It has been quite some time since I posted anything, so long I don't even remember the last post I did or when exactly it was. Anyways, here is an update on what has been going on since I returned from Taiwan in November. I spent a week in Michigan visiting some friends during the week of Thanksgiving. I had a great time in visiting with them, knowing that it would be my last time for a long time if not my last time of ever going back. I had a plan to try for a job with the Homeland Security in Michigan, but after further investigation into the job, I found that I was not qualified for the job. So I returned back to Missouri, living with my grandparents and helping them out as much as I can. I planned on not going back to work until after the New Year which gave me another month off of work since I left my job at the end of July to go to Taiwan. About mid-December, I started to get bored. I don't have the friends like I do in Michigan and the ones that I hung out with in Taiwan to go and see. Closer to the end of the year, I started doing applications online to insure that I could get something for when the New Year had started. It turns out that Wal-Mart was the first place to call with an availability. Running short on cash and in desperate need to kill the monotony, I took the job. I started on 10th of January and I am actually enjoying it (except for being dehydrated all day). I work in the electronics department, full time, 34-40hrs/wk. My schedule fluctuates in where I could be opening one day and then closing the next. It is getting me more in touch with people which I like considering I am a shy person. Because of my job, I have to approach people whether I want to or not. I believe this will help me in the long run in building up my confidence level again. In other news, I had to take my car in the shop again. This time the blower motor in my car went out and I had to get the timing belt replaced. I had to borrow money in order to get the repairs done, and I wasn't too happy about it because I told myself that I would never borrow money ever again. It took me a long time to pay back bills when I had done this before and I thought that I had learned my lesson. I guess that I was wrong. I have actually been thinking about getting a new car, but do not want to deal with any new bills at the moment. I want to be able to get my finances back up to where I don't have to worry anymore. So my car got fixed, but I found another problem. My brake fluid was leaking. So my grandpa and I repaired a wheel cylinder and fixed the leak. Problem is now I have another problem where I have very little brake pressure where it was just fine with a leak and is now buttkiss without the leak. I drove to work today with my car that way, and normally I don't mind scary situations, but there are too many variables that this really scares the shit out of me. So I have to take my car back into the shop to see if they can fix the problem.

So far the New Year isn't so great. I'm running low on cash, I haven't lost any weight, my car is giving me trouble, I am already having issues with an assistant manager, and it feels like I am getting into another rut similar to one I was in before, not to mention that I don't even here from people that I consider to be good friends. Things could be worse, so I will continue to go with the flow and hope that things will turn around for the better.

Thursday morning I left for Hualien which is on the eastern border of Taiwan. I caught a train all the way and it took a little over three hours. The ride was pleasant and I picked up a little bit of sleep that I did not get from the night before. The air conditioner went out in my apartment, so it was a steady 85 degrees all night. Combine that with the small sinus infection I have it made for an unpleasant night. Anyways the train was good. It was my first train ride (not including subway or metrolink trains). We passed along many mountains where you couldn't see the top of them because they were covered by clouds. The Pacific Ocean appeared about an hour and a half through the ride. I was on the opposite side of the train so my view was not as great, but what I did see was absolutely amazing. The water was a cool blue, with waves rolling in calmly until they came crashing into the rocky coast. Many people were out fishing off the rocks, boats were coming in with their payloads and leaving again to get more. I finally arrived in Hualien a little after twelve p.m.. No sooner had I gotten off the train I was bombarded by taxi drivers. One driver in particular had cornered me as I was heading to the visitor center. He was very friendly and spoke a little english. He helped me out in the visitor center and then took me to a hotel. I dropped my bag off and got my little travel bag out and decided that I would take the taxi driver up on his offer. He took me to Taroko Gorge. There were seven stops included in the tour. After the initial stop we came to the Eternal Spring Shrine. This was absolutely amazing. By far the best waterfall I have seen here in my travels throughout Taiwan. The shrine was to the side and there was a bridge crossing over the waterfall and behind it all was mountains full of green vegetation. I hiked over the mountain which wasn't very far and crossed over a wooden bridge. After the Eternal Spring Shrine we continued on through Taroko Gorge passing by a mountain side with the shape of an Indian face in the side of it and also a small outcropping that was labeled Frog Hill because of the white marble at the base of the hill and the green limestone on top mixed with vegetation and on top was a small gazebo that represented a crown. We then stopped at Swallow's Grove. There were numerous holes and waterfalls pouring out all over the face of the mountain. The rest of the tour consisted of seeing a temple and some more of the gorge. On the way back to the hotel we stopped by the Pacific Ocean just in time to see a ship bringing its payload of fish onto the shore and watched as they unloaded the ship and then put it back into the ocean. End of day one.

