Taipei Travelogue: Monday-Thursday

Written on 28 August, backposted to align with the date of the events detailed within

Link to relevant gallery:Taipei 2009 trip gallery, with captions on most photos

Monday:

I had a couple of meetings set up on Monday at work, but the first meeting didn’t start until 10am. I woke up naturally at 7:30am, with the sun. (When I travel, I leave the window open for sunlight…it helps me adjust to the time and also to wake up pleasantly in the morning.) Since I had some time, I decided to go for a jog/run. The weather was cool, thanks to some random cloudcover and the hour, so I decided to run in the park across from my hotel. It has really nice paths with little bridges and such. I got to see the morning Tai Chi group dispersing. From GMap, I figure I did around 2 miles in 40 minutes by doing a few laps in the park, which is not too shabby for me. I was exhausted by the time I was done, though…the sun had come out, and I was a sweaty mess. However, the Hyatt has AWESOME showers, so that wasn’t a problem for long. Then, I got dressed and ready for breakfast downstairs. I hesitated to wake my colleague up. While I had Monday meetings, he didn’t, and I didn’t know if he was planning to go into the office. He didn’t know how to get to the office, whereas I know the walk to the office really well, so I also hated the idea of stranding him at the hotel. But, since I didn’t see him wandering around and he hadn’t called me, I assumed he was sleeping.

Work was pretty uneventful. I wasn’t hungry for lunch after a large buffet breakfast at the hotel, so I just grabbed a granola bar and a soda from the 7-11 downstairs. I got done with work early, so I decided to (after dropping my stuff off at the hotel, even though the hotel was out of my way) take the MRT to the Chiang Kaishek (CKS) memorial. I figured it would be a good quick trip. I also just love using the MRT in Taipei. It’s so easy and convenient, and just looking at the ads in the train station (often for American movies that went straight to DVD in the US but are in the theatres in Taiwan) is fun to me. The CKS memorial hall station, in and of itself, is beautiful and impressive. The hallway leading to the memorial is used as a rotating art gallery. At this time, it was featuring photos of street cats in Taiwan, and it gave a link where people could post their own photos to a flickr stream. I waited to peruse the photos for my way back, to maximize daylight time. It was a cool day, mainly because of thunderclouds threatening a downpour.

As you come out of the CKS station, you can see the exhibition hall above and to your right. To get to the memorial, you walk through this winding forested path. It’s very relaxing and nice. There are lots of natural stone benches and trashcans designed to look like ancient urns (but clearly trashcans when you look at the insides, as they’re lined with plastic trashbags and have a steel or aluminum interior). Then, you walk past the exhibition hall to the main courtyard. It’s a huge complex. I don’t know if my photos really convey that, but just trust me that it’s huge. Normally, there are extensive gardens as well as the parks, but the gardens were being re-done. In the courtyard and up on the balcony of the exhibition hall, there were school-aged kids practicing some kind of synchronized marching/dancing routines…kind of like cheerleaders but without the cheering or uniforms. Then I walked up to the CKS memorial building. The stairs to climb up it were daunting. I got winded halfway up and had to take a break, which wasn’t a bad thing since the view is pretty. Wikipedia’s article describes it best:

Two sets of white stairs, each with 89 steps to represent Chiang’s age at the time of his death, lead to the main entrance. The main entrance features a pair of double doors, each standing 16 meters high and weighing 75 tons, that open into the main hall. A large bronze statue of Chiang Kai-shek dominates the main hall. The figure is shown smiling, seated and wearing traditional Chinese dress. Inscribed on the wall above and behind the seated figure are the Chinese characters for Ethics, Democracy, and Science. Inscriptions on the side walls read The purpose of life is to improve the general life of humanity and The meaning of life is to create and sustain subsequent lives in the universe. Representatives of the armed forces guard the main hall during its open hours. (The branch of service represented changes periodically according to a rotating schedule.) The changing of the guards take place every hour, attracting many visitors.

When I arrived, the changing of the guards was in progress. A crowd had gathered to watch. The “army” guards were taking over for the “navy” guards. It was a ceremony with alot of riflework and stomping. Once the guards are in place, they don’t move at all. They stand on two pillars to either side of the bronze statue of CKS.

