inside the wonderful world of vee

after work on friday, summer and i headed over to the olympic sculpture park. w00t w00t for one block walk. she’s into experimental music, so i said i’d try and get her in… under the premise that i thought i had a +1. wasn’t sure if i did. apparently i did? though? because it wasn’t a big deal at all. we just waltzed on in. no one really checked. pretty sure if you just walked in like you knew what you were doing, no one cared at all. lollercopters. they barely checked us upon walking in. some girl took a pic and gave summer a card where we could check out the pics online but i didn’t get one and i think she dropped hers T__T

ice carving of a gibson guitar!

waitress spilled some whino. made cool patterns.

free food. of the thai chicken variety. probably the best thing that was there. there were also mini veggie burgers… smoked salmon on cucumber… i would’ve liked more variety. oh well. it was free. who can complain. open bar, too, but i didn’t drink, so that is kind of a waste.

experimental orchestra with 50 local guitarists and bassists. interesting stuff. four parts. first was interesting but kinda boring and not very complicated and was more like droning with slight variations. third was the best, as it was the most experimental and had the most going on, with various sounds coming out of every nook and cranny. i thought it’d end at three but it ended on four, and by four, i don’t know if four was worse or if it just got boring by then, but four definitely did NOT hold my attention.

through all of this, though, was the awesomeness that was the conductor. totally awesome. by the way, the conductor showed up, like, ten minutes late, and everyone in the audience was sitting awkwardly, and the announcer lady who worked for SAM had no idea who he was, either… it seemed no one knew so they were kinda like, “UHHHHHHHHH… GO DRINK SOME MORE! YAY!”

FIN! to part three, i believe.

summer really liked this guy’s sweet stache and beard combo.

so during this whole one our long symphony of guitars or whatever, people were watching from up on the street because they didn’t want to pay the $175 - $250 (which is a bit ridiculous, anyhow). it’s funny, though, that they just stood the whole time, watching through the fence. good thing for most of them — as they were tall — that the fence was short!

by the time it ended, the sun had gone down. finally. initially, it was burning into the retinas. these here are food tables.

by the way they had these uber trippy “royal port-o-potties” that were pretty much just like regular toilets…… had full-blown sink with like, a plastic countertop that was made to look like granite, a mirror, a nice toilet seat, a somewhat real flusher… FREAKISH. it was driven in on a little car type thing, with two women’s rooms and one men’s room for each of them. FREAKISH.

next to the restrooms, we saw some CAKES. they had pink paper boxes full of cake but wouldn’t tell us where we could get cake. we tried to follow them briefly to the magical land of cake, but failed miserably because they would not reveal their secrets… :[

follow the pink-haired maidens…

olympic sculpture park’s new giant traffic cones. more at artandmusic.wordpress.com!!

oh by the way, dj derek mazzoni of kexp was there (i don’t know how to spell his name and i care not to look it up). probably my favorite kexp dj, as i don’t really listen to kexp much. but he’s rad.

robosapiens? who belong to…

... this guy? who bangs on drums and plays in front of a strobe :D he's one of those street musician types, with paint cans for drums. jea jea.

oo yea, night pics of ice sculpture!!

nothing like neon strings for bling, and oh yes, it is a gibson.

more to come, sucka. eventful weekend. although i must say, upon leaving the sculpture park that evening my weekend was very unpleasant. :{

i bought infusium23 conditioner not *too* long ago. the smell in the bottle is good. the aftermath of shampooing and conditioning is good… i get compliments from people saying that my hair smells nice.

LET ME TELL YOU KIDS: NICE-SMELLING HAIR COMES AT A COST!!!

so, back when i was living at the old apartment on greenwood ave. it wasn’t really a big deal… i mean, i noticed some fumes from the infusium while i was showering but nothing overwhelming or major — i noticed it primarily AFTER stepping out of the shower and being in the bathroom brushing my teeth or whatever.

now that i moved into a house that has a shower half the size or whatever…………………….. i don’t know what it is but the fumes are killing me!! KILLETHING MEEE! KILLING MEEEEE.

starting from two weeks ago, my throat began aching. i would wake up in the morning with my throat just completely burning.

one day i didn’t take a shower because, i don’t know, sometimes i do that when i know that i’m not going to leave the house for a day or whatever (yeah yeah). i noticed the next morning that my throat didn’t hurt. thought it was a little weird, but went about taking my shower. again, the throataches resumed.

so a couple days ago, i decided to conduct an experiment. i didn’t wash my hair one day, and the next day, i stole one of my roommate’s shampoos. HAHAHAHAHA (hey, it’s in the name of saving my life… it’s okay).

magically, the day after the first day of dirtiness, my throat barely hurt. today, the second day of relative dirtiness, MY THROAT DOESN’T HURT AT ALL. not at all. not a smidgen.

the feeling infusium 23 gives me when i’m in the shower is akin to something like this… have you ever decided to wash a bathtub with bleach or some other cleaning product and then accidentally turned on the hot water???? (or maybe not so accidentally, because it gets the job done faster????) well, the fumes from that shit are pretty fucking intense, let me tell you. alex knows all about this. breathe in too much of that shit and it WILL leave your lungs and your throat feeling raw for the next couple days.

that’s what infusium feels like. IT’S BAD.

