The Sony WX100

It does capture my cat's eye color but only in sunlight. It won't capture it inside.

So I just got a Sony WX100 on the recommendation of my techy-dorky friend. For awhile I was using Brendan's old professional Canon, but while I got a few great shots out of it, mostly it was clunky, too heavy, hard to use and far too conspicuous (and it didn't help that it was older and I had no idea how to actually work the buttons. Oh, and the viewfinder was the only way to see what you were photographing - you couldn't see from the digital screen). 

I was also using my iPhone for photos, which is fine if you see some bad English in the night market ("Let's Happy Together!") but I wanted something better. Something more. Something I could take on trips to Orchid Island (next week), home (Christmas) and Sri Lanka (Chinese New Year). 

But, as much as I am an enthusiast for good photos, I'm no pro. I do think I'm pretty good at composition - but not good at technical stuff. So I asked a friend - a friend who, I swear, memorized all the specs of all possible cameras and ran them through a computer program in his head to determine the best one, because that's just the way he is - and he recommended a Sony WX100 for my needs.

So far, I'm really happy. It's been one afternoon, but still, I'm pretty thrilled with the photos I'm getting. The shots in this post are ones I didn't try to hard to take - imperfect lighting, not a lot of time to really look at what I was shooting and adjust, and in the end I still got some good pics. Obviously, I played with the fancy new settings.

By the way, if you want one, they're NT$9900 at Guanghua.

This is my living room window - when I take a photo like this with lights off in the living room, generally, other cameras pick up so much glare that you can't see anything but light out the window. The WX100 is the first camera that made a decent shot of this. 

With background blur - pretty good, although if I edited it I'd make the black metal parts a bit brighter.

Very clear with primary color capture - set on blue obviously

Not as good capturing my bougainvillea - it would have picked up red but pink is difficult. Anyone know if I can do something about that?

Indoor light, background blur with my cat

Green only is pretty good

Need to focus on getting it to select color and focus on the thing I want - it focused more on the spices than on the anti-evil eye charm.

COLD

...it's cold.

Uh...Space Confucius.

Yes, I did totally just head off my post with a snapshot of an adorable kitten to get your attention. Who can resist an adorable kitten? Nobody, that's who! And yes, I took the picture myself - that kitten, along with a more mature cat, are residents at Cafe La Boheme, one of our favorite haunts on Wenzhou Street.

Anyway, the weather's been crap all week - all cold and gloomy and not uplifting at all - and my posts of late have been similarly gloom-and-doom, and I feel like posting a pick-me-up because I'm fairly sure the steely skies over Taipei aren't clearing anytime soon (and when they do, it'll be so they can pour plum rains on us).

So, enjoy a few photos I've taken over the past few months but haven't posted that should give everyone a nice cheer-up, like a good Maker's sour.

This is the creepiest Santa Claus I've ever seen, made of recycled bottles, fairy lights and, uh, I'm not sure what else. Either way, ACK.

He sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awaaaake...

One of the lovely two girls I have English playtime-class with on the weekend - we finished up our time by building a giant blocks/stool/cards/Japanese cartoon figurine castle.

Last weekend gave us brighter, though polluted, weather. For the last time the sun was seen in Taipei, we went to Da'an Park and saw all sorts of animals, including the big fellow above and the tiny guys below.

Just look at the sun hitting the grass and trees. Oh sun. How I miss you. I wish you'd come back!

The La Boheme kitten is fascinated by the Taiwan Pen Twirl (you know what I mean - that twirly thing that Taiwanese people do with their pens when they're daydreaming).

Yeah, uh, I don't even know what to say to this. We've seen a lot of great store names recently - there's this one, "Croissant de Louvre", "Versace Home Art", "Ho Mart"...but this store? It's for man!

"I guess I'm sleeping on the couch tonight."

On one of those warm-ish sunny weekend days we didn't know were numbered, we headed up to Wenhua University and had coffee at TBRC before watching the sunset by the university.

But now we're back to being freezing and glum, and all we want to do is this:

Sick Puppies

As I mentioned on here recently, I was quite sick last week, to the point of taking Friday off and basically sleeping through it. On Sunday, after taking the copious medication given to me by the eccentric old Indonesian doctor at Jingmei Hospital, I was starting to feel better, so we set a small goal for the day: take a quick stroll through the Taipei Pet Fair (an annual event).

Catherine also has a post with funny pictures about the fair.

This fuzzy creature cracks me up.

I've volunteered at this event for Animals Taiwan, stumbled upon it by accident and come just to enjoy the adowwable cats, dogs, rabbits, fur creatures, flying squirrels and whatever else people bring along.

See? Some people bring rabbits.

I also have students who work for a veterinary medicine company who often host a booth here, so I'll sometimes go to see if anyone I know is representing their company.

This little guy reminds me of John Yossarian from Catch-22. Somewhat insane but not really, in the army, floppy hair.

We never bring along our cat; to do so would only invite disaster. He's sociable but that would have simply not ended well. He hates being in his carrier and squirms too much when you try to hold him against his will. You know, as cats do. In fact, I am not sure how the people who brought cats managed to control them. I've never had a cat as placid as the ones I see at the pet fairs.

