興蓬萊 Shing Peng Lai Restaurant

Tianmu has never been part of my territory (like I have any territory? 8-O lol).  Yet, within this past week, I found myself landed numerous times in Tianmu because a friend's family was moving back to San Francisco (and has now).  Also, I found myself dinning at this "presidential grade" of restaurant (興蓬萊 Shing Peng Lai Restaurant) featuring Taiwanese cuisine.  Great food and huge portion!

It's "presidential grade" because the former president Li Deng Hui likes the food here.

(Please check the clip from 7 minute 52 seconds.  The embed youtube clip at a specific time function somehow isn't working.  Just realized it.)

What I ordered as per the female owner's suggestion on June 27th...

From 興蓬萊 Shing Peng Lai Restaurant

What my brother-in-law ordered on June 30th...

From 興蓬萊 Shing Peng Lai Restaurant

Two different dining experiences, four days apart, I got to try out 17 of their dishes while... I do have a way of putting things away and no wonder the ever-expanding waistline... 8-X lol

I love this picture I took....  In the back is the sign stating three of the formal president Li Deng Hui's favorite dishes including the crispy ribs (the pix on the left side) and "Buddha jumping over the wall" (the pix on the right side).  Just realized that the gentleman in the picture is the owner 陳進添 of the restaurant.  The laoban niang (female owner) 陳春蘭 was on the side of the camera encouraging the doggie to pose for the picture while pointing to me how cute the doggie's teeth are.  Based on the info I gathered so far through the youtube clip above, I figure they are sister and brother.  Accordingly, laoban niang's family have 6 doggies and 2 cats.

From 興蓬萊 Shing Peng Lai Restaurant

金華舞墨臻寶展 by 林伯禧 Lin Pa-Hsi art exhibition and live performance update

Yours not very enculturated went back to observe the artwork of 林伯禧 Lin Pa-Hsi and attended a live performance by the Violinist 洪寅洲 Daniel Hung with the pianist (sorry, didn't catch her name).
 This is yet another afternoon program held during the exhibition.

One thing I love most is that, like the pianist Kimball Gallagher did, the violinist 洪寅洲 Daniel Hung also gave us some background on the piece he was about to perform and cued us on what to listen for before the performance.  While listening to music as music is nice, that brief introduction surely put things into contexts and allowed me to appreciate his live performance from a different perspective!

Violinist 洪寅洲 Daniel Hung with the pianist (sorry, didn't catch her name)

From 金華舞墨臻寶展

After the music performance was a talk on investment by Mr. 梅以德... the take home message... shall I have free money floating around wanting to make investments... bank on luxury goods, biotech, and aqua.  Since I am dedicated patron of the biotech industry... the notion of luxury goods and aqua are surely new to me.  Good to learn something new everyday!

Gotta say a word of thinks to everyone making the exhibition and the associated programs possible so that yours unfortunately stuck in the lowest rung of the SES ladder could walk only a few blocks in this unbearable summer heat to get myself coolly enculturated!  ¡Muchas gracias tout le mond la!

This flower looks really 3 D to me...

6/24/2013

Ratology- Handicapped at Large: Golden touch... 金華舞墨臻寶展 by 林伯禧 Lin Pa-Hsi art exhi...: On my daily walk, I went past this Hengdeli watch store on Zhongxiao Dunhua very often... and sat in front of it stealing a smoke at time...

Golden touch... 金華舞墨臻寶展 by 林伯禧 Lin Pa-Hsi art exhibition

On my daily walk, I went past this Hengdeli watch store on Zhongxiao Dunhua very often... and sat in front of it stealing a smoke at times.

One day, I saw on the poles the signs of an art exhibition "金華舞墨臻寶展" by 林伯禧 Lin Pa-Hsi... with the paintings looking all golden... with the notion of Gold making my self-notion already gotten inflated. 8-O lol

The exhibition is located on the second floor of the store and it will run till the end of June.

