Running around today taking care of things. I’ve sent in a tape of my films for the festival, got my visa and tickets, and handed over my turtles to Kirk, who will feed them (hopefully not to his cat) while I’m gone. The overtime tonight has been cancelled, the sun is shining, the air is fresh and Whiny Woman got her tires slashed this morning. All in all, a good day.

Now I need to go to sword practice after work, hand in the logo I did for our association, pick up last-minute laundry, wake up fuck-early tomorrow to participate in the Tai-chi sword competition, buy an adaptor and some sort of case for my CD player to keep it from being smashed, and write a bunch of emails letting everyone know where I’ll be (“I’m a-goin SOUTH, til I cannae go south no more!”).

Yes, I’m in a good mood. What can I say? I won’t have to deal with this shit for a month, I’ll be going to a place I’ve never been before, and (hopefully) I won’t be unemployed when I get back.

By the way, I will take your resounding silence in the comments area to mean “Yes, TC, you should rearrange your photo page so that we are spared your inane comments about the photographs and don’t have to spend so much time scrolling up and down!” Or that you just don’t give a fuck. Either way, this site has been up almost half a year now, and I feel it’s time for a change.

A couple of people have been rummaging through my archives over the past few days. I wonder if they could be the Blog You! guys, getting ready to roast me for my combination of inept design and vapid content. Mmm, I can’t wait! It feels just like Christmas Eve!

There are now at least two election campaign headquarters directly downstairs from me, and it looks like they’re building yet another. I hope these guys aren’t political rivals, because I really don’t want to have to deal with competing frenzies of political enthusiasm. I suspect all of the candidates have their offices in this building because of its proximity to the “Really Good” seafood restaurant located next door. What a bunch of knobs. The one time of year they venture out of their palaces on Yangmingshan and mingle with the common scum, and they still can’t bring themselves to eat a meal that costs less than most people’s cars.

I’ve partially revised my links page so that now there are only pictures as links, sans description before mouseover. I am thinking of doing my photography page this way, since the way I have it now requires an exhorbitant amount of scrolling, and someone could get hurt. What does the man on the street think? Let me know! I’ve got the comments working, I might as well use ’em. You’ll have to excuse me if I don’t wait up, though. *yawn* Tomorrow’s going to be a busy day, with me running around gathering my tickets and visa, practising sword for Saturday’s competition, handing over the really cool Tai-chi logo I came up with, doing overtime until God Knows When, and gradually coming to the happy realization that I’m going to Australia in a few days.

Not long after I first started working at my present job, I noticed that there was a bright-red Yamaha FZR motorcycle parked in front of the 7-Eleven downstairs where I buy my breakfast every day.

A month of two later, I noticed that the FZR had scrapes and dents all down one side. It’s rider had obviously leaned too far over in a curve or hit a patch of grease. A few days later the FZR had gotten a new faring, and the bike was now purple. This guy had money, but was a reckless rider. Many guys buy FZRs because they look like racing bikes, but they aren’t actually that fast.

Within a month the now-purple motorcycle had gotten into yet another accident and was all banged up again. Not long after that, it was replaced by a silver Honda NSR, which is a much faster bike. I cringed when I saw that. The rider had just purchased himself a much more dangerous machine. I hoped that he had learned some patience as well.

I haven’t seen the NSR for over a week now. It hasn’t been replaced by another racing bike. It hasn’t been replaced at all.

Wonderful. A known gangster was ‘elected’ convener of our legislature’s Finance Committee. One of the other two conveners is under investigation for fraud. Is it just me, or does this sound like a bad idea? I can only assume that the electors had to choose between electing Da Boss and taking a dive into the Tamshui River wearing cement shoes.

After today, only one more day to go before my break. Of course, they’re going to make that day as miserable as possible by making me do overtime. They even handed out small orange pillows today at work. Does this mean we can sleep on the job? No, this means you can work at the office all night! Man, I gotta get the hell outa here.

Ok, who wants my job? Tom? Ed? Ernie? Boykani? Jeb? Jeff? So many of the sites I like to read are authored by people either without jobs or unhappy with their current jobs. I can relate.

Ok, ok…I finally sold out and installed comments. First Luke, then Tom….I should take a course in peer pressure management or something, ’cause I suck. And now you can tell me just how much I suck. Oh, rapture.

Old high-school friend Shawn sent me this flash site. My favorite is the angy robot. Remind you of anyone?

Speaking of the angry robot, he made an appearance today at work when I was informed that I will have to work overtime on Friday, which is, of course, the day I have sword practice. This means that I will get off at 6, go to sword practice, and then come back to the office at 9 p.m. and work revising some vapid project text until God Knows When, before I can go home, go to sleep and wake up extremely early for the sword competition on Saturday. I was told this right after I finished editing a company-wide email from the Big Big Boss, wherein she explains that our salaries have been frozen, so no raises until everyone has stopped running around like a bunch of headless chickens squawking about the big bad global economic slowdown!

