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POCKET CHOMP posted:Ah, cool. That's good to know, I guess what I have isn't set in stone then, not that I think I would have anything to change it to. We could run a name change thread. It'd be like a mod name change thing, just potentially more serious.
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Jul 20, 2012 09:13
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TetsuoTW posted:I don't see why not. But then again, you can pretty much get away with anything - a friend of mine worked with a guy who called himself 發克育. hhaha
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Jul 21, 2012 09:04
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annual: "English test scores show inadequacy of teaching" article. Personally, i'd say the level of English I've experienced has been stellar. Considering the flip side of the coin as in how much Chinese is spoken in the US & EU. Admittedly, there hasn't been a great call for it the past 20 odd years, but the need for it was obvious since the mid-late 80's imo.
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Jul 23, 2012 02:36
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Magna Kaser posted:So I read this article: http://ns2.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2012/07/17/2003537940 and am wondering if anyone knows exactly what sort of stuff Ma is trying to get changed. Beisdes a few words like Nipponization I couldn't really glean many specifics. In terms of the English language papers I found: Tapei Times = Pro Green/DPP China Post = Anti-China/Pro AIT (ignore the wikipedia page) Both: Sensationalist drama llamas
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Jul 23, 2012 10:12
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DontAskKant posted:My goals for the trip are to keep it within budget, eat a lot of food Welcome to heaven! I'll leave the rest to the other posters, but with those being your primary goals(assuming your list was in priority order) then yeah, i'm guessing you've nailed it. The last time I had to hit HK was for a visa run at short notice over the chinese new year period. I paid around NT$7,000 for that with China Airlines. The trip is entirely painless.
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Jul 24, 2012 01:25
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sheesh, just grab some saran wrap from 7 on your way home or, y'know, use a snickers wrapper  Better yet, turn the old one inside out. ... Rinse repeat.
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Jul 29, 2012 04:36
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I'm gonna go ahead a guess that a bridge needs repairing, or we're paying back for the half day we all got off because of the rain a month or so ago. (or perhaps the entertaining The traffic cameras seem to be working a good deal more than usual since I got 3 tickets in the past 2 weeks (one for a wrong lane, 2 for speeding). So yeah, I'd wager that somebody turned on one of the income taps. e: tickets I've had have been: Speeding #1: 1200 Speeding #2 & #3: 1300 Wrong Lane: 600 Bear in mind the speeding of #2 & #3 fell within a range of 20 over but not more than 40 over and speeding #1 was quite a while ago (Jan). I'd guess at sliding scale of fines until it hits yo' banned. I really need to take my test soon (if I get a ban, my buddy gonna be really upset). url fucked around with this message at 08:59 on Jul 31, 2012 |
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Jul 31, 2012 08:40
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duckfarts posted:There's an easy solution to your ticket problems, fellas... My last chauffeur wouldn't do the 3am 7-11 run, and Miss url doesn't drive (yet).
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Jul 31, 2012 09:01
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Having gotten home pretty much piss wet: a) I need a new yellow poncho b) I'm reminded that the recent weather has spoiled me, and I want a car rather than a bigger/more funner bike
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Jul 31, 2012 15:31
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TetsuoTW posted:Welp, latest update: Taipei City, Taipei County, and Keelung are getting a typhoon day tomorrow. Sweeeeeeeet. I been 100 kinds of tired this past week. The timing is perfect. Expect drunk posts in 5, 4, ...
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Aug 1, 2012 13:48
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Haraksha posted:Check your email while you're at it. I saw it the other day, and yeah, I'm p familiar with the area - I got some budget t-shirts there a few months ago. I 'might' skip the class this weekend, because, a) I'm knackered and b) the mrs has to do a funeral and that might mean some running around on my part. Speaking of t-shirts, I saw a few places doing youtube/facebook/apple/yahoo t shirts recently at 40NT$ a pop. I passed them up at the time, but really they'd be ideal for lol-crappy gifts. I'm regretting it now that I've not seen them for a couple of weeks. duckfarts posted:probates something something groucho marx club that would have me as a member yadda yadda 
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Aug 1, 2012 15:04
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Haraksha posted:Oh wow someone actually loving died in Sanxia because of the typhoon. Apparently we've been having horrible mudslides all morning as the mountains collapsed and some dude got caught in it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4sMg1HTYbQ :/
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Aug 2, 2012 18:55
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OB is usually the starting point for most reporters I thought. lovely weather reports and cheesy vox pop being the first ports of call.
