Following Alex’s “2007 in review” post, here are some statistics from 2007’s journal entries.

Total # posts in 2007: 296 Total # posts in 2006: 263 Total # posts in 2005: 225 Total # comments in 2007: 1075 Total # comments in 2006: 941 Total # comments in 2005: 940 Average length of posts in 2007: 1293 characters Average length of posts in 2006: 1169.7 characters Average length of posts in 2005: 1255.3 characters Total length of posts in 2007: 382,742 characters Total length of posts in 2006: 307,624 characters Total length of posts in 2005: 282,442 characters

Most Popular Posts of All Time as of 12/31/2007 (powered by Alex King’s Contest Plugin)

1. Scary-Ass Shit
2. 320GB striped array (RAID 0) in a Macbook Pro
3. Advanced Guestbook 2.2 SQL Injection Vulnerability
4. Test Post for Show EXIF Cookie
5. Great white shark breach, False Bay
6. Verizon enables file transfers on Motorola RAZR V3C
7. Hammerhead sharks and whale sharks, Galapagos
8. More tiger shark videos, Bahamas
9. Asian Blush, RU-21, Pepsid, etc.
10. iTunes 7 broke my iPod Nano

The “ass-shit” post remains my most popular post of all time (or more accurately, since installing the plug-in), with over 54,000 direct hits and 35,000 archive views (but only 19 comments). The Macbook Pro RAID article claimed the #1 spot for weeks after I posted it, but the temporary fame garnered from hitting the front page of DIGG and getting linked from just about every tech blog out there failed to trump the actions of all of the sick bastards out there who continue to search for nasty stuff.

Happy new year!

If you’re in need of a laugh, watch this video of a Japanese game show (and the related videos). :) (read more »)

Incredibly jet-lagged, I woke up (wide awake) at 5:30am after going to bed at 3am and decided to post all of the photos I took in Taiwan over the last two weeks.

Here’s the index to all of the posts. I suggest opening each one in a new tab, so you don’t have to keep coming back to this page. You can also check out all the photos on flickr. Okinawa photos are also available.

• Yummy food at the Luodong night market
• Happy Holidays 2007!
• Hot sprints at Beitou
• Afternoon at the Academia Sinica
• Dinner with Su Tseng-Chang
• Pingtung with Grandma (private)
• Illegal tourism at the Da-An river
• Tsunah Foundation evening
• Ximending
• Mall wanderings in Taipei
• Amy Hsin in Taiwan
• Angela Tseng book signing
• Taiwan: photo catch-up
• Okinawa Part I
• Okinawa Part II - Churaumi Aquarium

 
wendy and dad play ping-pong

Assorted images that I couldn’t fit anywhere else… (read more »)

My Dad is quoted in a book written by Angela Tseng about her father, who is an author of short stories in Taiwan (I think?). The book is all in Mandarin, so I can’t read any of it. But Angela was in Taipei for a book signing at Eslite down the street from SOGO. After lunch, we booked to the signing.

me, author angela tseng, wendy, and dad

Wendy and I had never met Angela, but she was so friendly and extroverted that she made us feel like old friends. (read more »)

Amy Hsin outside of Sogo, Taipei

I had lunch with Amy Hsin at Din Tai Fong (SOGO) on my last day in Taiwan. It had been 6 years since I last saw her, and I very-much enjoyed catching up.

I wrote “catching up,” but it was more like getting to know her for the first time. Despite having a few friends in common and both playing the cello, we didn’t really talk much during college. But now that I know she’s back in Taipei, I hope to see her the next time I visit.

[see all photos @ flickr]

For some reason, Wendy wanted to go to the Jing Hua Cheng, or Core Pacific Mall, AKA the Death Star.

this is where the planet-destroying beams come from

We found Jing Hua Cheng to be completely deserted. Its weird crashed-alien-sphere thing looks cool from the outside, but the designers seriously screwed up, and the mall feels cluttered and uncomfortable inside. (read more »)

just outside the MRT station, Ximen Ding, Taipei

Since Mom had to go back to work the week of Christmas day, Dad, Wendy and I spent a lot of time wandering around the city aimlessly. We went to Ximending and had Mister Donut. Wendy went into a bunch of stores to look at bags and funny stuffed animals (Taiwan has plenty of both!). (read more »)

In 1997, my sister and I participated in the first ever Tsunah Cultural Tour, which has since been renamed the “International Youth Culture Tour to Taiwan.” Each year when we’re back in Taiwan, we always make a special trip to the Tsunah Foundation to see this year’s batch of kids and our family friends, Lin Yi-hsiung (林義雄), Judy and Joel Linton, and their three girls (who are SO CUTE).

Charis, Faith, and Ashlyn perform magic tricks

A highlight of the evening was seeing Vivian, a Tsunah 2007 tour member, teach step dancing to participants and board members… including my MOM! I’m no fan of Asians doing step (generally, it gives me embarrassment chills), but — go, Mom! (read more »)

the da-an river in taichung, taiwan

We spent the weekend in Taichung with my grandparents, aunt (mom’s side, younger), and her family. This is the side of the family I grew up with, and it is always nice to get to see them again. One afternoon, my uncle took us to see the Da-An river, which has an interesting story. (read more »)

As is tradition during trips to Taiwan, we had dinner with Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) and his wife, Chan Hsiu-ling (詹秀齡). But this time, I had an agenda. :)

Dad, Su Tseng-chang, Mrs. Su, Mom, Wendy, and me at dinner in Taipei

I had asked my father to mention to “Uncle Su” my interest in the subject of Taiwan and shark-finning. Most of the media work done regarding shark finning and shark conservation is targeted at folks who are already into shark conservation. What good does that do? The message needs to be delivered into areas where it will make the most difference. (read more »)

