Scenes from a Starbucks

A lot of the Starbucks in Taipei are two or three story affairs. I was looking out a second floor window overlooking an intersection when I saw one of the local wildlife making a mad diagonal dash. It was the biggest rat I've ever seen.

Yep. That's the most exciting thing that has happened this week. I spend my days in Starbucks after Starbucks mainly because they had the brilliant insight to install a decent amount of electrical outlets so people can use their computers. And I like comfy chairs. There are Japanese and local coffee chains that have better prices and selection, but even if they have wifi many of them don't have outlets in sight. My two-and-half year old laptop goes through its battery in about an hour.

It's 15 dollars a month for unlimited wireless through WiFly which seems to blanket quite a lot of the city since I can get a good signal in my hotel room.

I'm learning how to be a mobile road warrior. My first battle was that my computer would crash randomly when the fan was running. My initial thought was to get a good can of duster and clean out my notebook's vents. I'm not sure why I don't try the simplest things sometimes. I wasted a day voiding any warranty I might have left by taking apart my computer, when my first thought solved the problem.

I have to leave Taiwan because I've decided not to get a job here and my visa expires. I found the cheapest airfare to Thailand, so I'm off to there in two weeks.

I'm going to come back and start studying Chinese in Taiwan, but I decided that I might as well hang out on the beach and scuba dive since I still haven't found an apartment in Taiwan, so I'm staying for a month. I better get planning.