Met up with Dean, Mindcrime and HG Janice at Juke …
Met up with Dean, Mindcrime and HG Janice at Juke for brunch, as we tend to do on Sundays. Janice was “saving” her pancakes for later and didn’t believe me when I said they were better hot. I couldn’t stand the sight of Juke’s wonderful pancakes getting cold without being eaten, so I ordered one pancake to eat hot, just to reassure myself that there was still order in the universe.
Afterwards we went over to Nanchang St. to look at furniture for Mindcrime’s new lair. I came quite close to falling asleep in a leather office chair Monty Burns would be proud of as Janice bartered with the shopowner. The rain outside felt like a bunch of schoolkids spitting on us as we walked to Grandma Nitti’s for Oreo shakes. A guy from the states named Jeremy had called earlier, wondering if I’d like a look at his Canon XL1, so we went over to the luxurious Howard Suites to meet up with him. The camera was quite nice, but when in 16:9 mode it scrunched up the viewfinder instead of giving a true representation of the shot. I hope there’s some way to fix that; otherwise, how are you going to be able to frame the shot? I’ll have to see how the Sony handles that particular problem before I make my decision on a camera.
Since Taijiquan practice was cancelled, we went over to Zhongxiao E. Road for milk tea and fried tofyu with honey sauce, and then walked up to Fnac to see if the Lord of the Rings DVD was on sale there yet. It wasn’t. I am going to wait for the extended version in any case. Then it was home to computer gaming and sleep, another weekend gone.
Today is my last Monday at this job. I start at my new job next Monday, and I should be at least partially moved in to my new place by then as well. Since I am considering getting a Mac for digital video editing, I walked over to the computer expo at the Taipei World Trade Center Complex today during my lunch break. On my way I passed through the parking lot in front of the Taipei101 building and through the scooter parking lot. The pedestrian path was almost blocked by illegally parked scooters. There was a narrow path, but as I approached a couple of girls parked their scooter there, effectively cutting the way off. I climbed over a couple of scooters and then theirs, but as I did so my dark side took control of my hand, which grabbed the throttle of the scooter with the two girls on it, and instantly all three of us were off on a two-second joyride into the nearest parked scooter. “What are you doing?!” one of the girls screamed at me.
“What am I doing? What are you doing?” I retorted. The girls started to argue but I wasn’t having any of it. “This is a pedestrian through-way!” I continued. “You’re not even supposed to park here!” Then I stormed off, hoping that the girls weren’t presenters at the computer show. I could just imagine them reviling me in public in front of thousands of people as they cried out “That guy there tried to kill us just now!” on a flashing Twinbridge stage in between karaoke numbers.
Luckily, I didn’t hear any such accusations as I crept into the show, using the fake press ID I’d snagged with an old namecard. I made a beeline for the Apple display, located in the center of the show. I picked up a Powerbook and almost dropped it when I realized that the the thing’s titanium shell was nearly hot enough to fry an egg. The Ibooks were much cooler, but didn’t have the functions I would need for digital editing. I would like to have something to write on when I’m travelling, but I’m not sure the ultra-expensive Powerbook would fit the bill. I like my eggs over hard, and it’s not quite hot enough for that. I might just get a desktop G4 933 and then save up for an inexpensive PC notebook just for writing. Still, it would be nice to have a Powerbook. Mindcrime is currently planning how many bank heists he needs to pull off to get one. Maybe I can borrow his when his sorry ass gets thrown in jail. Hmmm.
