A Quest Fulfilled!

So, after a long hike and lots of Spiders that were either too small, too far away, or in too little light, on my way back I found this guy, who I shall call Mr. Googles, hanging right next to the roadway. (I took a slightly alterate road back, otherwise I would have found him on the way up and saved a lot of time!) It also took several pictures to get a good shot, there wasn't quite enough light, and if the flash went off it made glowy and fuzzy. Now, imagine a forrest filled with thousands of these little guys, and you'll understand why I tread carefully when I go offroad up in the mountains. Of course, they're not interested in me, heck, the camera was less than a foot away when this picture was taken, and he didn't even tense more than once during the whole photo session. What a pro! He should model for Spider Monthly! Poor guy only has six legs, though, but probably enough poison to make sure Rob is out for a week. 

Spider 2: The Return

Here's a nice side shot for all you arachnophobes back Canada way. For reference his main body is probably about the length of my middle finger. Most of the spiders I've seen were about half his size, but I have seen a few that were actually much larger. (Not many, however, otherwise I would never walk in that forrest again!)

Spider 3: The Revenge

Another shot of Mr. Googles the giant Spider. 

Dragon Door

Interesting door I saw on the way home, I wish mine looked this cool. 

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (spoilers)

So, this morning Connie and I both got up early and went to see the new Harry Potter movie, along with seemingly everybody else in Taipei. But, by virtue of living within a 5 minute walk of the theatre we were able to get a good spot in line, and only had to wait a half hour to buy tickets for a showing 3 hours after the time we stood in line to buy tickets! Like I said, everyone in this town wants to see this movie, and I think it will be the topic of my classes for the week. (Which is why it's important I see it, doing research for work after all! ;) )

Regardless, I have to say that this, the fourth Harry Potter film, is by far 70% of the strongest and best Harry Potter movie to date. I say 70% because like the film Seven Swords I saw earlier this year, it feels like you're watching the 2 hour 40 minute version of a movie that's at least 4 hours long. The result of this is that all the major scenes are there (I would assume, I haven't read the books) but almost all the character material seems to have ended up being chopped out of the film. The characters in the movie are completely undeveloped and pretty much just there to push the plot along. Characters come and go, and to give something away, when one of the movie's "major" characters dies, you feel....absolutely nothing because he's not even a name! He's only been in a few scenes, and mostly background in them. The same with all the cool "rivals" from other schools, they get a big introduction and then ignored for the rest of the story!

I know that each Harry Potter book has been bigger than the last, and I think they've truely reached the point where they can't fit a single book into a single movie. Either something has got to give, or they'd be better off turn it into 2 two or more hour long movies released a few months appart instead of trying to cram it all into a single film. I mean, this isn't the greatest character drama ever put on film, but it deserves better than what this film gave it.

Also, I kept running into the "Poor Harry Potter Syndrome" which seems to pop up in each of these films, which is that whenever Harry is in trouble nobody lifts a finger to help him. The school is a deathtrap, and events occur which nothing prevents the adults from interfering in, but they don't, because that would prevent Harry from nearly being killed...again...and again...and again.... I don't care if my children are wizards, there's no way in hell they'd set foot at Hogwarts considering the degree of care that the teachers show for students at that place! And with friends like Harry has, who needs enemies?

Oh, and everything but the character stuff is amazing, especially the cinematography, it borders on asounding at some points.

Rob

Connie and Debby

After the movie, Connie and I went to the Tien-Mu district to meet up with her friend Debby at one of our favorite restaurants Little Black. Debby is a tour leader who travels in a year more than most people do in a lifetime, and is married to a very cool Swiss police officer. (Who she doesn't get to see nearly enough.) I asked her what her secret was to overcoming Jet Lag, and she told me she just doesn't get it! Lucky girl! 

The White Tower of Power

While I was waiting to meet my friend Terrance for dinner the other night near Taipei 101, I decided to do a little night photography to test out the camera's abilties. I tried many different modes, shutter speeds, and approaches to night photography, most of them not working as well as I'd hoped. But, I'll post some of the more interesting results here, like this tower of power! 

Taipei 101

The world's current tallest building, sitting in the heart of Taipei, at night. It's quite a site to behold, and I only wish I had a tripod so I could get rid of the blur factor caused by natural human movement. Well, something for the future! 

Arched Walkway

Around the white building two pictures back is a concrete walkway, so I decided to test out the camera's abilties on night shots. This was one of the better results. 

Walkway 2

Another shot of the walkway around the tall white building a few pictures back. 

