Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Taiwan: Little Blue Trucks

Spend any amount of time in Taiwan and you'll notice the ever-present little blue trucks. Or, as my friend Keith likes to call 'em, "LBTs". The LBTs are constantly buzzing around like hornets and are generally filled with the raw materials to feed the Taiwanese manufacturing machine.

LBTs for sale in Taichung. I'll take the little guy second from the right.

LBTs run in size from micro "Kei"-size trucks with cabovers like the Mitsubishi Canter being on the larger end of the spectrum.

LBTs can also be used to transport human cargo, military-style. I caught this Canter with a lift gate in Taipei hauling what appear to be food service workers.
My favorite of the LBTs is the Toyota Z-Ace. These are marginally larger than a mid-size US car and would probably meet the needs of 99% of non-commercial owners of full-size trucks in the US. How perfect, small, maneuverable, fuel-efficient 4-banger and simple and likely reliable. Plus it has 1000x more charm than a Camry, Corolla or any Toyota model of the last ten years. Plus they kind of remind me of Land Cruisers of the 70s and 80s.
Sadly I didn't get around to snapping a pic of one on the Taiwan streets, this is from the innerwebs.

Being a fan of die cast cars, Subarus and now LBTs, I picked one up for myself at the Taichung airport. A Japanese Takara Tomy Subaru Sambar Noodls* Truck.
Not quite the right shade of blue, but good enough for my office.


*Not a typo (on my part anyway), that's how it's spelled on the box.

Monday, March 30, 2009

Taiwan: Taichung Night Market

I was finally able to experience Taichung's Night Market on this last visit.
It's kind of like the Taiwanese version of the Alsip (IL) Swap-O-Rama flea market, but this one takes place at night (duh) on a few narrow Taichung streets and alleys and with fewer tube socks and stolen power tools than you'd find at a Chicago-area flea market. It's quite an event and was pretty well packed when we hit it on Sunday night. Highlights are interesting toys, disgusting smelling (to my western palette anyway) fair foods, bootleg items and such.

Try to win a panda on a toilet! Day day happys!

Some of the food items included:
Squid-on-a-stick ($30NT is about $.89 US)

corn coated in various stuff

sea snax

But the best part for me was the hilarious Engrish as found on the t-shirts. In retrospect I should have brought some back - especially since they were selling for $2-5 each. But who knows how safe they are, maybe they'll cause a rash or excessive bleeding. May I present to you, t-shirt poetry:

FULL OF DIGNITY
OUR WORLD SHINES TO HOPES AND DELIGHTS
_UNKEMPT _OWN _STRUM
_OFTEN _PLACE _STRUM
_CIVIL _CAUSE _VIGOROUS
_RABID _GIGGIN _DRASTIC
PLACE 13 8/5 RABID


PUFF!
THAT COMMENTARY WAS JUST SO MUCH WEGO


TURN BACK SENSE
ORIGINAL DEPART FROM TURK BACK UNDEFINE


For you gangstas:
Natural Rorn Killaz
Crackssic


YOUR
MEMORY
PUT
IS
ROOM


NYC-CHIT
STANDARD
AMERICA!!
it always has
strongth and
freedom.

A nice hoodie:
A BRETH OF
FRASH
AIRFUL OF
JONAD
SYCHIDELIC
COLORS


BLACK LION
Hafs fs lang wad nemdes of the cat eamtfr chat
fs soand in bfrfcs tfons renewish fu and
(hats)
MY SIMPLE WORLD
ow makes perfect sences


Secret Street
where the streets have no name
Street music
Main Street Music and the Whitney Building
Shit! Someone was crossing the street
(symbols)
crossing the street
A Street Sign with Used Musem Stickers

One for the cyclists:
Velocity
I Want to Ride My Bicycle
BIKE VINTAGE
i just LOVE shadow art
Snappy Snaps accidentally cross processed my film,
shared use * bicycle use
so I got it done for free, Ace!


SNEAKER I FEEL... FREEDOM
WHAT I FEEL?
IMPOSSIBLE IS NOTHING
ALL POUND SUPER SPORTIVE
AT THE HEART OF EVERY
IS A GOOD SPORTS WEAR.


travel it will yell to
pass by and to
enduranceall the orince
bloodthirstiness
is good comes
1945

TUNE YOUR LIFE
MUSIC IS AIWAVS IN MY UFEI


Not sure what beef the Taiwanese have against the Bosnians...
And finally, for you John Deere fans:
Can't Stop
long, long time ago..
Dang It Anyway Gertude
I done lost my good going to church hat!
tractors!
My
hat
NOTHING RUNS LIKE A DEERE
International Guarantee
Nothing Runs Like

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Carlsbad Beach Check 3-28-09

from local blog Carlsbadistan.com

Here's what they had to say:

It's just another freezing, stormy, raining, flooding, snowing, hailing, tornado-filled day in Carlsbad, California. Makes you kind of glad you don't live here, huh?



We didn't make it to the beach today, but I got out on a great 32 mile road ride down the coast to Torrey Pines State Park and back. Celeste played at a friend's house and Allie chilled with Juno.

Green Lake Beer!

well, almost.
But with the "GREEN LAKES" in bold, along with a topo map, it definitely caught my eye. So the six pack just ended up in my cart. How'd that happen?

Had one with a turkey brat from Tip Top. Results? Great! A good, medium-body amber ale with the right amount of hops. I generally like super-hoppy ales best, but this one had nice flavor and didn't need an overpowering amount of hops.

Friday, March 27, 2009

Things I Miss About Madison VI.

