I went to a church service last night. I found the service a bit unsatisfying, as it was mostly in Chinese, making the service more of a language exercise than a spiritual one. I couldn't remember the lyrics to "Doxology" (yes, I haven't been to church in awhile), "Joy to the World," and "O Little Town of Bethlehem," so I followed along in the Chinese hymnal and sang the occasional word that I could read. The one song that they did have the English lyrics to, "O Holy Night," ended up being a solo. Fortunately, the sermon was in English, and from the Chinese translation, I learned a new word, zhi hui, which means wisdom. Lessons from the sermon: wisdom is absent when there is pride, as wisdom comes with humility. And Henry David Thoreau once said, "it is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things."

Warm and fuzzy birthday wishes to Melissa and TC!

And for the rest of my faithful readers, here's a small gift to you. Remember to turn on the speakers or pop in the headphones, if you have a sound card, because the card is much better with the music. This card is not just any generic corporate electronic greeting card, because it was MY project at work, and I came up with the concept, picked a vendor, worked with the vendor in creating the card, and then coordinated the infrastructure implementation and execution. Next year, I'm starting the ecard project in September, I swear.

Yesterday in a conversation with friends I was presented with an idea I had never considered before: by decreeing martial law, a government instantly takes away its authority in the eyes of the people.

The effects of being under the rule of martial law longer than any other nation in history continues to be felt today, as the Taiwanese develop their political culture and grapple with the question of their place in the world.

I realize a ridiculously long time has passed since I made a post, but I have been quite busy at work, the results of which I hope to be able to post here soon. In any case, I had a lovely Thanksgiving Dinner. Jen and I organized a dinner party the Friday of Thanksgiving weekend at United Mix. The kind folks at United Mix put us in their private dining room in the basement, so our meal there was almost like having a home-cooked meal at home. And, I mustn't forget the sparkling presence of Joaquin and Mate, without whom the rest of us wouldn't have argued over which practice was Thanksgiving tradition based upon the different parts of the U.S. we lived in.

I laughed yesterday as I stepped out of my building on the way to work and saw a senior citizen with one of those pink plastic bags that are ubiquitous throughout Asia on top of her head, to protect her curls from the rain, as she did her morning tai chi exercises.

Despite that fact that I went to MIT, over concern over my Nerd Pride credentials--I constantly confuse Star Wars for Star Trek, and vice versa (having never seen the original Star Wars trilogy or watched much of Star Trek)--Benson, Jen, and Eric thought we should have a Star Wars movie marathon Saturday night to bring me up to speed.

Unfortunately, since the original trilogy is not available on DVD, and due to technical difficulties with rapidly becoming out-of-date technology (the VCR), Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia had to be given up in favor of "Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace" and "Mission to Mars". We hit the wall, so to speak, after "Mission to Mars," so after a long rest, my movie marathon ended with "Star Trek II - The Wrath of Khan" last night.

And what have I learned from this education? Even a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, talented young children were as precocious and (at times) as annoying as they are now. And even in the 23rd century, some men (such as Khan) need to work on anger management so that it does not get in the way of achieving their goals.

I forgot to mention that the Mandarin pronounciation of Harry Potter is something like ha li po te (Harry is pronounced like Halle, as in Halle Berry, and Potter comes out like "poah-tuh"). Now imagine a bunch of Taiwanese kids jumping up and shouting, "Harry Potter, Harry Potter!" Cute, huh?

I finally have climbing photos from my trip to Lung Dung (long dong)! Lung Dung is on the northeast coast of Taiwan, past the port city of Keelung. The area is known for it's fishing and scuba diving, and the scenery is quite nice. We had a few climbing routes, several on the cliff edging the hiking trail, and another on an outcropping of stone near the water. I was quite proud of myself when I reached the top of my last route, which I thought was the most challenging. This was my first time climbing outdoors, and compared to the indoor rock climbing gym, I found climbing outdoors to me more of a mental, rather than physical, challenge.