A Little Help From My Friends 處處遇貴人

Almost anywhere you go around here, you find massive trees. Some reach clear across the street, often with aerial roots hanging down like ragged beards. When two or three of these giants stand close together, you can't tell which branches belong to which trunk.

In many ways, these huge trees are a metaphor for life in Taiwan.

The Secret Tool of the Jedi 絕地武士的秘密武器

Not so long ago, on an island not so far away, two Jedi knights searched for a way to ward off an invasion of pastel dust that could easily overcome their environment.

After much study in many data banks, Ping found a clue: "Twin Bird." Hmmm... We wondered what that meant.

According to the texts, it was powerful, light, and easy to use. Did we mention "powerful?"

Little Cat Z 蘇斯博士的小貓

Do you remember Dr. Seuss's tale, "The Cat In The Hat?" The Cat in the Hat starts entertaining two kids stuck at home. Soon, that entertainment causes all sorts of trouble. The Cat in the Hat promises to fix everything and he keeps bringing out more "Little Cats A, B, C, D, etc." to help, but every fix causes more trouble! Finally, the Cat in the Hat produces "Little Cat Z," and therein lies the final solution.

We had our own "Cat In The Hat" situation: laundry.

The "Self-evolving Portrait" 自行一體的畫像

 Mark's been working on a new drawing process. He starts with random shading and adds a little here and there to see what takes shape. Eventually, he gets some idea of "what the image wants to be." Then, he just follows where that leads until the picture is "done."

Here are a couple of examples of what happens when he does this.

Someone asked recently if he could show the progression. Great idea!! (Thanks, Theresa!)

Mark started a new picture and took quick snapshots at random stopping points in the process. Watch the whole thing unfold on the video for "Daniel's Daughter" on our brand new "letsgotakealook" channel on YouTube! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8v4X5SAW8wA

Tough Guys 硬漢

Ping's view from Thumb Mountain

The weather was good so we decided to hike the Four Beasts(四獸山） on the East side of Taipei （台北）. We intended to make the traverse, tagging each of the “beasts” (summits) along the way: Lion, Tiger, Leopard and Elephant. As usual, we ended up doing something different. We skipped “Leopard” and went up 9-5 Mountain （九五峰） instead, bagging Thumb Mountain （拇指山） on the way down, and catching the sunset over Taipei from Elephant Mountain （象山） at the end.

At the trail head, we met a retired pharmacist with a wonderful smile! We chatted and he told us about a few different routes we might like. “I do this every day,” he said.

The Art of Commitment 承諾的藝術

Mark was looking with some uncertainty at the "horse" on the card. The first part of his name in Chinese is "Ma" which means "horse," so he knows how to write that character...or at least he thought he did.

"Honey, look at the legs on this horse," he said, handing the card to Ping. "They seem to go the wrong direction. Are they supposed to go forward or backward?"

Half Empty/Half Full 半空還是半滿

Sketch: Trees at the Beitou Library

As we’ve written about our adventures, we’ve gotten inquiries along the lines of “is everything really ideal over there in Taiwan?”