete and cracked like most Malaysian houses at the time were and there were shadows everywhere cast by fires which were set up. I was folding and burning paper money, it's a cultural/traditional thing...wow. That information was probably not required. Moving on)

Basically the two points I want to make are:

1) He really hates lamb. In fact, he hates it so much that today because my Aunty is cooking a meal with lamb in it, he gets cooked a different meal and is eating at the dining table, but the rest of us are gonna have our meal in the living room, at his behest.

2) My cousin cannot eat beef. This is a restriction placed on him by my grandfather. He is now...22? I am not too sure but he's on his last year of University...and he still can't eat beef. -_- I respect my cousin for sticking to it, respect his dad (my uncle) for saying that he doesnt care and what my cousin eats is his own business, and I'm just confused at why you can't eat beef. Maybe there's a good reason for it. Must remember to ask my mum.

That is all! I have not really done much today but it's still nice to be here in Taiwan :D

http://deathball.net/notpron/

ARGH!!!

;_; im stuck on 3.

Okay. Just went to a place...which I forgot the name of but it's ultra cool. Basically it's a street where they sell snacks and food year round, but in the 20 days or so around the Chinese New Year time, they close off road traffic into that street and people set up more stalls and it's really really busy. Seriously. Like, you try to walk and it's like wait, there's people. Wait. Wait. etc. But it's WAY cool.

You know how in supermarkets sometimes when they want to sell a product, they have testing stations? This entire freaking street is a tasting station!! I was so surprised...you just walk along slowly in the massive behemoth crowd and test food......it's awesome...just totally awesome.

Free food always makes people happy.

Hello! I just spent an overnighter with William, my cousin, and friends at policewoman aunty's house. It was really fun - their house is rather large in Taiwan standards (since it is located in Wulai, which is a kinda ruraly area (think Whitford) so house prices are lower and it has awesome scenery!)

Did the following:

- Played Big 2. I'm getting better at this. At the end though when it was daylight and I really needed sleep I kept making really dumb mistakes.

- Ate a home-cooked Teppanyaki meal :) Cooked by policewoman aunty. She's so cool.

- Went to have a walk at the night market (had some pearl milk tea there, not bad) and also before that to the Wulai Scenic Area. They used charge admission into that area until people protested or something. There's a pretty cool waterfall (it's really tall, its kinda "Streamy" and not as wide as the "Taiwan Niagara Falls" but it's still really cool) and there was a minature train which we rode and lots of cherry trees blossoming. :)

It was way fun. Didn't go to sleep until daylight, and I was so sleepy I didn't even think properly...coulda used a pillow to sleep on but I don't function that well under sleep-debt.

Tonight we are going to go to some famous street place where they sell Chinese New Year goods, like candies, treats, etc. I hope I'll be awake enough to enjoy it. :) I will probably take a hot shower or something before, so that will wake me up.

That was my Saturday Night. My cousin is at the hospital for another check or something cause he got hit by a car door that was stupidly opened by someone not observant, while he was riding his bike home from University, late at night, I think.

Yeah.

BASTARD AUCKLAND UNIVERSITY WHY'D YOU HAVE TO GO AND CANCEL A LECTURE BASTARD LECTURERS DAMMIT NOW I HAVE TO REORGANIZE MY ENTIRE TIMETABLE TO FIT THIS STUPID LECTURER WHO DROPPED OUT AT THE LAST MINUTE BASTARDS BASTARDS BASTARDS!!!!

-_- ahem.

Well actually it may not be so bad, I just have to move it from semester 1 to semester 2 (my points still say the same) but...I hope it'll fit. Going to do it now.

Sonny...this is the Korean Restaurant in KL which we went to...XD XD X DXDXDDXDX

LOOK ITS A BETEL NUT LADY I TOLD YOU THEY EXIST

Me, somewhere. I think we were waiting for a flamingo show which was cancelled.

This is why I did not want to ride the Screaming Condor.

