Nick's Thoughts

Props to the Utah Jazz for making this a season to remember. We hadn't had a real playoff run since the days of Stockton and Malone. Now we can finally hold our heads high again. We may be one of the smallest-market teams in the NBA, but once again we've proven that hard-nosed, offensive-rebounding, pick-and-rolling old-school basketball wins games. And by the way, I can't think of a better team to lose to than the Spurs. Along with their incredible talent, they've got class. Even after his team routed us by 25 points to win the series 4-1, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich graciously congratulated us on a "fantastic season", and point guard Tony Parker predicted that this year was only the beginning of our success.

NBA finals? Spurs in five.

This article, which I happened upon by chance this morning, spoke to me like nothing I've read in a long, long time. It really makes me wonder what people live for. If they can't take time to savor what is beautiful, why do they bother getting out of bed in the morning?

Ah, who cares. Let's all get drunk and watch American Idol reruns. The universe is meaningless anyway.

It's impossible to post pictures here without upgrading to a premium account, so I've put mine on Snapfish instead. There will be many more to come--I haven't even posted the ones from my sweet new digital camera yet.

Quick update: Two weeks ago, I tried to bike all the way around Taiwan, but I had to quit after 500 km because my right knee gave out. The brutally hot and humid weather in the south--I crossed the Tropic of Cancer on Day 4, so technically I could say "in the tropics"--nearly killed me and gave me the most pronounced farmer's tan I've ever had. I've done a few other bike trips as well, but none so ambitious, although I did manage to accidentally get onto the freeway on one of them.

There's a line from a seventh-century poem by Wang Bo that I've been thinking about a lot lately. He wrote the poem for a friend who was leaving to take up a government post in a remote area in the southwest. In stark contrast to typical farewell poems of the time, Wang's poem is full of the excitement of adventure rather than the sorrow of parting. Like his friend, he too is hoping for a chance to distinguish himself and is thus willing to go wherever the wind takes him. "In all places the ocean surrounds, you can find true friends," he says, "so the remotest corner of the world is no different from the village next door." (海內存知己，天涯若比鄰。) I believe that, but sometimes those friends aren't easy to find. I'm an independent guy, and generally I like being alone, but I spend so much time alone here that loneliness is beginning to creep in. It really hit home on my recent bike trip: mile after mile, meal after meal, town after town, night after night, there was nobody but me. Yeah, it was a great adventure, but it would have been nice to share it with someone.

It's crazy to think that just a few months ago, I was still really ambivalent about the prospect of returning to America for law school. Now I can't wait to be back in an environment where people understand the culture I come from, speak my native language and share my academic interests. Even so, I'll try to make the most of my remaining time in Taiwan.

This is the most hilarious skewering of Chinese policy I've ever seen. Check it out. Then, if you've got time, read some of Johnny Neihu's other columns as well. He's like the Jon Stewart of Taiwan--not only more entertaining, but quite possibly more informative than the mainstream media.

I'm at the tail end of a six-week visit to America, and I finally have some good news to report: the assistant dean of BYU's law school called me Tuesday to offer me a place in the Class of 2010 and a full-tuition scholarship! This came as a huge relief, since due to the gross inefficiency of LSAT's score reporting system, my application didn't get processed until a month after the deadline. A few weeks ago I visited the school, attended classes with my friend Josh and came away with a very positive impression. Still not sure what career I'll eventually pursue, but definitely feeling good about the direction I'm headed now.

Today I got my first-ever visitor visa to Taiwan via FedEx. Now I no longer have to worry about whether they'll let me back into the country--my expatriate days will continue for a few more months. I can't wait to camp high in the Formosan mountains in my sweet new tent I bought from REI! And as soon as I fix whatever's wrong with my left knee, I'm taking off for a bike trip around the island. I'll be traveling to Hong Kong for a few days in June, and I'm seriously entertaining the idea of returning to the States by sea at the end of July. Travel is wonderful.

