A Strange Mid-Week Break

 

A view into the Hong Kong airport. Taken on the 15th of February 2007 with a Nikon D200 and a 18-200 VR lens. Part of the Suvarnabhumi Series in the Thailand Chronicles.

Today is a state holiday.

Nobody is supposed to be working.

It’s Wednesday, and I just woke up from a 12h sleep.

It felt good.

Good Points And Bad Points In Being A Teacher

More school art from our school in Hsinchu.

Teaching is a great profession. I have learned this over the last 6 months, even if I was a teacher in part in Canada, it isn’t the same when you are a full time teacher.

I have been asked what the good points and bad points of teaching are, and not only in Taiwan, but in general. I will limit most of my opinions on things that I have experienced.

Digging This!

A strange hawk on top of the K1 Caffe on the Ao Chalong pier in Phuket, Thailand. Taken with a Nikon D200 and a 18-200 VR lens on the 21st of February 2007. Part of the Thailand Chronicles Series.

I have used memediggers in the past, quite often. They are a good tool for the beginning bloggers and for bloggers trying to boost their traffic. I used reddit, del.icio.us, digg and nowpublic. Recently, the only service that I have been using in 2007 has been nowpublic, and that is mainly because of I was involved with the beta of the service.

Battlestar Galactica S03E08-13 (SciFi)

Sometimes surviving can be its own death sentence.
Kernel Ty to Bulldog.

-Are they still eating paper?
-No, there’s a paper shortage.
Admiral Adama to Kernel Ty.

I have really gotten into this season’s Battlestar Galactica. This season has some great episodes.

End Of The First Day Back At Work

We both barely got any sleep last night. Since we had slept over 18 hours the day before, it was a bit hard to fall asleep.

The day begun quietly and I arrived at work at around 7:40AM. I started drinking my tea. My first class didn’t start until the afternoon, I had 2×401 and 2×402. The kids were a bit hyper, just having come back from vacation.

Dangers Of The Internet Part VI: Internet Addictions In China

A 12-year-old boy is treated with a series of low-voltage shocks in a therapy that doctors at an Internet addiction clinic in China say helps patients sleep better. (By Greg Baker — Associated Press)

I found this article in the Wall Street Journal Asia edition that I read on the weekend on my Cathay Pacific flight home to Taiwan. I couldn’t find the WSJ article, but found it on the Washington Post site.

Like the authorities in China, I do believe that internet addiction is a grave problem. Though I do not condone some of the treatments mentioned here, such as electro-shocks, drugs and other more extreme methods, I do believe in cold turkey and a lot of talk.

A German Cabbage Leaf, Growing Entangled With The Storytree

After I had been blogging and surfing the net in an uncomfortable situation at the Phuket aiport, I discovered that I had a virus on my 8GB CF card, that I use to take pictures. I had been suspecting this for a few days. I knew I had picked something up in one of those Thai internet cafés.

I was in the midst of getting rid of the virus using Avast, when I heard some more Germans come into the waiting area of the Phuket airport. We had just checked in and were awaiting our flight at the departure gate.

Battlestar Galactica S03E01-07 (SciFi)

Well, I finally got back into Bstar this weekend. After our holiday, I was looking for some entertainment and came up with 15 episodes of unwatched scifi. So I started watching them. In all honesty, I started in the second week of February, but carried on last night.

A British Chestnut Leaf On The Storytree

From one of my Thailand Chronicles Posts: 

He is a Brit who lives here and does periodical visa runs to Myanmar. He just had a daughter from his Thai wife and runs his bar. Interesting chap. He said he loves it here, though he does go back each summer to England for 6 weeks.

One night, last Wednesday after visiting the fair and Wat Chalong in Phuket, Thailand, my friend and I went out to a bar near Hat Rawai. We sat down and I got a coke because they didn’t have any Fantas or fresh juices. The owner of the bar came to see us after he finished a game of pool.

An Indian Waterlilly Pleasantly Attached To The Storytree

When I was waiting for my wife to check which aisle we had to check-in for our flight to Taipei in Suvarnabhumi airport, an old Indian woman accosted me. She asked me if I was Indian. I told her that my parents were, but that I was Canadian. My wife and I were teaching English in Taiwan.

Really, she said. I am Canadian as well, from Calgary.

That is great I replied.