" Hunter's Etude-Scherzo " Blak_Omen, MC person
Field tune: From FINAL FANTASY 9 tune name obscurity
Piano arrangement, it is strong field tune destruction.
Being avant-garde, complicated piano arrangement. It is thought propriety divides due to the person but as for me such the favorite shelf.
" While the rain finishes to do to get off, being gruesome, does the fight to which end is not visible the soldier "


XD NO COMMENT (from http://e-jts.com/~haijinrui/ver1/history/2004_4_diary.html)

It isn't a spork, or a foon...I'm using a spife. To eat what seems like a melon. Dunno. It's greeny in flesh and hard and kinda sweet. Dunno.

Okay, the funny thing is, they haven't approved my application for BMus. XD

stupid Bmus applicator people

Oh yeah. This was the "fountain show" which was at the centre place place (the park is circular in layout)...and I thought it would be fun to stand in the middle while the show was going. There is actually a fountain spout directly below me...

See that...that's the screaming condor. ;_; its really tall and scarryyyy

I think this photo is self explanatory.

That beast is the ring of fire!

Okay. It was really scary. -_-

HOLY. MACKEREL.

TODAY WAS SUCH AN AESOMEDAY OMGOMG

Okay basically we went to the Leofoo Village/Six Lucky Village/An Amusement Park. Think Rainbows end...but WAY better. I'll try to do a chronological thingy but I'll probably forget some stuff but anyway here we go:

Took a bus from near our apartment, this was easy enough...got on a busride there...the bus was packed and there was this one guy on the bus who kept talking, except that he sounded really sad and whiny and he kept dropping. Yeah. We ate some bread on the bus (yes, just plain bread but for some reason Taiwan's bread tastes really nice!) Anyway, we got there and went to the customer service centre to pick up our special price tickets because the policewoman auntyfriend we know has contacts...so we got in for 530 instead of 790 (in NZ that's roughly 21.50 compared to 34.50)

Okay. Basically the Six Village Theme Park is divided into four sections (the last two are still under construction, China Town and Europe World. We walked in and the first area we entered was:

Arabian Kingdom

This was very largely a Disney's Aladdin rip-off. It was actually quite funny seeing pseudo-Jasmines trapped in cages and flesh coloured "genies" try to save her. Ahem. But that isn't a bad thing. Just that I'm surprised they haven't gotten their ass sued yet..for that, and the show which I'll talk about in a bit. Originally the first thing we was gonna ride was the Ring of Fire, which is one of the "popular attractions" but due to the fact it had just recently rained, it was closed off. So we went to the "Sultan's Adventure" which is kinda reminiscent of the Gold Rush in rainbows end only WAY cooler, cause the carts for some reason manage to move on the spot. It's crazy. \o/ It was awesome...William took some photos but it was too dark for it to be really any good probably.

So that was the Sultan's Adventure. Very cool. There was a long line at the start cause most of the other rides were closed due to the rain, but then when we came back for a second run later on in the day near the time we left, it was just us two and we pretty much walked straight through onto the cart. The first time there was this random lady taking around little kids...she talked to us. Dunno. Though that might interest somebody.

Next was the "Dynamic Motion Theatre" (read - Motionmaster) which needed 3d glasses. These glasses were pretty funky, if uncomfortable...they weren't coloured red and blue or anything...they just...worked. I don't know how they did but they did, and it was kinda cool. The motion itself was kinda lame though, this is one of the few things which Rainbows End does better than this park. And the stupid attendants forced me and William to sit at the very end cause they couldn't be stuffed operating one half of the theatre so we had to sit at the very edge which sucked.

After that we went to the "Flying Carpet" - this is basically a platform kinda thing that rotates...and it goes up really high and falls down. *kind of* like a pirate ship but not as nauseating..it was not too bad. I was kinda hoping for it to actually do a loop but it never did, it just stopped at the top of the circle and did half circles.

Then, the "Flying Horse" ride. -_- It wasn't that special. Just horse car things, quite a bit up, moving really slowly. This one was geared for the kiddies I suspect...and the guy who was telling people "Welcome" didn't seem very happy (then again I wouldn't be too enthused if my job consisted of saying "hi" and telling peopel to put their safety belts on and press a green button.