Coloured Tower

Here is a very colourful building near Taipei 101, in fact all of those bands of light you see change colours and do it in waves, fade-in/outs, and rippling. Actually, one very cool thing you will see here on some of the larger office buildings at night is a system which actually controls the lights in the various offices and turns them on and off in patterns. Literally turning the whole building into a giant piece of art, or advertising. I'll get a picture of it sometime. 

Shopping Concourse

Here's a shot of shoppers walking out amongst glowy trees covered in blue lights! This concourse is about 3 city blocks long, and ends around the Taipei 101 building. 

Glowy Trees!

A close-up shot of some of the glowy trees. This isn't for Christmas, they're always like this. 

City Hall One

Taipei City Hall trying a very fast shudder speed to compensate for the natural moment of the human hand. It worked better than I expected, but there's still some blurriness to it. 

Taipei City Hall

A more straight-on shot of Taipei City Hall. Still burrier than I'd like. 

The 101 Shopping Concourse

Near to the base of Taipei 101 they're building this massive shopping concourse which will seemingly consist of nothing but clothing stores with other odd things mixed in. It's about 50% done, and is one of the grandest shrines of materialism ever constructed by man. Who they think is going to buy all this stuff, I have no clue. This place screams "money pit", but I wish them luck!

Looking up at 101

A look up at the world's tallest building, and another reminder that I need to get a tripod for any night photography unless I want it to be blurry. 

Darkness Falls

This moody picture is of a miniature version of the Eiffel Tower that sits in same business park with the statue of the hand and rose, the bear family, and the weird color-coded buildings. It's about 12-15m tall, and this picture reflects my mood of the day. I was feeling a little depressed and homesick at the time, and somehow this picture seems to reflect that. Feeling MUCH better now, though! 

W-2 Writing Crew First Try!

So, tonight I asked a student from another class to take a group picture of my Friday night writing class, but unfortunately those pictures turned out to be too blurry to be worth putting up. (They looked like we'd all just watched a cursed video and been told we'd die in 7 days.) So I took two more pictures myself, although I'm still not pleased with the results because some of the positioning is wrong. In any case, from Left to Right they are: Thomas, James, Johnny (man of mystery), Lynn (next to Johnny at the back), Laura (in red), Anny (ned to Laura), Sandy (behind Anny), Yvonne (over Sandy's shoulder), Young and Emily. There are also two people missing besides me, so we definitely need a new class picture! (Although I doubt we'll have everyone together again, but we'll see.) 

The W-2 Writing Crew Second Try

Another picture, still not to my liking. I'm going to try to take another picture of the class (including me!) in one of our two remaining classes for this session. 

Ebony and Ivory

On my way back from lunch today I passed a petshop with this cage out front that had these three little cuties sleeping inside, so I grabbed a quick picture of them. I'm not really sure what they are, Labs I think, 2 golden and 1 black, but regardless they're a bunch of little cuties so it was worth taking the picture of. 

Lien and Associates

If you have a legal problem, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire...Lien and Associates. Pictured here is Rob backed by his crack team of lawyers, from left to right they are: Cynthia (she only smiles when she knows she's going to win) , Mr. Lien (the man himself), Jasmine (short, cute and deadly), and Robert (whose picture speaks for itself). Wednesday nights from 5-7:30 they tackle the hardest English and face their greatest challenges. Fast action, fast English, hard grammar. Life doesn't get any better than this! 

The House that Geiger Built

Every day I pass this structure, it sits in front of a megamall near my home, and it gets uglier and uglier as they add on more and more bizzare pieces. At this point, I have no clue what it will look like when it's done. I'll keep you updated! 

Team Tomen

For a very long time (my second company to work at, in fact) my Tuesday and Thursday lunches have been spent at the Tomen Chemical Trading Company. We have a great time studying business english, and they're one of my favorite classes to teach. They are: Back: YiMin, Me, Jimmy. Front: ShiSho, Mr. Yu, Jane and Grace. 

Tuesday Nights at Edison

On Tuesday Nights I teach a beginner-level class in YongHe at the Edison Opitical Corporation, the same place I also teach on Thursday nights, but a different group of people. Their level may be low, but their spirits are high! From Left to right, they are: Jhong-Han, Amily, Alice, Peter, Me, Vincent, Jiunn (in front of Vincent), Simon, King (in front of Simon), Mark and Roger. (It's also only an accident that the word "stingy" is written behind Amily, she's not stingy at all!)

In my never-ending quest to photograph Taipei statuary, I present to you the bear family. This one is from the same industrial/business park where the hand holding the rose comes from in YongHe.