After the ceremony, the crowd dispersed, and I noticed that most people were going to an elevator. D’oh! I apparently could have taken an elevator. My guidebooks hadn’t mentioned that the CKS memorial actually has an exhibit hall built into it (in addition to the exhibition hall that is part of the complex), and the exhibit hall is on the first floor, whereas the statue is on the top floor. The elevator goes between the 1st and 5th floors. So, I waited in line for the elevator and took it down to the hall. The exhibition hall was showing a space exhibit about exploration (Link to an article about the exhibit). The space exhibit was pretty cool, except I couldn’t understand any of the signs, so I had no idea what was going on most of the time. It started with the “hall of mirrors” that showed famous historical astronomers. Not shockingly, the historic figures were not entirely familiar to me, as they were Chinese up until Newton. Also, the dates on the figures’ info cards were in dynasties, not Roman dating. Again, this shouldn’t shock me, but it did catch me offguard.

There were 3D exhibit displays showing the way the planets relate to each other. They also had this kind of cool projection screen room where various philosophers and historic figures were talking to you about what they did and about space, but I couldn’t understand any of it. There was a hallway decorated with paintings of clouds and dragons, with sparkly decorations and projections on the floor so that it seemed like you were walking through the clouds. There was a room focused on sound and how sound travels in space. But, perhaps most interestingly, there was a room showing a 3D movie called Quantum Quest. It was voiced in English and the subtitles were in Chinese. So, I sat and watched it for a bit. It was so odd. There was this weird little orange neutered dragon man who I guess represented a light particle, and he was trying to fight some other kind of particle, and along the way, he was learning about planets or something, or how NASA measures planets. It was very confusing. Then, without much transition, it switched to being a “behind the scenes” about the movie, with Chris Pine talking about how much fun it was to work on it, and Amanda Peet talking about her experience, and Mark Hamill saying that it was interesting to be the villain, a real departure…and I’m just like, WTF??? Why are all these American actors doing some movie playing in a space exhibit in China? But, if you click that Quantum Quest link I made at the beginning of this, you can read about the film’s origin. I guess it’s being released for IMAX in China this fall.

After that, I did some shopping in the gift shop and then left the hall to explore the park. (Link to the official site for CKS memorial hall) There are two little parks to the left and right of the hall. Here’s a quote from the official website that describes them better than I could:

On the right and left sides of the park are the Yunhan and Guanghua Ponds. The Yunhan Pond derives its name from the 4 Chinese characters: ?hanying yungen? written by Chu Yi-hai, the Jianguo Luwang of the Ming Dynasty. The words ?Guanghua?,signify the Restoration of China. Each pond is 3000 square meters in size. Both ponds are man-made in irregular shape. The combination with artificial mountains, man-made waterfalls, and arch bridges, creates a beautiful scene. The ponds contain a variety of carp. These were donated by General Ho Ying-ching and other carp lovers, from both home and abroad, when the Hall was first opened.

I thought they were koi, but I guess they were carp. Or are carp and koi the same thing? Hmm. Something to Google later.

After I sat near the pond for a bit (Guanghua pond, to be specific), I wandered back to the train station and looked at all the Tamsui Cats photographs in the exhibit. Then, I took the train back to the hotel. I decided to have Din Tai Fung for dinner (yay!), and I took a cab from the hotel to DTF and back again when done. I had spicy shrimp bags, and I found out that DTF has a location outside of LA now. Yay!!!! Granted, I’m sure the prices aren’t as good ($9 buys you a huge dinner at DTF in Taipei), but at least I can get yummy soup dumplings without an international flight! Here’s a link to the DTF USA website, where you can view the menu and offerings. My favorites are the steamed pork dumplings and the shrimp and pork shaomai, or, as I originally learned to call them, “spicy shrimp bags”.

Tuesday-Thursday:

So, there’s nothing much to report for these days. I went to DTF again with work friends. I ate squid for lunch one day and I had beef noodles for lunch another day. I had lots of meetings that made me exhausted at the end of each day. I went running again once, and I swam in the hotel’s pool. On Wednesday night, I went to New York, New York which is a big shopping complex near the 101 that promises American brands. I’d never been before for the obvious reason that I can get American stuff anytime I want, but I decided to check it out. It was kind of hilarious…exactly the stereotypical worship of American brands that you would expect. But the best part was the Mister Donut at the bottom of the complex. I got an assortment of mini-donuts (even smaller than mini-donuts here) in the local flavors. I had a sesame spice donut, a red bean donut, a strawberry donut, and a mango donut, in addition to the more normal powdered sugar and chocolate frosted donuts. They were all tasty. The sesame spice was particularly good, kind of a mix between a bagel and a donut.