BOYCOTT INFUSIUM.

or maybe who knows. one of my roommates might just be pouring bleach into my shampoo every morning. dun dun dun. it did magically start when i got HERE… HMMMMMMMMMM. INDEEEEED.

anyway, alex, lenny, and i went on this park quest this past weekend. i must share delicious pics. my house in greenlake = surrounded by parks and natury goodness. and a zoo! albeit a shitty one. a very shitty one.

i need a bike.

alex… he is enjoying the baboon much too much… T__T

“gimee yer ears!”

“respect the cock! tame the cunt!” (they made me do it… quote from “magnolia”)

i’m a regular photographer. btw, his mouth is right where my penis just was.

doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo.

and now, for the coup de gras…

“yee-haw!”

and now, for the coup de gras-er… to be honest, i don’t even know what that term means…

the dr. seuss-style one-eyed tree!! HE IS GOING TO GET AN EYE A’PAINTED ON ‘IM!

at work today… i mean, since i work for a fashion website… we were talking about this blog, things i’ve bought that i love, which is — i guess — run by the indian chick on “the office.” it’s amusingly written and well-written, and definitely highlights some interesting products. i read through a bunch of posts, no fucking problem.

but then, after stepping back and studying the whole premise of the blog, which is consumption, i cannot help to be a little bit disgusted.

as a chick, i guess it’s a constant battle to try and fight off that ridiculous desire to buy things (some dudes also have this problem, but it is more prevalent in women, i’d say). but… i don’t know? i feel like it’s a desire that SHOULD be fought off.

we had a 20 person beta test a month ago or something, and we put up a survey for those 20 people to tell us what they thought about the site. well, only 7 (or maybe took the time to respond. and when asked how much money they spent last year on clothing, there were acceptable answers like, “IDK!!” and “$350″… there were also two that said, “$5,000 - $7,000″ and “$7,000″.

i mean, holy shit!!!!!!!!!! THAT’S SO MUCH MONEY. all in the name of looking good? and for what? and for whom?

i mean, i can’t go as far as saying i don’t care how i look. and perhaps i have it lucky because things i like to buy, clothing-wise, are cheaper… and other things i like to buy are at least useful (ie: films, art supplies, etc.) luckily, i don’t need to buy music anymore (or rarely, i should say) because i get so much of it for free.

nonetheless i feel bad even when i see how many books and art supplies i DO have. it’s hard to buy that stuff and not feel guilty about it. but running a blog dedicated to consumption and consumerism? i don’t know. it just feels so………… ethnocentric. i mean people are dealing around the world with starvation and eating mud cakes and shit and here in america we are buying up storms of shit we don’t need. sigh.

in similar news, people in the indie magazine world are scrambling. evidently magazines stocked at border’s get like a 60% sell-through rate whereas those at barnes n noble are more like 40%. yet, crisis looms on the book consumption front. click here to see more!!!

there’s a good chance border’s will be purchased by barnes n noble and as a result, even more conglomeration. in the day to day, people don’t see how big of a problem all this is. but it’s a huge fucking problem. not cool.

oh and this past weekend rachel, castro, and i were supposed to go to the georgetown art attack. rachel got dropped off at work by castro because the dalai lama was in town and there was nowhere for her to park. he was going to pick her up and was speeding on the way to pick her up. got pulled over. went to jail for not having a license. got fined for having weed on him (for us). owned. :X

this morning, nick and i went to the city church in the u-district. we were yet again in search of a charismatic church where people spoke in tongues. we were again /fail. oh well. i thought it was interesting nonetheless. city church is comprised of 5 chain churches throughout the seattle area. the main one is in kirkland. all of the other ones stream live from the kirkland church. the sound was really good, though, so when we first entered i thought that the worship team was in the house, playing live. they were not, even though it sounded like it. an usher brought us to our seats, and upon realization that it was not a live band, i was a little weirded out. but you know, whatever. the worship leader chick sang like a pop star or something, ad libbing like mad. many people did the “raised, outstretched hands” thing.

after worship, some lady — pretty, blonde, nicely-dressed — came on the screen and did some church announcement type things… a lot of which were pimping out these products available in their store. products included a book called “dating delilah,” with nice graphical design pages inside… a dvd / audio cd / mp3 disc of their previous conference’s message… etc. etc. etc. but there was a lot of, “BUY THIS!” and “BUY THAT!” but, to their benefit, it did seem very um, personal, despite the fact that the churches collectively probably had thousands of people. very very interesting. to be honest the whole idea of a church being conducted via tv screen is kind of “odd” but it’s actually kind of cool in some ways, too. you’re uniting people in a easy, local way to a bigger conduit. i don’t know…

