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Some of the newcomers are, or at least seemed to be, very fond of another Taiwanese habit, which is to collect the little stickers that you get when you buy more than a certain amount of stuff in some of the convenience stores. If you manage to get the little booklet where to attach them and you fill it inside the predetermined time, you may win any stupid thing they might offer, or some other product if they run out of it. I think the prize is not worth the effort required to get it done.

But, if you feel like it, there is another way, collecting the stickers you get if you buy some coffe in a 7-Eleven shop. If you get six, you get a free coffe (it reminds me of my time in Columbus).

Of course, I suspect that if you want something more elaborated than just plain coffee, maybe you need to collect twice that number. It does not matter, we must spend money.

Cups

I guess I have said it more than once: eating out in Taiwan is awfully cheap for people used to the prices in Europe. One must take into account the difference in wages, but in any case for about 2 euros you can have a nice dinner, and if it costs 5 or 6 it will be considered expensive by some. If we get to 10 euros, you can imagine. Of course, food in western style places, like pubs, is more expensive.

What is a little bit shocking, in comparison, is that some things are proportionately much more expensive, like imported beer or coffee, which I guess it has not been a product widely consumed in a place where people love tea. More or less, for the price of coffee, you can have dinner. Prices in places like Starbucks are more or less the same as in Europe or the US, but you can also find more affordable prices in some convenience stores.

I am not complaining, though, because there are many small cafès, european style, more or less expensive, but with a very nice ambience, particularly since smoking is not allowed anymore, relaxed and quiet —if the crowds of people with laptops are not too large— where I can stop and rest and see the flow of life, far from the usual rush of life in Taipei.


And during these days, when I am thinking how to revive this blog, and I cannot stop listening to Chris Isaak songs, where could I find a better place to pass the time?.

Asymmetry

Crabs in Pingtung's aquarium.

Wet

Today, a friend sent me this spectacular image of the state of the tropical storms on this side of the world.

On the West side of the map, there is the tropical storm Parma, which has more less taken a seat near the coast of the Philippines and it is moving very slowly. The forecasts say that it should be travelling in a SW-S direction, doing more harm to the poor Philippines I guess, and moving away from Taiwan. But while it remains where it is, we already had two days of non-stop rain; strong now, weak later, with some strong wind coming and going, and it seems that this will not change until Wednesday.

The other storm towards the East side of the map is the supertyphoon Melor, kind of scary seen in this way, which should be moving towards the North in the direction of Japan and would never reach us, but we will see.

In short, we will not have a drought here, but a lot of clothes and shoes to dry.

BT

A difficult weekend in my emotional side, because it seems that I will never learn, but I finally managed to solve two small problems, with udev and Bluetooth, that I had in my Slackware. Now, I can dowload and upload the pictures, and other files, from my cellphone via Bluetooth!. As a sample, a picture I took on my way to Kenting last May,

which also fits what I feel about some people right now.