bacon is magic

I went to the Zhongxiao Fuxing Sogo department store today to buy some point cards for the Xbox 360 and PS3 today. Why Sogo? I had about 5000NT in gift certificates to the place given to me by my company for various events like holidays and weiya(year-end company party) prizes.

I made the following wonderful observations:

• New and old 360/PS3/Wii games were about 2000NT ($67USD) on average at Sogo, going for about 1890NT at cheapest and 2200NT highest (approx.)
• New 360/PS3/Wii games are normally 1380NT at ANY GAME SHOP in Taipei, and that’s without shopping around (however, some JPN-version 360 and PSN games run 1800NT, as the Asian versions are the ones at 1380NT)
• This means that Sogo regularly marks up game prices by about 620NT on average, or about $20USD
• In other words, games at Sogo cost 44% more than normal for no good reason

I also found out that they didn’t sell the point cards at the store, and I’m pretty sure I know why: these items are pricelocked, so they can’t overcharge you for them, so they don’t sell them. Unlike the 360, PS3 cards have NT values on them, usually 400NT or 800NT(about $14/$27USD). How can you mark up the prices on something that has another price on it already?

The problem is, pretty much everything here is like this - marked way up already. Whenever there’s a sale, it rarely matters because the prices were high in the first place, and generally cost more than retail anyway even after the “sale”. After all, other stores have sales too.

Now I have 5000NT in gift certificates that I can only use to buy overpriced goods. It’s pretty irritating; I have free money, but the money is worth less than it’s supposed to be because I’m limited to spending it on excessively priced goods. Ain’t that a b.

Still, I believe that Sogo is ideal for particular groups of people:

• Stupid rich people (must be both stupid and rich)
• People who are in a pinch, such as someone who needs to buy a gift ASAP
• People looking for a very specific brand they can’t find elsewhere
• People who have gift certificates to the place already (why me?)

If you don’t fit into one of the above groups, you should really shop somewhere else.

Anyway, I’ve determined that I can only get my money’s worth for my gift certificates through one of the following ways:

• I use my gift certificates at places where the prices are less likely to be pushed up, such as at chain stores like The Body Shop or one of the restaurants in the place.
• I use my gift certificates at “new” Sogo’s City Super supermarket - the prices are always high there, but at least the stuff I buy there is of good quality and I can’t get those things elsewhere.

All of this is totally retarded too, when they sell things like this:

On the bottom shelf, you can see the Vii (hilarious breakdown examination here), also known as the Chinese knockoff of the Nintendo Wii. It boggles the mind to think that Sogo, which prides itself on being a high quality Japanese department store, sells knockoffs of the Wii instead of selling the actual Wii itself.

But wait! Sogo isn’t a Japanese store, at least not in Taiwan, where it’s owned and run by the Far Eastern Group. Going to their webpage, you can see the following quote:

The Far Eastern Group’s Founder - Mr. Y. Z. Hsu - has always taken “trustworthiness” as the guiding principle of his business management.

Maybe it’s just me, but I can’t see how products priced 44% over retail and blatant knockoff goods in lieu of the ones customers are looking for help to instill a feeling of trust.

Update: I’ve since found out that the Vii is produced by KenSingTon,(or 广州市京仕敦电子科技有限公司荣誉出品, which is Guangzhou, Beijing Shidun Electronic Technology Co. Ltd. roughly translated) which I’m guessing is trying to imitate the name of Kensington, a computer peripheral company, which does have a Chinese branch in Beijing, making me wonder how they deal with trademarks in China. The fact that the official inquiry e-mail is a Hotmail address makes them seem very sketchy. They have since come out with a redesign of the console(Google translated link), ironically making it look less like the Wii and more like a PS3. According to the Wikipedia entry, it now has a cartridge slot for 3 different multi-game cartridges (like 7-in-1 style cartridges), giving it expandability over the previous model, though I have no idea who will make the cartridges other than “KenSingTon”. My issue? Sogo is still selling the obvious Wii copycat, and the one that could be potentially mistaken for a Wii.

I heard a bunch of yelling outside my apartment and found these two guys in an argument.

Their scooters were unusually close, side by side, so it didn’t seem like one had crashed into the other. An older guy (right) was yelling at the younger guy (left) and lots of yelling was going back and forth. I grabbed my camera out of habit, and by the time I came back, the older guy started grabbing at the other guy and dragged him off of his scooter.

