Yawn…Monday?

Tiresome. Should have gotten more sleep this weekend (not like I did very much), so then today wouldn’t have felt so tired.

So… some comments on “The Last One” of “Friends,” because I’m assuming that enough people have seen it by now. If you don’t want to be spoiled by any spoiler, just close your eyes and scroll down.

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spoiler/spoiler/spoiler/open your eyes if you dare….
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As Chandler would say, could it have been any less predictable? But, all in all, a harmless, warm, fuzzy episode that gave a lot of closure. I’d quibble that Rachel, the one character with a lot of character growth in the past ten years (going from dentist’s-ex-runaway bride to fashion industry career girl) settles for the one guy who has pined for her all this time, but it’s a sitcom – we’re meant to be kept happy, and I suppose that there is nothing wrong with that. But, it was such a constructed sense of tension – it wasn’t as if Ross really was losing Rachel; they (momentarily) forget that they’ve a child together and it wasn’t as if they were having a permanent goodbye to each other as a result. And, where was Ross and Rachel’s child in this last episode? Or any mention of Ross’ other child? Kids get shafted in this series, I must say. (Monica and Chandler’s offspring had an appropriate amount of attention – considering that they’ve a hyper-responsible parent like Monica, maybe that’s unsurprising).

Even the foosball machine gets a goodbye – must they say goodbye to everything and anything? The cute thing: the new chick and duck. Aww, so cute.

Otherwise, good closure. Back to reruns to catch up on the last five years of “Friends” that I missed out on anyway…

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spoiler over.

And, what about “Survivor: All Stars”? Hmm. Jeff Probst’s arrival at Madison Square Garden from the helicopter – weird, silly scene (“So, you’re risking life and limb by standing on the side of the chopper, Probst?” My brother and I chortled if Mark Burnett, producer of “Survivor” and “The Apprentice” got a hold of Trump’s helicopter just for Probst). Boston Rob – only a runner up. Hehe – wearing that Bosox cap must’ve been spread that Bosox karma. And, Amber? Ok; so she won. But, that… engagement? Well… I think I’ll leave my comments at that. For some reason, I just can’t quite think of something really remarkable considering to say. It was just one odd season finale, and I haven’t been particularly good about following the series this season.

A belated article to link, but appropriate in honor of Asian Heritage Month (in May, but as I’ve noted, my alma mater celebrates it in April to avoid conflict with final exams) – but I had mentioned this article to my sister the other day, and so I figured I’d mention it here: ever wonder where General Tso’s chicken comes from and where would one get the best kind (in the Morningside Heights area anyway)? Note what this undergraduate says, from my alma mater’s newspaper. I’m more of a sesame chicken person myself.

Slate.com has this not-that-regular feature on commenting on other web sites; in the latest edition, Bryan Curtis writes on athletes’ blogs. Personally, I had no idea that Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants had a blog on his website; I wouldn’t even think that athletes, like most celebrities, are very interesting in their blogs (well, maybe none of us are interesting; perhaps I should say that I fear that the athletes or celebrities are more interested in self-promotion in their blogs). Scrolling down, I find out that there’s this thing called “City ‘blog maps'”. Curiously interesting – a way to look for blogs on a website organized by… transit maps? Ok. There’s no way to see if these are interesting blogs, but curious to see how the Internet can organize itself “geographically.”

The end of “Frasier” on Thursday – set your VCR’s again, folks… Otherwise, enjoy the week.

Tantalizing Taipei

Whew….I think…..

Actually, not much of one. It’s been go-go-go since February and I haven’t really had time to stop and take it all in. It’s been 11 days now in my new home Taipei but no time to reflect. I think I’ve just been throwing myself into the thick of things. Not that I’ve had much choice. It’s so much better to get everything situated as quickly as possible so that I can go on with a “normalized” life as much as possible.

So far, my schedule consists of waking up by 7am, getting to work by 9am, then leave work around 7pm or so, typical of my NYC lifestyle. Taipei is very much like that, very urban, hip (with a touch of old-world), fast and public transportation friendly. I’ve managed to get a Taipei Metro Card and away I go. Having my cousin (in chinese, she’s my Tang Jie-jie), has helped 1000%. Without her, I wouldn’t have found my nice rental room (yes, it’s about as big as a typical NYC studio) with completely new fixtures and floors. I even got a new fridge, TV, cable and DSL installed. I’m totally plug and play. The neighborhood is quite nice (Zhong He District Taipei). I live next to the Zhong He No4 Park which has a new library (not yet ready), police station, a couple of markets nearby, and lots of stores in a main blvd (called Zhong He Lu). The bus st0p is outside my door and the subway station ( map here) is one block from my apt. I get off the Yung-An Market (Yongan Shichang) subway stop on the NanShiChiao Yellow line. Zhong He Lu has a bookstore, a “Best Buy” type of store, lots of 7-11 types, coffee shops galore, movie theatre across the subway station. Naturally, lots of eats too — it will be a struggle to lay off the calories, but I manage to walk quite a bit every day to-from work so I think I will be successful.

I had a chance this weekend to take the Beitou-Nanshijiao line and stop at at Jiantan stop which is a huge night market area, near Taipei Sea World. So much good food there, it would take me a whole year to just sample it all. It’s gotten hotter here too so the summer dresses are out and the eye-candy is at overdose levels. I’m starting to be able to pick out the ABCs in the crowd vs. the locals. A quickie rule of thumb would be that the ABC/expats guys like myself tend to be a little heavier and taller than the rest. As for the women, I’d have to relate AJ’s observation when he approached a female on the street to ask for directions and he asked her in English. To her astonishment, he relates, it was elementary — she was chunky, makeup-less, and dressed-down vis-a-vis local gals who are almost uniformally always “well-put together” (so to speak).

Well, til next time….

=YC

Friday

Holding off on commenting on the “Friends” series finale, since I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who taped it and haven’t watched it yet or else Tivo’d it. On one note though: the clip show that was on before the series finale was absolutely hilarious, showing all the Friends’ best (re: funniest) moments. I like a good clip show, and that was a pretty good one – couldn’t stop laughing.

The Iraqi prisoner abuse news: the whole thing disgusts me, it really does. Pictures say a thousand words, and these pictures about the prison guards – they certainly have more than words to interpret. One thought: I was watching a little bit of the PBS documentary on Asian Americans, “Searching for Asian America,” the other night and they had a segment on Gary Locke, the Chinese-American governor of Washington state. They made an interesting point: Locke is in a position of preserving our “face” as Asian Americans, particularly when “face” is a big deal for Asian Americans. And, then, I realize that I can’t help but correlate that idea of “face” with this situation with the prison in Iraq – the American face has something to deal with here.

There’s the sense in the op-eds that America’s enemies would do this kind of human rights violations – and certainly worse. But, the reality (to me, anyway) is that it isn’t exactly just about America’s enemies but about America itself – what about measuring up to our own moral/democratic standards? What do we stand for, and why is it so easy to cross that line of rendering others as “other”? Have we as a people crossed that line? There’s no question that this news development shouldn’t represent all American troops or all Americans – but it will be seen that way, because it’s our face that’s out there.

As a lawyer, I wonder what is next; what will be the remedies or the procedures? Where is the law in this? Is it in this context at all, in the midst of war? Anthony Lewis’ op-ed in the NY Times kind of hit it home for me.

These are just opinions on my part; I may be wrong; maybe things will work out. Maybe.