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Aug 3, 2012 00:30
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duckfarts posted:Holy balls, not only that, but the fact that the second section of road collapsed just as suddenly is nuckin' futs. Kinda reminds me of when there were collapses/foundation issues when building the Kaohsiung MRT, but I don't think those were on video or anything. pretty sure I've seen whole collections of green reporters being sent into the eye of a hurricane etc. etc., but that's not Taiwan specific so I'll not stray off-topic. ugh gawker
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Aug 3, 2012 10:58
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TetsuoTW posted:e: Also, in unrelated news, I just read that the Wall Street chain of buxibans just shut up shop "for financial reasons". i was considering working for them when I first arrived. Bullet dodged I guess.
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Aug 8, 2012 02:40
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duckfarts posted:Oh look, the school I was going to teach at before I lucked out and found a writing job. The hiring guy was a pretty decent guy at least. I passed up a whole bunch of good reply opportunities here. DontAskKant posted:Doesn't Wall Street in Taiwan require a CELTA and some serious experience or was The one in Seoul giving me a story? They didn't ask me for anything beyond immediate availability, but, that was the Kaohsiung set and they were obviously operating on short notice. Haraksha posted:
Depending on your budget the motels are easily of hotel quality, and I think they are similar to some of the (nicer) hostel prices. url fucked around with this message at 05:24 on Aug 10, 2012 |
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Aug 10, 2012 05:21
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Spanish Matlock posted:Taiwanese food is delicious. The tradition of sitting in open air restaurants and guzzling tai-beer and sharing plates of fried meat treats is pretty awesome. This. TetsuoTW posted:fried bees I'm in! DontAskKant posted:5 years in journalism and 4 in IT and a degree I should be able to find something I would think. I don't foresee any problems. Contact whoever you know, and toss your CV onto 104 etc etc, and direct mail. You'll be inundated in no time I'm quite sure of it. Firms here are scraping LinkedIn on a pretty regular basis. (Both nVidia and Google contacted me recently) So, yeah update your keywords with the latest jargon and you'll get approached that way too. (I'd suggest getting a spare SIM card prior to this process, because the spammers here are loving quick off the mark) E; spurling and ytops url fucked around with this message at 08:34 on Aug 10, 2012 |
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Aug 10, 2012 08:28
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DontAskKant posted:What is 104? a site? any other sites? ahh, my bad: http://www.104.com.tw/ CV/resume site (you'll need the www bit because - lol) there's 1111.com.tw too, but I don't think that's quite as popular. DontAskKant posted:I know I have brought this up here before, but I don't remember URL's take on it. Maybe we can PM so as not to clutter the thread. Hit my PM by all means, but the folk who have been here (in tw) longer are likely a better source of quality information for a long term stay/and for a short term stay too tbh. I'm only coming up to my first year here, and I had a pretty easy ride because I stayed with a friend while I set myself up. That's not to say I won't/can't help, but there's folk in this thread better equipped than me, plus I'm from a UK/EU background and I'd guess alot of the info you'll be asking about will be US specific. DontAskKant posted:Basically all I heard about Taiwan from her was "trees, green stuff, real tea, bubble tea, noodles, OMG!" Also, sorta kinda clean air! I haven't really done a great deal of touristy stuff yet. So far I've kept in and around Taipei. "sorta kinda clean air" pretty much nails it though.
