in no particular order

Back in Toronto

2009-09-21T20:30:00.004+08:00

After spending four months working in California, my internship is finished and I'm back in Toronto. Perhaps nothing more of interest will be happening for a while, but here's a collection pictures from my frequent visits to San Francisco.

A painted heart at Union Square paints the city in an interesting light. There's the flying cable car, historic streetcars, Muni buses and Muni trains among a city of little blue bears.

A tap dancer gives a little performance at the Powell street cable car roundabout.

A drum man nearby performs on empty buckets and water jugs.

A cable car ascends a steep hill against a backdrop of tangled overhead wires, with Chinatown and the Bay Bridge visible in the back.

No tour of the cable car is complete without a peek at the fantastic engine house, which is open to the public, free of admission, to show off the machinery driving the cables.

The golden gate bridge pokes into the fog on a very chilly day in May. We all know what the rest of the bridge looks like, so nothing else to see here...

Exploring some caves near the ruined Sutro Baths.

A historic streetcar runs along the Embarcadero down to Fisherman's Wharf...

Where a giant sign welcomes visitors from all over the world to overpriced lunches, cameras, and souvenirs.

Along the marina, a great number of private boat owners peddle tours of the Bay, and sea lions occasionally swim in to poach at the fish that fall from fishing boats.

Even the McDonald's is so fancily decorated.

The sidewalk is lined with a healthy mix of energetic busker shows with huge crowds and the homeless who implore passers-by for a quarter. At this latter category, passing tourists are often heard to say "that's not so impressive..."

The annual Pride Parade is quite the singular affair. A huge crowd watches a huge parade with enthusiasm.

And it's the only time of year when certain types of people can do certain things without being charged for assault. (It gets a lot more crazy than this...)

And so, without turning this into an overly lengthy gallery, these are my main impressions of San Francisco. There are many more photos if you simply click on any of the ones above and navigate the full albums.

Summary of Taiwan

2009-06-11T08:41:00.004+08:00

I've been working on this on and off for a while. A slightly outdated computer means I can hardly do editing without crashes every few minutes, so I've given up on any further refinements for now.

For those technically inclined or curious, the time lapse clips are made with a Canon XSi hooked up to a Ti-89 programmed as a intervalometer, with frames reduced to about 4MP and combined in Quicktime. The fireworks are shot with a Sony HDR-TG1 in AVCHD. 3D compositing is done in After Effects, music is royalty-free, and final editing is with Premiere.

Six hens and a new baby goat

2009-06-10T05:34:00.004+08:00

It's been a full month since I've returned to this side of the Pacific. I miss the abundance of street food and the generally festive atmosphere in Taiwan, but it's also somewhat relaxing to be living in the American suburbs. Work is only 8 miles away from home, and I carpool with coworkers every day, so it looks like I've escaped the normal symptoms of urban sprawl.

Photos of the latest "family reunion" in San Francisco can be found here, although I won't point any out in particular. It's not that San Francisco isn't interesting - but it's an hour's train ride away, and I've yet to catch it on a perfectly sunny and photo-worthy day. So here are some pictures of my recent visit to the "ranch" in Dallas - 6 new hens and a new baby goat.

As the story goes, no one was even aware of her mother's pregnancy until she was already running around the lawn. We thought all three adult goats were siblings... but then again, they're just goats.

The chickens are perfectly capable of sharing the grazing grounds with the goats. It was not always so - a lone rooster annoyed the goats enough that they prefer to avoid his presence, but since he became our dinner, there's been nothing but peace.

They all live a rather care-free life. The chickens spend the day pecking at gravel and insects between their meals of corn, and the goats graze at the lawn and occasionally climb a fence to eat some leaves.

As long as they continue to churn out a half dozen eggs a day, they're at no risk of suffering the same fate as their useless male companion. The fridge is already packed with perhaps one or two hundred of their eggs.

Since my last visit, the billies have each grown a tuft of a beard, and their horns have noticeably spiraled a half turn.

Once in a while, the chickens grow anxious as they sense predators nearby. Though not caught on film, one or more coyote certainly frequent the area. But their fear of humans, and perhaps of the goats, have kept the hens safe thus far.

Last vacation in Taiwan

2009-04-22T20:44:00.040+08:00

How do I know it's the last vacation in Taiwan? Because I'm going to the company's California office in the next week or two. It looks like I'll escape the unbearable heat of the tropical summer for some less harsh sunlight in San Francisco for the rest of this gig (until end of August). A change of scenery would be quite nice.

And about the vacation... it seems like such a long time ago. Jermaine's already put up a whole wad of pictures online, and I'm too lazy to put up a set of my own (which would mostly be the same thing anyway). Check them out at the links below:

Kaohsiung

Taitung

Hualien

Taroko Gorge

Taipei

Neglected blog!

2009-04-16T13:44:00.002+08:00

Wow... two months since the last post.

I always think it's exceedingly strange when blogs are abandoned without any sign of redirect or goodbye. There are plenty of these on the internet - the last post usually says something like "I'll post again soon!". I'll hopefully not let this website become of that, but I guess after 5 months of routine there's very little news interesting enough to post.

But the past two weeks have been a very relaxing vacation - time off work and touring around the island. So over the next little while, perhaps I'll dole out some new, interesting pictures in portion sized chunks. In the mean time, I have a lot of work to catch up on!

2 weeks of fireworks

2009-02-15T21:13:00.004+08:00

Ok, I just got my computer back. Turns out a faulty graphics card was covered by an extended warranty policy, so I didn't have to pay the estimated $1000 required for a total motherboard replacement.

Anyway, since Chinese New Year three weeks ago until just tonight, there has been nightly fireworks shows down by the Kaohsiung harbour. Really, I have never heard of or thought possible nightly 7-minute fireworks shows for three whole weeks! Although frankly after seeing it 8 times from 8 different parts of the city it does get a little bit boring. In any case, the city's really gone all out to promote itself in preparation for the 2009 World Games.

A view from slightly up the Love River. Across the river are displays of colourful lanterns from the Lantern festival, and floating in the river are images of Kaohsiung's two World Games mascots.

Start of show, Feb 13, on the Love River.

Feb 5, on the Love River.

The 85 Building at night, after a fireworks show.

A group of young people were setting up this display with glo-sticks by the docks. It was a bit too late for me to stick around and see what happens when the birthday girl actually shows up.

Feb 7, from across the harbour. What's quite amazing is the number of perfect spots from which the fireworks could be seen.

Feb 9, from docks near my apartment.

Feb 9, again. Going to see the fireworks so many times allowed me to try a lot of different settings on my camera. As it turns out, taking these pictures is no simple matter.

85 Building, again. The park in which this was taken was a recent construction that turned an old industrial site into a nice urban park, where a railroad has been converted into a bike path with the original railway crossing guards for artistic effect. The sculpture in this picture is made from 6 shipping containers welded together.

Feb 10, from Cijin Island Lighthouse. The lighthouse is situated high up a hill with a panoramic view of the entire city and harbour.

Cijin Island houses.

Cijin Island, and the city in the background.

Wide angle view of the entire Kaohsiung Harbour from the Cijin Lighthouse.

Feb 14, from Cijin Lighthouse.

Feb 13, once again from the bank of the Love River.

Big aspirations

2009-02-05T15:42:00.003+08:00

Lately I'm finding that it's getting harder to convey the full range of stuff I want to share on this here blog, so I'm on to creating a new personal website where I don't have to jump through hoops to get the features I want. While I get up to speed with this new project, I probably won't be paying too much attention to this blog anymore. But hang tight - in a couple of months I promise it's going to be good.

In the mean time, some pictures from beautiful Kenting, when I visited about a month ago with my coworkers Alice and Kitty. It's something like the vacation spot for all of Taiwan, a must-see place on a visit to Taiwan.

Kitty leans on the rock next to a sign that says "Danger! Do not approach!" Fierce winds from the Pacific Ocean rush over the cliff edges, making it impossible to stand still unassisted. It's a nice view, at least!

A group of young people ask us to take their picture above the cliffs overlooking the ocean.

It's a bit dangerous to be standing right on the cliff's edge. The powerful wind blowing inland means one must lean into it in order to stand still. He's in for quite a bit of trouble if the wind should suddenly stop or reverse direction.

Numerous plaques like this one line the edge of the cliff, warning people not to approach.

The constant wind has blown sand from the beach below all the way up the cliff and onto the road (far left). We left this spot with fine grains of sand between our teeth.

Lunch at a little shack off the main road.

A man fishes on the coast off the highway. I can't imagine there being many fish this close to shore, but he's probably more interested in relaxing than in catching a meal.

A small bunker stood on the coastal cliff. The gun port overlooks a popular beach and hotel, while the inside is covered with sand and trash.

A view to the south. To the left is the Pacific Ocean, and to the right is the South China Sea. Apparently the large rock to the east is quite a popular attraction, where lots of people pull over to take pictures.

Hundreds of people crowd a cliff-side platform to view the sunset. I had arrived too late to find a spot with a view, but the more interesting subject is how much crowding people were willing to endure for a sight seen daily from any of Taiwan's major cities.

A recap of 2008

2009-01-10T18:06:00.019+08:00

Perhaps things have been a little stagnant here, or perhaps I want to quickly get the "old" posts (pre-layout-redesign posts that don't quite fit the theme) out of the first page, or perhaps I should give a better shot at living up to someone's recent compliment, or perhaps I miss the sight of Europe and Canada. In any case, here's a recap of my favourite photos from 2008.

First, back to Sweden, June 2008. I first started taking photos upon realizing I might never return to my temporary home. I had actually planned to do more with video, but after that turned out to be much more of a hassle than I imagined, I used my video camera more for photography. Its performance was on par with a low-end point-and-shooter, so I made the best of the situation by applying lots of digital alteration. Here is my bedroom in Sweden, stitched together from perhaps 10 or 15 individual shots.

The kitchen of the house I lived in, whose style I think really matches those Ikea model kitchens. I rented my room from a recently separated man who had some extra rooms. I lived here for the first two of my four months, and then moved into his home office across the hall when another tenant moved in.

