TheNHBushman.com

This is one of those rare evenings when I don’t have all that much to do.  So I’ve been browsing through my vast photo collection and adding tags and descriptions to make things easier to find later on.  I found a couple of interesting photos.  I think I’ll upload a few here for now and some on another day.  I had forgotten until recently just how many panoramas I have done in the past.

Speaking of organizing photo collections - wouldn’t it be great if you could have a program that would allow you to tag photos with keywords, add descriptions, support geolocalization, and easily searchable among those parameters?  Basically like a local flickr.com.  Well, you can, but the down side is, you have to be running linux.  This photo program is called Digikam, and for those of you who don’t really require windows for anything special you may consider installing linux just so you can check Digikam out.

Here is a panoram shot that I took back in 2004 in the Taoyuan area from the 10th floor of a building where I used to live:

I highly recommend that you click on this photo and then view it in one of the large formats.  The sun was just right that evening.

FWIW, I am running Kubuntu Feisty Fawn.

Now, to me, Taiwan has always been a place where you can find interesting and perhaps paranormal phenomenon (if you know where to look).  On this same afternoon, right after the sun set, I saw some strange lights coming over the mountain range.  I took these shots out of the window with the window glass removed.  They are not reflections in front of the camera, I assure you.

The effect was absolutely stunning when viewed with your own eyes.  The person with me just said “Its Taiwan.  Strange things happen in Taiwan.”  I couldn’t have put it better myself.

technorati tags:Taiwan, Taoyuan, Ciaoai, photo, strange, lights

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This afternoon Hui-chen and I were enjoying some relaxation time watching one of our favorite Japanese cooking shows, along with a wonderful grilled chicken salad that my beautiful wife had prepared.

Suddenly we heard a sharp report like an explosion:  THUNDER!  And, in the middle of broad daylight too!  About 15 minutes later the power went out.  Mind you, we had yet to see a single storm cloud.  The sun was beating down relentlessly.  I said to Hui-chen “lightning must have struck a pole” and no sooner were the words out of my mouth when we heard another resounding thunder clap.  Very impressive as it shook the whole house.

Shortly thereafter I ventured to the roof where I saw a black sky with lower level lighter clouds moving rapidly towards our position.

About 10 minutes after I took this photograph the sky opened up and began pissing down rain.  The cool breeze was a welcome break from the stifling heat of recent days.  The light show from the lightning was interesting to watch, nearly impossible to photograph.

technorati tags:Taiwan, Hukou, storm

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UPDATE: Tonight I got my first lead on who the thief might be. The hose used in the crime is very unique and I matched it up with some hose that I found at a local place in my neighborhood. I have developed a theory that I will be investigating over the following few days.

No sooner do I blog on a monster rooming house that just went up across the street, than I have to blog on the theft of gasoline from Hui-chen’s scooter overnight.

The previous occupant of our home told us that migrant workers would try to steal things from our property. I highly doubt that even with the increase in gasoline costs would one of the local Taiwanese people steal from their own neighbors. No, I have to conclude that this is the work of foreign laborers.

This is Hui-chen’s scooter with a piece of stolen air conditioner drain hose beside it. The hose smells like gasoline. She found the gas cap on the ground next to this hose.

As you can see, the gas cap has been broken with some tool, probably a screwdriver.

I checked our car. Sure enough, someone put their fingers (smudge marks) on the locking door to see if it was open.

technorati tags:Taiwan, Hukou, gasoline, theft

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UPDATE: The tall building now has very ugly yellow curtains. What were they thinking?

Photos by MJ Klein

I really didn’t plan on blogging this morning as I am too busy. But when Hui-chen and I were rousted from our slumber by the sound of an explosion, I decided that enough is enough and I was going to expose the idiocy going on across the street from our home - now.

Our neighborhood is an industrial area. So, people have been investing in these apartment complexes built for foreign workers to occupy. There are no less than 3 of these monsters put up this year alone. Take a close look. There are 18 individual window air conditioners on this side of the building. That means when this building is full of tenants we will have to put up with the sound of all these air conditioners running all summer long. The back side of this building has 18 more apartments. This building is made of brick and very hastily put up. Some of our neighbors have complained that this building looks very scary because it’s so high and thin.

