Horsefly, BC

Some pictures from our latest forray into the frigid realm of field work - it didn't dip too much past -20 but if felt like it really, really wanted to.

As far as astronomy goes - there was one night of absolute clear seeing, and I got to spot many asterisms and constellations (three were new identifications for me - Auriga, Gemini, Taurus, and I finally figured out the star map!). It was the evening after the height of the Geminids, and I got to see a few meteors whiz through (within) the sky. One was quite amazing, leaving a trail some 40 degrees long. Most were average though. However, it was a perfect night for viewing, and I got to see three clusters I had not before located. So, overall things were astronomically perfect.

Me trying to get a sample froma submerged piezometer

Holding a piezometer at one of the sample sites.

Crystal in the process of breaking a path throught the frozen stream.

Out of place; me at home.

Me trying to get a sample out of a piezometer, but as it turned to slush mid way the seemingly easy task became quite a difficulty.

Sunset, along the drive home through the woods.

Me cutting the end of the pipe used to install piezometers. Every 3-4 peizometers installed required the pipe to be cut (we had to smash it with a sledge hammer, mashing the steel pipe somewhat).

My boots at lunch! Frozen stiff...

Moooooooooooooooooooooooooose! Many, many, many moose dancing around the roadways trying their best to:

a) lick salt

b) stay alive

A close up of a logged area; below is the broader view.

A view of a logged portion of the watershed.The linear lines are actually landslide/avalanche paths, the large blocks of unwooded areas are where active logging has taken place.

This is me, like crystal, trying to clear a path through the frozen water so that we can get in and get to work. It took us a while to find a safe place to enter the stream this time as all the shore line was frozen and unstable. Eventually we made it in, and had a few bruised shins from all the flaoting and seemingly invisible ice chunks.

And there is anchor ice.

Take care,

TAIWAN: XII

Here are some more pleasing views of Taiwan, on a more subtle scale. The flower pics were taken during a warm afternoon on the roof of our hostel in Taroko National Park; there was a garden to the side and myriad flowers that boasted colours and patterns that caught my eye. ANd then a bee came, and made it all much more prosaic and perfect.


And then there was the weather - added here is a picture of the television report warning people of the comming typhoon. One of many such storms that hit Taiwan every year. Check out the size of the storm compared to the size of the island.

Finally, a picture of one of my classes as I taught them about the Canadian Arctic and showing them pictures form my time spent there (years ago now!).

A moments pause....

"Once you depart from evidence, anything is equally possible"

TAIWAN: XI

Here are some more from Green Island, off the eastern coast of southern Taiwan. Green Island is a short twin otter flight from Taiwan proper, about 40 min, and when you arrie it is like you have been taken to another land. It is a dramatic change, although you are aware that you are sstill in Taiwan and the chinese/polynesian culture, you have beentaken away from the modernity and transferred to the more subtle and aware lifestyle. Orchid Island, a little further out in the Pacific Ocean than Green Island, is a further testament to this. More on that one later.

Us, wading around the tidal zone of the island - contemplating and breathing in the beauty of evolution. Absolutely amazing. There are not words to describe the first sights of starfish, crabs, fish, inverts, etc, in thier natural tropical habitat. The next day we went snorkelling and saw even more spectacular things. Nature is never more beautiful than it is in Taiwan.

This is me, post ferry ride spent vommiting, trying to eat food agian to replace what was lost during our trip to the island. Nothing like fish and rice in the morning.

The inside of a typical restaurant in Taiwan. Anywhere, Taiwan. X

The bottle of unmarked slop above the "X" above is hot sauce, the glorious miture of chillies and unknowns into a conglomerate of taste and satisfaction. Although cognizant of the fact it never leaves the tables in the +30c weather, and further cognizant of the fact that at said +30c it is deplorable to even think of adding heat in any form, this stuff rocked my world. There was a "good" kind and an "amazing" kind; this was the latter.

Check this one up close. Kind of appropriate, no? Check back to the posts about religion. I will sum up some stuff here:

1) Every culture has its beliefs, mythologies, that they use to describe their natural world and their place

2) Historical beliefs that are now outdated are called myths, current beliefs are called religions.

