WWMD?

(What Would MacGyver Do?)

Magic Eye. You remember those 3D picture things that were all the rage back in middle school or so? Yea anyways, so this morning, courtesy of the Bick, I checked out one of these stereogram things. It was with words instead of the usual blobs of color, so I spent forever trying to figure out what it meant instead of doing it how it was supposed to be done. Then I decided to look up what the word "stereogram" meant and had one of those forehead-slapping D'oh moments. So it turns out that "stereogram" aka stereograph is the fancy-pantsy term for one of them 3D Magic Eye pictures. (Most of this is straight out of Wikipedia:) So anyways, I learned that stereograms work by having patterns of pixels that repeat at different intervals, and when you cross your eyes just right to make the repeats overlap, the stuff that repeats closer together pops out at you. Mind games. All of it.

But yea, I also learned that there are actually 2 ways to do stereograms. Before, I only knew of the cross-your-eyes method, but it turns out there's another method where you stare out at "infinity." Which one works better for you depends on whther you're "naturally cross-eyed or wall-eyed." And 2% just can't see it, no matter how hard they try. But yea, I tried the infinity method out and was shocked and amazed by what I saw. I guess I'm naturally wall-eyed, cuz when I do the cross-eyed method, the 3D picture is all indentions. When I do the wall-eye (infinity) method, the picture finally popped out at me the way they're supposed to. It was like if you'd gone your whole life thinking you were deaf, and then one day, you realize that you've actually just been wearing earplugs since birth. Amazing, simply amazing. I could have cried from happiness almost, haha. I spent like an hour after my discovery looking at Magic Eye pictures online.

I remember that for the longest time, I couldn't do Magic Eyes at all. I thought I was one of that 2% I guess. It irritated me to no end how everyone would always be like, "That's awesome!" and I couldn't see anything. But one day, I decided I'd get it or die trying; so I sat down with a newspaper and stared for what must have been about 30 minutes until it finally clicked. It really wasn't all that thrilling though cuz I saw indentions instead of pop-ups. Rather anticlimactic actually; so for years I thought Magic Eyes were nothing but hype. Then today I finally saw the truth. Yowsa.

I remember as a kid, I had a friend who couldn't cross his eyes. Didn't stop him from trying like hell though, haha. He'd be like "Am I cross-eyed now? ...now? ...now?" And he'd have these goofy looks on his face, but it was never cross-eyes, hahaha. Poor guy. I wonder if he ever got it.

On the subject of shorts. I don't know why, but I just really hate wearing shorts. Like I'll wear shorts around the house every once in awhile, but I really much prefer long pants. I think I stopped wearing shorts in public around 7th or 8th grade. I dunno if it's like some kinda subconscious Puritanical "showing your legs is immodest" type of thing or what (though I doubt it), but something deep down in me just absolutely detests wearing shorts. But yea, my mom always gets on my case everytime I come back to Taiwan, saying it'll be too hot for pants. So I pack a couple pairs of shorts, knowing full well that I'm not gonna actually wear any of 'em- but it puts appeases my mom and gets me off the hook, so it's all good, I guess.

I also don't particularly like wearing hats either. Can't really explain this one either. Maybe it's because I used to spend so much time on hair that wearing a hat (and causing hat hair) would be like defiling a work of art. =P Naw, I think my dislike of hats goes back further than my hair-combing history though. I dunno, just gets me thinking about how there's a lot of things that you grow up to like or dislike, and thinking back, you can't find a really good reason for it. Curious.

*Fish Eyeballs! I used to looooooove eating those things as a kid. Then one day something snapped, and suddenly they were disgusting. I mean, I'll still eat 'em if I'm put on the spot, but I get kinda squeamish. I think maybe it's cuz I don't like the idea of something looking at me on the way down. It's just weeieieieieird. Also weird how things that never bothered you as a kid will bug the hell out of you when you grow up, eh?

"I'm gonna rip out your eyeballs and stick 'em up your butt so you can watch me kick your @$$!" ~unknown

Recap. I finished reading the book The Perks of Being a Wallflower that Rex lent me for my trip, and it was amazing. The book is a lot like "Catcher in the Rye" except in modern day; well, as modern as it can get while mixtapes are still cool. But yea, it follows like a year in the life of a loner kid as he enters high school and makes a couple friends. I just really connected with the character and empathized with a lot of the feelings, cuz I wasn't exactly the coolest kid in high school either. It's pretty short and reads fairly quickly; go read it- I think it's my new favorite book.