When I finally made it to the exhibition one day, this nice lady gave me a guided tour and told me a lot about how the artworks have come into being such as the setting, the process, and the ingredients.  For instance, when the artist is painting, he likes to listen to music and drink either good wine or tea. 

One set of paints in exhibition is the "百花系列" (Hundred-flower series--my translation).  A series of 100 small painting of the flowers.  Also, the paints used in these paintings are no ordinary paints... let along the touches of 99% gold spreading over the artwork as a final touch... colors such as them nice looking blue... derived from corals...

白魚 (white fish) is 林伯禧 Lin Bo Xi.

百花系列 (Hundred-flora series--my translation)

There are several periodical functions that took place in concert with the exhibition... live music performance, talks, wine tasting workshops, and a conversation with the artist 林伯禧 Lin Pa-Hsi himself.

I made a point of attending one of the events on June 14th where the pianist Kimball Gallagher, who is in the venture of his 88 concert tour around the world (!!!), performed Chopin... Saloon style!



The gentleman sitting on the left side of the screen in the above clip was the speaker 陸潔民 who later gave a talk on art appreciation and investment.

I was informed that day that there would be a wine tasting workshop and a meeting the artist session today... and I gladly went with my sister.

We enjoyed the Wine Tasting 101 workshop provided by Rocky Wang and 李清蘭 very much. We also tried very hard to learn the 123 of wine tasting the Dewey approach... learning by doing... sipping through 2008 Chateau Rieussec R de Rieussec Blanc Sec, Bordeaux and 2009 Château Peymouton with all due diligence! Trying to figure out the color, body, flavor, etc.

Wine Tasting 101 Workshop

While absorbing the lessons learned through Wine Tasting 101 via the constructive approach, there came this opportunity I have been looking forward to... meet the artist!  There is something absolutely exhilarating about the notion of meeting the creators themselves!

Absolutely love this picture I got to take haphazardly... In the background was a movie filmed through a camera some time ago when the artist had been in the moment of creating an artwork while, in the foreground, the artist was speaking of his process of creation.  The two camera in front of me... both trying to capture that present... Would love to have shifted my grandpa canon a bit to the right to bring the remaining part of the red camera in front of me in... though... that moment in time has passed.

The painting in the back, the artist holding a glass of red wine, though no music in the background...  enough contextual clues to envision the process of unfolding for these art works.

After the interview, they opened the floor for question...

I was told that the artist would spend days staring at the flower till he finally got the essence of the flower, and that's when he started to paint.  So, I asked him about his staring at the flower activity.

Apparently, the story was that, one day, he was amongst friends and someone brought in 野薑花 (White Ginger Lili).  A poet came up with a poem on site immediately... yet, since it takes far more work to get something painted out, the poet offered to buy Li Pa-Hsi's painting if he could get one done within a certain time from.  Since Mr. Li was not as familiar with the flowers at that point, he went home and stared at the White Ginger Lili (and get new ones every 2-3 days) till he finally got the paintings out something like a month later.  And, for the next few years, he painted far more White Ginger Lili and then peony (牡丹)...

According to him, since he has learned the different types of flowers pretty well now, no longer does he need to spend days staring at them flowers when working on the flora paintings nowadays. Already have sufficient images encoded in the Long term memory! (Wow... I can hardly visualize 2-3 kinds of flowers completely in my head!)

One thing that got my attention when discovering the exhibition was them touches of Gold... and I asked him why.  Apparently, it might have started with simply a kimoji kinda thing and, also, "Gold is precious and goes along with the precious artwork!"

Since I am still stuck at the lowest rung of the SES ladder, I got the artist to autograph on the catalog. 8-X lol

The 金華舞墨臻寶展 by 林伯禧 Li Pa-Hsi is running through the end of June.  Thereafter, Mr. Li's artworks will be coming to various countries such as in Biennale d'Aquarelle à Brioude en France.  Bon Chance!

Fountain by Taipei 101 and ATT for Fun

I found out that there are two mirroring sets of fountains and ATT for fun when staring at the fountain the other day! I also found out that the lights on ATT for fun changes color...



