Mega Millions

In the US we have a lottery called the MEGAMILLIONS Lottery, it has several states that participate in the drawing and because of that it can reach amazing jackpots. In March 6, 2007 before changing its name from the Big Game, to its current Mega Millions it had a world record jackpot of 390million dollars. After taxes the 2 winners of this jackpot shared 223 million dollars. When I checked the current pot it was up to 145million dollars and has been running for nearly 2 months with out a winner. I was however surprised to see that someone in my hometown won $200,000 from it.

It makes me wonder what in the world I would do if I ever won the Mega Millions jackpot. Some how I think that the first thing I would do is pass out, ha-ha. After that I think that I would buy my self a new house here in Taichung, maybe one of the new luxury high-rise apartments or a larger mansion style house near where I currently live and furnish it lavishly. After that maybe I will buy a nicer scooter than the one I have and since I already have a nice car maybe I will skip that step. I could use some of the money to go back to school and study a new subject to get my Masters and the PhD degrees. Finally I think that I would like to start my own business. It has been my dream for a long time to own both a book store and a cafe, so maybe I can combine the two and have a dream business. Living in Taiwan that 145 million would translate into NT$4.67billion, that’s billion with a ‘B’. That’s enough money that even If I worked the barest minimum 14hrs a month teaching I could live a full and relatively happy life here for the rest of my life.

I still before I do any of this I should take care of my mother and family, so I would give my mom money to live happily, buy her a nice new house, give my youngest brother some money to finish off school even if it takes him 10years, give my middle brother some money to play with. Give some money to my grandmother so that she can live with out worry in her old age, and can travel if she wants, and she can care for her health with out worry.

I wonder what other people would do with $145million?
If anyone would like to share their dreams or plans with that kind of money please feel free to. It is always good to dream about things like this, in my humble opinion it is something that gives us strength to move on and give us hope for the future. Because even if we can’t win that Mega Millions we can still take the items from our list and through hard work and determination make them into reality.

This has been the random thought for the day, from Chububobcat who wishes everyone a safe and happy 10-10 day.

>Edit<
The Megamillions lottery dragged on for another week reaching a total of 200million dollars before being won by a single ticket holder in Virgina. Ahh 200 million dollars, what to do with it?

Am I going to be a Christmas Cake?

Recently, I had an argument with my girlfriend about how we are getting older, and that after 30 it becomes hard to get married and have a family. Personally I don't really understand the whole concept of becoming a Christmas cake after the age of thirty, but still it seems to be something that is popular in Asian culture.

I know that my mother is giving me some pressure to "get a life", get a "real job", and get married. So I am sure her mother is doing the same thing, because of this we are in a strange place right now.

I know that getting married young is a good thing because it gives you more chances in life, and it allows you to be able to start your family much slower, and while you still have your youthful energy. However, I think that being able to start your family after you have a good career and enough money to support both your wife and future children is just as important.

I don't know, maybe these ideas are what is going to make me become a Christmas cake. In my life I have had many girls that I liked, but only 3 girls that I was in love with 2 of whom I was deeply in love with.

The first girl was my good friend in college. I had only known her for about a year but we sent so much time together that my feelings began to change somewhere along the line. Even though the first time I saw her the first thing that jumped into mind was her carry on suite case, the second being how cute she was. Strange the things that we notice about other people. At of my sophomore year she asked if she could room with me and rent the other room in my apartment. because I had a 2 bedroom apartment that one room was going to waste. So being the good friend that I was I allowed her to stay, so every day for 5months we saw each other day and night. For me this was a great source of excitement and ... pain, I guess would be the word. Having her as my roommate was the highest point in my life. Even though we didn't share and truly intimate moments the time we shared together was at least to me priceless. However, do to the actions of another our wondrous relationship came to a blazing end sudden end. She left my life mad and has never spoken to me again. The lose of both my best friend and the girl that I loved brought me to my knees, and sent the remaining 6 months of my life into a fog.