3) Religions are outdated, knowledge has moved on. They have maintained, and the world, encompassing all life human or not, suffers because of it.

4) Science has become the voice of belief, as it is the first methodological prospect that uses evidence as it's source of information, not blind guessing. Science poses answers, myths pose stories, fables.

5) Humans were not created to control Earth, God is not a reality, organized religion is an outdated mechanism for belief.

Jesus was just a guy who in todays world would be understood as a quack; in his time he was misunderstood as something important.

TAIWAN: X

This time I take you to Taipei. THe largest city in Taiwan, and by far the most important economic centre. Ecologically it is very good at points, and very poor at others. In terms of 'Taiwan' experiences, it poses a duality of sorts: it is without hesitation an asian experience and indicative of the urban culture within, but it does no justice to all that is extant on the island country of Taiwan. The rural areas are much more beautiful, no challenges there, and the people in the rural areas (mostly east coast) are not chinese heritage but indigenous to the island from Polynesian heritage. This perspective and culture exhibits a much more ecologically coupled and historically founded existence. I much prefer the rural areas, but when in Taipei, there is a large range of things to do and many interesting sites to see. So, lets look at the two main ones. Taipei 101 is (for now, as everyone tells you) the worlds tallest building. It boasts a vertigo-inducing view and although expensive for an elevator ride, is much more interesting than any other 'tall' building. The other is Chiang-Kai Shek Memorial; built in the memory of Taiwans founding dictator/leader.

Me at the base of Taipei 101.

Me, in the rain, at the CKS Memorial.

Crystal and the CKS Memorial.

Japan concedes defeat and signs over the battle. A very moving picture which speaks of many deaths and of many years of turmoil. The losers are not always the ones who erred, but in this case history has written tham as such.

Taipei, as seen from atop Taipei 101.

TAIWAN: IX

This time we took a little sojourn to Rueisuei to bask in the glory of....a town a little further south of us. It turned out to be a little rainy, and although the 4 hour scooter ride there was a beautiful and relaxing venture, once we got to town the drizzle turn downpour greeted us. We were able to find a very friendly place to eat and waited out the storm (while Trevor was getting electrocuted by his hotel door...somehow). We got to see much of the area, sit in a hot spring, climb trees and travel up th emountainside to the betel farms and the remote villages.

Ok, I got the wrong batch of pictures. I looked at the first one and remembered the trip south. Except for the first three, they are actually of Taroko Park after a significant typhoon. We were trying to make it to the middle of the island (HeHuan Mountain) but had to turn around because of poor road conditions. The pics below are actually the good road conditions...they got worse.


This is me climbing a Betel Nut Palm; almost....at.....the......top.....
Blury picture of us eating night market food. Mmmmm....night markets (spoken while drooling in a Homer-esque voice)
This was actually on the way home. We stopped at a National Reserve and hiked in to where the people dont often go because it is too dangerous (read: not along the path or on the guided tour). This swimming place was absolutely beautiful, and the bridge above shows the height of the gorge.
Me trying to get through a flooded tunnel on my scooter. I was weighing the options - do I go fast and burst through the deep parts or do I go slow and wallow with stability through the deep parts. I think fast won. I got wet, that is all I remember.

A muddy road that is not a treat to drive on with a scooter. There was a landslide to the left and it covered the whole road, which was excavated irregularly by people, allowing traffic to resume passing. Traffic, meaning one vehicle an hour or so.

A view from one of the passes - you can see the road already travelled in teh distance as a white line horizontal to the picture (to the left). The mountains are blanketed by lush sub-tropical forests and somewhere out there is the notorious Taiwan Bear. We heard it once, but never saw it. It is there....somewhere.

Another view of the road travelling throught the mountains. This is actually past Taroko and on our way to HeHuan before having to turn around. Most of the roads are single lanes, but people drive cautiously most of the time and danger only exists from landslides...well....ok people drive erratically. It is not all that safe, but at the same time not all that dangerous. You just have to be quick with reactions. Beautiful, though.

