Category: Misc.

I’m typing this dispatch from Beaufort, South Carolina. Back Stateside, baby. After over a year in Asia. Jill’s in Seattle–we parted ways for the time being in Tokyo.

I arrived here, to the Lowcountry of SC, late Friday night after a grueling five-leg jaunt that took me from Kaohsiung to Taipei to Tokyo to Los Angeles to Washington, DC to Savannah, Georgia. 30-plus hours of travel time. Torturous.

I’m working on posting the images from our exceptionally fun Vietnam trip. And in the meantime, I’m gorging myself on the fruits of the deep south: I speak, naturally, of down-home comfort foods like fried chicken and BBQ between slices of spongy white Wonder bread and golden, crispy hush puppies and bananna pudding. I believe I my waist has grown four inches in the last 48 hours.

I’ll be posting more regularly now that I’m a bit more settled. My current plan is to be here in Beaufort for a week or two, and then begin my journey up the east coast (DC, NY, and Boston friends: I’m lookin’ at you) as I clear the cobwebs from my cranium and begin to search in earnest for gainful employment. I’m back in the USSA throuh the summer, at least. I feel happy to be home.

Newley.com shall fall silent for the next two weeks.

Jill and I leave for Vietnam in a few hours. We finished teaching on Friday, have some time off, and then will be back in Taiwan on March 21st. On the 25th, we fly back ot the States. We’re excited to be heading to ‘Nam–we fly into Hanoi and then will likely make our way down the coast to Hoi An.

Bye for now.

Had a good time in Kenting. Decent sun. A little cold.

A few links for your enjoyment:

Inspired by some recent arguments, I present this, so as to elucidate the facts:

1) The Great Wall of China CANNOT be seen from space. Urban legend. Chinese commie propaganda.

2) People confuse the “Seven Wonders of the Ancient World” (a list that was compiled in Roman times) with some sort of official, immutable, mostly modern-day list. There are some other, more contemporary “Seven Wonders” lists, but the old compilation is the famous one, and six of the seven wonders it describes no longer exist.

Also:

–Have you seen these incredible, very sad photos of the recent tsunami? They were taken by a Candaian couple who perished; their digital camera was recovered and the images were intact.

—Jack W. sends along this unbelievable infomercial–Deion Sanders endorsing a hot dog cooker. Neon Deion must be hard-up for cash

Jill and I are on the way out the door for a long weekend with some friends in Kenting, a small beach resort on the southern tip of the island (it’s about a 2-and-a-half-hour scooter ride from Kaohsiung). We’ve got Monday off for a national holiday–the significance of which I must admit I don’t understand–but I’ll be rappin at you live come Tuesday.

In the meantime, meander over to my buddy Ben P.’s new Weblog–he’s just moved to Australia and is chronicling his exploits. (You may remember BP as the scientist who displayed his sizeable grey matter in the climate change discussions that took place in these parts last year.)

…explained in 200 words or less.

So Hunter S. Thompson has killed himself. I can’t say I was wild about his work, but he sure as hell was a colorful character.

Quoth HST:

“I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they’ve always worked for me.”

As promised, here’re some photos of our recent motorcycle trip down the east coast of Taiwan. Enjoy.

And you laughed. You laughed at my chopticks-with-little-forks-on-their-ends idea.

Well. I give you this. My first prototype. Fashioned it last weekend. Used some standard wooden chopsticks and affixed some dumpling-pokers with a couple rubber bands.

Are you ready to change the world? Overtures from angel investors will be considered on a first-come, first-serve basis. (P.S. chopsticks + forks = chorks)

I’m still working on posting some photos from the motorcycle trip.

In the meantime, head over to The Old Hag and consider donating to The Book Thing.

We’re back in Kaohsiung. Had a fabulous time. Photos to come soon…