Freaky Sleeping Cat III

Sorry that the regular Friday edition of Freaky sleeping cat was late this week.

Test (and a joke)

With all the sadness and trauma going on in the world at the moment, it is worth reflecting on the death of a very important person which almost went unnoticed last week.

Larry La Prise, the man who wrote "The Hokey Pokey", died peacefully at age 93. The most traumatic part for his family was getting him into the coffin.

They put his left leg in..... Then the trouble started.

School Lunch

Just hanging out at school waiting for my next class. I just had lunch at the school teacher cafeteria. The food was pretty good today. There was a slightly spicy tofu stir fry. Some steamed sprouts (a bit oily) Some deep fried chiken pieces and a pork dish. The pork was kind of strange but it's a meal we get often. It's a kind of traditional Taiwanese dish.

Basically it's bacon without the smoking. They take that same cut of meat and boil it with some spices and some bamboo. It turns into a kind of savory stew with the pork and the bamboo. Not a very good discription but good to eat. I am sure it is making me fatter though.

It's starting to get cooler, especially at night. By cooler I mean 25 or so but that is much nicer because the humidity is getting better too. It will be nice to be able to walk around outside happily again. Maybe we can start going for walks in the park again. It was way to hot to do that in the summer, even at night.

BBQ squid

ahhh, Wednesday. It's the mini Friday. I made BBQ squid and corn on the cob for Jenn tonight. It's not exactly good old home cookin but you adapt as best you can.

The picture is actually an old one of my friend Nick and I at the harbor with some delicious squid on a stick. Oddly enough its really good. Much better than my poor attempt tonight. Of course theirs was fresh.
(click on the image to blow it up)

Japanese TV

Japanese TV is just plain strange. In fact almost everything about Japan is strange. After living in Taiwan for almost 4 years I have discovered that anything truely bizzare that I see here is actually something Japanese.

One of my favorites is a Japanese TV show where little kids do these crazy skits. Now I am not sure what you are thinking when I say skit but I am sure that it is not this.

That was one of the good ones. Most of them are just plain dumb. That said they can pass an hour or two if you have a few beers first.

Nerdosterone II

bahhh, opened up the old beast and it was worse than I thought. Turns out I have a 256 and a 512 not 3 256's as I thought. To make matters worse my motherboard is a crappy design. You have to take out the video card before you can get at the Ram. yuck.

Take out GPU (video card), take out ram, put ram 1 in slot 1, put in GPU, restart machine to test.

Wash rinse repeat with both ram in all 3 slots.

The final word....

The 512 is dead.

Oh well. I if can just get it to limp along for another couple of months I will get a new machine. This time I will try and build my own. After reading my butt for the last 6 months I figure I am ready to give it a try.

Freaky Sleeping Cat II

You turn your back for a second and....

The Family Blog lives

Well the family blog is up and running at http://sandmaier.blogspot.com/

Head on over and take a look. If you didn't get an email inviting you to be a member so that you can make posts and upload pics let me know and I will set you up.

Family Blog Name

Well there seems to be some interest in this Family Blog idea. All I really need before I can set it up is a name.

I figure you guys should send a few emails to the rest of the clan (I don’t have many) and give them the address for this one. That way they can see the kind of thing we are talking about and get everyone to leave name ideas in the comments to this post.

Once we have a name I will set up a new site at a new address and give everyone access so that they can all post.

A New Blogger!

I want to extend the warmest welcome to myself as the newest member of The Ruptured Duck blogging staff. Please do not be alarmed, this is only a test.

Of course, if I can come up with anything interesting to say, this could become a regular thing.

A Family Blog??

I have been thinking that it might be nice to set up a blog like this for the whole Sandmaier clan. I know that it looks like it would be hard for people to use but it's actually really really easy.

I could set up the web page. Once that is done leaving Blog entries like this one is as easy as sending an email. In fact the screen that I am typing this on right now looks almost exactly like the hotmail screen. It might be a nice way for everyone to keep in touch, share pictures and pass on info about important dates like xmas.

Let me know what you think.

Nerdosterone

My poor old computer is sick again. Jenn keeps telling me that's because I feed it too much. As usual, she is probably right. Seems like 2 of my 3 memory chips are on the frits so I have dropped from 768M down to 256. Ouch.

The chips are probably just loose so I can probably fix them by opening up the case, taking the chips off the motherboard and reseating them all. A relativly easy procedure except that my computer is a big mess of wires under the desk. Actually getting the thing from under the desk and on the table so I can work on it and then hooking all those wires up again when I am done is a bit too much effort for today. I will have to wait till I build up a good supply of nerdsterone and try on the weekend.

(Nerdosterone = nerd testosterone)

Anonymous

Hey guys, I'm glad you are reading and leaving comments but please let me know who you are. Of course I can usually guess but a few names might be nice.

Don't worry about signing on or anything like that, just put your name at the bottom.

Thanks all.

I love Wednesdays

I love Wednesdays. I finish work at noon and I usually have lunch with my buddy Kris. Today we decided to try out my new BBQ. Kris is a fantasic cook with no kitchen. I am a fantastic eater with a kitchen and no skill. Its kind of symbiotic. :) We are blogging this while we wait for the meat to marinate. This is a picture of Kris at a BBQ from a few months ago.

Rain Rain Go Away

Man did it ever rain today. It started about an hour before I finished my last class and kept it up all till after I got home. It has rained so much this year.

Normally the great thing about Taichung is that it just never rains but not this year. It has rained a few times a week all summer long. Last year it only rained a few times a month at worst.

Oh well. At least I still have my duck suit.

The Pajama Patrol

Poor John Kerry. He spent a few weeks in Vietnam dodging these guys and now, 30 years later, the pajama patrol is back to get him. It's not all bad though, turns out some of the pajama gang likes him.

Magical Trevor

A story of Magical Trevor and his amazing cow for Kari

Freaky sleeping cat I

The first of a seemingly endless series of pictures that prove that my cat will sleep anywhere.

Wedding Pix 2

Not surprisingly I could not find a good picture with me in it but here is a great one of my smiling bride.

Wedding Pix 1

Mom's beautiful yard the day before. Too bad we had rain.

Dodging the hammer

A few people have asked me what we did in Vancouver. Well, mostly we folllowed the hammer. :)

Life is Good.

This is probably not a sign of things to come that my first post is inspired by a new BBQ and a bottle of red wine.

I just bought a new gas BBQ at the local B n'Q. That probably does not seem like a big thing to you but I am the only person I know in Taiwan that has one. ( I know lots of people must have em but no one that I know does.) Just finished BBQing on my deck. Felt just like I was home in Canada on a warm July evening, except for the palm trees that is.

New BBQ, new job, wonderful new wife, new life. Ahhh, life is good.