Wow. I’m amazed: The Taipei Times actually had a r…
Wow. I’m amazed: The Taipei Times actually had a reasonably sensible editorial today. You know it’s pretty bad when Chen Shui-bian does stuff that even the Times thinks is reckless. Basically, though, we’re going to see more of this stupidity in the next few months running up to the elections, as Chen’s hand is being forced by lack of time. He’s spent the past trying not to step on anyone’s toes, but now he only has a matter of months to do something “memorable” and secure some kind of reputation for actually doing something. In this case, something stupid that will probably hurt any chances he has at getting re-elected. Not that I care overmuch if he doesn’t; I just hope his actions don’t have other, more serious consequences. I’ve grown quite fond of my ass and would like to keep it.
A cold front hit this weekend. Harry came over and, as he can be a religious nut at times, we took a tour of local temples in Xindian. We started at the Dimu Temple/Longfeng Temple complex across the river, and then we walked up the road overlooking the water purification plant on the other side of the hills, and then took a right onto Yongye Road, which winds back down to the Ankeng side of the Bitan Suspension Bridge. There we stopped for lunch at the vegetarian place Sandman showed me the other day, and then we went up to the Kaitian Temple, overlooking the river near where we started out. Swan-shaped paddle boats were making their way upstream seven stories below. The main god at the Kaitian Temple looks suspiciously like an alien, but he probably wasn’t utilizing alien technology, as one of the eyes of the dragon behind him had burnt out. One of the temple guys told us we had just missed a major festival.
After spending the afternoon transferring wedding footage to Victor’s hard-drive, Harry and I went to another temple, this one backed up along the cliffs that line Zhongxing Road. It was getting pretty cold, and I was loath to take off my shoes, but Harry had gotten himself into an involved discussion of Daoism and Buddhism with the temple guy, a discussion we continued over another vegetarian meal. It was interesting, actually. The temple guy told us stories about the Buddha, Daoist monks, and other tales that sparked some answers to questions I’ve had, not only concerning life in general, but also problems with the stories I’ve been working on in my head for my next film project.
My employment situation looks to be much like it was last year, i.e. I’ll have to take another month (January) off without pay or bonus. Hopefully my book royalties will see me through, but it’s pretty much certain that I won’t be able to afford the Mac I was hoping to buy. I’ll just keep sludging along with Windows and sighing dramatically when Explorer decides I have too many files in one directory, crashes, and then tells me there was a problem and do I want to report it? I’ve been wondering if I’m desperate enough to put a Paypal link up here for beggin- I mean, donation purposes, but I don’t even know what kind of account to sign up for. Anyone know the drill?