Here's in Stockholm's Gamla Stan (old town) is a statue of St. Geroge slaying the dragon, an image that appears quite frequently in the city. The picture is the product of some gentle HDR treatment.

Here, at the top of the Katerina Lift in central Stockholm, I managed to capture a sunny day in July. As it turns out, sunlight becomes steadily more scarce as the weeks went by.

By the end of August, I'd be lucky to see one sunny day per week.

An early stitch of one of the ships that frequently dock in Stockholm harbour. If you look carefully you can see where the stitch wasn't so seamless.

I visited Paris in July, which was quite nice. There were certainly too many tourists at that time of year, and it was hot beyond my comfort level. By that time I was still using the camcorder, and a simple wide angle picture like this took at least two or three shots to stitch together.

At some point I had decided that the rectangle was boring and that it was more fun if I kept the stitched image in its original form. Here is a strip mall outside my workplace that I visit daily for lunch.

What I remember most about Sweden was perhaps the snails - there were just so many of them, and some of them are just gigantic. I rode an old bike to work every day, and always made a concious effort to steer around the hundreds of snails. Dying of a cracked shell seemed pretty slow and painful. I wasn't alone - more than once I've seen people who'd pick up snails from the roads and sidewalks and toss them back into the grass.

One of Stockholm's small pleasures is its historic tram line, which is more of a tourist attraction than an actual functional transit line. When Sweden switched to right-hand traffic in 1969, Stockholm discarded most of its trams save for the few kept alive by the historical society who now runs this short line.

Stockholm's metro, the T-bana, has the self-proclaimed status of being the "world's largest art display". As I figure, since Stockholm sits on a thick layer of firm bedrock, underground caverns (such as metro stations) need no extra reinforcement. The result is a raw-cavern-like appearance at many underground stations which, with a bit of paint, is truly like nothing else I've seen.

Another example of underground art. Looking back I really wish I had better equipment to capture this with, but this will have to do.

And that's the end of Sweden.

It took a lot of work to make the camcorder photos end up presentable, so I was very excited to get my Rebel XSi on a trip to Dallas. How delighted I was to be able to take a photo like this with no need to process it thereafter!

My parents had just recently bought a house on the outskirts of Dallas, and my two weeks there was certainly a drastic change from life in Sweden. With a big house in America came a really different lifestyle. I think the riding mower says it all.

The yard was also big enough to legally house livestock. I think these were supposed to be spring kids, but came Christmas nobody actually had the heart to kill them. So now we have 3 pet goats.

Giant highways might not represent the most sustainable development, but they certainly are nice feats of engineering.

The easiest game at the Texas State Fair - the duck pond. Pick up a duck and win what is written underneath.

Finally, I can take pictures out of an airplane that are worth looking at! Here, going back to Toronto.

A back door opened up to the roof of my old apartment, where I stayed for about a week.

Here's a view of the city after some rather harsh HDR treatment, perhaps not liked by all. Personally I like an occasional deviation from reality.

My old friend Boots, who probably long forgot who I am.

I arrived at my new home Kaohsiung in November, and was greeted with weather hotter than the hottest Toronto summer day. The Kaohsiung sky also makes the Toronto smog nothing to complain about. But I really love that the city is such high-density and so nocturnal. Getting off work after dark is really nothing at all to complain about (more on that in the near future)!

Kaohsiung's new metro, the KMRT, is brand spanking new. I came at a good time, as my commute to work probably would have taken twice as long without it.

A man rides one of millions of scooters in the city.

What's most memorable in Kaohsiung so far are certainly the monkeys.

Some less aggressive-looking monkeys.

A mountaintop sunset on a corporate executive team-building kind of hiking trip I somehow got invited to.

And finally, me, at the top of Taiwan.

That's it! A lot has certainly happened last year! In the new year look for more of my adventure in Taiwan, and sooner or later, some posts about what life in Kaohsiung is actually like!

Fo Guang Shan

2009-01-08T11:42:00.007+08:00

Here's a flashback to a few weeks ago - a fun trip that's fallen through the cracks so far.

On the Sunday after my trip to Tainan, I went on a trip to Fo Guang Shan (佛光山), a temple complex serving as the headquarters of a worldwide Chinese Mahayana Buddhist order by the same name. I don't quite know what "Mahayana Buddhist" means, but I figure it's a branch of the main religion. Anyway, two friends had gone on Saturday morning to spend the entire weekend experiencing life in the complex, and I was to join them on Sunday morning.

The Fo Guang Shan temple compound sits on roughly 30 hectares of forested hills, hence its name referring to a "mountain" (山). At the mountain's peak sits a statue of the Amitabha, the principle celestial Buddha, rising roughly 32m in height, greeting visitors from miles away.

In the courtyard outside the main temple gate, a small group of musicians play some light traditional music with traditional instruments. Here is where I met my friends Kiki and Martin, who had already been awake since 5am to join a 2 hour chanting celebrating one of the principle Buddha's birthday, which incidentally was today.

It takes a bit of a climb to reach the top of the hill, where the giant Buddha statue is placed. Surrounding it are hundreds of man-sized Buddha statues, representing the infinite Buddhas residing the the Pure land. Our tour guide Linda, a local nun, tells the story of a family-run paint company who annually donates golden paint to no monastery other than Fo Guang Shan. Apparently it takes a massive amount of paint to keep the hundreds of statues covered year after year.

In addition to the hundreds of man-sized statues, the giant statue also sits on a base decorated with smaller statues, reliefs and various carvings. The base also houses a small shrine where devotees can pay respect to any of 4 divine statues. In exchange, one can help himself to "holy water" from a nearby pitcher, and retrieve a small scroll that contains a cookie-style fortune.

The temple grounds are filled with structures and shrines. In addition to a place of worship, the compound is also a religious university that teaches various subjects. Our guide Linda had once studied film editing here.

Various statues in the temple also pay homage to "junior monks". As the story goes, in the old days, families who are too poor to support their children usually drop them off at a local monastery, where they can be raised under religious care free of charge, funded by the charity of more fortunate devotees. Here, a statue asks for donations.

Further down the road, an entire garden is dedicated to youth, with plenty of statues of tiny, playful monks. This guy has a bird on his head, and the guy in the back is doing a little dance (possibly the YMCA).

And this guy is a happy little monkey carrying some tree branches.

A pagoda stands next to the garden. I'm sure it would have been a nice view from the top, but we didn't get a chance to visit.

By chance, an annual meeting of a Taiwan Buddhism organization (whose name escapes me) was held on the same day, and the lunch hall had to host around 1000 people. Serving the crowd was exceedingly efficient. People entered single file to be seated at neat rows of tables. When seated, everyone faced the same way, so that kitchen staff (monks and nuns themselves) can serve food on the side of table opposite the eater. I wish I had a picture of the setup, but the entire event had to be perfectly silent save for some chanting at the beginning and end of the meal.

After lunch we visited the temple's main shrine, where devotees could pay respect to three principle Buddhas. The temple founder, Venerable Master Hsing Yun, wished the temple to be deeper, but due to a stubborn landowner unwilling to sell more land to the temple, the shrine had to be constructed much smaller than desired. It is still by far the largest single room in all of the compound.

The main shrine and surrounding buildings.

Next, a calligraphy lesson in the classroom, where we were given special "trainer" brushes that had an internal ink supply (like a fountain pen with a brush tip) and traced characters pre-printed on practice sheets. It was certainly not traditional, but was still kind of hard anyway. Upon request, the supervising nun gladly gave us more practice sheets and pointed us to the gift shop to get the "trainer" brush.

A bit down the hill, on either side of the path and behind some bushes were clusters of statues depicting monks in various poses.

A worker uses toothbrushes to keep the statues clean.

A stone lion watches over the temples main gate.

Built under the main gate is a display for the kids. It's a windy underground path filled with colourful statues that sometimes break into dance and song as a visitor passes. It's somewhat cheesy and freaky at the same time when a colourful maiden suddenly starts singing from a dark corner you failed to detect earlier.

And thus ended the tour. Me, Martin, Kiki and our guide Linda pose for a final picture. We opted to take a taxi back to Kaohsiung, which was perhaps an hour away. The taxi driver drove us to the closest town and insisted that we be driven the rest of the way by his son. Not thinking at the time, we complied, but immediately afterwards I thought that this might be exactly how foreigners are kidnapped, stripped of belongings, and held for ransom. None of those things happened and we got home safely, but I'll certainly never do that again! Fo Guang Shan was good, though; I learned a slight bit about Buddhism.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-03T11:19:00.005+08:00

It really is just another day. But it just happens to be a day off work and a day with nice fireworks. In Kaohsiung, the new year celebration was at the newly constructed "Dream Mall", the largest mall in Taiwan that opened about a year ago on some reclaimed industrial land. Reputedly 200,000 people showed up to the event, but I just heard that number from a single other person who could totally have been making it up. More pictures after the break!

A three-minute fireworks show blasted away from the top of the Dream Mall after the countdown. The crowd was not lacking in cheers, cameras, and general excitement while the announcer on stage was wildly screaming about what a crazy year 2009 is going to be (watch for the World Games in Kaohsiung!). Happy New Year!

The mall's entire lot is filled to the brim with people. I wouldn't be too surprised if the number really is 200,000 or higher. From here the ferris wheel known as the "Eye of Kaohsiung" can be seen. There's actually a whole amusement park on the roof of the mall, to which I must one day return to visit.

It just isn't a Taiwanese crowd at night without a market. Amidst the hoards of people here to watch the show is a row of vendors selling glow sticks, coffee, and various snacks. I really wouldn't want to walk through a crowd like that with a hot cup of coffee.

A giant Christmas tree at the entrance of the mall exclaims "Open Xmas" and "Happy New Year". I have never seen a single reference to the full word "Christmas" posted anywhere in the city save for perhaps the few churches. Perhaps in another 991 years we really would call and pronounce it "X-mas" and a giant robotic Santa will judge everyone to be naughty.

