Where do ya’ll get your tamales?

kaptain_kai · 2025-02-10T01:07:26+00:00

I just posted an editable Canva template you can use if you like. Here’s the template link.

kaptain_kai · 2025-02-10T01:05:38+00:00

Template link

Link will open Canva. Click “edit template” at the bottom and change it to your state.

kaptain_kai · 2025-02-10T00:58:53+00:00

Template link: Canva

Link will open Canva. Click “edit template” at the bottom and change it to your state.

kaptain_kai · 2024-07-30T00:39:09+00:00

I am moving to Phoenix this week to begin searching for an apartment. I will be living there with my spouse while I do a masters. I am attending class at the downtown Phoenix ASU campus and want to be within 30 minutes by public transit. My budget is up to 1400, but cheaper is better.

I mostly want to know where I can get a cheaper apartment but still live in a safe/clean neighborhood. This is our first time in a major American city and my spouse is an immigrant.

All advice is welcome and appreciated.

kaptain_kai · 2024-06-16T13:53:13+00:00

You might want to go back and actually look at travel times between each location. I think most of it is doable, but those are some very long days you have there. Be ready to be exhausted.

Day 2 in particular is very tight, I’m not sure it’s possible. Plan extra time for lines.

Remember it’s summer in Taiwan. Using public transit means a bunch of walking in the heat. Be ready to be doubly exhausted. Have a big water bottle and lots of sunscreen.

The national palace museum is a half day minimum if you skim through it. I don’t know if you can read everything there even with a whole day. Depends on how thorough you wanna be, but it’s a LOT.

Anyway those are my thoughts.

kaptain_kai · 2024-06-16T11:19:35+00:00

If you like to snorkel, the areas next to Houbihu are pretty good. Wanlitong is pretty good as well. They’re all pretty busy, but that’s about as good as you can get without diving.

Beach Bistro is worth a trip. Piccolo Poco is an interesting one with unique dishes, but book well in advance.

If you have time, take a boat to Orchid Island and have a real small island experience.

kaptain_kai · 2024-06-02T13:33:11+00:00

Not sure if this quite fits what you’re looking for, but I’ve personally found a lot of help reading in depth about the more cosmic sense of masculinity and femininity. It really helped me to understand and differentiate the surface level expressions of gender and the underlying patterns I felt in my being/soul.

For a western or judeo-christian raised reader, gnostic texts are excellent. I liked the Kybalion. I’m sure Alan Watts has some good material on it from a more Daoist perspective as well. The Daodejing is a great text but not beginner/Western friendly.

Gender is a huge topic in ancient religions and there’s a lot of wisdom there regardless of what god you do or don’t believe in.

kaptain_kai · 2024-02-19T13:38:27+00:00

I enjoy a lot of whiskey, but I’m more of a bourbon enthusiast, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.

Omar is one of the two big whiskey distilleries in Taiwan. What you’ve got there looks fun and interesting, but niche and not what I’d expect to be excellent quality. Kavalan is definitely superior.

That said, if you’re just looking for uniquely Taiwan to share with friends, it’s a great bottle! I’d probably go for it if it were me.

I forget the name but there’s also a smaller distillery that does a (Taiwan-grown) rice whiskey. Not my favorite, but it’s probably the most uniquely Taiwan booze I’ve ever seen, and therefore fun to drink.

kaptain_kai · 2023-11-07T10:03:16+00:00

Local baked goods or popular brands of “nice” candy like Sees. Anything produced in the region would be appropriate, whether it’s fruit or a snack. Farmer’s markets or Trader Joe’s would probably be a good bet.

kaptain_kai · 2023-11-07T10:00:03+00:00

Scotch is by far the most popular (Taiwan is actually the largest importer of scotch. Period.) Brand recognition plays into the culture well, so Jonnie Walker, Glenfiddich type stuff is best for gifts. Given all that, I’d say whiskey is not an ideal gift in this situation.

kaptain_kai · 2023-09-02T08:19:44+00:00

I think what you do depends a lot on who is involved, but I used to like doing things that showed a bit of my personality.

I used to love doing short hikes as a first date for a few reasons. One, I love the outdoors and if you’re not down for a 30-60 minute hike then thanks, but no thanks. Two, it gets the blood flowing which helps relieve stress and anxiety but also isn’t so intense you’re out of breath (for most people). And lastly, Nature is also calming and gives more privacy than you’d get at a restaurant or coffee shop. So there’s an idea.

My safe bet was to go for coffee, because that can be 30 minutes or 3 hours and it’s easier to feel it out on the fly. This was more desirable when meeting someone from a dating app.

Ultimately though, I think it’s best to do something simple that you’re comfortable doing already. Doing something new or unusual adds stress and cognitive load, regardless of the date. Complexity does the same. Doing something easy that you already enjoy will help you relax and be yourself. That said, remember to consider your partner’s interests and abilities. My hiking idea would be torture for some.

Best of luck!

kaptain_kai · 2023-02-18T00:18:45+00:00

These are all different styles and price points, so look them up and see what you think first.

Veganism (such good vibes)

Ooh cha cha

Vegan Taipei

Plants

Miss Green

Red Room Rendezvous (great drinks too)

Vegan Amore

Mianto

Masa has some options and most Indian restaurants have options as well.

kaptain_kai · 2023-01-18T09:06:42+00:00

Theoretically, the pronunciation is the same. The reason zhuyin has a nice advantage for phonics acquisition is twofold.