Seriously, how is this calico so calm?

Two adorable rat things - or as Brendan says, "more mosquito than dog"!

Another reason I like to come here is to donate to the animal rescue organizations. My volunteering has fallen off since we adopted Stupidface (sorry - Zhao Cai), but I do like to help where I can, and I suggest that if you want to do something of immediate benefit in Taiwan, do donate to Animals Taiwan or one of the other rescue/CNR/pet ownership education organizations (there are a few). You may even want to consider adopting a rescued animal; sure, it won't be a purebreed (though some are, as most strays rescued and placed for adoption were abandoned by families who bought them in pet stores) but it'll be an animal who truly needs a loving home.

You know you want to.

We didn't adopt Zhao Cai from an organization; my sister basically found him begging for food outside the Zhengda girls' dormitory. He was healthy, friendly and house-trained, if bone-thin (we call him Stupidface because he seems to be mentally incapable of hunting). It'll be hard moving around the world with him, but never a day goes by when we're not happy we have him.

Even if his food, left out, did attract mice.

That he can't, or won't, kill.

Meaning we're the first people in the world for whom getting a cat attracts the cat's natural prey.

Now you see why we call him Stupidface?

"I don't kill my natural prey, but I do whine a lot and cuddle in your microfiber blankets."

I bet this colorful fuzzball could kill a mouse. Or maybe not. He(?) might just play with it to death.

Hee hee, double decker dog stroller for the win!

I'll leave you with this happy fellow. Doesn't he just look so pleased at the world?

Zhaozhao the Hutt

I realized that I haven't posted any pictures of Zhao Cai, our pudgy, annoying, affectionate, neurotic fattypants in awhile. So, here ya go. Here's Zhaozhao posing with some tent-card signs I made for our wedding, for our cardbox/guest book and teapots for brewing tea as well as ginger after-dinner candies from Indonesia.

"It can't see me if I don't move!"

It's been humid recently and, at times, hot. Zhaozhao reacts to this by sleeping.

"I can haz Internet bedz for sleepin"

On cold/cool days, he finds the nearest warm thing to cuddle up next to, as we are so cruel as to refuse to turn on the space heater for him when it's not that cold. He likes to crawl under the covers with Brendan at night, and during the day, the warmest machines to sleep on are the wireless router, above, and our ancient Toshiba.

Enjoy!

Because the world needs more warmth...

...in the form of another photo of our cat.

Haha. hahahaha. Haha.

Now I feel a little bad - I haven't had time to update in the way I'd like these past few weeks. It's not wedding planning (please shoot me if I ever spend so much time planning a party that I don't have time to write or do anything fun) - it's work. This month (and October to some extent) has been busy, because this is the time of year when accounting firms seem to have a lot of downtime and buy lots and lots and lots of seminars. You'd think with the end of the year coming that wouldn't be true, but hey, it seems to be - at least in Taiwan.

For the past two weekends, for example, I would have loved to have gone hiking or done something fun, but I actually had weekend seminars. Not long-term courses at least, but still.

To fill the void a bit, here are some fun pictures for you that are of nothing in particular:

No blog post with random photos is complete without My Nuts.

(I realize plenty of relatives and soon-to-be relatives read this blog, but I also figure I've put my foot in my mouth so many times thanks to my chronic foot-in-mouth disease that it's basically all cool at this point. And come on, this is a really funny name for a bag of nuts.)

Yeah! You better not let your dogs...err...at least not ANYWHERE!

"It's the most wonderful time of the year" (cue sleigh bells)

"Are you going to iron? I love irons! They're warm like MY heater which is MINE."

Mmmmm delicious grilled tentacles.

My Tornado

I've been wondering recently why we can't seem to keep the apartment looking nice.

Is it because I'm in Chinese class and not pulling my weight in housework? You try working and studying - both "full time" - and see how much free time you have to do things like mop the kitchen floor.

Well, that's true (thank you Brendan, for doing your share and some of mine), but I don't think that can fully explain why the place is looking so worn out these days.

Is it that it's an 'old' apartment - long-term Taiwan residents will understand my meaning - and therefore I'm just noticing now that despite our spiffy decorating job, nothing can hide the ancient tile floor, cheap wood and dingy plastic ceiling?

That's true too, but I always thought we did a good job making our accommodations comfortable and maybe even attractive.

Is it that we're both secretly slobs?

No. I mean I hate housework and I really would hire a maid if I felt like paying for one. I'm sure Brendan doesn't like it either. Some people claim to enjoy it; I think they're lying. But we're not slobs. A little messy, sure, but no worse than your average person.

I think, just maybe, the reason our apartment never looks as nice as we intend it to...

...is....


TA-DA!!

Our very own fortune kitty - we even named him Zhao Cai if you remember - who can be very sweet when he wants to be.

But when he doesn't want to be, it's like living with, and cleaning up after, a small tornado that continually whirls around the house, spinning out whorls of destruction as he whips through.