It also isn't a Taiwanese event without cute images (in this case, giant balloons) of various random cartoon mascots. The blue guy on the right is one of the mascots for the 2009 Kaohsiung World Games and the yellow guy with a rainbow on his head is the mascot for 7-Eleven stores in Taiwan. I'm not sure who the rest of them are.

Finally, another frame from the fireworks show. Happy new year!

A day trip to Tainan

2008-12-17T08:47:00.021+08:00

It was a pretty busy weekend, and as always, pictures take a few days to be sorted out. One day at a time; First: Saturday.

My "mentor" (actually, unofficial boss) at work, Alice, invited me to go with her to Tainan, her hometown, to enjoy the various sights and snacks. With us also came Alice's friend and colleague, and a new hire fresh out of university.

Tainan is only about 45 minutes from Kaohsiung by car, so the trip was akin to going from Toronto to Hamilton for the purpose of enjoying "local delicacies". As it turns out, the culture, style and politics of the two cities were noticeably (but not remarkably) different, and it was true that certain foods local to Tainan can't be found anywhere in Kaohsiung.

We arrived at our first stop, the Taiwan Confucian Temple, at about 10am. In the courtyard, a group of young people dressed up in traditional Chinese garb amused their friends in normal clothes. My guess is that they're taking part in some kind of reenactment or play, and we caught them either pre-show or during intermission.

The temple's main shrine, the 大成殿, is a common feature of all Confucian temples. It resides in the inner courtyard, and houses the ancestral tablets of important people during the temple's life. It's quite a shame that the main steps had to be guarded by an eyesore of a fence, but presumably it prevents damage to the precious stone carvings at the centre.

The main shrine's interior is decorated with numerous plaques with phrases I can't hope to understand, so I'll explain a bit about the temple's history instead. It was originally built in 1665 as the "Scholarly Temple". In 1683, when Taiwan was annexed by the Qing Dynasty in China, the temple was converted into an academy, and renovations and expansions taking place for the next decades and centuries. During Japanese rule starting 1895, the temple was converted into a school and barracks, and sustained heavy damage. A reconstruction took place in 1917 to give the temple its basic layout today.

A side room housed a row of memorial tablets, presumably inscribed with names of important dead dudes. As a side note, since the temple functioned formerly as a school and academy, parents today often think that bringing their kids here will result in better exam scores, as if exam scores happened by chance.

Of course, the level of detail put into these structures is quite astounding. On the roof, a colourful fish sprays water under the watchful eyes of a wise old man.

In a back room, several real-life "wise" men sit around a table, passing the time with Mahjong, newspapers, and a crude television.

Next to the temple is an elementary school, and a track meet of sorts is happening. A vendor sells colourful balloons in the images of copyrighted characters, most likely without licence. That seems to be the mindset here in Asia: when interviewed about a Disneyland knock-off in Beijing several years ago, a woman said "but Mickey Mouse is just a common character that no one in particular created, right?"

What appears to be a machine shop faces the main road. The text on the window advertises juice and some kind of noodles. Through the door we might be able to see what appears to be some restaurant seating. That's another thing about (southeast) Asia: no one cares about appearance more than substance. This could be the most popular restaurant around, as long as its food is good.

Tainan specialty the first, which could not be obtained in Kaohsiung: this is a drink/dish whereby pieces of dried fruit (many types displayed in tubes here) are served with a bowl of ice shavings in sugar water. It tastes exactly like what it sounds like - think raisins in canned peach syrup, with ice.

Outside the dried fruit juice store, a minor accident had just taken place: a right turning car bumped into a scooter carrying a family of three. As far as I could tell no one was hurt, and nothing was damaged, but the scooter driver (pictured) insisted on screamed at the car driver (not pictured), a humble-looking old man who nodded weakly, standing outside his car, and never said a single word in return. The mother tries to comfort her child (also pictured), who was crying probably not from the fall, but the incessant sound of his father screaming at a helpless old man.

Our next stop is Chihkan Tower, the first of two symbols of former Dutch rule of Taiwan. The site was originally known as Fort Provintia during Dutch rule, until Koxinga, a Ming Dynasty general opposed to (and escaping) the Qing Dynasty takeover of mainland China, drove out the Dutch and installed his own kingdom on the island in 1662. He died shortly thereafter, and his son took control of the Taiwan kingdom for 21 years, until the Qing Dynasty finally annexed the island in 1683.

The Chihkan Tower grounds consists actually of two towers, each similar in layout and design. Characteristic of such ancient buildings, the tower roofs are decorated with ornate sculptures.

A pair of dragons rest of the roof, both looking back at a fire orb in the centre.

A display of wooden ships represent the armada Koxinga used to defeat Dutch forces.

A busking artist offers a five-minute sketch for 200 NT (about $8) on the fort grounds.

For lunch, we visited a very famous restaurant next to the canal. Apparently this is the one restaurant that any visitor to Tainan should surely visit. It operated rather like a food court. People crowd around a counter to order food, then it's each patron's own responsibility to find a seat and carry the food. Given the size of the crowd, carrying bowls of soup up stairs is definitely a bit of a challenge, and the self-seating policy means that there will always be people watching you eat, eager to take your seat.

The food, if not the process of getting it, was definitely thoroughly enjoyable. Our feast consisted of dry noodles with minced meat, fish balls in a starchy soup, a plate of green vegetables I have never eaten before, and some fried shrimp rolls that are actually the centre of the restaurant's fame.

The sign hanging above the restroom is somewhat peculiar. In Taiwan, toilet humour is almost never off-limits.

Next stop: Fort Anping, another relic of the Dutch, captured by Koxinga in 1662. The fort, known as Fort Zeelandia during Dutch rule, sits on the sea coast to defend Dutch interests in Tainan. In 1661, the fort's garrison of 2000 was bombarded for nine months by Koxinga's armada before the Dutch governor Frederick Coyett finally surrendered, and his remaining 400 men were graciously allowed to leave.

"This [ancient Dutch] cannon has been fully restored and is in ready-to-fire condition. But it's a good thing we're not firing it, because it happens to be aimed at the main support leg of that lookout tower. People don't realize that these cannons are very sensitive, and the slightest jolt could set them off."

"Of course, for safety reasons, we don't keep the cannon loaded: it's just common sense."

It's a short climb to the top of the lookout tower, where there's panoramic view of the Tainan skyline.

Through the dirty windows of the lookout tower, this photograph looks like it was developed from contaminated film (or something), which I think brings some special life to this otherwise fairly uninteresting cityscape.

Looking north from the Fort Anping lookout tower, Tainan's districts extend well past the horizon. Though the view from above might not be awe-inspiring, bear in mind that views from above rarely do justice to Taiwanese cities. The liveliness characteristic of the narrow streets and markets can never been seen from above. Again: substance is weighted here more than appearance.

Outside Fort Anping is a busy market, with stands selling ice cream, jewelry, toys, snacks, and plenty more. A popular snack found here, also popular in Kaohsiung, are these mini-cakes. Some kind of egg batter is poured into cast iron molds and heated for about 3 minutes, and you pay a nominal price for the privilege to bite the head off your favourite cartoon character.

A vendor mans his kiosk, selling fresh lemonade and various types of tea drinks stored in giant novelty milk bottles. Tea is almost never served hot here, for obvious reasons.

Some old women shelling a giant pile of oysters. A pickup truck comes by occasionally to take away the buckets of shells. Tourists gather around to capture the memory, and I do too.

Our car is parked where the canal meets the sea. Here, hundreds of vessels of varying sizes and functions are lined up at the docks, and the air stank of foul fish. The opposite shore looks more pleasing, with modern housing, green space and a boardwalk along a bare shore.

Our final destination before dinner is the National Cheng Kung University, one of Taiwan's most prestigious universities in arts, science, engineering, management, and everything else. Many consider it second only to National Taiwan University in Taipei. Here, a statue of children playing with a model of the campus is titled roughly "Management Campus".

The campus park is also home to a giant tree (right, in the distance) said to symbolize age, wisdom and protection. Young and old alike here enjoy some peaceful relaxation or chance to exercise in these last hours of sunlight.

In the foreground, under the tree, a newlywed couple capture their moment in a photo-shoot.

In the background, looking on, some old men sit to enjoy a chat, possibly trying to remember their own weddings decades ago.

Near the campus gate is a strange sight for Tainan: an intact statue of Chiang Kai-shek, albeit the base is in a bit of disrepair. Tainan (as with most of southern Taiwan) has been traditionally quite "green". The DPP presidency between 2000 and 2008 saw many references to Chiang Kai-shek, the original KMT president of Taiwan, removed from public places, and many of his statues humorously ended up in the garden at Cihu, his burial place (picture here). Perhaps this statue will eventually suffer the same fate.

Behind the peculiar statue is a pond which, while not so peculiar in its features, was quite a pretty sight in the waning sunlight.

This campus building has some unknown purpose, but surely somehow shows off the prestige of the university.

Our final stop is a night market for a small dinner. Tainan, just like Kaohsiung (and I imagine any other Taiwanese city) lights up with life at night. Food stands, restaurants and peddlers all open up shop, and there's really no point for me to ever learn how to cook.

Our particular dinner is this dish called 棺材板, a piece of toast stuffed with chicken filling. It's remarkably similar to chicken pot pie, except the pie crust is replaced by a piece of crispy toast. The dish can also be made with various other types of fillings, like seafood.

In the market are a variety of stores that sells various goods and snacks. Among them is a candy store with an impressive collection of dried fruits and other items I cannot begin to recognize. In fact, now that I think about it, it might not have been a candy store after all.

With that, we end our tour of the ancient Tainan city. The sights were good, the food was better; the locals were slightly rude, but the company was definitely top notch. This is one city crossed off my to-visit list, but I might just come back one day for more of those shrimp rolls.

Ape Hill in pictures

2008-12-08T15:47:00.011+08:00

It's been a rather busy couple of weeks, mostly involving an adjustment to living arrangements. While I have no new pictures yet of recent weeks, I thought it be nice to backtrack to my month-ago visit to 國立中山大學 and 柴山 (hover for translations) to visit the delightful monkeys. They're still one of the most interesting sights I have ever seen. Who doesn't like monkeys? They're nature's clowns!