So, when preparing this post, it occurred to me that it might be interesting if I can offer you the opportunity to view this clip at 1.5, 2 or more times of the original speed... since the differential speeds seem to put things in different perspectives for me... something you can't do in real life.

At the same time, I didn't want to upload multiple copies of the same clip at different speed... seems a really dumb dumb solution for me.

Ended up, this pursuit resulted in a whole lot of explorations, which lead to the conclusion that it is feasible and all that you have to do is to join the HTML 5 trial.  After you join the HTML 5 trial, you should be able to see the Speed options once you click on the option icon on the player...

5/9/2013

Anti-nuclear Rally in Taiwan: From Zhongxiao-Fuxing to the Presidential Office 5/19/2013

Delusional as I am and however I stay away from political issues... in addition to the fact that I am single as a bird with nothing much on my back and nothing to lose (other than pain, maybe)...

I do have a belief... we human shouldn't mess with things that we have no solutions for... such as what to do with the nuclear waste and how to get things neuturalize shall the God forbids happens.

So, I append myself to the end of the Anti-nuclear Rally in Taiwan... going from Zhongxiao-Fuxing all the way to the Presidential Office.



Because it was hot and people walked faster, I got to the final destination far slower than most people.  However, I did get to see people making the attempt to dump the nuclear waste at the President's Office... because some Taiwanese come up with the idea... "What about dumping it at the Presidential Office?"


(The strangest thing was that... while I was taking the clip using my grandpa canon, I was surrounded by people from the media... meaning... professional grade kinda très expansive equipment.)
5/19/2013

The Great Gatsby

After I attended the event "Taipei Sounds, Taipei Stories: Reflections of a Sound Artist" at the Taiwan Music Institute (臺灣音樂館), I had to take a bit more walk... insufficient quota for the day.

I walked across the Hangzhou North Road from Taiwan Music Institute (臺灣音樂館) and found myself already in the Huashang Creative Park (華山1914創意文化園區)... an area I walked by gazzilion and a time these past two years or so but never made it in there because whenever I passed it, it was either at the beginning or the end of my walk.

Somehow I thought the two places were at least a huge block away... not realizing all it takes was the crossing over of the Hangzhou North Road.... and it reminds me of what happened when I asked this NYPD lady where ground zero was back in 2011.

I was all excited by the discovery (including the discovery of my blatant ignorance)... and I walked through them buildings till I saw this promo event for the new film "The Great Gatsby"-- a book I have never read but listened to in my younger and, hopefully, more vulnerable years...

The heat and humidity surely reminded me of the trip they, the great Gatsby et al., took to New York and chilled out at the Plaza Hotel... possibly in attires alike worn by the models in the picture below...

I was so excited to be given the opportunity to test out the costumes and to take a picture with Leo like what this gentleman did...

Pay attention to the fashionable piece of red thing on his head.

Then, I thought... "I had intended to come in here earlier today... maybe there is a reason for it... Having hangout for 3 days this week, maybe the almighty universe is telling me... 'Yo, enough life of the Great Gatsby!  Make sure you shuffle your behind and do some work.'" lol (No magic thinking allowed.  Stop here.)

Regardless, somehow I was and am still so thrilled to walk into this event... reliving the life of the Great Gatsby...



5/18/2013

From Kurt Stallmann's senses and beyond--Taipei Sounds, Taipei Stories

I went to an event called "Taipei Sounds, Taipei Stories: Reflections of a Sound Artist" albeit the fact that I am really short in the department of art... if not culture in general.

I have met Dr. Kurt Stallmann (just realized that... wow... he has a wiki page) a few times before because I happened to go hang out with my former adviser when they were hanging out.  I know that he is a composer and a sound artist.  So, I heard the other day that he was going to have an event about the sounds of Taipei.  I was all excited and would like to go because... it's exceptionally nice to attend events performed by people you know.

