윤

I wonder if it was the “special ending” at the end of this instructional video that led a ninja on his costumed misadventure?

I was in a baby shop (yeah, I go to those now) in Taiwan and saw this super-IKEA bed, only to learn upon returning to the States that the Japanese brand isn’t available here. And we complain about protectionism in foreign markets? The saddest part is that we’re stuck with the lower-tier Chinese-made goods that American companies can afford. Still, I wonder what effects there’d be on a child’s development to be stuck in a single bed for most her growing life. Same goes for this chair (for sale in England, too, though the Danish homepage was hard enough to Google) that was also on a poster there. Would she appreciate her father’s predilection for things that last—if not cost—or just mark them up to hell with crayons and force us to get replacements, anyway?

Had a dream we were by the ocean, overlooking it as we did at that stop in 宜蘭, and there was a giant turtle near the shore. It swam behind a smaller one, and when it got close enough, gobbled it up. 老婆 was preoccupied with her relatives and wasn’t listening to me when I told her about it, and wandered into the water …only to be swallowed whole herself. I was horrified, and yelled something to the effect of give me back my wife, but stopped short of throwing myself at the creature, as little as I could conceivably do without a weapon against its rock-like hide. Upon waking I re-considered; I probably should have. After all, not everyone gets a trial run at the life (albeit a lonely one, as a practical-minded coward)-or-certain death decision when faced with a giant turtle who’s just eaten your loved one.

Score one—for the consumer? The Macbook trackpad suddenly stopped depressing, and I discovered the cause was a swollen battery. I mean, pictures can’t do it justice; the bulge in the White glaze made it resemble Stormtrooper armor even more (the rounder parts thereof). Got to thinking about retiring the 3-year-old machine rather than spending $100+ on a replacement, but read that others with the same problem managed to get it free, out of warranty, by bringing it in, so I took a chance and made a “Genius Bar” appointment. I awoke from a jetlag-induced nap to ponder continuing it, staying and watching the premiere of the V remake or futilely trying to make it to South Coast in 15 minutes, but in this turn of events at least, the staff there was gracious with both my tardiness and their product defect. Still gonna go with ASUS next. Touch my heart, Taiwan.

That’ll be the tourism slogan. Once again, I’ll leave it to 老婆 to preserve the more important photos. The one I really regret not having taken (like the Muslim cab driver in Vancouver with the flip-phone held in his turban, that was awesome) was of an old man washing dishes in a place we ate near 龍山 while smoking.