Typhoon damage - This was what was left of the road in the fall of 2005. By the summer of 2006 it was just finished being fixed. It was quite a marvel to be driving along and come across this. We actually met this sight the first time in a very uncomfortable way: we were driving ot Taroko late at night after Crystal was done work. It was raining and completely dark- we are in the middle od the mountains, where there are no villages and no lights, no electricity and no anything except road and river valley. We were driving around, fast to try to get to the upstream village within the next hour or so, and saw this weird looking "somewthing" on the road. Instinctively I thought it was just a boulder that had fallen during the rainstorm so I kept going and was about to swerve around it when I realized....hastily.....that it was a pilon and not a rock. Then I realized why a pilon might be there...illuminated only by my headlights shining through a downpour. So I quickly changed plans and squeezed the brake as hard as I could without losng control.....which worked but left us metres away from this horrifying sight. It was completely dark, so it took us a while to visualize the whole thing, but after we did our hearts began to sink. It was that close....

It was not until the drive home a few days later that we saw the whole thing in daylight and realized with great certainty that we almost went over that ledge at full speed. Nobody would have found us until the next morning. It would have been too late.

TAIWAN: VIII

As I write this Calgary is commencing their 'war on homelessness and other nuisances' with their crack down on crimes against civility. Nobody wants to see a homeless person, so lets make them illegal. And the Mayor wants to increase the width of the new laws to enable searches anywhere (for no given reason) and allow police and bylaw officers to command people to betaken to the police station. Just because they suspect 'something'.

Hmmm....

___________________________________________________________________________________

More Taiwan.

Kind of a neat sign to see....as if glass door collisions are rampant in this part of the world?

Crystal standing on an outcrop of volcanic rocks, on Green Island, looking across to Taiwan.

Me, in the same position as Crystal.

Me, sitting with one of the last deer alive on Green Island. They were hunted so greatly that on this island it is suggested that there are few, if any, left.
The view from the back window of our house. Everymorning we would wake up to this and see the sun hitting the mountains and smell the humid trpical air.

A typical seafood dinner platter....when it is almost finished. The fish may look unappealing, but trust me it is very, very tastey.

A fish market in NanFang'ao, about a 3 hour scooter drive north of our house. Fresh anything can be found here. We saw a sting ray being butchered earlier, and Crystal, on an ealier visit, sa a shark. There are lots of problems with the whole 'shark industry' to be dealt with.

Same market, different section.
A view of the market town from the top of a bridge. This town was a very small habitation but packed with cultural facies that only a harbour town can display.

Me, posing for a picture and a break during the drive home from NanFang'Ao.

TAIWAN: VII

Ok, I took a little break from Taiwan. I had some thoughts to share.

There was a priest on the radio communicating thoughts on the need to preserve christianity. I, therefore, needed to comment.


Here are some more pictures from Taiwan. They are a random bunch, some of the school that I taught at and some travel pics.

ABOVE - A post typhoon xcess of water finding its way out of the rock mass through the side wall; similar to a moulin found in many continental glaciers.

BELOW - Me wealking along a trail as it passes under a post-typhoon waterfall. Cold, cold water...refreshing!

ABOVE - Me on a scooter.

BELOW - A scenic waterfall picture. There is much surface runoff in Taiwan; there is such intensity to the precip events that it seems to be either dry, soaked or drying.


ABOVE - YueMei Elementary School (70 students). This was the secodn of two schools that I taught at. Nestled in the coastal mountains, it is a placid and friendly environment to be in. And the people...friendly enough to put a new meaning of 'welcomming' in the dictionary.

ABOVE - A waterfall along the side of Taroko Gorge (this was a highly ephemeral waterfall; when it rained or afgter a typhoon it was rapid and when it was dry and there was no precipitation there was only a scarof past waerfalls eroded into the gorge wall).

BELOW - Crystal taking a break along Highway #11 that follows the ocean coast for the extent of the island. The picture is taken from the inside of one of many tunnels that are necessary to keep this road going along (inside) the sometimes sheer cliffs.