then there was a “greet your neighbors” section. there was a guy in front of nick who was really, really good-looking… like really, really. and he was way into the whole service. that’s one thing about the people there — they seemed very sincere in their worship. many came by themselves and seemed unconcerned with their neighbors and worshipped solely for god. i mean, i think that’s great. being “real” is more important than partaking in a church ritual i don’t subscribe to. if that makes sense. anyway. back to the good-looking guy… i found it kind of… disturbing. it’s judgmental to say (as chris pointed out later today) perhaps but the guy looked like any normal rocker dude you would meet at a party or something… and i guess… why does that bother me? it bothers me because it’s common to go to a party and want to meet someone romantically interesting?? and i guess i am shallow but i am much more interested in people who are good-looking… that doesn’t mean i’ll like them after i get to know them, but it does make me want to start talking to them initially. way he was acting — and how he knew exactly where the book of judges (one of the least used books in the bible, i’d argue) was — probably was an indication that he was a hardcore christian. and being extremely involved in a religion is a significant life choice. so it is bothersome that um, i might come across someone like this not ever knowing, thinking he was awesome, and then having that be a significant issue/difference. and i wouldn’t really have a problem being with someone who was a hardcore christian (depending on what their other thoughts on things were) but it seems like hardcore christians often have a problem with other people who are not the same way. so really, it’s really a very selfish thing to be bothered by a hot guy at church who “doesn’t look like he would go to church”. oh so selfish. and so shallow. but it’s a thought i could not help. :[

after the meet and greet, a brief message began by the pastor of the day. he gave a brief testimony about this new couple to his church. the male of the couple accepted christ the first day he ever went to church. the next week, supposedly, he brought more people, and his girlfriend and kids accepted christ too. the next week after that, he brought even more people. blahblahblah.

then we were shown a dvd clip of the guy and his girlfriend, who had had HPV (they didn’t say that, but they kept saying “VIRUS” “CERVIX” etc… i can only conclude that it was HPV) and a malignant tumor?? or something?? because of it. she was pregnant, and the doctor said if it grew any more, the baby would need to be terminated. then they received “healing hands” in church, and the next time they went to the doctor, the tumor or cyst or whatever was “COMPLETELY GONE!” it was all a little strange. it was even staged like an infomercial testimony or something too.

after that, speaker man, who had come from las vegas, came back to the stage. he proceeded to tell a message. man, i don’t even know where to start. AHHHH. god. uhhh. where to start.

the whole message talked about the “power of words” and that they were more powerful than the physical. he mentioned this girl in high school who used to make fun of his eyes… they bulged out of his head because he had a lot of health problems at that time. he mentioned that he looked like bart simpson, but made sure to note that people in the audience who were saved probably didn’t even know what “the simpsons” were, and that it was just a show that he had seen a couple episodes of before he became christian. like, what the fuck???????????????????????

anyway, he was a funny preacher and all but he like… i don’t know. made the whole crowd repeat after him the girl’s name (which i forget now). he would say her first name, they’d repeat it, he’d say her last name, they’d repeat it, and he’d say, “was a bad person,” and they’d repeat it. it was all very strange, like he still………………… was very bothered by it. and he probably was. but… i mean………….. wtf.

let’s start with this part in… judges?? where ephraimites (sp?) were being persecuted or something, and the only way out was to cross this river to the other side. they were tested by guards/soldiers, and the soldiers would tell them to say “shibolleth” — because the ephraimites had a different language and way of speaking, they could not pronounce the “shib” and would say “sibolleth”… and once they did that, they were killed because their accent gave themselves away. 40,000 of them supposedly died this way. now, the preacher did mention that it was because they had a different accent, but then he took it deeper, and said that he had an expensive bible program and decided to look up the meanings of those words.

“shibolleth” meant “flowing stream” or some shit, where as “sibolleth” meant “burden”.

he ridiculously stretched it out to say that… we need to use our words in a way so that we are not speaking “sibolleth” but “shibolleth” — we do not want to “burden” ourselves with negative speech and negative thoughts… we want to praise the word of god like a “flowing stream.” like… how ridiculous. i mean, really. wtf.

i don’t even know. wtf.

two churches in a row, now, i also see the heavy influence placed on owning big houses and owning things that = money. it’s so weird. he mentioned some pastor who was given a $4 million dollar house by a random lady………… i mean……… why does a pastor need that? pastors should do something with that $4 million dollar house that helps the community or whatever. why should a pastor keep that shit? why are we for these things?

it’s just very strange to me that christians like him can be like, “we shouldn’t watch simpsons…” and “we should be the counter-culture”… when they’re like… embracing all these capitalist, non-jesus-type things. i mean, jesus didn’t live life extravagantly. he wouldn’t be paying money for neon wall hangings and fancy ass clothes. why do they?

anyway, there was a mention of the term “turn or burn”, in a joking way. but i wrote down to look up the term and find some related merch. nick found a couple related t-shirt designs… roflcakes.

***

after that, nick and i went to eat at this greek restaurant that i don’t know the name of. we had interesting conversation there about the church and our thoughts on it… politics… blahblah. nick is done with the church-hopping, though. evidently it disappoints him that people are that er, blindly following of religion. as for me, i still find it interesting. i’d go. if anything the speakers are still amusing. i’m so detached from the idea of religion that… i don’t know, i guess i can look at it very objectively and i don’t feel anyone should believe or not believe in it… i’m just completely apathetic to the thought. nothing that could possibly be said would make me care more or less about the existence or non-existence of god. it just doesn’t even matter in daily life.

the “it is not something that concerns me in my daily life” argument is one i have heard for politics, too… and i think that’s ridiculous, as politics are wholly entrenched in everything we know. but that’s another tangent.