On Thursday afternoon, a different colleague and I took a taxi to the airport. TPE airport is super-easy to navigate. You don’t have to take off your shoes or belt for security. You don’t even have to take your laptop out of your bag. The immigration process is extremely efficient, as is security. And, on the other side of security, there’s a big area of carts, for free. Anyone can use a cart as they’re wandering around. So, I grabbed a cart, especially since my bag (with laptop and 2 spare batteries as well as 2 changes of clothes) was very heavy.

There was something interesting at the airport that I don’t remember being true the last time I was there. I think they remodeled and now, all the gates are sponsored by stores. So, like, your chairs for waiting are inside a store, with merchandise right nearby. The seating areas vary in design and accommodations at each gate based on what store sponsors the gate. So, like, the electronics stores had big TVs that you could watch while waiting. The food stores had sample trays and magazines. But, the best gate was the Hello Kitty gate, and I took pictures of it.

As usual, all my photos from my adventures are in the gallery, and I captioned all of them, often with details that I neglected to mention here, so make sure to take a look.

Taipei Travelogue: Flight/Sunday

Written on 24 August, backposted to align with the date of the events detailed within

Link to relevant gallery: Taipei 2009 trip gallery, with captions on most photos

Flight to TPE:

So, I have to say that flying coach on EVA air is not too shabby. The spacing between seats and size of seats is comparable to United’s Economy Plus. Also, I had an empty seat next to me. I ended up sleeping for most of the flight (in part thanks to a healthy dose of sleepy meds to help me doze off). I also watched a few eps of True Blood Season 1. The food was reasonably good. As usual, dinner was better than breakfast, since I’m not much of one for cheese omelets. I was traveling on this leg with a young(er than me) engineer. The only hiccup we ran into was at SFO. It turns out that, in order to “transfer” between United and EVA, we had to go out to the departures area (on the other side of security), give them our bag tags, and then come back through security to the gate. We’d hoped that we could go to the EVA counter instead of going through security. If we’d been arriving at a more normal hour, that might have been true. However, at midnight, there’s no one at any of the airline counters. I grasped this before walking to the gate, but my travel companion didn’t, and his bags almost didn’t make it onto the plane.

On that note, here’s a tip for anyone doing an inter-airline flight: KEEP TRACK OF YOUR BAGGAGE CLAIM TICKETS! I will admit that I, like most folks I know, usually don’t pay too much attention to where I put my bag tags (the little record that the agent gives you that has your bag’s ID, your name, and your flight numbers). I mean, I don’t trash them until I have my bags, but I also just kind of stuff them somewhere in my carryon without thinking about it. Most of the time, you can claim your bags without ever needing to reference the bag tags. For both this leg and the return trip, I needed those bag tags. Unlike intra-airline transfers, which are handled pretty automatically, an inter-airline transfer requires that the airline “take control” of your bag at the airport. The actual movement of the bag still happens pretty automatically, but the “take control” step only occurs once you personally go tell the airline that these bags are, in fact, yours…and the way you do that is to hand over the bag tag so they can check the ID against the ones they received. If you don’t do this, your bag doesn’t go with you.

Sunday:

We arrived on Sunday morning at 5am. There was a long wait for our luggage, especially when you consider that I took the time to change clothes, brush my teeth, and wash my face in the terminal before going through customs. Customs was the usual routine, but there was a line about ten people long. So, point being, it took at least 30-45 minutes from the point that we landed for the luggage to come out. By the time we were leaving the airport, it was almost 6:30am. The Hyatt’s concierge car took us. We were both feeling pretty good; jet lag hadn’t really presented an issue. We’d both switched ourselves to Taipei time as soon as we got on the plane, and that helps considerably. The ride to the Hyatt was uneventful. We chatted along the way, me supplying a few tips on things to do. The two of us decided to sync up for brunch after we’d gotten checked in and settled. (He wanted to shower; I wanted to unpack.)

