Obblogatory Ramblings About Life

Most people really struggle to buy guy gifts! I mean, the perennial socks, cigars, bottle of whisky… REALLY? Is that ALL you can think of? OK, I have some suggestions:

1. a decent coupon so your guy can buy WHATEVER he wants;

2. a coupon so he can load his iphone/ipad with an app he feels guilty about buying;

3. a pair of decent headphones for his hi-fi; and…

There are so many gifts you can buy your guy, but you need to be careful… we don’t do cute or cheesy. Gifts that we like are ones that we’ll use EVERYDAY.

Of course, if you’d read my previous post, you’d realize that no matter what kind of of healthcare system it has, society still has to pay for people who make the wrong choices in life: illegal drinking, driving accidents, smoking, drugs, … whatever nonsense people decide.

That even includes the cigarette smokers, the cigar smokers, the pipe smokers… whatever form of tobacco is the latest craving, whether it is cigarettes or products like the cigarillo, or even chewing tobacco. All of these cause healthcare consequences that are not desirable for individuals or societies.

Should society charge $10.00 or $50.00 for the costs of healthcare for these people per pack of cigarettes or tobacco. Tempting.

I just paid my car’s annual tax bill, about NT$7120 in Taiwan and is based on our car’s engine size. That is added to the repair bill for changing the oil and battery about NT$5350. Then there’s gasoline, too. And we just paid our cheap auto insurance in late December.

All told, we’ve spent about NT$18000 since January 1st; not including parking or gasoline charges or road tolls. I guess I like owning a car, but there are times when the expense seems hardly worth it. I’m sure if it hadn’t been for the car parking we bought at such a good time, we’d be thinking about how expensive car ownership REALLY is.

And, if we hadn’t bought a car park and car, we’d have probably paid off our mortgage by now! That’s a thought.

Our current TV is pretty big even by modern standards. That’s not to say the screen is large. But those old style CRT TVs have a huge ‘rear end’. Unfortunately our old 29″ TV still works REALLY well after 7 years. We can’t seem to have the chance to ‘replace our TV’. And it really needs a huge tv stand.

The newest LCD TVs can just be put on the wall, eliminating the need for two huge clunky items: the TV and the TV stand. But if you buy an LCD TV, and you connect your media PC, then it seems that you may may the scene behind the TV even messier! Too many wires, cables, and stuff.

I’ve been enjoying the first two episodes of a dot.com reality tv show about the startup of Payperpost.com as they go around promoting the concept at conferences and set up the offices. These guys work 80 hour weeks, putting me to shame for sure! I don’t know at the same time if I even envy them!

The episodes are only about 8minutes, so it’s perfect. You get a chance to watch the owners and staff REALLY working as they try to bring about their dream, Ted’s 6th company!

This is so NOT the Apprentice, either! Why? Because you get to make the mistakes in REAL life, not some quasi-real training program, with small objectives. The objective is to quite simple: to create a successful company based on a unique twist in blogging.

This is gritty stuff! And there are some definitely apprentice-like moments, but this is real TV, not reality TV. That difference is key, this is people living out their lives, not just for TV’s sake.

As co-owner of a start-up a few years ago, we had many similar experiences, frustrations, problems, challenges, and victories. For example, we had outgrown our original location, but we couldn’t find anywhere to move to. In fact, it took us about six months to find anywhere remotely decent. Moving in day was also messy, too, though part of it was decorated, we had to get out the paint brushes ourselves. It was dirty, messy, tiring, but FUN! And so, I think that’s why I like watching Rockstartup.