ABOVE - Crystal breathing in the view from one of the trails that link to the road in Taroko Park. This was possibly the trail with the best viiew. It was entirely constructed by the hands of Japanese during their occupation of Taiwan of years past.

BELOW - Daushiang Elementary School; one of the two school I taught at. The schools in Taiwan are so much more aesthetically apealing and more warm and welcomming that our stale and business structured ones here.

ABOVE - A poor quality shot of the periphery region of Taipei. Most Taipei shots will show you a bustling downtown, but this is the downtown extension that is not as flashy but still quite pleasant.

The Problem with Religion

The advent of teh scientific method shed light, true light in the form of knwoledge, on a society that foundedc itself on belief. Science, then, is not correctly considered to be a subject but should more properly be considered a method - most do consider this. The methodological premise of science imparts knowledge; the methodological premise of religious faith imparts belief. Belief, throughout the years of recorded history has been a longstanding partner with congnitive evolution. The earliest recorded people would deify everything that naturally controlled thier lives. There would be gods or goddesses for agriculture, the sun, the ocean, volcanoes, etc. They would lapse over the unknown with further idological foundations of 'the unknown and unknowable'. If they could not explain it, it then must be that of an unexplainable deity. This led to myraid perverse beliefs centred around Geocentric and Humanocentric thoughts. In the earliest times up to and including the witch hunts of Europe and North America people have been sacraficed and murdered in the name of placating their god. Some would eagerly take this role, as exposed by research into Aztec and Inca civilizations, and offer themselves up for sacrafice if they felt that their dying could serve some greater purpose. Today, this is continued in the East as suicide attacks run prevalent throughtout much of a structurally religious based society. Religion, then, served to offer any explanation for events which could not eaily be understood.
Science, the advent of investigation, offered a pervasive alternative to this theological base. When sacrificial offerings were made to volcanic gods and then the volcanic eruption stopped, it is a considerably honest assumption to make that the sacrafice itself served to quell the eruption. However, the scientific method, that which is continually considered to be un-godly because it seeks to describe nature (and that it should be left undescribed - read: unquestioned - and left to frail belief and blind aggreement), could have saved many lives. Perhaps every other eruption could have been given a sacrafice, and then the following eruption given no sacrafices; what would have been the reaction to see that the eruption stopped no matter what? Would people have realized through this kind of skin-and-bones scientific approach that they need not kil their families, friends, neighbours or even strangers in order to placate their 'gods'? Bring this to modern day realities, where christian churches globally (almost) killed - horribly and tortuously killed - many women and children in the name of extirpating demonic offspring. The christian church systematically, without regard to truth and or reality, killed people to fulfill a belief they had. Belief...not knowledge.

The lenses of retrospection are vividly lucid and clear, that much is well known. It is easy for one to look back and to see the errors that were at the time not visible. Perhaps this can be used as a guise for forgiveness, but it should not. And in science it is not. In religion it is.

Science uses retrospection as a tool - anything we know today came from more archaic beliefs that were mutated, so to speak, and changed to fit with the current knowledge. Not belief. SO, what is the problem with religion? It is a source of contaminated thoughts, disregard to knowledge and a proposition that humans have superiority over a planet that is being destroyed because of that superiority complex. We have a cognitive disease, belief, and it is endemic to everywhere.

Current knowledge of volcanoes tends to allow us to see that the eruption (aside from being almost imperative in the evolution of 'higher' orders of live and the almost comic result of plate tectnoics which is also itself a foundation of plant and animal development) will naturally build a head (the pre-umblings of an imminenet eruption) and then when the pressure reaches a point it will be foreced to release (the eruption) and then when the outside pressure is greater than the magmatic pressure it will stop erupting (senescence). So, naturally, volcanoes will stop.They will always erupt, so long as the heat from inside Earth is available, the plates will move and the volcanic aperatures in Earths crust will continue to spew forth its internal juice. Volcanoes will erupt. Volcanoes will senesce. Volcanoes do not need sacrafices.