Before arriving in Taiwan, I sent feelers out through the family connections to find someone to talk to about getting a photography exhibition about sharks and shark conservation into local venues there. Pretty much everyone told me to contact Professor Jeng Ming-Shiou at the Academia Sinica. And so, I got in touch with him and had a meeting. Dr. Jeng works in the (fairly new) Center for Biodiversity, whose umbrella includes some folks doing work in marine ecosystems. After we established that I, in fact, was not in high school (the first thing he asked — heh), we had an extremely productive meeting. It was heartening to see like-minded folks in Taiwan (who share similar views on marine conservation).

a preserved baby whale shark

After the meeting, we went upstairs to see John Yu, the department head of the Institute of Cellular and Organismic Biology, who is an old family friend. He had Liao Yun-Chih (”Leon”), one of his graduate students, take us through an interesting exhibition space inside the Academia Sinica that showed preserved specimens of deep water fish, an oar fish, and a baby whale shark — one of the 300 or so pulled from an adult a long time ago. I saw a photo of all of the babies laid out in a grid, which was both sad and fascinating. (read more »)

hot springs at beitou, taiwan

On December 14th, my family met up with the Kao family in Beitou. After a pseudo-Italian lunch, we walked the path around the hot springs (which contain water that is nearly boiling temperature) and then up windy mountain roads to the Kao grandparents’ place. Their place has a fantastic view of the surrounding area. (read more »)

Irvin planned a surprise birthday party tonight for Heidi’s birthday. 20 minutes early, we assembled at Creola in San Carlos to wait for their arrival. The party was a real treat for all of us because Heidi normally doesn’t get to celebrate her birthday with friends due to its proximity to Christmas and the new year.

irvin and heidi @ creola [see all photos @ flickr]

As you can see, Heidi was pretty surprised! I have only been seeing her a couple times a year lately, which is unfortunate.

Oh, and Heidi — for your birthday present, I altered the Google search that used to associate two unfortunate words with your name. ;)

thanks, neighbor!

One of the worst things to find upon returning home from a long trip is a sink full of greasy food-water and a slippery floor.

My upstairs neighbor has clogged my sink four times since I moved in. The last time, I asked him to be sure to run the water for a long time any time they put food down the disposal. I spoke with The Wife today (who was very nice, actually), and she said that she “remembered him saying something about that.”

The plumber who just showed up quoted $334 to fix the problem. Yippee.

I’m having a problem with the browser in Final Cut 6.0.2 (MacBook Pro, 3GB RAM). If I open a clip and create lots of markers (I have dozens to hundreds per clip in the project I’m currently working in), the browser sometimes won’t allow me to scroll all the way to the bottom of the list. I have to close the project and re-open it to access the elements on the bottom.

The bug occurs sporadically, but regularly. If I open the project and start creating markers, the scroll bars cut off content after perhaps… 15-20 new markers.

Has anyone else out there had this problem? Here’s a video demonstrating the bug. (read more »)

My sister, hysterical, after rolling down the car window: “Eww! Inside, it smells like Eric’s fart, and outside, it smells like sewer! And the fart smells like daikon!” (Which is funny because I haven’t had daikon since last night).

And just now, we just got pulled over by a cop for turning right from the 2nd lane in the middle.

My mom’s excuse?

“I knew I couldn’t, but I had to!”

The fine was $20, with no effect on car insurance rates. The cop was really polite and kept apologizing, and getting the ticket took 2 minutes. Not bad!

Happy holidays, everyone! I’m still in Taiwan, but will be back in the States on the 27th. I made this card from three photos I took while walking around in Ximen Ding today.

My father and I stood around on the street while my sister looked at bags and purses (but it’s ok, because she ended up something she liked). We also went into Eslite near Tai Da (why is it called Eslite? it’s nothing like its name in Mandarin…), where I bought an EX Knife Holder, a design by Raffaele Iannello. Chrome might match my new kitchen better, but black will really stand out on the stainless countertop. Also, I’m not sure chromed plastic will wear well over time. Prices in the States range from $70 - $155 (plus shipping / tax). The price in Taiwan was $80 even, which made me happy.

me, with a guy who isn’t happy to be half-eaten (photo: wendy cheng)

Anyway, I’m around for most of January and just over half of February before my travels really pick up. So if you’re reading this and are a Real-Life Friend, let’s hang out. :)

My mother grew up in Luodong, and we found ourselves wandering around its night market tonight after going to a Tsunah Foundation event. The night market is literally a block away from where my mother grew up, although the surrounding area is very different. “There were rice paddies behind us, and in front of us, across the street… more rice paddies,” she told us, as we drove down the street.

We sat down at two places and ate some great stuff. The first was a dessert: fun yuen (or whatever — I am no pinyin expert) over shaved ice, grass jelly, and condensed milk. The rest of my family had it hot, which was a mistake; mine was much more tasty.

awesome dessert at the night market [see all photos]

The second was a sesame oil chicken in broth — a specific flavor I had previously only tasted at home. We very nearly decided to head back to Taipei directly from the Tsunah event, but I’m very happy that we didn’t! Photos follow… (read more »)

whale shark tank at the churaumi aquarium in okinawa, japan

[Part I] [Part II] We spent our last day in Okinawa at the Churaumi Aquarium and a few sites between Naha and the aquarium. All of the guidebooks say that the aquarium is more than 2 hours away from Naha by car, but we made it in about an hour and a half.

The Kuroshio Sea tank is impressive, holding 80 species of fish in its 10m x 35m x 27m (H x W x D) volume. Three whale sharks and a bunch of manta (and other) rays were the highlights, and regardless of what one may think about whether whale sharks should be kept in captivity, it was an impressive sight. (read more »)