checking in...
Well, i am alive, i just don't have much to say. I have been busy with work. Friday i was especially busy because we were under attack from a hacker and one part of my job as internet police is trying to mitigate that. So it was a high stress day. I bought a can of beer after work as a treat, and it is a treat since past couple months i kinda stopped drinking altogether.
I have been having these longing feelings for escaping into science fiction, it's been happening all year and i'm not sure why. A couple weeks back i bought the Battletech computer game, which is a turn-based tactics set in a future where the galaxy is controlled by feudal factions who are permanently at war with one another. Most significantly, they don't have realistic future weapons, instead they have GIANT ROBOTS. That ate up a bunch of weekends, as i learned how to pilot these mechs around, blowing arms and legs off enemy mechs, salvaging their kit, defending bases and escorting convoys and unfortunately doing all this in the service of a petty noble trying to get back at her sister, or something. The storyline isn't great. It's a flimsy excuse for giant robots to stomp around blowing shit up. But sometimes that's what you need.
This weekend i decided to start rewatching Star Trek: The Next Generation. I'm 8 episodes into the first season and it's quite alright. I am so glad that i am not deep into the Star Trek fandom, because there are certain beliefs that fandom has built up over the years which imo ruins their own enjoyment of the show. For example, "the first two seasons of TNG while Gene Roddenberry were still in charge are awful, you should skip them". Or "the fourth episode of season one is not only the worst episode of every Star Trek series that was ever made, but it's also unwatchably racist". Of course, if you just watch the show it's fine. There was so much more problematic stuff coming out in that era, it seems like a waste of energy to fret over Star Trek's small potato missteps. It's still an optimistic and uplifting show.
There have been some other things going through my mind i wanted to write about.
Li Keqiang died this week and one of the most remarkable things i saw was a YouTube video seemingly cut together from drone and surveillance footage around the hospital where he died. It was as if they had shut down the whole area, the streets were like a ghost town, then a bit later a massive convoy of Men in Black cars drove up, then the entire medical staff were lined up outside in the parking lot, perhaps getting a dressing down from some government official, perhaps standing as an honor guard, then some buses pulled up and loaded something from inside, then the whole convoy zoomed off. It was just wild, showing the edges of the kind of over-the-top secrecy that permeates the Chinese government. They invite conspiracy theories simply by virtue of how unnecessarily opaque they make everything that happens. And then, sure enough, within a few hours of it being posted, after getting hundreds of thousands of views, the video disappeared. And this was posted on YouTube, an American-owned service. The long arm of the CCP can reach anyone, anywhere.
And it was weird to have that reminder, because recently i have been feeling some "nostalgia" - if you can call it that - for my time living in China. I thought Taiwan would be more like China than it is. It's actually very different. The people, the culture, the food, it's not the same. There are similarities of course, but the popular notion that Taiwan is what China would be like if China had democracy doesn't feel right to me. There's more going on than just the political freedom.
Speaking of political freedom, Taipei Pride was yesterday. I didn't even know it was on till afterwards. That's the kind of thing that i mean feels different in Taiwan. I still get scraps of palace intrigue out of Beijing, but i feel completely disconnected from anything going on in the country where i actually live. I feel like an expat here, an outsider, as if there are secret communication channels for local people that i am completely isolated from. I don't know what people watch on TV here. I don't know the popular music. I don't know the news or gossip. Maybe i need to make more of an effort?
Today i went for a short bike ride. I wanted to take a different route to Taoyuan, so instead of going along the river through Yingge district i went up one of the mountain roads behind Xinzhuang. It was quite pleasant until it wasn't.
After following a small walking trail behind some warehouses and along a creek i rejoined the road. The last section was very fucking steep and i had to stop multiple times to catch my breath. I don't know if i lost my fitness or what, but it was brutal. And then when i got to the top of the mountain it started to rain. Like, really fucking hard. Goddamnit. Yet again, betrayed by the weather report. Instead of exploring the suburban construction sites on top of the hill and doing a long loop round into Taoyuan proper, i decided to head back home along a slightly different - less steep - route. Even it only took 5 minutes to get back down to civilization i was completely sodden from the downpour. And the worst part is, it's not hot rain any more. Since start of October or thereabouts the temperature has dropped below 30C (85F) and that means it's fucking freezing. It's in the 20s, so not completely miserable, but the warm hug of humidity has turned into a wet blanket of drizzle and that makes me sad.
I got dumplings to make me happy.
Perhaps i should just learn my lesson and forget about going anywhere near a mountain when it is overcast. Kinda hard to do because Taipei is always overcast and stuck in the middle of a bunch of mountains, but maybe i should take the train to a sunnier place one of these weekends.
Just not this weekend.
Hey, here is a picture of a week or two ago when i cycled up to Bali, hanging out at the secret fishing spot near where they are expanding the port.
That whole stretch of Bali next to the port is one of my happiest places in Xinbei area. The only people who go there are fishermen and construction workers. It feels remote and peaceful but at the same time there is stuff happening, it's quietly industrious, unpretentious and never lonely. That kind of vibe is something i miss from the Pearl River Delta, and something in Taiwan you see more of the further south you go. It's such a shame white collar work is so concentrated in Taipei, it creates a strange bubble of middle classness that i struggle to penetrate.
Next week we have a Halloween dinner at work in the kind of foreigner-friendly, trendy "western food" restaurant that charges the same for one side dish that would get me 50 dumplings at the stall where i ate today in Xinzhuang, so perhaps some of that Taipei middle class energy will rub off and i'll actually feel like a citizen of the city where i live. Probably not. Left my heart in Kaohsiung...