Although I was told that the seating was very restricted... something like only 50 people allowed... it was not until when I was there today was I informed that they had to decline people's RSVP since yesterday because too many people had wanted to come.  Lucky me... an appendix to my former adviser's family... 8-X lol

The event took place at the Taiwan Music Institute (臺灣音樂館)... shamefully... though I have walked around the block so many a time, I didn't know of its existence until today... speaking of you don't see what you don't know.

The performance contained a combination of in-person auditory narration, recorded sounds, images and live-performance of traditional Chinese instruments (i.e., Pipa, Erhu, Yangqin).

One story I like the best is the story of a barking doggie outside of this Rido Cafe.  As we were sitting there listening to Dr. Stallmann retelling the story of that annoying loud dog barking outside of the cafe... there was the recording of the barking doggie and the other sounds in the background... whatever dasein a digital recording devise is capable of capturing... What a semi-in-situ experience... reminding me of them astronomy pictures like the one 3.6 billion light-years from Earth or in the eyes of the Hubble: Galaxies Across Space and Time.

In between Dr. Stallmann's presentation were the live performances... musicians playing traditional instruments like Pipa, Erhu and Yangqin... It might be the first time for me to listen to the playing of these instruments  live... not in the form of an orchestra... (at least 1/3 of the chance I think...)

猶抱琵琶半遮面 梁家寧... the performance of Pipa by musician 梁家寧

葉維仁on erhu (二胡) and 吳姿俞 on Yangqin (揚琴). Apparently, the musician 葉維仁is Dr. Stallmann's erhu teacher.

While the presentation itself incorporated the use of digital media, at some point, I found within the audience someone who took the notion to a different level... A form of the presentation unseen by the majority of the audience... sound waves themselves... in a presentation of a sound artist.

Look at the ever-changing sound waves on the screen... That gentleman is surely listening to the performance visually... 

Next to the room where the presentation took place was another exhibition...  On the screen were pictures of ordinary buildings and their water towers (or simply water towers).  Interestingly, there were four plants on the table... placed at just the right place that their shadows were cast at the bottom of the screen... as the pictures with water towers were moving and changing... what remained constant were these shadows... making the presentation like an anime--to a certain point.

Then, at some point, I started talking to this gentleman in the room with a nice camera... who happened to be the photographer 游本寬 himself... He told me that the plaints were still in the water yesterday, brought to my attention the sound of water in the background, and explicated the theme of the exhibition... aqua 「水之二三事」(Something about Water).

A photograph of the photographer 游本寬 explaining his photographs to my former adviser at the exhibition  「水之二三事」（Something about Water）.  The notion of my taking photographs of an expert is like... 魯班門前弄大斧... though I did do it in his back... lol

I have a liking for this quote Dr. Stallmann reiterated during this presentation... something his professor had him told... though not the exact words...

Shall what you don't understanding be considered as noise, how much noise can be tolerated before the meaning is lost?

Profound... eh....

After the event, I had to go and do some walk... Interestingly, as an appendix to my former adviser's family, I somehow found myself landed at the dining table with Dr. Stallmann's family and my former adviser's family.

So it concludes too many of them words limited de your missy appendix the lucky dog of the day... lol

It's very unfortunate that, because I was not sure whether video recording was allowed at this performance, I did not take video clips of the performance... and did not capture the sound part either... Knowing it was recorded by devices far more advanced than my grandpa canon.... I hope something might be uploaded somewhere sometime... so that I can simply show you the performance in liu of too many my words and still my pictures... (though... if I could make myself to steal some pix, why didn't I go all the way to take the clips?  Can't understand this head.  lol)

The mountain tunnel on the Wenhu metro line

Haphazardly I came across a mountain tunnel on my way to Taipei Zoo where I met my new friend 煙雨 the Camel (文湖線福州山隧道 it might be called?)  Sure, since the metro in Taipei is underground, the trains run in tunnels all the times... Yet, the segment of the Wenhu (文湖線) line metro between Lingquang (麟光 ) and Xinhai (辛亥) stations runs above the ground level and went through a mountain tunnel...

