2010年7月18日日曜日
It's Good to Have a Hobby
Now that I live in Taiwan, have a job, and actually have some disposable income, my interest in video gaming has a hobby has flourished. In Japan they have lots of 'retro' video game shops where you can buy all your old favourite games from days gone by. From popular old Nintendo games to obscure titles for systems everyone's forgotten about (remember the WonderSwan? Neither do I!), they have it. But in Japan I was always too poor to think about picking up any of these old treasures.
Here in Taiwan, retro shops aren't quite as plentiful but they still have a few good ones. So every Saturday I've been going down to just browse and do a bit of shopping. I've also set up a YouTube channel, where typically I feature one old game from the past and talk about it. You can see the channel here: www.youtube.com/expgamerinasiaretro
Right now I'm just getting the hang of recording and editing, but I hope that eventually I can use the channel to give a more Asian perspective, which would help distinguish my channel from many similar channels out there.
Car Crash
About a month ago, I was in a fairly serious car crash involving a few friends. Thankfully none of us were seriously injured. It was 100% the other driver's fault (not my friend's fault). He was pulling a U-turn too quickly and slammed into my friend's vehicle. Of course I found all this out after the fact.
I had just spent a great day out with my Chinese teacher's friends at a park northeast of Taipei. Her friend Mark has this cottage out there and he's a chef by profession. So he hosted this huge all-you-can-eat-and-drink barbecue out at the park, and it was really, really fun. Everyone was very friendly and although I can't speak Chinese well, there were quite a few English and Japanese speakers there, so that combined with my feeble Chinese skills enabled me to have some pretty good conversations. The food was fantastic, and I had more than my fair share of Taiwan beer.
On the way home, we went up and down a mountain which involved the car twisting and turning this way and that way which to be honest wasn't very good for my stomach. But I managed to fall asleep eventually. Then suddenly BANG!!!
I awoke and right away I knew my head had hit something. I couldn't see well - everything looked like it had a smoky blue filter over it. I've been hit by a car before so I know what it feels like to be in shock, and I knew that's what was happening at that moment - I was in shock. I turned and saw my friend Jack was passed out and had some blood trickling down his forehead. I thought, that's not good! I thought I needed to get him some help. I also thought, you know because I'm in shock, I have no idea if anything is broken or not. Last time I got hit by a car, I didn't realize until quite a while after the crash that my collarbone was broken. So I decided I should leave the car a) to get help for Jack and b) to make sure my legs, arms etc. are still working.
When I got out of the car, everything on my body seemed to be OK - I could walk, move my arms around, etc. I could see several people outside so I thought OK, someone should be able to help Jack. But to my relief, he had come to and left the car on his own.
After what seemed like an eternity of waiting, talking to police, etc. We all went to the hospital to get checked out. By this time my vision had come back 100%. I got x-rayed and CT scanned, and they said there was no obvious damage but they were still a bit concerned about my brain. By this time it was after midnight so I cabbed it home.
The next week I was so sore! The day after it even hurt to eat and talk because it hurt to move my jaw. I was limping around slowly and had no energy to teach my classes. Even as late as three weeks after the accident, I had back pain when sleeping and thus couldn't sleep for more than a few hours at a time.
But now I seem to be 100% better. Tomorrow my friends and I are supposed to talk to the offending driver's insurance company to negotiate with them. Apparently in Taiwan NT$1K-$2K per day of pain/suffering is the norm, so we'll see what they have to say.
I had just spent a great day out with my Chinese teacher's friends at a park northeast of Taipei. Her friend Mark has this cottage out there and he's a chef by profession. So he hosted this huge all-you-can-eat-and-drink barbecue out at the park, and it was really, really fun. Everyone was very friendly and although I can't speak Chinese well, there were quite a few English and Japanese speakers there, so that combined with my feeble Chinese skills enabled me to have some pretty good conversations. The food was fantastic, and I had more than my fair share of Taiwan beer.
On the way home, we went up and down a mountain which involved the car twisting and turning this way and that way which to be honest wasn't very good for my stomach. But I managed to fall asleep eventually. Then suddenly BANG!!!
I awoke and right away I knew my head had hit something. I couldn't see well - everything looked like it had a smoky blue filter over it. I've been hit by a car before so I know what it feels like to be in shock, and I knew that's what was happening at that moment - I was in shock. I turned and saw my friend Jack was passed out and had some blood trickling down his forehead. I thought, that's not good! I thought I needed to get him some help. I also thought, you know because I'm in shock, I have no idea if anything is broken or not. Last time I got hit by a car, I didn't realize until quite a while after the crash that my collarbone was broken. So I decided I should leave the car a) to get help for Jack and b) to make sure my legs, arms etc. are still working.
When I got out of the car, everything on my body seemed to be OK - I could walk, move my arms around, etc. I could see several people outside so I thought OK, someone should be able to help Jack. But to my relief, he had come to and left the car on his own.
After what seemed like an eternity of waiting, talking to police, etc. We all went to the hospital to get checked out. By this time my vision had come back 100%. I got x-rayed and CT scanned, and they said there was no obvious damage but they were still a bit concerned about my brain. By this time it was after midnight so I cabbed it home.
The next week I was so sore! The day after it even hurt to eat and talk because it hurt to move my jaw. I was limping around slowly and had no energy to teach my classes. Even as late as three weeks after the accident, I had back pain when sleeping and thus couldn't sleep for more than a few hours at a time.
But now I seem to be 100% better. Tomorrow my friends and I are supposed to talk to the offending driver's insurance company to negotiate with them. Apparently in Taiwan NT$1K-$2K per day of pain/suffering is the norm, so we'll see what they have to say.
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