I’d investigated a few day trips to do on Sunday, but I hadn’t made any definite plans because I didn’t know how jet lagged I’d be. As it happened, I was feeling pretty good, and I figured the best thing I could do would be to go do something instead of staying home and potentially falling prey to an afternoon nap. So, I decided to do a tour of the Northeast coast that left from the hotel at 1:45pm and cost NT$1100. (NT$1000 = ~$33 US). It was expensive, and I know I could have done more and seen more for less if I’d taken care of transportation on my own. But, considering that I’d be going beyond the MRT routes, I decided that the convenience of a tour was worthwhile. I invited my colleague to join me, and we met a few other business people on the tour. But before that, I was challenged to get lunch. After our 9am breakfast, I’d gone back to the hotel room to change into something that would be good. I also did some tweeting and some netsurfing, as well as reserving our spots on the tour. I also read through my guidebooks to see if there was anything else I wanted to do besides the tour. At around 12:45pm, I walked over to the 101 to get lunch. I had no idea that the 101’s convention center was hosting a giant anime convention that weekend, and as such, the food court was PACKED with teenagers. There were literally no seats available. I got my food and then wandered around for a good 15 minutes trying to find somewhere to sit to eat…and this is Taiwanese lunch, which is not “to go” packaged unless you ask for it, and I didn’t know how to ask for it. (I know now…it’s pronounced tah-eet-show, or taitsho in Japanese romanization, and it basically is what you say if you want your food packaged for carryout.) Finally, a mom and daughter took pity on the lost-looking American and asked me if I “would mind” sitting with them. That was fun, though they knew almost no English and I know very little Mandarin. I scarfed down my food in five minutes so I could run back to the hotel lobby for the 1:45pm tour…confusing the heck out of my table hosts in the process who did not understand why I wasn’t eating my soup. They thought I didn’t like it or thought it was odd. I kept trying to explain that I was simply running late for an appointment and didn’t have time to eat hot soup.

(culture note: In Taiwan, almost all the food that you get from “fast food” counters is like a multi-course set. You can order a la carte, but it’s kind of like how here, McD’s and such have combos, and you usually order a combo, not individual items. Same deal there with “set meals.” So, a set meal usually includes a main course that you select plus an assortment of sides like soup, nuts, sushi, jellies, rice, and/or tea or juice. And a set meal will cost between NT$100 and NT$330…like $3-13, depending on the type of food you’re getting. Beef dishes cost more than chicken dishes, generally. Seafood dishes are the cheapest. And the price to quantity ratio is not at all consistent. I’ve got an example picture of the component containers from a set meal in my photos from this trip.)

The tour was in English, albeit broken and repetitive English; everything was beautiful or very beautiful, i.e., “To your right, abandoned iron factory, notice the small openings for air for the workers, very beautiful. To your left, bay of two colours, result of iron in the water mixing with sea water, very beautiful.” I think it was a good tour, though I wish we’d had a stop at the bay of two colours. The tour description implied a stop, but in reality, it was a drive-by.

Anyways, the first stop after a long drive to the coast was at a rocky outcropping with a very famous (well, famous for Taiwan) rock that is formed from erosion. It has striping that is really pretty, and the landscape ends up looking like melted ice cream because of the erosion’s effect on what was, at some point, a volcanic flow. Also, because of the high iron content in the rock, the coloring is sandy orange. It was kind of tough to climb up to the good vantage point for viewing. I was very glad that I was wearing my river runner sandals and not a sandal with less tread or less flexibility. You really needed to be able to have foot grip on the rock to keep from sliding as you went up or down. There was a definite trail, but, well, in the US, someplace like that would have had a railing or steps built up to it for safety…Taiwan doesn’t care so much for safety or accessibility. It’s your own damn fault if you break an ankle trying to see the pretty rocks.

I had actually broken a toe on the airplane (stubbed it on the seat in front of me at one point when my foot slid unexpectedly), so the grippy walking was even less easy than normal. But, I survived and got some great pictures. My colleague even took a picture of me in front of the rock. It’s rare for me to show up in my own pictures.

After the rocks, we took a very tight switchback road up to Jioufen (sometimes spelled Chiufen or Xiufen…I’m going with the spelling I saw on road signs). On top of the road barely being wide enough for our tour van, the left side had a severe dropoff for the cliff face and the right side had a ditch for water drainage that was cement and just about as wide as a car tire and around 2 feet deep. That part just seemed stupid. The water would flow just as well if the ditch were less wide, so that you wouldn’t have to worry about dropping your tire into it. I wonder if there’s some other reason for it to be that way…maybe so it’s easy to clean out? Anyways, there were several places on the road where there were pull-offs to allow for passing. If we came to another car and we weren’t near a pull-off, there was a little game of chicken to see who would start backing up first…and yes, sometimes we had to back up around a tight switchback turn. It was a bit scary, but our driver did it confidently…and he surely makes this drive and does this several times a week, so who am I to question his ability?