The Second girl was the first person to actually be my real girlfriend. I know it sounds weird, but at 23 that was a huge deal for me. We were together for a year, and about 3 or 4months and had plans for the future, so much so that I had even moved to Taiwan to be with her. However, in the end she broke up with me leaving me with only a dear john letter "I don't think we will work out, we don't match each other. Good bye". Since then none of me emails, IMs, Phone calls, or letters have been replied to or even returned to sender. Its like there is a void that sucked everything in and never let it go.

It took me nearly a year, but after her I met the 3rd girl who day by day made me forget that pain, and gave my heart a new light feeling. Even though I was still gun shy about letting someone get that close to me, she made me happier than I had been in a long time. So, one day things became official that we were together, even though there was some distance between where we lived we stayed faithful to one another. Each day growing closer and closer to each other so much so, that now 2 years later the thought of losing her has made my heart drop to the floor, and every day seems greyer than the last.

I know this seems to some like a stupid idea, but I have come to the conclusion that if things don't work out between her and I, and we separate for real. Then I will give up completely on trying to find a girlfriend, I will resign myself to living a life as a single and make each day for myself. To me it seems simple enough, I spent the majority of my life alone, and when I attempted to have a relationship with a girl has lead to my life being turned upside down by the lose of not only my the girl who captured my heart but by the lose of my best friend as well.

I know the concept of being married before 30 is something ridiculous but it seems to hold some power in my family, as everyone who has been married has done so before their 30th birthday, and those who have not are still single all the way into their late 40s, 50s, and 60s. With the oldest being 3 uncles who lived their entire 80 and 90 year lives with out getting married.

Is being a Christmas cake really that bad? ... I guess only time will tell.

Traveling in Taiwan

Before the fall school session started I had some free time so I decided to do something new.
I found a new video editing software called Cyberlink PowerDirector 7 that allows you to edit videos, music and pictures in order to produce high quality, high definition, blue ray quality movies that you can either burn to disk or upload directly to Youtube. So I gathered together some of my pictures from the time I spent in Taiwan and created 2 different videos. One is limited to the places that I saw while in 台中市和台南市 (Taichung and Tainan) the other is from all the different places that I saw while in Taiwan. I still have hundreds more but since it was a new project and I was not too familiar with the software I decided to just make a couple short videos that are good for Youtube. By the time that I got to the end of the process I was too tired and didn't want to let my laptop run over night to produce the much Higher quality video. Although both videos are High Quality the resolution is a little lower than the pictures themselves causing some of them to look a little blocky. 


Well I hope that you like them and find them at least interesting.


最近我有很多空閒時間，所以決定嘗試一些新事物。當我在台灣這段時間，當我在台灣這段時間，我收集了一些我的照片並製成(做成)了2段影片。其中一段影片是我在台中市和台南市特定的地點所拍攝的，另一段是我在台灣的時候走過的不同的地方時所拍攝的。我這裡還有數百張照片，但是我太累了，以致於不能用它們再做成一個更長的影片。



Taichung and Tainan

Traveling in Taiwan
Even though the second link is a completely different video than the first, they do share some pictures due to the limited number that I could put into the project folder. So please be kind and enjoy. If you have a youtube account and would like to you are more than welcome to leave a comment on them.
Part 2 of the Buying a house in Taichung series will be posted later. I am still looking for some decent pictures of the houses that I am interested in, as well as trying to come up with some clear thoughts as to what to say. I know this is suppose to be a random thoughts blog so saying that I am trying to have clear thoughts is a little ironic but I think it is important for me to be able to look back later in life and see where my mind was at that time.

I'm Chububobcat and I'm wishing you have a good weekend.

Buying a House in Taichung Series Part 1

For sometime I have been thinking about buying a house in Taichung, one that I can own and do with as I please. I have been here for long enough now that I feel that I will want to live here long term if not permanently, therefore I am thinking that I should stop living in random apartments and find some place that I can call my own. Over the last 2 years I have looked a dozens if not hundreds of different apartments and houses all over Taichung-city, which is the 3rd largest city in Taiwan with a population of 1,064,440 spread over 163.4256 sq km (63.1 sq mi).

