I just wanted to drop a line to our readers to let them know that we’re taking a short break on the mini park series because of the weather. I’ve shot a few parks in the dreary overcast and those reviews just don’t do the parks justice. Parks look terrible in this weather so we’re going to hold off on any more park reviews until the weather clears up in a few weeks time.
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Dear Readers,
We apologize for not featuring Bushman’s Picks last week, due to the Lunar New Year holiday. We were out of our office, enjoying all kinds of cool foods with our family and friends. So, on the one hand you didn’t get the picks, but on the other hand you’ll eventually get to see the pics! (more…)
Hui-chen and I been very busy this week hosting an American Customer. We’ve been traveling from Taoyuan down to Taichung. Then we went to Kaohsiung to take a look at a house. Naturally the blogosphere has been just as busy. So, without further adieu, here are my picks for the week:
I wasn’t sure how well received my Bushman’s Picks would be, but the response on the comments sections, and amount of emails I’ve received convinced me that I should continue the practice, so here it comes for this week!
Bushman’s Picks of the Week
If you want to know what blogs I’m reading and what I think about them, then read on!
Todd just blogged on this. I’m also mentioning it because I don’t want anyone to miss it!
Holly has created a new blog which is an online KTV! You can watch videos and sing along with the lyrics thanks to her incredible effort of romanizing the Chinese.
The upshot of this is obvious: now your drunken nights in the local karaoke can actually count for something as you practice your Chinese skills on singing!
Here are a few words from Holly herself:
“After a few months in Taiwan, I began to study Chinese, and I became attracted to the idea of learning Chinese songs to a) improve my Chinese skills, b) expand my selection at KTV, c) impress others with my ability to sing in Chinese, even if only a few songs, and d) increase my awareness of Taiwanese pop culture so I’d know what people were talking about when they were discussing Jay Chou’s latest album or the most recent rumor about Wang Lee Hom. What’s more, I feel that I’m musically inclined, and find it easy to remember songs. I’m one of those people who can sing an entire song, word for word, but couldn’t tell you the artist or title.
Remembering Chinese songs, however, is much more difficult. For me, it’s nearly impossible to sing a Chinese song from memory simply from having heard it over and over. And although these days I can read a lot of Chinese characters, enough to get me by at KTV, I need to visualize the lyrics in pinyin if I want to sing a song to myself while driving my scooter through Taipei.”
Even if you aren’t studying Chinese, Holly’s new site is fun! People around the world love these catchy tunes but most people don’t have a clue how to sing them. Thankfully the romanized lyrics make it easy for anyone to sound like a pro.
Hui-chen and I want to thank Holly for her excellent new site.
Anyone else besides me getting tired of having to recreate my feed at http://www.taiwanfeed.com? It seems that my feed disappears every couple of months (if it lasts that long) and I have to set it up again.
As soon as I started hosting the blog on the new domain I was besieged by spam comments. Akismet for WordPress blogs helps to control this problem. But I also use Bannage, and by banning the IP of offending posters, I have experienced a dramatic drop in spam comments. Even though I get the hits, I don’t see the spam. It’s refreshing! For the convenience of other bloggers I will list my banned IPs here. I recommend sharing this kind of information among the blogging community.
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