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Chiang Kai Shek’s religiosity: performative or genuine? We’ll never know but…

ByObblogatory January 4, 2025January 17, 2025

Chiang Kai Shek’s religiosity is probably one of the reasons that Christianity took off here. It surprises many that he was in fact christian in his beliefs (at least later in life). https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17535650902900364 CKS was in fact a methodist. But the deaths attributed to him number in the millions: https://www.cbgr1971.org/index.php/genocide/what-is-genocide/2-r-j-rummel-on-genocide Of course, his crimes against…

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Is that coffee? Or is it Starbucks?

ByObblogatory December 28, 2024January 17, 2025

Wow how can it be that this is Starbucks Coffee? I had to ask the store to remake the Americano but still only marginal improvement. It lacked body it lacked depth. It lacked flavor. The coffee was over extracted, burned, lacks any subtlety at all. Supposed special beans. Over the years, I’ve noticed that some…

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So now I’m getting spam again… but this time

ByObblogatory December 25, 2024January 17, 2025

This is cursive letter sent from (by?) a French guy living in Xintien, apparently affiliated with the Jehovah’s Witnesses. We used to get their junk mail decades ago. They are an exclusionary, cultish, esoteric, end-of-the-world believing, heterodoxical (or heretical) quasi-christian sect with mixed up ideas about life, liberty, religion, society & health. Of course, they…

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Taipei is Freaking Noisy

ByObblogatory December 23, 2024January 17, 2025

There are lots of things that are noisy in Taipei: fireworks at all hours, revving scooters with illegal exhausts, souped-up cars with loud engines/exhausts, temple shows at all hours, loud KTVs and quasi-KTVs in the parks with awful singing, Mahjong games that go on all night, … it seems to me that when people make…

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Costco’s Balancing Act in non-US markets

ByObblogatory December 18, 2024January 17, 2025

Costco has a fine balancing act to perform: it was originally known for its imported goods… that’s why many people joined back in the day when imports were pre-WTO. Tariffs made some things more expensive and/or unavailable because of non-local demand. But once membership passed a certain threshold, they started to really localize the store…

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Some random thoughts about Etsy Selling

ByObblogatory December 8, 2024January 17, 2025

Some random thoughts: don’t know if anything will help. In our world, two things succeed: mass market and art market. One because of mass sales at low cost, the other is the exact reverse. If you are positioned in the middle, you will have advantages of neither and the disadvantages of both. So, fwiw, ……

Recently

華新街: Worth trying

ByObblogatory December 3, 2024January 17, 2025

Has anyone ever been to Little Myanmar in Zhonghe, New Taipei City? : r/Taipei Recommend going but I was advised not to go in the evenings. many of the eateries are closed. The best places are open in the mornings. till after lunch. The food is spicier and tastier, it’s not popular with my wife…

Recently

I avoid building committees for many reasons

ByObblogatory December 1, 2024January 17, 2025

Mostly because it’s a waste of time. There are three kinds of members: those who are trying to become local politicians (young), those who have lots of apartments in the building (rich), and those with too much free time (retired). If you’re in none of these categories, don’t worry about it. The last thing you…

Recently

Have we all forgotten about those terrible diseases…?

ByObblogatory December 1, 2024January 17, 2025

Honestly, the absence of these terrible diseases has meant that people have also forgotten how bad they were. The memory of why they got a vaccine has faded with the virus. So, of course, it feels like vaccines cause illness, and that’s why it caused x,y,z. But that’s truly a folly of poor logic. Well, the…