Nothing is safe, nothing is sacred. We recently found a pile of rubber sushi (the little erasers from Japan that look like food; I LOVE them) under one chair, which he'd collected from the bookshelf.

He got hold of my crystal ring; sure, it's not set with gemstones. But I bought it in Prague, it's Swarovski, and it's designer. He batted it around while we were out and now it's missing a crystal.

...and if anyone's seen a silver and amethyst earring from Thailand, let me know.

...and it would be really nice if we could leave our USB drives on the desk and not worry that they'll be batted under the couch.

Don't get me wrong, I love the fuzzy little Tasmanian devil. He's an absolute gem when he wants to be, all cuddling in laps and touching noses with you.

Note: he chose this position on his own. When he's in a certain mood he likes to be held like a baby. Note the "Boxing Panda: Float like a butterfly, sting like a panda" and "Onion Boy: Makes girls cry but good for their health" stickers on the computer, and the demonic green eyes of kitty-head.

...

But I'd also really like my earring back.

And Now For Something Completely Different

We're planning our trip to southern India next month and I'm looking into accommodation in Wayanad. A few interesting things about the homestays and hotels available there:

Apparently one of them is called "Mountain Dew Homestay"...which makes me think that the beverage of the same name has never really caught on in India.

One of them offers "homely food". That's good, I don't like my food to be too good-looking. (I think they mean 'home-style food').

Another one says "The best time to visit is between December and March, when coffee and vanilla is harvested. If you like incessant fog and rain, you can also visit in June and July." Wow, sign me up for the July "rain and fog" special...

Don't get me wrong, I love India and I love Indian English; if I didn't, I wouldn't have studied there or returned three times afterwards.

Anyway here are some pictures of our cat, just because we like him.

Life is Quiet

There's not much going on in life right now; haven't been to any good protests, have been out to a few good restaurants and will write about those later - although at least one is famous, so what's the point? - and generally been either working or sick in bed with a cold.

After a week of working my butt off (including on Sunday, in Taoyuan of all places), having Monday off really brightens things up. I'm finally not sick anymore, either!

While in convalescence, we put up the Christmas tree. We have a little fake one from Canada that a coworker gave us, and ornaments from IKEA. As you can see, the cat likes it too. Very homey. We even put on holiday music and had some millet wine afterwards, enjoying our 'fireplace' (a space heater). We're "doing" Christmas this year; having about 25 friends over for food, drink and talk, so I'm happy we've got the tree.

Mom's Pies

OK, so I'm not making an artistically-minded post about old photos of Formosa, nor am I blogging about the state of the Taiwan economy (I pay taxes; where's my voucher?*), but this is quite important matter itself. I'd say its existence is not only important, but truly vital to expat life in Taiwan.

I'm talking of course about Mom's Pies.

Nevermind that the van can be hard to track down, and that they give you some missionary Christian leaflet with every pie. It's really good pie.

Mom's Pies has a van that circles Taipei, hitting up all the spots where people are likely to want pie; the universities (we've seen it at Taida, Shida and Zhengda), AIT, Tianmu and a few other spots. The only regular stop I know is near Shida/Guting on Thursdays from 4:30-7pm.

They also have a call-in service (02-2627-5040 or 02-2627-2051) and they do deliver.

Did I mention that it's really good pie? It made my day on Thursday, which was otherwise a bit cool and gray, and involved a rather strange work schedule that made nothing convenient. They have all sorts of flavors, from apple, pumpkin and cherry cheesecake to red bean, green bean and purple yam. The only downside is that their outermost crust is a little hard...but the filling was so good - so thick you could pick it up and eat it like finger food - that I didn't mind.

Another thing that's vital to expat life, as I'm learning, is having an adorable pet. Here's Zhao Cai, who is as needy and affectionate as a dog, but can be left at home alone for longer periods:




*Just kidding. I only pay 10% taxes and Taiwan's been very good to me financially, once I stopped working for Kojen. I don't mind that I'm not getting a voucher. But then that's $3600 I'm not using on a ticket to Orchid Island or a hunk of jade.

Because I have nothing better to write about...

....here's another picture of Zhao Cai (now nicknamed "Zhao Zhao" because it rolls more easily off the tongue) with his new collar, cuddling with our Domo pillow.

Awwwwwww.

招財

We weren't supposed to get a cat. The landlady wasn't keen on it (she didn't say "no" exactly, she gave that Taiwanese-style no in which the person stands there and looks uncomfortable until you realize they mean no).

Auntie Wu down the street insists she knows why; apparently our landlady (whose niece we deal with, not her directly, she's too shy about not speaking English and no amount of reassuring the niece that I speak Chinese is going to change that) is quite superstitious in accordance with her advanced age, and cats bring bad spirits. Or something. Maybe she just doesn't like them.

Anyway, we weren't supposed to get a cat.

It's really a shame - and by "a shame" I mean "fantastic" - that a cat got us.

So, everyone, meet Zhao Cai (招財), our lucky cat who beckoned to my sister and came on Halloween.