4/23/2013

The reality is that, I have taken this route before but might just have not paid attention to it... therefore the surprise when encountering it after the beginning of my era of tunneled visions.  Sort of like... you don't see what you don't know (or is it really true that the Indians really didn't see the boats Columbus came with).

I decided to take yet another clip on the tunneling process after I took my walk up in Moukong. Yet, since it was darker on the outside, even with my specially selected front-line seat, what my grandpa Canon and I could see most was the reflection of the things going on inside of the car. Yet, if I try hard, I can still see the street light on the outside.

So I tried with all my might to capture the process of going in and out of the tunnel... only to realize... easier to do it with 20-20 hindsight. I absolutely had no idea whether I was in the tunnel or not until I spotted street lights... yet again... on the outside... including the lights on the distant Taipei 101. lol

So ist das leben... at times...

My friend 煙雨 the Camel

Went to Taipei zoo... and found this new friend 煙雨 the Camel (though I might not be considered by her a friend lol).

Most of them nice animals paid me no mind albeit my all due intention to wave at them... This lady 煙雨 came over and stared at me.... walked away and came back and we stared at each other again... and a few more iterations more of her big eyes and my small eyes staring at each other...

We surely had some extended bouts of interaction in staring at each other... lol

Based on what I read when working on this post... apparently, when my friend 煙雨 was born on May 10th, 2012, she couldn't stand on her forelimbs... As a result, her mom didn't mind her too much possibly due to the reality that... new born who can't stand up quick enough in the wild has a lesser chance of survival due to the inability to stay away from the predators.  Survival the fittest... some collective intelligence that must have somehow gotten encoded in the genes during the evolution process as per evolutionary theory.   As a result, people in the zoo decided to bottle-feed 煙雨 instead when she was a baby camel to bring her up.

When looking at her picture, so I pondered... "What's in your mind?"

4/23/2013

Tapas en el Gusto

Took my cousin whom I haven't hung with for easily 2-3 decades and my mom out for a dinner today... at a Tapas place I discovered during my daily walk...

Ended up, we landed at this Tapas place... and order my favorite dishes... a gigantic stuffed squid and combo grill... on fire-aaaah!

Donno about the guests... the Rum on fire itself makes me feel happy enough... 8-O lol

Them birds look mighty like real swallows!

When walking out of Tonghua street (通化街) and Linjiang Street night market, I saw a huge chandelier hanging from the ceiling decorated with leaves and two moving birds... wing-flapping etc... in front of the furniture store.

I was absolutely taken by the ingenious design... How smart a design and how did they get the electronic birds to move like the real ones!  Look at the lamp shades... even got them decorated with things looking like bird dropping...  The true definition of realism!

As I was about to take a video clip or two of this interesting chandelier and the artificially engineered birds that looked mighty real, this lady saw it and stopped as well...

Don't quite recall the conversation...

I might have said something like... "The birds look so real!" while the lady broke the news to me... "They are real.  They live under the blackbox over there and I only got to catch a glimpse of one the other day."

At some point, one of the swallow decided to fly around and, later, performed bowl movements right in my face while resting on one of the lamp shades (though not caught on camera) to authenticate its real-life existence.

Presenting to you... them birdies 以真亂假... lol


4/17/2013

Unterwegs zur Tunneled vision

Used to be, other than taking the train--which goes through one tunnel after another, there are only two ways to travel between Taipei and Yilan. The trip could be as long as 3-4 hour if taking the 北部濱海公路 (Provincial Highway No. 2 ), which goes along the coastline... and thus mucho detours.

Or, if in a rush, the alternative would be the scary (to me) 北宜公路 (Bei-Yi Road) known for its 九彎十八拐 because it was build along the mountains.  The direct translation of 九彎十八拐 is "9 twists and 18 turns" although I am not sure whether it's a figure of speech. The reason why it was scary to me is because my dad who is chronically late would eternally try to pass cars at them twists and turns on this winding road with no-good visibility.  In reality, there were so many fetal accidents on this road that, not only ghosts stories are abundant, you actually see people throwing paper money on the road for the deceased in accidents on this road.  Also them twists and turns and ups and downs also made us car sick too many a time...  