The next day I went out walking around Hualien to find the ocean. You would think as big as it is it wouldn't take long. It took me three hours before I found the ocean, but it was not a place that I could go swimming, instead it was the Hualien Harbor. I continued walking around a bit more before I finally gave up and headed back to the hotel. I had decided to not take a taxi because I wanted to see the city as well, but in doing so with all the walking around I got sunburned in a few places and blisters on my feet from walking in sandals instead of tennis shoes. So I was a little disappointed with my trip in two areas. One, I didn't get the picture of a sunrise from the ocean and two, I didn't get to go swimming in the ocean. Two of the main reasons I went there in the first place. I found that I would need at least a full week in order to do some of these things that I missed, but couldn't spend that long as I had other engagements. All in all my trip was decent.

On Wednesday I had my grading for the next level in belt for Karate. I was nervous as this was my first test and I was skipping a grade because I picked things up pretty quickly. I arrived at the gym and quickly got dressed. I talked with Joe for a little bit and said not to worry, just take your time and everything will be alright. So I went out to get the stretching exercises done and started to relax. My problem is that when I am doing the stances and forms, I rush because I get into a groove and don't want to stop. This causes me to lose balance and forget steps, add that with the nervousness and the heat made for an uncomfortable experiance. Anyways I was paired with a few brown belts also being graded. I was the last one to go through the grading. I watched as the others went through. I started to gain my confidence back. Finally, it was my turn. I started out alright going through the first few punching exercises. When I got into mixing blocking and punching moving in reverse, I screwed up on how to start. Because of this I got really nervous and started to miss things. Then I moved onto the katta (not sure if correct spelling), which is the stances. In the first stance I missed the fourth step. In the second step I went through it without a hitch. The last bit was fighting with an opponent. Not full contact, just going through various blocks, kicks and punches with a partner. At the end of all of this, we sat in a semicircle going over the grading. All in all, I was told I did well and was shown some of my mistakes. I passed my grading. I am not sure as to when I will get the belt, but I am in no rush. I am proud of what I did. I know that I have a lot of work still to do in order to get to the next level. Around 8:30 when the grading was done, I moved into a group learning the third katta. I picked it up rather quickly. By 9pm, I had the katta memorized and stayed an extra 45 min. practicing the katta. I only have 10 more practices left before I leave to return to the States. I am a little disappointed because I am really enjoying myself with the class. I am going to try and pick it up again when I return to the States, but have to get other things situated first. I am pretty pleased in what I have learned so far.

So yesterday I ventured out on my own again, everyone else is either busy or sleeping, to see Taipei and some of its surrounding cities. Although I don't think I left Taipei this time. I started out in Shilin. I went to the Shilin Presidential Residence. They had a lot of workers out doing lawn and garden maintenance. There was also a Rose Garden, but not much of it was bloomed. It looked as though they had removed a bunch of the flowers for some type of work. The place also had its own outside auditorium. The gardens, the ones that were accessible were nice and I am sure that if the rest of place was done up it would have been an extravagant place. When I left the Shilin Presidential Residence, I headed to the Taipei Astronomical Museum. It was just a basic museum about space, but some of it was interesting. I then headed out to go to the National Taiwan Science Education Center. It was closed due to construction, so I headed to the Meilun Science Park which is totally for kids. It is a small park divided into four categories: Water World, Sound World, Math and Probability, and Science World. I got a few pictures, but did not stay long. Altogether I spent about 2 1/2 hrs. here and then headed off for Jiantan. At the MRT, I ran into my neighbor who had just finished his first Mandarin class. He had to get back so that he could substitute a class. I got off at Jiantan and headed for the National Palace Museum. I got a joint ticket for the National Palace Museum and for the Shungye Museum of Formosan Aborigines. This turned out to be a waste of time, because you can't take pictures in which was my objective. So after wasting time in Jiantan when I could have been doing something else, I hopped back onto the MRT and headed for Yuanshan. My first stop took me to the Taipei Confucius Temple. I met two tour guides that spoke some English and gave me a quick tour. They were very friendly and got some photos of me with the temple. They then looked at the list of places I still wanted to see and moved a little faster with the tour. I wasn't really in a hurry, but I still got to see some interesting things. As I was leaving I said my goodbyes and thank yous and then headed for the Taipei Story House. I came across the Taipei Fine Arts Museum first and got a few pictures there, but went on to the Taipei Story House. I was able to get a few pictures of things outside, but nothing on the inside. Oh well, I went back to the Taipei Fine Arts Museum. I noticed a sign on the window that said no pictures. I didn't even bother to go all the way in, but took some pictures of the statues surrounding the building. I then cut through Zhongshan Arts Park and took a few pictures there. I was headed for the Lin Antai Historical House when I came across Xincheng Park. Inside the park is a maze garden. It is a rather nice park with a few sculptures inside. As I was leaving to go to the Lin Antai Historical House, this big white dog came out of nowhere. It was someone's pet that just had ran ahead of its owner. I have only seen a few dogs of this size here. It looked like a Siberian Husky. The other time I seen one was in Zhishan and it was red and brown and it if it would have been a vicious dog could probably tear someone in two. Anyways I crossed the street to go to the historical house and got some pictures. There were photographers taking pictures of models in different outfits. After my little stint here I decided it was time to go. My legs were hurting very badly from all the walking and I normally don't eat anything major until after the excursion. So I stopped at Sababa's and got some dinner and then headed home.