Now the guy next door to this monstrosity has decided to go up higher too. Recently a truck with a crane came down our street and delivered this steel extension which was quickly bolted onto the structure below.

Look closely and you will see a man’s legs. He is attaching sheet metal to the structure.

“Safety equipment? What’s that?”

We were awakened when one of these huge pieces of sheet metal fell to the street below. Thankfully no one was beneath it. We have lots of little kids running around playing on our street.

This is the cable TV lead-in wire to the new building. It swings in the breeze, totally unsupported along it’s length.

Without permission, they strung this wire right over our property. Since this wire is unsupported it will break soon. I know it will. Probably at night during a new moon.

technorati tags:Taiwan, Hukou, construction

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I’ve seen some blog posts on Korea recently.  I can’t seem to make my point in the comments section, so I’ll do it in my own blog.

People are talking about GDP, chaebols and all the things that really do not matter in the Taiwan-Korea shootout.  It comes down to something else.

My wife and I own an outsourcing company.  We make our living selling products made in Asia for cheaper prices than can be made back in the Customers’ home countries.  I am going to talk about Taiwan and Korea from the viewpoint of someone who makes their living in manufacturing.  I promise I won’t have any boring statistics.

There is a huge farm in Taiwan’s backyard.  The people there work for less, there is lots of land and they speak the same language (more or less).  This place is China and the Taiwanese have had the home-court advantage with development of China since the Chinese first woke up to the opportunity that they can make stuff for other countries and get paid for it.

On the other hand, Korea is like a Taiwan, but without a place to make products cheaply like Taiwan has, unless they use China.  Korea is at a distinct disadvantage there, namely because the Chinese don’t like them very much and they don’t have a common language.  Nevertheless, these obstacles can be overcome of course.  But the Koreans will never have a foothold into China like the Taiwanese do.  In some cases the Koreans are going through Taiwanese companies in China.  The more that Taiwanese control the Chinese manufacturing base, the more likely it will be that outsiders aren’t dealing directly with Chinese, but going through Taiwanese.

If you want to buy a Goldstar DVD player, its most likely made in Korea, on the home turf.  If you want to buy a Sampo DVD player, that puppy will be made in China.  The Koreans may be facing the same problem and have to do what the Japanese did during the 80s, which was to dump products at the expense of the domestic market.  I’m not sure how well this is understood by other bloggers, but I lived through that era and studied Japanese manufacturing practices in the 80s when I was an engineer for Pacific Scientific.  Taiwan doesn’t have to earn money by selling domestic products to the homeland at several times the going rate in order to finance the loss-leader dumping practices of Japan did.  Taiwan has China to do the manufacturing.

The next thing that I am going to say is uncomplimentary, but unfortunately true.  None of the agents that I know will order any parts from Korea.  None of them.  I know a lot of supply agents in the field and they all say the same thing “Korean suppliers cannot be trusted.”  This is, I believe, currently the main difference between Taiwan and Korea - the perception of quality.  Taiwan has a reputation that is nearly on a par with Japan these days, regarding quality and integrity of manufacturing.  Taiwan sources US military parts that are forbidden to be made elsewhere in Asia (I know because I supplied them from here).  Therefore, Taiwan gets more contract manufactured parts orders than Korea would get if their reputation weren’t tarnished so badly.  Truthfully, I have heard nothing but bad and I’ve had other suppliers name company names, places and dates.  I know the stories are true.  I believe that it is with this contract manufacturing supply that Taiwan has the advantage over Korean.  When talking about production numbers, I am not sure if the contract manufactured income is differentiated from product production.  The interesting thing about many Taiwanese companies is that while they have their own product line and produce finished products, they use their factory capacity to make parts for Customers.  These parts have nothing to do with their own products but they make whatever they can in their factories to earn money.  Smart.  Eventually Korean suppliers will smarten up too.