The Old Fashioned opened during our Madison tenure and quickly became our favorite restaurant. Inspired by and celebrating Wisconsin's classic supper club atmosphere and cuisine, the Old Fashioned offers great unpretentious food, great Wisconsin beers and their namesake (and Wisconsin's unofficial state cocktail) Old Fashioneds (Korbel brandy, 7up, bitters, sugar, orange slice and a maraschino cherry).

Allie, Celeste and I brought many out of town guests to the Old Fashioned. Situated on the Capitol Square, it's a great way to get immersed in Wisconsin dining.

The decor is full of dark wood with various vintage dairy and beer signs and lights. The 1940s Wisconsin classroom map takes up a good chunk of wall space in the front while a large antique bar occupies the back of the place. At that bar you'll find just about any Wisconsin beer you can imagine. Cheap stuff like Blatz and Schlitz as well as the best Wisconsin microbrews. I'll take a Furthermore Knot Stock please.

We'd always start out with an order of their excellent thin-sliced french fries and tiger blue sauce (a blue cheese/horseradish dip). I rarely strayed from the #36 - deep fried walleye sandwich with a side salad. A classic Wisconsin desert was ordered when we "had room for it" - apple pie with sharp Wisconsin cheddar. Just like my grandma used to make.

This is how crummy a pic of a shirt looks when you use your phone's camera and snap it while wearing it.

The last time I briefly swung through town, I introduced a couple of coworkers to the place. They dug it, I bought a shirt.

Can't wait to hit it again the next time I'm back in town.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Maybe That's How She Got So Fat

Juno sure likes the smell of human food. But hey, she's a Lab...
Already down to 113 lbs. We think she's part Lab, part pot-bellied pig and part polar bear.

Taiwan: Taichung Go Karts!

One of the highlights of this past Taiwan trip was go karting with some industry friends on Sunday. Since the factories are all closed, there was a good number of bike industry people that had a lot of time to kill. I brought my running shoes and some appropriate clothing but didn't want to subject my lungs to the Taichung air. So ironically a group of us decided to add to the pollution by go karting.

Rosso Karting Sport is located about ten minutes by taxi from our hotel. We arrived when they opened at ten on Sunday morning, only to find it temporarily closed due to a wet track. So we headed on back to the hotel and hung out in the lobby for an hour or so. Sunshine and wind helped get the track back in order quickly, so we hailed another cab to bring us back.
Rosso is a pretty impressive operation. A super-fun track with some elevation change and an interesting track that boasts high-speed corners, a nice straight followed by a hairpin and all sorts of challenging corners. Oh, and standard tire walls to keep you *mostly* on the track. A few of us ended up in the dirt/grass/hitting tires, etc. at least once during our races.

And then there's the karts. Better than your run-of-the mill US karts in that they had decent tires and 9 HP Honda 4-stroke engines. Most karts like this in the US only have ~5.5 HP. Rosso's karts are overpowered for this track - and it wasn't difficult to get the rear ends of the karts to break loose during cornering if you were still on the throttle.
Before you hit the track, read the rules (if you care - the track owners sure didn't seem to care if we read them or not). If you do read 'em, you'll find this gem:

"7) You are not allowed to bumping, we'll provide you hammers, pliers or screwdriver in case you want to murder your friend. Please don't bump anyone on the track on any purpose."

Seven of us grabbed helmets and plunked down our $300NT (just under $9 US) for our ten minute session. The first session we ended up "time trailing" - there wasn't much interaction between the racers. So we decided to up the fun factor on the second race by doing a parade lap and then hitting a start/finish lap so that we could all race side-by-side. Contrary to the rules, much contact was made between the racers, but nothing very unsportsman-like. We were all just protecting our lines and trying to win. Thankfully the track operators didn't seem to care one bit. A few guys spun out (myself included) and I witnessed one good t-boning. I also had an
"off-track excursion" and was stuck in the weeds for a bit.
According to the operator, the track was running a bit slow due to the rain overnight washing off some of the rubber from the track while simultaneously depositing some debris. The best times, put in by Chris Pic from Blue Competition and Brad Hunter ex-Velomax/Easton were in the low 40-second range while my personal best time was a 41:03. The track record is 38:something. Apparently some of the two-stroke 125cc "pro" karts will do the track in the low 30s.

After four sessions we were all tired, banged-up and bruised. I still have five bruises on my torso - one where my jeans belt loops are and two more on my ribcage from sliding around in the seat. Next time I'll bring a pair of cycling gloves too - my hands hurt!

Oh - and they also offer night racing. A friend says that it's great at night as the lighting is spotty at best and that you feel like you're going even faster. Next time...

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Taiwan: Scooter Poetry

Just back from a ten day stint on the island of Formosa. As I had mentioned in a previous post from my last visit, "product poetry" is pretty commonplace in Taiwan. Especially on scooters that are over ten years old or so.

Here are some of my favorites:

"The best function
and good sensation"

"Good partner in your life"
(like a dog?)

"With fashionable feeling"

"Move your creative heart!"

"Is fascinating to you"

"That was then.........the future is now !"

"Shuttle in the city jengle. The new, speedy snail clan"

"For your nice scene"

"Get away from it all. Get away with it all"
(question to scooter maker - which one?)

"Happy be away from home then safe and sound go home"

"A new concept for create your life"

"The friendly scooter on Earth"
And my personal favorite:
"The glaring headlights of a motorcar"
(are the last things you'll see when riding this?)


And found on a motorcycle tank:
"toywork only
DRAGON IN HEART
KEEP
AWAY
[I AM BAD ]"

I also saw a few dogs going for scooter rides. They seem to do a great job hanging on:
More Taiwan fun to come...