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Aug 10, 2012 09:33
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DontAskKant posted:Booking tickets now and I am choosing between HK, Taiwan, and Philippines (once I factor in the flight to Cebu to gtfo of Manilla) they are all about the same cost. Easy enough to get around in Taiwan? Meet up with a few of you? if that's the case then I'll just go Taiwan because the Philippines would be great, but gently caress if I know what to do there solo. Metro transport: here is easily amongst the best I've ever used. Cabs: plentiful and reasonably priced Scooter: I'm on a scooter so all other scooters and anything else on the road is my enemy Bus: I don't use them, but I will pull up next to one with open doors to enjoy the awesome AC they blast. (by all accounts they are reliable and well priced) Meeting goons: I'm tied up this weekend, but next weekend or an evening after I get off work we can do a few beers. From what I hear being solo in the Phillipines isn't something you should pass up too often vOv
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Aug 10, 2012 11:11
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DontAskKant posted:it was great fun I have no memory of anything after approximately 2am - mission accomplished I'd say. Hit me up when you get to back to Taipei - I'm down for dinner and drinks dtb posted:I'll be coming with two suitcases of clothes, a laptop, and I'll be shipping my desktop computer over in advance. New accommodations are furnished. I"m paying 18+3 for around for 25~30 ping/100~ sqft, but i"m not central Taipei. Yank the internals from the desktop unless the case really means that much to you. Cases are cheap, as are power supplies. I carried motherboard/ram/gfx/HDD's when I came. Screens aren't horrendous either. I think I got my 24" acer for 8KNT$
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Aug 13, 2012 01:00
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dtb posted:8-core Xeon Mac Pro. I do like a nice desktop setup myself, and yeah, if you can afford the shipping you may as well, since replacing that lot won't be cheap. I haven't shipped my rack kit yet, I should be able to in the next few weeks.
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Aug 13, 2012 03:13
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Haraksha posted:Brad and I kept the flame alive until about 5am. I'm surprised you remember all the way until 2, to be honest. Pro you. In my defense I started on the sauce around 4pm after I got home from Chinese class. Yesterday was no fun. Haraksha posted:fried bees I will not rest until I discover this to be a true thing. url fucked around with this message at 06:53 on Aug 13, 2012 |
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Aug 13, 2012 06:51
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Haraksha posted:I'm just happy that we all realize how unattractive we are and nobody makes us pose for photos. drat! DontAskKant posted:Let's go. You've got PM
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Aug 14, 2012 00:17
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Haraksha posted:Well, if you happen to be back in the Taipei area sometime this week or weekend, we do stuff in my little corner of the world, like sushi and microbrews. Hmmmmmn, microbrews, screw the new guy I'm interested.
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Aug 14, 2012 13:13
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DontAskKant posted:What's for breakfast in this world? Welcomme Supermarket will see you right for most of the local things. You'll find Kaoliang there (and at every 7/11). If you're looking for decent Scotch/Kaoliang there is a well priced/well stocked cigarettes and alcohol store near the snake alley (I forget the proper name right now). But get off at Longshan MRT. You'll see where you need to go when you exit. That's nightmarket is "the" place to go for old ropey hookers, snake blood and a foot massage. The cigarettes and alcohol store was on a side street off the main snake blood selling bit. It won't take you an age to cover the area, so take your time and look around. NB: I never tried it, but a colleague tell's me there a bunch of stores below Longshan worth looking at for cheap poo poo. Personally, I'd use the one below TMS MRT, there's a huge amount of stuff there too. Breakfast is cool: you're wanting to try 油條 (Youtiao) have some of that with the sweet soy milk/almond milk. Life is all good. Failing that Fried Radish Cake is p decent and not uber fatty. If you're still not happy, get yourself a bacon/eggs/cheese sandwich man! (paygan, dan, chi si, san ming chi) <--- how I say it Péigēn, jīdàn, nǎilào, Sānmíngzhì <---- how goog x-late does it The national museum is well worth a visit, and it's very reasonably priced too. Hotsprings are at beitou, public ones are dirt cheap at 20NT$ Private ones are better suited to a couple If you're up that way, then yeah head over to Tamsui/Danshui for a cool sunset. If you specifically want this sunset type view:  Then head here: (I don't know the proper name)  It's near Xindian, and you'll need to take a cab up the mountain (the walk will take you more than an hour, and it's fukn steep). Very sensibly they don't/didn't sell beer when I was there. hth
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Aug 16, 2012 09:35
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Spanish Matlock posted:Peigen Zhishi Dan Bing! I'm getting it in either regular white bread, or a bagel rather than a burito, but yeah that's pretty fair summary. DontAskKant, below Q square. Like a million stalls of stuff.