Here, a mother holds her precious baby. The rest of the monkeys really didn't look quite so passive and harmless.

The setting: the winding paths through the dense forests of Ape Hill. Until you actually see them, it's rather difficult to imagine playful monkeys running around by the hundreds.

There they are, around the bend. I wasn't exactly sure how to proceed. I bought a piece of bread specifically to lure the monkeys, in case they were timid enough to need some incentive to come for some closeup shots.

But they were not shy at all. The first few walked casually right up to me and took up the offer of free food. Then, many more started appearing from around the bend.

Soon, ten or twenty of them gathered around me restlessly. I was growing a bit nervous - I was completely surrounded and at their mercy. The locals would know that there's nothing to be afraid of, but imagine yourself surrounded by a hoard of nimble unsmiling tree-climbers with not another human in sight to side with you. Indeed, one of them was daring enough to walk up to me from behind in an attempt to wrest away my remaining food, but looked casually disappointed when I refused to let go.

Still, they were peaceful enough to accept that I was in control of the food supply.

Somewhere down the path, a loner sat on the sidewalk. After seeing the large group having just passed by, it was a bit surprising to find such a loner. Maybe monkeys are just like people - some are just... outcasts.

He never paid much attention to anyone walking by, nor vice versa. At some point down the path he found an entire pear lying in a discarded lunch bag, and contently sat to eat the whole thing.

About halfway up the mountain was a small garden, where children ran around with slingshots, grown-ups sat around a table to play cards, and the old-timers took napped around in hammocks.

And another clan of monkeys also took up temporary residence here, at slight vexation to the human occupants.

At another rest stop, a woman seems intrigued to be visited by one of the mountain's native inhabitants.

Hike to the top of Taiwan (two weeks ago)

2008-12-01T16:49:00.014+08:00

Ok, I think the new blog format is finalised, more or less. Basically I want to be better able to show my experience in Taiwan visually, by directly showing the 10% of my pictures that tell 90% of the story. As promised, I'll test the new format using my recent three day hiking trip on and around 玉山, the tallest mountain in Taiwan. Unfortunately most of my old posts look like a mess now, so pay no attention to them. Maybe I'll fix them one day if I have time. Anyway, comments/suggestions welcome! (Remember to hit the "Read more!" link below.)

My boss, being the president of our division, runs back and forth between our Taiwan, China and US offices, so I didn't meet him until my second week at OSE. His first request of me: to join him and several of his VPs and advisors on a three day team-building exercise to Taiwan's tourist magnet 阿里山 and top peak 玉山. My attendance wasn't actually planned - another participant fell ill and backed out, and I think I was just in the right place at the right time when they were talking about with whom to fill the vacancy. Anyway, the rest is a narration in pictures.

November 12. A tour bus took our group, about 15, 150km northeast of Kaohsiung into Taiwan's central mountain range. Our destination for today: 阿里山, one of a handful of destination considered Taiwan's most beautiful. First stop: a small village about halfway up the mountain, where we walked around to stretch our legs. Here, a view of the surrounding mountains and hills. You ain't seen nothing yet!

阿里山 is renowned for its tea production. Throughout the mountainside are tea plantations on terraces like this, with hooded women collecting leaves in the midday sun. 1000m up from sea level, the weather has cooled significantly, but a day in the sun still warrants such full-body coverage.

A narrow-gauge railway winds through the mountain, built by the occupying Japanese 70 years ago to harvest the ancient cypresses on the mountaintop. The four-hour scenic ride departed twice daily and was one of the most beautiful in the world, but a change in management and recent typhoon damage closed the line for repairs. We had to make do with the less (but still very) scenic bus ride.

The handful of people who settle on the mountains are about a two-hour drive from the urban coast. Grocers from the city generally drive up with truck-fulls of produce and meat for sale, announcing their arrival with loudspeakers and energetic salespeople who don't hesitate to give out samples. Here, a few members of our "expedition" sample slices of a sweet persimmon.

But the grocers will have to compete with the 7-Eleven, present even here in a small town of perhaps only a few hundred. Taiwan has the greatest concentration of 7-Eleven stores, and it's not rare in the city to be able to spot one across the road from another.

The town is, of course, built onto the mountainside. In addition to the railway and roadways winding up the mountain, small paths exist too. Here, on the edge of town, a stairway leads up into the dense forest.

Our next stop: the 阿里山 main gates, altitude 2200m. This is the end of the line for tour buses. Between two giant parking lots of buses carrying tourists from China, Japan, Korean and everywhere else are various shacks and buildings housing salespeople pushing souvenirs to the tourists.

Tea isn't the only main product of these mountains. Here, another local specialty: wasabi roots (yes, that wasabi).

Of course, just seeing and hearing about the 阿里山 tea isn't enough; we must also taste it. Here, we enjoyed small sips of various types of tea produced on the mountain. I'm no connoisseur, so they all tasted similar to me, but some were very specific in which batch they wanted to purchase.

Also nearby: a native dance performed by the indigenous Tsou people, who have inhabited these mountains long before refugees came from the Chinese mainland 400 years ago.

In the distance, the clouds are starting to move in. In the mountains the weather can change drastically between morning and evening.

For the first night, we enjoy the luxury of a modern hotel. Here we can get a bit acclimatized to the altitude (the air pressure here is akin to that in a passenger jet) before the major exercise we will endure for the next two days.

But first, a walk around the 阿里山 trails. The park is dotted by the stumps of fallen giants. This one seems to have a face.

This is 神木, the mystical tree, fallen here perhaps due to old age.

Across from an elementary school (which I was surprised to find here, at a national park) stands this majestic temple built into the dense forest.

The trail also led past the Sisters Lake, named for a legend of sisters, both in love with the same man, both jumped into this lake to yield her love for the other.

Finally, we gather for one last "team meeting" before going off to bed to prepare for the difficult hike the next day.

November 13, 10am. Our expedition approach the trail-foot to the behemoth 玉山, Taiwan's tallest peak. It's less of a tourist attraction (but still very much so) than 阿里山 because the only way to the top is about 11km by foot, including a night of very uncomfortable sleep at a ranger station 8.5km of the way up. Vertical ascent is nearly 2500m. We have three guides to help us along - an experienced friendly old-timer with whom I shared a room the night before, and his two young apprentices here on the right.

The start of the winding path is here. Before the hike we all kneel to say a prayer to the mountain spirit, spilling some spirits onto his ground as a sign of respect, in the hopes that he will allow us onto the peak and back down safely. There will be no more pavement for a long long time.

A coworker felt like being creative.

Quite honestly, photos (mine, anyway) can't do this place justice. There's such a feel of depth that can't be conveyed with a single lens.

The beaten path through thick vegetation is occasionally supplemented by a wooden structure - bridges, stairs, etc. 8.5km may not seem like much on flat land, but it's quite exhausting to walk on uneven rocks and constantly uphill.

And all we can do is push on, take frequent breaks, and be thankful that we didn't have to make one or two trips up to the ranger station daily ferrying supplies like a few such workers we've encountered. The view and the atmosphere, of course, more than made up for the physical fatigue.

Friendly birds also tag along, crowding the rest stops, hoping to pick up some food discarded by the human visitors.

The path, at times, became a bit more perilous, but really nothing a normal person can't handle. I do wonder, however, how often accidents actually happen.

As difficult as it seemed, the path did lead us eventually to the ranger station, where some hot tea awaited to soothe our exhaustion. It's hard to believe that it took until almost sunset to get up here.

And what a sunset it was. This was my first time above the clouds on foot.

And the first time I've seen the sun set not just into the horizon, but into the clouds.

It was pleasantly surprising that we would also be so well fed, here in the middle of nowhere. I think the catering service was ordered in advance by our group event organizer. Another eager hiker thought the food was for general use, before someone from our party politely asked her to leave. Poor woman - I don't know how I'd have felt if I had to go hungry that night.

We will set out for the summit at 3am, and a dozen people had to squeeze into this room to rest. Between the altitude sickness (which induced headaches, nausea, vomiting and general unpleasantness), the stuffy room, the cold mountain air and the loud snoring from the few of us would could actually sleep, it turned out to be a pretty miserable night. But the goal was always in mind - the summit sunrise will make it all worthwhile.

I spent most of the night outside, where there was at least a bit more oxygen to breath. The full moon lit up the night as I chatted with some fellow hikers also unable to sleep. I passed part of the time taking pictures of the sky - unfortunately the moon made the stars a lot less visible, but it was still a sight not often seen.

November 14, 3am. Finally, the hike begins. The 2.4km that remains to the summit turned out to be the most difficult, as much of the path felt like nothing short of vertical ascent. Here, we take a rest. To the west, a mere 50km away, is Taiwan's urban coast, covered by clouds during the sunset last night. It's hard to believe such wilderness can be so close outside the cities.

Here it is, the summit. Altitude: 3952m. Here the air is only 65% as thick as at sea level. No longer under the pressure of physical exertion, the air suddenly feels cold again. We wait eager for the sun to rise, for both a sight to see, and for some warmer air.

And there it comes!

And the peak casts a shadow to the west.

Now in the full light of day can we begin to appreciate the depth of the scenery. We were quite literally standing on the single point at the top of Taiwan.

In the full light of day, during our descent, we could also see what the summit trail really looked like. One wrong step and we'll be taking a magnificent plunge into the magnificent scenery.

Monkeys (and general exploration)

2008-11-09T19:12:00.018+08:00

This has been the second of undoubtedly many great fun weekends. On Saturday I opted to tour Ape Hill on my own (while my roommate Conk had to work), and the monkeys far exceeded my expectations in both number and playfulness. The video speaks for itself!

Apartment synth

2008-11-07T21:00:00.005+08:00

Ok, here's a quick "synth" of the apartment, created using Microsoft's "revolutionary" Photosynth, which it claims will change the way we look at photos. Personally I think it's a nice way to give a holistic impression of a particular setting and, unlike videos, presents the user with a at-your-own-pace interface. Downloading the Photosynth plugin is required, but I think it's worth it. Oh, and you have to be using Windows. Enjoy!

