Oded Sharon's Blog

I’m Finally Synchronized with my blog!
The weather was so nice, I skipped work and went to the Taipei Topview Observatory on the 50-somethingth floor on the Shin Kong insurance building, I got there just before sunset, and took WAY too many pictures. It’s the first time since I’ve been here that I actually went somewhere further then a walking distance from the hotel, by myself. Alone. Without any understanding of Chinese. I was at first a bit lost, not technically, but mentally. And it wasn’t for the fact that I had the name of the street of the hotel written on a piece of paper, I don’t know how I’d got back to the hotel, rather then calling Nelson or Bob to come pick me. But I managed it anyway. I have a very good orientation of the city itself (I am a pilot after all), so I didn’t get lost, but had this “lost feeling”, I’m guessing that if Lee was here with me, I wouldn’t have had that feeling because you can’t get lost when you’re with someone, and even if you do it can actually, sometimes, be kind of fun.

KTV
The whole company and the part time crew that ran the show (including the show girls), went together to a KTV to celebrate the end of the show.
People all around the world like to get drunk. They make them happy. I know. I like to get drunk too. It’s a bit hard when you don’t like beer, but gladly they had Smirnoff ice, which I like. I drank two bottles, and I could have drunk more, but I didn’t for an unknown reason. Those two were enough for me.
At first I didn’t really know what I’m going to do in the KTV, after all it’s a Karaoke pub. But part of the fact that there was a TV there, and almost everybody sang songs, well, some sang songs. Bob and Nelson for instance didn’t. Well, Nelson was busy drinking SO MUCH, (he likes to drink) and Bob came with his wife Phoebe, and we talked a lot, and he DID sing one song, some old Chinese song, well not old. It looked like something Arik Einstien or Shlomo Artzi song.
I actually had real fun there, since it’s something like a private pub, where you hang with your friends, and eat (they had very good dumplings there), and drink, have fun, and … well… sing. Of which I don’t fully understand the singing part, but a. when you’re drunk – you’d do anything. B. they apparently need some to go to a private pub and get drunk. While singing.
They did insist I sing something, and the only thing on the English song list was “I Will Survive”, which I was actually willing to sing, since I know most of the word to. I don’t like singing, but I got a lot of applauding, and cheering. So even though it was a bit embarrassing, it was ok. But 1 song was enough for me. I was concentrating (like some other) on the other parts of the thing, food, drinks, conversation. The shouting in a pub conversation type, where the other side only knows so little English because they’re Chinese and doesn’t understand what you’re saying anyway. But it was fun.
I managed to take some good photos of drunken Sanctum people, and they pretty much captured the whole spirit of the evening.

NOTE: If this post didn’t actually had any point, or wasn’t clear or was messed up, it’s because I’m still under the influence of alcohol. As little as it was. And Remember kids, Don’t Brink and Blog.