I am not looking for anything spectacular, but I do have some strict ideas for the type of place that I am looking for. One of them being that it has to have a least 3 rooms, not because I am planning to have other roommates with the exception of maybe my girlfriend. Its more for the need for extra space, after living in several apartments before moving into a house I can tell you that the need for work space is not met by an apartment. A decent apartment is at least 15 ping (533.74 ft.²), and even though these apartments are of adequate size most of them do not have kitchens. The ones that do have kitchens only have single burners, or no oven. Why not that these are not things that I need, they are still something that I would like to have. It's not hard to find food here and cooking at home is not exactly something a common for single ex-pats, however there are times when you feel homesick you wish to eat food from your hometown.

In my research for finding out what I'm looking for an apartment or house is that Taiwanese real estate websites are more complicated than you might find in an American site. The major complication is that the whole site is in Chinese, for an American whose Chinese isn’t perfect that is a hurtle to over come. However, with good friends a good translator and some patients you can easily navigate the site even all you do is click around. Another reason is the different classifications of homes in Taiwan, such as houses that have shops in them (machine shops usually), villas, apartments that are actually designed to be permanent residencies, blah blah blah. I most of it once you learn the Chinese meanings are pretty much the same as in the US, the difference is trying to figure out an American real estate website. The advantages to the Taiwanese websites are that they have pictures taken through out the houses giving you a good view of them.

I am not too sure what else to say about this so this will be part one of the Buying a House inTaichungseries. There is still a lot of information that I need to gather and a lot of preparations that I need to make before being able to buy a house. So for the end of this one I will just show a description of the Chinese names for things on the websites.

Beginning with the Chinese navigation words:

出售for sale            出租for rent

工商租售Industrial and commercial rental
請選擇Please select
電梯大樓 Highrise building   華廈買賣mansion sale

透天厝Houses         別墅 villas

住宅 residential      整層住家 single floor of a house or building

套房 suite               獨立套房 independent suite

店面 store              分租套房 sublet suites

辦公 office             雅房 elegant room

住辦 home shop     廠房 plant/factory

辦公 office             車位 parking spaces

土地 Land               廠房 plant/factory

工商 Industrial

進階條件 advanced conditions

有冷氣>AC             有電視> tv

有冰箱>Frig           有洗衣機> washer dryer

有寬頻網路> broadband internet 有電熱水器>  electric water heater

有電梯>lift                                  屋主刊登owner published

近公車站> bus stop                    有車位 has spaces

可養寵物>Pets allowed               可開伙 may open group

可短期租賃>short term leasing option

租金 rent                                     屋齡 housing age

房屋格局 floor plan

> 1房  　 > 2房 2 rooms

坪數 ping number (total area of the house)

性別要求 gender requirement

> 男生 male　　> 女生 female

房屋型態 housing styles

無電梯公寓 no lift apts.　         > 電梯大樓 elevator tower (high rise apt. building)

透天厝 house (normal )            > 別墅 villa

生活機能> functional living (local conveniences)

便利店> convenience stores    >傳統市場 Traditional Market

近醫療機構> near hospital       >近學校 near school

近公園> near park                   >近夜市 near night market

百貨公司> department stores >近警察局 near police station

>屋主刊登 homeowners published (the owner is selling the place without a realtor)

近公車站> near bus station     >有車位 has a parking spaces

售金 Selling price
> 200萬以下      2,000,000 and under  ( 萬= 10,000)

