Posts from iPhone email have hard-returns

I just noticed today that the posts I submitted thru my iPhone by emailing the entry to blogspot have odd hard-returns. I manually cleaned up my posting from earlier today. What a pain.

Laundry in Japan

We're off to japan on Tuesday and plan to do laundry while we're there (since we are there for 16 nights).

We used google and found a site that listed laundromats in Osaka and Kyoto. Then, we used google maps street view to "walk" down the streets to see what they look like. I love street view!

My wife found a new product that is a single dry sheet that contains the detergent, fabric softener, and anti-static. You put it in the washing machine and was your clothes. Then, you put your wet clothes and the same sheet into the dryer.

I tried it out a week ago with light clothes and dark clothes and it worked great! We're going to tale several sheets with us to Japan since we don't want to bring detergent with us and don't want to buy it there.

Here's a link to the product web site.

http://www.purex.com/purex-3-in-1/product

Men of a certain age...

Part of an ad banner hanging outside our parking deck for a new tv
comedy/drama named "Men of a Certain Age".

I watched two episodes so far and like the show. Basically, it focuses
on three guys in their late 40's. One is a single guy still chasing
young women. One guy is divorced and a gambler. The other is married
and a father of three kids and works for his dad at a car dealership.

Comes on every Monday night on TNT.

End of the day and it only warmed up to 39F

It's 5:00. Quitting time! But, it is still raining, still very cold,
and it's going to be an awful commute to go home. I took a look at the
traffic map and it is all "red" (which means "bad" in the West).

Still on my way to work

Ugh... Accident on the road I take. Looks like today will be another
two-hour-commute days. The second time this week. This happens every
time it rains. And it rain a lot this year :(

Cold and rainy morning in Atlanta

37 degrees F. A few degrees colder and it would have snowed (and I
could have worked from home).

Going to start blogging from my iPhone

There's just not enough time in the evening to blog, so I think most of my postings will now be done via iPhone.

Sent from my iPhone

Can't sleep...

Not sure if it's the cold medicine I'm taking, the conversation I had with my wife last night, the thought of being on-call for work this week (got my first call of the week last night and it really pissed me off), or the fact in about one month from now we'll be in Japan for 16 nights (yay!).

After laying awake in bed for almost an hour, I decided to get up.  Below are some thoughts I had that are based on a talk with my wife last night (so maybe it was the conversation that caused me to not be able to sleep).

A year or so ago, I mentioned to my wife my concerns about keeping our current house until I retire.

The house would be 15 years old, and most of our neighbors' houses would be between 16 and 17 years old.  Most new American homes (at least the ones in the South)
are built pretty cheaply.  Our house in California was very solid (and a helluva lot more expensive).  Anyway, I just can't see how our house after 15 years could
compete with a new or relatively new house when trying to sell it.  Given the choice, people rather get a new house than an old one.

So last night, I brought up the conversation about my retirement (which she usually doesn't want to talk about).

During the conversation, she mentioned about wanting to sell the house in 4 or 5 years once the housing market has recovered and if we can sell it for at least 25% more than what we paid for it.  (I was pleasantly surprised that she wanted to talk about moving because she REALLY hates the moving process.)

We'd essentially sell our current house and buy a new or relatively new one.  Of course, five years after buying that house, we'd sell it cuz I would be retiring.

(Making lists helps clear my head in case you haven't noticed.)

2010
- Job and housing markets: bad
- Our house: 6 years old, 9 years remaining on mortgage, and valued at less than what we paid for it.
- My job: 6th year and secure
- Years until retirement: 9 years

2011
- Job and housing markets: fair
- Our house: 7 years old, 8 years remaining on mortgage, and valued at less than what we paid for it.
- My job: 7th year and secure
- Years until retirement: 8 years

2012
- Job and housing markets: OK
- Our house: 8 years old, 7 years remaining on mortgage, and valued at what we paid for it or higher.
- My job: 8th year and secure
- Years until retirement: 7 years

2013
- Job and housing markets: good
- Our house: 9 years old, 6 years remaining on mortgage, and valued higher than what we paid for it.
- My job: 9th year and secure
- Years until retirement: 6 years

2014
- Job and housing markets: good
- Our house: 10 years old and hopefully valued at 25% above what we paid for it.
- My job: 10th year and secure
- Years until retirement: 5 years

Police Clearance Certificate...

http://www.ait.org.tw/en/uscitizens/police.asp

U.S. citizens may be asked to present a "certificate of good conduct" or a "police clearance certificate" for a variety of reasons in Taiwan, such as when applying for an Alien Permanent Resident Certificate (APRC). Also, U.S. citizens applying for a Taiwan residence visa based on a marital relationship with a Taiwan national may be required to obtain a police clearance certificate.

The Taiwan National Immigration Agency (NIA) requires that U.S. citizens acquire an FBI clearance for visa/ APRC purposes. FBI clearances are referred to as FBI Identification Records or Criminal History Records.

