Conglomeration Smorgasbord of Zippity-Doo-Dah

No, don't try to apologize
Don't play the game of persistence
Excuses existed before you did

No, don't look at me like before,
Don't talk in plural
Rhetoric is your most lethal weapon

I'm going to ask you to never come back again
I regret that you still can hurt me, here,
Inside

And that at your age you already know well
What it's like to break someone's heart like this

No, one can't live with so much venom
The hope your love gave me
No one else has given me
I swear

No, one can't live with so much venom
One shouldn't devote the soul
To collecting attempts
Rage weighs more than cement

I expect that you don't expect that I expect you
After turning twenty-six
Patience has sunk all the way down to my feet

So here I pluck daisy petals
While I'm looking without seeing
To find out if you'll get irritated and leave
I'm going to ask you not to come back ever again
I regret that you still can hurt me, here,
Inside

And that at your age you already know well
What it's like to break someone's heart
like this

No, one can't live with so much venom
The hope your love gave me
No one else has given me
I swear

No, one can't live with so much venom
One shouldn't devote the soul
To collecting attempts
Rage weighs more than cement

I've been spamming Shakira's Spanish songs of late because they sound so... cool. I like this one because she does this really nifty little aspiration-yodel...?-sigh? on the high notes. (Hahaha, I don't know the term) Then I got curious, went to go look up the English translations, and wow, it's so emo. XD

Um, seems like a lot of people liked my last two posts! Pillows and self-deprecation, go figure. ^_^ I go gaga for those on blogs, too.

Hmm, I really hate it when people read random inspirational books, then go around trying to convert everyone around them to the exact same process of thinking for the next week... only to lapse right back to where they were before. :P I'm sure I do this very often (or something similar), since it never fails to annoy me when someone on the Crossings does it. :D I'm such a jewel of consistency, I know. ^_^ That being said, I'm probably going to book-preach soon.

I just realized something random. I think a wedding portrait of a couple surrounded by complete strangers would be really cool, for that "We're the only two people in the world who matter right now" feel. Because... face it, when it's family and friends at your wedding, of course they matter. So I never really feel like those shots are very genuine... the "first dance," etc. I just personally would never be able to really forget the presence of so many people who know me, anyway. :P So yeah, if I ever find a couple willing to do this, I'd like to shoot pictures at a big city intersection or on a Taipei MRT or something.

I bought a book on Beginners' Italian for 10 NT (30 cents). I hear it's a lovely language to speak and to write, and I'm excited about the prospect of learning a language that doesn't require an accompanying degree in art appreciation (i.e. Japanese and Chinese and those crazy hieroglyphs of squiggles they call characters). Yeah, I'm holding off on Urdu and Korean for a while, that is correct. ;pI also bought Plato's Dialogues.

I'm going to pass on a few jewels of street smarts here...

• IF you're about to get mugged/raped/assaulted in a city alley or something, run toward a brightly-lit convenience store, security-patrolled building, etc. They have cameras. ;p And make sure your pursuer knows what you're doing. Haha. I made this one up, and haven't really tested it or anything, but I pass the American embassy every night on my walk home and it strikes me as good logic in Asia, anyway.
• If you're a girl out late in Taipei, make sure you CALL for a taxi, not just pick up a random one. 1) It's safer, and 2) you get a discount. Credit goes to Jeremy/Witness for telling me this. (Only problem: I don't have a cell phone, nor do I have the taxi hotline number XD)
• Why you want to be picky about the coffee you order. Credit goes to Yu-Ling.

Of course now it's super late, and the urge to blog hits me. I'm not one to deny myself very much. ;p

Speaking of which, Mere Christianity tells me that such is... well, basically, I'm slowly morphing myself into some creature of horror (i.e. like the devil) and it would greatly profit me to slurp myself out of this cycle of self-destruction. To which I say "Meh," although I secretly am taking heed. And trying. As proof of this, I would like to let you know that I made a decision in the general direction of "growing up" just now. (Sorry, Mom, it wasn't "Go to bed early" this time) It's so not what I want to do... but it just seems like the next logical step. "Do the next thing," as Elisabeth Elliot says. Hah!

Anyway, photo blog time. My Saturday was insanely tiring, but fulfilling also.

I woke up super early to help the AIDS baby center set up a booth at the Taipei European School festival. While here, I walked around and sampled some of the stuff the other booths had to offer. There were ethnic foods, games, books, toys, etc.

We had a few tables where kids could paint their own pottery. You'd be surprised what a big hit it was. Maybe.

Okay, I think he has the cutest face ever. Look at that widdle mouth!

His big sister

Wendy's my cutie boss, and that's her boyfriend. You have no idea how excited I am to see a Canon user in Taiwan. :P I liked him. He was sweet. Not just 'cuz he knew the right kind of camera to have... And man, he's not on a stupid Rebel either! 40D ftw. I feel like I need to up my bragging tools. ;p It's okay, I had the 24-70.

I think he's my "supervisor." Or he is for the program. As you can see, he's very motivated.
:P It's okay, I took a turn napping as well... curled up in a ball on the grass, sitting straight up. Impressive, no?

I left the festival at 2 to commute all the way across town to...

The Lu-Ti park in Wanhua for the Saturday afternoon kids' outreach ministry.

Where we played games with the kids (I taught them Duck-Duck-Goose and Fruit Basket)

Such a little cutie

So is she

This one was super shy when we first saw her, so I went over and coaxed her to make a face for my camera so I could show her. By the end of the two hours, she was voluntarily jumping all over me. Go figure. Check out those lovely eyes and that nice glossy hair. Yes. Like she's a BABY DEER.

This kid was the most hilariously polite thing ever (until other kids kept messing up his Jenga game, that is). He said "Teacher, thank you" EVERY SINGLE TIME I handed him a Jenga piece. Haha. Here he's knocking down his "dominoes" - cool shot, no?

This is a rather common sight in parks across Taiwan, haha - or public areas, really - old people congregating to just chill and hang out together. My favorites are the old men playing Chinese chess out by the national memorial buildings. But these guys are just... enjoying guy time, I spose.

THEN I left at around 6 to commute back across town (in Saturday rush hour) to my aunt's house, where my mom was staying for a day. My aunt cooked us a delicious meal, then we all sat around and listened to Mom give one of her presentations on nutrition. I'm my mom's most skeptical critic, having heard her through many years of different eureka theories, but they sort of all make sense. :P This one is not bad.

Here's a picture of my uncle (Mom's little brother) and my 16-yo cousin, Charlene. Those of you who wonder where I get my cuddling genes/my random penchant for making mewing sounds while being petted on the head... well, she shares them too. It amuses me greatly. I like how she just naturally wraps herself around her dad's arm, and he pretends to tolerate it but secretly enjoys it. Ahh, good stuff. I come from good stock. <3

THENNNN... after passing out for about 15 minutes while my mom was talking, ;p Cindy and I went karaokeing!

I do get really excited, I know, when I sing songs I like. I am not drunk. >:\ It is an insult to mistake exuberance for drunkenness. The Bible says so!

Our group. Um, interesting people. My favorites are the boys in the hats. :P

And that was my Saturday. Sunday was sort of spent recovering. I got to sleep in, and that was a beautiful thing. Church at night was great also. The part that was not so great was me manifesting my sin nature and appearing as a small devil with rather frightfully large horns. I think the mental picture is much cuter than the actual thing. :|

I only realized just now that I forgot to mention/upload Mimi's concert pics... those are going up on Flickr now. As usual, all the other pics can be found on Flickr as well.