China woke up.  Vietnam woke up.  Cambodia and Laos have also woken up to the sound of foreign tourist money and investment.  Yet, none of these countries have budged on their Communist roots and authoritarian views.  Its unlikely that they will either.  There really isn’t any reason to.  They will continue to open up in areas that make sense to gain investment money and tourism, manufacturing, food and raw material exporting etc.  So the question is:

When will North Korea wake up and smell the cash?

My guess is “sooner than you think.”  They aren’t letting on.  You won’t know when it’s going to happen until it does because it won’t require any shift in ideology.  There doesn’t have to be a coup or free elections.  All they have to do is open “talks” with the South and the process begins.  When that happens, Korea will have an advantage in a manufacturing base that will be leaner and more aggressive than any Taiwanese developed system could ever be because it will be more or less a Japanese based system of production.  That will be the day that Taiwan should fear.

technorati tags:Taiwan, Korea, competition

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Introduction Wikimania 2007, the third annual international Wikimedia conference, will be held August 3-5 in Taipei, Taiwan at Chien Tan Overseas Youth Activity Center (CTOYAC). Both a scientific conference and a community event, Wikimania brings together members of various Wikimedia projects in order to exchange ideas, build relationships, and report on research and project efforts. It also provides an opportunity for Wikimedians and the general public alike to meet and share ideas about free and open source software, free knowledge initiatives, and wiki projects worldwide.

Main Page - Wikimania 2007, The International Wikimedia Conference

technorati tags:Taiwan, Taipei, Wikimania

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Photos by MJ Klein

Last night Hui-chen and I were at Shao Hui’s place all evening.  One of the regulars told us that he would be cooking a pig tomorrow and that we should come back at 14:00 to try some.  Well, we didn’t have to be asked twice!

When we got there we were informed by the guy that he didn’t kill the pig this morning because the guy who was supposed to help him had to go to work today (weird excuse but that’s how it goes here).  Instead he had some “special meat” and he wanted us to try some.

Thai style mystery meat

One of the great things about living in Taiwan and not looking like a local person is that sometimes people will say things in front of you assuming that you can’t understand them.  By the time the guy brought the plate of food over to our table I already knew it was dog meat.  The dish was so well prepared and the flavoring was fantastic, but it was just too damn hot/spicy for me to eat.  My stomach felt like it was burning.  Hui-chen and I only tasted a few pieces of it.  Before I tasted it I asked if it was one of those mangy mutts from our neighborhood.  Apparently the guy raises puppies specifically as food animals.

This dish was really great.  Green bean noodles with pork and seafood.  Not too spicy!

technorati tags:Thai, dog, greenbean, noodle

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Photos by MJ Klein

Last night Hui-chen and I were at Shao Hui’s place all evening.  One of the regulars told us that he would be cooking a pig tomorrow and that we should come back at 14:00 to try some.  Well, we didn’t have to be asked twice!

When we got there we were informed by the guy that he didn’t kill the pig this morning because the guy who was supposed to help him had to go to work today (weird excuse but that’s how it goes here).  Instead he had some “special meat” and he wanted us to try some.

Thai style mystery meat

One of the great things about living in Taiwan and not looking like a local person is that sometimes people will say things in front of you assuming that you can’t understand them.  By the time the guy brought the plate of food over to our table I already knew it was dog meat.  The dish was so well prepared and the flavoring was fantastic, but it was just too damn hot/spicy for me to eat.  My stomach felt like it was burning.  Hui-chen and I only tasted a few pieces of it.  Before I tasted it I asked if it was one of those mangy mutts from our neighborhood.  Apparently the guy raises puppies specifically as food animals.

This dish was really great.  Green bean noodles with pork and seafood.  Not too spicy!

technorati tags:Thai, dog, greenbean, noodle

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I blog on just about everything else, so I might as well tell everyone how I am doing.

As was recently pointed out to me, I haven’t finished the story about 5371.  I took a break at the time because of some health concerns, but according to one reader (who didn’t leave a name):

“but in spite of it you have been on several train rides, climbed a mountain in search of a geocache, taken a thousand photos, but a month later we’re still wondering WTF happened to the plane.”

