got wine?

did laundry. it was warm, so instead of using the dryer, i hung the clothes on a line. we used to do the same in our family, but switched over about 15 years ago. on warm days, it dries clothes very quickly. and of course, it's energy efficient. but it leaves the clothes stiff and wrinkly, and stretches them out. so after they dried, i popped them into the dryer for a quick tumble to soften them up. would i switch to using the clothesline more often for the sake of environmentalism? unlikely. it has too many drawbacks. and the one positive-- energy conservation-- can be addressed by installing solar panels for the house, so that the entire house becomes energy efficient.

i went dancing the past couple of nights, and met a woman from just outside of toronto, teaching english in hong kong. hk gets a whole week off for easter! wtf?!? so after dancing last night, we went out for drinks and ordered a bottle of wine. i find her hilarious. she is extremely anti-american, has a fetish for gay men, and claims that she is on the prowl for a woman to whom she is attracted, but enjoys getting picked up by men. and super excited to take pictures with belgium beers. as it was the end of the night, our server joined us, and we also shared our bottle with him. it turns out he is one of the partners of the bar, who turns out to be gay. grew up in singapore, lived in nz, worked in hk, and finally moved to taiwan to be with his bf. of course, she guessed that he was. i, lacking gaydar, had no clue. good times.

mosquitos 2, me 7

i worked pretty much all monday. on what, i no longer remember. isn't it sad i can't remember 2 days ago?

monday night i headed to taipei main station and got dinner around there. there was a decent place for beef noodle, cheap too. i then caught the train down to taichung to visit relatives on the maternal side. i arrived at my third aunt's place. before heading to bed, i killed 3 mosquitos. upon waking up, i killed one. taiwanese mosquitoes are big.

tuesday was spent eating with the relatives. breakfast was from 9-10am. lunch from noon-2pm. lunch was at a western style buffet. there were a lot of dishes to choose from, but my fav was the black pepper sauteed ostrich.

after lunch we headed to my first aunt's house to rest up and chat. there, i killed 3 mosquitoes, but left with 2 bites. those suckers work fast.

dinner from 6-7pm. i could barely eat dinner, so we just got a couple of items in the nearby night market. one was the stinky tofu. i've been going to this place ever since i was a kid, and it's still as good as ever. the pickled cabbage is sweet. they put a bit too much sauce, so the skin is not as crispy, but it's very flavorful. after dinner i caught the train back to taipei.

taiwan and vietnam mix?

again, worked all day. i'm making progress. i can now dynamically specify the tile size for rendering an image, and i've optimized the reduce portion (i.e. compositing the tiles into a single image) to O(1) where n is the number of tiles, or O(n) where n is the number of pixels. having gotten to this milestone, i sat down and enumerated the things that i still have to do to be where I want to be. the list runs an entire page (double columned) in my notebook. hm...

at night, i went back to yongkang street, where the 2 best beef noodle houses are located. i didn't intend to go to either one. instead, i was going to try thang ky, a vietnamese pho house that won an award for their beef noodle in 2008. once i got there, i asked for a bowl of their #1 (the beef noodle) and #38 (cha gio, the imperial spring roll). now, before i continue, i should disclaim that i love golden deli. love them. except in august when they shut down for their annual trip back to the motherland. so, i compare all vietnamese food to them.

the cha gio came, and the skin was wonderfully crispy. the inside however, is not vietnamese. the filling was made with pork, vermicelli, and taro. a very taiwanese filling. the fish sauce did not stink. and they only gave you one small leaf, which was intended more as garnish, but which i used to wrap one of the pieces. at NT$90 (US$2.70) for 2, not worth it, since golden deli gives you 5 amazing ones, plus lots of leaves, bean sprouts, basil, lemons, etc for $6.

the pho was underwhelming. the soup had a nice flavor, but otherwise bland. the meat is really the star of the dish. unlike the meat in a stereotypical vietnamese pho, the shank and tendons have been braised taiwanese style, so that they are super succulent. however, they are sliced vietnamese style, so you only get a couple slices of each.

afterwards, i strolled across the street where a stand sells silken tofu. i asked for a bowl of warm tofu, topped with ginger syrup, peanuts, and boba. that was a great end to the meal.

i had intended to go to my fav stinky tofu place, but i was actually really full. another time...