Science is a method to learn and to gain knowledge. It is a constructive and proactive methodological foundation that allows us to understand with greater accuracy, but also a greater ability to change and update knowledge. It is based on experience and it is based on experiment. Repeated events that are tested and cognitively assessed by various people.

We now know why volcanoes erupt. There is no god of volcanoes.

Science does not need a god because a god is not needed - we have knowledge, religions have belief. Blind belief.

The more of the universe, Solar System, Earth and processes of Earth that is understood andquantified to some degree, the more fascinating it becomes. There is a spirituality of knowledge that science is uncovering. Spirituality is discordant with religion because everything is supposedly known (read - believed) . There is no wonder, but science, rather than dumbing down nature, increases the wonder and asks poignant questions. Science breeds spirtuality - a reverence for knowledge and wonder for the world and knowing how that world works.
Why I consider an atom, or the makings of a cell wall, or how a water molecue spends its life from glacier to ocean (and back) it is highly spiritual and mind bending. It is wonderful. Learnign is a wonderfully spiritual quest, and it has nothing to do with beileif and faith.

The Problem With god

There are many issues at hand in terms of religion and knowledge, seemilgly the antitheses of each other, and none more pervasive than the ideology (by those accepting creation and a creator) that humans are natualy superior to all other life on Earth (and any other life that hard working astronomers are investigating). I wont turn this into a large one sided discussion about science, knowledge and the history of religion - it would be fun to - but I fear that I must get to the point.
Individual religions feel, and always have felt, that they are with divine decree more powerful and more important that any others who do not share their view. They have persecuted many for inaccurately described "crimes" (early scientists, witches, etc) and have maintained that their view on life is the one and only view historically and contemporarily. Most contemporarily, religious views fuel the most stunning and horrific battles and atrocious actions globally. Religions, in their highest proclamation, define the way to live and if you do not live that way then...well... . They use anger and fear rather than illumination and investigation. This is where science, as a method, steps in. Science means knowledge - thats why we use the word today - it brings with it knowledge from experiment and repetition.It does not harbour any ill will to ideas . Ignorance has confounded and ideologies and made pious people regard cience as the contemporary religion. However, there is a huge gap in this commentary; Religions are based on faith and blind belief whereas science is based on experiment and repetative attempts to find things out.

There are more important views than the ones pescribed to religions, lets speak specifically about christianity as this post pertains to it, and any specific religion is but one view of the world - a world that has throughtout its recorded history had myriad views. People used to think that volcanoes were exhaustive localities for the 'gods' to vent their anger. Science showed that this was not true, but they believed and there was no way to sway their belief. Belief has always been blind, and nothing adherdes more to that blindness than religion. Any religion. All religions. Religion thrives on weakened people unwilling or unaware of the possibility of, asking questions. Being blindly faithfull is actually been converted into an admirable quality of pious people. If you question god, they say, then you are accepting the fact that he is wrong and he will not look kindly upon you. Being blind, cognitively blind, is responsible for so many preaching about the value of religion. Science and atheistic ideologies adhere to a much more elaborate and intelligent foundation - ask questions, question common knowledge and never be blind to what you are investigating. There are so many answers, so many questions. None of which, to be truthful, are accounted for by any written book of belief.

Now, when a religious group bends or breaks the law based on the sole fact that they are a religion - nothing more - and cries abuse for being stood up against, it appears that something is wrong. Christians have from the beginning been persecuting those who were innocent, and now they wish to remain free of correction when they are guilty.

Through retrospective eyes, future civilizations will liken current religious doctrines as arcane and rediculous, just as we do for early ones now. They will liken the cross to a volcanoe, jesus to Pele, as more astute thinkers now do. Religion as a way of understanding the world will not maintain itself, just as no lie can be sustained forever. The bible is just a book, writen by a few men who really knew nothing about the world with the clarity of today. It is a fable, a story, a fairy tale - every culture has its story and its fables, God and the delusive pretense that 'he' created us in his image is simply our fable. Well, not mine, but that of contemporary religion. With the avent of the scientific methodology of asking and answering questions, only recently has knowledge becoem the foundation of understanding. And the more we understand, the more we realize that there is no truth to religion and their human-centric evaluations of truth are simply outdated, ill-educated, perceptions of nature.

