Whee! Go Clinton!
Still in Taiwan, that's not really a surprise. =P We went shopping yesterday. That was kind of exhausting. 11 floors of department stores later and I was officially pooped. Plus the walking to and from. We also went to Taiwan Storyland. It's like an amusement park that had recreated a neighborhood from Taiwan in the 60's. Old fashioned stores, restaurants, etc. It was quite amusing. Ultimately tho, all I ended up buying was a copy of the newspaper (in English) to read. It was good pre-shopping tho. They have good stuff here and it's kinda interesting how they organize their shopping. It reminds me of a high-end flea market, even in the department stores. It's pretty cool tho because they just go all out for customers and put their entire stock of merchandise on the floor so you see all kinds of cool stuff.
I read about Hillary Clinton's speech on CNN. It was kind really cool. I completely agree with her that Bush's administration will probably go down as one of the worst ever (and so does 60% of CNN, according to their quick poll results). She also compared the administration to an old school plantation, where the voice of the dissenting minority is never heard. Good stuff.
Oh, this story caught me eye in the Taiwan newspaper: 27 year old Yang Hui-ju has "become a role model" according to the headline of the article. Apparently she paid for her tuition with the money she made by winning various Internet quiz games at the University of Queensland in Australia. Upon returning to Taiwan, she couldn't find a job so she sat around reading, including studying credit card policies. She found out that there was a loophole in the China Trust Commercial Bank card. She opened up an account and depositied NT$6 million (about $200,000 USD) and spent it all on "ETtoday gift certificates, which were refundable if they weren't used after one year." She then exchanged all of her bonus points earned through the spending on 20 EVA Airways first-class round-trip tickets to and from the US. She then sold those tickets on Internet auction sites (probably EBay =P) for NT$45,000 (about $1,500 USD) each. China Trust Bank closed her account and her parents' account and decided to sue her for fraud. What punks. What's funny is that her story got out and hella people are coming to her aid, including many consumers, lawyers, and prosecuters who agree with Yang and are offering free legal help. It sucks that they decided to go after her parents too. Her parents are retired vocational high school teachers. They told the newspaper that they trust her judgement and that Yang's told her entire family to just remain calm and it'll be worked out. By the by, the final paragraph in the article says that while studying at National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan, she chose to actively protest against the government's crackdown on MP3 Music downloads instead of taking part in her graduate school exams. That's one of the reasons why she went to Australia for grad school. Heh. This girl sounds awesome. I'd consider her a role model too.
The Dominatrix Case in Massachusettes just sounds like bad police work. Innocent or guilty, sounds like the police messed up. Plus, no DNA evidence so I think she's probably going to get off.
US had an airstrike in Pakistan? What are we doing? Why are we still in a war? This is ridiculous.
Golden globe winners list looked good. Mary Lousie Parker's one of my favorite actresses so it's good to see her on there. Ang Lee (Taiwan Represent!) and Brokeback Mountain took home some gold, so it's good to see there's staying power in Taiwanese directors and gay cowboy movies =P.
CNN World has an article up right now with this intro paragraph:
"'I rate the probability of terror groups using (weapons of mass destruction) as very high,' U.S. State Department counterterrorism coordinator Henry Crumpton was quoted as saying by the Daily Telegraph newspaper. 'It is simply a question of time.'"
That's kind of freaky.
So, today's plan looks like more shopping. We're going to one of the places that has, according to my mom, food stands all along the street. I've been told multiple times that we can eat from one end of the street to the other. Sounds like it's going to be fun. That's it for now.
I read about Hillary Clinton's speech on CNN. It was kind really cool. I completely agree with her that Bush's administration will probably go down as one of the worst ever (and so does 60% of CNN, according to their quick poll results). She also compared the administration to an old school plantation, where the voice of the dissenting minority is never heard. Good stuff.
Oh, this story caught me eye in the Taiwan newspaper: 27 year old Yang Hui-ju has "become a role model" according to the headline of the article. Apparently she paid for her tuition with the money she made by winning various Internet quiz games at the University of Queensland in Australia. Upon returning to Taiwan, she couldn't find a job so she sat around reading, including studying credit card policies. She found out that there was a loophole in the China Trust Commercial Bank card. She opened up an account and depositied NT$6 million (about $200,000 USD) and spent it all on "ETtoday gift certificates, which were refundable if they weren't used after one year." She then exchanged all of her bonus points earned through the spending on 20 EVA Airways first-class round-trip tickets to and from the US. She then sold those tickets on Internet auction sites (probably EBay =P) for NT$45,000 (about $1,500 USD) each. China Trust Bank closed her account and her parents' account and decided to sue her for fraud. What punks. What's funny is that her story got out and hella people are coming to her aid, including many consumers, lawyers, and prosecuters who agree with Yang and are offering free legal help. It sucks that they decided to go after her parents too. Her parents are retired vocational high school teachers. They told the newspaper that they trust her judgement and that Yang's told her entire family to just remain calm and it'll be worked out. By the by, the final paragraph in the article says that while studying at National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan, she chose to actively protest against the government's crackdown on MP3 Music downloads instead of taking part in her graduate school exams. That's one of the reasons why she went to Australia for grad school. Heh. This girl sounds awesome. I'd consider her a role model too.
The Dominatrix Case in Massachusettes just sounds like bad police work. Innocent or guilty, sounds like the police messed up. Plus, no DNA evidence so I think she's probably going to get off.
US had an airstrike in Pakistan? What are we doing? Why are we still in a war? This is ridiculous.
Golden globe winners list looked good. Mary Lousie Parker's one of my favorite actresses so it's good to see her on there. Ang Lee (Taiwan Represent!) and Brokeback Mountain took home some gold, so it's good to see there's staying power in Taiwanese directors and gay cowboy movies =P.
CNN World has an article up right now with this intro paragraph:
"'I rate the probability of terror groups using (weapons of mass destruction) as very high,' U.S. State Department counterterrorism coordinator Henry Crumpton was quoted as saying by the Daily Telegraph newspaper. 'It is simply a question of time.'"
That's kind of freaky.
So, today's plan looks like more shopping. We're going to one of the places that has, according to my mom, food stands all along the street. I've been told multiple times that we can eat from one end of the street to the other. Sounds like it's going to be fun. That's it for now.
posted by Chris "Krang" Yang | 9:17 AM
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