Continuing with my quest to do a little more touring in my local area, I decided to drag the kiddies along to the black-faced spoonbill reserve, quite nearby our home.
The decision to go here was not completely random. Christina has been doing some stuff about the black-faced spoonbills at school and had brought a book home about them.
The black-faced spoonbills migrate to Taiwan, specifically the Qigu area in Tainan, for a lot of the winter as the climate in Taiwan is not as cold as the other place they stay. They are an endangered species with less than a thousand or so in the world.
When we were almost at the main visitor center we stumbled on this sign. Looks like there are a few other things to add to our tour list there. We headed on to the conservation center to see what we could see.
Aside from just being there, I don’t have too much to report about the center itself. It was fairly interesting with quite a lot of people making their way through the center.
A fair number of tour bus passers through.
I headed home as it was getting late in the day, and dragging the kids on the crappy bike for 40km in total was a bit of a test. Next time I’ll head to the actually conservation area and see what we can see there.
Saturday morning started as usual, except that this day I was amped to get out on the bike with the kids.
We headed off at around 3 o’clock for the 10km or so trip towards the coast. At this time I had no idea of exactly where we were going to end up. I had planned to go to the black-faced spoonbill reserve, but this ended up as a good alternative.
As I nearly reached the Taiwan Salt Museum, all about the areas main product, I notice a small building that had never caught my attention before. Being at the towing kids speed, I pulled over and noticed it was a visitors center. Hardly anyone around, but gave me a chance to have a look around.
It is filled with pictures of beautiful views in Taiwan, but many didn’t look like they were from the area. Sure enough, a great majority of the pictures are of other areas of Taiwan, although apparently all within Tainan. I grabbed a map for future reference, and other places to go.
I inquired with the lady there, a youngster who didn’t really seem to know much about what there was to do in the area, but she did give me one gem that was supposed to be quite close by.
So off we went.
As it turns out, I had been this way before in search of the coast (often blocked by the salt fields) but had just missed the final turnoff.
What I discovered was a picturesque view of the estuary by the sea. It’s been a while since I’ve seen one of these picture-perfect views, but wow.
The viewing area itself is nice enough, being a wooden structure on a flood wall. It was great for the kids to run around on and to get a good view of the sea. There was also ample opportunity to take in the scenery. The weather was just perfect as the rain was holding off and the sun beaming down through the clouds beamed off the ocean below.
Last week (7-11 July, 2010) was the summer camp for the first year students at the National Defense University in Beitou, Taipei. The students were freshmen (and women) who are now entering their second year of study.
The entire week was a surprise and a challenge for me. I was not sure what to expect from a summer camp as I had never done one before. The camp itself was an English summer camp, so the focus of the entire thing was on English and I was interested to see what the result of an English class combined with a traditional summer camp would look like. Although it was a summer camp (the temperatures confirmed it), it was not the outdoors kind, all of our lessons were conducted in the classroom. This was to avoid disruption of the other people on the campus as the other students were still doing their regular activities.
There were 12 classes in total with around 24 students per class, we were one shy of 24 because one of the students couldn’t attend for some reason or another.
Monday started off with a new class of mixed students. The class was bundled together from different students from different faculties, some of them already knew each other, but most of them didn’t. This day was about getting to know each other getting into the flow of the week.
The start of the day required us to make a war cry of sorts. Now I should of realized it, but later in the morning we had to perform that war cry for the rest of the classes at the school. But not having realized it, we got to the venue and then were escorted outside and told we had to perform, and we were first. So all of us were taken by surprise on this one, but managed to compose ourselves pretty well.
The rest of the day was devoted to activities in the classroom, or course all English related. I ran into the problem that I had underestimated how much extra time there would be and had to think on my feet to expand things and fill the available time.
The afternoon was also the start of practice for the show we would have to put on on Friday afternoon. We tentatively started to put it together, first trying to brainstorm as a class and figuring out what the topic of the show would be. This took quite a bit of time and there were only a few ideas put forward. This posed a bit of challenge as they got very excited about some topics, like a remix of The Three Little Pigs and Red Riding Hood. The problem would have been how to put those together into a show that was supposed to be only five minutes long. We left the discussion to be continued the next day.
