Rocks and trains

We travelled up to the North Coast this weekend to look at the strange rock formations. I took some pictures and even got around to putting them in the gallery. I also put up the pictures I took when we went hill climbing with Andy and Vivian.



Pretty isn't it?

Apparently the strange rock formations happen because the rocks there are a combination of soft sand stone and harder rock. Thus wear is uneven, so it looks like the surface of Mars or something. One of the even looks like a head.

The dragons aunt from America and her husband came to Taiwan. They are retired but have been living and working in US for many years. He is a restauranteur and produced a damn fine dinner yesterday.

In other news. I'm pleased to report that my parents have purchased a new PC and after a short phone call with me yesterday evening, they are now all back on line again.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow because the second reading of the id card proposal is scheduled in the House of Commons. The government is clearly running scared, arranging it for a day when many MPs will be unable to attend and amid claims that the estimate they have come up with of the cost is way short of the mark. This morning I am also reading that the government is denying that information gathered as a result of the id card prgramme will be available for purchase to help bring down the cost. More acurately, they say that the claim is "without foundation", which doesn't actually mean it's not true does it? They are however admitting that they plan to let banks check data in the database for a fee. Sorry, but I'm not quite sure what the difference is between "selling the data" and "letting the bank check the data for a fee". Click.

Tom Cruise is a prick, it's official. He's been spouting his Scientologist garbage about anti-depressant drugs all over the place. His argument would appear to be, "Psychiatry is a pseudo science", "You don't know the history of psychiatry. I do", and "you have to evaluate and read the research papers on how they came up with these theories. That's what I've done". And my argument is, "you're a third rate actor with a big mouth", and "There are plenty of people in this world more qualified than you who think anti depressants help people, they're called doctors". Who does he think he is? Honestly, I could throw a bread roll from any street corner in the US and hit about five Tom Cruises. You're not special Tom.

OK, and on to something different. Dickie wants a decscription of my journey to work with links. Not sure whether this was his idea of a joke of not, or why he would want this, but I thought of a way to do it, so here goes...

Usually I get a lift to Muzha station and travel all the way along the Muzha line to Zhong Shan Junior High School station. There I catch a bus to work in Neihu. When I can't get a lift to Muzha station I have to walk to QiZhang station, go to Taipei main station, change to the Bannan line, go to Xung Xiao Fuxing station, change to the Muzha line, go to Zhong Shan staion and get on the bus to work. In case you're interested, I live in the bottom right hand corner of the QiZhang map. I work in Neihu, which is east of Zhong Shan Junior High School station. The entire metro map can be viewed here.

This paragraph was made possible by the Taipei Rapid Transit Corporation.