Party Like It's 1989

God fucking damn I love YouTube sometimes:

Insert Appropriate Theme

I feel like motherfucking MacGyver. All set for the inevitable in-flight power drain problem.
Truant, you're the man now dawg.
http://truancyreport.blogspot.com/2006/08/make-ipod-power-pack-for-7usd.html

It Was A Good Day (Week)

Pfft, as if a week off from this is anything new.

It was a good week. Got most of my work handled by the middle of the week, then made the most of the good weather on Friday, chilling out in the park, and then hitting up Yangmingshan Saturday afternoon. It's nice up there, nice and sunny, up above the smog and shit of Taipei, and full of people doing normal people shit you don't see in Taipei normally, like a family in the park playing backyard baseball. Nice recharge, and I'll slap up a few photos once I figure how to get the transfers off my phone working.

The nights were good too. Friday went out to Alleycat's at the invitation of Frost and got a nice dinner, chatting with people (and learning about the freakish genius of Blue Jam), before briefly going to the Taiwan Beer Bar and then to a place near the BJJ club called Playing, where me, Miltownkid, Pedro, and a few others hit up the hookah and potato wedges. Saturday, Bryan had a DJ gig at The Source, so from midnight till about 4 I was there making the most of the all-you-can-drink offer and spitting bilingual game like a modded PS2.

Then back into BJJ tonight after a week off for work/injuries/dodginess.

It was a good week.

I've Choked Bitches Out for Less

I think I finally became part of the club at training Monday night. Pedro was teaching us noobs how to do rear control (lol gay jokes). Then, soon after, we moved on to a submission from that position - something I'm sure you're all familiar with, the sleeper hold.

Now this guy I was training with, as Sinclair noted, clearly has some issues with his fight or flight reflex; that is to say, he doesn't seem to have one. First couple of times we practiced, he got a good hold on and I tapped quickly, but then after I tried it a couple of times, I'm holding it there, waiting for the tap, when suddenly he just spasms for a moment, then Pedro leaps up and pulls me off him.

I now understand why they call it a sleeper.

This guy had not only passed out, he actually began snoring, and not just nasally grunty type snoring, but Looney Tunes-esque, cheeks flapping around type snoring.

Pedro sorted him out quick, and we tried again. A couple of tries later and boom, same result. Right down to the snoring. Seriously, it's not that hard to figure out when to tap - when you start feeling a headrush, it's time to pussy out.

Things That Make You Go Hmmmm

Been working most of the night on an article for Taiwan Panorama and came across what might be the single most unexpected cultural (or rather, cross-cultural) reference in any Chinese-language text I have ever read. A section heading in the article reads:

馬蓋先的養成 (ma3gai4xian1 de yang3cheng2)

I read that and figured Ma Gaixian must be some dude's name. I googled it to be sure, and found out what it is. It is a dude. Very much a dude. And a dude that was apparently huge in Taiwan back in the day. That dude? See if this rings any bells:



(For those of you either too senile to remember that theme or jonesing for the original: here you go. And the clip's even rocking the old-school 2.)

Eight-year-olds, Dude.

Link

Yatta!

My Karmic Checking Account Runneth Over

The universe apparently approves of my actions of the past couple of weeks. At Chinese New Year, and after some inspiration, I've finally gotten around to trying to get my work shit serious. I've got some nice pimp business cards (not quite American Psycho, but fuck it, good enough for me), signed up on a couple of professional translation community sites, hooked up my own website (in good time, in good time), sorted out my resume, all that shit. And in the space of two weeks I've landed two new clients - through recommendations, so I must be doing something right - with a potentially fucking awesome job waiting approval. The goal is to be able to ditch my buxiban work - or most of it - by the time my ARC is due this December, and live off freelance and Sinorama Taiwan Panorama work. Once that shit's golden, it might be time to consider hitting up Taichung or Kaohsiung instead of Taipei, rocking the cheaper rent and nicer weather, and rolling like a motherfucking P I M P. That said, leaving Taipei could suck for all kinds of reasons, but whatever, I'll burn that bridge when I come to it.