Book recommendation of the month: Truman by David McCullough. 992 pages of history at its best. As I've brushed up on my American history this past year, I've come to realize how much my dislike of W. has damaged my sense of patriotism. Reading about great Americans of the past, particularly Washington, Adams and Truman, has totally transformed my attitude--now the possibility of working for the government actually appeals to me. But I still love living abroad.

I just finished reading Pride and Prejudice, an absolutely wonderful novel, which I'd recommend to anyone who appreciates good writing and is amused by human folly. It's especially enjoyable to read when you share characteristics with one of the main characters, as I do with Mr. Darcy (although, unfortunately, they're not the ones Elizabeth marries him for, and if that just gave away the ending for you, I'm profoundly sorry). Hopefully love will inspire me to change, as it did him.

It's fortunate that Jane Austen has brightened my mood these past few days, as lately my life has been falling apart around me. Last week I learned that I wouldn't be able to get a new work permit before my old one expires because my work at Linking Books is, in the eyes of the Taiwanese government, "professional", which means I have to have either a master's degree or two years of post-college work experience in my field to get a work permit for it. Well, I only have a BA (never mind that it's from one of the best universities in the world), and I haven't even been out of college for two years, so obviously I can't comply with their demands. My supervisor, Claire, remonstrated with the official who told her this by informing him that she could show him the books I've published and even provide him with a glowing recommendation from the author whose work I translate, but she met with a wall of bureaucratic obstinacy. Once the disappointment sank in, I had no choice but to book a flight back to America on the fifth of March. I won't return to Taiwan until mid-April, by which point my publisher will hopefully have found a way around the ridiculous law in our way. I can't resist pointing out that such a law benefits no one: Taiwan loses a worker who would otherwise have paid taxes and spent his income locally, my publisher loses an editor they can't replace, and I have to completely alter my plans, move away at a moment's notice (while still paying rent in my absence) and miss a month and a half of excellent biking weather. Why is it that the only way for a foreigner to get a work permit is by teaching English? I had a miserable experience doing that before, and I refuse to again be a part of a system that serves its students so poorly.

At the same time as I've dealt with my residency difficulties, I've been frantically trying to apply for law school at the last minute so I won't be stuck with nothing to do if I do in fact have to leave Taiwan for good in a few months. Pretty much the whole process is online now, which would be great if the plugin required to fill out applications would actually work in my browser. I'd be trying to get it to work right now if the LSDAS site weren't down for maintenance. Today I spent part of my afternoon with my bishop so he could fill out my ecclesiastical recommendation form, no easy task for someone who hasn't been exposed to much English in his life. I'll have to express mail it to BYU on Monday so it will get there before the March 1 application deadline. Meanwhile, only one of the two professors I asked to write letters of recommendation to me has responded, and he seems to be delaying his writing until I send him my personal statement. But as I've thought about what to write, I've had absolutely no inspiration. Even though law school seems to make sense as a logical preparation for working internationally, I don't feel the least bit excited about applying. Everything feels forced--there are too many things I want to think through that I haven't had time to think through yet, and I don't want to be locked into something I could end up hating. But applying is necessary to keep my options open, so apply I must.

Two other circumstances have contributed to my distress even more than what I've described above, but this is not an appropriate place for me to elucidate on them. Instead, I'd like to end on a happy note by saying that even though I have to leave it in nine days, Taiwan is truly an extraordinary place, and I've enjoyed my time here very much. It's amazing how much beauty and culture can be crammed onto such a small island. No matter what happens, I'm going to make time to bike all the way around the island as soon as I can. Now that I'm equipped with a new hard drive that can store hundreds of thousands of pictures, all I need to start giving you an idea of what I love about this place is a digital camera. I should be able to buy one in April. (I'm also looking for a GPS, a tent and a sleeping bag, and if you have experience in buying any of these things, I'd love to hear about it.)

Well, I've extended my between-updates delay time beyond all reasonable bounds--it's been nearly three months since my last posting. It's not that I'm lazy (although I admit that I am rather lazy in certain respects), but that I felt an utter lack of inspiration to write. Oftentimes the most important details in my life are ones that I don't want to write about for the whole world to see, or even for a group of close friends to see, so I choose to remain silent instead. But I foresee my posts becoming much more frequent in the near future.