The one thing that became very clear right away was the eagerness to do a song and dance. In contrast to South Africa where the men try to be quite “manly” the whole class which consisted of 16 guys and 7 girls were keen on doing a song and dance. There are few qualms with this and actually it’s pretty fun. The tradition of doing these singing shows starts from kindergarten and they get a chance to do these shows pretty much every year until the finish university. Funnily enough they still have some in companies as I witnessed at the year-end party at my company last year.
Tuesday was the first day of actual teaching. We had already started on Monday as there is always lag time built into the schedule. We focused on greetings and basic conversations. I had planned my lessons around teaching just what was in the book which turned out to be too little for the students as their ability was quite a bit beyond the chosen material.
Due to our slower than expected speed for choosing the show topic, and my being a little nervous about not finishing (after the scare of the previous day’s war cry) we started off the afternoon by choosing a topic. We finally settled on Cinderella and hastily started putting together a script and other stuff.
After asking for a little guidance on putting the show together I picked teams to do the different parts of the show. We had a group to put together the final song, choosing it, cutting it down, preparing the music and deciding on the actions for it. Another team was in charge of creating the costumes. The final group was in charge of preparing lines for the actors and how they would perform.
Wednesday was another filled with teaching and in the afternoon we hit the show again. Progress was again slow, so we put a concerted effort into finalizing and having a first run. Setting targets for a first run in the afternoon helped to speed up their progress and we ran through it as best we could. Afterwards we decided to cut the lines a bit and practice the actors roles more.
Thursday morning was probably the best of the English classes. After a week of being a little unsure of how to handle the class I did what I should have done all along and just approached it like any other class I would have had, I threw in a whole lot of games with a whole bunch of speaking and we finished off pretty well.
In the afternoon we had our materials for the show ready and got most of the props finished. The lines were pretty much done and the song “That’s How You Know” from the movie enchanted had been chosen as our final song. This song has been in the back of my head ever since then reminding me of the fun we had and bringing back memories of the week.
Friday was the wrap-up for the week and the morning was devoted to having some final time with the students, just chatting about stuff. We also had lunch together in the classroom, which was a bit of a treat for them as they have to get permission from their company leaders to be absent from their usual lunch with their company.
The biggest surprise was the twists and changes that were made to the show at the last minute. Cinderella’s shoe became her bra, the kids started making their own new lines and doing some impromptu acting. This got me worried a little about not having a perfect show, but I did have to realize that this was the aim of the show, to get them to just use the English they had learned and to feel comfortable using it. So I pushed any ideas about a perfect show aside and just let them flow.
The afternoon was awesome. Everyone was excited to a fever-pitch when the last of the shows started, the atmosphere became better and better as the evening moved on with cries of support and laughter during all the performances. Most of the shows were pretty darn good, and of course ours was not exception.
At the end of the day my students presented me with Cinderella’s pumpkin as a thank you card for the week. I got a few strange looks carrying a big pumpkin cutout onto the subway, but at the same time I was really proud of what my class managed to achieve.
Looking back there are a few things I would take away from this and apply the next time I do a summer camp.
Firstly I would prepare a lot more short activities. Perhaps my lack of experience with planning so many classes or confusion about the format of the week left me with gaps during the day. Next time I need many, short, easy to setup activities to fill in any quiet moments.
Secondly I would insist on English only from the start of the week. It was only on Thursday that I made a “punishment” for speaking anything but English. This only consisted of singing a song for the class, but was enough to get them to stick to this rule. It was not easy for all of them, but they all managed to get their meaning across in one way or another.
Thirdly, plan for any level. In a week, there is very little time to get to know the class. Sure, you’ll know each other better by the end of the week, but it’s very hard to adjust a schedule in such a short time. I would aim for all the basics and lots of conversational activities only. These always work and can be adjusted on the fly. Together with this I won’t be obsessed with the workbook, if we have to finish it for some reason, then just quickly finish those as a task at the end of the morning or something.
The week went by in a blur, I was quite ill at the beginning of the week, which improved by the end. The days were long, but the interactions with the students were great. On a side note it was an absolute pleasure staying at Paul and Queenie’s place for the week, two of the greatest friends anyone could hope for.