The tour guide noted that Jioufen is a popular day or weekend trip from Taipei, especially on a day like this one when the weather is so nice (it was 88 and breezy). So, we had lots of traffic going up the mountain. At one point, we could see families climbing the mountain on a trail. The guide said it’s very common for people to go up the mountain for an afternoon picnic and then watch the sunset. (She did not say, but I concluded that this means they were going down the mountain in the dark and there was no sign of lighting up there, no power lines. Once again, I must note that the Taiwanese are far braver with their personal safety than we are.) The actual city of Jioufen was pretty small, but we stopped for awhile in a very crowded street market. The entrance to the market had a terrible and pungent smell. It turns out that the first few stalls are for day-old fish delicacies…meaning fish that we would consider rotten….hence the smell. (I did not sample the delicacies.) The other contributor to the smell was that the very next stalls were for sesame candy and milk candy, so you had this rotten fish smell mixing with sweet candy smell mixing with warm milk smell. It was horrid, but thankfully, if you walked fast, it didn’t last long.

We had free time to explore the market and the city. I spotted this camera case/wallet thingie that had Winnie the Pooh on it and a bumblebee pattern that i thought was cute…and, on closer inspection, I noticed that it actually said it was a “Winnie the Pool” product. Ha! Copyright avoidance at work! So, I bought it. I also got some souvenirs for friends. Then, I left the market and explored the city. There were lots of scooter repair shops. I bought a drink at the 7-11 (as noted before, 7-11 is to Taiwan as McDonald’s is to the US…you can find one anywhere, and they all have the same stuff), and I browsed a few art gallery shops in the ritzier section of the town. I also went to a sightseeing point that had shade and a terrific view of the coast. Not long after, we met back up with the tour guide. She led us down, like, a hundred stairs…easily a hundred, maybe more…to meet back up with the van. The stairs were uneven, too, so you really had to watch as you were going down them. But, I did get to see lots of home balcony areas that had cats. The cats watched us; we watched the cats.

Our tour concluded with the requested stop at a Daoist temple and a (silly, pointless) stop at an overpriced souvenir shop that surely gives kickbacks to the tour company. The shop had gifts at what I would call European prices…so it wouldn’t feel overpriced unless you already knew the kind of things you could get in Taipei at the local shops and malls. By the time the tour was done, I was sweaty and tired. It was around 5pm when we got back to the hotel. I spent the rest of the evening just getting my bag set for going to work the next day. I also watched more True Blood episodes and caught up on the recaps from TWoP.

Create a Sun Jar: TsuKata’s Edition

This is a derivative of the Instructables/Lifehacker “Create Your Own Sun Jar” instructions. My version requires no screwdrivers or glue, which makes it simpler and easier than their version. Make sure to read all instructions before attempting this on your own.

MATERIALS AND COST:

• Glass Frosting Spray – $5 at Ace Hardware
• Solar garden lamps – $2 each at Sears (5)
• Ball Mason jars – $5 for group of 5 on eBay, plus $5 shipping
• Duck Clear packaging tape – had on hand
• Optional: Dasani bottle wrapper – had on hand
• NO TOOLS REQUIRED!

TOTAL COST: $25 for 5 sun jars

TIP: You can use glue instead of tape. I used tape because these are prototypes. But, the tape is holding up pretty darn well, even in the heat, so I may just stick with tape until it wears out. (STICK WITH…get it? Ha!!)

STEP 1: Materials and Space

Gather all your materials. Set up a workspace outdoors on a sunny, dry day. Make sure you have a surface that you don’t mind spraying on. Check the wind to make sure you stay upwind of your spray.

STEP 2: Frosting

Frost the jars. This is pretty simple. Open your jars and put them on your surface facing down. Start by shaking the frosting spray for about 2 minutes (as per the instructions on the can). Then, spray the jars. Try to get an even coat. You can see on the one on the far left that I overdid the frosting a little. You just need a light coat. In fact, when it goes on, it won’t necessarily seem like it’s frosted. Make sure to get the neck of the jar, but DO NOT SPRAY THE LIDS. In my case, my jars had removable lids, which made this part MUCH easier. Allow the jars to dry without being touched for at least one hour to be safe.

