September 15-30

A lot of riding on my new bike, but little mention of the rides. As a result the only narrative or context for these photos are the photos themselves. Maybe that's enough, but they feel like pinpoint records without any surrounding description or whether there was anything else. There's also the amount of photos and selecting just what I thought were the most representative to keep the numbers down. But that's what I always do, so maybe that's enough, too!

To sum up first because of the span this is covering, I rode north to Bali at the mouth of the Danshui River where I'd gone before by MRT and ferry; visited Kaohsiung; rode east to Pingxi and Shifen waterfall (but didn't actually see the waterfall); rode south to Wulai where I'd been to before by bus; and explored the Erchong ecological reclaimed-wetlands, west of Taipei across the Danshui River, which I discovered riding home from Bali. I also went up Taipei 101 twice. The first time it was rainy, dark and late in the afternoon, so probably someone was in town visiting and that was the only time available for them (no context from just the photos). But that likely inspired a second time on a sunny afternoon and I took dozens of photos, only one of which I'm including because aside from showing photos, I also know how to show restraint.

I mentioned riding up Yangmingshan earlier, but I wasn't happy with any of those photos and I don't believing in showing photos I'm not happy with.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 7:54 a.m. - Banqiao, Taipei County. World Car-Free Day event.

Bali township (八里), Taipei County:

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 8:10 a.m. - Lover's Bridge at Danshui's Fisherman's Wharf across the river. 

8:17 a.m. - My bike is propped up by the left pedal resting on a divot in the ground.

8:20 a.m. - The Danshui is a tidal river.

8:27 a.m. - Fishing boats on the Danshui. Datun peak shrouded by clouds.

8:37 a.m. - The sparkle of morning sunlight on water.

8:52 a.m. - Power lines along the Danshui River, Luzhou township.

8:56 a.m. - Along Huanti Blvd., Luzhou township.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 5:48 p.m. - Taipei 101 observation deck. Xinyi Rd. heading off to the right, Keelung Rd. to the left.

Kaohsiung:

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 5:07 p.m. - Audrey's children. Pie learning to hold a newly-hatched Eddie.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2:11 p.m. - Industry to art. That actually describes how my uncle's surrounding neighborhood is changing.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 12:11 p.m. - Cutie Gracie (Audrey's second daughter) at the mall. Aunt in the background.

6:03 p.m. - Mongolian orchestra with at least my aunt. I think my aunt knew about it and asked if I was interested (and not the other way around), and of course I was interested.

Shifen (十分), Pingxi township, Taipei County:

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 7:53 a.m. - Actually, I don't know if Shifen is its own town or if it's a village in Pingxi. It's further east of Pingxi town and has its own train station and old street. This is facing west with a suspension footbridge visible to the right.

8:14 a.m. - Guanpu suspension footbridge in the Shifen waterfall area with a rail line to the left. 

8:26-8:27 a.m. - Both shot from the footbridge. As I mentioned, I didn't actually see the famed Shifen waterfall, which required entry to an area and I didn't know what to do with my bike (encumbered). I think it's that-a-way in the bottom pic.

8:30 a.m.

8:56 a.m. - It's simple to get to Pingxi from where I live in Xindian. Rte. 106 runs right outside my window and goes east all the way there. Simple, not easy as it's ride-worthy far. To make it even more of a ride, instead of going out and back, I kept going on Rte. 106 which by Shifen is headed north into mountains. That's probably a weather station up there.

9:06 a.m. - The view of what I had just climbed. I like climbing. I think it's fun.

9:30 a.m. - Rte 106 comes down the mountain and ends in Ruifang township on the east coast of Taiwan. All I knew from there based on my paper map was to turn left and hope getting back to Taipei would be well-marked and simple. Not easy, as after getting back to Taipei still required riding all the way through Taipei to home in Xindian. Like the Pinglin ride, it was long with a major climb. Oh, and I mentioned Rte. 106 in the Pinglin ride, but that's actually Rte. 106乙, a spur of 106 that after coming down the mountain from Pinglin ends at Rte. 106 about halfway between Pingxi and my building.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 3:23 p.m. - Taipei 101 observation deck shooting north. The significance of this photo is the construction going on. Taipei City Hall is at the lower left for reference with the double-10 (十十) architecture I've mentioned before. All of those construction sites will yield towers and some future projects are mere lots at this point. The Shin Kong Mitsukoshi A8 building is a parking lot in this pic. On the left edge of the pic just below center is a patch of green that will yield a building that when seen from afar will make me remark that Taipei is developing a distinct skyline (beyond just Taipei 101)!

