December 2000 Diary

  (Fri Dec 1) Alan and I had to go to the office at 5am to repair a mail server. Makiyo said I could go back home to sleep once I finish the job. The job was done at 8am. But I didn't feel I deserve a whole day off for waking up just a few hours early, so I decided to stay until noon. Then, I still wasn't too tired after lunch, so I decided to finish off some Friday work before leaving. And then I kept getting tiny things to work on, and finally left at 7pm. It was quite a long day of work.

  (Sat Dec 2) There was a very small problem with one of the servers this afternoon. Because I could not get online at home, I tried to call Patrick for help. As usual, he didn't answer my call, so I had to go to an Internet cafe. Then, I went to pick up my laundry, the shopkeeper said she overcharged me, and returned to me NT$200. I finally bought another SmartMedia card reader, now I can easily transfer files between home and office, and to update my website. I also bought a set of headphones for listening to music and radio at the office.

 (Sun Dec 3) My company had a hiking event this morning. I was supposed to meet my team at 7:30am at the MRT station, but I woke up at 7:40am so I took a taxi by myself and arrived Tien Mu just in time. We had more than 20 people in total, most of them from the "mother ship." I was quite disappointed only 3 people (plus Alan) from my group joined the event. It would probably be more fun if there were more people I knew. The hiking trail was very nice, I got some good workout and breathed some clean air. I wish the trail was longer though, because I hadn't hiked for quite a long time. Only today I realized how much I love hiking, I should gather another hiking event soon. I wanted to bring my camera, but I couldn't find the battery charger last night (I found it tonight.) The hiking finished in about an hour, but the four of us didn't have enough fun, so we decided to go to a Cafe called "Secret Garden" near Yung Ming Mountain. But first we took a short break at McDonalds and had bagels as breakfast/brunch. Then we took a bus to "Secret Garden." It was a comfortable place, which made me even sleepier. Makiyo wanted to have Shabu Shabu (hot pot) for lunch, so we went back to Tien Mu. When we arrived, Wei-wen recalled a nice Italian restaurant around there, so we went there to have pasta instead. It was a very tiny restaurant with very good food.

(Tue Dec 5) I felt tired all day long today. I got enough sleep but I still had a hard time trying to wake up, and I couldn't concentrate at work. Alan is going back to Hong Kong tomorrow, so our team treated him lunch. The resturant was right next to Mr. Chen's (the president of Taiwan) house. It seemed like an average house in an average place, but there was a guard in full suit.

(Wed Dec 6) I pretended to be another company's personnel to take a class on NetBackup, I also had to pretend I ran out of business cards. The trainer was much better than those in my previous classes taken in Taiwan. He was confident, skillful, and most importantly humorous. He talked about Chinese philosophy once in a while, which had no relationship with the lecture at all. Because he caught flu, he arranged the desks to keep a distance from the classmates. I think that was considerate. I had lunch with the classmates. I usually don't feel comfortable talking with strangers, it was even worse when I couldn't reveal my true identity. So I simply kept my mouth shut.

(Fri Dec 8) I suggested having hot pot for lunch but no one agreed, so we had vegetable lunch instead. I felt good to have a healthy lunch, I should do the same more often. Due to the increased workload, I was quite exhausted in the afternoon, especially when the Hong Kong team asked me to do a lot of things. Friday became the unofficial squash day, but I was very tired by the end of the day, so I decided to stay at the office to finish more work. ::: I have to admit I am clueless about ladies. For quite some time, I thought Helen hated me. Just a few weeks ago, I almost wanted to ask her why she hated me. Tonight, Helen invited me to have hotpot dinner with her and her friends. I guess I was probably mistaken. ::: Today is the bidding day for our office's charity sale. I lost the bid for Swiss-army knife, but I won the bid for an electronic dictionary for NT$300.

(Sat Dec 9) When I woke up this morning (actually at noon), I only had one thing in my mind -- hiking. I read the travel guidebook that Alan left for me, and decided to go hiking at Jing Mei. I had lunch at downtown Jing Mei, brought a bottle of water, then started the trip. The trail was a little too short, and way too close to the city. It didn't take too long for me to go downhill, I reached a bus stop but I didn't really know where I was. Two cute young ladies told me to follow them to the MRT station. At the MRT station, I sat down to plan my next destination. I wanted to do something constructive, so I went to the "bookstore street" in Taipei City to buy some books. Originally, I wanted to buy a book about computer networking, but when I was there, I realized those stuff weren't really what I wanted or needed to learn. I should finish reading the MCSE books and pass some exams first. I brought a hiking guidebook instead.

(Sun Dec 10) I wanted to wake up early to go hiking, but I still woke up at noon. I thought it was a little too late to go hiking, but I didn't know what else to do. I suddenly remembered that Nicole had a bike. I called her to borrow her bike, she was willing to lend it to me, but it was at her friend's house and she couldn't get it today. So I had to think about where to go again, I finally decided to go hiking again, even when it was a little late. From the hiking guidebook that I brought yesterday, I picked Muja because it was easy to get to. Today's trail was quite nice, with stairs after stairs to make me tired. After the hiking trip, I took a bus back to Taipei. The bus stopped at National Taiwan University, quite close to my house. "Earth Village" was there, and it was still open. I made up my mind and registered for one year of Japanese classes, the beginner's class will start next Monday. I took a short rest at home, had dinner at "Formosa Cheung," and then I went bowling! When I think about it now, I really wonder how I got all that energy (from my fat?) The most incredible thing is, I broke my previous record and got a score of 197, that is ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY-SEVEN points!!

(Wed Dec 13) Oh man, I just caught two mosquitoes at the same time with one hand. ::: My landlord kept pushing me to pay the room rent, so I had to go to the bank at lunch to deposit my salary check, but I can't get cash from it until Friday. Then I remembered Nicole owed me some money and I could ask her to return some, but I was too busy so I didn't call her. She called me in the afternoon and told me she wanted to return some money to me. Perfect timing! We met for dinner after work, she also asked Melody to join. We went to a Thai restaurant near my house (Melody's house is one block away from mine), the food was only average. We went to a coffee shop after dinner. While we were having some useless chat, I came up with a weird idea... to introduce Melody to Keith. I think Keith is a very nice guy, I originally wanted to introduce him to Nicole, but she doesn't like to talk to guys who are shorter then her. I suggested the four of us have dinner together, Melody seems to welcome my idea. Now I will have to find a good reason/excuse to invite Keith, and find a nice restaurant.

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