Bushman’s Picks, January 20, 2008

These are my blog picks for the week:

• We’d like to congratulate blogger Andres for having one of his photos selected to be included in the Wow! Eye Taiwan video contest. By the time you read this, hopefully Andres will have totally recovered from drinking with me last night at Shao-hui’s!
• There’s an old saying: “A friend in need is a friend indeed.” My friend Brunty helped out one of his friends who was feeing down and out about losing a big sum of money by gambling on a sporting event. Brunty is quite a fellow, even admitting rather embarrassing stuff in his blog, such as “I used to be one of those pathetic losers at the local pub punting on every animal that had legs and sports as well. It took a long time to wise up that gambling is a no-win situation. If it was easy all of us mugs would be rich and happy. From when I was 18 until I was 30 I gambled away a heap on money I don’t want to try and even camp. There were times when I would be paid on a Thursday afternoon and by Sunday I would be $1,000 dollars lighter and still wanting to gamble the rest of my paycheck to get the money back I lost.” Wow, what an admission! But this former gambling problem that Brunty had has made him compassionate towards others who suffer from the same compulsion. So, this helluva good friend Brunty, actually saved his pal’s life by offering to take his friend’s gun home with him, for fear his friend would shoot himself over it. It’s a fascinating story, and one you should read. Brunty, I’m glad to call you my friend too, mate. Brunty also does some outdoor cooking at home, and we all know how our readers just hate reading about outdoor cooking! Our readers will especially hate this article about grilled ribs and pork loin with steamed vegetables.
• This week, Hanzi Smatter tries to figure out what the heck this tattoo means. Apparently a librarian got this tattoo over ten years ago and thought it meant “to give love.” For those of you who are linguistic experts, you may want to drop by Hanzi Smatter and help them figure this one out.
• David Reid has another brilliant photo quiz for us, this time on Taipei. I really enjoyed the last quiz, but I have to admit I did a lot better on that one because I don’t know jack about Taipei (am I the only foreigner who has never lived in Taipei?). David also brings an important piece of cultural information to our attention: the reopening of the Taiwan Folk Arts Museum.
• Patrick Cowsill went to Hualien to the “Massive Sunfish” restaurant. Apparently he didn’t try the sunfish but opted for the deep-fried pork chops instead. Patrick, bad move my friend! You see, if you’d eaten the sunfish, they maybe you might have taken a photo of it. Then, maybe you might have uploaded it to your photo album on flickr.com. Then, maybe someone from Wikipedia may have seen your photo and used it in an article! Hey, it can happen!
• If you follow Taiwan politics, A-gu has quite a number of interesting articles this week that attempt to explain what happened in the recent election.
• This week, Todd found some alien spores that morphed into sunflowers, but by the time he figured out they were fake, they had already taken over his body. Well, either that or he went to Chin Shan-Yen Gate and Huiju Temple. Just go to his blog and read about it because it’s a very cool place, and of course features the excellent photography that Todd is known for. Wish I’d gone, but I already have enough voices in my head, thank you!
• Carrie and John have been busy planning their wedding in Mexico at the end of this year. After several months of trying to arrange the marriage of a Canadian and an American in Mexico, while living in Taiwan, well you can imagine that they are quite relieved to have finally gotten over the milestone of firming up the travel part of the equation. Congratulations! Carrie and John, it is our sincere hope that your chosen date and time of 10th of December, 2008 at 4:00pm, isn’t spoiled by the filming of Girls Gone Wild, Winter Break #37!
• David in Taiwan is going back to the US for a visit, and he’s bringing Catherine. David explains a bit about the visa application process. It’s going to be cutting it close! We hope everything works out for you David and Catherine!
• Darren at ProBlogger was very busy this week (as usual). It’s hard to narrow it down to a single selection but mine would be his Six Tips for More Creative Blogging (of course this only is useful if your blog is about original content).
• Steve Jobs announces the MacBook Air at Macworld this week. I hope you didn’t by a new Apple notebook recently…. My Digital Life has the story.
• When you’re a great photographer you can screw around at home some afternoon and take photographs that make the rest of us look like amateurs. That’s just what Craig Ferguson loves to do! I really like these kinds of photos. I’m going to have to take a day off and spend it with my D80!
• IslaFormosa has an interesting article about convenience in Taiwan. It’s an interesting article and asks for examples from readers. It’s worth taking a look at for the shot of the cute girl in shorts alone.
• For those of us who are not native speakers of Mandarin, reader Owshawng has another part in his ongoing series entitled “Embarassing Moments in Mandarin.” We’re all glad to know it’s not just us making fools of ourselves!
• KTV Xiaojie added a couple new songs to the list this week.
• Poagao has a great article about Apple’s reluctance to open iTunes Music Stores in Taiwan. This has also hamstrung Taiwanese users from upgrading their iPod Touch.
• Deceased: I neglected to mention last week but we lost Edmond Hillary on January 11, 2008. New Zealand mountaineer, he and Tenzing Norgay were the first men to summit Mount Everest, May 29, 1953. One of the last great explorers of our time.