My father had his operation last week to determine the nature of the mass on his kidney. I know because I was in Kaohsiung for the long weekend (which I made longer by skipping Friday's class), and my uncle often tries calling my parents when I'm down there. I haven't heard any follow-up, but no news is good news in this situation.

In any case, my mother wanted to call my uncle to tell him to donate money at the local temple to pray for a successful operation. On one hand, such spirituality I didn't think my parents possessed. On the other hand, the spirituality was in the form of donating money for personal gain, so it makes total sense!

It occurred to me that in the hypothetical situation where my father needed a kidney, I wouldn't think twice about offering one of mine. No brainer. But when it came to extending positive thinking for him, or generating positive energy, or whatever it is I do during those kinds of focused mindfulness portions of sitting meditation, I wouldn't do it for him.

This is a total faith practice, no evidence that it actually does anything. It's related to the topic of the movie What the #$*! Do We Know, that intangible aspects of our being, emotions and thoughts, affect our physical reality, and vice versa.

There's a concentration aspect to the practice during meditation, also a visualization aspect. To the extent the premise has no validity at all, then it's just a personal practice in cultivating compassion and concern for other living or recently died beings. I'm pretty up in the air about what I really believe about the practice, but aspects of it make sense and it fits with my personal beliefs.

I do have a strong belief, or rather sense, about the intangible aspect of our lives, even to the extent that it is more important, more real than our physical living lives, which most of the time seems so trivial and petty. I frequently look around me at what people are doing and wonder why. Even if our existence and consciousness is a naturally occuring phenomena, what people are doing with this existence is pretty confounding.

So it's not a total waste of my time and energy to be focusing on the molecules between us and how our intangible thoughts and feelings can affect them. And actually, writing all this down makes me realize my attitude towards my father is totally wrong.

Pentax ZX-5n, Ilford XP2 Super, all with red filter:

Northward view. The spherical architecture of the Living Mall to the lower right. A retired railyard below it. Arches of Maishuai bridges #1 and 2 eight o'clock of center.

Northwestward view. Guanyin Mt. near the mouth of the Danshui River in Bali in the distance. The snaking line of the Civic Blvd. elevated expressway through the center.

Pentax ZX-5n, Ilford XP2 Super:

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 15 - MRT tracks and elevated expressway, Taipei.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, Kaohsiung photostroll, locations unknown except one at the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts plaza and one at the covered arcade off of Jianguo 3rd Road:

SEPTEMBER 22 - KMRT construction below my uncle's building.

For as many times as I'm getting hiccups recently, I'd better have a fucking tumor and not just wishful thinking (←managing not so well)

I've found I can stop them temporarily by sticking my finger down my throat. This is less than ideal if I have something in my stomach, which increases the possibility of actually puking. Although that might actually help.

7:37 a.m. - Shots from my apartment window, Xindian. Looks like some kind of altercation down there, but I only see one vehicle involved. Motorscooters are taking to the sidewalk to get by. Maybe it was a family dispute, let's call them the Chen brothers, while driving and it had gotten so bad the driver just stopped the car in rush hour traffic so they could have at it right then and there. Sony Cyber-shot P9.

September 11, 5:24 p.m. - Roosevelt Rd., Gongguan district, Taipei, Taiwan. The hauler of junk misjudged her load, which had shifted weight as she rode along. When she dismounted her overloaded tricycle cart, the center of gravity had moved backwards and tipped the whole thing over with the front wheel flung skyward and spilling the contents onto the street. Having had a hard day and not much sleep the night before, she decided it was a good time for a nap and deal with the mishap when she was more refreshed and in a better mood. Ricoh Caplio R4.

I was procrastinating in the library this morning.

Instead of studying, I was staring at a dead mosquito. Usually the sight of a dead mosquito is one smashed flat with legs and wings in disgusting array, unsightly to just be unceremoniously washed or wiped away.

This one had died because it hadn't been able to get out of the library. It fell where it died, starved, all parts where they belonged. It didn't even look like it had fulfilled its mission, it looked quite lean and unladen, with neither blood nor coconuts.