Recently I crossed a threshold from which I've shrunk many times in the past: I actually bought a pair of bike shorts. They're black, 80% nylon and 20% Elastane (whatever that is), and they have a nice big cushion on the bottom to protect all those tender parts that a bike seat tends to chafe. And I have to say, not only do they feel great, they look pretty darn good too. I never dreamed I'd be happy with how I look in tight bike shorts.

I bought the shorts because I bought a new Fuji mountain bike last month. I then proceeded to shell out more cash for a saddle bag, a portable pump, nicer brake shoes and a bag I can put the bike in when I want to take it on a train or a bus. Now when people see me, spandex-clad, astride my iron horse (as bikes are called in Taiwanese), they think I actually know what I'm doing. And I do, sort of--better than I used to, at least. After a month of being confined to the city by various responsibilities, I finally had the chance to get out on the road last Saturday, and boy, did it feel good. I'll have to post a couple pictures of the ride once I get them developed (I haven't finished the roll of film yet). I didn't get out the door earlier enough and I only went 67 kilometers, but all in all it was a good beginning. There will be longer rides to come, assuming I don't drown in the enormous amount of translation work I have to do over the next month and a half.

If the Republicans keep their majority in Congress after tomorrow's elections, I'll be ashamed to call myself an American. Well, more accurately, I'll be more ashamed to call myself an American. After the past six years, I'm already pretty ashamed.

Maybe I'm taking this too seriously--maybe American politicians have always been venal, inept, cowardly and arrogant, only I wasn't old enough to see it before W. was elected. But other than Nixon (who was also a Republican), it's hard for me to imagine that there's ever been a president as horrible as Bush. The man can't even speak English--it hurts just listening to him talk. He has no respect for Congress, the people, or the Supreme Court. His foreign policy has been an absolute disaster. He "stimulates the economy" by lowering taxes for the rich, spending far more money than he has and then trying to perpetuate the huge federal deficit indefinitely so that my generation will be saddled with the onerous task of paying it all back. He ignores, or rather completely denies the existence of, the most serious environmental problem in human history, namely global warming. He has alienated pretty much the entire international community--after all, we're America! Why should we care about what the rest of the world thinks?

What does Bush stand for? What are his ideals? I have a hard time believing that anything he does is sincere. His whole strategy revolves around exploiting the "War on Terror" to expand his own power. And this has been going on for six years. Yet Bush is still president, and the Republicans still control Congress.

Hey, at least there's no draft. Otherwise I could be in Iraq.

I got back to Taiwan four days ago. It's still ridiculously hot and humid here, but at least the days are getting shorter.

Yesterday I had a late lunch and I didn't really feel hungry at night, so I didn't have dinner. I was feeling restless after work, so I went out and rode my bike around sort of aimlessly until I got thirsty and decided to go to this bingsha store that I really like. (Bingsha literally means "ice sand"; it's basically like a slushee, only better. You can find it at most pearl milk tea stores.) I love this store for their almond bingsha, but this time I decided to try a new flavor that I'd never even seen anywhere else before, much less tried. It was made from some sort of flower called shilian in Chinese; my online Chinese-English dictionary doesn't have an entry for it. Anyway, it was pretty good despite its strange green color. But the best part was how I got to sit down and chat with a couple new friends the boss introduced me to. It was great, since I was really in the mood to hang out with guy friends, but nobody was available on such short notice. I thought it wasn't going to be much of a night, but it turned out to be a lot of fun. I enjoyed myself so much that I completely forgot about dinner.

