Rooted in Taiwan, Connected with the World

Surprisingly, I completed studying "Antony and Cleopatra", my third Shakespeare play and a sequel to "Julius Caesar" that I had done just 2 weeks ago!✌️ As such, now I think the idea of "Play of the Month" (studying one play per month) is not too crazy really, and I will apply it as a simple goal to guide my self-learning journey of Shakespeare’s works going forward. Unexpectedly, I started reading "Antony and Cleopatra" during my backpacking in Peng-Hu Islands last week. Normally I don't travel with a book in my pack because when traveling I am on the move, either cycling or walking, most of the time. Though I stop at times I'm usually absorbed to the surroundings that are new to me, so there's no time for my book. Last week, however, super Typhoon Gaemi visited Taiwan and Peng-Hu, resulting in severe damages and forcing businesses to close for days. My planned stay in Peng-Hu was extended by 3 days due to port closure, so suddenly I...

I just returned from my long-awaited travel of backpacking around Peng-Hu Islands, also known as the Pescadores, as the Portuguese sailors first called it in the 16th century, apart from their calling Taiwan as Formosa. I was excited about the trip because many of our ancestors migrated from China, and in the long journey they would first stop at Peng-Hu Islands, before crossing the Peng-Hu Channel that separates Peng-Hu and Taiwan and was notoriously difficult to navigate, particularly in the winter time. Crossing the channel was such a risky enterprise that an old saying persists to this day: among the ten who cross the Peng-Hu Channel, six perish, one returns, and only three make it to Taiwan. So, as a lover of both history and culture, I had very high hopes about my Peng-Hu trip. As it turned out, however, the long-awaited travel is an extended one, thanks to the approaching of super Typhoon Gaemi, with a sea warning issued on Tuesday, a day after my arrival in Magong, the only cou...

I was surprised to read this news about the global IT outage of Microsoft, first reported on Friday morning from Australia. Though remedial action has been taken swiftly, its impact has remained at this moment. While IT outage is nothing unusual, I was surprised because we didn't experience the same here. In a world that is so interconnected today, this is something that I'm happy to be disconnected with.  As the anchor well said to start her interview question in 'Today" ("I don't pretend to understand it but can you tell me..."), I have no idea why some countries are affected so badly, while others have remained literally unaffected (Taiwan), given that Microsoft's Windows are used globally. However, this short interview with CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz explains, and it's all that I need to know: it's not caused by cyber attack of any sort, but simply by a bug that was inherent in its software update that was launched by CrowdStrike, whose ...

I  gave a prepared speech to my fellow Toastmasters this morning. This is the third speech I have delivered so far this month.  Overall, I felt comfortable with my own style of story telling today, as the saying goes: practice makes perfect - indeed! Then, we moved to a place nearby to have our group lunch, as usual, with our like-minded friends, new and old, all mingling together.  It's another fulfilling and joyful day. Here's the script of my speech today, titled: Speech Roster for Sandwich. "Do you want to improve your public speaking skills? Do you want to improve your English? Good morning everyone! As recommended by Pathways, I'm communicating with you a hypothetical change that will be implemented in our club soon. It is about the scheduling of prepared speeches, which is related to our public speaking skills and English proficiency, as the questions I asked in my opening. And, because the concept of the change comes from Roster 工作排班表 , I came up with my speech...

In parallel with my studying《Julius Caesar》, I also read another BIg book: 《The Fellowship of the Ring》 - the first of three volumes of the epic novel 《The Lord of the Rings》 authored by J. R. R. Tolkien - and just completed my read hours ago. This is the beauty of reading - embarking on two (or more) journeys concurrently, meeting the greatest minds and following them in the world of imagination across time and space.😄 On the other hand, while studying Shakespeare’s works has been the ultimate goal of my self-learning journey in English literature, 《The Fellowship of the Ring》was not on my initial book lists, largely because I was not familiar with English literature back then, and partly because the book was not well known here, though its film adaptation was a huge success in the global markets, Taiwan included (and I haven't even watched the film yet though I did view some trailers). Incidentally, I read about BBC's 2003 Big Read Survey targeting UK readers, in that 《The...

Another interesting and informative episode of the BBC's 《World Questions》, recorded at Chingis Khan Museum in Ulaanbaatar, capital city of Mongolia. While I've been a loyal listener to BBC programs for a decade, this episode attracted me in particular for two reasons. First, as a Taiwan national, Mongolia was related to my country, though whether such relationship is just nominal, indirect or direct remains in dispute - within my country, I mean. I'm curious how Mongolia has progressed and how their people have to say about their country. Second, like most people who are fond of history, I've been impressed by the legends of Chingis Khan, and would like to know how his descendants are doing these days. So I listened to it, twice, and it was all worth my time, indeed.  For one thing, it surprises me that Mongolia's economy has grown to be three times as big since it turned to democracy 34 years ago, largely thanks to the new discovery of copper and coal mines, y...