Yet they still hold power because they hold votes, and it is plain to see that political ideologies stem from votes, which stem from blind faith. So, is it any wonder that our systems seem blind and sem not to serve the benefit they proclaim?


Here is a quote from a responder to a blog comment. The post to the blog is also included. It is one I have linked to many times before. A church (read: a private business who is posting advertising) wants to maintain an illegally placed marketing gimmick. It is illegal to be placed there, anyone else would be fined and or asked to move the object (can you imagine the uproar if WalMart had a huge sign here illuminating itself for no apparent purpose?), yet the church maintains that to remove it will be to go against gods will and to unfairly persecute christians.

Well, lets be realistic here. There is no god, first of all, and there is no inequality when a law is upheld for a purpose.

[addressed to another reader], the cross is a symbol of faith and a reminder to those that Jesus came to earth for a specific purpose. He is the bridge between Man and God. Jesus came for one purpose. He came to die on a cross so that others might find “The Way” into the presents of God.

www.badastronomy.com

TAIWAN: VI

Taroko Park again, this time Trent came and visited us from Korea. It was a faily unstable weekend with the weather - it was super hot for a while and then it got really humid and rained...but we made the best of the sunshine window and took a trip up the river to the village of Taroko proper. Included was a bag of betel nuts and a newfangled beer design.


Above - Ahh..betel nuts. You can also see the road winding its way through the gorge walls in the distance.

Below - Eating dinner at a seafood place; fresh seafood all the time. I think tonight it was lobster. It was lobster a lot when we could afford it.

Above - Sometimes it rained. Standing near the coast after our trip to Taroko.

Above - Trent showing us the betel nut; "we cant leave the last one in the bag....someone has to eat it"

Below - The worlds best action picture. Betel nut spit, given back to the river to nourish the land from where the betel nut came from. The Betelnut industry is quite infamous and has many links to environmental, social and health concerns, but when in rome...

Above - Ok, I lied. This is not Taroko. This is Taitung again, but it is a beautiful sunset picture and I had to throw it in when I came across it.

Below - The newfangled beer design. It is a remnant of some unknown marketing ploy, but it was a neat design regardless.

Above - TienHsiang; looking upstream from the village site. There are a few hostels, a hotel that costs way too much to stay in, and a slew of roadside venues for dinner. Behind me, I realize you cant see it (!!!), is the Tienshiang pagoda and Buddhist temple which is very famous for its history and its service. I will tell a story about it in a later post. Msot relaxing moment of my life.
Above - Sharing a beer and a laugh over dinner.

Below - Forget the name, which is quite ignorant on my part, but it will come to me. Quite a beautiful palce, and statistically the most photographed place in all of Taroko Park.
AHHH - Eternal Springs Shrine. I remembered it. HAH!

TAIWAN: V

Here are some pics from a trip to Taroko National Park. It was rather close to us, and we frequented it when we had the time. This is from a short one day trip.
Taroko National Park is a stunningly beautiful reserve and, if we ignore any political and cultural atrocities that have bemused the people here, is a wonderful place in the midst of technologically and industrially developing Taiwan. It is a huge tract of land that follows a river into the mountains and terminates at the watershed of the island. The river has gouged its way through the metamorphic marble and limestone over its tenure here and has created a valley and a gorge that takes a while to admire in its whole. This is the early sections of it, and if you can see the rock itself, there are wonderful nodes of erosion and carving into the rock mass. The water is a crystalline, blue hued chilly flow that calls for you to swim.

Above - a bridge over a waterfall.

Above - Trevor and Crystal take a break after a large uphill climb to get a view of the valley. It was hot...very hot!

Above - Another waterfall froma distance.

Below - Monkey; Taiwanese Macaque

Above - Another bridge that crosses the tributary valley below. This is not the main river, but, like I wrote, a tributary which we hiked up. Water is ver prominent in Taiwan, and river and stream systems abound - many bidges and many links to watre in their culture and economy.