Update: the Photosynth plugin is apparently no longer required, as long as you have Microsoft Silverlight installed. Personally I think it'd be nice if everything tended towards your standard Flash player, but it's Microsoft!

The hottest winter!

2008-11-07T18:28:00.010+08:00

Tip: You can see the names and comments of the photos by viewing them full screen and toggling the "info" button at the top. I try to tell a story with these, although a broken story at best...

Perhaps it's not technically winter yet, but it's hotter here in Kaohsiung in November than Toronto can ever hope to be in the warmest summer. Anyway, I arrived here safely a week ago, and here are some first photos. No photos of my home yet - be patient, but rest assured it's exceeded my expectations so far.

Some first impressions:

The people are impressively friendly. I attended a birthday party pretty much right off the plane, and there was absolutely no feelings of being a awkward outsider. Also, having a DSLR inspires awe of divine proportions, regardless of whether it's put to good use.
Personal scooters are everywhere, and the streets are built especially to accommodate them. Personally, I think they form a rather efficient (if not slightly gut-wrenching) way to allow fast transportation to the masses without the mass congestion of ubiquitous car ownership.
Food is everywhere. I think anyone who knows anything about Taiwan would already know this. You can find snacks on the streets at any hour of the day.
The local fauna include cockroaches, house geckos, bats, and delightfully playful monkeys in a nearby forested hill on the coast within the city. I have yet to see the monkeys, but I'll definitely make a point to.

Work has also started off quite well. I was apparently "that guy" that everyone's already heard of, and to everyone's surprise and relief, I speak Chinese better than they had believed. I work directly under the Division President, whom I have yet to meet due to a business trip (his, not mine). Apparently he's taken a special interest in ensuring that extra fun projects involving getting to know the whole company would take up at least half my time. The fact that he's an ex-AIESECer explains it.

The company is in many ways similar to Autoliv - it's a big global electronics manufacturer. Those of you who know me well also know how much I hated being a production support engineer at Autoliv. So, perhaps what's most cool about this job is that now I'm working in the headquarters office, directly for the president. I was delightfully introduced to all the company VPs and upper management on the first day. I really think I won't be "just another worker" here.

So things are off to a great start! The only thing I can't stand is this heat.

Fall colours in Orangeville

2008-10-27T22:34:00.009+08:00

Fall Colours in Orangeville from wisefly on Vimeo.

Funny it should be called Orangeville. Anyway, I think the video sums up my entire weekend. It's a composition of 1400 photos I shot on this trip. The photos themselves (with most of the redundant ones deleted, of course) will be ready for viewing soon, but really, when there's a video like this to sum it up, who really needs to look at the photos?

Busy month October!

2008-10-18T05:47:00.004+08:00

My adventures in Dallas last weekend included more than just chasing goats on the "ranch" (I don't really want to call it a "ranch", but it also doesn't seem to make sense to claim that there at goats in the "back yard", which is probably closer to the truth). Last Sunday I visited visited the State Fair of Texas, but along the way I also got a good look at the big 5-level stack interchange at I-635 and US-75.

All in all, I have a better feel now for what life is like in the American suburb. It really is very different and, dare I say, very pleasant compared to the high rise condos in Toronto and the medium density row houses in Europe. It's a bit easier to see now why so many Americans prefer their big freeways, low density cities and big suburban houses. I'm not saying it's right... I'm just saying I've lived it for a week.

And now there's just two more weeks until I leave for Taiwan.

Rancho Relaxo

2008-10-08T21:48:00.006+08:00

So here I am at my parents' new Texas "ranch", home to three hungry goats and a little family reunion. Personally I think the 7 bedroom 4000 square footer on the 2 acre lot is a bit of overkill in the suburban dream, but I must admit it is relaxing after all the travelling and living in tight quarters during the past few months. Incidentally, I also found out about Flickr's slideshow feature, and how to embed a slideshow in HTML. It's what I've always wanted to do!

Last day in Sweden

2008-09-30T10:54:00.005+08:00

In 24 hours I'll be on my way to the airport going back home! In the mean time here's something I found interesting enough to put it up on a post. Apparently a popular way to memorize pi is to memorize a poem or story where each word represents a digit of pi through the number of letters it contains. A popular piece is titled Cadaeic Cadenza, whose title itself comes from the digits of pi in a different manner - by assigning A to 1, B to 2, etc. The poem begins: "One / A poem / A Raven / Midnights so dreary, tired and weary", and the length of the words are, in order, 3,1,4,1,5,9,2,6,5,3,3. Sometime words longer than 9 letters are used to represent two consecutive digits, too. Check out the full text!

A tourist for a week

2008-09-27T06:55:00.002+08:00

In case you haven't stumbled upon it already, I've been keeping a set of pictures for my final week here in Stockholm. I've been eating buffets, visiting attractions and riding the local transit aimlessly to explore the city outside its central core. There are pretty much daily updates in the pictures, so check back often!

Last day of work!

2008-09-19T22:14:00.003+08:00

It's the last day of work! Which is kind of too bad because I didn't get to finish everything I wanted to. But then again, a week from now I'll probably have no idea what I've been working on this summer anyway. So between now and when I fly back on October 1, it's time to be a real tourist - do all the things that people who live here never get around to doing. Things like museums and if the weather permits, more exploring of Stockholm in general. Speaking of the weather, I think I'm leaving just in time. It's been cloudy 9 days out of 10 for the past month or so, and I had to buy some very ugly gloves so I could countinue to bike to work. Anyway, I'm sure I'll be quite glad to set foot in Toronto again when the time comes. Goodbye St. Jude!

Pictures from Vienna

2008-09-15T20:51:00.002+08:00

Pictures from my Vienna trip are all uploaded on a new Flickr set. The highlight: a display in the Sound Museum that claims "England Conquers Canada" in 1760.

Back from Österreich

2008-09-09T03:53:00.002+08:00

Brian used a good phrase to describe this weekend - it was a big "gong show". Too much details would mean a huge post, but I can sum it up with a few simple points:

Lots of drinking,
Crazy manager yelling at me and Brian for sleeping in Kari's dorm's common room,
Crazy trip to Bratislava with a great choice of restaurant but a terrible choice of a nightclub,
Kari was one of the 11 boys,
Interesting visits to the Vienna Natural History Museum and the Sound Museum,
Biggest outdoor concert in Europe with more people crammed onto an island than the population of Stockholm.

That's about it... pictures will come soon but my salute goes to Kari for having such a crazy life, all the time!

Brian visits Stockholm

2008-09-04T05:24:00.010+08:00

Brian was in Stockholm from last Friday to today, when we both came to Vienna to visit Kari. We spent the weekend doing some things I've never done before. First, taking a cruise on the inner Stockholm Archipelago (kayaking in which is a popular passtime among the locals). Then, taking the usual walking tour of the city. And on Sunday, visiting the Vasa Musuem (housing the only surviving preserved 17th century warship). There was a nice surprise when we visited a thai food kiosk in Slussen that had apparently gone through a change in management, and a special 1kr (that's about 15 cents!) lunch special was on. Anyway, hop over to the Flickr set to take a look at the rest of the pictures.

Nothing important

2008-08-27T18:31:00.006+08:00

Wow, it's been a while since my last post. I guess it's a combination of being busy at work and August having been a pretty uneventful month. The most exciting thing that's happened is me trying to find half-price meatballs on sale (click on picture for some more recent pictures taken around home). It's been cloudy or rainy for at least 5 days a week all month, so I haven't gotten out much. The days are definitely getting shorter, too - it used to be broad daylight at 10pm, but now it's pitch dark after 9. It's also hard to believe that there's only 4 weeks of work left, and I haven't done half of what I aimed to do. No matter, I still learned some very nifty tricks working with Excel and VBA. I'm actually leaving my collegues a "software package" (probably a very inappropriate use of the term) consisting of an Excel add-in that will automate a lot of very tedious and high-volume manual work. I just hope it doesn't become obsolete from changing requirements 2 weeks after I leave. If nothing else, at least it made my own work easier. Also, Brian is coming this Friday to get a taste of Stockholm for five days (I hope the weather will cooperate), and next Wednesday we'll be off together to see Kari in Vienna for another five days. That should enough excitement to break this month's dry spell. After that, I'll have only another two more weeks of work! Time is really just wizzing by.

Back to the mundane

2008-08-15T03:36:00.003+08:00

Perhaps you've noticed already, but I'll remember Stockholm by its snails. There's the huge white type, and there's the colourful small type that, as I found out today, gather in groups and either eat or mourn the crushed white types. This one is headed for one such party. Click on it for more.

Mortgages - part 2

2008-08-13T23:39:00.006+08:00

Ok, so last week I made mention of how rent paid today is actually buying valuable time to increase the size of a down payment. But how to quantify this? Beware, the answer might only appeal to those with a bit of finance background or who were forced to take a course taught by a certain jolly accountant with an interesting sense of humor. First, you must research and decide the following variables:

Q, Current savings – size of your savings today (or whatever time you consider time zero)
r, Savings rate – rate at which your savings earn interest
S, Annual savings before rent – how much you can put in the bank each year after expenses but before rent
R, Annual rent – how much you expect to pay in rent before you buy a house (can be zero)
P, Price of house today – the current price of the type of house you’d like to buy
p, Price inflation rate – percentage the price is expected to go up each year
m, Mortgage rate – the interest rate the bank charges you for a mortgage (assume fixed)
M, Annual mortgage payment – how much you’d be willing to repay each year

To take into account the time value of money, we’re going to find the present value (with respect to now, or time zero) of the sum of rent, down payment, plus mortgage payments from now until when your mortgage is repaid, as a function of x, the time in years at which you buy your house. Note that the discount rate represents how much interest you’re missing out on if you spend your money instead of saving it, so for the conversion factors the discount rate will be r (and not m, which is another interest rate for another purpose).

When you buy your house at year x, you have paid an annual rent of R for x years. This amounts to a present value of R*(p/a, r, x). This is the cost of rent.

