t
o
n
y
a
n
g
'
s
 
w
e
b
l
o
g


if the snails are eating the duckweed then i won't feel too bad; at least i know it wasn't my fault. i'm sort of disappointed that i'm losing them though. maybe i should start a duckweed tank. or maybe a little duckweed pond in the backyard where i can keep some guppies outside as well during the summer.

i've put the duckweed jar in the backyard to help it get more sunlight. now that the jar is pretty much clear (thanks to the hungry snails), i can see what else is living inside. there are a few tiny waterbugs swimming around, a pearl of air bubble affixed to their butts. i also saw a nematode worm, flexing around in the water. i'd love to put some of this stuff underneath the microscope but the used scope i have isn't very good. it wouldn't hurt to try though, maybe i'll do that tomorrow.

didn't bother going to the garden today because i thought it'd rain, so of course it didn't. worked most of the day, finally had some time in the late afternoon and i was all ready to go out for a run (a nice day for it too, 60 degrees, a little cool but just right for running) when the client came back with a bug to fix so i never did get to go out. had another weird dream last night, about missing my flight back from turkey. i had to tell my kindly old caretaker that i forgot to check my ticket and that my flight was earlier today, not tonight. i was already half-awake when i realized this, but made myself go back to sleep so i could resolve the situation. unfortunately my cellphone alarm went off before i could.


taoyuan, taiwan (may 31st, 2005)

2 years ago on this very date, i was in taoyuan, taiwan, about an hour drive north of the capital. i was there to revisit my grandfather with my 2nd aunt after spending more than 3 months traveling in southeast asia. the thing i like about taoyuan that i didn't see so much in taipei are these temples that sort of just spring up in the middle of thickly commercial or residential areas. the garish chinese religious architecture mixed with the smell of incense smoke, that what i remember. you can see that in taiwan there are just as many scooters as there are cars. also notice the green neon spokes: those are infamous betel nut parlors, of which there seems to be an inordinate amount of them in taoyuan.