TAIWAN: IV

Ok, some stragglers from the Taitung batch - I will have to condense my photo pics from now on, I realize, but for now accept these as being needed. There is actually only a couple of Taitung, and a couple of Hualien. Here they are:

The City of Taitung, as seen from a window. The ocean is off in the distance and the section of city below is the main centre and the general 'downtown' area, although it sprawls for many kilometres.


Me. Eating. Cake.




Ctystal sitting by the coast watching the waves come in.

Crystal standing by one of the ships in the Hualien Harbour. You can see th mountains of Hualien off in the distance to the left.

TAIWAN: III

Here are some pictures and their accompanying stories from Taitung, a city south of Hualien. It is much more rural and much more agriculture based than Hualien. Not that Hualien wasn't agro based, but TAitung was just that much more so. It is a great place, we spent much time here, and it was the jump off point for two offshore islands and many inland destinations - everytime we wanted to go somewhere new it seemed we had to start our journey by going to Taitung and then bumping around from there. The only down side was that we were never able to rent scooters - Taitung enacted, or took it upon themselves to enact - a no international lic. law. So, we were usually scooterless, unless we made it further inland and found a small town that rented scooters. So, Taitung was a very common place for us to end up, and we fell in love with it. Or grew to love it. Or, probably most precise, grew to accept it. There was always a hassle of some sort, but that made the trips all that more enjoyable. This weekend was my birthday, and we actually split it between Taitung and Hualien.


The day after my bday was Taiwan's equivalent of our Nov.11 - for them it was Feb. 28 (2-28) that they remember their past battles and their history of warfare and the history of Taiwan (as it was basically a long drawn out battle....this is just the snipit of info). They brought a few battle ships into the port in Hualien and allowed the public to go on board and view the ships and guns and (if you could read chinese!) read about the ships history and such. So, the pics of the ships and port are from Hualien, the others are from Taitung.


One more thing - Taitung always had gorgeous weather, and Hualien usually had gorgeous weather. When we left Taitung to come home to Hualien for the 2-28 ceremony it was gorgeous, and when we got to Hualien it was cloudy and chilly. I got burned in Taitung and then I bundled up in the mist in Hualien. So great a difference in temperature and weather in such a short distance (3 hour drive).

ABOVE - The band plays to honour the lost soldiers and to welcome the people.

BELOW - The Taitung Bridge. Read below, but this is a closer view. There were actually stairs along the majority of it because the humps were so steep and without steps of some sort it would be quite a challenge to walk fluently.
BELOW - Crystal along the coast, on the volcanic rocks. I presume she is getting ready to sit down and soak up some sun.
Below - Trevor along the coast, on the volcanic rocks. I think I am searching for crabs, which are plentiful along the coast and especially along the volcanic regions.

ABOVE - Gun inspector...everything look alright. Go ahead.......
ABOVE - Me at the market in TAitung. This pictureis actually the wrong one, I intended to post one where you could actually see more than 1/2 of me and some blurry sights, and maybe ill post the better one later. But, that is me at a typical roadside market.

BELOW - The famous Taitung Bridge (the proper name escapes me right now).


ABOVE - Crystal in the middle of a wonderfully eroded sandstone scape on the coast. The grains were rather loose, making for uneasy walking, but it was geologically satiating to see the curves and erosion of the rocks for the whole coastine.

ABOVE - Two of the ships at the 2-28 ceremony in Hualien. The city in the background is Hualien.

BELOW - Me in Taitung, waiting for a bus to come by and take us back into town. Se stopped by a small house/store along the side of the road and got some refreshments and settled, waiting for the next ride.

TAIWAN: II

This is a view of the main street on the island. There was basically one main raod that circumnavigated the whole island, and then a few that crossed in the middle - it was actually a little confusing at times despite its simplicity.















This is me climbing in the crevase again. A little blurry, but whatever. Fearing snakes and other local troubles I was hesitant to go shoeless, but then I became inspired and felt there was no way to pass up the chance to climb a tree - root, really- in the morning sun.