Since the opening of Hsuehshan Tunnel (雪山隧道) and National Highway No. 5, on an average day and when the traffic isn't bad, it takes about an hour and a half to travel between Taipei and the town of Toucheng in Yilan.  This highway and the associated tunnels (5 of them) absolutely made the Eastern Taiwan more accessible.

Usually, the trip between Taipei and Yilan would involve tranveling on National Highway No. 3, National Highway No. 5 and some connection roads inside of Taipei and Yilan.

Following are some tunnels I traveled through on my way back to Taipei from Toucheng on April 5th, 2013.

National Highway No. 5

Hsuehshan Tunnel (雪山隧道)

雪山隧道 (Hsuehshan Tunnel) is the longest road tunnel in Taiwan, second longest in Asia and fifth longest in the world. (Although it was once upon a time the longest road tunnel in Asia.)  The length of the west-bound tunnel (Taipei bound) is 12,942 m with the theoretical speed limit within the tunnel between 60 and 90 km/hr.

This was an extremely memorable trip because 99% of the times, we would chose the lane that moves like a turtle, strangely, this time... our car was passing the cars on the other lane the entire trip with our limit at around 40-50 while the cars on the other lane-- above zero or so.  Also, just when I was pondering why the light above our lane was red, we heard the radio broadcasting inside of the tunnel stating that an earlier accident on has been cleared.  Guess this was the reason why we were traveling on the theoretically closed lane.



Pengshan Tunnel (彭山隧道)---National Highway 5

Pengshan Tunnel (彭山隧道) is the first tunnel you hit after the 雪山隧道 (Hsuehshan Tunnel) when driving on Highway number 5 Taipei- or West-Bound (3,806m).



Wutu Tunnel (烏塗隧道)

塗隧道 (Wutu Tunnel) is the shortest among the 5 tunnels on National Highway 5 we had to go through between Toucheng and Taipei... If life is really simply going from tunnel to tunnel, this would be my favorite kinda tunnel to go through.



Shiding Tunnel (石碇隧道) & Nangang Tunnel (南港隧道)

石碇隧道 (Shiding Tunnel) and 南港隧道 (Nangang Tunnel) are adjacent to each other when travelling north bound though connected when traveling south-bound. These are the last two tunnels I traveled through on the National Highway 5. The trip through these two tunnels gives you the real life experience of what I always wonder... "Life is going from one tunnel after another."



National Highway No. 3

Fude Tunnel (福德隧道)

After we get off the national highway 5 and got onto national highway 3 (Formosa Freeway), the first tunnel we hit was the 福德隧道 (Fude Tunnel).

Because my grandpa Canon camera refused to wake up, I was not ready to capture the process of entering the tunnel... sort of like... I was not ready to enter the tunnel... as always... though life seems to have the bad habit of making me going from one tunnel to the other... mostly unannounced.


國道三甲台北聯絡線 (Taipei expressway--my own translation)

The Taipei expressway connects the National Highway No. 3 with the Daan and Wenshang districts of Taipei and the Shenkeng District in the New Taipei City.

Within the short distance, two tunnels I passed...

Taipei Tunnel no. 1 台北一號隧道


Taipei Tunnel no. 2 台北二號隧道
Voila! C'est tout le tunnel du jour!

Them relatives of dinos and my grandpa canon camera

I found out something absolutely interesting about my beloved grandpa Canon A570 IS camera today... (just don't let the camera hear it...)... I think it has herpetophobia... and it's ok.  I think it might have just been hanging out with me for far too long... lol

So I was starting up with my daily walk and I saw this gentleman with lizards.  I asked for his permission to take some pictures of them relatives of Barney and he agreed to it.

Please allow me to show you how I came up with the plausible diagnosis with them pictures (proofs) and the associated captions.