The TGS – Taipei Game Show 2004
The TGS is very much like E3, only very much different. The size of the show is about 1/3 of what E3 is, but the number of visitors is more then twice. So this show was SO full of people you’d get stuck in human traffic just trying to get back to your booth. Unlike E3, I didn’t find any games that made me want to play just by going around and looking at games. Most of them are only in Chinese and even those who aren’t originally in Chinese, like Lineage 2, aren’t so temping, because if you’ve played one, you’ve played them all. And the “eye candy” of all the games is pretty much the same, there aren’t any breakthrough graphic improvements, and by just walking amongst the booths nothing captured my attention. Bob told me that I was right, and the main goals of the game companies aren’t to make people directly play the games, by showing them the game but exactly the opposite. They brainwash you by repeating the company’s or game’s name over and over to you. But how do they manage to keep you by their booth for long enough for you to hear the company name a few hundred times ?
Booth Babes. Or Show girls, as they are called here. If you’d havn’t figure out what they are, and I must explain, they are models, wearing a company issued outfit, which makes you want to keep looking at them. If still you don’t know what I mean, then you’re a lost cause.
I must say that the show girls in TGS are far more effective and good looking then the ones in E3. Compare pictures if you wish. I know I took a lot of pictures of show girls.
The other thing that keeps the audience still standing at the booths, or stages, are free gifts. After all, who can stand and look at the same, minimal outfit girls, for hours ? and what if you are a girl yourself (there are a lot of girl visitors to the show) ? Bob also agreed with me that the main reason people come to the show is not the games, but the gifts. They don’t care if they’re standing next to the Wayi booth or Ballerium booth, and long as they know that if they’re standing there they might win a new expensive GeForce video card, or a pen. You wouldn’t belive the way they fought about pens!
Sanctum gave away these nice sponge made swords, which were made by one of Bob’s friend’s factory. I took a bunch of those swords and walked around the other booths and did a lot of trading. I gave them swords and I’d get all sort of cool stuffs in return. T-shirts, dolls, make-up (!!!), and other knick-knacks. That’s what I like. That’s why I go to those shows. It always have been. Just like in the Tel-aviv University job fare. I’d hand out 100 copies of my resume to companies just to get a free toy, even tough I had a very nice job which I never meant to quit, at the time.
It’s amazing how show girls loose all their charm once the clock hits 17:00 and the show ends. They wear their regular clothes and they turn into regular girls you wouldn’t turn your head over when walking past them in the street. Clothing and make are obviously important. But I never saw it to this extreme, other then the first day of summer when you go to the beach and there are girls in Bikinis, which is a sight you’re not used to see everyday. But then when you get used to it, it goes right through you. At the last day of the show I couldn’t care less about the girls, but only about this toy I wanted. The second most successful game in Taiwan right now is a game called ”Seal Online”. It’s basically an everyday MMORPG (god knows that there are a thousand more of those out there), the only difference is that the characters and the environment is Cartoonish-Anime looking. I’m 100% sure that if there was an English version to this game I’d be online right now playing it. It’s so cute! Their mascot is this cute bunny-rabbit with sharp teeth that goes like rwwaawwr (imagine me doing that thing that Tim the wizard does in “Monty python’s Hole Grail”). They gave out dolls of that bunny-rabbit to their game members who attended the show. I tried to trade some sword for one, but they told me that they couldn’t spare any, and I should check them out in the last day of the show. I did, and I got myself one of those, without bringing any sword to them, just by being nice, and say please. In English. A language most of them didn’t understood. But pointing to the rabbit doll and saying please worked. I then went back to the Sanctum booth and brought them a bunch of sword, just because they made me feel good.
I have no idea how the people in my old work place always said that they can’t understand the Taiwanese or why they like these kind cute of games. But then again, almost no one there played the SIMS and it’s one of the best selling games, and also no one but me likes Jar-Jar Binks. I’m different. I’m better because of that. Jar-jar rules. Yousa Kwazy.

A lot of pictures can be found In my picture gallery here

FIRE IN SANCTUM!!!
OH MY GOD !
I’m just coming back from the second half of the office, where there was an actual fire, and smoke, and blazes of hell!
I was watching smallville in the conference room on one side of the office and I hear this noise that sounds like a car alarm. Being used to hearing cars annoy me all of the time, and not owning a car with an alarm myself (or any car here in Taiwan), I simply ignored it. Apparently it wasn’t a car alarm, but the office’s smoke alarm. When the show was over, I stayed here for a few more minutes, and then the phone rang, luckily the woman on the other side managed to say something about her living in 3rd floor and smoke alarm coming from the office. I told her I’d go check it out. The entire other half of the office was filled with thick smoke, and the alarm was indeed beeping. I started looking around for the source, but didn’t see it at first since everything was dark. I gradually turn on very cautiously the lights. I get to my room, which was the only one that was lit when I came in, and is in fact in the furthest corner of the office from the direction I’m coming, and I was afraid the fire was caused by something I did. I moved my computer from my room to the conference room, so I could watch Smallville, so I was afraid something I left there cause a shortage and a fire. I looked in my room for a couple of moments but didn’t find anything! I decided to turn some more lights. After a while I saw that the glass between Bob’s room and Mark’s (and sterling’s room) wasn’t clear as it was before, but instead BLACK, opaque and it’s lower half – broken. No fire, only a lot of smoke. Luckily for me, the fire probably calmed down and exhausted by the time I got there. I called Bob, and with the help of Ivy, one of Bob’s bagel shop workers, and a local resident of a small room here in the office, I managed to switch off the power supply to that room and opened all the windows. Since there wasn’t any actual fire, and it’s not the first time I’m encountering fires, I didn’t bother to panic. Plus I don’t usually panic anyway, unless there’s blood involved. Ivy was a bit nervous. It’s her first fire. And, well.. after all, My bible says “Don’t Panic” on it’s rear cover, in nice friendly letters. I am very lucky nothing worse happened.

I thought I’d have too much free time here in Taiwan. I don’t. When I’m not doing tourist activities, all of my free time is filled by chatting with people back at home and writing this blog. *sigh* I didn’t even get to install any of the games I brought with me!
I do enjoy writing the blog, and I’m sure I’ll have time one day when I run out of new stuff to write about. Next month maybe…

I don’t know if I mentioned it, Bob owns a Bagel shop here, it’s the same building his father’s hotel is in, next to the Sanctum office, in the same block as the office, just across a small park.