Here is a Taoist (pronounced Dao-ist) temple on the island. One of many temples, Taoism is a very integral part of their lives second to Buddhism. We arrived at this temple the day before when they were having some sort of sacred parade and observing the birth or death of some deity. It was hard to get information that made any sense...despite our chinese abilities. The temples (Taoist) are quite elaborate and colourful, and have many deities inside where people visit.











Me in the ocean, trying to cool off if that is at all possible. Humid and hot, more so than simple words can convey.








Climbing in a crevase in the bedrock along the coast. I think I was doing this barefoot....trying to save my sandals. This was off limits because it presented too much of a danger to the people there, so it was blocked off. However, there is no way to actually stop people other than a sign, and as the only danger it REALLY presented was nature and nature alone, we went in. THe people are very cautious and very, at times, uneager to comingle with nature. At other times, they are at one with it. It presents a strange balance when you are trying to explain to people things you did and things you want to see or do - they will most often respond with "that is dangerous..dont do it" but at times they will do many things that I would never dream of doing. Difference in perspectives of danger based on our cultures, I learned.




Trevor eating at a roadside stand - great food everywhere. Everywhere!

TAIWAN: I

Well, here we go. Sporadic as it may end up being, there will be now a string of Taiwan posts, replete with pictures and commentary on what I was thinking and what I (we) learned during the experience. I will not post all of the daily photographic jabber that may fill in the interstices of my photo album, but the most prominent ones will hopefully make it here. These will not appear in chronological order of my (our) time in Taiwan. They are from fall 2005 to early summer 2006, where I livec in Hualien Province, Taiwan. This batch are from LiuChiu Island (well, actually Xiao LiuChiu meaning small liuchiu, and the island of Taiwan proper was at one point regarded as large liuchiu...). It is a small offshore island in the south-southwest that is quite populated.

ABOVE - Me at a very aged relief station......not operational, but what a view.

ABOVE - Me sending my best across the ocean to Taiwan proper, and Crystal keeping warm with the aid of a Cathay Pacific complementary blanket (dont tell Cathay Pacific...they are not really complimentary blankets...). This is late in teh evening, and we are astanding on an eoded cliff. The end of the grass that you can see is the end of land, and the drop is about 15 m to the ocean shore. Beautiful scenery and a shard of the sunset was visible.

ABOVE - A typical scene of a family on a scooter.

ABOVE - A fishing boat at dusk (taken from the Taiwan proper) going out for the nights catch. These boats mean good food to be bought in town.

Take a moment...

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Prince George in a White Blanket

As it has been snowing for the last two weeks or so, relatively constantly, I thought I would post some pictures of the area now that it is more homogeneously white...landscape wise.


LEFT - Stopped at a light near downtown










LEFT - Parking lot at the grocery store





LEFT - Our car parked beside a snowbank at UNBC. This was taken early in the morning.









LEFT - The road outside our house, after being plowed ust the day before. It is a weird phenomenon here, but the side streets get more snowplow attention than the main streets. It is easier to drive and walk on non-descript streets and back alleys than on the main arteries through town. Not sure why.

Carving - Hao le

Ok, back at it. Here are the updates to the carving. It now is about as far as I cna take it without finer sandpaper. I think I will leave it at this and grab more soapstone when I get home to continue on with the set.

Mid stage, almost done.


Another view of the same stage.


Final stage. There are still some marks on it, and of course the shape is nearing rediculous, but it is finished to my liking.



Another view of the final stage.


Artistic view of the final stage. Beauty, eh?

Technical Issues

SO, I am trying to post the newest stages of the carving for my ever so dwindling delight. However, this system is not letting me post pictures (are they angry about the North Pole Penguin?). So, until it is remedied, there will be no more pictures.

And I spent all night (2 hours) sweating over my carving and shaping it to the most minute pefection, and I cannot share it.

Yet.

Keep an open eye for Taiwan pics to start. They will be from the 2005-2006 school year - and they will be beeeeaaauuutifuuuuuullllll (to be spoken in a melodic voice).