Friday after I left Hong Kong Disneyland, I headed to Tung Chung to go to Ngong Ping 360. It is a gondola ride into the mountains to where you can visit the big Budha and even walk with the Budha. The gondola ride was amazing. I think that I will have to take the one in Taiwan now. Anyways you can see for miles. The mountains I passed were enormous with the city being surrounded by them. It was later in the evening and the city had its lights on, but it looked dwarfed compared to the mountains. I arrived at the top of the mountain and headed off for the big Budha. I wasn't able to walk all the way to the big Budha because they had already closed that portion down for the day. I probably would have been able to go up there if I hadn't stayed at Hong Kong Disneyland so long, but I have no regrets about that. I did get a few pictures and was able to get a few souvenirs as well. One of the weirdest things I did see while I was up there were two dogs that had two tails. At first I thought that I wasn't looking at them right, but looked again and saw that they both had two tails. It was very weird. I had to take a bus back to Tung Chung because the gondola closed at 6pm. The majority of the bus ride was downhill and the driver did not believe in brakes all that much. Cows were casually walking along the road and we swerved to miss quite a few of them. The lanes would drop from a two lane to a one lane without any notice and yet we still kept a trucking right along. We finally got back to Tung Chung and since I wasn't able to do anything else I had planned for the day I went and seen "Body of Lies" with Leonardo Dicaprio and Russel Crowe. It was a very good film. When I finally made it back to the area we were staying I was looking for dinner. I walked around and found Hard Rock Cafe Hong Kong. They were only serving appetizers and drinks though so I left and found the kebab place we had gone to the other day. After dinner I was exhausted and went back to the hostel and went to bed.

On Friday the 10th, I headed out for Hong Kong Disneyland. I was the only one who went. I arrived there a little after 10am (not long after the park had opened) and a smile immediately came across my face and did not leave until I left Hong Kong Disneyland. As soon as I entered the gate, Daisy Duck came out in a Halloween outfit. I tried to get a picture with her, but kids all of sudden surrounded her. At the same time Mickey and Minnie came out. I immediately made a beeline to the line forming to get pictures with them. After my picture taken with them, I headed over to the animation studio where they had the Toy Story Zoetroppe. This is what they used to make the animation in Toy Story. Upon leaving the animation studio I met up with Jack Skellington and had my picture taken with him. I then made my way to Space Mountain. It is a roller coaster ride that is completely in the dark. It makes you feel like you are in space with little stars and galaxies flying past you. To me it was a little too dark and you really couldn't see all the lights. I thought that it was still a fun ride. When I left Space Mountain there were three Jamaicans performing like the "Stomp" musical. Venturing forth, I ran into Alice, who was quite cute, from Alice in Wonderland and got my picture taken with her. I then headed to "It's a Small World". It is puppets singing the song and in each country you visit they sing the song in that language. When I exited there, I came across Fantasy Garden. This is where you can get your picture taken with some of the characters. I got my picture taken with Minnie, Mickey, Pooh Bear, Mushu and Donald Duck. All of them kept rubbing my belly as if pointing it out. It was funny, but it also was sad. Still I kept feeling good the whole day. Mushu was the funniest by far. Every pose he did was hilarious. I body bumped with Donald Duck. Continuing on I made it to the Jungle River Cruise. The driver of the boat was hilarious. A couple of people got sprayed. At the end there is a little plastic elephant that is just sitting there. No one thought anything of it and then out of nowhere it shot out a stream of water. Some lady got soaked. We still continued to sit there, and everytime the elephant moved the lady would try to move away so as not to get soaked again. After the Jungle River Cruise I went to the Festival of the Lion King. I had goosebumps the minute they started to play the music. The show was about forty minutes in length. I enjoyed the whole show. I then had lunch. After lunch I was on my way to leave when I saw Chip and Dale. I stopped and got my picture taken with them. At the same time the Disney Day Parade was starting so I stuck around for that as well. After the parade I was getting ready to leave again when I saw Goofy and Pluto. I stopped and got pictures with them as well. Now I finally left. There was still a few things that I did not get to do, but I did a lot for one day and was very happy.

