An Expatriate in Taiwan

Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

  • I’m filthy stinking rich!

    Well, no, I’m not unfortunately. Not yet, anyway. If the US economy keeps faltering the way it is, however, I may soon be much richer than expected. I have mixed feelings about the whole thing. On one hand, it’s great news for me (and for anyone living outside the US) because as the dollar gets…

  • Memorial Day in Taiwan

    April 5th is celebrated as Memorial Day here in Taiwan. In America, Memorial Day is a day for remembering soldiers, especially those who have given their lives in service. In Taiwan, however, Memorial Day is a day of remembrance for every member of your family that has passed away. It is very closely tied to…

  • Engrish Chips

    These pictures were taken with a cellphone in the grocery store, so pardon the blurriness and general craptastic quality. It’s hard to read, but it says “Best Tasty. Excellent dose of delicious food adds onions. Crispy crispy good flavour.” This last one, also, has an “Excellent dose of onions.”

  • Love them little mousies…

    A long time ago, the Jade Emperor, emperor of Heaven and all creation, decided that there should be a way to measure time. On his birthday, he told the animals that there would be a swimming race. The first twelve animals to cross the fast-flowing river would win and would have the years of the…

  • English speakers have it easy…

    At least as far as dictionaries are concerned. We can organize all the words alphabetically and it’s quite simple to look up the appropriate letter, narrow it down by the 2nd and 3rd letters and eventually arrive at the word you are looking for, complete with phonetic pronunciation guide, definition, etc. It’s not quite so…

  • Snack Food

    I have a new favorite snack food: 大腸包小腸 (Da chang bau shiao chang), what is known as “Big sausage wrapped around a small sausage.” Yeah. How could you go wrong with 2 sausages? Here’s a picture:You may have noticed that the “big Sausage” is white. This is because the big sausage is made from rice.…

  • Engrish……. in Audio!

    I frequent a number of forums. One of them had a link to a website by a nice Chinese woman named Wing. Wing is a singer. She sings covers of other bands and sells her CDs on the website. She covers bands like The Beatles, Elvis, and AC/DC. That’s right. Wing sings AC/DC. Take a…

  • Christmas Season

    Christmas is upon us once again. Every man in a serious relationships knows exactly what this means: Women’s “shopping sense” and “deal radars” are operating at 200% above threshold and they are going absolutely insane trying to find good deals, bad deals, and buy everything in sight. I’m pretty fortunate with Miss Expatriate, as she…

  • An interesting encounter

    So Miss Expatriate and I went out to dinner the other night. We chose one of our favorite budget restaurants, which happens to specialize in Turkey Rice, sat down and were engrossed in our food when we had a visitor. A mother had come in with her son, approximately 7 years old. He immediately came…

  • GUTS Chocolate Bar

    This is a GUTS chocolate bar. Sounds so appetizing. I’m not sure what it means: does it have guts in it? Does it take guts to eat it? Does it make you feel brave and strong afterwards? I ate it anyway; not bad at all.

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