It's just instinct I'm going on now, to believe that beings like mosquitoes, basically saying it was not endowed with the liberty and opportunity to influence its own karmic fate, die and also go through the same death betweens as humans and all living beings. But they shoot through the betweens almost instantaneously.

There's nothing in their karmic fabric to slow them down, to reflect on or experience. Very quickly upon hitting the point of death between, they're zipped through to another round of rebirth as a mosquito. By the time I was staring at this dead mosquito, it might have already been forming in some swamp as a baby mosquito.

Why a mosquito again? Because that's the habituated "being" that it knows. It's all it knows. Which is why Tibetans teach that it is very difficult to obtain a human form (I think they put it that way to urge people to appreciate this human life). From one form to the next, we are drawn to what is most familiar, what is most templated in the basic fabric of our being based on the only thing we know – our past experience.

So once human, it's easy to be re-born as human. It's even just natural if no other karma or thought goes into it. But even as humans, depending on karma, people still might live an existence not far removed from other types of "advanced" sentient being, the most apparent in our physical lives being animals.

And even as other types of beings, many exhibit characteristics of humanity. Basically suggesting that from a human form it's possible to be re-born as a dog, if the template or imprint or affinity to dogs was that strong as a human.

But as a dog, the karma is still human, so the dog would probably be karmically predisposed to a dignified existence, pampered, or living close to humans, even functionally in human society, even to a further extent than some humans. They are dogs with a strong affinity or imprint of their human owners, and they karmically wouldn't have too much trouble being reborn as human.

(This discussion can go on forever. It's also possible that as a dog, with whatever experiences it has, it finds an affinity to its animal nature, and that gets more strongly imprinted into its being. Maybe it kills, maybe it hunts, and the taste of that is exciting and pleasurable, and that is indelibly imprinted. And then stuck as a dog, until some lifetime comes along where the imprint of humanity is strong enough so that in the betweens, there's a sense of some attraction to becoming human, instead of what it naturally is familiar and comfortable – a dog. I'm saying it might pay to cultivate taking left turns and breaking out of habits.)

I was admiring a dog like that this afternoon. The Summer heat has broken and the weather has been pleasantly warm lately. I was sitting at a picnic table on campus with a cup of coffee and this dog was wandering around.

It didn't seem like one of the many random, disgusting strays that roam Taipei. Quasi-wild animals as far as I'm concerned. This one had a beautiful coat and an air of dignity. It neither threatened nor felt threatened by me.

Then I realized I saw this same dog yesterday, and I had thought the same thing about it. But curious, it had just pulled food out of a garbage to eat. It had a bright red collar on, but no indication of an owner. I'm guessing it is a domestic dog that got away and is off on an adventure for a few days before returning home to a worried owner.

And then one answer to the old philosophical chestnut of why we're here occurred to me, and it came to me in the voice of the little girl in "Field of Dreams" when she's explaining why people will come to the field.

And it's so obvious based on what I've written before about the development of consciousness from a cosmological point of view. If consciousness developed out of the fully natural evolution of an energy we haven't identified yet, something like dark energy, then the reason why we're here is because we naturally developed to be here.

Physical sciences have a good running theory of our physical existence, religious extremists of all stripes notwithstanding. And by extremists, in this context I'm covering most of the center mainstream, too. But for some reason, scientists have stayed away from the slippery, tricky question of consciousness – intangible as God or any religious construct.

And that's why it's such a big deal to me to put a purely scientific stamp suggestion on the development of consciousness. It's purely natural, purely a result of the physical universe. It's just portions we aren't able to detect.

Whoops, slippery slope.

Why am I here? It's just natural. It's part of the cycle, part of the evolution, the transformation. But it's different from the scientific formulation that consciousness is just a function of biology, and when the biology stops, so does the consciousness. It's separate, but it's interwoven, inter-being.

And maybe Buddhists think (without wording it this way) that the enlightenment or extinction the Buddha found is a return to that primordial state, that being. Consciousness and physical reality is manifestation of it, and the Buddha got beyond it all and melted back into the universe, became the universe, the basic energy that is everywhere and beyond conception.

Upon his breakthrough, there were no more karmic impressions or templates left. When he died, he died at the death-point between where our existence and consciousness melts into primordial components.