If your FBI Identification Record will be used in applying for a visa/APRC, it must be authenticated by the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representation Office (TECRO) (Consular Division) in the U.S. before being presented to the NIA. Click here for TECRO’s Washington DC Office website. Obtaining the FBI Record and having it authenticated by TECRO will take at least one month. The NIA will accept visa/APRC applications before the police clearance process is complete.

AIT cannot take fingerprints this purpose. You can do this in Taiwan at a local service center of the Taiwan National Immigration Agency (NIA) www.immigration.gov.tw (for a fee). FBI requires that you use a standard fingerprint form (FD-258) which is available for download from the FBI website cited above. Please refer to the website of the NIA for more information on police clearance certificates related to APRC application and for the addresses and phone numbers of each city/county service center in Taiwan, their hours and fees.

Once you have the authenticated certificate here in Taiwan, you may then need to have it translated into Chinese, and have that translation notarized by a Taiwan public notary.

Jury duty?

Since we plan to live in both Taiwan and America when I retire, I was curious as to what happens if I get a Jury Duty invitation in the mail while we're in Taiwan. On the back of the invitation, it says that if you are selected and don't show up, they could issue a warrant.

While browsing around the net, I did come across the following:

http://www.ait.org.tw/en/uscitizens/faq_jury_duty_inUS.asp

Q: What should American Citizens do when they receive notice of jury duty in the United States?

A: Contact your state district court. If you live abroad and your court requires a notarized Affidavit explaining why you cannot fulfill the duty, you may come to AIT by appointment for this service. The standard notary fee will be charged.

Notes on Taiwan's Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) and National Health Insuranc (NHI)

http://www.ca.taipei.gov.tw/civil/attdoc/immdwndoc/1214810358476/English.pdf

Flowchart for the Application for Naturalization in Marriages between
Foreign Nationals and R.O.C. Citizens and Household Registration

(I'm just interested in the first few steps... the parts required to get an ARC.)

Step #1: Marriage Registration
Where to Apply: Household Registration Offices
Required Documents:

1. Wedding certificates with Chinese translation and certified (inspected) by R.O.C. foreign missions 
2. Household registration
3. R.O.C. Identification Cards and seals
4. Identification Cards of foreign spouses
5. If the foreign spouses are unable to return to the R.O.C. with their R.O.C. spouses, the foreign spouse is to submit his/ her Chinese name declaration certified by R.O.C. foreign missions.

Step #2: Application for Residence Visa
Where to Apply:

• Should the applicant be not in Taiwan, he/ she shall apply for the residence certificate from R.O.C.’s overseas missions. 
• Should the applicant be already in the R.O.C. on a visitor visa, he/ she shall apply for residence certificate from the Bureau of Consular Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (including offices in Taichung, Kaohsiung and Hualien).

Required Documents:

1. One set of the original household registration issued in the recent three months (with marriage registration certificate and the name of the spouse in its original/ foreign language).
2. Marriage registration certificate issued by the applicant’s government (marriage certificate for countries without marriage registration system).
3. Declaration by the applicant’s government certifying that the applicant is free from criminal record.
4. Qualified health examination certificate issued by the hospitals appointed by Department of Health or foreign qualified hospitals in the recent three months.
5. Passport (with validity for more than six months).
6. Two 2-inch color photographs taken in the recent 6 months

[Documents in point 2 through point 4 issued abroad have to be first certified (inspected) by R.O.C. foreign missions accompanied by Chinese or English translations.] [Applicants who are in the R.O.C. on visitor visas shall leave the R.O.C. should their visas expire. They

are not to apply for residence certificates.]

Step #3: Apply for Alien Residence Certificate (ARC)

Where to Apply: Foreign Affair Section of police bureaus in the municipal and county (city) governments

Required Documents:

1. Fill out one set of Alien Residence Application Forms and submit one recent front-view hatless color photo. (Refer to the photograph specifications required for the renewal of national ID cards)
2. Passport and residence visa is to be submitted for inspection.
3. Application for residence visa stating reasons such as completion of household registration for marriage registration and certified documents is to be enclosed, 1 original copy, 1 photocopy (Original copy of documents will be returned after verification).
4. Payment of residence certificate fee (NT$1,000, NT$2,000 and NT$3,000 for one-year, two-year and three-year periods respectively).

http://www.gio.gov.tw/taiwan-website/2-visitor/quicklook/1_facts/fact3_4.html


An Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) is given to non-ROC nationals that have legally qualified for long-term stay in Taiwan. If you're coming to Taiwan for formal study, work, or are the spouse or dependent of an ROC citizen wanting to live in Taiwan with your relative, you'll need to apply for an ARC.