When you buy your house at year x, you would have saved up Q*(f/p, r, x)+S*(f/a, r, x). This amounts to a present value of Q+S*(p/a, r, x). This is the cost of the down payment. When you buy your house at year x, the price of the house would have risen to P*(1+p)^x, while your savings would have grown to Q*(f/p, r, x)+S*(f/a, r, x), both values with respect to year x (not today). That means you will have to borrow B=P*(1+p)^x-[Q*(f/p, r, x)+S*(f/a, r, x)] from the bank. Given that we’ll pay back M dollars a year and the bank charges an interest rate of m, what’s the present value of all your payments? To answer that, we must first find out how long the payments will last. Let’s jump to year x and think about present value with respect to that time for a moment. Consider that the amount you borrowed, B, is precisely the (hypothetical) present value of all your payments at a discount rate of m. To find out y, how many years it will take to repay the mortgage, we must solve the equation B=M*(p/a, m, y) for the value of y. As it turns out, y=ln[M/(M-B*m)]/ln(1+m). The constraint of the logarithm states that M must be greater than B*m, which makes sense, because it says your annual payment should be at least as much as the annual interest, or else you’ll never pay it all off. Ok, so this means that, with respect to year x, the present value (with the real discount rate of r) of all your mortgage payments will be M*(p/a, r, y). If we convert this to the present value with respect to time zero, then we apply a further factor of (p/f, r, x). So the total cost of buying a house in year x, in present value with respect to today, is R*(p/a, r, x)+Q+S*(p/a, r, x)+M*(p/a, r, y)*(p/f, r, x), where y=ln[M/(M-B*m)]/ln(1+m), and B=P*(1+p)^x-[Q*(f/p, r, x)+S*(f/a, r, x)] Now this isn’t an easily differentiable function with respect to x, so the easiest thing to do is to enter the formula into Excel and let it show you what the present value is for x equals a variety of values, and find the x for which total present value cost is minimized. For example, let’s say I want to aim for a type of house that costs $400k today, and rises in price by 7% each year. My annual rent in the mean time is $10k, my annual savings is $50k (before rent), the savings rate is 6%, the mortgage rate is 10%, and I’m willing to pay all $50k of savings into mortgage payments after I take a mortgage. My formula tells me that I best buy a house after 3 years of renting, at a present value total cost (rent plus mortgage) of $516k. If I were to buy the house today because someone told me that paying rent is like burning money, then the present value cost of the house would be $522k. So, by staying put in my apartment over 3 years, I saved $6K PV by the end of it all. Remember, that's $6K in present value, which, at 6% savings, will grow to $18K by the time I repaided the entire mortgage.

Some new pictures

2008-08-12T03:32:00.006+08:00

Pictures of famous buildings and other tourist sites are great, but they don't really show my daily life for what it is (i.e., always trying hard to not crush snails). Now that there are less than 2 months before I head back to Toronto, I've decided to keep my camera on me as much as possible. I'm going to add these into a single Flickr set, sorted from most recent to oldest, and I'll be sure to announce significant additions. I just made some additions today. Go take a look! Oh yea, my new roommate seems like a nice guy, although I haven't had the chance to talk to him much yet.

My new room

2008-08-10T02:57:00.004+08:00

My new roommate (for back story see here and here) will be moving in either tomorrow or Monday, so I'm slowly moving my things into my new room. I get to enjoy a different view (this time out of the front of the house), a bigger desk (exactly the same Ikea desk as I had in Toronto), and a couch for a bed (which I just tested with an afternoon nap; verdict - 4 hour nap!).

A consideration of mortgages

2008-08-08T17:11:00.005+08:00

When work becomes a bit dry, I let my brain wander onto other things... two weeks ago it was bicycles and monorails. Today: It might be that time in life for some of us (maybe not for you grad students) to consider buying a house and settling down. Natural questions arise, such as, "how much can I afford on my current salary?" and "how long should I take to pay it back?" Mortgage "calculators" offered by banks such as TD are often oversimplifying the problem, and only shed light on the relationship between monthly payment, principle, interest rate and payment term. There are far more factors involved than just those. Anyone who tells you "every dollar you pay in rent is money thrown down a well" is either a loan officer, a real estate agent, or an miseducated (but well-intentioned) parent; none speaks the truth. If you're planning on buying a house in a few years, rent you're paying now is buying you time to save up for a big enough down payment to save on interest from a mortgage. Provided you have a job. Let's say you're currently renting and can put $20k into a savings account each year. And let's say you plan on one day taking up a 15 year mortgage at 10%. It might occur to you that for each additional $20k (a single year's savings) you put into a down payment, you will save $63.5k in interest by the end of your 15 year term (because you didn't have to borrow an extra $20k for 15 years at 10%). Suddenly that $500 a month rent seems worth it, right? Even that's oversimplifying it. Your savings is generating interest of its own at 4% (or if you're smart and have a good investment, 9%). The type of house you want to buy is perhaps growing in price at 5% a year. Maybe your rent is actually zero because you live with your parents. For each additional $20k you put into a down payment, your payment term decreases (for the same monthly payment), which decreases the savings on interest caused by the next 20k you put in. So bottom line: when's the best time to buy that house? Finding no easy answer on the internet (or maybe I didn't look hard enough), I set out to answer that question on my own. I haven't quite worked out the kinks in my formula yet, and this post is getting too big, so stay tuned for the conclusion.

Paris adventures

2008-08-06T01:14:00.006+08:00

I have finally sorted through all my Paris pictures. I try to give each photo a bit of special attention, and at least half of them are stitched from more than one shot (blame the horribly long focal length of my camera lens). It takes a bit of time, but I try to make my photos a happy medium between those that are purely artistic and those that are purely practical. I'm starting to think photos of fun times aren't as fun without showing myself doing something fun, but that's what you get for travelling alone. I've created two sets:

The (mostly boring but sometimes amusing) shots of, and out of, my various forms of transportation between home and Paris;
The (more interesting) shots of my stay in Paris itself.

The uploading process is a pain with the slow internet, and is only less than half done. Check back soon! Hopefully I'll compose a couple of videos too.

Got pissed too soon

2008-08-04T04:27:00.006+08:00

In my own defence, I honestly didn't think I'd see Bertil (my very sweet landlord) until "eviction day" a week from now. I haven't seen him for two or three weeks. And in my own defence, the threat of calling that new apartment a home was a pretty hard hit. However, my agitation turned out to be premature. Bertil came home just now (only for about an hour before leaving again), and said that it would be no problem if I lived on the couch in his study for the remaining two months. That really made my day, week, month, and possibly year. So, the threat of a move has been lifted, and I get to live in this idyllic little suburb for another two months. I really wish I asked him about this the last time I saw him, but (again) in my own defence, I had no idea it was necessary.

Got excited too soon

2008-08-03T17:50:00.006+08:00

Well, the Pride Parade got rained on. It wasn't pouring rain, but the type that sticks around for the whole day. The Parade was still festive with (as expected) lots of skin, but it wasn't as fun as it could have been on a sunny day. I think the real surprise was the new apartment, which turned out to be a 70 square foot room with a stained couch and a rickety table, on which stood a microwave and a hot plate. The bathroom was no bigger than a powder room, except there was a spray nozzle from the sink I'm supposed to take showers from. The "landlord" lived in the same apartment, which strangely has both a separate entrance and a locked door directly to this room. He was full of tattoos and his gaze suggested he might have been on a bit of an influence. The last thing he said to me was "if anyone asks, tell them we're friends" in broken English. As we departed, I told the nice IAESTE Stockholm member who accompanied me that my minimum standards are a teeny bit higher for 3500kr a month (about $600 CAD). So, the alternatives would be to stay at my current place in an extra room for a while longer (I haven't seen my landlord in weeks, but he's a very nice man who I really don't expect to throw me on the curb), and in the long term, get a private room in a hostel with half the expense covered by IAESTE (or so I'm told). I'm glad I didn't buy a bus pass. My only regret is I didn't take some pictures before I left, since I think this was a very interesting highlight in my experience in Sweden so far. Regardless, suddenly I feel a lot warmer and fuzzier about my current place.

The stars are out - the summer is fleeting

2008-08-02T07:32:00.002+08:00

In most of June and July, nights are filled twighlight. The sun barely sets before it rises again. I haven't been up this late in Stockholm for some 2 weeks, but just now, I noticed that the night is totally dark and the stars are visible for the first time this summer. To the locals, this might be a stark reminder that short, cold winter days are approaching. Thank goodness I'll be out of here by then.

Two things to look forward to

2008-08-01T17:45:00.004+08:00

I'm getting the keys to my new apartment this Saturday. It's about 30 minutes away from work by transit, which isn't great, but I'm relieved that a place has been found. I can stay at my current place for another week after that, which means I'll have plenty of time to pack and move. I actually don't know any details about what this place looks like and whether I'll have roommates, so, as a continuate of a recurring theme, we'll see when we get there.
The Europride parade is this Saturday, as a part of a week-long Pride festival. Apparently Stockholm hosts its own festival and parade each year, but this year the Europride rotation is here, which will make this the largest event ever. Should be a sight to see!

Some classical mechanics

2008-07-29T17:00:00.016+08:00

While it'll take a while to get all my Paris pictures sorted out, I've fallen back to some light internet reading. Forget your quarks, photons, neutrinos and whatever else in physics that are way beyond my comprehension. Have you ever stopped to think about how a bicycle works? Have you actually cared enough to find out afterwards? Well, today's the day I answer yes. My first thought was that gyroscopic forces from the spinning wheels keep the bicycle stable and upright. As it turns out, people have gone to great lengths to disprove that theory. Behold the zero-gyro bike, where two counter-rotating wheels cancel the gyroscopic effect of the main wheels. As it turns out, while it is very possible to ride a zero-gyro bike, it is impossible to ride a bike with its steering column locked in the forward position, unless the wheels are huge and gyroscopic forces actually dominate. Thus, it's actually the act of the rider that keeps a bike upright. As the figure shows, the bike is balanced as long as the moments created by gravity and centrifugal force balance each other. The system itself is not stable without a feedback controller, the rider. The rider has control over v, r and q by the acts of peddling, steering and leaning, which offers enough redundancy to ensure the moments are balanced even with external disturbances. Evidently, the bike cannot be balanced when v is zero because a centrifugal force is not possible, not because there is no gyroscopic effect from rotating wheels. On the other hand, here's a monstrocity I've only discovered today: the gyro monorail. While it might intuitively work like a bicycle, it's actually quite different. There is no control over r (due to the fixed tracks), and it would be difficult to control q directly. Thus this thing stays up purely by a giant spinning gyroscope inside the cabin. A control system keeps control over the precession of the gyroscope, which maintains the balance of the vehicle. At first glance it seems strange to see this thing stand, but after reading the article, I'm actually convinced that this system has a lot of advantages over traditional two rail systems. As the co-inventor Piotr Schilovski pointed out, it was generally ignorance in the engineering community that prevented this idea from being implemented.