To my students: You guys rock, and thanks for making the week as great as it was. Who knows, maybe I’ll see you around.
Here’s a look back at just some of the songs that I really enjoyed, starting from the first album I ever bought, and ending around the end of high school.
My first album I ever bought, on cassette, was Technotronic’s Pump Up The Jam, which was released in 1989. Here’s the track by the same name.
I’m not sure if I really ever listened to this song that much, but it certainly was a keeper and has stuck in my mind for songs around that time. Snap’s I’ve Got The Power (1990)
Here’s another that I enjoyed. It should be noted that I bought very few albums back then, and now with the proliferation of Internet Radio, I never do anymore. Here’s KLF’s Last Train to Trancentral. Woo, woo, KLF. (1990)
2 Unlimited – Twilight Zone (1992). It was around this point in my searching that I realized that most of what I was exposed to was Eurodance. Never really got into the categories of music, just liked what I liked.
Here’s Snap! making another appearance with Rhythm is a Dancer. (1993, I guess)
2 Brothers On The 4th Floor – You’re Never Alone
2 Unlimited – No Limit
2 Brothers on the 4th floor – Dreams (Will come alive) (1994)
It was really after making friend with the other “Biker Mice” at school that my obvious liking for dance music was discovered. And although the exact type has changed, I remember the first time I listened to one of the Thunderdome series and Rave Massacre (primarily gabber and hardstyle) that I got a taste for harder electronic music.
Robert Miles’ Children was a big hit in 1995, which was nearing the end of high school for me. I enjoyed it, but those piano lines started wearing thin pretty quickly.
Also around the same time was Faithless Insomnia, which I do still enjoy listening to from time to time.
There was a lot of other music going on all the while, I still remember bands like Nirvana and Green Day, although I remember their songs and can appreciate them a little more now (mostly just reminiscing), they were never my cup of tea.
One thing has changed since that time is the amount of online radio I listen to. Due to this I can now classify what I like, simply because that is the only way to really find what I like online. Gabber, hardstyle, happy hardcore (I would never have thought I would), hardcore, electro, trance, goa are the main stuff I look for and that’s primarliy on DI.fm nowadays.
After a two month hiatus HiTechTaipei is back delivering tech news from this little bustling island.
HiTechTaipei is done by my friend Paul and covers issues related to the Taiwan tech sector and includes his opinions on the goings on here.
I’ve enjoyed Paul’s writing style ever since I first read Christian Monitor, a site which he longer works on, which is still going after what I think is possibly seven years or more now.
And while I’m plugging his stuff, he also writes about his and Queenie’s adventures on their personal blog at DurbanBay.com.
I’ve always had a thing for long rides. For me, there was nothing really more satisfying then choosing a destination really far off on the map, planning a route and then heading off as far as I could get.
I never picked places that I knew I couldn’t make it to, but I did push the limits on some occasions. One of those was my longest ride ever, which was 200km and there is nothing more exhilarating than the feeling of pushing through the utter exhaustion you start to feel after a few hours.
But during those hours, all other worries are gone, and the complete focus is on the here and now.
Which allows my brain to truly relax.
Sure, my body is being beaten by the sun and the road, but that focus lets my brain relax about everything else.
Even this last Sunday a short, slow ride with Christina went on to almost double the time it was supposed to because I lose most of my sense of time.
Back to my friends house.
So on my way back from my friends house I took an old, time-tested route up the hill through the graveyard. This is a twisting, narrow road, well known to me and my friends that rode it for the tight squeezes when cars come careering around the corner on a road only one vehicle wide.
Although for the first time ever, the ride was on motorbike, it was still good to get out, and almost as relaxing (of course I was going a little faster so needed to pay more attention to the road).
The payoff is the awesome view of the hills around Taipei from the top.
By getting totally relaxed, my brain is ready for all the other stuff that comes.
Despite putting in all that time, the rest of my time can then be well spent.
And the strange thing is that I still manage to squeeze it all in.
So my colleague almost closed a door on me, while I was still in the doorway.
I decided I would try to see the humor in it and what, if anything I could learn from the experience.
Here are the results of my torture.