If you qualify for residence while outside the ROC, you will first be given an entry visa. Then when you have arrived in Taiwan, you can finish processing your ARC.

http://foreigner.hccg.gov.tw/en/home.jsp?mserno=200808110098&serno=200808110102&menudata=EnglishMenu&contlink=content/residents6_4.jsp&level=2
With the development in social economy and the implementation of National Health Insurance (NHI), Taiwan’s medical standard and the quality of healthcare have been upgraded significantly. Foreigners in Taiwan are also able to enjoy these high quality medical services.

Foreigners with an Alien Resident Certificate who have resided in Taiwan for four months must enroll in the National Health Insurance program. They have to go to the local administrative office to enroll in the NHI program.

Before they are eligible for the NHI program, students can either purchase their own insurance or participate in a temporary health insurance program offered by the foreign students' office inside their host institutes.

Foreigners who lost their residence status because they no longer hold a valid ARC or leaving Taiwan permanently, will also lose their right to participate the NHI program. They must withdraw their subscription to the NHI program through their group insurance applicants (their employers or local administration offices) and then return their NHI card to their applicants and pay the premiums in full before leaving Taiwan.

When traveling overseas for a short period of time, either on business or on vacation, and then returning to Taiwan with a valid ARC, foreigners must remain enrolled in the NHI program.
...
Students enter Taiwan with resident visas are required to apply for an Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) and a re-entry permit at the city/county police headquarters within 15 days after their arrival. Students successfully switched their visiting visas to resident visas also have to apply the ARC card and re-entry permits within 15 days after they obtained their resident visas. They may stay in the Taiwan as long as the ARC remains valid.

To apply for Alien Resident Certificate (ARC), students have to bring xerox copies of their passport and student ID, together with NT$1,000 to the city/county police headquarters nearest to their residence in Taiwan for processing.

http://www.ait.org.tw/en/uscitizens/faq_taiwan_regulations.asp
Q: How do I have my U.S. marriage recognized to receive an alien registration card from the Taiwan government?

A: You can write an affidavit stating the certificate in question is legitimate, and we will take your oath and notarize your signature on the affidavit.  You can use this affidavit in support of your application for an alien registration card in Taiwan.

http://www.ait.org.tw/en/uscitizens/TaiwanVisas.asp
- Resident visas are normally issued if you have a valid work permit or if you are married to a Taiwan national. Please note, a resident visa does not automatically convey permission to work in Taiwan.You may also be required to have a work permit, which you can get only if a Taiwan employer applies on your behalf. Foreigners who have resident visas and are married to Taiwan nationals with household registers are not required to apply for a work permit and the types of work are not restricted. Please see the section “Employment in Taiwan” for further details about work permits.
- If you are issued a Resident Visa, you are then eligible to apply for an Alien Registration Card (ARC) which you will need to carry with you at all times and present when your depart and return to Taiwan.

http://www.immigration.gov.tw/immigration/FileSystem/Acts_Regulations/980821Residency%20and%20Permanent%20Residency%20of%20Aliens.pdf
(The official documentation... reads like a friggin' law document, which I guess it has to since it's official.)

http://www.nhi.gov.tw/english/index.asp
Bureau of National Health Insurance

Some commuting pix...

 

39 days until trip to Japan

Ahhh yes!!!  Only 39 more days until we are off to Japan for a 16-night stay in Osaka and Kyoto. 

Finally, a true break from working.  Unlike my domestic vacations, I never get called when I'm vacationing overseas.

We're still trying to plan out each day and have a pretty good idea of at least half of the days we'll be there.

Only 3,388 days left before retirement!

Yep, only 3,388 days remaining... So close, I can almost taste it.  Well, not exactly, but hey, I will need those days to save up enough money so I can actually retire.

My goal date is March 1, 2019.  A little more than nine years to go.  Hopefully the wife won't say in 2018, "Kevin, how about working a few more years?"  It's hard to turn down money.

So, let's see... nine years means:

• 10 more performance reviews (which I'm supposed to be writing instead of blogging)
• 10 more performance bonuses (not sure about next year)
• 368 paid time off days (242 paid vacation days + 126 paid holidays)
  
• Over 100,000 miles of commuting between home and work (60 miles round-trip each day)
• Over 4,000 hours spend in my car commuting between home and work
• Over $2,000 of toll road fees (GA-400)
  

How to record internet radio for free using VLC (open source)...

Finally, I found a relatively simple and painless way to record Taiwan's Hit FM radio stream to an MP3 file that I can listen on my way to work.  I tried one iPhone app to stream it live but I wasn't able to get it to work.  Listening to a live stream on my iPhone would be the best solution, but I can live with listening to a recorded version.

SOLUTION #1: Web Browser, Soundflower, Audacity 
Results: OK and free, but can't listen to stream while recording; Soundflower only works on a Mac.

I'm using a MacBook pro and I came across an article about recording internet radio by using three programs: your web browser, Soundflower, and Audacity.  Can't beat the price... all three are free.  Basically, your browser is responsible for loading/playing the internet radio stream.  Sunflower's job is to take your computer's sound and direct it somewhere else.  That somewhere else is where Audacity comes into play.  You configure Audacity to get it's input from Soundflower.  Audacity is then used to record the audio.