The train for the Hong Kong Disneyland was a normal train with Mickey Mouse windows and had small glass cases with bronze statues of the characters lined up against the wall evenly spaced apart.

I do have pictures of Hong Kong Disneyland, but will not be able to post anything until I return to the states.

On Wednesday a few of us left for China so that we could get our visas replaced or stamped for a longer stay. It was a short flight but it wasn't too crowded and was comfortable.We arrived in China around 11pm and did not make it to our hostel until a little after midnight. When we arrived at our hostel, people were throwing flyers and pamphlets into our faces for jewelry, tailored made suits and massages. If the first one did not get you the next one five feet away was right there to get you. I didn't do anything the first night because I had a little less than 4hrs of sleep the night before. Everyone else went out and grabbed something to eat. Of course I did not get any good sleep this night as well as the bed felt like it was made of rock. The next day when we all did get moving around we headed into Hong Kong to get the visas taken care of. Once the processes were done we ventured out into the city. We took a lot of pictures and visited the harbor. We then ventured back to pick up the visas and then headed to the hostel to clean up a little. Afterwards we headed out into the city again to look for dinner. We stopped to see the light show which is the Guinness Book of World Records. I was disappointed because I was expecting much more. Of course we were not in the right spot to see it all, so who knows it might have been better than what we seen after all. We finally found dinner at a place called Ebeneezer's Kebabs. The food was excellent. After dinner I was really starting to feel the lack of sleep over the last three days and went back to the hostel to get some sleep. Friday I went to the Hong Kong Disneyland and Ngong Ping 360. I will talk about those in another post. On Saturday, Gabe and I met up with some people we met here in Taiwan that arrived in China on Friday I believe. We had lunch/breakfast at Charlie Brown Cafe, which was decorated in Charlie Brown statues, apparel, etc. Afterwards we split from the others and headed to the avenue of stars and got a few pictures of some of the stars of Chinese Hollywood and a picture of Bruce Lee's statue. With some time still to kill we stopped at Nan Lian Garden. It was very beautiful. I got a lot of pictures of this as well. It was very clean and very well decorated. After that we headed out to have dinner and then met up with our other friends and then left for the airport to head back to Taiwan.

All in all the trip to Hong Kong was fun for me. I had a very good time and would like to one day return.

I have been taking Karate a week after arriving to Taiwan and working out daily. After six years of nearly no exercise, I feel really old and out of shape. I have been doing these things for a little over a month now and I still have not gotten used to it. I wake in the morning and do thirty pushups and 150 crunches. At night, I do 30 pushups and various ab workouts totally 120 counts. The only days that I do not workout are on Saturday and Sunday. I do also miss the occasional day or so. On Monday and Wednesday, I have Karate from 7pm-9pm. On Saturday, I have Karate from 3pm-5:30pm. Sunday as long as the weather is nice I go swimming. I do a few swimming exercises and then hit the spa. This is my normal weekly routine for exercising. I did miss a few days of daily exercises and when I started again, I really could feel that if I didn't keep it up, I was going to lose what I had gained. This whole time that I have been doing this though, I have not lost any weight. I am highly disappointed. I lost 4 lbs in the first day just from walking around the city. This is the only amount that I know I have lost. I guess some of it has to do with some of the food that I eat. I eat mostly meat while I am here. I have also had some fast food, which I told myself I was going to get away from. That has not happened yet. Although I am not eating it as much as I was in the states, it is probably one of the reasons I have not lost any weight. I do have another two months here and think that maybe I can still lose some weight, but I do not think that I can lose what I wanted to. One of the things I want to do is to go running. I just can't seem to bring myself to getting up early and running. There is a track in front of my apartment at the elementary school. The school starts around 7am. I see people out there around 5am (the time that I wanted to go out there), but I force myself to sleep longer. The only reason I get up around 5am is the sun turns into a spotlight and focuses on my window. I have covered the windows, but that is not enough. Also with the lack of sleep that I get anyways, I really do not want to get up. I guess that I will have to eventually get off my lazy ass and just do it.