When we exited the Flying Horse, we noticed that the Ring of Fire was now open. :D Okay. What is the "Ring of Fire", you ask? Basically, imagine a closed circle, and a car-thing...and basically, you're restrained into the car pretty well because this car goes in a full circle, so at many points in the ride (which doesn't actually go very far cause it's just a circle but CRAP it was fun) you're pretty much falling, with just that restraint between you and a whole lot of metal...but yeah it was AWESOME basically it goes and forces you to sit upside down and sideways and...gar it was AWESOME. Totally totally awesome.

That was about it for Arabian Kingdom. We did come back to pick up a photo but more on that later.

Next: Wild West (part one)

This was a pretty cool area as well. The first ride we did was the Big Canyon Rapids Ride...basically a river rapids. It wasn't as dangerous as I thought it would be but it was still pretty cool anyways. I got really wet -_- somehow all the water managed to splash exactly where I was sitting and never where William was. ^^"

We were gonna go into the "devils mine" but that was closed off for the day for some reason...I wonder what it would have been...but instead we went to the Little Rattler. On the map this ride looked really lame, like a slow stupid kiddy train ride but...in real life, it was actually a lot of twisted metal forming a really really awesome roller coaster. It goes REALLY fast and twists and turns and banks a heck of a lot so there's a lot of centripetal force on you, or something ^^ you can feel it. It's AWESOME. We rode this a second time later in the day cause it was that awesome.

Now, each area has its kind of "main attraction", for the adrenaline junkies - the Arabian Kingdom one was the Ring of Fire, and the one here was the "Screaming Condor" . I decided in the end with the slight headache I had and the fact that I was already really freaked out on the ground that this ride would not be for me...photos will be coming soon, maybe a video but basically, it's one of those "dangle" rides where you dangle off the thing. Like lethal weapon in australia. Anyway. You start in the middle, at the station, then they BOOST you at an INCREDIBLE speed so that you go up a corkscrew (yes, up), come back down through the station where they boost you AGAIN, and up onto a curve to a vertical track, then back down, another boost, further up the corkscrew cause you've been boosted, and then back up higher on the vertical track, then back down. Seriously, it goes REALLY fast. I was standing at the curve of the vertical part where you can just stand, and when the car goes past there's so much air displaced that the wind gust is kinda strong. ^^ But yeah. It's an INCREDIBLE ride even if I didn't...but WILLIAM did and I took a video + photos. \o/ He rode this some time after we visited:

South Pacific

Apart from the weird fact that they seem to think that the South Pacific contains Dinosaurs (and has a ride/attraction named The Lost World which is just looking to get sued...)...this place was pretty cool. The main attraction here is the "pagoda's revenge", which is like the fearfall only shorter. But I didn't like the look of it so I didn't ride ;_; yeah okay sure it's easy for you to say "AHHAHA I WOULD HAVE" but (finger) you weren't there. :P I DID however go on the logflume. There really isn't that much to it...basically, it's two drops apart from one another...the first drop really hurt my balls for some really bizarre reason (don't ask, I can't even begin to explain) but it was nowhere near as long and as steep as the second fall. Seriously - the second drop is at like a 80 degree slope ;_; and it's quite a way down...and they don't have seat restraints so you're sitting there going "holy crap am i gonna fall out" ;_; but it was SO much fun! There was a photo taker thingy on the ride and me and William decided the photo was so funny to purchase it :) Yes, I look scared. It was scary. -_-

And that was about it I think...there was a dancing animal show where there were people who looked like terrorists in their all black gear and all black facemasks dancing...in animal suits...to Lion King music...but...yeah. And there was a White Tiger and a petting zoo with Boer Goats which apparently South Africans use to make their sausages, yum.

It was SUCH an awesome day. ^_^

Have you ever opened up Windows Task Manager and wondered "what the hell is LSASS.exe and what is it doing that is benefitting my computer?"

www.processlibrary.com

Oh yeah. I just checked everything running. They seem okay. There was a lot more crap on it before though, I uninstalled so much stuff. Hopefully my computer will be stabler now.