My first drawback (maybe network related) was that my web browser only played 10 minutes or so of the stream and then went back to the beginning of the buffer and repeated it.  After recording an hour, it turned out I have six segments of the same 10-minute stream.  Very disappointed.  The other drawback is that ALL of your computer's sound is directed through Soundflower and will be recorded.  So, if you are recording a stream and you get an email alert that plays a tone, that tone sound will be recorded along with your radio stream.  The biggest drawback, however, is that you cannot hear what you are recording.  While soundflower is pulling in your computers audio output, you cannot hear anything.

SOLUTION #2: VLC (works on PC, Linux, Mac) 
Results: Great and free

After getting a little frustrated with the first solution, I decided to search Google again and came across VLC, an open-source project.  I used VLC a little bit before, but mainly as just a media player.  The YouTube video I found has a good step-by-step tutorial for configuring VLC to play the stream and record it as a MP3 file.  So far, I haven't found any issues with this solution.  (Ok, I just started playing with it 15 minutes ago, but my first recording test was a big success.)  You can even tell VLC whether or not you want to listen to the stream or not.  Also, since it records the stream, I'm assuming that if there are network delays, the final MP3 recording will still be ok.  In Solution #1, Audacity was just recording whatever came over the speaker.  Solution #1 is a lower-tech solution.

VLC web site:
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

Here's the YouTube video for Solution #2:

Osaka/Kyoto trip countdown: 52 days

So far, we've booked our plane tickets and hotels in Osaka and Kyoto.

A few hours ago, I called the hotel to arrange a taxi to pick us up at the Itami airport. Huh? There are taxis everywhere, including buses and trains, so why schedule a taxi? We are staying at The New Otani Hotel, which has a special taxi rate for their guests (5,000 JPY, around $58).  The last thing I want to be doing after commuting to Japan for 20 hours (with two layovers) is to transfer two times (bus or subway).  I'm happy to pay a little more for door-to-door service.  When we went to Tokyo a few years ago, we took the Limousine Bus directly to our hotel, which was awesome.  The Limousine Bus in Osaka doesn't go to our hotel :(.

The woman at the front desk with whom I spoke to spoke decent English. Basically, I wanted to make sure that the rate was not per person and that luggage was also include in the flat rate. She told me it was indeed a flat rate.

She also explained to me that the taxi driver would be waiting for us and holding a placard with my wife's name on it (the hotel is under her name). I also gave her our flight information in case our flight was delayed. She's also going to email us a confirmation. (It was fun trying to spell my wife's email address to her).

One of the other big tasks remaining is to plan out what we're going to do during our stay (16 nights). There's so much great information on the Internet and I've already "walked" down the street near our hotel using Google's street-view. Absolutely awesome!

Timeline at a Glance...

	Jan 2010	Jan 2011	Jan 2012	Jan 2013	Jan 2014	Jan 2015	Jan 2016	Jan 2017	Jan 2018	Jan 2019
My Age	39	40	41	42	43	44	45	46	47	48
Wife's Age	42	43	44	45	46	47	48	49	50	51
Years until retirement	10	9	8	7	6	5	4	3	2	1
Years at current job	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14
Paid vacation days	23	23	28	28	28	28	28	28	28	28
House age	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14
Years until mortgage paid off	10	9	8	7	6	5	4	3	2	1
My RAV4 age/mileage	2 30K	3 45K	4 60K	5 75K	6 90K	7 105K	8 120K	9 135K	10 150K	11 175K
Wife's Mercedes age/mileage	7 70K	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---
Wife's TBD age/mileage	---	1 10K	2 20K	3 30K	4 40K	5 50K	6 60K	7 70K	8 80K	9 90K
Years until I can withdraw retirement money	20	19	18	17	16	15	14	13	12	11
Years until wife can withdraw retirement money	17	16	15	14	13	12	11	10	9	8
Age of my parents	66/65	67/66	68/67	69/68	70/69	71/70	72/71	73/72	74/73	75/74
Age of my wife's parents	71/67	72/68	73/69	74/70	75/71	76/72	77/73	78/74	79/75	80/76
Mimi and Fuzzy's age	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21
International trips	JP	TW	---	---	TW(?)	---	---	TW(?)	---	TW

Every day has trade-offs...

I guess I'm trying to do to much every day because I'm always having to choose between several tasks.  For example, there are probably ten things I would like to get done today, but realistically, I only have time to do five of them.  So, those five will slide over to tomorrow, which will conflict with other tasks as well.  Never ends.

Option #1: Cut out some of the tasks.  Hmm, no can do.  I need many different things going on to keep me from being bored.

Option #2: Get less sleep.  Hmm, tried that.  Without enough sleep, I feel like crap.

Option #3: Retire so you will have more time to do what you want to do.  Sounds good!  However, I'm sure even in retirement, there will still be many tasks that I won't be able to get done.