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Aug 16, 2012 11:10
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drat. I do hate to pass these evenings up, but I was at sato-castle (comedy themed motel) with miss url over the weekend. I'm glad you found a new tutor haraksha, apols for not replying to your message sooner. We'll put down some mojito's soon.
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Aug 26, 2012 07:18
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Haraksha posted:Also, it's somehow worse that my friend who owns a bar wanted me to bring lots of money to his bar to buy into his MLM and not to pay for hookers. I'm confused (in so many ways) Bring money to the bar is par. Buying into an MLM is kinda funny. But, who was supposed to pay for the hookers?
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Aug 26, 2012 13:21
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I was bemoaning my bread experience for a while, but, Carrefour has been pretty reliable and is my goto remedy. I found that late of an evening they usually have end-of-day variety bags with 3-5 loaves bundled together (usually all white, no sugary stuff). I assume all the other coated-in-sugar, sticky, basically-candy, non-bread is the stuff that actually sells, and so the stuff I like is left until the end of the day hence it gets the bargain-bin treatment. Anyways, I grab as many as I can carry, and jam it all in the freezer. I currently have 7 loaves of variety bread in my freezer atm (and some 7-11 suntory whiskey). While we're all foodchat: Good butter / good margarine? More importantly good cheese, good pickle. Wanting to avoid the usual path this conversation goes, I prefer European cheese (Cheddar/Brie/Stilton/Gruyere etc). url fucked around with this message at 03:48 on Sep 11, 2012 |
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Sep 11, 2012 03:37
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duckfarts posted:Lurpak I haven't tried a city super yet, it's on some vague todo list i have somewhere. I mentally categorise pickles with relish and salsa, all of which I consider awesome snack enhancer things. I'm currently boycotting Danish stuff out of some unrealistic sense of something or other. (Carlsberg (no real issue there), Bear Beer (The adverts say German or Swedish but it's actually Danish (see also 1970's porn), and Lurpack)) I think I remember seeing Anchor butter at Carrefour, I'll probably end up using that. Last time around I picked up "snow" margarine which was passable but I could quite easily believe it wasn't butter. HappyHelmet posted:Costco is really the only realistic answer for these things. You can find some of them elsewhere, but its always priced at a premium and usually only available in small quantities. I still didn't get myself a costco card - which is kinda dumb since I work right next to a fairly sizable looking one. Ravendas posted:which is making me ponder moving to NanShiJiao, the far end of that line, where you can keep nice housing for cheap. I lived in NanShiJiao with a friend for a short period when I first arrived. I liked it enough, and I'd consider living there again if I was moving away from XinZhuang. Spanish Matlock posted:amazing gorgonzola bread. This is going to require me to explore.
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Sep 11, 2012 08:23
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Dark Onion posted:Whoops looks like I got drunk and lost someplace and still didn't get any goddamned work done. Ah well.  gettin fk all done but drunk buddy 
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Sep 16, 2012 13:54
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Haraksha posted:I don't think I make very much money here, but I can live comfortably, drink an unhealthy amount, and have time to study Chinese while doing it. Can't complain. This! I heart the summer, and I miss it already.