Outside we are testing the cool ASUS PC. For some bizarro reason, the CD Play function (the one that doesn't require booting into the actual computer) doesn't work but the FM tuner does. Hmm. Did you know it has a 6 in one card reader? (memory stick, SD, etc) \o/ But it looks so cool. And it even tells the time!

Yeah. Tomorrow morning me and William leave early for the theme park. I am charging my phone I hope I don't forget it, cause that would suck. I've got 2k on me as safe money. (2k is roughly NZ 100). I must remember to remind William to bring camera. Must remember to take shower tomorrow morning.

Yes , it's 10.30 now - goodnight! (Hi Brian)

http://www.leofoo.com.tw/village/English/VisitorInfo/parkmap.htm

Going to an amusement park tomorrow! Will be fun. Cause I can't read Chinese. -_-

But it will be FUNNNNN i hope anyway sounds really confusing William and my aunt and uncle are planning it outside while I sit in here like a reclusive hermit trying to uninstall all uncrucial stuff in an effort to restore system stability. DAMMNIT I JUST BOUGHT THIS LAPTOP IN NOVEMEBER but I'll fix it im sure. I mean if I can't what right do i have to do computer science >.>

*sigh* You climb to the top of one ladder and then you realise you're at the foot of another...

Primary school..you look up the intermediate kids. WOW THEYRE SO COOL THEY HAVE CHATTER RINGS *cough*

Intermediate...HIGH SCHOOL KIDS OMG THEY'RE SO COOL THEY'RE REBELLIOUS.

Third form, wow, seventh form doesnt have uniform/has a special uniform!

Seventh form, hahah stupid college you are mine to control

Ahem. First year university. ;_; im not looking forward to be shat on. -_- I will probably end up running around looking really panicked though. -_- -_- at least i got in :)

HI! WENT TO PICK UP THE COMPUTER IT IS UBER COOL iT LOOKS COOL ITS BLACK AND IT HAS ORANGE AND BLUE LIGHTS THE TWO BEST COLOURS THAT GO WITH BLACK (RED IS COOL TOO BUT NOT AS A LIGHT OPKAY MAYBE)

its nice its cool it doesnt come with Windows XP so my Uncle's gonna help us out there. ^^

Yup. That's all that really happened today. I realised why I hate Final Fantasy I and II. And also, I had dumplings for lunch.

Thanks.

Went to pick up the seals. I like them. I like William's the best. Apparently he likes mine. Ah well.

William has gone on motorbike with me 2nd uncle to buy another CD or something.

Hello! Today has been a good day, apart from my grandpa being angry at my aunty for some reason :( (he said some pretty rude things too which I won't discuss for all the little kiddies out there)...

Woke up. I was supposed to go to the treatment centre with my aunty for hydrotherapy for her thumb which she cut sometime before I arrived here in Taipei but I woke up too late, so she taught me how to use the toaster and quickly boosted off. Then my 2nd uncle came back from wherever he was that morning and we went off on today's adventure.

1) Seal.

Me and William were brought to some place where this guy engraved chinese seals for us (you know, seals. Well if you don't know, I'll show you in real life sometime)...it was good. We are getting seals carved into oxen/buffalo horn that's been treated to go black or something...anyway. They also sold lotto. Only at the end, later on in the supermarket when I asked, did I actually find out they were handicapped. I totally overlooked it and they seemed totally normal. There you go, you anti-handi-bastards, they're just as much people as you and me. *shakes fist* (and I asked because I remembered that only people who are disabled can sell lottery tickets. And they were selling lottery tickets)

2) Computer.

We went back to the guy who we thought gave us the best price on parts etc. Changed the specs just slightly, got a video card in there as well (instead of the on-board one) and upgraded the HDD to 120gb, a Western Digital one which is the same as my portable hard disk. We should be able to pick it up sometime later tonight...^^ He was also originally going to add in Windows XP under the table (as in, not original), but then my 2nd uncle was talking about it too loud and attracted too much attention. :( My 1st uncle can probably do it for us anyway. ^^ End price: NT$22500. Right this moment, that converts into: $997 NZ. :D :D :D :D While walking to XiMenTing (West Gate Market), we checked the quote/invoice they gave us and realised they forgot to put down the wireless lan USB thingmie into it, even though it was put down in the price. We called them from a public payphone. My 2nd uncle used his card thing. It costs about 10cents for a minute...I think that's cheaper than NZ. I think.