Happy Halloween / Osaka Countdown...

Happy Halloween 2009... a rainy day here in Atlanta.

Countdown: 59 days until our trip to Osaka.

We're taking an extended trip to Osaka and Kyoto, Japan at the end of December and will be there for over two weeks.  Looking forward to some time off as I've been working almost every day for the last three weeks.  The only way to get away is to go international... with no laptop in hand.

Still working on the concept for my iPhone app...

Black text (not a fan of white text)

Adding a little more depth...

A little darker...

Getting closer...

On my MacBook Pro, I use a chat application named Adium.  I really liked one of their add-on styles called "Sticker", so I decided to try it for my iPhone prototype.

Copy/paste/alter from another language app...

I found a nice look-and-feel from another language app.  I found a picture of the host at TVB and copied my own text in.  Still need to play with the colors some.

Powder blue mockup...

A blue mockup...

Rough mockup of iPhone app...

See below for my first rough mockup.  This is one of several color palette's I'm considering.  It's a little "chocolate-ty".  I'm really looking a for a good set of blue colors.  I've been looking around at various sites where I could grab their colors.

Kevin's Chinese Language Coach / iPhone App

Goals for my app:

1. It's really just for me... meaning, I probably won't list it in the App Store.
2. What?  You're writing an app but you're not going to try to make money off of it?  Yeah... I REALLY want to learn Chinese.
3. Back to the goals.... the app should be entertaining enough so that I don't get bored.
4. Able to help me in 10-minute chunks... which I have throughout the day, but never take advantage of.
5. Focus primarily on conversational Mandarin... and none of that "Today the weather is really nice". BORING!  
6. How do I make it interesting?  Well, I have a plan... still in the design stage.  It is to use a single episode of 食尚玩家 (Super Taste), a famous (I think) TV show that I recorded on my computer.  We have DirecTV's JadeWorld and get the TVBS channel.  I recorded several episodes last year and started writing a transcript of one of them (the host and the people she mets on her food adventures around Taiwan and Asia).
7. I haven't narrowed down the specifics, but I'm going to use a mix or audio and video in the app.  The audio is not the best quality but it is perfect in that it is conversational and not spoken by a host that speaks perfect Mandarin.  Yeah, it will be challenging, but everytime I go to Taiwan, most of the people speak everyday-Mandarin.  Same goes for folks here in America.  How many people here speak perfect English?
8. The app will force me to learn sentence-size chunks and will learn sentence-structure along the way.  I actually have some great books that teach grammar.  So, I will attempt to identify the grammar in the transcript and then mix the study lessons in.
9. The other reason why you won't be seeing this app in the App Store is that it contains a lot of copyrighted material.  Finally, the app is going to be very tailored to me. :)
10. I haven't ran a program yet to see how many unique characters the transcript has, but I would guess by the end of the show (I'm only 10 to 15 minutes of a 60 minute show), the transcript would have at least 1,500 characters.

I will be posting screenshots along the way.

Back to Learning Chinese...again

Yeah, it's time for a new strategy for learning Chinese while working a more than full-time job (at least 50 hours a week on a good week), chores around the house, travelling, yada, yada, yada.

Looking back over the last 11 years or so, I have tried to become literate in written and spoken Chinese many times.  Here are the strategies I remember:

1. Learn how to listen and respond.  [Failed: too many homophones]
2. Memorize characters and their pronunciations (using my own romanization) [Failed: couldn't remember all of the minute differences between characters]
3. Learned how to write each character, learned its pronunciation using BoPoMoFo phonetic symbols, and learned the definition. [Limited Success:  I learned the characters and could recognize them on TV, the newspaper, etc.  However, I didn't know how to place the characters in context to actually communicate with anyone.]
4. In addition to #3 above, I also started learning the words that are made up of two or more characters combined.  [Better, but I still can't communicate in sentences]
5. Finally, I added sentence construction (grammar) to #4 above.  Result: better, but it's time-consuming.

Yeah, I'm whining.  If I really want to learn the language (and I really do), then I have to make time.

Being a developer, I'm tried using my skills to make flash card programs, etc. to help me learn Chinese.  I never really got far enough along with them before I said, "This is too time-consuming" and gave up.

Well... I'm about to try it once again... This time, I want to create an iPhone app. 

I looked around the App Store and saw a ton of language apps, but most were all about memorizing individual characters and none of them had any grammar lessons.  Also, some of the audio was definitely from someone from mainland China.  I've been speaking very broken Chinese for the last 11 years, and I can't change my accent (to add all the "R" sounds).

(continued in next blog entry)

Test upload from iPhone

Fuzzy, one of my cats.

Working the evening shift these days...

Ugh... feel like crap.  Leave for work at 2:00 pm and get home at 1:00am.  A few more weeks of this and I'll be back to a 9-to-5.  It's really hard to sleep past 8:00am.