I am just worn out, sore, tired, bruised and battered. I haven't felt this bad since I first joined the service. I am hoping that I can keep up with most of it after I return to the states, but do not know.

A penny for your thoughts. A comment or statement, whatever you want to call it, has been on my mind for a very long time. One of the things I do more often than not is think. This has been going on since I left home for the military and has not stopped since. I have had days where I am so busy that the thoughts never come to me, but then I have days where I do nothing but think. The things I think about are things of my past, present and future. When I think about the things I did in the past, I always try to reimagine them differently than the way things turned out. Always playing different scenarios in my head. I know that you shouldn't dwell on the past because what was done is done. Sometimes though, thinking about the past brings back wonderful memories that I would never change or do not regret. It also helps me in some future instances on what I did then, that maybe I can do different the next time around. Thinking on the present, I imagine all the possibilities of what I could, would or should be doing at that instant. Sometimes I go so far into it though that time seems to have flown right past me. I then may only accomplish a few things of the things that I was actually thinking about doing. What has been troubling me lately (although all three have been troublesome) is thinking about the future. I have many decisions going on in my head about what it is that I want to do, things I want to say to people, and how I want to go about these things that it is driving me absolutely nuts. I have always had goals that I wanted to achieve and that is where some of the thoughts have come into place. While in the service, the thoughts that I had were not as bad. I kept focused on what it was I had to do. Once I got out of the service and started living in the real world (it is a lot different in the service), things were different. The goals that I had crept on me quickly. I was scared of them and still am. My thoughts and goals have combined and makes me feel like I am being pulled in all sorts of directions. In my mind, I picture a scene like the one in the second Matrix movie where Neo is standing in a circular room with a bunch of tv screens. On all of these screens is a thought that I have thought about. I go from thought to thought playing each one out until they are played out so much that there are like a thousand scenarios for that one thought and then I move on to the next one. This has been the cause of all my restless sleep and is making me very tired. I have had a few nights where it was so bad that I did not get any sleep at all. I do have times though where I am completely wore out from the days activities that I fall asleep with no problems, but this has been rare. So about the comment: "a penny for your thoughts", I would certainly get rid of all my thoughts for that one penny if it could ease my mind from all the noise and allow me to get some decent sleep.

Then again another comment comes to mind: "No rest for the wicked".

A couple of days ago we (Gabe, Michael, Jeremy, and myself) were hanging out at Jeremy's apartment. With all the rain that we have bee having from the forthcoming typhoon things having been coming out of the woodworks. That night a cockroach landed and michael was the first to see it (I think). We did not pay it any attention thinking it would mind its own business, when all of a sudden it flew in the air in front of my face. I had not seen it take off, and when it did I jumped back a little, Jeremy dove to the side, Michael pulled out his umbrella to shoo it away, and then it went in for a kiss at Gabe who then at the last moment swatted it away. Jeremy went inside to get a can of raid and handed it to Gabe because he had to go back inside real quick. Gabe set off for cockroach and attempted to spray him. He missed on the first three times and finally after getting him, sprayed him a few moretimes for good measure. Jeremy then returned and added him to the cockroach graveyard on the building next to his. This whole time I was laughing. Later I return to my apartment and read a little of my book. I notice something out of the corner of my eye but do not see it at first. I see it again and see that it is a cockroach. I got up to scoop him up in a cup and it darted under my bed. Deeming that I was too tired to chasen I went to bed. For the rest of the night, it felt like things were crawling all over me and the noise from the wind and rain of the typhoon would not allow me to go to sleep. Around 730 am, I was able to get about four hrs of sleep. Since then I have looked around my apartment for the bastard, but I can't find him. I know that he is around mocking me as I look around for my new roommate.