I also bought a webcam here. It's a pretty cool looking one! It looks like a little robot thing. I wish I could turn it on itself and take a photo of itself but that doesn't really make sense. Dunno. Can't find a mirror. (ie im lazy you'll see it one day)

3) Music.

We went on from the computer place to find some shop which my brother wanted me and William to check for music CDs. I must say. They were horribly overpriced, I thought...most of them were around $NT 1000, which converts to roughly I dunno 50 NZ (i'm not loading the currency converter again...), when you can get it shipped to your house for roughly that price...I think. Dunno. But William bought something, I saw the FFT-A White Collection but I wasn't going to pay that much for about 50mins worth of music which I wasn't even 100% was good anyway. I'm going to go to the one nearer our house to check though. Near our house is a place called Guang Hua Bridge, and basically its a shopping mall built directly under an overpass. It's kinda old and "historic" now...but the music stall I speak of it only in the vicinity. Yeah.

4) After that we came home. William is sleeping now because a) he has a headache and b) he wants to wake up at 4am tomorrow morning for an ARSENAL VS MANCHESTER UNITED (his favourite versus their ARCH NEMESIS) soccer match. Yup. Then me and my 2nd uncle went grocery shopping...Taiwan supermarkets are really cool. In New Zealand they don't really like you bringing trolleys places, obviously, because they don't let you take them up escalators etc. BUT FEAR NOT because taiwan invented a solution. There's two major kinds here, both which support trolleys 100%.

1) Wheel lock escalators.

Instead of having steps, these escalators have a sloped incline and the wheels of the trolleys they use have automatic locks that lock onto the surface of this escalator to prevent slippage of your hard-bought bread, etc. The disadvantage is that the incline can't be very steep (otherwise people can't use it too) and thus it's longer. But YOU CAN USE TORLEY!

2) Sidebar thing carry thing

I can't even describe these properly but basically theres a line of little wooden post things that latch onto your trolley somehow and bring it with you, alongside your escalator. It's weird and I can't really describe it properly BUT it works and it's uber-cool.

New Zealand really needs those too. And a train system. And things on buses that tell you what the next stop is. Damn those are so cool right now. Seriously.

Oh yeah on our way in we had to go past this stupid protester guy. I hate protesters who protest in major entrances etc. Go and protest somewhere else, the minute you start inconveniencing the common people, you start being an asshole and nobody gives a crap what assholes are protesting about.

Fini. Going to pick up PC later tonight, seals tomorrow afternooon (seals you idiot not the mammals!)

Hello. Yesterday the following people went to eat shabushabu:

Animal Scientist/Vetenarian in training, Someone who just failed two subjects, someone who just finished a set of exams, someone who just got into university, someone who just had his wisdom teeth viciously removed from its home, someone who married into my family, someone who works as a policewoman and has a black belt in judo and someone who works as a nanny on occasion.

I figure descriptions mean more than names :)

Anyway it was really nice and yum...shabu shabu for those who are not in the know is basically personal steamboat...so for example normally when you all go out for steamboat someone chucks in oysters and you're allergic to them and they dont tell you and you die from an inflamed liver or something...yeah, that's less likely to happen. ^^

It was really nice. Meat slices only take 10 seconds to cook o_O so fast. And thre was prenty of foud and drinkkk and icecream mmm peanut icecream is nice. I also put some icecream in my steamboat thing and William drank the "soup". -_- he didnt mind it. I thought it tasted liek crap.

Anyway that was the interesting thing of yesterday. Today we are probably going to go sort out the PC. \o/

SHABU SHABU

Today FFXI expires phew I'm free for a month.

Congratulations Thomas on getting Commerce/Law!

Law is hardcore. HARDKORE my music/sci one was probably piss easy to get into or something.