***

after that, i went with alex and chris (future roomies) to ikea. oh yes. i needed to buy a bed base but then was not happy with the price / look / how inconvenient / blahblah. we kept talking about using 2×4’s in different furniture pieces. lol. well, as i didn’t buy a bed base, i may be able to put some 2×4’s in my bed frame and just use it from there. man, i don’t know. i’ll maybe look on craigslist or something. this is a nightmare.

blarghhhhhhhhhh no feely like talking about ikea. after that we went to the great wall to eat some japanese food. blahrhggahoaighaoisdoiahsfoaidsjaoidj aoij aoifhaoifhaiofhafoisafhoiafshoaifhaosfi ahofihasfoiahfoishfaoif haoifh.

***

soaking piercing in salt water. causes much droolings. 1/4 teaspoon sea salt dissolved in 1 cup water. my chin is in the water. i am rather amazed that there has been no pussing or anything, and i can move it around however the hell i want already and it doesn’t really hurt. is weird. mmmmmmmmm…………….. eating of cup.

***

it’s snowing in seattle. in march. this was yesterday. w00t. snowed enough to stick a bit this morning.

say hello to my newest little friend, health t-shirt. the one on the far right. i’d wanted to purchase this earlier but i wasn’t sure if i liked health enough. well, they’re not my favorite band, but i like the shirt, so there it is. $15, including shipping and handling.

and while we are on the topic of t-shirts and clothing, here’s one brand i loooove: amy and johnny whitney (formerly of the blood brothers)’s clothing line, crystal city clothing. i don’t usually much pimp out clothing brands cause i don’t really give a shit, but i like this one. a bit noisy for many people, though. i am sad, however, that i failed to get a print of this one tee i realllllly wanted, and now they’re not selling it anymore. it was the tentacle suit. i hope they start selling it again T__T

holy shite, how do people intentionally starve themselves?! what YOKELS! i went to sleep STARVING for the first time last night. i actually ate two slices of quiche and a salad that alex made for chris and i at like 7:30. we went to get flan at 8:30 at a nearby mexican restaurant. i proceeded to go home shortly thereafter, and sat on the toilet for a little bit. to like, you know, poop. but then i decided i needed to go to sleep at 11:30 because i was starving. didn’t end up doing it until 12:30, though. BUT I WAS STILL STARVING. like, stomach growling and gurgling every second. i don’t think i’ve ever been so hungry in like, MY LIFE. wtfuzz. anyway. i went to sleep and kept waking up at every little sound, and becky and emme were sick, so they were occasionally coughing. that woke me up. as did my own stomach gurgling. BAH. so finally i woke up at 3:40 or so, played games on my phone for like 20 minutes, listened to my music, and stole a handful of cheerio’s from becky. i guess it helped because i went to “sleep”… but when my alarm went off at 7:30, it was as if i had never slept at all. TORTUROUS. and of course i have no cereal or breakfast food at home so i had to wait until i went to work to eat anything, but of course, i had to go by the department of liscensing to renew my liscense this morning, but of course, the DMV (or DOL if you’re weird and from washington) is HELL ON EARTH. so there was much starving at the dmv. and much crankiness on the drive to work, and much crankiness now. I AM CRANKY. NO SLEEP AND NO FOOD MAKES VEE A MAD GIRL.

finally getting around to writing this blog post even though it is now after the fact.

saturday, february 23rd, 2008
so, we took the ferry into langley from mukilteo, and went downtowng.

our hotel was on the outskirts, like a five minute walk away from everything. lol. it was weird, though, no one was in the office and it was just towels and laundry and shit.

there was this phone near the door that has a number attached to it, and you call that number to let the owner know you are there. then they give you a code which you type in, and that opens up this lock where the key is stored. and then you use that key to get in! it was the cheapest hotel around, and it was like, i think $80 a night. everything else was at least $100. but the thing is, it was actually pretty nice. fully furnished with plates and stuff. fridges. microwaves. televisions. etc. fantastic!!!!! bed was comfy too. shower was slightly nasty so i didn’t take a shower. because bathrooms that are not 100% clean gross me out >__>

cafe assassiner was the name of the game!

the people of the town who were ‘involved’ in the game were dressed up.

this lady here, however, is not one of those people. she just dressed up for amusement purposes, with her daughter. most amusing.

went from place to place basically, collecting infos. you collect one tip from each location, to get a total of 64. it’s a way of forcing you to enter each store and hopefully buy something. i’m sure it does well for them. the town of langley is actually surprisingly green and stuff. it’s pretty fucking neat. lots of organic foods and local foods!

this is outside the little tiny langley museum, which is largely run by cute old people. ^__^ see that little bucket on the bottom there? it’s a coin jar thing. i asked some old man how they open it and he had no idea. turns out, though, there is a key spot that opens it up. so cool. inside the museum there were old yearbooks and stuff. fun. the old guy was talking to lenny and apparently he said that there’s like nothing to do in langley and that living in freeland was better.

this is the dead body. hahaha hohohoho.

hallmark was there filming something, so we had to sign some release form to say that they can use our image in their show. i don’t know why they were filming exactly, but i guess nbc was also there.