STEP 3: Lights


If you buy the exact brand of solar lights that I did (or look for one that works the same way), it’s just a twist off cap. They make it easy to twist off because there’s an auto/off switch inside. Look for lights that you can just twist off, and you avoid dealing with screwdrivers. (Lifehacker and Instructables went a step further by actually disassembling the cap. I skipped this step, which is what makes my version faster and easier.) You also want to make sure that the lights you get will fit your jars. I went for the smallest ones, which were also the cheapest. And lastly, make sure that the lights don’t have any large lenses over the solar panel, as this will interfere with getting power once they’re inside the jar lid.

STEP 4: Lids


Put a “crown” of tape around the light fixture as shown. (If you accidentally put it on the wrong way, you can always remove the tape and start over.) Then push the crown back, kind of like how you would push a banana peel or candy bar wrapper back. You’ll end up with half the tape on the fixture and half around the fixture in a ring. Then, put the fixture inside the lid, so that the solar panel will face out once the lid is back on the jar. Push the tape down around the fixture so that it forms a seal with the lid. Make sure that all the tape is inside the boundary of the lid, so that you’ll get a good seal on the jar.

OPTIONAL STEP 4a: Colors

You can use clear plastic wrappers or wrapping paper to add color to your lights. Just tape a piece over the LED bulb. Check the Lifehacker or Instructables guides for more details on this optional step. (I did this with one of them just to check it out. It’s dead simple to add this later and/or change it after you add it.)

STEP 5: Waiting is the hardest part.

Let the lids charge with sunlight, and let the jars dry.

RESULT: Sun jars!

I tested them out in my bathroom, which is completely dark. With moonlight, I imagine this will be plenty of light for our deck. I’ll probably do up a second batch to light our porch and walkway at some point. And, I might use this as a gift idea for this holiday season…

Taipei Trip

So, I’ll be leaving town this Friday evening to go to Taipei again. I’m looking forward to it. On the plus side, the timing is good in that I’m not in school yet (still on summer break that week). Also, the food is just so darn good over there. I could easily live off of that food, and, by and large, it’s better for me, too. On the minus side, I’m missing spending a week with my adorable nephew (AN1)…and I’m really heartbroken about that, more than I expected to be, but DH and I are thinking that I will go with them to deliver AN1 back home, thus giving me at least the fun of a long road trip with him. Also, if I can manage to not be too jet lagged, we can have some fun the day before he leaves.

That having been said, I already know that I will have 1-2 days of tourist time in Taipei. My flight arrives at 5am Taipei time on Sunday, and I need to make sure I stay awake that day to combat jet lag. So, for that day, I will definitely be doing some tourist things. I’m thinking about making a reservation for the hot springs in Beitou. I could almost go straight there from the airport and save my company some TWDs in the process (as even the most luxurious room in Beitou is 1000TWD less than my hotel in Taipei). But, I don’t know. I’ve heard mixed reviews of the hot springs, and, particularly during the summer, the hot water might not be as appealing. So, unless I just get a burr up my butt to take the MRT out there, I’ll probably stay near the hotel. The Hyatt hotel in Taipei is awesome, and I can spend that day doing nearby activities, like shopping and museums, or enjoying the hotel amenities (indoor pool, really nice gym overlooking the city).

I also don’t have any meetings scheduled on Monday, so that will probably end up being a light work day, leaving me time in the evening for activities or shopping.

Speaking of shopping, were there any souvenirs that anyone reading this blog wanted from Taipei that they didn’t get last time? Also, is there anyone who wants to be on my postcard list for this trip that isn’t normally on my list?

Review: Dead Until Dark (Sookie Stackhouse #1)

Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris

My rating: 3 of 5 stars
The similarities between this book’s mythos and Twilight’s are too many to count. If you’ve read Twilight, you’ll slip into this one pretty easily.Much like Bella in Twilight, the lead character in this book is pretty flat. The author made her “disabled” with telepathy (kind of the opposite of Bella), which allows her to be interesting. Also, much like Bella, she falls for someone right away…who turns out to be a vamp, who initially seems to blow her off, but who eventually turns out to lurrrrve her with all his vampiric heart. I’m through the second book now and I still for the life of me don’t understand Sookie’s interest in her vampire lover, Bill. The reasons given in the first book fall apart by the end of the first book. And, the author seems to toy with the notion of pulling them apart in both the first and second book of the series only to wimp out of actually doing it. (And it totally feels like a wimp out. The “fight” gets resolved far too neatly.) The effect, IMO, is that I, as the reader, don’t feel very fond of her lover and am rooting for him to get run over by a car more than the author intends. It feels like he’s abusing his relationship with Sookie in that he has trysts (and expects no reproach) that he doesn’t permit her to have, at least not without a temper tantrum from him. By the end of the first book and certainly by the end of the second, you’ve met two other supernatural beings equally interested in Sookie and equally better suited for her than the original love interest, in that they both seem to deal with her better than her lover.Then, there’s the mystery aspect. I’m not a mystery fan, and I was surprised by how invested I became in solving the mysteries along with Sookie. That kept me hooked.So, point being, turn off your feminist prickles and just settle down with this one. If you think about it too much, the relationships and character development might bother you (much as with twilight). However, if you’re a Twilight fan (not a Twihard, just a fan), you’ll probably enjoy this one.