Cut me some slack, will you?  While I appreciate that you’ve been reading my blog and actually keeping up with that we’ve been doing, besides the fact that the civilian investigation isn’t complete, I’ve been trying to figure out what the hell is wrong with me.  Please note that even while doing all of those things I have been experiencing some very serious symptoms and have had to deal with them while out and about my life.  Its not been easy on Hui-chen either.

The symptoms that I have been experiencing are all heart-related.  The main culprit has been tachycardia and that has been very scary to deal with.  Not that the other symptom, palpitations have been any more pleasant.

On several occasions I have been sitting at home when my heart rate took off racing up to about 140 beats per minute.  Fortunately I was able to see a heart specialist during one of these episodes and he has concluded that there is nothing wrong with my heart.  I had an EKG that showed my heart is perfectly normal with no damage and indeed, in good condition.  The EKG shows that I have never had a heart attack and that I wasn’t having one then either.  This is the good news.

The bad news is that nobody knows what is causing them to occur.  The palpitations that I have been experiencing are very dramatic and disturbing.  My heart drops a beat with a very heavy thump feeling in my chest.  The doctor has told me over and over that there is nothing wrong with my heart and that I can ignore those symptoms.  He has given me some medication to control the rate and also to keep the palpitations to a minimum. 

I’m going to tell you from personal experience that when your heart is racing at nearly a buck-forty, and dropping beats every minute or so, its not easy to remain calm.

Before I had medicine to control the rate and rhythm, I had a very scary episode and went to the Hukou ER because I just didn’t know it if would come back under control on its own or not.  I spent four hours in the ER, hooked up to the heart monitor.  The ER doctor also concluded from the EKG that my heart wasn’t malfunctioning.  But it took all that time for the heart rate to slow down.

Since that time I have been searching for a reason why, and also some therapy that I can engage in so I can control the situation without having to resort to drugs.  The activity that makes me feel the best, and actually seems to result in a normal heart rate and rhythm is hard exercise.  I have also noticed a correlation between eating and rapid heart beat.  It seems that I feel better and have less problems if I eat more frequent meals.  Most of the time I would only eat an evening meal, usually after 21:00.  I’m changing this habit with some good results.

Once upon a time I was an amateur body builder (hard to believe huh?).  I spent 12 hours a week in a professional gym, pumping iron along side some of the local contenders.  I never participated in any of those events, I just wanted to work out in a well-equipped gym where there were lots of experienced people.  As often happens in life, making a living gradually interfered with my work outs.  Some time later I injured my spine and that put an end to lifting.  Eventually I recovered to the point where I am OK now and I can return to working out.  The truth be told, I really enjoy exercising and in particular I like to ride my Giant Yukon mountain bike.

Last December I was in Thailand and I noticed that I was having some heart palpitations but I didn’t have the heart rate symptom going on.  I decided that I needed some exercise, so I bought a mountain bike at a local bike shop in Kohnkaen.

This is my Taiwanese (China made) Merida mountain bike, purchased in Thailand for 10,000 baht.

After riding between 15 and 25 KM every day I noticed that I didn’t have any of those palpitations anymore.  Could the palpitations be my body’s way of telling me to get off my ass and work out?

Some one a lot smarter than I suggested that I i could be suffering from stress.  Even the doctor told me that.  Although I can’t really think of anything that is so stressful in my life, Michael pointed out that even pleasant things (such as getting married) can and do often impart stress.  Then its entirely possible that I have been suffering from stress and its manifesting itself as this condition.  As I learn more about what is going on, I tend to agree with Michael’s assessment.

No, I don’t have clipless cycling shoes, I wear my sandals.  At least I’m riding mine.  Yours is a clothes hanger right?

I own a CardioMaster stationary bicycle.  I make it a point to ride it every day, even if for only a few minutes.  What I find works best for me is to turn up the resistance so it feels like I’m climbing a huge hill, and just pedal fast for as long as I can keep it up.  I gradually reduce the resistance until its totally off.  By that time I have a huge burn going.

I’m fat and I look stupid on exercise equipment.  The point is for me to continue using the equipment until I look good using it.  I’ll post those shots large sized.

Then I get on the Total Gym 9000 and do some strength training (sometimes I reverse the order).  People who have never used one of these pieces of equipment joke about them.  I took their names and gave them to Chuck Norris.