i bought some soap because it was cheap!! what else. i don’t know.

they really liked things that magnify?!!! and so did we?!!

this antique store had a row of these weird figurines, all of whom were just… singing. it was like, trippy.

another cool store with cool imported hats. this is some kind of wedding hat (really long in the back) from turkmenistan.

same store had this awesome chess set from uzbekistan. in this store, i also found out that my fucking necklace that is “moss jade” is really fucking AGATE. that costs like $1. owned. owned so fucking hard.

a neato planter.

oh yes we had this really nice dinner at a restaurant called “fish bowl”… the gnocci was sooo amazingly good. mmmmmm. and my crab cakes were pretty good too. it was probably the most expensive restaurant there but tasty as fuck! MMMM!!!!!

that pretty much ended our night, and then we went back to the hotel and like, watched fucking “forrest gump” because it was on television. lololol.

***

sunday, february 24th, 2008

this bridge was scary as fuck. i could barely cross it the entire time. cry. hahahaa. but finally got to the other side, only to find out that the other side was a dead end essentially. so we had to walk back after a little bit of time. :[

broom-rape. the best flower ever.

yes.

beach beach.

i love this shit cause it looks like a hand!!!

uber mossy.

fisherman.

oh no we didn’t build this oh no.

yes he is alive. we went to this one beach which i thought was disgusting because it was covered with crabs and slugs and blargHHHAGhGHhh. lenny loved it though. there were a lot of little crabs. pics of them to come. and videos. oh yes, the videos are good.

after our day trip to the park, we went back to the middle school auditorium in langley to find out about the murder mystery festival and who did it. here is the culprit. i forget her name even. there were quite a few people there, though.

here is everyone.

the trip back was beautiful. here are some shots from it.

“do not flush foreign tourists down toilets!” on the ferry.

oh yeah i forgot to mention this but i had thought it was a big deal so i have to write it down… before but before i left for germany i was driving to lenny’s place and some lady threw this giant sleeping bag-sized macy’s bag out of her window. for starters, that was really fucking weird. people are usually shameless about littering. i mean, most people do it, but most people are not that obvious about it — nor do they do it so carelessly.

but… as if it wasn’t bad enough that she pushed a sleeping bag-sized bag outside of her window, she got OUT of her car and then pulled the bag deeper into the brush. HOW SHADY IS THAT??

i was really quite mad… i couldn’t believe it. i rolled down the window and screamed out, “WHAT THE FUCK?!” but she didn’t hear me because there was another car between us. shady ass biatch. i wrote down her liscense plate number and stuff but never really did anything with it. by now, it’s probably too late. d’oh. :[

you know what’s messed up about the consumerism of our society? the fact that people aren’t just content to be consumers themselves. they are often not even content with YOU not being a consumer. take for example my exerpeinces at work. i have found myself being repeatedly teased by a guy who drives a BMW about my car. because my car is a 2000 honda accord?!!!!!! what kind of shit is that. that’s not even that bad. it’s fairly common. it’s not THAT old. wtfx.

another similar example is my phone. people cannot keep from commenting on my phone. it’s so old, they say. get a new one, they say. most people don’t really care, but there are a few that find the need to repeatedly comment on how old it is… and not in a funny way really. is it really that big a deal to you if my phone is a dinosaur? because it *is* a dinosaur. but i like the games on it, dammit. and it has text-messaging, even if i have to type a bit (er, quite) slow… it gets the job done and for the most part, my life is not worse because of it (but only because it has the best game ever, triple pop, on it). either way, though… it’s not really your business. if i like archaic shit, so be it. i mean, it works, doesn’t it? good enough.

i’m writing this and it’s january 2008. oh well, need to recap it SOMETIME. even if it is a little late ^__~

sunday, november 18th, 2007
took the fucking AGO-NIZ-FUCK-ING flight to taipei and it was well, agonizing. i stayed a day later and left a day later than i was originally supposed to (which was friday), because i was sponsoring artifakt event the night before and yair was playing a show! well, people really liked his performance, so yay. the show itself was alright, some decent art, some okay. but yeah.

first evening i got there and daddy couldn’t go anywhere cause his leg was injured (from playing the wii), so mom, phil, roxanne, and i went over to the night market. had to take a taxi as it was too far to walk to. ate niu rou mian (beef noodle stew) but it was kinda gross. meh. it wasn’t gross. just okay.

some taiwanese fashion. long shit with leggings is all the rage there right now.

monday, november 19th, 2007


mom and dad had to visit the doctor, so phil, roxanne, and i got up early and just went to walk around. lotta shit was closed. we went to taipei 101 (the current tallest building, although soon to be not… why do people find the need to build as tall as possible anyway? it’s so freaking weird)… but it wasn’t open yet. so we walked around, in search of food. we bought some stuff at the convenience store. pretty much we are lucky i can read a bit of chinese — at least enough to get a basic idea of foods — so i got us picked out some onigiri stuff. that was really hard to open. and ooOoooOooOo green tea milk, you are so yummy. <3 finding food in foreign countries — it’s seriously the funnest part >_> spicy chicken onigiri up there. it was actually really good.