Then this morning I woke up at 6:15 and didn't feel tired. I thought about doing work, but then I thought, "For crying out loud, it's Saturday, and this is the one time of day when it's cool outside! I'm going for a bike ride." So I put on exercise clothes, grabbed my helmet and a big bottle of water and headed out on the road, not really sure where I'd go. I ended up heading south, a direction I've never explored much before, and starting up a mountain road on the way to Shiding and Pinglin, I wasn't sure which. I went maybe fifteen kilometers away from home, and most of that was pure uphill. I didn't feel hungry at first, but when fatigue started to set in, my body started screaming in agony, demanding that I give it something to eat immediately--water alone just wouldn't cut it. Unfortunately, there were no stores anywhere; even the houses were few and far between. I kept going up and up, but I had no idea when I'd hit some semblance of a town. I thought I'd be able to get something when I got to Shiding, but there was only a sign that said, in classic Taiwanese pinyin, "Shihding Township"; nothing else was there. Finally a fitter, better-fed biker on a much nicer bike came up beside me, so I asked him how far I'd have to go before I could eat something. He said five more kilometers should do it. I thanked him and watched him pedal blissfully on ahead of me. For a moment, I thought, "I can do five more kilometers! Sure, the hill is getting steeper, but I can go slow!" Then sanity returned, and I promptly turned my bike around and headed back down. Maybe I could have made it without passing out, but I say there's no shame in knowing when to quit.

On the way down, thanks to my new friend, gravity, I didn't have to pedal for a long time. It's been a while since I've gone that fast for that long. I went quite a ways before I finally saw a breakfast shop. Bacon danbings have never tasted so good.

I hope I'm not flattering myself when I reason that if I hadn't skipped dinner on Wednesday, lunch on Thursday and dinner again on Friday, I would have been able to make it to the top of the mountain. But when I have no fuel besides my own skinny body, the going is tough.

Tonight I wanted to relax and enjoy a nice, comfortable evening, so I turned on the TV to watch the Red Sox-Yankees game. Things started off well, with Schilling in fine form and Mussina looking uncomfortable. Doug Mirabelli hit an RBI single to tie the game at 3, and then in the following inning, David Ortiz hit a beautiful home run to put the Sox up by one. An insurance run was added in the bottom of the seventh to make it 5-3.

Then things got ugly.

Instead of putting in Papelbon, the only reliever on the roster who hasn't been stinking it up lately, Francona put in Timlin. Big mistake--he immediately gave up a leadoff single and then hit the next guy with a pitch. Out he went, and in came Lopez, who walked his man to load the bases with nobody out. Finally they sent in Papelbon to get out of the jam. He did well, giving up only one run on a sac fly by Giambi. With only one inning to play, the stage was set for the Sox to win.

But of course, it didn't work out that way. I don't feel like recounting the excruciating details of the ninth and tenth innings, but suffice it to say that the Red Sox blew yet another lead to lose for the 11th time in their last 15 games. Oh, and it was also their fourth consecutive loss to their arch-rivals. Once again, it looks like the Yankees are going to be division champions, only this time, the Red Sox won't even get the wild card--that honor will belong to either the White Sox, the Twins or the Tigers.

Which brings me to my point: I'm beginning to think that watching sports on TV is generally a waste of time. So is following sports online. Sports make you care about things that really have nothing to do with your life or the welfare of the world in general. If your team wins, great--you enjoy a pleasure that lasts all of half an hour, a poor payoff for the time you put into watching the game. Even if the Red Sox had won tonight, I'd still be annoyed that the game lasted such a ridiculously long time--it pretty much took up my whole evening. On the other hand, if your team loses, especially in such agonizing fashion, it only brings frustration. You think, "I just wasted three hours watching this game, and all I have to show for it is a bad mood." The only way watching sports is edifying is if you do it purely to enjoy the beauty of athleticism, without caring about who wins or loses. Because in the long run, how many people remember that anyway? And who cares? You're just contributing to the already oversized market for sports in our consumer society. You'd be better off exercising yourself, enjoying the wonder of your own body instead of wasting away on the couch watching others. (Every time I come back to America, I'm amazed at how many fat people there are.)

Therefore, I quit. I'm not watching any more baseball this season. Maybe I'll watch the World Series, but only if the Yankees don't make it. As for other sports, (American) football is boring anyway, so that won't be a temptation. The only thing I want to see now is the U.S. Open, simply because tennis is such a beautiful game. But I'd rather break out my racket and relearn how to play. If only I could find someone to teach me.