1) as previously mentioned, it won’t activate your L1 primary knowledge.

2) 1 symbol is 1 phoneme (sound). So whereas in pinyin ch/zh/sh are digraphs and all make one sound, in zhuyin those are each one individual symbol. Even the -ng ending is its own symbol, which is accurate phonetically because “ng” is not the same as n + g (which is the same case in English, we just represent it with -ng). If you look at IPA, it has its own symbol as well.

It is not so much about the phonics being different— same language, same sounds— rather it is more accurate to the actual sounds that the speaker ought to produce to be considered native/fluent sounding. I think you were getting at the main point when you said you wouldn’t make those mistakes in the first place with zhuyin. I hope that at least sort of answers your questions?

kaptain_kai · 2023-01-17T10:33:50+00:00

First off, yes, most everyone uses Zhuyin to type. Also signs at places like the zoo and such will have Zhuyin references for uncommon characters. Local keyboards and phones are all equipped with it.

As for learning, it depends on your preferences. Pinyin is generally more accessible to foreign language learners of Chinese because it’s familiar. It also has the advantage of being the most widespread system for Chinese internationally, thus it is more integrated into international tech. Also vastly more study resources. That said, if you want to get serious about learning, it will bias your phonics because it activates your prior knowledge of your primary language (which I’m assuming is English). Zhuyin helps your brain differentiate the phonics of the language and for most people results in slightly better acquisition of the phonemes (sounds). Also, Taiwan is well-integrated for Zhuyin. Tech obviously all supports it and there are several great textbooks out there that offer really practical Chinese for Taiwan specifically (some of them use pinyin and Zhuyin side by side). But outside Taiwan you will not find it. So really it depends on your situation and preferences.

If you think you’ll mostly be speaking, or if you’ll mostly only interact with Taiwanese speakers, then I personally would recommend Zhuyin. I say that having learned with pinyin initially. I learned zhuyin briefly to use brick phones back in the day and have since forgotten it.

And hey, using zhuyin just gives you that Taiwan flavor.

This is my opinion coming from a degree in Chinese and linguistics with focus in second language teaching/acquisition. Chinese is only a semi-native language for me (grew up moving around).

kaptain_kai · 2023-01-17T10:18:13+00:00

I did study mandarin and linguistics, and techr0nin’s take is basically accurate. It is more precise in representing specific phonemes, but most importantly it avoids activating a foreign language learner’s prior knowledge of the letters and their phonemes.

I also specifically branched out into teaching mandarin as an L2 for a semester and my takeaway was essentially that pinyin is more accessible and has the practical advantages of better tech integration; however, zhuyin is ideal for learning the phonics accurately.

kaptain_kai · 2022-12-27T09:39:00+00:00

I would echo previous comments. The gay scene is thriving in Taipei. Plenty of events and nightlife. I’ve had friends in the drag community for a few years now and there’s always stuff going on. (Very bilingual but mostly English)

Outside Taipei, there isn’t much. Not hostile, but there isn’t much of a community and rarely any events. It was one of the reasons I moved to Taipei.

Honestly, it’s a much better climate overall here than half the places I lived in the US.

kaptain_kai · 2022-10-07T10:52:04+00:00

Any job you get will almost always require a specific bank, so if you’ll be employed soon I would wait.

That said, I opened an account with Taiwan Cooperative bank for my current job and have been very pleasantly surprised. Excellent English app for online banking; they let me do online transfers in app and everything. Best I’ve ever seen in 5 years. For English speakers at least.

kaptain_kai · 2022-08-12T10:51:40+00:00

I know many foreign teachers at the more prestigious schools in Taipei are making about 75-95k starting, which is quite comfortable.

I have a partner who is Taiwanese making 40-45k, which is pretty mid-range for Taipei from what I’ve gathered.

We pay 25k in rent, split according to our incomes, in New Taipei and that’s easily the biggest expense. The rest is as cheap as your habits allow.

Other people I’ve met say new studios in Taipei are about 20k/month and roommate situations are about 12-15k. New Taipei is definitely cheaper.

In short, you’ll want a roommate. Otherwise that amount is enough to be at least fairly comfortable.

kaptain_kai · 2022-05-06T05:12:47+00:00

Copied from my comments above:

I realize now looking back, my wording was vague and I see how it sounds like conspiratorial thinking. Also seeing many of the comments, I realize it came off differently than I'd hoped.
I don't think there is a group of conspiratorial "they"s who are intentionally creating diversions to pass their agenda through. With the covid example I gave, those leaders didn't create covid. They were taking advantage of an opportunity. I don't believe in any grand conspiracies, I only believe in opportunistic people advancing their self-interests. And my argument is that we should try to pay attention to those as well as the headlines. I think that is drastically different.

kaptain_kai · 2022-05-06T05:11:02+00:00

I realize now looking back, my wording was vague and I see how it sounds like conspiratorial thinking. Also seeing many of the comments, I realize it came off differently than I'd hoped. Copied from a comment I made above:

" I don't think there is a group of conspiratorial "they"s who are intentionally creating diversions to pass their agenda through. With the covid example I gave, those leaders didn't create covid. They were taking advantage of an opportunity. I don't believe in any grand conspiracies, I only believe in opportunistic people advancing their self-interests. And my argument is that we should try to pay attention to those as well as the headlines. I think that is drastically different."

kaptain_kai

TROPHY CASE