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... and dancing

Yesterday was another nice day, so we decided to go biking again. It had to be a shorter route, since N had an appointment in the afternoon, so we decided to do the Arouyng access road (阿柔洋產業道路), a loop of less than 40km from where we live in the middle of Taipei.

We started at the Liuzhangli MRT station and took Chongde St (崇德街) up to the Fudekeng Cemetery (福德坑), an enormous expanse of family graves and mausoleums, Taipei's muslim cemetery, a cemetery in the memory of 228 and White era victims, and, I'm told, a pet cemetery, although we haven't been able to find that one. I have to spend a day here with the camera some time.

Coming down from Fudekeng we took a right and an immediate left to cross the bridge over to Wenshan Rd which has less traffic than the 106 Beishen Rd, and is also a bit shorter.

Not much else to say. Take a right at Arouyang and go for about 7km to reach the temple at the high point of the road before taking the very steep road down toward the trail head for the Ergeshan Hike. When you reach the bridge on the way down, you can take a right to go up to Maokong and get some tea or a coffee or a bite to eat.

Now we're hoping for good weather Mon-Wed since we are doing the Northern Cross Island Highway together with a couple of friends.

Perhaps the reason for China's delay in letting in foreign aid workers... China quake risk to dams, nuclear sites 司馬觀點：民族脊樑受傷了(江春男)

(Note: graphic to the right does not include latest numbers; Chinese version here.)

The Liberty Times takes a look at the polls from the Mainland Affairs Council, which have followed attitudes toward cross-strait relations for many years now (you can see the survey questions here).

They start by noting the numbers in May 2000, when Chen took office. At that time, 4.1 percent supported "unification ASAP," while "status quo now, unification later" was the position of 19.1% of people. That's almost a quarter of the Taiwanese people supporting unification as an objective, sonoer or later.

Eight years later, as Ma Ying-jeou prepares to take the torch, "unification ASAP" is supported by 1.7 percent while "status quo now, unification later" gets 10.5 percent support.

Meanwhile, support for "status quo now, independence later" has risen 5 points from 12% to 17.1%, and support for immediate unification has remained essentially unchanged (went from 5 to 6 percent).

Meanwhile the number of people calling for "status quo now, decide later" hasn't budged, despite fluctuations, going from 42.3 to 43.5 percent in the same eight year period; supporters of "status quo forever" has risen slightly from 16.6 to 20 percent.

So, to sum up: Status quoers make up 63.5 percent of the population, a little more than the 58.9% eight years ago. Independence advocates have also gained 6 points of support, and advocates have lost 12.

Frankly, although I would call it progress, I'm not sure it's at all surprising or a big deal. I certainly don't think it's as important as the Liberty Times does, since I'd say this mostly reflects a generational change that has reduced support for unification. But the fact of the matter is, the status quo is, unsurprisingly, still the king.

I love talking to artists of all kinds and find out about what they do for their craft.

Today after watching a Flyers game, my neighbor and I went to have a drink with his band buddy Ryan. Ryan is getting a classical guitar degree at the Temple University here in Philadelphia. He was talking about how much care he puts into his nails for his music.

Because one plays classical guitar with one's nails, he files his nails everyday to keep it in a certain shape. "I have to keep it in certain roundness for the sound to be good; and it takes some experiments too." said Ryan. Some of his teachers went through periods experimenting not only music styles but also nail shapes. "the more you do it, the better you know what shape works for you. " he said.

but there's a draw back with this naturalistic craft with music. "some people just have brittle nails, and it breaks all the time, that's when you are really f*ed. I remember one time I broke the nail on my middle finger, and that's when I was about to go for the audition for transferring from Uarts to Temple. I called up my teacher about it and ask him what to do."

there I was, talking to this dedicated musicians, and never did i know that a man can talk about his broken nail without the obligation to justify.

"My teacher said to put a piece of toilet paper on it and glue it together with Super Glue, I guess that's why I see his thumb was covered in Super Glue all the time."

"I know this guy who never got his nail to work for him, so what he did was he cut and glue a piece of ping-pong ball on his nail, and file it down to the exact shape that he wants, and that's how he gets the sound."

I was and have always been intrigued by the uncanny things musicians and artists do privately in order to reach the perfection for their craft. I remember my neighbors, Lisa and Anna, a pair of twin girls who attended Curtis institute. Anna plays oboe, and Lisa is a viola player. while they spend much of their time practicing, Anna spend a considerable amount of time dedicating herself to another form of craft that could surprise some people. In their apartment, next to the music stand, there's a table that's usually covered with scraps of wood chips. I was so puzzled by the sight that I usually only see in the wood shops in my college. one day finally i asked.