All joking aside, this is a serious piece of workout gear.  Depending upon how the incline is set you use a percentage of your body weight for the workout.  My father had one of these when he was in his 70s.  It was one of the few pieces of equipment that he could setup by himself and actually use.  On the lower settings the weight was quite manageable for him and he used it a lot.  I went to visit him in 1999 for a couple of months and I used his TV model almost every day.

So, now I push myself hard on the bicycle and then work out on the Total Gym until I fade.  After that my heart is racing, but its racing for a good reason.  By the time I shower and cool down, my heart rate is back to normal, and importantly, stays that way.  Until I find the actual cause of the problem I keep some of that medicine handy but I’ve only had to use it a couple of times in the last month.  I am bothered mostly by the palpitations at night.  Sometimes I can’t get to sleep because I can feel my heart skipping.  Its very easy to let your fears take over and run wild about what could be going wrong.  A few times I even wondered if I would survive all the dropped heartbeats.  Fortunately for me I have scientific proof in 2 EKGs with 2 separate opinions that my heart is not malfunctioning or is damaged.

technorati tags:Taiwan, cardiomaster, totalgym, tachycardia, palpitations, heart, exercise

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UPDATE: Brunty sent me this:

“Mj I have finally got the domain name I have wanted for a long time and have changed from
thailandnortheastliving.blogspot.com/.

The new name is now
http://isaanstyle.blogspot.com”

Readers of our blog know how much we love Issan country in Thailand. So I would like to introduce a blog all about living in Issan. The blog is Issan Style! and its run by cool fellow named Brunty.

What I like about Brunty is that he always had something positive to say about nearly everything and his viewpoints are levelheaded and calm, very Issan style, indeed. He takes a lot of photos so I know our readers will enjoy those as well.

Here are some recent highlights from his blog:

Thailand. Dallas Episode 5. J.R. V’s Mother in Law. The days of Dallas are returning to the Far North East of Thailand. You see my mother in law has returned from her attempt of finding work in Bangkok again. She didn’t even last 2 weeks as I thought would be the case. She did this exact thing about 6 months ago and went to work as a maid for some people in a nice house but again the job didn’t last as she continually complained of a sore back and other ailments. This time I have no idea why she didn’t stay in Bangkok and even if she found work.

Isaan Style!: Thailand. Dallas Episode 5. J.R. V’s Mother in Law.

The road went a good foot underwater and it wasn’t really heavy rain only in a few places but it was constant. The Ubon council just put new drains all through my street 5 months back but it hasn’t made a difference by the looks of it. Looking to the end of my street. My gate into the house and up the road. When you look up one of the little streets that run onto mine you can see that half way up it is dry and there isn’t any water as the fall of the road brings it all my way but again it never has been a major problem in the 2 years, well not yet and hopefully won’t be fingers crossed. It all runs down to me.

Isaan Style!: Thailand. Rainy Day, Flooded Streets, Fish and a Wet Dog.

The little rabbits still haven’t opened their eyes yet and can crawl around well. He took them out of the cage and put them on a towel and they sat still for a few minutes and then started going here and there. A few were already trying to hop and would only successfully turn themselves onto their backs which was entertaining and funny. He said after she feeds them they all turn on their backs with legs in the air and tummies full of milk and look very happy. It’s a hard life being a baby rabbit. Stretching their legs.

Isaan Style!: Thailand. Baby Rabbits and Good Thai Food.

Thailand. Rotten Fish and Papaya Salad. The last few days every time I arrive home from school there is a smell like something has died and has been lying in the sun for many days. It’s a very pungent smell that makes your stomach turn and screw your face up at the smell. The offending smell is a disgusting food well more the sauce that is used in “Dum Laos” or somtam/papaya salad Laos style. This form of papaya salad is extremely spicy and very salty and the taste overpowering and not delicious. You see the sauce is made from fermented or rotting fish mixed with fish sauce salt and so forth. There’s papaya in that chili.

Isaan Style!: Thailand. Rotten Fish and Papaya Salad.

Enjoy reading Issan Style!

technorati tags:IssanStyle, blog, Brunty

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