Soon after, they started tusslin’, and I remember the younger guy’s shirt being pulled on and stretched out.

After less than a minute of yelling and grabbing and shirt pulling, they both went back to their scooters, and the older guy rode off after yelling some more words, and the younger guy seemed kinda dejected, and collected some bits and pieces of what I guess was his stuff off of the road slowly, put his helmet back on his head, then drove off.

All of this just brought to light one thing for me - I totally don’t know how to describe this stuff to the cops should I decide to call them. Ugh. I mean, I can’t yell “old man TK’s fighting with some kid!” to the dispatcher. On afterthought, I think I should’ve used my flash through the window; chances are it’d freak them out and they’d break it up faster.

Oh well.  At least this was better than the time some lady was sitting on her scooter arguing at a phone for an hour and a half down there late at night.

Last Saturday, I went to Neidong National Park, south-ish of Taipei. I went on a photo trip with a handful of co-workers in our photo club.

The night before, I went to Indian, a dinosaur/cavemen/native american/what? themed restaurant to eat and drink with Amy and everybody. I needed to take my scooter home so I could drive it out to the Xindian MRT station to meet everybody, as I needed to get there by 6:30AM, before they opened(I think they open at 7). We had 2 mini-kegs though, so I had to wait a while before I could drive my scooter home, so I ended up looking around the RT-Mart nearby until they closed. Awesome!

That morning, my alarm woke me up at 5:40AM. I had gone to sleep at 1AM, and I’d been tired from sleeping badly all week anyway. >_< I woke up fine though, got ready, and drove down to meet them. It’s not the first time I’ve had to get up ridiculously early - there have been plenty of times where I’ve drank with Fred ‘n Kevin, slept 2 hours, then left for our international flight which we COULD NOT MISS.

So, of course, I ended up falling asleep repeatedly in the car on the way there.

The park was pretty neat - it’s famous for its triple waterfall, lush greenery, and general nature-ness.

Lots of people were there exercising, including one guy who appeared to be doing air humps, an exercise that seemed to be good for men.

Some other people were meditating or sleeping, which is pretty much a form of meditation anyway.

On the way back to the car, we stopped to take macro pictures of a bunch of bugs, where I learned that I can “convert” my lenses to take macro photos by getting some extension tubes. However, it’s still difficult to take pictures of ants that WON’T STOP MOVING, and you also have to hold the camera closer than you would hold a magnifying glass, like less than 3cm from the bug.

I also managed to take some panoramic shots, which I stitched together using Autostitch, which is pretty sweet.

So, after spending about 2-3 hours in the park walking around and taking photos, I meditated repeatedly on the way back home.

I was going to a game shop near Taipei Main Station to exchange my non-functioning copy of GRAW2 for a working one when I saw this:

It was lying in the middle of a crosswalk, in front of a taxi that was veering to the side of the road to avoid it, mirroring the shifting crowds of shoppers, twenty crossing every minute, hundreds crossing every hour, carefully skirting around that spot to as to avoid it on their sunday trip to the shopping district. Its eyes looked past me into the distance, its yellow eyes unblinking, body motionless. It seemed hidden in the field of white bars, accented by the cat’s brown fur and spackles of blood in front of it. It must have been hit by a car, as this was a busy area with cars and scooters moving through the area, looking for passengers, looking for parking.

I could only think of one thing: I must move this cat to the side of the road.

I recalled going home one night along Fuxing N. Road, where I saw an animal strewn across the road. It was not roadkill. Not anymore. It was a scattering of dull, pink, fibrous muscle atop the pavement in the right lane. I could not tell what animal it was, dog or cat or other. Not anymore.

I didn’t want this to happen to the cat, so I walked out to the center of the road and carefully slid my hands underneath its small frame, careful to hold the cat evenly, supporting its head to tail with my two hands. Something in me was worried that it could be dangerous, that I shouldn’t be doing this. The rest of me didn’t care. Its fur was dry, soft, as it would be normally. It lay still in my hands, its body light but with a weight of its own. I walked to the nearby corner and set it down, its white fur breaking the red no parking strip of the curb, where it would be easily seen yet not easily hit again, and I walked away.