Besides practice, Anna spend a considerable amount of time shaping the reed that goes into her oboe. "It sucks," said Anna. "Its like i have to not only learn how to play oboe, but also crafting the reed to make it work. It's a craft all by itself. sometimes I spend hours shaping the reed and it broke because it's too thin, so i have to start all over again. But when you leave it too thick, it just doesn't sound good, it just doesn't work."

these are the aspect of the musicians' life that most people would never know about, most people probably don't care, either. yet these are the things that interest me greatly. Who would have known the shape of their nails are so critical, who would have known the musician sits at a table with a tool box for hours shaping a piece of wood before she could really play?

the only thing that I could think of off top of my head that's relevant to this and comes close to that would be what i did when i started learning web design. there are so many things to keep track of when designing a website, especially if you are trying to incorporate different programs and merge them seamlessly into a page. that's what I was trying to do for one of my very first real web design projects. everyday in that semester, I woke up in the morning and made myself a cup of tea with the mix of green tea and ginkgo tea, and for breakfast, I would eat only raw, uncooked food. The reason for this is to get the maximum amount of blood flood into the brain for the highest possible level of concentration, and use the least amount of energy to digestion while keeping the energy. When you use three or four programs simultaneously, and the two programs out of the four are completely new to you, some concentration will be needed; Besides, those things in web design and programming are so complicated, it's not like you could just keep making notes about it, because that will only slow down the process even more.

I got such a kick out of Ryan and Anna's story that i felt i could make it into a project. I am sure there's plenty of similar things out there to be discovered. What do the drummers do? What do the writers do? What about painters? Piano players? conductors? actors? dancers? I am in awe not just for the beautiful music and art these people produce, it's the amount of detailed dedication and mind that goes into it that really touches, intrigue and inspire me.

I will go to Taiwan to visit my girlfriend. I'm planning to cook for her family a Swiss or Italien meal, but I'm afraid I won't find all ingredients (I was never before in Asia, so I'm not sure what is available and what not. In Africa though, it was...

FURUKAWA
No. 1, Lane 132, Zhongsan N Road, Sec 2
(02) 2562-1115

website: furukawa.com.tw

hours: Lunch: 11:30 AM - 2:30 PM ; Dinner 5:30PM - 10PM

$$

Kid friendliness: high chairs available. friendly service.

Visit reviewed: 2/23/2008



The best thing about this dinner were the fried oysters or kaki fry. They were hot, crispy, juicy inside and what I expected. Everything else, was to be honest, sort of a let down.

I had mentioned to my friends that I was craving a good bowl of udon with tempura, but this was before we discovered Tenpura Sanuki Udon. So he did some research on blogs written in Chinese and said that he had found a restaurant that had been recommended.

The restaurant was pretty full with families and groups, with a cool modern-ish atmosphere.



The menu doesn't have any English, but is full of pictures. There is a wide variety of combos to choose from (around NT$300), as well as appetizers, sushi and sashimi.



The udon tempura sushi set was calling my name. But when I got it, the udon was soggier than I would have liked and there were only 2 pieces of tempura to eat. I was used to the fried shrimp hanging out on a mountain of fried vegetables, but this was more like 1 lonely shrimp on top of an anthill.



My friends who had gotten the cold soba set with sashimi were better off. The soba was chewy and you can't go wrong with the dipping sauce. They liked it so much (and since I ended up eating some of their soba instead of my udon), they ordered another plate of soba, though we agreed the second round was not as good as the first.




We also had a weird experience with the sha-ba or the fish chin/jaw. The first time, it was a huge piece, but wayyy too salty. Inedibly salty. When we complained to the waitress, they took it away and replaced it with no problem. But the second piece was soo bland. The chef just couldn't find the middle ground for us that night, so we just let it go.



While the service was quite friendly, the food that we had ordered didn't give us a reason to return, especially since it's farther away from my part of town. But it's too bad since everyone else seemed to be enjoying their food so maybe there are other things on the menu more worth trying out.

Up today over at the anthro blog Savage Minds is a hilarious map showing A Taiwanese View of the World.

Also up is the new issue of China Security, which focuses on the Taiwan issue. The TOC:

More Carrot Than Stick: Beijing’s Emerging Taiwan Policy PDF 535KB Chong-Pin Lin

Peace Agreement: The Long Road Ahead PDF 195KB
Huang Jiashu

Wild Card: A Democratic Taiwan PDF 241KB
Ted Galen Carpenter

Peace or War: Taiwan at a Critical Juncture PDF 146KB
Peng Guangqian

Ensnared by Beijing: Washington Succumbs to the PRC’s Diplomacy of Panic PDF 222 KB
Alan Wachman

Whither Taiwan-China Relations? PDF 226KB
Arthur S. Ding

Time for "New" Thinking on Taiwan PDF 218KB
Wang Jianwei

Change: Mainland’s Taiwan Policy PDF 167KB
Chu Shulong & Guo Yuli

How China "Wins" a Space War PDF 394KB Brian Weeden

And in Liberty Times today Antonio Chiang observes that one reason China doesn't want foreigners in central quake zone is that it is the area where China's nuke research labs are located.



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