Trip to Paris - Days 4 and 5

2008-07-29T03:09:00.006+08:00

I'm back in Sweden now. It's been 5 days since I've been in an empty house in the quiet suburbs (as opposed to Christy's apartment in the festive St. Germain neighbourhood), and I miss the Paris atmosphere already. It's really something that has to be experienced first hand. Life just felt much simpler in Paris, and I think that living in an apartment (instead of a hotel) really gave me the feeling of living, and not just visiting, the city. Today (Day 5) was mainly the journey back to Stockholm. I snuck a quick visit to the Arc de Triomphe (top) for a few minutes before catching the bus to the airport. The rest of the day was pretty much the 10 hour journey. Yesterday (Day 4) was a visit to the Palace of Versailles (middle, bottom). I was no doubt impressed by the palace itself, but the crowds of tourists (myself being one, of course) kind of took away from the experience. That's just not avoidable. Anyway, it's back to business as usual starting tomorrow.

Trip to Paris - Day 3

2008-07-27T07:39:00.005+08:00

Today was just more walking and a bit of shopping. Walking is actually a great way to absorb the atmosphere, and Paris is really a city best explored by walking. Above are night shots of Notre Dame, the Seine and, of course, the Eiffel Tower.

Trip to Paris - Day 2

2008-07-25T20:27:00.006+08:00

I was walking around for a few hours this morning, and now I'm back at Christy's apartment to recharge my camera battery. Processing all the pictures and videos will take too long (and take away from Paris-enjoying time), so I'll just post a few of my favourites each day. For now, Top: view from Christy's balcony. That's Notre Dame on the far left. Bottom: an HDR of a church interior. I haven't figured out the name of the church yet, but thanks to the GPS tag I'm sure I'll find out later. I think the HDR is a little too bold; I'll fix it when I get back to Sweden. For now I just want to share a tiny bit of the Paris atmosphere. Try listening to some Louis Armstrong while viewing.

Trip to Paris - Day 1

2008-07-25T05:59:00.003+08:00

It's been less than a day in Paris and I think the atmosphere beats Stockholm by orders of magnitude. "Well duh." Anyway, the trip here was rather exhausting. It consisted of or 6 modes of transportation ranging from 20 minutes to 2 hours in length, somehow adding up to a journey from 7:26 to 17:30. If it was a 10 hour flight, I can actually sleep, but transferring every hour or two meant I had to be half awake most of the time. Our friends at Ryanair also delayed the flight by half an hour on an "air conditioning problem", and produced the rockiest landing I have ever experienced (after which the passengers broke into applause). I did get a chance to experience Paris through dinner and some strolls, but pictures will have to wait until at least tomorrow. In the mean time, enjoy this wacky Ryanair captain leaned out over the cockpit window!

Trip to Paris!

2008-07-23T15:11:00.002+08:00

Tomorrow is the much anticipated trip to Paris. I'll be leaving home in the early morning and arrive in Paris some time in the mid-afternoon. I'm taking 3 days off work, so I'll be back in Sweden on Monday evening. I'm sure there will be lots of new pictures, videos and stories coming this way!

A tour of my home

2008-07-20T17:34:00.003+08:00

That teal coloured house is where I live. It's quite nice inside; click for a tour inside. There are also some pictures of scenes around my house, which I'll probably add to as time goes on.

Accidental discovery - emoticons with big noses

2008-07-17T23:35:00.008+08:00

The Swedish keyboard at work has the letter Ö where the colon is on an American keyboard, so I've accidentally discovered some new emoticons. Some of them didn't quite look right at first, but grew on me eventually. Ö) Ö_ Ö/ You get the point... Try it with various symbols and a lower case ö for a smaller nose. You can try an underline, but that's kind of cheating.

My new GPS logger

2008-07-12T20:09:00.008+08:00

View Larger Map I got my new GPS logger about a week ago (two day shipping from the US to Sweden; I was surprised). I took it out for a spin on my bike ride to/from work, and you can see how it tagged the photos in the map above. The photos themselves aren't too interesting (except for the few HDR ones), but what really is amazing is how accurate the location information is. Incidentally, I also figured out how to feed any of my Flickr sets to Google maps, and subsequently embbed the map into a webpage. Obviously this post is the result. The internet is so much more than it used to be.

HDR redemption

2008-07-11T17:46:00.004+08:00

I took my new GPS logger out for a test yesterday, and it worked perfectly. More on that later. Along the way I also decided to give HDR another try, and here is my favourite result. Detail in color without a wide angle is essentially useless for close subjects, so processing this image involved both HDR merging and tone mapping, followed by a panorama stitching, and then some final touch ups for errors in automatic alignment. To make things more complicated, my camera (definitely not designed to take stunning stills) records mostly false exposure information, so the first step is to actually override the image file with a bitmap copy of itself to erase the (apparently uneditable) EXIF information. This would be much easier with an actual DSLR, but then again, I'm just playing around to alleviate the weeknight boredom.

A head scratcher

2008-07-10T05:01:00.005+08:00

Over the course of the past few weeks, I've been to a lot of random websites in search of VBA syntax. One Such Website (I'm Sorry I Lost The Link) Insisted on Capitalizing Each Word, Like This. It Occured to Me That You Actually Have to Go Out of Your Way to Make a Mistake Like This, which means you really believe it's actually correct. See similar crimes at Apostrophe Abuse (the keeper of which evidently has very good taste in blog themes) and The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks. And look at this one; it's making me homesick. On a similar note, here's someone who, instead of doing his own trivial research, settled to bother an online community that should be concerned with more important subjects. I'm just bored.

Travel plans

2008-07-09T18:22:00.006+08:00

Some good news from the Swedish Migration Board: I'm quite welcome to visit any Schengen country and return to Sweden with no problems to my work permit. I actually had no idea what the Schengen agreement was before three days ago. In any case, my planned trips:

July 24 - 28: Paris, hosted by Christy
Sept 03 - 08: Bratslava and Vienna, travelling with Brian and hosted by Kari, whom I must say has had much less luck with foreign beaurocrats than I've had.

St. Jude Medical

2008-07-09T15:58:00.005+08:00

For those who wonder, yes, it's HDR. My first HDR. Far from perfect for now - there are noticeable merge artifacts here and there. Still, it's quite amazing what a computer can do to photos taken by an equivalent 4 year old point-and-shooter. Curious? Here's a good tutorial. Anyway, a bit about what I actually do in this building. St. Jude Medical is a US-based medical devices company focused on artifical pacemakers and implantable defibrillators. My job, along with a manager, two permanent engineers and another summer worker, is to conduct and analyze tests on the batteries used by these devices. There are a lot of numbers to crunch in Excel, but since the second week I've turned myself from a data monkey into a code monkey. As I have learned since then: you can't even scratch the surface of Excel without diving into some VBA macro programming. Anyway, I think I can say that much without getting into trouble (pacemakers use batteries; batteries need to be tested; tests are analysed in Excel. I don't think that's a secret to anyone).

Neat

2008-07-08T02:38:00.003+08:00

I thought it was kind of neat that in each of these two panoramas you can see the vantage point of the other.

Four things I learned this week

2008-07-07T00:36:00.015+08:00

I explored more of Stockholm with some fellow IAESTE students yesterday. Check out a new set of photos, or see the additions to my favourite photos and panoramas. Some important highlights of this past week: 1. The North American art of subtle innuendo is lost in the Swedes. I saw this series of posters last week but thought it was just a milk ad next to some kind of champagne ad. But this time I noticed the right-most poster and everything just snapped together. I think you can guess what it says. Try reading a Swedish newspaper - full page ads of a similar theme are not uncommon. 2. Don't ride a bike on a flat tire. This is what happens. I had to abandon my bike and walk the rest of the way home, in the middle of the night. Luckily, the next day, I managed to fix it up and ride it home, but found that there indeed was a leak in the tube. My next big project: find and patch the leak. 3. If a plane ticket is essentially free, don't count on customer service. Foolishly after making a booking with Ryanair (which has some very cheap fares starting at "free"), I didn't copy down the confirmation number. Unfortunately no email confirmation ever came, and a pay-per-minute "reservation hotline" never had anyone to pick up the phone. Fortunately, the confirmation number showed up on my credit card (3 days later); but you really shouldn't count on that happening. 4. Don't assume anything about your visa. I foolishly made plans to travel without first checking if my work visa allows me to leave Sweden. A fellow IAESTE student from Kazakhstan made the same mistake and she was out of luck. Since Canadians are allowed to enter Sweden without a visa, I don't really think there should be a problem for me, but I should have made sure beforehand. Apparently ground travel in most of the EU is practically unrestricted, but air travel is another story. We'll see how it turns out.

New video

2008-07-05T06:30:00.002+08:00

From footage shot on Bohus-Malmön two weeks ago.