Bob also like Humus very much.
I brought Bob some Humus from the super (I had it on ice in the plane on the way here), and I also brought some of the ingredients needed to make it, like the Chick-peas (the actual humus beans) in a can, and Thina. They have all the rest of the ingredients, and they also have the chick peas, and they try to reproduce the Thina out of sesame seed themselves. So, soon, they’ll add “Humus” to the menu of the bagel shop. I have this “Marco Polo” feeling, but it’s the other way around, instead of stealing noodles from the Chinese and turning it into pasta, I’m bringing Humos to the Chinese…


Spicy Fondu
For two weeks now I’ve been hearing about “the spicy Fondu”. It’s something the guys here at sanctum have a tradition to eat before shows or important events. They take all they guests there. It’s like the Fondu I ate a last week, only with chili peppers cooking in it. Idan wouldn’t even dare to taste it. It’s not that spicy at all ! It’s even less spicy then the Curry I had three nights ago! For two weeks I’ve been hearing about this Fondu which is suppose to be so hot, and I try it and it isn’t that bad. I managed to get a good picture of myself and all of sanctum.
I didn’t really take any pictures the last few days. Nothing actually worth taking.
It takes me time and work to get them uploaded to the server, and then captioning them. So there was a long delay between the time they were taken till they were up. Somedays, not long. And some, it took 2 days or more to be captioned.

Me and the guys went to eat at Bob’s bagel shop. I met this gentleman, Ron Teler, who’s a Jewish American (he didn’t actually say he’s Jewish but I pretty sure he is). He’s been in Taiwan for 7 years, and eats at the bagel shop every day, he grew up in New-york, and he even thought of making an “Aliya” to Israel at 86. He couldn’t find a job in Israel, and also couldn’t get into a Kibutz because he was too old for that. The ironic thing is that if he’d try to do it in 96 instead he’d probably be a happy, successful, Israeli, because he had a Software company in the states that delt with medical insurance, and at the time, there wasn’t any market for that in Israel, and he had nothing to do with his expertise in Israel, so it didn’t work out, and now he’s living here in Taiwan, trying to learn to speak and read Chinese. He talked to me about food, (Humos mainly) and we moved to politics for a few minutes. I usually don’t talk politics with anyone, but he had some different views from what I usually get from people I talk to, and they fit very similarly with the views of non Israeli Jewish people. Orson Scott Card has almost the same views.

I almost didn’t do anything too much interesting today. And also I’m getting a bit worn out by what my friend Amnon calls “writing diarrhea”. It’s more like constipation now, as it doesn’t come out easily and fluently but rather hard and I have to force it out…
I ate dinner with only Nelson. We got out of the office and didn’t know where to go. In one of the earlier days I saw that they have branches of one of the American food restaurant chains called “TGI Friday”. I havn’t ate there (in the states) for over 5 years now, so even tough it’s good ol’ American food, and not the Chinese food that I’m suppose to try every kind of, I convinced Nelson to go there. He lived in the states for I think 15 years, but havn’t ate at “TGI Friday” so much too, so he didn’t mind. When I suggested it to him and Sterling a few days before, Sterling really didn’t want to go eat there…
When we got really close to the restaurant, (which is near the SOGO store I was in day 2 with Bob and Idan), we realized that there’s actually a lot of restaurants in the area and we don’t have to go to TGI Friday’s if he prefers something else. I got the chance to try something new again. It’s something he calls a “Curry” restaurant. Even though Curry is more Indian, this is a Japanese style restaurant. Taiwan is influenced greatly by Japanese. Basically all the dishes are the same. You get a combo meal, with salad, soup, and large plate of rice, with Curry sauce. The only difference between the dishes is what’s cooked in the sauce. Chicken, beef, pork, seafood, vegetables, etc. You’re supposed to choose how spicy you like your curry, on a scale from 1 to 5, where 1 is not spicy, and well… 5. I asked him what level were those spicy noodles from the other day, he said something about 3 to 4. I ordered 2. I didn’t want to get my stomach upset again. I didn’t help. Level 2 was actually as hot as those spicy noodles and they didn’t make me feel that good. Luckily the sauce and rice come separate so you can put only a little sauce and a lot of rice and it’s almost not as bad. Nelson took no. 3, and it was way to spicy for him, he was actually sweating. He told me that they got an impression from Idan that I could even eat the no. 5 thing. Idan can’t eat anything spicy at all. Too spicy for him in that restaurant would be something like -78. Whenever they took him for dinner and ordered something a bit spicy, he couldn’t eat it, but told them Oded would probably eat it and probably even more. He was telling them I can actually drink raw tobasco!
There was a time I could. I would eat “Schug” with a spoon, and eat pizza with 1/2 bottle tobasco in each slice. That was about 10 years ago. I can still eat, and still like spicy foods, but my stomach doesn’t. I even got doctor’s orders not to eat anything spicy or I’d get nauseated. I tent to listen to my doctor, and thus thing that were once not spicy to me, are now making my stomach even more upset, just because I’m not used to it anymore…

I Wonder if I’ll get to go to TGI Friday’s.