View all my GoodReads reviews >>

Map FAIL

Lancaster, PA

First, click to open the image in a separate window so that you can look at it while reading this.

Notice in the upper right that they provide a radius map with distances from Lancaster. Richmond is just inside the 250 mile circle. Cleveland is just inside the 250 mile circle. But, if you look in the bottom half left, you can see that the approximate distances show that Richmond is 232 miles away (expected)…but Cleveland is a whopping 363 miles away. Now, look at Toronto. Toronto is just outside of the 250 mile circle. However, the distance in the chart is 467 miles.

MAP FAIL.

WBCs

I’m at the WBCs! So far, I like this convention. The people have been really nice and friendly. There’s a significant population of female and young gamers, which is a nice change of pace. There’s a bunch of restaurants in easy walking distance, plus the hotel puts out a really good spread at its various snack bars at a reasonable price. The hotel is older, but it’s nice enough once you take that into account…and the rate was really good. Plus, the best part is the games. I was afraid the “every game is a tournament” aspect would bug me, but the net result seems to be that people take the games seriously instead of just assing around. Also, the GMs REALLY take the games seriously. They take care to make sure the event is run smoothly and to resolve rules issues fairly. Many of them keep detailed statistics on the games that will be compiled and posted in a game report later this month.

The only exception to my praise for GMs has been the Empire Builder event. The GMs are really lax, if they show up at all. There’s little if any randomization of the event seating. And, for example, DH was in a game yesterday that they added a relatively unfamiliar player as a fifth person at the last minute…which meant his game ran a good hour longer than the others without being anywhere close to done. Plus, the GM originally said they’d adjudicate the game at 1:30, but then the GM left and didn’t tell anyone how to resolve it. Another GM helper came in and said to keep it going until 1:45 or until the original GM came back, but the original GM never came back. Then, that GM wanted to keep it going until 2pm, but a bunch of the players protested, as most of them were now going into their next event with almost no break, once you figure in time to break down and put away the game. (The one guy who wanted it to keep going was the unfamiliar player, who also was generally slowing the game down by asking irrelevant questions during his turn and such. And I mean, I’d feel bad for him, but he showed up late and let himself be added to a game as a fifth player, knowing that he didn’t know the game that well…and then was generally asshattish on top of slowing things down unnecessarily.) So, point being, I’m avoiding EB events here. Maybe I’m just spoiled to the TGA’s organization. I criticize the TGA often for being clique-y and often biased toward the clique, but they do run an excellent tournament.

The downside of the WBC is that it’s 2 hours from the nearest major airport. It’s also a con that runs 70% of its “open” events during the week. (The weekend is mostly semis and finals, with a few of the super-popular events still doing heats, e.g., Puerto Rico, St. Petersburg, TTR.) Thus, you really need to arrive by Tuesday evening. Granted, that’s only one day earlier than I’d typically arrive at GenCon, but the point being that, if you don’t make it into a final, Saturday and Sunday feel like wasted days, I imagine. But, I’ll see how that goes.

So far, I’ve qualified for the Power Grid semi-final and the Stone Age semi-final. DH has qualified for the Vegas Showdown semi-final.

I miss my Pancake! I wish he could travel with me.

Speaking of travel, I found out 2 days ago that I’m going to have to go to Taiwan for work, leaving the Friday after I get back from this. I don’t mind going to Taiwan again (Din Tai Fung!!!!!), and the timing is good in that I’m not starting school yet. But, the timing sucks in that our Adorable Nephew #1 is visiting us that week. I’d been looking forward to taking him to cool things and generally spoiling him rotten. As is, I may get to see him briefly on Friday afternoon after I get back from Taiwan, but that’ll be it.

That’s all the news.