Only we with our strong, clinging attachments and template to exist still exist and in non-corporeal form flow the river of the betweens to be reborn – to cycle through another round of nature, another round of seasons, another round of the the water cycle, another revolution around the sun, another turn around the Milky Way. Those things happen just because it's natural.

And the Buddha isn't gone. When I say extinct, when I say melted into, these are just problems with words and conceptualization. The enlightenment of the Buddha means that he became the energy of the cosmos, no separation, and we are all part of it, he is part of us, no choice in the matter, no religious dogma. Just nature.

Oh hey, I just called him my very definition of God. I guess I don't believe in God after all.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 11:04 a.m. - Coming home after a 45 mile ride up Yangmingshan.

In my isolation here, I ask myself what good am I doing? What good am I being? Is anyone I'm meeting going to be better for having known me?

What a resounding "no" I'm met with.

Luciano Pavorotti dies, and I'm not a fan of opera at all, I never followed what he was doing. I don't know anything about him, I don't know his faults (except an Italian audience once brutally booed him when his voice cracked on a high note), or any pointed criticisms about him or his person.

But I don't think there's any question about his greatness and his contribution to 20th Century world or Western culture. Even people who aren't fans of opera can get a sense of his greatness by looking at the faces of people who are fans watching him sing.

His ability to move people is luminously reflected in the faces of the people who are moved, and in the end, I think the people who have something good to say about him far outweigh the people who don't.

So as his image scrolls across the news reports, the feeling in my heart is gratitude, thank you. Thank you, Luciano.

It's a total foreign concept to me here to garner that kind of idea, even in the smallest terms. For what little I'm doing, being, contributing, there's not a friend, not an acquaintance who would think anything of my being here or not being here.

When I left Deer Park, Norman publicly thanked me and complimented me for leaving it a better place than I found it. Such a compliment I don't think I deserved, but was moved by it nonetheless. And nonetheless, that's a really good goal on our micro life scale.

Leave the place better than you found it.

Who left me better than they found me? Amina easily, is my immediate response. Perhaps by no doing of her own, it was her effect. It's totally fantastical now and has no bearing on reality, but my worst days with her were still better than my best days without her. And our worst days were pretty worse.

Sadie? Almost. I don't think our friendship developed as fully as it could have, but I don't think her priorities, me being low among them, could have had her leave me better than when she found me. Not saying she didn't try, though.

I think Josephine left me worse than when she found me. No wonder I barely mention her.

Shiho, I don't think the idea of leaving someone better than she found them would even cross her mind. So no, definitely not.

Madoka, I begrudgingly say yes. In the end, our friendship was in shambles, and the last time I visited her I think she did her best to not show how much I was annoying her, and I would have appreciated her even telling me I was annoying her. But looking at all our years of friendship, I can't deny that she contributed a lot to me, and at least I still have an unassailable love towards her beyond circumstances.

The monks at Deer Park left me a better person than they found me, but that's a no-brainer. That's their job, hahaha! But it went beyond the monks. Everyone I met was part of that process, part of that being, so everyone left me better than they found me, and vice versa. That was the nature of the place, our nature.

Bah, this is an old discussion of people who have meant something to me and probably mean nothing to me now.

Do I even want to make the effort now? I'm at the age when people stop trying to change the world and become more selfish and concentrate on their own lives and raising families – the next step in the life program. I'm at that age, but I'm not doing any of that. I'm still living like people who want to change the world. So I'm somewhere in between. Story of my life. Just as it is.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 8:06 a.m. - Rush hour out my window, Xindian.

Keeping Watch 沉睡的青春 (Deep sleep of youth) (Taiwan, 2007)

This is an indie romance with charming and sweet elements and a major twist. It's about a watch repairwoman who inherits the job after graduating from high school, presumably because her alcoholic father is too irresponsible to carry on the job.

A guy starts showing up every day to have his watched repaired after repeatedly getting it soaked in water. Turns out that he is a mental patient with a split personality, and as the history of his mental illness unravels, so does her involvement in his/their life/lives.

It's a quiet, pastoral movie set in the rural mountainous regions of Taipei County, southeast of Taipei city, where life is quieter and much more relaxed. There are some allowable inconsistencies in the plot (the time span, ironically, makes no sense as the characters are clearly not long graduated from high school).