Spent a few hours this morning reading other folks' blogs and added a few more links to my blog roll.  I especially enjoy reading blogs of Americans that have recently moved to Taiwan to teach English.

The best one I came across today was The Razzel Berry.  

Ahh... back from my workation in the Florida Keys

It's good to be back... Although I did spend about 10 hours or so working while on vacation, being down there was relaxing. Back to work... just in time because we have several product launches over the next few weeks and months.

The aunt and uncle will be with us until next Wednesday. It will be good to just get back to the house having just me, my wife, and two cats. I really don't know how Taiwanese (and Chinese in general) manage to have two or more generations living in the same house. Having my wife's aunt and uncle with us for the last few weeks has had its share of troubles because the two generations have very little in common.

Older folks (60+ years old) never want to just sit down and relax. They always have to be doing something. On the good side, they always try to help my wife and I (sweeping the floors, doing dishes, and so on). However, on the bad side... the dishes aren't actually that clean (bad eyesight... foodstuffs still stuck on the utensils) and the sweeping causes more harm than good. :(

Off to Key West...

Me, the wife, and her aunt and uncle are off to Key West, Florida in the morning for our third vacation this month.

The Taiwanese Language Barrier...

Now that my wife's aunt and uncle have been here for awhile (seems like forever), I began to think of what my relationship would be with all of my wife's relatives once we move to Taiwan.

On trips to Taiwan, we stay with my wife's mom and dad in 永和. We spend each day of our trip with my wife's friends or relatives. We typically visit five relatives' houses: three in 基隆, one in 北投, and one in 台北).

All of my wife's relatives primarily speak Taiwanese at home and two of my wife's aunts know very little Mandarin. So, as you can guess, I'm pretty much clueless when it comes to understanding their conversations. They're very nice, down-to-earth folks, but pretty much all I can do is throw out a few key Taiwanese words at particular times (such as, "Ho Jah" [好吃] when given food) and smile and watch TV.

Sometimes, we are there for several hours. But, since my wife and I only visit every other year or so, I try to be patient and let them chat without me asking, 可以走了嗎?

So why do I tag along with her on these trips to her relatives' houses?

1. If you've been to Taiwan, then you know that each city has its own food specialities. During our visits, we always go for the goodies!
2. It's polite if I go along.
3. My wife's parents are boring.
4. I'm one of those husbands that has to carry everything for my wife. And, by the time we finish our visits for the day, I normally have 20 pounds of stuff spread across five or six bags (various food stuffs, knicknacks, and so on).

So, after we move to Taiwan, do I always have to go with her to visit relatives? Can I go may only every other time?

Let's hope... because Taiwanese is pretty difficult. I still cannot distinguish the pronunciation of "oyster" and "taro" (both are similarly pronounced as "oh-wah").

Retiring in Taiwan: 5 Questions...

From time to time, I will post five questions and their answers (sometimes repeating the questions to see if my answers change over time).

1. Once you retire in Taiwan, are you going to teach English? Hmm, I think that would be fun since I wouldn't be in it for the money. I came pretty close to going into teaching instead of computer programming and I do love to teach others (well, as long as they are interested in learning). I'm not sure, however, if Taiwanese would accept a 49 year old guy teaching (although I currently look a lot younger than I really am).
2. If you don't teach, what are you going to do all day? Well, I'm pretty sure my wife won't let me sleep until noon and play video games all afternoon. Sometimes I daydream about waking up in the morning, walking downstairs to the street market and eating at several stalls while speaking Mandarin and a few words of Taiwanese to the locals. After breakfast, hmm, good question. I really haven't had any significant time off since college (16 years ago) so I'm sure it will take some time for me to not have a bunch of to-do lists and goals (or at least smaller, simpler goals).
3. If you're planning to spend part of the year in Taiwan and part of it in the US (Florida), does that mean you're not going to have any pets? Another tough one to answer. We have two cats now are they are the best. Sure, they cause a lot of trouble, money, time, and so on, but they're also part of the family. Both of our cats are around 12 human years old (got them about a year before getting married), so I'm expecting that they will not be around 9 years from now. So, we will move to Taiwan without pets. Since we will be bouncing between Taiwan and the US, I don't really see how we could have any pets. Sure, we could find a friend to help out or to put it in a boarding place. But, what would be the point? We would essentially be away from Taiwan (where our pets would be) for months at a time. I'm sure my wife is going to want to have a pet... should be an interesting conversation. I hope her answer is not, "Let's just stay in the US and not move to Taiwan."
4. When you're in Taiwan, do you think you will have any 老外 friends? I assume that I will although I'm not sure the best place to make friends. My wife already has a pretty large group of friends that she's stayed in contact with since college. I want my own set of friends also, so I guess I will have to wait and see.
5. How well do you think your Chinese (written and spoken) will be when you move to Taiwan? Hopefully, I will be fluent by then. However, to do that, I'm going to have to totally immerse myself in Chinese every day while I'm still living here in the US.

