Dad, you'd be proud.

I did it!

Well, I haven't had a compelling desire to do so, but my dad seems to.

I got to phone my editor and say, "Stop the presses!"

There was a mistake on the opening hours of a restaurant in one of the articles. I know this, because I went there with Candy at the 'open' time, and was told it was still closed for another hour.

Anyways, the magazine had already been sent out for printing, so they actually had to 'stop the presses' or at least the printing process. This is Taiwan and there's not really much red tape yet with business processes, so I figure they can just edit it in the computer for a sec and it will print out just fine... it's probably very anticlimactic.

It would be much cooler if there was a huge red lever to pull, bringing smoke and steam billowing out of the pressing machines as they lurch to a grinding halt... ...nope, a phone call and pressing the 'send' button for an email was about as exciting as it got.

Picture:
This pulled up beside me on the highway while I was waiting for the green light on my way home from work the other day.

Careful what you wish for.

I always wanted to be an important person, have an office, a desk and people working under me. Also, I wanted to have a publicist, and and editor.

Well, my morning teaching job provides me with a secretary, a desk and an office.
Afternoon and evening job places 4 teachers below me that I'm supposed to supervise and create materials for.
And now I have a job writing articles for a magazine as well as doing photography for it.

So, now I have office work that I must prepare for my secretary who doesn't speak English. A desk full of work. Afternoons and evenings provide me with an opportunity to evaluate and hire new teachers, provide training, materials and design a curriculum.
Now, I have insane deadlines for writing articles, and a whole book of guidelines and criteria I must follow. My first article got torn apart with constructive criticism, my second article was completely obliterated. Anyways, after pretty much rewriting both articles, they looked much better and went through with only a couple words edited. I think next time will run more smoothly. My editor's pretty great, all the criticism was constructive, but there was a lot. I miss Mr. Krismer, my English teacher; all I had to focus on was grammar. It didn't matter what I wrote about or said, as long as I spelled everything correctly; now I have to put in drinking and driving blurbs if I mention the b*er word, and I can't say that a green salad is healthy, unless it's been approved by the Taiwan board of health and tested to see if all salads are created equal. Wow, lot's of stuff to consider. I wonder if the Simpsons' cartoonist has to worry about if he must draw seat belts on the cartoons if they're in a car. Also, word counts, bust be exact and no more.


Anyways, hopefully by Friday, I'll be a published author and photographer, that would be cool. Also, learning to write in this format is something I'd like to get good at, I have so many things to say, but so few words to say it in.
"Jimmy's Diner; Foods good, eat shrimp, beautiful furniture, affordable, go. (10% park behind) 127 Boai 2nd Road." -not really, but it feels like it.

The great train wreck.

Well, this week has been too busy for me.

Last weekend, I had an editor of a foreigner magazine over to my place for a beer. Eventually, I showed him some of my photography and the next day, he offered me a job as a photographer... then as a writer. So, I've been busy this week, running around taking pictures of restaurants and food and then eating the food and writing reviews. I have to say, there is some fantastic food to be found. I just finished submitting my material for the magazine and was down to the deadline. Taking pictures of food in a softly lit restaurant is difficult when you don't have the cash to buy a flash (I don't like flashes anyways), so I went to 'Home Depot' (similar) and bought a work light, some plastic sheeting, some chrome tape and a white translucent shopping bag and made a soft light box for my camera, works great on a small scale (19W fluorescent light) and can light up a whole table quite nicely. The soft box cost me about $20 compared to the $350 for my flash.

School... Well, I had to make an annual test for one school and test, mark and evaluate my students, another school, I did the same thing, but the test was already prepared, and my last school; we had a parent's night, where I had to prepare a presentation and have my students as well as myself present what we are learning... why do students behave in class and be silly or shy when the parents are watching?

Social,I helped Reg move... ...on scooters. Yep, we moved all his stuff using little scooters and bungie cords. The fridge, washer and bed were moved by truck, but all the rest went by motorcycle. Welcome to Taiwan.

So, I've been really tired this week, reading magazine guidelines (there's a lot), making tests, marking tests, writing evaluations, building camera equipment, moving, etc... I wound up drinking a bottle of energy drink on Thursday evening, the active ingredient is epinephrine, I felt really great, but not so happy about what's inside. I haven't drank any for about 2 years and don't really want to. On the good side, I don't drink Coke much anymore, I drank one liter this week.

So, my week's taking off and everything looks good, next week will be much easier as everything is more or less done.

Now for the train wreck...
Today to my absolute horror, I realized that I was out of Ketchup. I went to 4 grocery stores and a few other possible places. "Taiwan is simply out of Ketchup." Apparently, there isn't a bottle of Ketchup in this country, and no one seems to care!!! It must be a sign of the Apocalypse... or it should be.