Don’t Get Stuck in Repeat
I got slammed in the door because my friend was solely focused on moving onto the next activity, super-focused.
Everyday we go about our activities, like we did the day before, the day before that and all the days before that. And tomorrow will be much of the same.
But it doesn’t have to be.
Keep things fresh, don’t stop thinking about things around you, and for those things that come automatically, question them every once in a while to see if they are doing you any good.
See The Funny Side
Stupid mistakes happen everyday.
That’s just life.
Very few events will lead to tragic consequences, so don’t sweat the small stuff.
It hurts for now, but even in those situations there may be a chance to make a new friend.
So I’ve started to try and tune in to things a little better from day-to-day and yesterday something caught my eye, which opened my mind a little and reminded me of what everyone else is like.
Just another day… almost
It was just another coffee break.
The hill was slightly hidden by the soft mist of light rain.
And there was a very clear, very near rainbow, as often happens in this neck of the woods.
Unlike the other times, there was a second rainbow right nearby, not as bright, but there none the less.
The three of us in the kitchen saw them and thought they looked interesting enough and made a few comments like “Now there’s 4 pots of gold at the ends,” “It’s probably going to Taiwan bank at the other end,” and “that’s quite unusual.”
But we obviously weren’t the only ones who had seen it.
The deluge
In comes one of my colleagues and comments on how amazing it is, looks for a little longer and leaves.
Then another comes by, on her cellphone, telling her friend on the other end that she sees it.
By the time I got back to my desk, at least four other people had seen it, and probably many others. My other friend who went out to see it after I got back had gone to see it because someone else had told her, and it wasn’t one of those who I knew had already seen it.
We’re all different
I was reminded, just like being reminded that Firefox is not the only browser (just the current reigning champ), that everyone is different.
The rainbow that I didn’t pay too much attention to was very exciting for many other people, and created a small viral effect of people passing on the message to everyone else.
You never know what will make people excited
Although I take these little things for granted, there was enough appeal to get at least a few of my colleagues out of their chairs and out to the kitchen.
For marketers, having a complete understanding of your target market and what makes them excited and happy and can get them to take action in the way you’d like them to requires more than just the mechanics of the same old boring marketing efforts.
You really need to know them like a good friend would. And then maybe they’ll trust you, and even tell others.
I’ve always said that I have a problem concentrating.
I used to blame it on things. I said that University was too boring (I still think so) so I couldn’t concentrate. I made excuses like “I just can’t concentrate” and more or less have accepted it as the way I am.
But I’ve realized something.
Excuses don’t help
So I’ve started to take some steps to help me concentrate on the things I need to do. Things like my family, job and blogs.
In my usual mode, I just glide by and letting things go, well, the way they go.
As I spend much of my day in front of a computer, I have become very distracted of late, letting time slip into things like Twitter, checking email and catching up on reading the things in my Google reader.
Here are two things I did today to get things rolling.
Turn off everything
When my computer loads up, there at least five programs there, waiting to all distract me.
Today I turned them all off.
Turned off Twitter.
Turned off IM (did this a while ago actually).
Closed all Firefox tabs, except my homepage. Most importantly I closed email and Facebook.
Firefox tips
I was aiming at doing some job research and some blog writing this morning.
To keep myself from being distracted during this process. I discovered some Firefox shortcuts that make using it more effective.
F11 (go ahead, press it now)
This puts Firefox into full-screen mode.
No tabs visible to provide immediate distraction, even new tabs don’t show unless you move your mouse to the top.
Alt+Tab still scrolls through the tabs.
Ctrl+N still opens a new tab.
Ctrl+L still focuses on the address bar, but instead opens a small window which works the same
Unlike in the usual mode you’ll need to do Ctrl+N then Ctrl+L to type in the new tab address, in the usual mode you’ll only need Ctrl+N and the focus immediately falls on the address bar.
Avoiding Asides
Another thing I’ve done today is to have a pen and paper handy for writing down every thought that’s not on the current task.
And that last one is the reason I managed to pump out this article at the end of lunchtime.
UPDATE: I wrote this on Thursday, but due to maintenance by my webhost, my sites were down for a day or two, so I only posted it now.