Note to self to get the rest of the original Crow's Claw mp3s

http://www.crowsclaw.info/mp3/

http://www.crowsclaw.info/cd/cd1.html

I also want.

Vote!

Red/Yellow/Orange

Vote in Tagboard or something.

I miss you more then Michael Bay missed the mark
When he made Pearl Harbor
I miss you more than that movie missed the point
And that’s an awful lot girl
And now, now you’ve gone away
And all I’m trying to say is
Pearl Harbor sucked, and I miss you

I need u like Ben Affleck needs acting school
He was terrible in that film
I need u like Cuba Gooding needed a bigger part
He’s way better than Ben Affleck
And now all I can think about is your smile
and that shitty movie too
Pearl Harbor sucked and I miss you

Why does Michael Bay get to keep on making movies?
I guess Pearl Harbor sucked
Just a little bit more than I miss you

http://homepage3.nifty.com/preludio/works/works.htm

!!! I really want the FF one. :( :(

Oh yeah just now me and William went out onto the balcony/veranda and sang in the direction of the park right outside, really loud...I think it was Phantom or something Then some guy apparently said "WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU DID YOU HIT YOUR HEAD OR SOMETHING ARE YOU CRAZY"

Obviously some people don't have musical genius. :D

This is me being perplexed and befuzzled, after some lady in some shoe shop thought that William was taking photos to steal her bosses' designs or something. She even said "hey didn't you come before and take photos" to me...to which I was kinda confused, surprised, offended and like "hahah you stupid lady I don't even live here and I wouldn't want to copy your shoe designs anyway, I have better things to do with my time"

Hello today was cool as usual :D

o_O

Okay, the mini-tower system we're planning to get has:

Intel Pentium 4 3.0 ghz, 1mb cache
1gb DDR400 ram
80gb hdd
geforce 4 128mb.
wireless lan
dvd+R/+RW

...

FOR UNDER $1000 NZ?!?!?! WTFWTFWTWF

im so confused how can it be so cheap?!

its like...3ghz! I have 1gb of ram?!?!

i hope we get this it will be very very fast indeed, especially at a price tag like that O_O

Here in Taiwan, the arrival of rubbish trucks (which happens most days) is announced by really bad out-of-tune melodies. :)

[Sonny] 021 1585 204 says:
you missedTHE WORST HRC CASE EVER
[-=Blak=-] » blakomen.blogspot.com -:- www.ffof.tk [64] [ ] says:
...
[Sonny] 021 1585 204 says:
THE WORST
[-=Blak=-] » blakomen.blogspot.com -:- www.ffof.tk [64] [ ] says:
you were on duty?
[Sonny] 021 1585 204 says:
WORSE THAN WINTER
[-=Blak=-] » blakomen.blogspot.com -:- www.ffof.tk [64] [ ] says:
oh, thats what you mean by case
[-=Blak=-] » blakomen.blogspot.com -:- www.ffof.tk [64] [ ] says:
i thought you attacked another kid in the face again


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HAHAHAHAH

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Anyway today was fun, me and William are planning to buy a "shuttle pc", its really compacted from a tower PC and portable (well more portable than a freakin huge tower)...but apparently the smallest ones dont come with Gameports/15 pin plugs, so we went to one size up. It's an Asus case as well, very nice, it's very flash and will be fast but we deliberately didnt plan for a good video card...or one at all (just the onboard one) so that it can't play games. It's gonna go in our joint room and we'll probalby turn our room into a media centre. Gonna probably buy a 5.1 when we get back to nz and set it up properly

Also walked around quite a bit today, went to various locales like the "cool and fashionable upbeat teenage" place, and the 2-28 Peace Park which was renamed to remember some killing or something on the same date over some stuff. :(

ALSO we went through someone's old photos and :D :D :D hahah the time will reveal all

I just had home cooked gyu-don, it was SO NICE yum yum yum

I'm very happy right now. Very happy.

Was browsing the club list for Auckland Uni. My top five are:

Anti-Capitalist Alliance
Bridge Club
Crocheting & Knitting Club
Meat Club
Ultimate Frisbee Club

AHHAHAHAHAHAHAH

I might even start my own club and call it Siphon Money From AUSA Bank Account Club.