All I know is that I’d better find something better for after Chinese New Years. I also need to find out how much of a New Year’s Bonus we’ll be getting this year. If it’s less than two months’ salary, then fuck it. I’m gone. Unfortunately, that bit of information seems to be a closely guarded secret, so it looks like I’ll have to wait until the New Year’s party to find out whether I have just wasted the next four months.

Did I mention that our new office will be one of those “Open Office” deals? How many years ago did that trend fade in the rest of the world? And we’re just picking it up? Sheesh! What’s really funny is that, while it’s supposed to be all egalitarian and shit, the boss has decided to ameliorate some of the complaints by giving senior management their own offices, while everyone else while have to fend for themselves in the Big Wide Open Office. Nice.

For some strange reason, there was a shitload of work waiting to pounce on me when I got to the office this morning. It made me wonder if there was some sort of corporate crisis or something. The reason I found this frustrating was that, had I not been so busy, I could have gone down to Keelung Rd. to apply for an Australian visa. Instead I had to pass task that on to the travel agency, spending NT$1,300 more than I needed to because today just happened to be Shitload o’ Work day. I know, it’s no big deal. It’s probably better that the travel agency do it, as going in person to apply would only instigate yet another round of the “How the Hell Can a Foreigner Have a Chinese Passport?” game, and I don’t really feel up to that right now.

Every little thing that happens at work these days just pisses me off. My keyboard is bearing the lion’s share of my frustration at the moment, but it could just as easily be the printer or even a hapless co-worker. This could mean that I need a vacation. It could also mean that my job is meaningless and trivial, a genuine misuntilization of my talent and potential, a waste of my precious time. But there’s not much I can do about that, so I guess I’ll just take a vacation.

In any case, the weather has cleared up, and the sun is reflecting off the building next door into the windows of the offices who have them. I haven’t heard any word from Henrik since his last email and phone conversation when he agreed to fill in for me for a couple of weeks in November. I hope he is still ok with that. I’ll get Graham in here tomorrow or Friday to show him the ropes.

Yeah. Now all I need is a real backpack for that Backpacker Image so beloved down under. Something in which I can throw some clothes, my camera, walkman and various toiletries and still wear semi-comfortably.

Thanks to Randall for tuning me into the Mirror Project. I’ve got several pictures on there now. I’ve always been facinated by shiny, reflective surfaces, so I think this project is pretty cool.

Ooooh. Now I’m really regretting that lunch at the Indian food restaurant. Got me a floaty stomach and the proverbial Ring of Fire. Damn.

Our man at the travel agency, Lorenzo, has confirmed my tickets to Perth. The only matter to be decided is the length of the layovers in Singapore, which could be long enough that it would be worth my while to spend the day in the city rather than sitting around the airport. Now if I just knew someone in Singapore… The last time I was there was two or three years ago when I was filming a program there, and I didn’t have a whole lot of time to myself. As I recall I had just been in a little accident on my bike and was limping everywhere. Beautiful city, though, especially down by the quays at night. I suppose having to spend some extra time there wouldn’t be such a terrible thing.

If tomorrow at work is anything like today, I am not looking forward to it. It was insane, and I don’t mean that in a good way. Just too much bullshit coming at me, my bullshit filter was working overtime. I’ll be glad to get away from that job for a while. Probably go insane if I don’t.

I’ve been crazybusy at work today. Lots o’ bullshit to spew out. One of my recently promoted co-workers had a brilliant idea for a floor-cleaner ad: “We’ll put a nekkid woman, lying on the floor! Get it? The floor’s so clean a nekkid woman has no problem lying on it! She’s like, totally unconcerned!”

They forwarded the idea to the client in Singapore, who sent back the following reply: “Uh…no.”

So now Our Favorite Co-worker, a woman who deems it beneath her station to even talk to me, of course, is storming around demanding to know what the hell is wrong with people in Singapore (answer: they have taste). Sometimes I feel like I’m working in an insane asylum. Those are usually the best times.

My old co-worker Maurice gave me a suprise by showing up today at the office, his hair a lot shorter. It turns out that he doesn’t have to do military service after all. Apparently he failed the physical by being too damn light. Go Maurice! I think his name might have helped as well.

The typhoon is veering away from us, so whoever was fucking around with the typhoon magnet obviously got my message. The weather still sucks, however, and getting to and from work is pretty messy and time-consuming. I was going to drop off my passport at the travel agency during lunch, but Dean came over for lunch at the Tandoor, an Indian restaurant right behind our building, so I’ll have to do it some other time. I’ve managed to reserve at least part of the tickets for my trip. Hopefully it will work out, and soon! I gotsta get outa here!

The International Festival of Cinema and Technology guy actually returned my email, in which I expressed doubt that someone would prefer The Trick over my other films. He said he could give me a reduced combined entry fee. That was pretty cool of him. I guess I’ll send in a tape, then. Who knows? Anything could happen.