I walked west, then north towards the game area to exchange my game disc. I didn’t know what exactly I was doing, a million thoughts running through my head. I think too much. I know this. What else could I have done? Should I have called some sort of animal services? I didn’t know if there was anything similar in Taipei. Should I have found another place to place the body? Maybe a trashcan, but seemed wrong, too cruel to dispose of a cat as such. Maybe some dirt, but that would be near impossible to find near the main train and subway station. Maybe a veterinarian, I could call my own and see what he could do with the body. But what could he really do? How would I even bring the cat? I couldn’t just carry it into a taxi and tell him to drive. Could I have given some sort of last rites for the cat? Shit. I should have. At least something. Shit. I didn’t even close the cat’s eyes, so that it could finally sleep. Shit. I haven’t even checked the cat’s eyes to see if its pupils would dilate, to see if it could be….

…alive? there wasn’t much blood, just specks out on the street - it hadn’t bled out - the fur was dry - the body had not gone cold - it was sunny outside so maybe that’s it but still - i hadn’t checked for a pulse - how could i be so stupid - the body hadn’t gone stiff - why didn’t i check for any of this - i could take it to a vet still - i would need to find a box to keep it level and cover it to take in a cab - should i call my vet - i’m so far - what if it’s still alive - could it be still alive - what should i do

I promised myself I would hurry up and finish my business at the game shop, then run back as fast as possible and examine the cat. If it showed any possible signs of life, I could take it to my vet. Then it would at least have a chance. If not, I did all I could, so be it.

I arrived at the game shop, and told the clerk my problem, that the game disc wouldn’t read, that the Xbox 360 always thought it was a DVD, and so forth. I hoped they would simply exchange the disc and I could be on my way, back to check on the cat. Not so. They took out a 360 to test the disc.

why is it taking so long to check the disc - can’t they just hurry up - what if the cat is dying while i’m dicking around with this fucking game disc - i’m already here it’s only a little bit before i can exchange this - come on just connect the a/v cables already i could do this - no don’t sync the controller you can see the problem if you just put the damn disc in and watch the error come up - god what am i doing here what are my priorities

The small 9″ TV screen brought up a blurry, cramped image of the Xbox 360 dashboard, and I ejected the tray and put in the disc quickly as I had grown impatient waiting for the wireless controller to sync. A game screen appeared, then a message saying “put this in an Xbox 360″. Finally. The shop worker tried loading the disc again.

come on can’t you see it isn’t working - just hurry up dammit - why don’t they just get it

The next time, a full read error message appears on the screen, and a co-worker tells him to simply change out the disc. He grabs a game off the shelf, opens the package, and puts it in to make sure it works. I go through the start screens and it works fine. I grab the replacement and run out of the shop.

It’s hot outside and I’m sweating, my face becoming slick as I run down the street in bursts. I want to wipe my face, but I’ve recently touched a dead cat. Not dead. I don’t know yet. I have to check.

I return to the crosswalk, but the cat was gone.

where did it go - what happened - who was here - i’ve only been gone fifteen to twenty minutes - did somebody take it - did somebody take it to a vet - does it look like anybody here saw what happened or who moved the cat

The curb had a tiny amount of blood where the cat used to be.

it was bleeding a little - it hasn’t bled out yet - maybe it’s still alive - who moved it - where could it be - did somebody dispose of it - there’s a nice hotel right here - maybe they moved it - maybe it looked bad with a dead cat near the entrance - it’s not that close - what if someone disposed of it in a trash can

I spent the next ten minutes peering into nearby alleys, streets, trash cans. No sign. I’m to go watch a movie with friends in half an hour and I’m late, and there’s nothing left I can do. I already missed my chance. I already made my mistake - why did I go ahead with the exchange when I could have done it some other time? Was I so wrong? What am I doing?

After the movie, I talked it over with a friend, and came to the conclusion that someone most likely had taken it to a veterinarian because the cat was gone, and it was daytime. In Taipei, <i>nobody</i> will touch or move an animal that has been hit on the street unless it is someone who will take the animal to a nearby hospital for help - it will lie there indefinitely. The only people who would otherwise dare or care to move it would be street cleaners. I thought back to the previous incident of the unidentifiable animal littered across the road. I was consoled by this fact some, but the empty hole of possibilities remained, and I didn’t actually know where the cat had gone to, who had moved it. Maybe I’ll find out someday. Maybe I never will.