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Sep 21, 2012 07:40
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Spanish Matlock posted:I know of a place that meets most of those requirements, but rather than serve girly drinks (i.e. cocktails without the ingredients in the name) they serve straight whisky. Interest piqued. Haraksha posted:Go on. My dumbass is all hunky-dory, work is making me earn my money (how dare they) which is why I've been been off the radar. Chinese is progressing, I think I"m gonna take the entry level test in November, I doubt I'll pass, but I just wanna go through the process. Are you guys registering so you can vote back in the US? I forget the process but I thought there was a thing where you turn up at the AIT and vote, or some postal ballot thing.
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Sep 22, 2012 04:10
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Haraksha posted:I have a mail in ballot and it's loving crucial for me to vote in Minnesota. It'll probably vote Obama as usual, but there are a couple of constitutional amendments on the ballot that need to be shot the gently caress down. Good job. Glad to hear your lessons are working out for you. I'm still on 6 hours a week too, and while it's demanding, I do feel like I'm making some progress. I'm only half way through chapter 8 of the book, but I'd say that I recognise 90-95% of the characters as correct when grinding them out in ZDT. My pronunciation is still off-kilter but I think that's more a practice thing than anything else. I do work through the grammar sections, and while I don't make an effort to remember the stuff, the repetition and routine helps a bunch. Pro you for making the effort to vote.
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Sep 22, 2012 09:12
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Haraksha posted:What I find fascinating is how much more motivated people in Taiwan seem to be to learn Chinese even if they're just English teachers. I think it says a lot about the Taiwanese and how they treat anyone who gives Chinese a bit of effort. Indeed, and it makes a huge difference to my motivation. My experience in Denmark was quite the opposite in that when you make the effort (to use Danish) you are treating as if you've just raped a baby in full public view. At that point the conversation will just go to English. I couldn't speak for the rest of Northern Europe, the Danes have a reputation though, and I was sad when it was confirmed. I left Denmark with a firm grasp of the language, but feeling that I had wasted a decent chunk of change because of the effort != reward. It's not an uncommon sentiment among the ex-ex-pats from Denmark (I'd link but it's dull and complaining is easy). url fucked around with this message at 05:17 on Sep 23, 2012 |
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Sep 23, 2012 05:14
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USDA Choice posted:Taiwan is generally e:fb i posted these things soon after waking up this morning, but forums were closed  Me and a colleague have been swearing to do the snake alley thing, and as a team we're overdue on inducting a new colleague too. I'm wondering if I shouldn't just ask the boss if we shouldn't do snake alley as a team event, beacuse doing shots of snake snot/venom/jizz (like I care) isn't a team bonding thing then I'm not sure what is.
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Sep 24, 2012 14:47
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Woot I wish I had something more constructive to say, but today was an unexpectedly good day.
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Sep 26, 2012 15:54
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Ravendas posted:Dear livejournal, today was sooo amazing! Yeah, i couldn't type last night. Work was busy and more stressful than normal and that has resolved fairly nicely for the time-being. Went to a local place to wind down, ended up being fed stacks and stacks of food. I had more drinks pushed in my direction than I could possibly hope to manage. So yeah, unexpectedly blind drunk, and very well fed. I'm still not sure what the liquor is that we were drinking but it's pretty decent. For some reason ground pearls are being added to it.
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Sep 27, 2012 03:49
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A new smartphone goes for 25K. I'd say 30 if you want a machine that is going to be respectable in a few months. I'm fussy though.
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Sep 27, 2012 12:16
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Haraksha posted:70,000 for the car plus transfer of title expenses. I'm not sure how tax works. I know I paid the tax for this year but I don't know if you'd have to pay it again. Also, you'd need to buy insurance, but that's pretty cheap. I am sorely tempted, but 70K, it's a bit rich for me at the minute, and I'm thinking I'm going to do a monthly thing for a one/two year old model. I've only looked around briefly, and I want to move apartment in November, so timing is a concern too. My last car was a 1997, and while it was great I put more miles on it in the 2 years I had it than it had done in all the years previous. Your Toyota has a similar spec and a very similar rating to my previous (Opel Vectra).
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Oct 2, 2012 06:43
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