Unless... my grandpa canon is but like me... getting worst with the presbyopic thing... 老花 la!  8-O lol

(To be more exactly, according to evolutionary biology, salamanders are actually the decedents of prehisotrical amphibians rather than dinosaur... though they all are cold-blooded vertebrates... I guess.... 8-O lol)

Parchment craft exhibition at Zhongxiao Fuxing Metro Art Gallery by 林寶玲

Took my walk underground the other day because it was pouring... and I came across this nice Parchment craft exhibition at Zhongxiao Fuxing Metro Art Gallery by 林寶玲.

Based on the bio on the poster, apparently, Ms. 林寶玲 is really multi-talented... not only is she good with craft work, she also have licences in baking and mixology...  Wow!

Amazed again by the creativity of artistic people...


Especially when I thought this to be sophisticated enough... my own art work...

Like... Lord... Look what a nice turtle I can drew!   8-O lol

Regardless, the exhibition will go on till April 30th, 2013... make sure you check it out when possible!

Animal Party of Hong Yi (洪易)

In recent times, I have developed enough endurance to walk all the way to Zhungshan north road (中山北路) from the vicinity of Sogo department store in Zhongxiao East Road.  Some days, I would walk all the way to the Yuanshan metro station  (圓山站) and take the metro back.  For what purpose?  To walk and, en route, to see the world.

Then, I realized that the artist Hong Yi (洪易) has an exhibition of his huge and colorful animals somewhere in the former Taipei Flora Expo exhibition halls near the Yuanshan metro station  (圓山站).

These are animals like the huge kitty cat that's far taller than me in front of the Fuban Financial building.

From 富邦金融大樓 Fu-bon Financial building

Or those in the InSian gallery...

From Insian Gallery, Taipei

The first time I found where it was (The Far Eastern EcoARK Pavilion), it was way past 5 PM--the closing time.  Last Friday, I  finally made it there to see them huge colorful animals!

Animal party! (Will leave the pictures and captions to tell the story.)




Various dates 3/29/2013

Far Eastern EcoARK

I have walked past this strange looking building so many a time... but ain't got no idea what's up with this weird looking building called "Far Eastern EcoARK"...

That structure in the right is EcoARK though it was in this picture because I was taking a video clip of an airplane flying over my head. 3/20/2013

From Far Eastern EcoARK

After I made it to visit the Animal Party Exhibition inside of this FE EcoARK, I saw the sign for another exhibition "The Amazing Feather (驚奇之翼)" on the second floor and decided to check it out.  It was not until then did I realize... "Wow... this building I have been walking around in is made of 1.5 million recycled plastic bottles?" 8-O

And, of course, I intriguingly went to touch the walls, the doors, and saw bottles... bottles.. and more bottles everywhere... and I didn't even know they were bottles... 8-O (Sounds almost like a parody of what that kid said to Bruce Willis in Sixth Sense lol)



Featured film: EcoARK and I


The following clip is the report on BBC news about EcoARK.

Taipei Wunchang temple 台北市文昌宮

I have walked past the 文昌宮文物特展 (Wunchang temple special exhibition) at 中山公民會館 many a time and finally decided to pay it a visit the other day.

In Taoist religion, 文昌君 is the God of culture and literature, and is believed to be the guardian of test takers.  Students taking major exams often worship 文昌君 to ask for blessings.  In my younger years, my parents used to take us to worship 文昌君 before entrance exams or on the first day of the Chinese new years (of course, before my mom became christian).

台北市文昌宮 (Taipei Wunchang temple) is a temple hosting four deities in association, if not in charge, of the departments of achievements, fame, and wealth.  They are the 文昌帝君(Wenchang Dijun)、大魁夫子 (Great Master Kui)、朱衣神君(Zhu yi Shenjun)、關聖帝君(Guan sheng Dijun). Since I am working hard on my Ratology book, it seems very appropriate for me to go and pay them a visit... praying that I can get the book finished up with both my body and head in one piece.  8-X



Ended up, because 文昌帝君(Wenchang Dijun)'s birthday fell on the third day of the second month in the Chinese Lunar Calendar, during the special exhibition, which is between March 11th and March 31st, people who collected all six stamps on this pink sheet can go to the office of the temple to claim the "Wunchang Pen."

