Poagao's Journal

Absolutely Not Your Monkey

Mar 12 2003

The interview this morning turned out to be the se…

The interview this morning turned out to be the second of three. The whole process is feeling more and more like a computer game of the first-person-shooter variety, where each level has a “boss” you have to get past to proceed to the next level, except of course I don’t have to kill the bosses in this case; I just have to impress them into letting me get to the next level, which is somewhat less satisfying but a lot less work than hammering them down with a BFG9000 until they explode. The last interview covered most of the basics about the job itself, and today’s was a bit more serious, but I think it still went well. At least nobody exploded.

It was a beautiful day out today, warm enough for a T-shirt and jeans to be comfortable but not hot. I picked up a very welcome payment for a translation I did a few weeks ago, and then I met Mindcrime at a nearby teahouse to get some much-needed scriptwriting software from him. After that I went to Fnac to see if Unreal 2 was out yet (it’s not), and then fixed myself some sandwiches to spill on the floor in order to give the tuna that lovely crunchy feel it gets when mixed with ceramic shard, while I finished watching A Fistful of Dollars. After watching all three movies, I’ve concluded that the best order to view them in is The Good, the Bad and the Ugly first, followed by A Fistful of Dollars, and then finally A Few Dollars More. I think this is the order in which they were supposed to have occurred, at least chronologically anyway. The overlapping of actors playing different characters could be a bit confusing, though.

Sword practice was good tonight. I concentrated on reviewing the last few moves instead of learning too much new stuff tonight because I feel I’ve been going too fast and not letting it sink in. It’s not like I’m on a deadline, and I enjoy it more when I get the hang of a series of moves before proceeding to the next set.

After practice we played with one guy’s new digital camera for a while before going our separate ways, so it was after 11pm by the time I got to the Blue Line platform at Taipei Main Station, and fewer trains were running. I was first in line, but I had to wait almost ten minutes instead of the usual four. Just as the train was arriving, a group of three stylishly dressed young women walked up, bypassing the long line of people behind me in a bid to get in and grab some empty seats. Being the polite gentleman I am, I immediately stood in their way, blocking them from entering the car and letting the other people behind me in first. “Don’t you know how to line up? You’ll wait your turn… -oh, no you don’t, get back there,” I said as they tried to slip past me and onto the train.

“Yeah! That’s right!” some of the people who had stood in line behind me said as they boarded.

“How can he do this to us?” one of the trio whined, but the other people were smiling. I realize it’s a drop in the ocean, but hell, sometimes you just gotta do something even if you know if probably won’t do any good.

When I arrived back at my building the guard informed me that I had been a regular feature on the ETV news a few days ago. What happened was this: on my way back from location scouting, I ventured inside the Idee Department Store near Zhongzheng Station out of curiosity. It seemed to me that sooner or later I must be able to find a shopping center on this island that isn’t totally devoted to the needs and desires of teenage girls (Of course I was disappointed yet again by this one, but I plan to keep looking). As I exited the store, I noticed that a news camera set up on the sidewalk was following me as I walked, so on an impulse I went up to the thing, stuck my ugly mug in the lens and said “It’s cold!” Apparently the director of the news program liked it and put it in every hourly weather report the next day. Heh.

In other news, my publisher and I have settled on a Chinese name for my book, and the layout is nearly finished. Hopefully it will be out on schedule in early April. I called Boogie to tell him the news, and he told me that his wife Amanda is on her way back to Taiwan. Apparently most of Boogie’s family has been called up for the coming war, and Amanda feels a bit left out. Hopefully it will be a short war, and everyone will be back home soon. I do wonder why Iraq is even pretending to show that they are satisfying demands now; surely they realize the war is going to happen no matter what they do at this point? When they do realize this, I expect some real shit to start happening.

A car alarm just went off outside. I went over to look, and saw someone drive off in the car in question, lights flashing, alarm going. No problem. Someone remind me again, why do people bother spending large amounts of money on car alarms? I could put that money to much better uses.

posted by Poagao at 4:24 pm  

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