Sonny, my aunty sends her congratulations too :)

The coat I bought. $NT 400. or ist that NT$400. dunno.

Timetable.

In case anybody cared, that is/was my university timetable for Semester One 2005:

Everybody, it's all the rage to plan your free day to be Wednesday, so do that. We can all get together and have orgies I mean watch movies.

>.> (oh yeah the longer youtake to enroll, the more classes are gonna fill up and you get less option. i fully had so much choice yesterday. or was it day before...) Race against the machine!

CONGRATULATIONS SONNY I KNEW YOU WOULD GET IN TO ARCHITECTURE!

The Day I Nearly Won Lotto

Yesterday at the behest of my grandpa, me and William were bought lotto tickets (because the prize pool had jackpotted ridiculously or something) anyway, we got to pick our own numbers and I almost won. By almost won, it means that out of the six numbers, five of them were one off and the last was two off.

:( So close. ^_^ But so far...

We also went shopping for clothing in an area that wholesales clothing - it was really nice. Went with my aunt and her friend and william, her friend is really cool and I met her last year and a couple of years back too. Anyway I bought a cheapish (they all said it was cheap but the prices here in Taiwan never let me think cheap) coat/jacket thingmie, it wasn't a trenchcoat like I was lookin for but it's still pretty kewl.

Yup. That's about all I can think of, at the moment. I'm having a great time. :D

This is the humungous drink I had today ;_; it was really nice though! Kinda like pearl milk tea, only minus pearl and with grass jelly in its place.

This is me at the shop where they sell some food, like the "salty? sour? tofu um soup thingy". I think it's tastier than it sounds or looks but William thinks otherwise.

HAH SEMESTER ONE TAKE THAT

;_; holy crap that took ages. I'm glad I have HALF of it done. -_-

(and so far, Wednesday is free day if I wag Choir :D)

Phew! I just came back from dinner at a fancy-ish kinda place not far from the apartment block my mum's side of the family lives in...;_; I am really full, ate way too much (hint: never take me to buffets you'll be losing money)...but it was real nice. They had these HUUUGE cups (William took a photo) and the food was good, hotplate stuff we ordered...but man I hadn't eaten so much in...well...ages. Most this year in one sitting probably -_-

Anyway. Today was very eventful, my uncle brought me to lots of places...a random mountaintop village shopping place thing, where I bought an ocarina - it was really foggy/misty/low cloud cover/you walk and its really cool and stuff...and also we went to Taiwan's Gold Museum...did you know Taiwan had gold?! I didn't. I didn't know it was on a fault line either :D I got to touch the world's largest gold block. 220kg. Worth a LOT of money. And heck, the 12.5 bar was hard to lift...;_;

Also something else i wanted to write was about Taiwan's traditional "chewing gum", the betel nut or whatever...it supposedly has an energizing effect much like caffeine etc, originally used by natives of the area (like cocain in North America XD) and also, gives you mouth cancer over prolonged use and has a ridiculously strong staining power, red coloured. ANYWAY at the shops where they sell this chewing gum of sorts, the shops used to have "hot ladies" stand outside to entice potential customers...since they were stupid and didn't understand that placing three in a row was kinda dumb and competitive to a fault. Anyway. They placed these hot ladies and over time they dressed them less and less until eventually they might as well have been naked people with see-through clothing. Then the police stepped in and introduced regulations for these "betel nut girls". XD I saw a couple today. XD XD XD

Only in Taiwan do they advertise Chewing Gum with sex.


I was gonna write a lot more but then I got busy doing university planning stuff. -_- what a nightmare. stupid university.

Hello. According to my watch, it is 7:34 pm. Of course, I have no idea what the ACTUAL time is because I have no idea where I am at the moment - somewhere, very high in the sky, travelling over water, probably. I think it's been four hours since I left Auckland...