All stamps collected on this pink sheet... as a souvenir for myself.

The Wunchang pen (文昌筆) I have been using to work on the book.

3/21/2013

Taipei Expressway Marathon 台北國道馬拉松 3/17/2013

Today is the day for the Taipei Expressway Marathon 台北國道馬拉松 taking place on the Shijr-Wuku Elevated Viaduct section of Highway No. 1.


Yes! I was there though... marveled by the dedicated runners on the bus on the other side of the highway after gotten waking up by my dad about people running on the Highway... lol

Other than I cannot run, apparently race is full and entry closed. :-D

Happy Birthday Tu Di Gong 土地公

In Chinese folk religion, Tu Di Gong (土地公) is the Chinese earth god who handle the local affairs and protects the villagers or local people.

Though I didn't know that it is the birthday of Tu Di Gong (土地公) today (the second day of the second month in a year in Chinese Lunar Calender)-- actually not until when I started preparing this post, I haphazardly walked by the Tu Di Gong temple on Andong Street (台北市福佑宮) and happily enjoyed the traditional Taiwanese Puppet Show dedicated to Tu Di Gong (土地公) in celebration of his birthday!

What a pleasant surprise since it's been centuries since I saw one of these puppet shows live!  Happy Birthday Tu Di Dong! (Since the server of blogger is in the cloud, hope the birthday wish got delivered on time. lol)

Huge red five-petal flowers in Taiwan in the Spring? 木棉 (wood cotton) or Cotton tree

At the beginning of my walk today, I walked past the Zhongxiao Fuxing station where I saw this lady holder a big red flower fallen from the tree...  It seems like she had a question to ask but no one stopped for her (The reason why the passersby didn't respond to her might have something to do with her asking the question in English and some people who know English might be too shy to respond).  I stopped to see whether whether there was anything I could help her with.  Ended up, she wanted to know what the tree that bears the huge flower was called... and the gentleman and the lady are visitors from Finland.  (Wow... Hello, Finland!)

It was very unfortunate that I only know the name of the tree in Chinese due to limited my English proficiency...  I wrote the name of the tree down on a piece of paper for them so that they can google it up... only to realize afterwards how chicken-and-egg that notion was... how are they are to google the words up if they don't know Chinese... (unless someone else knowing Chinese does it for them, I guess.) Unfortunately, that realization came too late since we had already bid each other farewell and walked towards our separate directions.

Since nothing is new under the sun and someone else' might have the same question, I decided to show you here what the tree and flowers look like... in case you have the same question when traveling in tropical areas such as Taiwan, Southern China or south Asian.

The flower that Finish lady was interested in is called 木棉花 (Wood Cotton Flower) and the tree is called 木棉樹 (Wood Cotton tree).  It's official English name, though, is Cotton tree with Bombax ceiba as the binomial name.  It is a tropical tree and is deciduous in the winter.  The flowers come out at around March and April before the new foliage.  Based on my observation, the flowers are not necessarily red... some of the trees actually bear flowers that look more orange than red.

The blossoms form capsules, which contain cotton-like fibers when ripe... and, if walking around in town during that time, you actually would see cotton-like fibers floating around in the air.

Though there is no way for me to relay what I found to these two Finish visitors in Taipei, hope this might help someone else with the same question... "What are those huge redish or orange-ish flowers called?"

"木棉花 (Wood Cotton Flowers) or Flowers/blossoms of Cotton tree."

Though it is highly unlikely that I will be asked the same question twice, at least I know now shall someone ask me the same question next time (especially after I generated all them mumble jumbles for two simple words "Cotton tree"... while, en route, I learn to describe a plant in English and learned to use words like binomial, deciduous in this context... lol)