Work-Life Balance... Really ready to retire

Today was another one of "those" days:

1. Overwhelmed at work with too many tasks and fast approaching deadlines.
2. Trying to reschedule tomorrow's meetings to Friday because I have to drive to the airport with my wife at 9:00 tomorrow morning to pick up her aunt and uncle (they're back from a short side-trip). I will have to work from home once I get them back to the house (after eating out for lunch).
3. Trying to get as much done at work because I'm going on vacation (again) sometime next Wednesday (to Miami with my wife's aunt and uncle).
4. I have some serious deadlines for the end of September, so I'm probably going to have to bring my laptop to Miami and work at night or early morning.
5. My wife has a cold and is in a very "needy" mood.
6. My "honey-do" list is too long and grows daily.
7. I'm not getting enough sleep because I'm working late each night and waking up early to beat the traffic nightmare (a good day takes 45 minutes to reach work, and a bad day (typical) takes up to 1.5 hours.

Oh, I wish I could retire tomorrow. No more work. I'd be left with just a "honey-do" list.

Retirement Pros

1. No need for an alarm clock.
2. No more 24/7 on-call support.
3. No more daily commutes (I spend almost 3 hours a day on the road).
4. No more sitting through "feel good fluffy" meetings at work.
5. No more working 12-14 hour days to meet deadlines.
6. No more learning of new technologies for work (I'm a programmer). Sometimes I really feel like my brain is nearly full.

Retirement Cons

1. I have to pay for the new gadgets instead of my employer (MacBook Pro, etc.).
2. I have to pay for my iPhone data plan (my employer pays for the data plan).
3. No more paycheck! Ouch! My wife will really miss this one more than I will. The plan is to retire with enough money so that we won't be stressed out about not having a paycheck. That's the goal, at least.
4. No more 401k match.
5. We will have to live on a budget (we don't really have to do that currently).
6. Since we'll be on a budget, our international travel will most likely decrease.

Somebody posted a clip from the Superband Las Vegas concert on YouTube...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgBbzfX7Sxo

Michael Turton's Teaching English in Taiwan Web Pages...

A great website: http://www.michaelturton.com/Taiwan/teach_index.html

My Close Encounter with 周華健 at the Noodle Shop...

So, I was in Las Vegas to see Superband at the Mandalay Bay casino and on the day of the concert, my wife and I were looking around to find something to eat. We walked up to the Noodle Shop to look at the menu posted next to the restaurant.

Standing about 10 feet away, I noticed an older Asian guy in a black shirt. A few seconds later, he turned around for a few seconds and my jaw dropped. Although I'm pretty bad at recognizing Asians, I actually got this one right.

周華健 was standing only 10 feet from us, waiting in line. Thinking back, it's interesting that he was actually waiting in line instead of being treated like a VIP and immediately brought back to a special room. Interesting.

After a few seconds, I thought I'd whip out my new iPhone and snap a quick picture. Well, my wife had other plans. She's definitely the more outgoing one. She told me to approach him and ask him to turn around so my wife can snap a picture of me standing with him. I nervously passed the few folks in line between me and 周華健 . However, when I was only three feet away, his assistant stepped in front of me, put her arm around my shoulder and steered me away and said, "Sorry, he's with his family, blah, blah, blah."

Shoot! So, close. While walking back to my wife, 周華健 did a quick turnround and said, "Sorry" (although not looking at me in particular).

Still kind of in shock that I almost met him and my wife in shock that his assistant wouldn't let me approach him, we forgot to actually try to take a picture of him from our original vantage point. Oh well... :)

Back in Atlanta with some Superband (縱貫線) concert pix...

Aunt and Uncle from Tapei arriving here next week...

Yeah, next week is going to be a little crazy. On Tuesday, my wife's aunt and uncle (from Taipei) will be flying into Atlanta on Tuesday afternoon. They will be staying with until Thursday, when we all go to the airport together. They're spending a week with the uncle's sister and family who live in Kentucky. My wife and I are flying to Las Vegas (to the 縱貫線 concert).

After a week, the aunt and uncle are flying back to Atlanta and will be with us until the end of September. During this time, we're going down to Miami and Key West (Florida) for a week.

Two years ago, they were here and went spent a week in Destin, Florida in a two-bedroom high-rise condo on the beach. We all had a blast.

It looks like when they're here in the US, we take them around on trips. And, when we're in Taiwan, they take us on trips. They took us to 花蓮, which was pretty nice. After so many years of traveling to Taiwan, this was my first time not staying at a relative's house. Since it was a resort, the room was ok. We got to see a number of sites while driving there and back, including the breathtaking Taroko Gorge (太魯閣).

Going to Las Vegas next weekend to see Superband (縱貫線) concert...

The tickets were a little expensive, but this could be my only chance to see Wakin Chau (周華健) in concert. This dude's voice is awesome and I know a lot of his songs (and even have his Karaoke DVD).