I'm actually flying on a codeshare arrangement between Air New Zealand and Eva Air. Eva Air is a decidedly Taiwanese Airline Service - they have announcements in three languages - Taiwanese, Mandarin, and last but not least, Asian English. ^^ While we were going through turbulance, they called it "bumpy air". XD

Anyway, before I left the airport (Mrs Chang was really nice and we talked all the way to the airport and stuff I feel really debted cause it was really impromptu and people are busy things. I'm sure she had better things to do than to ferry me to the airport. Anyway.) I gave Sonny a call - Auckland Airport lets you make free local calls - and it turns out that he was home. Simon was at his house too or had just arrived, I couldn't really hear much over the airport busy din, but yeah. Congratulations to him, he went in to school to pick up his results and he got all As! Well done to you! I'm sorry if you didn't want that publicised, but I think it really deserves all the praise and mention. No way can I beat that result so you don't have any reason now to complain and go "OMGUALWAYS NO STUDY N GET BETR MRK THN ME OMG". :P Anyway just a question if you weren't going to Coromandel why couldn't you send me to airport, Sonny? Just wondering.

^^ I also bought a book. It's quite interesting, I was just randomly browsing the shevles, its a Sci Fi one, the first book of a series called "Consider Phlebas" by Ian M. Banks. I haven't actually read much of it though. I've been busy sleeping/eating airline food.

Speaking of airline food, this is the first meal I had:

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Wholemeal Bread Bun
Butter
Milk

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Squid Salad (Squid and Lettuce) (I didn't really like this, the seafoody taste was way too strong and made me feel queasy)

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Short Grain Rice
Beef Stew
Celery
Carrot

The Stew was really good...

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Chocolate and raspberry slice

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And also, they have ACTUAL metal knives with serrated edges! Yay! I'm glad they haven't gone the way of all the rest of the stupid idiots who just end up making their cutlery look stupid and inconveniencing people, etc. I mean, like the Frasian Jean-Yves (or whatever his name is) put it, you could easily just kill someone with a shoelace, so, they should screen for shoelaces too.

Speaking of shoelaces, I'm wearing my new shoes which I bought from Malaysia. They're quite comfortable actually, and they don't have laces for me to worry about. And plus, they're a different colour. I think my feet are sweating hardcore though ;_;

The airline hostesses have a really interesting uniform. They look kinda like Asian Milkmaids, with the overall kinda thing, only green. Not the Blue and White of Dutch Lady. Also, my tissue smelt like pepper from my meal cause it was packed right next to the pepper or something like that.


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I am listening to Me First And The Gimme Gimmes. I really wish my laptop battery lasted for bazillions of years but, unfortunately, it's gonna run out before this flight reaches Taiwan. I'll have to find some otherway to entertain myself...won't be able to type stuff for y'all.

I'd just like to say hi to: William, Sonny, Rikky, Raymond, Helen, David, Brian and any others who regularly read my mental backwash.

Yup. That's about it, I think. I will probably play Civilisation III now, or attempt to write some music or something. I am glad for headphones and my mp3s to cover the sound of the stupid old man snoring behind me. Okay, he's not old, that would be slandering old people. -_- Okay, sure, I probably snore too but then I'm asleep and I could care less *shock shock*

..okay. Off now.


(that was the blog from the plane)


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Ah. Taiwan : land of constant traffic noise, and people beeping their horns either cause they're assholes or they feel like it.

Ah, Taiwan: I bought an external drivebay today, and a 2.5" HDD. 40g. Will store all my mp3s on there. It will be lovely.

Ah, Taiwan. Land of broadband internet!

Ah, Taiwan. Land of the strange fruit that slighly resembles a non-spiky, squishy durian, which tastes like bubble gum and doesn't smell like crap.

<3

-_- admin withdrawal sucks

:D I'm still really happy. The lovely "For Students" bit in nDeva has popped up.

-_- In my happiness I forget that some people will not have gotten in. If I know you, and I felt that you deserved to get in...I'm really sorry.

Anyway. This morning woke up at 8 and its like yay im in taiwan and william is sitting there and william says dont take too long now so i wont and we went to eat "sour/salty tofu soup kinda thing..."...it was nice but william didnt like it

OK I THINK THATS IT

I need to ask william how to do the planning stuff later. need my laptop first. need converter for it first.