taipei 101. oh yeah, taipei 101?? you think you’re cool because you reach into the clouds? PFFT. inside, it’s pretty much just a mall for rich people. you know, the usual.

common sights in the taiwan, with taxis and all that jazz. women riding mopeds with high heels. okay, so it’s not THAT common but it’s not uncommon either.

slightly more uncommon sights. man with ladder while riding moped. what a pimp. and a naked mannequin.

magazine in bookstore in taipei 101 that’s dedicated to all things “BLANG BLANG” — i would have bought it but it cost ten fucking bucks. no thanks. i guess they figure those who want to bling will be willing to pay money for a guide on how to bling. as lenny pointed out, though, unfortunately they have the wrong idea — sticking rhinestones onto everything does not equal bling. bling = diamonds and jewels and shit. you got the wrong idea, AZNZ.

after we were done with 101 we took a free shuttle to… where? i don’t remember. hahahahahdoaishdads. the train station. oh yeah. the subway. that’s where we went. taipei’s subway system is still small and new, but they copied practically everything from japan. unlike americans, though, taiwanese people listen to signs on the ground and shit.

since we didn’t have much to do, we took the train station to “taipei da che zhang” (main station) and walked around. there was massive shopping there, which is why we went. because the truth pretty much is like this: there ain’t shit to do in taiwan except for shop. it’s pretty much… what’d i just say? the truth. >_> this little cutie was from one of those vending machines where you pay money to operate a claw and then you can win it. thing is… THIS SHIT COSTS $4 PER PLAY. what the fuck? we didn’t want to pay the money, so we haven’t yet decided whether it is “play until you win” or “$4 for one play and if you don’t get it, you’re a chump.” i guess the world may never know. because who plays that shit? there were a lot of those machines, to be sure, but i must say — never saw anyone playing any of them. hahaha. this is also copied from japan, their little arcade places. of course.

at night, we walked to nai nai’s place. lotta construction going on. my grandma is like 95. she’s funny. on a later date when we were at her house, she kept showing me to her little display cabinet where there were pictures of many people — including me!! and there was a photo of me, her, and this other boy who liked me. she said, “that’s you! that boy kept trying to get closer to you but you told him to go away!” then i would sit down, and five minutes later, she would be like, “mei mei ah, your photo is in this cabinet!” this happened three times… haha. >_> within the span of like, fifteen minutes. har har har. oh nai nai. she doesn’t cook for herself anymore since she fell… it’s messed up how falling at an old age (grandma used to always wear high heels) fucks up old people so hardcore. >_> it’s sad. but yeah, now she has a live-in servant who is from singapore. nai nai taught her how to cook for her and she cooks instead. i miss nai nai’s niu rou mian. i don’t think i’ll ever get to eat it again. T__T awww nai nai why are you so old! my mom knows how to make it but it isn’t the same at all. T__T sad.

i should also mention that my alcoholic uncle went crazy too. he used to be a REALLY nice guy but was just a fuck up and would get drunk all the time. well his liver is completely shot now but what’s worse is that his mind is shot. T__T he doesn’t even recognize my dad anymore. it’s pretty fucked up. i guess he has pulled out knives and threatened to kill people before. anyway, he lived with my grandma and my brother / mom / dad / roxanne got there before me so they saw him, but yeah, he didn’t recognize any of them. so they committed him to a mental institution. so that’s that. i didn’t see him. it’s a shame, because he’s a nice guy.

around grandma’s place are a lot of really small food stands and stuff — but unlike the night market, these are places people go to on a daily basis just when they’re leaving to and from work and shit. very convenient. this above is zou tou fu (stinky tofu). i don’t like the shit. but my momma does. my momma likes everything. as you will soon find out. it’s actually rather traumatizing. as you will soon find out.

dad, grandma, and phil. we are making our way to a restaurant!! that had EXTREMELY small dishes (i’m talking… mmm… the size of a coffee saucer plate thing) but they were really good, and probably the only real eating of vegetable i had the whole time i was there. so that was definitely a plus.

here’s what is not a plus. around grandma’s house, my mom bought some la mian xian (spicy noodle… thingies) because she didn’t know we were going out to eat dinner. not a fatty to waste foods, she, of course, brought the food into the restaurant like a fucking savage. it was pretty damn savage as she was scarfin gthe shit down in front of the waitresses. >_> in the latter pic is grandma with my auntie and uncle. the uncle came to america to live with us a while, and he still now insists on speaking english to us whenever he gets the chance to. his english isn’t bad but he does have an accent, and he’s just kind of goofy in general (we compare him to droopy), so him speaking english like droopy = funny.

apparently, when i was younger, this mall used to have a top floor that was all rides and arcades for little kids. i used to come here with my dad every day after he went to work or something. ahhh, good memories in taiwan. good memories indeed. i only lived there for a year around preschool age, but it doesn’t matter!

tuesday, november 20th, 2007

subway station. lots of boring time to spare, so yeah.

my timeline is actually kinda screwy so i don’t know if this is right, but whatever. the general gist is enough — a day by day play isn’t THAT important, is it?!!!!!!OIJ!OIJI!JOIAJSDOIAS! so, my mom booked us a trip via some tour train or something to go to hualian, which is in like, southeast taiwan. which is somewhat exciting because this was our first time outside of taipei in taiwan!!! porko rosssssso!

