Hey Doc

Its the tradition that the city of Taipei puts on the New Year's celebration party in front of the city hall. It so happened that the world's tallest building - Taipei 101 is it's neighbor which they also celebrated the New years with a fantastic fireworks display. This double extravaganza draws hundreds of thousands of spectators to this tiny 5x5 city blocks area. Due to the mild Winter weather we are having, the organizer estimated more then 400,000 people will be there this year. Last year's attendant estimated was around 300,000 and the temperature that night was 39 degrees.

More photos here

I watched the fireworks from my balcony last year, so I have decided to see it up close this year. I know the area will be crowded so I went early with my friend to secure a good spot. But little that we know!
I took a walk to loosen up my tight leg muscle at around 10:00PM. The adjacent street area was packed with people as far as my eyes can see. The MC on the stage kept reminding us to avoid pushing and shoving in the crowd. All of a sudden I had this image of the stampede during the pilgrimage in India.
The fireworks was spectacular. There was even a bonus fireworks display from a building nearby. This was a total surprise because I have not seen or heard in the news about this and I believe the people there too.
Here comes the grime reality of this event. How are you going to evacuate 400,000 people from this area? Luckily the people responded in orderly fashion but we were stuck in the crowd for over half and hour shoulder to shoulder inching forward. As we were leaving the area, there were trash everywhere that you can't avoid to step on one. If everyone can take back the stuff they brought in and we will not having this problem. I praise the street cleaner of Taipei. Without them, we will be living in garbage city.
I have noticed that any eateries that were still open in the area were making a killing. What a business opportunity, 400,000 hungry mobs.
Happy New Years !!

At 6:30AM, the alarm goes off with the tune from my favorite station. For 30 minutes, I enjoy the music in bed and try to wake up slowly. Once I am up, meandering around the apartment for awhile than hit the gym at 9:00AM. Normally the gym is not very crowded at this hour, I can work through my workout routines in 2 hours. Now its lunch time. I can pick any of the hundreds of food places all within walking distance. Depends on the mood I am in, for the afternoon can be a movie, go to the book store, walk at the nearby trails or having a coffee at the mall just to people watching. I do make an effort to cook dinner at home so I can have something lighter and healthier. Each month I can pick up a free copy of the entertainment guide at the MRT station. It has list of shows and plays in around the city. If nothing else, I can get on the Internet to read what else is happening around the world.
Well, I am allowed to dream, am I?

Taipei is a city of gastronomic paradise. You can find restaurants that serve food from different regions and different countries all on a single street. The number of them is astronomical. You can find them even in a small quiet alley. There are few reasons for this diversity. Lets talk about Chinese food first. When KMT retreated from mainland China in 1949. It brought the people from every provinces in China who wanted to escape from Communist ruling to this island. They brought also their life style with them. Food is a big part of the Chinese culture, so they brought their way of cooking. When there is a demand, there is a market. Second, Because of the economy growth, it brought the foreign interests into the island. Foreigners started to migrated here and making a home in the city. Same thing happened, the demand and the market.
I have been searching for good authentic American breakfast places to eat. I have found a few but not yet tried except The Diner. It was crowded on weekends because its a small place. The food was great, just like home made. There is a write-up about the place. Another one in Chinese, just check out the photos.

Internet helped starting the media revolution. It made information distribution faster. Mainstream news organization is no longer the controlling the only source. Many grassroots and amateur journalists are filling the gaps. The advance and popularity of the digital camera is also the contributing factors. Many historical moments will not be saved if wans't for someone taking a picture with their digital camera or even the cellphone camera. One of the many products of the Internet age is the webcam, short for web based camera. There are two types of the webcam, real-time and live. Real-time is almost like motion video, although choppy in most cases due to the bandwidth limitation, but you get to see as its happening somewhere else on earth. Live is a still image taken at the scene at an interval anywhere from few seconds to minutes. I have been looking for interesting webcam sites on the Internet and I am listing a few gems I found.
1. Truck Cam (real-time) - A big rig driver mounted a webcam on the dash of his truck. We get to see what he sees everyday while making a living in a truck.
2. Sushi Cam (real-time) - A camera mounted near the sushi chef at a restaurant in Tokyo. You get to see the chef working at his sushi bar.
3. Half Dome (live) - An awesome view of the Half Dome in Yosemite.
4. Art Studio Cam (real-time) - A webcam of a studio at unknown location. Showing the painter at work.
5. Monterey Bay Aquarium (real-time) - My favorite place to hang out when I lived in San Jose. If you timed it right, you can watch the feeding action at the kelp tank. So far I have not seen the feeding at the Outer Bay tank.
6. SJSU Meteorology Department (live) - Everytime I get "home sick", I go to the site, at least I can watch the weather of San Jose area.
7. Pudong, ShangHai (live) - So far I have not seen a clear, sunny sky in ShangHai Pudong area. I wonder why.
8. Santorini (live) - Ever since I visited the island in 1985, the image of those white wall and blue roof houses setting on the clift has burned in my memory. I have not giving up the idea of re-visit it. Go watch the movie Summer Lover, you will know what I mean ;)
9. PyramidCam (live) - need I say more ?
10. SF Aquatic Park (real-time) - "I left my heart, in San Francisco...."

Please do adjust the difference of time zones at each location. I have plan to install a web cam from my apartment window, and let the world to see what I see out the window everyday.

Yum! Brands, the world largest restaurant company has opened the first Long John Silver restaurant in Taipei. I heard it on a food review radio show but never find out where it was until I ran across it Friday night. They serve deep fried fish, shrimp and chicken with chips, well, technically it is French frys. In stead of using paper wrapper, they were served on a shell shape plate. Giving the customers a bit of sit-down restaurant ambiance. Besides the main food item, a little bit of steam or boiled vegetable served as a side dish. The meat was firm and not dried, can't tell what kind of fish it was. I did not care for the batter they used. Although it was thinly coated on the fish but some how its too crunchy for my taste. Over all I like the food but there are rooms for improvement. They should do a good business because they are located smack-dab center of the Wall Street of Taipei.
BTW, Yum!Brands also owns KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and A&W.