Anyways, I wanted to make a list of all the things that happened so far this summer that I didn't blog about, but that I don't wanna forget happened. Watched A Day Without a Mexican; it had such a good premise, but the movie sucked. Also watched The Girl Next Door; it was one of those movies that you can't in good conscience say was a good movie, but in the deeper libido-controlled part of your (male) mind, you actually kinda liked it, haha.

Oh yea, I bought an iPod mini before I left Plano; it's only 4 gigs, but that's actually plenty considering my entire music collection is only 2 gigs. iPods also work as portable hard drives though, if you're into that. But yea, I guess overall I think it was a pretty good purchase. But I gotta rag on the terrible battery life, and the bad bass response (partially due to the PoS headphones they give you, but not completely). And funny little story: I first bought an iPod, then not even 10 minutes after I open it, it falls off my table, and the LCD screen cracks. I called up the store, and they told me I was jacked, but when I went to the store in person, they swapped it out for a new one, no questions asked, heheh. So yea, these things are pretty freaking fragile, I guess.

Since coming to Taiwan, I've played mahjong like every weekend (and lost every time). My cousin took me to the batting cages, and I was reminded why I never liked baseball much: I can't hit the dang ball, even at the slowest speed, hahaha. Went and watched The Day After Tomorrow. It was exactly what I expected. About the science of the movie though: everyone agrees it's exaggerated, but you can find articles with scientists arguing both sides of the credibility issue. Too intertwined with politics not to be, I suppose. Well, believe what you want, and I'll keep believing that global warming is a real problem.

Aaaaaaanyways, so Taiwan has been fairly uneventful. I made some headway on the problem I was supposed to solve for my "research" project. But yea, I guess even if I don't solve an real problems, at least I'll get some good experience with ANSYS software- hopefully that'll help me land a job one of these days. Yea, I had to learn how learn how to use the program from the internet, cuz they only have instruction manuals in Chinese here, hahaha.

Oh yea, it took me like an entire week to set up the dorm internet here. Had to do the whole cmd.exe -> "ipconfig /all" business, then manually change my Default Gateway and DNS servers and all that good stuff. It was vicious. Anyways, so yea, I started playing Warcraft 3... did I mention I also saw a dramatic drop in my productivity? =P Played the campaigns and ended up cheating my way through the end. Oh, and I went to KTV with the TFAA (foreign students' assoc. or something) the other day- weird.

Happy Blog Birthday to me! 3 years old now. (*I actually forgot, and had to use the date editing option to get this post on the right day. =/ Sorry blog. No hard feelings?)

"Another day another dollar..."

Embarassments of the day. Ok, so today was one of those days that make you feel like a complete idiot. Well, not you, but me. So first, I locked my key in my room. It's weird, cuz for dorms in America, you gotta manually stick the key in the keyhole outside and turn to lock the door, right? But here, they've got the kinda locks where you push the button down on the doorknob from the inside, and it keeps you from turning the knob from the outside. So I push down the lock button, and close the door behind me as I'm walking out. Like 5 seconds later, I check my pocket and realize what I've done. So I try some good ol'-fashioned ramming of the door with my shoulder a couple times and eventually come to the conclusion that it's a sturdier lock than at first appears, haha. Then, I walk around to the outside (I live on the first floor) thinking I could climb through the window, since I remembered I didn't lock that. Well, turns out that the bug screen thingy on the outside is secured a lot better than I'd imagined as well. It wouldn't have been hard to tear down, but vandalism is pretty high on my list of shady things to do, not to mention I'd have a lot of "'splaining to do" if I got caught in the act. So I said screw it, and decided I should go ask for help. (It's kinda funny: if this had happened back in the US, breaking and entering wouldn't even have crossed my mind; I'd go straight to the RA for help. But here, maybe it's the language barrier or something, but I'm so hesitant to ask anyone for any kind of assistance- in ANY situation. I guess I'm just a stubborn American, hahaha.) I eventually had to get the lady from the writing center to help me out. It was all terribly embarassing.

Anyways, later on, I went to go work out at the weight room here on campus- which is pretty shoddy by American standards, I might add. They don't even have a bench here; they have like a safety bench/squat thingamajig. Anyways, so I didn't take it too seriously, and I guess I should have had a spotter anyways for any kinda powerlifting. But yea, I was on my last set of "bench," and being used to having a spotter, I decided to go for one more rep as my arms were beginning to give out. Half way up, I run out of juice, and the bar starts inching... it's way... back down. And in my mind I'm like omg! no spotter! CRIKEY... this is gonna suck, hahaha. Eventually the bar settles heftily on my chest as I let out a quiet and pitiful "ooomph." One more try to save myself. The bar rises a couple inches and slowly creeps back to it's original resting place. Well, quite the predicament I've gotten myself into this time, eh? I think to myself. Eventually, someone walks over and saves me, and I manage a meek "xie xie" as I look away, feeling my face getting red from embarassment. Ugghhh, as if I needed any more reminder that I'm completely losing my physique here. I guess the biggest contributant to that is the fact that my diet here isn't really conducive to staying in shape in the first place.