when we got there, some pony driver guy picked us up for the ride. not a tour guide — just a driver. but he kinda was weird and had a bad attitude. but err. doesn’t that sky look fake?!!!

first stop — a wonton place. supposedly famous — they had pictures of a former president eating there. i mean, it was okay. nothing to write home about though. or maybe it is. i don’t know. i never was much for wontons. but compared to most wontons they were pretty good. so okay, i change my mind, i guess they were good.

drive-by photo of a funeral. woooooo!

for the unacquainted, welcome to the world of the squatter.

so this guy dropped us off at all of these random, not particularly exciting places the first day because we didn’t have an itinerary for him and it was already the early afternoon. dad and brother and roxanne didn’t enjoy it at all but i didn’t really care — i think anything is pretty much a lot more interesting when you have a camera… even the most ‘boring’ of places. anyway, this place was a place that was formerly occupied by the japanese and they cut trees down there… blahblahblah. evidently the former logging caused all of the current rivers to dry out really easily, because when it rains, there aren’t as many old trees to soak up the water… instead, all the little, newly planted trees barely soak up any water, causing rivers to rage big, but for a short time… as opposed to being around year-round.

this was another random-ass place, but while we were there, some professor was there with his elementary school class. kids in taiwan pretty much take field trips all fucking day. no matter what day of the week it was or where we were, there were kids out on field trips. the other alternative is that even during weekdays people in business outfits are playing hooky or taking their work breaks to go SHOPPING. it’s ridiculous. apparently it hasn’t changed since my parents were growing up there, either. taiwan has a lot of streetside vendors which sell cheap wares, and apparently since the beginning of time people would pass by and say, “oh no, it’s so cheap! i have to have it!” even though they didn’t. this hasn’t changed. all taiwanese people do is fucking buy shit. it’s ridonkulous. i mean… do they really waste more than americans? i actually find that hard to believe. i’d say they probably are up there also. except they don’t have the big houses. but as far as buying trash goes — i think they are pretty high up there. also, none of their streetside restaurants use rewashable silverware or plates or bowls. they all fucking use disposable shit. it’s atrocious.

anyway, i went off on a tangent. that picture above is some weird bug larvae or mold — we couldn’t figure out what it was. :/

at another random place we stopped off at to eat “famous ice cream” (which was disgusting), you could feed koi. i don’t really care much for koi, but you must admit — their mouths are pretty dope there.

this is our bombass last stop of the day, which we probably should have spent MORE time at. it was a farm / zoo. i really wanted to ride a bike but i was not aware that they rented bikes until later. so i was a little bitter. instead, we rented this car which my dad drove around since he was injured. at first i had no idea what that place was but it soon revealed itself to be a crazy ass haven for birds of all types… and it made me very happy to see a MANDARIN DUCK IN PERSON!!!! i’d been waiting for that moment, for all my life! well not really. but yeah… my dad was also driving in the wrong lane in the wrong direction for a very long time. lol.

monkey island excited me on paper, but it was actually pretty weak sauce. sigh!!!!

there was a dairy farm. we were allowed to walk inside. erm, scary?! poor poor cow cows :[ here you are, a more intimate look at a cow being milked than you probably wanted!

this place was really fucking weird. pretty much this rich guy didn’t know what he wanted to do with his money, so he bought a bunch of shit. at least it’s cool shit, though. but still. there are a lot more pics i have of the bird collection that i didn’t upload to picasa, but he had soooooo many birds. it was insane. didn’t get a good chance to view any of them enough because we were in a rush and shit, so that kinda sucked. but it is what it is!

that night we stayed at this hotel. phil kept bitching about how ghetto it was going to be because it was in the city and not this super expensive one that was up on a hill (i told mom to get the city one because what’s the point? a view only lasts so long). anyway. he was bitching and moaning and when we finally got there, the place was fine. maybe even nice. a little bit unconventional, but i liked it. anyway, they had these windows that pulled open and were really high off the ground so you had to climb on bed to climb out of it, but all of the patios were connected. so i tried to scare my mom by going over to their window and being like, “BOO!” but she wasn’t scared at all. she was just like… “what are you doing there?”

took a series of long-exposure shots from outside that window on that balcony. this is maybe? the best of them.

that night we went to yet another night market. this place supposedly had famous… xiao long bao (small dragon buns HAHHAAAHHAHAAUSD)… seems like everything is famous. bizarro. they were pretty good but not as good as crab xiao long bao i’ve had — and other things. they were just okay. again, i don’t like xiao long bao, though, so yeah.

a thing full of intestines and shit. i asked the lady for permission. haha.

quantity of heat — 60c
fattiness — 25g
power — 86k
fibrin — 16n
DOGIPEE HOT DOG STORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i mean really, wtf?

wednesday, november 21st, 2007



the next day, we went to taroko national park. yeah. apparently chinese people don’t like to hike, because there weren’t really any trails at all. haha. all there was was this paved (like, for cars to drive on, only cars weren’t allowed to drive on it) road for people to walk on. which is kinda weaksauce. all the campsites (all one of them, i think) were also closed because of the time of year. the weather in taiwan at this time of year is so bizarre. it’s like… hot but cold at the same time. it’s a sticky cold that brings heat in its humidity. never knew how to dress because if i wore a jacket i’d get hot in a few seconds and if not, i’d be cold. blech.