If you aren't familiar with 縱貫線, 周華健 and three other musicians (three of the four are retired) temporarily (a year or two?) got together to form a band and tour the world. They'll be in Las Vegas on Saturday, September 5th... and my wife and I will be there!

This will be my second Chinese concert. While living in the SF Bay area, my wife and I went to see Richie Ren (任賢齊) in San Jose. It was pretty fun because I knew a lot of his songs. The San Jose arena is rather small, but we were able to get good seats (close enough to make him out). I didn't realize he was so short...

Also, I didn't know that three of the songs I knew of 任賢齊 were actually 周華健's songs. When my wife later introduced me to 周華健, I was surprised that I already knew those three songs. Plus, 周華健 can sing one hundred times better than 任賢齊.

Retire in Taiwan and Florida?

Back from the beaches of Florida... Once the tropical storm blew through, the weather and waves were great. I'm still a little pink at the moment.

One idea my wife and I had was to still keep residence in the US to make it easier (we think) for things like credit cards, social security (if it still exists when I reach my 60's), and retirement distributions. Also, the plan would be to escape Taiwan's nasty summers by staying in America from June through September or so.

We are considering Florida for several reasons:

1. We love their beaches.
2. The cost of living is pretty low (haven't checked property tax though).
3. Since Florida does not have a state income tax, this would be beneficial when receiving our retirement pre-tax (401k, SEP-IRA) distributions.
4. It's within moving distance from Atlanta... meaning that for the stuff we cannot part with, throw away, or sell, we could transport down to our place in Florida.

Most likely, we would buy a condo in a solid, medium/high-rise building on or within walking distance of the beach.

So, basically, some (most?) of the money that we would get from selling our Atlanta house would purchase a Florida condo on the beach. As for our place in Taiwan, we are currently considering just renting a two-bedroom in the Taipei area.

In summary, here's the split between the US and Taiwan:

January - May: Taiwan
June - September: Florida
October - December: Taiwan

Off to the Florida beaches...

Heading to Florida for a little relaxation at the beach.. should be back in Atlanta by the time the hurricane gets close to Florida.

What? No car?

Yes. Owning and maintaining a car in Taiwan is 很貴. There's the renting of a parking space (although sometimes it is included in the apartment price), the price of gasoline, registration, upkeep, and so on. There's also the hideous traffic and the folks who "key" your car.

11/16/2007 (source www.taiwantoday.tw):
- 1 liter of 95 unleaded gasoline = US$0.94
- 1 gallon of 95 unleaded gasoline = US$3.56
- To fill up a 13 gallon (49.27 liters) gas tank would cost US$46.31

(Note: 1 gallon = 3.79 liters)

As of 8/16/2009, the price of gas in Atlanta is US$2.49 per gallon. Filling up a 13 gallon gas tank would cost US$32.37

台北 or the burbs?

We've narrowed our search to either 台北 or the burbs. Although it did seem less polluted and less expensive in 高雄, most of my wife's friends are in 台北. We'll probably end up in the burbs, but wherever we end up, we prefer to be within walking distance of the subway (since we're not going to own a car).

Why Taiwan?

Retiring in America would require me to work until I'm at least in my 60's due to the high cost of healthcare. Basically, I would work my entire healthy life. Then, at retirement, I'm probably going to be too old to have any excitement.

Taiwan is a much more inexpensive option. Since my wife is still a Taiwanese citizen, I can also become one. This would allow me to get health insurance in Taiwan for a fraction (literally) of what it would cost in the United States.

Taiwan is also a much more exciting place to live than living here in Atlanta. Sure, we could move back to San Francisco, but then we would not be able to save any money (work forever, no savings). I guess I should clarify... Taiwan is an exciting place for a foreigner. We do plan to travel locally and abroad once we do move to Taiwan. Otherwise, I'm sure it would get boring after the newness wore off.

Ahh, the food stalls... a wonderful thing!

Wishing my life away?

For some reason, the phrase "Don't wish your life away" popped into my head this afternoon. After googling around for the phrase (to see what others had to say about the phrase), I came across a few good paragraphs (just the first three paragraphs) that made me feel comfortable that my goal was not a case of wishing my life away.

First, my goal is attainable. The wife has already agreed to it (although it is possible she could change her mind). Now, it's just a matter of saving enough money to live out our years there.

Second, I am living life while trying to stay on track of my goal of moving to Taiwan in 10 years. My wife and I travel a lot locally and take international trips every year or so. My Mandarin is still pretty weak, and I still continue to push myself to improve. Being able to converse in the language will definitely be a huge bonus. I'm assuming that if my Mandarin doesn't improve, my wife may later become hesitant to move to Taiwan.

Inspired...

While waiting on the wife to get ready for us to go out to eat, I was surfing and came across the An American in Taiwan blog and this inspired me to write my own blog. More to come soon... the wife is ready.