I tried to be artsy

Let's get the rants out of the way... GO!

I want to punch Facebook in their Face...book. I guess it's inevitable that for every site redesign they do, people will get mad about it. However, I do give them a little bit of credit - this one is much prettier. Unfortunately it broke almost every functionality they had, so much so that I can't even arrange photos anymore - so my albums are a random mess.

Skype has decided to start blocking random 3rd party apps, including the one I used on my phone to connect to it and a bunch of other stuff. Thankfully I don't use Skype all that much, but it's still annoying. I guess I could use the official app, but 15MB for an app that sends text back and forth is a memory footprint I'm not willing to take. And for christ sakes, I already run 4.

Taiwan and Japan - BFFs

I told my boss shortly after I got hired I'd want some time off in the fall, as I'll have some friends visiting. No problem, just let me know. I let her know about a month ago it will be in September. No problem, just let me know when you have the dates! Well a few days ago I told her the exact dates, and I would need a few days off of work. Her response was rather tepid, "Well, I don't know what the situation will be like, but we'll see." That didn't exactly give me a warm and fuzzy, but I thought the "we'll see" could mean "I'll go check", so I let it go. I reminded her yesterday that if these dates don't work, she needs to tell me now because plane tickets have been bought, arrangements have been made. She was still being wishy washy because "maybe we won't have people to cover during that time." In my mind I was thinking "Yeah... that's why I'm telling you now... 3 months in advance" Anyway after much holding her feet to the fire she gave me a definitive okay. Seriously, it should not be that difficult.

I guess these waffles are quite good

Alright, rants over! Tiffany, my neighbor Jeffrey, and I went ice skating. I was never great with ice skating, and this time was no exception. I got the hang of it pretty quickly, but I was never graceful. The skates in particular were most uncomfortable, and continued to rub against the bolts I have in my leg. I tried to adjust my socks, the skates, but eventually I could take the pain no more and had to stop. I remember this happened last time, but not as severely. Anyway I think my ice skating days are over. After we went to U2, which is not the U2 with Bono (See, I do know -A- band). It's like a private movie theater where you pick out a DVD, get your own private room with a big screen, and this crazy huge couch to chill on. It's a neat idea, and we watched some Chinese movie about demon hunting. It was... meh.

Behold ye puny 101, and despair!

So for the jesus-christ-let-me-be-done-with-this mountain update, I tackled the 4 Beast Mountains today. Tiger, Leopard, Lion, and Elephant Mountains... DONE... sort of. Panther and Lion don't have any trails to their summit, and it's pretty ill defined to begin with.  There are a few other mountains in the area as well. Jinwu is technically a peak and not a mountain, but I fail to see the difference aside from grammatically.

Tiger - 163m
Elephant - 180m
Nangang -373m
Muzhi - 319m
Jinwu - 375m

As you can see, I am almost as tall as the 101

That brings us to 7448 (84%). Getting awfully close, now! I'm hoping on Tuesday, weather permitting, to hike the tallest mountain in Taipei. At 1120 meters, it will put me painfully close to 100%. Maybe on the way back I'll hop up on some small hill just to make it official. Curse you, Lion and Panther mountain.

In etymology world (the best world EVER) they're named that way because supposedly some dudes thought they looked like those animals. I am skeptical of you, old dudes. A mountain being distinct enough to tell the difference between a lion, a tiger and a leopard? Ya know what all mountains look like? A pile of dirt with snow/trees on it. If you really think it resembles a tiger, I think you could say it looks like almost every 4 legged animal. You wanna name these mountains accurately? Mount Venusaur - you know I'm right. Dude's even got a tree on his back.