PS - happy Independence Day

2008-07-04T06:56:00.004+08:00

Rotten Apple

2008-07-04T06:15:00.006+08:00

I'm not one to make rash judgements without basis in fact. At least that's how I'd like to think of myself. But I really don't understand why so many people think Vista is many times worse than Mac OS X. Maybe it's because more people use Vista. Maybe it's because of Apple's shameless ad campaign (seriously, claiming Microsoft Windows is now useless because Microsoft Office runs on Mac is overkill). Maybe it's because few people actually use both operating systems regularly enough to offer a valid comparison. I have both OS's installed on my Macbook Pro. I mainly use Vista, but switch to Mac OS whenever I need video editing, which is a fair chunk of the time. The programs bundled with Mac OS are great - things like GarageBand, Photo Booth and Time Machine. As Apple says, they "just work". Fine. But I have far more frustrating "why the hell did that happen", "who the hell designed this" and "why don't they have this feature" moments in Mac OS than Vista. The finder is terribly difficult to navigate (at least for me) since the views are all so restrictive. There is no "level up" feature, only a back feature. An NTFS drive that shows up on the desktop is nowhere to be seen in the Finder. Instead of ctrl-C, it uses cmd-C, which is terribly awkward to use. These are little things. I can live with them. Half of them are probably just because I'm not used to them. Today, however, arose a problem that was really perplexing (to say the least). While importing some AVCHD video into my scratch disk, I suddenly spotted that the new video clips were overwriting existing files in the folder! I quickly stopped the process but the damage was already done - my timelines are rendered useless. The "clip #300" that used to be a train leaving a station is now a shot in a dark museum (ironically enough, the transit museum). Several files were lost this way, and it'll probably take hours to dig through my archives to transcode and replace them. To avoid the same thing from happening, I decided to put my video clips into separate folders away from where newly ingested videos go. While moving "clip #1" through "clip #121" to an empty folder, I get a message asking me if I really wanted to overwrite "clip #9" with a "new version". I select no, and discovered that "clip #88" remains unmoved. I tried moving it into the new folder, but again Finder prompts me to replace "clip #9". I conducted an experiment. I copied "clip #9" to somewhere safe, and allowed Finder to "overwrite" clip #9 with the "new version" (actually "clip #88"). To my utter and unabated disgust, "clip #9" thereafter disappeared, and "clip #88" sits quietly in the new folder. I restored the "clip #9" copy. Good thing I didn't trust the OS. The same thing happened to 6 other files. Seriously, WTF? How can an operating system claiming to be the world's best make a mistake even DOS couldn't possibly have made? If anyone has a valid explanation, I'd love to be humbled with it. But even if an explanation exists, this is at best terribly unintuitive.

A slideshow

2008-07-02T16:56:00.022+08:00

Click (or right click -> Save target as) for full size! Click here to see them in Flickr. I almost forget yesterday was Canada Day. Happy (belated) Canada Day! I found a fantastic free photo stitcher, apparently developed (probably as a thesis project) by two guys at UBC. It was able to effortlessly stitch panoramas that commercial software (demo versions, anyway) had a lot of trouble doing automatcially. So, above are some results. Click here to go to the Panoramas set I created in Flickr where these (and in the future, more) panoramas are stored. I've also attempted some wide angle shots by stitching shots from my measly video camera (which is pretty good at taking HD video but quite inept at taking any seriously good looking photos). The results, I thought, are quite nice with a little touchup in Photoshop. See the full set here. If you care to follow my entire weekend album with guest star Jermaine, click here. Last note: uploading videos has become highly impractical with this slow internet connection, but I'll try my best as I go along.

4 day weekend

2008-07-01T16:16:00.008+08:00

Jermaine was here to visit, and I took a 4 day weekend. We spent most of our time walking around Stockholm, but this time I actually knew more or less where I was going. Photos coming right up. This was hopefully the first of many 4 day weekends I'll be having. Discount airlines here operate more like bus companies, which makes fares cheaper than bus or train in many cases. I've planned a trip to Paris this month, Austria with Brian to visit Kari in September, and possibly one or two more vacations in between. The boss was nice enough to grant me days off whenever I'd like as long as I make up the hours, which works great because weeknights here are a little dull and I might as well stay at work.

Dagen H

2008-06-27T17:07:00.005+08:00

Here's something interesting I just found out - on 3 Sept 1967, Sweden changed from left hand to right hand traffic. It's hard to imagine the amount of preparation required. Read to find out more...

Panorama test

2008-06-27T04:11:00.007+08:00

Here's Stockholm from the top of city hall. No, I can't take credit for the panorama. It came from Wikipedia, by the original artist Johannes Akkach. I'm using it to test the embed feature of this panorama upload website I found. Now that I know it works, I have a couple of really nice panoramas of my own from this weekend to stitch and upload. Personally I think 360 panoramas are the best way to share the experience of "being" somewhere, so I might start doing that more often!

Photos sorted!

2008-06-26T02:03:00.003+08:00

If you haven't already dived into the photos from the weekend, then go take a look. They've all been named, located and described. I've also uploaded two more videos! Find them in both their appropriate sets and in a special videos set. Below is one I've been working on for a few weeks. Enjoy!

Something interesting

2008-06-25T02:44:00.004+08:00

The pictures are taking forever to load. Here's one to tide you over. Gothenburg has a very extensive tram system that I'd say is on par with that in Zurich. You can pretty much explore the whole city in a few hours riding these. I think the front looks like a funny face with a little hat, like something right out of Thomas the Tank Engine. The Swedish name for Gothenburg is actually Göteborg. You pronounce "Gothenburg" exactly as it looks, but it's nowhere close to the Swedish pronunciation. Luckily, whenever you speak English to a Swedish person, you're free to just say the English version and there won't be any awkward "what?.... oh! you mean Göteborg!" The bus station in Gothenburg was filled with crazies. One guy accosted me and spoke some pretty broken English about really random topics. "Have you heard of Firefox? It's quite good, yes? What is it, an operating system? No? But it's quite good, yes?". After he left, a Filipino guy sitting next to me gave me a "sorry for the crazies in this city, but I swear it's got nice things too" kind of look. He went on to tell me that Asian men are hot stuff here with the Swedish girls, and that I'll find out for myself at the disco. Somehow I think his information is outdated at best...

Another video

2008-06-24T05:38:00.004+08:00

Uploading video on this slow connection is finicky at best. But here's another one!

Sorting the photos

2008-06-23T23:29:00.004+08:00

I took an overnight bus from Gothenburg to Stockholm that arrived at 6am. The original plan was to come straight to work but I really needed a shower back home. I've uploaded some photos but haven't really labelled them yet, so wait another day if you're patient. The good news is, I've managed to upload a video! It's not much but go take a look. More videos to come!

Midsummer weekend

2008-06-20T05:23:00.004+08:00

Midsummer is like Christmas in Sweden on the important holiday scale, and the IAESTE committee in Gothenburg is hosting a weekend of fun on the island of Bohus-Malmön. Apparently a midsummer traditional activity is dancing around a huge decorated maypole... Hopefully the food is good. Leaving tomorrow morning at 5am, back on Monday morning by an overnight bus, and going directly to work afterwards. Joy! I'm sure there will be plenty of pictures.

Evening commute

2008-06-19T05:58:00.007+08:00

I took a special detour this evening coming home - it's my last "visit" to these particular banks. I've taken time off at lunch to visit the banks at least 4 times to open an account. Each time they told me to bring something new to be able to help me.

"Bring a letter from your employer. Sorry, we don't have a phone to call them." Are you serious? A bank doesn't have a phone?

"Sorry, a letter's not enough. You have to have a personal number."

But the guy yesterday swore upon the life of his firstborn that a letter is enough!

"Sorry, that personal number isn't good enough. Bring a customer of the bank to verify you."

This personal number is good enough for the government to tax me, but not good enough to open a bank account?

That last one was really too much, but I complied and reluctantly bothered a collegue. When we sat down, the bank guy started speaking to her in Swedish, which turned out to be an extended explanation of why I wasn't able to get an account. So "Bring a customer of the bank to verify you" actually means "I don't know how to speak to you in English, so bring someone who'll translate why we can't give you an account."

Rules are rules, and I don't mind it if you can't change them. I even don't mind the scenic bike ride to the bank 3 or 4 times. But to trick me into wasting someone else's time is a bit too much, no?

Less city, more nature

2008-06-16T01:15:00.000+08:00

The weather was quite nice, so I decided to take a bike ride over to Lake Mälaren. What I found was a colourful marina, a quaint little island, and a nature preserve with secluded ranchs, a prehistoric hill fort and giant ant hill. Head on over to Flikr to see the full set of photos. As always, I'll upload a video or two to the same Flikr set a few days later, while I put together a meaningful edit.

Backtracking - Stockholm

2008-06-16T00:39:00.011+08:00

During my first week here I visited central Stockholm a total of 4 times, partly because I had a transit pass that lasted the whole week, but mostly because the hostel wasn't exactly the place for a fun evening. Yes, I stayed in a hostel for 4 nights before I moved into my apartment. In any case, downtown Stockholm is about a 30 minute transit ride from where I live and work. Since it doesn't get dark until at least 11pm, it was quite easy to go down there for an evening or weekend visit.

During each visit I ended up spending most of my time in about the same areas, just so I won't get too lost. There will be plenty more to visit later on. Photos are posted on Flikr, and I hope to have a short video soon.

In case you didn't notice, I geotag most of my photos in Flickr, for those who are curious where I've been on the map.

This is the last of the backtracking posts... Now let's live in the present.

Backtracking - Zürich

2008-06-16T00:20:00.005+08:00

This post should have been the first, but I didn't get around to setting a blog up until now. Better late than never. My flight from Toronto on June 1 had an 8 hour stopover at Zürich, so I had a chance to visit the city. My camera's batteries didn't allow me to do the visit justice, but at least it's something. Hopefully I'll have a short video for this one done up soon too.

A side note - I've noticed numerous people back home (not only aquaintances and friends, but TV personalities too) confuse Sweden and Switzerland, "Swedish" and "Swiss", presumably because these countries share the same first two letters in their English names. "You're going to Sweden? Bring me back one of those knives!" I was probably guilty of the same 6 months ago. Seeing both places on the same day cleared me right up.

First post

2008-06-15T21:26:00.002+08:00

Two weeks in Sweden and I finially decided to start a blog. For those who aren't convinced I'm actually in Sweden, hopefully now you'll have your proof.