Getting Ripped 101. When you take weightlifting class at UT, they set aside a day or two to lecture about the science behind weight training & fitness; I guess it's to make it seem like more of a legitimate "class" instead of just required workout sessions (which is what the class really amounts to). Anyways, one of the lessons was about proper nutrition & diet. A lot of it was common sense or intro bio, but in case you don't know, I'll humor you and hit the high points. Ok, so supposedly, getting cut/ripped is like 50% weight training and 50% diet (, or maybe it was closer to 70/30, I don't remember the exact number, but the emphasis on diet was hefty enough not to be ignored). When you work out, you're basically tearing up your muscle fibers, after which, your body presumably builds 'em back up bigger and stronger. But to do so, it needs protein, the building block of muscles. People joke about it all the time, but I'm serious, I think the reason there's such a difference in Asian and Western physiques is simple: red meat. It's so hard to get good cuts of meat here in Taiwan. There's also a severe lack of ripped folk here. Coincidence? I think not. Anyways, as much muscle mass as you have, you'll never see the cuts if your body fat percentage is too high *raises hand*, haha. Seriously though, for men, fat tends to pool in the torso area, i.e. the gut. You need a body fat percentage around 15% or you'll never see that ever-desired 6-pack. (I was actually only like 2% away from being classified as obese when they measured me, hahahah.) Anyways, if you wanna lose the chub, you gotta burn more calories than you take in on a given day. This is the part of being fit that always gets me. =P But yea, you know how the Recommended Daily Intake (RDI) is like 2000 Calories? (with a capital 'C'- yes, it matters apparently) Well yea, that's if you're a skinny little sucker (like in the 130-150 lbs. range, I think). A person of my size and physical activity is supposed to have about 2600 per day. Oh yea, and apparently sleeping is really important too. Who woulda thunk it, eh? Haha.

So I've been in Taiwan for a week now, and really not a whole lot has happened. During the week, I stay in Hsinchu at the NTHU dorms. Funny, I think I got the worst dorm on campus. One of the people who works for the university told me that it's gonna get torn down soon, hahaha. Anyways, it's pretty ghetto compared to my old dorm back at UT. It's roughly half the size (maybe a little less), dingy floor, no sink, no A/C, mosquitoes like crazy, and the closet and drawers are all naaaasty (so I keep almost everything in my suitcase). Oh yea, and the dorm internet is a huuuuuuuge pain in the butt to set up (; I still don't have it figured out yet- working on it).

Anyways, so as expected, this "research" gig turned out to be kinda ennnhhh. My supervising professor was like, "yea, I wouldn't expect you to be able to get much done in a month, so feel free to just take it easy if you like." And he gave me this research article to read that was waaaaay over my head. I met some of the grad students in the lab I can use if I want; I don't remember anyone's names though (I'm always pretty bad with names, but Chinese names are like 10 times harder to remember than English ones). Oh yea, and my supervising professor basically told me I don't need to meet with him all the time, so it's been pretty uneventful. I don't think I'm cut out for this self-paced stuff. It reminds me of dead week before exams, when you're supposed to be studying, but you just end up wasting time. (I finished off the anime series Peacemaker Kurogane in like 3 days while sitting around in my dorm- it sucked; you keep expecting something cool to happen, but it never really does.) But yea, seriously, I just wake up and lie in bed for a couple hours cuz I don't really have anywhere to go or anything (important) to do. I checked out some technical (text) books from the library, but I've been making pretty slow progress.

I dunno, maybe it's the heat/humidity, but this general feeling of ennui/lethargy/[malaise] settles over me here, and I'm just not in the mood to do anything. That probably also helps to explain the lying in bed for hours at a time- just cuz I don't particularly feel like moving or anything.

But yea, I might be doing some volunteer work at the Writing Center correcting people's papers written in English and whatnot. Doesn't exactly sound fun, but it should at least give me something to do that feels even remotely meaningful.

I haven't really met very many people here. I mostly keep to myself. Mike, that I met in Boston a couple years back, is here doing a real research project. And I met two other ABC's: Rob & Annie. These three provide me with like the only real human interaction I get here. Well, the only conversation longer than 5 words, I should say. But yea, it's so hard meeting the natives- doing the whole introduction thing and whatnot. Oh well, all this quiet time leads to plenty of introspection, I suppose.