臺灣

I am born and raised American from the rural state of Ohio, and I was taught to love mom apple pie and the red white and blue. However after going to Taiwan I realized that there are a lot of things that are lacking from the US, and a lot of things that are great about the US.
One of the things that I really enjoy about living Taiwan is the fact that no matter where you live you are not too far from any interesting attraction or destination. Another being that after growing up in the US and experiencing how much it cost to live alone, the relatively low cost of living compared to the US in relation the pay rate. In the US I had a 2 bedroom apartment with a kitchen living room and a full bathroom about a mile and half from my University it cost me $650/mo, here in Taiwan I have had several apartments the most expensive is my current "apartment" at NT$25000/mo ($775). I put apartment in to quotes because it is not just an apartment it is a 5 story house with 6 bedrooms, 3 full bathrooms, 2 washrooms, large living room kitchen and dinning room small front and back yards with a garage, and all of this for just 125 dollars more per month than what I was paying for my tiny apartment in the US. I know your wonder what the hell do I need such a huge place for, well simply because I have to share it with 4 other roommates. The cheapest apartment which was practically the same layout as my apartment in college except my college apartment was a shotgun style place while my Taiwanese apartment had the bedrooms along the back wall of the apartment, and it the rent for it was only $300/mo.
As for salaries, even though we are paid monthly here, even though the normal Taiwanese person makes enough money that they can live well off, the expats such as myself make a significant amount more on average which makes it even more attractive to people from the US, UK, and Canada who are finding it harder and harder to get by on a salary of $750~$1000/mo., because here they can make close to the same thing as in the home country and still be able to save enough (after the first 6moths to a year) that they are able to travel around to other Asian countries.
One of the best parts about living and working in Taiwan is the medical system. There is universal health care in Taiwan, it is paid for by taxes from everyones income tax, and is open to anyone who has a residency visa and works and their children. The average hospital charges (in my experience) aren't much more than $3-400 with comparable health care to the US. I had a use of this system after my first year here because I had gotten bit by some strange bug, and had to spend a few days in a hospital bed while I was treated for the effects of the toxins in its venom. It actually wasn't too bad but it sure did make me more aware of the crazy bugs that are in Taiwan. I also used it last year when I got the flu and was taken to the hospital by my roommates because I had started to become dehydrated (which was my fault I didn't take very good care of myself and wasn't drinking enough water to replace what was being lost). This time I spent a week in the hospital and even though I have secondary health coverage which is used to pay for the things that are not covered under the NHI I still only had to pay out of pocket $310 which mostly the cost of my medicine and the price for my semi-private room. Got to LOVE universal health care. Now I am not saying that these are the average prices for things like this but that is what it amounted to with my level of health insurance coverage. I have a friend who was in a more serious little blue truck on scooter accident recently and his medical bills were something in the order of NT$350,000~400,000 (about 10-12,000US). He had several broken bones, numerous cuts and bruises all over his body, he under went 3 different surgeries and spent nearly a month in the hospital, he was very lucky that he wasn't more seriously injured than he was or that the medical bills were not has high as they would have been had he had a similar accident in the US.
For these reasons I am happy that I live in Taiwan.
(Haha I sort of got off track of where I was headed with this post.
(ㄱ_ㄱ);; Well it is a random thought blog. So I guess this will do)

Hello World~!

Ok so recently I was told about linkbucks, thought it was a scam at first but now I see I was wrong. So this is my first entry in to the blog site that came along with my account. I hope everyone will find something interesting about this site and will support me in some way...hopefully by clicking often on the links that I will post through out the entry.
Any way I have been looking for some way to make a little extra scratch on the side because I am planning to go to Guangzhou China for the Chinese New Year. I have been facinated with Chinese culture since I was in Jr High and saw "Raise the Red Lantern", "The Story of Qiu Ju"  and several other classical Chinese movies. Since then I have had this romantic image of China and more importantly southern China in the Canton region. I know that there are people who would say that going to China is a crazy thing because of the "totalitarian government" or because they are communist or any number of other negative political propaganda reasons that people have in their minds. Sure there are some valid reasons but none of this has changed my romantic idea of lazily floating down a quiet river in the DInghu district of Guangdong Providence surrounded by the lush green Dinghu Mountains. So I figure that if I can promote this blog and add some links to various other things that interest me out there that enough people would visit to help me earn even a fraction of the cost to go.
I am not very good at writing blogs because I am not a very interesting person, but I will give it a shot in order to chase a dream.
Well I think that is enough for this Entry entry.*
Until the next time I am Chububobcat, and this was my first blog entry.
*sorry for the bad attempt at a joke