The female lead carries the film wonderfully, and the male lead is terrific differentiating his dual personalities. This is a very strong indie offering from Taiwan, even though it really doesn't say anything about any of the issues it possibly touches. It's more about mood, and the sweet, charming touches are nice without being gooey. I give it a fresh, strong 7 out of 10 tomatoes. I considered giving it an 8, but it's a little bit lightweight to push it up. It needed just a little bit more emotional resonance.

Hiccups again! Really unusual so many times in one year. So what I said before about "managing" them? Banging my head against the wall with each hiccup is a legitimate way of, um, managing them. That was in the 21th hour, by the way. In the 27th now.

Incidentally, classes start tomorrow, so if there's any hint of suspicion that the iccupshay are entalmay, I have nothing to say against that. Or they may have something to do with scotch, which is why I bought vodka this evening.

I did take a closer look at the consciousness transference training in the Tibetan Book of the Dead, and found that it wasn't totally alien. It wasn't like 'what the hell am I doing, I feel stupid', but rather 'oh, I think I'm doing this the way it says to do it'.

Although there's nothing in the chapter which says anything about the 'hi-ka' gasps being involuntary. But actually the involuntary nature of the hiccups actually made trying it more potent.

So classes start tomorrow. I completed that ride to Pinglin yesterday that I abandoned several days ago. I have nothing to prove. When I give something up I have no qualms and I'm perfectly fine letting it go, but I just felt the Pinglin thing had to happen. Partly because I knew I could do it and would eventually try it again anyway.

I discovered I was right to abandon a few days ago. Not only was I right that riding down into Pinglin meant riding up out of it to get home, but it turns out the ride out would have been brutal, and I wasn't prepared for it a few days ago.

Rte 106 out of Pinglin to go back to Taipei was immediately steep and relentless, and peaked 150' higher than the easy sloping climb riding into Pinglin on Rte 9. On Rte 9, I didn't go down to my granny gear at all, but on 106 I bottomed out on the granny gear and still struggled.

The downhill afterwards wasn't that bad, so I'm thinking if I do that ride again, it's better to ride into Pinglin on 106 and ride out on 9. Come to think of it, I didn't see anyone else doing that 106 north out of Pinglin.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 6:56 a.m. - Cemetery on Rte. 9 to Pinglin. Morning fog burning off.

7:13 a.m. - Kinda looks like a bus stop protected by a bodhisattva. Rte. 9.

7:26-7:29 a.m. - Rte. 9 descends into Pinglin and meets up with a river on the approach. I got distracted by the water and took a detour to explore.

8:13-8:17 a.m. - Pretty Pinglin town. It's famous for its tea and is absolutely beautiful. Definitely probably worth a visit more than a ride-through.

8:27 a.m. - After riding through town and finding Rte. 106 out of Pinglin, the road immediately starts ascending, but almost as immediately there was towering statue that begged to be visited. So I took a break before I even started the climb and atop a few of stairs (see photo at 8:17) is Guanyintai. Guanyin is what the Chinese call Avalokitesvara, the bodhisattva of compassion (Kannon in Japan).

8:28 a.m. - The north end of Hsuehshan Tunnel on Nat'l Highway 5, the main passageway from northern Taiwan to the east coast. It opened just last year and drastically cut down the travel time from Taipei to Yilan.

8:31 a.m. - Really hope to return someday.

Today I just did an easy urban 20 miler with my camera bag on my back. I managed to get home before the rain started. At no point did it look like it was going to rain, but this is Taipei – it poured like a typhoon for two hours. I hope these hiccups are gone by tomorrow's class. I don't want to have to explain to another teacher that no, these aren't your normal hiccups.

But I will put too fine a point on it that if they happen again during the semester, they are a reason to skip class.

SEPTEMBER 2 - Exploring beyond Taipei city into unfamiliar townships across the Xindian River into Taipei County. I'm guessing most of this is Banqiao, but possibly Zhonghe or Yonghe townships. Pentax ZX-5n, Ilford XP2 Super.

Hearse and "spirit car"

Footbridges over the flood walls lead to riverside bikeways and parks. Come to think about it, the flood walls lining the rivers are quite an overlooked feat of construction.

Construction of elevated freeways.

Ongoing construction, everywhere. Red filter.