I have been having these longing feelings for escaping into science fiction, it's been happening all year and i'm not sure why. A couple weeks back i bought the Battletech computer game, which is a turn-based tactics set in a future where the galaxy is controlled by feudal factions who are permanently at war with one another. Most significantly, they don't have realistic future weapons, instead they have GIANT ROBOTS. That ate up a bunch of weekends, as i learned how to pilot these mechs around, blowing arms and legs off enemy mechs, salvaging their kit, defending bases and escorting convoys and unfortunately doing all this in the service of a petty noble trying to get back at her sister, or something. The storyline isn't great. It's a flimsy excuse for giant robots to stomp around blowing shit up. But sometimes that's what you need.
This weekend i decided to start rewatching Star Trek: The Next Generation. I'm 8 episodes into the first season and it's quite alright. I am so glad that i am not deep into the Star Trek fandom, because there are certain beliefs that fandom has built up over the years which imo ruins their own enjoyment of the show. For example, "the first two seasons of TNG while Gene Roddenberry were still in charge are awful, you should skip them". Or "the fourth episode of season one is not only the worst episode of every Star Trek series that was ever made, but it's also unwatchably racist". Of course, if you just watch the show it's fine. There was so much more problematic stuff coming out in that era, it seems like a waste of energy to fret over Star Trek's small potato missteps. It's still an optimistic and uplifting show.
There have been some other things going through my mind i wanted to write about.
Li Keqiang died this week and one of the most remarkable things i saw was a YouTube video seemingly cut together from drone and surveillance footage around the hospital where he died. It was as if they had shut down the whole area, the streets were like a ghost town, then a bit later a massive convoy of Men in Black cars drove up, then the entire medical staff were lined up outside in the parking lot, perhaps getting a dressing down from some government official, perhaps standing as an honor guard, then some buses pulled up and loaded something from inside, then the whole convoy zoomed off. It was just wild, showing the edges of the kind of over-the-top secrecy that permeates the Chinese government. They invite conspiracy theories simply by virtue of how unnecessarily opaque they make everything that happens. And then, sure enough, within a few hours of it being posted, after getting hundreds of thousands of views, the video disappeared. And this was posted on YouTube, an American-owned service. The long arm of the CCP can reach anyone, anywhere.
And it was weird to have that reminder, because recently i have been feeling some "nostalgia" - if you can call it that - for my time living in China. I thought Taiwan would be more like China than it is. It's actually very different. The people, the culture, the food, it's not the same. There are similarities of course, but the popular notion that Taiwan is what China would be like if China had democracy doesn't feel right to me. There's more going on than just the political freedom.
Speaking of political freedom, Taipei Pride was yesterday. I didn't even know it was on till afterwards. That's the kind of thing that i mean feels different in Taiwan. I still get scraps of palace intrigue out of Beijing, but i feel completely disconnected from anything going on in the country where i actually live. I feel like an expat here, an outsider, as if there are secret communication channels for local people that i am completely isolated from. I don't know what people watch on TV here. I don't know the popular music. I don't know the news or gossip. Maybe i need to make more of an effort?
Today i went for a short bike ride. I wanted to take a different route to Taoyuan, so instead of going along the river through Yingge district i went up one of the mountain roads behind Xinzhuang. It was quite pleasant until it wasn't.
After following a small walking trail behind some warehouses and along a creek i rejoined the road. The last section was very fucking steep and i had to stop multiple times to catch my breath. I don't know if i lost my fitness or what, but it was brutal. And then when i got to the top of the mountain it started to rain. Like, really fucking hard. Goddamnit. Yet again, betrayed by the weather report. Instead of exploring the suburban construction sites on top of the hill and doing a long loop round into Taoyuan proper, i decided to head back home along a slightly different - less steep - route. Even it only took 5 minutes to get back down to civilization i was completely sodden from the downpour. And the worst part is, it's not hot rain any more. Since start of October or thereabouts the temperature has dropped below 30C (85F) and that means it's fucking freezing. It's in the 20s, so not completely miserable, but the warm hug of humidity has turned into a wet blanket of drizzle and that makes me sad.
I got dumplings to make me happy.
Perhaps i should just learn my lesson and forget about going anywhere near a mountain when it is overcast. Kinda hard to do because Taipei is always overcast and stuck in the middle of a bunch of mountains, but maybe i should take the train to a sunnier place one of these weekends.
Just not this weekend.
Hey, here is a picture of a week or two ago when i cycled up to Bali, hanging out at the secret fishing spot near where they are expanding the port.
That whole stretch of Bali next to the port is one of my happiest places in Xinbei area. The only people who go there are fishermen and construction workers. It feels remote and peaceful but at the same time there is stuff happening, it's quietly industrious, unpretentious and never lonely. That kind of vibe is something i miss from the Pearl River Delta, and something in Taiwan you see more of the further south you go. It's such a shame white collar work is so concentrated in Taipei, it creates a strange bubble of middle classness that i struggle to penetrate.
Next week we have a Halloween dinner at work in the kind of foreigner-friendly, trendy "western food" restaurant that charges the same for one side dish that would get me 50 dumplings at the stall where i ate today in Xinzhuang, so perhaps some of that Taipei middle class energy will rub off and i'll actually feel like a citizen of the city where i live. Probably not. Left my heart in Kaohsiung...