there was a lot of construction going on, which nearly resulted in a crisis. generally they would only let one side of the traffic on the construction road at a time, but they messed up once and let both go at the same time. and there was a bus involved. so therefore, it was messy. so ghetto. they would only let a certain amount of people every hour, so if you missed the cut off point, you had to wait another hour. lol.

apparently, falling rocks are a huge problem here this area is known for these white, marble rocks. lots of quarrying and such >_>

this thing was on a long set of stairs. no one squished it… yay? i don’t know if it was dead or alive. i reckon dead, because roxanne got the same exact picture almost (which i thought was really interesting, because that means she’s looking around on the ground, like i do too!), and she went up those stairs way ahead of me. so… it was probably sitting there dead (or alive) for a while. i reckon dead.

this guy is definitely dead. i actually rather like taking pics of dead things. they just look so… interesting.

one stream is gray and the other is blue! together they make gray!!!! YAY!

low-hanging clouds.

we then went to this beach. this xiang chang (sausage) vendor had a cool sign. i thought his xiang chang tasted like charcoal, though, so i gave it to mcdoggy. then i tried to take a photo of myself with mcdoggy, and failed miserably.

almost as great as YAHO– wait, they probably got sued. same font and everything.

at the subway station, they featured some artwork made by fourth to seventh graders which warned about the dangers of the subway / train. ahhahahahraohrahrar. this is fucking great.

thursday, november 22nd, 2007



went to this… place. that was an old city… yeah. this was after taking the quick train (2 hours instead of 3 hours) back to taipei. the train was very rickety, and in it, they had a squatter bathroom. it was the first time using a squatter actually MADE SENSE. had it been a regular toilet, it would have been gross and i would have probably touched the communal nasty toilet seat. but since it was a squatter — and a clean one at that — it was perfect for the bumpy ride! insanity. anyway, this is the next day. we got the guy who picked my parents up from the airport to drive us around. mostly just little shops in this area — nothing too exciting to me but whatever. i got to sit in the middle of the road and be scary and stalk people with my camera

some kids i stalked.

then we moved onto the next place. yet again, i have no idea what this place is. eh, i’ll find out and add it in later. lots of antiques and junk. yeahhh.

garden, in honor of a former chinese president. errr. yeah. errr taiwanese president. i have no idea. it was pretty boring.

then we went to another street market. this one had awesome foods. unfortunately, i did not get to eat as much of it as i would have liked T__T

what we did eat though was this. i don’t even know. it was like, strawberry mian xian in a tofu pocket. pretty interesting tasting. not good, but not really disgusting either. but definitely everyone just ate a bite and was done with it. lol. i think this area of taipei was where my dad went to college. i can’t be sure, though.

i bought one of these for lenny and one of these for sherry >_> they’re so cute haha.

then we went to this harbor place. i don’t know where any of these places are, lol. they’re all within taipei, though.

then we went to another market. and my parents went INSANE and bought a fuckload of this black sesame and peanut candy. i mean, the shit is really good but not THAT good. they went insane. two big bags. and now i still have a bunch (and it’s two months later)… and probably will never finish it!!!!

friday, november 23rd, 2007

went to ximending, the top freaking shopping center in taipei, that’s for sure. some breakdancers — who i later talked to and found out were from MATHAR RUSSIA — were there… breakdancing. cameraman got me on camera!!

one girl, three guys. the girl sucked. she did this butt shaking mood every time. she couldn’t even breakdance. couldn’t pop… eh. she just seemed out of place and repetitive. i was not the only one who thought this. as far as the breakers go — one guy was really good… the other two guys were pretty mediocre. guy pictured above in the pose is *not* the good one.

phil had wanted to go to this restaurant but we didn’t know where it was. it’s a chain store, but we just happened to stumble upon it. the seats in the restaurant are toilets. the table are sheets of glass over old sinks. showers hang from the walls. your food comes to you in toilet-shaped thingies. yeap. the food? it was just okay. my crappy chinese failed us here, because i misread some things for other things, unfortunately.

candies shaped in pad-like packaging. i think they are marshmellows. i’m not sure. haven’t opened. queer aid, phil bought for aberoo.

i didn’t expect to find much graffiti in taipei but there was a lot around ximending… and a lot of it was really quality stuff. here’s one.

masturbation bear in the two story stationary store that i used to go to every time i went back to taipei. i even had a birthday discount card which worked around your birthday, but my mom forgot to bring it T__T

roxanne and her face mask! those things make it very hard to breathe — as cool as they look. >_>

you might know what a buddhist monk looks like… this is what taoist monks look like!

this toothpaste was in our hotel. larry king is a whitemen. i started using this toothpaste when we first got there but then i saw that it was made in china and got scared and no longer used it, cause that’s scary. i wanted abe lincoln instead of larry king (he was in this book at the hotel), but roxanne said that was inappropriate. she said using bush would be inappropriate too, but larry king is somehow okay. i don’t really understand.

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